Line #38 Main/MageInManhattan


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Enchanted}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/queennarissamim.png]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:''Not'' the green light you want at rush hour.]]
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10	A Mage in Manhattan situation is where an evil character from a MagicalLand enters our own with the intent of causing destruction. Hilarity ensues. VillainsBlendInBetter, but they ''do'' still want to TakeOverTheWorld, so such an appearance has a tendency to [[TheUnmasquedWorld blast any masquerade to pieces]]. If they were unwillingly sent there in order to protect their home realm from them, then they are a SealedEvilInAnotherWorld.
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12	When the "Mage" first arrives in "Manhattan", you can expect MuggingTheMonster to ensue. If it ''works'' though, expect that MugglesDoItBetter.
13
14	[[Film/MaidInManhattan Not involving J-Lo in any way]], unless she's playing the person doing it. Compare RealWorldEpisode, RefugeeFromTVLand, and AliensInCardiff (if they land in a less spectacular city). Contrast YourMagicIsNoGoodHere. Usually involves SaveBothWorlds. Not to be confused with UrbanFantasy.
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16	----
17	!!Examples:
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
21	* ''Literature/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'' has an EvilOverlord from a MagicalLand fleeing to modern day Tokyo after being nearly defeated by the local hero. There he finds [[YourMagicsNoGoodHere his magic powers don't work as they used to]] and ends up taking a job at a fast-food joint to make ends meet. He still intends to TakeOverTheWorld, though he's actually [[GoingNative more worried about getting a promotion]] for the time being.
22	* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}''. Happened at least once a season, and once in reverse with [[Anime/DigimonDataSquad Kurata]].
23	* ''Anime/ReCreators'': The BigBad and her faction come from various forms of media and while her faction intends mostly to [[RageAgainstTheAuthor attack their creators for the pain they caused them]], her endgame is the destruction of the universe, which is done through her faction causing disturbances.
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Comic Books]]
27	* ''Curse Words'' starts with a wizard from AnotherDimension appearing in New York, on a mission to destroy the Earth but decides the HumansAreSpecial and stays living there as a sort of superhero. Sadly his boss cuts off his magic and sends more wizards to stop him and finish the job.
28	* Franchise/TheDCU:
29	** Villainess the Queen of Fables is the WickedStepmother from ''Literature/SnowWhite''. The twist is that in the DCU, (a [[{{Grimmification}} bloodier version of]]) the events of the fairytale [[AllMythsAreTrue actually happened]], but then Snow White used a magic book to RetGone the whole thing into fiction, so the Queen is also a sort of SealedEvilInACan. When the magic book is reopened, the Queen takes over Manhattan and becomes convinced that Franchise/WonderWoman is Snow White.
30	** There is Brother Grimm, King of Eastwind, who antagonizes ComicBook/TheFlash and lusts after Flash's wife, Linda Park West. He has similar powers to the Queen of Fables, and can somehow detect and attack someone who is using SuperSpeed, making him a tough foe for Flash to face.
31	* ComicBook/DoctorStrange is an inversion: a good man who uses his arcane magic skills to help mankind ward off the evils of the mystic beyond in a modern world long separated from the age of such things.
32	* Inverted in Bill Willingham's ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'', in which fairy tale characters have fled from their magical homelands, which were conquered by the evil Adversary, to the mundane world, with most settling in New York. [[spoiler:Eventually played straight when the Adversary sends the witch Baba Yaga leading an army of wooden soldiers to New York to conquer Fabletown.]] The Mundies never notice, because they think they are marching young Republicans.
33	* Creator/MarkMillar is a fan of this trope;
34	** The whole premise of ''ComicBook/Marvel1985'' is Marvel villains showing up in the real world.
35	** ''ComicBook/{{Superior}}'' is about a teenager being transformed into a metafictional superhero in exchange for his soul. When he rejects the offer, the demon turns himself and a school bully into villains from the superhero movie and wreck New York in order to motivate the protagonist to accept the deal.
36	** The BigBad of ''ComicBook/{{Reborn}}'' builds a machine that will allow him and his LegionsOfHell to come back to Earth in their new demonic bodies. Luckily he's defeated before he manages to get all the blood he needs to lower it.
