Eye of Newt: Difference between revisions

''For a charm of powerful trouble,

''Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."''

 

The [[Spell Construction|material (or immaterial) component]] you [[Ritual Magic|need to call forth a spell]] or activate a superpower. It's not as simple as just spending [[Mana]], though. You may need to burn a pinch of sulphur, or to sacrifice the soul of your first born child. Either way, you've got to pay the price before you can throw lightning from your fingertips. If the value of what's sacrificed ''has'' to equal the value of what's gained, it's [[Equivalent Exchange]].

* [[Insubstantial Ingredients|Non-physical components]] - bottled moonlight or the sound of a cat's footsteps.

 

 

Sometimes this trope is used to justify [[Plot Coupons]] as necessary ingredients. Improbably specific requirements can be used to set up impossible challenges. If one of the 'ingredients' happens to be the caster's immortal soul, then it's a [[Deal with the Devil]]. A reusable ingredient is a specialised form of [[Magic Wand]].

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Discworld]]'' magicians sometimes need components to [[Equivalent Exchange|make sure their spells work within the laws of physics]]. When teleporting, for example, an equal mass is usually displaced from wherever the wizard plans to get to.

* In the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series many spells ''used'' to require hard to find physical components, but as successive generations of wizards improved the spells the components were changed to easier to find substitutes, and eventually the spells were perfected to the point where they needed no components at all. The modern-day characters which the series follows only rarely have to cast a spell which requires any sort of physical component.

* In the book ''[[The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride]]'' we are told that they had to search for strange components before Miracle Max could do a miracle, but we aren't shown it because it would take too long.

* In ''[[War of the Dreaming]]'' by [[John C. Wright]], magicians use symbolic objects to compel obedience from the spirits who respond to them—such as moon rocks from the Apollo missions.

 

* Obligatory ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' mention. Various ritual spells require various components, some even require the Eye of Newt.

** Although in an interesting subversion?/aversion?/inversion? It is shown that it doesn't need to be an actual newt, since a frog's eye works just as well.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* A number of spells in many versions of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' (AD&D 1e, AD&D 2e, and D&D 3.x) require use of material components. For standard spells, like ''fireball'', this requires something trivial and commonplace (like bat guano and sulfur rolled into a ball) that one can BS away by having a spell pouch on them. For more powerful spells, like Raise Dead, you're expected to pay cash money to use them (in the form of a pile of diamonds worth 5000 gp).

** Some are even more unpleasant. The components for ''spider climb'' are a drop of bitumen and a live spider; you have to ''eat'' the spider.

 

== Theatre ==

* The [[Trope Namer]] comes from the witches' song in ''[[Macbeth]]''.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' has a whole alchemy system that allows you to use ingredients with set effects to make potions with those effects. Or you can just eat them and get their effects for a brief time, even though some of the ingredients are plainly inedible. (Raw Glass, anyone?)

** You still need to have a high enough alchemy skill just to get all the effects of eating it directly. It's [[Hand Wave]]d that it has to do with a specific way you chew it.

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda|The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild]]'', Link can gather parts of defeated enemies, like Bokoblin Horns and Chuchu Jellies, and cook them with insects and lizards into potions and Elixirs. He can also give these items to Fairies to enhance his armor.

 

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' some spells from the Book of E-Ville require certain physical components.

** Gwynn [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060602 found a spell] to cure [[Blind Without'Em|her eyesight]] that required "parts" from some monkeys. She bought the monkeys, but couldn't go through with the spell, keeping them as pets instead. [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060604 Much] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060625 hilarity] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060626 proceeded] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060723 to] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=061208 ensue].

 

== Web Original ==

* The dark magic that Hekate does in the [[Whateley Universe]], like her spell in "It's All In The Timing", is exactly this trope.

* [http://hellej.elfwood.com/Theres-a-Fly-In-It-.2795145.html This picture]{{Dead link}} by Helle Jorgensen reminds witches: take necessary steps to prevent possible contamination by unintended components.

 

== Western Animation ==

* An episode of ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' dealing with a [[Jiangshi]] had what's probably a parody of the third type - to permanently banish the hopping corpse, Jackie and colleagues were required to take a toadstool from a graveyard, place it in the Jiangshi's own left sock (which, of course, it wasn't about to just hand them), and throw the sock into a river.

** That's not a parody, people actually believed that, though usually the sock was filled with rocks or soil from the vampire's grave. And yes, Chinese vampires hop.

** In "Spell-Bound" (which was, incidentally, the first half-hour episode starring Pinky and the Brain exclusively) the first four ingredients for Brain's “Take Over the World Spell” are six lizard legs, two eyes of newt, two hedgehog spleens, and one half-eaten gingerbread cookie that’s been left on the counter overnight. Getting the final ingredient, a red dragon toenail clipping, is the main plot.

** In [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3e2pGHyG8A this short], Yakko provides his own, uh, unique interpretation of the original witches' recipe, with Dot, Slappy, and Hello Nurse as the witches, provided for viewers who - like Yakko, Dot, Slappy, and Hello Nurse - have ''no'' idea what it means.

 

== Real Life ==

* Hoodoo folk magic is made of this trope. Components can include (but are by no means limited to) red brick dust, graveyard dirt (preferably from the grave of a soldier or a child), coffin nails, dried bat hearts, and raccoon penis bones, not to mention various bodily fluids. Much of the lore comes down from rural areas in the 1930's, when such ingredients were much easier to obtain than they would be today (or not: a random Google search can and will turn up various shops selling such items online, many disturbingly authentic).

** Researching hoodoo folklore, [[Zora Neale Hurston]] was told that a bone from a black cat would bestow powers of invisibility on its owner. Hurston claimed to have participated in a ritual to obtain the bone, which involved {{spoiler|tossing a live cat into a pot of boiling water, then leaving it to scald until the flesh and bones detached and floated to the surface. After which, the participant had to stand in front of a mirror and place each bone under his/her tongue until he/she vanished. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/grand-jean/hurston/chapters/hoodoo4.html#6}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Power At a Price]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]