A "definitive" list of battle magic spells from The Magicians

[@kmallory100]

Actually, the Dean's hand gestures were always designed to be less complicated because he was supposed to be powerful enough he didn't need all the flourish.

[@sincerelyeugene6638]

Hey, cool video. Just wanted to throw in a small tip. According to the magician lore, the more advanced and more learned a Magician becomes, the less tutting Is necessary, master magicians and Gods can cast spells with just a single stroke of the pen that encompasses entire universes. So, at these power levels you won't see much tutting. But even for the lower levels as they advanced over the years as students of brakebills, less signs, etc need to be used for casting, seeing as they had better control of their internal circumstances.

[@tamiayo-famola2694]

My major gripe with the show was that there were fewer tuts with each season but you've just given a great explanation so thanks!

[@quincybriley4113]

This is one of the few shows/movies where I feel the show exceeded the books in entertainment. Great books mind you, just even better show.

[@1112Hades]

From what I've learned from Margo gun is a very strong spell.

[@Zaber177]

you should of included "magic missile" cause -- quote Q. "That's straight up Dungeons and Dragons" *Geeky smile*

[@paulpoumet773]

Regarding the fire ball spells, it's not because the effects are the same that it is the same spell through the serie. That's actually one of the key point of magic within the books : through the years, all around the world, magicians created and still create tons of differents spells for the exact same goal or effects. For instance, in only one country there are already at least 75 spells invented, from yesterday to thousands of years ago, in order to create simple fire. Hence one of the purpose of magicians school such as Brakebills, magical cooperation, for inovation, education and experimentation, since, if magicians alone throughout the world can invente the exact same spells, it would be even way better if there are schools in order to enhance and improve this phenomenon through professional centralisation. Season 2 Alice's magic missile is just a regular one, she simply casts it again and again and again, it's not a different version.

[@opiateutopia]

In the book, magicians also have to take note of many factors like the place, time of the day and the moon phase while casting, so it would makes sense for them to slightly adjust the spell, especially if they don't cast it on Earth

[@paulpoumet773]

@@opiateutopia Same in the show. Though they put less focus on that part of the lore that's for sure.

[@SURok695]

​@@paulpoumet773the whole last season was about circumstances gone wrong.

[@tux_duh]

​@@paulpoumet773 as someone who's only watched the show, I don't believe that's entirely true. Even as early as the first season we're learning a little bit about circumstances

[@paulpoumet773]

@@SURok695 Indeed, but outside of "Ho magic goes rogue!!!" we barely have the inner dofficulties linked to this huge issue.

[@Thrillr]

This show so underrated. Thanks for this list mate needed it

[@FattyMcFox]

The magic in the Magicians is not fully Vancian, and thus the spells that seem to only have one effect when they are being taught or learned can have multiple, more versatile expressions when used later with more experience. Some of the background features also explain that some magicians can concentrate power more efficiently, and thus their Tuts are simpler and more streamlined. Alice's tuts are different from Margos, and even Margo's and Alice's tuts are less involved in later seasons when they are stronger. It is like tying a knot. Someone may be able to tie the same knot with more time and movement than an experienced sailor, but the sailor can do it efficiently, quickly and use it for more things than someone just tying it for the first time from a book.

[@Knight69.]

Fantastic video, well researched, and super accurate to the show. 10/10 Eliot is the best

[@n0vitski]

I don't know what this show is and i likely won't be finishing the video, but i really appreciate the scene where this magic dude starts casting his giant spell, and that one girl retaliates with a glock.

[@skinniestmoth]

her name is margo and thats genuinely one of my favorite scenes. reading the books and finding out she kills this crazy 4 legged gem toting flesh demon with a gun was amazing and hilarious. its very on parr with her character in both adaptations (in the books her name is janet)

[@tux_duh]

You should watch the show, it's so entertaining and honestly emotionally moving at points

[@AndromedaCripps]

