The Black Mage in the Opening Cinematic

Hello everyone.

A little over a year ago, Fernehalwes wrote this:

Quote:

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the Midlander male, Miqo’te female, Roegadyn male, Elezen female, and Lalafell female in the recent trailers are in fact the same ones that appeared in the 1.0 trailer! (Yes, the black mage is the Elezen female from the morbol party, not the snooty male from the Midlander’s party. The robe & hat conceal some of her more distinguishing features, and we all know there was no bust size adjustment feature back in 1.0).

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Upon reading this a few weeks ago I scratched my head as well as many others that thought the black mage from the 2.0 was a man. After repeatedly watching both opening scenes and carefully analyzing them closely with still-frames and slow motion I came to the conclusion that the Black Mage is definitely a male.

One of the first clues that I and pretty much everyone else sees is during the scene when the heroes appear in the woods, the black mage leads them to the light. If you pay close attention to the BLM's movements they look incredibly masculine when compared to the female elezen's majestically feminine movements in the 1.0 cinematic.

Take a look at these screens I captured.

http://i.imgur.com/psGZX1P.png
http://i.imgur.com/2m8coRx.png
http://i.imgur.com/huDvDyb.png
http://i.imgur.com/9Qb8Dti.png

Yeah. That looks absolutely nothing like the female elezen.
http://i.imgur.com/gFNjNul.png

The black mage looks a lot more like this fellow:
http://i.imgur.com/10s72VM.jpg
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Now let us take a closer look at the featured Black Mage CG Wallpaper available from the FFXIV Fan kit which displays the same BLM from 2.0's opening cinematic.

http://i.imgur.com/R9EdvZb.png
Original image

If you glance closely you can see his eye and nose are pretty much identical to the male elezen's. You can tell especially from the bit nose that we can see.

http://i.imgur.com/DuOzj5M.png

So what it boils down to is the black mage is clearly a male. Further backed by him not looking anything like the female elezen in the face shots we see of him and his masculine movements. Below, I will post a series of images in spoiler tags of the male and female elezen so that you can inspect further.

If the talented team at Visual Works didn't use the male elezen from the 1.0 cinematic, then they created another male. As hard as I tried to see the Black Mage as the female elezen, it just never stuck with me. So much that it lead to this thread.

I cannot really make a case for the eye color because they changed the 1.0 Miqote's eye color from brown to blue in the 2.0 cinematic. But for reference you can see the female elezen's eye color is green and the male's is blue like in the CG Black Mage wallpaper.

So what do you think?

Here are a series of images of the Male and Female elezen I captured for further inspection.

Female Elezen:

http://i.imgur.com/CNcXx7k.png
http://i.imgur.com/vFevhUr.png
http://i.imgur.com/hXdpIAS.png
http://i.imgur.com/soeBcRr.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yDw3j46.png

Male Elezen:

http://i.imgur.com/DuOzj5M.png
http://i.imgur.com/8eWvmdW.png
http://i.imgur.com/7mAYQ00.png
http://i.imgur.com/ntxJhEc.png
http://i.imgur.com/3dSFuOr.png
http://i.imgur.com/JuIAdRZ.png
http://i.imgur.com/Uuh6tO8.png
http://i.imgur.com/MERVmSt.png

Even the male's skin tone more closely matches that of the Black Mage's face. Though, the nose difference is what really gives it away.

The BLM looked female to me, you can see a hint of a bust shape under that weird mantle thing BLM AF has - the BLM's AF robe also has a narrow waist too, much narrower than what I'd expect a male elezen to have. And besides, the quote you posted from Ferne, word-of-God basically stated that BLM is the female GLA from Derplander's Echo-vision in the original opening movie - Ferne is the head lorewriter for the game - whatever he says actually happened in the game. Therefore, he said that BLM is the female elezen, so it is the female elezen. End of story.

If there is a discrepancy in the CG graphic of the BLM in the opening, blame Square Enix Visual Works for not cross-referencing, as they're the ones who made the trailer, not the FFXIV Development team.

The cheekbone/cheek/jaw difference between the two makes the 2.0 cutscene BLM look a little more masculine to me, but still hard to tell.... @_@

The shape of the cheeks of the BLM also matches the shape of the male elezen. They have an inward curve while the female's face is more rounded.

Let's also not forget that we're missing a dragoon and monk from that end of era movie. The female elezen would be considered for either role.

Still haven't got the foggiest why those jobs and that particular person were omitted.

And remember the original 1.0 opening where these group were inspecting their leves, which consist of male hume, male elezen, and female mi'qote. When this male hume gazing upon this particular leve card (which resembles a farmer pointing to some sort of hurricane), he suddenly jumped consciousness into another realm (or a dream) which he parties with different group that consist of female lalafell, male reoqgadyn, and yes: female elezen.

I guess in the end the rest of jobs were deemed not fitting into the end of era climax or something, and that female elezen were kinda out of job suited for her role. Who knows? Would love some shed of lights if it's possible.

