Hero vs. Villain Duet

♫"Sing once again with me / Our strange duet
My power over you / Grows stronger yet..."♫

"You're a silly weak girl-"
"You're a madman!"
"Guess the truth can be hard to hear sometimes..."
"You've been losing your mind and it's sad, man!"
"No I finally see where I once was blind!"

— Arthur Savage and Anna, Anna and the Apocalypse, "Give Them a Show"

Villain Songs are awesome. Heroes singing can be just as awesome. So what happens if the hero and villain are singing at the same time? Chances are, a really awesome song! A Sub-Trope of Let's Duet, the Hero Vs Villain Duet is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a hero and a villain singing a duet. Oftentimes, the song is sung during a battle between hero and villain, with each side singing about how they want the other to give up or submit to their will. While this may also be a Counterpoint Duet, these songs are solely a hero and villains singing together, often while fighting. Also often doubles as a Quarreling Song.

NOTE: Examples must clearly state what exactly both the hero and villain are singing about.

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Examples:

Fan Works

• Juno Songs' lyrical adaptations of the boss themes from Paper Mario: The Origami King features King Olly on the villain's side of a few duets:
  • "The Fanged Fastner, Stapler" features more of an Anti-Villain vs Villain example: While Olly sings about how Mario, Bowser, and Olivia's attempts to stop him are useless against his pet Stapler, Bowser calls him out for resorting to tactics even he wouldn't dare do while stating his faith in Mario's ability to stop him.
  • "The Final Fold": While Bowser and Olly get another duet during Phase Two of the boss fight, "The Final Battle" portion of the song has a straighter example: While Olly sings about his rage at Mario and Olivia constantly getting in the way of his plans and his desire for revenge on the paper Toad who scribbled on him, Olivia pleads with her brother to come to his senses and make peace with the non-folded paper beings.
• "Nobody's Perfect" is a vocal track for a hypothetical DEATH BATTLE! between Cell and Xion. While Cell brags about being designed to be perfect and how he's superior to everyone else, Xion sings about overcoming her own imperfections to find her own purpose alongside Roxas and Axel.
  Cell: They say nobody's perfect
  But I know that I am, superior in every way
  Xion: I know nobody's perfect
  But I know I can be strong, and find my way
• Random Drama Series: One of the original songs for World Tour is "Clash Of The Rivals", a duet between Mal and Scarlett. For his part, Mal taunts Scarlett by boasting about all the players he's managed to eliminate and how she should just give up and join him. Scarlett fights back by claiming that all the people Mal's gotten rid of are counting on her to defeat him and that she's going to complete her Redemption Quest by stopping him for good.

Films — Animation

• In Coco, when Hector, Miguel, and his deceased relatives infiltrate the big concert for Ernesto De La Cruz, in order to retrieve Hector's picture from De La Cruz, Mamá Imelda ends up on stage, and in order to avoid being detained by security, she starts singing a duet for the song "Llorona" with De La Cruz. During said duet, Imelda and Ernesto's struggles over the picture look like dancing, causing the crowd to assume it's All Part of the Show.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame: "Out There" begins as this, with Judge Frollo singing to his surrogate son Quasimodo about how his ugliness is a sin and that he will never be accepted. Quasimodo sings along, agreeing with Frollo's words and seemingly accepting them until Frollo leaves and Quasimodo opens up about his desires to be loved and accepted, going against his surrogate father's teachings and revealing that he's not as obedient as he seems.
• Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers: "Chains of Love" features Goofy who, after having fallen in love with the evil Clarabelle, confesses his love while she tries to kill him. Though she initially sings her disdain towards him and the rejection of his advances, his continuous complimenting and flirtations end up winning her over, and the song becomes a love ballad.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks: "Welcome To the Show" is an actual duel between the villainous Dazzlings and the heroic Rainbooms, where each use the power of their song to send magical attacks at the other. The Dazzlings' verses are about how their music will soon make them worshipped and obeyed, while the Rainbooms' are about how they have seen past personal ambition and embraced music for its own sake.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games: "ACADECA" mixes this with a Crowd Song, as the opposing sides of Canterlot High and Crystal Prep aggressively sing at each other about their chances in the Friendship Games. And while both sides tear into each other, the Crystal Prep students' lyrics are noticeably more mean-spirited, and also contain some lyrical foreshadowing of their upcoming Villain Song "Unleash the Magic".
• The Nightmare Before Christmas: "Oogie Boogie's Song", while primarily a Villain Song for the titular character, squeaks into the category with two lyrical interjections from Santa, Oogie's captive, who protests Oogie's plans while Oogie mocks him, talks himself up and discusses his intent to eat him.
• The Prince of Egypt: "The Plagues" is sung between Moses and Ramses as the titular plagues ravage Egypt, with the former begging the latter to stop being so stubborn so he can stop making innocents suffer, which the latter declares to the former that he isn't giving up no matter what. Interestingly, unlike most Hero vs. Villain Duets, this song is rather somber and rather than coming off as triumphant for both sides, it instead displays just how poorly both brothers are taking having to fight each other over what they believe is right.
• Rugrats Go Wild!: "Big Bad Cat" features Spike the Dog as he mocks and teases the villainous leopard Siri, claiming she is not as dangerous as she claims she is, while Siri threatens to kill Spike for insulting her.
• Strange Magic: "C'mon Marianne/Stronger", sung as Roland tries to convince Marianne he didn't mean to cheat on her the day of their wedding, while Marianne refuses and calls him out, seeing right through to his true, conniving nature.
• Wish (2023): "At All Costs" is a unique example in that both sides of the song are positive-sounding, as King Magnifico and Asha are dazzled by the beauty of wishes and vow to keep them safe. However, while Magnifico vows to uphold the status quo and keep the wishes to himself, Asha vows to fight for the wishes were something to happen to them.

