THE PACK Message Boards

The year is 2008. "Celebrity Author X" publishes his book series "Wulfen Blood." Critics compare it to "Interview With The Vampire," and compare him to Anne Rice in that he singlehandedly resurrects the werewolf legend as a slick, relevant archetype with cool and likeable characters. It ends up smashing sales of "Twilight" for adult audiences.

2010: The book series hits the big screen with an all-star cast. The film is a critical and financial success, depicting werewolves as culturally and morally complex, as well as exotic and stylish. Dozens of authors start cranking out imitator series, and a couple of pulp TV shows with werewolf protagonists go under production. Other films like "Freeborn" are fast-tracked.

2011: Werewolves start to replace vampires in pulp mania. Vin Diesel stars as a badass werewolf in an action-packed and edgy comicbook style blockbuster hearkening back to "Blade." Even the game based on the movie is good.

2012: "Night Shift," a primetime paranormal action/comedy/drama on NBC about a werewolf detective and his eccentric group of sidekicks, enters its 2nd season. Online fan polls proclaim it a Buffy killer.

2013: At this point in pop culture, after an overwhelming reaction within the media, most of the public is now equally familiar with the realistic "good guy" werewolf as they are with the old school monster version. Aside from the ultra-low-budget indie underground, there isn't much interest in resurrecting the werewolf as a bloodthirsty villain at all. Even the classic high school "vampire goth" clique has morphed into some kind of bizarre "werewolf nature-pagan" trend. In fact, openly liking werewolves and their related furfandom is now not only acceptable, but "cool."

Assume this series of events came to pass.

Would werewolves be ruined for you?

Nice predictions, my friend. You are indeed correct.

I liked Anne Rice's stuff. Twilight...not so much.

Yeah, sounds pretty much like what has already happened to vampires. Nah, they wouldn't be ruined for me, I would just be pretty disappointed if there was a werewolf novel akin to Twilight. (In other words, very bad)

You didn't answer the key question.

No, werewolves won't be ruined for me. After reading your above post, I seem to love werewolves even more! Because aren't we all tired of seeing werewolves as horror genres type monsters and bloodthirsty, murderous monsters? Of course, the book, Wulfen Blood will change all of that. Still, werewolves are monsters in their nature when they can't control their werewolf form or when they become furious. It doesn't always have to involve a werewolf as a evil villain like in those horror movies and novels.

The change does not mean that werewolves are furries, but they can be. I never liked the novel, Twilight. It makes fun of vampires and old vampire fans, the novel is meant for the young generation vampire fans and Twilight is a bad book written by a fan-girl of vampires. I also like vampires. The Twilight Trilogy is overrated and I consider reading that trashy book is a waste of time. Hell, I don't even touch that book, Ooo! Sparkly vampire girly boys are so much fun! Blah.

Definitely, the werewolves will be changed forever the way people like at them. Werewolves are not that popular right now. They are always in horror genres and Halloween! It is getting tiresome and I want to see them change. Even Dungeon & Dragons portray them as ugly bloodthirsty shapeshifting monsters. Also, wereanimals are monsters such as the werefox in the Dungeon & Dragon Lore. Some are depicted to have Chaotic Evil in werecreatures, werewolf and werefox, often males than females.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycanthrop ... 6_Dragons) An example of why lycanthropes can be evil again....

I hope ETs will create werewolves or experiment on innocent humans and turn them into shapeshifting werewolves.

Berserker wrote:Assume this series of events came to pass.

Would werewolves be ruined for you?

Absolutely not. Even if I got bored of the idea of werewolves as good guys (and I don't see myself getting bored too soon), there'd still be plenty of already-published books available that would be as edgy as anyone could hope to find, with old-fashioned werewolves as horrifying as anything that's ever been published. It's not as if any hypothetical popularity of New Weres would cause all the Old Weres to simaltaneously go out of print!

After all, Anne Rice has been around for however long and I'm fairly darned sure that Bram Stoker's book is still available...

No way!

As I see it, once the hype goes back down, only the true werewolf lovers will be the one's left -- but atleast we'll have a little validation when we say "Why, yes, I'm a werewolf-fan."

Besides, I'd *like* werewolves to get a little bit more mainstream. Who here doesn't want to walk into Hot Topic and buy a T-Shirt by your favorite werewolf artist?

I might be biased, but I think werewolves symbolize, and can represent, a lot more than a vampire can, and seeing how many different ways a werewolf can be interpretted never gets old for me.

Nope; I'd proclaim bragging rights for liking them before they were cool. I've got the manuscript, a full costume, and 3951 posts on The Pack to prove it.

Considering that I'm the Celebrity Author X referred to; no, werewolves would be my friends. My buddies!
They make me much money!

Seriously, no; a general aceptance of Werewolves wouldn't change a thing for me.
If, out of the phenmoenon, the "Werewolf as a Human/Nature spirit" wouldn't hurt anything, IMHO.
It would help the Wolves immensely, as they would be seen as a "Part" pf the "Legend"; and as a nearly extinct species that would be good in my mind.
So, no, it wouldn't ruin Werewolves for me; just the opposite...

Now, CounterQuestion. Given all the above: Suppose that they actually CAME OUT and were real (if unexplainable).
What would that do for Book Werewolves?

Scott Gardener wrote:Nope; I'd proclaim bragging rights for liking them before they were cool.

That's exactly what I was thinking!!

I like this guy Berserker-providing great new threads that are well thought out and interesting! If werewolves became that popular I would be super happy! That would do the opposite of diminish them for me. I would love to be able to pick up all the merch, books, and movies and openly say to everyone that I'm a fan!

I enjoyed the Twilight Series a lot myself... My main interest, of course was Jacob and the other werewolves.

