History ComicBook / Fables

* AuthorTract: The praise of Israel's policies, the extreme dislike of France, the lambasting of sign-style protesters as savages, the portrayal of tax collectors as goblins to be killed, the less than progressive depiction of assorted Middle Eastern Fables. 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.

* PurpleProse: Mocked by the Genre Fantasy. When she's introduced along with the other Genres, each one of them is given a short little snippet to describe them. Fantasy's starts by talking about how [[MarySue her beauty is matched only by her magical ability]], and then abruptly gives up with an "...Oh, screw it." Most of her speech is extensively flowery and dramatic.

** In the very first story arc, Pinocchio mentions in a side-scene 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 many issues later, he proceeds to beat the living crap out of her until she's forced to use magic to stop him.

* ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'' (2013-2014) - An {{Episodic|Game"" AdventureGame developed by Creator/TelltaleGames. It [[http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=33523 is confirmed to be]] canon and a {{Prequel}} to the comic.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}} vs Bigby: A Wolf in Gotham'' (2021) - A six-issue {{Crossover}}mini-series

The series has encompassed mysteries, adventure, romance, conspiracies, magic, culture clashes, and fly eating, and has to date won 14 Eisner Awards. As of 2008, it's the most popular Creator/VertigoComics title, spawning the SpinOff titles ''Jack of Fables'' and ''Fairest'', three mini-series called ''The Literals'', ''Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love'', and ''Cinderella: Fables are Forever'', and one novel, ''Peter & Max''. As of 2010 Fables was the second longest running Vertigo title after ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}''. The series came to an end with its 150th issue in 2015, however on June 10, 2021, it was announced to resume in 2022 under the Creator/DCBlackLabel imprint with its 151st issue preceded by ''ComicBook/{{Batman}} vs Bigby: A Wolf in Gotham'', a six-issue mini-series

A ''Fables'' video game titled ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'' was developed by Creator/TelltaleGames. It [[http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=33523 is confirmed to be]] canon and a {{Prequel}} to the comic.

* AuthorTract: The praise of Israel's policies, the extreme dislike of France, 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 less than progressive depiction of assorted Middle Eastern Fables. 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 returns in the ''Animal Farm'' arc after being shot in the head with a rifle. This is explained in-universe in that a Fable's ContractualImmortality is dependent on the mundies' knowledge of their particular story. This not only makes Snow and certain other characters nigh unkillable, it also means the much lesser-known Fables are RedShirts just waiting to get KilledOffForReal.

** Subverted with Bigby. In his origin story it was revealed that Bigby used to [[ImAHumanitarian eat thousands of innocents alive]] ForTheEvulz, including children, and is still considered a monster by the Fables of the Farm. Yet since he's a wolf, he wasn't born or raised with human morals and so doesn't feel any guilt over his actions. Since joining the community, he doesn't so much atone as his priorities change 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.

* AuthorTract: The praise of Israel's policies, the extreme dislike of France, 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 UnfortunateImplications about assorted Middle Eastern Fables. 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 in the ''Animal Farm'' arc. This is explained in-universe in that a Fable's ContractualImmortality is dependent on the mundies' knowledge of their particular story. This not only makes Snow and certain other characters nigh unkillable, it also means the much lesser-known Fables are RedShirts just waiting to get KilledOffForReal.

** Averted in the cases of [[spoiler: Boy Blue, who tells Bigby in the afterlife that he wouldn't be coming back, and Darien, who states the same thing]].

The series has encompassed mysteries, adventure, romance, conspiracies, magic, culture clashes, and fly eating, and has to date won 14 Eisner Awards. As of 2008, it's the most popular Creator/VertigoComics title, spawning the SpinOff titles ''Jack of Fables'' and ''Fairest'', three mini-series called ''The Literals'', ''Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love'', and ''Cinderella: Fables are Forever'', and one novel, ''Peter & Max''. As of 2010 Fables was the second longest running Vertigo title after ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}''. The series came to an end with its 150th issue in 2015, however on June 10, 2021, it was announced to resume in 2022 under the ComicBook/DCBlackLabel imprint with its 151st issue preceded by ''ComicBook/{{Batman}} vs Bigby: A Wolf in Gotham'', a six-issue mini-series

The series has encompassed mysteries, adventure, romance, conspiracies, magic, culture clashes, and fly eating, and has to date won 14 Eisner Awards. As of 2008, it's the most popular Creator/VertigoComics title, spawning the SpinOff titles ''Jack of Fables'' and ''Fairest'', three mini-series called ''The Literals'', ''Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love'', and ''Cinderella: Fables are Forever'', and one novel, ''Peter & Max''. As of 2010 Fables was the second longest running Vertigo title after ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}''. The series came to an end with its 150th issue in 2015, however on June 10, 2021, it was announced to resume in 2022 with its 151st issue preceded by ''Bigby vs. ComicBook/{{Batman}}: A Wolf in Gotham'', a six-issue mini-series

The series has encompassed mysteries, adventure, romance, conspiracies, magic, culture clashes, and fly eating, and has to date won 14 Eisner Awards. As of 2008, it's the most popular Creator/VertigoComics title, spawning the SpinOff titles ''Jack of Fables'' and ''Fairest'', three mini-series called ''The Literals'', ''Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love'', and ''Cinderella: Fables are Forever'', and one novel, ''Peter & Max''. As of 2010 Fables was the second longest running Vertigo title after ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}''. The series came to an end with its 150th issue in 2015.

