Jones Family (Coraline)

Jones Family is the family ship between Coraline Jones and her parents, Mel Jones and Charlie Jones from the ''Coraline fandom.

Canon
All versions of the story start the same way, with the family deciding to move from a big city to a quiet, very old house. Coraline is incredibly bored, not helped by both of her parents barely paying any attention to her. They lost a lot of savings for the move and have to drown themselves in work in order to get by. Both fed up with Coraline constantly nagging them to pay attention to her, they tell her to go explore the house a bit.

Coraline complies with that, finding a strange door in the living room. It was covered with wallpaper, but there's a keyhole clearly visible through it. Coraline begs her mom for the key, with her only agreeing to open the door for her daughter if she promises to not bother her again that day. When Coraline's mother opens the door, there's a brick wall behind it. Though Coraline is disappointed, her mother explains to her that they probably just seperated the room from the rest of the house, as it wasn't always intended to house multiple households. Coraline is not buying that explanation, but she heeds her promise of leaving her mother alone.

At the end of the day, Coraline's father prepares a meal for the family with the few scraps that they saved after moving. Coraline normally likes her father's cooking, but admits that she's disgusted with the meal he prepared. Coraline's mother then tells her that she might also just go to bed without dinner if she hates it so much, Coraline agrees.

But that night, she sneaks past the bedroom of her parents, hearing a mysterious squeaking noise. She finds a mouse with button eyes in the living room and sees it go behind the previously locked door. But there's no brick wall on the other side of the door, but a strange tunnel. Morbidly interested, Coraline goes through the tunnel and enters a room that looks exactly like the new living room. But then she smells something very delicious and hears the voice of her mother coming from the kitchen. When she enters the kitchen, she finds a woman who looks almost exactly like her mother, except that she has buttons for eyes. The woman introduces herself as Coraline's "other mother", explaining that everyone has one. She then tells Coraline to get her other father, who as expected looks like her father, but with button eyes. The two button-eyed parents shower Coraline with love and attention, give her good food to eat and tell her that they've been waiting for her for a long time.

Coraline goes to bed that night feeling loved, but then she wakes up on the other side of the door again. Back in the real world, Coraline tries to tell her parents about her encounter with their button-eyed doubles, but while they listen to her, they don't believe her.

Coraline ends up feeling neglected by her parents once again and visits the world behind the door multiple times. Though she gets love and attention from her other parents and even her other neighbors the second and third time, at the end of the third day, she receives an offer from the Other Mother: two large black buttons, a sewing needle and some string. Coraline realizes what's going on, refusing to let them sew buttons in her eyes, but her other parents insist on it. She excuses herself and runs back to bed, hoping she finds herself back in the real world, like the first time. When that doesn't work, she disobeys the Other Mother and flees from her through the tunnel.

Expecting to run into her real parents on the other side, Coraline is devastated to find out that they are nowhere to be found. She ends up looking for them the entire day to no avail. Sullenly going to bed, she sleeps in her parents bedroom that night, using their pillows to pretend that her parents are sleeping next to her. The next day, she receives a clue about her parents' whereabouts from the Cat that kept stalking her and warned her about the Other Mother in her world; the Cat shows Coraline the mirror at the end of the hallway. Her parents appear in the mirror, standing next to each other, shivering in the snow. Her mother draws a message for Coraline on the glass, though it is reversed, Coraline could read it just fine: HELP US.

Alarmed, Coraline wastes no time making a trip to confront the "Other Mother" as she fancies herself. The Other Mother admits that she took Coraline's parents, but has no interest in releasing them. When Coraline still refuses to let her sew buttons in her eyes, she imprisons Coraline in the mirror. Instead of her parents, she meets three dead children on the other side. They tell her that they too were tempted with abandoning their real parents, the "Beldam" as they call her prays on children that they know are unhappy with their lives and families. When they tell Coraline that the Beldam took their eyes and keeps their souls imprisoned in the mirror, Coraline gains new motivation not only to save her parents, but the souls of these children as well.

Eventually, the Beldam releases Coraline from the mirror, but Coraline challenges her to a "game", should she be able to find her parents and the three eyes containing the souls of the ghost children, the Beldam will be forced to let everyone go. The Beldam agrees as Coraline promised to let her sew buttons in her eyes, but disappears before they could formally shake on the deal. Coraline progresses far quicker than the Beldam would've liked as she has was given an adder stone from her neighbors when she told them that her parents went missing. However, the Beldam steals the stone before she could use it to find her parents. Coraline has to think quickly, hearing a noise that sounds like someone wiping a window in the living room has her notice that her parents are imprisoned in her mother's favorite snowglobe. Using the Cat as a distraction, Coraline grabs the snowglobe and puts it safely in her bag. She then manages to escape the Beldam, with the help of 3-5 pairs of hands (depending on version), with her fleeing from the Beldam through the tunnel.

On the other side, Coraline is finally reunited with her parents for good. Though they don't remember anything that had happened in the other world, they promise to pay attention to Coraline more often now that their work is done.

Fanon
Coraline's parents are often considered an example of changing perspectives when growing up. As a child, many will agree with Coraline that her parents should pay more attention to her. As an adult, those fans will realize just how much her parents actually love her, they just don't have time for her every minute.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION