an impolite use of magic

I was rereading Malleus’s Dorm Uniform vignettes to gather information for another post! Something that stuck out to me upon the reread was how magic can be used in an insulting or disrespectful way. We often hear about how both NRC and Twisted Wonderland itself has many rules and regulations which govern magic and its uses—but it seems there is a social component too.

A quick summary of the aforementioned vignettes; they center around Malleus trying to make it to a dorm leaders meeting. After his peers fail to successfully remind him of their appointed time and day, Malleus decides it would be easier the other dorm leaders come to him rather than him going to them. He then casts a spell which transfers those he wishes to meet with (the headmaster and dorm leaders), bringing them directly to him. This is where it gets interesting, because it is Malleus using this spell on his peers that offends them.

Azul indicates that he had never been treated with such disrespect and that Malleus’s act is an insult. Vil and Leona express upset that Malleus seems to think of them as nothing more than objects, luggage, a pen, or a book. Malleus says he does not understand why everyone is mad because the same spell he used on them, they use all the time to summon their magical pens to them. Riddle clarifies: “PENS ARE OBJECTS AND WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS!!” Lastly, Idia likens the situation to being treated like a familiar that Malleus sees fit to summon at his beck and call, which is also just as irritating.

Judging by the other dorm leaders’ reactions, we can infer that most mages find it extremely impolite to have a spell which is typically used on objects cast on them/living beings. Riddle implies you must obtain consent before doing so, otherwise it violates decorum. (This aligns with the idea that magic is usually formally regulated; for example, medical mages must still get their patients’ consent to operate on them or to heal them.)

Reviewing the other lore we know of, this piece of magical manners (?) makes sense. It seems to be okay to cast object-oriented magic so long as permission is granted. For example, in Floyd’s Labwear vignettes, Adeuce are shown practicing color changing magic on an apple. Vil would use similar color changing magic to alter his and his father’s clothes when they were being hounded by the paparazzi. A similar situation would occur in Lilia’s Suitor Suit vignettes, in which Malleus uses his magic to create a suit on Lilia that perfectly matches his image. I’m sure there are many other examples you could think of; these are just the most obvious ones that come to my mind.

Where does that leave us? Well, with a bunch more questions!! Firstly, what else is considered rude use of magic? Secondly, are spells which violate control over one’s mind and body also considered transgressions of social norms??? They must be, right?? Then why was everyone so chill when discussing how Ruggie and Jamil used their UMs in the main story compared to Malleus casting his transference spell? Isn’t having someone else’s will overwrite your own equally as, if not more, degrading and dehumanizing??? (We do see the the other students upset about the magic being casted on them after the fact, but talking about the possibility of it isn’t done with horror; maybe because it was already established that doing these things is a no-no.) In which case, Ruggie and Jamil, who have UMs meant to be used on living beings anyway, is also “impolite” because their spells still violate other people’s autonomy. Why isn’t this banned by law or at least regulated?? Because it’s too hard to control through legislation alone? (That actually makes sense 💦)

What about when Deuce cast a floating spell on Ace to launch him at the chandelier in the prologue? Or the time NRC students made rude Halloween goers (Magicam Monsters) leave campus by floating them over the school gates?? Were those instances considered impolite too???? And is it more impolite to use magic against a non-mage (since they cannot defend themselves) than against a mage? They mention in Terror is Trending that there are laws against using (attack) magic on non-mages, but what about non-attacking spells and with consent like color changing magic???

What are the rules around casting magic on sentient objects like the Mirror of Darkness, is that considered rude as well since the object is “living”? Do ghosts count as “living” enough to be offended by having an object-oriented spell cast on them? Where do blessings and curses fall in this, since those can be cast without consent (Lilia on baby Silver in book 7) and can also be cast on objects (Vil with the gifted cake and pie in book 5).

I must.. know… 🤡

Didn't kurama and yusuke lose half of their lifespan by using the darkness mirror to save kurama's mom?

That was never stated. Yusuke did offer to share a little of his life so the mirror wouldn't have to take Kurama's entire life.

But, the mirror never actually confirmed it took half of their lifespans. In the anime, it just granted the wish without taking any lives.

In the manga, the mirror was just completely surprised by Yusuke's absurd idea. If all wishers were like him, it wouldn't have been called the "Mirror of Darkness".

The wiki fandom says "For the English manga and Japanese versions, the mirror only took half of the life-force from both Yusuke and Kurama to fulfill the wish by splitting the difference". I don't know about the English version, but the Japanese version (anime and manga) never mentioned that. You may interpret that way, though.

There has been some debate in the japanese community about that. I like the anime version, the mirror was taken by surprise by Yusuke's offer that it granted the wish without sucking their lives.

In the end, the mirror broke ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Magic Mirror has had many voices over the years. While the original was Moroni Olsen; my personal favorite has been Hans Conried, the voice of Captain Hook. He played the mirror for the Disneyland TV series and for several villain appreciations.

Though I am happy to share that Disney has continued their use of villainous voice actors also voicing the Magic Mirror: Tony Jay (Judge Claude Frollo) and Corey Gregg Burton (the current voice for Captain Hook).

In the popular Twisted Wonderland series; he’s voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi, who has been dubbing villainous roles in recent years.

