Line #35 YMMV/TheSecretCircle


1	!!TV Series
2	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: John Blackwell’s other children from the final episode are hard to classify as good, bad or neutral based on how little is known of them. John says that he summoned them to Chance Harbor but whether that means they were supporters of his plan or he misled them about his goals to make them come is unclear.
3	* BrokenBase: The show and the original books (or at least the original trilogy) have highly different tones, characters, and plots, and both versions have devoted fans who dislike the other medium.
4	* CompleteMonster:
5	** [[BigBad Eben]] is the leader of the [[KnightTemplar witch hunters]]. He's first seen in a flashback that reveals that he and his men murdered the members of the old Circle by pretending to want peace and tried to kill John Blackwell. He gets even worse when he turns out to have survived the fire, only with nasty scarring, and proves bent on killing ''every witch alive'', even those who have never heard of him, just because. He doesn't bat an eye at [[{{Hypocrite}} using magic]] provided by a [[CameBackWrong resurrected and psychotic]] Nick to brainwash Cassie into trying to kill her father and to escape an attack by the Circle that should've killed him outright. Later, he summons and absorbs multiple demons for their power, no doubt driving him even crazier. This is after he sacrifices one of his own men to a demon and using him to lure Blackwell and the Circle into a death trap that just barely fails. According to another witch hunter, he's even killed off [[TheDragon Isaac]]. Then he kidnaps Faye, fully intending to murder her and her covenmates.
6	** [[ArchnemesisDad John Blackwell]] is a warlock who prefers dark magic, and visited the town of Chance Harbor years earlier for one reason-to have children-and achieved this goal by seducing and impregnating members of the previous circle of witches. He returns to manipulate his daughter Cassie and her half-sister Diana. He has all the other Crystal Skulls destroyed so one more could be created. He uses magic to torture [[AntiVillain Jake Armstron]], and summons demons to provide people for them to possess. He doesn't care for his own children, seeing them as only a means of getting power. The Series finale, "Family" reveals his master plan to use the Crystal Skull to kill all witches without Balcoin blood and create a truly dark Circle using his children. He even tries to kill his daughter’s friend Adam, who's already dying from a spell John casted earlier, in front of a helpless Cassie and Diana.
7	* DieForOurShip: Adam gets hate from two sets of shippers for having dated both Cassie and Diana. Adam gets hate from Jake/Cassie shippers, who often make Adam into a horrible boyfriend, which continued even after Adam and Cassie broke up. The Faye/Diana shippers turn Adam into a creepy and possessive ex-boyfriend who hates the fact that Diana has moved on and even occasionally turn Adam into a homophobe in regard to a potential relationship between Faye and Diana, even though there is zero evidence of this in canon.
8	* EnsembleDarkhorse: None of Jane's fellow Elders (CoolOldGuy Henry Chamberlain, PragmaticHero Kate Meade, CrazySurvivalist Royce Armstrong, PosthumousCharacter James Conant, and Melissa's unseen grandmother) are seen or mentioned in more than a handful of episodes, but all of them inspire a lot of interest and investment.
9	%%** Who doesn't love Faye?
10	%%** Diana is probably even more popular.
11	* {{Fanon}}: There is no indication that Charles and Elizabeth were actually married, but she is generally referred to as Elizabeth Meade.
12	* FanPreferredCouple:
13	** Faye/Diana aka [[PortmanteauCoupleName Fayana]] is more popular than their canon love interests with Jake and Lee for Faye or Grant for Diana, as well as arguably any other ship from the show to a ridiculous extent. When Wetpaint ran a "who should Faye be with" poll, only Lee and Jake were mentioned in the title and the article itself, but the poll also included Diana. [[http://www.wetpaint.com/the-secret-circle/articles/who-should-faye-be-with-on-the-secret-circle-jake-armstrong-or-lee-labeque?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter Diana won with over 87% of the vote]], and on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, they have over twice as many fics as the next most popular pairing.
14	** The show tries to present Adam as Cassie's OneTrueLove, but a lot of fans quickly grew tired of their WillTheyOrWontThey, feeling that it grew old fast. Early on in the show, most fans paired her with Faye, due to the chemistry between the two actresses. However, that soon changed with the introduction of Nick's older brother and resident bad boy, Jake, who the fangirls almost instantly took to shipping Cassie with over Adam.
15	* HilariousInHindsight: Cassie moving in with Diana after [[spoiler: it's revealed they're sisters.]]
16	** On that same notion, Charles and Kate wanting use to Cassie and her dark magic for their plan when [[spoiler: Diana also had dark magic]]
17	** Furthermore: Cassie's dark magic first manifests saving Diana's life.
18	* ItWasHisSled: Everyone knows [[spoiler: Cassie and Diana are sisters]]
19	* {{Jerkass Woobie}}: Arguably, Nick. He [[spoiler: lost both his parents]] and now lives with "Jesus Freaks", his aunt and uncle. Not the most desirable thing for a teenage boy, especially one with magic powers. Then he [[spoiler: gets possessed by a demon, drowned to kill it, and resurrected to help Eben against the Circle -- only to wind up dying ''again'' when Melissa stabs him before he can kill Jake, his own brother]]. Just...''ouch''.
20	* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Faye is shipped with almost every character on the show, particularly her other Circle members. The most popular ship in the fandom is Faye and Diana, but Faye has been shipped with Cassie, Melissa, Adam, Jake, and Nick. This is because she is the fan favorite of the show and her actress, Creator/PhoebeTonkin, has good chemistry with everyone.
21	* LesYay: Faye and ''every girl''. Let's break it down:
22	** Faye and Cassie. Faye's first scene in the series involved her walking up to Cassie and saying:
23	-->''"You really are very pretty, aren't you?"''
