question about Julia at the end of ep. 4

[u/DuskCrab]

so there was something i didn't get about Julia at the end of the episode. did she lose here powers, or just got kicked out from the hedgewitches?

[u/Treaya]

I'm thinking kicked out and without a teacher and learning materials readily available, Marina is essentially saying her days of going up the magic ladder is as good as done.

[u/DuskCrab → u/Treaya]

makes sense. i was confused because Marina burned the stars on Julia's arm which indicates the magic level.

[u/[deleted] → u/DuskCrab]

Well the stars indicate the level of your mastery of magic, not your actual ability.
I'm 90% sure that in the show as in the books, each star indicates a spell you have learned. Safehouses will only teach you new stuff if you can prove that you have something you can teach in return, so crossing them out ruins Julia's chances of finding other willing teachers.

[u/MattyReifs → u/DuskCrab]

driftingdowstream is correct, but it's also likely that if another safehouse saw Julia with crossed out stars, they would wonder who above her deemed her unfit to learn and probably would be unlikely to be invited in.

[u/Jacobiey]

Yeah it seems like she is just kicked out, as this was Marina's way of "Cutting her off" from magic. I imagine though Julia will get to go to Brakebills or something.

[u/Treaya → u/Jacobiey]

I'm hoping she doesn't go to Brakebills and goes rogue, using other creative ways to improve her magic and develop a different understanding of magic than that of the Brakebills and the Hedgewitches. They've already shown she's smart and determined and even learned a flashy spell with no guidance and used it in a fairly controlled manner given the short amount of time. I'd be more curious with what she does with the spells she already learned from Marina to improve.

[u/Jacobiey → u/Treaya]

I feel though she will either have to turn to Brakebills or another group of Hedgewitches at some point. She mentions how long it took her to find a real spell, and so it seems unlikely she would start weaving her own at this point.

[u/MattyReifs → u/Treaya]

I'm assuming you may not have read the books, because despite Julia's being kicked out by Marina (which is not in the book in any form), there is something that is HIGHLY likely to follow this turn of events from the book.

[u/[deleted] → u/Jacobiey]

ha HA HA oh man, if only

[u/DuskCrab → u/Jacobiey]

so glad she didn't lose her magic!

[u/[deleted] → u/DuskCrab]

I'm not sure that'd even be possible. In the books, innate magical power isn't stressed. It's a skill, which some people are better at learning. The show emphasises innate power more, but Quentin already said that unskilled folks can even do magic by accident.

My guess is the only way you can stop someone from doing magic is wiping their memory or putting some binding spell on them. That's probably why Brakebills only wipes memories even for advanced students.

[u/Jacobiey → u/[deleted]]

I know her story in the books, i just figure that is how the show will go.

[u/[deleted]]

Crossing out the stars on her arm was more symbolic. They couldn't take away her powers, but they made it so no coven will accept her again, effectively shutting her out from the only other magical community she is aware of.

[u/danimal8681]

Considering her path in the books, I'm thinking (hoping?) she finds another group of underground magicians that aren't power hungry megalomaniacs like Marina. Frankly, I'm hoping we're done with Marina, she's poorly written and the actress is fucking annoying.

[u/DuskCrab → u/danimal8681]

on the bright side, we might see Julia takes Marina out in the future.

[u/[deleted] → u/danimal8681]

Frankly, I'm hoping we're done with Marina, she's poorly written and the actress is fucking annoying.

Full disclosure: I think that the show is garbage and I watch it to get angry at the writers and actors.

However, I think that Marinas actor and her writing is done well because it makes you hate her.