Our Werebeasts Are Different: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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Werebeasts often have variations and characteristics similar to those listed on the [[Our Werewolves Are Different/Analysis|Werewolf Analysis Page]]. For more information see [[The Other Wiki]] [[wikipedia:Therianthropy|Therianthropy page]].
This page is the [[Super-Trope]] for all therianthropes, including [[Our Werewolves Are Different]]. The preference for examples on this trope is for creatures explicity called "were", however very similar cases of human-animal transformation can also be listed, if the nature of the character or creature is strongly linked to a specific animal species. Creatures that can turn into any sort of creature or multiple types of creatures should not be listed here, but on the pages for [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]] or [[Animorphism]].
* This is a [[Sub-Trope]] to [[Our Monsters Are Different]] and [[Animorphism]].
* [[Skin Walker]] is a Native American multi-animal shape-shifter capable of taking other human forms.
* [[Youkai]] are Japanese supernatural creatures that are sometimes depicted as having features similar to werebeasts. Examples of these should be listed under that trope.
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* C'tarl C'tarl from ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' are werecats with several intermediate forms (Fuzzy Space-Elf to [[Catgirl|Cat Person]] to Buff Superpowered [[Petting Zoo People|Cat Person]] to [[Panthera Awesome|Giant Tiger]]) whose access are dependent on the presence and phase of a moon and on their own personal energy reserves.
* ''[[Fruits Basket]]'': The Sohma family is under a curse that causes [[Involuntary Shapeshifting]] into animal form when hugged by members of the opposite sex that are not relatives. While not called werebeasts, each member has a single and unique alternate animal form. The animals are those of the [[Eastern Zodiac]]: rat, dog, tiger, rabbit, dragon (he actually turns into a seahorse), ox, snake, sheep, monkey, horse, pig and rooster; plus cat.
* Zoan fruits in ''[[One Piece]]'' turn the recipents into werebeasts. They tend to be dangerous mass of muscle even if the template creature was relatively harmless (this is also a general tendency among werebeast. A werehamster can be as dangerous as a werewolf).
** Essentially, it depends on the user's own skills and creativity, as with all devil fruit users. Used properly, a devil fruit can enhance a person's already powerful skills. Used improperly, the person becomes overly dependent on that devil fruit and can easily be defeated by anyone who has actual fighting skills. Thus, if someone has an elephant zoan fruit, but is an average joe otherwise, they can be easily defeated by someone with a mouse zoan if the mouse zoan has more expertise.
* 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 under said full moon.
* The manga ''[[Cowa!]]'' has the main character who is a werekoala and also part vampire.
* Evangelion Unit-02 from [[Rebuild of Evangelion]] can "shed its human form" when [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7NZESmjjJM given the secret password] "The Beast".
* Blair from ''[[Soul Eater]]'' is a cat that frequently takes a [[Catgirl]] form that looks mostly human except for her cat ears and tail.
* The chimeras in [[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Full Metal Alchemist]] are combinations of animals, which can and does sometimes include humans. As the manga progresses, the humanoid chimeras go from being tragic abominations, to quirky mutants, to tough guys that[[Voluntary Transformation|can turn into even tougher beast-men]].
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** Ursa Major is a Russian superhero able to turn into a humanoid bear.
** Catseye was a member of the Hellions and was meant as an [[Evil Counterpart]] to [[New Mutants]] Wolvesbane.
* In Fred Perry's ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|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 thirianthropy to Humans as a disease; they were originally created by a wizard as [[Super Soldier
* ''[[Tangent Comics]]'' has Wildcat, a teenage girl who transforms into a feral werecat when her handler says the word "Shazam".
* In the [[Furry Comic]] Red Shetland, Eon is one of these (technically) of the Animal-Into-Man variety. Or...Normal horse into bi-pedal walking/talking horse. It's a curse thing.
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== Literature ==
* The ''[[Shifters Series]]'' by Rachel Vincent features werecats who change at will and live in lion-like prides.
* ''The Turning'' by Helen Ellis has an werecats. It's genetic, starts sometime during puberty, then lasts for two weeks every year for five years before stopping permanently. The 'turning' is brought on by contact with a cat (real or 'turned'). {{spoiler|there is a cure, but it only works before the second time you 'turn'.}}
* In ''Warwolf: The Centurion Warrior Book 1: The Warriors'' has mentions of werecats and even a were''cobra'', in addition to the more typical werewolves.
* [[Christopher Paolini]]'s ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' series includes several characters who are werecats. The novel describes werecats not as shapeshifting humans, but as a separate magical species.
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* Freya on ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' was a Druid girl cursed to turn into a winged werepanther at the stroke of midnight.
* In ''[[Grimm]]'' there are many people that have both a human form and a "creature" form, which have so far included werewolves, werebears, wereboars, wererats, satyrs, ogres, weresnakes, and weremice. There has been no indication of any limit to what "creatures" [[All Myths Are True|could be out there]]. And it is awesome.
