Needs Help (titles crowner 25 June 2019): Woman In White

GM_3826 (Not) A Game Master from Ylisse Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: In Spades with myself

(Not) A Game Master

#1: Sep 7th 2017 at 6:31:06 PM

...I really don't want Woman In White to suffer from the same fate as Woman In Black. Woman In Black is indeed Not A Trope and an example of People Sit On Chairs, but Woman In White is a distinct character type. They are the "Other". The "Other" could be pure, insane, whatever, the important part is that they're not of this world. It's a case of Missing Supertrope, possibly, but that's not the only thing the page fails to get across. It fails to get across the fact that the character is supposed to be otherworldly in the first place. They're not necessarily important, but they are alien to some extent.

Many things could be done to Woman In White, but I feel that at least two things need to be done. Currently the name is incredibly confusing. it makes it seem like it's a woman who wears white, but rather it's a character type that always wears white. There's also the issue of the definition I mentioned earlier: it goes into too many directions, and the Laconic page doesn't clear things up: it makes things worse. If we rename the trope and redo the description, then a perfectly good page won't be culled. It'd also highly improve the quality of the page.

The trope is currently misused a lot, but even more commonly it seems to be misunderstood. Many of the wicks are Zero Context Examples, which I'd wager is because people seem to think that it's merely a Costume Trope.

The Wick Check

Agnes of God: Zero Context Example, but based on the information available on the page, seems to fit.
A Prairie Home Companion: Another Zero Context Example.
Arrowverse: The Legends: They list White Canary as an example of Woman In White thanks to being a merciless assassin, but that really has nothing to do with this trope.
A Song of Ice and Fire - The Free Folk: The example given is Val, but the white clothing she wears doesn’t seem to mesh with the rest of her character. Also, not extremely otherworldly. That’s the main thing when it comes to the Woman In White, so you’ll hear me use that word a lot. The Woman In White is the “Other”.
Black★Rock Shooter: The example has been edited out. It’s the main character’s evil twin, White Rock Shooter. Likely didn’t apply.
Brynhildr in the Darkness: The example given is Mako Fujisaki, or Valkyria. In this case, yes, she does apply as an “Other”, but all they state about her is that she wears a white dress, white socks, and white shoes. It’s almost as if they think that’s what the trope is…
Crafting Materials: Ah, the Pantheon. I remember when I frequented that. I might come back someday (although given how toxic it is, maybe not.) The example given is Jadis, who seems to fit as an incredibly powerful witch.
Determinator: A pothole in this case. The “Silvite” mentioned is Fina. As she’s mistaken for a goddess and treated as mysterious, the example here works… but once again the example emphasizes the clothing she wears, rather than her character.
Devil May Cry - Other: “More or less?” That seems more like you jumping around the fact that they’re not one…
Dokuhime: This is probably the first case in which a character fits this trope, and the example given explains why. We’re currently through a fifth of the list. That says a lot.
.hack//First Generation: There are actually two examples here! One is Aura, who as a Messianic Archetype fits, but once again, zero explanation as to why. One is Helba, who is too mundane to be an example of this trope.
.hack//Second Generation: The example given is Shino. Again fits the trope, but no explanation as to why they do.
Emma Frost: Holy shit this character is complicated. That said, I think that they’re too sexualized and anti-heroic to truly be an example of this trope. Above all the Woman In White is otherworldly, but purity is also a major theme regardless of whether they’re a hero or villain. Oh, and almost forgot-too much emphasis is placed on the clothing itself.
Flowers in the Attic: “Corrine on her wedding day?” Of course you wear white on your wedding day. If you continued to wear that bride’s dress once the wedding was over, then of course that says something about you. Otherwise it means absolutely nothing. Cathy is also given as an example, but so little is said about Cathy herself that it seems to be impossible to identify whether she fits this trope or not. Could someone familiar with the movie weigh in?
Fractale: Zero context example. There are way too many of these. It’s as if characterization doesn’t matter at all, just what they wear. The page describes Nessa as a Clingy Jealous Tsundere who speaks in the third person, so seems to have nothing to do with this trope… but there’s so little in the way of character tropes on that page that it’s impossible to tell. There’s another example, but it’s a spoiler, and without more information it’s impossible to say for certain whether it applies, so I’ll leave it.
Fushigiboshi no★Futagohime: They do it explain it this time! Yes, if Princess Grace is “mysterious and ghostly”, she’s an example. Still, that’s 2 proper examples with a genuine explanation, out of *1*].
Galaxy Angel Video Games: Lots of Zero Context Examples. The character fits as Shatoyan is described as a mysterious and pure messiah on the same sheet, but I will say this a million times: it’s as if only the clothes matter.
Gender Flip Versions: Austria is given as an example of this trope, but they don’t seem sufficiently otherworldly or alien to qualify.
Good All Along: The character is named Moo-Myeyong and no information besides the fact that she’s a Woman In White is given, but this is not their page so it doesn’t matter.
Google Translate Sings: There is no information about Christine on the rest of the page. I’m not sure as to whether or not she’s an actress or a character, as I’ve never seen the Phantom of the Opera. Could someone back me up on this?
Little Black Dress: The trope has been mentioned, but merely as another outfit trope. Given that the trope has less to do with the outfit (it’s a character archetype), probably should be removed.
Mega Man ZX: The example given is Pandora, but again, zero context.
Misery: Yes, Annie Wilkes seems to qualify, but very little context is given.
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: Zero context, and doesn’t seem to fit the trope.
Red Earth: Once again, those words “More or less” pop up. I’m probably a bit hypocritical speaking about this, but as someone who is currently acting in the interest of bettering TV Tropes seeing those words sickens me.
Rosario + Vampire: Newspaper Club: Moka wears a white bridal dress in a piece of artwork because she’s a waifu and that sort of thing is rather common.
Rurouni Kenshin Supporting Characters: The character fits (it’s Yukishiro Tomoe, an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette) but I’m not actually quite certain about whether or not to class this as a Zero Context Example or not. They definitely do give context, but the context is that the fact that she had worn a white kimono tipped others off to the fact that she was a noble, not the idea that she was not quite there.
Star Wars – Leia Organa: Star Wars is very big on color coding characters, so Leia Organa wears white because she’s a voice of reason and The Chick, not because she’s pure or alien. The example given also doesn’t explain why she wears white, just makes note of it.
Supernatural S 08 E 19 Taxi Driver: Works here. The nameless character is both absolutely bonkers and incredibly mysterious, given how she repeats to herself that she knew that Sam would come here, over and over. That said, she’s not actually listed as an example of Woman In White, but rather as an example of Madness Mantra.
Super Wrestle Angels: The idea of a wrestler being a Woman In White is amusing, but although we know very little about the character based on what they say on the character page, she’s listed first, so she’s probably the protagonist. Also a wrestler. So she wears white because she’s a hero, not because she’s the “Other” (yadda yadda)... Another Zero Context Example.
Tekken 2: Once again, they only make note of the fact that she wears white, rather than the reasons that she wears white. As the protagonist’s Missing Mom she fits the trope quite well, but you kind of need to say that thing up front.
The Addams Family: Ophelia is The Ophelia, so of course she fits. On the other hand, once again all they say is that she dresses in white.
The Cat Piano: Apparently the corner stone of Mew York. An alluring and mysterious white cat, whose disappearance puts everyone into panic, fits this trope quite well, and they do provide that context.
The Knife Of The White Stone: Bryony… is described as a tomboy, and Boisterous Bruiser, and etc. etc. Don’t think she fits. Understandably, the example has been removed, but even when it was there it just said that she had worn white.
The Mantle: Eleanor actually seems to fit, given that she’s listed under The Ophelia. Unfortunately, all that is said is that she wears white in mourning for her husband. That doesn’t necessarily indicate that the character is a Woman In White. I decline to look much further as I fear spiraling into depression
The Spectacular Gargoyles Spectacular Marvel Universe: Dagger has very little to do with the Woman In White. She just wears white. Zero context example, again.
The Star of the Guardians: Based on what is said Maigrey Morianna, she doesn’t really seem to fit. Then again, she starts wearing white after living on a faraway planet. Maybe she’s a goddess there. Who knows? (That’s a serious question.)
The Stoneheart Trilogy: If the white that a Woman In White wears is a sheepskin longcoat, chances are they’re some sort of Action Girl, not an example of that trope. Another Zero Context Example, but the rest of the page gives that away.
The Woman in White: The Woman In White is a Woman In White. Who would have guessed? Although, they do not elaborate on her character in the example given, besides being the trope namer. She fits, of course, but honestly I think that there are too many Zero Context Examples. I’d guess that it’s because people think that it has more to do with their clothing.
TPPR 10: TPPR is working on Kagura here. Kagura is listed as a Woman In White, but she wears white more because of her innocence than her true nature.
Tropes V to Z: Galadriel and Eowyn are classic Women In White, as the Worlds Most Beautiful Elf and Woman, respectively, but they don’t actually elaborate on why they wear white. This should be obvious by this point, but this is an issue.
Viewtiful Joe: The example given (Coordinator Sprocket) is a Zero Context Example, and also doesn’t seem to fit the trope as a major character’s sexy Evil Twin.
Villainous Archetypes: Uh, Northern Ocean Princess fits? I guess? (Don’t they all wear white?)
Wilde Life: So little is said about Zulime that they may or may not fit this trope. All that’s noted is the example itself is that she’s a witch, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Does anyone have more info?
Woman In White: Probably the best argument for this trope needing a redef. If she wears white, she’s not necessarily important, just pure and not of this Earth.
Xtremly Scray: Angelica actually seems like a proper parody of this trope. I’ve actually done this myself! It’s fun to subvert that image associated with such a character. They specifically specify the fact that it’s to emphasize her purity, so not quite Zero Context, either.
Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Barian World: Very little is said on Marag/Marin’s personality. Definitely zero context. Does she fit? Who knows? (Can someone back me up on this?)
YuYu Hakusho — Supporting Cast: Yeah, Yukina as a pure and innocent maiden seems to fit. Although, rarely are Women In White this nice. Also zero context.
Zarkana: If they’re wearing white because they’re ghosts, then they qualify. Given proper context and a proper example. This is only true of a few of the examples we’ve looked over. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because very little of the people reading actually understand what this trope is?
Zoophobia: Adina is given as a Zero Context Example that was quickly removed. That said, she’s an angel. She might qualify by virtue of that fact, although judging by the information under Light Is Not Good that may not be true. (Fun fact: I went on Zoophobia’s character page. Adina is not on there, but there seems to be a genuine Woman In White named Kaycee (albeit a furry) whose example has been removed, because once again, zero context.

