"...Roquat chose a 'kill them all' kind of war. Tie always goes to the sicker puppy."
"I hate you all. All you pretty ones. I wish I had you all flat on your back and under my care, like Boy Blue. He was one of the pretty, pretty ones too, and look how he ended up."
—Mrs. Sprat, aka Leigh Douglas, comic book, Issue #100
The original Fables comic as well as its adaptations are a Fairy Tale Free-for-All where many classic characters are turned into vile villains. Here are the worst.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Comic Book, by first appearance
- Baba Yaga, one of the most infamous witches in any story, is also the most treasured servant of the Adversary—Gepetto. A cruel murderer who assists the Adversary with his conquests, Baba Yaga takes the form of Red Riding Hood to fool Boy Blue, tricking him into rape by fraud before having him horrifically tortured. Leading an invasion to annihilate New York and open the world to the Adversary's conquests, Baba Yaga is bested by Frau Totenkinder, but later returns to try to kill everyone in the Fabletown main offices.
- Leigh Douglas, formerly Mrs. Sprat, shows her dark side when she reveals that she became a nurse to see other Fables suffering by her hand. She later gladly teams up with the personification of darkness, Mr. Dark, to destroy her former home in exchange for beauty and power. Once Dark is defeated, Leigh takes her place back in Fabletown proper, but plans to use a spell to seize control of Bigby Wolf and use him as a feral weapon to slaughter other Fables, intending to use him to exterminate the Fables of her old home. Out of spite, Leigh plans to mutilate and torture the "pretty ones" until they're hideous, then kills them. Leigh's worst deed is sending Bigby to murder his former wife and their young children. Despite her newfound beauty, Leigh proves at every opportunity no other Fable is as hideous inside as her.
- Roquat the Red, aka the Nome King, may be the most violently unhinged member of the Empire's ranks. Gleefully signing onto the Ice Queen's plans to exterminate most of Mundane society—while also vowing to tweak her intended assault to make them even more bloody and brutal to suit his tastes—Roquat's true insanity comes to light during his reign over Oz. Roquat turns the entire country into a dystopian Egopolis, executing his own citizens by the hundreds every day, and in his crowning moment of evil, commands the slaughter of every single person within the Emerald City for the crime of a single thrown lollipop.
- Prince Brandish is a misogynist sociopath who looks like a beautiful prince. Murdering his own mother as a child for sleeping with her husband, Brandish became obsessed with Snow White and believed she would be a worthy bride for her innate magical power. Brandish later allows the Adversary to take half his kingdom, allying with Mr. Dark to help him destroy Fabletown and also murders Bigby Wolf while breaking Snow White's arm to force her to obey him. Planning to torture her until she is a submissive slave to him, Brandish also plots to murder her children to "purify" her for him and happily kills the bold knight Lancelot in a duel he knows he cannot lose.
- "The Great Fables Crossover": Kevin Thorn, up to this point an amnesiac and seemingly Mundane Chekhov's Gunman, is revealed to be the Big Bad of this crossover event, and the Literal personification of storytelling, the creator of the Fables and their entire universe. After regaining his memories, Kevin immediately rewards Priscilla Page for helping him escape by siccing a pack of coyotes to attack her, then immediately goes about using his magic quill to rewrite reality. Kevin rewrites hundreds of people out of existence or transforms them into grotesqueries just to test out his creativity, and uses his powers to utterly destroy anyone who even so much as inconveniences him; e.g., giving a woman cancer for a "dirty look" or sleepwalking a neighbor into a giant car accident for snoring. Dissatisfied with the directions the Fables have gone, Kevin decides to uncreate the entire universe with a single cataclysmic sentence, and beats his own invalid brother Writer's Block to death so he can finish his wayward story.
- Video Game: The seemingly-benevolent Crooked Man is a ruthless crime boss and the major source of Fabletown's corruption. Controlling much of Fabletown's supply of glamour, the Crooked Man uses desperate citizens' needs to manipulate them into indebting themselves to him, at which point he forces them to repay him with outrageous prices, having them killed if they can't pay him back. The Crooked Man also runs the Puddin' N' Pie strip club, which is a front for his prostitution ring where the girls are forced to be sex workers under threat of decapitation by magical ribbons which also magically prevent them from speaking, using Georgie Porgie as a pimp, and forcing the beaten girls to work in his sweatshops. When Sheriff Bigby Wolf confronts him, the Crooked Man tries to pin everything on Georgie and tries to have Bigby killed. After being arrested, and ultimately found guilty, The Crooked Man attempts to throw Bigby down the Witching Well.
- Comic Book prequel: The Knave of Hearts is a vile misogynist responsible for the creation of Bloody Mary thanks to his torment of her. Wanted by the Wonderland authorities for thievery, the Knave plans to escape any form of justice by selling a glass baby on the Black Market in exchange for an escape from law enforcement. Seducing dozens of women via mirrors across the world, the Knave supernaturally impregnates them all in the hopes their reflections will birth his glass baby, turning downright abusive to his lovers even as the pregnancy process usually kills them. When young Mary comes closest to successfully completing her birthing, the Knave grows impatient and carves the glass baby right out of Mary, tearing out the umbilical cord with his teeth and leaving the gutted, traumatized Mary for dead. The Knave is flippant to the fact that his glass baby will be destroyed as part of his deal to save his own hide, and even when his plans are foiled, the Knave goes on to gain a new lover for him to abuse and drive a victim of the Crooked Man's to suicide.
Others
- Peter & Max: A Fables Novel: Max Piper is consumed by his desire for power and his unbelievable narcissism. When the Homelands are invaded by the Adversary's forces, Max murders other survivors for supplies. Hungering for revenge against his brother Peter for inheriting the family flute Frost, Max goes out of his way to torment him, in one case crippling Peter's wife Bo Peep to hurt Peter. Max travels across the land while spreading chaos and destruction, even casting a spell to sterilize the entire Fable race. In his most famous act, Max steals the children of towns that refuse to pay him for his services and uses them to pay off bargains to dark powers he has made, adding "the little brats didn't die happy."
