A brief analysis of color symbology in the important characters of Code Geass
Next, I'll discuss the symbology behind the color palettes of six major Code Geass characters. The purpose of this post will be to show how colors describe character traits. I clarify that I am not an illustrator or an animator. I'm just a quasi graduate who loves Code Geass and symbols and I want to use my knowledge to combine two things I like. And that I want you to take into account four points about the symbols and, therefore, the colors:
The first is that they are polysemic. I'm going to adjust to the context of the series and the nature and role of the characters. Well, to give an example, violet is the color of sexuality and lust and I don't think that was what the animators had in mind when they established violet for Lelouch.
The second is that they are ambivalent. They have two sides. One positive and one negative.
The third is that the meanings of the colors vary depending on the cultures (and the times). I've tried to stick to universal meanings.
And the fourth is that the symbols aren't isolated signs, they establish relationships between them and reinforce or annul meanings. Don't forget that there are colors that are born from the combination of two; so those resulting colors inherit certain meanings from their "parents", so to speak. Hence some of the connotations are repeated.
Having said all that I had to say, let's start with Lelouch.
Black is Lelouch's signature color. He always plays chess with black, his casual clothes are black, his army is the Black Knights, his Knightmares are black, the two great rebellions he has led have been dubbed the Black Rebellion, one of his nicknames is the Black Prince, his hair is black!
So what does black symbolize? Well, black is precisely the color of rebellion and protests. It symbolizes how illegal and forbidden are many of the acts that Lelouch carries out. It's also a symbol of elegance and youth. This is because most of the youngsters claim that black is his favorite color and don't be surprised by this, but Lelouch is a youngster.
Black is the color of dirt and evil. How many times has Lelouch dirty his hands with shit for carrying out his goals? Infinite times! "The world does not change with beautiful words", it changes with actions and many are dirty. How much evil did Lelouch do for the greater good? Phew! We could spend hours talking about it!
Black is the color of brutality, violence and hate. Three meanings that it has in common with red and these two colors make up a standard combination (it's no coincidence that one of the people closest to Lelouch and with whom he forms a powerful team has red as his distinctive color). Lelouch harbors hatred towards his father, his family and the empire that disowned him. Hence why he is so ruthless against Britannia. Unlike Suzaku, he believes that violence is the answer.
Black is the color of death, destruction and mourning. Lelouch brings death and destruction wherever he goes (to give a couple of examples, just think of the Battle of Narita and the Japan Administrative Zone massacre). In the same way, he always has mourning in his heart. He is reluctant to let go of loved ones who die (since the death of his mother).
Black usually has a negative connotation and whenever he is next to bright colors he will subvert the positive values of it. In association with yellow (which is a color present in Lelouch, albeit to a lesser extent), it connotes selfishness, guilt, and melancholy. Lelouch started his rebellion for selfish reasons and ended up consumed with guilt as he watched his revenge spiral dragging innocents and loved ones into harm. He is a character with a melancholic-choleric temperament.
[Black symbolizes bad luck and Lelouch never overthrew Britannia while he was wearing black, is that why he was always so close to landslide victory? :v]
Soon I will return to black to point out two specific aspects, now let's talk about Lelouch's second distinctive color: violet.
The combination of black and violet is one of the least negative and symbolizes magic and the dark forces of nature and magic. The Geass was a supernatural gift that Lelouch possesses.
Violet is the color of vanity and extravagance. Zero was a striking character, partly because of his manner, partly because of his aura of mystery, and partly because of his looks (Lelouch is arrogant and proud, but there is a shade of difference between pride and vanity).
Violet is the color of power. This is because extracting the violet pigment was difficult and therefore very expensive; so only the nobility and members of royalty could afford to buy clothes of this color. The fact that Lelouch has chosen purple as the color of his Zero costume seems funny to me because it means that he hasn't renounced his princely roots (the series itself wanted us to be clear about it and, for that reason, gave us the dialogue from the snow in episode 10 of the first season). He is and will remain a prince (in fact, his arrogance and negative outlook on vulnerability are a product of his upbringing in Britannia). Yellow reinforces this meaning.
It is the color of penance, martyrdom and mourning. Lelouch bears the weight of his sins and suffers as a result. Lelouch never quite gets past the dueling stage.
Violet is a singular color because it derives from the mixture of red and blue and these two colors represent opposite values. In violet these values are in communion. Hence, violet is considered an ambiguous color. In terms of morality, Violet is in the middle of good and evil, just like Lelouch, who is capable of doing good for the worst reasons and evil for the best reasons. This tells us about the amorality of the character. Violet combines the values of blue and red.
Blue is the color of coldness and intellectual qualities. Lelouch stands out for his intelligence, although the haters deny it.
