Magical Barefooter

With my own eyes I've seen the witch Canidia
Come out at night with the witch Sagana the Elder,
Both of them barefoot, their black skirts pulled up high
Around their middles, their hair spread out, their faces
Yellow-green, a hideous sight, the two of them
Wailing as they scrabble up the dirt
With their long nails, and ripping off with their teeth
A black lamb's flesh and pouring its blood into
The trench they'd dug to call the Mane up
Out of their Place below to tell the answers
To the questions they were asking them to tell.

— Priapus, Horace

Magicians, sorcerers, mystics, characters with psychic powers, magical or divine/godlike qualities are frequently depicted as eschewing footwear. There are numerous reasons for this, which often overlap.

First, such characters very often have a connection with nature, and draw their magic from it; in this case, footwear may even interfere with their powers.

Second, if a character has some specific abilities (for instance, is immune to cold, able to levitate, or is a member of the undead), being barefoot may actually prove more comfortable and enjoyable than wearing shoes.

Third, shoes and even clothes are symbolically seen as a boundary in numerous religious and esoteric teachings (this is Older Than Dirt: Adam and Eve were both nude and barefoot before the Fall); and since portraying an "enlightened" or "higher-than-human" character as nude may prove problematic, bare feet can be a good compromise.

Finally, this may be a specific instance of Magical Minority Person. This usage is due to the fact that in earlier times lack of footwear was often associated with poverty, misery and mental instability, and nowadays it is a common attribute of nonconformism. A common character of this sort is a Magical Homeless Person or a New-Age Retro Hippie/Granola Girl who turns out to have genuine supernatural abilities.

Very often overlaps with Barefoot Sage; also compare with Barefoot Loon and Bald Mystic.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The witch Liselotte Werckmeister from 11eyes, as she usually levitates thanks to her magic, doesn't need footwear.
• Amentia: A clone of Lee Wee-Na becomes the leader of a cult and walks around barefoot. She is a Reality Warper who can casually slice someone to pieces, then immediately bring them back. At one point, she walks across a puddle of blood and though the bottom of her long dress gets stained, her feet remain untouched.
• Slan from Berserk. It comes with being a reality defying succubus who dislikes clothing altogether.
• Dead Rock: Mikoto the Necromancer prefers to go barefoot mentioning that it’s convenient for her as she absorbs power from the ground and uses her toes to draw magic circles into the floor.
• EDENS ZERO: Rebecca's Ether Gear causes all the Ether in her body to accumulate at her feet, forcibly rendering her barefoot. To prevent its destruction, she later gets into the habit of preemptively removing all footwear before activating her Ether Gear. Additionally, her Overdrive leaves her barefoot.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: Serie is The Archmage who almost always walks around barefoot except for ankle wraps. The only time she wears shoes is when she is gearing up for a fight.
• The titular witch Zero from Grimoire of Zero has a fondness of feeling the dirt and grass under her bare feet, and readily walks everywhere barefooted until the third episode of the anime, when she gets new clothes at the insistence of the Mercenary. And even then, it takes a lot of convincing.
  Zero: I don't really know... I like the feeling of dirt and grass under my bare feet.
• Gushing Over Magical Girls: Sister Gigant is barefoot when she transforms into her magical girl form. Her powers in this form include Sizeshifter, Super-Strength, and Super-Toughness, which is why she doesn't hurt her feet when she stomps around in giant form.
• Kagura from Inuyasha is a powerful sorceress and necromancer who has never worn a shoe, sandal, or sock in her life despite wearing elaborate and ornate kimonos. Both the manga and the anime adaptation love giving her feet close-ups now and again as Rumiko Takahashi has a well-known preference for drawing bare feet. Unlike most examples of this trope, she does actually walk on the ground (though she can fly atop her feather) - even in snow.
• In the anime of Karin, the title character has to wear a long robe and no shoes for a magical ceremony.
• Aladdin and Judar from Magi: Labyrinth of Magic are barefoot as part of their Magi attire. Also Hakuei whenever she uses Djinn Equip, as the resultant clothing transformation bares her feet.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Evangeline always discards her shoes whenever she gets her powers back, since she almost always uses them to levitate so that her feet don't touch the ground.
• In Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, Homura is shown barefoot as part of her black witch dress towards the ending.
• The Demon Buddhists sorcerers of Shutendoji wear either ankle wraps or nothing as footwear. Miyuki also becomes a momentary one in the OVA adaptation, as she has a mediumnic moment in Ongokukai after having traveled there in a kimono and bare feet.
• Shy: The first time that Sveta attacks the heroes, she is barefoot and can afford to since she is completely unaffected by cold and can stand on ice and snow without being hurt. However, she wears boots in later appearances.
• Medusa Gorgon, one of the evil witches in Soul Eater, is always barefoot except when in disguise. It's such an identifiable part of her character that when she possesses the body of a little girl named Rachel Boyd, the first thing she does is leave the victim's shoes behind.
• Asuna in her queen elf Titania form in Sword Art Online. Her dress lacks footwear, having only a strap around her ankles and feet in a a way similar to barefoot sandals. Yui also counts when in her fairy form or using her admin powers. Quinella wears only foot wraps and has the magic based skills.
• In Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, Sakura is usually in an ethereal dress with no footwear when she is in the magical plane. The Syaoran clone also counts, as he starts going barefoot at the same time he gains magical powers.
• The Vampire protagonists in the Vampire Princess Miyu series wear regular attires in their civilian forms, but change their clothes to kimonos barefoot except ribbons tied to their feet when fighting Shinmas.

