Red/Green Contrast

"Red is the color of lust, but green is what red leaves behind."

— The Lady, The Green Knight

In basic complementary color theory, Color Contrast (a Super-Trope) refers to the use of any two polar opposite colors on the wheel. When such colors are put together in a single image, with almost no other color presence, the effect is called popping, or standing out heavily. This, in turn, colors films to have a strong contrasting palette as the natural technique. Red and Green are no exception.

In many ways it is more associated with the battle of good and evil, whichever color representing which being interchangeable depending on the work:

• Red can be viewed as the color of passion, giving warmth and inspiring courage, while it can also be seen as representing fire's destructive capabilities. It is commonly used as the main color for the Primary-Color Champion (red being one of three primary colors), making it heroic in-context. Red is also the color of Santa Claus. When red represents an evil or villainous force, it is commonly associated with hatred and violence and the color of blood, and is usually paired with black or white for emphasis. Tropes Are Flexible, and variant shades like pink, coral, magenta, vermillion, rust, maroon, and brick red can stand in for red. Red also tends to be a more masculine color, and usually plays the Red Oni in a Red Oni, Blue Oni relationship. If applied to a female character, she would signify a sensually strong character, while pink can either depict innocence or sexual positivity.

• Green is placed as a more serene and natural color, secondary colors meant to calm rather than excite. Heroes and heroic forces associated with green are often based around plant-life, the wind, the forces of nature, and the Earth. With this, green is also the color of Santa's elves or the grumpiness of The Grinch. When depicted as a force of evil, green can be used as the most prominent color for the Secondary Color Nemesis (as one of the three secondary colors), making them Green and Mean with the Sickly Green Glow of sickness, nausea and toxins. Variant shades like mint, seafoam, lime, teal, turquoise, olive, and forest green as stand-ins for green can also work for contrast. Green, usually in pastel or cool shades, is also a more feminine color, and usually plays the Blue Oni in a Red Oni, Blue Oni relationship. If applied to a male character, he would signify a more casual and down-to earth character.

It is also one of the reasons why, despite red hair being technically orange, Significant Green-Eyed Redhead and Redhead In Green are so popular.

Suffice to say, red and green is a prevalent color scheme for Christmas, and it has been around for centuries, used by ancient cultures like the Celts and the Aztecs placing hollies and poinsettias respectively to provide color and warmth to the winter. Red and Green is further solidified as THE Christmas colors after an artist named Haddon Sundblom was commissioned by Coca-Cola to depict Santa in an all-red suit complemented with evergreen backgrounds. In almost every Christmas-themed media, expect red and green to pop up more.

Ironically enough, red-green colorblindness is the most common type of color blindness, so excessive reliance on this in user interfaces, signage, etc. can result in accessibility issues.

Compare with Orange/Blue Contrast and Yellow/Purple Contrast.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Black Clover, childhood friends and rivals Asta and Yuno contrast with each other in various ways. One of these contrasts in the anime portray Yuno's Four-Leaf Clover Grimoire glowing bright green when in use, while Asta's Black/Five-Leaf Clover Grimoire glowing an ominous red.
• Cardcaptor Sakura:
  • While bubbly Sakura has a plethora of battle costumes generously made by Tomoyo, much of her Color Motif is given shades of pink and red, from her costumes in promotional art to her bedroom to her favorite color and to even the Cherry Blossom motif.
  • Defrosting Ice King Syaoran wears a green battle costume and according to the manga, his favorite color is green.
  • His fiery cousin Meiling wears a red battle costume and has red eyes.
• Digimon:
  • Digimon Adventure: Sora and Mimi's respective Digimon are pink/red and green.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: In the episode where Davis and Ken's respective schools have a soccer match, Davis' team is wearing red while Ken's team wears green. Davis also has this dynamic with T.K.; Davis has burgundy hair, gains a red and blue jacket whenever he enters the Digital World and is the Hot-Blooded leader of the team while T.K. wears a green vest over a light green shirt and is the The Lancer.
  • Digimon Tamers: Takato and Henry have red and green Digivices and Digimon, respectively. Henry and Terriermon are more mature (and in Terriermon's case more sarcastic) than Takato and Guilmon, the latter of whom is the youngest of the heroes' Digimon in terms of age; he comes into existence in the very first episode and for a while had difficulty telling the difference between humans and Digimon. On the girls' side we have Fiery Redhead Rika who wears red shoes and Jeri who wears a green dress. They are the respective Tomboy and Girly Girl of the group.
  • Digimon Frontier: Takuya and Tommy are the warriors of fire and ice, respectively. Takuta wears a red jacket and red armor in all of his Digimon forms while Tommy wears a green and white shirt and green clothing in his primary Digimon form. Takuya is Hot-Blooded while Tommy is a sensitive little kid.
• Final Fantasy: Unlimited: The red-haired Ai is much more impulsive and outgoing than her brother Yu, who has green highlights for his clothes.
• My Hero Academia gives us Izuku Midoriya (green) and Katsuki Bakugo (red):
  • Midoriya: green hair, green eyes, predominantly green hero costume, Quirk that produces green electricity when activated; a kind and levelheaded person.
  • Bakugo: red eyes, red-orange hero costume, explosion Quirk; a chaotic, impulsive Blood Knight.
  • For bonus points, each character incorporates the other's primary color into their own design as an accent color (the primarily green Izuku has bright red shoes and glows red when he activates Full Cowling, while Bakugo's gauntlets and utility belt are dark green). This could be a reference to All Might's statement that each character has something the other needs to become a complete hero (Bakugo needs Izuku's "green" trait of compassion and desire to save people, while Izuku lacks Bakugo's "red", passionate urge to win).
• Naruto: During the Chunin Exams, Evil Redhead and Glass Cannon Gaara is pitted against the green jumpsuit-wearing Rock Lee who is a Lightning Bruiser and Close-Range Combatant. After their respective villages become allies, Gaara and Lee fight side-by-side against Kimimaro.
• Sailor Moon: Rei Hino/Mars and Makoto Kino/Jupiter respectively. Rei is a rude, bitter, short-tempered Jerk with a Heart of Gold who controls fire, while Makoto is a kind, sweet, calm Nice Girl who controls thunder. Doubles as Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity.
• In Tamagotchi, a Show Within a Show called Gotchiman that Mametchi loves to watch features as its hero Gotchiman, who wears a red and white costume. His arch-enemy, Black Hat, is primarily green and black.

