Clean up to match new definition NEW CROWNER 03/02/12: Greeneyed Redhead

I'm pretty sure this is a character with green eyes and red head to indicate another trait about the character, so I don't think it should have a real life section.

Zapped.

huh, just like that. Looking at the examples outside the real life section I really we meant need to rename this trope. Tropers are just slapping this on any character with green eyes and red hair.

edited 31st Dec '11 3:20:50 PM by captainpat

I feel this trope is People Sit On Chairs. It says "it's usually a female interest for The Hero", but there are many examples where that doesn't happen.

And even if that wasn't the case, Heroes Want Redheads with green eyes! would be one of the most blatant cases of The Same But More Specific I've ever seen.

edited 31st Dec '11 3:32:31 PM by nrjxll

That too.

I would support a cut.

Hm...I feel there's something here. Red hair is the most rare hair color, and green eyes are the rarest eye color (excusing abnormalities like violet eyes), and yet they're extremely popular combinations.

Compare the live-action film to the literature, anime, western animation, and video games sections—it's much smaller in comparison because it's much harder to find red-haired, green-eyed actresses. Two are from Maureen O Hara (probably the most famous green-eyed, red-headed actress ever), and one of them is digital and cosmetic make-ups and wigs.

My point is that it's not a random trope. They don't seem to be selecting any old hair color or any old eye color, there's a disproportionately large amount of creators who favor this color combination, and it's noticeable. The reason seems to be how striking it looks. If I had to guess, it's also that, since the colors are so rare, it makes the character look more unique.

Still, I'm not sure how to form it into a more structured trope.

...Also, considering the Image Pickin thread is not resolved, it was a bit out of line to zap the Real Life section. I agree it should go, but we talk, then zap.

edited 31st Dec '11 4:47:35 PM by helterskelter

Well, I feel there isn't. The trope description and the laconic are very different too:

"Red hair symbolizes passion, green eyes, sensibility. Both are sexy." - Laconic

Where's that in the examples? The description says "it's Fiery Redhead, without the fiery part, and green eyes". So, we took a trope, we stripped it from what it makes it a trope, added something completely irrelevant and we have this page.

I think cutting it would be the best option.

Other than red hair and green eyes being an uncommon combination, is there any sort of trait it's supposed to imply about the character?

It's a costuming trope. Something that is done in fiction that isn't in line with reality. Things that happen in fiction far differently than reality are ALWAYS tropes. They're tropes in the category of ways fiction if different from reality. They automatically have the meaning of being divergent from reality.

But there are people with naturally red hair and green eyes in real life.

edited 31st Dec '11 4:50:23 PM by captainpat

There are a vanishingly small group in RL where as they're all over the place in fiction. That's divergence from reality. Things can diverge from reality in frequency. That automatically makes them tropes.

That's why I pointed out the fact that the Live Action Film section was extremely tiny (with two examples from the same person, and one example being done with costumery), whereas the non-live action examples are quite abundant. It does occur in real life, but the abundance of creators who prefer this combination isn't a random or simply statistically understandable choice. It seems to have to do with how rare the colors are and how striking they look.

Red and green are the only two complimentary colors (meaning colors that appear to make each other brighter with proximity) that humans can actually have. Combined with their rarity, I believe creators choose this combination to reflect perhaps the importance of a character or to make them look more dynamic and interesting. It's why we often see extremes in color in animation—why no one seems to have dirty blonde hair or mud brown hair, but platinum and chestnut. No one has watery blue eyes (except villains or ineffectual people), they have sky-blue eyes. It's to make them seem more unique and special, and better to "look" at.

So, the only possibly tropable bit we might have is that a Greeneyed Redhead is a good sign of a Mary Sue? (runs)

Unless there are multiple Greeneyed Redheads in the same work it's not a trope, as they are as rare in that setting as they are in Real Life. We don't have a trope here, we should cut the page. This is just People Sit On Chairs.

Well many are considered stunning as well as the fact that its rare in Real Life artists who actually put them into their works tend to treat them as special in some way. (maybe Mary Sue ish or other things.) Its an exotic look... Even the fact that it exists in the work is a trope. Rose Haired Girl with Green eyes also gets this alot too (Rose Haired Girl really plays with all Red head tropes really.)

Same could be said for Dark Skinned Blonde (although I have wanted to split that up to the anime Phenotype Stereotype version meaning if they are from a Tropical island or India they have to get this.) and Dark Skinned Red Head (which IMO needs splitting of the Energetic Exotic Hero Look (which was originally the trope) from the rest of the crap. EDIT: as well as the Stoic Exotic Hero Look that got shoved into the description.)

edited 1st Jan '12 4:16:21 AM by Raso

It's not like green eye redhead are a common sight in particular works. There's usually like one or two characters in a work with this trait so it's not being dissonant with how rare the trait is in real life as well.

edited 1st Jan '12 6:11:37 AM by captainpat

Rose is not a normal color, that's why Rose Haired Girl is a trope. Green-Eyed Redhead? Not at all. Is it presented as exotic in the works? No it isn't.

So I insist: we DON'T have a trope here. We have a blatant case of People Sit On Chairs that needs to be CUT.

What are you talking about? A Greeneyed Redhead is always presented as exotic in fiction. Even in Ireland.

If there is a Greeneyed Redhead in a story or show you can always count on her being important to the story- usually the heroine.

Greeneyed Redheads do appear disproportionately in fiction, and are disproportionately the heroine. Similar to Hair of Gold, except Greeneyed Redheads are more likely to be an Action Girl. (Fiery Redhead and all that).

edited 1st Jan '12 10:16:33 AM by Sackett

{Accusations of "lying" are uncalled for. Don't do that. In fact, dial back the condescension and "I know better attitude" in general. —Madrugada}

edited 1st Jan '12 6:54:29 PM by Madrugada

Are they the heroines because they have green eyes and red hair or are they heroines because they have red hair?

edited 1st Jan '12 10:34:33 AM by captainpat

{Please Holler about posts like that rather than continuing a fight here. Thanks. —Madrugada}

I'd say that redheads are treated as "special" but adding greeneyes just increases the "specialness". Not sure how we could separate the two effects.

That said I do think it is clear that there is a disproportionate usage of green eyed redheads in fiction. That suggests there is a trope here.

Brown hair and hazel eyes would be People Sit On Chairs, red hair combined with green eyes is not. I mean, come on, how many green eyed redheads do you know?

It's an unusual combination (the rarest of all the realistic combinations) and in fiction characters that have it are marked out as different from crowd.

edited 1st Jan '12 6:55:17 PM by Madrugada

{As above. —Madrugada}

It's PSOC because it's not a literary device. If there is only one redhead with green eyes in the setting then they are as rare as they are in Real Life, so they aren't more special than they are in real life.

So, to sum up, it's not a trope.

edited 1st Jan '12 6:55:47 PM by Madrugada

So isn't that the trope then? An important or special character with Green eyes and red hair and not just the green eyes and red hair themselves.

Woah guys, no name calling.

edited 1st Jan '12 12:07:04 PM by captainpat

edited 1st Jan '12 12:26:05 PM by DrMcNinja