Video Game / The Wolf Among Us

"Everybody knows you. Big Bad Wolf."

"Once upon a time in New York City, there lived a community of fairy tale characters known as Fabletown.

The Fables who live there arrived hundreds of years ago, after they were exiled from their Homelands.

Through the use of a magic spell called Glamour, they have protected their secret community from the mundane world.

Sheriff Bigby Wolf protects them from each other."

— Episode One: Faith

The Wolf Among Us is an episodic adventure game developed by Telltale Games, the developers behind The Walking Dead. It takes place in the world of Bill Willingham's Fables comic book series, and is canonically a prequel to the events of said comics. In a nutshell, it's a Film Noir set around characters of archaic tales, and their difficulty surviving in a modern, crapsack world.

The player takes control of Bigby Wolf, the Big Bad Wolf famed in fairy tales, as he faces a conflict between his suppressed lupine nature and his desire to turn over a new leaf, keeping the citizens of Fabletown safe. All is not well in Fabletown, and a mysterious murder kicks off a situation which rapidly begins to deteriorate, threatening the entire community, leaving Bigby to cut through the tangled web of deceit and sniff out the truth — before it's too late.

The game features combat similar The Walking Dead, Telltale's previous choice-based adventure game, in that the player must use their cursor to quickly react to events and beat down their opponents. However, there are differences between Lee and Bigby; Bigby, being The Big Bad Wolf, is larger and much more physically powerful than Lee, and he won't be fighting off any zombies, so unarmed combat and improvised weaponry are far more par for the course than are the guns featured in The Walking Dead.

Gameplay, however, is focused primarily on solving the mystery surrounding the aforementioned murder, and sharp-eyed players will find themselves at a significant advantage here. The more evidence Bigby collects at a scene, the more pieces of the puzzle he will have.

The first season has been fully released. It consists of five episodes:

• Episode 1 - "Faith" (Released October 11, 2013)
• Episode 2 - "Smoke and Mirrors" (Released February 4, 2014)
• Episode 3 - "A Crooked Mile" (Released April 8, 2014)
• Episode 4 - "In Sheep's Clothing" (Released May 27, 2014)
• Episode 5 - "Cry Wolf" (Released July 8, 2014)

A second season was announced in 2018, but it was later cancelled due to the abrupt closure of Telltale Games. The game was Un-Cancelled in 2019 after Telltale Games was reformed by LCG Entertainment. It is scheduled to release in 2024. The trailer can be seen here.

The Wolf Among Us has also been adapted into a 16-issue digital-first comic series. The comic closely follows the plot of the game, but adds a lot of backstory, with a good third of the comic devoted to extended flashback sequences in which we not only see Bigby's early years in the mundane world and his history with some of the other characters, but also the backstories of the game's antagonists.

Please note that, as the first season has concluded and the page is whited out otherwise, spoilers for the first three episodes will be unmarked.

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The Wolf Among Us contains examples of the following tropes:

