History Main / RunningBothSides

** UsefulNotes/TheFifthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames: MIPS made the [=CPUs=] for both the UsefulNotes/PlayStation and UsefulNotes/Nintendo64.
** UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames: IBM made the [=CPUs=] for ''all 3'' of the major competitors this time, with the UsefulNotes/Xbox360, UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} all using [=PowerPC=] chips designed by them. The Xbox 360's CPU was actually derived from main core of [=PlayStation 3's=] Cell Processor; Microsoft approached IBM asking for a multicore chip to use in their console, and IBM looked at their contract with Sony and realized that there was no clause prohibiting them from selling part of the Cell technology to another console manufacturer. ATI/AMD also backed two of the competitors, making the [=GPUs=] for both the Wii and Xbox 360.

* Admiral Tolwyn in ''VideoGame/WingCommander IV'', indirectly. He claims to favor peace while the Black Lance forces under his command carry out a FalseFlagOperation to incriminate the Border Worlds.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Who would've thought that [[spoiler: Pink Diamond was the ruler of Earth ''[[SecretIdentity and]]'' Rose Quartz, the leader of the very army she was opposing?]] Unlike most examples, this was not done to prolong conflict: [[spoiler:Pink Diamond wanted to end the colonization of Earth upon seeing the life that already existed there, but the other Diamonds wouldn't allow it. She started the rebellion to create an excuse for Homeworld to leave Earth--which then resulted in the other Diamonds [[PuppetKing undermining Pink's authority]] as ruler to stay and crush the rebels. They insisted that the colonization would be completed as long as Pink was there to rule, which only led to Pink faking her shattering and assuming the identity of Rose Quartz permanently. She [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor got her wish when the remaining Diamonds left Earth and corrupted all the Gems on it in vengeance for Pink's "death"]].]]

* The alternate reality from ''[[Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses You're A Rotten Dirty Bastard]]'' has Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} and Creator/DCComics owned by [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]], who wants a faithful adaptation of ComicBook/IronMan vs. Franchise/{{Batman}} III.

* ''Manga/{{MAR}}'': Both the [[StandardEvilOrganizationSquad Chess Pieces]] and the [[LaResistance Cross Guard]] were founded by the same person, [[spoiler:i.e. Diana, Dorothy's older sister and the Queen of the Chess pieces]], who wanted to plunge the world into a large-scale war.
* In ''Anime/{{Madlax}}'', Enfant had been supplying and coordinating both sides of the Gatz-Sonikan civil war.

* In ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', [[Franchise/JamesBond M]] turns out to be [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Moriarty.]] He was recruited by the government in order to help control the criminal underworld. He can't decide if he's a government agent who controls the criminals, a criminal who controls a government agency or both.

* The possibility of this trope is what prevents the ring from going to Gondor (or anywhere else but Mt. Doom) in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''--since Sauron alone can control the ring, any faction opposing him and attempting to use the ring would inevitably be corrupted to the point where Sauron himself (as the ring is to some degree a physical extension of his will and personality) would be controlling both the forces of Mordor and the forces opposing Mordor.
* ''Random Factor'' series: a giant space war has been going on for years. Then stuff starts going wrong, and the main character manages to gain access to the sentient AI running his side's war effort... but finds that actually, the two sides are orchestrating the war pretty precisely. Oh, and the people actually fighting and dying are half-size test-tube clones, on half-size space ships. Saves money, that way.

* ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'': [[spoiler:Hagbard Celine is the leader of both the Legion of Dynamic Discord and the Illuminati, although something of a DownplayedExample, as he's one of five leaders of the latter, and also the OnlySaneMan of the five who councils against the actions of the plot.]]
* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', the resistance turns out to be run by the central government. Furthermore, the three world governments seem to be encouraging a state of constant warfare among them in order to better control their own populations--it's quite possible and often theorized that they are all really ruled by the same group, although this is never directly spelled out.
* In Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/DragonJousters'' series, it is discovered that both leaders of the warring nations ({{Fantasy Counterpart Culture}}s of Upper and Lower Ancient Egypt) are being manipulated by a corrupt Magician's Guild. The death-energies from the soldiers in battle are harnessed as sacrifices to fuel an immortality/youth spell.

* Part of TheReveal in Creator/GKChesterton's novel ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'', used for MindScrew and EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory purposes.
* In the Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''Toy Soldiers'', there's a war where it turns out that both sides are being run by the same supercomputer, which had set the whole thing up because it had heard somewhere that periods of conflict often produce flowerings of creativity.
* In the ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' series, [[spoiler:it turns out that the Sphinx is both the captain of the Knights of Dawn, dedicated to keeping the demon prison sealed, and the mastermind behind The Society of The Evening Star, who are trying to gain control of the means to open the prison.]]

