History Main / OpponentSwitch

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks very first]] ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'' story featuring the [[MirrorUniverse Crime Syndicate of America]]: there, the [=JLAers=] only won when each member took on their specific counterparts with a series of [[OverclockingAttack Overclocking Attacks]].

* ''Fanfic/ThisBites'': This is how Vivi and Conis beat their opponents Marine Captains Sharinguru and Gorilla during the Enies Lobby fight. Gorilla is [[MightyGlacier tough, strong and straightforward enough]] to hammer through all of Conis' arsenal, but his {{Consummate Professional}}ism makes him vulnerable to [[spoiler: Vivi's newly-unlocked [[CompellingVoice Sovereign's Will]]]]. On the other hand, Sharinguru is fast and strong enough to deflect Vivi's weapons and zealous enough to [[spoiler: fight off her Sovereign's Will]], but Conis' esoteric Sky Warfare weaponry is sufficient to stop him in his tracks.

** Each Psycho Ranger has absorbed the fighting knowledge of his/her opposing Power Ranger, and is thus able to properly defend and retaliate. At first, the Power Rangers do the normal "switch opponents" variant, but since the rangers are ColorCodedForYourConvenience, the Psychos just find their Rangers again and switch back. Then the Power Rangers go in all dressed like the Blue Ranger. And for good measure, they get Zhane to come in dressed as a Silver Psycho Ranger. This works due to a), the Psychos not being able to work with one another naturally, and b), the Psychos not expecting a SixthRanger.

* This is how Spider-Man and his teammates defeat the [[VillainTeamUp Sinister Six]] for the first time in ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012''. Kinda weird, considering that unlike usual examples, the Sinister Six are ''not'' ThePsychoRangers, but villains who have nothing to do with the team, and yet each one of them get {{Curb Stomp|Battle}}. Including those like Beetle, Kraven, and Electro, would could give the entire team a hard time...

* ''ComicBook/SpiderHam'': A backup story in ''Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham'' has the [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Fantastic Fur]] meet an evil set of themselves, and they predictably go after their doppelgangers as per usual. Then the Reed Richards says that they should change opponents -- so the Thing fights the Invisible Girl and Reed fights the Torch -- then the Thing gets an idea... rather than fighting each other, they should fight the bad guy versions of themselves.

* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'':
** This is a common tactic ordered by Captain America while leading them into battle.
** When the ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} are ordered by the government to rough up the ComicBook/NewAvengers (who are looking into things they don't like), the Avengers try to do this only to find out the Thunderbolts [[GenreSavvy predicted it]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' does this during the final fight of the first volume, when the kids confront their parents. Gert's dinosaur companion Old Lace is incapable of attacking any of her family, and Karolina's family's powers don't work on each other. "Ready... set... switch!"
* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The team do this in ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga''. Colossus, Storm and Wolverine find themselves facing three of the Hellfire Club's EliteMooks with power armors customized for their individual powers. Switching things up works nicely.
* In the original ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' comic, they're up against fake nemeses; Robin versus Joker, Superboy versus Metallo, Impulse versus Grodd. Robin works out that they need to switch. He beats Metallo, Superboy beats Grodd, and Impulse...is so annoying that he drives ''ComicBook/TheJoker'' nuts with frustration.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': In the newspaper comic strip ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', Spider-Man is battling Kingpin while Iron Fist is battling another martial arts user, Golden Claw. The villains have studied their respective heroes moves for so long it's a stalemate until Spider-Man suggests they switch and the villains are promptly defeated.

* ''Fanfic/MyLittleAvengers'': Pops up during the FinalBattle. Except for Big Mac, who goes after [[BigBad Loki]] in order to reclaim Thor's powers, the rest of the Avengers switch which of the [[ThePsychoRangers Dark Avengers]] they take on. This is due to the fact that during their previous encounter, the Dark Avengers were able to [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] them.

* ''Fanfic/TimeAndAgain''. Naruto switches with Kakashi when he realizes Kakashi's lightning jutsu are needed to beat Naruto's opponent's earth-elemental armor.

