Magic and Technology

Oh boy.  Magic and technology.  Wow.  That’s a tricky subject.

There are a lost of ways to play the relationship between magic and technology.  There’s what I call the Inverse Law of Magic and Technology, which is the idea that magic and technology somehow interfere with each other.  The more technologically advanced a society is, the less magic will work, and the more magical a society is, the less technology can be developed.  There’s the fact that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science.

But for whatever reason, magic tends to exist primarily in medieval settings (with plenty of exceptions).  And in most of those medieval settings, there’s very little advancement in terms of technology, culture, government, etc.  It’s called Medieval Stasis, and it’s something I really want to avoid.  The reason for that is that, if we think of magic as a science, we can compare it to science through history.  New methods and applications of magic can be discovered.  There’s potential for a magic-based industrial revolution.

And yet, there are only two series that come to mind that avert this medieval stasis thing: The Last Airbender and the World of Shannara.  The latter has a political struggle involving the rise and fall of the Federation that spans multiple series, as well as the order of the Druids.  There have also been developments in airship technology.  And, of course, there’s the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic earth and there are a ton of chances to show off lost technology and its interaction with magic.  The latter does it even more impressively, with the world going from having some rudimentary steam technology to flat-out steampunk, bending being implemented into a professional sport, and metalbending and lightningbending becoming more common in just two generations.  And the whole transition somehow feels completely natural.

So anyway.  I’m struggling with how to work the technology in Warrior, Wizard, and it’s consequently going to sound like a lot of anachronisms if you’re not paying attention.  You see, due to enchantment (one of the four primary schools of magic), things can be made to act like items in our world, and it can be done more simply.  Here, someone said “hey, wouldn’t it be great if there was a device that would keep things cold?”  And then we spent a lot of time and effort developing the technology needed for the refrigerator.  There, someone said “hey, wouldn’t it be great if there was a device that would keep things cold?”  And then an enchanter spent some time enchanting a wooden box so that it would keep whatever’s in it cold.  Boom.  Invention of the coldbox.  Enchantment isn’t an easy process, but it basically allows objects to do something a mage could do, only a bit more efficiently.  So instead of light bulbs, they have light orbs.  There’s water running through pipelines, but the process of transporting it is different.  So what happens is I end up with a society that is, for all intents and purposes, a medieval world.  Swords and sandals and sorcery.  But it’s a world where there appear to be eclectic lights, refrigerators, running water, and the like.

And that’s the issue I run into.  How do you explain this magic technology without going on a huge discourse about it?  And really, the only thing I can think of is that I…don’t.  I just let the technology speak for itself since I don’t have room to speak for it at this point.

TV Thoughts: Doctor Who, Rose vs. Martha vs. Donna

I've been trying to catch up on Doctor Who lately.  More specifically, "nuWho," the series starting with the 9th Doctor.  Currently, I've finished Season 4.  So note that this post will contain spoilers for events through where I am.  If you don't want Doctor Who spoiled, turn back now.

Moving on.  Doctor Who was a show that kind of had to grow on me.  And it's also a show that changes.  It's got a small core cast that keeps changing--even the protagonist himself, thanks to regeneration.  So how do the first three "companions" I've encountered hold up?  What do I think of them so far?  Well...I'm going to tell you.  Right now.

Don't you just love awkward transitions?

Anyway, Rose Tyler was a character who had to grow on me, much like the show itself.  For me, there were no "previous companions."  There was Rose.  I got what I got, and she was sort of just the standard.  However, Rose got some good development.  She went from being some woman tagging along with the Doctor to, well, his companion.  As time went on, she was able to hold her own more and more alongside the Doctor, and their relationship developed gradually from "we're not together; why does everyone keep saying that?" to clear implications of love that went unspoken. 

I remember enjoying her as a character at the time, but when she came back in Season 4, I have to admit that I found her kind of bland.  That's probably because Rose was the one character who's almost a necessity in science fiction and fantasy: the one who's ignorant of the larger world.  The audience surrogate.  I find her kind of bland in retrospect because she exists to introduce the audience to the world of Doctor Who.  She asks the questions we need answers for.  She stands there with us in awe and wonder at the world we don't understand.  As an audience, we need to be able to identify with her, so she can't stand out too much.  So for two seasons, I liked her just because she was a blank slate that I could identify with even though she was British and female.

