Evil Versus Evil: Difference between revisions

** Kenpachi (who is also technically a good guy) versus Nnoitra Gilga.

* ''[[Kekkaishi]]'' is oddly getting to be like this. Aside from the guardians of Karasumori, there are two main factions. {{spoiler|Sousui}} is attempting to bring down the Urukai, and Shinyuuchi-hunting. {{spoiler|Yumeji}} is attempting to stop the former, but is also Shinyuuchi-hunting and trying to destroy Karasumori. (For those unfamiliar with the series, Shinyuuchi-hunting is the act of killing a god and taking over its domain. Considered to be the ultimate perversion of the laws of nature.)

** And don't forget about the Rail Tracer, who basically makes this a three-way bad guy fight.

* ''[[Battle Royale]]'' has Kazuo Kiriyama against Mitsuko Souma.

** 4th Edition has several instances, the most notable being the [[Evil Overlord|god of war Bane]] and his eternal war versus [[Complete Monster|god of destruction Gruumsh]]. While Bane revels in conquest and power, one of his prime commandments is to [[Even Evil Has Standards|ALWAYS obey the rules of war]]. He also likes his followers to be rigidly disciplined and wants to preserve the world so that it will be worth conquering. Gruumsh on the other hand revels in utter destruction and encourages savagery in his followers. Both want to be the uncontested god of war, and thus they've been fighting for eons over their differences.

** Another example is between the god of fear, Bane (no, [[Name's the Same|not that one]]) and the god of murder, Cyric, in the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' setting. This isn't a case of [[Order Versus Chaos]] or trying to decide which is [[Eviler Than Thou]]. These two just hate each other on a very personal level. The problem is that Cyric is currently [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed in a can]], so they can't fight directly. Instead, they're marshalling their respective [[Religion of Evil|worshippers]] to go on an (un)holy war against one another. Since in the Forgotten Realms, [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|the gods need worshippers to survive]], this is the only way they have to kill one another.

*** An orc tribe's worst enemy tends to not be a human kingdom, a clan of dwarves or even a [[Hidden Elf Village]], but a rival orc tribe, and the same applies to hobgoblins and ''their'' tribes. Only a sufficiently powerful [[Big Bad]] can terrify rival tribes into working together, and the result tends to be a [[Keystone Army]]. If the [[Big Bad]] dies, rival orc and hobgoblin tribes who were previously intimidated into cooperating will turn on each other with a vengeance.

*** The Chromatic Dragons (black, blue, green, red, and white), are all evil (blue and green are Lawful Evil, black red and white are Chaotic Evil), and all obsessed with gathering hoards, gaining territory, building power, and destroying anything good (especially the good Metallic Dragons). However, they have no love for each other either, and they will fight to kill or chase each other away (even if two dragons, a black and a green for instance, manage to form a truce, eventually and inevitably one or the other will break the truce and resume hostilities). The worst are red dragons, the archetypal evil dragons, who will slaughter ''anyone and anything'' in their pursuit of their desires.

* ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' has a path pitting the [[Affably Evil]] [[Mad Scientist|Doctor Eggman]] against [[Complete Monster]] [[I'm a Humanitarian|Black Doom]].

* ''[[Syndicate]]''. Set in a future where human life is cheap (and entire populated areas are subject to "lunchtime nuclear testing"), corrupt syndicates vie for control of the world, with no qualms whatsoever about the idea of killing civilians in the process. Or just brainwashing their enemies into doing their bidding if violence is too much of a hassle.

** The sequel, ''Demon's Crest'', sees Firebrand escape from gladiatorial combat to hunt down Phalanx, a demon who has stolen several powerful crests from him and is using their power to rule the world. The catch? Firebrand wants the crests so ''he'' can rule the world.