I never read the books but I never knew the hand signs were called “tuts”!!! Edit: Also very helpful! I run a Dungeons and Dragons game with my own rulesets to modify it for the world of The Magicians, and this is a great resource for getting gifs of the hand signs- er, tuts- of spells to show my players when those spells are cast in-game!! You pointed out two big things I missed, one of which being the qualities of the Sumerian Shield Charm in comparison to the more temporary Barrier spell. I knew of both spells and their differences, and I already had assigned an existing DnD spell to the Barrier one (Shield), but I didn’t realize until your analysis of the Sumerian Shield Charm that there is actually ANOTHER existing spell in DnD that perfectly matches that as well (Shield of Faith)!! Oh and secondly, all this time I never payed close enough attention to the SFX and Tuts, and thought that the Force Push and the Magic Missile were the same spell. Which now it’s so obvious they’re not. Luckily, there is yet again another DnD spell for Force Push that works perfectly! So I will have to go and fix the stat blocks for the characters that should have that spell (like Kady especially; she uses it CONSTANTLY). So thanks for that! Edit 2: ok this is completely non-relevant to any of the above, but I came back expressly for taking screen captures to make gifs of sone of these spells, and I got thinking about Eliot’s Telikinetic neck snapping spell. Why? Where did he learn this? Why so few tuts? Why are his fingers red??? And I got thinking. Here on out is wild speculation and fan-theory, FYI: I have a headcanon, completely unsupported, which may apply here. When I wrote up my version of the Bottle Emotions spell for my DnD system, I thought about what it does and the effects of it. You place this little red essence of your emotions into a bottle, and temporarily, you are capable of feats of great emotionless logic, and therefore, great unchecked power and ruthlessness. Kind of like people like The Beast and Julia who cut out their shades 👀👀👀 The shade is supposed to be the part of you which contains your empathy, your soul, your humanity, your morality… your emotions? So what if Bottle Emotions is actually *temporarily holding back your shade* by bottling it up? Now, here’s the part that annoys me: I had another reason for this, which I CANT REMEMBER, but I’m 85% sure that later in the series, much much later, we see something else related to shades where the spell or the shade or something has that *same red energy color* as what’s in the bottles for Bottle Emotions. I can’t remember exactly what but maybe someone reading this can. It might be in my notes for the series but I don’t feel like reading through all my pages of notes right now 😂 (ANOTHER EDIT: I’m still convinced we see something later in the series, but I remembered that right in season 2 when Martin temporarily pulls out Julia’s shade to show her how simple it is, ITS A BALL PF THAT SAME BRIGHT RED GLOWING ENERGY!!!! Iirc, that’s what first gave me this headcannon. The red energy is the Shade, and it’s also in the bottles.) Anyway, if my theory of red energy=shades=emotions is right, then it makes perfect sense. Eliot is hardly casting a spell. He is a Physical kid with a specific penchant for Telikinesis (his Discipline?), and he’s overpowered by the emotions of the moment. So he does sone Telikinesis. Telikinesis so fueled by emotion that *you can see it*, the red energy of his enflamed shade, his intense emotions transforming this simplistic magic gesture from sone basic Physical tuts into a full-blown battle spell, in the moment. That’s just my theory, of course, but it makes a lot of sense to me, and if you believe the whole red energy/shade theory, then it has evidence in the series to support it! It seems to answer a lot of those questions satisfyingly. Why does he never do it again? Where did he learn it? Why is it red? He can’t; not exactly, he didn’t; not exactly, and the emotions, his shade, are powering it. Makes sense to me!

[@davidszep3488]

You should read the books. I dont think the series is come close to it.

[@Gievyji]

Tutting is a dancing style that involves intricate finger movements. It is not specific to the show.

[@AndromedaCripps]

@@GievyjiYes I’ve since learned this! The show just took heavy inspiration from the dance style and even worked with tut artists to create some of the material!

[@skinniestmoth]

i agree with your eliot headcanon, its just his raw telekinetic power. but i would like to note that the emotion bottles are pink, not red. hence why margo says "i planned my while outfit around that bottle!!" while wearing a pink blazer. you may also be remembering the way julia's hands look while handling her and others' shades. but this is moreso a bright light shining through flesh moment vice an actual red light. i do generally stay rewatching the show so i will keep an eye out for evidence to your color theory !!!

[@skinniestmoth]

@@davidszep3488agreed, the series is moreso entertaining and comedic vice the more intense and interesting magic in the books.

[@purplecat733]

Great video I would so love more magicians Contant it’s hard to find things that actually explain and talk about what’s going on deeper in the show

[@PedroRodrigues-fh1ku]

the fire spell was their adaptation of ''Isik!'' I guess which in the book was the main spell for igniting stuff and only needed one hand, putting the middle finger on top of forefinger's tip and pushed it backwards

[@bcbabbles]

I'd call the "Slasher" the "Wind Scythe".

[@bluesoulwriter]

The Rhineman Ultra requires a human to be a Master Magician or enhanced by a God or something similar to work. :D

[@TB317]

I just rewatched this recently and was really struck by how good it actually was on the second watch. I also apparently hadn't seen the last season which must've released without my realizing so that was a nice surprise.

[@12roses8]

Great job 👍

[@purplecat733]

It would be super interesting to get a video on the moon episode and how that worked

[@rei7178]

0:37 even when I watched it for the first time, I noticed that quite literally every character was attractive 💀 I genuinely cannot think of a single unattractive character/actor in the entire series.

