i've been thinking

because avery's skin is green and derlord's skin is red and the yellow king. is. uh.

okay so here's the crux of the theory:

Green is Avery's color.

New growth. Springtime, plants, sprouts

When you say someone is new to something, you say they're green.

but green also means Go, which, in essence, is what Avery does.

it's what he never stops doing, it is the very essence of his character:

He persists even in the face of all the warnings derlord gives him, continues even when he doesn't know what else to do.

he digs through netherite with his bare hands.

spend's new year's eve alone so he can save someone he doesn't even know.

the personification of resolve.

in the face of cosmic horror, all he can see is right in front of him, and all he can do is to move forward.

Red is derlord3's color.

red may be blood, or passion, or love,

which is how he operates: in the face of his new, powerful knowledge

his first thought is to warn that future person to stay away

on instinct, he protects.

Mainly though, i think it's on derlord because of his methodical approach:

he stops and thinks. When he approaches a problem, he does what he can to think through it.

He spends hours decoding, notices minute details,

his character literally stops moving when he starts thinking through something.

as for the yellow king,

Yellow, in the predominant color theory, is the color of rot.

Stagnation. That might be what the King in Yellow symbolizes-- the pure form of entropy.

Complete and utter spoilage.

chaos god.

That is the evil of this world, when you stop without moving forward,

but more importantly, and apropos to our traffic light analogy

a yellow light doesn't necessarily mean "slow down",

it means "make a choice".

you choose: speed up or stop. red or green.

In the end, after all, Derlord looks yellow straight in the eye