Green Eyes

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    "See these eyes so green

    I can stare for a thousand years"
    —David Bowie, Cat People (Putting Out Fire)

    Green eyes are striking and sexy, especially when paired with red hair.[1] Such a character is usually female, which is Truth in Television as most people with green eyes in Real Life are women. It also signifies a spitfire or an untrustworthy individual, particularly if he or she is also an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette.

    They can mean a character possesses an innate, natural magic, more witchlike than wizardly. Green eyes were also thought to be a sign that one has the Evil Eye power, though Blue Eyes were more commonly associated with the power. Nature spirits often have green eyes.

    Despite the fact that cats can have a wide variety of eye colors, green is especially associated with them. Green eyes in fiction are also usually described as emerald or jade green, despite the fact that eyes as intensely green as various precious stones are very rare in Real Life and it's more typical for the green to have some brown in it (fiction tends to classify anything between brown and bright green as Hazel Eyes).

    Oddly enough, not regarded as a warning of the Green-Eyed Monster. Also has no connection to Sickly Green Glow, apparently.

    It should be noted that these eye color tropes are not just for characters who have eyes of this color, but when the color actually stands for something significant to that character, like blue for water, green for earth, red for evil, etc. Please do not add characters who just happen to have eyes of this color without a substantial reason behind it.

    No Real Life Examples, Please

    Examples of Green Eyes include:

    Anime & Manga

    • Neon Genesis Evangelion examples: Yui Ikari, Ritsuko Akagi, Rebuild of Evangelion's newest Ace Pilot Mari Illustrious Makinami (though hers are blue-green) and PenPen.
    • Klaus von dem Eberbach of From Eroica with Love has green eyes. Dorian Red Gloria compares them to Mosel wine bottles, which are green.
    • Ginko from Mushishi has almost disturbingly vivid green eyes, especially in a world that doesn't make use of Mukokuseki. It's the first sign, apart from his hair, that he's not quite normal.
    • Mahou Sensei Negima has Ayaka, to differentiate her from the rest of the (very brown-eyed) Japanese cast and Chachamaru, in a light, unnatural shade of emerald to emphasize her robotic nature.
    • One of the eyes of the Mysterious Waif Vivio of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is colored green. This had led to jokes about how Yuuno had a hand in her conception since he's one of the not-so-common examples of a male with green eyes.
    • Vincent Law from Ergo Proxy has exotic-looking eyes of a light green, almost yellow hue.
    • Axis Powers Hetalia: England has green eyes. Seeing as how he's, well, England, it could be just because they're more common in England than other places. Of course, he also uses Black Magic.
      • So do Poland, Spain and Hungary. Lithuania has them in the manga (he has Blue Eyes in the anime). The eyes of the Netherlands seem to switch between this, amber and blue.
        • Hungary (the country) also happens to be tied with Turkey for the highest percentage of green eyes in the world: 20%, compared to a world average of 2%.
    • Fakir from Princess Tutu has green eyes to match his hair. He definitely fits the "exotic and sexy" implication of the trope...and he inherited Drosselmeyer's Rewriting Reality powers, so he fits the magical implications as well.
    • Maes Hughes; his wife, Gracia; and his daughter, Elysia, from Fullmetal Alchemist all have green eyes. It seems to run in the family.
    • Yomi and Dead Master from the Black★Rock Shooter OAV; this may actually be an indicator of the Green-Eyed Monster, despite the usual distance.
    • James from Pokémon has emerald green eyes, but they aren't mentioned in the series.
      • As well as green-haired Cilan in Best Wishes, although he's more noticeable for being one of only two characters in the show with Skintone Sclerae. He's one of Ash's most trustworthy friends in the series and just a bit hammy at times, but he has his Beware the Nice Ones moments.
      • Though he was seen with Blue Eyes once, Gary Oak has been shown to have Green Eyes when they close up on them.
      • Isamu and his Clefairy from Pocket Monsters have green eyes. Their Pikachu had it too, but he's since evolved into the typical Brown Eyes of the game.
    • Cain's eyes in Godchild are described as emerald with gold in them and are seen as beautiful and mysterious.
    • Many of the Grey Wolves in Gosick.
    • Hisoka of Yami no Matsuei has very striking ones. What Beautiful Eyes! comes into effect a couple of times.
    • Rina has these eyes while in mermaid form or idol form. In human form, she has Gray Eyes.
    • The titular character of Candy Candy has green eyes. They're a reason why Anthony falls for her.
    • Bleach: Ulquiorra is the Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette type.
    • Spirited Away's Haku has beautiful, striking green eyes, especially compared to the rest of the cast. At the same time, they are very cold and emotionless until Chihiro helps him remember his name. It also helps that he is a river spirit that can take the form of a dragon.
    • Inuyasha: Shippou is a young fox Youkai with red hair and green eyes. He's loyal, but he's also a trickster. Despite his young age, he has immense magical talent for his species, lampshaded when he's accidentally dragged into a kitsune examination session he didn't even know existed. Despite having no time to prepare for his exams and being the youngest examinee present, he wipes the floor with his fellow examinees, earning their absolute awe as he breaks records in the speed at which he climbs the Kitsune rankings. It's confirmed in-universe that one day he'll grow up to be a daiYoukai.


    Comics

    • Green Eyes paired with red hair seems to be a thing in the Marvel Universe.
      • Mary Jane Watson from Spider-Man being the ur-example, of course.
      • Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's personal assistant and on again/off again love interest.
      • Jean Grey of the X-Men fits this description, as does her alternate reality daughter, Rachel Summers.
      • And now we have Hope Summers, who, despite not being related by birth to Jean, has the same red hair and green eyes as her. It should be noted that Hope, just like Jean and Rachel, carries the Phoenix Force with her.
      • Wolverine seems to have a thing for women with this, his longtime love for Jean was later revealed to be just the latest in a long line of red headed, green-eyed girls.
        • And then there's his female clone/daughter figure, X-23, who also has green eyes.
    • Catwoman has always had green eyes canonically, though she has been played by non-green-eyed actresses; she fits the concept to a "T", being mysterious and associated with cats. Poison Ivy does, too, but that's mostly because she's part plant.
    • Lex Luthor has green eyes. This served as a plot point when his doppelganger from another universe turned up dead: he was differentiated by having blue eyes. Luthor is also known to dope up on Kryptonite-based steroids, which make his eyes seem unnatural. And of course, given Luthor's intense jealousy of Superman, they're thematically appropriate.
      • Oddly enough, Smallville gave Lex blue eyes (traditonally the color of Superman's eyes) and Clark's looked a lot greener.
    • Leetah from Elf Quest, which is the first thing Cutter notices about her, as indicated in the narration boxes. Also, quite a few other elves, including the plant-shapers Redlance, Goodtree and Kaslen, fitting the "natural magic" bit.
    • Oliver Queen, a.k.a. Green Arrow, has green eyes, which he has passed on, somewhat improbably, to both of his sons.
      • Including the adopted one.
    • In the comics, it's revealed that Demona from Gargoyles has green eyes. (It was hard to tell in the animated series).
    • Wally West. One of the minor differences between him and Barry Allen that lead some people to believe the Dark Flash may have been Barry, since he had Blue Eyes. Turned out to be an alternate universe version of Wally that happened to have blue eyes.
    • The Hulk is often shown with green eyes, especially in recent years, though, in the past, they've been red. Bruce Banner, on the other hand, is more often shown with brown or blue eyes, the change to green being the signal that running might be a good idea.


