i’ll be referencing this post throughout this one, so i’d check it out if you haven’t already, since i’ll be expanding on the caste dimorphism concept a little more here, and for another upcoming post.
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there’s a noticeable pattern that can be observed in organisms that exhibit caste dimorphism. there is often a singular, or minimal number of queens. oftentimes, queens function as the sole or primary reproducers amongst females.

the way in which a queen maintains her role varies across organisms.

some animals use chemical communication, like the honeybee for example. the queen will emit chemicals that convey her health and reproductive status. as long as she maintains stable health, the colony will keep her around.

an interesting example is the naked mole-rat. they have a more established hierarchy, with the females fighting each other to gain power over the rest of the colony as the single ruling queen. it’s more of an aggressive, physical power-struggle, instead of being specifically selected by the rest of the colony.

the way alpha werewolves are viewed feels very akin to naked mole-rats, but the difference is that alpha werewolves are born with a genetic makeup that causes them to present as alphas. it isn’t determined by external factors.

and with all of this is mind, a potential explanation for the fear-mongering surrounding alpha werewolves will have less to do with biology, and more to do with historical and societal factors. 👀

yap: i have a string of theories that i’ve been wanting to post that relates to this theory i’ve posted a while back. but looking back at it, there were quite a few hunches in that post that no longer hold up as well, since we’ve gotten a better view of the cgi models. you can also tell that the old post was kind of written on a whim, so i’ll be more concise and conclusive with this one.

a lot of what i go over will be similar to what i’ve already touched on, but i’ll cut out some of the things that were based purely on speculation regarding the appearance of the werewolf models, and also resolve some of the things i left as open for interpretation. there will still be quite a bit of speculation in this post, so it’s not to say that i won’t be speculating anything.
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- what is caste dimorphism?

caste dimorphism is a biological phenomenon that typically occurs in eusocial organisms, where individual organisms of a species are morphologically distinct, possessing unique physical and behavioral characteristics that will determine its biological role or function within a social hierarchy.

for example, honeybees have three separate castes that basically everyone has heard of at some point in their lives: workers, drones, and queens.
like 99.9% of species that exhibit caste dimorphism are insects, typically eusocial ones.
there are like two known mammals that exhibit caste dimorphism, which can be found in naked mole-rats, and much more subtly, damaraland mole-rats.

some organisms exhibit polypheniesm, which refers to a phenomenon where individuals of similar genetic makeup possess the ability to display an advanced phenotype. think honeybee larvae being fed royal jelly. any of them could end up being a queen. but that isn’t the case with lycanthropes, as it is suggested that their genotype determines their caste.
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- how do werewolves model this?

werewolves exhibit caste dimorphism through differing anatomies and physical features, as well as the way their dimorphism affects their perceived status within a pack. though werewolves don’t perform eusociality like the vast majority of organisms with caste dimorphism, the varying phenotypes dictate the way they interact with other members of their species.

the most prominent difference is that alpha lycanthropes are not confined to the lunar cycle, and unlike standard lycanthropes, do not require a full moon to transform.

as for physical appearance, hear me out: wednesday’s wolf form and enid’s season 1 wolf form are both standard werewolf phenotypes. enid’s transformation at the end of season 2 is an example of the stark physical differences between alphas and standards.

you may be wondering that if enid had always been an alpha, wasn’t her first transformation also a display of her alpha werewolf form?
but we know these alpha werewolf symptoms only became apparent at the end of episode 5, suggesting that her alpha phenotype only presents itself once these symptoms were established.

and it may seem even more confusing for me to imply that wednesday’s werewolf form didn’t display an alpha phenotype, when i’ve implied that being an alpha is a biological state. regarding their physical appearances, you can see that wednesday’s wolf form and enid’s season 1 wolf form bear similarities in their appearance, including slim, lanky builds, and smaller shoulders. with enid’s alpha phenotype, she is more robust with more defined musculature and broader shoulders.

i don’t think that the expression of the alpha werewolf phenotype is entirely dependent on the genetic makeup of the individual who harbors it. referring to what was said in an interview by the showrunners, they described alphas as “super-leaders.” we know that a person’s spirit represents their werewolf form, suggesting that one’s essence is intrinsic to being an alpha.

