8-Bit Theater

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8-Bit Theater (less commonly spelled 8-Bit Theatre) is a sprite comic created by Brian Clevinger based on the game Final Fantasy I by Square Co.. It launched in March 2001.

The plot of the comic roughly parallels the course of the game, following the four Light Warriors in their quest to vanquish the King of Demons, Chaos. The comic is not, however, a serious epic; much of 8-Bit Theater's humor is derived from the blunderings and misadventures of the protagonists and their foes.

8-Bit Theater was originally intended to parody a variety of classic 8-bit video games.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The popularity of the Final Fantasy comic convinced Clevinger to abandon this idea, although 8-Bit Theater does make occasional references to other video games, as well as various elements of popular culture.

Twice, the main comic has been replaced with other content by Clevinger in the style of 8-Bit Theater. The first such occurrence, in 2002, was Dynasty Memories, a parody of the Dynasty Warriors video game series produced by Koei Co., Ltd.

The second series of non Final Fantasy comics was Field of Battle, a parody of Battlefield 2 by EA Games, which ran for a week in 2005.

Like most webcomics, 8-Bit Theater occasionally runs guest and filler strips; for example, during a weeklong period in 2003 while the author attended E3.

1 Humor
2 Art
3 Characters
- 3.1 The Light Warriors
- 3.2 Other notable characters
4 Columns
5 Unanswered questions
6 Flash version
7 See also
8 External links
9 References

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Humor

The humor in 8-Bit Theater is based on exaggerated RPG stereotypes, and includes a range of comedic devices, such as droll humor, wordplay, and slapstick. A significant portion of 8-Bit Theater's humor is character driven — this often involves creating reader anticipation for character development which fails to come. (Example) Clevinger has stated that "[his] favorite comics are the ones where the joke is on the reader."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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Art

As a sprite comic, much of the art in 8-Bit Theater is sampled from video games, particularly Final Fantasy I. Some art is also obtained from public clip art sites and unspecified Google image search results.

Original artwork is created by Lydia Tyree and Kevin Sigmund, who contribute hand drawn art and custom sprites respectively. Sigmund (Sky Warrior Bob) has a guide to sprite creation on the Nuklear Power Forums.

The comic itself is assembled by Clevinger in Adobe Photoshop. Some details of this process are given in the 8-Bit Theater FAQ.

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Characters

For more information, see: Characters of 8-Bit Theater.

The events in 8-Bit Theater revolve around four central characters, the Light Warriors, and a number of minor ones. Many of these characters are exaggerated versions of RPG stereotypes.

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The Light Warriors

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Fighter — A fighter specializing in swords, and master of The Twelve Schools of Vargus-do Zodiac Style Swordplay. Fighter has a childlike mentality and an obsession with swords. He met Black Mage shortly after being cast out of Fighter's Camp '86 for failing to properly answer a trick question. [1] Fighter has since considered Black Mage to be his best friend, and is seemingly oblivious to Black Mage's frequent attempts to kill him. Fighter was the second Light Warrior to change class, becoming a Knight during a moment of quiet self reflection. This granted him the ability to block blows aimed at his comrades. Fighter is watched over by Dr. Swordopolis, a deity in the form of a sword who appears to be guiding him to an unknown destiny.

Black Mage — A wizard specializing in dark magic, Black Mage is utterly and completely evil, reveling in acts of murder, sadism, and wanton destruction. His magical arsenal includes lightning spells, fire spells, and the powerful Hadoken, but he seems to take particular pleasure in carrying out murder with his knife. He has attacked all of his fellow warriors on various occasions, particularly Fighter, whom he loathes. Black Mage is deeply smitten with his polar opposite, White Mage, whom he attempts to court with clichéd and deragatory pick up lines. An early episode hinted that Black Mage may represent a nexus of magical power. After the other Light Warriors changed class, Black Mage was visited by a dark god who claims to have "unbound the nexus", granting Black Mage the ability to use Blue Magic.

Thief — The classic gentleman thief, Thief is the Crown Prince of Elfland. He left his kingdom to seek a cure for his ailing father, unaware that this was part of a plot by the Dark Elf King, Astos, to overthrow the nation of Elfland. Thief met Fighter in Corneria, and wrote the contract that codified the formation of the Light Warriors. Thief works primarily by stealth, charm, and legal trickery, but is also highly skilled with knives. Thief was the third Light Warrior to change class, and is now a Ninja.

Red Mage - A mage possessing the ability to cast both white and black magic, though he used to rarely cast any in fear that it would make him less versatile. He believes himself to be a character in a traditional paper-and-pencil RPG along the lines of Dungeons & Dragons—and has abilities that allow him to manipulate his character statistics and the system itself, for instance by switching his stats around or obtaining useful skills he didn't actually learn first. Red Mage is known for his ludicrous battle strategies and weak grip on reality. Red Mage was the first Light Warrior to change class and is now a Mime.

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Other notable characters

White Mage - A mage specializing in white (healing) magic. White Mage is a priestess and member of Project Fate. Her mission is to help the Light Warriors save the world. Also, White Mage constantly has to deal with passes from Black Mage. Although she is a priestess, she has a hammer that she frequently uses against Black Mage. She also has a spell called "Holy Fire".

