History Main / GoodColorsEvilColors

* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' uses randomly-assigned but vibrantly contrasting color schemes for the two teams competing against one another in the main game. But the three AI-controlled factions in the single-player and PlayerVsEnvironment modes have designated colors: the Octarian army uses a highly saturated purple, [[TheHorde Salmonid]] "ink"[[note]]implied to be a toxic waste with similar properties[[/note]] is always a sickly shade of dark green, and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy "Sanitized" Octarian]] "ink" is a uniquely uneven cyan that is acutually [[spoiler:a cross between [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke a bioweapon and a new primordial soup]], made from the test subjects before you.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' and ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' use randomly-assigned but vibrantly contrasting color schemes for the two Inkling teams competing against one another in the main game; post ''Octo Expansion'', the same applies to player-controlled Octolings as well. But the three AI-controlled factions have designated colors:
** [[EvilCounterpartRace Octarian]] ink is always a highly saturated purple. This also applies to Octolings serving DJ Octavio.
** [[TheHorde Salmonid]] "ink" is always a sickly shade of dark green; it's implied to not be ink as an Inkling or Octoling would use, but toxic waste with similar properties.
** [[BrainwashedAndCrazy "Sanitized" Octarian]] "ink" is a uniquely uneven cyan. [[spoiler: Like the Salmonids, it's implied that it's not ink, but actually a cross between [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke a bioweapon and a new primordial soup]], made from the test subjects before you.]]

** {{Lampshaded}} in ''Literature/YoungJediKnights: Lightsabers''. Jaina Solo, who is a hard sciences geek, decides to take the process of handmaking her first lightsaber UpToEleven by creating her own focusing crystal in a high-pressure chemical reactor. She's taken aback by the resulting red blade: [[AchievementsInIgnorance unbeknownst to her]], [[CanonMarchesOn lore at the time]] stated that the Sith preferred this process (because synthetic crystals have a slight chance of shorting out an opposing lightsaber blade). Also played straight in that Jaina is typically depicted using a blue or purple lightsaber [[ViewersAreMorons to avoid confusing readers]], [[CoversAlwaysLie even on the cover of that same novel]].

** Weirdly {{inverted}} in ''Literature/IJedi'', where a group of dark Jedi use blue lightsabers and the Light side Jedi seem to use any color ''but'' blue. Part of that might be an example of [[CharacterizationMarchesOn continuity marching on]]: until ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', the idea that all Dark Jedi and Sith used exclusively red lightsabers was WordOfDante, and many fans (apparently including Stackpole) found the idea silly and arbitrary given the rainbow of colors used by light-side Jedi (and ironic considering that the Sith are treacherous and individualist, while the Jedi are so effective because of their ability to work together harmoniously).

** At launch, Imperials and darksiders were restricted to red color crystals, while Imperial lightsiders had to use purple, while Republic characters got every other color. This was quickly removed to allow increased character customization.

* The killer and detective in ''Manga/DeathNote'' are lit by vivid red and blue lights respectively during internal monologue, regardless of the natural lighting of the scene. Later on, Matsuda gets yellow, and both Mogi and Aizawa get green. Even outside their monologues, Light (the murderer) tends to wear darker colours, while L is in an off-white T-shirt and jeans. Also, the ruthless and slightly unhinged Mello wears all black, while his calmer, less aggressive rival Near wears all white and has white hair. However,Naomi Misora, undoubtedly one of the good guys, bucks the trend by always wearing black and had a fondness for leather.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' had some fun with the franchise's general "[[BlueIsHeroic blue = Light Side]]/[[RedIsViolent red = Dark Side]]" motif with the 2016 Dark vs. Light event. One of the rewards was one of two companions, depending which side won; the Light Side companion was a Chiss (a blue-skinned species) Jedi and the Dark Side companion was a red-skinned Zabrak Sith. (The Light Side won. The Dark Side companion was added a year later.)

* The ''Franchise/{{Star Wars|Expanded Universe}}: [[Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy Jedi Search]]'' novel by Kevin J. Anderson features a Force-sensitivity detector that allows to analyze a person and displays a halo if she is Force-sensitive, blue for the light side and red for the dark side. But anyway, Luke Skywalker is too dumb to figure out what the colors mean.

