Our Werewolves Are Different - Television Tropes & Idioms

Free, of Atushi Ookubo's manga 'Soul Eater' is a werewolf of the Dire Wolf variety. He's also an ice mage and illusionist, though whether he learned those skills or they came with his werewolf heritage are unconfirmed.
Jyabura, a villain from One Piece, is possessed of a Devil Fruit power that allows him to transform into a wolf or a wolf/human hybrid that looks like a typical werewolf.
Liru from Magical Pokaan turns into a cute little puppy with anything round, strangely enough, except for the full moon.
Ginei from Rosario To Vampire, president of the Newspaper Club and Handsome Lech. As a werewolf, his primary battle strategy involves super speed.
The Captain, one of the villains from the manga Hellsing, is a werewolf. He has several forms which he can go between at will, ranging from a human to a mist-like Dire Wolf. In all forms he has massive physical strength and speed with a Healing Factor.
Wolf familiars Arf and Zafila of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, who are shown as capable of shifting from giant wolves, to this, to full human (i.e., no wolf ears or tails), to Fun Size versions of the first two forms. And just to punctuate the Wolf Man image, Arf's first on-screen transformation ino a wolf was accompanied with a full moon in the background.
Kotaro Inugami of Mahou Sensei Negima is technically a dog boy, but he associates himself with wolves. He's also proven capable of turning into a really Big Badass Wolf at full power.
Subverted in Wolf's Rain, in that the titular characters are sentient wolves not capable of actual shapeshifting; but can make themselves appear human, through a sort of telepathy; in order to hide among humans who would otherwise fear and kill them. They occasionally drop this disguise to frighten humans; or, in one case, to befriend a human by appearing as an ordinary dog.
Dora Nikov from Doraemon transforms whenever he sees a round object.
Somewhat related: Saiyans in Dragon Ball transform into giant rampaging monkeys when they see the light of a full moon. Cutting off their tails prevents this, but until they reach a certain age, it will grow back.
- Dragonball also features a ~~Wolf Man~~ Man Wolf, a wolfman that transforms into a man with the full moon. Tries to take revenge on Master Roshi for destroying the moon, leaving him a wolf.
C'tarl C'tarl from Outlaw Star are werecats with several intermediate forms (Fuzzy Space-Elf to Cat Person to Buff Superpowered Cat Person to Giant Tiger) whose access are dependant on the presence and phase of a moon and on their own personal energy reserves.
- There is an actual werewolf in the story too.

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Werewolf by Night at Marvel Comics. The main character is named Jack Russell, which is a breed of terrier.
Early in the chronology of Elf Quest, Timmain, one of a group of elfin space travelers stranded on the Earth-like World of Two Moons, shapeshifted into various forms in order to understand the planet's ecology, finally turning herself into a fully fertile she-wolf so that she could mate with the alpha male of a wild pack and have offspring. She didn't just do that on impulse, but so that her descendants would be a part of the planet. In more recent issues (set about 20,000 years later) the elf Kimo has learned from Timmain how to shapeshift into a wolf.
John Jameson (J. Jonah's son) was an astronaut who was transformed by a ruby he found on the moon into Man-Wolf. He was later transported to the dimension the ruby originated in, where he became Stargod. (Still a man-wolf, but with Jameson's intelligence & personality.)
Mikola Rostov from The Warlord was a Russian fencing instructor cursed to become a werewolf every full moon. he tried to escape his curse by moving to world of perpetual sunlight. This was not as successful as he might have hoped.
Bigby Wolf from the Fables is a sort of inversion. He was a giant wolf great enough to eat entire armies at one go (indeed, he was the Big Bad Wolf), but he allowed ~~a werewolf to bite himself~~ Snow White to cut him with a lycanthropy-cursed knife so that he could take a human form at will in order to live peacefully in our world.
In Fred Perry's Gold Digger, one of the main characters is one of the last Werecheetahs. Other weres include Lions, Tigers, Rats, and of course Wolves. Each subspecies is able to shift between human, animal, and a "Wolf-Man" styled hybrid form. All of the weres retain their rationality in each of their forms, although they need to learn to control their instincts during childhood. Although the weres are separate species, they are capable of spreading Lycanthropy to Humans as a disease; they were originally created by a wizard as Super Soldiers before said wizard was betrayed. They have a Healing Factor for everything except attacks by another were — and silver, which literally burns their flesh.
- And souls!
- You forgot magic and Dwarven Steel (which disrupts the magic in the were's aura, which slows down their Healing Factor.)
Little Gloomy takes place in Spooksville, Frightsylvania, where the moon is always out, and always full. Accordingly, the sizable werewolf population is a constant danger to the average citizen, with one of the only civilized werewolves being Gloomy's friend Larry.
The mangaCowa! has the main character who is a werekoala and also part vampire.
In Captain Carrot And His Amazing Zoo Crew, one storyline had a wolf who, thanks to a magical artifact, transformed under a full moon into a "wuz-wolf", a feral-looking human being. (The Zoo Crew's Earth having no humans, who are considered only to be fictional creatures, is noted at several points during the story).
In The Warlord, Mikola Rostov was a Russian fencing instructor cursed to become a werewolf every full moon. Rostov followed his lover Mariah to the other-dimensional realm of Skartaris, hoping the perpetual sunlight would free him of his curse. He eventually went back in time to the age when the land was called Wizard World. There Jennifer Morgan cast a spell that cured him from his werewolf curse. However he can still use his "wolf spirit" in battle.
Compare the title character of Werewolf by Night, with Wolfsbane of the X-men.
Thicker than Blood features two brothers, one of whom is a werewolf (of the manwolf variety) while the other turns out to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or at least something like him. The werewolf brother originally only transforms on the full moon nights after being been on a family trip, but after drinking his brother's serum he appears to change more frequently and is even stronger and more feral than usual.
In the Blood is a limited series, currently held up in production due to the artist suffering from cancer, which centers on a teenager struggling with his burgeoning lycanthropy. He seems to be unable to control when his transformations occure and is styled after the classic Lon Chaney wolfman style. It's been implied in interviews that this is a family affliction.
The Astounding Wolf-Man, written by Robert Kirkman, focuses on a man who, after being infected with lycanthropy on a family vacation, uses it as a means by which he can become a superhero. His werewolf powers give him super strength and healing, but only work at night. Also on the night of the full moon he enters a feral state and can no longer control his actions.
'Wolfsbane' of the 1980's Marvel Comics to present is a mutant shapechanger who originally could become a red-furred wolf, or a 'werewolfgirl' intermediate form. These forms continued to change as she grew, influenced by emotional crises, mind control, drugs, mutant energy influxes, whatever the writers could dream up. Twice (at least) depowered and restored, she has served on more teams (and in more different comic books) than most any character.
- There was also a minor character, Wolfcub, who was stuck in a "wolfman" form. A couple of plots have tried to explain that all mutants with regenerative powers, claws, and heightened senses were a subspecies of mutant (Homo superior lupus) that was the origin of werewolves.
In "Runaways" the heroes have to go up against a group of "cowboy werewoofs" One character is surprised at this because "there isn't a eve a full moon tonight." This prompts another character to point out that the "moon is always full."