* The most obvious modern example would be ''[[Overlord (series)|Overlord]].'' You play as the reincarnation of an [[Evil Overlord]] seeking revenge on the heroes who defeated you. Conveniently, all seven of them have become so corrupted in the meantime that they rival you in evilness, are now virtual embodiments of the [[Seven Deadly Sins]] and enable you to still become a [[Villain with Good Publicity]] while killing them if you play your cards right. In fact, {{spoiler|the seventh hero is possessed by the actual [[Evil Overlord]], and is the one that corrupted the others. Surprise! You're not the real overlord, you're a [[Tomato in the Mirror]]}}.

*** This one got even worse in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''; while the Burning Legion's pawns are exterminated, new conflict is added with the fanatical Scarlet Crusade, Varimathras' loyalists, and the ambiguous Knights of the Ebon Blade. While the Forsaken and the Knights are protagonists of an ambiguously gray morality with both sympathetic and sinister members, the only unambiguously "good" force in the Plaguelands was the relatively small Argent Dawn.

** The Dark Iron dwarves initially fought in the service of Ragnaros against the Blackrock Orcs, who served the Black Dragonflight. In Cataclysm, however, Ragnaros has joined forces with Deathwing.

** In "Wrath of the Lich King", the Scourge conquered the Nerubians and has almost conquered the Drakkari ice trolls, both of which are quite evil (the ice trolls especially so, even compared to the evil and barbaric majority of the non-playable trolls). In Drak'Tharon Keep, both the living trolls and their allies, and the undead trolls and other Scourge members attack the party as they make their way up the keep.

* ''[[Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'' pits Bowser up against Fawful, who's taken over the Mushroom Kingdom and booted him out of his own castle. [[Super Mario RPG|Again.]] This time, however, the Super Mario brothers, for the most part, play a supporting role in the game, powering up his body when necessary (including [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|making him a giant]] in order to [[Megaton Punch]] castles). Later on after {{spoiler|Fawful and the Dark Star go [[One-Winged Angel]]}} it's up to Bowser to save the Mushroom Kingdom.

* [[Our Demons Are Different|Uram]] and [[Undead|Hokan]] of ''[[Spellforce]]''.

* ''[[Modern Warfare 2]]''. {{spoiler|General Shepard's Infamous Shadow Company vs. Makarov's Ultranationalists.}} And you in the middle. How fun! Although it only lasts a mission but it's far easier just to make the fight as even as possible then sit back and watch the carnage (typically shadow is ahead).

* In the third ''[[Rampage (video game)|Rampage]]'' the only reason you don't destroy humanity is that aliens trying to take over the world provide a distraction.

* ''[[Hexen]] II'''s sparse story becomes this if you play as the assassin or necromancer. The assassin wants to kill [[Big Bad|Eidolon]] to prove she's the best assassin of all time, and the necromancer wants to kill Eidolon so people fear him again.

* If an enemy in any ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' game accidentally shoots another enemy, they will fight it out while you stand and watch. In the second game the native f'likta fight the phfor as long as you're lying low. In ''Infinity'' the A.I. Tycho controls the pfhor hunters, fighters and you, using his forces to fight against the phfor enforcers, compilers, and Durandal's humans [[spoiler: [[The Plan|planned by you to keep a CosmicHorror under wraps]].

* In ''[[Myth]]: The Fallen Lords'' the dark leaders, the fallen lords, hate each other more then they hate you. In one level you sit back for most of the level and let the two forces fight each other, then pick off the pitiful remnants.

** Thats more of [[What Measure Is a Mook?]], considering that all sides have a [[Grey and Gray Morality|grey]] background.

* ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'': Protagonist Kain is a [[Magnificent Bastard]] [[Villain Protagonist]] [[Evil Overlord]]. He's the hero of the games mainly because his enemies are [[Knight Templar]] [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]] who are even worse than he is.

* Can easily happen in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' - All the nasty creatures and evil factions are only alike in their hatred of the Dwarves, so if two of them happen to arrive at your fort at the same time, expect them to tear each other to pieces.

* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' is pretty much this. Travis isn't really such a great guy, and is tearing through mobs of mooks and taking assassination side jobs on possible not so evil people all for the sake of getting laid. Once. Although a few of the other assassins are much worse than he is. Like Destroyman. And Bad Girl. [[Nightmare Fuel|Dear god Bad Girl.]]

