Problematic because: "He is (among other things) the KGB's top interrogator in canon. He kills, tortures, and brainwashes a ton of people. In a cast full of villains he is particularly villainous."
Propaganda: "He is written in a way that gradually gives him more and more depth and nuance with each subsequent entry in the series. At the same time, he's fundamentally unknowable: the games show he DOES have some hidden driving force behind his actions, but the absolute truth of this driving force is not accessible to the player. And he is an interesting case study in how being detached from one's humanity can make it easier to commit atrocities."
Problematic because: "His whole deal is that he’s TRYING not to be the Big Bad Wolf anymore, but the “anymore” is doing a lot of work. In Fables canon, his past includes the fairy-tale Big Bad Wolf stuff very literally - attacking/eating Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, going after the Three Little Pigs, and generally being the monster other Fables grew up hearing warnings about. He’s been pardoned and reformed by the time The Wolf Among Us happens, but people being scared of him is not just them being unfair for no reason. He really was that guy. Then in the game, he’s sheriff of Fabletown, which puts him in the awkward position of being both “guy trying to be better” and “cop for a very messed-up hidden fairy-tale community.” Non-human-looking Fables have to buy glamours to pass as human, and if they can’t, they get sent to the Farm, which is basically forced relocation away from the city. So when Bigby’s dealing with characters like Toad or Colin, it’s not just a funny “haha frog man broke the rules” situation - it’s poverty, surveillance, and whether the government gets to remove people who can’t afford to look normal. And depending on how you play him, he can be brutal. He can torture Dee during interrogation by punching him, burning him with a cigar, smashing his face with a bottle, and tightening the straps on him, he can tear off Grendel’s arm during the bar fight, he can threaten, beat, intimidate, and decide whether justice means arresting the Crooked Man properly or just killing him. You can play Bigby as restrained, but the point is that the violent version is always right there under the coat. There's a line of dialogue with Snow where she outright says she thinks part of him loves the violence because he can just let go and be who he truly is."
Propaganda: 1. "He’s not just a reformed monster who everyone should instantly forgive because he wears a tie now. He’s the Big Bad Wolf. His reputation is earned. Half the people he’s supposed to protect are scared of him, and when he gets angry, you understand exactly why. But that’s also why I like him so much. He’s trying. Not always well, not always gently, not always in a way that undoes the damage, but he’s trying to be something other than the story everyone already knows about him. The Wolf Among Us works because every choice feels like it’s asking whether Bigby is actually changing or just pointing his violence at “acceptable” targets now. You can make him kind, patient, careful. You can also make him terrifying. Both versions feel believable, and that’s the interesting part."
2. "bigby apologist hours but not in the “he did nothing wrong” way. he did a LOT wrong. historically. famously. nursery rhyme levels of wrong. but i love him because he’s not sitting there pretending everyone owes him forgiveness. he knows what people think of him. he knows why they flinch. and he still gets up every day and does the worst job in fabletown, trying to keep everyone alive while half the town hates him, the government is useless, crane is crane, snow is one bad week away from running the whole place herself, and every suspect is like “oh great, the wolf is here.” he’s rough and he’s scary and he can absolutely abuse his power if you play him that way, but he’s also tired and lonely and genuinely trying to be better than the thing he was made famous for being. that is CATNIP to me."
3. "The fun thing is that he’s genuinely cool, but not in a way that makes him harmless. He’s cool because he’s a mess. He’s trying to investigate murders while carrying around centuries of bad press and also the very real possibility that if he loses control, everyone gets a reminder of why “Big Bad Wolf” stuck. I don’t want soft innocent Bigby. I want exhausted, morally questionable, occasionally gentle, occasionally awful Bigby who is one bad dialogue choice away from making Snow sigh into her paperwork."