* [[AffablyEvil Milo Minderbender]] of ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'' pulls this off quite well in wartime, managing to profit tons of money by battling his own planes against each other and, infamously, [[WarIsHell bombing his own military unit and friends]].
* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', [[spoiler:Coil eventually accomplishes this; having successfully eliminated every villain in the city not clandestinely in his employ, he then stages a disaster which causes the local civilian government to be decapitated and the head of the [[CapeBusters Parahuman Response Taskforce]] to be discredited. He then replaces the head of the PRT in his civilian identity, putting him in charge of the city's superheroes.]]

* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfAncientDarkness'': In book 5, [[ArcVillain Thiazzi]] the Oak Mage has killed the Forest Horse Clan's mage and become the new mage (or impersonated the old one), riling up the clan against the Auroch Clan to start a clan war. Renn goes to reveal this to the Auroch Mage, [[spoiler:only to find out that [[TwoAliasesOneCharacter Thiazzi is the Auroch Mage as well]]]].

* In ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'', the [[spoiler:director-general of [[RedShirtArmy Fenix]]]] and [[spoiler:founder of the [[NebulousEvilOrganisation Deadmans]]]] turn out to be the same person. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:the true purpose behind Fenix was to be crushed by Giff once the Deadmans succeeded in awakening the demon, so as to prove that it's hopeless to oppose him.]]

* Several ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' Chaos gods are prone to this, especially Tzeentch (the god of magic, messing with fate and GambitRoulette) and Zuvassin (a minor chaos god of spite and failure).
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', there's not only Tzeentch, but the Eldar, the C'tan Deceiver, and the Inquisition running around trying to keep multiple sides fighting each other. Although in the Eldar's case, it's to redirect an enemy towards another to prevent them from targeting the Eldar.
** Near Tyranid space, a lot of rebellions turn out to be caused by a Genestealer cult manipulating the upper echelons of two or more factions, rebel and loyalist alike, turning them against each other until the entire planet is consumed by war, making it easy prey for the hive fleet.

* This is somewhat the point of the game ''Imperial''. Players buy stock in different 1900-era European nations and win by accumulating the most money on their investments, not by conquering one another. Sometimes the best move is to take majority control of two counties (meaning you get to take that nation's turn) and have them fight each other.
* In the CardGame ''TabletopGame/RaceForTheGalaxy'', with the "Rebels vs. Imperium" extension it is possible for the same player to control both the Rebel Alliance and vital parts of the Imperium government. And they ''should'', because their sources of victory points overlap: Holding lots of Rebel military worlds.

* The Administrator in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''. To quote from her character entry: "InAWorld where a lot of guys dressed up in red fight a lot of guys dressed up in blue, it's telling that she dresses in purple."
* The recurring CEO/weapon merchant/villain in ''VideoGame/RogueGalaxy'' attempts to do this with the two biggest nations around so that he can continue to profit.

* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI,'' [[spoiler:Robert de Sable is secretly leading both the Crusaders and the Saracens, right under both King Richard's and Saladin's noses.]]
** In the backstory [[spoiler:the Templars were behind both the Allies and the Axis during World War 2. Churchill, Hitler, Stalin, and FDR were ''all'' part of the Order.]]

* It's hard to tell how many sides there are in ''VideoGame/XenoSaga'' due to a GambitPileup of impressive complexity, but [[spoiler:Wilhelm]] is in charge of all but one of them--the party.
** Well, the party and Dmitri Yuriev. [[spoiler:Wilhelm]] has accounted for his actions and doesn't see him as a real threat, but Yuriev isn't actually under his control. Ormus/U-TIC, Vector, Hyams Heavy Industries, and large parts of the Federation, on the other hand...
* [[spoiler:Irving]] of ''VideoGame/WildArms2'' is behind both ARMS and Odessa. The theory was that [[XanatosGambit either the world unites behind ARMS to defeat Odessa and then the true]] BigBad, [[XanatosGambit or else Odessa conquers the world and deals with the problem themselves]].
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', both the Desians and the Church of Martel are run by [[spoiler:Mithos Yggdrasil and Cruxis, who want to keep the two worlds Sylvarant and Tethe'alla in a permanent struggle for mana in a misguided effort to prevent another of the {{Magitek}} wars that ended up killing Mithos' dead sister, the Church's namesake.]]
* Admiral Tolwyn in ''VideoGame/WingCommander IV'', indirectly. He claims to favor peace while the Black Lance forces under his command carry out a FalseFlagOperation to incriminate the Border Worlds.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'', it turns out that [[spoiler:the WTO and the Order are both being run by members of the Illuminati. The entire conflict between them is orchestrated by the respective leaders, who are working together]].
** This is foreshadowed by the more light-hearted reveal that the archrival Pequod's and Queequeg's coffee chains are owned by the same company.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' is a ''subversion''. Both sides in the initial Kislev/Aveh war are being orchestrated, through various puppets, by [[spoiler:Krelian]], but it later turns out that this war is a pure sideshow to the actual events of the storyline, where there are multiple top-level factions with their own puppets, along with a couple of genuinely independent groups.

