The Dress Code of True Villains.note
Fan: Why do so many of Spidey's villains (Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Mysterio, Electro, Vulture, Sandman, Lizard, etc.) wear green, yellow, or purple? Are these colors symbolic in any way?
Stan Lee: Sure, Brad. They're symbolic of the fact that our high-priced fashion coordinators, after lengthy consultations with their colleagues, Armani and Hilfiger, felt those colors would be the best ensemble to delineate the grotesque gestalt of those particular naughty people. (By the way, I was referring to Melvin Armani and Irving Hilfiger, of course.)
Stan Lee: Sure, Brad. They're symbolic of the fact that our high-priced fashion coordinators, after lengthy consultations with their colleagues, Armani and Hilfiger, felt those colors would be the best ensemble to delineate the grotesque gestalt of those particular naughty people. (By the way, I was referring to Melvin Armani and Irving Hilfiger, of course.)
— Stan's Soapbox, published in Fantastic Four Volume 3, Issue #21, September 1999
Sometimes even the bad guys want to wear bright colors. All those deep blacks and bloody reds can get monotonous after awhile. Unfortunately, the heroes have already monopolized the primary colors so what's our poor villain to do?
Why, crack out the secondary colors, of course.
Green, or green and purple together are especially popular among the Super Villain set. This is likely due to them being bright, eye-catching, and an easy contrast with the reds and blues favoured by so many early superheroes. Green and purple can have negative cultural associations (see Green Is Gross, Sickly Green Glow, and Technicolor Toxin), and in contrast to red or blue they inevitably come across as less desirable.
Orange tends to be used less and is frequently an accent color as it can be a bit harder to distinguish from red or yellow depending on the lighting. However, orange is also strongly associated with Halloween and, by extension, with fear, monsters, cold, darkness and mischief, all things that are not always reassuring. Black can still come into play as an accent, just as white sometimes would for the heroes.
A sub-trope of Good Colors, Evil Colors. See also Red and Black and Evil All Over, Evil Wears Black and Grayscale of Evil.
Compare Purple Is Powerful, Purple Is the New Black, Purple Is Impure and Green and Mean. Contrast its inversion, Primary-Color Champion. Also compare Chromatic Counterpart, which often happens with evil duplicates. Not to be confused with Paranormal Palette, which is about the paranormal and supernatural being associated with secondary colors, although there may be overlap for cases of creepy villains.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Superman vs. Nick O'Teen: Nick O'Teen mostly wears orange and light colors (to mimic the colors of a cigarette), which contrasts Superman as a Primary-Color Champion.
Anime and Manga
- Dragon Ball:
- Yamcha was actually the very first character to employ this, wearing a predominantly green and orange ensemble back when he was an antagonist in the series' beginning, contrasting with Goku's then purely blue outfit. He joined Goku's side shortly after.
- Tenshinhan, who usually wears a green eastern outfit with orange highlights (in his first appearance, he also wore dark purple pants). He eventually became one of the heroes too.
- Piccolo is perhaps one of the most famous examples of this in anime. He is a green-skinned alien with a predominantly purple outfit. He became Goku's ally and one of the good guys (see a pattern yet?).
- No matter what form he takes, Frieza always has purple highlights on his body.
- Cell is mostly green with orange highlights around his face and body in his initial and second forms. Purple is added to the mix in his "Perfect Cell" form, although the orange is gone by then.
- Android No. 16 (from the same arc as Cell) is a subversion. Despite his green and black getup coupled with a dark orange mohawk, he is hardly a villain, being considered an antagonist only by association with Androids No. 17 and No. 18.
- Zamasu has green skin and wears purple clothing under his black coat. His alternate self Goku Black is more subtle, leaning towards Red and Black and Evil All Over, but he wears a green Potara earring and his attacks and ki often have a purple tinge.
- Broly's design in Dragon Ball Super: Broly is dressed in predominantly black, purple, and green, contrasting the red, white, and gold of his Z counterpart. Ironically, this version of Broly is much more sympathetic compared to his Z counterpart.
- Mazinger Z: Dr. Hell wears a light-green, tight outfit and a long violet cloak. His subordinate Baron Ashura wears a violet-and-purple robe.
- My Hero Academia has Overhaul (Kai Chisaki), a yakuza leader who sports a dark green jacket lined with purple fur. He also wears an orange plague doctor mask.
- Naruto: Orochimaru's usual outfit is mostly of tan color, but it also contains a dark green undershirt and collar (although they're sometimes depicted as black) as well as a large purple rope belt tied around his waist.
- Played with in Neon Genesis Evangelion, where the protagonist Shinji wears a blue pilot suit, but the Evangelion Unit-01 he pilots is purple-and-green. This reflects its true nature isn't a conventional mecha, but rather a raging Bioweapon Beast.
- One Piece:
- Sir Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and the Straw Hat Pirates' first major enemy in the Grand Line. His outfit is predominantly orange, with a purple undershirt and a green, furry coat which he wears draped on his shoulders.
- Donquixote Doflamingo, another Warlord of the Sea, wears purple-tinted sunglasses and orange pants. It's all overshadowed by his large pink feather coat though.
- Yet another Warlord of the Sea, Gecko Moria, wears mostly black, but he also wears yellow-orange pants and has purplish hair, lipstick and accessories like a cross necklace. His Doppleman also has purple hues.
- Inverted with the original 3 Admirals of the series, who actually represent red (Akainu, means "red dog"), yellow (Kizaru, means "yellow monkey") and blue (Aokiji, means "blue pheasant") and they all wear appropriate attires. However, when you forget about the Protagonist-Centered Morality of the story and remember that the Marines are supposed to be the "good guys" of the setting, this becomes Fridge Brilliance. Of course the supposed Big Good Admirals would be given primary colors to represent. However, this is played straight in the case of the two new admirals who oppose the Straw Hats after the timeskip, as Fujitora's color is purple while Ryokugyu's color is green (though ironically, Fujitora is a Token Good Teammate).
- Kaido employs all secondary colors known to man, and is built up as one of the biggest threats of the One Piece world.
- Pretty Cure: The heroines are very commonly a pink-blue-yellow trio, representing the primary colours, while the villains are often this or Red and Black and Evil All Over.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: The early villains, such as Goyan, Karehan, and Moerumba, are primarily green, purple, and orange in colour. However, later villains toy with this trope; twins Michiru and Kaoru wear orange school uniforms to match with Saki and Mai and act innocent, and they end up turning to the good side, while villains like Ms. Shitataare and Kintoleski opt for primary colours like blue and yellow.
- HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Namakelder, a Phantom Empire general who represents laziness, is clad in a grene trenchcoat.
