Conflicting Loyalty: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"So many vows...they make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Keep his secrets. Do his bidding. Your life for his. But obey your father. Love your sister. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. Respect the gods. Obey the laws. It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or the other.”''|'''Jaime Lannister''', ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''}}

 

 

Whichever the character chooses, he may regard it as [[Dirty Business]].

* ''[[Naruto]]''. {{spoiler|Itachi, anyone? I mean, the guy killed his family to protect his village, despite the fact they were being accused of trying to destroy the village without any proof other than some not-so-long-dead leader of the clan could do it (the same not-so-long-dead leader who actually HELPS HIM KILL THEM ALL). Someone here really has screwed up loyalties.}}

** {{spoiler|Uh there was proof. Itachi had no choice but to execute the clan after the negotiations with the Third Hokage failed. Only Madara-the [[Complete Monster]] [[Big Bad]] claims the Uchiha were oppressed.}}

* ''[[Le Chevalier d'Eon]]'' has this as a ''major'' theme. Events really start unravelling around the topic of loyalty to an individual versus loyalty to a cause, or when loyalty to "king and country" ends up as two conflicting loyalties. {{spoiler|The first event to really drive this home is when Durand - an unconditionally loyal secret agent - is ordered by his king to kill his friends to protect a state secret. This screws him up enough to nearly get him killed. In the end, he insists on protecting his friends while still trying to have it both ways. A villain later tries to persuade Durand to join him by calling him out on it, asking why Durand would serve a king who would give him such an order. Even then, Durand doesn't give in.}}

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', Suzaku Kururugi is Japanese by birth, and only wants to protect his country - and is working in the military of [[The Empire]] that invaded it. And then there are his loyalties to the people he cares about, many of whom are at various points on opposite sides of the conflict. And then there's his personal ideology...

* ''[[Winter Cicada]]'' is about [[Star-Crossed Lovers]] during the great Boshin civil war in Japan (1864 to 1869). Akizuki is on the isolationist side (expel foreigners and keep the Shogunate system) and Kusaka is on the imperialist side (open the borders and embrace modern culture). Somewhat subverted in that both main characters want to keep the borders open, but nonetheless they end up going along with their clans.

* ''[[Transformers Energon]]'' gives an interesting variant with Demolisher, whose loyalties are both to Megatron. In this case, the conflict comes down to whether he obeys the last command Megatron gave at the end of ''[[Transformers Armada|Armada]]'', or whether he disregards that to go along with the dramatically different orders Megatron starts giving after being resurrected.

 

== [[Comics]] ==

== [[Literature]] ==

* Lancelot is torn viciously between his place as Arthur's general and Guinevere's knight, to say the least of the romantic involvement. The original [[Chrétien de Troyes|Chrétien]] version makes little of this, as Arthur is mostly an inept and impotent king, but from ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur|Le Morte Darthur]]'' onwards it tends to be one of the driving forces of the tragedy. ''[[Literature/Idylls Of The King|Idylls Of The King]]'' cranks it up to the point where the conflict inside him prematurely ages Lancelot, and the longest book of The Once and Future King is dedicated to Lancelot's story, at which this struggle is the focal point.

* In the ''[[1632]]'' series, [[Badass Spaniard]] Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz is torn between loyalty to his new American wife, and to Spain.

* [[The Bible]]: The Israelite Prince Jonathan was caught by his insane father's paranoia of Jonathan's [[Heterosexual Life Partners|comrade]] David. He chose David.

* ''[[Temeraire]]'': At the end of ''Empire of Ivory'', {{spoiler|the British government has sent a dragon infected with a highly contagious disease to France, where it will infect Napoleon's dragons -- and from where the disease will likely spread and kill off most of the dragons in the world. [[Officer and a Gentleman|Laurence]] and Temeraire bring Napoleon the cure, an act of treason against Great Britain. Then Laurence [[Honor Before Reason|goes back to England, fully intending to let them hang him for it.]]}}

* ''[[The Assassins of Tamurin]]'': Lale is torn between loyalty to her [[Cult]] mother and her lover after she [[Becoming the Mask|becomes the mask]].

* ''[[Daisy Miller]]'': Winterbourne must choose between Daisy (Rome's local [[Strange Girl]] who has caught his eye) and the approval of his peers (who scorn her for being a [[Good Bad Girl|shameless flirt]]).

* In the juvenile novel ''Treegate's Raiders'' by Leonard Wibberley, at the [[The American Revolution|Battle of Cowpens]] , upon seeing some highlanders advance one of the title character's men shouts, "Go to the other end of the line, there are Frasers here", thus showing a conflict on both sides between military duty and tribal ties.

{{quote|''My brother is lost to me, and I am caught between [[Thicker Than Water|the ties of blood to my family]] and [[Fire-Forged Friends|my duty to the Chapter]]. . . ''}}

* In [[Dragonlance|Brothers In Arms]] one of the commanders mentions that this is why he didn't want to be a knight. He feared the potential for his lord and his god to demand conflicting things of him.

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[NCIS]]'': Ziva is torn between her father and Gibbs in the last few episodes of season six.

