Blue Eyes

[B Rag]

I posted this a while back on .net, but it quickly went off topic and I never got many answers. I hope this is the right section of the site to put this on.

I've noticed that a lot of main protagonists in the DT series and related books have blue eyes. These include Roland, Jake, Jack Sawyer (The Talisman), several members of the Losers club (It), King himself, and some others that I can't remember. Does anyone else think that blue eyes are somehow significant, like a sign that someone is an agent of the White?

[Spencer]

Well, I know the Crimson King damn sure didn't have blue eyes, and can't remember any Agents of the Random that did. Although I'm sure Flagg COULD.

[sarah]

I have also noticed that several charcters have blue eyes. I was thinking that is was King's way of putting a bit of himself into that specific charcter.

Have you done any research on the meaning of blue eyes? I'd be curious to know if or what you've found out.

[B Rag]

Actually, I think Flagg might have had them at some point.. but I doubt it was his natural eye color.

No, I haven't done any research, but it probably would be interesting.

[Hannah]

I've always thought there was something mildly significant about the blue eyes as well. I just have no idea what.

If blue eyes = good guy, then I'm certainly a bad guy with my brown eyes. :evil:

[tamez]

I have no answers
only another example
blue eyed carol gerber from HiA.

[Letti]

Hmmm... I don't know. I have blue eyes so when I read a character has blue eyes I feel nothing. It's natural.
Some people have blue eyes some have brown and some have green.
But it can be a good question. I have never thought about it.

[MonteGss]

I've always thought there was something mildly significant about the blue eyes as well. I just have no idea what.

If blue eyes = good guy, then I'm certainly a bad guy with my brown eyes. :evil:

:lol: I'm evil too then!
Damn! I wanna be an agent of the WHITE.

[Ruki]

i tried looking up stuff about blue eyes but i found nothing having to do with symbolism or mythology, i might have been looking in the wrong places. the only slightly interesting thing i came across is that having blue eyes makes it a bit easier to see in dim light.

[ZoNeSeeK]

I don't know if this is pertinent to King's books but its interesting none the less:



If the Census Bureau has it right, the 300 millionth American entered the United States kicking and screaming this morning. The odds are that this milestone American is a boy, born to a white family in a California suburb. He will have a 1-in-4 shot of graduating from college, will probably marry, father two children, struggle with his weight, and live to see his 85th birthday.

What he will probably not have -- that his grandfather likely did -- is a pair of blue eyes.

Once a hallmark of the boy and girl next door, blue eyes have become increasingly rare among American children. Immigration patterns, intermarriage, and genetics all play a part in their steady decline. While the drop-off has been a century in the making, the plunge in the past few decades has taken place at a remarkable rate.

About half of Americans born at the turn of the 20th century had blue eyes, according to a 2002 Loyola University study in Chicago. By mid-century that number had dropped to a third. Today only about one 1 of every 6 Americans has blue eyes, said Mark Grant, the epidemiologist who conducted the study...


Ive got green eyes and diem has blue eyes, we should spawn a mini-race of colourist children!

[Matt]

Wow, what a cool thread. :D

I have noticed a lot of people in King books have blue eyes as well. I always wrote it off to the fact that its the most exciting eye color to most folks.

[Letti]

Wow, what a cool thread. :D

I have noticed a lot of people in King books have blue eyes as well. I always wrote it off to the fact that its the most exciting eye color to most folks.

But why the blue hell?

[Matt]

Blue hell?

Did I miss something? :lol:

[Jean]

Blue hell. Blue around the gills. Blue bird and Blue Beard, blue in the face, Where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

The blue-eyed poems are countless; it's even worse in French where they rhyme bleu (blue) with deux (two) and about 25% of all other words existing in French.

Closer to the topic, I remember something from genetics - the blue eyes being a [here comes a scientific term I don't know in English], thus dying out, becoming more and more rare, being supplanted by brown eyes... thus, sign of resistant ancient blood, surviving nobility.

[Matt]

I like that :D

I have a pretty shade of hazel but always wondered what it would be like to have those cool blue eyes.

