rule #1 of character design: the silhouette matters more than the color scheme
hence why super saiyan works regardless of hair color (floppy to spikes to long flowing locks)
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter![]()
Given the limitations of colour palette, especially in Volume 1, my assumption has always been that Ozpin's first line to Ruby is not only to foreshadow the importance of silver-eyed warriors, but to clarify to the audience that her eyes are silver rather than grey... precisely because of limitations of the colour palette. Or it might be deliberate (see the last couple of paragraphs of my post).
Well, it's clear there aren't many of them, even if there are a couple alive at the same time. What we certainly don't know is if silver eyes was always rare or whether silver eyed people - and families where one was born - were systematically hunted down and wiped out to try and remove the chance of silver eyed people ever being born at all, hence them being so rare now.
Well, I find Qrow's eyes very interesting. Raven has blood red eyes, but Qrow doesn't. They're a colour that's basically grey and red, a sort of grey-red. When he was briefly conscious during the Nuckelavee fight, his eyes looked completely drained of the red colour, leaving him with silvery eyes. They were almost as clear as Neo's white eye colour, which she only displayed upon seeing Raven and therefore looked like they're her 'fear' colour.
That's not the first time we've seen that with Qrow either; when Winter punched him in the face (left side), his left eye suddenly turned silver or white for a brief moment before vanishing again. It was visible enough at the time for people to wonder if it was sign of a Semblance activating (because he suddenly seemed faster and stronger after that happened), but not visible enough for people to pin down quite what it was.
I wouldn't mind knowing who Qrow's parents were given that it sounds like they were abandoned or orphaned to end up having been raised by the bandit tribe Raven calls family. Qrow's eyes give me a 'half-way' feeling - that may be his eyes are half-way between the red eyes of one parent (which Raven inherited) and the grey or silver eyes of the other parent (which he has almost inherited, but not quite).
Yang has 'half-way' eyes, too: a blue-eyed father and a red-eyed mother, and her default eye colour is purple, which is basically blue-red.
I also find Oscar's eyes interesting. I know some people regard them as 'hazel', but that doesn't look like a good hazel depiction to me. That looks like segmentation - heterochromia where a segment of the eye is a different colour to the rest of the eye. His eyes are predominantly green, but a segment in each eye is exactly the same shade brown as that brassy-amber colour Ozpin's eyes had in Volume 1. After Volume 1, Ozpin's eyes changed dramatically, becoming almost grey with a faint brown or green tint depending on scene lighting.
Until the creators tell me it's their way of depicting hazel (which is basically green and brown together anyway), I'm viewing it as a sign Oscar has two souls - Oscar's green eyes, plus a hint of Ozpin.
On the subject of Neo's white eyes, I sometimes think that's what they should have used to portray the unusual silver of Ruby's eyes. However, then I think of what Qrow said to RNJR at the campfire, and I wonder if it's actually a deliberate decision for Ruby's eyes to look grey:
Qrow said that Salem's people aren't happy that another silver-eyed warrior has surfaced and that they can use their power. He also said not a lot of people know about the silver eyes (which, yes, might solely be a comment about the power, but may not be just about the power). That, combined with the Episode 1 Evil Meeting, suggests to me the following:
- Unless characters actually know about the existence of silver eyes, characters will not automatically assume that Ruby has silver eyes just by looking at her. In other words, Ruby will pass for 'grey eyes' to most people. Only some people will be able to look at her and recognise the truth.
- Since it looks like Salem's people dealt with Summer and her silver-eye powers, there seems to be an indication that there has not been an automatic assumption that she might have had offspring with silver eyes.... or the silver-eye power. Ruby's come to their attention solely because her power activated and messed up Cinder.
- There's no guarantee that a silver-eyed person will ever access the silver-eye power. It may therefore be very rare for a silver-eyed warrior to be born, but it'll be even rarer for them to actually access and be able to use their silver-eyed power.
edited 7th Mar '17 11:10:35 AM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.shininess (so silver is more likely to be >50% grey when shininess is hard to convey)
edited 7th Mar '17 12:48:54 PM by ch00beh
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." TwitterSo I found this on twitter and decided to share because we haven't suffered enough. Enjoy.
As far as Silver versus Grey, they're pretty much interchangable wen it comes to eye color, particularly when it comes to lighter gray eyes, which is basically what Ruby has. It's somewhat amusing to me that the "special" eye color she has isn't exceedingly rare in real life, at least compared to say purple eyes.
edited 8th Mar '17 5:57:04 AM by CaptainCapsase
I would say the frequency of similar eye colors in the show is just an artistic oversight (we had silohouttes in the background in Volume 1, Only Six Faces in Volume 2, cardboard cut-out Taiyang and still image backgrounds in Volume 3, and Ruby's Magic Skirt in Volume 4). Mercury has similar eyes, sure, but Winter's are distinguishable. There's not a terrible number of similarities that I've noticed.
Having them be silver both looks cool and, considering Ruby's usually fighting what are essentially werewolves, is a clever nod to Silver Has Mystic Powers. This could be Monty's "style over substance" mentality, but I wouldn't it consider it to the show's detriment.
edited 8th Mar '17 6:23:56 AM by Soble
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!![]()
Well, discussing real life eye colour is a completely different conversation.
A discussion on real life eye colours would have to observe that silver does not exist as an eye colour and neither does purple (which is blue eyes that scatter light from back of the eye as well as the iris — red retinal blood vessels plus blue irises equal vaguely purple appearance under certain lighting conditions).
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
I think your first point is also Capsasse's point. I'm just saying, if they want to make a distinction between the two, they can. Of course, that leaves the responsibility of making it actually appear noticeably different from any other character with grayish eyes on them.
edited 8th Mar '17 7:03:40 PM by LSBK
I'm not quite assuming that, just noting that visually, the eye color called "silver" isn't visually different from what we'd call light gray eyes, and if it's supposed to be something different altogether that hasn't been conveyed visually, which as you said, falls on the creators.
edited 8th Mar '17 8:28:25 PM by CaptainCapsase

That's like saying Super Saiyan is dumb because there are other characters in the series with blond hair.