“there’s no full moon to save you now” bro did u forget she’s like 3 times stronger than the average human even when she hasn’t wolfed out 😭 why are u walking up to her bro TRANSFORM 🙏

so, edgar allan poe’s annabel lee is canonically used to symbolize their relationship, and you can find a link to the official wednesday account referencing it in the comments of the post i linked.

in general, edgar allan poe’s love poems are characterized by intense devotion, an obsessive infatuation, and potent grief. his poems apply supernatural themes to emphasize his profound passion as something that “transcends love.”

he often describes his lover in a way that depicts them as a beacon of light amidst gloomy scenery.

his poems frequently include grief, madness, and despair triggered by the loss of a lover.

he blames external forces for the misfortunes that occur with his lover, such as heavenly beings and spirits who acted out of malice against their unwavering love.

wenclair follows these thematic elements, but i find that a couple’s love “transcending love” resonates the most with them.

we have the exact physical appearance of the minotaur documented, concept art for the cyclops, and a few abstract statues of the yeti, which is enough visual data to conclude that these three outcasts stand out wildly compared to other outcasts we’ve seen.
the groups of outcasts at nevermore are nearly indistinguishable from the average person. at most, we have the faceless, who lack facial features, and the vampires, who constantly wear sunglasses outside. then you have other traits and characteristics that aren’t outwardly exhibited by them, which are otherwise shown scarcely.
but in theory, they could all blend in with normies. we don’t know much about the faceless people so it’s hard to speak for them. hell, we barely know much about the show’s vampires. however, they do come off as elusive groups of outcasts, as seen in the show for the faceless, and as seen traditionally for vampires.

the cyclops, minotaur, and yeti all have distinct humanoid appearances, making it far easier for one to single them out, and these features aren’t completely confined to specific parts of their body, their entire physical appearance is unique to the average person.

in a time of prejudice and mass genocide targeting outcasts, it would be much easier for normies to identify them and wipe them out.

given that the show frequently draws inspiration from edgar allan poe’s works, AND that he originally attended the school which derived its name from his poem, (along with the poe cup and such), edgar allan poe is ingrained everywhere in this show. but this particular poem literally mirrors wednesday and enid perfectly. it almost feels like that man had a vision
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Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe:
it reads:
———
It was many and many a year ago,
   In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
   By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
   Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
   I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
   Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
   My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
   And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
   In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
   Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
   In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
   Of those who were older than we—
   Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
   Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
   Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
   In her sepulchre there by the sea—
   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

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it captures the intimacy in their relationship, the way poe describes his lover like a beam of light in his life mirrors wednesday’s perspective of enid.
how fate brought them together, before trying to rip them apart. poe says that their souls are inalterably bound and cannot be separated. wednesday fervently evaded spirit guides and family members for enid’s sake. not even enid’s beastly curse can keep them estranged.

the last stanza makes “the mark you have left on me is indelible” speech seem to be a less poetic way of phrasing one’s perennial impact on someone.

and the way he wrote how their love “transcends love” is literally them.

also, interestingly enough, this was the last poem written by poe before he died

whenever these two just exist on screen together, it’s already a masterpiece in itself. but image if these two danced together? just feeling each other in an unscripted dance like in season 1 (unscripted as in the characters didn’t plan it out like they did in the dead dance)

we’ve seen the two dance individually, but it would be eye candy to see them dance together. just seeing these two contrasting character and their styles being expressed through it.

and while the season one dance was about her, it’s about time she did it with someone who wholeheartedly danced along with her

still not over how everyone thought wednesday was going to play the cello while enid danced 😭

but hear me out, they could bring this concept back as a significant scene in season 3.
given what will unfold during this season, i think it’s an appropriate time to implement this as a scene.

it could serve as a meaningful depiction of each other’s healing journeys. they both use performance as an outlet to express themselves. with the context of their arcs for this season, i can see them performing as a means to decompress and stabilize themselves.

