"War can leave scars no one can see... If I can ease your burden by listening, please, do not hesitate to call on me."
The White Magician Girl is a Stock Character appearing in Fantasy Literature and Role Playing Games, acting as the party's resident healer, nurturer and source of feminine wisdom. While the other party members are slaughtering opponents, the White Magician Girl is taking care of their wounds with gentleness and compassion, and congratulating them after the battle with her brilliant smile. She is often included as a female lead because Guys Smash, Girls Shoot or as a foil to a less traditionally feminine Action Girl. She's basically the White Mage infused with Incorruptible Pure Pureness.
There are three essential elements of the White Magician Girl:
- Girly Girl: The White Magician Girl is classically female and always feminine. Tomboys, Sweet Polly Olivers, and Bifauxnen need not apply (though a Tomboy with a Girly Streak may be spotted once in a while). Femininity will usually be emphasized in her character design with the use of long hair and overtly feminine clothing, such as dresses or robes. Male analogs, which are rare, will mimic the same gentle appearance, sometimes to the extent of wearing long robes and long hair (or perhaps a suitably pious hat).
- Takes a support role in combat: A White Magician Girl's primary role in combat is performing healing and/or support abilities, usually through White Magic. As a result, they usually have relatively poor physical combat skills. Although classic for the look, their weapon is not always a Magic Staff; blunt objects like maces, scepters, or hammers are common, as are ranged weapons, such as bows. In the very rare cases where she uses a bladed weapon, it's usually a knife or rapier (the latter is common if she's also a princess) at largest. Improbable Weapon User White Magician Girls are not unheard of, especially heart-shaped weapons. It's also not unknown for them to have some offensive magical capabilities as well, though not to the extent of a Black Magician Girl or Lady of Black Magic. One common exception is when battling the undead or demons, in which case she may possess some frighteningly powerful offensive spells that work only on those beings. In these cases, if she is some manner of priestess, then you can count on her wielding a Holy Hand Grenade.
- Caring and compassionate: White Magician Girls have nurturing, motherly tendencies that tie-in with their feminine appearance and white magic. Very often they act as The Heart or Team Mom of their party. Common personality types include being The Pollyanna, The Ingenue, Proper Lady, Yamato Nadeshiko, or an All-Loving Hero. More rarely, they may be a Plucky Girl. White Magician Girls are almost never a straight Genki Girl, Tomboy, or Tsundere type, although mild tendencies are not disqualifiers.
While not a requirement, she is frequently the Love Interest of The Hero, which typically places her as half of a Sword and Sorcerer combination, and will generally overlap with traditionally feminine fantasy archetypes such as the Rebellious Princess or Mystical Waif. It's not uncommon for them to be princesses (rebellious or not), pacifists, or clergy. Characters of this archetype are frequently paired with a Black Mage, usually a Black Magician Girl or Lady of Black Magic, as a foil.
Note that whiteness in race is not required for this trope, only the use of white magic. See also The Medic, White Mage, and The Heart. This trope is almost the inverse of the Black Magician Girl. Not to be confused with Magical Girl, although it does commonly overlap.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Black Clover: Mimosa is a kind girl who'll heal anyone regardless of whether they're a different race or enemy, and explicitly described as the healer of the group.
- Bleach: Orihime Inoue is a kind girl, whose Super-Cute Superpowers focus on healing and defence. Her healing makes it so the injury never happened, to the point of bringing people Back from the Dead, and her barrier is quite literally unbreakable. It's later revealed that her powers are actually minor Reality Warping, and have the potential to be insanely powerful... but her pacifistic nature makes any offensive application rather ineffective.
- Delicious in Dungeon: Falin, sister of Laios and the original party's cleric, capable of everything from spirit possession wards to escape magic and exorcism. And her method of exorcism? Performing a Cooldown Hug on the ghost, making it move on with sheer compassion.
- Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai The main cast has two female White Magic users: Maam, the party's staff-wielding Combat Medic and Team Mom, has elements of this trope, but she's quickly overshadowed by Spirited Young Lady and Big Good Princess Leona. While Leona is worse in a straight fight than Maamnote she has much better healing abilities, and a combination of empathy and pragmatism that allow her to be more effective at the emotional side of her job as well. In fact even Maam herself starts to realise that the only thing she has to offer over Leona is being less busy; this leads her to start focusing more on hand-to-hand combat, moving away from this trope and towards Emotional Bruiser Action Girl.
- Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger: Sharuru is a capable White Mage capable of casting healing spells all the way up to Curaga. But she admits that she's far from omnipotent and White Magic is only good for stemming bleeding, closing gashes, and alleviating pain. She can't fix broken bones, restore lost limbs, or revive the dead.
- Gachiakuta: Eishia Stilza, the Cleaners' primary healer, is a teenage girl who dresses like a nurse and has a literal Magical Defibrillator for a Vital Instrument. She's shy and lacks confidence, but is always willing to help, and her powers are said to be unique to her thanks to her pure heart and inherent kindness.
- Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato: Lakshu is this through and through since she's not a fighter, but being a priestess of Vishnu (and eventually her successor, but nobody know that) allows her to use her spiritual energy (sohma) to heal people.
- Record of Lodoss War: Leylia appears like this trope initially, being a kind healer cleric and all, but in Chronicles of the Heroic Knight she shows she's not above using bladed weapons with brutal efficiency when the situation calls for it.
