Eyes Of Gold - Television Tropes & Idioms

All of the Noah family in D Gray Man have golden eyes, So Yeah...
Haruhi from Suzumiya Haruhi has brownish gold.
In Devilman Lady, Jun's eyes changing from brown to gold signal her transformation into a Devilman.
Yoko Kurama in Yu Yu Hakusho is a red-haired, green eyed young man in his human form, but as soon as he turns into his White Haired Pretty Boy alter ego his eyes change color. Naturally enough, he's a kitsune.
- Also, you know that Itsuki isn't exactly a human psychic because of this trope and also because of his hair color. He's nowhere near a kitsune, though; he's a shadow demon called a yaminade. And another function of his eyes is to show the audience how bloody insane he is...
- While possessed by his demon ancestor, Yusuke's eye color changes from their usual brown color to a gold color, at least in the anime.
- Don't forget the creepy Elder Toguro. Though all his eyes represent is his demonic nature.
Both Inu Yasha and his brother Sesshomaru have them; in both cases, they're the sons of a powerful Dog Demon.
The vampire Arcueid in Tsukihime has red eyes, but she's more of a ditzy good guy than anything else. When they turn yellow, however, it's time to run.
- Kohaku from the same game has yellowish eyes (appropriately, her name translates as "amber"). She's not evil, per se, just kinda... messed up.
Whenever Kenshin goes into "Battousai Mode" in Rurouni Kenshin his eyes take on a yellowish hue in contrast to their usual violet color, and at one point this tells Kaoru what's going on instantly.
- His rival Saito Hajime, however, is always shown with these. The historical, real person of Saito had brown eyes, but in Rurouni Kenshin these are used to tie him to the The Shinsengumi, who were commonly referred to as the "Wolves of Mibu".
Judai (Jaden) in Yu-Gi-Oh GX has golden eyes when his power as Haou/Supreme King awakens.
- Asuka Tenjouin (Alexis Rhodes) has gold eyes all the time, although she exhibits no real powers.
Fuuma's eyes in X1999 are gold colored, and it's only after the Wham Episode that we realize what this was hinting at. In the anime series they're red, because the Spoiler Opening gave away the wham of the Wham Episode right in the first episode.
- Likewise, in CLAMP's other series Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the vampires' eyes go gold and slitted when they use their powers. One Doujinshi has that world's version of Fuuma comment on this by saying that he and his sort-of-love-interest Kamui "match" now, prompting Kamui to throw him across the room.
  - And Fai's remaining eye turns from blue to gold when he becomes a vampire.
- I think the manga describes Syoran's eyes as being amber-colored (to go with Sakura's jade, Fay's sapphire, and Kurogane's ruby). While he's neither evil nor a trickster, he does have a few issues.
Both Mikoto and Reito have these in Mai-HiME, and while it's not too unusual for that world (where the heroine has red hair and purple eyes) but later it turns out that they are a Laser Guided Tyke Bomb and the object of Demonic Possession respectively, as well as serving as an early clue that they're brother and sister.
Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo, tying into the demonic/supernatural aspect of her character (her name is even stated to mean "spirit caller" at one point). She's even earned the Fan Nickname "Ol' Yellow Eyes" in some circles because of them.
In Claymore the titular "Silver-Eyed Witches" have them change color (and form Hellish Pupils) when they release a certain amount of their power. On occasion, a Claymore who's really pushing it will combine this with iris-only Glowing Eyes Of Doom.
- Likewise, the demons they hunt (and have been implanted with) always have golden eyes.
Yoruichi in Bleach, which makes perfect sense when you take into account that she spends a lot of time in her alternate form, a black cat.
- Also in Bleach, eyes with yellow irises and black 'whites' are a sign that someone is either using Hollow powers, their 'inner Hollow' is acting up, or that they are, in fact, a Hollow.
- The Espada Szayel Aporro Granz has gold-colored eyes as well, so does fellow Mad Scientist Mayuri Kurotsuchi.
In Sailor Moon, Sailor Galaxia (Big Bad) has gold eyes to match her theme as the Golden Queen. In the opposite direction, Helios (gentle priest) has gold eyes to represent his position as guardian of the Golden Crystal. At leas that seems logical.
In Fullmetal Alchemist, Ed has his father's eyes, and while this doesn't really mean anything in the anime, the manga reveals that it is a mark of Hohenheim being ethnically Xerxian, i.e. belonging to a lost civilization. Although it originally doesn't have anything to do with this, Hohenheim's 'golden-headedness' is associated in ancient alchemical texts with the 'perfection' of an immortal man who is essentially a walking Philosopher's Stone.
- Also note that while anime Alphonse has brown eyes and darker hair than Ed, he is also a golden-eyed blond in the manga. Ed and Al's physique is remarkable enough in Amnestris that several characters including their childhood friend Winry comment on this. It's actually heavily implied that no one else than Hoho, Ed and Al have these characteristics, as the rare golden-eyed people of Xerxes has been extinct for four hundred years and Hohenheim is the last survivor due to very strange circumstances. Also, the homunculus known as 'Father' looks like an older Hohenheim because he copied the genetic information contained in Hohenheim's blood. The other characters tend to have not only realistic hair colours but also realistic eye colours for a crypto-European context; a noteworthy exception is the red-eyed Ishbalans.
