Of all the visible colors on the spectrum, violet has the highest frequency and therefore is the most energetic and powerful, per photon. With that being said, it’s easy to understand why fiction creators are likely to use the color purple when designing powerful, badass characters. I think it’s time to explore this notion.
Therefore, without further ado, let me present you with a list of the best purple characters in movies, TV shows, comics, and video games that either are purple or normally wear purple clothing. Better prepare your umbrellas for this purple rain!
1. Dino from the Flintstones
Fred and Wilma’s pet dinosaur is nothing less than iconic. Relatively small in size, Dino is slightly larger than the humans on the show. His color is purple with some black spots on his back. Dino is from the Snorkasaurus/Dogasauruses breed, which commonly displays behavioral patterns associated with domestic dogs, such as licking and leaping on his owners. When Fred gets home from work, Dino usually welcomes him by knocking him down and licking his face. Fred tends to give in to Dino’s wet kisses.
2. Waluigi from Super Mario
Just like Wario is Mario’s rival, Waluigi is Luigi’s rival. The two are meant to be the “antithesis” of Mario and Luigi. Like, where Mario Bros. is generous and kind, Wario and Waluigi are rude, greedy, and cruel. For example, when Waluigi is competing he acts very un-sportsmanlike. He would cheat to win and would even get angry when his opponent makes progress. He is taller and skinnier than Luigi and wears a purple shirt and hat, whereas Luigi wears green.
3. Mace Windu from Star Wars
Well, Mace Windu may not have purple skin and doesn’t wear purple, but he sure is purple-themed. To be more precise – he wields a purple lightsaber. Mind you, his lightsaber is the only purple lightsaber seen in the Star Wars movies, which sets him apart as a key character and important Jedi Master. In Star Wars Legend, it is explained that the purple crystal that was used to create this sword is extremely hard to get.
4. Mileena from Mortal Kombat
As Half-Tarkatan, Mileena’s most recognizable outer attribute is her long, sharp teeth and large mouth. Mileena uses her Tarkatan teeth to destroy her opponents, and she is one of several characters with a Kiss of Death fatality. As a person, she is extremely unstable and vicious, willing to lash out at the slightest provocation. Mileena’s uniform is colored in shades of magenta accentuating her lascivious physique. This purple video game character is one of the most savage characters in the MK series, with arguably only Baraka exceeding her.
5. Beerus from Dragon Ball
One of the most powerful purple characters on this list and in entire fiction, Beerus from Dragon Ball is a god of destruction, a deity that is tasked to keep the balance of a universe through destruction. He overlooks the destruction of Universe 7, where Goku and his friends reside. Just how powerful is he? Well, according to my calculations, Goku and Vegeta in their Super Saiyan Blue forms will still have a hard time beating him in submission. Beerus’ race is a species of purple feline humanoids that inhabit the universe.
6. Thanos from Marvel
No list of purple ANYTHING would be complete without the largest purple supervillain in fiction. Thanos is an Eternal who lived on Titan, a moon of Saturn. Because of some recessive genes carrying Deviant DNA, Thanos was born deformed. That’s why he has that purple, hide-like skin and such a massive body, far suppressing that of other Titans. Because of his deviant appearance, Thanos developed early on a fascination with death and fell in love with the personification of death which appeared to him as a beautiful woman.
7. Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty
Apparently, according to Disney, purple is the color of evil! So many of the Disney villains either wear purple or are purple. For example, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Anastasia Tremaine from Cinderella, Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove, and, Jumba from Lilo & Stitch. Maleficent is another unforgettable purple Disney villain, who seems like the incarnation of pure evil. A malevolent fairy, Maleficent is insulted for not being summoned to the christening of Princess Aurora by King Stefan and curses the princess to die by puncturing her finger before the sun sets on her 16th birthday. What happens next, we all know.
8. Sailor Saturn from Sailor Moon
Sailor Saturn is the Sailor Senshi of ruin and destruction – death and rebirth – which makes her a powerful character. In fact, she is probably the most powerful member of the Sailor Senshi in Sailor Moon, except maybe Sailor Moon herself. She is one of only two Sailor Senshi who exhibits the ability to heal others like she did when she healed Chibiusa after a battle. That is a very unique ability that she shares only with Sailor Moon. In her Sailor Form, Sailor Saturn’s dominant color is purple, with her sailor uniform, choker, linings of her gloves, and skirt, all in the color purple. She also wears matching purple knee-length heeled boots.
9. Mewtwo from Pokemon
If there’s anything I would like to see, it’s a fight between Mewtwo and Beerus, who is also on this list of purple characters. Mewtwo is a powerful artificial Pokémon from the Psychic-type. Which means, he can predict Beerus’s movements and his attacks. Mewtwo also has two Mega Evolutions: Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y. Some say that Mewtwo will wipe the floor with Beerus’ fur. However, this is hardly the place to make pronouncements about the outcome of such a fight. I’ll make a note to myself to discuss it more thoroughly in an article.
10. The Joker
The Joker is such a great character and villain! He is an unpredictable agent of chaos who knows exactly how to push people’s buttons. He even makes Batman compelling by giving him a worthy adversary. That said, he is also a homicidal and cruel killer you would never want to meet in actuality. For his entire career, he’s favored the color purple, sometimes accented with green. Some say that the reason is that within the grim morality of Gotham, the brightness of Joker’s outfit and his chalk-white skin present a sharp visual contrast to Batman’s dark costumes. This disrupts the regular notion that light is good and dark is bad.
