WMG / Fables

Fables

The fables killed at the end of Jack's series will be resurrected

Considering how not many fans liked the ending, maybe one of the characters (or hell, Jack himself), may bring them back with Kevin Thorn's pen.

Bill's absurdly right-wing author tracts are parodies.

Why else would someone make most of their audience extremely uncomfortable and even scare off a few potential fans by taking extreme stances on virtually everything? Because the tracts are intended as over the top jokes and nobody picked up on it, and maybe Bill doesn't want anyone to know it's a joke yet too.

Fan Fiction of the Fables written by the comics' Mundanes increases their powers through popularity and subtly influences their lives, though the Fables don't know about it.

It's been established that a Fable's powers, longevity, and ability to come Back from the Dead hinge on how their stories are remembered by the Mundanes. It's also been shown that modern-day interpretations of these stories do the same thing — specifically during the time of Jack Horner's attempt to boost his own personal power by making movies based on his exploits. Therefore, every piece of fan fiction a Mundane makes, no matter how mundane or X-Rated, should do the same.

But most fanfic is posted online. Have you ever seen a Fable use the Internet, let alone be adept at it?

This means...

• Jack is fairly good with computers and the interwebs.

Every bit of new literature since the Fables of old eventually spawns a living, breathing Fable.

As stated above, the fact that Jack Horner thought he could improve his own personal power by creating movies of his fables to increase people's belief in him proves that Fables can use modern media to spread belief of them and increase their power (Snow White, Cinderella, etc. must really be loving Disney for the assist), but what if it goes farther than that? Some Fables, like Pinocchio, have tales that are old but not ancient (the wooden puppet's stories being produced at the turn of the 20th Century), so obviously how long your personal fable's been going on in the Mundane world doesn't dictate whether or not you exist in the Homelands (though it does dictate how powerful you are, to a point). And with the onset of movies, TV, and video games, fictionalized worlds are being created practically every second, so it's likely that there is a Mushroom Kingdom, a Matrix, and a Sunnydale in the Homelands, newly formed with their respective characters and undiscovered by the Adversary or any other "old-time" Fables. Of course, that means, that with such a huge rate of expansion, there's no way the Adversary would be able to conquer the Homelands entirely, and the new, modern-day and/or future weapons would give him much more problems than he ever dreamed of. Wait until he runs into the Star Trek and Star Wars Fables. Or any of the omnipotent and omniscient Mary Sues pumped out by fanfiction authors everyhwere...

• The Jack movies were worldwide blockbusters seen by millions. Fanfic appeals only to a relatively tiny few.

