The Psycho Rangers: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
A regular [[Legion of Doom]] has members which oppose the heroes and are often their archrivals, but their powers are scattered all over the place, and they're not necessarily [[Evil Counterpart
'''The Psycho Rangers''' ''are'' the collective [[Evil Twin]] of the [[Five-Man Band]]. Each one's nature/powers mirror a specific hero and they work together as a group. The same way [[The Hero]] can get his [[True Companions]] together to fight the [[Monster of the Week]], sometimes [[Big Bad|The Big Bad]], [[The Rival]], [[Evil Twin]], [[Monster of the Week]] or [[Evil Counterpart]] can get himself a team made up entirely of Evil Counterparts to the main cast. As a result, if the team includes such specific characters as the [[Big Bad]] and [[The Dragon]], they may also be a [[Five-Bad Band]].
If they know all the moves of their heroic counterparts, the Psycho Rangers may be too strong for their duplicates one-on-one. The heroes can sometimes turn the tables by [[Opponent Switch|switching opponents and fighting each others' evil doubles]]. Without knowledge of the heroes' fighting techniques, the Psycho Rangers become much easier to defeat. (Unless they promptly switch ''back'' again.)
If
The most extreme, but not the most common, type of Psycho Rangers are literally evil clones or [[Mirror Universe]] counterparts of the heroes.
A [[Sub
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Trope Namer ==
* The trope namer are the Psycho Rangers from ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'', a group of evil rangers that fought against the Space Rangers during the course of the series. Their counterparts in ''[[Denji Sentai Megaranger]]'' were the Jaden Sentai Nejiranger.
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** Most recently we have {{spoiler|Shiryu of the Rain}}, who makes a good counterpart for Zoro. He is also a swordsman and, much like Zoro in his role as [[Number Two]], is the one who calls out Blackbeard after his recklessness nearly gets the rest of the crew killed. Blackbeard and {{spoiler|Shiryu}} even met in a similar fashion, as the latter was on death row until Blackbeard came along.
** In this case, it's still a little early to tell who's a counterpart of who. {{spoiler|Especially now that the Blackbeard Pirates have doubled in size. One could easily argue that San Juan Wolf, the "Colossal Battleship", is the counterpart to ''the Thousand Sunny''.}}
** Any antagonist with a [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] has shades of this, such as the Arlong Pirates or the [[CP 9]]. In the former example, we have [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]] Kuroobi vs [[Dance Battler]] Sanji, 6-swords user Hatchan against 3-swords Zoro, and Chew against Usopp, with [[Big Brother Figure|Luffy]] and [[A Father to His Men|Arlong]] going at it in the end. For the latter, there's unashamed [[Large Ham]] Franky vs [[I Wont Tell You What Im Telling You|gossip-loving Fukuro the silent]], figurative wolf Sanji vs literal wolf Jyabura, [[Cute Bruiser|Chopper]] vs [[Gonk|Kumadori]], the [[Fan Service]]-laden battle between Nami and Kalifa, [[Lovable Coward]] Usopp sniping [[Dirty Coward]] Spandam, [[Rated "M" for Manly|Zoro]] vs [[The Comically Serious|Kaku]], and finally [[Hot
* ''[[Naruto]]'' sets up a fairly traditional Psycho Ranger arrangement for the genin squad trying to rescue Sasuke:
** [[Gentle Giant]] Chouji against [[The Brute]] Jiroubou. "Who are * you* calling fat?!" ensues.
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** Taijutsu specialists face off when [[Incurable Cough of Death|sick and dying]] yet still unbeatable Kimimaro meets still-recovering miniature [[Bruce Lee Clone]] Rock Lee.
** Then the series proceeds to set Sasuke himself up as Naruto's very own Psycho Ranger. Right up to the point where Naruto and his charming spiritual freeloader start to psycho back...
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' had a set of these guys in most seasons (in order of appearance: Shittenou, Ayakashi Sisters, Witches 5, Amazones Quartet and Amazon Trio). Each of these groups was made up of [[
** Classic Sailor Moon: The Shittenou. Jaedite - Mars, Nephrite - Jupiter, Zoicite - Mercury, Kunzite - Venus.
** Sailor Moon R / Black Moon: The Ayakashi Sisters. Kooan - Mars, Berthier - Mercury, Petz - Jupiter, Calaveras - Venus.
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* Weiss of ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' run into no less than ''three'' teams of Psycho Rangers, with increasingly closer resemblances to the series' four protagonists: Schreient, who qualified as Psycho Rangers mostly just by being a team of four assassins opposing the protagonists; Schwartz, who draw a more direct comparison ("Weiss" and "Schwartz" are German for "white" and "black"); and La Mort, the four villains of ''Dramatic Precious'', all-out Psycho Rangers who started out as a previous incarnation of Weiss themselves only to be driven [[Ax Crazy]] by the job.
* ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'''s Dark Legendary Warriors. Notably, there's not as many straight match-ups as you think; [[Holy Hand Grenade|Lobomon]] has a rivalry with [[Dark Is Edgy|Duskmon]], as does [[Designated Girl Fight|Kazemon with Ranamon]], but the other three per team aren't as clear-cut - the good guys tended to encounter just one of their dark counterparts at once, and they'd all team up against him.
** ''[[Digimon Savers]]''' Bio-Hybrids. Kouki to Marcus (both are [[Hot
* In a recent chapter of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', while observing [[Floating Continent]] Ostia, [[Arch Enemy]] [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|Fate]] has revealed that he has his own [[Transformation Trinket|Pactio cards]] and a squad of partners to match the Ala Alba. It was also revealed that Nagi Springfield's team the Ala Rubra when ''they'' fought Fate had a similar set of opponents each to match their abilities: a [[Supernatural Martial Arts|martial artist]], a [[The Big Guy|Big Guy]], a [[Glass Cannon|wide-spread destroyer]], a [[Barrier Warrior|barrier fighter]] and Fate himself to match the [[Kung Fu Wizard|combat]] [[Magic Knight|mage]] hero Nagi.
* Mewtwo's Pokemon clones from the [[Pokémon:
* In ''[[Pretty Sammy|Magical Project S]]'', Pretty Sammy tried to challenge the Team Sexy Mrs. (AKA Team Lovely Madams in the subtitled version) to a battle, but she lost.
* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', this is explicitly the setup of the Vongola Rings arc. The seven Rings themselves are introduced as a device to set the hero's core "party" in stone (complete with specific character/elemental characteristics identified with each one)... and no sooner have they been introduced than the Varia shows up - a rival team aiming to usurp the heroes' position, with a matching party set up – one for each one of the Rings. The corresponding party members each then have to duel one another in a high-stakes [[Tournament Arc]], predictably leading up to a final showdown between the two leaders. Specifically:
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* ''[[Saiyuki]]'' has [[Affably Evil]] gang Kougaiji-ikkou to oppose Sanzou-ikkou, with the ring leader Kougaiji, the [[Beware the Nice Ones|polite-but-deadly]] Yaone to Hakkai, the [[Badass Adorable]] Lirin to Goku, and the [[Big Guy]] Dokugakuji to Gojyo. They are all provided with solid backstory and personalities distinctive enough from the main characters to hold their own in the storyline. Both teams even work together on one occasion.
** The Kougaiji-ikkou are almost a play on the trope, as they fit every criteria except being evil. For that matter, although Kougaiji is technically Sanzo's counterpart and Lirin is Goku's, it's Kougaiji and ''Goku'' who have the "[[Worthy Opponent]]" brawl whenever they meet, while Sanzo shoves food into Lirin's mouth until she shuts up.
* The Shinigami captains vs the Espada in the Hueco Mundo arc of ''[[
** Mayuri vs. Szayel. [[Mad Scientist]] vs. [[Mad Scientist]].
** Kenpachi vs. Nnoitra. The former [[Blood Knight|just wants a good fight]], and even gives himself handicaps so fights will last longer. The latter [[Ax Crazy|simply enjoys killing things]] and thinks nothing of using dirty tricks or attacking weakened opponents. Also, Kenpachi is considerably nicer to little girls.
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** Kyoraku vs. Starrk. Both proved to be [[Brilliant but Lazy]] [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]] type characters, although Starrk's backstory reveals he's not so much an [[Evil Counterpart]] as a neutral (and fairly sympathetic) counterpart to Kyoraku that considered the other Espada his [[True Companions|group of friends]].
** The clones in the filler Invasion arc. They are stronger and more violent than the originals. And the filler [[Big Bad]] has cloned most of the captains. [[Cool Versus Awesome|Fun times]].
* The tail end of the last episode of the first season of ''[[Galaxy Angel (
* In ''[[Berserk]]'', the "reborn" (for lack of a better term) Griffith creates a new Band of the Hawk (comprised mostly of [[Legions of Hell|Apostles]] like himself) that has counterparts to the
** Grunbeld is a massive warrior who wears similar armor and has an [[Arm Cannon]] like Guts
** Irvine and Locus are [[Bishounen]] [[Noble Demon]] characters who are obvious counterparts to two nobles (literally and figuratively) on Guts' side, Serpico and Roderick
** Sonia, a young oracular [[Anti-Villain]] to [[Cute Witch]] Schierke
** New Band Of The Hawk seems to be made of evil counterparts to the members of original Band of The Hawk {{spoiler|most of who are already dead}}.
* The ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5]]'' movie features a Dark Cure team. In what is perhaps a bit of [[Genre Savviness]], the first thing they do when they face the Pretty Cure team is to warp their counterparts off to different locations so they can't use the "switching opponents" trick.
* The Garuru Platoon from ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]''. Giroro's counterpart is [[Aloof Big Brother|Garuru]], Dororo's counterpart is [[Unknown Rival|Zoruru]], Kururu's counterpart is Tororo, Tamama's counterpart is Taruru, and Keroro's counterpart is {{spoiler|a child-aged clone of himself from before he met Fuyuki and Natsumi.}}
* [[Deconstructed]], like so many other tropes, in ''[[
* ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' had traces of this in both Shinryuuji amd Ojou. Hiruma, Unsui, amd Takami are all physically average quarterbacks who compensate with their dedication and intelligence, Kurita, Yamabushi, and Ootawara are all incredibly large noseguards who cry at the end of their games, Monta, Ikkyu, and Sakuraba are all recievers determined to be the best who have one area of specialty, and Sena, Agon, and Shin are the "aces" of their team.
* ''[[Panty
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[The Dandy (
* The Blitzkrieg Squadron in the [[Marvel Universe]] were created as a Nazi counterpart to the heroic [[Howling Commandos]].
* Deathstroke's "Titans East" of recent ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' comics, which included The Match, an evil clone of Superboy (who had, by this point, degenerated into as good a clone of Superboy as [[Bizarro Universe|Bizarro]] is of [[
** Later on there was Clock King's Terror Titans, made up of original characters who used power suits and modeled themselves after older villains. As it turned out, none of them had any connections to the Teen Titans, except for Dreadbolt, who was the son of Bolt, a Blue Devil villain, making him a sort of rival to Kid Devil.
** The animated series has the "H.I.V.E. Five" (later six members), though the connections aren't quite as direct. The most obvious would probably be Jinx for Raven. Both have similar skin tones (gray), [[Anime Hair|unusual hair]], wear gothic clothing, have fairly serious attitudes, and shoot rays of energy that differ apparently only in the color.
* Most incarnations of the Masters of Evil in [[Marvel Comics]] are constructed in this manner.
* The New Avengers arc of JMS's [[JMS Spider
* ''[[The Legion of Super Heroes]]'' has the Legion of Super Villains, which features some original villains, but in all incarnations features Lightning Lord, the older brother of Legionnaire Lightning Lad. The comic versions usually also feature Cosmic King and Saturn Queen, counterparts of Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl, and, rarely, Chameleon Chief and Sun Emperor, counterparts of Chameleon Boy and Sun Boy. Micro Lad's shrinking complements both Shrinking Violet and Colossal Boy, and in the current series, Micro Lad ''is'' Colossal Boy, a giant who can shrink to six feet.
* [[The DCU]]'s Sinestro Corps is an [[Evil Counterpart]] to the [[Green Lantern]] Corps, and most of the members of the former are Evil Counterparts to individual members of the latter (sometimes to a [[Narm|ridiculous]] level).
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* The DCU ''loves'' these. Lex Luthor's Injustice Society was made up entirely on one-for-one matches with the Justice League of the time.
* The Black Marvel Family, Black Adam's equivalent to [[Captain Marvel]]'s [[True Companions|group of friends]] (even though Isis had a very different relationship with Adam than the one Mary Marvel has with Marvel) -- although, while they existed, Black Adam was on a [[Heel Face Turn]], so they weren't Evil Counterparts so much as Dark Counterparts.
* In [[Marvel Comics]], the U-Foes are explicitly described as Psycho Rangers to the [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]], with identical origins, although they usually fight the [[
** The Frightful Four, despite its ever-changing roster, was created by the Wizard (a [[Mad Scientist]] Evil Counterpart to Reed Richards) to be Psycho Rangers to the Fantastic Four. In its second-to-latest incarnation, it featured the Wizard (Mr. Fantastic), his friend the Trapster (the Thing), his ex-wife Salamandra (Invisible Woman), and someone unrelated to him who just happened to be Hydro-Man (the Human Torch). Eventually he forces his daughter Cole to join the group and basically throws out the Trapster to make room. Cole, who is a love interest to Johnny Storm, then takes up the Human Torch role while Hydro-Man fills the Thing space.
*** Carried to its ultimate extreme in ''[[Ultimate Fantastic Four]]'', where the Frightful Four are the counterparts of the regular (read Ultimate, in this case) FF from another universe, just with fifteen more years of experience. Oh yeah, and they're ''[[Marvel Zombies|flesh-eating zombies]]''.
* In the [[Silver Age]], DCU (again) introduced the alternate Earth of Earth-3, where the counterparts of the JLA were known as the Crime Syndicate. After massive retcons, there are ''two'' versions of this - the Crime Syndicate from the Antimatter Universe, and a new Earth-3 with the Crime Society, which are more like the JSA than the JLA.
* The [[Shadowpact]] (DCU ''again'') had the Pentacle, set up by a witch called Strega, which "just happened" to feature counterparts to the magical heroes. (Strega herself was the counterpart to the Enchantress; Jack of Fire to Blue Devil [and turned out to be [[Luke, I Am Your Father|his brother]]]; Sister Shadow to Nightshade; Bagman to Ragman; Karnevil to Detective Chimp (kinda); and White Rabbit to Nightmaster.)
* In ''[[Batman and
** Antaeus = Geo-Force
** Diana = Katana
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** Proteus = Metamorpho
** Vulcanus = Black Lightning
* The [[
** Now there's also a Red She-Hulk in the mix.
* [[Norman Osborn]], the [[Villain
** The [[Dark Avengers]] are an interesting example; a supposed hero team who are actually ''posing'' as their counterparts. In addition to Ares and Sentry as themselves (going along with it because one's morally ambiguous and the other's just plain nuts), the line up includes Venom as [[Spider
*** Osborn later revived the Dark Avengers concept with a new team featuring Skaar, Son of Hulk (The Hulk/Red Hulk); Hawkeye's brother Trickshot ([[Hawkeye]], duh); The Gorgon, Wolverine's deadliest enemy ([[Wolverine]]); Ragnarok, the infamous clone of Thor ([[The Mighty Thor]]); Ai Apaec, a sinister Spider-man ([[Spider
** The Cabal are Psycho Rangers to [[Iron Man]]'s Illuminati: Norman himself takes Tony's place, and the rest are [[X
*** Then come Utopia, Emma and Namor reveal their intentions and leave the Cabal, so Osborn has to pick up someone to fill the spot. Apparently the Taskmaster was the next best option.
* [[Dark Reign]] gave us Dark [[Young Avengers]], whose members are the Psycho Rangers to the original Young Avengers.
** Patriot, the [[The Hero|determined leader]] is met by the doubt-filled, insecure Melter.
** The gay magician Wiccan's counterpart is the female sorceress Enchantress.
** The [[Action Girl]] Hawkeye II meets the Executioner II, a [[Psycho for Hire]]; both are [[Badass Normal
** Stature faces Big Zero, a [[Badass Bookworm]] [[Legacy Character]] against a [[Dark Action Girl]] and racist. Both are size-changers.
** Vision and Egghead are both robots.
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** For unknown reasons, Hulkling doesn't have a counterpart in the other team. The Dark Young Avengers are somewhat unusual, because the Dark Young Avengers were not gathered together to fight the original Young Avengers, but just want to be heroes. However, they will probably end up under Osborn's control. What's more, some relationships between the members of the Dark Young Avengers mirror those in the Young Avengers. just like Stature and Vision love each other, Big Zero has a crush on Egghead.
** The title of the story arc; "Young Masters", combined with their names, offers a pretty big clue as to where it's going.
* ''[[X-Men]]'' examples:
** In one of the ''
** In the ''Fall of the Mutants'' arc, when the X-Men went missing, the villain Mojo tried to use cloning technology to create his own version of them. He first tried gender-swapped and [[Furry]] versions of them (Mojo is far more concerned with a minion's entertainment value than battle prowress) but considered the results failed experiments [[Bad Boss| and had them destroyed]]. He then created child versions of them (the second incarnation of the "X-Babies", the first being the actual team that had been de-aged) but again considered them a failure and ordered them disposed of... But they escaped, and would ally themselves with ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'', making this a Subversion. They would ultimately work for Mojo again, after he agreed to a ''very'' long list of contract negotiation conditions in their favor.
* The original Soviet Super Heroes team primarily featured clear counterparts to [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] team they often opposed. Perun, the Slavic god of thunder, was the Thor counterpart; Sputnik/Vostok, a calculating android, was the Vision's counterpart; the Red Guardian, uber-patriotic Soviet supersoldier, was the Captain America analogue; Surge, a man in a suit of [[Powered Armor]], was Iron Man; Sabercat was the Beast, Vanguard was Hawkeye, Darkstar was the Scarlet Witch, etc.
* Another case of the Psycho Rangers not actually facing their counterparts (because [[Final Crisis|they're dead]]) is the team of knock-off [[New Gods]] that have bedeviled the [[Justice League of America]]: Dr Impossible, the evil Mr Miracle from an early storyline, is now joined by Hunter (evil Orion); Neon Black (evil Lightray); Chair (evil [and dumb] Metron); and Tender Mercy (evil Big Barda).
* The Liberators from volume 2 of Marvel's ''[[The Ultimates]]'' are an Axis of Evil counterpart to the title team. The Colonel being the Iranian counterpart to Captain America, Abomination the Chinese Hulk, Crimson Dynamo the Chinese Iron Man, Perun the Russian Thor, Hurricane the North Korean Quicksilver, and Swarm the Syrian Wasp.
* In ''[[Rawhide Kid]]: The Sensational Seven'', when the [[Big Bad]] learns that the Rawhide Kid and the Seven are coming for him, he recruits a team composed of villainous counterparts of the Seven.
* The White Lions were the Nazi counterpart to the heroic [[Blackhawk]] Squadron.
* Inverted in ''[[The Flash]]'' with the Renegades, a group of 25th century policemen who model themselves after the Rogues, since the 25th century's most dangerous criminal is the Flash's [[Evil Counterpart]].
* In the [[Archie Comics]] version of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (
== Fan
* A rather interesting case in ''[[
** Counterpart fan series ''[[
* In the [[All Things Probable Series
* In ''[[
* {{spoiler|The Axem Rangers X}} in Part 2 of ''[[
== [[Film]] ==
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* The Hobo King's crew in ''[[Scurvy Dogs]]''.
* The Wilson Heights Gang in ''[[Police Academy]] 6''.
* ''[[The Muppets (
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' novels, the whole SOS Brigade is diametrically opposed by [[Fan Nickname|the Anti-SOS brigade]], a team consisting of a time traveler, an alien humanoid-interface, an esper, and a depowered version [[Wild Mass Guessing|of whatever Haruhi is]]. Ironically, Mikuru's opposite more closely resembles an [[Evil Counterpart]] to Itsuki (something Kyon even comments on), while Itsuki's opposite would be more suited as an [[Evil Counterpart]] to Mikuru. Pointedly, the only thing missing is a Kyon-counterpart. The Anti-SOS make several attempts to recruit Kyon, instead, believing him critical to their plans and fueling a great deal of [[Wild Mass Guessing]]. However, this trope is ultimately subverted, in that the Anti-SOS Brigade are not in any sense a coherent group, and its members do not actually care about each other at all, as shown by the fact that there are four of them but are split into at least three factions. In fact, {{spoiler|Sasaki disagrees completely with what the other three want, so much so that she tries to help Kyon oppose the others.}}
* The ''[[City of Heroes]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novel ''The Freedom Phalanx'' has the Tyranny Legion, Psycho Rangers for the not-yet-formed Phalanx. The armored hero Positron has his old boss, Doctor Null, who's stuck inside his armor; Synapse, who got his powers from one of Null's experiments, has Revenant, his ex-friend who was turned into a zombie through a similar experiment; Sister Psyche, the mutant psychic, has the Shadow Queen, whose psychic powers come from a possessed mask; Manticore, a [[
* [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''[[In Name Only|Op-Center]]'' series (which, as the [[Pothole]] implies, was ghostwritten) has the titular crisis command headquarters and its Russian counterpart, ''Mirror Image''. Sometimes they cooperate, sometimes not.
* Sherman Alexie's horror novel ''[[Indian Killer]]'' features two [[Power Trio
* In ''[[
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Big Bad Beetleborgs]]'' features the Mantrons, which are not Psycho Rangers to the Beetleborgs but rather to the Beetleborgs' allies, the Astralborgs.
* ''[[Stella]]'' featured an episode where Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black leave the group, leaving David Wain to find his own new comedy-triad. He changes his name and ditches the Stella-trademark business suit and moves in with two completely normal roommates, who are so mundane as to be eerie in comparison to the creepy and latently-homoerotic Stella group. At the end of the show, the new roommates flee to Italy in a sequence similar to the Sicily sequences in [[
* An episode of ''[[
* In the ''[[Leverage]]'' episode, "The Two Live Crew Job", the team squares off against a group of thieves who are just as skilled as they are in their specialties.
* The murderer and the murdered in the "Butterflied" episode of ''[[CSI]]'' are Grissom and Sara's evil counterparts. The Miniature Killer and Ernie Dell are also clearly intended to be evil mirror-images of Grissom and Sara.
