http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpiritualAntithesis

Kieron Gillen talking about Three. "I came home from these regular monthly drinks that we have in London and grabbed one of the nice hardback comics next to the bed—and in this case it was [ Frank Miller 's] 300 . I picked it up, flipped through it, really not very much paying any attention to it. And one of the speeches about 'The only free men the world has ever known', and literally had a moment of incandescent rage and shouted at the book,  You hunted slaves!  And at that second the entire plot of Three downloaded, including the twist, the structure, everything."

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The Spiritual Successor's Evil Twin,note Which, despite connotations, can more often than not be Lighter and Softer than the Spiritual Ancestor. the Spiritual Antithesis is referencing earlier work by using similar characters and themes, but going in a completely different direction. Often set at the opposite end of Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism. May serve as a Deconstruction (or Reconstruction if the original work was a deconstruction itself) or Stealth Parody of the original work. The trope is also popular and commonly applied in case of titles that came out around the same time and share a lot of similarities but accomplish different outcomes, be them Dueling Works or works in different medium altogether, especially in case of those that run for long enough to have divergent evolution.

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It can best be described as the concept of foils applied to works instead of characters. Often seen as a Take That! against the original work (though it may simply be meant as commentary or as a What If? scenario, and is occasionally even made by the same people), and closely related to Satire. May involve Whole Plot Reference. Sometimes is actually a sequel to the original work, in which it usually serves as an Internal Deconstruction. The Moral Substitute is a related trope, where the work is meant to be the antithesis of what its creators see as moral failings within another work or genre.

Of course, nothing prevents a work from being the Spiritual Antithesis of one work and the Spiritual Successor of another at the same time, which may often result in said work being X Meets Y or This Is Your Premise on Drugs.

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Genres that play this role to each other:

Examples:

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Fanfiction

Films — Animated

Newspaper Comics

Professional Wrestling

Tabletop Games

Theatre

Theme Parks

Web Comics

Web Original

Web Video

Websites

Multiple media

Other