I can't be alone here...

[Mellow Ezlo]

So, I got into a heated argument with somebody recently regarding the colour of Toon Zelda's hair. The opposition insisted that her hair was yellow through-and-through, but I have always had a hard time seeing it as anything other than green. I will provide some examples to back this up.

So, first off, here is her in-game character model in a scene from the Gamecube version of The Wind Waker, as Tetra:

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It certainly could be the lighting, but I definitely see her hair as being green in colour, especially in the section that is under a shadow.

To further back this up, here is some official artwork from the same game:

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Once again, I see her hair as green, though I can admit to there being a yellow tinge to it. The part that is in shadow, though, similar to the image above, is all green.

Now we get into a more defined version of her character model from the HD re-release of The Wind Waker, this time in her Toon Zelda form:

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Even with the refined textures and colours, I still have a hard time seeing her hair as being anything other than green. But still, even with that image, the opposition in my argument saw it as yellow in colour. What could I be missing here?

The next image is of Zelda's character model from Spirit Tracks:

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By this time, the concept of Toon Zelda had been well established within the series, so making her hair green must have been a conscious decision.

But then there's a problem, as presented in the following image of Tetra's character model in Phantom Hourglass:

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In the above image, Tetra's hair looks distinctly less green than in her appearance in all versions of The Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks, as I do see the colour of her hair in that image to be yellow. However, her skin is also noticeably more tan, which could be from being on a ship for several months and therefore receiving a lot of exposure to the sun, or it could just be a different character designing colouring her and being unsure what colour her hair actually was supposed to be.

The next image is more official artwork, this time as Zelda appears in The Minish Cap:

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Regardless of what colour her hair actually is in this image, there is a very obvious green tint at the very least, and in my eyes it appears more green than yellow.

The following two images are of Tetra and Toon Zelda as they appear in Hyrule Warriors:

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These two images present her hair as predominantly green, though I do acknowledge the ambiguity surrounding the canonity Hyrule Warriors. Still, if the character designers for that game were working closely with Nintendo to get the models correct, then there should be a reason her hair appears green.

Lastly, here is just a collection of images of Toon Zelda and Tetra in different scenarios:

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compared to Toon Link's hair, which is very obviously blonde:

Anyway, this argument may seem pointless, but it spawned a massive discussion and argument between me and my friend, and I am really curious to see what you guys think.

So, tell me, is Tetra/Toon Zelda's hair yellow or green?

 

[el :BeoWolf:]

It's yellow. Though a couple of the official art works do have a slight yellow green quality it's all yellow.

 

[ExLight]

some pics are chartreuse yellow and some are green-yellow

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

I think I'll go w/ team green on this

 

[Echolight]

I see green with a tiny tint of yellow. So, green it is!

I don’t see how someone could just see yellow though

 

[funnier6]

Tristan you need a life

 

[Azure Sage]

I do think it’s got a few green tints in there but the dominant color is absolutely yellow. She’s a blonde with a slight tinge of green.

 

[Kirino]

Differences in perception such as this are fairly common. The specific wavelength of the light is objective, but the color that we personally perceive it as is subjective and can vary from person to person. There can often be ambiguity, especially with colors that are so close to each other on the spectrum (such as orange and yellow, or yellow and green). So no one is necessarily right or wrong.

Personally, I see it as yellow in virtually all of the images. If I try, I can see a couple of them as green, especially the Hyrule Warriors ones. In any case, I think the intention is for her to have yellow hair given the color in other games. So if it looks green, then I would assume it's unintentional, and maybe a side-effect of how it's cell-shaded.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

I see yellow personally, but it's definitely a subjective topic. I actually brought this topic up in the ZD Discord and someone brought up her hair is kind of like that green yellow crayon.

I have to agree, I see her hair being yellow and then in the darker areas due to shadowing it's green yellow.

 

[Princess Niki]

I say yellow but my vote goes to you need a life dude

Love ya Mezlo

 

[VikzeLink]

It's yellow to me. But different people see colors slightly differently some times. For example, Goombas look red to me, but everyone keeps telling me they're brown

 

[Fraxinus]

It's green.

 

[GrooseIsLoose]

Naturally, hair can be blonde yellow but cannot be green. Also, I like the Zelda with yellow hair rather than the green hair so I voted yellow. So ye-...Hey!It's yellow in this emote too!

 

[Sheikah_Witch]

I’m colorblind so I have little to no say in this topic but it’s yellow

 

[Krazy4Krash]

It looks Neon Yellow to me, like the official Joy-Con colour or a high-vis vest.

Joy-Con:

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Vest:

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