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  • The checkered knights Telvin and Gedjind in Aegeroth: A Checkered History represent blue and red, respectively.
  • The Aubrey-Maturin novels feature a fun-loving Boisterous Bruiser and a rational, cold-blooded Awesomeness by Analysis type as True Companions.
  • Occurs in Animorphs, where violent, aggressive Visser Three (red) is strongly contrasted with patient, subtle Visser One (blue).
    • The hot-blooded and wild Rachel is a red oni. Her boyfriend Tobias is calmer and more reserved, and therefore a blue oni.
  • In The Atomic Bloodstained Bus, Garfield (red) and Algernon (blue) fit this trope.
  • Jack and Bob Shaftoe in Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle.
  • In Black Legion, Odd Friends Lheor and Khayon. The former is bloodthirsty World Eater warrior whose solution to most problems is killing. The latter is nostalgic and introspective Thousand Sons' sorcerer with Affably Evil attitude.
  • Buster Girls has "Buster Red" Ingrid and "Buster Blue" Eri. The former is a passionate redhead who always jumps into danger first to protect others with her fire powers. The latter is a cool, blue-haired beauty who usually acts as the team's tactician during fights and uses water and ice.
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: In the movie version, the Pevensie siblings can be differenced by this, with Peter and Lucy represented by Red, due to the fact that they are more intuitive, vibrant, determined, and, to an extent, more sensitive than Edmund and Susan, who are more logical, cold, and down to earth, represented by Blue. Also Peter and Lucy are more fair haired, while Edmund and Susan have dark hair.
    • The book's religious subtext intentionally organizes them as this too, since Peter and Lucy represent the better apostles, Peter being named after Apostle Peter, who was the first Leader of the Christian church after Christ ascended and Lucy representing Saint John, who had the most faith in Jesus, just like Lucy has the most faith in Aslan. On the other side, Edmund was intentionally made by the very own creator to represent Judas, the iconic betrayer, and Susan represents "Doubting Thomas", because she completely loses her faith in Aslan and Narnia, never reaching Aslan's Country (Heaven) again.
    • Fandom even sorted the four of them and agreed that the Pevensie children would actually be analogues for the four Hogwarts founders, as each sibling corresponds exactly to each founder, with Peter as Gryffindor, Susan as Ravenclaw, Edmund as Slytherin and Lucy as Hufflepuff. According to the below post, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs are warm Red, while Slytherins and Ravenclaws are cold Blue.
  • Coyote: Carlos "Rigil Kent" Montero (red), Wendy Gunther (blue).
  • Deltora Quest has Jasmine as the red to Barda's blue. Lief falls somewhere between the two, usually acting as the blue to Jasmine's extreme red, or red to Barda's 'older and wiser' blue.
    • You could also argue that the city of Del is the red to the city of Tora's blue.
  • The Dinosaur Lords has the two Grey Angels shown on-page as a Red (Raguel) and Blue (Uriel) Oni.
  • In Don Camillo, Peppone is Red to don Camillo's Blue, although sometimes they swap places.
  • In Dora Wilk Series, Odd Friendship of Miron and Joshua has one as Red and the other as Blue. Miron usually wants to charge head-on into danger and his magic is much more offensive, while Joshua's magic is based around healing and he prefers negotiating to fighting.
  • In Dracula, Van Helsing is the warm, intuitive Red to Seward's aloof and logic-focused Blue. However, this is just their outward personalities. Though Van Helsing is charismatic, eccentric and gregarious, he's also a highly intelligent academic and and Seward's stoicism is a mask for his sensitive and emotional inner nature.
  • Dune:
  • Though they're both Water Masters, Peter Almsey and Peter Scott from The Serpent's Shadow definitely count.
  • In the Elephant & Piggie book series, Piggie is red oni to Gerald's blue.
  • Fairytale Novels: Red-haired, energetic, and slightly impulsive Rose Brier is the red to her cold fish, black-haired, sensible sister Blanche's blue.
  • There are two red-blue pairs in Feliks, Net & Nika: Net - Feliks and Manfred - Golem Golem. Quite fitting, as Manfred was programmed by Net and Golem Golem was built by Feliks.
  • Diana and Billie from The Final Cut — passionate, hyper sexual Diana is the Red Oni to shy, reserved Billie's blue.
    • Loud, bossy director Richard is also the Red to gentle screenwriter Fay.
      • Violent, foulmouthed Claudia could also stand in for Richard.
  • Trish and Don's relationship in Finding Gaia is partly based on the partners' interest in each other's redness/blueness.
  • A very common interaction pattern for Glory in the Thunder. Hayr and Barsamin, Solornel and Rashk, Ismyrn and Katarosi...
  • Done on a cultural level in The Goblin Emperor, with goblins as the red and elves as the blue. Elves think of goblins as barbarians, goblins think of elves as cold-blooded snobs.
  • The book series The Guardians of Childhood has the hotblooded ex-Cossack bandit swordsman North as red, and the intellectual martial artist Bunnymund as blue.
  • In the series Gus And Waldo, we have a respective Blue and Red Oni as an anthropomorphic penguin gay couple.
  • Harry Potter:
    • The Marauders' group has two sets. James Potter and Sirius Black, represented by Red, are dark-haired, rash, prankish, and Hot-Blooded. Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew are calmer, quieter, and more collected than them, having blue traits.
    • Wizards (dangerous fantasy) and Muggles (relatively safe reality)
    • Gryffindors (hotblooded) and Ravenclaws (intellectual)
    • Hufflepuffs (just happy to be here) and Slytherins (ruthlessly ambitious)
    • Ron (emotional and passionate) and Hermione (intellectual and cool)
    • Harry himself is a heroic Red, who purposely chose Gryffindor (much like his father) because they were more sociable and optimistic and they valued friendship over achievement. Voldemort, the villainous Blue, was a Slytherin who only made allies for support. He hid his dark desires for many years until the right moment to strike.
    • The owls Pigwidgeon and Hedwig. Pig is a keet who annoys the hell out of Hedwig, and she makes a point of acting more dignified whenever he's being goofy.
    • The House-Elves Dobby and Kreacher. Dobby is outwardly friendly to Harry while Kreacher is cold and grumpy (at first).
    • Sisters, Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy come to mind as well. Bellatrix was a Psychopathic Manchild who was unforgivably evil with blind loyalty towards Voldemort. Narcissa, however, cared mostly for her family, serving Voldemort only from the sidelines until she ultimately betrayed him because Harry saved Draco.
  • In H. N. Turtletaub's Hellenic Traders series you have the extroverted, military-minded serial philandererer Menedemos and his cousin and partner the scholarly, more traditional-minded Sostratos.
  • The wild, chaotic, and mischievous Lyra Silvertongue from His Dark Materials is a Red Oni. In contrast, the calm, stoic Will Parry is a blue oni. Both complement each other wonderfully in this way. Although Will is a Blue Oni, he has tantrums more often.
  • In the Honor Harrington series, Nimitz is the Red Oni to Honor's blue. He's a direct and uncomplicated soul, who is emotionally open (as befits his species), and will obliterate any enemy that comes in reach (particularly doable when you're as formidably armed as he is). Honor is the cooler, less emotionally open (though she's not emotionless), and more intellectual and nuanced member of the pair. She, true to the trope, likes water while Nimitz (being a felinoid) doesn't. You also get a distinct Red/Blue flavor when Queen Elizabeth and Honor interact.
  • In Hours (2012), Pete is the charismatic extrovert who will leap to try anything he is physically capable of while his older brother Seth is the brilliant, quiet introvert.
  • In Death: When there's a pair of murderers, they will likely fall under this trope, like in Seduction In Death and Indulgence In Death. Would it surprise you to know that the Red Oni tends to be the weak spot of the two?
  • Jane Eyre: Edward Rochester and St. John Rivers. The themes of fire and water are also used to further symoblize the differences between the two.
