Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-4753851-20140620204919/@comment-76.194.230.10-20140621032638

I think that Kate's transformation into a were-jaguar has more to do with her being an Argent than the fact that it was caused by a scratch instead of a bite... I mean when you think about it there has to be a reason why all hunters have to kill themselves if they're bitten/ wounded greater than just the code. Like the Mexican hunter said to Chris Argent, their family history is very complicated, so maybe there is some sort of gene that runs in the family which is trigged by the bite which causes them to transform into a particularly nasty type of shapeshifter. Likewise, Kate having been a trained hunter makes her even more dangerous as she knows exactly how they opperate and perhaps may even be immune to wolfsbane.

Basically, I think the bite either infects the recipient causing them to turn into a werewolf  (if they survive of course) or it triggers latent abilities or dormant genes as it did with Lydia & Kate. Jackson's transformation seems more like a mutation where something went wrong, invoking the "sometimes the shape you take reflects the kind of person you are" rule, seeing as how he later becomes a normal werewolf after the sort out his identity issues by killing him to death. I'm pretty sure that Gerard himself would have become some sort of terrible were-creature himself if his plan hadn't been foiled by scott replacing his medication with mountain ash.

Moreover, I think Malia's Were-Coyote-ness has to do more with her biological Mother (who I believe wasn't the woman who raised her) than Peter being her father, unless she also falls under the "sometimes the shape you take reflects the kind of person you are" and her becoming a Coyote is also a mutation resulting  from her being isolated from other werewolves. (i.e. Werewolves hunt in packs while Coyotes are more solitary.)