Other On Werewolf and Lycanthropic Characters

[JokerValentine]

I promise that I read the subforum this time. Nobody posted this one recently, so I'm good to post this. I hope.

I came from a community previous that was big on shifter types, humans that would shift from wolf to human. They're not exactly what I'm here to write about, since they're just animal-type stuff, but seeing role plays like them here have me the idea to give my two cents on lycanthropic or werewolf role-plays. If anyone were to post something on this topic, it'd be the dude who literally only role plays that stuff because they're not very adventurous. AKA me.

I notice that there's this shift in how werewolf characters are portrayed recently that I'm not personally a fan of. The earlier iterations of werewolf characters focused heavily on the trait of lack of control under a full moon. Not only that, but it's a critical aspect of many characters that the suffering is personified, whether it be physical change or being a social outcast. I notice a lot of werewolf characters focus a lot less on that, and instead have turned the werewolf from a social outcast into a hybrid of sorts, with no disadvantages to their social life other than they're ridiculed for being what they are. The other type of werewolf differs in that they're hated not just because of their appearance, it's the fact that they're brutal, unrestrained monsters, to say the least.

When it comes to how these types of characters interact, of course, I can understand the need for ingenuity. The trope of "poor me, I'm a little wolf-boi" can get old quickly. However, I argue that it's a critical aspect of a werewolf for there to be some form of personal suffering. I don't exactly like the usage of werewolf characters as misunderstood beings of nature that truly mean no harm and are just trying to survive, but I am not the purest fan of bloodthirsty monsters. No, I think a true werewolf character is a combination of the both, a dual-sided persona for a dual-formed character.


I've also seen a lot of people be very... against werewolf role-plays, personally. It's what sort of inspired this topic, I guess. Is it because people aren't interested in how the characters are portrayed? Is it because they don't know how to interact with one? Is it because they prefer one form over the other, and don't like how popular the other form is? What do you feel about werewolf characters that are portrayed as more innocent or as misunderstood, in comparison to a werewolf that is neither purely good or evil, but instead has both sides to it?

 

[ceolsige]

This is a good question.

I tend to get tired of any exhausted trope, so, while I do prefer the former example of a werewolf with little self control, it would be sad if everyone played their shifters the same. The latter example feels a little more teen angsty, so I'd be wary of it right off the bat.

I'd say the most likely reason people are saying no to werewolves is because of their resurgence in popularity, lately. Several popular movies, shows, and books have come out lately featuring nontraditional werewolves, and roleplayers might be afraid of encountering these tired characters. On one hand I can't blame them, and on the other, it's a shame not to give a character a chance.

I would love to see a really fresh and interesting take on a werewolf character. Sure, some of those underlying issues can (and probably should) be there, but there's nothing at all wrong with doing something unique. And while probably everything that can be done has already by someone at some point, the premise of a werewolf character leaves a lot of room for imagination.

 

[JokerValentine]

This is a good question.

I tend to get tired of any exhausted trope, so, while I do prefer the former example of a werewolf with little self control, it would be sad if everyone played their shifters the same. The latter example feels a little more teen angsty, so I'd be wary of it right off the bat.

I'd say the most likely reason people are saying no to werewolves is because of their resurgence in popularity, lately. Several popular movies, shows, and books have come out lately featuring nontraditional werewolves, and roleplayers might be afraid of encountering these tired characters. On one hand I can't blame them, and on the other, it's a shame not to give a character a chance.

I would love to see a really fresh and interesting take on a werewolf character. Sure, some of those underlying issues can (and probably should) be there, but there's nothing at all wrong with doing something unique. And while probably everything that can be done has already by someone at some point, the premise of a werewolf character leaves a lot of room for imagination.

I agree. The thing about the shifter type is that it can very easily become a Mary Sue. I have a personal preference of a werewolf having some semblance of self-guilt, or if they are less than friendly, have very little empathy.

 

[ewolf20]

Lemme just be blunt.....screw tradtion. No like take and Toss it off a cliff. I'm as sick tried of the teen angst as well as the trope of the whole losing self control thing. Now,being a werewolf isn't all that cracked up to be. I tried to avoid the whole being a werewolf is awesome thing. It has or down sides like doing inappropriate behaviour, noting a person for looking at them funny,etc.