Arts

• The Birth of Venus (Botticelli): The figures in the painting are Venus and three lesser deities, and no one is wearing shoes. Furthermore, Zephyr, the god of the west wind, and Aura, the goddess of the breeze, are using their powers to blow the recently-born Venus from the sea to the shore.
• Circe Invidiosa: Circe, a mythical sorceress, is conducting her magical poisoning barefoot.
• Magician Invoking The Elementals Augustus Knapp: The titular character◊.
• the painting La Strega◊ by Michele Pietro Cammarano: The titular witch doesn't wear shoes.
• Magic Circle by John William Waterhouse: The sorceress is depicted doing her spells barefoot; it is implied that her powers are related to nature.

Comic Books

• Agents of Atlas: The Siren, Venus, unlike Hercules and Ares, never updated her look and so still has her Ancient Grome toga and she goes around barefoot. It's unknown if she has superhuman strength similar to an Olympian as she only uses her beguiling voice in battle.
• Captain Britain: Brian Braddock's wife Meggan, a half-fairy empathic shapeshifter never wears shoes, likely a trait inherited from the fairy side of her family.
• Teen Titans: Villainess Jinx goes barefoot because she needs skin contact with the ground in order to use her magical powers.
• The Marvel Universe's mystic hero Brother Voodoo is barefoot in his classic look, to go with his Caribbean Voudoun theme.
• The sorceress (and also a goddess in human body) Tia Dalma from Pirates of the Caribbean is depicted barefoot in the movie-based comics. This is also a part of her Voudoun image.
• Jack Hawksmoor in Stormwatch and The Authority. Likewise, he needs to go barefoot because his powers depend on contact with his environment.
• Legion of X: Mother Righteous, a mystical wheeler-dealer inhabiting the astral plane, doesn't wear shoes.
• Wonder Woman:
  • The evil enchantress Circe does not wear shoes save for to complete a temporary disguise or mocking appearance; this, along with her overall appearance, is directly based on her prototype from Greek mythology.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Athena avoids footwear, even when dressed in a modern suit.
  • Wonder Woman (2011): Greek Gods in the DC Universe during the New 52 can be distinguished by their lack of shoes; which seems to be their one physical constant (although the sea god Poseidon doesn't even have feet, being a chimera of sea creatures and Hermes has bird feet). Several of them (particularly the goddesses), barely wear any clothes at all.

Films — Animation

• Mama Odie, the good voodoo priestess in The Princess and the Frog, is constantly barefoot. This is partly because her powers are related to nature, and partly practicality since she lives in a swamp.
• The Fox Spirit from White Snake (2019) is a witch, who spends all her scenes barefoot.
• The wizard Avatar from Ralph Bakshi's Wizards goes around barefoot, being a kind of hippie-elf. Avatar ultimately squares off against his Evil Counterpart brother Blackwolf, who wears cloth shoes or large socks. Also, Avatar's Girl Friday is the fairy Elinore, likewise barefoot, in contrast to Blackwolf's assassin Peace, who wears boots attached to his crimson onesie.
• In Disney's Frozen II, Elsa is this towards the end. She is also barefoot in the Disney Mirrorverse spin-off game.
• Chikara, the lovably kooky fortune teller from Scooby-Doo! and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery, never wears shoes even when she goes outside of her tent. It doesn't seem to be a direct consequence of her magical abilities, but rather a distinctive trait that is meant to signify that she's somehow "different" from others (it may be Barefoot Sage, Barefoot Loon, or this trope - or all three).

