'Kay...so this is just random geek speculations but...

[considermecrazy]

 I was discussing this with a friend whom I introduced the greatness that is The Tenth Kingdom for the first time. ( We saw the whole thing in one sitting. She loved it.) It's something that has always bothered me...what with the fact that a sequel would have likely clarified but...you k'now how that went. Anyway, what I'm talking about is the fact

Comments

[ravenmist7]

Well my thing is Wolf states his parents were both "enormous", which I took to mean they were both wolf-humans. I guess. I don't think they were full wolves from the sound of it unless actual wolves in the Tenth Kingdom could talk. I'm not sure. Half-wolf to me means someone in his family was a wolf and down the line he grew to look more human, but still have the tails and wolf mannerisms, plus the unfortunate effects the full moon gives him.
Now I have more questions in my head. Haha. I haven't watched it in so long. I think it's time again. =)

[msmcknittington]

Does he say they're enormous? I thought he said their appetites were enormous, not that they were physically huge. You mean in the conversation with the psychiatrist in NY, right?

[omylouse]

I thought he said they were enormous too (& hence had huge appetites & were feeding the kids up to be huge too maybe?) but I may be wrong...

[msmcknittington]

I think you might be right, and I just thought the enormous thing meant they were hugely fat, not giant-like. There's also the chance that he was talking from a child's perspective. When you're a kid, adults are enormous.

[primreceded]

I always thought when he said half-wolf he meant "the literal product of a coupling between a full wolf and a human" though I'm not sure at what part of his lineage it started as full wolf/human. Since he is an ancestor of Red, I'm assuming it started then. But when does it start to breed out, is what I'm wondering. I know they snuck into the village and burned his mom/siblings, he was the only one who got away. Hm. I'm going to have to rewatch, it's been so long.

[omylouse]

Possible a cross between a werewolf & a human? Do werewolves (as we commonly recognise them) exist in the Kingdoms? I like the term 'half-wolf' precisely because it isn't 'werewolf'. He doesn't appear to transform into a wolf at full moon, just small physical changes & large mental ones.

There wasn't necessarily any cross breeding of any kind... It could just be a curse handed down that the family are neither fully human nor fully wolf and so are estranged from either world. A most plausible explanation for their world!

Rather than Wolf's origins (which sound purely hereditary) I am interested by the gipsy's grandson. Did he get cursed with it? Was it a random mutation? Or was one of his parents wolf/part-wolf too? He is obviously the only part-wolf in the camp and as has never met another we must presume he's either orphaned or abandoned (at least on one side) or is cursed where his parents were not....

hmm... longer reply than originally intended. Sorry! :)

[msmcknittington]

I really like the idea of half-wolf being a euphemism for werewolf or a curse. The idea of a human mating with a werewolf is troublesome for me, not because of the bestiality aspect, but because it's biologically impossible. Also, I think that fits better into the way Red Riding Hood is interpreted in The 10th Kingdom -- the wolf as a highly sexualized/threatening male, rather than a literal wolf.

Interesting....

[omylouse]

I also dislike the idea of human & wolf interbreeding for the same reason.
The curse idea fits in neatly with the Red Riding Hood interpretation.

Possibly then the Red Riding Hood 'wolf' or a predatory man earlier in the Kingdom's histories got cursed into being a half-wolf making it easier for society to shun him? I can just picture the old gypsy woman concocting such a curse! That would also explain peoples dislike of half-wolves in general - if it was originally an outcasting measure...

[considermecrazy]

Yep, I've always thought of half wolf as a term for werewolf ...and then I got confused with that tvtropes thing...lol
And yeah, he mentions his parents were "both enormous" and that 'the good farmers killed his parents' so I always assumed they were both werewolves...the thing is now I'm really interested in the gypsy grandchild's situation like omylouse!

[goldenmoonrose]

I believe that it is said in the novelization (and I remember reading it elsewhere) that Wolf is the grandson of Red Riding Hood (one of his parents being the product of Red and the Wolf).

This also makes perfect sense in the world of 10th Kingdom where the fairy tales are much truer to their origins. Red Ridding Hood is a story about seduction and rape, of sex and food being the same, a cautionary tale to young women. Men were often persecuted for being werewolves (the male equivalent of a witch, werewolf and wolf being really the same back then, a symbol of male appetite). 10th Kingdom simply puts a twist on it by having redemption for the wolf (with more of a Beauty and the Beast turn of the story). The point is that women are not innocent, and--more importantly--that the male appetite is not to be feared (as Virginia originally is) but can be tamed.