 

[official clown business]

I don't take a look at shifting because it lacks appeal to me, simple as that, but if I were to ever do one there's three ways I've thought of so far, without full mooning it-

• It would function as not actual shifting, but as an illusion or a disguise using magic or highly advanced technology. For spies, assassins, and people with extremely specific fetishes.
• You have the ability to animalistically shift at will (there may be some constraints of course), but extended periods in this shift will slowly but surely gnaw away at your humanity.
• In the thing I'm making, the art of transformation or polymorph is a highly advanced form of blood magic (bloodbending/fleshweaving) that is costly in the use of blood, but allows you to gain those inhuman traits you've always wanted to have, like wings or horns or something more than skin and bones, basically this is more like a Resident Evil mutation rather than a stereotypical transformation but once you clean up the mess you won't be able to tell the difference. Such abilities haven't been discovered yet so I don't have to worry about them for now.

I lack any sort of reasonable opinion on the matter, since this is basically one of those things I glance at and decide, "... yeah I'm not gonna peek at that sorry." I've looked occasionally in the past, but those particular things are a far cry from the 'teenage lycanthrope' or 'full mooning' topics discussed here. I must've came here and thought, "oh hey people are talking about people that change into other people I guess I'll add something." No idea if I've really added anything to the discussion in hindsight.

 

[JokerValentine]

Lemme just be blunt.....screw tradtion. No like take and Toss it off a cliff. I'm as sick tried of the teen angst as well as the trope of the whole losing self control thing. Now,being a werewolf isn't all that cracked up to be. I tried to avoid the whole being a werewolf is awesome thing. It has or down sides like doing inappropriate behaviour, noting a person for looking at them funny,etc.

Now, what would you personally suggest to be an "ideal" werewolf character?

 

[ewolf20]

Now, what would you personally suggest to be an "ideal" werewolf character?

just write them as a character while acknowledging the dual nature of their condition.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I would say for me I tend to write my werewolves according to the story I'm telling and the lore of their respective universe.

For instance if the werewolf is a literal wolf given human form that would obviously be different than a bloodthirsty beast that possesses a human host.

There are a million and one ways to write a werewolf and it all boils down to what kind of story you want to tell with that character AND the logical rules of the universe they inhabit.

As for why people might not like werewolves from a 1x1 perspective they're still reasonably well represented for the reason they are probably turned away from in the more group settings.

- They're popular. They're familiar. They're an easy creature to put into a simple romance.

Most people know at least the basic concept of a werewolf so it's easy to make a character like that to fill a romantic role. They're also popular what with the upsurgence of urban fantasy romance and of course things like Twilight.

 

[JokerValentine]

I would say for me I tend to write my werewolves according to the story I'm telling and the lore of their respective universe.

For instance if the werewolf is a literal wolf given human form that would obviously be different than a bloodthirsty beast that possesses a human host.

There are a million and one ways to write a werewolf and it all boils down to what kind of story you want to tell with that character AND the logical rules of the universe they inhabit.

As for why people might not like werewolves from a 1x1 perspective they're still reasonably well represented for the reason they are probably turned away from in the more group settings.

- They're popular. They're familiar. They're an easy creature to put into a simple romance.

Most people know at least the basic concept of a werewolf so it's easy to make a character like that to fill a romantic role. They're also popular what with the upsurgence of urban fantasy romance and of course things like Twilight.

True, but I wonder if might also be an interest in personifying it into a more tangible form. Take something from Disney, for example. People might just want a character that goes from thorn to corn.

 

[rae2nerdy]

True, but I wonder if might also be an interest in personifying it into a more tangible form. Take something from Disney, for example. People might just want a character that goes from thorn to corn.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that?

 

[JokerValentine]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that?

They take a character that they find doesn't fit them (on account of how prickly, angry, vicious, dangerous, or whatever adjectives you fancy) and make it into something else that fits them. Maybe they want a werewolf but want to make it more sympathetic, or kind, or whatever they like.