  • Jeeves and Wooster: Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, respectively.
  • The Jennings series' two main characters, Jennings and Darbishire, follow this dynamic: Jennings is impulsive, brash, and extroverted (red), while Darbishire is calm, timid, and introverted (blue). The two main teachers can also be classified under this trope as Mr. Wilkins is a temperamental and emotional Jerk with a Heart of Gold (red) while admitted Author Avatar Mr. Carter is calm, reasonable, and intellectual (blue).
  • John Carter of Mars: In The Warlord of Mars, the Big Bad Duumvirate of Matai Shang and Thurid fit this. Matai Shang is blue, a cold-bloodedly arrogant Priest King of a Path of Inspiration whose primary motivation is regaining his faltering power; Thurid is a Proud Warrior Race Guy pirate lord who is primarily motivated by revenge on John Carter for publicly humiliating him.
  • Journey to Chaos: Revas is a hotblooded cat beastfolk who is quick to extend his claws, whether metaphorically or literally. Oito is a cool headed lizard beastfolk who is reasonable and remains calm in high stress situations. The former has red hair and the latter has blue scales.
  • Throughout the Kydd series, Thomas Kydd is the red to Nicholas Renzi's blue.
  • In Leviathan, Sweet Polly Oliver Deryn Sharp is the red to Blue Blood Prince Alek.
  • Lord Peter Wimsey: Male members of the Wimsey family throughout history has turned out either Red or Blue, according to their chronicler. From the other Wiki:
    "Most Wimseys were like the 16th Duke, and his father: 'Bluff, courageous, physically powerful' but not very intelligent; of hearty and voracious appetites of all kinds. They could be 'cruel, yet without malice or ingenuity.' The other type is physically slighter, smarter, with great nervous energy, and 'lusts no less powerful, but more dangerously controlled to a long-sighted policy.' These became churchmen, statesmen, traitors; but sometimes poets and saints.
    • Lord Peter, of course, is of the second type.
  • In The Lost Fleet, the competing advisors Rione and Desjani are this trope. Rione is a calculating, reserved politician with pragmatic motivations; Desjani is a bold military captain who believes their mission is divinely ordained. One of the protagonist's early challenges is mediating between the two.
  • In Lottie and Lisa, loud, bratty and carefree tomboy Luise is the Red to her calm, mature and obedient twin sister Lotte's Blue.
  • Malin Fors: In Den Femte Årstiden (The Fifth Season), Malin is the Red to a group of Blue male detectives. Especially when dealing with a sexually sadistic serial killer. The only other Red in her group is Waldemar Ekenberg, a principled thug who often steps over the line when interrogating the sort of perp who really makes him feel sick.
  • In Les Misérables, Enjolras the fiery revolutionary warrior (red—witness his trademark red vest in The Musical) and Combeferre the gentle progressive philosopher (blue) are presented as ideological foils. Personality-wise, however, the coldly chaste Enjolras is the blue oni to the earthy, loquacious Grantaire's red.
  • Mistborn: Brothers Kelsier and Marsh are red and blue respectively, with Kelsier as a cheerful, violent Con Man and Marsh as a reserved mole who never forgets that the people they kill are still human. Their approaches to taking down The Empire differ, but both change the course of the war. Marsh goes undercover as an office clerk/priest to gather information, and kills nine Steel Inquisitors in their sleep by gaining their trust. Kelsier kills only one in single combat, but inspires the commoners to rise up.
  • Monster Hunter International: Invoked literally in Monster Hunter Vendetta. The heroes have to defeat a pair of rampaging oni, one stronger and the other more devious, who attack a Heavy Metal concert.
  • The Mouse Watch pairs up Bernie Skampersky (an Action Girl mouse with Leeroy Jenkins tendencies) with Jarvis Slinktail (a timid, cautious Non-Action Guy rat).
  • The Neapolitan Novels: Elena and Lila have one such relationship. Elena is the blue (highly educated but a Shrinking Violet) to Lila's red (passionate, left school early). Elena feels inferior to Lila for having more passion to get what she wants while Lila is jealous of Elena's education allowing her to leave their poor hometown.
  • Orphans of the Sky: Joe-Jim the two-headed mutant has this dynamic with himself. Joe, the right-hand head, is stubborn, irritable, and proud. Jim, the left-hand head, is calmer and more contemplative. They mostly work in concert, but disagreements periodically crop up and require them to retire to a private argument until both heads are back on the same page.
  • The Outsiders: The difference between the greasers and the Socs is described as being that the Socs don't allow themselves to feel emotion, while the greasers feel emotions too violently.
  • Simona Ahrnstedt does this in Överenskommelser, dividing different couples into different "Onis". Beatrice and Seth are more rebellious and hot-tempered (red), while Sofia and Johan are more calm and laid-back (blue). Jacques and Vivienne, the second Beta Couple, is yet another hot-tempered red oni pairing.
    • "De skandalösa" has a similar set-up. Gabriel is an impulsive red oni. And while Magdalena tries to be a composed blue oni, she's really a hot-tempered red oni. Ossian and Beata are their more calm and laid-back blue oni Beta Couple. And we also get Venus, a sweet-natured and docile Proper Lady (blue), and Nora, an emotional Lady Drunk (red).
  • The rebellious, wild and chaotic Percy from Percy Jackson and the Olympians is without a doubt a red oni in his behavior. He comes into contact with blue oni three times. Annabeth Chase, Jason Grace and Luke Castellan.
  • In President's Vampire, hot-blooded Zach is usually red to calm, sulking Cade's Blue, but when Johann Konrad is concerned, the roles are reversed, with Zach trying to talk down bent-on-blood Cade.
  • The Questport Chronicles has the DuLac sisters, with Sabriel as the Blue Oni and Lirael as the Red.
  • Wesley Howard from Rain Reign is a hot-tempered mechanic, while his younger brother Weldon is more soft-spoken and works a "wuss job" at a desk.
  • In Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven. The Narrator/The Lonely man becomes the increasingly infuriated Red Oni to the silent and ominous Blue Oni Raven.
  • The Raven Cycle does this somewhat with the four main boys. Ronan is the red to Gansey's blue, but they contrast in that Ronan is more closed off from others while Gansey is more sociable, as well as obsessive, giving them some traits of the other color. Adam tries to be blue in order to fit into high society, but is ultimately red. Finally, calm, quiet is Noah blue, evening out the quartet.
    • The female protagonist, Blue, ironically plays the Red Oni to her mother's Blue Oni.
    • She and Adam also serve as Gansey's Red Oni when Ronan's not around.
  • The Reynard Cycle: Reynard and Isengrim respectively. Reynard is a thief with no respect for authority, is a borderline pyromaniac with a terrible temper (when unleashed), and favors the color red. Isengrim is from the icy north, is stoic (being almost supernaturally calm, cool, and collected), and has bright blue eyes.
  • Sense and Sensibility:
    • The Dashwood sisters: Stoic, sensible Elinor (blue) and passionate Marianne (red).
    • Sir John Middleton is jovial and outgoing (red), while his friend Colonel Brandon is silent and grave (blue).
  • Sherlock Holmes: Holmes is the cold, calm, cool intelligent Blue Oni to his friend's more emotional Red Oni.
  • The sons of Eärendil, Elrond and Elros in J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Silmarillion. Elros Tar-Minyatur was the Red Oni, Elrond was the Blue Oni. Elros became the first king of the Númenor and High King of Men, while Elrond became the wisest of all Ñoldor in Middle-Earth.
    • More Tolkienesque red-blue pairs:
      • Morgoth - Sauron
      • Tulkas - Manwë
      • Fëanor - Finarfin. Fingolfin was somewhere in-between. Hell, Fëanor was Red Oni to everyone.
      • Maedhros - Maglor
      • Túrin - Tuor
      • Saruman - Gandalf
      • Sam - Frodo
      • Pippin - Merry
      • Éomer - Aragorn
      • Boromir - Faramir
      • Edain - Noldor in general.
