History ComicBook / Fables

** The end of ''Storybook Love'' has Snow White finally agreeing to go on a date with Bigby as long as they take things "''very'' slowly". Soon after, [[spoiler:she realizes the two of them slept together during their drugged state and she's pregnant. It takes a while for her to recover and the two of them to reconcile after that.]]
** Snow White eventually has [[spoiler:''seven'' children.]] Think about it for a second.
** Believe it or not, Bigby was actually the ''runt'' of his litter, and was constantly picked on by his brothers for his puny size. It was this, along with a desire to get even with his father for having abandoned their mother to die, that prompted him to everyday "eat something bigger than what I ate yesterday", ultimately resulting in his wolf form becoming the size of an elephant, and more than three times the size of his brothers.
** Two of the Three Little Pigs from the fairytale became villains. The Big Bad Wolf became a [[AntiHero (relatively)]] good guy.
** [[spoiler:In the New Camelot Morgan le Fay is being cast in the Merlin role to Rose Red's King Arthur. Also Sir Lancelot du Lac seems destined to be the new Guinevere. The Lady of the Lake remarks on the irony to Morgana.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: Oh God, there are '''so''' many that it's almost not worth it trying to point any out; Gepetto, Bluebeard, Jack, and Goldilocks are notable, but Prince Brandish stands out as perhaps the single most entitled, self-centered asshole in the entire series. And that's really saying something.

** When first introduced, Prince Charming is depicted as this womanizing and power-hungry asshole which almost everybody in the series disliked. It was a surprise of many when Prince Charming sacrifices himself in order to blow up a bomb dedicated in crippling the Adversary's Empire.
* TheJerseyDevil: He's in the Golden Boughs Retirement Community.
* KangarooCourt: Bufkin's trial in Oz.
* KarmaHoudini:
** Mainly [[spoiler:Geppetto]], but even protagonists such as Bigby and Totenkinder qualify.
** [[spoiler:Snow White]], who helped the murderer [[spoiler:Ghost]] to avoid punishment just becuse he was [[spoiler: her son]]
* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:The rather unsatisfactory end of Jack of Fables]]
* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: [[spoiler:Tommy Sharp.]]
* KingIncognito: In #150, Rose Red dons a hooded cloak and wanders among her troops on the eve of the battle, in a scene that directly homages the same scene in ''Theatre/HenryV''.
* KneelBeforeFrodo: Snow and Bigby's [[spoiler:eight-year-old daughter, Winter, is chosen as the North Wind's successor, to which everyone (her parents and siblings, Bellflower/Totenkinder, Dunster Happ, the former North Wind's servants and the other Cardinal Winds) proceeds to bow to her]].
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Freddy and Mouse as Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.
* LetsGetDangerous: [[spoiler:Boy Blue]] shows he's still got the chops when he singlehandedly [[spoiler:invades the Empire, throws the entire territory into disarray when he kills several high ranking officials including ''the emperor himself'', rescues Red Riding Hood, ''meets the Adversary in person'', and still manages to return home alive.]]
** [[spoiler:Bufkin]] of all, ahem, people. Complete with declaration of war.

* IHaveManyNames: Jack has the name of almost every "Jack" in Fable history under his belt, plus a number of other aliases that have the name Jack in them. For example, he went by the name Jack Candle when he was an outlaw in the late 19th century. [[note]] If he had been called Candle Jack, that would have been a dif[[/note]]
* InfantImmortality: Averted and played straight at different points in the series.
** Averted in the ''Cubs in Toyland'' story, where [[spoiler:Therese]] learns that the residents of Discardia all arrived there [[spoiler:because they were indirectly responsible for the deaths of the children they belonged to]]. And again during the same arc with [[spoiler:9-year-old Darien sacrificing himself]].
* IntellectualAnimal: The Fables living on the Farm.
* InWhichATropeIsDescribed: Every single issue.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Flycatcher, [[spoiler:Jack Frost]].
* InsufferableGenius: Count the number of appearances Doctor Swineheart makes without bragging about how he's the greatest surgeon to ever live. It will not be a large number. People start calling him out when he maintains this attitude during and after his utter failure to save [[spoiler:Boy Blue]]. While this death was by no means Swineheart's fault, (neither the magical knowledge of [[TheAce Frau Totenkinder]] and her witches, nor the MessianicArchetype powers of King Ambrose could do anything more than slow that cursed injury), his arrogance comes across as a lot less justified afterwards, and people let him know it.

** Goldilocks and Boo Bear, apparently as a political statement.
** [[spoiler:Snow White and Bigby]] are technically this. Per [[spoiler:Bigby]]'s words, it took him a few centuries to "get into human girls".

* IronicEcho: In one of the stories when [[spoiler:Snow and Bigby's children are playing, Darien comments on how "girls can't be kings!" Later, when Winter is chosen as the North Wind's successor, she gets the title of "King" as "Queen" isn't equivalent to the magical language's word, which is closer to gender neutral]].

* HopeBringer: The AnthropomorphicPersonification of Hope and her three [[spoiler:(four after Rose Red joins the club)]] paladins, who represent different types of hope. SantaClaus, who represents the hope for justice and the hope of reward, as well as the hope that everything will turn out all right in the end, Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl, who represents "hope deferred" (hope for the futures of others) and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goose_Girl the false bride]], who represents [[LightIsNotGood the hope for revenge]]. [[spoiler:And Rose Red, representing the hope for a second chance.]]

* HourglassPlot: [[spoiler: Morgana le Fay seems to be heading this way in the New Camelot. Rose Red asked her to be a court adviser on magical matters. Basically the new Merlin, who was her opposite number in the old Camelot.]]

* TheMole: Ichabod Crane, sort of. At first he was shown as simply being a very lonely, awkward, and unstable clerk, alone for centuries, who was seduced by Cinderella to see if he would crack if approached.
** Of course, Ichabod is eventually revealed to have been Fabletown's Deputy Mayor for a good few centuries, meaning he had access to information that would have greatly benefited the Adversary. That's not even getting into [[spoiler:his apparent obsession with Snow White that comes up in ''The Wolf Among Us'']]. It's no wonder Cinderella and Bigby were concerned he might [[spoiler:(and would)]] betray them.

