Magic by Any Other Name: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Liraz''': [..] let's just say "polarity torsion does it", translate that to "it's very expensive magic", and leave it at that.|''Afterlife Blues''}}
|''Afterlife Blues''}}
 
This is when a work has an intangible element that is obviously supposed to be magic, but is explicitly not called that. Maybe the word "magic" doesn't exist in their universe, maybe they are using [[Insistent Terminology]] to [[Doing inIn the Wizard|Do In The Wizard]] -- yet—yet whatever power they're using lets them [[Power Floats|levitate]], throw [[Fireballs]] and [[Magic and Powers|anything else]] that standard-issue [[Fantasy]] magic can do. This trope also applies to works where an actually practiced mystical art such as [[Alchemy Is Magic|alchemy]] or [[Tarot Motifs|tarot cards]] has been broadened to the point where it functions as all-purpose magic.
 
In a [[Science Fiction]] setting, [[Magic From Technology]] and "[[Psychic Powers|psionics]]" are favorite stand-bys along with [[Minovsky Physics]], possibly with a [[Sci Fi Name Buzzwords|"quantum" or "nano"]] tacked on for good measure. If [[Everything Is Online]], [[Hollywood Hacking]] may be utilized as well. [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] that have evolved to the point where the physical laws of reality no longer apply to them (such as [[Doctor Who|The Doctor]] or [[Star Trek|Q]]) generally do ''not'' count unless their powers are something [[Puny Humans]] can learn. Sometimes, a more limited power may turn into this over time, due to abuse of [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]].
 
Note that "magic" in our vocabulary means something that [[Beyond the Impossible|breaks physical laws]]. Someone who was born and raised in a consistently magical universe would see magic as logical and sensible, much like electricity seems to us. What we call "magic", they would call ''physics''. (Or "[[Discworld|quantum]]".)
 
See Also: [[Not Using the Z Word]], [[A Mech by Any Other Name]]
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{{examples}}
== Anime &and Manga ==
* ''[[Darker than Black]]'': Contractors
* ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'': The Ripple and later, Stands
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* ''[[Naruto]]'': Ninjutsu. Although ''Naruto's'' techniques are explicitly magical, they have no defined limits and allow [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]], a lot of which aren't traditionally associated with ninjas.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': [[Alchemy Is Magic|Alchemy]]
* In ''[[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index]]'' (and the spinoff,spinoffs ''[[ToA AruCertain Kagaku noScientific Railgun]]'' and ''[[A Certain Scientific Accelerator]]''), [[Psychic Powers|espers]] are basically just [[Functional Magic|Inherent Gift]] magic under a different name. Really, the only differencedifferences between the mages and the espers isare that(a) the mages use lots of crutches in the form of magic circles and magic items that the espers don't, and (b) mages are not limited to a single type of paranormal effect the way espers are.
 
 
== Film ==
* ''[[Star Wars]]'': The Force (It's even split into Light magic and Dark magic!)
* In ''[[The Matrix]]'', bending the rules of physics while jacked into the computer world is ostensibly just hacking a program, but tends to be accorded mystical significance. Then [[Jump the Shark|Neo starts controlling machines in the real world with his mind alone]]...
 
 
== Literature ==
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* ''[[The Kingkiller Chronicle]]'': Sympathy, not to be confused with "Naming". If you know the true name of something you can command it, but if you don't then you can find something to represent it and use your willpower to force what happens to this to happen to that.
 
== Live -Action TV ==
 
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':
** The Carrionites - witches who used what the Doctor insisted was not magic, but physics based on words rather than numbers.
** It also has Block Transfer Computations - complex mathematical equations that were never openly compared to magic, but the most blatant use of them (at least until the novels decided that TARDISes were made out of them) involved a planet of monastic aliens chanting arcane formulae to reshape reality.
** A funny lampshade (or is it a reference) is made in the Tenth Doctor's episode "The Girl in the Fireplace", where he says that the window they're looking through to XVIII century France is a "spatial-temporal hyperlink".
{{quote|'''Rose''': "What's that mean?"
'''The Doctor''': "No idea, I just made it up. Didn't want to say 'magic door.'" }}
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'': The Warp and psionics, but Chaotic practitioners don't shy from calling themselves wizards. As a comparison, in [[Warhammer Fantasy]] universe -- asuniverse—as befitting fantasy -- Warpfantasy—Warp is unashamedly magic.
* ''[[New World of Darkness]]'':
** ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'': Disciplines
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** ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'': Keys, Manifestations, and Ceremonies
* ''[[In Nomine]]'': Songs and Sorcery, one of the rulebooks notes that many of those in the know will [[Insistent Terminology|get annoyed]] with anybody calling Songs "magic", and some will also get annoyed about using that term for Sorcery. Also you don't "cast" Songs, you perform them.
 
 
== Video Game ==
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* ''[[BioShock (series)]]'': Plasmids
* ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'': The kinesis and stasis modules. Somewhat dissonant with the otherwise realistic sci-fi horror setting, but any shooter with physics puzzles needs a levitation ability because it's too much work to properly implement the character picking up and throwing things with his hands like a normal person.
* ''[[EarthboundEarthBound]]'': Psi
* ''[[Golden Sun]]'': Psynergy
* ''[[Half-Life (video game)|Half-Life 1]]'': The Vortessence
* ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'': Psionics (Complete with glowing hands in the sequel even though it is supposed to be a mental power.)
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'': Biotics (It's basically telekinesis and kinetic energy bolts by another name - extremely detailed justifications, but in the end, its still lift spells, shield spells, and [[Magic Missile|Magic Missiles]]s.)
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'': Rune-Keepers and Lore-Masters, to get around not being allowed to have wizards running all over the place.
* ''[[Star Ocean]]'': Heraldry, Symbology, Runeology, Whateverology... {{spoiler|Justified in-universe as being programming code--the universe is actually an MMORPG, and magic is really just the AI hacking the system, and the eponymous symbols and runes are the game's code.}}
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* ''[[Secret of Evermore]]'': Had alchemy, in what was essentially a VR simulation.
 
== Web Comics ==
 
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'': The Spark. Semi-example. The machines are powered by science, but you have to be born with the mysterious "spark" to make them work, and once you do, you can kind of bend the laws of physics. It's not clear to what extent, though, since the technology is never clearly explained.
* Initally, ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'' used "Lux" and "magic" indiscriminately. Then they decided to ban the latter term and stop styling themselves “wizards” because [[Clarke's Third Law|it's only magic to other people]], and those go by the principle most monotheistic religions have that [[Magic Is Evil]].
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'': Ether; [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic|etheric science]]. A case of insistent terminology by the Court, as opposed to the creatures of the forest.
 
== Web Original ==
* Played with in ''[[RWBY]]''. During the first couple of volumes Miles Luna and other members of the production staff admitted that Dust was [[Mana]], period thud. Its use, however, is apparently not ''magic'' -- not when magic appears to be something an order of magnitude or more powerful than Dust use.
 
== Western Animation ==
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[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
[[Category:Magic by Any Other Name{{PAGENAME}}]]