Muggle Born of Mages: Difference between revisions

Contrast [[Almighty Janitor]], [[Badass Normal]]. Compare [[Un-Sorcerer]] and [[Unfazed Everyman]]. A [[Subversion]] of [[Lamarck Was Right]].

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

* Takamichi T. Takahata of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' was born unable to cast spells, but, as a member of [[Badass Crew|Ala Rubra]], is still one of the most powerful fighters of the magic world, in part because he can use the powerful [[Yin-Yang Bomb|kanka technique]].

* Yuzu from ''[[Bleach]]'': while her other siblings can fight hollows <ref>Karin against weak hollow nonetheless</ref> and her father {{spoiler|who was a shinigami}}, she can only see the outline of the ghosts.

* Sairaorg Baal in ''[[High School DxD]]'' did not inherit any of his parents powers when he was born. So instead, he underwent [[Training from Hell]], something high-class devils do not do, and became so strong he doesn't even need the power of destruction.

* Ron Wilson, bus driver, the [[Captain Obvious|bus driver, of course]], from ''[[Sky High]]'' is the nice-if-pathetic version of this trope. He also got [[Character Development]] and [[Took a Level in Badass]] at the very end. In the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]], it mentioned he had a toxic waste accident and got his wish to be a super.

* Jack-Jack in ''[[The Incredibles]].'' {{spoiler|But subverted by the end, and in the associated short}}.

== [[Literature]] ==

** Argus Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker (essentially a janitor), is the mean-spirited version of this trope.

** Also Mrs. Figg, who's much more friendly, [[Crazy Cat Lady|if still batty and weird]]. Her job was to keep an eye on Harry.

* Kyja of Farworld lives in a world where even the ''cows'' have magic. not only does she have none, magic doesn't even ''work'' on her. Later on it's revealed that {{spoiler|she was born on Earth from ordinary parents and was switched at birth with a boy from Farworld who actually does have magic.}}

** Emperor Palpatine has a powerless, illegitimate son. While Palpatine was disappointed, he decided to let him live because his son has night terrors in which he screams out horrifying things. The descriptions are used as inspirations for [[The Empire]]'s war machines and torture devices, meaning that Palpatine literally figured out how to weaponize [[Nightmare Fuel]].

* The fundamental problem of Tavi in the ''[[Codex Alera]]''. He lives in a world where ''every'' human has access to elemental spirits known as "furies" that give them various powers. Tavi, however, is the only human who ''doesn't'' have these abilities, and they cause him extensive problems, forcing him to [[Guile Hero|think and adapt]] rather than use magic. To give you some idea of how much of a handicap this is, Tavi effectively can't even ''turn on the lights'' on his own. Eventually, he learns the cause of his condition: {{spoiler|his biological mother stunted his growth to hide his true age and thus his true lineage, and as a result he did not gain access to his furies at the same age as other humans. Once he does, however, things change.}}

* In ''Once a Witch'', Tamsin was born to witches but has no powers. {{spoiler|Subverted because it turns out her power is that she can take others powers and stop them from using it against them. Double subverted in the sequel ''Always a Witch'' because she loses her powers.}}

* This is the norm for the [[Differently-Powered Individual|Others]] in the ''[[Night Watch|Watch]]'' books by [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]. It's extremely rare for a child of two Others to be an Other (about the same chances as an Other being born to Muggle parents), which is why many Other couples avoid having children, so as not to have to watch them grow old and die. The exceptions are the vampires and the werewolves, who usually turn their children at a young age. Kostya Saushkin is notable as being a vampire who [[I Hate You, Vampire Dad|resents his father for turning him]]. One of the novels has a story arc dealing with a plot by {{spoiler|Geser and Olga}} to turn their Muggle son into an Other. Anton and Svetlana are exceptions in that they were foreseen to have a child who was an extremely-powerful Other (Svetlana is already a very powerful Light sorceress; {{spoiler|Anton reaches Svetlana's level thanks to the Fuaran text}}).

* Bink, protagonist of ''A Spell for Chameleon'', the first book in the [[Xanth]] series, is thought to be this when he shows no magic talent in a land where everyone must have a magic talent by law. {{spoiler|Subverted - it turns out that he did have a magic talent all along: he cannot be harmed by magic.}}

* {{spoiler|Nathan Petrelli}} from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is the only member of his immediate family who was born without powers. His parents injected him with [[Super Serum]] to make up for this "deficiency".

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** The [[New World of Darkness]]'s ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' has the functionally wolf-blooded who get at least a ''little'' more respect than their spiritual ancestors. One of the splatbooks gave them their own share of abilities.

** ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'' has Proximi, who are dynastic hereditary Sleepwalkers: [[Muggles|Sleepers]] who do not have the supernal power of mages, but can witness it without the threat of [[Weirdness Censor|Paradox]]. A Proximus, unlike a normal Sleepwalker, is born into an established family of mages and other Proximi, and ''can'' use limited supernal magic. Mages also believe Proximi are more likely to Awaken than other Sleepers.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* The Dark Knight in ''[[Harry Potter Comics]]'' is a squib and can't use wands or magic on his own. But he's highly practiced as a magical artificer, welding magic into everyday objects, including his own battle armor (kevlar-lined full plate) that makes him highly resistant to bullets, swords, AND magic attacks.

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' had it subverted with Tedd. Who as a son of two wizards ''[[Superpowerful Genetics|had to]]'' be a wizard, but didn't show any magic ability at all in tests with [https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2008-11-11 magic analysis wand]. Enough of [https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2012-07-20 repeated] [https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2012-07-09 tests] that he retained fear response to its sound in late teens. It turned out that the problem was in the wand being too crude. Not only does it fail to tell apart different and non-mixable (at the time) systems of magic (which a guy with [[Aura Vision]] later saw immediately), as senior Verres admits on the next page, but it cannot even discern failure due to resistance. Eventually his fairy grand-godmother [https://www.egscomics.com/?id=2374 spelled it out]: Tedd has extremely high magic resistance from birth, and the sound kept scaring him, so he kept resisting whatever accompanies it, resulting in a very repeatable false negative. Oops.