History Main / ShadowArchetype

* ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'' has Chick Hicks, who is this to Lightning [=McQueen=], representing what [=McQueen=] could've been if he didn't stop by Radiator Springs and went down the path of arrogance. While [=McQueen=] also starts out as a selfish and arrogant racecar, he eventually moves out of this thanks to CharacterDevelopment. Chick doesn't, as he wins the Piston Cup [[spoiler:only because Lightning forfeited his own chance, stopping just short of the finish line to go back and help another racecar after Chick rammed him off the track out of spite. This, combined with his unsportsmanlike gloating, results in him being heckled at during the cup presentation, [[MeaninglessVillainVictory rendering his victory meaningless]]]].

** Prince Hans's older brothers are darker versions of Elsa, as like her, they shut out their siblings due to their father's influence, but while Elsa's father [[ParentsAsPeople was genuinely well-intentioned but allowed his fear for his daughters' safety to guide him]], Hans's father is a cruel man who manipulates his sons to become his sycophantic enforcers, deliberately picks favorites among them, but doesn't let them reconcile with each other. Because of this, the 13 brothers represent how the relationship between Anna and Elsa could've become had Elsa truly stopped caring about Anna in her drive to not let her emotions affect her or had Anna let her insecurities make her TheUnfettered like Hans, as he reflects her [[SpareToTheThrone darker feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'', BigBad Yokai [[spoiler:aka Prof. Callahagn]] and Hiro are both [[GadgeteerGenius Gadgateer Geniuses]] who suffered the loss of a loved one, and end up using their technicological knowledge to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge enact their revenge against those they hold responsible]]. However, Hiro's friends are able to pull him out of the darkness, whilst Yokai stubbornly pushes onward.

*** He represents what Po could have been with a bad teacher. Notice one of his first lines (see LargeHam) is similar, if less funny, to Po's first line. Also, both of them are incurable show-offs, even when the situation calls for dead seriousness. When Tai Lung appeared before Shifu out of nowhere before their confrontation, he was hiding at a distance for some time and waiting for Shifu to blink, so that his entrance could be appropriately dramatic (as explained in DVD commentary).

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', when Ellen first appeared -- inadvertently [[OppositeSexClone conjured into existence]] when Elliot used the Dewitchery Diamond to cure himself of a {{Magitek}} GenderBender -- she came down with a bad case of CloningBlues and decided that she was going to be Elliot's EvilTwin. Even after she realized she was [[PokeThePoodle completely unsuited to be a villain]] and pulled a HeelFaceTurn, she deliberately rejected many facets of Elliot's personality, such as his shyness around strangers and his self-conscious attitude about sex. This puts her in a unique position to become a particularly effective AnnoyingYoungerSibling when she feels like it, dealing out [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2005-11-09 good-natured teasing]] with pinpoint accuracy.

** The first is the BigBad himself, Agrona. Both [[spoiler:discovered that Kezess, the ruler of the Asuras, committed genocide upon the ancient Djinn and seek to make him answer for his crimes by any means necessary. In his desire to exact revenge on Kezess, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Agrona has become no better]] [[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks than his nemesis]] in that he launches an invasion of Dicathen as a stepping stone in his war against the rest of the Asuras and views everything at his disposal as expendable. However, in doing so he brings himself into opposition with Arthur as not only is Dicathen Arthur's homeland but it reminds Arthur of how in his past life he declared war on another nation for killing his ParentalSubstitute, an action that he not only regrets in his new life but especially since now he is on the receiving end of such a war. Making matters worse is that not only is Agrona responsible for his reincarnation, but that he had also reincarnated his childhood friends Nico and Cecelia and brainwashed them into serving him, in the process bringing the worst of Arthur's past life back to haunt him in his new life. Agrona is basically a reflection of Arthur's past life as a vengeful conqueror, and in his new life Arthur is careful not to follow in his path, which is easier said than done given all Arthur has lost due to the senseless DivineConflict]].
** Speaking of which, [[spoiler:Nico is the other shadow. Both him and Arthur were reincarnated by Agrona to serve as anchor points for [[PersonOfMassDestruction the Legacy]], who as it turns out is their shared ChildhoodFriendLoveInterest Cecilia. However, while both Nico and Cecilia were brainwashed by Agrona to serve him, Arthur was spared their fate as his temporally-displaced bond Sylvie managed to wrest his soul away from Agrona before he could be reincarnated into Agrona's vessel of choice. When Arthur learns of Nico and Cecilia's reincarnations, he realizes that Agrona has twisted their memories by emphasizing the wrongs he had done to them in their past lives. While Nico is a slave to his past life (until he gets inadvertently freed from Agrona's brainwashing), Arthur seeks to move on from his past life and treats his new one as a second chance while trying to prevent what happened to his loved ones from happening again. In a sense, Nico is Arthur if he had remained chained by his past life and refused to move on from it, the manipulations of an evil deity notwithstanding]].

