Do you like evil siblings as a story-telling element?

[Tzigone]

Evil siblings are a very old trope. Very old. But does anyone else find them overused in comics? Now, I admit, I absolutely hate evil siblings in fiction. It started from my hatred of evil twins (I am a twin, so maybe that influenced me) and has spread to hating evil siblings in general, and even evil cousins. Particularly hate where the "good one" is "special" and the "evil one" is not, and is driven by jealousy. So, anyway, while I admit, I wouldn't like any of them, I think it's there are too many.

Oddly, I don't mind evil parent or situations where the entire family is evil except one person (entire family is good except one person, I really hate).

I have to really like a character/title to put up with an evil sibling. Sometimes even then, I skip all the issues with the evil siblings (NTT, Starfire and Blackfire).

We have so many evil siblings
Blackfire
Orm (started on dad's side of family, but switched to mom's)
Hila
Ma'alefa'ak (particularly sad, because I seem to remember a nice little brother in the old days)
technically Owen Mercer (why was he ever related to Bart, anyway - I never read those so don't know plot purpose)

And then we get the formerly-good-relationship-but-now-difficult-but-not-evil-as-far-as-I-know Jack Jordan (I loved the silver-age sibling friendliness) and the brainwashed-into-evil-but-overcomes-it-but-maybe-only-temporarily-and-hopefully-won't-bounce-back-and-forth-forever Elizabeth Kane. Okay, that was probably too long a description.

And more. Anyway, it's a trope I'm over and I hope to see no new evil/obstacle siblings introduced ever again. Not gonna happen, especially the latter, but I still hppe.

[j9ac9k]

If there's genuine human conflict between the siblings, rather than just "one's good, one's bad" then I'd still be up for it. It's like anything else, it's all in the execution for me.

[Güicho]

It started from my hatred of evil twins (I am a twin, so maybe that influenced me)

So are you the evil one!?
Do you have a goatee, part your hair opposite, or wear a reverse color pallet?

LOL kidding

It's a fun ok trope, but yes it can (and has been) overdone.

[caj]

My very least favorite thing about the Starman series (and I loved most of it), was Barry O'Dare being a criminal. There was very little explanation (if any) as to why he would betray his siblings - who were mostly all cops. He was just a bad seed. It's been awhile, but didn't he shoot his brother Mason (and Zatara saved him for Charity)?

I hated that whole storyline. At least show something from his past that explains why he took such a bad turn and rebelled against his family.

[Güicho]

TV land was full of this overdone trope, often to hysterical effect played by the same actor.


LOL Of course Adam's family flipped it, the "evil" one was the one you liked, and the good one was the annoying one. LOL!






Super Friends had a whole episode for it - https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post3984024

Many more...

[Tzigone]

TV land was full of this overdone trope, often to hysterical effect played by the same actor.

True. I recognize most of these. But Spock was an alternate self, not a sibling. And Serena (from Bewitched) was just a garden-variety identical cousin (except the hair) and not evil.

[caj]

True. I recognize most of these. But Spock was an alternate self, not a sibling. And Serena (from Bewitched) was just a garden-variety identical cousin (except the hair) and not evil.

Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie definitely had an evil sister.

[cranger]

I like it, and it is not like every other villain trope is not done to death either.

Now, with TV, it has an extra layer of having an actor play both parts on the screen, so there is some fun to be had there although probably not as much of an impressive stunt these days.

[Güicho]

not evil.

Yeah obviously in these sitcoms the one coded for "evil" just meant mischief makers.
Didn't think that needed explaining. LOL.

And yes some are more evil doppelganger than actual twin.

The trouble is how can you tell which? LOL!

[Tzigone]

Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie definitely had an evil sister.

Yep. Just the mention she was in town and Tony knew who caused the problems.

Yeah clearly in these sitcoms the "evil" one just meant mischief makers.

I don't recall Serena intentionally making mischief, though it's been years, and I don't know that even ever saw all her episodes. Just her presence caused comedy because of people thinking she was Samantha. Like she flirted with a guy at a party. He turned out to be a business associate of Darrin's and came over to house and though Sam was the same woman he'd flirted with. Or in her first appearance I think Darrin though she was a grown up baby Tabitha or something. I mean, I don't recall her intentionally causing trouble. But, like I said, it's been years.

I like it, and it is not like every other villain trope is not done to death either.

True, many villain tropes are widely used. Just this one is one that wore out its welcome awhile ago for me.

[Güicho]

I like it, and it is not like every other villain trope is not done to death either.

