There are ways and ways of making a sword interesting, and adapt it to the user's personality. You can make it large to emphasize strength, you can make it Japanese to imply mastery and mystery, make it curved to point out that the character is evil, and so on.
If you're not satisfied yet and want to further underline your choice, you can always give the blade a weird color.
In Real Life steel tends to be, well, steel-colored. However in fiction there's nothing that stops you from showing colored swords or similar things. Usually, A Wizard Did It. Villains tend to have black or red colored weapon, while the good guys opt for white and other good colors as seen in Good Colors, Evil Colors. A golden weapon that actually works as a steel weapon may count, as in real life gold isn't suited for making weapon blades and such.
If the weapon has elemental powers, then the blade will have the color usually associated with said element. For example a sword with fire powers will be red or orange, while one with ice powers will be blue or white. Poisoned Weapons tend to be green or purple, depending on the setting.
Note: this trope is only for metallic blades, as Energy Weapons are naturally justified for having bright colors. Black weapons are already covered by Black Swords Are Better, so please do not add examples of black blades here.
See also Color-Coded for Your Convenience.
Not to be confused with Tekkaman Blade.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Rukia's sword in Bleach is a completely white katana with ice powers. Also Hollow Ichigo's Bankai is completely white, as opposed to Ichigo's black sword. Both are unusual as they're not the kind of white you'd expect from metal.
- Nichirin blades in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba are one of the only weaknesses of demons. The steel changes color depending on the user.
- Duskmon from Digimon Frontier has a pair of red swords, which he uses when utilizing his Lunar Plasma attack.
- In Fairy Tail Erza wields a crimson colored sword while using the Entei Armor, and a green one when the Sea King Armor is worn.
- In Inuyasha, the barrier-breaking Tessaiga is red colored, and the true Dakki sword is green with a light grey edge.
- In Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, the three Mist Swords used by the Fog Troupe's elites are explicitly magical in nature, and brightly colored. We have Sekigen Muto (Red Illusion Mist Sword), Osho Muto (Yellow Liquefying Mist Sword) and Kokubaku Muto (Black Binding Mist Sword).
- Rave Master has the aptly named Blue Crimson swords. Other examples include Explosion (orange with red engraving), Silfarion (light blue/teal tint) and Million Suns (bright yellow). Melforce and Sacrifar, meanwhile, are both mostly black.
- Sword Art Online: Kirito's Dark Repulsor, which is a pale aqua by virtue of the refined metal ore it's forged from.
Comic Books
- In the comic Comic Book Warriors Of The Storm there's a red sword.
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (comics, game, and movie). The Power of Love is pink, and The Power of Understanding/Self-Respect is blue.
- The two Muramasa swords in the Wolverine comics, being black and red.
Films — Live-Action
- In Hook, the sword belonging to Peter Pan (though used through most of the film by Rufio) appears to be made of brass.
Gamebooks
- The Sommerswerd, or Sword of the Sun, from Lone Wolf, is explicitly described as a "golden" blade. Whatever metal it is made of, of course, is not pure gold because it's unequivocally Made of Indestructium.
Literature
- In the Inheritance Cycle, Dragon Riders have magical elvish swords with colored blades, usually of the same color as their Dragon. To be specific:
- Morzan's sword Zar'roc is red.
- Oromis' blade is golden.
- Eragon's new sword Brisingr is blue.
- In the last book, Galbatorix is revealed to wield a white sword.
- Additionally, in the third book, a large claymore with a green blade makes a brief appearance, and becomes Arya's sword later and the Dragon-killing spear from the last book is greenish in color.
- In the The Realms Trilogy from Angus Wells, the Big Bad and God of Evil Ashar whips out a giant sword with a red blade in the last book
- In Michael Moorcock's Runestaff series, the Sword of the Dawn is introduced, which has a lustrous rose-pink glow to it and which is used to summon and lead the Legion of the Dawn.
- There are a few of these in A Song of Ice and Fire. Most are regularly colored steel, though a few are unique. The swords that Lord Tywin has made for Jaime and Joffrey in the third book, reforged from the Valyrian steel of Ned Stark's greatsword, are a deep red rippled with black, rather than the bright Lannister crimson the smith was trying for — almost as if the steel is rejecting its new owners. Also of note are Lightbringer, which glows in a myriad of beautiful colors, and Dawn, a Thunderbolt Iron greatsword which is described as "pale as milkglass".
- In The Matter Of France, Charlemagne's blade Joyeuse was described as having 'its color changed thirty times a day'.
- In the Forgotten Realms, Artemis Entreri's sword Charon's Claw has a red blade.
- In The Stormlight Archive, living Shards glow with the color of their bonded Radiant: blue for Windrunners, red for Lightweavers, etc.
- In Warbreaker, the sentient sword Nightblood has a black blade.
- The Riftwar Cycle: The Valheru each had a sword and a suit of armor in their own personal colors. Ashen-Shugar's, wielded by Tomas, are gold and white, while those of his nemesis, Draken-Korin, were orange and black striped.
- In The Hobbit and its sequels, elven swords such as Glamdring, Orcrist, and Sting glow blue when orcs and goblins are nearby.
- In Tomi Ungerer's The Three Robbers, one of the three highwaymen wield a double sided axe, the metal parts of which are red-colored.
Tabletop Games
- Magic: The Gathering has several examples, like the Swords cycle from the Mirrodin blocks: Sword of Fire and Ice
, Sword of Light and Shadow, Sword of Body and Mind, Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of War and Peace.
Video Games
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Master Sword is bluish colored. The degree depends on the visual style of the particular game.
- Link's Great Fairy Sword in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, featured in Soulcalibur II, is a pink sword with a green core. Also from Majora's Mask is the Gilded Sword, featuring a gold and black checkerboard pattern. Fierce Deity Link's sword in the same game is a double-helix of blue and green.
- The Master Sword also gets upgraded, first with a red blade and then with a golden one in both A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds.
- The series also features a myriad of white-coloured blades, from the more generic White Swords (sometimes also called Noble Sword in English) to the Picori Blade in The Minish Cap and the Goddess White Sword in Skyward Sword.
- In Sengoku Basara this is common. For examples, many of Keiji's high-level BFSs include a blue sword, a purple sword and a red and golden sword.
- Many blades in Dragon Quest VIII. For example, the Dream Sword is greenish, the Zombie Killer and Zombie Buster are blueish-golden, the powered up dragon slayer is red and the Miracle Sword is greenish-gold in color.
- One of Doel's swords in The Legend of Dragoon is of a weird, pale green color.
- All the Infinity Plus One Swords in the first Drakensang game are golden colored.
- The most powerful weapon from Chrono Trigger, the aptly named Rainbow.
- Final Fantasy has many, many examples:
- In the first Final Fantasy, there are the Fire Sword (red), Ice Brand (azure), Toxic Blade (green) and the Light Axe (blue).
- In Final Fantasy II there are lots of colored weapons, including Red (Blood Sword, Fire Sword, Fire Lance, Fire Bow, Ogre Killer, Orichal Dagger), Azure (Ice Sword, Ice Bow, Ice Lance), Yellow (Runic Axe, Thunder Spear, Terra Sword) and Green (Venom Axe).
- The Ultima Weapon in the Final Fantasy series is typically a bright blue blade.
- In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall's gunblades vary between this and normal; two of them have bright red blades, while his ultimate weapon, the Lion Heart, has a white-blue gradient blade.
- In Final Fantasy X, main protagonist Tidus starts with a red-edged longsword, but eventually takes up a crystalline blue blade called Brotherhood. His Celestial Weapon is the above-mentioned Ultima Weapon in the Japanese version; in English it was called the Caladbolg.
- Final Fantasy XII largely settles for metallic hues, though it has a small number of red blades. The most notable example of this trope is actually a gun, the Ras Algethi, which is designed as a nod to the Lion Heart.
- Similarly, Final Fantasy XIII has Lightning's gunblades with largely metallic hues, but there are some blue blades, one green, and several with gold.
- In the sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Noel Kreiss wields a double-bladed sword with a flaming design, which also contains a sheath for his gold short sword. Some of Serah's bowswords also have exotic colors, though hers have the excuse of being the transformed form of Mog.
- There are too many to count in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, though the most notable examples are Lightning's starting sword type, the Crimson Blitz.
- Final Fantasy XV returns to metallic hues, instead having unusual designs, but some blades have this trope, most notably the Ragnarok, with glowing magenta edges.
- The Onimusha series always relies on elemental weapons with distincted colors, including Buraitou and Raizan (purple-bluish), Chigo (red) and Shippu (green). In Dawn of Dreams, Soki's main weapons are a blue colored sword and a red colored one.
- The Wizard's Dragon Sword from Castle Crashers has weird colors.
- Ike's Ragnell in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn has a gold blade. You can also choose the color of any weapon you get forged, including bladed ones.
- Dungeons of Dredmor has several oddly-colored weapons, such as the Golden Axe.
- Golden Sun has a few examples. The Storm Brand is blue, the Sword of Dusk and Gaia Blade are both brown, the Assassin Blade is violet, the Vulcan Axe is red and orange, the Sol Blade and Phaeton's Blade is yellow. And there's more.
- Fable The Solus Greatsword has a red/gold blade. The Cutlass Bluetane, for some reason, has a green one.
