The Bartimaeus Trilogy/YMMV

• Accidental Innuendo - In this scene.

Nathaniel: I tried last night and you were gone. Who was it? Which magician were you seeing?
Bartimaeus: Don’t get so worked up. It was a brief encounter. Nothing serious. It’s over.
Nathaniel: Nothing serious? Think I’m going to believe that?
Bartimaeus: Calm down, Mr. Jealous. You’re making a scene.
Nathaniel: Who was it? Man or woman?
Bartimaeus: Look, I know what you’re thinking, and I didn’t.

• Alas, Poor Villain - Faquarl
• You Fail Biology Forever - Usually averted. Subverted at one point in the prequel where Bartimaeus is said to "shrug" and "frown" in the form of a moth and then snarkily substitutes them with less anthropomorphic terms in the footnotes.

Bartimaeus: The lion looked sheepish. ^[1]

• Badass Decay - Bartimaeus throughout the trilogy. Justified in that he has weakened severely due to having stayed in the mortal world for far too long.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: See here.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: See here.
• Designated Hero - A good deal of the series is dedicated to subverting, lampshading, playing with, and examining this trope.
• Dystopia - Magician ruled England, and many other sorcerous empires. Possibly averted with Solomon's Jerusalem.
• Ensemble Darkhorse - The footstool.
• Fridge Brilliance - some were surprised at how callous and different Bartimaeus was in the prequel. Throughout the book he kills his master, mentions pickling another, is quite willing to eat humans, meets a demon who loves his master and believes him to be digusting and pathetic, and grovels more than he ever did in the original three books. Then you realise - Bartimaeus hasn't met Ptolemy yet.
• Foe Yay - Nathaniel and Kitty in Book 2. Ptolemy's Gate makes it more obvious; Bartimaeus is most amused by it.
• Ho Yay - Uh. Ptolemy, the few times he and Bartimaeus interact. Can also be seen as Intergenerational Friendship - after all, it's a Subjective Trope. At least, the subtext is there to be seen that way.
  • With Nathaniel, too.
• Mary Sue: Kitty has a character that can be interpreted as this.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Honorious slaughtering the entire Resistance as Kitty is desperately trying to escape.
  • In the third book when all the members of Makepeace's conspiracy have been taken over by the demons they summoned and all start laughing in a completely emotionless way.
• Paranoia Fuel - In one of the footnotes in which Bartimaeus is describing the nature of the demons, (specifically the fact the they can't be seen unless you have special glasses or they want you to see them) he remarks that there is probably something with lots of tentacles sitting behind you right... about... NOW!
• Tear Jerker:
  • The ending of book three.
  • Kavka in Golem, and a good chunk of Gate, particularly Nathaniel's meeting with Ms. Lutyens.
• What Do You Mean It's for Kids? - Mildly so. It's rather surprisingly dark for a children's book series, and many adults enjoy the series.

1. ↑ Confusing again. Sorry.