Rainbow Motif

"Kung Fu Rainbow Lazer Force!"

This is what happens when you mix Colour-Coded for Your Convenience with Lucky Seven. Not only is a color motif used, but the specific colors involved are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. These are often identified as the colors of the rainbow.

This trope was started by Isaac Newton, who really wanted there to be exactly seven colors to match the number of musical notes, the number of planets (then) known to be in our solar system, and days of the week. Isaac was wrong about this one, but since he was such a famous scientist, the belief that the visible light spectrum could be separated into exactly seven parts was widely held for a long time. This gave rise to the popular mnemonic "Roy G. Biv", a person's name constructed from the first letter of each color in order. Another mnemonic, more popular in the U.K., is "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain".

Indigo is generally considered the odd man out among the seven, due to it simply being a dark blue.^note Around Newton's time, indigo was named after an expensive yet fast-fading blue dye imported from India, and it was used for paints and textiles, most notably in denim, before the dye was replaced by the synthetic and permanent Prussian blue in the 18th century and the more permanent Phthalocyanine blue in the 20th century. ^note There is evidence to suggest that Isaac Newton in fact considered the rainbow colours to be Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Violet. If the creator needs a few more colors to round out the cast, pink is a common addition, followed by black and white. Alternatively, some creators opt to branch out into the non-visible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as infrared and ultraviolet. Curiously, cyan is missing, creating a conspicuous gap between the primaries green and blue. For printing inks and finer art, cyan, magenta^note magenta is an odd color, since it is a combination of red and blue which are on opposite ends of the spectrum of visible light; due to the way the photoreceptors in your eye work, there's no pure spectral color that looks like magenta, so it doesn't appear in the rainbow, and yellow are the primary colors, making orange yet another odd color out along the same lines as indigo^note as both are neither primaries nor secondaries and making cyan's absence even more conspicuous (unless one considers Newton's model, where cyan/blue takes the place of blue/indigo). The peace/pace rainbow flag traditionally has seven colours; the LGBTQ+ pride flag has six (when it was first created, eight, beginning with hot pink).

Example: The Seven Deadly Sins — Wrath, Gluttony, Greed, Envy, Sloth, Lust, Pride — often go with red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple respectively.

Another way to think of this trope is Chromatic Arrangement plus four extra colors. Super-Trope to Rainbows and Unicorns. As a flag, the rainbow symbolizes gay pride and has great overall significance to the LGBT+ community; for rainbows used in this context, see Queer Colors.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow: Whenever the Popples lose hope, they see rainbows, and when they finally earn their happy ending and become wealthy, they ride their ox-carts towards one. Of course, it could also be a nod to the title of the book the anime is based on (Southern Rainbow by Phyllis Piddington).
• Princess Diana:
  • The anime's title literally translates to "Beyond the rainbow! The story of Princess Diana".
  • The anime ends with Diana running towards the rainbow, telling her grandmother to watch over her and that she won't cry anymore.
• Reborn!:
  • The seven types of Dying Will Flame. Each is named after an aspect of weather. Red is storm, orange is sky, yellow is sun, green is lightning, blue is rain, indigo is mist, and violet is cloud. The (orange) Sky Flame is always the leader's flame.
  • Each member of the Arcobaleno has a corresponding color, fitting to their Dying Will Flames. The name also doubles as the Italian word for rainbow.
• In Seven of Seven, the main character is split into seven of herself, and each girl has a corresponding color. Unlike most cases, indigo is shunted for yellow-green.
• This forms the motif of the seven princesses in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, with pink, aqua, and deep blue subbing in for red, blue, and indigo, respectively. The second opening of the anime is even called "Rainbow Notes".
• The Seven Rainbow Crystals in Sailor Moon. Fought over in the correct spectral order, needless to say.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has Johan Andersen and the seven Gem Beasts, all of whom are needed to summon Rainbow Dragon.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Dark Signers and their Earthbound God cards are color coded in individual colors of the rainbow.
  • Rudger is red
  • Carly is orange
  • Demak is yellow
  • Misty is green
  • Kiryu is blue
  • Bommer is indigo
  • Rex is violet
• Kill la Kill has Ragyo Kiryuin which combines this with Dynamic Entry. Whenever she appears there are always rainbows appearing in the background. This is to symbolize how much stronger she is compared to the rest of the cast.
• Both Olivie Sägebrecht and Vivio Takamachi of Lyrical Nanoha have iridescent colored magic, known in-universe as Kaiserfarbe (Color of the Emperor).
• Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun: The anime opening aligns the main characters in a ROYGBIV row, with each color (except for Nozaki's green) being prominent in their hair colors and/or outfits. Mikoshiba is red, Sakura is orange, Seo is yellow, Nozaki is green, Hori is blue, Kashima is indigo, and Wakamatsu is violet.
• The Pretty Series uses a rainbow interface to represent the seven clothing brands used in the games, and Pretty Rhythm was even nicknamed "Prism" for short. The series did not go full-force on this until My Deco Rainbow Wedding, which emphasizes a rainbow theme. Following My Deco Rainbow Wedding, Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live makes rainbow motifs a big part of the series' theme, where each of the seven main girls represent a specific brand and color. Rainbow Live's direct spin-off, King of Prism, also uses a rainbow motif, with each of the seven boys representing a color.

