| “ | Do you know how many times I've been woken with true love's kiss? Dozens! Hundreds by now! And how many times has it ended up in true love, forever and ever? No times! No times have I ended up with anyone who had the slightest intention of loving me forever and ever! | „ |
| ~ Briar Rose complaining to Ali Baba in Fairest #5 — "A Waltz in Frost and Shadow: Chapter Five of Wide Awake" |
Briar Rose, better known as Sleeping Beauty, is a human Fable who lives in Fabletown in New York City. She debuts in Fables #12 — "A Sharp Operation: Part One of a Two-Part Caper." Briar Rose was Prince Charming's second wife. In the war against Geppetto, she works for Bigby and is responsible for putting the entire Imperial capital to sleep.
History
Early life
Briar Rose was born long ago, in the city of Seppantyre, to a king and queen who had been unhappily childless for many years. They commanded there be a great celebration to mark the event, and so kings, queens, princes and august personages from far and wide made their way to the grand city Seppantyre, the crown jewel of all the world, the city of wonders. In addition to the nobility of many lands, distinguished guests from the Twilight Lands were invited to become godmothers to the child.[7]
However, Hadeon the Destroyer, a dark fairy who was not invited to the celebration,[7] cursed her with death upon pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. Due to the timely intervention of the good fairy Leysa, Briar Rose's "death" would be spread out amongst so many that it instead became the deepest sleep, with Briar Rose and all those others afflicted magically preserved against the years until such a time she is awakened by true love's kiss.[1]
After Briar Rose first pricked her finger,[2] she was awakened by Prince Charming[8] and married him; however, this did not end her curse and instead merely reset it. She later divorced Prince Charming for his unfaithfulness during their marriage.[2]
When the Adversary invaded her homeland, she eventually managed to escape to the mundane world.[9]
Fabletown
Upon Briar Rose's arrival in New York City, she rapidly gained wealth because of successfully speculating on the stock market.[10] She also gained popularity with her own rock band, which Snow White made her shut down as the risk of exposing her nature as a Fable grew.[1]
At some unknown point in the early 21st century, Briar Rose pricked her finger while in a mundy store called Tiffany's, placing the whole building in an enchanted sleep.[2] It was later revealed during a talk with Bigby that in this incident when her finger was pricked, the authorities sent in a police dog named "Prince" and his innocent dog kiss awoke her, the affection of a dog being honest and true (although Briar threatened Bigby never to tell a soul of the incident).[10]
After this, when journalist Tommy Sharp threatened to reveal what he had discovered about the Fables, Briar Rose's sleeping curse was employed to put the inhabitants of his residency to sleep while a team led by Bigby Wolf ransacked his apartment.[2] However, when it came time to awaken her, Prince Charming's kiss did not work, most likely because he no longer loved her. Flycatcher's kiss woke her up, which ended up with her tasting flies when she awoke.[10] It has never been revealed if she knew Flycatcher awoke her or not.
During the war against the Empire, Briar Rose's curse was deployed within the Imperial capital, putting the inhabitants of the entire city to sleep, depriving the Empire of most of its senior officials and the majority of their combat-ready sorcerers.[11] The city was later burned to the ground, but not before Briar Rose and the Snow Queen were carried away, still asleep, by a mysterious cadre of goblins.[12]
Awakened
Eventually, the bottle imp Jonah Panghammer tells Ali Baba, who is seeking treasures in the burned down city, about the sleeping girl that is blessed with eternal wealth and riches, but needs to be woken with true love's kiss from a prince. Ali Baba sneaks into the goblins' encampment and kisses the sleeping Briar Rose, who awakens from the spell, along with the Snow Queen.[13]
The Snow Queen seeks vengeance on Rose for putting her to sleep for years, and takes both of them captive. Instead of killing them, the Snow Queen forces Jonah, the bottle imp, to tell her stories of Briar Rose's life, as the Snow Queen "is addicted to good stories," and Jonah is very good at telling stories. While Ali Baba and Briar are forced to spend time with Lumi, Ali Baba realizes that he has no feelings for Briar after all, but is in love with Lumi. It is revealed that because Ali Baba risked his life to wake and rescue Briar Rose, his actions fell under the definition of true, but not romantic, love.
