History Main / ConflictingLoyalty

* ''Series/TheWhiteLotus'': The central conceit: heroine Elizabeth of York is torn between the marriage and family she is building with Henry Tudor and her scheming mother and the rest of the Yorkist faction, who would gladly see Henry deposed. [[spoiler:She aligns herself fully with the House of Tudor in the end when she condemns her brother and cousin to execution to secure her children's future]].

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' Therkla is ordered by his master Kubota to kill Elan, who she is in love with. Elan successfully persuades her to quit even if he won't be her boyfriend, but she still won't betray Kubota. She tries to convince Kubota to step back because Hinjo already knows everything about his plan, but she also tries to convince Elan not to kill Kubota. Finally, she realizes that she can't have both ways [[spoiler: and sides with Elan. It doesn't end well for her.]]

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''
** "Amok Time": Captain Kirk must choose between obeying Starfleet orders and going to Altair VI or taking Spock to Vulcan to save his life, which could result in Kirk being court-martialed.
** Several times Kirk has to decide whether to violate the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]] in order to save the Enterprise. Each time he goes ahead and breaks it, always coming up with a plausible rationale for doing so. The only time he ever enforces it is when another starship captain violates it.
** In "The Menagerie" Spock shows his loyalty to his former captain Christopher Pike by risking the Starfleet death penalty for taking him to Talos IV. He spends the two-parter torn between his loyalty to Kirk and his loyalty to Pike-- committing mutiny against the former to help the latter.

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': Crewmember [[spoiler:Six]] is hit with this bigtime in the last few episodes of Season 1. Aside from Five, the MysteriousWaif, the ''Raza'' crew are all criminal mercenaries with extensive rapsheets including everything from piracy to mass murder, but a mindwipe at the start of the series while they were in stasis for a long journey to their next target caused them all to lose their memories. Hence [[YouAreNumberSix adopting numbers as names]] and [[ThatManIsDead rejecting their old ones]] after learning what kind of people they were. During "Episode 8", [[spoiler:Six]] learns offscreen from a colleague that he actually wasn't a criminal at all, but an undercover cop with a mission to sabotage the ''Raza'' and deliver the crew to justice. Which their original selves arguably would have richly deserved. But now, thanks to the mindwipe, he genuinely thinks of them all as friends/FamilyOfChoice, knows they're trying to be better people, and is very reluctant to fulfill his original mission.

* Series/TheDevilJudge:

* This is ultimately Giygas's undoing in ''[[VideoGame/Mother1 Earthbound Zero]]''. He's sort of a subverted ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', sent to our world as an infant in the hopes that he would grow to conquer it, but he still feels love for the human couple who raised him. [[spoiler:Playing a music box tune that was his childhood lullaby]] is enough to get him to back down.

* A major part of the second-season arc of ''LightNovel/TheStoryOfSaiunkoku'' centers around Ran Shuuei being caught in a conflict of loyalty -- between his loyalty to his Emperor (who has shown him absolute trust) and his {{Big Screwed Up|Family}} [[TheClan Clan]], the Rans, who dislike the emperor and only care about their own people and lands. Getting it resolved takes a lot of work (and, ultimately, intentionally getting himself disowned so that he can freely swear his unconditional loyalty to Ryuuki).

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

-->'''Captain America:''' "I don't know if this war is right—but I do know that people are dying, and our country's name and ideology are tied to it."
* Examples from ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comics:

* For ComicBook/CarolDanvers in ''ComicBook/OperationGalacticStorm''. Cross the portal and retrieve the Nega-Bomb, and prevent the annihilation of the Kree, or fix the things going wrong with the sun because of the portals and prevent the annihilation of the human race? As a human herself, Carol Danvers did not doubt... and indirectly allowed the genocide of the Kree.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

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* ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'': After getting a taste of what [[GoodFeelsGood being good feels like]], gang leader Mr. Wolf gradually finds himself conflicted on whether to stay evil with his CriminalFoundFamily or abandon his villainy and become a model citizen, leaving his friends behind in the process. This comes to a head at the charity gala where Wolf either has to go through with stealing the Golden Dolphin trophy as planned or let it go and get the pardon they were promised. [[spoiler:Wolf chooses not to go through the heist, triggering a nasty falling out with his friends after the gang is [[FrameUp framed and arrested for a crime they didn't commit]]. They eventually reconcile when the rest of the gang realizes Wolf was right about them becoming more than just scary villains.]]

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* In ''Literature/WarOfTheSpiderQueen'', half-demon BloodKnight isn't partial about who is giving him orders as long as he can brutally tear someone to shreds. He is ordered by his mother, the high priestess of Menzoberanzan, to accompany his aunt Quenthel on her quest and follow her orders without question. However, when Quenthel starts to eat herself up with doubt and loses her faith in the Spider Goddess, he is conflicted between his loyalty and his belief that AsskickingEqualsAuthority, which is the foundation for their races entire society. Danifae however, who as a slave is nominally the groups lowest ranking member, proves herself to be a [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]] who plays the game of lying, betraying, and instilling fear like no-one else. [[spoiler:When Jegrred finally switches his loyalty, Quenthel helplessly resigns and doesn't try to stop them, but when she gets all her powers back, she sacrifices him for punishment.]]

* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', B'Elanna Torres and other members of the Maquis freedom fighters have loyalties that conflict with that of Captain Janeway and the Federation. In particular, the Maquis members on the Voyager want to do whatever it takes to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, but are expected to act in accordance with Federation regulations.

* ''Series/ER'': At one point Dr. Neela Rasgotra suggests that Dr. Luka Kovač not treat a female patient who may be pregnant because she thinks he may put his Catholicism ahead of the patient's welfare. Dr. Kovač [[BerserkButton does not take kindly to that suggestion]] and empathicatly states the welfare of his patients ''always'' comes first.

** This was actually a source of prejudice in the United States against Catholic politicians. During his 1960 campaign for President, UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy made several statements to reassure people that he was not running to be a Catholic President but a President who was also Catholic, and that neither he nor the Church spoke for one another.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': Sylvester has family members in different two different factions of the nobility. He's already defying the trope by the time his situation is made explicit; one group was consistently making use of ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections while the other was being consistently hard-working and loyal to Sylvester, making choosing a side relatively easy. [[spoiler:Or so it first seems. The faction associated with the realtives he turns his back on also contained the most people who supported his rule, and many of those people are starting to like the idea of seeing his older sister in his seat. The faction associated with the relatives Sylvester sided with, meanwhile, is overall reluctant to support him until he makes clearer political moves in their favor, and many of those that the faction's members have in mind are some Sylvester has no plans to make]].

* Lancelot of Myth/ArthurianLegend is torn viciously between his place as Arthur's general and Guinevere's knight, to say the least of the romantic involvement. Creator/ChretienDeTroyes makes little of this, as Arthur is mostly an inept and impotent king, but from ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur'' onwards it tends to be one of the driving forces of the tragedy. ''Literature/IdyllsOfTheKing'' cranks it up to the point where the conflict inside him prematurely ages Lancelot, and the longest book of ''Literature/TheOnceAndTheFutureKing'' is dedicated to Lancelot's story, at which this struggle is the focal point.

* Lancelot of ''Myth/ArthurianLegend'' is torn viciously between his place as Arthur's general and Guinevere's knight, to say the least of the romantic involvement. The original [[Creator/ChretienDeTroyes Chrétien]] version makes little of this, as Arthur is mostly an inept and impotent king, but from ''Literature/LeMorteDarthur'' onwards it tends to be one of the driving forces of the tragedy. ''Literature/IdyllsOfTheKing'' cranks it up to the point where the conflict inside him prematurely ages Lancelot, and the longest book of The Once and Future King is dedicated to Lancelot's story, at which this struggle is the focal point.

* This is a common theme in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.

* In ''[[Literature/{{Dragonlance}} Brothers In Arms]]'' one of the commanders mentions that this is why he didn't want to be a knight. He feared the potential for his lord and his god to demand conflicting things of him.

* At the end of ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', Vimes is briefly torn between his loyalty to the law and his loyalty to the Patrician. He picks, as the Patrician knew he would, the law. Anything else wouldn't be Sam Vimes.

* Brother Aiden in the second ''Literature/TheMonkAndTheViking'' story has conflicting loyalties between the Viking he loves, the monks he grew up with, and his mother who the monks mistreated.
* In ''Literature/MySisterTheSerialKiller'' Korede is fiercely protective of Ayoola, her younger sister. She is also worried for Tade, Ayoola’s newest boyfriend, as Ayoola has killed her last three suitors. It doesn’t help that Korede had unrequited feelings for Tade before he met and became infatuated with Ayoola.
* Conflicts of loyalty play a huge part in the ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}''. To point out the more important ones: In the matter of the murder of Siegfried, Gunther is torn between his obligation to protect the honour of his wife Brunhilde and those towards his vassal and brother-in-law Siegfried. Later, after the deed is done, Gunther and his brothers are torn between their feudal obligation to protect their vassal Hagen and their fraternal loyalty towards their sister Kriemhild; they opt for Hagen. Rüdiger of Bechlarn is visibly torn between the oaths he swore to his queen Kriemhild and to the Burgundians, one of whom is betrothed to Rüdiger's daughter. Kriemhild has to choose between her sisterly affections to her brothers (especially Giselher, the youngest) and to her loyalty to her dead husband Siegfried. She eventually opts for the latter, allowing Gernot and Giselher to die in battle and ordering Gunther to be executed. This is an interesting switch from earlier versions of the story (preserved e. g. in the Icelandic Atli-saga), she killed her second husband Atli (Etzel) in order to avenge her dead brothers.

* Lancelot in ''VideoGame/{{Guenevere}}'' is (like his [[Myth/KingArthur classical inspiration]]) torn between his loyalty to Myth/KingArthur and his love for Arthur's wife.

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* In ''Fanfic/AllMixedUp'', when Carlos sees Otto and Oscar up against Mariana Mag, he becomes torn on whose side to take -- the side of the agents he barely knows, or the side of the woman who was his OnlyFriend and vice versa for so long. He doesn't get to make his decision until Mariana uses a [[TheParalzyer stun gun]] on Otto to wound him and leave him unable to fight back, at which point he gets in between them and tries to stop the ex-agent from anagramming him.