History Main / MeleeATrois

* The original ''Film/DawnOfTheDead'' has a climatic 3-way fight between Peter, the zombies, and the bikers invading the mall.

* The conflict in Mali has alliances changing at the drop of a hat. Broadly speaking, there are three major factions: the military junta in Bamako who want to rule the country, the secularist Tuareg MNLA, who want an independent Tuareg republic in the Azawad, and a collection of allied Islamist groups (most notably Ansar Dine, the flagship Tuareg Islamist movement, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and an AQIM splinter group called the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa) who broadly agree on the goal of an Islamic government in the region but differ on technical points and objectives. In early 2012, after the junta took power in Bamako, the MNLA formed an alliance with the Islamists, and the victorious alliance created the Islamic Republic of Azawad in the northeastern half of the country. However, since then the alliance has crumbled, and after the French and [[TheAlliance ECOWAS]] began to deploy forces to support the junta and bring down Ansar Dine in January 2013, the MNLA agreed to work with the French to throw the Islamists out.

** Even better was the contemporaneous wars in Ireland. It was already complicated -- with Catholic Irish (who wanted to be ruled by the Pope), Less Catholic Irish (who wanted the king to treat them better), Nationalist Irish (who wanted independence and English and Scottish settlers (who trusted each other as little as they trusted the natives). When the civil war broke out in Britain most factions then split along King or Parliament lines as well.

* After the (entirely satirical) feud between WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd and WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic got really heated, The Nostalgia Critic busted in on one of The Angry Video Game Nerd's autograph signings. Also there was fellow Internet personality Captain S, who wasn't involved with the feud at all but invited himself in anyway, resulting in a slow motion three-way brawl in the parking lot that simultaneously spoofed ''The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'' and ''Rocky V''. [[http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/529-the-battle-of-epic-proportions It kind of has to be seen to be believed]].

* ''FanFic/ABriefHistoryOfEquestria'': The Lake Trot Crisis started as the Celestine Junta attacking the Hyracotherium Republic and Kingdom of Unicorns for control of said lake. Then [[GeniusBruiser Wind Whistler]] kicked off her coup, which led to the troops loyal to her attacking those loyal to [[TheCaligula Sullamander]]; both the Earth ponies and unicorns decided to take advantage of this to take more territory for themselves, and started attacking each other as well as the pegasi.

** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'' and ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'': ZAFT vs. Earth Alliance vs. [[strike:Orb]] the Three Ships Alliance

* At the end of ''Anime/OutlawStar'', Gene and the crew of the Outlaw Star vs. the [=MacDoogal=] Brothers and Gwen Khan vs. the Kay pirates. The C'tarl C'tarl Empire also shows up outside the Leyline, but is unable to get in.

-->-- ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' (on ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/3/5/ here]])

->''"[[TheHorde Bull]] and [[TheFederation Bear]] over the Dam, at each other's throats... but [[TheChessmaster a light from Vegas]]? [[WildCard Ball spinning on the wheel]], more than two at the table. [[GambitPileup Placing bets]]. All lose in different ways. A dam of corpses, towns of corpses, scattered across the sand. But whose, and in what shares? Even the dealer doesn't know."''
-->-- '''[[MadOracle The Forecaster]]''' summing up the game's central conflict, ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''

* ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' has the Death Eaters versus the Ministry of Magic versus the Order of the Phoenix. No group likes any of the others very much. [[spoiler:Later, the first two groups become one and the same.]]

* The ''Evangelion''[=/=]''Franchise/MetalGear'' Crossover ''EvangelionGear'' has a three-way war between The Patriots (led by Big Boss), Nerv (led by Gendou Ikari), and Seele (led by Keel Lorentz/Major Zero).

* Averted in ''Franchise/Starcraft''... most of the time. Despite the seemingly perfect set-up of Terran vs. Protoss vs. Zerg, each race consists of various factions. Infighting ensues.

* SpiderMan sometimes gets in between certain [[AntiHero Anti Heroes]]. He's stopped GhostRider from killing the [[LegacyCharacter Demonic Hobgoblin]], and then later tried to stop the [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Demogoblin]] from killing the depowered Hobgoblin. None of the parties liked the others.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}''... most of the time. Despite the seemingly perfect set-up of Terran vs. Protoss vs. Zerg, each race consists of various factions. Infighting ensues.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. The [[HumansAreBastards humans have a policy of extermination for all xenos/mutants/heretics]], the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orks are biological war machines]], the [[OmniscientMoralityLicense Eldar consider humans barbarous space monkeys]], the [[OmnicidalManiac Necrons want to kill all life]], the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranids want to eat everything]], and [[TheCorruption Chaos is]]... [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Chaos]]. The sole exception are the [[TheFederation Tau]], who are happy to recruit other races into their little space commie family, [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans with force and brainwashing if necessary]].

->'''Gabe:''' Well, isn't the enemy of your enemy, like, your friend? Or whatever? [[EnemyMine Can't they team up?]]\\
'''Tycho:''' Not exactly. In ''this'' [[CrapsackWorld setting]], the enemy of your enemy is still a floating, greasy, armored brain.\\
'''Gabe:''' Well, what about ''his'' enemy? Maybe you could be friends with ''him''.\\
'''Tycho:''' No, because ''that'' guy is a mechanical horror in an undying battle shell. He sails from world to world in a flying tomb, serving gods who eat ''hope''.
-->-- ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' (on ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'')

** ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'': Autobots vs Decepticons vs MECH. Also put in an independent-acting [[spoiler:Starscream]], [[spoiler:Airachnid]] and Unicron.

* This becomes second nature in {{Baccano}} due to its large cast.

* ''FanFic/QueenOfAllOni'': The fight in the shrine of the Three Shades -- the J-Team goes there looking for information about the Shadowkhan, the Shadow Hand follow them so that Jade can steal a powerful Shadowkhan artifact, and the monks are duty bound to protect said artifact (one of the fragments of a TomeOfEldritchLore). Of course, since the monks are all TrueNeutral, they interpret "protect the artifact" as "fight anyone who shows up who isn't there to join the order", so even though they and the heroes are technically on the same side, they fight both them ''and'' the Shadow Hand. And it should also be noted that this fight is a total CurbStompBattle, as the monks utterly wipe the floor with the other two sides.

** Most of the factions above ''also'' spend a lot of energy on internal squabbles: [[TheEmpire the Imperium]] is constantly engaged in insurrections and reconquests, the Eldar have a break-off group of {{evil counterpart}}s who prey on the other Eldar as much as any other race, the forces of Chaos are divided amongst rival gods, and the Orks will happily fight each other if there aren't any other enemies available. Only Tyranids and Necrons are immune to this in-fighting, the former due to a HiveMind, the latter because they are mostly mindless servitors.

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', you have Agatha and her friends, Baron Wulfenbach and his army (with Gilgamesh torn between the two), House Sturmvoraus (with, again, Tarvek being dubious allegiance), Castle Heterodyne, Zola and the conspiracy backing her, The Other and her minions, Othar Tryggvassen (GentlemanAdventurer), the Jägermonsters, and... hu... probably many others, including any power-hungry Spark that would get involved. It doesn't simplify things that [[spoiler:The Other, Lucrecia, is currently inhabiting Agatha's body.]] Honestly, it's more of a Mêlée à Trente-Six.