- Rune Soldier Louie: As a Mylee priestess, Melissa knows some offensive spells, but her main function is to provide support for Jeanie and Merrill with defensive spells and healing magic. Once Louie joins them, he makes it a point to keep Melissa covered, since he's her appointed champion... though it's against her will.
- The Seven Deadly Sins: Elizabeth is revealed to possess incredible magic power known as "Ark", which she primarily uses to heal people. When it's first shown in full, she fully heals everyone in the city - except herself, because she's so compassionate, she used every last ounce of power on others first. Aside from this incident, she repeatably puts her life on the line for the sake of the people who tried to sell her out, and overall plays the role of The Heart in the group. Of course, Ark is also a powerful Holy Hand Grenade especially effective on demons, but Elizabeth rarely uses it this way.
Comic Strips
- Nodwick: Piffany is an example played for comedy. She's a kind, adorable, pure-hearted, Friend to All Living Things, but not overly bright robe-clad staff-wielding cleric. Piffany's the party healer and Morality Pet in an adventuring group with two comedic sociopaths and their chew-toy henchman, whom she regularly resurrects with her Duct Tape of Healing. She also, canonically, bakes the best cookies in the universe.
Fan Works
- The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World: Chana of the mine-robbers, noted explicitly as the only human among them who counseled against attacking Paul. The "PC Dialogue" behind this particular incident (and available directly from the author if you want it) indicates that Chana is the party's cleric and has that classic support role. Mildly ironic in that she's black.
- The Night Unfurls: Clad in white vestments with a hood and a skirt (aka. the White Church Set), Lily is a cleric / healer who treats the wounded in the tents and uses healing spells to support the other Hunters during combat. Contrary to what her role would suggest, she is also adept at stabbing her foes with the Church Pick, a bladed weapon, and setting The Horde on fire. During the Rad Incursion, she is shown to be capable of switching between healing the heavy hitters and destroying her enemies (i.e., multitasking). Personality-wise, the former nun treats her allies with respect and tenderness.
Film — Live Action
- Mythica: Teela, the priestess. Support character? Check. Healing magic? Check. Carries a staff? Check.
Literature
- Amaranthine Saga: The titular heroine of Tsumiko and the Enslaved Fox is an extremely gentle and compassionate person but she is a very powerful class of Reaver, known as a Beacon. Throughout the story, her abilities are solely used to nurture others, while she leaves the physical fighting up to others. She is eventually contrasted with Anna Starmark, a Beacon of similar power level, who is also a fierce warrior.
- Beren and Lúthien: The titular heroine uses singing magic to perform all kind of effects, such like healing wounds, putting people to sleep, making her hair grow, weaving magic cloaks...and blowing fortresses apart. She is also wise, compassionate and very bold. It is justified, since her mother is an Ainu (essentially, an angel), and the Middle-Earth universe was sung into existence by the Ainur as told in The Silmarillion.
- Dragonlance: Goldmoon is the bearer of a powerful magical staff who sought to inspire the people to a return to faith in the gods. She is the High Priestess of her people. Goldmoon is a nurturing being and an encouraging and persuasive speaker. Her attire, however, is atypical, as she is a barbarian noble and cleric.
- Goblin Slayer: Priestess is a caring and gentle young girl that specializes in healing and protective spells, wears white and gold, carries an ornate staff, as well as being the moral core of the group.
- High School D×D: Having been formerly a nun and devout Catholic, Asia Argento's sweet and compassionate to everyone, and her Sacred Gear is even called Twilight Healing. While she does learn some elemental magic later on, she's still mainly a healer.
- KonoSuba: Aqua serves as the team's healer and has a powerful ability to eliminate undead. She also has the ability to purge corruption, which comes in handy when the team gets a quest to purify a lake. Unfortunately, Aqua has difficulty controlling her purification powers, which results in virtually any liquid she gets near turning into water.
- The Lost Redeemer: All of Nahlia Cole's abilities revolve around healing and protection in some way. Even when she's learning combat in Whitecliff Academy, she takes a pacifist approach and refuses to hurt anyone.
- Slayers:
- Sylphiel Nels Lahda is extremely gifted at the healing and protection ends of White Magic compared to other users in the series, is kind and caring, and has a huge crush on the swordsman Gourry.
- Inverted with Naga the Serpent and Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune. Both of them are exceptionally gifted in white magic (it runs in the family) and are both very competent healers, yet Naga smacks of Black Magician Girl due to her personality and outfit, and Amelia is very much a tomboy Action Girl.
- Throne of Glass: Nehemia reveals that she has been using Wyrdmarks to keep Celaena safe through the competition and her ability with them seems to trend toward this trope.
- Villains by Necessity: Kaylana, who's the party healer and voice of wisdom. She holds them together through crises, and provides support to the rest, mostly refraining from direct combat. The source of her power is also a staff.
Tabletop Games
- GURPS Magic (3rd ed): This is implied by the "wizard character types". Most of them treat "he" as generic, but the Healer (and only the Healer) says "He (or she!)" (exclamation mark in the original).
Video Games
- .hack//G.U.: Atoli is a sweet and naive girl, who is so pacifistic and caring, she's reluctant to harm even in-game critters. Naturally, she plays as a Harvest Cleric, the main healing class in The World R:2. In fact, she's your only dedicated healer for most of the series.
- Abyss Crossing: Lorin specializes in healing and light elemental spells, and has an easygoing personality.