Films — Live-Action

• Anna and the Apocalypse has "Give Them a Show" between Anna and Arthur Savage, with the latter singing about his doomsday mentality while the former tries to rebut him — all while she's smacking zombies with a giant candy cane and trying to save her father from the villain's machinations.
• The Return of Captain Invincible has "Evil Midnight", a duet between Captain Invincible and the evil Mr. Midnight which has Midnight singing a Villain Song and Invincible singing a "The Villain Sucks" Song as a duet with him.
• Shock Treatment has an example between Brad Majors and his estranged twin brother Farley, fittingly enough titled "Duel Duet", where Farley insults Brad for being a complete wuss and Brad snaps back that Farley is a plutocrat devoid of compassion and humanity.

Live-Action TV

• Galavant: Madalena and Isabella have their long-awaited catfight ("I've been waiting two seasons for this!") in the lead-up to their war. Madalena taunts Isabella about not only having taken Isabella's kingdom but also having had Isabella's boyfriend first. Isabella has to lie about having the "One True King to Unite Them All" on her side because nothing else she says has any effect on the evil queen.
• Muppets Haunted Mansion has the "Tie the Knot Tango" between Pepe the King Prawn and Constance Hatchaway; it's a standard love duet as the two declare their affection for the each other, but with the context that the latter is seducing the former with the aim of making him the latest in a long line of husbands-turned-victims. (The ghosts of the deceased husbands even interrupt the song, but Pepe can't hear them.)

Music

• "Born and Raised in Black and White" by Brooks & Dunn features two brothers singing about their respective lives, and how one grew to be a man of God and the other went on to become a murderer. Their stories collide when the dark brother requests the light brother to be the one to bless his soul before his death sentence is carried out.
• The Mechanisms:
  • Once Upon A Time (In Space): "No Happy Ending" is sung by King Cole and Snow White to their respective troops. It's a Distant Duet, to highlight their similarities.
  • High Noon Over Camelot: "Peacemaker" is a duet between Gawain and Mordred about the hopelessness of peace, although Mordred isn't really a hero by the end.
  • The Bifrost Incident: "Ragnarok II: The Calling" is a duet between Loki and Odin about Odin's complicity in the eldritch apocalypse and Loki's failed attempts to stop it.
• "The Trial" by Pink Floyd is a unique case, as it's more of an Anti-Hero vs. Villains Sextet, but considering it's all in Pink's imagination and symbolizes him having to face his demons, it can also be considered a solo of sorts. In this imaginary setting, Pink is trying to futilely defend himself in court against the Prosecutor, the Schoolmaster, his wife, his mother, and Worm, Your Honor, to which Pink further descends into seeing himself as crazy whilst Worm, Your Honor orders for him to tear down his wall of isolation.
• The Protomen's Act II, "The Good Doctor," is a duet between Dr. Light and Dr. Wily. Light reveals his altruistic goals in building machines to help humanity with dangerous jobs, while Wily scoffs that humanity will give control to them in exchange for relief from work.
• Queensrÿche's Operation Mindcrime II has "The Chase", where the former assassin Nikki vows to claim vengeance against his former employer Dr. X, who (voiced by Ronnie James Dio) gloats about his own success contrasted to Nikki's breakdown and claims that Nikki owes him such life as he has.
• Gloryhammer's lyrics booklet reveals that "Universe on Fire" is intended as this. Hero Angus Mc Fife XIII probably means it in a more metaphorical sense of inspiring the universe to fight against the demon horde. Villain wizard Zargothrax however...

