Law of Chromatic Superiority: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Oh dear...he took [[Red Ones Go Faster|the red one]]."''|''[[Lilo and Stitch]]''}}
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Simple: paint the toaster red. The resulting toast will be [[Memetic Mutation|three times better]] than normal toast.
Red also [[Turns Red|makes every video game enemy three times stronger.]] And, as [[Warhammer
{{quote|
The [[Red Shirt]] can be a case of some colors being worse: they go ''down'' fasta.
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So while red is one of the most common colors to receive this treatment, it isn't the only one. It's generally held that the rarest color in a work will be the "best" one.
Related to [[
{{examples}}
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== Anime and Manga ==
* Also known as the "Char Custom Rule" among [[Gundam]] fans, whose series uses this in spades:
** While certainly not the origin of the overall trope, it was neatly codified by ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', which featured legendary [[Ace Pilot]] Char Aznable, whose [[Ace Custom|customized]] [[Humongous Mecha]] was said to be three times faster than normal versions of its type (this was later [[Retcon|ret conned]] to the more reasonable '''1/3''' faster and being very good at kicking off ships to go faster and preserve fuel). The only observable difference between his Mecha and normal models was that his was painted red.
::This has been used to comedic effect outside the series: a mall in Japan has a "Char Custom" forklift, painted to look like one of his mecha, which is held by the staff to be three times more [[Buffy-Speak|forklift-y]] than an ordinary forklift and the GE Consumer Finance Char Custom credit card receives three times as many bonus points per 1000 yen spent compared to their other Gundam-related credit cards. There's even a Char's Custom PSP and [http://www.destructoid.com/gundam-3ds-game-getting-a-sexy-char-aznable-3ds-model-213309.phtml Char's Custom 3DS] (as bundled with [[SD Gundam G Generation|SD Gundam G Generation 3D]]), though whether they load three times faster has yet to be tested.
** The Char Custom Rule should also be given the Quattro Bajeena Corrollary: if red is not enough to emphasize its awesome, the mecha should be colored Gold (best example being the Hyaku-Shiki).
** It is worth noting that the primarily-white Gundam is referred to by its enemies (the Principality of Zeon) as "the white mobile suit" and is usually recognized as such ("It's the white one! Fall back!"), the off-white GMs are superior to almost all of their Zeonic counterparts, and most other ace pilots have their mobile suits colored a certain color as well; Anavel Gato's blue-and-green Gelgoog, Johnny Ridden's red-and-black suits (similar enough to Char's colors that his being commonly mistaken for Char is a [[Running Gag]], with "I'm not Char!" practically being his [[Catch Phrase]], even moreso in [[Fanon]]), the suits of the Black Tri-Stars, and the most skilled (and least-famous) ace pilot, Shin Matsunaga, who piloted the only other white mobile suits in the series other than the Gundam and actually outperformed Char in the battle that made him famous (and, by having the sense to retire after the One Year War rather than getting dragged into the next half-dozen conflicts, is the one who survives the longest).
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* In ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', the Gold Saints are the strongest warriors of all, because they wear the shiniest clothes of all (Gold).
** Though this does get turned on its head a little as the series goes on, since the [[Five-Man Band]] of main characters technically remain low-level Bronze Saints, {{spoiler|though their clothes develop a habit of subverting the hierarchy altogether.}}
* This tradition has been carried on by many other non-''Gundam'' [[Humongous Mecha]] series, where the most technically skilled pilot (but very seldomly The Hero himself) has a red mech: [[Ace Pilot]] Asuka's Unit-02 in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', squad leader Ryoko's red Aestivalis in ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', [[Hot-Blooded]] [[Ace Pilot]] Kamina's Gurren in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', Milia Fallyna Jenius' VF-1J Valkyrie in ''[[Macross]]'' (though she's only the ''second'' most skilled pilot; the most skilled is her husband, Max Jenius, who pilots a blue version of the same craft), [[Death Seeker]] [[Stalker with a Crush]] Gauron and [[Blood Knight]] [[Psycho for Hire]] Gates' Plan-1058 Codarl-i in ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'', Kallen Stadtfeld's Guren [[Super Prototype|Mk-II]]/[[Mecha Expansion Pack|Kashoushiki]]/[[Mid-Season Upgrade|SEITEN]] in ''[[Code Geass]]'' (though it was a unique model), and Elvy Hadhiyat's Alpha V-1 Vermillion in ''[[RahXephon]]'' (her Vermillion is the only one colored red; all others are either [[Red Shirt|grey]] or [[Mook|black]]).
* Also, the Red Lion in ''[[
** Akira, despite piloting the Black Lion, wears a red uniform (much to the confusion of American viewers watching the ''[[Voltron]]'' translation). This is because the team is essentially a [[Super Sentai]] [[Five-Man Band]] wearing the uniforms they ''would'' be wearing in a regular Sentai. The lions just happen to not match their pilot's colors.
* ''[[Bleach]]'', during a Filler episode, both paid homage to and parodied the trope by having several local kids form a [[Sentai]] squad; they then spent most of the episode arguing over who got to be the Red Ranger. They ended up both taking red, and then [[Fake Ultimate Hero|Don Kanonji]] took ''[[Rank Inflation|gold]]''.
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== Film ==
* In ''[[Star Wars]]'', Red Squadron (the survivors of which later became [[X Wing Series|Rogue Squadron]], keeping the red
** Similarly, in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], their elite Empire counterparts, the 181st, painted their TIE Interceptors with red stripes. Given that (outside of video games) no other Imperial TIE squadron has any visible markings at all, this makes the 181st's simple but noticeable markings very intimidating to their enemies.
** In Alan Dean Foster's novelization of ''Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope'' ([[Colon Cancer]], anyone?), Luke is, in fact, ''Blue'' 5, not Red 5. It was changed to red because blue markings were affected by the [[Blue Screen]] technology at the time. If you look, there are ''no'' blue markings on any ship in the first movie.
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** Subverted, however, with Booster Terrik's captured Star Destroyer, the ''Errant Venture''. It ends up painted red like he'd always wanted, but it's still the same maintenance nightmare as always and does not lose the tendency to be [[The Alleged Car|The Alleged Starship]].
* Desirability of being associated with a favorable color is the reason why the boss in ''[[Reservoir Dogs]]'' chooses the pseudonyms of his employees.
{{quote|
'''Joe:''' No way, no way. Tried it once, doesn't work. You got [[Foreshadowing|four guys all fighting]] over who's gonna be Mr. Black, but they don't know each other, so [[Mexican Standoff|nobody wants to back down]]. No way. I pick. You're [[Real Men Wear Pink|Mr. Pink]]. Be thankful you're not [[Urine Trouble|Mr. Yellow]]. }}
** Ironically, Mr Pink, the man stuck with the least desirable color, is {{spoiler|the only one who survives the film}}.
* In the opening of ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'', Stitch escapes from his confines and steals one of the police
** Downplayed in the movie proper; they didn't catch him not because he ran away in the fastest vehicle, but because [[Attack! Attack! Retreat! Retreat!|he charged at them and they nearly shot him down, prompting him to panic and engage the standard-issue hyperdrive.]]
** The same material mentioned that it was very lucky that this was the case, because Stitch only took the red one because [[Rule of Cool|he thought it looked cool]].
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* In the Nick Pollotta novel ''Illegal Aliens'', the speed at which you travel through hyperspace is a function of what color your ship is. When an alien engineer is asked to explain this, his [[Babel Fish]] translates the explanation that gold is fastest. The "Great Golden Ones" have the best ships precisely because they enforce a monopoly on that color.
* [[Older Than Print]]: ''Haft Paykar,'' the epic poem of ancient Persia (modern Iran). The prince [[Values Dissonance|marries seven princesses]] [[Unwanted Harem|from different countries]] [[All Your Powers Combined|and visits them each to learn their wisdom]]. [[Everything's Better with Princesses|Each princess is]] [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]. In order of 'enlightenment': Black, Yellow, Green, Red, Blue, Brown, and, finally, White, for the most pious princess, whom he visits on Friday, the holy day of Islam.
