Magic A Is Magic A: Difference between revisions

 

== Comic Books ==

** He can mimic any power (Up to, and including the ''[[A God Am I|Phoenix Force]]'')

** He has to be within a certain range of the person he's mimicking. E.G., If there's no one nearby with a healing factor, he can't give himself one. If there is, he can.

** Next, the subject must be able to understand the order Jesse is giving. In one instance, Herr Starr takes advantage of this by sending hitmen to kill Jesse that didn't speak English, and it's probably worth noting that wild animals don't speak ''any'' kind of human.

** Finally (and this bit's important), the subject must be able to actually ''do'' what Jesse has told them to do. Telling someone to fly off the side of a skyscraper doesn't mean that they can suddenly flap their arms and defy gravity. Telling them to "try," on the other hand, will have more favorable, or at least messier, results. Because of this, Jesse has disposed of one opponent by telling him to go to the beach and count sand (and he does) & evaded a crackshot marksman at point-blank range by commanding him to miss (this also lead to Arseface's origin story--Jesse told his dad "go fuck yourself" with the Voice, and the man [[Nightmare Fuel|had to]] [[Squick|comply.]] [[Driven to Suicide|And then shot himself in front of his son.]])

** Partially resolved in that over the course of the series it becomes apparent that it is not our world. Jack of Fables makes is much more noticeable as it shows superpowered abstract entities do exist in the Fables universe.

* The [[Green Lantern]] [[Green Lantern Ring|Power Ring]] should be able to avoid this, as it is advertised as being capable of anything the wearer can imagine. People still complain when it does something exceptional, though, mostly because it stands out as being extremely unusual. Of course, as has been pointed out, most of the Green Lantern [[The Chosen Many|Corps]] has the imagination of a goddamn potato.

** You can find his essay on the subject [http://brandonsanderson.com/article/40/Sandersons-First-Law here.]

* One-upping that, the "magic" in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's ''[[Death Gate]]'' series ''is'' (pseudo)science, complete with a [[Techno Babble]]--filled appendix describing how all of it works.

* ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant]]'' uses this, with two separate magic systems.

** Bonus points, as well, for describing pretty much exactly how the magic works -- i.e., instead of "he snapped his fingers and a flame appeared above them," it's "she snapped her fingers, felt the spark and heat generated by the friction, and fed it her magic until it grew into a visible flame."