History Main / MugglesDoItBetter

* In ''Fanfic/TheThreeKingsHunt'' the mages after centuries of losing to the wizards have begun mounting an affective resistance by using the [[spoiler:Internet]]

** One time, a collector presents Dean Winchester with a sword-in-the-stone. When Dean can't pull it out, he simply obtains a jackhammer and removes it that way.
** Sam keeps a recording of an exorcism on his smart, which he can play if he encounters a demon.
** And then a woodchipper pretty much trumps anything as Bobby Singer discovers when he finds himself without a very specific weapon to defeat an ōkami.

* In one science fiction story, a group of (essentially) mutants left earth because their powers were feared. Years later, when the "normals" and the mutants met again, the normals had developed technology to such a point that every person had access to more capabilities than the mutants (like Syndrome wanted to do in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'').

* Syndrome's long term goal in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' is to invoke this trope, to give away his advanced technology that matches (and in many ways, surpasses) the powers of the supers so superheroes aren't special anymore. In the context of the universe as a whole, though, this is patently already the case: the Supers are mostly {{Glass Cannon}}s (the DVD special features show that Mr. Incredible is the only one who has massively superhuman durability) and not very numerous. In fact, many of the Supers were killed by [[CapeSnag capes getting accidentally caught in things like jet engines and elevator shafts]]. It's pretty much taken as a given that they submit to the (non-super) government, like everyone else.

* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfic "[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/6894757 THERMOS!]], [[EitherOrTitle or]], [[OverlyLongTitle How a Muggle-Born Brought a New Age of Spell-Making to Hogwarts (Entirely by Accident)]]" explores this, featuring a Muggle-born witch that, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin does just that]], starting when her Pureblood friend is baffled by how her thermos manages to keep her drinks warm all day.

* ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheApt'': Humanity can be separated broadly into the technology-using Apt races and the magic-using Inapt races. For centuries, the Inapt ruled over their Apt slaves as {{Sorcerous Overlord}}s, terrifying them into compliance with strange and frightening powers. Then the Apt invented the crossbow. The Inapt have been a DyingRace ever since, falling ever further behind the technological edge of the Inapt. This isn't helped helped by the fact that magic is a subtle force that thrives amid fear and uncertainty, and, having won the revolution, the Apt now believe Inapt "magic" was never more than smoke and mirrors. [[spoiler:But this is because [[TheMagicGoesAway magic has been fading from the world]] for a very long time, having been almost entirely used up in an ancient spell to seal away an AncientEvil. Those seals were broken in the penultimate book (and said evil dealt with in the last one -- by a bandolier of grenades), and it's hinted that the Inapt are about to make a comeback in a big way.]]

[[caption-width-right:250:"[[NoManOfWomanBorn No weapon forged can kill me]]."\\
"[[LoopholeAbuse That was then]]. [[TechnologyMarchesOn This is now]]."]]

* In the world of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', almost every army relies on technology so advanced it might as well be magic or actual magic. The Imperial Guard, on the other hand, somehow (barely) hold back [[HordeOfAlienLocusts an implacable hive mind]], [[RobotWar undead killing machines]], [[OurOrcsAreDifferent barbarous green savages]], [[TheHeretic and magic-using traitors]] with just laser guns, tanks, and artillery. And infantry. [[WeHaveReserves Lots and lots of infantry]].
** Da Orks, strangely, are both Muggles Do It Better AND Wizards Do It Better. Despite using bullets, guns, tanks, and giant battle axes as their primary weapons - barely more advanced than what we have now - they can still kill just as good as any other race, and it is agreed that if the Orks were ever united, they would be able to walk over the rest of the galaxy. However, their technology runs on their [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve collective psychic powers MAKING it work by thinking it will]].

