Alien Blood: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Well, I see your problem: You're bleeding tang!''
On the outside, they may be [[Human Aliens]], completely indistinguishable from us [[Puny Earthlings]]. Or they can be shapeshifters. Or [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]]. Whatever...
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With [[Human Aliens]], this is a very mild case of [[You Fail Biology Forever]]: Since the skin is translucent, a creature with different-colored blood wouldn't have the same skin color as a human...if the skin is white. Darker-skinned aliens, or ones with scales, feathers, hair, or something else hiding their skins avert this problem, albeit probably unintentionally.
Of course, here on Earth, all vertebrates, the largest and most complex members of the animal kingdom, have red
In [[Video Games]], [[Aliens and Monsters]] often have different colors of blood than red, frequently as an optional mode, to appease the [[Moral Guardians]]. [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|Because it's okay to shoot non-human beings if they don't bleed the same way
Assuming it's not red like human blood, [[Aliens and Monsters]] most commonly have blood that's either black or some bright color usually associated with something unhealthy, like orange, green, or yellow (blue and violet are possible, but rare). Robots and Cyborgs, on the other hand, are often shown squirting white fluid when damaged (or black, which is arguably oil). The white blood can be traced back to the android in the movie [[Alien]], who was practically overflowing with the stuff and very squishy compared to most robots in film at the time. In a case of reality imitating fiction perflourocarbon based blood substitutes are white and carry oxygen much more efficiently compared to red blood cells.
Not to be confused with [[Blue Blood]], even if it is, in fact, blue. (Though some blue-blooded aliens can, in fact, be [[Blue Blood
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
* In ''[[Tower of God]]'', Ren's creatures are green-blooded. And orange. And red. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130719223331/http://eu.batoto.net/comics/2011/10/31/t/read4eae5ff3e085a/20111028195630_IMAG01_24.jpg
▲== [[Anime]] ==
▲* In ''[[Tower of God]]'', Ren's creatures are green-blooded. And orange. And red. [http://eu.batoto.net/comics/2011/10/31/t/read4eae5ff3e085a/20111028195630_IMAG01_24.jpg\] [http://eu.batoto.net/comics/2011/10/31/t/read4eae5ff3e085a/20111028195630_IMAG01_25.jpg\]
* The Mulians in ''[[RahXephon]]'' are [[Human Aliens]] with blue blood.
* The Emilys from ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' bleed green.
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** Kunzite appears to have hot pink blood (in the episode where a Crescent Beam cuts his hands). Perhaps he's a Klingon?
** In a rather bizarre reversal of this, the aliens Eiru and An from the first arc of the second season have red blood, even though they have green skin and the insides of their mouths are clearly also green.
* The androids in the ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' series consistently have white blood, a possible reference to the ''[[Alien
* Magic-users in [[Dorohedoro]] have black particles mixed in with their blood.
* The Aragami of ''[[Blue Seed]]'', being essentially plants, have green blood; this extends to the half-Aragami mutants like Kusanagi, though the latter looks extraordinarily enough not to be mistaken for a normal human. (The color of his blood [[Black Blood|still helps]], considering that he tends to get injured ''a lot''.)
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== [[Fan
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]''/''[[Firefly]]'' crossover ''[[The Man
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Simon'''}}: His blood is the wrong color!
'''The Doctor''': [[Sarcasm Mode|Is it?]] }}
* In the ''[[Mass Effect]]''/''[[Robotech]]'' crossover ''Protoculture Effect'', {{spoiler|Shepard}} is revealed to have green blood when he gets injured. {{spoiler|He explains that this is because he's a [[Half-Human Hybrid|quarter-]][[Heel Face Turn|Invid]].}}
* Youma in the stories of the ''[[Sailor Moon Expanded]]'' project have ''turquoise'' blood.
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* One of the princes in ''[[Stardust (film)|Stardust]]'' has literal [[Blue Blood]]. Unknown if it's just because he's royalty, or if all inhabitants of the magical world have such blood, since nobody else in the movie is seen bleeding. [[Word of God]] states the decision for the color was made to avoid an "R" rating, with the added benefit of being a [[Visual Pun|visual gag]] for [[Blue Blood|the character]].
* The Xenomorphs in ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' have yellow, [[Bloody Murder|highly acidic blood that can burn through steel]], while the androids have milky white fluid inside them instead of blood. In the later movies, the blood is green instead, possibly as a result of morphing with human DNA.
