Evil Twin: Difference between revisions
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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]].
Often, in science fiction, the Evil Twin is often created from the original character by [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. Most of the time, this results in a "Good Twin" and "Evil Twin", neither of which are complete entities on their own. See [[
[[Beard of Evil|A goatee or other beard]] is a staple of Evil Twins everywhere. This comes from the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "Mirror, Mirror", in which the evil duplicate of Spock is distinguished only by the fact that he has a beard. It is common for parodies of Evil Twin to use a [[Good Hair, Evil Hair|beard]] as a distinguishing characteristic, in some cases even when they shouldn't be able to grow facial hair - for example, Flexo in [[Futurama]] or Cartman in [[South Park]]. Some evil twins use [[Identical Twin ID Tag]]s to differentiate from their good counterpart such as [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|scars]] and [[Evil Makeover|evil costuming.]]
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* [[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.
* The ''[[Secret Empire]]'' storyline put an odd twist on this. [[The Red Skull]] convinced [[Goo-Goo Godlike| Kobic]] (the evolved form of the [[Artifact of Doom| Cosmic Cube]] he used to own, who now had the appearance, personality, and naivete of a little girl) to [[Rewriting Reality|Rewrite Reality]] so that [[Captain America]] was - and always was - his apprentice, changing reality so that Cap was a villain and a sleeper agent. [[The Starscream| Evil!Cap turned against the Skull]] (who clearly [[Didn't Think This Through]] when he assumed turning Cap evil would ensure loyalty) and proceeded to take over the United States, and then the world, with the clear intent of turning the whole universe into the Fourth Reich. Kobic, however, came to her senses and was terrified at the world she had created, but because she had no idea what Cap’s original history was (she was born long after World War II and had, in effect purged history from that point) she couldn’t simply undo it. So she created an [[Eldritch Location]] called the Vanishing Point, a repository for memories that have been [[Ret-Gone]] away. <ref>Yeah, this is sort of an [[Author's Saving Throw]] sort of thing for just such an occasion.</ref> Long story short, the real Captain America emerges from the Vanishing Point, and after an epic battle (using Thor’s hammer, no less) beats the crud out of his evil self, and the true reality is restored.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
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* [[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.}}
* In ''[[I Dream of Jeannie]]'', Jeannie's sister (also named Jeannie, [[Acting for Two|also played by Barbara Eden]], but with a brunette wig) was not truly her twin, but could easily pass for her sister and was clearly evil, trying many times to steal Tony for herself. Jeannie's sister wore a green version of Jeannie's pink harem girl outfit, but with a skirt rather than pantaloons.
* In ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'', one episode has the musical virtuoso Chandell, who is being blackmailed by his mobster twin brother Harry. Both brothers were played by [[Special Guest]] celebrity [[Liberace]].
== [[New Media]] ==
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''[[GURPS]]'', "Evil Twin" is a disadvantage a character can take for additional points. The disadvantage makes the PC have to take the fall for things his evil twin does, as well as other characters thinking that the PC is crazy, or has a split personality. Interestingly, the Evil Twin has this disadvantage as well, and occasionally the Evil Twin will be blamed for something the PC did. And if you play an evil character with this disadvantage, you have to worry about getting the credit for your "Good" Twin doing things like saving orphanages.
*
** Hextor, the god of Tyranny and War, is the Evil Twin of Heironeous, the god of Chivalry and Justice, although in this case, they look nothing alike. One myth claims Hextor was once a strikingly handsome deity - like his brother - but his violent nature and jealously towards his brother [[Evil Makes You Ugly| caused him to degenerate into an ugly, bestial monstrosity]].
** ''[[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 the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting, one of the functions of the Alchemist Apparatus is to create an Evil Twin of a subject by separating the subject into Good and Evil versions. This twin is so evil that it is automatically adopted by the Land itself and becomes a minor Darklord. The Apparatus can also combine two beings into one body, meaning it could theoretically reverse the process, though it is unlikely either twin would want to.
* 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.
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* 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 ''
* 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.
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* 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!}}
* The titular character in [[Widget, the World Watcher]] had an evil twin from another dimension, Ratchet the World Trasher.
* 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]].}}
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* ''[[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.
* The cartoon version of ''[[Dragon's Lair]]'' had a episode called
* 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.
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