Basic Trope: Apparent rescuers attack the heroes.
- Straight: The Cavalry rushes in, but instead of saving the heroes, they start attacking them.
- Exaggerated: The "reinforcements" are so bad, the besieged unit actually teams up with the enemy they were originally fighting.
- Downplayed:
- The Cavalry's arrival is a genuine attempt at trying to help, but they're pretty much focused on those initiating the siege and not any third-parties like the heroes caught in the cross-fire.
- Only some of the Cavalry are against the heroes due to a double-crossing in the ranks. The ones that are trying to help eventually arrive to deal with the renegade faction.
- The Cavalry attempts to save the day, but the enemy is more resilient than expected causing the fight to drag on, resulting in unintended collateral damage to the heroes.
- Justified:
- The Cavalry is led by The Mole.
- The Mole tricked the Cavalry into killing the heroes thinking they were fighting the enemy, or convinced them that the heroes had defected to the enemy and therefore needed to be dealt with.
- The Cavalry are there to deal with the enemy, but the person that sent them doesn't want word getting out about what's going on, so they also tell the Cavalry to silence all witnesses.
- The Cavalry suffers an error in position, identification, response inhibition, or simply just succumbs to warfare's inherent confusion, causing an accidental friendly fire incident.
- The Cavalry know of and are trying to set off a Death-Activated Superpower held by a hero.
- Inverted:
- The Cavalry is attacked by the unit they were meant to rescue.
- A large group of "enemies" appears... only to start rescuing the heroes.
- Subverted:
- The Cavalry attacks the stranded unit, but only out of confusion. Once they realize what they're doing, they stop.
- The Cavalry seems to betray the heroes, but it turns out to be an act to throw off the enemy faction.
- The betrayal was planned in advance by the heroes, who instructed the cavalry to stage a betrayal as a means to an end.
- The Mole or the enemy faction attempts to convince the Cavalry to betray the heroes. Their efforts seem to be successful... until the Cavalry decides at the last minute that they can't go through with it.
- Double Subverted: The Cavalry really did intend to attack the heroes. Even though they only attack the heroes for a few minutes before halting and claiming confusion, they do enough damage that the good guys can't win the battle, while no one seriously believes the cavalry are traitors. In the next battle, the cavalry pull a full betrayal.
- Parodied: The cavalry thinks they're helping, but a miscommunication gives the cavalry the wrong idea about who they're supposed to rescue, causing them to make things worse for the heroes while acting like they're saving the day.
- Zig Zagged: (Continued from Double Subverted)...Except even that was just a ruse to allow the cavalry to infiltrate the enemy, to set up a Cavalry Betrayal on them. Unfortunately, when the time comes for that plan to go through, the cavalry has decided they like being evil and effectively pulls a Cavalry Betrayal on the good guys by ''not'' pulling one on the bad guys.
- Averted: The Calvary charges in and saves the day, without betraying anyone.
- Enforced: Based on their strengths vs. the enemy's, the heroes should be able to win this battle with relative ease- but for plot reasons, the author needs them to lose it. So he throws in "reinforcements" that turn out to be traitors.
- Lampshaded: "Wait a second, aren't they supposed to be on our side?"
- Invoked: The enemy commander bribes The Cavalry before the battle.
- Exploited:
- The enemy faction has reason to believe the cavalry will betray the heroes, and incorporates it into their tactics.
- At least one of the heroes anticipated the betrayal and comes up with a plan to take advantage of it.
- Defied:
- The besieged unit is trained to treat all unknown parties as hostile until confirmed otherwise.
- The Heroes figure out the cavalry's true intentions in advance and strike before the betrayal can happen.
- Extensive training is given to the cavalry units (along with distinctive colors) as to prevent something like this from happening.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Hey, wait, they're not on our side! Retreat to the main page!
