SPLAININ TO DO: THE FICTIONALS

'The Librarians' is a fun successor to such shows as 'Warehouse 13' and 'Torchwood' in general theme, and as could be expected for a show about magical items, it is full of whimsy.

There is a danger that one day they'll introduce something that is so... "Zonkish", that I can no longer advocate for its placement in Earth Prime-Time.  But so far, I can splain away any discrepancies that have popped up in the series.  Then again, with the second season premiere, 'The Librarians' have supplied a new facet to the Toobworld Dynamic which can splain away a plot situation that has always been around but which has become more prominent in the last few years - the problem of recastaways adapted from books.

PROFESSOR JAMES MORIARTY

Here's what we learned about the Fictionals:

Flynn Carsen: You're a Fictional!  You're a fictional character brought to life from this world, [holds up book] your world, to this world.

Jenkins: Fictionals.  They stay to themselves; pulled from books into a world they do not understand and they tend not to adjust well.

Jenkins: There are two types of Fictionals.  Someone summoned him from this book; they called him into this world.
Fynn: And the other kind?
Jenkins: Much older....  Much more powerful.  Iconic characters whose stories are so well-told, so famous, so well-written, that they emerge into this reality under their own power.  They walk among us!  Mostly hidden... not very many of those....

Jenkins:  Fictionals are bound, but also empowered, by their source.  You can trap them within the rules of their own tales, but they can be extremely powerful if their narrative matches the real world.

Flynn summed up Jenkins' more detailed information thusly: Fictional characters come to life out of special editions of books and are very powerful beings.

THE RESIDENTS OF STORYBROOKE, MAINE

This definitively puts 'The Librarians' into the "Essentials" category for the Toobworld Dynamic because it not only can splain away how it was possible for the characters in various books to escape their own world and come to Storybrooke, Maine, as seen in 'Once Upon A Time', but perhaps even be the "logic" behind Captain Justice and Gumshoe, the characters who crossed over from the comic book world in the 1980s series 'Once A Hero'.

GUMSHOE & CAPTAIN JUSTICE

It's not a recent occurrence, and we've only just seen proof of this in the last week or so with the latest Geico blipvert:

For alls I know, this could be the "true" Peter Pan for Toobworld - a quick glance through the IMDb list for the character doesn't seem to have any other real candidates popping up in TV series.  (As played by Mary Martin, Mia Farrow, and Allison Williams, Pan is traipsing about in variations of ToobStage.)

But let's say for the moment that this Peter Pan was a Fictional.  He must have been summoned to Earth Prime-Time back in 1961 and then spent four years in Toobworld attending that high school.  (The banner does mark the reunion to be for the class of 1965.)

ADDENDUM:
Here's another Blipvert of Fictionals in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson investigate a home's heating system in the early 1990s.  Holmes is probably one of those Elementals who was able to bring himself and Watson through the vortex into Earth Prime-Time - not through magic as many of the others did, like Prospero, but use of his highly honed intellect and logic.

TERRY/PROSPERO

Getting back to Peter Pan, he was one of the more powerful fictionals "whose stories are so well-told, so famous, so well-written, that they emerge into this reality under their own power."  But I can see him being summoned by someone like Aunt Clara back then; that addled old witch would not have been able to remember the counter-spell and so that's why Peter Pan was trapped for so long on the main Toobworld.  And while he was trapped, he decided to spend his time finally getting a high school education.  

('Bewitched' has been a great source of Fictionals summoned to Toobworld by witches and warlocks: Hansel & Gretel, Prince Charming, Sleeping Beauty, the Artful Dodger, and Jack of the Beanstalk.  (The Giant from that episode - and the Witch from "Hansel & Gretel In Samanthaland" - remained within their stories.)

TOP ROW: HANSEL & GRETEL, SLEEPING BEAUTY
BOTTOM ROW: JACK, PRINCE CHARMING, THE ARTFUL DODGER

I believe the Fictionals resemble the image to be found in the mind of the one who summoned them.  In the two part season opener for 'The Librarians', Professor James Moriarty looked nothing like the illustrations by Sidney Paget.  Prospero must have summoned him from an edition of Sherlock Holmes stories which didn't include those drawings.  And he certainly didn't look like the televersion of the Napoleon of Crime from the Jeremy Brett TV series either.  (Prospero may have met him since he told Flynn that he had been living on Toobworld for centuries.)  Perhaps Prospero had in mind some other Moriarty whom he once knew which influenced the template for his visage.

This will also serve as the splainin as to why so many of the storybook Storybrookers don't resemble the traditional look for their characters.  (I think whoever summoned them was influenced by Disney movies.)

GRAMPA SAM DRACULA, NEE SAM CARRARI

Not all characters adapted from books who interact with TV characters are Fictionals.  There could be other reasons for them being recastaways.  Take Dracula for example.  Buffy Summers fought the true Dracula, but he looked nothing like any of the other TV incarnations of the Vampire Lord, especially Sam Dracula AKA Grampa.  My splainin for all of those other Draculas (Draculae?) - any vampire sired by Dracul would then carry that surname as a mark of their "parentage".

FRANK & TED STEIN

Speaking of Dracula, let's turn our attention to the Frankenstein Monsters.  The only one who should be considered a Fictional would be the Creature who appeared in these episodes of 'The Librarians', and his appearance again was dictated by the mind of Prospero (as was also the case for the Queen of Hearts.  I think in that case, ol' Prospy was feeling a stirring in his loins.....)  But with all of the other Monsters, including Herman Munster and Frank from Maine, they were all created by the Dr. Frankenstein of Toobworld... or one of his relatives.

JULIUS CAESAR

(BUT COULD REALLY BE CALIGULA AS A FICTIONAL)

QUEEN VICTORIA

GEORGE WASHINGTON

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

Fictionals can also be based on real people summoned out of history books and the like.  Again we turn to 'Bewitched' for four good examples - George Washington, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Queen Victoria.  Having them summoned out of books and looking as they were illustrated in those books removes any Zonks that might clash with other recastaways.  (The only exception would be Benjamin Franklin, who was actually transported out of Time.)

One final thought - Jenkins, the Caretaker of the Annex, is actually Sir Galahad from the legends of King Arthur and the Round Table.  And I should put the accent on legends - there is no proof that Galahad actually existed.  

JENKINS AKA SIR GALAHAD

So what if Jenkins/Galahad is actually a Fictional himself, pulled from a magical edition of "Le Morte D'Arthur" by Thomas Mallory?  It could be the reason why he knew so much about the Fictional race (although granted, Jenkins is a warehouse of information... information... information about almost every topic imaginable.)  

And if he was a Fictional, then it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Lancelot du Lac and Morgan Le Fay escaped through the same portal from BookWorld many centuries ago.

Just sayin', is all........

TV SHOWS CITED:

• 'The Librarians'
• 'Bewitched'
• 'Peter Pan' (three productions)
• 'Sherlock Holmes'
• 'Once Upon A Time'
• 'Once A Hero'
• 'Voyagers!'
• 'Dracula'
• 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'
• 'The Munsters'
• 'Struck By Lightning'
• Geico

BCnU!