Eyes of Gold: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

It's said that eyes are the [[Windows of the Soul|window to the soul]], and in fiction, their color is often the first way to hint at a character's true nature. In particular, characters who have gold and yellow-colored eyes tend to have some form of supernatural origin or powers that place them above normal humans and very often have an animalistic side to them. In the real world, several creatures have this eye color—ducks (you read right), wolves, foxes, owls, cheetahs (though their eyes are most commonly copper or light brown), lions, domestic cats, bearded dragons, and quite a few others. [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Martinbrowneyes.jpg Humans can also possess this eye color], though it is rare, or at least very uncommon.

A subtrope of [[Technicolor Eyes]] and [[Common Eye Colors]]. If paired with [[Hair of Gold]], [[Blondes Are Evil]], [[Blond Guys Are Evil]], or [[Dumb Blonde]], it becomes a case of [[Curtains Match the Window]]. May overlap with [[Dark-Skinned Redhead]].

 

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Akakabuto, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin]]''.

** [[Psycho for Hire|Jan]] [[Ax Crazy|Valentine]] has some pronouncedly glittering orbs, and manages to be more volatile than the Major. ''That's'' an achievement.

* ''[[Inuyasha]]'': the known [[Canis Major|dog]]-[[youkai]] of the show all have golden eyes: [[Half-Human Hybrid|Inuyasha]], [[Aloof Big Brother|Sesshoumaru]], and [[Almighty Mom|Sesshoumaru's mother]].

* In ''[[Black Butler]]'', Grell and the other shinigami have gold (gold/green in Ronald Knox's case) eyes. All of them are fairly neutral in the anime and manga, but are shown to be very powerful when crossed.

* The eyes of [[My Hero Zero|Type Zero cyborgs]] in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' turn gold when they're using their cyborg abilities. Including {{spoiler|Subaru Nakajima}}, at one point, just before she [[Unstoppable Rage|goes ballistic]].

** Likewise, their creator also has them, but he's just evil.

** ''[[Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force|Force]]'' has Cypha, who combines this with being a [[Dark-Skinned Blond]] [[Blondes Are Evil|Evil Blonde]] for [[Curtains Match the Window]].

* In the first episode of ''[[Mai-Otome 0~S.ifr~]]'', Bruce and Sifr's eyes briefly flash gold when the M-9 android is revealed.

* Ruri Hoshino in ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' has these as part of her implied kinda-sorta [[Artificial Human]] background and general [[Mysterious Waif]]-iness.

** [[The Hero|Lucia]] has yellow eyes while in human form (as a mermaid or idol, her eyes are blue).

* Possibly subverted with Gilbert in ''[[Pandora Hearts]]'' since he's not exactly feline, lupine, or vulpine, nor has he been shown to be artfully crafty. He's a straight forward emotional mess. His brother, [[Blond Guys Are Evil|Vincent]], however, not only plays the trope straight (more than Gilbert, anyway), but also (through his [[Mismatched Eyes]]) combines it with [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]].

* Gold from ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' has...well...[[Captain Obvious|gold eyes]], but this is just because the Pokédex owners' eyes match their name as a tradition rather than any special heritage on Gold's part. Nonetheless, he is quite the prankster, with a habit of only acting towards his own benefit. On the other hand, his [[How Much More Can He Take?|durability]] is almost at the point where it's [[Determinator|a Goddamned superpower]].

** Art released for the [[Video Game Remake|Updated Release]] of Gold/Silver shows that his eyes are [[Curtains Match the Window|blue]].

** [[Friend to All Living Things|Yellow]] would probably also count. At first, this looks like a aversion of the "dangerous" part of the trope. [[Beware the Nice Ones|It]] [[Unstoppable Rage|really]] [[Superweapon Surprise|isn't.]]

* Mami from ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' has gold eyes, but in her case, it's more of a case of [[Curtains Match the Window|curtains matching the window]], since there are other magical girls who ''don't'' have gold eyes.

** {{spoiler|Following her ascension as a goddess in the final episode, Madoka herself has gotten a set of these}}.

* Ryoma (and his father) from ''[[Prince of Tennis]]'' have gold eyes.

* Takatsuki from ''[[Wandering Son]]'' has Eyes of Gold in the anime. In the manga, she had simple [[Brown Eyes]], before [[Art Evolution]] kicked in and gave her [[Black Eyes]].

* [[The Flash|Bart Allen]] (Impulse/Kid Flash II) of the [[The DCU]] has naturally golden eyes; this, along with his [[Anime Hair|wild auburn hair]], serves as a character marker. He's a bit of a devil-may-care type (hence the codename), but his heart's undoubtedly in the right place. And he actually manages to make a normally sickly-evil eye color look really cute!

