"I even had this red carpet imported from the Fire Nation! You know, they make the best red stuff over there!"
— Varrick, The Legend of Korra
A common trope in works that make use of Natural Elements — especially in video games that feature Elemental Powers — is that every element will have a color associated with it. This way, you know that anything red is related to fire, blue to water, etc.
This can manifest in many ways. Some common ones are enemies and weapons being the color of their element, element-resistant armor having that element's color, and elemental spells being color-coded in menus.
A few common examples of this trope follow. There are occasions where other colors are used for these elements, and these are by no means the only elements that get color-coded.
- Fire: Almost exclusively red or orange, though sometimes blue or white for more potent flames. See Technicolor Fire.
- Water: Almost exclusively blue or cyan, sometimes sea green. A notable exception is the Chinese Wu Xing, which associates water with the color black.
- Air/Wind: Green in most Asian works, yellow otherwise. Sometimes white or a shade of grey, rarely blue or purple. Occasionally red and brown if Autumn-themed. See Technicolor Wind.
- Earth/Rocks/Ground: Yellow, brown, orange, and grey are all common. Green if nature is not separate or if yellow is already taken. See Yellow Earth, Green Earth.
- Electricity/Lightning/Thunder: When this element is treated as a separate element (sometimes, it gets lumped with air/weather), it's pretty much always yellow. In the rare cases it isn't yellow, it will be electric blue, purple (thunder clouds), or white. See Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning.
- Nature/Plant(s)/Wood: Usually green, perhaps with other earth tones. If dealing specifically with flowers, it will usually be pink.
- Ice: In settings where water and ice are distinct, water will tend to be a darker or more saturated blue, while ice tends toward lighter/desaturated blues, cyan or even white.
- Metal/Steel: When treated as a distinct element (rather than a subset of earth), metal is usually a metallic gray, silver, or white (particularly in Wu Xing-inspired works).
- Poison: Green in Western works, purple in Eastern ones. See Technicolor Toxin.
- Light: Usually white or a bright yellow/gold, sometimes light blue. Pink, if The Power of Love is a major aspect.
- Holy: Usually pure white. Otherwise uses the same color schemes with Light.
- Darkness: Usually black, though dark purple is also very common. Sometimes red if it's hellish or hatred-oriented, or dark green if it's centered on poison or demonic sources.
- Gravity: Usually purple. Black if associated with Black Holes or darkness in general. Can occasionally be maroon.
- Magnetism: When treated separate from electricity, it's usually red for positive charge, and either black, gunmetal gray, or blue for negative charge. White is common for neutral charge.
- Energy: Pretty much any color, depending on the type.
- Magic: Can be multiple different colors, though purple shows up often due to being uncommon in nature.
- Chaos: Usually magenta, purple, or green.
- Mist/Fog/Smoke: Usually white if it's fog or mist, gray if it's smoke, and black if it's smog, though can be purple if its supposed to be ominous (see Mysterious Purple and Purple Is the New Black) or green if they are supposed to be poisonous fumes.
- Magma/Lava: When treated as a distinct element (rather than a subset of fire), magma/lava is usually orange and very dark gray. Red can also be used as well.
- Sun: When treated as separate from either fire or light, it's almost always gold, maybe orange.
- Moon: Silver, white, or pale yellow, when approximating the moon's color, or navy blue or black if it's based on the nighttime sky.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King: When Conrad Leto uses his keys to unlock all the powers he accumulated at once, his One-Winged Angel form gives him crown-like wings that resemble the four elements; fire-red, wind-green, earth-orange, and water-blue.
- Buster Keel!: One of the Shikyou, "Seven Colors" Dakki, derives her nom de guerre from both her seven tails and her ability to infuse them with elemental powers, each represented by a color, and each power can be bestowed on an adventurer or a monster able to wield magic of the same element, brainwashing him into a loyal minion named after the color of his element in Gratuitous English. The seven colors are Gold for Thunder, Silver for Wind, Red for Fire, White for Ice, Brown for Earth, Blue for Water, and Black for Darkness. She can also mix-and-match her tails to create new "colors", such as "Scarlet" (Earth + Fire), "Bright Yellow" (Thunder + Wind) and "Rainbow" (Everything at once).
- Cardcaptor Sakura: Many of the Clow Cards are Elemental Embodiments, and follow this rule. The Windy, one of Sakura's first cards, is light yellow, which is odd for an Asian work, but sometimes her wind manifests in shades of green and she has a green crown. The Firey is various shades of orange, red, and yellow. The Wood is all green and looks like a dryad, while The Earthy is brown but also has some green accents in her outfit. The Watery is various shades of blue, while The Freeze, one of the anime-exclusive cards, is light blue. The Thunder manifests as a wolf-like creature composed of electric blue lightning. To round it off, The Light and the Dark, who are sisters, dress in all-white and all-black, respectively, but have some accents in the opposite color in their outfits.
- Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!: Battle Lover Cerulean (water) = blue, Battle Lover Epinard (wind) = green, and Battle Lover Sulfur (earth) = yellow. The other two Battle Lovers are Scarlet (light) = red and Vesta (flame) = pink, which would work if they switched.
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: When Rengoku explains the Elemental Breaths to the heroes, each of the shown symbols has a writing next to it specifying the associated color, which usually refers to the color the Nichirin Sword takes: Fire Is Red, Water Is Blue, Lightning is yellow, Rock is grey, Wind Is Green, Sound is amber, Beast is indigo-gray, Love is pink, Flower is light pink, Insect is lavender-blue, Serpent is lavender, Moon is purple, and against all odds, Sun is black.
- Digimon Frontier: The Chosen Children and a few antagonists have associated elemental powers. Each is represented by given spirits, symbols, and colors. Red and gold are fire, white and periwinkle are light, white and dark green are ice, purple and lavender with green accents are wind, blue and yellow are thunder, brown and blue are earth, brown and green are wood, light blue and light green are water, green and silver are metal, and black, red, and bronze are darkness.
- Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic: Mentioned but not delved into. While studying magic in Magnostadt, Aladdin learns that each of the eight elements has a distinctive color, and so magicians aligned with that element are identified by the same color. Apparently, fire is red, water is light blue, lightning is yellow, wind is white, force is black, and life is purple. According to supplemental materials, light is orange, and sound is green.
- Magic Knight Rayearth: Fire powers are red, water powers are blue, and wind powers are green. Note that the three main characters were already colour-coded red, blue, and green before getting magic, and then got the associated element.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED/Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny: Yellow beams are fired from linear cannons, gun launchers, railguns, green are particle beam weapon and red are heavy beam weapons that can come from different sources; impulse cannon, plasma cannon, positron blaster gun, plasma induction cannon, multi-phase beam cannon, etc.
- My Hero Academia: Denki Kaminari controls electricity and has blond hair, matching his powers. Shoto Todoroki's design features white hair for the half of his body that controls ice, and red hair for the half that controls fire, while inverting the color scheme for his eyes. Fumikage Tokoyami has a living shadow and is very darkness-themed, while his design features both black (for himself) and dark purple (for his shadow) heavily. Side character Tetsutetsu Tetsutesu can coat his body in steel and has silver hair with grayish, quirky eyebrows. Ibara Shiozaki can control plants and has green hair (her hair actually being the plants she controls).
- Naruto: The Five Great Nations are color-coded according to the element they represent. The Land of Fire is red, the Land of Wind is green, the Land of Water is blue, the Land of Lightning is yellow, and the Land of Earth is brown. This also extends to the villages; each Kage wears a hat that is color-colored to match their country's. In a case of Early-Installment Weirdness, the Kazekage wears a blue hat in Part I, but by Part II, it is changed into a green one, since the blue hat-wearing Mizukage has been introduced.
- One Piece: The series has several characters whose elemental powers can be matched with the colors in their physical appearance, most notably the Admirals. Kizaru can control light, and wears a yellow suit. Akainu controls magma, and wears a crimson red suit. Aokiji controls ice, and wears a blue dress shirt underneath a white vest. Fujitora controls gravity, and wears a purple yukata and cloak.
- Pokémon the Series:
- Pokémon: The Original Series: Starting in the Indigo League and repeated in later competitions, there are four elemental fields that trainers battle on some combination of during the event. During the selection process - via computer - water is represented by blue, grass by green, rock by brown, and ice by white.
- Pokémon Journeys: The Series: While using Copycat, Chloe's Eevee is surrounded by an aura colored after the type of move she has copied. While the colors usually match those of the types in the games, the Psychic- and Dark-type colors are the exceptions — being purple and indigo respectively instead of magenta and black or dark brown.
- Pretty Cure:
- HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Has Cure Blossom note (Earth/Nature) = pink; Cure Marine (Water/Sea) = blue; Cure Sunshine (sunlight) = yellow; Cure Moonlight (well, just look at her name) = silver/purple.
- Smile PreCure!: Cure Happy (Light) = pink; Cure Sunny (Fire) = orange/red; Cure Peace (Thunder) = yellow; Cure March (Wind) = green; Cure Beauty (Ice) = blue. Also, Royale Candy (Light) = white.
- Ronin Warriors: Each of the magic armors used by both the five heroes and the four evil demon generals are associated with an element and a color/set of colors. The armor of Fire is red, the armor of Light/Thunder is green, the armor of Water is cyan, the armor of Earth is orange, the armor of Sky is blue, the armor of Ogre/Power is dark gray, the armor of Poison is dark green, the armor of Darkness is black and gray, the armor of Illusion is pink, and the supreme armor of the Sun is white.
- Rune Soldier Louie: Although the world doesn't particularly focus on elemental colors, at one point, Louie directly invokes this trope when he has to place five colored orbs in place to represent the five elements. The tricky part is, as this page shows, there's no universally accepted set of colors, so he has some trouble, mostly over if blue represents air or water.
- Sailor Moon: Follows almost all of these rules. Rei Hino (Sailor Mars) has a red fuku, Ami Mizuno (Sailor Mercury) has ice/water-based powers and a blue fuku, Sailor Neptune has both sea green hair and fuku and controls the sea, Makoto Kino (Sailor Jupiter) has lightning, wind, and plant powers, with a green fuku and pink accents. Sailor Uranus is the Soldier of Flight/Wind and has wind-related powers. Although her main color is dark blue, the secondary color of her uniform is gold. Sailor Pluto's powers are time related and her fuku is black, although the accent color is a dark brown/red color. Sailor Saturn, whose powers are all about death and destruction, has a dark purple fuku.
- YⱯIBA: Each of the magic orbs that can power up the magic swords of Fujin and Raijin holds a different power and has a different corresponding color, though not all powers are elemental. Firstly, the orbs of Thunder and Wind are, respectively, green-yellow and dark blue; as for the legendary spheres, the Water Orb is light blue, the Transformation Orb is yellow, the Fire Orb is red, the Giant Orb is gray, the Dark Orb is purple, the Ice Orb is teal, the Victory Orb is magenta, and both the Ryuujin Orb and the Heavens Orb are white.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Gate Guardian is composed of three elemental monsters with corresponding color schemes: Sanga of the Thunder (yellow); Kazejin (wind, green); and Suijin (water, blue).
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: When Elemental HERO God Neos is summoned, each of the Neo-Spacian Fusion Materials turns into light orbs of different colors that get absorbed into Neos. All six Neo-Spacians represent each of the respective six Attributes. Black Panther turns into a purple light orb, Glow Moss turns into a yellow one, Grand Mole turns into an orange one, Flare Scrab turns into a red one, Aqua Dolphin turns into a blue one, and Air Hummingbird turns into a green one. These colors would later be frequently used in later Yu-Gi-Oh! series. Furthermore, when the Neo-Spacians turn into those light orbs, they do it in three different pairs, representing the Attributes that make up each of the Triple Contact Fusions.
- Xyz Summoning in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL and Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. The six Attributes are colored in six different colors: yellow for LIGHT, purple for DARK, red for FIRE, blue for WATER, green for WIND, and orange for EARTH. Whenever monsters overlay, they shine in one of those colors representing their current Attribute. The Overlay Units of an Xyz Monster have the color of the Xyz Monster's Attribute.
- The Ignis in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS are all colored after the respective Attribute, the same colors mentioned in other Yu-Gi-Oh! entries. Ai (DARK, purple, although mostly black), Flame (FIRE, red), Aqua (WATER, blue), Earth (EARTH, orange), Windy (WIND, green) and Lightning (LIGHT, yellow). The @Ignister Extra Deck monstersnote based of each of the Ignis share the same Attribute and color scheme.
- Zatch Bell!: Most, if not all, of the Mamodo that are elemental-themed feature color schemes related to their powers. From the blond main character controlling lightning to minor characters who control plants being mostly green. The very first enemy features the color blue heavily on his design, and controls ice.
Card Games
- Magic: The Gathering is all about this; the entire resource system is based around mana coming in five different colors, each associated with a different land feature and set of elements: white for plains, law, order, and (the literal sense of) light; blue for islands, water, wind, and intellect; black for swamps, death, (again, the literal sense of) darkness, and ambition; red for mountains, chaos, fire, and lightning; and green for forests, life, growth, and wildness. There are also colorless artifacts (and occasionally other things) with more generic abilities.
- The four suits of the Tarot will use elemental color coding in their imagery, although this depends on the deck. Wands (usually fire) will tend to have a red or orange color scheme. Pentacles/Coins (earth) tend to be a mix of green and yellow. Cups (water) are usually blue or turquoise, although green, orange, and yellow have also been used in some decks. Swords (usually air) will tend to be either yellow, blue, or grey. This may or may not extend to the Major Arcana.
- In the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon and Energy cards are colored based on their types: Grass is green, Fire is red, Water is blue, Lightning is yellow, Psychic is purple, Fighting is brownish-orange, Darkness is black, Metal is silver, Dragon is gold, and the short-lived Fairy (before it was combined into Psychic) was pink. Colorless is white, and can use any type/color of Energy.
Fan Works
- Anima Ex Machina: The easiest way to tell the Ixodida apart is by looking at their skin color. Each one has skin that matches their specific type, such as silver for Steel-types, red for Fire-types, pink for Psychic-types, and so on.
- Clouded Sky: There are temples dedicated to each Pokémon type, and the acolytes of the temples dress in colors that correspond with the type their temple represents (Fire Temple = Red, Water Temple = Blue, etc.).
- Destiny Intertwined: Dragons have common color patterns derived from their elements. A dragon's primary color always matches that of their element (i.e., a dragon that breathes red fire will mainly be red, while one that breathes yellow fire will mainly be yellow). Deviations are not uncommon, but these typically signal the presence of inter-element crossbreeding at some point.
- Earth dragons are typically green, brown, or some mixture thereof. They usually have mid to dark colors, and the highest variety of secondary colors.
- Electric dragons come in shades of orange, yellow, and blue. They tend to have very contrasting palettes, with a mix of dark and light colors. The Stormbringer clan is unique for its predominantly grey-and-black "storm" coloration.
- Fire dragons are usually red, orange, yellow, blue or pink in color. They tend to have very bold, saturated colors.
- Ice dragons are almost always grey, grey-blue, or blue, leaning strongly towards light colors, and tend to lack contrasting secondary colors or bold inclusions. The lack of colored Ice variants outside of this basic palette means that Ice dragons have the lowest variety in secondary colors.
- Water dragons are blue and teal, in saturated shades. Their elemental markings are sometimes bioluminescent.
- Wind dragons are mainly light gray or teal. They can have a variety of secondary colors, but these are always light, desaturated, and low-contrast, and usually in cool shades.
- Hayze the Shadow dragon is almost entirely black.
- Dragon Caught in Amber: Magic exists in eight distinct colored Winds associated with different concepts and substances. Yara, who is naturally aligned with Ghur, the Amber Wind of Beasts, is as a consequence primarily brown and amber in coloration.
- Hope of the Shield Hero: Motoyasu wears red and has an affinity for fire, Ren wears blue and has an affinity for water, and Itsuki wears brown and has an affinity for earth magic.
- Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Fire dragons can be red, black or bronze. Ice dragons are white, grey, light blue, or dark blue.
- Keepers of the Elements: Each Energy Keeper wears silver, Water Keepers wear blue, Fire Keepers wear red and orange, Earth Keepers wear green, and Air Keepers wear white.
- The Portal: A dragon's element depends on the color of their scales. Bright red is fire, blue is ice, yellow is electricity, green is earth, dark green is poison, black is shadow, dark red is fear, and gray is wind.
- Power Rangers: Guardians of Gaia: Each of the Rangers draw on a different element and are color coded to each one, as is the norm for Power Rangers. Red Ranger uses fire, Green Ranger uses wind, Blue Ranger uses water, Orange Ranger uses earth, Violet Ranger uses lightning, Wizard Ranger (who is mostly colored yellow and gold) uses light, and Indigo Ranger uses darkness.
- Starshine! Pretty ✰ Cure: The twelve Cures are divided up into four elements, like the zodiac signs are. While each element has a set color (fire = red, water = blue, earth = gold, wind = purple), the individual Cure colors can differ while still staying in the same color type. For instance, Aries is red while Leo is orange. Ophiuchus breaks this slightly — although she uses white like proper light types would, her accent color is green, because of her ties to the Serpens.
- Vow of Nudity: The capital city of the Genasi Empire themes each of its four districts around the primary elemental subrace that lives within it.