    Films -- Animation

    • Tony Toponi from An American Tail is shown to have these as he stares at Bridget in a love-struck daze.
    • In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi mentions a university classmate who was considered especially beautiful because of her green eyes; most Iranians, she says, have Black Eyes.
    • Some of the Disney villains including Lady Tremaine, the Evil Queen and Scar.
      • Scar from The Lion King is an example of the black hair + green eyes = evil combination.
        • Though his green eyes might have represented envy as well. Kovu, from the sequel, on the other hand, plays with it a bit. He's certainly feisty. At first, he also fits the untrustworthy role, considering that he was sent to kill Simba. Later, however, due to a Heel Face Turn thanks to The Power of Love, he ends up genuinely wanting to join Simba's pride, therefore making him a traitorous and untrustworthy figure to the Outlanders. Later, said Outlanders ambush Kovu and Simba. And Simba is then convinced that Kovu led him into it.
    • Doctor Calico, the villain of the Show Within a Show from Bolt has green, catlike eyes.
    • Esméralda from the Disney adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame possesses the positive qualities and her name even means emerald.
      • She, despite being the film's heroine, was actually also modelled after several female villains from earlier Disney films, who all have green eyes, so that she can actually be portrayed as evil by Frollo, the film's real Big Bad, while to the viewers, she's actually on the side of good. This is actually done to show the fact that she is hated by the villain because he thinks that she is evil, even though she really isn't.
    • Some of the Disney cats have green eyes, including Gideon from Pinocchio, Mittens from Bolt, and Thomas O'Malley and Toulouse from The Aristocats.
      • Lucifer from Cinderella has green eyes with yellow sclerae (the whites of the eyes).
      • Figaro from Pinocchio normally has Eyes of Gold, but his eyes occasionally appear light yellowish-green.
    • Rapunzel from Disney's Tangled has inherited her mother's green eyes. It's particularly striking since she's one of the few Disney characters (not counting villains) at all and only Disney Princess to have green eyes.
    • Megamind. Which also becomes a way of telling it's him when he's sometimes disguised.
    • Aisling from The Secret of Kells has green eyes, which fits the "magical" aspect of this trope since she's one of The Fair Folk. She's also something of a Nature Spirit, being fiercely protective of the forest outside Kells.


    Films -- Live-Action

    • Irena Gallier in Cat People, for which David Bowie's eponymous song was written (see quote at top of page), has green eyes and is a werepanther. Her brother, however, also a werepanther, has violet eyes.
    • In Big Trouble in Little China, David Lo Pan, the Big Bad, has to sacrifice a woman with green eyes in order to undo a curse that keeps his true form immaterial. Un/Fortunately the love interests of both the main protagonist and his kung fu buddy have green eyes, so they have to go defeat Lo Pan's crew in a wire-fight to the death.
    • The Mad Hatter, in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, has extremely bright green eyes, though they turn a disturbing reddish-gold when he's agitated. The Cheshire Cat also has unnervingly huge green eyes.
    • Commodore Norrington's eyes, while not commented on, are quite green and expressive. Though his hair, however rarely it is seen, is dark.
      • In contrast, POTC Fanfic writers frequently comment on Norrington's eye color. The preferred description, by far, is "emerald green".
    • Loki, in the promotional material for Thor, with the character being a literal case of a Green-Eyed Monster. In the actual film his eyes are blue.
    • In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the drug ALZ-112 causes a green pigmentation in the apes' eyes. This is eventually how Caesar can tell the updated version of the drug worked on all the other apes in the sanctuary. The scientists don't know what causes the side effect.
    • DS Barbara Havers of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. True to type, she's both redheaded and a spitfire.
    • In the film version of The Lord of the Rings, Pippin has green eyes.