Art

• Red/green was a go-to color scheme for Edward Hopper, who liked saturated colors.
  • Chop Suey: The central woman's bright green dress and the greenish window panels and highlights on her companion against the bright red of the restaurant sign.
  • The shops in Early Sunday Morning: The second floor is red and the first floor is green. The contrast is more obvious due to the lack of humans visiting them.
  • Red and green are the dominant colors in Western Motel.
• Hylas and the Nymphs: The naiads' red hair contrasts with the nature (greenish water, lily pads, grasses) surrounding them. This is especially noticeable because the painting utilizes vibrant hues as a way to convey liveliness.
• The Kiss (Hayez): In one version of the painting, the man is wearing a green shirt under his red cloak. Coupled with the woman's blue, white, and gold dress, you get the colors of the French and Italian flags.
• Seven Virtues: On the Temperance painting, The vivid red mantle on the woman's legs contrasts with the green dress she wears. Also, the floor and two walls are red, while the ceiling and two walls are dark green. This imagery further reinforces the "meeting the extremes at the middle" idea that she embodies, as green and red are complimentary colors.

Asian Animation

• In Happy Heroes, Happy S., the leader of the Supermen, is mostly red in color while Big M., the show's primary antagonist, wears a suit of green armor.

Card Games

• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Lava Battleguard (red) and Swamp Battleguard (green) are a pair of Support cards, having virtually identical stats and powering each other up when on the field together.

Comic Books

• Black Moon Chronicles: The dark magic of the Black Moon is green in color, but Haazheel Thorne and his army of mages always dress in green and red robes.
• The DCU:
  • The Flash: Like most members of the Flash family, Bart Allen's Impulse and Kid Flash costumes features a great deal of red uses red. His nemesis is Thaddeus Thawne, known as Inertia and Kid Zoom, the Reverse-Flash version of Bart Allen, who has green eyes and his costume as Inertia uses green as the main color.
  • Green Lantern contrasts the heroic, green-colored Green Lantern Corps with the villainous Red Lantern Corps.
  • Superman: Superman wears a red cape and whenever Lex Luthor feels the need to engage him in battle he dons green Powered Armor.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Inverted with Diana and her friend/rival Artemis. Diana wears her signature red, blue and gold one piece while Artemis switched to wearing a white and green Leotard of Power after her death and resurrection. However, Diana was the kinder and more levelheaded one while Artemis was arrogant, hot-tempered and disdainful towards men.
    • Played straight with Diana and Circe, one of her most recurring enemies. Circe was introduced into Post Crisis continuity wearing a green dress and usually wore green during the post crisis era. While Diana was a super strong hero, Circe was an evil sorceress with a disdain towards humanity, mostly men.
  • The various Robin costumes over the years have been predominantly red and green. Special notice goes to Tim Drake's costume which did away with the completely yellow cape instead opting for a black cape with yellow lining and adding actual pants, in green, making his costume almost entirely made up of red and green rather than the traffic light coloration of the previous Robins.
  • The criminal duo and sometimes Battle Couple of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Harley wears red and is the more childish of the two while Ivy wears green and is the relatively mature one.
• Marvel Comics:
  • The Avengers' mutant sibling duo, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, respectively debuted with green and red costumes. This lasted until Quicksilver got his classic blue-and-silver costume.
  • When the originally green and purple Drax the Destroyer was redesigned for the modern age, he obtained red tattoos on his green skin.
  • The Incredible Hulk, in an inversion of the usual heroic color schemes, is bright green, while his opponents — villains like Madman, Red Hulk and Juggernaut — are often red.
  • Jennifer Walters, the original She-Hulk, is green while Betty Ross is the Red She-Hulk. Betty as the Red She-Hulk was originally an antagonist and even after her Heel–Face Turn was still less pleasant than the green She-Hulk.
  • Spider-Man: Many of Spider-Man's enemies have predominantly green outfits: Doctor Octopus usually wears a green jumpsuit, Scorpion and Vulture wear green costumes, Sandman has his green-and-brown striped shirt, the Jackal wears a green jackal costume (and eventually re-engineered himself into a green jackal-man), and of course the Green Goblin has green right in his name.
  • Young Avengers: One visual hint that Wiccan and Speed are Polar Opposite Twins is their opposing color schemes — Billy is dark-haired and always has a red mantle complemented by cooler tones, while Tommy is white-haired and has a white-and-green costume.
  • In older comics Red Skull (who, as the name implies, has a red skull) was depicted as wearing some kind of a green jumper.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Amy Rose wears a red dress. Her Evil Doppelgänger Rosy the Rascal wears a green dress.

