There are some flaws with both Nerissa-is-Faith and Faith-is-Nerissa, and I'm not sure if it's intentional or sloppy writing (or rewriting?). Overall, I'm still sticking with it having been Nerissa the whole time and Bigby never met the real Faith while she was alive.
Additionally, there's a distinct possibility that Nerissa was the villain of the story. The Crooked Man seemed pretty adamant that he didn't kill anybody and wanted to ensure Bigby would bring him in because he didn't think he would be convicted for it (he never tries to deny any of his other crimes).
Then we know that Nerissa lied to get him convicted for the murders and that she was using glamors to fool people (whether it was Nerissa-as-Faith or Faith-as-Nerissa she still did), and we really only have her word (when she admits to lying) on how things went down.
It's entirely possible that Nerissa simply glamored herself as the Crooked Man and gave the order to Georgie so she could then bring down his organization (to take over for herself? to settle a vendetta with the Crooked Man? to cause general chaos in Fabletown for the Adversary?).
There are some flaws with both Nerissa-is-Faith and Faith-is-Nerissa, and I'm not sure if it's intentional or sloppy writing (or rewriting?). Overall, I'm still sticking with it having been Nerissa the whole time and Bigby never met the real Faith while she was alive.
Additionally, there's a distinct possibility that Nerissa was the villain of the story. The Crooked Man seemed pretty adamant that he didn't kill anybody and wanted to ensure Bigby would bring him in because he didn't think he would be convicted for it (he never tries to deny any of his other crimes).
Then we know that Nerissa lied to get him convicted for the murders and that she was using glamors to fool people (whether it was Nerissa-as-Faith or Faith-as-Nerissa she still did), and we really only have her word (when she admits to lying) on how things went down.
It's entirely possible that Nerissa simply glamored herself as the Crooked Man and gave the order to Georgie so she could then bring down his organization (to take over for herself? to settle a vendetta with the Crooked Man? to cause general chaos in Fabletown for the Adversary?).
Although, keep in mind that
the person who helped to cast glamours would be Auntie Greenleaf. She seemed pretty loyal to the Crooked Man and like the closest to turning over when he reminded her in the trial that he helped her get her tree back. I don't know if she would have given Nerissa/Faith a glamour to look like the Crooked Man before any of this went down; it seems like it would be an awfully large risk to take with no stake in it.
It's pretty clearly been Faith disguised as Nerissa the whole time
Faith's whole backstory is about her ingenuity allowing her to escape even the most perilous situations under cover
And the Little Mermaid's story is about transforming and not being able to tell anyone about her predicament because of a magic enchantment. Additionally, the Donkeyskin Girl story had a happily ever after ending, whereas the Little Mermaid loses everyone in her story (and is transformed again, which didn't happen here).
Besides, the Woodsman's story is that he kills the Big Bad Wolf, but the last time he's in the game he's teaming up with you in a fight and then (potentially) having a smoke with you. And the original ribbon story has the girl with the ribbon lose her head but the game blatantly says that didn't happen in Vivian's profile. Their backstories aren't the best thing to base the future on.
However, if you're saying that Nerissa is the one who died and it was Faith the entire time, there are a lot of problems.
For one, Nerissa never acknowledges Lawrence in any way, even if he's alive. For another, Georgie flat out says he killed Faith so you would have to explain that (ie. Faith and Nerissa were glamored as each other before he walked in, but why would they do that?). Then there's the fact that if it was Faith she would have to be glamored full-time which is risky for a number of reasons. Then there's the bit where Woodsman thinks Faith should recognize him but she doesn't. Lastly, the endgame statistics has a giant "DECEASED" stamped across Faith's portrait.
However, if it was Nerissa the whole time then all of that is explained. Furthermore, it also explains why Faith's belongings were broken open at the strip club (because Nerissa needed stuff for her glamor and/or to get the ring to leave with Faith's head so Bigby could identify her). The only other explanation for that is that the Tweedles were looking for the photo there (which is plausible, though I don't think the strip club is one of the places established that they searched).
Of course, there are problems with it having been Nerissa as well. The Magic Mirror says "These lips are sealed" when you try to find Faith, even though she should be dead and without her ribbon, which doesn't make sense. Additionally, some of the quotes Bigby remembers at the end seem to hint at Faith being the one who is alive (though the quote about Swineheart still inspecting the head could go count for either of them...either it was glamored which was why he was studying it further, or he realized that the time of death meant that Bigby couldn't have met her when he said he did so something was fishy).
Plus all the details of how the murder of "Faith" went down are supplied by "Nerissa" who has already admitted to lying, which further muddles the issue.
It having been Nerissa the whole time makes a lot more sense to me, though.
RE: Questions of how the ending changes.
Also I'm interested in the possible permutations. If you kill the Crooked Man, do you just skip the whole trial? What happens if you jump on the Crooked Man's limo first? Do you do the trial without Nerissa being able to say anything and save your bacon at the end? I also tortured Dee so Crooked Man was able to bring that up, but what if you were nice guy Bigby the whole time and he didn't have shit on you?
