Doubles and Doppelgangers in media

My favorite DC superhero has to be Batman. Unlike the other superheroes, I loved the dark theme Batman had, but also the villains that Batman faced. Each with unique qualities, one that stood out to me was Two-Face.

Two-Face is seen with one burnt side of his face and the other side of his face normal after an incident with acid. One side of his face is normal, also known as Harvey Dent. He fights crime in the justice system even being known as the “white knight” in contrast to the dark knight. Harvey Dent fought against corruption as one of the top leaders even at such a young age.

While being one of the best justice leaders, because of his other burnt side, caused a personality disorder. It is not difficult to notice that Harvey Dent’s behavior is often changed because of the injury. Dent takes on the persona of Two-Face who commits a crime rather than fixing it.

Two-Faces problem is described as bipolar. This was directly caused by child abuse. Two-Face’s father would regularly decide how or when to abuse him by flipping a coin. This strange behavior was recreated by Two-Face, in which most of his criminal behavior was decided on a coin.

While doppelgangers are typically about another self, Two-Faces other self is within his head and face. Looking completely different on the other side, this darker and acidic personality does the exact opposite of what Harvey Dent plans to do for Gotham, using another identity to carry out horrible actions.

An anime created in 1995, Neon Genesis Evangelion has remained one of the most popular and disturbing animes of all time. Its impact on religion and uncanniness is unmatched compared to many.

Taking place in 2015, (20 years in the future), Shinji, a high school boy is taken to his father’s lavatory to become an EVA pilot. An EVA pilot is a young child in a body suit controlling a large robot to fight the dangerous angels that terrorize the city.

Fighting monsters throughout the anime, it seems like your typical anime where everything is great until a monster shows up, and then the main character takes care of it. While that is how the anime is portrayed at first, it suddenly turns dark. He discovers the dark secrets of his father’s project. One of his close friends in the show turns out to be a copy of an original person.

Rei, another one of the EVA pilots is believed to be a real girl. But her emotions and actions are human. It is later discovered that she is just a clone of many that the father has made.

Evangelion is an eerie or even “uncanny” anime. The avatars of Rei are never exactly like the original. They may physically look the same, but lack many of the basic human emotions and actions. What makes her so uncanny is how unpredictable she is. She stands there emotionless, and you can’t exactly tell what is going on in her mind.

As we continue to quickly develop as humans, technology is one of the things that is improving more and more. Communication has become easier and forms of entertainment become more advanced.

Creating a new world and persona out there on the internet is slowly becoming scarier and scarier. Which version of ourselves are we supposed to be? The one on the screen or the one in real life? Which one do we like better? We’ve created an avatar/character of ourselves that we control freely with no limits at all.  

Aspects of our identity have been affected by this advance in technology. Having the ability to change how we look and pretend to be someone else has an effect on our identity. For example, professional gamers have completely become their in-game name which other gamers know them as. Another example could be how gender can easily be changed. Someone may feel like they identify as someone else, and that can easily be solved with the click of a button to comfortably be that true version of themselves, but also at a concerningly quick rate.

Technology has created video games for us, where gamers have the ability to be who they want physically, which changes their state mentally. Being sucked into the screen, you can change your name, the color of your hair, or even your gender. Your character has the ability to be something that you have always wanted.

In 2012, Sword Art Online became one of the top animes and has also continued to be a part of my top animes list. Taking place in the future, in Tokyo Japan, a high schooler Kazuto Kirigaya(seen above) purchases the newest VR set that has been talked about around his school. In this new game, an avatar of you is created with the typical MMORPG stats, however, the twist in this game is that you are not able to leave. Getting stuck in the game for years, Kirigaya and many other players try to reach the top of the game, fighting through traps and monsters.

Throughout the anime, groups of people work together to fight through these levels, however, Kirigaya decides to become a solo player, fighting through the bosses by himself. Eventually, he becomes one of the strongest players, creating a name for himself. In this world, his name changes to Kirito which is well-known outside and inside the game.

Kirito becomes an identity of him. Toward the end of the anime, he beats the game alone and everyone is able to leave, but once he leaves he is back at his high school and he realizes that his strengths are back to normal. He was faster and stronger in the game, which ties into the topic of doppelgangers. Owning to different names, he had almost become a different character within the virtual reality.

