The Fair Folk: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The thing about words is that [[From a Certain Point of View|meanings can twist just like a snake]], and if you want to find snakes, look behind words that have changed their meaning.<br />

No one ever said elves are '''nice'''.<br />

 

 

 

The original terms for these (at least, in [[Celtic Mythology|Scottish]] lore) were the Seelie (vaguely goodish) and the Unseelie ([[Always Chaotic Evil]]). In Ireland, they were called ''sidhe'' ("shee") and would sour milk, kill animals, and [[Changeling Tale|swap people for changelings]]. Boys were dressed in girls' clothes until the age of 5, because otherwise the sidhe would [[Invasion of the Baby Snatchers|steal them]] for their armies. Building anything near a fairy fort was very bad. Going alone into a marsh was an invitation to get entranced by [[Cold Flames]] into their halls. Even if you were allowed [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|to leave their kingdom]], you could find that [[Year Outside, Hour Inside|centuries have passed]], and [[No Immortal Inertia|crumble into dust]]. Their [[Dances and Balls|dances]] would catch any human passerby and make him dance to exhaustion at best.

 

 

Then came the [[Bowdlerise|Bowdlerisation]], and suddenly, all Fairies got a lot more cute. (And acquired wings, which were unknown in older folklore.) This began in Elizabethan times, where on one occasion a woman who claimed to commune with the Queen of Fairies was burned at the stake as a witch. It is not for nothing that [[William Shakespeare]] has Oberon explicitly disclaim that he doesn't mind church bells -- to show he was not a demon. It accelerated thereafter, resulting in the Victorian image of fairies, which is generally how they are popularly conceived today.

See also [[Changeling Tale]], a specific subtrope having to do with fairy abduction, [[Doppelganger|doppelgangers]], [[Invasion of the Baby Snatchers|and the like]]. Not to be confused with [[Changeling Fantasy]] which is a type of [[Cinderella Situation]].

 

 

Luckily, much like [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]], fay traditionally have a few [[Achilles Heel|weaknesses]] that can be exploited, including:

* [[Durarara]] subverts this trope with Celty Sturluson, an [[Celtic Mythology|Irish]] [[The Grim Reaper|Dulla]][[Headless Horseman|han]] desperately searching for her missing head. At first she may look intimidating and a little bit sinister, but soon we discover she is genuinely a very kind, gentle and caring person. For an Unseelie Fae she is actually one of the most friendly and affable characters in the series. [[Moe Moe|She is also afraid of space aliens]]. Of course, as Shinra points out, part of this may have to do with the fact that Celty's an ''amnesiac'' Dullahan. She might not have been so nice if circumstances were different (quarter-Dullahan {{spoiler|Ruri Hirijibe}}, for example is a serial killer with a monster fetish).

* The Diclonii from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' are heavily influenced by the Fair Folk and are in fact the "elves" from the title. They reproduce by secretly altering humans so that [[Changeling Tale|any children they have will be born as diclonii]] and they are all very beautiful or handsome. In feudal Japan they used to live like nobles ruling over normal humans until they were hunted almost to extinction. They are not particularly evil, but when they grow older they develop telekinetic abilities with which they almost always accidentally kill their human families and only survive by becomming deadly killers. Except the only remaining queen Lucy, who can give birth to pureblood diclonii and has the unstopable instinct to [[Kill All Humans]].

* [[Berserk]] plays this trope dead straight with Rosine, a fairy-like Apostle who likes to carry kids off in order to turn them into her creepy little pseudo-elves in a rather twisted version of the [[Changeling Fantasy]]. The real Elves of the series, such as Puck, are more the benevolent version.

 

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The female fairies in ''[[Proof]]'' look like cute little green people, but act like ferocious predators with huge appetites (e.g. after mating, the butterfly-sized female eats the male, who's about as tall as a house). Fortunately, these fairies are non-magical and an endangered species.

* ''[[Hellboy]]''. "The Corpse" has Hellboy exposing a changeling and performing a number of difficult tasks for it so that [[The Fair Folk]] will return the baby he replaced. The story ends with the fairies discussing how few children have been born to them lately and [[The Magic Goes Away|how they may eventually fade away]], which likely inspired in part ''The Golden Army''--see below under Film.

* In [[Marvel Comics]], the fairy residents of Otherworld are similar to the DC versions. In particular ''Wisdom'' and ''Captain Britain and MI-13'' feature Oberon's daughter [[Shout-Out|Tinkabelinos]] (yes...), who resembles a foul-mouthed cross between Boudicea and a punk rocker.

* The Sheeda from the DC miniseries ''[[Seven Soldiers]]'' -- fairies who live at the ass-end of time and who [[Time Travel]] back to raze human civilization and plunder its profits whenever humanity reaches a certain tech level.

* A late issue of ''[[Shade the Changing Man]]'' focuses on a group of actors filming the type of Disneyfied, Bowdlerized fairy tale made for children, shot on location in Ireland. They get together at a pub to express contempt for the film and the irresistible amounts of money that compelled them to take part in it, and the older Irish natives talk about the terror and brutality of the ''real'' fairy tales they grew up with. When Shade arrives and enters a fairy ring, his madness amplifies the effect across the entire country, with results deadly and deranging. The madstorm also wipes out the entire film production, to the relief of the surviving actors.

 

 

== Folklore ==

** The same thing, albeit [[Gender Flip|gender-flipped]], happens in ''[[Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell]]''.

* Two Medieval accounts mention a pair of green children who showed up in the English town of Woolpit in the 12th century. They claimed to be from "Saint Martin's Land", an underground world.

 

== [[Film--Animation]] ==

** To quote ''[[Discworld|Nanny Ogg's Cookbook]]'': "How hard is it to invite her along, give her plenty of drink and a plate of ham rolls all to herself, and keep her out of the way of your posh auntie? Play your cards right and you could be ahead by an extra good wish."

** Even the supposed good fairies have elements of this. They certainly mean to help, but the way they go about things is a bit reckless. While brainstorming on how to keep Aurora from pricking her finger, the fairies thought it was absolutely brilliant to turn her into a flower. The only reason they didn't was because they realize Maleficent could cause a frost and kill her that way. Then there's the part where they put the entire kingdom under a sleep spell so that the king doesn't find out about Aurora.

*** Also note the spells they throw after Maleficient's raven turned it into [[Taken for Granite]]. Given Maleficients reaction when seeing this, it's not reversible...

** While the previous games had gone with the sorceress description, [[Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep]] rightfully lists her as a fairy.