In other words, out of these 50 randomly chosen examples, only about 1 tenth are definite examples given proper context. At the very least, there needs to be some sort of cleanup effort. I think it would be more proactive, however, to modify the trope in order to avoid having this happen again in the future. if too many people misunderstand what the trope is, then that could lead to it being removed. ...Some suggestions as to what the trope could be renamed is "Otherworldly And Dressed In White", "White Clothes Are Otherworldly", or perhaps "Other Woman In White". The former two are assuming that we merge this with Man In White, which seems reasonable: the latter is if we decide to make this a subtrope of "The Other." Perhaps the best solution would simply be to add "Otherworldly" to the trope title: "Otherworldly Woman In White". Of course, if none of you quite like that, we could think of possible synonyms, but otherworldly seems to describe this character better than words like "pure" or "alien".

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu

#2: Sep 9th 2017 at 3:31:32 AM

That wick check should also indicate the actual writeup, not just your comment on it.

As an appearance trope with over 50% misuse/ZCE it is a cut candidate.

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

GM_3826 (Not) A Game Master from Ylisse Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: In Spades with myself

(Not) A Game Master

#3: Sep 9th 2017 at 9:09:30 AM

...That doesn't mean we should cut it.

Changing the title to "Otherworldly Woman In White" seems like a perfectly good solution to this problem. Hence my suggestion. Changing the description should help too.

Edit: ...Also, indicate the actual writeup? If what you mean by that is "say what they said", then I did. If you what you mean by that is "quote them directly"... then, well, I'll do that soon. please clarify.

edited 9th Sep '17 9:11:24 AM by GM_3826

captainpat Since: Sep, 2010

#4: Sep 9th 2017 at 12:30:42 PM

I think "Otherworldly" is being defined way too broadly here, and Mysterious Waif, and Mystical Waif seem to cover most of this thing.

WaterBlap Blapper of Water Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]

Blapper of Water

#5: Sep 10th 2017 at 8:03:08 AM

See How to Do a Wick Check. You should quote directly.

That said, I don't see how adding the word "otherworldly" will help stop people in the future from misusing this trope, especially if we have 50% misuse right now.

Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty

Karxrida The Unknown from Eureka, the Forbidden Land Since: May, 2012 Relationship Status: I LOVE THIS DOCTOR!

The Unknown

#6: Sep 10th 2017 at 10:43:14 PM

Appearance Trope with over 50% misuse/ZCEs = fuck it.

Salt the earth and don't look back.

edited 10th Sep '17 10:43:41 PM by Karxrida

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

ReynTime250 Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA

#7: Sep 17th 2017 at 4:00:39 PM

I'm honestly surprised this one is getting misuse. This seems like a very easy trope to understand. It's a character (Particularly a heroine as villainous examples go into Light Is Not Good) who is dressed in white all the time. That's one of the most simple tropes to exist.

A good example of this played straight would be Lillie in Pokemon Sun and Moon.

edited 17th Sep '17 4:02:51 PM by ReynTime250

lexicon Since: May, 2012

#8: Sep 17th 2017 at 5:00:04 PM

A character who is dressed in white all the time would be People Sit On Chairs all the time.

WaterBlap Blapper of Water Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]

Blapper of Water

#9: Sep 17th 2017 at 5:29:21 PM

It sounds like Woman In White should get the same treatment as Woman In Black. The trope name, as is the apparent case with most appearance tropes, implies that the color or clothing is what's important to the trope. That is, it isn't "clear". Also, some of the description seems to imply that this is a super supertrope to Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl, Virgin in a White Dress, Winter Royal Lady, and maybe Fairytale Wedding Dress which should probably be cleared up if we're not doing away with this article.

Looking at the description, there seems to be a few distinct meanings this article is trying to cover...:

Paranormal Woman In White:
- Insane Woman who Wears White. The description implies this is just The Ophelia. This is apparently "especially" true if the woman is a teenaged girl.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl (effectively potholed regarding "Dead Woman who Wears White")
- "See also Virgin in a White Dress"; I suppose this is the purity stuff.
Normal Woman In White:
- Eccentric Woman who Wears White: There's a line in the description that reads "If it's just fashion, then it implies a fastidioius neatness, and an ability to 'keep clean' even if one is not, usually by 'not getting their hands dirty.'"
- Winter Royal Lady is "often" this.
- "a traditional Fairytale Wedding Dress" (not exactly right, given that blue used to be symbollic of purity rather than white)
- "Wearing white is also identified with women's rights." (This is not something I've ever heard of before, but it would be it's own trope, I would think.)
  - White being associated with women marching for temperance in the United States.
  - White later being associated with women marching for suffrage in the United States.
Could be Paranormal or Normal Woman In White:
- Evil Woman who Wears White (this is strange to me given the popularity of "white = purity")

[A Woman In White is] the "Other". The "Other" could be pure, insane, whatever, the important part is that they're not of this world. It's a case of Missing Supertrope, possibly, but that's not the only thing the page fails to get across. It fails to get across the fact that the character is supposed to be otherworldly in the first place. They're not necessarily important, but they are alien to some extent.

That's too general, imo, to be a specific trope. A "pure" or "innocent" woman who is an Other is very different from a madwoman who is an Other.

Appearance Trope with over 50% misuse/ZC Es = fuck it.

I can only interpret that as "cut and delete the wicks." I disagree because I think there is something buried beneath the stuff that's already covered by other tropes (at least as far as the description's concerned).

Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty

lampshadeortriangle Since: Oct, 2015

#10: Dec 22nd 2017 at 12:46:02 PM

I'd like to point out that the reason this page needs editing is because it's *not* supposed to be a trope purely about appearance - people are just adding "examples" of any woman who happens to wear white.

Similar to Man In White, a Woman in White is a character who is denoted as 'otherworldly' or 'ghostly' by their all-white clothing. In fact, I see little to no difference between this and Man In White, aside from the gender flip. Maybe it would be better to combine this and Man In White, and then just mention the differences in how the trope is played according to gender.

Malady (Not-So-Newbie)

#11: Dec 22nd 2017 at 10:07:42 PM

So, this isn't connected to the Grand Unified Appearance Cleanup?

But, yeah, White can have many meanings, but a woman just wearing white has too many meanings, and so each example should go on the page that is White Is Trait.

So, White-wearing man / woman that is ethereal would go in White Is Ethereal or whatever? Maybe Ghost White or something.

Unless there's something special about it being a woman who wears it and stuff.

edited 22nd Dec '17 10:14:33 PM by Malady

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Maddy-chan4444 Since: Nov, 2015 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free

#12: Jan 11th 2018 at 4:34:46 AM

I'm thinking we should take all the descriptions of Man In White and Woman In White, and make them all into their own - not necessarily gender-exclusive - separate tropes. Preferably with non-misleading names.

Pichu-kun ... Since: Jan, 2001

...

#13: May 26th 2018 at 11:29:16 AM

When I think of female characters wearing white the first thing that comes to mind is the Virgin in a White Dress. White is associated with little girls and "innocent" women.

