From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Evil twins are antagonists found in many different fictional genres. They are physical copies of protagonists, but with radically inverted moralities. In filmed entertainment, they can have obvious physical differences with the protagonist—such as facial hair, eyepatches, scars or distinctive clothing—that make it easy for the audience to visually identify the two characters. Sometimes, however, the physical differences between the characters will be minimized, so as to confuse the audience.^[1] Both roles are almost always played by the same actor, generally allowing for producers to save on the expense of hiring a guest actor.

Though examples of truly evil, biological twins exist, the term is more often a misnomer. In many cases, the two look-alikes are not actually twins.^[2][3] In others, the so-called "evil" twin is more precisely a dual opposite to their "good" counterpart, possessing at least some commonality with the value system of the protagonist.

Contents 1 Origins 1.1 Mythologic precursors 1.2 Early fictional appearances 1.2.1 Literature 1.2.2 Film 1.2.3 Comic books 1.2.4 Television 2 Tropes 2.1 The goatee 2.2 Identifying the imposter 3 General usage 3.1 Type of dopplegänger 3.2 As metaphor 4 Fictional evil twins 5 References

See also: Dualistic cosmology

The concept of evil twins is ancient. The biblical story of Cain and Abel, in which one brother is the jealous counterpart of the other, offers a prototype of the concept. However, this example is somewhat indirect, as Cain and Abel were not twins, and the Bible gives no explicit indication that they even looked alike.

Other ancient cultures have provided more direct precedents. One of the earliest may be in the Zurvanite branch of Zoroastrianism. This sect distilled the general abstract duality of Zoroastrianism into a concept of manifest twins "born" of a monist (first) principle Zurvan "Time." In this cosmological model, the twins — Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd) and Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) — were co-eternal representatives of good and evil.^[4] Ahura Mazda, representing good, was eventually expected to win the battle. The doctrinal foundation of Zurvanism lies in its interpretation of the Zoroastrian precepts of Free Will: Like Mazdaism (the other, and still extant branch of Zoroastrianism), Zurvanism emphasized that mortals always "have a choice between good and evil, and that one is always free to make the choice one way or the other."^[5] Zurvanism took this one step further and considered Angra Mainyu "evil" by choice, rather than by nature. This characterization is important to modern uses of the "evil twin", as most examples are in fact opposites of their "good twin", rather than wholly evil.

Amongst the Mandika of southern Mali, the origin of the world is also attributed to twins, albeit fraternal ones. According to this legend, Mangala, or God, twice tried to create the world with seeds. The first attempt failed because he had but one seed. On his second attempt, Mangala used four sets of twin seeds. This expermient was more satisfactory, and soon a universe was growing within a cosmic egg. Ultimately, however, one of the male twins, Pemba, grew tired of being confined. In attempting to escape, he proved himself treacherous. The rip he caused in the cosmic egg begat the Earth. It also compelled Mangala to seek a sacrifice of atonement. For this, Mangala killed Pemba's innocent fraternal twin, Faro. When Faro's remains were scattered on the newly formed Earth, fertile land was formed.^[6] Thus the Earth as we know it is the result of the treason of the evil twin and the sacrifice of the good one.

Many Native American creation myths likewise provide for the role of dualistic twins.

In literature, Beowulf has been cited as an early example of the evil twin story. Although it does not feature biologic twins or even characters that seem to have similar appearances, the precise language suggests that the monsters are evil reflections of the hero.^[7]

A notable early use of the modern concept of evil twins in film is 1939's The Man in the Iron Mask. This adaptation of a part of the novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas made a key change to the source material by suggesting that the plot's central twins were in fact opposites of each other. Louis XIV is portrayed as the evil twin of Philippe, a boy raised by d'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers. The movie contains many of the common tropes of the evil twin plot, such as the fact that Phillippe is unaware of his twin's existence, differences in upbringing being important to the twins' adult temperaments, facial hair as a way for the audience to distinguish between the twins, one twin impostering the other, and the eventual triumph of the good twin.^[8]

