The Hero's Journey and the Far Realm and/or Review: Kubo and the Two Strings

I've been having a lot of thoughts lately, but I've been having trouble figuring out how to put them down in blog-format. I'm going to try with this one, but forgive me if it comes out in a jumbled mess.

The thing I want to talk about is the Hero's Journey and the Far Realm. In doing this, I'm going to mention the movie Kubo and the Two Strings, the book The Magician King, possibly a bible story, and possibly other things I haven't thought of yet.

I want to talk about/review Kubo and the Two Strings beyond talking about the subject topic, so, rather than starting by talking about the subject topic and then sidetracking to talk about Kubo and the Two Strings, I figure I'll start by reviewing Kubo and then get to talking about the Hero's Journey, etc.

Or I'll just have really wordy intros explaining what I'm doing.

Review: Kubo and the Two Strings

I had missed Kubo and the Two Strings when it went into theaters. I didn't know much about it, but I'd heard that it was really good from people whose opinions I generally trust. A few weeks ago, I found that it had been added to Netflix and was excited to watch it. I was not disappointed.

Observation: Limitless Magic

Lately, some combination of The Name of the Wind, Doctor Strange, and The Magicians (and probably Harry Potter as well, although that's less recent) has gotten me thinking about how magic is portrayed in fiction.


Namely, it seems like magic is a limitless resource. Sure, wizards have to learn their spells, and there are some wizards that are better at learning or performing spells than others, but it seems like in a lot of fiction magic is the gift that keeps on giving and once you have a spell you can use it over and over and over again.


(Of the things I listed, The Name of the Wind is an exception where there does have to be a source that's used for the magic, and the main character learns pretty quick that there can be serious repercussions for using the wrong source.)


But in Harry Potter, they can cast "Lumos" or "Expelliarmus" or even "Avada Kedavera" over and over again without stopping. In Doctor Strange, it seems like there's no cost to doing any particular spell. (It does mention the repercussions of using magic overall, but that's something different). The Magicians, same thing.


This gives magical characters an edge that non-magic users definitely don't have. For one, they get vast powers that aren't available to other people. A youth who has never fought might not have the skill of a swordmaster or know different fighting styles, but they can pick up a sword and swing it around and do some damage. A youth who has no experience in magic can't even attempt it. But on top of that, there seems to be no limit to the number of times these vast powers can be used. Even the strongest swordsman eventually tires, but so far as I can tell, a magician doesn't necessarily seem to tire just by doing magic (learning magic, maybe, or the conditions in which they are performing the magic, but not, apparently, the magic itself). On top of all that, magical users do also have a physical presence that they can build up that doesn't inherently need to be any weaker because of their magical talent.


I'm not, inherently saying that this is a bad thing. I think it makes these things somewhat less believable if I think too much on it, but I'm able to convince myself it's okay if the setting stays consistent. Mostly, I just think it's odd and unbalanced. It makes it so that if your main character is a magic user, then the antagonist must generally be a magic user in order to even begin to compete. Magic might give a broad spectrum of powers, but being limited to being someone who has it seems like a restriction I don't necessarily want to have. Besides that, I think a main character with any ability that is limitless tends to reduce the tension/drama of a story, rather than making it more engaging.


Anyway, that's just my thoughts/observation. What do you think?