Telltale Games has been notorious for re-writes. While The Walking Dead Season 1 didn’t face scrutiny for its story, Seasons 2 and 3 fell short of players’ expectations, and rightfully so! The abysmal developmental hell Telltale was going through was very obvious in the poor writing. The Wolf Among Us, while widely appreciated, originally had a different story. Bigby was not going to be investigating the death of Faith, but rather one very famous ‘stepsister’.
The Wolf Among Us 1 isn’t without its plotholes or narrative gaps. For those that wondered “What happened to Detective Kelsey Brannigan?”, the answer is simple- Telltale’s rewrites. Between episodes 1 and 2, Telltale underwent a huge story revamp because Bill Willingham, the creator of Fables, despised the idea of Bigby being framed for murder and chased around by Mundie cops. And this was after the initial re-write surrounding ‘the death of a stepsister’.
This meant that the Mundie cops and Detective Brannigan were meant to be more involved than just disappearing after episode 2 in the final story. This is also evident from Episode 3’s original episode selection preview. Good on Telltale to give this idea another shot though, with The Wolf Among Us 2 promising to involve more of the NYPD.
The original story was meant to revolve around Clorinda
Clorinda is famously known as Cinderella’s stepsister. Telltale was meant to originally have Clorinda die and get Bigby to team up with her spy and special agent stepsister, Cinderella/Cindy. There were even character models and environment models made for Cindy and her family which ended up mostly unused or re-purposed.
According to YouTuber InColdBlood, a rough animation for the game’s original story shows Cindy fighting off the Tweedles, and what appears to be cutscenes set up for Failed QTE scenarios. Which could only mean that Telltale initially planned to have players control Bigby as well as Cindy. It seems we also missed out on getting a whole gameplay aspect- Bigby’s sense of smell. Readers of the comics know just how keen his sense of smell is, to the point where Bigby smokes like a chimney to dull his senses. This additional gameplay element would have been key to solving Clorinda’s death.
It probably was for the best, though, that we didn’t get to control Cindy, as it could have taken away from the narrative immersion having to switch between two characters, but it is hurtful to know that Cindy’s story was completely trashed. I mean, an international spy and special agent? Who wouldn’t want to see that in Fabletown? Well, Telltale has this handed to them on a silver platter now, with The Wolf Among Us 2 underway.
How can The Wolf Among Us 2 bring back Cindy?
The trailer for The Wolf Among Us 2 showed off 3 Wizard of Oz characters- Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Dorothy Gale. With red hair and an unbothered smirk when Bigby enters to arrest Scarecrow, Dorothy looks on, unbothered. In Cinderella: Fables are Forever comics, Dorothy is a killer-for-hire, soon becoming Cinderella’s greatest archenemy.
Knowing that Bigby has sometimes teamed up with Cinderella in the comics, it would make for a great Cindy appearance. With the sequel’s story intending to expose Fables to the Mundies, Dorothy’s presence is no coincidence as she does harbor some hate towards Fabletown, known to have been ‘repulsed by the Fabletown Compact’. And with Cinderella known to kill only to “protect Fabletown and Mundies”… Them being at odds sets up an exciting sequel, and a deep desire from fans to see Cindy’s backstory be utilized well.
