Let's You and Him Fight: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* An inverted example in ''[[Trigun]]'', when {{spoiler|a pair of bounty hunters after Vash the Stampede mistake one another for Vash, because of the wildly varying descriptions of him that are floating around.}} All within sight of Vash.

* ''[[Sonic X]]'', "Cracking Knuckles", carrying on a tradition from the video games. Knuckles manages to believe the villain way too often for his own good.

* In ''[[Sekirei]]'', Minato is trapped by many other Ashikabi and Sekirei who were sent an email by the Game Master who said if anyone stops Minato from reaching the MBI building, they'd be excused from his earlier rule where an Ashikabi with no wins would lose their Sekirei. A biker Ashikabi arrives late to the situation and immediately starts talking trash to them. Then they end up fighting each other instead, allowing Minato and his group to escape.

 

* Namor the [[Sub-Mariner]] decided to take revenge on the surface world, starting with the city of New York. The Human Torch arrived to stop him [[Ur Example|and the Marvel Universe was born.]] They later teamed up with Captain America when it was revealed the Axis was the true enemy, a plot Marvel still homages to this day.

* The [[DC Comics]] series ''[[Birds of Prey]]'' once [[Lampshade Hanging|hung a lampshade]] on the trope with a novice crime fighter who was styling herself as the new [[Batgirl]]. Using her teleporting powers she had been watching the heroes for a long time and knew not only that they were good guys, but also their names, secret identities and powers, and when they set up an ambush one evening to try and find out who has been masquerading as Batgirl (Something Oracle, the ''original'' Batgirl, does not take lightly) she could not have been happier. As they are fighting [[Casual Danger Dialogue|she happily converses with all the participants]] and explains that after they are done fighting they can all be good friends and teammates, because she had gained the impression that fighting at the first meeting was the traditional thing to do.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in an issue of ''[[Justice League of America]]'' in [[The Nineties|the early nineties]]. Obsidian and Nuklon are waiting to meet up with the JLA to offer to join the team after its most recent roster overhaul, and [[Genre Savvy|Obsidian]] says, "First, they won't even let us join. 'You were in [[Infinity, Inc.]]? Wasn't that some kids' group, like Menudo?' Then there'll be some bizarre misunderstanding, and they'll think we're villains, and there'll be a fight, and..."

* Used twice in ''[[Marvel 1602]].'' Peter Parquagh is sent by Sir Nicholas Fury to deliver a message to Carlos Javier. Before he can even reach the gate, Hal McCoy pins him to the ground and accuses him of being a spy. {{spoiler|Earlier, Parquagh is sent to bring Virginia Dare to visit the queen and is waylaid by her bodyguard Rojhaz. Rojhaz (who later turns out to be Steven "Captain America" Rogers) protests his exclusion from the meeting by lifting Peter up by his shirt.}}

** Then again the commonest cause of this trope is not recognizing the other guy, and if there's one thing street gangs are intimately familiar with its the heraldry of neighboring street gangs.

* Also subverted in ''[[Spider-Girl]]'', [http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/774475.html#cutid1 when she runs into Araña] (Grown up version of the 616 Araña), who wants to fight her. May absolutely refuses, since she refuses to turn "the hero biz" into some sort of "who's stronger" contest and runs away. But Araña chases her and goads her into fighting. From the start of the sequence;

{{quote|'''Citizen V''': This fight is completely unnecessary.

'''Deadpool''': BLASPHEMY! ''All'' fights are necessary! }}

** The Crimson Dynamo is respectfully reminded that his power armor is basically a fully-armed Soviet military aircraft, and that if he wants to fly it into US airspace without being fired on it would probably be a good idea to ''get official permission and an escort first''. And that until Iron Man can go buzz the Kremlin without advance notice and still not get shot at, he can just deal with it.

* Subverted and lampshaded in [[Peter David]]'s ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man]]'' one-shot. Due to some time-traveling experiments, Peter Parker (Spider-Man 1995) and Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man 2099) switch places. After some running around, the two meet while pursuing a time-traveling Hobgoblin from 2211. Peter Parker/Spidey 1995 promptly quips "I know this is the part where we're supposed to be confused about each other, get into a fight, then settle our differences and chase the bad guy -- but we're short on time, so let's just skip all that, okay?" Miguel, dumbfounded, simply agrees.

* In his first encounter with the [[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]], the clone Superboy mistakes them for villains. If you [[Wingdinglish|translate the Interlac]], Saturn Girl says "This must be the 20th century tradition of fighting then teaming-up I've heard about."