Red is the color of passions and Lelouch is a character moved by passions. He is very passionate, only he knows how to channel his emotions. Most of the time he is calm and he analyzes coolly, even in pressured situations. Only when his loved ones become involved does he lose control of his emotions and subservient to them.
In its negative aspect, violet symbolizes the abuse of power and who is distinguished by purple, besides Lelouch? His father who is a full-fledged tyrant.
Britannia is distinguished by the color white and white symbolizes the divine. It is the color of the gods and royalty, of absolutist monarchies, to be exact.
White as opposed to black symbolizes what we are all thinking: the eternal fight of good against evil. The angels are always attired in white robes and have white wings while the demons have black wings. Although the interesting thing about Code Geass is that it inverts those values since the Britannia (the whites) are the bad guys and the rebels (the blacks) are the good guys.
White recovers its positive values with Suzaku and Euphemia. Let's go with the second.
White is the color that represents good. I had already said it. And it is, additionally, the color of integrity, honesty, transparency and purity. White shares all these connotations with blue. In fact, white and blue are the colors of spiritual virtues. Blue is the color of trust, friendship and sympathy.
What does this tell us?
That Suzaku is a boy with a noble and pure heart and a good friend.
White is the color of innocence and, curiously, blue is the color of the unreal, that is, of ideas that are far from being realized. It is the color of dreamers and fantasy! Is this a subtle sign that Suzaku is some poor self-deluded idealist? Maybe.
White symbolizes mourning (in oriental countries and don't be surprised by this fact either, but Suzaku is Japanese). Like Lelouch, Suzaku also has a hard time saying goodbye to loved ones who leave this earthly plane.
On the other hand, blue represents the calm, the passive and the introverted. It is the color of longing and peace. Suzaku longs for a world of peace. He tries to leave violence as a last resort, before opting for peaceful ways when dealing with conflicts.
Blue connotes sadness and loneliness. Suzaku is a melancholic and withdrawn type. Note that he doesn't tend to socialize. He is more comfortable closed in on himself, in his comfort zone. I remind you that when he entered Ashford Academy he didn't try to make friends and everyone teased him until he demonstrated his bravery by saving Lelouch from falling. He didn't try to bond with the rest of the Knights of Round either, rather, it seemed that Gino adopted him just like Anya [normally, extroverts adopt introverts]. As he drowns in his problems, he isolates himself more and more from the people who love him and the rest of the world.
Speaking of melancholy, he had mentioned that it symbolized the union of yellow with black. Yellow combined with white connotes weakness and fear. Suzaku's fear of the dark side of him. Deep down, he is just as pragmatic and selfish as Lelouch, but he is terrified to admit it. His weakness to accept his true self and his reality.
By the way, yellow, in its negative aspect, symbolizes lying and both Suzaku and Lelouch are skilled liars. It's a very contradictory and fickle color (it radically changes meaning when paired with another color) and Suzaku and Lelouch are full of contradictions. That is what makes them so human. Likewise, yellow is the color of traitors and Lelouch and Suzaku have betrayed their loyalties for different reasons.
All the positive meanings of white that I highlighted in the previous slide with Suzaku apply to Euphemia, so I'll move on to talking about pink.
Pink is the color of charm, courtesy, sensitivity, delicacy, tenderness. In short, all the qualities considered typically feminine and that Euphemia possesses. I don't think I need to justify myself or provide examples.
Pink is the color of illusions and dreams and, in that sense, it reminds me of blue. Let's not forget that the dream of a peaceful world is inherited by Suzaku from Euphemia (she is an idealist at heart). Although she was aware of the evil that afflicted the Elevens and the grudge that Lelouch harbored in her heart, she was simplistic. We could say that Euphemia had a rosy vision of life (a good and insightful person, but a lousy politician without the necessary cunning and pragmatism). I reiterate that white is the color of innocence and pink is the result of mixing red (which is the color of love and Euphemia has plenty of love) and white.
White is also the color of neutrality and if there is a neutral character in Code Geass is C.C.
Perceive that C.C. is the only member of the Black Knights who wears a white uniform which I had already said is the color of the enemy, which is weird, but makes sense (let's just say she's really only true to herself). She also has a black uniform with the Black Knights symbol on her chest. She adopts black because of her alignment with Lelouch, but it's not like she really takes a stand on the rebellion. She is there for personal reasons that are neglected in the political context.
Green is the other color that predominates in it. Green symbolizes balance and consciousness. Whenever Lelouch is about to collapse, C.C., who is the voice of reason, is there to bring him back to earth she did better in the first season, let's be honest). Green is the color of intermediate and impartiality, par excellence. In itself it is neither good nor bad. As C.C.
