Note: For pothole examples, I removed the trope link from the pothole, put it in parentheses besides the text it was potholed to, and then made the text it originally potholed green.
- mysterious / dangerous = 8 (12%)
- fairies = 6
- non fairies = 2
- antagonistic / evil = 12 (17%)
- tricksters, manipulators, changelings = 9 (13%)
- interchangeable with "fairy" and associated creatures = 13 (19%)
- unclear = 3 (4%)
- potholes = 14 (20%)
- zce = 10 (14%)
mysterious and dangerous
Specified as fairies or elves
- Unavowed: The Fae are considered highly dangerous, infamous for trading in "favors" which those who seek them out swiftly come to regret. The Arc Villain for Wall Street is Roy Fellows, AKA Robin Goodfellow of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
- Bayonetta 3: Stained glass is used as a visual motif for fairy and related items. Post-game it's explained that fairy are reclusive denizens of the World of Chaos, hidden away on Purgatorio from everyone, with mysterious powers separate from Inferno and Paradiso. The only evidence of their existence is folklore common to all worlds.
- American Gods S3E8 "The Rapture of Burning" - Ambiguously Human: The Annual Jamboree being held at Grand Peacock Hotel in present day is organized by an organization known as the Seelie Court of America. To those unfamiliar with Scottish folklore, the Seelie Court were a collective term for the more benevolent (though no less dangerous) of The Fair Folk. It is uncertain if the attendants there (or at least some of them) are actual fairies or if this is just a Pun for the more observant viewer, but considering the Hotel is a Place of Power for a god and a Leprechaun runs the bar, the former is more likely.
- The Haunting Hour: Intruders. If there's any lesson to be learned here, it's that you do NOT piss off The Fair Folk. These aren't your usual, Tinkerbell-esque, cutesy fairies, either; these fairies are more in line with creatures like Maleficent. Turn down their offer, or even worse, come at them with Cold Iron, and they will summon whole legions of their kind to descend upon your house, perfectly willing to wipe out your family.
- Commonwealth Saga - Space Elves: The Silfen, who are almost physically identical to traditional elves and were the inspiration for elf legends (those legends were specifically of The Fair Folk and their morality proves to be alien in a somewhat similar fashion).
- The Wizard and the Lonely Princess: On a few occasions, Harry interacts with fae. Both Luna and Nightmare Moon don't know just what they are, but they can tell that there is something about them that puts the two of them on their guard.
Not Specified as a fairy / Explicitly not a fairy
- All Roses Have Thorns: The sidhe, who are mysterious, beautiful, and completely, dangerously, unpredictable. (another example on the page calls them "magical creatures")
- Channel Awesome:
A: The Guy is an abomination from a Cosmic Horror Story
B: He just has that vibe, you Know?.
C: He's got more a Fae vibe.
B: What's the difference?
C: Abominations don't usually notice the puny mortals they squish beneath their foot-equivalents. Fae recognize that you're there, but they're likely to kill you for blinking at them. In other words, the Fae would answer your questions, even in their disturbing alien mentality manner.
B: He just has that vibe, you Know?.
C: He's got more a Fae vibe.
B: What's the difference?
C: Abominations don't usually notice the puny mortals they squish beneath their foot-equivalents. Fae recognize that you're there, but they're likely to kill you for blinking at them. In other words, the Fae would answer your questions, even in their disturbing alien mentality manner.
Antagonistic, Creepy, and/or Evil
- You Sexy Beast - Wicked Lovely does this for The Fair Folk. It portrays them as dangerous, cruel, and definite users of Blue-and-Orange Morality, if not truly evil. It also portrays faeries of both genders as pretty damn hot.
- Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt Villains - Fairie Knights of the Round Table: All three of them are faeries that play antagonistic roles in the story, though compared to the average fae, that doesn't necessarily make them bad people.
- Raymond E. Feist: Feist's only other published work, is a dark Urban Fantasy, in which some of The Fair Folk harass an average American family and plot genocidal war.