** Inverted with Colin, one of the ''Literature/ThreeLittlePigs''. In the original fairy tale, the pigs are never named. In ''ComicBook/Fables'', the dead loyal pig is always called Colin whenever he appears.

** When Dr. Swineheart gently points out that Snow White doesn't ''have'' to give birth to her illegitimate children that were begotten on her by 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 wanted, they're still too precious to just "discard" like that.

* InfantImmortality: Rarely, if ever, played straight, the series does not spare anyone just because they're babies or kids:
** Averted horribly in the ''Cubs in Toyland'' story, where the toy-residents are all exiled to Discardia because they were indirectly responsible for the deaths of the children and infants they belonged to.
** Averted again during the same arc with [[spoiler:9-year-old Darien]] sacrificing himself to reactivate the Cauldron of Plenty to keep Therese alive.

* ChekovsSkill: During the invasion of Fabletown, members of the Mouse Police disabled a number of the advancing wooden soldiers by climbing up their pants legs and removing the joints from their knees. Bigby would use this same exact tactic to great effect during the War against the Empire, against [[spoiler: the giant puppet Emperor]].

--> '''Science Fiction''': Our kid brother Superhero has died so many times that the readers barely even notice anymore. A few years later--BOOM, there he is again.

** Jack Horner's 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. However, he managed to find yet another loophole by creating an unforgettable film trilogy of himself that made 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.

--> '''Frau Totenkinder:''' Remember what you saw on that rooftop that you wish you hadn't.

--> "The ditzy bitch fulfilled my wish way too literally. I'm three hundred years old and still haven't hit puberty. I want my balls to drop and I want to get laid!"

-->'''Bigby:''' Don't tell me -- the dog's name was '''Prince'''?
-->'''Briar:''' Repeat any of this and I'll hate you ''forever.''

** The Liliputian settlement at the Farm is called Smalltown. They originally wanted to call it [[{{Superman}} Smallville]] but the name was rejected because [[TakeThat everyone thought it was dumb]].

* GodIsEvil: Kevin Thorn, [[spoiler:the creator of the Fables,]] can rewrite reality with his pen and does so without regard to either Fable or Mundy no matter what harm he does. Thorn has no qualms about dishing out DisproportionateRetribution to perceived slights, and plans to destroy the universe because he is unhappy with the Fables [[spoiler:growing beyond the roles he assigned them.]]

Has a [[Characters/{{Fables}} character sheet]] that needs some WikiMagic.

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* FatGirl: Mrs. Sprat, as Snow White has pointed out, has the unfortunate displeasure of being an ugly, overweight woman in a community of excessively beautiful and slender women. [[spoiler:Thanks to Mr. Dark, she's not this anymore.]]

* HourglassPlot: much of the New Camelot seems to involve who of the cast will take over the various roles of the mythical King Arthur tales. Two of the characters are from those old myths, Morgana Le Fay and Lancelot, and they don't take over their old roles. Instead, they move into different roles, opposite what they played in the original tale: Lancelot now plays Guinevere's role as the consort of "King Arthur"/Rose Red, with Morgana taking over Merlin's role as advisor, instead of being the wicked sorceress out to destroy Camelot.
* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: A short written story after the main serie's end senters around Blossom who has become a NatureHero living with both enchanted and regular animals. Her story tells of two ordinary men who plan on going hunting in the magic lands since they figure it's still just animals. Blossom shows herself to the men and warns them that she's "giving them a chance" to get out before she'll let the animals do what they want. The hunters insist they're in their full right to hunt, to which Blossom answers, "My, my, what makes you think ''you'' are the hunters?" She leaves them with that and the ending narrates how the enchanted animals of the forest are waking up that morning to the smell of fresh human meat just ready for their taking...

* Goldilocks has had many paramours throughout the course of the series (both humanoid and non), as she claims her coupling with animal species is a socio-political statement. But on the whole, she uses sex to control and manipulate others.

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

** Cinderella is a through and through ActionGirl, working for Fabletown as a covert agent & assassin whose skills would put Franchise/JamesBond to shame.

* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:The Adversary, Geppetto,]] is depicted as an absent-minded old man who truly cares for his created children & mourns their deaths.