* MrExposition: Happens a few times over the series, in which characters will inform others of a specific character's best traits. Most noticeable in ''The Good Prince'' in which Blue tells Fly that he is the purest and most noble Fable in existence and was the only one who signed the compact that didn't have sins to forgive.

* InterspeciesRomance: Goldilocks and Boo Bear, apparently as a political statement.

* JerkassWithAHeartOfGold: Jack Horner is essentially this. As a trickster and conman, Jack always causes trouble to people around him. Not only that, but Jack also suffers from sociopathy that makes him oblivious to the feelings of people around him. He only cares for himself, and prides how important he is to the series. That's why it always surprises fans and critics of the series whenever Jack does something that is selfless and beyond himself.

* KarmaHoudini: Mainly [[spoiler:Geppetto]], but even protagonists such as Bigby and Totenkinder qualify.
** [[spoiler:Snowwhite]], who helped the murderer [[spoiler:Ghost]] to avoid punishment just becuse he was [[spoiler: her son]]

* NoBisexuals: Averted in volume 2, when [[spoiler:Rose Red]] says she is over the time she slept with girls, with the exception of once a year as a birthday present for Jack, meaning she is not a lesbian. Goldilocks is blessed with even more Squick on several occasions.

* ShoutOut: Freddy and the Mouse are clearly analogues of Fritz Leiber's sword and sorcery characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

* TrenchcoatBrigade: Bigby Wolf, his trenchcoat, and a magnificent set of attitude.

** [[spoiler:It should also be noted Fabletown was able to isolate the capital world of the Empire from the rest, preventing it from calling in reinforcements which would have overwhelmed Fabletown by sheer numbers. Any combat-related magic was strictly controlled, preventing it from being used effectively to counter the Fable's technological advantage. All of the Empire's sorcerers were in the capital city when it was put to sleep and later burned. The Empire was so used to being the one attacking and so vast, it never occurred to them that ''they'' might be attacked or to focus on defense. Finally, many of the flaws in the Empire are implied not to come from the Emperor, but from Gepetto, who secretly ran things and was incredibly arrogant.]]
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Dorothy Gale could shift into different human forms with the help of magic slippers. Cinderella presumably gained the ability after obtaining them. Bigby's brothers could shift forms freely into pretty much any type of creature.

'''Magic Mirror:''' He ''reads''. He '''reads everything'''.

%% * ChekhovMIA: [[spoiler:Geppetto.]] please add context to this entry before uncommenting it
%% * ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Ozma.]] please add context to this entry before uncommenting it

%%* DeconstructionCrossover: For fairy-tales and nursery rhymes. Do not uncomment this unless context is added.

* EyeScream: Cursed to view all the sins and dark secrets of every person he ever looks at, due to a piece of enchanted mirror lodged in his eye sockets, Kay has cut his own eyes out numerous times with a kitchen knife, forcing Frau Totenkinder to regrow them for Kay whenever the Fables need someone's loyalties & background checked, which means Kay is doomed to ''cut out his own eyes over and over forever''. When Kay looked upon a certain "kindly" old toymaker, he fell to his knees in horror at what he saw, then promptly runs to his bathroom with a very sharp knife, staring into the mirror as he's about to plunge the blade in.

%%* TheFettered: Beast. do not uncomment this until context is added.

%%* GameFace: Bigby, Beast, Grimble and a few other fables with glamours. do not uncomment this until context is added

* GenieInABottle: Appears in the ''Arabian Nights (and Days)'' arc. The Djinn are the storybook genies, pure magical beings with powers bordering on RealityWarper. They grant three wishes to whoever sets them free, but only return to their enchanted bottle if the third wish requires them to. Otherwise they remain free and quite AxeCrazy.

** When Dr. Swineheart gently points out that [[spoiler:Snow White]] doesn't ''have'' to give birth to the illegitimate children that were begotten on her by [[spoiler:Bigby]] after [[spoiler:Bluebeard [[AliensMadeThemDoIt hexed them to leave for the country and sleep with each other]]]], she indignantly retorts that no Fable would ever abort a baby, and threatens to exile the doctor if he brings it up again. It's later revealed that the Fables have basically been sterile for the last few decades, so even if her babies aren't, strictly speaking, wanted, they're still too precious to just "discard" like that.
** The [[spoiler:Bears' new cub]] is probably an example of the Fables' immortality due to PopularityPower. [[spoiler:The baby bear ''can'' die, due to not being as well-known as the main character, but the overall "Goldilocks" story is so famous that the Baby Bear ''has'' to be replaced, so Ma Bear immediately become pregnant in order to keep the numbers of the story correct.]]
** In The Good Price it's revealed Frau Totenkeinder owns several abortion clinics to gain her powers from them. Kay is able to blackmail her with this knowledge since, while not illegal in Fabletown, it is highly frowned upon.

* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Jack. Theorized to apply literally.
* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler:Hadeon the Destroyer]] and [[spoiler:Kevin Thorn]].
* HappilyMarried: Beauty and Beast, and later [[spoiler:Snow White and Bigby]].
** From [[spoiler:''The Last Story of Flycatcher'']] at the end of issue #141, we learn this is how [[spoiler:Flycatcher and Red Riding Hood]] end up.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Geppetto was forced to do this.]]

** Bigby too, as part of his backstory.
* HenpeckedHusband: Poor Beast slips into this at times. It doesn't help that he starts becoming more beastly the angrier Beauty is with him.
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:Rose Red after Boy Blue dies.]] And [[spoiler:Darien, as he realizes he needs to sacrifice himself]] in the ''Cubs in Toyland'' arc.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Prince Charming]] at the end of ''War and Pieces'' [[spoiler:(though this is eventually subverted in ''Fairest'' with the reveal he survived)]]. And [[spoiler:Humpty Dumpty]] in ''Turning Pages''.
** Also, [[spoiler:the North Wind]], as of the end of the ''Super Team'' arc.
** Followed by [[spoiler:Dare]] in ''Cubs in Toyland''.
* HiddenVillain: The Adversary does have a true identity, but it's kept under wraps for quite a while.
* HideYourOtherness: Rapunzel has to get her hair cut several times a day in order to pass as a mundy.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:In ''Peter and Max'', Max's desire to possess Frost makes the flute the only thing in the world that can pass through his magical defenses. Peter realizes this and stabs Max in the heart with the flute.]]

