History Main / FairyGodmother

* "Literature/{{Cinderella}} by Creator/CharlesPerrault: As Cinderella cries alone because she cannot go to the ball like her sisters, her godmother comes by and asks her what is the trouble. The godmother, who, as it happens, is also a fairy, then uses her MagicWand to turn a hollowed-out pumpkin into a gilded coach, six mice into carriage-horses, a rat into a coachman, six lizards into footmen to escort the carriage, and Cinderella's ragged clothes into a bejeweled gown. She also gives a Cinderella a pair of glass slippers. Decked out in this way, Cinderella can go to the ball, where the king's son falls in love with her.

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=17039823530.10021100 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.

* Nora Darkh in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' gets tricked into taking the place of Tabitha, who is supposed to be a classic Fairy Godmother, but in reality is a WickedWitch forced to act as one due to wielding the wand of the Fairy Godmother. While Nora gets exasperated by the wishes of kids under her charge, she actually takes the job seriously and grows to love her charges, and is not above helping the Legends when they need her magic.

* Nora Darkh in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' gets tricked into taking the place of Tabitha, who is supposed to be a classic Fairy Godmother, but in reality is an evil JackassGenie. While Nora gets exasperated by the wishes of kids under her charge, she actually takes the job seriously, and is not above helping the Legends when they need her magic.

* ''Literature/OddlyEnough'': In "Am I Blue?", Melvin is a CampGay Fairy Godfather in every sense of the term. As an [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angelic being]] who, as a human, was killed in a gay-bashing, he insisted on reclaiming the term when choosing his {{Heaven}}ly career.

Some stories might make this a DeusExMachina. An occasional subversion is to make the FairyGodmother evil, or cause problems from being not very bright.

* ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'': The anime is based on ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', but instead of the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues, the main conflict is a war between the human race of Earth and the AngelicAliens of Planet Baam. Our PrincessProtagonist, Erika, falls in love with a human, something that would get her executed if the public knew. However, her governess, Margarete, encourages her to follow her heart anyway and pursue him no matter what. She regularly helps Erika escape from the Baam base so she can see him, even if it risks putting her own life in danger. While Margarete is a literal example of this as the Baam are essentially [[WingedHumanoid Human Aliens with wings]], once she's found out for assisting Erika, her wings are forcibly cut off as punishment. Nevertheless, she refuses to give up on Erika, and tells Richter that he's wrong to oppose his sister's romance with Kazuya.
-->'''Margarete:''' ''"If only your father knew! The king would never approve of such madness!"''

* Miz Bijou of ''ComicBook/BodieTroll''

* Mayda Munny of the ''ComicBook/RichieRich'' comic books gets one in a story, who gives Mayda a spell that makes her be pleasant and nice [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve only up until midnight]], when [[RichBitch her normal bitchiness]] returns. At a party she attends at the Rich Mansion, the spell lasts for a good while, and Mayda is enjoying herself and her company is enjoying her presence, but strangely around 10 PM, Mayda reverts back to being a bitch and she ends up leaving the party on a sour note. The Fairy Godmother looks at Mayda through a crystal ball and realizes that her magic isn't powerful enough to overcome Mayda's level of natural bitchiness.

* Charles Perrault's "Literature/{{Cinderella}}" is probably the TropeCodifier. While most adaptations have the godmother appear out of nowhere, it is noteworthy to mention in the original Perrault text, she is literally Cinderella's godmother and actually seems to live with the family.
* In "Literature/AdalminasPearl", the princess has two.

** Another de Murat fairy tale, "Anguillette", plays this trope tragically. Princess Hebe is blessed with all sorts of great gifts, but is warned that when she falls in love, the love will get out of control. Hebe falls in love with a prince, but she ends up marrying another prince. This leads to the two princes killing each other in a duel.

** Ditto the ''Theatre/CinderellaRodgersAndHammerstein'' movie musical.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles,'' Harry has one of these, literally, and TheFairFolk are a lot scarier than in the Disneyverse. The kick is that Cinderella's fairy godmother would have been with the more Disney-esque Summer Court, while the Leanansidhe, Harry's godmother, comes from the [[EvilCounterpart Winter Court]]. While scary, dangerous, and insane by most reasonable standards, Lea truly does want to protect Harry and wants the best for him... [[BlueAndOrangeMorality in her own way]]. Due to a MagicallyBindingContract, he belongs to her, and she sometimes tries to collect. What happens if she wins? [[spoiler: You know those hunting dogs that herald her arrival? ''[[ForcedTransformation They weren't dogs originally.]]'']] Later, Harry's "contract" is bought off by Lea's boss, Queen Mab, giving Lea the chance to prove herself to be very good (if ''scary'') to have as an ally.
** Interestingly, during ''Literature/{{Changes}},'' she plays with the classic Cinderella storyline by dressing Harry for [[StormingTheCastle a very different kind of party]]. Being of the Winter Court, her gifts vanish at noon instead of midnight.

* In the Old Icelandic "Literature/TaleOfNornaGest" (c. 1300 AD), baby Gest is visited by some norns who make wishes for his life. The set-up is very similar to that of "Sleeping Beauty", and the "norns" are functionally Fairy Godmothers. Though, like in "Sleeping Beauty", they do not return after they made their initial good wishes.