- Also of note is Zolf J. Kimblee, although unlike the brothers Elric and Hoho, his golden eyes do not seem to be related to Xerxian ancestry, instead cluing the audience into his psychotic nature.
- Also worth of noting is an older work done by the same author of Fullmetal Alchemist, Stray Dog, in which golden eyes are the main feature of the titular "military dogs". The protagonist has one golden eye
The eyes of Type Zero cyborgs in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha turn gold when they're using their cyborg abilities. Including Subaru Nakajima at one point, just before she goes ballistic.
- Likewise their creator also has them, but he's just evil.
Appear on C.C. from Code Geass, an apparently immortal young woman who appears to be involved in an elaborate Xanatos Roulette within the series.
- Likewise her Darker Than Black Expy, the aptly named Amber.
In Gundam Wing, Gundam pilots under the influence of the Zero System tend to sport blazing golden eyes. In many cases, this should be your signal to run.
When Bu-ling of Tokyo Mew Mew transforms into Mew Pudding, her eyes turn yellow. Like with Ichigo, this doesn't mean she's evil, but she is playful and immature most of the time.
Similarly, for Coco of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, yellow eyes are just a racial trait, as mermaids are Colour Coded For Your Convenience and those from different countries tend to have themed hair and eye colours. However, a Double Subversion occurs when this is used as a warning with orange-eyed Man Behind The Man Sara: she's a mermaid princess too.
Il Palazzo has yellow cat's eyes in Excel Saga, and though he's mostly just played as eccentric and crazy throughout most of the anime, in the manga he's eventually shown to possess teleportation and the power of flight among other (and far stranger) abilities.
- In the manga version, Doctor Kabapu has the same eyes, which hints at the fact that they're both from a long-lost ancient civilization.
Eiko Magami from Project A-Ko has amber-colored eyes. Her weirdness is evident right off the bat.
Viral in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Word Of God says he's a cat/shark hybrid, so it makes sense. Yoko, the Badass Normal Action Girl, also has them, but they don't mean anything in the larger context of the series.
- Everybody except for Simon has wierd eyes, Kamina's are purple, and Nia's are odd, and eventually Simon gets Lordgenome's spiral eyes.
Haruko in FLCL, and like Guu, it's the least weird thing about her.
When she's possessed by Sakura, Saber in Fate Stay Night gains these as part of her Superpowered Evil Side.
Gundam 00 uses this twice to indicate danger. First, Split Personality Allelujah usually has one eye covered that turns out be be gold-colored and indicates that his (much more dangerous) personality Hallelujah has woken up. Super Soldier Soma Peries has golden eyes, being from the same program as H/Allelujah. And Nena Trinity, a borderline Psycho For Hire, also has gold eyes.
- Artificial Human Tieria Erde has golden eyes when he's connected to the supercomputer Veda, as do Ribbons and the other Innovades, and Louise Halevy when she is being controlled by Ribbons. However, Setsuna also develops glowing golden eyes when he becomes a true Innovator. Golden eyes don't, therefore, automatically signal evil or danger in Gundam 00, but they do indicate something beyond normal humanity.
Morgan Le Fay, the shape shifting fairy from the Ah My Goddess movie, is shown with gold eyes.
Mayo Mitama in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. No supernatural powers, it's just that she's a psychopath.
Ruri Hoshino in Martian Successor Nadesico has these as part of her implied kinda-sorta Artificial Human background, and general Mysterious Waif-iness. It's worth noting that she's somewhat less dangerous than the red-eyed person she's sometimes considered an Expy of.
- The two are actually distinct interpretations of the same cliché that existed before either of them. The two series were published too close to each other to give time for genuine plagiarization.
In the first episode of Mai-Otome 0/Sifr, Bruce and Sifr's eyes briefly flash gold when the M-9 android is revealed.
- No doubt a refrence to the earlier mentioned Mai-HiME characters.
The Major in the Hellsing OVA is depicted with golden eyes, which makes sense given that he's an undead warmongering lunatic.
- He's not undead, he's a cyborg.
Kei (and in the manga version, also Sasame) from Pretear has golden eyes, presumably just to match his hair color — the Red Headed Hero of the series got red eyes, and she isn't evil either. Fenrir, on the other hand, has glowing golden eyes, but her true / original form actually has green eyes.
In Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer, the Angel Blanche has yellow eyes, and her operator's partner's Angel, Shirahime, has red eyes. Both are some of the hardest opponents in the series, and two of three Angels to use Hyper Mode (in the manga, only Blanche can use it).
Mytho from Princess Tutu has golden eyes. He's not evil, but he is supernatural—he's the Prince from a fairytale.