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: When Dr. Swineheart gently points out that [[spoiler:Snow White]] doesn't ''have'' to give birth to the illegitimate children that were begotten on her by [[spoiler:Bigby]] after [[spoiler:Bluebeard [[AliensMadeThemDoIt hexed them to leave for the country and sleep with each other]]]], she indignantly retorts that no Fable would ever abort a baby, and threatens to exile the doctor if he brings it up again. It's later revealed that the Fables have basically been sterile for the last few decades, so even if her babies aren't, strictly speaking, wanted, they're still too precious to just "discard" like that.
** Then again, given that [[spoiler:Ma Bear gives birth to a new Baby Bear after the first one is killed during the ''March of the Wooden Soldiers'']] and without needing any "special potion" to do so, some view this as an AuthorsSavingThrow after the UnfortunateImplications were pointed out.

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Geppetto]] started out as a kindly old man, outraged at the evils which the local nobility were inflicting on his friends and neighbors. Then he got the taste for power and kept justifying taking out more & more nobles & taking over more & more lands, finally putting himself in ultimate charge. Absolute power corrupts absolutely...

* ExpositionOfImmortality: Tommy Sharp plans to do this to the Fables living in Fabletown. He's been gathering evidence of their inhuman nature: following Bigby and photographing him shapeshifting, but also checking back on the title deeds of the land and buildings in Fabletown - all owned by members of the Fable community since [[Music/TheyMightBeGiants old New York was New Amsterdam]] and early photos of them dating back into the 19th Century which show that none of them have aged.
* ExtremeOmnisexual: Played literally by Goldilocks. She admits to Bluebeard that she's no speciesist, and that she's open in having sex with any living being, which included sleeping with Baby Boo Bear and a goblin butler.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Kay, because he can't bear the sins of others and is cursed to view every single one of them every time he looks at anyone.]] When he looked upon a certain "kindly" old toymaker, he fell to his knees in horror at what he saw.

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Geppetto]] in his backstory.
** [[spoiler:Nurse Sprat]], now calling herself Leigh Duglas.
* FakeDefector: [[spoiler:Rose Red]] in ''Animal Farm.'' We are not told in advance, [[spoiler:and her sister believes it. She does it not in order to reach the bad guy, but in order to keep her sister and herself alive]].
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Rose Red and Jack stage her death in the very first story arc.]]
* FantasticNatureReserve: The Farm.
* FantasticRacism: Geppetto's wooden soldiers are disgusted by creatures of flesh, particularly Fable and Mundy humans, who they derogatorily call 'meat'; they can't understand why any of their number would want to turn into a thing that excretes, gurgles, requires food, etc. Actually offering them food is, to them, the gravest of insults, as at least two people have found out to their misfortune.
** The Fables themselves are anti-Goblin since the Gobs were on the Adversary's side during the war.

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Brandish]] narrowly avoids this in the ''Camelot'' arc.
* TheFettered: Beast.
* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler:After the war against the Adversary, Rose Red immediately falls for Sinbad, who is returning as one of the war heroes, and marries him after supposedly just a few days of knowing him. This is what prompts Boy Blue's realization of her tendency to always chase after the more interesting men of the moment, and then losing interest the minute their glamour fades. This is proven by how she ''divorces'' Sinbad again in a heartbeat as soon as Blue returns a dying war hero.]]
* GameFace: Bigby, Beast, Grimble and a few other fables with glamours.
* GenderBender: [[spoiler:In ''Cinderella: Fables Are Forever'', Ivan Durak turns out to be Dorothy Gale in disguise. This is a ShoutOut to Willingham's older, and [[DarkerAndEdgier much nastier]], comic ''ComicBook/{{Elementals}}''.]]
* GenieInABottle: Appears in the ''Arabian Nights (and Days)'' arc. The Djinn are near pure magical beings with powers bordering on RealityWarper. They grant three wishes, but only return to their enchanted bottle if the third wish requires them to, otherwise they remain free and quite AxeCrazy.
* GodIsEvil: [[spoiler:Kevin Thorn]], the creator of the Fables, can rewrite reality with his pen, does so without regard to either Fable or Mundy no matter what harm he does, is prone to DisproportionateRetribution to perceived slights, and wants to destroy the universe because he is unhappy with the Fables growing beyond the roles he assigned them.

** The egg in Snow White's office.

** The throwaway story of the Barleycorn girls, early in the first arc. At the time, it doesn't advance the plot or characterization; it seems to be a random bit of world-building. However, after the Business Office traps Bufkin with some very fearsome enemies, [[spoiler:Bufkin uses his knowledge of the girls' existence to destroy Baba Yaga.]]

* CoolAirship: The ''Glory of Baghdad''. It's an airship powered by ''flying carpets''.

** Subverted in the first fight between Totenkinder and Mr. Dark. At first, the entire battle looks to be shaping up to be this trope. Totenkinder aka Bellflower takes minimal damage because she doesn't have any fear, is willing to show the full range of her power, and hurls continual spells at Dark that he can't counter. Then, when it finally looks like Dark is beaten, [[spoiler:it doesn't take, he escapes, and nearly kills Totenkinder after all]].

* CuteBruiser: Bigby during "The Great Fables Crossover". Kevin Thorn subjects Bigby to several form changes, finally turning the BigBadWolf into a cute little girl in a frilly pink dress -- though said cute little girl rips out throats with her teeth. Lampshaded by Horror (who herself looks like a cute little girl), who says "The sweeter they look, the more dangerous they are! Believe me, I know!".

* DeconstructionCrossover: For fairy-tales and nursery rhymes. Kevin Thorn is not amused.
* DestructiveRomance: The relationship between Jack and Rose Red has more then a hint of this even from the start, with Rose Red eventually realizing that they only brought out the worst in each other. When she later reconnects with him, it's out of pure self-hatred and depression. Their new relationship drags her down even further.
* DeusExMachina: Aside from being [[AnthropomorphicPersonification an actual character]], this is lampshaded by Science Fiction in ''The Great Fables Crossover''. He holds the firm belief that a surprise legion of Nebularian attack cruisers will show up at the last moment, because otherwise, how would they win at the end?
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Fables = Jews, Empire = Roman Empire, Haven = Israel. "Next year, in the homelands." It was the Romans who invaded Israel, burned the Temple, and forced the Jews into exile in order to make Israel part of the Roman Empire - much like how the Adversary chased the Fables into exile when he made their Homelands part of ''his'' empire. When Jews say "Next year in Jerusalem", or refer to the Diaspora (exile), that's what they're referring to.

