8-Bit Theater

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8-Bit Theater
Three panels from a strip that ran on January 20, 2004; which was (coincidentally) the day the site's current update forum started
Sample panels from the webcomic 8-Bit Theater on January 20, 2004.
Author(s) Brian Clevinger
Website http://www.nuklearpower.com/
Current status / schedule Several times per week
(Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday usually)
Launch date March 2, 2001 [3]
Genre(s) Sprite comic, Fantasy, Comedy, Parody

8-Bit Theater is a popular[1] sprite comic created and launched by Brian Clevinger in March 2001. It won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards for best fantasy comic in 2002.[2] In its feature on gaming webcomics, 1UP.com described 8-Bit Theater as the sprite comic "that took the style to its fullest expression and greatest popularity."[3]

The plot of the comic is based on that of the video game Final Fantasy I, 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 the humor displayed in 8-Bit Theater is derived from the blunderings and misadventures of the protagonists and their foes. 8-Bit Theater's humor is based on exaggerated RPG stereotypes and includes a range of comedic devices, such as droll humor, running gags, word play, and slapstick. A significant portion of the humor is character driven—often the comic creates reader anticipation for dramatic moments which fail to come. Clevinger has stated that "[his] favorite comics are the ones where the joke is on the reader."[4] 8-Bit Theater was originally intended to parody a variety of classic 8-bit video games.[5] 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 pop culture phenomena such as comic book superheroes, TV shows and movies. For example, there are parodies of superheroes, such as Arachna-Dude or The Sulk.

In addition to the comic, 8 Bit Theater's website featured two columns written by authors under the name of characters in the comic. Twinkin' Out, written by Ryan Sosa as Red Mage, 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 alleged ability to solve every conceivable problem if applied properly, a joke that gained enough popularity for Clevinger to use it in the comic. The second column was Ask EPS or Ask Evil Princess Sara. Clevinger's girlfriend Lydia Tyree, posing as Evil Princess Sara, would give (usually scathing) advice about relationships and life in general. These columns have since been removed following a reformatting of the comic's main website.

Contents

[edit] Characters

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.

[edit] The Light Warriors

The Light Warriors, riding blue Chocobos. From left to right: Red Mage, Thief, Black Mage and Fighter.
Main article: Light Warriors (8-Bit Theater)
  • Black Mage — An evil wizard who is highly proficient in black magic and takes great joy in being as evil as possible.
  • Fighter — A warrior specializing in swords who is extremely skilled in fighting, but also naïve and childlike.
  • Thief — Thief, also known as the Prince of Elfland, employs trickery and argumentation in his pursuit of money. His biggest motivation is greed.
  • Red Mage — Red Mage is versatile almost to the point of obsession and firmly believes that the world is a tabletop role-playing game. He is quite knowledgeable, but also somewhat delusional.

[edit] Other notable characters

Main article: Characters of 8-Bit Theater
  • White Mage - A priestess specializing in white (healing) magic. White Mage was assigned by her order to protect fate and to help the Light Warriors save the world.
  • Black Belt - A talented martial artist and travelling companion of White Mage. Black Belt had an extremely poor sense of direction, to the effect that the laws of physics and spacetime tended to rearrange themselves around him. He was killed by the Fiend Kary in the course of the series.
  • Sarda - An omnipotent wizard who forces the Light Warriors to retrieve the four elemental orbs. He claims to be "The Wizard Who Did It" and uses his powers in an immensely irresponsible and careless manner.
  • The 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, and Vilbert Von Vampire. They plot the downfall of the Light Warriors, but are depicted as even more inept than the Light Warriors themselves.
  • The Four Fiends - Powerful elemental beings that guard their respective elemental orbs, and are the Light Warriors' biggest adversaries to date. They are Lich, Kary, Ur, and Muffin.

[edit] Plot

The plot of 8-Bit Theater is loosely based on that of the video game Final Fantasy I. Four adventurers, the Light Warriors, must save the world by relighting four magical orbs that are tied to the four elements and, finally, defeat the personification of evil, Chaos. However, while many of the original plot points and characters are present, the way they come about is often radically different. The Light Warriors themselves tend to cause more harm than good on their travels and mostly have to be blackmailed, bribed, or threatened into accepting quests. Clevinger also introduces an original subplot involving a rivalry between gods and their respective protégés, two of the Light Warriors. He has also stated that the comic will not include the element of time travel featured towards the end of the game's story.[6]

The comic opens with Fighter dragging Black Mage into the middle of Giant's Forest in search of the Armor of Invincibility. When the eponymous giant appears, Black Mage uses his signature power, the Hadoken, to destroy the giant and obliterate the forest along with it. Upon returning to their home city of Corneria, Fighter badgers Black Mage into trying for the vacant job of "ye olde Lighte Warriorse" and recruits two companions. Thief tricks his way onto the team, leaving White Mage and Red Mage to compete for the last spot. The spot is filled by Red Mage, though White Mage and her bodyguard, Black Belt, continue to appear in the comic as major characters. The Light Warriors set off to rescue the oft-abducted Princess Sara, who's being held captive by Garland in the Temple of Fiends. Ironically, Garland is so inept at evil that Princess Sara actually takes over her own kidnapping, to the point of almost torturing Garland for failing to execute her orders properly. After the Light Warriors 'rescue' Princess Sara, King Steve of Corneria 'rewards' them by building "King Steve's Kick Ass Bridge" to the rest of the continent.