• Although not referred to by name for copyright reasons, the Land of Oz and Narnia were two of the first lands conquered by the Adversary, confirming that new Homelands were still developing at least into the twentieth century.
  • By its own Canon, the "normal" Narnia is dead and gone for anyone not in Heaven, but although it was going to pot in the final book, Aslan was ultimately the one who decided it was time to lay his creation to rest and who started its Armaggedon. In Fables, how certain is it that the Adversary personally destroyed that world, and how possible is it that he simply claims to have destroyed that world? Is this whole thing a simple nod to Narnia, or merely another author's Take That!?
    • Not just that: in Animal Farm Snow White kills Shere Khan when Mowgli is an adult, but in The Jungle Book Mowgli killed him as a boy of about twelve.
    • Honestly, it's hard to be sure it's actually Narnia. There are at least three different lions that could be Aslan — one that gets killed in his Homeland near the beginning, one who lives on the Farm, and a third. Of course, it's possible that, since it's an Aslan, the lion who was killed in his Homeland came back to life (it's what he does, after all).
    • This brings up an interesting question: at what point in a series' timeline does Fables take place? In one like Narnia, which spans several hundred years and allows popular characters to die off the Homeland might not actually resemble any one story much at all, and instead become a big mashup of all the books. In this way Narnia might not have been destroyed before the Adversary got to it.
    • Since Lancelot mentions the Great Lion when knighting Flycatcher, I figure the real Aslan probably wasn't conquered. I mean, other lions have been mistaken for him before by those who don't know better. The Narnia that got invaded would probably be a kind of an echo.
• Of course, if The Adversary finds and decides to conquer the more recently-created lands, he'd have the assistance of the Villains of those fictions. (I mean, wouldn't Darth Sidious make a deal with the Emperor, at least to betray him later?)
• If we include anime into the mix, the Adversary is pretty much screwed... Just imagine Goku, Sailor Moon, Kenshiro, Guts, Naruto, Ichigo, Kinnikuman, Guy, and much, much other anime heroes reuniting to defeat their enemy? Ouch. Taking in consideration that only the Ginzuishou has practically an infinite ammount of power, Sailor Moon could transform the Princesses into ultra-powerful sailors almost like her. Goku is, by canon definition, "the strongest warrior in the Universe". Muscleman (or Kinnikuman, as you prefer), has super wrestling skills that rendered him as the most powerful wrestler of all times. Ichigo... Well, when Bleach comes to an end, he'll probably have the most powerful spiritual technique ever, so, technically, he's training. Naruto has a bigass, nine-tailed demon, that's the most powerful thing in his Universe (although he's still training, too). Guy has hammer that can crush stars for godsake. Kenshiro can punch people to death in milliseconds, and Guts... He's the goddamn Guts. Unless, you know, the Adversary is the anime forces...
  • In a similar vein the "classic" Fable Lands of East and Central Asia would be a nightmare to conquer. Many East Asian and Central Asian myths make very little distinction between a god, demon and spirit resulting in many very powerful creatures. Rakshaha, Deva, Pontianak, Yuki-no-onna, etc. Furthermore if the "popularity power" hypothesis is true, the characters from Chinese epics like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Legend of the Water Margin and especially Journey to the West would be pretty tough. Especially since the first involves multi-generational armies, the second 108 outlaws and lastly the Monkey King himself who was powerful enough to thumb his nose at the forces of the Jade Emperor himself. Oh yes and the armies of the Jade Emperor (ie the local version of God) mentioned in Journey to the West would probably make an appearance too in the Fable Lands of the Far East....
• Also if the Adversary ever made contact with the Warhammer 40,000 universe, his empire is so seriously fucked. The Imperium of Man alone would steamroll over them although Hansel would probably get an Evilgasm the first time he learns of Ordo Hereticus.
  • Not neccesarily- they may ally themselves with him conditionally- he may be bad, but not as evil or inhuman as most things the Imperium fights.
  • Now, if he came across the anime Fables, specifically Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, land of heroic freedom fighters who oppose all forms of autocracy outright and have the ability to shatter worlds...
  • Also considering W 40 K, the Fables would do well not to accidentally open a gate into a Necron Tomb World, Ork Waagh or Tyrannid swarm.
• How could you conquer Oz? Baum could never keep its depiction straight from book to book, meaning there would have to be many different Oz's and there are so many different versions of Oz, is there a Wicked Oz, Movie Oz, Musical Oz, Return to Oz Oz, you know what I mean.
  • Just because there are many different interpretations of a character/place in various stories and by various authors, doesn't mean that there are several versions of them out there in real life. There's probably just one Oz, albeit one that may have aspects of the various different interpretations — kind of like the story of Pinocchio and Gepetto in the Fables continuity doesn't exactly follow Carlo Collodi's book, but uses aspects of it mixed with aspects from the Disney version.
• Hey, think about the comics! Just the DC Comics universe would be a complete PAIN to conquer if you're not Darkseid. Neither can you do Marvel if you're not Galactus. Combine the two together and throw in the other comic universes...the Adversary is frickin' SCREWED. (And I'd love to see Spider-Man and Deadpool get in a fight with Nightwing and Blue Beetle, which ultimately culminates in Yo Mama insults.)
  • Fables take place in vertigo, which (kind of) take place in the main DC universe, or at the very least an alternate one where the DC heroes are present. So the heroes and villans of DC aren't fictional, meaning they wouldn't be a problem for the Adversary until he tried to concur the "real" world.
    • This would imply that the Adversary's plan to invade the "Mundy" world was doomed from the start. Characters like Shazam (as in the Wizard), Dr Fate or Zatanna could not only detect the Adversary's hand in all of these atrocities but also probably could find a way to invade the Fable Homelands. It would barely pass stage one before the plan was discovered and the Justice League would be knocking on the gates of the Imperial capital. Let alone say, the Spectre getting involved.
• And let's not get started if the Adversary's forces ended up in Gensoukyou
• All of this means that, whatever else might have happened, the Empire was ultimately fated to be smacked down by a bald guy wearing a cape.

