Why Are Werewolves So Angry?

That has been a question on my mind for quite some time now – why are werewolves so angry? Most werewolves in movies, books and TV shows have a ridiculously short fuse and go from sweet and nice to pissed and growling in two seconds. And not only are they angry all the time, but that anger can even cause them to lose control and transform. It doesn’t make sense to me.

Take MTV’s Teen Wolf for example, if you have watched it then you may remember how Scott’s transformation is connected to anger – Derek made that clear very early on and Stiles proved it with his “experiments.” But why? Why would him being angry trigger the inner wolf? I understand that he has a beast inside of and losing control of your person would cause you to lose control of that inner beast. But I don’t understand why it’s always anger that does the trick, are wolves super pissy animals or something? I doubt it, they are animals ruled by instincts, not emotions. Which why I don’t understand why so many authors choose to make their werewolves overly emotional, and why the emotion is anger 99.9% of the time.

The same thing happened in Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Oz came back after learning to control his wolf. He was perfectly in control until he discovered Willow had moved on and had a new lover. He instantly lost his temper and wolfed out. Another werewolf controlled by emotions. We have also seen the same deal in the Twilight books, if Jacob or one of the others lose their temper then BAM instant werewolf.

I have read books were the werewolves work just like real wolves, they go by instinct, not emotion and behave like animals, not overly sensitive humans. Losing their temper doesn’t make them lose control of their form, only they can bring on the change. This makes sense to me, the anger thing doesn’t.

Countless authors have made their werewolves angry monsters controlled by their emotions, werewolves that lose control of their human form the second the get pissed, but none of them explain why. Why are these werewolves SO angry and why does that anger cause them to transform?

I’m going to leave it to you guys to try and figure it out, what are your theories on this? Why are werewolves almost always pissy and why does losing their temper make them lose control of their form?

– Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

By moonlight

One of the writers for werewolves.com, as well as vampires.com.

18 comments

  1. In terms of the whole changing thing, it’s incredibly simple; if a normal person can go absolutely batty, lose self-control in the face of a powerful emotion, and–say–punch a hole in the wall, why is it so surprising staying in one shape or the other would become difficult as self-control slipped?

    As for anger in general…also common sense. Normally, if you have a werewolf in a movie or a book, he/she/it is the bad guy (whether they’re trying to be or not), so they’re given a convenient excuse to go on a homicidal rampage (hence providing the protagonists with an antagonistic force). Or it could be that the script/writer is trying to portray said sometimes-hairy one as being driven mad by what they are. Another option is what’s done in the British version of Being Human (you know…the version that doesn’t sucketh and actually applies some logic?); George vents in a sense while he’s changed–it’s sort of a repression analogy. ‘The Wolf’ is kind of like a physical version of everything he’s repressed over the past month (seriously, they had an entire episode about this–it was made very clear why he has to rage once a month). Also, do pay attention to attempts at “witty” comments about human nature; people think they’re being original when they write werewolves as a human mind in a powerful body, power corrupts–yadda, yadda–and you get an angry, homicidal maniac. The reason it’s so prevalent is because most authors don’t have the creative power to make their werewolves any different from Joe Schmoe’s over there (I can’t be the only person who noticed that 99% of all werewolf media is unoriginal, after all).

  2. I think it is because when humans become angry its almost like an animalistic phase.You short fuse,lose your natural ability to think and you get WILD!
    I understand your concerns but psychologist have suggested that anger puts us in surival mode which is usually means we go with our instincts first then think after. So im guessing thats how you tap into you “werewolf” state..
    But as said before half the things shown about werewolves are UNORIGINAL cause i have the “Alvin an the Chickmunks meet the wolf man and this basically the same thing. there is no varieties with werewolves like vampires!

  3. Thanks for the input guys :)
    But why do writers just do this with werewolves? Other supernatural creatures aren’t as angry as werewolves. Vampires don’t usually vamp out when they get pissed. Hmm…

  4. Well I think it’s the way there always portrayed I mean obviously if u were half wolf and half human u would have qualities of both creatures we humans do have quite the short fuse seeing as we kill sometimes for no reason plus all creatures have some sort of fight or flight mechanism it is slightly possible I imagine that if u have a condition like lycanthropy and it can happen at anytime why not be the time when u need it look at it this way when adrenaline rushes usually caused from either anger or distress like in teenwolf lastnight when Scott was almost hit by the cars he wasn’t angry he was simply in distress and so his bodies natural or u could say supernatural reflexs kicked in so it is possibly adenaline effects the brain and with lycanthropy it also triggers the change as a survival reflex it’s quite plausible if u really open your mind to the possibilities

  5. I think it has t do with people’s mistaken impression of animals for the same animal we will shoot for snarling at a hiker we will wear proudly as an emblem of a sports team. Additionally i think anger is a passionate emotion that can also give strength when afraid and I think many do fear when struggling with their own day to day and far too often have to supress their passions and other like emotions to get through their lives where the werewolf is free to express such pent up energy.
    Why only werewolves? most other creatures do very little transformation unlike werewolves and very importantly werewolves are ALIVE and not bloodless corpses mimicking life in order to eat brains or suck blood.