I've heard that if you kill the Crooked Man, the trial scene is instead Bigby having to justify his actions to the crowd, and that you jump on his limo first that Bloody Mary hits you with a car and he gets away, resulting in you having to go to Georgie first anyways (except now Vivian is apparently already dead when you get there).
If you didn't torture Dee, the Crooked Man still brings it up but you are able to point out that it was Bluebeard who did it instead of Bigby.
Does anything change in the trial much if you manage to save Prince Lawrence?
He gets a scene of yelling at the Crooked Man, I don't know if it effects the outcome though (in my version, everyone stood with me against the Crooked Man).
the person who helped to cast glamours would be Auntie Greenleaf. She seemed pretty loyal to the Crooked Man and like the closest to turning over when he reminded her in the trial that he helped her get her tree back. I don't know if she would have given Nerissa/Faith a glamour to look like the Crooked Man before any of this went down; it seems like it would be an awfully large risk to take with no stake in it.
That's true, but it comes down to how the glamor tubes work. If you change out the hair and photo inside the tube, does it change who you turn into? Besides, one way or another Faith/Nerissa is already running around and screwing up the Crooked Man's operation in an unauthorized glamor, because whichever one she is she had to disguise as the other for a part of the story. Which means that if you can't just change the contents of the tube to change the effect, then she managed to at least get a hold of a Faith glamor somehow (if it was Nerissa, then she used it for that one encounter with Bigby, if it was Faith then she used the Faith glamor on Nerissa's corpse and also had to obtain a Nerissa glamor to use on herself for the remainder of the story).
i'm pretty sure that the woodsman saying "don't you know who i am" to faith in the beginning of the game is just a case of no one really remembering the woodsman
After how bad-ass the slow build to you going all "werewolf" in Chapter 3 was, I felt a little letdown by the full Big Bad Wolf transformation this time where it just sort of happened, but considering that's typically how the comics portray it too (just shows up all wolfy in the next panel) I can't really fault them for not drawing it out. Getting to just shatter all of the Mary clones so effortlessly did a good job of making it feel powerful, at least.
I also really liked the confrontation at the Witching Well. Very true to Fables (and noir fiction in general) to have catching the bad guy turn into a debate about murky gray areas, where you feel like you're on trial as much as the bad guy is. Finishing him off never felt particularly good or satisfying to me, and that's exactly how it should be, I think. It felt necessary but also kind of wrong, in a way.
Apparently if you went to the Butcher's Shop first in Episode 4 you can somehow see a list of people who have ordered "packages" from the butcher. Nerissa is on the list, Faith isn't. So if Nerissa is the one ordering magical supplies, it's more likely that she is the one who is disguised.
The whole thing at the beginning of Episode 1 at Woody's apartment also throws some wrenches into the idea that it could be Faith:
First of all, during Nerissa's speech at the end, she specifically says that she went to warn Lily at her usual client (ie. Woody) but that she wasn't there (because she was having to go to Crane's, and the real Faith was supposed to be covering her shift at Woody's--based on the note Bigby finds). Though it is possible she is lying (and she would have to be lying if it was really Faith, because Faith would already know she was supposed to be covering Lily's shift and so wouldn't have looked for Lily there).
Secondly, Toad finds the Donkeyskin Cloak there. I don't recall them establishing that Faith had an apartment there, so presumably that means the cloak was in Woody's apartment. Why would the real Faith travel somewhere using the cloak, when it was somewhere that she was supposed to be? This would only make sense if Nerissa's story about trying to warn Lily was true (and thus, wanting to remain undetected), but the real Faith never would have looked for Lily here.
Here's how I interpret that: Nerissa told the truth about this part of the story. Lily & Faith conspired to escape and Faith stole a photo of Crane with Lily-as-Snow to use as leverage. Nerissa then ratted them out, apparently fearing what would happen to them. The Crooked Man (or at least, someone Georgie believed was the Crooked Man) told Georgie to deal with it.
Georgie returned to the club and informed Nerissa that he had to make an example because they had committed treason. During this conversation, Faith walks in and Georgie pulls her ribbon. We are never told what happened to her body, but somehow Nerissa gets her head.
Now according to the next bit of Nerissa's story, she tries to warn Lily at her usual appointment. My speculation here is that she used the Donkeyskin Cloak to travel to Woody's without being noticed, out of fear she would be killed if anyone knew she was trying to warn Lily. At this point she was also glamored as Faith, presumably because she was afraid that if she went as Nerissa that the super strong troll would murder her when she said Nerissa ratted them out (this is the only real stretch in this theory, but it's minor compared to the stretches you have to make in order for Nerissa to be the dead one).
However, what she didn't know was that Faith had agreed to cover Lily's shift, because Lily had to go be with Crane. So instead she found the Woodsman, alone and angry. Ultimately Bigby is called and she realizes he's not as bad as everyone says and that he can help her. So she leaves the head on the doorstep (possibly after reproducing the injuries that Woodsman afflicted on her onto the corpse head) and drops her Faith disguise from then on. The cloak was left behind, allowing Toad to claim it.
