There are some demons that have tails, but most dont. Shippo has one, Kouga has one - the only wolf demon that I have ever seen with a tail - argueably Sesshomaru's fluffy is his tail....
The wolf Demons, Panther Demons, Thunder Brothers, most of Naraku's incarnations etc have no tails.
So why do you think some do and some dont?
A full demon like Sessy can transform into a full demon form. I cant recall other demons getting much more demonish other then maybe red eyes. I would guess a certain level of power, concentration, controll must be used to transform and stay in control of yourself. What do ya think?

My understanding is that Sesshomaru's "fluffy" is his tail when he is in dog demon form.
Throughout the series they talk about Inu Yasha being some sort of mindless killing machine when he is in his demon form. He even admits to not having control of himself when he is like that. This leads me to belive that for demons, changing into true demon form is a last resort sort of thing. Remember in the panther demon episode, Sesshomaru was having trouble killing them and was on the verge of changing into his demon form when Tensaiga gets his attention. I would also think being in demon form requires a lot of energy and power. It would also require a lot of self control. Sesshomaru knows what he is doing in demon form, Inu Yasha does not. Inu Yasha cannot control his demon side, thus his father left him the Tetsuiaga.
For demons like the Thunder Brothers, I think the form we see them in is the only one they're capeable of existing in. For the wolf demons, it gets more complicated because Kouga is the only one with a tail. I wouldnt be suprised if wolf demons could take on the guise of wolves. Sango said wolf demons were very much like the wolves they control. I dont think the average wolf demon is capeable of turning into a big wolf like Sesshomaru turns into a dog. I think in time Kouga will be able to do it, because of the tail. He is more like a wolf then the other wolf demons. Obviously he's got strength/power if he was able to "usurp the throne" and take over the tribes. Shippo is still just a baby, yet some of his illusions fool even dangerous/powerfull demons. Just look at who and what the kid is growing up around. I imagine he will be quite strong when he's an adult.

I think you have to be powerful to control your demonic powers thus Sesshomoru can but inu-yasha cant

well as for naraku's incarnations, spiders dont have tail. :p

i didnt know sess's fluffy thing was his tail O_O

I have heard that his "fluffy" is his father's tail. I have seen some images where it does not look as if the "tail" is attached. But I have read a rather big discussion on wether it is his or his daddy's.

The demons (youki) are connected to animals so if the standard animal does not have a tail then I don't see why the youki will. As far as the wolves maybe it is a status thing.*shrug*

actually shessomaru's "fluffy" is a part of his fathers pelt his tail doesn't appear untill he transforms.like skytiger says

i was thinking, perhaps the tails are significant in full blooded demons only. inuyasha's father, the large panther demon, sesshomaru, etc.. they are some HUGE demons. but all the lower class ones, although quite powerful themselves (those panther demons had some strength), did not have tails and in no way are close to the power of the larger demons.

inuyasha and naraku are not full demons but have great power regardless of any tails.. but how about kouga? he is the leader and he is more powerful than all the other wolf demons. and he is the only one with a tail. wouldn't it make sense that once a wolf demon such as kouga became powerful enough, and old enough, that he would be able to turn into a full large scale wolf demon? and remember shippo's dad? his pelt on the stomach of the thunder brother.. he looked more like a fox than what you'd think shippo's dad would have looked like. age and experience (and not necessarily experience in battle) are the key to the tails.

Sledge n I got talkin tails last nite. :p I've watched hours and hours of Inu Yasha then watched it summore while doing the different gallerys. I took my dog into consideration in this quandary.

