Fire-Forged Friends

"There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them."

— Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Whether hostile to each other, indifferent, or strangers, different groups must fight on the same side. All the way up to an Enemy Mine situation. Afterwards, they are no longer hostile and perhaps even actual friends. If they continue as enemies, they are Friendly Enemy.

Bonus points if:

• they save each other's lives in the heat of battle;
• they fight as Back-to-Back Badasses;
• one says It Has Been an Honor;
• one insists that No One Gets Left Behind, or that the other's is a Greater Need Than Mine;
• one gives the other a weapon.

The Power of Trust often comes into play, since they often must trust the other not to stab them In the Back.

Borderline cases when Redemption Equals Death, since the friendship could have broken up after the fighting ended. Still, expect the survivor to refuse to let the other die alone, and often a Meaningful Funeral or To Absent Friends follows, especially if it involved a long period of time and hiatuses in the actual fighting — a campaign or a war rather than a battle. May occur after Let's You and Him Fight, and lead to Lighthearted Rematch. May also lead to exchanging plot-significant objects, or just an Odd Friendship. In a military situation, when this occurs between a superior and his juniors, may lead to their speaking With Due Respect. When mistrust is manifested after this trope, Remember That You Trust Me often ensues.

Other hazardous or even mere strenuous activities that require mutual assistance, such as The Chase, can also develop a kind of this; the closer it comes to as dangerous as war, like an attempt to escape through a jungle full of man-eating beasts and other dangers, the more it will resemble it.

Overlap with Band of Brothers is considerable, but in this trope, they need never work together again, and that one, they do not have to be friendly, just reliable.

When these fire-forged friends belong to opposite genders, expect them to take it to the next level.

Truth in Television to a very large extent, as many people who served in any military force can testify, even more so if they are war veterans. Note that if they did not actually fight in the same battles, it's Commonality Connection to learn they were both soldiers.

Contrast Defeat Means Friendship, Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand, A Friend in Need, Sworn Brothers. Compare Relationship-Salvaging Disaster, where traumatic events keep people who were already friends together, Bully Turned Buddy, where the characters were in an outright abusive relationship before becoming friends, and No Animosity in the Afterlife, where it's being dead that makes people grow closer.

Example subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Fan Works
• Film
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Western Animation
• Real Life

Other examples:

Asian Animation

• In Happy Heroes, Careful S. and Kalo start off as enemies and fight in a lava cave that starts to collapse. Then they save each other's lives, and the two become friends and Bash Brothers.

Multiple Media

• Most BIONICLE characters who become Toa are strangers at the start but become friends or at least trustworthy allies during their adventures and fights. Most notably, Tahu and Kopaka practically couldn't have been more different, and a lot of time was dedicated to their petty disputes, but in the end, Kopaka came to regard Tahu as a leader worthy of respect. The close friendship between Takua/Takanuva and Jaller is also this, as they only got so close during their exploits in the Bohrok Wars. Matoro might be the saddest example — not long after he came to regard his teammates as friends, he had to perform a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • As the saying in the Ta-Koro Guard goes: "Danger is the anvil on which trust is forged."

Podcasts

• The Tres Horny Boys of The Adventure Zone: Balance have this with each other and, to a lesser extent, with their friends in the Bureau. Three strangers who meet in a bar over a one-time job offer become something like a family over the course of several misadventures. This actually occurs twice, thanks to the wiped memories of their pasts. Originally, they were only acquaintanced through the IPRE, but a hundred years of fighting and dying together brought them closer to each other and the other members of the team. When they are all reunited for the final stand against the Hunger, their bonds are as strong as ever.
• Officer Eiffel and Commander Minkowski from Wolf 359 grow into this. Especially impressive when you consider how flagrantly antagonistic their relationship was during the first episodes of the series.

Professional Wrestling

• The Nexus. Originally, they were rookies on WWE's NXT show, and were thus, competing against each other for a WWE contract. However, they all came to loathe WWE management as they forced the rookies to do humiliating challenges like obstacle courses and keg-carrying contests, as well as constant rule changes and unchecked abuse from certain WWE pros that were supposed to be mentoring the rookies. This led to the Season 1 winner Wade Barrett uniting all the Season 1 rookies and leading an assault on Monday Night RAW until all eight seven rookies ended up with contracts.