The trope as is apparently refers to supernatural or Opheliac characters, but the title doesn't reflect that. It's just a vague "Woman In White". IMHO this doesn't work like Lady in Red because that trope is so well-known. White? Not so much. It can mean a pure-hearted character, an Opheliac, or a ghostly character, and that's not getting into other cultures symbolic usages of white.

edited 26th May '18 11:43:01 AM by Pichu-kun

naturalironist from The Information Superhighway Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life

#14: May 26th 2018 at 1:13:11 PM

for turning Woman In White into White is Ethereal or Ethereal White Dres. I think there is a solid trope here, but the description and examples need to be more specific about the symbolism.

The most tropable aspect of this is the color white symbolizing a connection to "another world", often death or the spirit world (though it could also be the realm of the gods or Another Dimension). This can be literal (i.e. the witches in Throne of Blood, who might be forest spirits and are certainly magical) or metaphorical (i.e. Miss Havisham of Great Expectations who is so stuck in the past that she is figuratively a ghost).

While I won't claim any trope is universal, I don't think this is that culturally specific. Ghosts being white has a broad cultural basis. White is a funeral color in East Asia, and was once one in Early Modern Europe. This trope has a long history and is well discussed outside of this wiki [1].

Virgin in a White Dress is a distinct trope that would rarely overlap, though it might if the character is an Apocalypse Maiden or they have Virgin Power from an ethereal realm.

Man In White is a mess though. The description seems like it might just be Light Is Not Good, but the page image implies the opposite.

"It's just a show; I should really just relax"

eroock Since: Sep, 2012

#15: May 27th 2018 at 3:40:33 AM

^ Ethereal White Dress would make this an optional feature of the Mystical Waif. Is this the direction we want to go with?

Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)

#16: May 27th 2018 at 4:10:17 PM

I don't think it's a good idea to go with Ethereal White Dress, aside from the appearance trope clean-up where tropes associated with clothing have issues, you could end up with 'man in white toga' and 'wizard in a white robe' misuse due to the name.

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.

Malady (Not-So-Newbie)

#17: May 27th 2018 at 6:27:57 PM

- Ghostly / Haunted White Dress then?

OH... HELLO, White Shirt of Death!

Snowclone Snow Means Death into White Means Death / White Means Undeath?

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naturalironist from The Information Superhighway Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life

#18: May 28th 2018 at 8:22:08 AM

I think White Shirt of Death is about a character wearing a white shirt dying a dramatic, violent death on-screen, because blood is visually striking on a white shirt. Whereas Woman In White is where a character wearing a white dress implies that they have already partly died or traveled from another plane. (Again, I don't think there has to be literal magic involved, but there should be something about the character that makes you think she's not of this world.)

Should this trope be Always Female? If not, I think a wizard in flowing white robes would be a legit example. I think the name of this trope, like Lady in Red, is derived from legends of the White Lady, a specific, female ghost. That said, I don't really have strong opinions about whether this should stay female.

Also, we already have Tropes in White, an index of white symbolism, for those who were proposing that earlier.

"It's just a show; I should really just relax"

naturalironist from The Information Superhighway Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life

#19: Jun 5th 2018 at 3:57:14 PM

Statistics on where examples on the page fall in terms of usage, to give us an idea of how this is being used. Here "Ethereal/Mysterious White Dress" is my previously proposed definition of a character in a white dress who is somehow occult and mysterious.

