Line #16 YMMV/TheMagicians


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: [[spoiler:Martin Chatwin]] had very good reasons to do what he did, and it's easy to see what drove him to become [[spoiler:Fillory's tyrannical god-king. He became the parental figure to his younger siblings at age 12, and his fairytale adventures in Fillory were his main avenue of escape from the pressure. Doubly so when Martin became the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of the only adult the Chatwins had confided Fillory's existence to, but with Martin's increasingly lost innocence and purity, Fillory became less and less open to him. He grew to hate himself, hate the real world, and hate Fillory's gods for barring him entry to the one place he was safe, all for the crimes of being raped and growing older. When he [[DealWithTheDevil strikes up a deal]] with the eviler half of Fillory's pantheon, he trades away his humanity for power and becomes the worst sort of god: one born from the mind of a broken, bitter, and empty child, who is now literally incapable of maturing. Is it any surprise he turned into a monster?]]
2	* {{Anvilicious}}: The first book hammers in the message "Getting everything you want doesn't make you happy" often, and rarely subtly. Many of the Brakebills graduates are depressed or insecure on some level, even while they're living a ridiculously overprivileged lifestyle of sex and drugs without having to work at all. Meanwhile, Quentin continues his descent into assholishness even after he's literally ended up in the fantasy kingdom of his dreams - to the point that [[WhatTheHellHero Alice eventually calls him on it]]. Even Dean Fogg points out that "wishing doesn't make it so," reasoning that magic seems based on the kind of "magical thinking" that children eventually have to grow out of, and even suggesting that wizards never really mature. Quentin arguably pushes the point [[{{Wangst}} too far]] by actively thinking himself superior to his fellow wizards when he briefly gives up on magic in the aftermath of [[spoiler: Alice's fatal transformation]]. Later books soften the impact by having the characters actually accomplish goals and walk away feeling satisfied, to the point that even Quentin ends the series on a [[EarnYourHappyEnding hard-earned happy note]].
3	* AuthorTract: Grossman's atheist views and apparent distaste for Christianity tend to [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions bleed into the characters' opinions]] rather glaringly, particularly in ''The Magician King''.
4	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: At the end of the Brakebills welters tournament, Quentin experiences a revelation about things that don't matter, throws the match, picks Alice up, and jumps with her into a pool of water of unknown depth. None of this is ever mentioned again.
5	* CompleteMonster: [[Literature/ReynardTheFox Reynard the Fox]] from ''The Magician King'' is a hulking mass of muscle, red fur and sharp teeth, summoned by a sect of magicians who believe they are calling upon a benevolent goddess. When summoned, Reynard promptly proceeds to take the "sacrifices" he sees as his. Setting upon the magicians, Reynard kills many of them horribly and painfully, mortally wounding one and sneering over the young man's dying attempt to offer himself to let the final two live. When one promises her life in exchange for the other's, Reynard [[ExactWords chooses to interpret it in a dark way]]: he promptly brutally rapes her in front of her friend and tears her humanity out when finished.
6	* DelusionConclusion: Lev Grossman has said that part of the reason he wrote the sequels was to refute all the theorists who were convinced that all the magic in the first book was actually a series of psychotic hallucinations and that Quentin had killed himself at the end. The fact that Quentin genuinely struggled with severe depression only encouraged such theorists.
7	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
8	** Even among detractors of the series, Alice is often considered the most likable of the Physical Kids, partly for her intelligence and determination but mostly because she doesn't indulge in the dickishness that the others get up to - which might explain why she ended up getting a ComicBookAdaptation all to herself.
9	** Asmodeus is a big one in the second and third books [[spoiler: especially since she ends up being the one to avenge Julia's rape by hunting down and killing Renard.]]
10	** For the villains, [[spoiler:Martin]] is generally considered such for his intriguing and surprisingly sympathetic backstory, which isn't fully unveiled until the final novel, [[spoiler:long after his death.]]
11	* JerkassWoobie: Quentin drifts strongly towards assholish behavior in some chapters, but even he ends up pitiable through the sheer trauma he eventually brings down on his head - especially once he finally gets over his need to blame something else [[spoiler: for the loss of Alice.]]
12	* NightmareFuel: When time stops still in the middle of class and the Beast appears, though they can't move, everyone is still aware of what's happening, which means that Amanda Orloff was perfectly conscious the entire time she was being eaten alive ''one bite at a time'', and probably a few people had no choice but to watch it all. The Beast counts as this in general.
13	%%* OneSceneWonder: Either one of [[KnightOfCerebus the Beast's]] appearances in the first novel could count.
