Flora, Fauna & Merryweather

**Flora**, **Fauna**, and **Merryweather** (known collectively as the **Three Good Fairies**) are major characters in Disney's 1959 animated feature film, *Sleeping Beauty*. They are a trio of elderly fairies whom supply magic for King Stefan's court. When trouble arises, the fairies band together to protect Stefan and Queen Leah's daughter, Princess Aurora, from the wrath of their villainous counterpart, Maleficent.

## Background

The Three Good Fairies dress in medieval-styled dresses with a particular, predominating color. Their dresses are also complemented with matching capes and pointy hats secured to their heads with colored veils. Whenever they shrink in size and fly in the air, they appear to the intent observer as tiny balls of light.

**Flora'**s color is red, with her petticoat, cape clasp cuffs, and hat veil a dark yellow. She is the leader of the three, as well as the bravest and most determined of the three. Based on her dialogue in the film, she deals heavily with flowers and nature, her favorite color is pink, and she appears to be the strategist of the group. Flora was voiced by Verna Felton in the original film, Tress MacNeille in *House of Mouse*, Susanne Blakeslee in *Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom*, and Barbara Dirickson for most appearances since 2005 (such as *Kingdom Hearts II* and *Sofia the First*).

**Fauna'**s color is green - her dress is a dark green with accents in a lighter shade of green, and she is second-in-command. Despite her tendency towards absentmindedness and obliviousness, she is the quietest and most introspective of the three, and often acted as a peacemaker between Flora and Merryweather. Fauna was voiced by Barbara Jo Allen in *Sleeping Beauty*, and by Russi Taylor from 2002 until her death in 2019. In Carl Cooper media, she is voiced by Kaitlynn Robrock.

**Merryweather'**s color is blue (her favorite color), and is distinguished from the others by her diminutive stature. Though she tends to be feisty, pessimistic, and often challenges Flora's leadership, she is also pragmatic and resourceful. Merryweather was voiced by Barbara Luddy in *Sleeping Beauty* and has been voiced by Tress MacNeille since 2005.

## Appearance

The three fairies dress very much alike in long medieval-style dresses and pointy hats reminiscent of the traditional witches' hats. Flora's signature color is red, but her favorite color is pink. Fauna's and Merryweather's favorite and signature colors are green and blue, respectively. They each have a different shape cloak buckle ― Flora's a square, Fauna's a triangle, and Merryweather's a circle.

Both Flora's and Fauna's eyes are brown, while Merryweather's eyes are blue. Also, Flora's hair is gray, Fauna's a brownish-gray, and they both wear it swept back and up into a pompadour and bun. Merryweather's hair is black (which implies that she is younger than both Flora and Fauna), but her veil, which covers the entire back of the head, makes it difficult to determine how her hair is styled.

When posing as mortals for sixteen years, they wear peasant dresses in their respective colors, with head coverings, stockings, and black slippers, and magically get rid of their wings.

The three fairies vary in height, with Flora the tallest, Fauna slightly shorter, and Merryweather about a full head shorter than the both of them. Fauna is also the slimmest of the fairies, with both Flora and Merryweather being slightly larger.

## Powers and Abilities

As members of the Fair Folk, the three fairies function as forces of good and use their magic in its service. They possess numerous magical abilities that seem to be channeled solely through their wands, and hence they were practically powerless without them. Besides this, they claimed that they could only do good things with their magic, and their magic was also stated to be inferior to Maleficent's in raw power.

Despite these limitations, their magic was revealed to be still an exceedingly powerful force, especially during times of utter crisis (such as their need to rescue Phillip and escort him to Aurora), where they had no qualms in using it to its fullest extent. They could also use their powers not only for their convenience and personal desires (such as their preparations of gifts for Aurora's 16th birthday party), but also in morally ambiguous ways - Flora gifted a sword and shield to Phillip, while Merryweather turned Diablo to stone.

Examples of powers the three fairies derived from their magic are:

