I Hate Fairyland has quickly become one of my favorite comics. Aside from the over-exaggerated slapstick, schlocky splatterpunk visuals, and over-the-top personalities, it has some surprisingly clever writing. Skottie Young your post will be up once I read Strange Academy Year 2 and the next volume (6) of IHF.
Yeah that’s gonna be a while…
Who Could Hate Fairyland?
So while we wait for that, let me go into one of the most memorable moments of this series. Near the end of the first series second story arc… Wait how do I explain this without putting people to sleep like Gert?
Okay how about this instead.
This is Gertrude, a guest summoned to Fairyland at age 6-10.
This is how she first got to Fairyland.
This is how people wanted the quest to go, a straightforward bunch of stops and favors so Gert goes home.
This is basically how it went… For about 30 years in Gert’s time!
Anyway when Gert is asked why she didn’t just enjoy the Fairyland quest to get out of the sugar-coated fantasy world faster like other guests could, Gert said that she couldn’t commit to it. Because fun was practically mandatory, Gert barely had the motivation to play things by-the-book. Besides being whisked to a fantasy world the way she did actually frightened Gert, something Fairyland’s Queen really didn’t take note of.
Why This Struck A Chord With Me
I actually (mildly!) relate to Gert’s conundrum. My family has an in-ground swimming pool in its backyard and during my high school years it was a nice time to relax in. But pretty soon, it started to become pretty popular around the neighborhood and more people came over. For a neurodivergent introvert like me, this started to get overwhelming.
While my parents had the best intentions of telling me to socialize as these visits started to turn into parties, I just felt pressured to go out. My times to relax started to feel like work and I quickly burned out. Since then I just couldn’t enjoy pool parties or the pool because I couldn’t feel comfortable without feeling it turning into a mandatory fun time.
Why Everybody Now Hates Fairyland
With that in mind, an even more insidious form of Fairyland has entered the public consciousness. A workplace’s mandatory fun time meant to distract people from their soul crushing jobs. What’s the point of enjoying something like this when it can’t help increase the value of your life outside of work? Who knows maybe that’s why Gert lost her office job.
But the worst part is how many people fail to communicate or fix the problem. I definitely didn’t properly communicate with my parents how uncomfortable their good intentions made me feel. I came across as just being dramatic over a practical summer birthday activity. Corporations took a long time to recognize the problem with their fun programs, even though some of them still do it. It might be a while before they faze out.
And Fairyland… well based on the number of years it takes some kids to finish the quest, it’s surprising more didn’t end up like Gert. Probably because most of them were playing on their phones. Fairyland should really consider changing their policies.
So yeah, I Hate Fairyland found a way to stay attached to me for the rest of my life. At the very least I can look back and laugh at some things.