"Reggie once called them two sides of the same coin; mirrors of each other. They may have the same goals, but they've always taken different paths to reach them. Now they're really battling face-to-face — head-on! And I think they both realize that."
— Brock describing Ash and Paul, Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, "Battling a Thaw in Relations!"
Much like a Foil character mimics tinfoil used by jewelers to emphasize the shine of a gemstone with their differences, a Mirror Character reflects a character's traits to highlight the similarities.
Mirror Characters, also known as Parallel Characters in some literary circles, almost certainly share personality traits, values, similar skill sets, and possibly even goals and likely a narrative arc. They may have the same or similar background, whether they're from the Wrong Side of the Tracks or born a Royal Brat. They might have shared the same mentor in the past (or even the present). If they have none of the same backstory at all, their similarities will be significant for coming about regardless of their environment.
Think of them like the character versions of Bookends: the similarities serve to highlight something important about the characters and their story.
Typically, Mirrors will be antagonists of some sort, especially an Arch-Enemy. They are almost certainly The Rival, as two characters reflecting each other so strongly on the same side is often jarring. They can be a Sidekick, but as these characters are generally equals, a successor is more likely.
While a Mirror is seen as the literary opposite of a Foil, in truth the tropes often overlap and a character's Foil and Mirror can be the same character. Call them Mirror Foils, and both the Evil Counterpart and Shadow Archetype are often used to create one.
See "Not So Different" Remark for examples where the Mirror relationship is lampshaded in-universe. Contrast Expy for suspiciously similar characters existing in different works in a way that's clearly intended to be a homage—Mirrors have to be in the same narrative. For plot lines that reflect each other, see Plot Parallel. Compare Counterpart Artifacts, which are mirroring objects.
Please note that Mirror Characters have to be characters. Characters who are very similar to a group they don't belong to is not this trope. For two groups that mirror each other, see Mirroring Factions.
Not to be confused with Mirror Match, Left-Handed Mirror, or Mirror Self.
Tropes common with Mirror Characters
- Alternate Self: A character's counterpart in an alternate reality to their own.
- Arch-Enemy
- Back-to-Back Badasses
- Balance Between Good and Evil
- Bash Brothers
- Beat Them at Their Own Element
- Beat Them at Their Own Game
- Birds of a Feather
- Changing of the Guard
- Commonality Connection: Two characters start to get along after learning they have something in common.
- Counterpart Artifacts
- Distaff Counterpart: A Gender Flip variety of a pre-existing character.
- Doppelgänger
- Doppelgänger Dating
- Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest
- Dueling Messiahs
- Evil Counterpart: A villain who is essentially an evil version or polar opposite to the hero.
- Evil Former Friend: The villain used to be the hero's friend.
- Evil Knockoff: An artificial being (such as a clone or a robot) created to be an evil version of the hero.
- Evil Twin
- Fallen Hero
- Fearful Symmetry
- Friendly Enemy
- Friendly Rivalry
- Future Foil
- Generation Xerox
- Hero's Evil Predecessor
- History Repeats
- The Horseshoe Effect
- I Resemble That Remark!: Someone objects to an insult in a way that only proves the accusation is true.
- Junior Counterpart
- Left-Handed Mirror
- Like Cannot Cut Like
- Like Father, Like Son: When the offspring becomes a chip off the old block to their parent.
- Mentor's New Hope
- Mirror Boss: A video game boss who has the same abilities as the player character.
- Mirror Match
- Mutual Disadvantage
- "Not So Different" Remark: A character realizes that the other is nearly the same as they are.
- Only I Can Kill Him
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The villain doesn't want anyone else to defeat the hero they're opposed to.
- The Only One I Trust
- Other Me Annoys Me: A character is irritated by a different version of themselves.
- The Rival
- Rival Turned Evil
- Shadow Archetype
- Similar Squad
- Stock Shōnen Rival
- Sworn Brothers
- Sympathetic P.O.V.
- Sympathy for the Devil
- Sympathy for the Hero: Even the bad guy has to empathize for the good guy.
- Take Up My Sword
- Too Much Alike: When people can't get along because of how similar they are.
- Undead Counterpart
- Unfair Mirror Match
- Worthy Opponent
- Yearning for a Nemesis
Example subpages:
Other examples:
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Comic Books
- Bizarrogirl: Supergirl and Bizarrogirl are not really opposites as much as reflections. Supergirl realizes the fact as soon as she meets her.
