List of Fables Characters - Villains - Dorothy Gale

Dorothy Gale

Dorothy Gale was first seen in flashbacks during the Fables: Legends in Exile story arc, while fleeing the Adversary's forces. She later cropped up in Jack of Fables, as one of the many Fable prisoners at the Golden Boughs Retirement Village. Dorothy's story is finally told in the Fables spin off Cinderella: Fables Are Forever, where it is revealed that the former innocent farm girl became a professional killer for hire, going by the code "Silverslipper". She went on to become Cinderella’s greatest nemesis.

It is revealed that Dorothy developed a taste for killing for hire after she, as seen in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, killed the Wicked Witch of the West in exchange for a trip back home. She had already killed the Wicked Witch of the East by accident when Dorothy's house landed on her, and was given a pair of magic silver slippers from the Good Witch of the North as a reward. When the Wizard heard that Dorothy had already taken care of one witch, he hired her to kill another. Dorothy took the job, and discovered that she liked it. After Glinda the Good Witch explained to her about the powers of the magic slippers, Dorothy used them to fly home to the Homelands version of Kansas. To her great despair, the slippers fell off over the Deadly Desert of Oz.

Dorothy and a few of her friends, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and Toto made it into the mundy world in the year of 1943. They had fled from Oz years before, ahead of the invading armies of the Adversary, and had been on the run ever since. The Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion hid out on the Jersey pine barrens, while Dorothy sought out Fabletown to find them all a safe haven. However, Dorothy reacted strongly to the stated terms in the Fabletown compact that was presented to her, and stormed off in anger, refusing to let anyone "tie her hands like that". Meaning she didn't want to be a good person and enjoyed killing too much. She left her friends behind and walked off with Toto in her arms, feeling that the others were dead weight and never came back for them. Dorothy created a new life for herself as a killer for hire in the mundy world, and had no trouble finding work. She eventually crossed paths with Fabletown spy Cinderella, who ran into Dorothy during several of Cindy's secret missions for Fabletown, getting in the way for Dorothy's work. Dorothy pointed out every chance they had, that she and Cindy were exactly the same but that she was better than Cindy. Cindy, however, greatly denied that as she killed to protect Fables and humans as a patriotic act. She calls Dorothy a cold-blooded killer who did it for fun and was dangerous. Cindy was in her way, better than Dorothy due to Dorothy's ego and her constant want to prove she's better than Cindy. Cindy, honestly, didn't care nor did she feel she has to prove her worth to anyone.

It came down to a final confronation, when Dorothy kidnapped Snow White and was planning to hold her hostage. The two had several violent encounters over the years, until Cindy almost finished Dorothy off in Switzerland in the year of 1986 by throwing Dorothy off a cliff. Dorothy, passed out, was found by Mr. Revise's people and was imprisoned at the Golden Boughs Retirement Village where she was thrown down Revise's memory hole. When she emerged, she had been stripped of most of her memories and was again the same innocent girl she had been so long ago.

The years passed, and Dorothy described them as living in a fog where she could not think straight. When the Golden Boughs was destroyed, the memory hole was destroyed with it, all of Dorothy's memories came back. As mentioned in a conversation between the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man during the final Jack of Fables story arc, Dorothy then struck off on her own. The Lions mentions that she got "all dark", and the Tin Man responds that Dorothy always was "kind of creepy".

As seen in Cinderella: Fables Are Forever, she began plotting her revenge on Cinderella, while also for the first time remembering where she actually lost the silver slippers. She returned to the Deadly Desert and managed to get the slippers back by hanging off an aircraft on a rope, careful not to touch the deadly sand. She recruited the Spoon Brigade from The Emerald City of Oz, Bungle, the Glass Cat and a Chiss to assist her in her plan for revenge.

When Mr. Kadabra is mysteriously killed by an unknown assailant, all signs points to Cinderella's archnemesis from the old. Cindy sets out to find her, aided by Ivan Durak of Shadow Fabletown, who claims that Dorothy has been hired to kill him. Eventually, both are abducted and taken to the Deadly Desert of Oz, where Dorothy is waiting. Before they reach their destination, both manage to escape in the middle of the desert. Cindy is feeling ready to face Dorothy, but Ivan drugs her, and she wakes up tied to a chair, Dorothy standing before her with Toto at her side. (Toto had previously been killed during the mass escape from the Golden Boughs, but, as Priscilla Page points out during the Jack of Fables story arc The (Nearly) Great Escape, "killed Fables often get magically replaced by new versions of the same Fables".)

In a surprising plot twist, it is revealed that Dorothy was Ivan all along (the real Ivan has been dead for a long time; most likely sometime between the 1980s or her escape from Mr. Revise), disguising herself using her magic silver slippers. Cindy manages to persuade Dorothy to untie her and fight her in a real battle, in which Cindy steals the silver slippers and defeats Dorothy by pushing her from a great height into the Deadly Desert, apparently killing her, though her body is not seen.

Dorothy has a brief appearance in the Fables story In Those Days, in a flashback that shows the death of Mister Kadabra. As previously implied, it was Dorothy who killed him. Dorothy is also referred to in the story arc Cubs in Toyland.