History Main / IneptMage

* The hero of Kurt Busiek's ''The Wizard's Tale'' is fearfully inept, partly because he knows he is supposed to be evil and can't pull it off.

* [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/6/15/ Jim Darkmagic]].

* Sae Sawanoguchi from ''MagicUsersClub''. Her magic is by far the most powerful, ''if'' she can control it, and ''if'' it comes out in the first place.

* just before that cleric showed up as said new form of undead Perf tried to use the Gust of Wind spell from the book and blew his own clothes off, so he in fact used the book exactly twice

* The Winter Warlock from the ''{{Santa Claus Is Coming to Town}}'' Christmas Special. He was a fierce mage until his heart melted from a kind gesture... and then he could only do little tricks.

* Perf, of JourneyQuest, is an excellent example of this: he has precisely three spells he can cast without recourse to his spellbooks: ''Conjure Milk''[[hottip:*:which, when used against a party of orcs that had captured him and his friends, earned him the appellation "lactomancer"]], ''Mend'' [[hottip:*:a sewing spell]] and ''Vague'' [[hottip:*:the effects of which are kinda hard to nail down...]]. The one time we see him casting ''with'' as spellbook, he's trying to heal the party cleric, and [[MagicMisfire fails so badly that said cleric dies]]. And becomes an [[BeyondTheImpossible entirely new form of undead]].

* Kyle from ''FanboyAndChumChum''. His poor skills in magic are often used as the reason behind his failures, and it even becomes and important plot point in "Sigmund the Sorcerer".

* Kyle from ''FanboyAndChumChum''. His poor skills in magic are often used as the resson behind his failures, and it even becomes and important plot point in "Sigmund the Sorcerer".

* ThisTroper recalls a short story, set during King Arthur's childhood, with a character who ''appeared'' to be a severely inept mage; during his final exam to earn a mentor wizard, he attempted to make a rock turn into a pig -- it floated in the air, turned invisible, and then when he tried to undo the spells, it became a (visible) dragon. [[spoiler:Subverted when he turned out to be a chaos magician -- that dragon was vital to taking out a Saxon invasion a moment later. His magic never does what he ''wants'', but it always does what ''needs'' to be done.]]

** Rincewind really is a borderline case for this trope -- he's a Wiz(z)ard to his very ''soul''... unfortunately, his body is that of a long distance sprinter. He can detect magic, acts as a magical lightning rod as all wizards do in high-magical fields, and can see Octarine.. but can't even cast a simple cantrip. Wizzard is who he '''is''', not what he ''does'' (which is mostly run away, very very fast). Some of his teachers actually believed that when Rincewind dies (if he ever does), the total magical potential of the human race will go up by a small but measureable amount.
*** There's one time when he actually ''does'' do magic all by himself, in a subtle, witch-like way (opening a lock with his mind), near the beginning of the series. He remains unable to repeat even this feat later on and it's never referred to again.
*** Most of his problem is that he accidentally saw and internalized one of the Eight Great Spells that keep the multiverse going. That spell-- which, for obvious reasons, he can never cast-- more or less blocked him from ever being able to learn any of the lesser (and more useful) spells. Most of the Discworld magic users agree that the most important part of being a witch/wizard is knowing when ''not'' to do magic, but poor Rincewind doesn't seem to get cut any slack on that account. (Or any other, for that matter.)
**** In ''Discworld/EqualRites'', Esk says that not using magic because you ''can't'' isn't any use, but not using magic because you ''can'' is ''real'' power. Rinso is in the former category.
*** It's implied that the Great Spell that is inside Rincewin is semi-sentient. It occasionally tries to force Rincewind to cast it, but he's always interrupted. Also, one line says that all other spells are afraid of that spell, so Rincewind can learn them.

** Ronald Weasley is rendered fairly inept for much of ''{{Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets}}'', when his wand is broken.

* One episode of ''{{ReBoot}}'' has Dot take the part of a sorceress in one of the games. The extent of her magical prowess amounts to pointing at something, exclaiming "abraca-whatcha-cadabra-macallit," and hoping for a favorable result.

*** Most of his problem is that he accidently saw and internalized one of the Eight Great Spells that keep the multiverse going. That spell-- which, for obvious reasons, he can never cast-- more or less blocked him from ever being able to learn any of the lesser (and more useful) spells. Most of the Discworld magic users agree that the most important part of being a witch/wizard is knowing when ''not'' to do magic, but poor Rincewind doesn't seem to get cut any slack on that account. (Or any other, for that matter.)

*** This troper is suddenly reminded of a young adult fantasy novel he read that also involved a "Wizzard" -- this was a person who wanted to be a wizard, but instead gained a magic-based form of SuperSpeed, which he promptly decided was just as good, if not better, than being an actual spellcaster.

* Donald in the early issues of ''WizardsOfMickey'', which gets him in trouble with someone he owed money too and tried to get out of the deal by turning spoons into gold. But it turns out his magic does work, but is slow acting.

** And the 2002 series uses the loss of his wand in his Backstory during his rescue of Adam when he first appeared on Eternia.

* Morgana in ''DarkwingDuck'' casts a spell wrong more often than she casts it right.