| 1 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1375200999003901600 |
| 2 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
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| 4 | [[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/PennyArcade https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/magic.png]]]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:350:Question not the affairs of wizards....]] |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ->'''Frink:''' Yes, over here, n'hey, n'hey. In Episode [=BF12=], you were battling barbarians while riding a winged Appaloosa, yet in the very next scene, my dear, you're clearly atop a winged Arabian! Please to explain it!\ |
| 8 | '''Creator/LucyLawless:''' Uh, yeah, well, whenever you notice something like that... a wizard did it.\ |
| 9 | '''Frink:''' I see, alright, yes, but in episode [=AG04=]--\ |
| 10 | '''Lawless:''' Wizard! |
| 11 | -->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E4TreehouseOfHorrorX Treehouse of Horror X]]" |
| 12 | |
| 13 | [[JustForFun/DescribeTopicHere No need to describe this trope, it's just magic.]] |
| 14 | |
| 15 | The standard all-encompassing explanation for any continuity errors noticed by [[FanWank hardcore fans]] of any given fantasy show: If it doesn't make sense, A Wizard Did It. [[BellisariosMaxim Move on, nothing to see here]]! |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Can be used to HandWave away minor nitpicks and {{Contrived Coincidence}}s that should really be covered by WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief - if it didn't happen that way, there wouldn't be a movie, or magic genuinely is involved in the story. However, having to use it to excuse major {{Plot Hole}}s that the creators really should've caught beforehand ''will'' make people rightly angry. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Often used in the literal sense, i.e. something that would be impossible happens because someone explicitly used magic (magic that only they know) to make it happen. However, this trope is not about magic ''per se'',[[note]]We could have called this trope 'The [[ClarkesThirdLaw Sufficiently Advanced Science/Aliens]] Did It' if we wanted to.[[/note]] but any kind of handwave; it happened because ''[[LawOfNarrativeCausality the author wanted it to]]'', end of story. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | On that note: In fantasy with wizards, before linking to this trope, note that it's important that either the Wizard in question remain unidentified, or, failing that, what exactly they did remains unspecified. Remember, this is a kind of HandWave: we're being asked not to look too closely because "it's like that because we ''said so''". Further side note: If an explanation is offered in a later sequel or bit of "expanded universe" content, it can still count as this in the original work, especially if the later explanation has more than a slight whiff of RetCon. A well-written work that involves magic should have at least some basic notion of what magic can and can't do, see MagicAIsMagicA. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Note that this explanation can potentially bring [[VoodooShark more]] FridgeLogic into a story, e.g. when the explanation given later fails in a situation in some way that could have easily been solved by [[ForgottenPhlebotinum doing what they apparently did before.]] This can also lead to ReedRichardsIsUseless when you realize the possible, fantastic uses of that random trick nobody seems to care about. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Also known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps God of the Gaps,]] after the famous HandWave "(The) God(s) did it". Another MemeticMutation is "It's magic, I ain't gotta explain ''shit''". |
| 26 | |
| 27 | Contrast BellisariosMaxim, MST3KMantra, DoingInTheWizard, AllJustADream. See also PlotSensitiveItems. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Not to be confused with TheButlerDidIt. Or with DoingInTheScientist, which is when a wizard did something that was originally explained by science. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSf9aEETnvE&NR=1 Now comes with didactic audio-visual summary!]] |
| 32 | |
| 33 | ---- |
| 34 | !!Examples |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 39 | * ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' can HandWave anything just by claiming [[spoiler: [[RealityWarper Drosselmeyer]] did it]]. |
| 40 | * All of ''Anime/StrikeWitches''' oddities can be amply explained by the presence of magic. |
| 41 | * In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', Spiral Energy can justify anything [[RuleOfCool as long as it's awesome]]. This applies to any green, glowing thing in SuperRobot anime, going [[OlderThanTheyThink all the way back to]] [[Manga/GetterRobo Getter Rays]] and also including [[Anime/GaoGaiGar G-Stone Energy]]. The G-Stone is soft enough science, but when THE POWER comes up, just... just don't question ''anything'' orange. It won't get you anywhere. |
| 42 | * In the 3D Background Explanations Corner of the ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' volumes, whenever Creator/KenAkamatsu notes that something is off, like how the external shots of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Eva's]] home doesn't match the internal shots, he'd mention with his tongue firmly in cheek that it's probably due to magic screwing up its physical dimensions or something similar. |
| 43 | * ''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'' invokes this trope in chapter 68 to try to squirm out of trouble when she breaks some dishes, to patch up holes in her story. Her father doesn't buy it for a second. |
| 44 | * ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'': the series features a MindScrew of a TemporalParadox, but also features not one, not two, but THREE [[RealityWarper reality-warping characters.]] |
| 45 | * Played for laughs in the [[{{Hentai}} pornographic manga]] ''Manga/{{Sei Sou Tsui Dan Sha}}'': [[spoiler:So how was it possible that the main character's penis could be detached from his body, and reattached to anyone else?]] Magic. [[spoiler:His mom was a witch]] this whole time. Yes, [[spoiler:he]] knew about this but didn't think to tell anyone [[spoiler:until she mentioned it herself.]] And yes, all this is divulged in exactly one page and [[spoiler:[[AlphaBitch Mari]] [[OnlySaneWoman Itsuki]]]] is not taking it well. |
| 46 | * Most modern and futuristic technology in the pirate-era world of ''Manga/OnePiece'' is there because the super genius scientist Vegapunk did it. |
| 47 | ** Pretty much anything else is the "Will of D" or because a Devil Fruit user did it. Occasionally odd things about Devil Fruit are because they were worked on by Vegapunk, up to and including ''a gun and a sword'' eating them. Because Vegapunk. |
| 48 | * ''Franchise/DragonBall'' |
| 49 | ** Creator, Creator/AkiraToriyama said he wasn't sure how [[StatOVision scouters]] stay attached to the user's ear during sharp head-turns and decided it must be some kind of "alien technology". |
| 50 | ** When asked why child characters can turn [[GoldenSuperMode Super Saiyan]] so easily in later seasons, Toriyama says that super Saiyans develop "S-cells" in their [=DNA=] which [[SuperPowerfulGenetics pass onto their children]] making it a lot easier to turn Super Saiyan. |
| 51 | ** The only explanation anyone had for why a supposedly-permanent [[FusionDance Potara earrings]] de-fused inside the body of Super Buu was a speculative "Super Buu is a literal magical genie and RealityIsOutToLunch inside his body, it's ''[[OccamsRazor likely]]'' that YourMagicIsNoGoodHere". When ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' gave it a {{revision}} so that the [[FusionDance Potara]] is only permanent if at least one of the fusees is a Kai, and neither of the Kais around during the battle with Super Buu had any reason to know this; [[note]]One of them was thrust into the position unprepared and untrained, the other had already fused with a mortal witch, which was a permanent fusion because he was a Kai himself. However, the former were able to defuse using a wish to the Namekian Dragon Balls.[[/note]] it was generally accepted as an improvement over the former quote-unquote explanation relying on this trope. |
| 52 | ** ''Manga/JacoTheGalacticPatrolman'' handwaves Goku's [[NotAllowedToGrowUp lack of aging]] as an aspect of [[BizarreAlienBiology Saiyan biology]]. Apparently Saiyans spend several years as children with no real adolescence then spend several decades as adults in their prime. |
| 53 | [[/folder]] |
| 54 | |
| 55 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 56 | * [[Franchise/TheDCU DC Comics]] used an in-character plot device in the ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' miniseries to justify various {{RetCon}}s and mistakes. "Superboy punch!" is now the standard response among fandom to questions about inconsistencies; this replaces the refrain of "Hypertime!", contributed by a previous miniseries, ''The Kingdom''. |
| 57 | ** People acting OutOfCharacter these days is blamed on Deathstroke's mind-altering drugs, primarily because this was the canon (via {{Retcon}}) explanation for Cassandra Cain Batgirl's poorly executed FaceHeelTurn after ''Infinite Crisis''. |
| 58 | *** "Deathstroke's drugs" are the DC equivalent of Marvel's "Skrull imposter". |
| 59 | ** The epically awesome ''ComicBook/BoosterGold'' series [[LampShading made fun]] of the "Superboy-Prime punching reality" thing. |
| 60 | --->'''Rip Hunter''': ''I still can't believe it! Punching reality?'' |
| 61 | ** ComicBook/{{Batman}} has his own personal version of this: "It's ''Gotham''". |
| 62 | * ''ComicBook/InvasionDCComics'' explains that a lot of heroes with less plausible origins such as [[FreakLabAccident Freak Lab Accidents]] actually got their powers from the "meta-gene" which causes superpowers to develop when exposed to radiation or similar stresses as a result of aliens experimenting on their ancestors. |
| 63 | * ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': The Flash is hilariously bad with this. He has the Speed Force, an alternate dimension that surrounds the other dimensions and is the location of time and speed; also somehow Barry makes more of it whenever he runs. Basically, the Speed Force is used to explain anything or as a crutch to have writers get themselves out of holes in a way that is plausible enough; [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands including stealing kinetic energy, not having to eat millions of Calories, phasing through objects, and so much more.]] A lot of these are also canon now too. The original purpose of the Speed Force was to create the RequiredSecondaryPowers to explain why the Flash's otherwise human body and those of people he saves can withstand extreme acceleration (as in, ''millions'' of [=Gs=] in many cases, whereas 214 G is the most any human has ever survived in reality), and why he's not destroying the roads every time he runs at such speeds. |
| 64 | ** Naturally, the fans ran away with this due to the lazy and odd nature of the Speed Force. It can be used negatively or positively, but any question, no matter how dumb, is answered with Speed Force. The problem arises when technically they're not wrong due to the nature of the Speed Force. |
| 65 | ** Part of the problem is how The Speed Force has been repeatedly miswritten and mischaracterised (many writers choosing to write it as a scientific anomaly and energy source, ignoring its mystical nature), and exploited for any quick plot that was needed until it became so vaguely defined that many fans got sick of it. |
| 66 | * The ComicBook/ScarletWitch apparently had the power to "subconsciously" alter reality the whole time, and that too has been used by some writers as a gloss-over explanation for continuity failures. For instance, it was implied for a little while that the whole Xorn / ComicBook/{{Magneto}} controversy might have been caused by the subconscious use of her powers before this was {{Retcon}}ned away. |
| 67 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': |
| 68 | ** Silver Age comics explained why so much Kryptonite and other Kryptonian artifacts ended up on Earth by being sucked through a [[OurWormholesAreDifferent Space-warp]] that was created by the warp drive on the rocket that brought baby Superman to Earth. |
| 69 | ** "The Flash Of Two Worlds" introduced the AlternateUniverse of Earth-Two to have the Jay Garrick version of ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' show up in the main DCU. Superman writers decided to explain some characters having inconsistent names by saying the less used names belonged to the Earth-Two counterparts: |
| 70 | *** Supes' MuggleFosterParents, Jonathan and Martha were sometimes called John and Mary. John and Mary became their Earth-Two names. |
| 71 | *** Mister Mxyz'''pt'''lk was originally called Mister Mxyz'''tp'''lk and wore a purple suit as opposed to his iconic futuristic orange outfit. After the multiverse was established, the purple-suited Mxyztplk was said to be from the Fifth Dimension connected to Earth-Two. |
| 72 | *** Superman's Kryptonian surname was originally "L" rather than "El". Kal-L became his name in the Earth-Two universe. |
| 73 | *** Clark Kent originally worked for a newspaper called the Daily Star that was renamed to the iconic Daily Planet to avoid legal conflict with the Toronto Star which it was named after. The Earth-Two newspaper was then given the Daily Star name. |
| 74 | ** In ''ComicBook/{{Superman|1939}}'' #330, Superman questions the absurdness of [[ClarkKenting hiding his secret identity behind a pair of glasses]]. He finds out that because the lenses are made from plexiglass from the rocket that brought him to Earth, they've been amplifying his [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands super-hypnotism]] to create a sort of PerceptionFilter that makes everybody see Clark Kent as a lot frailer than he actually is. |
| 75 | * Due to the ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion2008'' revelation that Skrulls have been impersonating heroes, running around as extra copies of the heroes (particularly ones of [[WolverinePublicity Wolverine]]), brainwashed into thinking like the heroes, brainwashed into thinking that they are the heroes, are actually heroes who happen to also be Skrulls, and that now at least one of the Skrull impersonators has been replaced by another Skrull, the explanation that any character seen as being OutOfCharacter or [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands using their powers in ways they can't]] is really a Skrull has become pretty popular. |