* In ''[[Wednesday]]'', the title anti-heroine’s friend Enid is a werewolf who cannot “wolf out”; the most she can manage even under a full moon are claws, and even they tend to be of little use, getting in the way more often than they are useful. This causes her no end of distress, as a werewolf who cannot transform would be ostracized by her pack, likely never be able to mate, and would disappoint her parents on top of it. {{spoiler|In the season one finale, even [[Bad Moon Rising|a blood moon]] seems unable to help her do so… until the sociopathic [[Big Bad]] is about to kill Wednesday, and [[Die or Fly| she finally manages to fully transform]], pulling a [[Big Damn Heroes]] as a result.}}
== Music ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** ''D&D'' 3rd Edition uses the term lycanthrope to refer to any sort of therianthrope. There are multiple varieties of lycanthrope aside from the usual werewolves, werebears, wererats, wearboars, weretigers, dire wereboars (hill giants that turn into dire boars), and jackleweres. The 3.5 edition monster manual even has a template for any animal. 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. The most recent edition has the Lycanthrope template, allowing one to make were-''anything'' characters. Recent publications introduced the Shifter player race, descendants of humans and lycanthropes, who were effectively "lycanthrope-lite".
** ''[[Mystara]]'' has Chevall. The centaurs who turn into full horses at will and can be hurt only by silver or magical weapons and... that's all.
** [[Forgotten Realms]] had classic types and a few high-profile therianthropic characters.
** ''Van Richten's Guide to Werebeasts'' is an AD&D 2nd Edition, ''[[Ravenloft]]'' book with a host of rules on werebeasts. Unlike most settings, lycanthropes in Ravenloft are almost universally evil, except for the [[Lawful Good]] wereravens.▼
*** [[Big Bad]] of the ''Threat from the Sea'' trilogy was an ancient were-[[Megalodon]]. As nasty as it sounds, and then some, since he was closely acquainted with several gods, had a habit of collecting artifacts and took the whole "sea world conquest" thing seriously. Known to most underwater races simply as "The Taker".
** The tibbits, introduced originally in ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' magazine and reprinted in the ''Dragon Compendium'' book, qualify. Their humanoid form is small, with [[Pointy Ears]] and [[Animal Eyes|cat eyes]], somewhat resembling [[Hobbits|halflings]]. They can turn cats at will.▼
*** Selûne's divine portfolio includes good shapeshifters. ''Finder's Stone'' trilogy had a werebear Selunite high priestess.
*** The surges of [[Wild Magic]] during the Time of Troubles caused the creation of [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons|were dragons.]] Usually human, they transform into either dragons or half-dragon humanoids at night, and can be as varied as actual dragons. Song dragons, on the other hand, are also called were-dragons by humans, but they are not, they are in fact [[Non-Indicative Name|a race of true dragons]] who can assume human form.
▲** ''Van Richten's Guide to Werebeasts'' is
*** Van Richten himself states that he does not believe it is possible for a lycanthrope to exist where the animal stock was not at least partially carnivorous, although the anthology module ''Children of the Night: Werebeasts'' includes a were-gorilla in one of its stories. Of course, this was not the only time Van Richten made an error.<ref>Some sources have [[Retcon]]ed this, making Professor Arcanus' beast form a [https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Carnivorous%20ape carnivorous ape].</ref>
▲**
* [[Warhammer Fantasy]] has Werebears living in the [[Grim Up North|Northlands]].
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has Werebears and Wererats.
** With Innistrad and its accompanying marinade of [[Hammer Horror]] tropes come Werewolves.
* ''[[Rifts]]'' and other games in Palladium's ''Megaverse'' have them as multiple species, ranging from Wolves to Bears, and some of the big cats such as Werepanthers and Werejaguars.
* The [[Old World of Darkness]]' ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'', in addition to the titular werewolves, has 11 other breeds of shapeshifters, described in their own [[Splat]] books. Some examples include the Corax (were-ravens), Gurahl (were-bears), Bastet (were-cats), Rokea (were-sharks), Mokole (were-lizards), Kitsune (were-foxes), and Ananasi (were-spiders).
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* The ''[[Munchkin (game)|Munchkin]]'' card game gives us a werepenguin, a werehamster and a weremuskrat. They are all oversized and sharp-toothed - even the penguin has fangs.
* In the ''[[GURPS Supers]]'' supplement ''Wild Cards'', Sewer Jack is a were-alligator.
* ''[[Exalted]]'' features the Lunars, who are technically werebeasts in that they have one totem animal they strongly identify with and can easily shift
== Toys ==
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== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] can turn into Sonic the ''Werehog'' at night. During his transformation, Sonic is a bigger, furrier, and werewolfish version of himself with huge stretchy arms. He's nowhere near as fast as he is in his normal form, but he is ''much'' stronger.
** Unlike most examples of lycanthropy, however, he's able to fully control himself. Why? Could it be that annoying magical sidekick on his shoulder protecting him? Actually no, it's because Sonic the Hedgehog is [[Canon Sue|''just that awesome''.]]
* ''[[Quest 64]]'' has the werehare and werecat.
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* The 1988 video game ''[[Altered Beast]]'' includes a stage wherepower-ups transform the player into a weretiger, which provides extra strength and firepower.