Just A White Dress

.hack:
- Aura. She's got the white hair, too. It's actually a very pale lavender but it's close enough.
Seika "Mariana" Akishima from Amakusa 1637. When she and her friends became Time Travelers stuck in the Amakusa area before the Shimabara rebellion, she was wearing a white Pimped-Out Dress instead of their school uniforms, so said white gown becomes her trademark clothing.
When portayed in color, Athenas personal assistant Nike in Appleseed is always dressed in white and is blond as well.
Pretty much every girl in ARIA.
Axis Powers Hetalia: Austria's Nyotalia form is often portrayed as one, in contrast to Fem!Prussia who is more of a miniskirt-wearing tomboy.
In Candy♡Candy, the female school uniform in the Boarding School Candy, her friends and the Alpha Bitch attend is white and looks a lot like a Sailor Fuku. Unless in certain days, where the girls are required to wear black dresses instead.
C.C. from Code Geass. Until she wears black. Then she wears white again.
Cyborg 009 loves the trope, since the 2001 series has several: Artemis, Hera, Princess Ixquic, little Arisu and three of the five Pu'Awak sisters (Aphros, Deena and Daphne).
The titular character of Lyrical Nanoha has a white Barrier Jacket which looks like a dress. Her elementary school uniform is also a white dress (the former is actually based off of the latter in-universe). However, most fans refer her as the "White Devil".
- Vita's Barrier Jacket also turns white (with black trim) when she unisons with Reinforce Zwei.
Madlax and Margaret, final episodes, the white cocktail dress.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi: Arumi wears a white summer dress when she isn't decked out in some crazy, alternate-dimension local attire. As the more mature, down-to-earth co-protagonist, she doesn't really fit the typical Woman In White persona, but the white dress does bring out her dark complexion.
Shiho Munakata from Mai Hime, as the girl clad in a bridal kimono.
The Pretty Cure franchise has three Precures who has white as their theme color. Cure White, Cure Egret, and Cure Rhythm, all three of them being Girly Girls to Tomboys. The Heartcatch Pretty Cures wear white costumes when they activate Super Silhouette.
- Also The Queen, Flora, Mugen Silhoutte Aphrodite, Royale Queen and Royale Candy.
- Cure Angie and Cure Echo from a Non-Serial Movie.
Oriko Mikuni of Puella Magi Oriko Magica, at least in her Magical Girl outfit.
Kirakishou from Rozen Maiden originally had white hair and a white dress, though sometimes she is also shown with a pale pink dress, pale pink hair or both.
Tomoe from Rurouni Kenshin, whose signature kimono is white.
Kanzeon Bosatsu from Saiyuki is a Man/Woman in white.
Sword Art Online
- Yui is this. She wears a white dress and goes barefoot in her human form. Averted when she's in her Navigation Pixie form.
Miyu from Vampire Princess Miyu usually wears a white short kimono with an either red (OAV) or lilac (TV series) sash.
Jean Grey can also fit this trope when she wears her White Phoenix costume.
More Marvel Comics examples:
- Silver Sable's costumes are pale enough to pass for white, only slightly darker than her hair.
- Dagger from Cloak and Dagger wore all white in contrast to Cloak's black.
- In recent appearances, Sharon Carter, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., has taken to wearing an all-white spy suit for missions.
In her "default form", Mystique usually wears an all-white ensemble.
Done with Elisa Cameron, the protagonist of the Dark Horse comic Ghost.
Wonder Woman, in her "New Wonder Woman"/"Diana Prince" stories from the early '70s, frequently (though not invariably) wore all-white outfits, including a Spy Catsuit that came to visually define that version of the character. She owned a mod clothing boutique in these stories, so it was probably a fashion statement.
The Stunt-Girl Counterspies of Jet Dream wear all-white jumpsuits on the job.
In Shazam!, Mary Marvel eventually gets a white costume. Originally, she had a red costume like Billy, while Freddy's was mostly blue.
Before the events of Death Vigil, Bernadette appeared in all-white to new Vigil recruits. She laments that everyone dubbed her "Bernie the White", so she switched back to a darker outfit.
The Princess And The Frog:
- Tiana imagines herself in a classy white dress during her "I Want" Song. When she actually gets her restaurant, however, she wears green in reference to her and Naveen's froggy adventure.
- Mama Odie.
Asami Yamazaki in Audition is shown dressed in white throughout the film, although during the torture scene, she is wearing a black leather apron and gloves, but other than that she is still dressed in white.
Lucy in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Diane from Say Anything... tends to wear white.
Averted with Switch in The Matrix. All of the other human characters dress in black inside the Matrix, but Switch doesn't play any particularly important role (other than her death).
Mirana, the White Queen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010), not only wears all white, but has pale white skin and long white hair.
Princess Leia Organa from Star Wars:
Carrie Fisher: It's not really possible to write out a list of Princess Leia's likes and dislikes. I do know her favorite color, though, it's white. She wears white all the time.
- Mon Mothma also qualifies. It fits nicely with her role as the the formal leader of the Rebel Alliance
The armory sirens in TRON: Legacy, specifically Gem.
Dame Judi Dench's character in The Chronicles of Riddick.
The heroine of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders wears a white dress for the entire movie.
Queen Frigga's main outfit in Thor is a white dress.
Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class wears a variety of revealing white ensembles throughout the movie. She looks good.
In Batman, Vicki Vale wears an all-white ensemble during the final showdown between Batman and The Joker, as part of the overall Gothic style of the scene.
In Pacific Rim: Uprising, Liwen Shao is introduced as a coldly imperious corporate executive in an elegant white suit, who refuses a handshake and exploits a tragedy to promote her business. When she joins forces with the protagonists to help save the world, she warms up and switches to more practical clothes.
Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings is described as "wholly clad in white" by Tolkien, and faithfully depicted as such in the films.
- There's also Éowyn, the White Lady of Rohan. (Though the films show her, sensibly enough, wearing plainer, dull-coloured clothes sometimes for practical reasons.) The epithet could refer to her skin colour, though, as she is compared to a white lily quite often. She does appear in white at two occasions: Once when she bids Aragorn farewell at Dunharrow, and later when she is reconvalescent in the House of Healing, encountering Faramir.
- Aredhel in The Silmarillion, also called 'The White Lady of the Noldor'.
Lanfear in The Wheel of Time usually wears white.
In the novel of Welcome to the NHK, Misaki is introduced wearing all white.
Admiral Ar'alani of Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn isn't strictly all in white. She wears a white admiral's uniform, contrasting to the other Chiss - politicians wear their family colors, other members of the Defense Force wear black - which is implied to have the standard decorations. Plus, she's a Chiss, with blue skin and glowing red eyes. Interestingly, she's an ascension of Ari Roselani, a fan who first met Timothy Zahn while dressed as Thrawn, a (male) Chiss admiral all in white.
Bradamante of Orlando Furioso wears pure white armor.
Phèdre does this at least three times in Kushiel's Legacy at Midwinter Masques.
- At Cereus House's celebration when she is ten years old, she and the other Cereus fosterlings are dressed in white as part of the winter theme that Cereus House always has. Prince Baudoin singles her out as joy-bearer and kisses her for luck.
- At the masque for the peerage of Kusheth, Phèdre is dressed in nothing but white gauze and diamonds and put on a leash. It causes quite the stir at the party that she's showed up practically naked beside Melisande's rich black gown.
- One masque that she attends with Imriel has the whole Montrève household dressed in white as Skaldic gods. Because everyone else is dressed in bright colors, they definitely stand out.
Kolabati is actually referred to as The-Woman-In-The-White-Dress in The Tomb, to emphasize how her presence utterly dominates the restaurant.
Highlander: The Series has Rebecca Horne, Amanda's mentor.
Dollhouse. Dr. Saunders (technically Whiskey) in Epitaph One.
Battlestar Galactica:
- Although usually a Lady in Red, Head-Six wears white on Kobol (home of the Gods) and in the Opera House visions.
- D'Anna (the Cylon 'Three' model) wears white in the Season 3 episodes where she becomes obsessed with the connection between life and death. Eventually, her religious fervour, plus her forbidden inquiries about the Final Five, cause her entire line to be boxed.
Nina from Ultraman Max wears a white dress and no shoes.
Doctor Who Romana wears a fur-lined white dress in "The Ribos Operation", her first adventure with the Doctor. The fur is because they've just been sent to a Medieval-style world with Arctic temperatures. Averted in later stories, when she sometimes wears white but for no symbolic reason.
In Once Upon a Time, Snow White often wears ivory outfits.
Scandal: Olivia.
Helena from Orphan Black, in contrast to Sarah. She spends the first season in a white tank top, and is put in a wedding dress in season two. The typical symbolism is inverted, with Helena as the Anti-Villain and Sarah as the Anti-Hero. '
Lights in the video for Second Go. Until she gets covered in paint, anyway
A curly-haired, barefoot Woman In White (allegedly played by Susanne Muller-Pi) is seen dancing and singing in Peter Schilling's video "Different Story"
Amy Lee loves this.
The unnamed girl from the Pet Shop Boys video Domino Dancing first appears in a white short dress. When her position as the Femme Fatale in a fatal Love Triangle is established.
In her Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Lindsey Stirling dons a few dresses, one of which is an all-white dress, with her wearing white wig and make up as well.
Vicki Vale appears entirely in white in Data East's Batman pinball, mirroring her church tower scene from the movie.
Every female (and male) player in Wimbledon has to wear a white tennis uniform as a part of the tradition, and it's so Serious Business that apparently even their underwear must be white.
Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera wears white at significant moments. Made more obvious in the movie adaptation of the musical where she’s almost always seen wearing white. This can also apply to her in the musical's very contested sequel Love Never Dies, especially in the London production.
Sarah Chagal in Tanz Der Vampire spends the entire musical wearing a white nightgown or being naked (what? She’s taking a bath!), until she comes in during Tanzaal with a blood-red Pimped-Out Dress.
Eva Peron in Evita wears white in key moments in the musical.
Liara T'Soni wears a rather stunning white combat outfit during and after Lair of the Shadow Broker in Mass Effect 2.
- In Mass Effect 3, simple white and grey robes are the standard uniform for imprisoned Ardat-Yakshi.
Namine in the Kingdom Hearts series.
Yorda in ICO is a good example of this trope, even if her dress does have brown accents. Also, Mono in Ico's spiritual successor/prequel Shadow of the Colossus to an extent - again, despite non-white accents on her dress.
Merrill's upgraded outfit in Dragon Age II is white and polished silver.
Hotel Dusk Room 215: Mila, pictured above.
In Final Fantasy VIII, Rinoa's first appearance is in a short white dress.
In one of the endings of Silent Hill, one of the names of the End Boss is Women in White.
KAEDE Smith in Killer7, with the Carmilla Smiles being some twisted variant of that. They are both examples, as Garcian below is, of the theme that white tainted with red is the sign of a traitor.
Schala in Chrono Cross.
Saya in Ragna's flashbacks, and conversely Noel when we first see her in the prologue of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger's storymode.
Fina from Skies of Arcadia.
Let us not forget the lovely Kirie from Fatal Frame, as well as the second game's Sae somewhat- she's got quite a bit of blood on her...
The Nameless Sister from Turgor.
Fire Emblem has numerous examples:
- Rena, Elice and Maria in Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light / Mystery of the Emblem.
- Edain, Tailtiu, Lana (or her expy Muirne), Deirdre, Julia, and Linda in Geneaology of the Holy War.
- Safy, Selphina and Linoan in Thracia 776.
- Ellen in The Sealed Sword. Also, when Lilina is promoted to Sage, her sprite changes into a Woman In White one, despite official artwork showing that she's dressed in red and blue instead.
- Ninian, Serra, Isadora and Lady Eleanora in The Blazing Blade.
- Natasha and L'Arachel in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
- Leanne and Elena in Path of Radiance, and Micaiah in Radiant Dawn after her second class change.
- The DLC Bride class from from Fire Emblem: Awakening gives the users white wedding dresses.
- Queen Mikoto and the female Nohr Noble from Fire Emblem Fates mix this with Gold and White Are Divine, and so does Princess Sakura, but only if she's promoted into Priestess. If Oboro is promoted into Spear Master, her blue and orange outfit will change into a white and blue one.
- In Fire Emblem Heroes, Princess Sharena and Anna wear white and gold clothes.
- In Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, the remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, Princess Celica is seen wearing a white short dress.
Pokemon:
- Gardevoir from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire resembles a beautiful young woman wearing a long, flowing white dress. Subverted by the fact that Gardevoir can actually be both genders.
- Diantha from Pokémon X and Y is a famous actress that the villanous leader (unsuccessfully) tries to convert to his side. And guess which Pokémon is her strongest as champion?
One shows up in The 7th Guest from time to time.
Princess Peach in the original Super Mario Bros. game, but only because of technical limitations. She was always meant to be seen wearing her (now) trademark pink dress. Super Mario 3D World uses Peach's original in-game dress colors for Fire Peach.
In Hellsinker we have the human form of Lost Property 771.
In NieR Kainé wears a white negligee which sets off her silver hair and pale skin.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Megan Reed fits the trope to a tee, up to and including her ambiguous loyalties.
Ace Attorney's Dahlia Hawthorne wears an all-white outfit, including a semi-transparent shawl and a parasol, in stark contrast with her red hair.
Rena, from Higurashi: When They Cry, dresses like this when she's not in her school uniform.
Clair Vauxof Bernard in Umineko: When They Cry serves as the narrator of Beatrice's story in Episode 7. She is dressed in a white dress, white gloves, white boots and has greenish white hair. This appearance was a "prototype" for the original appearance of the Golden Witch.
Amara of Fleuret Blanc wears a white jumpsuit. This is likely related to her role as The Perfectionist, as well as her fastidiousness.
CLANNAD:
- There's a scene at the end of Kotomi's arc in which she wears a white dress.
- Also, the Girl from the Illusionary World/Ushio Okazaki from an Alternate Universe is shown only in a white dress.
Gunnerkrigg Court: Lately, Ms. Jones has been seen wearing white. And busting down retaining walls while wearing white, too.
Melissa in Anti Hero For Hire.
As in the original, the T-Girls of the Remix Comic version of Jet Dream wear all-white outfits. Harmony Thunder doubly so, as she is also often represented by artwork from the "Diana Prince, Wonder Woman" stories (see above).

Winter Royal Lady

In C. S. Lewis's Narnia series, the White Witch.
RWBY: Weiss Schnee wears white, has white hair, and is snowflake-themed. She's also the heiress to a very powerful company that mines the Power Crystals that power their world's magic, and specializes in the use of these crystals herself.