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Similar to the above-mentioned Imperial Guard, the Empire is constantly under attack by 8-foot-tall demon-worshipping Vikings who wield huge weapons lesser men would struggle to even ''lift'', Nazi rat-men with machine-guns and flamethrowers, psychotic mutants who want to tear down civilisation out of spite, and vampire warlords with huge armies of walking undead. All they have is ordinary men with their sharpened steel, their primitive firearms, and their faith in the gods. And somehow, against all odds, they hold.
** One notable example (from the 7th Edition Daemons codex) is a story about Skarbrand, a Greater Daemon of Khorne who appeared in a battle against Imperial troops and was promptly splattered into a puddle of gore by 16th century cannons. Greater Daemons are superhumanly strong, command incredible magical powers ranging from flight to teleportation to energy projection, and explicitly stated to be worshipped as lesser gods by the Chaos tribes of Norsca. Too bad they're also biologically immortal so the death didn't stick. Still very badass though.

** That said, some of the sourcebooks mention ways to get around this. One Legacy in ''Legacies: The Sublime'', the Transhumanist Engineers, have a little game they play: they use magic to build an Imbued device (something that doesn't set off the Lie), which works just a tad better than what we have now, and show it off to Sleepers. And then mention they ''really'' hope nobody beats them to market. After that, they just sit back and wait for the viciously competitive tech sector to figure out how to do it. If the muggles can't do it better ''now'', give them a little push.
** Subverting this is one of the main themes of the PeriodPiece sourcebook, ''Mage'' ''[[FilmNoir Noir]]'', set in the immediate aftermath of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Here, it's less 'Muggles do it ''better''' and more 'Muggles do it quicker, more efficiently, more consistently, and with less of a chance of breaking if people think about it too hard.' (Medicine and the then-recent breakthroughs in antibiotics are the main example.) Muggles ''can'' do it better, but it's a much rarer occurrence. (The prime example here is [[NukeEm the Atomic Bomb]].) There's even a whole Legacy, ''The Quiescent'', whose whole philosophy is 'Muggles can and are doing it better, so what right do we have to get in their way?' So they strive to become as unnoticeable as possible, and keep their magic as unnoticeable and as BoringButPractical as possible.

** Though Exalted lacks a clear division between magic and non-magic, anyway; unenlightened mortals are just so weak that they have no control over their Essence. On the other, other hand, the Solar Exalted, among the most powerful of Exalts, explicitly have powers that resemble the 'mortal' way of doing things (shooting arrows that hit you anywhere in the world and leaping over mountains instead of teleporting or firing blasts of fire) and are designed to win out against more obviously magical effects.

** On the other hand, some D&D material averts this trope. For example, one ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' novel states that the reason behind the Realms' FantasyGunControl is because magical resistances are all-encompassing. It doesn't matter if you're throwing a stone, firing a bow & arrow, or blazing away with a [[GatlingGood Vulcan mini-gun]], if there's no magical basis to it, then it won't even scratch someone under the effect of a Protection From Normal Missiles spell, though this only applied to older versions of the game and also ignores weapons like grenades, as explosive and fire attacks have always been a way to bypass such effects.

** This was also used in the opening video of ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' where Starcraft Terrans (Nova and Jim Raynor) fight against [[VideoGame/Diablo3 Diablo (the devil in his home series)]]. Just as Diablo approaches to kill them, you see Jim smile as he closes his helmet followed by one particularly iconic phrase from the computer in his helmet.

** This trope generally holds true in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyTactics'' as well, thanks to the [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve Faith]] mechanic. A character with low Faith can't use magic well and beneficial spells are less effective when cast on them, but by the same token, they also take less damage from magical attacks. Thus, wizards tend to get cut down pretty easily by faithless characters if not backed up with conventional weaponry.
*** Except for Calculators who can take down large groups on their own thanks to their ability to basically carpet bomb areas with magic.

