Light Warriors (8-Bit Theater)
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Collectively known as the Warriors of Light (or simply "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 four classes from the first Final Fantasy game. Despite composing the "classic" heroic party, they are, for the most part, incompetent, dysfunctional, have few redeeming traits and tend to do more harm than good. As the author, 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
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First Appearance: Episode 001: We're going where?[2]
Sprite: Black Mage (Final Fantasy I, NES); Class Change: Magus (Final Fantasy III, Famicom)
Black Mage is an evil wizard who is highly proficient in destructive magic. He bears a pathological hatred towards everyone on the planet[3] and is so thoroughly evil that his conscience is split between his evil side and his atrociously evil side.[4] Black Mage's face is always shadowed; according to him, it is so non-Euclidean that no one can look at it without going mad, [5] demonstrated by driving a child insane. His mastery of the arcane stems from the fact that he is actually the human incarnation of a nexus of magical power.[6] Despite showing incompetence, foolishness, and immaturity often, Black Mage has shown himself capable of occasionally going into detailed descriptions on certain subjects, as well as occasionally pointing out things that the other Light Warriors seem to neglect. To this end, he views himself as the only member of the party with any amount of intelligence, with the occasional exception of Thief. Black Mage also shows some extreme cowardice on occasions.
Black Mage's two main goals have been to acquire more power and to find a way to kill his fellow Light Warriors, whom he despises. He reserves a special kind of loathing for Fighter, whom he views as the most idiotic person in existence and frequently tries to murder, but still keeps around as a meat shield for himself.[7] Black Mage also has a lecherous fixation on his polar opposite, White Mage, and is continually trying to seduce her using increasingly lewd pick-up lines.[8] As White Mage despises Black Mage for being so incredibly evil, this usually results in White Mage smashing Black Mage with her hammer.[9] While Black Mage normally lusts after White Mage based on looks alone, he has shown a sensitive, compassionate side of his personality[10], which White Mage is attracted to. Despite White Mage's disgust for him, her oath as a white mage has convinced her to heal Black Mage from death or near death on multiple occasions.
Black Mage was, at one point, killed by the fiend Lich[11] and subsequently spent a short time as the king of Hell (approximately 20 minutes).[12] However, when Black Mage sent Lich to Hell, Lich took over and returned Black Mage to mortal life. During this short time, Black Mage was far more powerful than usual, and the effects could be felt all over the world.[13]
While in the Castle of Ordeals, every one of the Light Warriors had to face a personification of their cardinal sin. Unlike the other Light Warriors' opponents, Black Mage's was a doppelgänger and not referred to by name, as the only thing found evil enough to represent his wrongdoings was himself.[14] Eventually, Black Mage killed it and absorbed the evil its death set free, thereby avoiding having to redeem himself.[15] Afterwards, Black Mage was not granted a class change by Bahamut, unlike the other Light Warriors. However, Black Mage instead received help from an unnamed Dark God, unbound the nexus and completed his change to a Blue Mage.[16] This enables him to learn and use certain magical attacks that he survives being hit with, such as the Goblin Punch (which is just a kick to the crotch).
[edit] Fighter McWarrior
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First Appearance: Episode 001: We're going where?[17]
Sprite: Warrior (Final Fantasy I, NES); Class Change: Knight (Final Fantasy III, Famicom)
Fighter is a warrior specializing in swords and master of The Twelve Schools of Vargus-do Zodiac-Style Swordplay (Zodiac Kenshido for short),[18] capable of wielding more than two swords at once. Fighter is extremely resilient towards physical damage in general and easily recovers, even from lethal injuries.[19] 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, all Fighter's companions deemed this to be a joke of a weapon, being "almost as dangerous to the opponent as to oneself," but this changed after Fighter successfully used Sword-Chucks to fight Kary, the Fiend of Fire, to a standstill.
Skilled as he is, he is also extremely naïve, childlike and has an almost single-minded sword fixation.[20] He has a strong desire for heroism, which is his main reason for adventuring, and seems to be the only warrior interested in saving the world. He considers the Light Warriors archetypes of heroes, remaining ignorant towards their often cowardly and at times villainous 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. His innocence also endears him to many characters that dislike the other Light Warriors, such as White Mage and Sarda. Despite his ordinarily ignorant disposition he does show surprising bursts of intelligence on occasion and has, among other things, been shown to be a brilliant linguist.[21][22] Unfortunately Fighter's wisdom normally goes ignored by the team.
