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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Light belongs to shadow, shadow to light
Chasing one another to the very end"''
|'''Bonnie Pink'''|"[[Tales of Vesperia|Ring a Bell]]" (translated)}}
The [[Ideal Hero]] is the champion of all that is good. Thus, [[Light'Em Up|his power will be that of light]], he will dress in [[Light Is Good|white]] or [[
Of course, sometimes you have the [[Anti-Hero]], the guy who wields [[Casting a Shadow|the power of darkness]], [[Bad Powers, Good People|powers himself on negative emotions]], and probably has an [[Dark and Troubled Past|angsty past.]] He probably dresses in all [[Dark Is Not Evil|black]], too. In extreme cases, the Dark Hero would like nothing, ''nothing'' better than to wrap his hands around his archnemesis' throat and strangle the life out of him. Think [[Boktai
But ''our'' guy, the '''Yin-Yang Bomb''' guy, doesn't care about all those things. [[The Red Mage|He uses both]]. Not just that, but often, he will [[All Your Powers Combined|combine them into something higher]] and invariably [[Game Breaker|ridiculously more powerful]]. Dark and light are not evil and good. They're not even diametrically opposed. To resolve the storyline or beat the boss, the hero must grab the reins of both and wield them in a [[Fusion Dance|harmony of fusion]].
A variation uses [[Order Versus Chaos|order and chaos]] instead of light and dark, and another uses [[Harmony Versus Discipline]].
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Sometimes a subtrope of [[All Your Powers Combined]]. Naturally, good buddies with [[Dark Is Not Evil]], or, in the case that the ''villain'' uses this, with [[Light Is Not Good]]. The result is frequently [[Non-Elemental]], ignoring elemental resistances. Or, as demonstrated in a few cases, the effect may be able to completely destroy something and recreate it (usually as a child). Sometimes, an [[Enemy Mine]] with a villain may result in them combining their powers to do this.
Unrelated to The Tumor, a bomb from ''[[
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* In the climax of the ''[[Record of Lodoss War]]'' [[OAV]] miniseries, only Parn, wielding both the Holy Sword of Falis and the Demon Sword Soul Crusher, can stop the resurrection of the Mad Goddess Kardis.
* ''[[
** It's worth noting that in ''GGG'', destruction isn't necessarily an "evil"
** In ''[[Super Robot Wars]] K'', [[Gun X Sword|El Dora V]] gains a finishing move which is a visual shoutout to Hell and Heaven. Its name? ''El Inferno Y Cielo''. Regrettably, El Dora Soul does not retain it.
* ''[[Slayers]]''
** The final [[Big Bad]] of ''Slayers TRY'' is the fusion of Mazoku Lord Darkstar and its opposing god Volphied. It took the a spell that combined the powers of Ruby Eye Shabranigdo and Flare Dragon Celphied, channeled through the Dark Star weapons, in order to defeat him. The spell had the effect of a complete rebirth, allowing Filia to raise the [[Big Bad]] as a child.
** In ''Slayers NEXT'', the [[Shrinking Violet|timid]] [[The Medic|white mage]] [[White Magician Girl|Sylphiel]] mastered the powerful [[Black Magic]] spell [[Wave Motion Gun|Dragon Slave]] just to impress the guy she liked.
* ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'': Light-wielding Koji had to take on Koichi's dark powers to give the team the edge needed against [[Fallen Angel|Lucemon]], who had learned to combine darkness and light into his ultimate attack.
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* ''[[Naruto]]''
** 4-Tails Naruto's chakra cannon attack is depicted in the anime as a dense concentration of spheres of both red Kyuubi chakra and Naruto's blue chakra.
** Also, ''senjutsu'', or "Sage Energy", is a fusion of a shinobi's chakra and of [[The Force|the all-present energy of the world around them]]. Incredibly difficult (and [[Gone Horribly Wrong|very]] [[Taken for Granite|risky]] if messed up), but [[Took a Level
** He also briefly mixes Sage Mode with his Kyuubi chakra.
** Izanagi uses both Yin and Yang chakra, {{spoiler|Yin from the Sharingan, Yang from the genes of Senju}}. Instead of a [[Fantastic Nuke]], it allows the user to [[Reality Warper|warp reality]].