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The Wolf Man (1941) as stated above one of the main Trope Makers, though perhaps it is more the Trope Codifier and the slightly earlier Werewolf of London (1935 - not to be confused with the much later An American Werewolf In London) was the Trope Maker. (The now-lost 1913 Thanhouser film, The Werewolf, was perhaps the Ur Example.)
An American Werewolf In London could be considered the best of the modern werewolf stories.
Teen Wolf and the Animated Adaptation, Teen Wolf The Animated Series, featured a light comedy version of this.
- The werewolves of Teen Wolf were hereditary, and could transform at will retaining full mental faculties, but lost control of the transformation on nights of the full moon.
Jack Nicholson in Wolf.
The werewolf in "Bad Moon" has to be one of the best non-CGI werewolves this troper has ever seen. Add in the vunerability to anything that would normally cause death, and the epic battle scene with a full grown german Shepard when the werewolf tried to kill his own family. And their dog.
- Good Gods the werewolf in that movie was scary as hell. I mean hell, the guy tries chaining himself to a tree so he doesn't hurt his family when he turns, but his sister comes out into the woods and interrupts him before he can do it. As he starts turning, he LAUGHS in an UNBELIEVABLY CREEPY way because it was now too late to protect her from what was coming. This is before he had even transformed and already we're getting Nightmare Fuel. As soon as he fully transforms, the werewolf's face as it sharply turns towards the camera is pretty much High Octane Nightmare Fuel.
The infamous Cantina Scene from A New Hope showed a Shistavenen, which though not werewolves certainly fit the bill of "wolfman◊". The Star Wars Expanded Universe gives us "wyrwulves", the nonsentient canine immature form of the Codru-Ji; KotOR also provides rakghouls, who in terms of transforming someone who has been bitten fall squarely between werewolves and zombies with a dash of Body Horror.
Werewolf of London (1935), the first werewolf feature film, introduced the moon/werewolf connection and the contagion meme. Not only does the full moon cause the infected to transform, but the only antidote for the transformation (the "mariphasa") is a fictional flower which only blooms under moonlight.
Curt Siodmak built on the above foundation in the script for The Wolf Man (1941), and added the henceforth near-unavoidable weakness to silver. "Even a man who is pure in heart, and says his prayers at night, may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright". A less copied touch is the trait of having the werewolf seeing the mark of a pentacle on his fated next victim.
An American Werewolf In London used a dire wolf transformation, who proves vulnerable to ordinary gunfire. It also almost single-pawedly popularised the horrible transformation subtrope.
The modern man-wolf style made its popular debut in The Howling (1981), which featured infectious werewolves who otherwise acted as a species (changing at will and possibly retaining their own minds, though with predatory instincts).
- The so called sequels also had this. In Howling III: Marsupials we are introduced to marsupial werewolves of some kind.
  - Thylacines, perhaps? (I haven't seen the movie, so can only guess.)
- It should be noted that both An American Werewolf In London and The Howling both came out in 1981 (as well as the sorta werewolf movie Wolfen). Together, they make an almost perfect example of this trope in action. In The Howling a character points out that the werewolves must be killed with silver, while saying the full moon thing is just Hollywood made up stuff. In An American Werewolf In London, the titular character is told by his now undead friend to commit suicide before transforming during the full moon, but when the werewolf asks if he needs silver bullets, he's told to get real!
- The transformation from American Werewolf In London is paid tribute to in Fright Night where Evil Ed (who is a wolf at the time during that scene) turns back into a human.
The Company of Wolves has a very different take on werewolves, in that they're actually much more faithful to the medieval version of werewolves, albeit combined with a lot of hard-to-understand symbolism. But hey, the transformation sequences are awesome.
Werewolf was wildly inconsistent in its portrayal of the titular monsters; they vary between looking like really hairy men and looking like "a bear with a bat mask". Even a scratch from a dead werewolf's bone is enough to transmit "werewolfism" to other people; one victim gets scratched and transforms while driving.Mike and the 'bots did not let this pass without comment; for instance, the sketch where Mike accidentally gets scratched by Crow and begins transforming into a "were-Crow", or "Where Oh Wherewolf".
- The film has the gall to go out of its way to argue that its titular beast is "not a traditional white man's movie monster", but some obscure Native American curse. And then proceeds to have said werewolf behave... exactly like a white man's movie monster.
Cat People involved people that could turn into black panthers when sexually aroused. Meowww!
Ladyhawke features a couple of young lovers cursed to take on animal form at different times, as to keep them apart; the man turns into a wolf at night, and the lady... guess what.
In Big Fish by Tim Burton, the title character suspects that the circus ringmaster (Danny Devito) is a werewolf, turns out he actually is one but not an evil or monstrous one.
Wolf has Jack Nicholson's character Will gradually become more and more werewolfish in his behavior during the days leading up to the full moon. In desperation he acquires a mystic amulet that will supposedly prevent his transformation, but all it does is keep him in a half-man/half-werewolf(think about that one for a moment) state. Until the guy he bit shows up, more werewolfish than Will and threatening Will's new love interest. Will tosses the amulet aside and quickly catches up to the other werewolf, finally looking like a Wolf Man lite before leaving. At the end of the film it's revealed that the curse has run its course and Will has become a full wolf. And his girlfriend is going to be one, too. After next month, at least.
Dog Soldiers has werewolves who change at the full moon, but can hold it back if they wish, though with difficulty. Also, silver isn't absolutely necessary to kill them, even while they're in wolf form. It's just really difficult without it.
Black Sheep (not to be confused with the Chris Farley comedy of the same name) has two characters becoming weresheep after being bitten by the titular killer ovines.
Underworld and its oddly named sequel answer the age old questions of what would happen if vampires and werewolves got into a centuries old blood war, what would happen if someone was turned by both vampires and werewolves, and just how badly does Bill Nighy need a pay check. In Underworld werewolves, or lycans, are from the brother strain of the virus that produced the vampires. There are two strains of werewolves. The first came from the first werewolf, William, and all those bitten by him. They're dire wolves, but they can never turn back to humans ever again, and they've permanently lost their minds. The second version is the ones descended from Lucian. They are monstrous man-wolves with jet black skin and very little hair. The latter ones go berserk on their first transformations, but as they age they can gain control. They can voluntarily transform during the full moon, but they don't have to, and again, older ones can transform when they please. Both forms are transferred via a bite, and both are regenerating immortals. (Immortal to an extent anyway, silver works, but ripping their head off without silver works too.)
- Of course, there's also Michael, who's a badass hybrid as a result of Selene turning him near the end of the movie, but resembles a werewolf far more than a vampire, likely because he was bitten by a werewolf first. He's a wolf man, and has complete and total control over his transformations, sometimes even doing partial transformations with ease.
Van Helsing features a werewolf shaped like a wolf, but as it wasn't a main villain, its details were not discussed.
- The title character eventually transforms into one in order to take down Dracula for good.
Ginger Snaps has its title character bitten by a werewolf on the night that she gets her first period. Unlike most werewolf movies, Ginger's transformation into the monster is gradual, and there's many ties with the onset of puberty.