Arts

• Any of various art pieces by Lisa Frank. Most memorably, the rainbow unicorns, though pretty much all of her artwork involved this trope to some extent or another.
• Nearly every art piece created by Takashi Murakami has at least one shade of every hue of the rainbow, usually to comment on the oversaturated memes of Japanese pop culture.

Asian Animation

• Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf - Flying Island: The Sky Adventure has the Rainbow Beans, who are colored the seven colors of the rainbow. Perhaps unsurprising given their job is to create rainbows using pens with the corresponding colors.

Comic Books

• Batman:
  • In Detective Comics #241, Batman wears a different colored uniform each night (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet) as seen here◊.
  • The colors tied to each of the Robins combined with Batman's indigo creates a subdued rainbow motif. Dick is Blue^note Exemplified by his Nightwing costumes, and copious amounts of blue civilian clothes., Jason is Red^note Exemplified by his getting the red and black Robin costume in adaptations, adoption of the Red Hood name and occasional red hair., Tim was Green^note Exemplified having more green on his costume than any other Robin, trading most of the yellow for black, and his text boxes being green in his early years., Stephanie is Violet^note Exemplified by her dedication wearing to purple, especially eggplant purple, across all her identities.,Damian is Yellow^note Exemplified by his costume having much more yellow than any Robin before, even adding a yellow hood and trim. and Carrie is Orange^note Exemplified by her prominent block of orange hair.. Things got muddled by bringing Todd's uniform from the DCAU in for Tim and tying him to red, the Bat's costumes less and less frequently including blue, and adding Duke Thomas to the mix and tying him to yellow so the motif has been lost over the years.
• Blackhawk: On the cover of issue #131, a Mad Scientist is changing the Blackhawks' uniforms to all of the colors of the rainbow (red, yellow, green, blue and violet are shown).
• The Flash: The real name of the villain Rainbow Raider is Roy G. Bivolo, a reference to the mnemonic.
• Green Lantern: The emotional spectrum associates each of the colors with a particular feeling. Red is rage, orange is avarice, yellow is fear, green is willpower/courage, blue is hope, indigo is compassion, and violet is love. (Admittedly, the "violet" faction, the Star Sapphires, are more pink in practice, but that's down to retconning old characters into a new concept.) Plus Black appropriately represents the absence of emotion and death, while White represents life (see Blackest Night and Brightest Day).
  • This was parodied in Linkara and Spoony's review of Warrior #4, where they become Gray Lanterns, representing apathy.
• Marvel's Voices:
  • The cover of Marvel's Voices: Pride sees lesbian superheroine Julie Powers use her rainbow contrails to make something like a pride flag in the background.
  • A cover released ahead of Marvel's Voices: Pride (2022) arranges the LGBT+ members of the Young Avengers in blocks that form a rainbow: America Chavez is red, Speed is orange, Prodigy is yellow, Loki is green, Wiccan is blue, and Hulkling is violet.
• The Outsiders: Halo's super powers each had their own color: heat blasts (red), force blasts (orange), bright light (yellow), a stasis beam (green), mirages (blue), a tractor beam (indigo), and violet (all of the other colors' powers at the same time).
• Superman: On the cover◊ of issue #125, Superman demonstrates his new power, which involves sending out a spectrum of rainbow colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) from his hands.
• Young Justice: The comic briefly had a rainbow motif going while CM3 and Flamebird were tied to the team, however this was diluted by the fact that the team was much bigger than just seven members. Empress(Violet), Superboy(Blue), CM3(Cyan), Robin(Green), Wonder Girl & The Ray(Yellow), Flamebird(Orange), Impulse(Red). Other characters on the team include Slobo(Black) and Secret(White/Grey).

Films — Animation

• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks
  • The Rainbooms naturally use this motif, as the band was Rainbow Dash's idea. Their logo is a horseshoe with trails and stars of the seven colors of the rainbow on a black background.
  • The equalizer display in front of DJ Pon-3's transformed car also use six colors of the rainbow in order.

Films — Live-Action

• Each of the main characters in Sky High is themed after the colors of the rainbow, as demonstrated by the colors they wear: Will is blue, Layla is green, Warren is red, Zach is yellow, Ethan is orange, Magenta is indigo, and Gwen is violet.

Literature

• In a particularly impossible Union Club mystery by Isaac Asimov, we are given a list of names and asked which one would correspond to the nickname "half a ghost". The reader is expected to identify that ghost can mean spectre\spectrum(?!), and then Roy is half of that. Well, three sevenths, but indigo doesn't count.
• In The Seventh Tower, the Chosen have eight castes: one for each of the seven colors, with Violet at the top, plus a colorless "Underfolk" caste at the bottom for the servants.
• A Song of Ice and Fire has the Rainbow Guard, Renly's chosen Kingsguard, each one wearing armor of a different color. Despite Renly's predilections, it's more of a religious thing - as the Faith of Westeros has seven gods, the rainbow is viewed as a holy symbol the same way a three-leaf clover was associated with the Holy Trinity in real life.
• In The Hog, Carnacki uses rainbow-colored rings of light in his Magitek protective circle, and describes the attractive or repulsive effects associated with each color.
• In the Rainbow Magic series, this is seen with the Rainbow Fairies, as well as the series logo and title.
• The magic, or "luxin", in The Lightbringer Series is classified in seven colors. The visible colors are red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. Indigo and violet are replaced with sub-red and ultraviolet. Each form of luxin has its own mass and function compared to the others.

