See but normal people *can* do magic in some settings, so your definition already breaks down. And there's forms for bending, you have to learn it, I totally count it for spells.
Also the traditional issue with defining magic academically is the delineations between magic/religion/some poorly understood but efficacious technology.
Magic: Any form of energy that can be controlled by willpower or incantations in order to perform feats that violate the laws of physics. Usually, it's really dangerous to anyone who doesn't know what they're doing or gets careless, for example in the world of "Her Majesty's Wizard" where messing up a spell can literally destroy entire countries.
Fate and type moon in general has a weary large magic system and changes types depending on the era it originated from because of it's sheer size. One example of it is a lot of magic from the age of god's are divine/demonic in origin
A fix for the whole magic being powerful lowering the stakes that I have seen is in the Dragon Age franchise. Where mages are seen as an innate threat because of their potential for great power and are harshly discriminated and locked up in towers for both the general populace and the mages own protection. There are regions and circumstances where mages are treated better like the high ranking Magisters of the Tevinter Imperium or in situations where mages are granted a position of power like the Grey Wardens or married into it like Madame Vivienne de Fer but the overwhelming majority are treated like scum with the Qunari Saarebas by far being the worst off based on what little we do know. Saddest part is the mage discrimination is *justified.* Every significant plot development and even backstory has a mage being the cause of it in some shape or form so they definitely do not fix everything as they single handedly caused a cycle of apocalyptic events and even corrupted heaven itself millennia before the franchise even started! I am Team Mage but I definitely do not blame the Templars for their prejudice. Which yeah sounds bad and complacent but you cannot go a single Dragon Age title without some form of racism. Mages are the ones that get it the most though due to plot significance.
Another good example is the Wheel of Time series. Magic is separated into a Male and Female half (yin-yang symbology is a big running theme in the series) and it's a rare trait; something you have to be born with, and then also brought out and trained. If you don't already have it, you can't dip a level in wizard to gain it. The Male half was tainted by the resident big bad of their world, so any male magic users will gradually go batshit crazy, the more they use it, the faster and crazier they get. When it first got tainted, nearly the *entire population of Male casters* went instant cuckoo for cocoa puffs and basically cause about 75% of an apocalypse with their powers run amok. So now, any males who even show a _hint_ of maybe being able to use magic are hunted down and basically have their magic castrated (and invariably go into deep depression and 99% Minecraft themselves because Magic = God + Shrooms). Meanwhile, the Female Casters take the pre-existing Magic/Science organization from before the end(ish) of the world, and turn it into a "girls only, no boys allowed" club. But everyone in the world didn't trust them because people are... you know... people. The world was destroyed(ish) by (male) magic users, therefore *all* magic users are dangerous. So the magicettes used a magic artifact to magically bind themselves because, if the people don't trust magic, solve the problem with more magic, amiright? So they have 3 vows that are magically enforced; they can't break them even if they _want_ to (but they can if they don't know). 1) Speak no word that is untrue. 2) Only use Magic offensively against Baron von Evilsatan's minions, except in direct defense of yourself or your personal magically bound bodyguard. 3) Don't use Magic to create weapons for people to kill each other. So, of course, if they tried to flat-out lie, the magic vow would shut their mouth _for_ them. *But...* they've had a long time to master the art of "technically the truth" so they can lie their asses off so long as they don't use _explicit_ falsehoods. Likewise, they can only attack with magic in self defense... that doesn't say they aren't allowed to *put* themselves in danger and, subsequently, throw fireballs to defend themselves from the danger they exposed themselves to in the first place. So, they have social fetters, but they also have workarounds. But then, people *know* they have these workarounds. So, the vow of truthspeaking was to make them seen as trustworthy, they found ways to lie around it, and the people consider them less trustworthy [surprised Pikachu face] Another restraint is that each caster has certain elements they are strong with and others they are weak with and the general tendency is for men to be better with Fire and Earth (the "that's a lot of damage" elements) and women are generally good with Water and Air (notable for their association with healing). So yeah, in WoT, Magic was the solution to most problems... that were caused by stronger, crazier magic in the first place.
Dude, where are you getting the idea she didn't talk about high fantasy? She was speaking in broad terms of all stories that can include magic (meaning the vast majority of what she talked about easily could apply to high fantasy), and only brought special attention to urban fantasy because of the special problems you get trying to tell a story involving magic that takes place in the real world.
I've noticed in several of his videos that Ryan has this tendency to ramble over people rather than listening to what they're saying. Reactions are all well and good but sometimes you need to let people finish a thought before you go off on your own tangents.
@@HBHaga It's especially frustrating when you know the answer to the question he's asking would have been answered before he even asked it if he had just let the video play for just a handful more seconds. It's why I prefer reactors that save their more in-depth thoughts for after the video has ended; because I can only see someone pause and question something that gets answered in the video so many times before thinking "maybe if you'd shut up and *listen* you'd get the answer without even wasting time asking the question".