The Light Warriors visit the witch Matoya, who blackmails them into recovering her stolen crystal. During the search for the crystal, it becomes apparent that White Mage and Black Belt are following the Light Warriors. The trip takes the party to the port town of Pravoka, where they defeat the pirate Bikke (accompanied by Garland) and use his ship to travel on to Elfland. There, they discover the King has been poisoned, apparently by the same person who stole Matoya's crystal, and Thief is his son, the prince. The Light Warriors retrieve the antidote and Matoya's crystal from the dark elf Drizz'l, who is shortly thereafter recruited by Garland and Bikke. Upon his recovery, the Elf King sends the Light Warriors off to recover the Earth Orb and save his kingdom from rotting. The orb is in the possession of Vilbert von Vampire and his father, Lich, the Fiend of Earth; Black Mage is killed in the battle with Lich and sent to Hell[7], but easily becomes Hell's new king.[8][9] As king of Hell, he becomes extremely powerful, and the effects can be felt all over the world.[8] The Light Warriors still manage to defeat Lich and retrieve the orb, although Black Mage is returned to mortal life after he sends Lich to Hell, where the latter takes control.

White Mage then sends the Light Warriors to Sarda the Sage, an omnipotent wizard who takes the orb and proceeds to draft the group into quests for the other three elemental orbs. The Fire Orb is held by Kary, the Fiend of Fire in Gurgu Volcano. On the way there the Light Warriors, accompanied by White Mage and Black Belt, meet two members of a party of Other Warriors, who lead them to Gurgu before continuing their own quest. The group defeats Kary, but Black Belt is killed in the battle. Meanwhile, the Dark Warriors recruit Vilbert and come together as a group.

Sarda next sends the Light Warriors to the Ice Cave, where they travel to riding on a pirate ship staffed by the Dark Warriors. At the cave, the Light Warriors encounter the squid-like Doom Cultists as well as a temporary rift in space-time and an otherworldly being known as the Eye. The storyarc ends with the slaughter of the Cultists and Sarda's anger at the Light Warriors' failure to deliver his cold fusion reactor.

The Light Warriors now meet the dragon god-king Bahamut, who sends them off to the Castle of Ordeals to obtain a rat tail. There, the Light Warriors each face their own internal demons: Sloth (Fighter)[10], Pride (Red Mage)[11] and Greed (Thief)[12]. Meanwhile, Black Mage encounters his doppelgänger, representing his evilness[9], kills him and absorbs the evil energy his death set free, avoiding having to redeem himself.[13]. The Light Warriors present the rat tail to Bahamut, only to find that it is an ingredient in a virility soup his girlfriend (Matoya) makes for him. Red Mage becomes a Mime, Fighter becomes a Knight[14][15], Thief becomes a Ninja[15], and Black Mage becomes a Blue Mage with some help from a Dark God.[16]

Going back to retrieving the elemental orbs, the Light Warriors travel to the cities of Gaia and Onrac and use a submarine provided by Sarda to reach the Sea Shrine, where they find the Doom Cultists. After dispatching them for a second time, they accidentally summon the third Fiend, Ur (known in the game as Kraken), who is killed by Red Mage. The Light Warriors retrieve the Water Orb and travel to Lefein in search of the Air Orb.

The party meets Dragoon, the last Dragon Knight, and his pet "parrot" Muffin. Muffin is actually an evil dragon and the fourth Fiend, who guards the Orb of Air. During a battle in Muffin's Sky Castle she is killed by Dragoon. The Sky Castle itself explodes after Fighter and Black Mage remove the Air Orb from its place.

Upon presenting Sarda with the final orb, he dismissively orders the Light Warriors to return to the Temple of Fiends. There they find the the Dark Warriors, who have made the temple their base of operations. After Black Mage and Drizz'l temporarily defect to the respective other team[17], and after a brief encounter with the Other Warriors, the teams utilize voting instead of battling, then call a truce for the night and agree to fight in the morning[18]. During the night, each Light Warrior is approached by their respective patron god, and the Other Warriors are killed by Sarda after they confront him about allegedly kidnapping a child. The next morning, the Light Warriors first encounter the Dark Warriors again, then the four elemental fiends, who have returned from hell. Tapping into the energy he absorbed in the Castle of Ordeals, Black Mage kills the fiends and absorbs their evil energies as well. He then accidentally kills White Mage in a display of power and proceeds to pick off the other Light Warriors one by one. Before he can kill Red Mage, however, Sarda appears and revives Fighter and Thief.


