History EvilCounterpart / LiveActionTV

* In ''Series/AgentCarter'', [[spoiler:Dottie]] is this for Peggy. Both she and Peggy are secret agents, as well as skilled [[ActionGirl Action Girls]]. They both use other people's underestimations of their skill to their advantage. Peggy does this by using her coworkers' sexist assumptions about her abilities while [[spoiler:Dottie]] does this by ObfuscatingStupidity and acting like a ditzy CountryMouse. Both are capable of flawless UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents when undercover. They are also both OnlyKnownByTheirNickname. But they use different fighting styles, with [[spoiler:Dottie]] relying on SheFu acrobatics, whereas Peggy relies on her fists, [[ImprovisedWeapon Improvised Weapons]], and brute force. Additionally, Peggy chose to become a secret agent, while [[spoiler:Dottie]] was {{Brainwashed}} into becoming a ChildSoldier at a young age by her Russian trainers.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
** More like AntiHero Counterpart, but ComicBook/ThePunisher from Season 2 serves as this to Daredevil. He's a violent vigilante motivated by the traumatic death of his loved ones, but unlike Matt, who never kills, the Punisher is an unrepentant murderer who has no moral hangups about slaughtering criminals. A good chunk of the first half of the season focuses on the idealogical conflict between the two vigilantes, as well as the many ways they mirror one another.
** Season 3 has [[spoiler:Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, A.K.A. Bullseye]]. Like Daredevil, he was an orphan, is a tremendously gifted athlete and fighter who possesses special skills, and is effectively a OneManArmy. Even his ''severe'' ParentalIssues (particularly his fear of abandonment and the way he views [[spoiler: Fisk]] as a surrogate father figure) parallel Matt's [[spoiler: own bitterness over [[ParentalAbandonment having been abandoned by his mother]]]]. However, while Matt is strongly opposed to using lethal force, [[spoiler: Dex]] is a violent {{Sadist}} who actively ''enjoys'' killing people. To further the parallels, [[spoiler: Dex]] spends a good portion of the season [[FrameUp impersonating]] Daredevil by using a [[IdentityImpersonator replica of Matt's costume]].

* ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'':
** While they don't meet in the series, John Walker is a bad counterpart to Steve Rogers like the comics. Both are blond, well-meaning, courageous, headstrong idealistic men with a loyal dark-haired wife, have a {{Determinator}} attitude, lose their best friends and come into conflict with their allies. The difference is that John is a new society-version of Steve serving the USA army against UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} in UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror which is a much more morally grey than the black and white backdrop of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII which Steve grew up in. John thanks to his time in Afghanistan has severe PTSD and forcing to live up Cap's legacy has a SanitySlippage taking a SuperSerum out of desperation instead of volunteering for it like Steve did. Also where Steve could own up to his mistakes and [[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar drops the shield after bludgeoning Tony with it]], understanding his actions had made him unworthy of it [[spoiler: John in a similar situation (except the bludgeoning was lethal) holds onto the shield proudly and refuses to give it up. This forces Sam and Bucky to take him down.]]
** John also serves a counterpart to Sam. Both are military vets who lost/lose their partners on a mission and are faced with the prospect of carrying on the legacy of Captain America and go about in different ways. John uses forceful tactics, PoliceBrutality and is willingly to mercilessly kill his foes. Sam on other hand accepting the flaws and hypocrisy of his country and the Captain America title, decides to be a HopeBringer and call the GRC out for their actions that led to the creation of Flag Smashers. Unlike John, Sam is a MartialPacifist as Captain America taking mercy upon Batroc and Flag Smashers and tries to talk BigBad Karli Morgenthau down.
** Bucky has an evil counterpart in [[spoiler: Sharon Carter]]. Both have been left behind by Steve their closest ally and are greatly heartbroken without him, but deal with the feelings over it in vastly different ways. Bucky learns [[TheAtoner to put the past behind him]] to the point of deliberately refusing to kill Zemo and accepts flaws of Steve's legacy but supports Sam as the new Captain America regardless. [[spoiler: Sharon in contrast felt abandoned after the events of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' as Team Cap never came back for her, considering Steve's philosophy a BrokenPedestal she pulled a FaceHeelTurn and became the Power Broker. While Bucky manages rid himself of the darkness inside him, Sharon embraces it.]]
*** [[spoiler: Sharon as the Power Broker is also the antithesis of everything her great aunt Peggy stood for.]]

*** Harmony has been described by the creators as "[[DefrostingIceQueen Cordelia]] without the life lessons". Though she starts out by remaining an AlphaBitch bully after Cordelia has grown out of this attitude, after her death and becoming a vampire, Harmony is basically [[StaticCharacter frozen]] as an intensely stupid bimbo for the rest of her time in the franchise.

*** Gwendolyne Post to Giles as a corrupt ex-Watcher.
*** [[EvilMentor The Mayor]] to Giles as the father-figure/mentor to a Slayer. While Giles is a good mentor to Buffy, the Mayor is TheCorrupter to Faith

*** [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Forrest]] to [[BigBrotherIsEmployingYou Riley]] as Forrest remains utterly loyal to the Initiative. This doesn't end well for him.

*** ZigZagged with Lindsey and Angel. Lindsey tries to make a NotSoDifferentRemark with the titular vampire's past by revealing his own DarkAndTroubledPast and FreudianExcuse, but Angel almost falls asleep with boredom listening to Lindsey raving.
---->'''Lindsey''': So yeah we had a choice you either got stepped on you got to stepping... and I swore to myself, I wasn't gonna be the guy standing there with the stupid grin on his face... while my life got dribbled out-
---->'''Angel''': ZZZZZ-AH sorry I nodded off, did get to part where you're evil?
*** However, at the end of the episode Angel and Lindsey both discover their paths in life. Angel as TheChosenOne according to the Shanshu Prophecy and Lindsey as TheDragon of Wolfram & Hart whom he failed to separate ties from, both looking over the city. In Season 2 both are attracted to Darla and become violent and obsessive over her. This dynamic comes back in Season 5 where Lindsey comes back having TakenALevelInBadass and become a WorthyOpponent (or at least he believes has) to Angel, thus Lindsey [[spoiler:while dying is gobsmacked when in an unexpected twist it's NonActionGuy Lorne who kills him, as Angel couldn't even bothered to kill Lindsey himself]].

%%** [[SealedGoodInACan Dawn]] = [[SealedEvilInAcan Glory]]
%%** [[HeelFaceTurn Anya]] = Halfrek (Halfrek is essentially Anya before becoming human.)
%%** Wesley = Collins, Smith and Weatherby (ruthless members of the Council)
%%** [[PowerTrio The Scoobies]] = [[BigBadWannabe The Trio]]

*** Kumiko (evil Japanese sorceress who tried to wipe out the forces of good once and for all) = Willow (the most powerful witch in the world who even when she had gone dark did the wrong thing for the right reasons.)
*** Roden = Giles. The former hired an evil Slayer to kill Buffy, the latter hired Buffy's own EvilCounterpart in Faith to kill said Slayer and Roden.
*** Roden's evil slayer is this to Faith, who sees in the girl what she would be if not for her HeelFaceTurn.
*** [[AxCrazy Simone]] = [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Kennedy.]] One wants to kill Buffy for keeping Slayers defenseless before turning them into vampires, the other gives them the guns and training to be employed as guardians and offers Buffy and Faith high paying jobs.

* More from Series/{{Arrowverse}}, the ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'' crossover event deals with Earth-1 being invaded by the Nazi versions of the heroes from Earth-X, like Dark Arrow (Oliver) and Overgirl (Kara). [[spoiler:And Barry has to deal with Thawne being alive (again). Also, Oliver discovers that Earth-X's Prometheus is Tommy Merlyn's evil doppelganger]]. Later on, Barry has to deal with Siren-X, the Nazi version of Laurel Lance (who's even more evil and powerful than Black Siren, who herself is slowly migrating from this trope into TheFriendNobodyLikes).
* ''Series/BabylonFive'';

** Philip Aubrey, father to [=FBI=] agent James Aubrey, can be considered this to Max Brennan; they both abandoned their families due to their criminal pasts, but Max did it to protect his children while Philip just wanted to be rich.
* ''Series/TheBoys'':
** Homelander is the EvilCounterpart to Starlight, both are blonde superpowered individuals who are super strong, super tough and can fire some kind of energy/heat-based attack. They are both beloved by the public and their actions are constantly supervised by a StageMom (Donna biologically for Starlight, Stillwell as ParentalSubstitute for Homelander) before rebelling against them. The moral difference between Homelander and Starlight is immense however as she’s a genuinely compassionate AllLovingHero while he’s utterly [[BewareTheSuperman vile and diabolical]] AxCrazy SmugSuper under the guise of TheCape, which is largely due to Starlight [[UpbringingMakesTheHero growing up in a loving household]] while Homelander was raised [[RaisedInCaptivity in a lab]]. They both also have a sexual relationship with a normal person but whilst Starlight’s relationship with Hughie is loving and consensual, Homelander’s “relationship” with [[spoiler:Becca]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil isn’t]].
** [[spoiler: Stormfront performs double duty being EvilCounterpart to both Starlight and Queen Maeve. Like the latter two, Stormfront is a mighty [[ActionGirl superpowered woman]] who cares about feminism and equality. Until it turns out Stormfront is a fanatical racist who’s just as evil as Homelander and really has none of the good qualities Starlight and to a lesser extent Maeve possess]].

* ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'':

** Season 3 has [[spoiler: Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, A.K.A. Bullseye]]. Like Daredevil, he was an orphan, is a tremendously gifted athlete and fighter who possesses special skills, and is effectively a OneManArmy. Even his ''severe'' ParentalIssues (particularly his fear of abandonment and the way he views [[spoiler: Fisk]] as a surrogate father figure) parallel Matt's [[spoiler: own bitterness over [[ParentalAbandonment having been abandoned by his mother]]]]. However, while Matt is strongly opposed to using lethal force, [[spoiler: Dex]] is a violent {{Sadist}} who actively ''enjoys'' killing people. To further the parallels, [[spoiler: Dex]] spends a good portion of the season [[FrameUp impersonating]] Daredevil by using a [[IdentityImpersonator replica of Matt's costume]].

* In ''Series/TheWitcher2019'', Cahir and Fringilla are the Evil Counterparts to Geralt and Yennefer, a black armoured MasterSwordsmen and powerful HotWitch respectively except the latter pair are heroic while former serve the [[TheEmpire Nilfgaardian army]]. Geralt and Cahir are both searching for Princess Ciri, but while Geralt genuinely cares for her since she’s his daughter as per [[TheLawsOfMagic law of surprise]], Cahir wants to turn Ciri to his own corrupt beliefs and use her magical power as a weapon. Yennefer and Fringilla are even more connected since they were students at Aretuza together and were both taught by Tissaia, their paths diverged when Fringilla was sent to Nilfgaard and fell to the dark side becoming a EvilSorceress. The {{irony}} is Yennefer was one who was supposed to go to Nilfgaard while Fringilla was to go to Aedirn, but Yennefer thanks to her [[TheMakeover magic makeover]] wooed the king of Aedirn and Fringilla was assigned to Nilfgaard instead. It’s possible Yennefer would’ve turned out just like Fringilla had she not magically made herself a HeadTurningBeauty.

*** Season 7: Though he only lasts two episodes, John Quinn has all the makings of an Evil Counterpart to Jack, as a highly skilled assassin who Jonas Hodges considers one of his top men just as Jack is considered one of CTU's best agents and most skilled killers.

** Carrie Turner to Michelle Dessler. She's not really bad but her ruthless effort to climb the ladder at CTU bordered on treason.

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Examples of EvilCounterpart in Live-Action TV.
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[[quoteright:350:[[Series/UltramanNexus https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dark_zagi_hd_2_9.jpeg]]]]

** More like AntiHero Counterpart, but Comicbook/ThePunisher from Season 2 serves as this to Daredevil. He's a violent vigilante motivated by the traumatic death of his loved ones, but unlike Matt, who never kills, the Punisher is an unrepentant murderer who has no moral hangups about slaughtering criminals. A good chunk of the first half of the season focuses on the idealogical conflict between the two vigilantes, as well as the many ways they mirror one another.

Examples of EvilCounterpart in live-action TV.

* In ''Series/TheWire'', Cheese is this to D'Angelo. Cheese is also the nephew of a drug lord. Despite the way he looks, he's a DirtyCoward. Dee stops trusting his own family but never snitches on them. Cheese openly brags about betraying his uncle to his death and gets killed for it.

** Jack -- Stephen Saunders in Season 3, Christopher Henderson in Season 5, [[spoiler:Tony Almeida]] in Season 7, and [[spoiler: Cheng Zhi]] in Season 9.
*** In Season 8 [[spoiler: Jack becomes one to Cole Ortiz.]]
** Michelle Dessler -- Carrie Turner. She's not really bad but her ruthless effort to climb the ladder at CTU bordered on treason.
** Karen Hayes -- Miles Papazian

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1482942293089178100

** Veruca to Oz as an [[TheUnfettered unfettered]] werewolf who believes that werewolves are better than oridnary humans and deliberately puts herself in a position to kill people when she turns, while Oz locks himself up to present himself from hurting anyone and seeks treatment to suppress his werewolf side.