* Not "opponents" in the traditional sense, but one episode of ''Series/TheMagicians2016'' has the title characters given a test where they each have to perform a different task using a tool that's obviously unsuitable for said task. It takes them a while to figure out that they're meant to swap tasks with each other, as each person has a tool that's useful for another person's task.

* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' has [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser]] and [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Ganondorf]] [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/comic/545-dividebyhero1/ agreeing]] to take on the other's rival; Bowser under the assumption that his thick shell would protect him from Link's arrows, and Ganondorf feeling confident that his magic could easily dispatch a middle-aged plumber. [[spoiler:It works, but, when they decide that they both want to be top dog, they release their respective prisoners to attack the other, allowing Mario and Link to defeat them once again.]]

* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'', when a Sheng Gong Wu creates physical manifestations of each warrior's worst fear. Defied later on the episode when the [[OncePerEpisode duel of the day]] specified they must fight their respective fear.

* In ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'', the X-Men once fought their evenly-matched counterparts in X-Factor until Professor X suggested they switch.

* A Season 3 episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' features the ''villains'' setting this up in order to get the upper hand against their respective {{Archenemy}}. ComicBook/TheJoker fights Franchise/WonderWoman, Cheetah deals with Superman, leaving ComicBook/LexLuthor with Batman.
* Inverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' where three crooks dress up as the Powerpuff Girls. When the Girls and the crooks throw down, both sides end up attacking their teammates by mistake before Blossom says they should just fight their counterparts to keep things simple. The whole episode is taken into RefugeInAudacity territory because the crooks' disguises are blatantly obvious to the viewer[[note]]as in, grown men wearing giant plastic "heads" and dresses[[/note]] and yet everyone including the real Powerpuff Girls ''and'' the crooks ''still'' confuses them for the real thing.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'' Episode "Wizards Warriors and a Word From Our Sponsors" has Bob, Dot, Enzo and Mike the TV fight off their evil doppelgangers in a fantasy game. It doesn't go well until Mike inadvertently switches opponents by bumping into Evil Dot (who runs screaming from Mike's incessant infomercials).

* The ''WesternAnimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' crossover "Hercules and the Arabian Night" had Hades and Jafar team up. They decide to take on each other's enemy. Jafar says Hercules should be easy for him because Hercules isn't very agile nor clever, and Hades thinks Aladdin is worthless because he doesn't have SuperStrength. The heroes defeat them anyway. Afterwards, the villains try Plan B: LetsYouAndHimFight.
* While antagonism at the level of actually fighting doesn't last long enough for them to switch, the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode where the gang travels to a parallel universe lampshades why this trope might be a good idea.
-->'''Leela-A:''' We're exactly alike. I know all her moves, so that gives me the upper hand.\\
''(The two Leelas flying jump kick at each other, knocking each other down.)''\\
'''Professor-A:''' Now, now, perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything.

* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/TheHollow'' episode "Hollow Games". When corned by the embodiment of their childhood fears, they figure that this is the solution, only to fail miserably after several minutes of fighting (and polite talking). It's only when Kai has to save Adam from being eaten that they realize this is a straight-forward FaceYourFears situation.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble:'' When the All-New Avengers face off against the Leader's new Cabal, they have difficulty with the fight until they hit upon the idea of switching up. That works for a time, until it turns out the Cabal have their own ideas.

* In the [[WesternAnimation/XMen Fox series]], the X-Men once fought their evenly-matched counterparts in X-Factor until Professor X suggested they switch.

-->'''Leela-A:''' We're perfectly matched, so I'm pretty sure that gives ''me'' the advantage.\\

[[folder:Comics]]
* A backup story in ''[[ComicBook/SpiderHam Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham]]'' has the [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Fantastic Fur]] meet an evil set of themselves, and they predictably go after their doppelgangers as per usual. Then the Reed Richards says that they should change opponents -- so the Thing fights the Invisible Girl and Reed fights the Torch -- then the Thing gets an idea... rather than fighting each other, they should fight the bad guy versions of themselves.
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour''

* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers''

* The ComicBook/XMen do this in ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga. Colossus, Storm and Wolverine find themselves facing three of the Hellfire Club's EliteMooks with power armors customized for their individual powers. Switching things up works nicely.