* DependingOnTheArtist: Big time.
** Perhaps most visibly with Flycatcher. Flycatcher was drawn with visible eyes and being fairly unattractive earlier on, while later he was drawn with bangs constantly covering his eyes. He eventually was "revealed" to have beautiful green eyes under said bangs when going through his makeover in ''The Good Prince'', next to being [[BeautifulAllAlong surprisingly handsome]].
** Most artists draw Pinocchio as a cute little boy, but Mark Buckingham usually draws him with a squat face, scowl and usually closed eyes, which makes him look older.
* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: Jack Horner's schemes turn out to be like this since he's the Literal personification of all trickster archetype in fiction. His feats include tricking a whole legion of {{Devil}}s (including Lucifer, Chernabog, Old Nick, Sprat and others) into giving him hundred more years of life before they take possession of his soul. But even he realized it was a mistake in the long term, since sooner or later he is going to run out of devils to con and things to offer. [[spoiler: However, he managed to find yet again another loophole by creating an unforgettable film trilogy of himself and making him nigh-immortal and invincible. Since the Devils can only claim his soul in the last day of his life, the now-immortal Jack Horner has escaped this as well.]]
** When Jack Horner was suddenly turned into a dragon in the last arc, he lost his immortality and became destined to be slain by a hero, [[spoiler: which turned out to be his son]]. This effectively killed Jack Horner in their final battle, [[spoiler: but when the Devils came to collect his soul, all of them argued to whoever can claim it. So they then decided to just lock him up in the ends of time as punishment, but Jack somehow managed to escape this as well by using his and Gary's literary powers to create a new universe in Jack's own liking.]]
** There was also one time where he managed to beat the Devil in a poker game. After getting himself attracted to a dying Southern Belle, he then used the Devil's {{Bag of Holding}} to trap the {{Grim Reaper}} and prevent his new girlfriend from dying, so as to have sex with her

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: When the deceased [[spoiler:Bigby reunites with Boy Blue in the afterlife, the latter at one point makes it clear how unhappy he is with Stinky's founding of a religion in his name, expecting him to come back from the dead one day as a dashing hero saving the day, when all Boy Blue really wanted was to be freed of heroic responsibility [[IJustWantToBeNormal and just live a normal life.]]]]

* EldritchAbomination: From ''Jack of Fables'', what's inside a bagman. Mr. Revise has his moments too.
** In the main series, Totenkinder has moments of this...

* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:When Bufkin finds himself trapped in the woodland office with a resurrected Baba Yaga, the remaining heads from the surviving wooden soldiers assists him in taking her down.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Prince Charming's first appearance shows him eating at a restaurant and cunningly making the waitress ''pay for him''. He then takes her home to have sex with her.
* EvilChancellor: In the ''Arabian Nights (and Days)'' story arc, Sinbad, the well-meaning but culture-shocked ruler of the Arabian Fables, has an evil vizier, Yusuf.
* EvilTwin: Rose Red starts out as this, but she improves. [[spoiler:Though she will likely come to play this trope absolutely straght as revealed in the ''Happily Ever After'' arc.]]
* ExactWords: At the end of the "Jack in Hollywood" story, the narration informs us that Jack was never seen in Fabletown again. It says nothing, however, about the Farm, where Jack turns up during ''The Great Fables Crossover''.

* ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask: Frau Totenkinder defeating Baba Yaga without stopping her knitting.

* {{Expy}}: Bigby shares more than a little resemblance with {{Wolverine}}, though it might just be a coincidence.

* ADayInTheLimelight: The story of two of [[spoiler:Geppetto's wooden soldiers, Rodney and June, who end up falling for each other and subsequently request to become human]]. Later they become [[spoiler:a ChekhovsGunman when they're the ones ordered to assassinate Cinderella before she reaches Fabletown with Pinocchio.]]
** Their child, [[spoiler:Junebug]], also falls under this trope in issue #130.
* DeathIsCheap: As mentioned below, [[PopularityPower the more famous a fable is with the "mundies", the bigger the chances are they will just come back to life sooner or later no matter how many times they're killed]]. To wit, Snow White recovers from being sniped in the head.

* DeconstructionCrossover: For fairy-tales and nursery rhymes.
** [[spoiler:Kevin Thorn is not amused.]]

** Lampshaded by the Snow Queen herself in ''War and Pieces''. The Empire was an overextended paper tiger with a glass chin, oppressive to its own, and dangerous as an aggressor, but not very resilient at all when it is itself attacked. All of the CurbStompBattles end up being a subversion of the usual EvilEmpire/Unstoppable Horde trope.

--->'''Bigby:'''That's it. Someone '''dies''' tonight.

** Therese is also kidnapped to be the queen of Discardia, the land of [[spoiler: killer toys.]]

** Also much of [[spoiler:''The Good Prince''. While Flycatcher doesn't defeat the empire entirely, he beats army after army and eventually the elite forces of the Empire, the wooden soldiers.]]
*** The events of the stories leading up to ''War and Pieces'' didn't help the Empire's case - [[spoiler:the death of Bluebeard left the town flush with cash, the attacks of the wooden soldiers took out the most powerful contingent of the Empire's forces, and Lumi's plan, known thanks to Frau Totenkinder's spy games, left the Empire sorcery-free when the attack did come. That, and the Fables [[AuthorFilibuster had guns]]]].
** On a one-on-one level, the [[spoiler:first]] fight between [[spoiler:Totenkinder]] and Mr. Dark really looked like this; [[spoiler:Totenkinder aka Bellflower took minimal damage because she didn't have any fear, and she was willing to show the full range of her power in battle]]. Of course, [[spoiler:it didn't take]].
* CursedWithAwesome: The Beast from ''Beauty and the Beast'' still has the ability to become, ahem, a ''beast'' whenever Beauty is mad at him, although that sometimes proves bothersome. Played more straight later when Totenkinder gives him the ability to change into the beast whenever he chooses to himself (if it wasn't clear, his beast form is really useful in battles).
* CuteBruiser: [[spoiler:Bigby]] during ''The Great Fables Crossover'' after the BigBad turns him into a little girl in a pink dress. Lampshaded by Horror (who herself looks like a cute little girl), who says "The sweeter they look, the more dangerous they are! Believe me, I know!".
* DarkActionGirl: Goldilocks. She not only plans and executes the rebellion of the Farm Fables, but manages to escape the Fables' formidable trackers. She even takes on [[spoiler: Bigby, & comes perilously close to killing him. Only a sneak attack by Snow White stops Goldie in her ttracks.]]

