What's the difference between this and Not So Different?
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Not So Different requires a character to comment on similarities. They do not necessarily have to be a Shadow Archetype.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
I would propose one addition to the rewrite: This trope should explicitly require that one of the two characters deny the similarity with the other at some point in the story, and this requirement should be made clear in the first few sentences of the trope description (so people don't miss it.) The denial seems to be core to what the Shadow Archetype is, and requiring that it be unambiguous and explicit would weed out most of the misuses.
(A big part of the problem is that the current description takes ages to get to the point, of course; if you just skim the name and the first few sentences, it'd be easy to come away thinking that any "dark" version of another character qualifies.)
edited 20th Sep '15 10:15:37 PM by Aquillion
Locking as part of New Years Purge.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
How about: hero and villain are rivals for an important period of the story, share important traits, and have a confrontation in which they talk (however angrily) about their beliefs before fighting again, and the hero at least takes something from that.
Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.