Live-Action TV

• Beakman's World had Roy G. Biv appear as a hippie wearing a tie-dye t-shirt and a rainbow wig.
• The Prism Memory in Kamen Rider Double.
• Ressha Sentai ToQger uses rainbows as a secondary motif (the primary one is trains), combining the franchise's usual color-coding with Light/Darkness Juxtaposition. The main team has the common arrangement of Red-Blue-Yellow-Green-Pink, while the Sixth Ranger helps complete the rainbow by being an extremely rare Orange Ranger. The Red Ranger even becomes a Rainbow Ranger as an All Your Powers Combined 11th-Hour Superpower. A DVD special set after the series further adds a Purple Ranger to the mix.

Music

• The song "Roy G. Biv" by They Might Be Giants is named after the mnemonic.
• The Boards of Canada song "Roygbiv".
• The Abyss tracks of Sound Horizon's Elysion are all color coded: Ark (purple), Baroque (blue), Yield (green), Sacrifice (orange) and Stardust (red).
• "The Rainbow", a trance mix on MixCloud.
• S Club 7 had seven members, each of whom was colour-coded with a colour of the rainbow. Tina was red, Paul was orange, Hannah was yellow, Jon was green, Bradley was blue, Jo was indigo and Rachel was violet. Most apparent in the "S Club Party" video, where each member's name flashes on screen in their respective colour.

Myths & Religion

• In the Hindu Mythology, the deity Surya rides in a chariot pulled by seven horses (or a horse with seven heads), each of which represents one of the seven colors of the rainbow.
• Greek Mythology has Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, often described with robes of many colors from where rainbows appear.
• Norse Mythology has the Bifrost, the rainbow bridge that links Asgard to Midgard.
• The religion of Filianism features seven celestial beings known as the Janyati (roughly translating to 'goddesses') which each correspond with a different color of the rainbow, planetary power, day of the week, etc.
• Judeo-Christianity as expressed in The Bible states that the rainbow was first seen after The Great Flood, as promise that God will never flood the whole Earth again. Christianity, in Revelation, holds that Jesus is enthroned in Heaven on a throne of rainbow light, acting as a Call-Back to God's promise to hold true to the descendants of Noah after the flood.
• Sir Isaac Newton's conviction that there must be seven colours in the rainbow, and his consequent invention of "indigo", did not come out of any scientific empiricism. Newton was guided partly by his obsession with alchemy and by his religion: as the number seven occurs so frequently in both hermetical literature^note he body of quasi-mythological and mystical philosophy underpinning the pseudo-science of alchemy and in the Bible as a sacred number, and as the rainbow has special Biblical significance (see above), then he felt this was utterly self-evident on mystical grounds.

Pinballs

• In Jersey Jack Pinball's The Wizard of Oz, spelling R-A-I-N-B-O-W completes the rainbow and grants access to Munchkinland.

Puppet Shows

• In Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and its reboot, the Spectrum organisation is this trope: its field agents are all named, dressed in, and themed after, colours. There is the eponymous Captain Scarlet, his adversary Captain Black, and Captains Blue, Brown, Grey, etc. The overall commander is Colonel White, and for some reason, Green only merits the lower rank of Lieutenant (probably due to being the communications operator, who only rarely visits the field).