Season 1 - A-F

• Aborted Arc:
  • Kelsey Brannigan, the cop that grills Bigby in Episode 2's beginning, is shown in pre-release Episode 3 materials and it's hinted that Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are assigned to watch her if you go a particular path. Nothing is ever made of this by the end of the season.
  • The preview of Episode 2 at the end of Episode 1 shows Bigby discussing with Crane the (very realistic) possibility that a serial killer is responsible for the murders. That scene never appears in the actual episode, Bigby never brings the possibility up, and the purpose of the murders was to cover up a conspiracy.
  • The preview of Episode 3 and Display Picture of Episode 4 heavily imply Bluebeard will be taking over Crane's position of Deputy Mayor and de facto leader of Fabletown. He doesn't, and his role in the story after Episode 3, where he assists Snow and Bigby's investigation, quickly diminishes
• Accidental Hero: As the Woodsman confesses, he went to Grandmother's House attempting to rob her and Red Riding Hood, only to find Bigby already there and end up being lauded as a hero for cutting the pair out.
• Acrofatic: Tweedle Dee, in spades, during his foot chase with Bigby. It's assumed Dum is as well, being, well, twins.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
  • Bigby's sense of smell. In the comics, it is revealed that Bigby's sense of smell is so powerful, he has to chain smoke to dull his senses and make things bearable. A lot of points in the game rely on things being a surprise to the player, and by extension Bigby himself. The majority of these moments of tension wouldn't last for more than a few minutes if his sense of smell was as powerful as it is in the comics, and if it was even as strong as a normal dog or wolf, the chase scenes would be much less "which way did they go"-ish. It's also revealed in the comics that his connection to Snow White is so powerful, he knows exactly where she is and what she's feeling at every point in time by her musk alone. Were this true in the game, Bigby would have known immediately that Snow wasn't dead.
  • Flycatcher having been "let go" by Ichabod Crane and getting a job for the Tweedles instead. The comics, however, make it clear that Flycatcher isn't actually employed by the Fabletown government — he's on constant community service because he keeps eating flies in public. The comics also very plainly show that if he is released from that community service and instead is offered an actual job that he can quit any time he likes, he goes into a Heroic BSoD because then he feels compelled to quit the job and return to the Homelands to look for his missing family.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Bluebeard appears as a handsome bald man in the game. The original Bluebeard was described as hideously ugly (with wild, unkempt hair). Justified, as he could have cleaned up in the past 300 years and it does match his appearance in the source material. It's also possible he could be glamoured.
• Adaptation Distillation: The game focuses primarily on Bigby Wolf and the Noir sensibility.
• Adaptation Expansion: The digital-first comic adaptation of the game adds a lot more backstory. In fact, more than a third of the comic consists of flashback sequences which explores the backstoried and relations of several characters which weren't touched upon at all in the game, such as Bigby's history with Ichabod Crane or Bloody Mary's origin.
• Adaptational Villainy: Like the comic series it's based on, the game takes a few characters who were innocent in their respective stories and turns them into immoral antagonists:
  • The Woodsman in Episode 1, but he gets better later in the series.
  • Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, who frequently hinder Bigby's investigation.
  • Georgie Porgie, who is an all-round piece of shit to everyone.
  • The Crooked Man, who acts as the Big Bad of the game.
• Affably Evil: The Crooked Man. Although there are a number of Ax-Crazy villains on the payroll, episode 4 reveals that he also employs Tiny Tim as door guard, showing that there's a softer side to the villain too. This is thoroughly revealed to actually be Faux Affably Evil in Episode 5, however.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Georgie may have been a sex slaver and the murderer, but during his death scene, it's revealed that he truly loved Vivian, and he's torn apart by the fact that he's essentially responsible for her suicide. He's downright pitiful in his last moments. In addition, he really didn't have much of a choice - if he had let Faith, Lily and Nerissa go, the Crooked Man would have certainly killed Vivian and him both. In summary, he's sitting there with his guts literally spilling out, being tortured by both horrendous physical pain and the mental torment of knowing what he's done. He may be a thorough bastard, but his final moments definitely paint him in a more sympathetic light. Taken even further if Bigby refuses him a Mercy Kill and lets him die slow.
• The Alcoholic
  • Bufkin has to be chided by Bigby and Snow both to stop drinking on the job.
  • The Woodsman is a regular at the Trip-Trap, and makes his debut in a drunken rage against Faith.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: The Woodsman is already a very bitter man, but when drunk (as he often is), he's a very bitter, violent man. The entire first scene of the game would've gone much simpler and without such a bloody fight if he wasn't in a drunken rage against Faith.
• All Myths Are True: As with Fables, all myths and fairytale characters are real beings, and the story takes place in Fabletown, a community of New York-residing "Fables." Working in the police department, Snow, Crane, and Bigby have access to the Book of Fables that documents them all, but also serves as documentation on who is still alive and who isn't.
• All There in the Manual: As you progress and/or replay through the game, you unlock entries in the "Book of Fables". These entries explain the terminology or items the characters use, the locations name-dropped, as well as events and profiles specific to the characters, presumably to avoid confusing people who didn't pick up the comic books.
• Ambiguous Ending: Even as of Episode 5's ending, questions remain due to the closing segment — two interpretations of the finale exist, as the Wham Line means either: A) Faith (somehow) swapped places with Nerissa using a Glamour, meaning she never died and got the justice she wouldn't have seen otherwise; or B) Faith was dead before the plot and Bigby only met Nerissa Glamoured as her, allowing Nerissa to earn Bigby's sympathy and spur him into avenging Faith when he found her real severed head.
• Anchored Ship: Bigby and Snow never got a Relationship Upgrade in the game since it's a matter that's settled in the comics, which happens after the events of this game.
• And I Must Scream: The Witching Well doesn't make Fables Deader than Dead like Bigby and others think. Instead, it traps the Fables in the Well forever, fully aware and "alive".
• Anti-Frustration Features: When investigating Toad's house in the first episode, you have to check a lot of stuff that can be missed relatively easily - the busted lock, the broken lamp, the table the lamp actually used to be on, the window, the poker, and the blood on the wall - and catch Toad in his lies at least a majority of the time. This can be difficult for a first time player and just tedious for later players. Thankfully, there's an option to talk with Toad, threaten him, and slap him; while this will cause TJ to be scared of you, Toad to dislike you, and Snow to be a bit more unsure of you, it will immediately proceed on to the part where Toad tells the truth. You don't need to analyze anything to do this, so if you're fine with a little bit of a bad reputation from a couple characters, you can speed right through this part.
• Anvil on Head: Even after a merciless beating, the Jersey Devil's still standing, giving Bigby the option to brain him with a stone cavalry statue... or a big old blacksmith's anvil. Given that the result is the same either way, you can't blame most people for taking the sillier option.
• Arc Words: "These lips are sealed," said by Faith, Nerissa, and Vivian, all employees of the Pudding & Pie. Bigby quickly infers that something is preventing them from telling him what he needs to know, and we learn by the end that all the women are cursed via the ribbons they wear around their necks.
• An Arm and a Leg: At the end of his fight with Grendel, Bigby can choose whether to rip Grendel's arm off or not.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: In episode 3, Crane confesses his love for Snow when he's finally cornered. Snow promptly and angrily tells him off, as what he's feeling is clearly anything but love.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Snow will give Bigby one at the beginning of Episode 2 if he was interrogating Tweedle Dee or The Woodsman through torture.
  Bigby: I thought you were dead, Snow.
  Snow: And that makes it okay?
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Bigby, considering who he is. It's up to the player how much they embrace it, but intimidation and violence is always in Bigby's disposal.
• The Atoner: Our protagonist is the former Big Bad Wolf turned Noir Detective. He is anything but popular among the Fabletown residents, enemies with a few, and his job is only made harder by how unwilling everyone is to comply with him. The decisions made by the player affect how well the citizens warm up to him, if at all. Certain dialogue options will play up how much Bigby wants to right what he's done wrong.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Though the same can't be said for Crane, Sheriff Bigby is much more than capable in a fight, and gets into more than one No-Holds-Barred Beatdown over the course of his investigations.
• Axe-Crazy: Bloody Mary. Besides wielding the Woodsman's ax for herself, she makes it clear that she loves her job taking care of the Crooked Man's dirty work, taking great delight in the prospect of killing Bigby and Crane. In her debut, she says that she often visits girls who play her game at sleepovers...
  Bloody Mary: Otherwise, we do things my way. So please, please disobey.
• Bad Guy Bar: A minor example in The Trip Trap, which only really has two "bad guys" in it.
• Bad Liar:
  • Mr. Toad, to a hilarious degree.
  • Holly, the bartender, claims to have never heard of the Woodsman when asked, despite a picture of him being right behind her in her bar. Then again, she may have just been trying to annoy Bigby.
  • And Episode 4 features Johann, the Butcher (whose shop is beside the Baker and Candlestick-maker), who really can't tell a lie to save his life.
• Bald of Evil
  • Bluebeard is well-aware of how much the Fabletown government relies on his donations, and uses that to act as sadistic, cruel, and manipulative as he pleases.
  • Subverted with The Woodsman, who first appears in the game beating a prostitute and picking Bigby into a fight. Despite his potential set up as an antagonist, he's not truly evil in the end, just a drunken idiot.
  • Jersey—quick-tempered, foulmouthed, and cruel—looks every part the slick-and-smarmy pawn shop owner with his gold jewelry, balding hair, and sizable sideburns. His true form is much, much more intimidating, being a monstrous horse-like skull on a gnarled body.
• Bar Brawl: Bigby gets into one with Grendel at the end of Episode 1. It's up to the player to decide when it ends.
• Bash Brothers: The Tweedles do all their dirty work together, using their combined strength against their target, often Bigby.
