History Podcast / SemiautomagicInc

* {{Expy}}: Wake and Piroa start off as pretty straight Mulder and Scully clones, but that lasts about a tenth of a giant crow fight.

* BadassBeard: Rowan and Salvador Hernandez.

[[folder: Season II: Semaiu2magic]]

[[folder: Season II: Northwest Passage]]

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Solomon and Rowan at the end of Season 1.

* FiveManBand: Almost all of them simultaneously played straight and subverted.
** TheLeader: Solomon is nominally in charge of the task force and has the best access to resources and intel through the WC, but is easily flustered and hilariously bad under pressure.
** TheLancer: Rowan consistently casts his vote against what the party decides and questions Solomon's orders and fitness to lead, but only because he actually has a huge amount of respect for him, is super emotional and reads way too far into things and their implications for his and Solmon's friendship, which he deeply values.
** TheSmartGuy: Piroa plays this fairly straight and will Science at most things, but is also perfectly willing to [[spoiler:'fuck up a middle school']] and accept that sometimes the answer is just ''magic''.
** TheBigGuy: Wake is definitely big, definitely punching you at this moment, but also very intelligent, eager to learn and deeply emotional, problems surrounding which become a minor character theme late in the first season.
** TheChick: Subverted hardest of all, as Fiona is certainly ''a'' girl, but eschews nearly every traditional The Girl trait such as gentleness, preferring words over conflict, providing the team a sense of comfort and emotional nurturing, and serving as a love interest for one of the guys [[spoiler: by instead having Piroa serve as one for ''her'']].

** [[FiveManBand Solomon Byron & The Task Force]], [[RunningGag which is my new arena-rock klezmer band]].

Podcast / Semiautomagic, Inc.
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** [[MeaningfulNickname Lucky Frog]] for Solomon Byron himself, and for Dylan in real life.

** Solomon: [[spoiler: Salvador Hernandez releases the [[{{Anime/Hellsing}} Control Art Restriction System]] that had apparently contained the better part of the power and knowledge Solomon acquired in his [[DealWithTheDevil bargain]] with the Morrigan, and possibly bringing him to her attention after years of successfully laying low.]]

* {{Insistent Terminology}}:

** Anime/ParanoiaAgent: Season 1 echoes the show's theme of individuals being driven by desperation and despair into inescapable corners, only to be offered salvation by a mysterious, sinister outside force. {{Word Of God}} says this is intentional.

* StraightGay: Rowan is canonically gay, just not {{Camp Gay}}, and his antisocial attitude means it just kinda doesn't come up [[spoiler: until he begins to tacitly accept and reciprocate Xavier's flirtations]].

%%** TheDarkTower: One of Rowan’s stunts is called Face of My Father.

** {{Dark Souls}}: Sirnef the Grey Wolf refers to Sif the Grey Wolf, another partner to a great warrior.
** {{The Dark Tower}}: One of Rowan’s stunts is called Face of My Father.
** {{The Dresden Files}}: Like the proper Dresden Files Roleplaying Game itself, Semiautomagic, Inc. takes place in a version of the Dresdenverse and so references and shoutouts are frequent and numerous, including its name, which (minus the Inc.) was a considered title for the first novel in the series, eventually named Storm Front.
** {{Dune}}: Countless, such as the carnivorous worms summoned by Mother Harvest being referred to as Shai-Hulud.
** {{Homestar Runner}}:

** {{Final Fantasy VII}}: [[spoiler: Altozephyr]] means 'high wind', and is a reference to Cid Highwind.
** {{MC Frontalot}}: A verse of Stoop Sale is rapped as a description of babbling nonsense resulting from consumption of Three Eye.
** {{MacGruber}}: Just about everyone in the team pulls of The Old Celery Trick at least once.
** {{Midlake}}: Whipplethorpe !Ngutu Clementine Van Occupanther refers to their record ''The Trials Of Van Occupanther''.

