Light Warriors (8-Bit Theater)
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Collectively known as The Light Warriors, Black Mage, Fighter, Thief and Red Mage are the main characters of 8-Bit Theater. Their names and appearances are based on the main characters of the first Final Fantasy game.
Despite composing the "classic" heroic party, they are, for the most part, incompetent and dysfunctional, having few redeeming traits and tending to do much more harm than good. Though most of this is Black Mage's fault, the other characters (Thief in particular) do occasionally go off on rampages of destruction. As Brian Clevinger stated in the forum thread for Episode 686: "I'm not sure why the Light Warriors worry about obstacles or monsters standing in their way. They are nothing compared to the obstacles and monsters within the party." [1]
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[edit] Black Mage Evilwizardington
First Appearance: Episode 001: We're going where?
Black Mage is a chaotic, egotistical, power-hungry and murderous wizard who is highly proficient in black, i.e. destructive magic. He bears a pathological hatred towards almost everybody on the planet and is in fact so thoroughly evil that his conscience is split in his evil side and his atrociously evil side[2]. Black Mage's face is always hidden; according to him, it is so alien that no one can bear to look at it. His great magical power stems from the fact that he is actually the human incarnation of a nexus of magical power.
Black Mage is primarily out to gain more power and find a way to kill his teammates, whom he loathes. He has shown occasional respect for Thief's potential for evil, but reserves a special kind of loathing for Fighter, whom he views as the most idiotic person in existence but keeps around as a meat shield for himself. Black Mage also has a fixation on his polar opposite, White Mage, and is continually trying to seduce her. As White Mage despises Black Mage as the incarnation of all evil, this usually results in White Mage smashing Black Mage with her hammer. However, Black Mage very rarely shows a sensitive, compassionate side of his personality, which White Mage is attracted to.
Black Mage was, at one point, killed by the fiend Lich and subsequently spent a short time as the king of Hell, taking over by crippling the resident demons. Unfortunately, Lich himself went to Hell shortly thereafter, mended the demons' injuries and returned Black Mage to life. During this short time, Black Mage was far more powerful than usual, and the effects could be felt all over the world (for example, the witch Matoya's crystal ball would only show the message "The Destroyer is manifest" until Black Mage was returned to mortal life).
While in the Castle of Ordeals, every one of the Light Warriors had to face a personification of their cardinal sin. Black Mage's, the representation of Wrath, was a doppelgänger, as the only thing evil enough to represent his sins was himself. Eventually, Black Mage ended up killing it and re-absorbing the evil its death set free.
Afterwards, Black Mage was granted a class change by Bahamut, like the other Light Warriors. However, Black Mage still needed the help of a Dark God, who unbound "the nexus" and completed his change to a Blue Mage[3]. This enables him to learn and use certain attacks that he survives being hit with.
[edit] The Hadoken
Black Mage's trademark spell, the Hadoken (a reference to Street Fighter), is a beam of sheer destructive force, emanating from his hands. Every time it is used, it drains a portion of love out of the Universe; according to Black Mage, divorce rates rise with every Hadoken cast.[4] Black Mage gained this spell by sacrificing nine orphans to a Dark God.[5] The spell's primary drawback is that it can be used only once a day.
Black Mage has come up with variations of the Hadoken, such as the Fighterdoken, where he throws Fighter at his enemies, or the Boatdoken, where he used it to propel a boat.[6]
[edit] Fighter McWarrior
First Appearance: Episode 001: We're going where?
Fighter is a warrior specializing in swords and master of The Twelve Schools of Vargus-do Zodiac-Style Swordplay (Zodiac Kenshido for short), capable of wielding more than one sword at once. Fighter is extremely resilient towards physical damage in general and easily recovers, even from lethal injuries [1]. Skilled as he is, he is also extremely naïve, childlike and has an almost single-minded sword fixation, as well as a short attention span and a case of arachnophobia. He does, however, show surprising bursts of intelligence on occasion. Unfortunately, due to Fighter's ordinarily ignorant disposition, his wisdom normally goes ignored by the team.
Fighter has a strong desire for heroism, which is his main reason for adventuring. He considers the Light Warriors archetypes of heroes, remaining ignorant towards their often overly violent and cowardly actions. He's not only completely unaware of Black Mage's feelings of hate towards him, but also considers him his best friend in the world, despite Black Mage's frequent attempts to kill him.