* ContinuityDrift: Happens often. ''Legends in Exile'', the first arc, has many differences compared to the later stories. Such as those in the characters and backstories of Snow White and Prince Charming. In the aforementioned arc, she pushes all the blame for their marriage falling apart on him cheating on her with Rose Red, and it's revealed he can never stay true to a woman. In ''1001 Nights of Snowfall'', however, he's a good man who rejects the advances of several woman while married to Snow, who admits when the story is done that the marriage started falling apart when [[spoiler:Snow killed the seven dwarves out of revenge, which nearly lead to a war between two kingdoms, but she wasn't willing to admit what she had done to prevent said war. Charming had to fake a confession from a prisoner to keep the peace]]. (Then again, Snow herself has admitted that she's [[UnreliableNarrator given to omitting or selecting various truths]] while examining her complicated personal relationships.)
** In Cinderella: In ''From Fabletown with Love'', one panel during the BigBad's monologue strongly implies that [[spoiler:Frau Totenkinder]] is the evil fairy from Sleeping Beauty's tale. But in the first ''Fairest'' arc, [[spoiler:such fairy is introduced as being Hadeon the Destroyer instead]].
** In the Peter & Max novel, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Max had made every Fable infertile in the 1920s, meaning no child has been born until Bigby and Snow's children.]] But in the comic, while [[spoiler:Snow was pregnant]] nobody ever remarked on the miraculous nature it should have been, it was just treated like a regular event.

* CoolHat: Although there's a shortage of hats in the stories, Flycatcher's frog-cap most certainly counts as one.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Bufkin. So very much.
* CultureJustifiesAnything: When the Arabian Fables join Fabletown, they are told they will have to free their slaves. The Arabian Fables object, claiming that slave ownership is part of their culture. King Cole then says that Fabletown will honour their custom of owning slaves, if they agree to honour Fabletown's custom of executing slaveholders wherever they find them. The Arabian Fables agree to free their slaves.
* CunningLikeAFox: Reynard Fox, with a capital C.
* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler:The entirety of ''War and Pieces''. The forces of Fabletown use the technology and tactics of the Mundy world to strategically incapacitate the Empire's capital. By the time the Empire can mount a successful counterattack, Fabletown is already mostly victorious, and Prince Charming's HeroicSacrifice is all it takes to seal the deal. It helps that Geppetto is practically catatonic with grief over the loss of his "children" in the previous arc, but if this were the actual end of the series, instead of the midway point, it'd be a bit anticlimactic, no?]]
** Foreshadowed first in ''Animal Farm'' and in ''March of the Wooden Soldiers'' (when the first thing the wooden soldiers, the elite warriors of the Empire, do upon arriving in Fabletown is [[spoiler:acquire guns, because without them they would have had no chance]]). It happens again in ''Homelands'', where [[spoiler:a single man, albeit with some impressive magic gear, infiltrates the entire Empire all the way to the capital, assassinates the emperor, and discovers Geppetto's secret]]. The way the Empire handles the situation, [[spoiler:killing off the low-level official who was clever enough to piece together the truth because he knew too much ''and'' everyone who might have witnessed the emperor's "assassination"]] tells us all we need to know about the ability of the Empire's political system to respond to external threats. Also present in the ''Wolves'' arc, where yet another single enemy, using a synergy of magic and technology, [[spoiler:infiltrates and destroys the Empire's most powerful strategic resource]]. Finally Lampshaded by the Snow Queen herself in ''War and Pieces''. The Empire was an overextended paper tiger with a glass chin. Oppressive to its own, and dangerous as an aggressor, but not very resilient at all when it is itself attacked. This may have been planned from the beginning as a subversion of the usual EvilEmpire/Unstoppable Horde trope.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The D'jinn have no concept of good and evil. Bigby was raised with wolf morals, but has adopted a degree of human morals. Mr. North is [[AnthropomorphicPersonification a living embodiment of the north wind]], [[TimeAbyss far older than any of the Fables]], and [[TheChainsOfCommanding a king]] so his sense of priorities and morals can be very different.

* CantGrowUp: Pinocchio.
* TheCasanova: Jack and Prince Charming [[spoiler:(LikeFatherLikeSon, after all)]].
* CavalryOfTheDead: In ''The Good Prince'', [[spoiler:Ambrose takes advantage of the fact that all of his subjects from beyond the well are technically ghosts, and summons their forms as such to take out the Adversary's army through pure fear, by having the ghosts enter their innermost psyches.]]
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The egg in Snow White's office, Frau Totenkinder's knitting.]]
** You know that story somewhere in the third volume about the Barleycorn girls? How it really doesn't seem to advance the plot or characterization, but just throw in another element of the world? [[spoiler:Bufkin uses his knowledge of the girls' existence to fight Baba Yaga during the Mr. Dark arc.]]
* ChekhovMIA: [[spoiler:Geppetto.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Ozma.]]
* TheChessmaster: The Adversary ([[spoiler:Geppetto]]) on one side, Frau Totenkinder on the other.

** Babe the Blue Ox, judging by his fantasies.

* AChildShallLeadThem: [[spoiler:Winter]] is chosen to be [[spoiler:the North Wind]]. She's eight years old at the time.

* TheBigBadWolf: Bigby, naturally. Born the runt of his litter, he swears to kill and eat something bigger each day until he's not only the size of an elephant, but he's killed thousands. It's hilarious when you realize that's what his name is: Big B. Wolf.

