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This is my take on what I feel a REAL werewolf would be. While many would probably object to a couple of views, I believe this is the most accurate aproach to a TRUE werewolf.

1. The regeneration cheat: As it is, most werewolves are near invincible because they regen too fast. Most shots and wounds and hit from clubs don't do anything to em. Even real animals that regenerate limbs have their limits. I dont feel that its realistic to loose an arm and pop out another one. Where does the added mass come from? It can't be materialized just like that. I dont even agree with the shifting while wounded or regenerating as it can have some DIRE and DEADLY consequences. Regen should be limited to parts that are not critical as well as take a couple of days or weeks to get fully restored. And some types of heavy damage should leave scars and never regen back. Any serious hits should knock out anything! Loss of blood is another thing you don't see cause of the uber fast regen rate. I take a normally beatable werewolf anyday. Hollywood weres feel fake.

2. Never did like speed shifting: Transformations are too painful at such speeds. I know thats what makes a werewolf a werewolf. The shifting part. But I believe it should be slower and more natural. A couple of hours in a closed room while you sleep and rest or concentrate. Morphing that fast even if its once every 28 days can still cause complications and risk crippling the individual as it is abnormally fast to be safe. 30 minutes tops is about the fastest I would expect for a werewolf morph. The excruciating pain makes it unnatural as well. Most everyone will go againsed this cause the "cool" factor is lost. Most would also not feel the slow change would be film worthy due to not being able to use the shift advantage in a loosing brawl. So expect to never see the slow change.

Note the no fast transformations would also mean no dependency on adrenaline. I dont have a problem with that but others might.

3. Super strength is not my idea of a cool werewolf: Wolves are not that much more powerful than a human. Being half and half doesn't do much in the way of strength either. They are supernatural in their abilities to morph but being able to lift up a car and throw it is all Hollywood made for added action. I dont really want to see werewolves punching through concrete and throwing their prey 100 feet. Unrealistic for me. No major strength changes should exist IMO. I would really like to see is a werewolf actually exercising his human intellegence. It is assumed when you are a werewolf, you are stupid. Well a smart werewolf is far more capable than a stupid overpowered one. And since were on the subject of strength, I also don't agree with the over masculine looks. Why? Because wolves are stronger and dont have bulging muscles... They are more stream lined and the muscle mass is hidden in the fur.

4. Silver is trash: Now with the regeneration cheat and the super strength and the rediculously fast Hollywood shift out of the way, I would get rid of silver. Silver was the weakness of weres because they were too good with all those Hollywood abilities. And most of it isn't really all that impressive. I never did like it as I always felt they were either totally all powerful or all weak. A werewolf can't even lay a finger on a guy decked out in silver rings, piercings, chains, and teeth. I wouldn't have to worry about werewolves wearing silver watches or jewelry if I made them this way. Besides silver is for combating demons or ones posessed by them IMO.

5. Full moon = boring: Why should a werewolf be governed by the moon? I never did like the idea of being moon dependent. For me, a werewolf is a supernatural being in the fact that they have control over their change. And that they can change to utilize the aspects of the wolf while being intellegent. The moon isn't the only thing that can cause biological stuff to change. I still feel the full moon is overused.

6. Agressive werewolves suck: They are boring! I still think it is played out. When will I get to see the very REAL emotions of a werewolf? I dont want snarly roaring howling beasts that snap at each other for the better part of an hour. Emotion doesnt equal less profits and a lower rating. I know its about the coolness factor. But you dont have to make them carebears as what everyone thinks when you suggest emotion. I want to see real personalities that are natural and believeable. I want to see struggle and points of views. I want to laugh at their silly antics and cry when something bad happends. I want to cheer when they win and connect when they tell it how it is. I think thats why werewolf movies tend to be met with the typical reaction of "oh its another werewolf flick".

7. Unnatural acrobatics: I would rather watch spiderman for fancy 10 mile jumps. Plenty of abnormal leaps have been done with werewolves which is why I dont favor it. I guess I tend to favor realism over fantasy.

