In Defense of Soft Magic Systems

when Frodo returns home to the Shire after his journey he speaks to his psychological wounds that never truly heal there is no real going back though I may come to the Shire it will not seem the same for I shall not be the same I am wounded with knife sting and tooth and a long burden where shall I find rest eventually Frodo would pass into the West and hopes to heal and find peace from carrying the burden of the One Ring and the deep trauma that came with his experiences this emotional beat in The Lord of the Rings speaks to Tolkien's experiences as part of the generation that emerged from World War one with high rates of PTSD following the traumatic experiences of war but it's also an example of a soft magic system in action a magic system with few rules or limitations and it epitomizes what I feel is an often dismissed unique strength about them people these days often see hard metric systems as better than soft but this is a defense of soft magic systems [Music] the exact rules around the magic of the one ring beyond it turning hobbits invisible are largely ambiguous we know a Joss Nazgul can prolong life that has an addictive power but its most important property is that it worms its way into the mind of whoever carries it and those around them Frodo seemed to be weary weary to the point of exhaustion he said nothing indeed he hardly spoke at all and he did not complain but he walked like one who carries a load the weight of which is ever-increasing the thing is this important medical property of the one ring is pretty soft and this isn't a criticism by the way just an observation token you've set out to define this effect with any strict rules the way Brandon Sanderson white it doesn't defeat people consistently in the same way either inherit timpz them all the powers it gives them there aren't defined methods that the characters can use to resist it and you can't necessarily quantify the effects that it has on ring bearers psychologically and emotionally not in easy terms and swyto keen opted for the somewhat vague line I am wounded with a long burden but that's kind of the point isn't it because the emotional beats of Frodo story here aren't really about the magic it's about trauma and the difficulty of returning to your old life even when it's over it's an example of what we'll call the psychological tension in the story the immersive experience of Frodo's personal journey with the ring is about how it torments him how he comes to need and love this thing that he knows that he should hate and how even when it's gone even though he's relieved he says it has gone forever and now all is dark and empty he defined himself by the One Ring for so long and now it's gone defining the metric of how were the one ring worms its way into the mind of ring bearers with hard rules would undermine that more complex and grounded experience because trauma itself and dealing with it doesn't neatly abide by hard rules and soft magic better supports than somatically magic here is being used to tell a different kind of story a different kind of emotional beat and tension now the usual justification for preferring hard magic systems is something along the lines of I want magic to be a tool that the reader and characters can use to Buckley solve problems with and this is usually compounded with a criticism of soft magic systems along the lines of having characters use magic inexplicably robs the story of tension and payoff and these are good points to make I've made them myself but they're not necessarily always true a major mechanic in Donuts 2015 game life is strange is that the planet character max Caulfield can rewind time this little spiral here tells you how much you can rewind and you can use it to solve problems and redo conversations in the story but it's an oddly soft mechanic for such a large part of the game the little spiral might tell you how much you can rewind but the exact amount of time and allows you to control changes from scene to scene there are some moments where you can't rewind at all all of a sudden and throughout the game sometimes random new powers come to you at pretty convenient times that don't naturally arise from the rules established beforehand the clearest example of this is at the end of episode 2 where you intervene to save Kate Marsh from taking her own life you arrive at school and you see her atop the building now under the usual magical game mechanics the player would rely on you can't move while rewinding time the mechs suddenly finds herself able to do this in order to reach the top of the building and depending on which answers you now choose here you push her closer to the edge or you draw her back and under usual medical game mechanics you can rewind time when you pick a wrong answer but you suddenly find yourself unable to use your powers this time in the past you just fainted but she never lost her powers and this problem doesn't really ever come up again a lot of authors would see these as red flags of bad writing and within Brandon Sanderson's emphasis on predictability and consistency that would be fear if the reader or in this case the player can't rely on clear magic rules to solve problems then obstacles can seem random and plot resolution can feel cheap and successes unearned but much like how those emotional beats of photostory were never about the magic of the One Ring the emotional beats of life is strange were never about time travel life is strange explores suicide abuse