It seems that the grey eyes trope ultimately derives from one of the weird racial theories of the late 19th century. Houston Stewart Chamberlain postulated that true Englishmen had grey eyes as a heirloom of the Celts, and that, hence, grey eyes were a mark of the inherent supremacy of the English (the Nazis deliberately exchanged that against blue eyes). This notion may at least have inspired the grey eyes of the more noble nations in Tolkien's works.
Friendly Neighborhood Geek
Anyone else wondering if this needs sub-trope pages like the Blue Eyes page?
FreeRadical
Wouldn't Gray Eyes also indicate elemental powers? Specifically, if they're wind/air-related?
I will not be understood. Understand?!
the Ephemeral
Read the Character page from the link. (Or follow my link. It's the first character mentioned).
From what I can tell, there is something called Innocence in the manga, and this mentions that being a quality of of someone with gray eyes as being innocent.
Edited by BigT Everyone Has An Important Job To Do
I deleted the image. First, the caption, as it needed to be explained, was immediately forfeit. I deleted the image because I realized that it was a bad example of the trope- yes, the character does have gray eyes, but his expression doesn't indicate any of the features listed in the trope description. Which is actually kind of weird because I've seen some of D Gray Man and most of the time his expression does match those features.
See you in the discussion pages.
The image still does not seem adequate. The eyes are indeed grey, but surrounded by heavy silvery eyeshadow that seems to artificially highlight that the eyes are grey. Wouldn't it be better to have an image of naturally grey beautiful human eyes that stand out prominently on their own without the need for cosmetic aids?
Edited by Gilgameshkun
I'm with you here. At least then it seems less..."chicky-ish" to have it around.
I will not be understood. Understand?!
"This dates to Greek Mythology, where many Oracles and the like, along with Athena, had gray eyes."
This is not significant. Since ancient Greek was actually lacking a word for the colour blue, any bright eye-color could be described as gray.