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I'm not sure is there topic like this (at least couln't find one) but I'll put it here anyway.

So... what do you think about that do werewolf should have a hair? There is many artists those make a long hair to their werewolf characters and I think it looks cool

Opinions?

Do you mean with 'hair' hair at all or a hairstyle? If it is the latter, than I agree with you that werewolves with long hair (like Goldenwolf's ones) look pretty cool/awesome/mighty etc. ... Depends on the setting of the picture and the kind of hairstyle ...

'Hair' propably wouldn't be the best way to express it. 'Mane' would be closer to the truth, in my opinion.

Heart of the Pack wrote:'Hair' propably wouldn't be the best way to express it. 'Mane' would be closer to the truth, in my opinion.

Yeah, this was the word I was searching for. Mane.

The mane really does look good if it's done right. I feel like I say this way too often, but just look at Goldenwolf's art. I think she's got it about perfect.

As much as I hate posting the words I agree....I agree. Goldenwolf's art settled the issue in my mind when I asked myself pretty much the same question.

The mane looks really good when done well, but this is one of those places where I can't reconsile ;looking good' with 'being correct.'

So I'm just going to remain undecided.

Well, gestalt being a mix between human and wolf, it would make sense. So if it can be done well I'm for it, but I'm happy without it too if that's how things turn out.

I have to say that I think the mane, while cool looking, does not match our general view of making the fur realistic. Wolves don't have manes. They have beautiful, long thick fur, but not manes. I think Goldenwolf's art is amazing. However, I think of it more as her inner vision rather than what I would see in Freeborn. (but then, I still see WWs as 9-12 ft tall)

Are we now saying that we want to step away from realistic to fantastic?

Keep in mind all the doors that will be opened if go fantastic. (see reference to tall WWs above)


Feedback?

With the gestalt being a blend of human and wolf, there is something you may want to consider...

Humans have manes. Technically, we do. The top and sides of our head is typically where our hair grows the longest, as well as the beards of some of the males.

However, the way that this may (or may not) be blended in to the gestalt form can have three results: Realistic / Fantastic / or unbelievable because it's new territory for the genre so far as I know.

Silver wrote:I have to say that I think the mane, while cool looking, does not match our general view of making the fur realistic. Wolves don't have manes. They have beautiful, long thick fur, but not manes.

Wolves have pretty long neck fur, yeah. I wouldn't mind for it being a little longer in gestalt form, but not extremely long.

Lupin wrote:

Silver wrote:I have to say that I think the mane, while cool looking, does not match our general view of making the fur realistic. Wolves don't have manes. They have beautiful, long thick fur, but not manes.

Wolves have pretty long neck fur, yeah. I wouldn't mind for it being a little longer in gestalt form, but not extremely long.

Hmmm...the skin more elastic in the neck area. You know,,so the mother wolf can carry the cubs. How will something like that look on a werewolf in Gestalt form?

Figarou wrote:Hmmm...the skin more elastic in the neck area. You know,,so the mother wolf can carry the cubs. How will something like that look on a werewolf in Gestalt form?

That dissappears on adult animals.

Lupin wrote:

Figarou wrote:Hmmm...the skin more elastic in the neck area. You know,,so the mother wolf can carry the cubs. How will something like that look on a werewolf in Gestalt form?

That dissappears on adult animals.

ok..never mind

Hmm... should I make a poll about this topic

Figarou wrote:

Lupin wrote:

Figarou wrote:Hmmm...the skin more elastic in the neck area. You know,,so the mother wolf can carry the cubs. How will something like that look on a werewolf in Gestalt form?

That dissappears on adult animals.

ok..never mind

Even if it didn't, I don't think it has any significant aesthetic affect.

Ralith wrote:Even if it didn't, I don't think it has any significant aesthetic affect.

Yeah. You can't even see it on a puppy/kitten until it's pulled.

I kind of go in between on this in my own--sometimes they do; sometimes they don't. But, my shifters are fluid. That is, they don't have a fixed half-form; their "Gestalt" form can be anywhere between human and wolf.

It's mainly an aesthetic preference. I would be tempted to argue against it, but I agree that Goldenwolf has made the case quite eloquently. If we go by biology, wolf fur and human hair have noticable differences, but some of it might depend on whether your werewolves are shedders or absorbers.

Silver wrote:I have to say that I think the mane, while cool looking, does not match our general view of making the fur realistic. Wolves don't have manes. They have beautiful, long thick fur, but not manes. I think Goldenwolf's art is amazing. However, I think of it more as her inner vision rather than what I would see in Freeborn. (but then, I still see WWs as 9-12 ft tall)

Are we now saying that we want to step away from realistic to fantastic?

Keep in mind all the doors that will be opened if go fantastic. (see reference to tall WWs above)


Feedback?

I disagree with the idea that it is MORE fantastic and LESS realistic for werewolves to have long hair/manes in Gestalt form.

True as it may be that WOLVES don't ever have long head/neck hair like that, humans DO. If a Woman (or a Man) with waist length hair transforms into a gestalt werewolf, where do you suggest all that hair goes?

IMHO, the way the girl shed all of her hair in "Cursed" looked terrible. I would hate to consider that to be the usual way werewolves deal with excess human hair. ...and then would it all grow back to that length again durring the revert-shift? Having some sort of Hair-Length-Memory built into the hair folicles that will make it return to its previous length seems MORE fantastic to me than having it remain behind at full lenght in Gestalt form, or at least leave some trace of extra length when transformed.