[@AndromedaCripps]

The Pig Questing Creature from Season 5? No, better, the swampy (questing?) creature that gives Margo her Birthright Box in… was that Season 4? Other than that, yeah, no, all sexy here lmao 😂😂😂 Although I will note that my friend found out the other day that the pig is played by the same actor who plays The Dark King so 😳 the actor is still hot even if that one character isn’t 👀😂

[@SourceMagick]

im the 999th person to link this video number of mastery lol I'm a master magician love this video please do more

[@JazzSpott]

Fun fact this show came out on my birthday

[@jayve3866]

Interesting 😊

[@rei7178]

4:38 possible but as Kady stated when talking to them about battle magic, battle magic needs a certain level of calm, zen, peace of mind and indisturbance to cast it, so it wouldn't make sense for him to be able to use battle magic when feeling so much

[@AndromedaCripps]

I might be wrong but the way I remember it, the implication Kady gave me in that scene was that it was more about the internal circumstances- the intentions behind the spell. You have to be prepared mentally to hurt or even kill someone with your spell in order for it to effectively do that. That could come from meditation, calm, and acceptance, like Kady, Penny, and Alice achieved from practice and discipline, OR from a lack of emotions, so you don’t feel bad/wrong about killing people, like most of the gang do with the Bottled Emotions, OR oppositely, from an intense amount of emotion driving you to viscerally want to kill/hurt someone, as Eliot felt after being betrayed by one of the few people who he had opened up to and cared about.

[@rei7178]

@@AndromedaCripps oh this makes a lot more sense. When Penny first used battle magic, he used it to kill the guard in the Neitherlands when he was absolutely cornered and felt he had no way to escape; he was fine with killing the person who guaranteed his death so he could cast battle magic.

[@AndromedaCripps]

@@rei7178 YES exactly!!! Good point!!!!!

[@justindixon1586]

I believe he was able to cast the spell due to the pain behind it. Elliot was clearly messed up after killing him because they were in a relationship so him being aware of what the spell would do when it happened gave him enough pain to cue the spell and perform it despite his emotions which would have messed up some of the circumstances

[@User24x]

The telekinetic & fire spells are because of budget cuts...

[@Kevinagunigqtg5xw]

When Julia cast the rhynamen ultra she only killed the beast pet of quitin because remember he killed ember and took his power so quitins god power was what saved him and only just killed the beast part of him

[@tiago9977]

The spells are cool, but I wish the hand movements were simpler or required a small incantation instead tbh. I can't help but think they look silly whenever they do such dramatic tuts during combat/ serious moments lol.

[@skinniestmoth]

i like to believe eliot's red finger spell wasn't actually battle magic! eliot seems to be generally inexperienced and has little knowledge of battle magic at this point in the show. it's such an incredibly emotionally charged moment and we know his telekinesis awoken via a moment of contempt and ample opportunity. while we dont know if he moved logan kinear or the bus itself, he did so without casting. i firmly believe the red light was eliot honing his telekinesis for an immediate and precise effect. he doesn't even speak while doing it. he sees dean fogg on the ground and just reacts. while it was offensive magic, i dont think this is a battle magic spell he had studied or known beforehand. he's just that bitch frfr!

[@adamanthart8127]

rhinemann ultra required a god's juice or to be a god to perform it

[@elshebactm6769]

🗿👍🏿

[@lolhcd]

"fancy hand movements"? No, they look awkward like when I was a child and thought being able scratch your head with your two hands on different spots at the same time makes me look like a genius but I'd prolly looked like a monkey. This is the vibe those fingers give me. Someone thinking they ate but it's just meh.

[@Venjamin]

If you're boring just say so. Lol.

[@tux_duh]

Just say you don't like fun and would rather someone simply wave a wand and say "avada Kadabra"

[@damonlaru8646]

Why the hell would you call “the beast” Martin if you are addressing people who haven’t yet seen the show?!?!?!

[@archerzzy]

They got the idea from Naruto

[@francois-marienys4471]

No they did not. The books were published by Lev Grossman in 2009 they already contained the concept of magic though the usage of somatic configuration in the books. Moreover the Mudras which are used in Naruto are very different than the one used both in the book and the show. Finally the usage of tuts and hand gesture for the manipulation of magical forces is as old as civilisation. There are records of gestures to ward off evil or inflict curses in Ancient Greece. The tuts used in the show are in the vast majority inspired by «finger-tutting» a modern form of dance, which itself originates from the «mudras» a collection of highly symbolic hand gestures from Hinduism. So no it’s not from Naruto.

[@belphegor_dev]

Too much talking. I clicked off.