Hikaru, Umi, Fuu and learning magic

[suzanami]

sometimes I think about how all of Clef's other students spent years under his tutelage learning how to awaken and harness their magic.  it's absolutely a skill though I do think like all skills, most people who excel in it have a natural talent for it already.  but the Knights not only spent basically zero time learning how to use magic, they also didn't really believe in it as a real thing until the moment their magic was awakened by Clef.  I dunno, to me that just speaks to how these girls not just had an existing predisposition to magic, but that they are, because of their role as Magic Knights and the need for them to act quickly, very very talented at it, because they basically taught themselves everything via their strong wills and the need to get better.

I like to think that once things settle down, Clef finally has time to take the girls under his wing and actually teach them properly.  cause their use of magic is really raw, not refined, I'd think.  basically they got so good just because they had the drive to be, not because they were taught to do it right.  like when they get really angry they might let off bursts of it and especially with Hikaru that can be super dangerous.  and he teaches them how to do more refined things like, Hikaru can warm up her drink if it's gotten cold, or Umi can manipulate physical water around her, or Fuu can levitate small things for short periods of time.  or better ideas someone else might have?  because the girls are incredibly talented and strong and powerful so they can kick ass with their magic, but Clef could teach them how to really make it part of who you are, how to really be your magic.

and it would be so nice???  for Clef to just spend time with the Knights.  he loves his students so much and I think that's a major way for him to bond with people, is through coaching them in their magic, so the girls just grow closer with him as they get better with their magic.

(I also headcanon Clef as being really bothered by sloppy technique, there is a WAY to do things CORRECTLY and it is an ART FORM but the Knights are pretty much totally self-taught so he's trying to fix their bad habits and tbh has the same problem with Ascot haha)


ALSO somewhat related and because I'll forget to mention it later, do you consider the Knights' magic to be the literal element they work in, or do you think Hikaru uses like "magic fire" which isn't literal physical fire but magical energy that behaves like fire?  or is she literally able to manifest actual flames with her pure will?  I mean I have no doubt magical fire can cause a physical burn.  but if they do use magical energy and not physical elements could Umi still manipulate physical water?  maybe yes because the magical/physical elements both have the same sort of properties that she could tap into???  I JUST LIKE ALL THE POSSIBLITIES

[Ruben77]

...
do you consider the Knights' magic to be the literal element they work in, or do you think Hikaru uses like "magic fire" which isn't literal physical fire but magical energy that behaves like fire?  or is she literally able to manifest actual flames with her pure will?

It's been a while since I read the manga, and a couple of years
since I last watched the anime. But I tend to think that the magic
the Knights use is purely elemental and literal. I remember now
the episode where Hikaru tries to thaw the ice. But then another
problem appears: the ice was Alcyone's magic, so that would be
magic against magic.

[VKiera]

If I recall correctly, in the manga, when Hikaru and Fuu are fighting Ascot's monsters at the Water shrine, Fuu makes a comment of how Hikaru's magic isn't effective on a monster because Hikaru is fighting the monster's real fire with her magic fire. So from that I guess you can infer there is some difference between elements that are summoned by magic verses their natural manifestations.

I also like the idea that Clef helps them refine their magic even more, so they can use if for more purposes than just battle. Though I've personally never thought of it so far as the Knight's have trouble controlling their magic if emotional. I mean they seem to be able to control it well under pressure in battle, so I don't think just pissing them off, or other strong emotion will make them lose control over it, though as Hikaru proves, it can for sure make it more potent.

One a small side note, in my own stories I love coming up with new spells for the Knights to use. I think in the manga only Umi gets a new spell season 2, in the anime I believe both she and Fuu both get a new spell.

[dinosaurjam]

I like to think that once things settle down, Clef finally has time to take the girls under his wing and actually teach them properly.  . . . and he teaches them how to do more refined things like, Hikaru can warm up her drink if it's gotten cold, or Umi can manipulate physical water around her, or Fuu can levitate small things for short periods of time.  or better ideas someone else might have?  because the girls are incredibly talented and strong and powerful so they can kick ass with their magic, but Clef could teach them how to really make it part of who you are, how to really be your magic.

