Paul Yadav/Tropes

* Crowd Pleaser
* The Unwitting Comedian
* Static Character
* Adaptational Personality Change: In the books he was an ambiguously autistic Cloud Cuckoolander who showed propensity for the obscure skill of interdimensional traveling - he was also frequently in solitude and later became a magical Obstructive Bureaucrat at the library. While the series keeps the interdimensional traveling and the association with the Library, his personality is changed to that of the constantly edgy and abrasive member of the team.
* Berserk Button: He states that he doesn't like being called a psychic. Generally, reading Quentin's mind angers him, as Quentin is terrible at shielding his thoughts so Penny always hears him.
* Blessed with Suck: He doesn't appreciate being able to hear people's thoughts, or being vulnerable to psychic attacks, or the possibility of accidentally teleporting someplace that'll kill him. Also as a Traveler his presence forced his mother to have uncontrollable Psychic Powers that (as far as he knew) drove her irrevocably insane. This may have colored his opinions on his abilities a little bit.
* Character Development: Starts out as a huge bully, albeit an amusing one. By the end of the series, Penny-40 has become a helpful guide to Quentin and acknowledges his growth.
* Chekhov's Skill: His ability to enter dreams and being able to always hear Quentin's thoughts comes in handy multiple time. First, when Quentin gets trapped in a hallucination, he calls Penny for help. Second, when Penny gets trapped in another world, he uses Quentin's dream to communicate with him.
* Chronic Hero Syndrome: Kady notes that he was a remarkable tendency to throw his life at problems in order to solve them.
* Cleavage Window: One of his favorite outfits is an open shirt that freely displays his chest hair.
* Dude, Where's My Respect?: When Penny's body physically dies in season 3, he (justifiably) wonders how everyone will grieve him. When it turns out to be slightly sad to lukewarm at best, he's insulted no one is sobbing in his name.
* Famed in Story: It seems that several Librarians have read Penny-40's life-book and happen to be big fans of his as a result.
* I Just Want to Have Friends: Hades says that the reason he keeps sacrificing himself for others is because he wants to remind people of how necessary he is to them.
* Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He doesn't like people in general, and is especially hostile to Quentin, if only because Quentin completely lacks a Psychic Block Defense (which he finds extremely annoying). He has shown a softer heart to Kady, however, and Quentin points out in season 1 that even though Penny hates him, he still jumped in front of a knife for him when the Beast (possessing Mike) attacked them. By the end of the series, there are two versions of Penny, both of whom have undergone traumatic experiences resulting in Character Development and a healthier attitude toward their peers.
* Logical Weakness:
** With his telepathy he can hear everything which gets on his nerves especially with Quentin and it can also make it hard for him to sleep.
** His Traveling ability is noted to be both extremely powerful and extremely dangerous, as he could end up at the bottom of the ocean in the blink of an eye. He is initially given a tattoo to keep him anchored, but Mayakovsky cuts it off him and forces him to just learn.
* Never My Fault: When he dies, he's upset that most of the group except Kady isn't particularly mournful. It never occurs to him that he alienated most of them with his brusque attitude, and their working together was more out of necessity than friendship.
* Only Sane Man: He fills this role on more than one occasion, like when Eliot, Margo, Alice, and Quentin sit on the cursed thrones and try to kill each other. He's the only one who figures out that the thrones are cursed before it could affect him and thus spends the episode attempting to bring the four back to normal.
* Psychic Powers: Travelers are telepathic, and have a psychic GPS that allows them to teleport safely.
* Race Lift: In the books he is frequently described as a white punk rocker. In the television series, he is a South Asian hipster.
* Star-Crossed Lovers: He and Kady are this; whenever they are happy, something unfortunate either keeps them apart or miserable.
* Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Is a snarky Jerk with a Heart of Gold most of the time, but shows that he can be genuine and caring occasionally, such as when he becomes friends with Alice in season 1 and when Quentin breaks down in season 2. With Kady in particular, he is very emotionally open and sweet. Penny 23 is the same with Julia.
* Super Empowering: Thanks to carrying a Traveler baby, his mother developed telepathic abilities that she couldn't control, which (as mentioned) had severely detrimental effects on her mental state. When he meets her as an adult, his very presence causes her to develop them again.
* Telepathy: He has the ability to read minds and through this he can also enter a person's dreams which was shown when he did so with Quentin.
* Teleportation: It is discovered that he is a Traveler. That means he has the ability to teleport/travel anywhere, including other worlds.
* Troubled, but Cute: Zelda identifies him as this when he tries to flirt with her, and that's not her type.
* You Know I'm Black, Right?: He's prone to providing such lines, such as this moment in Season 2, Episode 4 ("The Flying Forest"): Penny [to Quentin]: "Let's go hunt the White Lady"? People like me get shot for saying shit like that.
== Penny-23 ==
The version of Penny from Timeline 23, where most of the main cast was massacred by the Beast, including his girlfriend Julia. In "Twenty-Three", he travels back with Julia and Josh to the main timeline and eventually takes Penny-40's place.
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* Adaptational Nice Guy: Nicer than both the base book counterpart and Penny-40. In the 23rd timeline, Penny underwent Character Development much earlier and developed a more sensitive personality, while Penny in the 40th timeline takes a somewhat longer time to come around]].
* Brought Down to Normal: In Season 5, Penny loses his psychic powers. He can still Travel but without any idea where he'll land, and is essentially a non-Traveler magician until the birth of his baby.
* Character Development: He presumably started out very similar to the main Penny, but saw his friends die and developed a desire not to see the same thing happen to their 40th timeline counterparts.
* Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: As a Traveler baby he inadvertently gave his mother Psychic Powers because of his presence. He spent most of his life convinced that he'd driven her completely insane, but it turns out she recovered while they were separated. At least, until they — or at least he and the Timeline 40 version of his mother — meet again.
* Dead Alternate Counterpart: Inverted; Penny-23 is the living alternate counterpart to the deceased "main" Penny of Timeline 40. The latter later gives him permission to take over his life.
* Other Me Annoys Me: Penny-40's time in the Library and Penny-23's life experiences make them different enough for the former to get on the latter's nerves.
* Replacement Goldfish: Defied. When Penny-40 is lost in the Underworld (and his body burned for good measure) and Penny-23 crosses over from his timeline, Kady gets upset with how accepting everyone is about 40's new circumstances now that they have a Traveler again, and 23 turns out to be different from 40 in a lot of ways]].
* Secret-Keeper: Penny-23 keeps The Quickening secret from the others after hearing about it from Josh, though he does tell (threaten) Josh to get it sorted out so he doesn't hurt Julia.
== Slytherin ==
* Alpha Bitch: Produces bitchy clique leaders like Gryffindor makes heroes.
* Always Chaotic Evil: Played dead straight for the first five books. Every Slytherin student we see is at least implied to be an elitist, bullying creep concerned with blood supremacy. The password into their common room in Book Two is even "Pureblood." We don't get an actual decent Slytherin until the sixth book, when J. K. Rowling introduced the character of Professor Slughorn — and even he shows some mildly anti-Muggleborn tendencies.
** The only other (comparatively) good Slytherins are bit characters that barely show up in-story. Regulus Black, Sirius's brother, was originally a Death Eater that got the heck out of Dodge once he realized just how evil Voldemort really was and subsequently stole and attempted to destroy one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, but he's long dead by the time the story begins. Andromeda Tonks is a genuinely good person who married a Muggle-born wizard despite being a member of the Noble House of Black, causing her to be disowned and burnt off the Black family tree — and she gets exactly one brief scene in the last book before being mostly forgotten about, her house being All There in the Manual.
** The Cursed Child finally subverts this by providing some unambiguous, purely good Slytherin students with sweet Scorpius Malfoy and heroic Albus Potter.