Then Rose got stuck in an alternate universe and the Doctor had to find a new companion.  And the one he chose was Martha Jones.  Now, Martha's the real reason I'm writing this.  Because I thought Martha was a terrible character and I was stunned when I found out she had a sizable fandom.  I watched a few of her episodes with my best friend and some of his friends, and when I asked how much longer until Martha was gone, they all agreed that the answer was "too long."

So what makes Martha so much weaker of a character than Rose?  Well, for starters, she doesn't much do anything.  Rose soon became a competent aide to the Doctor, and had several characters who emphasized her competence.  Mickey, Jack Harkness, Jackie...all people who Rose could either outperform or hold her own with.  And none of these characters were particularly useless either (Jackie, despite her nagging, managed to successfully help the Doctor a few times).  Compare that to Martha.  Martha really doesn't do much throughout most of her season.  In fact, in "42," when there's a situation where it looks like she'll be useful (bypassing a lock with Earth trivia from her relative time era), she opts instead to call her mother and make her do it instead.  Martha's family, incidentally, is portrayed as largely incompetent.  They throw a spanner into the situation more than they ever do anything to resolve it.  So to see Martha relying on these incompetent characters only serves to make her look more incompetent.  What's more, we later see a competent side character in "Blink," but Martha barely even appears in that episode so instead of watching Martha play off of someone else, the audience just gets to say "hey, someone other than the Doctor is actually doing something for once!"

What's more, by all means, Martha should be a strong character.  After all, she's a medical student, and doctors are some of the most competent people there are, aren't they?  I mean, she's aiding a Doctor herself!  But no, instead of making use of her talents, they use it as a reason to make her a haughty character.  Rose would get indignant about people's period-based opinions on occasion, but Martha gets far more indignant.  It seems like every episode sees her saying something along the lines of "a black woman can too be a doctor!"  While she's well within her rights to be upset, she shows a complete inability to shrug it off, expecting the people of the time period to conform to her ideals instantly, and her insistence on her rights are slightly offset by her actions, or lack thereof.  While it's fine (and even wise) to portray a competent black woman, it's unwise to have said black woman preach be a mouthpiece about it and simultaneously not do anything of particular value.  Martha is a character is a character who chooses words over actions.  She's not even a character who chooses to act with words, just someone who will say but not do.

Finally, there's her relationship with the Doctor.  While Rose's relationship with him developed naturally, Martha instantly and immediately loves him.  While this isn't bad itself, it's written incredibly poorly.  Martha doesn't care that Rose's disappearance hit him hard.  She just expects him to fall in love with her.  While unrequited love can be a sad and tragic plot device (and one of my favorite series actually focuses heavily on it), it doesn't work for one reason: Martha feels entitled.  While I certainly won't begrudge her wishing that the Doctor would love her back, it comes to a head in the episodes where the Doctor temporarily gives up his memories and becomes human.  I lost any respect for Martha that she had built up with a single line: "You had to, didn't you?  Had to go and fall in love with a human.  And it wasn't me."

Martha, with this line, reveals that she doesn't care about the hurt the Doctor will cause for the woman he fell in love with.  How much hurt he'll cause for himself.  How complicated it will make things when he needs to become the Doctor again.  She only cares about how she feels.  She's the one who's hurt. She's the one who deserves to have the Doctor fall in love with her.  Think about how people would react if their genders were reversed: people would be enraged that a man would be so entitled to think that he deserves to have the woman he has a crush on to fall in love with him.  People blast into "nice guys" (note that this phrase is used to refer not to legitimately nice guys but to guys who feel that they're entitled to more than friendship just because they're not dicks) all the time.  So talking about Martha's feelings for the Doctor as "tragic" is kind of a double standard.

The worst part of this is that this is the point where Martha goes from tagger-along to someone who actually does something. She should be gaining respect, not losing it.  But no, her selfishness loses any respect she gains.  Fortunately, she does turn things around in her last few episodes, and I was actually happy to see why she left: she realized that the Doctor wasn't going to fall in love with her and that it was unhealthy for her to stay around someone who would never return her feelings (a fact that she had been obnixiously blind to all season).  I'm not making a "I'm glad to see her go" joke.  I was legitimately happy that she was maturing as a character.  It was only at this point that I truly warmed up to Martha a bit.  She made a few more appearances, in which she finally had a few characters who complemented her well.  Somewhat ironic: it was only after she was demoted to a supporting character that she got the chance (in my eyes) to finally shine.