Film — Animated
- Frozen II: During the “Show Yourself” music sequence, Elsa acquires a white dress decorated with colored ice crystals representing the four elemental spirits: Wind = blue, Fire = pink, Water = pale green, Earth = purple.
Film — Live Action
- The Fifth Element: The four stones that are collected represent each element and when opened glow a specific elemental color: red = fire, blue = water, yellow = air, and green = earth.
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): The headliner kaiju subtly form a Classical Elements Ensemble, and each is associated with a specific color in the movie's pallet (as well as on some of the posters): Godzilla is blue/water, King Ghidorah is gold/air, Rodan is red/fire, and Mothra is green/earth.
Literature
- Chronicles of the Emerged World: Each of the Eight Lands have a sanctuary where the magic crystal needed to compose the Talisman is kept. Each crystal has a color related to the element of the Land: Water (light blue), Sea (dark blue), Sun (yellow), Time (teal), Darkness (black), Fire (red), Rock (gray), and Wind (white).
- Circle of Magic: Dedicates of the Living Circle take vows to gods of one of the four elements and then wear habits colored to one of the four elements: red = fire, blue = water, yellow = air, and green = earth.
- Codex Alera: Has a color associated with the element involved in each of the six types of furycrafting: Fire Is Red, Water Is Blue, earth is green, air is also green, metal is gray, and wood is brown. Each element also has its own symbol, which is on the covers of some editions of the books.
- Elemental Masters: Fire is the standard red, Water is green (perhaps by association with the sea), Earth is yellow, and Air is blue.
- The Eye in the Stone: Taken to extremes, as magic derives from an energy-field called the Lattice. Different aspects of the Lattice have different colors, arranged like a triple spectrum (pale, medium, and dark shades of magenta through crimson, plus white and black at the ends) for a total of twenty-two Color Coded Elements. When magic is used, the auras and sparks produced by spell-casting match the color(s) of the aspect being used, and several of those aspects correspond to elements.
- In Fengshen Yanyi, the color scheme of the five Chinese elements are often used, but this is best seen in two cases: the four "Carriers of Plague" and disciples of Lu Yue are themed after east (Wood), west (Metal), south (Fire) and north (Water): the first has blue skin and green robes, the second pale yellow face and bright yellow robes, the third has bright red/pink skin and crimson robes and the last one has dark violet skin and black robes. Luo Xuan, the "Flame-wreathed Immortal'', is heavily associated with fire and has red hair, beard, skin and clothes. During the climax of the Ten Thousands Immortals Formation arc, Tongtian Jiaozhu summons the spirits of the 28 Houses, divided in seven elements: Wood (azure), Fire (red), Metal (pale yellow), Water (black), Earth (yellow), Sun (unknown color), and Moon (white).
- Harry Potter: The four Hogwarts houses are symbolically coded to the four elements, both in their heraldry and the general personality traits of their members.
- Gryffindor: A gold lion on a red field, representing fire. Defining traits include bravery, chivalry, and passion.
- Hufflepuff: A black badger on a yellow field, representing earth (specifically soil and wheat). Defining traits include humility, loyalty, and patience.
- Slytherin: A silver serpent on a green field, representing water. Defining traits include ambition, cunning, and deviousness.
- Ravenclaw: A bronze eagle on a blue field, representing air (specifically eagle feathers and the sky). Defining traits include creativity, curiosity, and wisdom.
- Modern Healing Mage: Each magic energy has a color. Fire is red. Ice/Water is blue. Nature/Earth is brown. Light is white. Dark is purple. Healing is green. Control is yellow. Arcane is cyan.
- The Quest of the Unaligned: Elemental magic is employed in this way, and mages wear the color of the element of magic with which they are aligned. Aeshes, fire mages, wear red; shamais, water mages, wear blue; ruahks, air mages, wear silver; and aretzes, earth mages, wear green. Also shows up in the actual magic of orahs (light aligned) and hosheks (dark aligned), which are gold-white and purple-black versions of the regular elements, respectively. For example, aesh-fire is the same color as regular fire, but orah-fire is pure white and hoshek-fire is dark purple.
- The Spectra Universe: Each of the six clans has a different color associated: Coles (heat) are red, Nomes (earth) are orange, Lectrans (lightning) are yellow, Sprites (nature) are green, Mers (water) are blue, and Muses (communication) are purple.
- The Way of Wizards: Each element has both a color and a race of creatures associated with the elemental realm:
- The Wheel of Time: Channelers of the One Power create spells by "weaving" one or more of the Five Powers, which they can see as transparent threads of light emanating from the spellcaster or in front of them if they are channeling: red for Fire, green for Earth, yellow for Air, blue for Water, and white for Spirit. Non-channelers can only see the weaves' effects, however.
Live-Action TV
- Encantadia: Some minor color variations used: Air is white/blue, Water is green, Earth is brown, Fire is the more conventional red.
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider OOO has shades of this trope with the Core Medals: Green is Lightning, Yellow is Light, Gray is Gravity, Red is Fire, Blue is Water, and Purple is Ice/Void.
- Kamen Rider Fourze has the main rider's canon states all colored, and modeled after given elements, as well as being immune to them. Gold is electricity, red is fire, silver is magnetism, and cyan is cosmic energy. Each of the astroswtiches that activate their respective states are all multiples of 10, and are in the same color as that state (with the exception of the N Magnet and S Magnet switches, which are 30 and 31, and are colored red and blue respectively).
- In Kamen Rider Wizard, Wizard's elemental Styles are color-coded: Flame is red, Water Is Blue, Land is yellow, and Hurricane is green. Infinity Style is either white, silver, or clear.
- The elemental swords of Kamen Rider Saber have this, with Rekka (fire) being red, Nagare (water) being blue, Ikazuchi (lightning) being yellow, Hayate (wind) being green, Gekido (earth) being gray, Suzune (sound) being pink, Kurayami (darkness) being purple, Saikou (light) being gold/silver, Noroshi (smoke) being crimson, and Kyomu (void) being orange.
- The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg: Each of the titular knights has a suit of enchanted armor that color-matches their element, paired with gold accents
- Super Sentai/Power Rangers teams (who already are Color-Coded for Your Convenience) that feature elemental powers use these in different ways:
- Seijuu Sentai Gingaman: Red uses fire, Green uses wind, Blue uses water, Yellow uses lightning, and Pink uses flowers. (Power Rangers Lost Galaxy lacks the powers but still keeps bits of the elemental motifs.)
- Seen in the theme of the mecha of Rescue Sentai GoGoFive/Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: (Using the Rangers names:) Haz Rescue is yellow and a mining truck (Earth), Aero Rescue is green and a helicopter (Air), Pyro Rescue is red and a fire truck (Fire), Aqua Rescue is blue and a truck with water cannons (Water), Med Rescue is Pink and an ambulance (Life). The Max Solarzord is silver and light blue (Light).
- Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger/Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Red uses wind, Blue uses water, Yellow uses earth, Crimson and Navy (dark red and dark blue) use thunder. Green lacks an elemental motif, instead using... samurai.
- Mahou Sentai Magiranger/Power Rangers Mystic Force: Red and their/his father, also in red armor post Heel–Face Turn, uses fire, yellow uses lightning, Blue uses water, Pink uses wind, and Green uses earth/nature. Their gold-armored mentor uses light and their/the Red Ranger's white-clad mother uses ice (also an ally/their mentor's apprentice wields the power of the moon and wears purple).
- Samurai Sentai Shinkenger/Power Rangers Samurai: Red uses fire, Blue uses water (see a pattern?), Pink uses wind, Green uses nature, Yellow uses earth, and Gold uses light.
- Tensou Sentai Goseiger/Power Rangers Megaforce: Red and Pink use Air, Yellow and Black use Earth/Nature, and Blue (and Green) uses Water. The metallic-colored Sixth Ranger can use any element, but it's implied that his original element was Earth.
Music
- Lindsey Stirling's music video for "Elements
" uses this a lot, with water, earth, fire, and air having different dominant colors. For fire and water, she also uses face paint/makeup in blue or red.
- The Spice Girls did this in the videos for "Holler" and "Let Love Lead The Way", using white for wind instead of yellow.
- In the former, Mel B represents fire (she wears a red dress and is surrounded by fires in grates); Mel C represents earth (she's meditating on some dry ground that becomes covered in grass); Victoria represents wind (she wears a white cat suit and is standing in a wind tunnel); and Emma represents water (she wears a blue dress and blue shades, and is standing under a fish tank).
- In the latter, the elements are swapped round. Victoria represents fire (she wears a red catsuit and is standing on a burning wasteland); Emma represents earth (she wears a green dress and green eyeshadow, and is lying in some grass); Mel B represents wind (she wears a white top and trousers, silver eyeshadow and is in a white room); and Mel C represents water (she wears a blue outfit and blue eyeshadow, and is sitting in some kind of fountain).
