The Dress Code of True Heroesnote
"Red, blue, yellow... Primary, but it works in a superhero-ish kind of way."
We know that Red Is Heroic and Blue Is Heroic. There's almost no better way to say your character is a hero than giving them a costume that is primarily red, blue and sometimes yellow for good measure.
If you see a character wearing both red and blue prominently, chances are they are The Hero, the main character, or at least playing for the good guys' side. With blue typically symbolizing heroic resolve and caring, while the red stands for righteous passion and strength, it is a good visual shorthand to the audience that this is a person you can trust.
Red and blue are both strong colors that balance well and are commonly paired together. Usually blue below the belt and red above whether wearing armor, dresses, superhero tights, or as simple as blue jeans and a red t-shirt. Yellow is the go to for a third color (with white being a fourth option), likely related to Gold-Colored Superiority and Gold and White Are Divine (with yellow standing in for gold in animation). The other typical set up is that most of costume will be blue, an iconic piece of it (such as a hat or a cape) will be red, and yellow will be used for accents, trims, buttons, logos, and other accessories.
Sometimes a heroic institution may make a point of giving its members red, blue and yellow uniforms. If it's just a small group, however, you may be looking for Chromatic Arrangement or Color-Coded Characters.
This trope may have stemmed from the early days of comic books in which heroic characters typically had color schemes that sported Primary Colors (Red, blue, yellow, like Superman) while villains typically had secondary colors (Purple, green, orange, gray — think The Joker, Green Goblin or Lex Luthor's iconic Powered Armor).
A Sub-Trope of Good Colors, Evil Colors, Red Is Heroic and Blue Is Heroic. Contrast Red and Black and Evil All Over and Grayscale of Evil. The inverse of this trope is a Secondary Color Nemesis.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Beyblade: Nearly any incarnation has the protagonist run around in red, yellow, and blue.
- Bakuten Shoot Beyblade firstly has Takao Kinomiya, who has blue hair to begin with and dresses in red, blue, and yellow. His bit-beast Dragoon is blue, as might be expected of the Azure Dragon. The other protagonist is Daichi, who has red hair and dresses in blue. The yellow comes from his bit-beast Gaia Dragoon, the Yellow Dragon.
- The experimental manga Beyblade Taisen Seiryūden features Ryō Tatsumiya, an alternative wielder of Dragoon. She has got red and black hair and is mostly dressed in blue and white, but there are yellow accents here and there.
- Metal Fight Beyblade has Gingka Hagane, who has red hair and dresses evenly in blue, yellow, black, and white.
- Beyblade Burst has Valt Aoi. Befitting his family name, he has blue hair if with yellow accents. He dressed in blue, red, and yellow.
- Case Closed: Conan himself wears a blue jacket, red tie, white undershirt.
- Cubix: Robots for Everyone: Conner wears mostly white but has red and blue trims on his shirt and pants. He's the hero that finally activates and bonds with Cubix.
- Daitarn 3: The titular robot is mainly blue and white with some red and yellow parts (helmet, chestplate and holsters are red).
- Digimon: Like the Gundam example, most of the goggle boys and almost all of their partners have this design, if only in their final forms. Sometimes the result of a Fusion Dance of a Red Oni, Blue Oni pair. This applies to Omnimon as a result of fusion between The Hero and The Lancer, Davis, and most of the Veemon line, the heroes from day one, have it as well. Susanoomon is another hero/lancer fusion, the Emperorgrermon top half was red, and Magnagarurumon bottom half was blue. Shinegreymon gets it in his final two forms, and then Taiki and Tagiru and the entire Gumdramon line have it in the next series.
- Goku of Dragon Ball is a pseudo-example, wearing orange and blue, but a noticeably redder shade of orange than a few other characters with the same costume (like Goten in Z). Of course when he turns Super Saiyan, his hair becomes golden yellow. And then there's the higher level of Super Saiyan Blue, where you can guess what his hair's color becomes.
- In the Follow the Leader fashion, Dragon Ball may have inspired a growing subtrope of Primary Color Champions that swaps red for orange, see Naruto and Toriko.
- When he returns in Dragon Ball Super, Future Trunks wears a blue jacket and red scarf, while also being depicted with blue hair.
- Kenshiro, the hero of Fist of the North Star, wears blue with a red undershirt.
- For most of the series, the hero Hayato Kazami from Future GPX Cyber Formula wears a blue racing suit with red trimmings and yellow parts (except for his Sugo Winners suit). His team's logo also has red, blue and yellow colors in it.
- The various incarnations of the iconic Asurada is a white car with blue and red trimmings on it, along with the Garland series, a blue and white car with red trimmings.
- Almost every single main character's Gundam has a blue body, red boots, and yellow accents (such as its head crest). This serves not only to identify a hero in the broad sense by invoking the trope, but also to make each new hero the 'new version' of the iconic Amuro and his RX-78-2 Gundam (part of this page's image above) in Mobile Suit Gundam. You find this color arrangement with the Gundam Mk-II and Zeta Gundam, ZZ Gundam, Gundam F91, GP-01 "Zephyranthes", Victory Gundam, Shining Gundam, Wing Gundam, Captain Gundam and his human companion Shute, the Gundam X, Gundam Ground Type, ∀ Gundam, Strike Gundam, Impulse Gundam, Gundam Exia, AGE-1, G-Self, Gundam Barbatos and Gundam Aerial. Most of their upgrades and titular Gundams follow suit.