This, of course, would make long haired people stand out a little too much when transformed, besides it also getting in the way to some limited extent.

Therefore, I would think that Long hair would generally be the trademark feature of either an inexperienced, cocky or just overconfident werewolf.

Veteran Lycanthropes would learn to keep their hair cut short, for a variety of practical reasons, because of this.



That is My opinion on the matter.

[Edit:] To elaborate a little further on my opinion, I think the head hair, along with the rest of the skin, flesh and whatever would get abosorbed and rearanged to some extent durring the transformation, so some, most, or even ALL of the head hair would be changed by the shift. However, I also stand by the idea that a werewolves transformed state should also reflect a great deal of the hosts unique physical traits. Therefore, someone with an extrordinary amount of head hair should definately have a noticable amount of extra fluff up there in gestalt form, respectively.

...again, IMHO...


Perhaps, if ALL of the hair is "absorbed" into the body durring the shift when converting to Fur, the extra abundance of building materials for Hair/Fur on the head would result in the head/neck fur becoming somewhat "overgrown".

...just a thought...

Silver wrote:I have to say that I think the mane, while cool looking, does not match our general view of making the fur realistic. Wolves don't have manes. They have beautiful, long thick fur, but not manes. I think Goldenwolf's art is amazing. However, I think of it more as her inner vision rather than what I would see in Freeborn. (but then, I still see WWs as 9-12 ft tall)

Are we now saying that we want to step away from realistic to fantastic?

Keep in mind all the doors that will be opened if go fantastic. (see reference to tall WWs above)


Feedback?

I am all in favor of fantastic over realistic, any day of the year.


Whether the presence of a mane is unrealistic or not, it looks goooood. I say we have them.

Although...not for people with short hair. If you have short hair in human form, you WON'T have a mane. To me, it would just be weird if a person with short hair all of a sudden became a gestalt with a mane and then a wolf with standard wolf length neck fur. I'm not opposed to this for realistic reasons, but because I just don't like it. Also, hairstyles would not be retained in the mane. I don't want to see gestalts with perms. A slight hint at a hairstyle might be appropriate in the mane. For example, someone with a perm might have a wavy mane with very loose curls.

As far as 9-12 feet tall werewolves...I'm a little hesitant. I definantly prefer werewolves that are taller than what the consensus here seems to want (seven feet) but 12 feet just seems a little much. I prefer them to be somewhere between 7'6 and 9'6. The ceiling in the room that I am currently in is 9 feet, and I could easily see a werewolf being this tall without looking ridiculous. Much more would start to look weird though.

Ultimately, in regards to realism vs. fantasy, if I am forced to choose one extreme, I choose fantasy. But I really prefer a blend, straddling the fence between the two, with a slight lean towards fantasy. I think such a blend could be appropriate for Freeborn. After all, the existence of werewolves is a notion of fantasy in and of itself, so I see no reason why werewolves themselves couldn't be a little fantastic. Despite the opinions of many people on this forum, these werewolves don't HAVE to be as realistic as we can possibly make them. There is more than enough room for a substantial amount of fantasy.

Now, just to clarify my preceding paragraph...I'm not suggesting that such a blend is the ONLY appropriate choice for Freeborn. I'm just suggesting that it is one of MANY different blends that may be appropriate. I'm not saying that totally realistic is wrong for this movie, but I am saying that it's not the only thing that might be right. So, to those who are religiously devoted to total realism, argue with me if you want, but there's really nothing for us to argue about. It's merely a difference of a opinion, both of which have equal merit, at least from a cinematic perspective.

I like the thought of gestalt forms having 'manes' if their human form has long hair. Short haired wws would have the more normal looking wolf heads with fur.
It shouldnt be pure looking human hair. All of that long hair wouldnt just disaper completely in the half-way-to-wolf form. Getting a shorter length, yes I can see that.
imho I think it would look kindof funny for a girl with hair growing down to her butt, suddenly have it all gone in gestalt form. Defintly all shortish fur when full wolf though.

Silverclaw wrote:Defintly all shortish fur when full wolf though.

I agree...Full-Wolf should be Full-Wolf all the way.

Maybe thicker fur on the neck, but not really long, like touching the ground long (regardless of how much hair they have in human form). Just more hair/fur within Lupine standards, like, "wow...that wolf has really thick fur", and not "hey...who glued a wig onto that wolfs head?".

Vuldari wrote:

Silverclaw wrote:Defintly all shortish fur when full wolf though.

I agree...Full-Wolf should be Full-Wolf all the way.

Maybe thicker fur on the neck, but not really long, like touching the ground long (regardless of how much hair they have in human form). Just more hair/fur within Lupine standards, like, "wow...that wolf has really thick fur", and not "hey...who glued a wig onto that wolfs head?".

Ditto to this. I hate agreeing mindlessly without adding anything to the discussion, but this expresses my thoughts on the wolf form quite adequately.

No offence to anyone but the idea of a regular wolf to have human like long hair is plain stupid, they are full wolf so they should have only the chracteristics of a real wolf, mabey a little bigger than nornmal but that should be it.

Yeah, I agree with Shadow Wulf. A werewolf in full wolf form, should well...look like a wolf.