History Main / NotSoSimilar

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': [[Recap/BatmanBeyondS2E25BigTime "Big Time"]]: Terry [=McGinnis=] believes he and Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow are cut from the same cloth, a couple of dumb kids who got into trouble, and the only difference is that Terry got off for being underage. But what he doesn't seem to realize is, their choices are what ultimately set them apart. Charlie was given a second chance to turn his life around to make up for being in jail, but he squanders it and misuses it to help his criminal bosses. Terry, on the other hand, went above and beyond to change his life when he chose to become Batman. And he's made the most of it in order to provide for his mother and brother.

* ''Fanfic/DannyPhantomStranded'': Jean-Luc Bevier has been compared to Vlad Masters by Maddie and Jazz, who referred to him as the French Vlad. Jean-Luc and Vlad are both upper-class men who hit on married women and put on a charming act to hide their true unpleasant natures. However, there are some apparent differences between them: Jean-Luc makes his money legally through inheritance and a family business he runs, while Vlad used his powers to become the wealthiest man on the planet through criminal means in addition to his inheritance; Jean-Luc has been married multiple times and has two children, while Vlad is single and obsessed with having a family with one specific woman; Jean-Luc is content with using his wealth to live the good life, spending it on women and hanging out at the country club, while Vlad has spent decades of his life fixated on Maddie, and is only interested in using his wealth to get with her and make her son either his son or miserable; Jean-Luc can handle being rejected by a woman and has standards about saying no, as he seems to have taken Maddie's "hint" that she doesn't care for his flirtations, while Vlad can't get it through his head that Maddie hates him and is willing to do anything to make her his, including brainwashing. Ultimately, Jean-Luc, despite being unpleasant and apathetic, is an ordinary man who does not harm the people around him, while Vlad is a supervillain who's willing to destroy anyone who gets in the way of what he wants.

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': In the {{novelization}}, Madison thinks [[Characters/MonsterVerseAlanJonah Alan Jonah]] is more different from the former's parents (specifically her mother) than Jonah claims he is. She observes that while her parents also reacted badly to losing a child and her mother especially has done terrible things, Emma is at least willing to try and [[TheAtoner fix what she's done]] whereas Jonah is too far gone.

*** Ruby and Ozpin. DiscussedTrope. The heroes strongly disapprove of Ozpin not telling them the full truth about the Relic of Knowledge and Salem, leading to a falling out in Volume 6. In Volume 7, the heroes aren't sure if they can trust General Ironwood, so Ruby repeats the lies and obfuscation Ozpin used on them. When she admits to Qrow she doesn't know if she's done the right thing or if she's no better than Ozpin, he confidently tells her that Ozpin trusted no one while she's just waiting for Ironwood to earn her trust. Ruby is not convinced by this argument. [[spoiler:It's ultimately subverted into being no different. Several of her companions express increasing levels of concern about her making decisions they disapproved of Ozpin making, and when they finally decide Ironwood has earned their trust, it ends up making things worse in the long run. In Volume 8, Yang turns on Ruby's leadership the way she turned on Ozpin's, and when the heroes later reconcile with Ozpin, they acknowledge that they now understand the position he was in much better.]]

** Yang and [[Characters/RWBYAdamTaurus Adam Taurus]]. They have both been Blake's mission partners, been permanently scarred by others, and share a Semblance that allows them to power up by converting attack energy. However, Yang is a thrill-seeker who learned to become a Huntress who protects the people, who has to tank physical damage to convert energy into strength, and who learned to rise above her scars. Adam absorbs energy through his sword and is a manipulative abuser who descended from being a Faunus rights activist into a monster obsessed with punishing humanity as a whole because some humans hurt him. When Blake compares the two after Team RWBY is disqualified from the Vytal tournament, she concludes Adam's "accidental" harming of others was a pattern while Yang's was a genuine, one-off accident. [[spoiler:When the trio fight in Volume 6, Adam seeks to blame Blake for everything bad that's ever happened to him, while Yang refuses to let her take the blame for any of it and accuses Adam of lying to Blake about the kind of person he truly was, something Yang has never done.]] And all of this is the reason why in Volume 9 [[spoiler:Blake and Yang enter a relationship]].