- When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace: Mild example. The powers are given out by fairies who think that having humans fight each other is entertaining. But the fairies make sure there's no permanent damage.
- A Net of Dawn and Bones: One of the four main sources of power is fay magic. Mentioned in some of the side material on the author’s blog, before being referred to more closely in Seeds of Blood. Creatures that are fay are Other, and often have Master of Illusion powers. Redcaps, elves and rakshasas are examples of creatures that fall under the general umbrella of fay, as do Half-Human Hybrids and normal mortals driven insane by contact with them. Aidan admits that some of the fay on earth are okay as long as you don’t cross them. The Fay Lords on the other hand…Myrrh notes that the only real difference between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts are that they appear at different times of year and the former leave slightly prettier corpses.
- The Sea of Trolls: Elves in general, but they are capable of doing a Heel–Face Turn and gaining a soul.
- A World Of Heroes: Red Cap, an incredibly creepy girl ((The Fair Folk) who may not be human) who stalks Anima.
- Pokémon Pokédex: Morelull might be an adorable fairy mushroom, but the same cannot be said about its evolution Shiinotic, one of the most explicitly malevolent Fairy-type Pokémon in the series. Not only does it have hyphae resembling Creepy Long Fingers and a blank, staring face coupled with a rather disturbing Slasher Smile which also happens to look eerily cute, it also makes people lose their way in the woods via its luminescence, and uses its lights to put its victims to sleep, then use said hyphae to drain their strength.
- Tabletop Games - Exalted. While the various demons, undead, and The Fair Folk are usually portrayed as antagonistic (and even then, there are exceptions), the various human and Exalted factions all have plenty of good people mixed in with the villains, selfish bastards, and crazies.
- Shade, the Changing Man: A late issue 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.
- The Secret of Kells: Downplayed; she's nicer than most examples, but she's very protective of her forest and isn't above siccing her wolves on people she views as trespassers. She even threatens to set the wolves on Brendan if he doesn't leave. While Brendan refers to her as a "fairy" in the film, one of the tie-in comics confirms that she's one of the Tuatha De Danann, a race that was portrayed by Christian writers as fairies but were actually the pantheon of Ireland's pre-Christian deities.
- Steven Universe — Blue Diamond's Court: Has a very obviously fairy-like design, with her tiny stature, wings, dress and wand... and is a malicious, spiteful little brat who's willing to have Topaz murder Jamie if it means getting the Gems to cooperate with her.
Tricksters, Manipulators, Changelings who steal babies
- Questionable Consent - The Dresden Files : Anything involving The Fair Folk is almost certainly intended (the Winter Court in particular). There are only two hard-and-fast rules when dealing with fairies: any contract, verbal or otherwise, is 100% binding (and if you do not uphold your end, the other party is within their rights to come down on you like a ton of bricks, fatally if they should so desire), and there is no such thing as the spirit of the agreement, only the letter (and if you can get away with it, you can be pretty flexible with the letter as well). The conditions under which the agreements are made are completely immaterial, and many of the less benevolent fairies like to actively exploit people who are between a rock and a hard place like this.
- Shapeshifter Showdown - Exalted: When you play a Lunar and your nemesis of the day is someone from the Wyld, this is bound to happen. And the Lunars do fight The Fair Folk on regular basis.
- Truth and Consequences - Took a Level in Badass: Pretty much everyone during the timeskip - between Adrien Walking the Earth fighting evil, and Team Paris protecting the city without either of its premier heroes around, they've all grown into incredibly competent and experienced superheroes with much better grasps on the powers of their Miraculouses, so much so that Marinette feels like a rookie by comparison. Credit where it's due, though, Marinette is no slouch as she's spent the Time Skip mastering Creation's powers, and her Establishing Character Moment has her casually run-off a flesh-eating (The Fair Folk) Changeling by conjuring up an iron bar. Too bad the villains did not forget to level grind.
