You make it sound complicated! lol

I only use the wet paper towel method when I'm using old seed stock. Because the germination rate is lower with older seeds, I want to see which seeds are viable before I plant them in soil so I'm not wasting my time. But if I've just bought some brand new seeds, say a pack of 10 or 12, I'll fill a pot with soil for each seed, push the seeds into the soil and water it, then place a bag over the top of the pots to keep the moisture in- simple.

The only colour change I see in germinating seeds is that their shells get darker because they're wet, that's all. They swell up a little too. The colour's not important, don't worry about it.