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Evil Versus Evil (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:evil-versus-evil_7411evil 7411.jpg|link=Alien vs. Predator (film)|frame| A big clue is when both sides have [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]].]]
 
{{quote|''"And so the [[Evil Overlord]] defeated the other [[Evil Overlord]], [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|and the land rejoiced]]."''|'''Gnarl''', ''[[Overlord (series)|Overlord]]''}}
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** And whether Dragon's Revolutionaries are actually good remains to be seen. Bartholomew Kuma used to be a member before becoming a Warlord, after all, and he's said to have been a vicious mass murderer (although his actions {{spoiler|prior to [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|losing his free will to his cyborg conversion]]}} make him look like one of the more decent of the Warlords, so it's not clear-cut in any case).
* The trope is invoked in ''[[Basilisk]]'' by the Shogun, to head off another Evil Versus Evil [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] occurring between the nannies of his heirs, and remove them from influence over the succession.
* In ''[[Berserk]]'', the Neo-Band of Hawks led by [[Dark Messiah|Griffith]] and the Apostles versus [[Evil Overlord|Emperor Ganishka]] of Kushan. Both sides use different types of [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s in their final battle.
* Happens to some extent at the end of the first season of the ''[[Black Butler]]'' anime. A psycho [[Fallen Angel]] tries to burn London to the ground as the first stage of an attempt to "purify" humanity. Humanity's only hope ends up being a demon who, for various reasons, wants said angel dead.
** The second season initially appeared to be leading towards this type of conflict, but very quickly {{spoiler|abandoned this approach by having Claude, previously morally ambiguous a la Sebastian, off Alois, briskly setting him up as the main antagonist and effectively eliminating the [[Black and Gray Morality|moral ambiguity]] aspect.}}
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* Ryo Mashiba vs. Ryuuhei Sawamura in ''[[Hajime no Ippo]]''. See a greater description on [[Eviler Than Thou]].
* ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' has an awful lot of this going on. With very few exceptions it's extremely hard to see what, if anything, distinguishes the protagonists and antagonists on a moral level. Possibly nothing, except for the strength of the person's [[Freudian Excuse]]. In ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' you're either a mafia leader or a complete psychopath. Or both.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' has a duel between Yami Marik, a psychopath who likes to [[Mind Rape]] and attempt to murder people, and Yami Bakura, a thief and murderer who wants the Millenium Items for his own mysterious reasons. The chapter/volume this duel appears is actually ''called'' "Evil VS Evil", making it an intended example of this trope. We're meant to be rooting for Bakura, as he's got Marik's good half on his side... {{spoiler|too bad he loses}}. It has the honour of being both this and an example of [[Ham-to-Ham Combat]]-- it—it becomes the kind of duel that needs to be seen to be believed.
** Yami Yugi versus all the villains in season 0.
* In the various ''[[Slayers]]'' series, the Monster Race shows up to be exemplars of this trope on a regular basis, usually through Xellos. The main plot Arc of Slayers Try is an archetypical example of this trope.
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== Comics ==
* The quintessential comic book example: ''[[Wanted (Comic Book)|Wanted]]'', the story of the son of one of the world's most skilled supervillains in a world where a much, much more grotesque, inhuman villain is waging war with -- yes -- otherwith—yes—other supervillains, for control of the world, which has fallen under the control of -- heyof—hey, you guessed it! -- supervillainy.
* [[The DCU]] has the [[Suicide Squad]], a US government black ops unit made up primarily with [[Boxed Crook|jailed supervillains]] who agree to undertake dangerous missions against other supervillains with promised clemency if they survive.
** [[Marvel Comics]]' [[Alternate Company Equivalent|Alternate Company Equivalents]]s are [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Freedom Force]] and the [[Thunderbolts]].
* The [[Larry Hama]]-written ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' comics by Marvel had the Cobra Civil War storyline, where Serpentor and {{spoiler|the Crimson Guardsman masquerading as}} Cobra Commander fought over control of Cobra. Destro and his Iron Grenadiers represented a third villain faction in the conflict. The Joes didn't have much to do but bear witness to events {{spoiler|though Serpentor's faction had bought their support from corrupt elements within the Pentagon}}.
** The recent revival comic also had a storyline or three about Cobra factions gunning for each other, including one named... Cobra Civil War.
