History Main / MagicMustDefeatMagic

[[folder:Light Novels]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In J.S.Morin's ''Black Ocean'' space opera series wizards use force of will to bend the laws of physics. This tends to break nearby technology as a side effect, and allows them to divert or reflect back tech-based attacks made from range. The only counter for a wizard is another wizard, either using a stronger force of will to magically defeat the first or reinforcing rather than distorting the laws of physics so regular attacks can get through. The latter is an easier win, but is considered very poor form by the wizarding community.
[[/folder]]

SubTrope of TakesOneToKillOne. Compare WrongContextMagic. Contrast MugglesDoItBetter.

In some settings, [[MagicVersusScience when magic faces science in a test of might]], magic wins because it just straight-up cheats. Science is the product of rules and order and a whole lot of maintenance, while magic is an unquantifiable force that outlives logic and entropy. Even when magic has [[TheLawsOfMagic laws]], [[ScienceCannotComprehendPhlebotinum don't expect these laws to overlap with the laws of physic or thermodynamics]]. When it comes to magic, you gotta fight fire with fire.

->''We all realize that the concepts we explore here are mystic ones, with arcane-thinking required to understand them. Yet we insist on using words like "paranatural" and "parautilitarian" to create the illusion of a scientific structure; a tidy little system. The Bureau is desperate to stand with the close-minded cult of logic and data that has overrun our society. If a thing cannot be quantified, then we dismiss it outright. We live in an age that is openly hostile to faith in the veiled forces governing our reality.''

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Uncle is the [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]]; "magic must defeat magic" is one of his {{catchphrase}}s, usually spouted whenever Jackie, Jade, or the rest of Section 13 try and apply a non-magical solution (usually involving guns) to fight a magical threat. If Uncle doesn't knock the naysayer unconscious first, he is usually proven correct when the magical threat curb-stomps the poor saps trying to gun down or kung fu it to death. Uncle even makes the whole of Section 13 recite this mantra in the Season 1 finale ("And what did you learn?"). In later seasons, Captain Black, the leader of Section 13, is shown as more open to the idea of magic (to the point of trying to learn a chi spell or two himself) and lets Uncle take the lead on any supernatural threats; part of the issue, though, is that Black's superiors treat his discussion of Demon Portals, superpowered animals, and monster-summoning masks as delusions, so he has to handle magical problems off the books.

* ''Fanfic/ToTheStars'' has a downplayed example; technology is definitely a viable weapon against magical girls, but only by either destroying soul gems or exhausting all their energy by sheer attrition. In straight comparison magic can overcome any equivalent technology due to operating on its own rules rather than being limited by physics.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Uncle is the [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]]; "magic must defeat magic" is one of his {{catchphrase}}s, usually spouted whenever Jackie, Jade, or the rest of Section 13 try and apply a non-magical solution (usually involving guns) to fight a magical threat. If Uncle doesn't knock the naysayer unconscious first, he is usually proven correct when the magical threat curb-stomps the poor saps trying to gun down or kung fu it to death. Uncle even makes the whole of Section 13 recite this mantra in the Season 1 finale. In later seasons, Captain Black is shown as more open to the idea of magic (to the point of trying to learn a chi spell or two himself) and lets Uncle take the lead on any supernatural threats; part of the issue, though, is that Black's superiors treat his discussion of Demon Portals, magically-enhanced animals, and monster-summoning masks as delusions.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Uncle is the [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]]; "magic must defeat magic" is one of his {{catchphrase}}s, usually spouted whenever Jackie, Jade, or the rest of Section 13 try and apply a non-magical solution (usually involving guns) to fight a magical threat. If Uncle doesn't knock the naysayer unconscious first, he is usually proven correct when the magical threat curb-stomps the poor saps trying to gun down or kung fu it to death. Captain Black never seems to learn, though.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', the BigBad Dhaos is ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation supposedly)]] immune to physical attacks and requires magic to defeat him. This poses two problems, as (1) there are no more wizards able to cast magic (apparently Mint and Edward's WhiteMagic don't count) and (2) even if there were, the WorldTree that supplies the world with {{Mana}} to cast magic has been dead for years. So Edward decides to send Cress and Mint 100 years in the past, where they find a [[SummonMagic summoner]] and a witch who can help them defeat Dhaos, as well as a way to keep said WorldTree alive in the present so they can use magic.