  • Jace Herondale from The Shadowhunter Chronicles is a red oni, while his friend Alec Lightwood is a blue oni.
    • Later you see Will Herondale as a red oni, and his friend Jem as a blue oni.
    • Emma Carstairs is a red oni, in contrast to Julian Blackthorn, the blue oni.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire. In addition to grandscale comparisons like the rapidly shifting seasons and entire royal families like the Targaryens and the Starks, this dynamic also carries out between several sets of important characters:
    • King Robert Baratheon (a real hedonist, leaves all the ruling to his court despite being king) and his Hand Eddard "Ned" Stark (well-meaning but also dutiful, knows the importance of taking harsh actions).
    • Brothers Jaime (rather thoughtless, loves fighting) and Tyrion (bookish, has a good mind for politics) Lannister.
    • Sisters Arya (wild and reckless tomboy) and Sansa (proper princess with a talent for dodging unwanted attention) Stark.
    • The wives of Robert and Ned, Cersei Lannister (overprotective of her kids, needlessly cruel to others, and overestimates herself) and Catelyn Stark (who knows to step back when it comes to her kids and is far kinder and wiser).
    • Brothers Oberyn (sex- and battle-hungry free spirit) and Doran (patient and calculating) Martell.
    • Brothers Renly (affable people-person) and Stannis (rigid and duty-bound) Baratheon.
  • Oliver and Roland in The Song of Roland in fact is pretty much the entire point of the poem.
  • In Space Marine Battles:
    • Among Ultramarines, Captain Sicarius is Red to Captain Agemann's Blue. While Cato is hot-blooded, prone to Chewing the Scenery and charging straight for the enemy, Severus is slower, likes to think things out and have worked-out tactic before comitting to the fight, not to mention that he's Combat Pragmatist while Cato practices Honor Before Reason.
    • Crimson Fists have Captain Cortez as Red and Chapter Master Cantor as Blue. Cantor has soft voice and commanding presence and bothers himself with mortal matters such as administration or politics, while Cortez is impatient, disdainful of mortals and fueled by The Power of Hate.
  • The Spectrum Game:
  • In The Spirit Thief, over-energetic, extrovert Eli is Red while calm, introvert Josef is Blue.
  • In The Star of the Guardians: the passionate, proud, ambitious Derek Sagan is Red and his Star-Crossed Lover Maigrey Morianna is Blue, as she's calm, reserved, and intuitive. They even wear matching colours. Interesting that, in her youth, Maigrey was Red to her brother Platus' Blue.
  • The two main characters from the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series, Lucsly and Dulmur, are blue and red, respectively. Both lean more intellectual, as required by their job, but Lucsly is stern and humorless and very rule-abiding, while Dulmur is more outgoing and lighthearted. True to form, Lucsly has to endure a crisis of faith, complete with a 10-Minute Retirement, when his deep-seated beliefs are called into question.
  • Star Wars Legends
    • The Thrawn Trilogy: The Big Bad Doomvirate consists of the blue Grand Admiral Thrawn and the red Jedi Master Joruus C'baoth. Thrawn is calculating, Affably Evil, a scarily good planner, appreciates art, respects his men and his Commander Contrarian, extremely pragmatic, and has a temper, but overall is A Lighter Shade of Grey compared to, well, any of the Empire's previous leaders. Also, he has blue skin. Joruus C'baoth is domineering, believes himself to always be entirely in the right, treats non Force-Sensitives like puppets, calls the Empire his Empire, flies into a violent rage at random, constantly rejects any authority but himself, and is insane. Joruus fell to the Dark Side long ago, and the Dark Side is often represented with red. The two are often at odds and Thrawn reliably comes off looking better.