Podcasts

• The Thrilling Adventure Hour: The Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars episode "The Piano Has Been Thinking" features the various residents of Mars spontaneously breaking out into song. One of the songs that occurs from this is "I'm Gonna Kill You Someday", a duet between Sparks Nevada and Techs, the robot bandit that usurped his position as Marshal on Mars. The two sing about how one of them is going to kill the other and when and where it'll happen. Because the two are in two completely different places as this happens, Sparks's girlfriend Rebecca Rose Rushmore can only note that not only did Sparks just randomly burst into song, he also randomly burst into exactly one half of a song.

Theater

• Ávaxtakarfan has the reprise of "Immi Best". Immi sings about how awesome he is compared to everyone else, and everyone else sings about how they want equality and friendship.
• Aida has "Like Father, Like Son", an argument between the male protagonist, Radames, and his villainous father, Zoser. Zoser insists that Radames follow along with his plans, and maintains that his son will one day be just like him, while Radames rejects his father's orders and plans for his future.
• Jekyll & Hyde: "Confrontation" is a duet of Jekyll and Hyde as they fight for control over their body. It's an unusual example, since both characters are the same person and, in most productions, they are both played by single actor.
• Jesus Christ Superstar: The second part of "The Last Supper," after Jesus foresees that one of his apostles will betray him. Judas, obviously the traitor, criticizes Jesus's self-righteousness and Jesus orders him out.
• Les Misérables: "Confrontation" is sung by Jean Valjean and Javert. Both characters start trying to explain their point of view to each other, but soon they start singing at the same time while fighting.
• In the third musical adaptation of Moriarty the Patriot, Professor William James Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes have a duet from afar with Sherlock singing about wanting to catch William and William singing about how he hopes he'll be caught by him.
• Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812: "Pierre and Anatole" is a duet between the heroic and chivalrous Pierre and the selfish and lecherous, if not outright evil, Anatole, in which Pierre orders Anatole out of Moscow for nearly ruining Natasha's life.
• Oklahoma!: In "Pore Jud Is Daid", Curley and Jud sing about how much sympathy the latter would receive if he was Driven to Suicide.
• The Phantom of the Opera:
  • The song "The Phantom of the Opera" is a haunting duet between the Phantom and Christine as he abducts her to his underground lair. Christine sings about how mysterious and otherworldly this supposed "Angel of Music" is, and the Phantom lures her in with compliments to her singing and by feeding into her curiosity about his nature.
  • "The Point of No Return" features Christine, playing an onstage role in-universe, singing about never going back on making a decision that will change her life forever. The Phantom, pretending to be her co-star, usurps the role and uses the event to share a moment with and propose to Christine, which she slowly realizes over the course of the song.
• In Pokémon Live!, there is "You Just Can't Win", sung between Ash and Giovanni, with the former singing about how Giovanni's Evil Plan won't succeed, while the latter sings about how Ash can't stop him.
• Rudolf has "The Writing's on the Wall," sung between the love interest, Mary, and the Big Bad, Taafe. Taafe tries to convince Mary to end her affair with Prince Rudolf through various means, including offering her rewards, claiming that Rudolf doesn't love her back, and threatening to arrest her, while Mary bluntly refuses every attempt because she knows she and Rudolf were meant to be.
• Spies Are Forever's climax ends in a number between Curt and Owen Carvour while the two engage in physical battle.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: "Pretty Women", between Sweeney (to the extent he can be considered a hero) and Judge Turpin, though Turpin is not aware Todd is his enemy. Both sing about Johanna, Sweeney's estranged daughter and Turpin's ward whom he has lecherous affections toward; the song plays as a lyrical One Dialogue, Two Conversations, as well as a distraction as Todd prepares to exact his revenge on Turpin, though he's ultimately robbed of the chance. It happens again when the song is reprised in the finale, just before Sweeney succeeds in killing Turpin; however, by then there isn’t a shred of heroism left in Todd.
• Turnabout Musical: "600,000 Volts/Out of My Way" is a trio between the protagonist, Phoenix Wright, his companion Maya Fey, and the Big Bad, Manfred von Karma. Von Karma orders the heroes to hand over a piece of incriminating evidence they found by threatening them with a stun gun. Phoenix and Maya sing about how they will not be intimidated and will do whatever it takes to serve justice.

