Witches and Wizards - TV Tropes
- ️Tue Jan 17 2017
This is an index of tropes relating to all types of characters who have the ability to use magic.
This index is a subcategory of Magic and Powers, obviously enough.
Tropes:
- All Witches Have Cats: Many witches have familiars that are cats.
- The Archmage: The leader of a group of magicians.
- Benevolent Mage Ruler: A good-natured monarch who is also a magician.
- Black Mage: A sorcerer who specializes in using offensive magic for combat.
- Black Magician Girl: A young, hot-tempered female black mage.
- Blue-Collar Warlock: A warlock or witch who dresses and acts like an average person; often found in modern fantasy settings.
- Burn the Witch!: People who are accused of witchcraft end up getting executed, usually by being burned at the stake.
- Cats Are Magic: Felines who can use magic.
- Child Mage: A kid who can use magic.
- City of Wizards: A civilization thriving with mages.
- Color-Coded Wizardry: When wizards use different colors to distinguish themselves, usually denoting rank, the type of magic they use, and so on.
- Court Mage: A sorcerer who serves a monarch as a member of their royal court.
- Cute Witch: An adorable witch.
- Cyborg Wizard: A Cyborg who has both mechanical implants and magical powers.
- Dark Magical Girl: A villainous but conflicted magical girl with a Dark and Troubled Past; she often ends up making a Heel–Face Turn.
- Demon Sorcerer: A magic practitioner whose powers come from or is associated with demons and hell.
- Druid: A mage of Celtic heritage.
- Ethnic Magician: A mage who is a member of some "exotic" nation or race.
- Evil Sorcerer: A wicked wizard who maliciously uses dark magic to terrorize people for personal gain.
- Fake Wizardry: Someone pretends to have magical powers.
- Familiar: A witch's magical pet.
- Flying Broomstick: Enchanted cleaning tools are a common form of transportation for witches.
- Gentleman Wizard: A cultured male wizard.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: In cases where not all witches are evil, there is often a marked distinction between "good" witches and "bad" witches.
- Goth Girls Know Magic: Goth girls or women depicted with magical powers. Not unusual for them to be witches.
- The Hecate Sisters: What happens when the Cute Witch, Hot Witch and Wicked Witch appear together.
- Hedge Mage: A self-taught, rural, or "amateur" mage, in contrast to ones with formal training and scholarship.
- Hot Witch: A sexy witch.
- Inept Mage: An incompetent sorcerer who's not very good at using magic.
- Kung-Fu Wizard: A magical fighter who can use both magic and (bare-handed) martial arts.
- Lady of Black Magic: An elegant witch who is a powerful black mage.
- Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Warriors are Crutch Characters, but wizards have Magikarp Power.
- Mage Born of Muggles: Someone who was born with magic powers to normal parents.
- Mage in Manhattan: When a villainous magic user winds up in a modern part of our world.
- Mage Marksman: A magical fighter who can use both magic and ranged weapons (like bows or guns).
- Mage Species: Magical powers are hereditary.
- Mage Tower: Magic-users tend to live in towers, or anywhere else higher, typically in fantasy settings.
- Magical Clown: A clown, jester, or mime with (often bright and colorful) magic powers.
- Magical Girl: A girl who gains magical powers (and some cool outfits to go with them).
- Magical Girlfriend: The Love Interest of an ordinary man (or less commonly, ordinary woman) who has supernatural powers.
- Magical Girl Queenliness Test: A Magical Girl princess must prove she can also be a queen.
- Magical Girl Warrior: A magical girl who uses her abilities to become a superheroine and fight evil.
- Magically Inept Fighter: A physically-inclined combatant who is weak in terms of magic powers.
- Magical Native American: Indigenous Americans (usually tribal shamans of some sort) possess magical powers, or at least a greater awareness of the supernatural world.
- Magical Romani: Romani people who possess magical powers, usually for the purposes of fortune-telling and/or putting gypsy curses on their enemies.
- Magical Society: Magicians live in their own society away from mainstream civilization.
- Magicians Are Wizards: A stage magician who also doubles as a real magician, capable of casting genuine magic spells offstage.
- Magic Is Feminine: Magic is primarily associated with female or feminine characters.
- Magic Knight: A magical fighter who can use both magic and melee weapons (like swords or shields).
- The Magocracy: A government led by mages.
- Magnus Means Mage: Any character named Magnus is likely to be a wizard.
- Merlin and Nimue: A duo consisting of an older mage (like Merlin) and his younger apprentice (like Nimue).
