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A) They would be unable to change at all because the so-called "lunar power" would be too much for them to handle.

B) They would change from looking at something round from the distance, in this case, the earth.

C) Nothing happens.

I think the psychological effect of the moon is based on the light that reflects off of it and into the Earth's atmosphere, not the moon itself.

Yeah, I agree. I think its more of the earth, moon, sun relationship rather then just the moon itself. And yes, the sun plays a part too.

Terastas wrote:I think the psychological effect of the moon is based on the light that reflects off of it and into the Earth's atmosphere, not the moon itself.

True.

Terastas wrote:I think the psychological effect of the moon is based on the light that reflects off of it and into the Earth's atmosphere, not the moon itself.

Exactly. I think so too

This leads to a potential Werewolf "trap"- made up of specially polarized lights that exactly mimic the full moon's light.

Made up as a hand held "flashlight", the villain would just shine it into the suspected Were's face and step back to watch for transformation start.

RedEye wrote:This leads to a potential Werewolf "trap"- made up of specially polarized lights that exactly mimic the full moon's light.

Made up as a hand held "flashlight", the villain would just shine it into the suspected Were's face and step back to watch for transformation start.

Indeed....that is an interesting Theory...

RedEye wrote:This leads to a potential Werewolf "trap"- made up of specially polarized lights that exactly mimic the full moon's light.

Made up as a hand held "flashlight", the villain would just shine it into the suspected Were's face and step back to watch for transformation start.

I don't believe that moon-light is easy to mimic, since the moon is still a very different energysource by itself.

Maybe they'd have so much energy from the moon that they'd explode. Or maybe just be a wolf all the time or something. And I actually had a thought about moonlight. If the werewolf is in a place where there is no moonlight, say underground, will they still transform on the night of a full moon? Is it the moonlight itself that's the trigger or is it a huge coincidence that a werewolf always transforms every 24 and 1/4 days?

Edit: Oh, and I loved the video Figarou!

Going to go with C.

Final answer.

I can see the astronaut suddenly start to shift, and since space suits aren't at all stretchy-suddenly smash his nose into his faceplate and get a super space wedgie as his body tried to change.

What's more likely is that under the superabundance of lunar energy--nothing will happen. Tha' poor woofie will just be unchanged because there is no "ground" for the energy to flow into. No ground, no flow, no change.

IMHO....

John Stewart posed the same question on The Daily Show.

In my own storyline, technology progresses to a point that werewolves actually get to be on the moon by 2060. And, my own lead werewolf characters Scott Gardener, Elodea Taylor, and Selena Hawthorne get to walk on the moon in a short story set in 2093. But, in that storyline, werewolves aren't physically directly affected in the sense of being forced to shift, so it's not an issue. Though they're very old at that point and welcome the reduced gravitational load on their legs.

In storylines in which the moon does force a shift, there's several possibilities. First, being there forces one into at least Gestalt form all the time--one can shift to wolf but not human, except inside protected areas. Then again, in order to be on the moon, one must be in a protected space anyway. Another is that being on the moon disrupts whatever effect the full moon has on Earth, but maybe a full Earth could do it.

I'd have to say no change, as I often see it as more a psychological trigger, like a biological self-induced hypnosis.

Using two other moon based shape shifters as examples.

Saiyans from the various Dragon Ball shows and movies.
The full moon turns them into giant apes, but only if they have their tails. However as intersteller raiders they have had to come up with other means when a world doesn't have a full moon, or any moon. and they have to first see the moon before they can change, and only turn back when the full moon's light is blocked off.
1: Holographic projector, their ships could project a fake full moon in the sky to induce the transformation.
2: a special technique developed by Bratic"sp" Goku's father to create an energy sphere that gives off just enough light at the right altitude to imitate the full moon.

Now on Outlaw Star we had a race of shapeshifter cat-people who could transform, the level was based on the planet's moon and how full it was. However if they were on a moon, or an asteroid base it wouldn't work and they could only to their basic buff up a little level of transformation.
(although later in the series it seems to be implied that the moon only helps them in some psychological sense as if they get angry enough they can fully transform into their wolf-tiger beast forms completly anyways).

Which is an idea I like, that is a psychological effect more than anything else built into their very genes. Which would mean younger ones and newly transformed would be the most influinced by it with older ones able to better control the ability.

I never really considered that all three objects, the sun, the Earth, and the moon, plays a part in causing a shift. From this point, I can see how it would require all of them to be in the right places for the moon's light to have an effect. I guess it makes sense that one can mimic the moon's light in a hand-held device. At least I now understand how that female werewolf was able to be force-shifted in that one Howling movie by the use of spotlights and camera shutters.
"What? Bright lights can make a werewolf change?" *years later* "Oh."

Ah, Fig, poor wolf! A little amusing though.

Come to think of it, would a werewolf even have a chance of getting off the planet to begin with? They won't even let an astronaut into orbit if he has the flu. What are the chance of someone with lycanthropy getting blasted off?

There has been a comic (I think it was called Full Moon Fever) where the staff of a lunar station all became werewolves, with the predicted full-time shift results. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great comic (blatant rip-off of Alien(s)).

Terastas wrote:Come to think of it, would a werewolf even have a chance of getting off the planet to begin with? They won't even let an astronaut into orbit if he has the flu. What are the chance of someone with lycanthropy getting blasted off?

Just move the time scale up a few centuries to where space travel is common place and it resolves that issue for the story.

Or something unlikely, such as aliens capture a random group of people who are off in the woods and one turns out to be a werewolf.

There is a more prosaic reason for Werewolves shifting at the full moon.
Wolves have very good night vision. Were's would probably share this adaptation.
Simple: they can see better at the full of the moon (sort of like an overcast day)
And, they can be better seen at the full of the moon by non-Were's.

They might be shifting all the time, it's just the full moon that lets non-Were's catch a glimpse of them...