Fan Works

• Danganronpa: Komm Susser Tod: In this fanfic of Danganronpa, the Straight Man and Wise Guy pair of Reiji Suzuki and Mamoru Kurosawa, who have been best friends since childhood, wear red and green respectively.
• In the Pretty Cure fanfic Twinkling in the Dark, the green-clad Cure March's younger sister Haru gains a red Cure form called Cure August.

Films — Animation

• Arthur Christmas has the eponymous character wearing a green sweater, and is quite clumsy yet determined to deliver gifts from a missed letter. His Aloof Big Brother Steve wears a red army-esque uniform and though he has acknowledgement issues even though he's admired, yet still gets the North Pole up and running. There's also their father Malcolm, who is the current Santa Claus and is reluctant to give up his red coat which he had been donning for decades, and their mother Margaret, who is Mrs. Claus, wears a mint green dress and a dark green coat, and is the sensible one with Crazy-Prepared capabilities.
• In Barbie as the Island Princess, the evil queen Ariana wears dark red and is an Evil Redhead, in contrast to the good queen Marissa wearing a green gown and having green eyes.
• The Emperor's New Groove has the spoiled emperor-turned-llama Kuzco in red and gold and the Gentle Giant peasant Pacha in green and brown joining hands together to return to the palace to reverse Kuzco's transformation and to stop Yzma's plot.
• The Little Mermaid:
  • Ariel sports an aqua green tail (connecting to her marine heritage) which compliments her bright red mane (which, of course, references her vivacious and headstrong personality).
  • The Disney Princess merchandise has Ariel wearing seafoam green dresses, that complement her red hair. In the film, there were no green dresses, and the one that had the same silhouette in the toylines was pink, but it was changed to green to be distinguished to Aurora, who wears pink in the merchandise but blue in her film.
• The Princess and the Frog has the diligent and ambitious Tiana mostly wearing shades of green, and the Spoiled Sweet and bubbly Lottie mostly wearing shades of pink.
• Shrek: The main hero is a large, green-skinned ogre while the main villain is a short human dressed in red and black.
• Turning Red: Meilin Lee tends to wear bright red colors, in contrast to her strict mother Ming and Mei's more level-headed best friend Miriam, who both wear green.