- Tsukipro's Alive and SQ series are made up of bands based on the elements - Solids is fire, Quell is water, Soara is air, and Growth is earth. The members have individual image colors, but the bands also have image colors - red for Solids, dark blue for Quell, light blue for Soara, and green for Growth.
- Zig-zagged with The Alchemy Index, Thrice's four-volume Concept Album about the classical elements. Most editions split the album into two two-disc sets, with the cover art for the fire/water set being navy or blue-black while the art for air/earth is tan. The vinyl edition, however, does include a red disc for fire, blue for water, white/clear for air, and green for earth.
Myths & Religion
- The five tattvas of Hindu esotericism and tantrism: Air is a blue circle, Earth is a yellow square, Fire is a red triangle, Water is a silver crescent shape.
- In Wicca, Earth is associated with the color green, Air with yellow, Fire with red, and Water with blue.
- In East Asian thought, fire is associated with red, water with black, earth with yellow, wood with blue or green, and metal with white.
Tabletop Games
- Bakugan:
- Bakugan come in six attributes, and the magnetic figures that represent them almost always (as some with special color schemes exist) have a color scheme pertaining to that attribute: Pyrus Bakugan are typically red with orange and/or yellow accents, Aquos Bakugan are blue with cyan accents, Ventus is aqua green (light green in the anime) with dark green accents, Subterra is light brown (dark brown in the anime’s first season) with bronze, orange, or dark brown accents, Haos is white or very light gray with yellow, light blue and/or gold accents, and Darkus is black with purple, yellow, and/or green accents.
- The Bakugan: Battle Planet reboot introduced a reworked "Faction" system with Ventus now representing both air and earth as well as plants and nature and a new Aurelus faction replacing Subterra, so naturally the color schemes for the different Bakugan would change to a degree: Pyrus Bakugan largely stayed the same, having a mostly red and orange color scheme with some green accents, Aquos Bakugan are blue with cyan and orange-yellow accents, Ventus is green with lime and yellow accents, Haos is white with accents in two shades of cyan (one more greenish and the other more bluish), Darkus is black with purple and lime accents, and Aurelus is gold with silver and gunmetal gray accents.
- The Dark Eye: The six elements are coded (at least by human standards) mostly this way with a few exceptions: Fire Is Red, wind is yellow or colorless, ice is purple or light blue, Water Is Blue, rock/stone is orange, and humus (earth and plants as well as all living things) is represented by earthen colors, but usually by green.
- Dragon Dice: Each of the elements is associated with a color. Red represents fire, blue represents air, gold represents earth, green represents water, and death is black.
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- The abilities and Breath Weapons of chromatic and metallic dragons can be identified by the color of their scales. Black, green, and copper dragons use poison and acid. Blue and bronze dragons use lightning. Red, brass, and gold dragons get the classic fire powers. White and silver dragons have power over cold.
- Each elemental drake species' primary coloration matches its associated element — fire drakes have bright red scales, air drakes are blue, earth drakes are greyish-brown (or green in the art), ice drakes are ivory white with pale blue highlights, magma drakes are black and red, ooze drakes are slimy green, smoke drakes are black, and water drakes are blue.
- Each of the four female Hulks of Zoretha is associated with an element, marked by her coloration. The red and orange one has fire, the gray and pale blue one has ice, the brown and green one has acid, and the dark blue and yellow one has electricity.
- Common, fire-aligned salamanders are colored red, orange and yellow. The rarer frost salamanders are instead various shades of dark to light blue.
- Exalted: Each of the five elements is associated with a color of Jade — the standard Red for Fire and Green for Wood, but a slightly more unusual matchup of White for Earth, Blue for Air, and Black for Water.
- Invisible Sun: To a degree with the Suns. Most of the Suns seem to represent an element that corresponds to its color as well as concepts and ideals, but it's not known if that's due to the worlds themselves, their Wardens, or just the expectations imparted by the inhabitants or visitors. The most prominent examples are the overgrown and wild Green Sun, the cloudy and airy Blue Sun of dreams, the Gray Sun of lies and a literal shadow of other worlds, and the fire-and-brimstone Red Sun of destruction.
- Res Arcana: The essences are colour-coded: Calm is blue, Elan is red, Life is green, Death is black, Gold is yellow, and Pearls are white.
- RuneQuest: The God Learners named the elf subtypes by color based on what elemental forces they were most closely associated with. Thus, the green and brown elves were named after the colors of Earth, yellow elves after the color of Light due to their closer links to the solar god Yelmalio, the aquatic blue elves after the color of Water, the tropical red elves after the color of Fire, and so on. Insofar as physical appearance they all have the brown-and-green appearance typical of plants.
- Warhammer: Elemental magic comes in winds of different colors. Light powers come from the White wind, metal powers come from the Yellow wind, life powers come from the Green wind, sky powers come from the Blue wind, darkness powers come from the Gray wind, death powers come from the Purple wind, fire powers come from the Red wind, and animal-based powers come from the Brown wind. When these winds are in their unrefined form, all mixed up, it's Black Magic, while when they are refined to their maximum potential, they become High Magic (manifesting as either silver or as a rainbow).
- World Tree (RPG): Flokin, the god of fire, takes the form of a panther striped in bright orange and incandescent white.
Theme Parks
- In Dueling Dragons at Universal's Islands of Adventure, the fire dragon was colored red, while the ice dragon was colored blue.
- Iowa's Lost Island Theme Park features an Amazing Technicolor Population split into four elemental realms: The blue Awa Water Nomads, the purple inventors of the Udara Air Society, the green Yuta Earth Tribe, and the red Mura Fire Clan. The Tamariki, a group of spirits that keep the elements in balance, use all four colors.
Toys
- LEGO:
- This trope is one of the main aspects of BIONICLE and its related lines, Slizer, RoboRiders, and, to an extent, Hero Factory. Especially in Bionicle, there are confusingly many combinations and exceptions, but generally characters that are mainly red are fire, blue are water, green are air or jungle, white are ice, black are earth/rock, brown/yellow/orange/tannote are stone or sand. Some elements can change their colors, and numerous colorful characters don't even have elements, making the whole thing even more difficult. Then, there are secondary elements that use the pre-established colors of main elements as either their main or secondary colors! And this is just Bionicle!If you want specifics (Mainly for Matoran/Toa/Turaga)
- LEGO also does this in their Ninjago line. Fire Is Red, black or gray is earth, white or silver is ice, blue is lightning, green is energy, and maroon and light-blue are water.
- Mixels has the characters divided into tribes based around elements. As such, each tribe has their own color scheme, even the ones that are based on offbeat elements. Infernites are red, Cragsters are dark grey and gold, Electroids are yellow, Fang Gang (based around both wood and biting) are brown, Frosticons are blue, Flexers (elasticity) are orange and black, Glorp Corps (slime) are green, Spikels are tan and silver, Wiztastics are purple, Orbitons (space-themed) are light green, white, and gold, Glowkies are navy and aqua with off-yellow for eyes, Klinkers (steampunk) are brown, gold, and silver, Lixers (tongues) are yellow and orange, Weldos (construction) are yellow and grey, Munchos (food) are purple and lavender, the MCPD (police) are red, white and blue, Medivals (knights) are different shades of brown, gold and silver, Mixies (music) are yellow and purple, the MCFD (firefighters) are red, blue, and yellow, Pyrratz are gray, brown, green, and gold, Medix are white and aqua, Trashoz are green and yellow, Nindjas are a different shade of orange and black, and Newzers are black, blue, red, and yellow. To follow this, the Nixels, the uncreative enemies of the Mixels, are simple black and white.
Video Games
- 9 Years of Shadows has half a dozen elemental damage types, each of which corresponds to a specific color. Electricity is yellow, Water Is Blue, Earth is green, Fire is red, Shadow is dark purple or dark blue, and Light is rainbow-colored. Enemy sprites are colored to reflect their associated element, and non-Shadow enemies also have colored auras which reflect the element that they are weak against. For example, water-elemental enemies are colored blue and have a yellow aura to indicate that they are weak to electricity.
- In Absolum, the major elements of Rituals have a specific color, like pink for Lightning or blue for Water. Duo elements also have a split between them, to make them easily stand out when selecting them.
- Afterimage: The damage numbers of elements are color-coded, such as brown for Geo, blue for Hydro, pink for Pyro, cyan for Anemo, yellow for Lux, and purple for Soul. By contrast, Physical damage is plain white.
- Altered Beast (2005): The PS2 game subtly associates an element to each of the Genome Cyborg forms and each one has a distinctive color: the Werewolf (Light) is silver, the Merman (Water) is green, the Wendigo (Ice) is light blue, the Garuda (Air) is yellow, the Minotaur (Fire) is red, the Dragon (Electricity) is magenta, the Grizzly (Stone) is brown, the U.W.H. (Gravity) is dark purple, and the Weretiger (Darkness) is dark gray.
- ANNO: Mutationem: For the main weapons, they can be equipped with a Fire, Ice, Lightning affinity to grant them elemental effects and provide additional damage to enemies; fire is colored red, ice is colored blue, lightning is colored yellow. The elemental chips that can be equipped to boost the damage output effects are retrospectively colored red, blue, and yellow to represent their main element.
- Barrow Hill: To acquire one of the needed offerings, you need to light candles at a small pagan shrine in the correct order. The candles' colors represent elements of nature plus Spirit, and information about how to light them correctly can be found in a pamphlet at the petrol station plus the notebook of a previous visitor to the shrine.
- Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! has different elements for different bomb upgrades you can get. You start out with Fire, the traditional bomb with a cross shaped explosion, and can upgrade to Ice (blue), Wind (green), Lightning (magenta), Earth (brown), which is more of a magma bomb, Light (white), and Dark (purple). Each enemy takes damage differently from each bomb; for example, metallic enemies aren't harmed at all by the Light bomb, aquatic enemies are fine with Ice, etc.
- Borderlands uses orange for fire, blue for shock (lightning), green for acid, and yellow for explosives. The sequel adds a fifth element, "slag", which is represented by purple and serves as a debuff; the interquel ditches it for an ice element, which gets a light blue color. In the third game, yellow represents radiation, which replaces explosives.
- Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters, the Arabian section of the game features a submission where you have to find and rescue four elemental genies trapped in the temple of their opposite element. The Fire Genie is red, the Water Genie is light blue, the Earth Genie is orange, and the Air Genie, for some reason, is purple.
- Castle Crashers plays with this for its four main heroes. Green is poison and blue is ice, but red is lightning and yellow-orange is fire.
- Castlevania: Curse of Darkness: as seen in the menu icons and with the Vampire Slayer in Trevor mode, Fire Is Red, Ice is blue, Wind Is Green, Lightning is orange, Earth is purple with a brown core, Darkness is black, and Holy is white.
- Chrono Cross skips naming the elements directly and just uses colors for elemental affinities. Red is fire and heat, Blue is water and ice, Green is air and nature, Yellow is earth and electricity, Black is shadow and gravity, and White is light and celestial bodies.
- Dark Parables, very frequent with elemental-themed puzzles all over the various games, usually following the classical schemes with red fire, blue water/ice, purple lightning, yellowish earth, green/white wind, and in one case green as the element of wood.
- In The Denpa Men, Denpa Men come in 12 different colors, 9 of them tied to elements. They're all pretty standard: Fire Is Red, Water Is Blue, Wind Is Green, Earth is orange, Electric is yellow, Ice is light blue, Light is white, Dark is purple, and Non-Elemental is black. Of note is that the color of a Denpa Man determines his or her elemental resistances, not their powers — any Denpa Man can only have one "spell", and a yellow Denpa Man's spell can easily be Earth or Wind type, for instance. Also, many Denpa Men of every color have non-combat spells, or no spells at all.
- Dept. Heaven has Fire (red), Ice (light blue), Lightning (yellow), Darkness (purple), and Light (green; sometimes referred to as Sanctity instead).
- Distorted Travesty: Played straight with Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water for elemental techniques. (Unfortunately, the brown looks too much like red.)
- In Dofus, the four main elements in the interface have the standard colors (Earth is brown, Air is pale green, Water Is Blue, and Fire Is Red), but elementally-attuned monsters (such as Piwis, Kwaks, Scaraleaves, Jellies, and Blops) may or may not follow that exact pattern - for example, Earth-attuned Piwis are yellow, and Air-attuned Scraleaves are white. Dreggons have their own elemental and color scheme based on what element they're weak to rather than what element they use: Sapphire (blue) is weak to Water, White is weak to Earth, Gold (yellow) is weak to Air, and Black is weak to Fire.
- Played straight in Dragon Quest VII with the Four Elemental Spirits: as a whole, Fire Is Red, Water Is Blue, Wind Is Green, and Earth is yellow, with additional colors associated to the Spirit's designs (orange for Fire, brown for Earth, purple for Wind, and dark blue for Water).
- Dynasty Warriors: In the fourth and fifth game, there are elemental orbs you can equip to obtain the elemental attack. The fourth has Fire = red, Lightning = light blue, Vorpal = purple, Ice = blue, Blast = white and black, and Poison = violet. The following game has only four: Fire (red), Ice (blue), Yin (black), and Yang (orange).
- Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes: The six elements each have a color used for their icons, which also appears on the floating Rune Lens icon when a character is set to cast an ability using that element. Fire Is Red, Earth is orange, Light is yellow, Wind Is Green, Water Is Blue, and Dark is purple.
- In Elemental Story, Fire Is Red, Water Is Blue, wood is green, light is yellow, and dark is violet.
- The CCG Elements color-codes its elements thusly: Fire is red, Water is blue, Earth is brown, Air is sky blue, Light is white, Darkness is black, Life is green, Death is purple, Gravity is orange, Time is yellow, Entropy is pink, Aether is aqua, and Non-Elemental cards are beige.
- Epic Battle Fantasy: Throughout the series, Fire is always red, Thunder is yellow, Earth is brown, Poison/Bio is green, Wind is gray, Holy is white and pale yellow, and Dark is black and blood red. The icons and most spells for Ice and Water are dark blue and light blue respectively, but users of those elements may swap colors, as seen with the Ores in the fifth game. Bomb attacks in-game are generally orange and its icon was that color for the second, third, and fourth games, but in Epic Battle Fantasy 5 the symbol was changed to pink, presumably to make it stand out from Fire. The fifth game still generally uses orange for Bomb attacks, with a few being pink/purple.
- EXTRAPOWER: Star Resistance: The valkyries that accompany Walhalla are colour-coded to their element: the Flame Valkyrie is dressed in red, the Water Valkyrie in blue, the Leaf Valkyrie in green. The Valkyries of Light are white-haired and dress in a lighter shade of blue. Walhalla herself is the Atmosphere Valkyrie and can manifest a large lightning bird as a secondary EXTRAPOWER attack, and so is given long yellow hair and golden armour.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy IV: The Elemental Lords; Earth-themed Scarmiglione = yellow/brown, Water-themed Cagnazzo = blue, Wind-themed Barbariccia = green, and Fire-themed Rubicante = red/orange.
- Final Fantasy X: Red = Fire, Blue = Water, White/Light Blue = Ice, Yellow = Lightning. This is important for a late-game boss, who switches his elemental attacks/strengths/weaknesses based on how the coloured nodes on wheels behind him line up (however, this is rendered moot by using Scan and coordinating your elemental attacks and element-nullifying magic accordingly).
- Final Fantasy XI: Red = Fire, Deep Blue = Water, Purple = Thunder/Lightning, Mustard Yellow = Earth, Green = Wind/Air, Light Blue = Ice, Black = Darkness, White = Light. Spell icons in the menus, elemental day indicators on the clock, crafting crystals, and other such things follow this color scheme.
- In Final Fantasy XII, each element has a particular color in the menu and statbar. Red = Fire, Medium Blue Raindrop = Water, Yellow = Thunder, Light Blue = Ice, Green = Wind, Brown = Earth, White = Holy, Black = Darkness. Abilities within these elements tend to feature these colors heavily in their animations as well, as do the hit animations of elemental weapons.
- In Final Fantasy XIII, light blue = ice, red = fire, yellow = thunder/lightning, medium blue = water, orange-brown = earth. Also has reddish pink = physical attacks and purple = non-elemental magic.
- In Final Fantasy XIV, Fire Is Red, earth is brown, ice is light blue, water is dark blue, Wind Is Green, and lightning is purple.
- Downplayed in Final Fantasy Tactics A2, which uses the same colors as XII with slightly different symbols. The abilities of each element tend to be less associated with that element's color, though. Some wind-based abilities, for instance, are yellow or even red while some lightning-based abilities are blue.
- In Fire Emblem, the color of a spellbook is determined by what element it is. Bright yellow for light, black for dark (or purple in Awakening), red/orange for fire, green for wind, blue for ice, and yellow for thunder. The last four are lumped as "anima" in the GBA games, making them quite multicolor compared to light and dark.
- Flight Rising has eleven elements that affect their corresponding flights in terms of deities and dragon eye color: Shadow is purple, Wind is light green, Nature is green, Light is pale yellow, Earth is brown, Lightning is cyan, Water is royal blue, Arcane is pink, Ice is light blue, Plague is red, and Fire is orange.
- The Fossil Fighters series uses red for fire, blue for water, green for air, yellow for earth, and white for neutral. Besides user interface, this motif bleeds into most vivosaur designs, and after an unlock, allows the player to tell the elemental type of uncleaned vivosaur fossils.
- Gauntlet Legends and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy have the following scheme for shot-power and magic potion power-ups: Red is Fire, Blue is Lightning, Yellow is Light, and Green is Acid. Knowing which element your shot power is can tell if it boosts attack power or doesn't against a boss.
- Genshin Impact has the following colors for the seven elements: turquoise for Anemo (wind), light blue for Cryo (ice), green for Dendro (plants and vegetation), purple for Electro (electricity), yellow-orangenote for Geo (earth and rocks), blue for Hydro (water), and red for Pyro (fire).
- Golden Sun makes it easy to identify Adepts, as they'll usually wear colors associated with their element, or even have Elemental Hair Colors or eye colors. Mars (Fire) tends toward reds and oranges. Mercury (Water/Ice) is inevitably blue, usually cyan. Venus (Earth and Plants) can be gold, green, and/or brown. Jupiter (Wind/Electric/Telepathy) tends to be green or light purple. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn adds two new powers to the scene. Darkness uses dark purple, and Light uses pale gold. Himi also breaks the pattern by wearing red and white for her day job, instead of dressing for her element (she's a Venus Adept).
- In Granblue Fantasy, the numbers representing the damage dealt by characters are color-coded, reflecting a character's element: Red (Fire), Blue (Water), Brown (Earth), Green (Wind), Yellow (Light), and Purple (Dark). Additionally, numbers colored White represent the Plain Damage property.
- Grand Summoners: The elements are shown in this matter. Red for fire, blue for water, green for grass, yellow/gold for light, and purple for shadow.
- Grim Dawn color-codes items, effects, and monsters to usually correspond with their most prominent element. Physical: gray and/or pale yellow, Fire: orange, Cold: dark to medium blue, Lightning: white-blue, Acid: bright greens, sometimes slightly yellowish, Piercing: silver, Vitality: dark red to purple, Aether: Sickly Green Glow and/or turquoise, Chaos: magenta.
- Hytale: Occasionally overlaps with Color-Coded Wizardry.
- Earth = Green
- Wind = Light Cyan
- Water = Bright Blue
- Fire = Bright Red
- Lightning = Yellow
- Void = Purple
- Jack Move uses specific colors to represent its Bizarro Elements. Cyberware is green, Electroware is blue, Wetware is purple, and Physical is red. Enemies which specialize in these elements typically have that element's color as the dominant color in their palette: a street punk who dresses almost entirely in purple is probably going to use nothing but Wetware attacks against you, for instance.
- The Kingdom Hearts series uses different colors to represent certain elemental spells:
- Series: Throughout the series, Fire spells are represented by red, Blizzard spells blue, Thunder yellow, Gravity, Force, and Magnetic dark purple, Aero is grey or white, and the plant-like Cure spells as green.
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: the three main protagonists are all color-coded to their respective preferred element: Ventus wears green for wind, Aqua wears blue for water and ice, and Terra dresses in red and brown as representations of fire and earth. Additionally, Poison spells are represented as dark purple.
- Kingdom of Loathing has its own set of weird elements, and its own coloring scheme - one of the few uses of color in the game, in fact. Hot damage is listed in red text, Cold damage is blue, Spooky damage is grey, Stench damage is green, and Sleaze damage is purple. There's also the pseudo-elementsnote Shadow (dark grey), Slime (dark green), and Supercold (pale blue). Bad Spelling (yes, that's actually an element in this game) has no special color.
- Here are the list of the colors of elemental copy abilities in Kirby series.
- Fire is Red
- Spark, Plasma & Leaf are Green
- Water is Blue
- Ice is Light Blue
- Poison & ESP are Purple
- Legacy of Kain: Defiance has Raziel wielding an energy copy of the Soul Reaver, whose color determines the elemental power it's currently using: the basic Reaver is either blue (Material) or greenish/teal (Spectral), then he gets the Dark Reaver (dark purple with a black core), Light Reaver (yellow with a white core), Fire Reaver (orange/red), Air Reaver (gray/white), Water Reaver (light blue) and Earth Reaver (green), while the Ariel Reaver has a distinctive blue/white color. As Kain, his Soul Reaver's emblems are red for Conflict/Fire, green for Dimension, yellow for Energy/Lightning and dark blue for Time.
- The Legend of Dragoon color-coded all the elements thusly: Fire Is Red, Water Is Blue, Wind Is Green, Earth is gold, Darkness is indigo, Light is yellow (though the Dragoon is White-Silver), and Thunder is violet. Non-Elemental enemies are colored Grey instead.
- The Legend of Heroes - Trails: Between the seven families of Arts and the seven types of Septium; Earth is orange/brown (Amberl), Water Is Blue (Sapphirl), Fire Is Red (Carnelia), Wind Is Green (Esmelas), Time is black (Nohval), Space is yellow (Goldia), and Mirage is silver (Argem).
- The Legend of Spyro: in the first two games Spyro's elemental breaths are coded as following: Fire Is Red, Electricity is yellow, Ice is blue, and Earth is green. Dawn of the Dragon adds four more elements and alters some of the old ones, so that now Fire is orange, Electricity is yellow, Ice is blue, Earth is brown, Fear is red, Wind is light blue/gray, Poison is green, and Shadow is black and dark blue. Across the entire trilogy, the ultimate element Aether is purple.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- Ocarina of Time uses yellow for light, green for forest and wind, red for fire, blue for water and ice, orange for spirit, and purple for shadow. Text, for some reason, switches to cyan for light and yellow for spirit.note
- Oracle of Seasons: The miniboss Frypolar is red in its fiery form and light blue in its icy form.
- The Minish Cap: The colors of the elements come from the colors of the Links in Four Swords. Wind Is Green, Fire Is Red, and Water Is Blue, as usual, but Earth is purple.
- Breath of the Wild uses white or very light blue for ice, red or orange for fire, and lime or yellow for electricity, which informs the coloration of elemental weapons, elemental enemies, elemental Chuchu jelly, animals native to environmental extremes or useful for making elemental resistance-granting dishes, elemental resistance-granting elixirs, the three dragons, and the electric crystals inside the shrines. As far as non-dragon elements, Water Is Blue, Wind Is Green (in the menu, it's white when seen in-game), and Malice (shadow) is Red and Black and Evil All Over with golden eyes where applicable.
- Lords of Magic: Each element is associated with a faith, which fills the role of races or civilizations in other games. Each faith's units have color schemes that fit the above trends.
- Magicka color-codes all ten elements thusly: blue for water, green for life, gold for shield, pale blue for cold, purple for lightning, red for arkane, brown for earth, and orange for fire. If you haven't memorized all of them by position yet, chances are you'll be reading the key based on the colors rather than the pictures.
- Majesty: By hiring the services of the various temples and wizards you have access to a vast variety of spells, usually related to a certain element: Wizards (mostly Shock and Awe and Pure Energy) are purple, Agrela (Life) is light blue, Dauros (Law and Stone) is gray, Krypta (Death) is blood red, Fervus (Chaos and Plants) is green, Helia (Sun) is orange, and Lunord (Moon and Wind) is brown.
- In Marvel Puzzle Quest, Crystal of The Inhumans, who can manipulate the four elements, has one power can choose the element that will take priority, each associated with one tile color. Fire Is Red (burns the enemy's hit points), Water Is Blue (restores Crystal's HP), Air is yellow (creates charged tiles) and Earth is green (strengthens special tiles).
- Maximo: Ghosts to Glory: The four elemental upgrades for Maximo's sword are distinguished by color and by the new appearence of the blade: the fire upgrade is red and manifests as a Flaming Sword, the holy/light upgrade is yellow and turns the sword into a Laser Blade, the ice upgrade is light blue and covers the blade with an icy cover, the arcane/dark upgrade is purple and covers the entire sword with a purple glow.
- Mega Man:
- In Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Starforce,
FireHeat is associated with Red,WaterAqua is associated with Blue,ElectricElec is associated with yellow, andNatureWood is associated with Green. - In Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX, Fire is associated with Red, Water/Ice is associated with Blue, Electric/Wind is associated with both Green and Yellow, and Non-elemental is associated with Purple.
- In Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Starforce,
- The different Meteo elements in Meteos are color-coded. Air is white, Fire is red, H2O is blue, Soil is orange, Iron is purple, Zap is yellow, Herb is green, Zoo is pink, Glow is light green, Dark is indigo, Ice is cyan, Poison/Dust is mauve, Time is aqua green, and Soul is magenta (lavender in Online).