* Ambition Is Evil: The former Trope Namer. Ambition, as per the Sorting Hat, is the quality that Slytherin supposedly prized among his students alongside purity of blood and cunning. By the time of the series, Slytherin only contains a bunch of pureblood elite Rich Bitch who live on inherited wealth, with very few of them showing genuine ambition.
* Animal Motifs: Sneaky, sneaky Slytherin is associated with sneaky, sneaky snakes.
* Aristocrat Team: The Slytherin House of Hogwarts was founded to house magical students that held the characteristics that Salazar Slytherin valued: cunning, resourcefulness, and ambition. However, due to Salazar's belief that only those of the esteemed wizard families and those of pureblood should be allowed within the halls of Hogwarts, Slytherin House would soon garner a reputation of creating more dark wizards and witches than the other houses. Most of its student body would be from the families of corrupt politicians and aristocrats, harbouring a fanatical Anti-Muggle, Wizard Supremacist ideology that eventually led to the creation of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
* Barbaric Bully: Slytherin bullies tend to prefer beating the shit out of their victims, their Quidditch team is notoriously brutal, and many of past Slytherin, especially the worst generation from the 60s and 70s, go on to become Death Eaters.
* The Beautiful Elite: When they aren't described as pug-faced and inbred, the Slytherins (usually the leaders) are depicted as gorgeous aristocrats. Averted for the two most prominent Slytherins in the series, Tom Riddle and Severus Snape, who come from poor upbringings which only spur them to be even more ambitious than the spoiled pureblood kids who don't have to study hard to get anywhere.
* Black Sheep: Salazar Slytherin was this to the other Hogwarts founders due to his pureblood supremacist views.
* Black Shirt: A lot of them ended up being Death Eaters.
* Les Collaborateurs: More Slytherins supported Umbridge than anyone else did — though, like Voldemort's case, Umbridge may simply have focused on recruiting followers from her own house. According to Voldemort, a sizable number of Slytherins joined his army in attacking Hogwarts. The rest left with Slughorn and Rowling says that gathered reinforcements from across Britain in support of Harry, though this was never mentioned in the books.
* Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Their heraldic colours are green and silver, meant to represent brackish waters.
* Combat Pragmatist: How they play Quidditch. Rowling also subsequently claimed that they left the school to gather reinforcements during the Battle of Hogwarts, although it was never mentioned in the actual book.
* Cynic–Idealist Duo: The Cynics to Gryffindors Idealist. Most if not all Slytherins, have shown to be untrusting and skeptical of the intentions of others. Snape was perhaps the best example, but largely to how tragic his past was. Narcissa Malfoy was never truly loyal to Voldemort either, because despite his overwhelming power, she cared more for family.
* Dark Is Not Evil: One of the most important things to remember about this house. Though the Death Eaters were mostly Slytherins, not all of them were. There's no doubt, that Slytherin members have done bad things in their histories, but some also did good/right in return. For Slytherin, the ends justify the means, even scum like Lucius Malfoy saw how being a pompous jackass can land you in hot water. Salazar Slytherin himself even warned the other founders, that teaching magic to Muggle-born can be dangerous and at times...he was right.
* Delinquents: Slytherins frequently rely on thuggery and violence to exert influence on other people in Hogwarts.
* Dirty Coward: Self-preservation is one of the traits of Slytherin; while this doesn't always translate into cowardice,note  it often does for Slytherins that aren't on the side of the bad guys.
* Dumb Muscle: Despite being described as cunning, witty, and ambitious, most Slytherins fit this trope, i.e. Crabbe, Goyle, and just about the entire Slytherin Quidditch team.
* Dysfunction Junction: Slytherins, especially during Harry's school time, are frequently the children of snooty high society types, Death Eaters, psychos, murderers, and/or all of the above and many of them seem to have inherited their parents' prejudices and then you get the occasional half-blood in the house like Millicent and Tom Riddle—it's like blood in the water.
* Elaborate Underground Base:
** The Slytherin Common Room is located in the dungeons. It adjoins the Great Lake, giving it a greenish tint.
** The Chamber of Secrets, accessible only by the Heir of Slytherin, is similarly located under Hogwarts.
* Enforced Cold War: With Gryffindor.