It's the Fables themselves who unconsciously grant themselves greater powers.

Relying on their "Mundy Popularity" is just a psychological crutch. Evidence for this? Forgotten Fables like Wayland and Sambo still have their powers, and Geppetto and Boy Blue's abilities far outweigh their popularity.

• Also the Blackwood Witch states that she does not believe in the popularity theory when she confronts Baba Yaga. And it seems to be somthing in it, as she win easily over the more well known Baba Yaga. The witch even states that in nearly all the stories she was involved in, her part ended before the part where people start when they tell it.
  • But that was about actual sorcerous ability, while the popularity thing seems to be more about making the Fable harder to kill...
    • It's not really clear just what aspects of a Fable are affected by popularity. Jack, for example, seemed to gain increased strength and speed as well as greater durability when his movies came out.
    • The Blackforest Witch might not be as widely known by name, but she's been involved in almost every single story with an unnamed witch in it. No one says you have to be known by name, just known. She's actually far, far, far more well known than virtually any other magic using character in the entire Fables multiverse.

Proximity is a factor in Popularity Power.

Aside from being in a place she had interwoven with advantageous spells, Frau Totenkinder was able to wipe the floor with Baba Yaga because they were in America, rather than Russia. They were surrounded by people who had never heard of Baba Yaga, but knew Hansel and Gretel by heart. Not sure about how this would work in the Homelands.

The Arabians who visited Fabletown are not the real Arabian Fables.

They're such racist caricatures that I suspect they're actually based on Western bastardizations of Arabian fables. Furthermore, they didn't arrive in the real-world Baghdad, but rather the Middle East American's imagine, which is also a "fable" in it's own right. Only, no one's picked up on this yet.

• They're hardly "racist caricatures", rather they're largely true to the descriptions in the original stories... or the most popular versions of those stories, at least. Different time, different cultures, resulting in different storytelling conventions. Which, in the case of Arabic and other Middle Eastern traditions, did involve a good deal of caricature. The chronologically recent Western emphasis on "realistic" characterization didn't exist then.
• This is a rather cultural ignorant theory as it largely ignores all of the tales of 1001 night (which really exist, yes, it's true) and every other legend of now muslim countries. The only misconceptions may be Sindbad who, for newer researches, may not only be historical as a person but also chinese. But that is debateable to the aspect that most people know Sindbad as a somewhat arabian guy.
  • However, I'm fairly certain there is no belief that all djinns are confined to lamps in actual Arabian fables.
    • There isn't. Even Qu'ran itself has a part about Djinns, and they are, in general, trickster devils, and that was rather difficult to deter their irremediable nature. The whole story of genie in a lamp is, in fact, a Sealed Evil in a Can, but, in this case, a minor evil that could come handful in case the can owner outsmarts the evil, of course.
    • Traditionally (in Arabic myth) Suleiman/Solomon was responsible for canning up large numbers of malicious spirits, including jinni by tricking them into entering enchanted flasks and bottles. The lamp is from elsewhere. Note that similar legends exist in Kabbalah Judaism...
    • Remember Bill Willingham is very, very pro Israel, which is why here it's Snow that does Arabian Night while Scheherazade goes form Magnificent Bastard to just another of King Shahryar's brides to be saved by Snow via the delays, yeah...

If Americana exists, then Superman can show up.

If anyone is an American fable, it's him.

