Blue Is Heroic

A fantastic color for a fantastic family!

"In ancient Hyrule, this garment could only be worn by one who had earned the respect of the royal family. It's dyed in vibrant blue."

— Description for the Tunic of Memories, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Blue, the color of the heavens, the color of a knight's armor. The color of life-giving water, and an innocent child's eyes. The color of a policeman's uniform, and, in the US and Britain, the color of anti-communist soldiers and patriots. For all these reasons and more, the color blue has an association with goodness, such that a blue Color Motif is often a visual shorthand for The Hero or the good guys.

Often times this goes along with a more old-fashioned or cerebral type of heroism. While red-clad heroes tend to be Hot-Blooded, since Blue Is Calm blue heroes tend to be more disciplined and reserved, whether due to a code of honor, more training, a focus on brains and strategy, or simply a calmer personality. It's common for red- and blue-themed heroes to be paired together as The Hero and The Lancer in a Red Oni, Blue Oni setup.

There are a few requirements for this trope:

Must be a hero:

• The character or group of characters must actively fight against evil. Just being a Nice Guy is not enough. This also excludes works with No Antagonist.
• If only one character is associated with blue, they should be The Leader of a heroic team or a main character. When The Team has one supporting member wearing blue, you're looking at Rainbow Motif, Color-Coded Elements, or Color-Coded Characters instead.

Must be consistent:

• Blue should be a consistent part of the character design, whether for the Superhero Team Uniform or for an individual. If a character has an Unlimited Wardrobe and wears blue one time, that's not an example, unless the blue appears at an especially symbolic moment such as a climactic confrontation or promotional art.
• Blue should have a consistent association with heroism throughout the work. If Alice the Hero, Bob the villain, and Carol the Heel–Face Revolving Door are all associated with blue, that's not an example.

See also Blue Means Smart One, True Blue Femininity and Pink Girl, Blue Boy for other blue tropes, and Primary-Color Champion when blue, red, and yellow are all used together to signify heroism. Also see Color-Coded Armies, Color-Coded Characters, and Color-Coded Wizardry for other uses of contrasting character colors.

Overlaps with Good Colors, Evil Colors when paired with an antagonist in a contrasting color (often red and black or a secondary color). Also compare and contrast Mysterious Purple for people with less defined and often obscured allegiances and moral leanings.

See the Analysis page for discussion of real-life reasons for this trope.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Blue Exorcist has this trope right on the title, with Rin Okumura being the Anti Anti Christ who becomes an exorcist and battles his father Satan while having a strong affinity with blue fire that engulfs him whenever he unleashes his sword.
  • Played with in regards of the blue flame, considering that it's always associated with Satan and feared by everyone, which is why Rin is forced to not show his blue flames early on. Regardless, this doesn't change the fact that Rin is still a heroic guy.
• Death Note has L as a Hero Antagonist version of this trope. Great Detective L is usually associated with the blue color, while Villain Protagonist and serial killer Light Yagami is associated with red. This is usually represented in the lighting they get.
• Emiya Shirou, the main hero of the Fate/stay night franchise, wears a lot of blue during the three main routes of their story. This signifies his own Wide-Eyed Idealist nature compared to the pragmatism of his enemies. This contrasts with his red-clad archenemy and future self Archer, especially in the Unlimited Blade Works route where they clash.
  • Saber is a Knight in Shining Armor based off of King Arthur and wears a blue Battle Ballgown. The Visual Novels also usually depict her attacks with blue Sword Lines, as do Fate/Zero, and the remake of the original Stay Night. In both Fate/zero and Fate/Stay Night she is the Servant of the protagonist of the story, and together they face off against a number of more sinister or less idealistic foes to take possession of the Holy Grail. In Zero her knightly idealism frequently clashes with Kiritsugu's utilitarian anti-heroism.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Phantom Blood: Jonathan Joestar is the kindhearted and noble hero of the series and the story's original hero. During the final arc of Phantom Blood, he wears a blue tank top.
  • Stardust Crusaders: The main hero, Jotaro Kujo, wears blue clothing.
• Shinji Ikari, the monster-fighting main protagonist from Neon Genesis Evangelion, whose pilot suit is blue in contrast with the other pilots (white for Rei, red for Asuka, black for Kaworu, and pink for Mari).
• Most iterations of Pretty Cure (sans the first three seasons and Maho Girls Pretty Cure!) star a blue-clad heroine. She is typically The Smart Girl of the team, has water-based powers, and is a calm, mature character to contrast the Pink Heroine leader.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!: Cure Aqua, who has blue hair and wears a blue dress and shoes, is the team's brains, and has water-based powers. She joined the team by helping them to defeat a Monster of the Week.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure!: Cure Berry, who wears a blue dress and boots, is the team's Kick Chick.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Cure Marine, who has blue hair and wears a blue dress, has water powers, but prefers to fight with her own fists and feet.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Cure Beat, a late addition to the team who wears a blue dress and boots, fights along Melody and Rhythm with her own music powers.
  • Smile PreCure!: Cure Beauty, who has blue hair and wears a blue dress, has ice powers, and most commonly takes on Joker in swordfights.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: Cure Diamond, who has blue hair, is her team's voice of reason and has ice powers. In one episode, she even gets to create a giant ice staircase, Elsa-style.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Cure Princess, who has blue pigtails and wears a blue dress and leggings, is a Dance Battler and has wind powers.
  • Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Cure Mermaid, who has blue ocean hair and a blue dress, has water powers, and gets to fight Twilight directly.
  • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Cure Gelato, who has blue everything minus skin, has powers based on the lion, as well as ice powers.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure: Cure Ange, who has blue hair, has wind powers and wants to help others by becoming a doctor.
  • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: Cure Fontaine, who has blue hair and wears blue shoes, has water powers and also wants to become a doctor.
  • Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure: Cure Sky, who has blue hair and wears a blue dress, is the first blue-themed leader, and comes with wind power, Super-Strength, and super high jumps.
• La Seine No Hoshi: Simone's hair bow and hat are blue, and as a superheroine she wears a blue cap with a white star.
• Inverted in Voltes V. Inverted. Heinel wears a huge blue coat that has a collar resembling a snowflake, and his list of crimes include, but are not limited to: invasion, mass murder, slavery, abuse of power, unethical experimentation, animal cruelty, mass genocide, holding hostages, kidnapping and torture. However, in his disturbed mind, he believes he's heroic for all this.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters: Yugi is the main hero of the series. His primary outfit includes a blue outfit and blue pants. Yugi regularly saves the world by defeating villains in a magic card game.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Yusei is the main protagonist of the series and the one who always ends up fighting the main villain in the end. He wears a blue jacket.

Arts

• Alexandre Cabanel's The Fallen Angel:
  • The non-fallen angels in the background are blue-tinted. Justified since they are far away and, thus, suffer from atmospheric distortion.
  • Played with Lucifer's wings; whatever white is left on them has blue lightning: — most of his left wing and the insides of his right wing. However, there are small blue tinges on the borders of the blackened feathers.
• Blue is also the signature color in Christian art for Mary, mother of God and one of the most holy figures, part because blue paint was very expensive before chemical dyes (made by ground-up lapis stones), and artists wanted to make sure the top-shelf paint was reserved for her.

Asian Animation

• Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Weslie is often the one to learn Wolffy's plans and put an end to them, and he wears a blue collar with a bell on it and is associated with the color blue in later seasons.

Comic Books

• Aquaman often has its heroic characters wear blue.
  • The titular character wore blue in a miniseries during the 80s.
  • Garth the original Aqualad, wore blue shorts originally. His depictions in the Teen Titans (2003) and Young Justice (2010) animated shows had him wearing black and blue despite his outfit in the comics being red and black. He currently wears blue in the comics following the New 52 reboot.
  • Koryak, Aquaman's half-Inuit son and sidekick during Aquaman (1994), also wore blue.
  • Lorena Marquez, the second Aquagirl, wore a blue outfit.
• Despite his name, superhero Black Lightning's costume sports a dark blue costume with prominent bright blue trims.
• Blue Devil is a stuntman turned crime-fighting demon with blue skin.
• The Blue Marvel wears an all-blue power suit and even uses "blue" in his superhero name.
• Captain America. Although his costume is supposed to represent the American flag, blue is by far the most prominent color. This helps to drive home his straight leadership in The Avengers.
• Leander from Democracy is The Hero of the story and he wears a blue loincloth.
• In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, both title heroes wear blue: Supergirl's outfit is sky-blue and Batgirl's suit is dark-blue (and her first Batgirl costume was indigo).
• The Fantastic Four. Full stop. All four heroes wear iconic blue skin-tight jumpsuits. They started out with sky blue suits offset by black gloves and boots, under John Byrne they got dark blue (almost black) suits with white gloves and boots, and from then on the look changed again now and then.
• Superman:
  • As part of his Primary-Color Champion status, Superman's suit is prominently blue. Especially after the New 52, where he dropped the red underwear. Although the big red cape is just as prominent, the blue suit conveys more of Superman's gentle and kind nature.
  • Fellow superhero Supergirl wears a female version of the Superman costume. She has worn many different costumes through the decades, but they are always blue (with two exceptions: one of the Linda Danvers' outfits and her Red Lantern uniform). In Krypton No More she wears her "hot pants" seventies blue costume◊.
  • Superboy may be less of a boy scout than Kal-El but from his first breaths he was most interested in saving people than anything else and within his first month of life he was already risking his own life and powering through debilitating pain and injuries to help others. He wears a similar costume to Superman and Supergirl. His association with blue died down following his resurrection, however.
  • Downplayed with Power Girl, Supergirl's Alternate Self. She wears blue gloves and boots along with a white Leotard of Power and a red cape.
• Usagi Yojimbo: The eponymous Usagi is a heroic rabbit Samurai who wears a blue kimono.
• Nightwing has been through many outfits, but the one quality that's almost always there is the color blue. He briefly went red in the New 52, but that soon went away.
• X-Men:
  • Cyclops The Leader is usually depicted in a blue (along with yellow) spandex in more modern versions.
  • Beast with his blue fur, intelligence, and kind nature.
  • In the same vein as Beast there's Nightcrawler who has blue fur; he's such a Nice Guy he went to Heaven and came back to save his friends. Nightcrawlers's little brothers the "Bamfs" are also blue thanks to him, all to the contrast Azazel Nightcrawler's Archnemesis Dad whose a Big Red Devil.
• Wonder Woman:
  • The titular superhero's secret identity Diana usually wears either blue briefs or a skirt.
  • Nubia has since taken to wearing a blue outfit following her return to prominence in DC Rebirth. She wears a blue outfit in the stories that focus on her in Immortal Wonder Woman.

Fan Works

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Thor's eyes and electrical powers are blue, and he's a fierce protector of Titan. Manda has a blue coloration, and despite being a baby is already displaying noble personality traits.
• The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan features hero protagonist Nova Shine, whose coat is white, but is noted for his rather strikingly bright blue mane, tail, eyes, and magical resonance, as well as a deep blue cloak that he picks up later.
• In the Avengers of the Ring series, Steve Rogers becomes known as ‘the Blue Runner’ to warriors on both sides during his time in Middle-Earth, inspiring fear in Sauron’s forces and hope for the people of Gondor.
• In Beyond Heroes: Of Sunshine and Red Lyrium, blue is the color most frequently associated with the Inquisitor, Bethany Hawke. She is the hero of the story and of the entire continent of Thedas, and "the sanest and sweetest person" the narrator (Varric) knows. Overlaps with True Blue Femininity.
• Lady Delphine is sometimes called "the woman in blue" due to her choice of dress, and she is the Big Good of New Orleans in The Bug Princess.
• Danganronpa: Paradise Lost: Protagonist Daisuke Hiyori is a Kindhearted Simpleton who opposes the Killing Game out of an optimistic belief that he and the others will find a way to escape. His clothes heavily incorporate the color blue.
• Last Child of Krypton: In this crossover, Shinji Ikari is Superman (both the Hero Protagonist of their own works) and wears his iconic blue outfit.
• Medicated, Anne's frog form is light blue, just like her Calamity gem.
• The Night Unfurls: Alicia and the knights under her command have been defending the common folk from marauding orcs for some time. Fittingly, both her eyes and her armor are blue.
• The Portal features protagonist Thomas Smith, who is transformed into a dragon with blue scales after he enters the titular portal to the Dragon Realms. He later ends up leading the fight to protect the Academy from Zobek.

Films — Animation

• In Aladdin, the creators intentionally used the color blue to symbolize good characters (primarily Jasmine and the Genie), as opposed to red for evil (Jafar and Iago) and purple for "good, but flawed" (Aladdin, Abu). When Jafar himself becomes a genie, he's bright red.
• A Bug's Life: Most of the ant colony is blue and they are the sympathetic underdogs who struggling under their grasshopper oppressors. This includes the main hero, Flik, who leads them to overthrow the grasshoppers.
• The Incredibles: Mr. Incredible is a superhero and the patriarch of the Parr family. He starts out wearing a black and blue suit before switching to a red one created by his friend Edna Mode.
• Played with in Wreck-It Ralph. Fix-it Felix Jr., the adorkable Nice Guy is dressed all in blue, in opposition to Ralph's red. In the Fix-It Felix Jr. game, they're The Hero and the Big Bad respectively. However, the story of the movie itself is about Ralph trying to move away from his role as a villain and trying to become a hero of his own. Felix, on the other hand, moves to a Lancer role, but without losing any of his heroic traits.

