Fighting Your Friend

He taught you flight; now he'll teach you to fight.

"Have you been keeping well? Thank you for Mt. Coronet. I'm truly grateful. [...] The power you learned... I can feel it emanating from you. But that's enough talk. Let's get on with why you're here. As the Pokémon League Champion, I accept your challenge! There won't be any letup from me!"

— Champion Cynthia, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

A Boss Battle in which you fight against a character who's explicitly on your side (otherwise it's Civil Warcraft or Let's You and Him Fight). Occasionally this is the Warmup Boss in which your ally decides to test your skills before you start your real mission. It can also be a form of Heroic Sacrifice in which the other good guy must die in order to accomplish a goal, and you have to be the one to do it. In some cases, your ally or allies are being mind-controlled or otherwise forced to fight you. Maybe either you or them have pulled a Face–Heel Turn and must be stopped for the greater good, have undergone a nasty dose of Sanity Slippage, or have conflicting ideals incapable of being reconciled. Occasionally, especially in Fighting Games, a character will beat up their friend to prevent them from fighting the Big Bad, because a few lumps is better than getting killed. If this trope is played for drama, you can expect Sad Battle Music to play instead of the usual Hot-Blooded fare. In the end, most of the time, the real reason it happens is for the cool fight that couldn't happen otherwise.

There are a few situations in which this may become a case of That One Boss. An ally may be powered by the dark side or has to be fought one-on-one with either a specific character or the player character. In western RPGs about building individual character strength, no problem...you should be a Game-Breaker by this point anyways. But in a Japanese RPG that emphasizes the strength of a group working together? Having only one ally might be quite a handicap without additional damage-dealers and tanks. Sure, in this case, the opponent may have reduced stats compared to a regular boss fight, but still almost always way more stats than they could ever actually attain while on your side to give the player a challenge. They'll also have their entire skillsets to throw at you, occasionally even more.

It may overlap with Dueling Player Characters. Contrast Defeat Means Friendship, in which case a villain becomes your ally because you fought it. Compare Tragic Monster, "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight. May involve a Trial by Friendly Fire. Possibly a case of Good Versus Good.

WARNING: Some of these are a little detail heavy, so SPOILER alert.

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Video Game Examples

Video Games

• Afterimage:
  • Due to the recurring misunderstandings, Renee would end up fighting 42 (as her Unstoppable Devil form) in the Forest Foregone, and 42 would fatally wound Renee enough to send her back to revive at the nearest Confluence. However, it's later clarified that 42 is an ally who has her own personal agenda and didn't want Renee to interfere. Aros also vouches for 42's innocence, clearing up any lingering doubts from Reene and Ifree.
  • Renee fights Ifree on the lead-up to "The Hope" ending, as Renee (and by extension, the player) chooses to destroy the egg itself instead of following Ifree's plea of calming down the souls inside the egg first.
• Portal 2 has Wheatley. This little guy starts off as your friend slash guide, helping you evade GLaDOS's sight and saving you numerous times. At the end of Chapter 5, you get the chance to place Wheatley in GLaDOS's body, effectively putting him in control of the entire facility. He calls up the escape lift and as you ride it up to the surface, he excitedly rambles on about how small you are and how huge he is. And then he starts laughing. And the laughter doesn't stop, instead turning maniacal as he calls he lift back down. It turns out he's become Drunk with Power, and you must team up with GLaDOS to defeat him and prevent him from exploding the place with gross incompetence. Wheatley is the Big Bad for the rest of the game and serves as the Final Boss.
• Several Final Fantasy games use this trope:
  • Doga and Unei in Final Fantasy III. Especially annoying because it's a tough Sequential Boss with no healing in the middle... even though they're ON YOUR SIDE!
  • Baku in IX is the Warmup Boss variant.
  • Kimahri is an interesting case when you fight him in Final Fantasy X. He's not exactly Tidus' friend (at first) and he ambushes him on the road to the boat, initiating a Duel Boss battle. Wakka breaks up the fight after the two exchange a few blows and the reason Kimahri attacked Tidus was because he didn't trust him around Yuna when they first met, even though both he and Tidus are supposed to be on the same side (protecting Yuna on her pilgrimage). Much later, Tidus has a reunion with Rikku, but only after he and Wakka fought her while she was piloting an underwater Machina.
  • Rikku and Paine in an optional series of fights in X-2.
  • Vossler in XII.
  • Kain and Yang in IV as the mind control variant. Cecil's former self also has to be fought, but the hook here is not to harm him.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has one battle where you have to fight Ritz in order to get to the final area of the game. She has no hard feelings against Marche, but just doesn't want him to progress any further.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics A2 does it again with Adelle, who gets brainwashed by Illua after leaving your clan, and then in her possessed state, she and some monsters fight you for the grimorie while you have Luso try to talk some sense into her.
  • Hell, even in Dissidia Final Fantasy, Terra gets mind controlled into fighting one of the heroes, Cloud fights Firion to test the strength of his dream, WoL and Squall fight etc. It's not uncommon. The biggest difference between "friendly" fights and actual fights is that at the end, both heroes are still feeling all right, showing it was just a sparring match^note The exception is Firion vs. Cloud, where Firion gets his butt royally handed to him, and almost loses control, coming close to seriously injuring Cloud.
  • Fran and Balthier in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. Making this worse is that it's probably the hardest fight in the game, and that the whole thing is a stupid misunderstanding.
• Gemini: Heroes Reborn sees Cassandra learning her boyfriend and longtime ally, Alex, is another super just like her, and is working for the villains, despite still having feelings for her. Unfortunately Alex is unable to disobey the Big Bad and needs to fight her as a mid-game boss. After defeat, Alex tries confessing his feelings and revealing the truth to Cassandra, but unfortunately succumbs to his wounds before he can do so.
• The Nameless Mod features this in the WorldCorp storyline. You'll be forced to fight Slicer and Deus Diablo at some point. You also attempt to fight Phasmatis at one point, but this goes nowhere since he is effectively immortal. And if you attempt to do the Ryan ending on a WC playthrough, you'll get this with Kylie if you have rekindled your relationship with her.
• 2027 has this with Magnus at the end of the game, or not, depending on your choices.
• Heroes of Mana gives us an EXTREMELY tragic example. After deserting the Peddan army, Roget has to deal with Juhani, who was very close to the point of Big Brother Worship but now wants him dead for betraying Pedda as well as his sister whom Roget was engaged to. Later in the game, after finding out that Juhani survived his fall into the ravine at the Golden Road, Roget has to fight him again because he won't listen to reason and ends up mortally wounding him. Juhani seems to forgive Roget at last and tells him to take care of Elena before he dies. Speaking of Elena, she finds out about Juhani's death and DOESN'T TAKE IT WELL!!! Roget tries to reason with her as well with the same outcome. In the end, Elena decides to pull off a kamikaze with her Ghost Warship in an attempt to obliterate both of them but ends up getting only herself killed as a horrified Roget bears witness and then tries to go after her with Qucas holding him back. DOUBLE OUCH!!!!!!
• The first section of LISA: The Painful's finale involves Brad's surviving companions realizing that he's turned into a monster and confront him, forcing Brad to fight the three other front members of his party. Some party members actively hate Brad and will attack him no-holds-barred, but the worst part is seeing how some party members, especially the early ones who've been with you since the beginning, react to fighting you.
  Terry is crying deeply.
  Olan doesn't want to do this...
• Mega Man
  • Done very well in Mega Man X5, with X vs. Zero. It helps that there are actually three possible intros to the fight, depending on who you're playing as and whether Zero "awakened" to his Superpowered Evil Side. It also helps that the ending of one of the previous games hinted that something like this would happen.
  • And one game before that, Zero is forced to fight Iris. We all know how that went.
  • Subverted in Mega Man Battle Network 2. In the final level, Mega Man is confronted by his allies who have been taken over by Lord Gospel and are about to attack until Roll and the other arrive to show the ones facing Mega Man are actually fakes.
  • Mega Man Star Force: In the first game Geo is forced to fight Bud, Sonia and Luna when they are tricked by the evil FM-Ians (Taurus, Lyra and Ophiuca), into getting revenge against people who wronged them (i.e. Vaughn and Veil Platz for Luna, Luna and Geo for Bud and Chrys Golds for Sonia). Then in the second game as both Bud and Luna are taken over by what Omega-Xis calls residual energy and then as Vega and Hollow trick Sonia into doing their dirty work for them. Finally in the third game as Taurus becomes corrupted by the bad guys and is forced to merge with Bud as a result of it.
  • Mega Man ZX: Vent/Aile are forced to fight their guardian Giro, who's been brainwashed by Serpent and they need to Beat the Curse Out of Him. It works...and then Serpent blasts Giro and Vent/Aile, and Giro (due to his existing injuries from the fight) is fatally wounded as a result and needs to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save Vent/Aile. To drive it home, Vent/Aile and Giro are the Model X Mega Man and Model Z Mega Man respectively.
• Dragon Age:
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, you have to fight Wynne and Leliana if you choose to despoil the Urn of Sacred Ashes while they are in your party.
    • You will also have to fight Wynne if you choose to ally with the Templars while doing the "Broken Circle" quest.
  • In Dragon Age II, you can end up fighting several of your companions in the end game if you don't push their Friendship or Rivalry all the way to the extreme.
  • In the Trespasser DLC of Dragon Age: Inquisition, you will have to fight the Iron Bull, if you sacrificed the Chargers in the main game. There is no hint of this ahead of time, and it comes as a particular Player Punch if he was romanced.
• In Atlus's Digital Devil Saga, Serph and Heat stage a fight between themselves in an attempt to make the local villain drop his guard.
  • In the sequel Gale, Sera and Cielo take on Heat after he eats Serph and turns into a One-Winged Angel, to a Dark Reprise of the first game's battle theme. Subverted in that Heat's on a slightly different agenda but they're aiming for the same goal and they still consider Heat a comrade.
• The Magic Knight Rayearth SNES game featured a sequence where one of the trio had to fight the other two. This is one of the last variety, where the other guys are being mind-controlled, and in fact, you're supposed to lose; if you kill them, you get a game over. This is actually made kind of hard, or at least boring, by the fact that their AI is utterly crappy and it can take forever for them to kill you with their piss-weak attacks.
  • The same case happened in the anime: in one episode, Hikaru and Umi were Brainwashed and Crazy thanks to the still not Heel Face Turned Caldina, therefore Fuu had to fight and disable them on her own.
• Happens a bit in Tactics Ogre. You are guaranteed to fight Vice at least once in the game (The reasons differ, though, between him making a Face–Heel Turn or accidentally getting caught in a bad spot), Leonard often fights you, Guildus is reanimated into a death knight, and in one path, Denim's sister Kachua is so angry at you she actually stays behind in the fight against Lans Tartare!! (In other chapters, Lans tells her to run away and she obliges.)
  • Tactics Ogre's Gaiden Game/Prequel, The Knight of Lodis also does this. In Path A, Orson is fought, and then Rictor is possessed, making you fight him twice. But in Path B, Rictor is only fought once and it is instead Cybil who is possessed by the Big Bad. The first Rictor battle happens regardless of path choice, as does the battle with the mermaid Aerial.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour, one section of the game pits you against a mind-controlled Joey. Winning or losing this battle results in a Game Over, so you have to use particular cards to make the game end in a draw. (This comes straight from the series, though it had a different explanation.)
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom, Scott Irvine uses his influence over "Kingdom" to mind-control Téa, Joey and Bakura, making them bosses that Yugi's team has to face. Téa has a sped-up time clock, Joey ends up being fought twice (with the second time requiring Mai to knock some sense into him), and Bakura turns out to have been possessed by the Millennium Ring again, resulting in him launching a full assault on the heroes' home base with virtually no time to waste in defending it.
• In Blue Dragon, when you encounter Marumaro for the first time, he will fight you to prevent you from interfering with his quest for medicine for his village.
• In Iron Twilight, when Qem jumps out of the chest and will only help you if you beat him in some sort of tennis match with fireballs instead of tennis balls that has no relevance to the plot whatsoever.
• The Super Famicom game Tenchi Muyo! Game Hen has everyone's favorite Space Pirate Ryoko Hakubi as a late-game boss, following her abuction by the Big Bad halfway through the story. It's a bit of a subversion in that defeating Ryoko earns the player a Game Over; the object of the mission is to defeat the Ryoko clones (easily identifiable as recolors of the real one) who are acting as the real one's flunkies.
• Xenogears uses this trope several times too. There's only three party members you don't fight at some point in the story.
• Nintendo Wars:
  • From the first Advance Wars there's Rivals!, a secret mission you can get if you use a certain CO on specific missions. It's the same.
    • Alternatively, it's just like modern military exercises. Just ignore the explosions. Heck, it could even be a computer simulation.
  • Advance Wars: Dual Strike features a version of this, in which potential allies pit their armies against yours in order to test your skills as a commander.
• In the first dungeon of Fallout 2, the main character must fight a fellow tribesman to display his worthiness. If you're smart enough, you can opt to talk your way out instead.
• Performed spectacularly in Chrono Cross. After defeating Lynx atop Fort Dragonia, Serge is body-swapped with his nemesis, but the two other members in the party never notice. At that point, your friends and Lynx in Serge's body attack you and you must defend yourself. The odd part is, you're actually given the chance to win (but what kind of heartless monster would beat his own friends into a pulp?) The outcome of the battle is the same whether you win or lose, however.
  • Battling the Dragon God (the fusion of the Six Dragons) is one such battle, since Harle, the Lunar (Seventh) Dragon, merges with it irrevocably also.
• The major boss fights (against Trinity and Seraph) in Enter the Matrix are like this. The former is a sparring match between friends. In the latter case... he fights EVERYONE he meets with, apparently.
• Eternity: The Last Unicorn have the secondary hero being the Viking, Bior, who seeks his missing brothers. He finds out they're corrupted by the forces of darkness and killed each other, and Bior's last brother is one of the bosses, Brainwashed and Crazy, which he's forced to put out of misery.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails
  • In Trails in the Sky SC, Estelle and the others travel through an Ouroboros base, they encounter Bracers comrades who have been put under Weissman's control.
  • Trails to Azure has Lloyd and Noel having a brief duel due to the latter's Conflicting Loyalty.
  • Trails of Cold Steel: Crow is revealed to be the masked terrorist C, who Rean duels several times.
• Happens in every Tales of... game, with the exception of Tales of Phantasia.
  • Tales of Eternia pits you up against Leon in two occasions, when you first meet him and when he gets brainwashed.
  • Tales of the Abyss also does it the least since the only friend you fight is Asch...No one's sudden betrayals actually result in a battle.
  • Tales of Rebirth goes crazy with this trope. In Tales of Rebirth, you fight every single party member, including the hero at some point, including a fistfight between Veigue and Tytree as the result of an argument about Veigue not being open with his feelings. Pretty much the only character you don't fight EVER is Mao. (Unless you count the training battle)
  • Like Tales of Rebirth, Tales of Symphonia also has a little too much fun with this trope...but not to the point described above.
    • The Sequel includes a possible final battle but this is one where you're supposed to lose, winning results in the Downer Ending.
  • Done pretty well in Tales of Vesperia: After the latest argument between Flynn and Yuri about what Yuri's doing, Flynn seems to finally give up, until Yuri offers him a way to make his point: a swordfight.
    Yuri: You're not going to beat me in an argument. But you know what you can beat me in... (holding up his sword) This.
    • The two then proceed to trash-talk each other while beating each other up. They feel better afterwards, but Flynn still loses the argument.
      Flynn: I can't even win with a sword anymore.
      Yuri: (teasingly) Hahaha... Loser.
    • Yuri also fights a Brainwashed and Crazy Estelle in an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight.
    • The PS3 version adds several more opportunities to fight your friends, most notably in the team battle mode in the coliseum, the final battle of which will pit all the party members you're not using against the party members you are using.
    • Also in the arena, Karol (in a poor disguise and loudly claiming not to be Karol) will fight alongside his Hunting Blades guildmates if he's not in your current party. In addition if Raven isn't with you he'll appear as Captain Schwann alongside the Schwann Brigade also claiming not be Raven, although he's aware he's fooling no one.
  • Tales of Xillia has Jude get into a scrap with Alvin after the latter goes too far in trying to snap him out of a Heroic BSoD. Additionally, the EX arena will have either Jude or Milla face off against every other member of party in three pairs, then go one on one with the character you didn't pick.
  • Tales of Xillia 2:
    • Near the end of the game, either Jude or Milla will fight Ludger to snap him out of a Heroic BSoD.
    • The EX Tag Arena also pits you against one of your party members teamed with any of a number of different bosses for its last opponents.
    • Played for Drama in the game's Bad Ending, Ludger turns against his friends to prevent them from sacrificing his brother to save the world. This results in a boss battle where he fights solo against the other eight party members, four at a time, and his victory results in their deaths.
• In Touhou Gensokyo ~ Lotus Land Story, Reimu and Marisa end up dueling in Stage Four over who will get to explore a mysterious, monster-haunted mansion. This is referenced several games later in Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night, where you'll fight either Reimu or Marisa depending on which team you chose at the game's start, when they mistake you for the perpetrator of the endless night. In both cases, this is the point where the game's difficulty spikes dramatically.
  • In Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires, the Stage 1 boss is Yuyuko Saigyouji, the Final Boss of Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom. She's actually holding back and only serves as as Warmup Boss, and after she's defeated gives the protagonist directions toward resolving the latest Incident. Applies especially if playing as Youmu Konpaku, her servant.
  • In the fan game Concealed the Conclusion, it's revealed that Gensokyo is going through a Dream Apocalypse and there's nothing anyone can do about it, so Marisa challenges Reimu to one last battle, for old time's sake. Unlike in the canon games, this fight is played for pure drama.
• The third stage of Magical Battle Arena has your character finding her respective ally (Nanoha and Fate, Sarara and Kirara, Lina and Naga) only for the rules of the universe forcing them to fight to get out of their current area. The only ones that doesn't are Sakura and Kukuri, who instead invokes Defeat Means Friendship on each other for the team battle on the next stage, and Ruru and Nowel, who will go through said team battle solo.
• Paper Mario:
  • In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, one boss fight has you fighting a traditional boss but your allies are fighting alongside him. This is because said boss took over Mario's body and identity, leaving the real Mario as a literal shadow of his former self. Also, Mario is forced to fight a possessed Princess Peach, who is now the Shadow Queen.
  • In Super Paper Mario, there's a variant: the Final Boss is a fusion between Dimentio, Luigi and the Chaos Heart, with Dimentio's personality in control.
• A subversion of this occurs in Bayonetta where it's revealed that Jeanne, who is fought on multiple occasions, is actually the protagonist's brainwashed childhood friend.
• In the second DLC of The Evil Within, Juli is forced to defend herself against Joseph, who's become haunted and violent due to Ruvik's influence over STEM. He immediately attacks her and stalks her throughout the area, and she's forced to fight him until he finally snaps out of it and collapses. Ruvik implies that he did this to cause Joseph horrible guilt over attacking Juli, hopefully leading to him finally giving in to his suicidal thoughts, as opposed to actually wanting Juli dead.
• The Legend of Zelda
  • Happens twice in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. First, Yeta, a friendly Yeti living in the Snowpeak Ruins, the game's fifth dungeon, is cursed by a shard of the Mirror of Twilight, turning her into the boss of that dungeon, the Twilit Ice Mass, Blizzeta. Then, during the final battle, a traditional Tennis Boss fight is against a possessed Princess Zelda.
  • And once more in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, in which the final boss is actually your buddy Linebeck possessed by Bellum.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: At Goron City, Link is forced to fight against Yunobo, who's become Brainwashed and Crazy after he was tricked into wearing a controlling mask.
• In Shadowverse, the seven original leaders developed a sort of non-antagonistic bond to one another after they drove Nexus in the Morning Star Arc. However, in the Guild Wars chapters, Luna had to fight Isabelle so that the latter would stop attacking Nicola Adel.
• In Soul Calibur II, an odd version happens in both Kilik and Xianghua's story modes. While the majority of characters fight against their enemies, these two fight because they don't want the other to go on to face Inferno and potentially be killed.
  • And to a lesser extent in the same game, Seong Mi-Na defeats Yun Seong because it's "no place for kids." Not that she herself is "old" by most standards.
• World of Warcraft has several. Vaelestrasz in BWL tries to beat the main boss before you get there and loses, gets partially mind controlled so he has to fight you and is weakened throughout. Considering how tough he is, it's a wonder Nefarian managed to beat him, really...
  • Kalecgos, the first boss of Sunwell Plateau is a blue dragon who tried the same thing. His will is stronger or something, because you beat him by killing the monster possessing him. His ally, the third boss Felmyst was not so lucky, probably because she is some sort of undead monster by that point.
  • Keristrasza! I'm noticing a pattern here. Dragons don't seem to have very much luck when they try doing our job or helping us, do they?
    • Indeed, by this point about half of the dragons fought in the game are former allies. Sapphiron and Nightbane may also count, being reanimated dragons.
  • The various keepers of Ulduar have all been brainwashed by the Old God Yogg-Saron, forcing you to fight them. Once defeated, they realize what's happening and offer to help you against the Old God.
  • The Argent Tournament includes the player killing a lot of the Crusade's members and beating up their bosses.
  • After defeating the corrupted Shado-Pan in their Monastery, the remaining defenders challenge you to battle to determine if you're prepared to fight against the Sha.
• Persona
  • Persona 3 FES: At the end of The Answer, SEES degenerates into infighting when you collect the 8 keys required to assemble the true key needed to either return to the final battle of the original story and save the protagonist or escape from the dorm in the present. Akihiko and Ken want to escape, Yukari and Mitsuru want to return to the past, Junpei and Koromaru refuse to commit to a decision that isn't unanimous, and Aigis, Metis, and Fuuka are unsure. Therefore, Aigis and co. must defeat the rest of SEES to get the true key.
  • Persona 4 Golden: Marie acts as the boss of the game's bonus dungeon after having learned of her connection to the True Final Boss.
  • Persona 5 Royal:
    • In Akechi's reworked Confidant, his rank 8 event has you facing him in single combat in Mementos.
    • In the third semester, Dr. Maruki deliberately triggers Sumire's personal fears of returning to accepting she indirectly caused her sister's death and her desperation to believe she's the real Kasumi, then orders her to attack Joker. She briefly attacks Joker, resulting in a boss battle against her. She so desperately wants to avoid confronting her sister's death that she's willing to use violence against one of her closest allies for it, even in a situation where she absolutely isn't in a condition to fight proper. She comes to her senses pretty quickly, and it seems like Maruki is throwing a dire warning towards Joker for rejecting his deal.
• Baldur's Gate II. Fellow escapee and very charming thief Yoshimo has no choice but to go apeshit half way trough the game because of an unbreakable Geas oath. So yeah.) and fight with the PC. He doesn't get better, though you can deliver his heart to his church to give him some forgiveness in death.
• In The World Ends with You, you finally fight the Conductor, who takes control of Shiki using the Red Skull pin. This leads to a cutscene in which the still-possessed Shiki launches a final attack which knocks out Beat, but Neku knocks her out and slices her Red Skull pin, ending the possession.
• Melty Blood occasionally has the Back Alley Alliance of Satsuki and Sion fighting each other to prevent the other from getting killed.
• Resident Evil 5 features a boss fight where Chris and Sheva end up fighting Jill Valentine.
• Castle Crashers has this happen if you're in a multiplayer game. After rescuing a princess, the players fight to the last man to decide who gets to kiss her. Even though you can brutally cut down the other players, everyone will start the next level alive and well.
• In Metal Slug 6, one of the characters that you did not choose is under mind control and fights you. They can use the same weapons you can, switch them at will, and can use their melee weapons just like you can. Defeating the creature controlling the character frees the victim.
  • This also happens (sort of) in 3, where your character is abducted by aliens and you have to play as a different one to recover them. Along you way you fight legions of clones of the captured character.
• Happens fairly often, usually via Mind Control, in the Super Robot Wars series.
  • In Super Robot Wars Original Generations, this has tallied up quite a lot. Brainwashed and Crazy victims include Kusuha (twice, by Ingram and ODE), Excellen (twice too! By Ingram, but this one got thrown into Canon Discontinuity, and Einsts, especially Alfimi) and Lamia (twice in the same game: first ODE, then Duminuss), and the rest of the ODE victims. The first game, however, pits you against Sanger (who's been fighting with you for the first few stages) in a convoluted plot of Stealth Mentor.
  • In Chapter 10 of Super Robot Wars MX, Duke Fleed in UFO Robo Grendizer has to to fight Great Mazinger (piloted by Blacki) and Mazinger Z piloted by a brainwashed Kouji Kabuto. Eventually, he breaks Kouji free and defeats Great Mazinger with his help.
  • For some reason, the subplot of having to fight the SMS (except Alto) from Macross 30 was the only thing they adapted from that game in Super Robot Wars BX. But since there's no Sharon Apple to mind control them in BX, they just made them part of the Marder Army by holding the crew of the Macross Quarter hostage.
  • In Super Robot Wars V, whoever you chose as the protagonist will have to fight the other protagonist at some point in the game. And before that, Tetsuya and the Great Mazinger leaves the group after they beat the Fourth and Fifth Angels. He reappears after Mazinger Z learns how to use the Iron Cutter attack and attacks Mazinger Z because he's afraid that Mazinger Z is turning into Mazinger ZERO. He also attacks the Black Getter and causes Go to show up with Shin Getter Robo, reuniting Ryoma with Hayato and Benkei in the process. Later, Tetsuya's proven right and has to team up with Shinji (who is piloting the Awakened EVA-01) and the others in order to stop the threat.
• Pixy is fought twice in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War.
• Metal Gear has a number of these.
  • In Metal Gear Solid:
    • Snake has to kill his old friend Gray Fox a second time.
    • During the battle with Psycho Mantis, Snake has to fight Meryl without delivering a killing blow. If that person dies, you get a Non-Standard Game Over.
  • And of the Ac!d spin-off series, a fight with Venus.
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: The fight with The Boss. The whole mission and her defection were all a ruse to avoid a potential war between East and West, and she is dying for her country.
• Kingdom Hearts does this a few times.
  • It happens twice with Riku in the first game. He is first evil and is jealous of you, then attacks, and the next time he's possessed by darkness and becomes That One Boss for several players.
  • 358/2 days ends with Xion committing Suicide by Cop against Roxas.
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Aqua has to fight both her friends, Ventus possessed by Vanitas at the end of her chapter, and Terra possessed by Xehanort in the final chapter. Both of these characters are being directly controlled by another though and in fact will help Aqua out by resisting as best they can.
  • Pops up in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] as well.
    • The final boss of the game is Sora (or more specifically, the Nightmare possessed suit of armor he's wearing).
    • In the TRON: Legacy world, Sora is forced to fight Tron, who at this point in time is known as Rinzler. He's not technically the Tron Sora knows, who came from a copy of the original Grid, but that doesn't make it any easier on Sora.
• In the C path of Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, every friend you sacrificed to the Plume is now an einherjar fighting on Valkyrie's side against you.
• Xenosaga stayed away from this trope until Episode III when you had to fight Shion after Kevin convinced her that siding with him was the only way to be happy.
• The final battle of Mother 3 is a great example of this, in which Lucas must fight his brother Claus, who has no idea who he actually is. However, for most of the fight, Lucas refuses to attack. By the end, Claus realizes who he is and commits suicide.
• The battles against Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption definitely count. They all help you at various points through the game, and in the 75% ending, Samus mourns their deaths.
• In the final battle in Beyond Good & Evil, the Big Bad possesses (and clones) Jade's friends, complete with mind fuck. ("It's your fault we're suffering!")
• In the Chicago History Museum mission in Stranglehold, your ally for most of the game, Jerry Ying, betrays you and murders Billie after you take down Damon Zakarov. After you chase his ass down, the Boss Battle begins with Jerry revealing that he acted on orders from Wong, the "same guy who sent you to find her."
  Jerry: We're in a hell of a business, old buddy! Nothing's ever what it seems!
• Pokémon:
  • This becomes more and more the case with the Pokémon League Champions throughout the series.
    • In Red, Blue and Yellow, the Champion is your Jerkass Rival.
    • In Gold, Silver and Crystal, you have Lance, who is on the side of Good is Not Nice and is all "I see potential in you; now I'll try to utterly crush you to see if I'm right".
    • In Ruby and Sapphire you have Steven, who's your mentor and pretty much your chum, giving you advice throughout your journey and helping you when the region is in crisis. In Emerald, Steven steps down from his position as the Champion, though his role as your mentor remains, while the new Champion, Wallce, also provides you guidance during the region's crisis.
    • Iin Diamond, Pearl and Platinum you have Cynthia, the do-gooder Adventurer Archaeologist who wants to be your BFF, helps you save the world and wants you to know this whole battling-you thing is tremendously fun for her.
    • Then in Black and White you have Alder, a kindly old man who walks the earth, does his best to give you a hand and has the most festive and upbeat Champion battle theme ever. In the sequels, we have Iris, who's a cute kid and tries to help you at a couple points in the game, with an upbeat Champion battle game that won't be out of place in a magical girl genre.
    • Finally averted in X and Y, where Diantha is nice but merely a (very famous) associate of the region's Professor until it's time to throw down.
    • Back with a vengeance in Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, where even though Champions aren't a thing in Alola yet until the Pokémon League is established at the end of the game, the final challenge is Professor Kukui, the region's professor who also acts as your mentor, in the former and Hau, your friendly rival, in the latter.
    • Then in Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon Let's Go, Eevee!, your friendly rival Trace replaces Blue's role as the Kanto Champion and final boss.
    • Then in Sword and Shield, you have Leon, who is is your rival Hop's brother and a constant fixture on your Gym Challenge.
  • While your rivals in the first two generations of the game are both Jerkasses, your rivals in later games, including May/Brendan, Wally, Barry, Cheren, Bianca, Hugh, Calem/Serena, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, Hau, Trace and Hop are all considerably friendlier.
  • In Black 2 and White 2, the side-area Pokémon World Tournament has a unique battle type: Mix Battles. Here, the opposing battler will take one Pokémon (or two, in Triple Mix Battles) from your party and you have to switch with one of theirs. Figuring out how to take down your own party member can be a tricky business.
• Subverted in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers when you have to fight Grovyle. You think that he's just the bad guy, until you learn that he was the hero's friend before he/she gained amnesia at the start of the game, giving the fight a lot more meaning.
• Splatoon 2:
  • Callie becomes brainwashed and teams up with DJ Octavio in the final battle.
  • In Octo Expansion, you have to fight a brainwashed Agent 3, who is not only the agent that Captain Cuttlefish would frequently praise throughout the DLC, but is also the character that you played as in Splatoon 1.
• Street Fighter has indulged in this trope more than a few times, most prominently in Street Fighter Alpha 3 and (Super) Street Fighter IV's Rival Battles.
  • Alpha 3: Bison abducts Ryu and injects him with a portion of his Psycho Power, forcing Sagat to try and rouse him out of this as Ken and Sakura face Bison. Also, the Bushin Ninja Guy tries to reach out to his best friend Cody, who has gone from the hero of Metro City to an apathetic, snarky, fight-addicted brooder, as he believes that deep down, Cody still holds some goodness in his heart.
  • IV: Rose believes that Ryu is The Chosen One destined to defeat Bison, but doesn't want him to preemptively rush into danger (according to her visions, he can vanquish Bison only at a specific time). On the other end, Guy tries to prevent Rose from facing Bison herself because while she intends to eradicate (or at least stall) Bison, she has seemingly resigned herself to death and holds a far greater importance to the world than she believes (he tried this before in Alpha 3 but failed, leading Rose to eventually be possessed by Bison in the interim between Alpha 3 and II; it should be noted that he and Rose were not True Companions at this point). Cue battle. He also confronts Cody again, mainly for the same reasons as their fight several years prior, as well as trying to convince Cody to join him in the fight against Seth and S.I.N.
• Stage 9 of Streets of Rage 4 pits you against a mind-controlled Max (though he was only playable two games before—Unless one counts the unlockable version of him from that game).
• A meta example in LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game. While the final boss isn't technically on your character's side, there's the fact that, in a multiplayer game, it's the other player.
• Agarest Senki:
  • The first game has Valeria fighting against you in the 2nd generation when Ladius runs away from his enemies, forcing two childhood friends to fight against each other.
  • In Agarest Senki 2, this happens twice in the entire game. It happens first with Sophia because Gray gets a Grand Theft Me from Chaos and she doesn't trust Chaos herself. The second one only happens if one goes to the Bad Ending and that is Eva who pulls off a Face–Heel Turn when the party minus the protagonist Gray decides to kill Chaos because Gray gets Killed Off for Real.
• In Shiren the Wanderer 3, Shiren and Asuka fight because Sensei disagreed with her. Even if you have Shiren say that Asuka's right, the fight happens anyway (and Sensei backs out of the fight, which Koppa calls him out for) So, basically, they're fighting because they had Sensei as a boss, so why not Asuka?
• Mortal Kombat:
  • Mortal Kombat 9: The penultimate fight of Story Mode is Raiden vs. Liu Kang. It doesn't end well. It also happens a bit earlier in Kitana's chapter, where she duels her servant Jade (the latter having been sent by Shao Kahn to keep an eye on Kitana). This fight isn't nearly as emotionally heartwrenching and doesn't come at the cost of presumably destroying a long-lasting friendship unlike the former.
  • Mortal Kombat X: Due to most of the Earthrealm warriors dying in the previous game, Quan Chi claimed their souls and they serve under him as revenants. Sub-Zero, Jax, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Stryker, Sindel, Smoke, Nightwolf, and Kitana are under Quan Chi's control and you fight them all eventually. Jax and Sub-Zero are able to be saved and return to their normal selves, but the rest aren't as lucky, as Scorpion offs Quan Chi without realizing why he was needed, permanently dooming the revenants to stay as these.
• Like any other fighting game worth its salt, BlazBlue has cases of this. The above quote is a lampshade by Makoto, who was forced into fighting Tsubaki just to keep her from killing Noel. She even went out of her way to forge an order to withdraw just to avoid hurting Tsubaki herself, and the fighting was pretty much a last resort.
  "I didn't want to have to do this... but neither of us have a choice, do we...?"
• BlazBlue: Chronophantasma: This happens a lot to Litchi Faye-Ling. Just because she is now in the NOL doesn't mean she discarded the friendship she built up to the likes of Taokaka and Bang Shishigami. Making matters worse, her "mission" involves striking at Bang to snatch something he treasured, and in the previous game, she has come to treat him as a very good friend. In her Arcade route win quotes, she is borderline crying after defeating Bang.
• The Dragon of Neverwinter Nights 2 will try to convince some of your party members to join him and the Big Bad against you. If you fail Influence checks with these characters, they will be swayed. Special mention goes to Qara and Sand: their rivalry means it is literally impossible to keep one without having the other turn on you.
• The granddaddy of them all: Double Dragon. In the arcade version, if two people are playing, the game ain't over after the final boss is defeated... Billy and Jimmy then have to fight each other to the death, and Marian ends up with the winner.
  • The Final Boss of Double Dragon III's NES version is a Brainwashed and Crazy Marian.
  • Also shows up in Double Dragon Neon, though only after the credits, and without the "to the death" part.
• After defeating Apocalypse in X-Men vs. Street Fighter, the player's two characters stand there and congratulate each other. The player, however, can recover control of his/her character and attack the partner. Do so two times and a battle ensues. (The PS1 and Saturn ports lack such options, and the player has to fight their partner after Apocalypse regardless.)
• In Little Samson, just as the party all comes together, Kikira turns on Little Samson and starts the first Boss Battle because, the manual says, she "may need some coaxing by Samson to obey."
• The Genesis Ghostbusters game has your (possessed) fellow busters as two of the mid-bosses in the castle stage. These are defeated by firing at the spooks that trail behind them.
• This is a staple of the Neptunia series. A fair amount or sometimes even most of your party members will have a boss battle (or two or three) due to various circumstances. They want to test you, they want to prove that they're better than you, you have a temporary conflict of interests, there's a misunderstanding, etc. One standout case however is the Conquest Ending of Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 where Nepgear has to fight and kill all the other goddesses. Unlike the other conflicts listed here, this one is just as dark as it sounds.
• Happens in Guild Wars in the final mission, where the party must fight their former mentor and ally, Prince Rurik. Or rather, his decomposing zombified corpse. The Prince apparently has control of his vocal functions, but cannot control his actions due to a spell being put on him by the Big Bad of that campaign. He makes it clear that he doesn't wish to fight his comrades, but has little choice in the matter. Winning the fight causes poor Rurik to be Killed Off for Real, but ends the Lich's spell, setting him free and allowing him to finally pass on.
• Skullgirls has a couple instances:
  • Filia and Painwheel.
  • Samson and Leviathan, the parasite partners of Filia and Squigly, respectively. Granted they behave more like Vitriolic Best Buds, but they mostly instigate their battle because they disagree on whether the Skullheart should be pursued.
  • And of course Peacock and Marie.
• The Suikoden series does this often, most notably:
  • Suikoden II: The duel between Riou and his best friend, Jowy, which gets briefly postponed when Gordo's men mortally wound Riou's adopted sister, Nanami. In the end, if Riou has recruited all 108 Stars of Destiny before the final battle, he can spare Jowy's life and get the best ending. This trope is actually enforced by their True Runes. The Bright Shield and Black Sword Runes are actually two halves of the True Rune of Beginning. The two Runes always end up with a pair of best friends, and events always play out that culminate in the two friends fighting to the death, upon which the two Runes merge back into the Rune of Beginning. The bearers prior to Riou and Jowy sealed their Runes away in the Shrine at Toto Village rather than play out this trope.
  • Suikoden V: About midway through the game, the Prince has to battle his friend who's also his sister's bodyguard, Miaskis, which serves as the conclusion of the liberation of Doorat and doubles as a massive Tear Jerker.
• Art of Fighting 3: Path of the Warrior: Just before the conclusion of the game's story mode, Ryo and Robert battle each other to determine which of them will go on to face Wyler. According to canon, Robert won.
• In Strider 2, Hiryu and Hien were once best friends before Hien decided to betray the Striders and lead them to their ruin. Even though he's now sided with the Big Bad, Hien still considers Hiryu a friend and tries to convince him to abandon his mission and join his side, but Hiryu quickly turns him down and advises him to fight seriously next time they meet. This is expanded upon in the crossover game Namco × Capcom, where Hien tries until the very last second to convince Hiryu to abandon his mission to kill Meio, but Hiryu turns him down (and defeats him) every time. It's not until the very last chapter, and once Meio gives him the explicit order to kill him, that Hien gives up on trying.
• Namco × Capcom has several other such cases, like Wonder Momo not wanting to hurt Amazona, a fellow actress from her play which has ben Brainwashed by the enemies or King being distressed at his mentor Armor King being on the enemy side.
• In Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, Ghaleon decides to abandon the Corrupt Church he's been serving and even is willing to give the party his Cool Airship... after he tests Hiro's skills on a one-on-one battle to see his worth, that is!
• In Sonic Heroes, the four teams will encounter two of the other three during their adventure. Team Sonic battles Team Rose when Amy tries to get Sonic to marry her, Team Rose battles Team Chaotix when Team Chaotix tries to get Cheese, Team Dark deals with Team Sonic when Sonic and Shadow's rivalry kicks in again and Team Chaotix and Team Dark have it out over their business with Eggman.
• In Live A Live, the training in the Kung Fu chapter consists of a series of one-on-one fights with your pupils.
• In Star Fox: Assault, General Pepper is at one point possessed by the Aparoids, losing control of his body and flagship. He's still conscious, but can't control himself anymore, so he urges Fox to shoot him down and kill him before the Aparoids fully take him over. Fortunately, once he is defeated, Peppy manages to save him from crashing and dying, and Pepper makes it out wounded, but OK.
• The Shin Megami Tensei series as a whole has this as a mainstay.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei I, the three party members are the Heroine, the Law Hero, and the Chaos Hero. The Heroine sides with the player no matter what, but it's mandatory to kill at least one of the others. If you side with Law, you have to kill the Chaos Hero and vice versa. If you don't pick a side and instead go for Neutral, you have to kill both of them. Even if you do side with them, they die anyways: the Law Hero is killed by the Chaos Hero, and the Chaos Hero steals an Artifact of Doom from the player and dies from too much power.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei II, one of Aleph's closest allies, Zayin, fights him as he starts to uncover the Center's corruption, but afterwards is impressed by his resolve and decides to raise up an entire resistance against the Center. It happens again, for far higher stakes, on the Neutral and Chaos routes, as Zayin awakes to his true nature as God's ultimate weapon and judge Satan and goes One-Winged Angel to fight Aleph to the death as the penultimate boss.
  • By the end of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, Chiaki and Isamu will have gone insane from their experiences and both have to be fought in the final dungeon. While you can get away from fighting Isamu if you side with him, Chiaki, believing in survival of the fittest, will still challenge the Demi-fiend if you side with her to see which of them is worthy of leading the new world.
  • As Shin Megami Tensei IV reaches its conclusion you will have no choice but to fight two of the three companions that you were with for the entire game because they will disagree with whichever path you have chosen for Tokyo. It's made slightly easier with Jonathan and Walter, but only because each has already sacrificed his own body to become an all-powerful Eldritch Abomination. The battle with Isabeau, however, is undoubtedly the most heartbreaking Player Punch that the game has to offer.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse also has a Player Punch in the Massacre route. This route would mean the destruction of the universe, and the party understandably turns on the player. After spending the entire game showing off Character Development for the party, killing them is heartwrenching.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1 features two such bosses: Fiora piloting Face Nemesis (in which the goal is not to kill her) and Disciple Dickson (in which the goal is to kill him). The latter is less of a Player Punch, since by that part of the story, Dickson has kicked the dog so many times the player is likely to want to kill him.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: A varient occurs during M's boss fight. She has the ability to possess one person and have them attack the others. This leads to Ouroboros fighting each other as they cannot tell who M is controlling, but this ends when Taion figures out her gimmick and uses his Mondo to track M. In gameplay, this translated to the Mondo hovering over the member of Ouroboros that M is controlling. This makes them attackable, and any damage to them affects M.
• Time Crisis 5 has the sword fight between Keith and Robert.
• Project X Zone 2 has any of the boss fights involving Black Hayato.
• All the battles with Estina in Astebreed qualify.
• Ace Attorney doesn't have actual "fights", but your goal as a defense attorney is to bring out the truth by finding contradictions in the witnesses' testimony, figuratively fighting them as well as the prosecutors who actively oppose you. Notable examples are below:
  • In Trials and Tribulations, Maya herself is one of the de facto final bosses by being the game's final witness to cross-examine, alongside Godot (the killer) who she tries to defend because he was once her sister's boyfriend.
  • Apollo Justice has Kristoph Gavin, who is Apollo's mentor as a defense attorney. Apollo's first case snowballs when Phoenix Wright accuses Kristoph for murdering the victim and Apollo sides with Phoenix to find the truth. You then cross-examine Kristoph and prove he's the killer. Kristoph returns as the final witness in the final case, despite already being charged with murder from the first case, and you have to cross-examine him again to prove he poisoned a young girl as well as giving Phoenix forged evidence, which got him disbarred from law.
  • In the first half of the final case in Dual Destinies, Apollo testifies against Athena, where the latter is accused of murdering her mother many years ago. The turn of events forces Phoenix to cross examine Apollo to discredit his testimony. It turns out that Apollo testified because he wanted to be proven wrong due to his lie detecting bracelet going off whenever anyone talked to Athena about her mother and he didn't want to believe she was the killer. It turns out that she never committed the crime and just had traumatic and fuzzy memories of the event.
  • Spirit of Justice has a double whammy in the final case for Apollo. Phoenix agrees to help a client who is claiming that the Founder's Orb belongs to him while Apollo goes against him and claims the orb belongs to Dhurke. Apollo and Phoenix face each other in court in a civil case and even the judge is surprised to see the two attorneys go against each other. Phoenix pulls no punches and Apollo doesn't hold back either, but as the trial goes on, Apollo notices Phoenix is acting more odd and even becomes desperate to defend his client (he usually is in any normal case, but he comes up with even sillier arguments than usual). It turns out Phoenix was being blackmailed by his client because Maya was kidnapped by someone affiliated to the client. In the last stretch of the case, Apollo's friend, Nahyuta, testifies against himself by admitting that he killed Dhurke. However, Nahyuta is only taking the heat so that his mother and sister aren't put in danger by the evil Queen that is behind the country's ridiculous laws.
• In Undertale, before you leave the Ruins, Toriel, whose previous interactions with you have been overwhelmingly friendly, insists on fighting you in the first Boss Battle to prove yourself "strong enough to survive" outside. Unlike many examples of this trope, it's possible to actually kill Toriel by fighting her, and the game springs this Player Punch all too readily on unwary players by letting them land a killing blow with her Life Meter only about half empty, in case you were going for the "Bring them to near death" option of sparing monsters.
  • For the True Final Boss of the True Pacifist Run, once you unlock the "Save" option, you have to fight all of the main characters you befriended, who have been reverted to their pre-Character Development mindsets. (i.e. Toriel doesn't want to let you leave, Asgore thinks he has to kill you, Alphys thinks everyone hates her, etc.) To do this, you have to ACT in ways that remind them of the times you've spent together, while dodging the same attacks as they used the first time you fought them. (Apart from Alphys, who otherwise isn't fought and instead uses Mettaton's attacks, and Sans, who is only fightable on the exact opposite path and instead uses Papyrus's attacks.) If you subscribe to the theory that the narrator is actually the first Fallen Child, this battle also counts for them since the final boss is Asriel, their best friend when they were both alive.
• In South Park: The Stick of Truth, all six of your buddies are potentially fought as bosses. Jimmy is fought late on the first day; on the second day, depending on who you side with you either fight Stan then Kyle or Butters then Cartman; Kenny is the game's Final Boss and must always be fought.
• Happens again in South Park: The Fractured but Whole. Among the playable characters, Kenny, Stan, Token, and Tweek are fought during the civil war segments; Butters is fought as the Disc-One Final Boss and pulls a Heel–Face Turn shortly afterwards; Cartman, Kyle, Clyde, Craig, Jimmy, and Scott are all brainwashed by Professor Timmy and forced to act as his minions during the final fight with him; and the New Kid is fought in their King Douchebag persona when the party travels back in time to stop the Big Bad's evil plans. The only playable character to avert this outright is Wendy.
• This happens in at least one ending in every game in the Drakengard series.
  • Drakengard 1 has ending B (Caim vs. Furiae) and ending C (Caim vs. Angelus).
  • Drakengard 2 has this in every ending. Endings A and C have Nowe vs. Legna, notable for being the only instance in the series to occur as a result of a genuine ideological fallout instead of some variant of Demonic Possession. Ending B has Nowe vs. Manah.
  • Drakengard 3 has ending D (Mikhail vs. Zero).
  • NieR has endings C and D (Nier vs. Kaine).
  • NieR: Automata has this late in the C/D route, where 9S has to fight several 2B units which use his memories of her to full effect.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation: V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E. has the level "Operation: S.P.A.N.K.H.A.P.P.Y.", where Numbuh Four has to fight the other members of Sector V after they've been turned into Spank-Happy Vampires by Count Spankulot. Numbuh Five previously avoided the transformation in one episode of the series, only this time around, she is transformed instead of Numbuh Four. The vampirized Numbuh Two, Numbuh Three, and Numbuh Five serve as mini-bosses, with the vampirized Numbuh One being the level's boss.
• In the Fire Emblem series:
  • In Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, The Heavy is Marth's Demonic Possession-afflicted friend Hardin.
  • In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Sigurd is forced to fight his old friend Eldigan after his warmongering king Chagall attacks Grannvale; Eldigan can't be convinced to stand down because Grannvale itself is developing disturbing imperialistic tendencies.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the tutorial boss is one of Lilina's knights, Bors.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the Big Bad is Eirika and Ephraim's Demonic Possession/More than Mind Control-afflicted friend Lyon.
  • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, the tutorial bosses are The Rival Boyd and the Mentor Archetype Greil.
  • In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, when Daein goes to war with the Laguz Alliance in Part 3, many of the characters on both sides of the conflict were comrades in Path of Radiance (for example, Ike and Sothe or Jill and Haar).
  • In Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, as the tutorial progresses, you recruit several of Marth's former companions who fight alongside you against their former comrades in mock combat.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, you fight Marth, the masked swordsman who saved your hide two chapters ago, as the boss of Chapter 4 in order to secure a military alliance.
  • In Fire Emblem Fates:
    • The tutorial boss is Xander, your Cool Big Bro, who is testing your mettle.
    • In the Revelation route, members of Corrin's army are occasionally forced to fight their friends and loved ones in the Hoshidan and Nohrian armies as they fall for Anankos's machinations (for example, Takumi vs. Ryoma or Selena vs. Laslow).
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
    • In Chapters 1 and 7, you fight your Friendly Rivals Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude (whichever two you didn't pick) in a mock battle.
    • In Chapter 11, you fight your own lord Edelgard as the boss of the Black Eagles route after she reveals she's the one who has been orchestrating attacks on the Church of Seiros throughout the first half of the game. This leads straight into either a full-blown Face–Heel Turn on her part or a Hazy-Feel Turn on Byleth's.
    • In Crimson Flower Chapter 15, you fight Seteth and Flayn, who both admit that they still see you as a friend after you saved Flayn's hide way back in Chapter 6 and regret having to fight you.
    • If you recruited Lorenz to the Blue Lions, Ashe to the Golden Deer, or either to the Black Eagles and sided with the Church, they pull a Face–Heel Turn over the timeskip and you have to fight them in Silver Snow/Azure Moon Chapter 16 and Silver Snow/Verdant Wind Chapter 15, respectively. Fortunately, Defeat Means Friendship in this case.
    • In Azure Moon and Verdant Wind Chapter 17, a miscommunication turns Dimitri and Claude, nominally allies against Edelgard and old school friends, against each other.
    • In general, depending on who you do and don't recruit, you can have best friends fight each other to the death, with the game acknowledging this by initiating a special conversation if the two in question were close (and sometimes even if they weren't). For example, Ingrid, Sylvain, and Felix will all have something to say if they encounter each other as enemies in the second half of the game.
  • In Fire Emblem Engage:
    • The boss of Chapter 2 is your mother Lumera, who is testing Alear's skills in mock combat.
    • The boss of Chapter 25 is your mother Lumera, who has been resurrected as a pawn of the Big Bad and has to be put down again.
• Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time: Sly and Bentley face off against their friend and fellow teammate Penelope when she's found to be a jealous, sociopathic Gold Digger. Downplayed as she irreconcilably hates the former, but they're conflicted because she's Bentley's girlfriend, and he doesn't want to fight her; he only attacks in self-defense when his attempts to reason with her ends in a violent break-up. By the time the battle ends, they consider Penelope to be an enemy, and permanently cut ties with her.
• Punky Skunk: Punky has to fight a mind controlled Nash.
• Theia - The Crimson Eclipse: At the halfway point of the game, Seth is framed for murdering Emperor Levizoa and becomes a fugitive trying to take down the real killer. Unfortunately, this puts him at odds with his former comrades in the empire who didn't see through the conspiracy. Seth ends up fighting and killing Valiant and Meister in boss battles, but is saddened to do so and reconciles with them as they die. Near the end of the game, he fights Horus and manages to take him down nonlethally, but Mishra uses this opportunity to kill Horus.
• The Legend of Dragoon pulls a surprising one in Disc 4. In the Death City, Mayfil, the party comes across the spirit of Lavitz, a party member whom had died back in Disc 1. However, he's been possessed by a demon named Zackwell, forcing a confrontation. After winning, Zackwell tries to make a second attempt at possession, only for Lavitz to impale himself with his own spear, killing Zackwell once and for all. He then uses his final moments to wish Dart and Albert well before helping open a path to the final part of the city.
• Freedom Planet: In the third stage of the Final Dreadnougth, Lilac (or Carol, depending on who you're playing as) will be forced to fight Milla, who was forcibly mutated into a horrific, scorpion-esque monstrosity by Brevon. After the fight, Milla seemingly dies, which drives Lilac/Carol into the Unstoppable Rage as they go after Brevon.
• Due to a misunderstanding, Yoshi and Mario have to fight one another during The Subspace Emissary.
• Fuga: Melodies of Steel does this towards the end, when Britz is tricked into fighting against the rest of the children on the Taranis by the Big Bad. If his affinity is high enough with everyone, then he'll rejoin them, otherwise he'll blow his own tank up in grief due to the rest of the children being unable to finish him off themselves.
• In Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls, when Toko and Komaru are unable to come to an agreement about leaving Towa City through what is supposedly the only safe path, Toko gets frustrated with Komaru and unleashes her Superpowered Evil Side, Genocider Sho, to try and knock some sense into Komaru. Unlike the battles against the Warriors of Hopes' Giant Robots, it is actually a Puzzle Boss where Komaru must outlast Sho by surviving until the battery gauge runs out and shooting the taser when Sho goes to top up.
• In Just Shapes & Beats, the Climax Boss that is fought before the final boss of the game is a fight against the corrupted blue cube friend that the player character tried to rescue for most of the game, set under the "Close to Me" song. After the fight, the blue cube friend is cured by one of the large magical triangles.
• Bug Fables:
  • Maki is the Warmup Boss variation. The first battle in the game is him testing to see if Vi and Kabbu can be Explorers, and his only attack is a simple, easily telegraphed one. He's holding back, as demonstrated when he fights as a Guest-Star Party Member and as a post-game superboss with his sister and adopted daughter.
  • One sidequest has Kabbu end up under the control of pheromones and forced to fight Vi and Leif. The person controlling him is fought as well, and defeating her ends the fight.
• Honkai Impact 3rd: One of the most important moments in the game is a fight scene between Mei and Kiana. This occurs after Kiana learns that Mei is planning to join World Serpent and tries to stop her. Mei however is doing this for Kiana's sake and wants to prevent her from further putting herself in danger. Since Mei is much stronger at the moment, the battle is rather one-sided, although Mei takes great care not to seriously injure her friend. The scene is not only visually spectacular, but also very emotional and the one when Raiden Mei utters her most famous quote.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge: Episode 10's boss fight is against the Turtles' ally Metalhead, who has been captured and reprogrammed prior to the game's events. He only goes back to normal once he's defeated, with Donatello even promising to fix him before the fight starts.
• The first installment of the Galaxy Angel II trilogy, Zettai Ryouiki no Tobira, sees Tact Mayers, the hero of the original Galaxy Angel trilogy, having to fight a large scale conflict against Forte Stollen, one of the members of the former Moon Angel Wing, since she was blackmailed by the true villains into leading a coup d'etat due as they're holding Milfeulle Sakuraba and the Seldar royal family hostage. The conflict can take a more dramatic tone if Forte is Tact's wife, depending on the player's choices.
• At the end of a 2-player game of In the Hunt, both players are forced to fight each other. Whoever kills the other player first becomes the new leader of D.A.S. If neither player is killed before time runs out (e.g. the players refuse to fight each other), both of their vessels burst and plunge to the bottom of the sea, killing both of them.
• Romancing StellaVisor, a Fan Remake of Hoshi wo Miru Hito, adds in an Optional Boss called the Marionette, who possesses Aine and uses her as a puppet against the other 3 party members, forcing them to try and break her free.