  6. I think the reason werewolves shift or change or whatever you call it, the reason they do that is because maybe they are still human. Moonlight you said yourself that wolves react to instinct and werewolves are still human so that’s probably why werewolves shift because of their emotion.

  7. Most of the time the protagonist (Werewolf) is always the nice person, loner, who contains what they feel, has a lot of problems and such. In real life a LOT of these people tend to be completely aggressive and maybe act a bit beastly when in rage; Talking books/Movies, this might be the reason behind why every author decides to make Werewolves act so angry because as said before by many “Wolves are very instinctive”. They might not attack humans just because they feel like it but if taunted or felt in danger they will react with snarling & growling. Having treats from their wolf-side would make a human more sensitive and making them lose control easily, so the most kind person could become a complete animal in a instant.

  8. Well as a wolf by heart i can tell you a wolf’s transformation is caused by what alec called a fight or flight reaction in times of need our abilities far surpass what they were before making us superhumans now imagine a form your body can transform into to instinctivily bring out this strength and as for why there so angry what emotion comes after fear… anger and until that anger is released from your body you will stay in this transformation. but beacuse your now a wolf you begin to act erotic like a wolf so your emotions deepen.

  9. Speaking for myself. Wolves are very egotistical, and the “Anger” you speak of is sometimes -Tough love- out of ignorance. Much like humans, Males better other males to get the girl. Most humans do this through greedy business to polish up a lady and give her everything she desires to soothing and making her feel like she is special and unique in the face of everyone else. Where as ,us, wolves…. simplistic… i kick your butt, i get the girl… look in nature… Wolves live in harmony under one Alpha if there is enough food available. If not, the kids are like, screw this, and they go elsewhere to do their own thing and make their own pack. I believe that when anger gets the best of “man”, the wolf side simply kicks in and says “yes, in fact i am better than you, and you SHALL see” Actions speak louder than words after all. 9 times out of ten when anger is bad enough, it turns to vengence or spite.

  10. the reason of this thought process is more or less coming back from the dark ages or before. during the dark ages the wolf was thought as an evil and terrible beast that was only out for blood shed. and the werewolf is a creature thought mostly (yes i’m going more from the christian perspective. shoot me later) to be of Satan’s design. well Satan and other demons are creatures of negative thoughts also known as sins. so what is the most common between the thought of a demon created creature and a blood thirsty beast? anger.

  11. In my opinion, emotions lead to different kinds of energy, the kind you feel in you.
    Example: When do you feel like punching a wall? Why, when you’re angry. Of course, there’s also excitement, or even, in extreme cases, happiness. Maybe pain (Not in this case, but you’d squeeze the life out of something in your hands if you were eg. Amputated consciously, but not punch a wall), but it kinda leads to anger.
    So, I guess when you have too much energy/emotion, you would stress out. In a werewolf’s case, transformation. However, transformation from excitement and happiness is too sadistic. So, to protect the animal(within)’s innocence from being a sadistic killer, they would prefer to use anger as the catalytic emotion.
    I mean, come on, you made the dude angry maybe by hurting him, so he kills! It’s not his fault, right?
    This will certainly not apply in the other two emotions. It’ll be HIS fault, then.
    So, that is my take on Anger. Might be similar to others, but I’m expressin’ it my way.
    Summary: To protect the innocence of the beast.

    1. I would agree with you, but wolves often howl for fun or pleasure; so we can’t rule out the possibility of werewolf transformations for reasons other than anger. The main reason it is anger is because wolves were feared extensively, so when humans fear something they try to shine a negative light on all aspects of the feared object. Wolves were no different.

  12. now i see why i cant transform. but its like the wolf is in my human form controling my body with me and apparently i just need to make the wolf realign.

    1. dude DONT JUST DONT if ya CANT transform then you’ve got your self FOOLE my friend FOOLED -_-…
      well…why are you convinced that you are to be in fact, a werewolf? What makes you sooo sure and sooo certain, that you can’t even transform -_-” just reply CALMLY OK???

  13. hi its really possible do a good werewolf spell? if so sent me a message to let me know. pleases thanks.

  14. sigh… a lot of those sound pretty reasonable, pretty good and understandable… BUT, who on here REALLY knows?? Truthfully speaking none of these guys are werewolves -_-,… just people fascinated with the theme and becoming into one… sigh GUYS COME ON NOW HERE ME OUT NOW! You have no clue what your talking about, these are just THEORIES… not some known born fact, SO DONT take it in as truth at all,
    no one has any proof that they are wolven kind, and shall NEVER have any PROOF >: I, you see this is what makes me so mad at these!

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