on the limits of mahou tsukai

mahou tsukai is the player character in the minigame of the same name, the first game of set three of rhythm tengoku. he is an apprentice wizard who uses the power of waltz to make flowers bloom and make children happy (character album, stage 3). this much is canon, this much we know. but how far can this “waltz magic” go?

we know that when an input is slightly offbeat, mahou makes a mistake and summons a monster, presumably made of plant matter, which eats the budded plant. while the head of the monsters may be interpreted as a globular flower, such as an allium, a fruit or berry, such as the false strawberry, or a predatory plant, such as a flytrap, any plant matter interpretation suggests that our wizard friend has power over more than just the flowers we see in-game.

the question is, what are the limits of his power?

now, this explanation is basically entirely my own headcanon, as there’s not much canon to go off of (as with any non-returning character from tengoku) so, just keep in mind that this is from the deep caverns of my mind and said caverns alone.

i believe that mahou can create and control any living, organic matter in the taxonomic kingdom Plantae.

or, has the potential to. he is, canonically, an apprentice.

well, what do i mean by this?

let’s start from the back. “living, organic matter in the taxonomic kingdom Plantae,” any organism classified under kingdom Plantae is affected by his magic. this includes moss, ferns, angiosperms, and gymnosperms— basically anything you’d identify as a plant. algae are an edge case, but i personally exclude it as i was taught that algae are classified under Protista, not Plantae. but, i would understand if one were to count algae, as they do perform photosynthesis and were classified as plants until just recently. living organic matter, now, any matter that already fits the set criteria would be organic by definition. however, i choose to make a point to only include living matter. i do not think that he can control dead plant matter— he can’t revive dead plants or make them grow regardless. dead plants are dead organisms— dead and buried, they are dead. mahou knows phytokinesis, not necromancy. going on from that, he has no ability on processed plant matter, like paper or planks. those are dead, and processed far beyond recognition, so they’re out.

ok, we’ve got our definition of what’s within his domain, now what about “create and control”?

“control,” easy enough, he can make plants germinate, grow, flower (if a flowering plant), produce fruit, cones, spores, etc (if applicable), and he can make them do so in most any possible manner, such as grabbing, wrapping, decorating, whatever you can think of.

“create” does break a few laws of physics, but it’s magic and i think it’d be more fun if he could make a little flower in his hand so sue me.

so, he can summon and manipulate any taxonomic-plants that are alive. he has the potential to, at least, he’s not a professional. and, being a non-professional, he doesn’t have 100% complete control over his powers

time to talk emotions!

i think him as a very sentimental person, very emotional. and as we all should know, emotions can be difficult to control. you know what this results in?

use your imagination.

i actually have this little headcanon that the plant monsters when you hit a “barely” are because of a loss of composure from the wizard, from being off-beat. a sudden panic, i see it as.

i sure hope you imagined something cute and silly and wholesome and not something absolutely monstrous and terrifying! that’s my job!

so, that’s my take on the limits of mahou tsukai. in theory, he’d be quite the powerful person— plantae is a large kingdom. with some honing he’d be quite intimidating. but, he’s not quite there yet, i believe. he can’t just create a whole tree from the ground, for instance, and he still spawns those plant monsters when he makes a mistake. big oversight plz patch