* The concept is played straight in ''Dragon Rider'', but the norms are
* Played with in ''Stationery Voyagers''. Imperial Markerterion sends the Red Fleet after the Voyagers ''specifically because'' they're most incompetent team. [[Xanatos Gambit|So that, if they fail, the Voyagers can gather more useful information before being captured]]. The Teal Fleet has all the means to crush the
* The Chosen in ''[[The Seventh Tower]]'' have a complicated caste system based around the colors of the rainbow. The closer you get to violet, the higher your social status. The various levels of their Castle are color coded and dictate where you may
* And, of course, there's always Lu Bu's Red Hare horse in ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'', which was reputedly supreme among horses in the day. (And possibly three times as fast.)
* Part of a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome
* [[The Wind Singer]] had a nation with a colour-based caste system. Members of each caste could only wear that colour and had to live in the ring of the city painted with that colour.
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== Live Action TV ==
* [[Toku]] shows are very strongly affected by this, because, in Japan, red is thought of as a heroic color. To wit:
** Most Heisei (2000-
*** On the subject of ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'', reportedly, the show's staff had to fight [[Executive Meddling]] tooth and nail for Double to ''not'' be primarily red and used the [[Kamen Rider (TV series)|original Kamen Rider]] as part of their argument in favor of green and black. In the end, the suits got their red Rider with [[Second Rider|Accel]], but even he has a blue [[Mid-Season Upgrade]] and a gold, movie-exclusive [[Super Mode]].
** Similarly, in [[Super Sentai]] and [[Power Rangers]], the Red Ranger is always [[The Hero]], even when he isn't [[The Leader]] (which he usually is anyway). As such, the Red Ranger is usually privy to somewhat better, if predictable, characterization, a "Battlizer" that grants a unique [[Super Mode]] ([[Merchandise-Driven|at least in the US adaptations]]), and, in some cases, even a unique motorcycle or mecha.
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* Always seen in the Dalek hierarchy in ''[[Doctor Who]]''. In the classic series, the higher-ranking Daleks would be red or blue, with the Supreme Dalek being white or black. Started again in "Doomsday" when Dalek Sec of the Cult of Skaro was clad in black, continuing with the Supreme Dalek following him in "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End", which was decked out in red. The Supreme Dalek of the New Dalek Paradigm is colored white, with red now actually denoting the [[Red Shirt|lowest rank]], the Drones.
* Happens a lot on [[Survivor]]. The tribes are always [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|color coded]]. But everytime there's a red colored tribe, they tend to dominate the season and eventually have a member win the game (with others in the top four or five!). This happened in the ''All-Stars'' (Chapera), ''Vanuatu'' (Lopevi), ''Cook Islands'' (Aitutaki), ''China'' (Fei Long), ''Tocantins'' (Jalapao), and ''[[Designated Hero|Heroes]]'' vs ''[[Designated Villain|Villains]]'' (Villains) seasons. Played straighter in the ''Amazon'', ''Guatemala'', and ''Nicaragua'' seasons for having a red-colored merged tribe. Subverted by [[Everything's Better with Bob|Bob Crowley]] from ''Gabon''. Despite not being part of the red tribe ''Fang'' before the merge, he ''won'' the game by defeating former Fang members [[Cool Old Lady|Susie Smith]] and [[Genki Girl|Sugar Kiper]]. [[Badass Bookworm|Sophie Clarke]] in ''South Pacific'' and [[Nice Guy|Ethan Zohn]] in ''Africa'' also subverted it by winning even though they weren't part of the Savaii and Samburu tribes, respectively.
* The American DVDs of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' all have shiny, colorful
* In ''[[Star Trek: The
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] Superstar [[
* [[WWE Raw]], the flagship of the promotion, is known as the "red brand", while [[WWE Smackdown]] is blue. In theory they're of equal status, but everybody still knows Raw is the A-show and Smackdown is the B-show.