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Non-video game examples:

Anime & Manga

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stardust Crusaders: At Egypt, Polnareff gets possessed by Anubis and Jotaro then has to fight the combination of Silver Chariot and Anubis.
  • Steel Ball Run: Johnny and Gyro come under attack by Sandman, who's pulled a Face–Heel Turn after previously getting acquainted with them until he struck a deal with Valentine.
• Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie: Moments before the battle with M. Bison, Ryu is forced to face his best friend and sparring partner, Ken, who'd been enslaved by Bison's Psycho Power. Rather than fight him, Ryu tries getting through to him instead, by trying to remind Ken of who he was, and their friendship - all while being relentlessly attacked. Ryu succeeds without throwing a single punch.
• Bleach: In the Lost Agent arc, Ichigo has his sights on killing Tsukishima until Chad and Orihime appear, having been inflicted with Fake Memories to make them see Tsukishima as an ally, which forces them to hold Ichigo off as he tries to attack.
• Variable Geo: Yuka ends up having to face her Childhood Friend and rival, Satomi, to free her from Miranda's control. Afterward, Yuka and Satomi turn their combined might against the cyber drive, taking Miranda with it.
• Rune Soldier Louie: Jeanie and Louie finally come to blows near the end of episode 12, when her patience with him runs out. She assumed he had come back for her because she was a woman, which struck a nerve, since it reminded her of the time her former comrade, Hector, sacrificed himself by staying behind, so she wouldn't have to die.
• The second Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart movie has baddies Freezen and Frozen do this towards both Cure Black and Cure White when the two heroines confront them. Cure White is brainwashed first and when Cure Black refuses to fight back, they brainwash her as well. Cure White frees herself from the hold first and it takes until the two nearly plunge to their deaths that Cure Black is freed. It shakens them badly, but they use it to reaffirm their friendship once they're both free.
• Symphogear G: It happens in the episodes 10 to 12. First, Miku is Brainwashed and Crazy and equipped with the Symphogear Shenshou Jing and attacks Chris and Tsubasa. Hibiki, who is the main motivation of Miku's power, fights her and manages to bring her back by destroying Shenshou Jing with its Anti-Magic power, while sacrificing her own Symphogear Gungnir (which by the way was about to kill Hibiki in few days, anyway). Then there are two pair of friends who are fighting each other simultaneously. Fake Defector Chris fights Tsubasa, the latter manages to destroy the Explosive Leash on Chris' neck. And Shirabe, who goes a Heel–Face Turn, fights Kirika, who nearly kills Shirabe and has also a Heel–Face Turn after their fight.
• A common thing in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Since friendship is one of the main themes, there will always be a point where the protagonist will duel a Brainwashed and Crazy friend, mostly his best friend.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Before Yugi can duel Pegasus, he has to defeat Joey in the finals first. It's a case of Adaptation Expansion — in the manga, Joey willingly gives up his placing to allow Yugi to rescue his grandfather (and gives the prize money card back to him). The anime has both duelists giving their best, showing how far Joey's come since the start of the arc.
    • The famous "anchor duel" between Yugi and the Brainwashed and Crazy Joey. Both of them are chained to an anchor that will drag at least one of them into the sea if the time limit is over. Between the feet of a duelist is little box that contains the key of his shackle, and reducing the Life Points of the opponent to 0 will open the box. Marik is smart enough to use different keys for the boxes, so saving attempts will become useless. Yugi successfully de-brainwashes Joey by constantly reminding him of their friendship, and Joey manages to end this duel in a draw, so both keys can be unlocked. Joey saves Yugi in the sea, while Joey is saved by either his little sister Serenity (anime) or Kaiba (manga).
    • In the Doma arc, Atem is forced duel Yugi, whose soul was stolen by the Seal of Orichalcos.
    • Also, in the Doma arc, Joey duels an Face Heel Turned Mai twice. He loses his soul in the second duel, but Mai comes back to her sense.
    • The final duel is between Atem and Yugi. Yugi must defeat Atem, so the latter can leave the word of the living or he is "trapped" in this world.
  • In the third trial of Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters, Yugi is forced to do this with Jonouchi when the latter is possessed by the Blade of Chaos, though Yugi isn't too happy about it.
  • Because brainwashing or possessing people happens a lot in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Jaden is often forced to duel his friends and then turns them back to his side.
    • Jaden duels an evil Chazz twice, once when he is brainwashed, and later when he is "zombiefied".
    • Jaden duels Alexis when she is brainwashed like Chazz.
    • In a twist, after Jaden turns evil, he duels Jim and Axel to death. Jim fails to bring Jaden back to his senses, but Axel succeeds to snap Jaden out of it since the result is a draw.
    • Jaden duels a possessed Jesse, his second best friend, and one of the reasons why Jaden turned evil before.
    • In the fourth season, Jaden duels Atticus, who uses the power of Darkness, so Atticus will retain his lost memories.
    • Also in the fourth season, Jaden duels Sartorius, who is not consumed by the Light of Destruction this time, but Sartorius tries to save the soul of his sister Sarina.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, Yusei has a bad luck regarding dueling his best friends.
    • Before the start of the series, Yusei was betrayed by his best friend Jack, who stole his D-Wheel and Stardust Dragon to become the King of Riding Duels in New Domino City and leaving the slums of Satellite, becoming Yusei's rival. Even so, Yusei still views him as his friend and their friendship returns after Jack loses to him in the Fortune Cup.
    • Yusei learns in a hard way that his best friends Kiryu and Bruno turn out to be his enemies, the former was believed to be dead. After defeating them, they died, which incredibly saddens Yusei, who makes a Skyward Scream (Say My Name) both times. Though, Kiryu gets better. Bruno not so much.
    • In Bruno's case, even though he turns out to be an enemy, he is still Yusei's friend at the same time during their duel. He tries to prepare Yusei for the final duel against Z-One and shows him a new Synchro Summoning method that Yusei should surpass. After the duel, Bruno even sacrifices his life to save Yusei from the black hole. If Executive Meddling didn't happen, Yusei would duel his other best friend Crow, who was originally planned to be the Final Boss of the Dark Signer arc.
    • Jack duels his evil-turned Love Interest Carly who like Kiryu dies after Jack's victory. Like Kiryu, she gets better.
    • The final duel is between Yusei and Jack, which is a friendly duel this time. This duel gives Yusei the answer which path he wants to go in the future, and it also inspires Aki, Crow, Luca and Lua to choose their path.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: To qualify for the Maiami Championship, Yuya needs to defeat Gongenzaka to get a 60% victory ratio. Gongenzaka himself risks his own qualification to have a serious duel with Yuya. Fortunately, Gongenzaka still manages to get a 60% victory ratio later on.
• Kill la Kill: In episode 7, Ryuko is forced to fight Mako after the latter and her family becomes corrupt by greed and Mako became a Fight Club President when Ryuko wants to disband it. In addition, Mako gets her own Two-Star Goku Uniform.
• Captain Tsubasa has this trope going all over, with former teammates later facing one another as rivals on the field when they sign up for new teams. One of the most notable examples is in the finals of the World Youth arc, where Tsubasa has to defeat his former mentor, Roberto Hongo (albeit indirectly, since he's the coach of the Brazilian team, while Tsubasa leads the Japanese team as their captain). The match itself is very dramatic, as Roberto designs his team's strategy around preventing Tsubasa from even getting the ball and manages to keep the Japanese team on the defensive during the first half. During the second, when Tsubasa manages to turn the tide around with the help of Misaki, Roberto laments that he couldn't have Tsubasa as the number 10 of his dream team. In the end, Tsubasa wins the match and the championship for Japan, and thanks Roberto for everything he taught him.
• My Hero Academia: Class 1-A and Deku get into a fight with the former wanting to bring the latter back to U.A. due to how exhausted he became from fighting villains and trying to find All For One in vain.