8. Not too fast: I never did buy into the way werewolves move too fast for their size. I dont think weres should go uber fast and dodge everything that is thrown their way. The big ones especially shouldn't move fast at all. Its very unbelieveable to see them move faster than what a real heavy stalky animal would move like. If I want to see unnaturally fast with a bunch of mass I can watch the Incredible Hulk. SFX crews always ruin the believeability of a model when they start going past the laws of physics.

9. Tail is needed: Definitely! I would love to see this added to a werewolf! I dont think there is a need for an oversized bushy tail unless it were animated. And only if the style warranted it.

10. Wrong diet: I never could understand why a half human half wolf would go and eat a human? Shouldn't a Half human half wolf eat deer and grains and all the stuff wolves and humans actually eat? I dislike the stereotypical wolf eat man mentality. It would be awesome to see them actually hunting wild animals and raiding the fridge and followed by a nice camp fire cookout so all the other weres in the block can come over and strike up some campfire stories.

11. Werewolves and speech...: Werewolves are half man half wolf. Why should one forget how to speak? I dont agree with the notion that they are physically unable to speak because dogs can say things with training. Cats can as well. Do a video search and see what you get. I don't think the over snarly talking would get the emotion I would want to see from weres. I would have it maybe growlish but not so snarly. I would make them have odd ways or pernouncing things and I would avoid excess use of the letter R. Remember werewolves still have a man like chest and throat. So they should have more capacity to speak. Thats what I feel anyways. And as a side note. I dont think their tongue should be as long as a real wolf. I would guess it would be shorter because they ar not a full wolf. So the tongue is only somewhat longer than a human tongue. I would guess this would allow for some control over speech.

12. Hair effects: I believe if your gonna have a change and grow hair, you shouldn't loose the hair you already have. This means a scalp should have some appearance of actual hair blended with the fur. I actually would like to see longer hair from the morph since I feel its a change that causes hair to grow. But I dont know how some would view that. I know one thing is for sure. The nature of the hair and its color would become more wolf like as well. So that it looks natural. Pink dyed hair would be a problem though. Or a really funky statement.

Thats all I have for now. I am sure there are about half a dozen other reasons why I fel werewolves should be like this. I think Freeborn is heading in a somewhat similar direction. I just hope the models dont look too much like a wolf or human.

Fastenjaw


Update: Just remembered something thing I completely overlooked.

13. Virus concept...: I feel that a true werewolf should exist from being born from other werewolves. I dont think weres should be very common because of publicity. A virus is too spreadable IMO. This is based on the given current werewolf transmiassion means. I would like to see weres naturally end up mating with other werewolves as I feel it is in their nature to do so. If I was a werewolf, I probably would connect with another werewolf without even knowing it in human form because my senses. The human characteristics should change when one has wolf DNA. So I would like to see werewolves mating werewolves as a means of making more.

14. Use of weapons: I feel that they could and should. No reason why you should get shot at from a far when a gun is right next you to make use of. Some argue its not werewolf like. But they are still part man. I would expect to see use tools at least some of the time. Polearms, spears, guns, bows, a car (as in literally driving it). And that includes other things such as toasters or ovens as well. That would be alot of fun to watch!

Pretty good, and well-thought-out. You balance realism and good story, and come out ahead with both. I'm sure that would drive some of the people here nuts, however, as you're stepping on the toes of a lot of pet favorite fish around here. (I know, screwy mixed-metaphor, but hey, you get the idea.) It's OK, as my werewolves are non-silver, non-full-moon as well.

You explain yourself well and I agree with some of what you say.
However, it's a bit ruffling the way you present your ideas in sort of an ultimatum.
Each of these areas are addressed in their own topics, where everyone is free to express what they feel. You post sounds like you're telling us what a werewolf is, period. Not the best way to start out on a board.

