Mirror Self

A narrative foil that is a duplicate of one's self: a clone, person from another universe, a digital copy, a robot, or any other concept. Usually starts identical, then diverges, in a contrast of nature vs. nurture, i.e. inherent character vs. choices and ideology.

Examples

• 1967 Mirror, Mirror (Star Trek)

  In a "mirror universe" everyone has a counterpart that is distinctively evil. The first officer of Enterprise, Mr. Spock, is cruel and has a goatee.

• 1988 Datalore (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

  Data, a logical and caring android, has his counterpart in his brother Lore, a sociopathic and emotional android.

• 2010 Tron: Legacy

  CLU is a copy of his programmer, Kevin Flynn, whose obsession with perfection causes CLU to become authoritarian. Meanwhile, Kevin himself learns to embrace chaos and beauty in emergent programs called "Isos".