Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies. discussion

How do you like your werewolves? Able to shift once a month at the full moon or able to shift on demand.

What's a werewolf without a moon?

In all the drawings I've done of werewolves I included a moon in most of them. It did add to the atmoshere of the work. However, when it comes to writing I have to agree with Gary Brandner (paraphrasing here), you have two or three nights of action and mayhem with an entire month of nothing. So as for me personally, I'll take the nightly or shift on demand.

I'm playing around with a notion in my fiction that shifting apart from the moon is something one masters, but the moon's pull remains an inescapable force. Creates an ache in the bones.

http://www.amazon.com/Ruth-de-Lune-eb...

It's interesting, I think, to note that the werewolf was not linked with the full moon until the second Universal Wolf Man movie, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943. Were-creatures throughout the world have mostly been linked with witchcraft, or satanism, and many times with magic (one legend talks of a magic belt the man puts on to accomplish the transformation) and most became were-creatures by choice. As most of the legendary wanderings were nocturnal, Universal gave us the famous poem for the film The Wolf Man and voila, it's the moon's fault. "Even a man who's pure in heart / And says his prayers by night / May become a wolf when the Wolfsbane blooms / And the autumn moon is bright." Two years later, the words to the poem were changed in the follow-up film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man from 'autumn moon' to 'And the moon is full and bright' and - Bob's your uncle - werewolf's are transformed by the full moon. Been the full moon ever since. Blame or give credit entirely to writer Curt Siodmak.

Well i'v read lots of interpretations of werwolf's and for me i think when ever they like why only on full moon if they can shift when ever its best well thats my thoughts on it

I prefer without a moon only because (I have a serious issue with continuity in books and movies) the moon is always out even in the day time yet they only shift at night under the full moon. I am more inclined to believe the shift happens every 28 days after the curse is passed on before the full moon mythos.

I also like it when they can shift whenever they want. It would be a shame if you needed to shift and you could not

So I've seen a lot of vampires being able to bend the rules in popular media - being out in daytime, being able to avoid killing and drinking blood, etc. Then I realized that werewolves still get the raw deal in a lot of ways (although many can shift any time they want at least). I write a detective mystery series with werewolves, and I decided to put them on equal ground with vampires. So, although my guys only shift twice a month (full and new moons), they are really strong in their human forms the rest of the time (much like vampires are). I thought it was only fair since they are the least popular of the trinity these days.

Changing into a werewolf by the moon is relatively a new concept, and mostly because of Hollywood.
I used the medieval concept, which is the werewolf WANTS TO CHANGE, and uses an enchanted belt and ointment to perform the change.

I made my wolves able to change at will once they learned to control the wolf. The moon just makes them a bit more vicious. I went as far as making white wolves (who have powers and are engineered to be faster and stronger) and rogue wolves. My wolves are nasty too they rape and kill at the same time.