Evil twins were also staples of serial films. They were crucial plot devices in the initial 1937 Dick Tracy storyline and the 1941 Jungle Girl serial. In the 1937 serial, Gordon Tracy was introduced as Dick's twin brother. Gordon underwent an evil scientist's procedure which rendered him evil and physically transformed. For the majority of the story he and Dick were played by different actors, but it is understood that he was intended as a twin. In the case of Jungle Girl, it is not the titular character who has the twin, but her father. She is raised in the wilds of Africa, according to the narrative, because her uncle drives her father into exile there when she is a young girl. Later, after, she has grown into a young woman, she stops her uncle's plan to illegally remove diamonds from the continent.^[9]

However, just as in the modern era, early film usages were not confined to action-adventure stories. Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator was a 1940 comedic evil twin story that worked on two levels. In the narrative itself, Chaplin played both a good, simple barber and his evil counterpart, a Hitler-esque dictator. But it was also borne of the notion that Chaplin himself actually looked like Hitler. As a modern reviewer has noted:

The notion of these two brilliant and spectacularly successful monomaniacal over-achievers existing simultaneously like some Good Twin/Evil Twin duality, watching each other ascend to dominance as living iconic images, then "meeting" in a David-Goliath match playing on movie screens internationally . . . you couldn't pitch that story line to Hollywood even as an X-Men flick.^[10]

—Mark Bourne, in his review of the 2003 DVD release of The Great Dictator

Comic books contain some other early appearances of evil twins. One such example is found in September 1948's Kid Eternity #11. The final story in the work revolves around "Handsome Harry", the evil twin of Kid Eternity's mentor, Mr. Keeper.^[11] Handsome Harry is the archetypal evil twin in that he's both evil and a biological twin.

The concept was brought to the more iconic superhero, Superman, about a decade later. Superman had two important early twins. One was 1958's Bizarro, who was at first Superboy's evil twin.^[12] This twin was easily distinguishable both in physical appearance and manner of speech. Bizarro, more anti-Superman than evil, nevertheless "represented Superman's Jungian shadow, his dark side".^[13] While Bizarro has endured, a one-off 1960 "bad" Superman allowed for a rare, early psychological study of the evil twin. In May 1960's Superman #137, a story calld "The Two Faces of Superman" first appeared. After contrasting the lives of the two Supermen from birth to adulthood, it concludes that "good" Superman's nature is ascribed largely to his upbringing by Ma and Pa Kent. The other Superman is evil because he has had no such human models of decency.^[13]

Although the Kid Eternity story has had the term retroactively applied to it, none of these examples originally used words "evil twin" explicitly. 1968's Wonder Woman #175 is thus important for being an early case of the term appearing on a comic cover.^[14]

While evil twins are inextricably linked to the soap opera, they have appeared in most televised genres. Some of the earliest usages were in fact in westerns. Two episodes entitled Deadly Image appeared within a year of each other on two different westerns. Maverick's version appeared in March 1961,^[15] followed swiftly by The Rifleman's take in February 1962.^[16] Beyond the coincidence of name, both offered similar plots: the hero becomes confused with a look-alike criminal, and the guilt of the hero must be cleared by demonstrating that the evil twin is a separate indivdual.

The evil twin has now been used with great enough frequency to become viewed with cynicism as a hackneyed concept. As the character of Kate Austen remarked in a deleted scene from Lost: "It's not a soap opera until somebody's evil twin shows up."^[17] However, within the concept of the evil twin there are characteristics which are themselves tropes.