2:49 mark. With Avitar I would consider that magic as it has the same effect. They have to cultivate it, and while most people have to innately be born with it they can learn it from several animals (Fire Benders learned it from dragons, air benders from their bison, Earth Benders from the giant badgers and so on). Also by saying its something innately they are born with, you just described D&D sorcerers, which are magic users, and Jedi, which are called wizards in universe and out.
in one story I"m writing, the magic system is pretty loose. Based on basic perception manipulation and some telekinesis, and the whole thing leans heavy on dealing with spirits.
There’s also settings where magic and something similar are categorized as different things. Like in Avatar they outright state that bending isn’t magic in the first episode. Another example in RWBY is the difference between Semblances and magic, where a semblance can grant superhuman abilities, with the main four characters having speed, glyphs, shadow clones, and turning physical damage into physical strength respectively but when that when magic becomes an actual plot point characters like Weiss are in denial it even exists despite being from a family where they can summon giant armored titans at will. There’s even an item called dust that can be considered a potion given that they give elemental enhancements to weapons. Something Weiss also specializes in being an heiress to a Dust company and even then it’s not considered magic.
@@chill-lady-brook Yeah I agree with you on that one. It’s just the biggest example I could think of where magic is distinctly different in-universe from things that are magic-like.
@@calebgoodman3028 a better example could be Harry Potter stuff. There are spells which are ‘magic’ magic and then there’s other stuff like magical creatures, invisibility cloaks, flying cars, etc. they’re magic, but they’re not ‘magic’ in the same way the spells are.
@@chill-lady-brook The difference there is they’re still classified as magic under Wizarding Law. The difference as shown in Avatar and RWBY is that bending and semblances are classified as not being magic at all. Rather it’s a martial art and a genetic trait respectively. They have magical abilities but are not classified as magic unlike the Wizarding World canon.
@@calebgoodman3028 I guess if you want that big of a subdivision yeah, but I was thinking of it all in like the feeling of the magic. The spells are different than magic but they’re all part of the wizarding world. Magic stuff doesn’t follow the same rules as spell casting and that makes them different. Wizard magic is: you wave the wand a certain way, say certain words, or collect certain ingredients and brew certain potions. The rules are more well defined with casting as opposed to the other stuff which is so nebulous and undefined they keep adding more content to it even though the series is like 20 years old now. Invisibility cloak? Weird creatures? Talking books? Those don’t require spells so they’re different, they’re still ‘magic’ but not in the same way.
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See but normal people *can* do magic in some settings, so your definition already breaks down.
And there's forms for bending, you have to learn it, I totally count it for spells.
Also the traditional issue with defining magic academically is the delineations between magic/religion/some poorly understood but efficacious technology.
Magic: Any form of energy that can be controlled by willpower or incantations in order to perform feats that violate the laws of physics.
Usually, it's really dangerous to anyone who doesn't know what they're doing or gets careless, for example in the world of "Her Majesty's Wizard" where messing up a spell can literally destroy entire countries.
"It’s not magic! It’s waterbending!"
Fate and type moon in general has a weary large magic system and changes types depending on the era it originated from because of it's sheer size. One example of it is a lot of magic from the age of god's are divine/demonic in origin
A fix for the whole magic being powerful lowering the stakes that I have seen is in the Dragon Age franchise. Where mages are seen as an innate threat because of their potential for great power and are harshly discriminated and locked up in towers for both the general populace and the mages own protection. There are regions and circumstances where mages are treated better like the high ranking Magisters of the Tevinter Imperium or in situations where mages are granted a position of power like the Grey Wardens or married into it like Madame Vivienne de Fer but the overwhelming majority are treated like scum with the Qunari Saarebas by far being the worst off based on what little we do know. Saddest part is the mage discrimination is *justified.* Every significant plot development and even backstory has a mage being the cause of it in some shape or form so they definitely do not fix everything as they single handedly caused a cycle of apocalyptic events and even corrupted heaven itself millennia before the franchise even started! I am Team Mage but I definitely do not blame the Templars for their prejudice. Which yeah sounds bad and complacent but you cannot go a single Dragon Age title without some form of racism. Mages are the ones that get it the most though due to plot significance.
Another good example is the Wheel of Time series. Magic is separated into a Male and Female half (yin-yang symbology is a big running theme in the series) and it's a rare trait; something you have to be born with, and then also brought out and trained. If you don't already have it, you can't dip a level in wizard to gain it. The Male half was tainted by the resident big bad of their world, so any male magic users will gradually go batshit crazy, the more they use it, the faster and crazier they get. When it first got tainted, nearly the *entire population of Male casters* went instant cuckoo for cocoa puffs and basically cause about 75% of an apocalypse with their powers run amok. So now, any males who even show a _hint_ of maybe being able to use magic are hunted down and basically have their magic castrated (and invariably go into deep depression and 99% Minecraft themselves because Magic = God + Shrooms).