* Even though it was called Super-Villain Team Up, Marvel's comic series featured [[Sub-Mariner|Namor]] and [[Doctor Doom]] (Namor being an [[Anti-Hero]] of sort during those days. And yes, nowadays again as well.) fighting mostly each other and other supervillains. Only the occasional hero would show up and get involved.
* The DC crossover event ''Reign in Hell'' pitted the half-demon children of Shazam, Blaze and Satanus, against Neron (who was [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned into being ''the'' ruler of Hell instead of being just another demon lord) in a bid to control all of Hell. A few of the magic-using DC heroes got involved in the conflict because the fallout of the infernal struggle was screwing up magic in general. It ultimately ended with {{spoiler|Satanus defeating Neron by transforming ''all'' the demons of Hell into humans (which had the side effect of stripping Neron of most of his power that was absorbed from other demons over the millenia), Neron's head on a pike, and Blaze betraying Satanus in a moment of weakness making her the new Queen of Hell}}.
* [[Geoff Johns]]' ''Rogue War'', which pitted two teams of [[The Flash]]'s rogues (one led by Captain Cold, the other by the original Trickster) going up against each other, (over the body of Captain Boomerang, among other things) soon joined by a third group (brought together by the Top). This leads up to a [[The DCU/Awesome|CMOA]] where Captain Cold, almost the epitome of [[Even Evil Has Standards]], freezes then kills the Top, the whole time berating him why this shouldn't have happened.
{{quote|'''Captain Cold''': Forgot one of the rules, Top. Rogues shouldn't fight each other. 'Cause when they do... *[[Literally Shattered Lives|shatters the frozen Top]]* bad things happen.}}
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== Fan Works ==
* Zan-Shocker vs. the Voidspace Army in [http://alaxr274.deviantart.com/gallery/36864534 Kamen Rider x Super Sentai x Super Milestone Wars: Crossover Taisen]
* ''[[The Open Door]]'' features this as its driving conflict. In one corner, you have the C'Tan, a race of [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Energy Beings]] obsessed with [[Omnicidal Maniac|wiping out all life in the universe]] and their mortal servants, the Necrons. In the other corner you have New Chaos, the collective forces of mankind led by their own set of [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s and willing to do [[Moral Event Horizon|anything and everything]] ([[Even Evil Has Standards|short of harming children!]]) to ensure their own survival. Some would argue that this is more properly a case of [[Black and Grey Morality]] but New Chaos crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] too frequently -- mostfrequently—most often at the expense of ''much'' lighter grey or even white factions like the cast of [[Star Trek]] or [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] -- to—to be anything other than [[A Lighter Shade of Grey|Another Shade Of Black]].
* ''[[Ultimate Sleepwalker|Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' has the supervillain 8-Ball going up against hired killer Bullseye when they're hired by rival syndicates during a [[Mob War]]. {{spoiler|8-Ball wins.}}
* The Council Era, a fanfic created through the cooperation of several writers on the [[Mass Effect]] Fanon Wikia (not Fan Fiction wikia) has an Evil Versus Evil plotline within the [[Grey and Gray Morality]] of the [[Mass Effect]] universe. On one side is the [[Lawful Evil]], morally-corrupt equivalent of a galactic United Nations, The Council, and [[The Starscream|their advisor Tyrin Lieph]]. On the other is a ruthless [[Neutral Evil]] species [[The Starscream|led by another Starscream, Halak Marr]], whose primary goal is becoming a [[Master Race]].
* In ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality]]'' Draco believes (along most Slytherins, apparently) that Dumbledore was the Greater Evil and that Voldemort and his Death Eaters, though bad, were the only people with a chance to stand up to him.
* During the last third of the ''[[Digimon]]'' story ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1584078/1/ Zero 2: A Revision]'', [[Manipulative Bastard|UmbraDevimon]] and [[Evil Overlord|Demon]] both invade the Real World at the same time; apparently deciding that it's not big enough for both of them, they start throwing their armies at each other in order to wipe each other out. And ''[[It Got Worse|then]]'', the Gravemon invade as well, and they suddenly find something more dangerous to worry about.