* One of Uncle's {{catchphrase}}s in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' is "[[TropeNamers Magic must defeat magic]]". He usually spouts this whenever Jackie, Jade, or the rest of Section 13 try and apply a non-magical solution (usually involving guns) to fight a magical threat. If Uncle doesn't knock the naysayer unconscious first, he is usually proven correct when the magical threat curb-stomps the poor saps trying to gun down or kung fu it to death.

** Magus' first battle is the TropeNamer for BarrierChangeBoss, in which he takes very little damage from physical attacks and only takes damage from the element the barrier isn't reflecting at the moment (which changes with every attack made against him). No matter the party's composition (on the first playthrough at least), there will only be three elements out of four available to the party, ensuring a tough fight.

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' follows the same principle as the rest of the ''Fate'' franchise that modern weapons are practically useless against Servants... but then subverts it through Berserker, who has the ability to make '''any''' physical object that he wields act as if it was his Noble Phantasm. This includes a telephone pole, guns, and even an '''entire F-15J fighter jet'''.

-> ''We all realize that the concepts we explore here are mystic ones, with arcane-thinking required to understand them. Yet we insist on using words like "paranatural" and "parautilitarian" to create the illusion of a scientific structure; a tidy little system. The Bureau is desperate to stand with the close-minded cult of logic and data that has overrun our society. If a thing cannot be quantified, then we dismiss it outright. We live in an age that is openly hostile to faith in the veiled forces governing our reality.''

When the threat is non-sentient in nature, like [[BackgroundMagicField a location that doesn't conform to basic normalcy]] or [[MysticalPlague a supernatural pandemic with no traceable pathogen]], expect everyone to [[DoingInTheScientist exhaust every rational methods of cure or containment]] before calling in the BlueCollarWarlock to clean up their mess.

* Following up on ''Series/WandaVision'', [[Characters/MCUScarletWitch Wanda Maximoff]] in ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'' is presented as an InvincibleVillain, her [[ArtifactOfDoom Darkhold]]-enhanced [[EntropyAndChaosMagic chaos magic]] making her a FlyingBrick with {{Reality Warp|er}}ing applications with no feasible way of beating her. When facing off against the Illuminati in [[Characters/MCUEarth838 Earth-838]], [[HeroKiller she kills them all with no difficulty]]. The only times we ever see her struggle is when faced against other magic-users, [[CurbStompCushion Doctor Strange managing to evade her multiple times by the skin of his nose]]. While she still outclasses everyone she faces, she struggles in breaching Kamar-Taj's magical barrier with brute force, Doctor Strange's offensive spells -- including trapping her within the Mirror Dimension -- manages to buy him time and she struggles fending off the evil spirits Doctor Strange (while in possession of Defender Strange's corpse) attacks her with.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Depending on the edition, many monster are immune to being harmed by non-magical weapons or mundane poisons or acid, making straight-up physical fighting almost useless (and in the case of the Rogue class, borderline suicidal). The easiest way to get rid of said monsters is to blast them to pieces with the magic-using classes' spells such as Magic Missile and Fireball. This was especially prevalent in AD&D and 2nd Edition, but has become less common in more recent versions of the game due to attempts to reduce the LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards issue.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': In earlier editions, summoned spirits were ImmuneToBullets (and all other sources of non-magical damage) and required shadowrunning teams to have either a mage or an adept to deal with them. In fourth edition onwards this is no longer the case (spirits are now only very ''resistant'' to non-magical damage), but there are still a whole gaggle of other magical obstacles (magical barriers, alarm spells and observer spirits, other astral defenses, and {{Counterspell}}ing enemy magic, to mention but a few) that more or less require a team mage.

