Must be Monday. New podcast! Just click on the fancy logo below.
SubpagesMain
|
A pimp saber, for a badass Jedi.
Boss: "We're gonna' have to do something about the pink." Oleg: "You'd prefer a more manly shade, like purple?" ( Pierce, Shaundi, and the Boss all give Oleg approving looks)
This is purple being used to symbolize the power and/or coolness of a character, whether the character is Badass, of Royal Blood, or something else.
This trope existed at least as far back as Ancient Rome, where only the Patrician class was allowed to wear the expensive color Tyrian Purple . Then purple became a common color for royal robes in Europe.
Some time later, purple became associated with either femininity, or fell on the evil side of Good Colors, Evil Colors (like The Joker). But for those that thought Evil Is Cool, it just helped purple be seen as a cool color. Then it became a stereotypical color for pimps, and it was definitely cool again. Can be considered a Yin Yang Bomb when you consider that purple is red and blue combined.
This trope comes into play if it's clothing or an item on the cool or powerful character, whether it's a hat, weapon, or Badass Cape.
Now purple is also seen as one of the "girly" shades. If that comes into play, then this trope overlaps with Real Men Wear Pink.
This is not just when any character who isn't a wimp wears purple. It has to represent power or coolness.
In an odd coincidence, of the visible colors, violet is the highest frequency, and thus the most energetic and most powerful, per photon.
Compare Gold Tooth, Graceful Ladies Like Purple (and can overlap with some Action Girls), Purple Is The New Black, Purple Eyes, Supernatural Is Purple, Red Is Heroic, Heavenly Blue.
Examples
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- A reasonable contender for Trope Codifier, Eva Unit 01 is 900 foot of pure purple fury, and has firmly cemented its reputation as a Badass Eldritch Abomination among fans and non-fans alike, even outstripping others of its kind (even the red one) in this respect. Unit 01 is also given special attention and a fair degree of preferential treatment by NERV's Commander Gendo in-universe, as well, though that's understandable, as his wife's soul serves as the monster's consciousness, and he has special plans for it/ her with regards to the Instrumentality Project.
- In his fight with Sasuke at the Valley of the End, Naruto uses a purple variation of the Rasengan.
- In Berserk, the Empire of Tudor has several themed armies that are identified by both a color and an animal, such as the Black Rams and Blue Whales. The name of their most powerful and esteemed army? The Purple Rhinos.
- In the tv series of Black★Rock Shooter, Insane Black★Rock Shooter has a purple flame instead of the titular character's blue. She is also Nigh Invulnerable to the conventional fights of the series.
- Dragon Ball Z has several examples of this trope.
- Future Trunks wears purple jacket and has purple hair.
- Piccolo wears purple outfit and has purple blood. His pupil, Son Gohan,, also wears purple.
- Ginyu, captain and most powerful member of the Ginyu Force, has purple skin.
- Frieza has a purple color scheme. Same goes for King Cold and Cooler.
- Bills, the most powerful being in the history of Z, has purple skin.
- Tieria Erde from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 pilots the Gundam with the Wave Motion Gun.
- Angelo Sauper from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn pilots purple machines. his Rozen Zulu is even more powerful it took down lots of federation suits
- Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi's trademark monster Dark Magician and related cards of the archetype wear purple. Throughout the franchise Fusion monsters use a purple card background, and include some of the strongest monsters in the game, such as Thousand-Eyes Restrict (which absorbs an enemy monster to use its power, prevents other monsters from attacking, and had to be banned in the real-life game) and the Five-Headed Dragon (a.k.a. Mythic Dragon, which has the highest stats of any monster out there, and can't be destroyed by battle with most monsters even if they do somehow become stronger than it is.)
- In Saiunkoku Monogatari, the eight main noble families are named after colours, and the royal house is purple.
- In Noir, purple is mainly associated with antagonists, including Altena, Chloe and Silvana "Intoccabile" Greone, all of whom prove to be highly dangerous.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Homura's color scheme is purple, and she's significantly more powerful than the other magical girls.
