Fairies - Evil little buggers or cute flying friends?

[Silvia Crow]

Now, when most people think of fairies, they think of this:



Tinkerbell. The mascot of modern fairies everywhere. Cute, whimsical, prone to breaking into song and spreading pixie dust all over the place.

Then you have everything else. Like this guy.


He's a Redcap. And instead of coming up with an explanation of what a Redcap is, here's the wiki on'em.

Quote:

A Red Cap or Redcap, also known as a powrie or dunter, is a type of malevolent murderous dwarf, goblin, elf or fairy found in Border Folklore. They are said to inhabit ruined castles found along the border between England and Scotland. Redcaps are said to murder travellers who stray into their homes and dye their hats with their victims' blood (from which they get their name). Redcaps must kill regularly, for if the blood staining their hats dries out, they die. Redcaps are very fast in spite of the heavy iron pikes they wield and the iron-shod boots they wear. Outrunning a redcap is supposedly impossible.

Yeah, not so cute. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I mean seriously, we've got everything from Banshees to Will-o'-the-wisp.

Discuss: Are fairies (And fey/fae/The Fair Folk) really amoral tricksters at the best of times and murderous psychopaths at the worst of times, or are they like Disney portrays them?

[XFateX]

With most mythelogical creatures, I have to go with;;

there are all different types within races. Like humans;; Some are good, some are not. Some are black, some are white

So even though disney always portrays their fairies to be the goody-goody, helping everyone, spreading magic type of creature, doesn't mean there can't be evil mixed in with them.

so I pretend that they just.. don't live in that "place" where fairies dwell in disney movies. Works for me.

[The Bad Trip]

both.

[Eidolysm]

Well, fairy is used as a blanket term most of the time ... and creatures fall under it that are happy, helpful, murderous, or tricksy, so it basically has to count them in whether they're drowning people or cobbling shoes.

My dictionary, on the other hand, says it's a small humanoid creature with magical powers, especially a female one, and Tinker Bell ticks all those boxes. Plus, she's sparkly and cute, but she's also a jealous brat who tries to get Wendy killed.

Plus, little phrasing nitpick: 'fey' is an adjective only; you want 'fay'.

[Silvia Crow]

Justine-Anselme

Plus, little phrasing nitpick: 'fey' is an adjective only; you want 'fay'.

Yeah, sorry ^^; I tend to stick with the D&D/Pathfinder catch-all term which is "Fey".

[Eidolysm]

Silvia Crow

Justine-Anselme

Plus, little phrasing nitpick: 'fey' is an adjective only; you want 'fay'.

Yeah, sorry ^^; I tend to stick with the D&D/Pathfinder catch-all term which is "Fey".

Ah, that's new to me! Can't decide whether to be relieved at a possible reason for sooo many people using 'fey' as a noun or annoyed with tabletop RPGs. So maybe I'll be both. xD

[LilPinkCandy]

Personally I think it depends on what universe you are thinking of. In Disney, fairies are cute little tricksters or they help people. In D&D they are whatever you make them be so they can be either good or evil. In the Dresden universe the fey are often evil manipulators who strike contracts with whomever can give them what they want. They are similar in World of Darkness as well, although there are they called changelings. In Charmed, fairies are good creatures and The Charmed Ones even helped them.

[StrayKit]

it depends. are we going by myths were they often play pranks on humans(often harmful) or are capable of doing very bad things, or off of what everyone calls fairies now? they're cute and innocent now but people used to defend themselves against them with salt and iron.

personally i enjoy modern stories that have a bit of both. they're innocent looking and seem lovely but cause humans trouble constantly.

[dipnoan]

Justine-Anselme

Silvia Crow

Justine-Anselme

Plus, little phrasing nitpick: 'fey' is an adjective only; you want 'fay'.

Yeah, sorry ^^; I tend to stick with the D&D/Pathfinder catch-all term which is "Fey".

Ah, that's new to me! Can't decide whether to be relieved at a possible reason for sooo many people using 'fey' as a noun or annoyed with tabletop RPGs. So maybe I'll be both. xD

Well, it's not so wrong if becomes colloquial. I think the use of 'fey' as a noun spawned from the common use of the term 'fey folk', which is entirely grammatically correct. So eventually the folk was dropped in favor of the shorter word, but it's still there.

Anyhow, I'm going to go with The Labyrinth's conversation concerning fairies.
"It bit me!"
"What'd you expect fairies to do?"
"I thought they did nice things. ... Like granting wishes."
"Shows what you know, don't it?"


Little trouble makers, they are. Even the sweet ones. In the original play by JM Barrie of Peter Pan it's stated “Fairies are so small, that they can only feel one emotion at a time.” So when Tinker Bell was content, all was well, but when she was mad, she was filled with an all consuming rage. It's a fun personality.

[Elyria Stone]

Have you seen Durahara? there a Dullahan in it who is supposedly an Irish Folklore fairy which rides around on a horse carrying it's head in its hand, welding a massive black scythe and cutting off people's heads. of course Selty in the anime is a good guy, but that's the story

BTY Dullahan was horse in the Kentucky Derby this weekend - came in third!