Gold and White Are Divine



In many western and European societies, the colors gold and white are associated with goodness and divinity. White and gold invoke images of Heaven and angels, and embody purity and incorruptibility—white light, when the beam is dispersed, becomes a rainbow of all colors, while gold never tarnishes, rusts or corrodes.

Thus in works of media, you're likely to see divine beings clad in white and gold. As white and gold can represent the sky as part of their association with Heaven, blue may also be featured. The deities may be associated with the colors beyond clothing, and thus have silver/white hair or have Hair of Gold, with pale or bronze skin. Even if the gods are not good, the colors will still reflect their divinity. The colors may also feature on their relics. Mortals who are connected to the gods, or wish to appear as divine figures, will also wear white and gold.

Subtrope of Good Colors, Evil Colors and Color Coded for Your Convenience. Contrast Red and Black and Evil All Over. Compare Color-Coded Patrician, Light Is Good, Light Is Not Good, Woman in White, Man in White.

Anime and Manga

 * The Lancelot from Code Geass
 * Hibiki's Vanguard from Vandread has white and gold colors
 * Digimon, numerous Angel Digimon are colored white, gold and blue. Angemon and Angewoman are probably the most famous.
 * In Saint Beast, the head god Zeus wears a white chiton with gold accessories while the angels dress in a variety of colours in comparison.
 * The Gold Saints in Saint Seiya. Divine? Definitely. Good? Well, not all of them.
 * Gilgamesh in Fate series definitely evokes this trope. He's also the biggest jackass of all.

Literature
"They were pressing about one bound to a pillar: a slender white-skinned youth, with a cluster of golden curls about his alabaster brow. His beauty was not altogether human--like the dream of a god, chiseled out of living marble."
 * Darken Rahl, the Big Bad from the first book of The Sword of Truth series, was wearing white with a narrow band of gold, and a knife in a golden scabbard. He was worshiped like a god, tried to obtain godlike powers through an ancient artifact, and served the devil.
 * In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Shadows in The Moonlight", the demi-god and god Olivia dreams of are blond and pale skinned:


 * Mentioned in Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga. In Tsurani culture the Emperor (known as the Light of Heaven) has White and Gold as his house colours. Expanded on in the Empire trilogy co-written with Janny Wurts.

Live-Action TV

 * In Angel The Powers That Be were at one point represented by gold-fleshed humanoids in white togas.

Tabletop Games

 * The Emperor from Warhammer 40,000, when he's not depicted as a rotting corpse at least.
 * Many Fairy-type and Light-attribute monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh, including high-ranking Fairies The Splendid Venus, Athena, Tethys Goddess of Light, and the Airknight Parshath line. The "Lightray" archetype is designed around the idea of Good Counterparts of existing monsters (an earlier archetype featured Evil Counterparts), and their outfits are recolored white, gold and blue.

Video Games

 * Father Balder in Bayonetta uses a white and gold costume. Divine? Certainly, as the last of the Lumen Sages. Good? Haha, no.
 * Page picture provided by Cosmos of Dissidia Final Fantasy, the game's Big Good and Goddess of Harmony.
 * The "Light Emperor" of Final Fantasy II rules over Heaven and wears light yellow and gold robes with lavendar and white details, a gold crest and white wings.
 * Crisis Core has Minerva.
 * Final Fantasy XIII, Galenth Dysley wears a white robe with gold and blue colorings. His title in the Japanese version of the game is even "Great Pope", and so he looks the part..
 * In the same game, Orphan appears as a gold and white being.
 * wears the same colors in Final Fantasy XIII-2, probably as a conscious decision by the character designers to denote he serves a similar role in society.
 * Several Final Fantasy games set in Ivalice feature Ultima the High Seraph, with blue-green skin and robes of white and gold.
 * Manaketes of the Divine Dragon tribe in the Fire Emblem series are either white or gold in their dragon forms.
 * God of War, Zeus wears a white robe with gold armor.
 * Helios is an interesting case in that he wears normally a golden armour complimented by a white toga, but he has a crimson cape as well.
 * Arceus from Pokémon.
 * Most angels of the Disgaea series.
 * Breath of Fire III and IV, Ryu ends up with Hair of Gold and white-clothing whenever he transforms into his "final" form (Kaiser in III and God-Ryu in IV, respectively). Fou-Lu also counts if he . Also, Infinity in IV,, is a palette-swap of Tyrant Dragon, with white and gold skin, and blue divine wings.
 * Fina's dress in Skies of Arcadia.
 * In the Monster Rancher series, the holy-aspected Gali is gold and white, and all monsters with the Gali subtype gain that coloring and the holy aspect.
 * Shinkoku officials abuse this trope (along with some silver) in Asura's Wrath. They set themselves up as immortal cyborg demigod saviors, but in reality they are exploiting the people for their Mantra.

Web Comics

 * In Exterminatus Now, an angel in a demon-infested site is white and yellow.
 * In Our Little Adventure, Angelo poses as this down to glowing yellow eyes when angered.

Web Original

 * In the webcomic Overcompensating, God wears a white robe with golden letters spelling out "YHWH". Jesus wears a similar attire that says "INRI", though often the color of his robe is more beige or light brown.
 * The colors gold, white, and red are associated with the God of Time in Tasakeru. Likewise with silver, white, and blue for the Goddess of Life.

Western Animation

 * In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Physical God Princess Celestia is white, and her crown, breastplate and shoes are gold. Averted with her sister, Princess Luna, who is blue and black. Their color schemes are supposed to represent day and night, respectively.

Real Life

 * This trope can be traced back to the ancient statues of gods which were covered with ivory and gold, such as the statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. This was so common that there is a term, "chryselephantine", used solely to refer to such statuary.
 * The clothing of many gods from Egyptian Mythology is white with gold trim, particularly the ones that wear kilts like Anubis.
 * The Pope, of course, and numerous symbols of Christianity, including the Keys to Heaven, a gold and a silver key overlaid.
 * The flags of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Papal States are the only ones allowed to use gold and white/silver together—normally the rules of heraldry forbid putting two metal colours together—precisely because it is seen as exceptional and holy.
 * The highest clergymen of some Buddhist order.