Here's an essay I wrote last semester for a cool English course I took called Gaming & Narrative Theory. It got me an A so I guess it must be somewhat decent.
The
Wolf Among Us, Player Choice and Dynamic Character Adaptation
The Wolf Among Us is an episodic
adventure/mystery video game released in 2013 by American independent game
publisher Telltale Games. It is an adaptation of the Fables series of comic books, which takes famous characters from
well-known nursery rhymes, films and stories and brings them together in one
universe, a hidden community known as "Fabletown" in the heart of New York City. The video game adaptation of
this centers around protagonist Bigby Wolf, who is better known as the
"Big Bad Wolf" from the Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs
fairy tales. The Wolf Among Us has an
interesting portrayal of Bigby. Despite the fact that he is the antagonist in
the context that the person playing the game knows him in, he is very much the
hero of the game. In this essay, I will argue that the player's perception of
Bigby and other characters in the game is altered and defined by their previous
knowledge of them in other texts, and that The
Wolf Among Us is a legitimate adaptation of these characters. In her book Beginning to Theorize Adaptation, Linda
Hutcheon defines an adaptation as "an announced and extensive
transposition of a particular work or works" (7). The Wolf Among Us fits quit well into this definition, as it brings
characters from a multitude of other works in several different genres and
media together in one cohesive game universe.
When
a character is adapted into a new medium or text, they inevitably bring their
reputation and previous actions with them in the mind of the person
experiencing the new text, and this concept certainly affects the perception of the character of Bigby in this game.
Hutcheon writes that adaptations have an "overt and defining relationship
to prior texts" (3). While her book is primarily concerned with film
adaptations of works of literature, this certainly holds true in video game
adaptations such as The Wolf Among Us.
Bigby is defined for the player by his history in the fairy tales that he
originates in.
In
The Wolf Among Us, Bigby Wolf is the
sheriff and chief law enforcer of Fabletown. He uses his brute strength and
skills of investigation to solve crimes and keep the residents of Fabletown
safe and under control. This portrayal is extremely interesting given the
previous portrayals of Bigby in the material his character is adapted from. In
Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf is the antagonist of the story and
primarily exists to deceive and try to eat Little Red Riding Hood. Having this
previous knowledge of Bigby causes the player of the game to be cautious of him
at first, knowing that in his background he is a villain who cannot be trusted.
This is alluded to in the game as well. The characters inhabiting Fabletown all
remember the events that occurred in not only their stories of origin but those
of the others as well, and these events often create a reputation or image for
these characters that affects the way that the other ones think of them. For
example, a talking pig named Colin is often found at Bigby's apartment, and
makes several appearances throughout the game. It is revealed that this is one
of the Three Little Pigs from its eponymous tale, and in that particular story
the Big Bad Wolf (Bigby) is clearly the antagonist. In this fairy tale, the
Wolf destroyed Colin's house. In the context of The Wolf Among Us, this has happened previously and Colin often
appears at Bigby's apartment because he is homeless as a result of what Bigby
has done to him in the past. Colin is bitter about these events and he serves
as a reminder to both Bigby and the person playing the game that he has done
immoral things in the past and does not fit into the definition of a hero that
most fairy tale stories subscribe to. However, it is made clear that Bigby
feels remorseful about his past wrongdoings because he allows Colin to stay at
his apartment. Interactions like this reveal a lot about Bigby and his
character in The Wolf Among Us. It is
easy to see him as a villain because of the evil deeds he has done in other
works, but in this game he is quite clearly struggling with his nature and
attempting to become a good "person".
Whether
or not he accomplishes this goal is entirely dependent on the person playing
the game and the choices they make. Like all of Telltale's games, The Wolf Among Us is almost entirely
driven by choice. An extremely high degree of control is given to the character
over Bigby's actions. This ranges from small things such as choosing what he
says in conversations and which questions to ask suspects, to far more profound
and lasting choices such as whether to kill or spare lives or who to implicate
in criminal investigations. A good example of this is at the end of the game
where Bigby finally uncovers the culprit behind the killings in Fabletown. He
(the player) is presented with two options: kill the criminal mastermind
immediately, or take him into custody so he can face a fair trial for his crimes.
Choices like this offer the player opportunities to "write" Bigby and
decide what kind of character he is. It is made clear throughout the course of
the game that Bigby has a very poor reputation among the other Fables. He is
known for his violent temper and propensity for extreme methods that are
morally questionable, but tend to yield results.
This reputation can affect the person playing
the game in one of two ways. One, it can drive them to do things "Bigby's
way" and use excessive violence to achieve his goals. An example of this
is early on in the game when Bigby is attempting to locate a person he has
reason to believe is responsible for a murder and is attacked by Grendel,
another literary figure originating in the English epic poem Beowulf. After subduing Grendel using
his lycanthropic powers (Bigby is usually humanoid but has the ability to turn
partially or fully into his wolf form to become stronger), Bigby is presented
with the option of letting the defeated Grendel go or ripping off his arm.