With Martha out of the way, let's look at Donna Noble, who's probably my favorite of the 10th Doctor's companions. So what made Donna my favorite of the three? Well, admittedly, I didn't like her that much in her first appearance.  Sure, she was decent as a bumbling comic relief character, but nothing special.  But then she showed up again after Martha left.  Maybe the first thing that endeared Donna to me was that she instantly did something that I felt Martha didn't: get things done.  Her very first appearance, she was looking into the exact same thing the Doctor was, completely independently of him, without his arsenal of tools.  She consequently introduces herself as a character who is not only competent, but who can hold her own with the Doctor.  This is an incredible accomplishment, but she continues to be a fairly strong character throughout.  Instead of a medical student like Martha was, she was merely a temp.  However, those skills came in handy several times, like when she found out what was amiss by checking records or identified a series of numbers as a calender.

Finally, I liked Donna because they did something different with her relationship with the Doctor.  See, after watching Rose and the Doctor become an item and Martha drowning in unrequited love, it was really refreshing to see both Donna and the Doctor insist on keeping their relationship professional.  Donna wasn't after the Doctor.  She was after the adventure.  And sure, the producers teased some romance between them at times, but that's all it was: teasing.  It was clear that nothing was actually going on.  Donna's role was to be "one of the guys."  That's what the Doctor needed most at that point.  He needed company--rather, a companion.  He needed someone to keep him stable.  So as a companion (and in my opinion, a character), she was definitely the best of the three.

I know that a lot of people don't like Donna because they think that she was annoying.  I probably can't argue that.  She could be pretty damn annoying at times, and people who aren't able to look past or her abrasive nature probably won't like her.  But Donna was what, in my opinion, what a companion should be.  Not a sidekick or a love interest.  A partner.  She wasn't afraid to call the Doctor on what he said or did.  She had the audacity to attempt to stand as his equal instead of just following him around, even when she lacked the experience to do so.  That's why, in my opinion, we ended up with the Doctor-Donna instead of the Doctor-Rose or the Doctor-Martha.  The other two wouldn't have worked, because Donna was, from her second introduction, like the Doctor.  Rose and Martha were decent as foils for him, but Donna was he only one who I really think shared his ingenuity and attitude.

Sadly, from what I can tell, the arcs of these three characters have ended.  We're not going to be seeing more of them.  Maybe I'll put up a post about Amy, Rory, and River Song (and any other companions that might show up during Season 5 and 6 that I don't know about) and/or one comparing the S1-4 companions to the S5-6 ones.

-Andy

Back to School

Well, after a semester off, I’m back at college.  Now, I’m not going to say that I’m not the sort of person to ramble about my life (I’ve got a blog for it that I’m trying to reboot here), but I really don’t want to make a habit about doing so here.  So why am I going on about school?  Well, because this blog is about projects and writing I’m working on, and since I’m an English for New Media major, this is relevant.

I’m taking four classes (at the moment; I need to try to find a fifth) at the moment: Foundations of English for New Media, Contemporary Myth and Media, J.K. Rowling, and Creative Writing.  I’m loving them all so far (based on two class—jumping to early conclusions much?).

Anyway, while the J.K. Rowling class seems like it’ll be pretty cool, the two I want to go into most are the Contemporary Myth and Media class and the Creative Writing one.  In fact, my Creative Writing class is actually the spark for this blogpost, as we’re required to do some journaling/blogging for it.  And hey, why not try for the three-a-week that’s required for an A?

So I’m going to be moving to this blog, which is specifically for the class (since it’s supposed to be for that purpose and that purpose alone) and reposting some of the posts here.  I’m also going to be moving to another one for my Foundations of English for New Media class, which will update once a week.

Anyway.  Yes, right.  My classes.  I’m probably going to be going on about them some because I’ve got a class on English and New Media (which is what I’m interested in looking in to), a class on myth and mythology (which should help me develop me Warrior, Wizard some), and Creative Writing (which should help me write creatively a bit better).  It really says a lot that I get to study Harry Potter and it’s probably my least favorite class this semester.

So yeah, be looking forward to a lot of posts as I go into blogging overdrive this semester.

6 Favorite Magic Systems

Well, while I take a break from “Warrior, Wizard” as I’m preparing to head back to college, I thought I’d take a break from rambling about my own work to ramble about other people’s.

I’m the sort of guy who puts the fan in fantasy, and what’s fantasy without a good magic system? After all, we consume fantasy media to escape, and when we escape, we desire to escape into the fantastic.  Magic systems can take on so many different forms, from incantations to thought to summoning and so on.  Really, it’s rare for two magic systems to be exactly the same.  However, there are some that stand out above the crowd.  That’s why I’m going into what are probably my six favorite magic systems and why I like them so much.

