History Main / EvilCounterpartRace

[[caption-width-right:293:Pictured: The general drow (dark elf) greeting reserved for [[FantasticSlurs darthiir]] (surface elves).]]

While ElvesVsDwarves is about HarmonyVersusDiscipline, this is about good and evil, at least from the elves' point of view. Often subverted by a DefectorFromDecadence or deconstructed when it's discovered that the 'good' race is not so harmless, or the evil one has a case of MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch (or is [[DarkIsNotEvil merely dark and not evil]]).

* The violent and warrior-like Fmeks, the Evil Counterpart of the peaceful Arquilians in ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack''; both races of {{Lilliputian|s}} size that use [[MobileSuitHuman giant (for them) suits to pass as humans]].

* In the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumSeries'', the alien Scrin are revealed to be a dark mirror of the Brotherhood of Nod. More specifically, they're the logical endpoint of what obsession with Tiberium and the Technology of Peace will do to a species in the long run, becoming [[BlessedWithSuck so addicted to the substance]] that they literally ''die'' without it.

*** The Gryphons of the Wildhammer dwarves and Dragonss rival eachother being giant flying [[BeastOfBattle Beasts Of Battle]] used by the Alliance and Horde respectively. Downplayed in ''Tides of Darkness'', as the Dragons there are actually neutral creatures that the orcs enslaved, but played straight in the expansion, ''Beyond the Dark Portal'', where the Dragons are willing allies to the Horde.

** Gnomes vs. goblins, and humans vs. orcs. The gnomes vs. goblins is more of a rivalry than outright hostility, though.
** Zigzagged with the Elves. Only specific factions of Blood Elves (those who followed Kael'Thas) and Night Elves (Highborne) have any claim to being evil. [[GreyAndGrayMorality It's all a matter of perspective, otherwise.]] Night Elves are, at the very least, the most aggressive of the three races, while Blood Elves are High Elf survivors who resorted to demonic magics in order to survive.
** There are also specific subraces like the Dark Iron dwarves (generally same look but black skin) or the several kinds of trolls opposing the Darkspear tribe that belongs to the Horde. And in Northrend there are several races heavily implied or outright stated to be the original of the player races, which developed on their own over time.
** Way back in ''Warcraft II'' trolls served as the Evil Counterpart Race for the elves (before the high elf/blood elf split and before we knew of the night elves), both races providing the main ranged unit and light naval craft for their respective factions. The series' lore has them as ancient rivals as well. There are even pretty clear hints, though modern Elves would be loathe to admit it, that the Elven race may actually be descended from ancient Trolls who were exposed to (and/or experimented with) powerful arcane energies over a prolonged period.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has the Kokiri and the Deku Scrubs. Both are forest-based races with connections to the [[WiseTree Great Deku Tree]], but while the former are more human-like children who generally get along well with the few non-Kokiri with whom they interact, the latter are more plant-like monsters who spit seeds at anyone who approaches them.

* The Orcs in ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' are corrupted Elves, mostly from Beleriand, who got enslaved by Morgoth. In present, they are Morlocks-like creatures who cannot live under the sun. In contrast to the Elves who lived once in Valinor and still long for the light of the Two Trees, the Orcs has to terraform the Southlands into a place where the sun never gets in for them to thrive, Mordor.

[[folder:Religion]]

** Anti-fairies, as their names imply, are the blue-skinned polar opposites of fairies in terms of both morality and their respective fairy counterpart's personality, the most notable being the KnowNothingKnowItAll Anti-Cosmo to the [[TheDitz ditzy]] Cosmo, the hillbilly Anti-Wanda to the intelligent Wanda, and the charismatic Foop to Poof. Like fairies, they can have godchildren and grant wishes, but they're only assigned to mean people and they only grant wishes with sinister results, and they have a love of spreading bad luck amongst humans, so their favorite holiday is Friday the 13th.

* Subverted in the ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' series. The humanoid-squid Inklings and humanoid-octopus Octarians ''are'' counterparts, with the former being more self-indulgent and fun-loving and the latter being more hard-working and serious. But the latter's antagonist role in the main campaigns of the first two games is the result of desperation rather than evil; the Octarians lost a territory war with the Inklings a century prior, forcing them to live underground where they're now struggling through an energy crisis and all their infrastructure ''might'' be starting to collapse on top of them. When talking about [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 the second game]]'s "Octo Expansion" {{DLC}}, which features an Octoling protagonist and made them playable in multiplayer (representing the in-universe mass migration of Octolings to Inkling territory), the series' producer made a point to note that the Inklings aren't "defenders of justice" or "good guys" whatsoever. By the time of ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', both Inklings and Octolings are now peacefully living together on the surface again.

** In the later series, the Cardassians to Humans. Cardassian history matches Earth's pretty well -- they were both poverty-stricken and war torn but dragged themselves up into an ordered and unified society at the center of a galactic superpower. The parallels are even closer when you consider that TheFederation and especially Earth have a clear democratic socialist philosophy, and the Cardassians are a totalitarian fascist state. The Cerrito's security chief Shax does referred to the Cardassians as "fascist" in at least one episode of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks''.

* Daxamites are descended from [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kryptonian]] colonists, and gain the same powers at the same levels when exposed to the light of a yellow sun (though they're vulnerable to lead instead of [[KryptoniteFactor kryptonite]]). Unlike Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl and other Kryptonian heroes, though, Daxamites are rabidly xenophobic, to the point of murdering an alien who accidentally crashed on their planet. When a Korugarian Green Lantern helped liberate them from an alien conqueror, they merely demanded she leave the planet rather than killing her, as a show of gratitude (while making it clear that they'd rescind this gratitude and murder her if she didn't get lost). While there have been individual Daxamites who bucked this trend ([[ComicBook/{{Valor}} Lar-Gand]], [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 "Julia"]] & [[Franchise/GreenLantern Sodam Yat]]) they end up disowned for it. This really bit them in their collective asses when the Sinestro Corps invaded.

* The ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"]] is an extreme case where Bele acts as if Lokai is a member of an AlwaysChaoticEvil race, despite it clearly being a case of GreyAndGrayMorality from the crew's point of view.
** Also in ''Franchise/StarTrek'', the Romulans to the Vulcans.
** In the Original Series, the Klingons to Humans.
** In the later series, the Cardassians to Humans. Cardassian history matches Earth's pretty well- they were both poverty stricken and war torn but dragged themselves up into an ordered and unified society at the center of a galactic superpower. The parallels are even closer when you consider that TheFederation and especially Earth have a clear democratic socialist philosophy, and the Cardassians are a totalitarian fascist state. The Cerrito's security chief Shax does referred to the Cardassians as "fascist" in at least one episode of WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks.
** The Pah-Wraiths themselves are the same race as the Prophets (the Federation refers to them as "wormhole aliens"). They were expelled from the wormhole and imprisoned in the Fire Caves on Bajor for committing "evil acts". Exactly what they did, and exactly how they were expelled and imprisoned is unknown. The Prophets exist outside of linear time (and in fact don't even understand the concept until Sisko explains it to them, and even then it's implied that they still don't quite understand).

*** The Changelings to The Prophets
*** The Vorta to Bajorans

*** The Dominion arc also introduced two profit driven races, the Dosi, evil counterparts to the Ferengi, and the Karemma, who are good counterparts!
*** Back when the Ferengi were bad guys they were often seen as the Tellarites evil counterpart as the Tellarites were also highly competitive and profit-driven traders but more honorable.

** Similarly, the Revival initially upgraded the Daleks into this for the Time Lords, their equals in power and enemies during the Time War, but [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] demonstrated that the Time Lords had gladly [[EvilVersusEvil sunk to their level]].

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet "The Tenth Planet"]], Mondas is the evil counterpart of Earth. Mondas looks exactly like Earth but flipped upside down, and the Mondasians are humans but forced to [[{{Cyborg}} replace their bodies with spare parts]], becoming the Cybermen, in order to survive as their planet drifted to the edge of the universe. They are now abominations with no emotions and the inability to comprehend human feelings, [[RomanticismVersusEnlightenment and get to win their ethical arguments anyway]]. However, the Cybermen lost this characterisation later to allow them to fill the Dalek-shaped hole left after the Daleks got ExiledFromContinuity in the Troughton era, becoming generic nasty robotic aliens\a Dalek SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute race from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen "The Tomb of the Cybermen"]] onwards.

