Evil Twin: Difference between revisions

[[File:Evil Kermit.jpg|link=The Muppets|frame|It's not easy bleeding green!]]

 

 

 

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}}.

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

 

* The entire [[Bizarro Universe|Bizarro World]] in the [[Pre Crisis]] [[Superman]] mythos can be considered a form of Evil Twin by [[Applied Phlebotinum]], though it slowly changed from "evil opposite" to "goofy opposite".

** 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]].

* [[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.

 

Hoo boy. Let's say it's popular, and even more so if the base subject has a [[Mirror Universe]] or an Evil Twin as part of its own canon.

* Case in point: [[Darkwing Duck]] fanfic writers take trips to the Negaverse every so often. A popular subject is 'NegaGosalyn' and her relationship with the Friendly Four ([[Hurt/Comfort Fic]] pops up here). {{spoiler|One story even explains why Gosalyn wasn't evil there--the ''normal'' one would've turned rotten.}}

* ''[[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?"

* [[The Movie]] of ''[[The Magic Roundabout]]'' introduces Zebedee's Evil Twin, the ice-wizard Zeebad who was imprisoned under the Roundabout itself. This would probably qualify it for [[Canon Discontinuity]] were it not for Tom Baker's wonderful [[Large Ham]] voice role. And then he became [[The Daily Show|Jon Stewart]] in the [[Cultural Translation|American]] version.

* 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)}}.

* 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 "Too Many Roscoes," the real Rosco is kidnapped by a band of bank robbers while the ringleader—an impersonator named Woody (James Best in a dual role) -- takes to the streets assuming Rosco's identity ... all to help his two criminal associates gain control of an armored truck delivering a $1 million shipment to Hazzard Bank. (Incidentally, the main characters fail to call Woody on his fake identity when "Rosco" bungles simple facts about his friends but remembers facts about the expected bank shipment in exact detail.)

* 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.

* [[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...").

 

** ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' has a variation: There's an entire ''race'' called dopplegangers, who can shapeshift into any similarly sized humanoid-including other people.

** D&D loves this trope. It also had the Mirror Of Opposition, which spawned an Evil Twin of anyone who looked at it (the twin then mmediately tried to kll and replace the original), the spell Simulacrum (a physically identical but less-powerful duplicate of the target, absolutely loyal to the caster), and at least two different takes on the "magically created copy of you trying to kill you" in monster form, the nastier of which had the horrifying combination of being more powerful than the original and ''totally invulnerable to anyone else's attacks''.

* In ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'', when [[The Fair Folk]] kidnap mortals they leave behind Fetches, magical duplicates of their victims, right down to their memories. All Fetches are incomplete, though, meaning they lack ''something'' of the original. When that something is empathy or a sense of right and wrong, then you've got an Evil Twin. Things get more complicated if they merely lack your alcoholism or bitterness, though. It works both ways. Fetches don't know they're not the original person, so when someone shows up who looks like a monsterous version of them (and nobody else can see the monsterous things, and thinks it looks ''exactly'' like them, but a different age), who hates their guts and has strange magical powers, they are perfectly justified to think they are the victim of this trope.

* 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]]}}.

 

* In the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' video games, Sonic has had a number of evil robotic duplicates—the number of ''characters'' involved is unclear, but at least five different bodies have been used. In addition, the sometimes-evil character Shadow is [[Evil Counterpart|very similar to Sonic in appearance and abilities]].

** 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.

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

 

* ''[[Kid Radd]]'' features an Evil Twin as one of a [[Goldfish Poop Gang]] duo - he serves as the titular character's [[Shadow Archetype]] later in the story.

* The ''Sister'' arc of ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' has main character Elliot get "cursed"<ref>i.e. being zapped by a [[Transformation Ray]] gun</ref> into a [[Gender Bender|female form]], then touch a [[Green Rocks|magical diamond]] which separates him into his normal male self, and a female version, named Ellen, who has all of the same memories, experiences, etc. Believing that she's the embodiment of his "curse", and thus will disappear when it wears off in less than a month, she goes crazy and tries to become his evil twin in a desperate attempt to gain ''some'' sort of identity. {{spoiler|She was wrong about disappearing, and wasn't so good at the evil twin thing. She now lives as Elliot's twin sister, joins the cast, and is accepted by Elliot's friends and family against the initial predictions of others. An extremely rare case of a "clone" getting a happy ending.}} All that stuff you saw in that spoiler? [http://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/?date=2003-07-27 May not have been Dan Shive's plan to begin with...]

* 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.

* Depending on how you look at things, {{spoiler|April}} in ''[[CRFH]]'' could be considered to be {{spoiler|her 'sister' June's evil duplicate.}}

* 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...

* {{spoiler|Cloney}} from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' is eventually revealed as {{spoiler|Aylee}}'s Evil Clone. There's also Alt-Alt-Torg compared to regular Torg.

* ''[[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]

* [http://www.instantclassic.net Instant Classic's] arc, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090220110418/http://www.instantclassic.net/story.php?comicID=125 Brothers Donathan], introduces us to {{spoiler|Xauthor, Author's evil twin, complete with [[Beard of Evil|a goatee]].}}

* ''[[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.}}

'''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! }}

** 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]].}}

{{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.

* ''[[Freakazoid!]]:!'' Guitierrez made an evil clone of Freakazoid which he then sent out to create havoc and commit crimes. He's quickly found out when he refuses to attend a Yakov Smirnoff film festival with Sgt. Cosgrove.

* [[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}}.

* ''[[Edgar and Ellen]]'' are identical twin siblings that cause mischief and mayhem to the peaceful town of Nod's Limbs through the use of pranks. They live in a tower mansion located at the outskirt forest near the town where they plan all their schemes to terrorize the citizens and the mayor's daughter Stephanie.

 

* 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).

* The [[wikipedia:Han twins murder conspiracy|Han twin murder conspiracy]]—Jeena Han tried to have her identical twin sister Sunny murdered.

 

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