• Battle in the Rain: Bigby's first encounter with Bloody Mary as well as the first appearance of Bigby's full man-wolf form takes place in a rain-slicked alley.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: A few of the Fables on the villains' payroll are quite unexpected — namely Flycatcher (the Frog Prince) and "Tiny" Tim. Both of them hold their employers in surprisingly high regard, excusing their bosses' behavior as a case of I Did What I Had to Do or Well-Intentioned Extremist because of the kindness they were shown.
• Berserk Button: Don't call any woman a bitch while Bigby's around, but especially not Snow White. Grendel, Georgie, and Jersey find this out the hard way.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Snow White spends the majority of the series as the voice of reason, patience and moderation, but when Aunty Greenleaf is identified as the one who glamoured Lily to look like her and refuses to cooperate with the investigation, Snow is the first to demand that her tree (the source of the illegal Glamour) be burned. Possibly because of a bad experience in her youth of another glamoured witch playing on her kind nature.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: This game features the quintessential duo in Bloody Mary and The Crooked Man - the first is a lethal enforcer providing the player a physical, action-based challenge, while the second is a moral challenge requiring the player to make difficult choices.
• The Big Bad Wolf: Again, Bigby. He's the Big Bad Wolf who tormented the three little pigs, Red Riding Hood, and others.
• Bittersweet Ending: The ending will have a slight twinge of bitterness no matter what the player does, since Lily and Nerissa/Faith are dead. It can be far darker or far lighter depending on the choices the player has made, though. The comic book adaptation, which is in many ways darker than the game even if it closely keeps to the same plot, gets a downright Downer Ending.
• Blessed with Suck: As noted, being a popular fairy tale makes the Fables stronger. However, if a character's injury or malady is a key part of their story, then that same belief also makes it incurable. Tiny Tim's perpetually deformed leg is the most notable example.
• Book Ends:
  • Of a sort. The beginning segment of Episode 1 concludes with a closeup of Bigby lighting a cigarette. One option for the end of Episode 4 (which is effectively the "beginning of the end" for the whole series) is for Bigby to repeat the shot in the Crooked Man's lair.
  • A major example comes in at the end of Episode 5: After a game full of twists and turns, Nerissa confides to Bigby about her involvement in the murders. As she walks away, she turns to him and says "You're not as bad as everyone says you are.", one of Faith's lines from the first episode. This spurs Bigby to realise that Nerissa was the one whose head was left on the doorstep and the "Nerissa" he has been talking to throughout the season was actually Faith. Suddenly, the mystery doesn't seem so wrapped up after all.
    • And the mystery deepens further when it's possible that Bigby never met the real Faith, and instead he only met Nerissa glamoured as her. The popular theory seems to be that Faith was dead at the beginning of the game, and in an attempt to get Bigby to take the case, Nerissa glamoured herself as Faith, and then made sure that she would end up meeting Bigby. Essentially the girl at the end is either Nerissa, or Faith glamoured as Nerissa.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: A bizarre in-universe example. When Bloody Mary works out that Bigby is watching her, she turns to face the player, smiles, and halts the mirror's view of her, cutting off Bigby.
• Brick Joke: Should Bigby give Faith money at the beginning of episode 1, if he tries to pay for a whiskey later, he'll find he can't. This continues through the rest of the season, with Bigby being given opportunities to take money and later chances to hand over money; it's possible for Bigby to turn it into a Running Gag and repeatedly forget that his wallet is empty.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • While people's dislike and distrust of Bigby is understandable, given his past, antagonizing him doesn't seem very bright, considering what he's capable of. Grendel finds out the hard way.
  • Tweedle Dum finds out the really hard way, with Bigby having the choice to kill him in the Episode 3 ending.
  • In Episode 5, Bloody Mary toys with Bigby during their fight so she can draw out the real Big Bad Wolf. Bigby responds by revealing his true form and effortlessly killing her.
• Bungled Suicide: Since most Fables are Made of Iron, it's all the more horrific when you see how hard Prince Lawrence has tried to die in Episode 1. Attempts include sliced wrists (vertically to boot), swallowing three bottles of sleeping pills, and a gunshot to the chest; all it did was render him unconscious for a week. Can be subverted, however, as the player's choices can result in getting there too late, allowing him to shoot himself in the head and finally cause enough harm to die.
• But Thou Must!: When investigating the Woodsman at the Trip Trap in Episode 1, Grendel, pissed about Holly's missing sister, calls Snow White a bitch. If Bigby insists that he not call her that, Grendel does it again - and the player's only option is to hit him.
• Call-Back:
  • Like with Faith and Holly in Episode 1, in episode 2 Bigby can only give the The Little Mermaid money if he took it from Tweedledee/The Woodsman at the beginning of the episode.
  • If he did give Faith the money, he can later find it stashed in Georgie Porgie's safe, and the player can choose to "repossess" it (plus a little extra for the trouble).
• Canis Major: During Bigby's final fight with Bloody Mary in Episode 5, he transforms from his usual werewolf-like form into a giant four-legged wolf.
• Car Cushion:
  • Bigby falls on top of Mr. Toad's car when he runs himself and the Woodsman out of a window.
  • Also occurs in episode five, when Bigby jumps onto a moving car.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Episode 3 introduces Bloody Mary, who acts as an enforcer for the Crooked Man. She absolutely revels in her bloody Urban Legend roots when not doing her paid work.
• Chekhov's Gun: While investigating the room where Lily was killed, Bigby notices a pack of Huff n'Puff cigarettes, which he thought he was the only one smoking. Later in Episode 5 in the Crooked Man's office you can see Georgie Porgie smoking one of these, which allows us to deduce that he was the one who killed Lily and Faith. If you were paying attention, the cigarette machine that you could have/did smash up was for Huff n'Puffs.
  • The magic lamp in the Business Office. Bigby can interact with it, though since there is no genie inside of it, nothing happens. Crane later uses it to shatter the Magic Mirror when Bigby and Beauty discover that he was the one who had Lily glamoured to look like Snow.
• Chekhov's Skill: Doubling as a Mythology Gag, episode 5's fight with Bloody Mary concludes when Bigby starts to "huff and puff" and blow Mary and her clones into the wall to shatter.
• Chew Toy: Georgie Porgie. By the time Bigby leaves he can have all of the money he keeps in his safe "repossessed", every essential piece of equipment in running his strip club broken, and been punched in the face and smashed with a cricket bat. And then in Episode 3, Bigby pays another visit to his place to find Ichabod Crane.
• Cigarette Burns: One possible way to interrogate Tweedledee and the Woodsman is to burn their hand with their own cigar/cigarette.
• City Noir: Fabletown and this depiction of New York City at large.
• Cliffhanger: One on-par The Walking Dead (Telltale) in Episode 4 - Bigby starts following through on the player's last choice before a Smash to Black. This also occurs if the player chooses to go after Nerissa at the end of Episode 5. If instead Bigby decides to let her go, the game fades to black on the last line instead of smashing to punctuate it for dramatic effect.
• Cluster F-Bomb: At the beginning of Episode 5, there is quite an impressive ensemble of them as all of the people Bigby's pissed off begin arguing about him.
• Color-Coded Characters: Like The Walking Dead, the characters have color-coded subtitles.
  • Bigby is white.
  • Snow is blue.
  • The Woodsman and Toad are light green.
  • The Crooked Man is orange.
  • Tiny Tim is mustard yellow.
  • Tweedle Dee is navy blue.
  • Tweedle Dum is peach.
  • Bluebeard is gray.
  • Bufkin is marsh green.
  • The Magic Mirror is green.
  • Flycatcher is forest green.
  • Crane is purple.
  • Bloody Mary is red.
  • Aunty Greenleaf and Swineheart are yellow.
  • Jersey is reddish brown.
  • Nerissa is sea green.
  • Faith is light blue.
  • Georgie is dark orange.
  • Hans is goldenrod.
  • Detective Brannigan is teal.
  • Beauty is maroon red.
  • Beast is light gray.
  • Colin and TJ are pink.
  • Vivian is orchid.
• Company Town: The "Pudding an' Pie" is enough of one that it's even referred to as a "Company Store" in Episode 2.
• Compliment Backfire: If you correctly deduce all the clues at a murder scene, Beauty gives one to Bigby in Episode 2:
  Beauty: You're a better detective than I thought you'd be.
  Bigby: ...thanks?
• Cool Car: Toad's car bears a strong resemblance to the 1987 Ford Mustang, which would have been brand new in 1986, when the story apparently takes place. Unfortunately, it ends up getting wrecked during Bigby's fight with The Woodsman.
• Continuity Drift:
  • Originally Beast's curse was only triggered when Beauty was upset with him, but this was later scrapped; and is not brought back for this.
  • Bigby and Snow are both noticeably softer and more emotional than in the Comics, even if you play Bigby as a hardass. This could be explained by the game taking place a good thirty years before the comics, before Snow comes into power as Vice-Mayor of Fabletown, but even by then they're both hundreds of years old, Bigby has untold thousands of lives on his conscience and Snow personally tracked down and killed each of the seven dwarves in revenge for months of sexual slavery, making her obvious horror and outright disbelief at Faith's murder a bit implausible, although that might just be because there hasn't been a murder in Fabletown for a long time.
  • Bigby's incredibly powerful nose and his ability to sense Snow and her feelings anywhere should logically have rendered not only a certain cliffhanger in Episode 1, but also half of the entire plot of the series obsolete. As such, it seems that his senses have been dumbed down a bit in the game.
• Cowboy Cop: The player gets the option to play Bigby like this. The Crooked Man exploits it by throwing it back in Bigby's face during the trial.
• Crapsack World: The world of Fables is not a nice place, and this story is a prime example of it. If the player chooses, Bigby can make some small differences to better the conditions for some people, but ultimately and in the long run he doesn't seem to do much good. The crapsack part is even clearer in the comic adaptation, where Bigby most often does not take the "nice" path. Not only that, but in the comic, the Crooked Man gets away scot-free. And the comic ends with him murdering Nerissa/Faith as soon as she is out of Bigby's sight.
• Create Your Own Villain: One of the major themes of the game is that Fabletown's impenetrable bureaucracy and rampant corruption, particularly under Crane's administration, creates a whole mass of "disenfranchised" Fables who need organized crime organizations and the Crooked Man just to get the things they need. Snow even mentions being specifically ordered to ignore the pleas and complaints from the "common" folks in favor of those with money and connections, like Bluebeard.