** Probably inherited from his psychotic ancestor, Professor Zoom, archnemesis of the Flash family. [http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/1341/impulseeyescloseup.png Here's] [http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6513/professorzoomeyescloseu.png close-ups] of both of their eyes - drawn by the same artist, to boot, though roughly 10 years apart. The critical difference in depiction is their personalities (physically, they have the ''exact same eyes'', which is very unsettling, but that's it). Bart's joyful and friendly demeanor makes them bright like sunshine; Thawne is the exact opposite: his eyes burning like a raging wildfire - to the point where they sometimes turn [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|reddish-orange]]. Bart's eyes can also turn into that fiery-orange color as well, but only under extreme rage or stress - it's a signifier that he isn't [[Cloudcuckoolander|playing around]] [[Beware the Nice Ones|anymore]].

* [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Doctor Finitevus]] has yellow-golden irises...and pupils. They really stand out because his eyeballs are entirely black otherwise.

* Timmorn Yellow-Eyes of ''[[Elf Quest]]'' has, obviously, yellow eyes, {{spoiler|which he got from his father, who was a wolf, his mother being an elfin shapechanger, making him basically a half-elf werewolf}}. Several other elves have yellow eyes as well, particularly Rayek and Nightfall. In Rayek's case, he's one of the few very magical Sun Folk. With Nightfall, it's likely just more to link her to Timmorn, the ancestor of all the Wolfriders, and emphasize her origins.

** The non-Banner [[Red Hulk]]s as well, partly because it's part of their "demonic" look, and partly because of their association with fire.

 

* [[Dark Magical Girl]] Ashley McFly of ''[[Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy]]'' has slightly greyish yellow eyes, which turn bright yellow with slitted cat-ish pupils when she becomes Leather Ashes.

* Subverted in ''A Soul's Songbook: Out of Print'', a fanfic of ''[[Soul Eater]]''. As mentioned above, the shinigami of Soul Eater have Eyes of Gold, and, well, if you are a naturally amber-eyed human with dark hair, there are [[Unfortunate Implications]] involved in that. One of New London's gangsters ([[Gayngster|who also falls into a completely different spelling of such]]) is a former sex slave of such coloring, but is completely human.

* Ren and {{spoiler|Ren II and Lien}} in ''[[A Gift of Love]]'' all have gold eyes.

* Ditzy Doo's distinguishing characteristics in her storyline in the ''[[Pony Psychology Series]]'' are her eyes; not only did [[Mafia Princess|Gilda]] remember who she was when she saw bright golden eyes staring back at her, whenever Ditzy reverts to her original personality of a secret agent, they're described as being like a hunting hawk's.

 

== Film ==

* Disney's animated film ''[[Mulan]]''. The [[Big Bad]] Shan-Yu has Eyes of Gold, surrounded by black scleras.

* In the film ''[[Wolf]]'', yellow eyes are a sign that a character is turning into a werewolf.

* ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]'' features a golden-eyed alien that really is a shapeshifter.

* Barbossa from ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' (the first one, anyway; his eyes look normal enough in the next two films, presumably since he's no longer under the curse).

* Simba, Mufasa, Sarabi, Pumbaa, and the hyenas from the first ''[[The Lion King|Lion King]]'' film, and Kiara from the second.

* [[Complete Monster|The Coachman]] from ''[[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]]'' apparantly has large, bulging yellow eyes. They're most noticable during the scene where he says "They'll never come back[[Nightmare Face|...as BOYS!!!"]]

 

== Literature ==

** Also, when they fall in love. And it's dangerous to look in their eyes when they're gold, unless you have the ''kelar'' yourself. Kinda awkward for lovers without it.

* In ''[[The Perilous Gard]]'' by Elizabeth Marie Pope, the protagonist Kate's spoiled younger sister has eyes described as golden or honey-colored.

* According to ''[[Horus Heresy|Flight of the Eisenstein]]'', the Primarch Mortarion had amber eyes.

* Genghis Khan and his father in the ''[[Conqueror]]'' books are both stated to have gold eyes. Sure enough, their tribe is called the Wolves, and the first book is titled ''Wolf of the Plains''.

* In [[Devon Monk]]'s [[Allie Beckstrom]] novel ''Magic to the Bone'', Zayvion has [[Brown Eyes]] with flecks of gold -- [[Kaleidoscope Eyes|until he leaves the magic grid,]] whereupon they are brown. When he drives back, his eyes turn pure gold with only flecks of brown.

* Ultimately subverted in ''[[Doctrine of Labyrinths]]''. Felix starts the story as the only person he or anyone else knows with a yellow eye, and he's such a powerful wizard that most superstitious people are afraid of his eyes (the other being blue of either the [[Creepy Blue Eyes|creepy]] or [[Occult Blue Eyes|occult]] variety). Turns out where his mother comes from, people just have yellow eyes.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* In ''[[Sanctuary]]'', Henry's eyes turning yellow is one of the first indications that his [[Our Werewolves Are Different|transformation into a werewolf]] has been triggered and are usually the very last to disappear when he changes back. On one occassion, he manages to tap into his werewolf side and use its strenght to escape a [[They Would Cut You Up|holding cell]]. He remains completely human throughout this, except for a glowing pair of these.