Films — Live-Action

• The Hot Witch Gillian Holroyd from Bell, Book and Candle (in her younger years, she even went to classes like that). In full accordance with the trope, when she loses her magical powers, she also loses her penchant for going barefoot.
• The clairvoyant Marina Lemke from The Butcher's Wife goes barefoot almost all the time, which is meant to signify her angel-like nature (especially prominent in the movie's cover image◊).
• Constantine (2005): Lucifer appears as a man with an impeccable white suit and bare feet that drip black tar. Just in case anyone was to mistake him for human, he also walks across a floor full of broken glass without ill effect.
• Galadriel, Lady of Lothlórien, in The Fellowship of the Ring. She is shown going barefoot to meet Frodo in the sequence where he views possible events of the future through Galadriel's Mirror. Also in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies she walks barefoot into Dol Guldur to rescue Gandalf.
• Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire doesn't wear shoes after his resurrection, implying that he now is an unhuman being who has no need for them. This trope is frequently used for characters who are somehow "above human" (magically gifted, enlightened or godlike), but in his case it indicates that he descended below human condition due to his dark magical practices and the destruction of his soul.
• At the end of Horse Girl, Sarah carefully removes her shoes before lying down on the ground and being beamed into the sky, suggesting she is preparing either to travel in time, or to return to the aliens for good. Due to the ambiguity of the situation, this action is suggestive of Barefoot Suicide as well.
• Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain has the Ice Queen, with her Playing With Ice powers, who is barefoot for the entirety of the movie.

Literature

• Autumn Rain, an eccentric antique shop owner with ESP from the eponymous series by Rachel Ann Nunes, goes barefoot whenever possible (including streets, police stations, etc.). This is due to the fact that she likes "direct contact with nature"; wearing shoes even gives her backache.
• Coriakin from The Chronicles of Narnia never wears shoes, which may be due to him being a magician or the fact that he is a star. Another retired star Ramandu and The Hermit of the Southern March, who has the magical power of foresight (with the use of his water pool), also go barefoot.
• In The Club Dumas, the mysterious girl who calls herself "Irene Adler" apparently enjoys going barefoot, and kicks off her shoes at every opportunity. At the end of the novel, she is implied to be a Fallen Angel, so her penchant for going barefoot may be a hint at her otherworldy nature.
• Sunshine Runningwolf from The Dark Hunters series is an eccentric artist and a Granola Girl, and the Word of God states that she has a preference for going barefoot. Coincluding with this image, she has a genuine ability to see auras.
• Flute, a mystical child and goddess in The Elenium, always has bare feet. And her feet always have grass stains, even when she's been inside all day, invoking Fertile Feet.
• Vampires in The Saga of Darren Shan have extremely sharp fingernails and toenails — sharp enough to climb walls and mountains with no equipment — so shoes can often get torn. This is rarely mentioned in the book, but the manga adaptation frequently shows vampires barefoot in their stronghold, Vampire Mountain. They are required to travel to the mountain by walking barefoot through harsh, frozen landscapes impassable to humans.
• InCryptid: Sarah, a telepath whose powers are drastically amplified by an Evolution Power-Up, is wearing an Ethereal White Dress and is barefoot when her friends and family find her in the middle of a cosmic ritual. Subverted when she snaps out of the psychic trance and spends half the next book looking for shoes and more sensible clothes.
• The psychic Maura Sargent from The Raven Cycle series has a penchant for going barefoot, which is implied to be connected to her magical powers.
• The beautiful psychic Catherine Hilliard from the Sanders Brothers series by Barbara Freethy is of the "magical granola girl" type.
• Jean Johnson's Theirs Not to Reason Why references a character Jesse James Mankiller, who was such a powerful pyrokinetic and biokinetic that she walked barefoot without a space suit on The Moon. The reason she did this is not stated, but the event was well documented.
• Uprooted: Agnieszka starts to go barefoot when she fully settles into her role as Witch of the Valley. Neither Sarkan nor the witches and wizards of the capital do, but those who share her nature-based Wild Magic rarely bother with court.
• Wizard Whitebeard from Where's Wally?; his overall image is based on the "wise old hermit wanderer" archetype, which combines this trope with Barefoot Sage.
• The Kingdom Keepers: The witchy Tia Dalma from the Pirates of the Caribbean films is always described as barefoot.