If Bigby gave her money, then she apparently gives it to Georgie (since it can be found in his safe), presumably using it as a cover story for her whereabouts (ie. "I picked up a John tonight, didn't catch his name.").
The following has a good bit of conjecture, but could possibly further the idea that it was really Nerissa. If you apprehend Woody at the end of Episode 1, then during the interrogation in Episode 2 he reveals that he was one of Lily's regulars and she usually didn't charge him, hence why he was angry that Faith wanted him to pay. This indicates that Woody was probably off-the-books as far as Lily was concerned (as Georgie likely wouldn't tolerate her doing the job for free) and so when Lily got a paying gig for the night (Crane) she asked Faith to keep her appointment with Woody and she put the Crane appointment on the books (which it was, which is how Georgie knew where to go and kill her).
However, when Nerissa was disguised as Faith and showed up at Woody's looking for Lily, she had no idea Woody was expecting her and that it was supposed to be a freebie (something Lily presumably would have explained to the real Faith when she asked her to cover, since this was a regular thing and she would want to keep it off the books).
Unfortunately, the fact that the key event (death of Faith and immediate aftermath) is only told to us by "Nerissa" moments after admitting to a different lie certainly muddies the waters a bit as it opens up the possibility that she was lying about other stuff. However, if she was lying then the real explanation could be basically anything as we weren't given enough information to come to another conclusion nor any kind of alternative way of how the death of "Faith" went down. So unless they are working on a Season 2 that will continue this specific storyline instead of starting a new one, then I'm leaning towards the explanation that fits with the current information with the least amount of conjecture, meaning it was really Nerissa and not Faith.
I hear they've kinda gone to shit recently with the author weirdly injecting his opinions on Israel into the plot? Something like that?
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QuirkyLittleTyrantA Mug Featuring Pichu On A CloudRegistered Userregular
I actually read the comics up to the point when that particular bombshell was dropped for no real reason and found it jarring and hamhanded. But I think they're worth reading. They're pretty cool and the art is nice.
I also have some difficulty with author's portrayal of the ladies in the comics, too, though that's pretty dumb for me to say considering I really like the game and 75% of the women in the games were prostitutes.
Also mild relationship spoilers without any real specifics:
The Bigby/Snow thing like gets real weird real fast and it bothered me, and I am a person totally okay with a reverse werewolf in a sexual relationship with a human so there's that.
Willingham's ideas about Israel were apparently intended from the start of the series, but no, they never really affect the plot at all
THe series is really, really, really good, and needs to be read from start to finish. It's ending soon, so it's now more about winding down character beats.
It's not my favorite ongoing anymore (that would be Saga) but it is 100% worth reading and if you like the setting then you should try the books.
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KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
edited July 2014
episode 5 was a hell of a thing
but for everything after the bloody mary fight i have fewer regrets than I did in most of the episodes
I was actually super glad I had put crooked man down the well when I found out nerissa lied
also I am in the "live faith was nerissa" camp but I swear I heard bloody mary during the voice over which was weird
It's kinda weird that Bluebeard never really was a major part of the story
He's just a side character who's a real jerk 100% of the time and never gets any comeuppance or anything
Well
His bad relationship with Bigby is carried over into the comics
He is more or less just a really huge misogynistic asshole who Bigby has nothing but contempt for
It works
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KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
One thing I actually really didn't like was the
go after her thing doing nothing followed by buy the comic books
it kinda felt like that guy in the camp in dragon age origins who tells you about these cool adventures and would you like to open up the bioware store and pay 10 dollars for them
I would have much preferred either the voice over stuff not happening until she is on the bus so your options are "ineffectually call out to the bus/do nothing" or not have the option at all, just the voice over shit while bigby watches the bus roll by with nerissa in the window
I actually read the comics up to the point when that particular bombshell was dropped for no real reason and found it jarring and hamhanded. But I think they're worth reading. They're pretty cool and the art is nice.
I also have some difficulty with author's portrayal of the ladies in the comics, too, though that's pretty dumb for me to say considering I really like the game and 75% of the women in the games were prostitutes.
Also mild relationship spoilers without any real specifics:
The Bigby/Snow thing like gets real weird real fast and it bothered me, and I am a person totally okay with a reverse werewolf in a sexual relationship with a human so there's that.
Yeah like
That's the reason I wanted the game to be less of a prequel and more its own canon.
The Bigby/Snow stuff is incredibly fucked up and felt really weird after they'd built up all the tension that led to that moment. Made me feel kind of gross about it to be honest. I was hoping that there would either be more closure with Snow at the end of TWAU, or that it would obviously lead up to a SEE YOU IN SEASON 2 rather than an ad for the comics. Though I mean, that ad at the end doesn't necessarily mean they won't revisit Wolf Among Us, especially with all the great reviews its getting. Not sure what sales have been like for the game either in comparison to Walking Dead. I really appreciate their take on the setting though, so I hope they come back to it!
I actually read the comics up to the point when that particular bombshell was dropped for no real reason and found it jarring and hamhanded. But I think they're worth reading. They're pretty cool and the art is nice.