 

[rae2nerdy]

They take a character that they find doesn't fit them (on account of how prickly, angry, vicious, dangerous, or whatever adjectives you fancy) and make it into something else that fits them. Maybe they want a werewolf but want to make it more sympathetic, or kind, or whatever they like.

Well yeah like I said they're popular in romance. So obviously making it more sympathetic would make sense.

Most of what I see them used in ( in 1x1s ) are romance. So yeah they're usually played more sympathetic than as blood thirsty monsters )

 

[Whisker]

I promise that I read the subforum this time. Nobody posted this one recently, so I'm good to post this. I hope.

I came from a community previous that was big on shifter types, humans that would shift from wolf to human. They're not exactly what I'm here to write about, since they're just animal-type stuff, but seeing role plays like them here have me the idea to give my two cents on lycanthropic or werewolf role-plays. If anyone were to post something on this topic, it'd be the dude who literally only role plays that stuff because they're not very adventurous. AKA me.

I notice that there's this shift in how werewolf characters are portrayed recently that I'm not personally a fan of. The earlier iterations of werewolf characters focused heavily on the trait of lack of control under a full moon. Not only that, but it's a critical aspect of many characters that the suffering is personified, whether it be physical change or being a social outcast. I notice a lot of werewolf characters focus a lot less on that, and instead have turned the werewolf from a social outcast into a hybrid of sorts, with no disadvantages to their social life other than they're ridiculed for being what they are. The other type of werewolf differs in that they're hated not just because of their appearance, it's the fact that they're brutal, unrestrained monsters, to say the least.

When it comes to how these types of characters interact, of course, I can understand the need for ingenuity. The trope of "poor me, I'm a little wolf-boi" can get old quickly. However, I argue that it's a critical aspect of a werewolf for there to be some form of personal suffering. I don't exactly like the usage of werewolf characters as misunderstood beings of nature that truly mean no harm and are just trying to survive, but I am not the purest fan of bloodthirsty monsters. No, I think a true werewolf character is a combination of the both, a dual-sided persona for a dual-formed character.


I've also seen a lot of people be very... against werewolf role-plays, personally. It's what sort of inspired this topic, I guess. Is it because people aren't interested in how the characters are portrayed? Is it because they don't know how to interact with one? Is it because they prefer one form over the other, and don't like how popular the other form is? What do you feel about werewolf characters that are portrayed as more innocent or as misunderstood, in comparison to a werewolf that is neither purely good or evil, but instead has both sides to it?

I don’t like 99% of werewolf roleplays because I don’t enjoy how they are portrayed.

Most of the roleplays I come across on RPN portray werewolves in a romantic sense. There’s no element of horror involved at all. Being a werewolf is just a flavored aspect of their character.

I’d be more up to getting involved if there was a sense that the werewolf is a savage dangerous creature that could murder a child or their best-friend or even the entire town if pushed.

 

[JokerValentine]

I don’t like 99% of werewolf roleplays because I don’t enjoy how they are portrayed.

Most of the roleplays I come across on RPN portray werewolves in a romantic sense. There’s no element of horror involved at all. Being a werewolf is just a flavored aspect of their character.

I’d be more up to getting involved if there was a sense that the werewolf is a savage dangerous creature that could murder a child or their best-friend or even the entire town if pushed.

Sorta like what rae2nerdy said about werewolves' prevalence in role-plays. I wonder how much of was inspired by Twilight-esque media?

 

[Whisker]

Sorta like what rae2nerdy said about werewolves' prevalence in role-plays. I wonder how much of was inspired by Twilight-esque media?

While I’d normally be first in line to shit on Twilight and Teenwolf, I’d say most of it’s just teenagers being teenagers. Half the roleplays on RPN focuses around tweens in Highschool. I’m not holding my breath on an abundance of sophisticated werewolf rp.

On a side note, this thread gave me opportunity to shout to an old Skyrim machinima on lycanthropy.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I'd say just putting them in romance would do it. I mean Twilight didn't really come up with the idea of making monsters into sympathetic romantic leads. The series just made it more familiar to mainstream media. But yeah Paranormal Romance is A HUGE genre so I'm sure people putting werewolves as romantic leads predates Twilight.

Also the monster isn't really the only kind of werewolf either. I mean even in the books when they aren't romantic leads there are variations.