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' reveals that the OrderVersusChaos ForeverWar that has spanned the series [[spoiler: was intentionally set up by [[BigBad YHVH]], by splitting his most faithful angel, Satan, into his component halves, Merkabah and Lucifer, and then pitting them against one another under the banner of Law and Chaos respectively. YHVH's reason for doing so? Since humans' observation and reason dictate reality, and thus deriving faith in higher powers turns that faith into truth, it's in YHVH's best interests to [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly ensure humanity believes in him]], no matter his actions. Denying him this faith is what becomes his undoing.]]
* The FirstEpisodeTwist for ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'' is that the Consuls of the Moebius group have been maintaining the ForeverWar between the Keves and Agnus nations in order to ensure that StatusQuoIsGod for the world.

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', [[spoiler:Elan's father's adventuring party]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0758.html has arranged to rule the better part of a continent by doing this.]] The nominal leaders of the factions involved know nothing about this, as [[spoiler:Tarquin's party]] set themselves up as TheManBehindTheMan to a series of [[PuppetKing puppet rulers]], periodically staging their overthrow in favor of new puppets so that the rest of the continent won't clue in on what's happening and band together against them.

* The alternate reality from [[Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses You're A Rotten Dirty Bastard]] has Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} and Creator/DCComics owned by [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]], who wants a faithful adaptation of ComicBook/IronMan vs. Franchise/{{Batman}} III.

* In ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'', the [[spoiler:director-general of [[RedShirtArmy Fenix]]]] and [[spoiler:founder of the [[NebulousEvilOrganisation Deadmans]]]] turn out to be the same person.

* It is heavily foreshadowed and eventually revealed that the forces of both good and evil in ''LightNovel/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite'' are controlled by [[spoiler:Mithra, a goddess of whom all the worlds moralities revolve around, having forced everything to conform to her own twisted BlackAndWhiteInsanity]].

* In ''Webcomic/DragonMango'': [[EvilInc The Fenix Corporation]] funds the Cell Knights' fight against the [[LaResistance "terrorist organization,"]] Ashes. (They're really just trying to keep Ashes from revealing the truth behind how their city's precious reactors [[PoweredByAForsakenChild actually work]]). What they (Fenix) don't know is that they're funding both sides: Black Berry (commander of the Knights) and the leader of Ashes (Dug the Gnome) are ''both'' Fenix employees; working together (along with [[MadScientist Chocolate Explosion]], the creator of the Cell Knight tech), using the conflict to expose Fenix's corruption and destroy the reactors. And

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' reveals that the OrderVersusChaos ForeverWar that has spanned the series [[spoiler: was intentionally set up by [[BigBad YHVH]], by splitting his most faithful angel, Satan, into his component halves, Merkabah and Lucifer, and then pitting them against one another under the banner of Law and Chaos respectively. YHVH's reason for doing so? Since humans' observation and reason dictate reality, and thus deriving faith in higher powers turns that faith into truth, it's in YHVH's best interests to [[GodsNeedPrayersBadly ensure humanity believes in him]], no matter his actions. Denying him this faith is what becomes his undoing.]]

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', both sides report to Vic at Red/Blue Command. [[spoiler:The Red and Blue conflict is really just a fake war to give the [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Freelancers]] [[TestedOnHumans stages for combat trials]].]]

* During the medieval, renaissance, and early-modern periods, Europe was basically run by a few closely interrelated families. The monarch of one warring nation could easily be prominent in the line of succession for the other's throne.

* The main plot of ''Film/BatmanReturns'': The Penguin has his gang (to which he appears to have no connection whatsoever in the public's mind) commit random acts of violence throughout Gotham City in order to make the city's current mayor look weak, while simultaneously running for mayor himself and claiming he's the only one who can restore order (and, FromACertainPointOfView, he's telling the truth!). One of his allies even refers to "the Gulf of Tonkin" and "the Reichstag fire", both real-life events that might suggest to naïve viewers that both were [[FalseFlagOperation False Flag Operations]], when in fact they genuinely happened and were only exploited afterward.

** Near Tyranid space, a lot of rebellions turn out to be caused by a Genestealer cult manipulating the upper echelons of two or more factions, turning them against each other until the entire planet is consumed by war, making it easy prey for the hive fleet.

%%* In the 1987 ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' movie, Reverend Whirley is [[spoiler:the head of P.A.G.A.N.]]
* ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': The Phantom, the League's archnemesis, is also [[spoiler:M, the British government representative who recruited the League to stop the Phantom. He was once known as [[SherlockHolmes Professor James Moriarty]]]].

* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfAncientDarkness'': In book 5, [[ArcVillain Thiazzi]] the Oak Mage has killed the Forest Horse Clan's mage and become the new mage (or impersonated the old one), riling up the clan against the Auroch Clan. Renn goes to reveal this to the Auroch Mage, [[spoiler:only to find out that [[TwoAliasesOneCharacter is the Auroch Mage as well]]]].