This Is My Side: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

If two characters that don't like each other, or who happen to be angry with each other at the moment, live in one house or apartment, one of them will be eventually seen painting a white line in the middle of the residence, explaining: "This is my side; this is yours. Don't go on my part!" Naturally, it's [[Serious Business]].

[[Truth in Television]], as those who have ever had an argument with a sibling or roommate can attest to.

 

{{examples}}

* Suiseiseki in ''[[Rozen Maiden]]'', who initially dislikes Jun, draws an obviously biased one in his room.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': While there was no actual line drawn, Asuka tells Shinji that the door between two rooms is "the impenetrable wall of Jericho, Third Child. Take one step over this line and you'll be a dead man." Given that in the story from the Bible, [[Analogy Backfire|the wall of Jericho fell at the sound of a trumpet]], many fans perceived this as a [[Freudian Slip]].

* In ''[[Cherry Juice]]'' a [[Not Blood Siblings]] brother and sister have to share a room when their grandmother moves into the house after suffering a hip injury.

* Happened once in "[[Pokémon]]" where [[Fiery Redhead|Jessie and Misty]] fell onto a small rock ledge on a cliff together. Misty draws a line on the rock to give each of them a side while they wait for rescue. Her side is much larger than Jessie's.

 

* A [[What If]] based off of ''[[Planet Hulk]]'' had a one-man version; Hulk lands on the planet the Illuminati meant to send him to, and he and Bruce Banner get into a back-and-forth war of screwing each other over. Eventually Hulk wakes up and sees that Bruce pulled this trope.

 

{{quote|'''Asuka''' (to Shinji): "This is the unbreakable wall of Jericho! Cross this line and I'll scream rape!"

'''Asuka''' (to Rei): "This is the unbreakable wall of Jericho! You -will not- cross it!"

'''Asuka:''' "Fine! An even bigger wall! The Great Wall!"

'''Rei:''' "That too, is broken."

'''Rei:''' ''(nods)'' }}

 

* ''[[The War of the Roses]]''.

* On ''[[Madagascar]]'', Alex draws a line on the beach to divide the island between Marty, who likes being out in the wild, and the others, who want to go back to New York. Marty calls his side the "fun side", to which Alex responds, "You're in the [[Place Worse Than Death|Jersey]] side of this cesspool!"

{{quote|'''Oscar:''' Here's a key to the back door. Now, you stick to the hallway and your room and you won't get hurt.}}

* Donkey did this with ''[[Shrek]]'''s Swamp.

 

* ''[[Discworld]]''

* The [[Gordon Korman]] young adult novel ''The Toilet Paper Tigers''. The bratty older brother has laid tape down the middle of the room, and penalizes any (real or imagined) affront with moving the tape to shrink the younger brother's side.

* In ''The War with Mr. Wizzle'' by the same author: After [[Bruno and Boots]] have a fight, Bruno divvies up the room and refuses to talk to Boots. (He does permit him to use the bathroom, though.)

* In ''[[My Sister's Keeper]]'', Kate and Anna did this at one point as children. Kate graciously allowed Anna to choose the side with all of her favorite toys on it, then smiled smugly as she left, since hers was the only side with a door.

 

 

* The [[Trope Maker]] may well be the ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' episode "Men Are Messy", in which Lucy—fed up with cleaning up after a careless Ricky—divides their apartment with masking tape and tells him to look after his own half.

** Another episode found the Mertzs and Ricardos running a diner together. When an argument erupted between which couple would greet guests and which couple would work in the kitchen, a line divided the diner in half, and across the middle counter stool.

* In the ''[[Steptoe and Son]]'' episode "Divided we Stand", Harold and Albert divide the house in two. Even the TV gets divided between them.

* A four-way version happened on ''[[The Monkees]]'' when the four boys were fighting over a girl. The show played with it, noting that each would have access to only one particular vital part of the apartment. Davy's side had the front door, implying he was the only one with the ability to come and go; however, he "would gladly trade Mike for the bathroom right away". Moments later, the whole arrangement is quickly forgotten when a show comes on TV that they want to see and everyone rushes to Peter's side (which contains the television set).

* Happened in one episode of ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' between Gilligan and the Skipper.

* ''[[My Talk Show]]'': Guest William Shatner takes over one section of the house/set and declares it Canadian territory.

* ''[[The Benny Hill Show]]'': In a sketch, Russian and American sides of an unnamed European Country are decided after years of negotiation—down the center of the bedroom of a pair of newlyweds. A painter paints a line down the wall and on the floor. Suddenly the husband (on the Amerian side) needs a passport to visit his wife (on the Russian side).

* ''[[Drake and Josh]]'' have done this at least once.

* Alexia does this in the ''[[Pixelface]]'' episode "High Spirits" when the others get angry at her for taking their stuff with permission. She divides the console in half, with her on one side and everyone else on the other.

 

* Parodied in one ''[[Bloom County]]'' comic strip, when some of the characters start arbitrarily painting lines across the local meadow, cutting off one person each time: "This is ''our'' 'state'! Stay out of our 'county'/'town'/'house'!" Then only two of them are left and they're standing on a hilltop - with no room left for further lines. "You're violating my personal space." Cue the shoving match.

* One ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' arc has Calvin deciding to become a tiger, then finding out that tigers are territorial. He uses a boulder to define the boundary between his and Hobbes' territory, then brags about how much better his side is. Hobbes then rolls the boulder over toward Calvin and declares that "your side is smaller."

* Parodied in a ''[[Garfield]]'' strip where he instead just paints a circle around Jon's feet. "If you need me, I'll be in my kitchen."

 

 

* There is a song about this in ''[[Kiss of the Spider Woman]]''.

 

* Was supposed to be referenced in ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'', in the final battle, before the line may have been [[Dummied Out]]: An increasingly desperate GLaDOS offers to take a laser and inscribe a line right down the side of the entire research facility, and each of you can have a half, if that'll get you to stop hitting her with rockets.

* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'': Early on, when Vanille and Sazh stop for the night, she grabs a stick and draws a circle around her blanket, and orders him not to cross the line, to much eye-rolling on his part. It then cuts to her distinctly on the wrong side of the line, huddled against his back and sniffling.

 

* Also happened in an early ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/12/15/ strip]:

{{quote|'''Tycho:''' The fridge is on your side!

* [[Skin Horse|Nick Zerhakker's]] [[Character Blog]]: Unity, dimly recognising that she and the sentient helicopter are not getting along, [http://zerhakker.livejournal.com/17859.html spray-paints a line across the centre of the chopper cabin] and says they can both stay on their own sides. She refuses to see a flaw in this.

 

* Episode 11 of ''[[Freeman's Mind]]'' references this. After he hops over a laser tripwire, a Vortigaunt spawns on the other side of it. After killing it, he shouts:

{{quote|''Gordon''': "Stay on your side of the line! My roommate in college used to do the same thing. Your side is the one where everyone is dead and there are no exits. My side is the one filled with hope, love and submachine guns."}}

* Used in Djy's video adaption of ''[[Half Life: Full Life Consequences|Half Life Full Life Consequences]]''. [[Portal (series)|GLaDOS]] uses this on John Freeman, but he gets bored after 3 seconds and shoots her with a RPG.

 

* ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'' has a pseudo-[[Flash Back]] to just such a situation during its second-episode [[Clip Show]], parodying it when the ''third'' roommate indignantly reminds Dante and Randal that he lives there, too.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]''

** An earlier episode uses a more sinister variation of the trope. Two visitors from out of town come across South Park, but find it devoid of adults {{spoiler|because the kids had the vast majority falsely arrested for "molestering" them and the remaining adults moved away for fear of being arrested}}. Run by kids, the town has fractured into two units; the area now known as Treasure Cove is apparently led by Stan and occupies the poor side of town, whereas Cartman has seized control of the wealthy side of town and renamed it Smiley Town. Aside from the fact Cartman as dictator is scary enough (add to that the fact only one phone has survived in the entirety of South Park, effectively cutting off communication with the outside world), both sides have an agreement where they essentially play [[Capture the Flag]] with a book from the opposing side- whichever side doesn't have a book by [[Race Against the Clock|8:00pm]] must sacrifice one of its number to "The Provider" (in reality, the town's statue of John Elway with a faulty electrical cord nearby rendering it a [[Death Trap]]). It's only through the outsiders' interference that the kids are prevented from killing everyone in town and the adults are allowed to return.

* In ''Tigger and Pooh and a Musical Too'', a movie from ''[[Winnie the Pooh|My Friends Tigger & Pooh]]'', Tigger and Rabbit did this with ''the entire Hundred Acre Wood'', drawing up a big white line across the entire Wood and declaring themselves mayors of their respective sides.

* ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', "All King, No Kingdom": King Julien divides the lemur habitat in half, one side for Maurice and Mort, the other for himself. Naturally, Julien's "half" occupies most of the habitat. Maurice and Mort then throw a party and invite all the animals in the zoo, except for Julien, who starts going crazy with loneliness.

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', when Lucius and Jimmy are trapped on a [[Far Side Island]], Lucius does this, trapping Jimmy on a very small "half". Being [[The Pollyanna|Jimmy]], he's flattered that Lucius gives him half.

* ''[[Taz-Mania]]'': In "Unhappy Together", an argument between the Platypus Brothers ends with them cutting their house in half.

 

* Legendary bar [http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3635/3396376241_b8d24629a4.jpg?v=0 Cafe Lautrec] in Adams Morgan, Washington DC closed after its two owners, who came from competing tribes in Eritrea, went to war against one another, ''War of the Roses''-style. [http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/17612/drinking-games They divided everything in the bar down the middle,] staffing alternate shifts, keeping separate books, and brown-bagging liquor, even going so far as to visit the bar on alternate nights to tell customers not to patronize the place, submitting bomb-threats and ABC violations against their own establishment when the other owner was on-duty.

* East and West Germany, with the most visible part being the Berlin Wall. This was taken to such an extreme that when the Berlin U-Bahn was divided, a couple of ghost stations existed where the trains passed through on the wrong side of the wall.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sibling Tropes]]

[[Category:Drama Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]