Tonight we have a lunar eclipse, and also a full moon.
So does a werewolf change because the moon is full, then go back to human form during the eclipse, then change back to a werewolf after the eclipse, then change again to human form at dawn?
Moon Knight got bloodied up tangling with a werewolf, and thereafter got superstrength at night in direct proportion to how full the moon was; when a lunar eclipse hit during a full moon, the superstrength he’d been using to beat up crooks faded like ice cream in the sun. And if you can’t trust Marvel Comics on this stuff, who can you trust?
Like so much about the werewolf, we owe the Jekyll-and-Hyde-like “changing against your will during a full moon” thing to Kurt Siodmak. Prior to him, the werewolf was a vastly different beast, but he codified it and invented a lot of its tropes. Hard to believe he only died 14 years ago.
Anyway, since Kurt didn’t pronounce on the effects of lunar eclipses (or solar eclipses), you’re free to make up your own rules. Og knows enough writers and screenwriters have.
Eclipse or not, remember that werewolves only change if they can actually see the full moon. On a cloudy night they won’t change at all, unless the clouds dramatically roll back at a crucial moment accompanied by a shocking sting of violins. (Source: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.)
No. This can’t be right. What would happen on a night with lots of passing clouds? You’d have your werewolf turning back and forth all evening. The monster would be about to rip apart some fair maiden and suddenly whoosh…back he’d turn and everyone would see that the werewolf was actually Paul, the friendly guy everyone likes. Does not work. Afflicted souls would just travel to a cloudy site each month and not even have to chain themselves up in an isolated room.
Got to be the same with an eclipse. The moon is still full, after all. It is not the light, it is the curse.
It is hard to take any werewolf seriously who doesn’t transform once a month regardless of whether any passing nimbus happen to be in the area. And don’t get me started on that whole “shape-shifter” nonsense.
When Comedy Central did their MTV parody, the high point was the Thriller parody, in which Michael Jackson transforms into pre-plastic surgery Michael Jackson, with his old nose.
But once that happens, are you actually still a werewolf ? Or are you now, y’know, just a plain old wolf? Maybe they such call such a being a werehuman since that’s what they were.
Well, I don’t know about wolves, but water-benders derive power from the Moon, and are powerless during a lunar eclipse. Likewise for fire-benders during a solar eclipse.
He turns into a werewolf kaiju and rampages across the moonscape.
I recall a funny novel named Full Moonster involving the aftermath of a werewolf touching a Moon rock; the result was a massive magical detonation that destroyed most of a town, created an army of super-werewolves, and killed every telepath on Earth.