History Series / TheMagicians2016

* EroticDream: Quentin has one involving Alice as [[Series/GameOfThrones Daenerys Targaryen]] and Julia as [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi Leia in her metal bikini]], while he himself is [[Franchise/IndianaJones Indiana Jones]]. Hilariously, Alice/Daenerys rebukes him for not allowing the two to talk long enough to pass the UsefulNotes/BechdelTest.

** Penny didn't have much of a background to account for his unpleasant behavior - and he wasn't being secretly taught by the Beast. Also, in the book he is described as [[AmbiguousDisorder inappropriately enthusiastic, and possibly autistic]] rather than constantly angry

* AttentionWhore: Alice's parents. They're what drove her out of the house into Breakbills.

* TheMagicGoesAway: Partially at the end of Season 2; [[spoiler:the Old Gods react to Quentin killing their (extremely spoiled) sons by instructing the God of Plumbers (no really) to disable mana flow on Earth and Fillory permanently. Nobody can draw mana to cast, all enchantments are disabled, and anything powered by mana is dying. However, this doesn't negate the powers of magical creatures or disable things created by magic (which, thankfully, includes the delicate and complex physics balancing equation keeping a FlatEarth with millions of orbiting asteroids from collapsing on itself). Julia and the Fae are their own power sources, so they can still use magic, and Penny's Traveler teleportation works independent of his ability to use magic.]]

* BrokenBird: Professor Mayakovsky who seems like a tough badass but has a tragic past and is actually very frightened underneath it all, something which Quentin points out in the second season. Also the Beast, when we learn his secret identity. As well as Eliot, and Julia. In fact, the whole concept of losing one's shade could be interpreted as a metaphor for Broken Bird Syndrome and the sense of detachment that can be brought on by trauma.

* BrokenBird: Professor Mayakovsky who seems like a tough badass but has a tragic past and is actually very frightened underneath it all, something which Quentin points out in the second season. Also the Beast, when we learn his secret identity. As well as Eliot, and Julia. In fact, the whole concept of losing one's shade could be interpreted as a metaphor for Broken Bird Syndrome and the sense of detachment that can be brought on by trauma.

* AdaptationDeviation: Many minor and major differences here and there, some of the more important ones being:
** The Beast’s power and its source: six fingers, sacrifice of his “humanity”, some knowledge and a deal with a god (books) vs. six fingers, removal of his “shade”, and drinking from the [[MagicEnhancement Wellspring]] (series);
** Magic in Fillory gradually waning and becoming unreliable: Fillory was at the end of its life-cycle, dying (books) vs. the Wellspring getting bespoiled (series);
** The old gods noticing humanity’s use of magic: Julia’s summoning of Reynard the Fox awakened other gods (books) vs. the killing of Ember made them retaliate;
** Magic being disabled on a global scale: by making changes to the “matrix” upon which the many different dimensions reside (books) vs. some human-looking being walking into various magical places and “sealing” magic shut;
** Creation of Fillorian gods: a sacrifice of a goddess gives life to Ember, Umber, and Fillory itself (books) vs. Ember and Umber have unmentioned “parents” who apparently care enough about the deicide to retaliate against Earth, Fillory, and the inter-dimensional Library.
* AdaptationDistillation: In the first book of the trilogy that the show is based on, the entrance exam had a long section devoted to it. Here it's compressed to just showing us that the writing on the exam paper is frequently changing, and Quentin passes while Julia doesn't.
* AdaptationNameChange: Janet Pluchinsky and Amanda Orloff from the novels get renamed to, respectively, Margo Hanson and Kady Orloff-Diaz. Lampshaded in Margo's case: when the group arrives at the Neitherlands: the librarian calls her Janet, but when Margo corrects her, she simply replies, "[[LeaningOnTheFourthWall This time.]]" - implying that [[spoiler: the books and the television series are actually alternate timelines]]. When [[spoiler:Margo's memories are wiped and she's given a new identity]] in season 4, she is called Janet again.

** Dean Fogg in the novels is a fairly realistic portrayal of an academic administrator. Namely, in the books he is a stuffy ObstructiveBureaucrat who sees himself as a gatekeeper whose duty is to prevent students he deems unworthy from achieving their professional or academic goals. In the series, he is more of a clever TricksterMentor for whom AuthorityEqualsAsskicking.