And finally, here's a move that some of us dreamed having it realized and never did: back in 1.0 opening cinematic where this female lalafell cast a fire spell into this male hume's arrow and he proceed to shoot it toward the giant monster and cause it engulfed in flames.

BTW, think most of us already knew that BLM is in fact a male elezen. No female b**bs remember? lol

The female Elezen used a phial of fantasia. Problem solved.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

Let's also not forget that we're missing a dragoon and monk from that end of era movie. The female elezen would be considered for either role.

Still haven't got the foggiest why those jobs and that particular person were omitted.

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Simple, MNK and DRG are both DD Jobs - already reached the four member light party limit sorry - DRG and MNK got the short end of the stick. ;)

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

And remember the original 1.0 opening where these group were inspecting their leves, which consist of male hume, male elezen, and female mi'qote. When this male hume gazing upon this particular leve card (which resembles a farmer pointing to some sort of hurricane), he suddenly jumped consciousness into another realm (or a dream) which he parties with different group that consist of female lalafell, male reoqgadyn, and yes: female elezen.

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It was clear Derplander was using the Echo to jump into someone's memories - that original quote Tanama mentioned from Ferne was from a thread on the old Lodestone forum talking about this very subject. Ferne basically stated outright the Echo sent Derplander back into someone, or something's, memories of the Battle of Silvertear Skies, which is where he first 'met' the female elezen (who was GLA at the time), female lalafell (then a THM) and male roegadyn (who was MRD). The Guildleve is a 'Resolve' type by the way, but I'm not sure if it's available in the game though (either 1.0 or ARR).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

I guess in the end the rest of jobs were deemed not fitting into the end of era climax or something, and that female elezen were kinda out of job suited for her role. Who knows? Would love some shed of lights if it's possible.

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As I said, they were probably just trying to render a standard four member 'Light Party' and just decided to go with BLM and BRD, there's probably no real reason behind it other than just plain pragmatism.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

And finally, here's a move that some of us dreamed having it realized and never did: back in 1.0 opening cinematic where this female lalafell cast a fire spell into this male hume's arrow and he proceed to shoot it toward the giant monster and cause it engulfed in flames.

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A number of spells used in both the original opening and several other scenes in 1.0 (like Papalymo's 'magitek bullet absorbing spell' during the 'Future's Perfect' scene) never actually appeared in 1.0 - it's likely Tanaka was planning on eventually introducing it, but when Yoshi took over, that, like a lot of things about 1.0, never eventuated. Anyway, we've gone way off track here. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

If there is a discrepancy in the CG graphic of the BLM in the opening, blame Square Enix Visual Works for not cross-referencing, as they're the ones who made the trailer, not the FFXIV Development team.

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This.

I know Ferne is the loremaster of FFXIV though I bet if Ferne himself unmasked the CG BLM in the SE Visual Works department, he'd find a male under the veil. The only official image of BLM that actually looks feminine is this one.

http://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/lds/p...jpg?1383198525

I never see that BLM in movie as female

Never

Its obvious "he" is male and I was right since start

Wat? there peoples serious think that BLM is female? lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Simple, MNK and DRG are both DD Jobs - already reached the four member light party limit sorry - DRG and MNK got the short end of the stick. ;)

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lol

another off-track comment tho: why there's 2 tanks then? You do realize that PLD which is the male roegadyn, and there's that derplander which is a WAR. lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tanama

This.

http://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/lds/p...jpg?1383198525

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I do agree, that picture looks kinda feminine tho. :?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

lol

another off-track comment tho: why there's 2 tanks then? You do realize that PLD which is the male roegadyn, and there's that derplander which is a WAR. lol



I do agree, that picture looks kinda feminine tho. :?

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Haha, you're right! I only realized that derp of mine earlier. I clearly can't count! :p Thanks for picking that up. :D

But seriously, yes, that BLM artwork definitely looks feminine - considering the rest of that Job art the others all resemble the characters from the opening, it's likely that art is meant to represent those characters, pretty much adding more credibility that the BLM is meant to be a female elezen, and that SE Visual Works got the trailer wrong. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Altimis

I never see that BLM in movie as female

Never

Its obvious "he" is male and I was right since start

Wat? there peoples serious think that BLM is female? lol

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You mean people like the LOREMASTER?

She was a female in 1.0.
She is therefore Legacy
She got allowed to change her appearance before reappearing in Eorzea
She changed her gender and is now a man

You're welcome ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

As I said, they were probably just trying to render a standard four member 'Light Party' and just decided to go with BLM and BRD, there's probably no real reason behind it other than just plain pragmatism.

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There are 5 members, not 4.

Derplander - WAR
Male Roe - PLD
Unknown - BLM
Miqo'te - BRD
Fem Lala - WHM

Why go with 5? Why have 2 tanks? Maybe the CGI people were just lazy or ran out of time and omitted the DRG and MNK.