I also have some difficulty with author's portrayal of the ladies in the comics, too, though that's pretty dumb for me to say considering I really like the game and 75% of the women in the games were prostitutes.
Also mild relationship spoilers without any real specifics:
The Bigby/Snow thing like gets real weird real fast and it bothered me, and I am a person totally okay with a reverse werewolf in a sexual relationship with a human so there's that.
Yeah like
That's the reason I wanted the game to be less of a prequel and more its own canon.
The Bigby/Snow stuff is incredibly fucked up and felt really weird after they'd built up all the tension that led to that moment. Made me feel kind of gross about it to be honest. I was hoping that there would either be more closure with Snow at the end of TWAU, or that it would obviously lead up to a SEE YOU IN SEASON 2 rather than an ad for the comics. Though I mean, that ad at the end doesn't necessarily mean they won't revisit Wolf Among Us, especially with all the great reviews its getting. Not sure what sales have been like for the game either in comparison to Walking Dead. I really appreciate their take on the setting though, so I hope they come back to it!
Continued now detailed comic spoilers:
Oh cool I thought I was the only one who thought this was weird. Like, I am fine with the idea of Snow giving birth to a legion of adorable shape-shifting puppy children. Like that's pretty fable-y. But definitely not under the context of "THE BONING WAS MAGICALLY INDUCED ALSO BIGBY LIES ABOUT IT." Also Bigby is kind of huge shit about the whole thing.
Episode 5 spoilers:
I kind of liked things with Snow in season 1 ending not with a bang but with a whimper: she's acting mayor now and there is work to be done. There is no more time to be Wolf Cop/Snow Cop with Bigby. Crane made a comment about sacrificing for the office (though he is a shit and I can't possibly imagined what he had "sacrificed"); Snow's is giving up the close(ish) relationship she had with Bigby.
i'm pretty sure that the woodsman saying "don't you know who i am" to faith in the beginning of the game is just a case of no one really remembering the woodsman
I really like the way wolf among us digs into more obscure characters
I think the most important line in the game, thematically, is "People like us get forgotten all the time. When we suffer, we do it in silence. And the world likes it that way."
i'm pretty sure that the woodsman saying "don't you know who i am" to faith in the beginning of the game is just a case of no one really remembering the woodsman
I really like the way wolf among us digs into more obscure characters
I think the most important line in the game, thematically, is "People like us get forgotten all the time. When we suffer, we do it in silence. And the world likes it that way."
I'm guessing it's not an accident that the most affluent or influential Fables in town are the most famous ones that everyone's heard of
The Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, Beauty & the Beast
And the poverty-stricken and those that end up having to turn to crime are the more unknown ones that nobody pays any mind to in the public consciousness
The Crooked Man, Mr. Toad, The Jersey Devil, Faith & Prince Lawrence
i'm pretty sure that the woodsman saying "don't you know who i am" to faith in the beginning of the game is just a case of no one really remembering the woodsman
I really like the way wolf among us digs into more obscure characters
I think the most important line in the game, thematically, is "People like us get forgotten all the time. When we suffer, we do it in silence. And the world likes it that way."
I'm guessing it's not an accident that the most affluent or influential Fables in town are the most famous ones that everyone's heard of
The Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, Beauty & the Beast
And the poverty-stricken and those that end up having to turn to crime are the more unknown ones that nobody pays any mind to in the public consciousness
The Crooked Man, Mr. Toad, The Jersey Devil, Faith & Prince Lawrence
Vivian is the one that really stuck out to me because I've never even heard of hers and it's not even easily found on google
I almost thought it was original, but there are some older references to a story about a girl with a ribbon
Yeah I can totally imagine the beginning of the game's writing process starting from "Okay we can't fuck around with continuity, so we need to use less well known fables for our story" and then that evolving into a story about these fables being lesser-known even within Fabletown itself.
I actually read the comics up to the point when that particular bombshell was dropped for no real reason and found it jarring and hamhanded. But I think they're worth reading. They're pretty cool and the art is nice.
I also have some difficulty with author's portrayal of the ladies in the comics, too, though that's pretty dumb for me to say considering I really like the game and 75% of the women in the games were prostitutes.
Also mild relationship spoilers without any real specifics:
The Bigby/Snow thing like gets real weird real fast and it bothered me, and I am a person totally okay with a reverse werewolf in a sexual relationship with a human so there's that.
Yeah like
That's the reason I wanted the game to be less of a prequel and more its own canon.
The Bigby/Snow stuff is incredibly fucked up and felt really weird after they'd built up all the tension that led to that moment. Made me feel kind of gross about it to be honest. I was hoping that there would either be more closure with Snow at the end of TWAU, or that it would obviously lead up to a SEE YOU IN SEASON 2 rather than an ad for the comics. Though I mean, that ad at the end doesn't necessarily mean they won't revisit Wolf Among Us, especially with all the great reviews its getting. Not sure what sales have been like for the game either in comparison to Walking Dead. I really appreciate their take on the setting though, so I hope they come back to it!
