White-Haired Pretty Boy: Difference between revisions

For some reason, this trope applies much more strongly in shows with predominantly male audiences than in something like [[Shojo]], where the character will still tend to be aloof, shy, or outright eerie.

 

 

Commonly prone to [[Minor Injury Overreaction]]. Compare with [[Blond Guys Are Evil]] and [[Evil Albino]], which are more western alternatives of this trope. Compare and contrast with the [[Distaff Counterpart]], the [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]], who is less likely to be evil and more likely to be magical.

 

 

{{examples}}

== Played straight ==

* Siegfried from ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'' has long white hair.

* Ayanami in ''[[07-Ghost]]''.

* The silver-haired [[Warrior Prince|Hegemon Klaus Ingvalt]], who was introduced in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid]]''. He served as [[The Rival]], [[Dating Catwoman|and likely something more]], to [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Sankt Kaiser Olivie]] during the warring era of Ancient Belka.

* Eagle Vision from ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]''; he isn't technically ''evil'', but still a villain—he is the head of one of the three groups invading Cephiro.

** Also, Negi, when using [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Magia Erebea]].

* Nagi from ''[[My-HiME]]'' and ''[[Mai-Otome]]''. His creepy speech and mannerisms (and even creepier appearance in the ''Mai-HiME'' manga) should be a [[Lovable Traitor|dead giveaway]] that he's [[Oracular Urchin|not here to]] [[Manipulative Bastard|shower you with compliments]].

* Tomoe from ''[[Kamisama Kiss]].'' He is something of a [[Jerkass]].

 

* ''[[X-Men]]'''s got [[Magneto]] and [[Quicksilver]], though some artists draw Magneto to look his age. (He's not supposed to, having been reduced to infancy at one point and later returned to his prime). This is likely because of [[Marvel]]'s [[Comic Book Time|sliding timescale]]—he was first introduced in 1963, less than twenty years after the Holocaust ended. To maintain his backstory as a survivor of Auschwitz, some aging is inevitable.

* A [[Very Special Episode|Very Special]] issue of ''[[Spider-Man]]'' featured Skip, a white-haired pretty boy who baby-sat a young Peter Parker. And molested him.

* ''[[The Sandman]]'': the Corinthian is white-haired, gay, and good-looking [[Red Right Hand|when he keeps his sunglasses on]]. He's also a [[Serial Killer]] who likes to [[Picky People Eater|eat eyeballs]] with his own eyeballs. (Also, like [[White-Haired Pretty Girl|Lyta Hall]], he might just be a very pale blond.)

** Also, Lyta's husband, Hector. Though he's arguably got it even worse than she does, since the artists can't even keep his ''age'' straight.

* All of [[The Metabarons]] have long white hair if they have any. For some reason, even the women they bring into the family from other clans also have long white hair.

 

* Josh from Trigger Happy Fanboy's ''Pokemon'' trilogy is one. He didn't start out as a villain, though, and actually aided the protagonists for a while before going his own separate way. While on the light side, he was definitely aloof but my no means antisocial. He even sported a bit of a [[Ship Tease]] with May until the end of the second part, in which a two year timeskip takes place. When he returns, he's revealed to have gone down a [[Sanity Slippage]] and gone [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|drunk with power.]] He's also nigh unbeatable and now sports red eyes. And a [[Badass Longcoat]].

 

* Cade in ''[[Sky Blue]]'' strenuously resists Shua's attempt to bring down Ecoban to help the Diggers, and tries to keep Jay away from him. It's later revealed that he was originally responsible for Shua's exile. {{spoiler|[[Redemption Equals Death|He does get redeemed eventually.]]}}

* Lord Shen, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]'', is an extremely pretty [[Evil Albino|albino]] peacock with a extremely pretty white plumage.

* Silas in ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'', played by Paul Bettany (who seems to be making this trope a big part of his repertoire, and doing it well).

* In ''Harry Potter'' movies, Lucius and Draco Malfoy both fit this trope to a T.

* Angel Face in ''Fight Club'', whose hair is bleached platinum blonde.

* Captain Love in ''[[The Mask of Zorro]]''. He's actually very light blond, but it's as close as you can get to white hair, given the scenario.

* Caius of the Volturi, from ''[[Twilight]]''. Definitely fits this trope.

 

* Though Silas in ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'' is in no way pretty, he otherwise fills this trope (and [[Evil Albino]]) to a T.

* While not pretty, Raistlin Majere of the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' books fits the other characteristics, including becoming a villain.

* Martel in ''[[The Elenium]]'' posesses natural white hair, and is described as having a surprisingly youthful face. He's also a [[Fallen Hero|fallen knight]].

 

* Amir Aboulela as Gar on ''[[The Pretender]]''. He's (perhaps unintentionally) kind of effeminate, and in his short time on the show, he even has a sort of [[Minor Injury Overreaction]].

* The live-action ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'' series gave ''Zoisite'' white hair. Though, while he is still one of the four generals of the Dark Kingdom, he is also {{spoiler|the one to remember his past life and his loyality to Endymion, and the past tragedy; he even goes so far as to briefly team up with Minako to try and keep Usagi and Mamoru separated}}.

* ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'' has the Greeed [[Panthera Awesome|Kazari]] take on a human form, which is that of a White-Haired Pretty Boy. He's the most cunning of the four villainous Greeed, and arguably the most dangerous, [[spoiler: since his plots [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|result in the destruction of two of the others]].

 

* Former AWA commentator and WCW on- and off-screen authority figure Eric Bishoff. Averted in [[Kayfabe]] where his hair is dyed black, but in reality, Eric's natural hair color has been white for almost his entire adult life.

* 16-time world champion Ric Flair.

 

 

* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''

** The Drow are an entire ''race'' of sly, scheming, [[Exclusively Evil]] White-Haired (albeit [[Dark-Skinned Blond|Black Skinned]]) Pretty Boys and Girls. The males in particular tend to be depicted as underhanded, [[Elfeminate|effeminate]] blackguards. One issue of the ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' magazine gave us the drow demideity Keptolo, who is actually the ''God of'' White Haired Pretty Boys.

* [[Jerkass Woobie|Seltyiel]], the iconic [[Magic Knight|magus]] from ''[[Pathfinder]]'', who seems to be [[Anti-Hero|something of]] a [[Captain Ersatz]] of [[Elric of Melnibone|Elric of Melniboné]]. It should be noted that he's the ''[[Token Evil Teammate|only]]'' [[Lawful Evil|canonically evil]] iconic.

 

 

* Commander Khashoggi, the head of the [[Mega Corp|Globalsoft]] [[Secret Police]] in the musical ''We Will Rock You''. An [[Officer and a Gentleman]] with peroxide white hair.

 

* Yuuri from ''[[Silver Chaos 2 Artificial Mermaid]]'', subverted in that he is the hero.

* Arthas from the ''[[Warcraft]] III'' and ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. In ''Warcraft III'', he was initially blond, at which point he was morally clueless, and also pretty clueless in general, but largely seemed to mean well. His hair immediately and abruptly went white shortly after he took up Frostmourne and became a Death Knight, which is also the exact moment at which he progressed from "well-meaning extremist" status to being clearly and unambiguously capital-E Evil.

* {{spoiler|Aizel}} from ''[[Opoona]].'' In his case, he has a bad case of the possessed by the spirit of evil. {{spoiler|His brother, Shalga, has it as well, but he's only a [[Hero with Bad Publicity]].}}

 

* Archer, from ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', who may not be considered a pretty boy, though he is nevertheless handsome in a more rugged manner, but his white hair and cynical anti-hero nature qualify him for this trope...as does his penchant for a [[Bring My Red Jacket|red]] [[Badass Longcoat]]. Further, {{spoiler|his actions and intent, in the Unlimited Blade Works arc, of killing the hero -- his past self -- to end the eternity of fighting and slaughter he lives out}} arguably grant him [[Anti-Villain]] status.

** He counts as this trope, as the term "[[Memetic Mutation|Gar]]" was literally made for him (at 4chan, of course). And accounting for his cumulative actions/motives, he probably fits under the greater majority of the hero ''and'' villain tropes here.

* ''[[Yo-Jin-Bo]]'' has Mon-Mon, though he [[Insistent Terminology|insists it's ''silver'']] and isn't nearly as "pretty" in [[Bishounen|the usual way]]. The enemy ninja Kasumimaru's pale [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|blue]] could also count, and he ''is'' more of the [[Bishounen|traditional variety of pretty]].

 

* Loratio from ''[http://www.eecomics.net Emergency Exit]''. He's not really ''evil'' (he did save the world from a demon), just extremely disagreeable with violent tendencies.

* ''[[Chess Piece]]'', ''[[Chess Piece]]'', oh my God, ''[[Chess Piece]]''. We've got Danny the [[Anti-Hero]]/[[Villain Protagonist]], who, despite being evil, does have quite a large fanbase ([[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]); Vlad, who was a wild man back in the day {{spoiler|and has killed at least once (Phantom)}}; and Phantom, the [[Ax Crazy]] psychopath who has {{spoiler|gone on many a murderous rampages}} and is one of the main villains of the story.

