Marsh and Kell’s hair

[Kingsdaughter613]

So this has been bugging me. Kell and Marsh are said to have blond hair. Blond hair ranges from a reddish- yellow to white. It typically grows lighter when exposed to sunlight.

But Pre-Catascande Scadrial has a red sun or, more accurately, has a ferromagnetic cloud that filters out some green wavelengths causing the sun to appear red. (I’m assuming some green gets through as the cloud isn’t consistent.)

Which is a problem, because under a red light yellow looks red. (Green should also appear black outdoors, but would become green when exposed to candlelight.) So Marsh and Kell should look like redheads outside, and blond inside.

But they seem to be blond all the time, which makes me wonder if they are actually blond according to how we use the term. If they had hair that was closer to red, then the transition wouldn’t be so obvious. 
 

This doesn’t explain the issues with Green, or how Elend could have any sort of white suit... (White objects reflect all colors, and change color depending on the frequency of the light. If there is no Green light, then that suit should not have appeared white.)

Thoughts?

[GoWibble]

People adapted, and started using the inside colors to dictate what the colors were. Either that, or the new colors are different to make up for the red light... but I don't think that works. Hunh. Good Question!

[Pathfinder]

So I do not know enough about light's interactions with the atmosphere to know if this would be applicable or not, but when you wear blue lenses over your eyes for instance long enough, your brain adjusts, and you end up seeing things in normal color. When you remove the glasses, then everything gets this tint till your eyes adjust again. 

[king of nowhere]

i also doubt the filter was 100% effective. even if it was, there are several effects of absorption/desorption of light that effectively increase its wavelenght. so, there would be some red light regardless. and the brain adapts, as others have mentioned.

[Kingsdaughter613]

16 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

i also doubt the filter was 100% effective. even if it was, there are several effects of absorption/desorption of light that effectively increase its wavelenght. so, there would be some red light regardless. and the brain adapts, as others have mentioned.

It’s green light that’s filtered. And the brain only ‘adapts’ if it knows what the actual colors are. If you have different colors at different times it will be noticeable. A more extreme version is a rare form of ocular blindness, where the brain is convinced it can ‘see.’ (No, it can’t.)
 

There’s also the fact that blond hair, as we know it, shouldn’t really exist. When blond hair doesn’t receive enough light, it darkens. So ‘blond’ hair pre-Catascande could have actually been light red to dark strawberry blond, and light brown to dark dirty blond.
 

I headcannon Kell and Marsh as actually having Cinderella’s original movie hair, which many mistakenly believe is blond. (Disney does not help matters.) This doesn’t change that much when switching environs and allows Vin to describe Alriane as blond and yellow haired.

It also explains brown plants; they actually are somewhat green, but appear brown due to the lack of green wavelengths. Which is a much simpler explanation than the complete destruction of chlorophyll.

It still doesn’t explain how ‘White’ clothing can exist outdoors... the fact that it’s a pale gray might though.

[king of nowhere]

13 minutes ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

It’s green light that’s filtered. And the brain only ‘adapts’ if it knows what the actual colors are. If you have different colors at different times it will be noticeable. A more extreme version is a rare form of ocular blindness, where the brain is convinced it can ‘see.’ (No, it can’t.)

still, blue light can become green light by absorption/emission dinamics, so there should be enough green light to see at least some effect.

not to mention the receptors for green light (but also for other colors) have a pretty broad absorption range, they can get some stimulation over many wavelenghts. so, the brain can still tell some color difference, even if it won't see exactly as we do. which brings me to the next point

Quote

 

I headcannon Kell and Marsh as actually having Cinderella’s original movie hair, which many mistakenly believe is blond. (Disney does not help matters.) This doesn’t change that much when switching environs and allows Vin to describe Alriane as blond and yellow haired.

It also explains brown plants; they actually are somewhat green, but appear brown due to the lack of green wavelengths. Which is a much simpler explanation than the complete destruction of chlorophyll.

It still doesn’t explain how ‘White’ clothing can exist outdoors... the fact that it’s a pale gray might though.

 

people of scadrial has no frame of reference. no comparison with our experience. no concept of our colors.

they have known their world, their colors, all their lives. they adapted to those, and they gave them names.

just like in roshar they talk about summer or winter even though they don't have seasons in our traditional sense, or they have a concept of hounds that's very different from our. just like elend uniform was really gray, but it still stood out against the much darker background and they called it white because it's the best approximation they could get.

so, probably kelsier's hair weren't really all that blonde, but they were noticeably lighter than everyone else's, so they called him blond, as they've never saw a real blond guy.

[Bigmikey357]

Scadrians would probably freak out if they saw an Iriali. Or an Earth Scandinavian. 

[Kingsdaughter613]

9 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

still, blue light can become green light by absorption/emission dinamics, so there should be enough green light to see at least some effect.

not to mention the receptors for green light (but also for other colors) have a pretty broad absorption range, they can get some stimulation over many wavelenghts. so, the brain can still tell some color difference, even if it won't see exactly as we do. which brings me to the next point

people of scadrial has no frame of reference. no comparison with our experience. no concept of our colors.

they have known their world, their colors, all their lives. they adapted to those, and they gave them names.

just like in roshar they talk about summer or winter even though they don't have seasons in our traditional sense, or they have a concept of hounds that's very different from our. just like elend uniform was really gray, but it still stood out against the much darker background and they called it white because it's the best approximation they could get.

so, probably kelsier's hair weren't really all that blonde, but they were noticeably lighter than everyone else's, so they called him blond, as they've never saw a real blond guy.

I did say that some green light must get through, since the ferromagnetic cloud isn’t perfect. 
 

It seems you agree with my headcannon that pre-Catascande ‘blond’ wasn’t actually what we call blond. My theory is that it is a similar shade to Cinderella’s below, which is not actually yellow (it’s a pale red) but is often mistaken as such.