There are ways and ways of making a sword interesting, and adapt it to the user's personality. You can make it large to emphasize strength, you can make it Japanese to imply mastery and mystery, make it curved to point out that the character is evil, and so on.
If you're not satisfied yet and want to further underline your choice, you can always give the blade a weird color.
In Real Life steel tends to be, well, steel-colored. However in fiction there's nothing that stops you from showing colored swords or similar things. Usually, A Wizard Did It, or else they may be made out of oddly-colored Fantasy Metals. Villains tend to have black or red colored weapons, while the good guys opt for white and other good colors as seen in Good Colors, Evil Colors. A golden weapon that actually works as a steel weapon may count, as in real life gold isn't suited for making weapon blades and such.
If the weapon has elemental powers, then the blade will have the color usually associated with said element. For example a sword with fire powers will be red or orange, while one with ice powers will be blue or white. Poisoned Weapons tend to be green or purple, depending on the setting.
Note: This trope is only for metallic blades, as Energy Weapons are naturally justified for having bright colors. Black weapons are already covered by Black Swords Are Better, so please do not add examples of black blades here.
See also Color-Coded for Your Convenience.
Not to be confused with Tekkaman Blade.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Bleach: Rukia's sword is a completely white katana with ice powers. Also Hollow Ichigo's Bankai is completely white, as opposed to Ichigo's black sword. Both are unusual as they're not the kind of white you'd expect from metal.
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Nichirin blades are one of the only weaknesses of demons. The steel changes color depending on the user.
- Duskmon from Digimon Frontier has a pair of red swords, which he uses when utilizing his Lunar Plasma attack.
- Fairy Tail: Erza wields a crimson colored sword while using the Entei Armor, and a green one when the Sea King Armor is worn.
- Inuyasha: The barrier-breaking Tessaiga is red colored, and the true Dakki sword is green with a light grey edge.
- Magi: Labyrinth of Magic: The three Mist Swords used by the Fog Troupe's elites are explicitly magical in nature, and brightly colored. We have Sekigen Muto (Red Illusion Mist Sword), Osho Muto (Yellow Liquefying Mist Sword) and Kokubaku Muto (Black Binding Mist Sword).
- Rave Master has the aptly named Blue Crimson swords. Other examples include Explosion (orange with red engraving), Silfarion (light blue/teal tint) and Million Suns (bright yellow). Melforce and Sacrifar, meanwhile, are both mostly black.
- Sword Art Online: Kirito's Dark Repulsor, which is a pale aqua by virtue of the refined metal ore it's forged from.
Comic Books
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (comics, game, and movie): The Power of Love is pink, and the Power of Understanding/Self-Respect is blue.
- Warriors Of The Storm: There's a red sword.
- Wolverine: The two Muramasa swords are black and red.
Fan Works
- Invader Zim: A Very Tall Problem:
- Red's knives are made from a red metal while Purple's bident has pale purple blades.
- Released concept art of Tallest Medea's polearm
shows that it has bright yellow blades.
- Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger: Adam's katana has a red blade.
- No stars in sight:
- Galbatorix is shown dual-wielding a pair of Rider swords (one with a blue blade and one with a red blade) in the memory of the past that Ikharos views through Deepsight in Chapter 10.
- Glaerun's Rider sword was a rapier that had its blade colored stone-grey like the scales of his dragon.
- Stargazer (Keltoi):
- Formora uses a sabre with a blade colored oak-brown, giving it the appearance of being made of wood.
- Formora's twin brother Kialandí wielded a longsword with a purple blade, the same color as his dragon's scales.
Films — Live-Action
- Hook: The sword belonging to Peter Pan (although used through most of the film by Rufio) appears to be made of brass.
Gamebooks
- Lone Wolf: The Sommerswerd, or Sword of the Sun, is explicitly described as a "golden" blade. Whatever metal it is made of, of course, is not pure gold because it's unequivocally Made of Indestructium.
Literature
- Inheritance Cycle: Dragon Riders have magical elvish swords with colored blades, usually of the same color as their Dragon. To be specific:
- Morzan's sword Zar'roc is red.
- Oromis' blade is golden.
- Eragon's new sword Brisingr is blue.
- In the last book, Galbatorix is revealed to wield a white sword.
- Additionally, in the third book, a large claymore with a green blade makes a brief appearance and becomes Arya's sword later, while the dragon-killing spear from the last book is greenish in color.
- The Matter Of France: Charlemagne's blade Joyeuse was described as having "its color changed thirty times a day".