* Everyone Has Standards:
** Beyond Pansy Parkinson, none of the Slytherins seem to want to sell Harry to Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts.note
** In the film version of Order of the Phoenix, a few Slytherin students can be seen cheering the Weasley twins after they wreck Umbridge's classroom, implying that even they don't like her.
* Evil Reactionary: Pure-blood supremacist ideas are a core of Slytherin's history, and it has resulted in the decay of the house, in Harry's times, into a cesspool of elitism, bigotry, and general social regression.
* Fantastic Racism: Many Slytherin characters we are introduced to have serious Pureblood biases. Hell, their Common Room's entry password is "Pureblood", inviting questions whether the house even accepts Muggleborns at all. We know that it at least accepts Half-bloods like Tom Riddle and Severus Snape, though.
* Fatal Flaw: Slytherins often lack the scruples to counteract their ambition, leading to ruthlessness and prejudice. Elitism is also a common issue for them.
* Flanderization:
** It's likely that Slytherin suffered an internalized version of this as a result of Voldemort's rise to power. The only major Slytherin free of interest in the Dark Arts and Blood Purity is Horace Slughorn, who comes from an earlier generation than Voldemort. Basically, Voldemort's obsession with being the Heir of Slytherin and the fact that he recruited Death Eaters from his own house and then their children after them, essentially cast a large blot on their legacy, making people believe that their extreme aspects were their core ideas.
** As a Slytherin, Slughorn prizes reaching the maximum potential of your talent and the social impact and benefit it can have on the rest of the world, showing a commitment and interest in the bigger picture that other houses often lack and ironically doing more to encourage mixing of houses and building house unity than even a model of fair play like Professor McGonagall.
* For the Evulz: What the worst of them lapse into, even if it's technically not their credo.
* Four-Element Ensemble: Represents Water among the four Houses, reflected by their most prominent staff member, Severus Snape, who brews potions, and their common room, which is under the lake.
* Gondor Calls for Aid: While they were the only house that leave the castle en masse during the Battle of Hogwarts (see below), Slytherins did return to help Hogwartsnote  when everything started going to shit for Voldemort and the Death Eaters — although you'd never know that from reading the books, as Rowling only mentioned this later.
* Greater-Scope Villain: Salazar Slytherin, being the founder of pure-blood supremacist thought which drives most of the major villains.
* Green and Mean: Their house colours are green and silver. The Slytherin Common Room is also depicted as having a constant greenish tint, because it's located underground, adjoining the Great Lake.
* Hate Sink: In the first five books, all named Slytherin students that Harry meets are described as rude, racist, elitist bullies and cowards with no redeeming features or members whatsoever. To top it off, most are described as dumb and ugly, though this can be attributed to Harry being an Unreliable Narrator.
* Informed Attribute: The Hat of Slytherin house, we are told, is ambition, but with the exceptions of Snape and Tom Riddle (which are ironically half-bloods, far from the Slytherin paragon), no one we see in Slytherin displays any genuine ambition. Slytherins are likewise supposed to be cunning, witty, and defenders of "wizarding pride," but most of the canon Slytherins are bullies and Dumb Muscle who enjoy more physical presence than wizarding talent, and whose idea of "cunning" is openly attacking Gryffindor Quidditch players before a game and then banking on their Head of House to bail them out. Then again, with no ambition to put as a hat, they are left with racism or being deceptive, which aren't values for a school to have. Presumably, most of them are in there because that's the House they wanted to be put in.
* It's All About Me: A common trait and flaw of the Slytherin. They often do their deeds thinking of themselves and not others.
* Jerkass: Pretty much all named Slytherins in the main series are assholes, except Slughorn, Andromeda Tonks, and possibly Regulus Black.
* Jerk Jock: Slytherin's Quidditch players are often shown to be one of these. Higgs and Pucey are notable exceptions.
