Let's You and Him Fight

"I knew I couldn't kill them. More powerful men than me have tried. But if I could get them to kill each other …"

— Colonel Helmut Zemo, Captain America: Civil War

When two people fight because someone manipulated them into the struggle, it is an example of Let's You And Him Fight.

The phrase probably first comes from the Popeye comic strip, as a catchphrase of J. Wellington Wimpy, who often gets Popeye to fight big tough guys he's wronged. "Let's You and Him Fight" is also the title of a Fleischer Studios Popeye short from 1934 revolving around a boxing match between Popeye and Bluto. It also appears in Eric Berne's 1964 book Games People Play as one of the identified behavior patterns used to manipulate others.

This trope is particularly overused in Super Hero comics and the movies and shows spawned from them. In that genre, it long ago became cliched, not even excused by Genre Blindness. It's now reached the point of being an Undead Horse Trope and is just as often parodied, averted, lampshaded, and mocked as it is played straight. In video games, this is one way of setting up a major character (i.e. the Deuteragonist) as a Climax Boss, as defeating them clears up the misunderstanding that was fueling the initial conflict, and makes the character more unambiguously heroic from it.

Sometimes leads to a Light-Hearted Rematch. See also Why Isn't It Attacking?. Comparable to We ARE Struggling Together. Happens constantly with Headbutting Heroes. Contrast Fire-Forged Friends, Defeat Means Friendship, and Fighting Your Friend. If more than one heroic character is involved in an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, a misunderstanding a la this trope may occur to justify why the heroes are fighting. Compare the video-game trope Set a Mook to Kill a Mook, when you make enemy forces fight each other.

Also commonly known in comics fandoms as "Fight Then Team Up," or the "Marvel Misunderstanding", even in the Marvel Bullpen.

See also: Good Versus Good. Compare with Playing Both Sides.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Bleach: Aizen's secret machinations during the Soul Society arc aim to pit Ichigo's group and the Gotei 13 against each other, giving him the opportunity to delve into Urahara's confiscated research to discover a means of extracting the Hougyoku from Rukia's soul. It's only at the end of the arc that the two groups realise they're on the same side and should be uniting against Aizen.
City Hunter: Mick Angel and Ryo's way to say hello when they met after very long time? Shoot at each other until they emptied their guns. Then they started laughing like idiots, and, after Mick revealed he had been hired to kill Ryo, they hit a few pubs.
Code Geass:
- Invoked. During what appears to be a rebellion by defecting Britannian troops, Marianne in the body of Anya attacks Bismarck, accusing him of being in on it, so that he'd be on the defensive and wouldn't question her.
- It's played straight during the first episode, where Suzaku attacks Lelouch because he thinks he's a terrorist (which was not yet the case).
- Invoked and played straight at the same time by Schneizel turning the Black Knights against Zero by careful manipulation of facts and a few lies toss in to make them betray him.
Digimon Adventure: Cherrymon tries to prey on Matt's feelings of insecurity to get him into a fight against Tai, so as to get WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon to hopefully kill each other. While it ultimately failed, the aftermath of that battle did cause the group to temporarily split up.
Dragon Ball:
- Dragon Ball Z:
  - Vegeta and Trunks ended up getting into this, as the former plans on letting Cell absorb Android 18 to achieve his perfect form, while the latter has plans on stopping that.
  - Later on, Vegeta gets possessed by Babidi and turned into a Majin, where he only desires to fight Goku. This leads Goku and Majin Vegeta to battle it out for the first time in years.
- Dragon Ball Super: Jaco is chasing a Puppeteer Parasite called Watagash. When he sees Gohan in his Great Saiyaman costume, he does not recognize him and assumes he's being possessed by Watagash, so he attacks him.
- Dragon Ball Super: Broly: This is how Broly comes to blows with Goku and Vegeta. The saiyans exile Broly to planet Vampa, where he and his father Paragus live for 41 years. The newly resurrected Frieza, in the process of rebuilding his empire, finds and recruits them. He offers Paragus the chance to get revenge on Vegeta, the son of the king who exiled Broly. Even though Broly doesn't want to fight, his desire to escape Vampa, and his father's desire for revenge, allows Frieza to manipulate Broly into attacking his most hated enemies.
  - Later in the same movie, Goku and Vegeta turn the tables on Freeza, by leading the enraged Broly to his position before teleporting away to practice fusion, causing Broly to savagely wail on Freeza for an entire hour before they finally return as Gogeta.
Fabricant 100: During the tragedy, Ashibi brings up to Fabricants that he's too young to be harvested and there's only one of him. While it was quicker than he's expected, one Fabricant killed all others present and became his bodyguard.
Fairy Tail: During the final event of the Grand Magic Games Arc, a Mêlée à Trois between Erza Scarlet, Kagura Mikazuchi, and Minerva Orland is avoided by the last of the three pulling this... with a Hostage Situation. Minerva reveals that she's captured Millianna, Erza's childhood friend and Kagura's guildmate, and goads the two into fighting each other with threat of pain and possible death to Millianna if they don't. While Erza tries to convince Kagura that they should work together, Kagura chooses to fight Erza instead in part because of her own beef with Erza over Jellal and the death/sacrifice of her brother Simon. Once the fight ends, Minerva arrives to stab Kagura In the Back with her own sword while also revealing that she tortured Millianna while she waited for Erza and Kagura to wear each other out. Unfortunately for Minerva, this tactic backfires horribly... because she pissed Erza off. Despite trying to take Erza out while she's weak, Erza accesses her Second Origin to Requip into a brand-new set of her Instant Armor and tears a horrified Minerva a new asshole with it.
In Freezing, some third years tell Rana that Satellizer is just using Kazuya (whom Rana has a crush on) for his power instead of treating him like a true partner. This lead to Rana challenging Satellizer to a duel. After the girls have beaten each other to a pulp, the third years applaud the "free entertainment" and then attack them.
Hinted to have happened in Gunslinger Girl, while it's not overt, it's implied that the government was hoping that the terrorists that took over the Turin nuclear plant and the politically-dangerous Section 2 (an agency that uses Child Soldiers) would take each other out. There were enough Section 2 survivors left that the government just said 'screw it' and declared them terrorists, arresting them all.
Naraku from Inuyasha should have won an Oscar for the number of times he plotted his enemies (and allies) against each other. One particularly nasty example is when he told Sango that Inuyasha slaughtered everyone in her village, leading her to almost kill herself trying to get revenge. Another such instance is when Naraku lures both Koga and Inuyasha to his castle and sets them up to make Koga believe Inuyasha wiped out his clan, tricking them into a life-and-death battle; then sends in his subordinates to kill the survivor. Of course, in both cases, he had arranged the massacre himself.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Diamond is Unbreakable: Josuke's first meeting with Jotaro includes a fight between the two when the former accidentally insults the latter's hair. It serves to establish that Josuke's Crazy Diamond is on par with Star Platinum in strength, and Jotaro is only able to avert a visit to the hospital by using his time stop.
- Steel Ball Run: Benjamin Boom Boom, the patriarch of the murderous Boom Boom Family, uses his iteration of the Boom Booms' shared Stand Tomb of the Boom to manipulate the iron implants in his face and disguise himself as Johnny Joestar, then attacks Mountain Tim^note and flees, hoping to turn Mountain Tim against Johnny and Gyro and lead all three of them into a trap. It almost works, but fortunately Tim realizes just in time that he, Johnny, and Gyro have been magnetized by the Boom Booms, and the three join forces.
Lupin III vs. Cat's Eye: Cat's Eye are led to believe that Lupin III is a dangerous thief that would even murder his targets and betrayed their father, who he was working with to take back artwork the Nazis stole. Of course this is a lie by the real Big Bad of the story, Berger, to get their help.
The Crossover movie Lupin III vs. Detective Conan only has minor elements of this; Conan is chasing a Rebellious Princess who switched places with Ran, but said princess has befriended Fujiko, leading to a chase sequence where Conan's rocket-powered skateboard actually manages to tail Fujiko's bike.
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Quattro tricks/brainwashes Vivio into fighting Nanoha. Nanoha holds out just long enough for her Wide Area Search to pinpoint Quattro before using a restraint spell on Vivio and unleashing her full Mama Bear wrath on Quattro's ass.
Quattro: "Now kill each other like a good mother and daughter."
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
- Most of the initial encounters between the pilots of the five initial Gundams, who actually belong to the very same resistance movement. There's actually a good reason for it: the movement's initial plan was to use the Gundams as an invasion force after executing a Colony Drop, but as soon as they found out the pilots and their cells ditched the plan and launched a guerilla campaign... And, as they belong to different cells without contact with each other, they have no idea they all had the same idea and think the other Gundam pilots are there to continue the original plan and kill them for desertion upon encounter.
- Amazingly subverted by Wufei: he's the Wild Card and has No Social Skills, but when he meets the other Gundams he doesn't fight them, he ends the fight of the other four by pointing out they're all on the same side and that Heero has been tricked into killing the pacifist faction in the UESA military.
Naruto: During the Five Kage Meeting arc, Big Bad Tobi sets up such a fight between Sasuke and Danzo.
In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, the first fight between Negi and Setsuna (in the furo) has distinct overtones of this. Negi loses. Painfully.
One Piece:
- In the Whiskey Peak arc, the crew had been proudly welcomed by the town, which was used by bounty hunters from Baroque Works to rob and/ or kill unsuspecting pirates while they slept. When the bounty hunters attack Zoro, he defeats them all. A chain of events are set up for the saga as he comes face to face with two agents of the aforementioned organization, Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine. But Luffy, after learning Zoro attacked the other Baroque Works agents and unaware they weren't as nice as they seemed, becomes enraged and attacks Zoro, who calmly tries to explain before Luffy attacks him anyway. The two of them fight while the agents continue to complete their mission, but after Luffy and Zoro keep attacking them while they fight, Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine try to kill them themselves...
  Luffy and Zoro: (Stop fighting and turn to the agents) Shut up! And go away!
  Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine: (expressing extreme shock)
  Luffy and Zoro: You're interfering... (punching the agents aside) ...with our fight!!
- When the Straw Hats reach Water 7, the CP9, with Nico Robin's help, frame the Straw Hats for the attempted assassination of mayor and shipbuilding company president Iceberg, essentially pitting them against the entire city, particularly the dock 1 foremen. Things are cleared up when the CP9 reveal themselves.
- Sanji and Zoro trading insults until things get physical has become a Running Gag, especially during the Davy Back Fight arc, where it almost causes them to lose a match until they get their act together and team up.
- In Elbaph, Imu attempts to pit Luffy and Loki against each other, as soon as the duo shows up to confront them, by trying to use Domi Reversi to transform them into demons and make them hate each other. It doesn't work, and the two are quick to retaliate in annoyance.
Being a deconstruction of the Fighting Series Played for Laughs, Ramen Fighter Miki show us the kind of person who would use this trope: Megumi is The Bully / Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up / The Rival for Miki, and her personal definition of a friend is: Someone whom Megumi can manipulate to beat Miki. Just after Megumi hears Miki describing to his mother a powerful enemy at the Endou house, while being punished for constantly Carrying a Cake:
This is surprising! There's someone who can land Onimaru-san in this much trouble. He must definitely be an amazing fighter. First I should become friends with this person, then teaming up would be the best course of action.
In Ronin Warriors, Dais uses his powers to make the heroes think each other is him, so they blindly attack each other.
Subverted in Samurai Champloo. In the first episode both Mugen and Jin get into separate fights with the samurai in the town they are wandering through. When the two cross paths, Mugen believes Jin is one of the samurai sent to kill him and immediately attacks. When Mugen learns that Jin actually killed the town's samurai, Mugen becomes even more excited at the prospect of fighting a tougher opponent. The entire show consists of Mugen and Jin trying to fulfill their obligation to Fuu so they can finally fight each other, and the series constantly hints that no matter how close Mugen and Jin grow in their quest, their eventual duel will be to the death. Averted in the end when they decide not to, having come to like one another far too much.
In Sekirei, Minato is trapped by many other Ashikabi and Sekirei who were sent an email by the Game Master who said if anyone stops Minato from reaching the MBI building, they'd be excused from his earlier rule where an Ashikabi with no wins would lose their Sekirei. A biker Ashikabi arrives late to the situation and immediately starts talking trash to them. Then they end up fighting each other instead, allowing Minato and his group to escape.
Sonic X: Knuckles very often attacks Sonic and friends due to believing Dr. Eggman's lies.
An inverted example in Trigun, when a pair of bounty hunters after Vash the Stampede mistake one another for Vash, because of the wildly varying descriptions of him that are floating around. All within sight of Vash.
Versus (2022) begins with the humans of thirteen different worlds, each facing extinction at the hands of a different Natural Enemy, simultaneously botching a ritual to summon help, and causing all thirteen worlds to merge into one. The shock and horror of everyone now having twelve additional Natural Enemies to deal with soon gives way to the concept of making them fight each other. After all, humanity categorically can't win against their Natural Enemies, but suppose what might happen if you lured them into attacking another, equally dangerous Natural Enemy...
Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Yuto and Yugo's enmity comes from the fact that they mistook the other for Yuri, who looks very similar to both them and the protagonist Yuya. Unfortunately, by the time they clear up this misunderstanding, Yuto's been defeated by their mutual Superpowered Evil Side possessing Yugo and is reduced to a spirit inhabiting Yuya's body.

Comic Strips

Garfield: The April 01, 1979 strip has Garfield manipulating Jon, Lyman and Odie into a Big Ball of Violence-type brawl simply because he was bored.

Fan Works

In the Arc-Ved Protagonists story "Coming Right Back", Yuya is never made aware that the reason why he is dueling Yugi is because his mom wanted Yugi to be a Warrior Therapist for him.
Avengers and Trollhunters: The Avengers are only in Arcadia because they picked up the energy from Claire's shadow portals and mistook it for some sort of backup plan of Loki's. Therefore, they're already on edge and quick to confront Jim and his friends when they realize the group is hiding something; the teens, already paranoid about potential Changeling infiltration, just as quickly lash out when confronted, leading to a fight that results in Claire getting hurt before anyone can calm things down.
In Chapter 39 of BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, Penny and Noel end up fighting each other due to their Murakumo programming taking control and forcing a conflict between them. It ends with Noel blasting Penny through a building. Thankfully, Ruby is able to stop it before Noel succeeds in killing Penny.
The Bridge (MLP): Happens and is averted a few times despite the set up.
- Godzilla Junior (in his unicorn form) and Princess Luna get into a brawl because Junior was fighting the Canterlot Guard. Junior had just crash landed into the castle and was delirious, meaning when a guard grabbed him by the hoof he thought he was being attacked; leading to an escalating fight with Luna jumping into the fray to protect the guards.
- Averted when Mothra (changeling queen) meets Twilight Sparkle. Despite Twilight initially mistaking her for Chrysalis, Mothra calmly defuses the situation and lets Twilight test her to prove she means her no harm.
- In the prequel Tales from the Amalgam'verse: Godzilla meets Gorgo, the still kaiju Godzilla Junior and Gorgo's mother Orka fight. Orka is just trying to reclaim her son and Junior is trying to protect the humans. Thankfully, it ends without serious injury.
Cenotaph features resident teen Chessmaster Skitter, manipulating Lung and Kaiser into a battle to the death. Then, when it looks like Kaiser might get away, she makes sure he is distracted and off-balance at a crucial moment. Kaiser was the one she thought would be harder to take down, ultimately.
In Change, this is the original plan Queen Crudelis has for dealing with Queen Chrysalis and Equestria. Using an agent from another hive, she plots to assassinate Twilight, the daughter of Chrysalis, and have Equestria be blamed for it. Chrysalis will become so enraged over the death of her daughter that she will declare war on Equestria, only to be wiped out due to her hive being outnumbered and weak due to a love shortage. Also as a potential bonus, Equestria could be left in a weak enough state afterwards that Crudelis could easily conquer it herself. However, the plan fails when Twilight survives the assassination attempt, allowing Celestia to calm Chrysalis before she can do anything drastic, and work together to bring the real assassin to justice; thus creating an alliance between Equestria and the Badlands Hive.
The Chaotic Masters:
- The United Heroez act hostile towards the Xiaolin Dragons upon first meeting them, due to being confused about who they are and on edge after Jack's attack on New York to claim the Serpent's Tail. This results in Dojo blasting Majestia with his fire breath when she tries to stop them from leaving, though they get away before things escalate further.
- According to Dojo, the first meeting between King Arthur and Grand Master Dashi came to blows due to rumors that the latter was an ally of the Chaotic Masters (which were the result of the Collector viewing him as a Worthy Opponent).
Code Prime: Megatron mostly ignores Britannia beyond assisting Charles with finding Energon because he wants the humans to find Optimus, and believes that backing Britannia is the most effective method of doing so — he knows Optimus won't allow innocents to be subjected to the cruelty Britannia practices on a daily basis and is waiting for Prime to take a stand. Optimus finally obliges during Chapter 5, to Megatron's delight.
The Dissonance of The Earthling Saiyan: Chille and other members of the Resistance Army attempted to manipulate the Saiyans into fighting each other so that they would end up killing each other. While their end goal was unsuccessful, they did succeed in getting Kakarot to fight with Raditz and Vegeta on more than one occasion and pushed Tarble to attempt to kill Vegeta.
In Eleutherophobia: Escape from L.A., past-Rachel is all too eager to kill Tom even as he tries to explain that he's from the future and not infested.
Fantasy of Utter Ridiculousness: Suika Ibuki accuses Coop — and Megas by extension — of stealing her prized sake gourd. Not knowing who she was or what she was talking about, Coop denies it and rebuffs Alice when she tries to warn him that it wasn't an ordinary little girl he was dealing with. This prompts Suika to super-size herself and punch Megas away from her, followed by her reciting the trope name almost word for word:
"Don't wanna give back my drinky-drink? It's a fight you're hankering for, huhhh? ...You want to surpass an oni? You're interested in a fight? Fine with me. Let's you and me fight."
Fate/Stay Night: Ultimate Master: Ben and his servant Avenger against Saber and Archer. Ben and Avenger are always the one being attacked and are just defending themselves (with one exception, and even then there was a justification). Saber, Archer and Rin are too busy seeing him as a threat (actually outright attacking him on sight) to actually stop and talk with him and realise he doesn't want to win the Grail and is wary of it's wish-granting ability.
The Flash Sentry Chronicles: This is the first part of Lightning Blitz's plan in The Battle of Canterlot. After taking the entire city hostage and daring every citizen to try to find him and his companions, he and his friends set up enchanted runes around town that ensnare several victims at once. The ponies caught in the enchantment are trapped until the strongest is determined by a fight, forcing the groups to turn on each other and knock each other out in order to continue. This dwindles the heroes numbers while simultaneously exhausting them and damaging the trust and friendship between them.
Future Is Bright (Danny Phantom): Downplayed. Danny has a few of these fights with League members via spars. They allow the League to test how strong his powers really are, while he gets some experience fighting living beings.
God Slaying Blade Works: Shirou Emiya kills the evil god Angra Mainyu and gains his powers in the process. Perseus senses Angra's energy within him and attacks, thinking Shirou actually is Angra. Shirou is forced to kill him in self-defense, and Perseus realizes his mistake in his last moments. (Good thing he turns out to be such a Graceful Loser.)
The Green Spider: Happens between Spider-Man and Mirio Togata to The Chameleon taking on the latter's appearance after killing Martin Li causing Izuku to think they are one in the same and Mirio attempting to take Eri from the former.
Here Comes the New Boss: Stoneknapper suggests dealing with an Empire bait (covertly guarded by their heavy hitters) by luring Lung there. Ultimately, though, Elpis decides it's too risky, and settles for pretending to take the bait before heading elsewhere to hit Empire holdings while they're out of position.
Hyphen: The unnamed Team Aqua grunt that stole from Devon at the start of the game manages to outsmart Astra, May, and Brendan by provoking the Exploud patriarch of Rusturf Tunnel into fighting them while he escapees.
Invaders of Irk: A cutaway in Rise of the Resisty shows a couple of Vortian soldiers from different units fighting as they each accuse the other of being Irkens in disguise, so the onlooking actual Irkens decide to just let them do it in order to save them the trouble of attacking.
Jackie Chan Adventures with TMNT: When the Chan Clan comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) version of New York City in search of one of the Oni Masks, Jade is rescued from the Dark Hand Enforcers by Raphael and quickly befriends the Turtles and their inner circle. Unfortunately, the rash way Raph takes Jade with him for her safety leads to her family thinking she's been kidnapped, and right after Leonardo calls the Chans to promise Jade will be returned to them the next day, the Foot Ninjas attack them and steal the Oni Mask on the orders of the Shredder who has teamed up with Tarakudo. Because Leo asked during his call if the mask is safe with them, the Chans believe that Jade's "kidnappers" are with the Foot Clan and made the phone call to ensure the mask is ripe for the picking, leading to them refusing to listen to Leo when he calls them again. When they finally find Jade with Uncle's locator spell and she introduces the Turtles, the Chans assume them to be more demons to be added on their long list of magical enemies. Refusing to listen to the Turtles' attempts to set them straight, they attack Jade's new friends, and it's only when Jade comes to stand protectively in front of the Turtles that she and the Turtles manage to convince her family that they're the good guys, leading to the two families joining forces against the Shredder and Tarakudo.
Legacy of the Enginseers: When Lung nearly corners the Undersiders in a factory zone, Tattletale's plan is to call the heroes on Lung so her team can escape. They almost die, only for Mechanicus to intervene, which they regard as good enough to escape.
Magical Warrior Princess Gaz: Zita and Gretchen get empowered as additional Magical Girls just in time to intervene in a fight between Gaz/Twinklefizz Stardust and a clone of hers called Duststar Fizztwinkle... unfortunately for Gaz, Duststar is as sickly sweet as everyone is convinced that she is as Twinklefizz (despite her doing nothing to hide her true personality), so Zita and Gretchen assume that Gaz is the clone and attack her until Zim shows up as Sir Nocturne Dapperheart and exposes the actual clone.
Actually averted in Natural Selection. The final of the Naturals Election's Sudden Death Runoff was going to be Satsuki vs. Ira, but Ryuko knew that they wouldn't give it there all (and that's assuming they would even fight in the first place even if it was the rules) and decides to cut out the middle man and disqualify Ira so she could fight Satsuki for the final round.
"Other Side of the Mirror" is a Kim Possible fic that pits Kim and Ron against evil alternate versions of themselves. At one point, Ron hits his counterpart with an apparently poisonous gas so that evil Kim will release Kim as her current hostage, but after evil Kim has been beating Ron for a while, he reveals that he actually just hit his other self with the antidote to other-Ron's poison, prompting the other Ron to attack the other Kim and allow Kim and Ron to recuperate.
"Pokemon vs. Digimon: When Worlds Collide" opens with Devimon arriving in the Pokémon world and Ash and his friends arriving in the village where Devimon attacked shortly before the Digidestined follow, initially sending their Digimon through. With the locals already paranoid, Veemon's poor choice of words leads to Ash, Misty and Brock assuming that the new Digimon are Devimon's associates, which results in Ash's current team — Pikachu, Bayleef, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Noctowl and Phanpy — fighting Veemon, Hawkmon, Armadillomon, Patamon, Gatomon and Wormmon before the Digidestined arrive and both parties take time to explain the situation.
Pony POV Series:
- In the Dark World Series, Twilight's group does end up fighting with the rest of the mane six due to the others being Brainwashed and Crazy until Discord's spell was broken. However, this is averted with Applejack and Twilight, who broke Discord's spell independently of one another and when they run into each other mistake the other as still being brainwashed. While Applejack does panic and kick her (leading to a comical moment of Twilight ending up under a Dirt Maid's skirt and being kicked back onto Applejack), they quickly put two and two together (such as Twilight calling her Applejack instead of Liarjack and Applejack having washed her hat for the first time since the Day of Chaos) and realize the other isn't acting like Twilight Tragedy/Liarjack. They each quickly realize the others pulled a Heel–Face Turn and decide to trust each other and team up.
- This happens repeatedly in the Wedding Arc, due to characters constantly mistaking others for being brainwashed by the Changelings. Things are further complicated by the presence of Moth, a reformed Changeling and Bon Bon's adopted sibling. Thankfully subverted when Misfit Actual joins up with the main heroes during the arc's Final Battle; since they helped Trixie's group fight off Hercules Beetle and tried to get Cadence to use her powers to vouch for them (it was Moon Dancer posing as Cadence, but they didn't know that), which would have exposed them if they were imposters, the others are quick to trust them.
The Red Dragon's Saber:
- Artoria Pendragon gets summoned and helps Issei Hyoudou rescue his friend Asia Argento from Freed Sellzan, Raynare, and the Fallen Angels. Since Rias Gremory's peerage have no idea who Artoria is, where she came from, or what her true motives are, they prepare for a fight after she defeats the Fallen Angels. When she says she simply wants to make sure Issei and Asia are safe, they stand down, but are still wary.
- Later, when Artoria learns that Rias and her group are Devils, Artoria attacks them until Issei and Asia are able to convince her that they are not evil.
RWBY: Epic of Remnant: After rescuing a little Faunus girl by killing her attacker, Hassan of the Cursed Arm tells her to go home, then follows at a distance to make sure she gets there safely. Blake Belladonna just sees a suspicious-looking person following a child and evidence of a murder and attacks him. The misunderstanding is eventually cleared up.
The Second Torch: Subverted. The second Ruby finds Roman on the scene of the White Fang's attack on the fairground, she immediately realizes that he wasn't behind the attack and puts their rivalry aside to help him stop it.
Superwomen of Eva: As expected of a superhero Fusion Fic, the series has several examples (examples: She-Hulk vs. Spirit in Superwomen of Eva: Emerald Fury and Power Girl vs. Wonder Girl in Superwomen of Eva 2: Amazing Amazon).
A Terrible Influence: It turns out that the Furies are subtly manipulating both Buffy and Sarah Jane's sides (who are both investigating their murders) into distrusting each other, culminating in Luke getting possessed and trying to kill Seo.
There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: In The Royal We, Varvatos and the Tarron siblings briefly mistake the Alien Force for bounty hunters sent by Morando, due to them not being completely human. This leads to a brief fight between Ben and Varvatos, but when Ben makes it clear he's not trying to kill Varvatos, Aja calls him off so that the groups can actually communicate.
This Bites!: Invoked by Cross and Soundbite to get the Unluckies that are pursuing them in Jaya off their backs. Soundbite goads Van Augur to start shooting at Ms. Friday, and when that doesn't stop Mr. 13, Cross finds Bellamy and insults him to his face to spring him right at him, and by extension, Mr. 13.
Cross: Excuse me, is it true that Doflamingo's spring-heeled dickweasel can be found here, or is this the wrong bar?
In Tok'ra Apocalypse, the SGC and the Men of Letters deal with the threats of Abaddon and Eva by tricking the two sides into going after each other until only the leaders are left, culminating in a final showdown on the higher planes that neither of them can win.
In The Turn, when the Animorphs learn that Doctor Droid is going to attack the Marriott at the same time as the Yeerks intended to set a trap for the "Andalite bandits", they decide to just step back and let Droid and Visser Three fight it out. After Droid crushes a pool full of defenceless Yeerks in their natural state, Visser Three subsequently morphs a Golionian Death Worm, a creature that eats the metal at the heart of its native world, which reduced Droid's body to a goopy mess.
Vow of Nudity: Fiora's plan to deal with the gnoll warband is to play The Bait and lure them into axebeak territory, where she hopes the axebeaks will defeat them in straight combat. Unfortunately, she bets on the wrong side...
What if...Miguel caught Miles?: Both SHIELD and the Spider Society wants to stop the portals popping up all over the multiverse. However, Peter B. broke protocol to try and check on Miles, which got him captured by SHIELD. Miguel decided the best course of action was to attack the Helicarrier until Fury agreed to hand Peter B. over. This leads to an all-out brawl between the Avengers (with Miles as the newest member), the agents of SHIELD, and the Spiders.

Films — Animated

Batman vs. Robin has it right in the title. According to the plot, Robin (Damian Wayne) discovers an ancient conspiracy known as the Court of Owls that leads him and Batman into fighting. Said fight only happened at the midway point, with the real conflict between father and son being their rocky relationship.
Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Shredder and the Foot Clan set up shop in Gotham City with the Turtles on their tail. Batman, Robin, and Batgirl and the Turtles have never heard of each other, so they assume the other team are villains and fight before the misunderstanding is cleared up.
Part of the plot of Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors involved Ghost Spider being blamed for a crime she didn't commit and being confronted by Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl.
Prince Vladimir: Krivzha uses magic to forge the letter from Yaropolk to make it seem like he's working with the Pechenegs to take over Novgorod, so he and Vladimir would fight each other and weaken Kyiv regardless of who remains. Due to the forged seal and Kurya lending Krivzha his own, Vladimir falls for it.

Films — Live-Action

In Bunraku, the two main characters have a Bar Brawl before deciding to team up to go after the Big Bad.
DC Extended Universe:
- In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Batman and Superman are manipulated (and partly forced, due to Lex's kidnapping of Martha Kent) by Lex Luthor into conflict.
- In Justice League (2017) and Zack Snyder's Justice League, after Superman comes back to life, he is confused and disoriented with amnesia. When the rest of the Justice League approach him, Cyborg's defense systems activate and he involuntarily blasts Superman, enraging him into attacking them. It isn't until Lois Lane shows up that he calms down.
In Dr. No (1962), James Bond's investigation into an MI-6 operative's death leads him to Quarrel, who's already working with CIA agent Felix Leiter. Because Leiter saw Bond leave the airport with one of Dr. No's men, Quarrel attacks Bond; their fight is broken up when Leiter arrives to clarify the whole mess.
The Forbidden Kingdom having Jet Li and Jackie Chan in the same movie for the first time ever, of course they have to fight at first. This is achieved by having Jet Li's character first steal the MacGuffin, taking Chan's character and the kid to be a couple of thieves.
Two cops in Hard Boiled (1992) end up on either sides of a major gang shootout taking place in a warehouse. One is undercover. The other drops in from the skylight to do a bust, and does not know about the cop undercover. This is a very, very straight example.
In Heroic Trio, all three main characters fight each other in different scenes before finally teaming up.
The Jade Faced Assassin revolves around the two heroes, twins Separated at Birth and raised in different martial arts clans, and oblivious to each other's identity, being manipulated by the villains into fighting each other. Their inevitable one-on-one Sword Fight makes up the lengthy climax of the film.
Jurassic World: Is an I-rex threatening you and your family? No problem. Just open Paddock 9 and let Rexy handle it. Bonus points if you can get a semi-trained Velociraptor and a Mosasaurus to lend a hand.
Both Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen and Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai both have two different sets of hero groups slugging it out due to cases of Superdickery.
Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In Iron Man 2, Rhodey suits up in a spare Iron Man suit to rein in Crazy Drunken Self-Destructive Tony. It seems played for laughs at first, but gradually turns very un-funny. They fight a second time, unwillingly, when Vanko hacks Rhodey's suit, newly upgraded into the War Machine armor, while Rhodey is still inside. Fortunately, Black Widow is able to remove the hack just in time for them to team up against Vanko.
- The Avengers (2012):
  - At the end of the first act, Thor tries to get to his brother Loki, but provokes Iron Man and Captain America by stealing him out of S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. What follows is a short but intense brawl of pure, delightful fanservice, gratuitous demonstration of power and ability ranges galore. Joss Whedon discussed the trope in the commentary of the scene, explaining that he desperately avoided setting up the fight with a misunderstanding or with one hero being Brainwashed and Crazy because then the audience would simply be waiting for them to wise up and start talking. Having them fight over custody of Loki let the movie have its fight with full justification.
  - Later on in the movie, Thor fights to stop a rampaging Hulk from destroying the Helicarrier, and Black Widow fights off a Brainwashed and Crazy Hawkeye. Cap and Iron Man almost get angry enough at each other to start a fight themselves (Steve even makes a challenge, but Tony refuses to suit up), but they drop the issue the moment the Helicarrier comes under attack.
- Avengers: Age of Ultron has another case where one of the heroes tries to intervene in a Hulk rampage; this time Iron Man with special anti-Hulk armor he had prepared.
- In Ant-Man (2015), Scott is infiltrating a warehouse to get a piece of tech, only to realize too late that it's now an Avengers facility. When the Falcon responds to the intruder alarm, Scott tries to introduce himself and talk his way in, but Falcon rightly doesn't trust the stranger and a fight starts.
- In Captain America: Civil War, Zemo's plan is to turn the Avengers against each other by framing Bucky Barnes for a terrorist attack. As relations among the team are already strained due to disagreements over a Super Registration Act, it works only too well. His masterstroke: revealing that Bucky murdered Tony's parents while under HYDRA's control, leading to an all-out brawl where Steve tries to stop Tony from killing Bucky.
- In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor is forced into Gladiator Games and finds his opponent is the Hulk. Thor is overjoyed at seeing a familiar face, but Hulk doesn't care and starts smashing him.
- In Avengers: Infinity War, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Dr. Strange meet Star-Lord, Drax, and Mantis. The two groups attack each other due to mistakenly believing the other works for Thanos. After the fight ends with a Mexican Standoff and Star-Lord attempts to interrogate Iron Man's group under the belief they know where Thanos took Gamora, they realize that they're both out for Thanos' blood and team up.
- Two in Avengers: Endgame:
  - The first is largely played for laughs and fanservice. A time-traveling Captain America runs into himself from the year 2012. 2012 Cap assumes that Present Cap is Loki in disguise, and a Mirror Match breaks out before Present Cap can explain himself.
  - The second is absolutely played for drama. Black Widow and Hawkeye learn that the only way to access the Soul Stone is to exchange "a soul for a soul". Neither wants the other to die, and a fight breaks out as they both try to offer themselves up first and spare the other. In the end, Widow "wins".
- Spider-Man: No Way Home:
  - Peter Parker and Doctor Strange get into a fight over whether or not to save the villains from alternate dimensions when it is revealed to them that they are destined to die. The former wants to save them, but the latter refuses, citing their sacrifice as necessary to the stability of the multiverse. Though Strange, being the more powerful one, manages to keep Peter on the ropes when he pulls them both into the mirror dimension, Peter manages to outsmart him by noticing the geometric nature of the mirror dimension, proceeds to entangle Strange in his webs using this fact, and steal Strange's Sling Ring and another magical artifact from him, trapping him there for the time being.
  - The Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire versions of Peter get into a brief scuffle when they meet. Tobey wins by disabling Andrew's webshooter, then they realize they are on the same side.
- Thunderbolts* (2025) is kicked off when Yelena, John Walker, and Ava Starr realized that Valentina hired them to hunt each other inside a vault that amounts to her personal trash heap, and the survivor is meant to be trapped inside and incinerated along with all her other criminal evidence.
In The Matrix Reloaded, Seraph fights Neo on their first meeting, but in that case it's to establish that he really is The One. Given Mr. Smith's ability to Body Surf this is a sensible precaution.
Max Payne has this with him and Mona briefly before teaming up.
MonsterVerse:
- In Godzilla (2014), Serizawa's solution to the MUTO attacks after the nuke is hijacked by a MUTO is to let Godzilla finish the job.
- Godzilla vs. Kong has a more complicated example than usual because, unlike the original crossover, the humans don't actually want the two to fight, but by transporting Kong off of Skull Island (for unrelated reasons), Godzilla immediately sees Kong as a rival intruding on his territory, while eventually Kong has enough of Godzilla's repeated attacks, and in the end, you get what you came for.
In More Dead Than Alive, Billy attempts to goad Cain and Cassidy into having a gunfight: first siding with one of them, and then the other, and even handing Cain a gun when he says doesn't have one. It is only Cain's steadfast refusal to pick up the gun that prevents a fight. As Billy's pleas for them to shoot each other become more desperate and pathetic, Cassidy realises how stupid the whole thing is and walks ways. Billy suffers a Villainous Breakdown as he sees that the shootout isn't happening.
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Jack Sparrow uses this tactic to escape Will and Norrington by goading Norrington into directing his anger at Will and attack him.
The premise of Sadako vs. Kayako. Two girls watch Sadako's cursed video and are cursed to die. Meanwhile another girl, whose family has moved next door to Kayako's abandoned house has been tricked by the ghost to enter the house and be cursed by her. The solution a medium comes up with is to bring both girls to the cursed house and watch the cursed video in there, causing both onryo to fight over their victims.
In The Sum of All Fears, the villains try to get the two world superpowers, the U.S. and Russia, to destroy each other.
The Terror of Tiny Town: Bat Haines is attempting to manipulate Pop Lawson and Tex Preston into a range war, so he will be able to easily acquire both properties afterwards.
Played for laughs in They Call Me Bruce. The protagonist is called "Bruce" and though he does not know martial arts, he is assumed to by everyone due to being Asian and having a superficial resemblance to the late Bruce Lee, and having accidentally foiled a convenience store robbery. He is accosted by a group of thugs who wish to test his martial arts skills. When one thug demonstrates he himself is proficient at martial arts, Bruce compliments him on his skill and asks who his teacher was. When the thug answers, Bruce claims to have studied under the same sensei and says that because of "the code" it means they can't fight each other. Then, when a second thug tells him that he studied under a different sensei, Bruce says "that's great, that means you two can fight each other!" and goads them into doing so while he quietly slips away.
In Yamato Takeru, the hero ends up fighting his future love interest/adventuring companion Oto Tachibana when they first meet, because the latter mistakes him and his friends for the thieves who stole her shrine's sacred mirror. The misunderstanding is thankfully cleared up before anyone can get seriously hurt.

Literature

A key plot point in American Gods. An example of an old, named scam mentioned to Shadow by Mr. Wednesday, "Let's You and Him Fight" turns out to be the Evil Plan Odin and Loki have been working on together. The plan was to goad the home-grown modern gods into fighting the immigrant gods to the death, so both Odin and Loki could feed off ensuing battle.
The BattleTech Expanded Universe novel Call of Duty has two military groups, each of which is tricked into thinking the other had attacked it.
Bunny Girl Evolution: Emilia secretly started the war between the dwarves and the drow nearly 400 by committing a few murders that looked like the work of the other side and poisoning the Sister Tree, which the dwarves were blamed for. The cycle of revenge kept supplying her with a steady source of EXP.
The Camp Half-Blood Series:
- In The Heroes of Olympus, Percy and Jason duke it out when possessed by evil spirits.
- In the Demigods & Magicians story "The Son of Sobek", Percy crosses paths with Carter Kane while they are both hunting the titular giant crocodile, and they get into a fight when Percy mistakes Carter for a rogue demigod.
A Certain Magical Index:
- The Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc has Touma, Index, and Stiyl fighting the Amakusa Catholics, who seem to have kidnapped Orsola Aquinas. Eventually, it turns out the Amakusa Catholics were trying to save her, as the Roman Catholic Church was going to have her tortured and executed. Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, they all team up to save her.
- During the DRAGON Arc, Shiage Hamazura runs into Accelerator and attacks him, thinking he was sent to kill his girlfriend Rikou Takitsubo. Accelerator easily defeats him and leaves. Shiage realizes he was mistaken and berates himself.
- This is the basics of Yukumi Hisako's Agitate Halation plan: manipulate every hero into fighting each other until she has created a world without heroes. To do this, she creates a signal that gives anybody with heroic tendencies an uncontrollable urge to protect a little girl named Fremea Seivelun. Unfortunately, these people then perceive everybody else as a threat to her and attack them.
- Touma manages to convince Othinus to pull a Heel–Face Turn, but then must defend her from all his allies and her enemies, who refuse to believe his explanations and think that he's either gone to the dark side or been brainwashed.
A Desolation Called Peace: Caught between the expansionist Teixcalaanli Galactic Superpower and an unknown alien threat, some of the Lsel Station councillors warn the former about the latter in hopes that they'll exhaust each other in stalemate. The councillors don't fully consider the difficulties of remaining neutral in such a situation.
Devil's Cape: Bedlam attacks Argonaut, thinking Argonaut was responsible for breaking out a patient at his psychological institute and almost killing Bedlam himself. However, the mistake is understandable, as the culprit was Argonaut's twin brother, who has the same powers and even uses the same aftershave.
Faction Paradox has the War in Heaven, a massive conflict arranged by the titular Faction between the Homeworld and The Enemy for a chance to swipe some nice tech, some converts, and poison the timestream in the process.
Archimago from The Faerie Queene tricks Sir Guyon into thinking that the noble Redcrosse Knight is a rapist in order to get the two to kill each other. Guyon nearly strikes Redcrosse down as soon as he sees him, but upon seeing the blood-red cross on his shield, he realizes Redcrosse is a holy man and gives the knight the time to explain his innocence.
The Familiar of Zero has what is perhaps one of the most satisfying one of these ever in its backstory: the birth of Kirche and Tabitha's friendship. A number of girls were jealous that Kirche was stealing all the boys, and teamed up with a boy who Tabitha had humiliated in duel. At a dance, the boy used wind to shred Kirche's dress, leaving her naked. He then offered her his coat and told her Tabitha was responsible, which Kirche found reasonable because she had teased Tabitha earlier in the year. When Kirche confronted Tabitha, she told Kirche that she had nothing to do with it and walked away. Then Tabitha returns to her room to find her book collection scorched, and immediately walks over to Kirche's room and accepts the challenge to a duel (this was done by the jealous girls). They go to the courtyard to fight and after one exchange of spells immediately realize that they were set up and team up to find and punish the real culprits.
Forest Kingdom: Much of Guard Against Dishonor, the fifth book in the Hawk & Fisher spinoff series, is set up so as to get that series' married-cop protagonists, Hawk and Fisher, to fight one another, as the bad guys implicate Fisher in police corruption while alleging Hawk has gone rogue and is killing innocent people. When they finally meet, it's subverted, because they both care about each other more than about their duty as cops, so wouldn't have attacked each other even if the allegations had been true.
The Grace of Kings: King Shilué of Faça is notorious for propping up other leaders to fight his battles and abandoning them when the tides turn. In the war of the Tiro States, he surrenders to Kuni Garu on the condition that he remain safe, suggesting that he doesn't intend to help Kuni's coalition against the Hegemon, so Kuni's Marshall summarily executes him on the assumption that he would betray them eventually.
Grey Knights:
- The Big Bad uses the secrecy surrounding the Grey Knights to paint them as Chaos Marines and get the local Imperial forces against them.
- Similarly, Alaric, the protagonist of the series, pulls this off on his foes in the sequel Hammer of Daemons. Some of the Daemons he manipulates are aware that he's playing them, but they are compelled to go along by their own greed, paranoia, and rage.
Honor Harrington: Pretty much the entire plot of the series has been orchestrated by the Mesan Alignment.
Subverted and then played straight in the short story "The Hunters of Asterion" by Stewart Cowley. Rahzell Kalee and Jeef Kindswoog are two of the titular Hunters, separately hoodwinked into fighting each other for a galactic audience who want to see two Proud Warrior Race Guys battle to the death. When they actually face each other, both men refuse, since neither has a slight on the other, and are then abandoned far from their homeworld. Flash forward several years later and Kalee stumbles briefly across the path of the law, which ends up recruiting him, while Kindswoog takes a darker path. Kalee goes undercover to take down a massive crime syndicate that's hit the Terran Federation's military and stolen some pretty hard-core weaponry. When he turns some of it on the criminals and demands their surrender, he's challenged BY NAME by Kindswoog (who realizes that only another Hunter could have undone his schemes as badly as Rahzell did), and they fight it out at last.
In the Kane Series novel Bloodstone, Kane manipulates two neighboring and already hostile nations of Selonari and Breimen into outright war, while the titular Bloodstone is gaining enough power to crush them both.
Kingdoms and Conquerors features several chapters of this, told from multiple POV. One hero (Apollos) believes his love interest was murdered by his masked opponents (a long ago friend) while Gid was informed that Apollos killed his good friends. the two continue to fight until Gid's friends shout his name, and Apollos recognizes the voices.
Knights of the Borrowed Dark has the Brainwashed and Crazy version when Grey is enthralled by the Clockwork Three and forced to fight Vivian Hardwick. A variation in that everyone involved knows Grey doesn't stand a chance against Vivian, and the real plan is to hurt Vivian by forcing her to kill her friend, and to punish Grey with death for attempting to disobey an order. Vivian manages to deliver a Curb-Stomp Battle without killing him.
In the history of the Known Space universe, the Puppeteers lure an Outsider ship into human space so that the humans will gain an advantage during the First Man-Kzin war. And during one of the later Man-Kzin wars, the Puppeteers themselves show up to sell humanity invulnerable starship hulls. They do this so the humans will wreck the Kzinti population (and specifically to kill off the more violence-prone members of the species), thus reducing the Kzinti threat to the Puppeteers.
The Mouse That Roared: In the prequel novel, two Jerk Jock brothers challenge a less-powerful knight, Sir Dermot to impress their girlfriends, claiming that he insulted them. Sir Dermot points out that whichever one of them fights him first, it would be construed as an insult to the lady whose honor wasn't being defended ahead of the other's, and that the brothers must therefore fight a duel against each other to determine which one of them has the greater claim to duel Dermot. Their cowardice at this idea keeps things from actually reaching the fight stage, though.
In Needful Things, Leland Gaunt tricks an entire town into fighting and killing each other by selling worthless junk magically disguised as treasures to people in exchange for having them perform pranks on their neighbors.
The Nightside series has this as a favorite tactic of the main character.
Count Video: [on sending agents of hell against the Walking Man] Let's you and him fight, I like it.
In Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained, this ultimately turns out to be the plan of the alien Starflyer.
Sharpe:
- In one of the books, master manipulator Ducos comes up with a plan to end the war. As a first stage, he needs a general killed. On a personal level, he wants Sharpe dead. As luck would have it, Sharpe has already slept with the general's wife. One well-timed letter later, the Duel to the Death is arranged.
- In another book, Sharpe and Harper go to a monastery occupied by a mixed force of deserters from all the armies involved in the Peninsular War, led by a French cook and 'Colonel' Hakeswill, carrying the ransom for the Portuguese wife of an English high-up who'd been at the monastery for an annual festival. At the same time a French officer and his sergeant arrive to pay the ransom for the French officer's English wife. Both sides think that the other is the enemy.
- In the film, Sharpe pins the French colonel and calls for him to surrender, but the Frenchman refuses to surrender to a "deserter".
In the Spiral Arm novel On the Razor's Edge, when Gidula pitches Donovan against Eglay Portion, in an official combat that Donovan suspects may be used to cripple him against the rules, Donovan with some cunning timing defeats him in the first moments. Eglay appraises him, asks him how to do it, and is his man thereafter.
Invoked (the author is a troper) in Star Harbor Nights when Perfection Jones and Ray Vallenzio first meet.
Sword Art Online: Kirito was rendered catatonic and is cared for by Alice. Kirito's wife Asuna eventually arrives and tries to see him, but Alice has no idea who she is and attacks her, thinking she is either an assassin or a stalker about to attack him. It doesn't help that Asuna doesn't try to explain herself and just keeping demanding "My Kirito", which further convinces Alice that she is a stalker. The fight is broken up by a third party, then they are eventually able to come to an understanding. Even then, Alice remains suspicious of Asuna until Kirito wakes up from his coma and confirms she really is his wife.
Tales of the Branion Realm: This happens in The Granite Shield, in which a weak and tiny counterpart of Protestant Wales distracts all of Europe by assassinating the equivalent of the Pope, thus plunging its many, many enemies into a decade of war.
The last Ukiah Oregon book, Dog Warrior, opens with Atticus Steele (undercover DEA agent) finding his long lost brother (the protagonist of the rest of the series) unconscious in a car trunk wearing a Dog Warriors jacket. Research shows that every known member of the gang is on the FBI Most Wanted list, and he shuns his newfound family and works against them. Meanwhile, Ukiah sees that his long-lost brother seems to be a ruthless drug dealer, and suspicion leads the Pack to put Atticus through a harsh initiation, confirming their criminality and enmity in his mind.
The Witch of Knightcharm: Bahar, a rookie witch at an evil Wizarding School who has already made herself into the indispensible Friend in the Black Market for several of her classmates, uses this tactic when she's forced to run through a lethal obstacle course with three other members of her class: she simply bribes the other students, all of whom need the powerful potions and crafted items she's capable of making, to fight each other for her. They do fight and two of them are killed, giving Bahar a much easier time in the course.