[Jean]

I like that :D

I have a pretty shade of hazel but always wondered what it would be like to have those cool blue eyes.
I never even did. I know my place. My swampy green is traditionally reserved for minor villains, the ones who don't even have such a redeeming feature as the magnitude of their vices. "Pretty shade of hazel" is at least what Eddie had!

[Matt]

If I am on Eddies level, then I am considering myself good to go.

[Fall of Gilead]

*hoards his blue eyes* :pirate:

[Rjeso]

For the record, ew. :P

[Erin]

I don't know if this is pertinent to King's books but its interesting none the less:



If the Census Bureau has it right, the 300 millionth American entered the United States kicking and screaming this morning. The odds are that this milestone American is a boy, born to a white family in a California suburb. He will have a 1-in-4 shot of graduating from college, will probably marry, father two children, struggle with his weight, and live to see his 85th birthday.

What he will probably not have -- that his grandfather likely did -- is a pair of blue eyes.

Once a hallmark of the boy and girl next door, blue eyes have become increasingly rare among American children. Immigration patterns, intermarriage, and genetics all play a part in their steady decline. While the drop-off has been a century in the making, the plunge in the past few decades has taken place at a remarkable rate.

About half of Americans born at the turn of the 20th century had blue eyes, according to a 2002 Loyola University study in Chicago. By mid-century that number had dropped to a third. Today only about one 1 of every 6 Americans has blue eyes, said Mark Grant, the epidemiologist who conducted the study...


Ive got green eyes and diem has blue eyes, we should spawn a mini-race of colourist children!

That was a really interesting article! I have light blue eyes myself and have always loved them. Now that they're becoming more and more rare, I like them even more. :D

[Bethany]

Genetically speaking, blue eyes and hazel eyes are the same. Just thought I'd throw that in since I've spent the past 15 years explaining to people how two hazels produced three pairs of startlingly blue eyes.

[ZoNeSeeK]

Yeah they ar, hazel and green eyes are actually blue eyes underneath with alot of flecks of yellow over the top. My eyes are "cesspool green" as diem says, so theyre kinda khaki or something, but looking close they are actually blue with lots of specks over the top. Weird, eh :)

[Bethany]

Now these are blue eyes:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/88/244227544_1c2e23f575.jpg

[ZoNeSeeK]

BETHANYS ARYAN ARMY!

[sarajean]

BETHANYS ARYAN ARMY!

/me has one, too.

3 blonde haired, blue eyed boys came from 2 green eyed parents.

[Bethany]

BETHANYS ARYAN ARMY!

/me has one, too.

3 blonde haired, blue eyed boys came from 2 green eyed parents.

And think of the dynasty we could create between us.

[sarajean]

you've already got drake.

what else do you want, woman?

[Bethany]

Dorian. Duh. :P

[sarajean]

sorry, hannah and i are trading dorian for claire.

you wanted drake for annabeth.

[Hannah]

I might have a boy though, and then Dorian is up for grabs again.

:P

[sarajean]

is there something you're not telling me?

[Hannah]

I find out on 6/6/07. i will text you promptly after i find out. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

(Oh, and we changed the name too...)

[Matt]

I'd say if Aaron can't but a stem on that apple for you...well, that's wrong as fuck. :lol:

[Bethany]

:cry: Poor, poor Emmy. No sj boy for her.

[Hannah]

Don't you have some hope, Bethany?

Is everyone so sure I'm having a girl, then? :scared:

[Bethany]

Not me. I know nothing these days.

[The_Nameless]

I am starting to think my family is a bunch of freaks, or something like that.

My entire imediate family has blue eyes (of varying shades), and most of the family outside of my immediate also has blue eyes.

I, myself, have light blue eyes. I have had them my entire life, so I do not see a big deal with blue eyes. I had no idea they were becoming increasingly rare, either.

Having blue eyes, I don't see any difference in my alliegence to good or evil, haha. I have often wondered why so many stories and thelikes have used blue eyed characters so often. I have never been able to find any mythology or strange beliefs on blue eyes, so my curiousity continues to grow when I read more and more about the blue-eyed character being the main.
Although, I found this:

"Blue eyes came with time, through millennia of environment adaptation to colder climates. See History of eye colors.

Blue eyes contain low amounts of melanin within the iris stroma; longer wavelengths of light tend to be absorbed by the underlying iris pigment epithelium and shorter wavelengths are reflected and undergo Rayleigh scattering.[5] The type of melanin present is eumelanin.[19] The inheritance pattern followed by blue eyes is thought to be similar to that of a recessive trait.[7]

Blue eyes are relatively common throughout Europe and other areas with populations of European descent, such as Canada, the United States, Australia and some countries of South America, like Argentina, Uruguay or Brazil. Throughout the rest of the world they are relatively rare. Around 8% of the world's population has blue eyes.

Finland and Lithuania have the highest proportions of blue-eyed people; they are also very common in other countries around the Baltic Sea.[citation needed] One survey estimated that nearly 90% of Icelanders have blue or green eyes.[42] A 2002 study found the prevalence of blue eye color among non-Hispanic whites in the United States to be 33.8% for those born between 1936 and 1951 compared to 57.4% for those born between 1899 and 1905[7].

As melanin production generally increases during the first few years of life, the blue eyes of some babies may darken as they get older."

...but that really has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

I am interested to see if I can find anything of more significance to the thread.

Personally, I always thought green eyes were better looking than blue.

[sarajean]

/me has very green eyes...hannah, b and maerlyn can vouch.

[B Rag]

...but that really has nothing to do with the topic at hand.


That's okay, hardly anything in the thread has to do with the topic at hand.
:pullhair: :P

[Bethany]

According to wiki, my eyes are not hazel since that term is more often used to describe eyes that are kind of murky brown. Live and learn.

[Jean]

I, myself, have light blue eyes.
you should post that picture, from your TDT.net avatar. It is amazing, I can't remember ever seeing eyes so blue.

[ZoNeSeeK]

Bethany: yeah, hazel eyes are different from green eyes - they have brown outer irises and greenish hued inner irises, whereas green eyes are uniform. All variants of brown and blue are usually caused by an additional material in the eye which is controlled by seperate eye genetics to base colour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_colour

[LadyGan]

I noticed in the comic that Steven and Gabrielle both had brown eyes. Roland ended up with blue eyes.

I guess it's because Sai King wrote himself into the story as Roland. That's the impression I got anyway.

I'm not sure if eye color determines alliance though.

Didn't Odin have blue eye(s)?

[ZoNeSeeK]

two brown eyed parents can have a blue eyed child, if both parents base gene is Bb x Bb = 25% chance of bb (blue), 75% chance of BB or Bb (brown)

[Bethany]

My personal thoughts on the original question are that since blue eyes and blonde hair are so rare throughout the world some special siginifigance has been bestowed upon these traits.

[B Rag]

How can I have forgotten - Mordred has blue eyes! I guess that craps all over the idea of it being a Red/White thing.

[Bethany]

But you forget who his daddy is BRag. I think some Roland genes would be very hard to overcome.

[B Rag]

He certainly isn't an agent of the White, though.

[The_Nameless]

...but that really has nothing to do with the topic at hand.


That's okay, hardly anything in the thread has to do with the topic at hand.
:pullhair: :P

Pheeww..

And here I was thinking I threw everything off-kilter.


you should post that picture, from your TDT.net avatar. It is amazing, I can't remember ever seeing eyes so blue.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v631/istabboxes/danieleyes.jpg


Didn't Odin have blue eye(s)?
Yes, yes he does.

[B Rag]

Oh, I didn't realize that was you. Good to see you here.

[MonteGss]

I didn't know that was you either!

We totally should have people tell if they have/had other online aliases in the Intro thread. I feel so lost. :( I suppose it might help though if I knew/remembered people's real first names.

You do have Blue eyes!

[VolsToTheWall]

I noticed in the comic that Steven and Gabrielle both had brown eyes. Roland ended up with blue eyes.


An inconsistency then, because in W&G Steven's eyes were described as "furious blue eyes".

[Aaron]

The only place that I have seen that gives a great deal of significance on blue eyes is in Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga in which the main character, Jason Worthing, is a telepathic who has striking blue eyes and then breeds a race of telepathics who all have those same blue eyes. It is used as a marker for them throughout the book.

I don't know that they necessarily refer to an alliance in the DT series, but I certainly would say that they coincide with great strength.