Subtrope of ColorCodedCharacters. See also ColorCharacter, ColorCodedMultiplayer, ChromaticArrangement, DressCodedForYourConvenience, EvilCostumeSwitch, GoodHairEvilHair, LawOfChromaticSuperiority, LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine, RainbowMotif.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}]'': ZigZagged with Xelors. Both Nox and his undead minions in Season 1 can be distinguished from other Xelors (from civilians to the villainous Count Harebourg) by their dark-gray and brown, decayed-looking colors compared to the standard Xelor bright-gray and blue.

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': The most obvious case is Ghidorah and the Many having jaundiced-gold scales or flesh, which contrast with [[AdaptationalHeroism Monster X]]'s post-Chapter 7 form having silver traces in its semi-exoskeletal armor; in addition to a BrightIsNotGood / DarkIsNotEvil contrast. It's also worth noting RedIsHeroic with Thor, Rodan, and Monster X's red lightning, in contrast to Ghidorah's yellow lightning.

* The guns on ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'' shoot red or blue lasers, depending on the affiliation of the shooter. You can tell how old a show was by the color of the weapons: In the early animated series, the Joes had red beams but Cobra had blue beams. Later on, the two sides have switched colors. Sometimes, the laser guns would even ''[[ConvenientColorChange change their color]]'' to accommodate the wielder. A Joe could pick up a discarded Cobra rifle and still be assured of it firing his own team color (this was probably an animation error rather than intentional, but it's fun to imagine that there's a "good/evil" switch on the side of each weapon).

* Even before she turned evil, Lydia from ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'' dressed in muted red and purple, as opposed to the other muses, who wore blue and royal purple.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Comparing the greens worn by [[EvilChancellor Long Feng]] and [[SecretPolice the Dai Li]] to most other members of the Earth Kingdom, you'll notice theirs are much darker (to the point of being mistakable for black), symbolizing their corruption.
** The GrandFinale completely messes with this trope, having two determining fights happening in parallel: Aang/Ozai and Azula/Zuko. Both were red, or a kind of orange, versus blue. But in one fight, Blue was good, in the other, blue was evil.
* SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' mostly plays this straight, with a few aversions and subversions:
** The [[MugglePower Equalists]], [[EldritchAbomination Vaatu]], and [[BombThrowingAnarchists the Red Lotus]] all go for the classic [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver red and black]] (despite very different ideologies to both one another and the Fire Nation that wore it in the previous series). [[TheCorruption Dark spirits]] are meanwhile invariably black or near-black highlighted with a variety of harsh neons. And the Northern Water Tribe, led by fanatical Unalaq, Vaatu's servant, goes for deeper navy blues instead of the Southern Water Tribe's light tones.
** Meanwhile [[TheHero Korra]] and [[GodOfGood Raava]] (specifically Vaatu's counterpart) are both in cyan and white, and non-corrupted spirits are typically bright but natural shades. Korra's best friends Mako and Bolin wear earthy red and green, respectively, and even the [[HeelFaceTurn reformed]] Fire Nation's tones are more warm and subdued, though Fire Lord Izumi keeps the same color tones her grandfather (and his predecesors) had.
** On the other hand, the Earth Empire's green and silver look downright heroic, and Varrick wears the same cyan and white as Korra while [[CorruptCorporateExecutive gleefully conning everybody out of everything]], while RedHerringMole Asami Sato wears pretty much the same color scheme as the aforementioned Equalists, but remains loyal to the end.
* On the classic 1960s ''[[WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1967 Spider-Man]]'', want to know who the villain is if they aren't already established in the comics? Their skin is green. Even if they are entirely normal humans. And no one really notices.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Detentionaire}}'' has some red-vs-blue symbolism, but here, red generally indicates good (the Red Tazelwurm, Lee's hair) and blue bad (the blue robot Tazelwurms, The Serpent's hair). A slightly more on-the-nose example would be [[spoiler:Borrage's robotic eye changing from its usual red to blue whenever he's being {{Mind Control}}led by the bad guys]].
* The heroic ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinotrux}}'' all feature bright primary colors, while the unaffiliated members of the same species are slightly darker shades of the same colors, while the villains are either black or rusted out grey.

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'', the protagonist U.S. Army Rangers wear bright green-and-tan uniforms (the Army's real-world Universal Camouflage Pattern, soon to be discontinued), while the Russian Spetsnaz, the antagonists, wear red and black ones.

* ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' have the heroes in some combination of red, yellow, blue, and white. [[BigBad Mr. X]] weras a green suit and a red and black tie. [[TheDragon Shiva]] had gray and red clothing in the second game while changing it to blue or green in the third game, depending on where you fought him.

