Fighting Your Friend: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''"Have you been keeping well? Thank you for [[The Climax|Mt. Coronet.]] I'm truly grateful. [...] The power you learned... I can feel it emanating from you. But that's enough talk. Let's get on with why you're here. As the Pokémon League Champion, I accept your challenge! There won't be any letup from me!"''|'''[[Final Boss|Champion]] [[Big Good|Cynthia]]''', ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]''}}

 

 

There are a few situations in which this may become a case of [[That One Boss]]. An ally may be [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|powered by the dark side]] or [[Duel Boss|has to be fought one-on-one]] with either a specific character or the player character. In western RPGs about building individual character strength, no problem...you should be a [[Game Breaker]] by this point anyways. But in a Japanese RPG that emphasizes the strength of a group working together? Having only one ally might be ''quite'' a handicap without additional damage-dealers and tanks. Sure, in this case, the opponent may have reduced stats compared to a regular boss fight, but still almost always [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|way more stats than they could ever actually attain while on your side]] to give the player a challenge. They'll also have their entire skillsets to throw at you, occasionally [[Secret AI Moves|even more]].

* Julius in ''[[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow|Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow]]''.

** Trevor Belmont in ''Curse Of Darkness'' too.

* In [[Dragon Age Origins]], you have to fight [[Cool Old Lady|Wynne]] and Leliana if you choose to despoil the Urn of Sacred Ashes while they are in your party.

** You will also have to fight Wynne if you choose to ally yourself with the templars.

** In the sequel {{spoiler|Gale, Sera and Cielo take on Heat after he eats Serph and turns into a [[One-Winged Angel]], to a [[Dark Reprise]] of the first game's battle theme.}} Subverted in that {{spoiler|Heat's on a slightly different agenda but they're aiming for the same goal and they still consider Heat a comrade.}}

* The ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' SNES game featured a sequence where one of the trio had to fight the other two. This is one of the last variety, where the other guys are being mind-controlled, and in fact, you're supposed to ''lose''; if you kill them, you get a game over. This is actually made kind of hard, or at least boring, by the fact that their AI is utterly crappy and it can take ''forever'' for them to kill you with their piss-weak attacks.

* Happens a bit in Tactics Ogre. You are guaranteed to fight Vice at least once in the game (The reasons differ, though, between him making a [[Face Heel Turn]] or accidentally getting caught in a bad spot), Leonard often fights you, Guildus is reanimated into a death knight, and in one path, Denim's sister Kachua is so angry at you she ''actually stays behind in the fight against Lans Tartare!!'' (In other chapters, Lans tells her to run away and she obliges.)

** Tactics Ogre's [[Gaiden Game]]{{spoiler|/[[Prequel]]}}, ''The Knight of Lodis'' also does this. In Path A, Orson is fought, and then Rictor is possessed, making you fight him twice. But in Path B, Rictor is only fought once and it is instead Cybil who is possessed by the [[Big Bad]]. The first Rictor battle happens regardless of path choice, as does the battle with the mermaid Aerial.

'''Yuri''': (teasingly) Hahaha... Loser. }}

** Yuri also fights {{spoiler|a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Estelle}} in an [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]].

*** Also in the arena Karol (in a poor disguise and loudly claiming not to be Karol) will fight alongside his Hunting Blades guildmates if he's not in your current party. In addtion {{spoiler|If Raven isn't with you he'll appear as Captain Schwann alongside the Schwann Brigade also claiming not be Raven, although he's aware he's fooling no one.}}

* Happens in every [[Tales (series)]] game, actually, with the exception of [[Tales of Eternia]] and [[Tales of Phantasia]]. Oftentimes it gives a nice battle?

** This also happened earlier in the series, in ''Lotus Land Story'', with Reimu and Marisa being pitted against each other in the fourth stage.

** In ''Ten Desires'', the Stage 1 boss is {{spoiler|Yuyuko, the [[Final Boss]] of ''Perfect Cherry Blossom''}}, who here is just helping out the heroines and holding back her power to serve as a [[Warmup Boss]].

* A variant occurs in ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]''. One boss fight has you fighting a traditional boss but your allies are fighting alongside him.