[She-Oy]

This is my opinion ONLY, but blue eyes tend to stand out more, some are even described as "piercing" (for the record I've never heard of brown eyes being "piercing")...so they do tend to stand out as a descriptive trait, especially when attempting to create a mental image of how a character should look.

And they do seem to reflect some sort of innocence because most white babies are born with blue eyes only to have them change within the first couple of months.

That being said, I too have blue eyes, but I'm attracted to green eyes (green is more exotic to me)

[B Rag]

I believe it said that Tick Tock Man's green eyes were "piercing".

[ZoNeSeeK]

Also, remember The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham - all of the psychic children were fair skinned with blue eyes.

*winks at Daghain with a green eye* I agree with what you've said, that blue eyes are probably more of a visual literary icon if nothing else.

[Daghain]

Mine run from hazel to green. Depends a lot on what color I'm wearing.

And Jean, I believe the word you're looking for is recessive. If I remember my 8th grade science correctly, blue eyes are a recessive gene, which makes them less likely to occur, especially if neither parent has blue eyes.

[Jean]

exactly!

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/Thankyou-1.gif

[Letti]

I am in love with brown eyes so I am not much into blue ones. *shrug*

[Matt]

Mine are a deep hazel that seem to get greener depending on what I am wearing. Dora always buys me dark green shirts because she loves it so much. :blush:

[Daghain]

DBF's eyes are a medium blue, but if you put him in a navy shirt, they look like sapphire, almost. Really dark and brilliant. (Don't tell him I said that, he'll get a big head LOL).

[ZoNeSeeK]

Mine run from hazel to green. Depends a lot on what color I'm wearing.

And Jean, I believe the word you're looking for is recessive. If I remember my 8th grade science correctly, blue eyes are a recessive gene, which makes them less likely to occur, especially if neither parent has blue eyes.

Like i mentioned in my little genetics lesson earlier in the thread, brown eyes dominate over blue eyes - a person needs two blue eyes genes to physically show blue eyes, whereas for brown eyes you can either have two brown eye genes or one brown eye and one blue eye gene - both will have a brown eye phenotype.

[Matt]

"one brown eye" :lol:

I am so immature.

[Daghain]

You won't get an argument out of me. :rofl:

[Letti]

Mine run from hazel to green. Depends a lot on what color I'm wearing.

And Jean, I believe the word you're looking for is recessive. If I remember my 8th grade science correctly, blue eyes are a recessive gene, which makes them less likely to occur, especially if neither parent has blue eyes.

Like i mentioned in my little genetics lesson earlier in the thread, brown eyes dominate over blue eyes - a person needs two blue eyes genes to physically show blue eyes, whereas for brown eyes you can either have two brown eye genes or one brown eye and one blue eye gene - both will have a brown eye phenotype.

Oh I loved learning this stuff at school so much.
I am not crazy about my blue eyes I mean I do prefer brown ones as I have mentioned it before as well but when my biology teacher mentioned that one day (far in the future) blue eyes would vanish from this Earth because brown eyes dominated... I felt unique for some minutes.
I felt as if I was a unique survivor. But it took only some moments. :lol:

[B Rag]

Oh I loved learning this stuff at school so much.


Me too, it was about the only thing in Biology that I understood.

[ZoNeSeeK]

Wikipedia has some good info on eye colour genetics.

[Samanthita]

First, I can not even describe my eye color. They are sometimes blue, green, brown, grey, but usually a mix of 2 or 3 of those. I have no idea. I'd like to know what genetics went into that. I usually just call them green to keep from confusing people.

Someone showed me this artice a few weeks ago. I found it interesting. I doubt it has anything to do with why the series has so many blue-eyes people, but it seems like it could work.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22934464/

[Wuducynn]

First, I can not even describe my eye color. They are sometimes blue, green, brown, grey, but usually a mix of 2 or 3 of those. I have no idea. I'd like to know what genetics went into that. I usually just call them green to keep from confusing people.

Someone showed me this artice a few weeks ago. I found it interesting. I doubt it has anything to do with why the series has so many blue-eyes people, but it seems like it could work.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22934464/

I hear ya sister. Mine are both blue and green. Depending on what I'm wearing they look like they are one or the other.