** Note that said fairy was disguised as a poor old woman in the dead of winter. The prince's lack of hospitality and compassion would have been a death sentence if she'd been what she appeared to be. Her punishment was designed to correct his character flaws, never mind that his staff didn't deserve it, or that the prince was so young.

*** It's been mentioned by the staff that it was also their fault that the prince turned out the way he did.

 

== [[Film--Live Action]] ==

** Not to mention [[Magnificent Bastard|Jareth himself]] and his Goblins; the film is essentially a changeling tale.

** And the Fieries. They're playful rather than evil, but they have unfortunate gaps in their understanding of human physiology...

** Also the brownie that screws up the marks Sarah's using to get through the maze. Of course, from his perspective, she's defacing his flagstones.

** Brian Froud (mentioned below) did much of the concept art for the movie. His son Toby plays Toby from the movie.

* ''[[Hellboy II]]: The Golden Army'', also directed by del Toro, features an [[Evil Albino]] elven prince and a whole host of creepy fey creatures, including Tooth Fairies, carnivorous, insect-like things whose swarms can devour a person whole... starting with their teeth, of course. [[Informed Ability|Supposedly, but in the actual movie]] they eat everything but the teeth, and save those for later.

** It should be noted though that only the prince [[Our Elves Are Better|elf]] and his troll partner were outright evil. Other [[All Trolls Are Different|trolls]] were benevolent enough, albeit belligerent, and the ''[[Our Goblins Are Different|goblin]]'' was the nicest of them all. The tooth fairies, well those weren't really sapient, and thus neither good, nor bad.

** The goblin also fits this trope, since he's nice enough that you forget he's the one [[Offstage Villainy|who came up with]] the idea of building the army. He demands a classic fairy-tale price from the heroes, at the potential cost of Hellboy's life.

** It's established that the Elves in ''Hellboy II'' are the direct descendants of the Sidhe and/or Tuatha de Danaan, who were forced to abandon their magical underground realm of Bethmora after a failed attempt to [[Kill All Humans|exterminate]] the human race [[Fantastic Aesop|backfired]]. Prince Nuada is portrayed as a [[Necessarily Evil]] [[Anti-Villain]], and the rest seem nice enough, given that they're living in an enchanted ''factory'' slated for re-development.

** When they're stuck in a cell in Darkness' stronghold, Gump is unable to pick the lock because it's made of iron. "Iron is trouble for fairies."

* ''[[Ella Enchanted]]'' has Ella's Fairy Godmother as an arrogant, short-tempered (and not-too-bright) twerp, who spends most of her time at parties, and refuses to hear that her gifts might not be appreciated, no matter how serious the side-effects are.

** Only in the movie, where Lucinda is Ella's godmother and Mandy is a house-fairy. In the book, Mandy is Ella's godmother, and is a [[Cool Old Lady]].

* [[Narm|In a really, really stupid way]] the eponymous creature from the ''Leprechaun'' slasher film series could be considered one of these.

** The ''Rumplestiltskin'' movie from about the same time is pretty much in the same vein.

* ''[[Were the World Mine]]'', a musical adaptation of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', about an outcast gay kid cast as Puck in the school play who ends up {{spoiler|making a magic flower and causing people to fall in love with people of their own gender, essentially becoming Puck}}, often in musical sequences that are vague about whether it's a fantasy or not. The English/drama teacher, as well, is {{spoiler|implied to be a fairy, complete with magic that makes the townspeople bend to her will. Granted, this is to give Puck/Timothy a chance to fix everything, but it's still not quite right from a human perspective}}. Overall, the fairies depicted are very sympathetic, but there is definite selfishness and laughing at the trouble being caused to mundane people going on.

* Del Toro does it again with [[Don't Be Afraid of the Dark]]. No wings or sparkles here, the creatures [[All There in the Manual|(officially known as Homonculi)]] look more like [[Our Monsters Are Weird|evil hunchbacked lemurs.]]

 

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In ''[[The Once and Future King]]'', the Faeries appear, led by Morgan Le Fay. While it was an [[Unbuilt Trope]] at the time the book was written, the Faeries are much more the alien and malicious type. Although [[It Makes Sense in Context|Robin Hood and Maid Marien]] argue whether they are Faeries or not.

** ''[http://www.ghostbox.co.uk/boxes/the_white_people.pdf The White People]'' is the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|transcription]] of a young girl's diary mentioning the strange advices of [[Evil Mentor|her nurse]], encounters with "nymphs", mysterious ceremonies and [[Campbell Country|ancient roman ruins]].

* Certainly, [[Brian Froud]] belongs at the top here. Modern audiences must have had a shock when his collaboration with Alan Lee, ''[[Faeries]],'' hit the shelves. It was one of the first books to include as many scary Fairy stories as nice stories. Froud has vocally emphasized that, while there are indeed evil Fairies and good Fairies in mythology, the vast majority of them are neutral. He actually apologizes, in the introduction, for the self-contradictory title of his follow-up book, ''Bad Faeries/Good Faeries''.

* The Moorfolk in ''[[The Moorchild]]'' fit the description to a T. They've an aversion to holy water, Rowan wood, St. John's Wort and other yellow flowers, iron (in the setting, ALL iron is Cold Iron), and salt. They kidnap children and replace them with their injured, elderly, and misbegotten (the protagonist herself is a changeling left in place of a human child for being half-human), they play pranks and steal from mortals constantly, and while life in the Mound is happy and carefree, they have no concept of love, hate, or empathy.

* [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''The Queen of Air and Darkness'' riffs on this trope by having telepathic aliens on a frontier world use the legends of Faerie against the human settlers, right down to kidnapping children to use as changeling warriors.

*** One of his story inverts much of this trope: an iron-allergic member of the Fair Folk pretends to be an alien emissary to infiltrate and destroy the Real Alien Multi-Species Conspiracy who have infiltrated and are abusing human society - using a nonferrous spaceship barely able to make orbit as his Alien bona fides. Oberon et al. show up on the last two pages.

* Although [[Peter Pan|Tinkerbell]] is often included as one example -- if not ''the'' exemplar -- of modernized, sanitized, Bowdlerized, Disneyfied fairies, she was mischievous and rather possessive of Peter, to the point that she was perfectly willing to casually engineer the death of a perceived rival, even in [[Disney Animated Canon|Uncle Walt's rendition]].