• Cruel Mercy: Should the player choose to imprison the Crooked Man for his crimes, rather than rip his head off or throw him down the Witching Well, it will be revealed that he will be spending the sentence in a birdcage...as a raven.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Considering that Greenleaf is seen as a background character using magic at one point in the comics, it's safe to assume her tree wasn't burned.
• Dark Action Girl: Bloody Mary, in addition to being a certified Psycho for Hire, manages to take Bigby down with a silver bullet and is only narrowly dissuaded from finishing him off with the Woodman's axe.
• Darker and Edgier: Than the comics for sure, the comics themselves can be rather dark by themselves but the noir styles of the game summed up with the dirty and crooked 80's and a really dark plot can be downright unpleasant, this is pretty much the SVU to Fables Law & Order. Additionally, it's probably one of Telltale's most gritty and bleakest games along with The Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones.
• Darkest Hour: The end of Episode 3 serves as this for the story as a whole. The Crooked Man has made his presence known in the story, and he ends up siccing the Tweedles and his second-in-command Bloody Mary on Bigby and Snow. Bigby handles the twins but ends up crippled and near-death when Bloody Mary shoots him in the back with a silver bullet. Snow has to trade Crane (essentially their biggest lead) to the Crooked Man in order to save Bigby's life. And the Magic Mirror is still inoperable because Crane took a piece of it with him after shattering it.
• Dead All Along: Episode 5 implies that Nerissa was actually Faith the whole time, and that the head in the first episode belonged to Nerissa, glamored to look like Faith's. Either that, or Nerissa used a Glamour to befriend Bigby as Faith, spurring him into taking on her murder case; in other words, Faith died before the plot started.
• Dead-Hand Shot: A skeletal hand is all the Magic Mirror shows of Faith's father, letting Bigby know that he's not involved in the case.
• Death Is Cheap: Aside from being Made of Iron, Fables will resurrect so long as the Muggles remember their tale(s), which explains how Bigby constantly comes back from, say, being killed by the Woodsman in the Red Riding Hood tale.
• Destination Defenestration: Happens to both the Woodsman and Bigby towards the end of their fight.
• Determinator: At the end of Chapter 3 Bigby gets put down by the Tweedle twins. Then Bigby opens his eyes, gets up and wades through a hail of shotgun fire, transforming along the way.
• Dirty Coward: It's hammered home in Episode 3 that Crane is one. It's even cited as one of the main reasons why he can't be the murderer.
• Dirty Old Man: Crane has the hots for Snow White. Subverted in that, as Fables, both of the characters in question are many centuries old and one just happens to look like an old man and the other like a beautiful young woman.
• Disposable Sex Worker: After Bigby rescues her from the Woodsman, Faith's head is found on the front porch of his apartment building. Also, Lily, who was murdered while glamoured as Snow White. Deconstructed by Nerissa in episode 5: she knew that no one would ever investigate her friends' deaths because they weren't important enough (Lily had been reported missing weeks ago and Bigby didn't even know because the complaint had been ignored), so she dropped off the head on the front step of the Woodlands, making it look like a threat to the people inside and thus making it high-profile enough to actually be investigated.
• The Dog Bites Back: If Bigby arrests the Crooked Man, the Crooked Man finds himself at the mercy of everyone he was blackmailing.
• Doomed by Canon: In the Fables comics, which takes place after this game, there is a grave with Mr. Toad's name on it at the "Farm", and he is followed by Colin Pig, Bluebeard, and Ichabod Crane, who all die at some point during the comics.
• Doppelgänger Attack: Bloody Mary during the last episode showdown. She and many mirror-like clones attack Bigby all at once, and it takes going full Big Bad Wolf to take them out.
• Downer Ending: The comic adaptation. The Crooked Man manages to sneak out of prison, taking with him evidence of his crimes and becoming a Karma Houdini. Even worse, during the very end of the comic, the Crooked Man comes back for Faith, having been promised to become her husband back in the Homelands. He manages to snatch her right as Bigby turns around, robbing her of her potential Earn Your Happy Ending and dooming her to become his bride forever. The game's ending is more of a Bittersweet Ending, and while the Downer Ending is quite a sight, it contrasts so heavily with the rest of the comic and the themes of the story it’s based on that it comes across as needlessly cruel.
• Dramatic Irony: The revelation that Ichabod Crane was with the last murder victim the night she died, considering how he himself nearly met his end in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
• Driven to Suicide: Prince Lawrence, after Faith leaves him. Unfortunately for him, suicide is an especially long and hard process when you are a Fable; see Bungled Suicide. A more clear example is in Episode 5 with Vivian, who removes the ribbon from her own neck to make her head fall off.
• The '80s: If the synthesizer-heavy soundtrack wasn't a dead giveaway, various background details seen throughout the first episode indicate the game takes place in 1986. The fact that Ichabod Crane is still Deputy Mayor of Fabletown lends further credence to this, since he'd resigned from that post by the time the comic's story started. To further emphasize this, in the Trip Trap, there's a poster for a "Rock Fest" happening on Monday, May 5th. May 5th fell on a Monday in the year 1986.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: In Episode 5, Bigby has spent several restless days being pummeled, and soon takes a beating from Bloody Mary, who has duplicated herself into dozens of copies. Cue Bigby dropping his human form entirely, he finally transforms into the Big Bad Wolf of the story and kills Mary and her copies.
• Empty Fridge, Empty Life: There is very little inside Bigby's fridge, aside from some alcohol and cigarettes. He even asks himself why he doesn't have a smaller one.
• The Ending Changes Everything: Naturally, as a Murder Mystery. The final conversation with Nerissa in Episode 5 does this tenfold, with her revealing she gave false testimony to catch the Crooked Man, before giving the biggest Wham Line of the series, implying very heavily that either she was posing as Faith at the start of Episode 1, or that she is actually Faith, and has been impersonating Nerissa throughout the season, and the first victim was actually the real Nerissa.
• Enemy Mine: Bigby teams up with the Woodsman to fight the Jersey Devil in Episode 4.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Woodsman is just The Woodsman, much to his annoyance: he has a name, but nobody remembered it as the story spread to the point where he himself has forgotten what it was. This is a common occurrence in the Fables continuity, such as Frau Tötenkinder in the comics.
• Evil Brit: Tweedledee, Tweedledum, Georgie Porgie and The Crooked Man.
• Excuse Me, Coming Through!: Bigby tears through an apartment filled with frightened mundies in pursuit of Georgie and the Crooked Man.
• Eye Scream: In Bigby's fight with Beast, he jabs his fingers in the latter's eyes.
• Failure Is the Only Option: With regards to the Mr. Toad plot. No matter if you give Mr. Toad the money, he will still be sent off to the farm. See Doomed by Canon above.
• Fairy Tale Free-for-All: Like the comic it serves as a prequel to, the story features many classic fairy tale characters with The Big Bad Wolf as the protagonist.
• Faking the Dead: The ending implies that Faith and Nerissa swapped places, meaning one isn't who they say they are.
• Fallen Hero: The Woodsman, but not really. Despite being hailed as the hero that saved Red Riding Hood from the wolf (Bigby), he was actually planning on robbing her and her grandmother, and just happened to walk in when Bigby was there. The self-loathing over the incident is eating him up inside, while at the same time hating that he's fallen a bit more into obscurity.
• Fantastic Noir: Classic fairy tale characters in a murder mystery set in 80's New York.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Some dialogue between Crane and Snow shows that Crane doesn't like Trolls. This carries over the long-running theme from the comics that the human fables are on a higher social rank than non-human fables.
  • Snow also isn't innocent from prejudice. It's made clear that while she wants to help, it's more out of protecting the image of Fabletown than genuine change. She sees animal Fables as talking annoyances that need to be separated from "true" Fables, ie Toad and his son. And while not as overtly prejudiced as Crane and Bluebeard, when she becomes Deputy Mayor, it's implied that she has no time for poorer Fables, and that the cycle started by Crane will continue
• Fat Bastard: Tweedledee and Tweedledum are both heavily overweight, bordering on Gonk, and are just two of the many cronies working for the Crooked Man.
• Faux Affably Evil: The Crooked Man is gentlemanly and even reasonable in his debut, and when it's time to face the citizens, his charm and politeness can potentially sway them over to his side should you lose their favor from Bigby's actions. But it's all just a front, as the Crooked Man is a heart a cruel manipulator who has no problem disposing Fable lives for his own gain.
• Fetish: Crane has the hots for Snow, to the point of having Lily glamored to look like her. Bigby is anything but pleased when he learns about this.
• Film Noir: Hard-boiled Sheriff in a city full of darkness and secrets. And fantasy critters.
• Flipping the Bird: In Chapter 4, if you visit the Lucky Pawn first, Toad can give the British variant of the bird to both Bigby and Jack, and Bigby can flip Toad off in return.
• Forced Transformation: One possible fate of the Crooked Man. He gets turned into a raven, has his tongue removed, and is shipped to The Farm.
• Foregone Conclusion: Becoming important in Chapter 4, Colin does indeed end up at the farm.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Some of the things Faith says during her interaction with Bigby nod toward her later demise, particularly the whole "I won't be doing this for much longer" bit.
  • Both Faith and the Mirror saying "These lips are sealed" when asked certain information. Episode 5 explains it to be part of the no-disclosure clause of the strip club Faith works for.
  • When Bigby mentions the victim to have used drugs, Ichabod is worried about diseases for a reason.
  • Tweedle Dee uses "These lips are sealed" as well. In episode 2 when Bigby asks Nerissa for information she struggles to answer about the case but can only say "These... Lips."
  • Comes back again as a plot point when Ichabod tries to clear his name about who murdered Lily with a ring that dispels magic. Unfortunately for him the ring lost it's power decades ago prompting his final attempt to use it to be met with Nerissa answering "These Lips are Sealed."
  • If he is saved, Prince Lawrence asks Bigby in the teaser trailer for Episode 2 where's the rest of Faith's body as only her head was found. One of the major theories for the game's ending involves Faith having been the "Nerissa" Bigby interacted with throughout the season, and the head on Fabletown's doorstep actually belonged to the real Nerissa.
• Functional Addict: Bigby smokes and drinks a lot, but it doesn't stop him from doing his job. That's because those habits help keep the wolf at bay. Also a bit of Hypocritical Humor:
  Bigby: (about a soda machine) Ugh. That shit'll kill ya. (Lights smoke, takes drag.)

