Evil twin

An evil twin is the concept in fiction (especially science fiction and fantasy) of someone equal to a character in all respects, except for a radically inverted morality (and often some changes in appearance, stereotypically a goatee, for the audience's convenience).

This can be sophisticated or simple. Most often, it is the latter, with the evil twin being a stereotypical villain. A closely related concept is that of an entire mirror universe, containing only evil twins of the characters in the regular universe (and "good twins" of evil people).

The exotic plot devices inherent in science fiction or fantasy allow the introduction of evil twins much more readily. Such ideas as cloning, parallel universes, and time travel offer more opportunities for the twin to arise and their tendency to become exact polar opposites is magnified, rather than just slightly different characters.

Evil twins allow writers to compare the beliefs and opinions of their characters not with other characters, but effectively with the same character. The basis of a character's beliefs and morality can then be explored through the distorted mirror image of their twin. In film and television, the evil twin usually offers an actor the chance to play the same part but with an entirely different approach.

A related concept (originating in Superman comics) is the Bizarro, an imperfect or inexact (rather than evil) duplicate of a character. The term "Bizarro" has also been used to refer to actual evil twins.

Contents

1 Origins
2 Fictional evil twins

2.1 Books
2.2 Cartoons/Comics
2.3 Anime/Manga
2.4 Video games
2.5 Movies
2.6 TV series/Sitcom
2.7 Songs

3 See also

Origins

The similarities and differences of twins has long held a fascination for writers. Perhaps the oldest depiction of this idea is the biblical story of Cain and Abel in which one brother is the jealous counterpart of the other. Dualism and the conflict between good and evil is an important element in religion and mythology.

The concept also has its roots in the notion of a doppelgänger, a ghostly double whose appearance is an ill omen. The evil twin expands on this by being concrete and interacting physically with the world.

Fictional evil twins

Evil twins have found their niche in a large number of comic books and television shows.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details about various works follow.

Books

The Stephen King novel The Dark Half is about an evil twin, of sorts.

In the gamebooks series Lone Wolf, the nineteenth book "Wolf's Bane" pits the hero Lone Wolf against a demonic being made at his image, Wolf's Bane.

The short story Shatterday by Harlan Ellison is a doppelgänger story.

The short story William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe is a doppelgänger story.

In Dean Koontz's Mr. Murder, a man is stalked by his clone, who is a trained assassin.

The Jane Austen takeoff mystery Suspense and Sensibility by Carrie Bebris may be considered an evil twin story.

Cartoons/Comics

On Captain Planet and the Planeteers, evil duplicates of the kids rings were created, from which they summoned Captain Pollution, an evil twin of Captain Planet.

In Darkwing Duck, Darkwing Duck has an evil twin called Negaduck who comes from a "mirror universe" where the heroic characters of the main show are evil, and the main show's villains are (rather ineffective) superheroes.

In DC Comics books, there is an alternate universe in which the Justice League of America's counterpart is the Crime Syndicate of America. It is filled with supervillains with mostly the same powers as the superheroes in the Justice League and, ironically, a heroic Lex Luthor.

In Doonesbury, the first President Bush is depicted as having an evil twin, "Skippy".

In the animated "reality" program Drawn Together, Captain Hero has an alternate version of himself known as Bizarro Captain Hero. It is implied that he was later killed by Captain Hero.

In a Family Guy episode, a cutaway scene that parodies a climactic action movie scene shows a gun-wielding Lois aimed at two Peters, all on top of a tall building. One is the real Peter, and the other is an evil twin, both denying that they are the evil one, and Lois much choose which one to shoot. She shoots one, and the remaining Peter comes over to hug her, as it is shown briefly that he is in fact the evil, robotic Peter when his "face" falls off.

In Flash comics, Professor Zoom wears a reversed-colour version of the Flash costume, and, according to later accounts, had plastic surgery to resemble Barry Allen. After Allen's death, it is revealed that Zoom was descended from Cobalt Blue, who was literally Barry's evil twin.

In Futurama, the robot Bender has a twin, Flexo (who has a goatee). It was later revealed that Bender himself was the evil one of the two. In another episode, the show spoofs the concept of evil twins (as well as the concept of the DC Comic Multiverse) when the Professor creates a box with a mirror universe in it. When the crew goes into it, they have an argument with the twins over which universe is the "evil" one.