* ''Literature/PrinceCinders'' is helped by a particularly inept one.
* In Creator/RobinMcKinley's ''Literature/SpindlesEnd'', the princess has a number of these granting her assorted blessings. However, when the FairyDevilmother shows up and curses her [[Literature/SleepingBeauty as in the source material]], the last of the fairy godmothers ends up sort of kidnapping her for her own protection.

[[folder:Mythology]]
* Myth/NorseMythology: ''Literature/ProseEdda'' relates that besides the three chief norns Urd, Skuld and Verdandi, "there are yet more norns, namely those who come to every man when he is born, to shape his life". Obviously these norns who visit newborn children to "shape their lives" are functionally the same beings as the fairies dispensing blessings (or curses) on newborn children in many fairy tales.

* In the Cantabrian mythology exist the figure of the Anjana, which is very close to the taditional depiction of fairies normally seen in different media: they help wounded or ill people, help lost children in the forest to find their way to home, benefit with their magic the good and honest and punishes the evil ones, and are one of the few protections available against the attack of the ojancanu, a terrible cyclops from that same mythology.
[[/folder]]

* The ''VideoGame/DarkParables'', being based on classic fairy tales, have a number of these. One of them is actually one of the villains.

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': Weird version. Tedd's god-father is Adrian Raven, the half-immortal elf who teaches history at Moperville South. Raven's mother, Pandora, has decided that this makes Tedd her "grand godson," and that she needs to help and protect him. Unfortunately, Pandora is insane, bored, and wasn't really that helpful even back when she was sane. Her first attempt to help Tedd results him turning into a girl in the middle of a crowded comic shop and getting hit on by creepy guys. Later attempts include her randomly empowering Tedd's friends with magic, invading his girlfriend's dreams, and roping one of his friends (who she previously randomly empowered) into fixing a problem Pandora herself caused.
** After her HeelRealization she realizes the harm that she caused to Tedd and tries to make it up to him by teaching him about his status as a seer and helping him learn to make wands.

** In ''Life of Melody'', fairy godfather Razzmatazz has grown frustrated with humans' "uncooperative" nature, and comes up with an idea to circumvent it: [[ChangelingFantasy adopt his protagonist as an infant and raise her himself]] until she's old enough to complete her tale. He finds the child alongside a [[OurTrollsAreDifferent beastman]] named Bon, and the two of them agree to raise her together. The three of them briefly appear in ''Peritale'', by which point [[spoiler:Razz has [[ScrewDestiny rejected the tale altogether]], left the fairy realm for good, and settled down with Bon to raise their daughter in the human world]].

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends Storytime'' podcast episode "Thomas and the Fairy God Engine" (a retelling of ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}''), Thomas's Fairy God Engine rewards Thomas's kindness in choosing to listen to Salty's story instead of heading back to the sheds to get ready for Sir Robert's costume ball by turning him into a knight engine so that he can go to the ball.
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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': Puck essentially becomes this to Alexander Xanatos, when the faerie king Oberon bars him from ever using his powers except when either protecting the boy or teaching him to use his own magic.

* The ''WesternAnimation/PrivateSnafu'' series had Technical Fairy First Class, a kind of SergeantRock subversion of the trope.

A magical being whose role is to help out the protagonist of a tale, sometimes appearing in their darkest hour to grant their fondest wish, sometimes through less direct methods (and often with the aid of a MagicWand). Why they do this is seldom specified -- nor why they failed to appear a lot earlier in the story when a little change could have made all the difference. (If they are asked why they are just showing up now, they may express in some form how previously, the protagonist needed to learn something.)

They sometimes are part of an agency or an organization. And yes, in early fairy tales, they were meant to be their ward's actual godmother.

This is also a highly DiscreditedTrope these days, usually associated with the most archaic parts of {{Fairy Tale}}s, even though this trope is NewerThanTheyThink; most Cinderella variants have her aided by her [[OurGhostsAreDifferent dead mother]], or (in such variants as "Literature/{{Catskin}}" and "Literature/CapORushes") by nothing but her own wits and some advice.

Some stories might make this a DeusExMachina. An occasional subversion is to make the Fairy Godmother evil, [[BlueAndOrangeMorality amoral]], LiteralMinded, or just [[IneptMage not particularly good with magic]].

->'''Margarete:''' ''"If only your father knew! The king would never approve of such madness!"''

* ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'': The anime is based on ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', but instead of the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues, the main conflict is a war between the human race of Earth and the AngelicAliens of Planet Baam. Our PrincessProtagonist, Erika, falls in love with a human, something that would get her executed if the public knew. However, her governess, Margarete, encourages her to follow her heart anyway and pursue him no matter what. She regularly helps Erika escape from the Baam base so she can see him, even if it risks putting her own life in danger. While Margarete is a literal example of this as the Baam are essentially [[WingedHumanoid Human Aliens with wings]], once she's found out for assisting Erika, her wings are forcibly cut off as punishment. Nevertheless, she continues to aid Erika and help her reunite with Kazuya, as she views the girl as her own daughter.