** J.M. Barrie's book explains that the fairies are too small to contain more than one emotion at a time, so when Tinkerbell gets jealous of Wendy, it utterly consumes her being. Note that Peter himself in the novel is great example of this trope -- re-reading it as an adult, the Pan comes off as a sociopath, due to his being raised by Fairies. He can't remember who Wendy and the boys are from day to day, in battles between the Lost Boys and the Pirates he'll switch sides and kill (yes, kill) Lost Boys to make things more entertaining, and is pretty unsympathetic and selfish--almost a male [[Haruhi Suzumiya]]. His character has suffered far more [[Bowdlerize|bowdlerization]] in adaptation than Tink's.

** Played totally straight with both Peter and the inhabitants of Avalon in Brom's adaptation of the Peter Pan story, ''The Child Thief''. Only [[All Trolls Are Different|Tanngnost the troll]] comes off at all sympathetically.

* ''[[The Spiderwick Chronicles]]'' (by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi) feature a number of fae creatures, along with the ways to deal with them and/or protect oneself from them. Spiderwick's daughter, in her unknowing youth, accepted food from the fae {{spoiler|and as a result has no desire to eat human food...she would starve to death if the tiny faeries didn't bring her food regularly}}.

** Interestingly the Unseelie court is shown to work to the benefit of humanity: as the sacrifice every seven years binds all unaffiliated fairies in Unseelie territory to the Unseelie Queen's rule, it means she can control the Free fae and stop Kelpies and Redcaps and the like murdering people on a daily basis just because they feel like it. One Kelpie specifically says "We, who are not the rulers, we must obey those that are. Mortals are a treat for the Gentry, and not for the likes of you and me. Unless, of course, they are willing."

* The fae in [[Jim Butcher]]'s ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' are like this. They're split into the Summer (Seelie) and Winter (Unseelie) Courts, ruled over by Queens Titania and Mab respectively. Summer is generally more benevolent, while Winter is more malicious. They're obsessed with obligations-- everything, from food and drink to information, has to be traded for, and there is no going back on a deal with the Fae. Accepting gifts from the Fae is a very bad idea, as it basically means your are in undefined debt to them, and giving them a gift is seen as a horrible insult. They are very vulnerable to anything with iron in it, and see its use as incredibly cruel. They [[Can Not Tell a Lie]], but that's ''far'' from saying they're truthful; very careful attention needs to be paid to [[Exact Words]] when dealing with the fae, since they love [[Loophole Abuse]]. <ref>Changelings also exist, as the children of human-fae pairings: they look human until puberty, when they start developing characteristics similar to their fae side, and eventually have to choose to be a faerie or human.</ref>

** Even the Summer Fae have a [[Blue and Orange Morality|rather alien outlook]] on things like morality. Aurora thought it was a good idea to {{spoiler|let the Courts destroy one another for the sake of breaking the balance between them, despite the massive destruction and death this would cause, because it would mean the end of fairy meddling in mortal lives forever}}. Titania has no problem {{spoiler|ordering her soldiers to destroy Dresden even while she is technically indebted to him, purely for the sake of preventing Dresden from saving Marcone on Mab's instructions; from Titania's perspective, if Mab wants Marcone saved, she wants him not to be saved (although there is also the fact that she has little enough love for Dresden in the first place since he killed her daughter, even though she was trying to destroy the Sidhe)}}. The best way to sum up the Summer morality is that while it can ''include'' kindness, it is by no means defined by it.

'''Jace''': Look, it's easy to outsmart a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]] or [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]]. They're no smarter than anyone else. But faeries live for hundreds of years and they're as cunning as snakes. They [[Can Not Tell a Lie|can't lie]], but they love to engage in creative truth-telling. They'll find out whatever it is you want most in the world and give it to you -- with a sting in the tail of the gift that will make you regret you ever wanted it in the first place. They're not about helping people. More harm disguised as help. }}

* The Fairy Servants in ''[[Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell]]'', particularly "The Gentleman With Thistledown Hair." A footnote in the book explains that there are two faculties in both men and fairies: a faculty of reason and a faculty of magic. Men possess a greater share of reason than magic, and the fairies are the exact opposite. The book also describes the three classes of supernatural beings -- angels, demons and fairies -- as being "[[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|eternally good]]", "[[Always Chaotic Evil|infernally wicked]]" and "[[This Guy Seems Legit|morally suspect]]" in that order.

* [[The Fair Folk]] in ''[[The Bitterbynde]]'' trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thornton for the most part are masters of gramarye ([[Functional Magic]]), beautiful, arrogant, and cruel. Several Faeran characters appeal to the idea that their moral code is merely different to that of mortals, and that they cannot be considered evil. It's not entirely convincing when you hear tales of their awful retribution for meaningless and unmeant "crimes" perpetrated by mortals.

** In a twist to this portrayal of the Fair Folk, (the following is a HUGE spoiler, so don't read this if you wish to enjoy the books) {{spoiler|the main character falls in love with the Faeran High King, who is anything but cruel, yet still adheres to the "Our morals are different" mantra when the mortal maiden questions the actions of his kindred}}.

** There are other magical beings in the books, collectively called Wights. These fall into the Seelie (benevolent to mankind) and Unseelie (malevolent to mankind) categories, but the Faeran have no such distinction.

* [[The Fair Folk]] in Tom Deitz's ''Tales of David Sullivan'' are completely unable to comprehend human morality. They have a very strict code of honor, and show signs of honest affection for others, but they are truly immortal -- if they are killed, they simply come back. They fight wars out of sheer boredom. This leaves them without any understanding of human death, and thus extremely careless of consequences. They also have very little sense of human social mores: to start with, one of the secondary characters has sex with a selkie, both in humanoid forms and in seal forms. They are very clearly the old gods of Ireland, with all the capriciousness one would expect from having read any Irish [[Mythology]] at all.

* The Others in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' are a cross between elves, vampires, and cold elementals. The children of the forest are a diminutive, woodland folk with great power. Although they warred with mankind, they eventually made peace, then dwindled away as civilization swept through the continent.

* [[Tad Williams]] seems to like this one, as he uses variants on it in several of his works:

** In ''[[The War of the Flowers]]'', "fairy" can be used to describe any intelligent inhabitant of the [[Magical Land]] the protagonist gets stuck in, but specifically refers to the humanoid aristocracy, who are ([[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|almost]]) always [[Aristocrats Are Evil|evil]].

