Everything's Better with Rainbows

"''"Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,

The lovers, the dreamers and me."''"

- Kermit The Frog

Rainbows in stories are not just symbolic, but also prone to traits that actual rainbows never exhibit, the most common being solidity, treating the rainbow as an object that can be interacted with.

Because rainbows seem to travel from the ground to the sky (and back, if complete), they are usually seen in mythology as some kind of bridge or other connection point to and from heaven; in Norse Mythology the rainbow is Bifrost, the bridge to Asgard; in Greek Mythology, Iris is the goddess of the rainbow as well as the messenger of the gods (Which makes this Older Than Feudalism). In Ireland, a rainbow's base is also a great place to keep a pot of gold (in fact, it serves as a perfect hiding place, since it's impossible to reach). In The Bible, the rainbow is a pledge that the world will never again be flooded to destroy all living things. Meanwhile in Japan, a rainbow is traditionally an ill omen, of doom or at least bad weather, though the Western perspective has become more widespread there.

Some people even associate rainbows with ULTIMATE POWER, of all things.

Since rainbows are natural phenomena of great power, it's also reasonable to give them to actual characters and forces within a story. Expect some of the flashier Anime characters to use them directly as a weapon or to incorporate them somehow into Ki Attacks. They're also a common symbol in worlds known for their Elemental Rock Paper Scissors, as a representation of a character's equal dedication to each element. Finally, they are known in some circles to be extremely girly and are often a symbol of Camp Gayness.

May overlap, especially in the second variant, with All Your Colors Combined. See also Rainbow Motif.

Advertising

 * There was once a Skittles commercial in which some kids were sitting on a rainbow, eating Skittles. When one questioned the plausibility of this, part of the rainbow opened up beneath him like a trapdoor and he fell to his death. Don't question the rainbow.
 * At Dairy Queen, they don't just have rainbows, they have rainbows that are on fire!

Anime and Manga

 * The Rainbow Crystals (fragments that come together to form the Silver Crystal) of Sailor Moon.
 * In one episode of Mushishi, Ginko joins up with a man who's looking for a rainbow colored being called the Rainbow Serpent.
 * The Live Action Adaptation even turns this episode into a framing device, and seeing the Rainbow Serpent becomes the actual goal of the journey.
 * In the Code Geass opening, "World End", there's a scene of Nunnally, a blind, crippled girl, throwing a paper crane that trails a rainbow and sparkles. Whether or not it has meaning is up to the viewer.
 * A rainbow appears in Gundam 00 after the Gundam Meisters successfully rescue Allelujah and Marina, making a dramatic escape. This can be justified by the amount of water thrown into the air from Ptolemios II's plunge into the ocean.
 * Rainbows and the colors of the rainbow are a central theme in Brigadoon Marin and Melan. It's highlighted by the ending theme, "Rainbow-colored Treasure."
 * Rainbows are common in Rebuild of Evangelion; at one point, a rainbow shows through a rain of blood.
 * Johan Andersen's ultimate monster, Rainbow Dragon, in Yu-Gi-Oh GX.

Comics

 * In Rose Is Rose, Pasquele "catches" rainbows -- the little ones. That is, he sprays the hose and makes small rainbows (He always releases them unharmed).

Music

 * One of Ronnie James Dio favorite topics to sing about.
 * He was in Rainbow, after all!
 * After it rains, Fuckin' Rainbows!
 * Rainbow

Film

 * In Barbie and The Diamond Castle, an invisible rainbow bridge is guarded by a troll and only shows itself if someone answers the troll's riddle correctly.
 * The Muppet Movie rainbow. All right, it crashed through the roof, but it was a naturally occurring rainbow.
 * Rainbow Drops in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory allow you to spit in seven different colors.

Literature

 * The Book of Lost Tales (the precursor to The Silmarillion), featured the Olórë Mallë (Path of Dreams) over which the spirits of children in Middle-earth would travel in their sleep to meet the Elves in Valinor; this was implied to be a rainbow.
 * In a story told in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the children of the Creator slipped through a rift in creation to chase a rainbow and got trapped, becoming the stars.
 * In The Last Continent, after the rain returns to FourEcks, the Man Who Carries The Universe In A Sack produces a boomerang decorated with more colours than the Ecksian Aborigine boy has ever seen in one place, and throws it at the sky, where it sticks.
 * In George MacDonald's The Golden Key, the key is found at the end of the rainbow -- which also shines at night, but then, it's in The Lost Woods.

Mythology

 * In Norse Mythology, Bifrost is a rainbow bridge connecting Midgard (earth) to Asgard (heaven). Presumably every rainbow is an instance of the same bridge.
 * Carried over to the Thor comics.

Newspaper Comics

 * Once in Peanuts, Lucy worried about the persistent rain flooding everything. Linus assures her that the rainbow is a sign of the promise that it won't.

Video Games

 * At the end of Okami, a rainbow forms a bridge to the Ark of Yamato.
 * In Okamiden, rainbows can be used as bridges on an inhabited stormcloud.
 * Similarly, at the end of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, the seven multicolored Sages combine their powers to form a bridge to Ganondorf's castle.
 * Although it doesn't look like a real rainbow, as the color varies along the bridge's length rather than along its width.
 * The bridge itself looks better in the 3DS remake. (mid-right)
 * In Super Paper Mario, you end up creating a blocky rainbow bridge to Grambi's shrine.
 * The course Rainbow Road in Mario Kart is just a big, long rainbow that you drive on.
 * Ditto for Rainbow Road's appearances in F-Zero and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
 * The King of All Cosmos uses a rainbow to transport the Prince to Earth and back in Katamari Damacy.
 * Don't forget Rainbow Ride from Super Mario 64 (and Rainbow Cruise from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl).
 * Rainbow Islands. A game where solid rainbows are used both to attack enemies and to create platforms for climbing.
 * In Pokémon Black and White, there is a new combination move that creates a rainbow that raises the chance of added effects from moves (for example, Thunderbolt will have a higher chance of causing paralysis).

Web Animation

 * In the Strong Bad Email "flashback," Coach Z and Strong Bad travel on a "sweet, sweet rainbow bridge" from the moon back to Earth.
 * Magical Dream Time!

Web Comics

 * Subverted in this "The Perry Bible Fellowship" where it turns out to be the eye of an Eldritch Abomination.
 * In Sinfest, after it rains
 * In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob Oogrook the little unicorn tends to be flanked by rainbows. The absurdity of doing this in a black and white comic is lampshaded by labeling the stripes "red," orange," "yellow," etc.
 * In Question Duck, watching the rainbow is the perfect time to ask about pizza.

Web Original

 * Also subverted in this Five Second Films clip.

Western Animation

 * The Fairly Odd Parents has a rainbow bridge connecting Earth to Fairy World. It's unclear where exactly this bridge's Earthly end is located, and the bridge is rarely used in favor of teleportation between the worlds.
 * Though, when it's out, it is a symbol that both worlds are sealed off from one another.
 * G1 My Little Pony had the Rainbow of Light, which tended to be a go-to weapon of sorts.
 * In the world of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, rainbows are made in a weather factory, where it's shown in liquid form. Pinkie Pie, who had previously been shown to relish cupcakes that had been slathered in copious amounts of intensely spicy hot sauce, tried tasting liquid rainbow and wound up fleeing in a firey panic. There's also the traditional, non-liquid form, possibly the finished product; both are used in the landscaping of Rainbow Dash's cloud home. Rainbow Dash creates a rainbow-colored streak behind her when she flies fast enough and is also able to perform a stunt known as the "Sonic Rainboom", aka the "Orbital Friendship Cannon", which is exactly what it sounds like. The Apple family also occasionally harvests magical Zap Apples that only appear under certain rare weather conditions and are rainbow patterned when they ripen.
 * In one episode, three young girls suck the colours out of a free-standing rainbow using a vacuum cleaner. They needed it for a love poison.
 * Inverted in a Fanfic named "Rainbow Factory" where it turns out that
 * Used in the logo of The Amazing World of Gumball; Tobias and his family/species has a rainbow color scheme as well.
 * There's apparently a placed called a Rainbow Factory where Nicole works and which Masami's dad owns.

Real Life

 * Became an internet phenomenon after this clip quickly spread like wildfire, going through various remixes, alterations and mutations along the way.
 * Incidentally, double rainbows are actually very common, though the second one is often much fainter.
 * Lisa Frank, anyone? (Everyone who was or knew a little girl in The Nineties should be familiar with this one!)
 * An airplane's condensation trail with proper lighting can make a distinctive rainbow too
 * During the 1970s-1980s, every VHS company ever tend to use rainbows in their logos, not to mention (in some cases) on cover designs.

Advertising

 * Every Lucky Charms cereal commercial, ever.

Anime and Manga

 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann uses it in almost every transformation, and in the final episode when the spiral power goes off the charts!!!
 * Yu-Gi-Oh GX has Johan's Rainbow Dragon card, itself summoned via having the seven colors of the Rainbow in their beast forms already present.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds: After summoning the three polar gods in a non-duel Team Ragnorok activated the spell card "The Rainbow Bridge Bifrost" (not to be confused with with the card "Rainbow Bridge Bifrost, without the "The") to get Yusei and co up to the Arc Cradle.
 * Eureka Seven: The "Seven Swell" attack is composed of rainbow colored energy, and rainbows are used quite a bit in the series.
 * Xamd Lost Memories: Many simple little energy bursts, among other things, are rainbow colored.
 * A filler character in Bleach, Maki Ichinose has a zanpaku-to named Nijigasumi that uses rainbow-based attacks.

Comics

 * Meet Rainbow Boy!
 * Detective Comics #241 featured a story titled "The Rainbow Batman". In the story, Dick Grayson injures his arm while in public, making going out as Robin risky. As luck would have it, Batman's latest case requires Robin's assistance to help identify the crooks, which is a problem given that the case takes place at an event attracting media attention. Batman ceates some differently colored uniforms (as well as a bullseye uniform) for himself to wear to distract the crowds from Robin's injury, culminating with the titlar Rainbow Batman outfit.
 * Action Comics #317 brings us "Superman's Rainbow Face", where Superman's face changes color depending on his emotions. This is, of course, a Red Kryptonite story.
 * The Flash has an enemy called Rainbow Raider, who can use rainbows as Hard Light constructs and manipulate emotions based on the color that hits his targets. Ironically, he's colorblind.

Film

 * Generating a rainbow out of the spikes on his back was the main form of attack for Barugon, Gamera's very first foe in War of the Monsters (a.k.a. Gamera vs. Barugon).

Literature

 * In Percy Jackson and The Olympians, Iris sends messages for the characters when they throw coins into rainbows. Real rainbows, creating occasions where they have to quickly fudge up some spray to generate one.

Live Action TV

 * The War At Home: Kenny dances to Village People's Y.M.C.A.... with rainbows!

Mythology

 * In Greek Mythology, Iris was the goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. Even when Hermes took up the messenger role, she never gave it up; gods sent both of them.

Tabletop Games

 * An early edition of Dungeons and Dragons had two different Rainbow spells. One could produce various effects, such as a bow that could fire colored missiles, liquids with beneficial effects, and (of course) a bridge. The other produced a rainbow pattern in the air that could distract opponents for a short time.
 * Which two? AD&D 2ed. has Rainbow cantrip, Rainbow Pattern, Rainbow Shield, Prismatic Sphere, Prismatic Spray, Prismatic Wall, as well as abviously related spells like Color Spray, Chromatic Orb and Chromatic Blade.
 * 3.5 Edition gives us the Initiate of the Seven Veils, a set of magical prismatic veils and more rainbow spells.
 * Warhammer 40000 -Back at the very start of Warhammer 40k with Rogue Trader, there was a Space Marine chapter listed called the Rainbow Warriors.

Video Games
"Sakuya: Here, we have Rainbow Falls. There's always a rainbow here, and some say you can even hear the rainbow.
 * Daria from Rune Factory 3 is obsessed with rainbows; she SCREAMS "RAINBOW" at any given chance, uses rainbow-colored attacks, and interrupts Sakuya's tour to scream "RAINBOW!"

Daria: (off-screen) RAINBOW!"


 * Basically the whole point of the game Rainbow Islands.
 * In Chrono Trigger, there's a sidequest to gather a chromatic "rainbow shell," from which several of the game's most powerful items are made.
 * And in Chrono Cross where you see what a weapon made from rainbow shell should actually look like.
 * In Kirby's Dream Land 2, collecting all the Rainbow Drops earns you the Rainbow Sword, which you need for fighting.
 * And in Kirby's Canvas Curse, you control Kirby using a magical paintbrush that paints rainbow-colored lines as paths for Kirby.
 * In the Mario sports games, Yoshi's special moves tend to be rainbow-powered if they're not egg-based (or even if they are).
 * From Touhou Project, Hong Meiling has a lot of her attacks based on rainbows.
 * And Kaguya. Tree-Ocean of Hourai and End of Imperishable Night "Morning Mist", especially.
 * Kogasa's Spell Card "Over The Rainbow".
 * Alice's character title is Seven-Colored Puppeteer.
 * The Rainbow Pop Fly is a powerup in Backyard Baseball.
 * One of the mage skills in The Spirit Engine involves smiting your enemies with a rainbow.
 * ROYAL RAINBOW!
 * Mouri Motonari, the resident sun-worshipper from Sengoku Basara, carries a rainbow blade as one of his weapons. Subverted in that this does not make him a nice guy.
 * In the Bit Trip games, CommanderVideo always leaves a rainbow trail behind him for no apparent reason. In RUNNER in particular, you have to reach Extra Mode (via collecting Mode Power Ups) to get the rainbow. And the ending of said game features the Five Man Band lifting off with individual trials matching the rainbow's colors in these games.
 * Sonic Colors naturally. Especially
 * Robot Unicorn Attack. Hell yeah.
 * The Pokémon Ho-oh is a rainbow-creating phoenix.

Webcomics

 * In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Sparklelord is a unicorn with a rainbow-colored mane in his home dimension. When transported to McNinja's dimension, he takes the form of a sentient motorcycle with flippin' sweet rainbow markings on it. (Although Gordito mocks him for looking like a Lisa Frank creation.)
 * Dreamkeepers Prelude For Insubstantial Ingredients Their makeup is made of depressed rainbows serving out their humiliating punishment for cloud-related offenses.

Western Animation

 * The Rainicorn, from Adventure Time. Half unicorn, half rainbow. Doesn't get much more girly-awesome than that.
 * Rainbow Brite
 * In the Disney Fairies franchise, light-talent fairies control and manipulate rainbows.
 * In the Spongebob SquarePants episode "Idiot Box", a Running Gag involves Spongebob making a semi-figurative rainbow with his hands to illustrate the power of imagination.
 * In the first episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a band of leprechauns (well, and a half-Korean) use a machine to create rainbows that can be used to mug people.
 * An episode of Rocko's Modern Life where he said he likes rainbows freaks out the other characters.
 * Care Bears: The entire series seems to reek in terms of rainbows as decorations, traveling devices, energy, and for that matter, weapons.
 * Three little words: Care Bear Stare.
 * God the Devil And Bob: God creates a double rainbow to cheer up the people of Detroit (in a way that won't make the atheists feel left out). For his next trick, he makes a DMV run efficiently and politely.
 * The original My Little Pony cartoons, including The Movie, used the Rainbow of Light as their one and only weapon. It tended to act like a Care Bear Stare -- reviving good characters but rounding up the not-so-good and outright destroying the evil.
 * In fact, the movie's the only time when the Rainbow of Light fails.
 * It's not neglected in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, either, although it's done with the 'Elements of Harmony'. Similar effects, aside from 'outright destroying' the evil.
 * One of the characters in the Friendship Is Magic series is Rainbow Dash, a Pegasus with a rainbow colored mane.
 * Said pegasus used her "sonic rainboom" to create a crash that gave off a mushroom cloud to destroy an old barn.