- In Dragon Age: Origins, Sten has a sword you can give him from the Feastday Pranks DLC that flickers in different colors and has butterflies following it around. He is... less than appreciative.
- The Elder Scrolls:
- Among the series standard weapons: Dwemer (Dwarven) weapons are bronze/gold, Ebony are a dark purplish/gray, Glass are bright iridescent green, and Daedric are black and red. These examples, save possibly Daedric, are justified by nature of their materials.
- Goldbrand, a Legendary Weapon from Morrowind and Oblivion, is (as one would expect) gold.
- Dawnfang/Duskfang from Oblivion's Shivering Isles expansion changes from gold to blue depending on whether it's day or night.
- Chillrend from Oblivion and Skyrim is a frost-enchanted glass sword that's blue instead of glass weapons' usual green.
- City of Heroes eventually added customization to weapon-based power sets, so you could indeed have a red-and-gold broadsword, or a green-and-blue katana, or one yellow-red khopesh and one pink-turquoise dagger, which also applied for pretty much all the different weapon types. Also of course were the prerequisite Energy Weapon and Improvised Weapon varieties (like a crowbar for a mace, or a shovel for an axe), though some needed to be unlocked per-character by completing specific missions.
- The aptly named Blue Dragon sword from Swords of Destiny is blue-colored.
- In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Samuel Rodrigues wields a 16th-century katana that has a red blade as a result of being converted into a high-frequency blade.
- Pokémon: Aegislash is a golden BFS with silver edges. It's known as the Royal Sword Pokémon, and is said to have served kings. Its shiny form is an example of Black Swords Are Better.
- Many swords in Terraria are this, most notably the True Night's Edge. Meowmere is mainly pink, but the relative monochromaticity of the blade is more than made up for by its rainbow effects (it essentially shoots Nyan Cats).
- In Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, the Prince's main and secondary Infinity +1 Sword weapons, both secret, have unusually-colored blades: the former is the Water Sword, whose blade under the exquisite golden ornaments is light blue, the other is the Light Sword, a scimitar with a glowing green blade.
- In the Kirby series, not only is Meta Knight's sword Galaxia an example of an Oddly Shaped Sword (consisting of three jagged prongs on each side), it's also entirely gold in color.
- Genshin Impact: Certain weapons have colored blades, such as Skyward Blade and ascended Aquila Favonia (cyan), Blackcliff Longsword (crimson), The Alley Flash (dark blue), Prototype Rancour (golden), etc.
- Samurai Warriors often has weapon blades with unusual colors for the protagonists, more often than not as a rare fourth/fifth weapon. Examples include Yukimura (golden or red lance), Sakon Shima (black then red sword), Nene (blue, black or golden blades), Nobuyuki (red-bladed sword), Keiji Maeda (golden or dark brown pike) and probably more.
- Dynasty Warriors: many of the upgraded weapons also get unusual coloring. For example in the seventh game, Cao Cao's iconic weapon is a straight sword with a comically broad yellow blade (the color of Heaven, an element associated with him). Also, ça va sans dire, Guan Yu's iconic weapon (the Green/Blue Dragon Crescent Blade) has a pale green blade.
Webcomics
- Swords: Being a webcomic about, well, swords, naturally there are a few that fall in this trope. Notable ones include:
- The Birthday Blade, which is gold and green with a red bow and pink icing on the tip
- All the Demon Swords, which can range from yellow to blue to purple to black.
- The Knight's Loaf, which is brown...though to be fair, it is a loaf of bread in the shape of a sword.
- The Longsword of Time, which is bluish white.
- The Smartsword, also white, and pretty much what would happen if Apple made swords.
Web Videos
- The Man at Arms series has shown the color of steel blades can be affected by the temperatures they're tempered at, producing blue and gold hues on the finished steel.
Western Animation
- While normally gray, Sadlygrove's Shushu-possessed Sword from Wakfu can turn into either a brown, stone-like blade with red markings or into an elaborated greenish and white sword. In the second season we see another Shushu-possessed sword which is reddish in color.
- In Dofus, the Ninetails Sword forged by the Ecaflip God himself from his own tails is pink in color. Then again, it is seemingly made of fur, rather than metal. The above mentioned red Shushu blade makes a cameo in one episode.
- The elemental golden weapons in Ninjago are... well, golden.
- In Steven Universe, Rose's sword has a rose-pink blade. Same for the Connie's sword.
Real Life
- Many sport fencing equipment companies offer colored blades for all three weapons, in colors like gold, blue, and even rainbow!
- The Blue Knight from Fable Blades.
- There are knives that can be many colors, looking sort of like a rainbow. These are some good examples.◊