That makes me sad. I would have loved to see the Dragoon and Monk in full CG action. Especially if it were the female elezen from the 1.0 cinematic as the DRG. Did you see how swift and agile she was in the opening cinematic of 1.0 as a gladiator? And notice how there is no CG Wallpaper of a Monk or Dragoon but the other CG characters are represented. :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hysterior

She was a female in 1.0.
She is therefore Legacy
She got allowed to change her appearance before reappearing in Eorzea
She changed her gender and is now a man

You're welcome ;)

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LMAO

You forgot the fact that Fantasia only available AFTER 5 years later, not before? lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lucke

There are 5 members, not 4.

Derplander - WAR
Male Roe - PLD
Unknown - BLM
Miqo'te - BRD
Fem Lala - WHM

Why go with 5? Why have 2 tanks? Maybe the CGI people were just lazy or ran out of time and omitted the DRG and MNK.

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Well...

I have to admit that DRG is just way too dark to be noticed since end of era itself kinda in night time.

And having female elezen as MNK kinda.... not right. She's more suited for something close to noble ranks like gladiator, like the one from opening movie.

or maybe...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tanama

That makes me sad. I would have loved to see the Dragoon and Monk in full CG action. Especially if it were the female elezen from the 1.0 cinematic as the DRG. Did you see how swift and agile she was in the opening cinematic of 1.0 as a gladiator? And notice how there is no CG Wallpaper of a Monk or Dragoon but the other CG characters are represented. :(

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Actually, there is (MNK is a female hyur and the DRG is from what I can gather a male elezen - leading further evidence to the idea that the BLM is a female elezen). I'll try finding a link to those two pics in question.

EDIT: well, maybe I was wrong - FF Wiki has labelled the DRG pic as a male hyur, not elezen. Still, looks elezen to me: ;)

http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__...rtwork_XIV.jpg

and the MNK:

http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...rtwork_XIV.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

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The Drachen armet is missing the elezen ear slots and does resemble the Hyur version. Akihiko Yoshida replicated the Kain Highwind stance that Yoshitaka Amano made long ago. And the monk is indeed a highlander hyur judging by her hairstyle.

I don't doubt the BLM being female lorewise since that was penned by Fernehalwes himself. The point of my thread is that there is strong evidence that suggests the Black Mage in the opening cinematic is not the lovely female elezen from the 1.0 opening.

http://i.imgur.com/4BxtZLj.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

And finally, here's a move that some of us dreamed having it realized and never did: back in 1.0 opening cinematic where this female lalafell cast a fire spell into this male hume's arrow and he proceed to shoot it toward the giant monster and cause it engulfed in flames.

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In 1.0 there was supposed to be some kind of party combo system where each member would que up an action that would be executed on the team leads say so. I think it was in there when the game first came out but it was horribly implemented and a complete pain in the rear to actually set up and execute so no one bothered with it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShiekSmythe

In 1.0 there was supposed to be some kind of party combo system where each member would que up an action that would be executed on the team leads say so. I think it was in there when the game first came out but it was horribly implemented and a complete pain in the rear to actually set up and execute so no one bothered with it.

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Well, we bothered with it for very specific things, like breaking body parts from certain enemies (which has also largely been removed). Other than that, yeah, it didn't really get used by most people.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...rtwork_XIV.jpg

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Monk looks like Highlander master race.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Doge_meme.jpg

Wow

So yellow

Such body

Many sexy

When I saw the new (well at the time) CS of the CG Midlander party returning to Eorzea I noticed the BLM as well, the nose just didn't fit in with the female Elezen's and was pretty much a match for male Elezen despite Ferne telling us it was the female Elezen. This is why we have the Lore forum to question things like this. I'm looking forward to seeing a new CG Midlander involved trailer/CS.

The CS Elezen is most defintely the male Elezen and not the female Elezen despite what Ferne said. However, it most likely was meant to be the female Elezen but the animators used the male instead for whatever reason, similar to how the Aetherite in Limsa is in a different location in the CS from ingame.

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Originally Posted by Kikosho

The CS Elezen is most defintely the male Elezen and not the female Elezen despite what Ferne said. However, it most likely was meant to be the female Elezen but the animators used the male instead for whatever reason, similar to how the Aetherite in Limsa is in a different location in the CS from ingame.

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If you're talking about the original opening in 1.0, from what I'm led to believe that was because the opening was made before the actual game's design had been finalized - apparently because early on Tanaka's team realized that having the aetheryte in the Adventurer's Guild would be a very bad move, as it would cause far too much lag and server instability, well, even worse than what 1.0 was plagued by, hence they relocated it to where the Missing Member pub is now located in the Upper Decks. ;)

And besides, it's not just the aetheryte that was in the wrong place - the whole design of the Drowning Wench was completely different in that movie and nothing like how it actually ended up in game. Not to mention even the aetheryte's eventual location in 1.0 was replaced by the current location in ARR too, due to all aetherytes being destroyed in the Calamity and having to be replaced. But I've gone off track here. ;)

I was indeed talking about the 1.0 Opening CS since we don't even see the Drowning Wench in 2.0's Opening.