*** Orcs can also work as counterparts of Hobbits. In the case of the Hobbits both Orcs and Hobbits are smaller in size than Men and live in isolated areas, but while Hobbits enjoy a simple life in rural areas Orcs tend to destroy everything turning it into industrial monstrosities. Also Hobbits might have internal fights and gossip but generally like each other and are otherwise peaceful folks while Orcs hate each other and are violent to everyone including among themselves.

** In the later series, the Cardassians to Humans. Cardassian history matches Earth's pretty well- they were both poverty stricken and war torn but dragged themselves up into an ordered and unified society at the center of a galactic superpower. The parallels are even closer when you consider that TheFederation and especially Earth have a clear democratic socialist philosophy, and the Cardassians are a totalitarian communist state.
*** Although the Cerrito's security chief Shax does referred to the Cardassians as "fascist" in at least one episode of WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks.

''Series/StargateSG1'':
** The [[{{Precursors}} Ancients]] were discovered to have been holding another group of [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended beings]] called the Ori at bay for tens of thousands of years. The Ori have all the {{reality warp|er}}ing powers of the Ancients and none of their ([[NeglectfulPrecursors questionable]]) ethics, having discovered a way to harness lowers' worship to increase their own powers.
** The Asgard are the good counterpart of the Goa'uld, SufficientlyAdvancedAliens seen as gods by the humans of the worlds they lead, but the Asgard protect their charges instead of enslaving them.
** The Goa'uld had a couple of other Good Counterparts of a similar nature, such as the Salish (who posed as Native American spirits) and the Oannes (Mesopotamian deities). However, none of them have the power of the Asgard.
** Finally, the Tok'ra are also Good Counterparts to the Goa'uld, although they don't pose as gods. Both groups come from the same species: however, while the Goa'uld take human hosts by force and essentially "wear" their bodies like clothes until they wear out, the Tok'ra only take willing hosts with whom they have a symbiotic relationship.
**

* {{Subverted}} in UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}. The Devil (called 'Iblis') and humankind are fated to be enemies, but the descendants of the Devil --the Djinns-- have free will just like humans, they can choose to be good or to be evil, thus they aren't human's Evil Counterpart Race. Of note is that they aren't counterpart to angels either, because Iblis was never an angel to begin with.

* The Orcs in ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' are corrupted Elves, mostly from Beleriand, who got enslaved by Morgoth. In present, they are Morlocks-like creatures who cannot live under the sun. In contrast to Elves who lives once in Valinor and still long for the light of the Two Trees, the Orcs has to terraform the Southlands into a place for them to thrive, where the sun never gets in, Mordor.

* In the animated series the Wartmongers seem to be an evil counterpart of ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs''.

* Subverted in the ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' series. The humanoid-squid Inklings and humanoid-octopus Octarians ''are'' counterparts, with the former being more self-indulgent and fun-loving and the latter being more hard-working and serious. But the latter's antagonist role in the main campaigns of the first two games is the result of desperation rather than evil; the Octarians lost a territory war with the Inklings a century prior, forcing them to live underground where they're now struggling through an energy crisis and all their infrastructure ''might'' be starting to collapse on top of them. When talking about [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 the second game]]'s "Octo Expansion" {{DLC}}, which features an Octoling protagonist and made them playable in multiplayer, the series' producer made a point to note that the Inklings aren't "defenders of justice" or "good guys" whatsoever.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Warlords}}'' games, as well as having High Elves and Dark Elves, has Dwarves and Dark Dwarves, the former being the typical ale-swilling axe-bearers, the latter being industrial {{Mad Scientist}}s.

** Orcs are generally seen as evil counterparts of Elves as they're both loyal to the Valar and later the Maiar (in the Orcs cases only to one Vala, Morgoth, and later to one Maia, Sauron, the Elves to a whole pantheon of them) and practically act in reverse to each other (Orcs despise sunlight while Elves like it, Orcs destroy the forest that many Elves guard, etc.). The exact origin of Orcs is still debated but a popular theory that went into the film adaptations is that Orcs are tortured and imprisoned Elves that were corrupted by Mordor, however other interpretations (of Orcs being made from Men, animals, etc) also exist.