"Run"

[arbre_rieur]

Last issue, at the guidance of a bottle imp, Ali Baba found Briar Rose and gave her true love's kiss.

Fortunately, this means she's now awake again.



Unfortunately, Briar Rose being awake means all those who were asleep with her are now also awake, including one Lumi the Snow Queen...



Not far or fast enough, as it turns out.





Briar rhetorically asks, "How did I get into this mess?" which the bottle imp -- whose power is, after all, To Know Things -- takes as his cue to recap the events surrounding her birth, including how she was visited by seven powerful faeries.

Comments

[silverzeo]

So it's the Amazon version of "The Guardians"

[icon_uk]

I was thinking of a variation on the Muses myself.

[shadowpsykie]

yeah the muses is where i was going too

[mrstatham]

Until the new writer takes over, I'm still not seeing why this couldn't have just been another Fables arc; On that note, I think the 'title' tag needs changing?

As it is, though, I think the Fables franchise has been running on fumes since they dealt with Gepetto. That, to me, pulled out the central hook of the series.

[arbre_rieur]

Willingham talked about how the main series has evolved over time so that, these days, it's all about the epic storylines with lasting ramifications for Fabletown, which leaves little room for the smaller stories about two or three characters that the series used to do. FAIREST is meant to be a venue to see those types of stories again.

"As it is, though, I think the Fables franchise has been running on fumes since they dealt with Gepetto. That, to me, pulled out the central hook of the series."

I've heard people say that, but I don't see it myself. The series, since the beginning, has always had its fair share of stories that had little or nothing to do with the Fabletown-Empire conflict.

[thatnickguy]

I have to agree that it's been running on fumes since Gepetto/Adversary. I stopped reading after the big war, tried again briefly but was turned off by the Jack of Fables crossover.

From what I understand, the series was originally meant to conclude with the end of the war. But because it was doing so well, they continued. Now it's basically a franchise. And I've lost all interest in it.

[arbre_rieur]

"From what I understand, the series was originally meant to conclude with the end of the war."

Yes and no. The conflict with the Empire was originally supposed to last the entire length of the series, but the series never had a set length. If you read Willingham's earliest interviews about the series, he makes it clear even then that FABLES isn't like most Vertigo series in that it's an ongoing series in the truest sense of the word: He had no grand finale he was building towards, and he planned to keep on writing the book indefinitely. In that sense, the conflict with the Empire was supposed to be like mutants being a persecuted minority in X-Men, a problem that would just always be there.

If Willingham hadn't decided to continue the book beyond the war, the book wouldn't have ended at 75 (or whichever issue it was). It would still be at 115 today, only Fabletown would still be fighting the Empire.

[thatnickguy]

Ah, I stand corrected. Thank you. I've been wondering how close I was to the truth about it.

That said, it doesn't really stray TOO far from my reasoning for dropping the book. I like Vertigo titles that have relatively planned ending in mind. The exception being Hellblazer, I suppose. But I haven't enjoyed Fables becoming a franchise with crossovers and spin-offs.

[ghosty732]

I thought that Cinderella's Fairy Godmother and her fairy sisters were the ones who blessed Briar Rose, as shown in the flashbacks of Cinderella's first mini series. I don't have it in front of me, though, so maybe I'm wrong.

[glprime]

Damn, but those are some awesomely designed Fae.

[clutzycricket]

Huh. They mentioned the Witch of the Westmoreland? (I think- the ID goes with the song at least.)

[arbre_rieur]

Um, who?

[clutzycricket]

Sorry! Um, it's a song that tells about a dying knight who is told that the mysterious Witch of the Westmoreland can heal any wound. He throws goldenrod in her lake, and then his hounds and hawk and horse catch the cenataur-shaped witch, who turns into a woman, who heals his wounds and sleeps with him. ("None can harm the knight who's lain with the Witch of the Westmoreland")
I've been trying to weave it into a new story for ages, since the art school at my college is on Westmoreland Street, and IDEAS!