- Ancient Roman: Power of Dark Side: Michelia is a soft-spoken girl in a white dress, who wields a staff in combat and gives the party the Heal spell when she joins.
- Arc Rise Fantasia: Ryfia is a very kindhearted, if a bit Innocently Insensitive Mysterious Waif, who's contrasted with Black Magician Girl Adelle. In combat, Ryfia uses a Magic Staff and has several healing Excel Acts, as well as starting with a Water orb, which grants healing spells. The only part that one wouldn't expect of her is that she's got Nerves of Steel, and remains completely unfazed no matter what.
- Baldur's Gate: The games has a few odd examples.
- Viconia DeVir is a inverted example as she's the best cleric in the game (especially in the sequel where she's the only pure cleric and her Wisdom is maxed out and has excellent Charisma on top of it), but she's evil-aligned and a massive jerk.
- Another example is Aerie. while technically a Red Mage since she's a Mage/Cleric hybrid, her behaviour screams of this trope.
- BlazBlue: Celica A. Mercury fits the bill, despite being a playable character in a Fighting Game. She's a cheery, helpful, and upbeat girl, who excels in healing magic, but cannot fight. In gameplay, it's her robotic bodyguard Minerva who actually fights, while Celica's own attacks look like ineffectual slapping. Her round win animation has her healing the downed opponent, while during the Astral Heat she commands Minerva to carry the enemy away, but not before healing them (as opposed to most other Astral Heats murdering the target).
- Breath of Fire: The trope is often subverts the trope. Only the first and fourth games really play the trope straight with Nina, and even then Breath of Fire IV gave her some offensive magic to let her qualify more as The Red Mage.
- Chrono Trigger: Marle is the party's primary healer in the game, learning several spells that can restore health, cure status effects, or revive fallen party members. However, it's subverted in that she's also a Rebellious Princess and a bit of a tomboy, using crossbows as her primary weapons and not being afraid to buck tradition (such as discarding her princess dresses in favor of much simpler clothes).
- Chrono Cross: Among the game's massive cast of playable characters, there's Lady Riddel, whose techs are all dedicated to support roles like healing or buffing. There's a few other characters that could be played similarly, like Leena or Irenes.
- Corruption of Laetitia: Riliane starts as a traditional white mage, in that she's a kindhearted person who focuses mainly on healing magic. However, with the right choices, she can change her class to become a more combat-oriented healer.
- Darkest Dungeon: The Vestal is the game's traditional healer, with very strong group and individual healing skills. She performs best in the back row, having access to all her healing options and ranged attacks that provide some utility. While a front-line Vestal can dish out much more damage with her mace, it weakens her ability to support her team and it's much more inefficient until you have to proper trinkets to support it.
- Dead In Vinland: Brother Angelico is a rare gender flip, being an Endearingly Dorky Pretty Boy with a long white robe and a nervous stutter who's gentle, physically frail, determined to be helpful, and has some healing ability and a support role in combat. He's even a potential love interest for Kari, despite an inconvenient vow of chastity. Subverted to HELL and back when he turns out to be a Serial Killer — albeit it turns out that it's because of a Jekyll & Hyde scenario, and his "Jekyll" personality is genuinely decent.
- Disgaea
- Love Freak Flonne from the first game, and Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice.
- After Disgaea 2, Nippon Ichi games have any generic Healer unit. While the mentor system can be used to get healing magic from one person to another, the Healers are all female, and can wield staves (bows are useful too), and are always dressed in elegant dresses with long hair. They believe that healing their wounded comrades is a necessity and thus they are committed to developing their skills and school of magic. In contrast, the male healers believe that healing the injured in the battlefield is a sin and wear barbed robes as a form of atonement.
- Dragon Age: Origins: Wynne is a rare elderly example of this archetype, being around sixty when she first meets the Warden. Once she joins the group, she quickly falls into the role of the resident Healer, frequently is shown to offer kind words of wisdom to various characters and becomes the unofficial Team Mom (or Team Grandma if you prefer) of the group. Aside from Morrigan, it's clear that no one has a bad thing to say about her. Most of the other healing mages you encounter throughout the series are men, and none can match Wynne's nurturing, maternal nature.
- Dragon Quest:
- The Princess of Moonbrooke in Dragon Quest II is a very early RPG example, debuting all the way back in '87. While she may have set a (possibly) unfortunate trend for RPG females, she's still a vast improvement over the Damsels in Distress that were so common at the time. Ironically enough, she's more of a Red Mage than her successors since she learns the strongest attack spells in the game.
- Downplayed in the HD-2D Remake. While she learns Zing and Kazing, and has access to the Limit Break Zingslinger, she cannot learn the strongest healing spells Fullheal or Omniheal, which remain exclusive to the Prince of Cannock. Personality-wise, while she's relatively kind, intelligent, and very loyal too, she can get quite emotional and is not as kind as the Prince of Cannock, especially when she gets upset.
- Serena in Dragon Quest XI is a healing mage with a mild-mannered ingenue personality. She contrasts with her sister Veronica, a hot-tempered Black Magician Girl.
- The Princess of Moonbrooke in Dragon Quest II is a very early RPG example, debuting all the way back in '87. While she may have set a (possibly) unfortunate trend for RPG females, she's still a vast improvement over the Damsels in Distress that were so common at the time. Ironically enough, she's more of a Red Mage than her successors since she learns the strongest attack spells in the game.