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Servants cannot be harmed by modern weapons like firearms, as they're fast enough to DodgeTheBullet or [[NighInvulnerability simply disperse into spirit form]] rather than take the hit head on. As such, Servants are only injured and killed by other supernatural beings within the story such as other Servants, [[spoiler:Angra Mainyu]], magi, or people magically enhanced by magi. This is perhaps best shown in the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route, where [[spoiler:Kuzuki, enhanced by Caster's magecraft, manages to take Saber by surprise in hand-to-hand combat and defeat her. But when Archer murders Caster, Kuzuki is only able to land one hit that Archer doesn't even bother trying to dodge before Archer cuts him in half.]]

* One of Uncle's {{catchphrase}}s in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' is "[[TropeNamers Magic must defeat magic]]". He usually spouts this whenever Jackie, Jade or the rest of Section 13 try and apply a non-magical solution (usually involving guns) to fight a magical threat. If Uncle doesn't knock the naysayer unconscious first, he is usually proven correct when the magical threat curb-stomps the poor saps trying to gun down or kung fu it to death.

* ''TabletopGames/{{Shadowrun}}'': In earlier editions, summoned spirits were ImmuneToBullets (and all other sources of non-magical damage) and required shadowrunning teams to have either a mage or an adept to deal with them. In fourth edition onwards this is no longer the case (spirits are now only very ''resistant'' to non-magical damage), but there are still a whole gaggle of other magical obstacles (magical barriers, observer spirits, astral defenses, and {{Counterspell}}ing enemy magic, to mention but a few) that more or less require a team mage.

* In Creator/GamesWorkshop games (''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', et al), [[OurDemonsAreDifferent daemons]] are resistant [[DownplayedTrope (though not immune)]] to mundane sources of harm -- Only attacks of magical, [[HolyBurnsEvil holy]], [[PsychicPowers psychic]] or [[TakesOneToKillOne daemonic]] origin can deal full damage to a daemon.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Multiple monsters manufactured by magic, such as the Gelatinous Cube, are innately immune to Sneak Attacks, Critical Hits and most non-magical effects like tossing acid at them, making straight-up physical fighting almost useless (and in the case of the Rogue class, borderline suicidal). The easiest way to get rid of said monsters is to blast them to pieces with the magic-using classes' ranged attacks (such as Magic Missile), which they are not immune to.

* In ''LightNovel/TheZashikiWarashiOfIntellectualVillage'', youkai are immune to any kind of damage involving the laws of physics. Natural poisons and radiation do not affect them and even the weakest youkai could survive a downpour of nuclear missiles. As such, other magical and supernatural abilities are needed to defeat youkai, and Hishigami Mai needed ot have her body thoroughly remodeled via extensive surgeries to develop superhuman abilities and the power to bypass a youkai's invulnerability.

[[folder:Fanworks]]

* One of Uncle's {{catchphrase}}s in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' is "[[TropeNamers Magic must defeat magic]]". He usually spouts this whenever Jackie, Jade or the rest of Section-13 try and apply a non-magical solution (usually involving guns) to fight a magical threat. If Uncle doesn't knock the naysayer unconscious first, he is usually proven correct when the magical threat curb-stomps the poor saps trying to gun down or kung fu it to death.

In some settings, [[MagicVersusScience when magic faces science in a test of might]], magic wins because it just straight-up cheats. Science is the product of rules and order and a whole lot of maintenance, while magic is an unquantifiable force that outlives logic and entropy. Even when magic has [[TheLawsOfMagic laws]], don't expect these laws to overlap with the laws of physic or thermodynamics. When it comes to magic, you gotta fight fire with fire.

* ''TabletopGames/DungeonsAndDragons'': Multiple monsters manufactured by magic, such as the Gelatinous Cube, are innately immune to Sneak Attacks, Critical Hits and most non-magical effects like tossing acid at them, making straight-up physical fighting almost useless (and in the case of the Rogue class, borderline suicidal). The easiest way to get rid of said monsters is to blast them to pieces with the magic-using classes' ranged attacks (such as Magic Missile), which they are not immune to.