Supergirl: But then you happened. Everything I was thinking... Every emotion in my body... Every doubt I had inside... I saw all of them in your cracked face. You were like me.
- Power Girl volume 2
- Ophelia Day mirrors Karen Starr as an ambitious, independent, proprietor of and executive in a technology company, even being a glasses wearing redhead, if a natural one to Starr's wig. Day is a little more competitive than Starr, reveling when her rival faces financial trouble, but is not actively malicious.
- Rana mirrors Power Girl as a headstrong, technology savvy alien refugee who is skilled in combat and has aspirations of becoming a super hero. Rana even declares herself better than Power Girl after dressing like her and copying her powers, but while Rana proves to be a better fighter, she ultimately proves to be both dumber in that she spends wastes a lot of time on a plan she wasn't even sure would work, and a worse hero as she actively endangers humans and disrupts the Justice Society by abducting and angering its chairwoman when the Society would have been perfectly fine with helping Rana if she had just asked. She's is many of Power Girl's best and worst traits taken to unproductive levels.
- Power Girl volume 3 has otherworldly thieves who both take special interest in Power Girl, Amalak and Axel Gust. Both are fighting what they feel to be colonialism and exploitation, both help and hinder Power Girl, and they both make use of extensive tools to aid them in their exploits. The first difference is that Amalak's people were wronged by Kryptonian's where Axel Gust's weren't...Amalak wasn't wronged by Power Girl's Krypton, but there is no such thing as an innocent Krypton to him. The second is that Axel's thievery isn't motivated by profit, but simply by putting things back where they belong.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe: In his first appearance, Flintheart Glomgold is portrayed as just another Scrooge McDuck, with the exact same cheapskate habits, and who virtually possess equal wealth as Scrooge. They are also shown to be about as equally unscrupulous, and both repeatedly try to screw one another in order to come out on top during their string-saving contest. Characterization Marches On eventually makes Scrooge more heroic and Flintheart more villainous that he becomes Scrooge's Evil Counterpart.
Donald: It wasn't bad enough that there was one millionaire in the world as wacky as Uncle Scrooge. There has to be two.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Anti-Sonic/Scourge, Sonic's Evil Twin counterpart, is Sonic with all of his negative qualities ramped up, and very few, if any, of his positive ones, and is living, breathing proof of what our hero would become if he went down a dark path. Scourge is fully aware of this, and gloats in issue 172 that this is why Sonic hates him so much, remarking that all it would take is "one bad day" to make Sonic just like him.
- Spider-Man: Doctor Octopus is the archenemy of Spider-Man in a very classic sense. Otto and Peter have a lot in common, both being scientists, who were bullied in school, and later got caught up in freak accidents that dramatically changed them forever. Both received a lot of power and both decided to channel that power by adopting an alter-ego based on eight-legged animal. The difference is that Peter chose to be a superhero and use his powers for good, while Otto chose to become a criminal, who tries to get back at the world. Doctor Octopus is the most recurring villain of the franchise, challenging the very idea of Spider-Man and being responsible for some of the most dramatic incidents in Peter’s career as a superhero: his first defeat, near death, death of Captain Stacey, establishment of Sinister Six and outright identity theft.
- Wonder Woman:
- Fifi La Strange mirrors the Golden Age Wonder Woman, being the public identity of a couple moles whose job is to catch other moles in the United States. The big differences between them is that Diana of Paradise island usually operates as Wonder Woman alone while sharing her civilian identity with Diana Prince, a nearly Identical Stranger who allowed Diana of Paradise island to impersonate her. Fifi La Strange is two twin sisters, one being a US Marshall and the other being a professional actress. Fifi, while intelligent and physically capablewhen the Marshall is in the role lacks Wonder Woman's supernatural powers, magical items and acess to highly advanced technologies.
- Eeras is a mirror to the Golden Age Wonder Woman, being a brave, altruistic, martially inclined, supernaturally powerful, royal member of a legendary, isolated, matriarchal Advanced Ancient Acropolis who is attracted to Steve Trevor. She even takes out an Axis spy in her first appearance pro bono. Eeras has a snake motif to Diana's eagle, but the biggest difference between them is that Diana left her home to save the outside world where Eeras rose to the surface world to save her home.