** The wooden soldiers of the Golden Horde never age, never get sick, never die. The only thing that stops them from having CompleteImmortality is that their wood can break & their joints can loosen & drop off. 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.
* AllMythsAreTrue: Every single fairy tale, nursery rhyme, folk story, myth, & legend character is alive & living either in Fabletown, the Farm, or in one of the many Homelands. But only the [[PublicDomainCharacter Public Domain]] ones have come to Earth.

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

** 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. At the end of the crossover, everyone's memories are erased & the incident is never mentioned again.

* AnyoneCanDie: No character is safe from being killed off, including [[spoiler: Bigby & Snow's child Dare, Bigby himself, and Boy Blue.]] The second story arc alone has a number of beloved fairy tale characters executed for treason.
* 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, the European Fables expect them to be in hiding in the Middle East. Instead, the Arabian Fables are still living in their traditional lands, the glorious fairy-tale versions of Persia & Arabia, complete with flying carpets, genies, & harem girls. The Adversary had only recently started targeting them and they are actually a cohesive force that can hold him off effectively (although this is due to the European fables like Snow White, warning them in advance).

** 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. Despite thousands of lives saved, Therese never recovers from her guilt, with all food from the Cauldron tasting "like ashes in her mouth".
** Subverted with Bigby. In his origin story it was revealed that Bigby used to [[ImAHumanitarian eat thousands of innocents 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 human morals and so doesn't feel any guilt over his actions. Since joining the community, he doesn't so much atone as his priorities change 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.

* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: A major undercurrent in the general story. As revealed in ''Peter and Max'', Fables are unable to have children because [[spoiler:[[Literature/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]]. 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.

%%** Snow White in the ''Animal Farm'' arc. This is explained in-universe in that a Fable's ContractualImmortality is dependent on the mundies' knowledge of their particular story. This not only makes Snow & certain other characters nigh unkillable, it also means the much lesser-known Fables are RedShirts just waiting to get KilledOffForReal.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Throughout the first story arc, Bufkin's a timid flying monkey who quails from the anger of the other Fables and is content to spend his time reading all the books in the Business Office. But then the unthinkable happens: the Business Office is cut off from Fabletown, trapping Bufkin inside with Baba Yaga & a freed genie, and all hell breaks loose. The Magic Mirror said it best:

* BigBad: At first, it appears as if the monstrous, immortal Emperor is responsible for the invasion of 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 the true mover & shaker behind it all: [[spoiler:Geppetto, Pinocchio's father, as the Emperor is merely a wooden puppet created by the wood-carver.]]

** The fate of [[spoiler:Bigby]], who's turned into glass & shattered by Prince Brandish. When the Thirteenth Floor folks manage to put him together, a part has been stolen by [[spoiler: Leigh Douglass, the former Nurse Pratt]], who uses it to corrupt him into a monstrous killing machine.

** Frau Totenkinder's constant knitting [[spoiler:a multi-armed onesie]] for Beauty & Beast's coming child, who turns out to [[spoiler: take over Beast's curse and can turn into a monster at will.]]

** Winter is chosen to be [[spoiler:the North Wind, who rules all things cold & North]]. She's eight years old at the time.

** Snow White & Rose Red's backstory is first presented as their mother sending Snow to her own sister to be raised. In the Finale arc, though, we find out that it's actually the mother's sister-in-law, as her real sisters are all dead due to the tontine.
** At first, nothing special is attached to Snow & Bigby's children. Then, towards the final arc & after it's announced that one of the cubs must become the new [[spoiler:North Wind]], we learn about a prophecy that Ozma made concerning them & which now seems to be coming true. The "Cubs in Toyland" arc covers the first half of the prophecy & its impact on the over-arcing tale...but all we ever get of the rest are fast sum-ups and no real stories exploring how they came to be.

* CultureJustifiesAnything: When the Arabian Fables join Fabletown, they are told that slavery is illegal in Fabletown & that they will have to free their slaves. The Arabian Fables object, claiming that slave ownership is part of their culture. King Cole agrees that Fabletown will honor their custom of owning slaves, but only if they agree to honor Fabletown's custom of executing slaveholders wherever they find them. The Arabian Fables immediately agree to free their slaves.

* DarkActionGirl: Goldilocks 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 tracks.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Many of the side & supporting characters get their own spotlight stories within the larger arcs:

** Perhaps most visibly with Flycatcher. Flycatcher was drawn with visible eyes and being rather unattractive early on, while later he was drawn with bangs constantly covering his eyes & the goofy frog-cap. 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]]. Then, in the short "The Final Hurrah of the Three Blind Mice" in the final arc, Fly is drawn as this over-exaggerated cartoony thing with massively elongated features.