** Also, Mario is forced to fight {{spoiler|a possessed Princess Peach, who is now the Shadow Queen.}}

** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days|358/2 days]]'' also does this even more.

*** Aqua has to fight {{spoiler|both her friends, Ventus possesed by Vanitas at the end of her chapter, and Terra possessed by Xehanort in the final chapter. Both of these character are being directly controlled by another though and in fact will help Aqua out by resisting as best they can.}}

* ''[[Xenosaga]]'' stayed away from this trope until Episode III when {{spoiler|you had to fight Shion after Kevin convinced her that siding with him was the only way to be happy}}.

* The final battle of ''[[Mother 3]]'' is a great example of this, in which {{spoiler|Lucas must fight his brother Claus, who has no idea who he actually is. However, for most of the fight, Lucas refuses to attack. By the end, Claus realizes who he is and commits suicide.}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Jerry:'''}} We're in a hell of a business, old buddy! Nothing's ever what it seems!}}

* This becomes more and more the case with [[Pokémon]] [[Final Boss|League Champions]] through the first four "generations" of games. In Red/Blue, it's your [[Jerkass]] [[The Rival|Rival]]. In Gold/Silver, you have Lance, who is on the side of [[Good Is Not Nice]] and is all "I see potential in you; now I'll try to utterly crush you to see if I'm right". In Ruby/Sapphire you have Steven who's pretty much your chum. Then in Diamond/Pearl you have Cynthia, the do-gooder [[Adventurer Archaeologist]] who wants to be your BFF, helps you save the world and wants you to know this whole battling-you thing is ''tremendously fun'' for her. ''Then'' in Black/White you have Alder, a kindly old man who [[Walking the Earth|walks the earth]], does his best to give you a hand and has the most festive and upbeat battle theme ever. At this rate it won't be long before we have a game where the League Champion is a [[Care Bears|Care Bear]].

* ''[[Street Fighter]]'' has indulged in this trope more than a few times, most prominently in ''[[Street Fighter Alpha]] 3'' and (''Super'') ''[[Street Fighter IV]]'''s Rival Battles.

** ''Alpha 3'': [[Big Bad|Bison]] abducts Ryu and [[Brainwashed and Crazy|injects him with a portion of his Psycho Power]], forcing ''[[The Rival|Sagat]]'' [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight|to try and]] [[Rousing Speech|rouse him]] out of this as [[Back-to-Back Badasses|Ken and Sakura]] face Bison. Also, the Bushin [[Ninja]] [[Final Fight|Guy]] tries to reach out to [[Vitriolic Best Buds|his best friend]] Cody, [[Tragic Hero|who has gone]] from the hero of Metro City [[Darker and Edgier|to]] an [[Nietzsche Wannabe|apathetic]], [[Deadpan Snarker|snarky]], [[Blood Knight|fight]]-''[[Deconstructed Trope|addicted]]'' [[Knight in Sour Armor|brooder]], as he believes that deep down, Cody still holds some goodness in his heart.

* In ''[[Shiren the Wanderer]] 3'', Shiren and Asuka fight because Sensei disagreed with her. Even if you have Shiren say that Asuka's right, the fight happens anyway (and Sensei backs out of the fight, which Koppa calls him out for) So, basically, they're fighting because they had Sensei as a boss, so why not Asuka?

* The penultimate fight of Story Mode in ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]'' is {{spoiler|Raiden vs. Liu Kang.}} '''[[Tear Jerker|It doesn't end well.]]''' It also happens a bit earlier in Kitana's chapter, where she duels her [[Heterosexual Life Partners|servant]] Jade (the latter having been sent by Shao Kahn to keep an eye on Kitana). This fight isn't nearly as emotionally heartwrenching {{spoiler|and doesn't come at the cost of presumably destroying a long-lasting friendship.}}

{{quote|"I didn't want to have to do this... but neither of us have a choice, do we...?"}}

* [[The Dragon]] of ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' will try to convince some of your party members to join him and the [[Big Bad]] against you. If you fail Influence checks with these characters, they will be swayed. Special mention goes to Qara and Sand: their rivalry means it is literally impossible to keep one without having the other turn on you.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fight Scene]]

[[Category:Boss Battle]]

[[Category:Friendship Tropes]]