- Invoked with Eeras's daughter Octavia, who runs away from home and her appointed job in an attempt to become like Wonder Woman. Ultimately, Octavia has to return to Atlantis and do her duty, and ends up mirroring her mother, at first being a less playful, more hot headed Eeras, but then becoming a more serious, more level headed Eeras after some training with the Amazons.
- Morgana is a mirror and a foil to Silver Age Diana. Morgana comes from a culture divorced from modern society, much like Diana. Morgana has a loyal shapeshifting pet in Frimost; the Silver Age Diana has powerful pets too. Morgana is the daughter of a legendary figure, as is Diana. Morgana very tall, martially inclined and very powerful, like Diana. Morgana shows up while Diana has lost most of these things, however. She is a mirror of what Diana used to be! Luckily for Diana, Morgana is similarly on a mission that will benefit The World of Man. Unluckily, Diana and Morgana doesn't realize their missions overlap until Supergirl comes to them for help.
- George Pérez positioned Circe as a mirror to Diana in volume 2. Both are magical and mythological superwomen empowered by higher beings who strive to change the world with their beliefs and powers. However, Wonder Woman wants a peaceful world of kindness and virtue, whereas Circe desires a world of cruelty and depravity. Even their behavior marks the contrast of a Madonna-Whore Complex perception seen against women. Wonder Woman: Black and Gold: "The Acquaintance" directly comments on the similarities Diana and Circe share; both are demigoddess offspring of gods associated with the sky (Zeus and Helios), their immortality means they'll outlive most everyone they know, and they've been in relationships with headstrong muscle-bound types (Superman and Odysseus).
- Cassie Sandsmark debuts as a relentlessly Cheerful Child who is a bit too curious and brave for her own good, much like Post Crisis Diana, if to a greater degree. Cassie is shown to have a heroic streak in spite of her faults, but an overprotective mother who will have none of it, like Diana, if to a greater extent. Cassie Sandsmark is revealed to have innate divine powers like Diana as well, only while Diana's are slowly developing as time passes, Cassie's were simply turned off until her boldness convinced Zeus to take off her Restraining Bolt.
- Cassie also mirrors other characters. Previous Wonder Girl Donna Troy was also a family member of Diana's who tries to emulate her but just couldn't keep up until she was granted similar powers, though while Donna was adopted, Cassie was a close yet distant aunt. Vanessa Kapatelis was similarly the daughter of Diana's guide who formed an Intergenerational Friendship with Wonder Woman, though the powers Vanessa got were of the unwanted variety.
Comic Strips
- White Spy and Black Spy of Spy vs. Spy are practically identical in almost every respect but their color scheme. One time
◊ they tried to each disguise themselves as the other; it goes horribly right and gives them both Identity Breakdowns.
- Zbeng!: ‘Atsanya bat-Simkhon, a recurring character who is basically Sigal, only a far-right-winger instead of a far-left-winger. When Moti tried to introduce them, they were both Comically Missing the Point, seeing the other as a Card-Carrying Villain they share nothing with.
Films — Animated
- How to Train Your Dragon 2: The Hero Hiccup and Big Bad Drago Bludvist are both master dragon tamers who grew up fearing dragons, both capable of even taming a Nightfury, and warring over who can influence Toothless is a major part of the final battle.
- Khumba: Despite being mortal enemies, Khumba and Phango have certain likenesses; they've both been shunned by their own kind for being different (Khumba for being half-striped and Phango for being half-blind), and believe they need to "complete themselves" in order to be happy.
- Lilo & Stitch (2002):
- The titular duo themselves are mirror images of each other. Both have had traumatic upbringings that they are struggling to process, as Lilo recently lost her parents in a car crash, while Stitch was created in a lab as a weapon of mass destruction, both tend to lash out violently when they are upset, not having regard to the consequences of their outbursts until it is too late, and both are considered outcasts, as Lilo is dismissed as a weirdo by her classmates and Stitch is labelled an abomination by the United Galactic Federation. These similarities are what bring them together in the first place, as Lilo chooses to adopt Stitch from the dog pound specifically because he is the weirdest-looking "dog" there, and has been shunned in a manner similar to Lilo, and Stitch ultimately chooses to stay with Lilo due to not having any family of his own, coming to view Lilo and Nani his Family of Choice after taking Lilo's teachings about ohana to heart.