** The first is the BigBad himself, Agrona. Both [[spoiler:discovered that Kezess, the ruler of the Asuras, committed genocide upon the ancient Djinn and seek to make him answer for his crimes by any means necessary. In his desire to exact revenge on Kezess, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Agrona has become no better]] [[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks than his nemesis]] in that he launches an invasion of Dicathen as a stepping stone in his war against the rest of the Asuras and views everything at his disposal as expendable. However, in doing so he brings himself into opposition with Arthur as not only is Dicathen Arthur's homeland but it reminds Arthur of how in his past life he declared war on another nation for killing his ParentalSubstitute, an action that he not only regrets in his new life but especially since now he is on the receiving end of such a war. Making matters worse is that not only is Agrona responsible for his reincarnation, but that he had also reincarnated his childhood friends Nico and Cecelia and brainwashed them into serving him]].
** Speaking of which, [[spoiler:Nico is the other shadow. Like Arthur, both were reincarnated by Agrona to serve as anchor points for [[PersonOfMassDestruction the Legacy]], who as it turns out is be their shared ChildhoodFriendLoveInterest Cecilia]]. However, while both Nico and Cecilia were brainwashed by Agrona to serve him, Arthur was spared their fate as his temporally-displaced bond Sylvie managed to wrest his soul away from Agrona before he could be reincarnated into Agrona's vessel of choice. When Arthur learns of Nico and Cecilia's reincarnations, he realizes that Agrona has twisted their memories by emphasizing the wrongs he had done to them in their past lives. While Nico is a slave to his past life (until he gets inadvertently freed from Agrona's brainwashing), Arthur seeks to move on from his past life and treats his new one as a second chance while trying to prevent what happened to his loved ones from happening again]].

** Unlike the goofy Mr. Prenderghast, the witch serves as the EvilCounterpart as well as the BigBad. She's what Norman would be if he embraced his desire to be [[HeWhoFightsMonsters mean back to the people who treat him badly]]. Norman, however, seeks to save the townspeople and learns to value the people who care about him, while Agatha only sought to make them suffer and completely forgot about the people who loved her in the process.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Syndrome/Buddy Pine is one to Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr. At the start of the movie, they both desire the glory of being a superhero, but while Bob's motivation was due of his sense of justice and desire to save people, Syndrome wants the praise and recognition. When the Super Relocation Act is passed, Bob continues to pursue the glory by illegally listening to the police scanner and helping out when he can. Syndrome, however, kills Supers to develop his Omnidroid which will be part of an elaborate EngineeredHeroics scam that will bask in the glory without regards for those who may be hurt or killed as a result. In the end, Bob realizes his desire for the glory days has caused him to miss out on his family and apologizes, but Syndrome has no such realization. Basically, Syndrome is what Bob could have become if he never let go of his excessive obsessions with glorifying the golden age of superheroes and seeking public recognition, and also if his ego got worse.

--->"If I were as rich as you, I could afford some manners!"
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', [[spoiler:Hans]] is this to Anna and Elsa.

