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Different As Night And Day
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Skeeter: He's real brainy.
Scooter: She's athletic.
Skeeter: We're so different...
Scooter: It's pathetic.
She does stunts and
I assist her.
Skeeter: He's my brother!
Scooter: And they tell me she's my sister!
A Sub Trope of the Odd Couple wherein the odd couple are twins, usually identical brothers or sisters. A prominent exception is actually in the Trope Namer, The Patty Duke Show. It featured identical cousins, who were described as "One pair of matching bookends, different as night and day" in the Expository Theme Tune.
Basically, Yin Yang Twins as the main characters, with this being part of the series premise.
Sometimes overlaps with Cain And Abel.
Extreme opposite is Single Minded Twins.
Examples
Anime
- The identical twin sisters Yubaba and Zeniba from Spirited Away: Yubaba is selfish and materialistic; Zeniba, while vengeful at first, turns out to be kindly and humble.
- Anna and Johan Liebert from Monster. Anna's a nice, sweet girl who practices aikido and delivers pizza as a part-time job. Johan is the title character.
- Kagami and Tsukasa. The former is a somber tsundere while the other is a ditzy Cloud Cuckoolander. When asked about this by Konata, they point out that they are non-identical twins.
- Mion and Shion Sonozaki.
- Rua and Ruka (Luka and Luna, respectively, in the dub) from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. Rua is a rowdy, cocky duelist who overestimates himself. Ruka is quiet, introverted and is usually the one to notify Rua when he goes too far.
- Shiki and SHIKI from Kara No Kyoukai. One is somber and speaks in Keigo, the other is somewhat carefree and speaks like a guy.
- Though not in the same way, Shiki Tohno and Shiki Nanaya from Tsukihime.
- The sweet Yamato Nadeshiko Yuzu and the rough Bokukko Karin from Bleach.
- Kouji and Koichi in Digimon Frontier. Kouji is a pretentious snob who is an asshole that works by himself at first. His digimon is remniscent of a light wolf. Meanwhile his twin is similar in appearance but far more caring and willing to be in the group than his twin. And, his digimon forms are darkness oriented and are remniscent of a lion.
- The Kongo twins Unsui and Agon from Eyeshield 21. Unsui has a shaved head like a monk (it's sort of a theme at their school) is intensely hard working, diligent, cautious, a very good athlete and basically a decent guy. But Agon (with a distinctive dreadlock hairstyle) is the series' Jerk Ass, a Jerk Jock to the extreme (including the womanizing, which apparently started in middle school) who gets away with being a sociopathic thug, slacker and general all-around asshole because he is a talent seen only once in a hundred years.
- Riku and Risa from DN Angel. They even come out and say that their personalities are completely different. Risa is very girly and rather shallow, while Riku is tomboy-ish and more down to earth.
- Towards the end of the Ranma One Half manga, there is Pink and Link, identical twin girls from a village of herbalists that neighbours Shampoo's village of "Chinese Amazons" and who practice different branches of an unnamed "Martial Arts Herbalism", a fighting style that revolves around plants and herbalistic concoctions. Pink, who is usually smiling, is a wicked and vicious girl who loves to poison people. Link, who is usually frowning, is a kind and gentle girl who considers it her duty to heal those her sister hurts. Despite these opposite natures, they care for each other deeply and are capable of uniting with singular purpose when given motive... which means that, in their actual appearance in Nerima, they function more like Single Minded Twins.
- GlassFleet's Non Identical Twins Vetti and Cleo exemplify this trope. Though, their personalities are passed off as them having been raised separately, with the younger one subjected to mental and sexual abuse, giving him his screwed up personality.
ComicBooks
- Caring geek Wiccan and hyperactive badboy Speed from the Young Avengers.
Film
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army has Prince Nuada and Prince Nuala; while they are Half Identical Twins in appearance, Word Of God says they were intended to be as different as night and day in all other respects.
- In the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, the twin girls, Annie James and Hallie Parker, are completely different. Annie is calm, reserved, and rather uptight while Hallie is relaxed, loud, outgoing, and a Big Eater.
Literature
- Dawn and Eve of Xanth are literally as different as day and night, from the fact that Dawn is red haired and green eyed, and is like the morning, while Eve is black haired and eyed and is like the night.