Chrno/Chrono in Chrono Crusade has golden eyes while in his demon form, although when he's in his more common, human-like form they're red. He's not evil, but obviously supernatural, and does have a bad temper when provoked.
In Saiyuki, beings with golden eyes are labeled as heretics, and are seen as dangerous enough for the Powers That Be to lock them up, or at the very least, shackle them. Son Goku, War Prince Nataku, and War Prince Homura all have golden eyes, though in the latter's case, only one of them is golden. In the manga, Hakkai's youkai form has one golden eye, the other being a false one.
In the second (international) season of Yu Gi Oh, the half villain Rishido has golden eyes, though they appear to have no actual meaning or effect on him. Also, Darts of the third season has a golden eye gained by a shard of Orichalchus, signifying his insanity.
- In fact, the gold was Dartz's normal eye colour, and it was the green eye that came from the Orichalcos stone.
In Trigun, Legato has yellow/golden eyes and blue hair, which reflects his psychopathic tendencies, sinister way of being and overall weirdness. Which is particularly remarkable since most non-Gonk characters of the show have pretty realistic hair and eye colours and no character seems to notice that Legato basically looks like a mutant (in fact, he looks much weirder than the main tricksters Vash and Knives, who are respectively blue-eyed and green-eyed blonds.) The manga only character Livio is a golden-eyed blond [well, white hair anyway] with hints of silver/grey in the left eye as an indication of his Split Personality. He has a pretty weird and unreal side due to his being a genetically 'enhanced' human and massive hitman for a Plant-worshipping cult, and that's without starting to discuss his Superpowered Evil Side Razlo.
In Pet Shop of Horrors, Count D has one golden eye, and his grandfather has both eyes being golden.
Tiara's One Winged Angel form in Shamanic Princess has golden eyes with a black circumference in the middle.
Naruto: Big-time Big Bad and generally creepy dude Orochimaru. In a mild subversion, this is because he's associated with snakes, and Red Eyes Take Warning are associated with the actual demon kitsune running around.
Aika from ARIA. She's just a normal person, though. Cait Sith better qualifies here, being King of Cats and all that.
Tao Ren from Shaman King. His eyes used to be purple in early manga chapters, but they switched to golden later on.
Gold from Pokemon Special has...well...gold eyes, but this is just because the Pokedex owners' eyes match their name as a tradition rather than any special heritage on Gold's part. Nonetheless, he is quite the prankster, with a habit of only acting towards his own benefit.
- Sort of ironic, considering his anime counterpart, Jimmy, has purple eyes, and his game counterpart...well, back then the sprites◊ eyes didn't have a particular color at best, and Ken Sugimori, the artist that draws the offical art for the games, didn't exactly draw the characters◊ eyes◊ well◊ untill◊ Cry◊st◊ al◊.
- Even so, game Gold's eyes may be brown, considering Red's and Blue's eyes looked like his but are confirmed to be brown in their updated art from Fire Red/Leaf Green.
  - Art released for the Updated Release of Gold/Silver shows his eyes are gray◊.
- Blue actually. Game Freak has been doing this lately.
The heroine of the anime version of Witchblade gets these (with black whites) when she accesses the titular Artifact Of Doom's power.
Akito / Agito from Air Gear has eyes like these (though they're most pronounced when Agito is in control).
Train from Black Cat has distinct gold eyes that look like a cat's. In the manga, his eyes being gold is the most distinct when he's giving off "killer intent." Creed, naturally, gushes about them.
Gash Bell himself has wide, saucerpan-sized yellow eyes, although being a demon it might be excusable.
Yukito, Sakura's crush in Card Captor Sakura, has golden eyes behind his glasses and silver hair. These eyes are the first indication that there is more to him than he appears. Yue, his true form, keeps the silver eyes. The same applies to his counterpart, Ruby Moon.
The Natsume family from Natsume Yuujinchou seem to have this; both main character Takashi and his deceased grandmother Reiko had these (they're both very powerful in the seeing Youkai department). At least one, and possibly both of them, were bullied with the name "Kitsune eyes" due to this.
Dragonball Z: Zarbon, Frieza's bishonen right-hand man, had gold-colored eyes. He was able to shapeshift into a single second form, which resembled a large, wrinkly, reptilian ogre.
Ed in Cowboy Bebop has gold eyes, which is most likely a reflection of her semi-feral personality.
Brandon Heat of Gungrave, while during his mortal life he had light brown eyes and black hair. After being murdered and later resurrected as the necrolizer called Grave, he has yellow eyes and silver hair.
Hilda in Hols Prince Of The Sun, due to her deal with Grunwald. However, she seems to retain them after Grunwald's defeat.
Divine and Kiryu from Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds. A psychic and Dark Signer, respectively. Divine's also a Manipulative Bastard, while Kiryu's just plain nuts.
The wolves of Wolf's Rain all have amber/golden eyes in human form—except for Kiba, whose human form has pale blue eyes to denote his Chosen One status.
