Darth Vader Clone: Difference between revisions

== [[Film]] ==

* The original Darth Vader from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films is the [[Trope Namer]], and inspired a few other characters in the movies that followed.

* Darth Vader's own appearance is often thought to be inspired by the [[Film Serial]] character The Lighting from ''The Fighting Devil Dogs.''

* Dark Helmet from ''[[Spaceballs]]'', who's a goofy parody played by the very non-threatening Rick Moranis.

* Lord Graal is a pretty blatant one from ''The Humanoid.''

* The Doctor {{spoiler|AKA Cobra Commander}} is this in ''[[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra]]''. The sequel has him closer to his original cartoon incarnation.

* The Horned King in ''[[Chronicles of Prydain|The Book of Three]]''.

* ''[[Galaxy of Fear]]'' has a literal clone of Darth Vader... and he's ''not'' an impressive one. His armor is crappy, and he's something of a petulant manchild that is easily cut down by the real Vader.

** While mainly more of a Palpatine copy, King Galbatorix has got the tragic backstory of being a child prodigy who grew to be a skilled and celebrated Dragon Rider, only to go insane with grief after losing his beloved dragon. Much like Anakin with the Jedi, he blamed his fellow Riders for all his problems and led the charge in slaughtering most of them. He also kills one of Eragon’s mentor figures, though he's {{spoiler|not the obvious Obi-Wan stand-in}}.

** [[Posthumous Character|Morzan]], the first of the Forsworn served as the [[Bigger Bad]]'s brutally powerful [[The Dragon|right-hand man]], was a master swordsman whose weapon was a red [[Cool Sword]], and had parental ties to one of the heroes: {{spoiler|Murtagh. He was also stated to be Eragon's father, but that turned out to be a [[Red Herring]]}}.

* Wolzard from ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]''. Heavily-armored, deep-voiced, sword-wielding black-magician dragon to the [[Eldritch Abomination]] N.Ma - and {{spoiler|secretly the team's brainwashed missing father.}} His [[Power Rangers Mystic Force|Mystic Force]] counterpart Koragg also counts, although {{spoiler|he's only the Red Ranger's dad.}}

* Before either of them was Chouryou/Iron Face Xiang Lao from ''[[Gosei Sentai Dairanger]]''. [[Fallen Hero]] and father of {{spoiler|Ryou, the series' Red Ranger}}. He is ''by far'' the most blatant. His boss amongst the villains is a ripoff of the Emperor when in human guise, {{spoiler|he dies saving his son from said boss's [[Electric Torture]], and the spirits of his friends appear to forgive him when he passes.}}

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Darth Malak from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (video game)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'' is possibly the most obvious Darth Vader expy.

* Dark Madder from ''[[Warp Force]]''.

* The Darkshine Knight from [[Seiken Densetsu 3]] qualifies. He wears bulky [[Black Knight|dark armor]], is a formidable swordsman and is [[The Dragon|second in command]] to the [[Big Bad]]. {{spoiler|Later he is revealed to be working for the [[Bigger Bad|Dragon Emperor]], which actually makes him third in command. Oh, and he's also Duran's (one of the protagonists) father}}

* In the arcade game ''Xain D'Sleena'' (also known as ''Solar Warrior''), one finds on the top of a temple located in the planet (named ''Cleedos Soa''/Jupiter <ref>despite being a [[Artistic License Astronomy|desert world]] with even a [[Shout-Out]] to Dune</ref> respectively) a flying head that looks [[Expy|suspiciously similar]] to Darth Vader's helmet and that must be destroyed in order to follow on the level. If one skips the planet, [[Recurring Boss|it will appear in space]] chasing your ship from behind. Worse, [[Sheathe Your Sword|it cannot be killed since your ship just fires to the front]], so you must just dodge its bullets until it retires.

* Epsilon from ''[[Mega Man X Command Mission]]''.

* The Gamecube game [[Custom Robo]] has Sergei, who not only possessed a baritone voice (well, it's implied due to the eight-bit speech sounds being deep), a face mask obscuring all but his right eye, being a high-executive to the Z-Syndicate, and [[The Dragon]] to Oboru, but is also the older brother of Marcei. Likewise, he also pulls a [[Heel Face Turn]] late into the game.

* The [[Big Bad|Magic Emperor]] in ''[[Lunar: The Silver Star|Lunar the Silver Star]]'', being a [[Fallen Hero]] on a [[Knight Templar]] quest to return the world to [[A God Am I|divine rule]], and clad in black armor and robes with an enclosing helmet that makes his voice [[Evil Sounds Deep|sound much deeper]] than it does otherwise.

*** And the similarities go even further after the Emperor's identity is revealed. {{spoiler|Edelgard von Hresvelg was traumatized at a young age due to the loss of many of her loving family members, and she herself was subjected to horrific experiments that gifted her with immense strength. She's also secretly the half-sister of her fair-haired [[Arch-Enemy]] Dimitri, and in a Silver Snow playthrough is an antagonistic former pupil of Byleth's firmly on the side of evil}}.

** The Death Knight is an even better example of this trope, being a terrifying warrior clad in skeletal black armor with a hellishly deep voice filtered through his helmet. He's an obscenely powerful combatant that you shouldn't even ''think'' of fighting early in the game, and serves as the muscle of the Flame Emperor's army. He's also related to one of the heroes: {{spoiler|Mercedes of the Blue Lions}}. More specifically, he's {{spoiler|her handsome and mentally troubled younger brother Jeritza/Emile, who became a twisted serial killer after suffering from a psychotic break in the aftermath of killing his abusive family. If her paralogue is completed, she'll try to coax a shaken Death Knight back to the light, but he ultimately dies in her arms, emotionally moved by her kindness but unwilling (or perhaps unable) to divert from the bloody path he walks.}}

** {{spoiler|Should you choose to side with Edelgard during a Black Eagles playthrough, [[Fallen Hero|Byleth]] becomes an example of this trope. Male Byleth has a slight edge over his female counterpart due to being a handsome young man who wears intimidating black armor, but both versions become the chief enforcer of the emperor's will, were born under unusual circumstances, and wield a glowing [[Cool Sword]] in battle. They even mirror Anakin's [[Face Heel Turn]] by refusing to kill a helpless Edelgard at the behest of their superior Rhea, the archbishop, and shortly afterwards lead an armed assault on a holy temple housing their students and colleagues (though you don't kill them until later in the game). Since Rhea was hoping to train up Byleth as her successor, they even count as [[A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil|as a wayward pupil that turned to villainy]] and eventually kill her... though with the twist that Rhea herself goes insane and crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] due to her hatred for them.}}

* Black Doom from ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' is a menacing, deep-voiced alien conqueror who tries to tempt [[Anti-Hero|Shadow]] into embracing [[The Dark Side]]. He's even {{spoiler|Shadow's father by way of being his genetic donor}}. However, his more overtly sorcerous powers and appearance as well as his [[Manipulative Bastard]] tendencies and lack of redeeming qualities allow him to do double-duty as a Palpatine analogue.

* It’s odd to imagine [[Spider-Man|The Tinkerer]] being portrayed as this, since he's a tiny balding old man in the comics. But his gender-flipped incarnation in ''[[Spider-Man: Miles Morales]]'' fits this trope to a T. Instead of a (mostly) [[Non-Action Guy]], she's the leader of a gang of dangerous anarchists who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty, and rides into battle wearing a cool-looking mask that deepens her voice. Her fall into villainy stems from the loss of her beloved brother, and she has a personal connection to the hero: {{spoiler|she's Phin Mason, Miles Morales' best friend}}. And despite being resistant towards Miles' attempts at making her come to her senses, {{spoiler|she ultimately sees the error in her ways and goes out performing a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in order to save his life}}.

* The Inquisitors from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' franchise as a whole are an entire squadron of Darth Vader Clones, but none come closer to embodying this trope than the Second Sister of ''[[Jedi: Fallen Order]]'' fame. She's got the look down to a T: black armor, [[Badass Cape]], voice-filtering mask, the works. Her presence is nearly as intimidating as Vader's, and she plays a very similar role as she relentlessly hunts Cal Kestis across the galaxy, even killing his mentor/father figure Prauf in the process. {{spoiler|And when she reveals herself to be Trilla Suduri, the fallen Padawan of Cere Junda, her cool-headed demeanor proves to be a mask for a furious tortured soul who feels betrayed by her former master}}. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|she sees the light just in time for Vader himself to perform a [[Heel Face Door Slam]] on her}}.

* Due to being a Sentai-flavored love letter to cinema as a whole, the villains of the first two ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'' games are both obvious sendups to Darth Vader. The Black Emperor from the sequel is far more obvious, since he looks exactly like Vader but with a more overt samurai theme, and he pilots a Death Star-themed mech to boot. But both the Black Emperor and King Blue are [[Fallen Hero|Fallen Heroes]] with scary voices that are revealed to be {{spoiler|the antagonistic fathers of Joe and Sylvia respectively}}, and both come to their senses after Joe (and later, Sylvia) beat the stuffing out of them.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Dark Vegan from ''[[Johnny Test]]'' - though he's probably more of an [[Expy]] of the aforementioned [[Spaceballs|Dark Helmet]].

* Duck Vader from ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''