** The first season finale's title is "Have You Brought Me Little Cakes?" in reference to Ember's question when meeting Julia and Quentin. The season two finale which focuses on Ember has the title "We Have Brought You Little Cakes".

* ConversationalTroping: The characters are GenreSavvy fantasy fans and frequently discuss, lampshade, or converse the happenings around them.
* CrapsaccharineWorld:
** Brakebills looks light and fluffy, but the teachers make only token efforts to keep the students safe, it's not unheard of for entire classes of students to just disappear, and since magic is powered by pain [[DieOrFly this]] is actually a valid way of teaching it.
** Fillory itself turns out rather different from Quentin's expectations.
* CreatorCameo: Lev Grossman appears in "The Source of Magic" as "Dev Fleischman", an expert on the Fillory novels.
* CrossoverCosmology: Although the Myth/ClassicalMythology pantheon does the plot's heavy lifting, gods from other pantheons are mentioned in the setting as possible sources of divinity-related powers. Season 4 has gods from the Celtic and Egyptian pantheons in minor roles.

* FailedASpotCheck: Plover’s sister doesn’t notice when Eliot empties his tea on the carpet.
* FantasyContraception: Season 5 mentions that contraception wards are commonly used by Magicians.
* FantasyKitchenSink: A myriad of fantasy creatures show up or are mentioned, both on Earth and in the HighFantasy world of Fillory. Vampires, werewolves, nymphs, gods, centaurs, fairies, dragons, dwarves -- you name it.

* ForeignRulingClass: Justified -- for some reason, only people from Earth are allowed to become kings and queens of Fillory. Deconstructed too, as these individuals likely don't have any idea how to rule a foreign magical land, and actual "good" monarchs are far and in-between.

* HereWeGoAgain: [[spoiler: The end of season 4 for Margo and Eliot. Apparently someone calling themselves the Dark King took over Fillory in the time they were away. Just another day in paradise.]]

* TheMagicComesBack: The primary plot arc of Season 3 is to get magic back. [[spoiler: The Season 3 sees the group reactivating the flow of magic in the universe, at a cost. Alice destroyed the original Seven Keys but Julia was able to recreate them by giving up her divinity. As magic begins flowing into the universe again, Fogg, who has teamed up with Irene and the Library, turns up and magic is siphoned off to be controlled by the Library who decides who gets to possess magic and who doesn't and how much. This is fixed by the end of the season, only for the problem to be that there is now ''too much'' magic, which has potentially apocalyptic consequences.]]

* TheMagicGoesAway: Partially at the end of Season 2; [[spoiler:the Old Gods react to Quentin killing their (extremely spoiled) sons by instructing the God of Plumbers (no really) to disable mana flow on Earth and Fillory permanently. Nobody can draw mana to cast, all enchantments are disabled, and anything powered by mana is dying. However, this doesn't negate the powers of magical creatures or disable things created by magic (which, thankfully, includes the delicate and complex physics balancing equation keeping a FlatEarth with millions of orbiting asteroids from collapsing on itself). Julia and the Fae are their own power sources, so they can still use magic, and Penny's Traveler teleportation works independent of his ability to use magic.]]

* MercyKill: After entering her mind with magic, a comatose patient asks Julia to kill her. She refuses, but Richard gives an overdose to her once Julia tells him this.

* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Reynard, or the fetus, forced the doctor Julia went to have an abortion from into suicide.

* TheTopicOfCancer: When Quentin finds out that his father has cancer, he wants to use magic to cure it, but is told that it is one of the diseases that magicians have not been able to cure. Cancer is part of the patient's body changing rather then an outside virus or bacteria, and magic cannot distinguish between the two. Using magic to change one's own body is extremely hard and prone to BodyHorror results. Trying to cure cancer is more likely to kill the patient outright.

* TragicStillbirth: Fen and Eliot finding out their daughter was still-born, minus all the fairy drama surrounding the incident.
* ThirdPersonPerson: The Binder always refers to himself this way, or "he", and claims not to know what Margo's talking about when she calls it out.