Death the Kid of Soul Eater has gold eyes and it is the mark of a shinigami. Unfortunately, we don't get to see his father's, but we can assume that he also has Eyes of Gold.
- Don't forget Cat Girl Blair. Her eyes are gold as well. And, it's special (or normal, depending on how you look at it) heritage for her, as she's a cat.
- Medusa. No explicit connection to the fact that she's a witch. The Hellish Pupils moments definitely are, though.
- Kid's eyes are a shinigami trait? (though I've seen it in fanfic) The hair definitely is, though.
Not a supernatural reference, but twins Kaoru and Hikaru from Ouran Highschool Host Club have golden eyes. Let's face it, they're not exactly the nicest kids on the block and have a collective trickster streak several miles wide and a few continents long.
Gold seems to be the most common eye color in the Baccano! universe. Characters that have them include Luck, Chane, Huey, Nicholas, Rachel, and Ronnie.
Saralegui from Kyo Kara Maoh. He wears purple-tinted glasses to cover them, because having Gold Eyes means he's part of a very-near extinct race (that was sealed away) with extraordinary powers. His eyes glow blue whenever he's giving someone a 'hint', aka trying to possess them to do his bidding.
Tasuki of Fushigi Yuugi, who is initially portrayed with more of a wolf motif. The kitsune qualities and shapeshifting are trademarks of his comrade, Chichiri.
Lucia and King Raregroove are two rare examples of main villains with normal apperances. Except the eyes. We never get an explenation for that one. Then again, we don't get to hear about all the hair colors either.
Vincent Law from Ergo Proxy, on the rare occasions he opens them.
Possibly subverted with Gilbert in Pandora Hearts since he's not exactly feline, lupine or vulpine, nor has he been shown to be artfully crafty. He's a straight forward emotional mess. His brother Vincent, however, not only plays the trope straight (more than Gilbert, anyway) but also (through his Boat Lights) combines it with Red Eyes Take Warning.
Ray Kon from Beyblade has these as part of his cat-boy like appearence. Lee and Mariah have them too.
Ceres, the title character from Ayashi no Ceres has gold eyes. Whereas Aya, her alter-ego, does not.
Juraquille/Dracule "Hawkeye" Mihawk from One Piece.

Shapeshifter Mystique of the X-Men series is often shown with yellow eyes. So does her son Nightcrawler
The manipulative and often malevolent Desire from The Sandman is described as having "eyes tawny and sharp as yellow wine."
The main character of the indie comic book Finder has yellow eyes. He could be considered something of a trickster, being a nomadic "ninja do-gooder" in a largely city-bound world. (He also has an as-of-yet-unexplained Healing Factor.)
Lioness in ATOM has yellow eyes. Non-human heritage or Rule Of Cool?
Lucifer in Lucifer has golden eyes, maybe the most justified case conceivable, as he's about as human as every star in creation put together.
New Spider Man villainess Paper Doll, a Loony Fan of a celebrity Bobby Carr, has yellow pupils that are probably there just to make her extra creepy. Her main super-powers are the ability to flatten out her body, blend into her surroundings, "compress" her foes by enveloping them with herself and administering lethal paper-cuts strong enough to slice through Spidey's webbing.
Icaris in The Eternals.
Bart Allen (Impulse/Kid Flash II) of the The DCU has naturally golden eyes; this, along with his wild auburn-brown hair, serves as a character marker. He's a bit of a devil-may-care type (why do you think he's called Impulse?) but his heart's undoubtedly in the right place. And he actually manages to make a normally sickly-evil eye color look really cute!
Doctor Finitevus has yellow-golden irises... and pupils. They really stand out because his eyeballs are entirely black otherwise.
Timmorn Yellow-Eyes of Elfquest has, obviously, yellow eyes, which he got from his father, who was a wolf, his mother being an elfin shapechanger, making him basically a half-elf werewolf. Several other elves have yellow eyes as well, particularly Rayek and Nightfall. In Rayek's case, he's one of the few very magical Sun Folk. With Nightfall, it's likely just more to link her to Timmorn, the ancestor of all the Wolfriders, and emphasize her origins.

Upcoming new character Ashley McFly of Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy has slightly greyish yellow eyes, which turn bright yellow with slitted cat-ish pupils when she becomes Leather Ashes.
Subverted in A Soul's Songbook: Out of Print, a fanfic of Soul Eater. As mentioned above, the shinigami of Soul Eater have Eyes of Gold, and, well, if you are a naturally amber-eyed human with dark hair, there are Unfortunate Implications involved in that. One of New London's gangsters who also falls into a completely different spelling of such is a former sex slave of such coloring, but is completely human.

Anakin Skywalker of Star Wars Episode III, coinciding with his descent into evil.
- Having your eyes turn yellow and reptile-esque seems to be a side-effect of aligning yourself to the Sith or just the dark side in general. Then again, while it appears to be permanent for some characters, like Darth Maul, some are able to turning it on and off at will, like Palpatine/Darth Sidious, and others again, like Dooku/Darth Tyranus, does not seem to get them at all.
