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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it... Of course, it's very hard to convict anyone because no [[Trope Namer|Muggle]] would admit their key keeps shrinking - they'll insist they just keep losing it.'' ''[[Weirdness Censor|Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face..."]]''|'''Arthur Weasley''', ''[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (
Ordinary People. Those who are not special, like the favored of the plot. Mundane folk who are only aware of their own small section of reality. The source from which most characters spring.
They're the "normal" for those [[I Just Want to Be Normal|who crave it]] and those who would hate it [[Brought Down to Normal|if it happened]]. Ironically, Muggles often treat these extraordinary people like crap, because Muggles are [[All of the Other Reindeer]]
The [[Secret Identity]] pretends to be this.
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It's often convenient to remove them from the picture [[Parental Abandonment|if their kids are the heroes.]]
A few of them might actually have been [[Muggle Born of Mages|Born Of Mages]]. In fact, those might be [[Un
[[Those Two Guys]] are friendly Muggles. The [[Badass Normal]] is physically one, but their temperament and experiences set them apart. The [[Unfazed Everyman]] is functionally a muggle, but as a central character and audience surrogate has the distinction of witnessing all sorts of crazy action firsthand. [[Muggle Foster Parents]] are... well, they are [[Exactly What It Says
Muggles are to be protected, avoided, manipulated, or abused by the characters or the
Expect the [[Red Shirt
Not to be confused with [[Final Fantasy|Moogles]]. And ''certainly'' not to be confused with ''[[The Legend of Rah and
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In UC Continuity ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', regular humans are sometimes referred to as "Oldtypes", as distinct from the "Newtypes" that represent [[Evolutionary Levels|the next stage of humanity's evolution]]. Rather to the point, some people who believe Newtypes ''are'' the next stage of evolution will use "Oldtype" as a [[Fantastic Racism|Fantastic Slur]] against those who would get in the way of that evolution.
** 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 [[
*** 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.
** Played with in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', where [[La Résistance|Celestial Being]]'s Tieria Erde and [[Manipulative Bastard]] Ribbons Almarck are revealed to be Innovators, artificial humans who Ribbons claims were intended by Aeolia Schenberg to rule over humankind. {{spoiler|The classic scenario is ''[[Inverted Trope|inverted]]'', however, when Tieria discovers the truth: the "Innovators" are in fact nothing of the sort, and were meant instead to help humankind reach its potential as the ''true'' Innovators.}}
** Subverted in ''[[After War Gundam X
* 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''.
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== Fan Works ==
* Two examples in ''[[
** 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.”
* Humans in contrast to unicorns in [[
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* In ''[[The Hollows]]'', There are no muggles. Magic came out of the closet before the books started, when 4 species weren't affected by a disease that killed 2/3 people on the planet, and scarred the rest. This removed enough humans that revealing magic became a viable option, as the levels were around equal now
* In ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'', ordinary people (i.e. non-magicians) are looked at with distaste and referred to as "commoners." A bit subverted, in that the wizards are shown to be corrupt aristocrats oppressing the commoners, and one of the main characters is an [[Anti-Hero]] trying to overthrow the current regime.
** Strangely there doesn't seem to be anything actually ''stopping'' commoners from learning magic, they just don't get picked for training (which makes sense, since those picked must have very high
*** 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.
* Played with in Margaret Weis ''[[Death Gate Cycle]]'' series. [[Yiddish
* 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.
** An excellent example of muggles seriously kicking ass in this series comes at the end of ''White Night'', where {{spoiler|John Marcone and a small squad of human mercenaries take on a horde of uber-ghouls with nothing but assault rifles and discipline, and ''more'' than hold their own.}}
*** 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
*** 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}}.
* In the ''[[
** 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.
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** 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]]''.
** The tabletop RPG [[
** 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.
* [[Twilight (
* Everyone without a power in the''[[Gone (novel)]]'' 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.
* Mortals in the ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'' series. Anyone who is (surprise surprise) mortal can't see through [[Jedi Mind Trick|the Mist]] and doesn't really know about most of the events described in the novel because of this. There are some exceptions, most notably Percy's mother and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who later {{spoiler|becomes the oracle of Delphi. Being able to see through the mist is related to her powers of prophecy.}}
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== Live Action TV ==
* On ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', pretty much the entire population of Sunnydale aside from the main cast and the bad guys could counted as muggles. People are aware that Sunnydale is a dangerous place but [[Sunnydale Syndrome|never seem willing or able to make the leap to accept]] that it's because the town [[Weirdness Magnet|attracts all manner of supernatural beasties]]. Lampshaded in one episode where a football player tells his friend that they could go to state this year "as long as we don't have as many mysterious horrible deaths." Although some later episodes imply that people are halfway aware of Sunnydale's unusual nature, and that [[Holding Out for
** 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]]?
* The Changelings from ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' call all those who cannot shape-shift "solids" and consider them low- value. This extends even to those who are not part of the Dominion.