* In ''[[D
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''
** Takamichi {{spoiler|and Asuna}} uses a technique called Kanka which fuses Magic and Ki to dramatically increase the user's abilities, with a stance reminiscent of ''[[
** Not counting Negi himself, who starts to learn Dark Magic {{spoiler|after getting his ass handed down by Fate.}} Negi's "Dark Magic", however, as described in the [[All There in the Manual|supplemental materials]], rely upon a long stream of ([[Shown Their Work|cited and footnoted]]) psychobabble that essentially says that, unlike the diametrically opposed Ying/Yang power of Kanka, the darkness of Dark Magic is all-encompassing, and even includes the powers of light. (Including some references to Erebos and Aether from mythology for good measure.) By embracing the all-encompassing darkness, he can still control powers of light, since they do not oppose, but the danger of the spell comes from the way that he stretches his sense of self so thin that he can lose control of his own powers. In chapter 314, Evangeline refers to Negi's way of doing things (not necessarily his magic) as the "gray path".
* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', after {{spoiler|being reborn as a half-demon, going to the Demon World, and setting up a tournament with ''unquestioned rule over all Demon World '' as the grand prize}}, Yusuke {{spoiler|mixes his human Spirit Energy and his demonic energy together to enter a sort of super mode. The last time we saw anything like this, the character using it managed to beat almost the entire main cast at the same time, and the powerup for Yusuke is rather similar.}}
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', {{spoiler|Natsu defeats [[Evil Counterpart|Zancrow]] in this manner; by canceling his own magic, Natsu gains the ability to eat Zancrow's flames. Then he combines his orange dragon slayer flames with black god-slayer flames for a truly brilliant finishing move}}.
* In ''[[
** Also, Acqua of the Back has the powers of being a Saint ''and '' a member of God's Right Seat, which would be mutually incompatible if not for [[Required Secondary Powers|a third ability that removes such limitations]].
* In ''[[Kenichi:
* In ''Id'' the titular character has to negate a Yin Yang bomb ''twice''. The first time, instead of blowing up the continent the energy is used to transport him 10000 years back in time, the second time it conveniently moves him 10000 years into the future, netting in three weeks lived in the past. Later it turns out {{spoiler|what he did during those three weeks in the past, has caused the creation of the world he's on and is the reason for almost the entire plot in the story.}}
* In ''[[Dai no Daibouken]]'' this is the basis for Pop's most powerful magic attack, Medoroa: generate fire with one hand, ice with the other, and combine them to shoot a beam of annihilation that can destroy [[Made of Indestructium|orhicalcum]]
== Card Games ==▼
* In ''[[Magic the Gathering]]'' there are "white" cards and "black" cards, which are powered by light/life/order and darkness/death, respectively. But printed guides heavily stress that they do not represent "good" and "evil", they can both be used at the same time. A combination of enemy colors in general can be seen to fit this trope, as can cards that are all 5 colors.▼
** To wit: [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=151083 Unmake], one of the best removal cards in type at the time of writing, is cast with three mana of either black or white and is considered a black/white card; it had a predecessor in the Apocalypse expansion called '''[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=19135 Vindicate]'''. Lest we forget, there was also the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=47453\].▼
** Multicolor-focused sets often have White-Black as an option. For instance, in Ravnica, the white-black Guild is The Orzhov Syndicate, who are in charge of business (or, to be more precise, a religion which is ''also'' a business), and are run by ghosts.▼
*** A rundown of enemy-color pairs: White/black is harsh, controlling, and often cruel. Blue/red is high weirdness and mad insight. Black/green is decay, life coming from death. Red/white is an army, equal parts discipline and fury. Green/blue is biology, either mutation or studying new life.▼
*** The ultimate Yin Yang Bomb is probably the ability on the Legacy Weapon artifact. One mana of each color to exile any single card. <ref>For non-[[Mt G]] players, Exile was previously called "removed from the game", i.e. deader than dead, but this was changed after a number of cards were printed that could return things from the RFTG zone. Nowadays, similar to the Graveyard (where killed creatures and cards discarded from hand go), but referenced by fewer cards and much harder to get things out of.</ref>▼
*** [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=179496 Progenitus] could also be considered as one, as it takes two of each color mana to summon but is also one of the most powerful creatures in the game.▼
** More generally, gold-colored cards that require more than one type of mana to cast and creatures with abilities that require a color besides their own to use have been a staple of the game for quite a while, and are almost always designed to be stronger than equivalent single-color cards of the same cost, since they require you be able to produce multiple colors of mana and thus be more open to resource deprivation. Even before ''that'', players themselves were encouraged to field more than one color to cover the weaknesses built into each one (including spells which can severely handicap a person whose cards are all of one color).▼
* The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' card game plays with this, the main example being the now infamous "[[Game Breaker|Chaos]]" archetype (which has been banned for years but radically shifted the metagame), consisting of three monsters summoned by removing from play a Dark-Attribute monster and a Light-Attribute monster. One of these, Chaos Sorcerer, provides the page picture. There are plenty of cards that act similar, but the most prominent example is the appropriately named "[[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Light and Darkness Dragon]]", a monster that has ''two'' attributes (Light and Dark, obviously) simultaneously. That and, well, [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090618032117/yugioh/images/7/78/LightandDarknessDragonYG01-EN-ScR-LE.png just look at it]▼
▲== Comics -- Books ==
* In the Top Cow Universe, the ''[[Witchblade (Comic Book)|Witchblade]]'' is the balance keeper between the forces of Light and Darkness. As a result it has traits of both its parents, the Angelus and [[The Darkness]].
* Elixir in ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' has one hand that heals and one hand that kills for his powers.
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** Magik/Illyana Rasputina tried to be an example (we'll see if she's still trying since coming back to life), practicing both dark and light magic. Sometimes she'd combine the two, like when she attempted to heal someone (light magic) while sitting backwards in a pentagram (dark magic). She kept falling to the dark side, though.
* During the Princes of Darkness arc of ''[[Justice Society of America]]'' (back when it was simply ''JSA''), Dr. Fate goes through an arc wherein his powers have been stolen by the [[Big Bad]], Mordru. He finally comes to the realization that he is both Chaos and Order, and so he can defeat Mordru, who is only a Lord of Chaos.
* On some occasions, the ''[[
** The last time he tried during the ''[[Sinestro Corps War]]'', Hal put on all the rings that his hands could hold and all-out attacked Sinestro with them. Sinestro just shrugged, took control of all that yellow light and sent back to him. Hal apparently can control fear a bit due to his stint as Parallax's host, but Sinestro has much more experience and control.
*** It's not so much controlling fear as it's the wearer's ability to instill fear in others; hence why Batman was among the first to be offered a ring, his whole persona is based on instilling fear into his enemies. Hal has the same potential, both because many still fear what he will do if he ever wants to regain the power he held as Parallax and also because of the fear he spread while gaining said power.
** He has also briefly wielded a green and blue together as well that; while they're not opposed to each other, they hold different objectives and their bearers have different methods.
** Played straighter in ''[[Blackest Night]]'', which sees [[Jerk
*** What made that a
*** Played still straighter in ''War of the Green Lanterns'', in which Guy Gardner manages to wield a red ring and a violet ring together, the two colors at the farthest extremes of the Emotional Spectrum. They represent rage and love, making this the most strongly opposing ring pairing.
** At one point, a green and yellow ring chose Mother Mercy at the same time, but she quickly decided to reject the yellow ring.
* In [[Final Crisis|Superman Beyond]], Quantum Superman fuses good matter Superman and evil antimatter Ultraman into a [[Mind Screw|hyper-contextual amalgamation of two symmetrical concepts]] and then they power a giant Superman thought-robot and beat up the personification of [[Darker and Edgier|Grimdark]].
* ''[[Pride High]]'' has Lightspot, a faculty member who controls both light and darkness. The darkness power allows him to teleport by traveling through the shadow dimension, which has been hinted to be a very evil place.
== Literature ==
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** In the recent novel tie-in to [[The Old Republic]], ''Revan,'' when {{spoiler|Revan recovers all of his memories and thus his full knowledge of the Dark Side, his most powerful Force technique is to simply gather up as much of both as he can hold... and smash them together. it's enough to knock back an enemy who is fighting with the Dark Side energy of an entire world's population}}
* It takes a while to get there, but this trope becomes the entire point of the end of [[Brandon Sanderson]]'s ''[[Mistborn]]'' trilogy. The prophecied [[The Chosen One|Hero of the Ages]] destined to {{spoiler|combine the powers of Ruin and Preservation}} could be male or female based on the ancient grammar. {{spoiler|It turns out he's a eunuch instead}}.
** In addition, this trope is the secret of the immortality of the [[Big Bad]] of the first book. The first book reveals two [[Functional Magic|magic systems]]: Allomancy, which works by ingesting various metals and consuming them to get temporary power-ups, and Feruchemy, which works by saving up a person's own attributes like strength or health in metals and consuming them later in an [[Equivalent Exchange]]. Both are [[Inherent Gift
* Defied in ''[[The Bible]]''. As 2 Corinthians 6: 14 puts it, "For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?".
** It may refer to spiritual light and darkness. But then, people fighting with light and dark powers isn't exactly recorded...
*** Actually, it's an analogy referring to physical light and darkness, not figurative. It's saying that righteousness and wickedness are as alike as light and darkness (meaning mutually exclusive), not that righteousness = light and evil = dark.
* Ursula K. Le Guin's ''The Left Hand Of Darkness'' makes a poem about this (about the larger theme of balance in general): "Light is [[Title Drop|the left hand of darkness]], and darkness the right hand of light." They're one and the same.
* [[The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant|Thomas Covenant]] becomes one of these in the second trilogy finale ''White Gold Wielder'' when {{spoiler|he attempts to burn the venom out of himself by walking in to the banefire but instead fuses with it to make himself an alloy of wild magic and venom, restoring his mastery over the power.}}
* Most of the truly important mages of either faction in the Recluce Saga are gray mages, capable of using both order and chaos magic. These tend to be the most powerful mages in the world in whatever time they happen to live.
* [[The Wheel of Time]] features [[Mutually
** The symbol for the union of male and female magic is itself a simplified yin yang.
* In ''[[
== Live-Action TV ==▼
* Common theme in the [[Robin Hood]] ''[[Robin of Sherwood]]'' series. Robin and his sword Albion are specifically said by Herne the Hunter to have the "power of light and darkness".▼
* One episode of ''[[
== Tabletop Games ==▼
▲=== Card Games ===
▲* In ''[[Magic:
▲** To wit: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090517064618/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=151083 Unmake], one of the best removal cards in type at the time of writing, is cast with three mana of either black or white and is considered a black/white card; it had a predecessor in the Apocalypse expansion called '''[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=19135 Vindicate]'''. Lest we forget, there was also the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=47453\].
▲** Multicolor-focused sets often have White-Black as an option. For instance, in Ravnica, the white-black Guild is The Orzhov Syndicate, who are in charge of business (or, to be more precise, a religion which is ''also'' a business), and are run by ghosts.
▲*** A rundown of enemy-color pairs: White/black is harsh, controlling, and often cruel. Blue/red is high weirdness and mad insight. Black/green is decay, life coming from death. Red/white is an army, equal parts discipline and fury. Green/blue is biology, either mutation or studying new life.
▲*** The ultimate Yin Yang Bomb is probably the ability on the Legacy Weapon artifact. One mana of each color to exile any single card.
▲*** [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=179496 Progenitus] could also be considered as one, as it takes two of each color mana to summon but is also one of the most powerful creatures in the game.
▲** More generally, gold-colored cards that require more than one type of mana to cast and creatures with abilities that require a color besides their own to use have been a staple of the game for quite a while, and are almost always designed to be stronger than equivalent single-color cards of the same cost, since they require you be able to produce multiple colors of mana and thus be more open to resource deprivation. Even before ''that'', players themselves were encouraged to field more than one color to cover the weaknesses built into each one (including spells which can severely handicap a person whose cards are all of one color).
▲* The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' card game plays with this, the main example being the now infamous "[[Game Breaker|Chaos]]" archetype (which has been banned for years but radically shifted the metagame), consisting of three monsters summoned by removing from play a Dark-Attribute monster and a Light-Attribute monster. One of these, Chaos Sorcerer, provides the page picture. There are plenty of cards that act similar, but the most prominent example is the appropriately named "[[Exactly What It Says
=== Gamebooks ===
* ''[[Lone Wolf]]''
** In book 7, ''Castle Death'', the owner of said castle, Lord Zahda, uses a Lorestone and a Doomstone.
** [[Lone Wolf]] himself can wield a holy weapon like the Sommerswerd and infernal weapons like Helshezag. (Theoritically not at the same time, but that doesn't stop some players to have houseruled [[Dual-Wielding]].)
=== Tabletop RPGs ===
▲== Live-Action TV ==
▲* Common theme in the [[Robin Hood]] ''[[Robin of Sherwood]]'' series. Robin and his sword Albion are specifically said by Herne the Hunter to have the "power of light and darkness".
▲* One episode of ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' had Phoebe and Paige traveling to a [[Mirror Universe]] and fighting their [[Evil Twin|Evil Twins]]. The battle between the two Paiges causes explosions due to their opposing powers colliding. Later, they team up with their evil twins and form "The Power of Four" by combining their powers to devastating effect.
▲== Tabletop Games ==
▲* The Shadow Sun Ninja prestige class in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In [[Terraria]], you can explore the blightely dark lands of [[The Corruption]] and the joyful, light-aligned Hallow and find respectively Dark and Light Souls, which are used to make or upgrade dark or light-themed equipment. Fuse them with two particular (and rather rare) items and you obtain the Dao of Pow, an [[Epic Flail]] which is essentially a huge spiked Yin Yang on a chain capable of massive damage and confusing any enemy it touches.
* ''[[
** ''[[
*** Palom and Porom's Twincast works off this concept, as do a couple of [[Combination Attack|Bands]] in the sequel, ''[[
** In ''[[
{{quote|
::: And it gets [[Lampshaded]].
{{quote|
** Before this, ''[[
*** The DS version of the game replaced the Mystic Knight class with the functionally identical Dark Knight class. Allowing a Light Warrior to fight with Dark power.
* {{spoiler|The Tittle Character}} of [[Bayonetta]] is born of both a Lumen Sage{{spoiler|who turns out to be Father Balder}} and a Umbra Witch
* Most main characters in the ''[[Persona]]'' (or ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'') series can wield both Light and Dark magic. Curiously, they are both insta-kill magics instead of healing (which most often shows up on Wind or Water Personas).
** ''Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children: Book of Light'' and ''Book of Dark'' (DemiKids in the states) was ''all about'' this. The game was [[One Game for
** Furthersome, Naoto from [[Persona 4]] was practically a pure incarnation of this. Specially considering how in Persona series it's ''hard'' to hold both Light and Dark attacks simultaneously.
** The strongest personification of this trope in the Persona series is Armageddon, the strongest attack in the games doing 9999 non type unavoidable damage to everything or an automatic victory. It is made by combining the opposing aspects of [[Lawful Neutral|Satan]] and [[Chaotic Evil|Lucifer]].
** In the MMO "Shin Megami Tensi" Imagine" They are no longer light and dark, but Death and Expel. In an odd variation, player characters cannot use death or expel themselves. The closest, however, is that they can use both white magic (healing/buffing skills) and dark magic (damage based/debuffing skills)in unison, and each one is a sepearte class, so you could have a person who can both debuff and buff, or in closer symbols for light and dark, revive all party members at full health and then blow up the enemies with a blast of destructive energy. or combinations. Any character who masters two skills that correspond with each other could be considered a non-alignment yin-yang bomb, if you master counter/dodge and a melee based skill you have the distinct possibility of becoming unhittible in one on one combat, however only in one on one.
* Riku's ending in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'' and throughout ''358/2 Days'' and ''[[
** During the last hit of the ''Eternal Session'' [[Combination Attack]] [[Limit Break]], Sora and Riku charge their Keyblades with Light and Darkness, respectively, and crash them into each other for a superpowerful attack combining the two elements. Some of Riku's sleights in Re:Chain of Memories work the same way, just with Mickey channeling the light power instead of Sora.
** Xemnas uses a yin-yang bomb style of attacking in the final battle, throwing out beams of darkness and light. Xemnas even trades out his trademark black robe for a robe of black and white swirls.
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*** The Oathkeeper and the Oblivion [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|are obvious]] if [[Bilingual Bonus|you know Japanese.]] The Oathkeeper's teeth are the kanji for "light", while the Oblivion's teeth are the kanji for "darkness". Also related is that both of Sora's best friends are each symbolized by these Keyblades; Kairi is light and is represented by the Oathkeeper (the keyblade has her lucky charm as a keychain and is obtained after he got a clue of where she was in KHII) and Riku is darkness and is represented by the Oblivion (he has used the keyblade himself and in both KH and KHII it is obtained after an encounter with him). This is supported by the fact that Riku uses the power of darkness to fight and Kairi is a Princess of Light.
*** [[No Export for You|If you live outside Japan and haven't looked it up, you'd never know]], but in ''Kingdom Hearts II'', Sora gets the Two Become One keyblade after defeating Roxas. The keyblade itself is covered in silver, white, and black sections, symbolizing a combination of Sora's light and darkness (and his combining with Roxas). Its special effect is called "Light and Darkness", which causes him to, when he Drives, become either Final Form, as described above, or Anti Form, a shadowy Heartless-like Sora, no matter which (usually low-cost) Drive form you actually ''chose''. In this case, Final Form represents light, and Anti Form represents Darkness.
** In ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep|Birth By Sleep]]'', Master Xehanort preaches the virtues of this path to Terra, telling him that Eraqus's way of shutting out and killing the darkness is just as wrong as succumbing to darkness entirely, and that the right way to protect the worlds is to wield light and darkness in equal measure. {{spoiler|He's full of crap. The possible truth of his statements notwithstanding, he's only telling Terra this so that he can get him to give into darkness. His written intention for wanting to start the Keyblade War is to forge a new world with the two powers in balance, but thus far, he's only shown alignment with Darkness, and obsession with its power.}}
*** Also in ''Birth By Sleep'', the {{spoiler|χ-Blade.}} is a Yin Yang ''Sword'', forged by combining a heart of pure darkness with a heart of pure light.
** The Shadow Breaker command in ''[[Kingdom Hearts 3D]]'' consists of two whirling slashes, the first dark element, and the second light.
* The ending of ''[[
* Judas in ''[[
* Shing (light) and Kunzite (dark) in ''[[
* In the [[
* ''[[Illusion of Gaia]]''
* Jak from ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' gains both [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Dark Eco]] and [[Touched
* ''[[Ikaruga]]''
* ''[[
* The [[Mineral MacGuffin|Chaos Emeralds]] in the ''[[Sonic]]'' games are said to contain both positive and negative energy. Most prominent in ''[[
* Dante of ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' fame, with [[Guns Akimbo|Ebony and Ivory]]. He uses both demonic and human weapons. In the third game, Vergil hates humans, and exclusively uses demonic weapons, and Lady hates demons, and uses ordinary human guns. Dante's usage of both types of weapons proves to be more powerful.
* ''[[Grandia II]]''. Good and evil were necessary to win the game, as you had a holy priestess with you and an evil demon, both in the same person, and you, being the hero, were kind of the neutral mix of both. May also apply to the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|who is both the pope of the same holy religion as the priestess, and embodies the same devil entity as the demon chick -- cranked up to 11, obviously}}
* Wisp of ''[[Knights in The Nightmare]]'' has the power to switch the "Battle Phase" between Law and Chaos at will, which causes its Knights to execute different attack patterns. Also, the amount of [[Power Crystal]] (required to [[Limit Break|Break Out]]) dropped by enemies depletes over time, but returns to full when the Phase changes, forcing Wisp to switch between the Phases in order to keep up the assault.
* In ''[[Legend of Legaia
* Wes from ''[[
** Solrock and Lunatone, also, who you face in a double battle with Liza and Tate in ''[[
* ''[[Shining Force]]''
** You need to get the Sword of Light and the Sword of Darkness to use as keys to get the Chaos Breaker, a [[Sword of Plot Advancement|plot-important]] [[Infinity+1 Sword]].
** If you explore ''during'' Michaela's battle, you'll find the White Ring, Black Ring and Evil Ring. Though it may not sound like it, the Black Ring is the
** ''Shining Tears'' has a system where you pair off in battle with a Light- or Dark- aspected partner, and your alignment is shifted to the opposite thanks to your Yin/Yang rings.
* ''[[Soul Calibur]]''
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** And in ''Soul Calibur IV'', Talim's final weapons (she uses a pair of "elbow blades") are Soul Edge and Soul Calibur: one in each hand. Kilik's ultimate weapon is Embrace of Souls, a fusion of Soul Calibur and Soul Edge that leaves both swords inert (though still powerful), in staff form.
* In ''[[Castlevania]]: Order of Ecclesia'', the item crash between a light glyph and a darkness glyph (except for Dominus) results in a literal, and very powerful, Yin Yang Bomb.
** It's also a [[Game Breaker]]. 4 hits of that attack and within 10 seconds you've just beaten the final boss.
** {{spoiler|Albus}} also uses his "Balance Cannon Shot", firing a light projectile and a dark projectile which whirl outward in a helix. It hurts.
* The [[Neglectful Precursors|Xel'naga]] temple in ''[[
** This wasn't the first time, either. Tassadar channeled High and Dark Templar powers simultaneously to [[Heroic Sacrifice|kill the Overmind]]. (Mind you, having [[Ramming Always Works|a Carrier take a nosedive into the thing]] couldn't have hurt.)
** Technically he didn't nosedive. he used it as a channel device to launch a pulse
*** The Twilight Archon in ''Starcraft 2'' was planned to be this, a combination of a Dark Templar with a High (Light) Templar. Then the unit was replaced by the normal Archon, the only difference is that now it forms as a combination of any two Templar units regardless of their alignment. So it ''can'' be a yin-yang bomb, but doesn't have to be.
* ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'' inverts this trope. If a character chooses moves with opposing elements in the same turn, the elemental damage cancels out, and the combined result is weaker than an equivalent turn made from moves with non-opposing elements.
** The prequel plays this straight by revamping the combat system. Several EX Combos use elements opposed to each other, including Guillo's tremendously powerful light and darkness combos.
* Django of ''[[
** This symbolism is broken in the [[No Export for You|third game]] where his [[Karma Meter]] decreases the more he uses his vampiric self.
** Done straight in the final boss of the first game and the second to final boss of the second game where {{spoiler|Both Django and Sabata use their respective Light and Dark guns to power the pile driver and use the Wild Bunch attack, and in the second game where Sabata uses his black hole attack to pin down a strong and agile boss so Django can use his Gun Del Sol and deal a lot of damage.}}
** Also done straight in ''Boktai DS'' (''[[Boktai
* [[Knights of the Old Republic (
** An even better example is [[Dark Forces Saga|Kyle]] [[Memetic Badass|frickin' Katarn]], who can very well be considered a Gray Jedi. One of the first things he taught to his pupils was that the powers they use are neither good nor evil, it's how they use them that is important. The one apprentice who took that lesson to heart has beaten an ancient Sith Lord in single combat.
** You can use the Player Character as one in [[Knights of the Old Republic]], though it is rather difficult to throw around light-side buffs and neutral or dark-side attack powers unless you are a Consular with maxxed Wisdom and so many force points it isn't even funny.
* This is a feature of an optional character in ''[[
* In ''[[Seiken Densetsu 3]]'', you get two class changes per character. Similar to the [[
* A long part of Albion's gameplay requires the player to retrieve two scrolls that together, hold the knowledge to combine magic and technology, which are polar opposites of each other. The end result is {{spoiler|a magical seed that can absorb nuclear energy and grow into an entire jungle in just a few minutes, spurting vines strong enough to crush an otherwise indestructible supercomputer, and overgrow the mining facility it controlled.}}
* In ''[[Touhou]]'', Reimu's Yin Yang Orbs are likely the most literal example of this trope one will find.
** Yukari's power over boundaries seems to be all about this. "Mesh of Light and Darkness" "Curse of Dreams and Reality", "Balance of Motion and Stillness" etc etc. So basically her power is a myriad different
* Dante from ''[[
* In ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] IV'''s expansion ''The Gathering Storm'', one of the protagonists uses [[Order Versus Chaos|order and chaos]] magic together, and his campaign involves seeking a Yin-Yang-related artifact that will power both.
** Another protaganist is able to use a combination of white magic and necromancy.
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', balance-specced druids switch back and forth between solar- and lunar-based spells as one of their main mechanics. Their signature move, Starsurge, is a powerful blast formed by fusing the power of the moon and sun.
** Priests have holy spells to heal and buff allies or smite enemies, but also rather evil-sounding shadow spells that can [[Agony Beam|inflict extreme pain on enemies]], [[Mind Rape|or liquefy their very mind.]] They can switch between Shadow and Holy magic at will, but they technically can't use both at the same time. The proportion of "Yin" and "Yang" used so by a priest depends on the amounts of talents he or she has learned in the appropriate spell school, with a Shadow/Holy hybrid spec being the closest thing to a true
** There is also the Mage, capable of casting both Fire and Ice spells.
** The announced Monk class has a "Light Force and Dark Force" system, in which you use Chi to generate either force, and you can use both.
* The origin of humanity, and the mortal world of Sanctuary in general, in ''[[Diablo]]''.
* ''[[
* ''[[MARDEK]]: Chapter 3'' has Zach's strongest attack, "Immoral Injustice," which deals large amounts of damage to both light and dark elemental foes. The animation looks like a yin-yang. His strongest weapon is a double-bladed sword called "Yin and Yang."
* ''[[Mana
* The XBLA [[Bullet Hell]]-infused [[Platform Game]] ''[[Outland (
* In ''[[Arc Rise Fantasia]]'', both Dynos and Cecile have an Excel Act each (Doubly Dark and Light and Dark!, respectively) that merges a mass of light and darkness together to form a huge combined [[Kamehame Hadoken|beam]]. Apparently it's a "forbidden art".
* ''Magicka'' gives you lots of opposites. While combining them yourself is impossible, you and another sorcerer can combine opposites (for example, Life and Arcane), which will generate a devastating [[Stuff Blowing Up|Antipodal Blast.]]
* In ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]]'', Starkiller seems to combine Lightside and Darkside techniques in battle.
* You run across quite a few Darkspawn Emissaries and Blood Mages in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' with skill in healing in addition to their [[Black Magic|darker powers]], which makes them much more obnoxious to fight since they've got the Creation-school healing to let them keep throwing out the Entropy-school hexes for longer.
* In ''[[
* The combination of holy and dark energy in ''[[Monster Girl Quest]]'' yields incredible power, and is the source of {{spoiler|the villains' [[One-Winged Angel]] forms}}. In ''[[Monster Girl Quest Paradox]]'', the {{spoiler|Apoptosis}} race have innate access to both forms of energy, as do {{spoiler|Nero and Neris}} due to being descended from both monsters (dark-aligned) and angels (holy-aligned).
== Web Comics ==
* At the end of the "Storm of Souls' arc, ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' had to fight Celesto Morgan, the Champion of Chaos and Darkness. Celesto assumed that Dominic was the appropriate counter for him -- the Champion of Law and Light. But no, he was the Champion of Balance, imbued equally by Light (thanks to his brother, Gregory, a powerful White Mage), Law (through Klo Tark, a master of mind-magic), and Dark (through the [[Anti-Hero]] Necromancer, Rillian). When Celesto strikes him with an attack concentrating the pure Chaos of the Storm of Souls, Dominic [https://web.archive.org/web/20120630100203/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2005-04-11 absorbs it]. However, it's soon revealed he needs to take it a step further by gaining the physical elements--which {{spoiler|Leafette's [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}} provides him.
* ''[[Sinfest]]'' depicts the Buddha as a cheerful [[Cloudcuckoolander]] that confounds God and the Devil alike.
* Pella in ''[[Looking for Group]]'' gives Cale a gift of two swords, named Good and Evil. [http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/377 Cale represents the balance between them.]
* The Tumor in [[Homestuck]] is a literal example, being a giant bomb with a black and white coloration similar to the yin yang symbol. Its power annihilates two {{spoiler|universes by combining them together, leaving an enormous power source know as the Green Sun.}}
== Web Original ==
* Centigrade, a superhero from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' uses both [[An Ice Person|ice-based powers]] and [[Playing
* In the [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] fan flash movie ''Nazo Unleashed'' this trope is invoked against the titular [[Big Bad|Nazo]] in his Perfect form. After both Super Sonic and Dark Super Shadow get soundly curbstomped one after the other, [[The Hero|Sonic]] (light) and [[Anti-Hero|Shadow]] (...well, shadow) use Chaos Control to [[Fusion Dance|merge into]] Hyper Shadic, who proves strong enough to challenge the "darkness" that is Nazo.
== Western Animation ==
* Equinox's schtick in ''[[Batman:
== Real Life ==
* Most of the universe is composed of Matter. [[Antimatter]] is its exact opposite. Mixing the two will invariably result in annihilation, a technical term meaning all their mass is converted to energy (photons). Keep in mind that the energy of an object is the mass multiplied by the square of the speed of light (E=mc^2). You get a very big boom. Fortunately, most of the anti-matter in the universe seems to have exploded already.
** Which is, by the way, one of the great mysteries of physics. Theoretically, the amounts of matter and antimatter in the universe should have been equal, resulting in complete annihilation of the universe. The disparity of matter and antimatter still puzzles physicists.
*** Not so mysterious anymore, there are several observed phenomenon that favor matter over anti-matter.
* Thermal shock; super-heat a piece of glass or ceramic, and then quickly introduce it to extreme cold, and watch what happens.
* [[Real Life]] famously mixes good and bad, and would any of us trade it? One might even go so far as to say it's ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|the bomb]]''.
* Mixed states in bipolar disorder.
** Bipolar disorder ''itself'' is this, regardless of whether "mixed" states occur. People affected by the "classic" Bipolar I have a high suicide rate, and when they attempt suicide it's often at the end of a manic episode just when the first signs of depression start to appear: While their mood starts spiralling downwards, they still have enough energy to try and kill themselves, which will no longer be the case once they are in full-blown depression. Similar for mixed mood states, which can be very dangerous and unpredictable because patients may be in a bad temper while having a lot of energy (cue [[Unstoppable Rage]]), or may switch rapidly between high and low energy and mood states.
* In chemistry, mixing substances with completely opposite properties (e.g. a strong oxidizer and a strong reducer, a strong acid and a strong base) is usually the best way to get [[Stuff Blowing Up|violent, unpredictable]] reactions.
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