** Largely subverted in ''[[Shadowmarch]]''; the Qar (fairy) races are alien and hostile to humans, but on the whole are no more or less prone to evil than mortals, and the real villains are the mortal [[Evil Overlord]] {{spoiler|and the [[Trickster Archetype]] god who's manipulating him}}. [[Lady of War|Lady]] [[Dark Action Girl|Yasammez]], the most overtly menacing and hostile of the Qar, actually {{spoiler|ends up making a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}.

* The [[Alternate Universe]] version of Tir Gwyngelli in [[Teresa Edgerton]]'s ''[[Celydonn|The Grail and the Ring]]'' is [[Fairyland]] - the version of Tir Gwyngelli popular in many travellers' tales.

* The ''[[Merry Gentry]]'' books by Laurel K. Hamilton is one of the most comprehensive list of faerie mythologies, in between the sex scenes. Both modernizing and explaining in detail a version of the Seelie and Unseelie courts of the sidhe, which are essentially depicted as elemental beings given flesh, or elves (though the idea of their pointed ears is supposedly only true of mixed breeds). Though in Hamilton's world the Sidhe are the ruling race of faerie, there are plenty of brownies, goblins, pixies, and so on. Despite their names, both courts of faerie are shown as having their good sides and bad... namely that while the Seelie sidhe are much more civilized and friendly, they're basically completely preoccupied with appearances and willingly embracing pretty lies to cover ugly truths, and while the Unseelie sidhe are more comfortable with flagrant sex and torture, they're also more accepting of people or creatures regardless of looks or species, having an official open-door policy for all of Faerie kind. Overall the world of Faerie is expressed as one that's neither good nor bad, but simply primal, from the slaugh ("The nightmares of Faerie kind") to the sidhe.

* [[John Keats]]' ''La Belle Dame Sans Merci''.

* [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''Puck of Pook's Hill'' is more pleasant than most. Still, [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] features.

{{quote| ''Can you wonder that the People of the Hills don't care to be confused with that painty-winged, wand-waving, sugar-and-shake-your-head set of impostors? Butterfly wings, indeed! I've seen Sir Huon and a troop of his people setting off from Tintagel Castle for Hy-Brasil in the teeth of a sou'-westerly gale, with the spray flying all over the Castle, and the Horses of the Hills wild with fright. Out they'd go in a lull, screaming like gulls, and back they'd be driven five good miles inland before they could come head to wind again. Butterfly-wings! It was Magic - Magic as black as Merlin could make it, and the whole sea was green fire and white foam with singing [[Our Mermaids Are Different|mermaids]] in it. And the Horses of the Hills picked their way from one wave to another by the lightning flashes! That was how it was in the old days!''}}

** ''Here Abide Monsters''. A [[Speculative Fiction]] novel including flying saucers. Nevertheless, the people of Avalon - the [[Alternate Universe]] into which the protagonists stumble via a [[Cool Gate]] - are [[The Fair Folk]].

** In the short story "The Long Night of Waiting", Lizzie's description of the people in the [[Alternate Universe]] in which she and her brother were trapped clearly indicates [[The Fair Folk]], although they seem well-intentioned. Note that "Lizzie" is also the name of one of the girls in Christina Rossetti's ''[[Goblin Market]]''.

** However, while they are powerful and cruel, they tend to be thick and unable to learn, and aside from the Queen and select Lords (and even they tend to be highly unimaginative), seem to be almost incapable of forming much original thought.

{{quote| '''Granny Weatherwax''': You call yourself some kind of goddess and you know nothing, madam, nothing. What don't die can't live. What don't live can't change. What don't change can't learn. The smallest creature that dies in the grass knows more than you. You're right. I'm older. You've lived longer than me but I'm older than you. And better'n you. And, madam, that ain't hard.}}

*** She also gives an interesting twist to why Sidhe lifestyles are so extravagant and decadent; they are completely incapable of ''creating'' anything of their own, instead having to "ken" or copy what they see and assimilate it into their own culture, likely using what they steal to amuse themselves and build an illusion of a glamorous life. [[Do Not Taunt Cthulhu|Don't point out from where they stole their Hammer Horror-style castle throne room design from, though;]] they get a touch sensitive about being reminded of their [[Digital Piracy Is Evil|attempted creative infringement]].

** Lackey also touched on this trope in an episode from the first ''Bardic Voices'' book, where Rune has to rescue her Bardic Master/love interest from an Elven king. She succeeds (luckily Elves are vulnerable to music) and forces the king to promise not to come after them or use magic or weapons against them. Sadly Rune isn't quite [[Genre Savvy]] enough; the enraged king ends up sending a huge-ass thunderstorm (weather being [[Literal Genie|neither magical nor strictly a weapon]]) after them.

** What makes it even worse is that they're at least partially the direct ancestors of humanity. And the ostensibly "human" Mercy Rosmar, due to the high quota of Tanu genes, is a thorough ball-busting bitch.

* The ''[[Mercy Thompson]]'' novels make this very clear in the third book, which features a kelpie that tries to eat Mercy. Not to mention the Grey Lords who consider killing Mercy for poking into their affairs, and only back off {{spoiler|when they learn that killing Mercy would anger the Marrok and start a war with the werewolves}}.

* The third book in Kate Thompson's [[Switchers]] series, ''Wild Blood'', features fairies like these. As the series was intended for children, the fairies aren't ''too'' malicious, but there are threats of violence towards the main characters (also children).

* [[Gene Wolfe]]'s ''No Planets Strike'' has the Beautiful Ones of the [[Recycled in Space|planet Sidhe]], who allow unlimited immigration in (supplemented by luring sailors off trading spaceships) but won't allow anyone to leave once there, kill those who try, and horrifically torture those who otherwise run afoul of them.

* They featured heavily in [[Chivalric Romance]]. Such as ''Sir Orfeo'', which starts with the king of Fairy kidnapping Orfeo's wife -- although when Orfeo gets a promise out of him, he does [[I Gave My Word|keep it]]. They are particularly likely in the earlier ones. Such as Morgan Le Fay (Le Fay = the Fairy, don't forget), who really was one of the Fair Folk in the oldest romances. The Lady Of the Lake was also a fairy who mutated into an enchantress. Still, they never quite left; the late romance ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' features the Green Knight who is overtly one of the Fair Folk.

