Possibly due to the fact that few things in nature give off green (or purple) light. Natural incandescent light (such as flame) is red, orange, yellow, white or more rarely blue.
This trope is also why Green Rocks are named so, even though the trope does not require the color. Mystical Jade can be given this lighting due to the historical properties of jade being supernatural.
Related to Sickly Green Glow. Also see Purple Is Powerful and Mysterious Purple.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Basilisk: Averted with Jingoro Amayo. He is green-skinned and possesses abilities of his own, but his supernatural power (being a slugman) is probably the lamest in the series.
- Black Clover: Finral's magic is incredibly useful in a fight, and comes with a green aura. Also fits given that his hair later turns green after training intensively.
- Code Geass: C.C. is an "immortal witch" with long, green hair.
- D.Gray-Man: The Innocences glow green, with Allen's leaking green light in its first, weaker stages.
- Dragon Ball: While a Super Saiyan glow is usually yellow, Broly has a green one. It loses some of the green tint once he gets rid of his father's mind control device, but his signature ki attacks remain bright green.
- In Fairy Tail, Zero, Brain's Superpowered Evil Side, uses green colored Dark Magic.
- The G-Stones of GaoGaiGar, which translate raw courage into energy.
- Getter Robo: Getter Rays represent the power of life and evolution. They are generally animated as green light, either streaming through the cosmos or glowing in a reactor, but the Getter Beam weapon is usually pink for some reason.
- Sacred Gears in High School D×D glow green when activated.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: This is taken literally with Kakyoin from Stardust Crusaders. Not only is his Stand named Hierophant Green, but it also primarily shoots emeralds as its main mode of attack.
- Little Witch Academia (2013): Spell-energy is usually green, and so is the "sorcerer's stone" that powers all of their magic.
- My Hero Academia has One For All, which, when used by series protagonist Izuku Midoriya, conjures green lightning around his body, though this only applies to when it's being used by Midoriya, who already has a green color scheme. When he dips particularly deep into his Quirk, Izuku's entire body emits a bright green glow.
- In Nurse Angel Ririka SOS, Nurse Angel's power source is the Green Vaccine, so her attacks often take this color...with the alternative being pink. She does fire off a lot of pink energy too.
- In Sengoku Basara, Mitsuhide has a Sickly Green Glow Battle Aura. Considering that he survived afer being left in a burning temple to die and that he also tries to resurrect his former master Nobunaga with a dark ritual, we can see something "mystical" in it.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Spiral Power. Energy running deep in all sentient lifeforms in some level, brought out by fighting spirit, has the capacity (depending on the user) to grow exponentially, to the point of manipulating and distorting probability and even reality itself, symbolizing progress and evolution. Probably one of the few that can actually have a harming effect, as too much of it can DESTROY reality.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Doma Filler Arc has the Orichalcos Stone, a green mystical gem which corrupts whoever uses it and brings all their worst traits to the surface. People who have suffered and been broken by great tragedy are especially susceptible to it.
Comic Books
- Green Arrow: Although Green Arrow is a Badass Normal, his arrows can be enchanted and green.
- Green Lantern: The original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, could shape and control magic green fire. The book was later rebooted with a sci-fi premise, but still qualified as the Lanterns wielded green alien energy. It was only in the 2000s when Lanterns wielding similar energies of other colors emerged, dropping out of this trope by making green not particularly special.
- Alan Scott's daughter Jade has an internalized version of his powers, plus green skin (and though she has traveled in space, she is not a Green-Skinned Space Babe).
- The Incredible Hulk:
- Gamma radiation, one of the most powerful forms of radiation known to man, is depicted as green in Marvel comics.
- The Hulk has green skin and is considered to be the World's Strongest Man.
- His cousin She-Hulk also has green skin and Super-Strength.
- Doc Samson, a friend and ally of the Hulk's, has super strength and green hair.
- Legion of Super-Heroes: The Emerald Empress.
- Mage: The Hero Discovered: The phrase "Magic is green" is used to refer to Matt Wagner's series, as that color is used for the effects of the wizard character.
- Martian Manhunter: The Martian Manhunter is a green-skinned Martian with a wide array of powers including telepathy and shapeshifting.
- The Mighty Thor: Loki and Amora are powerful sorcerers and the color green is prominent in both of their outfits.