37	* ComicBook/RedSonja's enemy, the evil wizard Kulan Gath, attempted to conquer Creator/MarvelComics version of New York City in an issue of ''Marvel Team-Up'' in the 1970s. Spider-Man and Red Sonja (in Mary Jane Watson's body) managed to drive him back. He tried again in 2007, brainwashing the population and remaking the city as a bronze-age nightmare.
38	* In Creator/DonRosa's [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] story ''The Quest for Kalevala'', the witch Louhi and the sea monster Iku-Turso from [[Literature/TheKalevala Finnish mythology]] wreak havoc in 20th century Helsinki.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
42	* ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'' features this, but with a twist: The powerful, magical and tellingly socipathic Changeling HiveQueen Chrysalis ''is brought'' to the modern-day Netherlands so she would stand trial for her various crimes back home. The fic details the attempts of her defence to set her free.
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
46	* Like in the [[Film/SuperMarioBros1993 1993 movie]], the climax of ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'' has [[spoiler:Bowser coming to Brooklyn for a final fight with the Mario Brothers]].
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
50	* In the SoBadItsGood ''[[Film/TheBeastmaster Beastmaster II: Through the Portal of Time]],'' EvilOverlord Arklon finds his way into 1980s Los Angeles and proceeds to live it up.
51	* At the end of ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'', Chuck De Nomolos travels back from the 27th century to kill Bill and Ted at The Battle of The Bands competition when his robot assassins fail. He even broadcasts himself on every [=TV=] channel in the world.
52	* Queen Narissa from ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', initially she pushed protagonist Giselle through a magical well that teleports people from the [[AlternateTooniverse animated magical land of Andalasia]] and the more realistic live action New York in an attempt to get rid of her. However, after her stepson - Prince Edward - and his manservant Nathaniel also go through to get Giselle back and her plans to secretly [[LoveMakesYouEvil manipulate the lovelorn Nathaniel who adores her]] into killing Giselle doesn't work out, she enters the portal herself and starts throwing green lightening around Times Square.
53	* ''Film/HighlanderIIITheSorcerer'' has the immortal Kane waking up from centuries of slumber and using his magic in New York City.
54	* The Wizard is a bit of a non-evil (or at least neutral-ish) example in ''Film/JustVisiting''
55	* In ''Film/LastActionHero'', Benedict uses the magic ticket to leave his movie and enter the real world. He realizes that outside of movies bad guys can win and plans to take over the world by releasing villains from various horror films. Luckily the heroes stop him.
56	* {{Dracula}} himself in ''Film/LoveAtFirstBite''.
57	* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse
58	** ''Film/TheAvengers2012'': TricksterGod Loki forces the people of Stuttgart, Germany to [[KneelBeforeZod kneel before him]].
59	** ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'': In the climax, Strange and Kaecilius have a magical duel in the city.
60	* Evil Lyn from ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse''.
61	* Borderline example in ''Film/MirrorMask'': [[spoiler: The Princess does escape to the real world for a while, but the destruction she causes is limited to "eating chips and snogging boys and smoking and everything." Her own world, however, faces TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt]].
62	* Shiwan Khan in ''Film/TheShadow''.
63	* Gargamel in ''Film/TheSmurfs''.
64	* In the climax of ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'', Dave and Horvath have a magical duel in New York City.
65	* In the ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'' movie, Koopa zips over to our universe with an army of Goombas armed with [[EvolutionaryLevels Devo guns]] to chimpify some locals and take back "their" world.
66	* ''Film/TheWitchesOfOz'' has the Wicked Witch invade Manhattan with a magical army, with Dorothy and her friends battling her.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Literature]]
70	* The climax of ''Blood & Iron'' by Elizabeth Bear.
71	* At the end of ''Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld''', an interdimensional portal opens up across the street from Connie, Byron, Tia and Hiro's day at the park, an undead EvilSorceress proclaiming that the world belongs to her's, intending on conquering the world with her army of the undead.
72	* At first, the alien needle monsters in ''Literature/EdenGreen'' only appear in abandoned areas of a single Arkansas city, but right as the main characters are trying to figure out how to deal with them, a swarm takes over the heavily-populated center of the city and blows the problem into an internationally-known incident.