- Evolution (1999): Both the original game and its sequel Far Off Promise have the character Linear Cannon (yes, that's really her name), who is a kind and gentle, if somewhat meek Mysterious Waif. She likes taking care of plants, wields a Frying Pan of Doom, and all of her special moves involve healing, status effects, or buffs.
- Fantasian: Kina is a nice young woman who wields a staff, and uses healing and holy magic. She's associated with nature, including being accepted by a spirit beast, and she saved Leo's life during their first meeting with her magic, despite being forbidden to use it. It doesn't hurt that she looks a lot like Aerith.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy I: The White Mage is the very first example of the franchise and the one to set the precedent for all other characters of the class. Whilst all player characters in the game have no explicit gender, the White Mage is often assumed to be female due to their soft appearance. In the GBA and PSP remakes, the White Mage has mostly female names in contrast to the other classes who have mostly male names.
- Final Fantasy IV:
- Rosa was almost a prototype for the breed, except her non-magical archery was often a match for some melee characters. She could wield a staff as well, but her best weapons were bows and arrows.
- Porom from the same game also counts. She is not as brash as her brother, and tends to actually keep him in line. And Porom along with her brother do temporarily sacrifice themselves to save the rest of the party. Rydia would also count except that she lost the ability to cast White Magic when she was taken to the Land of Summons.
- Final Fantasy VII: Aerith Gainsborough is probably one of the more famous examples of this trope. However, years of Flanderization thanks to her appearance in Kingdom Hearts made people think that she's full on this trope when she actually was just downplaying it in the original game: She might have supportive Limit Breaks and specializes in magic power and generally nice... but she's also more sneaky, teasing, street-smart and generally more outgoing compared to the resident martial arts girl Tifa.
- Final Fantasy IX:
- Garnet/Dagger uses magical "rackets" as well as staves. She fit this trope to a T until she starts getting her summons back, at which point she shifts to a more offensive-oriented character. Interestingly, this change is also marked by her cutting her long hair.
- Despite her superior White Magic, Eiko is absolutely not a White Magician Girl. She's aggressive, tomboyish, and her flirting as cheesy and annoying as Zidane's.note
- Final Fantasy X: Yuna is the mystical, kind hearted, white mage willing to die for temporary peace. This is averted in the sequel Final Fantasy X-2 where Yuna has as much access as Rikku and Paine to all manner of death-dealing hardware and has loosened up since she no longer has her summoner duty but she's still kind hearted.
- Final Fantasy Tactics: Alma Beoulve and Princess Ovelia are both exclusively White Mages, and are comparatively more feminine and passive than the other Action Girls in the game.
- Fire Emblem:
- Genealogy of the Holy War:
- Deirdre, the wife of protagonist Sigurd has light magic capabilities, but her low stats in everything other than magic and heavy tome make her unfit to get in any serious combat, and one of her first jobs upon arrival is to use her Silence staff to neutralize a VERY dangerous enemy mage. She's also The Ingenue and an All-Loving Hero (though ironically, she also has the bloodline of the anti-messiah, making her integral to the villains' plans).
- In the second generation, Edain's daughter Lana is the primary one, filling the same role as her mother, although depending on who her father is she has the potential to become more of a Red Mage after promotion. Though the second generation's protagonist Seliph can marry almost any of his female comrades, Lana has the biggest head start.
- Julia, Deirdre and Arvis's daughter. She starts out with the capability to use offensive magic, but no offensive magic available for her to use, plus Lana will hand her a healing staff very soon. She's a bit better than her mother at holding her own in combat once she gets an offensive spellbook, but this can be attributed in large part to a spell that also heals herself upon a successful hit. And she's got the personality—like most, a carbon copy of her mother.
- Nanna, a Troubador, is gentle and calm but not exactly willowy. She is also the canonical love interest of the fifth game's protagonist.
- Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade:
- Elphin the bard could be considered a male example. His role is strictly support (in gameplay, anyway; he also has plot relevance as he's actually Prince Mildain of Etruria), and he's got the serene and serious personality that his female counterpart Lalum (Genki Girl Dancer) lacks.
- Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade:
- Priscilla, a Troubadour, is a sweet, kind-hearted girl. Her abilities are strictly support until she promotes to a Valkyrie, at which point she moves into Red Mage territory.
- Ninian's abilities are all support abilities, with no combat abilities at all. She is shy and feminine, in personality and appearance. She's a Mystical Waif. And she's one of The Hero's potential Love Interests.
- Lucius (Monk), once he is promoted from his Monk class to Bishop. He is caring, compassionate, will look out for people he loves, and is so pretty that Serra mistakes him for a girl. He is a powerful light magic user, but his defense is so abysmal that he should be kept away from the front lines at all cost. Once he is promoted, he becomes a very useful healer and staff-user.
- Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones:
- Natasha is a Cleric who joins up early in the game. Lacks any offensive magic at first, is a Defector from Decadence who hails from the country whose leadership is the antagonists, and quickly manages to win a powerful hired sword to switch sides via words only.
- The Monk Artur hits all of the same points as the above-mentioned Lucius, except he never gets mistaken for a girl. This is especially the case if he promotes to a Bishop, though downplayed if he is promoted to a Sage.
- Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn:
- Rhys is a Rare Male Example, being a gentle healer without any attacks. For the "Healer" part, at least until he gets promoted.
- Laura is a shy, sweet girl healer.
