History Main / BetaTestBaddie

* ''ComicBook/MortalKombat'': This was the ''modus operandi'' of Kintaro, who felt inferior and "living in the shadow" of his prince, Goro.

** Several of the homunculi in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' are motivated by a desire to become fully human, and will do anything they feel will further this goal. Lust explains that without a human soul, she feels incomplete. Envy in particular burns with a fanatical desire to personally murder his creator for this feeling. Wrath feels inadequate as a homunculus and want to [[spoiler: steal Edward's body to be truly human]]. There's also a lot of friction between lesser homunculi and the "better" versions, who can more convincingly pass as human.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'': Jimmy Pegorino is deeply driven by a desire to join the Five Families, despite the fact that they see him as a joke. He'll take any chance at making a profit and cozying up to any heavy hitters, fellow mafia or [[TheDreaded Dimitri Rascalov]]. [[spoiler:This has disastrous consequences when Niko ruins his drug deal with [[BigBad Dimitri]], causing him to go after him as revenge.]]

** Several of the homunculi in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' are motivated by a desire to become fully human, and will do anything they feel will further this goal. Lust explains that without a human soul, she feels incomplete. Envy in particular burns with a fanatical desire to personally murder his creator for this feeling. There's also a lot of friction between lesser homunculi and the "better" versions, who can more convincingly pass as human.

** [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]] tried to kill Spidey as a means to secure himself in the criminal underworld and when he was unable to kill him, it resulted in Norman committing almost all of his energy in killing Peter.
** [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} Eddie Brock]] felt inferior after he incorrectly theorized an innocent person was a SerialKiller. Spider-Man brought the real killer to justice which resulted in Eddie losing his job. [[FromBadToWorse And then he met the symbiote, who also resented towards the webhead for "dumping" it...]]
** The Vulture went into a life of crime when he was screwed over by his younger, more savvy business partner.

* ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'': Umbria's main quest is to reclaim her power with 'The Brotherhood' and getting her old body back. The form she is currently using is an imperfect copy of Julie's [[SpoonyBard Bard class]] and appearance, though Umbria [[GlamourFailure looks little more evil]] than the original Julie.
* ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'': Kusari insists she's an ''improved'' version of the mysterious superhuman assassin Oasis, but in spite of having some abilities Oasis doesn't, she's bothered that she's considered inferior for other reasons. (These reasons can't be fully comprehended without spoilers about what the two really are.) She was created in imitation of Oasis by people who didn't have the necessary resources at their disposal.

* ''Manga/DeathNote'''s Mello and Beyond. Mello join the mafia and confronts Kira because he wants to surpass Near, because he thinks Near is a more perfect successor to L. The latter's [[spoiler: entire motivation for killing 3 people and setting himself on fire is to beat L as a criminal, since he could never beat him as a successor.]]

* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'''': The series has an inversion in the form of [[spoiler:Black Noir]], the [[spoiler:Homelander's]] physically-superior clone, engineered as a SummonBiggerFish safeguard in case the original became uncontrollable. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the Homelander never rebelled, meaning Black Noir was prevented from fulfilling his sole reason for existing. So he started recording himself committing atrocities, gaslighting the Homelander into thinking he was insane until he finally rebelled, allowing Black Noir to intervene.]]

* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' has an inversion in the form of [[spoiler:Black Noir]], the [[spoiler:Homelander's]] physically-superior clone, engineered as a SummonBiggerFish safeguard in case the original became uncontrollable. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the Homelander never rebelled, meaning Black Noir was prevented from fulfilling his sole reason for existing. So he started recording himself committing atrocities, gaslighting the Homelander into thinking he was insane until he finally rebelled, allowing Black Noir to intervene.]]
* In ''ComicBook/DarkNightsDeathMetal'', ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s EvilDoppelganger Owlman is furious at the thought of being upstaged by [[EvilCounterpart The Batman Who Laughs]], and [[EvilVersusOblivion agrees to help stop the destruction of the multiverse]] solely because he's, in the words of John Stewart, [[EvilIsPetty "feeling petty"]].
* ''Creator/MarvelComics''
** ''ComicBook/XForce'' gave us a Beta Test Good Guy in Cable, the scarred cyborg soldier. He had gone through life assuming he was a flawed clone of Stryfe, who had strong telekinetic powers and insanity to match. He eventually found out he was wrong: he's the original, Stryfe's the clone.
** This was a fairly hefty chunk of Franchise/SpiderMan's ComicBook/TheCloneSaga and is common amongst his enemies:
*** [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]] tried to kill Spidey as a means to secure himself in the criminal underworld and when he was unable to kill him, it resulted in Norman committing almost all of his energy in killing Peter.
*** [[Comicbook/{{Venom}} Eddie Brock]] felt inferior after he incorrectly theorized an innocent person was a SerialKiller. Spider-Man brought the real killer to justice which resulted in Eddie losing his job. [[FromBadToWorse And then he met the symbiote, who also resented towards the webhead for "dumping" it...]]
*** The Vulture went into a life of crime when he was screwed over by his younger, more savvy business partner.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Priscilla Rich, who was already a criminal, feeling like she's being forced to play second fiddle to those she does not consider any better than her, two times people with powers, is what causes her to don a costume become the ComicBook/{{Cheetah}} and use her SuperSpeed to fight superpowered heroes. When she nearly loses a footrace to Mala she gives away her disguise and her intended mission infiltrating Paradise Island to keep from being beaten at her specialty.

In the android[=/=]{{clon|ingBlues}}e[=/=]other {{doppelganger}} scenario, the typical reason for this assumption is that the character lacks some vital component to be truly great or [[BecomeARealBoy human]], and might even [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman be considered dangerous because of the lack]]. The typical subversion is that the original was ''too'' willful and independent, and subsequent models were made much more compliant.