• I believe you mean Captain America. That's where we'll find him again, True Believers - He might be dead in 616, but there's gotta be a mythic version somewhere out there!
  • I'm still betting on Supes. Cap is popular, but not Superman popular. Plus, Fables is DC.
    • But Cap has the advantage of actually existing in America. Or rather, in a city (N.Y.C.) that exists in Fables and in Real Life, as opposed to Metropolis U.S.A. He wears a flag and Died For Real for the ideal America! And the Big Two have done crossovers before; at the very least there oughta be a Captain Ersatz of Captain America, if myth and the Afterlife aren't enough to overcome inter-company rivalry.
• Tastes great, less filling. If one can exist, both can. But Superman is the most well known and popular Super Hero in Real Life.

The Jack movies are standins for Pirates of the Caribbean

Since Jack would, presumably, want to make movies about a trickster named Jack, and the actual movies couldn't be mentioned by name.

Popularity increases more then just durabillity

In FABLES, Jack is extremely popular and such nearly impossible to kill. Having Excalibur stabbed through him was only horrible in that he could not wander about in regular society sporting a sword in his chest. Then he actually removed it, despite the protests of his story-mage friend. This also explains why Bigby Wolf can do a lot more then just blow things over.

• That's not a WMG, it's canon. Jack got increased speed, agility and strength, as he himself notes in the story. Not that we can believe anything he says, ever.

The reason why no modern literary characters have become Fables is because the story of the Fable has to come to an end before the Fable is created with all the memories of of its "Story".

Due to things like Cash Cow Franchises, Spinoffs, Franchise Zombies, Sequels and worst of all Fan Fiction most modern stories never actually end and never get the chance to become Fables.

• But there have been many post-modern stories about many Fables, usually parodies or radically rebooted versions, but some actually faithful continuations of the source materials. So long as anyone is writing about one of the characters, their stories can't really be said to be "over".

Bufkin is responsible for Prince Charming's demise

during Operation: Thunder Cloud.Never mess with a monkey armed with a mountain of books.

It takes a while for stories to become Fables.

There seems to be a delay period between the writing of a story and when it becomes "real" in the Homelands; no modern characters more recent than the early 20th century, if that, show up. The mundane Real Life explanation is of course that Public Domain Characters were mainly used to populate the Fableverse, but in-story, there seems to be nobody more recent than the Victorian age. So it might take a century or so for the ideas to cross the gulf between worlds and "set" into living forms —or alternately, for the Fables world to "influence" Mundys' imaginations into adding them to their fiction.

The Fables are real and Mundy minds merely pick up mental images of them and tell stories about them.

As more worlds form links to the Homelands, their events also get transmitted to the minds of Mundies to become "new" fiction. The interdimensional patchwork known as the Homelands are eventually going to connect to all the alternate realities in The Multiverse. We're already connected, which is why our world has a portal to The Homelands; this means events in our world must be fiction in somebody else's universe.

The ever increasing length of copyright protection is a ploy by the Authority to keep new Fables from popping up.

Because should things like Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny ever cross over into the public domain, the Authority is toast.

Oh, and for your consideration: Deadpool as a Fable. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

• Deadpool is already more unkillable than most of Fabletown so it's not like it'd matter much.

Fables existed before the stories about the stories of their adventures became stories in the mundy world.

The Homelands are simply another reality populated by beings that apear to be human and animal but in reality are a single race that just has a wider dimorphism than we are used to. As said above the stories about these beings were passed into the heads of mundy storytellers. The reason no modern fiction becomes fables is because they don't exist outside of our imaginations.

Frau Totenkinder's knitting is actually a spell.

What kind of spell? Maybe it's to enhance her powers. Maybe it's a sealing spell for Mr Dark, or some future Big Bad we don't know about but she does.

• Jossed- she was knitting a trinket for Beast and Beauty's baby

Snow White was suffering from the magical version of brain cancer...

... back in Volume 2. Her Healing Factor powered by Popularity among the Mundies had been keeping it at bay for a long time, but the emotional (and later, mental) stress in Volume 1 temporary overpowered it. That explains both the Idiot Ball and why she wanted a quiet "vacation" at the Farm in the first place.