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In Poul Anderson's magitek reality in Operation Chaos, werewolves are persons with a genetic condition. Scientific understanding of the condition in the 20th century allows the werewolf to understand and receive training to keep his human motivations in wolf form (but not full intelligence). The change is permitted by having polarized light as the only light source (either moonlight or a portable "moonflash" carried on the person). The wolf-form heals at Wolverine speeds except when silver is involved. The hero/werewolf/narrator fought in World War II as an Army Ranger and seemed to suffer no social prejudice.
- He was a movie star, before the war, playing a Rin Tin Tin type character.
Kelley Armstrong's Women Of The Otherworld series features werewolves that turn into pure wolves at will, but the process is painful. They must Change about once a week, becoming more irritable and restless the longer they put it off, until finally their bodies take over and they Change involuntarily. Control over their Change is a matter of teaching, practice, and willpower. All but one of the werewolves are male, and they pass the gene down to their sons (daughters need not apply). A hereditary werewolf will not have his first Change until late adolescence. Werewolves can be made by an infected bite or by injection with werewolf saliva, but most are hereditary. An infected werewolf will pass the gene down to any sons conceived after his Change. In Broken, Elena gives birth to male and female twins, who are both genetic werewolves and it is hinted the female will Change in adulthood. Since Elena is the first female werewolf and the twins' father is also a werewolf, it is unknown if a hereditary female gets the gene from just her mother or from both parents.
The Dresden Files has four varieties, presented in Fool Moon and covering most of the range of possibilities. None are infectious or take wolfman forms, however.
- The werewolf (as a technical term) is just a human who can transform into a normal wolf at will - they undergo no mental changes (and thus must learn how to live like a wolf), have no linkage to the moon, and gain no special invulnerabilities. It is a learned ability, somewhat like becoming a wizard who knows only one spell, but knows that one really well. There are also wolves that can take human form in the same way, and with the same limitations. The latter are technically termed wolfweres.
- The hexenwolf ("witch-wolf") uses an enchanted belt of wolfskin to transform at will, and becomes a dire wolf guided by demonic forces, which gives them a more violent personality which gradually bleeds over into the human form.
- Lycanthropes are people whose minds become wolf-like at full moons, and who gain increased strength and healing at the same time. They are related to Viking berserkers.
- A Loup-Garou is a human subject to a powerful hereditary curse. Under the full moon, he transforms into a demonic man-wolf with enormous speed and strength, as well as immunity to injury by virtually any source except inherited silver. The demon takes over all control during this time, with the human personality completely submerged.
In The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, the role of Baloo is taken by a no-nonsense Hound of God named Miss Lupescu, who is hinted to be very different from ordinary werewolves for some values of the words 'different' and 'ordinary'. (The Bagheera role is taken by Silas, who is very heavily implied to be a Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire.)
Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter includes some werewolves, including one of Anita's love interests, Richard. In her world, there's a vaccine for the infection; Richard caught Lycanthropy from a bad batch of the serum. Anita herself is currently a carrier (which should be impossible) for multiple strains (which should also be impossible) of the virus.
- There are also were-leopards, were-rats, and were-swans.
  - The were-swan is a result of a witches curse instead of a strain of disease, just in case they hadn't made their lycanthropes different enough.
- I believe one of the books even mentioned a were-dog. Not mention a 'blue' were-tiger.
- Some werewolves?????? One third of the characters in the books are werewolves, and actually two of Anita's love interests are werewolves. Or did you forget about Jason? . The books also contain: wereleopards, werelions, weretigers ( including blue, red and black tigers in the last book ), at least 3 weredogs (their abilities are inherited not infection), weresnakes (at lest 2 species cobra and anaconda), swanmen (some are cursed others inherit their abilities like the weredogs.), wererats, werebears, werehyenas and a lamia which is an imortal shapeshifter. Did I forget anything? Oh ... yes, how could I? Chimera a pan-were than can shape shift in to six animal forms ( each with a different crazy personality .)
In P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles Of The Kencyrath series, the Wolvers are inverse werewolves; they are wolves that can transform into human form. Their young cannot achieve the transformation until they reach a certain point in their development. As humans, they are still quite hairy.
John Hodgman's The Areas Of My Expertise includes handy lycanthropic transformation timetables, showing how and when different kinds of werewolves transform, and how to stop them, during each phase of the moon.
In Tom Holt's Barking, theriomorphy is transmitted in the classic style, and werewolves gain nigh-invulnerability in both human and wolf forms, including a massively extended lifespan, and most of the werewolf characters work for the same law firm, Ferris and Loop (a Meaningful Name, referencing "Fenris" and "Lupine"). They are of course rivals of the vampire firm Crosswoods.
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan has 'wolfbrothers', men with the ability to communicate telepathically with wolves. Wolfbrothers gain greatly enhanced senses, as well as golden eyes which people remark as resembling those of wolves. Wolfbrothers are prone to acquiring wolf instincts, and in some cases have been known to completely lose touch with their humanity, becoming essentially wolves in men's clothing.
In Stephen King's and Peter Straub's book The Talisman, Jack meets a character called Wolf, who in the territories is very Wolf like and every full moon turns into a werewolf. Later Jack refers to all people from this species as ~~Wolves~~ Wolfs (the first one Jack meets laughs his arse off when Jack calls his people Wolves). These Wolfs once transformed have the irresistible urge to "run with the moon" which basically involves killing any small defenseless woodland animal they find. They also transform under extreme pressure. It only seems to be hereditary with only "bad Wolfs" ever attacking people or livestock in the first place.
- King's Cycle of the Werewolf has a more traditional, dire wolf, changes-with-the-moon type. Oddly enough the victim has no idea how he started Involuntary Shapeshifting, and initially not even that it is happening. He does remember picking strange flowers in a graveyard before he started having blackouts, which is one of the less known/used methods of lycanthropic infection. Even if he never realized it, readers probably picked it up as a red flag anyway.
In CS Lewis's Prince Caspian, one of the two creatures to tempt Caspian to summon back the White Witch is a werewolf.
- And apparently not contagious, as it bites Caspian without transmitting its condition to him.
The werewolves of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga are of the genetic 'dire wolf' type, descending through a line of La Push Native Americans. (At least, they are treated as werewolves until Breaking Dawn, whereupon it is revealed they are in fact 'merely' shapeshifters, and not cursed with true "moon madness.").
- This curse can skip generations; the ability to transform, or "phase," is only induced in the local teenage population when vampires are near their reservation for extended periods of time, as werewolves and vampires are natural enemies.
  - Jacob Black is one of a family of werewolves, who live on a Native American reservation and hate vampires. Jacob, of course, falls in love with Bella.
- These werewolves have an internal body temperature of well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (as opposed to vampires who are "cold and hard as marble") and are extraordinarily fast healers even in human form; though not quite Made Of Iron, they come pretty close. They phase at will, communicate telepathically and intelligently with pack members while transformed, and have near Immortality, remaining at the peak of their physical prowess until they choose to stop transforming for good. Aside from the minor fact that Twilight's "werewolves" are required to follow their alpha wolf's mental commands in wolfish form, this variety of 'monster' is more or less Cursed With Awesome.
- They also explode to transform.
Larry Niven's story "What Good Is A Glass Dagger?" is told from the POV of an idealistic Atlantean Werewolf. The surprise bit comes when he discovers that werewolves aren't people who become wolves, but rather wolves who turn into humans.
Constable Delphine Angua von Überwald from Terry Pratchett's "City Watch" series of Discworld novels. Angua can transform into a wolf at will, but is unable to prevent herself from changing during a full moon. Pratchett delves much deeper into the psychology of the werewolf than most writers, describing what the world looks like to a creature that uses smell as its primary sense, and also developing a cultural backstory for the werewolves, such as the term "yennork" being used to describe a werewolf that cannot change shape (and is therefore trapped in the body of either a wolf or a human) but is born to werewolf parents.
- The "smell as its primary sense" has to be reinterpreted by the werewolf when in human form; it is presented as synesthesia, with scent data being reinterpreted in terms of colours and sounds.
- Reaper Man features two interesting specimens. One (Mrs. Cake's daughter Ludmilla) is, for three weeks out of the month, a young woman; the other is, three weeks out of the month, pretty much just an intelligent wolf. That fourth week, though, they meet each other half way, and it's implied they begin a relationship.