The bully Scut Farkus in A Christmas Story.
"Scut Farkus! What a rotten name! There he stood, between us and the alley. Scut Farkus staring out at us with his yellow eyes. He had yellow eyes! So help me God, yellow eyes!"
Yehoshua in The Passion Of The Christ has subtly golden eyes. Yehoshua's name as known to us today? Jesus Christ.
In the live action Death Note movies, characters with Shinigami eyes have their eyes show up yellow when they use this power.
Disney's animated film Mulan. The Big Bad Shan-Yu has Eyes Of Gold, surrounded by black whites.
In the film Wolf, yellow eyes are a sign that a character is turning into a werewolf.
The film GoldenEye, interestingly enough, has no examples of this, barring the Title Sequence.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country features a golden-eyed alien that really is a shapeshifter.
Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one, anyway; his eyes look normal enough in the next two films, presumably since he's no longer under the curse).
The ~~prawns~~ "outlanders" in District9 have these. Then again, why not? They're aliens.

The mighty Doc Savage had golden eyes, but being a Western pulp hero this had nothing to do with the Japanese trope. SF writer Phillip Jose Farmer later gave Doc a pedigree containing just about every character in literature with yellow or light-brown eyes.
Hamish X, the main protagonist in the series of novels of the same name. He actually has said eyes because he is a cyborg.
The all-powerful Tykebomb in the Discworld novel Sourcery had gold eyes. They even started turning brown when he began a Heel Face Turn.
- In addition, there was Windle Poons as an undead. "His eyes! Like gimlets!"
A. J. Crowley from Good Omens has yellow eyes, which he usually hides behind sunglasses. Unusually for a Western example, Crowley's eyes are explicitly intended to be snakelike rather than feline or lupine. This is because Crowley was the snake in the Garden of Eden. Yes, that snake.
Perrin in the Wheel Of Time series got yellow eyes after unlocking his crazy wolf powers.
In the Dragaera series, the members of the House of Phoenix are golden-eyed, identifying their rarity. They also are a symbol of the House's style of leadership when holding the throne, as the name alludes to Phoenix Emperors or Empresses being either decadent and incompetent or excellent leaders representing hope for the future.
Naturally enough, possessed by Gold-Eye from Garth Nix's Shades Children. In his case they only indicate his supernatural ability — precognitive power — rather than any sinister nature.
The Sword Of Truth novels featured a creature called a screeling; hideously efficient killing machines, they were all but invincible unless you happened to have very dangerous magic on hand. They had golden eyes, so prominent that there was in fact a poem about them.
In the Recluce series of books, humans had many physical markers that hinted at particular power. Extremely powerful chaos mages (mostly fire-users) had gold eyes.
According to the legends, "the Golden Sovereign" in Yulia Latynina's Wei Empire cycle of novels had golden eyes, though from what we know of him he was a benevolent, but ineffectual ruler, so that's something of a subversion. However, the three friends from the cycle's first novel, Dattam, Harsoma and Arfarra all have golden eyes (well, Arfarra's have also been described as "amber", but later as "molten gold", so it still fits), and Dattam is at a certain point considered by some to be the reincarnation of the Golden Sovereign because of it. But that's quite irrelevant. What is relevant is that all three grew up to be Magnificent Bastards of truly epic proportions, whose subsequent rivalries and machinations drove much of the subsequent plot.
The Cullens and all 'vegetarian' vampires in the Twilight series have gold-colored eyes when they've recently eaten and black when they are hungry. Less finicky vampires don't.
In the historical mystery series starring Sebastian St Cyr, he has yellow eyes that help him see better in the dark and hint at how mysterious and Badass he is. (Otherwise, the series is mainstream.)
In Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore, Coyote, Anubis and their 'children' (Sam and Minty Fresh respectively) all have golden eyes to denote their supernaturality.
The alien children in The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
The Villain in Dennis Wheatley's The Haunting of Toby Jugg is a satanist with yellow eyes.
Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance series has gold eyes with hourglass-shaped pupils. They're a curse applied to him by the Wizards' Conclave because they thought he lacked sympathy; they cause him to see the effects of time on everything and everyone.
Zane from Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series has gold eyes, also featuring the usual metallic flecks found in the irises of pretties. Apparently the gold eye-color had just been approved by the Committee of Morphological Standards for use in pretties, and so Tally finds his eyes exotic.
Major characters in two of Caitlin R. Kiernan's novels feature Eyes Of Gold. Narcissa Snow in Low Red Moon, as well as the child she helped to birth (or is she?), Emmie Silvey. Emmie appears in the related follow-up novel, Daughter of Hounds, which also describes the ghul as occasionally possessing this eyecolor (which is not unreasonable being as they are fairly canine in appearance). However, to be perfectly accurate, they are both described as having yellow eyes and not gold, but so what?