Season 1 - G-L

• Geas: In Episode 4, the purple ribbons that Georgie's prostitutes wear are revealed to be the seal that stops them from divulging any information about their clients, or other information that Georgie wants kept private. If the wearer tries to divulge said information, they are forced to say "these lips are sealed" instead. As revealed in Episode 4, simply removing the ribbon causes the wearer to be decapitated.
• Genius Bruiser: Bigby has a reputation of being a truly terrifying Blood Knight, but that doesn't mean he's stupid. He gets many Sherlock Scan moments in the game, added with his heightened sense of smell to find clues. Plus, he manages to solve the case and uncover a massive conspiracy beneath Fabletown.
• Girl Friday: Snow White to Bigby, except she's his boss, but she handles the paperwork and bureaucracy while he's out kicking ass.
• Glamour Failure: A literal case (and recurring plot point), starting in Episode 2. Due to the cost of Glamour spells, there's a great demand for cheap black market Glamours. These spells are unstable and provide an increasingly imperfect disguise before finally failing entirely.
• Glory Days: It initially seems that the fairy tales the Fables originate from serve as these to them; however, Bigby seems to be haunted by his monstrous actions as the Big Bad Wolf, the Woodsman is being eaten up by his own self-loathing and guilt over the fact that he's lauded as a hero despite having intended to rob Red Riding Hood, and (depending on Bigby's actions) losing an arm seems to scar Grendel.
• Good Thing You Can Heal:
  • The Woodsman goes through a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, followed by plunging from his apartment onto the street below, and finally ending with an axe embedded in his skull. No one worries much about it, and the Woodsman stumbles off on his own while Bigby isn't paying attention. He's in shape for a drink by the next day. Fables are hard to kill.
  • During a fight with Bigby in Episode 2, Beast gets his eyes gouged out, and is just fine a few moments later.
  • In Episode 3: Gren and Holly both survive getting shot point-blank by the Tweedle Boy's shotguns and spend the next day recovering. Later Bigby is shot multiple times by the Tweedles and has his arm broken by Bloody Mary, teasers for the next episode show him healed.
  • It's also implied that the Magic Mirror can mend itself after being broken if all pieces are in place and, even if some are missing, it will regenerate over time (but it may take a while).
  • Despite getting an axe in his head, one of his antlers torn off and his skull smashed in, the Jersey Devil appears later with only a few cuts and bruises.
  • This is actually a nod to the source material; the only ways for a Fable to permanently die are if not enough people know their story anymore, or if they're cast down the Witching Well.
• Grimmification: As carried over from the source material. In the world of Fables, all fairytale characters are real, but none of them are pure at heart or live happily ever after. The woodsman who saved Red Riding Hood is a violent alcoholic, the Little Mermaid is working as a stripper/prostitute to get by, and so on, so forth.
• Happily Married: Beauty and Beast, famously so. Though they have a few rough patches, they're one of very few Fable couples whose happily ever after is still ongoing.
• Hardboiled Detective: Bigby Wolf, the tough, extremely cynical Sheriff of Fabletown, investigating the criminal underground of the community.
• Harmful to Minors: TJ has not been having a good time. Depending on Bigby's choices in Episode 1, he can get roughed up by one of the Tweedle Boys, and in Episode 2, he was swimming in the river when the second victim's body was dumped in.
• Hell Hotel: Beauty, Beast, and Bigby find the site of Lily's murder in a hotel room.
• Here There Were Dragons: Played with. One might expect the Fables to have adapted poorly to the modern day, but in reality, the dragons are still just fine - it's just that they live somewhere else, namely the Homelands. The problem is that the Fairy Tale equivalent of Hitler has taken said magical lands over and kicked out a good deal of the inhabitants.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In Episode 5, Georgie ends up getting stabbed in the stomach with his own knife, which fatally wounds him; if Bigby doesn't put him out of his misery, he bleeds out from the wound.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Faith and Nerissa are both strippers/prostitutes at the Pudding an' Pie, and other than some well-earned cynicism from what their work entails, they're two of the most well-meaning characters in the story and treat Bigby with kindness.
• Hotter and Sexier: A stripper in the second episode is entirely topless. She turns out to be the titular character of The Little Mermaid.
• Hypocritical Humor: In the second episode, Bigby looks at a soda machine and mutters, "Stuff'll kill ya'..." The game then takes time to show him taking a long draw from his cigarette.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: During Bigby's fight with Grendel, the latter is treating him like a rag doll. However, when Bigby's eyes turn yellow and grows claws, it becomes a one-sided No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by Bigby. The previews for both episodes 2 and 3 show a clip of Bigby in full wolf-man form, and he is scary. Exaggerated in Episode 5, when you see full wolf Bigby, wherein he ceases to be a werewolf, and becomes an enormous wolf looking to be thirty feet.
• I Can See You: Bloody Mary has an innate sense about being scryed by the Magic Mirror. It makes sense because her ability is to travel through mirrors when summoned. When she "touches" the Mirror, it mutters that it hates it when she's traveled through it.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Naturally, Bigby still has a nasty reputation for his wolfish appetites in the Homelands.
  Bigby: Hey, it wasn't murder, I was just hungry.
  Colin: Yeah, well, I'm hungry now, but you don't see me ripping your flesh off your bones!
  Bigby: But you would if you could?
  Colin: ...Probably.
• Impoverished Patrician:
  • Prince Lawrence and Faith were both royalty in the Homeland, and appropriately after marrying 'lived happily ever after'...at least until they had to flee without their wealth. Now in New York, he can't hold a job and she's forced into prostitution.
  • Beauty and Beast were likewise royalty in the Homeland, and have had to get used to much more humble circumstances since arriving in Fabletown. Their desire to maintain a semblance of their old standard of living led them to borrow money from the Crooked Man. In Episode 4, that is revealed to have been a very, very bad idea.
• Implacable Man: When Bigby first starts shifting into half-wolf mode in Episode 3.
• I'm Standing Right Here:
  • In the first scene of Episode 4, Snow, Colin and Dr. Swineheart are all fussing over Bigby and discussing his well-being among themselves. The man himself gets the opportunity to wearily point out that he's sitting not three feet away. Twice.
  • Vivian has a similar reaction when Georgie and Bigby discuss if her life is more valuable than Faith's or Lilly's.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Bigby's first action after beating the shit out of Grendel? Go to the bar and order a double shot of whiskey. Justified, however, as it's heavily implied that the whiskey and the smokes help him keep his emotions and his lupine instincts under control.
    • Bigby does this again after being patched up by Dr Swineheart following his near-fatal encounter with the Tweedles and Bloody Mary. His first instinct is to go to the fridge and get a bottle of beer.
  • Colin begs for some of Bigby's bourbon. Justified, since there's not much booze at The Farm.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Bloody Mary seems fascinated by the stories of what Bigby used to be like in the teaser for the final episode.
• The Insomniac: Bigby mentions he has gone without sleep for at least two days. Detective Brannigan comments on his deteriorating appearance and urges him to get some rest.
• Interface Spoiler: Lawrence hints at it already in one easily-missed piece of dialogue, but one of the achievements shown prior to the actual reveal spoiled that Faith's pimp (and one of the murder suspects) is Georgie Porgie.
• It's All About Me: Vivian has shades of this, surprisingly. Once everything has finally been brought to light, all she can think about at first is how Georgie "betrayed" her by explaining to Bigby what the ribbons are and how they got them.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: One approach Bigby can take in interrogating Tweedledee or the Woodsman in Episode 2.
• Jaded Washout: As he's happy to remind you, the Woodsman put down Bigby in their first scuffle, but by now he's a drunk and a failure while Bigby is widely known and the sheriff of Fabletown.
• Jerkass: Quite a lot of Fables have become proper assholes in their time in Fabletown. Some justified, some not.
  • Deputy Mayor Ichabod Crane spends his entire appearance in Episode 1 insulting and abusing Bigby and Snow White, which the game implies is not at all unusual. It is also heavily implied that he regularly ignores the problems of more 'common' Fables in favor of those with money and connections.
  • Grendel can come across as one initially, but given the way most of the Fables are treated by the Fabletown government, can you blame him? In the end, it seems all he really wants is to be left alone. In Episode 2, if played right, it can play down his Jerkass Tendencies when it's shown he legitimately looks out for Holly's well-being.
  • Georgie Porgie is pretty much without redeeming features, relentlessly abusive towards his employees and obnoxious towards Bigby himself. He keeps the strippers in his club virtually enslaved with "fees" they have to pay, all the while enforcing their silence about what happens in their work by means of the magic ribbons around their necks. He's also the killer. His death scene makes him a lot more sympathetic, though.
  • "Little" Jack Horner has grown up into a complete asshole, who spends most of his time in episode 2 trying to provoke a fight with Bigby.
  • The Jersey Devil is this through and through, more so than even Georgie.
  • Mr. Toad. He spends the entire season making snide remarks, having a perpetual bad attitude and an easily offender temperament, and blows the money Bigby can give him for glamours on a flash car instead, and then still blames you for him being sent to the Farm.
• Jerkass Has a Point
  • In episode 2, Crane hints that whomever allegedly killed Snow might have done so to get back at Bigby. Come the end of the episode, that is exactly what's going on, and Crane would know because he might have been the one who did it.
  • Throughout the story, a major roadblock that Bigby encounters is the unwillingness of the poorer Fables to help with the investigation, due to their anger at their needs constantly being ignored and cast aside for the richer Fables that live in the Woodlands. The game states that not only is this true, but Crane explicitly orders that it be this way. The most egregious case of this is the disappearance and eventual death of Holly's sister, Lily, which is implied to have gone unacknowledged by Crane and Snow White for weeks before Bigby even finds out about it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bigby, maybe. It really depends on how you play him.
  • In Episode 2 and 3, Gren also comes across as this. He's rude and confrontational, but its only because he cares about Holly and is disgusted with how the down-and-out citizens of Fabletown are ignored by its government.
  • The Woodsman is first met as a violent, abusive drunk slapping a prostitute around his apartment. He's considerably more mellow and agreeable when he's sober, even stating that he's sick of fighting with Bigby.
• Jersey Devil: Makes an appearance in Episode 4 as one of the many workers under the Crooked Man.
• Jump Scare: When Tweedle Dee abruptly bursts from the closet of Faith and Lawrence's apartment. Hopefully one's nerves collect fast enough to react to the chase sequence immediately afterwards.
• Karma Houdini: Several characters can be considered this. Despite all of them being physically beaten by Bigby throughout the game, these ones are neither confirmed dead and aren't arrested.
  • Although it was necessary to create a proper continuity with the comics, Ichabod Crane is this in Episode 3. However, the comics reveal that Bigby eventually found Crane in Paris and killed him. You can punch him in Episode 3, but that is essentially the extent to which you can beat him (and it's optional as well).
  • Whilst both are badly beat up by Bigby at least twice in the game, Tweedle Dee and Jersey Devil are last seen injured in the Crooked Lair in Episode 5, and it is never confirmed if they died, which implies they were able to live after their beatings and it is never confirmed if they are arrested.
  • If you choose not to kill him, then Tweedle Dum (who doesn't get physically injured at all in the fight during Episode 5) is this.
• Kick the Dog:
  • If you choose to have Bigby rip off Grendel's arm.
  • Sending Colin or Toad to the Farm.
  • As tempting as readers may be to want to tell Bigby to punch Jack, he really doesn't give Bigby much of a reason to do so.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: In Episode 2, Crane pays for a spell to wipe all memory of the previous day from the minds of everyone in the police station, in order to protect the Masquerade.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: No one who's actually read the comics, which chronologically take place several years after the game, would ever buy the attempt to trick people into believing Snow died at the end of Episode 1.
• Loophole Abuse: How Nerissa is able to help Bigby in his investigation; by not giving specifics, she is able to circumvent the spell that keeps her discretion.
• Lower-Deck Episode: In comparison to the series. Very few main cast members from the series appear, giving far more flexibility to the authors. It also gave them the ability to work in some relatively unknown fables as new characters.

