History Main / FearfulSymmetry

* Near the end of the ''RurouniKenshin'' manga, Aoshi fought against another user of two swords who used his own moves against him. It worked for a while until Aoshi dropped his swords and just started beating him with only his fists.

* A novice tries this against Akira in ''HikaruNoGo''. Unfortunately, as noted below, in Go you ''can't'' win by mirroring your opponent, and Akira forces him to resign.

* Done in RushHour2, when Lee gets into a fight with Kenny, and they end up doing the same move several times in succession. When Lee asks who his teacher was, they find out that their masters were brothers and stop fighting.

* In Terry Brooks' ''[[TheSwordOfShannara Elfstones of Shannara]]'', the Witch Sisters Morag and Mallenroh, last of their coven, are identical twins--and as such absolutely immune to each others' powers. This would seem to be a perfect excuse for the two to duke it out relatively harmlessly (which they are [[CainAndAbel only too prone to do]], since [[SiblingRivalry each blames the other]] for the death of the man they both loved and whom Wisp claims was [[{{Squick}} literally ripped apart]]). Except for the fact that when their powers ''combine'', the effects become terribly real. Both only get one shocked moment of realization to wail their agony and hatred of each other before the fire consumed them in their somewhat tragic, KarmicDeath.

* In ''DynastyWarriorsGundam'' 2, [[MobileSuitGundamZZ Elpeo Puru]] and [[CloningBlues Puru II]]'s story modes, being already intertwined, culminate in a cutscene wherein the two battle in their identical Quebeley Mobile suits, each mirroring the other's moves perfectly. They comment on how good and natural it feels.

* The first time the Minerva and Archangel battleships engage each other seriously in GundamSeedDestiny (the first encounter was Archangel refusing to fire on them and instead trying to shake them off) it's kicked off them each firing a single volley from their beam guns and firing a missile salvo, and the cannon shots being absorbed by each ships armor and the missiles being destroyed before impact by each ships point defense guns. Showing that both ships have almost identical functioning (though differing in design) weapons (and that their stock footage for firing them is very similar). After this though the battle quickly becomes more chaotic.

Compare JuxtaposedHalvesShot (where half of two characters' sides/faces are juxtaposed to or beside each other), MirroredConfrontationShot (a similar but conflict-exclusive trope), BashBrothers, and MirrorMatch. May result in a DoubleKnockout or MutualDisadvantage. See DittoFighter for the fighting game equivalent. Not to be confused with ''Series/TheXFiles'' and ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' episodes of the same name. The TropeNamer, William Blake's poem "The Tyger", doesn't have anything to do with the trope.

* Also the title of a ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' episode where Supergirl fights an [[ShoutOut older, more powerful, and more ruthless clone]] who knows all her moves.
** Likewise, in "Divided We Fall" the original 7 leaguers all fight [[spoiler:the Brainiac/Luthor hybrid]]'s copies of the Justice Lords.

* In one episode of ''MartianSuccessorNadesico'', Akito has a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind with the ship's computer, and both combatants take the form of Gekigangar III, the title robot of ''Nadesico's'' ShowWithinAShow. They match each other's attacks blow for blow until Akito levels up his avatar to Gekigangar V, a more powerful robot that the computer doesn't know about.

* The final battle between Rushuna and [[spoiler: Setsuna]] at the end of ''{{Grenadier}}'', in which they're so evenly matched, their ''bullets'' end up intercepting each other more often than not.

* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS'', Subaru and her sister Ginga have a mock battle. They have the exact same fighting style and even have two halves of the same device (Revolver Knuckle), so it comes off as a mirror match--after initially looking as though a difference in skill level would dictate otherwise.

* In ''MahouShoujoLyricalNanohaStrikerS'', Subaru and her sister Ginga have a mock battle. They have the exact same fighting style and even have two halves of the same device (Revolver Knuckle), so it comes off as a mirror match--after initially looking as though a difference in skill level would dictate otherwise.

* ''GaReiZero'' at one point involves a monster whose entire fighting style is based on this. It copies the appearance and weapons of its opponents, mimics their every move, and can even [[AttackReflector reflect projectile attacks]].

* An unusual sort of symmetry, though not from clones, occurs in ''GuiltyGear XX''. Before a story-related fight, Ky Kiske and Sol Badguy both perform a massive set of attacks, with each one being the move that serves about the same purpose with each character, starting with projectiles, going next to aerial attacks, then a chain combo attack, then finally, they both throw super attacks. Everything neutralizes the other attack, and they just end up about ten feet further away from each other for it.

* Although they don't look alike, part of the final battle between [[spoiler:Solid Snake and Liquid Ocelot]] in ''{{Metal Gear Solid 4|GunsOfThePatriots}}'' goes like this.

* Although they don't look alike, part of the final battle between [[spoiler:Solid Snake and Liquid Ocelot]] in ''[[MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Metal Gear Solid 4]]'' goes like this.

* The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQeRRZv8YcM battles]] between Dante and his older twin brother Vergil in ''DevilMayCry 3''; both utilize their agility, stamina, big-ass swords, and Devil Trigger abilities.

* Done in RushHour2, when Lee gets into a fight with Kenny, and they end up doing the same move several times in succession. When Lee asks who his teach was, they find out that their masters were brothers.

* ''WebComic/{{Precocious}}'': [[http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2009/04/30 a few strips' worth]] during the Gender War. Broken rather decisively, though.

* There's a (possibly apocryphal) story about a pair of twins, one left-handed and one right-handed, who got into a GentlemensDuel. They took the required 10 paces, turned, fired... and [[ShootTheBullet their bullets met and melded at the halfway point]].

* The lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin at the climax of ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/Revenge of the Sith'' has a few moments where the student's and master's moves match each other perfectly, including an instance of them cancelling out each other's Force Push. Interestingly, this has some basis in the ExpandedUniverse: Form V of lightsaber combat (Anakin's style) is based on the same principles as Form III (Obi-Wan's), only tailored to be more aggressive. And Obi-Wan mixes some Form V into his fighting style anyway.

* Subverted in the Archie Comics Sonic/Megaman crossover. As per the games, Mega Man fights a duplicate of himself, who claims that the fight is this. Mega Man quickly proves him wrong by using a recently acquired weapon, something Copy Bot couldn't possibly have gotten.

* In WesternAnimation/AladdinTheAnimatedSeries when a {{trickster}} called Chaos pairs Aladdin against an EvilTwin the results are to be expected.

* The lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin at the climax of ''[[StarWars Revenge of the Sith]]'' has a few moments where the student's and master's moves match each other perfectly. Including an instance of them cancelling out each other's Force Push.
** Interestingly, this has some basis in the ExpandedUniverse: Form V of lightsaber combat (Anakin's style) is based on the same principles as Form III (Obi-Wan's), only tailored to be more aggressive. And Obi-Wan mixes some Form V into his fighting style anyway.

*** However, it's not very faithful- while the Wonder Women may be hard to tell apart, the Supermen's powers are very different (one is an "evolved" Kryptonian who can grab the other two's heat vision beams and throw them around by them, while the other is the super-patriotic Superman from ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder and the third is Red Son Superman, raised communist) and the others all offer some degree of variation- for example, the Ray fights a Nazi Ray and [[TheAuthority Apollo]], one of the Batmen is a vampire (from Batman: Red Rain) and another is a Green Lantern (from Batman: Darkest Knight), one of the Starmen is a monkey and one is a chick, and... well, the list goes on.