Goldilocks' Boom, Headshot! at the end of the arc accidentally blew out the tumour, preventing this sort of thing from happening again.

The "Red Riding Hood" that Boy Blue knew in the Homelands was the Snow Queen.

We know whoever it was had to be a very trusted witch, since they would not have wanted their spy to escape/turn traitor. And despite her icy heart, she does appear to care for Geppetto at least, so she should have been capable of faking her concern for Boy Blue.

Though it is possible the imposter did really like Boy Blue, at least a little bit, since they tried so hard to get him to leave on that last ship. If the only goal was to get rid of all of the rebels, it would have been better for her if Blue had stayed at the castle and died there, allowing his cloak to be claimed by the Adversary's forces.

• Jossed- she was a clone of the original Red Riding Hood, who was used as an agent for the Empire.

Blue Beard and Shere Kahn are alive and plotting their vengeance.

In The Good Prince, the pair have allied with the emperor and are receiving magical treatments to return to life. When we last saw them, Blue Beard can hold a cup if he focuses enough. For all we know, they've become solid again and are carving out their own kingdom, preparing to take on Fabletown.

Frau Totenkinder secretly owns an abortion clinic.

Think about it: she used to get her power from killing/eating children, but as a citizen of Fabletown, she's not allowed to do this anymore. The Fables think she now gets her power from a drop of the blood of every newborn, but we know thanks to Kay that this is only a cover; furthermore, he says that he's seen her method of getting power, and it's something that wouldn't make the Fables happy at all. She says, however, that she's not breaking any Fabletown laws because it's a legal business. Well, abortion is legal in America, but we've seen what most Fables think of it...

• No offense, but this is so blatantly obvious that it concerns me that there are people out there who don't already consider it canon.

Jack Frost is going to become an updated version of his father.

Ok, right now Frost seems to be The Cape, with a touch of Lawful Stupid, but he's clearly more naive and sheltered than actually dumb. Now, every intro to the characters makes a big deal about how Jack is a lovable rogue without the lovability. This, effectively, means he's a scoundrel, a character type that pre-dated the lovable rogue. As Frost becomes more worldly, he'll BECOME a lovable rogue.

Frau Totenkinder is a great power.

Her performance in duels against Baba Yaga and Mr. Dark, both of whom were considered great powers, suggests that her power level is in that range. When she finds Dark's empty box, she wondered if a similar box had ever been designed or constructed for her. The names of her weapons and other magical devices are rather archetypal in nature. Precisely which great power is unclear, but her knitting evokes aspects of an incarnation of Fate, and in her backstory she has, at various times, played the role of all of The Three Facesof Eve. (Though her role as Mother was quite subverted).

• The Great North Wind makes a comment about how she was about to become one, "An archetype for witches or something", but drained most of her power battling Mr. Dark.

Ozma's prophecy about the cubs

"The first child will be a king. The second child a pauper. The third will do an evil thing. The fourth will die to stop her. The fifth will be a hero bold. The sixth will judge the rest. The seventh lives to ages old, and is by heaven blessed." And here's the link http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/07/sdcc-09-the-annual-fables-one-page-tale/

My guesses are: Ambrose will either be five or seven since he's currently a bit of a moron. Equally, Winter's shyness lends her to 4 in my opinion. 2 could possibly be Blossom since she has been seen with woodland animals before sort of like Snow White and this may pan out with her living in the wild. Darien seems the likely one or six with Connor as five. Therese then fills in the last slot but six or four seem likeliest. Near-baseless speculation so far since we know very little about them but it'll be interesting to see how it turns out...

• Now that Winter is being groomed to be the next North Wind, and Therese is Queen of Toyland, either could be 1, unless King specifically refers only to the boys
• Ambrose could be 6. He was the narrator of some of the issues about the cubs, wherein it was presented as him reminiscing about the past from some point in the future. Telling their stories in the distant future could count as him "judging" them. This logic also applies to Ambrose being 7, since obviously he is alive at some point in the future to narrate the memories.

