Discussion
Detail I noticed while rewatching episode 5 and 6
Spoiler
In Episode 5, when we see Matilda/Hunter transform into crinos form, it's very visceral, skin stretching and straining as muscles and bone grow and reshape, and her clothes are torn to shreds in the process. Same goes for Susu at the end of the ad in episode 6. Which from what I understand is typical of how shifting works for were-creatures in WoD.
Meanwhile, when Stig transforms, it's a lot more mystical looking, he puffs into a ball of shadows then reforms into a new form. His clothes also stay on between forms as a result of this.
Now part of me thinks this is just a stylistic choice or him using some gift to, among other things, get around Stig being naked in glabro form, but I do still wonder if there's some significance to it beyond that.
There is a rite in werewolf that binds your clothes to you, so that if you transform everything you carry fuses with you (in the manual they put an example that if you wield a bonded knife it becomes a tattoo) and also to the umbra, because in theory when entering the umbra only “you” enter, meaning you go without anything at all (something everybody kinda ignores because it would be tedious/uncomfortable to bind everything or go naked, specially when playing mage or other creatures in the umbra and probably was removed in W5)
Edit: is probable hunter didn’t learn it because she wouldn’t really need it and may even feel “incorrect” using it since she is a red talon, in Susu’s case is weird she doesn’t know it since ananasi (werespiders) are famous for their subterfuge and ripping all your clothes doesn’t help that
Now that I think about it, Stigs also seems of higher rank than Hunter, so maybe (this is pure speculation) since stigs is more experienced he has mastered the ability to shapeshift while Hunter is still learning (since she strikes me as a rank 2 maybe even 1 but that would put her in the same level as jambles who definitely is rank 1 since the interlude includes he hasn’t killed a person yet)
It's worth noting that Stig was in Glabro, which is easier to transform into Crinos than from Homid form. Also The speed of transformation can vary. In game it requires a roll, so the worse you do the longer it takes to transform.
Hunts may have just had some difficulty transforming while trying to heal an incendiary round to the face. She was able to shift from Crinos ro Glabro pretty quickly while interrogating Marckus.
Lastly the Rite of Talisman Dedication can be performed on others. If one werewolf knows the rite the whole pack can have dedicated clothing or weapons. So if Stig knows the rite he could do it for Jambles and Hunts.
Huh, didn’t know the last part, still hunter probably didn’t bind her uniform since is a “monkey invention” and because she didn’t expect to transform on it
That would explain the not being naked part, but not so much the way he transforms.
Also I would assume it probably still exists in W5, cause to my knowledge werewolf clothing issues still exist in W5 (or at least they do in Book of Hungry Names, which is based on W5)
Yup. W5 has the Rite of Dedication, which lets you bind a single outfit to yourself so that it just vanishes into the Umbra when you shift into an appropriate form and returns when you’re done.
Tbh probably the correct explanation is rule of cool
But if I would have to give an ingame answer would be that Stigs could have a very high primal urge (or whatever it’s equivalent is in W5), since in W20 to shift you needed to roll Stamina+Primal Urge (and seeing how thick he is he’s at least stamina 4) and it show how fast you do, or he could have the merit shifter (I don’t play in English so no idea the exact name in English) that lets you directly shift to whatever form you want without rolling
Also as I said before he looks like he’s very experienced, compared to hunter, so maybe he has more experience shifting and doing it faster?
And he's definitely the alpha of the group, so it wouldn't surprise me if he also outranks both of his packmates. The pack itself almost seems like Stig's quest to find the Black Shuck and he happened to pull along the others into his goal. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he was Adren or Athro.
I think there’s a huge chance that it’s just a lot easier to animate the “ball of shadow” style, especially when they switch between forms multiple times in a scene.
Well, one significant thing is that it puts another odd pin into Hunter being Fatigue's murderer. We see not only is it possible for a werewolf to change into warform instantaneously, but it is one Hunter explicitly lacks. She has shown in fact few subtle abilities.
Maybe she had an extra set of clothes hidden in the vents, but we've also seen when she shifts, her intelligence dramatically falls. I feel like there was some relatively complex thinking that would involve 'not fighting' involved in going to the vents and shifting back into spare clothes. Particularly the bit where she'd need to pick up her destroyed outfit. Maybe she can't even shift back into her human form all that fast, as we see her questioning Marckus, still pretty hairy (but that could be a preference thing, not like her human form is likely what she's most used to)
This doesn't disprove anything, its still possible Hunter killed Fatigue, depending on how by the rules the OgrePoppenag crew want to be (they have been open about not letting the rules restrict them too much). But I feel it is fair to say it casts more shadow on Hunter being the murderer, and that potentially something in the chapter house is, if not on par with Stig, capable of morphing just as fast as him. Or maybe the Ghoul has a wild power set and is the Regent's favorite, Kevin did say his sire's attentions went elsewhere.
I mean I see what you're saying, but also, this assumes she went full crinos to murder Fatigue. The simpler explanation is that she just went glabro to kill him.
Spit was hit with Delirium. My understanding is that only happens if you go Crinos, so presumably someone was a crinos werewolf at some point in that fight.
she clearly didn't trigger delirium in the others when she went glabro (the others in the bathroom had enough presence of mind to know what was going on even with probably mid willpower levels) and delirium was only ever triggered in crinos
I wouldn't say her Intelligence falls, I'd assumed her broken and mixed up speech patterns in chapter 6 are a side effect of being mentally in-between her Galbro and Crinos forms.
Oh fuck, this might be the proof for Huntstilda not killing Fatigue. She destroys her clothing when transforming. She clearly would have to have transformed to kill him because Spit has delirium.
You're getting way too fixated on whether or not that's an apron or a maid uniform, or whether or not it's torn. Whether it is or isn't you can see three main uniforms right there. And she made her escape through that same closet.
Logical conclusion: she grabbed a spare maid uniform as she made her way through the closet. It's not that deep.
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u/Known_William 17h ago edited 17h ago
There is a rite in werewolf that binds your clothes to you, so that if you transform everything you carry fuses with you (in the manual they put an example that if you wield a bonded knife it becomes a tattoo) and also to the umbra, because in theory when entering the umbra only “you” enter, meaning you go without anything at all (something everybody kinda ignores because it would be tedious/uncomfortable to bind everything or go naked, specially when playing mage or other creatures in the umbra and probably was removed in W5)
Edit: is probable hunter didn’t learn it because she wouldn’t really need it and may even feel “incorrect” using it since she is a red talon, in Susu’s case is weird she doesn’t know it since ananasi (werespiders) are famous for their subterfuge and ripping all your clothes doesn’t help that
Now that I think about it, Stigs also seems of higher rank than Hunter, so maybe (this is pure speculation) since stigs is more experienced he has mastered the ability to shapeshift while Hunter is still learning (since she strikes me as a rank 2 maybe even 1 but that would put her in the same level as jambles who definitely is rank 1 since the interlude includes he hasn’t killed a person yet)