First a few explanations: I’m not going into my favorite worlds or my favorite stories.  Just the magic systems.  However, if said magic is inherent in the world itself, I’ll probably go into it some.  Also, I don’t care if it’s explicitly stated within the story itself to be “totally not magic” (like two of the examples).  It’s still magic to us, so don’t split hairs about that in the comments.

And off we go!

6: Once Upon a Time: “Every power comes with a price!”

Perhaps the biggest arc words in Once Upon a Time are 4 8 15 16 23 42 “Every power comes with a price,” uttered most often by our favorite impish antagonistic dealer of deals, Rumpelstiltskin.  It states that, well…every power comes with a price, though the price is not obviously apparent.  For example, Regina is a powerful witch with access to magic—but at the price of what it is that makes her humane.  Her power has corrupted her.

This is at the bottom of the list because it’s not so much an explanation of magic as a statement of the nature of magic.  The magic in the show isn’t particularly fleshed out or exciting. I just love how it takes a frequent concept and bases the show around it.  The deals Rumpelstiltskin makes have his obvious fee, and sometimes that’s the extent of it.  But often times, the meaning of the fee runs much deeper than the characters expect, and using the magic has unfortunate consequences itself.  It’s a good concept to base a magic system around, and its execution makes it one of my favorite magic systems.

5. One Piece: Devil Fruits

One Piece has a fun world filled with great characters, and the magic system is no exception.  One Piece’s magic runs on something called “Devil Fruits,” rare fruits that grant special powers to those who eat them: at the price of never being able to swim again.

While some of the various powers are similar, they’re all different and interact in interesting ways.  The protagonist Luffy’s body acts like rubber, stretching and inflating as he needs.  Another one of the main characters can cause any part of her body to replicate and sprout from anywhere within a certain range (for example, she can restrain people by having hands sprout from their own bodies to grapple them).  Another character can make any part of his body explosive. 

There are also “Logia Fruits” which grant control of a certain element like fire, smoke, sand, or ice.  The powers also interact in interesting ways.  For example, one villain has electric powers and is nigh-invincible because of it—but his powers have no effect on the rubber-based Luffy.  Pretty much every power can be countered with some creative thinking (while blunt bullets and cannonballs have no effect on Luffy, he can still easily be cut or stabbed, and Crocodile’s sand-based powers don’t work when he gets wet), so no character can truly be called invincible.  What’s more, the inability to swim is a huge handicap in such a nautical world where most every character is a pirate or a marine, leading to a system that is, in the end, very balanced.

4. Xanth: Everyone has a power

While my opinions on Piers Anthony’s writing isn’t exactly favorable (congrats, you made a pun-based, totally-not-a-magical-version-of-my-home-state-Florida world and filled it with misogyny), I love how the world of Xanth’s magic system.  Basically, everyone has some form of magic, and all these magical powers work in different ways, from the “spot-on-the-wall” magic (e.g., projecting a colored spot onto a wall or being able to change the color of your pee) to miscellaneous powers like being able to create illusions, or a woman who cycles from beautiful and stupid to plain and normal to ugly and intelligent (a real feminist, aren’t you, Mr. Anthony?), to sorcerer-class powers like manipulating weather or complete immunity to all magical harm.

It’s a really interesting way of doing magic, and the cause for the magic is also pretty cool: apparently it’s coming from a demon named Xanth (or some mathematical formula similar to “Xanth”) who is (as far as I can recall) on time-out from a game he’s playing with other demons, exiled to somewhere under the land of Florida Xanth.  His presence gives off all sorts of magic that leaks into the land.  Pretty cool concept, if you ask me.

3. Shadowmagic: True Magic and Shadowmagic

If you’ve never heard of Shadowmagic by John Lenahan, that’s probably because it’s pretty obscure [/hipster].  It is, however, the top-rated book on Podiobooks.com.  You can listen to it for free.  Check it out.

Now that my plugging for a small-time author is done, let me go into it a bit more.  Shadowmagic is a fantasy story that’s actually fairly standard for a fantasy story.  There are some things that set it apart, but for the most part, it’s not new ground: just old ground painted a different color.  Except, that is, for the magic system, which is probably one of the most creative ones I’ve seen in this type of fantasy series.

