Prompt #127

Hero winced as villain's hands moved to her face.

Villain's hands were calloused with years of heavy work yet they had the softest touch that hero had ever felt. Hero sucked in a sharp breath as she felt villain explore the bruises and cuts on her face, his eyebrows pinching together as he ran a finger down the jagged cut on her forehead.

There were no words spoken, just soft breaths and inhales and villain stood in front of hero with his gentle touches and touched every bit of the painful bruises that hero had tried to hide from him earlier.

"Who did this to you?" Villain whispered, his voice soft yet with a dangerous edge as he met hero's teary eyes.

Prompt 185

"I know you miss me," they spoke carefully, each word a double-edged sword. "But you can't keep calling me whenever you feel sad, okay? It's time for both of us to move on."

The hero nodded numbly, hand clenched tightly around the phone. "Yeah, I know. But please wait. Don't hang up. I... I messed up."

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bigbadivy

4 years ago

Carmen Sandiego and Color

So let’s appreciate the absolutely Legendary™ use of Color Symbolism in Netflix’s Carmen Sandiego:

V.I.L.E’s Iconic Color is green– all the villains wear green, the lair is green, the uniforms are green, etc.

When Carmen rebels against them, she obviously starts wearing her iconic red– which is green’s complement, its “opposite” on the color wheel. This shows that Carmen has become the “opposite” of V.I.L.E.

Scenes where V.I.L.E has a lot of power/influence are often tinted green, scenes where Carmen has power/influence will often be tinted red.

VILE in San Francisco:

Carmen in San Francisco:

Julia Argent, the ACME agent who believes Carmen is a good person, wears a bright red shirt that the other agents do not wear.

This ties into the series’ theme of “don’t be fooled by initial appearances.” Green is the color we usually associate with goodness, while red is the color we usually associate with danger/villains. But in this show, the colors’ meanings are flipped.

Green means danger, and red means safety.

And again, this isn’t just in the costumes!!

Contrast these scenes where Carmen is nervous on V.I.L.E island:

And can’t relax Because V.I.L.E:

With this scene where Carmen feels confident and free:

The dialogue in the “Carmen finally relaxes” scene is cute too:

Player: Red? Carmen: Yes, it is. I may finally be unwinding.

Because scenes where Carmen is at peace, or confident and in power, tend to be tinted red (or pink/reddish-violet.)

Scenes where Carmen and co. are frightened, losing, trapped, or in terrible danger will be tinted green.

HOW TO SPOIL THE SHOW FOR YOURSELF:

If a fight scene in this show is red, things will probably go well for Carmen. But if the fight scene is green, things will probably go badly.

The battle Carmen loses against Paperstar:

The one that she wins:

The Indonesia episode is very green, because the Stakes Are High and Carmen seems to be losing:

but after Carmen wins RED FIREWORKS GO OFF, lighting everything red:

Also: Tigress was an idiot for choosing to battle Carmen on the Golden Gate Bridge, bc it’s the reddest place in San Francisco, meaning that it’s where Carmen’s POWER IS GREATEST

Tigress shoulda gone to New York and battled her on the Statue of Liberty instead, that’s a guaranteed victory right there

And in Carmen’s worst failure in the season, her red coat is even torn off, so that the shot is completely green:

But then she escapes and look who’s back?? RED

ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOMENTS:

Before Carmen steals the VILE data thing, everything is green:

But the moment she successfully steals it, RED ALARMS START GOING OFF:

Like “heck yeah La Femme Rouge is finally here!!!!”

And (major spoilers ahead!) what I find most interesting is this Red™ scene:

The scene where Carmen fails her pickpocketing test, ruining her chances of becoming a V.I.L.E operative.

When you watch it for the first time you see it as a failure. The blood-red sky is there to show us that Carmen is in serious danger, and her life is about to be ruined.

But when you rEWATCH THE SHOW WHILE PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE COLOR SYMBOLISM (as ya do) you realize it’s the opposite. This is the moment that saves Carmen– that sets her on the path to becoming “The Red Rogue.”

And I might do another post on this but like– it’s so cool how red is used in Shadowsan’s scenes in general!!! Most V.I.L.E people’s scenes are all green, but Shadowsan’s scenes are often red, to hint that he’s secretly sympathetic to Carmen.

See you initially think he’s grabbing the sword to kill Carmen, but when you rewatch it, you realize he’s going to sabotage the VILE’s helicopter and rescue her! He was on her side all along, and the Color Symbolism knew it!