** ''[[Characters/IronManHeroes War Machine]]'' is all about this in his [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] appearances. His suit is armored in [[AllThereInTheManual regular titanium-steel]] and he uses [[SuperheroPackingHeat regular guns]] like the [=M134=] 7.62mm or [=F2000=] 5.56mm instead of the other Avengers' assortment of lasers, energy bolts, super-punches, magic lightning, and so on, but he's one of the most effective members. In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' and ''Film/IronMan2'', his mundane firearms are shown to be if anything more effective than Iron Man's repulsors and flechette launchers against the Hammer Droids and the Ultron Sentries. Similarly, in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} was more effective when piloting a transport VTOL with a minigun on it than the other Avengers (bar [[PhysicalGod Thor]]), cleaving through the Chitauri infantry and flyers effortlessly with its GAU-17/A.

* The [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]]/Vietnam War-era weapons that have crossed over to the world of Halkeginia in ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' appear to far out-power all elements of offensive magic except that of the Void. Giant golem? LAW[[note]][[UsefulNotes/ModernBattlefieldWeapons Light Anti-Armor Weapon]][[/note]] beats it. Dragons? WWII era Zero beats them. Giant walking magically impervious armor? Flak cannon shoots straight through it.[[note]]Though it needed magic boost to pierce the force field.[[/note]]

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Saika's children have a HiveMind, but it is inefficient (they can't communicate with other children, only their mother), and most of them are very confused when they are first born. They gained a lot of coherence and stability once they discovered the Internet.

* Discussed in the ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero''/''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' crossover ''Fanfic/{{Unfamiliar}}''; while magic can do many thing technology can't, it's also [[AwesomeButImpractical inefficient]] for more [[MundaneUtility mundane]] things. For example, an earth mage can do the work of ten farming machines; however, it takes years to train an earth mage, whereas you can build farming machines in days.

* A non-combat example is shown in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9547582/1/Zero-s-Bullet Zero's Bullet]]'' where [[Manga/{{Hellsing}} Rip Van Winkle's]] off the rack suit from a discount store is still highly valuable even after being damaged beyond repair because no one in [[LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero Halkagenia]] has ever heard of polyester. When replacing it, she's given quite a bit of money by the shopkeeper who intends to use the scraps to make gloves and scarves.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14040780/ Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue]]'' is a ''Literature/HarryPotter'' AU fic in which the British muggle government, under UsefulNotes/JohnMajor and later UsefulNotes/TonyBlair, get increasingly involved in magical affairs following the events of ''Goblet of Fire'', culminating in Blair ordering a successful military assault on Diagon Alley, the Ministry of Magic and Hogsmeade (with magical support) soon after Voldemort's takeover.

*** This trope in-particular is codified into the philosophy of the Jedi Sentinels: one of the three branches of the Jedi that serves as the Orders' dedicated Black Ops specialists tasked with hunting down Sith and elements of Dark Side corruption within the Galaxy. Unlike with the other two [[ThePaladin Guardian]] and [[TheArchmage Consular]] branches of the Order who regularly seclude themselves away from the outside world and only come out when deemed necessary, the Sentinels take the opposite approach; often spending years if not decades away from the Jedi Temple on missions deep undercover and working alongside {{Muggles}} as members of law enforcement, very rarely using their Force powers or brandishing their Yellow-bladed Lightsabers in combat to instead rely upon methods that other members of the Order [[BatmanGrabsAGun would definitely frown upon]].

** Lloyd from [[VideoGame/{{MOTHER1}} the prequel]] may also count: A pint-size and weak nerd who takes down [[HopelessBossFight an undefeatable]] huge robot with a ''[[TankGoodness tank]]''. Not to mention Teddy, who is the [[BadassNormal strongest of the party members]].