Interestingly, Grendel has his arm ripped off by Beowulf in the poem he
originates in. This is a deliberate homage to the poem that makes the encounter
with Grendel more enjoyable for players who are familiar with Beowulf. In pivotal moments such as this, it is
entirely up to the player to decide who they want Bigby to be. Doing things
Bigby's way means violently pulling Grendel's arm off in plain sight of several
other fables and further increasing his reputation of unfeelingly committing
unnecessarily extreme acts of violence. Based on Bigby's historical context and
his characterization in other works such as Little Red Riding Hood, this seems
like the logical course of action, and what his character would unquestionably
do in any other work of fiction. This illustrates how Bigby's past in other
works of fiction affect the player's perception of him in this game. The fact
that it is simple for the player to know what Bigby is expected to do and what
he would likely normally do in situations such as these means that they may be
likely to play the game in this way to bring consistency to his character. What
is interesting about The Wolf Among Us, however,
is
that the player is given the opportunity to deviate from this path and make
Bigby perform acts of compassion and mercy.
This is the other way that the inclusion of a
strong element of choice in The Wolf
Among Us affects the person playing. While Bigby's origins in famous fairy
tales affects the player's perception of him to a certain degree, the choices
in this game actually allow the player to change Bigby and make him a better
person. Naturally there is no way to change who Bigby was in the past in the
diegesis of the game and in other works, but if the player makes choices that
are compassionate or helpful towards other people, they can begin to change the
perception of Bigby within the game. A good illustration of this is the
character of Snow White. She is one of the main characters in The Wolf Among Us, and originates in the
famous film Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs. Snow is one of the leaders of Fabletown and works very closely with
Bigby in upholding the law. As her name suggests, she is by far the most
innocent and pure character in the game, and often acts as Bigby's moral
compass. This purity is established in the game, but can also come to the
player by knowledge of Snow's character in the film she originated in. In the
game, she keeps a very close watch over Bigby and often pleads with him to
resist his nature and think before he acts. This can motivate the player to use
Bigby to commit moral actions in an attempt to gain Snow White's approval. Despite
Bigby's failings and misdeeds in the past, Snow offers him the opportunity to
reform and change his reputation with the people of Fabletown. This concept of
redemption extends outside the game to the person playing, because the player
can turn Bigby into a strong, moral hero, which also changes the player's
perception of him in light of his past evils.
Uri
Margolin addresses this dynamic nature of fictional characters such as Bigby
when he says that "the properties ascribed to characters need not even
form a logically consistent set, let alone one conforming to actual world
regularities" (68). This means that Bigby does not need to be entirely
consistent in all of the texts in which he appears, because he is a constructed
character in a fictional world. Thus, while Bigby has been evil in the past,
and can continue to be if the player chooses to make him so, he does not
necessarily need to be this way in The
Wolf Among Us to be the same character as he is in Little Red Riding Hood. Margolin goes on to say that "any
given character may be amenable to a whole range of individuations, all of
which are nonetheless compatible with the original" (69). In accordance
with this, Bigby Wolf is an "individuation" of the Big Bad Wolf literary
figure from the fairy tales from which he was adapted. This character has
undergone immediately recognizable changes and adjustments from the original
Big Bad Wolf, but remains an iteration of the same character simply because the
game explicitly says he is and makes reference to his past in other well known
works of fiction.
Strengthening
this argument for Bigby's legitimacy as an adapted character, Margolin says that
the "later texts and the original must be related to each other both
historically and intentionally" and
that the authors (in this case programmers) "must intend their readers to
recognize the original version" (69). The
Wolf Among Us is absolutely related to the other texts from which it adapts
its characters. It would be nearly impossible for the game's writers and
developers to accidentally place all of these characters in one universe with
the backstories and personalities they have, so it is safe to assume that the
adaptation of Bigby and everyone else in The
Wolf Among Us is intentional. It is also clear that the game's writers
intend for the players of the game to recognize the characters within it,
because ample context and history is given for a large number of them. An
example of this in the game is one short section where the player (controlling
Bigby) is tasked with reading through a picture book full of depictions of the
other Fables with the goal of locating and identifying an unknown woman who was
murdered. While flipping through the book, the player can highlight and focus
in on pictures of several of the other characters in the game, and with each
there is a brief verbal description of them in the diegesis of their original
fairy tale. This deliberate inclusion of references to the original texts the
characters are adapted from is for the sole purpose of linking these characters
back to their original texts, and reinforcing the sense of familiarity that
they may already have in the mind of the player.
When
viewed using adaptation and character theories, The Wolf Among Us is a very interesting game. Being a video game
adaptation of a comic book series that is in fact an adaptation, it contains a
sort of "double layer" of adaptation. However, despite making a
journey through three different media (some characters such as Snow White have
come from films into comic books and now to video games), the characters in
this fictional universe are still extremely recognizable iterations of their original
forms, and contain more than enough shared characteristics with their source
characters to be easily identifiable as the people or creatures that the game
introduces them as. Bigby himself is shown as a human being in the game, but
the way that the other characters react to him and the details revealed about
his past before the events of the game make him unmistakably the famous Big Bad
Wolf of fairy tale fame. Linda Hutcheon writes that an adaptation is "a
derivation that is not derivative- a work that is second but not
secondary" (9). This is description that applies especially well to The Wolf Among Us as a standalone text. While
it borrows characters from other works, it does so in a manner that makes them
new and different and uses them to create an original storyline. This game is
"second but not secondary" in that it comes after the works that it
draws from chronologically, but is in itself a creative work of original
imagination. These characters are formed by their identity in previous works, but
all come together to create an original narrative that is an effective and
fascinating in its portrayals of already famous characters.