[blackruzsa]

Beautiful, beautiful. I love it when fae are drawn like that, with such features.

[shadowpsykie]

so here... Sleeping Beauty was put to sleep so that she could keep evils at bay?

[arbre_rieur]

The circumstances surrounding her original sleep are as everyone knows. The curse didn't go away though, so she (and everyone in whichever building she's in) would fall asleep anew each time she pricked her finger.

During wartime, it was realized that the curse could be weaponized. She purposely pricked her finger while in the same place as some very nasty enemies, including the Snow Queen, to put them out of action.

[shadowpsykie]

hmmm that's kinda cool. was it her idea to use her curse that way? does it mention what happend to the prince?

[jaybee3]

It wasn't her idea but she went with it. She's a loyal Fable after all.

I assume you mean the prince who first awoke her (aka Prince Charming aka former ex-husband of Snow White and Cinderella aka serial philanderer who really gets around)? Like her fellow fairy tale "princesses", she's better off without him.

[shadowpsykie]

... wow the princes don't come off well here do they..... :(

[jaybee3]

Prince Charming also slept with Rose Red (Snow White's sister). That's why she divorced him - he then went on to Briar Rose and then to Cinderella. In his defense he seems to exhort some kind of pheromone that makes women attracted to him and to which only his ex-es (who have experience with the real deal of his personality) seem immune. Even Beauty kissed him back when he propositioned her (she mentions the effect he has on women) but she wasn't willing to let a momentary chemical reaction ruin her thousand year marriage with Beast (and she threatened to sic Beast on her if he ever tried anything with her again - Beauty's awesome).

Not all princes in Fables are bad - The Frog Prince (Flycatcher) is one of the most noble and nicest people in the series. Sinbad (briefly Red Rose's husband) is also a nice guy and a heroic figure. Even Prince Charming, the cad, went out a hero defending Fabletown.

[shadowpsykie]

hmmmm Belle/Beauty has always been one of my favorites, i think she was the first true heroine in the Disney Stories. She was pretty, smart, AND brave (I LOVED her in Once Upon a Time)

but back to this. well its nice to know there are nice princes and they are not all douches.... (for the prince/charming was he inspired by Into the woods?) I know he wants to build up the women, but.... as a gay man... i want a nice prince ;)

oh that's another question, are there any gay characters in Fables?

[jaybee3]

There must be some though I can't remember a major gay character off-hand. In one of the Cinderella mini-series, Dorothy Gale (Assassin for Hire!) slept with her arch-enemy Cinderella while posing as a man. This may not mean she's gay (she WAS posing a guy) since she hates Cindy and was probably playing mind games with her but then again given Dorothy and Ozma's close relationship in the original Oz books (and Ozma being the original transgendered Princess), the writer (I think it was Chris Roberson) may have been hinting at something more.

Not that I like how Dorothy has been written in the Fables books (as creepy and cold-hearted) since it seems really REALLY out of character but there's always that possibility that she could be gay.

[shadowpsykie]

hmmm yeah two things, when i saw the changes they made to dorothy i did a "WHAT THE!" but i also have issues with the "Psychotic gay/lesbian/transgendered..." trope...

that said, she DOES seem cool...

Ozma in her original incarnation was transgendered?

[jaybee3]

In the Baum books Ozma was kidnapped as a baby girl, turned into a BOY by a witch and raised as a boy (named Tip) and it was only at the end of the second Oz book when HE (Tip) found out SHE (Ozma) was heir to Oz that she was changed back to a girl but for the majority of her life she thought herself as a boy (and had the parts to prove it).

Many Dorothy/Ozma fanfics bring this fact up given the attachment Ozma has for Dorothy (making her "Princess", moving her into the bedroom next door to her own, etc.) in the books. Even when Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and Dorothy moved to Oz permanently, Em and Henry went to to live on their own farm while Dorothy continued to live with Ozma. In addition, Jack Pumpkinhead who Ozma created when she was "Tip" even still refers to her as his "father" in later stories.