Muggles: Difference between revisions

A few of them might actually have been [[Muggle Born of Mages|Born Of Mages]]. In fact, those might be [[Un-Sorcerer|the only kind]].

 

 

Muggles are to be protected, avoided, manipulated, or abused by the characters or the plot -- often all four, one way or another.

Expect the [[Red Shirt|Red Shirts]] to be muggles since non-muggles are usually too plot-valuable to waste. Even muggles with characterization need to watch it: they could be [[Mauve Shirt|Mauve Shirts]]. More rarely, [[Muggles Do It Better]] comes in to play: mundane people with mundane technology have a real fighting chance in works featuring this trope (often the reason ''why'' [[The Masquerade]] exists, otherwise the supernatural would get its butt handed over by [[Badass Normal]] hunters).

 

{{examples}}

 

** In ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' we have Coordinators (those with genetic modifications) and Naturals (those without). What starts of as [[An Aesop]] about racial equality quickly becomes a [[Broken Aesop]], as the only characters to ever do anything of merit in the show are Coordinators. Reinforced by the fact that only one Natural ever exhibits the show's [[Super Mode]], but this scene was quietly [[Retcon|retconned]] out of existence in the compilation movies.

*** One particular character, who is considered a "Natural" throughout the series, actually shows signs of being {{spoiler|a Newtype}}. He also happens to be the most dangerous character in the series, hinting that Coordinators might still be muggles by comparison.

* Gamu of ''Kokoro'', who lacks [[Genre Blindness]], calls out the mage society on their use of "norm", as well as their championing of the [[Masquerade]] and [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]. Admirable if not for the fact that the formerly cool-headed spy girl is [[Determinator|willing]] to take on [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]] to try and change the world. (Then again, if you had a couple million people out for your head, you might figure that there's nothing to lose, too.)

* ''[[Naruto]]'' partially subverts this as non-shinobi are the ninja villages' ''customers''.

 

== Fan Works ==

** The Idris in Ketafa derisively refer to civilians as “streetfodder,” “cityfodder,” or just plain “fodder.”

** The tirin in Baravada, except that they're almost as mean and annoying as the skahs, and occasionally nearly as dangerous, as George can attest during his quickie with Ma'ar. They're also happier and far more content with their lot. One of the minor advantages the four have is that they are classified as outworlder tirin and are expected to behave as such, when they actually fit into neither category and thus do unexpected things. The best Grunnel can describe them is “They're not skahs, but they're not tirin either.”

 

 

*** Magicians do not try to stop commoners from learning magic because they hide their real sources of power, which are {{spoiler|spirits they summon}}. Also, any commoners who do manage to learn magic immediately become targets of other magicians, which pretty much spells their doom.

* Inverted in the ''[[Codex Alera]]'' series where almost everyone in Alera (think Roman-style nation) can summon at least one type of fury (an elemental spirit of earth, air, water, fire or metal) and gains pseudo-magical abilities from them (flight, influencing emotions, healing are some of them). The protagonist, Tavi, is the only person without one. He survives on his wits and courage.

* The trope name (with a capital M) comes from the name for non-magical people in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' universe. Amusingly, this is also a slang term for marijuana, used by Louis Armstrong. See [[The Other Wiki]] for details. It's not known if there is any deliberate connection; Rowling says she took it from the word "mug" meaning "fool", which is possibly derived from the Irish ''mug'', "slave".

* [[The Dresden Files]] takes an approach almost opposite the [[Harry Potter]] universe's: while most people are either unwilling or unaware of magic, a surprising number of them have actually dealt with it (werewolves running amok, hiring a wizard, cops shooting vampires). And many of the Muggles (or "straights" or "vanillas" as Harry calls them) are almost as formidable as the supernaturals. Marcone, Murphy and Hendricks are among the Muggles who nevertheless are smart, savvy, and can hold their own among wizards and other such. In fact, one of the reasons there's a masquerade going on is because any conflict between generic humans and supernaturals favoured the humans, if only because of sheer numbers, though nowadays the numbers are supplemented by guns and other nasty weapons.

*** Harry compares bringing mortal authorities into a supernatural conflict to dropping a nuke; it's something you don't do, because it fucks up life for everyone no matter what side you're on. Torch and pitchfork wielding mobs were dangerous to supernaturals even in the past--with modern technology, it only makes humans more dangerous.

*** The ''White Night'' example becomes arguable in retrospect {{spoiler|at least for the squad of mercenaries, as a number of them (it is implied most, if not all) are revealed in ''Changes'' to be Einherjar. This would make them a) already dead and b) potentially quasi-immortal thereafter. Marcone and Hendrix are still badass though}}.

** Interestingly, "mundanes" is how human [[Telepathy|telepaths]] - particularly Psi Cops - refer to non-telepaths in [[Babylon 5]].

*** Both of these uses are inspired by the earlier [[Fen|Fandom]] use of the term to describe those who are not science fiction or fantasy fans.

** In Cassandra Clare's ''Mortal Instruments'' series, all those who are not connected to magic are also called "mundanes."