In 2018, one of the largest movies of the year, Crazy Rich Asians, directed by Jon M. Chu created a large movement in Asian media. The movie goes through the life of Asian American Rachel Chu who is also the mother in television show Fresh Off the Boat. She meets a man in New York who she ends up deciding to date and visit his family in Singapore.

After getting off the plane in Singapore, she slowly connects the pieces and realizes he is part of one of the richest families in Singapore. Throughout the trip, she is constantly excluded by his family members because she is “different”. Coming from a middle class family, a single mother, and being raised in America, Rachel definitely stands out compared to the other girls there who want her boyfriend (Nick Young).

Although for a majority of the show she is hated on for dating such an important man who is clearly “above” her in status, she never loses her self-identity and ends up convincing the family of her good qualities.

While most people saw this movie as another big Asian media hit and a big change for all these well deserving actors, there is actually a use of a double identity in many ways throughout the movie. Often times for Asian Americans, similar to my blog about Fresh Off the Boat, there are a lot of times when they are not sure whether they fit more into the American side or the Asian side of themselves. They don’t look like the white people in America, but also don’t share the language, accent, or habits of the people back in their home town. Similarly, Rachel felt the same after being raised in America, with an American accent.

There is also the difference in class. Because she was raised poor and being exposed to a rich environment, she felt out of place believing she didn’t belong. Class and income often becomes apart of our identity and our self-value.

Fashion/clothes has become a growing interest for me since the beginning of high school up until now and something that has become a big notice to me are the trends that remain constant in men’s fashion and streetwear. ‘

Why the trends come up so often and become so big nowadays is because of the large presence of social media. With apps like Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok many people have easy ways to see influencers who constantly wear the exact same thing. Pictured above is Youtuber and Instagram influencer, Daniel Simmons. Providing great advice for mens fashion, it seems like every guy into fashion has the iconic Tote Bag.

While this isn’t a bad thing, sometimes these followers make these styles lose their uniqueness and meaning when everyone is dressing like that. With everyone looking the exact same it is easy to relate them to doubles with the same visual identity. These trend followings can also be seen by the effect of the environment. When you friends wear something it is easy to follow and want to wear the same thing. While clothes aren’t an important thing to some people, clothing is an outward visual appearance that can be very noticeable to others.

Some of these examples come from even my instagram or pinterest. While I enjoy how these styles look, it often becomes something I don’t want to purchase because everyone looks like this. I don’t want to be special by any of means, but when everyone looks the same, these pieces start to lose their meaning. Everyone looks the same.

Written in 2003 by Takeshi Obata, Japanese manga Death Note soared in popularity. As it was later animated in 2006 by company Madhouse, the manga was turned into an anime that continues to be one of the best mystery/thriller animes.

Death Note takes place in Japan, starting at a high school where the viewer is introduced to top student of his school, Light Yagami. Light Yagami excels in all his classes, causing life to be boring and plain. His daily routine changes though when he comes across a black book on the ground labeled Death Note.

The Death Note was dropped into the human world by a shinigami(death god) named Ryuk. The Death Note has the ability to kill anyone who’s name is written into the book. While Light’s life has been normal up until now, the book changes his life, as he believes he now the ability to kill criminals, but also change the rules of the entire world. (And yes. As a high school student.)

As he goes continues to kill off criminals, giving them heart attacks, detectives begin to suspect that someone is behind the deaths, introducing Light’s new arch enemy, L, the best detective in Japan.

L is often seen as Light’s other part, and many times in the anime they are given the colors of red and blue, resembling the a good and evil side. They continue to rival each other throughout the show, evening each other in mind games and strategy as Light tries to hide his identity and continue his killings. Internally, Light enjoys the thrill of almost getting caught, and towards the end of the show after finally killing L, finds no purpose in killing. L was apart of Light’s identity when it came to his crimes because no one else could match his intelligence except him.

Light has another identity besides L, and that would be his public stage name Kira. Kira means killer in Japanese, and often times when Light speaks to the public, he presents himself as Kira. While Kira is Light, the personality of the two personas completely differ. While Kira is a psychotic killer with obviously evil intentions, Light has to hide that side of himself, acting as an innocent student who continues to excel in school.