Virgin In A White Dress

Hana Mutō from Captain Earth has been seen wearing a white dress, which adds to the mystery of whether she is 17 years old or not.

white gown (notable one of the only times she wears white in the series)

Ground Control To Psychoelectric Girl: Erio often wears a lacy white, sleeveless dress (when she isn't wrapped in a futon, that is). To represent her unearthly beauty and pure, childish personality.
Prominently worn by Joan Crawford in the deconstructionist western Johnny Guitar, where her character Vienna wears a white dress and plays a piano in her saloon when the Big Bad Emma Small enters the place. Since this movie is a parody of the Western, the white dress worn by Crawford signifying her as good and the black dress worn by her enemy is an ironic reversal, since by usual Western codes Vienna is a "bad girl" (a former prostitute turned Saloon Owner) while Emma Small (a virgin cattle baron's daughter turned Knight Templar) is a "good girl".
Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, until after her wedding to Romeo. She also dies wearing a white dress.
Valerie in Valerie and Her Week of Wonders with her white smock symbolizing her innocence.
- More dramatically, Babicka, who often is covered up in a white Victorian dress with white gloves (her skin and hair are also whitish).
Arpazia in White as Snow when Coira first realizes how much she loves her mother. This is the first of Arpazia's three important gowns, symbolizing the maiden. Coira herself later takes the role of the maiden and wears white on two key occasions.
In True Blood, Sookie Stackhouse in season one (particularly before she sleeps with Bill for the first time) is often dressed in white. Her waitress uniform includes a white t-shirt (where she first meets Bill and frequently afterward); in episode two, where she and Bill take a walk together and share their first kiss, she wears a white dress; during both of her dream sequences about Bill, her night gown is white (and so is her dress within one of the dreams); the night of her grandmothers funeral, just before losing her virginity to Bill, she removes her black funeral dress and puts on a long white one. A few days prior to this she and Bill go to Fangtasia, the local vampire bar, and she meets her other love interest Eric Northman. On the ride over to the bar, Bill says she "looks like vampire bait". She is wearing a white and red floral dress.
Buffy:
- Buffy wears white in the Two-Part Episode where she loses her virginity. When she decides to stop moping over Angel's Sex–Face Turn and start kicking ass again, she's Back to Black.
- She also wears a white prom dress when confronting the Master in "Prophecy Girl", and likely for the same symbolic reasons. As a Virgin Sacrifice, Buffy's 'death' allows the release of an evil monster.
- Drusilla's adornments while still bedridden, presumably due to her being The Ophelia and Spike's vampire love interest. When she recovers, she changes to a Lady in Red (in contrast to then-virginal Buffy).
Taylor Swift does this in a lot of her music videos, especially the early ones. Examples include Fifteen, Love Story, the end of You Belong With Me, Change, Safe and Sound, and Mine.
Johanna in Sweeney Todd, pretty much the only genuinely innocent character in the whole play, is always wearing white in every stage adaptation. In the film, however, her wardrobe is True Blue Femininity.
Maria in West Side Story wears a white dress to the dance where she and Tony fall in love. She complains about this, since she would rather wear a red dress to look more "grown up."
Pokémon:
- Jasmine from Pokémon Gold and Silver is notorious for wearing a white knee-length dress and white sandals that crawl up her legs. She's very shy and kind, so we can assume the outfit represents purity here. This trope stopped applying in the remakes, though, with her change of clothes.
Saya in Saya no Uta is a young-looking girl who shows up in a white sundress.

Ethereal/Mysterious White dress

Meiko "Menma" Honma of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day. She's a Cute Ghost Girl, and she was wearing a white dress when she drowned and died. She even has white-blonde hair!
Bleach: Rukia Kuchiki's Zanpakuto Spirit, Sode no Shirayuki, being based off of a Yuki-Onna, has this appearance, having pale skin, silver hair, and a white kimono. Rukia herself takes on this appearance in Bankai, as it's an externalization of her spirit, much like Ichigo's Badass Longcoat.
Detective Conan:
- Horribly subverted in a filler case, where the Woman In White is the actress Akiko Kinoshita... who only wears white clothes either when performing her Star-Making Role as the traditional "Yuki Onna" ghost, or when her lifeless body is found buried in the snow. She was murdered by Yoko Asanuma, her envious Body Double, who also briefly wears white while impersonating Akiko and making everyone believe she was still alive.
- In several openings and endings of the anime, however, Ran is seen wearing white dresses and playing the strope straight.
At one point in Fairy Tail Erza Scarlet has a dream that she's dead and during the time she's wearing a pure white gown (notable one of the only times she wears white in the series)
Sawako of Kimi ni Todoke dons a white dress, pretending to be a ghost during her school's courage test. Combined with her pale skin, black hair, and semi-creepiness/fierce determination to make her peers happy, she manages to look like Sadako.
In Peacemaker Kurogane, although male, Okita Souji plays the woman in white when out-of-uniform, using feminine speech patterns and invoking the innocence aspect of white with his cute pet pig and a fondness for sweets and playing with children. Of course, to those who know him it's a double-entendre of sorts, with the death-and-mourning aspects of white evoking his deadliness as a swordsman.
Princess Tutu: The Wili Maiden, the ghost of a woman who committed suicide and now tries to bring young men into the afterlife, dresses in an all-white tutu with white tights. Of course, she's based on a character from a ballet which shares the name of the episode—"Giselle".
Sailor Cosmos from Sailor Moon is a sailor senshi from a future where Chaos has destroyed nearly everything and she is the last hope. She transforms into Sailor Chibi-Chibi to assist Sailor Moon in the present to prevent her bleak future from occurring. Sailor Cosmos is actually Sailor Moon in the future. Her costume is all white, including her hair. Of course, this isn't the case in the anime.
At the end of the first issue of a Birds of Prey series, an Asian woman in white called "White Canary" has shown up. Given her badassitude, two possibilities for who she is spring to Black Canary's mind: Cassandra Cain or Lady Shiva. Oh, Crap!...She turns out to be the sister of the Twelve Brothers in Silk, who Black Canary fought years ago, and in a bit of Fridge Brilliance, wears white in mourning for her brothers, who she killed to uphold their father's honor after their defeat.
The 1988 film The Lady in White features a ghostly woman in a white flowing gown.
Princess Tamina, the resident Barrier Maiden of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, dresses in white.
Ugetsu: Part of Lady Wakasa's beautiful but unsettling look is the all-white dress and hat she's wearing when she first meets Genjuro. She turns out to have been Dead All Along.
In Dead End, a mysterious woman in a white dress repeatedly appears to a family lost in the woods on vacation.
Michael Myers in Halloween II (2009) has visions of his mother in white, accompanied by a white horse, urging him to reunite with Laurie.
Pet has Holly, who qualifies for multiple variants, including fragile, evil, and linked to death. And thanks to being played by Ksenia Solo, she has the pale skin and platinum-blonde hair as well.
Sound of My Voice: Maggie, the cult leader, wears white robes and a shawl, which mirror the white bedsheet she supposedly wrapped herself in after waking up in a hotel room with amnesia. The white robes also blend with the white scrubs she has her followers wear when they meet with her.
The Wailing: While investigating a crime scene, Officer Jong-goo meets a strange woman wearing a white robe who throws rocks at him and tell him that the strange Japanese man living alone in the woods is the culprit, before disappearing. She turns out to be some kind of local deity trying to protect the village against the stranger, who might be The Devil himself, to no avail.
King of the Zombies: The stately but silent Alyce Sangre is dressed all in white when she slips into Bill and Mac's bedroom. Her appearance is so sudden and so silent that Jeff mistakes her for a ghost.
The Ghost of Resurrection Cemetery - Justice, Illinois, USA. Supposedly the spirit of a young lady killed in the 1930s, who always appears dressed for a white dress party. When offered a ride she usually asks to be dropped off at the cemetery on Archer Road. When they get closer, however, she disappears. This, incidentally, has happened for decades and often still does, especially with people who are not from the city and do not know the story of Mary, as she is called.
Princesses of The Fair Folk often come in this form. They do not always have the protagonist's best interest in mind.
La Llorona, a Mexican myth about a crying ghost, is also called this. Just about every Spanish-speaking country has mythology related to La Llorona, even Spain. Generally speaking, though, the story is usually the same: she was a beautiful young mistress who tried to permanently win the heart of the man she loved by drowning her own children because she knew he wasn't all that fond of kids. It wasn't until he called her out on it that she realized how horrifying her actions were and promptly drowned herself in an effort to find her children. Naturally, she's a ghost said to haunt riversides calling for her children.
There is another myth about white dressed women, it's about the Mulher de Branco (it means exactly the trope name), in Brazilian North / Northeast. She is the ghost of a bride that died (mostly killed) before entering the church to marry, and now, searches for her groom near the place she died, usually in a dark, creepy forest. If she finds a man she thinks is like her groom, she takes him to the world of dead with her... Unless said man runs like hell, which they promptly do.
A more recent one was "la rubia de Kennedy" ("blonde woman of Kennedy Avenue"). In The '70s, a young Chilean woman named Martha Infante died in an accident in said Avenue, and for several years, her ghost supposedly haunted the corner where she perished. The "ghost" was a blonde girl wearing a white coat who would ask for a ride, then tell the driver 'please don't drive so fast' and vanish.
Newark, NJ has a local legend about a lady in white haunting Branch Brook Park. Story goes that a car accident killed a girl while her boyfriend/fiance/husband/prom date was driving and she haunts the place to this day.
The standard description for female ghosts in the Philippines is a woman all in white with long black hair that obscures her face. Often believed to be virginal and the subject of a violent death (probably rape), she's commonly known as a "White Lady". It has been the subject of many horror films, including a recent one appropriately entitled White Lady.
In Oberlin, Ohio, there is a story of a woman in white that haunts the lake in a local park.
In Bohemia, there's the legend of the White Lady, the ghost of Perchta of Rožmberk.
In the Netherlands, there are legends of Witte Wieven, "White Women". They're spirits of women who were kidnapped by other Witte Wieven. Depending on where the story is set, they're either Always Chaotic Evil or just want to be left alone. A version of the tale this city girl was told tells of a drunk farmer walking home through the forest when he meets a woman dressed in white, and he asks her to dance. Which she does, all night long, until daybreak rolls around and the farmer drops dead at her feet.
In G. K. Chesterton's The Tales of the Long Bow, Owen Hood fell in Love at First Sight with a woman he met in the woods, wearing white. When he sees her again, coming out of a tea-room, in blue, it is a shock to him to realize that she could wear blue (and be seen out of the woods).
Ravenclaw's house ghost in Harry Potter, Helena Ravenclaw, known as The Grey Lady.
The Woman in White is the title of Wilkie Collins's Victorian mystery novel, the plot of which revolves around a mysterious woman in white.
The Ghost In The Third Row by Bruce Coville features a ghost called the Woman In White, an actress who had been murdered in the theater fifty years ago. The fact that the protagonists in the book were putting on the play of her origin story gets her attention...
Lydia, the mother of Rosilda and Arild and Carolin in Maria Gripe's ...och de vita skuggorna i skogen ("...and the White Shadows in the Forest") only ever dressed in white or black, depending on her mood (a trait she took over from her mysticist mother), and usually carried a bouquet of white roses as well. The "white shadows" Rosilda sees in the forest around the castle turn out to be Lydia, who is watching over her children after faking her own death.
Kahlan Amnell of the Sword of Truth series. She is introduced as a very mysterious woman who is obviously very important, matching the archetype. It is later revealed that a white dress is the official dress code of the Mother Confessor, the most powerful woman in the Midlands.
There's that poem/ghost story - I think it was by Lord Byron, but he might have just been reciting it - about a woman in white.
Perdina and Voile Tricante in Burying the Shadow both wear white all the time, helping their Creepy Twins image.
Lissar in her deerskin dress and white hair in, of course, Deerskin. The effect is enough to make people think she's not quite human, or even a goddess called the Moonwoman.
When Isabel is in mourning in The Kingdom of Little Wounds, she wears white. She's no longer slim and pretty enough to be ethereal, but she's still mad and it leaves an impression.
The Iron Sisters from The Mortal Instruments wear long white gowns that blend in with the mists of their home, so when summoned they look like they appear out of nowhere.
Sally Bones from Varjak Paw is a cat version of this trope. She's completely white furred, very mysterious, and everyone is utterly afraid of her.
The pilot episode of Supernatural features a Woman In White.
- There are also all the girls in white nightgowns who get killed by the Monster of the Week, or the girl in the white hospital gown who caused people in her town to act out fairy tales... Let's just say that women wearing white on Supernatural are either going to be the victim or the villain.
The mysterious woman from Ultraseven X is dressed in white most of the time.
Doctor Who:
- A mysterious woman wearing all white and credited only as "The Woman" appears in "The End of Time", giving mysterious messages mostly to Wilfred Mott. She is eventually seen among the Time Lords who turn out to be behind the near-disaster the episode is named for, as one of the two who voted against it. After the last meeting with her, Wilfred mentions her, and the Doctor looks significantly toward Donna. However, Word of God said she was originally planned to be the Doctor's mother - and that we should also pay attention to the other Time Lord who voted against the plan.
- River Song, the mysterious woman hinted to play a hugely important role sometime in the Doctor's personal future, first appears in the two-parter "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" dressed in a white spacesuit. She ends the two-part story dressed in a white gown.
Smallville, Season 10, episode 12, "Collateral": Chloe Sullivan returns, seemingly with magical powers, dressed all in white. As it turns out, the cast are actually trapped in a virtual world and her white-clad status indicates that she is hacking in from the outside.
- That version of Chloe Sullivan appears to herself in "Masquerade", but this time as an illusion of Desaad preying on her sin of Pride.
In Merlin, Prince Arthur sees the spirit of his mother Queen Igraine wearing a very, very pale gold dress - it's practically white, and the costume colour was no doubt chosen to acknowledge the supernatural aspects of this trope.
The ghost in The Stone Tape as she's dressed as a maid from the 19th century, which gives one character fleeing the ghost a nasty shock when he runs into a female character dressed in her Labcoat of Science and Medicine.
In the concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, there's a character called "Lilywhite Lilith" who falls into this trope. It's implied that she's not even human, but rather some kind of cave creature.
Lucia in her mad scene in (traditional productions of) Lucia di Lammermoor, justified as it was her wedding night/dress.
In the music video for "Diary of Jane" by Breaking Benjamin, the titular Jane wears a white dress. She was Dead All Along.
Akiko Shikata poses in a white dress in most of her album covers. Quite fitting for the atmosphere of said albums, where there are a lot of songs about nature and magic. On the cover of Turaida she even holds a white instrument.
Fantine in Les Misérables is infamously known to fill this trope at the end of the musical. Her spirit comes to greet the dying Jean Valjean wearing the pure white nightgown she died in, making her appear truly angelic.
In the game Summoner, there is a mysterious Woman In White who turns out to be Flece's mother and the Empress of Orenia. In her first appearance, King Belias mistakes her for a ghost.
In The Path, there's a mysterious girl in white who inhabits the woods.
"Scarlett O'Hara" in Uninvited. (Yep, evil ghost.)
In the Touhou fan game Concealed the Conclusion, the final battle with Reimu has her dressed in white, mainly because Gensokyo is her dream, and she's waking up, causing Dream Apocalypse.
In The Path, a girl literally named Girl In White by the game developers leads you back to the path to Grandmother's house if you stay still long enough. Some speculate that she is a spirit who wants to protect the granddaughters from meeting their Wolves, while others suggest she is a long-lost sister to the granddaughters or perhaps the grandmother herself. Curiously, while the Girl in White does indeed wear all white and is young, her skin tone and hair color are fairly dark.
In Ballad of an Evening Butterfly, Chou is clad in baggy, white clothes which seem to add to her enigma and mysterious personality. It also contrasts Yoru who's completely in all black.
In Gunnerkrigg Court, there's a ghost lady in white haunting the Annan River.
- "...she died and we did nothing."
In Girl Genius, the Geisterdamen (German for "ghost maiden") are a race of female monsters (it's not mentioned how they reproduce) who are entirely white, including hair, skin and clothing.
In Lapse there is a ghost who, because the main character doesn't know her name, is just referred to as The Girl in White.
In Agents of the Realm, Filoni appears in white dress in Norah's dreams and what happened to her to change her from Red Oni into scared and worried dream vision is still a mystery.
In Rhapsodies, Deidre the psychopomp dresses in all white outfits when on duty.
Steven Universe's Rose Quartz, in her every appearance thus far, appears in a full-length white dress. She also has far more shading and highlighting than the other characters, and goes barefoot, further playing up the ethereal appearance. Not only is she a character who gave up her physical form to give birth to Steven, she was the extremely powerful leader of a group of magical aliens, as well as a healer.
Emily Dickinson became something of a local celebrity in her town, as during the few times she ever left her house, she would always wear completely white outfits.
Death is considered to wear white in some places in Asia. White is also the traditional color of mourning in Islam.
People who want to enter into Yoruba and Santeria "priesthood" must wear white clothes for a full year (minimum) before being officially invested, the only color element being their necklaces. Albeit this is done for both sexes, but women stand out more.
Mary Queen of Scots was famous for her frequent use of white within her wardrobe. This is thought to be in part because she was often in mourning for either her father in law, mother, husband or second husband, and in part that she looked very good in white (and apparently wanted to marry her first husband Francis in it, during a time when white was not commonly worn in weddings, red being the preferred choice, long before she entered her period of mourning).
Very common in reported Marian apparitions. I.e St. Bernadette Soubirous and the kids at Fátima (Portugal) initially reported seeing "a beautiful young lady all in white"; the people from Knock (Ireland) described Mary as wearing "a white cloak, hanging in full folds and fastened at the neck"; considering there were folk legends about terrible ghost women, it's no wonder their parents got upset, although some people figured Bernadette was seeing a harmless revenant spirit.
Although it's well known that the Victorian era had a predominance of using blacks and shades of gray as mourning colours, what's less well known is that it had been traditional to wear white as a mourning colour. This started dying out during the Victorian era but continued to be a colour worn to funerals and to visit the graves of loved ones right up until WW1. However, Queen Victoria, who always wore mourning black while in Britain, would change to all-white attire when visiting France due to the tradition of white being the mourning colour of French royalty.
- White was resurrected for royal mourning in 1938, when the then Duchess of York (Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, best known to us as the Queen Mum, or as Bertie's wife) was scheduled to make a visit to France five days after her mother's death. Norman Hartnell remade her dresses in a fortnight; they became known as the white wardrobe.

Borderline Ethereal/Mysterious

.hack:
- Helba as well. She takes the darker forms of this trope. Within the setting, she's an infamous hacker, though she is portrayed as one of the protagonists as, unlike most of CC Corp, she actually knows and cares what's going in in The World (the game the series takes place in) and takes it seriously and works to find a true solution rather then just shutting the game down. Her name is also pulled from the Queen of Darkness in the Epic poem The World is based on
Momo, the main character of Ballad Of A Shinigami is a white haired Grim Reaper who wears all white dress. She is also noted to be the Token Good Teammate of all the shinigami.
Hana Mutō from Captain Earth has been seen wearing a white dress, which adds to the mystery of whether she is 17 years old or not.
Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion invokes the trope by wearing a white plug suit.
Esmeralda wears a long white dress at the end of Disney's The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. Subverted in that this is her execution robe - the dress she was given to wear as she was burned at the stake for witchcraft.
Lady Galadriel fits this description, most noticeably in the scene she rescues Gandalf in The Hobbit, but also featured in the trailer for the Battle of Five Armies.
- One of the most striking images from the extended edition of The Return of the King is Éowyn, the White Lady of Rohan, standing on a balcony in a flowing white gown with her blonde hair fluttering in the wind. As noted in the Literature section, however, white is a bit impractical for things like killing the Witch-King and generally kicking ass on the battlefield, so she's not always in white.
The Dangerous Woman in A Prairie Home Companion wears a white trenchcoat.
Iris in The Natural wears a white dress and a huge white hat to watch Roy play against the Cubs. He's in a bad slump, but in his last at-bat, he turns around and glimpses her standing in the brilliant afternoon light. Naturally (ha), he smacks a home run into the scoreboard clock and the papers the next day read The Knight and the Lady in White.
In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files novel Turn Coat, Harry observes that when they meet Madeline, she is "of course" all in white.
- Not to mention Lara Raith. Though it almost seems to be Lady in White.
- They're Vampires of the White Court. If it's not white or silver, they're probably not wearing it. Which ''is'' part of their appeal.
- There's also Queen Mab, THE Lady in White. She pulls this off especially well when appearing for the first time. Sometimes, though, she wears black. When she does, be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
Camilla from The Secret History is mentioned as often wearing white, in contrast to everyone else at Hampden, who generally wears black. (She frequently borrows Charles' clothes, too. The two are described at one point as looking like "long-dead celebrants from some forgotten garden party".)
Marina from Carlos Ruiz Zafón's Marina wears a bright white sundress at her first apparition, a motif which is described by the protagonist as came from a Joaquín Sorolla picture.
In the Land of Oz books, white is the color associated with witches, so both Glinda and the Good Witch of the North fall into this trope... though of course the classic film averts this by dressing its version of Glinda in a now-iconic pink gown instead.
Ivy Valentine is usually associated with purple, but she wears a white version of her Chainmail Bikini in Soul Calibur III as her standard costume. Unlike Sophitia, it gives her a Mysterious Woman flair more than anything else.
In Sluggy Freelance, Gwynn's counterpart in "the Dimension of Lame" mostly wears a white robe (and when she does, that's almost invariably the entirety of her outfit that you can see), which goes with her status as a good wizard of sorts whose power still came at a price.
In Wilde Life, Zulime always appears in flowing white gowns, even when out in the wilderness. Tears and stains probably aren't an issue for a witch of her caliber, though.

Gold and White Are Divine

Black Butler: Angela wears a True Blue Femininity Meido outfit in her first few appearances. After The Reveal (that she's an angel), her wardrobe shifts to white and remains so in all her subsequent appearances.
Madoka Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica wears a white dress towards the end of the series, where she not only becomes a Magical Girl (she wears pink at first), but ascends to God-hood.
In the Saint Seiya franchise, the Barrier Maiden who is the incarnation of the Goddess Athena tends to wear white. The prequel Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas has Sasha aka the Athena from the 17th century, and in the original series there is Saori Kido aka the Athena of the modern times. The Asgard Saga of the anime adds Princess Freya, while her sister Princess Hilda goes back and forth between True Blue Femininity or woman in black depending on whether she's Brainwashed and Crazy or not.
Elysia is like an angel in Warriors of Virtue.
Always: Hap, the angel who sets Pete on his course, is always seen wearing an all-white outfit.
Sephrenia, in The Elenium trilogy by David Eddings, always wears a white robe, somewhat clerical in nature. As she eventually explains, she is a member of the clergy, being the High Priestess of the Styric goddess Aphrael.
When we first see Monica, the main character of Touched by an Angel, she's barefoot and wearing a simple white dress. In fact, the angels in general tend to dress in white no matter what, with Monica and Tess as the biggest examples.
Angel. When Darla, previously an evil vampire, comes back from the dead as a ghost sent by the Powers That Be, she wears white to show that this time she's on the side of the angels (also in contrast to Cordelia, subject to Demonic Possession and wearing black).
Religious iconography in Dragon Age: Inquisition, usually depicts Andraste (the setting's resident Crystal Dragon Jesus) as being gowned in pure white following her death and ascension.
The titular princess of The Legend of Zelda tends to be associated with pink nowadays, but a few of her outfits fall under this trope instead:
- Zelda in her Shrine Maiden dress in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It's particular fitting, given that this Zelda is a mortal reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's memory sequences, Zelda wears a white ceremonial dress (strongly resembling a sleeveless variant of the one from Skyward Sword) when trying to unlock her divine ancestral magic. She ends up wearing it for 100 years as she's keeping Calamity Ganon sealed inside Hyrule Castle with her.
Iris in Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals is a priestess bearing white hair and a white dress.
Soul Series:
- Sophitia Alexandra wears a white Mini Dress Of Power and is frequently associated with purity due to being a holy warrior in a mission from the Greek Gods.
Zoophobia's Adina is literally a glowing, white and blue angel.
- Completely subverted and contrasted with KayCee.
In The Water Phoenix King, Commander Corva's usual working clothes, which are her vestments as a priestess of a storm god, make her this; the outfit also has a ''very'' nice hat. Off-duty, she tends to wear earth tones.
Athena in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer, who Misaki refers to as "the white angel".

Light Is Not Good

The evil Society of Light in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has both male and female members.
Ragyo from Kill la Kill dresses almost exclusively in self-designed gaudy white dresses, and has white skin and (partially) white hair to boot. Her assistant Rei dresses in a white suit jacket to mimic her boss. Rei discards it in the OVA after she pulls a Heel–Face Turn and Ragyo dies.
The High Madame of the Religion of Crime in Batwoman has an almost entirely white ensemble, paints her face white, and has blonde hair. Since she believes she's Alice Pleasance Liddell and runs an evil cult, she is mad, eccentric, and evil. Also, she is Beth Kane, whom Batwoman believed dead
Cool World's Holli Would dresses in white (albeit her clothes are quite Stripperiffic as a cartoon); besides being slutty as hell, she is the closest to a villain we get.
Servalan, the Big Bad military commander (and later, military dictator) in Blake's 7, always wears white until late S2, when they changed the costume designer.
A one-shot character in Farscape has white skin, hair, and clothes...and turns out to be the bad guy.
Supreme Commander Servalan, the Big Bad of Blake's 7 wore white as a deliberate inversion of Evil Wears Black, but also to give her character a sense of power and glamour that contrasted well with the black-clad thugs and colourless bureaucrats that made up the Federation. She changed to black in Season C, but by that time her character had already been well established.
Black Mirror III: Last Fear, has a local legend of a white lady who wanders the woods in search of her child. (This is Mordred’s wife, Maria, looking for her lost child.)
"E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy" has the Synicle, a form of the Mestastreumonic force which takes the form of a woman in a white hood and 'dress'.
Mildred Avalon of Arcana Heart, also a case of Light Is Not Good.
Lusamine and Lillie from Pokémon Sun and Moon also count. Lusamine is covered with white skin and wears white stockings and a white top. However this to show her as an Evil Albino due to her being the most evil Pokemon villain yet. Lillie on the other hand is to show that Light Is Good and is extremely kind in contrast to Lusamine. Lillie is dressed in a white top to start with white skin and even after she changes into her Z-Move outfit this is still the same.
In Fate/stay night, Ilyasviel von Einzbern is a homunculus Evil Albino / Heroic Albino Elegant Gothic Lolita. Normally, she wears purple, but her magical Dress of Heaven is white. Her mother, Irisviel, had the same wardrobe in Fate Zero.
Arcueid a.k.a. The White Princesses of Shinso in Tsukihime is particularly fond of white clothes for a vampire.
- White Len also fits, following the Creepy Child variant.
Bleach:
- The Arrancar wear a white uniform to contrast with the black shinigami uniforms. As a result, the female Arrancar fall into this trope. The white uniforms symbolise evil and, therefore, death, as a somewhat ironic contrast to the "death spirits" (Shinigami) who actually protect life, or at least the ability of souls to continue being reborn into new lives.
- When forced to go to Hueco Mundo by the Arrancar, Orihime Inoue is given a white dress as well. She wears it until she's fully released and then Aizen's definitive defeat. Later Urahara trolls her into putting on a very stripperiffic outfit, which is also white save for a blue collar.