The biggest of these is the goatee. Used most famously by the character of Spock in the episode Mirror, Mirror, it was an easy way for audiences to tell "good Spock" from "evil Spock". The presence of a goatee on a familiar character is now seen as an immediate clue that the character is an evil twin. Even writers not discussing evil twins in their literary sense have occasionally made reference to the goatee through quick metaphor:

You can't go to the evil twin school of plotting very often if you're hack writing your way through Hollywood, but once you do it's thankfully easy. You slap a goatee on somebody (evil Spock, Evil David Hasselhoff) and voila: Evil twin goodness. The rest of the story, I am told, writes itself. So if you're a Hollywood writer and you can only go to the well once or twice in the life of the show, how come Microsoft can be evil Apple ALL of the time? And even worse, why is Microsoft defying convention and refusing to use a Mac logo with a goatee?^[18]

—Chris Selbold, writing about the relationship between Apple and Microsoft.

It should be noted that only two of three Vulcans males to appear in an episode set in the Mirror Universe, Spock, Soval, and Tuvok sport a Goatee (Tuvok, a freedom fighter, does not, and that may be due to this fact). The goatee is referenced in Futurama by Bender's 'evil twin' Flexo, who is constantly accused of being the bad Bender because of his goatee.

In cases where the "evil twin" is not physically distinguishable from the "good twin", a typical plot resolution will involve another character having to choose between the two. At some point, in other words, the evil twin must be killed, jailed, banished—or at least unmasked. While this has been accomplished in a variety of different ways, the basic idea of a third character having to choose between the two twins is common to most plots involving evil twins.^[19]

In modern use, "evil twin" and one sense of the word "doppelgänger" have come to be virtually interchangeable. While "evil twin" does not connote the sense of "supernatural harbinger of death", it can be used to mean "a physical copy of one's self who has an altered morality".

If you watch enough daytime soap operas, then you already know the horrifying truth: Everyone on earth has an evil twin (or doppelgänger, if you will) roaming around and acting like a jerk. These doppelgängers are the ones who sleep with your best friend's boyfriend, steal prescription medication out of your bathroom cabinet, and spread vicious (and only partially true) rumors about your sexual proclivities. You have a doppelgänger, your dog has a doppelgänger, and your mom has a doppelgänger. Everybody has a doppelgänger—except for me. As it turns out, I'm someone else's doppelgänger.^[20]

—Wm. Steven Humphrey, in an article from Seattle-based The Stranger

The term "evil twin" has also passed into general usage in a variety of different contexts. In computer technology, it describes a faked wireless access point designed to appear like a genuine one, for the purpose of phishing information from unsuspecting users.^[21] It has also proven a popular name for musical groups,^[22][23][24] as well as a wide range of media providers.^{[25][26][27][28]} The term is further used in contemporary journalism and non-fiction as a convenient label.^[29][30] In astronomy, Venus is often called Earth's "evil twin", in deference to the similarity, yet opposition, of the two bodies.^[31][32]

See also: List of fictional doppelgängers

Evil twins have found their enduring niche in comic books, video games, and television shows.