Briar also defeats Hadeon the Destroyer, the evil fairy who cursed her as a baby. Briar's fairy godmothers then turn Hadeon into a car that can travel to any world, and the spaces between worlds. The car has to serve one thousand times before it will revert to back to Hadeon's true form. Briar uses the car to travel back to the newly re-built Fabletown. When the car has been used nine hundred and ninety-nine times, she plans to take it to the junkyard and have Hadeon destroyed in a car crusher.
Prince Aspen
At some point, Briar Rose becomes attracted to the dryad Prince Aspen and the two start a sexual relationship, with Briar Rose sneaking up to the Farm once or twice a week for a tryst with him. The serial killer Goldilocks is disgusted with the relationship and when she walks in on the two making love in the woods, she takes special pleasure in murdering Briar Rose, with Aspen as the second victim demanded of the sword Maerorgladi Goldilocks was wielding. She then uses Prince Aspen's tree-based body as kindling to provide a pyre for Briar Rose's body.[14] Though Cinderella ultimately finishes off Goldilocks and is told that Goldilocks' victims can be resurrected, she can only choose half to be resurrected; and ultimately chooses Briar Rose over Aspen, referring to the latter as a "leafy asshole."[15]
Eternal slumber
After many years of adventuring, Briar Rose, who has been scratched by an undead blade, begins to succumb to a zombie-like curse. She returns to Fabletown to collect Hadeon, who has exactly one ride left before returning to her own form. Briar Rose commands Hadeon to take her "to the end of the universe" and then pricks her finger, declaring that if she must turn into an undead horror, she will not be awake for it and will keep her oath to prevent Hadeon from harming anyone ever again.[4]
Personality
| “ | That's true. I fall for everything. | „ |
| ~ Briar Rose, Fairest #3 — "Party Crasher: Chapter Three of Wide Awake" |
As a consequence of one of her many fairy blessings, Briar Rose exhibits a notable naivety, as the blessing proclaimed that she would possess the "wit of an angel"; angels have no guile and tend to assume everyone is playing straight with them. She acknowledges that she is easily fooled.[1] Nevertheless, she seems to be an overall decent person, as seen when she allowed her ex-husband, Prince Charming, to stay with her until he could support himself.[10] Despite this, she seemed to still hold him with little regard and considered him a womanizing cad.[2] She is also frustrated by the fact that she has been woken up by "true love's kiss" several times but has yet to actually find true love.[16]
Physical appearance
| “ | The color of warmth and early autumn. | „ |
| ~ Ali Baba describing Briar Rose's appearance in Fairest #1 — "Prince of Thieves: Chapter One of Wide Awake" |
Briar Rose is very beautiful, as was promised by one of her many fairy enchantments.[1] She has auburn colored hair,[nb 2] fair skin, and blue eyes.
As stated by Jonah Panghammer and herself, she is in exceptional shape, which proves beneficial when she and Ali Baba flee from the Snow Queen's attendants.[13]
Powers and abilities
Powers
- Immortality: As a Fable, Briar Rose is immortal and eternally youthful. Her exact age is unknown, but it has been established that she is well over five-hundred years old. As one of the Fables whose story is common knowledge to mundys, she most likely has a greater degree of immortality than most other Fables.
