Mirrored Confrontation Shot



A stock pose seen in cartoon openings, movie posters, video game box art, and comics covers, this is a shot that pits two teams against each other on opposite sides of the screen. It can be a massive group shot, featuring all the series' heroes and villains, or show just two characters—all that matters is that the two sides are facing each other and look ready to strike.

Usually the left and right side are evenly balanced and evenly matched. The characters across from one another tend to be evil counterparts and are often mimicking the other side's pose.

This trope can be used for thematic reasons, to emphasize how the characters are Not So Different and the villain is the dark mirror of the other, but it's just as likely to be a dynamic version of the Team Shot with villainy added for spice.

Compare Fearful Symmetry, Versus Character Splash.

Anime & Manga

 * The last page of Chapter 12 of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S The Comics, which was a lead-in for the massive battle that will occur in Episode 16 of the anime.
 * One Piece does an interesting take on this. the cover for manga volume 21 Utopia has the remainder of the Baroque Works' agents (Mr. 0/Crocodile, Miss AllSunday/Nico Robin, Mr. 1/Daz Bones, Miss Doublefinger, Mr. 2 Bon Clay, Mr. 4, Miss Merry Christmas) lined up and looking right, and volume 22 Hope! has the Straw Hats and allies (Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Vivi, Karoo, Eyelashes) the same way, looking left. When the two covers are combined, (21-22) the result is a Mirrored Confrontation Shot. Later on in the anime, this same shot was used when Ivankov talks about the Alabasta incident to bon Clay.
 * The latest intro (Season four) of Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds has Jack, Yusei and Crow against the Infinity Trio.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh! LOVES this trope. It can be seen in MANY times throughout various openings and clips in the second anime series, GX, and even 5D's. I specifically recall Yami Yugi getting shots like this with Marik, Pegasus, and Bakura. And, it's a typical closing frame for any time a duel with the season's Big Bad is about to start.
 * In Monster, Johan's "scenery of the end" is a shot of him and Tenma facing off, with the rest of the world literally removed from the picture. That their poses are not mirrored is an obvious thematic choice.
 * Katekyo Hitman Reborn uses this trope about twice. First against the Varia, and then the Milliefiore.
 * The opening for Fresh Pretty Cure had, at one point near the end, one of these with the initial three heroines at the right and the initial Labyrinth trio at the left. After Setsuna's Heel Face Turn, it changes so she is located at the other side with the Cures, with her spot in the original shot filled in by Norza.
 * The first opening theme for the Diamond/Pearl saga of Pokémon features Ash and The Rival Paul with their respective teams; before the opening changed to reflect the events of future episodes, it is symmetrical (in a sense): they both have a Flying-type, an Electric-type, and a primate-based Pokémon.
 * Lately, this has been occurring more often during matches, where the scene will cut to a view showing a shot (like this one) with both Trainers facing and glaring at each other.
 * Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Leaping Through Time has it in the opening, with Team Xros Heart facing off against their rival team of Hunters.
 * In Planetes, the secondary characters are presented like this, first a group on the left side and then another on the right side, their positions expanding outwards in an accordion-like fashion. It's interesting because both groups have friendly, or at least neutral but supportive characters, but those in the first group tend towards a more antagonistic streak—and, due to the nature of the Evolving Credits, some members of this first group
 * |Black Rock Shooter had this in the show itself between

Comic Books

 * Lots of comics covers (such as this one for Impulse)
 * Also the cover of Teen Titans #52
 * Happens a few times in Marvel's Civil War, like here and here.
 * Several covers for the various Marvel/DC crossovers, such as this one.
 * The cover for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet the Conservation Corps comic.
 * The Avengers are fond of this. In their first 200 issues, they used it for the cover of #s 15, 53, 70, 130 and 141. In later years, it was usually used as an homage to the early covers, including X-Statix #21, which started a Let's You and Him Fight storyline with the Avengers.
 * In fact, if any comic cover features two teams facing off/charging at each other across an otherwise blank scene, the artist's probably thinking of Avengers #s 130 and 141. That includes the Marvel/DC and Titans covers above
 * Another particularly iconic example is X-Men #100.
 * Thunderbolts #172, part of a Time Travel storyline, shows the current 'Bolts confronting the originals. Including Karla "Moonstone" Sofen and Norbert "Fixer" Endersol charging at Karla "Meteorite" Sofen and Norbert "Techno" Endersol, respectively.
 * #3 features the original Thunderbolts (secretly the Masters of Evil) facing off against the new Masters of Evil.

