Talk:List of The Magicians characters

Source text does not show that Stoppard's real name is Fagin
This article claimed that Stoppard "dislikes his real name Fagin." I removed that claim because it is unsourced and not supported by the book's text, but I was reverted. Here is the passage regarding his name from The Magician's Land:

"So," Plum said, to the group in general. "I'm Plum."

"I'm Betsy," said the Pixie.

"Quentin."

"My name is Pushkar," the older Indian man said. He had a salt-and-pepper goatee and looked way too placid and suburban to be involved in something like this. Everybody turned to the kid. Quentin put him at around fifteen.

"You're joking, right?" the boy said. "You're all gonna use your real names?"

"No," Quentin said, "we're not joking. And yes."

"Well, I'm not. You can call me the Artful Dodger."

The Pixie -- Betsy -- cackled.

"Try again."

"What's wrong with the Artful Dodger? Like in Oliver!"

"I know where it's from, I'm just not calling you that."

"Well I'm not going to be Fagin."

"Maybe we should call you Stoppard," Quentin said.

The boy looked confused.

"I don't get it," he said. "Is that from Oliver!?"

"That is the name of the man who wrote the book that you were reading earlier," Pushkar said. "At the bookstore. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead."

Nowhere in that passage is it shown that Fagin is his real name. Quite the opposite, in fact; Stoppard explicitly states that he is not going to use his real name ("Well, I'm not"), and, as shown by the fact that he first offers up the possibility of "Artful Dodger", he is just listing out characters from the book Oliver Twist as potential aliases. Furthermore, it is revealed later in the book that "Betsy" isn't even Betsy, but Asmodeus, which is in itself yet another alias (a demon's name that was used as a computer screen name in the online support group Free Trader Beowulf), so even the people who Stoppard thought might have been giving their real names were not necessarily doing so. In summary, claiming that "Fagin" is Stoppard's real name makes unwarranted assumptions not supported by the source text.

—Lowellian (reply) 19:10, 28 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I'm familiar with the passage. I always understood it as meaning that Fagin was his actual name, which is why he tried to use the alias "The Artful Dodger."  I understand your reading of it, and don't actually have any proof that mine is right.  Should we get a WP:3O?  Smith  (talk)  12:44, 29 February 2016 (UTC)


 * The burden of proof would be on the claim. Would the current version of the article, one that does not say anything one way or the other about whether Fagin is his real name or not, be an acceptable compromise for you? I'd be fine with that. —Lowellian (reply) 08:41, 1 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Yeah, looks good to me. It might be worth trying to get an answer from Grossman via Twitter. Smith  (talk)  22:33, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

TV adaptation cast
Should we include a note at the end of each character that's in the tv series saying who plays them? Smith (talk)  11:19, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Yes. Cocochiller (talk) 03:15, 3 January 2017 (UTC)