Names to Run Away From Really Fast/Colors

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A form of Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Villains often favor certain colors of clothing and weapons, so it's not surprising that such colors should be in their names as well.

Examples of Names to Run Away From Really Fast/Colors include:


Black

Especially popular. (Blackguard, Blackheart, Blackthorne, Blackout, etc...)

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Fan Works

  • Doug Sangnoir ("black blood") from Drunkard's Walk. But only run if you're his enemy.

Film

Literature

  • Dr. Raven Sable.
  • Sirius Black, although this turns out to be somewhat misleading. It definitely applies to most of the rest of his family, though. His family attempts to deliberately invoke this trope with astronomical names multiple times. Sirius, Andromeda, Regulus, Draco, probably several of the others do this also, but I don't know astronomy well enough to tell you for sure.
    • Bellatrix is also named after a star.
  • The Laundry Series is home to the Black Chamber, the rather...morally unsound US paranormal agency.
  • Black Dow. Among an entire nation of Named Men, he's still infamous.
  • Parodied and subverted in Grunts!, when the various orc squads pick names. There are an over-abundance of black, sable, ebony, etc...And then Pink Squad. They're kind of worried about Pink Squad.

Live-Action TV

Music

Video Games

Web Comics

  • Jack Noir of Homestuck. On the other hand, his name is technically "Jack Black", rather than Black Jack.

Western Animation

  • In The Simpsons episode "Bart Gets An Elephant", Stampy the elephant is nearly sold by Homer to an ivory dealer (and onetime whale hunter, seal clubber, and president of the FOX network) named Mr. Blackheart.
    • In "Kamp Krusty", there's Mr. Black, the evil camp councilor who torments Bart, Lisa, and the rest of the kids attending the eponymous camp.

Red

Or any variation. Crimson and Scarlet sound especially Badass. Vermillion, less so, but you can work with it.

Anime and Manga

  • The Red Comet. Also the Crimson Lightning, but he often gets confused with the other guy.
  • Rezo the Red Priest of Slayers has a piece of the Dark Lord of his world sealed in his eyes, making him steadily more evil through his life. Lampshaded by Lina when she comments that his name sounds like a villain's after they meet and he tries to play her into giving up a powerful artifact.
  • Porco Rosso is just a Badass.
  • Erza Scarlet is one of the few character who can discipline Natsu.
    • Now we also have Mavis Vermillion, Fairy Tail's first master, who might be joining Makarov and Gildarts as the Big Good.

Comic Books

Film

  • Red Sonja is definitely someone you tread carefully around, unless you're Ahnuld.
  • Red Mist from Kick-Ass.

Literature

Live-Action TV

MMORPGs

  • While not a person's name, the Scarlet Crusade from World of Warcraft. Originally devoted to slay undead, but turned into an army of insane religious zealots bent on killing anyone who's not one of them. Also, their leader is a demon/vampire in disguise.

Music

  • King Crimson. The name sounds much more intimidating than the actual sound/image of the band, however.

Video Games

Web Comics

  • A very bad example is Scarlet Foxfire, which has a color, animal, and fire, from the Web Comics of David Gonterman. Gonterman probably does actually intend her to be a badass, but seeing as how she's some sort of superpowered vixen fursuit (worn by a guy), well, her status is dubious, at best.

Western Animation

Real Life

Yellow

The Victorians and Edwardians loved to associate this with madness and decay as the symbol of the plague is a yellow flag with a single black spot flown above an infected vessel or building. In other cases, it might just be related to inherent abilities of lightning and/or awesome reflexes.

Anime and Manga

  • Minato Namikaze A.K.A. the Yellow Flash. The ONLY Ninja listed in the Black Book with a "Run On Sight" tag...
    • ...Not that it would help much if he was after you.

Art

  • In Renaissance religious paintings, Judas was often painted wearing yellow robes.

Literature

Real Life

  • Yellow fever.

White

Occasionally used as a subversion. Bonus points if the guy in question is an Evil Albino.

Anime and Manga

  • Light Yagami of Death Note is a variation.
  • The manga of Cowboy Bebop featured a reporter following the crew as they chased the White Siblings, Ash and Blanche, who preyed on the elderly.
  • The White Devil, Nanoha Takamachi. Well, it's a name to run from if you have done anything to incur her wrath. Okay, so she won't cause any lasting damage, but you are going to be in one hell of a lot of pain...

Comic Books

  • Silver Sable (Silver Sablinova) is a double whammy. Of course, when you mix the two and consider her actions, she might be...

Film

Literature

Live Action Television

  • Albert "Chalky" White, from Boardwalk Empire is either a Villain Protagonist or an Anti-Hero, but he's most definitely someone you do not want to cross. Extra irony points for Chalky being a black man with three names meaning "white".

Theatre

Video Games

Western Animation

Real Life

  • Simo Hayha, AKA The White Death. Just read his page.

Gray/Grey

Often used for characters whose morals or motivations tend to come in, well, shades of gray, or just generally to connotate people with powers or badasses.

Anime and Manga

  • Various versions of Greymon from Digimon (And BlackWarGreymon has two of the colors on this list, so you know he's a force to be reckoned with)
  • D Gray Man

Comic Books

Literature

Live-Action TV

Western Animation

Web Original

  • Asmodeus Grey in Fenspace, the only individual on that universe's "Most Wanted" list.

Blue

Anime and Manga

  • The deadly, vain pedophile General Blue from Dragon Ball

Literature

  • Possibly subverted by Sonja Blue in the Midnight Blue series of stories. Though blue is often associated with sadness, Sonja is depicted as the preeminent badass of the story universe.

Video Games

Western Animation

  • Azula, cold and ruthless villain from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Name originally comes from the colour of her flames (blue—which is more intensive than normal red and yellow).
    • And then there's Zuko's famous "Blue Spirit" alter-ego, in which he dons a blue mask and ninja garb and carries twin swords.

Pink

Not generally a colour considered associated with dangerous or villainous characters.

Anime and Manga

Film

Live-Action TV

  • Pink doesn't seem scary until you remember that in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy it was the Pink Psycho Ranger that was not only the last to be killed, but also caused the death of the first ranger in Western Power Rangers history. Seven seasons in, and it was an Elite Mooks that was pink nonetheless, that finally killed one off.

Real Life


Others

Film

Literature

Video Games

  • In the Touhou series colors can be associated with power. The color purple usually represents power. It stands to reason that the most powerful being/Youkai in Gensokyo, Yukari Yakumo's name is Japanese for Purple. Also her shikigamis, Ran and Chen, have names that mean Indigo and Orange, respectively.
  • The color-themed Sages of Team Plasma in Pokémon Black and White.

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