I like it especial about the regeneration it takes good amount of energy to grow new cell at an accelerated rate.


Also like to welcome you to the forums.

P.S. like PariahPoet said don't make an opinionative statement and try to press it as fact.

There are several threads already for people to post their full, unabridged views on what werewolves should be like. In the future, try to ensure that you aren't making a new thread for a topic that already exists.

Duplicate threads aside, I agree with Pariah and dnl. YOUR thoughts on what werewolves should be like are just that--YOUR thoughts, no better than anyone else's.

My idea of werewolves differ very starkly from yours, but yours certainly aren't better. My werewolves would make just as interesting a story or movie as yours would.

Aside from all that, welcome to the pack!

When it comes to werewolves, or any other fictional characters, there are no rules to follow. Where does it say... When using werewolves, you must follow these guidelines.


Hmmm....?


People will make changes to the werewolf in order to fit thier story. They may add a certain abilities that has never been done or seen before. I remember reading that Scott's werewolves can change the size of thier brains. And Goldenwolf's werewolves can "choose" who they want to be a werewolf. They bite and inject the so called virus just like a snake would inject poison into the body.



Some ideas may sound cool. Others can be silly. But its up to the story teller to decide what he/she wants the werewolf to do.

Like I said. There are no rules and guidelines to follow. Just myths and folklore.

dnl wrote:I like it especial about the regeneration it takes good amount of energy to grow new cell at an accelerated rate.


Also like to welcome you to the forums.

P.S. like PariahPoet said don't make an opinionative statement and try to press it as fact.

Thanks all =) And sorry bout pushing it as if it were the only way of doing it. I know theres alot of fantasy involved so I guess I sort of got carried away. Your also right about other forums having various areas of these as well. I just thought it would be interesting to see it all bundled up so others could see my whole view. Though not in the unintended one way or no way statement. So again sorry for that. I can change it around if you want.

Fastenjaw


I decided to edit the forst post. Tell me if it is better. Thanks .

Hmm...I don't notice the difference.
But don't worry, it's no big deal. Welcome to the Pack!

Repeating Pariah Poet: Welcome to the pack!

There is a sad fact here: If one accepts the old "Brillo-Pad-Face" (Lon Chaney jr.) type of Werewolf...they suddenly become a whole lot more likely human subvariant species.
Of course, that couldn't happen....

lol, well to be honest, I like the classic black-nosed, hairy-faced Lon Cheney wolfman to bald, greezy, toothy apes in more recent ww movies.
And I'm probably the only one here who HATED The Howling. Hate it, HATE IT!
So, just illustrating my point....we have all kinds here. ^_^

PariahPoet wrote:lol, well to be honest, I like the classic black-nosed, hairy-faced Lon Cheney wolfman to bald, greezy, toothy apes in more recent ww movies.
And I'm probably the only one here who HATED The Howling. Hate it, HATE IT!
So, just illustrating my point....we have all kinds here. ^_^

Haha, no I hated the howling too.

Fastenjaw, I pretty much completly agree with you, but I dont think the changing should takes hours. Minutes yes but not too long. And by the way, welcome!

PariahPoet wrote:You explain yourself well and I agree with some of what you say.
However, it's a bit ruffling the way you present your ideas in sort of an ultimatum.
Each of these areas are addressed in their own topics, where everyone is free to express what they feel. You post sounds like you're telling us what a werewolf is, period. Not the best way to start out on a board.

Notice how he said "MY opinions on how a werewolf would be"
Welcome to the Pack

geekboy1500 wrote: Notice how he said "MY opinions on how a werewolf would be"

Of course.

He can make all kinds of changes to the werewolf. (The appearance or the way it acts.) Like I said in my previous post, There are no rules or guidelines to follow.


If he wants to make a tap dancing werewolf, by golly, no one can stop him!!!


Heh...I can see it now.

A werewolf hunter at the scene of a crime. He walks up to the director who is surveying the damage to his stage.