Continued now detailed comic spoilers:
Oh cool I thought I was the only one who thought this was weird. Like, I am fine with the idea of Snow giving birth to a legion of adorable shape-shifting puppy children. Like that's pretty fable-y. But definitely not under the context of "THE BONING WAS MAGICALLY INDUCED ALSO BIGBY LIES ABOUT IT." Also Bigby is kind of huge shit about the whole thing.
I had liked how they seemed to be slowly building something before that--Bigby'd make an attempt, Snow would reject him but it would feel like he was gaining some ground--and then all of a sudden things escalated like crazy, Bigby is a shit about it, and then...nothing really. As I recall it goes pretty quickly from Snow getting pregnant to her giving birth, so we miss any payoff from the whole fucked up thing. And then Bigby just up and leaves Snow with "6" kids for, what, a couple years? And then she just takes him back. Nothing about that plotline feels earned, by the characters, or the story itself. I mean, it leads to some good things later, like most of the stuff with Bigby's father, but the fact that they go from this really fucked up situation to super family and it all comes out of nowhere and oh my god Willingham was just writing crummy Snow White/Big Bad Wolf slashfic and tricking us into reading it by wrapping it in a really cool "modern fairytale" comic.
And I dunno, there are a few cool women in the comic (although I find the premise of that Fairest miniseries I've never actually read rather insulting). I do wish
Rose Red didn't spend what feels like half the series holed up in her bedroom freaking out about shit. C'mon girl, you're way cooler than that and you just had an arc where you were taking charge of your life. Tough it up or talk to fucking Snow.
Yeah I can totally imagine the beginning of the game's writing process starting from "Okay we can't fuck around with continuity, so we need to use less well known fables for our story" and then that evolving into a story about these fables being lesser-known even within Fabletown itself.
One of the interesting things about this in comparison to the Walking Dead is they seemingly wrote the entire thing in advance
All the achievements for the game went up with the first episode and never changed
The Walking Dead, however, was written AND produced one episode at a time and essentially ran on a South Park schedule of scrambling to get everything done
Game of Thrones will be the first time since Telltale has become ~~~Telltale~~~ that I actually know and enjoy the source material of one of their series'
I hear they've kinda gone to shit recently with the author weirdly injecting his opinions on Israel into the plot? Something like that?
the entire plot starts as a metaphor for Isreal, it actually went off the rails a bit when that arc wrapped up because there wasn't really anywhere to go. But the point is that they're trying to take back their Homeland.
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
edited July 2014
Okay, I was apparently pretty dumb with that last choice. (Some comic spoilers to follow)
Having read a fair bit of the comics, I interpreted the "Go after her/Leave it" option to be Bigby going after Nerissa from a possible romance viewpoint, given how Nerissa is the closest female character to Bigby besides Snow. But since I knew how Snow and Bigby's relationship progresses, I didn't even hesitate to pick "Leave it." Course now I feel like a dumbass for not catching on.
Also (more specific comic spoilers)
I knew Toad and Colin die early on, so I didn't have any problem with telling Toad tough shit, you're off to the Farm. I didn't send Colin though, again since he just keeps managing to escape all the time. Also Colin's a bro whereas Toad's just a prick.
I kinda don't want a WAU Season 2, just to leave this bit of speculation unanswered. It's the only real problem I've had with there being a second season of WD, cause we found out what became of Clem afterwards.
Yeah I can totally imagine the beginning of the game's writing process starting from "Okay we can't fuck around with continuity, so we need to use less well known fables for our story" and then that evolving into a story about these fables being lesser-known even within Fabletown itself.
One of the interesting things about this in comparison to the Walking Dead is they seemingly wrote the entire thing in advance
All the achievements for the game went up with the first episode and never changed
The Walking Dead, however, was written AND produced one episode at a time and essentially ran on a South Park schedule of scrambling to get everything done
There was apparently a big rewrite for this between episode 1 and 2. When Episode 2 was uploaded, the preview image for episode 3 changed.
The original version showed the cop who was interrogating Bigby in Episode 2 following him with her gun as the image for episode 3. After episode 2 came out, the episode 3 image changed to Bigby running after a car. If I remember right, the voice actress for the cop also confirmed her role was essentially cut aside from that one scene.
The amount of entries to unlock in the Book of Fables has also changed as episodes were added (most recently, Episode 5 only showed five spots until yesterday when the episode came out, then it updated to have eight spots). The achievement names didn't change, but a lot of them also no longer seem to fit their point in the story.
Some details and dummied lines have also been mined from the game's code, and I think there was also something about an early script leak that had some details. Overall, here's what I remember regarding that:
There was supposed to be a running plot where Bigby was being investigated by the mundy cops for the murder of Snow White. Apparently there was also going to be a sequence where he had to use a glamor to sneak into the police station and retrieve the body that they thought was Snow White's (instead all of that is cut and Snow just tells you that she got the body out of the river).