- Military Mage: A sorcerer who is serving as a soldier in the armed forces, using their magic either for direct combat or other support roles.
- Muggle Born of Mages: Someone who was born without magic powers to magical parents.
- Muggle in Mage Custody: When a normal person without magical powers is a slave or a ward to a magician.
- Muggle–Mage Romance: When a magician falls in love with a normal person.
- Muggle with a Degree in Magic: Someone who's an expert on magic, but lacks the ability to actually use it.
- Necromancer: A magician with the power to mess around with life and death, resurrecting dead people back to life (or more often, turning them into freaky undead beings).
- Not That Kind of Mage: When one type of mage or magical tradition is mistaken for another or a pop-culture version.
- Our Liches Are Different: An undead sorcerer, who likely used necromancy on themselves in order to cheat death.
- Our Mages Are Different: The exact nature of mages, wizards, and their magic will vary depending on the story.
- Our Witches Are Different: The many different ways witches are depicted depending on the story.
- Rabbit Magician: A bunny who can use magic.
- The Red Mage: A magician capable of casting spells from multiple schools of magic.
- Religion Is Magic: When this trope is in effect, expect any priest (or highly devout layperson) to be able to practice sorcery by praying to their deity.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: Standard attire for magicians.
- Robot Wizard: A robot or other mechanical being who is surprisingly capable of using magic.
- Salem Is Witch Country: The town where the infamous witch trials took place has taken on a reputation for witchcraft ever since.
- Science Wizard: A sorcerer-scientist who's either trained in both magic and some form of science, or takes a scientific approach to the study of the mystical arts.
- Selkies and Wereseals: Human-seal shapeshifters that are sometimes sea witches.
- Skinwalker: A demonic creature from Navajo mythology, usually a (formerly human) sorcerer who used occult witchcraft to gain the ability to shapeshift into various animal forms.
- Solitary Sorceress: A witch or other female magician who lives far away from society.
- Sorcerous Overlord: An Evil Overlord who is also a master of the dark mystical arts.
- Squishy Wizard: Magicians who can kick ass using magic, but are physically vulnerable to attacks due to a lack of more mundane fighting skills.
- Stage Magician: AKA an illusionist, a type of entertainer who uses fake magic tricks while performing in front of an audience.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: Learning certain forms of fist-fighting will allow you to also use some cool magical powers to kick ass.
- Sword and Sorcerer: When a warrior and a mage fight together as a pair.
- Token Wizard: The only mage among this group of people.
- Unequal Rites: Commonly involves feminine "witch magic" being contrasted to masculine "wizard magic".
- Un-Sorcerer: When taken to the extreme, this is a powerless person who's completely surrounded by magical people.
- Vain Sorceress: A witch who's fixated on her physical beauty, often using magic to maintain/enhance her looks.
- Wandering Wizard: A mage who spends their days on the road.
- The Weird Sisters: When witches form teams of three.
- White Mage: A sorcerer who specializes in using defensive magic or healing spells.
- White Magician Girl: A young, kind-hearted female white mage.
- Wicked Witch: An archetypical evil witch; she'll usually be physically unattractive, wear black clothes, ride a Flying Broomstick, and/or turn people into frogs while cackling maniacally.
- Widow Witch: Many witches are lonely sorts, usually having suffered a loss in love.
- The Wise Woman: An archetypical, usually a solitary older woman who possesses both deep mystical knowledge and strong connection to nature.
- Witch Classic: The archetypical witch in black who rides a Flying Broomstick.
- Witch Doctor: A tribal shaman who serves as both a healer and wizard.
- Witch Hunt: Can refer to both literal and figurative witch-hunts (any sort of persecution resulting from mass hysteria).
- The Witch Hunter: Someone who hunts witches, usually going after the evil types.
- Witch with a Capital "B": Using the word "witch" as an insult in place of "bitch"; in some cases it's literal and figurative.
- Wizard Beard: A male wizard with a long, often white, beard.
- Wizard Classic: The archetypical wizard; usually an older man with a long beard, who wears robes, carries a staff, and comes off as both wise and eccentric.
- A Wizard Did It: Things that don't make sense in the plot are handwaved or explained as "magic".
- Wizard Duel: Two mages duke it out in a fight with magic.
- Wizarding School: A school that teaches magic to magicians in training.
- Wizards from Outer Space: Magicians who live in a Science Fantasy setting.
- Wizards Live Longer: Magical people have longer lifespans than normal people.
- Wizards' War: A wide-scale, destructive conflict between magic-users.
- Wizard Workshop: The working area of a magician, filled with strange instruments and arcane materials.