Evil Twin: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

It's worth noting that in the overwhelming majority of cases the twin is evil; only rarely does an evil character suddenly find themselves contending with a good twin, and in those cases the good version is often simpleminded or purely comic. See [[Good Is Impotent]].

 

 

 

Sci-Fi versions usually wind up playing [[Spot the Imposter]].

 

 

 

If the two end up fighting, it is always a [[Mirror Match]].

 

{{examples}}

* One Priceline advert includes the appearance of the company's spokesman's Evil Twin, complete with the [[Beard of Evil]], the spokesman? William Shatner!

 

* The evil twin was actually a major plot point for ''[[Blue Seed]]''. Momiji's twin, Kaede, was called in first to deal with the evil plant monsters, due to her family's bloodline power, and ended up faking her death to join them.

* Yuuna's evil twin in ''[[Maburaho]]'' was magic-derived.

* Evil robotic Angels appeared in ''[[Galaxy Angel (video game)|Galaxy Angel Moonlit Lovers]]'', after an evil robot Tact appeared in the first game. Strangely, the fake Angels were the ''only'' villains to be kept in the ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]'' anime, and they only appeared for one episode.

* ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' featured Rau Le Creuset, an unstable clone of secondary character Mu La Flaga's father. While they initially don't seem similar, when Rau removes his mask, he reveals his identical face. Rau's feelings that his existence was an abomination and nihilism about humanity in general led him to attempt to wipe out all of humanity, Coordinator and Natural both. Considering that he got his last name from the french word of [[The Crucible]]...Yeah, he's [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|a very screwed up guy]].

* ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' has the titular [[Complete Monster|Johan Liebert,]] ''[[Half Identical Twin]]'' of Anna Liebert (Nina Fortner).

* ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]] 2'' has Nova, evil twin to titular protagonist Shidou Hikaru. Extremely bi-polar (which is putting it kindly as she switches constantly back and forth between cutesy, loving little child and homicidal psychopath personalities), and bat-shit insane. Created at the very instant that Hikaru and her fellow Knights were transported back to earth at the end of the first story, {{spoiler|1=Nova is actually a small portion of Hikaru's soul given a separate existence and consciousness of its own. Hikaru couldn't cope with all the crushing negative emotions and thoughts brought on by the trauma induced by the first story's ending, and thus her body expelled them all along with a bit of her being, which was given a life of its own via Cefiro's "willpower=reality" system of existence}}.

* Subverted in a stand-alone episode of ''[[The Slayers]]''. A villain uses an enchanted mirror to create dark duplicates of his victims, including main characters Lina and Naga. The clones are supposed to be the "reverse" of the originals - which, to the bad guy's surprise, means the copies are meek, modest and peaceful, not evil.

* Subverted in ''[[Chobits]]''. {{spoiler|Freya, Chii's sister, at first glance appears to be Chii's dark side/evil twin/dark thoughts, The [[Enemy Within]] or just the highly-knowledgable [[Split Personality]] to Chii's innocence, but actually turns out to be looking out for Chii's safety, supplying her with information and intervening in preserving Chii when necessary.}}

* Evil twins of the [[Saiyuki|Sanzo-ikkou]] were created by a demon who rationalized that the best chance of beating them was pitting them against themselves. Turned into comedy when Hakkai, Gojyo, and Goku imagine beating up on a Sanzo-lookalike. Also used as [[An Aesop]], as when they win against their clones - who are wearing their clothes from the first season - they explain to the confused demon that they are not the same people as they were when the clones were created and they grow and learn as blah blah blah.

** We can't discuss evil twins in Dragon Ball without bringing up the original's! [[God Job|Kami]] and [[Our Demons Are Different|Great Demon King Piccolo]], anybody? Furthermore, you could compare [[Genie in a Bottle|Shen Long]] to his [[Jackass Genie|Black Star counterpart]].

* Hana from ''[[Papillion Hana To Cho]]'' is glamorous, popular, and the decided [[Parental Favoritism|favorite]] over her [[Country Mouse]] twin sister Ageha until Ageha discovered tiny bit of confidence after reuniting with an old (male) friend. Hana then steals said friend by using Ageha's weak stomach to get her out of the way with a little [[Hidden Depths]] sweettalk. Things get worse after Ageha gets over the guy, improves her relationship with her [["Well Done, Son" Guy|Well Done Daughter Mom]] and hooks up with another guy: {{spoiler|''Hana disguises herself as Ageha'' while Ageha is sick and is so irritating that he breaks up with Ageha the next day he's a psych major and he couldn't tell Ageha was acting a bit off? C'mon, they're not Cylons!). Due to said guy being [[Hot for Student|her school counselor]] and offlimits in the first place it's unlikely Ageha will ever know the real reason they broke up.}}

* In ''[[Ninin ga Shinobuden]]'', Onsokumaru creates an evil duplicate when he attempts to use a Ninja Clone technique. Of course, Onsokumaru being Onsokumaru, the twin isn't really any worse than the original.

* Zero's evil twin Ichiru in ''Vampire Knight''.

* Arguably, Suboshi from ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'', Amiboshi's [[Hot-Blooded]] younger twin brother.

 

** Eh? Bizarro STARTED as a "goofy opposite". Oddly, ''he'' arguably had an Evil Twin, in the form of Bizarro-Bizarro, who looked like Superman, spoke like Bizarro, and acted like a [[Jerkass]].

** In ''[[All-Star Superman]]'', there's Zibarro, who's the most intelligent man on Bizarro World.

* [[Supergirl]] too. In the [[Silver Age]] there was her [[Enemy Without]] Satan Girl in ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'', created by Red Kryptonite. Supergirl (pre-DCnU reboot) went through a similar story which created "Dark Supergirl", although she ended up as more of an [[Enemy Within]]. And then there's Bizarrogirl, who causes chaos on Earth because she's just as confused as Kara but doesn't deal with it as well. Before that, Earth-Angel Supergirl had her own Bizarro-Supergirl, and also fought Matrix, her own ''former body''! In fact, the shapeshifting Matrix-Supergirl, in one of her more confused periods, was ''also'' an evil twin of Superman... (A [[Mirror Universe]] Ultragirl has also been seen, but thus far Kara hasn't had to deal with her).

* The [[Marvel Comics]] series ''[[Exiles]]'' inverts this. The reality-hopping team of the title need to defeat the evil Hyperion... so they fetch two ''good'' versions of him from other universes.

* In the ''[[Transformers: Shattered Glass]]'' comic series, Cliffjumper is transported to a [[Bizarro Universe]] where the Autobots are evil and the Decepticons are good. In a bit of parody/lampshading, evil Rodimus even got himself a ''goatee'', saying that he feels it makes him feel distinguished.

* Newspaper comic inversion: In ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'', Calvin once made a perfect copy of himself to do his work for him, only to find out that his double was even more troublesome than the original, since he realized that he could commit any mischief and the original would get all the blame. A later storyline had Calvin making a duplicate of only his ''good'' side... who among other things starts trying to make friends with the girl next door Calvin's always trying to humiliate. Calvin confronts his good counterpart and provokes him into a fight. Angered, Calvin's Good Side decides that he's going to "tear [Calvin] limb from-", and promptly disappears with the exclamation "Oops, I had an evil thought!" Hobbes then declares: "Another casualty of Applied Metaphysics."

* Subverted in the comic book ''[[Hellblazer]]'', in which it is revealed that the series's star, John Constantine ''is'' the 'evil' twin, having strangled his brother in the womb with his own umbilical cord. He later crossed over to a parallel universe, where his brother had become an incredibly powerful and celebrated magus.

* In the comic book ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]],'' the two main characters (Gina and her adopted were-cheetah sister, Brittany) accidentally create a clone of themselves that shares traits from both of them, including their memories, in an attempt to remove a curse from themselves. After several battles with the clone, Gina realizes that the reason the clone is trying to kill them is because the curse is inhabiting the clone, motivating its irrational desire to kill them. Her father, an arch-mage, happens to show up in time to dispel the curse, and the clone is invited to join the family and given the name ''Brianna'' (a portmanteau of ''Brittany'' and ''Gina''). Later on, the Djinn Madrid uses magics to disguise herself as Gina so well she can fool empaths. This backfires though, erasing her original form, and since then, Madrid has been slowly overwritten by Gina, to the point {{spoiler|that a future version of herself traveled to the edge of existence and beyond to save her 'baby sister'}}

** In the 30th century Eobard's descendant created Inertia, a clone of Barry's ([[Tangled Family Tree|and his own]]) grandson Impulse, and sent him back in time to fight his counterpart.

** For a while after he reformed, Dr. Alchemy (Albert Desmond) seemed to have a psychic twin named Alvin who took up his tools and identity, only becoming the evil twin after Albert became the good one. "Alvin" turned out to be the Philosopher's Stone's physical manifestation of his subconscious desire to continue a life of crime.

** Joseph was a much younger 'copy' of Magneto. Since at the time Magneto was villainous and Joseph was an X-Man, he counts as a ''Good'' Twin.

** At one point half the team was replaced by the shape-shifting aliens known as Skrulls (this was back before everyone was doing it). While most of them remained in captivity while their doubles were running around making trouble, the story culminated in Professor X handing a simultaneous physical and mental beatdown to his double. While naked.

** [[Cable]] and Stryfe, although Cable seems to be the Good Twin. [[Tangled Family Tree|It's confusing.]]

* During the Marvel [[Crisis Crossover]] with the entity called the Magus trying to snuff reality, he distracted all the superheroes by simultaneously creating Evil Twins of ''every superhero in the Marvel Universe''.

'''Arkham''': The ''Joker's'' evil twin?

'''Jester''': Scary, ain't it? }}

* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' loves this trope. Dredd himself is a clone of Judge Fargo. Dredd may or may not be considered "evil", but {{spoiler|he is definitely far more fascist than his clone father}}. His clone brother Rico and Rico's identical [[Mirror Universe]] double are straight examples. The Judda are a ''whole group'' of evil clones of him and other judges. His supposedly rehabilitated clone Kraken gets [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]. His [[Mirror Universe]] counterpart is a comically liberal counterpart to the fascist we know. And finally, his evil future self gets killed and dragged back to the present before getting up and going on a rampage. Dredd frequently [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshades]] this by worrying if it's "something in the blood".

* In ''[[Tintin|King Ottokar's Sceptre]]'', the conspiracy to steal the sceptre involves {{spoiler|kidnapping Professor Alembick and replacing him with his twin brother}}.

* [[The Smurfs]] deal with evil duplicates of themselves in ''The Smurf Threat'' that were created by Papa Smurf in order to get the Smurfs to stop fighting with each other.

* In the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] comic ''The Forgotten'', a brain parasite attacking the Tenth Doctor takes on the appearance of an evil twin version of him, complete with beard and black pinstripe suit, and claims to be the Valeyard. The real Doctor immediately mocks the parasite's complete lack of originality.

 

* Conversed in a [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4302297/9/In_His_Shoes one-shot] within the [[Avatar: The Last Airbender|ATLA]] [[Another Brother]] [[Alternate Universe|universe,]] where Sokka believes an evil twin was the reason that[[Laser-Guided Amnesia|Zuko]] was banished.

* ''[[Turnabout Storm]]'': [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Pinkie Pie]] suggests that Rainbow Dash has one of these, called [[Sdrawkcab Name|Wob Niar]], as a possible explanation of how the murder of [[Original Character|Ace Swift]] went down. [[Ace Attorney|Phoenix]] insists on it being a stupid idea, but Pinkie being [[Cloudcuckoolander|Pinkie]], she sticks with it.

 

* In the superhero comedy ''[[Sky High]]'', one of the teachers tries to set up a colleague on a blind date with his girlfriend's sister. "What if I said it's not just her twin? It's her evil twin." "This Friday, you say?"

* Evil Robot Bill and Evil Robot Ted from ''[[Bill and Ted]]'s Bogus Journey''. If nothing else, it gave us the classic line (when E.R.Ted first sees Ted's girlfriend)..."I got a full-on robot chubby."

* Carmen and Juni's robot doubles in ''[[Spy Kids]]''.

* Avatar and Black Wolf in [[Ralph Bakshi]]'s ''[[Wizards]]'', although they look nothing alike. Avatar is short, portly, friendly, and fairy-like (minus the wings). Black Wolf is tall, thin, evil, and mutated. The only thing they have in common is that they're both bearded.

 

* In [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Vorkosigan]]'' book series: After the ''very'' distinctive-looking Miles Vorkosigan claims (as a coverup for his secret identity) that he has a clone running around, it turns out he does have one. Who's been trained to take his life over. Turns out the twin, Mark, isn't necessarily born evil, just brainwashed (plus has [[Split Personality]], with the personalities generally being pretty dark). Lampshaded in Mirror Dance: "Some people have evil twins. I am not so lucky. I have an ''idiot'' twin."

* In [[William Sleator]]'s ''[[The Duplicate]]'', the clone isn't really evil, just resentful of being treated as a clone (he has all the memories of the original, so he believes he is the original). However, this leads him to {{spoiler|make another clone, who really is evil (or at least not exactly sane)}}.

* "One Lonely Night" by [[Mickey Spillane]]. An up-and-coming politician campaigning against corruption and [[Dirty Communists]] hires Mike Hammer to catch his insane twin brother who committed a murder in public in apparent attempt to destroy his reputation (fortunately the politician was giving a speech before hundreds of people at the time). {{spoiler|Inverted in that Mike discovers the brother is a fraternal twin who doesn't look anything like the politician, who hired a look-alike actor to give the speech and commited the murder himself.}}

* The novella ''The Wife of Martin Guerre'' subverts this: Bertrande's husband goes off to adventure and avoid farm life. 8 years later he returns and is noticeably kinder and softer in manner. When she questions him he responds that [[War Is Hell]], that life is to be enjoyed. She feels troubled about this as she [[Sarcasm Mode|Loves]] him, but feels he is not her real husband and cannot stand to live a pleasant lie. Despite having a child with him, she eventually has him put on trial for impersonating Martin Guerre. The real [[Jerkass|Martin]] [[Blood Knight|Guerre]] shows up at the end of the trial, confirms that the man is an imposter and calls her out for betraying both him as her husband, and the other guy whom she had admitted to loving. Doubles as [[Real Life]] as it is a fictionalization of a court case that did really occur in medieval France.

* In the ''Lightbringer'' trilogy, a major part of the backstory lies in the fact that instead of there only being one person with the power to become Prism in that generation, there had been two, brothers named Gavin and Dazen Guile. There was a civil war over which one would take the throne, in which the 'good' brother, Gavin, was victorious. Of course, what only a handful of people know is that {{spoiler|although Gavin's ''army'' won the war, the man on the throne is actually Daven, who imprisoned his brother (who he closely resembled even before he made the effort to make himself his brother's double) and took his place. Also, even though the general population believes that Gavin was good and Daven evil, Daven has been a competent and fairly benevolent ruler, while some evidence suggests that Gavin might not have been as nice as the people believe}}.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "A Witch Shall Be Born", Salome to Queen Taramis.

* [[Word of God]] has described Gellert Grindelwald of ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' as Albus Dumbledore's (spiritual, not literal) evil twin.

* The trope is referenced in [[Alexander Pushkin]]'s short story "[[The Queen Of Spades]]". Apparently a hallmark of "those dreadful modern novels".

 

* ''[[Gunsmoke]]'': One episode had Festus jailed on charges of murder and robbery ... only someone who [[Identical Stranger|looked just like him]] was the actual criminal.

** In "Baa Baa White Sheep", viewers meet Boss Hogg's good twin, Abraham Lincoln Hogg (Sorrell Booke in a dual role), who dresses in a black outfit, complete with stovepipe hat, that matches Boss Hogg's white one. It helps to know that Boss's given initials stand for "Jefferson Davis".

* In one subplot of ''[[Soap]]'', Burt is kidnapped by space aliens, one of who is transformed into an exact duplicate of him, who's not so much evil as horny for Burt's wife. Burt gets the aliens to return him to Earth, leading to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8laJD6yZS8w this touching yet funny scene of Richard Mulligan acting with himself].

* The episode "Mirror Image", on ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', has the protagonists haunted by apparent malevolent doubles. Somewhat averted, as the seeming evil doubles do little more than watch their counterparts, sometimes smiling darkly.

* ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' had Lois's evil twin, who was a clone. And Superman's misguided-and-sees-Lex-as-his-father twin, who was also a clone.

* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in ''[[Castle]]''. The murder victim (Zalman) had a twin brother (Edmund), who [[Identical Twin ID Tag|wore eyeglasses]] and turned up mysteriously while Castle and Beckett were searching the victim's secret magic workshop. Castle immediately [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this trope and speculates that ''Edmund'' was the victim and Zalman murdered him to assume his happy family life and prosperous, stable job as an accountant, while inheriting his own magic shop plus insurance money. Played straight; Lanie double checks the fingerprints and immediately rules Castle's theory out. While the twins were very different, ''both'' were good guys who lacked stage presence.

** William Riker has one, thanks to a [[Phlebotinum Breakdown|transporter malfunction]], that's at first just missing some social niceties after being stranded on a planet alone for the better part of a decade.

** And then "Thomas" Riker shows up in ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'', impersonates his brother, and steals the Defiant for a mission with the Maquis, making him at least seriously misguided. (He's right about the hidden Cardassian fleet.)

** Lots of evil twins in the [[Mirror Universe]], of course, but [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Intendent Kira Nerys]] deserves special mention for being the only one who's actually met her counterpart. And got [[Screw Yourself|the hots for her]].

** Spock's "evil twin" was terrifyingly cold and ruthless; however, apart from the beard, he actually was identical to his regular universe counterpart, and was simply behaving logically for someone living in an evil empire. When he realizes what's happening, he helps Kirk return to his original universe so he can get his (evil) captain back. Kirk is even able to persuade him to rebel from the empire on moral grounds.

** Bizarro Clark, of course, whose distinguishing characteristic was that he'd wear the opposite jacket/shirt combo (red jacket/blue shirt if Clark's got a blue jacket/red shirt, etc.) and [[Idiot Plot|no one noticed.]] Also, in the episode "Onyx", [[Lex Luthor]] is split into a Good Lex and a Crazy/Evil Lex.

** There's also Clark Luthor/Ultraman, an [[Alternate Universe]] version of Clark who was raised by Lionel Luthor. To say he's an utter [[The Sociopath|psychopath]] would be an understatement. Proving how much [[Genre Savvy]] they've picked up over the years, Lois, Tess, and Oliver all immediately realise that this isn't their Clark and proceed to deal with him accordingly.

* ''[[So Weird]]'': "Pen Pal": Random supernatural occurrences cause Annie to come face-to-face with a parallel universe counterpart who has fallen in with a bad crowd, and thereby turned "evil" (Well, goth and rebellious. This being a Disney show, the two are more or less synonymous).

* ''[[Popular]]'' had Bobbi and Jessie Glass working at Kennedy High (as well as their brother Rock). Bobbi and Rock were notoriously mean and unpleasant, while Jessie the nurse seemed a bit nicer, comparatively speaking. And yet, in the first season finale, Jessie plotted to kill her twin and frame all of Bobbi's sophomore biology class for the murder. Who's the mean one now?

* ''The Tonight Show With Jay Leno'' in the 90's had Jay playing different characters such as Iron Jay and Beyondo. The character of his that fits right in this trope is Evil Jay who appears at every full moon. Years before that, Jay Leno satirized the entire 'evil twin' trope when a guest on Johnny Carson's ''Tonight Show''. Leno had a marked-up ''TV Guide'' and showed what seemed like a dozen 'evil twin' themed shows for that one week. There was one on ''Hawaii Five-O''. The bit wrapped with ''[[Dynasty]]'', which had Crystal replaced with her 'scheming lookalike', with Jay shouting, "Scheming lookalike? Scheming lookalike? It's an '''EVIL TWIN'''!". This trope is so endemic in television that perhaps we should be asking which shows never did it.

* A two-part episode of ''[[The Incredible Hulk (TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]]'' introduced viewers to another Hulk, created by a similar process to the one that transformed David Banner - but even more wild than the one we know, and actively malevolent and murderous.

* Stick Stickly, the stick puppet host of Nickelodeon's ''Nick in the Afternoon'', had a diabolical lookalike, Evil Stick, who once tried to take over the summer programming block.

* Subverted in ''[[Farscape]]'''s third season, where a second John Crichton is created... yet is absolutely the same as the first Crichton. However, it was essentially played straight in the episode ''My three Crichtons,'' which featured John being duplicated into {{spoiler|a caveman and a future-brain-man-thing}}. Strangely enough, only ''one'' was actually evil.

{{quote|'''Ross''': He's ''Hans'' Ramore, Drake's evil twin!}}

* The final ''[[Space Cases]]'' episode to air, "Trouble With Doubles":

* In the 2002 revival of ''The Basil Brush Show'' there's Basil's cousin Mortimer who is a criminal mastermind.

* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has begun this trope as an "evil" character {{spoiler|Sylar}} gained shapeshifting abilities and has begun taking on the roles of a "good" character {{spoiler|Nathan Petrelli }}. (Though their good and evil roles seem to change episode by episode).

* In the New World ''[[Zorro]]'' series, Don Diego has an evil (though not identical) twin. Also, the evil Alcalde is at one point replaced by his identical twin, who raises the suspicion of the other characters by being somewhat less evil than the real Alcalde.

* ''[[iCarly]]'' in the episode ''iTwins''. Essentially, the main character Sam is the ''evil'' twin, and Melanie is the ''good'' twin.

* In ''[[Lidsville]]'' the villain Hoodoo had a good twin, Bruce, the White Sheep of the family.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' has had three shapeshifter episodes:

** "Skin", "Nightshifter", and "Monster Movie". The latter two don't really use this trope, but "Skin" prominently features a shapeshifter who becomes an Evil Twin of Dean.

* An episode of the usually extremely down-to-earth ''[[Route 66]]'', "I'm Here to Kill a King", features an assassin who looks exactly like lead character Tod and is played by Martin Milner.

* In Chinese TV series 神医大道 (English title: "God Of Medicine") a maid-servant is magically transformed into the princess' evil twin. Then the princess is transformed into a duplicate of the maid, becomming her ''good'' twin. It's almost a [[Grand Theft Me]], except that the changes happen separately.

* ''[[Charmed]]'' had to deal with a few evil twins.

** Paige had an evil past incarnation travel to the present who looks just like her.

* [[Starsky and Hutch (TV series)|Starsky and Hutch]] each had one. {{spoiler|These evil twins were pinning crimes on the original duo under orders of a corrupt attorney.}}

* In the Fox TV movie ''Dark Reflection'' (aka, ''Natural Selection''), C. Thomas Howell plays a dual role. In one, he is a successful computer programmer named Ben with a great house and an awesome sports car but is neglectful of his wife and son. In the other role, he is Adam, a clone of Ben who has been running around the country killing his other clones and taking over their lives. (There were seven clones all together). Well, Ben is last on the list. So, Adam gets a job at Ben's company, charms the wife and kid, and infiltrates Ben's life to learn all the little details he will need to accomplish his evil pan. Along the way, {{spoiler|Adam kills a private detective who has figured it all out and Ben's mother who is the only one who know that Ben has a clone. He also has sex with Ben's wife, who can't tell the difference.}} In the climax, Ben and Adam fight on the roof and one kills the other. At the end, we find out that {{spoiler|evil Adam survived and that he's a better father to Ben's son and wife, neither of whom know they're now living with a murderous clone who has killed.}}

 

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' info site Thottbot.com allows you to switch between ''Classic'' and ''Evil Twin'' themes (white background vs. black background, among other color changes), and the loading screen when switching to ''Evil Twin'' mode says "Growing goatee..." (while the loading page to get back to ''Classic'' mode says "Shaving...").

 

* In ''[[Exalted]]'', [[Anti Christ|Infernals]] can obtain an Ebon Dragon charm, Black Mirror Shintai, that lets them shapeshift into an exact duplicate of the target, from obtaining their abilities right down to having the exact same fate, along with developing Intimacies and a Motivation antithetical to their target's.

* [[Magic: The Gathering]]: [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=229965 Like so]

 

* A few variants used in ''[[Bionicle]]''. First, we have ''an army'' of corrupted Alternate-universe versions of Takanuva, and then we have an inversion with {{spoiler|"White Teridax", a "good" version of the main [[Big Bad]]}}.

 

** Character-wise, there are at least two. Metal Sonic, who debuted in ''[[Sonic CD]]'', is the most popular and consistent of Sonic's mecha-twins. Then there's Silver Sonic from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]'' (both the Game Gear and the Genesis version) and Mecha Sonic from ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles]]'', but neither of them showed any personality.

** Doctor Eggman has an eviler twin in Eggman Nega, an alternate dimension version/descendant of Eggman. He has Eggman's desire for power and brilliant mind, but he has none of Eggman's quirkiness or hamminess, instead being thoroughly evil and cold (but with an eerily polite demeanor). Eggman Nega also created an eviler twin of Metal Sonic called Metal Sonic 3.0 (with a black and gold color scheme similar to G-mel).

** In the manga adaptation, Dark Mega Man is its own standalone character.

** In addition, several boss characters in Battle Network 4 and 5 have "DS" versions, dark versions of themselves that stray from their attacking pattern to bombard you with any Battlechip you've used, even Program Advances.

* Mona Sax, the "knockout [[Femme Fatale]]" of ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'', introduces herself as the "evil twin" of Lisa Punchinello, the Don's wife. Lisa is killed by the Don near the end of the second act, and Mona shows up later during the [[Storming the Castle|final assault on the Aesir building]], where she does a [[Heel Face Turn]] and apparently dies, only to show up again in the sequel, in which she plays a major role as Max's partner/love interest.

* In all three episodes of Apogee's ''Monster Bash'' you end up having to fight Johnny Dash's evil twin. These fights are somewhat harder than most enemies partly because the evil twin can take more damage than most monsters and partly because the evil twin uses the exact same sprite graphics as the player's character, making things confusing at times.

* Played straight ''and'' inverted in the third installment of ''[[Phoenix Wright]]''. {{spoiler|Partway through the final case, good twin Iris is replaced and impersonated by evil twin Dahlia, though you don't realize this until later. And at the end, you learn that six years prior, Iris pretended to be Dahlia for several months.}}

** Also given a workout in another case in the same game, where Phoenix must track down his evil twin (nicknamed "Xin Ehop" by Maya) who has gotten a client found guilty with a laughable defence.

* About halfway through ''Up You Arsenal'', the third "[[Ratchet and Clank]]" game. {{spoiler|Clank gets kidnapped by [[Big Bad]] Dr. Nefarious and replaced by a Dr. Nefarious built duplicate, Klunk. Ratchet even plays a few levels with Klunk on his back before finding the real Clank and defeating Klunk in a boss battle.}}

* ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' sequel Banjo-Tooie had the Jinjos' evil twins the Minjos, and one of the bosses in the game was Mumbo Jumbo's evil robotic twin Mingy Jongo.

* One of ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'s'' plot twists was that {{spoiler|Basch, a leading soldier in the home nation's army, was framed by his evil twin brother in the murder of the king, resulting in Basch's imprisonment and nationwide condemnation.}}

* In the [[Nancy Drew (video game)|Nancy Drew]] game ''Stay Tuned For Danger'', actor (and suspect) Rick Arlen plays good and evil twins on the [[Show Within a Show|soap opera]] ''Light Of Our Love''.

* In ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' & ''[[Tomb Raider]] Anniversary'', Lara's Doppelganger has no skin. In ''Underworld,'' she gets better, blows up Lara's mansion, kicks her ass inside of her burning mansion, and kills {{spoiler|Allister}}. Later, [[Ensemble Darkhorse|the Doppelganger]] gets her own [[Video Game]] on [[X Box Live]].

* The [[Big Bad]] of the ''[[Adventure Quest]]'' Bizarre Flecks [[Story Arc]] is Artix's [[Alternate Universe]] counterpart; while the Artix of our reality is an [[The Undead|undead]]-[[The Hunter|slaying]] paladin, [[Fan Nickname|Artix von Facial Hair]] is a sadistic [[Necromancer]] who appears to have [[Villain World|successfully]] [[Take Over the World|taken over his world]]. Ryuusei's analog from said arc is an [[Inverted Trope|inversion]], and an interesting and competent one at that.

* The boss of the fourth level in ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'' is "Another Joe", who looks just like Joe to the point the original makes a deal with him: loser has to wear a yellow outfit. His boss theme is even a [[Boss Remix]] of "Joe the Hero". {{spoiler|It's actually Alastor.}}

* [[Borderlands|Dr. Zed]] and his evil [[Mad Scientist]] brother Dr. Ned ([[Suspiciously Specific Denial|who is a totally different, in no way made up person]], [[Running Gag|and not just Dr. Zed in a cheap mustache disguise]]) qualify for this trope.

* In [[Space Ace]], Dexter has a clone named Hexter. He energizes into a bigger form when Dexter energizes into Ace.

 

* Subverted in ''[[Pandect]]'' - Ice and a man who is like a father to him bear a striking physical resemblance, leading Ice to self-consciously dub Rocko his evil twin.

* Ginger from ''[[Sugar Bits]]''(pictured above) is a moody, sarcastic, rather abrasive princess, who lives in a realm undisturbed by humanity known as Harmonia. She also has a seemingly malicious twin sister, Licorice, who suddenly appeared in Hansel(one of Ginger's friends)'s dream. While Ginger seems to be more calm and introvert, Licorice is dynamic and fierce.

* Good old-fashioned separated-at-birth actual twin Nale in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''. He's the head of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] (but not [[The Dragon]], oddly enough), while his good twin Elan is a comically inept bard. Further, the members of his "Linear Guild" were deliberately chosen by Nale to be [[Evil Counterpart|"evil opposites"]] of the rest of the good guys (though he does recruit a [[Token Good Teammate]] as a counterpart to [[Sociopathic Hero|Belkar]]). Not to mention that Elan is [[Chaotic Good]] while Nale is [[Lawful Evil]]. Further parodying the trope, Nale has a goatee - and his own actions have rendered Elan unable to grow facial hair.

* In ''Gaming Guardians'', Ultima was a [[Shape Shifter|doppelganger-demon]] who was permanently empowered by Scarlet Jester with a copy of Radical's powers, which also caused her default form to become a duplicate of Radical.

* Subverted in ''[[Concerned]]'', as protagonist Gordon Frohman's twin brother Norman Frohman is a highly-effective special ops agent working for the resistance. Since Gordon Frohman is Dr. Breen's biggest fan, wants to join the Combine, and is bitterly jealous towards Gordon Freeman, that makes him...

* Galatea in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' may not be so much an ''evil'' duplicate of Molly, as just an extremely [[Cloning Blues|angsty, volatile one.]] She did try to [[Take Over the World]] once, {{spoiler|but Bob appealed to her better nature and talked her out of it.}}

* ''[[Casey and Andy]]'' has an entire parallel universe of Hackneyed Opposites, most notably Quantum Crook, the evil twin and nemesis for Quantum Cop. The same universe also features the Mime Plumber, arguably the ''good'' twin for the Mime Assassin.

* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', the Nobodies from Zimmy's [[Dark World]] come in two flavors: faceless creeps or near flawless duplicates of people she knows. Though they are not evil [[Tomato in the Mirror|(they don't even know they're duplicates).]]

* ''[[Basic Instructions]]'' helps us to distinguish the good and the evil twin [http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2006/7/9/how-to-prove-which-of-you-is-the-evil-twin.html in this strip]

* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' features the good alternate-universe version of colonel Haken.

* ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' put a [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/7/2/ Twisp & Catsby twist on it].

* Alexis of ''[[A Magical Roommate]]'' considers her sister Alexandra ([[Only Known by Their Nickname|Better known as X]]) to be her evil twin. Of course, X isn't really evil, just anti-social and disturbingly fond of explosives.

 

* Arglwydd in ''[[ARCHON]]'' lampshades this, saying "...It always astounds me how the primary antagonist being the protagonist’s father, brother, evil twin or all of the above simultaneously comes as a shock."

* The ''[[League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions]]'' had interdimensional evil twins in the King's Interstellar Lethal Legionnaires, occasionally recurring group The Frank Conspiracy had a Dark Side & a Light Side, and the hero, Mr. Obvious, had a crazy twin brother, the hero, Mr. Absurd.

* But at least [[Red Oni, Blue Oni|You can always tell them apart]] by their clothes, right? [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/File:MPost5023-b53f3a9139_o%2Ejpg Right?..]

* [[I Wanna Be the Guy]] and [[You Have to Burn The Rope]]. The former, of course, is the evil one.

 

* In ''[[Family Guy]]'', Lois confronts two Peters on a rooftop. They both make claims to be the genuine article, and she finally shoots one. As she hugs the injury-free Peter his face pops off to reveal robotic insides. She asks "What was that?" to which he quickly replies "Nothing", and the scene cuts away.

** See also Peter's evil brother Thaddeus, who is [[Dastardly Whiplash|ridiculously over-the-top.]]

** Stewie creates an evil clone of himself accidentally. No goatee, but a clothing-color inversion.

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' subverted this in the episode "The Ron Factor". The leader of the Global Justice Network, Doctor Director, is shown to have an evil twin named Gemini. An evil ''fraternal'' twin, of opposite gender and vastly different appearance, but with an almost identical eyepatch. This is based on Marvel's Nick Fury and his evil twin Scorpio, by the way.

** When Private Dobbs, with whom Dr. Drakken swapped bodies to gain access to a weapon, contacted Kim Possible for help and explained he wasn't Drakken, Ron accused him of being Drakken's evil twin and Kim replied ''Drakken'' is the evil twin.

* ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' had a black version of Optimus Prime appear when they briefly jumped dimensions for...some reason. {{spoiler|Actually it was Sideways, but still an evil twin.}}

** Don't forget Galatea, [[Lawful Evil]] pawn of the Cadmus project.

** [[Brainiac|Braini]][[Lex Luthor|thor]] created evil Justice Leaguers to battle the real team once. They were based on the Justice Lords. Since there wasn't a Justice Lord Flash (since the Flash's death was [[For Want of a Nail|the nail in that universe]]), Flash gets a duplicate based on Professor Zoom (heretofore unseen in the [[DCAU]], so more like a [[Shout-Out]] to him.)

** ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' had [[Satan|Trigon the Terrible]] basically do the same thing as Brainithor. They were beaten by the Titans [[Opponent Switch|switching opponents]].

* In ''[[Gargoyles]]'', Xanatos had Goliath cloned as one of his attempts to get his very own gargoyle underling. The clone proved to be one of the most evil villains on the show, and it's telling that the normally unflappable Xanatos was visibly bothered by what a cunning and amoral Goliath was capable of, and it put him off the "personal gargoyle" idea for good. The clone - whose main motivation was an [[Oedipus Complex]] coupled with a desire for personal power - was unoriginally named "[[Sdrawkcab Name|Thailog]]"; when asked why they didn't name him "Htailog" the writers joked that [[Keith David]] (voice actor for both) was a scary guy, and they didn't want to see his reaction at having to pronounce it.

* The short lifespan of ''[[Megas XLR]]'' still had enough time to introduce Coop to an evil [[Alternate Universe]] version of himself and one of Kiva, in the two-parter "Rearview Mirror, Mirror". The weird thing is that Evil Coop was supposed to be competent (as opposed to good Coop's idiocy) but for no reason decided to trade Megas in for a "better" bot (guess he forgot that Megas can shoot FREAKING BLACK HOLES OUT OF ITS CHEST).

* In ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'', there's the the recurring villain Negaduck (II), his evil [[Mirror Universe]] counterpart. (Negaduck (I), DWD's "evil side" who was merged back into him by the end of the episode, is more of an [[Enemy Without]].)

** Interestingly, Darkwing's evil side - Negaduck (II), but also his non-galvanized [[Enemy Without]], who acts almost identically - seems to bring out his ''good'' sides in a non-moral sense. The original is so conceited and bumbling he often can't get anything done until he really [[Let's Get Dangerous|gets dangerous]], but Negaduck is simply constantly angry and doesn't stop to pose or fool around. Because of this, the Evil Twin in this case has more attitude and is much more [[Badass]] much of the time. Of course, he does have the drawback of being compulsively evil for its own sake and [[Ax Crazy]].

** In a visit to the Negaverse (Negaduck (II)'s place of origin) DW meets the Good Twins of Megavolt, Quackerjack, The Liquidator, and Bushroot, a superhero team identified as the Friendly Four.

'''Evil The Cat:''' I think not. Instead, I will destroy you with an acid furball.

'''Good The Cat:''' Then I will neutralize it with an antacid furball.

'''Evil The Cat:''' Curses!

'''Good The Cat:''' Kisses! }}

** Don't forget the Anti-Fairies.

* ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' has Mucus Tick, an evil clone created by inter-dimensional horror Thrakkazog from a tissue, or rather Kleenex, sample taken from The Tick when he had a cold. Mucus Tick was, appropriately, green and amorphous. The sample was taken from a clone of Arthur, which among its most telling features is that it could only say, "I Arthur." The Tick considered that a rather compelling argument when it came time to determine which one was real.

** Hey propaganda is patently hilarious to hear, because to the human ear it sounds less like inspiring prose and more like [[Jade-Colored Glasses|jaded, cynical hogwash]]. "Nothing is worth living for. Nothing is worth fighting for. Nothing is beautiful." You get the idea.

** Arguably, Tick also has "Barry Tick," who is similar only in theme and wind up fighting each other over who gets to use their name.

** And it should be noted that Mandy turns her good double evil, so at the end Grim is unable to tell them apart.

* Gadget's lookalike, Lahwhinie, from the ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' episode "Gadget Goes Hawaiian" is considered by many to be Gadget's evil twin. How or even if the two characters are related is a subject of debate amongst fans of the show.

* Played with in ''[[Sealab 2021]]'', where a pair of characters gets displaced in time, and Captain Murphy is convinced they are doppelgangers.

{{quote|'''Captain Murphy:''' Tell it to Queen Doppelpopoulis!}}

* On ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]'', Stimpy makes a formula which splits people into good and evil versions of themselves. Or in Ren's case, Indifferent Ren and Evil Ren. And his evil half takes more of the formula to become Evil Ren and Hideously Evil Ren (not that Indifferent Ren cares).

* One episode of ''[[Jacob Two Two]]'' introduced Principal Greedyguts' ''good'' twin, who immediately became popular with the kids. {{spoiler|And then subverted it, [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|showing him to be]] ''even worse'' than the principal. [[Sadist Teacher|And that's saying something]].}}

* The Mondays from ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]''.

{{quote|'''Batman:''' [to Owlman] There is a difference between you and me. We both looked into the abyss, but when it looked back as us, you blinked. }}

* An inversion in ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]'': crime boss Jackie Subtract has a twin brother, Aiden. Aiden is a harmless inventor with a squeaky-clean criminal record who is mistaken for his brother far too often for his liking.

* [[Samurai Jack]] vs. Mad Jack.

* One episode of ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' featured Stinky Davis disguising himself as Binky the Clown, after which he starts a crime wave for which the real Binky is falsely accused and is almost imprisoned for it until Garfield saves the day.

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Garfield when he reads up on Davis disguising himself and exclaims, "Oh, no! It's an evil twin story! It's come to that!"

* Spider-Carnage of ''[[Spider-Man: The Animated Series]]'', [[Beta Test Baddie]] and [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] par excellence. "I'm more you than you'll ever admit!"

* ''[[Stunt Dawgs]]'' villain Richard P. Fungus and his insane twin brother R. Peter Fungus.

* ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe|Skeletor]]'' used a similar mirror to create an evil twin of one of He-Man's allies. When the ally tricked Skeletor into allowing a good duplicate into existence, it lead to He-Man asking both Skeletors to claim to be his friend. The original Skeletor was too evil to comply.

* An interesting example in one episode of ''[[American Dad]]''. The CIA develops cloning technology that makes an exact copy of the existing individual, same age and memories. After disputes with Francine over how to raise Steve, (with Francine winning the bike race, meaning Steve gets raised her way) Stan clones a second Steve to raise as his own, naming the clone "Stevearino". The clone is later shown to be evil, however, it is the result of Stan's overly-strict rules and not some inherent evil-ness that comes with being a clone.

* In the first season finale of ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'', {{spoiler|[[Captain America (comics)]]}} gets knocked out, then duplicated, by a Skrull invader. If the warning of {{spoiler|Kang the Conqueror}} is to be believed, {{spoiler|this Skrull will eventually betray the Avengers and/or the Earth, and this action will cause the destruction of the world}}.

 

* In ''[[Where's Waldo]]'' Odlaw acts as Waldo's evil twin, being a criminal, and having a black and yellow colour scheme. Just as Waldo makes a journey to the "Land of Waldos" which is filled with Waldos, it is later reveled that Odlaw comes from "Odlaw's Swamp" which is filled with Odlaws.

 

* In France, during the time of the Directory, a man named Joseph Lesurques was guillotined for ostensibly being the leader of a vicious highway attack on the Lyon Mail carriage. Despite the fact that boatloads of character witnesses vouched for him, everyone knew him as nothing but a decent citizen, he had a valid (if not airtight) alibi, circumstances allowed for it to have easily been someone else, another criminal involved in the murders even confessed his own guilt and denied that of Lesurques, and anyone with half a brain could see that all of the evidence pointed towards Lesurques being innocent. The real murderer was later caught, and he did indeed look exactly like Lesurques. (His name was Dubosq, and he was obviously no [[Les Misérables|Jean Valjean.]]) In keeping with the "slight tweak" aspect of this trope, the resemblance was only complete when Dubosq wore a blond wig (as he did the day of the robbery).

* Everyone loves dolphins. They are always happy and cheerful and help people at sea. And then there's the [[Jerkass|Bottlenose Dolphin]]. They don't look significantly different from other species of dolphins, but are well known to rape and kill all kinds of weaker dolphins. And then they play with the corpses. The best explanation for this behavior marine biologist have come up with is that they do it [[For the Evulz|just for fun]].

* A scary bit of truth in television when it comes to forensics. Seeing as identical twins have the same DNA profile, one twin could commit a crime, frame the other, and unless there are fingerprints corroborating the innocent twin's story or a really good alibi...

** This has actually happened in the past. However, at least one case concluded that only the "evil" twin could have committed the crime since he had a motive and was in the area.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Foil]]

[[Category:Native American Mythology]]

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Acting for Two]]

[[Category:Split Personality Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]

[[Category:Plots]]