A non-fantasy example, That Was Then, This is Now, by S.E. Hinton, has the foster-brother Mark with gold-colored eyes. The protagonist initially views them as lion-like and comforting, but his view changes during the events of the book and the revelation of Mark's sociopathy.
F'lar from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider books was described as having "golden" or "amber" eyes.
Tennyo, in the Whateley Universe, has the Ryoko golden eyes. When she gets mad, she goes to Red Eyes Take Warning. It looks like her backstory matches this trope exactly.
In Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson universe, when a werewolf starts to change from human to wolf, the eyes are one of the first body parts to change. Watching their eyes is one way to tell who's in control in there. Since most wolves have yellow eyes, most of the werewolves' eyes will brighten to gold. One character has blue eyes in wolf form, and her eyes turn from brown to blue when her wolf starts to come out.
In Robin McKinley's Damar books, the eyes of people with kelar turn gold when they get angry or use their magic (the two occasions are often related).
- Also when they fall in love. And it's dangerous to look in their eyes when they aren gold, unless you have the kelar yourself. Kinda awkward for lovers without it.
In The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope, the protagonist Kate's spoiled younger sister has eyes described as golden or honey-colored.
In Lee Lightner's Warhammer 40000 Space Wolf novel Wolf's Honour, having your eyes turn golden is the first physical sign that you are turning into a wolf-like creature, the wulfen.
According to Flight of the Eisenstein the Primarch Mortarion had amber eyes.
Genghis Khan and his father in the Conqueror books are both stated to have gold eyes. Sure enough, their tribe is called the Wolves, and the first book is titled Wolf of the Plains.
A villainess in one of Short and Shivery stories is "made" when a child notices her unusual eyes, which are "green and flecked with gold".
In Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel, Flauvic Merindar has gold eyes. She seems to like this trope, as Tau from Inda shares this.
In Percy Jackson And The Olympians, Luke's irises turn gold after his body is possessed by Kronos.
- Hyperion, Titan of Light and the East, also has golden eyes, but his burn bright "like miniature suns"
One of the two human bloodlines resulting from Arisian eugenics is marked by gold-flecked eyes. This line includes both Virgil Samms and Clarissa MacDougall Kinnison.
The Childlike Empress of The Neverending Story is also known as the Golden-Eyed Commander of Wishes.
In Emily Of New Moon, Ilse Burnley is described as having "eyes like yellow diamonds". She also has Hair Of Gold so the Curtains Match The Window.
In Lois Mc Master Bujold's latest series, The Sharing Knife, the Lakewalkers have metallic eye colors running the gamut between silver and gold. This is a marker of their magical heritage, their descent from the sorcerer-kings who first loosed malices on the world.
Shapeshifters in the Kate Daniels universe have their eyes change from human to animal when they're upset or losing control. Kate often refers to Curran's eyes as molten gold or fiery yellow when he's angry.

In The X Files season 1, the liver-eating mutant Eugene Victor Tooms's eyes sometimes were a bright yellow-green. (The color of bile, appropriately)
Star Trek The Next Generation had the gold-eyed android Data, who doesn't fit the mold, being decent and caring. His brother Lore, on the other hand was Always Chaotic Evil or close to it. B4, the third Data-like model shown, had no personality to speak of. Humorously, Brent Spiner titled an album "Old Yellow-Eyes is Back".
In the Doctor Who serial "Survival" people under the malign influence of the Cheetah Planet acquired golden, cat-like eyes. This included the Master and Ace. The Master's subsequent incarnation (in the TV Movie) had golden Glowing Eyes Of Doom, which may have been related to this, or his being a CGI snake for a while, or something else.
Supernatural has the appropriately named Big Bad, "Yellow Eyes", otherwise known as Azazel or the Demon.
The titular character of Merlin has blue eyes, but they glow gold when he does magic.
Subverted in Stargate SG-1; the Enkarans are a race of humans with pale golden eyes and extreme weakness to radiation... but aside from that, they're indistinguishable from normal humans in both appearance and behavior.

Shape-shifters in legend, especially Genies, witches, and the like, are frequently tipped off by golden (or two-tone) eyes, which they cannot hide even in animal form. Mythical creatures with Deadly Gaze may have golden eyes as well. Shapeshifter Mystique from X-Men probably got her golden eyes from this variant of the tradition, making this Trope possibly Older Than Anime.
In Greek Mythology, Circe and her niece Medea had Golden Eyes.

The Flock Of Seagulls song I Ran, the girl has "auburn hair and tawny eyes"

Dungeons And Dragons (3.5 edition), or at least the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, mentions yellow eyes as a sign of celestial (angelic) descent, which usually corresponds to good alignments.
- 4E extends gold eyes (along with red ones) to the Dragonborn and Tiefling player races, with no indication of their Character Alignment (although Tieflings are generally considered a "dark" race)
- The Drizzt Do'Urden novels had Dantrag Baenre, the weapons master of the First House of Menzoberranzan. He was noted for having unusual eyes for a drow (who normally have red) — yellow, changing to orangey-red when he got angry. Their Archmage, Gromph Baenre has amber eyes, and his daughter Liriel (Starlight and Shadows trilogy) inherited this trait (along with his magical talent). At least, this one is clearly In The Blood.
