History Main / FairyInABottle

* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'': Well, Fairy in a Jar, but close enough. It's someone containing fairies, in a small container, meaning that that's something worth doing, and that they fit in such a container. As shown in comic [[http://www.sdamned.com/comic/252 252]], a Jakkai is trapping and selling them like that.

* A rare male example of this trope: Funjl the [[FesteringFungus Mold Pixie]] from ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' is imprisoned in a bottle.

* The Wowee toy company recently created "Got2Glow Fairy Finder" which doubles as a VirtualPet. Since the console is jar-shaped, and you can capture fairies and care for them. Thankfully, they don't seem to mind it.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'', the Splugorth capture fairies to power their Bio-Wizard creations, which is noted in most cases to be extremely painful. Some of them need to be lobotomized first.

* A rare male example of this trope: Funjl the [[FesteringFungus Mold Pixie]] from ''WesternAnimation/Chowder'' is imprisoned in a bottle.

* Funjl the [[FesteringFungus Mold Pixie]] from ''WesternAnimation/Chowder'' is imprisoned in a bottle.

* The Wowee toy company recently created "Got 2 Glow Fairies" which doubles as a VirtualPet. Since the console is jar-shaped, and you can capture fairies and care for them. Thankfully, they don't seem to mind it.

* A staple of the ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series, where a captured fairy in a bottle will restore all your {{Heart Container}}s or [[AutoRevive restore you to life if you die]], depending on the game. The fandom has a disturbing tendency to show the fairies as entirely unwilling captives.

* ''Webcomic/TheDreadful'' initially uses this as a parody of the Zelda example, where Liz remembers that she's got one when she pulls out a long-dead bottled fairy and throws it at Erin. [[spoiler:Then it's made more plot relevant, when it turns out the fairy, Ith, was a necromancer and proceeds to possess/resurrect (apparently something goes wrong and they end up SharingABody) Erin after Kit and Liz have left.]]

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* Captain Hook captures Tinkerbell in a lantern in the Disney adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan''. Although the container is different, the effect is the same.

** Subverted in ''Great Fairy Rescue'' when Lizzie's father was going to trap Tinker Bell in a jar, but caught Vidia instead. However, if Tink and the other fairies hadn't got there in time, she may have suffered a worse fate then Tink and Zarina almost suffered later on.

* The ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' example is discussed and deconstructed in ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfAnju''. [[OriginalCharacter Inquisitor Maximilian Forthwind]] notes that soldiers, such as his bodyguard, sometimes keep bottled fairies in hopes of being brought back to life by a fairy's magic. He dismisses the idea as being superstitious nonsense, [[RealityEnsues since a captive fairy would probably loath their captors.]] [[spoiler: Subverted when it turns out that Opal isn't being held captive at all. She's simply too afraid of the outside world to leave her bottle, and the aforementioned bodyguard, Jade, had sworn to protect her.]]

* In ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' parody ''WebVideo/TheLegendOfNeil'', the moblins keep bottled fairies so they can snort fairy dust for kicks.

The Victorian image of a fairy is a tiny creature, perhaps the size of your palm, with dragonfly-like wings. Unsurprising that a creature that resembles an insect and is only slightly larger than one, then, would frequently find itself caught in a jar like an oversized firefly. It's also a visual pun on the Victorian "fairy light", a candle with a porcelain hood, since fireflies captured in a bottle can be used as a light source.

* In the background of one of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' movies bottled fairies are used for light.

* Captain Hook captures Tinkerbell in a lantern in the Disney adaptation of ''Disney/PeterPan''. Although the container is different, the effect is the same.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Harry has been to vampire parties where the outdoor lights are provided this way. He disapproves forcefully.

[[folder: {{Literature}}]]

[[folder:New Media]]
* In ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' there are six types of bottled faeries that, once freed, will bless a pet with an element of their respective type. According to the back story, they are put in the bottles by a faerie hating Lupe named Balthazar.
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** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' doesn't help, since it dispenses with the SparkFairy design from previous game and portrays its fairies as tiny {{Winged Humanoid}}s who look distinctly unhappy when they're bottled up.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', we hear a legend of a fairy who can grant any wish, but only ''one'' in her entire life. When Jack tries to acquire her so he can go back to the past, his hand ends up trapped in the magic sphere where she was captured and the key to open it was destroyed on the fight with the fairy's captor. [[spoiler:Jack uses the wish to set them both free.]]

Although she might have been captured for legitimate reasons, far more often the fairy is innocent of wrongdoing, and will reward you for saving them. Although frequently no mention of the reasons or lack thereof will be addressed, as the fairy will be used more like an object or tool rather than a living being.

* ''Webcomic/NerfNow'' used this for "YouBastard" effect: [[http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/195 hunt cute little fairies to grab and cram them in bottles]]? You're one creepy fairy kidnapper, [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda Link]].

* ''Webcomic/RustyAndCo'' got one [[http://rustyandco.com/comic/level-6-33/ here]]. On the next page she's out of the bottle, but still quite saturated with its other contents and seems to also be [[HardDrinkingPartyGirl the other kind of Bottle Fairy]].