* The [[Predator
* Not quite aliens, but one of the first hints that the employees of the Titty Twister in ''[[From Dusk till Dawn]]'' aren't human is a close-up of a knife which was just used to stab one of them. Instead of blood, it's covered in a translucent goo.
* In [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'', blood samples are taken from all the characters and exposed to heat to test which one is the shapeshifting alien. The alien blood, it turns out, is capable of ''leaping around the room as an independent organism''.
** The character who proposed and carried out the test did it because he figured that the blood might well do that, as severed pieces had previously been observed operating independently.
* The monster ''[[Gamera]]'' has green blood. Not that it's ever likely to be useful as [[The Reveal]], but notable anyhow for the sheer volume you will be seeing in any given
** His enemy Gyaos' blood was pink.
* The alien opera singer in ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' has royal blue blood.
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* Many dragons, in all forms of media, have boiling blood, including in the ''[[The Malloreon]]''.
* The main characters in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[The Number of the Beast]]'' discover the "ranger" hassling them isn't human when they discover that "he" has blue-green blood.
* The Orcs in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' and its associated works have black blood.
* Inverted in ''[[Animorphs]]''. Andalite blood is blue-black, but Elfangor and Arbron are [[Squick|squicked out]] when they find that humans have red blood.
* ''And The Devil Will Drag You Under'' by L. Sprague deCamp had a race of alien demons with blue blood. "Not dark blue, but a nice, pretty sky blue."
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** In fact, this trope is so common among the Dresdenverse's [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|many, many kinds of monsters]] that by the later books, "Bleed for me" has become the standard test for a mortal trying to decide [[Vampire Invitation|whether to invite a stranger]] into their home.
* [[Society of Immortals|Humanity]] in [[Robert Reed]]'s ''Great Ship'' universe have very dark red, almost black blood due to the huge amount of genetic engineering and extra bits of DNA and cells in their bloodstream. The Remoras, twisted by radiation and their own tailored viruses, often have odd blood - one of the characters, Orleans, has very thick black blood.
* The title character of ''The Alien'' by L.P. Davies was reported to have very ''unusual'' blood, with oddities about its color and some components that seemed more vegetable than animal -- leading to the suspicion that he ''was'' a space alien ... and might just have some connection with the sabotage of a government research facility. ''He'' couldn't answer any questions, because he'd lost his memory ... {{spoiler|and because he was a government agent himself, impersonating the (dead) possible alien/saboteur in hopes the man's comrades would contact him. It turned out the dead man ''wasn't'' an alien: the oddities in his blood were the result of an unethical medical experiment performed on him without his permission. Bitterness over ''that'' led him to help the foreign saboteurs. No genuine extraterrestrials were involved.}}
* Jack Williamson's ''Golden Blood'' concerns a gas from a volcanic fissure which permeates the flesh of anyone who spends enough time in proximity to it. Yes, it turns the blood, and eventually the skin and to a lesser extent hair and eyes, metallic gold in color. It also halts or at least slows aging (the [[Big Bad]] was [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|well over fifteen centuries old]]), enhances strength, and in the case of two animals seen, causes growth to unusual size.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Vulcans in ''[[Star Trek]]'' have green copper-based blood, not unlike Earth insects.<ref>In reality, Cyanoglobin (the oxygen-carrying pigment that is the copper-blood equivalent of iron-based haemoglobin) does not carry oxygen very efficiently, which is why molluscs like squids and octopi tend to operate on a 'dart and rest' principle.</ref>
** To a limited extent, ''[[Star Trek]]'' did [[Shown Their Work|Show Their Work]] in that Leonard Nimoy's make-up did tend towards a more greenish cast than everyone else's. It did take several tries, however, to get this to work the way they wanted when combined with the lighting and the other make-up, which occasionally had hilarious
** The shapeshifters of ''[[Star Trek:
** The Andorians have blue blood, which is just icing on the cake since they also have blue skin and antennae. Bolians also have blue blood (and, again, blue skin).
** While the pigment in Vulcan and Romulan blood may use copper similarly to how human blood uses iron, the pigment would not be all that much like hemoglobin. The usual color of copper-based respiratory pigments in Earth life (which are similar to hemoglobin) is blue.
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* While the alien Clark Kent bleeds red blood on the few occasions he's hurt enough to bleed in ''[[Smallville]]'', cyborg human Victor Stone (Cyborg of ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' fame) bleeds black mech fluids, keeping in line with the comics. This does not carry over to the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' cartoon, where it appears to be clear.
* The alien teenagers of ''[[Roswell]]'' have both blood and saliva that looks normal to the naked eye but not under a microscope.