* One issue of the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' comic, "Rogue Rouge", dedicates itself to setting up a surprisingly brutal fight between Bunnie Rabbot and Rouge the Bat. It is a [[Cat Fight]] with a generous amount of [[Fan Service]] and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] at the end with a page of sheepish "boy, that was silly" dialogue.

** Badrock also provoked a fight on accident when Freak Force took in a villain he fought and were going to claim the reward money. And then he hit on Ricochet and in general acted like an idiot. All told, both sides were justified in wanting to beat the other up.

* When Spider-Man met [[Daredevil]] for the very second time, an interesting thing happened; they started fighting because the Masked Marauder had deliberately engineered is so they would come to blows by having guys in Daredevil costumes taunt Spidey until he hunted down the real one. Why, you ask? So the only two threats to his plans would be too tied up dealing with each other to stop him.

* Occurs in ''[[Death's Head]]'' #10, when an [[Upper Class Twit]] manipulates Death's Head and [[Iron Man]] 2020 to fight each other while he bets on the outcome.

* ''[[Blue Beetle]]'' and [[Green Lantern|Guy Gardner]] had one when they first met, as his ring detected Jaime's Reach technology as a threat. Also notable for the rematch having been broken up by one fighter's ''mother''.

* [[Black Panther]] in his first appearance in ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' attacks the Four to prove his worthiness to defend his kingdom and the usefulness of the team to help him. After making that point, he stops the fight to explain himself to the team and makes it up to them for the incident.

* Happens between the [[Avengers Academy]] Students and [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] in Issue #21 then again between the students and the [[X-Men]] in the next issue!

* Happens in issue #12 of ''[[Strikeforce: Morituri]]'', with a fight between the current Morituri team and the third-generation recruits.

* In at least one Wolverine-Ghost Rider team-up, both characters know they're on the same side the entire time, but keep trying to actually murder one another out of simple hatred.

* ''[[Runaways]]'': Most of the team versus [[Cloak and Dagger (comics)|Cloak and Dagger]], who think they're criminals holding Molly hostage. Alex tries to point out how old the routine is, but the more experienced heroes make short work of them. (According to Dagger, ''Stilt-Man'' took longer to beat - ouch.)

* This plays out oddly in one issue of ''Action Comics'', where Superman gets into a fight with Diode the Invincible over a misunderstanding... but while he wasn't a member of the murderous Doomslayers roving the area, Diode ''was'' a supervillain. After clearing the air, the aged wash-up decided to help Superman take care of the Doomslayers before retiring peacefully.

* [[Spider-Man]]'s second comic appearance ever (after his [[Origin Story]]) was a misunderstanding with the [[Fantastic Four]], who were almost the only other superheroes in Marvel Comics at the time.

* ''[[Avengers vs. X-Men]]'' not only pit the two groups against each other, it had its own tie-in miniseries dedicated to just the hero vs hero fighting (''AvX VS'')! Mind you, in this case there isn't any misunderstanding or mistake in identity involved - the two teams simply want things that are mutually exclusive. But some fans feel that the speed at which they resort to violence is just as contrived.

* DC loves lampshading in this trope. In a ''DC One Million'' tie-in the time-travelling future-era Batman attacks Nightwing and Robin (non-lethally, of course), despite not only knowing who they are from the historical records but having deliberately set up a meeting with them beforehand to work with them on the current crisis. Upon their reaction he confusedly asks 'Isn't this what superheroes in your era do whenever they first meet each other in person? Fight each other, to sharpen their skills and test each other's capability?' Nightwing then wearily explains that no, it doesn't ''quite'' work like that.

 

* In ''[[Dr. No]]'', [[James Bond]]'s investigation into an MI-6 operative's death leads him to Quarrel, who's already working with CIA agent Felix Leiter. Because Leiter saw Bond leave the airport with one of Dr. No's men, Quarrel attacks Bond; their fight is broken up when Leiter arrives to clarify the whole mess.

* ''[[The Matrix]]''. Seraph fights Neo on their first meeting, but in that case it's to establish that he really is The One. Given Mr. Smith's ability to [[Body Surf]] this is a sensible precaution.

* ''[[The Forbidden Kingdom]]''. It having ''[[Jet Li]] and [[Jackie Chan]] in the same movie first time ever!!'', of course they have to fight at first. This is achieved by having Jet Li's character first steal the [[MacGuffin]], taking Chan's character and the kid to be a couple of thieves.

* Hilariously averted in the first ''[[X-Men (film)|X Men]]'' film, where Cyclops demands that Wolverine prove that he isn't the [[Shape Shifter]] Mystique:

* In ''[[Heroic Trio]]'', all three main characters fight each other in different scenes before finally teaming up.

* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: Dead Man's Chest'', Jack Sparrow uses this tactic to escape Will and Norrington.

* In ''[[Bunraku]]'' the two main characters have a [[Bar Brawl]] before deciding to team up to go after the [[Big Bad]].

* In ''[[Thor: Ragnarok]]'', Thor is captured by the Grandmaster and forced to fight in [[Gladiator Games]]; at first, he is overjoyed to discover that he's fighting his old ally the Hulk. Unfortunately, he's still in for a brutal, bloody fight, something anyone who knows the Hulk should expect.

 

** Gaiman [[Older Than You Think|borrowed]] the phrase from ''[[Popeye]]'': it's one of Wimpy's [[Catch Phrase]]s.

* In one of the ''[[Sharpe]]'' books, [[The Chessmaster|master manipulator]] Ducos comes up with a plan to end the war. As a first stage, he needs a general killed. On a personal level, he wants Sharpe dead. As luck would have it, Sharpe has already slept with the general's wife. One well-timed letter later, the [[Duel to the Death]] is arranged.

* In the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' novel ''[[Grey Knights]]'', the [[Big Bad]] uses [[Shrouded in Myth|the secrecy surrounding the Grey Knights]] to paint them as Chaos Marines and get the local Imperial forces against them.

** Similarly, Alaric, the protagonist of the series, pulls this off on his foes in the sequel ''Hammer of Daemons.'' Some of the Daemons he manipulates are aware that he's playing them, but they are compelled to go along by their own greed, paranoia, and rage.

* This ultimately turns out to be the plan of {{spoiler|the alien Starflyer}} in Peter Hamilton's [[Space Opera]] ''Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained''.

* In a Russian short story, after a devastating interstellar war, humanity and a race of human-sized insects wipe out each other (humans cause the bugs' star to go nova, while the bugs nuke Earth). The few remaining humans are helped by a race of benevolent aliens. When the aliens offer one of the humans (a clone, actually) a chance to fight a cloned bug, he readily agrees. During the fight, though, the bug (who has [[Genetic Memory]]) reveals that the supposed "benefactors" are, in fact, the masterminds behind the failed [[First Contact]] between humand and bugs. Apparently, whenever they encoutner a violent race that can potentially threaten them, they find another violent race and pit them against each other to mutual annihilation.

* Much of Simon R. Green's ''Guard Against Dishonor'' is set up so as to get that series' married-cop protagonists, [[Battle Couple|Hawk and Fisher]], to fight one another, as the bad guys implicate Fisher in police corruption while alleging Hawk has gone rogue and is killing innocent people. When they finally meet, {{spoiler|it's subverted, because they both care about each other more than about their duty as cops, so wouldn't have attacked each other even if the allegations had been true.}}

* Let's not forget his Nightside series where this is a favorite tactic of the main character

 

* The ''[[Green Hornet]]'' [[Crossover]] episode of ''[[Batman]]'' included a classic "ignorant good guys beat the crap out of each other" scene.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': "Puppet Show" (Sid the Dummy), "What's My Line?" (Kendra), among others. Also, Spike and Faith are both characters who have gone through [[Heel Face Turn]] character arcs. By "Dirty Girls," both of them are on the side of good. When they meet for the first time since they were both evil, they trade blows for a bit, because Faith thinks Spike is still evil, and Spike just gets pissed off enough to hit back.

** Similarly, almost every ''[[Super Sentai]]'' series from about 2000 and on must have its yearly teamup movie with the previous group of Rangers start with the two groups mistakenly battling it out before getting into the meat of the plot. ''[[Power Rangers]]'', on the other hand, usually averts this trope by having Ranger teams get down to business pretty quickly. The only teamups that invoke it are ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm|Ninja Storm]]''/''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder|Dino Thunder]]'' (the Dino Rangers need to smack some sense into the brainwashed Ninja Rangers) and ''[[Power Rangers RPM|RPM]]''/''[[Power Rangers Samurai|Samurai]]'' (both Red Rangers are manipulated into getting pissed at each other).

