A group has to split into teams, similar to Let's Split Up, Gang!. But unlike a usual team of Meddling Kids, the teams formed from this divvying up are the worst possible combinations. Maybe they're mortal enemies. Maybe one or more members of the group have made unwanted advances on another member. They could be exes. It could be a case of putting the Cloud Cuckoo Lander with the Only Sane Man or the Genki Girl with The Stoic.
Whatever the reason, the teams formed are now at a serious disadvantage. Usually played for laughs, but can be played for drama as well. Could involve Teeth-Clenched Teamwork, or just as easily involve the vitriolic teammates trying to kill each other.
It differs from Never Split the Party in that this often involves situations where splitting up, such as for competitive events, is mandated by the rules, or simply leaving the group together would be impractical for reasons of space or time.
May overlap with Divided We Fall, if fighting within the groups seriously hinders their tasks, or makes them fail outright. Related to Involuntary Group Split.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- My-HiME: Episode 10,"Cake Battle" has Midori divide the groups cooking into three teams, the members of each having a great deal of animosity between them, like Natsuki, Nao, and Mikoto on one team. Or Shizuru and Haruka on another.
- Ranma ½: In episode 62 of the Animated Adaptation, the Nerima Wrecking Crew attend a game show with a chance to win a trip to China. At one point, contestants are handcuffed together. Groupings include Ranma and his romantic rival, Ryoga, Shampoo with her Abhorrent Admirer Mousse, Genma with his bullying master, Happosai, and the Kuno siblings, who despise each other.
- School Rumble during the Beach Episode the boys offer to teach the girls to swim. Harima screws up the order, pairing Hanai with arch-nemesis Akira, Imadori with Mikoto, whom he's constantly perving on, and himself with Eri, whom he's just had an unpleasant encounter with involving her walking in on him naked and restraining her to keep her from screaming.
- In another episode, they're doing a courage test in the woods, and pairing off. Once again, poor Mikoto is paired with Imadori. When we next see them, Imadori is out cold, and Mikoto says he learned a valuable lesson about hands and always keeping them to himself. Harima, meanwhile, is paired with Tenma. The problem with this is that while Harima is infatuated with Tenma, she's currently furious with him because of a misunderstanding, believing, mistakenly, that he's been hitting on all the girls in their class AND her kid sister, Yakumo. Yakumo, meanwhile, is paired with Eri, both of them interested in Harima.
Fan Works
- In Bastard (Harry Potter), while professors usually try not to put Harry and Draco in the same groups at practical lessons, Gil constantly pairs them with each other in Defense Against the Dark Arts, since both of them practice fighting with each other much better than with their friends.
- In the chapter Devils of the Deep from Prehistoric Park Reimagined, The Leader of the rescue team Drew chooses to have his best friend and resident animal expert Leon and experienced park keeper Jack accompany him on the mission to rescue the dunkleosteus while Jack's older sister Alice and Leon and Drew's mutual additional friend Adrian stay behind at the park. Unfortunately, this proves to be an ill-fated decision since the two chosen teammates in question are still in a period of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork with each other, and with neither Alice nor Adrian around to help mediate and keep peace between them, they end up arguing so often over the course of the mission that they very nearly fail to notice Drew in danger in time to save him from getting eaten or maimed by a foursome of dunkleosteus due to being too busy arguing.
Films — Live-Action
- Clue: When they draw straws and the groupings are people who openly despise each other and/or have threatened one another with bodily harm. The lecherous Professor Plum is paired with prudish Mrs. Peacock. Wadsworth the butler is paired with the murderous Mrs. White, who hates him for drawing them all to the house, and whom Wadsworth had earlier stated no man in his right mind would ever be alone with. Gay (or happily married depending on your interpretation of the ending) Mr. Green with sexpot Yvette. And Madame Miss Scarlet with former client Colonel Mustard.
Literature
- Defied in Brotherband. When the Skandian teens are being split into "brotherband" groups, Erak refuses to let Tursgood select either Hal or Stig (both of whom he dislikes) into his group. He chastises the young man for using this time of preparation to engage in petty rivalry rather than focusing on the importance of the training.
- In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, while doing work in the Forbidden Forest as punishment for getting caught late outside their dormitories, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy are sorted into two teams, with Neville and Malfoy (the former being bullied by the latter) in the same team. After Malfoy pranks Neville, Hagrid switches Neville and Harry.
Live-Action TV
- Zig-zagged in practically every episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia; the Gang often split into at least two teams when engaging in their plots and schemes, with some working better than others (Frank and Charlie are the team that fights the least, while Mac and Dennis work because Mac follows every order Dennis gives, and pretty much everyone hates working with Sweet Dee). However, their collective stupidity and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder always ensure both teams go off the rails eventually.
- Supernatural: It never goes well when the brothers split up, either for an episode or a multiple-episode arc.
- The latter part of Season 4 sees Sam teaming up with the demon Ruby while Dean pledges his loyalty to the angels, especially Castiel. Turns out Sam and Dean are being played because both sides want to release Lucifer and start the apocalypse.
- In Season 10, Dean goes Demon and teams up with Crowley to engage in demonic hedonism, leaving Sam alone to work with a grace-depleted Castiel to try and save Dean.
Web Original
- In Brig Scarlet Flamingo, when the Miridians capture the crews of the Scarlet Flamingo and the Lord of the Waves, they don't have enough cells for everyone in the prison and have to put separate people in each cell, so they invoke this trope to avoid escape plots. In particular, cell number fifteen holds Arch Enemies Joseph and Joel (captains of the two ships) and the useless Drunken Sailor Gambe. Subverted, as the Miridians don't know that Gambe isn't as useless as he seems and Joseph and Joel are ready to put their fights aside to face a common enemy.
Western Animation
- Justice League, being about a massive co-op of superheroes who break down into smaller groups to tackle various threats, will feature this from time to time.
- In the first episode, J'onn dispatches John Stewart, Supergirl, and Captain Atom on a mission, and they're joined by Green Arrow, who wanted a ride back to Earth with them. John initially struggles having to serve as a mentor to the rookie Supergirl, Captain Atom is a military hardass, and Green Arrow butts heads with Captain Atom over political differences, though when John gets knocked out of commission, they pull it together in order to defeat the villain-of-the-week. In the end, John is more confident in mentoring Kara, Kara is more willing to learn, and Atom and Arrow warm up.
- "Hunter's Moon" has Vixen, currently dating Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl, John's ex, teaming up against a group of Thanagarians seeking revenge on the latter for betraying them. Dragged along for this is poor Vigilante (who, incidentally, holds a grudge against Hawkgirl for her part in betraying Earth to the Thanagarians in the first place). Fortunately, by the end of the mission, the two women become friends, while Vigilante is mostly willing to let his grudge go. When John points out to J'onn that putting his girlfriend and his ex together in a team mission is a bad idea (Vixen because she needed experience in space; Hawkgirl because the "victims" called for her expertise), he responds that this isn't about him.
J'onn: Difficult as it may be for you to believe, I don't take your love life into consideration when I make command decisions.
- "Grudge Match" has Huntress and Black Canary (the former kicked out of the League for pursuing a personal vendetta, the latter partly involved in that) dragged into a cage match against a mindcontroled Wonder Woman and other superheroines. By the end of it, Huntress and Canary become Fire-Forged Friends.
- Scooby-Doo is the Ur Example of Let's Split Up, Gang!. And many of the villains assume that this trope is in effect, especially when they capture Fred, Daphne, and Velma, leaving only Scooby and Shaggy free. This is often their downfall, especially in the movies, like "Zombie Island", usually making it a subversion. However, the gang has learned, particularly in an episode of What's New, Scooby-Doo? titled "Toy Story Boo", that they need to stick to the usual split-up. In that episode, they tried a new pair off, with Shaggy and Fred teamed up. The two of them had nothing in common to talk about and ended up attacked by the toys that were wreaking havoc.
- Star Wars Rebels: Invoked. In the penultimate episode of Season 2, the Ghost crew splits up into two teams to investigate a monster attack. Hera has Kanan and Ezra go together while the rest are in another team; when Sabine points out it would've been better to have one Jedi in each team, Hera responds that they need to get used to not having them around since Kanan and Ezra may not make it back after the season finale.
- Total Drama: This is usually done deliberately by Chris, to maximize the drama potential for the show and force the contestants to really challenge themselves. It's often downplayed, however, in that the contestants still want to win and will force themselves to make do with their bad situation. A specific example is when he paired up the last six competitors into pairs for a triathlon challenge, teaming up laid-back party-boy Geoff with Defrosting Ice Queen Gwen, Jerk with a Heart of Gold Duncan with Leshawna (who keeps trying to make him admit his good side), and Big Fun Gasshole Owen with Alpha Bitch Heather. At the end, Geoff and Gwen developed an Odd Friendship after fighting for a round and a half, Leshawna and Duncan kept bickering over leadership roles until Duncan finally admitted his softer side, and Owen nearly forfeited the challenge entirely because Heather was too mean to deal with.