Films — Live-Action

• 300: Rise of an Empire: Overlaps with Red Oni, Blue Oni. The brainy Athenians wear blue capes in a stark contrast to the red-clad, brawnier Spartans, and serve as protagonists of the movie who fight together with the Spartans against the invading Persians.
• Bright: Agent Kandomere wears a stylish blue suit and literally has blue hair and serves as the story's Big Good.
• In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), the heroic title character's Breath Weapon is blue, and he often radiates a blue glow, with blue lighting often foreshadowing his arrival. The movie also emphasizes Godzilla's aquatic nature, with a lot of blue-tinted underwater scenes. Notably, when he is in danger of melting down and destroying all of Boston, the blue changes to a fiery, volcanic red, signaling that he is no longer a protective force, only changing back to his signature blue when he regains control. Likewise, Godzilla's ally Mothra has a peaceful bluish-green glow as her Color Motif.
• Jurassic World: Zig-Zagging Trope with the Velociraptor Blue, who is named for her distinct blue-ish color scheme. She can be as dangerous as any other raptor when provoked or hungry, but she's the closest thing the franchise has demonstrated to a truly heroic raptor, saving the main humans' lives whilst fighting the Indominus rex and the Indoraptor in either of her respective movie appearances.
• Kong: Skull Island: James Conrad wears a blue shirt throughout the movie, and he's definitively a heroic character who leads and defends most of the cast as much as possible.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe costumes many of its heroes in blue, while the villains almost never like this color even when their comic counterparts do:
  • Iron Man 2: Black Widow wears a dark blue Spy Catsuit.
  • While the costumes◊ of one of the founding Avengers, Captain America have red and white elements, blue is his signature color. However his costume in Avengers: Infinity War is very dark signifying his fall from grace since Captain America: Civil War.
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron: Quicksilver (who has a blue aura and clothes) subverts this for half the movie but plays it straight after his Heel–Face Turn. He even makes a Heroic Sacrifice. His sister Wanda wears red.
  • Thor: Ragnarok: Loki briefly wears a blue costume to blend in better on Sakaar, but is primarily featured in it in promotional materials (posters, art books e.t.c) after Avengers: Infinity War whenever they need to refer to his more redeeming side. Thus in the "Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary", he is dubbed "villain and hero" and shown in green to the left (as a villain) and in blue to the right (as a hero).
  • Black Panther: The Border Tribe wear blue capes and serve as guardians for Wakanda's borders, while their leader W'Kabi served T'Challa as his best friend and second-in-command. Inverted when they all willingly side with Erik Killmonger (who also wears blue)'s genocidal scheme and become his mooks in contrast to the Dora Milage in their red attire, who serve whoever is king out of duty and clearly dislike serving Killmonger. This was intentional as Klaw wears blue as well; Ryan Coogler wanted blue to symbolize corrupt law enforcement.
  • Captain Marvel: The titular character has two costumes: the "evil" one is mostly green and the "heroic" one is mostly blue with some red elements and golden decorations.
  • Loki: The Big Bad, a Variant of Kang the Conqueror, is deprived of his signature blue colour and is merely a Secondary Color Nemesis, because unlike Marvel comics, in the MCU villains are not associated with blue.
• Probably the most iconic example in the medium is the blue lightsaber from the Star Wars series, usually associated with the Jedi, in contrast with red lightsabers for the Sith. With the exception of Return of the Jedi, when green was used instead due to technical difficulties^note Namely, Lucas intended to make Luke's new lightsaber blue like the last one, and it can be seen as such in one trailer. However, they changed it to green because they couldn't make the color stand out over the sky in the scene where it first appears. In addition, Mace Windu has a purple lightsaber because Samuel L. Jackson requested it; prior to the release of Attack of the Clones, all media portrayed him with a blue lightsaber, the main heroes have always used a blue one more often than not.
  • Played with in the prequel trilogy with the laser beams from the clone army, and during the Anakin vs Obi-Wan duel. Considering how blue is used prominently as the color of good in this series, this helps to establish the morally messed-up situation of the Clone Wars. Especially in the duel. General Grievous, who is absolutely evil, uses blue and green lightsabers, but this is justified by the fact that he takes these from the Jedi he kills. In fact, he has a whole collection of them.
  • Subverted in a crapload of non-movie material. Lightsaber blades come in many colors, not just blue, green, or red. Yellow, orange, gold, even black and white have been seen in the novels, comics, video games, and television series.
• The Allied Nations troops fighting against a dictator in Street Fighter have blue helmets and gear.
• In the TRON universe, the User-believer (heroic) Programs (and protagonist Users) have bright cyan Tron Lines. Becomes a plot point in the filmed sequel where after being Reforged into a Minion, Tron's circuitry is bright red. When he breaks free of Clu's corruption, his circuits revert to their original blue.
• Troy has the Trojans identified primarily with blue colors in contrast to the Achaeans who favor grey. Played with in that they are hero antagonists trying to defend their homeland from conquering invaders, that just so happened to be our protagonists.
• X-Men Film Series: Blue is commonly tied to gentleness, tranquility, and intelligence, which are the hallmarks of Professor Charles Xavier — the franchise's Big Good — so naturally it's part of his Color Motif. Fittingly for a man with an androgynous disposition, blue is also linked to masculinity and femininity; his parental authority is rooted in the blend of his Team Dad and Team Mom aspects. In his very first on-screen appearance, he wears a blue suit. In X-Men: First Class, Charles is introduced as a scholarly kid in blue-and-white pajamas whose instinct is to be charitable towards a starving mutant girl, laying the foundation of his future ascent into an All-Loving Hero and a Guile Hero. As an adult, blue is routinely incorporated into his apparel, and he's the Allegorical Character for serenity. In X-Men: Days of Future Past, his past self is subjected to a Palette Swap that marks the return of his familiar blues and greys to designate that he has taken up the mantle of being a hero again. In X-Men: Apocalypse, he's only garbed in blue after he concludes his transition from a schoolteacher to a leader of mutantkind.

Literature

• The sword Sting from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which glows blue when orcs are nearby. It was wielded by the main heroes of both books. And of course, this was carried over to the film adaptations.
  • In The Silmarillion this association is also present: Blue is strongly associated with the more heroic faction of the Noldor led by Fingolfin. It is also contrasted with Fëanor's scarlet. Although, the color most closely associated with heroes throughout the Legendarium is actually green: from the Ring of Barahir to the Elessar and Faramir's Ranger uniform.
• The Stormlight Archive:
  • The Windrunner Radiants have blue Tron Lines on their armor and weapons, and their eyes turn blue if they've used their powers recently.
  • House Kholin, the most heroic of the ten Alethi princedoms, has blue and silver as their colors.