Marvel Comics has a long list of evil twins, such as Venom and Carnage, two violent alien symbiotes who both merged with and consequently resemble Spider-Man; Sabretooth, the sociopathic arch-enemy of the X-Man Wolverine, who shares a similar history and list of powers; and the Frightful Four, enemies and counterparts of the Fantastic Four.

In the two-part finale of Megas XLR, Coop accidentally transported him and his enemy Gorath to an evil twin universe, were Coop was thin instead of fat, and ruled the world (and probably other planets as well) with an iron grip. However, not everyone that was good in the normal universe, became bad in the other. Only Coop and Kiva were evil.

In the ¡Mucha Lucha! episode "Shamrock and Roll", Rikochet faces off with a nasty leprechaun named Rick o'Shea who is out to frame him for various mean pranks.

In the long-running webcomic The Order of the Stick, one of the oponents of the Order is the Linear Guild, lead by Elan's evil twin and made up of Evil Opposites.

In Adult Swim series Sealab 2021, the entire main crew of Sealab is revealed to have evil twins known as the "Bizarros". In a departure from the usual indication of being an evil twin through a goatee, each of the Bizarros has an outlandish physical deformity ranging from a claw for a hand (Bizarro Debbie) to simply existing as a head floating in a tank (Bizarro Sparks). Oddly, the Bizarros themselves seem to have their own set of evil twins, known as the Groovies. Where the Bizarros demand a Destructo Beam, the Groovies demand a Patchouli Beam.

In the "Treehouse of Horror VII" episode of the long running show The Simpsons, Bart is trapped in his house with a suspected "monster" in the attic. After calling Dr. Hibbert, it is revealed that the suspected monster is actually Hugo Simpson, an "evil" identical twin of Bart. However, the family discovers that Bart is the real evil twin, and is locked in the attic.

In South Park, Eric Cartman's evil twin from another dimension has a goatee, but since Cartman is already cruel and evil, the "twin" is kind and much preferred by the inhabitants of this universe. Everyone else from "good Cartman"'s universe is evil.

In another Adult Swim series, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Space Ghost has an evil twin brother, "Swingin'" Chad Ghostal. Chad is distinguishable mainly by the presence of a goatee and frequent use of hipster slang.

In Alan Moore's comic Supreme, the hero has an evil twin called the Shadow Supreme, with a similar origin to Superman's Bizarro. As the name suggests, the Shadow Supreme appears as a shadow.

In Transformers, Optimus Prime has a Decepticon evil twin named Scourge.

Anime/Manga

In the Dragonball Z movie The Tree of Might, there is an evil version of Goku named Tullece who planted the tree that sucked the life out of the Earth. He ate the fruit, causing him to become more powerful.

In the anime series Elfen Lied, Nyu is the "good twin" of Lucy, although they have the same body and Lucy is the original, with Nyu being an alternate personality originating with head trauma and allowing Lucy to resurface only intermittently throughout the series. Nyu is a sweet-natured girl who almost completely lacks language skills and shares none of Lucy's memories, whereas Lucy is coldly intelligent and prone to ripping people to shreds as a result of assorted disturbing childhood experiences.

In the manga Ranma ½, Ranma Saotome is confronted with a clone of his female side emerging from a magic mirror. This twin is not so much evil, though, than very determined to flirt with men, to Ranma's great embarrassment.

In the anime Ranma ½ Nettō-hen, there are two more classical "evil twin" storylines. In both episodes, a doppelgänger of Ranma appears when he breathe some magical incense. One, "Evil Ranma", looks like his female side and is a seducing, vampiric ghost. The other, "Shadow Ranma", is a dark and mute double of his male side, and expresses Ranma's hidden desires.

In the anime Saint Seiya, the "Black Saints Saga" story arc introduces evil twins for each of the heroes from the beginning. Though it is never really explained why, the Black Saints not only wear black copies of the sacred armors of their respective opponents, but have the same voices and faces, with just different hair colors. They also use "evil" versions of the Bronze Saints' special attacks.

