They’re supposed to be based off of the colors Cyan and Magenta, but they’re not even cyan and magenta. They’re both blue and red with yellow highlights. Zacian is slightly more pastel than zamazenta.... but that’s about it.

Zamazenta has no magenta on its design. You could argue that red and blue MAKES magenta (ignoring the yellow, of course)... but blue and green makes cyan, so by that logic Zacian should have green on its design— and it doesn’t. It’s still red, yellow and blue.

Zacian is a lighter blue, sure, but cyan is more green than that. However, i would let it slide if it wasn’t for the red on its design and the total lack of magenta on its counterpart’s.

Sure, the logos for sun and moon are a slightly lighter shade of blue and a slightly pinker shade of red, but not enough to invoke those names. If you saw those logos, you’d say they were red and blue, not cyan and magenta. Plus, the words “sword” and “shield” are clearly just a darker red and blue.

The team colors in Galar are red and blue too, not cyan and magenta.

If you’re gonna have two legendaries that are based on colors, then use those colors proudly. Make those the regional colors! Don’t make the legendaries have nearly identical color schemes when they’re supposed to represent completely different colors!

It’s like they were saying “magenta is close enough to red, so we can get away with it”. Or worse, they wanted the legendaries to be red and blue, and they don’t know anything about color theory, and they just figured cyan and magenta were shades of red and blue.

It’s yet another case of false advertising in Sword and Shield.

The ONLY thing I can think of so far that follows the color scheme is Team Yell wearing magenta...

It sounds like a really stupid nitpick, but I’m an animation student and I’m literally learning about character design and color theory — and this is just lazy, misleading work in general.

Basically, overall, this is the situation.

Tldr-

Sword and shield’s legendaries are based off of cyan and magenta, but those colors aren’t present in their color schemes at all. They’re red and blue.

Even the advertising and logos are red and blue.

The galar sports stadium colors are red and blue.

The colors for Pokémon sword and shield are red and blue, not cyan and magenta, the two colors the legendaries are named after.

Whoever made the legendaries either doesn’t understand color theory, or doesn’t care at all.