- This was originally an Enforced Trope — creator Yoshiyuki Tomino wanted the RX-78-2 to be in more reasonable military colors like white and aircraft gray, but was overruled by the producers, who felt that primary colors would sell more toys. This is possibly referenced in 00 — both the 0 Gundam and Exia started off in Tomino's white and gray color scheme, but were painted in the traditional Gundam tri-color before being officially deployed. Interestingly though, Amuro's Nu Gundam is in the military colors and even some of the Premium-Bandai model kits are re-releases of previous Mobile Suit kits, but in the military colors, labeled "Real Type" colors. The Unicorn Gundam is an aversion as it is an all-white suit, as is the Narrative and the Stargazer, also with black color scheme for the Strike Noir. The Aerial meanwhile ends up as an inversion as it maintains the color scheme but is instead the Big Bad's suit, with the heroes machine being closer to White and Red and Eerie All Over.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Jotaro Kujo's ensemble in Part 3 was a blue school uniform and cap with a red undershirt as well.
- Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin in Konosuba all wear blue, yellow, and red outfits, respectively, while Kazuma himself wears a mix of complementary colors.
- Nanoha Takamachi's Magical Girl costume has been intentionally colored white, blue, red, and yellow to resemble a classic Gundam.
- My Hero Academia: All Might's main hero costume is blue with red accents, and bright yellow gloves and boots, all accented by his blond hair. This is consistent with the manga artist's desire to model All Might after American comic book heroes.
- One Piece: Luffy wears a red jacket, blue shorts, and a yellow hat. He's the happy-go-lucky captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, and the lead character.
- Ash Ketchum of Pokémon: The Series typically wears a red cap and a blue-and-white shirt/jacket. Depending on the season, he may also wear blue pants and/or red sneakers. Additionally, the bright yellow Pikachu was chosen over Clefairy to be the show's main Pokemon for this very reason.
- Pretty Cure: Blue and yellow are among the most common colours used for Cures (starting with Cures Aqua and Lemonade). Red is less common, since pink is often preferred, but there have been notable red cures such as Cure Passion and Cure Scarlet. Black and white are much, much less common (the only major Cures using those colours being, of course, Cure Black and Cure White), but recent seasons saw white Cures becoming more common, with the introduction of Cure Summer and Cure Prism.
- Ronin Warriors: Ryo's Wildfire armor is primarily red, but has some blue elements plus the yellow crest. The other warriors' armor are typically one analogous color (such as Hardrock being orange and brown).
- Sailor Moon: while other characters typically only had one prominent color and analogous color for accents, Sailor Moon had two: a blue skirt, red boots and gloves and bows, also complimented by the standard gold tiara and her blonde hair. Word of God states her representative color was pink, and manga art, certain anime art, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal makes the red a pink-red.
- Similarly when Sailor V operated as a solo hero she wore a red and blue outfit. When she joined the team as Sailor Venus she became the yellow/orange warrior and changed her costume accordingly.
- Phoenix Ikki in Saint Seiya (anime version, first form of Phoenix Cloth, as well as his regular clothes). Notable in that he's not The Hero or The Protagonist of the series. He's still one of the good guys, though.
- Speed Racer wears a blue shirt, red shoes and yellow gloves. His 'M' logo is also red. He's of course the titular character and hero.
- Most Super Robots from the 70s and 80s used these kind of color schemes:
- The respective titular Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, and UFO Robo Grendizer are all black and silver with red and blue parts.
- The original heroic Getter Robo uses some combination of red, white, and yellow in all three of its forms.
- The lead robots of the Robot Romance Trilogy all have primary color schemes. Combattler V and Voltes V are mainly blue with some red and white accents, while Daimos is mostly red with some white and black.
- Raideen, the titular hero is red and blue with some yellow bits.
- Gekiganger3, being THE Affectionate Parody of 70's robot shows, also sports the blue/red/yellow combo, along with some gray parts.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Simon, The Hero, wears a blue jacket with red accents in the first season, and has more yellow accents after the timeskip. Also wears red and yellow goggles.
- Similarly, Kamina, the Supporting Leader, has his blue hair and copious amounts of red in his glasses and cape.
- The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots: While Pero usually wears a predominantly-red musketeer outfit or suit, on the film's cover and title page he sports a red feathered hat, red cape, blue tunic, and yellow bowtie. Though he does become an actual Primary-Color Champion in the film's sequel where he wears a blue cowboy vest in combination with a red hat and tunic.
- Yugi Mutou wears a blue school uniform with the golden Millenium Puzzle, and he also has magenta and yellow highlights in his black hair.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Yusei Fudo has an iconic blue jacket (and acts as the Blue Oni to his friends) paired together with his red D-Wheel and helmet. And his criminal marker on his face is yellow.
Art
- In The Apotheosis of Washington, Lady Freedom is set apart from the beige-brown brutes of tyranny by her red cape, blue tunic, and yellow dress that complement her patriotic red, white, and blue shield.
- In The Last Supper, Jesus is portrayed as the Messiah through his striking red and blue robe he wears while surrounded by his more muted, flawed Apostles.
- Liberty Leading the People: Liberty is positioned as a heroic paragon. She is clothed in a yellow dress and a red cap and bears the red, blue, and white French flag.
- In Michelangelo Buonarroti's Doni Tondo, the Virgin Mary is at the forefront in a light red and a bright blue that symbolize her special place in creation as the Mother of God.
- Raphael Sanzio: The Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary and her unique goodness is obvious from the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament from her red and blue robes.
Asian Animation
- Happy Heroes: Happy S., the protagonist of the series and the leader of the Supermen, has all three of the primary colors in his design - he's mostly red, but also has a yellow heart insignia and wings, and a blue gem on his forehead.
