Black Blood/Playing With

Basic Trope: Blood is shown as black instead of normal red.

• Straight: A character becomes wounded, and is shown bleeding blackish blood.
• Exaggerated:
  • An Ax Crazy character goes on a murderous rampage, and the result is an area with blood everywhere, all of it as black as tar.
  • Everything that should be red is shown as black instead.
• Downplayed: A character is wounded, and bleeds maroon blood.
• Justified:
  • The wounded character is not human, so their blood looks different.
  • Alternatively: The point-of-view character suffers from protanopia -- the lack of red light receptors in the eye -- and blood looks dark as a consequence.
  • Or the wounded character is being seen on a black-and-white TV monitor (perhaps an older security camera)
• Inverted: Blood is shown being far brighter a shade of red than possible in reality.
• Subverted: The black "blood" isn't really blood at all, and when characters do end up bleeding, it's normal red.
• Double Subverted: The black "blood" is a different substance, so we assume characters will still bleed red. However, once they really do get injured, their blood is still pitch black.
• Parodied: Blood in the series is frequently confused with oil.
• Deconstructed: The characters in the series suffer from severe anemia caused by iron deficiency; iron is what makes blood red, so their blood can appear black. The other symptoms of anemia cause the characters much suffering.
• Reconstructed: The art is highly stylized, with unrealistic colors used in many places for dramatic effect.
• Zig Zagged: It's a black liquid splattered or smeared somewhere, but the story keeps flipping views on whether it's blood or not.
• Averted:
  • Characters bleed. The blood is normal red.
  • Nobody is shown bleeding.
• Enforced: It's a family friendly show, and making the blood black lets them get away with some violence without getting too gruesome.
• Lampshaded: "Oh no, this blood is going to leave black stains everywhere!"
• Invoked: A character drinks some sort of chemical that will turn his blood black, knowing that he will soon die- he doesn't want to startle bystanders too much.
• Defied: A character makes sure to get enough iron, thus ensuring that his blood stays red.
• Discussed: "Isn't blood supposed to be red?" "Yeah." "So why is ours black?"
• Conversed: "That one show always shies away from showing blood, and now when they do, it's black? Come on!"

---

Back to Black Blood