Characters for the book Carry On
Main Characters
General
- Two Guys and a Girl: Albeit there are two girls in the group, Agatha is not very into having an active role in the story, so most of the action is made by the trio of Simon, Baz, and Penny.
- Insecure Love Interest: Simon and Baz for each other in Wayward Son. With Simon in a deep depression and Baz not sure what to do, neither can bring themselves up to talk about the situation out of the fear that starting the conversation will make the other break up the relationship. Baz is afraid he can't help Simon and Simon is afraid Baz is too good for him.
Simon
Simon Snow
The main character. The Chosen One and the greatest magician to ever be born, prophesized for years to be the one to come when the World of Magic needed him the most.
- Alliterative Name: Simon Snow Salisbury.
- Ambiguously Bi: He's not totally sure what his sexuality is by the time he starts dating Baz. He doesn't think he's gay, as he is may still be attracted to women, but wonders if Baz isn't just an exception to his sexuality, or if he isn't just exclusively into Baz.
- Big Eater: Simon eats a lot, and one of his favorite things in Watford is the free access to a lot of food. This is understandable considering he is an orphan, but also it's implied that his immense reserves of magic demand such from him. He briefly mentions that one year, he spent an entire day at the cafeteria in Watford after returning to do nothing but eat. He starts to lose this trait once his magic is gone.
- Brought Down to Normal: After sacrificing his magic to defeat the Humdrum, he is essentially a normal person again, even with wings, which leaves him traumatized.
- Cool Sword: Has one in the form of the Sword of Mages, a magical sword that can only be used by the Mage's Heir and only answers to those it deems worthy. He later gets the ancestrial sword of the Salisbury's at the end of Any Way the Wind Blows after he picks it up easily which shouldn't be possible unless he is one by blood.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: In Wayward Son, he is deeply angered by Lamb's attempts of getting closer to Baz, particularly in regards to how Baz has such a great time when surrounded by another vampire that could teach him more and how flirtatious Lamb comes off as. At one point, he flies off into a rage and tries to stake Lamb when he thinks he might be making a move on Baz. Even when Lamb makes them introduce themselves on what they are (as in, mages, normals, etc), Simon insists on introducing himself as Baz's boyfriend first and foremost.
- Deconstruction: Of the character of Harry Potter. Simon is extremely messed up by the agglomeration of being used in a magic war, being pushed into insane, dangerous adventures every year, and being raised with no stability or proper authority figure. While the first two leave him with PTSD, the latter leaves him with relationship and attachment issues.
- Empowered Badass Normal: In Wayward Son, he is no longer capable of using magic, but he still has wings and a tail he can use to fly and fight, and he is still really good with any bladed weapon.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Being the chosen one has caused him nothing but grief. People aren't interested in spending time with him because he is always attracting trouble, he is always getting in trouble just as they say, he has unwillingly become a pawn in political struggles (which affects his romantic relationships with both Agatha, who feels pressured into dating him, and Baz, who has to hide it from his parents who hate The mage), and he is the one causing the biggest problem in the World of Mages.
- Idiot Hero: He admits to Baz he avoids thinking much. Not only are Baz and Penny much smarter than him anyway, but he is also prophesized to deal with the stuff he has to deal with so he just has to do it anyway.
- Locked into Strangeness: A far more drastic example than most but Simon keeps his draconic wings and demon tail even after entirely giving up his magic to defeat the Humdrum, just because he had them at the time he did it. The wings are fully functional for flight too, and they are effectively his final remnant as a magical being.
- Long-Lost Relative: Is this to the Salisburys which are mentioned in Book 1 and properly introduced in Book 3. They are absolutely delighted when they find out.
- Loving a Shadow: His interest in Agatha steemed much more from his dream of having her in his life than actually being interested in her. He loves the idea of a girl like her falling for a boy like him, and she goes along with it because he is The Chosen One, but she is not really that interested in him.
- Oblivious to Love: Simon thinks Baz hates him for many years. Although to be fair, Baz has a Sugar-and-Ice Personality and was actively trying to make Simon think that.
