Basic Trope: When a totalitarian empire uses the colours red and black for its flag, insignia and/or uniforms.
- Straight: The Empire of Evulz is a brutal autocratic regime, with its flag consisting of only red and black and its uniforms being black with red highlights.
- Exaggerated: Everything in the Empire of Evulz is red and black, from housing to streets to even the food. This policy was enforced through state violence and even the threat of death.
- Downplayed:
- The Empire of Evulz uses red, black, white and maroon as their official colors.
- The Empire of Evulz is clearly non-democratic, but not yet totalitarian, and uses dark gray and maroon colors.
- Justified:
- The Emperor's favourite colours are red and black.
- In Evulzian culture, red symbolises the blood of the imperial citizen and their sacrifices in the name of the state, while black represents unwavering strength in the face of adversity.
- Red and black are colours that set off danger responses in the human brain, which the empire uses to their advantage.
- The Empire was inspired by Those Wacky Nazis and thus use their color scheme.
- Inverted:
- The Empire of Evulz uses primarily blue and white as their main colours.
- The Free Territories of Tropistan is an anarcho-communist society which uses the red and black anarchist flag as its national symbol.
- Subverted: The Empire of Evulz had previously overthrown the Republic of Tropistan, who also used red and black as their colours.
- Double Subverted: However, the Republic also used blue, which the empire does not use.
- Parodied: St. Jeremy's High School is an Assimilation Academy where the teachers rule with an iron fist, and the school's colours are red and black.
- Zig Zagged: Some characters from the empire wear red and black, while others wear different colours.
- Averted: The empire doesn't have a formal colour scheme.
- Enforced: Red and Black were used in many totalitarian regimes in history, and the author uses those colours as shorthand to make the empire look more evil.
- Lampshaded: "Dude, guys in red and black military uniforms are never good."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: The People's Democratic Republic of Ruritania fools the heroes into attacking the Kingdom of Tropitania because of the colouring of their flag and uniforms.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: While the Empire never makes a formal appearance, their red and black flag is shown and they are referred to as The Empire.
- Deconstructed: The Empire of Evulz realises that the colours of their flag have made them appear more evil, so they change them to gold and white to appear more benevolent.
- Reconstructed: However, the people come to view the old flag as a symbol of national pride, and it's changed back with an explanation behind its meaning becoming more widespread.