- Enchanted blessings: Not very long after her birth, Briar Rose received several mystical blessings from a group of good fairies.[1]
- Enhanced beauty: Katrya the Pure promised that Briar Rose would grow up to be the most beautiful woman in the land.[1]
- Angelic wit: Sofiya the Wise decreed that Briar Rose would have the wit of an angel. Alyas assumed this to be a poor blessing, claiming that angels have no guile and tend to assume everyone is playing straight with them; Briar herself agreed with this analysis, as she claimed to fall for everything.[1]
- Enhanced moving: Nyura the Graceful gifted Briar Rose with a wonderful grace in everything she does, from the dance floor to the boudoir.[1]
- Perpetual wealth: Ionna the Gifted promised that Briar Rose would always be wealthy. This has turned out to be a very useful gift, as Briar never has much trouble acquiring money.[1]
- Avian singing: Alyas the Noble promised on her honor that Briar Rose would sing like a nightingale. According to Briar Rose, as a metaphor this may be great, but the more powerful magic gets interpreted literally and now when she actually tries to sing she sounds like a bird chirping.[1]
- Musical intuition: Yeva the Lively blessed Briar Rose with ability to craft delightful songs and play all sorts of music to the utmost perfection.[1]
Abilities
Trained boxer: Briar Rose professed to have taken boxing classes at some point after arriving to the mundande world. Her effectiveness as a fighter was displayed during her brawl with Hadeon the Destroyer.[17]
Weaknesses
- Magic: Briar Rose is susceptible to the effects of magic, seeing as she was cursed by Hadeon.[1] This is inclusive of mystical objects like the Maerorgladi.[18]
- Sleeping curse: When her finger is pricked, it not only puts her to sleep, but also those within a certain radius of her slumber are likewise affected. She and those afflicted are preserved against the ages, and the curse resets itself after Briar Rose receives true love's kiss from a "prince."[2] What constitutes true love is not explicitly known, however Ali Baba was able to wake Briar Rose from her enchanted sleep after braving several treacherous circumstances to wake her — Katrya speculated that Briar's curse had begun to wear off after all these years, and it takes less to wake her, while Nyura thought perhaps true love was more common than they thought.[17] Evidently, a suitable kiss can be from a man who holds the noble status of an actual prince,[10] one who is colloquially referred to as such (i.e. a "prince of thieves" ),[17] or even a canine with the name "Prince."[10] Within a few minutes of her enchanted sleep, brambles and thorns will rapidly grow up around the building Briar Rose is within.[2] While an undeniable weakness, she has managed to turn her curse into a potent weapon.[19]
Original source
Briar Rose is based on the titular character of the Charles Perrault version of the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale, in which the titular character has seven fairy godmothers, six of which offer their gifts of pure beauty, wit, grace, dance, song, and musical talent to the infant princess; and the princess is cursed by an aged fairy that no one thought to invite to the girl's christening;[20] much like in the Fairest story arc "Wide Awake." (In the Brothers Grimm's version, there are no fairy godmothers, but rather thirteen "wise women," and the thirteenth is not invited, because the king only had twelve gold plates from which they could eat.[21])
Etymology
Despite the Fables character being being based on the Charles Perrault version of the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale, "Briar Rose" is the name given to the character in the Brothers Grimm's version of the story.[21] In Perrault's version of the fairy tale, the character is simply known as the "princess."[20]
Trivia
- When Briar Rose is looking at Snow White and Bigby Wolf's newborn cubs in Fables #30 — "The Cruel, Hot Summer," she is wearing a thorn printed skirt, a reference to the forest of trees, brambles and thorns that spring up around the castle in the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale.
- Briar Rose doesn't make an appearance in The Wolf Among Us. However, her apartment can be seen in "A Crooked Mile" if Bigby visits Crane's apartment first, and a Book of Fables entry can be unlocked for her during "In Sheep's Clothing" by examining a pincushion in the Lucky Pawn.
Gallery
References
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Notes
- ↑ As explained in Fables #22 — "Cinderella Libertine," and other issues, Briar Rose was awakened from the sleeping curse by Prince Charming and married him; indicating that she is from the same world as him.
- ↑ "The auburn-haired babe is the correct one, by the way." ―Jonah Panghammer, Fairest #1 — "Prince of Thieves: Chapter One of Wide Awake."