• Seems like Therese and Darien are 3 and 4 respectively. Since Therese is 3, that adds more evidence to Winter being 1.
  • As said above, Ambrose pretty much has to be 6 or 7.
  • Conner kinda looks like Prince Charming, which may or may not be a clue to him being the hero bold as #5. In Inherit the Wind I believe it was, he expressed some bitterness that Darien was always the best. Mayhap his death will inspire Conner to heroism in his name or something?
  • I'd say Ghost will be the pauper, since a guy that's permanently invisible will have a bit of a hard time holding down a job and what not.
  • Which means Blossom will either judge the rest or live to ages old.
• Winter is 1, as Ambrose himself said, Therese is 3, Darren is 4. As for the others, I suspect Conner will be 5, because of his bold personality, and that Ghost will be 7, because of his nature. As for 2 and 6, I judge that will be Blossom; it would be ironic since she's the one into the whole princess thing, whihc would leave Ambrose as 6, fitting since he appears to be the smart one
• Winter is 1, because she was the first born, and the North Wind is always "King", being a gender neutral term in their magical language.
  • Therese is 3 and Darren is 4 as shown in Cubs in Toyland.
  • From the beginning Ghost has been referred to as the 7th child, so I'd assume he's number 7.
  • Ambrose has started narrating the stories as of Issue 122, so I'd put him as the judge, since that issue shows him writing histories about the Fables, thus judging their actions as any good historian does.
  • That leaves Conner and Blossom for 2 and 5. Because of the story about the Turtle with the teacup on it's back, I'd put Blossom at 2, becoming the turtle for a while, then becoming a pauper after breaking the curse. That leaves Conner as the hero at 5.
• The final issue confirms all the numbers; Winter is 1, as the North Wind; Blossom is 2, becoming a Nature Hero; Therese is 3 and Darien is 4, which were confirmed in Cubs in Toyland; Conner is 5, becoming a hero who travels worlds; Ambrose is , which was already confirmed previously, and Ghost is 7, having outlived all his siblngs.

Mr. Dark will be defeated on/by Halloween

The one night of the year where everyone embraces the darkness and laughs at it. Men, women, children - they all put on ghoulish masks and laugh at death, reveling with it without fear. That will be the single day Mr. Dark is at his weakest and can be defeated. Not by the light of hope or anything else, but by a Jack O' Lantern.

Frost Taker will become a Chekhov's Gun in the main series.

We know Max imbued it with magical powers, but then left it with Totenkinder.

The 100th issue was actually a parody of Wham Episodes.

Think about it: a ton of stuff happens, but most of it cancels out. Mr. Dark is trapped, but gets out. Frau Totenkinder is dead, but then she's alive again. In the end, we went through all that, and we're right back where we started, only with Frau Totenkinder going into what's likely to be a 10-Minute Retirement.

Ambrose will become a historian.

That's how he'll "judge the rest." Hence why we've gotten narration from his point of view: It's from his writings about his childhood.

• Confirmed as of Fables #150

The pigs in charge of the revolution from Animal Farm weren't actually the three little pigs

They were in fact Snowball Napoleon and Squealer from the george orwell book animal farm. Snowball was Colin and was executed because the other two hate him more than any real lack of loyalty or to send a message. that's why they were starting revolutions for the sake of starting ti. as for why the rest of the characters aren't from Animal Farm there the pigs killed and took the identities of those pigs and left the rest to die because the pigs are just like that.

Dorothy Gale is bi.

In Fables are Forever, she passed as a man well enough to thoroughly fool Cinderella, who is by no means inexperienced. Even with the magical aid she had, I do not think it was her first time for that sort of thing. And she did have other options, rather than letting things go in the direction they did.

Winter was intended from the beginning to be the new North Wind

In the episode where the cubs are born, we see that1) the very first cub born is a dark haired girl who is completely human in appearance - ie, Winter is the firstborn.2) there is only one cub who is completely human in appearance (Winter) - ie, Winter, of all her siblings, has the least among of "wolf" in her nature.3) the completely human appearing cub (Winter) was the first one to start floating - ie, Winter, of all her siblings, is the most attuned to her "wind" nature.4) Winter is named after Bigby's mother - ie, the "consort" of the previous North Wind.