Tabletop Games

• One possible backstory for Chaos warbands in Black Crusade: the warriors have survived this long by sticking to each other, and would do anything to keep each other alive. Of course, this being 40K, an equally likely one is each warrior viewing the rest of the warband as walking meatshields until they can be sacrificed to obtain power from the Dark Gods.
• Magic: The Gathering: The original four members of the Gatewatch were four planeswalkers with very different personalities who came together to fight the Eldrazi, only to discover that they made a surprisingly good team. Since the Eldrazi are far from the only threat in the multiverse they decided to form The Team.

Theatre

• Cyrano de Bergerac wonderfully subverts this: Cyrano and Christian’s friendship is not born because they fight against the same enemy, but because they are courting The Ace Roxane, from whose rejection both of them are terribly afraid and must gather all their courage only to face her.
• William Shakespeare has Henry V claim this in his Rousing Speech — but he doesn't actually manifest such friendship toward his soldiers after the battle.
  • The quote at the top of the page is exactly the same as alludes to this bit from the St. Crispin's Day speech:
    Henry V: We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

Visual Novels

• Danganronpa: Any group of students who survive the killing games, which is even lampshaded in the first game. Specifically:
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: Makoto Naegi, Kyoko Kirigiri, Byakuya Togami, Toko Fukawa (and Genocide Jack), Aoi Asahina and Yasuhiro Hagakure.
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: Hajime Hinata, Kazuichi Soda, Akane Owari, Sonia Nevermind, and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu^note Although technically none of the students here actually died except for Chiaki's AI, but they were comatose by the end of the game.
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Shuichi Saihara, Maki Harukawa and Himiko Yumeno.

Webcomics

• God invokes this in Adventures of God to settle differences between two opposing soldiers^note implied to be Ukrainian and Russian at the pearly gates. He sends them both to Hell for a "wholesome bonding activity" He scheduled in advance: visiting the damned head of one of their states^note who looks a lot like Vladimir Putin and pelting him with tomatoes.
• Awful Hospital: Massively subverted right after Fern teams up with Harmburger and BBQ Girll to bring down the Glumdroodler. Then played straight as can be with her companions in the Inert Vessel.
• Bob and George: Don't you just love how needless violence brings people together?
• This happens more than once in Dear Children, as befits a comic whose protagonists tend to believe in The Power of Friendship:
  • Cailin and Chelle's encounter with the Wesley-Thing under Port Langworthy leads to them each helping to save the other from peril, mending their quarrel and becoming even closer friends.
  • Devin fights Aaron when he picks on Gabe; later Gabe returns the favor by picking a fight with Eric Saddler when he insults Devin and the Journalism Club behind their backs. In consequence, Devin and Gabe come to respect and like each other.
  • Seems to be happening in Chapter 4 between Cailin and Whitney in their shared quest to find out the fate of Whitney's brother Wesley.
• In Dragon Mango, Bleu Berry and Peaches, against the oni, which is why Bleu Berry decides to confess.
• El Goonish Shive:
  • Susan and Nanase, of all people, become friends during the tour to France, though this doesn't mean they're as much as polite with each other. Now that Susan's secret is out, she's even opening up to her.
  • Melissa was Justin's delusional Unlucky Childhood Friend, a mention of whom he barely could stand, and Elliot was upset on his behalf. They seem to be on normal terms now, and all it took to heal the situation was having Justin find her staring down a dragon that just knocked down Elliot and then being scared by his mind-numbing other Secret Identity together.
• Gunnerkrigg Court:
  • After the space battle.
  • Quite literally (thanks to their fire-based powers) with the two heroines of Chapter 70. An unusual example in that they are two different versions of Annie, thanks to a trick played by Loup.
• The Trolls of Homestuck after completing their session. Well, the ones that are still alive, anyway. Although they're not "friendly" so much as "not actively trying to backstab each other."
• Impure Blood: Fight the bad guys together, stick up for him when the ingrates try to arrest him.
• Molly and Galatea in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! got off to a very rocky start, but accepted each other as sisters after being chased by a (small) angry mob and the FBI, and getting lost in the woods.
• Vaarsuvius and Blackwing, the elf's familiar, In The Order of the Stick. Blackwing resents being V's familiar, due to V's neglect of him, but when they need to cooperate to destroy Xykon's phylactery, they put aside their differences and develop mutual respect.
• In Our Little Adventure Angelika gets along better with Emily after a fight. Episode title: "Fire forged friends... except with ice."
• Penny and Aggie sees the titular Friendly Enemies become this trope when they join forces against Meg and Karen's increasingly bullying tactics in "The Popsicle War" arc.
• The three main characters of Problem Sleuth, but especially the eponymous Sleuth and Ace Dick, who have an active rivalry going before being forced to team up to escape their respective offices.
• In Weak Hero, Gray first becomes properly acquainted with Gerard, Ben, and Alex after the trio help him stave off a gang of bullies. They're gradually drawn closer through the various battles they face as Gray climbs the hierarchy's ladder until he's eventually able to admit to himself that he sees them as friends.

