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Law of Chromatic Superiority: Difference between revisions
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** 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).
** In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', which otherwise has surprisingly little references to older series (especially compared to ''SEED''), Setsuna's Gundam receives its [[Mid-Season Upgrade]] and turns ''red''. First reaction of the technician staff? "It goes about three times faster now!" The same upgrade ([[Super Mode|Trans-Am]]) applies to all the other Gundams and gives the exact same performance boost.
** There is also the Ramba Ral Corollary to the Char Custom Rule. If a machine is ''already'' red, you must paint it blue to show it has been changed. [[After War Gundam X
** Chromatic superiority is invoked - sort of - in one ''SD Gundam'' skit. The Gundams convince a bunch of Zakus to get drunk on sake so they'll turn red and go faster. Ends up being a subversion, as the drunken Zakus can barely move in a straight line, let alone at speed.
** In ''[[SD Gundam Force]]'', the Zakos are little more than [[Mooks]] and [[Comic Relief]], often defeated with a single hit. Zako Red, however, is cunning, sly, and ''effective''. There is a good reason for this, however: {{spoiler|Zako Red is a dummy body remotely controlled by Dark Axis leader Sazabi, as seen when Red goes inert after handing Captain Gundam's stolen Soul Drive to Sazabi}}.
** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam
** In [[Blue Comet SPT Layzner|Layzner]] Ru Kain's Zakarl generates a red energy when using the fullest extent of its' V-Max. It also helps that his unit is painted gold compared to the rest of the empire.
* Dilandau's [[Humongous Mecha|guymelef]] in ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'' only differs from the mooks' in that his is red, while theirs are purple. Similarly, his armour is red, while his subordinates' are blue.
* 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
* Also, the Red Lion in ''[[Go Lion]]''; Isamu Kurogane was the pilot of the ship that brought the Go Lion team to Altea and is generally considered the best pilot.
** 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]]''.
* ''[[
* Lately, ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' has been affiliating the [[Five-Man Band]] with their own colors. Guess what color Haruhi has?
** Note, she put on a [[Red Armband of Leadership]] when she founded the SOS-Brigade.
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* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman]]'': the protagonist ends up with red as his costume color because his little brother pointed out that the red one is always the leader.
* The anime of ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' offers an inversion to this, as red clad [[Hot-Blooded|Sanada Yukimura]] was bested in one of his fights by blue clad [[Eyepatch of Power|Date Masamune]] (though only because Yukimura wasn't quite paying attention).
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! R
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* Reversed in the ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'' remake. The soldiers are all clad in red and [[Red Shirt|all die]] like in the original, but odd-man-out, Perseus, wears a drab green fisherman's tunic and survives.
* In [[Tron]], all "bad guys" have red light as their theme, and even when they don't win, they're still badass.
* Subverted in ''[[
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* This is the entire basis of ''[[Shades of Grey]]'' by [[Jasper Fforde]]. The caste society in the novel is stratified by color; what color you can see and how much of it indicates your social standing and a host of other factors. Oh, and it's genetic.
* 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
* The concept is played straight in ''Dragon Rider'', but the norms are subverted--the golden dragon is the main villain and the good guys are silver. There was some sort of prophecy about "when silver will be worth more than gold".
* 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 Voyagers--but...''doesn't.'' The Blue Fleet actually ends up ''helping'' them, albeit indirectly, [[Enemy Mine|by being more concerned with battling Yehtzig Pirates]].
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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-onwards) [[Kamen Rider|Kamen Riders]] are either red to begin with or gain a red [[Super Mode]]. Played with by [[Kamen Rider Agito]] <ref>Black and gold, with silver and red [[Super Mode]]</ref>, [[Kamen Rider Blade]] <ref>Blue and silver, with a gold and black [[Super Mode]]</ref>, [[Kamen Rider Decade]] <ref>Magenta and black, with silver and black [[Super Mode]]</ref>, [[Kamen Rider Double]] <ref>Has a red half-form, but his primary one is green and black</ref>, [[Kamen Rider OOO]] <ref>The [[Mid-Season Upgrade]] is all red, but the [[Super Mode]] is purple</ref>, and [[
*** 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.
*** This causes interesting effects in [[Power Rangers]] seasons when there are two Reds. ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'' gave different Battlized forms to both the Red Ranger and the Quantum Ranger, and in ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'', the Red Ranger got the Battlizer but the Crimson Ranger got an equally impressive [[Cool Bike]].