* The ''[[Warlock of Gramaraye|Warlock]]'' series by Christopher Stasheff has Fairies who are shaped from Gramarye's native fungus by the unconscious telepathy of the human inhabitants, more-or-less based directly on Medieval English fairly tales and Shakespeare, and even Puck and the [[Half-Human Hybrid]] Brom, allies of the protagonist, can show a ''very'' dark side at times. The first meetings each had with Rod [[Defeat Means Friendship|nearly cost him his life]]. The other Wee Folk only help out on occasion because {{spoiler|Gwen and her kids have Fairy blood}}. They also have an inconsistent relationship with iron.

** The Wee Folk of Gramarye also have to be placated; everyone who leaves out milk at night and avoids putting Cold Iron outside their house will be left alone. Those who don't... well, they go through a lot of milk on Gramarye.

* In [[John Ringo]]'s ''[[Council Wars]]'' series Elves, who are actually a product of genetic engineering are portrayed as holding themselves apart from humanity, including the eponymous wars except for one who is shown as good if mischievous and she's a different subspecies from the others. It's often hinted that the origin of Elves might be even older than thought and outright said that it's a good thing they hold themselves aloof, because if they ever chose to interfere in human affairs we wouldn't have a chance.

** To clear up the ''Beldam'' confusion: it appears this word originally signified "an old woman, generally an ugly one". However this word seems to have mutated to, quoting [[The Other Wiki]], "an old woman or creature, particularly an ugly one, believed to be evil and who enjoys child abuse. They are also considered a form of witch that specialize in causing resentment and white lies to give people false impressions like in prophecies or in people's minds." A rather accurate portrait of The Other Mother. Not much to do with faeries, however her hunting methods are reminiscent of those often used by [[The Fair Folk]].

** One of said victims appears to be a nicer sort of fairy -- this is only revealed toward the end in the original novel, but due to the necessity of actually portraying them visually, shows up sooner in the Graphic Novel, and was dropped for the film version.

* [[Charlaine Harris]] in her ''[[The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries]]'' series would have it both ways with Claudine and Claude. The former aspires to be an angel and tries to do good whilst the latter is amoral at best but both chose to live amongst humans. Then there is Niall Brigant, {{spoiler|the grandfather to the two and Sookie Stackhouse's great-grandfather}}, a fairy prince who has a benign but distant regard for humanity yet sees the benefits of tapping into human industries. Others of their kind have a distinct hatred for humanity and all that it represents. This tension over human contact {{spoiler|and interbreeding leads to a civil war and some use mankind as its fodder}}.

** Don't forget the fairies that {{spoiler|drowned Sookie's parents}} and later {{spoiler|kidnapped and tortured Sookie by cutting her up and biting off chunks of her flesh. Yeesh.}}

* A book called ''The Changeling'' deals with this, and with an outcast of their own kind.

* Melissa Marr's ''Faerie Court'' series is made of this trope; her faeries are divided into four courts: Winter, Summer, Dark, and High (with the occasional solitary fae moving freely among the courts). Each court has defining characteristics, but the fae themselves are very much individual people with distinct personalities. Most, to some degree, view humans as inferior; the extent of this can vary, with some seeing them as wayward children and others as expendable playthings.

* Juliet Marillier's ''[[The Sevenwaters Trilogy|Sevenwaters Trilogy]]'' features Fair Folk based on the ancient legends, and far from cuddly.

* Carrie Vaughn's ''[[Kitty Norville]]'' series has a brief appearance by a ''sidhe''. Most of the time he looks like {{spoiler|an evangelist}}, but when the main characters work out some kind of "true seeing" charm, he looks more [[The Greys]]. He had apparently been imprisoning and feeding on the psychic energy of ''vampires and werewolves'', and one reasonably knowledgeable character seemed to think of him as an [[Eldritch Abomination]].

*** And then there's the Cthaeh who is omniscient and always tell the truth. Problem is it enjoys telling the truth that will hurt the listener the most (it's omniscient so it already knows all of the listener's reactions to anything it says) and cause grand-scale disasters.

* [[Terry Brooks]]' ''[[Magic Kingdom of Landover]]'' series runs the gamut from the fairies of the mists, who, while more or less benevolent, are also [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]], to the fairies who actually live within the Kingdom itself, who in turn range from Willow's mother, a wild, basically amoral free spirit, to Willow's father, who is sort of lawful goodish with serious [[Jerkass]] tendencies, to Willow herself, who is clearly good and benevolent. Oh, and then there's [[Big Bad|Nightshade]].

* ''The Stolen Child'' is founded in the myth of the changeling found in European folklore (wherein the Fair Folk/fairies/hobgoblins/sidhe steal a human child and replace it with one of their own). The fairies/hobgoblins of ''The Stolen Child'' are not evil, per se, but they are wild and uncivilized creatures, given to theft, vandalism, all manner of mischief, and of course stealing human children.

* David Brin's [http://www.davidbrin.com/thoseeyes.htm Those Eyes] has faeries as 'aliens' who do traditional mischievous faerie and cow-mutilating alien things. {{spoiler|Who are being driven to extinction by humans being more skeptical, seeing through their glamour}}.

* Kiersten White's [[Paranormalcy]] plays this trope pretty straight. The Seelie Courts are the 'good' ones and the Unseelie are the 'bad' ones and they are all weak to iron and some extent silver... and get drunk on soft drinks. Neither side can resist a [[I Know Your True Name|'Named Command']] but both [[Exact Words|twist]] [[Literal Genie|the]] [[Jackass Genie|words]] [[Loophole Abuse|of]] the command into something they like and don't obey the same laws as humans ([[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|"physical, social, emotional, traffic"]]) and only work towards their own designs. The only difference between the two appears to be that the Unseelie will kill people for no reason, while the Seelie have some sort of [[Disproportionate Retribution|justification]]: however neither side appears to have any problem with {{spoiler|creating prophecies that predict the death of tens of paranormals (possible all of them) and creatures (Evie and Vivian) to carry out these prophecies and steal souls JUST TO SEE WHO WINS}}! Don't worry if you have trouble telling the difference between them, Evie thought {{spoiler|her ex-boyfriend Reth}} was Unseelie. It's a very understandable given that {{spoiler|he manipulated her, stalked her, kidnapped her, burnt her arm, stalked her some more, let a serial killer into the IPCA where it killed her best friend, held her new boyfriend hostage so he could get a new name, kidnapped her again}}, and then explained, vaguely, what was going on. And even he thinks the [[Complete Monster|Unseelie are horrible]].

* The Aelfinn & Eelfinn (Snakes & Foxes) of [[The Wheel of Time]] are very much the (unnamed as such) Fair Folk, complete with otherworldliness and Seelie & Unseelie division.

