History Main / Foil

* StockShonenRival: A type of rival who is stoic and standoffish in contrast to the StockShonenHero.

* ''WebOriginal/TheWarComms'' have several examples of this:
** Lucy Bennet and Shannon Blake. Both are starry-eyed teenage girls prone to crushing on fictional characters and writing self-insert fanfiction. But where Lucy is immature, oversensitive and delusional, Shannon is mature, sensible and well-grounded in reality.
** Trisha Grant and Candy are both preps. Trisha is a classic AlphaBitch, while Candy is kind and helpful to others.
** Raye Lynn and Cassie Ironbachs, the former with a strong anti-hero preference and the latter preferring side characters to mains. However, while Cassie bashes mains every chance she gets Raye Lynn prefers to focus her energy on loving her favorites.
** Heather Foreman and Molly Nevins are a combination of this and ShadowArchetype, both being insecure redheads who get picked on a lot. Molly ApologizesALot and genuinely feels responsible for her plights, causing others to want to look out for her even if she deems it unnecessary. But Heather is very vocal in feeling persecuted and unloved, blaming her problems on mean girls at school and her mother, which causes people to be stingier with their sympathy for her.
** Heather also has another foil in Shannon. Both focus heavily on crushes and characters who have them, but while Heather [[EntitledToHaveYou believes the object of someone's affections is required to return them]], Shannon sees crushes becoming true love as pure wish fulfillment (and only supports it when those feelings don't cause someone to do horrible things).
** Cousins Patrick and James Wells are both slight, brown-haired gay teenagers who favor yaoi. James is a fragile IllBoy who needs constant care, but hates feeling like a burden and tries to take on as much as he can by himself. Patrick is physically healthy but mentally unstable, tries to appear more delicate than he is for sympathy points.
** Esmeralda Iceworth and Lily Haverlock. Both are old-fashioned and mainly ship traditional couples, but while Lily is polite about her preferences and a classic ProperLady, Esmeralda is bossy, entitled and actually a BitchInSheepsClothing.
** Mark Keller is also this to Esmeralda, both shipping the traditional couples and favoring happy endings. But while Mark actively seeks out and writes what he wants to see and avoids what he doesn't, Esmeralda will read things she dislikes just to complain about them.
** Marion [=LeRoy=] and Josephine Thompson are mothers who will [[MamaBear go to great lengths to protect their children]]. But while Marion does it via smacking down assholes who deserve it, Josephine does it via trying to shut down anything above a G rating.

* ArchEnemy: The BigBad is the TheHero's main enemy and opposite.

-->-- ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', Act V, scene ii

** Northern, staunchly anti-slavery Republican Useful/AbrahamLincoln formed a national unity ticket with Southerner UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson, who remained loyal to the union but tended to sympathize with the southern cause.

* BrainsAndBrawn: One of has the smarts while the other has the strength.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-6001]] "Avalon" was intentionally written as a foil to [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-5000]] "Why?". In 5000, the Foundation declares war on humanity for seemingly no reason. They just start killing people en-mass one day with barely any warning. In 6001, they have instead "declared peace". It's a utopian alternate reality where the Foundation and its rivals got together to help people.

* ''Foil/DreamSMP''

For this trope's own foil, see MirrorCharacter.

* MirrorCharacter

* AdventureDuo: A pairing of a hotblooded lancer and a more straightlaced hero.

Jewelers often put shiny metal foil underneath a gem to make the stone shine brighter, or display them on dark velvet to bring attention to their brightness. A literary foil serves a similar purpose. This character appears in close proximity to another to highlight their character traits, usually by contrast.

Foils need to be seen ''together''; the interaction between the contrasting characters is what makes this trope work. A pair of foils may be strangers when the story begins, but they need to come together at some point in the story and let their opposed personalities shine through. Otherwise, we just have a [[Administrivia/PeopleSitOnChairs pair of characters with different personalities.]]

If you've got a series where a hero from a later installment is the opposite of a hero from earlier on, they've got to interact with each other somewhere in the series for them to count as foils. Otherwise, you've got a ContrastingSequelMainCharacter. The same goes for the baddies: Unless the contrasting villain from the earlier installment interacts with the villain from the later installment, you're looking at a ContrastingSequelAntagonist.

Sometimes a foil is a {{flat|Character}} or BitCharacter, a secondary character that comes on stage, sparks a response, then fades from the story. More often, though, the foil is a recurring character that has a personality, or an opinion of things, that is different from another recurring character. This character can be the opposite of the character in many ways — or perhaps [[NotSoDifferentRemark very, very, very similar]], [[NotSoSimilar except for a crucial difference.]]

Many intentional foils are depicted as physical contrasts to the main character, though a contrasting appearance alone isn't sufficient for a character to be a foil. Thin vs. fat and tall vs. short are among the most common ways of setting up a contrast. Similarly, when the heroine's hair is [[EveryoneLovesBlondes blonde]] or [[MysticalWhiteHair white]], the villain tends to have {{dark|IsEvil}} or [[EvilRedhead red]] hair; when the villain is blond or {{white hair|BlackHeart}}ed, the hero tends to be {{dark|IsNotEvil}} or {{red|IsHeroic}} haired. Opposing genders and races are common even in modern media, but often tend to be handled more delicately due to these types of differences being an UnfortunateImplications minefield.

As implied earlier, virtually any two characters or character types can serve as foils to each other if they're put together properly and a little good writing goes into them. However, there is a surprisingly large number of character types that exist primarily for the purpose of being a foil, usually to the main character, or in the case of a set of characters, to each other.

Nothing to do with [[{{Pun}} fencing]] or the [[TinfoilHat preferred headgear]] of (or preferred insult against) a ConspiracyTheorist. See also DuoTropes.

