History Series / AmericanHorrorStoryCoven

* FourGirlEnsemble: The four witch students from the first half of the season fit the trope. Zoe (TeamMom/admirable one) begins as the GirlNextDoor but grows into a confident leader who encourages the other girls to get along and work as a united team, while Madison (sexy/pretty one) is the fashion-obsessed Hollywood star, Queenie (mannish one) is the aggressive, [[HairTriggerTemper short-tempered]] BigEater from a rough background, and Nan (sweet-naive one) is the gentle, often underestimated NiceGirl who appears to be TheIngenue (but in fact ReallyGetsAround).

** In ''Murder House'', Creator/AlexandraBreckenridge (Young Moira) [[spoiler: dies from a bullet to the head after a married man tries to rape her and his wife catches them.]] In ''Coven'', [[spoiler: the married man is her lover, she doesn't know he's married, and he's the one who kills her� by shooting her in the head]].

* AndIMustScream: Madame LaLaurie was buried alive, unable to die, for 180 years.

** In ''Murder House'', Creator/JessicaLange and Creator/JaimeBrewer play Constance (mother) and Adelaide (daughter), respectively, and [[spoiler: when Adelaide dies from a hit-and-run, Constance is grief stricken.]] In ''Coven'', evil Lange again plays a mother figure (Fiona), the leader and Supreme witch, while Brewer plays Nan. Fiona ends up [[spoiler: drowning Nan in cold blood to use her soul for a sacrifice]].

** Although we don't get many details, Queenie claims to have come from a broken home. Because of this, she eats a lot, telling Madame LaLaurie that the problem isn't food, it's not getting enough love in her childhood.

** Delphine LaLaurie. '''"[[MemeticMutation "LIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!]]"'''

*** It might also be a SubvetedTrope. Fiona only notes that she can tell one of the silver bullets has been blessed, it doesn't sear her skin or anything. It's possible she's only used a form of {{psychometry}} or divination to tell where a mundane object has been. There's definitive evidence that these witches are weak to silver, only that the witch hunters think they are.

** In episode 6 Queenie mockingly calls Spalding [[Film/RockyHorrorPictureShow Riff-Raff]].

The story proper begins in the 1830s, with New Orleans socialite Delphine [=LaLaurie=], who is working to marry her daughters off to wealthy men. She tries to make herself younger using blood, and puts her slaves through horrific torture, sewing their mouths shut and using them in Satanic rituals. One of the slaves she tortures is the lover of New Orleans voodoo queen Marie [=LaVeau=], who enacts brutal revenge on [=LaLaurie=]. We then fast-forward to the modern day and a teenage girl named Zoe Benson whose boyfriend dies during sex. The authorities chalk it up as a brain aneurism, but her family explains that she was actually the one who killed him, albeit unintentionally. They are actually from a line of witches. Sometimes the powers skip a generation, but Zoe was not so fortunate, and now must travel to the above-mentioned school in order to learn how to control her abilities.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler: The series ends with Cordelia revealing the existence of witches to the world, leading the student body of Madame Robihcaux's Academy to multiply many times over.]]

* AnyoneCanDie: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-Zagged]] at first. While the show had no problem killing off the characters, quite a few of them came BackFromTheDead, thanks to Misty Day. However, from "Head" onwards, it's pretty much played straight, with the final 5 episodes seeing the permanent deaths of many significant characters, [[spoiler:4 of them in the finale alone! By the end of the season, only Cordelia, Queenie, Zoe and Kyle are alive.]]

** [[spoiler:Fiona. She finally has a heartwarming conversation with her daughter before dying as they embrace. And then it's revealed that she's going to spend all of eternity locked away inside a cabin at the mercy of the Axe-Man.]]
* AllAbusersAreMale: Averted. At least three non-witch women are caught abusing or torturing men. [[spoiler: Delphine gets cursed by Marie for mutilating her lover, Joan is forced to drink bleach for abusing and killing her son, and Alicia gets killed after trying to rape a newly reanimate Kyle.]]
** Fiona has a history of verbally abusing and neglecting Cordelia.

* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: When Delphine visits her own house and hears that there were extravagant parties while she was torturing slaves, she says "Horsehit" then elaborates that "obody's gonna waste their time with some uppity negro and miss a fabulous party".

* EleventhHourSuperpower: ** [[spoiler: Despite never displaying any of the Seven Wonders, Cordelia comes into her powers as Supreme just as the girls are nearing the end of their trial.]]

* CentralTheme: Oppression of minorities (women and people of colour) and power and how it corrupts people.

** Myrtle actually [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] when discussing what to do about the Axeman. When Madison excuses killing him by saying the Axeman is a murderous psychopath Myrtle replies with [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "Is there anyone here whom that cannot be said about?"]]

** [[spoiler: Delphine [=LaLaurie=] and Marie [=LaVeau=] experience the same Hell. The virulent racist [=LaLaurie=] is imprisoned in her own torture chamber, while [=LaVeau=] is her torturer, robbing her of her righteousness.]]

* DeusExMachina: In the season finale, [[spoiler:Cordelia gets a new set of eyes after bringing Zoe back to life, and the only explanation we get is that a Supreme has magical healing powers]].
** A borderline case, as [[spoiler: she'd already passed the Seven Wonders, resolving the main plot. The new eyes are just [[{{RuleOfPerception}} visual confirmation for the audience]]. The "glowing radiant health" rule had already been established when Fiona's health was failing, and Madison was discovered to have a heart murmur.]]

* NWordPrivileges: Delphine outright called Creator/BarackObama with the word upon seeing him on TV.

''Series/AmericanHorrorStory: Coven'' is the third season of Ryan Murphy's acclaimed anthology series. It follows a group of girls who are witches, and, as such, have unique supernatural powers. They attend a small school for girls like them in New Orleans, and must deal with the trappings of what inevitably happens when unstable teenagers are given immense destructive power. Things only become more complicated when the Supreme, an incredibly powerful witch with all of their powers and much disdain for the human race, decides to move in and teach them how to defend themselves in the wake of a modern-day witch burning.