Xiao-Bai (Blanca)

"There are rules in this world, there are things you have to do even if you don’t want to. You are a human. I am a demon. Some things are better left forgotten than remembered."

- — Xiao-Bai explaining to Xu Xuan why she had to leave.

Xiao-Bai, or Blanca in the English dub, is a white snake demon, Snake Mother's apprentice and the older sister of Xiao-Qing. As one of the best students of Snake Mother, Xiao-Bai was sent to assassinate the General who was using snake souls to boost his magic. However, her mission failed, barely escaping alive and was saved by Xu Xuan.

At the end of the movie, Xiao-Bai saves Xu Xuan’s soul and 500 years later, she regains her memories and begins a search for Xu Xuan’s reincarnation. She succeeds in doing so.

In the 2021 sequel, White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake, Xiao-Bai marries Xu Xuan’s reincarnation, Xian, and had a child with him. Eventually, the Buddhist monk, Fa Hai, hunts down Xiao-Bai and imprisons her in the Leifeng Pagoda, not before she was able to give her child to Xiao-Qing.

Following her imprisonment, Blanca manages to escape Leifeng Pagoda and reincarnates into a mysterious man with no memory. He is also sent to Asuraville, where he meets Verta.

Physical Appearance
Xiao-Bai has long black hair, pale grey eyes, fairly light skin tone, red lipstick and red eyeliner. She wears hanfu clothes that consisted of white chang’ao robes with silver-whitish vine ornaments, transparent silk sash and three blue shades of her traditional long-sleeved overgarment, long white skirt, wind, and water patterns hairclip on her right side of her hair, dark and light blues belt, jade hairpin, and white Chinese embroidery shoes.

Forms

 * In her human form, Xiao-Bai appeared to be a beautiful girl and preferred wearing white dresses. However, once she turned into her half-snake form, her lower body would transform into a giant white snake tail, her black hair would turn to bluish white as well as her makeup, and small white scales would grow form her face in place of her eyebrows.


 * During in the movie, Xiao-Bai had two different snake forms: A normal giant white snake (at the very beginning of the movie) and a giant white snake with feather-like horns and spikes on her ridge which is a bit similar to a Chinese dragon.

Personality
Xiao-Bai is a gentle, thoughtful and independent girl and had her own moral standards. She preferred putting others (especially towards those whom she cares about) before herself, and sometimes would do whatever she thinks best for others without consulting them first.

Unlike her sister Xiao-Qing, Xiao-Bai didn't have much hatred against humans. However, she still considered the relationship between a human and a demon as a taboo which led her to make difficult balance between her loyalty to the snake clan, her personal moral standards and her love for Xu Xuan. She is very calm and caring.

Abilities
As a demon, Xiao-Bai could use some sort of magic to control other objects. In the movie, she used her magic to save Dudou from falling into the cilff, and accidentally pushed Xu Xuan away when she was upset. She could also use her magic as a melee weapon which could easily cut through armor. Her magic also had other uses, as shown when she granted Dudou ability to speak with her magic.

When it came to fighting, she preferred transforming into her half snake form which allowed her to use her giant sharp tail as a weapon to cut her enemies into halves. Although she appeared gentle and quiet, Xiao-Bai displayed formidable skill in close combat in either human form or in half-snake form. When she was protecting Xu Xuan from Xiao-Qing, she could easily block her sister's attack.

In addition, after Owner of Precious Jade modified the Jade Hairpin, she could use it to channel her magic for difficult tasks. However, the modification wasn't prefect. The hairpin would also drain a part of her memory whenever she uses it. But as long as she has physical contact with Jade Hairpin, her memory would slowly come back, although it seems that this side effect wouldn't be triggered when she used it to drain magic from others.

Trivia

 * In Chinese, just like "Xiao-Qing", "Xiao-Bai" is also not a real Chinese name but a nickname. It means "Little White One".
 * In the earliest versions of the folktale, Xiao-Bai is simply known as Lady White. Subsequent versions gave Bai Su-Zhen as her human name.
 * Although movie didn't clarify the sistership between Xiao-Bai and Xiao-Qing, according to the original tale, they are not sisters in blood but sworn sisters.
 * When Xiao-Bai was thrown into chaos during her cultivation, the figure she saw was Xu Xuan. However, she didn't recongize him because her memory was sealed in Jade Hairpin.
 * In snake-catcher village, Xiao-Bai became clearly uncomfortable when she was near realgar wine.
 * In traditional Chinese culture, realgar was considered to be a medicine which could be used for driving away insects, snakes, and evil spirits. In original folktale Legend of White Snake, Lady White (the prototype of Xiao-Bai) was once poisoned by realgar wine and turned into her original form —— a white snake.
 * Although she didn't show much, Xiao-Bai actually very cared about Xiao-Qing. In Chinese dubing, when she heard Xiao-Qing took the Scorching Death Scales, she began to choke up immediately and disapprove her decision.
 * In some parts of China, snake are sometimes called "little dragons" due to their similarity. And folklore believe that if a snake somehow gains enough magical power, it will transform into a dragon. This is probably why Xiao-Bai's snake form was a bit similar to a Chinese dragon after she drained young Taoist's magic.
 * The character design of Xiao-Bai in the last scene paid homage to the Lady White in the famous TV series the New Legend of Lady White.
 * In the original folktale, Xiao-Bai is deeply loyal to her friend and love interest but also violent. When Fa Hai captured Xu Xian, she caused a massive flood to attack Fa Hai, killing many innocents along the way. She would be punished for her acts.
 * In the earliest surviving written version of the tale, Lady White was portrayed negatively, using her beauty to deceive mankind but was a violent beast behind her skin. However, other versions of the tale that portrayed her positively gained popularity. The tale evolved further, often adding content to portray Lady White positively and to give explanations of her use of violence as a result of misunderstanding and circumstances.