- Parental Abandonment: After Lucy’s death, The Mage apparently abandoned Simon to the Normal foster care system, and didn’t check on him until his magic came in at eleven. It’s heavily implied that a lot of Simon’s issues with mental health and his magic comes from a lack of stability.
- Power Incontinence: Simon suffers from it, especially when he loses his temper, which can cause him to accidentally cast spells that don't even exist or magic to pour out of him like heat.
- The Poorly Chosen One: For the greatest mage to ever live, Simon is terrible at casting spells, being only really good at doing spells by accident and summoning his sword. The mage even refers to him as a cracked vessel, and Simon suspects he was a terrible mage because he was never meant to be one in the first place, as it was by giving up all his magic that he could end the holes in the atmosphere.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Simon is the cause for the holes in the magical atmosphere. As it turns out, he is so powerful that when he goes all out in a spell, it causes the magic from the atmosphere to be permanently drained, with the Humdrum being more of a personification of that phenomena.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: During the fight in "Carhenge" on Wayward Son. The reason the trio even broke into a fight when they're out of magic and surrounded by monsters with guns is that the monster that was sent to pat them down for their wands took the opportunity to grope Baz's ass.
- Weight Woe: After his year-long depressive episode between the first and second books, he has lost the slimmer build he had over his time in Warford. It's shown this has affected him, and he constantly calls himself fat in Any Way The Wind Blows, which Baz does his best to assuage the fact he just has an average build (and in fact may be healthier, since his Big Eater tendencies were born from his massive amounts of magic, which he no longer maintains).Baz: He thinks he’s fat—he isn’t. He just isn’t a starving teenager anymore. He's solid and stalwart.
- Winged Humanoid: He once managed to summon wings he could use to rescue himself and Penny from the Humdrum. Later, he is able to summon these again, this time based on the dragon he thought and they come with a tail. He gets stuck with them after the end of the first book, as losing his magic didn't stop the alteration to his body.
Baz
Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Grimm-Pitch
"Of course I've read Anne Rice. I was a 15-year-old closet case whose parents pretended not to notice the family dog disappeared."
Simon's roommate. A vampire, heir from two old, powerful families.
- Action Fashionista: He's the main powerhouse of the group due to the superstrength he has as a vampire and he is also by far the most stylish. Once they're out of Watford, Simon notes he never repeats outfits.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the "canon" Simon Snow books from Fangirl, Baz is a "prat" in Simon's words that curses him and other students For the Lulz and only agrees to help him fight the Humdrum to save magic. Here, Baz means well and tries to be a good person, despite his bloodlust.
- Closet Key: Simon isn't quite sure what exactly he is, but he is sure he is interested in Baz despite his gender.
- Death Seeker: As a vampire, he believes that he should die and that his mother would have killed him properly. This hits its peak after talking with Nicodemo, he sets fire to the woods in an attempt to kill himself, and it takes The Big Damn Kiss and the possibility of Simon dying with him to make him stop. He gets over it by the end of Carry On.
- Expy: Of Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter books. Although Baz exists as a Deconstruction of the idea that a young kid would genuinely hate a classmate just because adult authority figures told them they were destined to be rivals, and he generally gets more characterisation than Malfoy thanks to having his own stuff going on (like being both a closeted gay guy and an equally closeted vampire).
- Gay Best Friend: Baz to Penny by the time the second book takes place. Downplayed a lot since they're both equally significant to the plot and it's actually Baz's love life that gets the most focus, but he does exhibit some talents associated with the trope, such as counseling her through break-ups and helping her pick out nice outfits.
- Overly Long Name: Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch. You can tell why he goes by Baz.
- Playing with Fire: His family seems to come from a long line of fire users, and he has inherited his mother's skill for it. Ironically, he is extremely flammable as a vampire, and while this worries his stepmother, he feels completely at ease using fire magic.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Baz is noted to be slightly taller than Simon (three inches), and he's certainly dark and snarky.