[LadyHitchhiker]

Antonius from Spartacus.. the original one played by Tony Curtis...
Dr. Leonard McCoy played by DeForrest Kelley on the original Star Trek.

Yuuummm..

[LadyHitchhiker]

Oh and for you boys

Dana Scully played by Gillian Anderson on the X-files

They had blue but if you want to talk about green (my personal favorite)

we're gonna talk about

FOX MULDER - DAVID DUCHOVNY FROM THE X-FILES

[jayson]

I hear ya sister. Mine are both blue and green. Depending on what I'm wearing they look like they are one or the other.

just one more thing we have in common matthew. mine do the same thing. they default to a pale blue, but if i wear green they are green with a little blue, if i wear blue they are blue with a little green. it's a neat trick.

[Storyslinger]

I hear ya sister. Mine are both blue and green. Depending on what I'm wearing they look like they are one or the other.

just one more thing we have in common matthew. mine do the same thing. they default to a pale blue, but if i wear green they are green with a little blue, if i wear blue they are blue with a little green. it's a neat trick.

I'll join that club, green to blue, and even gray depending on the cloths and weather.

[JQ The Gunslinger]

Blue eyes=heroes

Me=hero

lol jk

[theBeamisHome]

did anyone see 10,000 BC? the blue eyed girl was an omen of sorts.. the persians (?) called her a witch.. i'm imagining because of her eye color. i've always been attracted to dark eyes, but dark hair with blue eyes is so hypnotizing. i have really dark brown eyes that are almost black. maybe that means i'm evil :evil:

[theBeamisHome]

did anyone see 10,000 BC? the blue eyed girl was an omen of sorts.. the persians (?) called her a witch.. i'm imagining because of her eye color. i've always been attracted to dark eyes, but dark hair with blue eyes is so hypnotizing. i have really dark brown eyes that are almost black. maybe that means i'm evil :evil:

[jayson]

did anyone see 10,000 BC? the blue eyed girl was an omen of sorts.. the persians (?) called her a witch.. i'm imagining because of her eye color. i've always been attracted to dark eyes, but dark hair with blue eyes is so hypnotizing. i have really dark brown eyes that are almost black. maybe that means i'm evil :evil:

not to get off track here, but there were Persians in "10,000 BC"? I never saw the film. I knew it was wildly inaccurate historically, but Persians in 10,000 BC? That's at least 5,000 years off, if not more. Interesting.

Also, back on topic... I haven't been in this thread since before Ella was born so for the record, she has blue eyes too. Big adorable ones. :)

[theBeamisHome]

yeah idk... they might not have been Persians. they didn't really give any of the people a classification or anything. they were building pyramids tho (Egyptians in 10,000 BC?).... honestly the movie was waaayyy of historically on lots of things i think... but they had a leader they worshiped as a god like in 300 so i just generalized :lol:
i'll start a thread on the movie although i'm sure it won't get much play..

[Candice Dionysus]

If blue eyes are a sign that you're an agent of the White, then what I've been saying for ages must be true. My name means white, in an ancient language, and my eyes are blue. How much more an "agent of the White" can I get?

[Jean]

and your favorite flowers are white!

[Candice Dionysus]

There is that, too, Jean. Thank you for bringing that up. :huglove:

[LadyHitchhiker]

Well I have green eyes... what does that mean?

[B Rag]

Based on what we know about Tick Tock Man, I'd say it means you're badass!

[Letti]

It means you should take a close photo of them and send it to us.
Anyway I agree with B Rag.

[alinda]

I most sincerly would have been hung as a witch
and its not just because I have dark hair, and blue eyes! ;)

[Hannah]

did anyone see 10,000 BC? the blue eyed girl was an omen of sorts.. the persians (?) called her a witch.. i'm imagining because of her eye color. i've always been attracted to dark eyes, but dark hair with blue eyes is so hypnotizing. i have really dark brown eyes that are almost black. maybe that means i'm evil :evil:

That movie was awful. But the girl was so pretty, with her dark hair and blue eyes.

I have light brown eyes. Paris's eyes are even lighter, a honey color. Aaron's eyes are green-blue-gray. And Jack's eyes are blue. We're a weird family with all different colored eyes.

[Matt]

Lily has the most amazing blue eyes I have ever seen. :wub: