Characters / Spellbinder

Here be the list of characters for Spellbinder.

From Australia in Series 1 (aka Paul's world)

Paul Reynolds (Zbych Trofimiuk)

A teenager from Sydney. While on a school trip, he accidentally opens a doorway to another world while trying to scare his classmate Katrina and her friend, and becomes trapped in the Land of Spellbinders. In there, he must find a way to get home while Ashka and Gryvon want to capture him because of his knowledge.

• Action Survivor
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Paul is smart enough to breeze through school with minimal effort, but is clearly not reaching his potential, applying much of his intellect to pranks and nonsense. He gets better.
• Fish out of Water: He never truly grasped all the rather simple rules governing the world of the Spellbinders.
• The Hero
• Living MacGuffin: Ashka wants him to reveal the secret of how to make gunpowder.

Alex Katsonis (Brian Rooney)

Paul's best friend. Although he was there when Paul disappeared, he didn't see anything and so takes time to accept that his friend is actually in a parallel world.

• Book Dumb: He excels in street-smarts, but his school performance and knowledge is simply bad.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While not as smart as Paul and Katrina, he's very resourceful, often coming up with the right ideas at the right time.
• The Lancer: To Paul, after he gets back home.

Katrina Muggleton (Michela Noonan)

One of Paul and Alex's classmates, described by Alex as "a nerd". As one of the people who Alex and Paul were trying to scare during their school trip, she witnesses him disappearing and quickly assume that he is in a parallel world. She then tries her best to convince Alex to help her get Paul back.

• Agent Mulder: She automatically assumes that Paul is in a parallel world, despite having very little evidence at first.
• Chickification: Her competence disappears the moment Paul returns home.
• Cute Bookworm
• Determinator: Somehow, she will get Alex to help her rescue Paul.

Brian Reynolds (Andrew McFarlane)

Paul's father, a scientist.

• Adults Are Useless: The teens try to convince him many times that Paul has been in a parallel world, but he won't listen until the very last moment.
• Agent Scully

Christine Reynolds (Georgina Fisher)

Paul's younger sister. A background character in the first half of the series. Once Paul returns, along with Riana, she quickly finds out about Riana and helps him hide her existence.

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Partially subverted, as she is generally helpful.
• Shipper on Deck: She tries to fix her dad up with the housekeeper, Gina, and Brian's associate, Anna ^note Ashka in disguise. Since she's twelve, she's not very subtle about it.

From the Land of Spellbinders

Ashka (Heather Mitchell)

An arrogant and ambitious Spellbinder who will get to extreme lengths to get whatever she wants. When she learns that Paul is from another world and hears what he can do (i.e. make gunpowder), she decides to persuade him to reveal his secrets… at first.
Ashka is the only character to be a regular in both series. In Series 2, she manages to escape from the Land of Spellbinders with Kathy and Mek, arriving in the Land of the Dragon Lord, and decides to manipulate her way to Evil Chancellor position.

• Bavarian Fire Drill: How do you get people to submit to you? Just pretend that you are a powerful magician, use a few cheap tricks, and there you go.
• Big Bad: For both series.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While she doesn't take long to reveal her true colors, she genuinely seems nice at first… for the first five minutes at least.
• Devil in Plain Sight: It becomes increasingly clear that she's selfish and petty within minutes of her introduction, but manages to keep her tendencies and massive ambitions hidden from other Spellbinders and the Regents, always finding an excuse and using the general apathy of her own organisation for her advantage. Series 2 milks the full dose of Dramatic Irony out of it, too, since audiences are fully aware she was the villain of the Series 1.
• Evil Chancellor: Especially in Series 2, where she routinely plays people to get into their good graces and trusted advisors.
• Fiery Redhead: Is a very temperamental woman with fiery, red hair.
• Freudian Excuse: Yes, she has one of these, as revealed in Series 2: she grew up as an orphan and decided right there and then that you couldn't trust anyone but yourself.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Not immediately: during the first part of Series 1, she tries again and again to steal the recipe for gunpowder in order to overthrow the Regents. When her intentions are about to be revealed, she realizes that she may as well go to Paul's world if she is finished in her own. From that point on, she would know when a given situation calls for an instant change of plan, a trait that would be especially handy in Series 2.
• Oh Me Accents Slipping: Heather Mitchell tries to affect a strange accent in order to blend in with the Polish cast members. Half way through Series 1, she decides not to bother with it.
• Opportunistic Bastard: It wasn't until Paul arrived and Ashka learned about gunpowder that she began to plan her conquest of the Spellbinders' Land.
• They Call Me Mr Tibbs: "Spellbinder Ashka".
• Trrrilling Rrrs: Part of her strange accent at first. Later, she would use it whenever she does her "powerful magician" act.
• Useless Without Powers: Zig-Zagged. On one hand, without her power suit, Ashka is a slender woman of average height with little fighting skill that can be easily overpowered by an athletic teenager. On the other, she routinely uses her intelligence and manipulative ways to get things done her way anyway.
• Villains Blend in Better: It takes her a little while to get her footing in Sydney, but she adapts to her surroundings faster than Paul or Riana.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Oh, so very much. Related to Know When to Fold 'Em above.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She never intended to help Paul return to his world once he reveals the secret of gunpowder to her.