Films — Live-Action

• Amélie uses predominantly red and green in its color palette, with the color blue used to make objects stand out.
• Cries and Whispers: The interior of the manor the characters reside in is famously almost entirely red, which underlines the unsaid but intense emotions the characters are feeling. In the rare moments the film goes outside the manor, the viewer is presented with a lush green garden, and the few serene moments take place in it.
• Falling for Christmas: This holiday movie naturally utilizes it in the poster — heroine Sierra in a red dress, and love interest Jake in a green scarf, set against a wintry ski background.
• The Green Knight: The Lady has an eerie yet impassioned speech contrasting the colors green and red. Red is the color of passion (blood, lust) while green is the color of passion's aftermath (growth, decay).
• Harry Potter: To fit the color themes of Gryffindor and Slytherin, magic used by the protagonists is usually portrayed as being red, while dark magic used by the Death Eaters and Voldemort is portrayed as green — most notably, the Unforgivable Killing Curse, the infamous Avada Kedavra, is marked by a blinding flash of green light. This is even more apparent whenever there's a Beam-O-War between the good guys and the Death Eaters (Harry vs Voldemort, Dumbledore vs Voldemort, etc).
• Home Alone packs nearly every scene with red and green objects to make the whole movie feel more like Christmas. This doesn't just include the in-story Christmas decorations: even the wallpaper and furniture are often red and green. (In Cinema Wins' video on Home Alone, Lee counts 237 unique red and green objects over the course of the whole film.)
• Lord of the Rings: Bash Brothers Gimli and Legolas, respectively. Gimli takes it a step further by being a Fiery Redhead and wearing a green cloak he was given by the elves.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • The most prominent color on Thor's outfit is his flowing red cape, a color scheme that carries over into his gladiatorial design in Thor: Ragnarok. To contrast against him, many of his opponents possess a prominently green color scheme, including Loki, Hela, and the Hulk.
  • Gamora's appearance utilizes red highlights in her hair to stand out against her green skin.
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming uses red for its hero, Spider Man, and green for its villain, the Vulture. This allows them to contrast with the Orange/Blue Contrast used throughout the rest of the film.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street: This trope is part of Freddy's carefully-crafted frightening appearance. Wes Craven had read that red and green are the two most difficult colors for the human eye to see when placed right next to each other, so he gave Freddy the iconic red-and-green striped sweater to make his appearance that much more fundamentally disturbing.
• Spirited (2022): Fittingly for a Christmas movie, the poster juxtaposes Present (the protagonist, wearing a green suit) with Clint (the deuteragonist Present is at odds with, wearing a red suit) in front of matching backgrounds.
• Star Wars does this twice, but in opposing ways.
  • On the one hand, Rebel ships fire red laser bolts, while Imperial TIE fighters and Star Destroyers fire green ones. Ground troopers on both sides use red blaster bolts, however.
  • On the other, the Sith exclusively use red lightsabers while the Jedi use a variety of colors, most notably green — such as Luke's lightsaber in Return of the Jedi — and light blue.
• Troop Beverly Hills: The Culver City Red Feathers are a fiery all-business working class troop. The titular troop, with the various green accents on their uniforms, is as Spoiled Sweet (and woefully out of their element) as any group can get.
• Vertigo first introduces Madeleine in a green dress◊, which contrasts starkly against the red of the wall's rooms and other details.
• The Wizard of Oz:
  • Aside from the deadly poppy fields surrounding Emerald City, the magical ruby slippers that Dorothy is wearing gives a striking contrast to the all-green setting of the city.
  • Inbetween Dorothy is the conflict between the all-pink Glinda the Good and the acid green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West.

Literature

• Brothers at War: The second book of Alex Rutherford's Empire of the Moghul series. Following a successful campaign, Emperor Humayun claims a great deal of treasure. Among the booty is an elaborate golden necklace set with rubies and emeralds, and the emperor notes the beauty of the contrasting colors. Originally intended for his aunt - who graciously declines - it later becomes a wedding gift to his wife, who wears it all through their many trials and tribulations.
• The Famous Five: In Five Go Off in a Caravan, the boys have a green caravan with red curtains, and the girls have a red caravan with green curtains. To begin with, the colours are mentioned frequently; but later, when one of the caravans becomes much more significant than the other, it is not stated for a long time which colour it is.
• Harry Potter:
  • Each of the four houses at Hogwarts has its own respective color schemes that reflect its ideologies: Gryffindor is red and gold, Slytherin is green and silver, Hufflepuff is yellow and black, and Ravenclaw is blue and bronze. While competition between all four houses exist, the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin is by far the most prominent; their founders - Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin - had a particularly famous falling-out and this animosity carries on between the houses to this day.
  • In a reversal of their house colors, Harry has green eyes, while Voldemort has red ones.
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:
    • At the final match of the Quidditch World Cup, the Irish national team is dressed in green uniforms, while the Bulgarians wear red.
    • During their duel in the graveyard, Voldemort's killing curse projects green light, while Harry's disarming charm is red.
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
    • In a mirror of their duel three years earlier, the final confrontation between Voldemort and Harry comes down to the former’s green killing curse and the latter’s red disarming charm.
• The Space Merchants: The MegaCorp Starrzelius Verily's consumer products are noted for their "colorful" red packaging, while its bitter rival Universal wraps its products in green.
• Warrior Cats: Yew berries — which the cats call "deathberries" due to how poisonous they are — are almost always described specifically as being bright red against the dark green of the bushes. In one book, Leafpool even says that "these berries are evil."
• In Wise Child, it's pretty easy to miss because the descriptions are not immediate with each other, but Juniper and Maeve are enemies and Opposed Mentors to Wise Child, and are also described as being dressed in those respective colors. Juniper constantly wears red dresses and a ruby ring, and Maeve wears a dark green dress (doubling as a Redhead In Green because of her red hair).
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The all-green Emerald City is surrounded by a vast field of deadly red poppies. Crossing over the fields would cause someone into an eternal slumber. Dorothy, just a little girl from Kansas, did not know this, but her friends luckily pulled her away from the flowers.

Live-Action TV

• Ace Lightning: When Random Virus is evil, his cybernetic eye glows red. When he's good, it glows green.
• Arrowverse: The two flagship shows, Arrow and The Flash (2014), are headed by the green-themed Green Arrow and the red-suited Flash, who also contrast each other in several different ways.
• The Lannister / Tyrell power struggle in Game of Thrones, with their house sigils having a golden object on, respectively, a red and a green field. With gold representing their status as the two wealthiest families in Westeros, the red-themed Lannisters come off as the more aggressive of the two, often resorting to intimidation, military force and violence to get what they want, while the green-themed Tyrells rely more on diplomacy, political intrigue and manipulation. The symbolism also reflects the origin of their wealth – the Lannisters' being more “artificial” and exploitative (mining), the Tyrells' more “natural” and nurturing (agriculture).
  • In House of the Dragon, a Succession Crisis turns into a Civil War between two sides from House Targaryen, the colors of which are primarily black and red (a red dragon on a black background), not to mention the motto "Fire and Blood". However, the Targaryen side that occupies the Iron Throne after The Coup following the death of King Viserys happens to be the one spawning from House Hightower, the real power behind them, the symbol of which is a tower atop of which burns a green flame. One of the Hightower leaders, Alicent, wear predominantly green dresses, and the faction itself is called "The Greens". Meanwhile, on the side of the Blacks, emphasis is put on the blood of the family being kept in the family with the marriage of Rhaenyra Targaryen with her uncle Daemon. Speaking of Daemon (the co-leader of the Black faction), he often wears red and black clothes, and his dragon Caraxes has plenty of red scales.
• Two Marvel Netflix shows revolved around heroes who dealt with The Hand. One was Daredevil who wore a red superhero costume and the other was Iron Fist who wore green hoodies or jackets. In an inversion of the personalities associated with this trope, Matt was the more mature of the two.
• Kamen Rider Geats: The titular hero, Geats, is mainly white with red accents (and the most common user of the very red Boost Buckle, while the deuteragonist, Tycoon, is green, emphasized by his Ninja Buckle's green armor.
• Power Rangers:
  • In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Jason the Red Ranger was the primary opponent of Tommy the Green Ranger while the latter was under the control of the Big Bad. Even after Tommy joined the team, the two had something of a Friendly Rivalry for a bit.
  • Tommy's Ranger career in the Zordon Era begins with him as the Green Ranger and ends as the Turbo Red Ranger. In the Turbo movie he briefly wore his green bandana.
  • TJ Johnson and Carlos Vallerte, the second Red and Green Turbo Rangers respectively. T.J was humble and level-headed while Carlos was proud and hotheaded.
  • Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: The Red Ranger Leo was brave but impulsive and didn't seem to have any career. The Green Ranger Damon was an engineering genius who despite being fearful of danger never let that stop him from saving the day.
  • Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: The Red Ranger Carter was a serious-minded Humble Hero who previously worked as a firefighter and Jumped at the Call when recruited to fight the demons. The Green Ranger Joel was a cocky and carefree showboater who previously worked as an aerial stuntman and was initially reluctant to join Lightspeed.
  • Power Rangers Time Force: The episode "Trip Takes A Stand", sees the Green Ranger Trip protecting a mutant from the Fantastic Racism-motivated attacks of the Sixth Ranger Eric whose suit is red.
  • Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Shane the Red Ranger and Cam the Green Sixth Ranger. While Shane's non-Ranger hobby is skateboarding, Cam is a computer and engineering geek who spends most of his time at HQ. Both have SuperModes but Shane's gives him Powered Armor while Cam's discards his armor to increase his speed and improve his swordsmanship. Both have aerial Zords but Shane's is more like a jet while Cam's is a helicopter.
  • Another one related to Tommy in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. In the episode "Fighting Spirit", Tommy ends up in a coma and has a Battle in the Center of the Mind with his past Ranger forms. He fights the Red Zeo Ranger in a desert first and fights the Green Mighty Morphin Ranger in a forest with fallen pillars last. Also, while the Red Zeo Ranger is depicted as being a respectful opponentwho is encouraging to Tommy and wants to test his skills, the Green Morphin Ranger is outright antagonistic towards Tommy, trying to get him to surrender and threatening to kill him though all this turns out to be a secret test of character for Tommy.
  • Power Rangers Mystic Force: Nick the Red Ranger and Xander the Green Ranger embody both the positive and negative aspects of this. Nick is passionate and not afraid to speak his mind and fights with determination and emotion in battle but can also be hotheaded, insensitive and antisocial. Xander is laid back and prefers to talk his way out of conflicts but can also be lazy.
  • Power Rangers RPM: The Red Ranger Scott is a Standardized Leader while the Green Ranger Ziggy is a Butt-Monkey and Lovable Coward who is only a Ranger because he wanted to stop the Green ranger morpher from falling into the villains' hands.
  • Power Rangers Samurai: Jayden the Red Ranger is The Leader while Mike the Green Ranger is The Lancer. Jayden is disciplined and focused while Mike doesn't really take his training seriously. Jayden wields the power of fire while Mike wields the power of forest.
• In The Toy Castle, the green frog twins, Frederick and Freda, both wear red outfits to contrast.
• On the game show Whew!, the blocker was designated with a red octagon with a slash going through it, and the charger was designated with a green arrow pointing up.