* ''[[The Shape of the Nightmare to Come]]'' has [[Galactic Conqueror|Abaddon]]'s Chaos Imperium fighting against the Perturabo-Angron alliance (Abaddon wins with the aid of Typhus), and later on [[Space Pirates|Huron Blackheart's Eastern Chaos Imperium]] and the [[Eldritch Abomination|Void Dragon]]'s Necron forces. On another (even worse) note, a key element of the fic's setting is the removal of two factions engaged in a massive [[Evil Versus Evil]] war - The Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan and the Ork Empire of Octarius inadvertently gave birth to the New Devourer, [[It Got Worse|Ork/Tyranid hybrid lifeforms]], who then proceeded to eat 1/3 of the galaxy.
* This has popped up a couple of times so far in ''[[Queen of All Oni]]'': First, Valmont used the first Oni mask to steal control of the Ninja Shadowkhan away from Jade and turned on her, forcing her into a brief [[Enemy Mine]] with Jackie. Then Ikazuki showed up and, after a brief fight, forced Jade to serve him, at least until the J-Team defeated him. And seeing as Jade's ultimate plan is to overthrow Tarakudo as ruler of the Oni, this will probably show up some more.
** In a situation not involving the Oni, Jade gets captures by the [[Evil Sorcerer]] Lung, who wishes to break her to his will, thus granting him control over her and her tribe. Jade's minions, Left and Right, track him down and launch an [[Storming the Castle|assault on his fortress]], completely [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb stomping]] his forces before fighting {{spoiler|and killing}} him and freeing Jade.
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== Films -- Animation ==
* ''[[Despicable Me]]''. But given that both Gru and Vector are kid-friendly [[Harmless Villain|Harmless Villains]]s, it's played strictly for laughs.
 
 
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* ''[[District 9]]'' briefly has the variant where both sides in the struggle over the fate of the Prawns -both MNU and the Nigerian gangs- are [[Complete Monster|utterly unsympathetic]] and you really hope they wipe each other out.
* ''[[In the Loop]]'' pits a [[Complete Monster]] (Linton Barwick) against a [[Magnificent Bastard]] (Malcolm Tucker). Linton is so utterly loathsome and charmless that viewers find themselves rooting for the evil-but-charming Malcolm, even when this means willing him to help start an illegal war. [[You Bastard|The bastards.]]
* ''[[The Devil's Rejects|The Devils Rejects]]'' takes [[He Who Fights Monsters]] and [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|bashes you over the head with it]]. Some viewers [[Misaimed Fandom|cheered Wydell on, however]], as his depraved acts of torture were done against [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]s who tortured and killed countless ''innocent'' people, yet [[Rob Zombie]] [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|expected the audience to feel sorry for them once they got a taste of their own medicine]].
* ''[[Hard Candy]]''. A sadistic psychopath vs. a child molester. You decide who's the good guy.
* The Sith Order in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films operated under the Rule of Two: There were to be only two Sith in the Galaxy, a master and an apprentice. If the apprentice wanted to become the master, [[Klingon Promotion|all he had to do was kill his master and take the title for himself.]] The Rule of Two was specifically designed to prevent this trope on a massive scale, as in-fighting was as big a threat to the Sith as the Jedi were.
* ''[[Paths of Glory]]'' (1957) by [[Stanley Kubrick]]. Admittedly, the bulk of the film is more of a [[Law Procedural|courtroom drama]] with [[Kirk Douglas]] as an idealist officer/lawyer being the obvious good guy, but its [[World War One]] setting and overall anti-war message could classify it as Evil Versus Evil when it comes to the two sides fighting a pointless war, with the French generals coming off as arrogant and foppish with little (if any) regard for the life of their soldiers. One could imagine their British allies, or their German opponents, being exactly the same.
* The ''[[Alien vs. Predator]]'' crossover franchise is an example of this without question. Whoever wins, we lose.
** [[Alien vs. Predator (film)|The first film]] shows the last predator teaming up with the {{spoiler|humans}} -- only—only because it was the only way he could win. {{spoiler|He died in the end, as well as the other predators who knew of the alliance.}}
** Although the {{spoiler|other predators died}} in the second film, but it picks up right where the first one left off.
* ''[[King Kong]] [[King Kong vs. Godzilla|vs.]] [[Godzilla]]'' was debatably an example of this as well as the obvious [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny]] since both were antagonists in their original films.
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*** This was just an excuse, made by Imperials trying to justify it's actions many years later.