- In the Pleasant Goat Fun Class series, Weslie wears a cream yellow shirt with red sleeves as well as a pair of blue shorts, contrasting with the sneaky Wolffy's purple shirt and orange beret (Wolffy is a villain in the original Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, but not so much in Pleasant Goat Fun Class; he is still ruder in comparison to the goats, though).
Comic Books
- Aquaman inverts this, as he himself usually wears orange and green. His original sidekick, Garth qualified when he was Aqualad, wearing a red top and blue shorts.
- The Atom's default look is a mix of blue and red.
- Batman: Grey bodysuit, yellow belt and accents on his logo, blue cowl, cape, gloves and boots. Batman is an interesting case in that he started off with this color scheme, but is nowadays a Depending on the Artist example at best. Some artists keep these colors, though others have recently been recoloring the blues of the suit to black. In some other cases such as the majority of his live-action outings, the suit is either colored differing shades of grey, or completely jet black.
- Robin plays around with this trope, in that his costume has a red torso, green sleeves and leggings (if any leggings), with a yellow cape.
- As for the polar opposite, Batman commonly faces villains wearing secondary colors, such as the Riddler (green and purple), Poison Ivy (green), Ra's al Ghul (green and gold), Bane (black and/or dark blue), Scarecrow (orange or brown), Killer Croc (green), and of course, the Joker (purple, green and orange).
- Captain America, leader of The Avengers and definitely the Big Good of the Marvel Universe, also wears blue and red. Many All-American heroes, such as Patriot and Miss America, invoke this as red and blue are two of the USA's colors, along with white.
- Classic Captain Marvel wears a red costume, with a yellow belt and logo, and a white cape with gold trim. Mary Marvel's traditional costume has the same color scheme, while one of her later costumes is mostly white and gold. Captain Marvel Jr. has a costume identical to Cap's, but with the red replaced with blue and the white cape replaced with red. New 52 Shazam has the same color scheme, but his chest emblem is now mostly white and glowing, and he adds a white hood to the cape.
- Doctor Fate wears a blue bodysuit with a yellow cape, helmet, gloves, and boots.
- Doctor Strange wears a blue uniform with a yellow belt and a red cape (often with yellow lining) with the golden Eye of Agamotto as a clasp.
- Etrigan has yellow skin and red eyes, and wears a red leotard and blue cloak. In the original run by Jack Kirby, he was more of a heroic character, but depictions since have played up his demonic nature to the point that this is a subversion.
- The Falcon's classic costume is red and white, but his 2017 look fits this trope, likely to reflect the years he spent as Captain America. It's predominantly dark blue with red highlights and goggles, and a gold headpiece.
- The Flash
- Jay Garrick, the original Flash, offsets his red costume with blue pants. The more iconic future Flashes opted for a primarily red costume with yellow lightning bolts.
- Inverted with Savitar. He wears blue pants with bits of red and gold armor, but he's steadfastly evil.
- British superheroine Geek Girl wears a red outfit with a yellow cape, gloves and boots.
- The Incredible Hulk: Inverted with the Hulk, who is usually green with purple pants, highlighting how the character is more monstrous than the usual hero. Also inverted with Red Hulk, where the primary-colored character is the villain, while the secondary-colored character (the original Hulk) is the hero.
- Tony Stark's Iron Man armor is a downplayed example as it is red and gold, but the light that comes out of its chest and eye area, as well as his iconic repulsor rays, are frequently depicted with a light blue tint, so he manages to barely fit the trope with this technicality.
- Judge Dredd, as well as the other Judges of Mega-City One, wear red helmets, blue bodysuits, yellow armor, and green boots and gloves. Of course, given his occupation, Dredd himself is an anti-hero, but his enemies are worse.
- Downplayed with the Martian Manhunter. The green skin is what probably draws the eye, but his classic outfit consists of a blue cape and shorts with yellow buckles and red straps across his chest. His modern look covers him up some more with a black suit, but retains bits of all three primary colors.
- The Mighty Thor: Blue armor, a red cape, and blond hair. He's the hero and king of Asgard. His sometimes enemy Loki wears green.
- When Ms. Marvel took a promotion to Captain, she started wearing a mainly blue costume with red accents and yellow trim. The next Ms. Marvel followed her lead in this color scheme.
- Big Barda of the New Gods wears blue and yellow armor with a red cape. When she is not wearing the armor, she wears what can charitably be labeled a two-piece bikini that is mostly red with some black trim.
- Nova: Blue tights, yellow gauntlets, yellow helmet with a red symbol.
- Quasar's usual costume as one of Marvel's cosmic heroes: blue and red costume, blond hair, and the signature yellow quantum bands and chest symbol.
- Red Tornado: A red android with a blue cape and yellow arrow designs down his arms and head. His evil sibling Reds don't have blue capes, so it's easy to tell the heroic one at a glance.
- The Smurfs: Papa Smurf. Red suit, white beard, blue skin. He's the Big Good and father figure to all the little Smurfs who just wear white.
- Spider-Man: Red and blue body suit. The legs have more blue, the torso has more red. Being Marvel's most popular hero has also done a lot to promote this trope. In contrast, many of his Rogues Gallery (including the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Electro, Mysterio, the Lizard, the Vulture, the Jackal, etc.) favor green and/or purple. Venom is mostly Deliberately Monochrome (though his Ultimate version wears purple), and Carnage is Red and Black and Evil All Over.
- Stargirl wears a blue costume with red and white trim (representing America) but carries a yellow staff and is almost always depicted with flowing blonde hair (representing heroism.)
- Superman: Blue tights, red cape, trunks and boots, yellow belt and accents on his logo. The modern Trope Codifier if not the Trope Maker. As the most iconic, quintessential super hero, his 75+ years of publication have pushed the prominence of this trope.