- Maho Girls PreCure!: Yamoh, The Dragon to Dokurokushe and leader of the Dark Magician Trio, wears an orange coat.
- KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Big Bad Noir wears black with purple accents, and his wolf demon sidekick is mainly purple.
- HuGtto! Pretty Cure: Ruru Amour, who intrudes in the Nono household to spy on lead Cure Hana, has purple hair and blank purple eyes. Subverted when she later turns to the good side and becomes Cure Amour.
- Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure: Big Bad Darknest is eventually revealed to be a long-since-banished Star Princess in a purple dress.
- Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: Shindoine, a devilish general to King Byogen, has purple hair.
- Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: Numeri and Elda, two minions of the Witch of Delays and regular antagonists to the Cures, have purple and green hair, respectively.
- Soaring Sky! PreCure: Kabaton and Battamonda, two early antagonists who want to seize the baby princess from the Cures, have purple skin (Kabaton) and green hair (Battamonda).
- Rurouni Kenshin:
- Opium dealer Takeda Kanryu wears a green suit with a purple tie.
- The Ten Swords leader, Makoto Shishio, wears a purple kimono like a toga.
- Played with by Enishi Yukishiro, who has an orange-and-blue color scheme, since he thinks of himself as the wronged party in his feud with Kenshin.
Asian Animation
- In the Pleasant Goat Fun Class series, Wolffy's purple shirt and orange beret contrast with Weslie's yellow, red, and blue outfit (Wolffy is a villain in the original Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, but has his villainous qualities heavily downplayed in Pleasant Goat Fun Class; he is still ruder in comparison to the goats, though).
Comic Books
- The Avengers: Kang the Conqueror, intertemporal warlord and longtime enemy of the team, wears a green-and-purple armoured suit that allowed him to fight the original team (composed of the red-and-yellow Iron Man, red-and-blue Giant Man, red-and-blue Thor, and red-white-and-blue Captain America) to a draw. His past self wore a green-and-gold costume while posing as Pharaoh Rama-Tut. His future self, Immortus, also tends to favor green and purple. Scarlet Centurion (yet another of his temporal counterparts) also has purple in his outfit.
- Batman:
- In perhaps the most iconic comic book example, the Joker sports bright green hair and a flashy purple suit, generally with either a green or orange shirt, vest, or tie.
- The Riddler sometimes wears a suit and hat, and sometimes a bodystocking, but it's always green. His outfits also tend to have purple highlights, most often gloves and necktie, and he's often made a redhead, giving him some small amount of orange.
- Poison Ivy combines a green leotard and green-tinted skin with bright orange hair.
- The Mad Hatter wears a green outfit and hat, often with orange highlights.
- Ra's al Ghul's costumes are subject to change, but his green and gold one is his most well-known.
- Catwoman usually wears black today, but early in the comics wore both green and purple.
- Depending on the Artist, the scarred side of Two-Face's visage is either green or purple; one side of his custom-made suit usually reflects this coloration.
- Killer Moth's classic design seems to invoke this trope; green helmet, orange wings, purple shirt, and green and orange tights.
- In his earliest appearances, the Penguin wore purple pants and an orange waistcoat in addition to his black-and-white suit. Even though the outfits have become less colourful throughout the years, purple and orange occasionally pops up in his design.
- The Scarecrow is dressed in orange-brown rags most of the time, and his trademark fear toxin is usually coloured green.
- In his iconic red-white-and-blue costume, Captain America is a magnet for villains like these:
- Nazi mastermind Red Skull was generally depicted as wearing a green jumper in the older comics.
- French mercenary Batroc the Leaper favours purple and orange.
- Both Barons Heinrich and Helmut Zemo have worn purple costumes and masks.
- Viper (who has also gone up against the yellow-and-blue Wolverine) wears a green spandex catsuit, and sometimes dyes her hair green as well.
- Nazi cyborg Arnim Zola utilizes a mechanical purple body that he covers with an orange robe.
- Daredevil introduced Zebadiah Killgrave, alias the mind-controlling Purple Man.
- DD's sometime nemesis Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin often combines his white jacket with purple pants and an orange waistcoat.
- Doctor Strange villains Dormammu (purple and red) and Nightmare (green), among others.
- Fantastic Four:
- The Four's worst enemy, Doctor Doom, wears a long green cloak, hood, and surcoat over his armour, distinguishing him from the Four in their bright blue bodysuits.
- The Skrulls as a species - they have green skin, a distinct predilection for purple, and frequently try to conquer Earth (and other planets).
- Mole Man wears all green. His main monster Giganto is all green.
- Mad Thinker also wears all green.
- Psycho Man wears a green-and-white costume, sometimes with a golden mask.
- The embodiment of the destruction of the Universe called Abraxas looks like a green guy wearing green.
- Namor reappeared in the Silver Age as an antagonist to the Fantastic Four. The only thing he wore were his green swimming trunks.
- The original Frightful Four, a team of villains modeled after the Fantastic Four and designed to oppose it, originally wore matching purple-and-blue or pink-and-purple or purple-and-purple (depending on the colorist) uniforms. Outside the team, its members wore the following: The Wizard wore pink-blue-and-purple, Paste-Pot Pete/Trapster wore purple-and-blue or purple-and-gold, Medusa (yes, she was a villain back then) wore purple, and Sandman (who was a mostly FF villain at the time) wore green-and-brown or all green.
- The main color of Galactus' costume is purple (or pink, depending on who you ask). His original colors were green-red-and-brown.
- Diablo wears green-and-purple. He animated and commanded a synthetic lifeform called Dragon Man who is sometimes depicted as gray with purple pants, and sometimes purple with brown pants.
- Molecule Man also wears green-and-purple.
- The Puppet Master is often depicted with green or purple costume elements.
- The Brute, an evil alternate Reed Richards, is purple and wears green pants.
- Annihilus is green-and-purple.
- The Impossible Man is also green-and-purple, but he's less of a villain and more of a nuisance.
- The Flash: Both the Sam Scudder and Evan McCulloh Mirror Masters favoured green and orange outfits, in comparison to the Flash's red and yellow.
- The Incredible Hulk:
- The Hulk is an interesting case. He definitely isn't evil, and is usually depicted as a hero, but he is nevertheless extremely violent and destructive. However, his main enemy, the Leader, is a straight example. He is also green, and wears an orange uniform, indicating their shared gamma-radiation origins but wildly different goals and personalities.
- Red Hulk, another Hulk villain, inverts this trope along with Primary-Color Champion. In this case Red Hulk (the primary-colored character) is the villain and the original Hulk (the secondary-colored character) is the hero.
