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The robe is stylish. The hat is magic.
Magic users, especially in medieval fantasy, will almost always wear robes of one sort or another. The particular type of robe varies, and even those mages who eschew the robe tend to wear cloaks, capes, or (for more modern characters) trenchcoats. At least in part, this seems to be because the loose, billowy clothes look that much more impressive during a magic-induced Chunky Updraft or Dramatic Wind. Even the Stripperiffic costumes worn by nymphet sorceresses tend to have a few loose scraps of cloth fluttering about.
On the other hand, nobody who wears a pointy hat can be anything but a magician of some kind. No matter what, the pointy hat is a guarantee of magical power, or at least aspirations thereto. The only primary exception is if you're in the Deep South. They may have an "Imperial Wizard" leading them, but that's a way different group there. Depending on the setting, exceptions may be made if you are a princess locked in a tower (this version usually has a ribbon of sheer fabric coming off of the top), or some manner of gnome (this version is usually red), but, in such a case, a magic-user can be identified by the fact that their pointy hat has a brim, while the hats of princesses and gnomes do not. If it's your head that's pointed, you're reading the wrong trope and should Google vintage SNL sketches.
Wizarding School students tend to be wear a blend of this and whatever is considered that country's traditional school uniform; expect the more powerful teachers to do it straight.
The lesson you should be taking from all of this, of course, is that if you see someone wearing a pointy hat, then they will also be wearing a robe.
(P.S: If you need to ask where this trope name comes from ... don't .)
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Honami Takase Ambler, the Celtic magic-using witch of Rental Magica, wears a black cloak and pointy hat over her school uniform as her business outfit. When she had to change from her casual clothes to her business one, she changed into her school uniform first before putting on the cloak and hat.
- In the Flashback episode to her time in a Wizarding School, the other students also wore cloaks, but she was the only student wearing a pointy hat.
- Yuki Nagato's class in Suzumiya Haruhi dressed her up as a fortune-telling witch for the School Festival by means of a cloak and pointy hat over her school uniform. Haruhi hijacked the costume (and the wearer) for her own student movie.
- In Lucky Star, Konata dresses up in exactly the same way (complete with the Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu school uniform, different from her own) for her School Festival as a Shout Out.
- Shout Out, nothing. She was dressed as Yuki, dressed in her Robe And Wizard Hat.
- Think that's meta? Wait till you go to a con where someone cosplays Konata, cosplaying Yuki, cosplaying a witch.
- Whoa, careful now! A few more levels and you'll overload the universe.
- Yuki cosplaying as Konata cosplaying Yuki, cosplaying a witch? (Thanks for the idea, by the way. Going into my Fan Fic now.)
- Yukari Sendou from Rosario To Vampire has a traditional style pointy hat worn at all times, including the swimming pool and beach.
- Mahou Sensei Negima present a strange mix of uses and inversions of this trope:
- The full garb is apparently part of the uniform of the two Wizarding Schools the main protagonist and the Little Miss Snarker attended. Several other characters appeared with the pointy hat and it's a permanent part of Anya's clothing. There was also that child mage in the Bad Future.
- On the other hand, the standard mage clothing seems to be a long, billowing white cloak with a hood replacing the hat. No (named) adult so far has worn a hat.
- An early conception of "conflict" between Negi and Evangeline was that she would refuse to take her wizard hat off. This never made it into the series.
- The important characters will usually wear a Bad Ass Long Robe (often tattered).
- While the Dark Magician's cape leaves much to be desired, he has a truly epic pointy hat.
- Aversion: Zangulus from the Slayers TV series is a pointy-hat wearer who is not a wizard. Instead, he's a Blood Knight swordsman.
- Berserk: Schierke.
- Tsubame, from Urusei Yatsura, always wears a traditional "magician's cape", though without the pointy hat. Given his other favored attire is a tuxedo, and his comments about having gone to "the West" to study his magic, it's clear he's supposed to be a parody of/reference to the stage magician, instead of the actual Hermetic Magic-using Squishy Wizard associated with Western magic users.