Video Games

• The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge: The final song of the game, "A Filthy Finale'' is sung by both Jack and Oogie, each declaring that they will take the other down and mocking the other's efforts in the process.
• Many of the tracks from Friday Night Funkin' technically qualify as this, as they usually feature an antagonist challenging the Boyfriend to some sort of singing competition that the two then partake in, even if most of the time the lyrics are gibberish.
• Opera Draco and Maria in Final Fantasy VI sees Draco and Ralse trade musical lines, before Ralse declares "It is a duel!" and they begin dueling. In the Black Mages album "Darkness and Starlight", Uematsu added an ending following Draco's victory where Ralse yields and curses Draco should he ever let Maria go.
• PaRappa the Rapper 2 has "Noodles Can't Be Beat," which is the closest song to a rap battle in the series. The Big Bad, Colonel Noodle, raps about how noodles are superior to every other food. Instead of exactly repeating Noodle's words like he does with the other teachers, PaRappa twists Noodle's lines to be about how all foods are good.
  Colonel Noodle: Ramen, udon, soba, you name it
  PaRappa: Brownies, a pie, a shake, you name it
  Colonel Noodle: Any type of noodles you like, yes, I got it
  PaRappa: Any type of sweets you like, yes, I got it
• Persona 4: Arena Ultimax: The game's main theme, "Break Out Of...", is one of these, though it becomes most obvious when it becomes the battle music for the final fight between Yu Narukami and Sho Minazuki. The female vocals represent Yu's perspective, while Lotus Juice's rap represents Sho's.
  [Yu] Break out of your fate
  Deep down inside you, there lies love in your heart
  [Sho] Only got love for myself, stop your lies
  [Both] No need to fear, it's time you burn that dread
• Sonic and the Black Knight: A very common interpretation of the song that plays during the Final Boss, "With Me" is that it's one of these between Sonic and Merlina, with Sonic's parts of the song being about how one has to be willing to let go of the past and be willing to let things die, even if you care for it a lot, while Merlina sings about how that won't matter because with her newfound power, she can keep anything alive forever.

Web Animation

• DEATH BATTLE! has a few.
  • "Lost Ice Storms", the battle theme for Gray VS Esdeath is about Gray and Esdeath talking about how they will be the one to emerge victorious in their fight while also tossing in a few jabs at their opponent.
  • The music track for Bill Cipher VS Discord, "Discordant Decipher", is a lyrical battle between Bill and Discord about how pathetic the other is when compared to them.
  • inHuman", the music track for Cole MacGrath vs Alex Mercer, depicts a rap battle between the heroic Cole and the villainous Alex both telling each other how they will defeat their opponent.

Webcomic

• Widdershins: Voss, the Chapter 5 Arc Villain, flaunts his stolen skill with the violin in an attempt to one-up his Unknown Rival Wolfe. Instead, Wolfe joins the song in an unexpectedly happy duet that sparks the beginning of Voss's Heel–Face Turn.

Web Original

• Epic Rap Battles of History:
  • "Genghis Khan vs Easter Bunny" features the Mongolian warlord rapping against the holiday mascot. The Easter Bunny critiques Khan's appearance and violent nature while Khan threatens the Bunny.
  • "Napoleon vs Napoleon" features French tyrant Napoleon Bonaparte rapping against the titular character from the film Napoleon Dynamite, with the two mocking the other's appearance and actions.
  • "Rick Grimes vs Walter White" features the heroic cop Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead against Walter White, the drug dealing main protagonist of Breaking Bad. Grimes is disgusted by White's crimes and treatment of his family, while White mocks Grimes as incompetent.
  • "Terminator vs RoboCop" features RoboCop from the film series of the same name against the T-800 from The Terminator. RoboCop attacks the Terminator's villainy and lack of humanity, while the Terminator gloats about its strength and RoboCop's physical and mental inferiority.
  • "Freddy Krueger vs Wolverine" features Freddy Krueger, the undead serial child killer from A Nightmare on Elm Street up against Wolverine from Marvel Comics. Krueger boasts his invulnerability and fear factor, while Wolverine mocks Krueger for being an ineffective villain and for not being a challenging foe.
  • "Thanos vs J. Robert Oppenheimer" has Thanos from Marvel Comics against the inventor of the nuclear bomb. Thanos plays off Oppenheimer's guilt and mocks him for his failures, while Oppenheimer condemns Thanos for his villainy and mocks his accomplishments.