Season 1 - M-R

• Made of Iron: All Fables are like this, so it takes a lot to kill them, which is why a murder is so surprising. The Woodsman gets an axe to the head - he's fine the next day, with only a bandage. This leads to Fridge Horror as you realize that Prince Lawrence was sitting there for over a week after he shot himself, waiting to die.
• Magic Pants: Bigby's Wolfman form has them. His true wolf form doesn't though, yet despite being implicitly naked when he returns to human form, he's fully clothed when he confronts The Crooked Man barely a minute later. Justified in that you get a scene of him looking at some clothing on the floor nearby, presumably tossed out of the window of the room the Crooked Man is standing in.
• Masquerade: All non-human looking Fables have to wear a Glamour so that 'mundies' can't detect them, or else go to the Farm, far away from the sight of non-Fables. One of Bigby's jobs as sheriff is to ensure compliance with this policy.
• Meaningful Echo: What Faith says at the start and Nerissa at the end, see Book Ends.
  • TJ explains in Episode 2 that he heard someone say "Stop laughing" after someone disposed of the victim. At the end of Episode 4, Bigby hears the Jersey Devil laugh, followed by Georgie threatening him to stop laughing.
• Mercy Kill: In Episode 5, Bigby can put the mortally wounded Georgie out of his misery or leave him to bleed out.
• Mind Screw: The ending of Season 1, so much so that there are multiple theories flying around to work out the meaning of the Twist Ending.
• Mind Screwdriver: In Episode 2, Holly's sister, Lily, clears up some of the confusion in Episode 1; she was wearing a Glamour to look like Snow, enforcing the latter's plot requirements.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Beast is worried that Beauty is keeping secrets from him. When he finds her with Bigby at a seedy hotel, he immediately assumes the worst and a fight ensues. The truth is Beauty works at the hotel's front desk, and Bigby is there investigating a murder.
• Moment Killer:
  • Colin in Episode 4 interrupts a rare tender moment between Snow and Bigby.
  • Walking in on the loud couple in room 203 at the Open Arms in Episode 2.
• Monster and the Maiden: Zig-zagged in case of Bigby Wolf and Snow White. While both of them are Fables, Snow White always looks like a regular human woman. Bigby owes his human form to an enchanted dagger he was stabbed with, and can transform back into a more monstrous wolf-like form at will (or when the situation calls for it). They work together to solve a mysterious murder of their neighbor and fellow Fable.
• Muggles: While never actually interacted with (at least not directly), the "Mundies" or "Mundane" people of our world are the driving force behind why the non-human Fables need Glamours. It would be fairly difficult to explain to a shocked human how there's a talking, human-sized animal walking down the street.
• Multitasked Conversation: When talking to Faith in the beginning, she dodges any questions about who she is, and whom she works for. Then she suddenly asks Bigby if he likes her ribbon.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The first shot of Bigby in the back of a taxi is reminiscent of the first time players see Lee Everett.
  • Playing on the TV in Lawrence's apartment is the audio from "Midtown Cowboys".
  • Part of the music playing in the Trip Trap Bar is the Poker Night at the Inventory rendition of the Sam & Max: Freelance Police Office theme.
  • A literal one arises in the Trip Trap, when you have the chance to rip off Grendel's arm.
  • Yet another one of Mr. Toad's cars getting destroyed.
  • Bigby smokes Huff n' Puff brand cigarettes. He even gives Colin, one of said Three Pigs, one.
  • Georgie Porgie owns the Pudding & Pie, where he kisses girls and makes them cry. He tends to run away when the boys come out to play.
  • Cinderella's page in the Book of Fables is covered in black tape that has "classified" written on it. This is a reference to her being a secret agent in the comics.
    • Another one about Cinderella appears in Episode 3. Dee and Dum have a file on her saying that she might be in vacation in Europe. Since this game is set in the 80's, this is a reference to the Fables are Forever mini series, where Cinderella is on a mission in Europe fighting against Dorothy Gale, who is a mercenary in the Fables universe.
  • In episode 4 Mary tells Crane to go to Paris, where Bigby and Cinderella find him years later.
  • In episode 5, similar to episode 5 in the Walking Dead, the player has the choice of killing the main villain via asphyxiation.
• Never My Fault:
  • In Episode 2, Toad can call Bigby out for beating up his prisoner while TJ was watching — even though the only reason he witnesses this in the first place is he was spying on Bigs with the Magic Mirror. This can be especially ironic if you don't lay a finger on the prisoner.
  • In Episode 1, if you point out to Colin that the fight with the drunken Woodsman wasn't your fault, Colin will (unfairly, since he's giving you shit during this conversation) accuse you of this trope, saying, "I get the impression you say that a lot." Complete with an in-game message saying "Colin was unimpressed."
  • In Episode 5, absolutely everyone proclaims they're not to blame at all for what happened to Faith and Lily.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After the fight with the drunken Woodsman, Bigby gets thrown out a window and lands on Mr. Toad's car. If you apologize for crushing the car, Mr. Toad says he shouldn't blame you since he called you to help, but every time you help, things end up more fucked than they started (and that's the nicest thing he can say to you; if you don't apologize for breaking his car he's even ruder).
• Noble Demon: Although it can differ on how you play him, Bigby tends to be one, given his past as the Big Bad Wolf, having eaten hundreds if not thousands of people alive during his Black Forest days. Regardless of how he actually acts, though, most of Fabletown views him as a Jerkass for this reason — regardless of whether he deserves it.
  • The Crooked Man would like you to THINK he is one, and attempts to convince the crowd of Fables during the final court-room scene of such if he is spared. However, it's a complete facade: the man is Faux Affably Evil through and through.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Bigby can deliver one to the Woodsman.
  • Bigby ends up on both ends during his fight with Grendel - at first being literally thrown around by his much larger opponent before partially transforming to turn the tables.
  • Episode 3 has Bigby in his Wolf-man form laying a massive one on the Tweedle's, which can even go as far as killing Dum.
  • Episode 4 has the Jersey Devil getting caught between Bigby and the Woodsman, who team up to beat him within an inch of his life. If Jersey hadn't been a Fable, just about half the things that Bigby and Woody do to him would have killed him outright.
  • Episode 5 has Bigby transform into his full wolf form and utterly destroy Bloody Mary and her clones.
• Nonchalant Dodge: Bloody Mary dosn't even blink when a Tweedle is flung at her.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Most players would assume, from the scene in the mirror, that Prince Lawrence is already dead, so he can wait while they go rescue Toad from whoever is in Toad's apartment. But this is not quite the right thing for two reasons: one, Toad still survives even if you don't help him right away, but Toad Jr. gets an injury. Two, Prince Lawrence isn't already dead, but he'll die for real if you don't go to Lawrence's place right away.
• Not Supposed to Be a Punishment: There's a point where Snow White and Bigby discussing The Farm and whether or not Mr. Toad should go there because of his lack of Glamour. At one point Snow White reminds Bigby that The Farm is meant to be a safe haven for Fables who lack Glamour to disguise themselves from humans and wishes people didn't view it as a prison.
• Not What It Looks Like: A rare female example. Near the end of Episode 2, Beauty is showing Bigby around the place she works at to help Bigby in his investigation. The problem is that the place in question is for prostitutes, so while Beauty is just a clerk, when Beast arrives and sees her and Bigby together, he mistakenly assumes that Beauty is cheating on him. Beauty pleads with Beast that it's not what it looks like so Beast should back off, but Beast doesn't listen and attacks Bigby.
• Occult Detective: Bigby. He's the reformed Big Bad Wolf trying to bring the murderer of a prostitute to justice.
• Obviously Evil: The Crooked Man's insignia is a torture device and his face is outright horrific to look at.
• Off with His Head!: Trying to remove the ribbons around the necks of the hookers will cause their head to fall off.
• Oh, Crap!: When Bigby makes it into the villains hideout most of them look like they need a change of pants despite the fact that he's out numbered and outgunned.
