Quentin Coldwater

From Fanlore
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Character
Name: Quentin Coldwater
Occupation: Student
Relationships:
Fandom: The Magicians
Other:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Quentin Coldwater is a character in the TV series The Magicians, which is based on the series of novels of the same name by Lev Grossman.

Canon

Spoiler Warning: This article or section may contain spoilers. If this bothers you, proceed with caution.

Quentin is lifelong fan of the Fillory and Further series. He discovers that they are in fact based in truth and pose a danger to his world. He enrolls at Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy to be trained as a magician.

After his graduation from Brakebills, Penny brings him evidence of travel between worlds and he travels to Fillory. He returns to Earth, then returns to Fillory to become King of Fillory He is ejected from Fillory and returns multiple times.

Quentin is bisexual. His canon love interests are Alice Quinn and Eliot Waugh.

He was killed off in the season 4 finale.

Response to Season 4

Quentin Coldwater's death sparked immediate controversy following the Season 4 Finale. Fans objected to the show killing off a character who has struggled with mental illness, and to killing of a queer character, contributing to the Bury Your Gays trope. Fans organized the #PeopleLikeMe letter writing campaign to "to let SyFy know Quentin's story, like ours, shouldn't end in tragedy". Petitions were also created on sites like change.org to Bring Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) Back To The Magicians.

Thank Q, a fanworks auction with proceeds going to The Trevor Project, that was organized in the aftermath of the finale. The people behind the fan-run fundraiser point out that; "Understandably, the fans for whom Quentin was crucial representation are devastated by this decision, and in the aftermath, we wanted to help channel that heartbreak into giving back to our community and celebrating our fandom."

There was a surge in Magicians fanworks following the finale. Since the finale airdate, there have been over 150 Magicians fanworks updated on Ao3 that include the tag fix-it.[1] Some fans have also expressed their unhappiness with the finale through vids, like yelling at a plant (aka yelling at the writers of the magicians) by theprincessandthepie.

A list of reactions in fandom and in the mainstream media was compiled by messier51: One Week Later: A Season 4 The Magicians Finale Reading List (originally posted April 24, 2019 & updated). Examples of reactions:

Meta

On top of writing in traditional fandom spaces, a lot of fans published meta essays on medium.com under their Wallet Names, in an effort to reach an audience outside of fandom, perhaps TPTB themselves:

In the Media

Fandom

Pairings

  • Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh or "Queliot" is the most popular pairing for the character and the dominant pairing in this fandom.
  • Quentin Coldwater/Alice Quinn
  • Quentin Coldwater/Margo Hanson/Eliot Waugh

Tropes

Example Fanworks

Meta

Fanfic

Podfic

Archives & Fannish Links

References