Bigby's Resilience?

GdaTyler

Just what is his limit? According to the end of Episode 3, he is becoming more vulnerable each time he gets shot. It seems he can take hits in fights, but not repeated gunshots to his body. Did the silver bullet play a role in the doctor's diagnosis of Bigby? One last thing, in the comics how many near death experiences did he have, or was he pretty unbreakable there as well?

Mr. Masamune

His limit is approximately equivalent to how many times the Tweedle brothers can fire from a shotgun without reloading.

Which is to say, he is powered by plot and only plot will take him down.

Off_Ground

That's a complicated question. All Fables are unnaturally durable. In the comics, Snow recovers from a gunshot wound to the head, Jack survives being blown up in a car and burned to a crisp, and Frau Totenkinder - the Witch - was burned to ASH. All three made complete recoveries, Snow over a few years, Jack over a few months, both with modern medical assistance, and Totenkinder over an ambiguous timespan during which Snow White and Rose Red nursed her back to health in her cabin. The prevailing theory is that their regenerative powers are in proportion to the popularity of their fairytales as told in the "mundy" world, but it's not conclusive.

Now, The Big Bad Wolf is not only a very popular trope, Bigby himself is also a werewolf, and one of the staples of werewolf lore is regenerative powers. A few drops of his blood has turned mundies into werewolves themselves, enabling them to survive explosions and being buried under tons of rubble. And add to that that he is the son of a god, and has even more dormant shape-shifting powers, which may or may not play a role.

In the conventional sense, he should be very nearly immortal, specifically barring fire and silver, as those are weaknesses imposed by being a werewolf. It's also stated that he heals much faster in his complete - as in with four legs and a tail - wolf form than otherwise. Early on in the comic, he is shot repeatedly in the head and body with a machine gun in that form, and while it temporarily incapacitates him, he's up and about shortly afterwards and perfectly fine within less than a day.

He has yet to be shot with a silver bullet in the comics, though, or burnt. It's never been covered exactly what either would do to him besides actually having a chance of killing him. Based on his normal healing rate and general toughness, I'd say that yes, the bullet is the main reason for Swineheart's diagnosis.

On the other hand, I highly doubt that Swineheart actually knows enough about Bigby's biology to be very confident about the specifics, and his statement could just as well be referring to Bigby putting himself in more and more danger - from receiving a single gunshot wound to a dozen, PLUS the silver bullet - as Bigby's body actually being at its limit. My understanding is that the silver bullet could have killed Bigby, but didn't because of the placement, and Swineheart is warning him that he likely won't be so lucky a second time.

GdaTyler

That was a very comprehensive answer. Thanks. :)

Moowtje72

Ain't nobody got time for that.

Off_Ground

Ah, to answer your question as to his near-death experiences, Bigby is never hurt or damaged to the point where it comes anywhere near killing him in the comics, until recently when he was frozen solid and shattered into a whole bunch of pieces. That sort of killed him, except that by then he is the father and son of two different gods of nature, meaning he gets special treatment, and is prophesized to survive death seven times. He has since been reassembled in his frozen state and then he disappeared.

About the mentioned incident with the machine gun, the shooter was planning on blasting him periodically to keep him helpless while she built a pyre, implying that no level of gunfire could possibly kill him while fire definitely would.

KCohere

He was very nearly killed by a magical arrow that just grazed his skin. It took him days to recover from that.

DragonButter

It's not even a wall of text, you must have a very short attention span.

Lost_Dream

Wolf Haven and Goldie Locks....

DaredevilGR

yeah , dat arrow to the knee , oh wait ...

DaredevilGR

To be honest , I was surprised by the amount of times Bigby was "brought down" in the comics when I first read them

DirtySlimyHairy

I assume you mean Wolves in the Heartland? In that case, Bigby was in control the whole time there. The only thing that comes to mind was that explosion. But Bigby was able to blow the fire away.

As with Goldilocks, I don't see how she could have prevailed. Even if Snow hand't interfered, how many bullets did she had? How much time was needed to set Bigby completely on fire? Bigby only needed one second of consciousness to blow the leaves surrounding him away, forcing her to start all over again.

Off_Ground

Nobody said he was in actual danger in Werewolves of the Heartland. The point is that based on what we know, fire and silver COULD kill him while ordinary gunshots definitely can't.

I think we can safely assume that Goldilocks stocked up on ammunition, but her likelihood of success with or without Snow's intervention is irrelevant. What matters is that she had a machine gun with plenty of ammo, but forewent any attempt to shoot him to death in favor of using it to keep him pacified while she tried to built a fire to burn him, implying that fire is much more physically dangerous to him than any amount of lead bullets.

Off_Ground

Agreed. His senses, his powers, his reputation, composure and ruthlessness... *sighs*

He's more approachable in the game, though.

Off_Ground

The magical arrow is a bit of a special case. It was the single most heavily enchanted weapon in the Homelands, and specifically meant to kill the first person it struck, bypassing every possible defense. There was only one, though, and Boy Blue was kind enough to take the bullet.

Belan

Well yeah.. that is true for any character in anything ever.