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I agree, the fetishization of magic systems has weird ideological undertones. More importantly, though, Sanderson’s rules of magic are so often applied broadly to the whole genre, that all fantasy must follow his rules. If he (or other authors) want to use those rules, cool, go for it, but not following them is a frequent criticism of books in the genre that have a different philosophy.
And I love your point about how magic can be an end in itself.
As brando fan, he explicitly says that’s what he likes to write, not that it be all end all, or that he doesn’t like softer magic system in other people’s books. I feel his way is sort of extension of old sci-fi thingy (you change 1 thing in physical laws, and then write about humans existing in this world) into fantasy
I’m also a pretty big Brando fan. I’m not coming at him here, but the legions of people who take his personal set of rules and think they are universal truths of fantasy writing.
