History YMMV / TheMagicians2016

* AngstWhatAngst: Notably averted, for the most part, especially with Julia and how she dealt with Reynard, but some things that should otherwise have affect some characters doesn't seem to.
** After the Beast attacks their class in the pilot, aside from being worried about being found out for casting the spell, none of them seem to react any afterwards. Even Quentin, whose face was grabbed by the Beast hard enough to bruise, doesn't seem to have any issues.

** In season 4, the fact that the Monster is inhabiting the body of the man Quentin spent 50 years with in another lifetime, has/had romantic feelings for and was rejected by, is not discussed at all except in episode 5. Not to mention, Quentin's worsening mental state, which isn't commented on even after Julia witnesses him being borderline suicidal and self-destructive when confronting the Monster in episode 6.
* AwesomeMusic: In addition to the musical episodes, some of the insert songs are genuine EarWorms, such as Chelsea Wolfe's "Carrion Flowers". Great Northern's "Home" is also used well as a song that conveys the bittersweet nature of the ending in season 5.

* 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.

* AwesomeMusic: In addition to the musical episodes, some of the insert songs are genuine EarWorms, such as Chelsea Wolfe's "Carrion Flowers".

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Julia's reaction to being rejected by Brakebills stems from a feeling of entitlement and never being told she wasn't good enough for something. Seeing as how she went to war with Marina, who also rejected her in the end, there may be something to it. Also, she resents that Quentin got in instead of her, possibly due to her belief that she is better than he in general. It may be the real reason she went along with Marina's attack. It's worth nothing that this is actually an interpretation Quentin believes InUniverse, with him telling her such.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Julia's reaction to being rejected by Brakebills stems from a feeling of entitlement and never being told she wasn't good enough for something. Seeing as how she went to war with Marina, who also rejected her in the end, there may be something to it. Also, she resents that Quentin got in instead of her, possibly due to her belief that she is better than he in general. It may be the real reason she went along with Marina's attack.

** Special mention goes to Creator/StellaMaeve's performance as shadeless Julia and, however brief, Creator/JasonRalph as Beast-Quentin from the 23rd timeline.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Most of the show's well done, but the prosthetic's fingers used for Martin Chatwin [[spoiler:and Quentin 23]] as the Beast look ''really'' fake.

** By the end of S4, we're supposed to believe Margo and Josh are in love, to the point where Margo would leave it up to other people to save Eliot, the most important person her life, despite being able to keep her fairy eye there to stop Fish!Josh were dying (...ItMakesSenseInContext).

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The Monster, his Sister and Everett are all [[spoiler: defeated quickly and easily in the season 4 finale, despite being built up (especially the Monster).]] The Monster and his Sister barely seemed to do anything that made them worthy of being feared by the gods so much and Everett was barely developed as a character or villain.

** Julia's troubles in the first season gets this treatment once it's revealed that she was rejected from Brakebills due to spoiler: Jane Chatwin's schemes. If it weren't for that, Julia wouldn't have gone through so much trauma. And it gets worse: Julia becomes pregnant was a result of Reynard's rape and struggles to find a way to get rid of it.

* BrokenBase: Julia's actions in season two has split the audience. Some are rooting for her to take down Reynard and stop him, while others are horrified at just how far she will go for revenge. That she keeps betraying and ruining things for Quentin and his friends isn't helping, especially since her continued interference led to Alice turning into a niffin to kill the Beast, and Quentin killing her as a result; and, once she lost her Shade, her casually murdering a group of talking trees is going to make things even ''worse'' for Fillory.
** There's also the fact that while Julia's main motivation is revenge, there is no question that Reynard is also going around murdering lots of innocent people, and Julia fully planned to try and take out the Beast afterward anyway. Both Julia and Quentin's group just thought "their" big bad was the priority.

* EvilIsSexy: Marina is definitely this for people attracted to women. Pete serves as this for people attracted to men.

* HarsherInHindsight: Julia's troubles in the first season gets this treatment once it's revealed that she was rejected from Brakebills due to spoiler: Jane Chatwin's schemes. If it weren't for that, Julia wouldn't have gone through so much trauma.
** It gets worse: Julia becomes pregnant was a result of Reynard's rape and struggles to find a way to get rid of it.

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: All of the actors get their moments to shine, but special mention goes to Stella Maeve's performance as shadeless Julia and, however brief, Jason Ralph as Beast-Quentin from the 23rd timeline.
** Summer Bishil gives an absolutely phenomenal performance in 'All That Hard, Glossy Armor.'