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* Many Christian churches and religious orders assign different colors to ranks in the clerical hierarchy:
** In the Roman Catholic church, bishops wear purple vestments, cardinals wear red, and the Pope, of course, wears [[Man in White|white]].
** In Anglican churches, black cassocks (or sarums) are the
* In Judaism, a dark blue dye (called [[wikipedia:Tekhelet|tekhelet]], whose exact source is uncertain and may have been a kind of snail) was traditionally used for the [[wikipedia:Tallit|prayer shawls]] worn by observant Jews throughout the day. Today, most Jews don't wear the tallit at all times, but blue stripes still appear on them and the [[wikipedia:Flag of Israel|flag of Israel]] was inspired by its design.
* In Islam, green is the preferred color and often shows up in the heraldry of Islamic countries or organizations. Other significant colors include black, red, and white, which derive from the flags of various Islamic dynasties (the Abbasids, Umayyids, etc).
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer
** As noted previously, the Orks have such a firm belief in the idea that red-painted vehicles go faster, [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|their unconscious, gestalt psychic field makes it happen]]. This is not just fluff, but an actual
** Other armies' high-speed
** Space Marines attach certain colors to specific ranks: [[Psychic Powers|Libra]][[Genius Bruiser|rians]] usually wear blue, [[Badass Preacher|Chaplains]] wear black with a [[White Mask of Doom|bone-colored skull mask]], [[Genius Bruiser|Techmarines]] wear red (and have [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous|big mechanical arms]]), [[Combat Medic|Apothecaries]] frequently have white armor, and Captains and Chapter Masters are likely to be encrusted with golden [[Bling of War]]. Squad leaders, if they aren't [[Helmets Are Hardly Heroic|going bareheaded]], tend to have a contrasting helmet color from their standard uniform. The system used by the [[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]] has sergeants wear red helmets instead of blue, company veterans with white helms, and champions in gold.
** If you see an all-gold
* ''[[Dungeons
** And, of course, the god of metallic dragons is platinum.
** So strongly do gamers adhere to this tradition that many decried the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' movie, sight unseen, merely upon hearing rumors that its red dragons would be more powerful than its gold ones. (After it came out, of course, they had plenty of other offenses to bitch about.) Presumably, the red ones were ''older'' than the gold, as age trumps color where a D&D dragon's power is concerned.
* In
* In the early ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' [[
== Video Games ==
* An interesting case in ''[[Street Fighter]]'' happens with the [[Shotoclone
* In the ''[[Crusader: No Remorse|Crusader]]'' games, the cream-of-the-crop, "Silencers", such as the main character, wear red armor. The next-best level of soldiers, "Elites," wear black.
* In the computer game ''[[Diablo]] 2'', the weakest of the creatures known as "Fallen ones" are red, the stronger version known as "carver" are blue, the strongest (called "Dark ones") are black (not counting a very special purple version).
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** Diablo himself: Normal (red), Nightmare (yellow), Hell (black).
* Black clothes (furniture, houses...) are the sign of a truly superior pirate in ''[[Puzzle Pirates]]''. Why? Because black ink costs a ''fortune'' on the in-game market, so only an extremely talented pirate would be able to pillage up enough gold to waste that much on decorating. Of course, some consider black to be pretentious and showy. These people cannot afford it.
* The same goes in ''[[Guild Wars]]'', where black dye is ''ridiculously'' more expensive than any other color, due to supply and demand; black dye "drops" from slain enemies more rarely than any other color. It's quite helpful in forming parties, actually; all-black armor tells the world you'll go to the ends of the Earth to shop at Hot Topic and probably aren't too fun to party with
:In fact, many players prefer to save the more valuable dyes (black and white especially, but also blue, red, and silver) as sources of ready cash in the in-game economy. White dye generally goes for about half the price of black dye, and blue, red, and silver dye are, while still much more expensive than the other colors (orange, green, brown, yellow, purple, and gray), cheap by comparison.
* Played straight in the ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' series, with resident badass Sol Badguy dressed in red, black, and gold.