- Forgotten Realms: Artemis Entreri's sword Charon's Claw has a red blade.
- Gideon the Ninth: Some of the cavaliers have rapier blades that match the colors associated with their House, but this is entirely an aesthetic sensibility.
- Karl Sabers Space Knight: The glass weapons are equipped with charge cutters they change their color when activated.
- Loyal Enemies: Darkans glow green when their inbuilt Detect Evil ability is activated, which is every time a darkling is nearby. This actually proves more annoying than useful, as the darkan used in the story is wielded by werewolf Shelena. Try to sneak up on somebody with your sword shining like a glowstick.
- The Realms Trilogy from Angus Wells: The Big Bad and God of Evil Ashar whips out a giant sword with a red blade in the last book
- The Riftwar Cycle: The Valheru each had a sword and a suit of armor in their own personal colors. Ashen-Shugar's, wielded by Tomas, are gold and white, while those of his nemesis, Draken-Korin, were orange and black striped.
- Runestaff, by Michael Moorcock: The Sword of the Dawn is introduced, which has a lustrous rose-pink glow to it and which is used to summon and lead the Legion of the Dawn.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: There are a few of these. Most are regularly colored steel, although a few are unique. The swords that Lord Tywin has made for Jaime and Joffrey in the third book, reforged from the Valyrian steel of Ned Stark's greatsword, are a deep red rippled with black, rather than the bright Lannister crimson the smith was trying for — almost as if the steel is rejecting its new owners. Also of note are Lightbringer, which glows in a myriad of beautiful colors, and Dawn, a Thunderbolt Iron greatsword which is described as "pale as milkglass".
- The Stormlight Archive: Living Shards glow with the color of their bonded Radiant: blue for Windrunners, red for Lightweavers, etc.
- The Three Robbers, by Tomi Ungerer: One of the three highwaymen wield a double sided axe, the metal parts of which are colored red.
- Wizard Bait: As a reward for his services, Thusalah gives Ernie a blood-red sword that screams every time it's swung.
Tabletop Games
- Magic: The Gathering has several examples, like the Swords cycle from the Mirrodin blocks: Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Light and Shadow, Sword of Body and Mind, Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of War and Peace.
- Planescape has a number of different exotic metals found throughout the planes that give items crafted with them various colors. Ba'atorian green steel and Abyssal red steel are two well-known examples.
Video Games
- Angelic Waifus: The Aspect of Iris forms a rainbow blade from her chalice.
- ANNO: Mutationem: Each of Ann's standard swords, including BFS and dual blades are all colored blue. Other bonus weapons she obtains through DLC; Harden, Rock, Flash, and Old Era, are colored purple, orange, green, and white respectively.
- Arons Adventure: Crawin's personal guard is a dwarf of a man, and a dangerous fighter Dual Wielding two red-bladed swords with incredible speed and accuracy, putting up a serious fight against Aron at the end of one stage.
- Blacklight Retribution: The Combat Knife Mk.II, Throwing Knives Mk.1, Exploding Tomahawk and the KTN8 Katana all have neon outlines implying a high tech nature, explaining their presence amidst the futuristic fighting of the game.
- Castle Crashers: The Wizard's Dragon Sword has weird colors.
- Chrono Trigger: Each of the Infinity Minus One Swords are golden. Crono's Rainbow is forged from the Rainbow Shell.
- City of Heroes eventually added customization to weapon-based power sets, so you could indeed have a red-and-gold broadsword, or a green-and-blue katana, or one yellow-red khopesh and one pink-turquoise dagger, which also applied for pretty much all the different weapon types. Also of course were the prerequisite Energy Weapon and Improvised Weapon varieties (like a crowbar for a mace, or a shovel for an axe), though some needed to be unlocked per-character by completing specific missions.
- Core Keeper: Any weapon after iron is as colorful as the exotic metals used to make it.
- Devil May Cry 4: Although the previous games also made certain weapons glow depending on their element, the Lighter and Softer color palette of DMC4 means that vibrantly-colored blades are more prevalent. Red Queen can glow orange or red to emphasize that it's a Hot Blade, and there's the Devil Sword Sparda which glows crimson/dark red. However, the most obvious example is the Yamato which almost always glows bright purple whenever it's used in cutscenes or in gameplay, but glows red when it's used to open the real Hell Gate.
- Diluvian Ultra: Atilla's trusty blood-sword, when collected for the first time, is merely a hilt. Once Atilla activates it, a glowing red blade pops out.
- Dragon Age: Origins: Sten has a sword you can give him from the Feastday Pranks DLC that flickers in different colors and has butterflies following it around. He is... less than appreciative.