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Played with. Turns out that vampires aren't by default this, but Baz just really looks like a dark, brooding, sexy vampire.Simon: Plus, he really looks the part, like he was born to be some sort dark king.
- Vegetarian Vampire: He is not sure whether he is capable of draining a person without killing them, and would rather not try, so he gets all the blood he needs from hunting down animals in the woods near his house and the rats in the school catacombs.
- Villainous Crush: Baz for Simon. Downplayed as Baz is more of a nemesis than a villain and is fully heroic midway through the first book.
Penny
Penelope Bunce
Simon's best friend. A skilled and intellectual magician.- Brainy Brunette: Baz is the only person at Watford who can compete with her brain-wise.
- Break the Cutie: Wayward Son goes hard on her. Micah breaks up with her and she has her faith in herself completely shattered because of how poorly they deal with the road trip.
- Composite Character: She's a bundled-up-together version of Ron and Hermione from Harry Potter. She has the skills, attitude, and intellect of Hermione, but she is much like Ron in her closeness to Simon, playful attitude, and large family.
- Fatal Flaw: Stubbornness, which comes to a head in Wayward Son. As Baz and Simon agree, it's hard to tell her things she doesn't want to hear, and because she is often right, she refuses to listen to others about her ideas and shortcomings.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Penny's determination and intelligence have been a great asset to Simon - who is no slouch himself - over the years and saved his life at least once. There's also the fact that she, unlike Simon, has grown up in a mage household and so already knows about the things that he has never heard of before, such as the Veil lifting.Penny: I'm not your sidekick. I'm your dread companion.
- Kaleidoscope Hair: Had red hair one year, blue the next, but her natural hair colour is brown.
Agatha
Agatha Wellbelove
Simon's girlfriend.
- Composite Character: She incorporates elements of Ginny Weasley (Harry Potter's canonically destined One True Love), Cho Chang (Harry's first girlfriend who he obsesses over but doesn't really manage to get to know well), and Fleur Delacour (thanks to the descriptions of her ethereal beauty).
- Damsel in Distress: Another point of contention of hers towards the whole of the magical adventures. She isn't a particularly powerful mage, being average in every aspect, so when things hit the fan, she is usually kidnapped to be saved by Simon.
- Damsel out of Distress: She kickstarts their attack back against the vampires, by realizing they're sufficiently near Burning Lad to be able to cast magic in a Quiet Zone, and she is able to use the spell she uses to light cigarettes to burn a vampire to the ground and rescue herself and Penny, prompting the two to start burning vampires around.
- Deconstruction: Of the Satellite Love Interest Damsel in Distress who only exists to be the Standard Hero Reward. Agatha has a rich inner and personal life with hobbies and friends outside of Simon, hates her status as the go-to kidnapping target and she is especially frustrated how everyone pushes them to be together despite her realising she might not even like him romantically. Her general lack of agency and her frustration about it is a huge part of her character and results in her running away from it all at the end of Carry On.
- Fish out of Water: What she learnt by the time Wayward Son starts: As much as she loved hanging out with her Normal friends she can never truly be Normal. Because she was so isolated from Normal culture by going to Watford since a young age, there are a lot of small subtle things she doesn't know about being Normal from tying her shoes to common idioms beyond spells. This leads her to feel very out of place and isolated despite seemingly having everything she ever dreamed of.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: By the time the story starts, Agatha is fed up with the world of magic, tired of petty politicking, the Complexity Addiction of mages of trying to solve with magic problems Normal already invented solutions for, and being constantly under a different threat or other. She loves spending time with her Normal friends, doing normal things, and wishes more things that happened with her friends in Watford were more normal, at one point saying to Penny she wants "friends, not comrades-in-arms".Ms. Wellbeloved: She ran away. From Magic. Can you imagine?Agatha: Yes
- Jerkass: Not as much as others, but Agatha is unsympathetic to others' plights, self-absorbed, and cynical. That partly comes from nobody around her understanding her desire to live a normal life. She gets better in Any Way The Wind Blows.
