Inept Mage: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Chacha from the manga and anime ''[[Akazukin Chacha]]''.

* In the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', Mana, a young sorceress whose ''ka'' eventually became Dark Magician Girl. She even admits to Yugi that "she's only half a magician, because only half my spells actually work!" Granted, she is at the time only an apprentice, her mentor Mahad being far more powerful.

* Shera and Rem from ''[[How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord]]''. The plot of the story is kicked off when they attempt to summon a demon, only to draw Sakamoto into their world from out, placing Sakamoto in the body of the character he uses in a MMORPG. As if that's not bad enough, their attempt to place a [[Slave Collar]] on him backfires, placing collars on themselves and making them ''his'' slaves. Much to his chagrin. In short, they give a quick lesson on [[Title Drop|how not to summon a demon lord]], although they ''do'' get better.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== [[Film]] ==

* From the film ''[[Krull]]'': Ergo the Magnificent, whose transformation spells always affect himself regardless of who he aims them at. Good thing he has a spell to turn someone into a ''tiger''...

* Mr. Magorium's magic went all wonky {{spoiler|near the end of his life}} in the film version of ''[[Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium]]''

* Questor Thews, from the ''[[Magic Kingdom of Landover]]'' novels.

* Neville Longbottom from the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' novels. Until [[Took a Level in Badass|the fifth book]]. It doesn't help that he's been using {{spoiler|his father's wand}} for most of the series instead of a wand better suited to him.

** A similar thing happens to Harry in ''The Deathly Hallows''.

** Gilderoy Lockhart may count: [[Crippling Overspecialization|The only thing he seems to be good at]] is memory charms, though it's never revealed whether he's naturally inept at everything else or if he just decided at some point that he could get by on that and his natural charisma alone. (And he very nearly did, [[Scooby Doo|if it hadn't been for]] [[You Meddling Kids|those meddling kids]].)

** In [[Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime]], standing still while an Imp tries to attack you will cause his magic to explode in his face. Running will cause him to chase you, trip, and ''explode'', damaging everything in the area around it, meaning you, other enemies, and itself. This is all they can do.

* Jowan from [[Dragon Age|Dragon Age: Origins]]. Between the generally inherent power of Mages and his dabbling in [[Blood Magic]] he ''should'' be very, ''very'' powerful. Alas, he's much weaker than almost every other Mage in the game, and only turned to [[Blood Magic]] out of desperation.

* Perhaps inadvertently, the player character is one in ''[[The Elder Scrolls: Arena]]'' if a non-caster class is selected ([[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards|not advised]]). They can ''learn'' all the spells they want to, but have a max value of ''zero'' spell points. This means it's possible to cast spells, but only if they cost zero points which (unlike later installments) is possible thanks to spells getting cheaper to cast per level {{spoiler|or exploiting cost overflow}}, so late game (level 13+ in a game levels rarely get much above 20) a few ''very'' small spells are accessible. Surprisingly, many of these 0 cost spells are actually very useful for a character with no other casting thanks to the wide variety of utility effects offered and the potency of spell scaling.

 

* [[Merlin]]'s apprentice Fuddie from ''[[Filmation's Ghostbusters]]''. He can grant Jake one wish every full moon, but he ''never'' gets it right, possibly being hard of hearing. For example, the first time Jake told Fuddie to make him "invincible" and Fuddie instead made him invisible. Fortunately, Jake usually manages to improvise.

* Zigzagged with Twilight Sparkle from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]''. While she does eventually master Alicorn magic (which has been stated to be ''very'' hard to learn and ''very'' dangerous if used wrong) when she makes mistakes, she ''really'' makes mistakes. She accidentally turned her own parents into plants during her entrance exam (maybe it was funny to the viewer, [[Fridge Horror| but when you see this from ''her'' point of view]]), in "Bats" she turns Fluttershy into a vampire (the ending even suggesting Fluttershy may ''not'' be fully cured) and in the episode "Lesson Zero", her Want It, Need It spell [[Idle Hands| (cast with the intent to ''create'' a Friendship problem because there were no other problems for her to handle)]] turns a stuffed animal into a [[Clingy MacGuffin]] that ''everyone'' who sees it wants to have, unleashes a [[Hate Plague]] of jealousy due to fighting over it that infects half of Ponyville. Seriously, Twilight, [[Evil Is Not a Toy|Magic Is Not a Toy]].

 

{{reflist}}