* Hannibal by Thomas Harris. On one hand you've got Dr. Hannibal Lecter himself, serial killer and cannibal, versus {{spoiler|Mason Verger}} who abused his own sister as a child, moved on to molest more children and planned on {{spoiler|feeding Dr. Lecter to some pigs he's had trained to eat human flesh}}.
* [[A Song of Ice and Fire]] generally features [[Grey and Gray Morality]], but occasionally two [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]s are thrown into the ring together: Ser Gregor Clegane vs Vargo Hoat, for example.
* In the ''[[1632]]'' series, the [[Thirty Years' War]] is basically described as this. This does have basis in [[Truth in Television|truth]]. While mostly thought of as a Protestant versus Catholic conflict in real life -- andlife—and, indeed, religious tensions did play a significant part -- itpart—it was largely just a massive, selfish power play between the nobles of the Holy Roman Empire and most of Europe which resulted in the loss of countless of lives. Heck, even the "Catholic" and "Protestant" sides were not rigidly divided along those religious lines. Their armies were often composed of mercenary troops with mixed religions. Both sides' armies also had the tendency to rape, pillage, and burn villages, regardless of the religious make up of said villages. The [[Author Filibuster|author repeatedly hammers this point home]] in the series, as well as the fact that 17th century Europe in general was not a pleasant place.
** The [[Truth in Television]] was not just limited to the nobility's power grabs. Groups of Catholics and Protestants (who were themselves divided mostly among equally hostile Calvinists and Lutherans) frequently tore each other apart when the opportunity presented itself. Rape, looting, and mass murder were employed with equal frequency by any one of the factions against the others.
* Harry [[Flashman]] is a loathsome, profiteering, traitorous cowardly braggart who'll [[Kick the Dog]] for fun, betray his country at the drop of a hat, and lie shamelessly about it all to look like a hero afterwards. But he's generally up against some of the nastiest pieces of work the 19th century has to offer, so you'll (almost) forgive him for it as long as they lose in the end.
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** Which led to a [[WWE/Funny|Crowning Moment of Funny]] when John Cena was appointed special guest referee, and disqualified both Barrett and Punk for 'excessive use of profanity on a PG show', eliminating both factions from the Rumble. He was overruled.
* Any [[Triple H]] vs. [[Kurt Angle]] match from 2000-2002 was this essentially. Triple H was the sledgehammer-wielding [[Villain Sue]] against the pompous [[Smug Snake]] Kurt Angle who wanted to take the guy's wife. Though they were both heels, they were tenuous allies at best and vicious enemies at worst. They would feud on and off from year to year, with neither really turning face at all (the closest being their ''No Way Out'' match where Triple H was running off of [[Determinator]] face heat).
** During this period Triple H even paused during his catchphrase to allow the audience to finish it -- ait—a way of hinting to the [[Genre Savvy|smart marks]] that he was going to turn face. {{spoiler|He didn't.}}
* [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] vs. The Hart Foundation could be viewed as this, had it not been for the overwhelming crowd reaction in Austin's favor.
* Undertaker vs Big Bossman in a Hell In A Cell match was this. This one wasn't so successful, mostly because they had no real chemistry or feud, so the crowd had nobody to root for.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Pretty much the fundamental premise of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'', where ''every'' side is supposed to be evil, and if the players ever start [[Misaimed Fandom|thinking otherwise]], the writers make that side [[Moral Event Horizon|even more evil]] to make sure it doesn't happen anymore.
** The Biggest 2 examples being the Eldar and the Tau. The Eldar are psychic space elves that [[Manipulative Bastard|can see the future.]] They fight against [[Eldritch Abomination|Chaos]], which is what [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s fear when they're up late at night. The fanbase tended towards them being the good guys, so the latest editions of the game has played up the "[[Manipulative Bastard]]" part to 11 and making it clear that they're all about the long game. In one example, they caused an Ork warlord to attack the Human world of Armageddon, killing ''billions'' in order to save a few thousand Eldar lives; in another, they happily attacked both Orkish and Imperium worlds in order to deny the Tyranids biomass. Further, an Eldar captured by the Imperial Guard makes it perfectly clear that once they are back on top they will systematically kill every single human, or Mon-Keigh, in existence.