* Motive Decay: It’s implied the whole house has undergone this over the centuries, having once produced great wizards such as Merlin that avert Ambition Is Evil by seeking to bring positive change to the wizarding world. Now, the house is almost all snobbish aristocrats pushing traditionist wizarding values of blood purity.
* My Species Doth Protest Too Much: What few Slytherins aren't complete jerks are this and can be quite amicable as Slughorn can attest.
* Neutral No Longer: It's implied that the majority of Slytherin simply didn't pick sides in the war, probably due to their house's enmity with the other three leaving them no safe haven if they sided against Voldemort and the children of his supporters decided to get revenge. But when push came to shove and it was clear that Voldemort was going to take or lose everything, the Slytherins spread out across Britain to gather up just everyone they could find to help fight, and then returned with an army that could win purely through virtue of numbers — or so Rowling claimed in a interview later, the actual book has Slytherian House evacuated en masse after one of their number tries to turn Harry in to Voldemort. They're never spoken of again afterwards.
* Never Be a Hero: Their trait of self-preservation manifests as this trope. While Slytherins are unlikely to perform the heroic feats of Gryffindor, they're also less likely to needlessly endanger themselves as a Gryffindor would.
* Noble Demon: Though the Slytherin house's reputation for cruelty and selfishness is well deserved (and well-earned), to the few people whom they deem worthy of their love (or at the very least, respect) Slytherin are capable of loyalty, bravery, honor, love, kindness, and heroism fierce enough to equal (and sometimes even rival) any Gryffindor. Of course, they are not the majority, most of them genuinely live up to the worst of their House reputation.
* Obviously Evil: Their emblem is a snake, they live in a dungeon, part of their folklore concerns their founder, who only wanted to teach pureblood, leaving a monster to "cleanse" Hogwarts of undesirables, and they are a group that extols underhandedness, self-centred behaviour, exclusivity, and at various points in history, outright bigotry. Oh, and it was the training ground for the vast majority of the 20th Century's dark wizards. Working around the house's unpleasant image was an uphill battle, both for the fandom and for Rowling.
* Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The Neutral No Longer / Gondor Calls for Aid. It would be great if we actually got to see that happen; instead it's just a vague "Hey look! reinforcements!" moment. Then Rowling confirms in an interview that the Slytherins came through for the good guys, and probably because they realized that the situation was dire and some things were more important than their prejudices.
* Planet of Hats: Until the sixth book, all Slytherins seen in the series are depicted as unpleasant people. They are either bullies, blood supremacists, or both.
* The Spock: Slytherins are defined by their ruthless pragmatism and self-preservation. While this doesn't make the house inherently evil, in spite of its Motive Decay, it's hard-pressed to produce heroes as Gryffindor does.
* Token Good Teammate: A small example, but Harry notes that two Quidditch players, Adrian Pucey and Terence Higgs, are genuinely good opponents who don't have a long record of fouls and cheats behind their names. Higgs is replaced by Malfoy after the first book while Pucey keeps fulfilling this role in the Quidditch team up until the third book, where he's replaced with Warrington who is more aggressive and underhanded. However, he returned for the fifth book.
* The Unfettered: With ambition and pragmatism being two of their greatest traits, Slytherins will "use any means to achieve their ends".
* Upper-Class Twit: Mostly those from Draco's year or social circle. Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Flint, Bulstrode, and Pike are all shown to be not very bright or outright unfriendly to the others.
* The Usual Adversaries: Most Death Eaters were educated at Hogwarts, and with two known exceptions, every last one of those was a Slytherin.
* Villain with Good Publicity: Slytherins are stereotyped as "evil" wizards, yet the actually evil ones seem to have both an unusually high amount of followers and disproportionately large representation in the wizarding government.
* Wicked Cultured: An article on Pottermore has been written on the various treasures owned by Slytherins, stating that they had "displayed some exquisitely dark, yet beautiful designs over the years". This is most apparent in their common room, with its dim green lighting, skull decor, black leather furniture, and views of Hogwarts Lake from beneath the surface. "Say what you like about Slytherin house, they had great taste."