Basic Trope: Magical characters come from a different Fantasy Counterpart Culture than the majority of the cast.
- Straight: Bob the Mage is the only dark-skinned member of the Five-Man Band. He's also the only magic user.
- Exaggerated: Bob the Mage is the only dark-skinned character seen in the entire series.
- Downplayed: Bob the Mage may be the only person of color and spellcaster in the main cast, but we see enough representations of Bob's culture to know that magic isn't their only hat.
- Justified: Bob's race is a Mage Species. Dark skinned characters are the only characters who can use magic in the setting.
- Inverted: Bob is a dark skinned Badass Normal warrior. Anyone from the central culture of the series can perform even rudimentary spells.
- Subverted: Partway into the series, the party encounters a white-skinned magic user...
- Bob is first seen wearing only a loin cloth, using a crude spear, and speaks with a strange accent. Except it is revealed that his clothes and spear are because he was an escaped prisoner, his "accent" is a speech impediment which is the result of Cold-Blooded Torture. He is actually from the same culture.
- Double Subverted: ...Until his glamour is dispelled and he is revealed to be from the same Fantasy Counterpart Culture as Bob.
- Parodied: Bob takes an Everything Is Racist perspective to spell casting that is Played for Laughs.
- Zig Zagged: Bob the Mage is the only magic using character in the main cast until Alice The Hero enchants her sword. Sometime later we learn Bob was the one who enchanted it and Alice simply used it in combat. The following season we see a white-skinned magic user.
- Averted: The color of a character's skin has no bearing on whether he or she has magical powers.
- Enforced: The author wants a smart minority for representation's sake.
- Lampshaded: "I'd let you make a Magical Negro joke, but then I'd have to take off the silence curse."
- Exploited: Unable to find a magic user willing to aid his cause, Emperor Evulz hires mercenaries from Bob's homelands to convince the villagers he has magic on his side and intimidate them into submission.
- Defied: Bob refuses to be a Squishy Wizard and defeats his rival without using magic.
- Discussed: "Hey Bob, did you learn to cast where you grew up?"
- Conversed: "We've established Troperia as a Low Fantasy setting without magic, but the network wants us to introduce a wizard character. If we have a native Troperian use magic, it will make the main cast look willfully ignorant for ignoring magic for three seasons. What if the wizard character comes from another country where magic is more readily available?"
- Deconstructed: Bob's race falls victim to Fantastic Racism and Superhuman Trafficking.
- Reconstructed: Bob and Alice's respective homelands become allies. Bob's homeland exports scrolls and enchantments to Alice's homeland and imports agricultural and metal goods not found in their country.
- Played For Laughs: Bob's magic is treated as a source of anxiety by men and lusted after by women. Bob notes the locals lack a sense of flow and rhythm and are incapable of making jumps like he does with teleportation magic.
Back to Ethnic Magician.
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