How magic systems can develop characters.

This article talks at length about Dr Strange and Harry Potter - Spoilers.

Hey, HannaMouse1 here! So recently, I've been looking at magic systems - how to make them convincing and all that, but there was one point that I feel is really important, that I didn't see many people talk about. So, I will. When I'm writing, no matter what aspect of the book I'm working on, character is my first and foremost thought, be it dialogue, place descriptions, plot. And magic systems are no different. One thing that people often bring up when discussing how to write a convincing magic system is that less is more. When your characters can do absolutely anything, a lot of the trials that they face feel oddly contrived. Like, can't they just... magic... their way out of it? But in this article, I'm going to be imagining that you have the most limitless, wild, wacky magic system that you can possibly come up with. No matter what you want your characters to do, they probably can. Think Dr Strange. No matter what he faces, he comes up with something new and creative to defeat them with. Of course, this is probably for the spectacle of making a smashy-smashy CGI Marvel Film, and a lot of people have critiqued how Dr Strange can seemingly do anything. And yes - putting some hard limitations on the magic system might have gone a long way to fix things. But if you really want this style of magic system, is there a way to make it more believable? Yes, I think so, and that thing is to limit the scope of magic through character.

When your characters can do absolutely anything, what do they do? That simple decision speaks volumes about their personality, and I think it's a major reason why Dr Strange feels so - well - strange as a character. In a high-stress situation, your brain goes into animal mode, your actions based off of muscle memory, rather than logic, certainly leaving little room for creativity. If feels odd how Dr Strange uses such wild, insane choices for his spells. There's one moment in Multiverse of Madness where he uses a disembodied cat head to intercept a flying car, rather than just teleporting the car to mars or something. It feels so odd. Dr Strange was a neurosurgeon, a profession where, even in the highest of high stress situations, everything has to be perfectly precise. You're half a millimetre off, you've killed your patient. Given this background, it stands to reason that Dr Strange would want to practice his moves over, and over, and over, until perfection. In the first Dr Strange film, we see him pouring over books, rehearsing the time-loop powers on an apple, to make sure that he knows how to do it right, which makes him using this power against Dormammu feel genuinely satisfying. Before that, we see him in the operating theatre, he tells a co-worker to cover his watch, because the ticking was too loud and distracting. That's how careful, focused, precise he is. And yet, despite even more lives being on the line in his wars against cosmic beings than there were in the operating theatre, Dr Strange uses a different spell for everything, things that I can't possibly imagine that he rehearsed. On one hand, it provides some of the most imaginative fight scenes in the MCU - think the fight between Strange and Thanos in Infinity War - but on the other hand, it works against his character by making him completely overpowered, and... not Dr Strange. If I were to write an ex-neurosurgeon character who'd been suddenly introduced to the world of magic, I would give him three or four signature spells, that he'd use for pretty much everything. I'd say, portals, shields, and the magic golden whip. Why these? Because these are the things that we see explicitly taught at Kamar-Taj. And these are also really versatile, and can be used in dozens of really creative ways. I'd rather see him truly master these few skills than pluck random skills out of nowhere. And that's not to say that Dr Strange would never use anything else - if presented a specific situation, he might respond with a specific spell, like when he stops the flood in the final fight in Endgame.

Let's talk about an example where this is done quite well - Harry Potter. Yes, the Magic System in Harry Potter is pretty flawed, but this is something which I think is done satisfyingly. In Harry Potter, there are dozens of spells that can be used to disarm, paralyse, knock unconscious, and kill your opponents, and what the characters choose to do says everything about them. The obvious example is Harry himself, and his signature spell "Expelliarmus". Given the fact that Harry is our perspective character, we get deep insight into his choices, and his choice of spell is no exception. First off, Harry's deliberately written to be a blank enough slate for wide audiences to care about him, but these are some main character points: he's not particularly attentive in class, and he avoids unnecessary bloodshed. So how does this reflect in his spell-of-choice? Firstly, that this is the only spell that he could think of. Throughout his forth year of Hogwarts, he learnt dozens of spells to stun and paralyse and whatever, especially for the final task, but in a life-or-death situation, the only one he can think to use is one that he saw Snape use in a duelling club, two years previously. This says a lot about Harry. First - that he remembered this spell at all. A lot happened at that duelling club (namely that he inadvertently revealed to everyone that he's a parselmouth), and it's not as though Harry particularly respects Snape, so probably wouldn't have been overly invested in the nuance of his performance. Remember, in the Lockhart-Snape duel, Lockhart was leading the class. He should have been the focus, especially as the class would have probably been interested in either seeing him banish Snape like the Banshee, or to completely stuff it up because they've seen through Lockhart's façade. And yet, Harry latches onto the spell Snape used, demonstrating his resourcefulness. It also demonstrates how Harry is a lot more competent in real-life scenarios than he is in the classroom - Accio took him weeks to master, and he was outright trying to learn that one. But it also shows that Harry isn't particularly good at improvising. Like, any of the more aggressive spells from the Maze task would have probably been more appropriate, and could almost certainly be used here, but he can only think do a spell that's specifically been used in a duel. It's also very important that it's a non-violent spell, because Harry tries to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Imagine if Harry decided to use Avada Kedavra here, instead? His level of knowledge of the spell was about the same, being that he saw a teacher do it once. But in a moment of panic, he chose the non-violent option. And then, it works, and we see Harry react to this in his future decisions. This spell becomes his signature, and he teaches it to the rest of Dumbledore's army. We also get to see the drawbacks of him developing this signature, namely that it gets him recognised in the Battle of The Seven Potters, and earns him a decent ringing out from Lupin. Harry defends his decision based on his previous decisions, and his morals, further demonstrating how what parts of the magic system he uses reflects on his character, which is a large part of why his using this spell to defeat Voldemort is so important. It's a manifestation of how, despite all the trials, and challenges, and turmoil, Harry never stopped being the peacekeeper, the one who avoids bloodshed where possible. Harry never stopped being Harry.

So what elements can we take from this? The magic that your character uses should reflect the character themselves. Are they the sort to practice a single skill that they refine to perfection, and then only use that, or are they the sort to fly by the seat of their pants? What are the drawbacks? If your character is too rigid with their spell repertoire, maybe they struggle to adapt when the situation calls for it, or if your character is too wild and impulsive, their idea doesn't work as intended. And then you have to consider the repercussions of their actions, and how other people react to this. And then, what is your character willing to do? Do they attempt to take enemies captive, or do they kill them? At what point are they willing to kill? For instance, would a typically more peaceful character resort to deadly force if their own life hangs in the balance? The life of a friend? To save the world? This should reflect what the character values (a more selfish character would probably use it to save themselves, while someone more selfless might be willing to dies without crossing that line but would to save others.) If said peaceful character is forced to resort to lethal violence, how does that change them? Do they regret it, and become more withdrawn? Or does crossing that line make them more apathetic, more willing to cross it again? In a similar vein, are there illegal spells? Do the characters respect the law, or do they think it unnecessary? How far do they need to be pushed before they break the law? And what are the repercussions? In all of this, consider how vastly different characters might interact with each other. What happens when your rigid, uptight, practiced character meets your aloof, reckless one? What happens when a character who's willing to use deadly force meets a character who leans towards peaceful strategies? What happens when someone who follows the law meets someone who carelessly flouts it?

Long story short, if you don't want to limit your magic system within the system itself, consider limiting it through the internal struggles of your characters. Doing this means that the power-level of your character is intrinsically tied to the character's place in the story arc, meaning that it often feels more like the final victory feels earned, than a Deus ex Machina where your character suddenly realises that they can summon a dragon.