    • Outbound Flight: The two highest-ranking people on the Trade Federation taskforce sent by Darth Sidious to destroy Outbound Flight are Kinsman Doriana and Viceroy Siv Kav. Kav is Red — he's impatient, he tries to attack Commander Thrawn's little picket force right away, he resists and blusters when Thrawn captures the two, he never learns to pronounce Thrawn's full name properly and continuously underestimates the commander, and he gets killed when he tries to kill Thrawn. Doriana is Blue and a foil, and not only does he live, he plants the seeds to Thrawn's joining the Empire.
  • Kyle from Statless and Tactless is the level, balanced player to Joe's sociopathic antics. They even have blue and red text.
  • In The Story of Valentine and His Brother, Valentine is naturally willful and struggles to keep his temper under control, while Dick is much more placid.
  • In Camus' The Stranger, the borderline-apathetic narrator Meursault is contrasted with the violent, passionate Raymond.
  • In The Sunne in Splendour this applies to King Edward IV and his favorite brother Richard. Handsome and affable Ned is hot-blooded, passionate and revels in his Decadent Court while Richard is cool, thoughtful and idealistic. Ironically, Ned is more pragmatic when it comes to politics while Richard has a strong case of Honor Before Reason.
  • Freelorn and Herewiss in Diane Duane's The Tale of the Five.
  • Most of the characters in These Words Are True and Faithful are one or the other, particularly the main characters and love interests, Ernie and Sam. Ernie is impulsive, boasts of relying on his gut feelings, and interprets events as signs that some things are just meant to be. Sam is methodical and interprets events as the workings of probability. At one point, Ernie accuses Sam of sticking his "rational, rigorous mind where it doesn't belong."
  • Tortall Universe (Protector Of The Small series, specifically) come Nealan of Que and Keladry of Mindelan. Neal personifies the Red with his poetry, wild emotions, and inability to suffer any injustice and Kel breathes Blue with her emotionless shell and refusal to let others get to her.
  • It's possible that a lot of the success of The Twilight Saga (Team Jacob and Team Edward, anyone?) is due to Stephenie Meyer's playing off two such extreme examples of Red Oni (Jacob) and Blue Oni (Edward) against each other as love interests.
  • Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir from Vampire Academy. Rose is passionate, defiant, often violent and impulsive. In contrast to the more obedient, reserved, and intellectual Lissa.
  • Warrior Cats:
    • Firestar is blue, as the responsible Clan member/leader who juggles his Clan's best interests with his compassion for the other Clans, and his best friend/deputy Graystripe is red, being a jokester and occasionally hot-headed. Ironically, Firestar is a red cat, while Graystripe is a gray one.
    • Firestar's love interests Sandstorm and Spottedleaf; Sandstorm is very blunt and quick to anger, while Spottedleaf is a gentle and nurturing medicine cat.
  • Watersong has a few groups:
    • Sisters Harper (neurotic and overprotective Red) and Gemma (calm but secretive Blue) Fisher.
    • The eldest of the sirens, Peisinoe/Penn (violent and controlling Red) and Thelxiepeia/Thea (rational and supportive Blue).
    • Harper and Gemma's boyfriends Daniel (grunge-type, sort of careless big brother mentor Red) and Alex (Nice Guy who is hypnotized by Gemma to be cold and distant Blue).
    • Librarians Lydia (peppy and helpful Red) and Marcy (who is so stoic and monotone it's hilarious Blue).
  • The Witch of Knightcharm: The necromancer twins (Alejandra and Julia Medina) are this at first. Julia is Red on account of being hot-heated and brash, while the Blue Alejandra is calmer, colder, and more methodical. However, once Morgan executes Julia, Alejandra becomes the rage-filled red oni, while the cold, still Julia fits the rule of the blue oni.
  • The Witchlands has a few of those:
    • Impulsive, self-confident Safi is Red to calm, almost demure Iseult's Blue.
    • When Safi's travelling with Vaness, she's Red and the Empress, who's patient and scheming, is Blue. Safi even notes that wherever she goes, she always ends up with a companion who's way calmer than she is.
    • Merik and Kullen. The former is infamous for his Hair-Trigger Temper, while the latter is more distanced and relaxed.

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