- Angua's type of lycanthropy is hereditary (infection by bite is alluded to but never actually demonstrated in the books; it does happen in Discworld Noir, which Pratchett worked on). Pure-bred werewolves change into a normal wolf (hybrids produce other forms). At least partial control is possible, although sometimes this takes some effort. Silver and fire are a werewolf's primary weaknesses; all other damage is temporary.
- Werewolves are generally referred to as undead. Despite uncertainty as to whether they truly should be categorized along with Zombies and Vampires the consensus seems to be "they're big and scary, they come from Uberwald, and if you stab them with a sword they don't die. What more do you want?"
In Harry Potter, lycanthropy is transmitted by bites, and results in uncontrolled transformations during full moon. Werewolves are discriminated against by the Wizarding society despite their relative innocence. They are dangerous to humans, but not to other animals (or Animagi). No cure exists, but a Wolfbane Potion allows them to keep control of their minds during the transformation. Good werewolf Remus Lupin takes the Wolfsbane potion to keep his, whereas the evil Fenrir Greyback doesn't care as he is bloodthirsty as a human anyway. In the books werewolves are Dire Wolves, with only a few superficial differences between them and real wolves. In the movies they are Wolf-Men that look more like Were-Chihuahuas than wolves...
In Magnus the nephilim Tsavo has the ability to transform into a slavering wolf as a result of a magic spell he casts.
The "Wolf and Raven" stories, which are part of Shadowrun's Expanded Universe, feature a man who is posessed by Wolf, one of the many animal totems of the world, which grants him powers and mannerisms similar to the classic Wolf Man (as well as a Split Personality, of sorts). It should be noted that this is very different from the game's usual take on werewolves.
The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries has Weres, who can change at will, but tend to give into the animal instincts and predatory tendencies on the night of the full moon. They can also be shielded from the light of the moon to help them, but they are tense, more easily agitated, and prone to violence and uncontrolled bloodlust during the full moon. Though it's not spelled out explicitly, werewolves may go over entirely to animalism during the full moon if they give into the change or are otherwise provoked into it. Additionally, the Were trait is hereditary and can be passed on to children.
- In addition, the series has Shape Shifters, who can change at will into various animals, but most choose one animal form and stick with it, for ease and comfort of transformation. On the full moon, they must change into their animal form. They maintain human intelligence the entire time, so far. The Shifter trait is hereditary and can be passed on to children. Unlike the vampire population, the Were and Shifter populations are not known to humankind at large. There is friction between the shifters and the weres; the weres consider themselves superior, but to everybody else, they are something akin to blue collar workers.
- Those bitten by weres have a chance at becoming a demonic monster form of that animal. Jason, Sookie's brother, becomes a werepanther.
  - Sam, Sookie's boss, turns into a friendly collie.
  - One shifter in New Orleans, though, turns into an Owl and looks the part slightly even as a human.
The werewolves in Blood and Chocolate are of the genetic variety, and can only breed with other werewolves. They turn into something like a dire wolf, but Vivian notes they had only adopted wolf as a convenient term, and are truly known as the Loup-Garoux. They can transform at will, but transform involuntarily at the full moon, and are weak to silver in any form. They keep their minds when transformed, however, and are expressly forbidden to be seen by or kill humans, in order to maintain the Masquerade. They live in packs, with males fighting to be alpha, and females fighting to be the alpha's mate.
In the Goosebumps book Werewolf Skin, werewolves shed their skin during the daytime and can only resume their werewolf form if they put on their skin during the night. Burning the skin while it's unshed will kill the werewolf while stopping the werewolf from putting on its skin for one night cures it. The Werewolf of Fever Swamp features a more traditional werewolf.
- This is based on the Native American "skinchanger" legends.
- 'The werewolf's first night' a Goosebumps short story has a boy believing all the people at his camp are werewolves, it turns out he's the werewolf, and it's the full moon..
In the Mercy Thompson series, lycanthropy is transmitted through a savage attack - most victims of werewolf attacks die of their injuries rather than turn into werewolves. Werewolves are forced to change at the full moon, but can also change more or less at will. Werewolves in human form are resistant to disease and poison, heal quickly, do not die of old age, and have VERY short tempers. For this reason, the average life expectancy for a wolf after becoming one is ten years.
- It is worth noting, however, that werewolves certainly don't always die young. The book takes place in the present day, and several wolves are thought to date from the Renaissance. If I remember correctly, there were even a few who called those young.
- Werewolves also have a kind of magic, called pack magic, which allows an Alpha to draw strength from his pack and control them.
In Welkin Weasels, werecreatures spend most of their time as normal Talking Animal characters and turn into monstrous flesh-eating humans at the full moon. Fully transformed ones can only be slain by silver bullets, but when Maudlin is nipped slightly by one, they manage to purge the wereweasel infection from him by immediately applying silver to the wound.
In Marie de France's lai Bisclavret from the 12th century, Bisclavret (for unknown reasons) must transform into a wolf every week. His wife steals his clothing, without which he can't change back, but one day, the king his friend goes hunting in the woods. Bisclavret jumps at him and paws his foot like a petitioner, and the king, impressed, grants the wolf his life. Then Bisclavret goes with the hunting party and stays at court. Everyone is so impressed by his nobility and gentleness that when his wife and her new husband appear at court, and he attacks them, the king concludes that they must have wronged the wolf and imprisons them until they confess. With his clothing back, Bisclavret can return to human form.
- Similarly, in a lai featuring King Arthur, Melion, the wife actively transforms the husband into a wolf, but he again takes refuge in court and attacks his wife there, leading to his transformation back.
In the Chivalric Romance William of Palerne, the wolf that protects William and his love proves to be the son of the King of Spain, enchanted by his Wicked Stepmother.
Werewolves, or Weres, in The Hollows novels are a separate race that descended from the union of demons and female humans. They can change on will into full wolves, possess enhanced strength and senses even in human form and cannot infect other humans without the help of a demonic curse. They are organized into packs which can vary from hardcore survivalists, a baseball team or a corporation. They are of course rivals of the vampires for influence and power.
In The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan, The wolf man is biologically half wolf and half human, and the mixture has induced madness, resulting in Sam Grest being Eaten, and R.V. having his hand bitten off, later becoming a major villain. He is basically humanoid with wolf claws, head and tail etc along with thick, wiry fur.
The protagonist in Will Shetterly's urban fantasy novel Elsewhere calls an elf an "Elflands bitch". She tries to turn him into a dog, but magic in Bordertown is unreliable, and he becomes a wolf man, with hair, wolf ears, and a snout that makes it impossible for him to speak.
In Ryk E. Spoor's Digital Knight, werewolves are VERY different, particularly in that they're powerful enough that even "the Great Demons" wouldn't lightly defy the will of the Werewolf King Virigar. Also, they devour souls. The narrator's Friendly Neighborhood Vampire friend tells him:
"Their stength is immense, their cunning formidable, and their ability to shift shape, though confined to a wolflike predator on the one hand, is unlimited in the human range; they can be anyone at all. They do not fear night or day, nor does the phase of the moon have any effect on them. They also have a talent similar to my own to charm and cloud other minds.... There is nothing I have seen ... that I fear more than the Werewolf King."
- Consider the last sentence of that quote in light of the fact that the speaker is five hundred thousand years old and has seen the Great Demons reshape the continents of Earth.
The Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn focuses on a werewolf heroine ironically named...Kitty.
Warhammer had the Children of Ulric, but they were apparently wiped out in the same story where they were introduced (Trollslayer).
- There was also Wolfgang von Newald in the Konrad Saga although it isn't revealed until the end of the last book.
In Kit Whitfield's novel Bareback (understandably published as Benighted in the US) 99% of the world's population are werewolves; not being a werewolf is due to a birth defect. Werewolves cannot change at will, but do invariably change on the full moon and the nights before and after, and do not retain their human mind when they do. This has led to some complicated social structures. Their form is never desrcibed in detail but seems to be the dire wolf with some Man Wolf characteristics, for instance they normally run on all fours but can stand up.
In Lisa Williams' Family Bites, lycanthropy is hereditary. The Rivers family, being easy-going and friendly werewolves, are described as looking like large friendly dogs in wolf form. They can change shape whenever they feel like it, although they sometimes do it at full moon without meaning to.
- Family Bites hangs a bit of a lampshade on this and Our Vampires Are Different; Sophie Rivers (werewolf) and Daniel Alfonz (half-vampire) look each other up in the mythology books, and are completely bewildered by what they find. Then they look themselves up and get even more bewildered.
In Never Cry Werewolf, the titular werewolf controls his full-moon turnings with medicine. He keeps his human mind during his time as wolf, however.