Comic Books
- Jingle Belle's gal pal Polly Green, the halloween Witch, wears the traditional witch's pointed hat.
- The DCU's Enchantress had a witch's hat, until the Shadowpact series took it away.
- Cyclone, the first Red Tornado's granddaughter, wears a robe...thing and pointy hat, despite not actually being a mage. Her wind and air manipulation superpowers are nanomachine-based. It's a reference to her favourite book, The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.
Film
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice section from Fantasia features a particularly nice wizard hat.
Literature
- Somewhat inverted in Tamora Pierce's Immortals Quartet. Numair, the most powerful
wizard mage of his generation, is one of the seven people in the world who have earned the right to wear the black robe. He avoids doing so at every possibility - he finds it hot and itchy.
- The Discworld likes this trope. A lot.
- "Wizzard", anyone? Rincewind has covered most of the Disc, usually at speed, and is prepared to leave almost anything behind to make a quick getaway, but the idea of being Rincewind without a pointy hat just breaks his brain. He needs it.
- Also somewhat subverted in Night Watch, when Archchancellor Ridcully's bath moves itself outside while he's bathing. He calls for his hat, but doesn't think of the robe yet:
Stibbons: "You're, er, not sufficiently dressed, sir."
Ridcully: "What? I've got my hat on, haven't I?"
Stibbons:"Yes, sir-"
Ridcully:"Hat = wizard, wizard = hat. Everything else is just frippery."
- This is a call-back to a similar incident in The Last Continent:
Ridcully: I would like to congratulate you on being properly dressed. You are wearing your pointy hat, which is the sine qua non of a wizard in public.
Stibbons: Yes, sir.
Ridcully: They say a wizard without his hat is naked.
Stibbons: Yes, sir.
Ridcully: Yet you are wearing your hat, yet are, in a very real sense, naked.
- Fortunately, a moment or so after the comments in Night Watch, Ridcully becomes acutely aware of the situation, and berates Stibbons into giving up his hat until his robe has been retrieved.
- According to Granny Weatherwax, most of witchcraft is "headology" (i.e. folk-psychology). This only works if everyone knows you're a witch, hence the black cloak and pointy hat. This results in Granny having to actually try to intimidate someone when she goes to a location where people can't recognize a witch on sight.
- Also worth noting: in theory anyone can wear a pointy hat. But in practice, imagine what happens to such charlatans when they meet a person with the RIGHT to wear one.
- In Hogfather, a Wizard's idea of going incognito (so people don't recognize that he is a wizard) is to wear a darker, less fancy pointy hat.
- And of course, the Dean, who gets ... very gung-ho about whatever new idea has caught the wizards' fancy this time, has occasionally been spotted with pointy hair.
- Wizarding casual dress in the Harry Potter series appears to be... you guessed it... a Robe And Wizard Hat.
- The later films put Harry and company in a regular school uniform with a robe, possibly to avoid evoking Narm among the less fantasy-inclined members of the audience.
- Apparently, some Wizards have a hard time distinguishing female muggle clothing from male muggle clothing Leading to an extremely funny exchange in "Goblet of fire"
- Gandalf is a particularly well-known example, and may have revitalized the concept into the modern era.
- The Dresden Files informs us that the reason for the robes is that wizards' lairs get cold in the winter. This doesn't stop them from being the required formal wear at White Council meetings. Harry Dresden himself subverts this by trading in a robe and wizard hat for a Badass Longcoat and cowboy hat (at least on the book covers. He doesn't wear the hat much in the stories, which is a shame).
- Harry also subverts it by wearing a bathrobe to a Council meeting. Because he's a wiseass.
- Also, flat broke.
- A baby blue bathrobe.