- Loving a Shadow: Her brief interest in Baz is born out of nothing more than a desire to change something in her life, and she gets over it fairly quickly when she does have to deal with it.
- No Sympathy: Agatha had none for her roommate Phillipa losing her voice, only remarking on how Phillipa was jealous of her for dating Simon.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Agatha at the end of Carry On, taking off to California, leaving her wand and magic behind. Even before that, she refuses to stay and fight against The Mage during the final battle, preferring to run away, as she was cast to do by Ebb.
- Standard Hero Reward: Her entire character arc across the trilogy is her coming to reject her role as this for Simon.
Shephard
Shephard
A young man traveling through the US and fascinated by magick.- The Charmer: How he managed to befriend all the Magical Beings he met. Shephard is incredibly charismatic and can quickly discern what the other party wants and how he can can satisfy both of them. If that doesn't work out, he can also use his charms to talk himself out of any bad situation he finds himself in with various rates of success.
- Deal with the Devil: Due to botched black magic when he was younger, he made a pact with a demon, with unclear specifications. In Any Way the Wind Blows we find out that it's a marriage contract. Not only that, but after getting together with Penny, he reveals he has accidentally made a ton of other contracts over the course of his time, including losing his last name to a fairy, promising his firstborn to imps and his thirdborn to a giant.
- Empowered Badass Normal: He is genuinely just a normal guy, but his deal with the devil grants him some degree of magical protection. For example, vampires that try to drink his blood just die immediately, and he is immune to most spells (even those that aren't harming him).
- Guile Hero: Unlike others, he doesn't have much in the way of capacity to protect himself, he is just a normal, non-mage, non-fighting guy, but he is really good with his words, and his capacity to befriend magical creatures has made him great at gathering information.
- The Sixth Ranger: He is added to the group by the second book. Baz, Simon, and Penny are hopeless in America, while he can guide them properly. At the end of the book, Penny gets him to return with her to the UK to try to treat his deal with the devil.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Due to his deal with the devil, one of the effects is that vampires that try to drink his blood die immediately. When Josh tries to drink his blood, he combusts right in front of all the other vampires.
- Thrill Seeker: A combination of this and Constantly Curious. The main reason why seeks out every Magickal Being he can find is because he genuinely wants to know them and because he just thinks it's cool and exciting. His habit of going into blatantly dangerous situations preceeds his knowledge of magic since he also used to follow tornados with his car for the thrill of it. That makes it no surprise that he quickly falls for Penny who describes herself as a tornado after her boyfriend called her out for always getting into dangerous situations out of stubborness.
The World Of Mages
The Mage
The Mage / David "Davy" Cadwallader
- Ambiguous Situation: Whether he really loved Lucy or not. Lucy certainly seemed to hope so during her dying moments but it's hard to tell if he loved that she would listen to him, her use to his plans or if he really did genuinely love her and her death was what pushed him past the Despair Event Horizon. For his part he loved her enough to promise to take care of their child but his interpretation of that is questionable. Lucy's family and friends believe he didn't and was manipulating her but since he's dead by book 1 there is no way to find out if it's true.
- The Chooser of the One: The Mage used the various prophecies about the Chosen One to create a magic ritual used to imbue Simon with his powers prenatal.
- Destructive Romance: His relationship with Lucy. It's already clear that their relationship was not good considering Lucy's ultimate fate but her narration in Carry On implies that it hadn't been going well before that. Davy's zeal in changing the World of Mages forced Lucy to isolate herself from her friends and family in a little cottage with him with only letters to her mother showing that she was alive at all. Over time their financial situation declined along with Davy's attempts at reform failing, leading to his obsession with prophecies. At that point Lucy was deeply afraid of what he would do to her but refused to leave because she was even more afraid of what he would do to himself. It comes to a head when he kills her pet chickens as sacrifices for his rituals after months of neglecting her which eventually resulted in her death.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": You rarely see anyone call him anything but The Mage even though it's just a title that changes hands every now and then.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: When people don't call him The Mage they don't call him by name but instead by his nickname Davy. It's to the point that we don't even know his last name until Any Way the Wind Blows reveals it's Cadwallader.