• In Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Solid Snake and Liquid Snake are both the product of the 1972 Les Enfants Terribles project, a government sponsored effort to clone legendary mercenary Big Boss (Metal Gear). However, part of the process requires that their genes be altered, Solid receiving all of Big Boss'recessive genes, and Liquid receiving all the dominant genes.
• In the Mortal Kombat series, Mileena is the evil twin of Kitana.
• In the animated TV show South Park, the second-season episode "Spookyfish" features versions of the main characters with goatees that come from what is referred to as an "Evil Parallel Universe". In this universe, however the so-called "evil" version of the normally obnoxious Cartman is actually a kind and caring friend, causing the real Cartman's friends to prefer the twin.
• In Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series, there is an episode in which Sabrina finds out everyone in the Spellman family has a twin. She soon finds Katrina, her twin, and they had to find out who was the evil twin and who was the good twin. It was soon found out that Katrina was the evil twin.
• In the Army of Darkness Ash has to deal with little evil twin duplications of himself that irritate him. The little ashes combine together to form one big evil twin. Combined, they manage to drive him screaming from the windmill where he is staying. Evil Ash attacks him, but is killed, chopped up and buried. ("Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.") (See, Evil Ash)
• RoboGadget is the evil twin of Inspector Gadget in the 1999 Inspector Gadget film.
• Elizabeth Montgomery often played Samantha Stevens' evil twin cousin, Serena on the television series Bewitched.
• In the television series I Dream of Jeannie Jeannie had an evil twin sister known only as "Jeannie's Sister." Both characters were played by Barbara Eden.
• In the Futurama Episode "The Lesser Of Two Evils", the character of Flexo is introduced who is effectively the twin of Bender (complete with goatee). As it turns out, Bender is actually the evil one out of the two of them.
• The Justice League of DC Comics has an evil counterpart in a parallel universe, where evil supplements good. As such, the heroes of the comic are feared villains in that reality, and archcriminal Lex Luthor is a kindly hero. Similarly, Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog series featured an evil version of the hero team from an alternate reality, led by a totally amoral hedgehog named Scourge. The traditional nemesis of Sonic, Dr. Eggman, was rendered a harmless veterinarian.
• In the Godzilla films, Mechagodzilla was first introduced as Godzilla's evil, robotic counterpart. Another of Godzilla's evil twins was SpaceGodzilla, introduced in the 90s. King Kong also a robot counterpart in the form of Mechani Kong.
• In the anime Big O it is revealed that R. Dorothy Wayneright has an evil twin named Red Destiny (more commonly known as R.D.), who is similar to Dorothy in appearance only: she wears a red hooded cape that covers most of her face and speaks in a colder, more "metallic" voice than her civilized counterpart. Her personality is also drastically different: while Dorothy is calm and peaceful, R.D. is violent and confrontational.
• The Doctor Who episode, Inferno features a parallel universe similar to that of Star Trek. The Doctor has no evil parallel but all of the human characters do. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has no goatee, but sports a sinister eyepatch.
• In Metroid Prime 2 and 3, Dark Samus is the evil twin of Samus Aran
• In Rich Burlew's webcomic Order of the Stick one of the main characters, Elan, has an evil twin named Nale (complete with goatee). Nale formed the Linear Guild, a group of evil opposite characters, to oppose the Order of the Stick.^[33]
• In the "Treehouse of Horror VII" episode, Bart discovers he was separated at birth from a conjoined twin by Dr. Hibbert. His "evil twin," Hugo has been consigned to living in the attic of the Simpson home and is given a bucket of fish heads to eat once a week. He also does experimental surgery to prepare for his eventual reattachement to Bart, and created a "pigeon-rat" in the process. They discovered at the end however, that Bart was the evil twin.
• The Kamen Rider Series had multiple evil counterparts starting which the Shocker Riders (which were based off of Kamen Rider Ichigo/Takeshi Hongo. Other Rider with evil twins included Riderman and Kamen Rider Amazon. Kamen Rider Ryuki and Kamen Rider Kabuto had evil clones in the form of Kamen Rider Ryuga and Kamen Rider Dark Kabuto.
• In the Earthworm Jim animated series, a radioactive waste brings Evil Jim to life from a disfigured photocopy of the hero, framing Jim.
• In the TV-show Charmed, the two-parter episode "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World" features a parallel world with Good and Evil inverted. Thrown in by accident, Paige, Phoebe, Leo and Chris encounter their evil selves and a good version of Barbas, the Demon of Fear, which turns out to be a good Demon of Hope in this world.