- Cobra Bubbles and the Grand Councilwoman are very similar characters. Both of them are currently or formerly associated with a high-level government body (the CIA and the United Galactic Federation, respectively). Both are tall, bald and imposing. Both have stoic and serious personalities. And both of them start out as antagonistic characters who want to take one half of the titular duo away, but are ultimately reasonable authority figures with a penchant for using loopholes to create scenarios that satisfy everybody involved. It's eventually revealed that they'd actually met back in the 1970s, and when they cross paths again at the end of the movie, they work together to both keep Lilo and Stich together and come up with a plausible justification for doing so.
- Over the Moon: Fei Fei and Chang'e. One is but an ordinary Earth girl, the other is a moon goddess, but they are alike in many ways. They are both struggling with the loss of a loved one, and because of their grief, they exile their still-living loved ones and refuse to accept anything new. They both learn how to deal with their grief and move on in life.
- Rango: Rattlesnake Jake and Rango. Both are larger-than-life "legends" who derive a fair bit of their influence from their fearsome reputations which they themselves have bought into, to a degree. The key difference being that unlike Rango, Jake can actually back his boasting up at least until the end, when Rango gets serious. Jake even acknowledges this by tipping his hat to Rango after the final fight, one "legend" to another.
- Teen Titans: The Judas Contract: Damian effortlessly deduces how Slade psychologically controls Terra through isolation and indoctrination. As a child groomed to be the successor as leader to the League of Assassins, he of all people would know.
Films — Live-Action
- Aladdin (2019): Aladdin and Jafar. Jafar reveals that he was once a street thief like Aladdin (stealing a pendant Aladdin had previously borrowed from Jasmine to demonstrate his skills), and he later uses his pickpocketing skills to steal the lamp from Aladdin. However, while Aladdin and Jafar each express a desire for respect beyond their humble origins, Aladdin never seeks that respect at the expense of others and is content to just be comfortable rather than all-powerful, while Jafar will never be satisfied unless he is at the top of the table and controls everyone else.
- Aliens: Ripley and the Alien Queen are both viciously protective Mama Bear types, and Ripley burns the Queen's nest to save Newt, followed by the Queen immediately attacking her, and when the Queen attempts to kill Newt, Ripley responds just the same.
- In Back to the Future 1, Marty learns from time-traveling to 1955 that his father George was much like him when he was his age. Marty had a demo tape for his band, but didn't let others listen to it, while his father George wrote sci-fi stories, but never let others read them, both due to a crippling fear of rejection.
Marty: (to Jennifer in 1985) What if I send in the tape in and they don't like it? What if they say I'm no good? What if they say, "Get out of here kid. You've got no future."?
George: (to Marty in 1955) What if they didn't like them, what if they told me I was no good? - Demolition Man: Spartan and Phoenix both fall foul of the verbal morality code soon after getting out of the cryoprison. Moreover, they're both men with an exceptional talent for violence (though Phoenix enjoys it a lot more), and the only reason for one to exist is because the other is still around. (As soon as Spartan has finally collared Phoenix, his superiors don't regret at all that he seems he played a role in the hostages' deaths and send him to the same cryo-prison Phoenix has been sentenced to; with Phoenix out of the way, there's no need for someone like John Spartan. And soon as Phoenix is revived and returns to his old ways, the obvious answer is to thaw out John Spartan to stop him once more.) Lampshaded by Spartan's echoed lines at the start and the end.
Spartan: Send a maniac to catch a maniac.
- Nope: Both Gordy and Jean Jacket are wild animals (the former a regular chimpanzee and the latter a strange species resembling a UFO) exploited for fame and publicity until they started acting violent towards humans, driven by sheer primal instinct. Ricky even attempts to tame Jean Jacket out of a belief that he managed to connect with Gordy.
- In The Prestige, there are plenty of similarities between rivals Angier and Borden.
- Both had a love of magic and so dedicated to the art of magic that they would sacrifice almost everything else they love.
- Both were Happily Married at one point, but both would eventually lose their wives.
- Both would become physically impaired from injuries, due to actions caused by the other, Borden losing his two fingers, Angier walking with a limp.
- Both achieved professional success as magicians.
- Both would eventually have the willingness to "get their hands dirty" and would later display a willingness to kill someone and become murderers.
- In Raiders of the Lost Ark, archaeologist Rene Belloq has this speech emphasizing the similarities between himself and his former classmate and friend, The Hero Indiana Jones.