* In ''[[Bayonetta]]'', the main character has the ability to transform into a black panther at will, granting her cheetah-like speed. Likewise, the character Jeanne (a fellow witch in the game) can transform into a red lynx.
* ''[[Borderlands]]'' has Were-Skags in the first DLC <ref>
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' universe features a variety of therianthropic creatures, including werewolves, wereboars, werelions, werecrocodiles, werebears werevultures and even [[Unreliable Narrator|possibly]] weresharks. Apart from werewolves and wereboars, all of these were only mentioned in the in-universe book "On Lycanthropy" in ''Daggerfall''.
* The main gimmick of ''[[Bloody Roar]]'' is that every character is some sort of werebeast. There's a weretiger, werebear, werelion, wererabbit, werefox, werecat, wereboar, weremole, werebat, werechameleon...
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* ''[[Peter Is the Wolf]]'': About one in every 1000 people in the world is some sort of were; werewolves are most common and have the most developed social structure, but there are plenty of other were species with their own idiosyncracies (werebears are antisocial, werelions are arrogant and lazy, etc.)
* ''[[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). There's even a case of a "were-woman", a man who turns into a woman with an independant personality of her own (this is apparently super-rare even among weres, probably because most women don't go around biting people.)
* [[Living with Insanity]] has a cat that used a spell on herself and can now [https://web.archive.org/web/20120103131107/http://www.livingwithinsanity.com/index/?p=507 transform into a human at will].
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' has Shapeshifting is one of main themes. A traditional curse-based [[Werewolf]]
** Grace is sometimes referred to as a "were-squirrel", since she morphs between human, squirrel and squirrel/human (she does mix in the third base form, especially when upset, but early on this was rather subtle), due to genes of human, squirrel, and two different shape-shifting aliens.
** Then a new term was coined from Dewitchery Diamond's purpose and nature of the last "curse" it "removed": ''[[Gender Bender|weregirl]]''.
* Roger in ''[[
* ''[[Clan of the Cats]]'' Chelsea's suffering from a Curse running in her father's family, making werecats out of every female member.
* ''[[Eerie Cuties]]'' has at least werewolves, werecats, ocelots - and if the look of two characters we didn't see transforming are an indication, owl and some sort of a rodent. Also, there are Melusines, though considering the original legend they probably are snake/nymph or snake/fey rather than snake/human.
* ''[[Dork Tower]]'' has Nibbler, the Were-Vole Cheese Slayer, in a game played by the cats Pookie and Fernslayer.
* ''[[Shifters]]'' includes a werecat, a werebear, a werecrow and various weredogs.
* ''B-Movie Comic'' had to find something unusual to use when [//bmoviecomic.com/lon-chaney-iii-chap-6-act-1-strip-21/ Snuka transforms].
== Web Original ==
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* ''[[Above Ground]]'' also features all kinds of werebeasts, although the predominant one remains werewolves. Whatever their animal type, their bite is not infectious: it is a trait inherited genetically. Furthermore, the weres are [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|Voluntary Shapeshifters]] who learn how to control their change as they grow older. To be able to fully control the change back and forth is their passage into adulthood.
* [http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/253/a/d/nsa_files__terrordactyl_by_shadow_aspect-d3jrbr5.png Adam Squall], the [[Author Avatar]] in ''[[The Incredibles]]'' crossover fanfiction ''[http://fav.me/d3jaeor Rise of the Galeforces]'', is a were-''[[Ptero-Soarer|Pteranodon]]''.
* Nathan, the Author Avatar in the Monster World series by [
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* An episode of ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]'' has 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.
* Egon got turned into a were-chicken in ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]''.
* In the 1998 animated film ''[[Scooby
* In ''[[She-Ra: Princess of Power|She Ra Princess of Power]]'', the villainess Catra can change into a panther, due to a magical mask that was stolen from the queen of a race of cat-people.
** This is changed in the remake, ''[[She-Ra and the Princesses of Power]]'' - Catra is a [[Cat Girl]] by birth in this version and has no other form.
* On ''[[Regular Show]]'', Rigby is attacked by a Were-skunk.
* Also, in the ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' episode, "Operation H.O.U.N.D.", Numbuh Five confronted her rival, Valerie, who was revealed to have the power to transform into a were-poodle. {{spoiler|Earlier in the episode, Numbuh Five was attacked by a vicious dog who ate her homework, who was later revealed to have been Valerie in her were-poodle form.}}
** Then in the Sequel Episode “Operation: D.O.G.H.O.U.S.E.”, it’s revealed that all the school’s Honor Roll students are also weredogs, {{spoiler|and their teacher is the Head Weredog due to a cursed necklace given to her by her vindictive ex-husband.}}
* An episode of ''[[Mona the Vampire]]'' has a wereclown.
** A Halloween episode of ''[[Dexter's Laboratory|Dexters Laboratory]]'' also had a wereclown concept where Dexter gets bitten by a pair of clown dentures and turns into a [[Monster Clown]] whenever he laughs.
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[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]
[[Category:Shapeshifting]]
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