Art by giganticbuddha (here's their ko-fi)

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

Mirror mirror, on the wall. A fear submitted by Frederick to Deep Dark Fears - thanks! You can find original artwork in my Deep Dark Fears shop!

au where pit’s a trans girl who hasn’t figured it out yet and then the mirror of truth speedruns dp’s transition. and nothing else changes.

Durgetash sketchpage by wonderful @mureh ♡!! Scenes of Gortash x Durge Juria before and after "my wife has amnesia" bg3 events (⸝⸝ᵕ ᵕ⸝⸝)

​dyes armor, dyes armor, dyes armor, rummages basket full of equipment, dyes armor, dyes arm—

Does the dark mirror know everything?

Like what if yuu went to the dark mirror during chapter 2 and asked who the culprit was or if yuu asked for the code for azuls safe during chapter 3

To my knowledge, the Mirror of Darkness isn’t stated to be (nor treated as) a magical object that is all-knowing. It mainly functions as a portal for fast travel to distant lands and sorts students into dormitories by evaluating their souls. Early in the prologue, we already see limitations to the mirror’s knowledge: it doesn’t know where to put Yuu, nor anything about where Yuu comes from.

The mirror is quiet in most other instances when we see it (such as during Halloween); it is not ever shown to be consulted for information, whether by the students or by faculty. If the Mirror of Darkness really was so omniscient, why wouldn’t NRC students immediately know to go to it to solve their problems (or, on a pettier note, to get the answers for upcoming exams instead of going to Azul for them 😂)? Wouldn’t Yuu ask the mirror about Mickey early on in their investigation for a way home? And for that matter, why wouldn’t the staff (like, why wouldn’t Crowley just ask the mirror who’s going around and injuring the magift/spelldrive players, then immediately go after Leona’s ass?)?? To that point, we can’t really say “maybe staff keep the mirror’s big brain a secret because they know the kids would be irresponsible with it” because then Crowley would then never approach Yuu to solve the mystery of book 2 in the first place. In fact, it would create various plot holes in the main story 🫠

I’m not sure where this idea that the Mirror of Darkness knows all comes from; there definitely is very little in canon which would support this. Does it originate from the magic mirror in Snow White knowing things like who is the fairest and where Snow White is?? 🤔 In that case, we should be careful with assuming what lore from the source material actually transfers over to TWST! There have been other instances where this is not the case—for example, Maleficent shows that fae are weakened and hurt by iron, to the point where it can burn their flesh. This is not true in TWST; the dialogue implies that while noble fae find iron unpleasant (it’s sort of like garbage to them), it does not appear to hinder their abilities or strength in a significant way.

Rampo Noir (2005) Suguru Takeuchi, Jissoji Akio, Hisayasu Sato, Atsushi Kaneko

i really like how canonically yuu is genuinely supportive of grim wanting to be a great mage. if i recall correctly, even character voice lines point this out. and it seems like yuu dotes on grim a lot and defends him too??? yuu even encourages grim's ambitions whenever he declares wanting to be a great mage. and also when he does that boss-henchhuman dynamic. i mean yeah you can interpret it as yuu saying that being condescending and sarcastic as if they're talking to a child saying "when i grow up i want to be famous!" but like. i really think they're genuine when mc loves grim in their own way.

even if grim is usually a menace, he's become like family to yuu.

and i'm pretty sure grim feels the same way.

think about it this way. despite all the mess, all the unpredictability, the danger, and all the drama being in nrc. what's always the constant? yuu goes home at the end of the day to the ramshackle dorm (basically their home at this point considering they slowly but surely fix it up over time) and with who? “the great mage” grim. as the sole outcasts in that academy, they both sleep soundly knowing they will always have each other at the end of the day.

idk how to say this without sounding really boomer-ey, but like, what happened to horror content for kids? maybe i’m using the word “horror” a little liberally but i remember when i was a kid there was SO much out there that existed solely for the purpose of scaring kids in a safe, fun, age-appropriate way. just off the top of my head there’s goosebumps, scary stories to tell in the dark, tales from the crypt (little before my time though), coraline, mirror mask, monster house, dark crystal (more incidentally scary but w/e), even courage the cowardly dog; all these really fantastic books and shows and movies that let kids explore being scared on their own terms.

now there’s idk, those new addams family movies? but those aren’t really scary.

i see people talking about the “kid-ification” of horror games and i can’t help but wonder if part of the reason kids latch onto that stuff so much now is because there’s nowhere else for them to experience healthy, safe fear. a little kid wants to get the thrill of being scared, but their parents won’t let them watch any actual horror movies, so they go on youtube and what do you know, there’s markiplier playing another cheap horror game set in a toy store or whatever, and now that kid’s fear quota is being met. (obviously there’s more to it than that, but it’s a theory i have)

this like, doesn’t really matter probably but idk, i feel bad that ~kids these days~ aren’t getting the experience of something scary made specifically for them with their genuine enjoyment in mind, rather than whatever the next fnaf ripoff is that just wants to sell them merch. being a kid and watching a well-made scary movie feels like you’re finally being taken seriously; you’re not being babied or coddled, you’re being trusted to face the skeksis and the other mother and the nebbercracker house and not back down. i wish people were still making media that respected kids that much.

{Words by Erika L. Sanchez, from "La Cueva" /Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye}