The Grand Unified Appearance Trope Clean-up:

Either Big Ol' Eyebrows trope needs to be expanded past Anime&Manga, or all the other media categories need to be deleted...

edited 15th Mar '13 9:02:18 AM by ArcadesSabboth

I think the problem with the trope is more than just whether it is just a Anime and Manga thing.

The big problem is "What does this mean"?

"Any person with bushy eyebrows" with sounds rather like "Any person with blue eyes" and is pretty much Not A Trope.

Is there supposed to be a link between bushy eyebrows and a character type? If so, is that link only present in drawn media, or can you also have written descriptions that make the same link?

Is this supposed to be "In the same work, men are consistently drawn with thicker eyebrows than women as a form of gender identification"? If so, everything that isn't a drawn medium needs to be cut. Also, all the examples need to be redone to talk about works as a whole and not individual characters.

I assumed "this appearance has no meaning" was implicit for the whole thread..

As for finding any meaning at all in the examples:

• Numerous examples: Pointed out/noticed by other characters, or inspire the character's nickname.
• Keroro Gunsou, Girl Genius, Metal Gear Awesome, The Venture Brothers: Change size and/or shape depending on mood. (Expressive Hair?)
• Zoophobia: "each character's Big Ol' Eyebrows convey a different state of mind (smug, ecstatic, anxious, etc)." (Expressive Hair?)
• Lazy Town, Breakfast Serials, possibly The Hunchback Of Notre Dame: Designates the villain. (Red Right Hand?)
• Star Trek, World of Warcraft, ThunderCats: Race-wide trait.
• Axis Powers Hetalia, Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life, possibly Dune and/or Drill Dozer: Shared odd trait means they're connected or related. (This trope is not specific to eyebrows and is yet to be created.)

• FLCL: Prosthetic eyebrows serve the same purpose as a tinfoil hat, whatever that is.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Designates the comic relief.
• Zu Warriors Of The Magic Mountain: Used as weapons.
• Punch-Out!!: Their movement and sound effect are a cue to an enemy's action.
• Waterworks: "protecting his eyes from pepper spray."

There also seem to be plenty of female examples. Anyway, I don't see anything here specific to big eyebrows. The only sign of patterns are wider and not specific to eyebrows.

edited 15th Mar '13 10:05:37 AM by ArcadesSabboth

^^ Well I know thick eyebrows can be used to indicate masculinity, either to identify a man _or_ to depict a woman as being tomboyish or rough.

Also I have seen them used to indicate the Gonk, like in Naruto.

IDK, there is probably a trope in there somewhere, trick is to find it.

edited 15th Mar '13 10:13:54 AM by willthiswork

I don't think "indicating the Gonk" would be separate from just how the Gonk is depicted/drawn in general.

A symbol of masculinity might be a pattern, though. The trouble is the almost total lack of context in the examples.

edited 15th Mar '13 10:21:48 AM by ArcadesSabboth

^ I suppose not, although they are a easy shorthand for ugly that can be used when someone's art style is not really codusive to making people actually gly. I have seen characters treated as the gonk who looked just fine apart from having silly eyebrows.

Using them to indicate masculity is better though, I have seen that far more often. In fact, I think I have an art book that says to do that.

I assumed thicker eyebrows were meant to indicate masculinity or sloppiness in general. Because for women it's like, pluck those eyebrows! Stick thin! And that shows up a lot in artwork, especially anime, where it's just a single thin line?

I'd say have the trope be for thicker eyebrows as a sign of masculinity or a tomboy/"uglier" female.

Does Hair Decorations need to be renamed? The trope is supposed be about characters wearing hair decs that makes them appear younger or cuter. It's being misused for any character who has decs in their hair regardless of whether they actually fit the description and the current name seems to be encouraging this.

That definitely needs to be renamed. Simply calling it Hair Decorations is a terrible name because it tells us basically nothing about the actually trope.

It used to be called Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs.

Which, while still a terrible name since it's a snowclone, was a much better name for the trope.

Perhaps Hair Decorations Equal Cuteness?

Hair Dec Of Cuteness?

On another note, can we please have links attached next to the pending items directing back to posts that explained the problem(s) with said items, so that we don't have to dig through the thread manually to bring them up again every time?

Cutesy Hair Decorations?

I hope I'm posting on the correct thread. I'm doing preparations for a future article, and I'd like to make sure, and thus ask you, if the use of Innocent Blue Eyes and Green Eyes in the following example, to be added in Eye Colour Change, is correct:

• In Favorite Dear Junshiro No Yogenmono, Cesia's eyes change from blue to green when she becomes the new Saint Woman, after making a power and knowledge-transferring pact with the dying Saint Woman. The colour change is symbolic, as from that point Cesia, while remaining one of the most idealistic of the Seven Heroes, loses a good chunk of her innocence and naiveté along with her Innocent Blue Eyes; and, as she gains her Green Eyes, she gets the collective memories, knowledge and powers of all the Saint Women before her (who all got the green eyes, too), and as a result becomes more collected and wiser. The colour change is also permanent, making some of her early Event CGs Lost Forever after the pact is made.

edited 20th Mar '13 11:13:17 AM by AceNoctali

Yes, mate, this is the right topic.

That example is about the colour change, not the colour itself. If there is a trope for the colour change already it should go there.

That was the plan: the example is written for Eye Colour Change.

So, you mean that I should take out the Innocent Blue Eyes and Green Eyes elements out of this Eye Colour Change example, and create individual ones for them, such as this? :

• Eye Colour Change: Cesia's eyes change from blue to green when she becomes the new Saint Woman, after making a power and knowledge-transferring pact with the dying Saint Woman.

• Innocent Blue Eyes: Cesia sports those, as she's one of the most innocent and naive Heroes. When she becomes the new Saint Woman and gains the collective memories, knowledge, and powers of all the former Saint Women, her eyes permanently turn green, symbolizing the loss of most of that innocence.

• Green Eyes: Cesia gains those when she becomes the new Saint Woman and gains the collective memories, knowledge, and powers of all the former Saint Women. They symbolize the gain of those powers, as well her personnality shift from an innocent and naive girl, to a more collected and wiser woman.

edited 20th Mar '13 11:26:08 AM by AceNoctali

Green Eyes isn't really a trope. We just haven't figured out what to do with it yet, but we're leaning towards just cutting it entirely. There's no real symbolism to the colour itself.

That's fine by me, I'll just add examples for Eye Colour Change and Innocent Blue Eyes then (provided you too estimate they're correctly used). Given how the appearances tropes are a mess, I steer clear of them as a rule of thumb; I'm here solely because that character's case is a really significant plot twist in that game (hence the spoilers' tags).

Your example for Innocent Blue Eyes sounds reasonable.

Would having Hair Decorations as a supertrope and then various types/uses as subtropes be too much?

Probably. Is there anything else hair decorations are used for besides cuteness? (...and signifying personality, but that's true of all clothing.)

Unrelated: Is there a trope for eye colours that's analogous to Amazing Technicolour Population and You Gotta Have Blue Hair?

Not that I know of, now that Technicolor Eyes specifies "has to be special in-story."

Huh. That raises the opposite question. Do we have tropes for 'weird special skin tones' and 'weird special hair tones'?

edited 21st Mar '13 8:40:19 PM by Noaqiyeum