I think it's something to do with what Tolkien said about being dumb if you break a thing to find out how it works. So Saruman, who was all about knowledge and industrialization, split the white into many colors (like a prism does with white light) instead of just appreciating it.
Disclaimer: I don't know what I'm talking about
It's a sign of Saruman's hubris. He is no longer just Saruman *the white*, he is Saruman *of many colours*. Being only white is no longer enough, and he has broken the simple white into red, purple, yellow, green, blue, violet. To Saruman himself it means he now has more power, but it also means he has abandoned his original mission.
I guess since the colors of the robes of a wizard signify their rank/role,him allying with sauron means he renounced his rank and allegiance to the good guys and thus also renounced his “uniform” idk
There is speculation that it doesn't have to do with leader/power level, but rather the roles they should be doing/working on. Speculated by tolkien professor Corey Olsen. He had discusses and muses at length and taking all sources to try to find what the colors mean.
White light passed through a prism is broken into its many constituent colours, emphasis on *broken.* Saruman effectively declared that he's making a clean break from his original mission to defeat Sauron, in order to pursue his own goals.
If I recall, he also mentions that a white page can be overwritten. Thus, it is empty, hollow. Subservient to the forces that would mark it.
Gandalf counters that if that happens, it's no longer white (and thus no longer represents the purity that white does).
Haa i love these worlds colliding.. sad Balrog leaves the stage with a whip crack, writes 'Never going to back to the Shadow XOXO' in lipstick on the mirror
Galadriel: *exists*
Gimli: You're perfect 💯, you're beautiful 👰, you look 👀 like Linda Evangelista 💃. You're a model 💋 💅. Everything 🔁 about you ☞ is perfect 💯! Did you stone 💎 those tights 👢 ? Oh, you're smiling 👱 ! They eat 🍽 her up 🔝 EVERY🕛SINGLE🕧TIME🕗 she's on that damned 👹 flet **🍃**. She 😡ftsdbsds😣. She could walk 👣 out there in a fucking 😠 diaper 👶 and they'll 👥 be like 🗣: "Galadriel! 👰 Your smile 👄 is beautiful! 😍" /gen
My armor⛓️🤺 is like tenfold shields 🛡 My teeth🦷like swords⚔️ My claws 💅, spears 💃The shock😱 of my tail🍑 a thunderbolt⚡️. My wings 🦅 a hurricane🌪And my breath 🌬, DEATH ☠️💀 I’ve never had a sugar daddy 👨🏽if I wanted a sugar daddy👨🏽, yes I probably could go out and get one because I am what? SICKENING.🤒😷You could never have a sugar daddy, 👨🏽cause you are NOT. 👏🏻THAT. 👏🏼KIND. 👏🏽OF. 👏🏾GIRL. 👏🏿Baby everything I've had i've worked for and I've gotten myself. 💳💵💰I built myself from the ground ⬇️up ⬆️you fucking BITCH 🖕🏾😾*throws drink*🍸
I've always thought saruman had a "white" cloak, but if you look closer, it is pryzmatic or pearlescent. But you also could have tie-die sarumon or pride flag sauromon
This is what I imagined in my head. He appears white, but once the light hits him or his robes wrinkle, you can faintly notice the iridescence of his clothes. As if they're no longer white but are breaking down and now it looks like he only pretends to be white.
I always picture it that he has rainbow sparkles in his robes so when he shifts into the light he lights up a like rainbow. Or Saruman was doing a magical robe change in front of him
In defense of PJ, the way the robes are described would probably be a little difficult to do on film, though maybe not impossible. It’s basically only revealed to be many colors upon close inspection but looks white otherwise.
It would have been cool to do like an iridescent sheen on his robes but only once they go inside the tower and Saruman starts to explain his intentions to Gandalf.
i like what bakshi did where he just made saruman red for no reason and had him do badass 70s northern lights special effects in gandalf’s general direction
Don’t forget the 1978 animated film’s version of him. His beard reaches down to the hem of his robe, and his robe is red, making him a hippy santa claus.
People don’t get this. He is like a rainbow bleeding into white. The many colors thing is a sign of duplicity.
He is a false white. Gandalf is true white (magic intention not race).
Sarumans a big stinky hypocrite who tries to shame Gandalf for his love of the halflings leaf despite having a secret stash of weed
Saruman the kind of guy who grows his own weed then votes against legalizing it
Thou thrall! The price thou askest is but small for treachery and shame so great! I grant it surely! Well, I wait. Come! Speak now swiftly and speak true!
It was red and yellow and green and brown
And scarlet and black and ochre and peach
And ruby and olive and violet and fawn
And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve
And cream and crimson and silver and rose
And azure and lemon and russet and grey
And purple and white and pink and orange
And red and yellow and green and brown and blue.
Saruman denounced Gandalf for his love of the Halfling Leaf and Radaghast for his love of Mushrooms.
Then Saruman leapfrogged the both of them, jumping straight into Meth.