(Interestingly, the earliest drawings of the newborn cubs have the entirely human appearing baby look more like Darien than Winter, but the text clearly states that there is only one fully human appearing cub, and that that cub is the first born girl, so it must be Winter. Darien is actually the most wolf-like, brown, cub. It is only later, when the cubs are about a month old, that the most human appearing cub starts looking like Winter.)

There are Fables who were born on Earth

Some of the people on Earth who were featured seemed like they were a Hero of Another Story so what's to say that some humans on the human world aren't actually Fables without knowing it?

Frau Totenkinder is a Time Lord.

Nurse Spratt/Leigh Duglas will take Mr. Dark's place as a greater power.

The North Wind's already been replaced by Winter, and he died at the same time. Mr. Dark intended Leigh to be his bride, which makes her a likely candidate to 'inherit' his place, as it were, and it'd make her a viable threat against the not inconsiderable forces of Fabletown if they all got wind of her deception. Not to mention, take a look at the dress her fencing instructor got her for Christmas...

• Apparently confirmed in issue #143.

God is a fable.

This isn't a very original idea, but if we assume in the story the God of Abraham is a fiction invented by various mad prophets, then he'd be an immensely canon-powerful and popular-powerful fable living in the sky above the mundy world, possibly responsible for creating, maintaining and judging it. The other fables don't consider He's one of them since they're mostly imprinted with the unquestioning faith of their writers (see Lancelot), and He isn't doing any special favors for them, so it doesn't exactly make any difference about anything. . .but God very definitely exists in the Fables universe.

(If He's not a fable it would be because the Bible is literally true and He didn't need to be invented, which might be even scarier.)

Rapunzel's missing twin daughters are Snow White and Rose Red's mother and aunt

Since the Fairest arc that introduced that part of Rapunzel's backstory came out, there have been a few theories about her missing daughters, some having Snow and Rose themselves being the daughters (since they are the only female twins we have encountered in so far). True, there isn't that much information about the mother and aunt other than the flashback during the "Rose Red" arc in Fables, but Rapunzel has lived in the same place as Snow and Rose for centuries - wouldn't anyone have considered the possibility that they might have been the twins she was looking for? It is implied that the children themselves were important, and we know that there is a strong magical bloodline in that family, with the mother and aunt both being powerful witches. Sure, it does seem like Rapunzel would be around the same age as Snow and Rose, but Fables don't age like human beings and we don't know exactly how long ago she had her children. The witch widow living in the forest and the evil queen could very well look much older than Rapunzel and still be her daughters - as witches, they could likely change their apparent age at will, just like Totenkinder.

• Jossed: Lauda, their mother, is the 13th daughter of a long line of witches. Their aunt is actually their father's sister, not their mother's sister

Issue 109 hid the answer to the prophecy in plain sight.

The only thing we know definitely so far is that 1) Winter is #1, and 2) #3 is female. If you look at the order in which we're shown the cub's training, it fits. The first we see is Winter, the King. The second is Darien. It would cdertainly be ironic for his overconfidence if he grew up to be a pauper. Then we have vain Therese. I could certainly see her doing an evil deed. Next, is Ambrose. Now, it seems generally accepted that Ambrose is a likely candidate for #6 as a historian, "judging" the others, but there's no way to confirm that 100%, and its certainly possible it could take many years for us to get to #4, meaning its still possible for him to die stopping Therese. There's nothing particular about Blossom and Connor stopping them from being #5 and #6. And that leaves Ghost for #7.

Fables don't exist because their stories were written, their stories were written because the Fables already existed.