Close Literature

Doctor Who has had several different examples:
- "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" featured a lycanthropic girl who could be forced to transform by nothing more than an "old devil moon" stage lamp gel.
- In the new series, "Tooth and Claw" involved an alien intelligence that could possess people and turn them into a Wolf Man form, and jump between bodies by biting.
- A society of werewolves also appears in the Big Finish audio Loups-Garoux, in which the Doctor notes that "There are so many forms of lycanthropy," presumably to avoid any problems with continuity.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer had Oz, who learned to suppress his normal transformations, but could also be triggered to transform outside of a full moon by stress. The series also had Veruca — a minor love interest of Oz — who had embraced the wolf inside her, making her a bad puppy.
- The most interesting aspect of Buffyverse werewolves is that lycanthropy can be transmitted by bite even if the werewolf is in human form at the time. Oz was bitten by his baby cousin Jody.
- Angel showed another species of werewolves that walked upright and reverted to human form when killed.
- In Season Three, Oz started to display a heightened sense of smell in human form. It's possible that if Oz hadn't left the show in Season Four, his werewolf nature would have been more fully explored.
The short-lived series Wolf Lake revolved around a community of lycanthropes based (roughly) on Native American werewolf mythology.
FOX, in their inaugural season, aired a series, Werewolf, which depended upon a rare (and completely bogus) astronomical conjunction which caused the moon to be full for eight nights in a row.
- The above poster mis-remembers the series' mythology. Transformations by the hero (and his enemies) could happen for eight nights in a row, because their timing was random and had nothing to do with the lunar cycle.
Gou Fukami of Juken Sentai Gekiranger, thanks to a Dangerous Forbidden Technique. He did eventually cure the wolf within him, but since his very fighting style is wolf-based, it still sort of applies.
- His counterpart RJ, of Power Rangers Jungle Fury, is basically the same in terms of affliction.
Angel had a recurring love interest who was a werewolf.
The main character from the aptly-named Big Wolf on Campus.
- Werewolves in that tv series are usually evil (with an offical group no less) and Merton and Lori both become evil when they are temporarily werewolves. Tommy seems to be the exception to the rule. Transformations can happen voluntarily, but also happen involuntarily on the full moons, for stress, or for excitement. If wolfsbane is taken before the first transformation, the infected person can be cured permenantly. Lycanthropy can also apparently be transferred to someone else during a made-up planetary moon alignment. The curse is spread through bites, but it seems that only alpha males can turn people into werewolves.
Jiro/Garulu of Kamen Rider Kiva can transform from human to Wolf Man at will.
The 1987 FOX television series Werewolf borrowed Siodmak's pentacle (see below), but has it appear on the werewolf's own palm during twilight hours as a harbinger of the coming change. It also introduced the idea of escaping the curse by killing the werewolf who infected you.
Big Wolf On Campus follows the life of good Wolf Man Tommy Dawkins. He transforms at will or involuntarily when stressed; he also is forced to transform during the full moon. Tommy keeps full control of his mind at these times. Lycanthropy is, again, transmitted by bite but if a person is fed a Wolfsbane potion before their first full moon they can avoid becoming a werewolf. Most other werewolves are evil and part of a syndicate of evil werewolves, but Tommy acts as a town protector instead.
- In fact, it's demonstrated that becoming a werewolf makes you evil. It wasn't explained why this didn't happen to Tommy, but BWOC was never big on explanations anyway. Curiously, Lori and Merton were the only ones who went evil when they became werewolves.
  - It seems to be hinted that Tommy didn't turn evil because he was bitten at the full moon, not giving the werewolfish nature a chance to dig in over time. For example, during a What If scenario, Tommy's place was taken by someone else when the wolf bit him. He wasn't precisely evil, just a massive dick. And he was like that before he was bitten.
- One episode of season 1 introduced us to a French exchange student who was a werecat.
The werewolf in the Doctor Who episode "Tooth and Claw" was an alien that had regenerated from a single cell over centuries, and was killed by focused moonlight with the help of a telescope and the Koh-i-Noor diamond. Werewolves had appeared in the Whoniverse several times before that, with different "rules" (although moonlight triggering the transformation and transmission by infection were universal.)
- The werewolf in "The Greatest Show In The Galaxy" was transformed by being caught in an "Old Devil Moon" spotlight.
- In the audio drama "Loups-Garoux" (which features probably the most "traditional" werewolves of the series), the apparent disparity between types of werewolf is noted by the Doctor, who simply says, "There are so many forms of lycanthropy."
The Munsters had Eddie. Eddie is a werewolf but the only indication of such (besides his Unusual Ears and Cute Little Fangs) is his sometimes-catchphrase "Awooooooooo-tragious!" In one of the feature-length movies, he finally turns into his wolf-form and he looks like a Lon Chaney Jr. style werewolf.
Wolfie the werewolf from Beetleborgs is treated more like a house pet than a monster at Hillhurst, although in one episode he accidentally bit Jara and turned her into a werewolf.
An episode of Dinosaurs had Robbie tell a scary story to his baby bro where he gets bitten by a rabid caveman and becomes a were-man. (Of course, were means man anyway, but you shouldn't go to this show for a-hundred percent accuracy.)
- That may have also been a case of Viewers Are Morons.
The half-wolves of The Tenth Kingdom. Although only one example is extant in the series, Wolf, judging by him the half-wolves are hereditary Wolf Men with heightened senses who live in packs (we never see any so don't know about the existence of alphas, though they're highly likely) and do not seem to be vulnerable to silver. They change only on the three nights of the full moon, and while changed have no control over their actions and no memory of what they have done. They also seem to be afflicted by the 'take on lupine mannerisms and characteristics' aspect of this trope, since Wolf is constantly scratching at his temple, whines and whimpers and growls, nuzzles Virginia, and scrapes the ground with his feet to cover his tracks—although this may merely be a product of actor Scott Cohen's enthusiastic character immersion.
- What makes the half-wolves interesting is the twists: they always possess tails, even in human form, which change size with the time of the month and apparently act as erogenous zones, and explicit reference is made to the female cycle by how Wolf starts gaining PMS-like symptoms as the full moon approaches and, when fighting the change, ends up with... cramps.
- Still more interestingly, it is never truly explained what the term 'half-wolf' actually means. Are they the literal product of a coupling between a full wolf and a human, and this is what grants them their ability to change forms? Or is it merely a euphemism for werewolf, which could be considered a half-wolf because they can also appear as humans? Or is it even possible, taking into account the prejudice against them in the Kingdoms, that the term is meant to be parallel to mulattos, quadroons, and octaroons in the real world—so if a half-wolf had a child with a human, their offspring would be a quarter-wolf, and so on?
  - Wolf's sole Transformation Sequence during the miniseries is inconclusive, since all we see is him becoming a typical Lon Chaney Wolf Man. According to Simon Moore, however, Wolf was intended to become a Dire Wolf, but they didn't have the budget for such special effects. What this says about the nature of half-wolves isn't clear.
The Wizards Of Waverly Place episode Beware Wolf has Justin kiss a girl who is a werewolf and turn into one himself.
The horrifying werewolves of Supernatural are of the mortal/cursed variety. As for their appearance: slightly longer fingernails and fangs. Pull out their teeth and file down their nails and they'd be indistinguishable from any other Axe Crazy psycho. Which actually makes a kind of sense, as they're not obvious to Muggles. They always remove the heart from a dead victim.
Jiro from Kamen Rider Kiva is a Wolfen, one of the 13 Demon Races represented in the series. He can voluntarily change from human to Wolfen form, and feeds by using his claws to pull the soul from a human's body and devour it. Thanks to his supernatural origin, his human form seems to have superhuman levels of strength, speed, and endurance, as well as an enhanced sense of smell (and a fondness for coffee).
George from Being Human has to change during the full moon. When in wolf form he appears to act purely on instinct and can't remember what he's done once he's changed back into a human. The question of whether or not he can transform at will hasn't been explored yet (the second season may or may not bring it up) but in the pilot he speaks of how all of his senses are heightened in the days running up to his transformation.
Out Of Jimmys Head has Yancey, the alien sister of the main character, dating one. He's harmless for the most part, but does retain canine features and strengths.

Close Live Action TV

The horror movie in Michael Jackson's Thriller video has a werecat.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion song "She Said" involves a man getting lycanthropy by cheating on his girlfriend (that's a new one), and the transformation is triggered by the blooming of wolfsbane. The song ends with him being killed with a silver bullet.
"Werewolves Of London" by Warren Zevon. Some versions mentioned Lon Chaney Jr while some other ones mention Jack Nicholson.
The music video "Thriller" by Michael Jackson has Michael turn into a werecat.
- I don't know about the "were" part, but he also changed to and from a big cat (a panther?) in the hyperextended "Black or White" video.
- The "panther" is actually a black leopard.
Similarly enough, the Bjork music video Hunter had her changing back and fourth into a bear and back into herself. Although she seemed to be holding back her bear transformation.
Frank Hayes's "Silver Bullet Blues."
Flippy T. Fishead had a song about becoming a Werecow. There is another werecow which he is engaged to (who is female when human, and whom he "turned"). The how-and-why of the male-to-female transformation is not addressed.
Of Wolf And Man by Metallica
Zomby Woof by Frank Zappa.
Bark at the Moon by Ozzy Osbourne
She Wolf/Loba by Shakira.
Go watch Du riechst so gut.

Close Music

The werewolf of medieval tradition tended to fall in the devil's deal category, with the bargainer typically gaining the ability to become a normal or dire wolf through the use of a magic wolf pelt or wolfskin belt.
- The most well-known werewolf of this type would be Peter Stumpp.
The other common variety is an average, sometimes even faithful man, cursed to be a wolf for a certain amount of time, usually ten years. In this case they had all their normal intelligence and personality, but were trapped in the wolf's body.
- Notably, the cursed variety is normally described to be completely harmless, even less dangerous than ordinary wolves. Often they were described as such lousy hunters that it makes you wonder how they survived their cursed period, at all.
The tale of Bisclavret, from the Lais of Marie de France, features a man cursed to turn into a beast once a fortnight or so; in order to become a man again, he must find his human clothing and put it back on. His wife, upon learning this, sends a knight to steal his clothes, effectively trapping him as an intelligent beast.
- In the version this troper is familiar with, the word gets out and he is returned to normal, but not before biting the guilty wife's nose off and having her banished.
An interesting variation was the Hounds of God. In the Baltic regions, it was believed that Werewolves were given their powers not by the Devil, but by God to battle the forces of the devil. Our Werewolves Are Different indeed.
- Wait, so Van Helsing wasn't just making shit up?

