Oh god, the viral Peter Pan story is so much darker (and older) than we initially thought

As the internet viciously mocks “Peter Pan girl” Toni Kulusich for her love of the Disney character, a particularly dark era has resurfaced online. 

After weeks of avoiding her beloved park, which she’d been visiting every week for years, Toni returned to both Disney World and the internet earlier this week. She spoke to news outlets about the viral TikTok saga and refused to apologise. 

“I strongly believe that because I’m someone who has worked for Disney, when I go [there], I always ask them, ‘Can I hug you?’ … I allow them to lead the interactions. So I’ll wait for him to be like, ‘Let’s go take a walk.’ I’m not gonna initiate the walk,” she said. 

@babytoni99

Another adventure with the green bean💚🫶🏻✨ #peterpan #disneyland

♬ original sound – Toni

She also spoke to Peter Pan himself, or at least the actor who was playing him that day, and he allegedly replied: “Never to stop visiting Neverland.”

Though a number of former actors have shared some insight into Toni’s behaviour, saying it’s not that odd in the context of the park, her comment section is still filled with rampant hate and references to a throwback era. 

After reading more about said era, it’s very clear that Toni’s obsession is harmless in comparison. Introducing the Peter Pandom. 

It’s so much darker than we thought: The Peter Pandom

In the early 2010s, when Tumblr was at the height of its popularity, there was a niche community on there aptly named Peter Pandom. But, as was the case with a lot of things on Tumblr, so-called “fans” took it to the extreme. 

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Credit: Tumblr

Though most would simply post edits, fanfiction, and interactions at various Disney locations, others became intensely invested in the personal lives of the actors portraying Peter Pan. They found out as much information as possible, which included in-person stalking, tracking down family members, and harassing the significant others of various Peter Pan actors. On other occasions, fans would just incessantly follow him around the park. 

One Peter, Spieling Peter, was particularly popular, and he had entire pages dedicated to him. Some would create odd fake relationships with him, and there were online fights about who was actually dating him. The answer was, no one, because he went on to marry the actress who played Wendy. 

In one post that has now resurfaced, which the actor said never happened, an obsessed fan wrote: “I’ve been wanting to meet Peter for years. Last week my parents finally took us all to DisneyLand. I saw Peter and immediately ran up to him and waved saying he was my hero.

“He grabbed my arms and saw my self harm scars and frowned. He quickly said No no, you have battle scars! You must have fought off a lot of stinky pirates. You, princess, are MY hero!’ And bowed & kissed my hand before hugging me tightly & whispering, ‘You’re beautiful. Please stop,’ in my ear. I cried the rest of whole day.”

So actually, in the grand scheme of things, Toni’s fascination is very low-key. 

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Featured image credit: Tumblr/TikTok