| 76 | ** "ActuallyADoomBot" is often used to explain any Doctor Doom story a writer does not like. Someone even had the theory that we have NEVER seen the real Doom. It's been [[TurtlesAllTheWayDown ALL Doombots all along]]! |
| 77 | ** ComicBook/{{Thanos}} lookalikes are often used in the same manner. After Squirrel Girl (hilariously) defeats him and Uatu states that it is definitely the real Thanos, it's later revealed that Thanos can create lookalikes that can fool even Uatu. Or so he claims. |
| 78 | * A writer of ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' {{Handwave}}d everything in the series, by saying that it was another universe, and thus justified any inconsistencies it had with that of the Earth-616 universe. (e.g. Reed Richards [[spoiler: being evil]] and [[spoiler:Galactus having an actual, physical body that the zombies can eat]]) |
| 79 | * The Magazine/{{MAD}} parody of ''Literature/TheGunsOfNavarone'' had a RunningGag in which every ContrivedCoincidence in the storyline was the result of gnomes secretly employed by the Allies to set things up. Which worked great until the ending, when a TriggerHappy member of the team kills the gnomes before they can complete the escape plan... |
| 80 | * In ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Doctor Robotnik complains about how everything the Chaos Emeralds do is explained away by them being Chaos Emeralds. Snivelly points out that he uses them all the time, and Robotnik replies that just because he knows they work doesn't mean that he has to like it. |
| 81 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': In the aftermath of ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'', fans wondered how Mephisto rewriting reality to undo Peter Parker and Mary Jane's wedding affected the timeline. Creator/JoeQuesada, upon [[https://www.cbr.com/the-one-more-day-interview-with-joe-quesada-the-fans/ being asked]] why he essentially responded with "It's magic. We don't need to explain it," said that other Marvel characters used magic and no one needed an explanation for those. |
| 82 | * In ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', rogue judges are sent to a PenalColony on Jupiter's moon, Titan. In RealLife, Titan orbits Saturn. To cover this mistake, a later issue said that a TeleporterAccident moved Titan from Saturn's orbit and into Jupiter's . |
| 83 | * ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2020'': This is the explanation The Prince of Power (who is very strong, but ''very'' stupid) gives when asked for his origin. Also, "ummm". [[spoiler:It eventually turns out he ''ate'' the Power Gem, and that's he got his power. Did say he was stupid.]] |
| 84 | * In ''Film/AlienResurrection'' General Peréz says humanity hasn't encountered any Xenomorphs in the 200 years since ''Film/Alien3''. This contradicts countless ExpandedUniverse stories so the ''[[Franchise/AlienVsPredator Alien Vs Predator:]] Thrill Of The Hunt'' mini-comic said there was an event called The Big Deletion where a computer virus wiped out most of humanity's stored knowledge. |
| 85 | [[/folder]] |
| 86 | |
| 87 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 88 | * In any given ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' fanfic, if a character is genderbent/ages back to childhood/[[FreakyFridayFlip has their body swapped with someone else's]], odds are that England did it. |
| 89 | * Quite a bit of ''Fanfic/TheEmiyaClan'' revolves around one of the rather annoying magicians that hang around the family doing something silly to mess things up (and occasionally fix them, but only occasionally). Lampshaded at one point. |
| 90 | --> Shiki: "And how are we alive?"\ |
| 91 | Shirou: "A Wizard Did It".\ |
| 92 | Shiki: "It’s sad that we can reasonably use that excuse these days…" |
| 93 | * The lack of a LanguageBarrier when the Vikings and Columbians communicate in ''Fanfic/TheDragonAndTheButterfly'' is just hand-waved away as another perk of the Madrigal's Miracle. Written language is played straight and Hiccup needs Mirabel to translate and learn their alphabet. |
| 94 | --> How come he could understand these people fine, and they could understand him, but he couldn't read their language? He chalked it up to "magic", and kept moving. |
| 95 | * ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed'': Used by the LemonyNarrator to handwave the historical issues regarding Clover the Clever and Starswirl the Bearded. |
| 96 | * The trope name and [[TropeNamers namer]] are the subject of a pun in Chapter 3 of Creator/EliezerYudkowsky's ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5389450/1/The_Finale_of_the_Ultimate_Meta_Mega_Crossover The Finale of the Ultimate Meta Mega Crossover]]''. |
| 97 | --> "The code libraries from Elysium had all sorts of modules for letting people take their own environments with them and making the rules interact -- they spent a lot of time trying to entertain themselves -- so I picked one of the standard tools that had a really simple interface, where I just needed to answer a few yes-or-no questions to make it happen automatically--"\ |
| 98 | "A wizard did it!" shouted a buxom woman in black leather armor with a silver hoop strapped to her thighs. There was widespread laughter, and not a few groans of agony. |
| 99 | * ''Fanfic/GrowingDaylight'': When Claire muses about how it is possible that they could conceive a child when she is a human woman and Jim is half-troll, Toby responds by saying that magic does not make sense in general so they shouldn't think too hard on the "how". |
| 100 | * ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'': The four notice a lot of odd characteristics about the revamped C'hou. Eventually the Pyar gods tell them that they reshaped the world to be pleasing to both the G'heddi'onians and the skahs. |
| 101 | ** “Everyone's crazy except us.” Their standard response to one of these anomalies, though they eventually decide that's not adequate. |
| 102 | * ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'': When not NarratingTheObvious, Creator/DakariKingMykan tends to explain away major plot holes and details with either "magic" or "belief". |
| 103 | * ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier'': A footnote explaining that [[VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram the Kerbals]] have a team sport that bears an uncanny resemblance to the game of UsefulNotes/{{cricket}} attributes this bizarre coincidence to "[[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings]] with too much time on their hands". |
| 104 | * Lampshaded in ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/324898/the-other-side-of-the-horizon The Other Side of the Horizon]]'', where zebras are thoroughly unimpressed at how many strange aspects of Equestria can be explained with simply "magic". It doesn't help that the pony doing the explaining, Applejack, isn't magically inclined and can't go more in-depth. |
| 105 | -->'''Bhiza:''' Why's it always magic?\ |
| 106 | '''Applejack:''' 'Cause.\ |
| 107 | '''Bhiza:''' Weak. |
| 108 | * ''Fanfic/QueenOfAllOni'': Jade writes this off as the explanation for how Shendu's palace is in partially intact ruins, despite completely disintegrating the last time she was there. |
| 109 | ** Viper likewise uses this as the word-for-word explanation when Jackie wonders how Kuro's mask ended up buried inside a cliff face, halfway up it. |
| 110 | * ''[[Fanfic/RedSadie Ruby Stars]]'': When Greg asks how Rose was able to [[spoiler:remove Sadie's gem]] if Steven needs his to live, Barb and Clancy pause for a moment and simply respond "Gem magic". |
| 111 | * ''Fanfic/TalesOfAResetMind'': The Author's justification on how the Emotions survive with no internal organs. |
| 112 | * ''Fanfic/ThingsIAmNotAllowedToDoAtThePPC'': |
| 113 | ** Defied by rule 627, which forbids using "Because it's magic" as an excuse. |
| 114 | ** Rule 1888 explicitly bans using the phrase "a wizard did it" to answer questions, along with aliens, magnets, [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy the number 42]], and "quantum". |
| 115 | * ''Fanfic/ThisBites'': Whenever people react to Soundbite being able to speak, Cross is able to erase any shock just by saying "Devil Fruit". This soon applies to pretty much any weird occurrence (like Brook), and many people often give a deadpan response to anyone who should be inured to the weirdness by now. |
| 116 | * ''Fanfic/TravelsThroughAzerothAndOutland'' uses this trope, and then explains why the wizard went through all the trouble. |
| 117 | * ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'': When the four are in the Hunter's world, John tells the others that he thinks the Poison Swamp was created artificially, with magic. Why? “I quit wonderin' about motivations on other planets. I just assume everyone's daft, and that pretty much covers it.” |
| 118 | [[/folder]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 121 | * In ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', the movie apparently takes place over several months, judging by the change of seasons while Belle is at the castle. This creates the problem of just how far the castle is from the village - ranging from several days' travel (the length of time Maurice spends in the forest on his first journey there) to several hours (this is the time during which Maurice is returned to the village) and then a matter of minutes hard ride (the mob's assault on the castle followed by Belle's race to get there). It's also never explained why no one in the village knows the castle exists when it's apparently so nearby. Even taking into account the castle being hidden, magic is the only explanation for these oddities. The 2017 live-action remake [[AuthorsSavingThrow goes out of its way]] fill these plot holes: it explicitly reduces Belle's stay at the castle to just five days, removes the changing seasons, and instead places the castle in EndlessWinter as part of the curse, and explains that the villagers (including Mrs Potts's husband) had their memories of the castle erased. |
| 122 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'': "WTF no way Elsa has ''textile'' powers -- that can't be explained by her [[AnIcePerson ice / snow / cold powers]], so that can't be?!" is [[Headscratchers/HomePage a question]] that pops up time and time again about Elsa's magically transforming her coronation gown into a light blue dress; and the question of "Where did Olaf and the Snowgies get their coal eyes and twigs attached to their otherwise-only-snow-created-by-Elsa-bodies when she can only create snow and ice?"). Let's just assume that being born AnIcePerson in this universe comes with some bonus magic powers thrown in for extra. |
| 123 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'': After TheReveal that [[spoiler:the entire LEGO universe is a story being told by an eight-year-old boy]], nearly every plot hole in its story can be explained as "[[spoiler:Finn didn't think of it.]]" |
| 124 | * ''{{WesternAnimation/Pocahontas}}'' displays certain shamanic powers throughout her film, such as the ability to communicate with spirits, dive off cliffs without getting hurt, run large distances, and an affinity for animals. This presumably is why she's able to understand English via "listening with your heart". |
| 125 | * ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'': Played very literally. Fiona's situation is explained only as [[spoiler:"It's a spell. When I was a little girl, a witch cast a spell on me".]] That's all they bothered to explain her premise with, and it's the primary foundation of the plot. Until the second movie at least. Even before then, [[AllThereInTheManual the DVD extras]] made it pretty clear [[spoiler:that's how Fiona ''naturally'' looks, the spell was what made her look human]]. The HandWave was probably done because going into detail about [[spoiler:what the witch did and why]] would have spoiled the plot. |
| 126 | [[/folder]] |
| 127 | |
| 128 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 129 | * ''Film/TheAbyss'': According to the novelization, the aliens are really responsible for [[spoiler: Lindsey reviving after drowning]]. It's also implied that they were able to [[spoiler: get all the crew from underwater to the surface without suffering any ill-effects (which is lampshaded by Lindsey)]]. |
| 130 | * A deleted scene in ''Film/GhostbustersII'' suggests that Dana's being targeted by a ghost again because her family has a genetic susceptibility to spectral interference. In reality, Oscar's mother was meant to be a new character and was rewritten to be Dana when they realized Creator/SigourneyWeaver was willing to reprise the role. |
| 131 | * ''Film/JasonGoesToHellTheFinalFriday'' director, Adam Marcus says that Jason Voorhees is immortal because he's a [[Franchise/EvilDead deadite]]. Marcus claimed in an interview that his mother made a DealWithTheDevil to bring Jason back to life and the Necronomicon making an appearance in ''Jason Goes To Hell'' was a nod to this. |
| 132 | * The novelization for ''Film/JawsTheRevenge'' tried to justify the shark attacks on the Brody family by saying a voodoo priest put a curse on them. And thus the VoodooShark trope was born! |
| 133 | * ''Film/JungleQueen'': In one episode of this FilmSerial, Lothel the eponymous jungle queen pulls a hunk of raw meat out of somewhere--a fourth-dimensional void, maybe--to distract the alligators that are about to eat Chuck. It's an AmbiguousSituation as to how much of a witch or goddess Lothel is, but Chuck lampshades this in the last episode. |
| 134 | --> '''Chuck''': Where did she get the hunk of raw meat she threw? I don't know, do you? Who knows? |
| 135 | * In a meta example from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' films, during an interview director Peter Jackson praised the humility and amiability of Sir Creator/IanMcKellen. He recalled an example regarding the siege of Gondor, which is paraphrased: |
| 136 | --> '''[=McKellen=]:''' Why doesn't Gandalf just use his magic to defeat them all? |
| 137 | --> '''Jackson:''' The staff is out of [[ManaMeter batteries]], and because of the war the alchemist's shop is closed and he can't get new ones. |
| 138 | --> '''[=McKellen=]:''' Okay. |
| 139 | ** The actual reason is an aversion since there's a genuine plot-logic reason: if Gandalf uses his full power, Sauron will [[OrcusOnHisThrone have an incentive]] to take a personal hand in the fight—and he's a stronger [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Maia]] than Gandalf, so he'll win. Having been forced to take a personal hand, Sauron would then defeat all Gandalf's allies (who would be screwed without him anyway), and, with his schedule freed up, might notice a couple of Hobbits stumbling around at the foot of Mount Doom. |