Jewelers often put shiny metal foil underneath a gem to make the stone shine brighter, or display them on dark velvet to bring attention to their brightness. A literary foil serves a similar purpose. This character appears in close proximity to another to highlight their character traits through contrast.

Sometimes a foil is a {{flat|Character}} or BitCharacter, a secondary character that comes on stage, sparks a response, then fades from the story. More often, though, the foil is a recurring character that has a personality, or an opinion of things, that is different from another recurring character. This character can be the opposite of the character in many ways — or very, very, very similar, except for a crucial difference.

Two characters of any relationship can serve as foils to each other if they're put together properly and a little good writing goes into them. However, a surprisingly large number of character types exist primarily for the purpose of being a foil, usually to the main character, or in the case of a set of characters, to each other.

Jewelers often put shiny metal foil underneath a gem to make the stone shine brighter, or display them on dark velvet to bring attention to their brightness. A literary foil serves a similar purpose. This character appears in close proximity to another to highlight their character traits, usually by contrast.

Sometimes a foil is a {{flat|Character}} or BitCharacter, a secondary character that comes on stage, sparks a response, then fades from the story. More often, though, the foil is a recurring character that has a personality, or an opinion of things, that is different from another recurring character. This character can be the opposite of the character in many ways — or perhaps [[NotSoDifferentRemark very, very, very similar]], [[NotSoSimilar except for a crucial difference.]]

As implied earlier, virtually any two characters or character types can serve as foils to each other if they're put together properly and a little good writing goes into them. However, there is a surprisingly large number of character types that exist primarily for the purpose of being a foil, usually to the main character, or in the case of a set of characters, to each other.

* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine

* ForceAndFinesse

* [[Foil/AnimatedFilms Films — Animated]]

[[folder:Multiple Media]]
* A very common thing for Batman and his RoguesGallery in both the comics and many media adaptions, with many, many individual variations; for a rough overview, see [[Foil/{{Batman}} here]].
* The Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles are a quartet (Leonardo [[TheLeader leads]], Donatello [[TheSmartGuy does machines]], Raphael is [[HairTriggerTemper rude]], and Michelangelo is [[FunPersonified a party dude]]) where every combination brings up opposites:
** FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Mikey > Donnie ~ Raph > Leo
** AllWorkVsAllPlay: Leo and Mikey
** TheHero vs TheLancer: Leo and Raph.
** BrainsAndBrawn: Donnie and Raph.
** GleefulAndGrumpyPairing: Mikey and Raph.
** TheSmartGuy vs BookDumb: Donnie and Mikey, sometimes played as academic intellect vs (pop) cultural awareness.
** [[AgentMulder Spirituality]] vs [[AgentScully Science]]: Leo and Donnie, but they're both levelheaded enough to defer to the other's expertise so they usually don't have any real tension when they pair up together.

[[folder:Religion]]
* Literature/TheBible has plenty of examples, which is unsurprising, given the prevalence of parallelism in ancient Hebrew writing.
** All the patriarchs of the Literature/BookOfGenesis has a family member to stand as a contrast against their mark of faith, and the contrast is often re-iterated in later books (especially in the book of Hebrews).
*** First, of course, we have CainAndAbel who respectively represent sin and rebellion vs. righteousness and obedience.
*** Abraham's title as the man of faith is contrasted against his nephew Lot, who in his attachment to material wealth, chose to dwell in Sodom, which would eventually lead to his family's downfall when the entire city is obliterated.
*** JacobAndEsau. The former is a rough and manly hunter who is unfortunately not too bright, and seems incapable of thinking long-term. The latter is a meek MommasBoy who prefers to stay indoors, but is extremely cunning, and was able to cheat his older brother of his birthright and blessing.
*** Joseph is one of the few characters in the Bible who has no [[IncorruptiblePurePureness apparent flaws in his character]], and remains upright even when he is unfairly mistreated by others. Halfway through his story, the narrative moves to focus on his brother Judah, who is at his least virtuous when he had sex with a prostitute who turned out to be his disguised ''daughter-in-law'', and the placement of this appalling subplot simply highlights Joseph's virtues all the more.
** Literature/TheFourGospels has Jesus and Peter. Jesus is calm, collected, and singularly focused on his mission. Peter is impulsive and HotBlooded, and abandons the cause for a little while. Frequently, Peter's actions give Jesus an opportunity to teach a lesson to the disciples.

* In AudioPlay/AlienAbductionRolePlay, the two human abductees serve as foils to each other. The unnamed human is an Unfazed Everyman who was depressed and unhappy with his life before being abducted by aliens, and has no desire to return to Earth. Tori is a frightened teen girl who had a normal, almost idyllic life with her family on Earth, and wants desperately to return home. The unnamed human is a xenophile who finds Acktreal attractive, and doesn't seem bothered by the appearance of the other aliens, whereas Tori does not shy away from showing her discomfort with the other aliens, including the one who is trying to console her. The unnamed human is a Nightmare Fetishist who takes Acktreal's taste-testing and threats to eat them in stride, whereas Tori found it traumatizing and refused to forgive Ackt for what she did.
* WebVideo/HeroHouse Has the Red Hood, who serves to contrasts Nightwing's optimism.
* In ''WebVideo/TheLizzieBennetDiaries'', both Mr Collins and Darcy are initially disliked by Lizzie due to certain personality traits but eventually make their peace with her. Whereas Darcy knows what to say but [[BrutalHonesty not how to say it]], Collins talks a lot but [[KnowNothingKnowItAll says very little]].

* In ''Roleplay/WeAreOurAvatars'', Selim Bradley the Homunculus of Pride from ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' and Selim Bradley from the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]] are polar opposites; the two have bad chemistry together.