It's not likely that Gandalf couldn't see that Saruman's robe went from white to colorful. When I read it first I thought that it may not look clearly like his robes were of many colors, but it transformed into a sort of iridescent texture, like when the light hit it, you could look at the white cloth and see all the colors of the rainbow, and Gandalf, talking close to him, suddenly noticed it wasn't JUST white anymore, but all colors.
Saruman and the Technicolor dream coat
How he loved his robe of many colours!
It was red and yellow and green and brown.
Love this. I loved Joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat when I was a kid, and lotr has always been my favorite, that's amazing
I had a feeling this would be at the top.
Tolkien wrote all those songs because he wanted to write a musical
Was waiting for this reply.
Literally the "ugliest dress" challenge too xD
Saruman Chacki. The voice of Saruman reading Gandalf down.
I still dont understand why Saruman was a rainbow wizard all of a sudden. Can someone explain?
I think it's something to do with what Tolkien said about being dumb if you break a thing to find out how it works. So Saruman, who was all about knowledge and industrialization, split the white into many colors (like a prism does with white light) instead of just appreciating it. Disclaimer: I don't know what I'm talking about
Still makes sense though.
It's a sign of Saruman's hubris. He is no longer just Saruman *the white*, he is Saruman *of many colours*. Being only white is no longer enough, and he has broken the simple white into red, purple, yellow, green, blue, violet. To Saruman himself it means he now has more power, but it also means he has abandoned his original mission.
As a (un)certified Tolkienologist, I like your interpretation.
How did you get uncertified?
By liking this interpretation. Times are hard for all of us
True enough, true enough.
I guess since the colors of the robes of a wizard signify their rank/role,him allying with sauron means he renounced his rank and allegiance to the good guys and thus also renounced his “uniform” idk
Ok, that’s a clear answer. Thank you.
Wait a moment! We shall meet again soon. Tell Saruman that this dainty is not for him. I will send for it at once. Do you understand?
U got defeated by frodo, lol what a bitch
I was just about to ask if the colors of a wizard have any sort of significance, other than white being the leader/most powerful
There is speculation that it doesn't have to do with leader/power level, but rather the roles they should be doing/working on. Speculated by tolkien professor Corey Olsen. He had discusses and muses at length and taking all sources to try to find what the colors mean.
White light passed through a prism is broken into its many constituent colours, emphasis on *broken.* Saruman effectively declared that he's making a clean break from his original mission to defeat Sauron, in order to pursue his own goals.
There is no light, Arkell-v-Pressdram, that can defeat darkness.
If I recall, he also mentions that a white page can be overwritten. Thus, it is empty, hollow. Subservient to the forces that would mark it. Gandalf counters that if that happens, it's no longer white (and thus no longer represents the purity that white does).
In Deep Geek (YouTube channel) just recently did a really good vid on this exact question, would highly recommend.
Saruman the Ally
Saruman and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
All I can think of now is technicolour manic pixie Saruman.
Saruman the Wise has ever been our Friend and Ally
Gandalf, as he lowered his staff in defiance of the Balrog: **SASHAY! AWAY!**
Haa i love these worlds colliding.. sad Balrog leaves the stage with a whip crack, writes 'Never going to back to the Shadow XOXO' in lipstick on the mirror
Balrog walking backwards off the runway like: Miss Baaalrog... Miss *Baaaaaalrogg*....
She already balrog herses
NOT TODAY, BALROG, NOT TODAY!
Frodo: There are markings... some form of Elvish. I can't read it. Gandalf Del Rio: **ILLITERATE!!**
Fool of a Took, what do you do successfully? Quickly!
"AND I SHALL DIE AS ONE OF THEM!!" "...your tone seems very pointed right now."
Gandalf: Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the King! Denethor: 
Witch King: No man can kill me! Eowyn: 
Galadriel: *exists* Gimli: You're perfect 💯, you're beautiful 👰, you look 👀 like Linda Evangelista 💃. You're a model 💋 💅. Everything 🔁 about you ☞ is perfect 💯! Did you stone 💎 those tights 👢 ? Oh, you're smiling 👱 ! They eat 🍽 her up 🔝 EVERY🕛SINGLE🕧TIME🕗 she's on that damned 👹 flet **🍃**. She 😡ftsdbsds😣. She could walk 👣 out there in a fucking 😠 diaper 👶 and they'll 👥 be like 🗣: "Galadriel! 👰 Your smile 👄 is beautiful! 😍" /gen
My armor⛓️🤺 is like tenfold shields 🛡 My teeth🦷like swords⚔️ My claws 💅, spears 💃The shock😱 of my tail🍑 a thunderbolt⚡️. My wings 🦅 a hurricane🌪And my breath 🌬, DEATH ☠️💀 I’ve never had a sugar daddy 👨🏽if I wanted a sugar daddy👨🏽, yes I probably could go out and get one because I am what? SICKENING.🤒😷You could never have a sugar daddy, 👨🏽cause you are NOT. 👏🏻THAT. 👏🏼KIND. 👏🏽OF. 👏🏾GIRL. 👏🏿Baby everything I've had i've worked for and I've gotten myself. 💳💵💰I built myself from the ground ⬇️up ⬆️you fucking BITCH 🖕🏾😾*throws drink*🍸
I've always thought saruman had a "white" cloak, but if you look closer, it is pryzmatic or pearlescent. But you also could have tie-die sarumon or pride flag sauromon
This is what I imagined in my head. He appears white, but once the light hits him or his robes wrinkle, you can faintly notice the iridescence of his clothes. As if they're no longer white but are breaking down and now it looks like he only pretends to be white.
Saruman and the technicolor coat
Saruman the Gay
Uruk-haaaayy
We don’t claim him!
https://preview.redd.it/5a978uqdjzjc1.jpeg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=32c54593c3cbd2f7e59c28fc1222216002ae4e3b Do not let him speak!
Radagast the Brown! Radagast the bird-tamer! Radagast the unfashionable!
I always picture it that he has rainbow sparkles in his robes so when he shifts into the light he lights up a like rainbow. Or Saruman was doing a magical robe change in front of him
Thanks to you I just imagined Christopher Lee doing a Sailor Moon like transformation and now I‘m sharing this thought with the world.
I'm mad at myself for not coming up with this one. 😂😂😂
PJ probably read this part and said "nop, he's gonna stay white". Good idea!
In defense of PJ, the way the robes are described would probably be a little difficult to do on film, though maybe not impossible. It’s basically only revealed to be many colors upon close inspection but looks white otherwise. It would have been cool to do like an iridescent sheen on his robes but only once they go inside the tower and Saruman starts to explain his intentions to Gandalf.
i like what bakshi did where he just made saruman red for no reason and had him do badass 70s northern lights special effects in gandalf’s general direction
Probably because rainbow robes would be really hard to do on film without looking stupid. Whereas you can imagine anything you want.
Omg more LotR/Drag Race memes, plz
Saruman the slaaaay
Oh no he betta *bring those hobbits to Isengard*. 
Saruman of many colours and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
"I liked white better..."
Gandalf the Sassy
Don’t forget the 1978 animated film’s version of him. His beard reaches down to the hem of his robe, and his robe is red, making him a hippy santa claus.
His voice when he said Saruman of many colors haunts my nightmares
People don’t get this. He is like a rainbow bleeding into white. The many colors thing is a sign of duplicity. He is a false white. Gandalf is true white (magic intention not race).
I bet more do than you think
Have you seen how many people comment on the movies vs the books on this sub? Nothing wrong with preferring either but information is definitely lost.
Sarumans a big stinky hypocrite who tries to shame Gandalf for his love of the halflings leaf despite having a secret stash of weed Saruman the kind of guy who grows his own weed then votes against legalizing it
Well, obviously he doesn’t smoke the stuff. He just sells it. You can’t get high on your own supply.
Ian McKellen: perks right up
Saruman the Fabulous
"I liked white better," -Gandalf
What does Sauron think of this?
Come, mortal base! What do I hear? That thou wouldst dare to barter with me? Well, speak fair! What is thy price?
Where do you reside now Sauron?
Thou thrall! The price thou askest is but small for treachery and shame so great! I grant it surely! Well, I wait. Come! Speak now swiftly and speak true!
Saruman the fabulous
It was red and yellow and green and brown And scarlet and black and ochre and peach And ruby and olive and violet and fawn And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve And cream and crimson and silver and rose And azure and lemon and russet and grey And purple and white and pink and orange And red and yellow and green and brown and blue.
Saruman denounced Gandalf for his love of the Halfling Leaf and Radaghast for his love of Mushrooms. Then Saruman leapfrogged the both of them, jumping straight into Meth.
Saruman the Fabulous
When I first read that, I envisioned something pearlescent/iridescent I still do
Saruman the Proud!
Saruman serving iridescent realness
Saruman: I have never done anything wrong in my entire life Grima: I know this, and I love you
Rupauls Drag Race: Middle Earth coming soon
When Gandalf is in the tower 
PJ probably read this part and said "nop, he's gonna stay white". Good idea!
Like gasoline. Looks awesome when it spreads, but taints galleons of water
Saruman became an ally
more like saru-like-men amirite
I saw through the window, they was in white robes... 🚂
Saruman the RGB
*Zat thraka akh… Zat thraka grishú. Znag-ur-nakh.*
It's not likely that Gandalf couldn't see that Saruman's robe went from white to colorful. When I read it first I thought that it may not look clearly like his robes were of many colors, but it transformed into a sort of iridescent texture, like when the light hit it, you could look at the white cloth and see all the colors of the rainbow, and Gandalf, talking close to him, suddenly noticed it wasn't JUST white anymore, but all colors.
I never understood that line when watching the cartoons as a kid