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in an issue of ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': the son of the recently deceased ComicBook/GreenArrow has to fight a bad guy and his {{mooks}} using an old set of arrows his father left behind. He laments that they're all ridiculous [[TrickArrow trick arrows]], such as a handcuff arrow or a boxing glove arrow, and wishes his dad would have had at least one regular arrow among them. He [[spoiler:ends up defeating the bad guy with a boxing glove arrow]].
* Often played with in Franchise/TheDCU and the Franchise/MarvelUniverse. Some characters manage to do very well against superpowered adversaries with nothing more than the training and technology you see in the real world, ComicBook/ThePunisher being a perfect example. Oftentimes, though, the [[PoliceAreUseless police]], the [[MilitariesAreUseless army]], would-be {{Heroic Bystander}}s, and others are completely ineffective against the villains.

* A long-standing question in ''Comicbook/XMen'' is why Sentinels are a threat to mutantkind. ComicBook/{{Magneto}} has demonstrated a penchant for using his powers and scientific genius to construct incredible {{Supervillain Lair}}s inside active volcanoes or on asteroids and even uses robots himself from time to time, but never seems to consider countering human Sentinel technology by simply building his own comparable battle robots (though [[ComicBook/UltimateXMen he did once use his powers to make them kill humans instead of mutants]].)

* Franchise/TheDCU has an odd relationship with this trope. Typically, heroes that handle massive cosmic threats will often run into problems dealing with an evil BadassNormal, ComicBook/TheJoker being the most famous example. The trope is often subverted with superpowered threats to the whole planet, which typically require someone with powers to stop them. So, muggles are better at dealing with muggles, and superpowered heroes are better at dealing with superpowered villains.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': After giving both Franchise/WonderWoman and Hermes a hard time, Ixion is ultimately taken down by the U.S. Air Force, though Wondy and Hermes were trying to capture him rather than kill him.

* In ''Fanfic/HarryPotterandtheInvincibleTechnomage'', [[ComicBook/MisterFantastic Reed Richards]] and Tony Stark (ComicBook/IronMan) discover how ''Franchise/HarryPotter'''s magic works, and manage to make it work ''with'' their technology rather than against it (and Tony uses the magic as a cheap energy source for his various armours, such as the one he gives to Harry).

* In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', the heroes equipped with conventional weaponry (e.g. ComicBook/TheFalcon's submachine guns and mini-missile launchers, ComicBook/WarMachine's minigun and bombs, ComicBook/BuckyBarnes' light machine gun) end up racking up far bigger body counts than their comrades equipped with sci-fi blasters and fantastical indestructible melee weapons when fighting the Outriders at the end of the film; [[MadeOfExplodium a few seconds of minigun fire can even cause the alien wheel-tanks and flyers to explode in a fireball.]] ComicBook/RocketRaccoon even asks to buy Bucky's machine gun from him. Earlier in the film, two superhuman alien commandos with nano-tech blades and plasma guns who had just drubbed a super-powerful psychic and a combat android are forced to retreat when a regular human threatens them with a pair of handguns.
** ''ComicBook/WarMachine'' is all about this in his [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] appearances. His suit is armored in [[AllThereInTheManual regular titanium-steel]] and he uses [[SuperheroPackingHeat regular guns]] like the [=M134=] 7.62mm or [=F2000=] 5.56mm instead of the other Avengers' assortment of lasers, energy bolts, super-punches, magic lightning, and so on, but he's one of the most effective members. In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' and ''Film/IronMan2'', his mundane firearms are shown to be if anything more effective than Iron Man's repulsors and flechette launchers against the Hammer Droids and the Ultron Sentries. Similarly, in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} was more effective when piloting a transport VTOL with a minigun on it than the other Avengers (bar [[PhysicalGod Thor]]), cleaving through the Chitauri infantry and flyers effortlessly with its GAU-17/A.

* ''Franchise/StarWars''

* Linkara from ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'', frequently criticizes this trope with bad ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' stories, because the cases where it appears allow this trope by depicting characters WITH powers as outright incompetent to make Batman look better. He also invokes this with his ''Top 15 Things That Are Wrong with ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'' video, where in the fight with ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}, he notes that he's standing still for most of it while taking on the majority of the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}. In his words: "This is the part where you take yourself out of the story and realize that a sniper rifle would be more effective than flashy superpowers, and in a story about superheroes, we really shouldn't be thinking that."

