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Conflict Ball: Difference between revisions
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== All Serial Media ==
* Almost any straight use of [[Yet Another Christmas Carol]], on a show with an established cast, needs to have one of the characters abruptly meaner for no apparent reason so they can learn to change their ways back to the way they were before the episode. Or have a [[Jerkass]] character turn nicer, [[Aesop Amnesia|only to revert to their usual ways afterwards]]. In fact, shows that [[Tropes Are Not Bad|fail to do this]] end up warping the plot into [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]] instead.
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*** What is odd is that Luffy never mentions to Usopp that he also had refused to believe that the Going Merry was doomed, and silences Nami when she tries to explain his point of view to Usopp, which makes it easier for Usopp to perceive Luffy as being heartless. It's also natural for Usopp to get sentimental about his friend's gift to the point of ignoring rationality, but in this case, he also went against what he personally knew to be true.
*** The ''Going Merry'' {{spoiler|fixes itself in the Skypeia Arc and Usopp knows that too}}. It's plain heartless to abandon it, but at the same time still sailing in it is plain brainless (and Luffy is not THAT brainless). Franky {{spoiler|even points out it's better FOR THE SHIP to abandon it, because if the crew it loves sinks with it, the ship will not find peace}}. Usopp's denial is part of his character personality [[Freudian Excuse|based on his own side story]]. Eventually Usopp learns that {{spoiler|things like this happen and he has to learn from this, not deny it or lie to himself}} leading to a moment of redemption, yes, this one, at the end of Water Seven Arc {{spoiler|he's still a coward and fights with deception, but now he doesn't make excuses for his coward personality; he now accepts he is a coward. Plain and simple}}
* The Soul Society in ''[[Bleach]]'' does more than occasionally show fondness for this trope as Captain Yamamoto and Central 46 have been considered to do this before. Though some are willing to contest the former, the latter not so much.
** Which is a little odd considering how little the Central 46 have actually been in it; their biggest mistake was exiling Urahara for a crime he didn't commit, but was expertly framed for by Aizen. In the Soul Society arc they were presented as ruthless pedantic to the point of [[Lawful Stupid]], if not plain evil, in wanting Rukia dead, but this too was a ploy by Aizen {{spoiler|as he had actually murdered all of them already and had taken their place}}.
*** The problem with these is that between Yamamoto and Central 46, one will suggest a plan of action and the other will agree out of respect, seemingly without taking into consideration whether this plan was good or not. Also, almost every problem encountered in, say, the movies, the fillers, and many in the canon are their fault. In the Bount arc, it's revealed that Central 46 ordered genocide of the Bounts because they ''might'' eat human souls to get stronger, despite the fact that they didn't really show any definite desire to do this. In the second movie, Central 46 decided that since Hitsugaya and his friend had the same Zanpakuto in two different forms, that one of them needed to die....for some unexplained reason. In canon, Central 46 seemingly did nothing to investigate Urahara and Tessai's innocence, simply declaring them guilty based on opinion and leaving no further investigation. Even yelling at Urahara when he tried to defend himself.
*** Actually they did investigate. When Urahara tried to blame Aizen, Central 46 informed him they had collected witness statements from ''200 shinigami'' to confirm Aizen's whereabouts at the time in question. Urahara didn't have a leg to stand on, especially as he was caught "red handed" with the forbidden hollowfication research (and victims).
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* In [[The West Wing]] episode "Isaac and Ishmael", the normally calm, moral and - of course - liberal Leo McGarry character has to turn into a ranting strawman of a right-wing ideologue for plot purposes. It should be pointed out that the actors give a small speech at the beginning that openly states that it doesn't fit into the regular continuity.
* In an episode of ''[[Clarissa Explains It All]]'', she wanted a job, but the parents kept saying no. They gave no reason, even when asked, and they eventually relented for no stated reason either. That might have been justified, as the show was largely seen through her [[Point of View]].
* The New Generation ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' series are particularly bad at this when it comes to provoking battles between Riders. They more or less have a rule that ''any'' given pair of Riders must fight at least once during the series (preferably more), no matter the cost in terms of character and story consistency.
** I'll be damned if they aren't [[Rule of Cool|cool as hell]], though.
** The older gen had 1: V3 vs. Riderman.
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** Let's just say that Joyce and Buffy's friends mishandled her return from LA on a thermonuclear level in Season 3's 'Dead Man's Party'. Joyce was an early S1 flake; Willow and Xander were their S6/7 selves four years early.
* There's an episode of ''[[All in The Family]]'' in which Mike, the show's resident liberal, abruptly reveals a stay-in-the-kitchen attitude toward women that runs contrary to his character. The purpose of this revelation is to create conflict between him and Gloria.
** It should be noted that "liberal" and "feminist" are not necessarily the same thing (especially if the liberal in question is male), and that some feminists are outright contemptuous of liberalism.
