The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

If magic has to obey the laws of physics, how does shapeshifting work?

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Bad Alias:

--- Quote from: Yuillegan on February 21, 2019, 07:26:46 AM ---There is a WOJ about how magic essentially is Will combined with Power, and with enough of both you could reshape reality completely.
--- End quote ---

If my recollection (and interpretation) is correct, Jim has quibbled about this.

Dagroth:

--- Quote from: Yuillegan on February 21, 2019, 07:26:46 AM ---I also believe this is why you go mad/have to be mad to mess with time, kill with magic etc. You have to believe in complete violations of the Laws of Reality.

--- End quote ---

How is killing someone with magic violating the Laws of Reality more than say, blowing up the building? To me, both seem equally "impossible", if you want to apply, let's call it "atheist" way of thinking (as in, "Magic does not exist!") and equally possible otherwise.

I think I've read somewhere, that it's the "slippery slope", that's a problem, evil (be it killing, or manipulating minds, or other stuff) gets easier, and eventually you find yourself a warlock (like with the guy who was executed early on in "Proven Guilty", or like how Harry explains why messing with people's minds using magic is said slippery slope, also in "Proven Guilty").

Plus (I think) it only seems to apply to humans for some reason - in "Changes", Harry flattened probably at least a few dozen of Blood Court vampires (by the end, when he did the gravity trick), without, as far as I can tell, any mental consequences.

Not to mention destroying the whole Red Court later on...

(well, unless there are consequences later on, and I just didn't get there yet)

Though I now wonder, if Winter Knight's Mantle had anything to do with it. Still in "Changes", I recall it showing Harry a mind-image of (I think) Rudolph frozen to the wall, or maybe impaled on some massive icicles. It didn't seem to have any actual control over him (so far?), but maybe it does some subtle influence, kind of like Lasciel's shadow did? (but don't tell me, I want to read about it for myself)

Talby16:
Harry previously adhered to the tenet of mass is neither created or destroyed. He thought that all shapeshifting was altering the body's shape, but with the mass either being compressed or expanded not changed. Seeing Gray shift into a horse made him change his mind. See the following quote from Skin Game:

--- Quote ---Shapeshifting I could deal with, but Grey had done something more significant than that—he’d altered his freaking mass. Rearranging a body with magic, sure, I basically knew how that worked. You just moved things around, but the mass always remained the same. Granted, I’d seen Ursiel shift into his bear form and add oodles of mass, so I knew it could be done somehow, but I’d figured that was maybe a Fallen angel thing. Though that didn’t make sense, either. I’d seen Listens-to-Wind reduce his mass pretty significantly in a shapeshifting war with a naagloshii, but I’d figured he had managed to make some materials denser and heavier, crowding the same mass into a smaller area
--- End quote ---

Mr. Death:

--- Quote from: Dagroth on February 21, 2019, 10:01:50 PM ---How is killing someone with magic violating the Laws of Reality more than say, blowing up the building? To me, both seem equally "impossible", if you want to apply, let's call it "atheist" way of thinking (as in, "Magic does not exist!") and equally possible otherwise.

--- End quote ---
Buildings don't have souls or free will.

nadia.skylark:

--- Quote ---How is killing someone with magic violating the Laws of Reality more than say, blowing up the building? To me, both seem equally "impossible", if you want to apply, let's call it "atheist" way of thinking (as in, "Magic does not exist!") and equally possible otherwise.

I think I've read somewhere, that it's the "slippery slope", that's a problem, evil (be it killing, or manipulating minds, or other stuff) gets easier, and eventually you find yourself a warlock (like with the guy who was executed early on in "Proven Guilty", or like how Harry explains why messing with people's minds using magic is said slippery slope, also in "Proven Guilty").
--- End quote ---

The way I understand it is that Laws 1-5 have the slippery slope problem, while Laws 6-7 are the "No! You'll break the universe!" laws.

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