| 140 | *** More to the point, Gandalf's order of Istari were sent to Middle Earth with a mission to rally the free peoples to defeat Sauron, not to do it themselves. They were expressly forbidden to match Sauron's power with power. |
| 141 | *** And this also offers good reason as to why Gandalf is able to defeat the Balrog, he isn't as restricted in unleashing his power against a different evil Maia. |
| 142 | ** Also, Gandalf gets into a WizardDuel with the Witch King and ''loses'', his staff being completely destroyed in the process, so he obviously couldn't use it anymore. |
| 143 | * The ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 144 | ** When asked how the Hulk ended up on the planet Sakaar, ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' production designer Dan Henneh said that the Hulk's quinjet was sucked through a wormhole. |
| 145 | ** To explain how Thor was able to hurt Thanos' with his Storm breaker axe, ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' writers, Christopher Markus and Stephen [=McFeely=] said that Eitri created both Stormbreaker and the Infinity Gauntlet with dwarven magic and probably designed the Gauntlet to be vulnerable to the axe. |
| 146 | ** [[https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Translator_Implant?file=Star-Lord_Info.png This close up]] of Star-Lord's police file in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' shows that he has a [[TranslatorMicrobes translator implant]] to explain why all the aliens seem to speak English. |
| 147 | * In the ''Film/MenInBlack'' movies, pretty much anything unusual or seemingly impossible the [=MiBs=] do can be explained by the existence of alien technology. Of course the big things like time travel and rocket cars are obvious, but it pretty much covers everything right down to the small details. Asking how K can hang upside down in an elevator or how Zed can jump around a room while fighting an alien despite his advanced age, could be explained as ImportedAlienPhlebotinum and [=MiB's=] [[CrazyPrepared Crazy Preparedness]]. |
| 148 | * ''Film/MonsterAGoGo'': One of the most blatant examples of doing this in-universe, the movie suddenly has the narrator explain that, all of a sudden, "As if a switch had been turned, as if an eye had been blinked, as if some phantom force in the universe had made a move eons beyond our comprehension", the monster they had been chasing for the entire movie suddenly never existed. [[GainaxEnding And that's the ending]]. Done because they apparently ran over budget before they could give the film a proper ending. |
| 149 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'' movies: |
| 150 | ** ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' |
| 151 | *** The novelization says that all men find Ilea attractive because her species give off pheromones. |
| 152 | *** Kirk's autobiography changes the UnrealisticBlackHole that sent Vejur across the galaxy into a wormhole. |
| 153 | ** The novelization to ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'' says that Sybok showed the crew how to radically adjust the deflector shields in order to be able to pass through the extreme radiation environment of the Great Barrier and that he tinkered with the ship's engines in order to reach the Galactic Core in less than a day. The Klingon Bird Of Prey was able to copy these techniques by scanning the enterprise. |
| 154 | ** The standard explanation for any continuity errors in ''Film/StarTrek2009'' is, "A particularly troubled time-traveling Romulan did it". Even when those errors date from BEFORE the Romulan split the timeline. |
| 155 | *** WordOfGod says that Future Spock seeing the planet Vulcan in the sky was actually a psychic vision similar to how Spock can sense large numbers of Vulcans dying over long distances in ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Original Series]]''. |
| 156 | *** The {{Novelization}} and ComicBookAdaptation say that Kirk's escape pod landed so conveniently near Spock's cave because the timeline was trying to repair itself by bringing Kirk and Spock together. |
| 157 | *** Abrams says that the reason why technology is more advanced in the past than in the future is that the shuttles evacuating the Kelvin scanned Nero's ship and then studied the futuristic technology. |
| 158 | *** A tie-in comic about Nero says that a stellar cartographer on Rura Pente and [[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture Vejur]] helped him work out where and when Future Spock would emerge from the [[UnrealisticBlackHole black hole]]. |
| 159 | ** ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' |
| 160 | *** The novelization explains that they didn't take blood from another frozen augment because [=McCoy=] didn't know if they could all regenerate like [[spoiler:Khan]] and didn't want to risk another superpowered psychopath running around the ship. |
| 161 | *** In the novel [=McCoy=] notes that the planetoid that he and Carol Marcus open the missile on must have an extremely dense core if it has Earthlike air and gravity. |
| 162 | *** A tie-in comic says that [[spoiler: Khan]] had MagicPlasticSurgery to explain why [[TheNthDoctor he looks completely different]] to previous incarnations, which for once is a technology that's been previously established in canon for years. |
| 163 | * In ''Franchise/StarWars'' (especially in the [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Expanded Universe]]) [[SentientCosmicForce The Force]], in addition to giving selected characters their "magical" abilities, seems to double as a convenient way to explain away plot holes or especially unbelievable plot devices - namely that the "Will of the Force" guides characters and events to where they have to be. This is implicit in the Original Trilogy and is an underlying theme of the whole franchise, being handled with varying degrees of competency. It's been observed that when you replace references to "the Force" in ''Star Wars'' with "[[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality the Plot]]", the dialogue actually makes ''more'' sense. |
| 164 | -->"The Plot is strong in this one".\ |
| 165 | "May the Plot be with you". |
| 166 | ** For a specific example, Luke guesses in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' that Yoda used the force to jam his sensors and make him land near Yoda's hut in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', to explain the coincidence. |
| 167 | ** In ''Film/ANewHope'', Han infamously says that the Millennium Falcon can make the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs even though a parsec is a unit of distance rather than time. |
| 168 | *** The ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'' says that Kessel is near a cluster of black holes and that better pilots can fly closer to it without getting sucked in, therefore doing the Kessel Run in a shorter distance. |
| 169 | *** ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'' explains why there are so many {{Unrealistic Black Hole}}s in one place. They were created by {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s to imprison an EldritchAbomination. |
| 170 | *** ''Film/{{Solo}}'' says that Kessel is surrounded by the ''Akkadese Maelstrom'', a region containing dangerous gases, debris, gravity wells, and an EldritchAbomination. The Kessel Run is a safe spiral path around the planet that's maintained by ancient space buoys according to the novelization. Han takes a shortcut across the dangerous region, therefore doing the run in 12 parsecs. |
| 171 | ** To explain why [[NoEndorHolocaust the Ewoks weren't wiped out by the exploding Death Star]] in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''; |
| 172 | *** ''Literature/TheGloveOfDarthVader'' novel explains that the exploding Death Star [=II=] formed a temporary [[OurWormholesAreDifferent hyperspace wormhole]] that sucked in most of the debris. |
| 173 | *** The official ''Star Wars'' Twitter account said that the rebels had set up shields and tractor beams to divert debris. |
| 174 | ** The novelization to ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' says that; |
| 175 | *** Bala-Tik got on board Han's ship without his permission because it was designed to be easy for crewmembers trapped outside to get back in. Tik found Solo using a thermal sensor but didn't notice Finn or Rey because their signatures were masked by being close to a rathtar. |
| 176 | *** Starkiller Base can instantly destroy planets in other solar systems by shooting through a deeper level of hyperspace called ''Sub-hyperspace''. |
| 177 | *** When exploring Starkiller Base, Chewbacca had some kind of phlebotinum that stopped First Order sensors from noticing them. |
| 178 | ** Pablo Hidalgo, who works for the ''Lucasfilm Story Group'' said on Twitter when asked why characters in other solar systems could see Hosnian System's destruction in the sky "What they're seeing is some weird hand-wavy hyperspace rip. Side-effect of the Starkiller". |
| 179 | ** The novelization to ''The Last Jedi'' says that Kylo Ren survived being shot by Chewbacca because he contained the blast's energy with the Force. |
| 180 | * In ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds1953'' it was rather well put in-universe, actually. Dr. Forrester acknowledges that it doesn't matter if it's possible or not if the aliens are doing it right in front of you. |
| 181 | -->'''Major General Mann:''' Pattern-wise, one lands, then two, making groups of threes joined magnetically. Is that possible? |
| 182 | -->'''Dr Clayton Forrester:''' If they do it, it is. |
| 183 | * ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': Anything illogical a Toon does can be safely assumed to be RuleOfFunny; the concept is implicit in a lot of cartoons, but this movie is one of the few to have it as an explicit in-universe rule. |
| 184 | * ''Film/FinalDestination'' is a slasher-movie series set in a world where death is a sentient entity that forms elaborate plans for revenge against those who anger it, and is a RealityWarper with no clearly-defined limitations on its powers. As such, any time something implausible has to happen for a character to get killed off, it can always be explained as "Death arranged for it to be that way". |
| 185 | [[/folder]] |
| 186 | |
| 187 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 188 | * ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'': There’s been a few “The Ellimist did it” replies to inconsistencies and coincidences. |
| 189 | * ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' says Mulch Diggums lost his magic but ''Artemis Fowl and The Arctic Incident'' has him use the Gift Of Tongues to talk to some dogs. ''Artemis Fowl and The Lost Colony'' explains that depowered fairies like Mulch and Doodah Day retain one spark of magic that lets them use the Gift. Frustratingly, ''Artemis Fowl and The Atlantis Complex'' says that depowered fairies can't use the Gift and Mulch mentions having to learn English. |
| 190 | * OlderThanPrint: The Man of Law's tale from ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales''. Constance, the heroine, was left alone on a ship, which was adrift at sea for years. Why didn't the ship eventually sink or capsize? Why didn't Constance run out of food or fresh water? Conclusion: Jesus did it. |
| 191 | * Parodied in ''Literature/DonQuixote''. Whether his beloved Dulcinea appears to be a garlic-chewing peasant or our hero is transported from his inn chamber to fight a giant (who is actually a passel of wineskins hung above his bed), Don Quixote believes it is due to malevolent enchanters. In fact, there is no magic occurring and Don Quixote is quite deluded when he believes such things. This trope is also the excuse that Don Quixote's housekeeper and the priest come up with when they burn down and seal up his library in an attempt to cure him. The book is making fun of earlier works that used this trope. |
| 192 | * In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'', most of the inconsistencies and ambiguities in the Discworld timeline (as well as some of the SchizoTech) are implied to be the result of the first Glass Clock [[TimeCrash shattering history]], or side effects of the History Monks cleaning up afterwards. They describe how they moved "excess time" to where it wouldn't be noticed (such as deep in the ocean) and likewise moved time from such places when required. The fact that most characters fail to notice the inconsistencies (like, for example, Ankh-Morpork having a 16th-century Shakespearean theater across the river from a 19th-century opera house, and the same characters appearing in two books set nearly a century apart) is explained by the fact that [[WeirdnessCensor most people only notice what they expect to notice]]. |
| 193 | ** Creator/TerryPratchett has declared that all timelines are correct, but some went down different legs of the "Trousers of Time". He's also phrased it as, "There are no continuity errors in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novels. There are, however, alternate pasts". |
| 194 | * ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd'' has an example of this, in a similar vein to Discworld, outside the books. Back before it was published, the author, David Wong had a couple of possible inconsistencies pointed out. His response? "There are no plot-holes: just more layers of mystery". |
| 195 | * Literature/LandOfOz: in the overall Oz chronicles, many of the witches [[{{mythopoeia}} fulfill the same niche]] as [[TheMaker creator gods and godlings]] in most other fantasy universes and many real-world religions, particularly the [[FantasyPantheon Good Witches of the North and South]]. |
| 196 | * ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' {{retcon}}ned its considerable continuity errors in ''Geis of the Gargoyle'', where it's revealed that the expanding "Region of Madness" has caused odd fluctuations in people's magical talents. For example, at one time the Gorgon could only turn men into stone with her gaze; later her powers worked on women as well. |
| 197 | * Got an issue with the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}? Zelretch did it. |
| 198 | * In addition to allowing the two to travel through time in ''Literature/TimeCat'', Gareth's [[CatsAreMagic cat powers]] allow Jason to blend in to his temporal and cultural surroundings mostly seamlessly. It gives him TranslatorMicrobes, adapts his clothes to current fashions, and presumably keeps him from contracting common pathogens of the times and dying of salmonella or something before he gets back home. |