** Among some of the things Julia did without her shade, her throwing Quentin to Reynard in an attempt to force him to release Niffin Alice to kill Reynard crosses it, especially when Reynard says he'll "make do" with Quentin as a substitute for Julia.
*** It's even considered as such InUniverse, being the event that causes Kady to stop attempting to sympathize with or excuse Julia's actions and has her locked in the Clean Room as a result.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Most of the show's well done, but the prosthetics fingers used for Martin Chatwin [[spoiler:and Quentin 23]] as the Beast look ''really'' fake.
* StrangledByTheRedString: By the end of S4, we're supposed to believe Margo and Josh are in love, to the point where Margo would leave it up to other people to save Eliot, the most important person her life, despite being able to keep her fairy eye there to stop Fish!Josh were dying (...ItMakesSenseInContext).

** Between seasons 4 and 5, it seemed like they were setting up the McCallisters as secondary villains, given that Irene was presumably still out to murder the Physical Kids. But they weren't even mentioned, instead replaced with "The Couple" as the secondary antagonists of the season.

--> [[spoiler: 'To suggest that a kind, gentle, and, yes, depressed man only realizes his life is worthwhile after he dies, or that his journey had nowhere left to go? It's irresponsible and downright chilling.']]
--> [[spoiler: 'To add insult to injury, the death in question is painted as a "white dude hero dies, isn't that innovative?" by many of the creators, but in fact, it falls into a trope that's decidedly not innovative at all: "bury your gays."']]

* InternetBackdraft:
** The show got criticism for [[http://www.afterellen.com/tv/478929-queer-woman-color-killed-tv-last-night killing off Kira (who is black and a lesbian)]], as her death was perceived as part of the 2016 controversy of the BuryYourGays trope, particularly the TV deaths of several bisexual/lesbian female characters on several shows.
** The show also got criticism for the brutal rape scene of Julia and the implication that she later becomes a villain as a result of this and the reveal that the BigBad of the series "The Beast" became a villain because of being sexually assaulted as a child. The show does notably try to get ahead of the controversy of tackling the subject of rape by putting hotline numbers for victims of sexual assault and child abuse at the end of those particular episodes.
** [[spoiler: Quentin's death in the season 4 finale has not been received well by the majority of fans or critics, with mentally ill and queer fans feeling particularly betrayed. Show producers saying they did it to kill off the WhiteMaleLead, didn't help matters as even though he started out that way, he was also [[BiTheWay bisexual]] and suffered from mental illness. The discussion of it possibly being suicide also made thing worse. Quentin had seemed to a lot of fans depressed for most of season 4, in episode 6 admitted he was too tired to care and encouraged the Monster to hurt him (“break my bones, strangle me, I’m too tired to care”), show-runner John Mc Namara said 'the subconscious mind tends to get what it wants, even if the conscious mind never knows', calling it 'ambiguous', and a suicide hotline was shown at the end of the episode. Many found the scenes following his death to be reminiscent of suicide ideation or a suicide fantasy, most notably Quentin witnessing his own funeral and the message that, while his friends will mourn him, they will be fine, so he doesn't have to worry about what will happen to them after his death. Due to all of this, many found the portrayal of Quentin's sacrifice as heroic and beautiful to be insensitive and, for mentally ill fans, triggering.]]
** The season 4 finale in general, [[spoiler: Quentin's death aside]].
*** [[spoiler: After the build-up of the Monster and his sister, as well as most of season 4 being about getting Eliot back, there is little to no pay-off for either; the Monster and his sister are easily defeated after being hyped up as powerful to the point the gods feared them and Eliot gets a brief exchange with Margo but doesn't get a proper reunion with Margo or Quentin.]]
*** [[spoiler: After the season emphasized the importance of Julia's choice between humanity or godhood, Penny 23 ends up making the choice for her, which many found distasteful, since Julia is a rape victim and has once again had her bodily autonomy taken away, as well as confusing, as Penny has the ability to astral-project into people's minds so could've asked her.]]
*** [[spoiler: Everett has also been criticized as a villain, considered by many to be unremarkable and unmemorable (especially in contrast to antagonists like the Beast, the Fairy Queen and the Monster) with very little build up or development. Furthermore, fans have pointed out that it would've made more narrative sense for Zelda (who went through a redemption arc throughout the season) or Kady (who had her own subplot of becoming more than a 'side character' and leading the hedge rebellion) to face off against Everett, since they actually have connections to him (Zelda being his protege and Kady as leader of the hedge rebellion, as well as the Library playing a part in Penny 40's death) rather than Quentin. Despite this, the two were sidelined and, despite the reoccurring message that the white male isn't always the hero of the story, Quentin makes a HeroicSacrifice and defeats Everett instead.]]
* JerkassHasAPoint: While Quentin comes off as a dick the entire time, he's not wrong in "Consequences Of Advanced Spellcasting" when he calls Julia on the fact that she's getting herself into some bad stuff by not just letting it go.
** While Julia was screwing things up for everyone else in the second season by working with the Beast, she was right about Reynard killing people being more important than their grudge against her.