Music

• Red and green traffic lights are used to evoke a busy city in Anaïs Mitchell's "Your Fonder Heart".
  Come out, the streets are breathing
  Heaving green to red to green
  Come with your nicotine and wine and tambourine
  Keeping time

Tabletop Games

• In the Color-Coded Wizardry of Magic: The Gathering, Red and Green are featured as allies on the Color Pie, which fits, especially considering the two colors are in agreement with regard to the importance of Don't Think, Feel. Where they differ shows mostly in their respective playstyles: a straight-up Red mage is a Fragile Speedster in that they would try to finish the game fast, trying to use a lot of cheap spells and cheap creatures to try to gain and hold the momentum; a straight-up Green mage, on the other hand, is more a Mighty Glacier in that they would try to build up as many lands as they can so that they can reliably summon their big monsters, basically Gathering Steam to stomp the opponent into oblivion. In the Ravnica block, Red and Green are the colors of the Gruul guild, a gang of anarchists and eco-terrorists who are not happy that the wilderness of the Plane has largely disappeared to industrialization. The guild is so prominent that its name is from that point on, used as a reference to the Green-Red pairing.

Theater

• Six: The Musical: In "Don't Lose Your Head" Anne Boleyn contrasts her green sleeves (referring to the folk song "Greensleeves", about a pure and beautiful woman) with her red lipstick (implying promiscuity/passion), and says it's how she wound up dead.

Toys

• LEGO Castle: The Kingdoms line focuses on a war between the Lion Kingdom (associated with red, white, and silver) and the Dragon Kingdom (associated with green, gunmetal gray, and black).

Video Games

• Buriki One: The Protagonist Gai Tendo is a Fiery Redhead who also uses red in his outfit, and The Rival of the game is the Final Boss is Silber, a brutish karateka with White Hair, Black Heart who also uses green in his karategi.
• Doom: Doomguy is a Space Marine who wears green armor and defends Earth from The Legions of Hell. His demonic opponents tend to be predominately red, and his adventures typically take him to Mars, the Red Planet.
• Final Fantasy IX's Freya Crescent wears a vibrant red outfit while her love interest Sir Fratley wears a dull green one.
• In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Player Character, the Herald of Andraste/Inquisitor is associated with color green (which seems to be the main color of the game), given that their unique power grants them the ability to close the rifts that plagued Thedas. It also enables them to walk into the Fade physically, an Eldritch Location that has green motifs as well. Their enemy is The Elder One, who uses the dangerous powers of red lyrium back at the second game to raise his army such as the Red Templars in order to dominate the world.
• Fire Emblem: This is so common in the series that it's considered a franchise character archetype. Two paired characters share the same class (usually cavaliers) and are sometimes blood relatives (usually brothers). One will have a predominantly red colour scheme and is usually the stern, serious type, while the other will have a predominantly green colour scheme and will be more casual and laid-back. The red character of the two typically has better offensive stats, while the green character typically is more geared towards defence, although these roles are sometimes switched. Red/green pair characters include:
  • Cain and Abel from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, a pair of cavalier brothers who started the trend.
  • Lukas and Forsyth from Fire Emblem Gaiden, the first pair to be in a different class, this time in the Soldier/Knight line.
  • Naoise and Alec from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
  • Alen and Lance from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
  • Kent and Sain from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.
  • Forde and Kyle from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
  • Kieran and Oscar from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
  • Sully and Stahl from Fire Emblem: Awakening, with Sully being the first female character of the red/green pairing.
  • Saizo and Kaze from Fire Emblem Fates, a pair of ninja brothers. Downplayed in Conquest, in which only Kaze joins your party.
  • Sylvain and Ingrid from Fire Emblem: Three Houses are a subtle example, though Ingrid's green association is much more obvious in her second outfit, and they reverse the normal personalities as Sylvain is the laid-back one here. (While the characters can be trained to be any class, Ingrid and Sylvain's stats set them up to be great cavaliers.)
  • Clanne and Framme from Fire Emblem Engage. While they have the color schemes and blood relation, they buck several trends: Clanne is a gentle, well-read Mage, whereas Framme is a boisterous Martial Monk.
• In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Vace's arguments with Cal are exemplified by their contrasting color schemes, with Vace's belief in "necessary" violence represented by red and Cal's desire for peace represented by green.
• The King of Fighters: The initial hero and villain and their Iconic Outfits: Kyo Kusanagi and his dull green gakuran, pitted up against Rugal Bernstein and his bright red tuxedo.
  • There's also Ash Crimson, who wears a red outfit and possesses the ability to use green flames.
• In Metroid Prime: Hunters, Weavel is a cynical veteran Space Pirate who wears green armor, while Trace is an enthusiastic Kriken ready to fight to expand his empire.
• In Monster Hunter, the Flying Wyvern Rathalos is red, and his female counterpart (and often mate) Rathian is green, and that's before you get to their other variants like Azure Rathalos and Pink Rathian, and Silver Rathalos and Gold Rathian. Rathalos is the more airborne of the duo and so he likes to dole out some Death from Above, while the Rathian is land-bound and normally defends the nest. When both of them are on the same map, expect them to fight as a Battle Couple.
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon Red and Blue were released as Red and Green in Japan. When the games were remade for the Game Boy Advance, these versions were renamed "FireRed and LeafGreen''.
  • The original protagonist is named Red and his rival is named Green in Japan. They're often associated with their respective colours. Internationally, this is lost as Green is renamed "Blue" (though he still keeps the green motif and even becomes the gym leader of Viridian City in the sequels). The GBA remakes added a female counterpart to Red named Leaf, although her outfit is more of a teal or turquoise than green.
• Resident Evil – Code: Veronica: The game's two main playable characters are Chris (in green) and his sister Claire (in red).
• Street Fighter: Cammy White wears a green Leotard of Power with a red beret and red gauntlets.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • The titular brothers wear clothes in red (Mario) and green (Luigi). Mario is portrayed as a classic fearless Primary-Color Champion who jumps into action on a minute notice, while Luigi scares much easier, but is portrayed as heroic because he jumps into action despite being scared.
  • The lime green Yoshi and magenta Birdo are shown getting along well, and often teams up in games such as Mario Tennis, Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Party 7.
  • The Mario & Luigi series features several sibling pairs that have an elder in red and a junior in green, mirroring Mario and Luigi themselves. This is usually used as a shorthand that these characters are important and help the Mario Brothers out in some way. Examples include the Jellyfish Sisters of Superstar Saga and the Massif Brothers of Dream Team.
• Targ: The Wummel (playable vehicle) is green, while the Targs (enemies) are red.
• The Touhou Project franchise has the two shrine maidens which use the colors for each character in different aspects: Reimu Hakurei has the red costume as happens in the traditional miko costume, while Sanae Kochiya has green hair. Many fans label the duo as the "Mario and Luigi of Gensokyo" due to this.
• Several examples in the Splatoon series, though the "red" is usually more pink:
  • The news broadcasting music duos in the first two games have followed this scheme: Callie (magenta) and Marie (lime) of the Squid Sisters, and Pearl (pink) and Marina (teal) of Off the Hook.
  • Many stages in Octo Valley and Octo Canyon (most notably the final boss of the second game) have the player using green ink against the Octarians' pink or red ink.
  • The main color scheme of Splatoon 2 is neon pink and green.
  • Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion levels typically have Agent 8 using pink ink against the Sanitized Octarians' aqua green ink.
  • This has the color scheme for several Splatfests: Salsa vs. Guacamole, Fork (salmon pink) vs. Spoon (aqua green), Baseball (vermillion) vs. Soccer (green), Hare (pink) vs. Tortoise (lime), Squid (green) vs. Octopus (magenta), etc.
• In Yo Kai Watch, the male avatar,^note typically seen as the default avatar due to him being the protagonist of the anime Keita/Nate wears red, and is the owner of the Yo-Kai Watch and thus is the most closely connected to Yo-Kai, meanwhile his friend Kanchi/Eddie, who firmly believes that Yo-Kai (and other such supernatural things) don't exist, wears green. Their other friends also fall into a matching colour scheme, with the female avatar Fumika/Katie wearing pink (very close to red) and Eddie's closest friend Kuma/Bear wearing blue (next to green on the colour wheel).

