Enemy Mine: Difference between revisions

* In the comic book series ''[[Elf Quest]]'', when two elf tribes—the Wolfriders and the newly-introduced Go-Backs—join forces to wage war against the trolls of King Guttlekraw, the elves form a grudging alliance with the trolls formerly led by the late King Greymung, who have been enslaved by Guttlekraw, even though Greymung's trolls have been the hated enemies of the Wolfriders ever since betraying them back at the start of the storyline. The Go-Backs, meanwhile, would never have thought of teaming up with trolls of any kind, period... But it's probably only because of this uneasy alliance that Guttlekraw's trolls are defeated.

* In the 1970s, two issues of ''[[The Brave and the Bold]]'' featured [[Batman]] teaming up with [[The Joker]] to solve a crime. In #111, they worked together to solve the mass murder of an upstanding local family, which someone had sloppily tried to pin on the Joker. In the end, it turned out that {{spoiler|the whole thing was an elaborate plot between the Joker and the killer to lure Batman into a [[Death Trap]]}}. In #191, the Penguin is murdered and it looks like the Joker did it. When Batman catches up to him, he proves that he couldn't have done it. It is eventually revealed that {{spoiler|the whole thing was a [[Faking the Dead]] by the Penguin, who used it to kidnap a local cardinal}}.

** Several years later, during the "Space Pirates!" story in the UK comic, the Autobots and Decepticons join forces to repel the Quintessons, who are trying to conquer Cybertron before Quintessa explodes. Ultra Magnus and Soundwave even get a [[Back-to-Back Badasses]] moment. At the end, Soundwave briefly considers the idea of a lasting peace, but realizes the two factions have come too far to ever resolve their differences.

*** The Autobots and Decepticons were forced to team up ''again'' against the Cybertronian Empire, a faction of hyperevolved Decepticons who had abandoned Cybertron eons ago to create a star-spanning empire of their own. They consider the Autobots and the original Decepticons to be disgusting savages, and eventually returned to destroy their "lesser" brethren.

** Though slaying the dragon was never part of the bargain; he just had to recover the princess (normally he'd have to slay the dragon, but this time he just outwits her).

** Also, {{spoiler|she comes to help because Donkey, who she loves, asks her to.}}

* This trope is the whole point of ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'', though the monsters [[Anti-Villain|are pretty good-natured]].

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' movie "Bender's Big Score", not only is the Robot Devil providing music at {{spoiler|Leela's abortive wedding}}, but they later team up with the robot mafia and evil robotic Santa to take Earth back from the scammer aliens.

== Literature ==

* ''[[The Enemy Papers|Enemy Mine]]'' by Barry B. Longyear, the basis for the movie mentioned above.

* And in the ''[[Warchild Series]]'', Captain Azarcon, a [[Space Marine]], and Niko, human sympathizer of the alien [[La Résistance|resistance]] work together to {{spoiler|rescue hostages and capture gunrunners. This collaboration leads to the end of the war... for a time, anyway.}}

* [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s ''[[Skylark Series|Skylark]]'' series. In ''The Skylark of Space'', the villain DuQuesne agrees to act as one of the party until they return safely to Earth, even though he wants the hero Richard Seaton dead. Ultimately Seaton {{spoiler|1=makes his best friend hand BOTH his guns over to DuQuesne because DuQuesne is the better shot, and then Seaton and DuQuesne stand side by side and mow down their common enemies until all four guns are empty.}} In ''Skylark DuQuesne'', DuQuesne enlists Seaton's help in fighting an otherwise unstoppable alien menace and ends up {{spoiler|winning the war and saving Seaton's life in the process}}, though by this time {{spoiler|his reasons for wanting Seaton dead no longer apply}}.

* In ''[[Dragonlance]]'', black robed mages ally themselves with the good guys every now and then, for example to drive off the Dark Queen in ''Legend of Huma'' and during the War of the Lance. ''Dragons of Summer Flame'' was based around this trope. Also Fistandantilus and the Kingpriest used each other for their own goals.

* In ''[[The Legend of Drizzt]]'' Drizzt Do'Urden and Artemis Entreri must team up and fight back to back in an effort to get out of the Underdark at one point.

* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'': The Cullens ([[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires|Vegetarian Vampires]]) and the Quilettes ([[Fur Against Fang|Werewolves born to kill vampires]]), had to work together to destroy an army of newborn vampires that were killing people in general and wanted to kill Bella Swan in particular.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': While most of the clone troopers went on to serve the empire, the True Mandalorians (a.k.a. the group that nearly destroyed the Galactic Republic 4,000 years ago) fought alongside the rebels to retain their heritage as well as kill those who had betrayed their own kin.

** ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' has much the same dynamic, with the Traditions and the Technocracy setting aside their conflict long enough to take down a [[Omnicidal Maniac|Nephandus]] or Marauder.

** ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' does the same thing as well, with the Forsaken and the Pure reluctantly willing to put aside differences and put down Bale Hounds whenever they pop up.

** This most commonly occurs between forces of the Imperium, Eldar, and Tau against Tyranids, Necrons, or Chaos, and matching temporary alliances may occur between Chaos, Orks, and Dark Eldar, as prominently seen during Dawn of War: Winter Assault.

** The [[Manipulative Bastard|Eldar]], being the trope they are, will often manipulate any alliance they do make so that their allies take the brunt of the fighting (and thus causalities), in essence back-stabbing their allies during the alliance, as well as overtly so 5 minutes before its usefulness ends.

** Speaking of Bungie, while it isn't exactly an example of this trope, you do join forces with the Pfhor in ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'', and you do so because if you do, [[Big Bad|Tycho]] will decide to keep T'fear from killing all of the humans. It doesn't really matter, since you just go to an alternate reality after he tries to kill you for trying to escape slavery.

* In ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'', hero Dante teams up with his brother and enemy Vergil to fight the penultimate boss. It's barely cold when Vergil challenges Dante for ownership of the [[Infinity+1 Sword|Force Edge]].

** Which is soon followed by a three-way alliance of the Protoss, Dominion and UED against Kerrigan. {{spoiler|it doesn't quite work though.}}

** That doesn't really fit the bill of 'cooperating.' It's more like 'not attacking each other until a particular target is dead.' The three forces weren't even aware of each other until they all showed up on Kerrigan's doorstep at the same time.

** Which got its own moments of temporal alliances, such as the War of the Shifting Sands, the Opening of the Dark Portal (where the Horde and Alliance came to the aid of a neutral faction holding back demonic forces coming through the portal), and most recently, the Shattered Sun Offensive. At the same time though, both sides keep fighting in arenas, battlegrounds and the open world.

** In ''Burning Crusade'', there are Aldor and Scryers factions in Shattrath City which are rivals of each other on the borders of open hostilities. Players have to pick between them and befriending one means you are hostile to the other. However, near the conclusion of Burning Crusade during the Sunwell event, they finally put aside their differences and band together to form the Shattered Sun Offensive against Kael'thas Sunstrider and Kil'jaeden.

*** One OG example is when Sanger and Elzam storm the Tesla Liecht Institute to retrieve the Dynamic General Guardians being kept there from the Inspectors. When Sanger's Grungust Type-3 gets damaged, the Inspector Vigagi is about to land a fatal blow when Wodan Ymir appears and intervenes, claiming that he is the [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|only one allowed to kill Sanger]]. Wodan buys enough time for Sanger to activate the Dygenguard, and goes so far as to be the one who helps Sanger retrieve his Type-3 Zankantou (a job that was given to Elzam in Alpha 2) to continue fighting when Dygenguard's original weapons malfunction.

*** ''[[Super Robot Wars EX]]'' is an interesting case because some of the characters you can recruit ARE enemies in their respective series that are cooperating because they are stuck in La Gias with no way back. Shu's route is unique because the only ''heroes'' you actually can recruit (on that route) are the GoShogun team and [[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Quattro]]. The rest are all villains like [[Aura Battler Dunbine|Todd Guiness]] and [[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Jerid Messa]].

* This happens ''three'' times with [[Stripperiffic]] Pokémon Pincher admin Blue Eyes in the third ''[[Pokémon Ranger]]'' game. Two of these times, you even get to [[Save the Villain|save her life.]] {{spoiler|After the second time, Blue Eyes pulls an official [[Heel Face Turn]].}}

* Pyron is the [[Big Bad]] of the first two ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' games, despite many of the other characters being less than savory themselves.

*** In the DS version, you can also choose the ''Dark'' path by helping the Green Goblin.

* The plot of the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' [[Licensed Game]] "What's the Switch?", featuring a reluctant team-up by Shego and Kim.

{{quote|"Not now..."

"We don't have time to play with you!" }}

* In ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'', [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] teamed up with [[Big Bad|Dr. Eggman]] and the rest of the Dark Story characters to stop the Space Colony ARK's automated "apocalypse" function, which is mainly [[Colony Drop|the station de-orbiting to crash into the planet, presumably blowing up both if it had hit.]]

** Sonic and Eggman teamed up again in ''[[Sonic Advance Trilogy|Sonic Advance 3]]'' to stop the [[One-Winged Angel|out-of-control, Chaos Emerald-enhanced]] Gemerl from destroying the world.

** Additionally, this occurs in both sides of the story mode for ''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]''.

* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' Lloyd's group joins up with Sheena, their [[Hitman with a Heart|enemy]] in order to save a village from [[Nebulous Evil Organisation|the]] [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|Desians]].