- The Laundry: The RPG brings faeries into the universe of cthulhoid "information entities." Like the series' demons, they're made up of information strung together through an electromagnetic field, explaining why iron messes them up so badly; similarly, it's said they appear rarely in modern Britain, given how the nation is wired to the gills. They do take children, however, and changelings are explained away as a class four Glamour placed over a poppet made of twigs and string to make it look like it's a real child. And the kids? They're turned into biological computation matrices in order to sustain a field that will keep the faerie in our world.
- Kagerou: Fae in Gray World are severely persecuted by humans, and treated as third-class citizens. Everyone thinks of them as thieves and tricksters, a stereotype the nick... plays into perfectly happily. Whoops.
- Fae Tales: (The Fair Folk) Fae being fae....or in the specific examples featured so far, a prayer heard by an underworld god, and a wish upon a falling star corrupted by a Mage's curse.
- Tabletop Games - Changeling: The Lost: While the changelings are, for the most part, sterile, other creatures in the setting can have kids with humans. Fetches, the impostors the Gentry leave behind when they take humans, can occasionally produce fetch-children (just a little bit odd) and fetch-spawn (evil incarnate). Incubi, likewise, can occasionally produce cambions, children who can see fae things and who have an innate connection to the world of dreams.
- Changeling - Changeling Tale: With society replacing fairies as the antagonist.
- Coraline: The Other Mother is no sparkling winged fairy, but she is heavily implied to be one of the Fair Folk. Her habit of luring away children to another world is reminiscent of changeling myths, and her creating the denizens of the Other World out of mundane objects like rats and pumpkins recalls the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. In addition, her weakness for games and challenges is a common trait of the faerie.
- Partially Kissed Hero: Harry, Hermione and Luna become the champions of the Fairy Queen who seeks to defeat Dumbledore and bring magic back the way it used to be. Fairy magic is “more magical than magic”, if that even makes sense.
- Maybe I'm a Lion: Áki Weisstein was kidnapped by them at a young age, but was rescued by his father not long afterwards.
seemingly used interchangeably with "fairy", "nymph", "elves", etc / Unclear
- Critical Role Marquet Villains - The Nightmare King: He is a known figure of the Feywild from what Fearne's grandmother's tales taught her, and Chetney identifies him as a such.
- The Magic Flute - Ambiguously Human: It’s not clear whether she’s a magician like Sarastro, one of The Fair Folk, or some kind of goddess.
- The Child Thief: Most of the book takes place in Faerie after all.
- Pokèmon Future Species.: An Unseelie Fae.
- The Kingdom Keepers - Half-Human Hybrid: Half human, half (The Fair Folk) fairy
- InCryptid: Many cryptids are mistaken for the faerie. In "Survival Horror", Antimony mentions that the Covenant banished Robin Goodfellow from this plane of reality, implying he was real.
- Sleeping Beauty: Don't snub them. The bad fairy seems to be a Black Sheep among a generally benign species, though.
- The Simpsons S 20 E 14 In The Name Of The Grandfather: Leprechauns appear.
- Natsume's Book Of Friends Episode 22 "The Man Amidst The Rows Of Cherry Trees": Natsume, who sees youkai every day and has a talking cat who is a giant inugami trapped in a Maneki Neko, thinks Nyanko is ridiculous for suggesting the flowers might have been left by fairies and getting a net to catch them with saying he doesn’t think imaginary creatures are to blame. Especially since The Fair Folk are traditionally described in ways that mirror descriptions of Youkai.
- Digital Storage Solutions: It is mentioned by the Troubleshooters that Fairy types think differently than normal humans and pokemon.
- SaGa Scarlet Grace: In the region of Marchiam Ria, outside the influence of the Celestials, there are rumors of faeries and even people trying to hunt them. If you play your cards right, they can teach you about Dual Wielding.