** [[CSI]] does the evil-counterpart thing rather frequently. There was an episode where Grissom was interviewing a suspect, and the actor had been carefully styled and lit so that from certain angles he looked like a mirror-image of Grissom. The suspect was a shrink who turned out to have been administering some BDSM therapy to one of his patients, who then turned up as the corpse-of-the-week.
* ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' has the Shocker Riders of [[Kamen Rider (TV series)|the original series]], a group of evil copies of Kamen Rider 2. Subsequent Showa era series use evil copies of main Riders fairly often. Later series forgo this in favor of newly designed evil riders.
** ''[[Kamen Rider Spirits]]'' redesigned the Combatroids from ''[[Kamen Rider ZX]]'' into ZX-styled Shocker Riders; additionally, the [[Big Bad]] Judo could also qualify, since he has the ability to transform into any of the Kamen Riders preceding ZX and use their powers.
** ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' has the same powers as Judo above, except that the Riders he can transform to span ''[[Kamen Rider Kuuga]]'' to ''[[Kamen Rider Kiva]]''. Also, one of the worlds his crew visited was the Negative World, where evil Riders and [[Monster of the Week|Kaijin]] rule supreme and normal humans are killed on sight, all but extinct. There was no evil doppelganger of Decade himself, but instead he fought against evil Riders from past series - [[Kamen Rider Ryuki|Ryuga]], [[Kamen Rider Faiz|Orga]], [[Kamen Rider Kabuto|Dark Kabuto]], and [[Kamen Rider Kiva|Dark Kiva]]. Dark Kiva himself is an [[Evil Twin]] of a heroic character from ''Kiva'', and acts as the group's leader.
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** Fred's tourguide is Knox, a morally ambiguous geeky scientist... {{spoiler|he worships an [[Eldritch Abomination]] and will eventually cause her death}}.
** Wesley's guide is Rutherford Sirk, a former Watcher.
** Angel gets Lilah.
* The season six finale of ''[[
* By the end of the second season of ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', Weaver, John Henry, Ellison and Savannah were the morally ambiguous, if not dark, mirrors of Sarah, John, Derek and Cameron.
* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[
== Toys ==
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* ''[[Bionicle]]'' had the Shadow Toa, illusory copies of the Toa that could only be defeated when the heroes acknowledged that the darkness was a part of themselves.
** Smilarly, the [[Bee People|Bohrok Kal]] and [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|Piraka Gang]] are seperate groups with elemental powers. The Piraka Gang almost managed to pass themselves of as the real deal (It helps that the townsfolk in question had never seen a Toa before).
** The Makutas of the Karda Nui saga were the closest in toy form. They even came with their own "evil" matoran, who could latch on and connect to them in the same way as the Toas from the set and were the first villains to feature Kanohi Masks. Originally there was to be a genuine Shadow Toa set, but it was cancelled in the prototype stage.
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** Marduk, Sailor Jupiter's counterpart, is named for the leader of the Babylonian gods.
** Ishtar, in addition to being a bad movie, was the Babylonian goddess of love, and a fitting name for Sailor Venus' counterpart.
* Star Wolf in ''[[Star Fox (
* The ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' games played with this trope a few times. In ''Sonic Adventure 2'', Team Dark consisted of Shadow, Eggman and Rouge: three villains with the same powers and move sets as [[Power Trio|Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles]] respectively. They'd return with some adjustments as antiheroes in ''Sonic Heroes'': Rouge moved from Knuckles' counterpart to Tails', and Eggman was replaced by new character Omega, who filled the "Anti-Knuckles" slot.
** Similarly the Babylon Rogues in ''[[Sonic Riders]]''.
** They had a set of Psycho Rangers as early as the Saturn era. In ''[[Sonic R]]'', there were Metal Sonic, Mecha Knuckles and the Tails Doll whom Robotnik created to give Sonic and friends a hard time.
*** The first ones mentioned got even more psycho counterparts: Eggman Nega, Mephiles, and Shade, although they never met.
* The Handsome Men in ''[[
** Who in turn are the Psycho Rangers (if you consider the main characters to be [[Villain Protagonist|protagonists]] to the [[
* Vize, Faina and Anita in ''[[
* The Hell Hounds in ''[[Galaxy Angel (
* The God-Generals of the Order of Lorelei in ''[[
** To drive the point further, the counterparts actually share certain artes with the party members. Some of them are justified, as Legretta personally trained Tear, Luke and Asch had the same mentor, and Anise and Arietta were both trained to be the Fon Master Guardian. But when you have Largo shooting a giant electric beam from his ''scythe/axe''...
** Sync also serves as a second counterpart to Anise, given his connection with her as well as having some of her FOF change-artes as Arcane artes.
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** Sync is actually Guy's counterpart, although this is more by virtue of everyone else being taken than anything else.
*** Storywise, there is a time when Sync and Guy conterpart each other, when Sync puts the curse mark on Guy.
* The Cocytus members in ''[[Wild
** Don't forget the villains of [[Wild
* The Praetorians in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' are the [[Mirror Universe|evil other-universe]] counterparts of the Freedom Corps heroes.
** The first of the new Positron Task Forces introduced in Issue 17: Dark Mirror, feature a team of "[[Evil Knockoff|shadow simulacra]]" of the [[Player Party]]. Issue 17 in general revolves around doubles of the [[Player Character]].
* ''[[Advance Wars]]'' has the Black Hole army, with Hawke for Andy or Eagle (The first because both heal their own men and have no weaknesses, the second because of their names and appearance), Flak for Max (both are very formidable in a straight fight), Lash for Sonja (both have abilities related to terrain and are intelligent young girls), Adder for Grit (again mainly going by appearance, but both aren't particularly trustworthy and have similar tastes in clothing) and, arguably, Sturm for Olaf (skilled in slowing terrain, with "hurt everybody" CO powers).
* ''[[Alter Echo]]'' pits the heroic shaper Nevin and his teammates, the gruff gun-toting Stome and the blade-wielding [[Action Girl]] Arana against the evil shaper Paavo and his bodyguards, the idiotic gun-toting Gherran and the blade-wielding [[Psycho for Hire]] Kess.
* [[Big Bad|Jon Irenicus]] in ''[[
* ''[[
** Or is it the other way around? I can never remember.
* In ''[[Ultraman Fighting Evolution Rebirth]]'', a trio of evil Ultras are introduced. Chaosroid U, a clone of Ultraman, Chaosroid S, a copy of Ultraseven, and Chaosroid T, Taro's counterpart. While they're fought one by one by their counterparts, they attack Nebula M78 as a team and {{spoiler|capture two important artifacts of the Ultras, Chaosroid S stealing the Ultra Key and Chaosroid T steals the Ultra Bell while Chaosroid U comes close to stealing the Plasma Spark.}} In addition to the powerful weapons they steal, S has the ability to split his Eye Slugger into a huge number of weapons and Chaosroid U is more powerful than Ultraman, {{spoiler|until the [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Plasma Spark reenergizes him and let's him blow U away with the Giga Specium Beam]]. }}
* In ''[[Battle Realms]]'' the Serpent clan is the yin counterpart of the yang Dragon clan.
* ''[[Hexen]]'' has Zedek, Traductus, and Menelkir, a trio of [[The Dragon|Dragons]] who are clones of the three player character classes. Each uses the most powerful weapon of his class.
* The ''[[Star Wars: X-Wing]]'' games tend to do this. Especially ''[[
* The Dark Aeons from ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' are evil versions of all the Aeons that can be obtained in the game and boast higher HP, super powerful attacks and evil colour schemes. Though they are fought separately, the Dark Magus Sisters are fought together thus invoking the trope. Your normal Aeons will take on the appearances of the Dark Aeons at the end when Yu Yevon possesses them. They reappear in the sequel as possessed once again.
* In ''[[Ultima IV]]'', the final fight is against the "evil yous", a team of evil copies of your party.
* The ASIC's Four Felons in ''[[Hyperdimension Neptunia
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[
* The Linear Guild in ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', were [[Invoked Trope|deliberately chosen]] by their leader to be this. This gets to the point that he's unwilling to face the Order of the Stick without a full team of evil counterparts, because he's invested so much time and effort into cultivating that identity of them as a team.
* Sven's Gang in ''[[
* Inverted in in ''
** There are two other examples that follow the trope a bit more closely, as well. First there's the Dark Warriors, with the technically-a-villain-but-actually-really-nice Garland (as opposed to [[Heroic Sociopath]] Black Mage), the haughty dark efl Drizz'l (as opposed to haughty regular elf Thief), incalculably stupid pirate Bikke (as opposed to incaculably stupid Fighter), and LARP fan Vilbert (as opposed to pen & paper rollplaying enthusiast Red Mage).
** Finally, there are the Other Warriors, made up of the shady and unethical Rogue (Thief), the rule-bending Ranger (Red Mage), the normally friendly but incredibly vicious Berserker (Fighter), and Cleric (Black Mage). Cleric doesn't fit quite as well as the others until you notice that he deliberately plays the Gods themselves against each other to increase his own power.
* The [[Gender Bender|T-Girls]] of ''[[Webcomic Jet Dream]]'' face off against another all-girl flying team, Raven Red and her Dynamic Dare-Dolls. Each of the Dare-Dolls fits a national stereotype that isn't "covered" by one of the T-Girls.
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* Almost every subgroup has a counterpart team on the opposite side in ''[[Transformers]]''. The Triggerbots and Triggercons, the Protectobots and the Combaticons, the Aerialbots and the Stunticons, etc.
** The G1 origins of the Aerialbots and Stunticons are an inversion, with the former created by the heroes to counteract the latter.
{{quote|
*** What's ironic about this is that the Stunticons themselves are a type of Psycho Rangers for the Autobots as a whole. They were created by Megatron because he wanted a unit of car-based warriors to counteract the Autobots, the vast majority of whom had car-based alternate forms.
** Due to a shortage of Autobot combiners, however, the Constructicons and Predacons never had exact opposites. The Dinobots and/or Omega Supreme were the arch-enemies of the former, and Sky Lynx was the enemy of the latter. (Despite being small compared to Predaking, Sky Lynx has defeated them more often than not. Because he's that good. [[Insufferable Genius|And knows it.]])
* The [[Spear Counterpart|Rowdyruff Boys]] in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''.
** The Powerpunk Girls also fits the role in the comics too.
* The villains in ''[[Captain Planet]]'' made an attempt toward this after they got the rings to create Captain Pollution.
* The H.I.V.E. in ''[[Teen Titans (
** Also in ''[[Teen Titans (
* Two counts in ''[[Recess]]'', though neither was exactly evil: once when Lawson decided to put together his own crew to rival TJ's, and once when the main characters went to a school that was full of kids who paralleled the students at Third Street School and had to play kickball against their own doppelgangers.
* The Legion of Low Tide from ''[[Sushi Pack]]''.
** Also, in one episode Oleander created her own team of living food fighters to counteract the Sushi Pack. Unfortunately, she made them too much like the Pack, and the two teams were able to see past their differences. That, and she tipped her hand too early (she was planning on eating both teams), so they all teamed up to defeat her instead of each other.
* The Anti J-Team in ''[[
* The Delightful Children From Down The Lane in ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' look eerily similar to [[Five-Man Band|Sector V]]. {{spoiler|The movie reveals that they were once the lost team from Sector Z.}}
* CHYKN in ''[[WITCH (
** CHYKN was technically stronger than WITCH because they had two [[Amplifier Artifact
* One of the [[Big Bad
* In the Original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987
* Played straight and subverted on ''[[Justice League]]''. In the original, there were three versions of the Injustice Gang. However, only the third was made of any form of counterparting to the seven members of the League (and even then, the relations were stretched at best), and the fights for each tended to trade off who fought who every time. In ''Unlimited'', the various Injustice League members merged into the [[Legion of Doom]], which had grown in response to the Justice League's growth. It should be noted that the villain The Shade has the distinction of being on all four Injustice Leagues. (He points this out at the third Injustice League formation, to which the villain recruiting him replies "Third time's the charm".)
** The [[Alternate Universe]] counterparts introduced in ''A Better World'' are near perfect Psycho Rangers. [[Superman]] and [[Batman]] did mention that having counterparts willing to break any "rules" they kept would make them much more difficult to fight. It was somewhat subverted when {{spoiler|Batman's counterpart proved to still have the same sense of morality.}} In ''Unlimited'', {{spoiler|Brainiac/Luthor}} recreated the alternate universe counterparts, and a few needed to trade partners to defeat them. (Flash defeated his counterpart in a most excellent way. His counterpart taunted him [[Hannibal Lecture|by saying no one else trusts him with his childish behavior]] and the Flash responded with [[Shut UP, Hannibal|"Says you! I got a seat at the big conference table...I'm going to paint my logo on it!" And he proceeded to destroy the counterpart.]])
** In the [[Grand Finale]], when the Legion of Doom and the Justice League were about to come to blows, there was an excellent shot of everybody facing off with their [[Evil Counterpart]]: Green Lantern vs. Sinestro, Superman vs. Bizarro, Atomic Skull vs. [[Captain Atom]], Giganta vs. Iron Giant, Volcana vs. Fire...and Batman standing alone, since nobody is cool enough to beat Batman.
*** or because of the Bat embargo, none of his rogue's gallery could appear.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Clones of the protagonists from ''[[
** In the comic book continuation, {{spoiler|Lexington's clone Brentwood chose to stick with Thailog. He's portrayed, like the rest, as more gullible and naive than actually evil.}}
* One episode of ''[[Class of 3000]]'' features the Westley kids going up against their counterparts from Eastley, all of whom wear red and black [[Putting
* The Shadow Avengers were MacBeth's attempt to create her own version of the ''[[Invisible Network of Kids]]''.
* In seson one of ''[[
* ''[[
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