- Iron Man:
- Iron Man wears yellow and red, so when his archenemy, The Mandarin, was first introduced he was put in a green costume with a purple mask and cape. This outfit was eventually abandoned, but The Mandarin still prefers green whenever he dons his traditional Chinese dress.
- Obadiah Stane's Iron Monger armor was an ugly grey, but outside of it, the man himself enjoyed lounging around in an orange leisure suit.
- The Melter, who could reduce all forms of metal to slag, has worn both purple and green, and orange and green at various points in his career.
- All iterations of the Titanium Man armour worn by former Soviet agent Boris "The Merciless" Bullski have been a dark green, typically with lighter green highlights. The duplicate Titanium Man armour donned by the Gremlin when he tried to take Bullski's place was also green.
- Martian Manhunter: While J'onn himself is a Desert Dweller, or Green Martian, the few clothes he wears have always been a bold blue and red. In contrast, his Pre-Crisis nemesis, Commander Blanx, combined the orange uniform of the White Martian Pole Dwellers with a dark green cape, helmet, and boots. The Manhunter's human foe, Mister V, went even farther in the bad fashion department, boasting a purple jacket and slacks.
- Red Robin:
- The "Daughter of Archeron" is always seen in purple or nothing. Usually a deep-hooded cloak.
- Sac of the Council of Spiders wears a green hooded outfit with yellow trim.
- Invoked and mocked in Runaways when the kids complain that their supervillain parents had terrible taste, and that their old lairs had nothing but purple and green furniture.
- Shazam!
- Captain Nazi's uniform is mostly green, with admittedly yellow highlights for contrast with Captain Marvel's own uniform, which is mostly red with yellow highlights, and that of Captain Marvel Jr., which is blue with yellow highlights.
- Mister Mind, telepathic Venusian worm and enemy to the whole red-and-blue clad Marvel family, is himself colored green.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Before becoming Scourge, Evil-Sonic had blue fur just like Sonic. After exposure to the Master Emerald, his fur turned green and he gained a boost in strength and stamina. He also had a super state of his own, which turns his fur purple.
- Spider-Man:
- All the Green Goblin's costumes have featured a green face, arms, and legs, with a purple cap, torso, boots, and gloves. The Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) version also qualifies, being a hulking green monster wrapped in a purple cloak and hood.
- Mysterio wears a green bodysuit and a flowing purple cape, the latter of which billows behind him to add flair to his movements.
- Doctor Octopus tends to have a green bodysuit along with green goggles.
- The Lizard is himself green and often, not unlike the Hulk, sports purple pants.
- The costumes of the Scorpion, Electro, the Vulture, and the Jackal are all solid green, as is the Sandman's shirt.
- The Hobgoblin's costume sometimes features blue legs, and sometimes has a yellow face, but is always predominantly orange, while his glider and (Depending on the Artist) weapons' bag are purple. The Ultimate Hobgoblin took it further and simply was orange.
- The Prowler wore a green bodystocking and a purple mask and cape, although he went on to become a hero.
- Kraven the Hunter's furs are usually, though not always, orange.
- The Kingpin usually wears a white suit jacket, but in Silver Age art it was often with purple pants and an orange waistcoat.
- Lampshaded in The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #37, when Peter and MJ are watching Janet van Dyne's Supervillain Makeover, and an unseen villain is protesting that he's always felt more comfortable in secondary colors.
- Starfire inverts this trope, being a heroic Tamaranean princess with orange skin and hair, green eyes, and wearing purple, but this trope is played straight with her evil sister Blackfire.
- Supergirl:
- Kara's first enemy Mad Scientist Lesla-Lar wore a lime-green suit. In her second appearance she wore a violet costume and orange cloak, gloves and boots.
- Sorceress and swordswoman Nightflame wears a tight green outfit in Demon Spawn.
- Nazi reality-warper Blackstarr wears purple robes.
- Wicked Toymaker and Creepy child Dollmaker wears a green shirt, purple bow tie and belt and violet overalls.
- Belinda Zee -a. k. a. Superior Girl- wore a violet outfit.
- In Day of the Dollmaker, the titular villain wears a green shirt, purple bow tie and belt and violet overalls.
- Superman:
- The Man of Steel's archnemesis, Lex Luthor, famously donned a purple and green warsuit in the 1980s and has continued to use it ever since. In All-Star Superman, Luthor dons a purple shirt and pants, and a green trench coat in place of the warsuit.
- Brainiac has green skin, and usually wears a purple bodysuit. In the 80s, he replaced his original body with a purely robotic-looking one that did away with his traditional color scheme, but post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, he reappeared in his classic colors. His great-grandson, Brainiac 5 subverts the trope, featuring the same green skin and purple bodysuit, but being an unabashed, if arrogant, good guy.
- Tyrannical intergalactic despot Mongul I was himself a sickly yellow, but always wore a deep purple costume, most likely as an indicator of his royal status. His children Mongul II and Mongal also favour this look.
- The chemicals that gave Parasite the power to feed on others also turned his skin purple. His son and daughter, who inherited his powers, were respectively fluorescent green and a brighter shade of purple.
- Mister Mxyptlk's look is subject to change, but he usually sports a purple suit and bowler hat, often with orange highlights.
- Both the Kryptonite Man and the Kryptonite Kid have turned green under the influence of Green Kryptonite radiation, and have sometimes worn a purple costume as well.
- Metallo's body pre-Crisis was orange and green. Post-Crisis, he was redesigned to be silver, making him look like The Terminator, but kept the green chunk of Kryptonite and usually had sickly green highlights. Some redesigns since then have added back the orange and green, most notably Secret Origin.
- While Thanos wears blue and gold, his skin is purple.
- Thunderbolts founding member Abner Jenkins, back when he was the Beetle, wore green and purple armor.
- W.I.T.C.H. inverts and plays this straight with the titular Five Girl Band having purple and green as their colors
◊ in their Older Alter Ego forms while some of their enemies favor green (Cedric) and purple (Nerissa).
- Wolverine: Victor "Sabretooth" Creed has worn a few costumes over the decades, but one of his classic outfits is mostly orange, while Wolverine's classic costume is mostly yellow and blue. Though by the time of Sabretooth's first published clash with Wolverine (he'd been introduced as an Iron Fist villain), Logan had been wearing his brown and orange 80s costume for several years, resulting in the two having similar colors.
- Wonder Woman:
- Circe's appearance has varied a lot over the years, but she's often drawn wearing green and / or purple (or wearing green and having purple hair.)
- Cybernetic menace Doctor Cylvia Cyber wore a purple suit and a green cape with a high collar.
- Dr. Poison I wore green from head to toe, and lavender outfit beneath her disguise.
