Talk:Doppelgänger

No folklore

It appears that this article is trying to suggest (see WP:SYN) a kind of "genuine folklore" about some pagan mythological Doppelgänger creature similar to a shape-shifter or other kind of supernatural entity in German(ic) folklore, associated with creepy and disturbing folktales. However, any religious scholar or philologist would be hard-pressed to find any such myth of that name. That's because the word Doppelgänger was never associated in German with any mythology or folklore, whether today or in earlier times. It simply means a person who looks very much like another, and there's nothing mythological or supernatural about it. --79.193.62.124 (talk) 16:03, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

What about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--the most classic example.Aeroadam (talk) 20:01, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Strange "translation"

Providing the literal translation "double walker" of the German word "Doppelgänger" is misleading. "Doppelgänger" means something more like a "lookalike". Joreberg (talk) 16:00, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

Being a German, I very much agree to this. "Doppelgänger" does not bear a paranormal connotation in German, rather means a physical lookalike. It would be nice to have this explained in the introducing section, maybe next to or even instead of "double walker". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.145.234.251 (talk) 20:04, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Twin Peaks

...deserves a mention. Doppelgangers played a huge part in its mythology. Google "Twin Peaks doppelganger" and see. 108.93.144.242 (talk) 23:23, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

Internet Useage

The term "doppelganger" is also applied to a false persons created by one party involved in internet discussion. That party is secretly creating the postings of the doppelganger to substantiate and support his own position in the discussion, thus appearing as though some other, third person, was substantially agreeing with the party.

This is very common useage of the term and deserves mention in the article.99.2.69.235 (talk) 16:39, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Added entry in "In popular culture" for the 12th episode of Hammer House of Horror, "The Two Faces of Evil". Cracking series.Treagle (talk) 18:38, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Fork for original research; delete article

This whole article is a content fork for original research by some editor(s) in order to arbitrarily establish random terminology and theories by means of false synthesis. None of the original folkloric English or German sources uses the term doppelgaenger, nor does the German term signify any folkloric, religious, or esoteric phenomena or the likes (the latter fact having been pointed out several times on this talkpage before), although the article once literally claims and indirectly suggests by its very existence as well as throughout its entire content such an "original meaning" in any of the two languages falsely.

What this article really is about is the modern pop culture mem of the evil twin, preposterously trying to give it some ancient folkloric credibility as a cultural phenomenon by giving it a mysteriously-sounding foreign name that actually holds no such suggested established folkloric meaning whatsoever in either language, and pointing to instances in mythology that would be much better suited at the alter ego article. It's also possible that the original author(s) accidentally confused the German term Doppelgänger for the similarly-named, but actually established folkloric or occult concept of a Wiedergänger, which is German for "undead" or "zombie" with no specific lookalike characteristics. That's not to say that no evil twin fiction exists in modern pop culture, or that no alter ego myths would exist in history, but this article is trying to arbitrarily establish false terminology via original research, content forking, and false synthesis, to try and thereby pass it for genuine, which it isn't.

I still remember this article from a few years ago when it only consisted of the Goethe quote and claimed that Doppelgänger would be a genuine evil twin myth allegedly attested by that exact very name in ancient pagan Germanic mythology, similar to trolls, kobolds, or lindworms that really are attested by those names in pagan Germanic and/or Norse mythology. Looks like what has happened in the meantime is that it's been pointed out that no such genuine ancient Germanic doppelgaenger myth ever existed by that name, so its supporters tried to save this article by now falsely claiming that it would be the acquired English meaning while still suggesting some ancient genuineness as the meaning presented in this content fork article being the "original meaning" somehow in either English or German, by pointing to ancient or Medieval alter ego myths instead.

In any case, this article that's deliberately trying to establish false terminology deserves to be entirely scrapped and all its content still considered notable should be dumped at either evil twin or alter ego. Better do it sooner than later, before sources outside of Wikipedia will begin citing this article or be influenced by it, and which then in turn will be used to justify this content fork here on Wikipedia. --2.240.228.185 (talk) 09:17, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Okay, upon further inspection, it seems that a game designer of Swiss (that is, German-speaking) origin has introduced the word as a name for some shape-shifting creatures in the modern table-top game Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970s, but not even that has much to do with what this article is falsely trying to establish, as it's not about shape-shifting. The fact that Doppelganger (Dungeons & Dragons) is a valid article for a modern pop-cultural D&D character does not validify this content fork article here that tries to establish some genuine ancient or Medieval pagan doppelgaenger myth. --2.240.228.185 (talk) 10:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)