Basically, there are two types of magic.  The most common one is “true magic.”  True magic doesn’t run on willpower or incantations or spells or runes or anything like that.  No, true magic is powered by gold.  For example, a dagger with a gold tip will home in on its target, and a slate with a golden surface will transmit messages written on it to its sister slate.  Gold is, consequently, more valuable as a resource than a currency.  However, magic will also consume gold.  That dagger will only last for so many throws before the magic wears off completely and it ceases to be magical.

The other form of magic is shadowmagic, which is used for different purposes and, I believe, runs on tree sap rather than gold (also worth noting at this point is that trees in this universe are conscious and can communicate with humans and each other).  There’s a ban against its use, considering that one woman caused a devastating war using shadowmagic and it developed a huge stigma.  However, that ban is eventually lifted because it’s not an inherently evil magic.  Like most things, it can be used for good or ill.

In a world where this type of fantasy is generally just full of a familiar magic system, Shadowmagic takes it in a completely different direction—to great effect.

2. Fullmetal Alchemist: Alchemy and Equivalent Exchange

One of the “we swear it’s not really magic” entries on the list.  Alchemy is, within the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, a science.  But it’s here because by our standards it’s totally magic.

“Humankind cannot gain without first giving something in return.  To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.  That is Alchemy’s First Law of Equivalent Exchange.”  Fans of FMA will probably recognize that statement as it appears at the beginning of every episode of the first anime adaptation.  It’s a really good way of introducing the principal of matter and setting Alchemy up as a magical science, since it draws strong parallels with the conservation of matter and energy that we have.  Alchemy cannot create from nothing like some forms of magic can: it can only change the form of things.  As the series continues, we get to see more and more of the strengths, rules, and limitations of Alchemy.

Alchemy is a magic system that manages to be both exciting (because come on, turning your metal arm into a sword or snapping your fingers to create flame is totally badass) and realistic.  Alchemy is the sort of system that feels like it could be real because it’s grounded in the science of the world, which just so happens to be fairly familiar.  It’s physics and chemistry, they just work differently from our physics and chemistry.  And while Alchemy is far from a concept unique to the series (I’m sure that you’ve heard of turning lead into gold, the philosopher’s stone, and other similar concepts), Fullmetal Alchemist does a wonderful job of portraying it and makes it fun.

So what tops that?  My personal all-time favorite magic system is

1. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Bending

A brilliant show with a brilliant magic system.  This is the other one of those “I can’t believe it’s not magic” shows but in reality…it kind of is.

Bending is the manipulation of one of the four classic elements: earth, water, fire, or air.  Benders are born with the skill instead of learning it, and the skill is usually genetic.  There’s also the Avatar, a man or woman who can bend all four elements and reincarnates after death.

One of the things that makes bending truly unique, though, is the method of its use.  Bending is less tossing elements around and more magical martial arts.  Each bending technique requires different philosophies and movements based on that element (and I assume that most styles and/or philosophies are based on real-world equivalents), and since one of the driving forces of the plot is the Avatar Aang’s need to learn all four elements, the show is able to go fairly in-depth about them.  Airbending is built around being calm and receptive to change and is heavily evasive, relying largely on turning opponents moves against them.  Earthbending, on the other hand, requires solidity and steadfastness.  Waterbending deals with balance and push and pull, while Firebending is fueled by passion and drive.  The movement is important, yes, but the philosophy is as well.  For example, the carefree Aang is a prodigy at airbending, but that same attitude makes it incredibly difficult for him to learn earthbending.  In the sequel series, Avatar: the Legend of Korra, Korra’s headstrong and aggressive attitude make her a natural firebender to the point that she seems to prefer it over waterbending despite being born Water Tribe, but that same direct approach to things give her immense trouble when it comes to airbending.

Another thing I love about Avatar’s magic system is that it’s not static.  It develops, and technologies that use it develop with it.  In The Last Airbender, Toph figures out how to bend metal, a skill everyone else thought impossible, when she senses impurities in it that she can bend.  A generation or two later in The Legend of Korra, her techniques have been passed on and the entire police force has training in metalbending.  Not only do we get to see technology evolve in the Avatar world, but we get to see bending developing alongside it.

These magic systems are the sorts of things I tried to keep in mind while developing my magic system.  How can I make it more in-depth?  What fuels it at the basest level?  How can I make it stand apart from more traditional magic systems?

So what are your favorite magic systems?  What forms of magic do you find most creative?  I’d love to know, so make sure to drop a comment!