  • Mary has one during her fight with Bigby. While she barely reacts to his transformations, she falters as soon as The Big Bad Wolf takes a deep breath...
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Bigby's reputation as the Big Bad Wolf precedes him with all the other Fables. Played for laughs with Colin, one of the Three Little Pigs, who bemoans his destroyed house in order to guilt trip Bigby into sharing his booze and cigarettes.
• One-Winged Angel: Fables with monstrous true forms tend to drop their Glamours when they get into serious fights; Bigby and Gren do this quite a few times, followed by Jersey and Bloody Mary during their respective fights.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In Episode 1, TJ spoke with a quasi-British accent. In Episode 2, the accent's completely gone.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Bigby is The Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. in human form, and he can transform into his wolf-man form whenever he wants, albeit in stages — greater harm means he has less control, such as his truly monstrous appearance in Episode 3's ending.
  • While there are werewolves, Bigby technically is not one, as noted by Bloody Mary, though apparently he's close enough that he can be seriously harmed (or even killed if hurt enough) by silver weapons and bullets.
    • All There in the Manual: The in-game Book of Fables explain that was a full wolf, but Snow White cut him with a lycanthropy-infused knife to allow him to appear human. He is a wolf-were.
• "Open!" Says Me: In the first scene, you have the option to kick open the Woodsman's door. It's unlocked.
• Papa Wolf: Toad towards his boy, enough that he's willing to threaten Bigby when he has to interrogate TJ in Episode 2.
• Parental Incest: Faith's backstory. After his wife died, her father promised her he would marry the most beautiful girl in the land, which was his own daughter. Snow White and Bigby both cringe at it.
• Pet the Dog:
  • If you give the drink to Colin, he puts on a big, happy grin and says thanks.
  • Bigby giving Faith his money at the beginning also counts. Those who didn't can pet Holly by paying for the whiskey.
  • You can choose to give money to Nerissa in Episode 2. Apprehending Tweedledee and pocketing his money means that you can pay two people!
  • In Episode 3 there's the player's treatment of Flycatcher, who is down and out after being fired from his custodial job at the Woodlands by Crane. You can be nice to him or brush him off, but according to Telltale's statistics, over 95% of players offered him his old job back now that Crane has been deposed.
  • When you go to see Georgie Porgie for the first time, you see him being very abusive to one of the... uh, working girls, which establishes his personality nicely. If you choose the "Leave her alone, asshole" response:
  The girl will remember that.
  • One for Mr. Toad in Episode 4, when you can give him the embezzled money you find in Crane's jacket, so he can buy Glamours. In Episode 5, it's undone regardless, as Snow forces him and TJ to go to The Farm because Toad ends up blowing the money on a new car instead of glamours. He'll still blame you for his being sent there.
    • In the above scene, TJ will express his worries about The Farm and Bigby can reassure him it's a nice place and that he needn't worry. Additionally, TJ will ask that Bigby gives Snow one of the most treasured bugs from his collection, as he's unable to take them with him. An impressive 97% of players agreed to give it to her, and there are further options to tell TJ that she'll appreciate his gift.
• Pink Is Erotic: The "Pudding & Pie" is a strip club owned by Georgie Porgie and it has pink lights outside to signify its presence.
• Police Are Useless: How Fables regard Detective Brannigan and the NYPD.
• Poor Communication Kills: A meta example. In episode one, there comes a point while in the Trip-Trap Bar where Bigby is having a conversation with the Woodsman. One of the dialogue options is [Glass him] which some people interpret to mean "Buy him a drink." Imagine their surprise when Bigby proceeds to smash a shot glass into the Woodsman's head.
• Prequel: The events of the game take place before issue #1 of the comic book.
• Private Eye Monologue: Averted, surprisingly; Bigby doesn't engage in one of these, although much of his dialogue is hard-boiled, given his occupation as a Hardboiled Detective.
• Psychic Nosebleed: At the opening of the second episode, as a result of the memory wipe Crane purchased.
• Psycho for Hire: Bloody Mary. She seems to enjoy violence even more than the twins.
• Punny Name: Bigby Wolf sounds like Big B. Wolf.
• Put on a Bus: Crane, after he is grabbed by the Crooked Man.
  • After helping Bigby to beat up the Jersey Devil in Episode 4, The Woodsman departs, hardly even getting a mention in the finale.
  • Also done to Cinderella, who doesn't appear in the game except as vague references. Necessary to explain why Bigby is working alone on a case of extreme danger where he would definitely call in his right-hand woman for extra firepower.
• Race Against the Clock: A recurring theme, as going to the wrong place or giving up before finding evidence can result in losing time and leaving mysteries (at least temporarily) unsolved.
  • Episode One has the first minor incident, as the player has to choose between helping Toad with another incident, or visiting another Fable on a lead. Heading to Toad's first means Lawrence cannot be saved, but going to Toad's second means Toad's son TJ is also beaten by Tweedledum/dee.
  • Episode Three has a major incidence as, in order to catch the suspect at a scheduled meeting, three locations need checking for further information: the offices of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who may be connected somehow; the suspect's apartment, where evidence may exist; and the Trip Trap, where Bigby can question for more information.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Both Faith and Snow White have this.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Can't get a Glamour if you're not a humanoid Fable? Welcome to The Farm.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Beast's eyes turn red when he finds Bigby with Beauty and think she's cheating on him in Episode 2.
  • And again in Episode 3, when Bigby goes half-wolf mode and lays the smackdown on the Tweedles.
• Redemption Equals Death: In Episode 5, Vivian atones for her role in Georgie's sex slaving by taking off her ribbon, killing herself while freeing all of Georgie's workers from their own ribbons.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Bigby is treated like dirt by most of Fabletown's inhabitants, whether he deserves it or not, because of his past as the Big Bad Wolf. Depending on your choices, you can have him start to make inroads toward his redemption... or remain a lone wolf, dedicated to the case and the job.
• The Reveal: Notable for how sudden it is. Without any sort of buildup or evidence review typical of mystery thrillers, The Crooked Man bluntly states that the killer is Georgie.
  • Which sets up an even bigger reveal: Georgie did it on The Crooked Man's orders, though the latter tries to deny it. That means that "the killer" Bigby has been hunting all this time isn't even the main villain of the story; the Crooked Man is.
    • Which is complicated by the last reveal: that the eye witness lied about seeing the Crooked Man actually give the order which means there is a slight possibility that amidst his lies the Crooked Man was telling the truth about one thing; Georgie misinterpreting how to take care of the situation. In which case the Crooked Man cried wolf one too many times in Episode 5: Cry Wolf.
  • Although as early as Episode 3, the above becomes a Captain Obvious Reveal.
• Rhymes on a Dime: The magic mirror speaks in rhyme... unfortunately not every time.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense:
  • Beauty and Beast got up to their eyeballs in debt with the Crooked Man because they didn't want to give up their wealthy style of living from back home. Bigby is quick to point out that their posh apartment is not how people who are scraping by actually live.
  • Toad has more than enough to pay for glamours - and instead spends it on sports cars. Even if you give him Crane's money to pay for a glamour, he still spends it on luxuries, which earns him and T.J. a trip to the Farm.
• Right Through the Wall: In the 2nd floor hallway of the Open Arms, you can clearly hear a couple having loud, passionate sex. Bigby can completely kill their mood (which shuts them up for the remainder of that scene) by getting Beauty to unlock the door to Room 203 and purposely walking into it.
• Running Gag: Every time someone notices Bigby smokes Huff 'n Puffs, they remark on his awful choice in cigarette brands.

