Line #50 PlayingWith/MugglesDoItBetter


1	'''Basic Trope''': Magic or other superhuman/paranormal power is overrated.
2	* '''Straight''':
3	** A perfectly ordinary rocket launcher blows up the 10,000-year-old demon.
4	** Miyagi the elven master of SupernaturalMartialArts is shanked to death by a random human thief with a switchblade.
5	* '''Exaggerated''':
6	** A single company of Muggle troops in the wrong place and time screw up a thousand-year conflict between entire wizard power blocs.
7	** Next to what a wizard can do, Muggle tech is essentially SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology (think The Culture ... or better yet, ''a common Zippo'' is more awe-inspiring that what a 'create fire' spell can do).
8	** Miyagi can reduce people to PinkMist with a mere finger flick, yet the very instant a thief with nothing but his bare fists and sloppy haymakers tries mugging him, the thief [[AchievementsInIgnorance manages to pulverize Miyagi without even realizing it]].
9	* '''Downplayed''':
10	** A Wizard slaughters a company of Muggle infantry only for a cruise missile to blow them up.
11	** For every powerful Wizard who can cut through human armies or flatten cities singlehandedly, there are dozens if not hundreds of wizards with "minor talents" who would be hard-pressed to fight a single-armed human.
12	** There is a magical spell for many things, but they are always less efficient than an equivalent appliance.
13	** There are certain areas where Muggle tech is superior to the magical equivalent, but there are also areas where magic is superior.
14	** Muggles do it better because they have more speculative toys with which to play TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. Modern humans wouldn't be so fortunate.
15	** Miyagi, who's a master at his martial art of magically-enhanced DrunkenBoxing, couldn't hold his own against more conventional mixed martial arts. Karatekas, Boxers, Judokas, Amateur Wrestlers, and Muay Thai practitioners will easily beat him even in a fair fight.
16	** Miyagi's SupernaturalMartialArts allow him to defeat anyone in melee combat, no matter how strong or skilled they are, but if they stay out of his range and don't allow him to close the distance, he can easily be taken out by firearms or other mundane ranged weapons.
17	** A low level Wizard kills an much more powerful Wizard with a gun and bullet with a few simple runes carved into it.
18	* '''Justified''':
19	** The rules of magic so defy conventional physics (WildMagic, aversion of MagicAIsMagicA, etc.) that UsefulNotes/TheScientificMethod is as alien to the Wizards as magic is to Muggles. Systematic improvement of magic is thus impossible, limiting the ability of magic to advance.
20	** Immortal {{Smug Super}}s sneered at Muggles for centuries, not realising until it's too late just how far the Muggles have advanced.
21	** The SmugSuper is very smug, and ignores the fact that, despite his power, he could still easily be killed by conventional means. Whereas before he only had swords to deal with, now he's facing guns.
22	** Magic is from a land that hasn't [[MedievalStasis advanced its magic, technology, or society in thousands of years]], and to their chagrin, the Mages find out their traditional magic and honorable ways of fighting are horribly outmatched and outdated when facing modern humans.
23	** [[TheMagicGoesAway The Magic Has Been Going Away.]] Modern Mages are far weaker than the ones of old, while Muggle tech has been steadily improving.
24	** Magic has all kind of rules that limits effectiveness compared to Muggle technology.
25	** Magic and magical constructs requires [[NoOntologicalInertia constant source of power merely to exist]].
26	** Magic is slow, spells have subsonic travel time even after you waste time saying the incantation, can be dodged or blocked, and all defensive spells are reactive while Wizards have no SuperReflexes. This puts Wizards at a huge disadvantage against Muggles with firearms.
27	** Magic always needs organic matter in the loop. This makes mechanised industrial production like Muggles have impossible, putting Wizards at a logistical disadvantage.
28	** Magic requires years of study and only so few people have enough magic potential to be useful in direct combat, whereas you can train almost anyone to use a gun in days.
29	** Muggles, being unable to use magic, are able to devote themselves to improvements of science and technology completely while wizards would brush it off because it seems overly complicated and useless by comparison. However, because of this, they are able to create AntiMagic weapons and technology without the wizards realizing until it's too late.
30	** Earth technology is just as alien to aliens as theirs is to us. As such, their shields and weaponry are equipped to handle stuff like [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]], and ''not'' equipped to handle stuff like guns and rockets.