- Genocide's uniform and mask are green-and-black.
- Giganta's costume is some times colored orange.
- The Mask's jumpsuit is green.
- Wonder Woman and the Star Riders: Purrsia wears a purple dress, cape, boots and gloves.
- Artemis' regular uniform colors (post-Artemis: Requiem and until the Flashpoint (DC Comics) reboot) are a a combination of light and dark greens (or white and green) and her hair is red. She started her character arc as The Rival and Anti-Hero Substitute to Diana, before becoming one of her most stalwart allies.
- X-Men: Back when the original team wore matching blue-and-yellow uniforms, their main opponents were Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Its color palette contained a bit of red, but the rest of the colors were secondary: Magneto wore red-and-purple, Toad wore orange-and-grey, Mastermind wore a brown trenchcoat, Quicksilver wore green-and-green, and Scarlet Witch wore red-and-pink. Notably, following their Heel–Face Turn, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch didn't change their costumes at all during their first stint with The Avengers, and Scarlet Witch has kept her color scheme largely intact.
- In Young Justice, when the supervillain nation of Zandia enters the Australian Summer Games, their team colours are purple and yellow.
Fan Works
- In Amazing Fantasy, the Prowler is clad in green and purple and has butted heads with numerous Heroes, even managing to evade the clutches of All Might. She also goes after Spider-Man, who is clad in blue and red. Inverted with Izuku, as his green and white costume starkly contrasts the black bodysuit and flaming blue head of Mysterio's robot avatar.
- Downplayed in Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Mister Mxyzptlk shows up in a purple suit and hat with a green shirt underneath. But Izuku's costume is green, white, and silver, making the contrast less noticeable.
Film — Animation
- Barbie as Rapunzel: The Wicked Witch Gothel mainly wears a green and burgundy gown, in addition to wielding green magic.
- Cars 1 has the Green and Mean Chick Hicks, who will even violate NASCAR rules to get ahead.
- Home on the Range: Alameda Slim, the yodelling, cattle-raiding main antagonist, wears a bright orange sequin-covered outfit. He also invokes the trope’s inversion with his alter ego Yancy O'Del, an affable blue-clad gentleman who buys up all the farms that Slim has driven to bankruptcy.
- Zigzagged in Home (2015): Most Boov are purple, so it's no surprise that antagonist Smek is purple, but so is main protagonist Oh. The Gorg are represented partly with green, but heroine Tip has green and orange sweaters in some of her outfits.
- Zigzagged in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney): While Frollo wears black robes with purple highlights, Quasimodo wears a green tunic, while Esmeralda wears a purple dress with a teal corset and has green eyes.
- Planes: This is averted with the orange Dusty Crophopper, but played straight with Ripslinger, who is a dirty racer like Chick Hicks.
- The Princess and the Frog: Facilier is the bad guy and wears purple (though with a black-and-red hat) and he's also associated with green.
- Sleeping Beauty (1959): Maleficent has pale green skin and eyes coupled with a black and purple robe. This becomes even more pronounced in her dragon form, which retains the green and purple through her eyes and underside respectively, while breathing green fire as well.
- As a stark contrast to Snow White, the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs wears a dark purple dress and has green eyes.
- Miles from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse dresses in heroic red and black, as befitting Spider-Man. His evil alternate counterpart, as seen at the end, dresses in black and dark purple as the Prowler
- Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story is a primarily white toy with green and purple accents. While definitely not a bad guy, Woody considered him his Arch-Enemy due to stealing his spot as Andy's favorite toy, although they became friends during the events of the movie.
- In Turning Red, Ming wears green as the antagonist to Mei who wears red.
- Ralph from Wreck-It Ralph wears primarily orange with a green undershirt. While he is the hero in the movie, his role in the video game is the antagonist.
Film — Live Action
- Batman
- In Batman (1989), the Jack Nicholson Joker features the classic combination of green hair, purple suit, and bright orange shirt. For an added bonus, he and his goons deface the Gotham museum of art by painting everything purple and green. He seemed to like purple suits as a mobster before becoming the Joker.
- Batman Forever has the Riddler in green with orange hair, while Two-Face has purple scarring on one side of his face, and a half-purple suit and tie.
- The Dark Knight has the Joker sporting his traditional green hair and purple coat, along with a green Waistcoat of Style.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Throughout the Infinity Saga, Thanos has the same purple skin as his comic counterpart. On the other hand, he wears blue and gold armor, symbolizing that he still thinks of himself as the good guy despite all his atrocities.
- Loki wears a green costume for many of his appearances. He switches to blue when he cements his Heel–Face Turn in Thor: Ragnarok, while the Big Bad Hela wears a green-and-black suit.
- The Mandarin is depicted in Iron Man 3 with a dark green robe. It's actually an invoked case, since he's actually an actor portraying the terrorist leader. Aldrich Killian and the other Extremis users often have their skin turn orange when they tap into the virus.
- In Doctor Strange (2016), Kaecilius is The Heavy and wears light orange robes. His master Dormammmu has a purple Color Motif. Finally, Karl Mordo undergoes a Face–Heel Turn and appropriately wears mostly green clothing.
- Played with in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Quentin "Mysterio" Beck wears a green costume and purple cape like in the comics, but is presented as a good guy. It turns out that he was Evil All Along, his "superhero costume" is a fake, and his actual suit leans into Grayscale of Evil.
- In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Norman Osborn starts off with a suit of green flight armor, and later adds a purple cloak to it. While Norman himself is generally friendly and civil, his "Green Goblin" persona is the most dangerous villain of the story.
- Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania wears green and purple armour.
- In Monkeybone the titular crazy monkey antagonist has a color palette that includes three secondary colors, that being his orange fur, his purple fez hat and his green sleeveless vest.
- In Unbreakable, Elijah talks about the use of secondary colors to characterize villains in comic books. Within the film, the first villain David faces on his path to becoming a superhero is a murderous janitor who wears bright orange coveralls, while his diabolical arch-enemy wears purple, because it's Elijah himself. David breaks from the traditional hero scheme, though, since he has green as his signature color.
Literature
- City of No End: When the Djevak brothers first appear, they are described as wearing deep purple robes with dull green scarves around their heads. They are among the initial villains introduced alongside Odham Kendar, conspiring with him to force the Realm into a food crisis for mutual profit.
Live-Action TV
- In the live action TV Batman (1966), almost all of the villains wore secondary colors rather than primaries. Third season villain "Shame" was an exception, with a tan buckskin coat and pants, and usually his shirt in some form of red and a blue neckerchief.
- The Joker wore a Magenta/Purple suit with a Green shirt and had Greenish hair.