* Goblins are one of [[Clifford Simak]]'s [[Creator Thumbprint|Creator Thumbprints]]. They may be from parallel dimensions, they may be creatures of magic, they may be alien colonists. They may enter our folklore if we contacted them in the past. The only thing that's sure is that they are just alien. And we shoulnd't really try to understand them, we can't.

* Where to even BEGIN with how thoroughly this trope is used by Paul Kidd in his novelization "Descent Into The Depths Of The Earth". Faeries are ancient, powerful, decadent, insular, isolationist, supremacist, given to truly byzantine machinations to get what they want, and most of them think PHYSICAL REALITY is beneath them.

* Surprisingly for a kid's book, many of the denizens of the Wildworld in [[Lisa Jane Smith]] 's ''The Night of the Solstice'' fit this to a T.

* The fairies in ''Poison'' fit this perfectly. The whole plot is set in motion by one of them kidnapping the heroine's sister.

* A mostly benign version appears in Lloyd Alexander's ''[[Chronicles of Prydain]]''.

* Dennis L. McKiernan likes to demonstrate his [[Shown Their Work|knowledge]] of fairy lore in his Mithgar series as well as his Faery series.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** ...And that was the one who hadn't technically done anything. She seems to have only been transformed because of her father's crime.

** The Sidhe reappear in series three: {{spoiler|they possess a baby princess then wait around till she grows up and they can manipulate things so she'll marry Arthur. The implication is that at some point Princess Elena will be completely consumed by the Sidhe.}}

* The Eleventh Doctor from [[Doctor Who]], acts a lot like an elf (especially when he's being written by anybody other than Steven Moffat). Villains are scared of him. So is he.

** By extension, all the Time Lords can be considered this.

* The Black Lodge people from ''[[Twin Peaks]]''.

* The Fairies in their true form on ''[[True Blood]]''.

* [[Emilie Autumn]]'s story included in the re-release of her first album, Enchant, is about one of the fair folk falling in love with a human. And the resulting mess.

* [[Inkubus Sukkubus]]' song "Away with the faeries", and potentially a good deal of their other songs as well.

* Three Weird Sisters' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zv_gNtnj9E ''Song of Fey Cross''] portrays a typical Gaelic style faerie mound legend.

* [[The Pogues]] ''Sit Down by The Fire''

{{quote| And if you ever see them<br />

== Poems/Ballads ==

* ''The Stolen Child'', by [[William Butler Yeats]], is about a child lead away by the fairies. While they might be doing him a favor, as it's implied that he's unhappy (although he might just be overwhelmed by the misery around him), they show no sign of telling his parents or family that he's alright.

* A topical complement (and historically the inspiration) to ''Erlkönig'' is ''Herr Oluf'' (alternately titled ''Erlkönig's Daughter''), another German ballad inspired by Danish folklore, by Goethe's contemporary Johann Herder. A young bridegroom is riding around to invite the guests for his wedding the other day, when he meets the elves. The Elf-Queen asks him to dance with her. When he adamantly refuses, she curses him with a sickness. Next morning, [[Disproportionate Retribution|he's dead.]]

* While the William Allinghan's famous poem, ''The Fairy Folk'' gives them a rather cutesy description, they're still creatures to be feared:

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** Well, not always. Quite a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|fair]] amount of them have moved into Creation, losing the "shapeless" part. God help you if you find one of [[Cosmic Horror|the]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Unshaped...]]. There's a certain pathos to these; they're still scary monsters from the perspective of Creation, but to themselves they're magnificent nobility stranded on the edges of an alien world who cannot return home (since scarier things await them...)

** It is explained later that the True Fae need conflict to prevent themselves fading away into the random background chaos of Arcadia. As a result, [[Foe Yay|the closest thing they have to friends among other Fae are their sworn enemies, as by fighting they're keeping each other alive]]. They can also be inanimate objects (Props), legions of lesser beings (Wisp), and entire self-enclosed universes (Realms) in addition to their normal forms (Actors). With enough Titles, they can do the aforementioned simultaneously!

** White Wolf also published ''Dark Ages: Fae'' which is "officially" considered to be a prequel to [[Changeling: The Dreaming]], but is so radically different it can also be run as a full [[Alternate Universe]]. In it fairies are divided into The Firstborn; who are true fae without need for that pesky mortal shell. Inanimae; beings whose bodies are based on natural elements, as well as artificial constructs. And Changelings; who in this setting are different from both the above. Being human children spirted away and raised as faeries, faerie children raised in the human world, or true [[Half Human Hybrids]]. The fae are divided into 5 courts based around their preferred powers and attitude towards humans. All four of the primary courts, the fifth simply being the neutral group, quite easily come across as this trope. It's been remarked that the difference between good and evil faeries isn't over whether they ''should'' rule over humans, but rather how they should go about it. The Spring Court wants to learn about "modern" humanity and use that knowledge to revive the fear and reverence that they once received. The Summer are the harsh traditionalists, and intend to punish humans for breaking their ancient, and forgotten, oaths, and restore the old order. The Autumn Court, like the spring, wish to learn more about humans and work with them, however rather then outright respect they wish to manipulate the course of history from behind the scenes. Finally is the Winter Court, which isn't actually [[Always Chaotic Evil]], but they do their best to appear so to humanity. The fact that characters tend to have very alien and unique systems of morality is one of the games major themes.

** Flavor text for the original Alpha Llanowar Elves: "One bone broken for every twig snapped under foot." Pretty brutal for 1/1 druids that give you green mana.

** There are also Faeries in the Lorwyn setting; they're mostly mischievous and disrupting, if not outright evil. Though they went from being simply mischievous in Lorwyn/Morningtide to being outright evil in Shadowmoor/Eventide. The [[Big Bad]] for that block was {{spoiler|Oona, Queen of the Fae}}. And [[Game Breaker|exceptionally overpowered]].

** This isn't altogether limited to Lorwyn, although the 'fairytale' nature of the setting certainly emphasized the various creatures' relevant traits. It's pretty much canon that the elves of Llanowar on the 'default' plane of Dominaria consider the life of a tree more important than that of a human, and while Magic's faeries may be the small winged pixie type in general, well, see the flavor text on [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=171 Scryb Sprites] if you think they're in any way, shape, or form harmless.