14	* StoicWoobie: Elliot, as Quentin comes to discern, has a very hard-won outward coolness despite the homophobic bullying that he suffered in his past. During his time at Brakebills, he seems to have the least complaints out of all the characters, and seems to coast by on smart-ass remarks and deadpan humor. However, once he graduates and loses the focus that kept his demons in check, he quickly begins spiraling into alcoholism. [[spoiler: It takes the discovery of Fillory and his eventual ascent to the throne to help him get his act together.]]
15	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Many events of ''The Magicians'' are simply told to the reader - rather than shown. As a result, there're chapters where they describe weeks, or even months worth of happenings, but never actually show it to you - which can include things like CharacterDevelopment. This gets particularly bad when they encounter a talking bear who tells them the way to Ember's tomb... and rather than show us what he says most of the time, the text just summarizes what Humbledrum says, sometimes even summarizing things ''mid-conversation''.
16	** Reynard's fate. In the third book, we see the lone survivor of the Free Trader Group picking up a knife that can kill gods, and vowing to kill him. Unfortunately, it's only within the last two chapters that [[spoiler: the reader is told that Asmodeus went and killed Reynard... with Julia just ''knowing'' and explaining within the penultimate chapter what happened - and that he was gutted. That's it.]] This could be a novel in of itself, just mentioning what could have happened with Reynard on the loose and how he was tracked down.
17	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Quentin, particularly in the first book. On the face of it, his search for purpose is perfectly understandable, and his inability to be satisfied with a stable routine should make him pitiable... but Quentin's habit of ''self''-pity ends up undermining his likability, especially once Quentin starts responding to his problems by treating people around him like shit. It doesn't help that he ends up getting people hurt, killed or worse thanks to his childish behavior: first, there's the accidental summoning of the Beast thanks to Quentin's prank on one of the teachers, an incident that featured Amanda Orloff being ''eaten alive''; then there's his dabbling in Fillory, which led to the final confrontation with the Beast, in which [[spoiler: Penny got his hands bitten off]] and Alice was forced to [[spoiler: sacrifice her life and become a Niffin just to stop Martin Chatwin once and for all]].
18	* {{Wangst}}: A frequent problem. The debate is still out on how much of this was intentional or not.
19	** Easily the worst offender is Quentin. Though magic is immensely difficult to learn and even harder to master, the payoff leaves a graduating wizard rich for life, capable of making their wildest dreams come true, and with no need to work at all. And with all the privilege laid at his doorstep, Quentin steadily becomes more and more self-pitying over his desire for [[IJustWantToBeSpecial purpose]] and [[AllergicToRoutine stimulation]], which only grows all the more galling as he turns into a [[TookALevelInJerkass progressively bigger asshole]]. Worse still, he's often teamed up with people who actually have real insecurities and traumas, including [[DarkAndTroubledPast Alice]], [[StepfordSmiler Josh]], and [[SanitySlippage Julia]], and it only ends up making Quentin look even more petty. Even Alice calls him on this tendency once it looks like he's going to start sulking over the fantasy world he wanted all along. Thankfully, he gradually begins to grow out of this routine over the course of the series, particularly once he finally gets off his ass, takes some responsibility for his actions and does some real work instead of being washed about by the plot.
20	** Also, Dean Fogg's claim that wizards can use magic due to their inherent unhappiness and pain may be considered just a ''little'' bit [[{{Narm}} overdone]].
21	** Emily Greenstreet would seem to be a deliberate example of this, spending most of her appearance consumed with self-pity over the fate of her boyfriend and blaming everything that happened to her on magic - to the point that even ''Quentin'' is put off by her.
22	* TheWoobie:
23	** Quentin, at least in the early chapters, comes across as chronically depressed and plagued with self-doubt, and may inspire genuine sympathy due to his childlike obsessions... up until he starts behaving like an asshole by way of compensating.
24	** Alice: her brother died after being accidentally transformed into a Niffin, her parents descended into solipsistic madness and lost interest in her, and when Brakebills turned her down, she ran away from home and ''walked'' the last few miles just to reach the academy. Plus, she clearly has even less confidence than Quentin. [[spoiler: Also, Quentin cheats on her, spends the next few chapters being an asshole to her and everyone else under the sun, and Alice has to round out her story by sacrificing her life to save everyone.]]
25	** Josh, at times. Outwardly the jovial class clown, it's later revealed that he's actually terrified of being thrown out due to his magical ineptitude and spends a great deal of time hunting for something that might allow him to keep up.

Context YMMV / TheMagicians