Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Difference between revisions

Sometimes, they're heroes. Sometimes, they're friends. Sometimes, they're [[Betty and Veronica|contenders]], [[Third Option Love Interest|vying]] for the same love interest. Whatever the details, they're proof that Central Casting [[Rule of Three|does the math]]: three women, three major hair colors. [[Gotta Catch Them All|Collect the full set]]. This trope was inspired—or at least made famous—by [[The Andrews Sisters]], a [[Girl Group]] from the 1940s who were famous for entertaining American troops during [[World War Two]].

 

 

Sometimes, a [[Token Minority]] may either replace the Caucasian brunette or stand beside her. The latter case can match the [[Four-Girl Ensemble]]: [[Sassy Black Woman|the Black Girl]], the Blonde ([[Hair of Gold|sweet]] or [[Dumb Blonde|dumb]]), the [[Brainy Brunette|Brunette]] and [[Heroes Want Redheads|the Redhead]]. Compare with the common individual component types: [[Dumb Blonde]], [[Brainy Brunette]], [[Shy Blue-Haired Girl]] and the [[Fiery Redhead]]. Contrast [[Plenty of Blondes]].

* An old ad for hair dye kicks off with a set of not-yet-born triplets fantasizing about what hair colors they will come out with. One looks forward to being a blonde, another to being a ravenhead, and the last to being a redhead. Sadly, they're all born with [[Unfortunate Implications|boring old brown]], which is where the dye comes in when the girls are older.

* An advert for Heineken had a Blonde, Brunette and Redhead sitting in a drinking establishment, along with a trio of priest, minister and rabbi; and a man with a duck under his arm. The claim was that the beer was "the real reason they all walked into a bar." [[Dumb Blonde|The Blonde doesn't get it]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Tomari, Yasuna and Hazumu in ''[[Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl]]''.

* The Starlights in ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' have white, black and brown hair, but still fit the trope. Or white, navy and brown in the manga.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'':

** It could be argued that we end up with this set: Rei (blue, but, as the lightest shade, it counts as blonde here), Misato (dark blue, therefore brunette) and Asuka (redhead). Not that they're not distinct in just about every possible way anyway.

** If you're talking about (relatively) normal humans, it'd be Akagi (blonde), Misato (brunette) and Asuka (redhead).

* Shiho ([[White-Haired Pretty Girl]]), Aoi (brunette) and Kaoru (redhead), respectively, from ''[[Zettai Karen Children]]''.

* ''[[Bleach]]'':

* ''[[Tsuritama]]'', we have Haru, Natsuki and Yuki.

* Gintoki, Kagura and Shinpachi from ''[[Gintama]]''

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[Spider-Man]] brunet, and his best friends are red-haired Harry Osborn and blond-haired Flash Thompson. As Spidey, his best friends are red-haired [[Daredevil]] and the blond-haired [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Human Torch]]. And his ''Amazing Friends'' are blond Iceman and red-haired Firestar. Whew.

** His clone Ben Reilly's major love interests were red-haired [[Sympathetic Murderer|Janine/Elizabeth]], black-haired [[You Killed My Father|Jessica]], and blonde [[Uptown Girl|Desiree]]. Guess it's genetic.

 

== Fan Works ==

* The Council from ''[[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]]'' has the three hair types included ([[No Name Given|which is the only way to distinguish between the members]]), although the [[Evil Redhead|redhead]] is a man and there is a gray-haired man on the half male, half female four-person Council.

 

* Cinderella, Drizella and Anastasia from Disney's ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]]''.

* ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'': Ariel is a redhead, while her six older sisters fill in the blonde and brunette qualifications.

* In ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'', Naveen sings about having a redhead and brunette on each arm with "a blonde or two to hold the candles" while surrounded by butterflies in the corresponding colors. Of course, he ends up falling for the African American Tiana. The trio of bimbettes that follows him around also fits this trope.

* The three princesses in ''Fehérlófia'' (''[[Son of the White Horse]]'').

* Michelle Pfeiffer (blonde), Cher (brunette) and Susan Sarandon (redhead) in ''[[The Witches of Eastwick]]''.