Film

 * The DVD Cover to Cats and Dogs.
 * Anger Management
 * the poster for Bride Wars.
 * [[media:LoneWolfMcQuade.jpg|Lone Wolf [[Mc Quade]]]], featuring everybody's favorite Chuck Norris. This image is actually "mirrored" three ways—the floating heads at the top, the men striking a pose in the centre, and at either side, a man holding another person—Chuck cradling a woman, and Carradine using a Human Shield.
 * War (2007)
 * One cover for Rocky III has Rocky and Clubber Lang staring at each other just before their fight.
 * Rocky IV opens with with two boxing gloves, one with the American flag and one with the Soviet flag, coming from the sides of the screen and smashing into each other.
 * Freddy vs. Jason posters with the titular characters.
 * The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie had a poster like this, with Harry and the good guys on one side, and Voldemort and his Death Eaters on the other, charging. Which is especially funny, considering magic can't generally be considered a close-contact type of attack.
 * The Alienversus Predator DVD cover, as well as its rip-off from The Asylum.
 * Demolition Man
 * One poster for Transformers had Optimus Prime and Megatron do this.
 * "What will I do? What will I do? What an unusual view!"
 * Moses and Pharaoh Ramses during the song "The Plagues" from The Prince of Egypt.
 * Mega Monster Battle Ultra Galaxy Legends

Literature

 * The cover of the Warrior Cats novel, A Dangerous Path by Erin Hunter.
 * There's a stock silhouette image that can be seen as either two people facing each other, or a vase/urn. I Am America (And So Can You!) contains an asymmetrical parody of it, with the question, "Is this Paul Begala arguing with Robert Novak, or just a very poorly constructed vase?"

Tabletop Games

 * This is used in Magic: The Gathering in several "clone" cards showing the cloned and the clone, such as Morphling and, of course, Clone.
 * Duel Deck art design have this in mind, with the foil cards in question using the art on the box.

Video Games

 * Some game covers (like Marvel vs. Capcom) have hints of this
 * The PSP theme for Dissidia Final Fantasy (and presumably the box-art) uses this, with all the heroes on the right, villains on the left. (Link.)
 * The box-art is a little different: The standard side is all the characters from the Cosmos side facing left. Removing the box-art and flipping it over displays all the characters from the Chaos side facing right. Even the screenshots are mirrored: the Cosmos side shows Cloud preparing to strike, the Chaos side shows Sephiroth preparing to strike.
 * The case for Super Smash Bros. Melee.
 * The Good vs. Evil boxed set for City of Heroes featured this sort of image with the game's main NPC heroes and villains rushing at each other.
 * The covers of the first two Warcraft games.
 * Metal Wolf Chaos gives us this.
 * The box art to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars has this.
 * Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 4 have one-on-one pre-fight confrontation Vs. shots.
 * Batman and Sub-Zero do this in trailer of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Lot more characters do it on the cover.
 * The Japanese and European cover art of Persona 3: FES does this with the main characters on the right side, and their corresponding Personas facing them from the left. It's a particularly brilliant shot because at first glance it looks like a bunch of heroic high-schoolers facing off against gruesome, godlike monsters, when in reality it's a literal mirror showing the two sides of the same person.
 * The promotional image of Shin Megami Tensei Imagine seen as the header for the main Shin Megami Tensei trope page, with angels and Messians standing on one side, devils and Gaians on the other, and the player caught in the exact middle.

Webcomics

 * Drowtales here
 * The logo for the Web Comic By The Saints (caution: occasional pencil-drawn violence) has two armies facing off.

Web Original

 * There is a least one shot of the Nostalgia Critic and the Angry Video Game Nerd doing this, in cartoon form.

Western Animation

 * The image on the Dinosaucers page.
 * The end of the 90s X-Men opening.
 * Xiaolin Showdown's intro.
 * The cover for "Challenge of the Superfriends"
 * The final shot of the Justice League Unlimited episode "Grudge Match."
 * In "Secret Society" as well, right before the big brawl.
 * Teen Titans Season 3, when they face
 * There is one in Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes, during the battle between the Avengers and the Masters of Evil.
 * This promotional artwork for Transformers Animated.
 * Darkwing Duck episode "Just us Justice Ducks".

Other

 * You see it all the time on football broadcasts with the helmets of the two opposing teams facing off in 3D. (Sometimes clashing together and exploding in a manly shower of sparks and lightning and fire and explosions and lots of testosterone and things.)
 * A lot of posters for Professional Wrestling pay per views feature this trope. For a classic example see the poster for Wrestlemania III.