A House Divided: Difference between revisions

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* [[Bald Black Leader Guy]]
* [[Black Best Friend]] (or just the token black)
* [[Crazy Survivalist]], on occasion fights with both the [[Jerkass]] and the [[Marty Stu]]..
* [[Damsel Scrappy]]
* [[Damsel in Distress]]
* [[Dying Like Animals]], the whole farm and Zoo in fact...
* The [[Jerkass]]... obviously.
* [[Marty Stu]], always at war with the [[Jerkass]]
** Similarly an [[Ideal Hero]]
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== Comic Books ==
* Marvel's ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' arc has caused this among its heroes.
* So far the group in ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' comic manages to avoid this... for the most part.
** The core members have learned to trust each other over the constant fear that the other people aren't making the best decisions. EVERY''Every'' time someone new comes into the fold, the tension surfaces. Time, and sometimes a death or two, will put things back to 'normal'.
* Used in a strip in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' in which a group of minor villains that the Doctor has previously defeated gather together in a deserted space-station to plan a final attack that will finish him once and for all. One of them dies horribly, and as the others begin dying one by one afterward, it seems (to them, anyway) as if the Doctor has infiltrated their midst in disguise and is picking them off one by one. Finally, the last couple — paranoid that either one of them could be the Doctor in disguise — kill each other... and at that point, the Doctor arrives, not recognisingrecognizing any of them. Turns out the first death was just an accident with a faulty machine and the other deaths were just everyone picking each other off out of sheer paranoia.
 
== Film ==
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* ''[[The Descent (film)|The Descent]]''. Mostly between Sarah and Juno, especially after the former found out the latter took the group caving/spelunking in a dangerous uncharted cave that's filled with flesh eating subterranean mutants, [[Not Quite the Right Thing|in a misguided effort to reunite the group]]. Not to mention the fact that Juno also slept with Sarah's deceased baby daddy. Juno's ''Good Intentions'' not only contributed to her friend Sarah's breakdown . But also led her friends to their doom.
** Juno also accidentally {{spoiler|mortally wounded one of her friends (Beth) in the cave thinking she was one of the cave dwelling monsters. And left her there to die}} and tried to cover it up. When Sarah comes across the {{spoiler|injured Beth, Beth explains what happened (including info about the affair Juno had) . And tells Sarah not to trust Juno,}} essentially putting the proverbial nail in the coffin of Sarah and Juno's friendship.. Of course {{spoiler|karma is a bitch, as Juno [[Karmic Death|sufferers the consequences]]}} [[Alternate Character Interpretation|(unfairly or not)]].
* A literal example (well actually an apartment complex) in the films ''[[REC]]'', and ''[[Quarantine (film)|Quarantine]]''. The inhabitants never fully reach this level seeing as how the [[The Virus|infection happens so fast]] people rarely get the chance to argue with one another., Althoughalthough they came DANGEROUSLY''dangerously'' close to this trope during the initial panic.
* ''[[The Beast of War]]'' is a forgotten war movie from 1988, depicting the struggle between a Soviet tank crew and their mujahadeen opponents. Not all the conflict takes place outside the tank. The commander shoots his Afghan translator, convinced he's working with the enemy, and when another soldier threatens to report the killing he's tied to a rock and booby-trapped for the mujahadeen to find.
* In ''[[Night at the Museum]] 2: Battle of the Smithsonian'', Larry [[Chekhov's Gun|remembers some advice the (animated) Lincoln Memorial gave him]], and begins taunting the villains and playing them against each other. Ultimately, their inability to work together proves to be the ultimate reason for their defeat.
{{quote|'''Lincoln Memorial''': A house divided cannot stand.}}
* The Stephen King story and movie, ''[[The Mist]].'' A military project codenamedcode-named 'Operation Arrowhead' has gone awry and a quaint Maine town is shrouded in mist that happens to be filled with flesh eating monsters from another dimension. A lucky few residents are able to barricade themselves in the local supermarket. [[The Fundamentalist]] Mrs. Carmody preaches that this is all an act of God for landing people on the moon and homosexuality. Yes, really. Yet as people start getting picked off by the monsters most of the people in the store let their fear get the better of them and start listening to Mrs. Carmody's sermons, save for a level headed group that finds its self outcast and fearing for their lives after Mrs. Carmody has her followers sacrifice one of the townspeople to the monsters. When they decide that they would rather face the monsters then face a religious nut, Mrs. Carmody tries to stop them and utters her final words, 'Kill them all!' before she is finally put in her place with a [[Boom! Headshot!]].
* ''[[Carriers]]''
* Happens to a small group of teenagers on a plane in the film ''Altitude''.
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* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'', wizards have a weird, formalized version of this. Wizards get along about as well as a sackful of soggy cats, something apparently programmed into them at a ''genetic'' level (or at least the level that passes for genetics on the Disc). Unseen University was created to redirect that murderous energy into a strict hierarchy where a cutting note could do nearly as much damage to one's opponent as a hurled fireball, but with a much smaller risk of bystanders being turned into charcoal (or possibly haddocks). They still cheerfully murder one another with creative booby traps, but things have settled somewhat now, since the current head of the University has proven himself more or less unkillable (and he sleeps with [[Guns Akimbo|two loaded crossbows]], although he's a kind man, and probably won't shoot you in ''both'' ears).
* Machiavelli in ''[[Discourses on Livy]]'' believes that this is one of the reasons for a republic's ''strength'', since it allows the right leader to come tot he fore at the right time.
* Seen in [[Star Trek Gemworld]] during a crisis, when the six races of Gemworld, and their leaders, fail to work together succesfullysuccessfully. Barclay calls them out on it, by appealing to the [[Good Old Ways]]:
{{quote|"This is not how your ancestors survived, by ignoring a problem...The inhabitants of Gemworld have gotten soft. You prefer to bicker and fix blame instead of finding a solution. I'm sorry... that's not how the Ancients would have faced this ... The question is - will you act like your ancestors? Will you do what it takes to survive? Or would you prefer to hide in this room and bicker?”}}
 
 
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* This was offered as the main reason the [[New World Order|nWo]] was so successful against [[WCW]]; the WCW wrestlers were a bunch of gloryhoundsglory hounds with a ton of unsettled issues against each other and a desire for the spotlight, while the nWo operated like a well-oiled machine.
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'s'' Imperium intentionally invokes this trope with every institution, organization and military unit mistrusting everyone else. This does leave them with a bureaucratic nightmare where military or humanitary aid for worlds may arrive a century after it was needed, but it also keeps the human race comparably safe from the danger of a high-ranking defector. This lesson was learned after two bloody civil wars, one of them tearing humanity out of its beginning golden age.
** This also happens to foster an environment where different parts of the military occassionallyoccasionally go to war with each other, however...
 
 
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[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:A House Divided{{PAGENAME}}]]