** {{Paranoia Agent}}: Season 1 echoes the show's theme of individuals being driven by desperation and despair into inescapable corners, only to be offered salvation by a mysterious, sinister outside force. {{Word Of God}} says this is intentional.
** {{Parks And Recreation}}:

** {{Portlandia}}: after some back and forth between Portland, Portlandia, and Landport, the city's name finally--but flexibly--settles as Landportlandia.
** {{Read Or Die}}: Delilah Oddwater, a junior bureaucromancer, is referred to as The Paper.
** {{Sailor Moon}}: Jackie describes Fiona’s new magic labcoat appearing as taking the form of a magical-girl transformation sequence.
** {{A Series Of Unfortunate Events}}: Salvador Hernandez is described as "a man with a beard, but no hair".
** {{Twin Peaks}}: Sketchy Dave employs a raccoon secretary named Diane.
** {{The Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny}}: a verse is tossed off as a description of babbling nonsense resulting from consumption of Three Eye
** {{Welcome To Night Vale}}: One episode opens with a subdued, poetic intro that ends with the evening being described as filled "with a certain sense of [[TitleDrop Semiautomagic]]".

* {{Mad Doctor}}: The Reverend Stitch isn't ''mad'' exactly but certainly considers things like 'medical ethics', 'patient consent' and 'germ theory' to be secondary at best to making people...better.

* {{Mistaken For Romance}}: Fiona and Rowan; it happens only infrequently, but it's a mistake you only make once.

* {{Odd Friendship}}: Rowan and Johnny Vampire. Why the hell are they friends? Why is Johnny the ONLY person in the world Rowan seems to like? When did they meet? These are the questions that plague is when the night has come and the land is dark.

* {{One Steve Limit}}: ''Heavily'' averted with the Brothers Dave.

* {{Only Sane Man}}: Solomon inhabits a world three full levels of realism below his own and mostly takes it like a champ.

* {{Opening Shout Out}}: Casey will occasionally make reference to the show's intro and outro music and attempt to sing along with it.

* {{Running Gag}}:

* {{Saving Christmas}}: Let's Save Jewish Christmas is a Chanukkah variant.

* {{Shout Out}}: Possibly outweigh the show's actual original content.

* {{Show Within A Show}}: Fun With Fungus, [[BlatantLies the internet's #1 fungus fun-fact filled source for the mushroom maniac]], to which we are treated whenever someone forgets to beat Anthony to introducing the show.

* {{Straight Gay}}: Rowan is canonically gay, just not {{Camp Gay}}, and his antisocial attitude means it just kinda doesn't come up [[spoiler: until he begins to tacitly accept and reciprocate Xavier's flirtations]].

* {{Vitriolic Best Buds}}: See: The whole gang, but especially Rowan and Solomon, but ''especially'' Rowan and Fiona, and '''''especially''''' Solomon and Baron Von Candyland.

* {{We Used To Be Friends}}: Solomon and Rowan at the end of Season 1.

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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Season One: The Throne Of Mists]]

* {{We Used To Be Friends}}: Solomon and Rowan at the end of Season 1.
[[/folder]]

* {{And I Must Scream}}: Implied to be the state, if not fate, of many of the patients inhabiting St. Skinner's Barre & Grylle & Hospytol, [[spoiler:including Dr. Bismarck's brother]].

* [[AscendedFanboy Ascended Fangirl]]: Liz Leighton was the first and, to date, only fan to solve the Mist Array puzzle and was rewarded with the creation of an in-world character, [[ChildProdigy Li'l Liz Delphi]], Arcanocryptography Girl Genius.

* {{Badass Beard}}: Rowan and Salvador Hernandez.

* {{Badass Normal}}: Xavier Tangleforth Vth, like [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Waldo Butters]] before him, has no magical ability beyond that inherent to being a living human, but has become learned in the ways of the weird and outfitted himself with a number of magical weapons and converting his family's museum into a storehouse for potentially dangerous magical artifacts and paraphernalia.

* {{Bad Guy Bar}}: St. Skinner's Barre & Grylle & Hospytol, though played with in that it's creepy from the outside but [[spoiler:is run by Actual Neil Young so he can make sure the Chirurgeons stay in the actual hospital]].

