Color of Beam Sabers

[Mafty]

So is it ever explained how exactly the beam sabers get their colors? They're often Red for the Federation, and Green for Zeon. I've read that Minovskey Particles are shaped into an I Beam to form the weapon. So is there a different type of technology used to make Federation and Zeon Beam Weaponry? Or is it an environmental factor because the Federation Units were built on Earth, and the Zeon's in Space.

[Arsarcana]

This has come up before and unless there's some new(er) explanation that I've missed, there's never been a canon explanation for why any given blade is colored the way it is. In real-world terms they generally serve to distinguish factions within a given work.

By way of example, despite being 'brother' units the GP-01 and GP-02 have different saber colors for no obvious reason other than 'so when Kou and Gato fight each other they can have different colors and it'll look cool'.

[Seto Kaiba]

It's just for visual punch so the good guys and bad guys are easy to visually distinguish.

[MythSearcher]

By way of example, despite being 'brother' units the GP-01 and GP-02 have different saber colors for no obvious reason other than 'so when Kou and Gato fight each other they can have different colors and it'll look cool'.

I always imagine that they can choose the colour if it is AE made.

I can kinda see it as a type of IFF, so your side won't shoot at you as the bean can be seen from very far away, further than they can see the MS, at least.

So it is not really a good idea to use the same colour as your enemy if you can help it.
The GP02A might have been set to that colour because of the engineers deisning it, or because it was prepared for a combat simulation with GP01 so they switched the colour for display purposes.

[Underrated GM Custom]

I can kinda see it as a type of IFF, so your side won't shoot at you as the bean can be seen from very far away, further than they can see the MS, at least.

That's a good idea I hadn't considered and certainly makes sense. Although it doesn't work out well in Zeta for instance where most of the bad guy suits have yellow beam sabers as does the Hyaku Shiki.

As for GP02A, if we go by Rebellion's cannon the Zeon engineers working on it may have intentionally given it a green beam saber since they planned on it being stolen and repurposed for Zeon. For IFF purposes it would also be handy if there were a way to adjust coloration during maintenance, such as a trace additive that adjusts color like a flame test.

Related note, outside of Sentinel the only time we see a Mobile Suit with blue beams is the Delta Plus and the Hi-Nu right?

[MythSearcher]

That's a good idea I hadn't considered and certainly makes sense. Although it doesn't work out well in Zeta for instance where most of the bad guy suits have yellow beam sabers as does the Hyaku Shiki.

As for GP02A, if we go by Rebellion's cannon the Zeon engineers working on it may have intentionally given it a green beam saber since they planned on it being stolen and repurposed for Zeon. For IFF purposes it would also be handy if there were a way to adjust coloration during maintenance, such as a trace additive that adjusts color like a flame test.

Related note, outside of Sentinel the only time we see a Mobile Suit with blue beams is the Delta Plus and the Hi-Nu right?

I guess the Hyakushiki is already so shiny that you really don't need the colour of the beam sabre to identify it? XD

For the blue ones, the box art and colouring guide of the old MS-14 (both A and S) gunpla (quick check on the 1/144, 1/100, 1/60 and as late as the 1988 SD) have it blue until later ones like MG give it a yellow one. I don't recall what's the colour in anime but judging from the pictures from fandom, TV version is blue and they switched to yellow in the movies. So now the canon(?) is yellow.(It is still blue in CCA flash back)

[Underrated GM Custom]

Hahaha, good point it's hard for the Hyaku Shiki to not stand out. As I recall it's visor had a fancy IFF, or perhaps it was a different I acronym.

I had completely forgotten about the Gelgoog having a blue beam saber. The compilation movies have it as yellow, at least in the Texas colony portion.

[PowerdGNFlag]

The Gelgoog's beam saber color was changed to yellow in the movies in order to reuse footage from the TV version of the Gundam vs Gyan duel (which also changed the shape of the beam naginata's blade from the more curved original to a standard beam saber blade).

[Mafty]

Just how many Beam Saber colors were there anyway? Its seems so far that there's Red, Green, and rarely Blue.

[Seto Kaiba]

So... I did some digging and the only official comment on the matter I was able to find was in one of the Gundam Sentinel books. Specifically, Model Graphix Special Edition "Gundam Wars III" Gundam Sentinel: The Battle of Real Gundam.

A reader put the question to the work's authors, and got more or less the answer you'd expect.

Beam weapons - both beam sabers and beam rifles - don't actually output different colors in-universe. It's purely a visual convenience for the viewer/reader so they can tell which faction the Mobile Suit belongs to at a glance... esp. where there are similar (or identical) designs used by two or more factions.

(AFAIK, the only Gundam setting where there is an actual in-universe explanation for the color difference is Anno Domini, where beam weapons powered by true GN drives are pink and those using Tau drives are red or orange.)

[Arsarcana]

Just how many Beam Saber colors were there anyway? Its seems so far that there's Red, Green, and rarely Blue.

Lots. The pink/purple sabers are the most iconic but we've also seen red (especially in 00 with the early Tau Drive suits), orange (other Tau suits), yellow (Zeonic suits especially, and their equivalent factions in later UC/alternate universe works), green (other Zeonic suits, all the Gundam types in AC and AW), blue (the Zeta Plus and related designs, Hi-Nu sometimes) and various in-between shades exist as well.en that I can think

[Dark Duel]

The ELS-assimilated mobile suits in the 00 movie and the Eldora Army units in Re:Rise also had a darker purple color that I don't think we've seen very often.

[SonicSP]

(AFAIK, the only Gundam setting where there is an actual in-universe explanation for the color difference is Anno Domini, where beam weapons powered by true GN drives are pink and those using Tau drives are red or orange.)

Yeah pretty much, the sourcebooks in the series confirms the color so it's not just an animation viewer thing.

Although Season 2 Taus are referred to as "Red" in Page 29 of 2nd Mechanics GN Drive profiles for some reason. It also cites Ahead, GN-XIII and Gadessa as example machines with those drives (so not Arche's drives, which are indeed red like Season 1). So there is some disconnect with the animation a little.

I guess the Season 2 Tau emission does sort of appear reddish at the edge even if it they look mostly orange to me. Shades can be subjective I guess.

[Seto Kaiba]

Yeah pretty much, the sourcebooks in the series confirms the color so it's not just an animation viewer thing.

Although Season 2 Taus are referred to as "Red" in Page 29 of 2nd Mechanics GN Drive profiles for some reason. It also cites Ahead, GN-XIII and Gadessa as example machines with those drives (so not Arche's drives, which are indeed red like Season 1). So there is some disconnect with the animation a little.

I guess the Season 2 Tau emission does sort of appear reddish at the edge even if it they look mostly orange to me. Shades can be subjective I guess.

Japanese has some areas of... eccentricity... when it comes to color. What are the exact kanji used there, because the list of shades of red in Japanese includes a number of shades we'd consider orange or even brown.

[SonicSP]

2nd Mechanics uses 緑 (midori) and 赤 (aka) respectfully. It's a small table so they just state the kanji for the Color section and just leave it at that.

For what it's worth Page 39 of 1st Mechanics (which exclusively covers Season 1 stuff) has a similar chart that also uses the same kanjis 緑 (midori) and 赤 (aka) respectfully for the drive types.

So the 赤 kanji is being used for both Season 1 and 2 Tau Drives, in these two books at least.