* One episode of ''[[Saved by the Bell]]: The College Years'' has Slater discover he actually has Mexican heritage. He out of nowhere accuses Zack of being racist because Zack tries to set him up with a blonde girl. He actually says "why do you only think girls with blonde hair and blue eyes are attractive? I've dated girls with dark hair and dark eyes". This is completely ignoring that the love of Zack's life was brunette and that he dated girls of many ethnicities in high school, including their friend Lisa. Slater spends the whole episode being overly sensitive and Zack is presented as the one who needs to learn the Aesop.
* In ''[[The Dead Zone]]'' TV series, Johnny holds the ball whenever Greg Stillson is involved. One particularly annoying example is when Stillson (Vice President at the time) shows up at his house to ask for his help in bringing a space shuttle home safely after it loses radio contact. Johnny reluctantly helps him, with emphasis on ''reluctantly.'' The audience can identify with Stillson's frustration at some points, when Johnny berates him for (what he sees as) using the incident to advance his career. Come on, Johnny. You're helping a team of astronauts get home safely. Does it ''really'' matter that Stillson was the one to ask it of you? Notably, this was ''after'' Johnny had stopped getting Armageddon visions from Stillson. Stillson was still a shady, ambitious politician, but in this episode it seemed like Johnny was being a jerk for apparently no reason at all.
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** [[Creator's Pet|Varian and Garrosh]] are ''walking'' [[Conflict Ball|Conflict Balls]]!
** The ''Wrath of the Lich King'' area of Grizzly Hills is of special note, as its main theme is that you must help your faction to gather as much of the Hills' plentiful resources as possible, while sabotaging the rival faction's attempts to do the same. Both factions want to use said resources to help them defeat the Lich King - which is to say that in Grizzly Hills, the Lich King's two main enemies are locked in a savage war over ''who will get to fight the guy they both actually came there to fight.'' With [[Too Dumb to Live|enemies like these]], the Lich King doesn't need any friends...
** In Icecrown, the Horde and Alliance each have a flying gunship specifically built to take on the Scourge, and yet are used almost exclusively against each other. This culminates in Icecrown Citadel, where they battle over who has the right to take on the Lich King. They do this even though the respective gunship captains are otherwise very sensible sorts who are perfectly aware that every Horde and Alliance soldier who falls in battle becomes a potential recruit for the Scourge.
** The ground forces in Icecrown are worse, and yes, there's a ground campaign simply because the scourge would overrun anyone who just flew in to confront the Lich King. Anyway. Because of impassable mountains, the ground forces have to take a path right through a series of gates in some rather impressively defended walls. [[Epic Fail|The first assault]] starts off with some reasonable teamwork, but then the Alliance blames the Horde for what happens next, and the Horde apparently takes that as an excuse to screw the Alliance and go it on their own. They end up sabotaging and backstabbing each other whenever it looks like one faction might take a gate, because allowing someone to take the gate would mean having to fight through the other faction - again - to progress towards the Lich King, only from a less defendable position. The aforementioned airship captains praise the ground forces when they hear about this.
** At this point, the Alliance vs Horde conflict is really only sustained by liberal passes of the conflict ball. Everybody seems to realize that the war is counterproductive at best, and every expansion gives the two sides a common enemy. With the ridiculous amounts of [[Enemy Mine]], taking place between them, you would think they would start to realize that there's really no justifiable reason to be fighting anymore. At least not until the writers give them one by making characters more evil.
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* In episode 12 of ''[[The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan]]'', Tom and Anne both get a hold of the ball for a time when Tom refuses to believe Ms. Scarlet Avondale is the crook simply because she's female and Anne insists a woman can be a crook just as easily as a man, as if it's an accomplishment. Anne turns out to be right, but the ''reason'' for the argument is rather silly.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' uses this in a number of episodes, like Rarity and Applejack's escalating tiff in "Look Before You Sleep", and Applejack and Rainbow Dash's competitiveness getting out of hand in "Fall-Weather Friends".
** ''Invoked'' by Twilight in "Lesson Zero" with the hope of being able to solve someone's problem and learn her weekly Aesop. It gets out of hand when everyone in town winds up fighting over [[Artifact of Attraction|her doll]]. In doing so, she ironically ended up ''holding'' the Conflict Ball herself, by dint of her sudden obsession with helping fix others' problems.
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'': Whenever Candace actually goes along with her brothers' latest scheme, she (usually) has a great time and often gets quality time with Jeremy. Yet she is constantly trying to bust them for no apparent reason beyond sibling upmanship (pointless as they genuinely look up to her) and winning her mom's approval.
** Though lately even she has pointed out that the urge is irrational, but she still goes with it. Sometimes, admittedly, the things the boys are doing would be dangerous if they were even a smidgen less competent (showcased in "Phineas and Ferb get Busted" where one misplaced bolt led to most of the house being wrecked. Thank goodness that Just a Dream...), and sometimes she does seem to be in it more because she thinks what they're doing is dangerous (like the all-terrain vehicle bit) or disruptive (driving cattle through downtown).
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Improbable Behavior Tropes]]
[[Category:Character Derailment]]▼
[[Category:Rule of Drama]]
[[Category:Bad Writing Index]]
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[[Category:Conflict Ball]]
[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]
▲[[Category:Character Derailment Tropes]]
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