* Interesting twist in the 1960s pastiche ''[[Down With Love]]'': Barbara Novak, the main character, spends most of the film a blonde, but {{spoiler|in the Big Reveal towards the end, she reveals that she had fallen in love with [[Chivalrous Pervert]] Catcher Block, but he didn't notice her because she was a mousy brunette secretary, so she reinvented herself as a sassy blonde feminist writer to get his attention as part of her massive [[Xanatos Gambit]], but in the end, she dyes her hair red so she's "in between" the mousy brunette and the sassy blonde.}}

* The 1932 film ''Three Wise Girls'' is in black and white, but according to the poster one is brunette, one redheaded, and the third (played by [[Jean Harlow]]) is blonde.

* The movie ''[[Xanadu]]'' has a song, Dancin'. There is a trio of female singers with blond, red and brown hair.

 

== Literature ==

* Opal, Jade and Amber respectively play this trope straight in ''[[The Prophecy of the Stones]]''. The three of them are known as "the Stones" of the prophecy (referring to their [[Theme Naming|namesake magic stones]]). However, blonde (Opal) is [[The Stoic]], the brunette (Jade) has the personality of the [[Fiery Redhead]], the redhead (Amber) might as well have [[Hair of Gold]] based on her role and personality.

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'':

** Luna, Hermione and Ginny. And true to stereotype, Hermione's a [[Brainy Brunette]], Ginny's a [[Fiery Redhead]] and while Luna certainly isn't [[Dumb Blonde]], she's definitely [[Cloudcuckoolander|a little spacey]].

* The boys of the ''[[Spy High]]'' series: Ben (blond), Jake (brunet) and Eddie (redhead). For the girls, there's blonde Lori, brunette Cally and Bex; who dyes her hair a variety of bright, unnatural colours, sometimes red.

* The trio of Bess, George, and Nancy in the [[Nancy Drew]] series. True to form, Bess is the ditz, George is the smart, practical, athletic and tomboyish one, while Nancy is the series [[Canon Sue]].

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** Buffy (blonde), Willow (redhead) and Faith, Cordelia, or Dawn (brunette), depending on the situation.

** If one allows male participants, the most commonly seen Blonde, Brunet, Redhead trio on ''Buffy'' is Buffy, Willow and Xander. Rather amusingly, the traditional traits associated with each hair color exist in this trio, but [[Palette Swap|palette-swapped]]; Buffy is the Fiery Blonde, Willow is the Brainy Redhead and Xander is the [[Book Dumb|Dumb]] Brunet.

** During the fifth (and last) season of the original 1970s series, the Angels were Cheryl Ladd (blonde), Jaclyn Smith (brunette) and Tanya Roberts (redhead). The producers had wanted to use this trope since the beginning.

** The 2011 revamp has blonde, brunette and [[Token Minority|African-American]].

* In one episode of ''[[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles]]'', Indy is simultaneously dating a sweet blonde, a talented redhead and an ambitious brunette. Until they all find out.

* ''[[Pan Am]]'' has Laura (blonde), Maggie and Colette (brunettes) and Kate (redhead). Now that she's returned, Bridget also fulfils the blonde aspect.

 

== Music ==

* For Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim and Mya's cover of "[[Moulin Rouge|Lady Marmalade]]", Christina and Lil' Kim are blondes, Mya is brunette and Pink is, well, pink ([[Red vs. Blue|it's lightish red!]]).

* The Belgian girl group K3 and their German spin-off Wir 3

** Deliberately modelled on them, there are The Puppini Sisters.

* Girl Punk band The Slits had this with guitarist Viv Albertine as the blonde, bassist Tessa Politt as the brunette, and lead singer the late Ari Up as the redhead(although she was more light brown haired than red.). In one video, it even shows the three riding on horses matching their hair colors with Viv on a white/palomino horse, Tessa on a black horse, and Ari on a chestnut horse!

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

 

 

* The trio Extreme Expose had [[Kelly Kelly]] (blonde hair), Brooke (brown hair) and Layla (Middle Eastern).

* Team LayCool has Michelle McCool as a blonde and Layla (mentioned above) and Vickie Guerrero a brunettes.

* One episode of ''Monday Night Raw'' in the late summer of 2004 pitted the team of Stacy Keibler (blonde), Nidia Guenard (light brunette) and Victoria (dark brunette) against their [[Evil Counterpart]]s, Trish Stratus (blonde), Molly Holly (medium brunette) and Gail Kim (dark brunette).

 

* As mentioned above, Amber, Tracy and Penny in ''Hairspray'' (Penny has auburn hair).

* Kendra, Lucy and Patrice in ''13''.