** Early in the series, Jack beat the Devil in a poker game. After getting himself attracted to a dying Southern Belle, he then used the Devil's BagOfHolding to trap the GrimReaper and prevent his new girlfriend from dying, so he could have sex with her. Then, when Jack let Death out of the bag, Death loved the vacation & spared the girlfriend after all.

** Prince Charming's first appearance shows him eating at a restaurant and making the waitress ''pay for him'' by blatantly admitting he has no cash & planned to skip out on the check. He then takes her home to have sex with her.
** Snow White's initial appearance has her handling of Beauty & The Beast's complaints without any compromise, remaining in control, and laying down the law on the pair without mercy.
* 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, who has no qualms about releasing a bottled genie to destroy not only his opponents & Fabletown, but to promote himself to power to replace Sinbad.
* EvilTwin: Rose Red starts out as this to Snow White; Rose joins with Jack to attempt to scam Bluebeard & is shown to have a very troubled relationship with her twin. While Rose and her relationship to Snow do improve over the course of the series, everything comes crashing down in the "Happily Ever After" arc, when Rose declares all-out war on an unwitting Snow in order to control the power of their mother's bloodline.

** The prophecy for Bigby's & Snow's cubs states that "the second will be a pauper". The second, Blossom, becomes a nature goddess on a wilderness world, living with animals in the wild. She has no money, but then, she neither needs nor wants any.
** Used hilariously with Briar Rose, aka Sleeping Beauty. When she was an infant, an evil fairy cursed her to die when Briar pricks her finger, a curse mitigated by a good fairy, who changed it so that Briar only falls asleep & can be awoken by "the kiss of a prince who truly loves her". In one scene, Bigby's chewing her out for accidentally pricking her finger at a jewelry counter, which caused Briar and the entire department store to fall asleep before Briar was awoken. How was Briar woken up? The police on the scene brought the K-9 unit and one very affectionate dog started licking Briar's face...

* 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. This means Kay is doomed to ''cut out his own eyes over and over forever''. When Kay looked upon a certain "kindly" old man, Kay falls to his knees in horror, then promptly runs to his bathroom with a very sharp knife, staring into the mirror as he's about to plunge the blade in.

** [[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, indeed.

** Also, [[spoiler:the North Wind]], as of the end of the "Super Team" arc. Realizing that killing [[spoiler:Ghost, Bigby & Snow's rogue zephyr son]] would estrange him from Bigby, Snow, and his other grandchildren, yet unable to break the vow he made to destroy all such beings, [[spoiler: North]] attacks Mr. Dark, dragging him into his [[spoiler: Casket of the North Winds]], killing both of them, thereby saving Fabletown and avoiding killing any of his grandchildren.

** Beauty & the Beast are threatened with the Farm, when Beast is unable to hide his beastly form due to Beauty's anger.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: 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 [[spoiler:stabs Max in the heart with the flute.]]

* HourglassPlot: much of the New Camelot seems to involve who of the cast will take over the various roles of the mythical King Arthur tales. Two of the characters are from those old myths, Morgana Le Fay & Lancelot, and they don't take over their old roles. Instead, they move into different roles, opposite what they played in the original tale: Lancelot now plays Guinevere's role as the consort of "King Arthur"/Rose Red, with Morgana taking over Merlin's role as advisor, instead of being the wicked sorceress out to destroy Camelot.

** Frau Totenkinder is the Wicked Witch of many different tales, taking on all their names and personas, including the Lady who blesses Lancelot with invulnerability in the original King Arthur myths, the Witch who tries to eat Hansel & Gretel, and as of her last incarnation, Belleflower.

** Averted horribly in the ''Cubs in Toyland'' story, where the toy-residents are all exiled to Discardia because they were indirectly responsible for the deaths of the children & infants they belonged to.

** Human Snow White and Bigby, who's the Big Bad Wolf & son of a wolf mother & the North Wind. Their romance story takes a long while to play out and ends with Bigby reuniting with Snow and their children. Per Bigby's words, it took him a few centuries to "get into human girls". Their romance and marriage is one of the few solid relationships in the series.

** Bluebeard, the Fable who used to kill all of his wives, is a cowardly, conceited rich blowhard who continually plots behind peoples' backs, uses threats to intimidate his opponents back down, and has no qualms about killing helpless people, as long as they can't fight back. He makes no pretense of likability at all. After Snow White survives the Farm rebellion, Bluebeard drugs both Snow and Bigby into running away & sleeping together, then sends Goldilocks to assassinate them -- in [[DisproportionateRetribution retaliation for Bigby insulting him.]]
-->'''Bigby:''' Sure, you're a terror when gutting unarmed brides on their wedding night, or gunning down an unconscious man on a toilet. You're a coward, Bluebeard, hiding behind a lifetime of wealth & privilege. Now, unless you're prepared to throw down...

