Shadow Archetype / Live-Action Films

• Adaptation.: Charlie Kaufman's (fictional) twin brother Donald functions as his shadow, embodying everything Charlie dislikes about his profession and doesn't want to become. In true Jungian fashion, however, there are positive aspects to his character as well, which Charlie's neuroticism and self-awareness lead him to suppress, and which he ultimately grows as a person by accepting.
• Fight Club: Tyler Durden is the Shadow Archetype to The Narrator, considering that he is nothing more than The Narrator's alternate personality, comprising what The Narrator wants to be, but can't, because of the pressures of society. For Hollywood, this makes him an unusually Jungian version — he's what is repressed, not what is evil.
  "I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck. I am smart, capable and, most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not."
• Varies through continuities but Godzilla fellow monsters reflect an aspect of the Big G character.
  • One of Godzilla's defining traits is that he's the product of an unholy union of Nature and Technology, being a surviving Cretaceous-era dinosaur who was mutated by exposure to nuclear radiation. That's why Mechagodzilla plays such an important role as Godzilla's Foil: as his evil robotic doppelganger, he's entirely a product of technology, and represents Godzilla's "unnatural" side.
  • Mothra plays an equally important role as the classically heroic Foil to the antiheroic or Villain Protagonist Godzilla, being entirely a product of nature. They also both represent Gaia's Vengeance but while Godzilla has extreme hatred or apathy towards humanity Mothra still sees worth in them. She also represents what Godzilla could become if he become a pure force for good.
    • Speaking of Mothra, there's Battra, who's what Mothra could be if she ever lost faith in humanity.
  • While it depends on the continuity, King Ghidorah acts as a dark reflection of Godzilla. While Big G is a Tragic Monster whose evil stems from being angry at humanity or straight up ignorance at what he's doing anything can be wrong, King Ghidorah is a truly evil being who knows exactly what he's doing and relishes in it. King Ghidorah shows just how truly destructive Godzilla can be if he took pleasure in his rampages.
  • In the film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Destoroyah has the most similarities with the Big G. Both are organisms that existed longer than man, they were both unfortunate and unforeseen victims created by humanity’s own destructive weapons (the atomic bomb and the oxygen destroyer respectively.) and both bring terrible destruction to humanity. However, Godzilla by this time had gone through Character Development, and a Morality Pet in the form of Junior. While Destoroyah fully embraces the weapon humanity made it into.
  • In Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, SpaceGodzilla is this to Godzilla in a nutshell, purely of extraterrestrial origin, and is the byproduct of an alien merged with Godzilla's G-Cells. In contrast to Godzilla's close combat prowess, radioactive abilities and anti-heroism, SpaceGodzilla is entirely malevolent, and his powers prioritize mental, gravitational and long range abilities, while also being able to fly. He represents what an alien Godzilla would look like as well as what Godzilla would become if he was tyrannical, and had the powers of a literal god.
    • In a way, SpaceGodzilla can also be considered a result of Godzilla being gamma powered instead of nuclear.
    • This goes for Biollante as well from Godzilla vs. Biollante, who is a plant-based life form and is also created from Godzilla's G-Cells. It is also female.
    • An amalgamation of the three of them takes on its true form in the anime film, Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters.
  • Orga from Godzilla 2000 resembles a hideously deformed, bizarro-version of Godzilla that, unlike Biollante and SpaceGodzilla, botched the absorption process of his DNA. His skin is grey instead of green, he has a shoulder cannon instead of a mouth beam like most other kaijus, his back is hunched, and he has extremely large hands with three fingers. He lacks much of Godzilla's intelligence and speed, but makes up for it with pure strength and power.
  • Gigan can be seen as a sick joke of Godzilla's existence. Both being monsters that are an unholy combination of technology and nature. The only difference is Gigan fully embraces the weapon it was made into.
• Indiana Jones: Rene Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark openly describes himself as this towards Indiana Jones, as both are passionate Adventure Archaeologists, but Belloq doesn't have Indy's code of honor, lending his services to Nazi Germany.
  Belloq: 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.
• James Bond: Many, if not all, Bond villains represent the worst aspects of 007.