| 199 | * {{Invoked}} in Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/{{Xenocide}}''. When one character mentions OccamsRazor while discussing the latest bit of {{Phlebotinum}}-induced weirdness, another replies, "[[TakeThat Occam was a medieval old fart.]] The simplest explanation is always 'God did it.' Or maybe, 'the old woman down the road is a witch. She did it.'" |
| 200 | * In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', the main character (who is an actual wizard) gets this as an explanation of how the original Authrian Merlin was able to create something. Dresden asks Bob The Skull how Merlin was able to create a magical construct that violates numerous major rules of magic (it dates back to prehistoric times while most such constructs last only a few months, and just building it required Merlin to be in five different times all at once, for example). Bob, despite being one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the entire series, is only able to answer that the construction was obviously impossible, but Merlin went ahead and did it anyway. |
| 201 | * In ''Literature/StarshipsMage'', magic is what allows humanity to reach the stars. The author has stated on the record that this trope is what originally inspired the series, because sci-fi so often [[{{HandWave}} hand waves]] so much stuff it might as well be magic. |
| 202 | * Creator/GeorgeRRMartin said that the BizarreSeasons in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' are caused by magic. However, this was not a handwave. It was a response to theories that the varying length of seasons had a natural, scientific explanation, with fans positing strange orbits for the planet, or a binary star system, etc. Martin confirmed for fans that, no: it has a magical explanation. |
| 203 | * Namedropped and discussed in ''Foxglove Summer,'' the fourth book of the UrbanFantasy PoliceProcedural series ''Literature/RiversOfLondon.'' When Dominic, a local detective constable in Herefordshire, asks Peter about the magical phenomena Peter supposedly was sent to investigate, Peter dodges answering fully and responds that the things he investigates often actually have a perfectly rational explanation. When Dominic witnesses Peter do magic, he appears to feel deceived and quotes Peter's earlier answer, but as Peter and Beverly point out to Dominic, in a world where magic is real, this trope ''is'' [[ExactWords a perfectly rational explanation]]. |
| 204 | * In ''Literature/MyBrotherIsASuperhero,'' Luke is actually bothered by Zack's SuperNotDrowningSkills, as he notes that gaining superpowers didn't give him gills. Zack just shrugs and suggests that his powers might count as magic, which Luke is willing to accept. |
| 205 | * Attempted as an in-universe explanation in ''Literature/TheMalloreon'': a sailor has a leg that is painfully sensitive to changes in the weather to the point where he's employed as a storm-predictor. When he fails to predict a squall and his employers complain, he ''literally'' suggests that a wizard might've conjured the storm. His boss thinks it's a lame excuse. [[spoiler: It's implied that actually something much more powerful than a wizard that's conjured the storm.]] |
| 206 | * ''Literature/CradleSeries'': The world of Cradle is a terrestial planet the size of Jupiter. The gravity would make it extremely difficult for the planet to exist in any state similar to Earth, much less have humans living on it comfortably. WordOfGod handwaves this with [[BackgroundMagicField vital aura]]; not only does it strengthen the planet itself, but every single thing on the planet, living or not, can take the power into themselves to become stronger. For living creatures, they process it into [[{{Mana}} madra]]. Notably, in the rare instances when we see someone completely out of madra, they have a great deal of difficulty even ''breathing''. The author specifically compared himself to Creator/BrandonSanderson; Sanderson might spend a great deal of effort explaining exactly how the physics of this impossible world works, but he's content to stick with "it's magic, I don't have to explain it". |
| 207 | * ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'': This is the whole point of the Infinite Improbability Drive, a device created specifically for the purpose of causing extremely improbable events to happen. Any time the plot requires something contrived to happen and the Drive is active nearby, you can explain away the implausibility by saying "the Drive did it". |
| 208 | * ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'': any inconsistencies, contrivances, or ''anything and everything else'' could be explained with "[[RealityWarper Haruhi did it]]," or Kyon being an UnreliableNarrator. Reached MemeticMutation where any RealityWarper or God ''ever'' is Haruhi. |
| 209 | * In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the central conflict is between the [[MagicVersusScience various religious organizations on the magic side, and Academy city on the science side]]. While the magic side obviously gets a fair deal of the "it's magic, we don't have to explain it," explanation, the science side gets more than a little too. In fact, it's a lot easier to ignore the woefully inaccurate {{Technobabble}} in the series when you remember that Academy City is literally founded and controlled by an evil wizard. |
| 210 | * In almost any light novel with a "standard" isekai setting, the main character will die after being hit by a truck, generally attempting to save someone else in the process. The actual mechanics by which the main character is transported to another world or reborn are generally handwaved. This is parodied early on in ''Literature/KonoSuba''. |
| 211 | [[/folder]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 214 | * In ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'': The episode "Forever Red" gives no explanation as to why some rangers suddenly have their powers again. Although FanWank has offered several decent solutions. |
| 215 | * ''Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'': The episode "Once A Ranger" attempts this trope by simply having The Sentinel Knight restore the veteran rangers' powers with little more than a handwave. One wonders why he didn't use those powers to temporarily restore the Overdrive rangers' powers while they got the morphing grid back on. Or why he didn't just bring back a team that still had their powers. |
| 216 | * ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'' ''does'' give us a Wizard in the form of Morphin' Master Green, one of the guardians of the Morphin' Grid. She's revealed to be behind things like [[Series/PowerRangersMegaforce the past Rangers coming the Super Megaforce team's aid]], [[Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers reviving and turning Steel human]] and suggested to be much more. She does this because she believes she and her peers should take a more proactive role in protecting the universe. |
| 217 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 218 | ** Living in Sunnydale (which is on top of a Hellmouth) is a convenient explanation for many aspects of the show which would be ludicrous or impossible otherwise. |
| 219 | ** Principal Snyder's standard excuse was "gang on PCP". |
| 220 | ** "It could be witches! Some evil witches! Which is ridiculous 'cause witches, they were persecuted, wicca good, and love the earth, and women power, and I'll be over here..". |
| 221 | ** The ''Series/{{Angel}}'' equivalent seems to be The Powers That Be did it, or [[BigBad The Senior Partners]] did it. |
| 222 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 223 | ** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens The Pandorica Opens]]" The following dialogue occurs between the Doctor and Amy Pond: |
| 224 | -->'''Doctor''': "There was a goblin, or a trickster. Or a warrior. A nameless, terrible thing soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it or... reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world".\ |
| 225 | '''Amy:''' "How did it end up in there?"\ |
| 226 | '''The Doctor:''' "You know fairy tales -- a good wizard tricked it".\ |
| 227 | '''River:''' "I hate good wizards in fairy tales. They always turn out to be him". |
| 228 | ** Also in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' revival, many [[TimeyWimeyBall inconsistencies in the way time travel works]] can be explained by some result of the Time War. |
| 229 | ** Inconsistencies in the Moffat era are usually explained away by blaming them on the Cracks in Time and the subsequent rebooting of the universe (aka Big Bang Two). On this very wiki, the phrase "timey-wimey" is used to explain just about everything. |
| 230 | ** In possibly an inversion, when it's asked why the Doctor ''doesn't'' do something, fans are often quick to suggest it was a fixed point in time. |
| 231 | ** The sonic screwdriver can do just about anything. Because it's sonic. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E9NightTerrors And "other stuff," apparently]]. But it doesn't do wood. Or deadlock seals. Because reasons. |
| 232 | * ''Series/{{Lost}}'': When you don't understand what's happening, just tell yourself "The island did it". Or more specifically, [[spoiler:Jacob and the MIB did it, with magical Island-granted powers]]. |
| 233 | * How is that all five of the Final Five managed to survive the Cylon destruction of the Twelve Colonies in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''? Along with an admiral whose family had history with the creator of the Cylons? And the Colonials and Cylons converge on the Algae Planet and in the Ionian Nebula despite the size of the universe? No doubt the higher power that doesn't like to be called "God" is responsible. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the Final Five and Algae Planet cases. |
| 234 | ** Partially explained in "The Plan". Cavil was working behind the scenes to make sure the Final Five survived so they could suffer even more. |
| 235 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 236 | ** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': |
| 237 | *** According to ''The Making Of Star Trek'' Creator/GeneRoddenberry explains the inconsistency in star dates by saying that [[TimeDilation time moves differently to ships travelling at warp speed]]. He admits he doesn't understand his own explanation but it seems to satisfy fans who ask. |
| 238 | *** Creator/LeonardNimoy suggested in an interview that the Vulcan Nerve Pinch might be more about telepathy than [[PressurePoint Pressure Points]] though later series had non-psychic humans doing it. |
| 239 | ** The ''Star Trek Encyclopedia'' jokes that Data's cat, Spot from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' changes appearance and gender between episodes because it's an alien shapeshifter or was caught in a TeleporterAccident. |
| 240 | ** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has episode "Trials and Tribbleations", which placed members of [=DS9=] staff in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Trouble With Tribbles". How did post-movie Klingon Worf respond when asked about the difference in appearance between him and the original series Klingons? "We do not speak of it with outsiders". |
| 241 | ** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Another variation that comes up for the Brannon Braga scripts, which often included [[HollywoodScience scientific mistakes]] or {{plot hole}}s. As it happens, Braga also likes writing a lot of MindScrew episodes with characters who might be insane or trapped in some false reality. Whereas in regular scripts the errors stand out, here they can be handwaved as being part of the MindScrew. |
| 242 | ** ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'' retcons the titular ship from ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' as being made from an extremely durable metal called horonium alloy to explain how it could take so much damage before DeflectorShields were invented. The metal was hard to find and [[MadeOfExplodium dangerous to make]] so Starfleet stopped using it shortly after. |
| 243 | * ''Series/Warehouse13'' uses several variations on the theme. For instance, the StaticStunGun Warehouse Agents carry were invented by Nikola Tesla (a ''very'' standard way of explaining late-era SteamPunk tech) and the DieselPunk-looking iPhones they carry were invented by Philo Farnsworth (one of several people credited with inventing the television). |
| 244 | * In [[DVDCommentary DVD Commentaries]] for ''Series/{{Merlin 2008}}'', actress Creator/KatieMcGrath coined the term "talking dragon" to cover for any inconsistencies in the plot, pointing out that anything is possible when a ''talking dragon'' is part of the main cast. |
| 245 | * In ''Series/CasteloRaTimBum'', this is the standard explanation for anything unusual that happens in the series. It is about a wizard boy, after all. |
| 246 | [[/folder]] |
| 247 | |
| 248 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 249 | * Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival's "Looking Out My Back Door" provides the following explanation for the strange imagery of the song: |
| 250 | -->''"Wondrous apparitions, provided by magicians"'' |
| 251 | [[/folder]] |
| 252 | |
| 253 | [[folder:Podcast]] |
| 254 | * In the ''Podcast/RiffTrax'' for the ''Film/HarryPotter'' films, Voldemort being CrazyPrepared is a common explanation for why a character can't use an obvious solution to a problem. |
| 255 | -->'''Kevin''': Okay, so cast the water spell directly into Dumbledore's mouth. |
| 256 | -->'''Bill (as Dumbledore)''': Yes, uh, well, ''Voldemort'' made it so that we couldn't. |
| 257 | [[/folder]] |
| 258 | |
| 259 | [[folder:Tabletop Games ]] |
| 260 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 261 | ** Many [[OurMonstersAreWeird bizarre, inexplicable, or just plain silly monsters]] from the early days of were said to be the product of wizards playing EvilutionaryBiologist in their spare time(then at some later point killed/ate him, escaped, and multiplied). Even ''gnolls'' were initially reputed to be the result of wizards. The classic examples include the [[MixAndMatchCritters owlbear]] and [[BlobMonster gelatinous cube]]. |
| 262 | ** Many published adventure modules use this as a justification as to why certain monsters show up in places they otherwise wouldn't be, especially back in the day when providing the players a fun challenge was usually far more important than having a realistic plot. Why are 12 fire giants at the bottom of this dank swamp cave, all crammed into a hallway barely big enough to fit them all? A powerful wizard teleported them in, of course, don't worry about it. |
| 263 | ** Most of the more bizarre content in ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' is explained by A Wizard Did It. Sometimes ''literally''. One sourcebook actually explains the sheer weirdness of the setting with "It's magic, and it ''knows'' it's magic". |
| 264 | ** The 3.5E supplement ''Drow of the Underdark'' openly states that the only reason the drow haven't driven themselves into extinction from infighting yet is literal divine intervention: half of Lolth's job as {{Top God}}dess of their pantheon is apparently to keep their StupidEvil tendencies in check. This is demonstrated in the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' novel ''[[Literature/StarlightAndShadows Daughter of the Drow]]'', when Lolth sends an avatar to keep her core following in the city-state of Menzoberranzan from finishing itself off by CivilWar after a major military defeat. Note that Lolth also is described as "constantly monitoring the drow for signs of too much cooperation". She's the one who's forcing them into StupidEvil ChronicBackstabbingDisorder problems in the first place. |
| 265 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' if something is off, it can easily be explained in-universe as being because the Warp did it. If not the Warp, then the C'Tan did it. If not the C'Tan, then the Eldar did it. (Being the wizards who did it is their [[PlanetOfHats hat]].) If not the Eldar, then the God-Emperor of Man did it. If none of the above did it, it was certainly [[MemeticBadass Commissar Sebastian Yarrick's]] fault. And even if any, all, or ''none'' of the above did it, [[TheChessmaster Tzeentch either did it, arranged it, opposed it, or helped it]], and in most cases, he did ''[[GambitPileup all of that at the same time.]]'' |
| 266 | ** Tzeentch did it in normal ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', too. He's been working carefully for ~40,000 years and it still doesn't make any damn sense. This is because his "master plans" actually have no purpose -- their elements are nonsensical, self-contradictory, and -- as befitting a Chaos God -- utterly chaotic. If he wins then he can't plot anymore and he can't exist without plotting. So planning is part of his nature, but no one said his plans have to make sense or actually accomplish anything. |
| 267 | ** "The Tyranids ate it". Deep-fried Squat, anyone? |
| 268 | ** When all else fails, [[UnreliableNarrator the source of the story is lying or misremembering a detail]]. |
| 269 | ** [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLz6bTitUQE&feature=player_embedded here]] to explain Dark Eldar technology |
| 270 | * Lampshaded in the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' [[http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/jc20 original rulebook]]: |
| 271 | -->Q: Can my opponent do something that doesn't make sense, such as casting both Holy Strength and Unholy Strength on his Air Elemental? |
| 272 | -->A: Yes, these effects are magical, after all. |
| 273 | ** Some rules interactions lead to very active wizards. Probably the two biggest examples are equipment (magical items like enchanted swords that can be used by creatures) and walls (treated like creatures by the rules, but generally meant to symbolize inanimate objects). Now picture a stone wall USING an enchanted sword... |
| 274 | *** A card from the joke set Unsanctioned, [[https://scryfall.com/card/und/4/flavor-judge Flavor Judge]], pokes fun at the tendency for this sort of thing to happen. |
| 275 | ** Walls (at least the non-black, non-artifact ones) can potentially drop dead of fright in this game. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1859 At least one card's flavor text lampshades this]]. |
| 276 | * Creator/WhiteWolf eventually took the position that everything written in the Warcraft [=RPGs=] were actually in-universe documents, and any errors was the result of bad information. Some portions of the books do look like they could've been in-universe (several books are almost entirely written by one guy); other parts, not so much. |
| 277 | * In the new edition of ''TabletopGame/GammaWorld'', one of the suggestions they give for how to reconcile the Plant and Android character origins boils down to A Wizard Did It when you strip out the setting jargon and {{Technobabble}} -- it suggests that you hail from a remote worldline (Some exotic place the players will probably never see), where Psionic masters (Wizards) create golem-like servants out of plant matter. (Your character, which exists because A Wizard Did It) |
| 278 | * The French have a phrase to express it: "Ta gueule, c'est magique" (Shut up, that's magical). It often pops up when a GameMaster is asked questions about something in his campaign. It's often shortened to TGCM or TGM. In English, it's SUIM (shut up--it's magic). |
| 279 | ** There are even variations depending on the setting, such as "Ta gueule, c'est la Force" (guess) for ''Franchise/StarWars''. |
| 280 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', the answer to such questions is almost inevitably "An Exalt did it". If not an Exalt, then a Primordial. If not a Primordial, then a god. If not a god, it was probably belched up by [[WorldOfChaos the Wyld.]] |
| 281 | * ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' -- the stock response to canon discontinuity is "[[ChurchMilitant ComStar]] misinformation". This is helped by the fact that sourcebooks are generally written from an in-universe perspective (aside from rules sections) and often contain [[UnreliableNarrator deliberate inaccuracies]] simply because they're things that the in-universe authors didn't know. |
| 282 | * In the Galactic Champions Sourcebook of the TabletopGame/{{Champions}} Universe, it's revealed that a high amount of ambient magic is required for superpowers to work, otherwise their abilities are really impossible. This also reveals that an experiment by Nazi wizards caused the boon of Superheroes that exist in their universe. |
| 283 | * Inverted in the ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' RPG source book (which is written in a semi-in-universe style) which flavor text in the form of notes from the series wizard protagonists about how a wizard ''couldn't'' (or wouldn't) do various things. |
| 284 | * In ''Mutants in the Now'', a SpiritualSuccessor to [[TabletopGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAndOtherStrangeness the TMNT RPG]], the back of the book has a list of possible origins of the Goop, the game's own mutagenic ooze, for the Game Master to decide on. After a number of reasonable scientific explanations in-universe, such as a government experiment or extradimensional portals, and including some {{shout out}}s to the various Turtles continuities, the final entry just says, "Wizards". |
| 285 | [[/folder]] |
| 286 | |
| 287 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 288 | * This trope is in full effect in [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples Shakespeare's]] last play: ''Theatre/TheTempest''. The plot begins with [[EccentricMentor Prospero]], a wizard, conjuring a storm that bring most of the other characters to his (Prospero's) island. From there on, nearly every plot development stems from some further act of magic by the wizard. Some LampshadeHanging also occurs, as the script repeatedly comments on magic being the solution to inconsistencies in the plot. |
| 289 | [[/folder]] |
| 290 | |
| 291 | [[folder:Video Games ]] |
| 292 | * In ''VideoGame/TwentyXX'', attempting to jump out of bounds can lead to the message "Black magic bars your way". |
| 293 | * In ''VideoGame/DragonFable'' In the Gate Keeper Quest, Artix uses this to hand wave [[spoiler: the fact that you have Zorbak's ID Card so you can get into the Necropolis. To clarify the many problems that came up:]] |
| 294 | ** [[spoiler:The ID's picture looks nothing like your character.]] |
| 295 | ** [[spoiler:The ID is expired.]] |
| 296 | ** [[spoiler:The ID says Zorbak was ''expelled''.]] |
| 297 | * In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', if something unexplainable happens during normal game, '''A mysterious Force did it'''. If you try to teleport on a no-teleport level, a mysterious force prevents you from teleporting. If you try to descend the stairway to your quest without permission, a mysterious force prevents you from descending. If you are digging with a blessed pickaxe in the endgame a mysterious force forms a cave. |
| 298 | * Seen often in the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' video game series, but replace "wizard" with "Albert Wesker". ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheUmbrellaChronicles'' actually explains ''how'' he did some of the more wizardy things. And for those things the wizard did to ''him'', well, Birkin did it. |
| 299 | * Also appears in the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games, specifically in the Prime subseries, in which the radioactive [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum]] Phazon is used by fans to explain away multiple inconsistencies and completely random evolutions. |
| 300 | ** In the other games, however, the [[{{Precursors}} Chozo]] did it. In Prime 1, it was both! |
| 301 | ** ''[[VideoGame/MetroidOtherM Other M]]'' attempts to subvert this by doing away with the Chozo. It ended up creating a whole lot of {{plot hole}}s without an easy and accessible {{Handwave}}, leaving fans to latch on the next best thing and saying Adam did it [[spoiler:despite the fact he dies]], or the Deleter, or [[spoiler:Mother Brain]]. |
| 302 | * The developers for ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' have stated multiple times that they are more interested in making game play fun than specifically following established mythology. As a result, much of the story established in the RTS ''VideoGame/WarCraft'' games has been retconned in ''World of Warcraft'' to better fit certain gameplay mechanics. The popular explanation on message boards from both players and moderators is "a wizard did it". |
| 303 | * A mutant of this has become a meme among the players of the MMORPG ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': "If it doesn't make sense, it's a Nemesis Plot". Nemesis himself is a supervillain who is infamous for making [[GambitRoulette plots within plots within plots]] and is revealed to be a driving force, or at least the root cause, of many of the conflicts going on in the game. |
| 304 | ** Or, as the loading screens now lampshade this: "Everything is a Nemesis plot". Also on loading screens: "Not everything is a Nemesis plot". |
| 305 | ** Also, as you enter the AncientRome zone Cimerora, you're greeted by a Midnight Club member who tells you that as you went back in time, several spells were cast on you so that you [[TranslatorMicrobes could communicate with the Cimerorans]] and [[SuperCellReception use your cell phone to call people back in Paragon City]]. |
| 306 | ** The contacts Crimson and Indigo, whose missions deal with the black ops Malta Group, will often tell you that you need to go somewhere for a mission to save someone or something, but the reasons why this needs to be done are classified, so they can't tell you why. They can take three paragraphs to say this too. |
| 307 | --->'''Midnighter:''' It's a magical coup, to be sure, and one [[MST3KMantra you do not need specifics about at this time]]. |
| 308 | * The two common explanations for the many inconsistencies that reside in the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' Universe and backstory are either that Keine ate it, or that Yukari was messing around with the borders of space and time again. |
| 309 | ** It also helps that the two {{Universe Compendium}}s are (in-universe) written by Akyuu or Aya, both of whom are something of an UnreliableNarrator. |
| 310 | * ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' |
| 311 | ** In the ''Shivering Isles'' expansion for ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', one quest has the player dealing with a town full of duplicates. When asked how the duplicates came about, the quest-giving NPC only tells you that a wizard caused it. |
| 312 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', this is given as the reason for how [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] are able to function. How are they able to fly in spite of their bulk and non-aerodynamic shape? How are they able to speak despite not having lips? Magic. To be more specific, they have a natural affinity for magic which allows for this. |
| 313 | * The effect of {{nanomachines}} on the body (mostly the central nervous system) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kNrIn8H32c is kind of a big deal]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''. It explains everything from adrenaline rushes to temporary insanity to immortality. This gets taken almost to the point of self-parody when "[[MemeticMutation Nanomachines, son!]]" is basically the only explanation for why [[spoiler:the BigBad of ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' is capable of ripping apart Raiden's weapons and armour with his bare hands, punching a [[HumongousMecha Metal Gear]] until it explodes, and generally being invulnerable and inhumanly strong despite being a politician who can't possibly be a cyborg]]. |
| 314 | * Any bizarre or unexplained happenstance in ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood'' is either due to [[DemotedToExtra Satsuki's Arc]] or "Tatari's Influence". |
| 315 | * ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'': |
| 316 | ** Any instances of strange behaviour, anachronisms other than those required for the plot or GameplayAndStorySegregation are the result of what you see being artificially generated by the Animus. |
| 317 | ** When historical accuracy fails at any point, it's because [[AncientConspiracy the Templars]] did it. |
| 318 | * This is essentially the argument of the witches in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' -- they don't have to explain how the murders were committed because they can just say "the culprit used magic". |
| 319 | ** If you press, they will demonstrate HOW they did it, too! |
| 320 | ** Much of the establishing and flavor text supports this claim, and if [=Ryukishi07=] is asked for the real solution, [[TrollingCreator he will also insist on it]]. |
