If possible, please answer without spoiling season 4, as I’m only up to episode 16 or so.
Is there an in-universe reason that all of the sudden in season 4 “magic” has become “magics”?
I’m sure I would have noticed if it had happened sooner. Suddenly, almost every time someone mentions “magic” in Buffy, they refer to it as “magics.” I’m really enjoying the season, but this bit of kookiness is making me part :rolleyes: and part :dubious:.
Nope.
Though I’m not sure why pluralizing it makes it any kookier than it already was :).
When you become a practitioner, you start referring to the whole of the mystical realm as a collective unit. Hence, “magics,” denoting that there are lots of different disciplines and approaches to the Occult Arts.
Is this rationale given in-universe?
No. There’s no in-universe explanation.
Okay. Time to invoke Hodgson’s Law.
They are different terms that mean different things. Think “science” vs “sciences”. This is a real life linguistic distinction and not something plot related.
There is a second reason for some of the occurrences though. Joss characters have a particular way of speaking dubbed “Buffyspeak”, one of the elements of which is randomly pluralizing words to be trendy or cute.
“Magics” I’m okay with, and that’s how they spell it in the Buffy subtitles. But for some reason “magicks” with a ‘k’ drives me crazy.
I kid you not, after I posted the Hodgson’s Law comment above, I walked away from my computer muttering to myself, “At least they don’t spell it with a k.”
“Magicks” is an abomination. Everybody knows it’s spelled “majyks.”
I’ll see your ‘Majyks’ and abjure it with ‘maggyx’!
I randomly remembered this old thread after a possible explanation occurred to me: as Willow’s powers start to become addictive, the analogy is drawn pretty plain between magic and drugs. The s on the end may just be a furthering of that analogy. After all, even if someone is exclusively a heroin user, we still say they’re hooked on drugs.
Ah, but can you not also be hooked on a feeling?
I have a hooked rug.
I have no one to blame but myself.
And if it wasn’t for his sky hook, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would never have scored nearly 39,000 points during his career.
Is this another math/maths divide?
I think it’s more of a “Watcher’s Council are a bunch of pommy bastards” thing.