Basic Trope: A character may be transformed into a monster, but still retains his/her willpower in that form.
- Straight: Kate is transformed into a werewolf, but has willpower to retain her mind while being a werewolf.
- Exaggerated: Kate is transformed into a murderous savage werewolf-vampire-gremlin-thingy with irresistible, compelling urges to attack literally anything that moves, but is completely coherent in that form.
- Downplayed:
- Kate is transformed into a werewolf, losing control of all her senses, becoming the wolf, eating cattle, terrorizing the townsfolk, but stops short of eating her friends due to her willpower being able to designate those humans as "packmates".
- Kate is bitten by a werewolf but only transforms partially compared to the one who bit her - for instance, she remains bipedal and can still speak human words with a somewhat deeper voice. As far as her mind goes, she can sense the wolf and Kate has to be vigilant not to let that part get out of control but for the most part Kate can act more or less as she did as a normal human with effort.
- Kate starts out losing all control as a werewolf, but after years of being a werewolf she gradually learns to control herself.
- Justified: Kate is a Hunter of Monsters, and has already been established to have an overriding sense of duty and incredible willpower. She's not about to do a Face–Monster Turn because of becoming a werewolf.
- Inverted: Kate has an unfortunate condition where even transformations as mild as changing her hair color cause her to go berserk.
- Subverted: After the transformation, Kate just gives in to it and goes savage.
- Double Subverted: But stops short of hurting someone she cares for as the Heroic Willpower kicks in.
- Parodied:
- One hair off Kate's head falls into the vat of goo that becomes the Monster of the Week. And that hair's worth is enough to make it turn friendly.
- When the full moon comes Kate is physically transformed into a werewolf, but not mentally, as she had taken to Eastern meditation to control herself. Instead of howling at the moon she recites koans; instead of chasing after her next meal she sits in a lotus position under an ice-cold waterfall.
Kate: I am human. I am wolf. I am... aware wolf. - Zig Zagged:
- Kate has on-again-off-again amounts of success in controlling her wolf form, sometimes even in the middle of a fight.
- The amount of willpower needed to stay in control as a wolf depends on the current phase of the moon. During the full moon Kate has to expend every last bit of willpower she has just to keep herself from attacking her friends; when there's no moon out the most that happens is that she becomes a Little Bit Beastly and maybe has a hankering for medium-rare steak rather than medium-well.
- Averted:
- The willpower isn't there for her.
- Kate doesn't transform.
- Enforced: The author wishes to convey that werewolves (or other supernatural creatures in the work's universe) aren't Always Chaotic Evil, but that any non-human creature's moral alignment is dependent on the person themselves. It also prevents lycanthropy from becoming a potentially plot-breaking Cursed with Awesome situation, at least for the heroes.
- Lampshaded: Soon after Kate establishes control over her werewolf self:Alice: You can master the instinct to rip my head off but can't keep from raiding the fridge?Kate: Your head doesn't have chocolate pudding in it.
- Invoked: Kate is terrified that her own willpower won't be enough to control her wolf form. Alice believes otherwise, and when they find themselves trapped by enemies, she intentionally causes Kate to transform and lets Kate's wolf form loose, confident that Kate will be able to stop herself from harming Alice.
- Exploited: Mister Evil forms a Batman Gambit around the assumption that Kate won't go rampaging when she turns into a werewolf.
- Defied: Kate knows she's about to transform... so she knocks herself unconscious for a few hours.
- Discussed:
- "Must...protect...friends..."
- Kate's friend Alice: "Kate, I know you're in there. I can see it in your eyes. You have to save Bob!"
- Conversed: "It's almost the end of the movie - ten bucks says the main character doesn't lose her mind like the others."
- Deconstructed:
- Kate's will power holds but she dies from having to hold back the transformation.
- While most lyncanthorpes go savage, Kate is able to keep her clear and conscious mind even while in werewolf form thanks to meditation about her dual nature as human and wolf, which makes being able to use her werewolf form in clever ways and for noble means a kind of Enlightenment Superpower.
- Reconstructed:
- Turns out she wasn't dead, just passed out for a few hours. It was enough for "the wolf" to be subdued by the human part of Kate's mind, meaning she is now able to direct a large and fierce creature in the defense of her friends.
- It's still constantly taxing for Kate to be sure that what's she's doing as a werewolf is indeed good and noble with the kind of potential destruction her wolf form can do. In the heat of battle, she has to have faith in the conclusions and truths she's established in order for the wolf side of her to continue to obey her human will.
- Played For Drama:
- Kate didn't have the willpower needed the first couple of times she transformed and was pretty much relegated to getting a first-person account of the wolf's savageness - her friends escaped death pretty much by luck. Then another night her friends are trapped by the human Big Bad who was about to kill them for the MacGuffin they held until Kate the werewolf busts in and viciously defeats him. Kate's friends are on the one hand relieved for the escape but on the other hand are also terrified as now there's nowhere to hide from the werewolf and they can't tell whether Kate had attacked the Big Bad because she finally managed to control her wolf form or if he just happened to be the closest snack.
- The mental strain of having to try to harness her wolf side so that she doesn't pose a threat to her friends every night is exhausting, and Kate is always worried that one time she won't able to do it.
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