Evil Counterpart/Literature

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Evil Counterparts in Literature include:

Discworld

  • Granny Weatherwax's sister Lily, in the novel Witches Abroad. A somewhat ironic example, as Lily considers herself to be the good one, and Granny thinks of herself as an Anti-Villain, being a prime example of Good Is Not Nice. It's played with a bit[1] since the Theory of Narrative Causality means that any magically inclined siblings on the Disc will eventually form a Good/Evil pair, and the reason Granny is mad at her sister is because she didn't want to be the Good one and was forced into the role when Lily ran away.
  • Lord Hong to Lord Vetinari in the novel Interesting Times. Though the two never meet (and Vetinari may not even be aware of Hong's existence) the uncanny similarities of hyper competence, forward thinking, manipulation and the ability to wield power are made clear. Hong is a younger Vetinari with all the sense of duty channeled into personal ambition. Hong's mistake is that he thinks everyone is like the Agatean people; he doesn't know people and how to push their levers whilst Vetinari is a master of getting people to do what he wants them to do, even though they think they aren't.
  • In general, members of the Assassins' Guild seem to be the evil counterparts of Vimes—he is a gritty Technical Pacifist who fights dirty whereas they are unsurprisingly well-bred hired killers.
  • Going Postal has the contrast between Moist von Lipwig, a Deconstruction of the Gentleman Thief, (who proves he has a heart) and Manipulative Bastard Con Man Reacher Gilt. Part of Moist's motivation is to prove that he is different than Gilt, in defiance of Not So Different.
  • Reaper Man has the New Death in contrast with Death/Bill Door. The New Death takes pleasure in taking lives, while Death feels compassion for humanity.

Harry Potter

  • In the Harry Potter books, Big Bad Voldemort is Harry's counterpart, having been raised in similar conditions and circumstances, and accidentally given some of his power to him, but taking a different moral/ethical path.
  • Additionally, Gellert Grindelwald is the dark twin of Albus Dumbledore.
  • Bellatrix Lestrange is the Evil Counterpart of Sirius Black. They grew up in the same environment and have similar temperaments. They're both skilled magically, and they resemble each other physically. They're both very devoted to their respective sides, and would do anything to protect those they care about. Their deaths even parallel each other, which Harry points out.
    • Bellatrix is also an evil counterpart to Hermione Granger. Hermione is as devoted to Harry as Bellatrix is to Voldemort. Both intelligent and powerful witches, willing to go to extremes for their purposes.
  • Many fans look to Dolores Umbridge as an evil counterpart to Minerva McGonagall. Both are senior members of Hogwarts and known as strict disciplinarians, but McGonagall is stoic but ultimately good, while Umbridge is a very thorough Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. They butt heads often after Dumbledore departs.
  • Some interpret Peter Pettigrew as Ron's Evil Counterpart. They're both overshadowed by their more popular/gifted friends, but while Pettigrew only latches onto strong people, Ron truly cares about Harry and Hermione. Immediately regretting abandoning them in the last book counts.
  • Remus Lupin and Fenrir Grayback. While they're both werewolves (and Remus was bitten by Grayback as a child), Fenrir goes after and attacks people, particularly children, while Remus tries his hardest to avoid hurting someone.

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings pretty much lives on this trope, though many examples require a bit... research to become noticeable.

  • Morgoth and Manwe. Manwe and other maiar sought to build the world around a utopian dream with God's Eru's blessing. Morgoth wanted to do the world to his own image and tried twist, corrupt and destroy everything they made to give Eru a middle finger.
  • Invoked with orcs and trolls, who were created as Evil Knockoffs of Elves and Ents. While trolls are merely slow-witted mockeries of slowpaced ents, orcs originate from elves who were tortured and mutated into a race of Complete Monster Mooks by Morgoth's dark powers.
  • Gandalf and Saruman. While Gandalf stayed true to his mission by acting as an indirect adversary to Sauron (offering counsel and amnesty to all who needed it), Saruman tried to gather power to rival Mordor. Also, while Gandalf was a brutally honest, humble servant of the West Walking the Earth, Saruman was a spiteful and charismatic master of lies, who envied Gandalf's popularity amongst both the Mighty and the poor. And built himself a fortress around a spiky Evil Tower of Ominousness.
    • In fact Gandalf and all other Istari, as he is the only one who didn't turn to the Dark Side, didn't abandon his calling for True Neutral treehuggin' (we're looking at you Radagast) or disappear without a trace in enemy land (it is assumed that the Blue Wizards either died or joined Team Evil).
  • Gollum is this to all Ring Bearers: The reason the One Ring didn't have such a dramatic, permanent impact on anyone but Gollum was due to the way they acquired it. While Gollum murdered his cousin and stole the Ring from his body, Bilbo found it lying in the ground and showed mercy by not killing Gollum when he had the chance. Likewise Frodo and Sam got it without violence and malicious intent (and in latter case sought to return it after finding out that spoiler:Frodo is alive). This is nearly subverted when Frodo falls to the Ring's control on Mount Doom. Double subverted, since if it weren't for Bilbo, Frodo and Sam (of all people) showing mercy to Gollum, he wouldn't have been there to fall to his death with the Ring.
  • Aragorn is a self-aware good counterpart of Isildur. While Isildur wasn't as much evil as a Tragic Hero, he did fall under the spell of One Ring and was destroyed by it while Aragorn fought to destroy the Ring and succeeded. Even more fitting as you consider that Isildur was the last king to wield Narsil and to rule as the High King of Gondor and Arnor before Aragorn reformed both the sword and the rulership.
  • Galadriel and Sauron. Both are age-old beings who came to Middle-Earth in exile and stayed out of pride even after they were offered pardon. Both are also feared rulers of great kingdoms and they both wield a Ring of Power. Still Galadriel was willing to give up all her power which was granted by her Ring whose power was tied to the One Ring and to return to Valinor as a simple traveler if it would be the cost of Sauron's defeat. If Galadriel's dialog during her talk with Frodo is any indication, it is possible that Galadriel was even aware how she was Not So Different from Sauron and her resisting the temptation to take the Ring proved her that she is finally worthy to return to the West.

Sherlock Holmes

  • Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty.
  • Dr. John H. Watson and Col. Sebastian Moran.
  • Taken to its logical extreme in Neil Gaiman's Alternate Universe short story A Study in Emerald, where the reader gradually realizes that in this world the nameless detective who lives at Baker Street and helps the police with cases is Moriarty, and the culprits for the latest case he is investigating are Holmes and Watson. Although the nature of this society is such that Holmes and Watson are still the good guys.
  • Taken to another logical extreme in Kim Newman's "A Shambles in Belgravia", which not only has Moran documenting Moriaty's "cases" as an Evil Dr. Watson, but also supplies him with an Evil Mrs. Hudson (the madam Mrs. Halifax), and Evil Baker Street Irregulars (the Conduit Street Comanche - a "tribe of junior beggars, whores, pickpockets and garotters"). And in his spare time, Moriarty breeds wasps, apparently out of sheer malevolence and balancing Holmes's retirement as a beekeeper.
    • Extreme, yes. Logical, no.
  • In the Raffles series, Raffles and Bunny are essentially evil (or at least anti-heroic) counterparts of Holmes and Watson.

The Wheel of Time

  • Ishamael for Rand. Both are the leaders of their respective side and are extremely strong in the one power. But while Rand believes in doing his duty and saving world, Ishamael became a Nihilist who wants to destroy the pattern because he believes that everything is meaningless, that the dark will inevitably win and that it his purpose to fight for the dark one. He also seems to view his role in the ever repeating pattern is to convince the Dragon to submit to this view; during the darkest depths of his psychotic breakdown Rand considers whether his counterpart was in fact right and almost destroys the pattern himself after a bit of Nietzsche Wannabe speechifying of his own.
  • Lanfear for Moiraine: Both women assisted Rand and would have killed him if necessary. But while Moiraine just wants him to save the world and oppose the dark one, Lanfear is a Yandere darkfriend who wants him to serve the dark one.
  • Slayer for Perrin: Both have connections with wolves and dream powers. Both of them enjoy killing and they both tried to lead the two rivers villagers against trollocs
  • Taim for Loghain: Both are false dragons who serve Rand reluctantly and both want glory. But unlike Logain, Taim is a darkfriend who wants to help the dark one triumph
  • Elaida for Siuan: Both are Amyrlins who were extremely powerful channlers, plot and manipulate others, want to control the dragon reborn and are motivated by foretellings about the dragon reborn. However Elaid is far more arrogant and organizes a coup, wants to kidnap and control rand to satisfy her ego and while Siuan tries to train Egwene into being her successor, Elaida wants to make Egwene her servant.

Other examples

  • R.A. Salvatore feels the need to state that Artemis Entreri is Drizzt's "dark mirror" every time the two meet.
    • This is partially because Artemis himself became obsessed with the concept of them as opposites, to the extent that Jarlaxle faked Drizzt's death and hoped that Artemis would drop it now.
    • Interestingly, Salvatore would later write a far better example of an evil counterpart for Drizzt in the form of King Obould Many-Arrows (not an original character for Salvatore, but he gave him all his real characterization). Like Drizzt, Obould is an exceptional member of an Exclusively Evil race that sees the obvious flaws in his native society and rejects them. Unlike Drizzt who chose to run away from drow society and strike out on his own, Obould grabs orc society by the neck and forces a fundamental change in it, waging a brutal war not for the sake of plunder as most orcs do, but to carve out a kingdom where orcs can form a true civilization. What makes this interesting is that Salvatore never points out the parallels between them.
  • In the Inheritance Cycle, Murtagh was already a slightly darker version of Eragon before Galbatorix recaptured him and forced him to become a Blood Knight.
    • Nasuada has to keep a close reign on her modus operandi, so that she doesn't turn into Galbatorix.
  • Shiwan Khan, one of The Shadow's antagonists, had the same ability to "Cloud Men's Minds", and was one of the few villains to appear in more than one novel. In the 1994 film, the Evil Counterpart aspect of the characters was made much more explicit: both were trained by a mystic known as The Tulpu, but whereas Lamont Cranston turned away from evil, Shiwan Khan did not.
  • Blade of the Flame has Makala for Diran on and off.
  • Marth for Tristam in Heirs of Ash.
  • Recent[when?] Star Wars novels have taken the unfortunate fact that Shira Brie/Lumiya and Mara Jade are the same recycled character concept and chosen to emphasize the fact that Lumiya is Mara Jade's Evil Counterpart. The Legacy of the Force series, for instance, has for the first time confirmed that Shira Brie was part of the same Emperor's Hand program as Mara Jade and equal to her in rank, and, ironically, that if she had been nearby when the 2nd Death Star blew up and been given the task of horribly murdering Luke Skywalker, she could very likely have been the one redeemed by love who ended up marrying Luke instead of being horribly disfigured and eventually killed by him.
  • In the Ea Cycle Morjin is what Valashu would become if he went to The Dark Side.
  • When August Derleth took H.P. Lovecraft's ideas and ran with them, he posited a group of "good" counterparts of the Great Old Ones called the "Elder Gods." Brian Lumley took this concept even further in his Cthulhu Mythos novels, with appearances by the Elder Gods Kthanid (a good Cthulhu) and Yad-Thaddag (a good Yog-Sothoth).
  • John Sunlight, the only villain to face Doc Savage more than once in the novels, had many qualities in common with Doc.
    • An even more obvious Evil Counterpart appears in the Doc Savage Annual published by DC Comics. It featured Siegfried, a young man raised by one of Doc's former teachers under the training regime developed by Doc's father. Siegfried and his mentor were in the service of the Nazis.
  • Un from Shinigami no Ballad, who is counterpart to the main character. Weirdly enough, even though she wields power of destruction, she is consider to be the being of creation, and that even though Momo's appearance are all white, she's actually Un's shadow.
  • Auguste Dupin and Minister D.
  • In Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, specifically beginning in Brothers in Arms where the hero Miles Vorkosigan meets his evil clone in a battle of wits and subterfuge. An earlier novel, The Vor Game has the female mercenary Cavilo, who is as short as Miles is (but more obviously physically attractive) and has a very similar talent for disguise and subterfuge. On the other hand, while Miles is ultimately a very good and loyal person, Cavilo is a psychopath.
  • In the Skulduggery Pleasant series; Caelan has shades of being this to Fletcher. Both are infatuated with Valkyrie, both are vain and good-looking, they're pretty ineffectual despite having access to incredible power, and are very much the outsiders in the group of protagonists, and would both happily live their own lives away from the danger and chaos of saving the world if Valkyrie weren't involved. The main difference between them is that Fletcher is a Technical Pacifist who hates violence, and Caelan, on the other hand has killed dozens of helpless mortal women over imagined slights.
    • A good indicator of this is that, although he's seriously hurt when Valkyrie breaks up with him, Fletcher is able to move past it and get on with his own life, whereas Caelan simply cannot let her go and decides to kill her for "infidelity".
    • This is because, after Character Development takes away Fletcher's cowardice and most of his arrogance, he's pretty well adjusted and normal, whereas Caelan, on the other hand {{spoiler|is so batshit insane, he killed his mentor for trying to warn him off his obsession (later victim) of the week]].
  • The Draka can be seen as an Evil Counterpart to the United States of America. The Domination of Draka ends up taking over all of Africa in the same way that the USA takes over gigantic swaths of the North American continent. Both nations also become military and economic superpowers. However, whereas the USA ultimately chose to reject slavery, the Draka embrace it. The result is that the USA becomes a country with high levels of political freedom, while the Domination of Draka becomes a totalitarian country.
  • In Hero Years… I'm Dead has Dr. Sinisterion and Nighthaunt, both orphans who found their purpose in their reaction to their parents being gunned down in a robbery. Nighthaunt became a super-hero who relied on fear while Dr. Sinisterion became a master criminal who relied on never showing any vulnerabilities. And, of course, they became arch-rivals.
  • Sam and Caine in Gone. They are twins separated at birth, they are not identical but they look similar, they are both natural leaders, they are both powerful mutants, Sam is The Hero and Caine is the Big Bad, they are the leaders of opposing groups, they were among the few to keep a clear head when the adults disappeared, and they are both slowly losing their sanity. They might have different morality and tactics, but as they crack under pressure, we see that they're Not So Different.
  • The Neil Gaiman novella Monarch of the Glen, which is a sort of sequel to American Gods, presents the hero Shadow as having an Evil Counterpart in Mr. Smith, a character who also appeared in some other stories. Both men look like bruisers, but are actually quite erudite and can talk engagingly of highbrow literary works. Also, both have mysterious parentage and don't go by their real names. However, while Shadow is generally a Gentle Giant who only appears to be a thug, Smith is a vicious thug, and where Shadow will react negatively to morally dubious assignments, Smith embraces them.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire has Sansa and her aunt Lysa. They both fell in love with the wrong kid of man but Lysa never learns and acts as Littlefinger's pawn going so far as to kill her husband Jon Arryn.
    • Stannis Baratheon has Eddard Stark's Honor Before Reason qualities taken to the extreme.
    • Robb Stark and Joffrey Baratheon both rise to power after the death of their fathers and they both died at a wedding.
    • Depends on whether you think either one of them is bad, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. Both start at the bottom of the society barrel and reluctantly rise to positions of leadership but while Snow tries to defend Westeros from threats from the north, Dany is the threat from the south. They also both possess supernatural powers.
  • In Death: Sylvester Yost from Betrayal In Death could be considered this to Roarke, because they both hail from criminal backgrounds, and eventually became rich and put on the polish to go with it. Yost is The Sociopath, The Loner, and a Complete Monster who kills people for money and thinks of the killings as a job. Yost also looks ridiculous, because he is a thug wearing polish, and the two do not mix very well. Roarke, on the hand, looks great with the polish on, he has friends and family, and he doesn't kill for kicks.
    • Treachery In Death has Renee Oberman and Carl Bix as these for Eve Dallas and Delia Peabody, respectively. Oberman came from a good cop background, and chose to become a Dirty Cop. Eve Dallas came from a bad criminal background, and chose to become a Good Cop. Carl Bix is Oberman's attack dog and will kill on her command without a second thought. Delia Peabody is Eve's friend, partner, and student.
  • Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: Adel Newsom is this for Lizzie Fox in the book Deadly Deals. They are both lawyers. Lizzie is beautiful, good, intelligent, has taken pro bono cases, and the best attorney you could ever hope to get. Adel, on the other hand, is quite ugly (ironically because she tried too hard with surgery and what have you to look beautiful), evil, stupid, has never taken a pro bono case, and is not even good at being a lawyer. Early on, one character commented that Adel is a Lizzie Fox wannabe, people are aware of this fact, and they do not respect her for that.
  • In Animorphs Tobias seems to see Torture Technician and Jerkass Woobie Taylor as his Evil Counterpart. Like him, she's a damaged person from a lousy background, who became involved in the war due to alien intervention in her life. Like him, she has a lot of insecurities that prevent her from dealing with life, and Tobias frequently compares her decision to become a Controller to his own entrapment in hawk morph. Tobias, of course, is still a hero, whereas Taylor...well just look at the list of tropes she's associated with.
    • And let's not forget The Ellimist and Crayak
  • In the Doctor Who spinoff Faction Paradox, the eponymous organization is the Evil Counterpart/splinter group of the Doctor's people, the Time Lords. So instead of an austere race sworn to protect the Timey Wimey Ball, you have a brigade of Smug Snakes and Magnificent Bastards cheerfully wreaking havoc on history and tying causality into knots for kicks.
  • The Belgariad: Belgarath has Zedar and opposite number Ctuchik, who both paralell his position with Aldur in their service to Torak. Beldin hasa Urvon. And Garion originally has Zakath, who undergoes a Heel Face Turn.
  • Hostile Takeover: Though CC and John practically grew up together, and bootstrapped their way out of financial dire straits the same way, and have essentially the same career goals, they're polar opposites. CC is desperate to secure financial stability for herself and her hypothetical future children in a world where debts are paid with OrganTheft. In contrast, John is a vicious, amoral backstabber who will do literally anything for a greater share of power.
  1. ↑ I know, what a shock.
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