* In the ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' "Cell vs." shorts, Cell has to face multiple opponents with various abilities. The only one to completely and absolutely win is [[Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar Kenshiro]], who simply [[CombatPragmatist attacked him with pressure point strikes while he was distracted]] with [[YourHeadAsplode the usual results of Kenshiro's fights]]-''twice''. Not even ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'' could match it, as Cell managed to kill him multiple times...

* Here's a case of NiceJobBreakingItHero that almost got the heroes killed. In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'', Aladdin and Jasmine went on a secret covert mission to infiltrate [[KnightOfCerebus Mozenrath's]] castle but did ''not'' ask for Genie's help, or even tell him about it. Genie found out what they were doing, and wondered why they would do something so dangerous on their own. (Mozenrath is ''definitely'' not someone you mess with without some serious backup.) So he followed them anyway, and as it turned out, Aladdin and Jasmine had the right idea. The dark wizard had upgraded his security with an anti-magic focus specifically with Genie in mind, so the two realized that their best chance of success would be to not use magic - or magical beings - at all. Genie's presence quickly gave them away, and they barely escaped. The one good thing to come out it was, he learned he had to start trusting them more.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' short, "The Secret War", the Red Army in late 1942 puts up a brilliant effort against ravenous Siberian demons. [[spoiler:While the platoon members all die in a LastStand against a huge barrow of thousands of them in the end, they still take down enough that in the morning the valley is littered with dead demons, and then a fleet of bombers arrives and blows the place to kingdom come.]]

* The [[Manga/AttackOnTitan titans']] vulnerabilities to modern weapons is even more prominent in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13322080/1/Freedom-s-Ring Freedom's Ring]]'' where the combined forces of Survey Corps and [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks United States Armed Forces]] managed to clear out the entire Paradis Island in span of ''months'' instead of years like it did in canon. [[spoiler:Later on, they also successfully decimated the titan forces send in by Marley and the World Union in a last ditch attempt to subjugate the island]].

* In the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', almost every anomaly is contained securely with nothing but discipline, organization, and ordinary technology, and although some require higher tech or other anomalies to hold or keep secret, it's still a struggle of ordinary humans to use their humanity and tools to overcome the supernatural (or just plain natural, but secret from the public).

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14040780/ Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue]]'' is a ''Literature/HarryPotter'' AU fic in which the British muggle government, under UsefulNotes/JohnMajor and later UsefulNotes/TonyBlair, get increasingly involved in magical affairs following the events of ''Goblet of Fire'', culminating in Blair ordering a successful military assault on the Ministry of Magic (with magical support) soon after Voldemort's takeover.

* ''Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' makes Jedi not look as invincible as they are generally believed to be. Vibroblades are infused with cortosis, special ore that can resist lightsabers, which allows non-Jedi to fight a Jedi on equal terms, and blasters can still retain effectiveness even after acquiring force powers, especially in the sequel. Basically, although the Jedi still generally have an advantage, it's not a ForegoneConclusion.
--> '''Master Vrook:''' Nothing is more embarrassing for a Jedi than to be cut down by a stray blaster shot.
** HK-47 has a lengthy discussion with the Exile in [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords the second game]] on how best to kill Jedi (if you earn enough Influence to unlock it). He particularly notes about how Jedi don't like to fight at range but, at the same time, can deflect regular blasters. SensoryOverload is the recommended tactic because Jedi can't deflect it or isolate themselves from it in battle.
** In ''Videogame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' a Sith totally laughs off the Bounty Hunter character, as a force user 'cannot be defeated by some hired gun'. One short battle later and she's gasping on the floor, heavily injured. Indeed Bounty Hunters use plenty of mundane weapons that both Jedi and Sith are noted as weak to, such as close-range fire attacks, explosives, and dart weapons. Appropriately, the Bounty Hunter is offered a chance to join the Mandalorians (see above).
** All of the player characters which are not Force-sensitive really, in some quests you get to fight force users and win, and one of the dialogue options you get is "The Force is overrated". Since when does [[PistolWhipping Stock Striking]] do more damage than a lightsaber strike?
** Additional material shows that [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter projectile weapons]] ("slugthrowers") are actually quite effective against Jedi, as the heavier, denser bullets are much harder to deflect or control than blaster energy bolts.[[note]]And on the off chance they ''do'' manage to intercept the projectile with their lightsaber, rather than absorbing the energy, it tends to simply ''melt'' the bullet, which can result in the unfortunate Jedi being showered with bits of molten metal--still moving at supersonic speeds.[[/note]] They also have the advantage of not leaving telltale bolts as they travel, making them almost impossible to track (and therefore stop/deflect) by all but the most keenly-aware force users. Several bounty hunters actually ''prefer'' slugthrowers, and swear by them as effective Jedi-stopping weapons.

