Fighting Your Friend: Difference between revisions

* Several [[Final Fantasy]] games use this trope:

** {{spoiler|Doga and Unei}} in ''[[Final Fantasy III]]''. Especially annoying because it's a {{spoiler|tough Sequential Boss with no healing in the middle...}} even though they're ON YOUR SIDE!

** {{spoiler|Vossler}} in ''[[Final Fantasy XII|XII]]''.

** {{spoiler|Kain and Yang}} in ''[[Final Fantasy IV|IV]]'' as the mind control variant. {{spoiler|Cecil's former self}} also has to be fought, but the hook here is [[Sheathe Your Sword|not to harm him.]]

** The same case happened in the anime: in one episode, Hikaru and Umi were [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] thanks to the still not [[Heel Face Turn|Heel Face Turned]] [[Master of Illusion|Caldina]], therefore Fuu had to fight and disable them on her own.

* 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.)

* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]: Nightmare Troubadour'', one section of the game pits you against a mind-controlled Joey. Winning ''or'' losing this battle results in a Game Over, so you have to use particular cards to make the game end in a draw. (This comes straight from the series, though it had a different explanation.)

* In ''[[Blue Dragon]]'', when you encounter Marumaro for the first time, he will fight you to prevent you from interfering with his quest for medicine for his village.

* ''[[Advance Wars]]: Dual Strike'' features a [[Unfortunate Implications|disturbing]] version of this, in which potential allies pit their armies against yours in order to test your skills as a commander. If you follow the story from the perspective that the game's units represent actual human soldiers, it's actually rather horrifying.

** From the first ''Advance Wars'' there's ''Rivals!'', a secret mission you can get if you use a certain CO on specific missions. It's the same.

* In the first dungeon of ''[[Fallout]] 2'', the main character must fight a fellow tribesman to display his worthiness. If you're [[Statistically Speaking|smart enough]], you can opt to talk your way out instead.

* Performed spectacularly in ''[[Chrono Cross]]''. After defeating Lynx atop Fort Dragonia, Serge is {{spoiler|body-swapped with his nemesis, but the two other members in the party never notice.}} At that point, your friends and {{spoiler|Lynx in Serge's body}} attack you and you must defend yourself. The odd part is, you're actually given the chance to ''win'' (but what kind of heartless monster would beat his own friends into a pulp?) The outcome of the battle is the same whether you win or lose, however.

*** Which is [[Defeat Means Friendship]].

** Well, ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'' does pit you up against {{spoiler|the [[Guest Star Party Member]].}}

** ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'' goes ''crazy'' with this trope. In ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'', you fight {{spoiler|every single party member, including the hero at some point, including a fistfight between Veigue and Tytree as the result of an argument about Veigue not being open with his feelings. Pretty much the only character you don't fight EVER is [[Keet|Mao]].}} (Unless you count the training battle)

** Like ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'', ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' also has a little ''too'' much fun with this trope...but not to the point described above.

* Depending on the team you choose in ''[[Touhou]] Imperishable Night'', stage four will have you pitted against Reimu or Marisa. This is also where the difficulty level of the game [[That One Boss|spikes dramatically]].

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

* The third stage of ''[[Magical Battle Arena]]'' has your character finding her respective ally ([[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha|Nanoha and Fate]], [[Original Generation|Sarara and Kirara]], [[Slayers|Lina and Naga]]) only for the [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny|rules of the universe forcing them to fight]] to get out of their current area. The only ones that doesn't are [[Cardcaptor Sakura|Sakura]] and [[Mahoujin Guru Guru|Kukuri]], who instead invokes [[Defeat Means Friendship]] on each other for the team battle on the next stage, and [[The Dragon|Ruru]] and [[Big Bad|Nowel]], who will go through said team battle solo.

* 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.

* A subversion of this occurs in ''[[Bayonetta]]'' where it's revealed that Jeanne, who is fought on multiple occasions, is actually the protagonist's brainwashed childhood friend.

* Happens ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'', wherein you must fight {{spoiler|a possessed Princess Zelda.}}

* Happens fairly often, usually via Mind Control, in the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' series.

** In [[Super Robot Wars Original Generations]], this has tallied up quite a lot. [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] victims include Kusuha (twice, by {{spoiler|Ingram}} and ODE), Excellen (twice too! By {{spoiler|Ingram, but this one got thrown into [[Canon Discontinuity]]}}, and Einsts, especially Alfimi) and Lamia (twice in the same game: first ODE, then Duminuss), and the rest of the ODE victims. The first game, however, pits you against Sanger (who's been fighting with you for the first few stages) in a convoluted plot of [[Stealth Mentor]].

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' has a number of these.

** In ''Metal Gear Solid'' Snake has to kill {{spoiler|his old friend Gray Fox}} a second time.

*** During the battle with Psycho Mantis, Snake has to fight {{spoiler|Meryl}} without delivering a killing blow. If that person dies, you get a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].

** And of the ''Ac!d'' spin-off series, a fight with {{spoiler|Venus}}.

*** 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.}}

* In the C path of ''[[Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume]]'', {{spoiler|every friend you sacrificed to the Plume [[Player Punch|is now an einherjar fighting on Valkyrie's side against you]].}}

* 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]].

** While your rivals in the first two generations of the game are both [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]], [[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire|May/Brendan, Wally]], [[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl|Barry]], [[Pokémon Black and White|Cheren, and Bianca]] are all considerably friendlier.

** ''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.

** ''IV'': [[Fortune Teller|Rose]] believes that Ryu is [[The Chosen One]] destined to defeat Bison, but doesn't want him to preemptively rush into danger (according to her visions, he can vanquish Bison ''only'' at a specific time). On the other end, Guy tries to prevent Rose from facing Bison herself because while she intends to eradicate ([[Heroic Sacrifice|or at least]] [[Taking You with Me|stall]]) Bison, [[Senseless Sacrifice|she has seemingly resigned herself to death and holds a far greater importance to the world than she believes]] (he tried this before in ''Alpha 3'' but failed, leading Rose to eventually be [[Grand Theft Me|possessed by Bison]] in the interim between ''Alpha 3'' and ''II''; it should be noted that he and Rose were not [[True Companions]] at this point). Cue battle (and some [[Relationship Writing Fumble|unintentional]] [[Ship Tease]]). He also confronts Cody again, mainly for the same reasons as their fight several years prior, as well as trying to convince Cody to [[Bash Brothers|join him]] in the fight against Seth and S.I.N.