    Literature

    • In a very famous Turkish novel called "Calikusu (lit. The Wren)" by Resat Nuri Guntekin, the heroine's unfaithful fiancé has alluring green eyes, which become a symbol for both his charm and his betrayal, as a foil to the ostensibly frivolous but deep down painfully loyal personality of his fiancée, who has Hazel Eyes.
    • Jane Eyre had green eyes. The morning after they first became engaged, Mr. Rochester paid her extravagant compliments, including that her eyes were "Hazel Eyes", which was followed in the exposition with "I had green eyes, reader; but you must excuse the mistake: for him they were new-dyed, I suppose."
    • The Lady, Discworld's goddess of luck, has eyes that are all green, edge to edge. (Although an illustration in The Last Hero shows them as white, for some reason.)
    • The fact that Harry Potter and his mother, Lily, who had red hair, both have green eyes is emphasized repeatedly. With good reason.
      • In the movies, they're blue instead - Daniel Radcliffe couldn't stand the green lenses. Luckily, Lily's portrayer Geraldine Somerville has the same color.[2]
      • Albus Severus Potter, Harry's middle son, is described as the only one of his children to have inherited their grandmother's eyes, completing a rare triple-Generation Xerox.
    • The Sexton Blake stories feature George Marsden Plummer, a recurring villain whose eyes turn green whenever he's excited or under stress.
    • In Peter S. Beagle's novel The Last Unicorn, Schmendrick the Magician is often mentioned to have green eyes.
    • Tavi of the Codex Alera has green eyes, although he is neither magical nor catlike. By the end of Furies of Calderon, so does Kitai, who is both.
    • Percy from Percy Jackson and The Olympians has sea-green eyes, because he is the son of Poseidon. In fact, it seems to be fairly common in the series with a good portion of named characters having green eyes.
    • According to Sax Rohmer, Fu Manchu has "long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green"—which seems somewhat improbable for a Chinaman.
    • Jasmine of Deltora Quest is described as having "almond-shaped green eyes", definitely fitting with her wild girl backstory.
    • The green eyes of Scarlett O'Hara (a classic vixen) in Gone with the Wind are mentioned repeatedly in the narrative, rather charmingly when Rhett describes them as "twin goldfish bowls filled to the brim with the clearest green water." Margaret Mitchell later admitted it was her favorite color.
      • Note that "green water" generally means you've got a dirty fish tank or your ship is in heavy seas. Probably counts as Did Not Do the Research on the author's part.
        • Actually, the fact that green water is a sign of a dirty fish bowl was probably another one of Rhett's backhanded compliments (of which there are countless). It's all a part of his and Scarlett's Slap Slap Kiss/Masochism Tango relationship. Mitchell also probably meant to compare Scarlett to the fishbowl—it looks clear and pretty, that green water, when it's, in fact, disgusting and filthy.
    • Green eyes are a classic Lannister family trait, paired with lovely blonde hair. Lord Tywin has green eyes flecked with gold, his twin children, Cersei and Jaime, have matching emerald ones and Cersei's three children all inherited the emeralds—understandable, considering who their father truly is. Tyrion, The Unfavourite of Tywin's brood, has only one green eye; the other is black.
      • The Lannisters aren't the only morally ambiguous people to have green eyes. Resident Magnificent Bastard Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish is frequently described as having "laughing grey-green eyes", which fits considering that he cause an entire continent to go to war out of jealousy towards the man who married his childhood crush and his insatiable greed for wealth and power.
    • Most of Firestar's family (and at least one other major bloodline) in Warrior Cats fit this description, although the trait seems rarer outside of ThunderClan. When someone's green eyes are brought up repeatedly, it usually signals a bold or strong character. And the eyes are usually described as emerald-green or leaf-green, even though brilliant green eyes are usually a purebred trait. Real Life cats tend to have the duller yellow-green kind, especially in populations that have been feral for many generations.
    • The main characters in The 39 Clues, Amy and Dan Cahill, are said to have jade green eyes.
    • In Septimus Heap, all people with at least a little training in wizardry have green eyes. Jenna is quite displeased that no matter how much she studies, her eyes stay purple.
    • In Sewer, Gas & Electric, a racist-engineered plague was released to wipe out everyone of black African descent on Earth. Because the Complete Monster responsible suspected that he, too, might have a remote black ancestor, he designed it to spare anyone with green eyes like himself, regardless of ethnic background. After the plague ran its course, the only black people left were ones with green eyes, a miniscule fraction of the population.
    • Briar (a plant mage) from the Circle of Magic series has green eyes. His student, Evvy (a stone mage), described him once as the "jade-eyed boy".
    • Roger Zelazny loved putting green-eyed characters in his works. How much? It shows up in one fan's Roger Zelazny drinking game.
    • In Michael Flynn's January Dancer, the woman is introduced as having green eyes—not like grass but like flint—before her name is even given.
    • Finny from A Separate Peace possesses a pair, empathising his free-spirited nature. Gene is fond of pointing them out.
    • Matteo and Kalid in Someone Elses War both have green eyes, which signifies their North African ancestry.
    • Akhor the Silver King of the Kantri in Tales of Kolmar is green-eyed with a matching soulgem. His birth was seen as an omen, though none knew of what - admittedly this was because he was silver, for green eyes aren't rare for his kind. Still, the Winds gave him a human body when he was dying. Even then he had the same eyes, and "the eyes of a dragon are perilous deep".