Webcomics

• Awful Hospital has one that's observed In-Universe: The Hero Fern appears◊ with a vivid green overlay, while red is associated with The Corruption of the Old Flesh that's consuming The Multiverse, which manifests in things like feral Plague Zombies and the Great Red Blight.
• In The Glass Scientists, Jekyll's eyes and clothing accessories are red, whilst Hyde's are green - matching the colors of their respective transformation potions.
• In Homestuck:
  • The two major and opposing aspects of Time and Space are associated with red and green, repsectively. Time is represented by a bright red gear symbol on a dark red background, and while Space's symbol is white on black, it has a strong association with green beings such as First Guardians. Every known Time player — Dave, Aradia, Damara, and Caliborn — is color-coded with red while every known Space player — Jade, Kanaya, Porrim, and Calliope — is color-coded with green. With the exceptions of Calliope and Caliborn, these are the colors their text appears in.
  • The red/green colour pallete is associated with the cherub species. Good and evil adult cherubs have green and red blood, eyes, tongues and cheek swirls respectively. This is reflected in the two main cherubs that drive the plot of the story — Calliope is kind, friendly and associated with green while Caliborn is rude, malicious and associated with red. Intended as foils to each other due to being split personalities in the same body, they share an antagonistic sibling relationship which is exacerbated when Caliborn kills Calliope to prematurely take over the body and goes on to become the comic’s Big Bad, Lord English.