* In ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'' (at least with the original cast), the Witches of Oz would work. Elphaba is the ''Brainy Brunette'', {{spoiler|and later gains the seductive aspects of ''Shiny Midnight Black'' in the As Long as You're Mine number}}, G'linda is a ''Dumb Blonde'', but by the end, she gets better and Nessarose fits ''Fiery Redhead'', since she's such a ''Yandere''.

* The current trio of [[Chorus Girls]] in the cabaret musical ''Modern Luv'': Madison = [[Hair of Gold|innocent blonde]], Hillary = [[Brainy Brunette]] (since she's the dance captain/choreographer), and Kimmie = [[Fiery Redhead]]. Include Opal, the pale-skinned dark brunette lead actress/character, and you have a [[Four-Girl Ensemble]].

 

== Video Games ==

* The original three girls in ''[[Soul Blade]]'' have Sophitia as [[Hair of Gold|the blonde]], [[Tomboy|Seung Mina]] as the redhead and Taki as the brunette.

* The three heroes of ''[[Shining Force]] III'': Medion, Synbion and Julian.

* ''[[The Idolmaster 2|The iDOLM@STER 2]]'' - Project Jupiter is an odd case where the redhead has green hair here.

* [[Chrono Trigger]] has Ayla (blonde), Lucca (brunette), and Marle (redhead).

 

== Web Animation ==

* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'''s Agents South Dakota (blonde), Connecticut (brunette), and Carolina (redhead), [http://montyoum.deviantart.com/art/The-Girls-269475875 as illustrated nicely by this official picture].

 

* ''[[CRFH]]'' has a double-set example for both genders. Technically, there are also not one but two sets of brunettes, a pair of brown-brunettes and a pair of black-brunettes.

* In ''[[Penny and Aggie]]'', both of the titular characters' core [[Girl Posse|groups]] have this:

** Penny (blonde), Sara (brunette) and Michelle (redhead).

** The Omegas also fit the trope, with Helen (dark blonde), Tharqa (brunette) and Charlotte (redhead).

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Supermegatopia]]''—after the appearance of blonde [[Most Common Superpower|Buxom Gal]] and brunette [[Darker and Edgier|Dark Buxom Gal]], the public's reaction is to wonder whether a redhead will show up too. (Later, one does.)

* The three female leads of ''[[Out There]]'': red-haired Miriam fits the [[Fiery Redhead]] trope reasonably well, but also has some [[Dumb Blonde]] tendencies; the usually dark-haired Sherry (who sometimes bleaches her hair blonde) can be seen as the [[Brainy Brunette]]; and the dark-haired Araceli, despite her occupation (she's an attorney) and hair color, is somewhat of a [[Shy Blue-Haired Girl]].

* The two main characters and the first major villain they encounter of ''[[Wayfarer's Moon]]''.

* ''[[Questionable Content]]'': one could say this applies to the ladies working at the Coffee of Doom. [[Perky Goth|Dora]] has black hair, [[Genius Ditz|Raven]] had a blonde streak and [[Deadpan Snarker|Faye]]'s hair colour could qualify as being between the two. Later, after Raven gets [[Put on a Bus]], Penny shows up to fulfill the blonde requirement, though she defies the trope in personality...

* The three female leads of ''[[LCD]]'': Julianne McIntyre is the blonde, Raven Svoboda is the brunette and Terry Sligh is the redhead.

* The major female characters in ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'' are Guenevere (redhead), Morgan (brunette) and space/contemporary!Tristam (chestnut). Originally it was Morgan (brunette), Guenevere (redhead) and space/contemporary!Bedivere (blonde), until Bedivere was [[retcon]]ned as male in all the arcs.

* Geoff (blonde), Drucilla (brunette) and [[Pibgorn]] (redhead). Alternately: Pigorn, Drucilla (black hair) and the hair fairy (brown hair).

 

== Web Original ==

* ''Rocketboom'' has this with the hosts of its three [[YouTube]] channels: blonde Meme Molly on Rocketboom Daily, brunette Ellie Rountree on Rocketboom Tech, and redheaded Ella Morton on Rocketboom New York City.

* Ellie, Avery and Macy from ''[[One Hundred Yard Stare]]'' in that order.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Paint the Index Red]]

[[Category:This Index Is Brown]]

[[Category:Ensembles]]

[[Category:Amazing Technicolor Index]]