The Psycho Rangers: Difference between revisions

** 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''.}}

* ''[[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.

** Now there's also a Red She-Hulk in the mix.

* [[Norman Osborn]], the [[Villain with Good Publicity]] formerly known as the Green Goblin, led ''two'' groups of Psycho Rangers, as part of ''Dark Reign'':

** The Cabal are Psycho Rangers to [[Iron Man]]'s Illuminati: Norman himself takes Tony's place, and the rest are [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Emma Frost (Professor X)]]; [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Doctor Doom (Mr Fantastic)]]; Loki (Black Bolt of [[The Inhumans]]); [[The Hood]] ([[Doctor Strange]]); and the Sub-Mariner (er, [[Heel Face Revolving Door|the Sub-Mariner]]).

*** 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.

* 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).

* 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.

** 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.

* The season six finale of ''[[Charmed]]'' featured an alternate universe where the role of good and evil were switched with the humans/witches as evil and the demons good. The sisters met their evil counterparts as well as counterparts for Chris and Leo. They tried fighting them but of course came to a draw. A subversion then happened where they decided to work together for their respective greater good/evil.

* 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.

* ''[[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).

 

 

** 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.

* 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]]''.

* ''[[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 ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II'' is powerful enough to create a group of identical copies of your party with one spell, although they are relatively easily defeated because they lack many of the originals' more special powers.

** 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]]. }}

* 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.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

* In ''[[Shortpacked]]'', a minor character {{spoiler|who was fired instead of a major character}} forms a team of other minor characters into a league of minor evil.

* Sven's Gang in ''[[Cwen's Quest]]'' appear to be this having a counter part to each of Cwen's friends and allies. Overlaps with [[Evil Counterpart]] a bit, although Cwen's [[Revenge Before Reason|isn't exactly a hero]].

* Inverted in in ''[[8-Bit Theater]]'' with the Real Light Warriors who are the strong, brave, wise and merciful warriors destined to save the world, contrasting with the team of jerks we follow. {{spoiler|Except they don't. A team of four white mages saves the world}}

* 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.

 

** The G1 origins of the Aerialbots and Stunticons are an inversion, with the former created by the heroes to counteract the latter.

{{quote|''"Megatron wants to battle us on the roads. We'll fight him in the skies!"''}}

** 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]]''.

** CHYKN was technically stronger than WITCH because they had two [[Amplifier Artifact|Amplifier Artifacts]] to their one, but because they were mind-controlled their reliance on Nerissa meant they were screwed if she was distracted. Nerissa, being [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] changed tactics and later used them to attack WITCH when they were split up and not transformed.

* One of the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward]]'' created mutated clones of the turtles, one for each, and they were even called the "Psycho Turtles". In a reversal of the above Titans mention, the Turtles used knowledge about themselves to defeat their evil counterparts without switching opponents, although typically they do switch opponents. Also, like the original "Psycho Rangers", these clones lasted past the end of the season.

* 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.

* ''[[Sixteen|6teen]]'' has a darker [[Six-Student Clique]] that are friends of [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis|Tricia's]] that tried to take over their favorite lunch spot.

* ''[[Re Boot]]'' featured a game where the heroes had to fight game sprite copies of themselves in the final level.

* 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 on the Reich|Reich-style uniforms]]. Coincidentally their teacher looks nothing like Sonny.

* The Shadow Avengers were MacBeth's attempt to create her own version of the ''[[Invisible Network of Kids]]''.

* ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]''; in the episode "Citizen Ghost", Peter Venkman recounts how Slimer first came to stay with the Ghostbusters after the Gozer incident. They received new uniforms to replace their original uniforms, which were heavily contaminated with ectoplasm. The ectoplasm later animated the old uniforms, creating four ghostly doppelgangers of the Ghostbusters, out to take down the originals, until Slimer ended up saving them.