- Vividred Operation: Zigzagged. Rei (a mix between A. Homura and Fate T.) has purple color scheme, but she doesn't have a Palette Suits of her own. However, she's a particularly extreme Badass Normal.
- Gatchaman: Berg Katse always dresses in purple, unless s/he's in an outright disguise.
Comics
- Psylocke, the badass ninja of the X-Men, wears purple (in addition to her purple hair).
- Magneto's costume is (royal) purple and red (for the blood of the victims he saw die in Auschwitz and afterwards).
- The Huntress, a part of the Batman comics' Bat Family, is almost always depicted wearing purple. She's one of the only members of the Bat Family that doesn't wear all black.
- The third Batgirl, Stephanie Brown, also has purple on her costume, and as Spoiler it's the primary color. She seems to fit the "feminine" aspect of this trope.
- Barbara Gordon's Batgirl uniform as of the 2011 reboot also has purple accents, though considerably less than Stephanie's.
- Catwoman occasionally wore purple as a part of her Spy Catsuit.
- Talia al Ghul, similar to Catwoman, is an on-again, off-again lover of Batman who is a sometimes a hero and sometimes a villain, and occasionally wears purple as the primary color of her costume.
- Starfire of the Teen Titans wears bejeweled purple leotards and monokinis.
- Galactus, of course. He is viewed differently by all races, and it is stated that humans see him in a purple attire because we link the colour to royalty.
- The Hulk has purple shorts
- Black Orchid, a super-powered detective, wears an all-purple superhero costume.
- In Watchmen, Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias' trademark colours are purple and gold.
- The Joker, with his notorious purple tuxedo and tails, is feared throughout The DCU's underworld.
- ElfQuest: The mighty Djun in the "Hidden Years" and "Shards" storylines wears lots of purple.
Film
- Mace Windu wields a purple lightsaber in Attack of the Clones. It's the only purple lightsaber seen in the Star Wars films, which helps set him apart as an important Jedi. The Star Wars Expanded Universe simply states that the purple crystal is extremely rare and hard to get. Samuel L. Jackson requested a purple lightsaber so he could see himself more easily in group battles. It's also the color of Mara Jade's lightsaber, down to hinting that it is in fact Windu's. Knights of the Old Republic has Revan use one, and the color is treated as somewhere between a Jedi Guardian and the red color mainly used by Sith.
- The Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs primarily wears a purple dress.
- Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove has purple as her main colour. Everything and every place that belongs to her is purple.
- In another Disney example, Randall from Monsters Inc actually is purple. Though he looks it, he's no wimp; despite his scrawny little arms, Randall would have succeeded in suffocating the brawnier Sully were it not for Mike's intervention. Randall also appears to have the most powerful skills out of the monsters seen in the film, as he is lithe, fast, silent, possibly skilled in engineering, and able to blend like a chameleon.
Literature
Live Action TV
- In Gilmore Girls, Mia, the owner of the inn which Lorelai manages, always appears in purple.
- Kamen Rider has been playing with this trope, particularly after Multiform Balance was introduced:
- From Super Sentai and Power Rangers:
- In Once Upon A Time, magic is a purple mist.
- In Babylon 5 the Centauri invoke this: among them only nobles can wear purple, their secret files are called "Purple Files", and their ships are painted purple. It's also played straight by Londo (as a noble he wears purple, and he's an Ace Pilot, a master swordsman and, when sufficiently motivated, an hell of Magnificent Bastard) and the Centauri warships (a near match for Minbari ships of similar size. The Minbari have the advantage of that stealth of theirs and thicker armour, but Centauri ships have showed comparable if not superior firepower, and only the First Ones can take that level of firepower and survive).
Music
- Purple is the signature colour of Prince, and he has typically associated it with being cool. He even has the Fan Nickname "His Purple Badness".
- Before him the group probably most associate with purple probably would've been The Temptations.
