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DISCUSSION: The Magic Colour Wheel and You

unrepentantAuthor

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Update! Colour Assignment:

Hi there, I'm unrepentantAuthor, and I'm obsessed with the Magic: the Gathering colour wheel. Tell me about your characters, and I will tell you what colours I think they are. The more information the better, naturally.

Original post below:

Hi there, I'm unrepentantAuthor, and I'm obsessed with the Magic: the Gathering colour wheel. I will now explain the colour wheel, and how you can use it as a writing tool.

M:tG is a trading card game much like the Pokémon TCG — designed by the same company, in fact — in which you buy cards and assemble them into decks with which to play the associated game. It's been going for 25 years and is very popular. The premise is that each player is a 'planeswalker': a powerful wizard using spells and allies from many world to achieve victory in a duel.

Summary:

The important thing to note here is that the game's primary mechanic is that any spell played must be paid for in 'mana', almost always in one or more specific 'colours'. Each colour of mana has a philosophy associated with it, and these colour philosophies can be used to categorise, analyse and better understand characters. Allow me to show you how.

The five colours of magic are White, Blue, Black, Red and Green, arranged on a 'wheel' or if you prefer, a 'pie'. Any character, any person, is going to express one or more of these colours in particular over the others. Each colour has its own values, goals, methods and perspectives. They can also be referred to as W, U, B, R & G.

The Colours:

Symbol: sun. The colour of peace, law & order, morality, and the greater good. White characters believe in heroism, in charity, in any noble and selfless efforts. White characters hate cruelty, self-interested or self-serving behaviours, and any kind of predatory or destructive endeavours. White characters value civilisation, faith, cooperation and community. White weaknesses are lack of attention to the individual, reluctance to use devious methods, rigidity, and too intense a focus on the here and now. White is associated with organisation, with protection, with authority, and with groups that have a common goal. The white land is the plains, the archetypal white strategy is to build and defend a unified army, and the iconic white creature is the angel.

Symbol: water drop. The colour of knowledge, change, artifice, and improvement. Blue characters believe in shaping oneself, in evading problems entirely, in devising a superior method to everything. Blue characters resent stagnation or wrongheadedness, and nothing bothers them more than a close-minded person. Blue characters value technology, learning, cleverness and inspiration. Blue weaknesses are lack of conviction, coldness and indifference, and planning itself into a corner. Blue is associated with water & air, with illusion, and with science. The blue land is the island, the archetypal blue strategy is to counter and frustrate the opponent's strategy, and the iconic blue creature is the sphinx.

Symbol: skull. The colour of power, selfishness, ruthlessness, and sacrifice. Black characters believe in obtaining power and wealth at all costs, in doing whatever it takes to earn their prize. Black characters disdain moralism and altruism, they even disdain people they don't personally have a stake in. Black characters value control, ambition, sheer will to succeed. Black weaknesses are an inability to make real partnerships with others, hubris, and self-destructiveness. Black is associated with death and undeath, with poison and with the hidden blade. The black land is the swamp, the archetypal black strategy is to sacrifice resources to obtain any advantage over the enemy, and the iconic black creature is the demon.

Symbol: flame. The colour of passion, freedom, individualism, and creativity. Red characters believe in doing what they want, in everyone getting to follow their heart's desire. Red characters hate rules and restrictions, they're natural rebels, and tend to have wanderlust or be prone to distraction. Red characters might value crazy impulsive things, personal expression, and long road trips. Red weaknesses are running out of steam, rushing into bad plans, and treating everything as a fight/flight choice. Red is associated with fire, flight, and spontaneity.The red land is the mountain, the archetypal red strategy is to feverishly fling direct damage, and the iconic red creature is the dragon.