In the second half of the anime Superior Defender Gundam Force, the characters face a new villain called Professor Gerbera. Gerbera is ultimately revealed to be an alias for Madnug, a near perfect copy of the hero Captain Gundam who was created in the future and captured and brainwashed by the evil Dark Axis due to an accident with time/space travel technology he had intended to help humanity.

In the anime series Trigun, the main character Vash The Stampede has an evil twin brother, Knives Millions, who is the show's main villain.

In the anime series Zatch Bell! (known as Konjiki no Gash Bell!! in Japan), the main character Zatch (Gash) has an evil twin by the name of Zeno (Zeon), identical in every way to Zatch except that his appearance in general is lighter, his eyes are purple instead of orange and his teeth are fanged. He also has the same spells as Zatch Bell, except unlike Zatch he retains consciousness while using the spells, and uses his arms instead of his mouth.

Video games

In the Castlevania games, doppelgangers of the hero or hero's affiliates are often encountered as bosses.

In the video game series Devil May Cry, Dante must defeat his evil twin, Vergil. In addition to Vergil the player also must fight a shadow form of himself known as Doppleganger.

In Earthbound, the boss Ness's Nightmare is often interpreted as a manifestation of Ness's dark side, though this has never been confirmed.

In "Soul of Rebirth" extra dungeon of Final Fantasy II, in the "Dawn of Souls" remake, the last boss is the Emperor's light side, who wished to give the ghost main characters an eternal life for thanks. They didn't trust him (rightly), and defeated him, freeing themselves.

Final Fantasy IV features a dark form of Cecil who must be defeated in order to redeem Cecil and make him a Paladin. In the Game Boy Advance version's Lunar Ruins, Kain, alone in his trial, investigates a series of murders perpetrated by someone who is later revealed to be his dark side. In doing so, his inner feelings, such as possible jealousy toward Cecil over his relationship with Rosa, are explored. Kain confronts "Dark Kain" which eventually reveals itself as Dark Bahamut, and must be defeated to gain Kain's ultimate weapon, Abel's Lance, and the tome to summon Dark Bahamut.

Another Final Fantasy contains a character who resembles an evil twin. Final Fantasy X-2 has Shuyin, a character who resembled main character Tidus from Final Fantasy X.

In the video game Grandia II, the kind and altruistic Elena has an evil twin personality called Millenia, who co-exists within her body, and is actually a manifestation of a demonic energy that exists within her. Millenia is egocentric, manipulative, and short-tempered, but not directly evil — even when Elena turns into Millennium, she continues to aid the game's hero, mainly due to the fact that she is competing with Elena for his affection. In addition, while Elena, due to her religious upbringing, is shy and reserved, Millenia is very openly flirtatious. At the very end of the game, Millenia succeeds in manifesting herself in a separate body to fight side-by-side with Elena in the final battle. It is never explained why Millenia is so much more human and less evil than the other demonic entities in the game, who all take on monstrous forms and have a single-minded focus on death and destruction.

In , Riku encounters and defeats a replica of himself that seeks darkness as a source of strength.

In the Mario video game series, Wario and Waluigi are evil versions of Mario and Luigi.

In the original Mega Man series, Bass serves as Mega Man's evil twin; he emulates Mega Man's abilities perfectly (up to and including having a robotic dog, Treble, who acts as a counterpart to Rush). In the Battle Network series, however, Bass has no particular connection to MegaMan.EXE. In the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon, Proto Man similarly acts as an evil counterpart to Mega Man.

In the video game Metal Gear Solid, the character Solid Snake had an evil twin brother by the name of Liquid Snake.

In the Metroid series, there are two "evil" versions of Samus Aran, the SA-X (an X-parasite mimicing Samus) and Dark Samus, believed to be Metroid Prime fused with the Phazon Suit.

In the Mortal Kombat series, Kitana and Mileena are thought to be twin sisters, Mileena being Kitana's opposite — but the truth being she is a clone.

Three of Secret of Mana's many bosses are evil twins of the playable characters. They are all fought in a group, consiting of Shadow X1 (Copying the fighter) Shadow X2 (Copying the heroine) and Shadow X3 (Copying the sprite).

The character of Metal Sonic is the original evil twin of Sonic from the Sonic the Hedgehog series of games. The character of Shadow the Hedgehog in the more recent Sonic the Hedgehog series of games is also considered an evil twin, not only storyline-wise but also gameplay-wise (that is, both he and Sonic are played the same way). Shadow, however, quickly becomes an antihero. The Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series also introduced "Scourge": a green, evil hedgehog from the alternate universe, Anti-Mobius. The British Fleetway comic series included Sonic's evil persona, Super Sonic, as a separate character after the 100^th issue.

In Soul Calibur III's "Tale of Souls" mode, Zasalamel faces off with an identical doppelgänger of himself that represents the side of his personality that fears death. Other characters will also sometimes encounter doppelgängers during their Tales of Souls, but these doppelgängers are shadowy facsimiles, rather than exact copies.

In ' and ', Link's shadowy opposite appears, quickly nicknamed Dark Link.

Movies

*Norio Tsuruta's film Ringu 0: Bâsudei features semi-scientific look at doppelganger/evil twin aspect.

In Army of Darkness, an enchanted mirror and brutal dismemberment create a "Bad Ash", a disfigured evil counterpart to the hero of the Evil Dead series Ash Williams. Bad Ash steals good Ash's girl, but eventually gets blown to bits.

In the Coffee and Cigarettes segment "Twins", Joie Lee and Cinqué Lee play twins, of which Cinqué Lee is the evil twin. In the same segment, the waiter, played by Steve Buscemi, gives his theory on Elvis Presley's evil twin.

In John Woo's movie Face/Off, FBI agent Sean Archer and terrorist Castor Troy (played respectively, and then inversely, by John Travolta and Nicolas Cage) switch faces and identities, technically becoming each other's evil (or good) twin...

TV series/Sitcom

A stereotype of soap operas is the evil twin. One of the longest-running examples is David Canary's portrayal of stiff businessman Adam Chandler and his fun-loving brother Stuart on All My Children since 1983.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 3 episode, "Doppelgängland", features an alternate timeline evil vampire twin of Willow.

In the Dad's Army episode "My Brother and I", Captain George Mainwaring's brother Barry (also played by Arthur Lowe) appears. In contrast to the stiff and formal George Mainwaring (whom he calls "Old po-face"), Barry Mainwaring is a jovial drunkard fond of practical jokes.

On an episode of the TV series The Dukes of Hazzard, Jefferson Davis Hogg, who dresses in white, drives a white Cadillac convertible and is a stereotypical mean, corrupt Southern local-government "Boss", has a twin brother, Abraham Lincoln Hogg, who dresses in black, drives a black Cadillac convertible, and is kindly and benevolent. Boss Hogg calls his brother "the white sheep of the family". Both Hoggs were played by Sorrell Booke.

In the TV series Friends, the character Phoebe Buffay has an evil twin named Ursula Buffay. Though not a twin, the character of Ross Geller has an "evil" counterpart named Russ for one episode. Russ was played by Snaro[link], an actor of uncanny physical resemblance to David Schwimmer. Russ dated Rachel but dumped her for Ross's girlfriend.

In the TV series I Dream of Jeannie, Jeannie has a twin sister who is obviously played by the same actress, Barbara Eden. Appearing as a brunette, her mischievous sister was always vying for Major Tony Nelson's attention, even long after Jeannie and Tony married and had their son.

Another evil twin story in a soap opera is that of Grant Putnam and Grant Andrews on General Hospital.

On Gilligan's Island, Gilligan, Mr. Howell, and Ginger all had evil twins who inexplicably at one time or another made their way to the island and caused no end of trouble.

In the Knight Rider television show, David Hasselhoff's character, Michael Knight, has an evil twin named Garthe Knight. Although not actually twins--Garthe was the biological (though illegitimate) son of Wilton Knight, while Michael was Wilton's symbolic son--the resemblance was exact except for Garthe having (of course) a goatee. In other episodes, Michael's car KITT has an evil twin called KARR. As with Star Trek's Data and Lore, KARR is a flawed prototype that preceded the heroic later model.

In the Red Dwarf episode "Demons And Angels", the Red Dwarf ship and crew were replicated twice over, with a "good" version and an "evil" version. The good Dwarfers led a blissfully peaceful monk-like existence, while the evil Dwarfers were homicidal, monstrous, depraved lunatics. When all three versions met on the evil ship, the evil Dwarfers quickly killed their naive good counter-counterparts, while the real Dwarfers had the good sense to run away from danger.