Redeye: If werewolves "went public," I would be even more overjoyed and find one as fast as I could so they could bite me (assuming that's how it would work to become one)! It would give werewolves a spike in popularity (Imagine real werewolves shifting on screen!! ), but then from there-with the shroud of mystery and creative leeway gone-the popularity would level off, but then remain strong forever after that.

It wouldn't ruin it for me. I like the appearances of werewolves, as I've always enjoyed anything with monsters in them...except vampires, they bother me.

But, I do like Twilight...alot. I'm on the second book and quite frankly, I'm addicted. Horribly addicted. I like the whole theme of it...and maybe because I'm female.

It would ruin it a bit for me, even though I'd probably benefit from it.
Being a werewolf fan is really apart, and I enjoy having something to indulge in that the mainstream public does not pursue.

But I think I'd get over it.
I don't see myself getting tired of werewolves anytime soon.

Nope.

Aside from the nature pagan stuff. That's irritate me. So worn out already it's not even fun and it wasn't all that good to begin with. Bad idea for a fad.

it wouldnt ruin them for me, but i'd be ticked off that pretty much as soon as i get out of high school (i Grad this year woot!) the thing i was harassed for is now "cool". id be like "whoa, wtf are you doing at this convention? didnt u used to call me queerwolf and steal my comics!?!" also i kind of like that finding good werewolf content is a challenge, its so esy to be a vampire fan, but being a werewolf fan takes guts. its like saying " i dont want to be seductive and sexy, and drink hot girls blood while making love to them. i want to turn into an animal and gobble raw meat in the woods." now thats wierd! and im proud that i can say i have the balls to stick with it!

Wolf-man-24 wrote:i want to turn into an animal and gobble raw meat in the woods." now thats wierd! and im proud that i can say i have the balls to stick with it!

Well spoken...err...written!

Who says werewolves can't be seductive and sexy?

Most people other than us and furries. And some really creepy people.

Dreamer wrote:Most people other than us and furries. And some really creepy people.

No way!

*points to the hundreds of paranormal romance/drama novels with sexy werewolf protagonists, including Twilight series*

Now. These are niche books, but I know many people who read them (Touch of the Wolf, Moon Called, Bitten, etc.) and I certainly wouldn't call them creepy. They're mostly normal people who would otherwise fit under the "general population."

The werewolves in these books are written to have an animalistic aura of seduction that turns readers on, and that's why the series are so popular. Even folks who don't know anything about the books can understand the sexy werewolf concept if shown.


(On a note, I'd reckon that with the lone exception of Twilight, none of these books have broken out into the mainstream like my scenario, not because they're about werewolves, but because they're hackneyed and kind of lame.)

yeah but in those books, the werewolves are almost always of the "magical shapeshifter" type. meaning they go straight from man to wolf, and have that whole "at one with nature" thing going for them. those arent proper werewolves IMHO.

Wolf-man-24 wrote:yeah but in those books, the werewolves are almost always of the "magical shapeshifter" type. meaning they go straight from man to wolf, and have that whole "at one with nature" thing going for them. those arent proper werewolves IMHO.

The werewolves I mentioned are just as "proper" as any other, from Bisclaveret to Freeborn. It just doesn't seem right to discredit them (and in doing so, dismiss half the werewolf fiction out there.)

Besides... full-moon shifts, tormented souls, silver bullets... you can still find that stuff in many of those stories.

i didnt mean it with disrespect, im just tired of the cliche. it just annoys me that a huge percentage of werewolf fiction is pulp romance and erotica. at least they could try being original with it. Mooncalled is a great example of how werewolf fiction should be, while writer's like Lori Handeland just make werewolves into something dumb. and it bugs me that there are so many awesome writers with great werewolf stories out there that cant get published. Romance does have its place in werewolf lore, i'd be a hypocrite if i said it didnt, but most werewolf romances are pulp crap that uses phrases like "Dark Passion" and "Animal Lust", its just cheesy. books like that already ruined vampires, i dont want them to ruin werewolves as well.

That goes right along with this thread. We better get used to it, because pretty soon we're going to have a big-budget adaption of New Moon--werewolf heartthrob and all--on our hands.

It's undeniable that there are multiple cliques of werewolf fans out there. Do we want werewolves to become popular? Obviously most of us think it would be awesome if they did.

What if a thousand Twilight fans were dumped on this board? Wolf-man remake fans? What if my scenario does happen... how would we, as self-appointed werewolf gurus, handle it?

Be pissed that werewolves are being ruined? Try and "educate" these people on "proper" werewolves?

Or maybe we can take a different approach. Maybe, as "true" werewolf fans, we should accept (if not embrace!) all archetypes of werebeast, gently share our own viewpoints, and be happy that our favorite creature is getting more attention.

All forms of werewolf are equally valid, IMO. I don't think vampires have been "ruined" either. That's just a different sort of vampire. There's been many iterations of both werewolves and vampires, with some early vampires being called Wampyr and being undead creatures like zombies only they want blood instead of brains. They were dessicated rotting corpses - nothing so alluring as Dracula or some such.

We have enough originality and imagination in this Pack. Now lets bring it to the God-Forsaken Hollywood.

Aki wrote:All forms of werewolf are equally valid, IMO. I don't think vampires have been "ruined" either. That's just a different sort of vampire. There's been many iterations of both werewolves and vampires, with some early vampires being called Wampyr and being undead creatures like zombies only they want blood instead of brains. They were dessicated rotting corpses - nothing so alluring as Dracula or some such.

Good point.

And I';d have to say no, werewolves would not be ruined for me. Although the flood of annoying pseudo-wiccan werewolf weeaboos would piss me off.