Blue Eyes

[Cap'n Sofa]

Why do so many video game protagonists have blue eyes? Mario, Luigi, Kirby, Link, Cloud, Cecil (FFIV), Peach, Zelda, Roy, Eliwood (FE7), Ike, Marth...the list goes on.

Anyway, why do they always give the protagonist blue eyes?

 

[see ya]

Blue eyes are typically associated with youth, and by extension, innocence and inherent goodness, especially the "soft, bright" blue kind like, say, Mario has. It's basically shorthand for "this is the good guy", and it goes waaaaay back and covers much more than just video games (for example, both Superman and Captain America are blue-eyed.)

Of course, this is exactly the same reason why a lot of villains or other not-so-good characters have blue eyes, too, as it's very commonly subverted trope. But they're ususally described as "steely" or "cold", rather than the hero's "bright" and "innocent".

 

[Minish]

Also, most of these characters were designed in Japan, where blue eyes are seen as a very exotic, fantasy-like trait to see. Final Fantasy and Zelda in particular have kind of western medieval overtones, so...

 

[Tailsy]

Blue is pretty!

Green eyes are quite common in fictional characters, too! 'Cause they're so rare and stuff.

 

[fresh fruit for Adol]

Pretty much everything said in this topic, and a bit more;

I don't know too much on it, but I've noticed in recent years that specific eye colors tend to be given with a particular hair color.

Notice that in almost any game or anime, if a character has red hair, they're most likely going to have purple eyes, like Adol Christin, in Falcom's Ys series. And most of the time, you'll see blue hair paired with green eyes, like the protagonists for the first three Star Ocean games, Ratix Farrence, Rena Lanford, Fayt Leingod, and Maria Traydor, and Star Ocean 4's Meracle.

Every now and then you'll have some character break that age old mold though, and you'll get someone like Ragna the Bro-Edge in BlazBlue, who as a chillun', has white hair, and has heterochromia, having one of his green eyes turn red after Rachel gave him some of her blood (He used to be blonde with green eyes, but that changed 'cuz of story events that I shan't mention here >.>)

 

[Shiny Grimer]

Can anyone think of some characters with brown eyes?

I think the generic Pokemon trainer character you choose in the Pokemon games has brown eyes.

 

[ultraviolet]

Peter Parker, Ash Ketchum, Ginny Weasley?

 

[fresh fruit for Adol]

Can anyone think of some characters with brown eyes?

I think the generic Pokemon trainer character you choose in the Pokemon games has brown eyes.

Nearly everyone in the Sakura Wars series~

Akechi Samanosuke in Onimusha Warlords, Blade Warriors, 3, and Dawn of Dreams, and Jacques Blanc in Onimusha 3~

Karin Koenig in Shadow Hearts 2, Judith in Tales of Vesperia, and I believe Tytree and Hilda, from Tales of Rebirth both have brown eyes.

There are more characters out there with brown eyes than one would think~

 

[Shiny Grimer]

To tell you the truth my gaming library is pretty limited. :P I know that a lot of the Sonic and Sega characters have light-colored eyes (Sonic, Tails, Billy Hatcher) and pretty much most Nintendo heroes have light eyes, usually blue but blue-green and green show up, too (Mario, Pit, Samus, Fox, Link, and then important non-heroes like Luigi, Peach, etc.).

Peter Parker, Ash Ketchum, Ginny Weasley?

I meant video game characters. :P

 

[fresh fruit for Adol]

To tell you the truth my gaming library is pretty limited. :P I know that a lot of the Sonic and Sega characters have light-colored eyes (Sonic, Tails, Billy Hatcher) and pretty much most Nintendo heroes have light eyes, usually blue but blue-green and green show up, too (Mario, Pit, Samus, Fox, Link, and then important non-heroes like Luigi, Peach, etc.).



I meant video game characters. :P

Peter Parker is also technically a video game character...

Okay, well maybe not. But Spiderman is :P