Tabletop Games

• Paranoia
  • Alpha Complex's security clearance system is based on the Roy G. Biv mnemonic with two additions: Infrared (black), Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Ultraviolet (white). There are jokes (in the actual rulebooks) about breaches of this pattern...but talking about Security Clearance Plaid is of course treason. Rumors of Security Clearance Gamma are also treason. Repetition of rumors is treason. Please report all rumors to the proper authorities.
  • Roy-G-BIV is used as a mnemonic in the rulebook, as the name is in the proper format for a citizen of Alpha Complex (the green-clearance citizen Roy from sector BIV).
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • 1st Edition
    • Adventure WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. The gem eyes in 6 sarcophagi are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet: every part of RoyGBiv except indigo.
    • In adventure WG6 Isle of the Ape, one puzzle required the PCs to follow color-coded corridors in the correct order (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) to gain valuable information and avoid a death trap.
    • Subverted in adventure I12 Egg of the Phoenix. A puzzle to open a magical doorway appears to be based on choosing which colors to touch from a rainbow palette (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet), but it's a trick.
    • WG7 Castle Greyhawk. Level 5 is filled with Shout Outs to other Tabletop Games. One room has a variety of creatures, each colored one of these colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) as a reference to Paranoia, which used these colors as the basis of its security clearance system.
    • T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil. The Great Hall on dungeon level three has a magical device with parts colored red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
    • The Chromatic Orb spell could create orbs of the following colors: Ruby (red), Flame (orange), Amber (yellow), Emerald (green), Turquoise (blue), Sapphire (indigo), and Amethyst (violet). In The Complete Wizard's Handbook supplement, the spell was re-written to use the colors were changed to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
  • The following spells give each of the seven colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) a different magical effect: Prismatic Spray, Prismatic Wall, Prismatic Sphere and Rainbow (Bow and Flagon options only).
  • The Faerie Dragon's color goes through almost all of the rainbow colors as it grows older. Starting with red, they pass through orange, yellow, green, blue and violet - all except indigo.
  • Greyhawk Adventures supplement
    • The deity Istus can use her Spindle of Fate to cast the Web of Stars, which sends victims to another plane of existence. All creatures sent to that plane appear to each other to be glowing stars of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet or white (white replaces indigo).
    • The Nystul's Radiant Baton, Nystul's Radiant Arch and Otiluke's Radiant Screen spells do extra damage of different types or to specific targets based on the color chosen: red (cold: only affects heat/fire creatures), orange (heat: only affects cold/fire/ice creatures), yellow (acid), green (poison), blue (electricity), indigo (only affects undead), violet (only affects plants).
  • 2nd Edition
    • The color of Wizshades (a type of monster) depends on how old they are. The scale is in reverse order: the youngest are violet, and the oldest are red.
    • Forgotten Realms Adventures supplement. Torm's priests rub colors into their armor to indicate their rank within the church. The rank colors (in ascending order) are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple (violet), missing only indigo.
  • 3rd Edition Creature Collection. A skyquill's needles come in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet, every color except indigo. Each has a different effect on victims.
  • Dragon magazine
    • Issue #40. Each Fire-eye Lizard's skin and eye color is one of the seven colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo or violet).
    • Issue #82. The Ring of Liquid Identification changes color bsed on the type of liquid being identified. The possible colors incluide red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, in that order.
    • Issue #125. Radiance quasi-elementals can fire seven different beams of light, each a color of the rainbow. Each beam does 1d6 Hit Points base damage plus 1 Hit Point per Hit Die of the quasi-elemental of a specific type: red (cold), orange (heat), yellow (acid), green (poison), blue (electrical), indigo (water) and violet (force).
    • Issue #169 short story "Swordfish and Sorcery". Ilsimar casts a spell that creates colors from a collection of fruits and vegetables: red (strawberry), orange (carrot), yellow (squash), green (mint), blue (blueberries), indigo and purple (plum).
    • Issue #220 article "Bazaar of the Bizarre - Elven Magic". The Wand of Faerie Spheres has seven possible effects, each carried by a sphere of a specific color: Red (ages organic material held/worn by the target), Orange (Fireball + Wall of Fire), Yellow (blinding burst of light), Blue (sphere of force around target), Violet (Faerie Fire on target) and Chromatic (affects target as if it touched a Prismatic Sphere). Chromatic replaces poor indigo again.
    • Issue #242 article "Arcane Lore - Magic of Sight and Sound". The spell Chromatic Crown grants a +4 to defenses against a specific type of attack based on the color of the Crown's main gem: Red (fire/heat), Orange (acid), Yellow (petrifaction/paralyzation), Green (rod/staff/wand), Blue (breath weapons) and Violet (spells). Again, indigo is left out.
  • Dungeon magazine
    • Issue #1 adventure "The Elven Home". Inside the title location is a magical vase that changes to a specific color in natural light. The color changed to depends on the day of the week. The colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black (black replaces indigo and is in a different place in the order).
    • Issue #9 adventure "The Plight of Cirria". In one room of the cloud giant's castle is a set of archways that are color-coded to show what harmful effect they have on those passing through them. Their colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and black. The black archway is the only one that doesn't hurt the character passing through it and allows passage to the next room. Clever characters can figure this out by noticing that it's the odd one that doesn't fit with the others.
    • Issue #45 adventure "Prism Keep". The title castle has six large towers, each a different color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
    • Issue #52 adventure "Spirits of the Tempest". In Prospero's Cell, the door has seven gems on it: ruby (red), fire opal (orange), topaz (yellow), emerald (green), turquoise (blue), sapphire (indigo) and amethyst (violet). If a Player Character is trapped in the door, they must touch the gems in ROYGBIV in order to be released.
  • Imagine magazine #3 story "Too Good To Be". Illusionists can cast various forms of magic based on True Colours, which include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
• Victoriana RPG supplement Faulkner's Millinery and Miscellanea. Prismatic Powders come in all seven of the colors, each with a different effect (red = burst into flame, orange = make metal/minerals decay, yellow = blinding flash, green = make plants grow, blue = create fog, indigo = make invisible things visible, violet = levitate objects/creatures).
• Champions supplement Enemies III. The supervillain Spectra's powers are color coded in this manner (Red = Ranged Killing Attack, Orange = Energy Blast, Yellow = Flash, Green = Ego Attack, Blue = Mind Control, Indigo = Desolidification, Violet = Regeneration).
• Judges Guild supplements
  • Module Druids of Doom. The adventure takes place in a temple to the deity Astokph. The six colors associated with Astokph are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple (violet), all of the rainbow colors except indigo.
  • Adventure Trial By Fire. If a Detect Magic spell is used in the room of the Fountain Oracle, the entire room will change to a different color every two seconds. The colors will be, in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. The room will then return to normal.
  • Adventure The Treasure Vaults of Lindoran. The keys to the Tokens of Kinship each have a gem at one end. The colors of the gems of the first four keys are red, orange, yellow and green, with the rest of the key gems including blue and purple.
• Rolemaster, Shadow World campaign setting
  • Quellbourne: Land of the Silver Mist. In the ruined city of Quellburn is the Citadel of Wizards. The Mentalists' Rectangle building has a meditation chamber with floor tiles set in in rings tinted the colors of the rainbow, from red to purple (violet).
  • Jaiman: Land of Twilight. When something (beings, spells and magic items) is reflected in the Mirror of Auras, the color of the reflection reveals the specific nature of that thing's Essaence (sic). Red = Essence, Orange = Essence/Channeling, Yellow = Channeling/Mentalism, Green = Channeling, Blue = Mentalism, Violet = Mentalism/Essence. Yes, once again indigo is forgotten.
  • Gethaena. The NPC character Myrlaenis has a spell called Smoke of Hues. The caster can cause the smoke from a fire to change to one of the rainbow colors, each of which has a different spell effect. Red = Rituals I, orange = Longing, yellow = Regrets, green = Dreams of Remorse, blue = Claws of Agony, and purple (violet) = Talons of Peace. Of course, it's once again poor indigo that's forgotten.
• Lejendary Adventures. The Rainbow Ram power must be one of the seven colors. Each color is effective against a specific material/energy type. Red = wood, Orange = normal door/gate/drawbridge/portcullis, Yellow = Extraordinary protection around individuals or objects, Green = stone, Blue = magical or mundane barriers, Indigo = Extraordinary protection around constructions, Violet = force fields.
• Iron Crown Enterprises Cyberspace main rules. Cybernetic thermal vision allows the user to see heat. The temperature of an object determines the color it's seen as. The colors are in reverse RoyGBiv as temperature increases: violet (19 °F and below), indigo (20-49 °F), blue (50-69 °F), green (70-79 °F), yellow (80-99 °F), orange (100-129 °F), red (130-149 °F), white (150 °F and above).
• Earthdawn. A creature using Heat Sight sees the difference between background temperature and an object's temperature as a color. As the difference increases the color goes up the ROYGBIV scale (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Extreme temperature differences appear as white.
• Carcosa: Weird Science-Fantasy Horror Setting. The sorcerous ritual "The Haunter of the Phosphorescent Vault" is used to conjure the Violet Mist. It requires the Human Sacrifice of 9 young female virgins of the various colored races of the planet Carcosa, including Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple. When the Violet Mist appears the sorcerer must give it nine gems, including red ruby, orange topaz, yellow diamond, green emerald, blue sapphire, and purple amethyst. Once again poor indigo is excluded.
• Man, Myth & Magic Adventure 1 The Glastonbury Labyrinth. Inside the Atlantean vimana (spaceship) are Auto-Kitchen devices that dispense food and drink when the correct buttons are pressed. Button colors include red (heated food), orange (synthetic steak), yellow (bananas), blue (water), indigo (vegetables) and violet (seafood).
• RuneQuest supplement Dorastor: Land of Doom. The rainbow gorp can change from one color to another. Each color gives it a different Chaos Feature: red (increase Size by 11), orange (Regenerating Health at 1 Hit Point per round), yellow (12 points of skin armor), green (Regenerating Health at 6 Hit Points per round), blue (turn into a harmless appearing pile of dust) and purple (absorb spells that cost up to two magic points).
• Villains & Vigilantes adventure Assassin. The ASA (American Security Agency) has a rank structure based on the color spectrum, it includes violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red, in order of increasing rank. Later book "Villains Unleashed" had a color-motif villain team.
• Chaosium's supplement All the Worlds' Monsters Volume III. The Rainbow Demon is a Giant Spider (36-360 Hit Points) whose legs are colored red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and clear. Each leg has a special power: four of them can reflect missiles, Breath Weapons, clerical magic and all magic.
• Traveller. According to Paranoia Press's Classic supplement Scouts & Assassins, the insignia colors of Imperial Interstellar Scout Service personnel include red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo, in that order.

Video Games

• The Prism Rangers in Disgaea 2, but not the original, as only the three primary colors were used in that game.
• EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: The Seven Hikari Warriors follow this theme, each being named after a colour of the rainbow and heavily incorporating said colour into their in- and out-of-uniform designs. Naturally, they are sworn to the Rainbow Princess.
• The alter-ego of Hugh Bliss in Sam & Max was named Roy G. Biv.
• The World Ends with You. In the bonus chapter at the end of the game, someone comments that Joshua is the "Roy G. Biv" of Tin Pin strategy.
• The downloadable game Peggle Nights has a challenge named "Roy G. Biv".
• The Seven Magypsies of Mother 3 each (but Fassad) wore a color of the rainbow. It doesn't help that they're Camp Gay. Interestingly, the only Magypsy that doesn't wear one of the colors of the rainbow wears white instead of indigo, making the magypsy seem as if it weren't part of the rainbow.
• In the Infocom game Hollywood Hijinx you can find Roy G. Biv's telephone number and call him up.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Used by the Chaos Emeralds, but in a different configuration than normal. The current setup has orange and indigo traded for cyan and white. Before the colors became consistent, there was occasionally an orange Emerald.
  • The Wisps in Sonic Colors come in seven colors (not counting the white ones, which are just boost powerups). Here, red and indigo are traded for pink and cyan, with red and violet only being available in the DS version. In Sonic Lost World, an indigo wisp is introduced.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • In Super Mario Galaxy 2, the worlds on the main world select screen follow these colors. World 1 is blue, 2 is orange, 3 is green, 4 is indigo, 5 is violet, 6 is dual-layered with yellow on top and red below, and World S is rainbow-colored.
  • The Sprixie Princesses in Super Mario 3D World are associated respectively with the colors of the rainbows, although indigo is replaced by cyan. They're located in the worlds that are thematically connected with those colors (the Green Princess is in World 1, the Yellow Princess is in World 2, and so on). When World 7 (Lethal Lava Land keeping the Red Princess captive) is cleared and all of them appear to be saved, Bowser makes a comeback and abducts them again, taking them to the rainbow-colored World 8 (Amusement Park of Doom).
  • The Star Pieces in Super Mario RPG.
  • Also, the Pure Hearts in Super Paper Mario. Though in that case, an eighth, white one is added. There is also the Chaos Heart, which is black.
  • Paper Mario: Color Splash has a very, very big color theme (hey, it's in the title), so of course this trope would pop up. Prisma Foutain is adorned with six Big Paint Stars, one for each color of the Rainbow bar indigo. Every level in the game is associated with one of these colors, each color having five levels. Indigo gets a level to its name (the Indigo Underground), but it's considered one of the five "blue" stages.
• Rainbow Islands: The gems (small and large) fit this trope (at least nominally), although the "blue" gems are actually cyan whilst the "indigo" ones are blue.
• Kirby
  • Kirby's Dream Land 2 takes place on the seven Rainbow Islands, each of which is themed after a specific color of the rainbow.^note Grass Land is yellow, Big Forest is green, Ripple Field is blue, Iceberg is indigo, Red Canyon is red, Cloudy Park is orange, and Dark Castle is violet. You collect Rainbow Drops to form the Rainbow Sword and fight Dark Matter, who stole the rainbow bridges linking the islands together. Unfortunately, most of these motifs are an Informed Attribute unless you're playing on the Super Game Boy, since the game is otherwise only available on the monochrome Game Boy.
  • The first seven worlds of Kirby: Canvas Curse, with the sixth being called "Ultramarine" rather than Indigo. Also the first 7 worlds of Kirby's Adventure. Complete with Alliterative Name-type Theme Naming.
  • Kirby and the Rainbow Curse has 7 worlds that are named in order: Green Valley, Yellow Dunes, Indigo Ocean, Blue Sky Palace, Orange Woodland, Red Volcano, and Purple Fortress. The seventh world has purple instead of violet, though it is at least part of the same color family.
• Touhou Project has the recurring character Alice Margatroid, also occasionally referred to as "The Seven-coloured Puppeteer".
• The color of the sky in each dimension in Eversion follows the Roy G. Biv pattern turned inside out: Cyan, Blue, Indigo, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red, and Purple.
• In various Zelda games, the Seven Sages are split up this way. The same goes of the Lokomo Spirits in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.
• In The Void, Color is a substance, and comes in seven varieties, six of which correspond to the classical spectrum colors — Crimson, Amber, Gold, Emerald, Azure and Violet. Indigo is traded for Silver.
• Photopia uses the colors of the rainbow as title cards and each section has text in the same color as the current title. The order of colors is: Red, Sea Blue, Gold, Sky Blue, Green, Violet. And then the very last section reveals that the titular Photopia is a device designed to entertain infants by displaying rainbows of color.
• Guild Wars 2 has the Hylek clans pigmented green, blue, yellow, orange, or red. The first two are friendly, the last two are hostile, and yellow can be either depending on their mood. An asura child idly comments it would be better if they were all friendly and there was a purple one that gave out candy. No mention is made of indigo.
• In Coryoon, the stages are Green Wood, Blue Lake, Orange Valley, Yellow Park, Red Mountain, Purple Cave, Indigo Star and finally Black Road.
• In Coloratura, the protagonist is an alien who senses the world and humans' emotions in colors and has the ability to sing to "color" others' emotional states differently. The visible spectrum for it includes all the typical rainbow colors (red signifies panic, orange unease, yellow curiosity, etc.), plus infrared (anger/hatred) and ultraviolet (assertiveness), as well as white (bliss), grey (apathy), and black (madness).
• The Japanese original of Pokémon Red and Blue had six of their eight badges be the standard colors^note Blue for Kasumi (Misty), Orange for Matis (Lt. Surge), and Green for Sakaki (Giovanni), or close variants.^note Pink (Magenta) for Kyo (Koga), Gold (Yellow) for Natsume (Sabrina), and Crimson (Red) for Katsura (Blaine). The exceptions are Takeshi's (Brock's) Gray Badge (absence of color) and Erika's (kept her name) Rainbow Badge (All Your Colors Combined). This correlation was dropped in the english translation in favor of names corresponding to their elements with the exception of Erika's, though the cities adopted a looser Color Motif.^note With both Surge's and Blaine's towns having shades of red and Erika's city being sort of a greenish-cyan. Plus Lavender town. Indigo was excluded from the badges but became the dub name of the Quartz Plateau, lair of the Elite Four.
• Tetris commonly features one of two tetromino color schemes, both of which share the same set of rainbow colors:
  • Sega/Jaleco/Arika colors: I = red, L = orange, O = yellow, Z = green, T = cyan, J = blue, S = purple
  • Guideline/"Official"/SRS colors: Z = red, L = orange, O = yellow, S = green, I = cyan, J = blue, T = purple
• Idolish 7 Each member correspond to their theme color. Also counts as a Color Character Motifs Riku (Red), Mitsuki (Orange), Nagi (Yellow), Yamato (Green), Tamaki (Blue), Iori (Indigo), and Sougo (Purple)
• While most units in Ensemble Stars! are associated with a particular colour (white for fine, light blue for Ra*bits, etc.), Ryuuseitai is themed around Sentai shows, complete with each member representing a particular colour, and so it is associated with rainbow colours, and sometimes utilises rainbow symbols. (Though star symbols are more common.) Specifically:
  • Chiaki, as the passionate and energetic leader, is red.
  • Kanata, as his second in command, is blue (though he is not The Lancer, the blue reflecting more his strange behaviour and love of the ocean)
  • Midori is green (he's not quite The Smart Guy, but in a rag-tag team like this the Straight Man is probably close enough; also, Midori means green.
  • Shinobu, the resident sweet ninja, is yellow.
  • Tetora, The Lancer and the next leader of Ryuuseitai after Chiaki and Kanata graduate, is black. Interestingly, he wanted red to begin with, and it certainly would suit his personality and color scheme, but as time went on he became proud to consider himself the black teammember.
• This is a very common theme in the Wonderland Adventures series. The series' logo is a rainbow, some gameplay elements, such as buttons and teleporters, are Color Coded with the colors of the rainbow, as are the various magic spells you can use and the aptly named Rainbow Shards you have to collect in the first game. In the first game, it is even said that color is at the heart of the titular land and that it would fall apart if it were to disappear.
• Each of the Golden Deer students in Fire Emblem: Three Houses has a dominant colour to their clothes after the timeskip, which form the colours of the rainbow. Hilda is red (well, pink), Leonie is orange, Raphael is yellow, Ignatz is green, Marianne is blue, Lysithea is indigo, and Lorenz is violet. House leader Claude, meanwhile, is gold.
• The seven playable characters of Whacked! are themed on the Seven Deadly Sins and use the common color-coding associated with them: a red rabbit for Wrath, a girl in a yellow dress for Greed, a woman with blue hair and blue censor bars for Lust, and so on.
• Crystal's Pony Tale has Crystal's friends, which include an indigo pony.