Comic Books

• Astro City: One story in "Thumbtacks & Yarn" has a malevolent force possess one of the Blasphemy Boys, then shoots two members of the team. In retaliation, Cal Tarrant shoots him in the head.
• The Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) used this quite liberally:
  • Thanks to Unwilling Roboticisation or mind control, the Freedom Fighters or their affiliates will fight each other more often than not. When Eggman starts implementing the Dark Leigion's Legionization method (replacing organic parts with cybernetic ones), some of those soldiers are seen as related to any of Mobius' FF factions in some way, further invoking this trope.
  • The "House of Cards" two-parter has Sonic and Tails end up fighting each other, though not because of the usual reasons, but due to Tails' dedication to his parents. Sonic relents once it becomes clear that Tails is more pissed off at him due to the hedgehog's ignorance and how he ended up dating his crush Fiona at the time, even after she betrayed them both for Scourge later down the road.
• Some examples from Supergirl stories:
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton, Silver Banshee has to fight her friend Kara, who is out of her mind due to the influence of a rage-fueling Red Power Ring.
  • In Many Happy Returns, Linda knocks her friend Kara out in order to take her back to her timeline.
  • In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Superman faces off against his brainwashed cousin. He doesn't want to fight Kara, but when she almost kills him he forces himself to use Kryptonite to knock her out.
  • Death & the Family: Kara is forced to fight her friend Lana Lang when the latter is possessed by villainess Insect Queen.
• In Superman story War World, villain Mongul blackmails the Man of Steel into stealing a key protected by his buddy Justice Leaguer Martian Manhunter. Kal-El manages to defeat J'onn, but feels awful about it.

Fan Works

• The Twist Ending of the unmade Calvin & Hobbes: The Series episode "Cowpokes" would have been that Calvin (the sheriff) and Hobbes (the desperado) would have to duel each other.
• A rare Evil Versus Evil and Villainous Friendship example in The Bridge. Monster X starts turning into his berserk alternate form, Kaizer Ghidorah; forcing his friend Gigan to desperately try and get through to him mid-conflict.
• In the Three Houses fanfic You'll Get No Answers from the Blue Sea Star, as in the game, House Gloucester switches sides when the war starts and Lorenz goes with it. Eventually there's a clash between the two factions in the Alliance, with Lorenz on one side and all the other characters against him. Fortunately, when his position becomes hopeless, he surrenders.
• Girlfriends Kate Kane and Sophie Moore fight for a boxing championship in Well-Matched.
• Naruto and Hinata end up facing each other during the second round of the Chunin Exam finals in Son of the Sannin. Admittedly, them being friends wasn't really an issue during the fight since they wanted to show off to each other, but the fact that Naruto had only just realized Hinata had a mutual crush on him about an hour prior definitely made it awkward (not helped by his little sister shouting "Don't hit Hinata too hard or she won't want to marry you!" from the stands just before the match started).
• Where We Don't Belong: The Ouroboros group on both worlds end up fighting some of their old Heroes allies due to unique circumstances.
  • Juniper ambushes Mio in Gormott to collect her bounty after her group escaped Mórag.
  • Noah is forced to fight Ashera and Ethel when they become under the effects of the Black Fog in Chapter 15.
  • Mio and Sena are forced to fight Cammuravi when he turns out to be a part of Torna. Later on, they go against Teach and Miyabi when Teach seeks to forcefully bring Nimue back to the Praetorium.

Films — Animated

• In The Fox and the Hound, Copper and Tod end up fighting one another at the climax, Copper being turned against his old friend by his owner.
• The Lion King (1994): Happens very briefly between Simba and Nala unknowingly as adults. When Nala leaves the Pridelands and arrives at the jungle, she ends up hunting Simba's friend Pumbaa, and later Timon too, and nearly kills them both before Simba arrives to save them. This results in Simba and Nala briefly fighting each other, due to not recognizing each other since they haven't seen each other in years since they were cubs. Once they realize who they are though, from Simba recognizing a move Nala uses to pin him, they both immediately stop fighting and happily reunite.
• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie: Raph was kidnapped by the Krang and is assimulated by them. Leo is forced to fight him and try to bring him back.

Films — Live-Action

• Variant: The Brain Stealers has the heroine fighting her beloved big brother... only because her brother is a victim of a "Freaky Friday" Flip having his mind swapped with the main antagonist's henchman. She is aware that he's NOT truly her brother, only because the henchman had a Villain Reveals the Secret moment.
• In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, this is how Steve sees fighting the titular villain. The sentiment does not seem mutual, at first.
• One-sided in Thor: Ragnarok: Having been captured by the Grandmaster, Thor is willing to fight the champion for his freedom... and then sees who this champion is. The Hulk doesn't see him as a friend, however, and they fight as expected.
• Like in Resident Evil 5, Alice fighting a Brainwashed and Crazy Jill Valentine in Resident Evil: Retribution is this.
• The fight between Nada and Frank in They Live!. Subverted that it was not a life-or-death battle - Nada only want to convince Frank to put on his sunglasses.
• The main conflict in Captain America: Civil War is between Captain America and Iron Man.
• Ultraman Cosmos vs. Ultraman Justice: The Final Battle: It's right in the title. The former believes humanity can be saved, while the latter thinks that humans are contaminated and should be wiped out of existence.

Gamebooks

• More than one Fighting Fantasy entry can have this happening, depending on the circumstances.
  • In Deathtrap Dungeon, you can befriend a barbarian named Throm and take down enemies in the dungeon together, but during a later trial in the dungeon you will be separated from Throm to bypass a number of obstacles... the final challenge which is (no points for guessing) fighting Throm.
  • Howl of the Werewolf have you being afflicted with lycanthropy early in the adventure. As you travel to find a cure, you can befriend the werewolf hunter, Van Richten, who will aid you in your quest until you reveal your lycanthropy to him. At which point Van Richten will be forced to kill you, and you will have no chance but fight him to the death.
  • Variant in Caverns of the Snow Witch. The first stage of confronting the Snow Witch have her knocking your friends, Redswift the Elf and Stubb the Dwarf, out cold, at which point she will summon zombie-clones resembling your friends on you.

Live-Action TV

• The Flash (2014) has done this twice. In "Flash vs. Arrow", Barry is affected by a Hate Plague, forcing Oliver, the Arrow, to take him down. In "Killer Frost", both Barry and Cisco have to fight the titular villain, who is Caitlin, having been taken over by her Superpowered Evil Side.
• Wonder Woman: In "The New, Original Wonder Woman", Princess Diana competes against all of her sisters on Paradise Island for the right to become Wonder Woman. In the finals, she personally shoots a gun at the other finalist - who isn't nearly as proficient at bullets and bracelets as Diana.
• Happens several times in Highlander because immortals on good terms with each other sometimes have a sparring match. Duncan fought Connor in the pilot and was shown fencing with Richie another time. It got serious in “Archangel” though when a tormented Duncan thought he was fighting a demon and only found out too late he’d fought and killed Richie.
• This happens quite often in Power Rangers due to one or both parties being possessed, brainwashed or manipulated.