* The ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140603021615/http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Black_Spathi_Squadron Black Spathi Squadron]'' in [[Star Control]] supposedly dedicated themselves to wandering space and "performing brave and hostile deeds" and painted their ships black with bright red stripes in order to distinguish themselves from the normal Spathi (their species' normal [[Planet of Hats|hat]] is being ''extremely'' cowardly).
* In the ''[[Touhou]]' series, the Yakumo "family" of youkai display this. Yukari Yakumo, whose first name translates to "Violet", is arguably the most powerful character in the entire series. Her [[Familiar|shikigami]], Ran Yakumo ("Indigo"), is a short step below, and both are [[Bonus Boss|Extra Stage bosses]], with Yukari being a [[Brutal Bonus Level|Phantasm]] Stage boss. Down the spectrum is Chen ("Orange")--Ran's own
* Turns up quite a bit in the ''[[Ace Combat]]'' series:
** ''[[Ace Combat Zero|Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War]]'' has Solo Wing Pixy who, {{spoiler|before he defects to A World With No Boundaries and becomes the final boss}}, flies an F-15C with a portion of the right wing painted red, representing the time that he had lost a wing during combat, but fought on, finished the mission, and landed safely; you can also unlock this custom paint job for your own F-15. Otherwise averted for Cipher, however - his "official" plane is also an F-15C, this time with blue wings.
** Averted in ''[[
** ''[[Ace Combat 2]]'' has the Z.O.E. squadron: five unmanned aircraft painted entirely red, the last of which appears as the most dangerous enemy in the final mission, flying one of the series' very first superfighters. Like with ''Zero'', Scarface One inverts this - his official plane in this game is the Su-35, which has a paint scheme primarily consisting of the color blue.
** Z.O.E makes a comeback in the [[Video Game Remake]] of ''AC2'', ''[[Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy|Assault Horizon Legacy]]''. However, Scarface One's planes are now (by default) gray, rather than blue camouflage.
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** Played straight in nearly every Mario game with the enemies (though it varies all over the place). Red Koopas won't walk off cliffs, red Pirhana Plants shoot fireballs, red Goombas fly and drop tiny Goombas.
*** And Green Koopas have no qualms about [[Artificial Stupidity|walking off cliffs.]] [[Unfortunate Implications|Poor Luigi.]]
*** Inverted in ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'' (US), in which the red Shy Guys and Snifits [[Artificial Stupidity|walk off cliffs]] and the red Beezos fly in a straight line. The red pansers, though, don't walk off cliffs because they, [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|unlike the other plants]], don't move.
** Not to mention, [[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]] has a red disc case compared to the standard white.
* Red Devil (aka Crimson Devil, Red Meteor, Red Demon, and Raven Blood) in the ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer'' (aka ''Shutokou Battle'') games is basically a parody of Char: his car is red and sometimes has a horn protruding from the hood. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot6UI1ldQjU&feature=related No joke.] And even in Japan-only spin-off ''Racing Battle C1 Grand Prix'' where pretty much all the old rivals from ''Shutokou Battle'' have circuit tuned cars (several of the bosses even use real cars like the Sun Auto CyberEVO Lancer Evolution), his car is ''still the same''.
* In the ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' series, red units almost always upgrade into blue units.
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** This is more of a case of [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]] when the other forms are considered, as Red is stronger physically, Blue magically, Yellow as [[The Mario]], and White [[Lightning Bruiser]].
*** The opposite could be said for his Anti-form, though, as it turns him into a [[Fragile Speedster]].
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
* ''[[Amorphous]]'' has the [[Hive Queen|Queen]]. It's the only red [[Blob Monster|gloople]] in the game '''and''' its [[Dual-Wielding|dual-wielded]] claws are ''gold''. Unsurprisingly, it's the game's regular boss enemy.
* In recent installments to the main ''[[Pokémon]]'' games, the color of your trainer card changes as you meet certain achievements and gain stars. While the number and colors have varied a bit, it always begins red and ends with black. Of course, the main things that come with this change are a few bits of dialogue change and bragging rights. Gotta love those bragging rights.
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* ''[[Space Panic]]'' and ''[[Mr. Do]]'s Castle'' invert the conventional priority by having the red enemies be the weakest. Green enemies are stronger, and blue enemies are the strongest.
* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' plays with this. Drives increase in power from fission (orange) to fusion (yellow) to antimatter (purple). Lasers go red, green, purple, blue, gold. Plasma is green, yellow, purple.
* ''[[Five Nights at Freddy's]]'' has Golden Freddy.{{context}}
== Webcomics ==
* Subverted in [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/051210 this] ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' [[B
* The trolls of ''[[Homestuck]]'', whose [[Alien Blood|"hemospectrum"]] goes from purple and [[Blue Blood|blue]] at the top to yellow and red at the bottom {{spoiler|and Karkat's mutant bright red blood being off the scale}}. Being of a lower blood color might give you psychic powers (see [[Our Ghosts Are Different|Aradia]] or [[Eye Beams|Sollux]]), but it also means you are subject to [[Fantastic Racism]] and ensures that you'll be the first one to feel [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|Feferi's]] [[Cosmic Horror|lusus']] [[Brown Note|Vast Glub]].
** Trolls with higher blood also live longer.
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* In the [[Tex Avery]] cartoon ''[[Bad Luck Blackie]]'', a black cat is hired by a white kitten to stop a bulldog by crossing his path and causing him bad luck (i.e., [[Anvil on Head|something heavy falls on him]]). The bulldog eventually stops the black cat by painting him ''white'', thus negating the bad luck. The kitten comes to the rescue by painting himself ''black'' and crossing the dog's path, causing the dog to get hit by [[Kitchen Sink Included|the obligatory kitchen sink]].
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode, "The Route of All Evil", Cubert slaps a flame decal on the side of his home-built spacecraft, claiming it'll "make the ship go faster".
{{quote|
'''Cubert:''' I'm twelve. }}
** A similar gag happens in a [[Futurama]]/[[The Simpsons]] crossover comic where the Simpsons and the Planet Express crew are running away from enemy saucers in their ship. In order to outrun them, Homer and Fry have the idea to paint racing stripes to make it go faster.
{{quote|
'''Homer:''' Why not both?
'''Fry:''' Yeah, then the ship'll go twice as fast! }}
** {{spoiler|The gang do get away from the saucers, but actually, the enemy fleet was destroyed by a beer bottle lousily thrown by Bender, going uncatched by Homer's crappy hand-eye coordination, then triggering a chain reaction.}}
* Though never confirmed in canon, there seems to be a Chromatic Superiority scheme amongst the ecto-energy of ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. Four colors appear in the series - green, blue, purple, red. By some loose estimates, it seems that that's also the order from weakest to strongest. Red reigns supreme amongst ecto-energy.
** Although, strangely, most, if not all, of Danny Phantom's abilities are of the green variety, even though he always eventually defeats his foe.
* ''[[Lilo and Stitch (Disney film)|
{{quote|
** ''[[Lilo
* In ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'', Iron Man becomes the first superhero to lead the Avengers. As people who read Iron Man's comics and/or saw the movies would expect, he mostly uses red and gold armor in this show. This incarnation even wears red as Tony Stark.
== Real Life ==
* Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a the [[
** Following his example, his squadron-mates started painting their aeroplanes up in funky colours as well so he wouldn't stand out quite so much. Richthofen's squadron ended up being so colorful that its actual name, "Jagdgeschwader 1", gave way to the nickname "Flying Circus". Before long, practically the entire Imperial German Air Service was trying out the
* The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black World War II fighter pilots and were credited with never losing a plane under their protection to enemy action.
** The Tuskegees' signature was inverted twice over with the 352nd Fighter Group
* The Luftwaffe ended up
** There is an apocryphal story that some American pilots in the Pacific theater would paint their propellers a different color before every battle so Japanese pilots would think they were facing different fighter squadrons each time, creating the illusion that the Americans had massively superior numbers. This is probably the inspiration for the color of the Char Custom [[Gundam]].