enid performs as a way to restore the lost fragments of herself after being possessed by her beastly side, gaining touch with her humanity.

wednesday performs to comfortably attune to her own pain and bitterness, and possibly to reel in her psychic abilities (which the two are correlated)

but most importantly, it’s the unity, the process of doing it together. the two of them complement each other in a way that mutually neutralizes their shortcomings. their contrast is what makes them such a practical pairing.

the way the scene would be executed in an entirely nonverbal way throughout the performance would make it more far more intimate, just the visual and audible portrayal of their magnetism.

and it isn’t just the conventionally attractive ones. the contrast between their aesthetics just makes every shot so unique and remarkable to look at. they were literally made to be in each other’s space. it’s like them being in the same vicinity is an artistic masterpiece in itself.

(also i love how enid is highlighted by the moon in this shot)

in this context, enid transformed, risked her humanity, and potential death, to save wednesday. wednesday was pulled out of potential death by enid’s sacrifice.

but as shown throughout the course of the seasons, they always reciprocate each other’s deeds, like wednesday wolfing out to defend enid. they kind of stabilize each other in a reciprocal cycle, and i really love that they balance each other out in that sense. especially with season 3 coming up, it’s wednesday’s turn to return the favor

it really highlights the difference in perspective between how wednesday view enid and her wolf form, and how the show’s public views her.

from wednesday’s point of view, enid gazes at her with gentleness, her movements retaining her grace, and her expression capturing the human essence within her.

in the picture, she’s depicted as erratic, frenzied, and animalistic. it literally drains the vibrancy and color of her.

wednesday doesn’t recognize her wolf form and her human form as two separate entities. she is the same bubbly individual, the same person who saved her from the hyde, and the same person who threw everything away to save her.

i will acknowledge that people act like she was whooping ass the entire time, which she technically was, but it’s not to say that she didn’t sustain any injuries herself, or wasn’t about to get killed before donovan interfered

throughout the majority of the fight, enid was really the only one actively inflicting damage. the only time tyler really got her was when he caught her off guard while she was batting her lashes at wednesday, and when he pinned her to the tree.

the fact that he can easily kill her once he restrains her definitely balances it out more, but this only occurred ONCE because she didn’t try to evade his charge. when they both returned to their human forms, tyler was knocked clean out with wounds all over his body, while enid was able to walk it off, and this shows with all the scarring he had in season 2. you can also kind of see enid get into her element more as she navigated fighting as a werewolf.

tyler served more as a mindless, heavy brute while enid was more elusive, swift, and relied on explosive power, so this scene was definitely a fun watch seeing these two contrasting characters fight eachother.

i’d really wanna see the two have a rematch in season 3 honestly

living with traditional and conservative werewolf ideals being ingrained into her very being, and then being exposed to the addams family, entirely unburdened by social norms, was definitely a pleasant awakening for her.

even for outcast standards, they outwardly embrace their identity, distinguishably odd and abnormal, especially amongst normies, whom they walk into their spaces without a care in the world

the foundation of the addams family is based on them being the complete opposite of your average conservative family, while enid experiences her little conservative werewolf subculture, which i just think is such a good trope and u can’t tell me it ISN’T intentional

as discussed before, you can see how the addams family influenced her over time, and its so ridiculously cute and romantic of her, (literally signaling to wednesday that she wants to be an addams)
not to mention she gets along so well with each and every family member so far, really hope they expand that and she gets to meet more of them

or atleast what they are adjacent to. apologies for the blurry image

-“you need to stop trying so hard for people who don’t deserve it. like bruno, who mistook your kindness for weakness. it’s not. it’s your power.”

this is quite literally what occured during both of her finalizing transformations.

in season 1, she and thing traversed the forest to look for wednesday despite the chances of her encountering tyler and thornhill being eminently possible, and she had no knowledge that she was going to wolf out, in contrast of her typical distaste towards violence and danger. she battled and took down a hyde twice her size upon her first night of wolfing out. her power is literally defined by her selflessness.

