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Caves of Narshe Forums > Final Fantasy I > FF1 White Mage woman only or could it be a he?


Posted by: seraphimdreamer777 3rd July 2010 02:58
Ok I think I know how this poll is going to go but...

I've seen pictures of people who have cosplayed as a male FF1 white mage or drew a white mage as male. Also even videos of people naming a white mage male names. So what is the popular opinion is the white mage a male female or whats the difference. The last choice was supposed to be a cute joke considering the poll and plus I like Flea.

Posted by: Raian the Fallen 3rd July 2010 03:48
Female. It just seems to go together for some reason.

Posted by: seraphimdreamer777 3rd July 2010 03:54
You forgot 3 and 5 in which you can change classes. Plus 7 if you really think about it didn't really have classes unless you use your imagination.
Possible spoilers: highlight to view
Aeris\Aerith could use healing and support limits

Posted by: trismegistus 3rd July 2010 16:46
We're talking about theWhite Mage/Wizard in FFI? I always thought it was a dude, thought to be honest it never really crossed my mind it could be a female. After class change, the white wizard looks pretty masculine.

Posted by: yelanates 4th July 2010 22:12
In the original version, after the class change, it looks like a guy, definitely.

After 8-bit theater established it as being a girl, and with the less-masculine renderings from Wonderswan-on and the concept art from DoS...it's canonically a female now.

Posted by: ZidaneTribal 5th July 2010 09:47
Quote (yelanates @ 4th July 2010 22:12)
In the original version, after the class change, it looks like a guy, definitely.

After 8-bit theater established it as being a girl, and with the less-masculine renderings from Wonderswan-on and the concept art from DoS...it's canonically a female now.


Male. When the classes upgrade the white sage looks way too masculine to be a female, plus Minwu from FF II was a male white sage. It's possible that Square intended white sages to be just as a masculine role as the warrior, then after IV with Rosa ,guess they decided that White sages would fit a more feminine role. I just see White sages as real life doctors and nurses, they don't have to be all female.

Posted by: Krisp 7th July 2010 17:46
The thing that makes FF1 (almost) unique is the way the characters are set up. They don't have names, they don't have genders, and they don't have personalities. Why? Because that's for you to decide! I'm kind of surprised that hasn't been pointed out in this thread yet.

In my own mind, there are actually two females: White Mage because she's sooooo feminine looking (being a woman I hate stereotyping but I just couldn't resist on this one!) and I always give her my real name, Amber. I have a very bad habit of naming almost all of the main cast after myself, I even make up male equivalent names like Adam, etc. Anyway, yeah, White Mage is so cool she gets my real name. So who's the other female?

Ever since I first played FF1 back in 2002 or so on PlayStation (I've never played the NES version, so don't kill me for saying this) I always thought Thief looked kinda feminine too. Not so much as White Mage, but it's definitely there. I'm a very tomboyish female so naturally I'm going to name Thief after my favorite personality: Krisp! On the internet I often pretend to be male because I think my personality fits the male stereotype more.

Amber is the White Mage who looks feminine and IS feminine; Krisp is the Thief who is female but likes to conceal it, even though she is obviously feminine too. I like to pretend the characters have personalities and stuff throughout FF1, it just makes the game more fun for me. I'll stop ranting now so I don't go into detail about Warrior and Black Mage, too. ^_~

Posted by: Rangers51 7th July 2010 21:26
Quote (Krisp @ 7th July 2010 12:46)
The thing that makes FF1 (almost) unique is the way the characters are set up. They don't have names, they don't have genders, and they don't have personalities. Why? Because that's for you to decide! I'm kind of surprised that hasn't been pointed out in this thread yet.

In the PSP version, I just checked on my copy, all of the white mage's names available in autoselect appear to be female aside from one, "Noah." The rest, as far as I can tell:

Luca
Sarina
Jenica
Sara
Sherko
Ruby
Mikoto
Kuku

Seems to me that would make her canonically female, but I certainly can't explain Noah.

Posted by: Neal 8th July 2010 04:08
Quote (Rangers51 @ 7th July 2010 17:26)
Seems to me that would make her canonically female, but I certainly can't explain Noah.

The female lead in Legend of Legaia was named Noa! It could go either way, I guess, even though it's traditionally a male name in the west.

Posted by: Erau Qssi Dlro Weht 8th July 2010 04:38
I was going to vote option 2, but "Flea!" sold it for me. Nicely done.

Posted by: painreaver 9th July 2010 02:56
Female. Very female.

Posted by: DarkFang 9th July 2010 04:41
I was just discussing this with my sister today.

The sprite on the PSP version seems as if it could be male or female. It looks female because, well, it just does. But if you look at the haircut, it looks similar to the haircut of the White Mage in Final Fantasy Tactics.

I've always thought it was female though, so it's basically just what you think.

EDIT: Except when she becomes a White Wizard, then it's obviously a girl.

Posted by: ZidaneTribal 9th July 2010 07:40
Quote (Krisp @ 7th July 2010 17:46)

In my own mind, there are actually two females: White Mage because she's sooooo feminine looking (being a woman I hate stereotyping but I just couldn't resist on this one!)
Ever since I first played FF1 back in 2002 or so on PlayStation (I've never played the NES version, so don't kill me for saying this) I always thought Thief looked kinda feminine too. Not so much as White Mage, but it's definitely there.


I agree with this saying that the FF1 Thief looks feminine. I just loaded up my old Gameboy and the way that the thief walks around the main map screen just looks very well... girlish. But in the GBA version the White Sage still looks like a male to me, just like on the Nes original. I haven't played the PSP version though.

Posted by: sparerib1968 17th September 2010 03:12
Does it matter the sprite looks like it could be either.

At least in FF1 NES it is almost impossible to tell. Decide for yourself.

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 17th September 2010 19:37
Begone, Flea, you don't belong in this game's white mage character class!

Also, I interpret it as androgynous, kinda like FEVII's Tactician.

Posted by: Tryscal The Great 5th October 2010 20:42
Quote
The female lead in Legend of Legaia was named Noa!� It could go either way, I guess, even though it's traditionally a male name in the west.


There was also a female character in Suikoden IV named Noah.

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 7th October 2010 19:32
Actually, White Mage is Legion.

Because White Mage's true name is NOA. As in, Nintendo of America.

Or, NOAA, as in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Posted by: Kjelfalconer 21st October 2010 21:02
To be honest, I had a set of four characters in mind and didn't really care what Square'd had in mind.
As such, I had a male white Mage, Fin, and Maria my female thief. My warrior was Leo though and My black mage Andrew but that was more coincidence...

Posted by: Jeebs 28th October 2010 21:25
I just want to point that when you defeat the pirates and get the ship, he refers to you as "sirs" so I would assume that it's a man. Also, most female characters in the final fantasy series tend to be rather... erm... chesty, and this doesn't seem to be the case with this white mage, so I'm going to have to go with male on this one.

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 29th October 2010 18:49
But "sirs" could just be a collective noun, and the convention in English is that the collective noun follows the male form.

Posted by: Metal King Slime 22nd December 2010 17:20
Clearly, it's Flea.

They even have the same patterns on their coats.

Posted by: Iscariot 22nd February 2011 05:53
Being that I first played FF1 on the NES when I was 5 (only a couple years after it first came out) I had always just considered that the white mage was a girl. I had never made it much farther after blowing up the opening to the outer ocean and never knew that the characters upgraded their class. It wasn't until I played through it again on the Gameboy Advance that I found out you could get the second classes. I was shocked to discover that white wizard is in fact a guy (maybe the class change gave her a sex change).

Also, I always thought the blackbelt was a chick because of the hair.

Posted by: Chell172 31st July 2011 22:02
So totally Flea.

Posted by: KasperNinja 1st August 2011 04:57
Im with Either it could be a Chick it could be a Macho Man just lookin like a chick for the new games but in the old one the white mage look like a guy when it promoted into a White Wizard.

Posted by: whitemageguy45 31st August 2011 23:55
thumbup.gif thumbup.gif Could be either way i usually name the white mage my name (im a dude) really doesn't matter but you'll look really masculine with the ultima weapon (gba or psp)

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 1st September 2011 03:02
Come to think of it, you can interpret the white mage sprite to be a really cutesy sprite of a boy. Y'know, like, the way anim� art can be sometimes.

