Conflicting Loyalty: Difference between revisions

 

Related to [[Sadistic Choice]]. Compare [[Rebellious Rebel]], [[Anti Mutiny]]. Sometimes invokes [[Honor Before Reason]]. [[Super Trope]] to [[Even Mooks Have Loved Ones]] and [[To Be Lawful or Good]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Naruto (Manga)|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 Deon]]'' 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 (Anime)|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...

* Athrun has this big time in ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]''. On the one hand, Durandal sweet-talked him into rejoining ZAFT to protect his former nation PLANTs from EA attack. He also has loyalty to the crew of the Minerva as fellow soldiers who have tried to save a world that hates them. On the other hand, his adopted nation Orb was effectively blackmailed into joining the EA, and his best friend and his ex-fiancees were forced to flee with the Archangel. This all comes to a head when Orb is ordered to send a fleet out to fight ZAFT, and Athrun's ship the Minerva is sent out to fight it, and the Archangel ends up intervening against both ZAFT and the EA to protect the Orb fleet. Cue ten episodes of Athrun wrestling with his loyalties until he finally jumps ship (again) and joins Orb.

** He never even really gets to totally make the choice. After learning of this Durandal decides he doesn't need someone that isn't completely loyal to him and sends soldiers after Athrun branding him a traitor to Zaft before he really did anything and forcing him to flee back to Orb.

* ''[[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.

 

* 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 [[Chretien De Troyes (Creator)|Chrétien]] version makes little of this, as Arthur is mostly an inept and impotent king, but from ''[[Le Morte Darthur (Literature)|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.

* ''[[The Chosen]]'': Danny must choose between his father and friendship with Reuven.

* The ''[[Bhagavad Gita (Literature)|Bhagavad Gita]]'' makes this at least Older Than Feudalism. Arjuna's family has usurped his crown with the only hope of getting it back being to fight them for it, and he is stuck between two conflicting dharmas (duties): his duty to his family and his duty as a soldier and a king. Eventually, Krishna sorts him out and tells him that he should suck it up and fight the battle.

* [[The Bible (Literature)|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.

* 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.

* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer 40000]] [[Blood Angels (Literature)|Blood Angels]] novel ''Deus Encarmine'', Rafen realizes that his brother's transformation is a danger to the Chapter, despite [[I Gave My Word|the oath he swore]] to their father.

* 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.

* In [[War of the Spider Queen]], half-demon [[Blood Knight]] isn't partial about who is giving him orders as long as he can brutaly tear someone to shreds. He is ordered by his mother, the high priestess of Menzoberanzan, to accompany his aunt Quenthel on her quest and follow her orders without question. However, when Quenthel starts to eat herself up with doubt and loses her faith in the Spider Goddess, he is conflicted between his loyalty and his believe that [[Asskicking Equals Authority]], which is the foundation for their races entire society. Danifae however, who as a slave is nominally the groups lowest ranking member, proves herself to be a [[Manipulative Bastard|Manipulative Bitch]] who plays the game of lying, betraying, and instilling fear like no-one else. {{spoiler|When Jegrred finally switches his loyalty, Quenthel helplessly resigns and doesn't try to stop them, but when she gets all her powers back, she sacrifices him for punishment.}}

== [[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 ''[[Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts II]]'', his friendship with Roxas is again the driving factor of his [[Conflicting Loyalty]]. While he has no qualms with his orders to bring Roxas back, he starts to grow disgruntled with his superiors when he is tasked to {{spoiler|eliminate Roxas}}. He eventually {{spoiler|screws over the Organization, and starts working independently}}, leading to a [[Tear Jerker]] when he {{spoiler|dies at Sora's side, lamenting the fact that he never got to revive Roxas}}.

* 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.

* Anything involving the Supertrooper project on ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|Galaxy Rangers]]'' will send Shane Gooseman, the team's [[Lancer]], straight to this trope. Goose was the youngest of the Troopers, and the only one who remained loyal to Earth's government after the disaster that ended the project. His loyalty was [[Being Good Sucks|"rewarded" by BETA]] forcing him into becoming a [[Hunter of His Own Kind]]. It's not so much of an issue with [[Psycho for Hire]] Kilbane, but a much bigger problem when it came to Darkstar (who just wanted to be left alone with her boyfriend), and Max Sawyer (who may or may not have been guilty of the crimes he was charged with).

* Kaldur/Aqualad went through this in the ''[[Young Justice (Animation)|Young Justice]]'' episode "Downtime", wondering if he should stay on the team or return home to [[Atlantis]] where his crush Tula was. This was eventually resolved when {{spoiler|he found out Tula was already in a relationship with his best friend Garth and he decided to pull an [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]}} and thus return to Young Justice in good terms.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* There is a Medieval story where the King of France was invading Italy and met a local Prince. Both happened to have Swiss [[Hired Guns|mercenaries]] and it was decided that [[Thicker Than Water|"kinslaying"]] wouldn't do but both [[I Gave My Word|had their contracts]]. The Swiss officers on both sides met secretly. The agreement was that the ones on the Italian side would defer, but that the ones on the French side would spirit the Italian prince away by disguising him as a soldier in a sort of inversion of [[I Am Spartacus]]. The French King's general offered gold to whomever would betray the Italian prince and finally one did. This man was [[Rewarded As a Traitor Deserves|beheaded]] by the Swiss government for disgracing Swiss arms.

** This was at Noverra in 1499. See ''The Mercenaries'' by Anthony Mockler.

* 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.]]

* In his social history ''A History of Honor'' James Bowman suggests that Western Civilization is based on an uneasy tension between Christian values, old fashioned tribal/aristocratic values (and though he doesn't mention it, or not much, Greco-Roman Civic values) that formed something of a yin-yang which was ultimately quite fortunate. In his opinion the "Victorian Gentleman" was an attempt at compromising between these.