The Grand Unified Appearance Trope Clean-up:

That argument can be made about blue eyes, too.

Ultimately, any eye color can mean anything for a given author. We're trying to determine things that are specific and common.

If you want to talk about the merits of lumping vs splitting then we can do that too.

Well Innocent Blue Eyes has long history of being symbol for innocence. So it being its own trope makes sense. Dont think any of the connotations of Green Eyes have a strong enough to be split off Kinda off topic but I think we split Blue Eyes too much. Icy Blue Eyes, Creepy Blue Eyes and Occult Eyes have overlap with each other.

Oh and instead of just Green Eyes in general could we focus on the eye color tropes as a whole

Edited by MacronNotes on Sep 24th 2018 at 5:56:02 AM

- Emotionally detached is different from creepy? Although, high overlap. But still not the same?

Occult Blue Eyes. Get your wicks right. ... Magical / demonic doesn't have to be emotionally detached or creepy...

Green eyes being associated with earth mother/nature magic/free spirit type characters, is a consistent standard I've been encountering for as long as I've been reading books. I listed the most common repetitive categories I encounter in this post, but I could summ up the most common encounters I've had as Significant Green Eyed Red Head, Mystical Green Eyes (a sign of magical/mystical abilities/nature), Earthy Green Eyes (a free spirited or earth mother type character), or Alluring Green Eyes (which is commonly paired with black hair rather than red hair).

I'm not saying those should be new tropes. I'm just saying that there are definitely symbolic uses of green eyes in works — at least the works that I'm familiar with.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Sep 25th 2018 at 1:01:17 PM

Earthy Green Eyes would be Elemental Eye Colors, as it's essentially Green eyes = Elemental Earth theme.

^ - Well, there's about three examples for Earthy Green Eyes listed in Green Eyes, so while it could be an Elemental Eye Colors subtrope, not really worth it?

...

If Magical Green Eyes are a thing, which they might be, given the first listed example... It could be Magical Rare Eyes or something... Magical Strange Eyes?

Because the core of the idea is less "Green Eyes are Magical" and more "Weird Eyes are Magical"?

Could also fit Occult Blue Eyes in there too...

...

Weird Appearances Are Significant? Supertrope of Significant Green-Eyed Redhead and Dark Skinned Blonde?

Edited by Malady on Sep 25th 2018 at 6:43:42 AM

That isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the down-to-earth, motherly type of characters in stories that often have green eyes to short-cut the symbolism that the character is the kind of person who's regarded as having a free spirit type personality, who tends to introduce a little fun and wildness into people's lives along with heavy doses of compassion, empathy and maternal instincts. It's got nothing to do with being associated with the earth element and it doesn't even have to involve rural or nature settings in story.

When I talk about an 'earthy' character, I mean the definition 'direct and uninhibited', not 'connected to the element of earth'.

I think it's the use of a rare eye colour in humans (green) that is much more common in an animal that is strongly associated with magic (cats). Magical people associated with cats often get assigned one of two eye colours: green or gold, two extremely common eye colours for cat stereotyping.

There might be some kind of Eye Colour Symbolises Magic supertrope of things like Occult Blue Eyes, Supernatural Gold Eyes, Purple Eyes and the green eyes I've mentioned could be rolled into it, along with any other eye colour that a work seems to be using to symbolise a particularly magical person/creature. That said, I'm not convinced by the Occult Blue Eyes trope at the moment — a cursory glance at it suggests there's a fair bit of 'this character is occult and also has blue eyes' going on that's on top of the intended 'this character's blue eyes is a clue to their occult nature' examples.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Sep 27th 2018 at 12:18:50 PM

Couldnt Mark of the Supernatural cover the magical aspects of green eyes? I dont think its neccessary to create a trope for eye colors indicating supernatural things

Edited by MacronNotes on Sep 28th 2018 at 11:17:02 AM

Accidental double post

Edited by MacronNotes on Sep 28th 2018 at 8:54:44 AM

- Likely, yes, given how it already says it's a supertrope of Supernatural Gold Eyes...

Edited by Malady on Sep 28th 2018 at 8:28:56 AM

Well, if there's an appropriate trope already, that's fine. I'm still not convinced Purple Eyes and Occult Blue Eyes need to be separate tropes either (for the same reason).

I like the idea of a Eye Colour Symbolises Magic trope. It is neater and more concise than having separate tropes for each color. Right now it appears that we have two (gold and blue) and a possible third in the general Green Eyes trope.

sounds like a soft split at best. but yes another vote for me for just Magical Eye Colors

I don't know if this is me being a bit nitpicky but I'm not sure Eye Colour Symbolises Magic and Magical Eye Colours mean the same thing.

Yeah Magical Eye Colors sounds like the colors themselves are magical

Eye Color Symbolizes Magic seems like a good supertrope. I could be persuaded otherwise, but there seems like a difference between "thing in real life used for symbolism" (Occult Blue Eyes) vs "totally impossible thing used for symbolism" (Purple Eyes and the like).

So for Green Eyes, Magic Green Eyes would be covered by Eye Color Symbolizes Magic, eyes turning green due to Green-Eyed Monster would be Eye Colour Change, Green Eyes= Elemental earth powers would be Elemental Eye Colors. But we need a spin-off trope for Green Eyes = Mother Nature type. Is that everything?

I don't mean to disrupt the eye color discussion. I feel the trope Gold Tooth aught to be added to the list for discussion. There is definitely a trope, but it has many ZC Es, and falls into the category of a trope name that is just the description and not the significance.

Windows To The Soul is still not a redirect or a disambig, just imitating one...

It should probably be a disambig rather than a redirect

Edited by MacronNotes on Oct 14th 2018 at 8:44:57 AM

- Motherly Green Eyes, to match other Motherly tropes like Motherly Scientist and Motherly Side Plait.

I don't think "green eye color=motherly" is a thing. If anything it is more Elemental Eye Color for earth in general.

So is it time to make a crowner for green eyes? I guess the options are to make a disambiguation or cut.

I don’t think we need a disambig- it’s not an issue of confusing names, and Color-Coded Eyes can list the green eye tropes.

The main isssue is whether there are green eye tropes that aren’t covered by existing ones. I’m not super sold on the motherly green eyes thing as distinct from Elemental Eye Colors and would like to see some examples. There was also support for an “unusual eye color= magic” trope which would include green eyes as well as Purple Eyes, Occult Blue Eyes etc.

Does this merit consideration?