* ''Franchise/Buffyverse'':

::::However, at the end of the episode Angel and Lindsey both discover their paths in life. Angel as TheChosenOne according to the Shanshu Prophecy and Lindsey as TheDragon of Wolfram & Hart whom he failed to separate ties from, both looking over the city. In Season 2 both are attracted to Darla and become violent and obsessive over her. This dynamic comes back in Season 5 where Lindsey comes back having TakenALevelInBadass and become a WorthyOpponent (or at least he believes has) to Angel, thus Lindsey [[spoiler:while dying is gobsmacked when in an unexpected twist it's NonActionGuy Lorne who kills him, as Angel couldn't even bothered to kill Lindsey himself]].

:::However, at the end of the episode Angel and Lindsey both discover their paths in life. Angel as TheChosenOne according to the Shanshu Prophecy and Lindsey as TheDragon of Wolfram & Hart whom he failed to separate ties from, both looking over the city. In Season 2 both are attracted to Darla and become violent and obsessive over her. This dynamic comes back in Season 5 where Lindsey comes back having TakenALevelInBadass and become a WorthyOpponent (or at least he believes has) to Angel, thus Lindsey while dying is gobsmacked when in an unexpected twist it's NonActionGuy Lorne who kills him, as Angel couldn't even bothered to kill Lindsey himself.

:::However, at the end of the episode Angel and Lindsey both discover their paths in life. Angel as TheChosenOne according to the Shanshu Prophecy and Lindsey as TheDragon of Wolfram & Hart whom he failed to separate ties from, both looking over the city. In Season 2 both are attracted to Darla and become violent and obsessive over her. This dynamic comes back in Season 5 where Lindsey comes back having TakenALevelInBadass and become a WorthyOpponent (or at least he believes has) to Angel, [[spoiler:thus Lindsey while dying is gobsmacked when in an unexpected twist it's NonActionGuy Lorne who kills him, as Angel couldn't even bothered to kill Lindsey himself]].

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' had the following.
** Buffy = Darla (bubblegum-blonde HoneyTrap) and [[BewareTheSuperman Faith]], a Slayer who became DrunkWithPower. Whereas Kendra was the polar opposite of Buffy in nearly every way, Faith was meant to represent Buffy's "road not taken" -- a living embodiment of what Buffy might have been had her life's circumstances been different.
** Angel = pre-HeelFaceTurn Spike. One's paying for a century of being evil, the other is a BloodKnight BruiserWithASoftCenter who despite his viciousness is considered not as bad, in comparison to other vampires.
** Giles = Ethan Rayne (former teen rebel), Gwen Post (corrupt ex-Watcher), and [[EvilMentor The Mayor]] (father-mentor to a Slayer).
** Willow & Tara = Amy (mistress of the dark arts who enables Willow's magic addiction, while Tara encouraged Willow to slow down on the magic).
** Oz = Veruca ([[TheUnfettered unfettered]] werewolf)
** [[BigBrotherIsEmployingYou Riley]] = [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Forrest]] (Forrest remains utterly loyal to the Initiative. This doesn't end well for him.)
** [[SealedGoodInACan Dawn]] = [[SealedEvilInAcan Glory]]
** [[HeelFaceTurn Anya]] = Halfrek (Halfrek is essentially Anya before becoming human.)
** Wesley = Collins, Smith and Weatherby (ruthless members of the Council)
** Gunn = Gio ([[BloodKnight overzealous]] vampire hunter).
** [[DefrostingIceQueen Cordelia]] = Harmony (intensely stupid bimbo who also moved to the big city and ended up working in an office).
** [[PowerTrio The Scoobies]] = [[BigBadWannabe The Trio]]
** Kumiko (evil Japanese sorceress who tried to wipe out the forces of good once and for all) = Willow (the most powerful witch in the world who even when she had gone dark did the wrong thing for the right reasons.)
** Roden = Giles. The former hired an evil Slayer to kill Buffy, the latter hired Buffy's own EvilCounterpart in Faith to kill said Slayer and Roden.
** Roden's evil slayer is this to Faith, who sees in the girl what she would be if not for her HeelFaceTurn.
** [[AxCrazy Simone]] = [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Kennedy.]] One wants to kill Buffy for keeping Slayers defenseless before turning them into vampires, the other gives them the guns and training to be employed as guardians and offers Buffy and Faith high paying jobs.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''Angel'' Season 1 episode "[[Recap/AngelS01E21BlindDate Blind Date]]" as BigBadWannabe Lindsey tries to make a NotSoDifferentRemark with the titular vampire's past by revealing his own DarkAndTroubledPast and FreudianExcuse, but Angel almost falls asleep with boredom listening to Lindsey raving.
--->'''Lindsey''': So yeah we had a choice you either got stepped on you got to stepping... and I swore to myself, I wasn't gonna be the guy standing there with the stupid grin on his face... while my life got dribbled out-
--->'''Angel''': ZZZZZ-AH sorry I nodded off, did get to part where you're evil?
*** Played straighter at the end of the episode where Angel and Lindsey both discover their paths in life. Angel as TheChosenOne according to the Shanshu Prophecy and Lindsey as TheDragon of Wolfram & Hart whom he failed to separate ties from, the episode ends with both Angel and Lindsey looking over the city. [[spoiler: Bonus points in Season 2 both are attracted to Darla and become violent and obsessive over her]].
*** This dynamic comes back in Season 5 where Lindsey comes back having TakenALevelInBadass and become a WorthyOpponent (or at least he believes has) to Angel, [[spoiler: thus Lindsey while dying is gobsmacked when in an unexpected twist it's NonActionGuy Lorne who kills him, as Angel couldn't even bothered to kill Lindsey himself]].

