History Main / SavageWolves

* Archeologists have tracked the association of wolves with evil and aggression at least as far back as the Proto-Indo-European language, with indications that in early European history there was a Wolf Cult made up of groups of young men who "shed their humanity to live as wolves" and travelled around murdering, raping, and stealing from whomever they could.
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** ''VideoGame/DisneysBeautyAndTheBeastSNES'': The second boss is a large wolf with gray fur. It can teleport and summons some brown wolves as Mooks to trouble the player.

** In ''[[VideoGame/DisneysBeautyAndTheBeastRoarOfTheBeast Roar of the Beast]]'', the second boss is a large wolf with gray fur.
** In ''[[VideoGame/DisneysBeautyAndTheBeastSNES Beauty and the Beast (SNES)]]'', the second boss is a large wolf with gray fur. It can teleport and summons some brown wolves as Mooks to trouble the player.
** In ''[[VideoGame/BeautyAndTheBeastABoardGameAdventure A Board Game Adventure]]'', the wolves appear in two mini-games; "Belle's Ride" and "Beast's Battle". In the former, they are an obstacle that Belle and Phillipe need to jump over, and in the latter, Beast has to dodge them by jumping over them, ducking under them, or punching them.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
** The Chaos Hounds who fight alongside the armies of [[HornyVikings Norsca]] are massive, rapacious, bloodthirsty, occasionally mutated versions of this trope.

* ''VideoGame/BeautyAndTheBeastABoardGameAdventure'': The wolves appear in two mini-games; "Belle's Ride" and "Beast's Battle". In the former, they are an obstacle that Belle and Phillipe need to jump over, and in the latter, Beast has to dodge them by jumping over them, ducking under them, or punching them.

** The first game has a rare Miracle, "Pack of Beasts", that {{summon|Magic}}s a pack of voracious wolves to devour any villagers or animals they can find. They vanish before long, but can WalkOnWater to hunt down prey.

* ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite2'': One of the creatures available to you is a wolf that can be either a NobleWolf, a Savage Wolf, or something in between, depending on what you train it to do and how you [[KarmaMeter play the game in general]]. Its appearance is adjusted accordingly, with the evil version having larger fangs and claws, the good version being much lighter in color and smiling more often, and the neutral being intermediate between the two.

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]

** The negative perception of wolves is directly responsible for the modern Swedish name for wolves: varg, meaning "killer" or "strangler". Folklore had it that saying wolves' proper name (''ulv'') would [[SpeakOfTheDevil call them]], or at least cause bad things to happen, which lead to wolves being called what they were seen as (murderous brutes). Problem was, this became so wide-spread and went on for so long that varg ended up as the proper name for a wolf, and the folklore about speaking their name being bad remained.
* In Bavaria from the late Middle Ages to the 17th century or so, people would try to invoke this trope by using ''Wolfbann'' spells to cause wolves to attack people they didn't like. Conversely, ''Wolfssegen'' spells were supposed to subvert this trope by warding away wolves.
* One of the symbols of Ancient Rome was the wolf. This grew out of legends that Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, were literally RaisedByWolves. However, contrary to modern perceptions, they didn't adopt the wolf because of any inherent "specialness" attributed -- they feared the animal just as much as everyone else around them. Rather, the story is symbolic of how vicious and badass the Romans saw themselves to be.
* In Myth/InuitMythology, the Amarok/Amaroq is a giant wolf who hunts in solitude, specifically picking off people foolish enough to hunt alone at night. Sometimes an Amarok plays the role of a NobleWolf instead, but is usually treated as a villain.
* Wolves feature fairly often in ''Literature/TheBible'' and other Christian works, generally as metaphors for evil, destructiveness or the dangers of straying from God, when they aren't agents of the Devil outright.
* The Irish word for wolf, ''mac tíre'' ("son of the land"), is believed to be a flattering nickname invented to allow the Irish to speak of wolves without [[SpeakOfTheDevil incurring their wrath]], similar to ''varg'' above. Like most European words for wolf, their original name was likely cognate with ''olc'', the modern Irish word for "evil".
* A once-common British term for Ireland was "Wolfland", with the lack of organized attempts by the Irish to exterminate wolves being taken as a sign that they were [[BarbarianTribe just as savage as the wolves themselves]].

* ''{{Website/Neopets}}'': While the pirate Captain Scarblade is a savage pirate, not all Lupes, a wolf-like species, are evil or vicious. However, the species was known for eating another Neopet species (Chias) in the past.

* Subverted in the Peruvian children's song ''El Bosque de la Amistad'' (The Forest of Friendship), a ''Music/PeterAndTheWolf''-esque musical story on which each character has their own Main/{{Leitmotif}}. A giraffe, a butterfly, a frog, an ant and an elephant become friends, setting aside their differences. However, they all run away from a wolf after he approaches them. Turns out the wolf is actually friendly and just wanted to walk with them too.

* "Music/PeterAndTheWolf" depicts the titular wolf as a the primary antagonist, with him eating one of the other characters and attempting to eat the rest.

* Ralph Wolf of the ''WesternAnimation/RalphWolfAndSamSheepdog'' cartoons is merely being paid to be savage, as is the sheepdog being the hero.

While this trope usually manifests in the form of regular, if unusually aggressive, wolves, it's not uncommon for fiction to go some extra length and depict these creatures as something truly unnatural or primordial. Some works may draw an explicit distinction between regular, animalistic wolves and one or more forms of monstrous, savage wolf-like creatures. These are most commonly referred to as either [[DireBeast dire wolves]], usually only bearing a general resemblance to the real dire wolves of North America's ice age, or wargs or worgs after Tolkien's own lupine monsters, whose name was derived from ''varg'', the Swedish word for "wolf", which means "killer" or "murderer".

* Ralph Wolf of the ''WesternAnimation/RalphWolfAndSamSheepdog'' cartoons is merely being paid to be evil, as is the sheepdog being the hero.

* Ralph Wolf of the ''WesterAnimation/RalphWolfAndSamSheepdog'' cartoons is merely being paid to be evil, as is the sheepdog being the hero.

** [[spoiler: Nineteen-year-old Scarlet finds the Theatre and sits down to play piano, accompanied by the [[TheFairFolk Fey Wolf]]. He then possibly takes advantage of Scarlet's deep-seated resentment at [[ICouldaBeenAContender having to give up her dreams]] and turns her into [[PeoplePuppets a life-sized marionette]].]]

* [[https://toastyglow.tumblr.com/post/730488211813662720 This comic]] uses a parent rabbit transforming into a wolf and tearing out its child's heart as a metaphor for parents who become abusive when they find out their child is LGBT.

* ''Literature/OldYeller'': A rabid wolf is the downfall of the titular dog himself when the latter fights him off in defense of his family, thus forcing the family to euthanize their beloved protecter now that he’s got rabies.

%%* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': One episode portrays a pack of Houndour like this. However, it becomes Subverted when it's revealed [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes why]].%%ZCE. Like what? What is revealed? Why *what*?

** The [[https://scryfall.com/search?q=witchstalker witchstalkers]] of Eldraine are huge, monstrous wolves with stout bodies, spiked backs, heavy heads, and jaws bristling with fangs. They have a predilection for hunting magical beings, and will usually ignore mundane prey entirely but ferociously pursue magic-users, fey, and enspelled creatures.