History Literature / QuidditchThroughTheAges

** Quodpot seems to be an Expy for UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball, with it being the preferred sport in the United States while Quidditch is largely ignored. Quodpot is also much riskier and violent for the players, boasting a ball that explodes under certain conditions.

* ContinuityNod: Two of the Quidditch fouls listed- flying with intent to collide and excessive use of elbows- occurred in the Quidditch World Cup in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''.

* BloodSport: Creaothceann, an ancient Scottish broom game, involved players catching plummeting rocks with cauldrons strapped to their heads. The game itself is illegal today due to massive casualty rates, though there's evidence that it may have inspired the Bludgers of Quidditch, flying iron balls that attack players indiscriminately.

* AnAxeToGrind: Apparently happened at one point, hence why it's banned in the official rules list.

** Attacking an opponent with {{an axe|ToGrind}}.

* GrumpyBear: Gertie Kettle the Marsh Witch, who witnessed the invention of Quidditch by her neighbors and recorded it in her diary, had absolutely nothing complimentary to say about either her neighbors or the game.

** As mentioned above, Quodpot seems to be an Expy for UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball, with it being the preferred sport in the United States while Quidditch is largely ignored. Quodpot is also much riskier and violent for the players, boasting a ball that explodes under certain conditions.

* AllThereInTheManual: This ''is'' the manual.

** Quidditch is less popular in America in comparison to Quodpot, a sort of hot-potato game involving a Quaffle that has been tampered with and explodes -- probably a joke on Americans who prefer American football to soccer and are obsessed with StuffBlowingUp. (Ironically, one of the strongest American Quidditch teams, the Sweetwater All-Stars, comes from [[EverythingIsBigInTexas a region]] where American football is ''overwhelmingly'' the sport of choice in RealLife.)

* WackyRacing: It's mentioned that Sweden holds an annual broomstick race that goes through a dragon reservation, and thus has a really high death count.

''Quidditch Through the Ages'' was re-released in 2018 as an audiobook containing additional material from the Pottermore website, most significantly an account of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup in the form of newspaper articles by Ginny Potter; the final match is portrayed through live commentary from Ginny and Rita Skeeter.

Albus Dumbledore's introduction claims that [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis it is a duplicate of the copy kept in the Hogwarts library]] and describes how Madam Pince was reluctant to let it be made available to {{Muggles}}.

%% * LiteraryAgentHypothesis

''Quidditch Through the Ages'' was re-released in 2018 as an audiobook containing additional material from the Pottermore website, most significantly an account of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup in the form of newspaper articles by Ginny Potter; the final match is portrayed using live commentary from Ginny and Rita Skeeter.

* GoldenSnitch: The origins of the TropeNamer are detailed. The Snitch was not originally part of the game, but was introduced in the form of the Golden Snidget, a tiny round hummingbird whose incredible speed made it difficult to catch. The Chief of the Wizards' Council threw one into a match while offering 150 Galleons to the first player that could catch it. From then on, it became customary to include Golden Snidgets in the game, with them granted 150 points in honor of the original bet, but the dark side was that the Snidget tended to be killed in the process. Eventually, their numbers dropped so low that inclusion of them was banned, and an artificial replacement was built, the Golden Snitch.
* GrumpyBear: The Marsh Witch, who witnessed the invention of Quidditch by her neighbors and recorded it in her diary.
* HistoryRepeats:
** Twice, it's shown a rule change that prompts wizards to say "TheyChangedItNowItSucks" - once for turning the goals from baskets on stilts into fixed-size hoops, and another for banning "[[UnnecessaryRoughness two chasers knocking out the goalkeeper]]".
** Not to mention that the ''Daily Prophet'' articles are exactly the same in terms of formula: "A QUOTATION FOR A HEADLINE": A "insert synonym for worried here" ministry official, his quotation, his being assaulted by a rain of Quidditch-related objects, a(n) "insert facial characteristic here" wizard, and their quotation. As the articles ran less than two years apart, they probably shared the same in-Verse writer.
%% * HomeFieldAdvantage: wicker caves.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: The Marsh Witch hated Quidditch. [[MisanthropeSupreme Or everything, really]].

* NoodleIncident: The 1473 Quidditch World Cup, because every sport has a really bad day at some point - all seven hundred fouls were committed. This included all 11 of the most commonly seen fouls as well as:

** Attacking an opponent with [[AnAxeToGrind an axe]].
* ObviousRulePatch: It's mentioned that the exhaustive list of fouls (which apparently numbers in the ''hundreds'') has never been made public to avoid giving the players [[LoopholeAbuse ideas]]. Though it's also mentioned that the list is mostly redundant, since the ban on using wands during play renders 90% of the fouls on the list impossible to commit.

** Appleby Arrows vs. Wimbourne Wasps. Due to a nasty incident involving lobbing a wasps nest at an Arrow's Seeker (the most likely reason behind the Wasps name), the two teams are in a fierce rivalry.
** The Thundellara Thunderers vs. The Wollongong Warriors. The rivalry is so bad that the very idea of refereeing a game between the two clubs is implied to be a ''nasty'' one. Heck, in wizarding Australia, the common reply to an unlikely claim or boast is "Yeah, and I think I'll volunteer to ref the next Thunderer-Warrior game."