Ex. In Dresden Files they had several kinds of werewolves.

- Humans that turns into wolves / Wolves that turn into humans
- Humans with beast souls that are essentially berserkers
- Humans who are given pelts that allow a hellbeast to possess them
- A human cursed who turns into a giant wolf that is nearly invulnerable and extremely blood thirsty

So yeah the ideas where actually really interesting. And only two of them where like the traditional "blood thirsty cursed monster" version of werewolves.

 

[Idea]

Personally I feel like many legends, changing them up a bit, accepting certain parts and not others is part of their integration into culture and their spread. For example, I'm used to thinking of werewolves as shifting into a man-wolf hybrid, not turning into a real damm wolf. Still with the loss of humanity and turning into a killing machine so to speak under the full moon, but not an actual wolf. To me the idea they turn into an actual wolf is really bizarre. Yet I wouldn't say other versions are necessarily inferior because of it. Besides, it's not like a werewolf necessarily ceases to be fun when they are no longer really torn by the duality.

In my personal use of them, I have three main ways in which I use them.
1. Permanent transformation- the werewolf is just stuck in their werewolf form, which like I said is a hybrid of human and wolf (I guess I'll leave a pic below to illustrate) and has some wild instincts but not a full loss of control. Sometimes can achieve full loss of control upon looking at the full moon.
2. True Werewolf- or what I see as the real one. Normal person, maybe some canine instincts, but if exposed to the light of the full moon they turn into a bloodthirsty wolf-human hybrid.
3. Moe Werewolf- I can hear the hate coming, but I don't find this to be a bad version. This one is a lot more loose, sometimes involving a transformation, sometimes being just an okamimi with the name changed to werewolf for convinience in the setting, and often bearing mostly a bundle of canine instincts and altered personality to match. They match the real legends very little but they are adorable enough that I don't really care nor do I think it subtracts from the significance.


That said, the werewolf that is just hated because "weird" is still something I despise, not because of werewolves specifically but because that idea in general is really crapily executed by 99.99% of the people who use it. The whole concept of the "outcast group" of the pseudo-racism is usually used in such a poor one-sided manner that it is just dumb and irritating and subtracts from any immersion of investment in the story. Which leads me to why I think some people are averse to the idea of roleplaying with werewolves:

Often they are played by new players without a idea of their own.


Werewolves are one of the easiest more accessible inhuman races out there. They are everywhere and offer just the right bundle of traits to make them catnip for roleplay newbies, who often take them because it's a very appealing option and not because they actually have a plan in mind. Which isn't to say liking werewolves makes you bad, but rather than they are specially appealing to people who lack the experience to produce anything of quality yet.
Apart from that, there is one more big reason and that's bestiality. Because the werewolves effectively have a bestial or at least part-bestial form, some people are uncomfortable with it because they think romance with them would amount to besitality an idea they are understandably not overly comfortable with.

Spoiler: How I see traditional werewolves

 

[BackSet]

I tend to avoid shifters because they're kind of cliched (other people can play them but I just don't) but I figure I'll drop my two cents in. This is technically related since it's about a shifter type character. So, I made a legend of Zelda rp a while back and I tend to keep reviving it because I like it. One element that's always there is the kitsune as a race. This was first made back when I was super into that stuff. Now it's just there because I don't see a need to remove it. Anyway, the kitsune do things a little differently than your other shifters. While they have full control of their forms they tend to remove themselves from other races societies. This is because certain races, mainly hylians, which are the human race of legend of Zelda, tend to hunt them and in general don't treat them like regular sentient beings. It's not uncommon to see a kitsune, forced to stay in fox form, on sale as a pet on the black market. A kitsune pelt cloak can sell for lot. In general this has caused kitsune (both versions, Arctic and forest) to withdraw from society and hang out in isolated tribes. Another difference is that they wear sensible clothes (because they live in forests and snow plains) that are magically enchanted to shift with the rest of them. (Mostly just because I dislike the typical sexy animal girl stuff because it stupid).

 

[Hige]

I either have my werewolves be feral if there are enough other characters to support it, or just werewolves that can shift easily. It just depends on what will make the RP flow better.