Now, with TV, it has an extra layer of having an actor play both parts on the screen, so there is some fun to be had there although probably not as much of an impressive stunt these days.

One of my favorites is Judge Dredd - Judge Rico
(played to hysterics over-the-top in the Stallone Dredd and Armand Assante as Rico film)

https://youtu.be/1T28kWBfvEA?t=75

Filmation Zorro also had the evil reverse "twin" of sorts, (although revealed to be a ploy)
Also I like that it's somewhat subverted as the evil one is the one in white...



Revisited again in WB Zorro animated series, with a supernatural twist -



I guess I wouldn't mind if they did something similar with Batman for an arc, (It'd be really contrived but in a fun silverage way), where Bruce Wayne thinks he has a long lost twin (who grew up with a happy family) , who even fights crime dressed in white armor, etc, maybe with a savior angel motif. To contrast Batman's grim Dark knight.
Super cliche, but it would be fun for an arc, of course at the end they would have to reveal it was an elaborate ruse.

[scribbleMind]

Anything can be good, but the problem here is often the word evil. Evil just takes the interest and complexity out of such a relationship for me, and often it very much is an evil sibling, or at least a sibling who's reason for being bad is absolutely absurd. I'm looking for more of a Cyclops/Wolverine kind of thing. They disagree all the time, physically fight all the time, have tried to kill one another, but at the end of the day the love and respect IS there. That's really what the evil sibling cliche is missing, especially because the evil sibling usually comes outta nowhere, so they don't grow with the opportunity to earn the love and respect required for the relationship to be genuinely dramatic and interesting, and they don't try. They're not even curious about establishing any kind of relationship with their long lost brother/sibling. Nope, it's usually just straight evil, masked as jealousy, "You had the good parent, everyone loved you, dad never hit you" etc etc etc. It's too one sided. They do it to milk the drama from the protagonists end, without really delving into any conflicting emotions from the end of the "evil sibling." And honestly, it just makes the whole thing pointless to me, this person you claim is related to the protagonist really might as well just be any other villain. It's so artificial feeling sometimes.

[Lee Stone]

Yep. Just the mention she was in town and Tony knew who caused the problems.

I don't recall Serena intentionally making mischief, though it's been years, and I don't know that even ever saw all her episodes. Just her presence caused comedy because of people thinking she was Samantha. Like she flirted with a guy at a party. He turned out to be a business associate of Darrin's and came over to house and though Sam was the same woman he'd flirted with. Or in her first appearance I think Darrin though she was a grown up baby Tabitha or something. I mean, I don't recall her intentionally causing trouble. But, like I said, it's been years.

True, many villain tropes are widely used. Just this one is one that wore out its welcome awhile ago for me.

Serena just had no qualms about stirring up trouble.
Her presence would cause problems, but instead of trying to fix it she would bask in the hilarity of it all or just go into hide mode (or both).
I think she was more like a passive aggressive trickster.

[leo619]

Definitely despise it. It's one of the tropes I hate the most, to the point to where I will stop playing a game or reading a product if it has the overused evil sibling storyline, though it more reflects a western overused story element over anything else. Western storytelling has constantly used the direct family nexus as either plot points to be killed, or to be turned evil. Instead, the primary focus and advancement is placed on romantic relationships.

A perfect example of this is the remake of Clash of the Titans. Main Character's parents and siblings are of course killed off. He finds a romantic partner. The romantic partner dies. He saves the day. Zeus comes in asking the main character for wishes. He wishes for his newfound girlfriend to be brought to life but leaves his family to rot in the middle of the ocean. That pretty much sums up the problems with family displays within the media, especially American media. American media, perhaps most out of all, focuses on independence and the "solo" hero, and for many writers, family gets in the way of that.

Now you do, once in a blue moon, get an awesome gem that shows what can be done right. A new video game came out called a plague tale innocence that EASILY has the best sibling relationship I have ever seen in a video game. Of course, the game studio is French as there's almost no way an American writer can write such an awesome display. The one I can think of before that is 28 weeks later, which is british and probably has the best sibling portrayal in a movie for a long time. But if you want to get good quality product regarding families, you'll have to look more towards eastern products (manga, manhwa, etc), where the countries themselves have MUCH stronger family units on average and thus it's reflected in their story content.

[Zero Hunter]

Whenever I think of the evil twin troupe I always think of this loser. Malcom Thawne then evil twin brother of Barry Allen. I usually give an evil sibling a little more slack, but the evil twin is just about always a sign the writers are just out of ideas.