Saturday, March 24, 2012

I was talking with a videogame producer I'm working with about our story, and we wound up talking about the mechanics of why the main character has her special power, on which the game is based. We talked backstory and we talked mythology. Ultimately my feeling was that she gets her special power from a Magic Hat.

A Magic Hat is a special power that you don't explain. Because the explanation wouldn't actually resolve anything. The point of magic is that it's magic. You can create a mythology behind a magic hat, if that's what your audience is into (e.g. the One Ring, Excalibur). But it's still a magic hat.

What you definitely don't need is a pseudo-scientific explanation of your magic hat. The classic example is from the Star Wars universe:

Midi-chlorians were intelligent microscopic life forms that lived symbiotically inside the cells of all living things. When present in sufficient numbers, they could allow their symbiont to detect the pervasive energy field known as the Force. Midi-chlorian counts were linked to potential in the Force, ranging from normal Human levels of 2,500 per cell to the much higher levels of Jedi. The highest known midi-chlorian count belonged to the Jedi Anakin Skywalker (over 20,000 per cell), who was believed to have been conceived by the midi-chlorians.

Of course that doesn't explain how midi-chlorians convey power in the Force, so you're just kicking the can down the road.

Labels: craft

10:18 AM

1 Comments:

Yes, it was stunning and disappointing to watch George Lucas reduce a spiritual practice (ie, being a Jedi) to having a staff infection.

By  David, at 7:57 AM  

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