I recently found out about the alpha wolves were in fact, a myth. I sincerely hope this will help you writers.

Basically, wild/unpenned wolves do not force others under submits. This is much more common with those who were introduced to 'stranger' wolves. How would you feel if you were forced to live with a stranger out of blues?

Anyway, they actually are very much like every good family. They cares for their young, but make sure to take care of the youngest first (because logically older siblings can feed themselves and/or they can last without foods longer). Parents are the leaders, but they don't dominate over others, rather they are what our parents are: strict but kind, and teaching children life skills. Why, at some times, mothers are more of a leader than the fathers were!

That's just a TL;DR from a link below. I found that link much easier to read than most articles I came across.

thislivelyearth.com/2010/09/03/wolves-and-dominance-the-myth-of-the-alpha-dog/

Skip the first bit, if you want to get into the facts head in.

Plus, keep this in mind, dogs were born because of humans. Wolves exist without us (on most parts). So, their cultures are actually different. Dogs are more in-tuned with our body languages and emotions and lived/lives with us as pets and partners, while wolves lived to hunt and to provide for themselves.

I have no intentions to break your stories, if you bear the alpha theory for the plot. If anything, please continue! I am just letting you all know that, if you are realistic to real life or partially, that theory is really just a myth.

I hope to see more stories that carries through what the actual packs really are!

Happy writing!
~From ever addicted researching Shi

Interesting! I've been going through a phase of reading about the Dene, because of my life-long love of the Canadian author Farley Mowat. He has written some of my all-time favorite stories: adventures, history, natural history. His book, "Never Cry Wolf" was made into a movie, which I deliberately never watched, because movies made from books are usually so disturbingly bad. The book is an awesome account of the real life of wolves. And people. You should definitely read it if you are interested in wolf culture. Kudos to you for encouraging us to think! But thanks as well for recognizing that the fanfiction universe of alphas and omegas, with all its strange permutations, is very fun to play in...

That makes me wonder who came up with the Alpha/Omega thing besides the Greeks with the alphabet-thing. *thinks* I dunno! XD!

I've always wondered about that too. I mean you wouldn't really know unless you were a wolf! I just like to think that their family and social dynamics are just like outs but wolfish. I mean they have bad days and want to slap their relatives when they're being morons too. Yes they growl and bite and nip, but really, is that any different from what we do?

I've seen Moms with teeth-marks from being bitten by their toddlers.

People bite too!

Yeowch!

That kinda makes the wolves more civilised I think.

Go figure.

~ Pyre

Are female wolves more dominant? I always thought they were the 'leaders' of packs.

No, not quite. If anything, parents pretty much viewed themselves as equal partners, with duties divided. Though when it comes to babies, mamas usually have the says, just like human mamas. Wolves papas know that and respects that. That's what I gleaned from my researches, haha.

I'd be frank, I'm not always fond of alpha theory being used. They're a very common trope in IY fanfictions along with many medias that got wolves and canine-based species as their characters. It got a bit tiresome for me, but I have no intention to put an end to that trope. Rather, I just want to offer the new pack fact as a very new story idea to borrow and make into one's own.

I am very interested to see any author taking this pack fact and corporate it in their stories! I hope to see that soon. I'd love to see how people would differ dogs from wolves, also, since their cultures are also different.

Ooo, and the dog youkai history with humans as well! I can't really see the beginning started out with hatred. I think it might be something that happen later down the years and the dog family/clan removed themselves from humans or something. I don't think they don't feel sympathy for humans at all, but had to force themselves to stand back or something.

Oh, look at me rambling!

But yeah, just some food for thoughts.

Happy writing!

Pyreite wrote:
That makes me wonder who came up with the Alpha/Omega thing besides the Greeks with the alphabet-thing. *thinks* I dunno! XD!

The Alpha/Omega theory came from observing captive wolf packs made up of unrelated individuals who are essentially trapped in a small area; not at all a natural situation.

Thanks for bringing this up! Wolf packs aren't so different from human families after all. I still enjoy stories that implement the alpha myth though; after all, they aren't quite wolves, and we're talking about mythical beings, so I guess writers can get some slack on that

The only fanfiction I've read that theorizes or references how inuyoukai came to be is Seven Feudal Fairy Tales by ladybattousai; I really recommend that fanfiction, great writing and solid storyline