Some Vilani in the Traveller RPG have gold coloured eyes.
As a Space Wolf inches closer to being overtaken by the Wulfen, the feral moster that lives inside of him, his eyes turn a shade of gold.

Morphs in the 7th Fire Emblem game have this as one of their main traits.
Ansem and Xemnas, the Final Bosses in the Kingdom Hearts series, have gold eyes. Considering that they're The Heartless and the Nobody of the same man, this makes perfect sense.
- Don't forget Saix and Xigbar of Organisation XIII
  - Birth By Sleep seems to indicate that this is a side effect of tapping too much into darkness. Master Xehanort and his apprentice, Vanitas, both have them. Terra and Braig get them later, as well. Ven also gets them temporarily while he's being possessed by Vanitas.
Lucifer in the Shin Megami Tensei series has silver eyes in all his incarnations.
Some of the blarg in Ratchet And Clank have gold/yellowish eyes and some red. Drek's eyes are a shiny blueish with no pupils.
If you look closely at him when you meet him in the Expansion Pack, Sheogorath of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has these (with black eye-whites, if I may add), although it's hard to tell if he's really evil, or good, or just crazy.
- Interestingly, he had glowing green eyes in Daggerfall. Completely green eyes, which glow, as can be seen prominently when he glares at you with an evil grin, his eyes lighting up.
- In his own words "Daedra are the embodiments of change." It's not at all unusual for supposedly-defining details of a Daedroth to shift for no reason.
  - Considering other daedric princes change genders at a whim, Sheogorath has been surprisingly stable.
  - In any case, he's definitely a trickster.
The Warcraft universe features the night elves who normally have completely silver eyes (entirely silver, as they have no visible pupils). Those who had golden eyes were considered to be destined for great things, the most notable being Illidan Stormrage and Queen Azshara. Ironically enough, both of them ended up as villains.
- Nonetheless, in World Of Warcraft, it's divided along gender lines: Male Night Elves have golden eyes, female Night Elves have silver eyes, and that's that. The encyclopedia on the World Of Warcraft website mentions that in truth, Eyes Of Gold are merely a sign of druidic potential, and as the druids only recently opened their ranks to women, are more common in males...which really makes no sense when you think about it.
  - Speaking of druids and golden eyes: Malfurion Stormrage, the twin brother of Illidan, was born with silver eyes, but while practicing druidism over many centuries his eyes turned gold, as seen here
Dark Jedi in the Knights Of The Old Republic series, especially Darth Revan, have yellow eyes. The player character can have them as well if she/he goes over to the Dark Side.
Elizabeth (non-evil, but enigmatic and obviously supernatural) and Takaya (evil) in Persona 3.
- In Persona 4, all Shadow beings have eyes of gold (until they go One Winged Angel). They're The Heartless, if you were wondering.
In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, in the offical art of his "Awakened self", Soma has gold eyes (In contrast with his pale blue and almost colorless eyes). However, in-game art, and Dawn of Sorrow, he has Red eyes instead, probably because it's easier to see
- Alucard is also drawn as having gold eyes in Symphony of the Night; in the retconned Legends, they're blue; in Obata's too-close-to-Sephiroth-for-comfort Judgment design, they're green. So as not to go wall-eyed let's just says he's got gold eyes and leaves it at that, since Legends was retconned and Judgment is a flustercuck.
In Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, the Demi-Fiend's eyes change from greyish to gold when he's given demonic powers, and they begin to glow (and his body darken) when he unleashes powerful physical attacks (most likely this would happen with spells as well, but they all use the same generic casting animation, so...). His eyes get bumped up a rank to red if the player makes it all the way through the Labyrinth of Amala and has the Old Man in the Wheelchair unlock the full extent of his demonic power at the cost of his human soul.
Zasalamel of Soulcalibur fame is an interesting variation - he has a fake eye made of gold.
Lands Of Lore has a scene where the shapeshifting main villain masquerades as one of the player's allies. The only way to detect her (except trial and error) are her eyes that stay yellow regardless of form.
The big bad of Legend Of Legaia 2: Duel Saga spends a good deal of the early game known only as 'the man with the golden eyes.'
In Tales Of Symphonia, the soulless angels that show up as enemies have this.
- In its sequel, the sadistic Alice has them as well.
Nu Wa from Warriors Orochi 2. If you will look closely at the cinematics when she is present, you can see this.
In Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, the titular character has a cybernetic eye that's gold in color.
Ultimecia in Final Fantasy VIII has gold eyes in addition to her various Power Tattoos and other physical signs of being a Sorceress. Edea, who inherits Ultimecia's powers and is possessed by her, also has gold eyes while in possession of her Sorceress Powers.