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman'' ''Public Enemies'', Superman and Batman attempt this when Captain Marvel and Hawkman fight them. It doesn't work since Marvel and Hawkman expected it and each was prepared to fight either opponent anyway. Hawkman used a special gauntlet to hit Superman hard enough that even he would be knocked out, and Marvel exploited Batman's soft spot for kids by briefly reverting to Billy Batson. [[spoiler:Superman and Batman beat them off-screen later.]]
* In ''Reign of Doomsday'', slightly weaker clones of Doomsday were [[CripplingOverspecialization specifically designed to take out]] Superboy, Steel, and Hank Henshaw. After getting curb-stomped the first time, they switched and defeated them.
* In the newspaper comic strip ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', Spider-Man is battling Kingpin while Iron Fist is battling another martial arts user, Golden Claw. The villains have studied their respective heroes moves for so long it's a stalemate until Spider-Man suggests they switch and the villains are promptly defeated.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Best Wishes'', Ash's companions gets a rival of their own (Ash gets three, and Iris and Cilan have one apiece), in spite of not getting involved in some sort of major competition. Best Wishes would wind up having the largest number of multi-episode {{Tournament Arc}}s outside of the traditional regional competition (Club Battle, Clubsplosion, and Junior Cup) just so Ash, Iris and Cilan (as well as Dawn during the Junior Cup) can go up against their rivals. However, matchups in these tournaments where a protagonist faces a different rival (i.e. Iris' rival Georgia being Ash's second round opponent during the Club Battle) is actually commonplace.

* This is part of the premise of the Franchise/MarvelComics crossover ''Acts of Vengeance''. This, of course, lead to some very odd, but memorable match ups, with a variety of tones ranging from almost wacky comedy to deadly serious. Memorable stories included ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} vs. Ultron, [[Comicbook/ThePunisher the Punisher]] vs Comicbook/DoctorDoom, the Power Pack against Typhoid Mary, a group of [[Comicbook/SpiderMan Spidey's]] D-listers against the ComicBook/FantasticFour, and Magneto (a Holocaust survivor) vs the Red Skull (a Nazi).

* ''FanFic/MyLittleAvengers'': Pops up during the FinalBattle. Except for Big Mac, who goes after [[BigBad Loki]] in order to reclaim Thor's powers, the rest of the Avengers switch which of the [[ThePsychoRangers Dark Avengers]] they take on. This is due to the fact that during their previous encounter, the Dark Avengers were able to [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] them.
* ''FanFic/AllThingsProbableSeries''. In a rare villainous example, Team Probable do this against Team Possible with Rhonda fighting Kim and Grimm fighting Ron. Unfortunately for the heroes, it works.

* ''FanFic/TimeAndAgain''. Naruto switches with Kakashi when he realizes Kakashi's lightning jutsu are needed to beat Naruto's opponent's earth-elemental armor.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire fight against their {{Evil Knockoff}}s, switching in the end to defeat them (Starfire to Evil Cyborg, Beast Boy to Evil Starfire, and Cyborg to Evil Beast Boy).

* Inverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' where three crooks dress up as the Powerpuff Girls. When the Girls and the crooks throw down, both sides end up attacking their teammates by mistake before Blossom says they should just fight their counterparts to keep things simple. The whole episode is taken into RefugeInAudacity territory because the crooks' disguises are blatantly obvious to the viewer[[note]]as in, grown men wearing giant plastic "heads" and dresses[[/note]] and yet everyone including the real Powerpuff Girls ''and'' the crooks ''still'' confuses them for the real thing.

* This is how Spider-Man and his teammates defeat the [[VillainTeamUp Sinister Six]] for the first time in ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan''. Kinda weird, considering that unlike usual examples, the Sinister Six are ''not'' ThePsychoRangers, but villains who have nothing to do with the team, and yet each one of them get [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomp]]. Including those like Beetle, Kraven, and Electro, would could give the entire team a hard time...

* In the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' episode "Terrors", Superboy (disguised as the villain Tommy Terror) fights Mammoth and Blockbuster, who are stronger than him, while Icicle Jr. fights Mister Freeze, who is a more skilled ice user. They win by switching.