** [[spoiler:Flycatcher]] becomes this as well after creating his own kingdom of Haven.

* BiTheWay: Rapunzel has relationships with both male Fables and the female {{Kitsune}} Tomoko. Nobody treats this as a big deal. Frau Totenkinder calls her a "slut", but that seems to be due to her having any kind of sexual relationship at all; the gender of the partner is not remarked upon.
** Prince Charming also touches upon this trope as well in ''The Return of the Maharaja'', where he mentions that he too has loved men, and does not find anything wrong with another man being in love with him.
* BlastingTime: How magic users lob destructive spells.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Prince Charming's three (ex-)wives, Cinderella, Snow White, and Briar Rose respectively.
** Also applies to [[spoiler:Snow and Bigby's daughters (Therese, Winter and Blossom respectively)]].

* TheBluebeard: TropeNamer present and accounted for. Swears he doesn't kill wives anymore.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:''Fairest'' reveals that the Snow Queen's FaceHeelTurn (contrast her appearances in flashbacks from ''Jack of Fables'' to her current state in ''Fables''), was due to Geppetto keeping her drugged with ten thousand years' worth of patented "blue loyalty cocktails". Her time asleep thanks to Briar Rose finally got the crap out of her system, but we've yet to see if she'll remain the person she became or change back.]]
* BrickJoke: ''Jack Of Fables'' has the infamous Tortoise and Hare starting a race to freedom from the Golden Boughs Retirement Village during a breakout attempt in issue #4. ''28 issues later'', [[spoiler:after the entire community has been destroyed by a prolonged battle and eventual volcanic eruption]], the Tortoise is just crossing the outer treeline, confident his tyrannical warden will not keep him imprisoned any longer. 18 issues after that, [[spoiler:as part of the KillEmAll finale, the Tortoise is run over by a truck]].
** In the very first story arc, Pinocchio mentions that he wants to hurt the Blue Fairy because she [[ExactWords made him into a real boy, which means that he's eternally a boy]]. When he finally ''does'' meet up with the Blue Fairy...he proceeds to assault her until she stops him.
* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler:The Page sisters turn out to be Jack's half-sisters, though none of them knew that at the time.]]
** Notably, they're all disgusted by this revelation. [[spoiler:Robin]], however, is apparently turned on by it as well.
* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:Totenkinder vs. Mister Dark. She ultimately had to throw the match when she realized how outclassed she was.]]

* CameBackWrong: Not as extreme as other examples, but a couple characters have had issues since [[BackFromTheDead their resurrection]]. [[spoiler:Snow White needed to use a cane to walk for years after she got shot. All of the dead Fables Flycatcher brought back in ''The Good Prince'' exist in his presence and with his permission.]]
** Revealed to be the fate of [[spoiler:Bigby]] at the end of issue #141.

* BattleaxeNurse: Mrs. Sprat. In issue #100, after Snow White calls her out on her nasty personality, Sprat reveals she became a nurse for the chance to have any of the so-called "pretty" Fables on their backs and completely at her mercy.

* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler:After killing the original Beauty, a lamia took her place. But she stayed so long in that guise that she eventually ''became'' Beauty… Except for those times every few decades when she snaps out of it and goes on a murderous rampage.]] Now a moot point after the events of ''Fairest in All the Land'', in which [[spoiler:Goldilocks kills both lamia and Beauty with the Sword of Regret]]; when the Sword of Regret's power of recall is used (see PowerAtAPrice below), [[spoiler:the lamia is left dead while Beauty is resurrected]].
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Bufkin. The Magic Mirror said it best:

* BigBad: At first, it appears as if the mighty, immortal Emperor is responsible for the invasion of all the Homelands, keeping the conniving Nome King, the plotting Snow Queen, and legions of wizards & monsters under his control & terrorizing the conquered lands, but then we find out who is really the mover & shaker behind it all: [[spoiler:Gepetto, Pinnochio's father, as the Emperor is merely a wooden puppet created by the wood-carver.]]
* TheBigBadWolf: Bigby, naturally. It's hilarious when you realize that's what his name is: Big B. Wolf.
* BigDamnHeroes: Usually done by Bigby.

* BigGood: Snow White until [[spoiler:Mr. Dark]] shows up. [[spoiler:Red Rose]] then takes the role but only after an epic RefusalOfTheCall.

** Therese in ''Cubs in Toyland'' & all of the discarded toys. After she executes [[spoiler:the Ticky-Tocky Tiger Lord Mountbatten]] and Dare [[spoiler:sacrifices himself]] to reactivate the cauldron of plenty to feed her, Therese spends years in a fugue-state of depression due to her grief. When she finally becomes aware again, she's [[PlotRelevantAgeUp become an adult]]. She explains to her subjects that they are going to redeem themselves for the deaths they caused by going out into the Mundy world and prevent other children from dying the same way their owners did. 100 children saved for each toy restores that particular toy, yet Therese never recovers from her guilt, with all food from the Cauldron tasting "like ashes in her mouth".

* AuthorFilibuster: Bigby supports Israel's controversial military tactics, telling [[spoiler:a pajama clad Geppetto]] why [[spoiler:he is blowing up his enchanted forest; Fabletown is mimicking them]]. There have also been a few not entirely historically accurate potshots against France.
* AuthorTract: The praise of Israel's most militant policies, the not entirely historically accurate sweeping extreme dislike of France as a nation that takes pride in ingratitude, the lambasting of sign-style protesters as savages, calling the American Civil War "The War Of Northern Aggression", the portrayal of tax collectors as goblins to be killed, the possibly somewhat UnfortunateImplications about assorted Middle Eastern Fables. Along with a condemnation rating scale that isn't remotely relatively proportionate to the crimes. Some characters are offhandedly killed off or condemned for enormously lesser offenses than ones who are forgiven for an essentially unforgivable scale. Also the time when Snow White [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion vehemently rejected the idea of having an abortion]], as well as Kay's implication that many Fables would be up in-arms because Frau Totenkinder now gains power from abortion clinics, rather than killing children herself.

** Snow White [[TookALevelInBadass Takes A Level In Badass]] whenever the situation requires her to, while Cinderella is a through and through ActionGirl, working for Fabletown as an undercover spy whose skills would put Franchise/JamesBond to shame.

