Basic Trope: Someone traps a fairy in a glass bottle, or jar.
- Straight: Bob the human traps Alice the tiny fairy in a jar.
- Exaggerated: Bob traps every fairy in a jar.
- Justified:
- Alice is actually an evil fairy, and Bob was imprisoning her for her crimes.
- Bob put Alice in the jar for her protection, so that she doesn't get eaten by frogs, or lizards.
- Alice is Bob's Fairy Companion, and that's how he transports her.
- Alice is a water-breathing fairy, and the jar is also full of water.
- Lampshaded: "Hey! I'm a fairy, not a bug! Let me out!"
- Inverted:
- Alice traps Bob in a giant jar.
- Alice the fairy swallows the jar whole, and she takes on its shape.
- Subverted:
- Bob didn't actually put Alice in a jar, and instead it was a firefly.
- Turns out Alice is in the jar by choice.
- Double Subverted: The firefly turns out to be Alice the fairy.
- Discussed: "Doesn't it seem kind of cruel to trap fairies in jars?"
- Averted: Nobody puts fairies in jars. There are no fairies.
- Parodied:
- No matter how many times Alice gets trapped in a jar, she always teleports out.
- Alice the fairy is the size of a human, and Bob still manages to stuff her into a normal-sized jar.
- Alice the human-sized fairy gets trapped in an oversized jar.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz captures fairies in jars, and sells them as exotic pets, or as slaves.
- Enforced: "What's the most comedic way to trap a fairy? Put them in a bottle, after all, they're tiny!"
- Played For Laughs: Bob stuffs a whole bunch of fairies into a glass jug.
- Played For Horror: Alice sees a bunch of her fairy friends trapped in jars and is mortified by this.