- The Riddler wore either a Green suit with a black shirt or a Green jumpsuit with Purple gloves, sash and mask.
- The Penguin wore a Purple top hat and bow tie with his otherwise black and white tuxedo outfit
- Egghead wore a white suit with an Orange or Orange-y yellow shirt (the exact shirt color varied a lot)
- King Tut often wore an Orange cloak with a white robe. He also had a Green feathered cloak.
- Louie The Lilac wore a Lavender (Purple) suit, shirt and hat. The hat-brim binding and hatband and his tie were darker Purple.
- Kamen Rider: Tertiary Riders usually have shades of green, purple or even yellow/orange in their Rider forms, and often start off as villainous or antagonistic to the group. Notable examples are Ryugen, Chase, Necrom, Snipe, Genm, Grease and Rogue. The only unique exception in this case is Woz, whose first user is an Anti-Hero, and whose second user is the Token Evil Teammate the heroes.note
- The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg: Rohan, Mystic Knight of Fire, dressed in Red and Gold. His Evil Counterpart, the Ice Lord of Temra, was accordingly dressed in Purple and Black (and bone).
- Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Initially, the Avatar versions of Roxy and Blaze were aversions of this trope as their Ranger forms were simply dark red and yellow. After they returned with more powerful robot forms, their suits became orange and purple respectively.
- Wonder Woman (1975): Marion Mariposa wears purple and is the closest thing to a Arch-Enemy in the series despite his animosity and encounters being with Diana Prince rather than Wonder Woman as he's the only villain to face her more than once and he and Di both feel It's Personal by their second meeting.
Toys
- LEGO Alien Conquest: The evil alien invaders are green-skinned and decked in purple uniforms, with their vehicles also sporting green and purple.
- Transformers: Let's just say this trope is very common.
- The Decepticon symbol itself is purple, contrasting the red Autobot one. If someone has a lot of purple in their color scheme (Skywarp and Shockwave in almost anything), they're probably a bad guy.
- Villainous combiner team the Constructicons have a uniform "green with purple highlights" color scheme, which carries over to their gestalt form, Devastator.
- Cutthroat of the Terrorcons is painted in a green, orange, and purple color scheme and is a merciless killer without a conscience.
- Decepticon city-bots gravitate toward this, in contrast to their Autobot counterparts. Trypticon is mainly dark gray, purple, and teal, and Scorponok is mostly purple and green with some orange bits.
- Lugnut in Transformers: Animated — most of his body is purple, but his face and hands are green, and is the loyal powerhouse of the Decepticons.
- Subverted in Transformers: Armada: Despite sharing the green and purple color scheme, name and construction vehicle alternate mode with a Constructicon from the original show, Scavenger is an Autobot, although he doesn't seem to be at first.
- As is to be expected, in the Mirror Universe of Transformers: Shattered Glass, the villainous Autobots have these colors, while the heroic Decepticons get bright primary colors, whites and light greys. Optimus Prime in particular has a mostly purple paintjob with green highlights.
- Megatron, the leader of the Decepticon and Big Bad by tradition, when he isn't grayscale and red, has used every one of the secondary colors (violet, green and orange), in its various iterations, and, at least three times, all of them at once:
- Sometimes the silver-black-red palette has the red replaced with violet: notably, the Japanese release of his Generation 1 toy, and Transformers: Prime Megatron. Others replace the silver with black and keep the violet, like Transformers: Robots in Disguise Megatron, and his stealth bomber body in IDW Publishing's original comic book series.
- In Generation 2 Megatron was completely reinventednote , and turned into a tank with green-and-purple camouflage and orange accents; the smaller "Hero" Megatron has the same G2 design, but now it's purple with black camo. The G2 Megatron mold was also modified to create Megastorm for Beast Wars II, but he keeps the general green-camo-and-purple palette.
- Beast Wars Megatron has a lot of purple on him; the original toy also had a green stripe running down his Terrifying Tyrannosaur mode's spine.
- During the "Unicron Trilogy", Megatron would receive three very different designs each time, and all would feature prominently at least one secondary color: in Transformers: Armada, he was olive green, violet and orange, plus gray; in Transformers: Energon, his shoulder cannons, wings, and sword blade are lime green, with some orange accents; in Transformers: Cybertron, his most prominent colors are gunmetal, orange and violet, plus teal.
- His design in Classics is another case of compromising: this was Hasbro's new attempt since G1 at making another gun Megatron mold, but by then, toy guns were required to have brightly colored exteriors, to prevent confusion with real guns. The palette for the 2006 American release hence features purple, bright translucent green ...And an orange cap at the barrel.
- Unicron is a recurring Transformers character, where he always take the role of a planet-sized, planet eating Mechanical Abomination, and he's usually a Greater-Scope Villain or Satanic Archetype to the setting, or becomes the new Big Bad, so powerful and terrifying that Autobots and Decepticons are forced to make an Enemy Mine to defeat him, and his main color is orange.
- If you don't think Megatron is bad enough, then there's Galvatron. His exact backstory changes every time: very often he's Megatron's Super Mode with a new name, sometimes just his Palette Swap, and other times he's a completely separate character, but he's always at the top of the Decepticon Sorting Algorithm of Evil, and with few exceptions, he sports secondary colors. In particular, his G1 cartoon design is mostly violet, with an orange Arm Cannon.
- Toxitron is a lesser known character (his original toy didn't even get released!), one of the more obscure Evil Knockoffs from the franchise, and uses this color scheme, contrasting with the original Optimus Prime, and his colleague Nemesis Prime. How often do you see an Optimus in sickly green and violet?
- Bludgeon is a recurring Decepticon. Even ignoring the fact he's green and orange (but he doesn't really have purple, as much as maroon), the fact that he has a Skull for a Head should tell you he's not a good guy.
- Waspinator, during his introduction in Beast Wars, was simply Green and Mean, but later designs of the character (most notably Animated) add purple in his eyes and wings.
- Tarantulas is, like Waspinator, a Predacon introduced in Beast Wars. Unlike the buggy Butt-Monkey, Tarantulas is almost always portrayed as having a green body with purple plating, often with orange highlights and optics.
- Introduced in the IDW Publishing comics, the Decepticon Justice Division — shortened to DJD — is a team of Cons specifically tasked with hunting down and punishing in very horrific ways rogue Decepticons (having a mask full of needles shoved in the face, anyone?). And who is the leader of this sinister squadron that strikes fear even in your average Decepticon? Tarn, who is clad in head-to-toe almost entirely in purple hues, to keep his Decepticon-insignia mask in its proper colors.
- The Fallen was one of the original Thirteen Primes, who later had a Face–Heel Turn and became the first Decepticon, and accordingly, many of his appearances have a noticeable amount of purple.