  • Skyfall: Big Bad Raoul Silva is a former MI6 agent (and a brilliant one, according to M), who is what Bond could easily become if he didn't forgive or trust M for the things she puts him through. Silva even points this out multiple times over the course of the film, and the other characters aren't arguing with him, especially given that M leaving Silva for dead in China has echoes of her risking Bond's life at the beginning of the movie. Silva going rogue also harkens back to Alec Trevelyan, another ex-MI6 agent who had a similar grudge against his former employer.
    Silva: We are the last two rats.
  • Other examples from the films include Die Another Day's Gustav Graves/Colonel Moon, From Russia with Love's Red Grant, Casino Royale's Le Chiffre (suave, handsome men of action), and A View to a Kill's Max Zorin. The titular villains of Dr. No and The Man with the Golden Gun also attempt, less convincingly, to play Shadow Archetypes to Bond. They all easily serve to remind Bond of what he could be if he decided to cross the line and become immoral. Some of them even freely admit being Card Carrying Villains, pull a "Not So Different" Remark on 007, and harbor no loyalty to others but to themselves.
  • GoldenEye: 006/Alec Trevelyan, Bond's former partner, who reappears from the dead and continually taunts 007 about his loyalty to England and Failure Hero tendencies to lose allies and women during missions. Despite sharing many of Bond's qualities, Alec's personality shows the dangers of clinging on to old grudges, as he despises England for their (perceived) past transgressions.
  • Ernst Stavro Blofeld, James Bond's Arch-Enemy and head of the Nebulous Evil Organization SPECTRE, is a stark contrast to both M, Bond's boss, and 007 himself.
    • While both lead a secret organization and give orders directly to their subordinates, M commands the respect of his peers and subordinates, but Blofeld would often kill minions just for minor reasons.
    • Blofeld also serves as a warped mirror image of Bond, especially in terms of lethality, wit, and shrewdness. The way they rose is also a stark difference: whereas Bond is of Blue Blood (albeit a minor one) yet puts his life on the line to stop power-hungry nutjobs, Blofeld is of modest origins but rose to power by questionable means and is willing to hold the entire world at gunpoint if he doesn't get what he wants. To drive this even further, the Mirrored Confrontation Shot between the two during Spectre's climax even shows the visual similarities they share, with Blofeld being a Bond corrupted by a lust for revenge and domination.
  • Spectre: M gets another Shadow Archetype in the form of C/Max Denbigh, the new head of the Joint Intelligence Service. Whereas M is an ex-spy like Bond, is capable of handling firearms, and has shown genuine concern for his subordinates, C is an Obstructive Bureaucrat who mocks M's insistence on stopping the 00-agent program from being scrapped in favor of his new surveillance operation, and hurls childish insults whenever he's grilled about the surveillance program he favors. It's later revealed that C is in bed with Blofeld, and is willing to sell out England for more political power unlike M, who remains loyal to queen and country. When C tries to have Bond and M killed for interfering in his Evil Plan, he didn't realize M's field experience enabled him to sweep the room and empty Denbigh's gun before he got there. In short, C represents an M whose lust for power has corrupted him to the point he's even willing to sell out others and use his position to enrich himself for political gain.
  • Octopussy: A crooked and treacherous Glory Hound, Soviet general Orlov is essentially what General Gogol could have been had he chose to become bloodthirsty and lustful for power. Unlike Gogol, who remains an important Bond ally to stop Orlov's scheme, Orlov even sells out his own country by plotting with Kamal Khan to kill millions of innocents in his power-hungry plans to invade Western Europe, which would cause NATO to retaliate accordingly.
  • No Time to Die: Safin shows what could happen if Bond wallowed in the past instead of the other way around. Like Bond, Safin lost his family, but they were killed by Mr. White on Blofeld's orders, something which also scarred him physically and mentally. As a result, Safin blamed his tragedy on society as a whole, finding innocence to be a laughable concept. Safin also gives a "Not So Different" Remark to Bond in that both are professional killers wanting to cleanse the world, but while Bond agrees that Safin's backstory may be enough to justify killing Blofeld in revenge, his Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse for his crimes. Also, no matter how much he loses, 007 has accepted the losses in his life and fights for the greater good, believing innocence is something worth fighting for.
• King Louie to Mowgli in the 2016 remake of The Jungle Book. Louie is a Gigantopithecus who's Intrigued by Humanity and doing his best to emulate them by living in an abandoned human temple, ruling over his fellow primates as a king, hoarding (worthless) material possessions and trying to learn the secret of fire to gain more power. Mowgli is the opposite, being a human raised in the jungle who's doing his best to emulate its animals, rejects civilized society, yet takes advantage of his human ingenuity to survive in the wild. In short, Louie represents humankind's greed and ego without its intellect or creativity, while Mowgli represents that intellect and creativity without the corruption.
• In The Lord of the Rings, Gollum is a vivid reminder of what Frodo could turn into if he gave into the ring.
• Mean Girls: Regina and Janis for each other. Regina is manipulative, two-faced, and cunning, but maintains an outwardly friendly and affable demeanor. Janis, on the other hand, is apparently less attractive than Regina and claims not to care about any of that and poses as being above all Regina's petty high school business. However, Regina's high school manipulations and plotting is also reflected in Janis's plot for revenge. Regina, like Janis, has a lot of anger that she refuses to acknowledge, while Janis is relatively comfortable with her own anger and bitterness.
• Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends has Ultraman Belial as the shadow to Ultraman Zero. Like the latter, the former was once a young and powerful Ultra Warriors but attempted to touch the Plasma Spark after getting Drunk with Power. Unlike Zero as we found out later on, Belial has no one to stop him at the last minute, which leads to his eventual banishment and Face–Heel Turn into the evil Ultra that fans have known to this day.
• Ironically, Shiwan Khan in 1994's The Shadow is this to the titular protagonist, The Shadow himself. He got the same training as The Shadow, has same powers and is a big fan of Shadow's former self, ruthless crime lord Ying Ko.
• Star Wars
  • Darth Vader is this to Luke, especially in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi; both of them dressing in black, losing a hand in battle etc, and the family connection only adds to their similarities. The prequel trilogy emphasizes them further by giving Anakin's backstory parallels to Luke's. Luke is even offered a chance to turn to The Dark Side; the difference between Vader and Luke is that Luke opts to remain in the light.
  • In A New Hope, the nearest thing Luke has to a shadow is Han Solo. Luke is young and naive, empathic, believes in the Force, and is a great pilot; Solo is Older and Wiser, self-centered, a Flat-Earth Atheist, and is also a great pilot.
  • The villains in the prequel trilogy (with the exception of Palpatine, perhaps the shadow to Yoda) are reflections of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader:
    • Darth Maul, a young, extremely skilled and powerful Sith apprentice. Their similarities are further shown in The Clone Wars animated series, where he returns from a near-death situation with prosthetics.
    • Count Dooku, a former Jedi who left the Order due to disagreements in philosophies.
    • General Grievous, a twisted mixture of machine and man which causes problems in breathing and combat.
  • The battle droids, mass-produced and programmed machines, to the clones, mass-produced organics who are also programmed to some degree.
  • Kylo Ren from The Force Awakens is essentially a Luke Skywalker turned to the Dark Side of the Force. They both struggle with temptation from the opposite side of the Force (Luke tries to resist the Dark Side, while Kylo wants to become immune to the Light), both come into conflict with their fathers, with Luke ultimately redeeming Anakin and Kylo ultimately murdering Han, and they both idolize Anakin Skywalker, with Luke proudly declaring himself a Jedi "like my father before me" and Kylo doing everything he can to emulate Darth Vader. The Last Jedi sees both of them deal with their failures and disillusionments. Luke is able to overcome this and redeem himself, while Kylo descends further to villainy because he's unwilling to let it go.
• Tyrannosaur: Hannah's abusive husband James for Joe. Both are extremely violent men but, while Joe kills his beloved dog, he is shown to try and avoid taking it out on people, preferring to hammer his shed down. He also mocked his wife for her weight, but still loved her, feels a great deal of remorse, and misses her desperately. James is a Domestic Abuser and violent rapist who shows zero remorse for his crimes against Hannah, who, despite showing verbal cruelty towards her, Joe actually tries to help.

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