Meanwhile, the Female Casters take the pre-existing Magic/Science organization from before the end(ish) of the world, and turn it into a "girls only, no boys allowed" club. But everyone in the world didn't trust them because people are... you know... people. The world was destroyed(ish) by (male) magic users, therefore *all* magic users are dangerous. So the magicettes used a magic artifact to magically bind themselves because, if the people don't trust magic, solve the problem with more magic, amiright? So they have 3 vows that are magically enforced; they can't break them even if they _want_ to (but they can if they don't know). 1) Speak no word that is untrue. 2) Only use Magic offensively against Baron von Evilsatan's minions, except in direct defense of yourself or your personal magically bound bodyguard. 3) Don't use Magic to create weapons for people to kill each other. So, of course, if they tried to flat-out lie, the magic vow would shut their mouth _for_ them. *But...* they've had a long time to master the art of "technically the truth" so they can lie their asses off so long as they don't use _explicit_ falsehoods. Likewise, they can only attack with magic in self defense... that doesn't say they aren't allowed to *put* themselves in danger and, subsequently, throw fireballs to defend themselves from the danger they exposed themselves to in the first place. So, they have social fetters, but they also have workarounds. But then, people *know* they have these workarounds. So, the vow of truthspeaking was to make them seen as trustworthy, they found ways to lie around it, and the people consider them less trustworthy [surprised Pikachu face]
Another restraint is that each caster has certain elements they are strong with and others they are weak with and the general tendency is for men to be better with Fire and Earth (the "that's a lot of damage" elements) and women are generally good with Water and Air (notable for their association with healing).
So yeah, in WoT, Magic was the solution to most problems... that were caused by stronger, crazier magic in the first place.
You might also want to check out Brandon Sanderson's various talks about magic and magic systems in writing.
Oh, I have
I recommend the channel Hello Future Me for more writing vids to react to
Dude, where are you getting the idea she didn't talk about high fantasy? She was speaking in broad terms of all stories that can include magic (meaning the vast majority of what she talked about easily could apply to high fantasy), and only brought special attention to urban fantasy because of the special problems you get trying to tell a story involving magic that takes place in the real world.
I've noticed in several of his videos that Ryan has this tendency to ramble over people rather than listening to what they're saying. Reactions are all well and good but sometimes you need to let people finish a thought before you go off on your own tangents.
@@HBHaga It's especially frustrating when you know the answer to the question he's asking would have been answered before he even asked it if he had just let the video play for just a handful more seconds. It's why I prefer reactors that save their more in-depth thoughts for after the video has ended; because I can only see someone pause and question something that gets answered in the video so many times before thinking "maybe if you'd shut up and *listen* you'd get the answer without even wasting time asking the question".
21:11 that's why Bleach is my favourite out of big 3 and why i generally prefer urban fantasy or science fiction over regular fantasy.
2:49 mark. With Avitar I would consider that magic as it has the same effect. They have to cultivate it, and while most people have to innately be born with it they can learn it from several animals (Fire Benders learned it from dragons, air benders from their bison, Earth Benders from the giant badgers and so on). Also by saying its something innately they are born with, you just described D&D sorcerers, which are magic users, and Jedi, which are called wizards in universe and out.
in one story I"m writing, the magic system is pretty loose. Based on basic perception manipulation and some telekinesis, and the whole thing leans heavy on dealing with spirits.
There’s also settings where magic and something similar are categorized as different things. Like in Avatar they outright state that bending isn’t magic in the first episode. Another example in RWBY is the difference between Semblances and magic, where a semblance can grant superhuman abilities, with the main four characters having speed, glyphs, shadow clones, and turning physical damage into physical strength respectively but when that when magic becomes an actual plot point characters like Weiss are in denial it even exists despite being from a family where they can summon giant armored titans at will. There’s even an item called dust that can be considered a potion given that they give elemental enhancements to weapons. Something Weiss also specializes in being an heiress to a Dust company and even then it’s not considered magic.
Rwby isn’t a good example to use for anything tropey because it doesn’t commit to anything
@@chill-lady-brook Yeah I agree with you on that one. It’s just the biggest example I could think of where magic is distinctly different in-universe from things that are magic-like.
@@calebgoodman3028 a better example could be Harry Potter stuff. There are spells which are ‘magic’ magic and then there’s other stuff like magical creatures, invisibility cloaks, flying cars, etc. they’re magic, but they’re not ‘magic’ in the same way the spells are.
@@chill-lady-brook The difference there is they’re still classified as magic under Wizarding Law. The difference as shown in Avatar and RWBY is that bending and semblances are classified as not being magic at all. Rather it’s a martial art and a genetic trait respectively. They have magical abilities but are not classified as magic unlike the Wizarding World canon.
@@calebgoodman3028 I guess if you want that big of a subdivision yeah, but I was thinking of it all in like the feeling of the magic. The spells are different than magic but they’re all part of the wizarding world. Magic stuff doesn’t follow the same rules as spell casting and that makes them different. Wizard magic is: you wave the wand a certain way, say certain words, or collect certain ingredients and brew certain potions. The rules are more well defined with casting as opposed to the other stuff which is so nebulous and undefined they keep adding more content to it even though the series is like 20 years old now. Invisibility cloak? Weird creatures? Talking books? Those don’t require spells so they’re different, they’re still ‘magic’ but not in the same way.
I think my main problem with reactions is you literally cannot wait to the end of the video to give a comment