History Main / EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily

* This is also a very common trope on shows with a number of recurring Villains-of-the-Week; the first season or two has some bad guys with crappy schemes that get beaten by five spunky multi-ethnic teenagers and their Deus Ex Machina, so the bad guys figure they can pool their resources, usually in a season finale. Usually they will be under the leadership of whichever baddie is the most conniving; occasionally a new extra-powerful villain will show up to unite them all, like on Captain Planet, when Chaos the God of Pollution, played by MALCOLM MACDOWELL (who was later replaced by STING) got the pig-guy and the radioactive guy in the bermuda shorts and the chick with her face burned off and everybody became One Big Happy Family. Usually.

* Mostly subverted in ''TheLordOfTheRings.'' At first it seems like all the evil factions are aligned against the protagonists, but Saruman is plotting to overthrow Sauron when he gets his hands on the One Ring, and it's clear that without a unifying EvilOverlord like Sauron, the various evil creatures (especially orcs) do not get along ''at all.'' Saruman's Uruk-hai, for example, clash with Sauron's Mordor orcs.

** Looks like a CriticalResearchFailure. Heroquest and Space Crusade came [[OlderThanTheyThink FIRST]].

* In ''{{The Order of the Stick}}'', the three fiends name the trope because they aren't at all inclined to work with Xykon. This both defies the trope and, in a way, plays it straight: the species of fiends are divided by an EnemyCivilWar, but these three are working together in spite of this this, because they understand how much the war holds them back.

* This is also a very common trope on shows with a number of recurring Villains-of-the-Week; the first season or two has some bad guys with crappy schemes thatget beaten by five spunky multi-ethnic teenagers and their Deus Ex Machina, so the bad guys figure they can pool their resources, usually in a season finale. Usually they will be under the leadership of whichever baddie is the most conniving; occasionally a new extra-powerful villain will show up to unite them all, like on Captain Planet, when Chaos the God of Pollution, played by MALCOLM MACDOWELL (who was later replaced by STING) got the pig-guy and the radioactive guy in the bermuda shorts and the chick with her face burned off and everybody became One Big Happy Family. Usually.

This trope could include instances where either evil or good beings mistakenly think evil is one big happy family.

* Mocked in ''{{The Order of the Stick}}''. See page quote.
** Note that in ''[[DungeonsAndDragons Dungeons & Dragons]]'' in general, which ''OOTS'' is based off of, the trope doesn't exist. Evil is more likely to try to [[EnemyCivilWar tear itself to pieces]] than join forces.
*** ''D&D'' is more complex than that. Whose side you are on has nothing to do with whether you are good, bad, or something in between, just like the real world. Also just like the real world the good guys will sometimes team up for the greater good or to help each other, but the evil and neutral guys will only team up if it benefits them.
** Oddly, in ''OOTS'' the main evil characters in we see ''do'' tend to end up working together. The page quote reveals that the three fiends aren't at all inclined to work with Xykon, which is a big deal. At the same time, though, there's an allusion to the fact that in ''{{Planescape}}'', the fiends are divided by an EnemyCivilWar, which apparently exists in ''OOTS'' as well. The three fiends are working together in spite of this this, because they understand how much the Enemy Civil War holds them back.
*** Which makes sense, considering that one of Planescape's functions as a campaign setting was to facilitate MassiveMultiplayerCrossover campaigns of a sort. Even without Planescape as a setting that received its own source books, Greyhawk and the ForgottenRealms still used its cosmology, although 4th edition may have changed all of that...

'''Cedric:''' And that makes us all one big happy family? [[DefiedTrope Screw that]]!

* This was one of the first tropes to be phased out as part of WWF's more realistic, DarkerAndEdgier reinvention in the late 90s, mainly because it really didn't make sense for, say, a WildSamoan to be allied with an evil tax accountant against cowboys teamed with bikers.

* Likewise is DissidiaFinalFantasy, in which all of the heroes and all of the villains are aligned into two factions. Though, while they officially all belong to [[OrderVersusChaos Chaos]], there are plenty of sub-factions and [[DragonWithAnAgenda personal plots]] involved.

*** Oddly, in OOTS the main evil characters in we see ''do'' tend to end up working together. The page quote reveals that the three fiends aren't at all inclined to work with Xykon, which is a big deal. At the same time, though, there's an allusion to the fact that in {{Planescape}}, the fiends are divided by an EnemyCivilWar, which apparently exists in OOTS as well. The three fiends are working together in spite of this this, because they understand how much the Enemy Civil War holds them back.

* This was common trope during the toy line-promoting cartoons of the 1980s, such as ''{{He-Man and the Masters of the Universe}}'' and ''GIJoe''.
** This was generally because the majority of the villains were all henchmen of a single BigBad or part of an organization.

* Likewise is DissidiaFinalFantasy, in which all of the heroes and all of the villains are aligned into two factions. Though, while they officially all belong to [[OrderVsChaos Chaos]], there are plenty of sub-factions and [[DragonWithAnAgenda personal plots]] involved.

*** Oddly, in OOTS the main evil characters in we see ''do'' tend to end up working together. The page quote reveals that the three fiends aren't at all inclined to work with Xykon, which is a big deal. At the same time, though, there's an allusion to the fact that in {{Planescape}}, the fiends are divided by an EnemyCivilWar, which apparently exists in OOTS as well. The three fiends are working together, contrary to this, because they understand how much the Enemy Civil War holds them back.