History YMMV / TheMagicians2016

** The end of the season has him going in and out of it: on the one hand, he did become more proactive in going after the Beast, and basically fought to get back to his friends when he was separated from them. On the other hand, [[spoiler: he had a magically drunken three-way with Eliot and Margo behind Alice's back, only to blame them for his actions and gets angry at Alice for using Penny for revenge sex]].

** The end of the season has him going in and out of it: on the one hand, he did become more proactive in going after the Beast, and basically fought to get back to his friends when he was separated from them. On the other hand, [[spoiler: he had a magically drunken three-way with Eliot and Margo behind Alice's back, only to blame them for his actions and getting angry for Alice using Penny for revenge sex]].

* UnfortunateImplications: Surrounding Julia's brutal rape because as noted by some critics that Julia getting more powers as a result of the rape and when she remembers what happened to her after getting her memories of the incident erased and as a result of the trauma from remembering and wanting revenge for what happened betrays her friends and sides with the Beast has some negative implications. Also adding the fact that the Beast himself became a villain because of being molested as child, the show essentially has two victims of sexual assault as villains.

* EnsembleDarkHorse: Penny is the closest to being one, followed by Elliot and Julia.

** Marina crosses it when she [[spoiler: murders Kady's mother with a spell which causes her to bleed out on the floor from every orifice.]] We also discover that episode that Kady is her literal slave, having been traded to her by her mother for past services and that she has used her/intends to continue to use her to sexually seduce professors at Brakebills.

** The end of the season has him going in and out of it: on the one hand, he did become more proactive in going after the Beast, and basically fought to get back to his friends when he was separated from them. On the other hand, [[spoiler: he had a magically drunken three-way with Elliot and Margo behind Alice's back, only to blame them for his actions and getting angry for Alice using Penny for revenge sex]].

** Julia is similar by Episode 5, as [[spoiler: she loses her fiance due to his having his memories wiped of their relationship]]. Even before then, she is a BrokenBird due to the fact she's dreamed her entire life of magic the same way Quentin has, but covered it up better. Discovering magic is real makes everything else look trivial, but Brakebills doesn't want her and she's driven to increasing extremes to try to find the truth. [[spoiler: Then even the hedge witches drop her after she proves more loyal to her friend than them. In the process, she loses her boyfriend in the worst way (he has his memories of her wiped). Even worse, she watches Kady's mother get murdered by Marina, and has to go to rehab, where she makes some new friends who want to meet a god to help them with their issues. She helps them meet the god, but it turns out to be a trap and all of her friends are killed. Kady is only spared because Julia got her out before she herself was raped.]]

** Julia is similar by Episode 5, as [[spoiler: she loses her fiance due to his having his memories wiped of their relationship]]. Even before then, she is a BrokenBird due to the fact she's dreamed her entire life of magic the same way Quentin has, but covered it up better. Discovering magic is real makes everything else look trivial, but Brakebills doesn't want her and she's driven to increasing extremes to try to find the truth. [[spoiler: Then even the hedge witches drop her after she proves more loyal to her friend than them.]]

* NoBudget: As {{lampshaded}} by 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.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Cancer Puppy, a dog enchanted to remain a puppy forever. This doesn't stop the poor thing from being infected with just about every disease known to dog. It's apparently been going to the same "very confused" vet for some time. Quentin, looking for a cure for his father's cancer, tests the spell on Cancer Puppy... and kills it.

* NoBudget: As {{Lampshaded}} by Quentin.

* TheScrappy: While all of the characters have varying BrokenBases, Quentin is probably the closest to one, especially after he yelled at Julia for not reciprocating his feelings for her.

* CompleteMonster: This show has a few examples
** The Most obvious example would be [[spoiler: [[{{BigBad}} Martin Chatwick]]]]. After being [[spoiler: [[{{RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil}} drugged and raped]]]] [[spoiler: [[{{BreakTheCutie}} by Plover]]]] [[spoiler: [[{{AdultFear}} for years.]]]] He was [[spoiler: locked out of Fillory, the only place he felt safe.]] This lead him to [[spoiler: [[{{PowerCorrupts}} Draw directly on the source of magic that fueled all of Fillory]]]] and become the [[spoiler: [[{{WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity}} The Beast.]]]] Of course, none of this excuses his horrible actions, but it does provide one damn good explanation.
** Than there is the man who did it to him to begin with. [[spoiler: Plover, the writer of the Fillory books.]] Quinten was so disgusted both with [[spoiler:Plover's actions and his own hero worship of him]] that he threatened to[[spoiler: feed Plover to [[{{Nightmare Fuel}} The Beast...feet first.]]]]
** Then there is [[spoiler: Renard The Fox. Who murders the Free Traders and]] [[spoiler: [[{{RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil}} rapes Julia,]]]] resulting in [[spoiler: her becoming pregnant. ]] [[spoiler: This prompts her FaceHeelTurn in the finale.]]

