Now that the official trailer for Telltale’sThe Wolf Among Us 2has officially dropped, fans can look forward to working their way through the next installment of the point-and-click detective adventure in the not too distant future. The sequel to the 2013 hit episodic titleThe Wolf Among Ushas been a long time coming, with the projected release set for ten years after the first game came out. Fans were starting to lose hope of hearing any more about it sinceThe Wolf Among Us 2was first announced in 2017, and after the majority studio closure of Telltale in 2018, plans for the follow-up game were scrapped.
Thankfully for fans of the series,The Wolf Among Uswas scooped up in the LCG Entertainment revival of Telltale, reigniting hopes of a sequel.The Wolf Among Us 2was officiallyannounced at The Game Awards 2019, and this month a trailer was finally released for the long-awaited game, showing glimpses of the story with both returning characters and brand-new faces. One of the characters making a comeback is the newly minted Deputy Mayor of Fabletown and part-time crime-fighting partner to Sheriff Bigby Wolf – Snow White.
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The Beginning Of The Tale
Snow White is a character that many gamers were likely familiar with before they first playedThe Wolf Among Us.Whether from the 19th-century German fairytale, Disney’s Oscar-winning animated film, or various cultural representations since, Snow White is a famous figure. While some aspects of these interpretations may be present in her video game portrayal, her character (andThe Wolf Among Usgames) is based on theFablescomic series, in which Snow features prominently. InThe Wolf Among Us,Snow and Bigby are arguably the main characters– in the first several issues, at least – and their relationship helps to define large parts of the overarching narrative.
The Wolf Among Uspicks up the storyfrom when the Fables have successfully escaped their troubled Homelands and set up their new life in New York, with only hints at what occurred before they got there. The first game is set a short time before the events in the firstFablescomic when the cowardly Ichabod Crane is still Deputy Mayor, but through flashbacks and references throughout the comics, readers are able to build a picture of Snow’s troubled early life and the challenges she’s had to overcome.
Born in a small cottage in a magical forest,Snow White and her twin sister Rose Redhad a happy childhood despite their humble circumstances. The sisters were separated after their mother was forced to fake Snow’s death, and Snow went to live with her cruel aunt. Here the story doesn’t deviate much from the traditional telling, with enchanted mirrors and poison apples, but the dwarves that Snow encountered were not the jovial group they’re usually portrayed as and instead forced the young Snow to be their sex slave. After her rescue and subsequent marriage to Prince Charming, Snow surprised her new husband by asking him for fencing lessons so that she’ll never again be defenseless.
Eventually, she is reunited with her beloved sister, but Rose thought Snow had purposefully abandoned her and seduces her sister’s husband in revenge. The relationship between the two sisters was destroyed, and Snow divorced the Prince. Not much is known about her in the intervening years, but afterthe Adversary attacked and sent the Homelands into chaos, Snow and Rose fled. Both sisters were soon captured and chained together with other runaways, only to be freed after the Big Bad Wolf killed their captors. Snow was the only one to take up a sword to defend against the beast, but was surprised when he freed them all instead. The Wolf helped them escape the Homelands and showed them the way to the mundane world, which they emerged in around the fifteenth century.
This Snow Doesn’t Melt
Thanks to her troubled early life, Snow learned to harden herself and lost all of her youthful naivety. As soon as her fencing lessons were underway, she tracked down the seven dwarves one by one and killed them for what they had subjected her to in a veryKill Bill-type vendetta mission. In both the comics andThe Wolf Among Us, Snow is characterized by her no-nonsense nature and seemingly cold demeanor. Because of her past, she’s slow to trust and initially reserved, but she’s also steely, tough, and resourceful.
In theFablesseries, she successfully sees the Fabletown community through multiple calamities, including an invasion anda potential uprising at the Farm. She even survives a shot to the head from a mutinous Goldilocks. This side of Snow isn’t necessarily seen to the same extent inThe Wolf Among Us, where her pedantic rule-following and bureaucratic nature are more dominant features of her personality. While Snow eventually manages to repair her relationship with her twin Rose in theFablesseries, she still retains a lot of her trust issues and her prickly demeanor with her adulterous former spouse.
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Snow White In The Wolf Among Us
WhileThe Wolf Among Ushints at a few of these aspects of Snow’s past, none of them have been fully explored so far. It could be said that there is a romantic spark between Bigby and Snow, but this is much more explicit inFables, as Bigby actively pursues Snow until the two fall in love and eventually have seven children together.
The comics establish a bond that goes back centuries, first with the rescue from the Adversary and then a peace offering as Snow tracks down the Wolf and offers him a lycanthropy-stained knife to allow him to take human form and live among the Fable community. Fans who ship the couple will no doubt be interested to see ifThe Wolf Among Us 2further establishes this romantic dynamic, or if it leaves it up to player choice – an aspect that dominates Telltale’s narrative games. Or perhaps it might be determined that Bigby is better as a lone wolf after all.
Snow White may have eventually taken her place as Deputy Mayor inThe Wolf Among Uslike she does in theFablesseries, but how closely the sequel will follow other events in the comics is yet to be seen. With a fewWizard of Ozcharactersalready shown in the official trailer, like the Tin Man and the Scarecrow,The Wolf Among Us 2is adding to its familiar cast of characters - though Snow will no doubt remain a prominent figure. Telltale will hopefully delve more into her past and her troubled relationships with Rose and Prince Charming, rounding out her character more as she shows off some of her ruthless, determined, and resourceful characteristics.
The Wolf Among Us 2releases in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