Live-Action TV

• Ace Lightning: The Lightning Knights, interdimensional superheroes and guardians of the Sixth Dimension, all wear blue jackets, and their leader Ace Lightning also shoots blue lightning.
• LazyTown: Sportacus' outfit is mostly blue, and he's the official defender of LazyTown and its people.
• Power Rangers/Super Sentai: One constant, no matter which colors compose a team of Rangers, is that there will always be a Blue Ranger on the team.^note  With the exception of the Patrangers, which consist of only a red, green, and pink rangers.
• Star Trek: The Federation's flag and shield uses blue (mostly because is based on the United Nations flag) and blue color is generally used to represent Federation territory in maps and graphics.

Professional Wrestling

• El Phantasmo of New Japan Pro-Wrestling notably began donning primarily blue clothing (complete with flashing blue lights on his jacket, and blue entrance text) when he made his return to the ring after being expelled from Bullet Club on David Finlay's orders—leading to him being framed as a rebellious antihero out to end Bullet Club's reign of terror. Shortly after, the color motif was further solidified when he joined forces with his former Bullet Club stablemates in the Guerrillas of Destiny, and formed a tag team with G.o.D. member Hikuleo—who also began donning blue ring gear to match.

Tabletop Games

• In Warhammer 40,000:
  • The Ultramarines, lauded as the most honorable of Space Marine Chapters, have — guess — ultramarine shade of blue as their primary color.
  • Inverted with Tzeentch, whose main color is blue and who's a Smug Snake-esque God of Evil.
  • The World Eaters, now feared as a force of Ax-Crazy Blood Knight berserkers, used to be gray-blue before their Face–Heel Turn. Their armor is now entirely red and brass, the colors of the Blood God Khorne. In-universe, it's rumored to symbolize or even be the blood of their victims that they never washed off.
  • The Space Wolves, among the most heroic (by modern standards) Chapters, have armor that's somewhere between light blue and grey.

Video Games

• AMC Squad: Several of the AMC Squad's agents wear blue or have at least one blue accessory on their person, and are some of the more heroic characters in the game. Most prominent are Micky C, Snowfall, and Jane Ashford, who all wear blue suits of Powered Armor. To a lesser extent, James after he gets a blue bionic arm at the start of Episode 3.
• ANNO: Mutationem: Ann, the protagonist, primarily wears a casual blue outfit. When in combat, she has a combat suit that's also dark blue.
• Bot Gaiden: Robyu is a robot ninja on a mission to retrieve the golden skulls from Giorqio's henchbots.
• Castle in the Darkness: The protagonist is a knight in bright blue armour out to save the Kingdom of Alexandria from monsters.
• Dead or Alive: Kasumi is the main protagonist of the games. She is a heroic Ninja dressed in blue who opposes the machinations of the evil DOATEC organization.
• Devil May Cry: Nero, the main hero of Devil May Cry 4 and Devil May Cry 5 wears a blue Badass Longcoat. This is in notable contrast to Dante, the original hero of the franchise who wears a red coat. Nero's outfit has a bit of red in it symbolizing how he combines the best aspects of Dante and Vergil, who is his father.
• Dragon Age: Despite their name, the Grey Wardens are depicted wearing blue-colored uniforms from the second game onward, which is ironic because they wore grey/brown outfits in the original game. In either case, the Wardens serve as one of the greatest defenders of Thedas against the Blight masses. However, the lengths they are willing to go are can easily force them to go into Knight Templar territory.
• Elsword: Chung, one of the playable characters, is color coded with blue, and unlike the main protagonist Elsword, Chung is more heroic, noble, and innocent (being a prince helps).
• In Fairy Godmother Tycoon, the different factions are Colour-Coded for Your Convenience to show how well their business is operating in different parts of the kingdom. As the hero of the game, your color is blue.
• The Fire Emblem series:
  • With a couple of exceptions, the main protagonist is always depicted with distinguishable blue hair, with blue clothes to boot. In addition, the player's units are color-coded blue to contrast with the enemy's red. This trope applies since most of the player kingdoms or factions are usually on the good side.
  • Marth, the protagonist of the first game, becomes the best example of the franchise, as he has blue hair and outfit, and is also unambiguously one of the most heroic of the Fire Emblem protagonists, if not the most. His design becomes standard for most of the protagonists of the following games.^note Design wise, Roy is basically "Marth with red hair", with Eliwood, being his father, shares the Strong Family Resemblance. There's also Ephraim, which is "Marth but with greener hair tone". Seliph can also be considered "Marth with longer hair", with his father Sigurd being a more mature version of him. And that's not to mention better examples below.
  • Being a descendant of Marth, Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening also has blue hair, and his outfit is also predominantly blue with white accents. While a more complicated character than his ancestor, he is still a heroic man. The same goes for his daughter, Lucina, who even adopts the name of "Marth" when disguised, as well as any other children he sires, who all inherit his blue hair.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
    • The protagonist Byleth has blue hair and eyes, and, while very quiet and sullen-seeming, is a Badass Teacher who looks out after their students and the soldiers they lead. Their hair and eyes change to pale green about halfway through the game.
    • Dimitri hails from the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and both he and his kingdom are predominantly associated with the color blue. On the Azure Moon route, he is the hero trying to save the continent from a power-hungry warlord.
  • Alear, the protagonist of Fire Emblem Engage is an interesting case, in that while they have a white and blue outfit, like Chrom, their hair is a strange mix of blue and red (and even has heterochromatic eyes- one red, one blue). There's a good reason for this- Alear used to have fully red hair and eyes due to their heritage as a Fell Dragon, but it turned part-blue due to being infused with the essence of the Divine Dragon Lumera. While using their powers as the Fire Emblem, Alear's hair and eyes turn fully blue, having fully embraced their Divine Dragon heritage from their adoptive mother.
• Ginger Beyond The Crystal: Ginger is a blue-skinned individual who's on a quest to restore the land, and the world crystal.
• Gradius: While the Vic Viper is predominantly white, the snake-themed fighter has blue accents on its wings, dorsal tail, and prongs. In some games, it's usually orange Options will also be colored blue. Either way, the Vic Viper is a heroic fighter whose pilots (James Burton being the first to pilot the Vic Viper) battle the Bacterions for countless generations, ensuring peace for planet Gradius and the universe after each victory.
• Guilty Gear:
  • Ky Kiske is primarily associated with blue and he's the more straight-up heroic (to a fault) out of the two main protagonists.
  • Ky's son Sin plays this straighter than his dad being more innocent.
  • There's also Axl Low who's a time-traveling pacifist and Vemon a noble and compassionate assassin who wears blue with his white.
• Hamsterdam: Pimm's default outfit at the start of the game is a blue jacket. Pimm is a Badass Adorable hamster out to save his town from the Vermin Gang.
• Hoshi wo Miru Hito: Starting protagonist Minami's outfit and hair is blue, and he begins as the sole remaining hope of liberating the world from the supercomputer's tyranny.
• In the world of League of Legends, the two most important nations are Noxus and Demacia. Noxians, who wear red, value strength in any form and see brutal ambition as a positive thing. Demacians value justice, benevolence, and selflessness. They wear blue.
• Janos Aldron in Legacy of Kain is a blue-skinned Ancient Vampire, and is arguably the most unambiguously heroic vampire among the cast who are either Magnificent Bastards or Knight Templars.
• Link, the hero of Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda series, who in each game saves the kingdom from the evil Ganon:
  • Although he's associated mostly with green, he usually gets blue as a prominent secondary color by the Master Sword, whose hilt is purplish-blue, and all his forms of Sword Lines, Sword Beam and such, light blue. Also, the Hylian Shield has a lot of blue in it. In Twilight Princess, he has very blue eyes and, in his animal form, is often identified as "the blue-eyed wolf."
  • Link begins The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker with a blue tunic before getting the Hero's Clothes, and the New Game Plus allows him to wear his starting outfit for the whole adventure.
  • Played completely straight in Breath of the Wild. Albeit the player can put different clothes, blue is by far the most common color in Link's wardrobe, and he is shown with the Champion's Tunic, a blue shirt very similar to the one in The Wind Waker, in both promotional material and flashbacks. Zelda and the other Champions also wear their own Non-Uniform Uniform variants with the same blue motif.
  • Princess Zelda herself, who is a Big Good for Hyrule in every game where she appears, is frequently associated with the color blue. The official artwork for some games (A Link to the Past, Breath of the Wild) depicts her in blue outfits. She also often has blue eyes and/or blue jewels in her crown, such as in Twilight Princess. Moreover, as the wielder of the Triforce of Wisdom, she serves the goddess Nayru, who is associated with the color blue as well.
• In Lonesome Village, the hero, Wes, is a coyote who wears a blue outfit that looks rather like Link's tunic in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
• Mega Man: While the titular character has gone through various reimaginings and incarnations (including being a robot, a human powered by an electric alien, a computer program, etc.), one thing that remained consistent is that his default armor color is bright blue.
• Mortal Kombat: While the main hero Liu Kang prefers red, the color blue is more common among the heroes than any other color. Johnny Cage, Kitana, Sub-Zero II, Raiden, Nightwolf and Stryker have all worn blue. The two notable exceptions to this are the original Sub-Zero who still had some good in him before he was killed and revived as a revenant and Frost, Sub-Zero II's Deceptive Disciple.
• Ninja Gaiden: Ryu Hayabusa wears a dark blue ninja uniform in the original NES games. The blue outfit can be unlocked in Sigma by beating the game on normal and in Sigma 2 by beating 10 Team Missions.
• Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas: The Player Character is a young man on a quest to find his father, who went out to defeat the Sea Monster Oceanhorn. He also wears a blue shirt.
• Pankapu: Pankapu's Wizard robe when he's equipping The Faith Aegis is blue, he has blue eyes, and he's the warrior created by Iketomi to stop the Hya'Nagi from invading.
• In PlanetSide 1, the New Conglomerate freedom fighters deck out all their equipment in blue trimmed with gold highlights. In comparison, the oppressive Terran Republic has black and red equipment, and the fanatical Precursors-worshiping Vanu Sovereignty uses purple and cyan. Averted in the sequel which trends towards Grey-and-Gray Morality, where the NC are backed by Mega Corps and Private Military Contractors only in it for the profit margins, and the Terran Republic is a democracy forced into drastic measures.
• Sparkster, the main protagonist of the Rocket Knight Adventures series, has a light blue armor which is put in contrast with his Evil Counterpart, Axel Gear, who wears a suit of dark purple armor (Red in the 2010 game, Rocket Knight), as well as the green armor of Emperor Devligus Devotindos' Pig Soldiers in the original game, and the purple armor of King Gedol's Lizard soldiers in the Genesis sequel, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2.
• The titular character from Shovel Knight dons a set of shining blue armor. It also puts his heroism in contrast to the more morally ambiguous characters such as his rival Anti-Villain Black Knight, as well as the straight up villainous Big Bad Enchantress.
  • In Specter Of Torment, prior to his fall into darkness, Specter Knight dons a blue cape as the heroic Donovan. This symbolizes the contrast with his current self, who wears red and loyal to the Enchantress, albeit with his own reasons.
• Skeleton Boomerang: Hunter wears a blue jacket, and is on a quest to save the world from Mr. Saturday and his skeleton army, as well as lift the curse Mr. Saturday placed on his family bloodline.
• In Skies of Arcadia, there are two factions of pirates: Blue Rogues and Black Pirates. Despite both of them being in Black-and-Gray Morality, the members of the former act more like heroic Robin Hood and only plunder armed ships, most of which belong to evil Valua Empire anyway. They'll also spare lives if possible. In contrast, the Black Pirates attack their victims indiscriminately and are straight-up cutthroat evils. The heroic protagonist, Vyse, also has a blue color scheme. In fact, complementary material states that his birthdate links him to the Blue Moon.^note The world of Skies of Arcadia has six moons of different colors, and follows a fictional zodiacal system based on them
• Sonic the Hedgehog. His blueness represents freedom and clear blue skies, as well as his generally easygoing nature. This is put in contrast with Eggman's redness as well as Knuckles' intense red and Shadow's red accents.

Web Animation

• Happy Tree Friends: Splendid is a blue flying squirrel who happens to be a superhero. Though he is absolutely horrible as one.

Webcomics

• Homestuck: The Leader of each Cast Herd is strongly associated with blue, though this gets played with as the story progresses:
  • John has blue eyes, types in blue text, and is overall associated with blue, due to his wind powers and association with the sky. After Act 5 he always wears his sky blue god-tier Heir of Breath pajamas. He's the protagonist of the story, the leader of the Beta Kids, takes a major role in saving everyone after the Game Over timeline, and ultimately deals the final blow against the story's main villain. He starts off as a naïve goofball and one of the least cynical characters, and as the story progresses he becomes more emotionally numb and muted.
  • Vriska is also associated with blue, having blue text and blue blood. While personality-wise she's more of an Anti-Hero (and how sympathetic she is is hotly debated), she thinks of herself as the real hero of the story and usurps various other characters' role of actively opposing the villain. She singlehandedly goes up against the Disc-One Final Boss at the end of Act 5, and at the end of the story leads a massive ghost army against the Big Bad.
  • Subverted with Jane. She has light blue eyes and text and once she gets god-tier powers her Maid of Life magic is also blue and is introduced as fitting John's role, with the assumption that she will be the Hero Protagonist of Act 6. While Dirk insists she's the leader of their team, due to the nature of their void session she doesn't end up doing much leading. Although the hero aspect is subverted, she fits some of the personality aspects, being analytic, old-fashioned, and proper.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Roy, sword-bearing leader of the Order of the Stick, a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who quest to defeat the evil sorcerer Xykon and, eventually, prevent the destruction of the world, wears primarily blue armor. His fellow team member Elan, The Heart of the party, the team's moral compass, and the most pure-hearted, unambiguously Good member, also has a blue motif, wearing a blue cape and then a blue vest and eventually an all-blue outfit. None of the other team members, all of whom are more morally ambiguous or less inclined to lead, ever wear blue.
  • Azure City is heavily blue-themed, as most inhabitants wear blue and many have blue hair. The few exceptions are Azurites who are outright villainous (like Tsukiko and Kubota) or morally grey, like Therkla. Their entire society is built around The Sapphire Guard, an order of paladins whose secret mission is to protect the Gates, a Cosmic Keystone whose destruction would lead to the end of the world. Blue is the uniform color of the Sapphire Guard, who become important allies of the Order. While not everyone in Azure City is necessarily heroic, it's an entire society in which the ideal of The Paragon is deeply ingrained.