* SparseListOfRules: And as a result, the book only lists the eleven fouls most commonly seen.
* UnnecessaryRoughness: Quidditch fouls include, for example, "attacking one's opponent with an axe".
* [[invoked]]VindicatedByHistory: InUniverse; Modesty Rabnott was initially viewed as a killjoy for saving the Golden Snidget being hunted as a bet, and lost her house to pay the fine. After the hunting of Golden Snidgets was banned, a wildlife preserve for the endangered birds was given her name.
* WackyRacing: It's mentioned that Sweden holds an annual broomstick race that goes through a dragon reserve, and thus has a really high death count.
* WronskiFeint: TropeNamer, specifically after famed Polish Seeker Josef Wronski.

A companion piece to ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem''.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: InUniverse; Japanese players have a {{seppuku}}-like custom of destroying the broom after a loss, as a way of the player regaining honor. Outside of Japan, the same practice is considered a waste of useful hardwood which also makes the Japanese look like sore losers.

%% * FootnoteFever

''Quidditch Through the Ages'' is a book mentioned in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' which was later {{Defictionaliz|ation}}ed as a real book by Creator/JKRowling [[PenName writing as]] Kennilworthy Whisp. Published in 2001, it is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, describing the long history and current state of the wizarding sport of Quidditch, and including information about flying broomsticks and other sports played on them.

A companion piece to ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem''. ''Quidditch Through the Ages'' was re-released in 2018 as an audiobook containing additional material from the Pottermore website, most significantly an account of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup in the form of newspaper articles by Ginny Potter; the final match has live commentary from Ginny and Rita Skeeter.

* EndangeredSpecies: The Golden Snidget, after the early Quidditch games.

* FlawedPrototype: The first Broomsticks were flyable, but they were not very aerodynamic, Their speeds varied from broom to broom, and were painfully uncomfortable and [[GroinAttack prone to shrapnel in really sensitive areas.]]

A book mentioned in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' which was later [[{{Defictionalization}} Defictionalized]] as a real book written by [[Creator/JKRowling Kennilworthy Whisp]]. Published in 2001, it is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, describing Quidditch through the ages, as you'd probably expect.

A companion piece to ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem''.

* TheAce: The Montrose Magpies. They have the distinction of having won 32 of their own league's championships, have won the European league twice, and once had a seeker who was so good he actually petitioned to get the snitch made faster because it was "Too easy."
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: With the exception of Puddlemere United, every single one of the Quidditch teams described in the book.
* AintNoRule: Quidditch averts this trope spectacularly, with an appropriately arcane multitude of rules covering every possible event.
** Although about 90% of those rules (specifically the rules on foul plays) originate from incidents where a player tried some whacky new tactic on the basis that, at the time, there weren't no rule agin' it.

* AmazonBrigade: The Holyhead Harpies is the only all-female Quidditch team.

** Quidditch is less popular in America in comparison to Quodpot, a sort of hot-potato game involving a Quaffle that has been tampered with and explodes -- probably a joke on Americans who prefer American football to soccer and are obsessed with StuffBlowingUp. (Ironically, the 1993 Quidditch World Cup champions, the Sweetwater All-Stars, come from [[EverythingIsBigInTexas a region]] where American football is ''overwhelmingly'' the sport of choice in RealLife.)
** In Asia, however, Quidditch is only slowly gaining appeal because Asian wizards have traditionally preferred flying carpets to flying broomsticks. The exception to this rule is Japan.
* AnimalMotif: Many different professional Quidditch teams have animals for mascots and often take colors associated with them. The Moutohora Macaws go the extra step further by modeling their uniforms like their namesake; a scarlet macaw.

* BadassDecay: InUniverse, the Chudley Cannons. They've won the league championship 21 times... but the last time they did it was in 1892. Since that point, they've been pitiful. Their motto even got changed from "We shall conquer" to "[[ButtMonkey Let's cross our fingers and hope for the best.]]"
* BloodKnight: The Falmouth Falcons motto is "Let us win, but if we cannot win, let's break a few heads."
* BloodSport: Creaothceann, an ancient Scottish broom game, involved players catching plummeting rocks with cauldrons strapped to their heads. Illegal today due to massive casualty rates.

* LetterMotif: Other than one exception, all the named members of the Holyhead Harpies have a first or last name (or both) that starts with the letter 'G'.

* NoodleIncident: The 1473 Quidditch World Cup, because every sport has a really bad day at some point - all seven hundred fouls were committed. This included all 11 official fouls as well as:

* NoodleIncident: The 1492 Quidditch World Cup, because every sport has a really bad day at some point - every single foul was committed (plus ones that hadn't been invented at the time), including the one about the axe (see above and below), plus "Attempting to decapitate your opponent with a broadsword", "Another player other than the Seeker touching the Snitch", "Tampering with the Quaffle", and "Attempted murder of the referee".