Close Mythology

Not surprisingly, the game Werewolf: the Apocalypse was all about these, as is its successor, Werewolf: The Forsaken.
- Not to mention the wide range of other werecreatures in both old and new Worlds of Darkness.
The original Dungeons And Dragons had several variations on this, including were-bear, were-rat, and were-tiger, each taken from a different real-world mythology. The most recent edition has the Lycanthropy template, allowing one to make were-anything characters.
- The game also has the reverse concept: Wolfweres (and other kinds of [Animal]were), which essentially are animals able to shapeshift into humans and similar races. The two kinds of shapeshifter generally held a strong mutual loathing for one another, and both were featured relatively prominently in the game's horror setting Ravenloft (where such creatures were always evil, something that did not hold for other settings).
- The Ravenloft setting took this trope to heart for all monsters, introducing "salient abilities" that could make any werewolf (or vampire, golem, mummy, etc) different from any other of its kind.
Shadowrun has a virus which turns people into mindless Neanderthal types which get stronger and vicious during the full moon. However, they don't gain animal traits, beyond the extra hair. What Shadowrun does have are Shapeshifters, as in normal animals of all varieties spontaneously giving birth to magically active stock able to take on human form. Not to mention all the dragons who've learned the ability...
Warhammer 40000 brings us the Wulfen, werewolves In Space. With guns.
- Actually the guns belong to the Space Wolves. The Wulfen are failed Space Wolves.
  - To clarify, the curse is present in all Space Wolves due to it being imbued into their genes during their trials. Those who fail to overcome the curse during the trials turn into wulfen. However, since it is still in the genes of the Space Wolves, they gradually turn more and more beastial over the years. Some look like real wolves wearing power armor after a while. The Thirteenth Great Company is a prime example of this, since they have spent ten thousand years inside the Eye of Terror, coming out later with the curse with a high hold of their bodies. The best thing is, they are still sane and loyal to the Emperor. Indeed, the wulfen curse reacts strongly to chaos, acting as some kind of automatic mental shield against the taint of chaos. In short, the wulfen curse is only a bad thing if you can't overcome it, meaning the Space Wolves have a high natural resistance against the taint of chaos due to it.
The Tabletop Games Werewolf: The Apocalypse from The World Of Darkness line casts the Player Characters as werewolves-qua-species. Its "Garou" may breed with both normal humans and wolves (as well as with other Garou, although those offspring are deformed outcasts); they actually have access to all the various forms, changing to any as they find useful, but the form they were born in lacks the invulnerability of the others. However, they must struggle with controlling their rage; loss of this control can cause them to frenzy (which can be either an Unstoppable Rage or running away, usually involving taking on a better form for the task). Oh, and they also have a very tight connection to the spirit world (including the inherent ability to travel between the worlds almost at will) and were made as super-warriors to protect the Earth from the CosmicHorrors of the said spirit world. Of course, this being The World Of Darkness they screwed up in their duty, so that it falls to Player Characters to set things right. Maybe.
- The game also has 11 other major breeds of shapeshifters, described in their own Splat books, like corax (were-ravens), gurahl (were-bears) and bastet (were-cats). All of these are near-extinct through zealous genocide by the werewolves. In theory (in practive, many of them are very numerous throughout most parts of the world, but like to use the past wars as an excuse to be jerks).
- The reboot, Werewolf: The Forsaken, has the Uratha, which are somewhat similar to the Garou, but simplified. Unlike the Garou, the Uratha all start as human and can only breed with humans (or wolf-blooded); trying to mate with other Uratha leads to the "ghost children". Interestingly, the antagonist tribes, the Pure, are almost ideologically identical to the Garou... In addition, the other weres were left out of the werewolf line and covered instead in a mainline book, ~~Changing Breeds~~ War Against The Pure.
In Ars Magica, lycanthrophy is the result of a curse which can be magical or faery in nature, and is tied to the moon cycle. If taken as a blessing, transformations can be controlled. Were-bears and were-lynxes are also possible in the setting.
Rifts and other games in Palladium's Megaverse have them as a separate species, ranging from Wolves to Bears, and some of the big cats (and even further, Werepanthers are different than Werejaguars). A set of semi-official articles in their magazine/book also holds to legend that Humans were originally Wereapes, but lost their ability to change due to a curse that also gave the Werebeasts their vulnerability to silver.
- Rifts also features the Loup-Garou, a werewolf species with a god complex and the statline to back it up against an unaugmented human. It also must die twice, once in Wolf or Man-Wolf form and once as a Human, in order to be truly killed. Killing it only once "kills" that form, preventing it from changing into it ever again.
In Dungeons And Dragons, there are multiple varieties of lycanthrope such as the werewolf, werebear, wereboar, wererat, and weretiger. They've always been able to take on the normal animal form and infect with a bite, but other details have cropped up with the evolution of the game, including the addition of a "hybrid" form equivalent to the Man-Wolf, the existence of natural lycanthropes in addition to infected ones, and the imposition of a whole new alignment (and personality) not just on the nonhuman forms but on the human(oid) as well.
- In an attempt to screw with players, Dungeons and Dragons also has the "wolfwere", which is essentially the same as a werewolf, only immune to all the werewolf's traditional weaknesses, and vulnerable to some totally unrelated things. And instead of a man who turns into a wolf, it's a wolf who turns into a man.
- Recent publications introduced the Shifter player race, descendants of humans and lycanthropes, who were effectively "lycanthrope-lite."
In Warhammer 40000, Wulfen happen when a Space Wolf fails a certain test imposed by The Spartan Way, making them werewolves with a side of Super Soldier.
- Some Wulfen are simply a result of spending too long in the Warp. So you've got Viking werewolf super soldiers IN SPACE!
  - It's suggested that the animalistic nature of the Space Wolves helps protect them from Chaos, and the reason why so many of the thirteenth company are Wulfen is a response to the Warp.
In Deadlands, the Classic Collection, the Du Ponts are a branch of the mad Whateley family who are known for being werewolves, as well as inbred mad magicians. Mina Devlin has a few of them working for her at the Hunt-Phelan house.
The werewolf template in GURPS is an uncontrollable problem triggered by the full moon. They're very hard to kill but curiously don't have any special level of strength like most werewolves.