Belloq: You and I are very much alike. Archaeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am but a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me. To push you out of the light.
- Star Trek Into Darkness: John Harrison notes Kirk's love for his crew and presents his love for his own crew as a point of similarity between them. Not to mention how both of them are willing to go to great lengths to protect and save their crew. Also, throughout the movie, Kirk and Harrison have the desire to avenge their loved ones, Harrison against Admiral Marcus for supposedly killing his crew and Kirk against Harrison for killing his mentor Pike. But whereas Kirk, with the influence of his crew, learns that he shouldn't let revenge cloud his judgement and refuses to kill or even stun Admiral Marcus since his daughter is watching, Harrison lets his hatred for Starfleet fester and doesn't care if innocents are caught in the crossfire.
- Star Wars:
- In the Prequel and Original Trilogies, Anakin Skywalker to his son, Luke. Both grew up on the same desolate desert planet before being taken away to train as Jedi Knights under Obi-Wan Kenobi. Both are tempted by the Dark Side to protect their loved ones, but Luke's horror at the realization he is becoming like this father, down to their mechanical right hands, narrowly saves him from falling as Anakin did. Luke's faith in his father manages to save Anakin as well.
- In The Last Jedi: As a Deconstruction of the Lovable Rogue, D.J. is very similar to a pre-Character Development Han Solo. He teams up with the heroes for the money, while constantly reminding them that he's Not in This for Your Revolution and telling the younger, naive heroes the rebellion/resistance is a lost cause and they'd be better off abandoning it. The similarities emphasize the difference that Han decides to help the rebels out and save Luke when the chips are down, while D.J. happily sells the Resistance out to the First Order when they make him a better offer.
- Thoroughbreds:
- Amanda and Lily. They appear to be total opposites, as Lily is a preppy, high-achieving Stepford Smiler with an excellent reputation, and Amanda is a sociopath with absolutely no friends or moral scruples. But Lily has also been faking most of this all along; she was also thrown out and ostracized from her old school, and she murders Mark and frames Amanda for it rather than go to boarding school.
- Perhaps more disturbingly, Lily and Mark. Mark is a total asshole and obsessive Control Freak who painfully grabs her wrist on one occasion. However, Lily herself shows that she can be extremely violent towards Mark when he threatens to dismantle her perfect life, which is symbolically represented by her taking his car after she kills him and gets away with it.
Mythology & Religion
- Christianity:
- The Antichrist is the Evil Counterpart of Christ, Jesus the son of God and the Antichrist the son of Satan, with the apparent ability to create wonders and miracles as Jesus himself did.
- According to Christian theology, the Archangel Michael is the leader of Heaven's angels and armies against the forces of evil and is destined to meet the fallen angel Lucifer, formerly the most high in Heaven below God Himself, leading his fallen angels in combat during the War of Heaven as mentioned in the book of Revelation.
- In Jewish and some Christian theologies, Lilith is Eve's counterpart and predecessor as Adam's wife. While Lilith is seen as the mother of demons, Eve is the mother of all humans.
- Classical Mythology:
- In a case of He Who Fights Monsters, Kronos, after overthrowing his father Uranus as ruler of all existence, becomes just as power-hungry and tyrannical as Uranus ever was, inspiring the hatred and rebellion of his wife Rhea and son Zeus, just as Uranus earned the hatred and rebellion of his wife Gaia and Kronos.
- Zeus then becomes a mirror to Kronos, overthrowing him just as Kronos overthrew his own father, using the same scythe, to reign over all Olympus. Just as Kronos ate his children to prevent them from overthrowing him, Zeus eats his first wife Metis to prevent their child from overthrowing him.
Radio
- Big Finish Doctor Who: In the lead-up to the 40th anniversary, a trilogy of audio dramas was released, "Omega", "Davros", and "Master", to show how the Doctor and these villains were not so different. This is really emphasized in "Master", with The Reveal that the Doctor made a deal with Death while a child so his memories of a murder he committed would go to his friend, which turned the Master evil.
- Our Miss Brooks:
- Miss Brooks has rival English teacher Miss Daisy Enright. Miss Enright initially shows up on radio, competing with Miss Brooks to be the new head of the Madison High School English Department ("Head of the English Department"). In subsequent radio and television appearances, Miss Enright focuses her e so as to accompany Mr. Boynton to the football game (this was a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of the episode "Game at Clay City".