* {{Big Bad}}: [[spoiler:Oberon, styled the Lord of Mists]]

* {{Bilingual Bonus}}:
** 'Kuniklo' means 'rabbit' in Esperanto, and where does everyone's favorite arachnine bookmaker live? Down a rabbit-hole.

* {{Blood Knight}}: Wake Wagner is described as Blood Knight Lite, as he will enter combat instantly, wholeheartedly, with the slightest possible provocation and with a joy more pure than that of a child discovering bubble-blowing, but also has other traits and qualities and when not punching things really enjoys bowling and the cultivation of domesticated termites, though this last is admittedly a consequence of his punching addiction.

* {{Came Back Wrong}}: [[spoiler: Sirnef the Grey Wolf, resurrected ''twice'' to fight alongside The Huntress, once as a twitchy zombie and once as a skeletal suit of armor his best friend was forcibly grafted into]].

* {{Dark And Troubled Past}}: Rowan is the Last Son of the Spring Court of Faerie, and his father gave up his life to get Rowan out of Communist Russia. He then spent his youth and young adulthood murdering dark wizards for profit. Needless to say, the dude has issues.

* {{Deal With The Devil}}:

* {{Eldritch Abomination}}:

* {{Eldritch Location}}: St. Skinner's Barre & Grylle & Hospytol is ''somehow'' an enormous building attached to the back of a tiny shack bar run by Actual Neil Young.

* {{Exactly What It Says On The Tin}}: The Go-There Circle which, as the name implies, goes you there.

* {{Exact Words}}: [[RulesLawyer Kuniklo the Bookie]] holds Rowan to the exact phrasing of his bet, leading to...[[LetMeAtHim vigorous philosophical debate]] over the spirit versus the letter of an agreement.

* {{Five Man Band}}: Almost all of them simultaneously played straight and subverted.
** {{The Leader}}: Solomon is nominally in charge of the task force and has the best access to resources and intel through the WC, but is easily flustered and hilariously bad under pressure.
** {{The Lancer}}: Rowan consistently casts his vote against what the party decides and questions Solomon's orders and fitness to lead, but only because he actually has a huge amount of respect for him, is super emotional and reads way too far into things and their implications for his and Solmon's friendship, which he deeply values.
** [[TheSmartGuy The Science]] : Piroa plays this fairly straight and will Science at most things, but is also perfectly willing to [[spoiler:'fuck up a middle school']] and accept that sometimes the answer is just ''magic''.
** {{The Big Guy}}: Wake is definitely big, definitely punching you at this moment, but also very intelligent, eager to learn and deeply emotional, problems surrounding which become a minor character theme late in the first season.
** {{The Chick}}: Subverted hardest of all, as Fiona is certainly ''a'' girl, but eschews nearly every traditional The Girl trait such as gentleness, preferring words over conflict, providing the team a sense of comfort and emotional nurturing, and serving as a love interest for one of the guys [[spoiler: by instead having Piroa serve as one for ''her'']].

* ForScience: Pretty much the only reason Desmond Yonwood does anything, but also a hearty chunk of Piroa's motivation.

* {{Guys Smash Girls Shoot}}: Piroa Dalma usually either throws something or tosses off some sweet ranged energy-blade attacks, and Wake Wagner ain't called Punchy [=McHuge=] for nothin'.

* {{Informed Loner}}: Rowan claims to be a self-isolated loner, but it becomes apparent fairly early on that this is part of his cultivated bounty hunter mystique.

* {{Last Of His Kind}}: Rowan begins the game as the Last Son of the Spring Court of Faerie, and [[spoiler: by the end of Season 1 Fiona is the last surviving member of the Autumn Court]].

* {{Loony Friends Improve Your Personality}}: Solomon is loosening up whether he likes it or not, and usually for the better. Also Piroa and Wake, to a certain extent.

** {{Norse Mythology}}: Sirnef the Grey Wolf's first name is 'Fenris', the sun and god eating giant wolf which plays a central part in Ragnarok, reversed.