Anime and Manga

 * In the Yume Tsukai manga, the author invoke that, in Japanese culture, rainbows used to be seen as unnatural distressing phenomena at best and as bad omens as worst, and that the optimistic connotations were brought only recently. Then this symbolism is milked for all its worth by using rainbows to symbolize the doomed relationship of the first seen client of the Yume Tsukai and.
 * Pokémon's Ho-Oh is said to glow of all seven colors and only appears to remarkable trainers. When it shows up in the Pokémon animé for the first time, it's after Pikachu saves Ash (which was the very first episode that appeared before Ho-Oh appears in its own games). Ho-Oh shows up again a few times later as a Homage to Ash's Establishing Character Moment to Walk the Earth and To Be a Master.
 * Rebuild of Evangelion has a rainbow appear after the death of each Angel. A couple of them are Justified by large amounts of Angel blood in the air, giving the light something to refract through, but others show up alongside the iconic cross-explosions for no apparent reason. Given that this is Evangelion, no one is sure if this is symbolic of something, or just more pseudo-Christian imagery to mess with our heads.
 * Later reaches into Mood Whiplash, especially when Unit-01

Comics

 * The Flag of Krypton in the Silver Age Superman stories.

Literature

 * In The Bible, following the Genesis flood, God sent a rainbow as a symbol that he had set aside his bow, and that he would never again destroy the earth through cataclysmic flooding. (Also of interest: according to a biblical literalist/creationist reading of Genesis, the Flood was the first time it had ever rained.)
 * In The Lord of the Rings, Saruman the White electively promoted himself to "the Many Colored" to indicate he had evolved beyond a mere monochromatic title. Gandalf pointed out that a beam of white light broken into a rainbow is no longer white, so Saruman hadn't improved his worth so much as fractured it. As the color of each Wizard apparently symbolized the individual Vala he served, Saruman's rainbow robes could well symbolize
 * In The Wheel of Time, the Aes Sedai organisation is made up of seven distinct "Ajahs" each of which are devoted to a specific area of study or action. The organisation's flag shows a spiral of the seven colors, as does the headdress of their leader, the Amyrlin Seat. Since this symbol incorporates gray, brown and white into its overal scheme, this isn't a strict rainbow, but is evocative of such anyway.
 * A Song of Ice and Fire uses refractive crystals and rainbows as symbols of the Faith of the Seven. As a rainbow has seven colors, it's taken in the same sense as the three-leaf clover is sometimes viewed as symbolic of the Holy Trinity.

Real Life
"Demetri Martin: I just think it's odd one group took refracted light. Pretty greedy, gay people."
 * The rainbow (specifically, the Rainbow Flag) is used most widely in the Western world as a symbol of gay pride.


 * The Quechua people of Peru, better known as the Incas, use a rainbow flag (it used to be the personal flag of the Emperor).
 * The symbol of Kopimi, an anti-copyright initiative.

Video Games

 * Annie Frazier of Backyard Sports used to have a rainbow on her shirt; for her, it was a good omen.
 * In Tokimeki Memorial, there's Saki Nijino, the bright and cheerful manager of Kirameki High's Soccer Club. The Kanji used for her name, "Nijino", can be translated as "Field of Rainbow" ; thus, the rainbow is one of the two main elements (along with a soccer ball) in the cover, title screen,  of the spin-off game she's the heroine of, Nijiiro no Seishun. Also, her two CD albums' names are "Over the Rainbow" and "Niji no Lithograph" (Rainbow Lithograph).
 * At the end of The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask, the Moon dissolves in a globe of multicoloured light, and leaves a rainbow streaked across the sky for all to see. This is probably a symbol in the biblical style, a sign that a great calamity has passed.

Western Animation

 * Jimmy Two-Shoes: The second season opening features these prominitly thanks to Jimmy's Fertile Feet.