Web Animation

• RWBY: While color motifs are pretty much universal, there are several characters themed around rainbows.
  • Jaune Arc's surname comes from arc-en-ciel, the French for "rainbow". His family's hand-me-down shield sports a styalised rainbow motif, and his combat outfit collects the colours of the rainbow as the show progresses. Jaune has seven sisters and a family photograph in Volume 6 reveals which rainbow colour each sibling represents, with indigo represented by twins. Jaune, as per the French origin of his name, represents yellow. The sister who owns the photograph is called Saphron (after the spice saffron) and she represents orange.
  • Neon Katt is a cat Faunus who wears bright colors, leaves behind a rainbow trail as she rides on her roller skates, and has an Image Song where she refers to herself as a "neon rainbow". She's also a walking Shout-Out to Nyan Cat.
  • Ilia Amitola is a chameleon Faunus who changes colors based on her emotions and has a last name that means "rainbow" in Sioux. It also served as foreshadowing, since rainbows are associated with the LGBT community and she is the show's first confirmed lesbian.

Web Comics

• The trolls in Homestuck have this. Their social caste system is based on blood colour, which can be anywhere from red to magenta. Powerful, long-lived, psychic-resistant highbloods are blues and purples, and the unstable, short-lived, psychically-gifted lowbloods are reds and yellows, with the greens and turquoises in the middle class. Each of the twelve trolls we meet fits into the spectrum, save for Karkat, who is a mutant whose blood is a super-saturated, brilliant "candy-red" instead of the more muted red normal trolls have.
• The seven remaining Demiurges in Kill Six Billion Demons are each associated with a colour of the rainbow, and the deadly sin with which it is associated. These are Jagganoth (Wrath - Red), Mottom (Gluttony - Orange), Mammon (Greed - Yellow), Gog-Agog (Envy - Green), Jadis (Sloth - Blue), Solomon David (Pride - Purple) and Incubus (Lust - Pink) The sin of Lust is traditionally associated with Indigo, not Pink, foreshadowing that Incubus is not a true Demiurge — the rightful holder of his Key, Maya, wears Indigo.

