Trope bit is now missing: Black Magician Girl

Not all RPG healers are StaffChicks, it takes a specific personality as well.

edited 28th Jan '11 9:01:49 PM by RandomDude

Which is why we have a trope called The Medic.

Serves as a great healer early on but gets more and more useless as the game goes on when the healer gets the best healing spells gets the Holy Hand Grenade late in the game at 100 point into a skill uses bows and staffs and is a Rebellious Priest instead of a Rebellious Princess and Jessica the Black Mage is a complete foil to everything he does but have an Odd Friendship.

The only difference is he is a bit of a player but as the game goes on story wise he takes to his Priest jobs more and more seriously.

But for the purpose of Jessica's Black Magician Girl pairing he is the Staff Chick equivalent.

edited 28th Jan '11 9:05:16 PM by Raso

Can we leave off arguing examples for now, please? It's going to make the thread difficult to read and thus harder to get things done.

Seriously. On topic which is splitting this trope. So, we're going to split this into the two personality types, and a trope for the pairing. Black Mage is in the YKTTW. Anyone have ideas on temporary names so that we can make up some sandboxes to help with the split?

It is enlightening though, in the sense of showing the apparent confusion and misuse surrounding these tropes. Staff Chick might need some work too, and overall it seems like people want to pigeon-hole characters into these tropes for no reason.

• Lady Of Magic
• Magic Berserker
• Black And White Mage Foil

Staff Chick could use a bit of a rework in the description seeing how easily I could fit Angelo into it but even I agree he shouldn't be one.

edited 28th Jan '11 9:16:51 PM by Raso

My suggestions are Lady of Black Magic and possibly Black Witch. Although the later has a few male examples, so maybe it needs a more gender-neutral name.

I do like Lady of Black Magic and Black Witch for the two trope types. A redirect of Black Warlock would cover the male version of the trope.

Black Mage Lancer might work for this trope since they have to be The Lancer to someone Most often the Staff Chick or The Medic.

edited 28th Jan '11 9:17:19 PM by Raso

In what sense are we using the word "witch" here? Given that it's not the Lady of Black Magic this would be the hotheaded tomboy version, right? How is that a witch? Or a warlock?

Black Magic Foil works better than Lancer I think since The Lancer is specifically a Foil to The Hero, and the Medic or Staff Chick is rarely The Hero.

I suggested Magic Berserker because the Personality type is usually Tomboy Genki Girl / Keet + Attack! Attack! Attack!.

very true.

edited 28th Jan '11 9:22:53 PM by Raso

Well, witch in the sense that 1) they are a magic user, which is a common definition of the word, and 2) they are frequently visually a Cute Witch.

edited 28th Jan '11 9:23:09 PM by ccoa

But they're almost never a Berserker which is a large angry man that tears people up in melee combat.

I think Berserker is a bit misleading because they're not actually going into a battle-rage or anything like it.

I don't think Cute Witch is the standard interpretation of the word. Witch, and especially warlock, generally sound a bit more sinister than that. Although maybe Harry Potter changed things.

edited 28th Jan '11 9:26:06 PM by Clarste

Good point I was thinking of some of the female mages which just go crazy firing off spells which quite a few of the examples go under IE Lina Inverse.

Question is for Lady of Black Magic what about those who use say a Rapier or other melee weapon but have no attack skills using them instead sticking strictly to magic sans an autoattack?

edited 28th Jan '11 9:30:14 PM by Raso

I don't think it matters in the slightest what weapon they hold.

I don't think the weapon they use matters if it's not their primary attack.

Hmm. I haven't really seen Witch being used for someone sinister as much anymore. Movies like Practical Magic and novels like Harry Potter seem to suggest it can go either way.

But if we can come up with a better name, I'm game.

Yeah, I haven't heard witch as sinister in years. Not since the neopagan movement really took hold and it became more associated with female power.

Well, even if it's not sinister, it still doesn't carry the youthful playful/aggressive connotation that we want it to.

edited 28th Jan '11 9:34:31 PM by Clarste

Really? I mostly hear it for younger characters. Teenagers especially. Older female character are more likely to be referred to as mages or sorceresses.

Or we could just use Black Magician Girl for the younger trope and link the other new tropes from it.

edited 28th Jan '11 9:40:59 PM by shimaspawn

That works well since I think that's what the Trope Namer is as well. (not 100% sure but she certainly looks like it)

edited 28th Jan '11 9:45:53 PM by Raso

My only fear on that count would be people used to the old trope misusing it. But Black Magician Girl does get across two key points: young and black magic user.