- Amoret and Belphoebe in The Faerie Queene: The former was adopted by Venus, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, and became a Yamato Nadeshiko. The latter was adopted by Diana, the Goddess of Maidenhood and the Hunt, and became an Action Girl.
- Occurs in Gordon R Dickson's Childe Cycle series of novels and short stories, in the characters of Ian and Kensie Graeme. Both are Dorsai (Proud Warrior Race Guys). Ian is the epitome of the Warrior - seemingly aloof and intimidating by his sheer presence. Kensie is his polar opposite - warm, caring, social - everything that Ian is not. In the stories it's implied that together the two make up one individual.
- Ironically, it's Ian who's irresistible to women - without realizing it.
- Which is a tribute to Dickson's understanding of Female Psychology. Of *course* we women would be drawn to a dark, broody type over a sunny open one!
- Both the books and TV version of Sweet Valley High, with the Wakefield twins Jessica and Elizabeth.
- The Eiran twins Eamonn and Grainne from Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey.
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde may be considered a variation of this trope...
- Shaun and Shem from Finnegan's Wake probably count, but it's hard to figure out which is which, due to the book changing their names constantly. All you need to know is one is boring and dull, and the other is really creative and artistic.
- Jacob and Esau from The Bible. In fact my book of children's Bible stories even had the chapter title "Twins Who Were Different."
- In the original Story "Lottie and Luise" by Erich Kastner (aka "double Lottchen"), the titular twins had extremely different personalities, which made their place change all the more hilarious. Most film versions omit this, though.
LiveActionTV
- Madison and Vida Rocca from Power Rangers Mystic Force. Madison is calm and thoughtful, V is on a permanent sugar high and goes rushing into things with a mad grin.
- Sister Sister, with Tia and Tamera Mowry.
- Two of a Kind and So Little Time, both with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
- The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody, with Dylan and Cole Sprouse.
- Russ on Friends is exactly like Ross (well, this troper would say he's Ross Only More So). Monica says "See? They're as different as night and...later that night."
- The '80s sitcom Double Trouble. Identical twins Jean and Liz Sagal (younger sisters of Katey Sagal of Marriedwith Children) play identical twins Kate and Allison. Allison is serious and bookish; Kate is happy-go-lucky.
Mythology
Video Games
- The Voerman sisters, stoic businesswoman Therese and emotional party-girl Jeanette, from Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines. You eventually discover Therese is a Malkavian, a member of a clan of vampires known for insanity, and her "sister" Jeanette is actually her Split Personality. With high enough Persuasion skill, you can convince the "sisters" to cooperate instead of one "killing" the other.
- Hothead Dante and calculating Vergil from the Devil May Cry series.
- Hyperactive Yun and brooding Yang of the Lee Brothers from Street Fighter.
- The Mikado twins from the GetBackers game Jagan Fuuin: Daisuke is very compassionate and sweet and easily befriends the main cast, whereas his identical twin Kyosuke is cold, emotionless, rarely speaks, and seems robotic. It's eventually revealed that the twins are the same person, namely Kyosuke, who, due to fear of their immense spiritual power, were split into two entities, the "body" and "soul". Daisuke was the soul, and once they were merged back into Kyosuke, he acted much like his "brother" did.
- Dahlia and Iris Hawthorne from the third Ace Attorney game. Dahlia is a ruthless sociopath who has been using her cute and innocent image to get away with murder, literally, for years and Iris is sweet, gentle, and compassionate, and honestly fell for the lead character while posing as her sister because she needed him for a master plan but didn't want to be bothered with actually seducing him.
- The twins Palom and Porom from Final Fantasy IV. Palom is the mischievous user of black magic, and Porom is the mild-mannered user of white magic.
Western Animation
- Scooter and Skeeter in Muppet Babies. They sang a song dedicated to this in the episode about opera.
- Suntop and Ember from Elf Quest actually brought the Media Watchdogs down on them when their creators tried to get an Animated Adaptation going. Turns out Saturday Morning Cartoons is not the time to reverse genders roles and have a spunky little girl and a mild, intuitive little boy.
- Dagget and Norbert, twin beavers from Angry Beavers.
- The entire premise of the Cramp Twins.
Real Life
- Real life example (kinda): Amanda and Michelle Babin, who were contestants on America's Next Top Model, Cycle 7. Michelle is tomboyish and more outgoing, whereas Amanda is more feminine and introverted. Michelle also came out of the closet during the course of the show, just to add another night and day difference to the mix.
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