Western Animation

• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: The Series 5 team wear white and blue uniforms for the most part. Shane, the closest the team gets to an anti-hero, sometimes has an all-black outfit, however.
• Finn, the main character of Adventure Time, wears a light blue shirt and dark blue pants. He spends much of the story serving as Princess Bubblegum's main bodyguard/knight and fighting the evil Lich. Although he definitely has a sense of righteousness, his personality is pretty much the opposite of "calm".
• Anne Boonchuy, the hero of Amphibia, has powers that glow blue when she uses them.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise:
  • Blue is the color of the Water Tribe, the nation with the greatest number of prominent heroic characters. In fact, the concept of bad Water Tribe members only really comes to fruition (excluding Hama) with the Northern Water Tribe in the Sequel Series.
  • This trope is used to full effect in the Grand Finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender, in the scene where Aang takes Fire Lord Ozai's bending away, both enter in a Throat Light state, being Aang's light blue and Ozai's red.
  • In the The Legend of Korra, where the Avatar enters the Avatar State, their eyes glow light blue. It was explained in Book 2: Spirits that this is the manifestation of Raava, the Spirit of Light, who is this color in opposition of Vaatu, the Spirit of Darkness, who is dark red.
  • Additionally, the titular heroine not only naturally wears the color because it's her homeland's, but even wears a darker blue than she previously wore in the latter half of Book 4 once she's properly back in action.
• The Dinosaucers all wear shades of blue and green in their armor, to contrast with the Tyrannos and their villainous red and orange.
• Dragamonz: Dax is a Stormclaw Dragamon with blue scales, and he is tasked with recruiting the leaders of the other factions so that he can use the Crystal of the Five Corners to restore Dragamar to its original state.
• Final Space: Some of the Infinity Guard's uniforms are blue, notably those worn by some of their heroic officers such as Quinn and John Goodspeed.
• Freakazoid!: The titular protagonist has blue skin and is a heroic, if extremely weird, person.
• Jackie Chan Adventures: The eponymous hero is an Adventurer Archaeologist who often wears a blue shirt and fights crime lords, demons, evil sorcerers, and all manner of villains who threaten the innocent. While Jackie would rather live a peaceful, quiet life as a researcher and antique shop owner, he is more than capable of stepping up and saving the day when needed.
• Justice League Unlimited: Superman. While he does have the red cape to signify "action", his costume is predominantly blue. The intro background for Superman's card is blue. He's usually the voice of reason, especially when paired with Batman (dark red background), or even Wonder Woman, who occasionally wears a blue cape over her predominantly red costume.
• Megas XLR: The titular robot is piloted by the main protagonist Coop. The robot is the last line of defense against the Glorft, alien race that seeks to conquer humanity and were actually the ones who created Megas. We don't see what Megas looked like before it was taken by Kiva but it was likely the same color as other Glorft mechs.
• Tooey from Molly of Denali wears a completely blue outfit, and is one of the show's heroes. His blue outfit also contrasts with Molly's red outfit.
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: Jenny is a teenage blue-and-white robot who divides her time between saving the world, going to school, and hanging out with her friends.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic features Rainbow Dash (who has a cyan blue coat) as one of the six main characters, and while she's not the leader of their group of friends, she does lead Ponyville's weather pegasi before she becomes part of the Wonderbolts.
• Perry from Phineas and Ferb is a blue-furred platypus who is a secret agent working for the O.W.C.A. trying to stop Dr. Doofenshmirtz from taking over Danville.
• Robotboy: The eponymous character is a heroic blue Robot Kid who fights the evil Dr. Kimakazi.
• The Smurfs: The titular main characters of the franchise are little blue creatures who are very cheerful and on the heroic side.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars plays with this trope while playing it straight:
  • Straight: As in the movies, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and a lot of the other Jedi wield blue lightsabers. Aayla Secura also has blue skin. And in the Un-Canceled season 7, Ahsoka's lightsabers, previously green and yellow, are blue when returned to her before the Siege of Mandalore.
  • Now, here's where the Playing with a Trope comes in:
    • As time goes on, the Separatists, whose military is certainly evil, gain an increasing number of blue-and-white-painted vehicles, whereas Republic vehicles tend to have a white-and-red colour scheme.
    • The 501^st Legion, the most commonly appearing clone unit in the series, has blue markings as their unit colour. Now, while almost every individual member of the unit who gets characterization (Rex, Fives, Jesse, Kix, etc.) is heroic (except for the Lawful Stupid Dogma), Star Wars fans will be aware that, after the execution of Order 66, the 501^st is led by Anakin/Vader to storm the Jedi Temple in Revenge of the Sith, after the clones' Manchurian Agent control chips have been activated. And increasingly, as the series goes on, the red-clad Coruscant Guard is shown as sinister, being the clones who, by the nature of being stationed on the Republic's capital planet, are the most often unwittingly directly helping to further Palpatine's evil scheme.
• The main hero of Static Shock wears a blue longcoat and boots as part of his superhero costume.
• In Supernoobs Tyler's battleball is colored blue, and his hair becomes blue when he puts on his battle armor, which he uses when leading the team in fighting against a virus threatening the planet.
• Whyatt, the leader of the superhero group "Super Readers" from Super Why! wears a dark blue polo shirt and has blue eyes. While Super Why's outfit is primarily green, it does have blue accents.
• Leonardo, the leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His blue bandana (introduced in the 1987 series) is indicative of his calmness, spirituality, and reliability.
• While Autobot leadership and the Autobrand are defined by red in Transformers, many continuities portray Decepticons with red eyes and give the Autobots calm, blue eyes.

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