See also: BrokenHero, PsychoPrototype, ReplacementGoldfish, CloningBlues and FlawedPrototype.

** Then comes TheReveal: [[spoiler:ALL angels are [[CloningBlues created from and fed by Adam Kadamon's cells]] as part of a grand experiment by God. [[GodIsEvil Hmm...]] [[AbusiveParents Could explain]] ''[[TroubledAbuser a lot]]''.]]

* ''VideoGame/BeatAngelEscalayer'': [[CloningBlues FM77 is a clone of Sayuka]], and wants to defeat her and steal the Doki Doki Dynamo to become "complete".

** The fourteenth member of the Organization, Xion (from [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days]]) falls into this the hardest, being the focus of her debut game. Played with in that she's a [[spoiler:[[CloningBlues Replica]] of the series' main character, like the Riku Replica above,]] and subverted in that she just feigns being a BetaTestBaddie, ultimately turning out to be one of the only good characters in the game.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS2E11PanicInTheSky Panic in the Sky]]"

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars''
** ''VideoGame/AdvanceWarsDaysOfRuin'': Inverted. [[spoiler:Cyrus betrays his father, which he is a clone of and a failed vessel for a GrandTheftMe experiment, and helps the heroes exactly out of a sense of not being fully human.]]
** ''VideoGame/AdvanceWarsDualStrike'' has a similar inverted example to ''Days of Ruin'' with [[spoiler:the Andy clone. Rather than being bitter about being a [[EvilKnockoff cheap copy]] he asks if Andy has friends and, when told yes, remarks that it makes him happy because he feels as if he has them as well.]]

* ''Franchise/MegaMan''

** Also Proto Man - he's essentially a prototype of Mega Man with an unstable reactor and a bit too much free will. Not technically a "baddie", but one would easily be forgiven for believing him to be a baddie after playing ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'' but not finishing the game (or watching [[WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears the Ruby-Spears cartoon]]).

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'': Sheeva had shades of this trope, after her Shokan race was replaced as Shao Kahn's chosen warriors by their mortal enemies, the Centaurians, despite being given other, equally important jobs (like protecting then-resurrected Queen Sindel).

* ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': HK-47 has elements of this trope, lamenting his incompleteness in the first game, and outraged that the HK-50's, based on him, exist. Only, he does not feel inferior to them in any way, decrying them as in fact being lesser than he in most respects, such as behavior and, well, color. Even more infuriating, they fall within his ICannotSelfTerminate programming.
* ''VideoGame/StraySoulsDollhouseStory'': Inverted. [[spoiler:Clown!Sam believes he's the complete Sam, so tries to assassinate the other parts.]]

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand.'' One episode's plot revolves around [[EvilTwin XL]] stealing the one part that heroic XR has and he doesn't -- by grabbing XR and ripping it out of his chest, while he's still fully conscious. This sends XR into a manic depressive state over losing this part, as he now thinks ''he's'' the worthless one. [[spoiler: It turns out the part was a worthless air freshener device.]]
** Even more so, [[spoiler: the air freshener was only put in because the aliens that had built him could smell an odor. Everyone who worked with him were incapable of noticing the change once the device was removed.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries:'' Spider-Carnage is a demented EvilTwin of Spider-Man. Hailing from an AlternateUniverse he is his world's version of Peter Parker...[[AmbiguousSituation Maybe]]. An encounter with Miles Warren resulted in Peter (already highly unstable following the deaths of Uncle Ben and Aunt May) being cloned. The clone took up the identity of the Scarlet Spider and became a productive member of the superhero community, while Peter became enraged, feeling that Ben's existence threatened his own. And then TheReveal came in from Curt Connors -- Peter might actually be the clone. This news pushes him over the edge, attracts the Carnage symbiote to him, and sends of the path towards [[OmnicidalManiac destroying]] [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum all reality]] [[ApocalypseHow in a Class Z apocalypse.]]
-->'''Spider-Carnage:''' "I really, really ''hate'' clones."
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollhunters}},'' [[MagicKnight Angor Rot]] [[YourSoulIsMine lost his soul]] due to a DealWithTheDevil, and traps the souls of [[HeroKiller all the Trollhunters whom he's killed]] in his body in order to fill the void. As a semi-{{Inversion}}, he's actually willing to [[EnemyMine work with the heroes]] if [[TheChosenOne Jim]] can get his soul back for him. [[spoiler:That turns out...poorly]].

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'':
** First game: Anna Navarre and Gunther Hermann both have mechanical body augmentation, whereas the player character is one of the first agents to be augmented using new nanotechnology. Gunther in particular resents the fact that his generation of augmentations is supposedly being rendered obsolete, although this resentment is probably not his primary motive.

* ''VideoGame/Beat ngelEscalayer'': [[CloningBlues FM77 is a clone of Sayuka]], and wants to defeat her and steal the Doki Doki Dynamo to become "complete".

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''
%%** Black Mages in general tend to fall under this trope, save for the ones who become self-aware.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'': [[spoiler: Kuja the villain is the original and Zidane the hero is the replacement. Kuja [[VillainousBreakdown goes truly cuckoo]] after learning that his lifespan was purposely designed to be short as part of the plan.]]

* In ''ComicBook/DarkNightsDeathMetal'', ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s EvilDoppelganger Owlman is furious at the thought of being upstaged by [[EvilCounterpart The Batman Who Laughs]] and [[EvilVersusOblivion agrees to help stop the destruction of the multiverse]] solely because he's, in the words of John Stewart, [[EvilIsPetty "feeling petty"]].