Bigby And Snow's "Cubs"
Snow and Bigby's seven children are a rowdy, unpredictable bunch of hybrids that seem to have inherited abilities from all facets of their heritage. All, but Ghost, can fly, at first uncontrollably so, flight having been their natural state; they needed to be taught how to ground themselves. They can transform into wolf form.
One of the seven, later named Ghost by Bigby, is a zephyr, a rogue wind whose invisible nature meant his parents were initially unaware of his existence. This entity fed off the air of living beings, accidentally killing them before he learned control. Snow White, after a rash of deaths, discovers that they were inadvertently caused by her last child. She sends Ghost to find his self-exiled father. The family has since been reunited. On their fifth birthday, the other six cubs were introduced to Ghost, but were sworn to secrecy as to his existence, as zephyrs are considered dangerous aberrations, and their grandfather Mr. North is obligated by a prior vow to exterminate any zephyrs known to exist. Ghost appears sweet, if anything confused since he cannot feel normal things the others do. He's not hungry, thirsty or sleepy. But he is good at finding people, which was what convinced Snow to find Bigby.
Ambrose, the chubby and sweet cub named after Flycatcher, is portrayed as the weak link, often too scared to transform or fly when in danger. Ambrose narrates certain events such as the family's trip to his grandfather's castle, as well as his narrow escape from his six wild uncles, with whom his father later fought. These are done in the form of memoirs.
Darien is shown as the leader of the pack, something that Bigby has commented on. Another female cub, Winter (named after Bigby's mother), is portrayed as being shy and cuddly, often shown sucking her thumb or holding a stuffed animal, usually the only one of the cubs to do so. Her brother Darien has referred to Winter as the runt of the litter, despite her being the firstborn. She also stands out because, unlike her other siblings, she was the only one who was born completely human in appearance. The remaining cubs are Conner, who isn't too different from Darien in personality and possesses similar facial characteristics like Prince Charming; Therese, a blonde-headed cub who is observant, but tends to confuse things; and Blossom, who bears a great deal of resemblance to Rose Red, seems to have inherited some stereotypical "Fairytale Princess" qualities, and is often seen with cute cuddly forest creatures and butterflies following her around. [1]
During the Fables Forum panel in the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, a one-page story was handed out to attendees that would foretell the fate of the cubs possibly within the next one hundred issues. Ambrose meets one of the Thirteenth Floor Witches, Ozma of Oz, the young childlike second in command to Frau Totenkinder, who at his behest tells him of a prophecy she had. She explains:
The first child will be a king. (Winter; see below)
The second child a pauper.
The third will do an evil thing. (Therese; see below)
The fourth will die to stop her. (Darien; see below)
The fifth will be a hero bold.
The sixth will judge the rest. (Ambrose; see below)
The seventh lives to ages old, and is by heaven blessed
The Witch further explains that her vision made no real detailed specifics as to which child is which and she leaves it up to Ambrose to decide if he should tell the others.[3]
When the Cubs approach their ninth birthday, and the first result of the prophecy is revealed. After the death of the North Wind, Bigby's father, a successor is chosen among his grandchildren. After a series of tests are performed, Winter is named the winner and the new king of the North Wind's kingdom. Winter will be sent away soon for her training, but she admits to her father that she's deathly afraid as a result of recently having nightmares of her older self as the North Wind. In her dreams, she is no longer her sweet and shy self and sees herself as a cold and selfish person that hurts people. If this will happen is not known.
Therese receives a red plastic tugboat (Mr. Steampuddle) as a Christmas gift from an unknown admirer. The mysterious boat starts talking to Therese and convinces her to find some water for it. Therese, acting as if she is under some kind of spell, finds a stream, where she puts the boat in the water; the boat grows in size, convinces Therese to board it. The boat takes Therese to Toyland, a bleak, mysterious land inhabited by discarded toys, where she is thrilled to be crowned the Queen of Toyland. She is quickly dismayed to learn she cannot fly in Toyland, nor can she go home. Therese begins to starve because nothing grows in Toyland and that all of Toyland's inhabitants are toys that caused their child owners to be killed in accidents involving the toys (i.e. choking on a toy, a toy catching fire, etc.). The toys have also brought many other children to Toyland before Therese, and all of them starved to death before they had a chance to restore the toys.
