History Main / ShadowArchetype

*** Though ''do'' note that L is not at all opposed to little things like illegal detainment, mock executions, and torture. And they're certainly both liars. The primary difference between L and Light - two childish geniuses who hide behind their claims of justice and have no idea how to be wrong - is that L accepts his flaws, a concept that Light will never even grasp.
-->'''Ryuk''': But if you kill them all, you'll be the only bastard left.
-->'''Light''': I have no idea what you're talking about...

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' the [[BigBad villain]] outright says this to the TheHero.
-->"Farewell, my shadow, you who stand at the end of the path I chose not to follow."

** Within the main cast are Rock and Benny. Both are among the nicer members of the Lagoon Company and aren't much for physical confrontations. But while Rock still (mostly) has a sense of morals and wants to save others, Benny has become complete desensitized to the violence that his fellow Lagoon members commit.

** L and Light have a whole reciprocal shadow ''thing'' going. Light is the social one, who not only understands but really '''cares''' about proper socialization and not being indecorous, but as Kira he's also the one who's the most prolific serial killer in history. L is antisocial and willfully unsocialized, and he doesn't really care about a little thing like legality, let alone propriety, but he's the one trying to enforce the social stricture ''you don't go around killing people,'' and he means it. Enough to be unwilling to test the Note. Shadow stack.

** Ra's Al Ghul, in his aim to make the world a "better" place.

** Metallo, another "man of steel" armed with Superman's weakness.

** General Zodd is Superman with a sense of personal entitlement instead of charity.

** Doomsday is all the power harnessed for destruction instead of protection
** {{Brainiac}}, being the malevolent planet destroying alien to Superman's benevolent alien

** The Riddler, in leaving clues instead of finding them, with a need to prove that brain beats brawn.

** Braniac, being the malevolent planet destroying alien to Superman's benevolent alien

** Darkseid is what Superman would be if he decided to use his powers to be a God ruling over everyone.

Those tropes have examples listed of characters playing those more-precise Shadow roles.

* {{Wreck It Ralph}} has [[spoiler:Turbo, a character from another game who, like Ralph, felt unappreciated about his status in the arcade.]] However, Ralph's adventure outside of Fix It Felix Jr.'s is motivated by an innocent need for approval. [[spoiler:Turbo is driven by his obsession for recognition. Ralph doesn't intend to harm anyone and sneaks into a neighboring videogame simply to win a medal, whereas Turbo is responsible for the destruction of his home world, another nearby video game, and the reprogramming and enslavement of the Candy Rush world. Turbo's pursuit of respect and acknowledgement mirrors Ralph's, but he is shown as willing to destroy anything that opposes him to get it.]]

* {{Wreck It Ralph}} has [[spoiler:Turbo, a character from another game who, like Ralph, also felt unappreciated about his status in the arcade. However, while Ralph's adventure outside of Fix It Felix Jr.'s is motivated by an innocent need for approval, Turbo is driven by his obsession for recognition. Ralph doesn't intend to harm anyone and sneaks into a neighboring videogame simply to win a medal, whereas Turbo is responsible for the destruction of his home world, a nearby game, and the reprogramming and enslavement of the Candy Rush world.]]

* Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}} has several. The Scorpion was the first, being a crazed villain with arachnid-based powers and costume. [[NormanOsborn The Green Goblin]] has similar strength and agility, and is the dark side of Peter's sense of humor and love of adventure. ComicBook/{{Venom}} has many of Peter's powers, and represents what he would have become if he hadn't had the will to resist the symbiote. Kaine is Peter's defective clone. During [[{{JMSSpider-Man}} JMS's run on Spider-Man,]] we met Ezekial, who had all of Spider-Man's powers but no sense of responsibility to others. Then there is [[DoctorOctopus Doc Ock]], ''the'' Spider-man evil counterpart who is what he could have easily became if he let his powers go to his head.

[[Series/TheWildWildWest]]: Why an DiabolicalMastermind like DepravedDwarf Miguelito Quixote Loveless is so obsessed with a lowly paid Secret Service Agent like Jim West, to the point of purposely adding him to all his world conquest schemes (and ensuring FailureIsTheOnlyOption)? They are NotSoDifferent: Both of them are intelligent (but Loveless is a genius), both of them are handsome, and both of them have a lot of success with the GirlOfTheWeek. When you realize that West is almost always ''the shortest guy'' in the tv show (not counting Loveless) and yet ''he is perfectly happy and wants to help others''. Loveless will never accept that TakeOverTheWorld would result for him in AndThenWhat situation… he still be the same bitter man. Trying to destroy West, the man who reminds Loveless that being shorter than anyone else is not obstacle to happiness, is his true dream.

* [[spoiler: Morgana]] is this to {{Series/Merlin}} post-FaceHeelTurn. She's done a lot of the immoral things he's done (killing innocents, betraying friends, choosing loyalties) but while he avoids them until he has no choice, she does them with an almost sadistic relish. Her FreudianExcuse is also one of the key parts of his ConflictingLoyalty (They are magical in a kingdom that fears magic).

** Two-Face, in his origin and obsession with double identities.

* ''Anime/ValvraveTheLiberator'': [[TheHero Haruto]] and [[AntiHero L-Elf.]] Haruto winds up as the titular mecha's pilot for brash, emotionally driven, but overall selfless reasons. L-Elf does everything he does for a cold, carefully calculated purpose, and that included attempting to steal the Valvrave--which he would have succeeded at if not for being unaware of the changes it puts its pilot through. Haruto is rather emotional and kind, thinks with his heart, and generally only takes the short-term into account with his actions. L-Elf plans out his strategies literal ''years'' in advance and his only moral code can be summed up as ''successfully [[spoiler: bring revolution to my country]], nothing else matters.'' Whereas Haruto is an BadAssAbnormal due to his status as a Valvrave pilot, L-Elf is technically a normal human being, but is still widely known as the OneManArmy. Haruto attended a normal high school until the war between their countries, and L-Elf graduated from an elite military academy meant to train {{Child Soldier}}s. Yet, amidst all of this, L-Elf is completely hellbent on [[WeCanRuleTogether forcing Haruto to join him in his efforts]] as Haruto can potentially [[spoiler: help L-Elf achieve his revolution as much as ''five years'' earlier than he'd originally predicted.]]

* ''Anime/ValvraveTheLiberator'': [[TheHero Haruto]] and [[AntiHero L-Elf.]] Haruto winds up as the titular mecha's pilot for brash, emotionally driven, but overall selfless reasons. L-Elf does everything he does for a cold, carefully calculated purpose, and that included attempting to steal the Valvrave--which he would have succeeded at if not for being unaware of the changes it puts its pilot through. jHaruto is rather emotional and kind, thinks with his heart, and generally only takes the short-term into account with his actions. L-Elf plans out his strategies literal ''years'' in advance and his only moral code can be summed up as ''successfully [[spoiler: bring revolution to my country]], nothing else matters.'' Whereas Haruto is an BadAssAbnormal due to his status as a Valvrave pilot, L-Elf is technically a normal human being, but is still widely known as the OneManArmy. Haruto attended a normal high school until the war between their countries, and L-Elf graduated from an elite military academy meant to train {{Child Soldier}}s. Yet, amidst all of this, L-Elf is completely hellbent on [[WeCanRuleTogether forcing Haruto to join him in his efforts]] as Haruto can potentially [[spoiler: help L-Elf achieve his revolution as much as ''five years'' earlier than he'd originally predicted.]]

* ''Anime/ValvraveTheLiberator'': [[TheHero Haruto]] and [[AntiHero L-Elf.]] Haruto winds up as the titular mecha's pilot for brash, emotionally driven, but overall selfless reasons. L-Elf does everything he does for a cold, carefully calculated purpose, and that included attempting to steal the Valvrave--which he would have succeeded at if not for being unaware of the changes it puts its pilot through. jHaruto is rather emotional and kind, thinks with his heart, and generally only takes the short-term into account with his actions. L-Elf plans out his strategies literal ''years'' in advance and his only moral code can be summed up as ''successfully [[spoiler: bring revolution to my country]], nothing else matters.'' Whereas Haruto is an EmpoweredBadass due to his status as a Valvrave pilot, L-Elf is technically a normal human being, but is still widely known as the OneManArmy. Haruto attended a normal high school until the war between their countries, and L-Elf graduated from an elite military academy meant to train {{Child Soldier}}s. Yet, amidst all of this, L-Elf is completely hellbent on [[WeCanRuleTogether forcing Haruto to join him in his efforts]] as Haruto can potentially [[spoiler: help L-Elf achieve his revolution as much as ''five years'' earlier than he'd originally predicted.]]