Close Tabletop Games

Free MMOFPS game Wolf Team revolves around this. Super Soldiers with the Lycanthrope gene that can transform at will and go melee on people. Some game modes allow for "mutated" versions of Wolf, permanent Lycans with radical powers.
Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within
One level of Osu! Tatake! Ouendan 2 has the group cheering on a werewolf as he struggles to keep from transforming in front of his girlfriend. Made more difficult for him because he transforms just by seeing things that are round, including balls, ice cream, and bald heads. If the player fails the song, the poor lug gets carted off to the pound. The actual ending of the stage has him finally transform in front of his astonished girlfriend, who turns out to be happy because she loves dogs.
Werewolves are a common enemy in the PC game Nocturne, appearing in all but one chapter, and they can be killed with any weapons; it's just that silver bullets kill them a lot faster.
One of the main "dual nature" gimmicks in Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess is that Link transforms into a wolf when he enters the Twilight Realm. It's quite an impressive step up from the unarmed, pink bunny he turned into in A Link to the Past's Dark World.
Saberwulf of Killer Instinct & J. Talbain of Dark Stalkers.
Tinek/T'Nique/whatever from Star Ocean. Despite the series borrowing heavily from Star Trek he's the only thing that comes close to being a shapeshifter in any of the games.
Kevin from Seiken Densetsu 3 is a beastman that turns into a full wolfman at night. This effectively gives him two sets of moves to the other characters' one.
Goro Okami in Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 also turns into a werewolf when he sees round objects. The entire goal of his level is to try and have a date with a girl he likes while suppressing the transformation in the face of multiple round objects (balloons, balls, ice cream, etc.). Winning the stage reveals that the girl loves dogs. Losing shows Goro being carted off to the pound.
Fighters Destiny for N64 has a character named Piere who is a french clown, there's a cheat you can use which turns him into a werewolf.
The Fable series has Balvarines, humanoid wolf-creatures. When someone is infected, they turn into a Balvarine and stay that way. Permanently.
The Bloody Roar games have a whole menagerie of therianthropic characters like this including some kind of metalic bug-like beast called the unborn and a penguin who becomes a Phoenix.
The Beast Kingdom in Seiken Densetsu 3 is inhabited by a race of werewolves known as Beastmen. They are generally more humanlike during the day, and become Wolf Men at night, but due to the presence of the Mana Stone of the Moon, the entire country is cast in perpetual night. One of the potential player characters, Kevin, hails from this place.
Castlevania 64: Legacy of Darkness has a "Man-beast", Cornell, as one of the playable characters. Very little is given about the race, but what can be inferred from the text, a Man-Beast is different from a werewolf in that they're usually not evil because their powers are usually sealed away and can only transform after Training from Hell. Cornell, unusually, has the ability to shoot endless blades of wind from his hands even as a human. In Castlevania Judgement, he also gained the ability to howl out blasts of supersonic waves. His rival, another Manbeast who was a werelion, sold his soul for the power to become a werechimera.
- Both wargs and werewolves are featured in the series proper. Werewolves, however, have a few pyrokinetic skills
The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess's Link turned into a wolf when he was dragged into the dark world. His werewolf-ism is a self-defense mechanism against the dark energy, because if he didn't transform into something that could survive just existing in the dark world, he would have been stripped of his body and terrorized by bugs. He turns back when the dark energy gets purged, not when he leaves the dark world. Still, the wolf form didn't seem like a great fate at all at first due to lack of opposable thumbs for his trusty sword and getting treated like a pony by an insane imp. It got better when the imp stopped tugging on his ears.
The most recent Fire Emblem games have the laguz, which can shapeshift for limited amounts of time. A "Halfshift" ability can be applied to let them take on a less powerful transformation at will, certain items can make them instantly shift, and the kings and queens of each tribe can stay in their animal forms indefinitely. And yes, there are wolves.
T'Nique Arcana from Star Ocean is part of a race called lycanthropes, and transforms into a werewolf before every battle. He isn't explored very much, but he does say in Private Actions that he has to train constantly so he doesn't lose his senses and go berserk while transformed.
In Sonic Unleashed, the titular hero can turn into Sonic the Werehog at night. During his transformation, Sonic is a slightly bigger, furrier & werewolfish version of himself with huge stretchy arms. He's not as fast as his normal form, but he is MUCH stronger. However, he's able to control himself.
The second Golden Sun game has Garoh, a village of friendly werewolves. Though they don't want you to know their secret.
The ''Elder Scrolls'' universe features a variety of therianthropic creatures, including werewolves, wereboars, and even weresharks.
Keine Kamishirasawa, rather than a werewolf, is a were-hakutaku. While her transformation only occurs during a full moon, she's doesn't turn evil. Though it would be a good idea not to interfere in her work.
The Worgen of World Of Warcraft avert most of the werewolf tropes, being wolf-people from a whole separate dimension. The true 'werewolves' of the setting are the villagers of Pyrewood Village, who transform into worgen every night after being experimented on by the mad Archmage Arugal.
- With the Cataclysm expansion, Worgen will also become a player race, though it hasn't been revealed if the interdimensional Worgen or the humans-turned Worgen will be the playable ones.
- The official trailer makes it pretty clear that the playable Worgen belong to the nation of Gilneas and used to be humans, though their inclusion in the Alliance seems to hinge on an old bond the Worgen had with the Night Elves (the Scythe of Elune is probably related to this as well). It's been hinted that worgens will have a "human" form and a "wolfman" form, but other information from Blizzard is spotty at best right now.
- The "human" form is more a cosmetic bonus though. By default the playable worgen will be in a "manwolf" form and will revert to this form if they are in human form as soon as they initiate combat. It has been revealed that the playable worgen are worgens that are given cure that allow them to retain their human mind even when transformed, not that they won't abuse the added strength of being a werewolf than just a mere human and being able to transform at will.
In Mega Man Starforce, Damian Wolfe's takes upon the apperance of an anthro wolf as his EM form, Wolf Woods. It's hard for him to control himself in this form.
Warwolves in City Of Heroes are a mysterious variant of Super Soldier used by the Fifth Column and Council. After a certain level, random Council Mooks have a chance of transforming into them when defeated.
In Muppet Monster Adventure Fozzie Bear is turned into a Wocka Wocka Werebear which is a bear-like werewolf with the power to climb, the main character Robin later gets to turn into this as the one of the powers he gets from the amulet powerups.
Sabreman, the intrepid explorer from the classic, eponymous 8-bit computer game series, is cursed with lycanthropy in 'Knight Lore' by the dire wolf Sabrewulf and forced to find a cure within 40 days before the curse becomes permanent. Sabreman transformed into a "werewulf" every night, the most notorious game effect being our poor hero marked as an enemy by Melkhior's magic cauldron, the only artifact that can prepare the cure for his affliction.

Close Video Games

Clan of the Cats: Chelsea Chattan and her older sister Melpomene are both were-leopards and witches; Chelsea in particular is the rare 'purebreed' who transforms completely into a black panther. The family is under a curse, which does not cause the panteranthropy, but rather makes it uncontrollable.
College Roomies From Hell: Roger and Lily Pepitone, whose family have a hereditary were-coyote curse
The Wotch: Samantha 'Wolfie' Wolfe is (can you guess?) a werewolf, while Katie McBride is infected with ailuroanthropy (were-cat-ism) by a seemingly normal domestic cat, which was last seen in the Spin Off series Cheer! with former football player turned cheerleader Lita Harper.
Shifters is yet another 'weres versus vampires' series.
Sorcery 101 features three werewolves as major characters (Brad, his grade-school age daughter Rebecca, and Jeff, a teenager whom Rebecca bit during a tantrum.)
Peter is the Wolf: Just about every major character in this is a werewolf, though there is at least one kitsune (were-fox). Has both a 'general' and 'adult' version; the former is only vaguely Ecchi, while the latter is definitely NSFW.
- It uses the title of this page as an advertising tagline.
Girl Genius has the fanged, green, and hairy Jagermonsters. They mix elements of the Wolf Man, Jekyll And Hyde, and Super Soldier.
- On top of that, they're just plain goofy, and easily this troper's favorite characters.
  - Unt don' anybody forgetink ze silly German akzent!
  - Und der hats.
Alpha Luna.
One of the supporting characters in No Room for Magic is Roy, whose dad turned him into a werewolf so that he could survive gym class. It's made him less shy, but he feels compelled to sniff strangers' butts.
Dominic Deegan contains an entire race of werewolves. These werewolves can transform at will. Infact, many of the race prefer their wolf-man form, only taking a human form for diplomatic purposes. Their strength is based on the moon, with their wolf-man forms becoming stronger and more proficient with magic. Although the race is inherently more brutal, there is no loss of sanity or any other such ill effect from the transformation.
The Wotch has a few lycanthropic minor characters (a hereditary werewolf (Samantha "Wolfie" Wolfe) and an inflicted werecat (Katie McBride). Transformations occur involuntarily under a full moon (or a spell capable of duplicating those conditions), and victims lose their normal personalities while transformed (though both above characters can overcome this thanks to a magic amulet). A particularly odd example is the villain Yukio, who became a were-woman apparently spontaneously. His female form could be considered a Super Powered Evil Side (she's a separate personality, and is very understandably miffed at the world, see Where I Was Born And Razed), but Yukio's already pretty amoral.
The werewolves in Lunatic Chaos are caused by heredity. However, the “when” is cleverly subverted. Upon entering puberty, a werewolf will change some random night. Whatever moon is out that night is what they become “linked” to. They can transform at will, but will be forced to take on their wolf shape on there personal phase. However, when a werewolf becomes linked to the full moon, they become bloodthirsty monsters whenever they are forced to transform.
Grace in El Goonish Shive is sometimes referred to as a "Were-Squirrel", and can shift between (among other forms) a human form, a squirrel form, and a squirrel/human hybrid form. This is due to having been created by mad scientists by combining human, squirrel, and shape-shifting alien genes. She and the other hybrids in the series cannot spread their powers through bites, though.
- The backstory for the Dewitchery-Diamond, meanwhile, mentions a more traditional curse-based Were-Wolf. It was shown as a man-wolf.
Neauria from Earthsong and her species provide the inspiration for the werewolf legends on Earth. They're anthropomorphic dog-like humanoids, but that's about the only similarity they share with Earth's werewolves.
In The Tao of Geek, a horde of werewolves was caused by a voodoo curse found on the Internet. The first person affected became the Alpha Wolf, and all subsequent cursed people became members of the Alpha's pack. Killing the Alpha was mentioned as a way to reverse the curse on the other afflicted people. Removing the curse on the Alpha works just as well.
Wally from Zebra Girl can transform to a wolf or wolf-man and change his size to some degree, but only at night - he's stuck on whatever shape he takes during the day. His power level seems tied to his status within the "pack" - his old alpha could turn into a wolf the size of a house.
In Dandy And Company, Bernard is turned into a werewolf by the demon Skeezicks. As such, he's basically a Petting Zoo People version of a wolf (well, inasmuch as an animal in this comic can be otherwise) 24/7, but transforms into the classic humongous, bloodthirsty monster when exposed to the light of the full moon. (Cloud cover is enough to block out the effect.) The only way to restore normalcy is to challenge Skeezicks to a battle for Bernard's soul.
In Sorcery101 werewolves do not retain their full human consciousness, but they do seem to retain a certain level of control. For instance, even in his wolf form, Brad will not harm anyone he likes. Brad is also colorblind, but it's never been stated whether or not this is do to his werewolfism. Werewolves in Sorcery101 turn into full wolves, without any form of humanism to them. Werewolves also have hyper healing powers. Also, there is a cure. If a werewolf has his tail removed, they become human again. However, any wound that they suffered as a werewolf will come back if cured. Werewolfism is also hereditary, as Brad's daughter has it without being bitten.
First off, the creatures in Ansem Retort are actually werePIRES. (Though they seem to take more after their were-side). All that is known so far is that their natural predators are sharks. And their beast forms look like, well, the Beast. Oh, and apparently they make cute reindeer.

