Meaning and importance of colors in Trollhunters
Hey! There’s been a lot of guessing lately about what exactly will happen in Wizards and how the three parts of Tales of Arcadia are all connected. We’ve had some screenshots of banners to look at, some people making unusual appearances and the like, and it’s time we really figure out what’s going on.
I thought I’d start by analyzing the colors that are being used in ToA, specifically in Trollhunters but maybe also in 3Below, I don’t know yet. If feels like there is so much material that the expansion on more than one of the shows could make this too extended. There is so much symbolism in all of what’s happening!
- First things first: What colors have we got?
Dark blue/Light blue. Red. Green. Yellow/Gold. Purple. White. Some pinks and blacks thrown in there too. Trollhunters is excessively vibrant and colorful! Now, according to my observations, almost every color is associated with a specific person/group of people and therefore carries some important meaning. Let’s see first what the meanings are, then look into what happens when a color changes.
- What do the colors represent?
Dark Blue - Trust/Innocence. Dark blue can be found on Jim Lake Jr’s original outfit, on the single streak of Claire’s hair, and on most Akiridion outfits. Dark Blue is a positive color in Trollhunters. It’s about being who you are, doing what you love and being comfortable in your shoes. It’s Jim’s and Claire’s default color, the one they wore before anything got in the way of their happy, care-free life. It also subtly indicates that Claire’s heart is connected to Jim. However, it is also connected to Douxie, who features a second dark blue hair streak.
Light Blue - Goodness/Day. Light Blue is first introduced to us as Jim Lake Jr’s eyes and then soon after that, the amulet made of sunlight as well as the epic knight-like Trollhunter armor that comes with it. Light blue is a pure positive force in Trollhunters: It challenges Jim to grow, believes in him when he doesn’t, protects him, defends him, inspires him and always stays by his side. Here you can find my analysis on Jim’s destiny, if you wanna find out more about the depth of the blue. Anyway - pretty much everything in Jim’s life is blue. Blinky, his counselor, is blue, the Daylight armor is blue, Draal stays blue even during his possessed state so we’re reminded he didn’t want any of this, and Barbara’s outfit is at least turquoise. The whole Council of previous Trollhunters including Kanjigar is colored blue, indicating to me that whatever Merlin sabotaged them into in “Unbecoming”, they were innocent. After all in 3Below, the blue Kanjigar proves himself to be a trustworthy guardian of the blue Gaylen’s core on behalf of blue, well-meaning Akiridions. Interestingly, Strickler’s outfit features some blue elements too. So do Merlin’s eyes. It’s one reason why I believe he will turn out to be a good guy in the end, or at least used to be a good person who still has good in him although he chose to life his life differently. We’ll see more about that later.
Let’s get to Red - Anger/Night. Red is first and foremost representative of Jim’s Eclipse armor, but also gets reflected in a troll’s or changeling’s anger. Notice how Nomura’s blades light up red once she’s battle-ready, while otherwise they remain of a cool blue tone (skip down to “pink” to see). Everyone’s eyes turn red once they get high on Grave Sand which is felt by Jim to turn him “angrier”. There are more examples, but an important one could be the scene where Jim fights a darker version of himself in the Deep. Red means you’re still you, but the raging, merciless, fear-inciting counterpart of your good intentions. Red means revenge, killing, in short: Facing unexpected hurt or loss or a sadistic notion in life and in turn, making decisions you can’t go back from. For more, remember Morando and Seklos’ core.
Green - Mystery/Change. The most intense green we’ve seen in all of Trollhunters can easily be attributed to the staff of Avalon, meaning: Merlin. Clearly it represents a powerful kind of magic that Merlin made use of, but whether it’s actually harmful or not hasn’t been unveiled yet. There’s obviously something poisonous about the potion Merlin made for Jim to turn him into a half-troll, but then again Jim used that voluntarily…not gonna argue about it now. Fact is, some of the shady changelings like Strickler and Notenrique have green skin color. Same as Aaarrrgghh who was experimented on as a youngling and joined the Gumm-Gumms, only to switch sides later on. Morgana comes with green eyes, a green cape and a green left hand prosthetic, and all of the Darklands characters including Gunmar are dipped in this blueish-green glow as well. Remember how Merlin has blue eyes yet green armor? There’s definitely something fishy going on whenever those two colors meet. It’s like something started out as good (blue), then got corrupted by the green magic. It’s also gives off a very stern vibe like Merlin. Not exactly deadly, but with serious, life-impacting consequences.
