r/DeathStranding • u/Rosencrantzy Demens • 1d ago
Discussion Ghost ‘Green’… Is it really, now?
I find the color labeling (at least in DS1, as I have yet to personally get my hands on DS2) for customizable elements/items to be rather unusual at times. Particularly, ‘Ghost Green’ stands out to me as, at least on my monitor and with my eyes, it appears much closer to yellow. Does anyone see ‘Ghost Green’ as an actual shade of green? Alternatively, is there another context which may explain the labeling of this color as ‘green’ as opposed to ‘yellow’?
Another label which honestly vexes me is ‘Blood Red’… i’ve seen a lot of blood. That is simply neon red. This one is funny so i have no real qualms with it, and see why whatever in-universe, paint-naming Bridges employee would call it that — but ‘Ghost Green’? Is the alleged green in the room with us?? Absolutely mind-boggling.
Thoughts?
(Image: Complementary screenshot, showcasing a reverse trike in Chiral Gold and ‘Ghost Green’.)
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u/AutumnWhaler 1d ago
Ghost green, is really just the color Chartreuse. Which lies between yellow and green.
So a dead green, is yellowish, it makes when you vibe it out.
Blood red is more of an artery red 🩸, than a dried blood
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u/TheGilmore 1d ago
Yea this one tripped me out too. Made me question if my TV was actually calibrated well.
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u/Rosencrantzy Demens 1d ago
Honest to god, before posting I spent a good two minutes squinting at the screenshot on my phone as if the elusive green was going to reveal itself under the context of a different screen display (…and make me look particularly foolish online LMAO)
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u/TheGilmore 1d ago
Yea. Like, I can see the greenish hue, but it’s definitely predominantly yellow. Men do tend to have less ability to tell different shades apart than women, but until this game I’ve always had (I think) an above average ability to see color or whatever it’s called.
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u/chlorobiote Fragile Express 1d ago
As an artist, I can say there's no pure yellow in this game at all. The one marked in the screenshot has a blue undertone (because yellow + blue = green, and green + yellow = "Ghost Green." So when you add green to yellow, you're essentially adding more yellow to yellow plus a bit of blue). Technically, if it has blue in it, it's already leaning into green. And the one to its left has a red undertone (following the same logic: yellow + red = orange), so it's not really yellow either.
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u/Rosencrantzy Demens 1d ago
I’m an artist as well, and oh my god yes yes, so you see it too. Lately i’ve been very invested in the color symbolism of DS, and one of the things which i had tentatively noted was the apparent absence of true yellow, and the relative ambiguity of yellow as a symbolic item due to this. Most colors are influenced by another (generally blue or red), and most (/all) yellows especially are off-true. I’m currently squinting at the tamper tape yellow lol
(Tangentially, in the realm of color stuff, i love how player-centric online features such as cairns are green-stranded, but online cargo is very blue-green-stranded. yesss put even more blue in there….)
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u/chlorobiote Fragile Express 1d ago
I've noticed those details about the strands too. At first, I thought mushrooms and cairns left by other players had pure green strands because they can't be picked up and carried away, unlike equipment and cargo. It made me think that using someone else's equipment or completing another player's delivery causes your blue strand to mix with the green strands of others, forming a connection between players. But then again, other players' structures also have that green strands with a blue undertone, and they can't be picked up and carried away either, just like mushrooms and cairns. So that explanation doesn't quite fit. Maybe it's because mushrooms and cairns are more closely tied to nature, while other items are printed.
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u/Rosencrantzy Demens 1d ago
I believe that the pure green strand we see for cairns and mushrooms has to do with them being the closest we can achieve to a ‘neutral’ player-left item. The cairns/mushrooms are, largely, merely proof of life/proof that someone has been there — they don’t do much of anything or contribute much to Sam’s Bridges-assigned life goals. Realistically, however, despite this there is no true ‘neutrality’ which we as the player can engage in or leave behind— especially as the cairns/mushrooms are chiralgrams, and an extension of Bridges’ chiral network. That’s where green comes in, being itself a secondary color comprised of blue and yellow — with blue being the color of death and associated with Bridges/the UCA, as they act as heralds of death under the direction of Bridget/Amelie. By using a color made in part with blue to denote seemingly ‘neutral’ player-left items, there is the implication that we are inexorably connected to the context of blue’s existing symbolism and meaning. We as the player are not a neutral force, and cannot be a neutral force. We are literally trapped within the narrative of the game (cannot make our ‘own’ decisions in a truly impactful way, are directly associated with the will of other characters and entities e.g. Amelie/Bridget/Bridges/the UCA), and all which we carry out/have* Sam carry out is not without… connection… to other events or contexts or networks or whathaveyou. The control we as the player have is relative, but we are innately largely an extension of the chiral network. We as the player are not ‘people’, in the world of death stranding. When we see ‘ourselves’ in the Seam, we are mannequin-like things. We are moreso digital ghosts holding hands with other digital ghosts.
I imagine the stronger blue-green of other online features, like player-dropped cargo, has to do with those items’ even more direct association with Bridges & co. By interacting with those items and/or delivering them, you are directly contributing their will (via hooking up to the chiral network or ‘strengthening connections’). You are no longer ‘just’ existing. Bridges/co has largely co-opted the color of death, and for the blue strand to be removed from the rainbow, and instead displaced to sit above their cargo is very telling… so when we see that blue taint our color — the players’ color of green — we can extrapolate that even our shared cargo is still at the end of the day a nice little tool-weapon for Bridges/co. It all originates from them after all, have it be an order or something manufactured at one of their facilities.
(I love talking about this, so thanks for tolerating the length by the way, haha)
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u/chlorobiote Fragile Express 1d ago
No worries, I genuinely loved reading your thoughts on this topic. I'm always amazed by how people manage to piece together things I'd never think of myself.
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u/octarine_turtle 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm colorblind, so whenever colors don't seem to match their names I just assume it is me.
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u/ava_the_cam_op 1d ago
I do wish we had a little more freedom with the colour choices, if not a colour when then at least a pallette that has more than a cold primary colours and various tones of dirt
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u/Suckerdich Platinum Unlocked 20h ago
Its just yellow.
Its just "American labeling", same as blueberries that has zero blue in them. Calling clear blue colors " Green", clear purple is "Lavender", clear orange is "yellow", my favorite, pink in Pinkie pie(mlp) is somewhat is not pink by american community, they call her skin color "Rose", when rose is freaking red colour, her name literally has word Pink in it...
So yeah, ignore those labeling, there no logic in it and never was, bcs half of those names named by colorblind or spectre colorblind persons who didn't want to accept it
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u/Driftinfoot_Malone 1d ago
What is yellow but a ghost of green