Green is the color of youth and immaturity. Due to the Geass, C.C. has earned eternal youth and, at certain moments, she behaves like a carefree teenager who doesn't measure the consequences of her actions (yes, I mean the scenes of her in Ashford and her interactions with the Black Knights ). In contrast, yellow is the color of maturity and C.C.'s eyes are amber. So many years of experience have given him a few kilos of wisdom. For me, C.C. part of the archetype of the mystical Greek goddess Hestia, the one who is young and old at the same time.
Yellow is the color of security, confidence and tranquility. In her role as her confidante, C.C. has known how to bring these sensations to Lelouch.
Green is the color of otherness (the strange). What color do monsters, aliens, witches and demons paint? Green. C.C. is the only Code Geass character with green hair. She manages to stand out in the sea of characters because of her looks (she has to, she's a witch).
Green symbolizes freedom. Because of her immortality, C.C. feels prey to this existential plane. She is wandering aimlessly through the flow of time that seems endless. At the end of her journey, she manages to free herself from those ties and learns to feel good about herself, renewing her will to live. Let's not forget that, although she wanted to die, she needed to live first because she had not really lived her life. Green is also the color of life and bitterness. At first, she was frustrated. She did not fulfill her wish to be loved and was forced to live an immortal life that she did not want.
Like C.C., Kallen takes on black after bonding with Zero; but it is indisputable that Kallen's color is red.
Red is the color of emotions and passions. Good and bad. Our face turns red with shame, anger, shyness, love (in fact, Kallen is the character who has blushed the most in the series for different reasons). It is the color of love and hate. Kallen loves her family, her friends, and Lelouch as much as she hates Britannia. She is the most emotional character in the series. I also think that she is the most impulsive and that's why: she gets carried away by her emotions.
Just as red has a natural alignment with black (Lelouch), she has a natural opposition with the passive soft blue and innocent white (Suzaku). Red symbolizes strength, courage and aggressiveness. Kallen's fighting style is aggressive, both in hand-to-hand combat and in a fight between Knightmares. Unlike Suzaku, she's not going to give you a chance to give up, she's going to kick your ass openly. She goes without saying that her two greatest virtues are her bravery and her strength (and I would add her poise).
Red is the color of fire and Kallen is a burning flame. If you approach sparingly, she keeps you warm. If you approach carelessly, you can get burned. She is warm and, at the same time, hot-tempered.
Red is the color of danger, violence and the forbidden. It is associated with the revolution. This reminds us of the meanings of black that we had reviewed with Lelouch. Kallen follows Lelouch and doesn't question him because they share his methods, his goals, and his beliefs. Do you see why black and red get along so well? Both are rebels by nature.
Red is the color of allure, and Kallen is the most sex-appealing girl at Ashford Academy. I'm not saying it, all the boys who wanted a kiss from her.
Red is the color of war and anger. Paradoxically, it is the color of freedom and justice, which are the two things that Kallen wants and demands for her people. Like white, red is a political color.
Kallen also wears pink (which results from the combination of red and white) and I think it brings out the softer, more youthful and sweet side of her.
To finish, I leave you with this curious fact. Let's see how much of you have noticed…
Throughout the series, Lelouch and Suzaku wear black and white respectively (I'll open a parenthesis for clarification: only Zero's cape is black, but, if you look closely, in R1 his suit is a darker violet than in R2 and I It seems that the modification is in line with his change, since in R1 we have the meanest and most vile Lelouch and in R2 we have the most self-sacrificing and noble Lelouch). By the time the series is winding down, Lelouch and Suzaku are reversed and now Lelouch wears white, posing as the Emperor of Britannia, and Suzaku dresses in black, reaffirming himself as Knight of Zero.
It means that Lelouch and Suzaku have exchanged targets.
Lelouch, who wanted to destroy Britannia, is going to change it from within as the Emperor himself.
Suzaku, who wanted to change Britannia, is going to liberate the world by destroying the tyrant who oppresses him as Zero.
All in favor of the same purpose: to build a friendly world and establish an era of peace.
Everything was thrown in our faces through the symbology of color before the meaning of the Zero Requiem was revealed in the final episode and we didn't realize it.
[In addition, I think it is also a way of externalizing the final transformation that these characters have experienced at the end of their inner journey].
Were the colors chosen randomly without any special motivation? No symbols in Code Geass? Ha ha ha! Look how the cows fly!
This is as far as this analysis ends. They let me know if they knew this information. I hope you liked it a lot. I invite you to tell me in comments what you think and what is your favorite color.
I have two (I can't decide): the black and the pink. [Nobody cares to know, but I'll leave it there].
We will be reading, God willing and if not, too. To hell!
Greetings and thanks for reading.
