Evil Albino, Heroic Albino, and other Albino tropes: Literal or not?

As far as I can tell from those images, her complexion doesn't change at all, making a claim of "albino" ridiculous on its face. That's Evil Makeover, no more, no less.

edited 11th Feb '13 9:48:42 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Most examples under Evil Albino and Heroic Albino that I know of aren't really different in skin tone from other white/light-skinned characters in the setting, though. Heck, most times that a work of fiction explicitly claims that a character (human or terrestrial animal) is an albino, they aren't really one appearance-wise by the medical definition.

edited 11th Feb '13 10:53:08 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Then they are wrong. Albinism is not just White Hair or Blue Eyes; it's a complete syndrome involving hair, eyes, skin, and all other pigmented parts of the body.

Frankly, if people are misusing the term albino to that degree, then it's something of a cultural problem not limited to TV Tropes. However, we can at least use the term correctly here.

edited 11th Feb '13 10:53:40 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Yes, real-life albinism is that. But fiction has been shown time and again to have a different definition of "albino" from real-life.

edited 11th Feb '13 10:55:34 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Most writers don't care about the full spectrum of albinism, I'd say. They just use "white person + red eyes" and run with it.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

"white person + white/pale hair + red eyes".

Maybe this should be dealt with using TRS after all.

edited 11th Feb '13 10:55:43 AM by MarqFJA

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If you're talking about comics or animation, any skin tone that is not dark is often so white already that you can't make it any lighter, especially in monochrome. So there's an art/print limit too.

But I think you're right that common perception of albinism tends to leave out the pale skin.

A blog that gets updated on a geological timescale.

FWIW this would be handled in the Projects thread for appearance trope cleanup, not TRS.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Has it been brought up there yet?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Nope.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Well, I'm bringing it up right now.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

To be fair, what the lay person means by "albino" and what medical science means by "albino" are two totally different things. In Real Life, it's quite possible for albinos to produce pigmentation - it's just impaired in some fashion (and even then, it's potentially only melanin and affecting the eyes). Basically, there are plenty of people in real life that have albinism in such a way that a fictional depiction of them wouldn't get troped under either albino trope.

So I guess the fair question is, in just what way do you mean "literal"? Do you mean a member of a species that ordinarily has different pigment, but expresses some form of albinism? Does it specifically have to be the version that results in white/very pale blond hair and red/pink/purple eyes? Could it just be the scientific definition, where they could have brown hair and green eyes, yet still meet the scientific definition of the term?

About the only case I can think of that I'd feel truly comfortable calling an albino in fiction that I'm familiar with is the protagonist of Geek Love - who was without pigment, was explicitly diagnosed with the condition, and the story even goes into details (like the particular glasses she had to wear) about what actual albinos have to deal with. And even then... she was an Anti-Hero at best.

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

I don't think it has been mentioned yet, but some of the confusion may have to do with the White-Haired Pretty Boy trope, which is sort of connected in that that trope derives from Elric, and Elric (and his people) have albinism, whereas most White-Haired Pretty Boy characters are just pale/light complexioned with white hair, although I can think of a couple who are also explicitly albinos or at drawn in a way that is different from other characters/suggests they have albinism.

Edit, edit, edit, edit the wiki

It seems that we have two separate issues here. First, what exactly is an albino in Fictionland for purposes of these tropes? That may be a matter for a dedicated discussion. Second, the standard problem of appearance tropes, which already has a Projects thread for it.

I agree with you that the existence of White-Haired Pretty Boy does confuse things a great deal. Has that trope ever been TRS'ed or otherwise examined in the appearance tropes thread, because as defined, it is unbelievably vague.

edited 13th Feb '13 11:15:29 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

By "dedicated discussion", do you mean on this thread, a dedicated TRS thread, or on the Projects thread? And FWIW, White-Haired Pretty Boy was apparently created as the Spear Counterpart of White-Haired Pretty Girl, so we may have to look at that one too.

BTW, it's been done.

edited 13th Feb '13 11:19:38 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

They shouldn't be considered counterparts. Both tropes are pretty badly misused from what I recall since neither title includes words that actually indicate what the appearance indicates about the character.

I dare say that whether or not they're badly misused right now has no impact on whether or not they're counteparts at the moment; I see no casuality between the two. That said, I do agree that there doesn't seem to be any good reason why they're separate tropes rather than being a single White Hair Means Special trope.

Yet another item (two, technically) to bring up on the Projects thread.

edited 13th Feb '13 11:30:46 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Uuh, no. We don't want to lump appearance tropes together by appearance. That way lies constantly misused stuff like Blue Eyes that we split for a reason.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

I'm not sure at this point if we need a TRS, a Special Projects, or something else. This thread seems to be serving our needs for the moment.

What I am seeing from all of this discussion is that there is an emphasis in fiction on appearance traits that evoke images of albinism without necessarily qualifying for that term as it is defined in medical literature.

In short, some combination of white hair, pale blue or red eyes, and pale skin indicates otherworldliness or oddness, and is traditionally associated with evil. It is also fetishized in some cultures.

There, that's your trope in a nutshell.

edited 13th Feb '13 11:57:00 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

That's the thing, though: From what I can see, nothing really distinguishes White-Haired Pretty Girl and White-Haired Pretty Boy besides the gender.

Aptly put, I must say. Whether any part of that merits being split into a subtrope is a whole other matter that would be better discussed elsewhere, but you hit the nail on the head.

edited 13th Feb '13 11:45:58 AM by MarqFJA

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@45.1: That is not what you were talking about.

@44: That seems right to me.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

I beg your pardon? Then what did you think I was talking about?

edited 13th Feb '13 11:48:40 AM by MarqFJA

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You were phrasing it to be about all white hair tropes.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

<rechecks the post in question> Oh, it could look that way. I was specifically talking about those two tropes alone, though; I did not mean to discount the existence of other White Hair Is X tropes.

... And why haven't the two of us been thumped for this derail?

edited 13th Feb '13 11:55:56 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Because you re-railed yourself?

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"