- Fire Emblem: Awakening:
- Maribelle's Kid from the Future Brady is a Rare Male Example. He's got a rather thuggish face and huge self-esteem problems, but is a very efficient healer and a really sweet dude.
- Fire Emblem Gaiden and its 3DS remake have examples on both routes:
- Silque is the first healer to appear in Alm's route and she fits in quite well with her kind and plucky personality. However, she focuses less on healing spells and more on support magic like Warp and Invoke.
- Genny, the first healer in Celica's route, is shy and gentle and a bit insecure.
- Tatiana, the Saint recruited later in Alm's route, is a bit clumsier than average but fits in perfectly otherwise, plus she has exclusive access to Fortify aka the most powerful healing spell in the game.
- Echoes has Faye, who can become a Cleric and will perform well as one (in fact, she has a unique spell and learns another much earlier than the other Clerics). She is very sweet, although she's a lot more possessive than most examples of this trope.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Mercedes of the Blue Lions house is a kind and gentle young woman with a very high aptitude for White Magic. She is one of only two units capable of learning the ultimate healing spell, Fortify. Her Birthmark of Destiny also sometimes gives her extra uses of her healing spells.
- Flayn of the Church of Seiros is younger and a bit perkier than Mercedes, but is still a very kind and helpful young lady with a high aptitude for White Magic. Flayn is the other user of the Fortify spell, and her Birthmark of Destiny sometimes makes her healing spells more powerful.
- Genealogy of the Holy War:
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Stray Rondo: Corniche "Cony" Royce, created specifically for the game, is an alchemist who specializes in healing alchemy. She is a kind and a little naive young girl, who wields darts in combat. Given the pointed lack of supernatural healing in the source material, she is your only way to heal, outside of items and level-ups.
- Genshin Impact:
- Barbara is a deaconess with a sunny personality who aspires to use singing as a way of healing others. Also she literally wears a white dress, white stockings, and a white cap. She is also a support unit focused on healing with low damage output, although with the Ocean Hue artifact set or in a Hyperbloom team this can change.
- Kokomi is a 5-star version of Barbara, who does more damage but has an extreme crit rate penalty.
- Golden Sun: Mia plays this trope as straight as possible. Girl with long hair, wears feminine clothing? Check. Heals people, uses a staff? Double check. Has as her main (if not only) personality trait being caring and compassionate? Jackpot. Her son inherited all of these points.
- Grandia II: Elena wields a staff, does little in direct combat, has holy-themed magical powers, and is used mostly for healing spells. In fact, true to form, she shares a body with a Dark Magical Girl in the form of the Wings of Valmar.
- Her Heart, Anew: Myrrh specializes in healing magic, and like Skye in the early parts of BlueSkies, she has no offensive skills whatsoever. She ends up being a Decon-Recon Switch in regards to the personality aspect of this trope, since while she as eager to heal people as other examples of this trope, she is initially too soft to defy her parents and Lord Jimbol's cruel expectations for her. She later decides to run away from her arranged marriage with Jimbol, while still retaining her kindness.
- Honkai: Star Rail: Hyacine is the head nurse of the Twilight Courtyard, who firmly believes it's her duty to not only heal people, but raise their spirits as well. In battle, she has some cutesy abilities , like summoning her Ridiculously Cute Memosprite Little Ica and conjuring bubbles to attack.
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-: Nozomi is a timid yet resilient girl whose will to fight manifests as a gun that shoots healing bullets (and normal bullets, but those are less important to her skillset). Her hair is even white.
- I am Setsuna: The titular Setsuna is an expy of Yuna, with all that entails, being a kind healer who's willing to sacrifice herself to save the world.
- Kingdom Hearts: Ventus is a male example of this trope since his unique, late game Commands focus on using wind and light magic, the latter of which doubles as a healing spell. He also fits the personality of this trope being the Sensitive Guy to Terra's Manly Man as well as an all around Nice Guy who spends most of Birth By Sleep just befriending and helping people. This makes sense as he's effectively a male Princess of Heart.
- The Legend of Dragoon: Shana wields a bow and is also a Mysterious Waif. Unlike the other playable characters, her dragoon form has a heavy emphasis on healing magic. Miranda later gains the same skillset and weapon, but her personality is too assertive to quite fit.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Mipha's magical ability, Mipha's Grace, functions much like carrying a fairy, reviving Link if he runs out of hearts while also giving him a few extra yellow hearts. In the backstory, she used her powers to heal Link of lesser injuries, and she also had a crush on him.
- Lunar: The Silver Star: Luna, especially in remakes. She is a Team Mom, often reminding the others to mind their manners, dresses modestly, casts spells through Magic Music, and equips either staves or bows (in most versions), or pans (in Legend). In the verions with the Limit Break system hers completely heals the whole party. Her replacement as the team's healer, Jessica de Alkirk, is a priestess, but doesn't qualify for the trope for being quite a tomboy, as well as packing hammers or Wolverine Claws and damaging Limit Breaks.
- Magna Carta: Tears of Blood: Reith is kind and compassionate, to the point of healing and releasing a captured enemy (and getting kidnapped for her troubles). Due to her amnesia, she's also one of the few people around not holding any Fantastic Racism beliefs. In combat, she starts only with healing skills, having no way to damage enemies, although the game does quickly hand you an offencive skill scroll.