Season 1 - S-Z

• Sadistic Choice:
  • As expected for a Telltale game. Episode 1 ends with Bigby being forced to choose who to take in between The Woodsman and Tweedle Dee.
  • Subverted earlier in the first episode. You have a choice between going to help Toad or Prince Lawrence, both of whom are in danger. If you go to Toad, Lawrence will die from his injuries, but choosing Lawrence has Bigby arrive in time, and the only repercussion is that Toad Jr. is hurt by Tweedle Dee, which, while it is a bad thing, is still better than Lawrence dying.
  • It's worth noting that some of the trophies/achievements for the game are unlocked by pushing Bigby into making the crueler choices of the game like ripping Gren's arm off or conducting The Woodsman's or Dee's interrogation Jack Bauer style.
  • Averted in Episode 2. All of the choices are clear cut Nice Guy or Anti-Hero actions, besides Georgie Porgie, where it's a choice between trying to get him to cooperate or to give him a good dose of karma through trashing his place and hitting him.
  • At the end of Episode 3, choosing whether or not to kill Tweedle Dum. On the one hand, Bigby has been trying to atone for his actions back at the Homelands. On the other hand, him and his brother have been antagonizing Bigby throughout the last two episodes, and in fact had just unloaded dozens of rounds into Bigby with their shotguns moments before you get to make that decision.
  • If you're someone that plays through the episode multiple times (and therefore knows how other characters will be affected by your choices, you're willingly setting yourself up for this. In Episode 1, you can save Lawrence, with the knowledge that Toad Jr. gets beat up a bit by Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. In Episode 3, choosing to go to Crane's apartment (and finding a lead on Crane's witch through Jack, who's rooting through there) first sends Bluebeard to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum's place, where Bluebeard will proceed to kick Flycatcher's ass.
• Saved by Canon:
  • After her head was found on the doorstep of the Woodlands in Episode 1, Snow White reappears in Episode 2 alive and well. To the shock and surprise of only people who haven't followed the comics.
  • Several of the suspects are major or reoccurring characters in the comic, which takes place after the game, so it rules them out as the killer.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here / Rage Quit: In Episode 5, when Bigby gets reprimanded by Snow and the Fable community for killing the Crooked Man before he could stand trial (and any other hostile choices against the other Fables in previous episodes), the player will eventually be given a choice labelled "Fuck this, I'm leaving." This causes Bigby to pick up the corpse of the Crooked Man and throw him down the Witching Well, while ranting about how everyone is an Ungrateful Bastard. After that, he storms off in a huff, ending the scene prematurely.
• Separated by a Common Language: Georgie has a strong English accent, but has a habit of using the American "ass" instead of "arse" when cursing.
• Serial Killer: The murderer kills prostitutes and delivers their heads to the Woodlands's doorstep. This ultimately turns out to be a subversion. Georgie's a murderer, but he's not a serial killer. Lily and Faith were killed in the same incident, it's unlikely that Georgie intended to kill any more prostitutes, and Faith and Lily's heads were delivered to the Woodlands by different people for different reasons.
• Sherlock Scan: Bigby can piece together entire crime scenes from minor clues and scents.
• Ship Tease: Between Snow and Bigby on the cab ride to the Trip Trap. It's so obvious, even Colin invokes Everyone Can See It.
• Shirtless Scene: With Bigby in Episode 3.
• Shout-Out:
  • To another Telltale Games comic adaptation series. In Bigby's apartment after the prologue in 'Faith', underneath Bluebeard's file is the file of one 'P. Pennyworth'.
    • Also in Chapter Four if you look in the soda case you'll see a can of Banang!
    • The TV in Lawrence's apartment is on a loop of the 'Midtown Cowboys' sequence from Sam & Max: Freelance Police.
  • The movie poster that appears early in Episode 1 (right before Faith takes The Woodsman's own axe to his head) is an obvious parody of the poster for the Sylvester Stallone movie Cobra. Given that the parody movie's title is Mongoose, it might be a double shout-out to the Rudyard Kipling Jungle Book story, "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", about a heroic mongoose who defends a young boy from some villainous cobras.
  • There are several references to a diner known as "I Am the Eggman". Another diner seen in the background is the "Yellow Brick Roadhouse".
  • Early on, Faith rummages through The Woodsman's pockets for the money he owes. Turns out he only has "60 cents. Two quarters, and a dime."
  • It's no coincidence that, at the end of Act 1, you have the option to tear off Grendel's arm while playing as B. Wolf.
  • In Episode 2, TJ is seen wearing a "Stalk Thing" t-shirt; as an added bonus, both Swamp Thing and Fables are published under DC Comics.
  • In the comic adaptation, someone mentioned that a kid came into a diner and played "What's New Pussycat" 21 times, with one "It's Not Unusual" playing after the seventh run.
• Significant Double Casting: Bigby and his old enemy, the Woodsman, share a voice actor.
• Sinister Scraping Sound: In chapter 3, Bloody Mary pulls out the woodsman's ax and drags it down the wall of an alley, threatening her intended victims, slow and casual like.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Toad. Even to his young son. The Woodsman, Grendel, and occasionally Bigby himself are all quite profane as well. Additionally, Tweedledee is quite fond of the F bomb.
• Solid Gold Poop: This exchange while Bigby is doing research on Faith.
  Bigby: What's Bricklebit?
  Bufkin: A magic word.
  Bigby: What's it do?
  Bufkin: Makes animals shit gold.
• Stalker with a Crush: By the end of Episode 2, you discover Crane is this for Snow White.
• Stealth Pun: When fighting with Grendel in the first episode, Bigby partially unleashes his wolf side in order to get the upper hand in the battle. So, in other words, to beat Grendel, he had to Be a wolf.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: After you tell Prince Lawrence that Faith was killed, Bigby and Snow give him a gun so he can defend himself against whoever is breaking in the house. Keep in mind that this guy tried to kill himself before knowing about his wife. Guess what happens if you take too long to arrest the intruder.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: In episode 5, Bloody Mary prefers to take Bigby down with Death by a Thousand Cuts, toying with him the entire time. Then Bigby decides to stop playing.
• Super Mode: Along with One-Winged Angel, thoughout most of the game, it's implied that whenever Bigby goes into Wolfman mode, that's as wolf-like as he can get. However, episode 5 reveals that his true true form is that of an enormous wolf that can throw around enemies like they were insects.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes:
  • When Bigby's eyes turn yellow, better run and hide. The Big Bad Wolf is coming.
  • A more literal example with Beast.
• Take That!: Depending on your dialogue choices, Bigby may at one point paraphrase Niccolò Machiavelli, and claim that it's better to be feared than loved. When he asks Colin if he knows who originally said this, Colin replies, "Some sad asshole".
• Tarot Motifs: Bigby finds a number of tarot cards on a table in Crane's office, each of which seems to hint at the broader story.
• Tattooed Crook: Georgie Porgie.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Given by Bigby to every member of fabletown if he kills the Crooked Man before the trial. He mentions that all of the problems he has been fixing for them has been their own fault, and their willingness to work with criminals and make bad decisions are the reason their lives are so miserable.
• Tomato Surprise: The ending of Episode 5 draws Nerissa's identity and Faith's death into question, as their use of Glamours makes it unclear who she really is.
• Trailers Always Spoil: In the trailer for Episode 4, you can see Bigby entering what appears to be a magical door. By the end of the episode, it becomes apparent that the door is the entrance to The Crooked Man's lair, and Bigby entering his domain provides the ultimate climax of the episode.
• Trauma Conga Line: Poor TJ...
• Twist Ending: Natural, for a noir story, and for an episodic game.^note As it's released in parts, interest must be held; twist endings are the best way to do so. Specifically, one in each episode.
  • Episode 1: Snow White's head is found at Bigby's doorstep.
  • Episode 2: Crane is revealed to be the killer behind the Snow-lookalike murder.
  • Episode 3: Crane is not the killer, and the Crooked Man reveals himself. Bigby can kill Dum, and he fully transforms into a wolf-man; despite this, Bigby is almost killed by Bloody Mary.
  • Episode 4: Bigby finally locates the Crooked Man, only to discover almost every one of his enemies (Georgie and Vivian, Bloody Mary, Dee and Dum, and the Jersey Devil) have been working under the same affiliation, rather than separately, as previously thought.
  • Episode 5: Ending on a cliffhanger, Nerissa says a line that exactly mirrors a line Faith said in Episode 1 (the page quote, in fact), eventually coming to the shocking conclusion: either "Nerissa" has actually been a Glamoured Faith the whole time, and it was the real Nerissa's head found on Fabletown's doorstep, not Faith's; or Faith was dead the entire time, and a Glamoured Nerissa disguised as her to earn Bigby's sympathy before leaving the head for him. The episode ends before he can catch up to her, if you choose.
• Unproblematic Prostitution: Averted. Georgie treats his prostitutes like garbage and owns them essentially as slaves, held in control through debt and the ribbons around their necks. All of them we know of ended up in their position after having nowhere else to go. When two of them step out of line by trying to escape, the Crooked Man orders them killed. Nerissa is clearly miserable with her 'job' and Lily was resorting to heroin use to make her life endurable. Without exception, prostitution is presented as an extremely unpleasant way of making a living.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Averted. Colin points out that he resembles a pig when he's arguing to Bigby over going to the Farm or not. Bigby himself will point this out to Toad- the man constantly is out of Glamour whenever Bigby finds him, and Toad looks like, well, a toad on legs and wearing clothes, which even New Yorkers would find weird.
• Vanity License Plate: One on Mr. Toad's car reads: TOADALLY.
• Verbal Tic: "These Lips are Sealed." The fact that the Magic Mirror also says this when asked about Faith is one of the first hints that something really big is going on.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential: And how. People frequently note Bigby's past as a villain, and you can try to turn over a leaf and/or do things by the book to solve the case. Or you can just instigate fights, insult everyone, and use threats and your fists to get what you want out of most people. Of course, if The Walking Dead is anything to go by, doing so will come back and bite you (if it hasn't already).
• Vitriolic Best Friends: Bigby and Colin act like this. If you calmly talk to the Woodsman in the Trip Trap there are shades of this. Woodsman says he's just sick of constantly fighting with Bigby.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Characters in the game (i.e. Grendel and Jersey) who use glamours, though some (like Beast and Bigby) have innate transformation skills. Only involuntary occurance of this is when Bigby (unknowingly) unglamours Aunty Greenleaf.
• Vomiting Cop: Near the end of "Faith" before Bigby enters the crime scene, one NYPD officer leaves the scene trying not to vomit.
• Wham Line:
  • Episode 1 has a literal example, after successfully chasing down Tweedledee:
    Tweedledee: Dum.
    Bigby: Dumb? Yeah, it is. Look, it'd be much easier for you to—
    Tweedledee: No, I'm Dee. He's Dum.
  • From the end of Episode 2:
    Bigby: It's... Crane.
  • Episode 5's ending has this in spades. After a long episode full of twists and turns, including Nerissa explaining how she indirectly caused the deaths of Faith and Lily, and how she lied in the trial, her closing line shockingly implies very heavily that Nerissa and Faith swapped places using Glamours: either "Nerissa" has actually been Faith all along, and it was the real Nerissa's head found at the start of the game; or Nerissa disguised herself as Faith to catch Bigby's interest, pushing him into solving the case when he found the real Faith's head.
    Nerissa: You're not as bad as everyone says you are.
• Wham Shot:
  • The severed heads of Faith and Snow/Lily in Episode 1.
  • In Episode Two, the shot of Crane smashing the Magic Mirror in Episode 2.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • You don't learn what became of Tweedle Dee (and Dum, if you spared him in Episode 3) and the Jersey Devil after you leave them in the Crooked Man's chamber in Episode 5.
  • The detective who interrogates Bigby is named, has her own model and voice actress, and is mentioned in the Tweedle's notes. However, she never appears again after Ichabod mindwipes her and her colleagues.
  • If Prince Lawrence is alive you never find out whether he finds out the truth about Faith/Narissa, whether his wife is dead or his wife is alive and glamoured to look like Narissa, depending on which theory you subscribe to.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • The Woodsman gives one to Bigby, should he rip off Grendel's arm.
  • Toad gives one to Bigby if he assaulted whoever he interrogated at the beginning of Episode 2.
  • Gren gives one to Bigby after he reveals that Holly's sister, Lily, is dead.
    Gren: Where were you when we reported this weeks ago, huh? Where are you whenever we fucking need you?!
  • Doubles into What the Hell, Player? during the trial of the Crooked Man in Episode 5, calling you out on brutalities you may have committed over the course of the series.
• Would Hit a Girl: The Woodsman, who is introduced slapping around a prostitute in his apartment.
• Would Hurt a Child: Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who threaten to murder Mr. Toad's son if he tells Bigby anything.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Bigby is told that he is "not as bad as everyone say" by Faith. Whether it holds true is up to the player.
• You Didn't Ask: Done in verse by the magic mirror if you ask whether it knew that Snow was alive.
  The Mirror: That may be so, but the moment is past. You never rhymed, and you didn't ask.
  • Done again in Episode 3 when Snow and Bigby ask Bufkin why he didn't tell them about Crane's appointment with his witch.
  Snow: Yeah, I only recently heard about this meeting. Why didn't you mention this before?
  Bufkin: No one asked me!
• You Don't Look Like You: This version of the Jersey Devil doesn't look anything like the one seen in a few background panels in Jack of Fables, but then again, it's been established that Fables can regenerate into new forms if killed.
• You Monster!
  • The Woodsman, if Bigby tears Grendel's arm off.
  The Woodsman: You fucking monster!
  • Aunty Greenleaf to Bigby and Snow, if Bigby decides to burn her tree.
  Aunty Greenleaf: What monsters are you! What horrible, evil, villainous, warped monsters are you?!
• You Should Have Died Instead: In Episode 2, it's revealed that the latest body is that of Lily and not Snow White. Lily's sister Holly tells Snow White, "It should have been you. It should have been you and it wasn't." Of course she takes it back once she realizes Lily was glamoured to look like Snow White.

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