- Mr. Conklin has his own mirror character, in the person of the unscrupulous principal of the rival Clay City High School Jason Brille. They both have interests in one-upmanship, both personally and in furthering the reputation of their respective schools. In "Clay City English Teacher", Brille tries to hire away Miss Brooks to Clay City. On the television episode "The Big Game", Brille gets Madison High's assistant football coach "Snakehips" Geary fired for flunking his English final forty years before.
Tabletop Games
- Cyberpunk: Johnny Silverhand and Saburo Arasaka were both veterans of a losing war (World War II for Saburo, the Second Central American War for Johnny), who came home with disabling injuries, new ideas about what the world should be, and a growing willingness to do what it took to make their ideas reality. However, Saburo doubled down on his pro-Japanese Ultranationalist ideals and became a reactionary force for imperialism through corporate hegemony, where Johnny lost all respect for authority figures and the entire concept of power, and began spreading anti-corporate anarchism through the power of chromatic rock and street violence.
Theatre
- Creon's story in Antigone very closely mirrors that of the title character of prequel work Oedipus Rex. Both start out as kings on top of the world, but their stubborn pursuit of their goals despite the advice of those around them causes their entire lives to come apart.
- Hamilton: Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton are both Child Prodigy orphans who graduated early from Kings College, and are ambitious, career-driven men. They both try to make themselves of value to Washington during the Revolutionary War and afterwards, practice law right next door to each other. They both even suffer complicated romantic personal lives, but are dedicated to leaving behind a legacy their children can be proud of. All of this serves to highlight the big dramatic differences between Hamilton and Burr: whereas Hamilton comes from absolutely nothing and is desperate to prove himself, Burr comes from a respected family and is concerned about protecting his legacy. Moreover, Hamilton seems equal parts driven by his ideological vision for the United States as well as his personal strive for glory, while Burr on the other hand is willing to be and say whatever he needs to in order to grasp power. This ultimately leads to Hamilton and Burr becoming rivals, with Burr changing parties and colluding with Hamilton's political opposition to keep Hamilton from gaining more power and Hamilton later supporting Thomas Jefferson, his most vocal critique, over Burr in the presidential election because Jefferson has clear beliefs about the country while Burr has none.
- Hamlet: Fortinbras and Hamlet are both young princes motivated to avenge the deaths of their fathers who were their namesakes. Fortinbras eventually takes the Danish throne in Hamlet's place.
- Henry IV: Hal and Hotspur are shown to be equal in ability, but while Hal has the royal lineage, he wastes the opportunity. Hotspur, who would be a brilliant choice, has no blood claim to the throne whatsoever, and they both must defeat their equal in each other to prove their claim to it.
- The Importance of Being Earnest: The Reveal that Jack and Algernon are brothers after all is hardly surprising given how similar they are. Both use fake names to indulge in somewhat scandalous double lives, both are single men looking to marry the loves of their lives. They even repeat each other's lines on a few occasions, underscoring not only their similarities, but the matching motivations.
- Les Misérables: Valjean and Javert, from the consonants in their names onward. In "The Confrontation" they both sneer at each other for "knowing nothing of" one another's lives, and Javert reveals he also grew up in poverty; later, Javert's final song echoes the tune and several lines of Valjean's That Man Is Dead declaration in "What Have I Done."
- The Merchant of Venice: There's a lot of literary theory on Antonio and Shylock as this. The play presents them as twin outsiders—Shylock as a Jew to Venetian society, Antonio as a "tainted wether of the flock" to the world of love and marriage.
- Titus Andronicus: Titus and Tamora. Both "love" their kids. Both power-hungry. Both willing to kill other people's children in revenge. Both sick nut-jobs. Titus kills his own children bear in mind, whereas Tamora doesn't.
Visual Novels
- The Great Ace Attorney: Kazuma Asogi becomes one to Barok van Zieks in Resolve, emulating the path Barok himself took as a rookie prosecutor and almost repeating the crime that he hated Barok for- convicting an innocent man because personal bias prevented him from noticing the obvious signs of a Frame-Up. For Barok, it was convicting Genshin Asogi of being a Serial Killer because he couldn't accept that the real killer was his brother, and for Kazuma it was trying to convict Barok in revenge for the previous incident. Fortunately, The Power of Friendship prevails and Kazuma is made to see sense before he can destroy himself pursuing revenge.