Director- "My stage!! Its ruined!! Who could've done this?"

Werewolf hunter- "This was the work of the tap dancing werewolf!!"

Director- "Say what? And what makes you think that?"

Werewolf hunter- "Thats easy!! Just look at all the scratch marks on the floor."

Geekboy- it's not the subject that there was a problem with, so don't treat me like an idiot. Now can we move on to real discussion?

I edited the post earlier when I noticed it was pressing 1 view on others when I shouldnt have. So they were right in their comments as it was prior to the change. So now its just simply in reference to what I feel what a werewolf is to me as opposed to making it what all werewolves should be. And glad some of you like my werewolf version =) Glad to be apart of the board as well!

Welcome, I know, Its probably a late welcome

I sometimes don't use the full moon either. I know there are reasons for it, but it depends on the story I write I suppose. So my idea of a werewolf has a few basic things that are the same (ie basic appearance, ALWAYS a tail), but it changes to fit the story I write.

And guess what? None of my stories progress far. As in 30 pages in one night, never write any again, or a few weeks and then forget about it. Totally off topic, but funny and true.

Anyway nice descriptions. I'm going to show off my monkey tail somewhere.

Hmm, I see your point, and its very reasonable, I agree on every step of the way, but facts can stretch just a TINY bit, can't they? I mean, if there WAS a werewolf, yeah, I will agree with you, but not ALLLLL the way, these things have to be debatable, SERIOUSLY, you need to relax, making a movie, and making it be good, is an original NEED, and I'm all for your 'facts and opinions session' but I have o admit, it all comes down to this, movies are made to stretch past limits, the 'not real' ones, you can't stick to fact ALL the time, laddie, but I see your point of view, I'm just saying your kinda getting ALL worked up over this, real werewolf, I know, but I'm only saying this because it's abnormal, the super strength thing, DNA mixes, facial, literal, body enchancments, all would be different from ANYONES point of view, yours is accurate, but I still have problems with it, it ALL seems debatable, so
all I'm saying is, 'you shouldn't get worked up over seeing a REAL WEREWOLF, k?

Only problem I have is that you think wolves are only slightly stronger than humans. But otherwise I respect your opinions.

Most my werewolves change shape when ever they feel like it or are stuck that way for so much time before they can shift back. But most are very fast shifters as my universe relies on magic more than biology with its monsters.

One of the great appeals of the werewolf is that its so varied even in folklore. You can do almost anything with it and still be recognizable as a werewolf.
try and make a vampire look and act like its folklore version and some people wont even recognize it as a vampire.

Fastenjaw wrote:

dnl wrote:I like it especial about the regeneration it takes good amount of energy to grow new cell at an accelerated rate.


Also like to welcome you to the forums.

P.S. like PariahPoet said don't make an opinionative statement and try to press it as fact.

Thanks all =) And sorry bout pushing it as if it were the only way of doing it. I know theres alot of fantasy involved so I guess I sort of got carried away. Your also right about other forums having various areas of these as well. I just thought it would be interesting to see it all bundled up so others could see my whole view. Though not in the unintended one way or no way statement. So again sorry for that. I can change it around if you want.

Fastenjaw


I decided to edit the forst post. Tell me if it is better. Thanks .

I know the majority would agree with many things you say. I also know that many of us prefer a different sort of werewolf. And, this is a board for discussing different views, so it's all good so long as it remains polite.
I think the only problem here is that you've addressed an awful lot of issues all at once, and if you'll look through the board, nearly all of these issues have their own individual threads (around here, we like to tweak our werewolves one variable at a time).
You probably won't get very many people who want to discuss all these things at once in the same thread, but if you discuss each separate issue in its already-existing thread, it'll be easier for everyone to keep track of things and improve the flow of the conversation.

Welcome to the pack!

The topic title did say that it was Fastenjaws opinion, dont be so hard on people.

Or was that edited after everyone started to complain?