- Politically Motivated Teacher: So politically motivated in fact that he barely qualifies as a teacher since he is not even on campus most of the time and his office is barely used as a result.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Mage, which many characters lampshade. He brought many reforms to Watford, getting rid of the Fantastic Racism and caste barriers, but he's also obsessed with a prophecy to the point where he forcibly creates The Chosen One, accidentally killing his girlfriend (maybe) and causing the creation of the biggest threat to the magical world, suppresses dissidents (including the Pitches), orders the assassination of headmistress Natasha Grimm-Pitch which also leads to the vampirization of a five-year-old, murders Ebb and almost kills Agatha.
- Would Hurt a Child: Emotionally he is the cause of a lot of Simon's suffering. The only way he can't keep hurting him is if he's dead.
Ebb
Ebeneza "Ebb" Petty
The goatherd of the school.
- Almighty Janitor: She's only the goatherd of the school because she is so powerful, people wanted her close to keep her in check. The school doesn't even have a use for a goatherd, The Mage implies her actual main function is to protect the school when other mages are unavailable and that she is second only to Simon in sheer power. Though it turns out her job as goatherd is a lot more important than first thought since her keeping the magical goats in check is said to keep Watford safe.
- The Eeyore: Simon describes her as such but finds her weepy demeanour comforting.
- Former Teen Rebel: With Fiona and Nicodemus while they were at school, though she was never quite as on-edge as them.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Simon.
Introduced in Any Way The Wind Blows
Smith
Smith Smith-Richardson
The "real Chosen One".
In Any Way The Wind Blows, after Simon leaves the World of Mages, a boom of people claiming to be the real Chosen One appear, and Smith stands out among them due to, supposedly, being capable of giving people powers.
- Super-Empowering: His power allows him to cast a spell that gives otherwise weak magicians immense power. What it actually does is let them tap into their lifetime supply of magic power, allowing them to cast things to great effect, but run out of magic forever within the month.
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Played with; it's not so much romance as it is fantasy and adventure. He believes that the world of mages should be like the stories of old he was read as a kid, and tries to frame everything in his perspective as part of a grand narrative to make himself the hero. Even when mentioning the world, his use of the world "narrative" when describing events is telling that he sees the real world as a story. He is even hinted to be somewhat jealous of the fact that Simon looks exactly like the kind of cool hero he wants to be with his huge red wings.
Pippa
Phillipa "Pippa" Stainton
Agatha's old roommate, whose voice was accidentally stolen by Baz in a bid to get rid of Simon.
She returns in Any Way The Wind Blows, still mute, and a member of Smith's cult.
- Big Damn Heroes: She shows up just in time in the White Chapel to give Simon support during the fight.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Mentioned since the first book, but she only becomes a significant support character during the final segment of the third.
- Innocent Bystander: Pippa hadn't done anything to Baz or Simon, and had no suffer the fate she had in the middle of their fights. By the time she returns, Baz feels so terrible it makes him physically ill and one of his goals becomes to return her voice to her.
Main Character's Families
Fiona
Fiona Pitch
- Childhood Friend Romance: The third book reveals she has been dating and is planning on marrying Nicodemos, one of her best friends from Watford.
- Cool Aunt: She's one of the few Pitches that knows her nephew is gay. Brusque nature aside, she's fine with it, if thinking he could do better than Simon.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: To her sister Natasha while she was alive, who was also her headmistress when she was at Watford.
- Jerkass: Like Agatha, she's cynical and unsympathetic to other's plights, and is capable of extreme acts of vindictiveness. She's also quite unfeeling regarding anyone who isn't her family, including Baz's father and stepmother. Her heart of gold only appears when around Baz or when thinking of Natasha.
- Jerkass Has a Point: She's a little callous when Baz says they need to do something about his father and stepmother fighting. At the same time, Baz silently admits she has a point when saying it's not her business as a sister-in-law, and Daphne is an adult who needs to figure out her personal issues.