Beauty was originally going to be a suspect, as Bigby wasn't supposed to find her hiding behind the tree during Episode 1, instead he was supposed to find evidence that she was there when he was doing his search after Faith's head is discovered. I assume they changed this since anyone who read the comics would know she was a red herring.
Cinderella was apparently going to have a role of some sort and had a model made for the game.
Georgie Porgie had some of his early lines changed (and I think I heard he got a new voice actor?) but I can't remember the details.
Apparently the red-haired guy that you see in the background is listed in the code as "Cryer" which lead to a ton of speculation that he was the Boy Who Cried Wolf and would be behind things somehow (since the final episode was called "Cry Wolf"). This was never anything more than speculation though, and he (and his model name) could easily have been red herrings.
Well I'm not gonna fight people about the comics; I like 'em a lot and I'll leave it at that (and Rose Red is great)
I will say this WRT Bigby and Snow in the comics:
Their relationship is not in any way based on love - at least, not for each other, not really. Bigby loves Snow in the sense that a dog does, but Snow loves her children, and any love she has for Bigby is an extension of that, because he is a caregiver and protector of their little pack. He's a stable and understandable element in a life that is full of invariably unreliable people, from Cole to Rose to pretty much the entire rest of the cast.
Their relationship has a lot of fucked up elements in it
But the way they resolve themselves to be with each other is very interesting - very nearly a fairy tale romance, in the classical sense
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Additionally, there's a distinct possibility that Nerissa was the villain of the story. The Crooked Man seemed pretty adamant that he didn't kill anybody and wanted to ensure Bigby would bring him in because he didn't think he would be convicted for it (he never tries to deny any of his other crimes).
Then we know that Nerissa lied to get him convicted for the murders and that she was using glamors to fool people (whether it was Nerissa-as-Faith or Faith-as-Nerissa she still did), and we really only have her word (when she admits to lying) on how things went down.
It's entirely possible that Nerissa simply glamored herself as the Crooked Man and gave the order to Georgie so she could then bring down his organization (to take over for herself? to settle a vendetta with the Crooked Man? to cause general chaos in Fabletown for the Adversary?).
Faith's whole backstory is about her ingenuity allowing her to escape even the most perilous situations under cover
Although, keep in mind that
the person who helped to cast glamours would be Auntie Greenleaf. She seemed pretty loyal to the Crooked Man and like the closest to turning over when he reminded her in the trial that he helped her get her tree back. I don't know if she would have given Nerissa/Faith a glamour to look like the Crooked Man before any of this went down; it seems like it would be an awfully large risk to take with no stake in it.
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Besides, the Woodsman's story is that he kills the Big Bad Wolf, but the last time he's in the game he's teaming up with you in a fight and then (potentially) having a smoke with you. And the original ribbon story has the girl with the ribbon lose her head but the game blatantly says that didn't happen in Vivian's profile. Their backstories aren't the best thing to base the future on.
However, if you're saying that Nerissa is the one who died and it was Faith the entire time, there are a lot of problems.
For one, Nerissa never acknowledges Lawrence in any way, even if he's alive. For another, Georgie flat out says he killed Faith so you would have to explain that (ie. Faith and Nerissa were glamored as each other before he walked in, but why would they do that?). Then there's the fact that if it was Faith she would have to be glamored full-time which is risky for a number of reasons. Then there's the bit where Woodsman thinks Faith should recognize him but she doesn't. Lastly, the endgame statistics has a giant "DECEASED" stamped across Faith's portrait.
However, if it was Nerissa the whole time then all of that is explained. Furthermore, it also explains why Faith's belongings were broken open at the strip club (because Nerissa needed stuff for her glamor and/or to get the ring to leave with Faith's head so Bigby could identify her). The only other explanation for that is that the Tweedles were looking for the photo there (which is plausible, though I don't think the strip club is one of the places established that they searched).
Of course, there are problems with it having been Nerissa as well. The Magic Mirror says "These lips are sealed" when you try to find Faith, even though she should be dead and without her ribbon, which doesn't make sense. Additionally, some of the quotes Bigby remembers at the end seem to hint at Faith being the one who is alive (though the quote about Swineheart still inspecting the head could go count for either of them...either it was glamored which was why he was studying it further, or he realized that the time of death meant that Bigby couldn't have met her when he said he did so something was fishy).
Plus all the details of how the murder of "Faith" went down are supplied by "Nerissa" who has already admitted to lying, which further muddles the issue.
It having been Nerissa the whole time makes a lot more sense to me, though.
RE: Questions of how the ending changes.
I've heard that if you kill the Crooked Man, the trial scene is instead Bigby having to justify his actions to the crowd, and that you jump on his limo first that Bloody Mary hits you with a car and he gets away, resulting in you having to go to Georgie first anyways (except now Vivian is apparently already dead when you get there).
If you didn't torture Dee, the Crooked Man still brings it up but you are able to point out that it was Bluebeard who did it instead of Bigby.
He gets a scene of yelling at the Crooked Man, I don't know if it effects the outcome though (in my version, everyone stood with me against the Crooked Man).
