Just a Face and a Caption: Evil Twin

That's my gripe about the Superman/Bizarro pic as well.

Evil Twin Sally

Madelyne Pryor◊

The latter suggestion is already in Underboobs.

An Evil Counterpart doesn't necessarily look like their opposite number. Bizarro is practically identical, a Palette Swap and a mirrored Chest Insignia.

Right, I think we're tapped out on suggestions, so have a crowner.

^^ We aren't looking for an image for Evil Counterpart. We're looking for Evil Twin. Bizzaro is an Evil Counterpart to Superman.

edited 30th Mar '17 12:45:11 PM by Madrugada

...and yet you said Bizarro was a good image pick earlier...

...hold on a second. Evil Twin says it is the trope about an evil version of a character, and Evil Counterpart is for alternate universe versions that are evil. Evil Counterpart says it is the trope about the evil version of a character, and Evil Twin is for biological twins that are evil. And it looks like there are quite a few examples that show up on both pages.

Suddenly I think the page image may have been the least of our problems here. Kind of hard to pick an image that illustrates the trope when the trope has undergone some wild definition drift or something...

edited 30th Mar '17 12:58:30 PM by TotemicHero

I know. :( I did, until I realized that we also had Evil Counterpart and that it's an example of that.

And I think you're right. The definitions have some problems.

OK, the Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions says this:

• A Criminal Doppelgänger is an evil Identical Stranger who just so happens to resemble The Hero.
• An Evil Counterpart is an alternate, evil version of The Hero.
• An Evil Knockoff is an evil copy of The Hero, created by a villain, working for that villain.
• An Evil Twin is The Hero's evil identical twin.

If we go by those, Bizzaro is either an Evil Counterpart or a Criminal Doppelgänger to Superman. But not an Evil Twin.

edited 30th Mar '17 1:04:14 PM by Madrugada

Okay, the fact that the image on Evil Knockoff (Metal Sonic) is in examples on Evil Twin and Evil Counterpart seals the deal for me. We're gonna need a TRS to sort this one out.

edited 30th Mar '17 1:16:36 PM by TotemicHero

Sorry for the double post, but I did some checking on Bizarro - and depending on which version of him you look at, he qualifies as Evil Twin (versions that are cloned directly from Superman's DNA - I'm not sure if the picture depicts one of those versions), Evil Counterpart, AND Evil Knockoff (all versions created by Lex Luthor and the one version created by the Joker - no, I'm not making that up).'

Comic books...

...mY bRAne hErtZ

Re 31: I know. I meant an EC often looks different than their counterpart, e.g. Nuclear Man◊ in Superman IV; but Bizarro is an ET that looks similar to his twin.

edited 31st Mar '17 12:50:38 AM by rodneyAnonymous

@35: Which brings about the question, does a clone, especially one created by the villain qualify as "twin" or "knockoff"?

A clone created by the villain, since it doesn't specify how it has to be created, and it would meet all the other, narrower criteria, would be a Knockoff.

edited 30th Mar '17 6:23:39 PM by Madrugada

Now that I've seen Evil Knockoff, I'm not convinced that the llama image would illustrate Evil Twin better than it would Evil Knockoff.

I mean, if someone is confused about these tropes and uses the images of the Metal Sonic and of the llama to try to get a better understanding of this trope, I don't think a llama and an apparently "knockoff" llama would help illustrate that. Most of the other suggestions don't have this particular problem, I think.

edited 30th Mar '17 6:37:45 PM by WaterBlap

Honestly, neither the current image nor the llama one work for Evil Knockoff, since neither shows the "created by a villain" aspect of the trope. But let's tackle one thing at a time here - we can deal with the image on Evil Knockoff after we finish up with Evil Twin.

Bumping for great justice. Take off every zig. more votes.

I think the image on Evil Knockoff is okay. A robot knockoff does say "created by a villain". It's too bad they're just standing there, but the robot's eyes are glowing red, and the only characteristic of Sonic's that needs to be recognizable is that he is a protagonist.

Unless you have a replacement to suggest, I think a separate thread about EK is unnecessary.

edited 3rd Apr '17 3:50:41 AM by rodneyAnonymous

I wasn't suggesting changing the pic on Evil Knockoff but rather to not have a similar image on Evil Twin due to potential confusion.

Votes bump; three in the green, one in consensus range.

Well, for what it's worth, we've got a winner. The new pic's up and tagged, and I'll take the page off the "don't change" list shortly; caption?

Old pic:

edited 6th Apr '17 6:06:20 AM by Willbyr

More people voted in favor of the llamas than voted both ways combined on any of the other suggestions. That'll teach me to put up a suggestion just 'cause I thought it was funny...

Caption suggestion: "Guess which one's the evil one."

That's kind of an old joke by now.

When it comes between a bunch of similar decent-at-best images, and a funny one that's also workable, funny usually wins. I've encountered the same thing once or twice.