Resurrecting this month-old thread to squeal about how much I LOVE this concept and now I want to write Rayearth fic again so I can incorporate stuff like this holy cow.

I'm just imagining these women decades in the future (because I can't help but feel that they end up living out their lives in Cephiro, ultimately, one way or another on the Earth side of things but ultimately they live out their days in Cephiro) as these awesomely powerful beings in their own right. Like, Fuu could probably levitate herself and maybe fly (after, as I said, decades of both training/studying and also just living in Cephiro). Maybe being a weather-reader, being able to feel the changes in air pressure. Having less ease thinking of equivalents for Umi and Hikaru but like god, can you imagine?

[Down]

*flops about in this topic making happy noises*

I tend to go with literal elements because it's fun, but I could be pursuaded the other way on occasion~ (can't remember anything in canon that would contradict either, so plainly I need to reread and rewatch!)

I love Clef teaching them magic and having FEELINGS ABOUT MAGIC and getting grumpy at THAT'S NOT THE BEST WAY TO DO THAT STOP WASTING POWER ARGH

But then if I'm not writing some non-magic AU it also tends to be a thing I think he and Umi would get closer by having a shared interest in and also arguing about loudly. XD So it's a shippy thing too, but. Even without that, YES. And teaching the other two!!

My endgame for the knights after canon is living in Cephiro probably at least by their mid-twenties (because they can make so much more impact for good in Cephiro, and they have such strong emotional ties to the land and the people there~) and get to learn magic, and all sorts of other things - and eventually, far in the future, I see Fuu as head of whatever judicial system Cephiro has (they need one! Especially without a single authority, but even before, disputes are going to have happened) and the whole legal system is hers to keep hold of, and suggest and implement changes to, to make sure it's fair and right and just and /kind/.

Hikaru knows people, best - her magic is so strong because of her compassion and understanding, and her ability to reach out to others. She's going to be the head priest, balancing people's prayers on a literal level to keep Cephiro steady, and giving them comfort and counselling, loving them all.

Umi - I see her as the one most fascinated by sheer magic for magic's sake, as an art form, and a weapon, and everything in between; Fuu loves understanding how it works and how it can be used, the art is pretty but it's only one tool in her arsenal, the appreciation is a hobby - she has a country to guide. Hikaru... well, magic can only do so much, it can't heal broken hearts and she'd rather be learning how to do that. And So Umi ends up taking on the master mage role, after so many years of arguing with Clef that she knows precisely how the job works (though she'll put up with some stuff Clef wouldn't, and won't agree to some of the things he did) and when he declares he's fed up with being Guru and he's nominating her as his sucessor, she doesn't even hear whether they vote her in or not, she's too busy going WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY??? in bewilderment at him XDD.

(There are certain situations which can accelerate some of these things happening and that's where a whole dozen fic I haven't written yet sit. Because I can't think about this and not write, apparently? But Fuu and Hikaru learning magic and refining it and using their sessions with Clef to do that - but also to just talk with him and work out what they want to DO in Cephiro, because it's a time which is free from other pressures so if something's bugging them and they want to know something about the history or politics it's a good time to ask him, when he's content because he's teaching magic and therefore the memories and the politics won't bug him to go over as much?) (Fuu trying to learn how to fly, and getting frustrated - in a Fuu-ish way - and going 'WHY AM I DOING THIS?' - in a Fuu-ish way. And he asks her why she IS doing this, because she doesn't need to - and she wants to understand magic and mages and the ways these things work so she can understand why some things which seem obvious and common sense to her do not work at ALL in Cephiro as rules. And because she likes magic, too, but.) (Or something like that...)

And at some point they look at each other and wonder if they took over Cephiro, the way they declined to when Hikaru became pillar, but it's not like that because they aren't alone, and they are invited into their roles, and a lot of other people are working in the administration now.