- Possible further justification - Harry's Badass Longcoat is enchanted with magic-, fire-, and bullet-resistant enchantments, which are supposedly difficult to get right, and he mostly wears it for protection - why magic-up several sets of shirts and pants when you can just throw a robe over it for throat-to-shoes protection that rarely needs drycleaning. Of course, when a particularly hot summer hits Chicago, he ends up debating whether the protection is worth the heat.
- He should just up the heat protection of the coat, then.
- Except with his luck (at least when it comes to non-fatal situations,) he'd freeze his balls off in the winter because he went too far. Dude just is not a lucky dude (again, unless he's about to get dead. Then, not so much.)
- Belgarath the Sorcerer of David Eddings' Belgariad notably avoids such things whenever possible, choosing instead to wear comfortable clothes that allow him to blend in. However, in those rare instances where he had to make a public appearance as 'The Almighty, Immortal Sorcerer, Belgarath!', he dons a white robe and staff to make sure everybody knows he's a wizard. (Keep in mind, the only people who've ever managed to get him to actually do that, is his busybody daughter, Polgara - and the combined might of roughly a dozen reigning monarchs.)
- The sorcerers and sorceresses in the world of the Witcher usually wear casual, if elegant, garbs (though the latter often opt for awfully whorely dresses), but robes-and-pointy hats suits do exist. They are traditional dress kept for special occasions (This Troper would compare it to these mink furs worn by university professors◊), emphasizing their unity as magic users.
- Through The Riftwar Cycle, magicians either forego hats entirely or stick to something scholarly or in courtly fashion, and on the rare occasion a magician wears a practical broad-brimmed hat, only Kulgan's, at the very beginning of the series, is pointy. Still, the almost-universal preference for robes is a dead giveaway for their profession.
- Subverted in The Princess 99, in that the wizards, er Crafters want to get rid of "old stereotypes" and "streamline their appearance", as put by Professeur Wilde. Most of them wear slightly altered suits or hats, with the more traditional Crafters wearing hats and robes.
- Played with in the bartimaeusTrilogy, where it is only the lesser magicians who dress as stereotypical wizards as a way to compensate for their lesser standing. The powerful mages tends to dress like accountants.
Live Action TV
- In the third episode of Merlin, the title character — who has mostly averted this trope by wearing typical clothes — sarcastically argues that he should wear a pointy hat to convince Arthur that he's a wizard.
Merlin: He thinks he is so sharp. Even when I told him I was a wizard, he still couldn't see it.
Gaius: Sometimes it's pretty hard to spot.
Merlin: Maybe I should go around wearing a pointy hat?
Gaius: I don't think you'll find one big enough.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fifth season - At the grand opening of his magic store, Giles is wearing a wizard's hat and robe. Buffy stares at him. A long time. He quietly, sheepishly removes it (but does wear it in a later Halloween episode).
- Baby Chris wore a cute little wizard with robe for Halloween in Charmed.
Myth And Legend
- One of the original badass mages, Odin, was known for travelling around wearing... yes, a cloak and big hat. Probably the Trope Maker, as he was a major influence on the appearance of Gandalf.
Real Life
- The classical grimoires, the books which purport to teach ritual magic, often include detailed instructions for making and consecrating the special ceremonial garb required by the ritual. This includes (and is usually not limited to) robes and (frequently pointy) hats. Many of these texts date back to the late middle ages, making this Older Than Print.
- Books older than print? Does not compute.
- Books predate the printing press by quite a comfortable margin, actually. They just had to be written and illustrated by hand (an ancient, mysterious, and mostly forgotten art these days, I know) until then.
- Many of the higher clergy in the Catholic Church, most notably the Pope. You can't tell me this doesn't get "Flowing Robe and Pointy Hat" points.◊ Of course, the point is to evoke a sense of mysticism and authority rather than to cast level 1,000,000 lightning, but still.
- The Zoroastrian Magi of Persia were thought to originate the pointed-hat look and symbol-covered robes, while the broad-brimmed hat and long white beard may be derived from Odin.