| 321 | * As noted in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' example above, any bizarre occurrence or coincidence in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' is attributed by the characters to "the will of The Force". This gets heavy lampshading, especially when it turns out that not only is the PC a mind-wiped Revan but HK-47 (who was added to the crew in a random encounter) was originally built to serve Revan. |
| 322 | -->'''Canderous Ordo:''' Remember we're talking about the Force, here. At this point Malak himself could drop from the sky and I wouldn't bat an eyelash. |
| 323 | * In the later games in the ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' series, Yeesha becomes able to break the rules horribly -- intra-age linking, books that follow you through the link, books that send different people to different copies of the same age. You name it, she can do it. And we're never really told how, except that she's the only one who can. |
| 324 | ** Given that her father is Atrus (who was able to write changes into Riven ''without'' resetting the Age) and her mother is Catherine (who wrote Torus, a ''doughnut-shaped'' Age), being able to bend the rules seems par for the course. |
| 325 | ** It's also implied that she learnt some of this from the Bahro, who are likewise capable of breaking all manner of the things that the D'ni claimed were impossible. This is best exemplified in that they are shown to be capable of writing a word, say "rain", which ''[[RealityWarper causes it to then begin raining]]''. |
| 326 | * In the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series, it's revealed in the chronological first entry that Dracula became a vampire and started all his shenanigans because he obtained (or created?) [[PlotDevice the Crimson Stone.]] This is all fine and dandy; however, while the [[WordofGod director]] covered a few unexplained aspects of the series, there have been no attempts made to officially explain why human malcontent and evil revives him whenever he is offed (or why this evidently happens like clockwork every 100 years, though he is "prematurely" revived about every 15 minutes), why he is in command of the Angel of Death[[note]](The Grim Reaper [[FaceHeelTurn betrayed one vampire lord guy]] and gave his soul to Drac, evidently because he has the Crimson Stone, but nothing has ever stated why the Stone -- if that's the reason at all -- makes Death Drac's [[HoYay "confidant"]])[[/note]], why the titular Castle of the series vanishes and reappears whenever Drac is out of his coffin, why he has apparent command over all the demons of hell and mythological creatures from every corner of the world, why he can enter what one game introduced as [[PlotDevice "The Chaos Realm"]] and exactly what this has to do with him (fan speculation is that it's the source of his powahs), ''or'' how exactly he went from being just a really powerful, pissed-off vampire to becoming the [[TheAntiChrist "Dark Lord"]]. We are left to assume that the Crimson Stone did all of it; while crafted through alchemy, it may as well be wizardry. |
| 327 | * ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': |
| 328 | ** Medieval Mode is an alternate game mode in which players are restricted to using "medieval" weapons and speak in YeOldeButcheredEnglish. Why? Because the Soldier angered a wizard. This doesn't explain the fact that the castle in which the game takes place is actually a high-tech spy base in disguise. Heck, [[https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Medieval_Mode the Wiki page for said mode]] even links to this very page! |
| 329 | ** Later, that same wizard--who turns out to be the Soldier's roommate--is angered again and summons [[FacelessEye MONOCULUS]], a demon possessing Demoman's other eyeball. The Halloween 2011 update revealed they're both pretty sucky roommates. |
| 330 | ** In a comic released during the 2011 Smissmas update, Miss Pauling asks the Spy how the Soldier became a lawyer. Then the Spy replies: "His roommate is a magician. Should I continue?" |
| 331 | ** And in the 2012 Halloween Special, the wizard (named Merasmus) effectively gets pissed off at his roommate, stops living with him, and proceeds to attack the entire [=TF2=] team for the length of his temper tantrum. |
| 332 | * ''Franchise/DragonAge'': |
| 333 | ** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', when you hand over the Deep Road maps to Bartrand for his expedition, he asks you how you came by the maps. If Anders (the mage from ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins Dragon Age Origins: Awakening]]'', who gave you the maps in the first place) is in your party, he will quip, "A wizard did it". (Which is technically true, Anders himself being the wizard who did it, i.e. stole the maps.) |
| 334 | ** In perhaps the most controversial and infamous retcon in the series, if the Warden PC in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' killed Leliana after defiling the Urn of Sacred Ashes, she comes back to life in ''Dragon Age II'' with little or no explanation beyond Leliana's own hypothesis that the Maker Himself brought her back. [[spoiler:The final DLC for ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' gives a vague idea of what happened: Leliana wasn't brought back. A substance known as Lyrium recreated her until the world became calm again. Or so her last message implies.]] |
| 335 | * In ''VideoGame/GearHead'', a {{Roguelike}} with HumongousMecha, the NoobCave is an abandoned mine. The dungeon is character-scale (meaning, you go in on foot rather than take a mech, and the monsters are at your size), but in the character-scale mining elevator at the bottom of the mine, there's a Wolfram mining mech with the keys in the ignition, which you get upon returning to the surface. Quoth WordOfGod when questioned on the subject: "[The Wolfram] can fit in a subsurface mine because it's an enormous sci-fi megaproject and a wizard did it. ^_^" |
| 336 | * ''DarthWiki/{{Korol}}'' has a character who IS the Wizard who did it. He isn't even given a name -- he's called 'The Wizard' for the entirety of the game. |
| 337 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Overlord}}'', the [[HeroAntagonist "Heroes"]] that ended the rule of the previous Overlord had become corrupted and turned the entire kingdom into a CrapsackWorld with little explanation other than [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity because they couldn't handle the power]]. [[spoiler: You then learn near the end a wizard really '''did''' do it.]] |
| 338 | * The goatmen or Khazra from the ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' series turn out to have been created by the Vizjerei by magical corruption of captured umbaru tribesmen, and their previous lore as demonic lieutenants of Baal, the Lord of Destruction, turns out to have been nothing but Vizjerei propaganda meant to cover up their misdeeds. |
| 339 | * The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series Zig-Zags this with regards to how mages can move unhindered in desert terrain. ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'' suggests the spirits they command literally part the sand in their path, while ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Heroes of Light and Shadow]]'' say it's simply because they wear light clothing. |
| 340 | ** In all fairness, the man who made the former claim was also noted, in the same sentence, to be a master bullshitter. |
| 341 | * The ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'' has various reasons behind the appearance of any GuestFighter. |
| 342 | ** ''Soulcalibur II'': Soul Edge fragments are responsible for pulling [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Heihachi Mishima]], ComicBook/{{Spawn}}, and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Link]] into 16th-century Earth. |
| 343 | ** Why are ''Franchise/StarWars'' characters in ''Soulcalibur IV''? Because the clash between Soul Edge and Soul Calibur caused dimensional disruptions that opened a portal in a galaxy far, far away. |
| 344 | ** ''VideoGame/SoulcaliburV'': [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreed2 Ezio]]'s history has a gap tied to a mysterious artifact he found, which Shaun Hastings is investigation through the Animus. |
| 345 | ** ''VideoGame/SoulcaliburVI'' [[VideoGame/TheWitcher Geralt of Rivia]] hails from a world where interdimensional portals are commonplace, with one sending him to 16th-century Earth. It's actually not all that implausible, since his protegee Ceri also teleported to the same world [[VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077 in the distant future]]. |
| 346 | * Happens in ''VideoGame/PennyArcadeAdventures'' Episode 4, wherein Gabe asks why the lands of Underhell is not falling when there is nothing to support it; the answer is simply that a wizard did it. |
| 347 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': In the [[Franchise/TheLittleMermaid Atlantica]] level in [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the first game]] and ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'', fire and lightning spells work underwater. But then again, they're ''spells''... |
| 348 | * In ''VideoGame/BattleMaster'' glitches, player absence, cheating, and other instances where out-of-character events affect the game it is usually hand waved as some mysterious magical incident. |
| 349 | * This is more or less how Chaos Control in ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' is explained (or lack thereof). Is it time travel, super speed, or teleportation? The games sure as hell don't know. |
| 350 | * The futuristic-style world of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' works like this. The HollowWorld of Cocoon makes no sense with any physical laws--it floats in the atmosphere of a planet larger than Earth, humans live on the ''inside'' of its hollow shell, and it has a day-night cycle. But it's maintained by over a million godlike entities known as fal'Cie that serve different functions, from the "sun" to power plants, so there you go. |
| 351 | * Used and lampshaded in ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsAceAttorney''. The game is set in Labyrinthia, where witnesses in witch trials pin everything that seems out of ordinary on "the witch did it", even though there are clear inconsistencies inside that world's use of magic rules. It's up to the player to press the witnesses and figure out what really happened. Being inspired by real medieval-era witch trials, that was probably the real way of thinking back then. |
| 352 | * ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': In contrast to the original trilogy, which has [[MinovskyPhysics remarkably consistent fantasy-science]], anything weird or blatantly against the laws of physics as we know them is attributed to the Scourge with no attempt at scientific justification. Among these effects are: super-intense lightning storms across most of a planet, stripping a planet's atmosphere, altering planetary orbits, inducing an ice age, hyper-accelerating organic evolution, and even physically shattering a planet into an asteroid field. All this on top of causing random gravity anomalies and ripping apart any spaceship that runs into it. Why it does one thing in one place and another in another place is never explained. |
| 353 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' tries very damn hard to explain how ''everything and anything'' is possible, but not always. Certain mounts that shouldn't be able to fly (like a T-Rex or a giant turtle) are usually {{Handwaved}} with "altered aether" or quite literally, magic. |
| 354 | ** It's also revealed in the Shadowbringers expansion that all of the weird and wonderful creatures kicking around the worlds are a direct result of a race of ancients messing around with creation magic. |
| 355 | * ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'': Michiru's split personality could be very easily explained as her having Dissociative Identity Disorder and actually fits the ailment pretty well. The flashback could've been explained as something that was created as an explanation for why she has a second personality as opposed to an unrealistically strong cell memory, too. But nope, the finale of that route makes it so that the only thing that makes any sense is magic. |
| 356 | * In ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'', Albedo attributes Alice's ability to [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat predict what her audience would say when they listened to a recording]] to her omnipotent status as one of Teyvat's strongest magic users. |
| 357 | [[/folder]] |
| 358 | |
| 359 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 360 | * In the webcomic ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'', TricksterMentor Sarda the Sage ''refers to himself'' as "The Wizard Who Did It". |
| 361 | ** A pretty apt description for somebody who completely ''fucks'' with the universe for his own convenience and/or amusement -- an "omnipotent jackass" as Black Mage puts it. His otherwise-inexplicable cosmic jackassery includes, but is hardly limited to: shortening days from thirty-six hours to twenty-four hours just to make people hurry faster, bending time so his dinner will be done before he has to cook it (rewriting history in the process), dropping '''the entire continent of Australia''' on Black Mage, and crafting a spell designed to make Black Mage (and only Black Mage) vomit out his own organs. If anything in the world of Final Fantasy I just doesn't make sense, Sarda is somehow responsible. |
| 362 | *** Australia ''didn't actually exist in this version of the universe'', as Black Mage's first comment upon noticing the sign with "welcome to [[MeaningfulName Hurt]], Australia" on it was "... and what's an Australia?"; and since our Earth was only in the prehistoric age at the time, as shown in an earlier strip, Sarda actually ''pulled the entire continent out of time and space just to fuck with Black Mage''. |
| 363 | ** "Yeah, 'omnipotent jerkass' pretty much covers it". |
| 364 | ** [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/08/29/episode-1166-the-wizards-that-did-it/ This]] episode is titled "The Wizard(s) That Did it". Aptly titled, as multiple wizards are doing quite impossible things in it. |
| 365 | ** The comic also references the term multiple times in [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2002/01/15/episode-108-garland-just-dont-get-it/ this]] strip |
| 366 | ** Essentially, once Black Mage stops being a CosmicPlaything and Red Mage grows some sort of logical intelligence, these two will most likely become the new Wizards That Did It for this universe. The Universe is probably very unhappy with this arrangement. |
