The
Staff Chick isn't the only
Role Playing Game woman around. More often, she's accompanied by a battle-mage to offset her
healing powers. They may be the same age, but that's usually about
all these girls share. Where the Staff Chick is quiet, helpful, a
Distressed Damsel and
Friend To All Living Things, the Black Magician Girl is much more forceful in personality: a
Genki Girl,
Ice Queen,
Tsundere, or whatnot. They're probably a
Tomboy And Girly Girl, too.
Whether
tomboyishly cute or
stately and beautiful, the Black Magician Girl is an
Action Girl who relies almost exclusively on offensive spells. She probably has a weapon just in case — usually a
Simple Staff, perhaps a
servicible dagger, or perhaps something more...
unusual. Whatever it is, it likely doubles as a
Magic Wand.
Whether having both women in the party is a flimsy attempt at casting equality or an appeal to two different
fanboy preferences is unclear, but as
the Grand List says, they're both probably in love with
The Hero.
Note that this is a
personality type. "Girl who uses attack magic" is not the trope. The character has to have attack magic
and a particular personality to qualify here.
Named both for the
Final Fantasy "Black Mage" Class, and for the Dark Magician Girl from
Yu-Gi-Oh! (known in Japan, funnily enough, as the
Black Magician Girl). Not to be confused with the
Dark Magical Girl.
Examples:
- Lulu from Final Fantasy X, of the "stately and beautiful" Ice Queen variety. Also somewhat gothy.
- Kyra from Phantasy Star IV, a warm and friendly sort who appoints herself Cool Big Sis to the hero.
- Aika from Skies Of Arcadia defines this personality-wise, despite arguably not being the best spellcaster.
- Jenna and Sheba from Golden Sun.
- Arche of Tales Of Phantasia.
- Celine from Star Ocean 2.
- Angela of Seiken Densetsu 3, right down to the weapon and personality.
- Final Fantasy IV has Rydia, who starts out a child but undergoes a Plot Relevant Age Up. To an extent, Rydia seems generally boisterous, but this is tempered by her past as the sole survivor of her Doomed Hometown. She also isn't in love with any of the other heroes, but does serve as the unrequited love interest of Edge and comes to see Cecil as a father figure.
- Touhou 's Marisa Kirisame fits this trope to a T, even if main character Reimu isn't precisely a Staff Chick. Loud, brash, and a pretty capable thief who uses her lifespan as an excuse for never returning anything she steals. Yet she's still one of the heroes of the setting, relatively speaking.
- Qara in Neverwinter Nights 2. Is also The Scrappy on account of being The Rival of Deadpan Snarker and fan favourite Sand.
- Subverted in Lunar: The Silver Star. Mia Ausa, the Black Magician Girl, is the quiet, friendly, introverted one; whereas Jessica de Alkirk, ostensibly the Staff Chick, is the loud, brash one.
- A highly similar subversion in the .hack//tasogare no udewa densetsu anime and manga. Hotaru would be the battle mage of the group, except she's afraid to hurt the monsters. Meanwhile, the team's Staff Chick, Mireille, is scheming, outgoing and loud.
- Also highly subversive if you watch the OAV after the series: Hotaru is actually played by a boy. Of course the main male character doesn't know this, thus Hilarity Ensues. This is not the case in the manga or light novels, where Hotaru is again shown in real life, and may be one of the reasons that the Animated Adaptation is not considered canon.
- Slayers's Lina Inverse.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's titular character fits here, too, being an Action Girl armed completely with combative magic, which is capstoned with a magical Wave Motion Gun. Fate also counts.
- Fatina, from the anime The Tower Of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk. She uses a large staff that resembles a cannon for nuking things with her fire magic.
- Mahou Sensei Negima's Yue Ayase is the classic BMG; however, her rival is not a real Staff Chick or White Mage. Nodoka however in the last arc has dressed like a classic Final Fantasy White Mage, to complete it.
- Ariel from Drowtales, though she prefers shapeshifting to her offensive spells.
- The sprite kid Popoi from Secret Of Mana is an impulsive and energetic male version of this trope.
- Gwen, an NPC in Guild Wars, is first encountered as a happy-go-lucky little girl who befriends the player in an idyllic countryside. Fast-forward about twenty years of game time, and she's a powerful Mesmer described as being driven primarily by hatred and anger.
- Warcraft's Jaina Proudmoore.
- Rita Mordio in Tales Of Vesperia, Tsundere in personality and the brains of the playable characters.
- Charmcaster from Ben 10. She's got the brash, forceful personality down; but unlike most examples listed, she's a villain.
- Female mages in Fire Emblem tend to be Badass Bookworms or promoted Staff Chicks, but there are still a few true Black Magician Girls, including Tiltyu from the 4th game and Nino from the 7th.
- Daja Kisubo from Tamora Pierce's Emelan series is arguably this. And she does some wicked stuff with that staff of hers.