I also really liked the confrontation at the Witching Well. Very true to Fables (and noir fiction in general) to have catching the bad guy turn into a debate about murky gray areas, where you feel like you're on trial as much as the bad guy is. Finishing him off never felt particularly good or satisfying to me, and that's exactly how it should be, I think. It felt necessary but also kind of wrong, in a way.
The whole thing at the beginning of Episode 1 at Woody's apartment also throws some wrenches into the idea that it could be Faith:
First of all, during Nerissa's speech at the end, she specifically says that she went to warn Lily at her usual client (ie. Woody) but that she wasn't there (because she was having to go to Crane's, and the real Faith was supposed to be covering her shift at Woody's--based on the note Bigby finds). Though it is possible she is lying (and she would have to be lying if it was really Faith, because Faith would already know she was supposed to be covering Lily's shift and so wouldn't have looked for Lily there).
Secondly, Toad finds the Donkeyskin Cloak there. I don't recall them establishing that Faith had an apartment there, so presumably that means the cloak was in Woody's apartment. Why would the real Faith travel somewhere using the cloak, when it was somewhere that she was supposed to be? This would only make sense if Nerissa's story about trying to warn Lily was true (and thus, wanting to remain undetected), but the real Faith never would have looked for Lily here.
Here's how I interpret that: Nerissa told the truth about this part of the story. Lily & Faith conspired to escape and Faith stole a photo of Crane with Lily-as-Snow to use as leverage. Nerissa then ratted them out, apparently fearing what would happen to them. The Crooked Man (or at least, someone Georgie believed was the Crooked Man) told Georgie to deal with it.
Georgie returned to the club and informed Nerissa that he had to make an example because they had committed treason. During this conversation, Faith walks in and Georgie pulls her ribbon. We are never told what happened to her body, but somehow Nerissa gets her head.
Now according to the next bit of Nerissa's story, she tries to warn Lily at her usual appointment. My speculation here is that she used the Donkeyskin Cloak to travel to Woody's without being noticed, out of fear she would be killed if anyone knew she was trying to warn Lily. At this point she was also glamored as Faith, presumably because she was afraid that if she went as Nerissa that the super strong troll would murder her when she said Nerissa ratted them out (this is the only real stretch in this theory, but it's minor compared to the stretches you have to make in order for Nerissa to be the dead one).
However, what she didn't know was that Faith had agreed to cover Lily's shift, because Lily had to go be with Crane. So instead she found the Woodsman, alone and angry. Ultimately Bigby is called and she realizes he's not as bad as everyone says and that he can help her. So she leaves the head on the doorstep (possibly after reproducing the injuries that Woodsman afflicted on her onto the corpse head) and drops her Faith disguise from then on. The cloak was left behind, allowing Toad to claim it.
If Bigby gave her money, then she apparently gives it to Georgie (since it can be found in his safe), presumably using it as a cover story for her whereabouts (ie. "I picked up a John tonight, didn't catch his name.").
The following has a good bit of conjecture, but could possibly further the idea that it was really Nerissa. If you apprehend Woody at the end of Episode 1, then during the interrogation in Episode 2 he reveals that he was one of Lily's regulars and she usually didn't charge him, hence why he was angry that Faith wanted him to pay. This indicates that Woody was probably off-the-books as far as Lily was concerned (as Georgie likely wouldn't tolerate her doing the job for free) and so when Lily got a paying gig for the night (Crane) she asked Faith to keep her appointment with Woody and she put the Crane appointment on the books (which it was, which is how Georgie knew where to go and kill her).
However, when Nerissa was disguised as Faith and showed up at Woody's looking for Lily, she had no idea Woody was expecting her and that it was supposed to be a freebie (something Lily presumably would have explained to the real Faith when she asked her to cover, since this was a regular thing and she would want to keep it off the books).
Unfortunately, the fact that the key event (death of Faith and immediate aftermath) is only told to us by "Nerissa" moments after admitting to a different lie certainly muddies the waters a bit as it opens up the possibility that she was lying about other stuff. However, if she was lying then the real explanation could be basically anything as we weren't given enough information to come to another conclusion nor any kind of alternative way of how the death of "Faith" went down. So unless they are working on a Season 2 that will continue this specific storyline instead of starting a new one, then I'm leaning towards the explanation that fits with the current information with the least amount of conjecture, meaning it was really Nerissa and not Faith.
like even the fact that nerissa is still wearing her ribbon is suspicious
the choice at the end is to decide whether to pursue her and figure out exactly what it is that's going on
or to say forget it bigby, it's fabletown
I hear they've kinda gone to shit recently with the author weirdly injecting his opinions on Israel into the plot? Something like that?
I also have some difficulty with author's portrayal of the ladies in the comics, too, though that's pretty dumb for me to say considering I really like the game and 75% of the women in the games were prostitutes.
Also mild relationship spoilers without any real specifics:
Steam: ZappRowsdower
THe series is really, really, really good, and needs to be read from start to finish. It's ending soon, so it's now more about winding down character beats.
It's not my favorite ongoing anymore (that would be Saga) but it is 100% worth reading and if you like the setting then you should try the books.