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Snow White in the ''Animal Farm'' arc.]]
** Explained in-universe in that a Fable's ContractualImmortality is dependent on the mundies' knowledge of their particular story. Which basically makes the much ''lesser''-known Fables into RedShirts just ''waiting'' to get KilledOffForReal.
** Sort of [[spoiler:all the Fables thrown down the Witching Well, once Fly comes for them during the ''The Good Prince'' arc.]]
** Thus far averted in the case of [[spoiler:Boy Blue, who tells Bigby in the afterlife that he wouldn't be coming back. In the same issue, it seems that the same is true for Darien.]]

* BadassInDistress: In ''Storybook Love'', Bigby attempts to ambush Goldilocks but ends up bested by her filling him with bullets, which, while it doesn't kill him, temporarily wounds and slows him down. If it hadn't been for [[TookALevelInBadass Snow White driving an axe through Goldilock's skull]] while she was too busy building a fire surrounding Bigby, things would likely have looked bad for him.

* AscendedExtra: A trait in ''Fables'' is that characters who appeared as bit extras when the series first began, over time, gradually grow into supporting characters, and even become the main characters or villains of certain arcs in some cases.
* AnyoneCanDie: Played oh so very, very straight. No character is safe from being killed off, including [[spoiler: Bigby & Snow's child Dare.]]. The second story arc alone has a number of beloved fairy tale characters executed for treason.

** Therese in ''Cubs in Toyland'' & all of the discarded toys. After she executes [[spoiler:the Ticky-Tocky Tiger Lord Mountbatten]] and Dare [[spoiler:sacrifices himself]] to reactivate the cauldron of plenty to feed her, Therese spends years in a state of depression due to her grief. When she snaps out of it, she's [[PlotRelevantAgeUp become an adult]]. She explains to her subjects that they are going to redeem themselves for the deaths they caused by going out into the Mundy world and prevent other children from dying the same way their owners did. 100 children saved for each toy restores that particular toy, yet Therese never recovers from her guilt, with all food from the Cauldron tasting "like ashes in her mouth".

* AuthorTract: The praise of Israel's most militant policies, the not entirely historically accurate sweeping extreme dislike of France as a nation that takes pride in ingratitude, the lambasting of sign-style protesters as savages, calling the American Civil War "The War Of Northern Aggression", the portrayal of tax collectors as goblins to be killed, the possibly somewhat UnfortunateImplications about assorted Middle Eastern Fables. Along with a condemnation rating scale that isn't remotely relatively proportionate to the crimes. Some characters are offhandedly killed off or condemned for enormously lesser offenses than ones who are forgiven for an essentially unforgivable scale. Also the time when Snow White [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion vehemently rejected the idea of having an abortion]], as well as the implication that because Frau Totenkinder no longer kills children to sustain her powers, she now gains power from abortion clinics…

* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: A major undercurrent in the general story. As revealed in ''Peter and Max'', Fables are unable to have children because [[spoiler:[[ThePiedPiperOfHamelin Max Piper]] used his eldritch powers to modify an influenza strain to sterilize the population as part of his revenge on his brother back in the 1920's]]. [[spoiler:Snow White and Bigby's children]] are considered a miracle, the first born in decades. In recent issues, speculation about Beauty and Beast's newborn [[spoiler:(who can transform between cute infant to six-limbed furry beast)]] has been a background element.

* BadassBookworm: The Page sisters from ''Jack of Fables.''
** [[spoiler:Bufkin.]]

* BadassFamily: [[spoiler:Bigby, Snow White, the North Wind, Rose Red, and the kids.]]

** Boy Blue wields the Vorpal Blade, which can cut off the heads of solid, giant wooden people & multiple other targets with one blow. The blade features in several of the story arcs, including [[spoiler:Blue's single-handed invasion of the homelands & Bufkin's defense of the business offense against Baba Yaga.]]

** Bigby and [[spoiler:his & Snow's children]] meet again after four years & a long story arc of his regaining status in the Fable community, yet their reunion barely gets a couple panels.

** The actual DeaderThanDead end of [[spoiler:Mister Dark]] might seem this way given the DeusExMachina way he is finally destroyed. However, given that there was a suitably epic battle between him and [[spoiler:Frau Totenkinder]] earlier in the arc, most readers will forgive the way the unstoppable threat he represented got ended so quickly by [[spoiler:Bigby's father, the North Wind]], especially given the TearJerker way it happens.
** Jack of Fables introduces characters who are essentially gods of writing tropes and the creators of the fables, which would cause a huge existential crisis to the community. This factor is not explored in the slightest when Bigby and Snow meet Mr. Revise and at the end of the crossover, their memories are erased & the incident is never mentioned again.

* AllMythsAreTrue: But only the [[PublicDomainCharacter Public Domain]] ones have come to Earth.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: The "Literals" embody literary concepts--Revise embodies stories changing to be more acceptable over the years, the Pathetic Fallacy is almost an anthropomorphic personification of anthropomorphic personifications; Eliza Wall is the youngest of four siblings; Dex Machina (DeusExMachina) can do anything, but doesn't until it's completely impossible for a situation to be resolved otherwise; and [[spoiler:Kevin Thorn is the Writer that brought all the Fables into existence in the first place]].
** A number of entities are considered "Great Powers" - embodiments of one concept or another. The North Wind is one, and he has three siblings (the other Cardinal Winds). Mr. Dark is another. In one of the more recent issues, an incarnation of Hope makes an appearance as well.

* AnyoneCanDie: Played oh so very, very straight.
* ArabianNightsDays: The free European fables are portrayed as being stuck in the modern world after the adversary took over. When they ally with the Arabian Fables they expect them to be living in hiding in the middle east. Instead it turns out they are still living in their own traditional lands, complete with flying carpets, since the Adversary has only recently started targeting them and they are actually a cohesive force that can fight him unlike the Europeans (when they were conquered they had a very medieval mindset with each fief and principality on its own).

** Subverted with Bigby. In his origin story it was revealed that Bigby used to [[ImAHumanitarian eat thousands of innocent people alive]] ForTheEvulz, including children & is still considered a monster by the Fables of the Farm. Yet since he's a wolf, he wasn't born or raised with any human morals and so doesn't feel any guilt over it. His actions since joining the community are not to atone, but only because his priorities changed after connecting with Snow and becoming a father. He's still technically a monster, but now he's a husband, leader and dad too, which his canine nature takes far more seriously.