** Ruby and Ozpin. DiscussedTrope. The heroes strongly disapprove of Ozpin not telling them the full truth about the Relic of Knowledge and Salem, leading to a falling out in Volume 6. In Volume 7, the heroes aren't sure if they can trust General Ironwood, so Ruby repeats the lies and obfuscation Ozpin used on them. When she admits to Qrow she doesn't know if she's done the right thing or if she's no better than Ozpin, he confidently tells her that Ozpin trusted no one while she's just waiting for Ironwood to earn her trust. Ruby is not convinced by this argument. [[spoiler:It's ultimately subverted into being no different. Several of her companions express increasing levels of concern about her making decisions they disapproved of Ozpin making, and when they finally decide Ironwood has earned their trust, it ends up making things worse in the long run. In Volume 8, Yang turns on Ruby's leadership the way she turned on Ozpin's, and when the heroes later reconcile with Ozpin, they acknowledge that they now understand the position he was in much better.]]
** Ruby and Harriet. They're both high-speed combatants who are often the first to charge into battle. But while Ruby is sweet, bubbly, and values teamwork with her closest friends, Harriet is aloof, brutally honest, and fiercely competitive even with her teammates. Ruby heavily prefers to use Crescent Rose over hand-to-hand, while Harriet specializes in overwhelming her foes with her PowerFist. [[spoiler:When Team RWBY and Ace-Ops fight at the end of Volume 7, Harriet and Ruby are pitted against each other; while Ruby is willing to interrupt her fight to help Weiss, Harriet won't do the same for Marrow and just chastises him for holding back. While Ruby is adamant about doing things with her team to bond, even when they don't feel like it, Harriet is the member of her team who is most aggressive in adhering to the Atlesian rule of teams being professional instead of family.]]
** Weiss and May. When May and Weiss argue about whether they should help Atlas or Mantle, Weiss finds herself wanting to help Atlas because of her blood ties. She is surprised that May doesn't seem to feel the same torn dilemma as her, given that they both come from elite Atlesian families from whom they're estranged. May explains that her desire to fight for Mantle's rights created bad blood between her and her family. When her family disowned her, they did so without acknowledging her trans identity, so she disowned them in turn. May therefore made her choice years ago and there is no dilemma for her. [[spoiler:She's surprised Weiss has any dilemma given that Weiss's brother Whitley reminds her of her cousin Henry. However, shortly after this, Whitley proves May's comparison wrong much to Weiss's surprise and delight. The implication is that there is hope for Weiss to mend her family relationships whereas no such hope exists for May.]]
** Yang and Raven. DiscussedTrope. Taiyang tells Yang that, while he's proud to see something of Raven in Yang, he's relieved that he doesn't see all of Raven in her. He implies that he sees her strength of will as something she's inherited from Raven, but also suggests she needs to avoid her mother's mistake of bulldozing through problems instead of learning how to work around them. [[spoiler:Taiyang doesn't actually detail most of Raven's flaws beyond admitting that they tore Team STRQ apart and caused a lot of emotional fall-out for their family; when Yang confronts Raven in Volume 5, she learns that her mother's biggest flaw is cowardice and that she has much greater courage than Raven does.]]
** Yang and Adam. They have both been Blake's mission partners, been permanently scarred by others, and share a Semblance that allows them to power up by converting attack energy. However, Yang is a thrill-seeker who learned to become a Huntress who protects the people, who has to tank physical damage to convert energy into strength, and who learned to rise above her scars. Adam absorbs energy through his sword and is a manipulative abuser who descended from being a Faunus rights activist into a monster obsessed with punishing humanity as a whole because some humans hurt him. When Blake compares the two after Team RWBY is disqualified from the Vytal tournament, she concludes Adam's "accidental" harming of others was a pattern while Yang's was a genuine, one-off accident. [[spoiler:When the trio fight in Volume 6, Adam seeks to blame Blake for everything bad that's ever happened to him, while Yang refuses to let her take the blame for any of it and accuses Adam of lying to Blake about the kind of person he truly was, something Yang has never done.]] And all of this is the reason why in Volume 9 [[spoiler:Blake and Yang enter a relationship]].

** Komaru is this to her older brother, Makoto. Both of them are relatively ordinary people forced into desperate situations, but while Makoto manages to lift his classmates' spirits and become a symbol of hope, Komaru nearly crosses the DespairEventHorizon in the climax and is only saved by Toko's intervention. As much as Komaru loves her brother, she also knows that she can't be like him, and doesn't want to.

!!''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''

* ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'': It's made clear from the beginning that Kagome Higurashi is the {{Reincarnation}} of Kikyo, Inuyasha's former lover who died protecting the Shikon Jewel, so you would think that this pretty much makes them the same person. In reality, the only things they share are their hair colour, their powers and their love for the same man, which becomes especially apparent when Kikyo gets resurrected for comparison. Kagome [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this, noting that even if she is her reincarnation, the two of them are ultimately completely different people, and she especially can't stand being seen as a mere imitation of Kikyo rather than her own person. This is even a plot point; a small but important part of Inuyasha's CharacterDevelopment is becoming able to look Kagome in the eye, which he initially has trouble doing due to her resemblance to Kikyo.