Red Oni, Blue Oni/Real Life

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Examples of Red Oni, Blue Oni in Real Life include:

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Other Examples

  • Hard drinking, hard fighting Christopher Marlowe was the Red Oni to William Shakespeare's Blue Oni.
  • Protestant "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth I was the Blue Oni to Catholic, several times married (and possible conspirator in one husband's murder) Mary Queen of Scots' Red Oni.
  • Model company Tamiya has a logo consisting of two white stars; one on a red background, one on a blue background. And indeed, the red star stands for passion and the blue one for precision.
  • During the Cold War, communist countries were represented by a red star, symbolizing the passion associated with revolution and subversion of "the system", while capitalist ones were associated with the color blue, representing the "cold" and calculating nature of the capitalist ethos.
    • Inverted in American revolution, where the British already had red uniforms and the revolutionaries were left with blue (when they had uniforms, anyway).
    • Now in the USA, Red represents Republican states or regions, Blue represents Democratic states or regions. This is an inversion of the "Tory blue" and "left-wing red" of the Commonwealth.
      • An interesting case as this is both played straight as far social issues go, and inverted as far as economics. The red Republicans are as a whole more passionately religious, containing the Christian right, and supportive of laws pushing a certain moral view point, and also support gun rights and are more likely to be War Hawks. Democrats on the other hand support a live and let live mentality concerning social rights, except when it comes to supporting gun control, and are more likely to be Peace Doves. Economically, however, Republicans tend to be staunch supporters of the free market and capitalism, a colder more logical approach, whereas Democrats support a more touchy-feely approach that involves government intervention in the form of taxation to support welfare and works programs.
      • The colors were arbitrarily changed around until the 2000 presidential election, where Tim Russert started talking about "red states" and "blue states" and the monikers stuck.
      • Came to a head in the 2008 elections with No-Drama Obama and Maverick McCain, or at least, that's what the parties and media went with.
    • And reversed in the United Kingdom and Canada, where the main left-leaning parties (Labour and Liberals, respectively) are identified by the colours red and yellow, while their opponents in the Conservative Party are identified by blue. In this case, the use of red is derived from the socialist and social democratic associations of each party, while blue was traditionally associated with the monarchy and other such traditional institutions.
  • Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Coca-Cola has survived by its aggressive and continual marketing campaign and bright, memorable advertisements, is incredibly popular, and is sold in red cans. Pepsi has a much more subtle presence in marketing and is sold in blue cans. On the other hand, Pepsi is totally the Red Oni, in spite of the can color. When their ads do show up, they're all about aggressively taking potshots at Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola's marketing generally involves adorable polar bears quietly enjoying a refreshing Coke.
    • This is even true for the way both taste: Pepsi has been described as being extremely sweet, almost aggresively so, while Coca-Cola is alot more mellow. The differences in taste has led to them preforming differently on various kinds of taste tests.
  • Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the two famous Progressive-era Presidents. They aren't color-coded, but they fit the personalities well and the colors associated with their modern day parties.
    • Theodore Roosevelt is also the Red Oni towards his Secretary of War and Presidential successor William Howard Taft, who was definitely the Blue Oni. The boisterous TR was also the Manly Man to Taft's Sensitive Guy (that's right, folks, TR was such a Manly Man that he was more of a Red Oni than his own Secretary of War!). TR endorsed Taft to succeed him in the 1908 election, but soon grew impatient and dissatisfied with the Taft administration and ended up running against him, first in the GOP primaries, and then running with a brand new party of his own creation when he lost the primaries.
  • Admirals Halsey and Spruance who regularly exchanged commands of the Central Pacific subtheater in World War II. Halsey was the Red Oni and Spruance the Blue Oni
  • The colors are already there for the Republican and Democratic parties, but several American politicians fit this surprisingly well.
    • John McCain is the Red Oni to Barack Obama's Blue Oni. The 2008 election played this out to the book.
    • McCain was also a Red Oni to Mitt Romney's Blue Oni, and Obama played Blue Oni to Hillary Clinton's Purple Oni (some Red Oni traits, some Blue Oni traits) during the respective primaries. Mike Huckabee was arguably another Red Oni, although he doesn't fit it quite as well as McCain (Huckabee is often just as fiery when talking about issues, but otherwise seems quite personable, even to opponents, so he doesn't quite fit the Red Oni designation as well as McCain). So perhaps he'd be a Green Oni?