Everyone seems to be confused about why, if human-made fairy tales created alternate dimensions full of living Fables, modern fiction wouldn't exist in an alternate universe as well? This is because humans aren't responsible for the creation of the Fables: the Fables have always existed in their own worlds, but knowledge of their stories somehow bled through worlds to Mundy writers. This explains why some Fables' stories, such as Pinnochio's or Ichabod Crane's, were written and take place after the Fables would have already escaped the Homelands into the Mundy world. And it would also justify why Fabletown isn't home to other fictional characters, like Luke Skywalker or Bugs Bunny: they don't exist in any reality. Mundies came up with them all on their own, while the Mundies who THOUGHT they created the Fables in reality were influenced by an unknown, outside source.

Totenkinder will play the role of Lancelot in the second version of Camelot

This might sound silly, but in 1001 Nights of Snowfall she does state in her story: "Unfortunately I wasn’t immune to the lures of handsome young men then, any more than I could resist lovely Aurac in all those days gone by. Young flesh makes its own demands. So I began to let myself age..." and we know she always had a taste for inflicting nasty fates to princes and other handsome young men she happened to run into. More recently (in the Mr. Dark arc), she let herself look young again and allowed herself to have a romantic relationship for the first time in centuries (or even longer).

• However, Fairest in All the Land saw her new husband Dunster Happ get killed with no chance of returning. Which might make her more vulnerable to falling in love, or just feeling attracted to some other handsome young man in the future... so why not Lancelot?
• Besides, we know that the original King Arthur and Lancelot were fairly close before the affair with Guinevere came to light. Rose has always been fond of Totenkinder ever since she and Snow first rescued as shown in 1001 Nights of Snowfall. And as of issue #145 they’ve grown even closer as allies to take down Bigby. It might not be that far-fetched a theory.

The nameless soldier whose words helped avert the brewing battle between Snow White and Rose Red was Boy Blue

His outfit, insight and ability to recognize Rose Red all fits. He's an "old friend" who died holding on to hope and chose to come back to give his love Rose Red good counsel one last time to steer her away from a course she would come to regret. After all, having expelled all the nasties from the boxes Rose Red has her head to herself finally and might heed his advice.

Frau Totenkinder is (either literally or her story is the basis for) Lillith of Jewish/Kabbalist legend

According to flashback, she's been alive since the Stone Age, her descent to darkness beginning with having been scorned by a man while she was pregnant—and so she sacrificed her own child in exchange for dark power.

Sounds a little bit like Lillith's story, doesn't it? So either she was that Lillith, or later storytellers toned down the truth in order for her to come off more sympathetic in their ears.

There are alternate versions of the Fables characters

I mean, think about it. Their stories have been retold several times. Who's to say that some of these retellings would not become worlds of their own? For example, there could be a Fables world based on Disney movies or one based on Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods.

• Confirmed in the spinoff Jack Of Fables, though the only ones seen are alternate versions of The Devil.

Bigby is the Spanner in the Works that breaks or weakens the curse that had driven the Sibling Rivalry among Snow and Rose female family members for generations

The increasing rivalry between Rose Red and Snow White after the Camelot arc was revealed to be the result of a tontine curse that affected pairs of female siblings of Rose’s and Snow’s family for many generations. A massive war is prevented when a “soldier” hints to Rose that the curse is broken or weakened, because Snow gave birth to male children while Rose was still alive, something impossible with the curse in full effect. Given that Bibgy is the children’s father, being one of the most powerful fables, and son of the North Wind, who is one of the greatest powers of the Homelands, it’s possible that the immense power of his family line was enough to affect the tontine curse.

Mister Kadabra's magic effects the reader beyond the fourth wall.

To those who have no idea who Mister Kadabra is, he is the one guy with the top hat living in the Thirteenth Floor alongside the rest of the Witches and Wizards of Fabletown. He was said to be the most powerful wizard in his realm and he had the unique magical ability to induce Laser-Guided Amnesia upon his enemies, making him a walking blindspot for his enemies. It's implied that he was instrumental in keeping The Adversary from invading the Mundane World for so many years, so why is he treated so innocuously? Because his magic not only effects his enemies in the Fabled realms, but the plot itself is bewitched by his spell to keep from focusing on him.