11. Count von Count from the Sesame Street
The Count began as a parody of Count Dracula in 1972 and continues to count to this day. His main role is to teach little children to count. Get it? Or as he puts it in his signature greeting: “They call me the Count because I love to count things.” And he usually counts stuff to the point of annoying other characters. Count von Count Lives in an old cobweb-infested castle with his many bats, a wolf named Yuba, and a cat named Fatatita. He was also been shown to have quite a lot of vampire girlfriends, like Countess von Backwards, who counts backward. It seems like he lives a happy life.
12. Gorgon Heap from the Muppet
The large purple Muppet Monster, Gorgon Heap is known as “one of the world’s greatest eaters.” His appetite is so big that after he ate a meal prepared by French Chef Pierre LaCousse he proceeded to eat Pierre as well. In fact, Gorgon ate a couple of other Muppets and anything else he could get his paws on. Gorgon Heap only made a handful of appearances on The Muppet Show, but definitely left a big impression. The proof – it got him on my list!
13. Celia from Monsters Inc.
Mike Wazowski’s Medusa-like girlfriend, Celia is a purple monster. The snakes don’t speak, but they do express their mood with sounds. For example, when happy, they make chirping noises, and when they’re mad, they hiss. Celia works as a receptionist at Monsters Inc. energy-producing factory, where she takes calls from monsters.
One of the best purple cartoon characters, Fifi La Fume is a female skunk with purple and white fur. Like Pepé Le Pew, who is Fifi’s mentor and favorite teacher, Fifi is French and very flirtatious. She also shares Pepés faults like his intense skunk-odor and an incapacity to take “no” for an answer when pursuing a romantic object. Just how powerful Fifi’s stench is? Well, it has been shown to melt solid steel! Also, the more she falls in love, the stronger her stink gets. That said, I’d still go out with her.
14. Armored Armadillo from Mega Man X
Well, all armadillos are armored. That’s the whole point of being an armadillo, don’t you think? But this sturdy armadillo’s defense systems are much superior to any other armadillo. His armor is capable of deflecting energy and ballistic projectiles! Also, he can curl up inside of his shell, and act as a rolling boulder. To add to that, inside of his head he has a small cannon that fires a small sphere of energy. An armored Armadillo is a battle-hardened soldier with a samurai-like code of honor. I respect that!
15. Galactus from Marvel
Originally, Galactus was an explorer named Galen, who discovered the universe was dying. He could not stop the death of everything, but Just as everything ended, the very presence of the universe reached out to Galen and made him an offer: to join together with the universe’s essence and become something more! Galen accepted, and then he slept. For four billion years. He woke up as Galactus, Devourer of Worlds! To maintain the impossible energies within him, Galactus must find worlds with enough life energy to refill him, and thus he travels through the universe, occasionally employing heralds to seek out new worlds for him and empowering them with a fraction of his power, the incredible power cosmic. Galactus is usually depicted as a large humanoid being, who wears a purple suit with horns on each side of his head. His armor is meant to contain the pure energy from which Galactus is made of.
16. Tinky Winky from Teletubbies
Yeah, I went straight from Galactus to Tinky Winky! The largest and oldest of the Teletubbies, Tinky Winky is the purple Teletubbie. Tinky Winky is very kind, and the thing he likes the most is his red bag which is often described by the show as a “magic bag”. He loves to sing and the song he often sings goes like this: “Pinkle winkle, Tinky Winky, pinkle winkle, Tinky Winky Woo woo woo woo…” Now, try it yourselves, it’s harder than you think.
17. Barney the Dinosaur from Barney
Another TV purple character, Barney is a purple dinosaur. It is unclear whether there were purple dinosaurs in the prehistorical past, but I suspect that the reason Barney is purple is that purple is an eye-catching color. However, for all we know, Tyrannosaurus-Rex may have been purple, brown, or pink, or grey. Anyway, unlike the T-Rex, Barney is friendly, optimistic, and has a very positive attitude.
18. Isabela Madrigal from Encanto
Isabela Madrigal, from the animated movie “Encanto,” is a vibrant and enchanting purple character. Her purple hue reflects her captivating and unique persona, setting her apart in the magical world of the Madrigal family. With her luminous purple appearance, Isabela exudes an aura of mystery, creativity, and individuality. The color purple often symbolizes imagination, spirituality, and royalty, embodying Isabela’s extraordinary qualities and the extraordinary journey she embarks upon. As a purple character, Isabela captivates viewers with her striking visual presence, adding a touch of enchantment to the animated world of “Encanto.”
19. Cheshire Cat
A mischievous purple-striped cat with a creepy sadistic need to confuse Alice by getting her in trouble with the queen. While he does seem to be a very funny character, the Cheshire Cat is just a crazy magical cat. It is a character that shows our need to make meaning out of the absurd. Cheshire Cat, like Alice and all the other characters, represents emotions and phobias.
20. Home from Home
In the animated film “Home,” the character Home takes on a captivating purple hue, infusing the character with a sense of wonder and intrigue. The purple color imbues Home with a unique and extraordinary appearance, standing out in the animated world. With its vibrant purple shade, Home exudes an aura of mysticism, creativity, and otherworldliness. Purple is often associated with imagination, spirituality, and magic, reflecting the character’s fantastical nature. As a purple character, Home captures the imagination of the audience, adding a touch of enchantment and bringing a sense of wonder to the animated world of the film.