31	** Muggle technology is either BoringButPractical or SimpleYetAwesome, and easier to acquire. Making, buying, stealing and learning to use a .45 (and then getting rid of it and finding a replacement if needed) is a simply better choice than going through the decades-long quest to get the InfinityPlusOneSword, if your goal is to kill just one guy.
32	** The Muggle does it better because ''[[HumansAreSpecial they]]'' are BoringButPractical -- a Mage is a PersonOfMassDestruction but they don't do the things that actually win wars like [[ForgetsToEat keeping track of being fed]], keep hold of the territories they conquer, keeping track of who is the actual enemy, etc.
33	** One of the defining attributes of demons is that EvilIsSterile -- they [[CreativeSterility can't adapt, change, or grow at all]].
34	** Because they have life made by magic, Mages never needed to improve.
35	** MagicAIsMagicA created a very strict codified set of rules for magical combat, so Mages keep forgetting that most other people, when facing a scenario where they must win or die, will do ''[[CombatPragmatist anything]]'' to survive.
36	** For all of Miyagi's SupernaturalMartialArts, his body is no more durable than that of an ordinary human.
37	* '''Inverted''':
38	** Muggles are around present-day in tech. Mages have a vibrant interstellar empire that makes Literature/TheCulture look like cavemen.
39	** Magic can do all kinds of things and at extents that leave [[UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton Newton]], [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]], and all other Muggle physicists rolling in their graves.
40	* '''Subverted''':
41	** Muggle technology looks superior until the Mages pull out the really high-end powers.
42	** Muggles win ... only because Wizard {{defector\|FromDecadence}}s [[LesCollaborateurs tell on]] their own.
43	** Muggles are superior ... but theirs is SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology that would make the [[Series/DoctorWho Time Lords]] stop and stare, making it dubious how "Muggle" they really are.
44	** Wizards start using their WalkingTechbane abilities to knock mundane technology back a few centuries to level the playing field.
45	** Muggles start fighting the MonsterOfTheWeek with their technology, but they have little effect on it, so they need help from the Wizards.
46	* '''Double Subverted''':
47	** Which the Muggles then top.
48	** The advice the defectors give doesn't amount to much in the end. It is ultimately still up to Muggle tech to carry the day.
49	** In a situation where [[BroughtDownToNormal all things are totally equal]], one "Muggle" still defeats a Time Lord by being quicker on his feet, better at [[MacGyvering making do with what is lying around]], or just [[TalkToTheFist having a stronger right uppercut]].
50	** Even if reduced to only carrying pikes, swords and catapults, Muggle tacticians are ''still'' better and their armies are larger. The Dark Lords have sentenced themselves to ending their days skewered, with their heads cut off and carried around on a stake.
51	** The monster dies from its injuries before the Wizards arrive. It seems the Muggles were StrongerThanTheyLook.
52	* '''Parodied''':
53	** A butter knife wielded by a fragile old man destroys the greatest Wizard ever to exist.
54	** The Wizards all carry firearms, GPS devices, and smartphones in their knapsacks, knowing they can't compete in battle without them.
55	** A Wizard who's been practicing blindness spells gets his mind blown when a Muggle shows him a can of Mace.
56	** The police raid the lair of Dark Wizard Evulz, who surrenders on sight knowing he can't compete with the officers or their equipment. As he's handcuffed and escorted into a police car, he mutters to himself about how satellite imagery has allowed the cops to find his hidden lairs so quickly.
57	** Wizard popular culture aimed at children is mainly PowerFantasy about being a Muggle.
58	** [[MuggleBornOfMages Two Wizards have a nonmagical child.]] This child is put on the pedestal of TheChosenOne.
59	** [[MundaneObjectAmazement Mages worship Coca-Cola bottles.]]
60	* '''Zig-Zagged''':
61	** There is a LensmanArmsRace between Muggle technology and magic.
62	** [[TakeAThirdOption A third faction puts magic and technology together]] to form {{Magitek}}, which is orders of magnitude superior to either individually.
63	** Magic and Muggle technology have their own strengths and weaknesses that the other cannot duplicate: technology accomplishes tasks well enough and is available to anyone, making it the more economical choice. But its nuances are messy and unreliable compared to magic: stitches can heal wounds, but healing magic is instant and painless. On the other hand, Magic is more effective, but only certain people can use it, making it far less available, and the people who can use need to train far longer.