73	* A large part of the series ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'': Loki's dream is to use Senna's powers to transport himself and the other gods back to this world to escape from Ka Anor. Given gods like Huitzilopoctli, who eats ''thousands of human hearts in a sitting,'' horror may ensue. Of course, this is [[spoiler: inverted with Senna's ''own'' plan -- to conquer Everworld by bringing modern humans there with guns and other weapons]].
74	* Bluebeard (Caster) from ''Literature/FateZero'', so much so that the supervisor temporarily put the war on hold and offered a reward of an extra command seal to whoever killed him. Then he summoned a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant monster]] [[TheWormThatWalks made of slugs]] and the JSDF called in some F-15Js. [[spoiler:One gets eaten by supersonic tentacles, the other gets hijacked by an epic hero summoned from beyond the grave, and proceeds to have an aerial dogfight against another epic hero flying a magitech airplane.]] Somehow TheMasquerade survived.
75	* In ''Literature/InSearchOfDorothy'', the Wicked Witch eventually follows Scarecrow to Kansas to find Dorothy and the Magic Shoes, which she needs to fully resurrect.
76	* In the ''Kingdom Keepers'' books, the protaganists are holographic theme park guides (based on real teenagers) who battle Creator/{{Disney}} villains, known collectively as 'Overtakers', after dark, usually at Ride/DisneyThemeParks. The series starts off [[OnlyInFlorida at Walt Disney World, Florida.]]
77	* Creator/MercedesLackey's modern fantasies usually involve some version of this, with the monster usually being one of the [[TheFairFolk Unseleighe Sidhe]] (Dark Court Elves). Most representative of this trope is ''Mad Maudlin'', in which Aerune, self-styled Lord of Death and Pain, tries to open a Nexus to [[MagicalLand Underhill]] in Central Park and a Sidhe driven mad by the presence of cold iron turns into a literal [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Mary_(folklore) Bloody Mary]], murdering people left and right.
78	* A lift of this occurs in ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', Creator/CSLewis's {{prequel}} to ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''. Jadis, a former empress from [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed a world that she herself destroyed]], invades London in roughly the same era as ''The Story of the Amulet''. Or at least she tries. Magic is inherent to a dimension here, and so she has no power in our world, though she does have SuperStrength. She threatens to invade our world in ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''--by which point she's known as the White Witch--but that's a clear bluff.
79	* In ''Literature/{{Phenomena}}'' evil wizards travel back and forth between [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trondheim Trondheim]] and [[MulticulturalAlienPlanet Aldra]]. In the 3rd book our heroes are going to Trondheim too.
80	* TheFairFolk in ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld II: The Globe'' and the [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Auditors]] in ''The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch''. Both set to slow down human progress so that we can't create a colony ship before the world becomes a giant snowball again.
81	* Queen Redd arrives on Earth in ''Literature/SeeingRedd'', the sequel to ''Literature/TheLookingGlassWars''.
82	* The climactic end battle from ''[[Literature/YoungWizards So You Want to Be a Wizard]]''. The [[{{Satan}} Lone Power]] comes to New York and tries to turn it evil. When they try to stop It, It [[spoiler: puts out the Sun.]] It helps that they have the canonical copy of reality in book form as their weapon.
83	* This trope is OlderThanTelevision, occurring in Chapter 8 of the 1906 children's novel ''The Story of the Amulet'' (Creator/ENesbit's second sequel to ''Literature/FiveChildrenAndIt''). A queen from ancient Babylon (who doesn't have magical powers, though they do exist in the novel) {{time travel}}s to UsefulNotes/{{London}} during TheEdwardianEra.
84	* The main plot of the third arc of ''[[Literature/Touch2017 Touch]]'' involves a duo of elves entering New York from another reality in an attempt to kidnap people with powerful enough magical potential.
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
88	* ''Series/The10thKingdom'': The first nine kingdoms are all typical fairy tale places, while the legendary "Tenth Kingdom" is New York.
