A small matter of monsters lurking in shadows

[arbre_rieur]

June's issue of FABLES, entitled "Junebug," stars Junebug, daughter of Rodney and June.



Rodney and June were once wooden soldiers created by and in service to Geppetto. They were turned human and lived in New York as spies for Geppetto's Empire. However, over time they went native, and now they and their young daughter are law-abiding members of Fabletown.

They, along with many other Fabletowners, are in the process of moving into Mr. Dark's former castle now that he's been vanquished. (The experts have already made sure there are no more monsters, dark magics, or dangers lurking about the place.)





Unfortunately, while exploring she stumbles onto something she's not meant to see...



One of the rats discovers pen and pencil in her backpack and realizes she can write.

Comments

[theflames]

You'd think... considering their origins they'd take their daughter a little more seriously. These are Gepettos kids right? The ones turned human?

[tugrul]

I was thinking the exact same. How are giant rats unthinkable to these people? Oh well. Whatever advances the story the way the writer wants it to advance, right?

[theflames]

Yeah it's a tad clunky, and pretty hard to explain away unless we accept that the parents are dismissive and a little stupid.

[arbre_rieur]

I think it's not so much the giant rats as the circumstances that are hard for the parents to swallow. Terrorists are clearly a real thing, but if a little girl came running home telling her parents that terrorists kidnapped her and made her write a sign saying, "There are no terrorists here" and meanwhile the little girl, who we know has an active imagination and was looking for adventure, does not appear any the worse for wear... well, I can understand if the parents are skeptical.

In any event, on the very next page after the last scan here, the parents realize she's telling the truth because they notice scratches on Junebug's body from where the rats held her.

[theflames]

Ahhh, I'm glad to hear they come round eventually! I get your analogy, but still, in the Fables land everyone has more 'eventful' lives in terms of battle, danger and whimsy etc, so I expected a little more urgency. Then again, they've spent quite a while in Mundane world.

[ozaline]

I dunno I still found this a bit of a headscratcher when I wrote it... but then Rodney does mention the pretend danger and well I guess it's hard to accept that these monsters would be so dumb as to have her write that sign.

I did kinda facepalm while reading this issue. I mean this castle was run by an utterly evil dark power why would you assume it's safe now.

[jaybee3]

Rodney at least has been written as pretty intelligent before this. He figured out a way to still look out for Gepetto's best interests (which is in his and June's prime directive) and turn against the Empire and he also during the Imperial Pow-wow in how to deal with the Fabletown folks pretty much spelled out how the Empire would lose any war that involved the Mundys or invading the real world. And it IS a magical castle and animal Fables can talk and everybody knows this. You'd think they'd take her more seriously.

[sadoeuphemist]

Well considering they've got an ogre mover and the necronomicon in the library, this is more like your kid running up and saying, 'I got captured by the neighbors! I'll draw you a picture of them! They speak really scary!' It's adorable if you gloss over the fact she's probably being kind of racist.

[theflames]

This made me chuckle.

[ensiform]

This is a much more apt comparison. The Fables deal with monsters a lot, much more than the average American deals with jihadists. There's literally a zero percent chance that, as you move into a nice house in the suburbs, your daughter will be kidnapped briefly by Islamic terrorists and then let go, but if she comes home saying that the creepy neighbors held her against her will for a while and told her not to say anything, you'd give her at least a bit more considerations than these two (wood) blockheads do.

[venatosapiens]

I'm not sure if I'm more amused by the rats' belief that humans have to believe written signs, or the fact that it works.

[ladyiapetus]

If only humans believing written signs worked in real life...

[superfangirl1]

That would be awesome and so amazing.

[glprime]

What a great character Junebug is ("I captured a troll!"). And then the rats threaten and harm her. *knuckles crack* I'm not a parent, but I don't like seeing kids threatened, let alone hurt, even in fiction. I especially disliked Insidious for that reason.