In the Castle of Ordeals, Fighter faced the representation of Sloth, who told him he had to continually work to improve his fighting abilities and 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."[23] Afterwards, he changed his class to a Knight[24], gaining improved swordfighting abilities as well as the ability to block attacks from hitting his comrades and himself.[25]
[edit] Thief
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First Appearance: Episode 004: Fight heroes, fight![26]
Sprite: Thief (Final Fantasy I, NES); Class Change: Ninja (Final Fantasy III, Famicom), modified
Thief, born Prince Elf of the Khee'bler Clan Elves, the contractual 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 and on fire,[27][28] including intangible objects such as souls, secrets, and things that aren't 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.[29] Thief rarely engages in physical combat, preferring to hide and let the others do the work; when he does fight, he has a tendency to ambush opponents. Since his class change to Ninja he tends to use kicks and punches in combat. His first act in the comic was accosting Black Mage in the Giant's Forest.[30] He then followed Black Mage and Fighter to Corneria, where he applied for the job of Light Warrior with them.
Thief originally tried to conceal his Elven heritage from the Light Warriors,[31] but was forced to reveal his true identity when an Elven court threatened the group with execution.[32] It was subsequently revealed that Thief originally left his kingdom in secret in order to raise money for a cure for his dying father, though having no actual moral qualms about stealing he continued stealing even after his father was cured. Thief, much like the other Elves, is incredibly arrogant, and considers all non-Elven races, particularly Dwarves, to be below him. He regards the other Light Warriors as little more than his lackeys (and at times fair game).
Although its not obvious, Thief can be just as evil as Black Mage. When in Lufenia, Thief uses his companions as pawns to take over the town. His actions include armed robbery, murder, exploding the city guard, selling robbed goods to the townsfolk at very high prices, and taking over the mob in Lufenia. Those are only the worst examples of his vileness.
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 defeating it, making Thief the only Light Warrior who didn't actually face his personal ordeal.[33] He claims he stole his class change to a Ninja from the future. With the change, Thief gained the ability to use anything as a throwing weapon, including teammates and enemies, and to counterattack at great speed. He can also perform martial arts, which he usually uses on Red Mage. Thief's costume was red instead of black when he first changed class, but this was altered soon after and changed retrospectively as a joke on the reader.[34]
[edit] Red Mage
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First Appearance: Episode 034: Introductions Are In Order[35]
Sprite: Red Mage (Final Fantasy I, NES); Class Change: Red Mage (Final Fantasy III, Famicom), modified
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 through powergaming. He carries a character sheet listing his personal statistics and abilities, which he is able to erase and rearrange at a moment's notice. The altered statistics affect his abilities accordingly. In fact, he has managed to survive injuries that should have killed him by "forgetting" to write down the damage he suffered. Further, he values — to the point of obsession — being as versatile as possible, citing versatility as the reason for being a Red Mage in the first place and prides himself on such traits.[36] Red Mage possesses fighting skills, as well as the ability to cast both White and Black Magic. Red Mage also claims to be the last surviving member of an ancient order of Red Mages.
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 frequently include obvious flaws, such as his plan to construct a "cold fusion" reactor entirely from ice.[37] 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. Effective or otherwise, Red Mage tends to be overconfident about his plans, believing them to be foolproof.
Red Mage has also occasionally shown himself to be a closet transvestite, naming himself Debora when he's in a dress, a psychological complex that Red Mage believed stemmed from his father disliking Red Mage for being a boy. In reality, this complex was a figment of Red Mage's imagination, induced by the manipulative prowess of Thief.
Red Mage faced the representation of Pride while in the Castle of Ordeals. 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 and started gloating immediately afterwards.[38] Afterwards, Red Mage changed his class to a Mime, giving him the ability to mimic the actions of his comrades once per time he observes them.
On the message boards, Brian Clevinger has indicated that Red Mage's last name would be "Statscowski", based on the other Light Warriors' last names.[39] Red Mage is also one of two 8-Bit Theater characters (the other being Evil Princess Sara) who has had their own advice column on the comic's website. Entitled "Twinkin' Out", the column is written by Ryan Sosa, and gives advice on role-playing games of all kinds. A running gag in the column was Febreze's ability to solve any problem.
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