The Magicians: What magic is and what it isn’t
One of my favorite things about fantasy stories is when they make up their own rules for how their world works and then stick to those rules.
Here’s a list of what magic is and what it isn’t, according to characters in season 1 of SyFy’s The Magicians.
“There’s so such thing as safe magic. Might as well take a risk.” (1×01 – Unauthorized Magic)
“Funny little irony they don’t tell you. Magic doesn’t come from talent. It comes from pain.” (Eliot, 1×02 – Source of Magic)
“Being a magician has always been about, in part, accruing power. Power over yourself, the elements, the future. But power, as you all know, does not come cheaply.” (Dean Fogg, 1×03 – Consequences of Advanced Spellcasting)
“Magic doesn’t solve problems. It magnifies them.” (Conversation between Quentin and Dean Fogg, 1×04 – The World in the Walls)
Quentin: What is the point of magic if we can’t fix real problems?
Dean Fogg: We can fix some things. So we fix what we can. (1×05 – Mendings, Major and Minor)
“A great magician is magic.” (Mayakovsky, 1×07 – The Mayakovsky Circumstance)
“What we call magic is a set of tools left over from Creation. […] The tools were left for us to find.” (Richard, 1×08 – The Strangled Heart)
“Magic is science. Hard to crack on your own but far from impossible if you have the natural bend.” (Kira, 1×09 – The Writing Room)
Quentin: Okay, what is magic actually for?
Julia: For fixing things, dummy. (1×12 – Thirty-Nine Graves)