89	* In the famous Czech fairy tale TV series ''Series/{{Arabela}}'' (1979-81) (Western Germany title: "Arabella, die Märchenbraut", Eastern Germany title: "Die schöne Arabella und der Zauberer"), not only do characters and villains [[RefugeeFromTVLand from the Fairy Tale reality enter the Real World]] and spread chaos there with their magic and strange ways, the sorcerous villains even take modern inventions (and ideas), like cars, back into their own reality which runs on [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality fairy tale tropes]], install themselves as new rulers, and start a reign of tyranny by banning, on pain of death, all things magical, including [[FantasticRacism racism against non-human "magical" races]]. With hilarious results.
90	* ''Series/AceLightning'', although the villains in question come from a video game rather than a fantasy dimension.
91	* ''Series/{{Charmed\|1998}}'' has an example in the [[EvilCounterpart "Evil Enchantress" clone of Paige]] from the S4 episode, appropriately titled "Paige from the Past."
92	* Subverted on ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer.'' One would ''assume'' this is why [[PhysicalGod Glory]] came to this world from her original Hell dimension, but actually she's been exiled and just wants to return home. Though, this ''would'' probably [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy this and many other worlds]] in the process...
93	* ''Series/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'': In the second season, the Mage decides that Wendimoor is no longer worth his time and tries to take over our world instead.
94	* The sorceress Morgaine and her son Mordred from Myth/ArthurianLegend arrive here from their MagicalLand in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Battlefield". ("Battlefield" takes place entirely in the countryside, though, rather the city.)
95	* ''Series/OnceUponATime'', once TheMagicComesBack, becomes this as fairy tale characters began to remember their past lives and some of the sorcerers now capable of using magic... [[SubvertedTrope At least so long as they stay within the town of Storybrooke]]. They can lob fireballs and hurl tornadoes all they want in the little town, but outside it? They're just [[BroughtDownToNormal normal people]].
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
99	* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': In the Reign of Winter ''Adventure Path'' campaign (specifically the June issue of the publication's February-July 2013 arc, ''Rasputin Must Die'',) the [[PerspectiveFlip player characters]] assume this role as a group of magically-equipped and powerful adventurers storming a prison in [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Siberia]] to rescue Baba Yaga from Grigori Rasputin. [[DownplayedTrope Unfortunately for players expecting an easy win]], Russian soldiers who survived the horrors of the Great War don't flinch in the face of supernatural threats, instead using [[CombatPragmatist mines, grenades and urban warfare tactics]] against [[SoldierVsWarrior the PCs]] without fear. After all, once you've seen [[WarIsHell your comrades and families drown on dry land in a cloud of mustard gas]], at least the elf casting ''Cloudkill'' is something you can shoot back at.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Theatre]]
103	* In [[Theatre/{{Tsukiuta}} Shiawase Awase]], two cat witches from the fairy tale world come into real-world Tokyo, but it ends up being a subversion. They don't want to hurt anyone, they just want to learn about happiness, and whether witches can get a happy ending, too.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Video Games]]
107	* Inverted and played literally in ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline''. The Mage class's backstory starts her off being chased down by evil acolytes in Brooklyn, leading to Central Park, where the Mage eventually finds her way into the world that the game takes place in.
108	* At the climax of ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe 2'', the villain [[spoiler: Jet Black]] escapes from Movie Land with the power of the Rainbow Oscars, resulting in a final showdown at an awards ceremony. Subverted in that [[spoiler:Jet Black was from the real world in the first place]].
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Webcomics]]
112	* In ''Webcomic/WitchesAmongHumans'', this is inverted: [[TheHero Luz]] is transported from the Boiling Isles to the human world. In fact, the city she ends up in heavily resembles Manhattan.
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder:Web Original]]
116	* Extremely commonplace in the first book of ''Literature/DimensionHeroes'', with evil Dark Overlord Clonar and his various brainwashed minions crossing over from Creturia to Earth in order to conquer it.
117	* The base premise of [[http://sooniwillrule.blogspot.com/ this blog]].
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Western Animation]]
121	* Semi-interestingly done in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCyberChase,'' where the evil character who enters the "real world" is a computer virus. Who then chases the characters into a video game, and then proceeds to cause havoc in each level of the video game world.
122	* Though it featured dimension-hopping villains quite prominently, it was never more so than in the season 2 finale of ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'', when a super-sized Cedric invades Heatherfield with the intent of conquering Earth. TheMasquerade was preserved, mostly, through the use of some {{reality warp\|er}}ing powers.
123	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / MageInManhattan