Live-Action TV

• The Evil Sorcerer Gulnar in Robin of Sherwood is frequently barefoot, although he does wear shoes at one point when he has to escape on foot through the forest.

Newspaper Comics

• The eponymous Wizard of Id is perpetually barefoot. Although this was not explicit in the first few decades of the strip.

Professional Wrestling

• Sarah Logan's repackaging as Valhalla, a Norse shaman, has her perpetually barefoot.

Video Games

• The priestess enemies from Bloody Spell, a legion of all-female Amazon Brigade Magic Knights, goes around barefoot while using their spells to stun and attack you.
• Dragon Age II:
  • Merrill is a mage with a strong connection to the earth and nature, and her unique abilities include sinking into the ground, traveling through solid surface, and appearing in an entirely different place—which may have "Never Wear Shoes" as a requirement, since she keeps stalwartly ignoring footwear even as she upgrades her other protective gear.
  • All the Dalish elves have this trait, whether or not they are practicing magicians. Given that the Dalish uphold traditions that the humans have tried to crush, however, this may be affectation in Merrill's tribe.
• Elden Ring definitely enjoys this trope. The uniform of the Academy of Raya Lucaria does not include footwear, so all of its scholars are barefoot. This includes the headmistress, who also happens to be the queen of the entire region the Academy is located in. She's not Modest Royalty either. Her robes are much more extravagant than the normal Academy robes and she wears a large crescent-moon-shaped crown, as well as actual pants as opposed to the cloth leg wraps the scholars wear, but still no footwear of any kind.
• Corrin, Azura, and Kana in Fire Emblem Fates all forgo footwear and have mystical aspects to them. In Corrin's case he/she manifests his/her draconic heritage more strongly than the continent's other royals, on account of the silent dragon Anankos's being his/her father, rather than the distant ancestor he is the others, which grant's Corrin the ability to shapeshift into a dragon much like the Manaketes of previous titles. Kana, being Corrin's child, inherits the same abilities as well as his/her preference for going barefoot. Azura, on the other hand, is a songstress (Fates' equivalent to the Dancer class) who uses her Magic Music to various ends throughout the story. She's also Corrin's adopted sister and his/her biological cousin (their mothers were sisters), among other things, depending on how you play with the game's marriage system. Ironically none of the three are able to use magic by default. Corrin and Kana have the option to promote into the Nohr/Hoshido Noble classes, which can use tomes and staves respectively, but Azura can only learn magic by reclassing into a mage ^note which requires her to use a Partner Seal after achieving an S-Rank support with a male character who's base class (or secondary class in the case of a male Corrin) uses magic, or a Friendship Seal after attaining an A+-Rank support with Elise, or an A-Rank support with a female Corrin who's secondary class uses magic, which also changes her outfit to one with shoes.
• Milla Basset of Freedom Planet's alchemic abilities allow her to perform various magical feats, like concocting useful items for herself and her allies, or summoning green energy from nowhere through her hands (and feet, but only when kicking). She is also always barefoot.
• Hero of Sparta: The Oracle, a sorceress who guides you on your quest, is always barefoot in all her cutscenes. But then again she moves around by way of Power Floats, so footwear seems redundant.
• League of Legends: Zoe the Aspect of Twilight, as befitting a Cloud Cuckoolander capable of communing with the secrets of the universe, wears a variation on this — spat-like footwear with no heel or toe, just a strip of fabric running under her instep.
• Voodoo Lady in the two first Monkey Island installments, of the Voodoun type.
• Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink: the wizard Strangeblood always appears without footwear. At the game's beginning, he is seen making a spell like this, so it may be a consequence of the way his magic works - or just a part of the "old hermit magician" persona.
• Elika in Prince of Persia (2008) is a Non-Player Companion who handles all things magical for the Prince. Unlike him, she never wears shoes, which is strongly implied to be a consequence of her magic coming from the land itself, as her most powerful ability (to cleanse entire areas of the game of The Corruption) manifests itself as Fertile Feet. Several of her alternate costumes have shoes, though.
• Katrina in Quest for Glory V is one of these.
  • In the previous game, Quest for Glory IV, she also doubles as an undead barefooter.
• Sands of Salaazar from Han Squirrel Studio, has Isra (who's actually Princess Ilayda) of the formerly ruling Nephrit tribe who's royal house are descendants of the River Goddess. Clad from head to knees in a flowing blue robe, Isra goes barefoot despite roaming in a hot desert. She's also a talented Arcanist capable of teleporting your party and she's last Nephrit member with Royal Blood which supposedly can cure injury or malady.
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has Kuro the Divine Heir. This boy has the accursed gift of immortality as well as the ability to share it with one other person. A side effect of his immortality is he rapidly heals from any wound, so his walking barefoot doesn't harm him even if he's in deep snow.
• Skully has the natural elementals, Wanda of Water and Fiona of Fire, who forgoes shoes. Oddly enough there are two other male elementals, Terry of the Earth who wears boots, and Brent of the Wind who only has Fog Feet.

