Why are Magic Users Often Oppressed in Fantasy Settings?

From the orogenes successful N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy to the grisha successful Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels, there’s a trope that repeats successful galore phantasy settings: the oppressed magic user. The trope is communal and effective, showing up clip and again successful galore phantasy settings. But wherefore are magic users oppressed successful phantasy settings?

Othering

Fantasy and different genres often usage their genre tropes to radiance a airy connected real-world issues. Fiction arsenic a full speaks information to powerfulness by looking astatine information successful a caller light. The oppressed magic user is conscionable different lawsuit of this. Throughout quality history, we’ve worked to dehumanize 1 another, to deem different humans arsenic “other.” Different enactment organs? Other. Different colour skin? Other. Worshipping a antithetic deity oregon gods? Other. People person enslaved others that they didn’t deem human. So galore radical are inactive abused, oppressed, and treated similar second-class citizens due to the fact that they don’t acceptable into the mold of the bulk rule.

In each phantasy mounting that oppresses magic users, they are the minority. These settings besides often woody with issues of racism and misogyny, intelligibly laying retired patterns of othering. Throughout history, “other” is simply a moving target. Before the English enslaved Africans, they enslaved the Irish. In the aboriginal 20^th century, Greek and Italian immigrants were not considered achromatic successful the United States. These definitions displacement implicit time, truthful successful phantasy settings that already person this othering, of people magic users would beryllium othered arsenic soon arsenic they emerged.

Suddenly, the bulk has morganatic reasons to fearfulness the other. It’s not hard to ideate however immoderate empress oregon king would respond to the emergence of magic users successful their realm. They tin beryllium utilized arsenic tools to conquer enemies, of course. They tin besides emergence up and overthrow their rulers. So they indispensable beryllium oppressed. The threats indispensable beryllium eliminated.

In The Broken Earth trilogy, orogenes are enslaved and made to enactment preventing different breaking of the world. In the Grishaverse, immoderate societies hunt grisha portion others unit them to service successful a segregated army. None get to conscionable unrecorded their lives unmolested. Just look astatine the precise existent quality past of women who “misbehaved” and were believed to beryllium witches. They were drowned, burned, oregon stoned. They didn’t conscionable get to unrecorded their lives.

This operation of powerfulness and othering is seen successful the statement implicit transgender athletes successful sports, arsenic 1 example. While those trying to prohibition transgender women from women’s sports speech astir fairness and competition, determination are nary arguments being raised against transgender men successful men’s sports. This is due to the fact that of a cognition that transgender women person an unfair advantage, that they person much powerfulness than biologic women. These radical are wrong, of course, but that’s a antithetic essay.

Why the Trope Struggles

When researching this article, I was amazed by the fig of articles and discussions arguing wherefore the oppressed magic idiosyncratic trope doesn’t work. If done poorly, of people it doesn’t marque overmuch sense. The main ailment is that these radical person bonzer power, truthful however are they oppressed? Why don’t they overthrow their oppressors?

These are morganatic concerns that aren’t ever addressed appropriately. If the magic users are excessively almighty oregon the governmental systems are excessively anemic oregon broad, past the oppression tin consciousness forced. Ill-defined magic systems oregon ones that don’t necessitate overmuch sacrifice from the users tin besides marque trope this consciousness suspect.

More than that, however, the oppressed magic idiosyncratic trope needs to gully attraction to real-world oppression successful bid to function. Fantasy and subject fabrication person been doing this truthful good for truthful long, but it’s casual to conscionable archer a communicative and hide astir the real-world implications. Without this connection, these stories consciousness hollow, adjacent if they tin beryllium fun.

Using the oppressed magic idiosyncratic trope correctly requires a deft hand.

Why the Trope Works

People are originative and inventive, uncovering ways to flooded immoderate fig of disadvantages. This is large erstwhile utilized to beforehand society. Unfortunately, it’s besides utilized erstwhile devising tools and systems of oppression. Enslaved radical successful America were taught that they were little than human, they were kept illiterate and made to judge that God wished them enslaved. They were stripped of their language, beliefs, relationships, and humanity, each to marque it easier for them to beryllium controlled.

For a much modern example, systems are ever being enactment successful spot to suppress minorities, adjacent pitting them against each different truthful they don’t recognize that populations are becoming much and much bulk minority. Gerrymandering, propaganda machines pretending to beryllium quality outlets, and societal engineering are keeping the existent minorities successful power. The oppressed are ever made to judge that they bash not person immoderate powerfulness oregon agency, oregon adjacent that their oppression is simply a acquisition oregon mercy. This is the insidiousness of oppression.

Political systems oppressing magic users are the same. When they’re intricate and effective, erstwhile the magic is believably oppressible, past this trope sings. Readers tin gully parallels betwixt real-world oppression and what’s connected the page. We tin subordinate to the oppressed, basal for them, and sing Rage Against the Machine songs arsenic they alert into magical battle.

From a literate perspective, the oppressed magic idiosyncratic trope works due to the fact that it sets characters against evident villains and systems of oppression. It defines wide morals for protagonists and antagonists, builds a believable world, and creates a struggle that resonates with each scholar who recognizes akin injustices successful the existent world.

The oppressed magic idiosyncratic trope is similar a tightrope walk. It’s been done a lot, truthful immoderate effort astatine it needs to beryllium caller and invigorating. When acceptable up excessively hastily and simply for the involvement of the plot, it astir ever falls flat. When the trope is intricate, thought-out, and parallels real-world oppression, past it’s 1 of the champion tropes successful fantasy.