Web Original

• Lightning Sentai Blitzenger: In this transformation-based short story, the two male members of the team contrast each other: Rai Akasaka, aka Crimson Lightning, is a tall, confident Ideal Hero, whereas Kimura Sanjou, aka Jade Lightning, is a young, volatile Jerk with a Heart of Gold. As their Blitzenger names indicate, they wear red and green respectively.
• Overly Sarcastic Productions: In History Summarized: Classical India, Blue discusses the arrival of Islam to the Indian sub-continent. To demonstrate the significant theological differences between Islam and Hinduism, bullet-point lists for both are briefly displayed on screen; Islam in green and Hinduism in red.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: The most prominent political powers are the Fire Nation (associated with red and black) and the Earth Kingdom (associated with green and gold). The Earth Kingdom was the most difficult nation for the Fire Nation to conquer, requiring Azula to infiltrate and topple it rather instead of relying on simple brute force.
• Carmen Sandiego: Red is used to represent Carmen and her allies, while green is used to represent V.I.L.E. This even extends to how certain scenes are tinted; scenes where V.I.L.E. has the upper hand or when things are just generally going badly for Carmen are tinted green, while scenes where Carmen has the upper hand or is just doing well in general are tinted red. In fact, this also serves as subtle foreshadowing towards the big twist at the end of season 1: rewatching the episodes with the color symbolism in mind means you'll pay more attention to the fact that several of Shadow-San's scenes are tinted red.
• Danny Phantom: Danny has glowing green eyes in ghost form. His Arch-Enemy Vlad Plasmius has red eyes in ghost form.
• The Fairly OddParents!: A variation with pink in lieu of red.
  • Cosmo is an idiot prone to granting destructive wishes and has green hair, and Wanda is his smarter yet temperamental wife and has pink hair.
  • 10 year old protagonist Timmy wears a pink shirt and cap, while his mean babysitter Vicky is a Fiery Redhead in a green shirt.
• Jeannie plays with this. Jeannie has red hair and is more sensible, whereas Babu has green skin and hasn't quite mastered his genie powers.
• Loonatics Unleashed: Rev Runner and Tech E. Coyote are two geniuses of the group. Tech wears green and is serious and reserved. Rev wears red and is excitable and talkative.
• Miraculous Ladybug: Ladybug and Cat Noir are partnered heroes that share this color scheme. Ladybug's outfit is predominantly red, tempered with black spots. In contrast, Cat Noir's design is predominantly black, tempered with various green accents (mainly his green eyes and the paw-print symbol on his ring when active).
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • When it comes to making gadgets and building larger-than-life buildings, there's the redhead Phineas, who is the initiator of ideas, and his green-haired stepbrother Ferb, who is an an action-speaks-louder-than-words kind of guy, who are gonna do it all.
  • In an Opposites Attract case, there's the determinant Candace who has a red hair and wears a red shirt and the down-to-earth Jeremy who wears an olive green overshirt.
• The Celebrity Toon Siegfried and Roy: Masters of the Impossible has the titular magician duo Siegfried and Roy wear different colored cloaks: Siegfried a green cloak, and Roy a red cloak.
• In Spongebob Square Pants: Mr Krabs is a money-loving, penny-pinching red crab who owns the Krusty Krab, while his rival and antagonist of the show Plankton, owner of the Chum Bucket, is green.
• Total Drama: Several seasons feature contrasting red and green team logos.
  • Total Drama Island: Killer Bass (red) vs. Screaming Gophers (green)
  • Total Drama Action: Killer Grips (red) vs. Screaming Gaffers (green)
  • Total Drama Revenge of the Island: Mutant Maggots (red) vs. Toxic Rats (green)
  • Total Drama: Pahkitew Island: Wâneyihtam Maskwak (red) vs. Pimâpotew Kinosewak (green)
• VeggieTales: Bob and Larry. Bob the Tomato (red) is the more rational one and serves as the Straight Man to Larry the Cucumber (green), a goofy, fun-loving cloudcuckoolander.
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: Xavier (excitable, adventurous) has a red hoodie, which contrasts with Brad's (sensible, nervous) green jacket.
• Young Justice:
  • Artemis and Robin, the only two members of the season one team with no super powers wear green and red respectively. In an inversion of this trope, Robin is the more tactical of the group while Artemis is impulsive.
  • Cheshire and Red Arrow. Cheshire wears a green kimono and is an aloof, sarcastic assassin while Red Arrow wears a red outfit and is a Fiery Redhead who is rarely seen smiling (at least until season 3).

Real Life

• Traffic lights work on this principle — the red light for the "negative" signal indicating that a driver or pedestrian is required to stop, and the green light for the "positive" signal indicating that the way is clear.
• Red and green is a very popular Christmas color scheme as the warmth of the red and the life of the evergreen pines provide a sense of joy in the cold winter.
• Many infographic on the war between Meat Versus Veggies depict Team Meat in red and Team Veggies in green.
• (Sometimes dark) green and red have invariably been the two most common colors on Russian infantry uniforms since Peter the Great's reforms in the early 18th century.◊ Although it is unclear whether this was done intentionally as an early form of camouflage, the colors can be easily interpreted to symbolize vegetation (i.e. land forces) and blood/valor. Other militaries which have been influenced by the Soviet or Russian military doctrine also tend to use green and red extensively, such as China (especially older dress uniforms,◊ Vietnam,◊ or North Korea.
• This Very Wiki uses red and green in the TLP— green for hats (a new trope draft is ready to release) and red for bombs (it's not ready).

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