An analysis of Wishes, Magic, and Fantasy within "No Better than Beasts" vs other stories with similar magics.
Note: This is not a review. This is an analysis from what I saw in "No Better than Beasts". And will have *Spoilers* For that book, "Deerskin", the Valdamar Series by Mercades Lackey, the origonal Nutcracker Fairytale, and will be mentioning the machanics of Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Crawl Classics and of a being I created based on Wish givers in fairytales.
I have thoughts and you have been forewarned. Proceed with caution. It's more a comparison Analysis between Non-Nutcracker Retelling Fantasies vs a Nutcracker Retelling because I think something can be learn from these books and why I had issue with the magic within the book. This is also me "putting my thoughts on paper because reasons". Mostly because I feel like we lost the plot with Brando Sando's "Hard magic vs Soft Magic" and I'll be using "Nebleus Magic vs Magic theory" as fits a more wider range of type of magic.
So there are a few points I want to make because I can see the vision and I think it's why I'm so fustrated with it:
Magic as Theme
Trauma as Magic
Wishing Magic
Empathy Magic (and psionic magic in general)
Magic as Theme
This was in the origonal Fairytale because the magic within was about transformation in mind and body. There's a lot more to it than that but that is the one thing that honestly No Better Than Beast did well most of the book.
The issue though that I have though is the fact that it's compiled *several* aspects of this in such a tower that it's hard to see where each version of the theme can have a unique take on the topic and there are too many moving parts for any of those points can breath. The Soul-Engines, the Beast Curse, and also the use of Wishing magic to transform someone (the whole situation with Talzne glamouring Drakne into a Lioness from her true nature being a Swan.) There's also the Transformation situation of gender with the Rat King/Ruba. Each one does actually have an intresting theme attatched to them but they are all different. The ones that do have similar throughlines is the Beast Curse, The Glamour/true nature situation, and Ruba's gender fluidity. One is hiding the true self and the other is embracing it. The outlyer is the Soul-Engine which I think is suppose to be an "corruption" of transformation, but it could also very easily be seen as an critique of Captialism and Progress (which is fair and can actually work, but there's too many moving parts). And the tacking on with the whole sitaution with Drakne suddenly has the gun attatched to her because she was in it for so long for so many times feels a second thought. To fix this, I feel like it would have been better as a series and let these particular magic as themes to breath a bit more.
Trauma as Magic
Deerskin is the perfect example of this, but you can also argue it in most magic systems. There's a video on Youtube done by "Tales Foundery" talking about this topic called "Trauma as a Magic System" (This is the same channel that also did the video about Fairytale Magic as well the different systems). However I'm sticking to the books I've mentioned up to this point already. When it comes to trauma, it's a very deleciate situation and the conversation has to be handled vastly differently than for shock value. Chalice has this with the male lead, Deerskin with Lasser, The Last Herald Mage has Vanyel. No Better than Beasts Has Drakne but it felt more of a punishment or her than really an exploration. I'm all for Accepting Women's wrongs. And I'm all for messy women and messy LGBTQIA+, but there is a balance you have to do because Trauma isn't there to be a punishment. Deerskin and The last Herald Mage Trilogy honestly works great for comparing because Lasser is traumatized by her own father similar to how Drakne was traumatized by her own brother. It would have been more intresting to see how Drakne's magic both shielded her and harmed her because of this trauma and navigate the situation simierally to how Lasser dealt with it. Magic is a netural force, let it be that netural force of give and take. Vanyel is a Gay Demisexual Man who never understood that he was gay until he met the guy he actually connected with (Now granted it's extreamly messy, but again, messy gays are okay). Nabik could have an arch grappling with his gayness and weather or not he's worthy of love, while also being forced to address his disregard to Drakne's concerns or even not asking enough questions as to why she had been gone for 8 months and came back covered in oil. Vanyel mentally created an ice barrier around his heart, partially through Herald magic and partially through sheer will because he felt as though he couldn't love again. He blames himself for the death of his beloved because he followed orders by his lover only to be hurt. Again Magic being used to harm and shield. Sure Vanyel is 14 by the first book and in his 20s in the second book (and I think 30s in the third book?), but the point still stands that the magic of Vanyel reflected his emotional state.
Wishing Magic
This is where things get messy. Wishing Magic can be extreamly powerful and world breaking if you're not careful. So I get that there had been there an attempt to limit Wishing Magic in No Better than Beasts, but... it was quickly discarded until brought back in a different way and very inconsitant to it's own rules.