*** The Tau are anime-influenced space-communists that fight for The Greater Good, and are the closest thing the setting has to a neutral or even good faction. That is, if you ignore the fact that their entire race is being mind controlled by their leaders. Not wanting such an obvious good race in the series, Games-Workshop pointed out that the Tau's plans for humanity include forced sterility, slave camps, and genocide. The kicker? [[Crapsack World|They're still the only thing close to a good race the game has.]]
*** [[Unreliable Narrator|From one of the Imperium's scholars]]. This is the same Imperium where aliens are regarded on the same level we regard poisonous snakes.
**** Which still doesn't mean they're wrong given the setting-- manysetting—many of the reports claiming the Tau are the good guys are from Tau propaganda. That's how [[Games Workshop]] explains conflicting sources, which is either lazy or brilliant. Or both.
** The Imperium gets this too. For every hardworking adept who agonizes over every difficult decision, honorable space marine, or working class guardsmen with balls of steel they show you; they are contractually obligated to show ten [[Knight Templar]] inquisitors screaming "EXTERMINATUS!"
**** [[Flanderization|Which really just becomes stupid before long]], as rarely do you see a competent Inquisitor despite the fact that the radicals are supposed to be incredibly rare.
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* This is sort of built into the [[Character Alignment|alignment system]] in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', though it's more a result of any Evil alignment taking on [[Order Versus Chaos]]: chaotic evil and lawful evil characters theoretically hate each other as much as, say, good and evil ones, and while this isn't applied so much to mortals, the war between demons and devils, which is known as the Blood War, is mentioned more often than the war between celestials and fiends.
** The Third Edition ''Dungeon Master's Guide'' says "...evil rarely gets along with evil, for the desires of one selfish and destructive being, by definition, conflict with the desires of other selfish and destructive beings.
** The two Fiendish Codexes explain that there is an infinite number of demons, and there's more of them spawning at all times. Angels, Archons, Devils & company are in a finite number. The Devils exist in fact so they can use their superior tactics and team work (due to their Lawfulness) along with similar weapons as those used by the demons, to keep the demons in check. The books make it explicit that if the Devils weren't around, the demons would swarm and destroy all of creation. The books also hint that if the demons vanished, the Devils could probably conquer the Multiverse, being a race composed entirely of [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]]s and [[The Chessmaster|Chessmasters]].
*** And in the 2nd Edition of the game, the various forces of good took time to fan the flames, hoping to break their enemies against each other. In the ''[[Planescape]]'' boxed set "Hellbound: the Blood War", there's even an adventure where player characters discover high-ranking angelic beings funneling weapons and armor to their favored side in the war so more and more of the fiends would be killed.
*** Some demon sub-races are also enemies of other demon sub-races (retrievers eat all other demons, for example). Some members of the higher ranking devil sub-races get promoted to the next higher-ranking sub-race by getting their direct superior killed or demoted, while some pit fiends (the highest-ranking sub-race) do the same to replace the devil dukes and duchesses who themselves are [[The Starscream]] to the archdevils. There's also much enmity between [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|the archdevils (Dispater and Mephistipholes vs. Baalzebul, Prince Levistus vs. Princess Glasya, all the other archdevils trying to take Asmodeous' throne) and the demon lords]] (Juiblex vs. Zugtmoy, Baphomet vs. Yenoghu, the three-way battle between Graz'zt, Orcus and Demogorgan).
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* This is the very principle behind the [[Tabletop RPG]] ''Necessary Evil''. An alien invasion has wiped out all the superheroes, so the only ones left to defend the world is the supervillains. After all, you can hardly conquer the world if it's already been destroyed by aliens, right?
* The [[Character Alignment]] system for Palladium games (such as ''[[Rifts]]'') establishes that Aberrant characters (think [[Lawful Evil]]) refuse to have anything to do with the other Evil alignments and finds them disgusting. It's quite possible to have an all-Aberrant party run a lot like an all-[[Lawful Good|Principled]] party with only a few slight differences.
* ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' is basically built on this, as is the ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]''. While player characters are perfectly capable of being [[Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire|Friendly Neighbourhood Vampires]]s, (at least until their [[Enemy Within|inner beast]] makes them tear a few innocent onlookers apart), Vampire society can basically be summarised as an evil monarchy of [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzsche Wannabes]]s and [[The Chessmaster|Chessmasters]] fighting against the psycho satanists and creepy ninjas.
