If I were, hypothetically, writing an essay about the writing in The Magicians, specifically how they shit the bed whenâŚyou knowâŚis there anything youâd think would be vital to include? I have been reading interviews with the writers and kicking around the fan spaces for the last couple months but I wasnât here *at the time* so Iâd love any input you might have as a fan who, I assume, was part of the fandom when season 4 came out. If you donât want to answer this thatâs totally okay, I understand if you donât feel like doing Magicians Homework for a strange anon. I had no idea that writer has said they were *platonic* and now I have to include a whole other page in my essay becauseâŚ.what the fuck is that?! So I thought Iâd ask if there is any other batshit stuff Iâm missing.
man, anon.... thereâs just so much.
here are a few write-up posts with links after 4x13 happened: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
#1 grossness forever and ever: sending hale appleman out to do press for a queer ship and getting his hopes up, all the while knowing that theyâre never going to go through with it.
the way syfy deleted that 4x13 critical article... and two years later, the writer talks about what happened: 1, 2, 3, 4
SJH thought they were going to get praise for 4x13 so they planned to do a post-episode discussion on twitter, but the fans were so enraged/triggered that they went radio silent for a week instead
in an interview released after 4x06 (x), sera talked about S4 exploring the cyclical nature of quentinâs depression... meanwhile, in the physical kids podcast for 4x11 henry alonso meyers said that quentin wasnât especially depressed in S4.
about a week (i think?) before 4x13, sera gave props to the fandom for our ability look out for each otherâs mental health.
the cast was only told about jasonâs departure two days before 4x13 aired. jason confirmed this in his exit interview (published, i think, right as the episode aired). in the 4x13 podcast olivia is crying because she just found out jasonâs leaving, but at SDCC 2019 she said it was really sad shooting the bonfire because they were saying goodbye to jason as well as quentin. i donât think she was lying on the podcast; she seemed so genuinely upset. i think by SDCC SJH were forcing a narrative.
arjun was comforting people on twitter after 4x12 and telling them it wasnât the end of the road for queliot; the monday before 4x13 aired, he tweeted that he just found out they went all GOT and filmed a fake ending.
the fact that they filmed a fake-out?? so it looked like quentin was coming back?? what the fuck. that is money down the drain; money this show did not have. their excuse was that they filmed it to throw the rest of the cast and the crew (and anyone sniffing around for spoilers) offtrack wrt the fact that jason wasnât coming back.
john said quentin and eliot didnât have any kind of reunion or resolution in 4x13 because that wouldâve been âartificialâ... but the episode went out of its way to give every other ship a moment or several.
wrt 4x13 john said that because quentin has less fear of death and that makes him heroic. (x)
johnâs whole thing about how the âsubconscious mind gets what it wantsâ...
the whole thing with lev? i think he talked to some people/tried to be there for people? in a facebook group? someone remind me.
david ânever heard of a bonfire as a suicide fantasyâ reed.
jason said his NDA was fucked up.
the SDCC 2019 panel. batshit insane. the moderated begged the audience to not be weird about quentinâs death (i think this was after the audience booed when 4x13 was mentioned?), played a clip from S5 that compared everyone who was hurt by quentinâs death to a misogynistic pigman, and the audience was then told, by john (and sera?) that they were all going to die; that everyone in that room was be one hour closer to death. then went on to say that they killed quentin to explore grief because their dads died when they were in their 20s. (which of course is the same as a 26-year-old committing suicide! not to mention the fact that they didnât do a storyline about this when quentinâs dad died... or aliceâs... or kadyâs mom...) (hilarious that they went with this excuse here but wrapped up the grief storyline after 5x03.)
at, i think, the dragon con in 2019, olivia made a nice comment about jason (about what a great scene partner he is, i think) and hale (and the audience) clapped and all of a sudden all of their Q&As were canceled.
in december 2019, they cut a trailer of S4 to make it look like quentin wasnât even in the season.
by 5x02 they had lost 40% of their audience.
in one of the PKW episodes, one of the writers said that âjulia couldnât have made friends with eliot and margo if quentin had lived.â
sera stringing fans along on twitter while season 5 was airing! refusing to say whether quentin would be back! âwatch and find outâ!!!!!
lol right before 5x13 people were asking about the candy witch from 2x01 and if she was going to come to anything for this final episode, and sera LIED and said yes (x, x, x) instead of, i guess, admitting they forgot about her. people were wondering about/critiquing that after 5x13 aired, and john was super disdainful about it. like âhow dare people expect payoff, what losersâ it was so weird. (he deleted that tweet lol. hopefully someone has a screenshot!)
said that they basically fired jason because quentin didnât have any story left (then gave his book plots to various characters in S5...) and it would be a subversive move to do to the main character (people were going to write ARTICLES about their very brave, totally new twist!!!), and said that they told him at the end of season 3. after 5x13, their tune changed: jason wanted to leave, this happened at the end of season 4, and so they had to write him out. but john very much wants us to know that he didnât plan to bring quentin back anyway (âi may have felt the strongest about thisâ okay john) (x) because it would ruin the message (two parapgrahs later: we wanted to bring the beast back from the dead because wouldnât that be fun? give the actor a chance to have one last hurrahâ). this is also the interview in which they kiiind of change their tune; quentin now ârepresents the lgbt communityâ and was in love with eliot, but, uh, itâs actually subversive to kill queer characters because âno one is a protected class when it comes to dyingâ....... and then he starts talking about covid-19..... the nerve!!!!
after 5x13 (end of april, possibly?) the showrunners were on the physical kids podcast, and john admitted to writing S5 out of spite because of the way the fans reacted to 4x13.
after 5x13 chris fisher said he drew inspiration on how to film quentinâs death scene from.... another example of a BYG scene (person of interest). while in the same breath denying it was BYG. (this was after johnâs whole âno one is a protected class when it comes to deathâ thing iirc.)
sean macquire said (on one of the PKW podcasts) that BYG isnât an issue anymore because writerâs rooms are so diverse... and then a little while after sera (?) was like âthe writerâs room is full of people who look and sound and act like your classic fairy tale hero dudeâ???
in, i think, late spring of 2020 the showâs clothes and props were being auctioned off. the official TM twitter account made a video to advertise the new trolls movie.... but said nothing of this. lev had to tell everyone about it.
he deleted this tweet but i knowwww someone has a screenshot of this. in july 2020, david reed tweeted: i had no idea how to write fen at first so i panicked and made her thirsty for eliotâs big d. (he was the one who, after 4x05, tweeted that teddyâs last name was coldwater-waugh. knowing what 4x13 was bringing!!!)
please everyone, add stuff you remember/that sticks out for you!