Originally posted by cdtm
Guess who ignored Speedballs kinetic shield to KO him? ....wrong, it wasn't Danny. That Junzo Muto prick
But he used the Iron Fist to do it. The explanation, was that the Fist is magic, and can ignore physics.
First of all, - Chi is not Magic, nor can factually be it, given the definition of magic and Chi don't suplement it. - Magic in its basic definition is described as the supernatural force i.e. beyond natural in simple terms as well as contains chaotic aspect. While Chi is your life-force, natural part of essence of whole, even Iron Fist's handbook calls Chi natural energy, not supernatural, but natural - http://phantombunburyist.freedomforceforever.com/cripp12/24/th_ironfistback.jpg
So by having the definition of both of those terms it's not hard to deduce what is what, plus Junzo called Chi mysitcal in his fight with Speedball, not magical, but mystical, there is basic word definition difference, - Something can be mysitcal without being magical, as the word mystical can mean mysterious (as in unknown, connected to spirituality) in its most basic and first definition as well as having other definitions that are not connected to magic, in fact when it comes to word mystical, it meaning magical is one of its last definitions as in ranked in lowest (look no further than any dictionary actually), thus the least expected useage of the word in that definition.
Overall associating the word mystical with magical because they sound the same is about as good assosciating the word terrific with terrible, because they sound similar, but you should get the point by now already.
Thus now that we got all that cleared up, let's return to Marvel Comics' Chi, since while there is a common trope i.e. science can't explain magic, with Chi it is completely different, - the Chi energy has been given scientific explanation as to what it is actually.
The evidence comes in form of Victor Alvarez/Power Man, who has chi based powers as stated in description and by Iron Fist as well. - https://imgur.com/a/rnrUIdy
Now the scientific aspect comes from Nightshade who comes in and explains how all of that works, by first depowering Victor of his Chi powers (basically proving her point really), then explaining that his powers from his body being embed in technological visor's absorbing crystal, which is basically an old tech piece and was introduced way back in 80s Marvel i think, it was used by 1 time goon villain named Shades, which gave him ability to shoot energy beams from that visor and that's it, nothing magical though. Now that lore is checked, she then proceeds to explain that whole "Chi" thing is him actually manipulating Bioelectric Field, so basically she implies Chi = Bioelectrical Energy, rather simple explanation, but totally nothing magical, maybe mystical/mysterious, but not magical. - https://imgur.com/a/O885CjC
And now to Speedball, i don't see the argument here, his kinetic field blocks only kinetic energy ie physical force (as Speedball said in that comic) or kinetic based blasts like Cyclops's beams or anything that has basis on kinetic energy ant that's it, doesn't mean it can block other forms of energy, be it electricity, light, gamma energy or etc... that's the point here, Juza could have used light, electricity or other forms of energy that are not kinetic energy it would have done the same trick. It's a bit faulty argument here, in fact even Iron Man's armor could bypass Speedball's kinetic field with his energy rays. - https://imgur.com/a/EpX6gQX
Using Speedball for argument is a bit stretch overall, his kinetic field is cool, but it has many flaws and limitations, as even science based characters have ignored his kinetic field, like characters who use cosmic rays (high energy electically charged particles) and cosmic radiation (photons), basically electromagnetic forms of energy in both cases, the characters in questions who used those energies were Evolutionaries and Eternals, even when they were using physical force (which Speedball thought would kill him, but frankly the dude was too arrogant and held back), his field couldn't block it. - https://imgur.com/a/424m5IU
If you want a character who has similar kinetic powers but without those limitations like Speedball, look no further than Sebastian Shaw from X-franchise, his kinetic based powers allow him to absorb pretty much any type of attack, be it magical (Hercules learned it the painful way with his magical weapons) or science based.
