Eye of Newt: Difference between revisions

== Anime and Manga ==

* In the ''[[Ranma ½]]'' manga spell components are sometimes needed by the magic users. For example, Happosai needed the tears of a creature both male and female for a rejuvenation potion.

* In ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka]]'', one member of a trio of witch-wannabes drinks a [[Love Potion]] and accidentally sees Onizuka first. They try to use black magic to negate the power of the spell. Ingredients include bat wings (procured from the science department), toad warts (ditto), and ''Onizuka's pubic hair'' (uh...).

 

* Ingredients in ''[[Harry Potter]]'' potions include a bezoar and bicorn horn, and the brewing of Polyjuice Potion involved particular parts of a lunar cycle.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' sometimes uses non-physical components gathered under specific conditions. E.g Harry had to be truly happy in order to gather sunlight into a handkerchief.

** Ordinary magic can be done without physical ingredients or foci, but no-one does it that way. You can just create the things you need in your mind, but if your mental image slips just a little, your spell will fail. Trying to do it that way, rather than with a physical object, is much more difficult and makes no difference in effect, so no-one bothers unless the midden hath hit the windmill, big time.

* [[Ethshar]]ian wizardry uses ingredients like this - a raindrop caught in midair, the blood of an unborn child.

** In "[[The People of the Black Circle]]," they needed the king's hair.

{{quote|''All discarded portions of the human body still remain part of it, attached to it by intangible connections. The priests of Asura have a dim inkling of this truth, and so all nail trimmings, hair and other waste products of the persons of the royal family are carefully reduced to ashes and the ashes hidden. But at the urgent entreaty of the princess of Khosala, who loved Bhunda Chand vainly, he gave her a lock of his long black hair as a token of remembrance. When my masters decided upon his doom, the lock, in its golden, jewel-encrusted case, was stolen from under her pillow while she slept, and another substituted, so like the first that she never knew the difference. Then the genuine lock travelled by camel caravan up the long, long road to Peshkhauri, thence up the Zhaibar Pass, until it reached the hands of those for whom it was intended.''}}

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter]]'' trilogy, phoenix lamps, lit by phoenix feathers, and the Water of Life, retrieved from a well at the edge of world, are the first of many, many, many such items.

 

== Live Action TV ==

 

** 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.

** In ''[[Angel]]'' Wesley is analysing a [[Fantastic Drug]] which has PCP-like effects on demons, and mentions that Eye of Newt has been added to improve the taste rather than the kick.

 

* ''[[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?)

* According to [[Wario Ware|Ashley]]'s theme, an eye of newt is a component of one of her favorite hexes.

** And Grandma's wig and kitten's spit!

** Likewise, Corsairs need elemental cards to fire elemental blasts from their guns.

* The first three ''[[Ultima]]'' games had rituals with elaborate requirements for each spell, but they were [[All There in the Manual]]. ''Ultima IV'' had you manually mixing up spells out of each reagent, typing incantations in the game's [[Fictionary]], and then binding them with a small sacrifice of mana for later casting (with more mana.) Later games kept the reagent system, but did the rituals for you automatically.

* In ''[[King's Quest III]]'', Gwydion has to gather the ingredients from throughout the realm and use them to cast spells, all while fearing that his wizard master may return and smite him. This worked out nicely in the context of an adventure game, where [[Kleptomaniac Hero|manipulating items]] is always a core ingredient.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. All you mages know ''exactly'' what I'm talking about. "What? You told me to port to Stormwind! Bah, alright, I'll come to Darnassus, ''but you're gonna pay for the reagents!'' This costs money, ya know!"

* An episode of ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'' has Fu Dog using Eye of Newt simply because it's used in so many potions.

* In a Halloween episode of [[The Simpsons]], Patty and Selma are witches, cooking the classic recipe...

 

== Real Life ==