Discussion Main / EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette

Why is there an 'A.K.A Pale Skinned Brunette'for Eerie pale Skinned Brunette? Because not only is it slightly repetitive and looks clunky, but it is also unneeded. If a character is pale and it makes them seem eerie and offputting, then just having 'Eerie Pale Skinned Brunette is more than a direct description.

There's doesn't seem to be a need to make the headline this repetitive. So, with that said is it possible to just have the headline be put back to just Eerie Pale Skinned Brunette ?

How does the Fourth Doctor fit this trope? His hair is brown, and, while I'd never characterize Tom Baker as swarthy, he's hardly pale. I'd recommend deletion.

Edited by stuthehistoryguy

Does anybody know the origins of this trope?

Not my circus, not my monkeys.

I removed this part of the article. It was added as Natter to the "Snow White" entry.

• (...) it's newer than they think as the trope comes twentieth century.
  • Actually, it's older than that. Remember Ligeia?
  • Tanith Lee played with this by taking the whole "Skin pale as snow, lips as red as blood, hair black as a raven's wing" description and concluding that this meant Snow White and her mother were vampires. So did Neil Gaiman.
    • Cecelia Eng wrote a Filk almost certainly based on Lee's story:
  Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
  Cannot see my face at all;
  My lips are red as the blood I crave,
  My hair as black as an empty grave.

(Some of the examples might be put back and really fit, but I'm not familiar with them.)

What about the 550+ wicks?

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty

Er... why is there no Literature folder?

It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird Hide / Show Replies

Putting entries that no longer seem to fit the redefined trope, but someone may know that they do:

Anime:

• In The Twelve Kingdoms, the local Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette Taiki is one of the kirins, mythological beasts who are supposed to choose the kings and queens of the lands. He's also the only brunette among them, since they're almost all blonde, which makes him a rarity among kirins.

• Lelouch from Code Geass is this. While not having a deathly pallor, it's obvious that his creator wanted to give him a Dark look, his clothes being either an all-black uniform or a Malevolent Masked Man with Ominous Opera Cape (High Collar of Doom included). Meanwhile, his Evil Counterparts, Mao And Schneizel are are albino and blond, respectively. And Suzaku is Dark Skinned with Light Brown hair.

• This one does not seem to be "eerie":Japan from Axis Powers Hetalia. While his skin isn't quite up to 'deathly pallor' levels, he still stands out among the cast for his Shiny Midnight Black hair, Monochromatic Eyes, and white battle uniform that enhances the black-and-white contrast of his hair, eyes, and skin. It's further enhanced by him being known to have shunned sunlight for at least 200 years at one point, tending to hang out with nations who have brighter hair colors and skin tones, and having a generally polite and reserved demeanor that contrasts with the majority of the other characters' demeanors.

Edited by MoCellMan Searching for plausible mechanisms. Hide / Show Replies

Contents of previous discussion:

Happy Duck: It seems like a lot of examples are just plain brunettes, as opposed to the intended "hair black as night, skin white as snow" meaning.

76.105.6.113: Seeing as how the trope is supposed to refer specifically to those with 'raven' hair, I'm thinking that the Trope Name is pretty misleading. Brunette really just refers to people with medium dark to dark brown hair, and this particular trope refers to those with black hair. Can't the name be changed to something more indicative of the actual content?

109.184.125.254: I guess it's a linguistic dissonance. Where I live, brunet(te) is a black-haired person, brown-haired would be "chatain" (yes, we shamelessly borrowed a French word). Maybe it's similar for a troper who came up with the title.

76.105.6.113: But the word "brunette" comes from France. And in France, 'brun' means brown. No where does it mean black. And in French, 'chatain' is the name for hair that's between blonde & brown. Only medium to dark brown hair is brunette, chatain is mainly light brown (which is not considered brunette). It seems ridiculous to have the word 'brunette' encompass every single person in the world who has black or brown hair, because that would be a label for about 95% of all people.

95.37.118.113: "No where does it mean black."

Erm, I already said that it does where I live. "Where I live" is not exactly "nowhere". When one language borows words from another, they can change their meaning. And, okay, I know I can be fairly incoherent in my own language, never mind in English, but how, exactly "I guess it's a linguistic dissonance" equals "if we call black-haired people "brunet(te)s", then all the world should do so"? I have no idea what trope creator's native language is, but it's possible that it's neither English nor French, and "brunet(te)" there is any dark-haired person. So the title wouldn't be misleading in their own country, but it turned out to be misleading in English. Is that the only possible explanation? No. Can it be the possible explanation? Yes. Does it mean trope shouldn't be renamed? If title is misleading, of course it should. I'm not trying to defend the name - I'm trying to explain why it could happen.

(Sorry for the overuse of italics.)

Searching for plausible mechanisms.

TRS discussion that resulted in Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette being renamed to Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette.

Searching for plausible mechanisms.

It seems like a lot of examples are just plain brunettes, as opposed to the intended "hair black as night, skin white as snow" meaning.

http://troperville.myminicity.com http://troperville.myminicity.com/ind Hide / Show Replies