- The Spectre: The Spectre, God's spirit of vengeance on Earth, wears a green robe and frequently uses green flames with his powers.
- Spider-Man: The Goblin Formula which transformed Norman Osborn into the Green Goblin is colored green.
- Suicide Squad: The Enchantress can fire green magical blasts of energy and often wears a green dress. She is one of DC's most powerful magic users, regardless of which side she is on.
- Swamp Thing:
- The titular character is a large, green plant monster.
- The Green is the name of the elemental force that connects all plant life on Earth. It is also the source of Poison Ivy's powers.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
- The mutagen that mutated the Turtles is often colored green.
- The franchise revolves around four martial artist turtles who fight crime. And they're green.
- Teen Titans:
- Starfire is an alien princess with glowing green eyes and energy powers that are primarily green in coloration. (They were originally orange, but green in the cartoon, and the comics followed suit.)
- Garfield Logan contracted a rare illness called Sakutia, which was lethal to every species except the West African green monkey. To save his life, his father used an untested science experiment to change Gar into a West African green monkey for 24 hours so that the virus could die out. The serum had the unintended effect of turning his skin, eyes, and hair green and granting him the ability to transform into any animal of his choice. Gar would later become the superhero Beast Boy.
Fan Works
- Codex Equus:
- Prince Healing Song (now Prince Medela Cantor Cahaya) has a forest-green pelt, and he's a 'prodigy deity' with powerful Magic Music abilities and Psychic Powers, as well as a talented Blind Musician. After overcoming his flaws and traumas, he fully comes into his own potential that he was previously afraid of and becomes even more powerful than before. Being around Caelum Filum for a month not only changed him into a plant/light-based eldritch god, but also changed his portfolio as well, including giving him a Light domain due to his natural affinity for light magic. He is also good at wielding a Magic Staff, as shown in his Fourth-Age fight with War Rock, where he counters the latter's darkness powers with his staff.
- Magic Star (now Princess Magicum Ponyland) has a green mane and tail, and she's presently the greatest enchantress and wand-maker in all of Known History, with many artifacts she created still retaining their enchantments for four Ages long after they were made. Cementing this trope further is her re-Ascension as the divine reincarnation of Plasmatio Equus, one of the Thirteen Empyreans and the Ultimate Blacksmith for Equinekind, which enhances her existing powers even further and gives her an addition domain in Creation.
Film — Animated
- In The Book of Life, the Medal of Everlasting Life glows green. Fittingly, it's associated with Xibalba, who presides over the forgotten dead.
- Encanto: Bruno Madrigal's eyes glow a vivid green when he is calling on his gift of prophecy, and the visions he receives are encoded onto slabs of green glass.
- Heavy Metal: The Arc Villain of the various episodes of the movie is the Loc-Nar, AKA the "Sum of All Evils". It gives off a green glow whenever it exerts its power.
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Green Death is a monstrously huge dragon who forces other Dragons to launch raids on Berk to deliver food; if not, they get eaten. Fittingly, he's the Big Bad of the first movie. Interestingly, he's only called the Green Death in the books, whereas the movie calls him the Red Death (despite being green in coloration).
- Monsters vs. Aliens: The green-colored quantonium turns Susan into a fifty-foot-tall woman.
- The Twelve Tasks of Asterix: The centurion ghosts Obelix and Asterix encounter are greenish.
Film — Live-Action
- Casper: A Spirited Beginning: Kibosh is the king of ghosts and the most powerful ghost in existence. He's also green, unlike any of the other ghosts.
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Destiny sword is an Absurdly Sharp Blade that can cut through just about anything with its supernatural sharpness, including thick wooden beams and much heavier iron weapons.
- Flubber: The titular Flubber is an emerald-green blob which doesn't care about gravity. At all.
- The army of the dead in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is made of greenish ghosts.
- The Martians in Mars Attacks! wear green spacesuits and have green blood. Also, their Disintegrator Ray leaves nothing but its victims' bright green skeleton (though it can also be red depending on the color of the ray used).
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Loki is a Master of Illusion and is referred to as a "master of magic", and all his spells are green.
- Mysterio is another Master of Illusion and the fake "spells" he casts appear to be green as well.