* UrbanFantasy: Mixed with HighFantasy. The scenes on Earth mix fantastic phenomena with normal American city life.

** The entire main cast in the season finale. In the book, this event was a marathon battle featuring Alice matching the Beast almost move for move with every spell in her repertoire, the rest of the group teaming up to pelt the Beast with magic, and Quentin - though badly wounded - managing to slow the Beast down by summoning a cacodemon into the fight; the whole thing ends [[spoiler: with the Beast being slain, at the cost of Alice being transformed into a Niffin and vanishing into the ether]]. In the show, [[spoiler: the entire party is taken out in the space of about thirty seconds, and the Beast survives - in part due to a character ''who wasn't even there in the books''. Though in season 2 there is a second showdown with the Beast that does have Alice killing the Beast by becoming a Niffin in the process]].

** Fillorians apparently look down on the land's {{talking animal}}s, despite vastly being vastly outnumbered by them.

The series is a mix of UrbanFantasy and HighFantasy, with the characters splitting their time between the magical land of Fillory and the more mundane fantastic setting of America. It is also a GenreDeconstruction of escapist fantasy -- the in-universe novel series ''Fillory and Further'', in particular, is an obvious analogue to ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''. The tropes of works like that and ''Literature/HarryPotter'' are played with more grit and realism, often at the characters’ expense.

The series is a mix of UrbanFantasy and HighFantasy, with the characters splitting their time between the magical land of Fillory and the more mundane fantastic setting of America. It is also a GenreDeconstruction of escapist fantasy -- ''Fillory and Further'', in particular, is an obvious analogue to ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''. The tropes of works like that and ''Literature/HarryPotter'' are played with more grit and realism, often at the characters’ expense.

* ObstructiveBureaucracy: The library in the Neitherlands runs on one. Creator/FranzKafka wrote ''Literature/TheTrial'' [[HistoricalInJoke after a week there]].

** Quentin is the angsty outsider emo kid, and shows well above average magical potential.

* CoolKey: TheQuest to [[spoiler:restore magic]] involves [[GottaCatchEmAll collecting seven]] of these, each with their own magical attributes.

** Julia was a slightly entitled young woman who was pissed when Brakebills rejected her and took Quentin instead. [[spoiler: Since then, she has been used by hedge witches who discarded her once they got what they wanted, at the expense of her friendship with Quentin. Also, she had to watch as Kady's mother, who was in a similar position that she was in, was murdered in a brutal fashion by Marina. All of this sent her to rehab. Then she accidentally summoned a demon who possessed a man and raped her.]]

* BuxomIsBetter: Margo comments on Alice's large breasts being her "assets" which she shouldn't hide under her modest outfit.

* AdultFear: Fen and Eliot finding out their daughter was still-born, minus all the fairy drama surrounding the incident.

** At one point Eliot and Margo, hoping to escape the Fairy Queen's eavesdropping? are able to have entire conversation in pop-culture references and the tropes employed therein.

'''Subtitles: I'm [[ManchurianAgent an unwitting sleeper agent]]?

** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' also gets this, as Leonard Roberts, Forrest Gates in Buffy, plays King Idri of Loria. And Felicia Day, who plays Poppy Kline, played a potential slayer named Vi.

** Margo and Eliot, knowing that the Fairy Queen is spying on them, discuss their next move in a language she can't understand... pop culture references. In a handful of minutes, they work out a plan entirely in nods to ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'', ''Literature/GossipGirl'', Music/ThePolice, ''Film/TheCraft'', ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', and ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. The subtitles [[FunWithSubtitles explain what they mean]].

'''Subtitles:''' [[AC: Whatever your eyes see, the Fairy Queen sees.]]

** The MacAllisters are built up as major villains in season 4 but the storyline is abandoned by season 5.

-->'''Quentin:''' The truth is, the castle was constructed to be invisible primarily for budgetary reasons. The royals had spent their entire seasonal allowance and then realized they still had a castle to build, so they figured builder's grade material is just fine if you can't see it.

** Sufficiently powerful magicians can sense when the timeline has been altered. Dean Fogg, Amber, and the Beast are all aware of the time loops.