The Problem Shared With Gwen Tennyson, Raven, Doctor Strange And Loki And Basically 88% Of Magic Users (a short rant on 'softcore' magic systems)

Now, I'm not going to argue with you what shows or movies or characters have soft magic vs hard magic, I don't even know much about Ben 10.

Just to make it clear to people who don't actually know the difference: Soft magic systems aren't "magic system(s) where the writers don't bother to tell us JACK SHIT... cause thems are lazy asses". Soft magic is just magic that does not have a hard, visible limit or guideline, like Lord of the Rings (go ahead and call Tolkien, who wrote entire languages for Middle Earth, a lazy ass), vs hard magic, which is magic that have hard, visible limits or guidelines, like Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.

Now, the reason this really pisses me off is that there are actual fantasy writers or aspiring fantasy writers who are obsessed with magic systems, and that soft magic is lazy and stupid. That's just not true. They just don't seem to have a grasp of how soft and hard magic has to be used.

Soft magic needs to be either one of two things: either it is used for setting purposes and as a mysterious force that is in the background, or placing limits within the soft magic systems. The limits aren't the same as hard magic limits. The limits I'm talking about are like Gandalf not being able to use all of his powers, or Harry Dresden having a limited imagination and magic draining him. His limits aren't written down like a manual, it's something we see over the course of the series, and something reinforced by the fact that his duster has magical shields and is bulletproof and he himself carries a revolver, and learns bo staff fighting, which imply of certain limits.

Moving on, there are bad examples in more popular media, I agree. Dr Strange seems to operate with a certain limit most of the time, but the fact that he can make Thor and Loki fall forever without limit, and showed a bunch of new powers when fighting Thanos, sort of makes us ask why he didn't do that earlier. Loki's limits are a little plainer. He's just sneaky for the most part, and his magic is primarily illusion based. He hasn't really done much else; everything other than illusion and stealth was done by his staff, which is powered by an infinity stone.

/r/CharacterRant Thread