MoonKit wrote:The topic title did say that it was Fastenjaws opinion, dont be so hard on people.

Or was that edited after everyone started to complain?

I wasn't trying to be hard on him. I was just trying to explain everyone's actions so that he'd know why people were expressing themselves in certain ways.

Fastenjaw wrote: 3. Super strength is not my idea of a cool werewolf: Wolves are not that much more powerful than a human. Being half and half doesn't do much in the way of strength either. They are supernatural in their abilities to morph but being able to lift up a car and throw it is all Hollywood made for added action. I dont really want to see werewolves punching through concrete and throwing their prey 100 feet. Unrealistic for me. No major strength changes should exist IMO. I would really like to see is a werewolf actually exercising his human intellegence. It is assumed when you are a werewolf, you are stupid. Well a smart werewolf is far more capable than a stupid overpowered one. And since were on the subject of strength, I also don't agree with the over masculine looks. Why? Because wolves are stronger and dont have bulging muscles... They are more stream lined and the muscle mass is hidden in the fur.

I would be far and say that a werewolf in either wolf or human form is stronger than their natural counterparts.

4. Silver is trash: Now with the regeneration cheat and the super strength and the rediculously fast Hollywood shift out of the way, I would get rid of silver. Silver was the weakness of weres because they were too good with all those Hollywood abilities. And most of it isn't really all that impressive. I never did like it as I always felt they were either totally all powerful or all weak. A werewolf can't even lay a finger on a guy decked out in silver rings, piercings, chains, and teeth. I wouldn't have to worry about werewolves wearing silver watches or jewelry if I made them this way. Besides silver is for combating demons or ones posessed by them IMO.

Silver is not the complete creation of modern stories (aka Hollywood). But granted the fatal silver is not desired. It would jive though with older stories though to say that silver weapons would cause increased discomfort so to speak.

5. Full moon = boring: Why should a werewolf be governed by the moon? I never did like the idea of being moon dependent. For me, a werewolf is a supernatural being in the fact that they have control over their change. And that they can change to utilize the aspects of the wolf while being intellegent. The moon isn't the only thing that can cause biological stuff to change. I still feel the full moon is overused.

While overused it is a common trait. Now some modern writers have incorporated this by saying that werewolves must change during a full moon, but are not forced so to speak. An experienced werewolf can hold back the change for a time where they can shift safely.

8. Not too fast: I never did buy into the way werewolves move too fast for their size. I dont think weres should go uber fast and dodge everything that is thrown their way. The big ones especially shouldn't move fast at all. Its very unbelieveable to see them move faster than what a real heavy stalky animal would move like. If I want to see unnaturally fast with a bunch of mass I can watch the Incredible Hulk. SFX crews always ruin the believeability of a model when they start going past the laws of physics.

A wolf can run about 30 MPH, the fastest human can run about 25 MPH. So in their respective forms somewhat around those numbers. If you were to incorporate a "hybrid" form which I would suggest against, they would run somewhere between the two or at the most not over the average speed of a wolf.

9. Tail is needed: Definitely! I would love to see this added to a werewolf! I dont think there is a need for an oversized bushy tail unless it were animated. And only if the style warranted it.

Its not necessary, myths go either way, though its common to have a lack of one.

10. Wrong diet: I never could understand why a half human half wolf would go and eat a human? Shouldn't a Half human half wolf eat deer and grains and all the stuff wolves and humans actually eat? I dislike the stereotypical wolf eat man mentality. It would be awesome to see them actually hunting wild animals and raiding the fridge and followed by a nice camp fire cookout so all the other weres in the block can come over and strike up some campfire stories.

Keep it natural really. Werewolves in myths do not generally eat humans, generally they kill a human because of wrong said human did to them previously.