Professional Wrestling
- The Undertaker wore purple gloves and ankle guards during the early to mid nineties.
- John Cena wore a purple shirt around late 2010 to mid 2011.
- Many wrestlers wore purple wrestling gears from time-to-time such as Edge, Christian, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Triple H, Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, etc.
- WWE Diva Ivory overlapped this with Graceful Ladies Like Purple as while she called herself a lady, she was also very Badass. 95% of her outfits were purple and she even carried a purple scarf to the ring with her in her early career.
- WOO WOO WOO, You know it!
Tabletop Games
- The Purple Dragons are the valiant knights of Cormyr in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting.
- In Paranoia, Indigo and Violet are way high up on the security clearance spectrum, just below Ultraviolet.
- Averted in Warhammer 40 K fanon, where purple (or orange) is considered to be a sneaky color by orks, definitely not a color the strongest ork would wear (red is faster, blue is lucky, black is tough, yellow is More Dakka, etc.). Why is it considered sneaky? Well, have you ever seen an ork in purple warpaint? Of course not, that's how sneaky it makes them.
Theatre
- In Japanese Kabuki, purple make up is used to identify the character as a royal or a nobleman.
Toys
- In Transformers, Galvatron, and a number of other Decepticons. Heck, the Decepticon insignia itself is traditionally purple.
- Megatron of Beast Wars is very purple, very cunning, and very powerful. Ironically, his purpleness decreased every time he became stronger.
- Bionicle's Onepu is the only good guy set that has this color, and although he is "just" a Matoran, he counts as a Badass Normal for being the captain of the Ussalry regiments and a champion Ussal racer.
- Shadow Kraata, colored purple, represent the "highest" and most dangerous form of the evolution of Kraata slugs.
Video Games
- Artix Entertainment has some examples
- In Dragon Fable, Drakath subverts this trope until he becomes a strong purple dragon and Nythera plays it straight.
- In Adventure Quest Worlds, Chaos itself is purple. Drakath is The Champion of Chaos and has purple armor, some of The Chaos Lords are purple as well, as are some who are infected with chaos. Desoloth is powerful and is purple until he became Desolich (but he did have purple eyes). Nythera and her dragon form are purple.
- In Mech Quest Has The Chrono Corrupter Mech which is more overpowering and purple.
- Purple is the gang color of the Third Street Saints in the Saints Row series.
- EVERY piece of technology built by the Covenant Empire is purple, from their vehicles to their starships.
- Endermen are the most powerful, naturally spawning enemies in the Overworld. Their eyes glow purple, as does their particle effects.
- Obsidian is purple and is the strongest destroy-able block in the game, takes longer to mine even with the best pick, and is the hardest to obtain in the overworld.
- Action Girl Virginia's fuchsia Pimped Out Dress in Wild Arms 3.
- The Administrator and Miss Pauling in Team Fortress 2. This is especially significant, given that the mercenaries all belong to RED or BLU and wear the appropriate colour - The Administrator and Miss Pauling control both of them, and so wear a combination of both colours.
- Blaze the Cat from the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
- Also, Knuckles has had purple eyes since 1999.
- The fuchsia outfit worn by the showgirl in Bloody Good Time.
- Magus from Chrono Trigger wears a combination of purple and (depending on the artwork) a red or blue cape.
- The final and most powerful weapon in Quake IV is the Dark Matter Gun, whose ammo and shots glow with a purple aura.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the Master Sword has a purple hilt and is much more powerful than its previous Goddess Sword forms. The color purple also seems to be associated with the goddess Hylia, as it is a feature of various items and artifacts that are linked to her throughout the game; Goddess Cubes, Walls, Crests and Plumes, as well as the Gates of Time and the accessories worn by Zelda when she's relocated by Link, all have the same glossy purple coloration.
- Throughout Final Fantasy, the Behemoth, infamous Elite Mook, is purple.