** Prince Brandish stands out as perhaps the single most entitled, self-centered asshole in the entire series, and that's really saying something. He beats Snow after enforcing his supposed "marriage rights" on her, threatens to kill her children because they're "mongrels" due to Bigby being their father, changes Grimble into a helpless bird & tries to kill him, slaughters Weyland in cold blood, and kills Lancelot while laughing about it.

* KingIncognito: In the final story arc, Rose Red, the leader of her troops & ruler of the New Camelot, dons a hooded cloak and wanders unknown among her troops on the eve of the battle, in a scene that directly homages the same scene in ''Theatre/HenryV''.

** Boy Blue is just a supporting character, an office boy to Snow White and a friend to Flycatcher & Pinocchio. But after his long-lost love Red Riding Hood shows up in Fabletown & proves to be an imposter, Blue gets dangerous & goes to rescue the real Ride. He singlehandedly 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.

* {{Lilliputians}}: All of Littletown is populated by extremely tiny humans who are small enough to ride mice. The original male founders of Littletown were warriors & explorers from the actual kingdom of Lilliput; the first women were Barleycorn Brides, grown from enchanted corn. After a couple generations and expansion of their population, the corn is no longer used.

* MadeOfEvil: Mr. Dark. In his own words: "I'm the Dark One just out of sight. I'm the scary thing lurking under every bed & hiding in every closet...I am nothing less than every dark thing in the dread of night."

* MassiveMultiplayerCrossover: Just about every PublicDomainCharacter from most Western fairy tales is in this series, with their tales intertwining with everyone else's, as well as quite a few Middle Eastern tales and a few sneaky {{LawyerFriendlyCameo}}s from tales that are still under copyright: Prince Charming, Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty & the Beast, ''Literature/TheJungleBook'', the ''Literature/LandOfOz'', ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', ''Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs'', the Frog Prince, ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'' -- and that's just a '''short''' list.

** Frau Totenkinder is German for ''"Mrs. Dead Children"''.[[note]] Although "Tote Kinder" would be grammatically correct, as you can't join the two words in German, even with a gratuitous "n", since the 1996 spelling reform that broke up compound words.[[/note]] Totenkinder derives power from sacrificing children, and while she no longer sacrifices Fable children, she owns mundane abortion clinics & takes her power from those deaths. This is made dreadfully explicit in the AlternateRealityEpisode Crossover with ''ComicBook/TheUnwritten'', where out of sheer desperaton, she sacrifices every living child on Earth to gain the power to hold Mr. Dark and prevent him from escaping to conquer other realities.
** Snow & Bigby's daughter Winter becomes [[spoiler:the new North Wind]] in the ''Inherit the Wind'' arc.

* MightyWhitey: The "1001 Nights of Snowfall" book is based on the Arabian Nights stories; in the original, the vizier's daughter, Scheherazade of Persia, outwits a murderous king by telling him stories each night, until he falls in love with her and cannot bear to kill her. In the Fables retelling, Scheherazade has passively accepted her doom, and it's her father who tricks European-Fairy-Tale-based Snow White into taking Scheherazade's place. Snow White gets the king to give up his murderous ways, and when Scheherazade comes to thank her for the extra year of life and states that she goes to the king herself that night & will likely die, Snow is the one to suggest that Scheherezade distract the king with stories.

** Ichabod Crane. At first he was simply being a very lonely, awkward, and unstable clerk involved in the running of the Fabletown government and trusted by Snow White and King Cole. Then Ichabod was uncovered in a sting operation by Cinderella, who seduced him & found out Ichabod had been using his position to gather intel on Fabletown & was ready to sell out all of it to gain power in the Empire.

** Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty was either cursed by Frau Totenkinder, who was among the Thirteenth Floor sorcerers who helped to take apart and rewrite the curse to use as a weapon against the Empire or was cursed by Hadreon the Destroyer, who was turned into an enchanted car for her trouble. The series even comments during the "War & Pieces" arc that Totenkinder was most proficient at rewriting the curse, "almost as if she'd designed it herself". The Hadreon version is related during the "Fairest" spin-offs, which takes place before the final main arc, and Hadreon is shown to definitely '''not''' be another version of Totenkinder.

** Fabletown assaults the Empire using as much Mundy technology and tactics as they can. They outright buy several Mundy military-mercenary schools to train Fables how to be soldiers and adapt Mundy guns for use by non-human Fables. To top it off, they arm a flying airship with Mundy machine guns, enabling it to take out hordes of dragons & sorcerers from a distance, while remaining relatively untouched, and the Empire gates have no defense against the Mundy bombs that take them out.