Black Belt - A talented martial artist and travelling companion of White Mage. His stupidity can sometimes cause the laws of physics to change, the space-time continuum to warp, and the universe to fold in upon itself. One such incident resulted in him being split in two. One was killed by Kary. The other was turned to stone, only to be healed later by White Mage, who failed to account for the fact that half his head had been eroded away by the pond of Mountain Dew he'd been thrown into. This oversight resulted in his second untimely death, his head spouting blood everywhere. This scene may have been inserted to get the fans of the comic to stop asking if Black Belt was going to be revived. Brian posted once on the 8-Bit forums "How much goddamn deader can I make him before people figure out that he's dead?".

Garland - An incompetent villain and leader of the Dark Warriors. Garland is terrified of Forest Imps, which are among the weakest enemies in the original Final Fantasy. After going through therapy, he now believes that Forest Imps don't exist, and has shown some signs of improvement in his evil works (he can do his villain voice constantly without hurting himself now), although he is still too nice to be a true villain.

Princess Sara - A Princess in Corneria, Princess Sara is kidnapped on a near constant basis. Far smarter than she lets on, Princess Sara is really evil underneath and tries to encourage Garland to be more evil.

King Steve - Princess Sara's Father and ruler of Corneria. Utterly incompetent, he worries about rating polls and doesn't understand the concept that kings are not elected. Invented Waroween, a holiday celebrated by having his army pillage, rape, plunder, and kill. Believes he invented eating, inventing, and a number of other things, but he didn't. Has a left hand man named Gary who tries to explain things to King Steve to no avail. His right hand man is Rodney the coffee stain.

Dark Warriors - A group of villains previously defeated by the Light Warriors. They consist of Garland, Bikke the Pirate, Drizz'l the Dark Elf Prince (a clear parody of Drizzt Do'Urden of Forgotten Realms fame), and Vilbert Von Vampire. Led by Garland, they plot the downfall of the Light Warriors through tactics such as negative campaigns to ruin the Light Warriors' reputations.

The Four Fiends - Powerful elemental beings and the Light Warriors' biggest adversaries to date. They are Lich (earth), Kary (fire), Kraken (water) and Tiamat (lightning); only Lich and Kary have yet made an appearance in the comic, but since the comic follows the game's storyline, it's safe to say Kraken and Tiamat will appear at some point.

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Columns

In addition to the comic, 8 Bit Theater's website featured two columns which claimed to be written by characters in the comic, both now discontinued. The first of them was written by Red Mage and was entitled Twinkin' Out. It dealt mainly with role-playing games and fictional battles, pitting superheroes against other superheroes or villains. A famous running gag in the column involved Febreze and its ability to solve every conceivable problem if applied properly. The entire column has a relaxed air to it, and is very comical. The second column is Ask EPS, standing for Evil Princess Sara. She would give advice on dating, which was often scathing.

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Unanswered questions

Throughout its run, 8-Bit Theater has assembled several yet unanswered questions. Some of these are presented below. This section does not answer these questions; it merely lists a number of them and gives the most common proposed answers or speculation.

Episode 434 - Episode 434 presents what appears to be some sort of dialog from the future. The identity of the speakers is unknown; however, the dialogue is generally speculated to take place between Black Mage (orange) and either Fighter, White Mage or Red Mage (red).

Death of One - In one column of Twinkin' Out With Red Mage, he says that he knows of the tragic death of one of the characters. This is most likely Black Belt, but it may be another, as yet unknown character.

The Weird Episodes - Episodes 81 and 83-86 shed light on the four characters (and Garland). (Episode 82 is a joke.)
- Episode 81 suggests that Black Mage is a Nexus of Power born as a man. In episode 656, a Dark God "removed the sigils and freed the nexus.", giving Black Mage "legendary" power and completing his class change.
- Episode 83 is Fighter's first encounter with his spirit guide, Dr. Swordopolis.
- Episode 84 discusses the nature of elf immortality and its tie to the forests. The episode also suggested Thief was an elf.
- Episode 85 is a Manifesto of sorts of the Order of Red Mages; it displays a character sheet of Red Mage with an image taken from Final Fantasy Tactics. In Episode 426, Red Mage mentions the Order of Red Mages and their quest to obtain the Red Orb. They believe it is the key to "Harnessing Celestial Power on the Terrestrial plane".
- Episode 86 sheds light on Garland and his phobia of imps.

The Class Change - In episode 300 a possible future is shown in which the four warriors "gain power and fame" as their quest continues. The four warriors, as Knight, Ninja, Red Wizard, and Warlock (the Final Fantasy III version of a Black Wizard) are shown in triumph. This future was accidentally erased by the experiments of a wizard, probably Sarda, in temporal causality. Despite this, the warriors were eventually granted a class change by Bahamut, the dragon God-King.

Megahedron - A character similar to Fighter's spirit guide, Dr. Swordopolis. The character appeared once to Red Mage in Episode 661 and has the appearance of a red 20-sided die wearing aviator sunglasses. Red Mage denied Megahedron was real, saying he was a result of his 3-point hallucination flaw. Clevinger's initial comment in the discussion thread for Episode 661 suggests Megahedron will be seen again, but so far it has remained his only appearance.

The Gods - In Episode 656, a dark god alludes to some sort of rivalry between him and Dr. Swordopolis, implying a similar conflict between their respective protégés Black Mage and Fighter. This is the first mention of Dr. Swordopolis from someone other than Fighter. This conflict is speculated to somehow tie in with Episode 434, although the exact nature of the issue is still highly unclear.

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