Countdown to Fables #100: The Championship

Welcome to today’s entry to the Countdown to Fables #100, where on Tuesday and Friday I recap a story told within the pages of Fables.  This will happen up until issue #100 is released on December 8th.  If you’re new to the countdown, an archive of all previous entries can be found under our Special Features menu.  Today’s story is titled “The Championship.”  In this story, Flycatcher has to deal with the difficulties of being king after an unfortunate incident in Haven.  The story, complete with spoilers (of course), is after the break. 

The Championship
Issues 92-93
Art by David Lapham

In the championship baseball game in Haven, the Gobtown Crushers were taking on the Frog Bombers, with the Crushers winning heading into the final inning.  For the Bombers, Boo Bear and Gretel led off the inning with pop outs.  Flycatcher was able to come in and get a hit.  Surprisingly, Red Riding Hood was able to get a double, which allowed Weyland Smith to get an at bat.  However, the Crushers Mr. Brump was able to strike him out.  After the game, everyone is celebrating and drinking back at the castle.  Mr. Brump however has too much to drink, and cannot find his way back to Gobtown.  Instead he heads towards John’s Meadow.  At the castle, Red Riding is leading Fly, neither have had anything to drink, back to his room.  Fly thanks Red Riding for being the Court Hostess until he chooses a queen.  There’s a pause, then all he can do is compliment the hit she had.  Upset, she begins to leave when Fly leans in and kisses her.  They kiss, but Fly gets scared, and he turns back into a frog.  Red Riding picks him up, and tells him she’s tired of causing him guilt over a wife that has long been dead.  They’re not married anymore and Fly needs to get over it.  Fly says he knows, and forces himself to transform back into a man.  Unfortunately, a naked man, which causes some embarrassment for him.  Meanwhile, Mr. Brump, still lost on a road, comes across a small squirrel.  Without much thought, the highly inebriated Mr. Brump eats the squirrel.  This act is caught by a bird, who then flies off to tell someone.  The next morning, a group of human and goblin guards of Haven wake Mr. Brump up on the side of the road, and tell him he’s being arrested for murder.

Weyland and Trusty John are advising Fly on the situation and what will need to be done.  Fly tells Weyland that he will be presenting the King’s case, and John will be presenting the defense.  Fly begs John to find anything that will allow him to keep from executing Mr. Brump.  Red Riding tells him that he should just go on one of his trips, but Fly says he can’t shirk his duties.  Trusty John speaks with Mr. Brump, who doesn’t exactly see what the problem is.  A goblin has to eat, and it was just a small snack.  Outside of the main village, one goblin is able to convince the rest of them that any trial for Mr. Brump would be biased, so they form a mob and head towards the castle.  Before they can get close, Grinder, the giant goblin Fly fought before, blocks them, and tells his fellow goblins that he will kill any of them that try to commit treason.  This gets them to disperse.  Before the trial, Trusty John asks Fly to track someone down who may or may not exist.  Later at the trial, Mr. Brump and Trusty John admit that the crime occurred, but that the nature of a being cannot overcome the laws of a land.  To make his point, Trusty John uses the tale of the scorpion and the toad.  A scorpion is brought in, and tells of his brother, who was trying to cross a river.  He promises a toad that he will not kill him if he takes him across the river, because then he’d also die.  Halfway across the river, the scorpion stings the toad, ultimately killing them both, because it was in his nature to do so.  Trusty John says that above any oaths is a creatures nature, and they cannot break that.  He recommends that Fly should take mercy on Mr. Brump just as he has shown mercy to him for being bound by a prior oath.  Fly goes up to Boy Blue’s grave to think about the case, envying Blue because his trials are over.  Fly returns to the court, and declares that he has found Mr. Brump guilty and sentences him to death, because if he was unable to comply with the law, then he should not have agreed to abide by it.  However, Fly decides to show mercy on Mr. Brump, and suspends his sentence of death, and banishes him from the kingdom instead.  None of the citizens are particularly happy about the outcome, but no violence erupts.  That night, Red Riding is again walking Fly back to his room.  Fly admits that mercy is only a usable option once.  Fly asks Red Riding to spend the night in his room, and she agrees.

Up next, Rose Red

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