Character Musings: The Queen of Sweet

Where do I even begin with this girl... Might as well start from the beginning. The very beginning...

Long, long, LONG ago - over ten years ago, in fact - I first became aware of Final Fantasy 1's white mage through 8 Bit Theater-inspired flash cartoons. Not even 8-Bit Theater itself - just Flashes done with the same sprites, given similar characterization. Back then, I was much more into Black Mage, preferring his design over all the other classes. White Mage was second. Time passed and I read the original 8-Bit Theater strip, wrote the two mages into early fanfics and other such things, and began drawing them, eventually culminating in me getting a copy of Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls for Game Boy Advance. Eventually my interest flipped and White Mage became my favorite while Black Mage was secondary.

An early prototype version of Sarah rose from these initial depictions. The original character, named simply "White Mage", had a number of differences from Sarah. She was more assertive and less "cute", as well as taller, and I paired her with Black Mage in a relationship that started off just as one-sided as in 8BT but slowly developed into a sort-of friendship over time. This mage did however have Sarah's trademark appetite.

Flash forward to 2011, and the infamous "ONE VOTE" incident. I'll repeat it for the folks who weren't around for it: In the first round of Zoofights 6, a giant praying mantis competitor was revealed and pitted against a lobster driving a giant robot lobster. Widow Maker, who had lost all three previous matches, went all out for this one in support of her fellow mantis. The mantis ended up losing the fight by a single vote - if the RNG had been just a little off, or if she had gotten just one more vote, she would have won. This heartbreaking result led to Widow Maker getting hospitalized due to a grief- and shock-induced heart failure, and I roleplayed as Hella Jeff for two weeks while she got fixed up. Her attendants? Four white mages - prototype Sarahkin. They were originally simply referred to as White Mage 1 through 4. This was initially done because they were minor characters (and also because I am historically bad with names). And why four? Because of that old influence, 8-Bit Theater, and its' famous gag. "Four white mages? It will never work!"

Next, after Widow Maker's return, a Fite Yer Mates battle took place that left several characters in need of medical attention. I brought back the white mages for a joke, but three of them got scared off, with a single mage staying behind. I randomly decided this was "White Mage 3". This mage healed the hurt fighters, and then stuck around. For the last week of the first round of the tournament, White Mage 3 was Widow Maker's goofy sidekick. She was cute, naive, and provided the CSI "YEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH" every time Widow Maker made a pun. Her main reason for existing was that at the time Zoofights was a bit more dark than it is now. There were no fluffy relationships and the vast majority of our interactions were centered around watching bloodsports, be it Zoofights itself or the earliest Fite Yer Mates battles, which were pretty brutal. Because of the darker tone, I thought it would be funny to see how a very cute, childlike character would react to it all. And it was all very innocent, silly fun for a while.

Then the first Big Bar Brawl happened.

Harpy entered Alex into that brawl, but JRM had asked for good pictures of the entrants for help with drawing them, so Harpy exchanged her sprite pic of Alex for the official character art of Ramza from Final Fantasy Tactics. I happened to like this design and art style quite a lot, so I reacted with a joke - White Mage 3 used Widow Maker's vote for the Brawl on Alex, with no reasoning beyond a picture of her with hearts for eyes. Then Alex followed up on it, asking 3 for her name. I flailed for a minute in panic before throwing out "Sarah".

And off we went. The pairing developed quickly and simply, as befitting the first pairing of ZFRP. Over time, Sarah developed into the character she is today - sweet, kind, caring, bubbly, and a bit ditzy. Despite using her constantly in the most active season of RP, I've done my best to keep her fresh by using her in different ways. Season 2 focused on Sarah without Alex, as Harpy largely sat out that year. Sarah got time to be on her own, most notably getting involved with helping Morgana and Kayle accept one another again after their severe falling out. In Season 3, I gave Sarah a break and she did very little of importance, only showing up in person at the very end of the season. And in Season 4, Sarah was meant to remain a rare cameo, but she once again defied expectations, this time thanks to the Tractor, and became a regular for the second half of the season. In the Season 4-Season 5 offseason, Alex finally popped the question on Valentine's Day, and ZFRP's original pairing is getting a wedding in Las Vegas! Rest assured, there will be all sorts of grand plans to make this wedding as adorable and full of sweets as possible.

One of the things about Sarah that proves to be the most fun to roleplay is when she does unexpected things, and sometimes those weird things become regular parts of her character. Her drinking contest participation was among the first of these, and her tendency to ride motorcycles, her shutter shades and feather boa won in a bet from Delmond, and her sudden transformation into a theme park owner added to the fun. With our Season 3 setting change, many of these traits vanished - there was nowhere to ride her bike and Tridenland was a poor choice themewise compared to the Star Festival's fairgrounds. We return to urban America this summer, so look for old Sarah habits to return as well.

I really enjoy roleplaying as Sarah. She's a ray of sunshine, always eager to help people regardless of whether they need encouraging words, white magic, or a tasty snack. She gets mocked every so often for her height or her weight, but she refuses to let the haters keep her down. As one of the two "founding mothers" of my roleplaying, Sarah is an important character to me. I hope I can continue to find ways to keep her a fresh and fun character to interact with.