** Likewise in the ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' and ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'' lines of the ''[[New World of Darkness]]''. The main "bad guy" faction of each game (the Pure and the Seers of the Throne, respectively) generally does their level best to stamp out the guys who spend their time worshipping [[Eldritch Abomination|the true horrors lurking in the night]] (the Bale Hounds and the Scelesti, respectively).
** In the [[Old World of Darkness]], Agents of the Wyrm don't take kindly to someone mixing in traces of the Weaver with their plans. This is likely to cause some mayhem when [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Pentex]] figures out the true backing of the head of their Avalon toy company subsidiary.
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* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has a few instances where this occurs. In Omega, the [[Lawful Evil|Blue Suns]] mercenary band fought off against the invading [[Chaotic Evil|Blood Pack]] in the slum districts.
** There's also [[Sociopathic Hero|Zaeed]] [[Psycho for Hire|Massani]]'s loyalty mission, which sees him pitted against fellow Blue Suns mercenary group founder [[Smug Snake|Vido]] [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|Santiago]]. Zaeed wants to kill Vido for [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|betraying him and taking control of the Blue Suns]], and is [[Kick the Dog|more than happy to allow innocent bystanders to die]] if they get in his way.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' ''swims'' in this trope -- mosttrope—most conspicuously in the video games, Dark Siders fight each other if anything ''more'' intensely than they fight anyone else.
** In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (video game)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'', taking the Dark Side path means fighting Darth Malak for control of his{{spoiler|/your}} war machine, with the conquest of the Republic covered in the epilogue.
*** Additionally, a Dark Sider in ''KOTOR 2'' will face [[Omnicidal Maniac|Darth Nihilus]], who draws his power from the same source as the player character. [[Evil Counterpart]] to a good character, he becomes [[Not So Different]] for an evil one.
** Ditto for ''Jedi Knight'', ''Jedi Academy'', and any other game that gives you a Dark Side path...
** Also ditto for the films and the Expanded Universe, which has been a very [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|colorful]] place since [[Big Bad|Palpatine]] was overthrown in favor of the [[Good Is Dumb|New Republic]]. The New Republic has completely collapsed in favor of some kind of uneasy coalition of monarchical Imperial factions, independent core planets, and alien invaders by this point, and most of the Skywalker family is back on the Dark Side -- andSide—and this ''without'' being a deliberate [[Crapsack World]].)
* ''[[City of Heroes|City of Villains]]'' is a good example of why this trope exists. The few truly evil contacts ([[Complete Monster|Westin Phipps]] in particular) produce a good deal of controversy about whether they're "too evil." Thus, more than half the game's missions could very easily be rewritten for heroes. Many contacts have forced unethical traits and selfish motives written in for why you're stopping a villainous organization from realizing their plans. Hell, you spend more time fighting your "patron" organization of Arachnos than you spend fighting Wyvern or Legacy Chain (Longbow are like cockroaches, though...).
* Newly unveiled footage from ''[[Twisted Metal]]'' shows factions gameplay. So very, very much this. Dollface and <s> [[Cowboy Bebop at His Computer|Sweet Tooth]]</s> Needles Kane have each recruited followers, and they're squaring off.
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** ''Dungeon Keeper 2'' gives you an ongoing rival keeper named Nemesis, who commands all of the other rival keepers you face. Again, the primary goal is killing the heroes, though this time it's to take the Portal Gems they guard, some of which have already been looted by the other keepers.
* During the early part of The Arbiter's campaign in ''[[Halo 2]]'', since you're playing as Covenant you get to fight humans to show how they aren't actually [[Redshirt Army|worthless in combat]], right? Wrong. Instead, you start off fighting Covenant heretics in the ruins of what you ''blew to smithereens'' in the first game.
** It's worse than that. A mid-to-late-game [[Tomato Surprise]] makes {{spoiler|the Arbiter a sort of [[Villain Protagonist]]}} in hindsight. <ref> Turns out, the heretics were ''right'', and the Arbiter spends nearly all of Halo 3 righting all that's gone wrong.</ref>
** In the later parts of the first ''Halo'' game, one can simply sit back and watch the three-way battles between Flood, Covenant, and Sentinels until one faction kills the others and start actively hunting ''you''.
*** Sentinels are hardly "evil", though. They're just following their programming: defend the Ring from anyone they perceive as a threat. Now Guilty Spark, on the other hand, is a [[Heel Face Revolving Door|decidedly more complicated matter]].