A canines tail is , generally speaking - some special breeds are different, about the length of their leg
http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/77/inuyasha_396.jpg
the last couple inches of tail are usually just fluff, but the picture shows that the tail is proportionate to Kouga's body the way a canine's is.

when my mutt sits down, she does not sit on her tail. she puts in behind her and sits on her ample 'butt cheeks'
http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/73/inuyasha_palver.jpg
Kouga doesn't sit on his tail either. He puts it behind him and sits on his cheeks

In a defensive posture, canines will keep their tails up against their body (the old tail between your legs metaphore comes from observing this behavior)
http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/87/Kouga_Kageromaro.jpg
Injured and on the ground. If he rolled over or curled up into a ball his tail would fall between his legs, just like an animal in a fight with another animal. (think of cats on their back)

reguardless of how long the tail is, it is attatched to the body and to the spine. A dogs tail can spin a little, my dog tail twirls when she's runnin at a good clip, but it can only bend so far.
http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/7/Kouga_open1.jpg
Even when moving fast, Kouga's tail does not swing up to the point of being unrealistic.
http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/71/inuyasha_367.jpg
He can pull the end of his tail to his face. So can my dog. She cleans the burrs out of her tail all over my rug all the time. You can see how he didnt grab the tip either, its all fluff. He's holding his tail right about where the bone would end.
So, yeah. I dunno wtf his tail is for/signifies, but I do think it's probably a real tail attatched to his body.
I guess I'll go stare at the dog summore. She already thinks I'm weird :meh:

are kouga's shoulder and arm fur his own? or is that part of his outfit? the tail seems to be similar if not connected to his waistband skirt and it is also the same color and consistancy of the rest of his outfit. i see all your points about the way the tail reacts with him and it would make sense that the tail itself is his.. but the fact that his lower half is a skirt/kilt... i don't see how he could grow a kilt. and the way all the fur on his body is the same, it also makes sense that hes wearing the pelt of another animal or demon.

Kouga's armor
http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/7/Kouga_wolf.jpg

Ginta and Hakkaku armor
http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/73/Hakaku_Ginta.jpg

human armor
http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/25/InuYasha2_5.jpg

The fur on his shoulders is part of the armor. You can even see the decorative silver loop on there. All the armor is held on by some straps.
I would further guess that Kouga and the wolf demons wear wolf pelts as clothing. You can see in the sitting down pic in a post above us that Ginta and Hakkaku also have the fold at the waist of their kilt/skirt/wrap/pelt/whatever you wanna call it. its most likely tied on below the fold. (this is where Kouga could make room to stick out his tail w/o showin off some ass ;) )

I found another tail O_O

http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/73/wd_cave.jpg

the guy in the middleish. The problem is, his 'tail' looks like part of a belt seeing as where it starts -_-;
If you look at Kouga sitting you can see his tail comes out below the belt.
I got excited fer nothin :meh:

i bet if that is his tail, then his ass must be furry as all hell. :p you think a tail like that would come poking out above a normal looking butt? nah, not with that much fur. ^_~

*and thus i destroy some of the kouga sex appeal* mwahahaha!

that would be gross X'D

i dont think it's his real tail either. it's on his waist line.

I belive Shippo and Kouga both have real tails attatched to their backbone.

maybe its genetics or class level of the demon or some damn thing >.<

Okay...I think that fluffy thingy on Sesshoumaru is his tail, during Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's first battle Sesshoumaru uses his tail to wrap Inuyasha up before throwing him into the ground with it. SO yeah I'd say it's part of his body.

ok, I got some fluffy info watchin movie 3.
the fluffy IS a tail. It looks as though pure dog demons have a fluffy. Sesshomaru has one (no dah) and so does his father. Fluffy's can get hurt too. They can bleed :(

inuyasha's father had a huge two part fluffy. ^__^ and how he had his behind him, you could almost see how it became his tail in full demon form.

Another great mystery of life solved :lol:

i bet if that is his tail, then his ass must be furry as all hell. :p you think a tail like that would come poking out above a normal looking butt? nah, not with that much fur. ^_~

*and thus i destroy some of the kouga sex appeal* mwahahaha!If a hairy ass destroyed sex appeal you would be in big trouble hon ;)

If a hairy ass destroyed sex appeal you would be in big trouble hon ;)TFMIA, Lady...:blech: That is the last thing I wanted to envision...