- Dragon Quest VIII: The Dream Sword is greenish, the Zombie Killer and Zombie Buster are blueish-golden, the powered up dragon slayer is red and the Miracle Sword is greenish-gold in color.
- Drakensang: All the Infinity Plus One Swords in the first game are golden colored.
- Dungeons of Dredmor has several oddly-colored weapons, such as the Golden Axe.
- Dynasty Warriors: many of the upgraded weapons also get unusual coloring. For example in the seventh game, Cao Cao's iconic weapon is a straight sword with a comically broad yellow blade (the color of Heaven, an element associated with him). Also, ça va sans dire, Guan Yu's iconic weapon (the Green/Blue Dragon Crescent Blade) has a pale green blade.
- The Elder Scrolls:
- Among the series standard weapons: Dwemer (Dwarven) weapons are bronze/gold, Ebony are a dark purplish/gray, Glass are bright iridescent green, and Daedric are black and red. These examples, save possibly Daedric, are justified by nature of their materials.
- Goldbrand, a Legendary Weapon from Morrowind and Oblivion, is (as one would expect) gold.
- Dawnfang/Duskfang from Oblivion's Shivering Isles expansion changes from gold to blue depending on whether it's day or night.
- Chillrend from Oblivion and Skyrim is a frost-enchanted glass sword that's blue instead of glass weapons' usual green.
- Fable I The Solus Greatsword has a red/gold blade. The Cutlass Bluetane, for some reason, has a green one.
- Golden Sun has a few examples. The Storm Brand is blue, the Sword of Dusk and Gaia Blade are both brown, the Assassin Blade is violet, the Vulcan Axe is red and orange, the Sol Blade and Phaeton's Blade is yellow. And there's more.
- Elsword: Many blades, especially the rarer ones, come in various colors and patterns.
- Final Fantasy has many, many examples:
- The Ultima Weapon is typically a bright blue blade.
- Final Fantasy I: There are the Fire Sword (red), Ice Brand (azure), Toxic Blade (green) and Light Axe (blue).
- Final Fantasy II: There are lots of colored weapons, including Red (Blood Sword, Fire Sword, Fire Lance, Fire Bow, Ogre Killer, Orichal Dagger), Azure (Ice Sword, Ice Bow, Ice Lance), Yellow (Runic Axe, Thunder Spear, Terra Sword) and Green (Venom Axe).
- Final Fantasy VIII: Squall's gunblades vary between this and normal; two of them have bright red blades, while his ultimate weapon, the Lion Heart, has a white-blue gradient blade.
- Final Fantasy X: Tidus starts with a red-edged longsword, but eventually takes up a crystalline blue blade called Brotherhood. His Celestial Weapon is the above-mentioned Ultima Weapon in the Japanese version; in English it was called the Caladbolg.
- Final Fantasy XII largely settles for metallic hues, though it has a small number of red blades. The most notable example of this trope is actually a gun, the Ras Algethi, which is designed as a nod to the Lion Heart.
- Final Fantasy XIII has Lightning's gunblades with largely metallic hues, but there are some blue blades, one green, and several with gold
- Final Fantasy XIII-2: Noel Kreiss wields a double-bladed sword with a flaming design, which also contains a sheath for his gold short sword. Some of Serah's bowswords also have exotic colors, though hers have the excuse of being the transformed form of Mog.
- Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII: The most notable examples are Lightning's starting sword type, the Crimson Blitz.
- Final Fantasy XIV features many swords of different colors and hues. The player also has the option to dye the blades of them to add to their own personal touch. Double points for when the blade produces a heat-like glow which can also be edited.
- Final Fantasy XV returns to metallic hues, instead having unusual designs, but some blades have this trope, most notably the Ragnarok, with glowing magenta edges.
- Fire Emblem: Ike's Ragnell in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn has a gold blade. You can also choose the color of any weapon you get forged, including bladed ones.
- Genshin Impact: Certain weapons have colored blades, such as Skyward Blade and ascended Aquila Favonia (cyan), Blackcliff Longsword (crimson), The Alley Flash (dark blue), Prototype Rancour (golden), etc.
- The Hobbit (2003): Sting and Lianna's sword are blue, while Glamdring has a light-purple hue.
- Kabuki Z: The Undead Warrior wields a sword that glows red, while Ashura wields four blades in his four arms, two which are red and two yellow. On occasion your blade can glow red as well, especially when you suffer too much health damage.