* [http://uk.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26431086 Studies]{{Dead link}} show that "gamers have more of a chance of being on the winning side if they choose to play as a red team member as opposed to blue."
▲* [http://uk.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26431086 Studies] show that "gamers have more of a chance of being on the winning side if they choose to play as a red team member as opposed to blue."
** The same applies to athletes all the way up to the professional and olympic level, according to [[Discover Magazine]].
*** It seems that many of the article's readers are skeptical about this, as winning factor is more biased towards level of skill than choice of color. Even a researcher in [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4559071.stm another article] points out the insignificance of this research.
* Less awesome real life example: the "black tax" levied on computers. A previous generation of Apple MacBooks come in two colors: white and black. There is a $200 difference in price between the two (black being more expensive). The functional difference? The BlackBook
** Also [[Invoked]] for the "white is coming" ad campaign for the white Sony PSP in the Netherlands, featuring a [[Ethnic Scrappy|black model]] and a white model fighting, which spawned a [[What an Idiot!|quite]] [[Unfortunate Implications|predictable]] [http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/06/sony-under-fire-for-racist-advertising/ response.]
** The Chevy Volt's ''very'' [[Everything Is an iPod In The Future]] dashboard center stack comes in "Ceramic White" or "Dark". The foremer is the only one available with the standard cloth interior, "Dark" requires one of the $1000 leather interiors.
* The X-Box 360 "Elite" is, of course, black.
** And the 'Special Resident Evil Edition' of the Elite is red.
* [http://notalwaysright.com/ah-managers/1229 The red cameras take better pictures?]
** Not to be confused with the RED cameras, which take better (motion) pictures and are colored black.
* The infamous [[Playboy]] [[Playboy Bunny|Bunnies]] outfits are ranked this way, with the black-colored bunny outfit signifying the highest ranking of bunny. This system has largely fallen out of use lately for the various locations of the Playboy Club (mostly for aesthetic reasons), but still occasionally plays the trope straight.
* Practitioners of martial arts such as judo or karate wear belts of various colours to denote their skill level.
** And, of course, the white belt is the one novices carry, a black belt symbolizes a high expertise... and the red belt is reserved for the ''instructors''
** This varies from martial art to martial art and from group to group, though most share white and black as first and last. In some, a red belt is just one of the belts preceding black.
** It works really well in Judo, with the belts going from white to black and the red belt being reserved for people of fifth dan and above.
*** The apocryphal basis for the color-belt system lends the Law a touch of faux - [[Truth in Television]]-originally, a practitioner merely received A belt, period, when he began. A pristine white belt which, unlike the rest of the uniform, was never washed, so that the sweat, dirt, and what have you else would slowly make the belt progressively darker. So if you saw a guy with a black belt, it meant he'd been studying his particular style for a long time and was probably capable of kicking your ass before you even knew you were about to fight him. Sadly, this explanation isn't actually
** In the Cheezic Federation of Tang Soo Doo, you start off as white, go to orange (instead of yellow in other schools), then blue, then green (which are three degrees), then red (three degrees again), then Apprentice Black (either have red and black belt), or you wear the Black Belt Gi with a red belt, then First Degree Black. You either get white or RED tape when you increase in degrees.
* American Express cards in order of exclusivity: green, gold, platinum, black...
* Ii Naomasa, one of [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]]'s [[Four Is Death|Four Guardians]],<ref>inspired by the awesome red color of Yamagata Masakage's unit when he was a kid</ref>
* Scientific studies show that people view members of the opposite sex more favorably depending on the color of their clothes. Women view men with the appropriate color as more powerful and successful, while men see women with said color as more sexy and interesting. [[Lady in Red|And what color may that be? Red.]]
* There have also been studies of packaging where identical detergent is put into different colored boxes and then sent out to be used by consumers. Red and yellow boxed detergents were almost always identified as more effective.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
[[Category:Colour Coded for Your Convenience/Sandbox]]▼
[[Category:Amazing Technicolor Index]]
[[Category:
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