As a long-time fan of “The Fairly OddParents,” particularly as a child, I have picked on a lot of details, from inconsistencies to unrealistic situations, and to various mysteries.
Below are some questions that still linger in my head, even as an adult.
Why aren’t Timmy’s parents’ first names revealed until so much later?
While Mrs. Turner’s maiden name eventually gets revealed (I don’t recall what it was since it wasn’t said until after I stopped watching the show regularly at the end of 2006), her and her husband’s first names are never announced.
In the episode, “Father Time,” when Timmy goes back in time to the 70’s after his dad punished him for destroying a trophy he’d won as a child, his father says what his first name is. But a truck passes, thus making it impossible for the viewers to hear. The same goes with Timmy’s mother.
I don’t know why the creators wouldn’t reveal Mr. and Mrs. Turner’s first names, despite revealing Danny Fenton’s parents first names in the show, “Danny Phantom.” Theirs are Jack and Maddie.
As of January 17th, 2023, I learned that Mrs. Turner’s first name is Laurel, and her husband’s is Edward. And they reveal it long after the show ended?
What happened to Trixie and Chester’s moms?
Trixie mentions her mom in the episode, “A Wish Too Far.” However, in later episodes, we only see her dad and never her mother. Did her parents get divorced? Did Mrs. Tang die? Run away?
Chester’s mom is never mentioned, unlike Trixie’s. We see his dad, who suffers a lot. Yet, we never see Chester’s mother. Maybe she also died, ran away, or divorced her husband.
Can magic interfere with extreme events, like war?
Yes, this wouldn’t exactly be appropriate for a child-friendly show. But what if disastrous events, like WWI and WWII, happened in the FOP universe as well? I bet every child would wish for it to be over. Maybe the same would have occurred with 9/11, when refugees are held hostage, and others.
In the episode, “Mother Nature,” Cosmo and Wanda are able to grant wishes to create natural disasters, like hail, the size of minivans. However, they cannot seem to stop natural disasters.
What would happen if a kid erased all conflict after biting into the magic muffin?
Unlike with fairies, the magic muffin a child receives on his or her one-year anniversary of having fairy godparents has no limits – except for a better-tasting muffin. So, I have imagined what would happen if a child bit into the muffin and helped others.
One time, I’d imagined what would occur if a kid wished that 9/11 never happened. I had assumed that everything would revert to what it had been before the terrorist attacks that day. Then if the child’s fairy godparent(s) warned them of what could happen, the kid would wish for no more conflict on Earth.
However, he or she would have his or her fairies taken away as he or she would no longer need them. Jorgen might have also had a meeting with every fairy that no conflict means no child needs fairies. And fairies can only be given to miserable children. So, would that cause FairyWorld’s economy to suffer? Who knows?
Why does Mr. Crocker get to know about Timmy having fairy godparents, despite that being against the biggest rule for having fairies?
The biggest rule for any child with fairies is that they MUST keep them secret. If the kid reveals to anyone else that he or she has fairy godparents, the fairies will have to leave him or her forever, and he or she will have to forget them and everything about them, including the wishes they’d granted.
However, for some reason, Mr. Crocker gets to be exempt from that. He even revealed Timmy having fairy godparents in the episode, “Emotion Commotion,” in front of the entire class. Yet, Cosmo and Wanda could still remain his godparents.
Why would FairyWorld make an exception for Crocker, especially because he has a taste for capturing fairies? In the special, “The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker,” Timmy goes back in time to see why March 15th is when Crocker is at his worst. He learns that Crocker had Cosmo and Wanda as his fairy godparents about 30 years prior to the episode’s setting. But he lost them because they were revealed to everyone else.
After wiping Cosmo, Wand, and Crocker’s memories, Jorgen also cursed Crocker with yellow teeth and shorter hair. The others ran after him as an angry mob.
Yet, somehow, he regains his memory of fairies and their existence (which is supposed to be kept secret) and is allowed to know that Timmy has fairy godparents and reveal them without causing him to lose them. It has never been explained – thus it’s a premise hole.
What would happen if a trans child received fairy godparents?
The show ended in 2017, just 2 years after gay marriage became legalized in the US. So, throughout the running of most of the series, any sexual orientation besides straight (and maybe asexuality or romanticism) was frowned upon and considered wrong.
Which brings me to my next point… if a trans child disliked being bullied for their identity and how others wouldn’t accept it, and received fairy godparents because of that, would the kid wish for the country to allow LGBTQ+ rights?
I looked up the guidelines in “Da Rules” on Wikia. There was nothing mentioned about human rights, especially for a certain demographic. Nor did it mention any laws about specific groups of people, besides demographics, such as people in certain professions, military statuses, etc.
But supposed the fairy godparents couldn’t grant the child their wish to legalize LGBTQ+ rights. If they can keep them for a year, they do receive that special magic muffin. So, if they wish for that desire, plus for it to stay and be remembered, and no one to bully them for their identity ever again… they’d probably lose their fairies right after.
Another rule is that a child must stay miserable for him or her to keep the fairy godparents.
But nothing states that children part of the LGBTQ+ community are ineligible for fairies. There might have kids who are homosexual, bisexual, or trans who had fairy godparents at the same time Timmy did – they were just never revealed… maybe because of the general public’s view on that group of people then.
Conclusion
Although I discontinued watching “The Fairly OddParents” at the end of the mid-2000’s, I have reunited with it in 2020, and have watched some of my favorite episodes. Yet, I heard that in the late 00’s, the episodes got worse with new characters that pleased few.
Maybe one or two of these questions got answered later. Or perhaps, none of them did.
Nevertheless, I still love the show.