** In most Magic sets, Elf creatures are very Tolkien-sian. A bit more xenophobic, but Tolkien's elves could be pretty xenophobic to anyone who wasn't the [[Chosen One]] too. They're still basically creatures of order and "live and let live", as shown by the fact that (until the Lorwyn block) the color of mana they are most likely to use, after green, is white. Lorwyn, though, is consciously based on faerie tales, so the predatory, capricious and aristocratic aspects of [[The Fair Folk]] got emphasized, and for the duration of the block elves were black secondarily to green instead of white. A tribe switching colors is rare, and switching to a rival color like that is almost unheard of.

** While elves are often described as being close to nature and the fey, they are still typed as humanoids; fey has its own type, and includes a very wide array of very strange creatures. In 4E, you may notice that there's not a single good-aligned fey among them...

** 4e consolidates previous editions' elves into three main groups: the Eladrin (4e's High/Sun/Moon/Star elves), Elves (4e's vanilla/Wood/Wild elves), and Drow (the same ol' dark elves). The Eladrin were given the fey-subtype and elevated to the position of masters of the Feywild (4e's Faerie). The Seelie and Unseelie courts can be found in The Manual of the Planes supplement as the Summer and Winter courts respectively, as well as several other courts.

** 4E has the Primordials, who combine this trope with [[Cosmic Horror]], especially [[Eldritch Abomination]]. Besides being responsible for the creation of the ''world'', they would like nothing more than to return it to chaotic mush. Why? No reason, other than being the various embodiments of [[Elemental Powers]] who can't fathom why the [[Physical God|Physical Gods]] wish a constant in the universe.

** ''[[Birthright]]'' had splitting of [[Dark World|Shadow World]] and the "normal" world, which also ripped all but one original Sie in two -- a Sidhe (elf) attuned to (and immortal in) the normal world, able to use wizardry and a Seelie attuned to (and immortal in) the Shadow World, able to use natural magic (druidism) and [[Glamour|Seeming]]. Now when an elf is born on Cerilia, a faerie just "appears" on the other side. So far no one managed to find two counterparts and bring the pair together to see what happens. Though [[Glamour]] isn't exclusive, they are much better at it than most other Shadow critters.

* The Elves of Ios in the ''[[Iron Kingdoms]]'' are xenophobic isolationists who have [[Hidden Elf Village|closed off their nation's borders to outsiders]]. Of the few Elves that do leave their homeland, a fair proportion are assassins who have dedicated their lives to hunting down and killing human wizards and [[Magitek|mechanika]]-users. They do this because they believe that human arcane magic and mechanika are draining the life from their last remaining [[Physical God]], thereby dooming the Elven race to extinction; whether or not this is actually the case has never been conclusively addressed.

** To say nothing of the Nyssian Elves, who are enslaved body and mind to a [[Cosmic Horror]].

** The Wood Elves in ''Warhammer Fantasy'' well qualify: they are extremely xenophobic and generally act more like a force of nature than a civilized people. This is especially true with their king, Orion the Hunter, who every spring [[The Wild Hunt|goes on a rampage around the woods and nearby area]] with a host of spirits and wild hunters.

* The Fae are... generally decent in ''[[Scion]]'' (at least the Irish ones). But they have their rules, and if you break them, it's your ''ass''. The Erl-king (mentioned above) shows up as well, and is a fairly powerful, nasty sort.

** Although the Code does specifically prohibit dealings with the Infernal, it's usually because there's just no way to win against Demons and that kind of thing breeds diabolism (and ends up being what got House Tytalus in trouble). But they tell you ''do not molest the Fae'' because although they ''can'' be dealt with fairly and can even have good relationships with other denizens of Mythic Europe (as House Merinita can attest), ''they do not forget being slighted, ever'', and they ''will'' carry grudges, and they have ''very'' creative ways of expressing them. The (usually high-point-value) Flaw "Faerie Enmity" can be taken without actually providing a specific reason: your ''great-great-grandfather'' you never even met might've offended some faerie at some point and that's the only reason they need.

* In the history of the game [[Fairy Meat]] humans at one point existed (and still may, but they aren't relevant any more) and were taunted by the Fae, but that time has long since passed. Now all fairies are more busy trying to rip each other apart so they can [[I'm a Humanitarian|have some lunch]].

 

== Theater ==

** One interpretation of Puck's speech at the end of the play is that Shakespeare is actually telling people not to fear the faeries. This ties in to his portrayal of the faeries as mostly benevolent and this was relevant to the Elizabethans because they really did fear [[The Fair Folk]].

* Another aversion by Shakespeare is Mercutio's speech in [[Romeo and Juliet]]. In it he talks about how Queen Mab flies around at night giving people happy dreams, but also sometimes causes mischief and nightmares but these are no worse than minor tricks.

* The Elves of ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' have a bit of this trope, seeing how they [[I'm a Humanitarian|eat people]] and don't consider this to be in any way reprehensible, while considering lying as bad as murder. It doesn't help that they will [[Disproportionate Retribution|besiege you if you cut down too many trees and then proceed to devour your flesh]]. Since the game perspective in Fortress Mode is [[Elves Versus Dwarves|from the dwarves]], though, they tend to be seen more as annoying than terrifying. <br /><br />A more fitting example are the Night Creatures, who resemble the more ogrish and monstrous kinds of Unseelie fairies. Occasional marauders who live in caves, they kidnap mortal spouses and corrupt them into similar beings, when they aren't simply eating their flesh. Their grotesque features are even procedurally generated, so that no two Night Creatures are alike.

* The fair folk from ''[[A Tale of Two Kingdoms]]'' are not downright malicious, but tend towards nasty pranks against humans (particularly but not limited to the player character). The powerful and beautiful fairy queen turns out to be {{spoiler|not so benevolent as she tries to permanently entrap you in the fairy world}}.

* One of the gods in the [[Roguelike]] ''Incursion'' is Maeve, Queen of the Faeries. All elves are required to worship her; this is not particularly a good thing, because she is utterly amoral and very capricious: sometimes she gives you [[Disc One Nuke|good equipment]], sometimes she surrounds you with [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies|out-of-depth monsters]].

** Possibly played straight with the Skull Kid, referred to along with the kokiri and the winged glowing ball fairies in Ocarina of Time as forest fairies or fairy folk.

** The bubble family of monsters would seem to count as well.

* Whilst Erana from ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' fame is the embodiment of all that's pure and good in the world, and like, totally fabulous as a person to boot, her fair folk friends and family are power-hungry rogues who are not above stepping on a mere mortal to get their hands on Erana's magical staff to gain more power. Doesn't help they're all high-powered mages like their cousin twice removed.