* BigBad: The Adversary aka [[spoiler:Geppetto]], [[spoiler:Mr. Dark]], Max Piper aka the Pied Piper of Hamelin and the [[spoiler:Crooked Man]] (from ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'') all serve as major antagonists, with various minor ones including [[spoiler:Goldilocks]], [[spoiler:Dorothy Gale, a.k.a "Silverslippers"]], [[spoiler:the Fairy Godmother]], [[spoiler:Prince Brandish]], [[spoiler:Bloody Mary]] and [[spoiler:Carl Harp]]. Surviving Imperials such as [[spoiler:Baba Yaga]], [[spoiler:Hansel]], and [[spoiler:the Nome King]] also pose minor threats.
** And, more recently, then there's the prophecy concerning [[spoiler:Snow White]] and [[spoiler:her sister Rose Red]].

* AllThereInTheManual: The book ''1001 Nights of Snowfall'' gives a lot of information on the back stories of the main cast before they joined Fabletown.
* AllWomenLoveShoes: Cinderella[[spoiler:'s cover identity]]. She owns the Glass Slipper Shoe Store.

* AndThatsTerrible: Everybody in the story keeps underlining just how detestable [[spoiler:Prince Brandish]] supposedly is – and mind you, he ''is'' a smug wife beater, so he definitely is bad as such [[spoiler:(not to mentioned he also murdered one of their own) ''and'' threatened to kill Snow and Bigby's kids]]. However, this comes as an massive departure from sweepingly overlooking or justifying enormously greater atrocities and malevolence from other characters, including some of the protagonists, so in the end it just comes across as extremely odd or even slanted.
** Then again, all the members of Fabletown with atrocities in their past signed the Fabletown Compact and thus agreed to obey all the laws of the community, including (in most cases) leaving such behavior behind. Brandish simply arrived to impose his will upon Snow and willing to do anything, up to and including murder, to anyone who stood in his way, and even in defeat was entirely unrepentant about his actions. He may have been taken prisoner and forced into labor as punishment for his crimes by Fabletown authorities, but he never signed the Compact and never considered himself subject to their laws.

* AdaptationalVillainy: [[spoiler:Geppetto and Goldilocks.]] In their respective stories, [[spoiler:Geppetto]] is a benevolent, fatherly figure while [[spoiler:Goldilocks]] is nothing more than a harmless (if annoying) intruder. In the comics, on the other hand…
** [[spoiler:Gepetto is "the Adversary", the vicious tyrant who has crushed thousands of fantasy worlds and murdered billions, all in the name of peace.]]
** [[spoiler:Goldilocks is a vicious rabble-rousing anarchist who stirs up revolution just for the fun of seeing people fighting.]]

** Prince Charming is a promiscuous {{Jerkass}}, though he sometimes slips into JerkWithAHeartOfGold territory.

* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Geppetto.]]
* TheAgeless: The Fables and their immunity to injury seems to be related to their PopularityPower, and so, their immortality varies between them. Note that none seems to find their inability to die outside of being killed to be a BlessedWithSuck case. [[spoiler:Geppetto's wooden soldiers also seem to fall under this. The only thing that stops them from having effective CompleteImmortality is that their wood can break. Not that it stops them from trying to kill you. They also burn… just not quickly enough for it to count as a weakness in combat time.]]

* AntiClimax: Bigby and [[spoiler:his children meet again after four years and their reunion gets ''no'' focus at all?]]
** [[spoiler:The sheer speed by which the Fables disable the Adversary's Empire was off-putting to many, considering for how long the Empire was held as this vast all powerful menace. While this may be a brilliant subversion of the unbeatable Empire and the Sauron-esque EvilOverlord tropes by showing how politically fragile it would be (it has many of the weaknesses that real world dictatorships have), and how MugglesDoItBetter when it comes to heavy weaponry, it can still seem disappointing.]]

** Jack of Fables introduces characters who are essentially gods of writing tropes and the creators of the fables, which would cause a huge existential crisis to the community. This factor is not explored in the slightest when Bigby and Snow meet Mr. Revise and at the end of the crossover their memories are erased.
** [[spoiler: The speed at which the final arc of Rose vs. Snow got ended, with Rose suddenly realizing the curse was broken and "we don't need to do this after all"]]. Considering that the whole Empire vs Fabletown thing took up 11 full books (12 if you count ''1001 Nights of Snowfall''), the whole ending story arc of Rose and Snow gearing up to fight is rushed and haphazard, taking less than 3 books to build and resolve.

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Therese in ''Cubs in Toyland''. After Dare sacrifices himself for her benefit, Therese spends years in a state of depression due to her grief. When she snaps out of it, she's [[PlotRelevantAgeUp become an adult]] (time passes differently in Discardia), and explains to her subjects, the toys of the land that they are going to redeem themselves for the deaths they caused by going out into the Mundy world and making an effort to prevent other children from dying the same way their owners did. For the most part it's worked. Thanks to Therese's efforts, Toyland is now a bright and living world.]]
** In his origin story it was revealed that Bigby used to [[ImAHumanitarian eat thousands of innocent people alive]] ForTheEvulz, including children going by Literature/RedRidingHood.
*** Subverted in that he wasn't born or raised with any human morals, being a wolf, and so doesn't really feel guilty. His priorities just changed after reconnecting with Snow, which is intensified when she bears his cubs. He's still technically a monster, now he's just a husband, leader and dad too, which his canine nature takes far more seriously.
** And ''1001 Nights of Snowfall'' reveals that Red Riding Hood, and subsequently the painful encounter with that one lumberjack, was Bigby's first actual experience with humans. Considering his accelerated growth, he could easily have been ''even younger than her'' at the time.

** Boy Blue wields the Vorpal Blade.
** Later on, so does [[spoiler:Bufkin the winged monkey]].
* ActionGirl: Cinderella, who's an undercover spy while running a (naturally) shoe store on the surface.
** DarkActionGirl: Goldilocks.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:Geppetto may have killed millions in the expansion of his empire, but, [[MotiveRant as he stated]], that empire created security for the billions of those who abided his laws for hundreds of years...until the protagonists brought it down.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In ''March of the Wooden Soldiers'', [[spoiler:Baba Yaga briefly hints that the Red Riding Hood imposter Boy Blue fell for is still alive, but she's never brought up again]].