* 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''.
* ''[[Babylon
* [[Heroes (TV series)|The Bennet family's]] dog is named Mr. Muggles, likely a reference to this and the fact that, with one exception, the family is normal. [[Badass Normal|Well, two exceptions.]]
* Normal people often referred to like this in ''[[
** Of course, a recurring theme in ''[[
** On the whole, there are far less muggles, in the sense of people with no-idea what's going on, after the masquerade officially broke. Now aliens existing is just a fact of life for planet Earth... that is, until Big Bang Two came along, which apparently rewrote all of the events that lead to the masquerade being broken as never having happened. So the Muggles are back to being Muggles.
== [[Radio]] ==
* ''[[The
== Tabletop RPG ==
* In the [[White Wolf]] roleplaying game ''[[Trinity Universe (
** 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 ''[[Mage: The
** In ''Ascension'', belief defines reality, and Sleepers are the majority. While "coincidental magick" can be passed off as luck or accident, using "vulgar magick"
*** ''[[
*** In the [[
** Vampires in ''[[
** In ''[[
*** 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.
* ''[[
* ''[[Warhammer
* ''[[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 [
== Video Games ==
* Although they're not an integral part of ''[[
** 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.
* They're such a part of [[Golden Sun
== Web Comics ==
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* [[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob|Bob Smithson]] spent most his life as a Muggle to the nth power and was quite content being such... until [[Weirdness Magnet|his life took a turn for the peculiar.]]
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Zoe's family and college friends seem to be this, with no supernatural weirdness in their lives except for what [[Weirdness Magnet|follows Zoe around]]. The subject of Muggledom is used for many laughs during the the [[Story Arc]] "[http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/080305 Torg Potter and the Giblets with Fiber]."
* ''[[A Magical Roommate]]'' has a fairly even distribution ''and variation'' of muggles, who the author treats with surprising equality to the magical people. They run the whole gamut, from those who deny magic exists to, recently, one who has plans to open a magic school for muggles because there is no reason not to. And that's not counting the difference between nobility and peasantry {{spoiler|or the number of [[Secret Keeper
* ''[[Blip]]'' is a series starring a
** Her best friends ''are'' a witch, a vampire and a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]]. She just has no idea that they are.
* [[The Kingfisher]]: A vampire webcomic that has no truly important human characters. Fortunately for these muggles, they are often seduced and left alive.
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* ''[[The Saga of Tuck]]'': At one point Tuck refers to a group of female underclassmen as "Homo Mundanus." Tuck and his (male) friends are extremely contemptuous of most of the people that surround them at school.
* In the [[Whateley Universe]], those who are not mutants are 'baselines' (or 'normals'). The baselines have far more creative names for the mutants.
* ''[[Fenspace]]'' has "'Dane" (short for "mundane"), which it inherited from the [[Science Fiction]] fandom which spawned off-earth culture. It also has the derogatory slang term "Dursley", defined as "those 'Danes who are ''aggressively'' mundane and reject/attack anything ... that does not fit into their narrow (and often reactionary) definition of 'normal'." (It should come as no surprise that the latter term originated within the Fen subculture/faction based on the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books.)
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Teen Titans (
* ''[[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".
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== Real Life ==
* Sociopaths see themselves as much better and important than everyone else who they see as useless pawns, and might refer to as Empaths.
* Otherkin, Otakukin, and other similar groups tend to refer to
* ''[[
* Even hackers use the term "Muggle". It has an [http://catb.org/jargon/html/M/muggle.html entry] in The [[Jargon File]].
* Non-[[Society for Creative Anachronism|SCA]] folks are called "mundanes" by members. Mundanes are also the clothes you wear in everyday life. (Same goes for Amtgard and (some) Renaissance Faires)
* People who do not participate in [
* Members of the Neopagan/Magickal community will sometimes use this term to describe non-members, replacing the earlier term "Cowan", which has the same meaning. "Mundane" is also used in this context, largely due to the high degree of crossover between the Neopagan community and the SCA.
* In the Autistic community, the terms "[
* In Russia, most youth subcultures such as punks, metalheads, goths, otaku, [[
* Non-Military, also known as "Civilians."
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fans will sometimes call ''[[Harry Potter]]'' haters Muggles.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]
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