* In the TV series spin-off of ''[[V (TV series)|V]]'' the distinctive reverberation of the Visitor's voices was dropped due to the expense of sound dubbing, and the Visitors were given cliché green blood instead. Some viewers missed the plot point about a human who'd cut his hand actually being a [[The Mole|Visitor infiltrator]], as they lacked a colour television at the time.
* Luxans in ''[[Farscape]]'' have clear blood which turns to [[Black Blood|black]] when they get hurt. Black blood is toxic, thus the bleeding has to be stimulated until it turns clear again. Also in ''Farscape'', Nebari have blue blood.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Blade]]'' has the [[Monster of the Week|Undead]], who bleed green. This serves as a [[Chekhov's Gun]] as {{spoiler|one of the main characters is an Undead himself and another main character becomes an Undead in the finale, and they both bled this color.}}
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** In "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S18/E04 State of Decay|State of Decay]]", the Doctor's blood is blue. In every other episode of the series where he bleeds, it's normal red.
** In the movie it's red, but is different enough from human blood on a cellular level that Grace describes it as "not blood" when she looks at it under a microscope.
* ''[[Babylon 5]]:'' The Drazi have white blood. On the other hand, the other major
* Basco ta Jolokia of ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'' is shown to have light bluish-green blood {{spoiler|when he dies}}.
* One ''[[I Dream of Jeannie]]'' episode had Majors Nelson and Healy crash-land an experimental spacecraft in a backwoods area ... and get captured by hillbillies who figured they must be Martian invaders. One local raised the question, "Do Martians have blood?" and another replied, "No, they don't ... or if they do, it's ''green''!" The astronauts quickly decided admitting to being Martians was safer than submitting to a blood test '''by pitchfork'''.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Warhammer
** Perhaps as an intentional aversion of the '[[Human Aliens]] have coloured blood and pink skin' error, the Tau do not look like humans partly ''because'' they have deep blue-purple blood (their equivalent of haemoglobin uses cobalt instead of iron), which has the expected effect on their skin tone. In one of the [[Ciaphas Cain]] novels, Amberley Veil notes that it smells horrible.
** The Orks, who are in fact [[Plant Aliens|genetically-engineered carnivorous space-fungi]], have green skin but red blood (and mouths). It wasn't always this way and earlier sourcebooks for the game described Ork blood as green, but eventually red gore was decided on. This was explained in ''White Dwarf'' magazine with an in-universe biologist's report: while Orks' dense green skin is a chlorophyll- and spore-producing layer, the rest of their body is relatively normal meat, and they have a normal (if supercharged) food-based metabolism to support it. On the same page, the game developers gave the real reason: green injuries on green-skinned aliens were hard to notice, and made the models look like "they've had an accident eating a gooseberry squishy".
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** In the ''[[Halo]]'' universe, elites and jackals have purple blood, hunters orange, brutes and prophets red, grunts luminous blue, and drones whitish green. The Flood are a different story: they don't bleed ''just'' blood; Infection Forms will [[Body Horror|liquefy the internal organs of the host]], so in reality they're spilling out their entrails ''in liquid form''. Unless the "Grunt Birthday Party" skull is enabled, in which case headshots will cause the grunts to [[Silliness Switch|bleed confetti and cheering]].
** In the ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' series, Pfhor, ticks, lookers and simulacra have yellow blood, hulks blue, S'pht green, and wasps purple.
* ''[[
* In the ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' games, Reptile and (until recently) Sheeva have green blood. Cyborgs have black oil instead of blood, Blaze has molten lava, Noob Saibot has black...wraith juice and {{spoiler|Cyber Sub-Zero bleeds a light blue combination of oil and antifreeze}}.
** This is even lampshaded in ''[[Mortal Kombat 11]]'', in an intro between Sheeva and Skarlet; Skarlet (a practitioner of [[Blood Magic]]) assumes Shokan blood is green, and when Sheeva tells her it's as red as hers, Skarlet wonders if she's from "a different timeline".<ref>Close, but off, as the green-blooded Sheeva is from the previous timeline.</ref>
* Similar to the Vulcan example above, a major plot point in ''Star Ocean: First Departure'' is that Fellpool have copper-based blood - but everyone from that planet has properly pink skin (or tan, in the case of the Highlanders). The only outward difference from <s>humans</s> Terrans is their tails and sometimes fangs.
* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', a common taunt directed at humans who express conciliatory philosophy toward the varied races of the galaxy is "Do you remember what color your blood is?" Just for fun, stand up to the leader of the isolationist "Earth First (we can exploit the other planets later)" Terra-Firma party.
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*** Must be [[Blue Blood|royalty]], then.
* Like in Middle-Earth, in [[Warcraft|Azeroth]] orcs (even though they are native to a planet called 'Draenor') have very dark blood, which is why many of the more or less racist humans call them ''blackbloods''.
** Similarly, the blue skinned draenei have blue blood. That, and their unguligrade appearance has caused a few fans to compare them to the above mentioned [[Warhammer
** Demon blood seem to be fluorescent green (which is pretty much the trademark colour of fel energy).
*** Sufficiently powerful demons have [[Rule of Cool|lava instead of blood.]]
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** Which, like all things ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', can be modded to taste. Someone even made a ''Homestuck'' (below) troll mod covering the entire hemospectrum.
* The Maians in ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' have green blood. The Skedar, meanwhile, have red blood.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Hall and Eva from ''[[Supernormal Step]]'' are [[Immortality|Type I immortals]] that [[Black Blood|bleed black]] when injured.
* The alien that attacked [[Red Shirt|Dykowski]] in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' has ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20030830133646/http://beta.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=971013 concentrated orange juice]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20030830133646/http://beta.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=971013 for blood.] The bad part, according to the crewmember studying the creature, is that it's the ''homestyle kind''.
{{quote|'''Captain''': With pulpy bits? '''EEEWWWW!'''}}
* The [[Our Trolls Are Different|trolls]] of ''[[Homestuck]]'' have a complex caste system based on the color of their blood. Each known troll has a different blood color, spanning the entire color spectrum. The highest castes have literal [[Royal Blood|Royal (Purple) Blood]], while the lowest castes have brownish red blood. Trolls higher on the spectrum live longer lives and tend to possess greater physical strength, while rustblood colors tend to have greater psychic powers. Greenbloods (the middle colors) tend to be more emotionally stable. Additionally, Karkat, Kanaya, and Feferi, have rare & special blood-types.
** Karkat's blood is a
** Kanaya has jade blood, which also lets her enjoy Alternia's blistering sunlight and be awake during the day when the undead normally stir, making her Alternia's [[Goth]] equivalent. It also marks her as one of the only trolls to be raised by a virgin mother grub and one responsible for raising its egg.
** Feferi's blood is literally [[Purple Is Powerful|royal purple]], making her heiress to the throne, because it physically grants her protection from the [[Brown Note]] of her [[Eldritch Abomination]] guardian even at it's [[Apocalypse How|highest level]].
** Also, for some reason, troll robots and artificial limbs have blood. Equius uses this to give a rustblood he has a crush on a robot body with blue blood befitting his station. This makes her occasionally prone to violent outbursts, like Equius himself.
* [[The Dreamland Chronicles]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120624110059/http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/chapter-06/page-359/ Nicodemus -- green]
* Terronians in ''[[Cordless]]''. Their hair reflects their blood color.
== [[Web Original
* Most of the aliens living on Earth in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' bleed red, especially the Tautiq and the Pelkons (who are basically [[Human Aliens]] and [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]], respectively). The Delethai are the exception... they bleed orange.
** Sweet Synn and Black Angel, both of whom are demons in human form, bleed a thick, black ichor that smells vaguely of sewage.
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* While certainly not aliens, most insects bleed light yellow (as mentioned above), some green, molluscs and crustaceans bleed blue.
** The most famous of these is the humble Horseshoe Crab, with blue copper-based blood. Scientists routinely extract blood from the crabs for all kinds of medical procedures & tests, then release the animals after they've regenerated their blood.
** Tunicates (sea squirts) have blue-green blood due to vanadium compounds, of all things (though they ''also'' have much iron in the same blood cells, go figure). Which makes them inedible for many critters (a nice trait for something as sessile as an oyster, but much less armored) and possibly gives some other benefits. The impressive part is that they have to extract it from sea water<ref>vanadium is omnipresent, but in very low concentrations: around 2 mg/m<sup>3</sup> in seawater and half as much in fresh water - rocks have far more, but its common forms are just not very soluble</ref>. Not that they are the only ones using it, but other creatures (including humans) need very little.
** Inverted with deep-sea tube worms, which have red blood like ours despite being from a taxonomic line in which iron-based blood pigment isn't expected.
* The trope of artificial humans having white blood possibly comes from the early research into oxygen-carrying temporary blood replacements for emergency surgery. Some of these work using very different chemical processes to naturally occurring blood (of any colour) and look a lot like milk.
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[[Category:Bizarre Alien Biology]]
[[Category:Bloody Tropes]]
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