The Psycho Rangers: Difference between revisions

** ''[[Digimon Savers]]''' Bio-Hybrids. Kouki to Marcus (both are [[Hot-Blooded]] fighters, but Kouki takes it all the way to sadistic [[Blood Knight]]), Nanami to Thomas (both [[Teen Genius|Teen Geniuses]]), and Ivan ([[Punch Clock Villain]]) to Yoshi ([[The Chick]]).

* 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.

* 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:

* ''[[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.

** 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.

** 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]].

* 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 {[[True Companions|group of friends]] formed by [[Anti-Hero]] Guts

** Grunbeld is a massive warrior who wears similar armor and has an [[Arm Cannon]] like Guts

** 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 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.}}

* ''[[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.

 

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

* The Blitzkrieg Squadron in the [[Marvel Universe]] were created as a Nazi counterpart to the heroic [[Howling Commandos]].

** 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 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).

* 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.)

** Antaeus = Geo-Force

** Diana = Katana

* The [[Incredible Hulk (Comic Book)|Incredible Hulk]]'s [[Evil Twin]], the [[Red Hulk]], joined forces with the [[Evil Counterpart|Evil Counterparts]] of the other Defenders to form the Offenders: Red Hulk (Hulk); Baron Mordo ([[Doctor Strange]]); Tiger Shark (the [[Sub-Mariner]]); and Terrax (the [[Silver Surfer]]).

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

*** 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.

* 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]].

 

== Fan Fic ==

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* The Hobo King's crew in ''[[Scurvy Dogs]]''.

* The Wilson Heights Gang in ''[[Police Academy]] 6''.

 

== [[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.}}

* [[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|Power Trios]], one of white guys who harass Indians and one of Indians who harass white people. The leaders of both gangs are out for revenge because of some perceived slight. (The Indian leader's white father abused him, and the white leader thinks his brother was killed by Indians.) There is one guy who is mostly neutral. And there is one guy who ultimately says [[What Have I Become?]] and turns himself in to the cops. It's all part of the [[He Who Fights Monsters]] theme.

 

== 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.

* 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 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.

** Wesley's guide is Rutherford Sirk, a former Watcher.

** Angel gets Lilah.

* 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.

 

== Toys ==

** 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]]''.

* The Handsome Men in ''[[Killer 7]]'' are an obvious evil parody of the Super Sentai.

** Who in turn are the Psycho Rangers (if you consider the main characters to be [[Villain Protagonist|protagonists]] to the [[Killer 7]].

** 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.

** 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.

** Don't forget the villains of [[Wild Arms]] 5. Everyone has a rival character that acts as an opposite to them. Light-hearted and idealistic leader Dean has the defeated dog of the villains Nightburn, [[The Chick]] Rebecca ends up rivals with [[Dark Chick]] Persephone, family man Greg fights his family's killer and [[Ax Crazy]] Kartikeya, Avril has story reasons for rivaling dark leader Volsung, small but heavily armed Carol fights against her former caregiver and muscular Elvis and Chuck rivals the surprisingly noble Fereydoon.

* The Praetorians in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' are the [[Mirror Universe|evil other-universe]] counterparts of the Freedom Corps heroes.

* ''[[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.

** 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 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]] ==

 

* 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.

* 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}}

** 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).

** 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.

* 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.

** 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.

* 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.]])

* ''[[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.

** 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.}}

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

 

{{reflist}}