Web Original

• Whateley Universe: SPECTRUM, Cincinnati’s superhero group of Generation 1, was named by the media for their founders' codenames. The lineup at the time we see them, is:
  • Golden Knight
  • Goldstar
  • Green Witch
  • Blue Streak
  • Red Thunder
  • Violet
  • Azure
  • Tawny
  • Silver Ghost
• SCP Foundation
  • SCP-261 ("Pan-Dimensional Vending"). One of the items provided by SCP-261 was a flashlight with 6 lenses, each a color of the rainbow (with indigo being the color missing). When the flashlight was used to shine light on someone, they tasted an appropriate flavor: Red (cherry), Orange (orange), Yellow (banana), Green (lime), Blue (blueberry), and Violet (grape).
  • SCP-535 ("Communicative Beaker"). When certain types of information transmission or storage come within one meter of the liquid in the Beaker, the liquid changes color as follows: red (digital media), orange (radio waves), yellow (sound waves), green (photographic film), blue (text and physical visual imagery), purple (magnetic tape), white (human brain).
  • SCP-819 ("Vital Suckers"). When consumed, these lollipops drain liquid from the victim's body. The type of liquid consumed depends on the lollipop's color: red (blood), orange (gastric acid), yellow (urine), green (phlegm), blue (aqueous and vitreous humors), and purple (cerebrospinal fluid).
  • SCP-839 ("Candied Worms"). SCP-839 are candy worms that, when eaten, replace one of the body's organs. The worms come in different colors: red (heart), orange (liver), yellow (stomach), green (one eye), blue (one kidney), and purple (one lung). Indigo is replaced by pink (brain).
  • Log of Anomalous Items. All written text regarding a certain notebook will be one of six colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or violet).

Western Animation

• Rainbow Brite. The seven Color Kids are named after the Roy G. Biv scale: Red Butler, Lala Orange, Canary Yellow, Patty O' Green, Buddy Blue, Indigo and Shy Violet. Then there’s the titular character herself, who uses rainbows to get around or deal with trouble.
• In Teen Titans (2003) Raven has seriously repressed emotions (necessary because her powers stem from them and require tight control). In "Nevermore", where Beast Boy and Cyborg use a mirror to step inside of her mind, we see Raven's true colors... literally! Each side of her personality (even the parts she tries to hide normally) appears as an image of her but characterized by a different color. Although it is not just the seven colors of the rainbow, it does make sure to include them. Even the original Raven's cloak is an indigo!
• The Little Mermaid: The seven daughters of Triton each have a different color tail. If we were to arrange them chromatically: Arista (red), Attina (orange), Adella (yellow), Ariel (green), Aquata (blue), Andrina (purple), Alana (pink).
• Angel's Friends: The new costumes of the eight heroes at the end of season one- by adding pink and replacing indigo by turquoise.
• Rainbow Dash in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Her mane and tail are all of the colors of the rainbow (minus indigo) and her cutie mark is a multicolored lightning bolt.
• G3 Rainbow Dash in My Little Pony (G3) had a multicolored mane and tail, as did Rarity, the Rainbow Princess.
• The seven Rainbow Rangers are named, colored, and themed after the rainbow.
• Miraculous Ladybug: Marc Anciel wears a rainbow-colored T-shirt, and his name is a pun on "arc-en-ciel", which is French for "rainbow". And for the hat trick, after the airing of "Reverser", the show's staff confirmed that Marc is gay (not that the episode didn't drop a lot of hints).
• The titular character of Elena of Avalor gains one in Season 3 after being empowered by Takaína. Meanwhile, her Face–Heel Turn cousin also gains a thunderstorm motif after he also becomes empowered by Takaían.
• Middlemost Post: There are six neighborhoods that compose Mt. Middlemost, all themed after the six main colors of the rainbow and all with different biomes. Somewhere, where Parker, Angus, and Russell live, is at the peak of the mountain.
  • Red Ridge is red, and is filled with lava, heat, and stone people.
  • Orangefield is orange, and is farm-themed.
  • Yellow Springs is yellow, and is desert-themed.
  • Greenwood is green, and is filled with nature.
  • Bluberg is blue, and is a wealthy neighborhood that is water-themed.
  • Purpleton is purple, and is filled with space motifs, gems, and weird alien-like creatures.
• Numberblocks: Seven has a rainbow-colored body, as well as hair. Seventy also has this feature, and rainbow limbs.
• Surprisingly not played completely straight in Jellabies, despite the setting of the show being at the end of the rainbow. The characters are colored red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, purple, and (counting Duffy the dragon) green, which isn't completely accurate to the actual colors of the rainbow (the pink and purple should be indigo and violet; both could probably be forgiven since Strum is purple, and that color is pretty close to violet, and Coral is pink instead of indigo since she's female and the pink color is most likely to make her gender easily recognizable).

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FACT: Indigo is a nonsense rainbow color invented by Newton to give the rainbow seven colors. Don't listen to their lies.

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