64	** Muggles are rendered [[NoSell immune to the Wizard's]] [[PsychoElectro Thunderbolt spell]] due to the rubber in the soles of their shoes, and his Ice spells due to the Gore-Tex parkas they happen to be wearing; things that didn't exist when the Wizard was in power. [[MagicAIsMagicA Since he can't learn Fire or Earth spells,]] a Muggle wearing these can just walk up and beat him insensate. However, a Fire/Earth Wizard presents different challenges, necessitating [[HazmatSuit fireproof clothing]] and a ranged weapon to take down.
65	* '''Averted''':
66	** Magic and Muggle technology are about even; neither is substantially better or worse than the other.
67	** Magic is always superior to anything Muggles can do. If you take a fighter and a mage, the latter will, sooner or later, inevitably [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards prevail in terms of power (especially with experience)]], while the former will [[CantCatchUp struggle and most likely fail to keep up even with the mage, let alone overpowering them]].
68	** [[MagicAIsMagicA The rules of the universe]] explicitly say that [[MagicMustDefeatMagic magic is impossible to defeat by means that are not magic]], and there is no sidestepping that. The GeneralRipper ordering a barrage of nuclear warheads on the Voldemort wannabe [[TheWorfBarrage is only asking for most expensive Fourth of July show in human history]].
69	** The characters are all Muggles.
70	** The characters are all Mages.
71	* '''Enforced''':
72	** The writers wish to make a TakeThat to the classic wizard stories such as ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, and thus decide to exploit the fact that modern military-grade hardware (let alone regular things like cell phones and medical procedures) has advanced greatly enough that the previous 'this is why only Wizard stuff can fix Wizard troubles' HandWave can be told to take a hike without breaking the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief.
73	** It's a RevengeFic of the "I Want to Blow Away [[Literature/HarryPotter Voldemort]][=/=][[Manga/MyHeroAcademia All For One]][=/=][[Anime/DragonBallSuper Beerus]][=/=][[WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug Hawk Moth]][=/=][[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Zod]][=/=][[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Amon]][=/=]Whoever with MoreDakka" type.
74	* '''Lampshaded''': "I thought magic would be stronger than this."
75	* '''Invoked''': There is an AncientConspiracy that keeps the wizarding world on a MedievalStasis, and thus provides an avenue to keep the viler Wizards from getting too full of themselves.
76	* '''Exploited''':
77	** Alice, a Wizard, challenges another Wizard, Bob to a duel, only [[CombatPragmatist to pull out a Colt and fill him with lead]].
78	** After a kingdom's Wizards are all wiped out by the opposing kingdom's ''far'' more powerful Mages, the king hires Muggle mercenaries to destroy the opposing kingdom.
79	* '''Defied''':
80	** Wizards keep researching and create spells that offer industrial efficiency so that they can keep up with or exceed Muggles.
81	** Wizards keep themselves informed of advancements in Muggle technology and improve their spells to remain relevant, e.g., invisibility spells that also work on machines and guard against infrared or radar detection.
82	** Wizards have at least one spell that will ''never'' be replicated by human technology in any way, shape or form (or will never work as well, in a best-case scenario). Humans may be able to create FasterThanLightTravel, but Wizards can teleport from one galaxy to another ''in a split second'', with none of the regular "bad things" that come from [[LudicrousSpeed moving that fast]]. Muggles start killing Wizards? Good luck trying to chase them to Andromeda!
83	** Muggle firepower lets them win against a demon's greater physical strength and regeneration, if that's what the demon relies on. Unfortunately, demon infantry clad in Kevlar and armed with [[{{BFG}} combat rifles that would qualify as crew-served heavy machine guns in human hands]] are another matter...
84	** The prophecy that magic will save the world has no loopholes to abuse through muggle technology of any kind. Sorry, but "[[NoManOfWomanBorn no weapon forged by man can destroy this evil]]" means just that, and 3D-printed guns designed by the 950th generation of [=NovelAI=] still count. It's magic or nothing.
85	* '''Discussed''': "I thought those Mages we're fighting would be a lot more impressive." "But they ''are''. Their spells regularly break the laws of physics as we know them." "Then why are we winning?" "Because you can't mass-produce Mages, but you ''can'' mass-produce rifles."
