Hero with the edgy red colored rival, who later gets an even edgier black colored rival

[lazygecko]

Is this a recurring enough trend in fictional series for it to be classified as a trope?

We got:

Sonic - Knuckles - Shadow
Mega Man - Proto Man - Bass
Mega Man X - Zero - Axl? (I have no idea who Axl is and never played X7 but he's literally edgy and has a gun)
Arguably Ryu - Ken - Akuma
Maybe Spider-Man could be squeezed in somehow if there's a suitable candidate pre-dating Venom. Daredevil?

I figure this has to have its roots in something. Maybe some older anime, manga or super sentai series or something?

 

[sephghast]

Spider-Man did it the other way around. Venom, then carnage.

 

[Berordn]

seems like a broad definition of rival if you're going to count zero and ryu. knuckles and proto man do play this out exactly like you say, though

 

[L Thammy]

Amuro Ray - Char Aznable - Rocky Bullwinkle

 

[Stencil]

Blue - Red - Green

 

[BasilZero]

Goku (Canon - Super) - > Goku (GT) - > Cumber (Dragon Ball Heroes)


(If you watched Dragon Ball Super Heroes - they all appear in the anime lmao)

 

[The Unsent]

Metroid - Samus and the orangey/red looking S-ax, then the black looking Dark Samus in Metroid Prime 2 Echoes.

I'm stretching it a bit with the colors but whatever

 

[Sayuz]

Sonic - Knuckles - Shadow

Click to shrink...

Shadow got his own "black rival" (sort of) in the form of Mephiles, and later again (to a lesser extent) in Infinite.

 

[Annubis]

Spider-Man did it the other way around. Venom, then carnage.

Click to shrink...

My exact first thoughts.

 

[Lord Azrael]

Spider-Man flipped it

 

[Deleted member 6263]

Aang -- Zuko -- Azula

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Phoenix Wright (Blue) > Edgeworth (Red) > Simon Blackquill (Black)

Edgey puts on an edgy pretense at first, though he settles down over time.

But this guy... smh.

 

[Birdie]

Axl is literally the opposite of a rival, he's the tagalong kid trope... basically the Tails of Megaman X.

 

[Wood Man]

Me - Johnny Walker Red / Johnny Walker Black.

 

[lazygecko]

seems like a broad definition of rival if you're going to count zero and ryu.

Click to shrink...

Well in the sense that they tussle every now and then, and also the red one typically being a bit more hot-headed, I think they check those boxes. Aren't Ryu and Ken also literally described as rivals?

 

[matrix-cat]

DMC, although flip the red and blue to start with.

The hero: Dante (red)
The edgy rival: Vergil (blue)
The even edgier rival: Vergil again, but now he's wearing black :P

 

[Deleted member 1570]

Axl only looks edgy. Personality-wise, he's effectively a rookie teenager who looks up to X and Zero.

 

[Serif]

I can see this for My Hero Academia. Deku and Bakugo are set up as rivals but then we have Shigaraki who is a straight up villain (and very edgy) and a successor to All for One, just as Deku is All Mights successor, so he ends up being another rival or counterpart of sorts.