Robe and Wizard Hat: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

[[Wizarding School]] students tend to be wear a blend of this and whatever is considered that country's traditional school uniform; expect the more powerful teachers to do it straight.

 

 

It's often believed that the trope comes from the Norse god Odin's traveling outfit.

 

 

* Honami Takase Ambler, the Celtic magic-using [[Cute Witch|witch]] of ''[[Rental Magica]]'', wears a black cloak and pointy hat over her school uniform as her business outfit. When she had to change from her casual clothes to her business one, she changed into her school uniform first before putting on the cloak and hat.

** In the [[Flash Back]] episode to her time in a [[Wizarding School]], the other students also wore cloaks, but she was the ''only'' student wearing a pointy hat.

** As a highly advanced, probability altering alien, her predictions are all 100% accurate (much to the chagrin of some students).

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' present a strange mix of uses and inversions of this trope:

** An early conception of "conflict" between Negi and Evangeline was that she would refuse to take her wizard hat off. This never made it into the series.

** The important characters will usually wear a [[Badass Long Robe]] (often tattered).

* Aversion: Zangulus from the [[Slayers]] TV series is a pointy-hat wearer who is ''not'' a wizard. Instead, he's a [[Blood Knight]] swordsman who has an enchanted sword. He can cast some magic, though.

* [[Berserk]]: Schierke.

* Tsubame, from [[Urusei Yatsura]], always wears a traditional "magician's cape", though without the pointy hat. Given his other favored attire is a tuxedo, and his comments about having gone to "the West" to study his magic, it's clear he's supposed to be a parody of/reference to the stage magician, instead of the actual [[Hermetic Magic]]-using [[Squishy Wizard]] associated with Western magic users.

* Ginger Bread from [[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]] fits this trope, though he's only pretending to use sorcery; in fact, {{spoiler|the source of his power are spiders imbued with Sun Flames}}.

* In [[Witch Craft Works]], the main characters wear them so they can be invisible to muggles.

 

* [[Jingle Belle]]'s gal pal Polly Green, the halloween Witch, wears the traditional witch's pointed hat.

* [[The DCU]]'s Enchantress had a witch's hat, until the ''Shadowpact'' series took it away.

* [[Doctor Strange]] wore a red cloak while Sorcerer Supreme and a brown trenchcoat after surrendering the office. No hat; but the cloak's collar had two distinct pointy extensions on it.

* The comic strip Wizards at War which featured in the [[British Comics|British]] [[Anthology Comic]] ''[[The Beano]]'' used this trope on its main two recurring characters who were wizards and always fighting.

* Vaughan Bode's underground comix ''[[Cheech Wizard]]'' is a crude, dissolute fake whose wizard hat covers him down to his navel - he never takes it off, claiming if anyone saw who he was, they'd go mad.

 

** Well, crazier than all the other wizards, anyway.

 

* In the film adaptation of ''Hogfather'' (see ''Literature'' below), the wizards are never seen without their pointy hats - except if bathing, when they have pointy plastic showercaps.

 

* The [[Discworld]] likes this trope. A lot.

'''Ridcully:''' Yet you are wearing your hat, yet are, in a very real sense, naked. }}

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' informs us that the reason for the robes is that wizards' lairs get cold in the winter. This doesn't stop them from being the required formal wear at White Council meetings. Harry Dresden himself subverts this by trading in a robe and wizard hat for a [[Badass Longcoat]] and cowboy hat (at least on the book covers. He doesn't wear the hat much in the stories, which is a shame).

** Harry also subverts it by wearing a baby blue bathrobe to a Council meeting, because he's a smartass and flat broke.

* Subverted in [[The Princess 99]], in that the wizards, er ''Crafters'' want to get rid of "old stereotypes" and "streamline their appearance", as put by Professeur Wilde. Most of them wear slightly altered suits or hats, with the more traditional Crafters wearing hats and robes.

* Played with in ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'', where it is only the lesser magicians who dress as stereotypical wizards as a way to compensate for their lesser standing. The truly powerful mages tend dress like accountants.

 

'''Gaius''': I don't think you'll find one big enough. }}

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' Fifth season - At the grand opening of his magic store, Giles is wearing a wizard's hat and robe. Buffy stares at him. A long time. He quietly, sheepishly removes it (but does wear it in a later Halloween episode).

* In ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]],'' the Rangers have robes, each with a different design based on their element and color. As for the hat, the ''Megazord'' has one. Or rather, the top of its head is designed like one.

 

 

 

** ''[[Spelljammer]]'' boxed set reminds that the tactical considerations tend to overrule in more aggressive settings:

 

* Black Mages from the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series dress in blue robes and yellow wizard hats. Red Mages use a variation, a red tabard and a ''magnificent'' [[Nice Hat|red chevalier with a white feather]]. White Mages wear a white robe or poncho with blood-red triangles around the edges, which may or may not [[In the Hood|include a hood]], occasionally with a set of Cat Ears on the hood as in the case of {{spoiler|Krile}} of [[Final Fantasy V]]. Less commonly, the Time Mage class wear conical red hats with a star on them and loose-fitting robes and Summoners wear a phallic-headband-and-robe getup.

White Mage: "You there, in the doofy hat and parachute pants." }}

** Related: [[Nobuo Uematsu|Nobuo Uematsu's]] band, named after the eponymous Black Mages, utilize this type of garb for their stage costumes in some of their performances, most notably in the ''Darkness & Starlight'' DVD and the music video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQR0iYkl8zY Neo-Exdeath].

** Oddly enough, right now the tanking paladin ensemble involves... a plate-armor skirt.

** Another video references the plight of Paladin healers being forced to wear similar outfits in raids to be effective healers. "''I only wore it once... and I was sexy''".