Riana (Gosia Piotrowska)

A girl that Paul meets on his first day in the Land of Spellbinders. Mistaking him for a Marauder, she is afraid of him at first, but she later understand where he comes from and helps him. In the second half of the series, she is the one to be trapped in Paul's world.

• Action Girl
• Book Dumb: Somewhat literal; she can't read and has never had a formal education. Despite this, she is extremely clever, adaptive and resourceful.
• Bound and Gagged: Riana is caught snooping on more than one occasion and her captors have her tied and gagged to keep her out of the way.
• Damsel in Distress: Riana is captured quite often, due in part to her recklessly nosing into the business of Ashka and other villains
• Defiant Captive: While Riana is often captured she is quite certainly a feisty captive. Even after being tied and gagged by Ashka she is still able to frustrate her captor to no end
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Becomes Correon's apprentice, ensuring a life of privilege for herself and her family.
• Fish out of Water: While in Paul's world.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: While the actress is indeed Polish, her obvious Australian inflections can come through pretty strong.

Gryvon (Rafal Zwierz)

Ashka's apprentice, as arrogant and ambitious as her, but a lot less smart.

• Chekhov's Skill: Paul tricks Gryvon into making a sulfuric smoke-bomb instead of gunpowder to cover his escape. Much later, Gryvon repeats the process in order to steal a bag of power stones.
• Demoted to Extra: In Series 2.
• The Dragon
• Jerkass: He treats people around him like dirt, just because he's an Apprentice.
• Nepotism: It's clear that he got to become an Apprentice by virtue of being the son of a Summoner.

Correon (Krzysztof Kumor)

One of the three Regents—the rulers of the Spellbinders.

• Absent-Minded Professor: At first, he seems more interested in his research than anything else. He gets better, though.
• Cool Old Guy: After contact with Paul and all the common people outside the castle, he gets much nicer and less absent-minded.
• Freudian Trio: For all we see of the Regents, it seems they form one of those. Correon is The Id, acting on his impulses (he wants to banish Paul without even listening to what he has to say), Marna is The Superego (she suggests that Paul might help them repair the flying ships), and Lukan is The Ego.

From Australia in Series 2 (aka Kathy's world)

Kathy Morgan (Lauren Hewett)

• Action Survivor
• Fiery Redhead: A low-key example, though she has a pretty sassy demeanor.
• Spoiled Brat: Alt!Kathy. Regular Kathy show signs of being slightly self-centered in the first episode, but she quickly changes.

Josh Morgan (Ryan Kwanten)

• Action Survivor
• Geek: Alt!Josh. Regular Josh too, but to a lesser extent.
• Lovable Jock: Enjoys all sorts of sports activities, and while playfully mischievous, he's most definitely not a jerk.
• The Prankster: Constantly trying to pull one on everyone around him, eventually leading to Crying Wolf situations

Carl Morgan (Peter O'Brien)

• Action Survivor
• Career-Ending Injury: Had to drop rugby because of one of those. Alt!Carl never had it and became famous player and winner of countless trophies.
• Papa Wolf: Both of them, but Alt!Carl especially.

Vicky Morgan (Lenore Smith)

• Action Survivor
• Agent Scully: More so than her husband, going through great lengths to justify Kathy's disappearance and eventually being stranded herself in the Land of the Dragon Lord.
• Deadpan Snarker: At least when she's angry or depressed.

From the Land of the Dragon Lord

Sun (Leonard Fung)

• Break the Haughty: The series is about force-feeding him an entire Humble Pie.
• Royal Brat: A natural effect of becoming quasi-sacred ruler who just can't be refused as a pre-teen.

Mek (Anthony Wong)

• Big Brother Instinct: Towards Kathy.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He managed to build a device capable of fully controlled trans-dimensional travel, while making a music instrument.
• MacGyvering: Is capable of finding solutions to various problems with just his scientific knowledge and whatever ha has at hand.

Aya (Hu Xin)

• Royals Who Actually Do Something: When she becomes the new Dragon Lord, she's very proactive in her short reign, personally standing against the invading barbarian horde.

Sharak (Me Yang)

• Hidden Depths: Sharak was a teacher before leading his barbarian army.

Jasmine (Gui Jeilan)

• Aerith and Bob: Her name stands out like a sore thumb among other characters from her world.

From the Land of the Immortals

Guin (Katarzyna Walter)

• Mama Bear: Even though Kathy is not her daughter, she becomes very protective of her.
• Terrible Artist: And aware of it. As an attempt of killing the endless time she has as an immortal, Guin tried her hand at painting. Eventually, she gave up, since after a decade of trying, she was still producing doodles on par with your middle-schooler.

Lem (Wenanty Nosul)

• Henpecked Husband: Subverted. While all his neighbours consider him weak and dominated by his wife, Lem and Guin have a perfectly healthy marriage and he simply refuses to treat her as inferior, which is a local norm.

Dr. Elvo (Lech Mackiewicz)

• Affably Evil: So much you can hardly blame him for what he was trying to do
• Noble Demon
• Well-Intentioned Extremist

From the Land of The Molochs

Jez (Adam Siemion)

• Dogged Nice Guy: He's very obviously dazzled by Kathy, going as far as risking his own life to save her... and she doesn't even seem to notice the boy at all.

Elin (Katarzyna Łaniewska)

• Wasteland Elder: She is the only person old enough to remember the time before Moloch declared war on humanity. Now she's leading the remaining people.