** Prince Charming, the serial womanizer who states at one point that he has no problems with sleeping with men & certainly no issue with a man being in love with him.
* NoConservationOfEnergy: While the magicians are stated to have to store up magic for centuries and start over if they spend it, Totenkinder recovers really fast for her battles with Baba Yaga, the Adversary, Mr. Dark, and Cinderella. All of those fights are spectacular, flashy, and explosive, involving multiple conjurings, fireballs, and shape-changes. Each one has some other sorcerer stating that Totenkinder's holding nothing back & spending all she has, yet somehow Totenkinder's always ready for the next big flashy fight.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: The fight between Baba Yaga & Frau Totenkinder at the end of "March of the Wooden Soldiers". We only see a brief, faint reflection in King Cole's glasses of two {{EldritchAbomination}}s fighting, before he runs away. The next thing we see is Beast dumping Baba Yaga's body down the Witching Well, followed by Totenkinder [[spoiler:interrogating a captured and helpless -- and very much alive -- Baba Yaga in the dungeon.]]

** Flycatcher, aka "Fly". His real name is only revealed when he suggests "Ambrose" as a name for one of Snow & Bigby's kids, but even after it's become known in-universe, he's only called "Fly."

* PlotRelevantAgeUp: Snow & Bigby's daughter Therese becomes an adult due to her time in Discardia, as time there passes at a different pace. When she returns home to inform her family of [[spoiler:Dare's death]], her septuplet-siblings are still children.

** Also subverted by Frau Totenkinder. While she is present in many stories, she is ''anonymous'' in all of them, meaning she isn't popular by name & no one is aware that she is the specific wicked witch they dealt with in their past. This is lampshaded in several places by certain Fables stating that Totenkinder seems familiar, but they can't remember ever having met her. In her battle with Baba Yaga, Totenkinder implies that she wins and Baba Yaga loses because Baba Yaga misunderstood how this worked & came into the fight overconfident because of it.

* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: Ozma's prophecy about Snow & Bigby's children is pure ABAB iambic tetrameter:

** Rodney and June, two of the Adversary's wooden soldiers who fell in love with each other & ultimately were allowed to become human and live together in the mundy world. The price of their transformation is having to carry out assassinations whenever the Empire requests. They don't hold any ill will towards Fabletown or mundy humans at all and it's implied they're not happy about having to kill.

* PurpleProse: Mocked by the Genre Fantasy. When she's introduced along with the other Genres, each one of them is given a short little snippet to describe them. Fantasy's starts by talking about how [[MarySue her beauty is matched only by her magical ability]], and then abruptly gives up with an "...Oh, screw it." Most of her speech is extensively flowery & dramatic.

** Few of the Fables look their real age & most look far younger than they actually are. Most notably Pinocchio, who looks like a real boy, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor just as he wished for]], but is actually over three hundred years old.
** Notably averted with Frau Totenkinder, the wicked witch of all fairy tales. For most of the series, she looks like the extremely old woman she is, sitting & knitting in a rocking chair. Until she takes on Mr. Dark, anyway, and then this gets played straight, as Totenkinder sheds her years & shifts her form to that of a young, beautiful teenager.

** The Adversary, [[spoiler:Geppetto]]. He would gladly have slaughtered all the people of Earth through biological warfare, and even after being forced to sign the Fabletown Contract & become just another resident of NYC, he is quite unrepentant about his past. On his first stroll through Fabletown, he doesn't understand why anyone is upset with him, after all he did to ensure peace in the Empire.
** Frau Totenkinder ''started'' by [[WouldHurtAChild sacrificing her own baby to demons]] & wiping out the tribe she was born into, then continued to murder thousands of children in blood rituals to keep her power during the following centuries, which she used to inflict [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment inventively cruel]] and [[DisproportionateRetribution very disproportionate]] "punishments" on anybody she pleased, showing up as the unseen evil force in assorted stories. She's now a little old lady knitting in a rocking chair & helping Fabletown deal with that nasty EvilEmpire, oh my yes, & she invests her wealth in "perfectly legal ways" among the Mundies...by owning abortion clinics.

* TheSociopath: While most villains in the series skirt this (the Adversary, Mr. Dark, Literature/BlueBeard), the clearest example is [[Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin Max Piper]] in ''Peter and Max''. On the other side, under SociopathicHero, Jack, Frau Totenkinder and the North Wind all have their moments.

** In the solo story of Rodney & June Greenwood's daughter, Junebug, she is caught and nearly killed by [[spoiler:monstrous rats living in Castle Dark.]] They force her to write a message for them, she draws them, and tries to tell her parents all about them, only for Rodney and June to not believe her, at first. The story's stinger is [[spoiler:Rodney and June discover Junebug's back is covered in claw-marks & realize she's telling the truth.]] We never find out what happens to [[spoiler:the rats.]]

** Averted, heart-breakingly so, by both Boy Blue and Dare. Both of their sacrifices are painful, drawn-out, and permanent.

** The speed at which the final arc of Rose vs. Snow got ended, with Rose [[spoiler: 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[[note]]12 if you count ''1001 Nights of Snowfall''[[/note]], 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.

