History Main / UndeathlyPallor

'''Answer:''' You actually checked? Wow, okay. [[spoiler:It's [[CorpseBride Emily]], the girl on the right with the boney arms.]]

[[quoteright:330:[[CorpseBride http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PaleCorpseBride_2934.jpg]]]]

* ''CorpseBride'' provides the page image here.

* {{CorpseBride}} provides the page image here.

* In both WorldOfDarkness lines, vampires typically grow paler and less lifelike as they grow older -- not because of age, but because an older vampire is more likely to have fallen a few notches down the [[KarmaMeter Humanity]] scale and gotten closer to their Beast. The one exception may be the Assamites from ''VampireTheMasquerade'', who invert the trope by growing ''darker'' as they age, to the point where the elders of the line look like they're made of polished jet.

'''Answer:''' [[spoiler:It's [[CorpseBride Emily]], the girl on the right with the boney arms.]]

* ''{{Twilight}}'' plays this trope straight with caucasian vampires, but Laurent presents an odd contrast. He's not at all pale in the first movie, but was washed out and greyish though, at least in the second film.

* In the ''{{Twilight}}'' books, Maria the vampire looked "porcelain" despite being Mexican. The book is pretty inconsistent about what happens to People of Color when they become vampires. Maria was really pale and Laurent was olive-skinned (but it was never stated what race he was). There are some other vampires who are non-Caucasian, but their skin color isn't really mentioned. The male half vampire from South America was definitely dark skinned, though.

* Dead Girl in ''{{X-Statix}}'', who's sort of greenish.

** Of course, vampires aren't really "undead" so much as they are immortal; they ''can't'' die. So, if you think about it, there's really no reason for them to be pale unless they were naturally that way as humans.
*** I disagree. Of course vampires are (un)dead! Getting all your blood drained from your body doesn't exactly make you healthy.

Characters who become one of TheUndead will develop pale or sometimes blue tinged skin. In severe cases with visible (and deathly still) [[TaintedVeins purple veins]] underneath the skin. Even people of color[[hottip:* :(Or fake tan. Can you imagine facing an undead eternity with skin the color of a bleached out orange?)]] who were dark skinned in life will have it turn [[HadesShaded ash grey, or dark like soot]].

* Dead Girl in ''{{X-Statix}}'', though she's colored as sort of greenish, not bluish.

Characters who become one of TheUndead will develop pale or sometimes blue tinged skin. In severe cases with visible (and deathly still) [[TaintedVeins purple veins]] underneath the skin. Even people of color[[hottip:* :(Or fake tan. Can you imagine facing an undead eternity with skin the color of a bleached out orange?)]] who were dark skinned in life will have it turn ash grey, or dark like soot.

This trope is so common it's usually a [[AWorldwidePunomenon (pun intended)]] dead giveaway that something is wrong with Alice / Bob when they suddenly show up this shade of pale. Smart characters (let alone the GenreSavvy) will have their NotAZombie sense ping them as being "[[NotHimself somehow]] [[GlamourFailure off"]]. Which of course makes the [[AvertedTrope aversion]] of this trope a #1 priority on every smart undead's list of {{Masquerade}} reinforcing tricks. Settings where this trope is subverted have much more dangerous undead for being indistinguishable from the living. Another curious exception is that sometimes non-caucaisians and non-asians (read, any race with a tan) may look exactly as vivid as they did in life for unexplained reasons. Probably something to do with the SpecialEffects budget and wanting to avoid a [[SpecialEffectsFailure gaffe]].

A living character who is just pale is usually a perfectly mundane case of a PaleSkinnedBrunette, who [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore has heard all the jokes]] about waking up on the wrong side of the coffin. There may be some UnfortunateImplications here though, since in fiction there's a [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance strong correlation]] between being pale and [[TranshumanTreachery going over]] to TheDarkSide. In addition living characters who come into contact with the dead, undead, or infernal may have a [[PaletteSwap change of color]] and become HadesShaded. This is the case with necromancers, infernalists, those under ghostly DemonicPossession, [[VirusVictimSymptoms someone bitten]] by zombies or a vampire, or TheRenfield who has fed on [[ThePowerOfBlood vampire blood.]] It doesn't stop there either, centuries of sunless existence may turn the character into an EvilAlbino.

This trope is so common it's usually a [[AWorldwidePunOmenon (pun intended)]] dead giveaway that something is wrong with Alice / Bob when they suddenly show up this shade of pale. Smart characters (let alone the GenreSavvy) will have their NotAZombie sense ping them as being "[[NotHimself somehow]] [[GlamourFailure off"]]. Which of course makes the [[AvertedTrope aversion]] of this trope a #1 priority on every smart undead's list of {{Masquerade}} reinforcing tricks. Settings where this trope is subverted have much more dangerous undead for being indistinguishable from the living. Another curious exception is that sometimes non-caucaisians and non-asians (read, any race with a tan) may look exactly as vivid as they did in life for unexplained reasons. Probably something to do with the SpecialEffects budget and wanting to avoid a [[SpecialEffectsFailure gaffe]].

'''Answer:''' [[spoiler:It's Emily, the girl on the right!]]

Characters who become one of TheUndead will develop pale or sometimes blue tinged skin. In severe cases with visible (and deathly still) purple veins underneath the skin. Even people of color[[hottip:* :(Or fake tan. Can you imagine facing an undead eternity with skin the color of a bleached out orange?)]] who were dark skinned in life will have it turn ash grey, or dark like soot.

In fiction, if you run into someone who looks like a corpse its not that they're sick, it's that they're ''[[NotAZombie dead.]]''

* In ''WordOfWarcraft'' the Forsaken have skin in various shades of grey, green and blue. Death Knights also tend to be paler then a living character with the same setting of skin shade. They also have access to a several different skin tones not available to living players, mostly in greens and greys. Though some of them are a bit odd - blood elves apparently decay into charcoal.

A living character who is just pale is usually a perfectly mundane case of a PaleSkinnedBrunette, who [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore has heard all the jokes]] about waking up on the wrong side of the coffin. There may be some UnfortunateImplications here though, since in fiction there's a [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance strong correlation]] between being pale and [[TranshumanTreachery going over]] to TheDarkSide. In addition living characters who come into contact with the dead, undead, or infernal may have a [[PaletteSwap change of color]] and become HadesShaded. This is the case with necromancers, infernalists, those under ghostly DemonicPossession, someone bitten by zombies or a vampire, or TheRenfield who has fed on [[ThePowerOfBlood vampire blood.]] It doesn't stop there either, centuries of sunless existence may turn the character into an EvilAlbino.

[[CorpseBride http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PaleCorpseBride_2934.jpg]]
[-[[caption-width:330:Can ''you'' guess which of these two characters is dead? Check the bottom of the page for the answer!]]-]

* In the ''{{Twilight}}'' books, Maria the Hispanic vampire still had a fairly healthy glow. The book is pretty inconsistent about what happens to People of Color when they become vampires. Maria was really pale and Laurent was olive-skinned (but it was never stated what race he was). There are some other vampires who are non-Caucasian, but their skin color isn't really mentioned. The male half vampire from South America was definitely dark skinned, though.