** Also played with in the first game, where the hero can be forced to dance with fairies to the point of death.

* Mostly subverted in ''[[Tears to Tiara]]'', where [[The Fair Folk]] turn out to be pretty nice people indeed. The closest one to this trope is the item shop owner Epona, who at worst is an [[Honest John]]. Her shop is even called '[[Gratuitous English|The Good Folk]]', though this is more of an allusion to mythology (it's set in Britain during the Roman invasion) than a lampshading.

* ''[[Touhou]]'''s actual fairies don't really fit beyond being mischevious; they're universally stupid and weak. On the other hand, some of the [[Youkai]] come pretty close, most obviously [[Reality Warper|Yukari]], who is beautiful, mysterious, and [[Boss Subtitles|the one behind the spiritings away]].

* The trope was briefly discussed with the Fey in ''[[Recettear]]''. The original faeries were mischievous and conniving, until they found out the hard way that [[Humans Are Bastards|humans can be just as cruel]]. Current faeries have become subservient to the humans, if only to prevent their race from becoming extinct.

* The Glomdoring commune of ''[[Lusternia]]'' traffick with fae including redcaps, barghests and slaugh. Also, their native race, Shadow Faelings, are a cross between [[The Fair Folk]] and Drow.

* The Mystics of [[Saga Frontier]] used to be this way, and the nobles who dwell in their hidden region still are. Though they have gotten a bit better, and for example [[The Wild Hunt|hunting humans for sport]] has fallen out of fashion. Lower caste mystics show the trope best, ranging in appearance from mermaids to large troll-like creatures. The higher level nobles tend to appear as beautiful humans, with the highest level, according to [[All There in the Manual]] being the [[Our Vampires Are Different|True Vampires]].

* In [[Dragon Age]] people ''think'' the Dalish Elves are this and treat them accordingly. Which is unfortunate, given as they are for the most part simply nomadic hunters who just want to be left alone.

* The Fae in ''[[Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning]]''. They are also divided into Summer and Winter; Summer representing growth and Winter representing decay, though neither is inherently good or evil. They have mixed feelings about mortals. Some of them dismiss them as short-lived "Dustlings", and others are fascinated by them because of their unique perspective on life and death. The Fae are so powerfully linked to Fate that they do not truly die -- they merely repeat their lives in an endless Great Cycle. Fae also occasionally forget that when mortals die, it's for keeps. Fateweaver Argath claims that the Fae are actually ''easier'' to understand than mortals because they usually don't change with time. The Tuatha Deohn are a horrific exception to this rule. They are a cult of Winter Fae that have changed thanks to the power of Tirnoch. As a result, they are now brutal warmongers who wish to purge the world of all mortal life.

 

{{quote| '''Thief''': Like it says in our national anthem ''Elfland, and fuck you too'', [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/11/29/episode-1065-team-up-spectacular/ "We are a race of total bastards"]}}

* In the webcomic ''[[Chasing the Sunset]]'', Pixies are not evil per se but are chaos incarnated. The kind of things you do ''not'' want in a fireworks shop.

** To add to their alien-ness, the ''City Face'' interlude shows that they [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=565 don't distinguish between lengths of distance and lengths of time].

** Penchant for mischief belongs to the ''[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=332 cute]'' part.

* A major arc of ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'' pits the [[Kid Hero]] against some of the nastiest members of [[The Fair Folk]]. In this case, fae are split up into Seleighe and Unseleighe, both of which were originally a home-built immortal [[Servant Race]], [[Zeroth Law Rebellion|supernaturally compelled to follow obscure and poorly known rules]] in addition to any promises they make. The former are suggested to be a healthy lawful neutral with a minor fondness for some mortal species, but the Unseleighe are lawful only to the letter of the law, willing to [[Kick the Dog|rip a pet bird apart or steal human children for their own entertainment]], and in the words of Quentyn's narration live to "see how evil they can be without breaking the rules". [[The Wild Hunt]] ensues, showing how dangerous they are.

** The setting also contains fairies closer to the [[Lighter and Softer|cute and friendly version]], who only interact with the material plane to drop glowing rocks in small circles, inside which living creatures occasionally hear the sounds from another dimension trickle over.

** Hell, [[Great Gazoo|they]] [[Cloudcuckoolander|are]] [[Time Dissonance|creepy]] [[Disproportionate Retribution|enough]] [[Mood Swinger|already]]. More on them [http://www.missmab.com/Demo/fae.php here].

** Max once lampshaded the "Disney" idea most Americans have of fairies. [http://www.codenamehunter.com/archive/comic/2011/11/14 "Trust me, a person would have to be desperate to go through a fey gate"]

* Used as a [http://plif.courageunfettered.com/archive/wc162.gif subversion] (of the popular version) in ''[[The Parking Lot Is Full]]''.

* Sandoval, the Xoan Ambassador from ''[[Oglaf]]''.

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* [[Phantasia]] has fairies trying to kill humans for what they've done to the planet.

* There are theories that [[The Slender Man Mythos|the Slender Man]] may or may not be an example; one of the earliest tales is that he dwells in a forest and does something with naughty children.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Oberon is consistently depicted in the series as capricious, vain and arrogant, [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|making and breaking edicts on a whim]]. Sure, he'll say his magic will never harm you and yours, and it won't... until he wants it to.

** Aside from their [[Jerkass]] leaders, the other "Children of Oberon" in the series vary greatly in personality, disposition, and form. Though they all tend to be pretty mischievous, even the ones that like humans and Gargoyles.

*** Titania, his wife, seems to be of the other type thankfully, and is more than capable of controlling her husband. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, she's the instigator for the incident with Alexander. And then also the instigator for the interference of the Gargoyles}}.

*** On the other hand, Puck {{spoiler|is Owen}}.

** Also, the April Fool in "Fools Day Out" called causing the Earth to go into an Ice Age by hitting several planets and stuff is a "prank" or "joke".

** One episode also has "Scary Fairies". A state brought on by a fairy being stuck in pitch black for too long, who compulsively desire to eat their Godkid. {{spoiler|Fortunately it's all just a practical joke on Timmy.}}

* ''[[Winx Club]]'', of all cartoons. For the greater part of the show, fairies are presented as kind and compassionate. Then, in season 4, we meet Earth fairies. Who, as soon as they're freed from their prison, they embark in a genocidal quest to exterminate mankind.

* Brian Froud's ''Fairies'' was adapted as a half hour animated special in the 1980's.

 

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