24	** She also likes to get very close to Cassie when she's talking to her.
25	** Watch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr4N508TYRE this]] clip. Not only do they walk with arms linked for most of the scene, but watch the last few seconds and tell me Faye isn't checking Cassie out as she walks away.
26	-->''"You're a little firecracker, aren't you, Cassie?"''
27	** Faye and Diana. Like with Cassie, Faye likes to get ''very'' close to Diana when talking to here, engaging in rather more eye contact and physical interaction than is strictly necessary.
28	*** The game of truth or dare they played. Faye's took the first opportunity she got to dare Diana to take off her top.
29	*** And for Faye's truth, she is asked how many people she has slept with. Faye replies "two people". Many fans have caught onto the fact that she used the word "people" and not "guys".
30	** Faye and Melissa.
31	*** One episode has scene between Faye and Diana talking about Melissa as though Diana is Melissa's jealous Ex-Girlfriend.
32	** Cassie and Diana have their share of moments as well. Diana seems pretty keen on getting Cassie to join and really pushes the idea of being friends. Episode 10 even has the two of them sharing Diana's bed while Jane is away. This is now [[spoiler:shot down, since Diana has been revealed as Cassie's half-sister]].
33	** And now "Fire and Ice" gives us Diana and Melissa. In "Medallion" Faye ''gives them'' a PortmanteauCoupleName: Delissa.
34	* LGBTFanbase: Has quite a lesbian fanbase due to the LesYay listed below.
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36	* NightmareFuel: [[spoiler: Cassie's mother Amelia's death at the hands of Charles Meade. First he drops a bottle of water on the ground, causing a the sink to start spraying water everywhere. Then he strikes a match, causing a fire on the stove. Amelia manages to get the burner turned off... just as Charles strikes another match and starts the fire again. He then causes the flames to spread, then as Amelia turns to run, she slips in the water, falling and cracking her head against the ground. She looks like she's a goner, then wakes up with a gasp of "Cassie!" and fights to get out of the flames. Charles then proceeds to burn her alive, listening to her scream in pain/horror as she realizes she's trapped. He then turns and walks away without emotion.]]
37	* PortmanteauCoupleName: The show has a ton of this. There is "Fayana" for the popular Faye/Diana ship, which has been used by the cast and crew to promote the show. There is also "Cadam" (Cassie/Adam), "Chamberlake" (Faye/Cassie), and "Jassie" or "Cake" for Cassie/Jake, and those are just the most popular ones.
38	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Adam when the show stopped trying to force his relationship with Cassie.
39	* RomanticPlotTumor: Ask anyone what they disliked most about the series and chances are other than Grant, it'll be the Cassie/Adam plot. Thankfully, the writers seemed to get the memo and broke them up.
40	* TheScrappy: Grant is this [[DieForOurShip taking Diana from Faye]] and also for making her want out of the circle when she was the driving force that got them all together.
41	* SeriesContinuityError: The pilot has Cassie's jacket change from brown leather to black leather in the next scene.
42	* ShipMates: Jake/Cassie Adam/Diana and [[LesYay Faye/Melissa]] makes it so all of the members of the circle can be paired without any outsiders.
43	** There's also Cassie/Jake, Faye/Diana, and Adam/Melissa
44	* ShipsThatPassInTheNight: A number of Fayana stories also pair of Cassie and Melissa, who out of the entire circle, probably interacted the least (except for maybe Jake and Diana).
45	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: While newer fans tend to view the show as a phenomenal CultClassic, book readers tend to dislike how much the show changes the circle dynamics (and membership), character families, and general plot and atmosphere, especially after [[Series/TheVampireDiaries seeing the same thing happen in a previous L.J. Smith adaptation.]]
46	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
47	** While the shows cast is praised, beloved AdaptedOut novel characters like Suzan, the Henderson Twins (one of whom was included in early script drafts), and Deborah are sorely missed by many fans of the books, although versions of them might have appeared if the show had lasted longer.
48	** Mr. Glasser is the only member of the previous circle to remarry after the boatyard massacre and apparently survived the massacre by not showing up for the trap in the first place. All of this bodes for him to be a good supporting character, but instead he is TheGhost for the whole show.
49	* UnpopularPopularCharacter: TallDarkAndSnarky UnscrupulousHero Faye is disliked by many of the townspeople and even some of her fellow coven members at times, but she is probably the most popular character with the show's fanbase.
50	* TheWoobie: It's hard not to feel bad for Cassie. She has this destiny forced upon her that [[IJustWantToBeNormal she doesn't want]], she has [[spoiler: dark magic]] inside her that could hurt a lot of people if she doesn't figure out how to control it, and her soulmate may be Adam, boyfriend of her best friend Diana, [[spoiler: a fact that led to their breakup -- and as if that's not enough, Diana turns out to be her half-sister, whose adoptive father ''killed Cassie's mother'']]. On top of it all, [[spoiler: her father is a [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative liar]] and her grandmother has been murdered, leaving her practically alone]]...and ''then'' [[spoiler: Diana turns against her, blaming her for bringing their father into their lives and allowing him to manipulate the entire Circle, and leaves Chance Harbor in the finale because she can't handle having dark magic]]. Dear ''God'', someone give this girl a hug.
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52	!!The original book series
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54	* EnsembleDarkHorse: ThePrankster Henderson twins, Faye's InnocentBetaBitch Suzan, and stoic bad boy Nick are popular for being well-developed, colorful, and entertaining secondary characters.
55	* FanonDiscontinuity: Some fans only acknowledge the original trilogy and dislike the subsequent books for having a ghostwriter with a noticeably different style.

Context YMMV / TheSecretCircle