** 'Mundane' (commonly abrieviated to "Mundies") is also the term for non-fairy tale folk in the comic series ''[[Fables]]''.

** Mundane was essentially the standard term for this trope up until Harry Potter decided to invent a brand new word to describe something that had been perfectly well described by a real, existing word for years.

* The [[Night Watch]] series is a fairly dark take on this trope. Because of their magic abilities, the Others have formed their own societies, with negative results in how they relate to normal humans. The Dark Others have massive [[Lack of Empathy]] but the Light Others aren't much better. There are many comments about how because they've seen human evil so often, and because of creating their own society, while Light Others are supposed to be protectors of humanity, they have difficulty identifying with the ones they are supposed to be protecting. In one of the latter stories it's admitted plain and simple that the Others actively hinder the development of humans, else the Others would be exposed and exterminated.

* In Cinda Williams Chima's ''Heir'' trilogy, humans without some form of magic are called "anaweir". Since they are extremely vulnerable to control by magic, they are treated as pawns or kept in the dark throughout the books, until very late in the third, when some of them are finally told about the magical war going on in their town.

* Everyone without a power in the''[[Gone]]'' series.

* Mundanes in the ''[[Mortal Instruments]]'' series. Anyone who has no knowledge of Downworlders or Shaddowhunters is a mundane or a "mundie". Clary is included in this because even though she is a Shaddowhunter, she knows nothing about their world.

== Live Action TV ==

 

** Buffy's graduating high school class probably knows, considering they all fought a giant demon snake and his army of vampires on graduation day.

*** You mean that [[Running Gag|mob of]] [[Gas Leak Coverup|gangsters on PCP]]?

* In ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'', homo sapiens are frequently called "Saps". In Britain, the use of "sap" as an insult is rare, and "homo sapiens" is pronounced "homo SAP-iens" rather than homo SAPE-iens." In consequence, hardly anyone let in on this secret takes offense at the term.

* A club of psychics on ''[[That's So Raven]]'' call them "Normies", as do the members the "The Beautiful People Club" on ''Family Guy''.

* Normal people often referred to like this in ''[[Doctor Who]]''. An example, in the 1996 movie when a newscast explains away recent strange events occurring because of the Doctor's adventure as "normal" weather events, the Doctor remarks something close to "I love humans, always seeing patterns that aren't there"

** Of course, a recurring theme in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is that there are no ''real'' muggles. Anyone who's smart or brave can help the world. This is why 90% of the Doctor's companions are otherwise normal people whose meeting and travels with the Time Lord lets them achieve extraordinary things, even after they've parted company.

 

== [[Radio]] ==

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

 

** Those Novas who subscribe to the Nova-supremacist Teragen philosophy prefer to call them "zips," which is ''always'' a [[Fantastic Slur]].

** In ''Trinity'', Aberrant's sequel, people without psychic powers are known as "neutrals".

** In ''Ascension'', belief defines reality, and Sleepers are the majority. While "coincidental magick" can be passed off as luck or accident, using "vulgar magick" -- magic that obviously defies the consensus definition of "reality" -- causes dangerous Paradox as reality tries to snap back to obeying physics. Meanwhile, in ''Awakening'', when Atlantis fell and the Abyss was formed, [[Extra-Strength Masquerade|Quiescence]] worked its way into the minds of mortals. Unless one is directly confronted with the true nature of the universe, any faint evidence of magic will feed the Lie, and thus the Abyss. And Paradox is how the Abyss enforces the Lie.

*** It's gotten a bit better for Geniuses. It used to be that Havoc could be caused simply by 'mere mortals' ''looking at them''. Now it mortals have to touch or analyse the Wonder to cause Havoc. Geniuses are now free to walk in broad daylight with a death ray and start zapping the crap out of people. The Masquerade is still up though because a large-scale revelation of just the mere existance of Genii would cause widespread Inspiration and since none of the Genii organisations would be able to deal with that number, it would lead to massive amounts of Unmada and Illuminated walking the earth. And that would almost certainly mean the end of the human race as a whole.

* ''[[Continuum]]'' has the vast majority of humanity (and pre-human civilisations) made up of Levellers (as opposed to Spanners/Spinners for those with the capacity for [[Time Travel]]). No mention is made in the rulebook about the potential confusion with a [[wikipedia:Levellers|17th century English political movement]], or a [[wikipedia:Levellers (band)|late Capricorn-era folk-punk band]], although they do discuss the implications of their own name as used as an insult.

 

== Video Games ==

 

** Then averted with Team Dark Signal in ''Project Origin''. Though they don't know what's going on at first, they very, ''very'' quickly catch on to just how serious the supernatural shit they are dealing with really is, and by the middle of the game they're accepting the presence of psychic phenomenon and undead ghosts.

 

== Web Comics ==

== Western Animation ==

 

* ''[[Justice League]]'': aside from heroes, the watchtower has normal humans working there. They are just ordinary people who get beamed up into space every day and spend their time making sure the heroes are free to do their jobs. Oh, and they'll [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|charge a shapeshifting T-Rex]].

* Muggles in ''[[Ultimate Book of Spells]]'' are called "Morties".