- The Mask: The titular mask is green, created by the Norse god Loki. When acquired by Stanley Ipkiss, he gains the Reality Warper abilities of his beloved classic Tex Avery characters (stretching, shapeshifting, bouncing back from Amusing Injuries, etc.). While not quite reaching With Great Power Comes Great Insanity levels, Stanley as "The Mask" does use it to get back at the people who bullied him, and to woo his crush, nightclub-singer Tina Carlyle. When other less savory individuals get hold of said mask, the results are not so amusing.
- Star Wars: The Death Star's beam is green. Also, Yoda. Several Jedi also use green lightsabers, including Qui-Gon Jinn, Yoda, and Luke Skywalker.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past has an eye-only example in Blink
◊ (a kinda realistic version of the comics counterpart's◊ fully-green eyes - the shade is still unusual, and her eyes glow).
- In Warcraft (2016), the powerful Black Magic of fel is of vibrant green color, and green-skinned orcs have been made more powerful by it.
Literature
- The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Power associated with Lord Foul and the Illearth Stone usually manifests as noxious green light. In the third book while his power is ascendant, Foul turns the moon green, apparently just because he can.
- Discworld: Octarine, the colour of magic mix is described as "a sort of greeny purple".
- Harry Potter: Avada Kedavra, or the Killing Curse, is described as having a green light.
- Inheritance Cycle: Arya's magic color is green, her eyes are green (hell, anything associated with her is green), and she is probably one of the most badass characters in the series.
- Rainbow Magic has a literal example: Emily's power to create visions from the future comes from her magic emerald.
- Retired Witches Mysteries: Literally with Dorothy, whose magical focusing tool is an old emerald cull (a piece of emerald rejected as below the desired grade of stone), which she found on a riverbank. Aside from its main purpose as a focus, it's able to restore her memories of magic when she picks it up.
- Septimus Heap: Magyk is natural and symbolized by green, and Wizards have green eyes.
- Starsnatcher: The Power Crystal that helps Lucas for a lot of the early story happens to have a prominent green glow.
- The Sword of Shannara: The Warlock Lord is a wraith made of eerie green mist.
- Tales of Kolmar: Akhor/Varien's soulgem is green. As a great silver dragon, he's got some psychic powers. As a human he loses them unless he's holding his soulgem against his forehead. It's also used to awaken the Lesser Kindred and restore the Lost later in the series.
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Subverted - the green, enchanted glow of the Emerald City is merely tinted glasses and parlor tricks.
- Played straight in the last of the Soviet unlicensed sequels, when it is discovered holding an emerald helps members of the alien Slave Race resist their masters' Hypnotic Gaze.
Live-Action TV
- Promicin, the luminous green neurotransmitter from The 4400.
- The tip of the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver glows green. The one used by Nine and Ten was blue.
- Lorne in Angel was an empath who could tell the future when other characters sang, and he was also a green-skinned demon.
- Power Rangers:
- The Green Ranger of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is the most powerful one was the most powerful one of the team and the only one whose fighting skills matched the Red Ranger.
- Power Rangers Ninja Storm: The Sixth Ranger is a Green Ranger just like in MMPR. He was also the team's smart guy.
- The Emerald of the Eclipse in Tin Man, which appears to be a magical or magic-focusing artifact strong enough to stop planetary rotation.
- Dr. David Banner from The Incredible Hulk (1977) morphs into a not-so-jolly green giant when he "grows angry or outraged," thus his oft repeated line, "I'm stronger than I look."
- The titular Mirrorman is a green giant hero who fights with reflective barriers and portals in the form of mirrors.
- Ultra Series: Mirror Knight, debuting in Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial is a hero based on Mirrorman and shares a similar powerset. He also comes from Planet Esmeralda, an alien world full of powerful emerald crystals.
Pinball
- Many of the magical elements in Magic Girl have either a green color or a green Power Glow.
Tabletop Games
- Exalted: Green is the color of Hell, for it's drenched in the light of Ligier. Ligier is a green sun who is also the heart of Malfeas, the King of Yozis and the Demon City itself. Appropriately enough, Hell's chosen are called Green Sun Princes. They have access to One-Winged Angel form in which they turn into green-colored walking nuclear wasteland.
Theatre
- In Wicked, the green-skinned Elphaba has immense magical power. And she just happens to be a Half-Human Hybrid, too.
Toys
- The Lalaloopsy doll Clarity Glitter Gazer was sewn from an emerald (don't ask how), and has magical clairvoyance powers.