[edit] Art

As a sprite comic, much of the art in 8-Bit Theater is sampled from video games, particularly Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy III. 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. The comic itself is assembled by Clevinger in Adobe Photoshop.

[edit] Recurring elements

  • Sword-chucks are an invention of Fighter, where two swords are chained together by the hilts, inspired by nunchuku. He is initially mocked for such an impractical invention, as the weapon would be more dangerous to the wielder than the opponent, but later uses them to great effect on the Fiend Kary. The sword-chucks became so popular that some collectible card games actually borrowed Clevinger's idea for use in their games.
  • Hadoken is an extremely destructive spell used often by Black Mage. He later reveals that it is powered by, and consumes, love. Occasionally, he or another character will use the suffix "-doken" when throwing or propelling something (or someone) in a similar manner. It is named after Ryu's signature special attack from the Street Fighter video game series.
  • Thief's ability to steal anything, no matter how large, dangerous, or even physically real it may be (for example, stealing a soul), unless it is both nailed down and on fire.
  • Red Mage's ability to allegedly change his stats and create talents where none previously existed, often turning out to be futile or useless, such as "six ranks in Profession: Pastry Chef", or basing his stats in "animal husbandry" to the disgust of Black Mage and Thief.
  • Black Mage's antagonism toward Fighter, who is utterly clueless of BM's feelings of hate and believes he is a good friend.
  • "A wizard did it", a joke explanation Clevinger gives for plot holes and inconsistencies; the "wizard that did it" is actually a character in the strip.
  • Garland's phobia of Forest Imps, the weakest monster in the game.
  • Some characters exist only for a running gag.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ ; Breaking the stereotype that comics must be hand-drawn, Anez inspired an explosion of webcomics using video games sprites, including one of the most popular and successful webcomics currently running, 8-bit Theater." "An in-depth look at the business viability of webcomics." [1] Internet Archive link; see also Wired: "Clevinger's comic, 8-bit Theater, uses sprites from the first Final Fantasy game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In the more than three years since its debut, 8-bit Theater has grown to be the most popular sprite comic on the Web, and, according to Comixpedia, it's the third most popular Web comic in existence."[2]
  2. ^ "2002 Winners and Nominees"
  3. ^ 1UP feature on webcomics
  4. ^ Brian Clevinger. "Nuklear Power - Home of 8-Bit Theatre". http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/04/03/teaser/. Retrieved on 2006-04-01. 
  5. ^ "Nuklear Power Forums". Brian Clevinger (Kurosen). http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showpost.php?p=303169&postcount=10. Retrieved on 2006-03-08. 
  6. ^ #426 Brian taunts the readers - Page 2 - Nuklear Power Forums
  7. ^ Clevinger, Brian (February 12, 2004). "Episode 383: Spinal Snap". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/02/12/episode-383-spinal-snap/. 
  8. ^ a b Clevinger, Brian (March 20, 2004). "Episode 397: Portents!". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/03/20/episode-397-portents/. 
  9. ^ a b Clevinger, Brian (October 18, 2005). "Episode 613: Mirror Master". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/10/18/episode-613-mirror-master/. 
  10. ^ Clevinger, Brian (October 15, 2005). "Episode 612: Mind Over Matter". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/10/15/episode-612-mind-over-matter/. 
  11. ^ Clevinger, Brian (October 29, 2005). "Episode 618: Tough Love". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/10/29/episode-618-tough-love/. 
  12. ^ Clevinger, Brian (October 6, 2005). "Episode 608: Teleporting never screws anyone". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/10/06/episode-608-teleporting-never-screws-anyone/. 
  13. ^ Clevinger, Brian (October 27, 2005). "Episode 617: Thinking Ahead". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/10/27/episode-617-thinking-ahead/. 
  14. ^ Clevinger, Brian (January 1, 2006). "Episode 650: I See You.". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2006/01/19/episode-650-i-see-you/. 
  15. ^ a b Clevinger, Brian (January 21, 2006). "Episode 651: Thief Of Time". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2006/01/21/episode-651-thief-of-time/. 
  16. ^ Brian Clevinger (Kurosen). "Nuklear Power Forums". http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showthread.php?p=366407#post366407. Retrieved on 2006-07-06. 
  17. ^ Clevinger, Brian (October 2, 2008). "Episode 1043: Basically A Toss Up". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/10/02/episode-1043-basically-a-toss-up/. 
  18. ^ Clevinger, Brian (December 11, 2008). "Episode 1070: What Were You Expecting?". 8-Bit Theater. http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/12/11/episode-1070-what-were-you-expecting/. 

[edit] External links

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