- A Maiden's Ballad: Cecilia's Magic Music mainly focuses on healing and buffing spells. She has two offensive spells, but they cost TP instead of MP, making her less reliable for damage output. She is also polite and willing to use her powers to help those in need, though her goal is primarily to create music for the sake of art than being a full-time healer.
- Majesty: The game has an entire class of them: Healers, the all-female devotees and worshippers of Agrela, goddess of life and water. They tend to eschew fighting in favor of supporting and healing other hero classes (particularly the slow-but-decently-armed Warriors), plant healing herbs around the map, and are startlingly hard to put down permanently since not only does their fully-upgraded temple allow the player to cast a resurrection spell on recently-fallen heroes, but they can resurrect themselves once for every level they gain – and since they gain XP by healing, they tend to level up very quickly. Their hair is the only not-quite-accurate aspect for this trope, as they all shave their heads.
- Mana Series:
- The Heroine/Fuji from Final Fantasy Adventure/Adventures of Mana is a non-combat example. She will heal the Hero/Sumo if asked, but won't fight herself. Her counterpart from Sword of Mana, however, fights enemies with magic, and thus is an opposite of this trope.
- Charlotte of Trials of Mana. She has the most healing of the six main characters, and uses a flail as her weapon.
- Visions of Mana: Hinna specializes in healing magic, and never even bothered with combat spells, because she trusted Val to protect her. She serves as an emotional center of the party, and is completely willing to sacrifice herself to rejuvenate the Mana Tree.
- Mega Man X: Command Mission: Cinnamon is a sci-fi version of this, being a reploid and all. She's kind and compassionate, and has a nurse-design, with white armor and The Colored Cross on her hat. Just to drive the point home, her hair resemble angel wings from most angles. In combat she has low Power, with her normal attack amounting to ineffectually slapping the enemy, but her Action Trigger is your only way to heal outside of using the heavily limited Sub Tank.
- Miitopia: This happens if you have a female Mii who is a kind Cleric. Happens to a lesser extent if said Mii is a Princess, a Flower, or an Elf.
- Mimana Iyar Chronicle: Sophie is a nice girl who's secretly a priestess out to save the world. She's the only one of the party to not wield a weapon in combat, instead holding a lyre and playing it to cast healing spells.
- Nostalgia (Red Entertainment): Fiona is a Barrier Maiden version of this. With some holy magic mixed in with her predominantly healing and support skills, she often gets paired off with Eddie while Pad and Melody have a more turbulent relationship.
- Octopath Traveler has Ophilia Clement, the Cleric. Gentle, pious and nurturing, her base class can only wield staves as it focuses on healing and support with a few Light 'em Up spells.
- Onmyōji (2016):
- Yaobikuni is a Yamato Nadeshiko Lady of War, is the master of buffs and has Psychic Powers. At least she has two attack skills, unlike poor Seimei who only has one.
- While we're at it, Abe no Seimei himself. He is very kind and level-headed, if not stoic and specializes in buffs, debuffs and defense. Oh, and he's quite the handsome man.
- Overwatch: While Mercy uses nanomachines rather than magic, she otherwise fits this trope, being a healer wearing white angelic armor, wielding a staff and is the most feminine of the female cast.
- Phantasy Star II: Amy Sage is soft-spoken and the best healer by far. Thea, Kara, Laya and Gwyn from Phantasy Star III might also count, although they equip slicers and bows instead of traditional staves.
- Planescape: Torment: Fall-From-Grace has the femininity, the nurturing personality and is the only healer found in the game; she only has about one offensive spell and is firmly a support character. Of course, unlike most examples, she's literally a demon, albeit one who is winning the fight against her natural inclinations.
- Rise of the Third Power: Reyna is a kindhearted priestess and the main healer of the party. While she's technically on the wrong side of the law as a Resistance member, she only does so because she wants to avert the bloodshed of a second Great War. She turns out to be a deconstruction, since her care for others causes her to resort to questionable actions, such as falsely leading Rowan into thinking he can romance her, if she thinks it's for the sake of world peace.
- Riviera: The Promised Land: Fia is your designated healer, being the only one able to heal teammates (outside of very rare Life Drain effects). She's a kind priestess-in-training, who's also the most responsible out of the main girls, looking after the immature Lina, despite being younger than her. However, she's also a good fencer, and is the only one in the party who knows how to use katanas.
- Shadow Hearts 1: Alice Elliot is gentle and demure, softening Yuri's harsher side. In combat, she uses a book and is the primary healer. She is also an exorcist to emphasize her holy powers.
- Skies of Arcadia: Fina is an unfailingly kind and polite Ingenue, who learns Green and Silver magic (the healing elements) the fastest, and whose special moves primarily revolve around healing and support.
- Star Ocean:
- Star Ocean 1 has Millie Chliette, the daughter of her village's resident healer, and a master of symbology herself. She is the best healer and debuffer of the party, contested only by a secret character from remakes, and is flat-out the only buffer of the group. In fact, her spell list was almost completely taken from Mint from Tales of Phantasia (see below), with the exception of three combat spells. Personality-wise, she has some tsundere tendencies, but acts on the sweet side most of the time.
- Star Ocean: The Second Story has Rena Lanford. Her primary combat role is healing and support, but she is a somewhat effective fist fighter and is a borderline Red Mage.
- Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has Sophia Esteed. Feminine, skilled at domestic tasks and somewhat naive, she is the most powerful healer. She does, however, have a wide array of offensive spells too.
- Star Ocean: The Last Hope has Serah Jerand, a very nice and motherly, if a bit airheaded, young woman, who is the best healer in the game. Her Featherfolk white wings only enhance the angelic imagery.
- Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness has Miki Sauvester. She is the party's strongest healer, but has nearly the same amount of offensive spells as the Lady of Black Magic, just different elements. Miki's late mother is also said to have been one; Miki learned how to heal to feel closer to her, since she can't really remember her parents otherwise.
- Star Ocean: The Divine Force has Nina Deforges, a doctor-in-training and wielder of the rare power of iatrimancy, the healing magic. She devotes herself to creating a cure from a rare disease, of which her father died from. In gameplay she is a Mechanically Unusual Fighter, devoted solely to support, to the point of lacking some otherwise-universal mechanics like Blindside. Her only method of self-defence is rather weak Area of Effect sound waves from her bell.
- Super Mario Bros.: Various games have Princess Peach showcasing competence with magic, usually either in the form of stars, hearts, or something pink. Naturally, Super Mario RPG provides the best example, boasting healing abilities like Therapy and Group Hug while wielding umbrellas, frying pans, fans, and slapping gloves. In Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, she's a Light-attribute helper with abilities and stats leaning towards health recovery. Finally, her skillset in the Rabbids crossovers are geared towards protecting the team.
- Symphony of War: The female medic is the default healer unit, and the only one that's an exclusive healer besides Lysander. She can follow the exclusive healer tier to Hospitaller, Priestess, or Templar, or she can become a hybrid healer/fighter by becoming a Valkyrie.
- Tales Series: Most healers in the series fall under Combat Medic, but some are just support-oriented enough to qualify.
- Tales of Phantasia: Mint Adenade is the purest example in the series, having no damaging spells or artes whatsoever. Late in the game, her fairly potent arsenal of heals, cures, stunning hammers and status enhancers is capped off by the power to temporarily stop time. Given, it doesn't work on bosses, but it's freaking sweet to have around.
- Tales of Symphonia: Subverted with Raine Sage. She looks the part in her long robes, has all the best healing magic, and looks after the schoolkids who make up the party, but she's pragmatic to the point of ruthlessness, fairly quick to anger, and prone to physical violence.
- Tales of Rebirth: Annie Barrs is a poilte young girl, who wants to become a doctor. She wields a staff, and almost all of her kit is geared to support allies or debuff enemies. She has only one attack spell, which is a weak Life Drain anyway, and even takes a support role in Combination Attacks. She also has several direct-heal spells... in a game where there is no healing spells otherwise. She, however, deviates from the norm in that she hates Gajumas, because one of them killed her father. She grows out of it later on.
- Tales of the Abyss: Double subverted by Tear Grants. She certainly has the look, can heal people with Magic Music (noted to be a rare ability), and works for the church... for its military wing, that it. She's also fairly serious and no-nonsense, hides knives on her person, and is introduced trying to assassinate the hero's mentor. But as we get to know her better, it becomes clear that she's much more compassionate than she lets on, as exemplified when she stays behind with Luke after the Fall of Akzeriuth, despite everyone else holding him accountable.
- Tales of Innocence: Ange Serena is a priestess, famous for healing people for free with her supernatural abilities. She has the best healing artes in the party, including several party-wide ones, and her combat spells, while powerful, pale before magic of other party members. Her girliness, meanwhile, is underscored by her being in the party with two (later three) Tomboys. The unusual part comes from her melee moveset, which is based on the "Thief" class from Radiant Mythology games, including a Video Game Stealing arte and a knife for a weapon.
- Tales of Vesperia: Played with in regards to Estelle. She checks all the boxes personality- and story-wise, being very kind, sweet and somewhat naive girl, who always goes out of her way to heal people with her powers. In gameplay, however, while she's still your main healer, she fights with Knightly Sword and Shield, and has very high defence, making it viable for her to fight on frontlines.
- Tales of Graces: Cheria is a kind and cheerful young girl, who often plays the role of the Team Mom, especially towards other girls (even though both of them are older than her). During the civil war she joins a relief organization to heal the wounded with her mysterious powers, for which she gets nicknamed "Battlefield Angel". That being said, she wields throwing knives and has several Light-based offensive spells, which are topped off by the Temporal Rift ability, so she's not defenceless at all.
- Tales of Xillia: Subverted with Leia Rolando. She's a nurse, all right, and she can heal, but she's a Hot-Blooded Genki Girl, and that staff of her? It's a Martial Arts Staff, and Leia is a versatile Jack of All Stats, proficient in aerial combos. In fact, she was trained in martial arts alongside Jude (who's, incidentally, your other healer).
- Tales of Berseria: Laphicet is a gender-flipped example. He's overall an innocent, compassionate kid, who's introduced healing Velvet, whom he just met, despite having his free will suppressed. He also wears a white cloak, and gets mistaken for a girl at least once. In battle, while the game deemphasizes healing in favor of direct combat, he has the strongest healing magic, as well as Break Souls of supportive nature.
- Total War: Warhammer II: Alarielle the Everqueen is a benevolent and loving queen mother to the Elven race, complete with Fertile Feet, Light Is Good magic fueled by The Power of Love, and a Good Hurts Evil effect on her Dark Elf rivals. Finally, her Friend to All Living Things nature means she's the first Everqueen to lead armies into battle to defend all creation from the forces of Chaos.
