Bluebeard

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Bluebeard is a highly accomplished swordsman, and is also a fair marksman.

Like all Fables, he is extremely long-lived, and is difficult to kill, allegedly based on the popularity of their tales.

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His main weapon is his vast wealth, easily in the billions of dollars value (one of at least 36 discovered vaults was estimated to have between 2.4 and 6 billion). It is believed that he may also have magical artefacts stashed somewhere in his vaults.

He and his manservant live in a small room in the Woodlands building, which he paid handsomely to have enchanted. The small rooms contains a tesseract within which is his castle from the Homelands.

This structure has a seemingly never-ending series of corridors and caches, where the bulk of his fortune is hidden. Even years after his death, all of these have not been fully catalogued.

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History

(A fuller history of Fabletown can be found in the main article.)

Once upon a time there was a nobleman named Bluebeard. He had a propensity for marrying pretty girls and killing them on their wedding night.

His comfortable life was inconvenienced when the Adversary’s forces reached his lands. But he turned the situation to his advantage. Gaining control of the main escape routes to the mundane world, he charged handsomely for passage.

The fortune this made him set him up comfortably in his new home. Since the Fabletown government relied on donations, Bluebeard became one of its most respected residents.

Fables in Exile

He began a secret affair with Rose Red, and they set a date to be married in a year. He gave her a generous dowry beforehand, with the agreement they’d both keep it a secret until the marriage. Shortly before the set date, Rose Red went missing, seemingly murdered.

When Bigby questioned Bluebeard, he reluctantly admitted the arrangement. He was furious to discover she’d faked her death to avoid marriage. She had only agreed to it to get the money so her boyfriend, Jack, could fund another of his get-rich-quick schemes – which failed.

When Bluebeard demanded she fulfil the contract, Bigby pointed out that since Bluebeard had told him about it, he had himself broken the agreement. Unhappy with events, Bluebeard could do nothing but hold his peace and plot his revenge.

Storybook Love

Bluebeard joined a crew Bigby organised to discourage a reporter who’d discovered clues as to their true nature. Then he faced Bigby down. Bigby called his bluff, leaving Bluebeard crying and with his pride injured. Despite Bigby’s successful blackmailing of the reporter, Bluebeard arranged a night meeting with the man, where he shot him dead.

Obsessed with revenge on Bigby, Bluebeard allied himself with the fugitive Goldilocks. Bluebeard had Bigby and Snow enchanted to go off on a camping trip together where Goldilocks could kill them. She failed, but Bluebeard didn’t have a chance to learn this.

Prince Charming had learned of Bluebeard’s intentions to kill Bigby, although not the full plans or how far along they’d gone. While holding little love for Bigby, Charming sought to deal with the problem for Snow’s sake. And probably for his own plans to get hands on Bluebeard’s fortune.

Charming challenged Bluebeard to a duel. Having no way out, Bluebeard was forced to fight Charming, and was killed.

Post-Mortem Excursions

His body dumped down the witching well, Bluebeard’s soul resided in the afterlife it led to. That lasted until Prince Ambrose (Flycatcher) arrived to lead the souls there back to the Homelands. Bluebeard went along, fully intending to seize power at some point. In this he had an unreliable ally, Shere Khan.

Ambrose was fully aware of their duplicity, and cast them out. Their spirits endured and they tried allying with the imperial forces which arrived to deal with Ambrose’s reclaimed kingdom of Haven. They offered intelligence in exchange for the empire’s warlock working on getting them bodies again.

Whether they were ultimately successful before the empire fell is unrevealed.

Personality

Proud and arrogant, Bluebeard looks down on almost everyone as being his lesser. He also is vindictive towards those who’ve crossed him. His vast fortune, and Fabletown’s reliance on his donations, helped exacerbate this.

While he happily enters fights where he knows he can win, he is, at heart, a bully, who’s afraid of dying. When he tried to stare down Bigby, who he sees as basically an animal, Bigby called his bluff. He knew that Bluebeard would always back down when faced with any real threat.

DC Universe History

His business dealings among the Mundy’s have brought him into conflict with Lex Luthor, and the two share an enmity.

By Gareth Lewis.

Source of Character: Fables (Vertigo, by Bill Willingham, up to #51).