** {{spoiler|Kratos after his betrayal, when you invade Forcystus' human ranch}}

** Some are happier about it than others. [[Scarlet Witch]] and Toad get along great with the X-Men and become quite friendly, while Magneto simply tolerates them, and Sabretooth and Juggernaut are constantly taking verbal potshots at the X-Men all game.

** As for its successor series, ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]] 2'' does it as well: this is how the game segues from an adaptation of the ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' to Vicarious Visions' original storyline, as the Negative Zone brawl is interrupted by {{spoiler|SHIELD's nanites gaining sentience and beginning an [[Assimilation Plot]]}}, forcing the pro- and anti-registration heroes to put their political squabble aside. And it kinda does not snapback, for when is all said and done, the Civil War is settled peacefully, [[Multiple Endings|the winning side being the one you chose at the beginning of it]].

** In the fan-made ''[[Blue Planet]]'' expansion, events transpire such that both the Terran forces of the GTVA and the UEF respond to a Vasudan ship in distress. The captains of both ships agree to set aside the war for the moment to rescue the Vasudans, and the deployed fighters make small talk with their opposite numbers. {{spoiler|It all falls apart when a second UEF ship arrives and, not knowing of the cease-fire, obliterates the GTVA ship. The UEF commanders were furious, since it made them look very, very bad in front of the Vasudans, with whom they had hoped to win political favor.}}

* In ''[[F.E.A.R.]] 3'', Paxton teams up with the ex-FEAR commando Point Man.

* The whole point of the ''[[Warriors Orochi]]'' games; all of the characters contained within are from either the Three Kingdoms period of China's history or the Warring States period of Japan's, and many of the characters are sworn enemies. However, a few of the Dream Mode stages in Warriors Orochi 2 ''specifically'' invoke this trope by teaming up characters who normally hate each other, such as the stage where ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' Guan Yu, Xiahou Dun, and Lu Meng team up to rescue Liu Chan from ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' character Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

* In ''[[Dragon Age]]'', {{spoiler|after punching some sense into Loghain's thick skull and overthrowing him from the throne, you can choose to spare him from execution and instead conscript him to the Wardens as a chance of redemption. He will then join your party and help you fight the Blight at the cost of Alistair, who will be so outraged with the decision of pardoning Loghain that he will leave.}}

* In the ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim|Skyrim]]'' quest ''Cure For Madness'', you have to hunt down {{spoiler|Cicero}} after he apparently turns rogue and attacks {{spoiler|Astrid}}. However, you can choose to spare his life, and later he will act as a follower for you. Similarly you can play as an Imperial, High Elf, Dark Elf, etc whilst working for the Stormcloaks (who are known for the xenophobia of some members).

* ''[[Solatorobo]]'' has the [[Private Military Contractors|Kurvasz]] [[Adventure Guild|Hunters]], Howler [[Sky Pirate]]s, and a ''train conductor'' join forces to {{spoiler|procure a powerful bomb to help in the fight against Tartaros.}}

* The final chapter of ''[[Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance|Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance]] 2'' has The Hero, Jherek the Harper, and Kharne the Zhentarim mercenary team up against the vampire Mordoc Selanmere.

* Mid- to late-game players of recent games in the ''[[X Universe]]'' series can befriend the [[Yakuza|Yaki]] faction by various means. They can then make use of their [[NGO Superpower]] status to steal ships from "Return Ship" missions, by docking the ship at the shipyard in Senator's Badlands. The [[Space Police]] sent to destroy the stolen ship will spawn and immediately come under attack by the Yaki, [[Curb Stomp Battle|who have an Akuma destroyer at their disposal]].

* In an episode of ''[[Adventures of the Gummi Bears]]'', Toadie's cousin Tadpole takes over Castle Drekmore, kicks Duke Igthorn out, and orders the ogres to destroy all the gummiberry bushes. Neither Igthorn nor the Gummis want the bushes destroyed, so they reluctantly team up to get rid of Tadpole.

** In another episode, Duke Igthorn hires a bounty hunter to catch a Gummi Bear. When the hunter returns with Cubbi Gummi but Igthorn refuses to pay, he and Cubbi are tossed into a dungeon cell, and have to work together to escape. That episode was a [[Chained Heat]], as well.

* Happened several times on ''[[Gargoyles]]''. David Xanatos is such a [[Magnificent Bastard]] that the Manhattan Clan always suspected they were being used. Occasionally they were wrong.

* Bart and Lisa from ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' teamed up with Sideshow Bob in "Brother From Another Series" to stop Bob's brother, Cecil, from blowing up the Springfield Dam to destroy the evidence that he cut back on construction to embezzle funds.

[[Category:Arch Enemy]]

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