In the wider context of fiction that's probably a relatively common occurance, since fiction sensationalises. Nevertheless, it's still generally presented as a special act of sacrifice in-universe.
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But that doesn't need be signified with her specialisms. After all, the story does imply The Power of Love, not "The Power of Lily's Specific Love".
edited 15th Jan '12 1:43:17 PM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.The fact that Evil Overlords aren't the same way they are in fiction doesn't mean they don't exist.
My grandmother suffered of hunger when Francisco Franco took over Spain, in the postwar period. Her mother, my greatgrandmother, refused to eat so my grandmother could. For over two weeks. She could have died and she was willing to do the sacrifice. Thanks to a stupid guy who thought that he was the best ruler ever.
And now that you know shut up about it. I know more similar histories, so if you're lucky enough to not have suffered similar things I'm glad for you, but don't imply that I don't know what I talk about anymore.
There are no heroes left in Man.^^ Yes, but there's rather more to her specialness than that.
But setting specific examples aside, my point was that the trope is used to suggest that a character might be special, or to accentuate the specialness of a character, not that it's proof of specialness or intrinsically tied to whatever special properties the character might possess.
Um. Ninja'd.
Dr. Mcninja, I'm very sorry I offended you, and I'm very sorry that this happened.
But I'm afraid that still has nothing to do with what anyone was talking about, and you are still accusing us of making arguments that nobody made! I don't know how I can make this any clearer to you.
edited 15th Jan '12 1:48:29 PM by BobbyG
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff"But setting specific examples aside, my point was that the trope is used to suggest that a character might be special, or to accentuate the specialness of a character, not that it's proof of specialness or intrinsically tied to whatever special properties the character might possess."
I don't think it works that way. It's exotic, but not that exotic. Not to the point where it calls out specialness, especially in other works where a lot of other characters are special in other and/or similar ways.
edited 15th Jan '12 1:49:55 PM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.Special is relative, of course. In a universe where half the rest of the cast has really improabable eye and hair colours, then I can agree that a GERH wouldn't stand out.
Still, I do think it's sufficiently exotic that it evokes, or suggests, or accentuates, the specialness of a character, in other contexts.
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The StaffThat's not a dreadful suggestion, I'll admit.
The problem I have with that is that it only describes the what, and makes no effort to understand the why.
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The StaffStories treat characters with GERH as different and than the other characters as better or idealized or more significant. It's objective, as long as you're paying attention to how the story treats characters. If the story plays up the things the GERH does as great or wonderful or goes out of it's way to explain how the GERH is different than the rest of the cast in some way, than it's this trope. If random satellite character is a GERH who walks in and out for the story everyonce in a while and isn't given much attention, it isn't this trope. The reason you can tell it's a trope, is because the second possibility almost never happens like it does with any other combination of hair and eye color.
edited 15th Jan '12 3:57:28 PM by NoirGrimoir
SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)Hm, perhaps we're missing a contrasting trope. Anime in particular uses it almost as a back ground, but there's a few works which intentionally don't (such as Inu Yasha where all the normal humans have black hair unless they're old and grey).
Fight smart, not fair.I think this trope applies to some anime. Aside from Sakura, Naruto has almost no one with an unnatural hair colour. Even hers could be looked at as a sort of strawberry-blond. Therefore when Gaara has this colouring he actually stands out.
If everyone has crazy colouring it loses the impact though. It just needs to be an anime that doesn't have technicolour hair and eyes on it's cast.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickI actually think it applies to Yu Yu Hakusho because the only characters with technicolor hair are yokai. All the human characters have real hair and eye colors. This trope was a way to show Kurama was different, because while he is inhabiting/fused with a human, she's still magic and originally was a yokai, so he has a rare and unusual hair and eyes color but not one outside the realm of human possibility.
edited 15th Jan '12 7:40:56 PM by NoirGrimoir
SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)I don't mean that to apply to anime in generally, but some anime use a scattering of "naturalish" colors (including stuff like Purple Is the New Black or albinism) while others will use really wild hair colors like a green to blue gradient. Hence my belief that Anime is likely to use slightly different tropes because they use different mindsets when selecting them. Probably the most notable is the blue eyed redhead from my experience. Blue and red seem to have a bit more connotation of contrast in Japan (see Red Oni, Blue Oni) and this may be over riding the natural green/red contrast in their minds. Or, blue eyes is code for "European decent". I am, however, basically just looking at vaguely random tropes.
Also: on Yu Yu Hakusho, beam sword guy (can't remember his name) is supposed to be a delinquent, who, in Japan, have been known for bleaching their hair to funky orange blond colors.
Fight smart, not fair.I think it depends on how... colorful it is. Something like Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch would certainly not qualify, but something like Silent Mobius might (not that either has any examples that I know of; it's just to show looks of shows can matter).
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.Do we need to break that off as its own trope so we can say "when [random hair color in anime trope] is in effect, this trope doesn't apply"?
Fight smart, not fair.It might be good to make that a trope. You Gotta Have Blue Hair doesn't quite sum it up. It's also something that shows up in Western works as well especially in children's shows, Doug or The Simpsons would be good examples.
It's basically shows were the colour combinations of hair, eyes, and sometimes even skin are so extreme that they don't seem to have any grounding in reality. Amazing Technicolour Cast or something like that.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickAs I argued for Sakura Girl, these kinds of tropes are not supposed to be about the simple combination of certain hair/eye/skin colors. They're about the meaning these things symbolize/label, and are representative of. If there is no meaning behind it, then it's just a character that happens to have red hair and green eyes, which is irrelevant.
So, if there is some kind of particular, consistent symbolization, characterization, and such that go with it, which it is immediately indicative of, then it should be changed to reflect that specifically, and renamed so we know it's about that, and that the green eyes and red hair are incidental labels or manifestations of that due to the author providing a visual shorthand for his or her intended meaning.
(Obvious Thread Hop).
"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."
Crown Description:

We are talking about how tropes are used in fiction, and I am pretty sure the most common way of defeating the evil overlord is the hero and his friends defeating him. A mother defeating the evil overlord with her love is rather unusual.