* ''[[The Fades]]'' has the [[Our Ghosts Are Different|Fade]] Polus and his followers. This signifies both that they have powers beyond those of normal Fades and that the characters have pronounced animalistic sides, as the source of these powers is [[I'm a Humanitarian|eating human flesh]].

 

== Music ==

* The Flock Of Seagulls song ''I Ran'': the girl has "auburn hair and tawny eyes".

* The Sixx AM song, ''The Girl With Golden Eyes''. The girl is a physical representation of Nikki Sixx's heroin abuse; more importantly, a heroin dose leaves a small golden track mark dot.

 

== Myth and Legend ==

** The Celtic Púca/Pooka stands out as a notable example. A shapeshifting hobgoblin, one of the [[The Fair Folk|Fair Folk]] - Pookas can take on any number of animal forms, but their eyes are always a telltale colour, typically goat-yellow. Far less commonly, they are said to have otherworldly red, green, or blue eyes instead of yellow.

* In [[Greek Mythology]], Circe and her niece Medea had Golden Eyes. They were the daughter and granddaughter, respectively, of the Greek god of the Sun, Helios. His children were often associated with sorcery, and apparently, they all inherited his flashing eyes.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** (3.5 edition), or at least the [[Forgotten Realms]] campaign setting, mentions yellow eyes as a sign of celestial (angelic) descent, which usually corresponds to [[Character Alignment|good alignments]].

** 4E extends gold eyes (along with [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]] ones) to the Dragonborn and Tiefling player races, with no indication of their [[Character Alignment]] (although Tieflings are generally considered a "[[Dark Is Not Evil|dark]]" race)

*** The Drizzt Do'Urden novels had Dantrag Baenre, the weapons master of the First House of Menzoberranzan. He was noted for having unusual eyes for a drow (who normally have red) -- yellow, [[Kaleidoscope Eyes|changing to orangey-red]] when he's angry. Their Archmage, Gromph Baenre, has amber eyes, and his daughter, Liriel (''Starlight and Shadows'' trilogy), inherited this trait (along with his magical talent). At least this one is clearly [[In the Blood]].

* Some Vilani in the ''[[Traveller]]'' RPG have gold-coloured eyes.

* Harmonious Jade in ''[[Exalted]]'' picked up a set after taking the Second Breath as a Solar. (Before then, she had some absolutely gorgeous shining blue eyes.)

** Also, all Sidereal Exalted Chosen of Journeys get yellow eyes as a sign of their station.

* The character Slayer from ''[[Guilty Gear]] XX'' has golden eyes. This makes sense, since he is a vampire.

* Many [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] characters have these: the Chaotix team, Silver the Hedgehog, and Blaze the Cat, for example.

* In ''[[Quest for Glory]] IV'', all vampires have pupilless golden eyes.

* Salazar and Saddler in ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' both have golden eyes. So does Ashley, for some reason.

** As do several Pokemon.

* In contrast to most other demons in the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series, [[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten|Fenrich]] the [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]] has gold eyes

 

== Visual Novels ==

* Emiya Shirou from ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', for no clear reason. Nobody comments on it. It's probably for the same reason he has [[Redheaded Hero|red hair]] despite being completely Japanese. Also, in the "Heaven's Feel" route of the game, when {{spoiler|Saber}} is possessed by {{spoiler|Sakura}}, she gains these as part of her [[Super-Powered Evil Side]].

** Kohaku from the same game has yellowish eyes (appropriately, her name translates as "amber"). She's not evil, per se, just kinda...[[Yandere|messed up]].

* Misha in ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' has golden eyes, though it's not quite sure yet what that means.

 

* Fa'Lina, Nutmeg, and Pyroduck in ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures|DMFA]]''.

* In ''[[Inverloch]]'', Lei'ella, Kayn'dar, and other "Severed" elves have white hair and golden eyes. This is an inversion: instead of being powerful or tricksters, Severed elves are mortal and can't use magic, essentially being [[Brought Down to Normal]].

* Werewolves in ''[[Sorcery 101]]'' have yellow eyes. It is also suspected to be the case in {{spoiler|''Strange Someone''.}}

* In ''[[Pandect]]'', Aces (animals who have been given human bodies and minds) have yellow eyes if their animal species has them. The protagonist, Prince Fleance, is a melanistic leopard and has gold eyes with slit pupils in human form.

* All the [[Our Goblins Are Wickeder|Goblinoids]] (as well as the [[Gentle Giant|Monster in the Dark]]) from ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''.

* [[Wapsi Square]]: [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/grandpagettinsome/ Jin has golden eyes].

 

== Web Original ==

* Tennyo, in the [[Whateley Universe]], has the [[Tenchi Muyo!|Ryoko]] golden eyes. When she gets mad, she goes to [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]. It looks like her backstory matches this trope exactly.

 

== Western Animation ==

[[Category:The Gilded Index]]

[[Category:The Yellow Index]]

[[Category:Uh-Oh Eyes]]

[[Category:Color-Coded for Your Convenience]]