** Depending on who you ask, Julia crosses it when she [[spoiler: follows Marina's plan and put Quentin into a dream world where he is in a mental hospital. While she had no clue at all that it would be deadly, that she wanted to hurt him in such a way is beyond cruel. Especially once it is revealed that Quentin's problems with depression are really bad, and the Fillory books helped him a great deal.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: The Beast crosses this in the first minutes of his appearance on the show, removing the hands and eyes of the Dean. It becomes worse when we discover he's been manipulating Penny for ''decades'' by pretending to be his friend and teaching him magic ''solely'' so he could use him as an entry point into Brakebills to get at the Physicals. [[spoiler: We also discover he's killed almost the entirety of a class of students and is keeping one of them prisoner in a dungeon in Fillory.]]

* TheWoobie: Quentin Coldwater was considered somewhat obnoxious by the fanbase, especially after the 'gatekeeping' speech he gave to Julia in Episode 3. All of this antipathy went out the window by Episode 4 where we saw just how deep his self-loathing and depression went.

* EvilIsSexy: Marina is definitely this for heterosexual men. Pete serves as this for heterosexal women.

** Julia is similar by Episode 5, as [[spoiler: she loses her fiance due to his having his memories wiped of their relationship]]. Even before then, she is a BrokenBird due to the fact she's dreamed her entire life of magic the same way Quentin has, but covered it up better. Discovering magic is real makes everything else look trivial, but Brakebills doesn't want her and she's driven to increasing extremes to try to find the truth. [[spoiler: Then even the Hedge Witches drop her after she proves more loyal to her friend than them.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: The Beast crosses this in the first minutes of his appearance on the show removing the hands and eyes of the Dean. It becomes worse when we discover he's been manipulating Penny for ''decades'' by pretending to be his friend and teaching him magic ''solely'' so he could use him as an entry point into Brakebills to get at the Physicals. [[spoiler: We also discover he's killed almost the entirety of a class of students and is keeping one of them prisoner in a dungeon in Fillory.]]
* TheyChangedItSoItSucks: Averted. While the television series changes a great deal about the series, reception has largely been positive from both fans of the books as well as those who were critical of them.

** Julia is similar by Episode 5 as [[spoiler: she loses her fiance due to his having his memories wiped of their relationship]]. Even before then, she is a BrokenBird due to the fact she's dreamed her entire life of magic the same way Quentin has but covered it up better. Discovering magic is real makes everything else look trivial but Brakebills doesn't want her and she's driven to increasing extremes to try to find the truth. [[spoiler: Then even the Hedge Witches drop her after she proves more loyal to her friend than them.]]

** Julia is similar by Episode 5 as [[spoiler: she loses her fiance due to his having his memories wiped of their relationship]]. Even before then, she is a BrokenBird due to the fact she's dreamed her entire life of magic the same way Quentin has but covered it up better. Discovering magic is real makes everything else look trivial but Brakebills doesn't want her and she's driven to increasing extremes to try to find the truth. [[spoiler: Then even the Hedge Witches drop her after she proves more loyal to her friend than them.]]

EvilIsSexy: Marina is definitely this for heterosexual men. Pete serves as this for heterosexal women.
TheyChangedItSoItSucks: Averted. While the television series changes a great deal about the series, reception has largely been positive from both fans of the books as well as those who were critical of them.
TheWoobie: Quentin Coldwater was considered somewhat obnoxious by the fanbase, especially after the 'gatekeeping' speech he gave to Julia in Episode 3. All of this antipathy went out the window by Episode 4 where we saw just how deep his self-loathing and depression went.

TheyChangedItSoNowItSucks: Averted. While the television series changes a great deal about the series, reception has largely been positive from both fans of the books as well as those who were critical of them.