Traditionally, the character we know as the "Werewolf" was imagined as a Person/Beast which was intended to be seen as something to be FEARED whenever it appeared in a story. Werewolf=Monster has always been a "Well Duh" concept. ...just like saying a Vampire, or a Zombie is a Monster. Werewolves were the stars of the kinds of stories that people would tell at night around a fire to spook the kids, or by people trying to frighten townsfolk into staying away from places or types of behavior.
However, now it has become a very popular idea around here that Werewolves are just "POOR, MISUNDERSTOOD Tail Wagging Beasties...", and not really monsters at all, (unless an already super-evil person becomes a Werewolf).
Everyone who likes the concept has been passing it around like they think it is just such a BRILLIANT idea.
I have to ask...do we REALLY want to tear away the Fearsomeness of the Werewolf and replace it with a creature that is deserving of the same kind of pity as Sad, Bitter, Humanity hating ,(Self-Proclaimed "Oppressed"), Teens, Therians, Furries, and generic Social Outcasts?
...because that is what it looks like is happening to me.
It's appearance is being modified to better appeal to a fanbase of a majority of Furries and Therians, all of its associations with it's origins in religion and folklore are being cut, (They were all "untrue"...apparently), and most werewolves are actually just closet therians who get together on tuesday nights and play a version of "Musical Chairs" that involves a Tail somehow...
...uhhhhhhh...What?
Except when we are trying to be Funny, something just doesn't feel right about this.
If people read a Novel, or See a movie where the Werewolves look like Anthros, act like the patrons of a Furry Convention in their spare time when no one is looking, and are presented in a way where the audience is clearly supposed to feel sorry for them, as a racially discriminated against culture, and not really monsters At All, people are going to put 2 and 2 together.
...that Werewolves have now become the Mascot for pitiful and oppressed feeling people who think being called names and being misunderstood is the most painful thing in the world.
For whatever reason, I am reminded of a scene from "The Matrix", where Agent Smith is talking about how Humans perceive reality. He said that "Pain" defines our reality, and that the machines had to make the world of the Matrix as troublesome and cruel as the real world was before, because when they tried to make it a paradise, no one could believe it and they all tried to "WAKE UP".
With only a few exceptions, traditional lycanthropy was always either a tool of evil, or a curse forced upon, or born into someone, not at their will. One way or another, the impossible feat of metamorphosis was always balanced and coupled with some significant amount of Danger or Evil. I've said it before, and I'll say it again...social discrimination alone just DOES NOT CUT IT.
For our NEW version of werewolves, I just keep seeing, "ohh...that would be too inconvenient", "...that would make it Too Hard to not be discovered", "...I would not WANT it to be that hard...I would WANT it to be like a beautiful dream world where being a werewolf would make all of my dreams come true..."
PAIN......Fear...REAL Danger...and "Evil" in some form of another is really needed to make the situation, and the creature feel believable and real. IMHO
ONLY if a person has to overcome truly Difficult and Significant obstacles and challenges does it become something worth cheering about when the unlikely victory is achieved.
I am as anxious as everyone else to see a Werewolf HERO, who rises above the curse of his/her condition to become a really extraordinary being, instead of the Monster they almost became. Success stories like that..."beating the odds"...are some of my favorite kind.
...but it's not "Beating The Odds" and "Overcoming Obstacles" if 99% of people who become werewolves obtain almost absolute control over their lycanthropy with just a little bit of PRACTICE and the secret society of 'totally NOT scary' fellow tail-waggers giving them a few helpful hints. ...then being a werewolf becomes almost 'Normal', and little more than just a bit Weird.
The way they seem to be being made out now, unless you are the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, you are just going to be a pathetic person hiding in the shadows, with SuperPowers that are used for nothing but playing secret games dreamed up on Furry Message boards, and the threat of being discovered is no more significant than being 'Gay' in the wrong neighborhood.
...not to downplay the threat of "Death by Lynching", but is that really all the danger is of being a Werewolf any more? ...Somebody might want to kill you?
Since when have the Werewolves been the ones running and hiding, and the paranoid regular people been the big, scary monsters?
That may be a nice, profound statement about human behavior...but after that, what the hell kind of fun is it to make Werewolves into something so Pathetic?
It doesn't matter how Uber Powerful they are when transformed, or how sharp their claws are... if ALL but only the most EVIL 1% of them behave like that.