Web Videos

• Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has "A Man's Gotta Do", which begins with Dr. Horrible attempting to execute a heist before Captain Hammer arrives and derails Horrible's plan with reckless abandon in his Establishing Character Moment. Though neither are truly the "hero" in the situation, since Horrible is a Villain Protagonist while Hammer is a Villain with Good Publicity.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin: Teddy and Quellor sing a duet called "No Place To Go" while they're both imprisoned in MAVO's Dungeon with, Teddy lamenting that while locked up, he's unable to help his friends, cheer people up, or explore whereas Quellor is angry he can't spread darkness, kick a Fob and make it yelp, or be cruel to his grandmother. Funnily enough while they do react to each other's verses, they manage to keep the harmony through the whole song and don't break down into any sort of insults.
• The Backyardigans has "This Is My Song" from the episode "Flower Power", which is between the hero Flower Girl (Uniqua) and the villain Gloommeister (Austin) over who gets control over the city.
• In the Musical Episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the song "If Only" is a duet about unrequited love sung by the superhero Black Canary and the episode's Villain of the Week, the Music Meister. The twist is that Canary doesn't even aware it's a duet until the last verse, where she rejects the Meister's love for her and incites the Meister to capture her and her crush, Batman, in a fit of jealousy.
• Central Park:
  • In Season 2 "Where There's Smoke", "Gotta Grab It" is about Paige and Mayor Whitebottom literally fighting over an envelope that contains proof of Mayor Whitebottom's corruption.
  • In the Season 2 finale "The Lyin' in Winter", "Time to Close" has Owen and Bitsy singing about the fate of Central Park. Owen begs Bitsy to not go through with the deal because he loves the park and raised his family there, but Bitsy doesn't care and sings about what businesses will be placed in the park.
• In the Fairly OddParents movie Fairy Idol, Cosmo and Wanda have to compete with Norm and other fairies to re-earn their job as Fairy Godparents. "Gimme The Wand" is a duet between Norm and Cosmo, both competing at the same time to win the judges over, with Norm lying about how good he is and Cosmo pleading to get one more chance.
• The Lion Guard: "Lions Over All" from "Lions of the Outlands", sung between Kion and Zira as she revels in her plot to take over the Pride Lands while he detests.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "This Day Aria" is sung by Cadance and Queen Chrysalis, who has stolen her identity. Both singers sing about how they've dreamed of this day and their feelings about the event, but while Cadance sings about how worried she is over everyone getting hurt, Chrysalis sings about how her plans are finally coming together and once she's finished, no one will stop her.
• The Simpsons: Subverted in "The Great Louse Detective". Sideshow Bob is about to kill Bart when he realize he can't, and sings a song about having grown accustomed to Bart's face. Bart sings one line and Bob tells him that it's not a duet. Bart shrugs and lets him continue.
  • They do sing at least one song from H.M.S. Pinafore together in "Cape Feare" though.
• Sofia the First:
  • "Helping Hand" from "Baileywhoops", as Sofia promises to help Baileywick with his issues, while Slickwell secretly plots to steal his job.
  • "On My Own" from the Grand Finale "Forever Royal", sung during the Final Battle between Sofia and Vor inside the Amulet of Avalor.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: The "F.U.N. Song", from the season one episode "F.U.N.", features SpongeBob describing what "fun" is to Plankton. Plankton attempts to twist the meaning to fit his deranged desires, but seemingly loosens up and truly has fun with SpongeBob's encouragement (though this is later revealed as a trick).
• Tangled: The Series:
  • The first part of "Crossing the Line" is a duet between Rapunzel and her now former friend Cassandra as she tries to reach out to her that this is not what she is supposed to be, only to be ignored.
  • "Nothing Left To Lose", which is uniquely a duet between a reformed villain and a fallen hero. In the episode "Cassandra's Revenge", Varian pleads to the corrupted Cassandra to stop her evil plan. He knows what it's like to be in her shoes, following a path of hatred and darkness. He warns her that despite all she's lost, she can still lose even more, and tells her to stop before she goes too far and has nothing left to lose. Cassandra refuses, saying she's already gone too far to give up now, and will see her path through unlike his turn at villainy. She proudly proclaims already has lost her weaknesses and restrictions, and has nothing to hold her back, and at the end, she sadly realizes she already has nothing left to lose.
• Wander over Yonder: "Let the Pun Fit the Crime" from "The Boy Wander" deals with Dr. Screwball Jones vowing to force everyone in the galaxy into laughing and being happy, while Wander, who represents the positive path, is against it, leading to the two brawling each other.

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