Video Games
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Green mushrooms in the series will give Mario an extra life.
- In the first two Paper Mario games, the green mushrooms, here called Ultra Shrooms, will instead replenish 50 HP, the most of any item in the games, and the HP Cap in the first. Meanwhile, the games' 1-Up Mushroom equivalent, the Life Shroom, will only bring you back with 10 HP.
- XenoGears: Emeralda can transform her limbs and hair into various weapons like spiked balls, drills, etc.
- Tiberium from the Command & Conquer series is the most valuable substance in the world (leading to the GDI and Nod fighting over it) and will either kill or mutate anybody who steps in it.
- No More Heroes III: Henry's forehead has a symbol that emits a green light while he fights. His swords and his entire body start glowing green when he powers up in the second phase.
- The Chaos Emeralds from Sonic the Hedgehog play with this, as they're not all green. They're still the strongest phlebotinum in the universe. The Master Emerald, however, is actually green.
- Mortal Kombat:
- The soul is represented as a green energy, which allows character enhance their attacks, conjure spiritual weapons, and empower with the souls of fallen people.
- The Elder Goddess Cetrion wears green-leaf patterned clothes and has greenish crystals hovering around her head.
- Johnny Cage can generate a green Battle Aura and fire green Energy Balls. His bio in Mortal Kombat 9 reveals that he is descended from a tribe of warriors who were bred as champions of the gods. Johnny's daughter Cassie also has these powers and a pre-match dialogue between her and Sheeva refers to it as "the armor of the gods".
- Shao Kahn, Jade, Quan Chi and Nightwolf also have attacks that display flashes of green light.
- Ermac is a being composed of numerous souls. He possesses telekinesis which manifests as green energy.
- More than once in Final Fantasy:
- Magicite in Final Fantasy VI are the green gems left behind by deceased espers.
- Mako energy, from Final Fantasy VII.
- Persona 5: Not only is Futaba's Phantom Thief costume covered in glowing green Tron Lines, but her initial Persona, Necronomicon, is a flying saucer covered in glowing green runes and hieroglyphs.
- Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: No matter which version you own, the strongest Olympus Mons you can catch is Rayquaza, the green dragon. And it's the mascot of the enhanced third version, Pokémon Emerald.
- League of Legends:
- Cho'gath's eyes, the anubite Nasus, the snake-like Cassiopea, the demon-scarecrow Fiddlesticks, Hecarim's, Karthus', Kha'zix's, Malhpite's, Shaco's, Thresh's, the Card Sharp Twisted Fate, the Wild Man Udyr, and Zilean's eyes all glow green in their artworks.
- Karma, the spiritual avatar of Ionia, utilizes magic with an emerald hue to convey that spiritual nature. Her followers have a similar cue.
- In BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Hazama's Unlimited form is surrounded by a green life-stealing aura.
- The Vortigaunts attack with some kind of green lightning. In the multiplayer game Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, it's a One-Hit KO.
- In Minecraft, the exploding Creepers are green.
- While most fighters in the Tekken series are normal humans fighting barehanded, Yoshimitsu is a green alien-robot-ninja fighting with a green laser sword.
- The alien artifacts in Darkstar One that you use to upgrade your ship look like giant green crystals.
- In The Legend of Zelda games which have a magic meter show it as represented by a green bar, and the potion which refills it is usually green as well. Link is associated with the green color because of his green clothes, his homeland in most games is a lush forest, and Farore, his patron goddess, is also symbolized by green.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition's main color is arguably green. There's the magical, glowing mark on the Inquisitor's hand, the Breach in the sky and subsequent rifts, and the powerful elven orb that caused the destruction in the first place. Green seems to be associated with the ancient elves in general, as well as with Solas, an ancient elf to whom the orb belonged.
- Radioactive substances and creatures in the Fallout franchise typically glow green. There are occasional exceptions that glow blue or orange, but green is by far the most common.
- In the Steam game Finding Bigfoot, Bigfoot has green blood and glowing green eyes. Also an example of Green and Mean, as he is portrayed as a viscous man eating beast in this game.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2: The Aegis Pyra can be immediately distinguished from other Blades by the emerald Core Crystal on her chest. As Pyra is an alternate form of Mythra and Pneuma, this applies to them as well.