- One of the more obscure Decepticons is Venom/Venin, leader of the "Deluxe Insecticons", who's mostly bright green and orange.
- Transformers: Armada first introduced Tidal Wave, the Decepticons' big battleship bot, and enjoyer of secondary colors: in the tie-in anime and Japanese toyline, he's mostly purple, with some orange; in the PS2 licensed game and international toyline, green is added to the palette; in Transformers: Energon, he has green, until he gets a new body and gets renamed Mirage, which is grey, violet and saffron.
Video Games
- Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie has green skin and dresses all in black. Her outfit is further accented with a scarf in two shades of purple.
- Bug Fables: The Leafbug Tribe enemies in the Wild Swamplands make up a secondary color palette, with Ninjas being pale green, Archers being purple, and Clubbers being orange. This contrasts with Team Snakemouth, composed of the yellow Vi, blue/cyan Leif, and forest green Kabbu. They are a downplayed example as they are not entirely evil, but are hostile to outsiders and a language barrier has made negotiating with them difficult.
- In Champions Online, VIPER, the biggest evil organization you fight in the game, tend toward green and yellow motif for their armor. Meanwhile, the forces of the Qliphoth, including Luther Black of DEMON, tend toward a predominantly purple and black color scheme.
- This trope, along with Primary-Color Champion, are Zig-Zagged in the Crash Bandicoot franchise:
- Crash himself, while he does have blue shorts and red shoes, still has orange fur that is obviously more dominant, making him an inversion.
- Also inverted with Crash's Arch-Enemy, Dr. Cortex, who has yellow skin. Further inverted with his appearance changing throughout the series; Crash Nitro Kart depicts him with red gloves and boots, while Crash of the Titans gives him (dark)-blue hair.
- Similarly inverted with Dr. N. Tropy, another evil scientist with blue skin.
- Dr. N. Brio is yet another evil scientist wearing a green labcoat, making him a straight example.
- Played straight with Nitros Oxide, Emperor Velo, and N. Trance. The former two are evil aliens with green skin and purple clothes, while the latter is an evil alien with purple skin, green eyes, and orange lights on his robotic suit. Nitros Oxide also has orange eyes and dreadlocks, while Emperor Velo has purple hair.
- In Eschatos, the invading alien army called "Purple Erosion" has purple as their primary color, as their name implies. They have terraformed the moon and turned it into their base before the game begins, resulting in it being covered in purple as well.
- Five Nights at Freddy's:
- The Big Bad of the series, William Afton, is famously depicted with purple sprites. As the animatronic Springtrap, his suit turned from yellow into a shade of lime green from neglect. Subverted with his son, Michael, who is also colored purple, but wants to stop his father.
- Montgomery Gator and Roxanne Wolf; the former is green with purple accents, accessories, and makeup, and his eyes become orange after he gets broken, whilst the latter has green and purple makeup, purple arm and leg warmers, and just seems largely associated with purple in general, sometimes even looking purple. In addition to being Brainwashed and Crazy, they both seem to be the more flawed of the Glamrocks; Montgomery has a Hair-Trigger Temper and a penchant for breaking things, while Roxanne has an Inferiority Superiority Complex. That said, Montgomery seems to lean into this trope more so than Roxanne; his colors are more noticeable, and he is the most violent and destructive of the Glamrocks. Oh, and he may or may not have murdered another (sapient, benevolent) robot prior to being brainwashed.
- Freedom Planet: Green and orange are the dominant colors of Lord Brevon's design (with some brown as well), and he is the Big Bad without any doubt.
- Played with in the The Legend of Zelda series, where the hero Link wears green clothes but several villains use a combination of secondary colors.
- The Skull Kid in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask wears orange and lime green clothes with the mostly purple titular mask.
- The Heavy of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games, Veran, wears a purple costume with a streak of orange in her hair. Her fairy form is entirely green, and her insect forms are dark purple.
- Vaati from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap wears almost nothing but purple. When he takes control of Hyrule Castle, he turns it purple and complements it with green rugs and decorations. Link himself (clad in green, as usual) averts this.
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks gives Chancellor Cole orange hair and a green uniform (which was almost certainly copied from the tunic of the previous Link).
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds features Yuga, who in spite of wearing a black bodysuit and having red hair has a long purple cloak. He turns out to be The Dragon to Princess Hilda, a counterpart of Zelda with purple hair and a purple-and-white dress. Her design, however, does have traces of red, blue, and gold, showing that she's not so bad at heart.
- Pretty much every main villain in the Mario & Luigi series has been this to various degrees:
- Cackletta is the most notable offender. A green-skinned Wicked Witch dressed in purple robes whose One-Winged Angel form is a huge purple spirit with crazy, orange eyes.
- The Shroobs from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time are a race of purple Mushroom-shaped aliens, including their leaders, the Shroob Princesses (who both wear green earrings to drive the point home).
- Fawful, Cackletta's Dragon from the first game who becomes the main villain of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Just like her, he is green-skinned, and also obtains a purple cape once he absorbs the power of the game's ancient sealed evil, the Dark Star. The Dark Star itself is mostly purple as well.
- Antasma from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is a large, purple bat monstrosity.
- Mario & Luigi: Brothership: Zokket wears a purple cloak, while his primary minions are trio who are dark magenta (Ecks), purple (Ten), and dark green (Shun). The true villain of the game, Reclusa, has a purple cape as well.
- Mega Man X:
- Sigma from tends to incorporate green, orange and purple in the various bodies he uses throughout the series. His original body actually manages to incorporate all primary and secondary colors too (which is fitting considering that he was once good), but it's easy to see that the secondary ones are more prominent.
- To a lesser extent, there's Vile on his appearances in Mega Man X1 and Mega Man X8, where he has purple and green armors respectively. He subverts it on Mega Man X3 as he takes a primarily blue color scheme.
- Sigma from tends to incorporate green, orange and purple in the various bodies he uses throughout the series. His original body
- From Super Metroid onward, Metroid's Ridley is frequently depicted as a purple-scaled dragon with magenta wings and yellow eyes. He also falls under Depending on the Artist, as he has also been depicted to have yellow wings (in Super Smash Bros. Brawl), green eyes (Metroid: Other M), and different body colors ranging from dull green (Metroid: Zero Mission), blue (Metroid Fusion) to bright red-orange (promo material for Super, despite his purple in-game sprite). By extension, his accomplices Draygon, Phantoon and Kraid are all primarily colored green, and their commander Mother Brain is brownish with a fiery red 'brain'.
- Mortal Kombat:
- Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero: Shinnok wears green, yellow and red robes while Quan Chi wears a green and black jumpsuit.
- Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks: Shang Tsung wears purple robes.
- Mortal Kombat 4: In this game, Reptile has scaly green skin and wears purple pants.
- Mortal Kombat: Deception: Onaga is a Draconic Humanoid with scaly green skin.
- Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and Mortal Kombat 3 have Rain, an evil and arrogant Edenian demigod who dresses in purple.
- Mortal Kombat 11: The evil elder god and Shinnok's sister Cetrion has dull purple skin and wears a green dress made of teal crystal and green plant matter. This timeline's version of Sindel falls into this trope having been retconned into being evil of her own free will and wearing purple.
- Nicktoons Unite!: Globulous from Globs of Doom is an orange alien slime monster with purple eyelids and lips. The same also applies to his minions, the Morphoids.
- While the heroic plants from Plants vs. Zombies are represented by green, that doesn't change the fact that the zombies are largely represented by purple. A few of them (such as Super Brainz and Immorticia) also have purple clothing.
- In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the player can act in movies, including a superhero series that also features (former) Gym Leader Brycen, who plays the villainous Brycen-Man, wearing purple with green accents.
- In Polyroll, the Big Bad Kaiser Kiwi has a green body, a purple head and wings, and an orange beak and talons, contrasting with the hero Polyroll, who has a red and blue body.
- In the Puyo Puyo games, Raffina was introduced as The Rival to Primary-Color Champion Amitie. Raffina's outfit is prominently orange with some purple, and she also wears green earrings.
- Dr. Nefarious from Ratchet & Clank is an evil cyborg with purple armor, a green dome atop his head, and orange highlights on his elbows and knees. When he was an organic alien, he also had green skin. His Alternate Self, Emperor Nefarious, has mostly white armor, but still has orange accents, including an orange dome.
- In the Rocket Knight Adventures series, Sparkster wears a suit of light blue armor, while his Evil Counterpart, Axel Gear, wears a suit of dark purple armor (except in Rocket Knight (2010), where he wears a suit of red armor instead).
- The titular knight of Shovel Knight starts the game in blue armor, and the power-up armors remain in primary colors or grays. The enchantress is green and wears a purple dress.
- Averted by most Sonic the Hedgehog games, as the blue Sonic's nemesis, Dr. Eggman, is mostly red. But the Babylon Rogues from Sonic Riders are green (Jet), purple (Wave), and orange (Storm), perfectly fitting as the new rivals of Team Sonic, who are blue (Sonic), yellow (Tails), and red (Knuckles).
- Spyro the Dragon: Spyro himself is mostly purple and orange despite being the hero, but that doesn't prevent some of his enemies from following the same color scheme.
- Spyro's very first enemy was Gnasty Gnorc, a green, troll-like creature. The Gnorc soldiers themselves came in green, orange or purple, with any other color being rare.
- Spyro's archnemesis, Ripto, is a small, orange dinosaur wizard who wears purple robes.
- The Zerg of StarCraft have a lot of green, purple and orange in their color scheme, in addition to brown. This is heavily in contrast to the golden yellows and blues of their nemesis, the Protoss. Played straight but then ultimately subverted with the Nerazim protoss, who utilize greens and purples in contrast to their yellow and blue Khalai brethren, as they ultimately end up as firm allies after being bitter rivals for years. Come StarCraft II, the Zerg start to subvert the 'nemesis' aspect of this due to their gradual Heel–Face Turn, but still retain the color scheme.
- Streets of Rage: The main villain, Mr. X, wears a green Armani suit with a white collared shirt underneath and red tie in the first two games. In SoR3, when he is a Brain in a Jar, he pilots a green robot called Robot Y as the final boss instead. There are the twins, Onihime and Yash in the third game, where they were purple jumpsuits and green head bands. In the first game, they both wore all green and were simple palette swaps of Blaze, who wears red.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Bowser's very first sprite is orange and green. While he sometimes has red or yellow accents in later installments, he generally keeps his orange and green themes in contrast to Mario's blue and red.
- For that matter, the usual Koopa Troopa Mooks have green shells and yellow-orange skin, just like Bowser.
- Inverted with Luigi, whose color scheme (originally green and purple, but now green and darker blue) distinguished him as the classic Player Two.
- Zig-zagged with Wario, Mario's Evil Counterpart, who uses the primary color yellow, but also the secondary color purple and green shoes. Exaggerated by Waluigi, Luigi's Evil Counterpart, who dresses in purple and black, with orange shoes.
- Bowser's very first sprite is orange and green. While he sometimes has red or yellow accents in later installments, he generally keeps his orange and green themes in contrast to Mario's blue and red.
- Warcraft III: the Undead Scourge has a lot of (matted) purple and green in their color scheme. In the campaigns, their forces are mostly colored purple and green, too.
- Yo-kai Watch:
- Yo-kai Watch 3:
- Agent X in his disguise has green hair and a purple tie and hat band. This becomes more obvious when he reveals his true form: his hands are bright purple, his Third Eye has an orange pupil, his... base is purple and bubbling while his green hair is able to flow freely and show off its purple tips.
- Umbral Enma is effectively Lord Enma as a God of Evil. His clothing is mainly combinations of dark and neon greens, complimented by purple highlights.
- Yo-kai Watch: Wibble Wobble:
- The Goku Yo-kai are Criminal Doppelgängers of previously established, heroic Yo-kai. Several of them make use of secondary colors to make it clear which one's the evil one:
- Goku Orochi has turquoise (blue-green) hair and clothing highlights as well as a large purple scarf that takes up most of his design.
- Goku Tsuchinoko's colors consist of greens, sickly yellows and oranges with purple and pink highlights, making him look sickening and monstrous.
- Goku Bushinyan wears light purple armor with rusted gold highlights, and the insides of his ears are green.
- Goku Namahage wears orange in contrast with Snartle's usual blue. He also has dark purple hair.
- The Kegare Yo-kai are Evil Knockoffs of heroic Yo-kai, represented by hefty amounts of dark purple and sickly oranges, caustic yellows, and greens in their design.
- Yo-kai Watch 3:
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus: Caine, Bubble, and most of the players have color schemes mainly featuring primary colors, but Jax, a mean-spirited bully, is purple. Kinger, who’s perfectly nice, also wears purple robes, making this a zig-zagged example.
Webcomics
- Homestuck's Lord English has dark green skin and wears a green overcoat.
- Star Impact's Urchin wears pink shorts, a moss-green belt with a neon-green skull-shaped belt buckle, a black tank top with a neon-green stripe running across it, and pink irises and a black-and-pink mohawk, contrasting against Aster's purplish-blue hair, powder-blue Big Ol' Eyebrows, and yellow irises.