** Asheron's Call also avoids this trope, as almost any character can wear almost any armor or clothing, and spellcasting is not penalized by equipment. However, for the first few years of the game, there was a loud group of players who complained that their mage characters were forced to wear armor because robes didn't provide enough protection and that they couldn't dress like typical mages.

* Justified in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'', where robes can hold much more powerful enchantments than regular apparel.

** In Oblivion at least, there are spell efficiency penalties for wearing armor. For those role-playing as casters (or any spell-heavy type of class) this reduces desirable outfits to robe & hood or regular civilian style clothes. Usually enchanted.

*** It's averted by the many pre-set spellcasting builds that include some form of armor training, then inverted by the many acrobatic/thiefly/monkly classes, for whom the high-enchant and low encumbrance of a robe and hat ensemble is more valuable.

* Melody, the bath house keeper from ''[[Rune Factory]]'' wears one, even though she doesn't know any magic.

** And then Baldur's Gate rolled along and subverts it and provides Player Characters with ''no'' pointy hats to put on. But then still cameo's Elminster with one! Party mages have to settle for imposing looking hoods instead.

* In ''[[The Sims]] 2'', magic users wear a robe and pointy hat, and the colors magically change upon their alignment. Good ones wear white robes with gold trim, and evil ones wear black robes.Neutral ones wear brown and grey robes.

* Lillet Blan, despite being a "newbie" in ''[[Grim Grimoire]]'' sure dresses the part.

** The other (stated) magicians, Alice Margatroid and Patchouli knowledge, both have robes (Alice's are colorful but loosely standard, while Patchy's are more like pajamas - justified by her tendency towards being ill far too much), but Alice has only a hair band, and Patchy's hat only has a point on it because she has a cresent moon shape attached to it.

*** And then there is Marisa's former master Mima, who wears a pointed blue cap with a sun on it and blue robes.

*** There is one more magician in the series - Byakuren Hijiri. However, she averts this - being one of hte few characters in the entire series to ''not have any head decoration whatsoever.'' (take note that animal ears are being counted as hair decorations here)

* One of the special Items-of-the-month in [[Kingdom of Loathing]] is the [http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Jewel-eyed_wizard_hat Jewel-eyed wizard hat,] probably the best hat for Mysticality classes (like with the chefstaves, power is not as important as the mysticality-related bonuses it gives).

* In ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'', the pointy wizard hats have valuable int, dex and/or magic bonuses. The male mages all wear robes, [[Rule of Sexy|but for some reason]], female mages are [[Stripperiffic]]. They start wearing robes in higher job classes, though.

* Pretty much everyone wears some variation of a robe and pointy hat in the Spellcasting 101/201/301 series. In fact, depending on the game mode, {{spoiler|that's ALL the protagonist wears}}, which is used for comedic effect on a lot of occasions.

* In the ''Avernum'' games, wearing armor makes it impossible to cast higher level mage spells (unless the character has the Natural Mage trait) so they usually end up wearing robes.

 

* Though the party wizard doesn't wear a hat, Elan of ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' puts one on when he's considering multiclassing to wizard. And while they don't wear ''hats'', pretty much any wizard, sorcerer, or druid in the series wears robes, including Xykon, Varsuvius, and Roy's Dad. A couple side characters DO wear hats as well, such as the Oracle, and the Azure City teleporting wizard.

* [[Cute Witch|Sal]] from ''[[Emergency Exit]]'' occasionally, especially for magic users' conventions, wears a [[Stripperiffic]] version with one button holding the robe together, and nothing but a fishnet top and a loosely tied skirt beneath.

 

 

* [[Inept Mage|Inept mages]] Tyrone and Pablo of ''[[The Backyardigans]]'' both wear one in "A Giant Problem".

** Twilight Sparkle wears a similar ensemble as a [[Halloween Episode|Nightmare Night]] costume complete with a fake beard.<ref>Apparently an academic, if not biological, predecessor of hers who is essentially the Sigmund Freud of pony magic (insofar as that comparison works on any level at all)</ref>

* Leonard from ''[[Ugly Americans]]'' wears a business suit and wizard hat. Even when he dons a suit of plate armor to join Lt. Grimes in hunting vampires, he removes his helmet before the fight, declaring, "I fight better in felt!"

 

* The classical grimoires, the books which purport to teach ritual magic, often include detailed instructions for making and consecrating the special ceremonial garb required by the ritual. This includes (and is usually not limited to) robes and (frequently pointy) hats. Many of these texts date back to the late middle ages.

* Many of the higher clergy in the Catholic Church, most notably the Pope. [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Leo_XIII.jpg You can't tell me this doesn't get "Flowing Robe and Pointy Hat" points.] Their original purpose was to be identified in a crowd easily. Now they are to symbolize their office rather than to cast [[Bolt of Divine Retribution|level 1,000,000 lightning]], but still. (Of course, it's debatable whether or not His Holiness ''can'' call down epic-level lightning...)

* The Zoroastrian Magi of Persia are thought to have originated the pointed-hat look and symbol-covered robes, while the broad-brimmed hat and long white beard may be derived from Odin. The words "magic" and "mage" are derived from ''magi'', so there might be something there.

* Academia generates a lot of fuss about ceremonial garb. There are no pointy hats, but there are hats you're only allowed to wear if you have a Ph D, and the shape and color of graduates' hoods has a long and very specific history that varies depending on the institution. And, of course, they're accompanied by robes.

* The English style of headgear in the 17th century ran to high-crowned (pointy) hats, which became the stereotypical "witch's hat" in Halloween iconography.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Cranium Coverings]]

[[Category:Stock Costume Traits]]

[[Category:Older Than Print]]

[[Category:Wizards and Witches]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]