- Metroid Prime Series:
- Metroid Prime: The elemental beams and everything associated with them are color-coded: The Power Beam is yellow (though the doors they open are blue, and those can be opened with any other weapon), the Wave Beam is purple, the Ice Beam is white, the Plasma Beam is red, and the Phazon Beam (only usable during the final battle) is blue.
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: The Power Beam is yellow like in the first game, the Light Beam is white, the Dark Beam is purplish black, and the Annihilator Beam is gray. The Phazon Beam, only usable as a deflection of Dark Samus' attacks during the final battle, is blue.
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: The Power Beam is yellow as usual, the Phazon Beam (now usable anytime during Hypermode, unlike in the first two games) is blue, the Ice Missiles are white, the Plasma Beam is orange, the Grapple Voltage is purple, and the Nova Beam is green.
- Mewgenics: Elemental abilities are indicated with a small icon in their corner, a simplistic image that represents the image along with a colored background. Red for fire, yellow for electric, cyan for ice, blue for water, cool gray for wind, brown for earth, green for grass, white for holy, purple for gravity, warm gray for musical, and orange for explosive.
- Musashi Samurai Legend has five (technically six because of Wonder Twin Powers) elemental Maidens and five elemental swords for Musashi to. respectively, save and obtain, both showcasing colors associated with their proper element, usually more than one. Earth has green, brown, and orange; Water has blue (navy and cyan) and white; Fire has red, pink, and black; Air has gray, teal, and yellow; Void has violet and black.
- Neverwinter Nights and its sequel Neverwinter Nights 2 use different colors to distinguish the different types of attack. The colors show-up on the message log and it goes like this: Fire = red, Cold = cyan, Electric = blue, Acid and poison = green, Sonic = orange, Magical = purple, Positive energy = white, Negative energy = grey, Divine = yellow.
- Onimusha in all its four (and more) games has shown: Lightning (navy), Fire (fire red), Wind (green), Ice (powder blue/purple in the third game), Earth (brown, orange in the third game), Light (gold/yellow) and Air (sky blue). The Dark element appears, but as an alternative name for Lightning.
- Persona has various color-coded "Wall" skills. "Red Wall" resists fire, "Green Wall" resists wind, "Blue Wall" resists electricity, and "White Wall" resists ice.
- Phantasy Star Universe has different colored glows for different elements used by weapons: green for non-elemental (with TECHNIC-casting weapons defaulting to green when different elemental spells are slotted in), red for fire, blue for ice, yellow for lightning, orange for earth, white for light, and purple for dark.
- Pikmin usually associates a color to an element by form of the Pikmin resistant to it, with red being for fire, yellow for electricity, and blue for water. Aside from the Pikmin themselves, this shows up on enemies related to the element. Fiery Blowhogs have red snout-tips, they shoot fire. Anode Beetles have yellow on their backs, they pair up and make electric links. Poison from the second game is an exception to the Pikmin linking up to it — it's maroon, the Dweevil that spits it out is pink, yet the Pikmin resistant to it is white. Crystal, a material introduced in the third game, is often either rendered as clear or white, yet the Pikmin species that's immune to being crushed by it and can break it is dark gray.
- Pokémon:
- The franchise generally bases a Pokémon's colors on its element: Fire-type Pokémon have lots of reds and oranges, Water-type Pokémon have lots of blue, Electric-types tend to yellows and light blues, Ice-types to cyan and white, Poison-types to purple, Steel-types to iron grey and silver, Dark-types to black and dark gray, and so on. The later generations also feature color-coded icons for each type, though many of them have two colors (e.g., the Dragon-type is half-red, half-blue). Later games update the icons to all be single-colored. The current colors (as of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl) are as follows:
- Lime green = Bug
- Black = Dark
- Indigo = Dragon
- Yellow = Electric
- Pink = Fairy
- Orange = Fighting
- In previous games, Fighting was associated with a Crimson color.
- Red = Fire
- In previous games, Fire was associated with an Orange or Scarlet color.
- Sky blue = Flying
- Purple = Ghost
- Green = Grass
- Brown = Ground
- Cyan = Ice
- White = Normal
- Violet = Poison
- Magenta = Psychic
- Pale brown = Rock
- Gray = Steel
- Blue = Water
- In the Pokémon FireRed ROM Hack Pokémon Sweet Version, outside a few overlaps, each type is allocated into a color: Vanilla and Marshmallow are white, Cherry, Strawberry and Apple are red, Orange is orange, Banana, Honey and Lemon are yellow, Lime and Mint are green, Blueberry is blue, Grape is purple, Raspberry is pink, Molasses is black, and Chocolate, Caramel, Cinnamon, Coconut, and Peanut are brown.
- The franchise generally bases a Pokémon's colors on its element: Fire-type Pokémon have lots of reds and oranges, Water-type Pokémon have lots of blue, Electric-types tend to yellows and light blues, Ice-types to cyan and white, Poison-types to purple, Steel-types to iron grey and silver, Dark-types to black and dark gray, and so on. The later generations also feature color-coded icons for each type, though many of them have two colors (e.g., the Dragon-type is half-red, half-blue). Later games update the icons to all be single-colored. The current colors (as of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl) are as follows:
- In Potion Permit, potion ingredients are classified under the four classical elements: Fire Is Red, Water Is Blue, Wind Is Green, and earth is brown.
- Primordia (2022): Each element layer has its own color.
- Fire: Red
- Life: Green
- Water: Blue
- Lightning: Yellow
- Cryo: Light blue
- Air: Hot pink (The layer's interface is pink lace)
- Earth: Brown
- Prayer of the Faithless: Holy attacks' damage numbers are colored yellow, and Dark's are dark red.
- Puzzle & Dragons: The orbs are color-coded for each elemental attack: Fire Is Red, Water Is Blue, Wood (which encompasses Wind and Earth as well) is green, Light is yellow, and Dark is purple. Then health recovering Hearts are pink, non-elemental Jammers are black, Poison skulls are white with purple highlights, and damaging Bombs are gunmetal with red highlights.
- In Puzzle Quest, there are 4 types Mana elements, and the players must fill their Mana bars accordingly to cast specific spells. Red represents fire, Blue is for water, Green is for earth, and Yellow is for wind.
- Quest 64 has fire portrayed as red, water as blue, earth in a orange-brown, and wind as green. Many enemies also vaguely follow this color scheme as well.
- The different grenades for the grenade launcher in Resident Evil 5 are color-coded: Explosive Rounds are orange, Flame Rounds are red, Nitrogen Rounds are white, Electric Rounds are cyan, Flash Rounds are blue, and Acid Rounds are green.
- Samurai Warriors: in the earlier games, elemental properties of a weapon where signaled by a colored icon: Fire Is Red/orange, Ice is light blue, Lightning/Flash is yellow, Wind Is Green, and Dark (later Demon) is black.
- Secret of Mana: All the spells of a given school, which are element-based, have the same color scheme.
- The Sims: Ghosts, both their actual Monochrome Apparition selves and their Bedsheet Ghost icons, are usually colored in ways that reflect how they died. Among others, ghost who burned to death or died of overheating are red or orange, ghosts who drowned are blue (and their bedsheet icon is made out of water), ghosts who froze to death are white or pale blue, ghosts killed by lightning or electrocuted by appliances are yellow, and ghosts who died of disease or poison are green.
- Skies of Arcadia does something similar, although the colors are different: Green is nature, Purple is ice, Blue is both wind and water, Red is fire, Yellow is electricity, and Silver is both life and death. Each of these color-coded elements is governed by an appropriately colored Weird Moon.
- Skylanders: The ten Elements (originally eight) that a Skylander can belong to are each associated with a color, as does the special Kaos element.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic Heroes: Speed-type characters (blue) use wind, Fly-type characters (yellow) use lightning, and Power-type characters (red) use fire.
- Sonic and the Secret Rings: Fire Is Red, wind is blue, and darkness is purple/magenta.
- Star Fox Adventures: The four Spellstones are color-coded according to which of the two Force Point Temples they are to be taken to: Orange for the Volcano one and blue for the Ocean one.
- StreetPass Mii Plaza: In Find Mii: StreetPass Quest, the Miis' shirts correspond to their attack. Black Miis darken rooms, White Miis light up rooms, Blue Miis cast water spells, Red Miis cast fire spells, Yellow Miis create sandstorms, Purple Miis poison enemies, and Cyan Miis freeze enemies.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: Gigi, who teaches the Firebrand, wears a red dress; Merri, who teaches the Thunderhand, wears a green dress.
- Paper Mario: The Origami King: Both the Vellumentals themselves and the magic circles associated with them are coded by color — green for Earth, blue for Water, red for Fire, and white for Ice.
- Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: If a Spark has an elemental attribute, it will be colored to match that element; Burn = Red, Gust = Lavender, Splash = Blue, Frostbite = Cyan, Ooze = Green, Shock = yellow, Vamp = Purple.
- Super Mario Fusion Revival: World 6-F1 (RGB Factory) takes place in a high-tech factory with three distinct areas: a red area (lava and fire), a green area (overrun with plant life), and a blue area (a swimming area).
- In Tales of Symphonia, the color of the magic circle that appears when an ally or enemy is casting a spell changes depending on the element. Red for fire, blue for water, green for wind, bright blue for ice, brown-orange for earth, black for dark, white for light, and purple for lightning.
- In Titan Quest features different types of damage, each associated with a color: Fire (orange), Cold (white/light blue), Lightning (white), Vitality (cyan), Poison (green), Bleeding (blood red), Life Drain (red), and Mana Drain (blue). Pierce damage is the only one lacking a color.
- Zigzagged wildly in Tomba!. In the first game, the Evil Pigs that the hero must defeat have each an elemental motif... aside from one, none of the colors match the element you'd normally expect (blue for Music, red for Wind, green for Fire, pink for Lightning, orange for Earth, navy blue for Flowers, yellow for Water) except for the final Boss (black for Darkness). The sequel had only five Evil Pigs, with slightly more matching elements and colors with one exception (Fire Pig is red, Ice Pig is light blue, Ghost Pig is yellow, Earth Pig is green, and Water Pig is navy blue).
- Torment: Tides of Numenera color-codes its damage types for easy visual reference in the tooltips. Physical damage is white, Energy damage is blue, Chemical damage is green, Transdimensional damage is yellow, Mental damage is pink, and Relativistic damage is purple.
- Warframe features Chroma, a Mechanically Unusual Class that turns this trope into a gameplay mechanic. Drawing inspiration from the chromatic and metallic dragons of Dungeons & Dragons, Chroma's energy color, as represented by the RGB color model, determines the element that his powers use. Red-dominant shades give him Heat damage, green-dominant shades give him Toxin damage, and blue-dominant shades give him Electricity damage; colors that are roughly balanced between all three give him Cold damage.
- Warriors of Might and Magic: Of the six elements, Fire is red, Water is navy blue, Earth is green, Air is light blue, Light is pure white, and Darkness is black. You can see the colors in the icons for magics, in the aura of certain weapons and in the circles appearing at the feet of engaged enemies.
- World of Warcraft has Fire as red/orange, Ice/water as blue, Holy as yellow, Shadow as black/purple, Nature as green, and Arcane as pink/purple.
- The Retro Z-Bots from the original Wonderland Series and its spinoff series Wonderland Adventures are colored blue and are explicitly stated to be electrifyingnote .
- Wuthering Waves uses different colors to represent its six elemental damage types. Fusion is red, Aero is green, Glacio is blue, Electro is purple, Spectro is gold, and Havoc is pink. There is also the enemy-exclusive Physical element, which is white.
- ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal's Table of Effectiveness lists Nature as green, Stone as grayish brown, Water as blue, Fire as orange, Air as white, Light as yellow, Darkness as purple, Chaos as burgundy red, Ice as whitish-bluish-cyanish-something, Energy as violet/bright purple, Psi as cyan, and Metal as steely gray.
- Zenless Zone Zero: The five elemental attributes are also associated with certain color palettes, which is also reflected on their damage numbers: Electric being blue, Physical being yellow, Ice being light blue, Fire being orange, and Ether being a red-purple gradient.
Web Animation
- RWBY: Dust is an energy source found in crystalline form; it produces different elemental effects based on its colour, and can be combined in different ways to produce new colours and associated elemental effects. Known colours and effects include: red for Fire, pale blue for Ice, deep blue for Water, greyish-white (occasionally pale green) for Wind, yellow for Lightning, black for Gravity, and granite grey or orange-brown for Earth/Rock. A very rare Hard Light Dust exists that produces very pale blue energy from a very pale blue-white crystal. There are also green Plant/Nature crystals whose elemental effects have rarely been demonstrated.
Web Comics
- Aurora (2019): The six forms of elemental magic all have specific colors that appear in glow effects associated with active magic, lacrimas, and glowing eyes during magic use. These are green for life, yellow for lightning, orange for fire, purple for wind, blue for water, and white for stone.
- Homestuck has all players given a class and element, in the style of Hero of Element. There are many different classes, each of which can interpret elements in different ways and titles aren't immediately intuitive. The three thus far shown Heroes of Light all have drastically different abilities. However, elements typically can be loosely defined.
- Breath (Wind) is associated with blue, ranging from a pale sky blue to darker navy.
- Light (Luck) is associated with yellow and orange.
- Time is associated with red.
- Space is associated with black and to a lesser extent, green.
- Mind (unclear abilities; suggested to be emotional bonds and decisions) is associated with teal.
- Heart (Soul Power) is associated with pink.
- Life is associated with vibrant green and beige.
- Void (Nothingness) is associated with dark blue.
- Hope (unclear abilities; suggested to be knowledge and holy light) is associated with golden yellow.
- Doom (unclear abilities; possibly fate and prophecy) is associated with dark muddy green.
- Blood (unclear abilities; only the broadest strokes of the element are known with hints of The Power of Friendship) is associated with rust brown and blood red.
- Rage is associated with purple.
- Phantomarine: Subverted. Cheth, god of water, has a red motif (hence the Red Tide). His sister Cheline, goddess of fire, has a blue motif (hence the blue fire in her temples).
- In Yokoka's Quest, each spoken language, associated with a particular element, has its own speech bubble and font style and colour, to make them easily distinguishable. Of particular note, Dream language is purple.
Web Original
- Alanna uses the standard red/blue/yellow for fire/ice/lightning, and adds black for summoned creatures.
- The Questport Chronicles has the elemental essences: Fire (red), Water (blue), Air (light green), Earth (brown), and Aether (black).
Western Animation
- Avatar:
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Clothing and architecture (to an extent) is color-coded by nation and the wielders of Elemental Powers therein. Air Nomads wear oranges and yellows, Earth Kingdom citizens wear greens and browns, Fire Nation citizens wear reds and blacks, and members of the Southern and Northern Water Tribes wear blues, whites, and purples. This also extends to the colors of Team Avatar's members, since they're essentially an in-universe Five-Token Band. There are some exceptions; for instance, The Order of the White Lotus consists of citizens from all the different Nations, and they have one type of uniform which, while dark-blue like some Water Tribe clothing, is distinct from any one Nation's style shown in the series and Azula's famous blue fire as opposed to the traditional red-orange that all other character use. The map showing the different nations also uses a specific color for each landmass: red for the Fire Nation, green for the Earth Kingdom, blue for the Water Tribes, and white for the Air Nomads.
- Downplayed in Sequel Series The Legend of Korra with the advent of the multicultural United Republic, although still present to a small degree; firebender Mako and earthbender Bolin are brothers and for the most part wear similar clothing, with the exception of Mako's red scarf and Bolin's green belt. Played straighter outside the Republic.
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers:
- The Planeteers' rings have different colors based on the element the ring's power represents: Fire Is Red, Water Is Blue, Wind is white, Earth is green, and Heart is gold.
- The Rings of Destruction - evil counterparts used to summon Captain Pollution - have a similar setup: Super Radiation is red, Deforestation is yellow, Smog is green (seen only briefly before emitting a yellow cloud), Toxic is blue, and Hate is teal.
- The Owl House: Luz Noceda's glyph magic glows in different colors depending on which glyph she's using (unlike with more traditional witch magic, where each character has their own color). Light is yellow, ice is blue, plant is green, and Fire Is Red.
- Wakfu: Each of the six elements of the world is associated with a proper color: red for fire, blue for water, yellow for earth, green for wind, white for light, and black for darkness. While they're not listed as proper elements, there are also the contrasting energies of Wakfu (greenish-teal) and Stasis (purple).
- Xiaolin Showdown: When unleashing the full power of their Wudai elements, each of the Chosen Ones appear as a black silhouette outlined in their elemental color; Omi (Water) in white, Raimundo (Wind) in blue, Clay (Earth) in green, Kimiko (Fire) in orange.
- X-Men '97 depicts Magneto's Magnetism Manipulation as a yellow outline around objects being affected.
Other
- The colors of the five Chinese elements (Wu Xing) are assigned as follows: Wood (green/blue), Fire (red), Earth (yellow), Metal (white), Water (black). Lesser known are the Wǔjiànsè or "Five Intermediary Colors" associated with combinations of elements and directions: Center + East has green (unambiguous green, contrasting Wood's greenish/blue), East + West has light teal, West + South has crimson/pink, South + North has violet and North + Center has brown.