Symbol: tree. The colour of nature, acceptance, growth, and tradition. Green characters believe in destiny, particularly in the sense that people are born a certain way and should be true to that. Green characters want to leave well enough alone, accept things for what they are, and let everything work itself out. Green characters might value history, the natural world, everything being in harmony. Green weaknesses are lack of flexibility, unwillingness to adopt new tools or perspectives, and reluctance to seize opportunities. Green is associated with primitiveness, wilderness, and temperance. The green land is the forest, the archetypal green strategy is to summon big monsters to fight hard, and the iconic green creature is the hydra.

Most people probably have two major colours in their 'colour identity'. I myself am Blue, White & Red, in that order. I have friends in every colour, but my nerdy hobbies mean they tend to skew Blue!

Application in Creative Writing:

I have often found myself wondering how one of my characters would react to a certain situation, treat another character, or solve a problem. Figuring out my characters' colour identities is not just a bit of nerdy fun, it's been a fantastic way to help myself understand them and consequently write them in a consistent way. If you know your characters' colours, then that's a kind of shorthand guide for their behaviour, aspirations and likelihood of cooperating with others.

For example, some of my novel's characters: "G" is a White/Blue character. He mostly cares about discovering the truth and doing the right thing. He's even a private detective at first! "V" is a Blue/Black character. She's his new boss, and part of the conspiracy to keep aliens a secret. They both care about the truth, they're smart, they like to learn and improve and they're comfortable with technology — that's Blue! However, their main interpersonal conflict is that while G is very interested in what's good for society (White), V is much more concerned with her personal goals and with holding on to valuable information (Black).

Whenever I introduce a new character, I can think about the various colours involved for a minute, and that makes the interactions intuitive. Here's a good example of using this stuff to figure something out: I have another character, "X," who cooperates with G and V, and I wasn't sure what his attitude towards the conspiracy would be. Once I figured out that he's a very Green person (because he's laid back, thinks things will work out, distrusts complexity and careful planning, and feels like things are the way they are and that's just how it's gotta be) that he's actually quite happy for the conspiracy to continue because "you shouldn't fix what isn't broken."

This method is flexible, of course. If I chose, I could instead justify his opposition to the conspiracy through his being Green by saying he hates large technological organisations that mess with how things ought to be because that's unnatural, but I don't want every character to hate the conspiracy, and it felt more fitting for him to be chill about it considering that the organisation he works for is really just doing its best to avoid some kind of dystopia which would be much worse.

Another really good example is how a character of different colours might handle a low point in their life. The White approach is to structure the day, spend time with friends, and stay healthy. The Red approach is to go on a mad road trip and maybe get real drunk. Green waits it out, Blue studies cognitive behavioural therapy, and Black works hard to keep their mind off it.

Application in Pokémon Fanfiction:

This introduction to the colour wheel is really meant to be generally applicable to life and to writing of any kind. It's worth noting that the colours have different feelings about pokémon, and it might be useful to readers on this forum to make some observations about colours in the franchise.

Let's start with observations on the figurehead protagonist of this franchise. Love him or hate him, Ash Ketchum is quite clearly a Red character. He's a shonen protagonist with a lot of energy, prone to impulsive behaviour, motivated almost entirely by his current emotional state. He gets deeply emotional about pokémon, and will set them free without a struggle if they want him to. He has elements of the other colours, though! He's a White do-gooder, he's Black in that he has an ambition to be the best pokémon master of all time, and he's Blue in that he wants to teach and learn from pokémon and other trainers in order to improve himself and others. The very act of wandering around nature interacting with wild beasts in inherently Green. I still think Red is his primary colour, though.

Pokémon mean different things to the colours. Most obviously, Black wants to use pokémon. Not necessarily in a heartless way, although Giovanni and other exploitative trainers are Black, but certainly in pursuit of either power, wealth or glory. Blue is interested in the deeper mysteries of pokémon: every researcher is necessarily Blue. Blue is especially fascinated by the capacity of pokémon to change. Green probably wants to leave pokémon to their own devices, and respect the natural world for what it is. Green trainers are mostly concerned with real strength (both inner and muscular) rather than with any superfluous nonsense like the other colours concern themselves with. Red sees pokémon as fun and as friends and as a chance to go on a wonderful adventure of self fulfilment and self expression. Lastly, White wants whatever's best for everyone, particularly to heal the sick and wounded and protect the vulnerable, and Jennies with chansey and Joys with growlithe are a good example of White pokémon partnerships.