There is a thing called 'The Monkey Paw's Effect" that is used in a lot of Media, and there was none of that in No Better than Beasts. It felt like the author saw the Wishing Spell in Dungeons and Dragons 5e and just ran with the pure concept of it without reading the full understanding. Granted a lot of players and GMs also abuse this spell in a way that it breaks most games because it's not very clear on this, But there is suppose to be equlivant exchange even Rules as Written (or RAW for short). So for Nabik to take people's wishes and give them literal medical supplise or to literally heal wounds with said wish should have had an consequence. Just it being based on others wishes isn't enough in this case. It also made the magical duel between Ruba and Nabik extreamly lack luster because there really weren't as big of stakes as it could have been. Even fairytales understood this Equilvant exchange between a wish and a price. And the Origonal Nutcracker tale understood this really well. Now if the magic went in the directon of Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC for short)... then I think it would have been more at stake and I think would work better. Magic in DCC is wild, unpredictable, mecurial even. It's why the Beast Cursed in the first place actually caught my intrest because it *felt* that same feel. Same with Draken's magic. All the spells have that "Monkey's Paw" effect where you can cause great devistation to the land or great devistation to yourself if you fail that roll. In the case of Clerics, you could very well tick off your god where you have to go on quests to appease such ire. Imagine something goes wrong with Nabik's spell and he decides to cut a section of his arm to get that spell go passed that barrier, or break a finger and that is enough to appease the magic to be more potent against Ruba. It's that idea which had me realize DCC also works for the Hag of Wishes. A Primordal Being that cares only to grant wishes, but you must agree to the price in order for her to grant said wish. It can be as mundane as losing your most prize cow for adventure or becoming a god as a price to bring someone back from the dead (you lose your free will and follow what the universe wants). Wishes are a dangerous things to play with and thus should be treated as such in a story.
Empathy Magic (and psionic magic in general)
I talked about the Last Herald Mage in magic as Trauma, but there's another aspect within the Valdamar series as a whole lean into: Psionic Magic and Empathy Magic.
See, not only did Nabik had Wishing Magic, but he also had Empthy magic, which fuled his Wishing magic. Which *can* be doable but the problem here is that Empthy in this case almost becomes true mindreading with how it's handled as he knows exactly what the person wants or needs. Empathy magic isn't as straight foward as you're literally detangling which emotions go where and if they are all directed in one point or several and if it's your own emotions or the emotion of another. That's the danger of having Empthy magic because you are able to feel the person's emotions like it's your own. For Nabik to have 'mastered' that without guidance or study feels too easy here. In the Valdimar series (The Queen's Arrow Trilogy which I want to read eventually), one charater, Talia, can't even communitcate with her Companion unless she's using her own Empathy. And Roland (the Companion) is sad about this because he could feel every hurt she's feeling being unable to speak with him like others. But also Talia is what Valdamar Needs in her being the Queen's Own Herald because her Empathy is so strong compared to others who do have it.
And the other scary thing that can be used with Empathy? Shifting people's emotions to get the outcome you want. Now in D&D and DCC, that is Charisma, but in the Valdamar Series, Bards can use song to shift an angry mob into a less angry crowd or visa versa depending on what they need in any given moment. In order to be a bard, you need the Bardic Gift where you can have the ability to do this thing through music. That or two other abilties that have nothing to do with magic, but the Bardic Gift is a big one because if left unchecked, it could cause huge problems. Mind Healers in Valdamar also need Empathy in order to help heal the mind and read what is causing issue to their patiants. However the other thing too is that Empathy is seprate from "Mindspeech" and "Mindreading". Mindreading is where you know exactly what the person is thinking, and very strong ones can hear people's thoughts without them projecting them. Mindspeech is where you can project it, and the other can recevie it, and really strong ones can project to people who don't have the mindreading ability. Now mix that with the ability to have Empathy... Then you have an extreamly powerful Herald that can be extreamly terrifying on the battle feild.
Nabik felt like he had that mixture but it was just called Empathy. I probably wouldn't mind it as much if it was said that he had both and he was able to use it more effectively after a time.
So I'm going to stop it here. Was going to go into how you can mix and match but after editing some things, finishing "No Better than Beasts" and had lost a lot of my "anger" from when I was reading. I decided to stop it here because I already gave examples how some of these things can be mixed and matched within the points themselves. This is also been sitting in my drafts for some time and I don't want it to sit there for longer. Also had to take out one example I had because it really wasn't working with the revised version of this.