- Kirby: Meta Knight's sword Galaxia is entirely gold in color.
- The Legend of Dragoon: One of Doel's swords is of a weird, pale green color.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Master Sword is bluish colored. The degree depends on the visual style of the particular game.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: Link's Great Fairy Sword, featured in Soul Calibur II, is a pink sword with a green core. Also from Majora's Mask is the Gilded Sword, featuring a gold and black checkerboard pattern. Fierce Deity Link's sword in the same game is a double-helix of blue and green.
- The Master Sword also gets upgraded, first with a red blade and then with a golden one in both A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds.
- The series also features a myriad of white-coloured blades, from the more generic White Swords (sometimes also called Noble Sword in English) to the Picori Blade in The Minish Cap and the Goddess White Sword in Skyward Sword.
- Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: The Solution Blade used in the Mystery Labyrinth is purple.
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Samuel Rodrigues wields a 16th-century katana that has a red blade as a result of being converted into a high-frequency blade.
- Mohrta: The Order of Hayward Knights - including your character - all wields claymores with red blades.
- Onimusha relies on Elemental Weapons with distinct colors, including Buraitou and Raizan (purple-bluish), Chigo (red) and Shippu (green). In Dawn of Dreams, Soki's main weapons are a blue colored sword and a red colored one.
- Pokémon: Aegislash is a golden BFS with silver edges. It's known as the Royal Sword Pokémon, and is said to have served kings. Its shiny form is an example of Black Swords Are Better.
- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within: The Prince's main and secondary Infinity +1 Sword weapons, both secret, have unusually-colored blades: the former is the Water Sword, whose blade under the exquisite golden ornaments is light blue, the other is the Light Sword, a scimitar with a glowing green blade.
- Samurai Warriors often has weapon blades with unusual colors for the protagonists, more often than not as a rare fourth/fifth weapon. Examples include Yukimura (golden or red lance), Sakon Shima (black then red sword), Nene (blue, black or golden blades), Nobuyuki (red-bladed sword), Keiji Maeda (golden or dark brown pike) and probably more.
- Sengoku Basara: This is common. For examples, many of Keiji's high-level BFSs include a blue sword, a purple sword and a red and golden sword.
- Skies of Arcadia: All weapons are forged from moonstones and change color accordingly. This applies to Dyne's & Gilder's gun barrels, too.
- Swords of Destiny: The Blue Dragon sword is blue-colored.
- Terraria: Many swords are this, most notably the True Night's Edge. Meowmere is mainly pink, but the relative monochromaticity of the blade is more than made up for by its rainbow effects (it essentially shoots Nyan Cats).
- Tower of Fantasy: Blade-type weapons come in different shades of colors from pink to whatever element the blades are.
Webcomics
- Conjuring Cutlasses: Virtually every Conjurer’s blade. Even the more metallic-looking ones like Ren’s have distinct glowing hues.
- Swords: Being a webcomic about, well, swords, naturally there are a few that fall in this trope. Notable ones include:
- The Birthday Blade, which is gold and green with a red bow and pink icing on the tip
- All the Demon Swords, which can range from yellow to blue to purple to black.
- The Longsword of Time, which is bluish white.
- The Smartsword, also white, and pretty much what would happen if Apple made swords.
Web Videos
- Checkmate, Lincolnites!: The Sword of Baron Samedi is a Suave Sabre which has a blade that glows a bright, undeathly purple.
- Man at Arms has shown the color of steel blades can be affected by the temperatures they're tempered at, producing blue and gold hues on the finished steel.
Western Animation
- Dofus: The Ninetails Sword forged by the Ecaflip God himself from his own tails is pink in color. Then again, it is seemingly made of fur, rather than metal. The above mentioned red Shushu blade makes a cameo in one episode.
- Ninjago: The elemental golden weapons are... well, golden.
- Steven Universe: Rose's sword has a rose-pink blade. Same for the Connie's sword.
- Wakfu: While normally gray, Sadlygrove's Shushu-possessed Sword can turn into either a brown, stone-like blade with red markings or into an elaborated greenish and white sword. In the second season we see another Shushu-possessed sword which is reddish in color.
Real Life
- Many sport fencing equipment companies offer colored blades for all three weapons, in colors like gold, blue, and even rainbow!
- The Blue Knight from Fable Blades.
- There are knives that can be many colors, looking sort of like a rainbow. These are some good examples.◊ Specimens in single vivid colors like blue, green, red and gold are also common, but most colored knives and swords are inexpensive and of dubious quality, better used as display pieces than as functional tools and weapons.