when tyler was maliciously approaching wednesday(in enid’s body), she jumped onto him without second thought despite the absence of her lupin abilities, as she isn’t dependent on them for her strength.

similarly, when wednesday was in enid’s body, seeing tyler harm her caused her to behave out of selflessness and thus transformed to protect them.

when she says “i’m not strong enough like this,” i see it as her strength being projected through her lycanthropy. her transformations are just metaphors, outlets for her to show her strength. her altruism, however, is what gives her strength, and her altruism comes from the people in her life.
in contrast to alot of other characters in the show, you see her willingly using these powers almost exclusively to serve her people, who, in turn, reciprocate that attention back.

that’s why wednesday mentioned bruno taking advantage of her kindness. the right people will empower her by reciprocating it, and the wrong people will drain her. additionally, she shouldn’t be forced to entertain people out of need for conformity. her relationships should be forged by mutual respect and acceptance, not exclusive to the person she poses as for acceptance.

i love how she’s characterized as a wolf. like you can just see her regardless of her appearance change. and it looks like she was gloating to weds about her wolfing out in such a heroic instance, so fucking cute

hydes are somewhat ambiguous when comes to their potential animal counterparts. outwardly, it’s pretty obvious that they have amphibian features, but the family tree might be a whole lot weirder🫠

from a glance, anything resembling a ursidae likely isn’t your first thought when you look at these things, but there are a few features reminiscent of bears, specifically grizzlies, when you look into it. but this’ll mainly be accompanied by context and behavior as well.

one prominent external feature of these monsters are the huge bumps on their shoulders. grizzly bears also have large characteristic humps, and these power their forearms for digging, as well as giving them immense strength. hydes also have huge shoulders and powerful forearms, giving them terrifying power that allows them to lacerate their prey with effortless slashes, and crushing grips that can warp titanium bars.

also, if you look at their musculature, hydes almost look like bears except they’ve shed all of that fat and fur 👀

those hyde tracks are interesting to me because they suggest that hydes have padded feet. in mammalian carnivores like bears, they are composed of fatty tissues that act as shock absorbers, aiding in stealth. for one, this makes it more believable that this half-ton creature was able to sneak up on people entirely undetected. and yes, grizzly bears and hydes similarly ambush their prey using stealth. they also have strikingly long, sharp claws. i’d also like to note that grizzly bears can climb trees, just not as well as black bears, partially due to them having less curvature in their claws. they do climb in rare instances, such as seeking safety from other threats. and i’m mentioning this primarily because we saw tyler climbing to escape francoise, though they were slightly clumsy.

going back to hunting habits, grizzlies can consume venison when they aren’t relying on salmon and berries or other types of vegetation, and deer are a filling option. large animals with a taste for meat will often go for deer when they are available too, and while it isn’t exactly unique to grizzlies or other bears, i still thought it would be worth mentioning.

additionally, the place where the deer remains were found were none other than its lair, which looks incredibly similar to a bear’s den, and caves are good options for hibernation.

the fight between francoise and tyler relied heavily on grappling eachother, and throwing eachother around. very similar to how bears will engage in combat with eachother, just mauling the hell out of eachother. oh, and they also maim their victims in equal levels of brutality.

i wanna talk about hyde senses, too. even while he’s not in his hyde form, he’s able to detect agnes’ presence, and was able to identify capri as a werewolf with her scent alone. bears have some of the best senses in the animal kingdom, with their sense of smell even exceeding canines like wolves and dogs. while in his hyde form, he is capable of chasing his victims from long distances without losing them. this is also kind of me coping with how they didn’t expand on werewolf senses more but wtv

and last but not least, their tendency to stand on their hind legs. we’ve only ever seen it happen in displays of intimidation when it comes to hydes, which is done by bears to make themselves seem bigger and more imposing.

there are many features that hydes have that don’t resemble bears at all, i’m picturing their bloodline as a hellish mix of this and what’s already been speculated, but also lmk if you’ve made any connections with other animals

one of many of her proposals to become an addams