Back to the tails topic. When it comes to CONTROL over the forms, I think it relates somewhat to DB(Z). Look at the difference between Goku/Gohan vs Vegeta when in full Ozooru form. The former went on a destructive, violent rampage, and the latter was in full control, and even able to speak.
When it comes to TAILS, I'd say that it has to do with generations. Those closer to the first demons, would possibly have the tails, and the transformations. But as they breed, the tails/transformations would be bread out, and eventually be ousted totally. And with humans destroying their kind, and general wars, good mates would be hard to find. This would instigate demon/human relations, and further gaping in the abilities carried by the blood.
This is my theory, anyway...

If it's flexible enough, I reckon they could use it to scratch their backs even.

:confused: Even though it's simple to know why kerara has a tail but i just like hers the best. a little off topic but not quite

Kouga's tail is real I think.

I thought Sesshomaru didn't have a tail, I was thinking the fluffy thing was just apart of his cloths or something.

i always thought that too, it didn't really move unless the wind blew it.

;) http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/20/Sesshomaru_fluffy.jpg

Sessy's fluffy serves him well :p

:wtf: never seen that before, great pic lady. yeah i never knew it could do that.

theres a couple more times in the series where he uses his tail as an offensive and defensive weapon too. i think he rarely uses it for the surprise factor.

:sad: i need to start watching that more.

the answer is very simlple. The tail signifies origin. If you have one your closer to your mother race like someone previously stated. Look at shippo, sesshomaru, koga all full blooded demons. Thus having the tail enables them to revert to their primal origins. Its like an evolution thing they are not fully evolved beings. thus they can return to their pre evolution form which is stronger than the evolved form. When you evolveyou adapt to the environment making things easier for you and causing you to become weaker cause everything is easier for you. Like inu and Sesshomaru inu is more evolved because of his mother and sesshomaru is less evoloved making him stronger. Like us we are homo sapiens are we not. The homo erectus are more beastly then us and physically stronger right? Point made.

From what I can tell, evolution appears to occur in a sequence that makes things easier for us, therefore less physical strength is necessary. I guess, Kuwa has a point there. However, in the PS2 game, Kagome makes a reference that Inuyasha has some transformation ability, but he can't do it right, therefore he never attempts it.

Taking another look at the fluffy, you can actually see that it seems to be attached to Sesshomaru's back in some way and sprouts from the side of his armor. Saying that it's a tail appears to be quite feasible. It bleeds, appears to move at Sesshomaru's control, and appears to be attached to his back where a tail would be.
http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/12/Sesshomaru_wind.jpg

As far as some demons having tails and some not, I think it's just a hereditary thing. I'm not sure I'm remembering right, but some of the more cat-like panther demons had cat tails, didn't they?

True...but in that same episode that your pic came from...Sesshomaru removes his tail and uses it like a Boa Constrictor *no pun intended* to basically sling shot Inuyasha to the ground...but he removes it from his body in order to do so. The idea of it being a tail is very probable, and the fact that his father's is larger than his, suggests also that it will grow along with the demon. Sesshomaru's father was a good four times the size of Sesshomaru in his true form. This sugests that Sesshomaru is still very young as far as demon age goes.

I guess he would be able to detach it. Sesshomaru is able to make use of arms that aren't his as if they were his.

that's true, so maybe he can detach and get a new one? though why would he? o well.

i've never seen sesshomaru detach his tail.. he can extend it and sometimes it'll go off camera, but its a part of him.. O_o

i remember another episode where sesshomaru lowered his fluffy down and let a crippled jaken lay on it. he dragged jaken behind him. X'D

I guess he would be able to detach it. Sesshomaru is able to make use of arms that aren't his as if they were his.

i've only seen him use one arm, and he was only able to use it because a shikon shard was acting like a weld.

I've seen him use several arms. Remember that dragon he killed and attacked Inuyasha while "wearing" one of its arms. Inuyasha noticed that he was trying to break Tetsusaiga by striking it with the dragon claw.