• In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Dark Link, an all-black sprite rip of Link, is the final and most difficult boss of the game. Dark Link reappears as a mini-boss in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
• In High School Musical and its sequel, High School Musical 2, Sharpay and Ryan Evans are fraternal twins. Sharpay is known to be the evil twin, as she is the antagonist in the movies. Ryan is also known to be the nicer twin.
• In the Darkwing Duck animated series, the title hero has an evil twin named NegaDuck, hailing from an opposite universe. This version is a complete villain as compared to Darkwing, and his outfit is almost entirely a contrasting colour to Darkwing's own (yellow instead of purple). Darkwing later visits the Negaverse, NegaDuck's home dimension, and meets evil twins of his friends and neighbours--and good twins of four villains from his home universe.
• In the Blood+ anime, Diva is the evil twin of Saya. Her eye colour is blue instead of read. Her skin is paler than Saya, her lips are redder than Saya and her hair is longer than Saya.
• In Shaman King the protagonist Yoh has a twin brother which is his previous incarnation. They both share one soul, his brother being the evil part.
• In Devil May Cry 3, the protaginist, Dante, must fight his Evil Twin, a Doppelganger, depicted as a dark demonish version of him. In addition, his real twin, Vergil, is the main antagonist of the game, thus there are two instances of the Evil Twin concept present.
• In the Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones game, the protagonist is non other than the prince himself. As a result of coming into contact with the cursed Sands of Time, a darker, evil entity formed within the prince and constantly took control of the prince in order to release his evil side. Both want to put a stop to the evil Vizier's plans, but unlike the Prince who's main goal is to save his people, the dark prince's main objective is to slaughter the Vizier. The dark prince also seeks to completely gain control of the prince, whereas the prince tries harder and harder to break free from his curse.
• In the videogame Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Kirby and his other 3 selves must travel to another dimension, where they meet Dark Kirby and Dark Meta Knight. Dark Meta Knight is defeated, but the Dark Kirby turned out to be good as the other Kirbys.
• In the Crash Bandicoot series, the character Aku Aku has a evil twin named Uka Uka.
• In one episode of SpongeBob SquarePants entitled Frankendoodle, Spongebob unintentionally creates an evil twin-like copy of himself called DoodleBob. DoodleBob also makes an appearance in the game Nicktoons Unite!, where he can be deployed in the form of an airplane, then unfold and distract enemies.
• In the Mexican telenovela La Usurpadora, the heroine Paulina (played by Gabriela Spanic) is forced to change places with her evil twin Paola (also played by Gabriela Spanic). In a few scenes, Paola was played by Gabriela's real life twin sister Daniela Spanic.
• In the Brazilian telenovela Paraíso Tropical, the heroine Paula (played by Alessandra Negrini) is the twin of the primary antagonist, Taís (also played by Alessandra Negrini). While Paula is kind and lovely, Taís is wicked and greedy. At one point, when Paula marries Daniel (played by Fábio Assunção), Taís tries to kill her in order to pretend her own death and take her sister's place.
• On the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, Michael Tylo played twins Alex and Rick Bladeson. While on his honeymoon with new wife Ashley Abbott, Alex (known simply as Blade) was kidnapped and imprisoned by his presumed dead twin brother. Rick then assumed Alex's identity and his place in Ashley's bed. Rick's true identity was only fully revealed after Alex was killed in a train accident. Michael Tylo has been compared to Sir Lawrence Olivier because his acting in these dual roles was of such high quality.
• In the Lifetime movie "The Haunting of Sarah," Kim Raver gave a performance as twin sisters, Professor Twin and Doctor Twin, who have very different motives in dealing with a daughter possessed by the spirit of a dead son.
• In the video game Jimmy Neutron vs. Jimmy Negatron, the main protagonist has an evil twin named Jimmy Negatron.
• In an episode of Codename: Kids Next Door entitled "Operation P.O.O.L.", Numbuh 4's pool is a gateway to an alternate universe, in which the Kids Next Door is the Destructively Nefarious Kids (reversing the KND's initials) and is led by Negative Numbuh 4 (who has a goatee similar to evil Spock), Numbuh 1 is a wimp, Numbuh 2 makes better jokes, Numbuh 3 is self-centered, Numbuh 5 is a geek, Numbuh 86 is timid, the Delightful Children are rebels, and Father is always Benedict Uno.
• In the anime and manga Trigun, protagonist Vash's plant brother Knives is the antagonist of the series, who aims to distroy the last of the human race that are living on planet Gunsmoke.