- The word "magic" is derived from "magi," so there might be something there.
- A number of ancient caucasoid bodies found in central and east asia were wearing incredibly tall pointy hats - which leads one to wonder just how far back this trope goes.
- Those are the Saka or related people, related to the above mentioned Zoroastrian, as they are both Iranian speakers. They however did not wear robes, or at least wore trousers underneath them. Indeed one of the tribes of the Saka were called 'Saka tigraxauda', or Saka with pointed hats by the Persians. [1]◊
- Academia generates a lot of fuss about ceremonial garb. There are no pointy hats, but there are hats you're only allowed to wear if you have a Ph D, and the shape and colour of graduates' hoods has a long and very specific history that varies depending on the institution. And, of course, they're accompanied by robes.
Tabletop Games
- Played straight and averted equally often in Warhammer 40000, where Eldar farseers, human sanctioned psykers, and some Chaos sorcerers wear futuristic robes and hats, while other sorcerers, farseers, and all Astartes librarians wear the same battle armor as their non-psychic comrades.
- Similarily played with in Warhammer. Wizard clothes run the gamut from traditional cloak and pointy hat to shamanistic feathers and headdressess to naked.
- Common in early editions of Dungeons And Dragons, though from 3rd Edition onward they've shied away from pointy hats in favor of a more Dungeon Punk look. Not even Elminster wears a pointy hat anymore!
- An issue of Dragon Magazine, the Dungeons And Dragons tie-in periodical, explained that gnomes wear pointy hats because they symbolize the power of knowledge in much the same way pyramids do: few at the top, many at the base.
- In 3rd edition, wearing any armor worth its name entails a fixed percentage of spell failure, wasting both the spell and the time used to cast it. Not that wizards need armor, considering that they can out-tank the heaviest armor wearer using defensive spells.
- The most recent edition of the game (4th, in 2008) has done away with all spell failure, but wizards are still limited to "cloth armor" at first. Afterwards, they can train to wear heavier armor (instead of training for something possibly more useful) and can go up to full plate and heavy shield over the levels if desired (and if they have the strength). Even then, most stop at leather armor.
- Robes are encouraged, but the pointy hat is not. You can adorn your head with magical crowns, goggles, masks, helms, and skull caps, but there is a single magical hat (A hat of disguise, more suited for a trickster than a wizard) in any of the source books out so far.
- Still, the artwork in the 4th edition books seems to be splitting evenly between flowing robes and exotic pants-and-shirt outfits that are only arguably more practical for combat. But the robes look awesome.
- There is the famous +1 Mythiral Twilight Chain Shirt armor in 3.5. The armor lacks both arcane spell failure and armor check penalty, as the penalties for not being trained in armor are based on the armor check penalty, there are no penalties for wearing the armor beyond the 5 pounds it weighs.
- Speaking of Elminster, the elves (who taught him) and the wizards of Dales (where he lives) prefer sane adventuring clothes. But "leading by example" works better if one's a fellow mortal in the mage garb rather than warrior-thief-priestess-divine agent, so...
- Spelljammer boxed set reminds that the tactical considerations tend to overrule in more aggressive settings:
Typical orders for any crew, whether at sea or in space, are "Shoot at anyone who looks like a wizard". Of course, this often means that the man who looks like a wizard really isn't.
- Thankfully avoided in Mage The Awakening and Mage The Ascension. However, since both games reference The Invisibles in their source material... the new Robe And Wizard Hat is usually a trenchcoat and a punk haircut.
- For the sake of accuracy, it would be difficult for Mage The Ascension to reference The Invisibles in its source material, since the game was written at least a year before the comic was - and the design/thematic elements of the game that led to a lack of robes and hats was in place right from the very first edition. That being said, it's interesting to note that both Mage and The Invisibles were later cited as sources the Wachowski Brothers were inspired by (or stole directly from) when writing The Matrix.