Posted by: Tonepoet 2nd September 2011 19:06
You can tell by the angularity of the lines of the http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/forums/ipb/html/avatars/Final_Fantasy_1_NES_Characters/White_Wizard.gif and check it against an I can't believe it's not butter commercial.

Possible spoilers: highlight to view
Before I vote on this poll, does Fabio count as a macho man or something more?

Posted by: Kame 30th September 2011 06:25
I'm with a lot of you guys when you say that White Mage was never "female" to me until 8-Bit Theatre. After reading that, my perception changed. Back in the day on the NES, white mage used to be just another four letter name. Some of my favorite names for FFI characters were: Dude, Bro, and Redd.

Posted by: Chell172 1st October 2011 12:24
Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 1st September 2011 04:02)
Come to think of it, you can interpret the white mage sprite to be a really cutesy sprite of a boy. Y'know, like, the way anim� art can be sometimes.

ACK! NOT JAWAPANESE!

I resent Japan for their overly feminine culture.

Back on topic, it actually depends. I think in the NES/VC versions, it's a man, but in the GBA/PSX/PSP versions, it's a woman.

Posted by: LilyheartsLightning 1st October 2011 14:01
The NES original sprites were probably all intended to be male, especially considering the class change makes them all buff. (Your reward for the TAIL? Steroids. XD) The sprites in the remakes (save for the Monk/Master) are a little less masculine, probably so players could picture their party as all-female. The White Mage is the most gender-neutral of the bunch though, having long hair and a gentle appearance. The PSP sprite of the White Wizard (pictured below) is especially feminine.

user posted image

So I think that while the entire party was male in the original-sprite versions, the later remakes make the White Mage into a female.

Posted by: KasperNinja 15th October 2011 02:42
Yeah in for the first sprites they all looked like guys but the one for the psp looked like a chick until he/she was promoted

Posted by: Allen Hunter 31st October 2011 04:19
Male-to-female transsexual.

Or Jesus without a beard (NES).

Posted by: arcterious 23rd November 2011 10:44
The sole proprietor of the KKK.

Posted by: IronRoto 11th December 2011 21:42
When I first played Final Fantasy way back in the early 90s, I never really thought about it. When I first got the white wizard, however, I then began to think the white mage was meant to be female. After playing the other Final Fantasys, where most White Mages are female, I felt my conclusion was correct. Now, with the remakes I am quite certain it's a female, but I see no problem with giving a male name and turning it into the stereotypical ambiguous japanese character.

Posted by: RavenLalonde 24th July 2013 22:39
I doubt it matters. The characters were specifically designed to be androgynous, so the player decides the gender. I gave mine the feminine name "Jade" this time around, but I also named the Black Mage "Rose", so there you go. The White Mage always looked somewhat more like a boy to me, but I always assumed that was to compensate for his profession, which would now be considered feminine. But also keep in mind most people, especially at the time the game was released, tend to assume doctors are male; and the White Mage is like a doctor, only magical.

Posted by: Spooniest 25th July 2013 19:26
I'm in the neutral camp.

In the NES version, the graphics weren't detailed enough to accurately portray secondary sex characteristics. The Medusa is a good example, because even the uncensored version just doesn't have the detail to appear convincingly feminine.

FF1 was probably done very quickly and cheaply. When it shocked everyone (including Square) by being a runaway hit, I'm thinking one of the first design choices for 2 was "we need an obviously female main character." Thus, Maria was born. Pay attention to her eyes as compared with the male characters. Her eyebrows (and Leila's!) are pointed up toward the center of her face.

Now, when they went to make the 3rd one, and decided to reuse the Job System from the first game, my instincts tell me somebody said "I liked having a female party member." Although the translation by SoM2Freak specifically states that the 4 mains are boys, it's interesting to note that the White Mage and Sage classes retain what would become the defining facial characteristic of females in the series for many more games: their eyebrows are pointed up towards the center of their faces.

This was the sprite Brian Clevinger used for White Mage in 8-bit Theater.

I also agree that it is likely that the decision was made over time to make the White Mage/Wizard class more feminine in the remakes. I would say it was a way of capitalizing on the popularity of Rosa in FF4, as well.

Posted by: Drewigi1 20th September 2013 22:10
I think he's Flea from Chrono Trigger sleep.gif

Posted by: RavenLalonde 5th October 2013 00:16
Wow, he does look like Flea.

How did I not notice that before?

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