Undeathly Pallor: Difference between revisions

[[File:PaleCorpseBride_2934PaleCorpseBride 2934.jpg|link=Corpse Bride (Animation)|frame|Can ''you'' guess which of these two characters is dead? Check the film section for the answer!]]

In fiction, if you run into someone who looks like a corpse it's not that they're sick, it's that they're ''[[Not a Zombie|dead.]]''

A living character who is just pale is usually a perfectly mundane case of an [[Eerie Pale -Skinned Brunette]], who [[Never Heard That One Before|has heard all the jokes]] about waking up on the wrong side of the coffin. There may be some [[Unfortunate Implications]] here though, since in fiction there's a [[Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance|strong correlation]] between being pale and [[Transhuman Treachery|going over]] to [[The Dark Side]]. In addition living characters who come into contact with the dead, undead, or infernal may have a [[Palette Swap|change of color]] and become [[Hades Shaded]]. This is the case with necromancers, infernalists, those under ghostly [[Demonic Possession]], [[Virus Victim Symptoms|someone bitten]] by zombies or a vampire, or [[The Renfield]] who has fed on [[The Power of Blood|vampire blood.]] It doesn't stop there either, centuries of sunless existence may turn the character into an [[Evil Albino]].

[[Truth in Television]], as once you die, the blood moves due to gravity to the lower parts of your body (if you are lying on your back, then it pools there). It's called Postpost-mortem lividity. So if your skin looks drained of blood, it's because it is.

See also [[Stringy -Haired Ghost Girl]].

----

{{examples|Examples:}}

* Sid from ''[[Soul Eater (Manga)|Soul Eater]]'' is a zombie ''gym teacher.'' He once had normal colored skin, but after dying he became blue... Literally.

* ''[[Corpse Bride (Animation)|Corpse Bride]]'' provides the page image here. In this case, however, it's subverted as the living are [[Deliberately Monochrome|colorless]] while the dead [[Dark Is Not Evil|have much brighter colors]].

* The Morlocks in ''[[The Time Machine]]'' have a similar reason for their pallor.

* ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'' plays this trope straight with caucasian vampires, but Laurent presents an odd contrast. He's not at all pale in the first movie, but was washed out and greyish though, at least in the second film.

* Variation in the ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' series. The actual Dead aren't noted to be pale (since most of them that actually have phyiscal bodies are too badly decayed to tell) but [[Necromancer|Necromancers]]s (as well as Abhorsens, who practice necromancy to destroy, rather than create or control, the undead) are described as noticeably paler than those who don't practice that art. So it's pallor from associating with death and the undead, rather than from ''being'' dead yourself.

* In ''[[Warbreaker]]'', when a [[Our Zombies Are Different|Lifeless]] is created, all color is bleached from their body as a side-effect of the magic (which uses color as a sort of trigger). The resulting creatures look exactly like they did in life, except that they are pale grey all over.

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' the Forsaken have skin in various shades of grey, green and blue. Death Knights also tend to be paler then a living character with the same setting of skin shade. They also have access to a several different skin tones not available to living players, mostly in greens and greys. Though some of them are a bit odd - blood elves apparently decay into charcoal.

* Lydia Deetz on [[BeetleBeetlejuice Juice(animation)|''Beetlejuice'']] is rather pale-skinned.

'''Answer:''' You actually checked? Wow, okay. {{spoiler|It's [[Corpse Bride (Animation)|Emily]], the girl on the right with the boney arms.}}