- In their defense, White Wolf did mention that players who were looking for "High flying fantasy adventures in the vein a certain popular magical school in Great Britain" should probably look elsewhere. Too bad they kept the Glass Cannon Squishy Wizard of Dungeons And Dragons everywhere else.
Video Games
- Black Mages from the Final Fantasy series dress in blue robes and yellow wizard hats. Red Mages use a variation, a red tabard and a red chapeau with a white feather. White Mages wear a white robe or poncho with blood-red triangles around the edges, which may or may not include a hood. Less commonly, you see a Time Mage class, who wear conical red hats with a star on them and loose-fitting robes.
- Some of the games will inexplicably pin cat ears◊ onto the white mage hood.
- By proxy, so do Red Mage and Black Mage of Eight Bit Theater, the former often mocked for his hat with a feather, and the latter for his robe he gets after a class advancement that makes him look like some sort of jester.
White Mage: "Pardon me, clown?"
Black Mage: "Oh, this guy is not talking to me."
White Mage: "You there, in the doofy hat and parachute pants."
- Nethack provides mechanical justification: Robes decrease spell failure chance for everyone, and a wizard who wears a cornuthaum gets intelligence and charisma bonuses. Anybody else will get a penalty, since non-wizards look silly with the hat on.
- City Of Heroes features the Cabal, an all-female group of witches, who wear black capes and pointy hats. If the player manages to prove themselves against the Cabal's leader, they unlock Witch Hats at the tailor for their own use.
- The human members of the Circle of Thorns also dress in robes. Some of them wear hats (not pointy, but still unmistakably magey).
- Found in most MMORPGs, and bemoaned by a music video made from World Of Warcraft by a wizard who asks (in the chorus) "So why I ask, it just doesn't make much sense / for a man of my stature to have to wear a dress / I mean what may I enquire, were you thinking on that day / when you conjured up for a man like me a robe that looks so gay-ay?".
- In Warcraft 2, this was averted by the Human Mage unit, who wore a Badass Longcoat.
- A number of people have suggested that the Badass Longcoat and Fedora combo is the modern Robe And Wizard Hat.
- Another video references the plight of Paladin healers being forced to wear similiar outfits in raids to be effective healers. "I only wore it once... and I was sexy".
- Guild Wars is one MMORPG that manages to avoid this trope. The armor for spellcaster professions are usually coats and trousers, with occasional skirts or Badass Longcoats. There aren't any hats, but each profession does have distinctive headwear - theater masks for mesmers, scalp tattoos for monks, head wrappings for ritualists, etc.
- Asheron's Call also avoids this trope, as almost any character can wear almost any armor or clothing, and spellcasting is not penalized by equipment. However, for the first few years of the game, there was a loud group of players who complained that their mage characters were forced to wear armor because robes didn't provide enough protection and that they couldn't dress like typical mages.
- In Arcanum Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura, spellcasting tires you out, meaning mages tend to wear light clothing, such as robes, but nothing stops you from wearing enchanted armor (mechanical armor, like every other technological item, is bad for you though) if you strong enough to carry it without penalty (decently possible for chain mail, fairly hard for plate mail).
- Justified in The Elder Scrolls, where robes can hold much more powerful enchantments than regular apparel.
- In "Oblivion" at least, there are "spell efficiency" penalties for wearing armor. For those role-playing as "casters" (or any "spell-heavy" type of class) this reduces desirable outfits to robe & hood or regular "civilian style" clothes. Usually enchanted.
- Interestingly, the only non-armor wrist items for in Oblivion are the Wrist Irons you start the game with. All other items count as armor and lower the "spell efficiency". They are the only pair in the original game, though more can be found with the Shivering Isles expansion.
- Melody, the bath house keeper from Rune Factory wears one, even though she doesn't know any magic.
- There are magical Robes aplenty in Dungeons And Dragons related games due to the fact wizards and he like can suffer from Arcane spell failure if the wear armour, which is an indirect cause of Squishy Wizard.