** The sheer speed by which the Fables disable the Adversary's Empire is off-putting, considering all the build-up of The Empire being 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, with many of the weaknesses that real world dictatorships have, and how MugglesDoItBetter when it comes to heavy weaponry, it is still disappointing.

* 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, in ''The Return of the Maharaja''. He states off-hand that he too has loved men, and does not find anything wrong with another man being in love with him.

* LostInImitation: Bill Willingham has stated that he only wants to use {{public domain character}}s in ''Fables'', but he made one tiny mistake in the "Animal Farm" storyline: King Louie of ''Disney/TheJungleBook'' appears briefly, even though he's not in Rudyard Kipling's book, only in the Creator/{{Disney}} movie, which is not public domain. By the time Mowgli himself appears, in a later storyline, though, Willingham clearly ''has'' done the research, as Bagheera refers to Mowgli as "little brother" and Baloo refers to him as "little frog" (those being nicknames used in the book).

* AbsurdlySharpBlade:
** Boy Blue wields the Vorpal Blade, which can cut off the heads of solid, giant wooden people & multiple targets with one blow. The blade features in several of the story arcs, including Blue's single-handed invasion of the homelands & Bufkin's defense of the business office against Baba Yaga.
** The Sword of Regret is implied to have this quality, as it is capable of effortlessly slaying whatever victim it is used on.
* ActionGirl: Cinderella, whose fashionable shoe store is only her cover, as she's the best assassin and covert operations agent in the world, by her own admission. Being immortal gives her massive advantages in perfecting her craft, after all.

** 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 a covert agent & assassin whose skills would put Franchise/JamesBond to shame.

** The wooden soldiers of the Golden Horde also fall under this. They never age, never get sick, never die. The only thing that stops them from having CompleteImmortality is that their wood can break & their joints can loosen & drop off. 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.

* AllThereInTheManual: The book ''1001 Nights of Snowfall'' tells many of the back stories of the main cast before they joined Fabletown.
* AllWomenLoveShoes: Cinderella's cover identity. She owns the Glass Slipper Shoe Store, which caters to high-fashion footwear among female Fables.
* AlmightyJanitor: Flycatcher is a literal one. Even after becoming [[spoiler:King of Haven]] and having power that dwarfs everyone on the Thirteenth Floor, he [[HumbleHero still occasionally returns to mop the floors.]]

** Her [[spoiler: and Jack Horner's]] son Jack Frost briefly possessed this quality as well. As did his father.

** The sheer speed by which the Fables disable the Adversary's Empire is also off-putting, considering all the build-up of The Empire being 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, with many of the weaknesses that real world dictatorships have, and how MugglesDoItBetter when it comes to heavy weaponry, it is still disappointing.

* AntiVillain: [[SlidingScaleOfAntiVillains Mr Revise is a Type III/IV]]. He kidnaps Fables and Literals to strip them of their memory and revise their stories, essentially rewriting history to make them less dark. Yet it is necessary to bring order and stability to the often dangerous magics and personalities of the Fables and Literals (especially from Kevin Thorn, who can rewrite reality without caring who he hurts). He stabilized the laws of physics, letting science advance and refused to resort to the murder his brother Bookburner espoused.
* AnyoneCanDie: Played oh so very, very straight. No character is safe from being killed off, including [[spoiler: Bigby & Snow's child Dare, Bigby himself, and Boy Blue.]] The second story arc alone has a number of beloved fairy tale characters executed for treason.

* AscendedExtra: Many characters who appeared as extras or bit-players when the series first began gradually grow into supporting characters, and even become the main characters or villains of later arcs.

** Snow White in the ''Animal Farm'' arc. This is explained in-universe in that a Fable's ContractualImmortality is dependent on the mundies' knowledge of their particular story. This not only makes Snow & certain other characters nigh unkillable, it also means the much lesser-known Fables are RedShirts just waiting to get KilledOffForReal.
** All the Fables thrown down the Witching Well, once [[spoiler:Fly comes for them]] during the "The Good Prince" arc.
** [[spoiler: Prince Charming, in Fairest #15]]. Subverted in that he never really died.

** The Page sisters from ''Jack of Fables.''

* BadassFamily: Bigby, Snow White, the North Wind, Rose Red, and the cubs.
* BadassInDistress: In ''Storybook Love'', Bigby attempts to ambush Goldilocks but instead, she fills him with bullets. While it doesn't kill him, it temporarily wounds and slows him down. If it hadn't been for [[spoiler: Snow White driving an axe through Goldilock's skull]] while the latter was too busy building a fire to permanently kill Bigby, he would definitely have died.
* BadassBoast: Frau Totenkinder gets one toward the end of ''March of The Wooden Soldiers''.
-->'''Frau Totenkinder:''' I was ''always'' stronger than you thought. Killed a ''dozen'' times, but it never took. Even burned to ashes in my own ''oven'', I came back, after a good while. How's ''that'' for a frail old biddy, eh? Now you hush and let me finish my knitting. Time to stop struggling and let the deep darkness take you. Your stories are all '''done''', [[spoiler:Baba Yaga]].