    Live-Action TV

    • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Sub Rosa", Dr. Crusher says her female ancestors all had green eyes; it turns out to be the result of a relationship with a certain energy being.
    • Alex Krycek from The X-Files has green eyes. Fanficcers are fond of pointing this out. He's also a Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette, thus fulfilling the "untrustworthy" requirement.
    • Abby Sciuto from NCIS has green eyes. Tony DiNozzo and Tim McGee also have green eyes, as did Director Sheppard. In fact, NCIS has a rather remarkable concentration of them.
    • Stella Bonasera from CSI: NY has green eyes that are sometimes mistaken for Blue Eyes.
    • In the new series of Doctor Who, the main cast of the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams all have green eyes.
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer has green eyes.
    • Dean Winchester from Supernatural has green eyes and certainly fits the 'spitfire' characteristic to the letter.
    • DS Barbara Havers of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries has a lovely and expressive pair of sage green eyes. Yes, she is a spitfire, and yes, she is a redhead.
    • In the classic Battlestar Galactica Classic, Apollo is the only character in the main cast to have green eyes.


    Music

    • The Sugarloaf song "Green-Eyed Lady".
    • The Coldplay song "Green Eyes".
    • The Erykah Badu song "Green Eyes", which has rather more to do with the Green-Eyed Monster than not.
    • "Aquellos Ojos Verdes" by Adolfo Utrera and Nilo Menedez became very popular in the 1930s when it was "translated" by Eddie Rivera and Eddie Woods to become "Green Eyes". Since its initial release in 1929, it has been covered dozens of times.
    • The Nick Cave Murder Ballad "Curse of Millhaven"'s star Lottie: "If you think that you've seen a pair of eyes more green/ Then you sure haven't seen 'em round here." Later, "I've struck horror in the heart of this town/ Like my eyes ain't green and my hair ain't yellow/ It's more like the other way around."
      • Nick also has a song called simply "Green Eyes".
    • When we finally see Noodle's eyes clearly in the El Manana, they're bright green.
    • The Grave Digger song "Emerald Eyes" from the Excalibur album.
    • Dark Moor has a song called "Green Eyes".
    • "Green Eyes" by Crucifixion.
    • "Jolene" by Dolly Parton has the lyrics: "With flamin' locks of auburn hair/With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green".
    • "Green Eyes" by Husker Du.