Other meaningful use

Princess Tutu: Princess Tutu herself wears white, contrasting with Dark Magical Girl Kraehe's Evil Wears Black clothes.
Formerly known as "The White Queen", X-Men's Emma Frost is seldom seen costumed in any color that isn't white. Civilian clothes are a different matter (or at least used to be).
- This was probably her dress preference long before becoming the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, which is why the uniform of office suited her for over a decade. Other White Queens also fit the trope.
Lilli appears at a party in pure white gown in Snow White: A Tale of Terror, which is visually striking as no one else does this. Plot-wise, it also spurs memories of her mother (it was her gown once), which makes her father nostalgic and sends her stepmother straight into labor.
Claire of Jurassic World wears an all-white business dress that gives her a clean, scientific, and distant appearance compared to Owen's more colorful, dirty, and field-worky look. Possibly a Call-Back to Man In White John Hammond from the first film.
In Love & Mercy, Melinda Ledbetter is almost always dressed in white. She plays a large role in saving Brian Wilson from his abusive therapist.
Aside from her first scene when her all-black outfit represents her initial antagonism towards Bond, and a later scene in the villain's lair, the Bond Girl of Spectre, Madeline Swann, epitomizes this. The symbolism is really heightened at the end,, when she's standing there in a white coat, representing Bond's chance to leave MI6 and live a happy, peaceful life.
Lily Weatherwax in Witches Abroad always wears white as part of her plan to cast herself as "the good one."
In The Secret Garden, Mary wears white. This is because her mother has died, and her guardian finds black too much for such a young child. (In Victorian times, children could wear white, though no colors, in mourning.)
Captain Janeway of Star Trek: Voyager occasionally dons an all-white ensemble when she's out of uniform. When the crew travels to 90's Earth, she wears a neat white pantsuit. When trapped in the holodeck and programmed with the role of nightclub owner and Resistance leader, she wears a fantastic glittery white tux. Given her status as the first woman to headline a Star Trek series^note this is likely a nod to suffragettes' habit of wearing white.
In Penny Dreadful, Doctor Frankenstein dresses Lily entirely in white as a way of projecting his poetic, Romantic tendencies onto her. He also mentions that he's never seen Vanessa wear white, to which she replies that it's "not my colour".
In Dishonored, the young future Empress wears an all-white outfit, symbolizing both her royal status and her position as a prize every powerful man in the world is plotting and scheming to possess and control for their own ends.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Rarity whose coat is a very light gray, emphasizing her refined nature as well as her cleanliness.
- Celestia is also white coated as she is a princess/goddess.
In Teen Titans, Raven from time to time switches her dark blue cloak with a solid white one. The implications are either "brighter mood" or "holiness" such as when she exorcised her demonic father.
The White Tights of Russian urban legend: An Amazon Brigade of blonde, white-clad expert snipers with a hate-on for the Russians. They have been rumored to be fighting for the enemy side in almost every conflict Russia has been involved in for the last several decades.
Hillary Rodham Clinton wore pure white◊ to the 2016 Democratic National Convention on the night she accepted the Democratic nomination for President. In her case, the color was a deliberate homage to the suffragists who won women the right to vote and ultimately propelled her to her current position, along with carrying the more traditional bridal associations and the symbolism of power.

White foreshadowing violence (White Shirt of Death)

Lua Klein in Baccano. Although the reason why she does so is because her Ax-Crazy fiancee insists. Y'know, so the blood (from his victims) will show up better.
Lady Snowblood, who inspired Kill Bill's O-Ren Ishii.
Debbie Salt in the climax of Scream 2. The very scene she reveals herself as the killer and confronts Sidney.
In The Kingkiller Chronicle, Adem mercenaries have distinctive red armour, so Kvothe is briefly confused to meet an Old Master who wears white instead. He then realizes that it's a sign of her skill: while the rank and file wear red to hide their wounds, anyone who's actually capable of landing a hit on her deserves to see it.
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven Shelly Webster's primary costume is the floaty white dress she was wearing for her commitment ceremony to Eric, during which she was brutally attacked and killed.
The title character in Madame Butterfly wears a white robe throughout the long love duet with Pinkerton on her wedding night. Many productions have her wear the same robe again in the final scene.
The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater wears a mostly-white sneaking suit that makes her look like a ghost in several scenes. In this case, white probably symbolizes her impending death, but it also foreshadows the field of white flowers where you will fight and kill her at the end of the game.

Wedding Dress

Sil from Species wears a white puffy wedding dress to attract males. You can see it in her Princess Wiki page.
In the Western world, a large, pristine white gown, paired with jewelry and veil, is universally recognized as a woman's bridal attire. Weddings, and brides especially, are seen as special and good, so if a bride in her full gown is crossing a public space to reach her wedding celebrations, she can expect a lot of strangers to notice, stare, and probably yell "Congratulations!"

Some of the Just a White Dress examples may fit elsewhere, but are Zero Context Examples. "Borderline Ethereal" examples might fit Ethereal White Dress, but lack sufficient context to be sure.

Just a White Dress: 126 Winter Royal Lady: 2 Ethereal/Mysterious White Dress: 73 Borderline Ethereal: 21 Gold and White Are Divine: 19 Light Is Not Good: 20 Other Meaningful Use: 17 White Shirt of Death: 7 Wedding Dress: 2 Total symbolic use: 117

Symbolic/meaningful examples: 58%, Ethereal/Mysterious examples: 41-53% (depending on if counting borderline examples), Incorrect troping (example is definitely a different trope): 15%

Other stats: Male examples: 1.5 (one example seemed to be androgynous) Women's suffrage: 2

edited 5th Jun '18 4:00:24 PM by naturalironist

"It's just a show; I should really just relax"

PhiSat Planeswalker from Everywhere and Nowhere Since: Jan, 2011

Planeswalker

#20: Jun 5th 2018 at 4:10:10 PM

Oriko should be under mysterious/ethereal: She's a magical girl with strange and mysterious motives driving the plot.

Oissu!

SeptimusHeap MOD from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu

#21: Aug 22nd 2018 at 11:20:22 PM

Clock is set.

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

naturalironist from The Information Superhighway Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life

#22: Aug 23rd 2018 at 9:49:47 AM

Reiterating my previous stance that this is a valid trope that needs a new description and a cleanup. I will post a sandbox with a new description sometime soon.

We probably need a crowner for a possible rename, and maybe even a crowner to determine what should be done here since not everyone in the thread was convinced this was tropeworthy.

"It's just a show; I should really just relax"

GM_3826 (Not) A Game Master from Ylisse Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: In Spades with myself

(Not) A Game Master

#23: Aug 23rd 2018 at 9:53:42 AM

So, I kind of disappeared, didn't I?

My apologies. I really should have been more attentive when it came to this thread.

If I could hand this off to naturalironist, who is trying to take action when I never did, I would do so.

naturalironist from The Information Superhighway Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life

#24: Aug 24th 2018 at 7:48:58 PM

Sandbox.Woman In White has a write-up of the definition I have in mind. For the skeptics, does this seem tropeworthy and distinct? The name of the sandbox should not imply a commitment to the current name.

It's currently written as a female only trope. I am ok with male examples, but don't feel strongly about this.^note

"It's just a show; I should really just relax"

Malady (Not-So-Newbie)

#25: Aug 24th 2018 at 8:08:21 PM

- I'm thinking we should disambig into its various possible meanings, and then make new tropes for each, since if we don't the title will never be Clear, of Clear, Concise, Witty.

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576

AlternativeTitles: WomanInWhite

25th Jun '19 6:25:44 AM

Crown Description:

Thread voted to rename Woman In White to something more specific to its new definition (Character's symbolic connection to death/the spirit world signified by wearing all white).

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