I disagree and think this should be added back in. The point raised uses an extremely weak example that only works because the magical effect of setting someone on fire can be achieved by hitting someone with fire (a lot of the time), but this is far from universally the case.
If you were to use this for another effect, say turning someone into a toad, there is a pretty significant difference. The "spell that acts in projectile manner" fires a bolt of magic that turns whoever it hits into a toad. The "spell that summons a magical projectile" creates a toad and fires it at someone.
Also there is already a separate trope page for creating harmful energy and shooting at someone, in fact there are several because this page should accrue a ridiculous number of examples if it's that broad,
Edited by elemt
Magic Missile is now Projectile Spell:
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Should this be renamed?
Despite the description people keep adding examples of people throwing fireballs or bolts of force and things. Not to mention that even when they have read it, there's the urge to mention whenever there's a spell called Magic Missile and say that it's not an example. The problem probably starts with the way the trope namer isn't an example.
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It really should be re-named. Most people recognize Magic Missle as the 2nd/3rd edition D&D spell, so naming a trope after it, people will expect it to work as classical Magic Missile does.
I think "bolts of magic" would be a better name.
Is the paragraph about the spells being reflected by mirrors really relevant? It is not universal to this type of spells and is on the whole quite unnecessary. And besides Harry Dresden, there is no example of this in the example-list.
Any objections on cutting it?
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Added one from Buffy, and I'm pretty sure there are others. Still it might be expendable. Especially since the Dresden one isn't an example - iirc the mirror is being used for its metaphorical properties of reflection as an Eye of Newt thing in an intangible spell to redirect another intangible spell. It's not being stuck in front of the spell to reflect it.
Definition tweak
During the TRS discussion, the point was raised
that there is no practical difference between "spell that acts in a projectile manner" and "spell that summons a magical projectile". So the page saying that "magically-created e.g. fireballs do not count" is incorrect. I rewrote the page to reflect this.
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