* An example of this pops up in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. The giant spider robot during the Dollet mission has been hounding your squad all the way down the mountain. You can't kill this thing, as it auto-repairs. All your superhuman strength, training, magic, Guardian Forces, and archaic weaponry cannot freaking stop this mechanical monster. [[ImplacableMan It just keeps coming.]] Then, you get to the beach, where Quistis is waiting in the gun turret of your hovercraft, manning a .50 caliber machinegun, and she ''tears'' the robot apart with nothing but [[MoreDakka intense, drawn-out automatic fire.]]
** Late in the game, the party must board Lunatic Pandora, a floating obelisk with a shield around it. They get through the shield by flying their airship at it and shooting it a lot. They get through the wall by shooting more, until they've blown a hole through the side. The airship itself is one of three that were originally made for the sole purpose of dragging a sorceress into space so she couldn't harm the world any further; she was made docile enough for this to work by what amounts to cryogenic suspension.
** This trope is generally subverted in other ''Final Fantasy'' games. For example, in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' the Huge Materia Bomb is not sufficiently powerful enough to destroy the [[ColonyDrop meteor]]. It's zig-zagged in [=FF7=] with the [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Weapons]] in plot scenes, however, where the Sister Ray does in fact have enough power to kill both Sapphire and Diamond Weapon; the former with a [[BoomHeadshot shot to the exposed head]], the latter, when upgraded with the Mako reactors in Midgar, was able to punch through Diamond Weapon and lose little to no actual power from the actual shot. On top of taking out two Weapons, the Sister Ray also tears down the barrier surrounding the [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon North Crater]] with the same shot it killed the Diamond Weapon with.

*** The Allagan Empire zig-zags this trope, having developed "aetherochemistry," the science of combining technology and magic together into a single, cohesive, mutually-beneficial body of theory. At the empire's height, Allag was ''significantly'' more advanced than current humanity, specifically because of aetherochemistry. Cloning, lifespan extension, genetic engineering, cybernetics and robotics, artificial intelligence, holograms, a literal moon-sized space station, things equivalent to solid-state disk drives and DVDs, etc. The developers even include humorous references to modern culture, like 'version updates' of software, user license agreements, etc. Unfortunately, when their civilization collapsed in the Fourth Umbral Calamity, it buried or destroyed not just the infrastructure, but almost all records of Allag's existence, making most of their technology completely irreplaceable.

* ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'': The way Yomen deals with Vin in the third book. First, he traps her in an underground vault. Despite all her incredible powers, she can't tunnel through solid rock, so he could just wait for her to starve. Then he offers to let her out if she drinks some drugged wine to sedate herself first. When she wakes up, she discovers that she's all out of the metals she swallowed ahead of time (which she needs to use her powers); Yomen just waited for them to pass naturally out of her system before he woke her up. Then he makes sure her cell has no metals she could swallow, not even traces on the eating utensels. Not one step of that plan required even the slightest amount of supernatural power.