* ShipSinking: Quentin and...well, anyone, due to [[spoiler: his death.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[AxCrazy Reynard The Fox]] is a sadistic [[JerkassGod trickster god]] who was imprisoned by his mother, Persephone, for his atrocities. Tricking the Hedge Witches into releasing him, he then proceeds to massacre them, before possessing one after eating his heart, and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapes Julia Wicker]] before leaving her to die. He then goes on to murder all of Persephone's followers, with only Julia and Kady surviving. When Reynard learns that he sired a son from [[ChildByRape one of his rape victims]], he tries to coerce him into giving Reynard his powers by killing his wife and grinding her into pieces and threatening to do the same to him; [[DrivenToSuicide this causes his son to commit suicide]]. After being captured and stripped of his powers by Persephone, he's forced to comply with Julia's demands, where he proceeds to make Julia relive the time hr raped her before attempting to kill her.

** The Beast turning out to be Martin Chatwin, a survivor of sexual assault has also split the base somewhat, with plenty of people upset how it vilifies a survivor of child rape and plenty of others who think it manages to make him a more sympathetic and three-dimensional villain. (The only part of the reveal that's more or less universally accepted is the fact that Martin used age suspension magic to keep [[AssholeVictim Plover alive and torture him for [[AxCrazy Reynard The Fox]] is a sadistic [[JerkassGod trickster god]] who was imprisoned by his mother, Persephone, for his atrocities. Tricking the Hedge Witches into releasing him, he then proceeds to massacre them, before possessing one after eating his heart, and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapes Julia Wicker]] before leaving her to die. He then goes on to murder all of Persephone's followers, with only Julia and Kady surviving. When Reynard learns that he sired a son from [[ChildByRape one of his rape victims]], he tries to coerce him into giving Reynard his powers by killing his wife and grinding her into pieces and threatening to do the same to him; [[DrivenToSuicide this causes his son to commit suicide]]. After being captured and stripped of his powers by Persephone, he's forced to comply with Julia's demands, where he proceeds to make Julia relive the time hr raped her before attempting to kill her.

** The Beast turning out to be Martin Chatwin, a survivor of sexual assault has also split the base somewhat, with plenty of people upset how it vilifies a survivor of child rape and plenty of others who think it manages to make him a more sympathetic and three-dimensional villain. (The only part of the reveal that's more or less universally accepted is the fact that Martin used age suspension magic to keep [[AssholeVictim Plover alive and torture him for several decades.]])
* CompleteMonster: [[AxCrazy Reynard The Fox]] is a sadistic trickster god who was imprisoned by his mother Persephone for his horrific acts. After being released by tricking Persephone's followers into believing he was their goddess, his first act was to [[CruelAndUnusualDeath gruesomely murder the majority of them]], possessing one of them [[note]]after ripping out his heart and eating it[[/note]], and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil brutally raping Julia Wicker]] before leaving her to die. He later goes on to massacre the rest of Persephone's followers, with only Julia and Kady surviving. When Reynard learns that [[ChildByRape one of his rape victims had his son]], he attempts to coerce his son to giving Reynard his powers by killing his wife and grinding her into pieces then threatening to do the same to him; [[DrivenToSuicide this causes his son to commit suicide]]. After being captured and stripped of his powers by Persephone, he's forced to comply with Julia's demands; during that tine, he makes Julia relive the time her raped her and attempts to kill her himself when she turns her back on him.

*** [[spoiler: Everett has also been criticized as a villain, considered by many to be unremarkable and unmemorable (especially in contrast to antagonists like the Beast, the Fairy Queen and the Monster) with very little build up or development. Furthermore, fans have pointed out that it would've made more narrative sense for Zelda (who went through a redemption arc throughout the season) or Kady (who had her own subplot of becoming more than a 'side character' and leading the hedge rebellion) to face off against Everett, since they actually have connections to him (Zelda being his protege and Kady as leader of the hedge rebellion, as well as the Library playing a part in Penny 40's death) rather than Quentin. Despite this, the two were sidelined and, despite previous episode emphasizing that the white male isn't always the hero of the story, Quentin makes a HeroicSacrifice and defeats Everett instead.]]