* BatterUp: In ''The Wolf Among Us'', Bigby uses a cricket bat (labelled "Crowd Control") to smash up the Pudding 'n Pie Club.
** Boy Blue also wields one against the Revolutionaries in the "Animal Farm" storyarc.

* BeautifulAllAlong: Flycatcher aka the Frog Prince, revealed in ''The Good Prince''.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Bufkin. Throughout the first story arc, Bufkin's a timid flying monkey who quails from the anger of the other Fables and is content to spend his time reading all the books in the Business Office. But then the unthinkable happens: the Business Office is cut off from Fabletown, trapping Bufkin inside with Baba Yaga & a freed genie, and all hell breaks loose. The Magic Mirror said it best:

* BigDamnHeroes: Usually done by Bigby charging in at the last minute to huff, puff, and blow away whatever is threatening Snow, Fabletown, or his kids.

** [[spoiler:Flycatcher]] becomes this as well after creating his own kingdom of Haven. Despite all the massive powers and might of those in his kingdom, he's the one who pulls all the strings, including keeping most of them alive.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Invoked by Snow and Bigby, who decide to treat ''The Great Fables Crossover'' as this since the matter appears to have been closed, and they have plenty of other things to worry about without the bizarre meta-concepts complicating things further.

* BlastingTime: How magic-users lob destructive spells.

** The Page sisters from ''Jack of Fables''.

* TheBluebeard: TropeNamer present and accounted for, though he swears he doesn't kill wives anymore.
* BookBurning: The stock-in-trade of Bookburner, one of the [[BigBad Big Bads]] from ''Jack of Fables''.

* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: Totenkinder vs. Mister Dark. After exhausting all her spells, she ultimately had to throw the match when she realized how outclassed she was.
* CainAndAbel: Max and Peter Piper respectively. More recently, we learn this will be the fate of [[spoiler:Rose Red and Snow White]].

* CantGrowUp: Pinocchio, who was turned into a real boy by the Blue Fairy. Unfortunately, her magic has him stuck ''permanently'' as a boy.

* TheChessmaster: The Adversary aka [[spoiler:Geppetto]] on one side, Frau Totenkinder on the other. Everything Totenkinder does is part of her master plan to take out the Adversary, though the Adversary doesn't even know he's playing or who his opponent is.
* CloudCuckoolander:
** Babe the Blue Ox, judging by his fantasies. In his head, he's not even in the same story as the rest of the cast.
** Mr. Dark can come across as this as well. He's often seen carrying on a conversation with his two {{Mooks}}, but since he's the only one we actually see talking, it seems like he's just imagining them talk ([[TalkativeLoon or maybe he really is...]])

** Eight-year-old Therese is also kidnapped to be the queen of Discardia, the land of [[spoiler: killer toys.]]. At one point, the toys reveal that Therese is not the first child monarch they've had, and that all the others died shortly after entering the land.

* ContinuityDrift: Happens a ''lot'':

* CoolAirship: The ''Glory of Baghdad''. It's an airship powered by ''flying carpets'' that can take out hordes of ''dragons''.
* CoolHat: Flycatcher's frog-cap most certainly counts. It's a green ball-cap with huge bulbous white eyes on top.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Bufkin. At first portrayed as a timid idiot who can barely keep from crapping himself whenever something unexpected happens in the Business Office, he comes out swinging when [[spoiler:Baba Yaga breaks free.]]
* CultureJustifiesAnything: When the Arabian Fables join Fabletown, they are told that slavery is illegal in Fabletown & that they will have to free their slaves. The Arabian Fables object, claiming that slave ownership is part of their culture. King Cole agrees that Fabletown will honour their custom of owning slaves, but only if they agree to honour Fabletown's custom of executing slaveholders wherever they find them. The Arabian Fables immediately agree to free their slaves.
* CunningLikeAFox: Reynard Fox, with a capital C. The short arc of the Christmas Pies has Reynard tricking an entire regiment of the Adversary into letting an entire community of refugees escape through the gate to the Mundy world.

** Also much of "The Good Prince" arc. While [[spoiler:Flycatcher]] doesn't defeat the empire entirely, he beats army after army and eventually the elite forces of the Empire, the wooden soldiers, without little effort or injury on his part.

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

* 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 tracks.

** 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, Bigby -- aka The Big Bad Wolf -- survives being blasted by a machine gun, and even Prince Charming comes back to life, despite being blown to bits.

* LineOfSightName: In ''Fairest'', one of Cinderella's mouse footmen sneaks into the ball. When asked his name, his eye falls on a tray being carried by one of the servants and he introduces himself as "Champagne. Marcel Champagne".