** Subverted. When the Linear Guild is failing to make progress against the Order, Nale suggests to Thog that they trade opponents. This actually makes things worse, as Elan's normally useless bardic magic is effective against Thog, and Roy has been holding back a strong urge to beat the tar out of [[EvilTwin Nale's]] twin brother Elan for quite some time.
** The Linear Guild strikes again much later. With Roy getting the tar kicked out of him by Thog, Elan fleeing Nale, and V unable to get through Zz'dtri's magical defences, V then realises that Zz'dtri's achilles heel is best countered by someone else and invokes this trope - [[MindManipulation by using the Guild's own archer specialist]], to boot.

* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' has [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser]] and [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Ganondorf]] [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/comic/545-dividebyhero1/ agreeing]] to take on the other's rival; Bowser under the assumption that his thick shell would protect him from Link's arrows, and Ganondorf feeling confident that his magic could easily dispatch a middle-aged plumber. [[spoiler:It works, but, when they decide that they both want to be top dog, [[WhatAnIdiot they release their respective prisoners to attack the other]], allowing Mario and Link to defeat them once again.]]

Compare CounterpartCombatCoordination and MidfightWeaponExchange.

** A variant of this happened when the Justice League came to Earth Prime to deal with a superbeing by the name of Ultraa, and they had to team up to stop Earth-Prime's first supervillain, the evil Maxitron. Maxitron sought to destroy Ultraa and the League by putting them in {{Death Trap}}s catered to each of their weaknesses. Unfortunately for him, he was defeated when Green Lantern disguised Superman and Ultraa as each other, resulting in the traps that should have killed them (ultrasonic pounding for Ultraa and red solar radiation for Superman) doing nothing to the latter. In the meantime, Green Lantern overpowered the Tiger-Bear sent after him (and whose yellow fur was impervious to his ring) through sheer guts and determination.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/switch.PNG]]

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog''

** Subverted in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide''. Mega Man and Sonic are fighting Bass and Metal Sonic, respectively, in a stalemate. When the heroes decide to switch (thinking that their knockoffs are only programmed to beat their counterparts), they get overwhelmed instead. [[spoiler: They decide to team up against one at a time to beat their evil doubles.]]

* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' has [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser]] and [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Ganondorf]] [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2014/02/14/545-divide-by-hero-part-1/ agreeing]] to take on the other's rival; Bowser under the assumption that his thick shell would protect him from Link's arrows, and Ganondorf feeling confident that his magic could easily dispatch a middle-aged plumber. [[spoiler:It works, but, when they decide that they both want to be top dog, [[WhatAnIdiot they release their respective prisoners to attack the other]], allowing Mario and Link to defeat them once again.]]

'''Hawkgirl:''' ''(knocks Lord! GL's head clean off)'' Likewise, I'm sure.

--> '''Leela-A:''' We're perfectly matched, so I'm pretty sure that gives ''me'' the advantage.
--> ''(The two Leelas flying jump kick at each other, knocking each other down.)''
--> '''Professor-A:''' Now now, perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything.

* The ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'' and ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' crossover "Hercules and the Arabian Night" had Hades and Jafar team up. They decide to take on each other's enemy. Jafar says Hercules should be easy for him because Hercules isn't very agile nor clever, and Hades thinks Aladdin is worthless because he doesn't have SuperStrength. The heroes defeat them anyway. Afterwards, the villains try Plan B: LetsYouAndHimFight.

* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'', when a Sheng Gong Wu creates physical manifestations of each warrior's worst fear.

* In the original ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' comic, they're up against fake nemeses; Robin versus Joker, Superboy versus Metallo, Impulse versus Grodd. Robin works out that they need to switch. He beats Metallo, Superboy beats Grodd, and Impulse...is so annoying that he drives ''SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker'' nuts with frustration.

* A Season 3 episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' features the ''villains'' setting this up in order to get the upper hand against their respective {{Archenemy}}. SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker fights Franchise/WonderWoman, Cheetah deals with Superman, leaving ComicBook/LexLuthor with Batman.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire fight against their PsychoRangers counterparts, switching in the end to defeat them (Starfire to Evil Cyborg, Beast Boy to Evil Starfire, and Cyborg to Evil Beast Boy).