- The Unmasqued World
- The Mercy Thompson series features a world where The Fair Folk came out of the closest years ago, albeit intentionally and in a far more controlled method than the typical Broken Masquerade. It didn't end well, with religious conservatives and bigots railing against the fae and eventually creating voluntary reservations for them. (Which is actually exactly what the fae leaders wanted them to do in the first place.) After the events of the first book, the universe's werewolves decide to reveal some of their population as well, with a bit more success. Stefan the vampire anticipates the day when his people will come out of the coffin. He's working on ways for vampires to cure blood-borne diseases in order to gain some public good will and hopefully smooth over the whole "feeding on humans" bump. So far no one else has come out publicly, but with first fairies and now werewolves unmasqued, people are starting to question what else is out there.
- Grrl Power: a bit of a Zig-Zagged Trope, as the revelations about the existence of superhumans - and of the Archon unit - was a key factor in the series' first major Story Arc. On the one hand, evidence of superhumans had been documented publicly since the 1980s, though up until the 2000s most people dismissed them as hoaxes. On the other hand, few were aware of how many there were, and even ARC Light were caught off-guard by the number of villains which attacked the team after the Archon announcement. They initially tried to keep the existence of aliens a secret after this, with Dabbler using illusions to disguise herself as human, but this was quickly scuppered when an Alari refugee ship landed in the African country owned by Deus and publicly requesting assistance from the United Nations. Whether the Veil of the Supernatural (which was created by a coalition of wizards, vampires, were-folk, The Fair Folk, and other magical beings, and probably helped hide supers and aliens as well) will hold up in the face of all of this remains to be seen.
Unclear
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: They're so self-centered that if it wasn't for their powerful magic they'd quickly end up extinct. It's debatable whether the gentleman with the thistle-down hair even understood the concept that other people might have different opinions.
- Henrik Wergeland - Our Fairies Are Different: Wergeland used The Fair Folk on several occasions in his plays, usually on the good side. In one particular case, it is lampshaded that the fairies in question were in fact reincarnated birds and butterflies. They also have the power to relocate souls - in this case, the soul of a naughty boy who has to be punished for rude behavior against animals and insects. If he does not redeem himself, he will end up as one of the night elves. Hence, the fairies (night-elves) are actually the souls of departed animals, and thus closely connected to the cycles of nature.
- A Practical Guide to Evil - Seasonal Courts: Boy, howdy. They're rather more ideas and themes than they are actual personalities. Very powerful, very extreme ideas.
Potholes that don't provide enough characterization info
- Unwinnable by Design - The Wheel of Time has "Snakes and Foxes", played with dice and tokens on a simple board. Kids grow out of it once they realize they can only escape the titular creatures and win by cheating. The game turns out to explain how to deal with the (The Fair Folk) Aelfinn and Eelfinn, including the fact that cheating is necessary and that they work together to trap human victims.
- The Mighty Thor: Badass Normal: In a world populated by supernatural creatures all far more powerful than your average human every once in a while through brains, training, or just pure grit holds their own or triumphs. A prime example is Roger Willis who held his own against (The Fair Folk) Dark Elves and Fire Demons in Walt Simonson's run.
- Moving Pictures (Discworld): The last book to use the idea of the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions invading as a generalized threat — later books would shift the idea of extradimensional threats to the (The Fair Folk) elves and others, while the former are simply used as reasons why Wizards are careful about using magic.
- Mystical White Hair/Literature - The Dark Artifices: Helen Blackthorn is the daughter of a shadowhunter and a (The Fair Folk) fairy. And like her fairy mother, she has light blonde hair. These are so light blonde that they look almost white.
- Egypt Is Still Ancient: Justified: Egypt is trapped in a time limbo bubble created by a wizard, or a (The Fair Folk) fairy (or possibly a fairy wizard), thus preventing them to advance to the modern age.
- The Katbox: Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures Adventurer Dan learns how to cope with being what he's been taught to hate. Also features, Fae, dragons and other demons.
