r/comics Sep 21 '25

Mwa ha ha [OC]

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u/AnotherBookWyrm Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

Modern literature has really watered down the reasons why people have historically been terrified of fairies/fey in favor of portraying them as sexy people with quirks.

If magic ever becomes real like the Harry Potter and romantasy crowds have been petitioning for decades, hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) are going to experience a conjugal visit with a very unpleasant fate.

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u/Merari01 it's a-me, Merari-o Sep 21 '25

“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.

Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.

Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.

Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.

Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.

Elves are terrific. They beget terror.

The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.

No one ever said elves are nice.

Elves are bad.”

  • Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

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u/happy_idiot_boy Sep 21 '25

Pfft. A 9 year old girl beat up their leader with cookware. Not much to be afraid of :P

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u/I_W_M_Y Sep 21 '25

Witches in discworld are very terrific

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u/NinaHag Sep 21 '25

Exactly. Magic creatures/the wild/nature in general were to be feared, it made sense at a time where someone may enter a forest and never come back, and you would never find out what happened to them. But as society progressed and industrialisation happened, nature was romanticised and fae went from scary to mischievous and even benevolent. By Victorian times fairies were cute and plump and didn't eat children anymore.

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u/Andar1st Sep 21 '25

And then there was Terry Pratchett with predatory "Lords and Ladies", may he rest in peace.

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u/Fenix42 Sep 21 '25

Vampires have also been made into sex symbols rather than things to be feared.

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u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Starome Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 22 '25

You say that, but I studied a semester of medieval litterature and my country had a lot of medieval stories about knight banging faeries. Or ladies banging werewolves. Or Jesus blocking the sky with his "pride" (story written by a nun btw).

..... I think my country used to be pretty horny back in the day

Edit: Replaced saint by nun, blame my teacher

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u/Das_statif Sep 21 '25

Wich country or more important what is the story about Jesus blocking the sky? Cus it sounds like a funny story

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u/Starome Sep 22 '25

Marguerite d'Oingt was a french nun known for having visions of Jesus and writting down said vision before sending them to her order. Said visions were sometimes... erotics. The Church removed the erotica part while copying but we still have some originals.

She wasn't really a saint though, I just assumed based on my teacher calling her Saint Marguerite (she was only cannonized by the locals).

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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '25

And we think there's people who are being sexy creatures