** For much of ''[[Kamen Rider 555]]'', Inui Takumi and Kiba Yuuji are friends in their civilian identities and each ignorant of the other's alter-ego - which is good, because each thinks the other (in his alter ego) is a [[The Dragon|Dragon]] for the evil corporation. Even the AU Kiba of the [[Non-Serial Movie]] is tricked into fighting Takumi by the bad guys.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': The [[The Nth Doctor|regeneration]] story "Time and the Rani" had this happen between the Doctor and his sidekick—she didn't realise he was the Doctor because she hadn't seen him since the regeneration, and the last time he'd seen "her" it had been the villain in disguise.

* In ''[[Sharpe]]'' at one point, Hakeswill orchestrates it so that Sharpe and Harper, on a mission to ransom a general's kidnapped wife, attack and almost kill a pair of Frenchmen... who are there for exactly the same reason, but for the French officer's wife. Fortunately, Sharpe realizes what's going on before anything irreversible happens.

* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Maury Parkman uses his mind control powers to trick Nathan Petrelli and Matt Parkman into fighting each other, each thinking they are fighting an enemy.

* Rare heroic example in season 5 of ''[[24]]'': Jack Bauer is inside a bank retrieving evidence {{spoiler|that will implicate the President of the United States in the day's conspiracy}} from a safety deposit box when Christopher Henderson's men manage to find him and surround the bank, but due to the fact that all the windows and walls are bulletproof, Jack's safe as long as he remains in the building--''but only then''. He has the bank president set off the silent alarm to call the police to the bank, and since Henderson can't allow that evidence to reach CTU (which it undoubtedly would if Bauer was arrested), his men open fire on the policemen, allowing Jack to escape in the confusion. In a police car, no less.

* In the final season of ''[[Lost]]'', Locke/the Smoke monster tries to manipulate Kate and Claire into killing each other over Aaron.

** One of the big reveals near the end of the series was that the Smoke Monster, being prevented from killing Jacob's candidates himself, was manipulating them into killing each other all along: Survivors, the Others, DHARMA folk and everyone else - and while some attempts failed, other have succeeded.

 

* In the ''[[Star Fleet Universe]]'' (an [[Alternate History]] [[Star Trek]] universe), this is how the Tholians survive being bordered by the Federation, Romulans and Klingons (the last of which are flat out trying to destroy them... with some good reason).

* Standard Eldar operating procedure in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. While they're usually more concerned with making entire species fight each other for their own benefit they are more than happy to manipulate individuals to the same end.

** Due to the extreme secrecy surrounding [[State Sec|Inquisitors]] and the insidiousness of the forces of [[The Corruption|Chaos]], most times an Inquisitor crosses paths with another during an investigation it ends in bloodshed. Due to [[Grimdark|the]] [[Darker and Edgier|nature]] [[Black and Grey Morality|of]] [[World Half Empty|the]] [[Crapsack World|universe]], however, one of them usually turns out to be correct about the other's corruption.

 

* Let's not forget ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', in which Paris (Juliet's betrothed) goes to visit her grave at the same time that Romeo does—they each think the other is trying to defile her tomb, attack each other, and Paris dies. Romeo doesn't realize his mistake until Paris (with his dying breath) begs to be brought to Juliet's side so that he may join her in death.

 

* Has happened a few times in ''[[Bionicle]]'', usually when the heroes have never met before (or at least, one doesn't recognize the other due to a [[Mid-Season Upgrade]]). The most blatant one, which has no such justification, comes when the Toa Hagah show up and say "Sorry, but, uh, we kind of have to cause some [[Monumental Damage]] to complete our mission.", to which the Toa Mahri say ''"Aw [[Pardon My Klingon|Karzahni]] no!"'' and they fight. After it breaks up, they lampshade that they're idiots for not even ''trying'' to come up with a less destructive plan for the Hagah to follow.

 

* Mega Man first met his brother, Protoman, under these circumstances in ''[[Mega Man 3]]''. Also, Duo for ''[[Mega Man 8]]''.

** Also, an impending fight between ''[[Mega Man X]]'' and Zero has been hinted upon ever since X2. (Though in a non-canon process just before the final battle in that case.) It was again touched upon in X4 before finally taking place in X5, and by extension, both X6. (And not ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 1'' and ''3'', since {{spoiler|that's a copy.}})

* ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'' has this to an extent. {{spoiler|Arkham was playing Lady, Vergil and Dante, and trying to get them to fight each other, and weaken each other so that he could come out on top, and open the gate to hell. Dante and Vergil do end up fighting each other in the end, though Lady and Dante end up sort of on the same side.}}

* The battle with Savyna in ''[[Baten Kaitos]]: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean''. Once you win, you realize that it was a misunderstanding, and she [[Defeat Means Friendship|joins the party]].