- DUSK: The crystals of madness and the cult's Blood Magic are both a vibrant green. Nyarlathotep himself constantly crackles with vivid green lightning, and his body is covered in glowing green sores (shifting to red when he's vulnerable to damage). When he empowers the Dusk Dude to be his herald, he does so by overwhelming the Dude with green lighting, which gives the treasure hunter green Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- Gloomwood: The Merchant is an enigmatic figure strongly associated with a virant green color. Not only is it the color of his magic, he also has a glowing green eye and cane and his store is named "The Emerald Eye."
Web Animation
- RWBY:
- Ozpin wears dark green and is a very skilled Huntsman, a child prodigy who became the youngest ever Academy headmaster. He can fight on a par with the Fall Maiden, moves at incredible speeds that leave green afterimages and summons a spherical green forcefield that crackles with lightning and power. His original form, Ozma, fought in battle with blasts of green magic from an emerald-topped staff, that continues to be carried by his reincarnations as a Classy Cane. His first reincarnation was so powerful, he and Salem could pass themselves off as gods; when they turned on each other, he reduced her to ashes. She only survived because her Complete Immortality brought her back from a stain on the ground. He used most of his magic to create the Four Maidens, so the Fall Maiden's magic is only a fraction of his true, original power.
- Oscar's eyes are hazel green and his combat gear includes a green overcoat. His Aura is green and he can fight Haven's headmaster after just a month's training; Jaune, who also developed swiftly, comments on Oscar's development speed in awe; he's even able to help coordinate strategy against Cordovin in only his second major battle. As Ozpin's successor, he unlocks Ozma's magic while falling to his death in Volume 7, saving himself by creating Ozpin's spherical green barrier; it explodes with emerald lightning upon landing. Oscar can also channel streams of green magic to blast his targets, and his cane has collected so much kinetic energy over Ozma's lifetimes that it unleashes a green and gold shockwave powerful enough to destroy a gigantic Grimm and engulf the city of Atlas. After just a few months as Ozma's reincarnation, he is able to fight alongside older, more experienced colleagues as if he's been training for years.
Web Comics
- The main character of Blade Girl!, Ren Midori, is associated with the color Green, surname and all. She's also the current Grassblade, people with mysterious abilities to cancel magic.
- Homestuck: the near-omnipotent First Guardians are powered by the Green Sun. Use of their powers is associated with the color green, and occasionally they themselves flash green.
- Lord English and his gang The Felt are also associated with green, in part due to their connection with the game of pool.
- Zoophobia: Zill's powers glow an incandescent green.
- In The Order of the Stick, Roy's sword glows green after it is reforged with starmetal.
- In El Goonish Shive, the Dewitchery Diamond is green.
- In The Only Half Saga, magic used by witches and warlocks glows the classic eerie green, which stands out nicely over the often desaturated browns and grays that fill the comic's desert setting.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: Marcy is connected to the green Calamity Gem, and is an Action Girl on par with Anne and Sasha.
- Castlevania (2017): "The Harvest" has Isaac fighting an Evil Sorcerer who can conjure green thorn crowns to control people.
- Danny Phantom: The Ghost Zone is generally green-colored, and the protagonist himself has green eyes and green blood in ghost form and shoots green blasts of ectoplasmic energy.
- The Flying Dutchman and his boat in Spongebob Squarepants.
- Steven Universe: Emeralds are apparently very high ranking gems in Homeworld's army, though as one is mostly seen captaining a ship.
- The Omnitrix of Ben 10 gives off a bright green glow whenever it does anything particularly powerful, and Ben's transformations happens in a flash of green light. The Trope only increased as the story goes on: starting with Ben 10: Alien Force, the Omnitrix becomes green itself, the alien forms have green eyes, Ben himself dress in green (and so do his alien forms starting with Ben 10: Omniverse) and it's eventually revealed his favourite color is green (like we didn't guess). He could generally rival Green Lantern at this point. Green is also the favorite color of Azmuth, the supergenius creator of the Omnitrix among other inventions.
- The Power Primate from Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! is normally manifested as green energy — in more extreme cases, it takes the form of a giant green energy gorilla.
- PJ Masks: Greg/Gekko wears an all green costume when in his superhero identity, which glows with green light when he uses his powers.
- Kim Possible: Shego's superpowers, which originated from her making contact with a meteorite, manifest as black and green energy blasts around her hands, which she can throw at people.
