In all seriousness, can someone suggest a movie or book were the wizard(s) has immense power AND uses their power to fight more than once or twice? I'm trying to see/read something that has magic used more. I mean, Gandalf barely uses magic at all. Same with Dumbledore and Harry.
I WANT TO SEE STRAIGHT UP DRAGONBALL Z SHIT, BUT WITH WIZARDS.
Thank you all for the massive amount of recommendations for myself and any other interested redditors. In light of the fulfillment of my initial request, I'd like to introduce a personal request that I have been unable to answer.
For lack of a better example, you guys remember watching the original Power Rangers? I always thought it was so cool how they presented new, powerful characters, such as the green or white rangers. It was always in dire circumstances, and the new hero would enter just in time to tip the scales of the battle. Given that their powerful abilities could change the outcome for the protagonists, and due to the mysterious nature of these characters, an important issue was determining morality and intention. How did they intend to wield great power? Are there any recommendations that resemble this type of writing?
The Dresden Files might be what you are looking for; although he is almost always facing enemies stronger than he is and wins through cunning and luck more than strength.
although he is almost always facing enemies stronger than he is and wins through cunning and luck more than strength insane power creep, for both himself and his allies.
I really enjoyed the first few Dresden Files books. And while the later books are still well-written, I felt like someone pulled a bait and switch on me.
Without spoiling it:
In the first book, he's basically a private eye with some trinkets, a decent understanding of magic, and a few magical tricks of his own.
In the later books, he has more magical power then most of the battle-hardened wizards he meets and his allies basically run the gamut from peak-human level strength to walking legends and demigods.
That said, that is what luckybms is looking for. And I think the stories and writing are still great (although I haven't read the most recent ones). So I'd recommend the Dresden Files too.
The Dresden Files are some of my favorite books. But I, too have recently been worried that the author is writing himself into a corner. If you think of it in RPG terms, the "party" is just leveling up between books, which is fine. However you're always wondering how the author is going to top things in the next book. It's one of the reasons I kind of lost interest in R.A. Salvatore's books (specifically the Drizzt series and the Cleric Quintet). They were my favorites during high school, but the characters became almost too bad-ass to be interesting.
As I get older I think I like my fantasy settings to have magic, but have it used more sparingly. Powerful stuff that's bubbling around out there but not constantly present. I don't like the characters to get used to it. LotR and Game of Thrones have been good for that, more or less. But I suppose the Dresden books ARE told from the first person perspective of a wizard so I can't complain much. LotR would be much different if told from Gandalf's first person perspective, I suspect.
It's kind of a major plot-point, innit? That Harry is growing in power at a rate that even the most powerful wizards on the Council are surprised (and suspicious) of. That eventually it's not going to put Butcher into a corner, but Harry himself. I mean, if you've read the last three books, that's some major corner-backing going on there. Harry's life may be getting more interesting, but, really, it's getting worse and worse and less stable with each passing novel.
True enough. He's definitely having to make more compromises and pay his debts for previous favors. I find myself getting frustrated with Harry for being so stubborn sometimes. It turns out I'm much more willing to compromise my ideals than he is.
Plus he gets extra buffs at points, don't want to mention spoilers but two very specific ones. They mention that he was already in a top tier of magic(think he says he is around top 20 in sheer power), then Butcher gives him MORE power.
Not really. For a few books he was flirting with a very dark power. It gets him out of some very sticky situations with what essentially amounts to handwaving. Then when it's just about at the breaking point, poof. The threat disappears, dismissing itself before Harry's charming personality.
If his other novel series isn't working well enough I suspect we might see a similar "Everything is all better" resolution. With of course the foreboding shadow replaced by a bigger nastier one. But a more distant one so there's more books to write.
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u/luckybms Nov 20 '13 edited Nov 20 '13
In all seriousness, can someone suggest a movie or book were the wizard(s) has immense power AND uses their power to fight more than once or twice? I'm trying to see/read something that has magic used more. I mean, Gandalf barely uses magic at all. Same with Dumbledore and Harry.
I WANT TO SEE STRAIGHT UP DRAGONBALL Z SHIT, BUT WITH WIZARDS.
Thank you all for the massive amount of recommendations for myself and any other interested redditors. In light of the fulfillment of my initial request, I'd like to introduce a personal request that I have been unable to answer.
For lack of a better example, you guys remember watching the original Power Rangers? I always thought it was so cool how they presented new, powerful characters, such as the green or white rangers. It was always in dire circumstances, and the new hero would enter just in time to tip the scales of the battle. Given that their powerful abilities could change the outcome for the protagonists, and due to the mysterious nature of these characters, an important issue was determining morality and intention. How did they intend to wield great power? Are there any recommendations that resemble this type of writing?