Healers
Anyone who has played a variety of videogames (specifically RPGs) knows that the healer class tends to be filled with sweet, kind, and gentle women who normally wear white and other bright colors and are usually happy. Also, anyone with eyes can tell that Tear does not fit into that description at all. Do not get me wrong; I am not saying that Tear is not kind, as she really is. But if you compare her to other typical healers, she is not the same. So, I am going to argue that Tear is “redefining” the healer class, or at least the healer class in the Tales of series anyway.First of all, Tear is a soldier, which kind of makes her healer role a bit contradictory. She is trained to fight and kill under orders from someone else. Though Tear does not enjoy killing people, she still somewhat has of a path of blood behind her, which is not exactly what you would picture with someone who is supposed to heal all the other members of the party. Tear also wears a dark color that is almost black. If you compare her general appearance to Mint Adnade from Tales of Phantasia, they are almost complete opposites filling a similar role. Tear and Mint are both the main female role, and both happen to be the main healers of their respected games. Mint is very quiet spoken, wears all white, looks pretty holy, has artes that really focus on protecting and healing the party, and even says things like “don’t hate me” while attacking (in the arena in Tales of the Abyss anyway), giving her that typical innocent healer girl personality. Even Raine Sage from Tales of Symphonia, who was a little different as she was extremely intelligent and a professor that slaps around Lloyd and Genis was still focused mainly on healing and protection. Though she is a half-elf and is not very trusting of people, making her come off as a bit harsh and critical, she does not act that way with everyone. And then we have Tear, who is a seemingly cold and reserved Oracle Knight that hardly ever acts very feminine at all. Tear’s artes are also not solely focused on protection and healing, and she does have quite the variety of strong attacking artes.
Though this all may seem pretty weakly based, Tear definitely does not fit into the classic RPG healer stereotype, especially after following characters like Mint and Raine from previous Tales of games. But that is why I like her character – she is something different. Tear does not need the main swordsman hero to come save her, as she is quite capable of taking care of herself. Therefore, Tear ‘redefines’ the healer class, as hopefully there will be more healers that are outside the stereotype to come.
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