Yellow/Gold - Energy/Curse. Yeah I don’t really know how to describe this. Yellow, when do we encounter yellow? It’s a mighty force both positive and negative, sort of like the sun. An amount sized like “kick-ass Tobias Domzalski” is fine, healthy, and funny. He’s wearing a yellow shirt, a golden armor and strongly wields a flaming war hammer. However, the war hammer is the end product of a curse turned to good use. Its original intent was absolutely harmful. So let’s compare the real golden Lady, who is Morgana, to the sun as well. She’s like a glowing positive energy, yet she’s inflicting harm on everyone like a sunburn. While she craves chaos, however, the Heartstone of Trollmarket in which she was imprisoned for hundreds of years is also yellow but serves life-giving purposes - freely lending its energy to everyone. There’s really a lot of confusion here, same as with the green, and no indication as to whether this kind of magic is good or bad. I suppose it can be used for both, just as the sun itself is vitally important, but too much of it destructs what it gave life to. Notable is that it carries the implication of being in a different state of mind than usual - compare it to Claire’s possession and Aja + Krel traveling through memories.
Purple - Dark Magic/Danger. Stay the heck away from purple! Purple in Trollhunters serves the Shadow Staff, Goth and Shakespeare/tragic death themes. The Shadow Staff is clearly a cool, but evil item which demands a high cost in exchange for its use! It causes corruption of the soul into something negative and trapped Claire in the shadow realm too. It’s a bad force. Very bad. And Claire’s outfit is a warning sign all over! There’s literally a skull on her shirt! This is where I get my theory from, that although Claire is positively associated with Jim via her dark blue hair streak, she will eventually turn on him. Douxie, who wears all black but shares the skulls as well as the blue hair streak with Claire, also has a connection with her, and I think he should either stay away from her or be the one to help her get out. Side Note: Grave Sand is purple too.
Pink - Music Taste/Feminine extravagance. In my opinion, the color pink doesn’t express much of a special, hidden meaning. It’s the Punk girl’s hair in Douxie’s music shop, it’s also Nomura’s body color as well as Darcy’s mole mascot costume. Nomura likes Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg, and Darcy danced to the music at the highschool ball. For Claire, wearing pink is a Papa Skull reference, and we know of Nomura that she used to date Draal. So it makes these women fancy, beautiful feminine music-loving queens and is a classic love motive. To my pleasure, the color is not being over-used though! Ta-daa!
White - Losing your Soul. White is brought to our attention on two important occasions. First, when Angor Rot loses a split part of his soul, his eyes turn brighter and colder and he becomes desperate. Second, when Claire saves the trolls from Gunmar by creating a giant portal with her Shadow Staff, her formerly blue hair streak turns white as well. Ever since, she has been showing signs of unwillingly serving Morgana. She’s lost control of herself. This is interesting when analyzing the banner from the Arcadia Oaks museum showing a lady in white clothing. There is nothing else that points to a different possible meaning of the color white. The lady is most likely Morgana who is known to take souls.
Black - Death/Uncertainty. Black has a lot to do with stuff that we don’t know, like backstories that never got properly explained or future events that haven’t taken place yet. For instance, Jim inherited his father’s black hair, yet that dude never made it onto the screen. Gunmar the Black was birthed from a corrupted, dying Heartstone, which we also never saw happening on screen. When Jim immersed himself in Merlin’s potion, everything turned black and there was no possible way anyone could know what it would do to him. And his old self died in the process. Now, as the story moves on, we’re getting a Douxie character clothed in black whom we know nothing about either, who wears little metal skulls on his belt. And last but not least, there’s Archie, a black cat who is as ominous as the rest of them, and who has now prepared us for Wizards. Which hasn’t aired yet. Of course that’s a mere temporary convenience to mention for me, but still. They’re keeping the best stuff from us until the end on purpose.
- Are there exceptions?
First of all, I’m sorry I haven’t even been able to collect and explain all the references - there are just too many to go into detail on them all! The options where a comparison between colors and plot would work seem infinite.
Goooood job, creators.
Second, of course there are exceptions. Morando is dark blue although I attributed dark blue to something good. Toby wears red although the’s like the most chill dude in the show instead of an angry bull. But generally speaking, I think things make sense.
- What could the colors possibly reveal about ToA we don’t know yet?
Actually, I think the colors mostly serve to confirm some theories about Wizards we as a fandom have had before. They only reveal few new details. But they will be super interesting and important if I dig deeper and take a look at the wall banners we get glimpses at in Trollhunters, which I’m totally planning to do! This has been the groundwork for the banners, but if you liked it so far, why don’t you read the detailed finish of my analysis underneath the line! You’re welcome!