Final Thoughts:

Disclaimer: this is not a cut and paste formula for determining character interactions. It's just an extremely useful device to promote structured contemplation and analysis of your characters. It's also not necessarily completely obvious what the right colours are for a person. A friend of mine who's into M:tG has long insisted that he's somewhat Blue, and I've long insisted that he's not. There's no one foolproof way to figure this stuff out, but the attempt to do so will have you asking questions about your characters that better prepare you to write them in various contexts.

I hope that you found this interesting, and maybe even useful! I welcome any and all questions.
 
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I'm not sure I'd use this method to make my own characters, as mine tend to just pop out as I write, but. I like the concept of this, and thanks for taking the time to write it up! I like what's going on over at Serebii with identifying characters people have read about, though:

unrepentantauthor's Salem from Different Eyes: Blue/Red
canisaries's Red from Seiren: Black/Red
Ambyssin's Tessa from Guiding Light: Green
Misfit Angel's Kimberly from Land of the Roses: Blue/Green
Sike Saner's Syr from The Worldslayers: White
Beth Pavell's Josh from The Long Walk: Blue/Green (if only for the trees tbh)
kintsugi's Nara from some rise by sin: Red/Black
AceTrainer's Alaska from 8ES: Red/Black
AetherX's Criss from Unpredictable: Red/White
Arkadelphiak's Kotone from The Deprogramming: Red
Persephone's Pixie from guidance: Red/Black

For my own protagonists...

Sai (Survival/Phantom Project: Blue/Red
Annie (Love and Other Nightmares): Red/Black
Haley (Flying in the Dark): Red
Markus (Flying in the Dark): Blue/Green
 
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Salem is definitely blue/red! Maybe a little black too, though that isn't too visible right now. Love that you've identified a bunch of characters, and I'm surprised red/black is so dominant!
 
Red/black means self centered leads who want to escape something or other. Tbh it'd be easy to list the journey fics who aren't w little bit red. And given the fame/glory implications of the franchise (and the animal cruelty bit), it's not surprising there's a lot of black either.
 
Update: nothing spectacular, but for anyone who wants to, please tell me about your characters and I will tell you what colours I think they are! Of course, the more information you can give me, the more accurate I'm likely to be. This is fun for me, so please go ahead!
 
I figured dp covered my reply pretty well with saying Red is red/black before, but now that I have, uhh, more than one character I write about, I figured I could try out a proper post!

"Red" Akai (Hunter, Haunted & others)

Pretty fitting that an edgelord like him would get the edgiest color combination there is, red and black. There's no question about the black part given his homicidal tendencies, skulking-in-the-shadows approach and quest for omnipotence, and his red side comes through not only from his disdain for society and authority figures but also his passion for his lord(s) and bloody violence.

However, I'd argue there's also a considerable green side to him. It's true that it doesn't come through very strongly in Seiren, which largely takes place in urban environments, but the theme of nature is much more prevalent in HH. Red is a big fan of the forest, romanticizes a wild mon/animal's way of life (as the CONSTANT ANIMAL METAPHORS will tell you) and commends Michi for turning the abandoned cabin in the woods to a modest hangout spot instead of sticking to the safe and boring city. He dislikes technology, which is mostly due to his PC-related trauma, but he does also see modern conveniences as enabling weakness and laziness in humans.

Furthermore, the ancient Helixians he idolizes and looks up to were described as kind of a race of beast-men. Their first king, as the oneshot HIM will tell you, spent a long period of time as sort of a hunter-gatherer before his clan grew and began overtaking cities. Red has a low key crush on him but you didn't hear that from me.