11. Werewolves and speech...: Werewolves are half man half wolf. Why should one forget how to speak? I dont agree with the notion that they are physically unable to speak because dogs can say things with training. Cats can as well. Do a video search and see what you get. I don't think the over snarly talking would get the emotion I would want to see from weres. I would have it maybe growlish but not so snarly. I would make them have odd ways or pernouncing things and I would avoid excess use of the letter R. Remember werewolves still have a man like chest and throat. So they should have more capacity to speak. Thats what I feel anyways. And as a side note. I dont think their tongue should be as long as a real wolf. I would guess it would be shorter because they ar not a full wolf. So the tongue is only somewhat longer than a human tongue. I would guess this would allow for some control over speech.

For someone who is trying to do away with Hollywood stereotypes you sure aren't following thru with that. A real werewolf is not half-man half-wolf. A werewolf is a human with the ability to transform physically or mentally (I'll explain in a minute) into a wolf. Now I say mentally because there are myths that say that some werewolfs are completely human and completely wolf at the same time. During the day the are human, when they fall asleep the posess the body of real wolf. Now they may or may not remember all they do in their wolf body. Also if either were to die the counterpart would as well.

12. Hair effects: I believe if your gonna have a change and grow hair, you shouldn't loose the hair you already have. This means a scalp should have some appearance of actual hair blended with the fur. I actually would like to see longer hair from the morph since I feel its a change that causes hair to grow. But I dont know how some would view that. I know one thing is for sure. The nature of the hair and its color would become more wolf like as well. So that it looks natural. Pink dyed hair would be a problem though. Or a really funky statement.

Like a real canines, when new fur comes in they shed the old fur. When they transform into a wolf they simply shed their old human hair.

13. Virus concept...: I feel that a true werewolf should exist from being born from other werewolves. I dont think weres should be very common because of publicity. A virus is too spreadable IMO. This is based on the given current werewolf transmiassion means. I would like to see weres naturally end up mating with other werewolves as I feel it is in their nature to do so. If I was a werewolf, I probably would connect with another werewolf without even knowing it in human form because my senses. The human characteristics should change when one has wolf DNA. So I would like to see werewolves mating werewolves as a means of making more.

The virus or curse must be included. The idea behind the werewolf is that its a human transforming into a wolf. Simple, pack or werewolf society pressures would reduce the amount of afflicted werewolves. They are human too so they have human emotions and feelings. It is completely plausible for a werewolf to fall in love with a regular human.

14. Use of weapons: I feel that they could and should. No reason why you should get shot at from a far when a gun is right next you to make use of. Some argue its not werewolf like. But they are still part man. I would expect to see use tools at least some of the time. Polearms, spears, guns, bows, a car (as in literally driving it). And that includes other things such as toasters or ovens as well. That would be alot of fun to watch!

They can't simply. Werewolves do not have hands in wolf form seeing as they are basically overgrown wolves. Paws can't hold human weapons.[/img][/b]

Anything I left unquoted from your orig post is basically fine. If I had to go with an interpretation of what a werewolf would be like I lean towards what Kelly Armstrong had in her books. I believe they are called "Bitten" and "Stolen".

neoritter wrote: Anything I left unquoted from your orig post is basically fine. If I had to go with an interpretation of what a werewolf would be like I lean towards what Kelly Armstrong had in her books. I believe they are called "Bitten" and "Stolen".

I agree, Kelley Armstrong's concept how a werewolf would look and life like is definitely my favourite one. She wrote some other novels but in which she focuses on other characters. Besides 'Bitten' & 'Stolen' the book 'Broken' is again mainly about werewolves - it contains the interesting condition of 'werewolfish pregnancy' as well. Absolutely worth the read.

Miragh wrote: I agree, Kelley Armstrong's concept how a werewolf would look and life like is definitely my favourite one. She wrote some other novels but in which she focuses on other characters. Besides 'Bitten' & 'Stolen' the book 'Broken' is again mainly about werewolves - it contains the interesting condition of 'werewolfish pregnancy' as well. Absolutely worth the read.

Is it part of the same story from "Bitten" and "Stolen" ?