Web Animation

• RWBY:
  • Elm's footwear consists of shinpads that cover the top of her feet, and trouser bands that loop over the middle of her feet, leaving her toes, heels and most of the soles exposed despite the harsh climate of Solitas. She uses her feet to anchor herself when in battle by sheathing her feet in energy that plants her into the ground like the roots of a tree.
  • When Penny Polendina, who had gained the Winter Maiden's powers, is turned into a human, her shoes and gloves disappear, leaving her barefoot for the rest of her screen time.

Web Comics

• In “Dreamwalker”, all magicborns go barefoot. Woodpecker states this is because blocking hands or feet would disturb mana flow. To avoid suffering Agony of the Feet, they can enhance their feet so they don't get hurt when walking on dangerous terrain.
• Kill Six Billion Demons: When he's not Dream Walking in flamboyant style, the God-Emperor Incubus appears in a simple white robe and bare, muddy feet. The mud is from his citadel, a pit where people who accepted his Deal with the Devil and were destroyed by their own ambitions now live in squalid delirium.
• Kiela from the Heroic Fantasy parody Swords and Sausages is a downplayed example of this trope. She's a powerful sorceress who doesn't wear shoes, but this trait doesn't stand out because she's also an anthropomorphic cat who lives in a World of Funny Animals, all of whom are Barefoot Cartoon Animals.

Western Animation

• Mogul, a villainous alien space sorcerer from Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Most Earthbenders from Avatar: The Last Airbender don't wear shoes because having a direct connection to the earth makes bending it much easier, though it's still possible otherwise. Toph, on the other hand, needs to be barefoot at all times, since she uses Earthbending to compensate for her blindness by feeling the vibrations in the ground, which get dampened considerably by shoes.
  • When dressed in her Painted Lady disguise, Katara goes barefoot.
  • This is less common in Sequel Series The Legend of Korra, but definitely still a thing; for example, the elder of Toph's two daughters wears boots with soles that can be retracted via metalbending, and Mama is no more fond of shoes at eighty-seven than she was at twelve.
• From the DC Animated Universe, Tala is an Evil Sorceress who doesn't even put on shoes to assault a monastery located high up on a snowy mountain.
• DuckTales examples:
  • DuckTales (1987): In "Home Sweet Homer", the only time Circe wears shoes is when she's shapeshifted to resemble someone else.
  • DuckTales (2017): Magica DeSpell turns out to be one in this series after she gets her body back, contrasting with her high heel-wearing earlier incarnations.
• Nisa from Mission Odyssey is the only team member with a magical talent (clairvoyance). She is also the only human character who goes barefoot by choice.
• Kikimora from The Owl House is Emperor Belos' personal attendant and a powerful spellcaster in her own right. She goes barefoot throughout the series except when in disguise, possibly because of her clawed, vaguely birdlike feet.
• The Wise Warlock from Sabrina: The Animated Series episode "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?". His whole image (including the fact that Sabrina first sees him meditating in his cave) is a parody of classical "magical wise hermit" type, which is both this trope and Barefoot Sage.
• Rose Quartz of Steven Universe was a very powerful Gem with several magical powers such as healing, and she went around barefoot.
  • Lapis Lazuli is a Gem with very powerful water-manipulating powers and she never wore any footwear until she got a new outfit with sandals. Later on, two other Gems of her kind appear, and they also lack footwear.
• Wuya from Xiaolin Showdown spends most her time as a small purple Bedsheet Ghost with a weird mask for a face. Whenever she does manage to regain human form she becomes a Hot Witch whose Limited Wardrobe stops just above the knee.

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