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** 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.
* If you take the evil path in the vast majority of [[RPG|RPGs]]s, you're still going to have to fight the same evil [[Big Bad]]. In a [[BioWare]] game, your quest will be close to the same regardless of your alignment, including a struggle against the minions of the [[Big Bad]]; ''maybe'', at the end, you'll be given an option to join them instead of fighting them; otherwise, you'll just prove to be [[Eviler Than Thou]].
* In ''[[The Godfather (video game)|The Godfather]]'', your character Aldo Trapani runs a protection racket for the Corleones, doesn't hesitate to cause property damage or (threaten to) brutalise shopkeepers in his extortion attempts and can kill people in a wide variety of ways. Pretty much every copper in NYC is a [[Dirty Cop]] who at best never turns down a bribe and at worst is a rapist. The other Families don't have the moral high ground, though, as their members are always itching for a fight, rule their turfs with iron fists and don't shy from shooting up civilians blocking their line of fire to you.
* Tommi Vercetti of ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]]'' got the most characterization as a villain. Although he appears to be criminal out of necessity in the beginning, he's not just [[Punch Clock Villain|punching a clock]]; he's been a lifelong career killer, never wanted to be anything else, and has no [[Freudian Excuse]] behind it. He [[Even Evil Has Standards|has no standards beneath him]] and doesn't appear to be any better than any of his enemies, yet still manages to be the most [[Affably Evil]] character in the series.
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* 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.
* ''[[Traffic Department 2192]]'' has [[Villain Protagonist|evil]] versus [[Galactic Conqueror|evil]] versus [[Enemy Civil War|evil]], with [[White Gang-Bangers|evil and evil]] thrown in for laughs. {{spoiler|The final faction initially looks benevolent, since it's composed of [[Actual Pacifist|Actual Pacifists]]s--nope, they're all [[Manipulative Bastard|Manipulative Bastards]]s, and they're evil too! The protagonist, arguably the most evil of the lot, is also the most beneficial, wiping everyone else out so the few decent people can take charge.}}
* ''[[Street Fighter IV]]'' has Vega/M. Bison pitted against Seth, both of whom are power-hungry [[Complete Monster|complete monsters]] who want to [[Take Over the World]] for themselves.
* The war between Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation in ''[[Tekken]]''.
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* Ever destroyed another ship in ''[[EVE Online]]''? Congratulations, you just killed anywhere between a few dozens to a few dozens of thousands of people. Reduce that by a power of 10 or so for any player-controlled ships. As such, ''everyone'' in this game is a mass-murdering lunatic.
** 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]]s who are even worse than he is.
* The ''[[Mega Man Legends]]'' Spinoff ''The Misadventures Of Tron Bonne'' have you controlling one member of the main series' [[Goldfish Poop Gang]] and her [[Adorable Evil Minions]] trying to pay her brother's ransom. Sure, the main antagonist is an evil bastard trying to rule the world and your motive is quite noble...but you still accomplish it by robbing livestock from a farm, stealing containers from the docks, and blowing up a bank while fighting the police.
* In ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)|Fahrenheit]]'' you have two factions fighting over one [[Apocalypse Maiden|little girl]] who could give them the power to rule the world. First you have the {{spoiler|Orange Clan}}, an [[Ancient Conspiracy|ancient]] [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|organization]] who already control the world, but wish to expand their power. The second is the {{spoiler|Purple Clan}} a group of [[AI Is a Crapshoot|artificial intelligences]] who wish to use the girl's power to create a [[Apocalypse How|new ice age]], killing humanity, and becoming the new dominate race. In between these two you have the hero, Lucas Kane, the [[Unwitting Pawn]] of both groups, who has power over [[The Force]], and {{spoiler|later gets killed, and brought back as [[The Undead]]}}.
* ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' games has quite a bit of this. As Nod, expect to fight Nod separatists at least once. They also fight CABAL and the Scrin at different points. As Soviets, expect to find at least one mission fighting Soviets. Then there's Yuri's Revenge, with Soviets versus Yuri, and Red Alert 3 with Soviets versus the Empire of the Rising Sun. Then in Uprising the Soviets vs Future Tech.
