Magic in Negima confuses me

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Re: Magic in Negima confuses me

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Tue Aug 21, 2012 9:45 pm

Not Negima, but -- in Harry Potter, isn't it possible to cast spells wordlessly? But it's a lot harder than speaking them. I go with the 'helps focus your mind' rationale.
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Re: Magic in Negima confuses me

Postby Crescent Pulsar » Tue Aug 21, 2012 10:25 pm

Spells can also be cast/Magic can also be used without a wand in Harry Potter. But, again, it's another series that places emphasis on the need of having to use something when there's evidence that things can be done without it. (It's a lot more clear in Harry Potter, though.) I can buy into something being a crutch, in that it's a quicker and easier way to use what potential someone has, but not when it's not treated as such and is instead sold as the be all and end all of something.
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Re: Magic in Negima confuses me

Postby Pale Wolf » Wed Aug 22, 2012 1:17 am

That makes enough sense to me, to a point. I mean, I figure it'd still be more advantageous to be able to will it within a second, which cuts down immensely on the opportunity of someone getting distracted by something. Would incantations work up to that? I honestly can't say that I can envision it.


In theory, sure. Practically: it takes time to focus your mind on things and channel great mystical energies. It seems reasonable that this would take longer depending on the level of focus required and the amount of great mystical energies you're channelling.

In theory one could reach a level to reduce that time near enough to zero. In practice, even Evangeline is only doing it for the smaller spells, and can still achieve better focus and effect by running through the incantation.

One second is a pretty long time in a fight. I've seen people sparring to 'lethal injury' in fifteen-second-long bouts. Two out of thirty or so actually lasted the full fifteen seconds.

And it's not just other things distracting you. It's your own mind distracting you. Paying attention to that guy's fist approaching your nose, the exceeding pain from the broken nose, the fact that you haven't eaten for fourty hours and are hungry, at any given moment a mind is bouncing between dozens and dozens of things. Incantations are essentially a spell meditation to stop focusing on other things and start focusing on magic.

I don't really think it's all that mental in either of these cases, but especially in regard to Chao. She's about as close to being a Mary Sue character as can be without actually being one. If you knew Chao, you'd agree that there's nothing stopping her from the mental side of things.


High intelligence is not omni-competence. By mental energy I mean the 'give-a-fuck'. It's difficult to invest energy to what look like relatively minimal returns. And considering how effective she can be without magic, doesn't seem like she had a desperate need for those returns, did she?
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Re: Magic in Negima confuses me

Postby Crescent Pulsar » Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:21 am

She had plenty "give-a-fuck." In addition to her intelligence (which -- in all likelihood -- would have made her realize why she couldn't use magic at all), she had a ton of drive and focus toward her goal. (And she does seem rather competent, besides.) She just doesn't seem to have the personality or mindset that could cripple someone utterly in regards to using magic (if she were to ever put her mind to it), when even those newly-exposed to the existence of magic are able to do something before too long. But she had to resort to an artificial means of harnessing magic, at which point there no longer seems to be a problem with any other part of the spell-casting process. So it's not that she doesn't have a mind to cast spells, for some reason she can't access the magic required to do it naturally. That's what's bugging me. I mean, aside from arbitrary methods in regard to who gets to use magic. I find it worse not being able to draw it in from without than out from within, since one might (I'm leaning that way) assume that the former would be more an exercise of will than an expression of genetics like the latter tends to be.
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