"This dragon has left me a gift." Sesshomaru said while holding up its arm.

Not to mention, Sesshomaru had trouble using other demon arms, but they decayed too quickly, or something like that. It's been a while since I've seen those episodes. However, Sesshomaru has DEFINATELY used several arms.

I don't think the jewel shard was used to weld, because Sesshomaru has never needed one before to wear an arm. Not to mention, a human arm alone can't wield Tetsusaiga. The jewel shard he used in the human arm given to him by Naraku acted as some sort of demonic catalyst. Tetsusaiga could only be wielded by Inuyasha, a half-demon, to protect Kagome, a human. By exposing Tetsusaiga to a human arm with a jewel shard, it served to confuse Tetsusaiga's senses and allow Sesshomaru to wield it.

Sesshomaru has demonstrated that he can attach and detach limbs if he needs to.

a demon hand can't be master of the Tetsusaiga.
Sesshomaru has used Tetsusaiga on more then one occasion with his own hand. It damaged him, burned his hand, sort of electrocuted him
he used the dragon claw with the idea of destroying Tetsusaiga. it temporarially fused with his body. The human arm Naraku gave him with the jewel shard in it, he fused that w/ his body for a short time as well. These extra arms :look: don't last very long probably because they are not to scale with his own power level.

oh, thats right. i remember that dragon claw now. the other demon arms did decay pretty quick. but i think he needed the shard for the human arm tho, because it was human and not demon? i can't remember if he ever used more than one human arm or not. O_o

Nope lol just the one human arm and he ripped it off because it was taking over his body. The dragon claw he used to try and break the Tetuisga...don't know why though if he wants it so bad, why he would try and break it. O_O

I can only conclude two reasons for trying to break Tetsusaiga with the dragon claw. Either he simply doesn't want Inuyasha having any potential of becoming Sesshomaru's calliber; or he figured Inuyasha would throw the broken sword away, thus leaving it in Sesshomaru's hands to have repaired. Inuyasha didn't know Totousai back then, did he? I can't remember when he was introduced. Chances are, Sesshomaru knew him.

Also, the human arm that Sesshomaru used began to catch fire and Sesshomaru said it threatened to take his life if he didn't cast it away. It wasn't taking over his body. This is why Jaken accused Naraku of trying to kill Sesshomaru by giving him that arm.

Oh! I just thought of something. Think back to episode 2 when Kagome shot down the demon crow. This demon had the ability to replace amputated limbs. Also, Musou could replace limbs in addition to making them bigger and uglier. This is apparently some standard ability among demons.

Sesshomaru wanted to break Tetsusaiga because he thought Inu Yasha was badly mistreating the sword and it would be better off in pieces.

A half demon weilding his fathers sword "like a club". Tetsusaiga would have been better off destroyed if Sesshomaru couldn't have it. :look:

Totosai asked Inu Yasha if he had been chopping down trees with it X'D
He didn't have much faith in Inu's abilitys at first either. Sessy was aggrivated Inu couldn't even see the windscar their first fight or two :p

Well Inuyasha was swinging it around like a neandrathal with a club...he really had no idea how to use it other than it was sharp and could kill things. X'D Sesshy wanted to break the sword because like Lady and Fedic said, he would rather have seen it broken then in Inuyasha's hands.

Frankly, I think Inuyasha draws his sword too much. He could use Sesshomaru's self-control. Sesshomaru fought Inuyasha almost entirely unarmed for the longest time. The only sword he had was Tenseiga and he never drew it.

Anyway, we're off topic. I still think it's a matter of genetics as to whether or not demons have tails. It's too various for it not to be. This would explain why some demons would naturally be born with tails and others not. I'm actually curious as to what Inuyasha would look like with a tail. :D

o.O is the "fluffy" thing really Sesshomaru's tail? O_O

http://www.windscar.com/gallery/data/media/20/Sesshomaru_fluffy.jpg
yes. :nod: