Why do we love black mages so much?

[PhasmaRok]

Just for the record, Vivi is definately cute, but he's also very bad-ass (if you don't believe that, just play FF9 until the "Fight with Dark Waltz No. 3" FMV). I dob't know why a character design like Vivi is cute, he just is. Maybe just by virtue of being so chibi-ish, yet possesing so much power. Personally, I think it's directly related to the eyes, somehow.

However, I also think that Vivi is the only Black Mage character who looks cute drawn in their real-life proportions. An 8 bit BM sprite is capable of looking cute, but a real-life BM would probably just look mysterious and cool.

And in regards to FFT, I love Black Mages in that game, but I think that the Summoner class has fewer disadvantages.