    Video Games

    • Alice Liddell from the American McGee's Alice series.
    • Alex from Lunar: The Silver Star is considered to be special, because, like his hero Dyne, he "has the green eyes".
      • Which is a strange thing to say when you consider the fact that Dyne has brown eyes.
        • It's never actually stated that Dyne has green eyes in the game, though there is a line where one of the dragons tells Alex that he hasn't "seen eyes like those since Dyne." The line likely refers to the determination in Alex's eyes being like that of Dyne, rather than the eye color.
    • Sonic the Hedgehog has intense green eyes. Older art pieces show Sonic originally had brown/black eyes. These changed to green when he became Super Sonic in the Genesis games.
    • All the Snakes have green eyes. Solid Snake is paler than his father or his brothers and has an almost sage-green color, while Big Boss' is more blue-green. Liquid in the Twin Snakes has the deepest shade. Notably, they're all considered sexy by people in and out of their games.
    • Luke Fon Fabre and Asch from Tales of the Abyss both have green eyes and red hair. Understandably, as the former is a clone of the later. It later becomes a plot point that Natalia doesn't have green eyes and red hair, which are a feature of the royal family.
    • Ratchet and Clank has emerald eyes. Clank had teal-ish eyes until the Future Trilogy, throughout which he sported bright, lime-green eyes.
    • In Sword of Mana, main antagonist Julius has green eyes. Perhaps not surprisingly, he's a cheerfully Yandere Manipulative Bastard Deadpan Snarker who has complicated issues. The same game also has a handful of heroic green-eyed blondes.
    • No mention of Fox? He has green eyes now, it seems.
    • Green eyes seem to be common in the Mass Effect universe, at least compared to the present day. Mass Effect 2 features Yeoman Kelly Chambers as Shepard's new personal assistant. She's a green-eyed redhead bombshell in the grand tradition of female Yeomen. And yes, you can get with her in the game.
      • Both the original and the new default for female Commander Shepard make her a green-eyed redhead.
    • While it's not easy to see in the original Tales of Symphonia, due to the style of his character model, the OVA reveals that Rebel Leader and Defector From Decadence Yuan has strikingly bright green eyes. He's not only a grumpy Deadpan Snarker who suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, but a Half-Human Hybrid to boot.
    • A very different use of green eyes happens in Max Payne: since the Sickly Green Glow is firmly associated with the drug Valkyr in it, the color green is always bad news. In that one instance, right after The Reveal, Max utters: "You complete the jigsaw puzzle to discover it is a picture of yourself, finishing that same puzzle. A mad, green-eyed killer behind you."
    • All three main characters in BlazBlue have green eyes of the same shade. In the first game, it was a hint that they are all blood related despite having different family names. Each of them has unnaturally high aptitude with armagus (although Ragna needs the titular BlazBlue).
    • Parsee Mizuhashi has, by far, the most defined eye colour of any Touhou character, because she is the Green-Eyed Monster.
    • In Beyond Good and Evil, everything about Jade is green, including her eyes. They're definitely "mysterious, powerful and attractive." Her sidekick Double H also has much darker green eyes of stability...sort of.
    • Ishida Mitsunari from Sengoku Basara is the only character in the series with green eyes, which are light and almost yellow at times. With his white skin and hair, they look very striking and may represent envy or corruption.
    • In Final Fantasy X, Rikku is the only Guardian in Yuna's pilgrimage to have green eyes. One of Yuna's heterochromatic eyes is green as well.


    Webcomics


    Western Animation

    Monique: Someone's getting green-eyed...
    Kim: What? I've always had green eyes.

    • Danny Phantom. His eyes turn green whenever he transforms into his ghost form and sometimes flash green when he's still in human form, usually when he's angry.
      • Weirdly, all the non-Caucasian characters have green eyes and some even have Purple Eyes.
    • Luigi in the DIC cartoons, though he originally had Blue Eyes in the games, like his brother, Mario.
    • Exo Squad. A minority of Neosapiens, most notably Battle Minister Typhonus, have green eyes.
    • Evangelyne from Wakfu.
    • In the Batman Beyond episode "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot", Louie had the tech build him a girlfriend with red hair and incredible green eyes.
    • Flora from Winx Club has green eyes, which fits, seeing how she's the fairy of nature.
      • Tecna has kinda green-blueish eyes as well.
    • Unicron from Transformers, for some reason, has green eyes. Decepticons normally have red eyes.
    • According to her driver's license, Frankie Foster has green eyes, but they appear Black Eyes.
    • Beast Boy of Teen Titans has green eyes...which complement his green skin quite nicely! (Starfire doesn't count, since her eyes are monochromatic green.)
      • Jericho also has green eyes. They're the last thing you see before he takes you over.
    • T.J. Detweiler from Recess had green eyes in the pilot (where everyone had a different character design). However, by the time the show premiered, he was given the standard black-on-white eye style (though, according to Word of God, he has Blue Eyes).
    • Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: Shane Gooseman's eyes are a very clear green and he's the blonde. His red-headed teammate (and love interest), Niko, is blue-eyed.
    • Caleb from WITCH and Nerissa have green eyes. They're one of the clues that Nerissa is Caleb's mother.
    1. ↑ Individually, they're the rarest natural eye and hair colors -- but are more often seen together in fiction than Real Life
    2. ↑ Young Lily, on the other hand...
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