** "Amok Time": Captain Kirk must choose between obeying Star Fleet orders and going to Altair VI or taking Spock to Vulcan to save his life, which could result in Kirk being court-martialed.

** Several times Kirk has to decide whether to violate the [[Alien Non-Interference Clause|Prime Directive]] in order to save the Enterprise. Each time he goes ahead and breaks it, always coming up with a plausible rationale for doing so. The only time he ever enforces it is when another starship captain violates it.

** He also chose her over a [[Noble Profession|calling]] he loved which may have been even harder.

** Also, in "War Stories", Mal admits that he was initially against Zoe's marriage to Wash, concerned that it would split loyalties amongst the crew.

* Wesley had this big time in season 3 of ''[[Angel]]'', during the baby Connor storyline. He was struggling over whether to stay loyal to the team and Angel or help the baby even if made the team hate him-which is ultimately what happened. Lampshaded in That Old Gang of Mine. Wes was addressing his speech to Gunn, but it's really easy to tell it was being pointed at Wes himself as well.

** And Gunn, between his own vamp hunting team and Angel's group, in the same episode.

* The ancient play ''[[Antigone]]'' is about a woman choosing between law and loyalty to her brother. She chooses {{spoiler|[[Due to the Dead|burying her brother]] though it is against the law}}, forcing {{spoiler|her uncle to choose between her and the law. He chooses the law}}.

* Pierre Corneille's plays are full of this. In ''Horace'', Camille has to choose between her Roman brother and her lover, who is fighting against Rome. In ''Polyeucte'', Polyeucte chooses his (banned and persecuted) Christian faith over his wife and country.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series has Axel. Although he apparently suffers from [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]] and has no issues with being a [[Double Reverse Quadruple Agent]] when necessary, he's shown some capacity to be conflicted in which side to stick with:

* In ''[[Yggdra Union]]'', Nessiah's first prerogative may be to ensure the safety and growth of the Gran Centurio, but he's also implied to care fairly deeply for the Imperial Army. When forced to choose between {{spoiler|protecting the Imperial Army by killing the player's army, thus ensuring that the sword's current wielder will die, or joining up with the player to rescue Yggdra and oversee the Gran Centurio's growth personally, he decides to [[Take a Third Option]] and kills himself to let things play out as naturally as possible. (Which isn't as extreme as it sounds, because Nessiah's pretty nonchalant about dying [[Immortality|for obvious reasons]].)}} This is probably also done to preserve the balance of the game, but Nessiah having conflicted loyalties is the most reasonable explanation in-plot.

* In ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]'', Saturn realizes in the postgame that what he'd been working for was truly terrifying (he tries to tell you that he didn't know what his previous leader, Cyrus, was really after, but he was the first character to tell you the extent of the plan, so either he's lying or he's trying to convince himself that he didn't know). But he still believes in the ultimate ideal, which is a peaceful world. Having been left in charge of Team Galactic by default, he says he's going to try to work for basically what he's always worked for, having realized that "extremism is never the answer".

* Comes up a few times in ''[[Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!|Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai]]'': {{spoiler|Jun}} between {{spoiler|Touma}} and his own wishes in the Ryuuzetsuran route, Chris between Yamato and {{spoiler|her father}} in her own route, the entire group between {{spoiler|Miyako and Wanko}} in Miyako's route, so on and so forth.

** Miyako seems to act like one at times.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has a slight example of this in the third season. {{spoiler|Mai has to choose between her love of Zuko and her fear of Azula in "Boiling Rock," and chooses her love of Zuko. When Azula goes to kill her for this, Ty Lee makes a quick choice between her friendship-based love of Mai and ''her'' fear of Azula, and she ''also'' chooses the love. Either Azula isn't really that scary ([[Magnificent Bastard|which, let's be honest, isn't completely true]]), or both of her friends are much more loyal (to other people) than Azula previously thought.}}

** {{spoiler|Lampshaded in Mai's case, since she outright confirms which side of this trope she was on in the exact same scene}}

* The Thespians at Thermopylae were a curious clash between one interpretation of [[Patriotic Fervor]] and another. The Thespians were all exiles, yet stood and fought beside the 300 Spartans. In other words they put the [[Honor Before Reason|honor]] of their city ahead of the [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right|laws]] of their city.

* George Washington in the Whiskey Rebellion. As the hero of the American Revolution, he had a certain sympathy for people revolting against being taxed: as the President of the United States he had a duty to uphold the Constitution and the laws made under it, including the tax laws. He resolved the conflict by exercising the office of President: as President, he led an army that captured the rebels; as President, he put them on trial for treason; and when they were convicted, as President he [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|pardoned every one of them.]]

* Many soldiers and sailors fighting for both the Federals and Confederates during the [[American Civil War]].

** Sam Houston, considered one of the founding fathers of Texas and the 1st and 3rd president of the Republic of Texas (and many other things as well), was forced to resign as governor of Texas when he refused to take the oath of loyalty to the Confederacy. When the US Army offered him a commission to lead an army and stop the rebellion in Texas, he refused. He was very pro-union, but he could not bring himself to cause misery to the people of Texas.

[[Category:Friendship Tropes]]

[[Category:Betrayal Tropes]]

[[Category:Loyalty Tropes]]