* ''Series/{{Jeremiah}}'': GeneralRipper Sims and Jeremiah TheHero have a few paralells in their characters. Both have had violent pasts filled with lots of trouble, like wearing {{Badass Longcoat}}s, enjoy some of the finer things in life (with Jeremiah, this is embodied by him being ThePornomancer, while Sims is more of a WickedCultured type), and serve as the main subordinate of a powerful and far-reaching faction leader. Most significantly, in the finale, Sims is shown writing a letter and then disposing of it by letting it drift down a river, similar to how Jeremiah writes letters to his missing father (and later, the late [[spoiler:Libby Kaufman]]) and then burns them as a form of therapy, and in the hope they will read those letters, somewhere.

* The Series/{{Charmed|1998}} Ones had the Demon Charmed Ones back in Season 1.

* ''{{Heroes}}'' gives us Peter Petrelli and his evil counterpart Sylar. Both want to be special, both are initially believed to be powerless at first, both have absorbing powers, and both want to do great things with their powers. Peter comes from a wealthy amoral family who view him as the underachiever, while Sylar comes from a poor religious power family who think he's destined for greatness. Peter goes against his family's wishes to pursue a career in nursing to help people, while Sylar becomes a watchmaker to appease his mother. Peter desires to be special but he wants to use it to help people while Sylar's desire to be special consumes him and leads him to murder, manipulations, sadism, etc. Sylar initially kills people to steal their powers, while Peter inadvertently absorbs other's powers by empathizing with them. Peter and Sylar's stories parallel each other's throughout the series. Part of the third season's storyline explored similarities and differences between them and how easily Peter could have become like Sylar or Sylar become like Peter.

*** Season three villain Vadic is an evil counterpart of Picard. Both were imprisoned and tortured by their enemies (Picard by the Borg, and Vadic -a Changeling- by the Federation) which clearly traumatized both, however while Picard has handle that well to an extend Vadic is still disturbed and looking for revenge.

** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': The Zhat Vash to the Qowat Milat, although considering the former is introduced first, it might be more appropriate to call the latter an inversion of the trope. Both organizations have a focus on female leadership, with the Zhat Vash having more of a witches coven styling to the Qowat Milat's nuns design. Both have a male member who qualifies as a PrettyBoy, but the Zhat Vash's is a HoneyTrap whereas the Qowat Milat's is a MasterSwordsman. The Zhat Vash is an AncientConspiracy hidden within the Tal Shiar that is committed to infiltrating and deceiving its enemies, while the Qowat Milat practices BrutalHonesty as part of its publicly known creed. The Qowat Milat fights for lost causes that are generally altruistic, whereas the Zhat Vash is TheUnfettered in pursuit of its goal.

** On a series level, Luthen surprisingly serves as a GoodCounterpart for UnseenEvil Emperor Palpatine as where the latter is the GreaterScopeVillain architect of TheEmpire, Luthen is the GreaterScopeParagon architect of the [[LaResistance Rebellion]]. On Coruscant they both put up the guise of being rich and eccentric charismatic [[CoolOldGuy Cool Old Guys]], while being really ruthless and scheming men underneath. They both have multiple loyal apprentices, whom they are also willingly to leave to die for their respective causes. The dynamic between Luthen and Saw Gerrera in particular resembles the Emperor's uneasy relationship with Darth Vader. Except where Palpatine is a monster to the core, Luthen is really a KnightInSourArmor who knows full well he'll never live to see a free galaxy but is willingly to do anything to make that day of peace happen. In episode 12, Luthen even wears a dark hood that makes him [[https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/andors-season-finale-has-a-fun-easter-egg-for-those-fluent-in-aurebesh/intro-1669255943.jpg highly]] [[https://cdn-www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/2022/05/palpatine-618x675.png reminiscent]] of the Emperor.