- Annoyingly Characters who draw there powers from holy sources can run around in full suits of armour with no problems.
- Justified, I would think. I doubt Deities are hindered by such mundane things as mortal armour. Whereas mages are trying to draw power from the universe directly, lacking divine assistance.
- Sort of a Deconstructed Trope to many players and D Ms, most agree that anyone telegraphing that they are squishy by wearing this garb is guaranteed to be the first target of any intelligent creature in combat.
- And then Baldur's Gate rolled along and subverts it and provides Player Characters with no pointy hats to put on. But then still cameo's Elminster with one!
- In The Sims 2, magic users wear a robe and pointy hat, and the colors magically change upon their alignment. Good ones wear white robes with gold trim, and evil ones wear black robes.
- Though the other wizards show up randomly, and have a variety of different looks, the first one you pick up in Valkyrie Profile Silmeria, the one that shows up in a cutscene and is the only non-random Einherjar you find, fits the Bearded Robe And Wizard Hat description to a T.
- Selfi, the snobby-but-cute witch in Azure Dreams.
- Amadeus the Magnificent, The Casanova wizard from Trine, is clad in this getup.
- Lillet Blan, despite being a "newbie" in Grim Grimoire sure dresses the part.
- In the game ''Space Station 13', A gamemode that comes up where one of the crew of the ship has been selected to be a space wizard, they use a radio and teleport to an area to get spells, and come back to the ship. When they come back in order for them to use their spells (Many at least)none other than a Robe and Wizard hat and a Beard.
- Marisa Kirisame of Touhou fame wears a pointy wizard hat, though her robes are rather unstandard.
- The other (stated) magicians, Alice Margatroid and Patchouli knowledge, both have robes (Alice's are colorful but loosely standard, while Patchy's are more like pajamas - justified by her tendency towards being ill far too much), but Alice has only a hair band, and Patchy's hat only has a point on it because she has a cresent moon shape attached to it.
- The Magikoopas in Super Mario Bros are dressed like this, especially Kamek from Yoshis Island and Kammy Koopa from Paper Mario.
- Might And Magic mostly averts it for the game characters (as even the most Squishy Wizard get to wear leather armor, there is absolutely no penalty for wearing a helmet or other supposedly heavy headgear, and there are, in fact, no equippable robes to be found), but plays it straight for mage NP Cs and enemies. VI's description for the one sort of pointy hat in the game handwaves its popularity amongst mages as a result of the 'conical shape attracting creatures of the spirit world', making the hat easier to enchant. Not that it helps...
- One of the special Items-of-the-month in Kingdom Of Loathing is the [http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Jewel-eyed_wizard_hat Jewel-eyed wizard hat,]] probably the best hat for Mysticality calsses (like with the cheffstaffs, power is not as important as the mysticality-related bonuses it gives). Oddly, there has yet to be an equitable robe
Webcomics
- Used as an Overly Preprepared Gag by Shiden in Yosh!
- Used for a Breaking The Fourth Wall gag in El Goonish Shive here, and a wizard's fedora and trenchcoat as the modern version is noted in the rant here.
- Though the party wizard doesn't wear a hat, Elan of Order Of The Stick puts one on when he's considering multiclassing to wizard. And while they don't wear hats, pretty much any wizard, sorcerer, or druid in the series wears robes, including Xykon, Varsuvius, and Roy's Dad. A couple side characters DO wear hats as well, such as the Oracle, and the Azure City teleporting wizard.
- Sal from Emergency Exit wears a Stripperiffic version *
one button holds the robe together, and she's wearing nothing but a fishnet top and a loosely tied skirt beneath on the cast page and in banner ads...and never, ever in the comic.
Western Animation
Web Original
- The legendary tale of the man they call.... Bloodninja (Warning: NSFW)
- Wizards, sorcerors and their like in Adylheim tend to follow this trope, mainly because it's a cultural expectation though and the wizards's staff, robes and occasionally hat are considered to be part of the uniform.
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