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!
~ Muppet Babies
A subset 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.
Examples:
Miscellaneous (please help sort them)
- Anna and Johan Liebert. Anna's a nice, sweet girl who practices aikido and delivers pizza as a part-time job. Johan, on the other hand, has been compared to Adolf Hitler. (As in 'the next...')
- Nisien and Efnisien from the Mabinogion (making this Older Than Dirt).
- Real life example (kinda): Amanda and Michelle from America's Next Top Model cycle 7. Michelle is tomboyish and more outgoing, whereas Amanda is more feminine and introverted.
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.
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.
Comic Books
- Caring geek Wiccan and hyperactive badboy Speed from the Young Avengers.
Live Action TV
Literature
- 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.
- 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...
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 know 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.