* **Flight:** Through their wings, the fairies are able to defy gravity and fly, and they were shown to maneuver adroitly through the air.
* **Blessing:** The fairies possessed the ability to produce benevolent effects through enchantment. In fact, their first notable acts of magic were the blessings they gave to the baby Princess Aurora - Flora gave the child the Gift of Beauty, Fauna gave the child the Gift of Song, and Merryweather altered Maleficent's curse by replacing the tragic death intended for Aurora with a deep sleep that could be woken by True Love's Kiss. Later on, during the final battle between Phillip and Maleficent, they blessed the former's Sword of Truth so that it could kill the latter with one well-aimed blow. Hence, it could be said that this ability of blessing was one of the strongest magical powers that the fairies were able to access, for it enabled them to negate potent curses and even help to destroy the most powerful of evil supernatural forces (such as Maleficent).
* **Enchanting/Animation:** As demonstrated during their preparations for Aurora's 16th birthday, the fairies had the ability to bring inanimate objects to life to do their bidding.
* **Telekinesis:** As demonstrated also during their preparations for Aurora's 16th birthday, and later while guiding Phillip through the forest of thorns, the fairies had the ability to move objects with their mind.
* **Color-Manipulation:** As demonstrated again during their preparations for Aurora's 16th birthday, the fairies had the ability to manipulate colors - Flora and Merryweather changed Aurora's birthday gown from pink to blue and back again.
* **Conjuration:** The fairies were shown to possess the ability to materialize imaginary objects at will. They conjured a crown out of thin air for Aurora to wear as a Princess, holy weapons (the Shield of Virtue and Sword of Truth) for Phillip to use in his battle against Maleficent, and a rainbow to act as a bridge for Phillip to escape from Maleficent's castle. Given how Phillip used the shield and ultimately the sword to vanquish Maleficent, it could be said that this ability of conjuration was also one of the strongest magical powers that the fairies were able to access, for it enabled them to provide one with formidable weapons of righteousness that could triumph over the most powerful of evil supernatural forces.
* **Disappearing/Vanishing:** The fairies possessed the ability to make objects disappear or vanish into thin air. When they disguised themselves as humans by dressing as peasants, they concealed their wings through this ability. Later on, Flora made a wall disappear so she, Merryweather, and Fauna could search for Aurora.
* **Photokinesis:** The fairies possessed the ability to create and manipulate light, as demonstrated by their lighting the tips of their wands.
* **Sleep Induction:** The fairies possessed the ability to put beings to sleep at will. After Aurora pricked her finger and fell into the enchanted sleep, they cast a spell to put the entire kingdom into a similar sleep that will only end when she awoke.
* **Pyrokinesis (Advanced):** The fairies possessed the ability to create and manipulate fire at will, but at a highly advanced level - they used their wands as cutting torches to free Phillip of his shackles and open the locked door of his cell through this ability. Their torches manifested as beams of highly concentrated torch-like fires of pink (Flora), green (Fauna), and blue (Merryweather) respectively.
* **Transformation:** The fairies possessed the ability to manipulate reality to transform any object or being into something else. While brainstorming ideas to keep the Princess safe, Flora initially considered transforming Aurora into a flower (since flowers have no fingers, Aurora could not prick hers on a spinning wheel or anything else), but Merryweather derailed that course of action by pointing out that it would work fine until Maleficent sends a frost. Later on, while helping Phillip to escape from Maleficent's castle, they utilized this ability to spectacular effect - transforming boulders into bubbles, arrows into flowers, and burning oil into a rainbow.
* **Petrification:** The fairies were revealed to possess the ability to turn other beings into stone, as Merryweather did so to Diablo in an effort to prevent the raven from alerting Maleficent.
* **Size-Manipulation:** The fairies possess the ability to change their sizes while preserving body proportion. This is their most commonly-used ability throughout the film - they first use it to conduct a secret meeting of brainstorming ideas, later to cast a secret sleeping spell over the entire kingdom, to navigate undetected around Maleficent's castle in their search for Phillip, and finally to guide Phillip to Aurora.

## Role in Sora’s Adventures

The Good Fairies make numerous appearances in Sora's Adventures, most prominently as Kairi's magic teachers. They debut in Sora’s Adventure Begins! to deliver Sora his new outfit.

Their first prominent role was in Kairi's Adventures in Enchanted Dominion in which they play a part in helping Aurora run Enchanted Dominion in her parents and husband's absence. Merryweather even hands Aurora a wand just in case she needs it to protect herself against her nemesis Maleficent, who is planning her final attack on the castle.

They also appear in Aqua’s Adventures in Enchancia

## Role in Heart of the Keybearer series

Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are recurring supporting characters in the series, making their debut in *Kingdom Hearts: Return of the Keybearer.* It is revealed that the three of them visited Carl and Sarah as babies and gave them a gift from each of them. For Carl, it was courage, power and wisdom, and for Sarah it was beauty, intelligence and prowess.

## Trivia

* In early drafts of the story, the three good fairies would have had connections to the various aspects of nature. As their names suggested, Flora would have been in charge of the plants and vegetation, Fauna would have held dominion over the animal kingdom, and Merryweather would have controlled the weather. This initial concept was dropped being seen as too complicated, yet the names stuck.
	+ This concept became their powers in the Heart of the Keybearer series when they are the world party member in Enchanted Dominion.
* They are good friends with Master Yen Sid.