- Most of the other members of the Superman family follow suit, including Supergirl and most versions of Superboy. Power Girl's costume is mostly white, but has red/blue/yellow accents and she has blonde hair.
- Supergirl: Supergirl has changed costumes constantly since her creation, but most times she keeps the blue-and-red color scheme. Most of her costumes can be seen here
(although her Supergirl (2011), Red Lantern and Supergirl (Rebirth) costumes are missing from that List). In The Supergirl From Krypton (1959) story, Kara's costume was made by her mother in imitation of the blue-and-red Superman's outfit so he would believe Kara is Kryptonian.
- During his HeelFace Turn after the death of the New 52 Superman, Lex Luthor decided to claim the title of "Superman" for himself and highlighted this by replacing his usual green-and-purple warsuit for a new red, white, and blue set of powered armor◊ and donning the New 52 Superman's old red cape.
- Ambiguous or evil versions of the Super-family generally go for Red and Black and Evil All Over. Examples are New 52 Superboy and Red Daughter of Krypton Supergirl, who are edgier heroes. Notable exceptions who keep the primary color scheme are Ultraman and Cyborg Superman.
- For the opposite trope, when Lex Luthor battles Superman personally he uses green-and-purple Powered Armor. Other villainous colors worn include Brainiac (purple and green), Superman Mister Mxyzptlk (purple), Parasite (purple), Metallo (silver), and Darkseid (navy blue).
- Wonder Woman:
- Wonder Woman (1942): Di's first costume consisted of a red bustier with a large yellow eagle embroidered on it paired with blue spangled culottes and accessorized with red boots, a yellow tiara with a red star and the golden lasso. The culottes eventually shrunk into more form fitting shorts.
- In the Silver Age and the Post-Crisis Wonder Woman (1987) continuity her costume was a red and blue Leotard of Power, blue on bottom, red on top with gold yellow accents such as the WW logo, belt and golden lasso.
- Wonder Woman (2011): Averted with her New 52 design: while (most of) the red remains present, the yellow/gold accents are replaced with silver ones, while her blue shorts and red boots are changed to black.
- Wonder Woman (Rebirth) puts Diana back into a more traditional costume of red, blue and gold and adds another layer with some blue pteruges over her shorts.
- Both of the Wonder Girls have worn outfits like this. Donna Troy started out with a red top that had a yellow logo on it and blue briefs, similar to her sister. When she grew older, she switched to a red outfit with a yellow belt. These days, however, she tends to wear black and silver. Cassie Sandsmark started out wearing a black top and blue jeans shorts but took on Donna's red and yellow ensemble later on. She later switched to a red and yellow top with blue jeans. The New 52 version went back to red and yellow.
- The X-Men dress code changes it up a bit by being blue and yellow with red accents (such as the X insignia or just leaving out their red hair.) Notably three of the most prominent characters all do this in some way, Wolverine typically has a red belt. Cyclops has the red bar in his visor, and is sometimes depicted with his reddish brown hair out. Jean Grey also does the yellow and blue costume, red hair variation before she becomes the Phoenix. Then she trades the blue with green as she drifts into Villain / Anti-Hero territory.
Fan Works
- In Power Girl fanfic A Force of Four:
- Power Girl's costume is white, blue and red.
Power Girl wore a white leotard, cut high on the thighs and low on the chest...a great distraction for evildoers, and any other males past puberty. Her feet were hidden in blue buccaneer boots, she wore blue gloves (none of that stupid bare-handed stuff for her; Kal's leaving fingerprints had gotten him in trouble more than once), and had a red belt with a gold buckle slung low on her hips (she had it and wasn't afraid to show it).
- Wonder Woman's daughter Fury's hero costume is red and golden:
She made a short trip to Paradise Island in her mom's Robot Plane, had an Amazon tailor and an armorer help her create an outfit, swore them to secrecy, and came back in her "working clothes." A red leotard cut thigh-high, a red tiara with a gold jewel at the forehead, a gold-metal half-breastplate, an ornate belt of the same metal, golden boots and gloves and a cape, and that was it. She didn't bother with a mask.
- Power Girl's costume is white, blue and red.
- Last Child of Krypton: In this crossover Shinji is Superman and wears his iconic blue and red outfit.
He opened his eyes, blinked once. The shadow was over them still. A chunk of debris hovered over them in the air. He stared at it, jaw slack, and then followed it down to the ground. He saw the hands, first, young hands like his own, pressed into the gray stone among rebar that hug down like twisted roots in a clump of earth. Those hands belonged to a boy, a boy his own age in red and blue. The sun was behind him so that he shone, and his face was in shadow. On his chest was an emblem, like an English S, angular and stylized in a diamond-shaped red field on the expanse of his blue chest. He held the stone over their heads for just a moment and then tossed it aside, brushed his hands together to clean them of dust, and offered Toji a hand.
- Reinforced in Superman story Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation. Per tradition, Kal-El's costume passes from father to son. Kara Zor-El's costume wasn't inherited but all Supergirls wore a blue, red and yellow outfit anyway.
The costume she wore was red, blue, and yellow. She was not wearing a cape, and she had a headmask that covered all but her eyes, nose, and mouth, with an opening at the back for part of her blonde hair to hang through. She wore red boots and gloves and a yellow belt. There was some yellow trim on the boots and gloves, but otherwise the outfit was all blue.
