Redeeming Replacement/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Character assumes a super identity that normally belongs to villains, but acts as a hero instead.

  • Straight: Dark Magical Girl Mirage is the daughter of the previous Mirage, a villainess with shadowy-based powers. Rather than use her powers for evil, she joins the heroes' side.
  • Exaggerated: A long line of Mirages have existed; save for this latest one, all have been Complete Monsters who gleefully used their powers to spread chaos For the Evulz.
  • Justified: They're all powered by The Corruption, but only the latest one has the willpower to hold it off.
    • A new superhero decides to that up the name of a recently deceased supervillain. Everyone knows the Joker always comes back, but if he takes the identity than an actual supervillain can't take it without looking like a tool.
  • Inverted: Anti-Hero Substitute
  • Subverted: The current Mirage debuts as a villainess, just as her mother did.
  • Double Subverted: However, she pulls a Heel Face Turn shortly into her debut appearance, revealing her reluctance to take up her mother's questionable legacy.
  • Parodied: The character took on the mantle of The Molester who was well... Exactly What It Says on the Tin. This leads to a lot of Black Comedy and Not What It Looks Like.
  • Deconstructed: While she means well, Mirage can't escape the specter of her mother's horrible reputation. The public and her heroic peers judge her based on the actions of her predecessors, pressuing her to make a Face Heel Turn -- something that, if she falls to the temptation, will only cement their belief that they were right about her all along.
  • Reconstructed: Despite the adversity, Mirage slowly manages to prove herself to her peers and shift public opinion to a more favorable view. Though aware she will likely never be able to fully escape the weight of her mother's misdeeds, that knowledge drives Mirage to fight even harder, so that her children will have to face less adversity and have a better legacy to bear.
  • Zig Zagged: Mirage defects to the good guys, but is later revealed to be the Mole, then is later revealed to be acting under mind control, but it later turns out that the villain controlling her was a Well-Intentioned Extremist...
  • Averted: The original Mirage never dies.
  • Enforced: The new head writer always loved the old Mirage, but feels that they'd fare better as a superhero. However, the original seems unredeemable, so he takes a shortcut and creates a Legacy Character.
  • Lampshaded: ???
  • Invoked: The original Mirage was a Well-Intentioned Extremist who had a Heel Realization late in her career, and taught her daughter to use her powers for good so she could save both their legacies.
  • Defied: Mirage's daughter takes a different name since she doesn't want to be associated with her mother.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: "Wait so Rage is a hero now? I hate it when replacements change teams."
  • Played For Laughs: Mirage is clearly trying too hard to rebel and act "edgy" by being a hero and often monologs about it. Thus she ends up rebelliously doing perfectly wholesome actions.
  • Played For Drama: The current Mirage is a clone of the original who cloned herself before to stay young but messed up the transfer procedure. The new Mirage has her powers and possessions but not her memories. Everyone else is suspicious about Mirage suddenly acting good and apologizing when she binds heroes trying to capture her.

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