** [[spoiler: Quentin's death in the season 4 finale has not been received well by the majority of fans or critics, with mentally ill and queer fans feeling particularly betrayed. Show producers saying they did it to kill off the WhiteMaleLead, didn't help matters as even though he started out that way, he was also [[BiTheWay bisexual]] and suffered from mental illness. The discussion of it possibly being suicide also made thing worse. Quentin had seemed to a lot of fans depressed for most of season 4, in episode 6 admitted he was too tired to care and encouraged the Monster to hurt him (“break my bones, strangle me, I’m too tired to care”), show-runner John McNamara called it 'ambiguous' and said 'the subconscious mind tends to get what it wants, even if the conscious mind never knows' and a suicide hotline was shown at the end of the episode. Many found the scenes following his death to be reminiscent of suicide ideation or a suicide fantasy, most notably Quentin witnessing his own funeral and the message that, while his friends will mourn him, they will be fine, so he doesn't have to worry about what will happen to them after his death. Due to all of this, many found the portrayal of Quentin's sacrifice as heroic and beautiful to be insensitive and, for mentally ill fans, triggering.]]

*** Possessed!Julia in season 4 was this for many as well.

** [[spoiler: Quentin's death in the season 4 finale has not been received well by the majority of fans or critics, with mentally ill and queer fans feeling particularly betrayed. Show producers saying they did it to kill off the WhiteMaleLead, didn't help matters as even though he started out that way, he was also [[BiTheWay bisexual]] and suffered from mental illness. The discussion of it possibly being suicide also made thing worse.]]

* TearJerker: The casual references to Quentin's suicidal tendencies (both past and present) fall into this, along with Julia's slow mental breakdown after her rape by Reynard. Fen and Eliot finding out that their daughter was stillborn and they've been lied to also qualifies.
** That last point is almost worse in full: Eliot was willing to give up any leverage they had over the Fairy Queen to protect Fray, only for him and Fen to be told that she wasn't theirs and theirs had been still-born. Fen's breakdown later about how she feels like a terrible mother for not knowing her real daughter was still-born and how much she tried to push it because she wanted Fray to be theirs is incredibly painful. Fen's so heart-broken that she leaves Fillory and goes back to Earth.
** In "The World In The Walls", how much Quentin ends up believing that the dream is reality and he hallucinated all of it is hard. When Penny shows up, Quentin immediately starts pleading for it to stop and insisting it's not real, thinking Penny's another hallucination. The relief on his face when he realizes that he ''is'' dreaming is also painful.
** Eliot finding out that Mike was possessed the entire time they were together, that he wasn't actually aware for any of it, and that the entire thing was a plot to get close enough to kill Quentin was bad enough. Then Eliot kills him to save the Dean and subsequently has a breakdown that he self-medicates with alcohol and drugs to the point where he almost dies in the Neitherlands because he can't deal with it sober.
** When Ember removes the patch Marina placed on Julia's memories that kept her from remembering being raped, Julia breaks down sobbing and yells at Quentin to get away from her and not touch her. When he asks if he can help, she starts pleading for him to erase her memories, to take them away so she doesn't have to deal with it. Even Quentin sounds devastated when he says he doesn't know how and wishes he could.
** After months of not wanting to admit how she feels, Kady picks up the unity key and finally says she's in love with Penny, almost breaking down while she says it, only to find out that the key replaced her Penny with Penny 23. Kady doesn't take it very well.
** The look on Margo's face when [[spoiler: Monster!Eliot]] gently touches her cheek and offers to become her new best friend [[spoiler: while possessing her ''actual'' best friend, whose fate she still doesn't know]] is heartwrenching. She looks like she's about two seconds from a total breakdown before she internally armors up.
** [[spoiler: "Escape from the Happy Place" is one giant tearjerker. First, there is everyone dealing with Eliot's apparent death, from Margo fearing that she won't stop crying if she starts, to Fen's breakdown, to Quentin spending the entire episode dealing with the fact that he has to destroy Eliot's body to kill the Monster. Then, there is Eliot's flashbacks, which include him killing someone with magic and betraying his only friend at the time. Also, Alice having to deal with Quentin's anger toward her for her betrayal. The final minutes are really gut-wrenching: Eliot's biggest regret is that he rejected Quentin, and he finally finds the door to contact the others. The look on Quentin's face when he realizes that Eliot's still in there and saves him at the last minute is heart-breaking. Finally, the way Quentin sends Alice away is enough to induce sobs.]]
** When Zelda goes looking for Harriet in the mirror world, she at first thinks she's found her, but then she realizes [[spoiler: the "Harriet" signing back at her is just a mirror image who can only mimic what she's saying and quickly fades away.]] Bad enough, and for the final touch, she doesn't say aloud, [[spoiler: "You're not Harriet"]], she ''signs'' it, [[spoiler: almost like a last desperate wish for this to somehow really be her daughter.]]
** In "All That Hard, Glossy Armor", Margo finally lets out some of her grief for Eliot and herself after [[ItMakesSenseInContext licking her birthright lizard]] causes her to hallucinate him. Words cannot properly describe how well Summer Bishil sells Margo's breakdown.
-->"The only thing I ever did right was to be your best friend...and I can't even do that."
** In "The 4-1-1", Quentin does a timeshare spell that transfers his mind into his past self to talk to his teacher. While there, he runs into past Alice who figures out just who he really is and heartbroken over the pain she sees on his face whenever he looks at her. The saddest part comes when she admits to him that he is the best thing to happen to her. The look on Quentin's face when he hears that is heartbreaking, especially since he knows what their future holds.
** [[spoiler: Quentin's death and memorial. Made even more heartbreaking by the fact that, after a whole season of fighting to get him back, Quentin never reunites with Eliot and Eliot never gets to admits his feelings like he had planned to in 'Escape From The Happy Place'.]]