| 367 | ** And way earlier, it gets mentioned by name [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/04/08/episode-405-lets-face-it-hed-starve here.]] |
| 368 | * ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' uses this trope for [[spoiler:how Paris clone is possible]] [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1929.html here,]] and makes a reference to this page too. |
| 369 | ** And again [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2027.html here.]] |
| 370 | * The Oracle explaining the source of his powers in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0566.html this]] ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]]'' comic. |
| 371 | ** And [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0643.html this comic]] is actually ''titled'' "A Wizard Did It". |
| 372 | ---> '''Vaarsuvius''': "Epic Teleport!" |
| 373 | ** Referenced again (and averted) [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1049.html here.]] The CoolAirship has a few enchantments on it, but the actual flight mechanics are plain old physics. (One could argue that it is still played straight, though; without the enchantment that reduced its weight, presumably the ship would be too heavy to fly.) |
| 374 | ** In [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0322.html this strip,]] regarding the owlbear, V asks the obvious follow-up question, namely "But ''why'' did a wizard do it?" |
| 375 | * Consciously invoked in [[http://www.terrorisland.net/strips/316.html this]] ''Webcomic/TerrorIsland'' strip. |
| 376 | * In the [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-07-07 Bonus Commentary]] of ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' Dan has made this comment: "If not, I could always claim a wizard did it. In EGS, that possibility genuinely exists, so yay!" |
| 377 | ** [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-05-19 This one's]] even better. "Why yes, the [[{{Fireballs}} magical fireball of death]] did [[NoOntologicalInertia stop mid-air]] while traveling at a fantastic speed without exploding. It's a magical fireball of death. Are you REALLY going to tell it what it can and cannot do?" |
| 378 | ** Also from the Bonus Commentary: "As for why and how (...), I’m going to go with a solid "because I said so". Also "because science". And "a wizard did it". And "insert technobabble here". |
| 379 | * Specifically mentioned in this ''Webcomic/PokemonX'' [[http://pokemonx.comicgenesis.com/d/20031215.html strip.]] |
| 380 | ** [[http://pokemonx.comicgenesis.com/d/20050502.html This one too.]] Probably plenty of examples, but this one is good because it points out the stuff that needs to be {{Hand Wave}}d in the actual Pokémon game. |
| 381 | ** There's also [[http://pokemonx.comicgenesis.com/d/20030730.html this one]] explaining why you can't catch {{Mons}} after it faints and why being unconscious in the middle of the wild [[NonLethalKO isn't dangerous]]. |
| 382 | * ''Webcomic/AnsemRetort'' explains most everything with "It's supposed to be insane, stop thinking about it, it doesn't make sense, don't even try to reason it out". This seems to be working somehow. |
| 383 | * Used in [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/080308 this]] ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' strip parodying Harry Potter, to explain why [[TimeMachine Time-Turners]] can no longer be used for a quick solution to everything. |
| 384 | -->'''Gandledorf:''' [[ForgottenPhlebotinum Oh well, we shall pretend the Time-Turner never existed and move on.]] |
| 385 | * In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', [[http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=32&issue=9 Gordito asks Dan McNinja]] how the latter was able to take a bite of a bagel without removing his ninja mask. After giving a [[CerebusRetcon dead serious explanation]] for why he must never reveal his face, Dan blithely states that he uses "some ninja tricks" to eat while masked. In the AltText, Chris Hastings comments, "Any further questions regarding the [=McNinja's=] masks can be filed under 'ninja tricks.'" |
| 386 | ** On a few occasions when the good doctor/ninja had to escape some problem, instead of showing it Chris simply wrote "HE IS A NINJA" or some variation of that. [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/20p46/ Here]] [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/20p47/ are]] [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p112/ a]] [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p113/ few]] examples. |
| 387 | * In the AD&D-based ''Monster Manual Comics'' by Lore Sjoberg, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160319120030/http://badgods.com/view/owlbear/ the strip on owlbears]] has the crew meet the actual "insane wizard" most of the peculiar early D&D monsters were blamed on -- plus a guess as to his motives for doing so. |
| 388 | * In the comic ''Webcomic/SkinDeep'' the characters' transformation from human to their natural forms are explained as "Magic. Strong magic". Interesting case as the characters themselves admit they have no idea how that works. Asking them to explain the process is like asking someone how a television works. They know how it works, they just don't know how it works. |
| 389 | * Used in ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' to explain [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/030824c George's ContractualImmortality.]] |
| 390 | * The Summariser's favourite justifying phrase in ''Webcomic/TheWayOfTheMetagamer''. |
| 391 | * ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'' used it to [[http://rpgworldcomic.com/d/20031219.html explain cheat codes.]] |
| 392 | * ''Webcomic/TrueBelievers'' has [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] express disbelief that [[spoiler: the comic industry would instantaneously start booming again]] just because [[spoiler: Mary Jane eliminated [[Creator/JoeQuesada Joe Quesadilla]] with a stamp labeled "{{Retcon}}"]]. Mary Jane reminds him, "It's magic, Tiger," so Peter exclaims, "[[IronicEcho Yeah, it's magic! We don't have to explain it!]]" |
| 393 | * The entire point of ''Webcomic/{{Minus}}''. |
| 394 | * [[http://2estlc.smackjeeves.com/comics/381906/2es-v2-0-45/ Seen here]] in ''Webcomic/TwoEvilScientists''. |
| 395 | * This quote from ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'''s second book volume, relating to [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002241 this page]]: |
| 396 | -->Also, another great mystery: he caps up the juice and puts it away, but the cap stays on the floor. Is sorcery involved? The answer is yes. This page was visited by the wise old Fuckup Wizard. |
| 397 | * By the fans of the ''Webcomic/{{Roommates}}'' this is called ''[[TheFairFolk A Fae]] [[TheTrickster Did It!]]''[[note]](because of the [[TangledFamilyTree magic family tree]] this actually includes [[MageSpecies wizards]])[[/note]]... they are right most of the time... Even more so because [[WildMagic magic]] seems to [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality run on patterns, story and trope]] in the verse! |
| 398 | * Lampshaded in ''Webcomic/SparklingGenerationValkyrieYuuki'' when the main character realised she had just accepted "Magic" as an explanation for something odd that had just happened. |
| 399 | * ''Webcomic/DragonBallMultiverse'': |
| 400 | ** The author doesn't bother to explain how Buu's egg can enter into Babidi's ship through the door, and invokes this trope. |
| 401 | ** When U4 Buu [[spoiler:gave Frieza the power to make any fight with a Saiyan more interesting, up to creating a mental landscape for them,]] he made Frieza believe a wizard taught him. |
| 402 | * One page of ''Webcomic/BloodyUrban'' mentions this trope in the AltText on a strip where [[BlobMonster Amoeba]] mentions being unable to see due to having no eyes. |
| 403 | -->How does it speak with no mouth? Wizard did it. |
| 404 | * In ''Webcomic/FindingYourRoots'', Glittering Road allows Teams Hearth and Molten to travel halfway across the Hoenn mainland in just a few hours, a trip that would normally take a week. When Shelly asks how that's even possible, Tuffy responds, "It's magic, silly!" |
| 405 | [[/folder]] |
| 406 | |
| 407 | [[folder:Web Original ]] |
| 408 | * Some French-speaking fan communities have developed the equivalent saying ''tgcm'' or ''ta gueule c'est magique'' ("shut up it's magic".) |
| 409 | * Hellfire Comm's Let's Play of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''. When asked by FTA to explain things like plotholes, magic mirrors, and all sorts, [=NTom64=]'s answer is almost always "Magic" and that you shouldn't "come to him to question the logic of this game, as there is none". |
| 410 | * Website/{{Uncyclopedia}} likes to have fun with this: [[http://uncyclopedia.ca/wiki/A_wizard_did_it]] |
| 411 | * Referenced by [[TheSmartGuy Simmons]] in ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' after trying to explain teleporters to the crew. |
| 412 | --->"I probably could have saved a lot of time by telling you these things worked by magic". |
| 413 | * The Wizard is responsible for all the events of ''Roleplay/ComicFuryWerewolf''. This started as a joke, and eventually became the main plot. |
| 414 | * WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries's version of the Bonds Beyond Time movie name drops this trope. |
| 415 | -->'''Dark Magician Girl''': Dark Magician, how come we can talk in this movie? |
| 416 | -->'''Dark Magician''': A wizard did it. |
| 417 | * The ''Literature/BinderOfShame''. The aptly-named KillerDM Psycho Dave just had a player character hit by a random magical effect in his sleep just to mess with the player and said character woke up to find his head had been turned into a giant piece of broccoli. When challenged to explain how and why, Dave replied "It's magic, I don't have to explain it". |
| 418 | * One article on Website/{{Cracked}}.com rather aptly used the term "Plot-Hole Spackle" to refer to magic as a narrative device. HilariousInHindsight when you consider site editor David Wong's response to niggling questions about ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd''. |
| 419 | * ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' has the characters themselves invoke unexplained magic. |
| 420 | ** In "Rocks, Clocks, and Two Stupid Ponies": |
| 421 | -->'''Celestia:''' You two were so busy fighting, you forgot to get any of the leaves down.\ |
| 422 | '''Applejack:''' What are you talking about? We were kicking the trees and everything, how did ''we'' do the worst job?! \ |
| 423 | '''Celestia:''' Because, uh... magic. |
| 424 | ** In "Chicken! Run!", Sweetie Belle acts as a SelfBackingVocalist for an impromptu live performance. When asked how she sang both parts at the same time, the answer is "Magic!" |
| 425 | * Website/ChannelAwesome: |
| 426 | ** The movie ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'' features a literal PlotHole which is used to address any inconsistencies the website had (like in ''WebVideo/{{Kickassia}}'' when Spoony was the same person as Dr. Insano). The movie ended with the Nostalgia Critic merging with it to stabilize it. The Critic was eventually released from it and replaced with [[spoiler:Douchey [=McNitpick=].]] |
| 427 | ** Linkara of ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' is particularly prone to the sarcastic comment, referencing the Creator/JoeQuesada quote "It's magic, I don't have to explain it!" when comic books engage in this. Summed up in his review of ''ComicBook/SupermanDistantFires,'' when a nuclear war somehow [[BroughtDownToNormal deprives all the heroes of their powers]] (no matter what their source) and [[LightningCanDoAnything lightning storms somehow restore them]]: |
| 428 | --->"There are two kinds of magic in the world. Magic as a force that can grant the wondrous... and then there's ''narrative'' magic, the kind where we get the classic phrase 'It's magic, we don't have to explain it!'" |
| 429 | *** Amusingly enough, Linkara initially used the "It's magic, I don't have to explain it!" when asked how his Magic Gun works. [[spoiler: We get an explanation for the Magic Gun's powers in the ''ComicBook/SilentHill: Dead/Alive'' reviews... and it turns out that no, Linkara, [[PoweredByAForsakenChild you really didn't have to explain it.]] ]] |
| 430 | ** WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic/[[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick Nostalgia Chick]] crossover review addresses how ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'' uses this trope not so much as an excuse but a really poorly though-out mythology. When the Critic questions it, the Chick responds by beating the shit out of him. |
| 431 | -->'''Nostalgia Chick''': Don't you ever try to bring logic into this film! [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch This is FernGully, bitch!]] |
| 432 | * In ''Blog/WhatIf'' [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/111/ #111: "All the Money"]], Randall Munroe {{handwave}}s away ''how'' you managed to acquire all the money in the world with "some money-summoning magic spell". Cue image where Rob from ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' is standing next to a pentacle and [[HardOnSoftScience tells Megan he's doing economics]]. |
| 433 | * ''[[WebVideo/ReactionAndReview Emer Prevost]]'''s version of this when movies are inconsistent is "Fuck you, that's why". |
| 434 | * In ''[[WebSite/TheEditingRoom The Editing Room]]'', "magic" is usually the explanation when something makes little sense. Given the site's [[AccentuateTheNegative nature]], this happens often. |
| 435 | * ''Literature/ReleaseThatWitch'': A 21st-century engineer finds himself in the body of a prince, stuck in a fantasy world on the brink of war. The ensuing technology uplift turns the entire world upside-down, but the main problem is said engineer isn't an OmnidisciplinaryScientist and anything structural, biological, or chemical draws a blank. So instead of continuing the witch hunts and rejecting magic, he hires the witches to use magic to replace technologies he doesn't understand or doesn't have the tools to re-invent. Welding tools? Fire witch did it. Lamination tools? Paint witch did it. Computer parts? Magnet witch did it. The series goes on for a long time without explaining WHAT magic is, only what it does. |
| 436 | * In ''WebAnimation/HowItShouldHaveEnded'', Batman can explain any improbable or impossible action he does by saying "Because I'm Batman!" |