Death Note is one of the most complex animes, relating the human world to religion, and showing a break down of the mentally insane teenager Light. While you watch gruesome crimes be committed, but from the villain’s perspective, it is difficult to ignore the two identities of Light Yagami and his nemesis L.

As Asian culture continues to grow in media, one of these rising topics is K-pop. The Korean music genre contains intense dance choreography, flashy music videos, and every kind of style of music. While you would think this would have nothing to do with doppelgängers, I wanted to discuss the topic of the pop stars inside those music videos.

Many, if not all, of the K-pop stars are accepted because of their talented skills, but also their visual appearance. To become a member of a group it is almost necessary to meet the Korean beauty standards. The perfect nose, double-eyelids, and white/pale skin are considered beautiful in Korea.

As we all know though, everyone is born differently, and are perfect in their own ways. This is also true when it comes to the people in Korea. Not everyone is going to meet the beauty standards. Unfortunately, to have any chance at becoming famous and a star, many trainees(stage previous to becoming a K-pop idol), often undergo plastic surgery just to be accepted by a music label. The beauty standards in Asia as a whole has affected society in a dramatic way. It has even become normal for the common people to receive plastic surgery for eyelids.

Shown above is a picture of Lisa, a rapper and dancer in the girl group BlackPink. BlackPink is a worldwide phenomenon, and it is very easy for fans or haters to notice the differences in before and after photos of the girls. You can see a difference in her eye shape and nose.

Looking at many K-pop stars now, if you look back at old photos you can see a clear difference. While nothing is wrong with plastic surgery, it can often give an unsettling feeling to the eyes of people who knew them as who they were before. They act the same, and are the same person, but visually there’s something off putting about becoming someone you aren’t. It even gives that uncanny feeling discussed in Freud’s book The Uncanny when someone who was once familiar to you, becomes unfamiliar.

Back in the day, China would send their oldest son’s to war, which ends up being the main problem for Mulan. Mulan’s father is the only man in the family, but because of his old age, Mulan wants to take his place even though she is a woman. Because of this, it starts the main storyline for the Disney movie, where she pretends to be a man in the war fighting along with her fellow commrades.

Although the Disney movie is for children, the story and character actually challenge gender identity and gender norms, creating another version of herself. Mulan creates the male identity of herself known as Ping. Ping is made fun of at first, but as he/she begins to catch on to their masculine ways, the men grow a liking to her.

In the movie we see Mulan trying to fit in, talking in a deeper voice and acting messy. These are stereotypical “masculine” things to do, and Mulan is forced to act in these certain ways and become she isn’t jut to fight in the war.

I believe this movie is much more moving than most other typical Disney movies because of the way it challenges femininity.. Mulan is physically fit and brave enough to face the things like the other men can in the movie, and she even performs better than them. It shows just how strong women are, and I believe Mulan can be seen as a much stronger role model for younger girls who watch the movie. Unlike the stereotypical princess who is saved by the prince, Mulan is capable of defending herself, and even saving her people.

Funny thing is, I’m writing about this exact same concept on my Unit 1 essay. Fresh Off The Boat was a childhood favorite T.V. show of mine and my family’s because of the fact that we could relate in so many ways. It was offensive, funny, and the most relatable thing for my immigrant parents and their children.

Eddie, the main character, pictured above, is your typical Asian American Tween, indulged in the most American thing, Hip Hop. Eddie loves rap, basketball, and anything that would supposedly make him “gangster”.

I want to make this a shorter blog because I want to focus on one specific scene. The importance of this scene is its relatability. Of the many asian friends that went to my high school, I believe that we have all experienced something like it. Displayed above, Eddie takes out a container of Chinese traditional noodles. Excited to dig in after hours of waiting, he is faced with many racially motivated comments. The following week, he begs his mom to take him to the grocery store to buy lunchables. I love this part because I remember all the kids with their “make you own pizza” lunchables.

This scene is important to the concept of a double identity because while Eddie is Chinese at heart, he would do anything in the world to be like his white friends. He surrounds himself in American culture and lunchables(apparently) to fit in and be like his white friends. As the show goes on, Eddie transitions from middle school to high school, but has this other identity he has to put on while he goes to class.