Back in the "mundy" world, Darien realizes that as the pack leader, it is his job to look after the rest of the cubs. With the help of Lord Mountbatten, a magical clockwork tiger capable of taking physical form, he travels to Toyland to rescue his sister. But her army of toys attack them and injure Darien, and take Mountbatten prisoner. Mountbatten is brought before Therese. Whether due to her diminishing condition or the dark influence of the land, Therese coldly orders the toys to kill him (even after he explained he came to save her) and savagely ate at his raw flesh, then ordered the toys to cook the rest, even using the wooden toys to cook her meal.
Darien realizes that in order to save his sister, he must sacrifice himself, and impales himself on a broken mini pool cue. His blood goes into a magical cauldron and his body goes into the soil. Because of Darien's magical bloodline, his blood invokes an ancient magic. The grass begins to grown in Toyland, and the cauldron is restored and becomes filled up with food every day, always magically fresh and hot. Therese grieves over her brother for a long, long time, until a now older and more mature Therese decides it is time to put her brother's sacrifice to work and begin the restoration of her kingdom. Because everyone there, including herself, is a killer, they will have to earn their forgiveness, and save one hundred lives for each life they took.
Therese commands Mr. Steampuddle to set out on a series of new voyages across the waves: the toys are to save lives instead of taking them. Over the years, the toys save many children from various accidents. Mr. Steampuddle and the toys go back and forth many times, returning often over the years to report their successes to the queen before being sent out again. Gradually, Toyland and its inhabitants are restored and made whole again. In time, when most of the toys have been restored, and thousands of children lives have been saved, Therese returns to the mundy world, and discovers that little time has passed there: her siblings are still children, while she herself is now an adult. She tells her family about Darien's sacrifice. The story arc strongly implies that Therese is the third child from the prophecy, the one who would do an evil thing, and Darien is the one who dies to stop her, although it could also be argued that his actions cast him in the role of a hero bold. By the nature of Ambrose's narration, it appears he does not become a pauper and that in a sense he is judging the others in hindsight (though, to some, it appears he is only providing guidance to Dare - not judging him). Such interpretations have yet to be definitively proven out.
In the Fables story The Destiny Game, an adult Ambrose appears to be in a well-established relationship with the Lady of the Lake. In that story, it is also revealed that, no matter their nigh-immortality (due to their nature as Fables and part-gods), they will all die, eventually (as Bigby is fated to outlive them all). Still according to Bigby's new fate, all of his cubs will lay waste to worlds (meaning they will all do terrible things, eventually - though this is contradicted by Dare's noble suicide before he had any opportunity to commit any crime of any kind at all). However, as noted earlier, the Lady can reassign fates. In the Fables story Snow White, the adult Ambrose narrates the events that led to Bigby's death, and reveals he is the child who judges the rest as the witch foretold, by telling the histories.
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Okay, thank you. I will use that next time.
You basically summed up everything I've read over the past few years, lol.
Good job though. Good for those who want to know what goes on without having to pick up a comic and read it.
I'm not trying to sound offensive, but..... why do you always write these long spoiler filled posts?
"the Lady can reassign fates"
Well, f*ck me sideways.
My fav. part is when bigby us a little girl or monkey.I can't chose
)
is*
I am always a bit confused on the overall timeline of the Fables story. The writer doesn't always tell when the stories takes place. Some takes place in the past and others in the presents along with other stories.
I would like to mention an example. The story where Jack is in Hollywood and began making movies about himself, he eventually caused Beast to come to him and exile him. Beast mentioned that he has been Sheriff for five years and this story takes place during the events of The Good Prince which means that Bigby has returned to Fabletown by this point.
So I want to ask, how many years has passed since the first issue?
I think maybe around 15 years? or 10? I think Bill's set it up so by when it ends it'll be the present. Though I'm not sure on anything, people have said there is time and age inconsistencies.
Generally, as the issues are published, about that much time has passed. The comics have been going for just about 12 years now? That's about how many years have passed for the comics. The cubs were born approximately 2 years after the start of the comic, making them 10 years old now. A lot of stories Willingham writes are of the past sometimes, and at whatever time period they were supposed to take place in is beyond me.
B/c I would like to inform people who do not have time to read them and so they get the jist of it.
I'm surprised Bigby wasn't aware that he had a 7th child. His ability to 'smell' everything would have helped him realize that.
Can you smell something that is basically invisible and formless? If Bigby's father the North Wind himself couldn't sense Ghost, I doubt Bigby could
Exactly this. Ghost is basically a puff of air.