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The Whateley Universe features all kinds of characters who could be considered 'weres' of some kind or other. The 'regular' ones were created by the Sidhe in ancient times to serve as warriors in the fight against the Great Old Ones; their community near Whateley Academy (which is in fact built on their tribal territory) includes feline weres and at least one werebear in addition to plain old werewolves, and there are others scattered at least over the US. They are capable of infecting humans and most mutants by way of a quick-acting magical virus transmitted by biting, but this isn't currently common practice. At the school, one might also run into Harry Wolfe a.k.a. Techwolf, who's basically a wolf-man due to a family curse, or Bloodwolf, who's about as easy to get along with as his name indicates and seems to be getting his powers from some kind of wolf spirit. A secondary character living at Hawthorn Cottage is actually a wolf who turns into a human. There's the supervillain Lycanthros, who looks kind of caveman-ish normally, and can turn into a massive werewolf when he wants; he wears a bunch of pelts that might be wolves or maybe even werewolves, so he may fall into the 'deal with the devil' category of mythology...and finally (for now) we have the creatures nicknamed 'Voodoo Wolves' or more generally 'Voodoo Weres', who are part-regular were, part-Eldritch Abomination, serve somebody who goes by the meaningful title 'The Bastard', and can actually infect 'normal' weres and transform them into their own kind.

Close Web Original

Gargoyles had an episode where Xanatos' engagement gift to Fox turned her into a werewolf.
Freakazoid did a parody of the original The Wolf Man with an obvious Lon Chaney Jr. parody coming to Dexter for help with his werewolf problem. Freakazoid, after forcing him to suffer numerous indignities, ultimately cured him by dumping him into the internet and back out again.
- This same episode even parodied the fake frame-by-frame transformations of the original Wolfman, for both the Lon Chaney Jr. Expy and Freakazoid himself. It was, in this tropers opinion, the best Crowning Moment Of Funny in a series full of them.
The Simpsons did it during a Treehouse of Horror episode where Ned Flanders gets bitten by a Dire Wolf and becomes a Man-Wolf; a rare case of two types in one show.
The title character of the Ruby-Spears cartoon Fangface would transform whenever he saw the full moon ... or a photograph of it... or anything which vaguely reminded him of it. Hilarity Ensues, of course. The reverse transformation was similarly triggered by the sun. Or any other sun-like image.
Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command has a very "mechanical" twist to our friend the werewolf, called the wirewolf.
- They also spoofed vampires with "NOS 4A2" ("Nosferatu"), an energy-draining robot vampire.
Gravesdale High had a rather nerdy werewolf teen named Reggie Moonshroud.
Codename Kids Next Door has two characters who are weredogs, Valerie (a girl who is an honor student) and Ms Thompson (the teacher), Numbuh 5 got turned into one in "Operation D.O.G.H.O.U.S.E".
An episode of The Real Ghostbusters had Egon turn into a Werechicken.
- There was also an episode where a clan war between werewolves and vampires finally got bloody, and when they fought...
  Peter: "Egon, not to be intrusive or unduly nosy, but what do you mean by "worse"?
  Egon: "Well, when a vampire bites someone, he becomes a vampire, right?"
  Peter: "Right."
  Ray: "And when a werewolf bites someone, they become a werewolf too!"
  Egon: "Exactly! So what happens when a werewolf bites a vampire, and a vampire bites a werewolf?"
In a direct parody of An American Werewolf in London (and Turbo Teen - of course), Futurama has a curse that can turn any mild-mannered robot into a werecar.
In the Ben 10 episode "Benwolf" we were introduced to an alien version of the werewolf called a Loboan or Yenaldooshi. It scratches the Omnitrix thus causing Ben to slowly turn into this alien werewolf. Later, the creature is added to the Omnitrix's Big List Of Heroes and he later dubs it Benwolf.
An episode of Dave The Barbarian had Dave get bitten by a cow and turn into a werecow. Also halfway through the middle he gets turned into other things like a cat, Oswitch, a hamster, Lula, an egg beater, a gym teacher, and finally... himself! But the twist comes at the end where Faffy ends up turning into a weredave.
An episode of Mona The Vampire had a wereclown concept
- A Halloween episode of Dexter's Lab also had a wereclown concept where Dexter gets bitten by a pair of clown dentures and turns into a Monster Clown.
An episode of the Ace Ventura cartoon had Ace go to a village to hunt down a killer moose, it later turns out that it was a weremoose. And then almost everyone Ace runs into in the village happpens to be a weremoose, even his own pet monkey Spike gets turned into one. Later on, it turns out that the very person who brought him there is the original weremoose and has the power to transform at will via a special talisman and the very reason he brought Ace over to the village is so he could turn him into one, telling him that he'll be granted special powers and that together they'll create a race of moose men.
In the Kappa Mikey episode Night Of The Werepuff, there is a creature called a werepuff- it's a furry creature that eats clothes. Mikey gets turned into one.
Aisling in The Secret Of Kells is a fairie that takes on the form of a wolf and commands a pack of them. But eventually, The Magic Goes Away and Brendan is only able to see her wolf form
Animaniacs featured a somewhat unusual version in the Minerva Mink short "Moon Over Minerva". A geeky wolf, named Wilford B Wolf, would turn into a hunky wolf when exposed to the full moon. Minerva won't give his geeky self the time of day, but she goes crazy for his moonlit self. Need I say the short is pretty heavy on the Fanservice for both the male and female audiences?
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit had Exactly What It Says On The Tin: a giant lycanthropic rabbit. Fortunately, it's only dangerous to vegetables (but this just makes it much funnier).

Close Western Animation

Vampires were originally very similar to (or basically were) werewolves. In some historical lore, vampires would turn into wolves rather than bats.
- The "vampires turn into bats" trope is just a bit over hundred years old in any case, only first thought up by Bram Stoker when he heard of blood-drinking bats in South America. Before that there has been no connection between the animal and the mythical monster.
- The connection is made even further when it's thought that if one fails to properly dispose of a Werewolf's corpse, it will rise up as a Vampire.
Some legends say that witches were also blamed for making potions (with extreme hallucinogenic properties) that made men into werewolves (or at least made them believe they were wolves).
It is also thought that the rabies virus may be to blame.

Close Real Life

Limyaael is more concerned with werewolves drowning in the Wangst than in playing with myths.
Perhaps unsurprisingly some Furries claim to be werewolves or other "shifters", since they obviously can't change physically they state that their shifting is (mostly) mental or spiritual in nature. Naturally the details are suspiciously inconsistent.
- Sadly for the more, shall we say, normal of us, most of these refer to astral projection.
In Terror T.R.A.X: Track of the Werewolf (reviewed by Spoonyone), the werewolves seem to possess few characteristics that separate them from normal humans. They can be killed by ordinary methods, speak clearly, and fight using automatic weapons.

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