Needs Help: Heroic Albino

All of the folders after the anime section have little to no context in their examples, with some just basically being "this character has white hair and red eyes". Interestingly, the description also doesn't have anything about a characters' eyes being red, which is a big indicator of someone being albino.

So out of the 50 non-pothole wicks I checked, a whooping 45 were ZCEs.

And finally, what spurred me into looking into this is that the old Trope Pantheons representative for Heroic Albino (she's in the process of being moved), Weiss, isn't actually albino, as stated in her character page and the actual Pantheon profile.

Edited by Crossover-Enthusiast on Aug 5th 2019 at 4:34:08 AM

We got ourselves a ZCE magnet, it seems. Opened for discussion.

I'm going to assume it's okay to bump this.

Another awful appearance trope, fun.

We need to cleanup the misuse for sure...

I wonder if this trope actually exists and is something authors use and isn't just us making stuff up to combine two meaningless patterns into something that has "valid meaning" within the letter of the law.

Was wondering the same thing...

I agree. Especially in more fantastical settings, the white hair + red eye combination could just be an aesthetic the creator(s) thought is cool and is not actually any indication of albinism.

Evil Albino is definitely a trope that's actually used in works. Not sure if I can say the same thing about this.

In particular, I've never seen any confirmation that Corrin (the page image character) is albino, nor have I seen any other unofficial sources say that. They just happen to have white hair and red eyes (possibly because they're half-dragon; that's at least the reason for the Pointy Ears). I think the reason Adept gave for the white hair + red eyes combo in fantasy settings is why Corrin has it.

tl;dr version: This could be another case similar to Five Bad Band's TRS thread. That trope was determined to not be a naturally occurring trope, but rather something made up to give an Evil Counterpart to Five-Man Band.

Edit: I think this part of the post Septimus made when unlocking Five Bad Band's thread could apply here as well (just replace Five-Man Band with Evil Albino in the case of the argument I'm making for Heroic Albino):

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 19th 2019 at 9:24:05 AM

For drawn Japanese works, its really hard to label them as 'Albino' unless outright stated to be so in the work, Word of God or Supplemental Materials.

By the way, didn't we cut a trope that listed aversions of Red Eyes, Take Warning for being People Sit on Chairs, or am I misremembering something?

Yes. It was called Kind Red Eyes, and it's on the Permanent Red Link Club.

Well, then. I suspect this trope is bad for the same reason.

Ah. I was laser-focused on the Trope Epitaph, so I didn't have the time or patience to look at that page. Thank you.

Edited by Brainulator9 on Jul 19th 2019 at 10:51:00 AM

I think this discussion page post from 2010 speaks for itself:

If it's relevant, the TRS thread for Kind Red Eyes was started the same year (it concluded in early 2011).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 19th 2019 at 11:14:15 AM

I think the trope here is the Light Is Good/purity connotations of being all white, rather than the reality of a character having the medical condition of albanism. It's similar to Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold.

However, looking at the examples on the page, there doesn't seem to be a particular character archetype described other than "not evil", which isn't helpful.

I don't think this is Chairs, but I think it could be covered by Light Is Good.

Edited by naturalironist on Jul 19th 2019 at 12:21:13 PM

Non-duplicate examples could be moved to Light Is Good, at least if they're not ZCEs. Maybe it could also redirect there, akin to how Red-Headed Hero now redirects to Red Is Heroic.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 19th 2019 at 11:36:28 AM

Honestly I think this could be cut for more of a 'Meaningful Albino' trope.

Where it comes up in the work and is

• subject to racism, indirect or direct. Many times its self inflicted.
• Health issues.
• Plot importance.
• Hide it via dyeing their hair and wearing contacts.
• Treated as beautiful in the work
• its bound to their magic or whatever power.

The amount of 'subervsions' on Evil Albino are a huge issue as well. Many of which are just characters in a story.

Edited by Memers on Jul 19th 2019 at 11:14:45 AM

Each of those things could be a trope of their own. There's no need to lump them into a broad mess.

Well all of those would be in a more general trope not specific to albinos, something which would be an issue as an albino is pretty much enough for a trope.

The problem with just a general Albino trope too is so many anime and manga characters just have the hair and eyes with no meaning to them, hence a lot of issues brought up in this thread. Not many of them are confirmed to be Albino hence the 'meaningful' part.

On the whole Dyeing part.... I have tried twice to make a Plot Important Dye Job Trope but it gets discarded because Dyehard exists, which is trivia about an actor dyeing for their role in the work, repair shop topics that get made about it get closed and thrown away despite all the misuse.

Edited by Memers on Jul 19th 2019 at 11:29:56 AM

That's also a good point; Albinos aren't that special, and have stereotypes associated with other groups as well.

Anyway, I think we can safely cut this one...

In some works however being an albino is extremely relevant to the character and plot.

• The Witcher for example has all actual Witchers be Albino and Sterile as a side effect of becoming a Witcher and in
• Negima! it is a key element in 2 characters. Setsuna who is an Albino Tengu and kicked out of her tribe because of it, she dyes her hair and wears contacts but can not dye her white wings. And Ako who laments over it as one of her ‘unusual features’ and one of her big Heroic Self-Deprecation issues.

These kinds of things and such were kinda what I was going for on the whole ‘Meaningful’ part.

I say the "Meaningful Albino" trope can be made its own Trope Launch Pad entry if need be. Right now, my problem with Heroic Albino is less that it's chairs on its own so much as it not being a naturally occurring trope and being redundant with Light Is Good, which others have elaborated for me quite well.

Made a crowner since this has been inactive for a while, and since there's some consensus for cutting and/or merging with Light Is Good, but not a whole lot of votes.

I left out the option to TLP option for the Meaningful Albino trope because I figured that could be done independently of this thread.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 1st 2019 at 9:48:38 AM

It's hooked, but not by me.

I'd rather rework this trope into something tropeworthy (like Magical Albino) here than cut it outright and start a new TRS from scratch that may or may not launch.

EDIT: I meant TLP, not TRS.

Edited by rjd1922 on Aug 4th 2019 at 9:52:39 AM