Web Original
- Epic Rap Battles of History: The Joker, put against Pennywise, wears the usual purple suit with a green shirt (and hair, as usual). On top of that, his backgrounds are also green and purple for the most part.
Western Animation
- Action Man (2000): Alex Mann himself wore orange and blue with some occasional red in most of his outfits, while his sports rival, Brandon Cain, wore purple and green. It's worth noting that their rivalry started off as a friendly one, but then things happened...
- American Dragon: Jake Long: The Huntsman wore a green uniform in season 1 and a purple one in season 2.
- Blue Eye Samurai has Abijah Fowler. The principle colors associated with Fowler tend to be orange and green, such as his orange hair, green eyes, and the tendendcy for things to catch fire and cast scenes in a threatening orange glow wherever he goes.
- Carmen Sandiego: VILE's leadership incorporates a lot of green and purple into their outfits: Coach Brunt has green hair and purple shoes, Countess Cleo has a green-and-purple dress and purple hair, and Professor Maelstrom and Shadowsan wear purple shirts.
- The Hacker from Cyberchase has green skin and wears a purple cape with an orange underside.
- Danger Mouse (2015): The new design for Baron Greenback gives him a purple suit to contrast his green skin, which also serves to highlight his status as an evil aristocrat.
- Bushroot is the straightest example in Darkwing Duck, being mostly green with purple hair. Downplayed as compared to the rest of Darkwing's Rogues Gallery, Bushroot is more of an Anti-Villain.
- DC Animated Universe:
- Batman: The Animated Series kept most of the villains in their iconic costumes: The Joker wore a purple suit and had green hair, the Riddler sported a green suit and bowler hat (with purple gloves and mask), and Poison Ivy had a green leotard.
- Superman: The Animated Series stayed true to comic book depictions for the most part, with Parasite having purple skin, and Brainiac's drones depicted with pale green faces and hands, and darker purple torsos and legs. Darkseid's son Kalibak also gained a green costume.
- In Static Shock, many of the villains including Ebon, Replikon, Permafrost, Slipstream, Boom, Hyde, Onyx, Puff, Replay and Rubber-Band Man were primarily purple in contrast with Static's heroic blue and yellow. In addition, Carmen Dillo was orangish tan with purple accents. D-Struct was made of white light with a purple glowing outline. Ragtag had a purple hat and scarf with a green coat. Shiv, while he wore red, had purple hair and blades. Talon had orange feathers, green wings, and wore purple. And Leech both wore purple and had green skin. Basically, if your character design included purple, you were probably evil.
- Justice League had Mongul I, in his trademark purple costume. After he lost his Villain with Good Publicity facade, Lex Luthor also started wearing more green and purple, complete with a suit of Powered Armor similar to his one from the comics.
- Roger from Doug is a chartreuse-skinned, orange-haired bully. Oh, and he also has a purple cat.
- Dan Backslide, the coward-bully-cad-and-thief of The Dover Boys fame is a sea-green-skinned man wearing an appropriate purple suit.
- DuckTales (1987) color coded Donald Duck's nephews — Huey in red, Dewey in blue, and Louie in green. DuckTales (2017) made Louie, the only one who wears a secondary color, the "evil triplet" (he's not a villain, but he is definitely the least moral and most dishonest of his brothers).
- Evil Con Carne: Villain Protagonist Hector Con Carne is a Brain in a Jar (filled with green liquid), attached to Boskov, a purple bear.
- In Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Foul Larry is an Evil Counterpart to Wilt, who is orange with a green Basketball uniform to contrast Wilt's red body with white and blue highlights.
- In He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021), the Dark Masters are a variety of secondary colors; Skeletor wears purple clothing and has yellow-green exposed bone, Evil-Lyn wears different shades of purple, Trap Jaw has a maroon jaw and helmet, and Beast Man has orange fur. They are also all powered by the Sickly Green Glow of Havoc.
- The "instant Martians" created by Marvin the Martian to pursue Bugs Bunny in some Looney Tunes cartoons were green somewhat-humanoid birds with purple tufts on their necks and orange beaks in certain artworks.
- Miraculous Ladybug: Hawkmoth wears a purple suit in almost all his forms, in contrast to Ladybug's bright red and black.
- The main recurring villains in OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes tend to have color schemes comprised dominantly of green (Lord Boxman, Raymond, Fink) purple (Professor Venomous, Ernesto) or orange (Shannon).
- The Hooded Claw from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop wore his dark green getup in combination with a purple Domino Mask.
- The Powerpuff Girls:
- Mojo Jojo, with his green skin and purple cape, is the most recurring villain.
- The Gangreen Gang are all green-skinned, with the color orange being present in Ace, Snake and Big Billy.
- It's worth noting that Buttercup, who wears green, is the least virtuous of the heroes.
- Angelica Pickles from Rugrats wears an orange blouse and socks, plus a purple jumper and sneakers, and her blue tights have green polka-dots. She is a spoiled brat and a manipulative bully.
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series not only kept Mysterio, Scorpion, Vulture, Green Goblin, and Lizard in their usual greens and purples, but put Doctor Octopus (whose comic book outfits have been prone to change) in an orange and green uniform.
- Zig-Zagged on SpongeBob SquarePants:
- Plankton is a straight example, being green and the show's main villain, whereas his Arch-Enemy, Mr. Krabs, has red skin and a blue shirt, though Mr. Krabs also wears purple pants.
- On the other hand, this trope and its opposite are inverted with superhero Mermaid Man and his supervillain enemy, Man-Ray; the former's color scheme includes orange, purple, and green, as well as black and pinknote , while the latter's costume is red and blue with a yellow belt-buckle.
- Superfriends gave us the classic Legion of Doom, which naturally featured Lex Luthor in his then-iconic purple and green jumpsuit, Brainiac with his green skin and reddish-purple leotard, and Riddler in his green bodysuit with purple accessories. For the Super Powers seasons, Luthor gained his green and purple Powered Armor, while Brainiac dumped his colors (and entire body) for a metallic-gray robotic form as he had in the comicsnote . Joker finally appeared on the show in the Galactic Guardians season in all his green-haired, purple-suited glory (with an orange vest and green shirt).
- The Monarch from The Venture Bros. is well-known by his orange-and-black butterfly/moth getup, which he shares with his subordinates. Also a rare example that wears more than one shade of orange.
- Dick Dastardly and Muttley from Wacky Races and Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines are an infamous duo consisting of a purple coat-wearing trickster and his greenish chuckling dog, who often wears an orange accessory like a dog collar or aviator helmet.
- Zak Storm: Big Bad Skullivar is only colored in a spectral green and black.