On comedy TV series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, a secret of Sabrina's family of witches is that one of each set of witch twins is evil. Each evil twin is sent to prison after a series of tests determines which of each set of twins is evil. Sabrina's twin, Katrina, is shown to be evil and is imprisoned when, asked to push Sabrina into a volcano, she complies.

In a Saturday Night Live Digital Short, Will Forte, Seth Meyers, and Andy Samberg (playing themselves) are eating lunch in a public square. They begin looking around and find that they each have a doppelgänger nearby. Will and Seth claim that a large bum (played by Horatio Sanz) is Andy's doppelgänger; the only distinguishing feature is that the bum has red mittens on. After Andy removes the mittens, Seth and Will claim they cannot tell the two apart. Will shoots one of them... and afterwards they are eating lunch with the bum.

In the parallel-dimension-hopping sci-fi show Sliders, the protagonists frequently encountered their "doubles." Over the course of the show, the Sliders' doubles spanned the entire good/evil spectrum.

In the syndicated TV series Small Wonder, it was revealed that Vicki has an evil twin named Vanessa, which is Ted Lawson's prototype VICI robot. Unlike Vicki, Vanessa has a full range of emotions, dresses less conservatively, and is deceitful and conniving. The relationship between the two robots is similar to that of Data and Lore of .

In the Star Trek universe, there is an entire mirror universe, in which the people and political entities of the Star Trek shows are duplicated with reversed moralities and slight cosmetic differences. The "mirror Spock" from the mirror universe has a goatee, while the real Spock and nearly all other Vulcans are clean-shaven; as a result, many evil twins in satirical works have goatees. "The Enemy Within" also has good and evil Kirks, unrelated to the mirror universe.

Also in the Star Trek universe, the android Data has an evil twin named Lore, who is emotional and deceptive in counterpart to Data's own logic and morality.

In Stargate SG-1 episode 6 of season 3, "Point of View", alternate versions of both Teal'c and Apophis, wearing goatees, appear in an alternate reality. In episode 13 of season 9, "Ripple Effect", numerous alternate versions of the SG-1 team are featured. Among them, a black-garbed SG-1 that try to steal the Prometheus out of desperation. This spurs Cameron Mitchell to make the comment: "You don't have beards so you're not from the evil twin universe, right?"

In Sunset Beach, Ben has an evil twin, who becomes involved in a plotline where Ben is accused of murder.

In the season 1 finale of Third Rock from the Sun, a message from the Big Giant Head was received explaining the replacement of High Commander Dick. Dick's evil twin was identical in every way but with the opposite personality and took over Dick's life, whilst the original Dick was imprisoned in a invisible box in the basement. Later it was found out that the message was a fake and just a plot for evil Dick to take over the world.

In the TV series Twin Peaks, Sheryl Lee plays the dual roles of murdered teenager Laura Palmer (blonde) and her identical cousin, Madeleine (brunette, with glasses). Madeleine is generally deemed as being wholesome and good while over the course of the series Laura, despite being beloved by the majority of the town, is revealed to have been a heavy drug user, dabbling in prostitution and being somewhat manipulative, particularly towards males (though it is often noted that Laura was essentially a good person who was a victim of circumstance). Sometimes classified as a post-modern soap opera, the Laura/Maddy plotline was an effective homage to the "evil twin" plotlines of other soap operas, as well as the film Vertigo.

In season 3 of the TV show Without a Trace, there is a storyline in which there are two twins, one of whom's wife is murdered. The FBI initially suspect her husband, but it is revealed that it is the other twin who committed the murder and several others. In the end, the innocent brother covers for him and is imprisoned. In a later episode, the imprisoned twin is freed and almost killed by his brother before being rescued by the FBI.

Songs

They Might Be Giants' album Apollo 18 includes the song "My Evil Twin". It describes the singer's evil twin, e.g. "doing doughnuts on the neighbor's lawn". The evil twin, though, is apparently just a psychological scapegoat of the singer.

Evil twin

Origins

Fictional evil twins

Books

Cartoons/Comics

Anime/Manga

Video games

Movies

TV series/Sitcom

Songs

See also