Web Original

• The Power Trio of Brennus met this way, fighting the Snow Queen together.
• Raimi and Oran of Broken Saints are from completely different parts of the world, have completely different outlooks on life, and certainly get off to a rocky start, but by the Grand Finale, it's clear they're destined to be Heterosexual Life-Partners.
• The Mighty Nein of Critical Role were originally three separate groups of travelers, brought together when audience members in a circus performance turned into zombies. They began traveling together, still with their own personal goals in mind, but soon began considering each other friends and, eventually, family. The death of Mollymauk was the biggest turning point, the party reevaluating their relationships and coming closer together afterwards.
• Done on a massive scale in the spoil fanfiction Enemy of My Enemy, where what starts as a tense Enemy Mine situation soon leads to humans & Elites fighting together like brothers. A good example is Flight Officer Perry and Helmsman Zuka.
• Feather Adventures: In a more literal sense than usual. Unlike other Alternate Universe counterparts of Sqaishey, Sploshey was initially hostile to Sqaishey when they first met. However, the two find that they make a great team while going on a quest in the Nether together to find and reclaim Sploshey's stolen trident from the antagonistic, fiery Sqorchey.
• The Mall Fighters in Mall Fight all ended up as this, one way or another.
• Each team in Red vs. Blue starts off the mortal enemy of the other team, and most people on the same team don't like each other either. As the series progresses, though, they wind up having to help one another through a lot of difficult spots, to the point of coming to each other's rescue.
  • A lot of that is because Sarge is The Only One Allowed To Defeat The Blues.
• The titular team of RWBY formed in spite of their own disagreements or distrust of each other. Weiss viewed Ruby as an idiot, Ruby viewed Weiss as a stuck-up jerk, Blake was standoffish and Yang was trying to force her sister Ruby to make new friends. Fighting a giant flying monster helped to bring them together a lot, though not completely.
  • Ozpin, the principal of Beacon, may be invoking this trope, actually. As the test they were in was meant to form teams, throwing them into a place filled with fearsome beasts that would require teamwork to take down is an efficient way.
  • Defied by the Ace Ops, an elite team of Atlesian Huntsmen. While they work like a well-oiled machine in combat and don't seem to dislike each other, they believe friendship has nothing to do with Huntsmen work, and view Team RWBY and their allies as naive rookies for believing otherwise. This ends up being a problem for them after they turn against Team RWBY since despite their greater experience, they end up arguing about how to handle the situation with each other while Team RWBY's greater trust and friendship in each other allows them to defeat the Ace-Ops. Following the death of their leader Clover Ebi, they are still shown arguing with each other until the climax of Volume 8 when Ironwood planned to bomb Mantle. After Harriet tried to go through with it, the other Ace-Ops try to stop her when it becomes unnecessary and call her their friend, stopping her from going through with it. Before he sacrifices himself, Vine even calls the Ace-Ops his friends.
• Stampy's Lovely World: Stampy first befriends William Beaver, the first of the current generation of "Minecraft Helpers", after defeating the Wither boss spawned in by Stampy's enemies in an act of Et Tu, Brute?.

---