Except for the shield on her chest, which bore a familiar S-shape. - Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Asukas pilot costume is mainly red with orange and black parts. Her Power Girl costume is white with blue and red parts. Finally, her Supergirl costume is blue and red and is based on the Post-Crisis Supergirl outfit:
She was blond, and wore a red mask that looked identical to the one Power Girl wore, through which sky blue eyes peeked out at him. Her tight blue shirt made her not inconsiderable curves very apparent, and the yellow and red shield emblem with the "S" inside it on her chest only served to draw the eye to that area. The long sleeves disappeared into the red gloves she wore, but the shirt left her toned midriff bare. A red miniskirt was held up with a yellow belt, and soon yielded to a pair of lithe legs that, from Shinji's perspective, seemed to go on forever. A pair of scarlet boots completed the ensemble.
- Superwomen of Eva 2: Amazing Amazon: Rei's uniform as Wonder Girl is the classic Wonder Woman outfit: A red and blue Leotard of Power, blue on bottom, red on top, and golden accents such as the WW logo on her chest, her belt, tiara and the Lasso. The fact that it resembles the flag of the United States (which looks a bit odd on Rei considering she's a Japanese superheroine) is lampshaded as the result of Hepaestus having designed it during the height of The Space Race, when he was impressed with America's advancements in aerospace technology.
- In Wonderful (Mazinja), Emma's — a. k. a. Wonder Star — Sentinel Suit is red and white.
- In Thousand Shinji, Shinjis Unit-01 is blue and gold. Asukas Unit-02 is red and golden.
- Pokémon: Nova and Antica: Ash's new outfit predominantly features red and blue with a little black for good measure.
- In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supergirl crossover The Vampire of Steel, Buffy recognizes Supergirl for her blue-and-red costume.
By that time, the figure was no longer in motion. Buffy looked at her, taking her in as quickly as possible. A very pretty blonde woman in her late twenties or early thirties, in a blue and red outfit with a red cape. But she didnt have to rack her memory files very hard for an I.D. Everybody knew who this woman was. Even if you were an out-of-towner.
- In A Prize for Three Empires, Carol Danvers' first costume was dark-blue, red and yellow, resembling the one belonging to the original Captain Marvel.
She sometimes wondered about that suit and why she'd created it like that. Red shirt like Mar-Vell's, but with a big cutout that exposed her stomach. Black trunks that were really just a bikini bottom, even if they were attached to her shirt. Black gloves, a black mask that covered the upper part of her face, black boots with red tops, and a long red scarf that seemed fashionable but was always being grabbed by whomever she fought, so she did away with it early on. The costume had no leggings, so she showed off most of her legs.
- At one point of Kara of Rokyn, the titular heroine replaces her red skirt with a blue one, but keeps her red cape and boots.
- A good number of heroic characters in Hellsister Trilogy wear primary colors like Superman/Supergirl (blue costume and red cape), Mon-El (red costume and blue cape), Power Girl (white costume, red cape and blue boots), Flash (red and yellow), Orion (red and blue suit)...
Films — Animated
- Aladdin: The Genie has all three primary colors; he is blue, has a red sash, and wears yellow bracelets.
- Invoked and inverted with Beauty and the Beast's Gaston. Although he serves as the main antagonist, he wears a bright red shirt with yellow lapels, and later adds a blue cape. He is regarded as a hero by everyone in town except Belle and her father Maurice.
- Cars: Lightning McQueen, The Hero, has a vivid red paint job with a golden lightning bolt motif on his sides. This contrasts with his rival Chick Hicks, who is mainly green. It also partially applies to his other, more polite rival Strip "The King" Weathers, who is mainly blue.
- Miguel Rivera from Coco wears a red hoodie with white tank underneath, along with blue jeans. The mariachi outfit he wears in the epilogue is deep red with gold lining.
- The Emperor's New Groove:
- Although he's quite a brat in the beginning of the Movie, Emperor Kuzco is clad in red and gold, with bright blue earrings. When he is turned into a llama, he has black fur instead. In contrast, Yzma, the Big Bad of the Movie, is clad in purple and even has pale lilac skin.
- Inverted with Pacha, who is clad in green despite being one of the protagonists. However, this might be due to contrast him from the red-colored Kuzco, and symbolize their differences in personalities.
- Zig Zagged with Kronk, who wears yellow, blue and purple. The purple indicates that he is working for Yzma, but the more prominent yellow and blue colours in his outfit shows his hardly evil nature.
- Subverted in Frozen. Prince Hans invokes the classic Prince Charming trope by wearing a red scarf to match the blue clothing under his white coat, which has golden accents, and appears to be a heroic character. It turns out he's actually Prince Charmless, as he's a major subversion of the classical Prince Charming. Behind his various facades, he's a selfish Villain with Good Publicity who uses his charm to win over Arendelle's populace. During the notorious betrayal scene at the climax, he reveals to Anna that he simply wanted to marry into the Arendelleian royal family and overthrow Queen Elsa.
- Inverted in Hercules, where the titular hero wears orange armor (albeit with a blue cape), and deuteragonist Megara dons a purple dress. Hades, on the other hand, is blue-tinted in terms of skin and hair (and he turns bright red and covered by yellow fire when angered). His lackeys, Pain and Panic, have reddish-purple and bluish-green skin respectively, blurring the trope somewhat since they are bumbling and goofy despite clearly working for the evil forces.
- Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors has Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, America Chavez, and Patriot wearing outfits with red, blue, and yellow on them.
- Although the titular character of Mulan uses her father's green armor, she wears a set of blue robes with red highlights and a pink sash for the final battle.
- Pocahontas: The Powhatan tribe members wear yellow-beige clothing with some red or blue details. Most of the settlers, especially John Smith, are dressed in blue. And among them is the purple-clad Governor Ratcliffe, already showing his true colors...
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: the titular heroine, Snow White, wears a blue bodice with red highlights and a yellow skirt. In the first part of the film, she also wears a red cape.
- Toy Story: Sheriff Woody, Andy's favorite toy and leader of the gang, wears blue jeans, and a yellow with red plaid shirt. Also wears a red bandanna. In contrast The Rival and later The Lancer Buzz Lightyear wears green and purple. Whether he is heroic or not is highly arguable in the first movie, but the later films play it completely straight.
- In Turning Red, Mei, as the protagonist, wears a red sweater with a blue denim skirt.
Films — Live-Action
- DC Extended Universe:
- Superman wears his traditional red, blue and yellow costume, although they are depicted in darker shades. Except in Zack Snyder's Justice League, where he wears a black suit with silvery bits post-resurrection.
- The same goes for Wonder Woman. In her origin movie, the colours are noticeably brighter to reflect how fresh and idealistic she is compared to the present.
- The Flash has his usual red and yellow suit in The Flash, and his body releases blue lightning as he runs.
- In the first Jurassic Park film, protagonist Alan Grant wears a blue denim shirt and a red bandana. Tim wears the same colors as a reflection of his idolization of Grant, and heroine Ellie Sattler's layered shirts are similar-but-feminized shades of pink and purple.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Captain America wears a blue costume with red highlights around the waist, as he did in the comics.
- The most common color scheme for Iron Man's suits is red and gold, and the energy from his Arc Reactor is pale blue.
- Invoked in Iron Man 3, where "focus groups" ensure that Rhodey's gray Powered Armor is repainted with the colors of the American flag. He goes back to gray in subsequent films. In Avengers: Endgame, he wears the Iron Patriot suit again in the final battle.
- Doctor Strange begins wearing a blue uniform after becoming an apprentice of Kamar-Taj, later adding the red Cloak of Levitation to it. By the last stinger of his own film, he takes to wearing yellow gloves.
- Spider-Man wears his traditional colors from the comics as well. The "Iron Spider" suit Tony makes for him adds gold to the mix.
- The Dora Millaje wear red armor, and General Okoyes leadership is signified by gold highlights.
- Ant-Man and the Wasp wear red and yellow respectively.
- Captain Marvel / Carol Danvers spends some time in a green and blue Beta Outfit, but after she definitively becomes a hero she upgrades to a red, blue and yellow outfit straight from the comics.
- The Guardians of the Galaxy (except for Groot) don blue uniforms with red trim and a yellow emblem in their third movie.
- Gipsy Danger from Pacific Rim is dominantly blue with a yellow visor, yellow turbine, and small red markings here and there.
- Although he's more of an Anti-Hero, Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean wears a blue waistcoat and a red bandanna, while his arch-nemesis Hector Barbossa wears an orange-brown waistcoat and a green bandana.
- Discussed by Mr. Glass in Unbreakable, that heroes are in primary colors and villains in secondary. Not played straight, though, as both hero and villain in the film wear secondary colors.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Roger wears red overalls with yellow buttons and a blue patch, and a blue tie with yellow polka dots. His wife Jessica is a Lady in Red, with red hair to boot.
- The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy wears a blue and white gingham dress throughout the entire film, and not long after she enters the land of Oz, wears the iconic ruby slippers. Contrast this against the Wicked Witch of the West's sickly green skin.
- The version of Zatoichi seen in the 2003 film wears blue clothing under his black coat and carries a red Sword Cane.
Literature
- Daylen Namaran in Shadow of the Conqueror, who combines blue hair and a matching sword with a bright red dueling jacket. This imagery is particularly apt, as he's essentially a fantasy Super Hero, complete with a Secret Identity.
Live-Action TV
- Invoked in The Boys (2019), where Homelander has a red, blue, white, and yellow color scheme. He's effectively the world's premier supervillain, who uses good press and propaganda to hide his evil nature. On the other hand, it's played straight with his estranged son Ryan, who wears the same colors but is completely sincere about doing good.
- The titular hero of Chōjinki Metalder is an android whose body is primarily blue on the right side, and red on the left (with bright yellow eyes for good measure). Also applies for Ryan Steele's first powered form in VR Troopers.
- Doctor Who:
- The Sixth Doctor wore a red coat, yellow trousers and hair, and blue accessories (a neck ribbon and watch chain). This leads to an absolutely eye-searing effect, which was part of the point of dressing him like this — it's supposed to represent his massive ego and tastelessness.
- Altogether more subtly, the Twelfth Doctor often wears a navy blue Crombie coat with red lining.
- GARO: The One Who Shines in the Darkness has its three main characters, GARO the Golden Knight is yellow, ZEN the Flame Sword Knight is red, and GAI the Sky Bow Knight is blue.
- Smallville has Clark Kent's main color scheme that of red and blue, where he used to almost always wear a red jacket over a blue t-shirt, or a blue jacket over a red t-shirt. He would also wear a red or blue flannel plaid shirt with occasionally white variants. This is mainly due to his farming duties. When he starts doing heroic things in Metropolis all people see is a red and blue blur. When Chloe first meets Kara before she becomes Supergirl she says, "I should have known you were Clark's cousin from all the primary colors."
- In every Star Trek production, the Starfleet uniforms are some variation of black and a primary color, from TOS's colored sweaters over black shirts to Enterprise's blue jumpsuits with colored piping.
- And, of course, when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine took a Darker and Edgier turn midway through its run, the uniforms were changed to being mostly gray and black, with the primary colors muted and relegated to the wrists and neck.
- Super Sentai / Power Rangers:
- Red, blue, and yellow Rangers are constantsnote while Rangers of other colors may or may not be there. This is especially noticeable in seasons when the initial team before Sixth Rangers is a Power Trio instead of a Five-Man Band, so those three colors are all there are.
- Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger and Power Rangers Ninja Storm had a trio in primary colors and The Psycho Rangers (at first) in crimson and navy blue. Ninja Storm hung a lampshade when one of the Rangers questioned which of the nearby enemies to fight and another answered "anyone not wearing a primary color".
- Lampshaded again in Power Rangers RPM. When Ziggy (Green) attaches his Zord to the core trio's Megazord, Flynn complains that it "throws the 'primary colour' balance off."
- Played with in Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger, where there are two teams that split the usual arrangement of Ranger colors between them. All of the primary colors are together on one team, but that team is the morally-grey Anti-Hero Lupinrangers. The more classically-heroic Patrangers are composed of Red,note Green, and Pink Rangers.
- On rare occasions, you can get a Ranger or allied hero that sports all three colors at once: AbareMax/Triassic Ranger (red with yellow trim and bits of blue), and MagiShine/Solaris Knight (blue and gold armor with a red cape). Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger has another one in one of its tie-in movies (navy blue with yellow and red accents), but unfortunately, it's a case where darker colors equal villainous; his name is Deathryuger.
- A number of Red Rangers have worn a combination of red and blue in their civilian outfits and some Battlizers — a Super Mode exclusive to the Red Ranger — grant them gold-colored armor on top of their red suits.
- Rocky DeSantos and TJ Johnson are stand out examples for being the only Rangers in the franchise that have been both Red and Blue Rangers.
- Titans (2018). Jason Todd thinks this is why Robin wears bright colors, to draw attention to him so Batman can sneak up and take the criminals down.
- In the Ultra Series, the overwhelming majority of Ultra heroes possess red or blue coloration (sometimes a combination of both) over top of their silver coloration.
- Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman's uniform hits all the color high points: Red and blue with white stars, gold accents, and red and white boots.
Podcasts
- In Sequinox, Summer's outfit is red, blue, and yellow.
Toys
- BIONICLE: The hero, Takua, zigzags this. In his first appearance in the Game Boy Advance game Quest for the Toa, he has a blue mask, yellow torso, arms and eyes and red feet. In the game's sequel, the Mata Nui On-Line Game, his torso and arms are red and his feet are yellow. His toy ditched yellow for even more blue, and had no eye colors. The Mask of Light movie gave him yellow eyes again and a yellow Heart Light. Upon transforming into a Toa, however, he became gold and white.
- Transformers:
- The Autobot logo is usually red and many Autobots are primary colors, and several are combinations of primaries: Tracks (blue, white and red with some yellow on his chest), Gears (red, silver and blue), Ultra Magnus (white, blue, red; American flag colors), etc.
- Each and every incarnation of Optimus Prime, being mainly red and blue with a touch of yellow.
- Starscream is a rare inversion. Nearly every incarnation of the character has the iconic white, blue red and yellow colors. Yet Starscream is evil, treacherous, a coward and very well-known for being, well, The Starscream. The reason for why Starscream wears the primary colors in spite of being a villain, most likely has to do with the original version of his toy, the Diaclone "Jet Robo" which presumably intended to play this trope straight.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney
- Each lawyer in the Wright Anything Agency fulfills this in some way. Pheonix Wright wears a blue suit, red tie, and gold attorney's badge, later adding a gold locket with his adopted daughter Trucy's picture inside. While temporarily disbarred, he switches to a gray hoodie, but also has a blue cap with a yellow smiley face and pink lettering. Apollo Justice wears a red waistcoat and pants with a blue tie and his signature yellow bracelet. Athena Cykes has red hair, wears a yellow outfit with blue accents, and has a blue ribbon.
- Detective Bobby Fullbright, introduced in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies, wears a white suit with gold buttons to match his red tie and blue shirt. It's actually an invoked example, since he's actually a super spy impersonating the detective.
Webcomics
- Huckleberry inverts this with Huckleberry, the heroic protagonist, who wears a purple and orange costume with green hair and boots.
- The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: Bob has yellow hair and always wears a red turtleneck, blue bellbottoms, and white high-top sneakers. He's saved the world repeatedly.
Web Original
- The titular Homestar Runner has a red shirt and 'blue soles glued to the bottom of his feet.' His hat is also blue with a red brim.
Western Animation
- The eponymous character of American Dragon: Jake Long wears a red and yellow jacket and blue cargo pants in human form. His dragon form has red skin, a yellow chest and blue claws.
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang takes after Son Goku by being associated with orange, yellow and blue. He has a blue arrow tattoo, and starts off with orange and yellow clothing. This is later replaced with a dark orange robe.
- Blaze, the titular character of Blaze and the Monster Machines, has a red paint job with yellow flame stickers, and blue eyes.
- Captain Planet: Blue body, red 'clothes' with a yellow emblem. He's the nature loving campy hero summoned when all the kids' powers combine.
- Challenge of the GoBots: The GoBots tend to subvert this. The Machine Robo toys are all heroic, and their color schemes weren't changed when Tonka chose some to be GoBot villains. So, for example, Cy-Kill, leader of the villainous Renegades, is red, white, blue, and gold; his minion Cop-Tur is blue, white, and gold; and his other minion Crasher was originally white with sky-blue decals (though she got a villainous black and red re-color for the animated series). The toyline later gave Cy-Kill a more evil-looking black/gray/green coloration, while the heroic Guardian commander, Leader-1, went from plain gray to playing this trope straight with a blue and white body with red and yellow stickers, though neither color change ever made it to the cartoon.
- Discussed, but not enforced, in Danny Phantom. Danny's costume is black with white accents. In one episode he accidentally splits himself in half; one half is his goofy, slacker side, and the other half is his dedicated, heroic side. The heroic side begins acting like a stereotypical comic book hero, and insists that his costume should have a cape and be in bright primary colors.
- Donald Duck: Blue suit and hat with red bowtie (black on some cartoons) and white and yellow accents. For a time he was featured in many more shorts than even Mickey, and spawned a lot of duck themed spin offs in the 90s especially.
- Fat Albert: Red shirt, blue jeans. While it's just regular clothes, he's the only kid to wear these colors, and the titular main character.
- Freakazoid!: Red underwear, blue skin, yellow logo. The series is a satire of superhero conventions, so its natural that the main character would sport the most recognizable color scheme.
- Even comedy is not immune. Fry from Futurama wears a red jacket and blue jeans.
- Get Ace: Ace, despite being a nerdy Socially Awkward Hero rather than a more ideal one, is a redhead (bright red) who wears blue. He even has a little yellow in his shirt collar.
- Arnold from Hey Arnold! wears a bluish teal sweater and blue jeans, with a red with yellow plaid button down shirt that hangs out from under his sweater like a skirt. He also has a blue cap and wild blond hair. He's the moral center of the kids at PS 118, and of course the main character.
- Jimmy Neutron wears a red T-shirt with a yellow logo on it, and blue shorts/jeans. Again the main character, and usually the leader of his group of friends.
- The Owl House: Eda wears a red dress; her eyes, nails, and single fang are all gold colored; and she has pale, white skin.
- PAW Patrol: Ryder wears a white and red vest and blue jeans, while three of the most prominent pups, Chase, Marshall, and Rubble, wear blue, red, and yellow uniforms, respectively.
- PJ Masks: Played straight with Catboy and Owlette, whose costumes are blue and red respectively. Averted with Gekko and Armadylan, who wear green and orange/brown costumes.
- Heroic protagonist Rupert Bear prominently wears red; his best friend, Lancer, and most frequent adventuring partner Bill Badger prominently wears blue.
- The Simpsons: Bart Simpson wears a red T-shirt, blue shorts, and is drawn with stark yellow skin (because of the art style), though whether he or Homer (usually clad in blue pants and white shirt) is the main character depends on the particular episode.
- Stan Marsh from South Park wears a blue and red hat with red mittens and blue trousers who gets along with most of the kids, and is by far the nicest of the main boys.
- Zahara of Spider Stories was nearly a full on blue bottom, red top before foregoing becoming closer to just being red to invoke this trope as the princess and main character.
- Subtly done with SpongeBob SquarePants. Although he wears brown and white, his yellow body is complemented with blue eyes and a red tie. His white socks also have red and blue bands.
- Likewise, Barnacle Boy is done straight who is a superhero along with Mermaid Man who wears a red shirt and a blue neckerchief.
- Steven Universe:
- The title character (The Hero) wears blue jeans, red sandals, and a red (tending towards pink) t-shirt with a gold/yellow star. All of his powers are pink or light pink. By Steven Universe: The Movie, he switched to a blue shirt with the same colored star and a pink jacket with white lining. In Steven Universe: Future he wears the same but with the blue on his shirt changed to black.
- Garnet (The Leader) is mostly red, but she has yellow stars on her gauntlets. Two of her three eyes are red and blue. Her components, Ruby and Sapphire, are also red and blue, respectively. While her second outfit has a more purple and pink palette with deep blues, her third leans more towards pinks with blue and red flare, and her glasses are a bright yellow.
- The titular character of Thomas & Friends is painted blue with red stripes and has a yellow number 1 logo on each side (and yellow highlights on his window). He is also the main protagonist of the series. Edward and Gordon are also painted blue with red stripes and have a yellow number logo (Edward "2" and Gordon "4") on each side of their tenders, and have been protagonists of their own episodes.
- Thunder Cats: Lion-O wears a blue costume and a yellow/gold gauntlet. Both are accented by the red Thundercats logo, and his big bright red mane of hair. He's the chosen lord of the Thundercats.
- The Star Tugs from TUGS are all painted yellow, with red, white, and blue smokestacks. A few of them even wear red or blue hats as well.
- Underdog dons a red suit with a white "U" on the front and a blue cape.
- Young Justice: Kaldur, the new version of Aqualad designed specifically as The Leader of this version of DC's teen heroes (as opposed to the traditional Robin), wears blue pants and a red shirt with a yellow belt buckle. He also has blond hair. In the comics his pants are darker, almost black, but he has more yellow decals on his shirt.
Real Life
- The Swiss Guard originally wore the Della Rovere blue and yellow but later added the Medici red to their uniforms. Considering they held off the Nazis with halberds...yeah.
- Any country that has blue and red as part of its national colors to its people. Especially during international sporting events like the Olympics or World Cup.
- Particularly played up by uber patriotic Americans and parodies thereof. Including the 'world police' meme. Oftentimes, a golden fringe is added to the flag to provide the yellow.
- Several American arms manufacturers and research agencies invoked this trope during the 1970s and 1980s by painting their prototype or experimental jet fighters in a similar colour scheme. In addition to the USAF Thunderbirds◊, several other flight demonstration teams use similar colours, including the French Patrouille de France◊, the British Red Arrows◊, and the Canadian Snowbirds◊. The last of these is especially notable because Canada, unlike the other mentioned countries, doesn't actually have blue on its flag.
- Several American arms manufacturers and research agencies invoked this trope during the 1970s and 1980s by painting their prototype or experimental jet fighters in a similar
- American police, as standard police uniforms are blue with yellow badges, and standard police cars are black and white with flashing white, red, and blue sirens on top. Police of course are [ideally] figures that serve to uphold justice.