86	* '''Conversed''': "Never underestimate Muggles, my boy. What they lack in magic ability they make up for by a ''murderous'' capacity to adapt and improvise. And I ''do'' mean "'''murderous'''"."
87	* '''Deconstructed''': Wizarding society becomes obsolete and is forced into hiding or destroyed.
88	* '''Reconstructed''':
89	** Wizards decide to [[CombatPragmatist fight smart, not hard]]. If they can't outdo Muggles in a straight fight, they'll just use guerrilla warfare to avoid fair fights or esoteric means such as MindControl to set themselves up as TheManBehindTheMan to Muggle society.
90	** Wizards manage to steal human technology and [[{{Magitek}} upgrade it with their magic.]]
91	* '''Implied''':
92	** In the drama ''Troper Magic'', the focus is on a household that has both Muggles and Wizards in it. Although they don't fight, side character Bob has recently come back from war. The stories he tells imply that Wizards held their own, but the Muggles got a higher body count.
93	** The Dark Wizard Evulz wants to start TheMagicVersusTechnologyWar. When Alice, the president of the magical world, is told this, she simply says, "He's forgotten why we hide."
94	** The government of the magical world has a "Muggle Science" division.
95	* '''Plotted a Good Waste''':
96	** In a plot revolving around [[TheMagicComesBack magic finally being returned to mankind]] after Curtis TheChosenOne was fated to destroy the demon that required it be sealed in the first place. It turns out after the Wizards tried hard to teach him magic he still hadn't learned. During the climax, rather than pulling out some unknown power that never was shown before, Curtis simply picks up a gun and mows the demon down, ending it.
97	** The war shows that Muggles and Wizards have much to learn and gain from each other: Wizards learn to admire the low-hassle, mass-produced power of technology, while Muggles are highly impressed by the [[RealityWarper reality-breaking power]] of magic, and wonder if magic can be used to bolster their technology. After the war comes to an end, the {{Magitek}} industry explodes, bringing with it both new advantages and new issues.
98	* '''Played for Laughs''': Muggles can upstage ''anything'' the Wizard does. To the point where, after he teleports for the first time, the news later shows that Muggles have invented a teleporter by accident but they will be on the market in a week.
99	* '''Played for Drama''':
100	** The Wizard is the only one who can truly [[GaiasVengeance renew nature]] after what Muggles have done to it, but after being shown up time after time he refuses to, claiming that, since the nonmagical people can clearly do better than he can, they should just do it themselves despite this being the one thing they can't do.
101	** The ''Harry Potter'' clone's anti-racism VerySpecialEpisode has TheTeamNormal (who has been [[ButtMonkey treated like shit]] throughout the series so far because, hey, [[FantasticRacism Muggle]]) [[ThrowTheDogABone saving the day]] because the MonsterOfTheWeek can't defend against advanced knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics (such as the concept of "{{plasma\|Cannon}}"), despite itself.
102	** The episode of ''Alice and Bob: The Series'' revolves around the mystery of how Potter, the greatest warrior Mage who ever lived, could be killed by a random junkie with a switchblade. At least half of the mess of the plot occurs because nobody in either the heroic or villainous sides of the cast is willing to accept that someone so pusillanimous [[InsultToRocks even by Muggle standards]] was able to get so lucky [[ImproperlyParanoid and keep looking for a nonexistent mastermind]].
103	** In a Shonen battle drama with a mostly-Mage cast, Rocky the BadassNormal has a subplot where he tries his damnedest not to be left behind, though he fears that [[CantCatchUp he will]], and [[BloodierAndGorier the bloodiest fights of the series]] as he takes on the MonsterOfTheWeek with his bare knuckles, improvised weapons, and brains.
104	* '''Played for Horror''': The ''Harry Potter'' clone's {{Wham\|Episode}}[=-slash-=]VerySpecialEpisode involves TheTeamNormal [[WhosLaughingNow finally snapping]] and going on a killing spree, [[ThePlotReaper massacring most]] of the once-apparently-invincible super-Mages in the cast [[MultipleGunshotDeath with copious amounts of gunfire]].
105	----
106	Drive a car back to MugglesDoItBetter and wait for the wizard to arrive by teleportation.

Context PlayingWith / MugglesDoItBetter