#489 - "So, we gonna make out or what?"

[Celisasu]

Here's the options as I see it.

1. Black Mage is really really evil.

2. Black Mage is unbelievably evil.

3. Black Mage is the Destroyer made Manifest.


None of those include any ounce of kindness or good. He sacrificed 8 children to learn a spell that devours the love in the universe. He murdered a man in front a young child and smiled about it. He has admited that if an orphanage was on fire that he'd cast Fire3 to speed it burning down and then Bolt 2 on wide dispersal to pick off the survivors. Black Mage is as far from good as you can possibly get.

Originally Posted by Loyal2NES

:bmage:: Hey, I know the difference between right and wrong. I simply don't care.

And a lot of us know the difference between men and women. But we, as modern indiduals, don't think one gender is absolutely superior to the other.

It's not like BM chooses to consciously follow a path of evil, or that he is in this world only to destroy and kill. He just lacks any sort of moral compass.
He never UNDERSTOOD the difference between good and evil on a personal level. He can see both sides, but sees no clear reason to distinctly follow one of them.
He sees the world as full of resources for him to use and exploit, even people. He is free from moral limitations or even emotional connections with his past. He seeks power because that's the only thing he knows how to deal with.
While WM represents order (A person capable of discerning good from evil, and that chooses to consciously follow one of said parts according to what she was teachen, BM represents chaos (A person uncapable of seeing any difference between both sides of the coin, and that chooses to do whatever he wants to accomplish any task he chooses to accomplish.).

WM at the moment is limited by her own simple black and white point of view o the world, while BM is free to do whatever he wants because he thinks no side is more worthy than the other. He is out to have fun by doing the only thing he knows to do right... Destroy.
How can you expect him to change such freedom for something he doesn't quite understand (WM's point of view)?

I say he does feel something for WM, but that he is not, In any shape or way, capable of understanding her.

[Aerozord]

Yes thats the BM we know. I know something was off

You know, I find the gray background of this comic very fitting. Symbolic, on this context. This is a comic about WM: A woman who has always believed that good and evil are definitive opposites, and that nobody can be on the middle of both, a woman who believes that you HAVE to pick a side.
But then, she meets BM... And the rest, we already know.

[Just a guy]

I agree with continuum, if BM was completely evil or just really evil he would travel with fighter or RM or thief..he'd hadoken them all because he hates them as the same probably for white mage because if hes truly evil he wouldnt let love get in the way of hate..BM just does things that entertain him but if he did everything evil there would be no world literally

[Sky Warrior Bob]

For some reason the song 'Behind Blue Eyes' pops vividly to mind. Too bad BM's eyes are yellow, not blue.

SWK
No one knows what it’s like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind yellow eyes

No one knows what it’s like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies

But my dreams
They aren’t as empty
As my conscience seems to be

I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That’s never free

No one knows what it’s like
To feel these feelings
Like I do
And I blame you

No one bites back as hard
On their anger
None of my pain and woe
Can show through

But my dreams
They aren’t as empty
As my conscience seems to be

I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That’s never free

When my fist clenches, crack it open
Before I use it and lose my cool
When I smile, tell me some bad news
Before I laugh and act like a fool

If I swallow anything evil
Put your finger down my throat
If I shiver, please give me a blanket
Keep me warm, let me wear your coat

No one knows what it’s like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind yellow eyes

[Myst]

what about behind bronze eyes? That's sorta yellow. Would keep the sylable scheme the same too. Is there any way to add that to the page? (I think this was discussed in a previous thread, so if it was, I'm sorry)

[Wetflame]

Orestes, things don't stay this same forever. If 8 Bit Theater went on to 800 comics doing the same jokes, it wouldn't be 8 Bit Theater. It has changed in the past, and a more major change is inevitable.
Black Belt dying is a stepping stone. A line has been crossed.

BM being evil was funny at first, but really, there's only so much you can do with that that hasn't been done already.

I just really hope, that somehow, all that character development wasn't entirely in vain -_-

I liked my Black Mage is Chaos theory, to a certain extent, but I really hoped something nice would happen.

But I guess I'm in the minority.

[The7thSamurai]

Personaly Im glad to see he's still the same evil little guy we all have come too know.
Anyways as to whoever asked why would he travel with the rest of the LW, he said it himself very ealier.
"I need you as a meat sheild...err traveling cohort" or somethinf along those lines, I dont remeber what was exactly said.

[Cicero]

Originally Posted by Orestes

*de-lurks for a moment*

I've gotta say, I'm amazed at the lengths people will go to just to NOT believe BM is "really" bad.

We're not arguing so much that he isn't bad (he is) so much that he isn't absolutely bad. To declare him to be such betrays a misunderstanding of the character.

Why is BM such a popular character? Because he's immoral and violent? Perhaps that's one reason, but surely there's something more. If BM were nothing other than a single-minded killer even an amusing single-minded killer, the readers would be appalled by him, and would wis him a nasty end. Yet few wish that for BM. Why? Because he possess other, endearing qualities. These stem largely from his conflicting motivations: yes, he's power-hungry and megalomaniacal, but he's also strangely unambitious in temperment. He is annoyed by his commerades and frequents wishes death toward them, but he can't help but feel a certain disfunctional camaraderie with them. Also, even his most horrific deeds are mitigated by the fact that he doesn't seem to completely comprehend their ramifications: he admits to WM his sacrificing orphans to a dark god in exchange for power because it doesn't even occur to him that she would find this appalling (after all, he did it for a reason!).

In short, people object to descriptions of BM as the greatest evil that e'er there was simply because he does not behave as such.

I mean, even outside of the Light Warriors, who's truly "good" in 8-bit, ASIDE from WM? She doesn't fit. It's like that kid who got introduced late on in Married: With Children and totally didn't mesh. I'm not saying she needs to go, but I don't think she's a good person to have as a regular part of the party because she takes the fun out of the random, senseless evil acts the rest of them (and especially BM) engage in by making us really think about how awful they are.

Unless she gets corrupted and turns evil (or at least Red Mage-style indifferent) herself, in which case ... cool. You know?

I'm really not sure that we can even call the other Light Warriors properly evil, just self-interested. BM's the only one who seems to take any pleasure in destruction qua destruction (and even then only some of the time; a good portions of his killings are done with indifference. Once again, though thoroughly corrupt, they still possess likeable qualities, hence their popularity.

As for WM, she's not supposed to mesh with the Light Warriors. Her purpose is to provide contrast, especially with Black Mage, whom she makes aware, if only for a moment, of the full consequences of his actions. This is a key source of conflict in the comic, and which WM's being likewise corrupted would put an unfortunate end to.