In this trope, different factions will have competing color schemes that makes it instantly clear who the good guys and [[ObviouslyEvil bad guys]] are. This can be in the form of clothing, [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair hair]] or [[ColorCodedEyes eyes]], [[BattleAura auras]], {{Energy Weapon}}s, [[ColorCodedWizardry magic powers]] or a general ColorMotif for factions. This has some basis in real life, as during the musket era (i.e. the American Revolution) [[ColorCodedArmies armies wore contrasting colors]] to avoid friendly fire. Nevertheless, Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease

** As of the [[FanNickname Apollo Arc]], the hero Apollo wears all red, and [[spoiler:BigBad Kristoph Gavin wears blue]].

In this trope, different factions will have competing color schemes that makes it instantly clear who the good guys and [[ObviouslyEvil bad guys]] are. This can be in the form of clothing, [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair hair]] or [[ColorCodedEyes eyes]], [[BattleAura auras]], {{Energy Weapon}}s, [[ColorCodedWizardry magic powers]] or a general ColorMotif for factions. This has some basis in real life, as during the musket era (i.e. the American Revolution) [[ColorCodedArmies armies wore contrasting colors]] to avoid friendly fire. Nevertheless, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease'''

** Souls (when they're seen by someone who can [[StatOVision sense soul wavelengths]]) in the anime also fit this: Blue: Good/Normal human (only villains eat these). Red: Corrupted human (anyone with a red soul is [[TheHeartless fair game]]). Purple: {{Witch| Species}} or misc. (act as {{Upgrade Artifact}}s, [[AlwaysChaoticEvil mostly chaotic evil]]. Yellow: Lord Death and Death the Kid have yellow/gold souls. Fitting for being the BigGood and TheAce, respectively. The werewolf Free has a unique green soul, and is generally working with purple-souled witches.

* Following ''Film/TheKarateKid'' movies (see above), despite Johnny's most genuine attempts to keep Cobra Kai from becoming a ThugDojo like before it inevitably becomes evil once more when John Kreese gets involved. Like before, they wear black gis while the Miyagi-Do students wear white. [[spoiler:When Johnny starts his own dojo, Eagle Fang, and allies with Miyagi-Do, they now wear somewhat villainous red gis as they now embrace a GoodIsNotSoft and bad-ass mentality to contrast both the defensive TechnicalPacifist beliefs of Miyagi-Do and the BloodKnight tendencies of the now wholly-villainous Cobra Kai]].

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' dresses in gray with blue and yellow. Comicbook/{{Robin}} dresses like an explosion in a paint factory. Lampshaded when Batman explains that one of the reasons Robin wears bright colors is because he [[GoodCopBadCop plays good cop to Batman's bad]]. With some DeusAngstMachina in [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]]'s life, he changed his costume to be less colorful than before -- and his first costume was less bright than that of his predecessors, fitting his more [[AscendedFanboy subdued]] [[BadassBookworm personality]]. Tim was also associated with green as the SmartGuy in comparison to his more impulsive ComicBook/YoungJustice teammates. Batman's rogues like the Joker, the Riddler, the Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, Ra's al Ghul, and Two-Face (sometimes) favor green and/or purple.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'': The evil Frollo and his henchmen always wear black, while the far-more heroic characters of Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Phoebus, Clopin, and the Gypsies all wear bright colors, and at the end of the film both Phoebus and especially Esmeralda wear white.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' had some fun with the franchise's general "[BlueIsHeroic blue = Light Side]/[RedIsViolent red = Dark Side]" motif with the 2016 Dark vs. Light event. One of the rewards was one of two companions, depending which side won; the Light Side companion was a Chiss (a blue-skinned species) Jedi and the Dark Side companion was a red-skinned Zabrak Sith. (The Light Side won. The Dark Side companion was added a year later.)

* ''Film/ExtremePrejudice'' (1987). This [[NewOldWest modern-day Western]] has both the sheriff (Nick Nolte) and the villain (a former friend turned Mexican drug lord played by Powers Boothe) [[NotSoDifferent wearing white hats]]; in fact the latter wears a pristine white suit while Nolte mostly wears a black shirt.

If you're looking for the Pantheon/{{Trope Pantheon|s}} page regarding the deities of these tropes, [[Pantheon/GoodAndEvilColors see here]].