Running Both Sides: Difference between revisions

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'''Spoiler Alert:''' Due to the nature of this trope, the mere listing of a work as an example could be a spoiler. While contributors are encouraged to hide spoilers where appropriate, reader beware.

A subtrope of [[Playing Both Sides]]. May involve the [[Mole in Charge]]. Compare [[Xanatos Gambit]] if the one doing the running benefits regardless of who wins or if anyone wins at all.

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Darker ~~Than~~ Black]]'', nearly everyone works for [[The Syndicate]], although most of them don't know it. Part of the point of this is to trick Contractors into wiping themselves out, as most of them work for various intelligence agencies in (seeming) opposition.

* In ''[[Darker than Black]]'', nearly everyone works for [[The Syndicate]], although most of them don't know it. Part of the point of this is to trick Contractors into wiping themselves out, as most of them work for various intelligence agencies in (seeming) opposition.

* In ''[[Madlax]]'', Enfant had been supplying and coordinating both sides of the Gatz-Sonikan civil war.

* In ''[[Gundam Wing]]'', Zechs Merquise and Treize Khushrenada assume control of [[La Résistance]] and [[The Federation]] respectively and get into a giant, potentially apocalyptic war. While they seem to be bitter enemies, the anime strongly implies (and the manga outright states) that the whole thing is a [[Batman Gambit]] to bring peace by showing humanity just how [[War Is Hell|terrible war really is]].