*** Taken furthest with ''[[Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger]]'' and ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]''; where not only did the Red Ranger get the same [[Super Mode]] as the rest of the group, he got a [[Sixth Ranger]]-style upgrade with its own weaponry and Zord, and then ''Dino Thunder'' added a Battlizer on top of ''that''!
* 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
* The American DVDs of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' all have shiny, colorful covers--except the fifth season, which has a gray cover. Now take a guess which season is considered to be the worst by most people.
* In ''[[Star Trek:
== Newspaper Comics ==
* In ''[[
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** [[The Power of the Sun|East]] is represented by yellow. East is generally lazy.
** [[The Hero|South]] is represented by red. South is notable for marrying Wohpe, the goddess of peace, thus invoking this trope. South is also the model of masculinity. Did we mention that the color red is associated with fertility?
** [[World in
** Below is represented by green. Also is not related to the brothers, and is [[The Smurfette Principle|represented as female]].
** [[Sixth Ranger|The center]], [[Your Cheating Heart|half-]]brother to the first four, is [[Tagalong Kid|the youngest]] and, in fact, [[Older Than They Look|eternally a child]], and is associated with the [[Power of Love]]. And whirlwinds.
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* 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).
* Many printings of ''[[
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** 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 rule--a Red Paint Job can be purchased for Ork vehicles (if they're actually painted red, that is) and will let them move an extra inch. Orks also associate blue with good luck, yellow with flashiness and/or [[More Dakka|dakka]], black with hardiness, and hold that "green iz best", though currently, there aren't any rules regarding these colors.
** Other armies' high-speed variants--the Eldar jetbikers of Saim-Hann, the jetpack-equipped and overcharged-engined Space Marines of the Blood Angels, and the battlesuit-focused Farsight Enclaves of the Tau--happen to have red color schemes. Purely coincidental, of course...
** 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 (
** If you see an all-gold uniform--whether it be on the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard, the [[Praetorian Guard|Adeptus Custodes]], or the [[God-Emperor|Emperor Himself]]--you're dealing with a serious badass.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has done this for ages with their dragons. Strongest of the "metallic" (good) dragons? Gold, with silver just after it. Strongest of the "chromatic" (evil) dragons? Red, with blue just behind it. Black is the second weakest, only stronger than white.
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** 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 the tabletop RPG ''[[Paranoia]]'', the ranking system is based on color, with infrared (or black) being the lowest and going up through red and the rest of the rainbow all the way to ultraviolet (white). All things painted a certain color--files, walls, floor tiles--can be assumed to be restricted to those ranks and should be absolutely avoided by lower ranks. Therefore, one of the most restricted commodities of all is ''paint'', and the [[Black Market|infrared market]] trade is fast and furious...
* In the early ''[[Magic:
== Video Games ==
* An interesting case in ''[[Street Fighter]]'' happens with the [[Shotoclone|Shotoclones]] (Ryu, Ken, and Akuma). Ryu wears white and is the most average out of them, having a well-rounded playstyle. Ken wears red, and his playstyle is much more fast-paced and aggressive than Ryu's. Akuma wears black (or dark blue, depending on the artist) and is the most technical of them all. His playstyle is even MORE aggressive than Ken's or Ryu's, but he can play much better mind games than both of them combined. To balance this, his health is extremely low.
* In the ''[[Crusader:
* 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).
** The Balrog-type demon also fits. From the weakest to strongest: Balrog (pale red), Pit Lord (Bluish Black), Venom Lord (Olive Green).
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* 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 04 Shattered Skies|Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies]]'', where '''Yellow''' Squadron is the most badass bunch of mofos, and Red Squadron is one of the generic [[Mook]] squadrons.
** ''[[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
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' color-codes items by rarity: grey items being [[Vendor Trash|trash]], white being "Ordinary" (trade skill items that are white have some use in game; white quality gear is never used by players beyond the first few levels), green "Uncommon" (quest reward items and harder-to-get tradeskill items), blue "Rare" (dungeon rewards and at the end of a quest line), purple "Epic" (end game content; unlike other lower colors, there are multiple tiers of purple at a given character level), and orange "Legendary" (only a handful of items in the entire game; no armor is legendary. It takes quite a while for a group of players to get a single player one of these; tradeskill items that are legendary are used to get legendary weapons). Finally, heirlooms are gear that automatically get more powerful as your character levels and can only be obtained by having a higher level character on your account send it to a lower level one (other players can't help you out here).