* Razin from ''[[Overlord of Ravenfell]]'' has white hair and is a wannabe [[Evil Overlord]].

 

* Whiteout, a hit man from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', is a frankly beautiful man with long, flowing white hair. He's also a psychotpathic murderer with [[Super Strength]].

* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'', Bakura's first appearance is punctuated by the [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] theme from ''[[The Omen]]''. There's an especially nice flourish when he's asked what his favourite card is, and he accidentally holds up a [[Final Fantasy VII|Sephiroth]] card.

* Zeus in ''[[Thalia's Musings]]'', [[I Am Not My Father|not to be confused with his son Apollo]], a [[Bishonen]] [[Long-Haired Pretty Boy]].

 

* Word Paynn and his son, Moordryd, in ''[[Dragon Booster]]''.

* It's probably a matter of opinion, but ''[[Ben 10]]'''s [[Evil Twin|Albedo]] isn't particularly bishonen, though he is morally dubious enough to build a second Omnitrix against his master's wishes and beat up hordes of [[Knight Templar|Forever Knights]] looking for Ben, complain directly to a cook how much he loathes the Earth food he finds himself compelled to eat, make a laughably dumb attempt to convince Gwen that he is Ben (complete with several instances of "I, Ben Tennyson..."), and try to take Ben's Omnitrix by force. Then again, he doesn't get the white hair until the end of the episode (probably just to look like Ben's opposite), which may indicate an intended reappearance.

* ''[[Black Jack]]'' manages to subvert this with Dr. Kiriko: he has white hair, his skin's fairly pale, but his gaunt face and sickly, hunched-over frame keep him from being too "pretty".

* Ren from ''[[Karin]]'', in something of an inversion.

** He was also originally a brunette, but [[Locked Into Strangeness|his hair turned white]] during a particularly traumatic event in his childhood.

* Keiki from ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]''; as a Kirin, he is literally the physical embodiment of benevolence and kindness. (This may not be a true example, as he may merely be light ''blonde''. All of the other ''kirin''—with one notable exception—are darker shades of blonde.)

* Shinrei of ''[[Samurai Deeper Kyo]]'' starts out as the White-Haired Pretty Boy, but is revealed to have a bad temper (especially when [[Ho Yay|dealing with his brother]]), and eventually goes over to the main character's side.

** Also, the morally ambiguous Migeira in the anime, who has short white hair, heterochromic eyes, and a Kakashi-like facemask. Subverted by preteen ninja Sasuke, who also has white hair.

* Ginko from ''[[Mushishi]]'', although white-haired, is both a nice guy and rather pretty, plus his white hair and green eye do indicate the touch of the supernatural.

* Silver-haired Shi Seiran in ''[[Saiunkoku Monogatari]]'' is a principled and heroic young man.

* Loue the vampire in [[A Witch's Tale]] serves as Liddell's aide for most of the game.

* Joss from ''Dawn's Light'' starts out as the trope played straight, but eventually joins the hero's party and performs a {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}.

* A few of the young male characters in ''[[Infinite Space]]'' has white or silver hair, including the main character, Yuri. However, no matter which side they're on, all of them are actually decent, if not genuinely good, people. Yes, even the seemingly [[Ax Crazy]] Teodoro.

* Angelo from ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]''.

*** And here's [http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=27245275 more] of him in his [[Jerkass]] [[Anti-Hero]] glory

**** Another interesting version of this is Zhamo, arguable the nicest guy in the game. And he's black. There are no white people with white hair in a Sqaure Enix game. This world is coming to an end.

* * Yuuichi Komura from ''[[Hiiro no Kakera]]''. Not only is he one of the [[Five-Man Band]] he is one of the nicer characters in the series.

 

* Although a little ambiguous at first, the Magus from ''[[Gargoyles]]'' is an ultimately heroic example.

 

* [[wikipedia:Julian Assange|Julian Assange]] fits this trope startlingly well. Aside from the most obvious literal part, having white hair, he also shares various aspects of this character type. Various actions of his ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmYSSTbGSR8 saying that anything happening to him would result in the release of further sensitive material], for example) would easily qualify as [[Trickster]] behaviour, and also makes him an [[Anti-Hero]]...at least, to those who think of him as the good guy. To those who see him as a villain, he qualifies as a White-Haired Pretty Boy, anyway, as the trope also encompasses villains. How much more fitting can you get?

* [[Eminem]] had his hair dyed almost platinum blond at one point.