Fighter is the creator of Sword-Chucks, a weapon consisting of two swords linked by a chain — a combination of twin swords and a nunchaku. At first, this is an obvious joke weapon, being as dangerous to the wielder as to his opponents. However, Fighter successfully used Sword-Chucks to fight the six-armed Kary, the Fiend of Fire, to a standstill.
In the Castle of Ordeals, Fighter faced the representation of Sloth, who told him he had to stop accepting his sword fighting abilities as given and actively improve on them. He also had to learn to use his mind, as well as his blades; upon this revelation, Fighter immediately cut Sloth to pieces because his brain told him "this would be faster." Afterwards, he changed his class to a Knight, gaining the ability to whirl his swords at very high speeds (so high as to create sonic booms), as well as the ability to block attacks from hitting his comrades.
[edit] Thief, AKA Prince Elf, Clan Khee'bler
First Appearance: Episode 004: Fight heroes, fight!
Thief, the leader of the Light Warriors, is a sneaky and cunning Elven thief and the Prince of Elfland. His main assets are his skills at thievery and his wits; Thief claims to be able to steal anything that isn't nailed down or on fire, including intangible objects such as souls, secrets and things that aren't even there. In addition, he manipulates people with legal contracts and, in fact, became the group's leader by talking Fighter into signing such a contract. Thief rarely engages in physical combat, preferring to hide and let the others do the work; when he does, he has a tendency to ambush opponents.
He originally left his kingdom in secret in order to raise money for a cure for his dying father, though he continued stealing even after his father was cured. Thief has a strong sense of arrogance and superiority towards non-Elven races, particularly Dwarves, and had no moral qualms about travelling the world and simply stealing whatever he could. He regards the other Light Warriors as his lackeys and holds little to no respect for them. He does not believe that dragons exist, even when he was face-to-face with a Zombie Dragon and Bahamut.
Thief was supposed to face the representation of Avarice in the Castle of Ordeals, but due to a mix-up, Black Mage ended up facing and beating it, making Thief the only Light Warrior who didn't actually face his personal ordeal. Afterwards, he changed his class to a Ninja and gained the abilities to "throw anything" (including teammates and enemies) and to counter-attack with blinding speed.
[edit] Red Mage
First Appearance: Episode 034: Introductions Are In Order
Red Mage is the most knowledgable and versatile, yet also the most delusional of the Light Warriors. He believes that he is in a stat sheet RPG (such as D&D) and acts accordingly and fully within the rules of such a reality. He carries a character sheet listing his personal statistics and abilities, which he is able to erase and rearrange at a moment's notice on his character sheet. The altered statistics affect his abilities accordingly. Further, he values — to the point of fetishism — being as versatile as possible, citing versatility as the reason for being a Red Mage in the first place. He travels the world in search of new knowledge. Red Mage possesses fighting skills as well as the ability to cast both White and Black Magic.
Red Mage is the main "strategist" of the group. His plans however are, more often than not, overcomplicated and bizarre. While in accordance with logics on a certain level, his plans include obvious flaws, such as his idea to construct a cold fusion reactor entirely from ice. Thus, most of the time, Red Mage's plans fail horribly, due to the laws of physics and the actions of other people getting in the way. However, his stratagems have proven surprisingly successful a number of times, most notably in the Light Warriors' battles against the Fiends they have faced to date.
Red Mage faced the representation of Hubris while in the Castle of Ordeals due to his egotistical tendencies. After several attempts to defeat it, Red Mage bested it by admitting he was powerless before it. However, he didn't grasp the concept of his victory; he started gloating immediately afterwards. Red Mage then changed class to a Mime, giving him the ability to mimic the actions of his comrades once per time he observes them.
[edit] References
- ^ Brian Clevinger (Kurosen). Nuklear Power Forums. Retrieved on 2006-05-06.
- ^ Episode 186: Everyone Has a Good Side. Sorta. 8-bit Theatre (August 14th, 2002).
- ^ Brian Clevinger (Kurosen). Nuklear Power Forums. Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
- ^ 8-bit Chronicles 3 of 3. 8-bit Theatre (November 27th, 2004).
- ^ Episode 489: Oh, That Black Mage of Ours. 8-bit Theatre (December 9th, 2004).
- ^ Episode 229: Blast Off. 8-bit Theatre (December 24th, 2002).
