COLOR SYMBOLISM IN HELLO CHARLOTTE — AN ANALYSIS
Heya I adapted my twitter thread about this (which i’m still proud of) since I won’t use my account anymore and I don’t wanna lose it.
I will also. fix some english mistakes that I made before bc english is not my first language.
But anyways, let’s begin!
Before anything, I want to bring the quote that makes a huge importance in the game. When Umbrella Man gave Charlotte the ribbon, he says that “We are born colorless and people bring us color” By that, it means that color means connection with other people. Keep it in mind.
Let’s begin with the color that I could analyse really quickly, since it’s only reflected in one character:
Red can be associated with love and passion, but when used excessively it can be linked to danger and violence. And most importantly: Red is associated with blood The only one character that is extremelly associated is red is Scarlett Eyler.
With monochromatic eyes and clothes, her ribbon and hair color emphasizes the color red. And like I said before, when red it’s overused it can be associated with danger and violence.
In true realm, Scarlett Eyler was literally Charles worst nightmare. Threatening him, hurting him and making his life hell multiple times. She was the true definition of violence.
And not just that. Remember when I said that red is related to blood? Well… Scarlett Eyler was Charles unborn sister. She died inside Lilith’s womb. She has no phisical image. So, Scarlett was most associated with blood.
Now, let’s move on to the next color:
Yellow is mostly associated with happiness, optimism and positivity. But, psychologically, yellow too makes people more analytical and think critically about themselves and others.
Mixing yellow, associated with cheerfulness and optimism with white (which means innocence and purity, but I’ll talk about it later), Charlotte brings the energy of a perfect protagonist. With only her shirt and skirt being black, to equilibrate the energy between the colors.
Even if Umbrella Man and Charles are most associated with black, yellow can be predominant to them too. Since both of them are observers in the game. A bright yellow can be associated with “warning”, which explains why every character possessed by them gets a yellow eye color.
Now let’s get into the three most important colors in the games. First of them:
Black can be associated with mystery and the unknown. And negatively, black can symbolize death, and evilness. But, most importantly, black is the color that absorbs light.
Wearing full black clothes with black hair, Charles is one of the characters that are most associated with darkness during the whole game. The contrast between black and white is really emphatized in the game, mainly by The Tale of Ink Princess.
Now I want to jump off topic to talk about the relation between The Tale Of Ink Princess and Charles. It says that the ink princess swamed in the ocean and polluted it, and it kinda resembles Charles’ suicide, when he drowns in the ocean that is coincidentally designed black like ink.
“Every morning she put on a pitch-black ink dress and combed her black hair. […] The Princess swam in the sea, admiring how vast and clear it was, and all the fish died from pollution.“Please leave these lands! Can’t you see everything is dying?” the peasants begged the Princess. ”
Ink, in Hello Charlotte, is associated with corruption and consequentially, death.
Charlotte, due to the Oracle in her head, gets the Ink Cough. It kinda relates a little to assotiation with black. And since black is a color that absorbs all light, the association with ink is direct.
When we talk about mystery and unknown, we come to the most mysterious character in the games: Seth Eyler/Umbrella Man, which color palette matches Charles, but has different meanings.
Umbrella Man can be associated with the interpretation of the color black that, too matches power and evil.
And not only him, actually. His (almost) full black sprite is similar to V19 for a reason. Both of them are powerful characters that carries mystery and malice in their development, that’s why they have almost the same sprites.
Now, I’m going to mention a color that I didn’t analyze back then and I completely regret, since it’s also one of the most important colors in the game:
Grey is a mix between black and white. According to color psychology, grey means “neutrality and balance”. It can be a realiable and stable color, but in negative circumstances, it can mean loss and depression.
In the Grey Ending in Hello Charlotte EP2, shows a Vincent that “became like anyone else” after he lost the Trial. Then, the true face of Vincent is showm before his death.
He became the real Vincent, the imperfect Vincent. The neutral Vincent. And not the pure white Vincent Charles tend to idolize.
Which resembles the Vincent shown in True Realm on Hello Charlotte EP3, which has grey hair and eye-color.
The reason why Etherane changed his true realm version’s hair and eye-color is unknown, (i mean, Vincent’s hair and eye-color also changes in Heaven’s Gate so I can’t say if that was just a design choice if there was something else involved) but since both colors are still considered “gray” in Pantone (changed from something similar to Oyster Gray to Gray Violet), the meaning of the design choice might have not changed.
In the Grey Ending, is shown that Vincent’s soul cube is also Gray, meaning that it can be the color that represents him. Since the other soul cubes might have been probably white (by the description of an unused soul cube item)
So, even if Vincent were constantly associated with pure and perfect white, Charles deep inside knew that the Vincent outside his distorted view is a balanced grey. Human, imperfect, but also reliable, mature and calm. Which reflects his personality based on what we saw about him.
Also, Vincent is the character Charles saw dying multiple times, in True Realm and Fake Realm, which made him relive is trauma about his loss over and over again. Then, Vincent’s melancholy and Charles’ loss can be associated with the color grey.
Now, the best for the last. The color that describes mostly the development of the games.
White is the color that symbolizes cleanliness, purity and innocence, and even perfection. When we talk about the color white, two characters instantly pop up in our minds: C and Q84.
Let’s bring back what Umbrella Man said: “We are born colorless. It’s the people we meet who give us color.”, So, color is associated with connections.
Every Charlotte borns totally white. Like her hair and eyes. Scarlotte was given the Yellow color with the ribbon gifted to her.
However, let’s talk about Q84. She was bullied during her whole life (like every charlotte is designed to be), and the only characters that should’ve bring her joy, constantly tries to kill her. With that, Q84 associated connection with pain. By that color = pain.
It kinda explains the design of the bullies. A colorful mess that resembles visual pollution in a way.
With that, she says that she “won’t become tained with ugly colors” and became obsessed with the color white. So much she spread White Flu to create a cult, based on the white color.
Now that’s going to be pure speculation, but the huge presence of the color white in the games and in some characters could be a manifestation of Charles’ mysophobia, since white can mean cleanliness and purity.
And like that, let’s talk about C.
First of all, I want to point that C’s hair color is brighter in fake realm because of Charles’ perception of him, like I explained when talking about the color grey. Of someone pure and perfect. With white clothes and gloves, the only manifestation of other colors in his design are his yellow eye color (due to Charles possession) and the bruises in his face caused by the bullies. The only two connections he got.
Anyway, despite meaning “perfection” and “purity”, white can also mean “cold” and “distant”. In Charles’ perspective of Vincent, he was perfect, pure, and almost god-like. But, he was still distant from him. The image of C was far away from his reality.
And those meanings can relate to Q84, too. Refusing to connect with people, Q84 is untouchable, too perfect, and distant from others. That’s why she’s the only Charlotte with a full-white color scheme. The exaggeration of the color white could symbolize these negative aspects.
With that, I finish my analysis.
Thanks for reading until the end! I wrote most of these like almost 2 years ago, and since I’m studying Graphic Design and Color Theory I decided to revisit this thread and post it here.
Well, have good day everyone! <3
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