depression and other social problems and the narrative tension arises from you trying to navigate these issues to make the right choice without knowing what the full ramifications might be the line like before these are psychological tensions having a hard magic system with a defined cause and effect play a major role in resolving these complex issues would undermine the thematic importance of these issues in the first place much like how Tolkien knew that you can't logically solve Frodo's trauma you can't logically solve Kate suicidality Chloe's self-destructive tendencies or Nathan's abuse with clear and defined rules in contrast life is Strangers soft and inconsistent magic system ensured that the narrative weight remained on your choices which are complicated and difficult to make much like the very issues that the stories are addressing and the magic system changes and evolves where needs to to BIST explore those issues and that's what's important in this story if you manage to get Kate down off that roof it's not because of your clever exploitation of the magic system it's because you paid attention throughout the story and you managed to talk someone down and that carries a lot more emotional weight likewise if you fail to get Kate down off that roof it's not because you didn't manage to use the magic system correctly compare this to hard magic stories where characters often solve major problems in the narrative with creative uses of the magic system in brain of citizens the well of Ascension an army of creatures called the Colossus become a massive problem in the book and the narrative tension builds around restraining them and controlling them until then manages to use the alimentive magic system to control them by burning a particular middle something the readers could have figured out and there's a massive narrative payoff when she does that because the attention is resolved in a way that the story naturally built towards a large part of the immersion these stories comes from a will called the fantastical tension that we can't see in other genres figuring out the magic system alongside the characters having tension built around and resolved by it and that's ok but it's a different kind of narrative set up and pay off when it comes to storytelling soft magic is better suited to support psychological tensions in a story while hard magic is better suited to support fantastical tensions this is not to say that they can't do the reverse not at all but I think that this is where each of this strengths lie they of different roles in the narrative this being one of them and the strength and soft magic extends beyond mental illness I use that as an example because it's what I read and what I write but if it's just the same for any other abstract ideas or themes or tensions that aren't fantastical like relationships or politics I prefer soft magic because I find stories that are first and foremost about those issues and only secondarily about the fantasy more emotionally engaging and I understand that that's personal for me I look to fiction to process and reflect on my own problems both in what I read and what I write that's actually why I enjoyed the rest of us just live here by Patrick Ness so much because it's got a soft magic edge to it but it's fundamentally about anxiety and what the hell it means to be an adult how we explore the stuff infection matters it can help people but I think we should do more than that and that's why on December 6th I'm going to be doing my first ever charity livestream for 24 hours straight no sleep right here on YouTube and every cent will go to crisis ticks line as the finale of their get out the number campaign my only sustenance will be energy drinks and your donations and to make this work I will be personally matching every donation up to one thousand dollars so until then every dollar you donate is worth double I chose crisis ticks line because I'm a counselor with a similar organization here in New Zealand and I know the difference that they make to keeping people safe to those struggling in really dark places with suicidality trauma and other mental illnesses and only that but across the stream I will be joined by over a dozen other youtubers like Eugenia Cooney and enemy movies OSP and other creators to help keep me from kind of going insane my mission which I have chosen to accept is to try and complete all three of the original Spyro games in under 24 hours and that's because when I was going through some tough times and tough thoughts I played spyro I kind of retreated to it playing spyro was a form of self-care for me and self-care is important this poster is on Facebook Twitter and Instagram and please do share it wherever you like it would be an immense help now I have no idea how this is going to pan out or how much money we are going to raise but doing something is always going to be better than silence standard e and I'll see you in the future specifically want to see myself [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Hello Future Me

Views: 1,345,175

Keywords: explained, theory, lore, analysis, how to, education, worldbuilding, writing, magic system, sanderson, brandon, lord of the rings, life is strange, episode 2, gandalf, fellowship of the ring, the two towers, return of the king, frodo, one ring, magic, hard magic, time travel, wizard, saruman, about time, critique, critical

Id: jfSg2CFOWNU

Length: 12min 17sec (737 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 09 2019