* [[Too Human]] also has color-coding of items by quality; the order is grey (trash), green, blue, purple, orange, red (epic). These colors are only used for the item's inventory icon, and its actual color can be customized.
* Katina Trask of ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'', specifically in ''Original Generations'', has special battle comments when fighting red mecha; one is essentially "the red ones do triple damage!". She, herself, pilots a red Gespenst. Also, any and everything that <s>Elzam</s>Ratsel canonically pilots is painted black with red trim.
** And [[Jerk
*** Having her and Char Aznable (originator of Sleigh's nickname) face off against each other in Alpha 2 is a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]
* ''[[Mario Kart
** 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 ''[[
** Not to mention, [[
* 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.
** In the second game, green dragons upgraded to red dragons, which upgraded to black dragons.
** In the third game, green dragons upgrade to gold dragons and red dragons upgrade to black ones. The black dragons are more powerful overall due to tradition, but the gold ones are faster. Many other units establish a color hierarchy as well: four out of seven basic units from the Inferno faction are coloured yellow or pink, but wind up red when upgraded.
* In the Meet the Team videos for ''[[
** Although that may be due more to the fact that RED is automatically assigned to defense in the attack/defend-style maps, which the dev team admitted are slightly biased towards defense.
* In the ''[[Time Crisis]]'' series, there are the red [[Mook|soldiers]]. They [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|take just about as many hits as the regular Mooks]], but, unlike the [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|regular ones whose bullets went for you about once in 30 times]], these guys will [[Improbable Aiming Skills|almost always aim straight for you]]. Considering that you're downed in 3 to 5 hits, [[Demonic Spiders|its easy to see why these guys cause many players a lot of frustration]].
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* In ''[[Blaz Blue]]'', the Distortion Drives that take only 50% Heat and don't guarantee a kill have a blue background, while the sure-kill, 100% Heat Astral Heats use a black background with the character's crest overlaying in red briefly.
* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] A's: The Battle of Aces'', Nanoha's more powerful [[Evil Twin]], Material-S, has a mainly black-and-red barrier jacket, compared to Nanoha's own white-and-blue one.
* ''[[Amorphous
* 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.
* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' toys with the idea of chromatic superiority in the description for the spell ''Chromatic Orb.''
* In the original ''[[The Legend of Zelda (
** Except the boomerang; the blue one is better. Though, to be fair, the first boomerang isn't really red; it's more of an orange or brown...
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
* Played with in the post-end bonus chapter of [[
* Red Slimes in [[Dragon Quest]] series are the stronger version of normal slimes, and they are females in some of the adaptions.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Okami]]'', [[Orochi]] has eight heads, each with a [[Nice Hat|different colored hat]]. The head with the red hat is the dominant one, getting to say all of Orochi's lines and gets the character portrait. In addition, the villain Crimson Helm has a face and hat that is identical to Orochi's dominant head, though this is because Crimson Helm was born from Orochi's remains.
* In ''[[Elite]] II: Frontier'', the tonnage of the ship that is attacking you is shown by different colours on the scanner. The ships you don't want to meet in combat? Imperial Courier (White), Asp (Yellow), Cobra III (Orange), and Viper (Red).
* In ''[[The Tower of Druaga]]'', the best and most important items are blue (exception: the Ruby Mace is superior to the Sapphire Mace).
* ''[[
* ''[[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.
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== Western Animation ==
* 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
* 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| '''Leela:''' What's your scientific basis for thinking that?<br />
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* 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)|Liloand Stitch]]'' even had redder things being better, in this case, not a mecha, but a police cruiser. On the website, it was stated that the red one was much faster than the standard.
{{quote| "Yeah...he took the red one."}}
** [[Lilo and Stitch: The Series]] also featured Experiment 627 ("Evil!") who was designed to be better than Stitch in pretty much every way. He looked very much like Stitch save for a cone-shaped head and, of course, a red color scheme rather than a blue one.
* In ''[[
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