** Tai Lung serves as one to both Po and Tigress in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'':
*** He represents what Po could have been with a bad teacher. Notice one of his first lines (see LargeHam) is similar, if less funny, to Po's first line. Also both of them are incurable show-offs, even when the situation calls for dead seriousness. When Tai Lung appeared before Shifu out of nowhere before their confrontation, he was hiding at a distance for some time and waiting for Shifu to blink, so that his entrance could be appropriately dramatic (as explained in DVD commentary).
*** He is also one to Tigress, due to their similar InferioritySuperiorityComplex and TheResenter role for not being chosen as the Dragon Warrior. However while Tigress' honour code and loyalty to Shifu still offset that slight, Tai Lung's sense of entitlement made him betray his masters.

* ''TabletopGame/ChuubosMarvelousWishGrantingEngine'': Chuubo/the Wishing Boy and Leonardo/Nightmare's Angel. Both have constructed magical engines, but Chuubo wants to be normal apart from that and Leonardo has grabbed at specialness with both hands, even when it wasn't a good idea. Chuubo staves off loneliness by making friends (literally, in the case of Seizhi/the Best Friend), while Leonardo has abandoned friendship in order to better defend Town. Chuubo's memory is a bit cracked through mysterious past experiences; Leonardo may have deliberately erased his own. [[spoiler:Both are Imperators of a sort, but Chuubo is a healthy if amnesiac one while Leonardo has been corrupted into a Mimic.]] They're even depicted in artwork with similar hairstyles, although Chuubo's is wavy, unkempt and stops above the eyes while Leonardo's is straighter and has PeekABangs. There's a lesser shadow-archetype pairing in Billy Sovereign and the Best Friend, who have very similar stats and Arcs, [[spoiler:and are both [[EldritchAbomination Actuals]], although Seizhi has a soul and Billy does not]], but given that Billy once impaled Leonardo on a railroad spike, that probably crosses over into full-on EvilCounterpart.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' has Chick Hicks, who is this to Lightning [=McQueen=], representing what [=McQueen=] could've been if he didn't stop by Radiator Springs and went down the path of arrogance. While [=McQueen=] also starts out as a selfish and arrogant racecar, he eventually moves out of this thanks to CharacterDevelopment. Chick doesn't, as he wins the Piston Cup [[spoiler:only because Lightning forfeited his own chance, stopping just short of the finish line to go back and help another racecar after Chick rammed him off the track out of spite. This, combined with his unsportsmanlike gloating, results in him being heckled at during the cup presentation, [[MeaninglessVillainVictory rendering his victory meaningless]]]].

* In Literature/TheBible, Bilaam to Moses. While Moses gave up life as an Egyptian prince to lead the Hebrews from slavery, Bilaam is a sort of prophet-for-profit who tries to curse the Hebrews for King Balak. Jewish tradition says that Bilaam was actually given abilities near Moses' level just so that the other nations couldn't claim that they would have been better if they had had a leader like Moses.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': Season 15 shows what the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits Red and Blues]] could have become if they lost someone dear to them in a meaningless way. [[spoiler:The Blues and Reds have an identical line-up to the Reds and Blues, but they [[StartOfDarkness lost the "orange one"]] due to a "training session" between two [[JerkAss Freelancer Agents]]. Their fates show that, just because they're labeled as [[CannonFodder "test dummies"]], it doesn't mean that they have to stay that way. As the season progresses, it shows just how "a bunch of idiots" can actually [[TheDogBitesBack get things done]] extremely well when the Blues and Reds almost succeed in destroying not just Earth, but the entire Milky Way.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' has Chick Hicks, who is this to Lightning [=McQueen=], representing what [=McQueen=] could've been if he didn't stop by Radiator Springs and went down the path of arrogance. While [=McQueen=] also starts out as a selfish and arrogant racecar, he eventually moves out of this thanks to CharacterDevelopment. Chick doesn't, as he wins the Piston Cup [[spoiler:only because Lightning forfeited his own chance, stopping just short of the finish line to go back and help another racecar after Chick rammed him off the track out of spite. [[PyrrhicVillainy This, combined with]] his unsportsmanlike gloating, results in him being heckled at during the cup presentation, [[MeaninglessVillainVictory rendering his victory meaningless]]]].