| 437 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'': The SCP Foundation [[{{Reconstruction}} reconstructs this]], in their quest to study and explain the supernatural, their articles written in scientific language show that individual [=SCPs=] [[MagicAIsMagicA have consistent rules about what they can do and what they can't]], they often detail testing where two or more [=SCPs=] were placed together to see what happens when their rules collide, and they have even examples where [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic science was able to fully explain some [=SCPs=] to the point they are no longer considered supernatural]], however, magic and supernatural as a whole runs on the concept that it has no rules and no logic, [=SCPs=] as a whole can be anything, science will never explain them and that's the whole point. |
| 438 | * Parodied in [[http://www.sciencecartoonsplus.com/pages/gallery.php this now-famous cartoon]] by Sidney Harris where a scientist writes out some insanely complicated equation and puts "then a miracle occurs" in the middle of it. |
| 439 | * Played for laughs in ''Fate/Apocrabridged'', when Caster of Black's constant questions about the premise of the [[Literature/FateApocrypha original series]] lead his interlocutor to scream in exasperation that he has no idea how it works either. |
| 440 | -->'''Darnic:''' The Chalice of God does not come with an ''instruction manual!'' |
| 441 | * ''WebAnimation/MinilifeTV'': In the Season 3 Watch Party, Chris uses this excuse to explain why an American flag appears in the episode "[[Recap/MinilifeTVSeason3Episode2 That's So Gay!]]" when the series takes place in the Kaliwit Region. |
| 442 | * ''Somebody for Nobody'' is a short film on Platform/YouTube about a man who never learned to walk and a woman who NeverLearnedToTalk, due to curses bestowed upon them as infants. |
| 443 | [[/folder]] |
| 444 | |
| 445 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 446 | * [[TropeNamers The trope name]] comes from Lucy Lawless (''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'')'s guest appearance on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E4TreehouseOfHorrorX Treehouse of Horror X]]", where she shuts up Professor Frink pointing out continuity inconsistencies in her show with the excuse that the changes happened because "a wizard did it". |
| 447 | ** In "Grade School Confidential", the entertainment for Martin Prince's party included a Mathemagician who performed long division on a blackboard for all the kids to see. |
| 448 | --->'''Mathemagician:''' Prepare to marvel at the mysteries of the universe as I make this remainder disappear. ''(starts doing calculations on a blackboard)'' |
| 449 | --->'''Lisa:''' But 7 goes into 28 four times. |
| 450 | --->'''Mathemagician:''' Uhh... this is a ''magic'' 7. |
| 451 | * In ''WesternAnimation/HotWheelsAcceleracers'' The Racing Realms all in some degree defy the very fundamental laws of physics despite the scientific impossibilities behind the tracks that the Metal Maniacs and Teku both end up driving on. [[spoiler:Since the Racing Realms were built explicitly for Humans to drive upon as part of the [[{{Precursors}} Accelerons]] SecretTestOfCharacter, the breaks of physics that happen in the Realms are all essentially justified.]] [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Kadeem and Taros' conversation while driving in the Storm Realm, where the Track itself and all of its turns and steep vertical drops are all suspended hundreds of thousands of miles above the ground [[ShockAndAwe in the middle of a near-eternal thunder storm]], unconnected to any adjacent structures. |
| 452 | -->'''Kadeem:''' Does anybody know what's holding this track up? |
| 453 | -->'''Taro:''' Ask the Accelerons. |
| 454 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "Little Dipper", Mabel believes a wizard is what made Dipper grow. In reality, Dipper found magic crystals that can make things grow... or shrink. |
| 455 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Sexual Healing," the government suspects that the origin of sex addiction is from a malevolent Alien Wizard. This is actually just an excuse to justify their own actions. |
| 456 | * In the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' mythos, it's Vector Prime's job to keep the timelines stable, so presumably any nitpicks are things he just didn't get to soon enough in relative time. |
| 457 | ** Also, in ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'', the death of Unicron, resulting in the Unicron Singularity, is used to explain inconsistencies in the timeline. After all, when you kill a ''dark god'', you really ought to expect something to happen to the fabric of the universe. |
| 458 | ** This is no doubt to cover up the fact that in the original Japanese series, ''Energon'' (''[=SuperLink=]'') was a sequel to ''Armada'' (''Micron Legend''), and ''Cybertron'' (''Galaxy Force'') was intended to be a third series in the same continuity, but (in Japan, at least) it was made its own series relatively late in development, leading to mass inconsistencies with the existing story and characters in its US adaptation, where it was kept as the third series in the so-called "Unicron Trilogy". |
| 459 | ** Not only that, due to the multiversal nature of the ''Transformers'' continuities, the Unicron Singularity can be used to explain away every inconsistency and plot-hole in every [[strike:''Transformers'']] continuity EVER. |
| 460 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', all the characteristics of the future {{dystopia}} Jack ends up in are explained this way. Since the evil wizard Aku took over the world after he sent Jack to the future, he's the one responsible for the state of it. There are aliens on Earth? Aku opened up portals to other worlds. Robots are everywhere? Aku used magic to advance technology for use in his world conquest. And so on. |
| 461 | * In ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', WordOfGod explained all one-off gags as being the result of Lucius being a RealityWarper. |
| 462 | * ''WesternAnimation/KevinSpencer''. When Kevin dies, his parents ask the wizard living in their backyard to bring him back. Percy repays the wizard by telling him to get off his property. |
| 463 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': |
| 464 | ** Creator Lauren Faust had her own form: "A Unicorn Pony Did It". Can be seen in [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/09/exclusive-season-1-retrospective.html this]] interview with her. She tried to avoid any form of technology in the show, but when a plot absolutely required it, she would mentally handwave it by thinking that a unicorn enchanted the object behind the scenes, though that explanation is never explicitly mentioned in the show. When questioned by either new fans or people who are unfamiliar with the show how vehicles move or tortoises are given the ability to fly with a propeller harness, well-versed Bronies will simply respond with "Magic". |
| 465 | ** To a certain degree, there is also "Because Pinkie Pie," referring to Pinkie's apparent ability to transcend dimensions, ignore physics, and poke holes the [[BreakingTheFourthWall Fourth Wall]] [[RuleOfFunny for the sake of a joke]]. In the episode "Magic Duel", Pinkie Pie [[OneManBand playing ten instruments at once]] is [[HandWave hoofwaved]] by Twilight Sparkle as: "That's not magic, that's just Pinkie Pie!" |
| 466 | ** Pegasi wings are far too small to lift a pony, even a small one. It's eventually confirmed that their flight is mostly magical; when pegasi get their magic drained, they can't fly at all. |
| 467 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' episode "The Frycook What Came From All Of Space," Sizzlor reveals that, after escaping his banishment on planet Foodcourtia, "The Foodening," a 20-year mob scene that increases the planet's gravitational pull, had come and gone. Zim asks how that can be since he hasn't been gone nearly that long, to which Sizzlor sheepishly replies, "There's a... [[TimeyWimeyBall time... warp]]... [[BuffySpeak thing involved]], I dunno...". |
| 468 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': |
| 469 | ** For once, there's a perfectly sound, scientific explanation in "[[Recap/FuturamaS1E12WhenAliensAttack When Aliens Attack]]" when - [[AliensStealCable a thousand-years-old broadcast being intercepted by an alien society a thousand light-years away]] - but Fry immediately interrupts the explanation with "Magic. Got it". |
| 470 | ** "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E7TheDayTheEarthStoodStupid The Day The Earth Stood Stupid]]" says that Fry is immune to the Brainspawn because hes the only creature in Earth that doesn't generate delta brainwaves. The joke at the time is implied to because Fry is stupid but "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E10TheWhyOfFry The Why Of Fry]]" later explains that Fry going back in time and becoming [[MyOwnGrandpa his own grandfather]] in "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E19RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell That Ends Well]]" is the reason he has no delta brainwave. |
| 471 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', any weirdness beyond the setting's standard ElementalPowers can be explained with "spirits did it". Sokka even dismisses one incident with "That's Avatar stuff; it doesn't count". |
| 472 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Amon justifies his strange powers as "the spirits chose me". [[spoiler:(They didn't, but it was considered a possibility in-universe.)]] |
| 473 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': "The Finale" implies that the credits to the show are actually a magical device that the GeniusLoci setting uses to erase unwanted events from the timeline. This provides an easy way to explain any continuity errors. |
| 474 | [[/folder]] |
| 475 | |
| 476 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 477 | * This trope is also known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps God of the gaps]], only replacing the wizard with {{God}} (it's the habit some people have of handwaving everything, especially mysterious and unexplained phenomena not yet explained by science, by invoking God and leaving it at that without further reasoning or explanation). Note that the term itself is meant to be derisive; it was coined by Christian philosophers ''opposed'' to this approach, such as Henry Drummond, who advanced the idea of Theistic Evolution. Some people replace "God" with "[[AncientAstronauts aliens]]". |
| 478 | ** Isaac Newton, famously, asserted that God had to periodically intervene in the universe to keep it stable, which may well be [[TropeNamers where the phrase originates]]. |
| 479 | ** It was customary for Christian thinkers and scientists to also attribute phenomena they couldn't explain to God, making "God Did It" the MathematiciansAnswer to everything. |
| 480 | ** In one outburst that became a MemeticMutation, Creator/BillOReilly attempted to do this when discussing tides, saying [[ArtisticLicensePhysics "You can't explain that".]] This prompted UsefulNotes/NeilDeGrasseTyson to [[TemptingFate do exactly that,]][[note]]Tides are caused by the gravitational attraction of the Moon[[/note]] and to explain [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5dSyT50Cs8 the God of the Gaps]] and how that attitude is both detrimental to science and detrimental to God. |
| 481 | * In [[http://www.ted.com/talks/david_deutsch_a_new_way_to_explain_explanation.html this lecture]], the speaker makes note of this kind of phenomenon whenever scientific findings are not given a proper theoretical explanation. The phrase "a wizard did it" is uttered multiple times to portray this. |
| 482 | * Spoofed by ''Website/TheOnion'': [[https://www.theonion.com/sci-fi-writer-attributes-everything-mysterious-to-quant-1819570928 Sci-Fi Writer Attributes Everything Mysterious To 'Quantum Flux']]. |
| 483 | * All-purpose historical fiction variant: want to write a historical piece with a single piece of incongruous sci-fi tech? |
| 484 | ** UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla Invented It. |
| 485 | ** Leonardo Da Vinci and Charles Babbage, though in the latter's case it's often more of a case of The Government Did Fund It, as the Analytical Engine (planned, but never built in RealLife) is usually the only thing he contributes. |
| 486 | ** Archimedes, Heron (of Alexandria), Copernicus, Roger Bacon, etc., or you could even just say it was developed by an unnamed Babylonian/Hellenic/Arab/Chinese genius whose name is lost in the mists of time. The last one is the most justified and rational way to do it, as we'd naturally know more about the inventions and limitations of real and famous historical people, and there must have been any number of real instances (within reason) in history of this kind of thing occurring. |
| 487 | * On an old Adult Swim bump, a fan mail sent in asked [[TitleConfusion what had happened to]] [[Anime/EurekaSeven Eurekas 1 through 6]]. AS replied that they were destroyed by a wizard. |
| 488 | * A common tactic of Conspiracy Theorists when trying to explain away certain flaws in their arguments is to say "they are the government and they're that powerful". Making the government in essence "the Wizard that Did It". |
| 489 | * "As if by magic" is another related phrase. It's most often used in situations in which everyday gadgets are too complex for most people to take. |
| 490 | * This was essentially the origin of the AlienSpaceBats trope in the AlternateHistory community -- it was originally intended as a joke, implying that the only way certain implausible/ill-thought-out alternate timelines could happen was by some obscure outside force interfering in human history, like intervention by {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s. |
| 491 | * There are a number of theories to explain the odd shapes of the trees in [[http://www.iflscience.com/environment/what-could-have-caused-polands-crooked-forest Poland's crooked forest]]; however, it seems that the actual explanation is the prosaic one of "A Human Did It". |
| 492 | * The dwarf beech, or ''fagus sylvatica var. tortuosa'', a beech species that grows in twisted shapes, was called "witch wood", as people believed witches to be responsible for the unusual shape of the trees. According to the Wikipedia article of 06.03.2016, the shape is due to genetics, though previously there was some speculation about earth radiation or similar factors of the dwarf beech's place of origin causing the crooked growth. |
| 493 | * A video on Zipcar's website starts to explain how a rented car's keyless locks work, then gives up: "it sends a signal... to wizards". |
| 494 | [[/folder]] |
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