Lastly, Red's true motive behind wanting all that power is achieving inner peace, which feels like a pretty green thing to want.

Pletora (Pletora's Story)

Scolipede Pletora is pretty obviously green. She's a wildren, meaning that she's not feral and therefore sapient, but still lives among nature, in contrast to guildren who live in guilds or other settlements. Her life is simple and she likes it that way.

However, her secondary color - white - is brought forth by the events of her story. She dislikes the close-minded guildren she meets since they see her as a wild monster rather than a person, even when she's speaking directly to them. It's her morality that gets her to take care of a lost little cyndaquil instead of just minding her own business.

Keith (Dragony)

Eevee Keith is a red character. He's an outlier and rebel in his home Guild of Pelton, as everyone else seems convinced that dragons are savage monsters but Keith thinks they're just super duper awesome and cool. He wants and is determined to become one despite everyone else telling him that no dragon-type evolution for eevee exists. When he gets a vague clue of something that could help him in his goal, he jumps head-first into it and travels all the way to the Dragon Kingdom without even telling his parents.

I could argue his secondary color to be white, as he thinks of dragons as being discriminated against unfairly and almost instantly wants to help the group of dragons he meets after he hears about the predicament in their Kingdom. However, taking all signs of morality and righteousness to mean a white categorization feels like it would lead to a huge majority of protagonists and supporting characters as being classified as white, diluting its meaning. Then again, making a character have good morals is possibly the fastest and easiest way of making them likable, and good vs. evil is a very, very common story mechanic.

Very late to say something like this, but thanks for making this thread! It's fun to explore characters with this.
 
Hi @canisaries, thanks for posting!

Red Akai: Black/Red/Green (Jund)

You're spot on about Red Akai. From what you've said and what I've read, he seems pretty solidly Black-Red-Green. Black for his amorality and selfishness, red for his emotional motivation and gorier pursuits, and green for his admiration for primal strength and contempt for modern humanity.

BRG is also known as "Jund," and it is the colour combination of ferocity, consumption, and beastliness. Jund rejects order and civilisation, and seeks not to improve but to be raw and base and savage. Jund's philosophy (of sorts) is something like anarcho-primitivism. A dog-eat-dog world where only the strong survive through unrestrained consumption. Jund sees the world as violent and seeks to be completely authentic. It resents technology, culture, even conscious thought itself at the extreme. A good example of Jund being is some kind of natural predatory aberration, such as a monstrous burrowing worm with no motivation beside hunger.

Sound like your devil of a character?

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Scolipede Pletora: Mono-Green or Green/White (Selesnya)

I think Pletora might still be mono-Green, but I can buy that she's developing a White side. White doesn't have a monopoly on altruism, although it's the colour that most believes in guilds, towns, the common good, etc. Living in nature, seeking a simple life, being a giant bug: all of these are Green. A Green motivation to help a little cyndaquil would be a desire to see small things grow and become strong. Pity, not so much.

If Pletora's motivation to help is more White, (i.e. sympathy, a sense of duty, or the bigger picture), then she might be becoming Selesnya. Green-White cares about the common good, but not so much through leadership and organisation as by cooperation and mutual assistance. A Selesnya person likes stuff like equal trades, team efforts, and group consensus. Maybe that's someone Pletora could be, maybe she's staying Green for now.

Eevee Keith: Mono-Red

This guy doesn't have to be white just because he wants to help a group of people. Red is highly motivated to fight injustice and oppression on its own because Red cares about freedom, enjoyment of life and being a fucking dragon, funnily enough. Red hates authority in general and discrimination in particular, which actually puts it in conflict with White, the colour of authority and sometimes discrimination. However, Red has JUSTICE in common with White. Red/White is the combination that cares the most about justice, in fact. However, Keith sounds Mono-Red from what you tell me, which is perfectly fine, and appropriate for a guy with a dragon fixation.

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Is this Keith?
 

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