* In ''[[Cave Story]]'' the protagonist is attacked by Curly Brace before he has time to explain to her that he's not after the Mimigas.

* ''[[Touhou Project]]'' introduces many of the characters this way. In the [[Fighting Game]] ''Immaterial and Missing Power'', many of the heroes already know each other but still assume the other is a villain.

** As well as the follow-up fighter ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' and its expansion, the versus-shooter ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'' is also very guilty of this.

** In ''Imperishable Night'', the 4th stage boss is either [[Main Character|Reimu or Marisa]], wo attack your party for causing the titular imperishable night. In truth, the team you pick ''did'' do this, but only because of the ''real'' incident: the corrupted moon, and are trying to buy time. Not that Reimu and Marisa are willing to ''listen'' to that reasoning, though. In fact, they are either oblivious to the moon problem, or immediately blame ''you'' for the moon problem, once you bring it up.

* In Knuckles' very first appearance, in ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic The Hedgehog 3]]'', he fights Sonic because he thought that Sonic meant to steal the Chaos Emeralds.

** Truer to the trope, well after he has been established as a character, Robotnik tricks him into fighting Sonic again in ''[[Sonic Adventure]]'' and ''[[Rule of Three|again]]'' in ''[[Sonic Advance Trilogy|Sonic Advance 2]]''

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', in Nagrand, Lantresor of the Blade provides an unusual example of a ''good'' guy pulling off this scheme.

** Most of the game revolves around both the Alliance and Horde being at odds with each other but working towards the same end. A prime example is the Icecrown Gunship Battle, where both sides are using a gunship in order to get to the top and set up a base camp for the strike force...and end up trying to shoot each other down in the process.

* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] Battle of the Aces'', the cast mainly fights "memories" of the other characters, showing what they were like in the past or would have been like if things had not turned out a well as they did. In Fate's story, the real Vita mistakes her for a Memory and begins attacking her. After the player wins the fight, Fate succeeds in convincing Vita that she's real.

* ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'' has you {{spoiler|attempting to foil an assassination plot planned on a Taiwanese president. You're given information saying that one [[That One Boss|Omen Deng]] is the one planning the hit. Cue giant battle to take the plaza nearby the president's press conference. Ending with you and Omen (possibly) talking. Seems he received info that You were the assassin. just as you'd received the same. Cue [[Oh Crap|Oh Crap!]] }}

** {{spoiler|It's also possible for Mike to pit Conrad Marburg and Alan Parker against each other in the finale by either revealing to Marburg that Parker was responsible for him going rogue years ago or, if Madison Saint James, AKA Parker's daughter is killed, telling Parker that Marburg was the one who did the deed. Either way, it ends with Parker dead and Michael getting a chance to even the score with Marburg.}}

* Happens three times in the ''[[Spyro the Dragon|Legend of Spyro]]'' trilogy. The first two times, the present villain tries getting Cynder to fight Spyro, the first time, they pretend to fight for the crowd. The second time they try this again so Cynder can take out Gaul's staff but {{spoiler|Gaul sees it coming and knocks her out when she tries}}. The last time it's for real when {{spoiler|Malefor takes over Cynder's mind and makes her attack Spyro.}}

* From the looks of the ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]] 2'' teaser trailer, this is going to be the plot of the game: a new character, Heller, is experimented on by Alex Mercer and uses his new powers to hunt down the rogue scientist. {{spoiler|Presumably at some point in the story he'll discover that Mercer's been fighting on behalf of the citizens and it was Blacklight and their subordinates who really ruined Heller's life}}.

* In ''[[Battle Golfer Yui]]'', [[GeGeGe no Kitaro|Kitako]] bears no malice at all towards Yui. She only fights Yui because Otter Man messed with her mail and accused her of being a Nurarihyon with a forged letter.

 

* ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'': Crossroad jumps Shadehawk because a doppleganger disguised as him ratted her [[Secret Identity]] out to her mob-boss father. Presently, Shadehawk is engaged in a running battle with the "Civic Champions" who think he's evil for a repeatedly unrevealed reason, which eventually turns out to be {{spoiler|breaking into Tera Corp}}.

* ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'' [http://arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0570.htm here], partly for the pun and {{spoiler|partly as part of a quick little [[Plan]] by Morgan}}.

{{quote|"You're kidding me... We could be attacking someone who tried to help Mrs. Blacksmith?... ''JOE! This isn't funny!!''}}

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has done a variant on this... until ''just'' before the Big Impressive Fight started, {{spoiler|she ''[[Grand Theft Me|was]]'' the Big Bad.}}

* This can be used in levels in the ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' series that contain patrols other than guards ([[Everything's Worse with Bears|Bears in Canada]], [[Everything's Worse with Wolves|Wolves in Holland]], and Carmelita) to escape detection. When a guard spots you, you can alert said patrols and the two of them will typically fight it out while you run away.

 

* Invoked (the author is a troper...) in ''[[Star Harbor Nights]]'' when Perfection Jones and Ray Vallenzio first meet.

 

* An episode of the Disney animated ''[[Hercules (1997 film)||Hercules]]'' had a crossover with ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', with a [[Villain Team-Up]] of Jafar and Hades. After failing to destroy each other's nemeses, the villains engineered a fight between the two heroes.

* The ''[[Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends]]'' episode dealing with the origin of Iceman managed to work in a fight between the two heroes prior to their official team-up, until Spidey managed to talk some sense into him.

* An episode of ''[[Kappa Mikey]]'' does this, with Gonard and a lobster that had escaped from the kitchen.

* From the [[DCAU]]:

{{quote|'''Batman''' (holding out a minuscule sliver of Kryptonite as Superman buckles): It doesn't take much, does it?}}

** In the ''[[Justice League]]'' episode "The Terror Beyond", Superman, Wonder Woman, and Hawkgirl stumble upon Dr. Fate, Inara, and Aquaman apparently torturing Solomon Grundy. Supes demands that they stop; Dr Fate decides that there isn't enough time to ''explain'' what's going on. He makes a shield to block the heroes out, and when that fails, he magically teleports everyone away... and when ''that'' fails, Hawkgirl kicks his butt.

** Technically, this trope also occurs in the episode "Paradise Lost". In it, both [[Wonder Woman]] and [[Superman]] have hallucinations in which they see each other as a monster and then precede to attack each other. Superman discovers the ruse when he sees Wonder Woman's reflection in water. He tries to tell her, but she still sees him as a monster and continues to attack. One would think that she would [[Why Isn't It Attacking?|start to wonder why it wasn't fighting back]] but she was so enraged that the thought [[Averted Trope|never occurred to her.]] She finally snaps out of it when the monster answers her inquiry ("Where is Superman?!") by pointing to a [[Tomato in the Mirror|mirror,]] revealing him to be the monster she was holding in a choke hold.

* In episode 22 of the third season of ''[[Winx Club]]'' Riven mistakenly believes that Nabu (at the time using the fake name Ophir) is trying to steal Musa from him due to a [[Not What It Looks Like]] situation, and when he arrives at the Red tower where the others are, everyone but Nabu has been knocked unconscious after a fight with the guardians of the Red tower, and Riven assumes that Nabu was responsible for that as well. Before Nabu gets a chance to explain what is going on, Riven attacks him and Nabu has to fight back. Luckily, the others regain consciousness, stop the fight and clear up the misunderstanding.

* Aku from ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' has all the reasons in the world to call himself the master of deception.

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "The Farnsworth Parabox", when the Planet Express crew meet themselves from a [[Parallel Universe]], both groups assume the other is [[Evil Twin|evil]], as [[Genre Savvy|mirror universe doppelgangers are always evil]]. Of course, [[Wrong Genre Savvy|neither are evil]] ([[Chaotic Neutral|not that either are good, either]]).

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', between the Gaang and Zuko the first time they meet after {{spoiler|his [[Heel Face Turn]] during the third season}}. Understandable given their history, {{spoiler|which included a [[Heel Face Turn]] he didn't quite complete at the end of the second season, something that Katara angrily reminds him off before and after he makes this one stick.}}

* ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes|Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'' episode "''Panther's Quest''".

** In the 90s ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' series, Panther did it ''without'' a misunderstanding. It looked very much like he woke up one morning thinking hunting them would be fun. If completely unfamiliar with the character, you'd have thought he was a villain in the vein of [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game|Kraven the Hunter]], but it turns out that he's, well, [[Black Panther]], and he's testing the Four's strength to see if they were [[Badass]] enough to help him out.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Unisex Tropes]]