* Though one could hardly think of the title character as evil, the page describes the plot of ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' almost perfectly: a [[Gentleman Thief]] who steals from other criminals.

* ''[[Breath of Fire IV]]'' features a [[Supporting Leader]], the [[God Is Good|noble]] if [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|heavy-handed]] literal [[God-Emperor]] Fou-Lu being betrayed and abused by [[The Empire]] that he helped to found, eventually resulting in a ''massive'' [[Face Heel Turn]] that sees him become a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]. Said empire has an ''extremely'' [[Selfish Evil]] leader and a [[Complete Monster]] at the head of its science department {{spoiler|turning people into [[Body Horror|Body Horrors]] [[For the Evulz|purely because]] [[For Science!|science thought it'd be lulzy]].}} As you near the end of the game, the only question remaining is, "[[Eviler Than Thou|Which one will be the]] [[Big Bad|Biggest Bad]]?"

* The backstory if [[Fallout]] was basically this. The [[Alternate History]] starting after World War 2 had the Soviet Union collapse much quicker than in our timeline and the Middle Eastern powers go to war with each other. This caused a huge economic crisis. Europe collapsed and became a war torn hell hole, and the US and China tried to solve their oil problems by invading their neighbors (in the US's case, Canada, in China's case, the former Soviet nations). Eventually, these last two functional governments went to war, which started in Alaska and spread to the Chinese mainland, causing China and the US to nuke one another and bring about [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. At the time of the war, China was an imperialistic, aggressive, tyrannical nation with an army of [[Sociopathic Soldier|Sociopathic Soldiers]]. The United States was the exact same, except ruled by a puppet government controlled by a Nazi-esque [[Ancient Conspiracy]] called The Enclave in addition to all of that.

* Lampshaded in the GTA IV Episodes when you play as Luis and see {{spoiler|Niko and Johnny (who are against you in this but played in the previous games) fight against some Mafia goons in the museum.}}

* A late-game quest becomes this in ''[[Might and Magic]] VII'' if one goes for the evil path. You work with/for guys who want to take over the planet through force of superior weapons technology, and who find nothing wrong with mad laughter (and your personal chronicler finds the discovery of left-over torture instruments from a previous occupant of your castle to be a happy surprise). You still get sent to kill the Kreegans' King Xenofex, though, because the Kreegans are [[Planet Looters]] and a big threat in general.

* Both sides of the civil war in ''[[Far Cry]] 2'' talk a good talk about how they're making their country a better place, but both are willing to commit war crimes for tactical advantages or petty vengeance. Some of the mercenaries profess idealistic motives, but all of them except the protagonist choose money over decency. The Underground is well-intentioned, but completely ineffectual, repeatedly requiring the protagonist's help to wipe out hostile mercenaries. The closest thing to a heroic figure is the arms dealer supplying both sides, and that's only because he wants them to wipe each other out.

** Another example from the same series was where the kids were outclassed by an evil wizard. Presto tells Venger what the wizard is up to... queue Venger marching in to deliver a beatdown and the kids running like hell.

* [[The Powerpuff Girls]] formed an [[Enemy Mine]] with [[Evil Genius|Mojo Jojo]] to combat an alien force. He was determined to prove [[Eviler Than Thou|he was the most evil]].

* In ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'', the villains of Gotham City hold a very, very delicate balance between them all. The memorable [[Bad Guy Bar]] episode "Almost Got 'Im" features such villains as the Joker, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, the Penguin, and Killer Croc playing poker, all looking like they might kill each other at any moment- and at the end it's revealed that Harley Quinn has Catwoman tied up ready to be fed into a food processor.

** Two-Face and Poison Ivy have an interesting rivalry, as they used to date before Harvey Dent became Two-Face. One episode shows that as district attorney, Dent had wanted to develop a park into housing, and Ivy pretended to take a romantic interest in him so she could kill him by poisoning him.