Professional Wrestling

• Crowbar and Daffney Unger held back when they had to fight one another for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. The ending came when Daffney pinned him on accident!
• In WCW, there were several times during a Battle Bowl card where tag team partners would wind up on opposing teams, as the teams were selected at random.
• In 1997, commissioner Sgt. Slaughter tried to invoke this by making Shawn Michaels and Triple H fight each other for the European title, but they subverted it by Shawn throwing the match.
• After Stephanie McMahon's Face–Heel Turn and joining with Triple H in DX, they threw their power around by forcing tag team members like The Hardy Boyz and The Acolytes face other.
• Jimmy Jacobs purposefully made Delirious go through this twice, first turning him against Daizee Haze and then sending MsChif against him when that turned out not work in the long run. Through mind games Jimmy also turned Ta'Darius against ACH.
• Christian said as much in WWECW when he had to defend the ECW championship against Tommy Dreamer. He found it refreshing to actually put the belt up against someone he liked.
• Niche found himself doing this at the end of the WWC Euphoria tour when he was being managed by Black Rose but his partner Lynx no longer was and she attacked Lynx, ordering Niche to join her. Niche didn't like it and eventually he and Lynx reunited as Los Fugitivos de la Calle.
• As TNA's director of wrestling operations, this became MVP's default method of dealing with wrestlers who repeatedly questioned his authority, with the threat of being fired to violators (though none of them ever were). The American Wolves Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards were first, Samoa Joe and Austin Aries also.

Roleplay

• Destroy the Godmodder: When Minor attempted to boost his own power in the first game by giving himself an inFamous karma meter, the godmodder instead manipulated the attempt into turning Minor into his own minion. Minor became the biggest threat on the field up until his defeat.

Toys

• In one of SD Gundam Ultimate Battle's side-stories, the cast of SDR decide to fight one another. It's nothing serious, they're just trying to determine who of the main character of their series is since it never had one.

Visual Novels

• Fate/stay night, Heaven's Feel route. Shirou vs. Saber Alter. Made worse by the fact that to play Heaven's Feel, you have to have played the Fate route in which Saber is Shirou's main Love Interest.
  • In the prequel, Fate/Zero, Saber was forced to fight Lancelot.

Web Animation

• The TOME 5-year anniversary short features Alpha fighting Zetto, who has at this point been revealed to actually be Kirbopher's alter ego. Since the Kirbopher character model was destroyed, Michael and Christopher hang out in the game using Chris's Zetto character model instead, and as such are able to have friendly battles without having to worry about any of the serious events that usually took place whenever Christopher was logged on as Zetto. Although since Kirbopher is really Zetto, technically any fight that took place between Alpha and Zetto in the past could be considered this, albeit unknowingly.

Western Animation

• Amphibia:
  • Anne Boonchuy had to face off against her controlling friend Sasha Waybright in the Season 1 finale for Hop Pop's release, and again in the Season 2 finale to stop the toads' invasion to Newtopia.
  • In the Grand Finale arc for Season 3, Sasha had to face off against their other friend Marcy Wu, who has been corrupted by The Core.
• Big City Greens: In "Dinner Party", Cricket arranges Remy's family to come over for dinner in hopes their families will bond with each other; however, it falls apart due to not accepting the differences of the opposite family, which eventually leads into an all-out football war between them. Cricket and Remy are soon turned against each other themselves, and this nearly led to the end of their friendship until they realize their mistake and help their families reconcile.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • "Operation: L.I.Z.Z.I.E.": Numbuh One is under the control of his girlfriend Lizzie's newest toy: the "Yes Dear 5000", also known as a "Boyfriend Helmet" when he fights his teammates while dining with Lizzie at a restaurant. Hard to believe that a mind-control device can be sold as a toy, but then again, only on this show! It is only when Numbuh One receives a Shockingly Expensive Bill does the device explode, returning him to normal. Thought you saw the last of the "Boyfriend Helmet" in this episode? Think again, only next time, Lizzie falls victim to it!
    (as the operatives check out the Boyfriend Helmet in a magazine)
    Numbuh Four: They sell these things?
    Numbuh Five: Well, they ain't cheap.
    (later at the restaurant, after Numbuh 1 receives the shockingly expensive bill after neutralizing his teammates)
    Numbuh One: WHAT?! How can you charge that much for a lousy STEAK?! UGH!!!! It's-it's-it's- IT'S HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!!!!
  • "Operation: D.A.T.E.": Numbuhs Two, Three, Four and Five are brainwashed by the Delightful Children, confirming Numbuh One's suspicions that the party they invited them to was for the purpose of brainwashing the guests. The only thing powerful enough to break off the hypnotism is with a camera's flashbulb.
  • "Operation: L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N.": After her teammates and even Numbuh Three's Big-Bottom Rainbow Monkey doll are spanked and transformed into Spank-Happy Vampires, supposedly by Count Spankulot, but actually by Numbuh One after the Count used his hypnotic abilities to lure him into his cell and spanked him without his gloves, turning him into a vampire, Numbuh Five is the last of the operatives awaiting that treatment, having been caught using the Quadruple Emergency Bypass Code. Numbuh Five tries to talk her teammates out of it, but to no avail, at least until the treehouse lockdown ends at sunrise, weakening the vampires. Numbuh Four was transformed in this episode, but in Operation: V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E., it's Numbuh Five who is transformed instead of him.
    Vampirified Numbuh Four: (after Numbuh One reveals that the others have become Spank-Happy Vampires like he has, Numbuh Five bears witness to the shocking truth) You have been bad!
    Vampirified Numbuh Two: And must be punished!
    Vampirified Numbuh Three: Isn't that right, Big-Bottom Vampire Monkey? (the camera points down to the Rainbow Monkey doll she is holding, who has also fallen victim to the spell)
    Numbuh Five: (after screaming in horror and running away, only to be quickly cornered by the vampires, who all laugh evilly) Numbuh One, Count Spankulot did this to you! You'd never spank another kid! You've got to fight it!
    Vampirified Numbuh One: But I must... spank... naughty... I... I... NO!! You have been bad and shall feel the stingy wrath of Nigel Spankulot!
    Numbuh Five: Not tonight!
    Vampirified Numbuh One: What?! Why not?!
    Numbuh Five: Because tonight is over!
    (the sun comes out and the windows open, and all four vampirified operatives let out screams of pain as they are bathed in sunlight)
  • "Operation: D.O.G.H.O.U.S.E.": Following the events of Operation: H.O.U.N.D., Numbuh Five is transformed into a weredog, and after helping Numbuh Four with his homework, she steals it along with those of the other operatives. Numbuh Four believes her rival, Valerie, did it, until Numbuh Five reveals the horrifying truth, having been transformed by their teacher, Mrs. Thompson, who has become the queen of the weredogs through a cursed necklace. Numbuh Four is now forced to fight his transformed teammate, all the while dealing with the other were-students and trying to get the necklace off Mrs. Thompson and destroy it.
    Numbuh Four: Sorry about this, Numbuh Five, but then again you did steal my homework! (attacks her with the bad homework)
• Dragamonz: Dax has to fight against Boaragon after the latter is transformed into a Grimwrath by Grimserver.
  Dax: The last time we met, I said I wouldn't battle you because you're my friend! But now I realize: battle is what we do best! And it's how I'm gonna get my friend back.
• In the original ThunderCats, Lion-O had to do this for most of the five-part "The Anointment of Lion-O" story. (Usually, the trials that the Lord of the Thundercats has to go through in this Coming of Age ritual wouldn't be administered by his friends, but seeing as they were the Last of Their Kind - that they knew about at the time - it was the only option.) Fortunately, his foe in the final and most important trial of the ritual wasn't a friend at all - it was Mumm-Ra.
• One match during fan-vote episode of Celebrity Deathmatch pitted Adam Sandler and Chris Rock against one another, both of whom had no desire to fight to the death because they were close friends. It wasn't until referee Mills Lane started lowering a giant Deadly Rotary Fan on them under the guise that it would only stop once one of them is dead, did the two decided to begrudgingly try and kill one another. There are many other matches of two "friends" fighting, but typically its explained that they had some sort of heated argument or they are just alright with knocking out their business competition so this trope isn't usually invoked otherwise.
• Often happens in Miraculous Ladybug when the akumatized villain is a friend of Marinette and/or Adrien, or even a family member in some cases. By the end of the first season, everyone in their class except for the two heroes themselves have been akumatized (and it also happens to their teacher in the second season), although one episode makes it clear that Marinette views it as saving them rather than fighting them.
• The Owl House: In "O Titan, Where Art Thou", Eda and Luz have a brief battle after Luz refused to be sent away for her safety and demanded to stay and help.
• Winx Club:
  • Lord Darkar's minion corrupts Bloom's fairy essence in "Spy in the Shadows", where she switches from nice to mean until the transformation sticks and she attacks Alfea's Archive. The remaining Winx try to reason with her but as it becomes clear that won't work (courtesy of Bloom attacking and relentlessly mocking them), they call for their fairy forms and engage in battle. Afterward, it looks as if Bloom has been healed but, as revealed in "Darkar's Prisoner", Darkar just has to renew the spells. When the Winx infiltrate Darkar's lair, they find Dark Bloom chanting a spell to open the Realix dimension. They attack her to halt the portal summoning but are interrupted by Darkar in his Shadow Phoenix form.
  • In Nebula', the titular fairy of war (still trapped in Tir Na Nog) possesses Roxy through the White Circle. To cleanse their newest member, the rest of the Winx have to defeat her first.
  • In Morgana's Secret", a vengeful Layla/Aisha sides with Nebula and several other Earth fairies to hunt down and kill the Wizards of the Black Circle, who have been whisked away to the Omega Dimension. The other Winx truly understand their friend's hurt but they also know that revenge would only corrupt her, won't solve anything, and would be a regret for later. Therefore, they follow her and try to defuse her, which doesn't work and they trade blows until she sees reason.

Other

• In Adam Sandler's The Champion, the Champion tackled Skipper Jenkins and the other way around before the Champion can finish the 18th golf hole.
  Skipper Jenkins: That's it! I'm getting the fuck out of here! You fucked up, dude! You need some serious help!
  The Champion: And I need help fucking your wife!
  Skipper Jenkins: FUCK YOU! Don't you ever talk about my wife! I'll fucking kill you, man!

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