- Final Fantasy IV, in remakes the Lunar Eidolon Bonus Bosses are purple and blue. Dark Kain, Kain's Enemy Without, wears purple armor since he transforms into Lunar Bahamut, and in some depictions the normal Kain wears purple armor himself. Big Bad Zemus wears a long purple robe.
- Final Fantasy VI, a lot of the powered-up monsters in the new Bonus Dungeon in the Gameboy Advance remake are purple and pink. Terra's Esper form is pink in sprites, but artwork and her Dissidia design depict it as purple. Kefka's god form is a purple Fallen Angel.
- Final Fantasy IX, Kuja's iconic Stripperific attire is various shades of purple, including his hair.
- Dissidia: Final Fantasy, as mentioned there is Terra's Esper form, as well as all four outfits of The Emperor.
- If there is a purple monster in Nethack, it is invariably the most powerful in its class: demon lords, titans, gnome and dwarf kings, elven kings, mind flayers, killer bee queens, Croesus, and almost all Quest nemeses.
- Spyro the Dragon is purple, and in The Legend of Spyro continuity it's a sign of legendary power and being able to learn all Elemental Powers, not just one.
- In Touhou, the Yakumo "family" uses Colorful Theme Naming to sort its three members in order by power, corresponding to the color's light frequency: Chen (orange) is the weakest, Ran (indigo) is stronger, and Yukari (violet) is not only the most powerful of the trio, but one of the most powerful beings in Gensokyo.
- Wario is a massively strong Fat Bastard who regularly breaks through solid stone; he's probably the strongest human in the series. He wears purple overalls.
- In the MMORPG RuneScape, the main color of the god Zaros is purple, and Zaros is generally thought to be one of the most powerful beings in the game.
- Lord Dearche from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As Portable, who has a purple aura, wears a purple outfit, uses the Tome of the Purple Sky, and generally comes with a purple motif. She's also one of the most powerful characters in the series, capable of destroying planets or reviving them. Yuri Eberwein, known as the Sovereign of the Purple Sky and the one Lord Dearche was created for the purpose of regulating her powers, is even stronger, with her mere presence causing the fluctuations in time and space that allowed the Crisis Crossover of Gears of Destiny to happen.
- Speaking of purple dragons, the most dangerous dragon in Heroes of Might and Magic games is the fairy dragon, who is purple. This cute abomination can cast very high level spells before your army can even move.
- Mewtwo from Pokémon is colored purple, as opposed to Mew's (Mewtwo's template) pink.
- Genesect from Pokemon Black And White.
- Dragon-types are represented with purple on official type charts(though Poison is a different purple) and are the strongest in the games.
- Metroid: The Gravity Suit, which is often the final suit, is also purple.
- Many MMORPGs use a color coding system to convey the rarity and power of objects in the game. Worthless items are grey, uncommon ones are green, rare items are blue, and "epic" items—the most powerful items that the average player can hope to obtain—are purple.
- In League Of Legends the champion Varus' bow glows for a while after he kills something, increasing his attack speed. For an ordinary death it glows red, but when he kills a champion the attack speed bonus is greater, lasts longer, and his bow glows purple.
- More generally, the champions associated with raw, unstoppable power tend to have a purple colour scheme, including Ryze, Dr. Mundo and Syndra.
- Caius Ballad from Final Fantasy XIII 2
- The emperor's robes in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion
- Grolla Seyfarth from Rosenkreuzstilette, the Magic Knight and one of the stronger girls in the RKS, has an overall purple motif. Purple hair, purple eyes, purple teleportation magic...even her battle song is called "Dark Purple Moon"!
- In Eternal Sonata, the main antagonist, Count Waltz, wears a crown and robes that are mostly a royal shade of deep purple.
- Purple Pikmin are the strongest types of Pikmin in Pikmin 2. They're not only 10 times heavier then a Pikmin of any other color, they are also 10 times as strong and when thrown, they have a chance of stunning the enemy. They are Game Breakers if used correctly.
- Queen Catalina in Trapt wears a purple outfit.