- Trails Series:
- Liberl arc has Kloe Rinz, who tries to be an Actual Pacifist, before circumstances force her hand. Her orbment configuration is one long line that includes three blue slots, meaning a high magic pool with Heal It with Water arts. Even her default S-Craft involves healing. She also wields a rapier and is secretly a princess.
- Crossbell arc has Elie MacDowell, whose Crafts and S-Crafts involve healing, and who has two green-locked slots on her orbment. The latter means that she most likely will have access to Healing Winds arts. Oh, and she fights with an orbal gun, but that's okay, because these guns are for the most part non-lethal, and can be used to fire healing bullets.
- Calvard arc features Agnès Claudel, a kind-hearted and somewhat naive young woman, who serves as something of The Heart to the Arkride Solutions. She fights with an orbal staff, thus being an effective Arts caster, and learns several healing Crafts.
- Unicorn Overlord:
- Scarlett, a Priestess who takes a support role, is much more delicate compared to her friends, and almost immediately gets kidnapped.
- Sharon and Primm, Clerics who can't do any damage.
- Utawarerumono:
- Utawarerumono has Eruru, who in the game serves as a healer during battles and in the anime adaptation still goes to battles and... apparently just watches without ever getting attacked really.
- Monochrome Mobius: Rights And Wrongs Forgotten rather arbitrarily assigns this role to Munechika, giving her a rod for a weapon and an array of healing abilities. She also has a spell line that deals extra damage to Phantoms - i.e. The Undead. However, in personality she, while kind, and certainly trying to be feminine, is closer to a Lady of War. In the chronologically later games she ends up as an Apron Matron of sorts.
- Valkyria Chronicles II: Cosette fits the personality to a T, and in her primary roles has only healing and support abilities. You can unlock an offensive class for her, but this is non-canon in the story.
- Valkyrie Profile: Shiho is the closest to fit the archetype. When she joins your party, she knows a large variety of healing and defensive magic, but no attack spells.
- Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume: Rosea seems at first like a very generic example of the type, contrasted with the sadomasochistic fire mage Lieselotte. However, each of them blames the other for the murder that got them both exiled. In the neutral path, Lieselotte kills Rosea, speaking afterwards of how it was a fitting punishment for a murderer and a hypocrite. In the evil path, Rosea kills Lieselotte, sacrificing her innocence and becoming a fitting companion for your Villain Protagonist. In the good path, they both kill each other—and only in that path do you find out that neither of them committed the original murder!
- Valthirian Arc 1: The Mirage Casters fit this trope quite well, as a class of female healers who seem to be incredibly sweet and kind (though their uniformly black hair does break the aesthetic a bit). The second game plays with this trope by replacing Mirage Casters with Medicae, who can be of any gender and temperament.
- Wild ARMs 4: Yulie is a party member who learns healing and anti-undead skills, and is seen praying for people who died in the war. She can also summon Guardians as her Force Ability, and her basic (not affected by Ley Lines) summon is one that heals the party. She also hits the Mystical Waif trope, by virtue of being capable of these summons in the first place, as well as controlling (read: put back under control) ARMs that Jude has in his body.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country: Haze is the only healer of the party with her Healing Winds powers, but does little in actual combat. She lacks the universal Three-Strike Combo, instead clumsily clubbing the enemy with her staff. She's also The Cutie, a bit of a Love Freak, and likes textile work. In the main game she, as Fan la Norne, is Loved by All and revered as the "Goddess of Indol".
- Xenosaga: MOMO starts with a rod and in later games gets upgraded to an ether bow. Ultimately subverted in Episode III, where one of her two development paths turns her into an effective break attacker.
Webcomics
- 8-Bit Theater: White Mage is the party's primary healer, although her patience and nurturing tendencies are strained to the breaking point by Black Mage's antics.
- Adventurers!: Lumi parodies the typical relationship of White Magician Girl and Hero. However, she was also the last party member to be introduced, so she got far less screen time than most.
- Su Arin of I Log In Alone is a healer and can provide Devine protection.
Web Original
- The Gamer's Alliance: Unithien Greyrain/Earthaven is a sweet and caring priestess of Cardia who specializes in healing spells and only directly fights when it's absolutely necessary- that is, until she goes off the deep end courtesy of a combination of decades-spanning trauma, Vellamo's manipulation, and getting Drunk on the Dark Side off of her increasing arcane powers. After this, she becomes a much darker character on top of becoming more willing to use her magic to hurt and kill, moving away from this trope in both personality and combat role.
- The Guild: Codex, in the Game Within The Show. She's very much the Team Mom and The Heart of the group, both on- and offline.
- Trinton Chronicles: Coatl is very much this but without a weapon, instead she has a mystical necklace that produces shields of force and protects her and allies.
- AFK: Serena fits into this mode, as she's traditionally effeminate, a healer, in a support role, carries a staff, and always caring toward others.
Web Videos
- Vision of Escaflowne Abridged: This is discussed among the characters; it's noted that such series make this one of only two roles women get to play. Millerna is stuck with being this, as Hitomi is the prophet.
Moleman: We don't have a doctor on board. Princess Millerna, you'll have to save him.
Millerna: What? Why me? I don't have any medical training. One of those guys do it!
Moleman: Nope, it has to be you.
Van: He's got a point. There's only a couple of useful powers that girls ever get in this kind of show, and Hitomi's the Seer, so that makes you the Healer.