I've been watching Brandon Sanderson's series where he goes over how to write a novel. This week it was about world building.
In this he talks about magic systems. So I thought I would do a lesson where we look at different magic systems in film and see if we can connect them together. You can use this for the connection standard or use it as an example of what you can do.
Let's first get some background. There are two kinds of magic systems. One that uses a lot of rules. They have a set effect and a set cost. People know how they are going to work every time. Then you have a soft magic system where we aren't too sure how it works. Both of these work. Neither is wrong or right.
I'm going to stick to elemental magics. This is magic systems that revolve around the four elements. The first is actually a series called Avatar: the last airbender. The magic here is well understood as it is based in elements and physical movements. If you know how to move you can create a specific magic effect. Ang though has the ability to learn all the elements while the others are restricted to their own. Without their element, they are often trapped.
Then the next film is Frozen. The magic here is soft in that we don't know where the magic comes from. It still works around a specific element. There is a sense of predictability in that anything with ice is within her ability. The cost of her magic is more about her social acceptance and in the end her sister's health.
Moving away from hard magics lets look at a couple of more softer magic systems. The Mummy is a classic. The only part that really makes sense is that you must not read from the book. Where he gets his powers from are a mystery. They do set the limitations though and the rules. He is scared of cats and the book can take away his immortality. So in the end this becomes a movie of McGuffin chasing. The magic leaves him at the end and he has to face them with his own abilities. In this scene we get to see his power which seems to be linked with the plagues of egypt but why, I'm not so sure.
And last but certainly not least is Harry Potter. Firstly you have to be born with magic. And you need a wand. Except when you don't. The limitations are often only in their own ability, whether they know the spell or can even say the spell. There is a mental aspect of it - will power. At first look this could be considered soft magic but there are distinct rules.
Looking at all of these you can decide what all the rules are to the magic. What are the limitations and how does this impact the story? What is the cost to the magic-user?
Once you have identified the magic and how it works in each story you can decide whether they have a lot of rules or no rules.
To really make this a connection look at how the magic is used to solve problems. In the climax of each of these stories, magic plays a significant part. Often they fail or the people find the magic they didn't realise before. What this really means is that magic always has an emotional or mental factor to it. Describe how the magic changes or effects the people in the story. How does it save them or lets them down?
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