Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning



In Real Life, as can be seen here, most of the lightning bolts are purplish white or bluish white. Sometimes they're reddish, orange or even greenish.

However, in certain types of works, lightning bolts and other types of electricity are chiefly yellow (which is quite an uncommon color for lightning, at least when not having an orange tinge), often a simple zigzag shape and seldom striking from the ground to sky or from the one to be shocked to the object. Justified since yellow is a good warning color, associated with electricity and fire in general (and as we all know, lightning is electric).

Most videogames with the Fire, Ice, Lightning trinity will also make lightning yellow to differentiate it from ice (and to exhaust the three primary colours).

In live-action films and more realistic video games, though, lightning bolts are still predominantly blue. However, sometimes it is very blue so that there is no white seen.

General

 * Symbols in weather reports.
 * "Risk of Electric Shock" warning signs are typically black on a yellow background, but that's more for OSHA compliance here than anything else.

Anime & Manga

 * Fate Testarossa in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has an inherent affinity for lighting-based magic. Her lightning (as well as other spells) is yellow or golden in color.
 * Most Electric Pokémon, with a few exceptions that fit in the blue category like Pachirisu.
 * One Piece
 * The lighting created by Nami's Clima Tact is yellow in color.
 * Also, Eneru is on both sides - his electricity is yellow in the manga and blueish-white in the anime.
 * Luxus, from Fairy Tail, is a lightning mage whose attacks are all yellow or whitish yellow.

Comic Books

 * Every version of The Flash uses a yellow lightning bolt as part of his costumery. Thunder and lightning are a near-ubiquitous motif for the Flash family; their power source, the Speed Force, is sometimes physically represented as an eternal thunderstorm.
 * Depending On the Artist, the Flash even leaves trails of yellow electricity (usually emanating from the yellow parts of his costume... somehow...)
 * As does the Marvel Family. They are even transformed by yellow bolts.
 * Spider-Man's Electro throws bolts of yellow electricity. They're also represented that way on his costume. Although certain incarnations of the character fall firmly into blue lightning territory.
 * This has been referenced a few comics where Spider-Man as able to identify electricity at a distance as Electro's because of its distinct yellow hue.

Live-Action TV

 * Bullseye US
 * Mahou Sentai Magiranger/Power Rangers Mystic Force -- Tsubasa / Chip, the yellow ranger, has the power of lightning, which is also yellow.

Video Games

 * Mega Man games have yellow lightning. For an example, Sheep Man and Elec Man.
 * One of the items in Shantae makes yellow lightning.
 * Duck Tales 2 on the NES had a yellow lightning strike a block to make it go away.
 * Electric monsters in Pokémon have yellow lightning attacks.
 * PSI Thunder in Earthbound and Mother 3
 * Giga Lakitu in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
 * For some time City of Heroes gave hero players blue lightning and villain players red lightning, despite being the same powers. After issue 15 the player can make the lightning whatever color they want.
 * The Jumper series feature electricity traps coloured yellow with red sections which indicate a safe zone in the current. (Don't ask how it works. Just be glad they exist.)
 * Crono, the protagonist of Chrono Trigger uses lightning magic and has a yellow frame around the "lightning" reading on his status screen (whereas Merle's water is blue and Luca's fire is red). The lightning that he actually calls forth though are much more realistic and are very white with a light ting of blue. "Lightning 2" does shoot out yellow light before it releases the actual lightning though.

Webcomics

 * In The Order of the Stick, most lightning spells are creating either white or yellow bolts -- though Tsukiko's Electric Orb was blue. There is also the notable exception of Zz'dtri, who produces green lightning.

Western Animation

 * Looney Tunes
 * Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
 * Storm from the X-Men animated series.

Anime & Manga

 * God Eneru in One Piece creates blue lightning -- in the anime. In the manga it's yellow.
 * Lightning Style/Lightning Release jutsu in the Naruto series.
 * Misaka Mikoto of To Aru Majutsu no Index and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun wields blue lightning.

Comic Books

 * During Superman's Dork Age as Superman Blue, he generated blue lightning. When Superman Red is introduced, he uses red lightning.

Films -- Live-Action

 * Emperor Palpatine's Force Lightning in the Star Wars series.

Live Action TV

 * The eponymous Kamen Rider Blade uses lightning-based attacks and is colored navy blue.

Video Games

 * Final Fantasy Tactics, as seen from the image of Thunderbolts and Lightning.
 * Raiden in Mortal Kombat makes bluish-purple lightning.
 * By default, electrical attacks in City of Heroes are bright blue. In City of Villains they're red, which is even less likely. In both cases, though, you can customise the colour to your own preference.
 * Pokémon Black and White: Zekrom uses blue lightning in its Fusion Bolt move.
 * Bio Shock's Electro Bolt plasmid, as well as other electricity, is marked by pure blue bolts (and glowing blue veins.)
 * Dante's Alastor sword from Devil May Cry uses blue lightning.
 * Shin Megami Tensei
 * In Viewtiful Joe, Captain Blue and his daughter Sylvia's lightning attacks are, appropriately, blue. Electrical sources are also blue in general. Alastor's lightning is stylishly purple.
 * In the In Famous series, Cole's good karma lightning is blue.

Western Animation

 * Lightning bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender. An exception is Ozai's first lightningbending seen, which shows a realistic white glow.
 * Jay from Ninjago.

Comic Books

 * Marvel's Thor and Storm of the X-Men have lightning of both colors, Depending On the Artist.

Video Games

 * God of War uses both in regards to the gods, with Zeus' usual lightning attacks being yellow/golde, but with Poseidon's, Kronos' and young!Zeus being blue. Kratos later gains the whip of Nemesis, that generates green lightning.
 * This shows up in the Kingdom Hearts series sometimes. Typically, heroic characters like Sora and Aqua use yellow lightning, while villains like Xemnas and Vanitas use Sith-style]] blue lightning.
 * Although normal lightning in Tales of Symphonia is consistently blue- or purple-white, the Temple of Lightning requires you to shift the Sorcerer's Ring between blue, yellow, and red lightning types, which each break blocks of their own color.
 * Visible to Super Smash Bros player on the receiving end of a thunder-abusing Pikachu. The attack is most deadly when it turns from yellow to blue.
 * Suikoden uses yellow in its early installments and whitish-blue later on.
 * Flick uses lightning magic (though can change that if you want) and he is called "the Blue Lightning." Though this has to do with the color of his garment more than anything else.
 * In Super Mario RPG, Mallow's basic lightning attack, Thunderbolt (which is a Herd Hitting Attack) sends down a storm of white-blue bolts, resembling real-life thunderbolts. His more powerful Shocker move uses a cartoony yellow one, however.
 * Monster Hunter uses yellow and blue lightning effects on certain weapons to represent paralysis ailment and thunder element respectively. As a result of this distinction we have the somewhat ironic scenario of most thunder weapons being unable to inflict paralysis (and conversely most paralysis-inflicting weapons don't deal elemental damage). Note that this only applies to the player; Kirin is capable of calling down blue (though more white than anything)-colored bolts that inflict paralysis.