- Minotaur Hotel: Storm has several similarities with Asterion beyond both being minotaurs. Both are physically in their 20s, both have tragic pasts, both have been discriminated for their non-human looks, both have extremely limited knowledge of the outside world, both are stranded alone when they meet someone that will help them out, and both can potentially fall in love with that same someone who helped them out because of their kindness.
- In Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair, Taiko and Rie end up at odds midway through the game when discussing the death of one of their friends in an apparent suicide, as well as the possibility that it was actually a murder. Taiko is determined to find the truth, even if it means accusing one of his friends of the murder, while Rie admits that she blindly believes in her friends, even if the facts are against her. The fact that Rie's best friend Runa is one of the main suspects for the murder, due to being one of the few people able to commit the crime and having a motive, doesn't help, either. Near the climax of the game, however, after Taiko's best friend Kotoba is either killed or badly burned, Taiko becomes irrational, and has difficulty accepting that Kotoba was tricked into being an accessory to the crime (with the killer arranging for him to die as a diversion and to tie up loose ends), or that he'd been stalking Momoko until confronted with the evidence. Surprisingly enough, Rie also agrees with Taiko when he and everyone else besides Raiko accuse Kamen of the murders.
- Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane: Aria Steelwind and Beatrice Frega are heiresses to pillar families, the most influential noble houses in Wvyerngarde. They're both concerned about the commonfolk's oppression, and both were engaged to Aster de Wyverngarde at some point in their lives. They're also strong-willed women who were deprived of love from their respective fathers (though not to the same extent). The major difference is that, while Aria sticks to the law in her attempt to fix the country's corruption, Beatrice resorts to blackmail, demonic pacts, and the mafia to achieve her goals... and eventually murders her own father, something Aria never does. Beatrice also used to be hot-tempered and impulsive, while Aria has apparently always been more emotionally reserved and calm.
Web Animation
- Marvel Rising Ultimate Comics: Inferno's short highlights the similarities between him and the Hulk, namely their struggles with controlling their destructive power and how it leads the people around them to fear them and view them as monsters.
- Red vs. Blue:
- Caboose is the Blue Team's Cloud Cuckoolander while the Red Team's Donut is absurdly naive. These traits make them their respective team's most innocent members, with Caboose having a child-like lack of understanding of the world and Donut being utterly clueless that everything he says is a Double Entendre. Together, they are the friendliest, dumbest and silliest members of their teams. They are also the most underestimated, which allows them to be the most insightful (Caboose's ability to see to the heart of a problem) or useful (Donut's incredible ability with grenade-throwing) team member at key moments in the plot. This is lampshaded by Washington during the Shisno Paradox arc, when he realises just how overlooked Donut's usefulness to the team really is, and just how useful Caboose's ability to simplify a problem can also be.
- Tucker and Simmons are both their team's seconds-in-command. When Washington first replaces Church as Blue team leader, the pair compare Washington and Sarge's styles. They are both deeply frustrated by their leaders, with Simmons yearning to be the strict, organised Washington's subordinate and Tucker complaining that Sarge's haphazard leadership sounds better for his laid-back personality. The differences make it seem as though Tucker and Simmons have the wrong leaders and are in the wrong teams in an arc that concludes they're actually in the right teams, after all because Sarge depends on the methodical Simmons while Washington is the first person who has ever believed that Tucker has genuine potential.
- Carolina and Sharkface. They fought each other during the war between Project Freelancer and the Insurrection (really Charon Industries), who both saw their teams as a sort of surrogate family, only to lose them and go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge in response. The difference is, Carolina learned to let go of the past and move on, eventually finding a new surrogate family, while Sharkface let his lust for revenge consume him completely and refused Carolina's offer of a Last-Second Chance leading to him being unceremoniously gunned down by Kimball and Wash after declaring he'll never stop coming after them.
Webcomics
- Beyond the Western Deep:
- Ashtor and Kenosh are old men who serve as voices of reason to those they encounter, complete with hidden passions for justice and morality.
- Bevan and Dakkan are boisterous young warriors hiding inner turmoil.
- Quinlan and Hardin are young men in command with plenty to prove and plenty of doubters and doubts.