* A good many of the members in the Organization of ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories|Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories]]'' are working against each other in order to further their own individual evil agendas. Then in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', Maleficent and the Heartless take on the Organization and the Nobodies. When the Organization takes control of the Heartless, Maleficent then has to pull an [[Enemy Mine]] with the main heroes.
* In ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II'': Throne of Bhaal, one part of the Watcher's Keep involves a maze with three stones needed to escape, and two factions of warring demons, on opposite sides of the Blood War, hold one stone each. You can kill one of the factions and claim one stone off them while taking the other as a reward, or you can [[Take a Third Option|kill both of them]]. If you are a good-aligned character, you will have no choice but to kill them all -- theall—the leaders of both sides will sense your innate goodness and try to kill you.
** Actually, it's having any member of your party be [[Lawful Good]] that causes both of them to attack you. Any other good-aligned character can still interact with them. If you don't team up with one or the other of the fiends, you'll miss out on a powerful magical item that they'll reward you with, but having a Lawful Good party member is required in order to get a different powerful magical item found in the same level of the dungeon. You can get both if you do not have any Lawful Good characters when you run into one or the other of the fiends and choose to assist them and get rewarded with the Rogue's Hood (a helmet that buffs thieves), then come back into the maze after that with a Lawful Good character to get the enchanted Paladin-only Bastard Sword.
* ''[[Shogo: Mobile Armor Division]]'' features conflict between the CMC, [[Gaia's Vengeance|the Fallen]], and [[Mega Corp|Shogo Industries]] over control of Cronus. The UCA is mostly good, but has the potential to become an antagonist in one path of the game when Admiral Akkaraju plans on using the Kato Cannon to destroy Avernus to eliminate the Fallen, [[Unwitting Pawn|playing into Ryo's plans]].
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* ''[[Killer7]]'' takes this trope, mixes it up, and paints a pretty psychedelic picture with it. Some of the villains are just so awful, but a few of them are probably better than the main characters who are only doing any of this for the sake of a paycheck. [[Mind Screw|Or maybe not]]. Not to mention that some of the members of Killer7 are assholes or cowards. Or that barely anything makes any sense in the plot of that game.
* 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]]s [[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]]?"
* ''[[Uncharted]]'' 2's second half of the game sees Lazaravic's soldiers fight the {{spoiler|Guardians Of Shambala}}
* ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'' 2 features anti-mutant fascist rednecks take on mutants.
* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', the cruel Talon Company (see ruthless mercs) go toe to toe with super-mutants.
* The main plot of ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' revolves around this trope: The Mojave is caught in a stalemate between Caesar's Legion, a brutal dictatorship which indiscriminately crucifies people and wipes out whole towns, and the New California Republic (NCR), which committed a massacre of civilians at Bitter Springs, and whose soldiers will shoot to kill over minor crimes. Both have issues keeping the Fiends, a group of [[Ax Crazy]] Chem abusers, in line.
* 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]]s. 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.}}
* Somewhat [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]] in ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'', where the Blood War between the devils and the demons inevitably gets mentioned. You might think it's okay for the very, very [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|nearly]] literally [[Exclusively Evil|always lawful/chaotic evil]] beings to slaughter each other, but the suffering the war causes around the multiverse is so great that the [[Knight Templar]] angel Trias thinks allowing it to continue is an act of supreme passive evil on part of his fellow Celestials.
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* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]],'' [[Evil Twin|Nale]] and his Linear Guild have a bad history with his father, [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|Tarquin]] and his allies.
** For that matter, the story seems to be setting up the Linear Guild as competition for the Gates with both the good guys and [[Big Bad|Xykon]]'s gang.
** [[Played for Laughs]] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0453.html here], when two [[Mook|Mooks]]s from different villains fight over who gets to kill [[Supporting Leader|Hinjo]].
* ''[[Magick Chicks]]'' focuses on [[Terrible Trio|three]] [[Cute Witch|witches]] named [[Alpha Bitch|Melissa]], [[The Starscream|Cerise]], and [[Popular Is Dumb|Jacqui.]] The main villain of the series is a horrible, [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative]] girl named Faith. Both sides are so nasty, it's a little hard to tell who to root for.
* This is how [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized|the Insurrection]] views the war between [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|the Covenant]] and [[United Nations Is a Super Power|the UNSC]] in ''[[Halo: A Fistful of Arrows]]''.
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