Mismatched Eyes: Difference between revisions

[[File:desugriniq0.jpg|link=Rozen Maiden|frame| [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|So, one red eye is just a half warning]], [[Verbal Tic|desu]]?]]

 

 

In fiction, this often indicates a character with special powers, perhaps a [[Shape Shifter]] or magical being of some sort: traditionally, people with different colored eyes were literally assumed to be a witch, or a (possibly evil) spirit. If so, they [[Glamour Failure|can't mask]] their distinctive eye in any form. Unlike [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red eyes]], this may be merely a sign of a [[Trickster]], or someone with hidden attributes.

** This feature was brought up rather explicitly in the climax of episode 20, "Pierrot le Fou", where it is revealed that {{spoiler|the cat that was present during the title character's horrific experiments (and was responsible for his [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|ailurophobia]]), had heterochromia, leading to him freezing up at a crucial moment during the final showdown with Spike due to the light making his cyber-eye glow in a similar fashion to the cat's, allowing Spike to defeat him}}.

* Allen Walker from ''[[D.Gray-man]]'' has one gray eye and one [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red cursed eye]]. Note that his eye is only red when an Akuma is around, otherwise it is the same gray as the other.

* Luki and Noki from ''[[DOGS Bullets and Carnage]]'' have very weird eyes (gold with a black iris, black with a gold iris, with the actual which-eye-is-which swapped between twins). They're [[Enfant Terrible|enfants terribles]].

* The Count from ''[[Gankutsuou]]''. This symbolizes not only his moral ambiguity and inner conflicts, but also the fact that he is {{spoiler|[[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|part-human, part-monster, part-alive, part-undead and part-earthling, part-alien]] through his symbiosis with Gankutsuou}}. The duality symbolism is also present in some representations of his crest, a stylized heart divided into two clear compartments with different colours to represent {{spoiler|his remaining human feelings and the fact that he is gradually turning into a cold-hearted monster}}.

* Vetti Svorza of ''[[Glass Fleet]]'' has one purple eye and one [[Eyes of Gold|shiny gold one]]. It's one of the early indicators that he's [[Royally Screwed-Up|a little unusual]].

* Allelujah Haptism from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' has a [[Gray Eyes]] and a [[Eyes of Gold|gold]] one. His hair always obscures one of the two, cluing any viewers into whether it is he or his evil [[Split Personality]] Hallelujah that is currently in control. {{spoiler|In the end, he ends up pulling his hair back to reveal both eyes, allowing both [[Split Personality Merge|personalities to simultaneously control his body, giving him the reflexes of two people]].}}

* Albireo from ''[[.hack//AI buster|.hack AI Buster]]'' has one blue eye and one gold, which has to do with his name -- a binary star, one of which is blue, the other gold. Kamui has the same eye color, in dedication to him. Both characters' eye colors in the real world however are unknown.

* Vincent from ''[[Pandora Hearts]]'', who has [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|one red eye]] and [[Eyes of Gold|one gold/yellow eye.]]

* The Count D from ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]'' has heterochromia, one eye being purple and the other, whom he hides under his hair, is golden. In the manga, it's explained that {{spoiler|this is meant to be representative not only for his non-human nature, but also for his inheritance: his father and grandfather have golden and purple eyes, respectively. Since each one has a very different personality, and D has personality traits from ''both'', his heterochromia symbolizes this dual nature}}.

* In ''[[Rozen Maiden]]'' Suiseiseki has red and green eyes, and was originally nicknamed "Boatlights-chan" by fans before she became known as simply "[[Verbal Tic|Desu]]". Her twin sister Souseiseki, introduced later, has the same eye colors but reversed. Appropriately, they are [[Foil|foils]] for each other. Also the previous [[Trope Namer]].

* ''[[Saint Beast]]'': Goh

* The perpetually-bandaged Abiru Kobushi from ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'' has one brown and one blue eye, though we don't find out until a [[Hot Springs Episode|trip to a bath-house]] temporarily removes the eyepatch.

* Mikuni from ''[[Shangri-La]]'' has one [[Eyes of Gold|gold eye]], and one blue eye.

** They were blue and '''red''' in VN.

* The clone Rezo the Red Priest, [[Big Bad]] of Season 1 of ''[[Slayers]]'' has one blue eye and one yellow. Since he is blind, he [[Eyes Always Shut|has his eyes closed]] throughout most of the season. His magic clone thingy gets mismatched eyes after bonding with a vaguely defined 'demon-beast' that doesn't seem to actually fit into the hierarchy of evil in the world's mythology.

* In ''[[Sukisho]]'', whenever Yoru takes over Sora's body, one of his eyes turns gold while the other remains blue.

* In the second novel of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'', Haruhi gives Mikuru one colored contact to wear during their filmed home movie, because "different colored eyes give an air of mystery". Hey, if anyone [[Genre Savvy|knows her tropes]], it's Haruhi.

* The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' villain Dartz has one [[Eyes of Gold|golden eye]] (his natural eye color) and one that was turned pale blue by the whole Orichalcos incident. And, if false eyes count, let's not forget Maximillion Pegasus, who has one brown eye and one [[Artifact of Doom|Millennium Eye]].

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'': Yubel has one orange eye and one green eye. In Season 4, after Judai merges with Yubel, his normally brown eyes change to these when using his newly acquired [[Green Lantern Ring]] powers.

* In the manga ''Enchanter'' by Izumi Kawachi, if you become an enchanter, one of your eyes changes, turning deep red with a pinpoint pupil. Oddly, long-time friends [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|don't seem to notice the change]].

* Yakumo in ''[[Psychic Detective Yakumo]]'' has one normal brown eye and one red eye which he usually conceals with a colored contact lens. The red eye can see the spirits of the dead.

* The smug womanizer former monk Julio Cesare from ''[[Zero no Tsukaima]]''.

* In ''[[Rental Magica]]'', Itsuki was in an incident that turned his right eye into something [[Evil Eye|demonic looking]]. Before that, said eye was still an unnatural red.

 

 

{{quote|'''Wayne:''' Well, we'll go through these forms with a fine toothed comb, cross the "t"s and dot the... lower case "j"s.}}

* In ''The Unborn'', the 2009 film, this trope is one of the indications that the protagonist is being haunted by the title unborn twin brother who is trying to possess her.

* Brad Dourif's Wormtongue in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' was meant to wear two pale blue contacts until the costumers discovered he looked creepier while wearing only one.

* In ''[[Practical Magic]]'', young Sally Owens cast a love spell for a man she thinks can't exist, by giving him very uncommon traits. One of these is that he'd have "one green eye, and one blue". Twenty years later, guess what color eyes Detective Hallet has?

 

== Literature ==

* Tyrion Lannister in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has, in addition to several other congenital defects, either heterochromia or partial aniridia, with one green eye and one black one.

** Also, the minor character Shiera Seastar had one green and one blue eye, from the Dunk & Egg novels set in the same 'verse.

* In the book ''[[The Wild Road]]'' one of the characters, Mousebreath, is a male Tortoiseshell cat with an orange eye and a blue eye.

* In Sarah Monette's ''[[Doctrine of Labyrinths]]'', the wizard Felix Harrowgate has one blue eye and one gold eye. The blue(?) eye is a result of an injury, so mostly blind. The colors give him no specific powers, but it does freak people out.

* In Kristin Cashore's ''[[Graceling]]'', all "Gracelings" have this as a distinguishing characteristic. It becomes important to the plot when you find out that {{spoiler|one of the kings is missing an eye, and it later turns out that he is Graced with a very effective version of [[Charm Person]], as it can work even second- and third-hand, via rumors}}.

* The [[Known Space]] novel ''Juggler of Worlds'' by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner reveals for the first time that Nessus, whom Niven created 41 years previously, has one red eye and one yellow eye. (Being a Pierson's Puppeteer, he has two heads with one eye each.)

** This aspect was omitted in the 2005 TV adaptation. Cue [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|the outcry]]...

* The evil sorceress Xayide has one red eye and one green in ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]''.

* One ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book has the main character's best friend be a girl with [[Mismatched Eyes]]. This becomes a plot point when she mysteriously disappears and he starts seeing a dog with [[Mismatched Eyes]] around the neighborhood.

* In the [[Roger Zelazny]] book ''This Immortal'', protagonist narrator Conrad Nomikos has [[Mismatched Eyes]], among other odd features. But then he {{spoiler|is probably a mutant and is definitely hundreds of years old.}} His unique appearance is an important plot point.

'''Larry:''' You're kidding. Good God, they ''are'' different!

'''Dunreath:''' ''(defensively)'' Well, it's not a disease! }}

* "Mirror twins" Eleda and Adele in ''The Truth-Teller's Tale'' by Sharon Shinn have these. [[Secret Keeper|Adele]] has a left blue eye and right green eye and [[Can Not Tell a Lie|Eleda]] has a left green eye and right blue eye.

* In Jostein Gaarder's philosophical novel ''[[Maya]]'', the character Laura has one brown eye and one green eye. The narrator thinks of this as somehow connected to her dual nature - one side of her seems to care for all living things and the planet as a whole, while the other side seems to care about everything in the world except human beings.

* Hnick from Dmitri Yemets's book series ''Methodius Buslaev'' has one blue eye and one black eye according to book 3. Romasjusik is also described as having one golden eye and one orange eye. Both cases aren't natural, since the latter has artificial body, while former's body [[Nightmare Fuel|is stitched from at last two different corpses.]]

 

== Live-Action TV ==

== Pro Wrestling ==

* [[WWE]] wrestler [[Wrestler/Kane|Kane]] has one light-blue eye and one brown eye, with the pupils being slightly different sizes (an effect achieved by the wrestler wearing non-matching contacts, like [[Marilyn Manson]]). Early in his run, it was implied that the blue eye was actually damaged by the fire which had "scarred" him, and that he was blind in that eye. Note to the WWE brain-trust: even we wrestling fans realize that eye color does not work that way.

 

 

* Lady and Arkham from ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'' have heterochromia. It doesn't actually mean anything... {{spoiler|but it serves as an early clue that they're father and daughter.}}

** It also serves as a visual hint that {{spoiler|Arkham is Jester}}.

** Levi Tolar, on-again off-again [[The Dragon|Dragon]], originally from ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Alpha'', has one [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red]] and one [[Eyes of Gold|golden]] eye, to match her mecha Judecca. Her eye color changes fairly regularly though, depending on game and {{spoiler|whether her [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Levi personality]] or her Mai Kobayashi personality is dominant.}}

* Ballos from ''[[Cave Story]]'' has one eye stark white, one eye stark red, neither with any visible pupil. It's probably less about his biology and more about making him look even more otherworldly than he already is, though.

** The Demon Crown has one eye set in it, that is the same color as his remaining red eye. Fanon suggests that he set one of his eyes in his crown.

* Dr. Loboto from ''[[Psychonauts]]'' wears goggles that consist of one green lens and one red lens, to highlight how abnormal he is in a world of already-freaky-looking people.

** ''[[Psychonauts]]'' is full of people with mismatched eyes. Bobby Zilch as another one, as well as Coach Oleander and [[Fluffy the Terrible|Linda]].

* Michel from ''[[Pop N Music]]'' has a yellow right eye and blue left eye.

* It's possible to create Orc and Goblin characters with [[Mismatched Eyes]] in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Online''.

* Yuber in ''[[Suikoden III]]'' has one red eye and one silver one. He's also not human.

* Kogasa Tatara in ''[[Touhou|Undefined Fantastic Object]]'', as a humanoid version of a karakasa (a one-eyed one-legged demonic umbrella) has one red and one eye the same color as her hair and outfit, as an alternative to merely giving her one eye.[[The Woobie|It adds to her]] [[Moe]] [[The Woobie|factors, maybe.]]

* The Iris twins from ''[[Rune Factory]] Frontier'', just like Souseiseki and Suiseiseki, have opposite-color heterochromia.

** He has one normal eye and one chameleon eye.

* In ''[[Deadly Premonition]]'', {{spoiler|Zach}} is eventually revealed to have different-colored eyes, his left eye having been damaged in a childhood trauma.

* The main character in ''[[Homura]]'' has these in order to symbolise his half-human half-angel blood.

* {{spoiler|The Masked Man}} of ''[[Mother 3]]'' is commonly depicted with these, while they're nowhere to be seen ingame. {{spoiler|Even when he takes off his mask.}} It might be because {{spoiler|his eye glowed before he attacked you at Chupichupyoi.}}

* ''[[Puyo Puyo]]'' has Sig, who has one red eye and one blue eye.

* There's a few examples in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]''. The Voermen sisters have blue and green, Mister Ox has grey and amber, and the Malkavian and Nosferatu PCs have blue and brown.

* Vanessa of ''[[Luminous Arc]]'' has one grey/purple eye and one red one, but this doesn't seem to indicate anything beyond being just as loud and noticeable as the rest of her.

* GLaDOS from ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' is almost always given [[Mismatched Eyes]] of various colours when she's [[Moe Anthropomorphism|drawn as a human]], to reflect how her personality cores all have different eye colours.

== Web Comics ==

* Mannick from ''[[Charby the Vampirate]]'' has a red right eye, and grey (blue in some comics) left eye. It doesn't appear to mean anything in particular.

* Topaz from ''[[Monsterful]]''; she has a two shades of the actual gemstone her name refers to, her left eye is light yellow and her right one is sky blue.

* ''[[The Cyantian Chronicles]]'': Syris has one yellow and one blue eye.

* Abel from ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]'' has different-coloured eyes. Then again, as he can [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshift]], he may simply think it looks cool.

** In the case of Ash's daughter Faen, the dual personality [[Innocent Blue Eyes|Blue]] = Innocent / [[Purple Eyes|Purple]] = Mysterious or [[Badass]] [http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=274 fits].

* Kade from ''[[Eerie Cuties]]'' has a yellow/gold left eye and a blue right eye. Of course, he ''is'' a [[Our Werebeasts Are Different|Werecat]]...

* Vladic from ''[[Emergency Exit]]''. This could be normal for his species for all we know...we've never seen both eyes of the only other Merf character.

* Prism from ''[[Flaky Pastry]]'' has one violet eye and one cyan eye.

* ''[[Homestuck]]'': Sollux has [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003971 one eye that's completely red and one that's completely blue], thus making him an example of both [[Mismatched Eyes]] and [[Monochromatic Eyes]]. However, this wasn't immediately obvious because he wears a pair of [[Cool Shades|red-and-blue 3D glasses]] almost all the time. This duality is symbolic of his bipolar disorder. {{spoiler|It continues after he [[Only Mostly Dead|"half-dies"]] (he's got two dreamselves): he gets one [[Blank White Eyes|white eye]] (from his dead self in the dream bubbles) and [[Black Eyes of Evil|one black eye]] for his blinded realself. The "half-alive" Sollux with Aradia has the same eyes but reversed.}}

* Aria, from ''[[In Wily's Defense]]'' and ''[[Fetch Quest Saga of the Twelve Artifacts]]'', has one purple and one red eye. It's more apparent in the latter work.

* The title character of ''[http://kokiro.comicgenesis.com/ Kokiro]'' has heterochromia ''and wings''.

* Maureen from ''[[A Modest Destiny]]''. {{spoiler|She hides her blue eye because blue eyes are considered evil. It disappeared though when she had her baby.}}

* [[Perky Female Minion|Tsukiko]] from ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' has one dark blue eye and one light blue eye. This represents her status as a [[The Red Mage|Mystic Theurge]] who can cast both divine and arcane spells. The magic that emanates from each of her hands is the same color as the eye on the opposite side, and [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0516.html when she casts Dominate Person], [[Mind Control Eyes|the victim gains her heterochromia as well]]. She's also from [[Wutai|a country built on East Asian stereotypes]], so it's possible that the trope's presence in anime was a factor in character design (and her otherwise East Asian coloring makes the mismatched blue eyes particularly striking).

** Oddly enough, though, these clearly mismatched eyes weren't present in her appearances prior to that guest comic. Possible case of [[Ascended Fanon]]?

* Wally in ''[[Zebra Girl]]''. One reason for this may be pragmatic -- it makes him much easier to tell from the other wolves when shifted.

* Kimiko of ''[[Dresden Codak]]'' has one brown natural eye and one blue mechanical eye as of the "Dark Science" arc, though originally her natural eye color was blue and thus the synthetic one matched when it originally showed up. Aaron Diaz retconned it so the synthetic one would stand out more.

* Feral from [[Strays]]. His green eye is natural,the red one was caused by something else. Feral, being mute, can't tell us what.

* This is actually a very common condition in real life. One can be born with it, or one iris may change color as a result of trauma to the eye. Though in the former case, it's more common for the "odd" iris to be only ''partially'' a different color.

* [[Alexander the Great]] had heterochromia; one eye was very light blue, the other very dark brown, according to Plutarch.

* MLB pitcher Max Scherzer (currently with the Detroit Tigers) has one blue eye and one brown eye.

* Silent film star Colleen Moore had one blue eye and one brown eye, though with the film stock available at the time, it wasn't very noticeable.

* One blue eye and one brown eye is a frequent (and for many, defining) characteristic of Catahoula Leopard Dogs. Their ancestry is something of a mixed bag.

** Same for Turkish Van cats.

* Mixed Martial Artist Jens "Lil' Evil" Pulver has one blue eye and one green eye.

* Artificial heterochromia can result from certain cancer treatments, though this effect is usually temporary.

** It can also result from an overly scarred cornea, causing the light to refract differently in the affected eye. If there is only one part of the eye that is scarred, that part is affected. If the whole cornea is scarred, the whole iris is a different color.

* Twins tend to be born with heterochromia.

* [[Shaun of the Dead|Simon]] [[Hot Fuzz|Pegg]] has sectoral heterchromia, with one blue eye and one blue-and-brown eye.