I was actually super glad I had put crooked man down the well when I found out nerissa lied
also I am in the "live faith was nerissa" camp but I swear I heard bloody mary during the voice over which was weird
He's just a side character who's a real jerk 100% of the time and never gets any comeuppance or anything
Well
He is more or less just a really huge misogynistic asshole who Bigby has nothing but contempt for
It works
it kinda felt like that guy in the camp in dragon age origins who tells you about these cool adventures and would you like to open up the bioware store and pay 10 dollars for them
I would have much preferred either the voice over stuff not happening until she is on the bus so your options are "ineffectually call out to the bus/do nothing" or not have the option at all, just the voice over shit while bigby watches the bus roll by with nerissa in the window
Forget it Bigby, it's Fabletown
Just light up a smoke and get back to work
no but
literally still closer to bigby than the bus, he could catch up to her with very little effort expended at all
Yeah like
That's the reason I wanted the game to be less of a prequel and more its own canon.
The Bigby/Snow stuff is incredibly fucked up and felt really weird after they'd built up all the tension that led to that moment. Made me feel kind of gross about it to be honest. I was hoping that there would either be more closure with Snow at the end of TWAU, or that it would obviously lead up to a SEE YOU IN SEASON 2 rather than an ad for the comics. Though I mean, that ad at the end doesn't necessarily mean they won't revisit Wolf Among Us, especially with all the great reviews its getting. Not sure what sales have been like for the game either in comparison to Walking Dead. I really appreciate their take on the setting though, so I hope they come back to it!
3DS Friend Code: 0216-0898-6512
Switch Friend Code: SW-7437-1538-7786
Continued now detailed comic spoilers:
Episode 5 spoilers:
Steam: ZappRowsdower
like he was kind of a red herring due to his background but he had nothing to do with anything besides being a dick
I really like the way wolf among us digs into more obscure characters
I'm guessing it's not an accident that the most affluent or influential Fables in town are the most famous ones that everyone's heard of
The Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, Beauty & the Beast
And the poverty-stricken and those that end up having to turn to crime are the more unknown ones that nobody pays any mind to in the public consciousness
The Crooked Man, Mr. Toad, The Jersey Devil, Faith & Prince Lawrence
I almost thought it was original, but there are some older references to a story about a girl with a ribbon
I want to have a box of this on a shelf, and I want it to somehow look even better than it already does
And I dunno, there are a few cool women in the comic (although I find the premise of that Fairest miniseries I've never actually read rather insulting). I do wish
One of the interesting things about this in comparison to the Walking Dead is they seemingly wrote the entire thing in advance
All the achievements for the game went up with the first episode and never changed
The Walking Dead, however, was written AND produced one episode at a time and essentially ran on a South Park schedule of scrambling to get everything done
Kinda like they've already made a much better version of Walking Dead.
That's gonna be a weird one
the entire plot starts as a metaphor for Isreal, it actually went off the rails a bit when that arc wrapped up because there wasn't really anywhere to go. But the point is that they're trying to take back their Homeland.
Also (more specific comic spoilers)
I kinda don't want a WAU Season 2, just to leave this bit of speculation unanswered. It's the only real problem I've had with there being a second season of WD, cause we found out what became of Clem afterwards.
Ffffuck the opening music of this game is so good
There was apparently a big rewrite for this between episode 1 and 2. When Episode 2 was uploaded, the preview image for episode 3 changed.
The amount of entries to unlock in the Book of Fables has also changed as episodes were added (most recently, Episode 5 only showed five spots until yesterday when the episode came out, then it updated to have eight spots). The achievement names didn't change, but a lot of them also no longer seem to fit their point in the story.
Some details and dummied lines have also been mined from the game's code, and I think there was also something about an early script leak that had some details. Overall, here's what I remember regarding that:
Beauty was originally going to be a suspect, as Bigby wasn't supposed to find her hiding behind the tree during Episode 1, instead he was supposed to find evidence that she was there when he was doing his search after Faith's head is discovered. I assume they changed this since anyone who read the comics would know she was a red herring.
Cinderella was apparently going to have a role of some sort and had a model made for the game.
Georgie Porgie had some of his early lines changed (and I think I heard he got a new voice actor?) but I can't remember the details.
Apparently the red-haired guy that you see in the background is listed in the code as "Cryer" which lead to a ton of speculation that he was the Boy Who Cried Wolf and would be behind things somehow (since the final episode was called "Cry Wolf"). This was never anything more than speculation though, and he (and his model name) could easily have been red herrings.
NONE CAN STAND AGAINST ME
I will say this WRT Bigby and Snow in the comics:
Their relationship has a lot of fucked up elements in it
But the way they resolve themselves to be with each other is very interesting - very nearly a fairy tale romance, in the classical sense
yeah uh if telltale just kept going with wolf among us as like an elseworlds for fable I would be super on board
Spoilers for the comics and for Cry Wolf:
So if you throw the Crooked Man down there without tearing his head off (but why would you?) then you're suddenly in an alternate universe story!
Ending spoilers