Hard Magic vs Soft Magic — Which Makes a Better Fantasy Story?

What makes a magic system “hard” or “soft”? In this episode of Mixed Perspectives, two brothers debate the differences between hard magic systems and soft magic systems, how rules and limitations affect fantasy storytelling, and whether a magic system can actually become more important than the story itself.

We talk about worldbuilding, character development, storytelling, magic systems, fantasy writing, and some of our favorite fantasy books and series. From Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings to Mistborn, The Wheel of Time, The Stormlight Archive, Codex Alera, The Name of the Wind, and The Last Unicorn, we look at how different authors use magic to tell their stories.

Fantasy is more than just dragons!

In this episode of Mixed Perspectives, Aaron and Immanuel dive into what genre actually means, and why fantasy and science fiction have sometimes been treated as less “serious” than other kinds of stories.

We talk about how genre has gone from being stigmatized to becoming a huge part of mainstream culture, and why we think fantasy and sci-fi can be more than just magic, aliens, and cool worlds. From comedy and romance to drama and even stories about broken marriages during an alien apocalypse, genre can be a lens for telling almost any kind of story.

If you've ever been told that what you read isn't “real literature,” this one's for you.

Why do we love stories so much? Why do we read, write, and spend entirely too much time talking about fictional worlds?

In the first episode of Mixed Perspectives, Aaron and Immanuel finally decide to put their nerdy conversations on the internet. We talk about how we got into books, movies, TV, fantasy, science fiction, and why those stories have stuck with us.

We also dive into why we read, why we write, why fantasy and sci-fi sometimes get a bad rap, and why genre stories can be about so much more than just magic, spaceships, and dragons.

We're both creators ourselves, so we'll be looking at stories from both side. As fans who love getting lost in fictional worlds and as writers trying to figure out how those worlds are actually built.

Welcome to Mixed Perspectives Podcast!

We’re brothers. We love books, movies, TV, fantasy, science fiction, and probably spend way too much time talking about them.

So naturally, we decided the best solution was to put those conversations on the internet.

Mixed Perspectives is two brothers talking about the stories we love, the stories we hate, the stories we want to create, and occasionally wondering why anyone should listen to us in the first place.

Consider this your introduction. Things are about to get nerdy.