** [[spoiler: Quentin's death in the season 4 finale has not been received well by the majority of fans or critics, with mentally ill and queer fans feeling particularly betrayed. Show producers saying they did it to kill off the WhiteMaleHero, didn't help matters as even though he started out that way, he was also [[BiTheWay bisexual]] and suffered from mental illness. The discussion of it possibly being suicide also made thing worse.]]

** [[spoiler: Quentin's death in the S4 finale has not been received well by the majority of fans, with mentally ill and queer fans feeling particularly betrayed.]]

* BrokenBase: Julia's actions in season two has split the audience. Some are rooting for her to take down Reynard and stop him, while others are horrified at just how far she will go for revenge. That she keeps betraying and ruining things for Quentin and his friends isn't helping, especially since her continued interference led to [[spoiler: Alice turning into a niffin to kill the Beast, and Quentin killing her as a result; and, once she lost her Shade, her casually murdering a group of talking trees is going to make things even ''worse'' for Fillory.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: Julia's troubles in the first season gets this treatment once it's revealed that she was rejected from Brakebills due to [[spoiler: Jane Chatwin's schemes.]] If it weren't for that, Julia wouldn't have gone through so much trauma.
** It gets worse: [[spoiler: Julia is now pregnant.]]
** Quentin cheating on Alice with Eliot and Margo becomes worse since [[spoiler: he ends up having to kill her while she is in niffin form to save them. Even worse, he just told her minutes before that he is going to win her back.]]

** With 3x11, [[spoiler:Quentin 23]] fell into this for a lot of people. As well as [[spoiler:possessed!Eliot]] in the s3 finale.

** Julia is similar by Episode 5, as she loses her fiancé due to his having his memories wiped of her. 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. Then even the hedge witches drop her after she proves more loyal to her friend than them. In the process, she loses her fiance 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. She becomes pregnant with Reynard's child, goes through hell to get it aborted and ends up without a soul.

** [[spoiler: Quentin's death and memorial. Made even more heartbreaking by the fact that, after a whole season of fighting to get him back, Quentin never reunites with Eliot and Eliot never gets to admits his feelings like he had planned to in Escape From The Happy Place.]]

** Quentin Coldwater was considered somewhat obnoxious by the fanbase in season 1, 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. Made worse in season three, where it turns out that he blames himself for what happened to Julia because he wasn't there for her, as well as Alice's death. Then, in season 4, the Monster torments him while he desperately tries to get Eliot (who in episode 5 he's revealed to have romantic feelings for outside of the alternate timeline and was rejected by) back. He's clearly in a bad place and when attacked by the Monster, admits he doesn't care anymore and provokes the Monster to hurt him more.

** Alice, after coming back from being a Niffin, remembers all the awful things she's done and struggles to adjust to being a human again. In season 4, everyone hates her for betraying the team by trying to get rid of magic and it's clear she hates herself just as much.