Shamir Shamazzle in King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow, has golden eyes, in all of his many forms. This helped the player identify him...just in case the various strangers encouraging the protagonist to do strange/dangerous/crazy things wasn't obvious enough.
Misha in Katawa Shoujo has golden eyes, though it's not quite sure yet what that means.
Adelle from Final Fantasy Tactics A 2 has yellow/golden eyes, and she was part of "The Gifted, a group of people with extraordinary powers such as living for a long time. It is unknown if her yellow eyes have to do with the Gifted or not.
Sho Minamimoto from The World Ends With You, fitting the bill of the trope as a delightfully power-hungry sociopath who shapeshifts into a lion.
Emiya Shirou from Fate Stay Night, for no clear reason. Nobody comments on it. It's probably for the same reason he has red hair despite being completely Japanese.
Yakumo Yukari from Touhou Project. Heavy Sleeper with the most dangerous powers in Gensokyo.
Ganondorf, along with all the Gerudo, in The Legend Of Zelda.
Erol in Jak And Daxter is the The Dragon in the second game and the Big Bad in the third.
In The Sims 2, werewolves have yellow eyes; interestingly, so do plant-sims.
During Resistance: Fall of Man, this is how the narrator recognizes that Nathan Hale (the playable character) has been infected by The Virus. In the novel, his excuse is that yellow eyes run in the famly, to cover this up.
Vampires in Gaia Online have yellow eyes when they're about to do something badass, otherwise they're pale gray with Hellish Pupils. Psycho For Hire Zhivago apparently has this effect going constantly.
The character Slayer from Guilty Gear XX has golden eyes. This makes sense since he is a vampire.
Many Sonic characters have these: the Chaotix team, Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat, for example.
The apparent Big Bad of Blaz Blue, Hazama/Terumi, has Eyes Of Gold. In the console version's opening cutscene this is the first hint that this guy is trouble.
In Quest For Glory IV, all vampires have pupilless golden eyes.

Fa'Lina, Nutmeg and Pyroduck in DMFA.
In Amazoness!, the quite literally Raised By Wolves (or possibly cats) child Gatamache is shown with gold eyes.
Werewolves in Sorcery 101 have yellow eyes. It is also suspected to be the case in Strange Someone.
In Pandect, Aces (animals who have been given human bodies and minds) have yellow eyes if their animal species has them. The protagonist, Prince Fleance, is a melanistic leopard and has gold eyes with slit pupils in human form.
Most members of the Val'Kyorl'solenurn family from Drowtales seem to have yellow eyes. They tend to be religious fanatics and oppose the red-eyed Ver'drowendar.
Richard from LookingforGroup has yellow/gold eyes, and is probably one of the most powerful, destructive, and evil warlocks/beings/forces in the comic's entire world and/or universe. He's also insane. And undead. And hundreds of years old.
The heroine of Parallel Dementia, Fall Boxer, has these, as does Visage's fiancé in the extended flashback to his backstory.
The four main characters' of Cry Havoc eyes change golden when they transform into werewolves. Their eyes also fluctuate between their natural color and yellow when in human form and stressed or excited.

Golden eyes appear to be a common characteristic of the Fire Nation nobility in Avatar The Last Airbender. This may have something to do with kitsune traditionally being associated with the element of fire. Katara was actually able to identify Azula by these when she was posing as a Kyoshi Warrior. (Who these make Zuko resemble — especially when he's wearing that cloak — is better left unsaid.)
- Oddly enough, no one else seemed to notice Zuko's yellow eyes while he was wandering around the Earth Kingdom in disguise. They were probably distracted by the giant freaking scar.
  - Well it's not like the average Earth Kingdom peasant would have seen a Fire Nation noble before.
Transformers Animated takes the concept of "Red eyes for Decepticons, Blue eyes for Autobots" from the original cartoon, and adds yellow eyes for those that are on neither side.
- Jetfire also has yellow eyes, but this is probably just to go with his color scheme of being all warm colors. 'Cause, you know, flamethrower.
Captain Hook from the Disney Animated version of Peter Pan has gold eyes. They are visible in the scene where he talks to Tinkerbell and tricks her into revealing the location of Peter Pan's hideout.
In Exo Squad, many Neosapiens have yellow eyes, including Phaeton.

The normal eye color for these animals:
- The North American Great Horned Owl.
- The Weimaraner dog◊
- Are we forgetting wolves◊?
- Elephants have golden eyes too, if this◊ is anything to go by.
Hazel and light brown eyes can sometimes have a tendency to look goldish
- Actual amber eyes are relatively rare, and often mistaken for hazel, but they aren't unheard of.
Ghenghis Khan was said to have yellow eyes. In fact, the fact that his first born son was the only one of his children not to inherit this (his mother was abducted by a rival clan for several months following his conception) lead to him eventually splitting off a part of the horde (the only recorded case of this happening in the Mongol empire) and Ghenghis naming his third-born son heir since the second born was so adamantly against the first born succeeding.
Josef Stalin was also said to have gold/amber/very light brown eyes.

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