Natasha
Natasha Grimm-Pitch
The former Headmaster of Watford and Baz's deceased mother.- Death by Origin Story: Her death indirectly and directly affects everything that happens in Carry On.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best
- Unfinished Business
Other
Lucy
Lucy Salisbury
- "My rosebud boy..."
- Determinator: Implied. It's revealed in the third book that her mother, Lady Salisbury, had cast a spell that would let a candle burn as long as the person the caster was thinking about was still alive. The flame cast for Lucy kept burning decades after her death and only goes out when her mother realises Simon is her son, implying hat she had kept the flames going from the beyond the grave in hopes that her family would find him, despite having been so weak she couldn't even push past the veil in Book 1 the entire time.
- Death by Childbirth: This is implied with the fate of Lucy Salisbury, the girlfriend of The Mage and the mother of Simon. She had magical complications from her boyfriend’s interference with her pregnancy, and she died shortly after Simon was born.
- Generation Xerox: She was best friends with Mitali. Her son is now best friends with Mitali's daughter.
- Love Martyr: She became estranged with her parents and former friends to support Davy and went along with his ideas and reforms in the hope that she could be a grounding influence on him. In the end, it killed her.
- Uptown Girl: Was this in her youth as the daughter of an old and respected clan of Mages who are part of the Old Families while her boyfriend Davy was from a family that normally wouldn't have enough magic to qualify for Watford.
- Walking Spoiler: While her presence is made clear very early in the first book, her role in the backstory and her relations to characters in the present makes it impossible to talk about her without revealing major twists.
Nicodemos
Nicodemos Petty
- Big Brother Instinct: When he finds out Ebb has been arrested.
- Unperson: He willingly went to the vampires, and as a result the wizard world cut him off.
The Humdrum
The Insidious Humdrum
The main threat of Carry On. A strange being that is causing holes in the atmosphere.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the holes in magical atmosphere and the "nothingness" they represent.
- Big Bad: The main threat of Carry On. Subverted in that he is much less malicious than it appears, and The Mage turns out to be a bigger threat.
- Creepy Child: He is shaped like Simon when he was 11 years old. The main cast suspects this is a form he intentionally takes in order to disturb Simon and his friends. This is actually because that was the looks Simon had when he created him, he has no control over his appearance.
- The Power of the Void: The Humdrum is the "nothing" to Simon's "everything". Simon has infinite magic power, and as his opposite, the Humdrum has the power of nothingness. He can imbue magical creatures with this emptiness, and they will madly chase Simon in hopes of getting a bit of his "everything". Simon can cure this by pouring his overflowing magic on others, but he only tested it on Baz.
America
Micah
Micah
Penny's boyfriend in the US.- Satellite Love Interest: Deconstructed. Being one of these turns out to be really taxing for their relationship, as Penny spent almost two years barely talking with him due to magical adventures and focusing on Simon, leaving him alone, and ignoring his attempts to talk or break up with her. By the second book, when Penny visits him, he already has another girlfriend.
Lamb
Lamb
The vampire ruler of Las Vegas.- The Dreaded: After he kidnaps Agatha and Penny, while nearly killing Simon and "bargaining" with Baz to surrender, Baz is understandably scared of him. None of the mages, and definitely not Shephard, are returning to America soon to run into Lamb.
- I Want Them Alive!: He has a vested interest in keeping Baz alive since a vampire that can do magic is a game-changer.
- Villainous Crush: Invoked; Baz fears in Any Way the Wind Blows that Lamb will find a way to find him, and make him be a vampire guinea pig. He seems entranced by Baz's powers, as well as his looks.
Branden
Branden
The leader of NowNext / Next Blood.- Big Bad: Of Wayward Son, as the one holding Agatha hostage.
- Ironic Death: He had the goal of creating the next stage of human evolution by making humans into magic-imbued vampires. When he finally finds the only one being of the sort, Baz, he is killed by him.