- In Eternal Darkness, the three elder gods Xelotath, Ulyaoth, and Chattur'gha exist in a state of Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, and are associated with the colors green, blue, and red, respectively. The fourth god, Mantorok, is associated with the color purple, and can overpower or out-strategize any of the three other gods.
- Some of the most powerful spells in the Tales of... series are of the lightning element, which is usually represented by the color purple.
- In StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Kerrigan, after de-infested at the end of the previous game, travels to the Zerg homeworld of Zerus and reacquires her Queen Of Blades body, this time with full control of herself. Whereas her old, evil version had glowing yellow eyes and powers, her new "Primal Queen" form, which is stated to be vastly more powerful, has a purple color scheme.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- When Rarity plays a princess in a play in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, she wears a purple royal gown.
- The main character Twilight Sparkle is a purple unicorn who's a magic user who won the Superpower Lottery and isn't limited to a specialized discipline like other unicorns; her discipline is magic itself.
- She's also been chosen by the ancient superweapons known as the Elements of Harmony to be the Element of Magic. Princess Celestia, resident god-empress of Equestria, says she has never seen as much raw power in one pony in her long, presumably immortal, life. Purple Is Powerful, indeed.
- And then as of the end of season three she becomes an alicorn
- "The Great and Powerful" Trixie wears a purple Robe and Wizard Hat as part of her airs of being a great sorceress. She also has Purple Eyes.
- Shining Armor, Twilight's brother, wears guard armor that is purple in color. He's no slouch in terms of power, either, since he can create and keep up a Force Field huge enough to englobe the capital of Equestria and strong enough to keep out an invading army. Or, if the army is already in, blast it away.
- Skeletor of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe wore purple clothing and a purple hood over his skull-face, certainly falling on the evil side of the trope.
- In Storm Hawks, Action Girl Starling has a purple-glowing weapon, making her stand out visually; most weapon colours in the series tend to be blue, red, or yellow.
- The eponymous hero of Darkwing Duck wears a purple outfit. Although it seems to be more of an Invoked Trope, as he only follows this trope about half the time.
- Goliath from Gargoyles is purple and leader of his clan.
- Dark Energon from Transformers Prime glows purple, strengthens Megatron, can be used as a poison, and can create Non-Human Undead. It's also the blood of Unicron.
- In the fourth season of Kim Possible, after her original mission outfit is destroyed, Kim tries several times to find a replacement before finally getting a permanent new one with a purple top.
Real Life
- The coronation robes of the United Kingdom are purple.
- In the nineteenth century, the invention of the cheap synthetic purple dye mauvine changed this: suddenly everyone could buy purple clothes, sparking a brief fashion craze. Because of this, purple was used as a colour by some republican and feminist groups, because "what had once been only the province of royalty is now available to all the people, and the same should be true of political power".
- Because of this trope, purple is a color that job seekers sometimes wear in order to appear confident and powerful. On the other hand, this can sometimes come off too strongly.
- Purple is also the color of Pride, arguably the worst of the sins.
- In the Middle Ages purple was a colour reserved exclusively to the royalty. It could be seen as treasonous for anyone else to wear anything purple.
- Actually dates back to Roman times. Tyrian Purple was made from certain shellfish and only a certain area knew how to make it. Therefore, only the Emperor and certain royals could wear any.
- The two highest ranked gyōji (referees) in professional sumo, always named Kimura Shounosuke and Shikimori Inosuke (for the higher- and lower-ranking of the two, respectively; family name spoken first, according to Japanese tradition), wear kimono and use fans adorned with purple rosettes and tassels. Inosuke's rosettes and tassels are purple and white, while Shounosuke's are solid purple.
- Somewhat subverted in Roman Catholicism; monsignors and bishops wear purple as a sign of their high rank, but the higher-ranked cardinals wear red and The Pope dresses in white.
- Played straight in the Anglican Church however, where all bishops (including the Archbishop of Canterbury, the primate and head of the Anglican Communion) don purple.
|
|