- Dominic Deegan: Not only is Celesto Morgan Dominic's Evil Counterpart (and opposing Champion during the Storm of Souls arc), but Celesto's tendency to believe I Did What I Had to Do, that Utopia Justifies the Means, to act as if he has an Omniscient Morality License and is Above Good and Evil, and his Well-Intentioned Extremist thinking are all mirrored in Dominic being The Chessmaster who often gets accused of Protagonist-Centered Morality. Dominic, recognizing this, keeps trying to offer Celesto a way back to the light on numerous occasions (which he of course sneers at and rejects) while Celesto, when he isn't offering Dominic the chance to join him and make the world a better place, the way they think it "should" be, is usually calling Dominic on his manipulative actions and nastily underscoring their similarities. In a twisted way, even his stint as The Atoner could be said to be Celesto attempting to make amends by turning himself into what he thinks Dominic actually is.
- Girl Genius: The main reason the Other is so reviled by pretty much everyone is that she uses slaver wasps to control people, with them having to obey her every order once they have become revenants. Even other characters with Undying Loyalty hate the idea of forcing people to obey. One of the main forms of opposition to the Other come from Baron Wulfenbach, who has spent the majority of his rule gathering and destroying the Other's technology, and has biologically engineered weasels to sniff out revenants. And then he goes and does the exact same thing as the Other has done to Agatha, by implanting a copy of his personality into his son so that he can control his to some extent and make sure that he doesn't help Agatha. This is explicitly called out in-comic by the Other herself. When the Big Bad herself is criticising you, you know you've fucked up. Still, a few pages later he shows the crucial difference between the two: Lucrezia's doing all of this for herself.
- Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: Despite how much Commander Badass dislikes Canadian Guy, they are more alike than he'd care to admit, in tastes of games, enunciation, and even appearance (to the point that they're Palette Swaps of each other). Emphasized in this comic where, despite having three siblings and two children (and though he doesn't mention them, an ex-wife, a love interest, and a surrogate son), Canadian Guy is the one Commander Badass is most drift-compatible with. As it turns out, there's a good reason for that. Know how the Commander's an Artificial Human? Canadian Guy is a bootleg of him made with some regional variants by Canadians.
- Miss Guillotine: In many ways, Ara, the former magical girl of justice is a lot like Sarah, the current magical girl of justice. They have similar appearances and share similar misgivings about being magical girls and their personal inaction resulted in tragedy for people they cared about.
- Monster Pulse: There are huge parallels between Roger's treatment of an Arma ghost regarding Lulenski and Abel's sister and Abel. It also serves as Foreshadowing that just as Abel later received another Arma ghost, Lulenski may yet receive one, too.
- NIMONA: In the end, Nimona and Ballister. Both were abused by organizations that study magic scientifically and emotionally manipulate others to their own ends. Both were taken in by said organizations as children and told that these organizations were the good guys for doing so. Both define themselves by how these organizations defined them. The difference is that while growing up Ballister thought he was being groomed as a hero and continues to behave heroically, while Nimona was told she was "sick" and "dangerous" and as such decided Then Let Me Be Evil.
- A Redtail's Dream: Hannu and Puppy Fox are explicitly shown to have similar personalities during Moose's explanation of how the gods view people; they're both selfish, immature, and would do anything to get out of their responsibilities. The one key difference is that Hannu makes an exception for Ville, whereas Puppy Fox doesn't give a rip about anything but himself.
- Slightly Damned: On an individual level we have Buwaro's adoptive older brother Iratu and Kieri's twin Kazai, Iratu is leading an invasion that has resulted in hundreds if not thousands of medians dead and brushes it off by saying that the good ones will be sent to heaven and the bad ones to hell, earlier we hear Kazai give a similar excuse to not waste time saving them from said attack. They also both view median life as lesser than the lives of their respective species and will mindlessly follow what they believe are their gods plans, also both become hostile towards their siblings when they don't think in a similar way though the main difference being that Kazai only did so in a moment of anger and genuinely loves his sister while Iratu doesn't love Buwaro and actually tries to kill him.
Web Original
- SCP Foundation: While most likely unintentional SCP-049 and SCP-590 could possibly be viewed as foils to each other. Their powers both involve touching someone to cure them, but 049 kills whoever he touches and brings them back as mindless zombies under the belief that he’s curing an unknown pestilence while 590 actually can heal people by touching them but receives whatever he’s healing as a result. 049 is also highly intelligent and initially treated well by the Foundation while 590 has the mind of a toddler and is treated extremely harshly by the Foundation.