- In Nomine Satanis / Magna Veritas: Dragons, (The Fair Folk) fairy peoples and lots of other supernaturals were wiped out (or almost so), mostly by George (yes, that George
), Archangel of Purity, shortly after Christianity began, and not exactly for altruistic reasons. Most of the less militant (and even a few militant but more tolerant) Archangels hate his guts as a result. - Tabletop Games:
- Ponyfinder: "Satyrs" in this setting are the result of a human having a child with oine of several of the sapient quadrupedal animals from the setting. The result is a being who is human from the waist up and a bipedal non-human from the waist down, with extra traits like wings or horns depending on their precise ancestry. Explicitly compatible couplings include the myriad species of ponies, the purrsians (cats with wings), the ruminants (deer), and the krava (cows). Justified in that these sapient beasts all explicitly have origins as (The Fair Folk) fey creatures, which means they are rooted a bit more in magic than in biology.
- Pathfinder: Sorcerers (innate magic users, as opposed to wizards who got their powers through study or warlock who got them through dark pacts) gain their powers from various supernatural forces breeding into their bloodline. The following is a current (early 2012) list of things which have created bloodlines for sorcerers: Aberrant (think Cthulhu Mythos-like monsters), Abyssal (Demons or worse), Accursed (Hags), Proteans (chaos spirits), Aquatic (anything from sea elves to deep ones), Arcane (plain ol' A Wizard Did It — and how!), Boreal (giant and troll kin ala Norse Myth), Celestial (heavenly creatures), Deep Earth (earth spirits), several different kinds of genies and all four Western elemental types, Draconic, (The Fair Folk) Fey, Infernal (Devils), Maestro (some musical monster from trumpet-wielding angels to shoggoths), Orc, Rakshasa (evil spirits of Buddhist myth), Serpentine (your friendly reptoids), Shadow (another dimension), Starsoul (spacefarers), Storm (unknown elemental spirits), Undead, and Verdant (plants). It's probably better not to ask how some of those happened. There are even more bloodlines available from third party developers or for characters with unusual archetypes.
- The Lady of the Lake - Gargoyles: A member of (The Fair Folk) the Third Race, she moved Excalibur to New York for unknown reasons, and came out of the artificial lake in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens when King Arthur came looking for it. Word of God says that Nimue also exists in this universe, but as a separate character.
- Etrian Odyssey: The first three strata are beautiful woodscapes. The fourth stratum is a barren, sandy land where you have to kill a bunch of (The Fair Folk) Forest Folk, but at least it's still nothing really out of the ordinary. Then comes the fifth stratum and you find the ruins of Shinjuku, establishing that the game's fantasy setting actually takes place after the end of a modern Earth.
- Battlefleet Gothic: (The Fair Folk) Dark Eldar ships have a unique form of boarding pod known as Impaler Assault Modules. Far larger than the Assault Boats of other races, the Impaler carries far more troops, and so has a far greater chance of causing damage in a boarding action, than a regular boarding pod but requires the Dark Eldar ship to forgo taking other weaponry.
- The Light Fantastic: Twoflower is initially excited at the thought of fairies being around. Swires informs him, to no avail, that they don't have that kind of fairy. They have the (The Fair Folk) other kind of fairy.
- War of the Realms: Malekith has assembled a Legion of Doom consisting of (The Fair Folk) himself, Dario Agger, King Ulik, King Laufey of Jotunheim, Sindr, Queen of Cinders, the Queen of Heven, Kurse, The Enchantress, Loki and their associated armies.
ZCE, Indices
- Justice League of America: Antagonist - Morgaine le Fey: Descended from them.
- Imperial Saga: End Of The World's real identity.
- The Difference One Man Can Make: The Children of the Forest
- The Hallow: A modern take on why it is not wise to trespass in their territory.
- Celia and the Fairies: Play a major role in this story, whether they are real or the product of someone's imagination.
- The Fey and the Fallen: The Sidhe are in a war with "The Fallen." Liam's father is a Sidhe warrior who is attempting to protect him and his mother from backlash from the Other Side.
- The Wicked Years - Adaptation Species Change: Glinda is a normal human woman rather than of The Fair Folk.
- Wylding Hall: William implies he believes the mysterious girl to be this.
- Wizards of Waverly Place: Some of the wizards come off this way.
- The Backyardigans: Tasha in "Tale of the Mighty Knights".