    • Speaking of Mitt Romney, as of the 2012 Republican primaries, he's now the Blue Oni to ALL the other candidates' Red Onis! And not surprisingly, within the Republican Party, those who favor the Blue Oni approach to campaigning--i.e. focus on the economy and don't bother with the fiery and divisive "culture wars" issues--seem to be lining up behind Romney, while those Republicans who favor the Red Oni approach, where the "culture war" issues are front-and-center, are divided between Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Oddly enough, there's also a second category of Red Oni in this year's GOP primaries: Representative Ron Paul and his supporters, who, interestingly enough, support a platform that avoids the "culture wars" issues, which should put them in the Blue Oni category, if not for the fact that they are so loudly passionate about it that Ron Paul and his supporters' approach is definitely Red Oni, despite the fact that their actual platform seems more suited to Blue Onis.
    • Sarah Palin is also a Red Oni to Obama's Blue Oni; McCain would also play Blue Oni to Palin, but only really in comparison. Similarly, Joe Biden is the Red Oni to Obama's Blue.
    • George W. Bush, Red Oni to Al Gore's Blue Oni.
    • Bush was also a Red Oni to Dick Cheney's Blue Oni.
    • The 2012 Presidential election has rivals Rick Perry, a Red Oni, and Mitt Romney, a Blue Oni, Michele Bachmann, another Red Oni, and Newt Gingrich, another Red Oni. Herman Cain and Rick Santorum have both Red Oni and Blue Oni qualities, and Ron Paul would be a Yellow Oni. The winner of the primary will go up against Obama the Blue Oni in the general election.
  • The 2012 Olympic mascots.
  • South Korea's flag is the yin-yang with blue and red instead of the usual white and black.
    • South Korea itself is the restrained, well-behaved sibling of the boisterous, blustering North.
  • Unsurprisingly, siblings can be like this. This is especially pronounced when they're twins, or when there are only two children in a family. For larger families, there may be more than one red/blue sets.
  • Jon Stewart is the Blue Oni to Stephen Colbert's Red Oni.
    • Lampshaded in the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, in which Stewart rallied for "sanity" while Colbert rallied for "fear".
  • L.A. street gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, wore blue and red bandannas, respectively, to distinguish themselves. Whether either group tended to be more emotional and hot-tempered, though, is up for debate.
  • Swedish monarch Gustavus Adolphus and his chancellor Axel Oxienstierna, at least in Hollywood History. An anecdote has an exasperated Gustavus telling Oxienstierna "If it wasn't for me, this country would be frozen solid!" and Oxienstierna calmly replying "And if it wasn't for me, it would be burnt to ashes."
  • Queen Elizabeth II is the blue oni - blue is her favorite color and all - since she is so prim and proper, always practical and no-nonsense. Her late sister Margaret was the red oni. Which one is the Tomboy and which one the Girly Girl is harder to determine.
    • Elizabeth was the tomboy because she is technically an army officer.
  • Another example of siblings fitting this: the Gyllenhaals. Look at their film roles and their offscreen personalities: Maggie Gyllenhaal is the Red Oni and Jake Gyllenhaal is the Blue Oni.
  • There are two main different types of personality that define this trope - Red Oni is extrovert and Blue Oni is introvert.
  • Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger. Feynman was rough, energetic, informal, and uncouth. Schwinger was dignified, reserved, formal, and proper. They took completely different approaches to quantum electrodynamics and came up with essentially the same solutions. They (along with Sin-Itiro Tomonaga) shared a Nobel Prize for this work in 1965.
  • In Australian Politics, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott plays the Red Oni to the Blue Oni of Prime Minister Julia Gillard (and her immediate predecessor Kevin Rudd).
  • World War II era Generals George Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower fit this quite well, with Patton being the Hot-Blooded and gruff Red Oni and Eisenhower being the careful and calm Blue Oni
    • In a similar case is Patton and Montgomery. Patton who is an aggressive newbie, and eager to get to the front while Monty is a reserved veteran and has more experience in fighting the Germans.
    • In yet another case, Patton vs Rommel. Again, Patton was the red oni while Rommel was the blue one. The Hot-Blooded Patton even named Rommel a calm Magnificent Bastard.
  • Among America's founding fathers, there are several examples, but the most prominent is John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Adams was obnoxious and passionate, while Jefferson was unemotional and rarely spoke.
  • In the US Congress, the House of Representatives is often considered the Red Oni to the Senate's Blue.
  • Among the First Triumvirate in Ancient Rome, the red was Pompey the Great, the fashionable and charismatic maverick who loved the spotlight, and the blue was Marcus Crassus, the behind the scenes wheeler-dealer who preferred to stay in the shadows. Julius Caesar fell somewhere between the two.
  • Josef Stalin was a definite blue oni, with Leon Trotsky and later Winston Churchill serving as the red oni.
  • British Prime Ministers William Gladstone (red) and Benjamin Disraeli (blue).
  • Cats and dogs can be stereotyped as this, with dogs (Red) being more outgoing and energetic and cats (Blue) being more independent and reserved.
  • What? No love for Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova?
  • Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (red oni), and his Prime Minister François Fillon (blue oni).
  • In the Chinese Civil war the Communist Party of China who are the red communist, to the blue nationalist Kuomintang. Today they are the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China respectively.
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