Fridge Horror
Fridge Logic
- Young wizards are stated to be more powerful than older wizards because they haven't learned that something is impossible yet. Since the older wizards presumably started out as young wizards who could cast powerful spells, shouldn't they have, in fact, learned that such feats are not impossible?
- They also learn that they have access to less power as they age... I think it might be a metaphorical version of faith vs experience. ie "I believe I can fly" vs "I know I can fly, but I have to do this and this and this for it to happen." Remember Fred's line from book 1, about belief being the most powerful force?
- But that still has the problem of with wizards somehow learning that they can't do things that they've already done. Surely a wizard can figure out how to avoid a Centipede's Dilemma.
- It's not necessarily that "oh, yesterday I could do X and now I can't," it's more like "I used to have the POTENTIAL to do X, Y, and Z, and now I don't." Also, as you become an adult, your brain loses neuroplasticity (which, admittedly, doesn't explain why Dairine has more power than Kit and Nita, but hey). It also may be a result of being exposed to the regular world and its cynicism—when you're a kid (and you're given magic), you think you can do just about anything. But then the "real" world starts making you cynical, and you have to work harder to keep that belief.
On top of this, when you're first starting out you could probably just cast a new spell off the cuff, whereas a more experienced wizard would know that you first have to set it up and learn technical terms and use certain materials. Because you didn't know it would be difficult, it wasn't.
Fridge Brilliance
- In the second book, Deep Wizardry, when Nita is explaining wizardry to her father, Harry Callahan, Harry states: "If someone offered me a chance to be a wizard, I'd jump at it" in an attempt to emotionally blackmail Nita into staying home instead of helping the whales. Nita sees right through it: "“No, you wouldn’t. Because if you would have, really, you would have been offered it. There's never enough wizards..." And in the very next book, High Wizardry, Nita gets proven right! As Carl & Tom are explaining that Dairine is a wizard, too, Carl shows the Wizard's Oath to Harry, via the computer— an act that takes both Tom and Carl and the Planetary to approve. Harry reads it silently...yet does not speak it out loud to take the Oath. Why does it take two Seniors and the Planetary to approve the translation of something that's common knowledge for wizards? Because showing the Oath to someone is offering them the chance to be a wizard. Harry gets his offer, and doesn't jump at all.
- Bonus Fridge Brilliance: the scenes double as an early showing of Nita's oracular ability, too.
- In Book 3, Dairine's new computer/manual is described as having something like the apple logo, but without the bite taken out of it. At the time, a reader might put it down as just an indicator of it being not quite normal, but at the end of the book, the brilliance hits. The book is all about Dairine creating a species who, for the first time in the history of the universe, rejected the Lone Power's offer wholesale (represented on Earth by the Garden of Eden story). In other words, Dairine’s machine people never bit the apple! Brilliant.
- The reveal that Penn is hosting the phoenix makes a re-read of Games Wizards Play very interesting in hindsight.
- In his duel with Kit, he chooses the elements of fire and air. This makes perfect sense for a phoenix host.
- Additionally, he's described as being arrogant and full of himself—in other words, he's literally full of hot air!