How is a Human able to create a Werewolf?

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NoShip

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How is it possible that Oz's nephew's bite while a human causes Oz to become a werewolf? I thought werewolves were "normal 28 days of the month?"

Also, given that Oz's nephew is a toddler, why aren't his uncle and aunt and cousins already werewolves?
 
I have a suspicion that was just intended to be a twist without the writers thinking more about it.

There were a number of different werewolf types in the Buffyverse and in real life (well, myth) for that matter; having one being able to spread the infection in human form - unless he was naturally a very hairy baby - is not that improbable. The rest of his family not being infected is rather stranger; if it was known he was a werewolf and the rest of the family was able to avoid it, why didn't they bother to tell Oz?
 
ILLYRIAN
ILLYRIAN
That's a novelty, having the writers use some thought . . . amazing the baby bit hard enough the break the skin on Oz's finger.
I invoke the 80s teen movie Appendix N rule and cite Teen Wolf. Lycanthropy can be passed on as a result of a family curse. That explains how Geordie got it. Having a wolf in the family would explain where Oz got the chains from.

To explain the bite, I invoke the Harmony rule. Yes, the most reliable way to become a werewolf is to be bitten by another werewolf during the night of the full moon, you can still be transformed at other time, but there's only a 30% chance or so, plus a hellmouth factor of some kind. After all, Harmony became a vampire, and it's unlikely the vampire stopped whatever it was doing to exchange fluids in the heat of battle. After all, it's just folklore, we may not know everything about how these creatures operate.

Still, great catch.
 
My {newly invented} head canon is that Geordie got infected (maybe tiny teeth scratches, not a good bite) by some unknown entity, maybe a babysitter that then ran out of the door as she realized she was changing for the first time to avoid eating the kid.. It was the first time she changed... She was in denial about the bite she woke up with...

She did not tell anyone because she was never heard from again since she was killed by that werewolf hunter Kane.

Next month, the parents are nervous about going out until Oz volunteers to replace the missing babysitter for his aunt and uncle's date night. Boy was he surprised!

He managed to lock the kid in the basement and so did not get seriously injured... But he did get bitten.
 
Maybe a werewolf can infect someone at any time by biting them, but when they are normal humans, they don't want to bite anyone? But some little kids are biters, werewolves or not.
 
DeepBlueJoy said:
My {newly invented} head canon is that Geordie got infected (maybe tiny teeth scratches, not a good bite) by some unknown entity, maybe a babysitter that then ran out of the door as she realized she was changing for the first time to avoid eating the kid.. It was the first time she changed... She was in denial about the bite she woke up with...

She did not tell anyone because she was never heard from again since she was killed by that werewolf hunter Kane.

Next month, the parents are nervous about going out until Oz volunteers to replace the missing babysitter for his aunt and uncle's date night. Boy was he surprised!

He managed to lock the kid in the basement and so did not get seriously injured... But he did get bitten.
Click to expand...

Although going by what happened, Oz only discovered the kid was a werewolf after ringing his relatives up. So when he was bitten, it wasn't a case of being bitten by a baby werewolf that he had to imprison, but by a kid that looked like a kid. But, really, why didn't they warn him? It seems only polite...
 
I think Oz eventually came to the realization that 'the wolf is inside me all the time' and in his efforts to find a cure merely broke the curse's tie to the lunar cycle, the power of the beast is merely caged for a time, never completely absent.

So the wolf is 'always there'- kinda like how Angelus describes himself being within Angel all the time, 'deep in'.

So it makes a kind of sense- at least as far as rules for magical creatures goes.

I think a similar thing happened in the film Wolf (1994) with Jack Nicholson where, although he becomes a werewolf by being bitten by a beast, he later spreads the curse by biting somebody whilst still in human form. Basically its a pretty common trope from werewolf movies that the writers could rely on for the audience could accept even if it doesn't make 100% sense. Btw Wolf is a good movie.
 
Right, this is the 90s, lycanthropy is AIDS.


So, yes, I never really liked the period idea of lycanthropy, and I do like that this is akin to a chronic disease that gnaws away at your humanity until you are like Veruca. A wolf trapped in human form, a pariah dog haunting the edge of a college campus, masquerading as that sixth year senior whom everyone recognizes, but nobody really knows.
 
I've wondered about his family, even posted a thread not too long ago about why he didn't get locked up by (or even with) his family. Maybe they gave him the chains he used.
 
NotASlayer said:
Although going by what happened, Oz only discovered the kid was a werewolf after ringing his relatives up. So when he was bitten, it wasn't a case of being bitten by a baby werewolf that he had to imprison, but by a kid that looked like a kid. But, really, why didn't they warn him? It seems only polite...
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Yeah. I did say made it up!🙂 The story as they told it did have a few holes...
 
NotASlayer
NotASlayer
Just a few... :D
DeepBlueJoy said:
Yeah. I did say made it up!🙂 The story as they told it did have a few holes...
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Buffy did have more than a few major plot holes and more than a few badly done retcons and more than a few incomplehensible recharacterizations.

But, that is what you always get when your showrunner doesn't give a tinker's damn about series or even seasonal continuity. 🤔
 
NoShip said:
Buffy did have more than a few major plot holes and more than a few badly done retcons and more than a few incomplehensible recharacterizations.

But, that is what you always get when your showrunner doesn't give a tinker's damn about series or even seasonal continuity. 🤔
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Still love Buffy more than all other series. You win some. You ignore some
😛
 
Oz coming from a family of werewolves does also explain why he had access to a dungeon in Season 4. It doesn't, but then again, neither does the episode, so, there you go. I suppose that Angel's mansion might have a dungeon in it, they could use that. If they still had access to Angel's mansion, I never could figure that one out.
 
AlphaFoxtrot said:
Oz coming from a family of werewolves does also explain why he had access to a dungeon in Season 4. It doesn't, but then again, neither does the episode, so, there you go. I suppose that Angel's mansion might have a dungeon in it, they could use that. If they still had access to Angel's mansion, I never could figure that one out.
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I always thought that was some abandoned crypt that someone had adapted for were confinement. If he had had a purpose built dungeon, he would not have stayed in the book cage at the school.

Did your school have a book cage? Did it have weapons .. Sunnydale was a weird place
🙂
 
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AlphaFoxtrot said:
Oz coming from a family of werewolves does also explain why he had access to a dungeon in Season 4. It doesn't, but then again, neither does the episode, so, there you go. I suppose that Angel's mansion might have a dungeon in it, they could use that. If they still had access to Angel's mansion, I never could figure that one out.
Click to expand...

There are other reasons to have dungeons. And chains. Just sayin'...

DeepBlueJoy said:
I always thought that was some abandoned crypt that someone had adapted for were confinement. If he had had a purpose built dungeon, he would not have stayed in the book cage at the school.
Click to expand...

Certainly, patrolling all the cemeteries and graveyards would result in the Scoobies knowing where are the good crypts were.
 
What an odd bunch of miscreants,
Oz has a werewolf in him all the time but really makes itself known once a month.
The vampires only become ugly sometimes
Buffy becomes a Slayer when ever the vampires are near.
Willow allows herself to be a full bloodied witch whenever she chooses.

Good fun huh!
 
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