* Anime/ValvraveTheLiberator: [[TheHero Haruto]] and [[AntiHero L-Elf.]] Haruto winds up as the titular mecha's pilot for brash, emotionally driven, but overall selfless reasons. L-Elf does everything he does for a cold, carefully calculated purpose, and that included attempting to steal the Valvrave--which he would have succeeded at if not for being unaware of the changes it puts its pilot through. jHaruto is rather emotional and kind, thinks with his heart, and generally only takes the short-term into account with his actions. L-Elf plans out his strategies literal ''years'' in advance and his only moral code can be summed up as ''successfully [[spoiler: bring revolution to my country]], nothing else matters.'' Whereas Haruto is an EmpoweredBadass due to his status as a Valvrave pilot, L-Elf is technically a normal human being, but is still widely known as the OneManArmy. Haruto attended a normal high school until the war between their countries, and L-Elf graduated from an elite military academy meant to train {{Child Soldier}}s. Yet, amidst all of this, L-Elf is completely hellbent on [[WeCanRuleTogether forcing Haruto to join him in his efforts]] as Haruto can potentially [[spoiler: help L-Elf achieve his revolution as much as ''five years'' earlier than he'd originally predicted.]]

** You can also apply that with Starfire, to Superman. She's basically the flip side of Clark's coin, both being nearly all powerful aliens that are powered by the yellow sun. Both came from being traumatically removed from home into unfamiliar surroundings, with two every different upbrinings. Starfire's perceptions of humanity, along her tendency to attempt to kill whatever she doesn't like directly contrast Clark's. Star wishes to remain very private, only presenting herself willing to the public eye when it's unavoidable. She doesn't wish to come off as friendly or there for others' protection, she just wants to do what she wishes. if Clark and her were to ever meet it'd a lot of friction between the two. [[spoiler: In issue 14, they do meet... and it nearly breaks out into all out brawl involving the "team" and Sups, mostly due to her and Jason's character traits. It takes Jason's date, Isabel, from keeping things from getting out of hand while getting them all to sit down and talk.]]

* In the ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'', [[SixthRanger Fluttercruel]] manages to be ''her own'' shadow archetype. Specifically, the [[BadFuture Epilogue/Dark World timeline]] version of Fluttercruel shows how much of a CompleteMonster her main universe counterpart ''isn't'', even before her CharacterDevelopment and HeelFaceTurn. WordOfGod is that the defining difference is their upbringing -- Epilogue!Fluttercruel was raised by [[BigBad Discord]], whereas the main version of 'Cruel was raised by [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Fluttershy]].

** The entire Vorlon race and its shadow counterpart, the, er, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Shadows]]. The series starts off with the standard depiction of the Shadows as evil, but then shows that in a different way Vorlons [[EvilVersusEvil are evil too]]. To expand, [[spoiler:both the Vorlons and Shadows are ancient races who remained in this galaxy to guide and help younger races develop. The problem is the Vorlons believe development from strict order and control. The Shadows believe in development from the chaos found in survival of the fittest.]]
** Garibaldi [[spoiler:faces his own darker side, in a way, in season 4. He was captured by a telepath named Bester who wanted him to find an anti-telepath conspiracy. He didn't have Garibaldi's personality wiped, but enhanced Garibaldi's paranoia and dislike of authority to the point Garibaldi left his job, his friends, and even betrayed one all for the sake of this mission.]]

* The Ebon Dragon in ''{{Exalted}}'' ''is'' this trope. One of his titles is "the Shadow of All Things," and he exists to oppose heroism wherever it may exist and corrupt it into villainy.