Music

The song, "The Ultimate Showdown" by Lemon Demon takes this trope Up to Eleven.
In the Charlie Daniels song "Uneasy Rider", the protagonist attempts the heroic version of this when he stops at a bar in Jackson, Mississippi, and the rednecks threaten to hurt him for looking like "one of those long-haired hippie-type pinko fags." He accuses one of them of being an undercover FBI agent who's trying to infiltrate and destroy the Ku Klux Klan. The ploy doesn't quite work, but the protagonist manages to distract everyone long enough to run out to the parking lot, get in his Chevrolet, and obtain a measure of revenge by pretending to run the rednecks down when they come out to chase him...before making his escape and heading for Omaha.

Mythology

Classical Mythology:
- The Trojan War actually started this way, with a goddess getting three other goddesses to fight over who was the prettiest.
- Some of the heroes did this, too: apparently, the best way to defeat dragon's-tooth warriors is to throw a rock into their midst and have them fight each other over who threw the rock.
One Chinese idiom comes from a fable that goes as follows: A clam opens itself in the sun, and a snipe attempts to eat it. The clam shuts itself upon the snipe's beak. The snipe tells the clam that if the clam doesn't open up to flee, it will dry itself out in the sun. The clam tells the snipe that if the snipe doesn't withdraw itself, it will die of hunger from having its beak clamped shut. Neither party is willing to give way in order to outlast the other, and both are eventually bagged by a passing fisherman.

Professional Wrestling

MsChif successfully pulled this scheme on Daizee Haze and Haze's Tag Team partner Mickie Knuckles on the second night of IWA Mid-South King of the Death Matches 2004: The Last Bloody Stand. However, while she got one over on Haze, it was the start of what would become a multiyear rivalry with Knuckles.
El Generico, Excess 69 and Kevin Steen all competed with each other to have the least amount of time in the ring with Samoa Joe during a northern Championship wrestling four corner's match (and to a lesser extent, to be out of the ring in general as winner had to face ROH champion Austin Aries) in January of 2005. 69 didn't want to be in the ring with Steen either, which in turn let Generico outmaneuver Steen.
Raven's plan for Kurt Angle, Christian and Samoa Joe in TNA during early 2005 while he bid his time messing with Abyss until the time was opportune to enter the NWA World Heavyweight Title picture and fulfill his destiny.
Carlito Caribbean Cool cost himself the WWC Universal Title this way in January of 2015 by choosing to go after a confused Ray González while the two of them were surrounded by La Revolución rather than team up. La Revolución went on to attack both of them and then set their sights on the third Universal title contender Mighty Ursus, yet González, Colón and Ursus still kept fighting each other. Eventually though, Carlito would wise up and united against the common enemy, that is he joined forces with Revolución...Juan Manuel Ortega, the who had been on a mission to rid the pro wrestling industry of Carly's family prior.

Pinball

Required in The Avengers (Stern) — the only way to reach the final Wizard Mode is to pit the heroes against each other.

Radio

Our Miss Brooks: In "Stretch Is Accused of Professionalism", teenaged Dumb Jock Stretch Snodgrass enters a circus wrestling contest and wins a prize. Unfortunately, this came to the attention of rival Clay City High School principal Jason Brille. By a technical reading of school board rules, this makes Stretch a "professional athlete" and ineligible for school sports. Miss Brooks tries to get the wrestler, visiting Madison High School to deliver Stretch the prize money, to attack school board head Mr. Stone. In that way, she hopes proof of the wrestler's violent nature would lead to Mr. Stone waiving any penalty against Stretch.

Tabletop Games

In the Star Fleet Battles Universe (an Alternate History Star Trek universe), this is how the Tholians survive being bordered by the Federation, Romulans and Klingons (the last of which are flat out trying to destroy them... with some good reason). The Trope is referenced by name as the guiding diplomatic strategy of the Tholians.
Warhammer 40,000:
- This is standard Eldar operating procedure. While they're usually more concerned with making entire species fight each other for their own benefit they are more than happy to manipulate individuals to the same end.
- While it isn't standard procedure, the Leagues of Votann are noted to sometimes do this, usually via Hernkyn Yaegir teams; if an enemy faction is sitting on a resource the Kin want, have refused all negotiations for it, and are too heavily defended to just invade outright, a Yaegir team will be dispatched to soften them up, one way of which is by instigating a civil war or luring a hostile third faction in. When the dust settles, the Leagues can sweep in to stake their claim.
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: One of the favorite tactics of the Kruleboyz Orruks is to lure some giant monster — which are plentiful in their home Realm of Ghur — to attack an entrecnhed opponent, then move in to mop up the weakened victor.
Champions Organization Book 2 PRIMUS and DEMON. The DEMON organization's plan to steal the Earth Crown of Krim from PRIMUS headquarters involves tricking PRIMUS into attacking the local superhero group.
Dragon #200 had a debate over who was Dungeons & Dragons' greatest wizard: Elminster (argued for by Ed Greenwood) or Raistlin (argued for by Tracy Hickman). At the end of the article, it was revealed that the fight was being set up by Mordenkainen.
Paranoia encourages players to do this. Failing that, Make It Look Like an Accident. Failing that, at least wait till they're distracted (possibly by something you set up) before ambushing them, rather than just attacking them at the first opportunity and giving them a chance to shoot back. Or just collect (or manufacture) evidence and throw them under the bus at the debriefing.

Theater

In Romeo and Juliet, Paris (Juliet's betrothed) goes to visit her grave at the same time that Romeo does — they each think the other is trying to defile her tomb, attack each other, and Paris dies. Romeo doesn't realize his mistake until Paris (with his dying breath) begs to be brought to Juliet's side so that he may join her in death.
In Twelfth Night, Sir Toby and Fabian urge their friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek to fight Cesario (Viola in disguise) in a fencing duel, with the hopes that Andrew might have a better chance of gaining Olivia's hand. Toby and Fabian accompany Andrew as dueling seconds, urging Cesario to participate in the duel. Moments later, Antonio encounters Cesario, mistaking him for Sebastian and asking for the money which he had entrusted to Sebastian. Later on, Andrew attacks Sebastian, mistaking him for Cesario, only for Sebastian to thrash and bruise Sir Andrew.

Theme Parks

The titular Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D at Universal Studios Japan is this as ultimately the reason Shinji, Rei, and Asuka are dispatched to deal with Godzilla as Godzilla decided to head off King Ghidorah and surprised NERV in the process (with them originally thinking Godzilla is an Angel).

Toys

Has happened a few times in BIONICLE, usually when the heroes have never met before (or at least, one doesn't recognize the other due to a Mid-Season Upgrade). The most blatant one, which has no such justification, comes when the Toa Hagah show up and say "Sorry, but, uh, we kind of have to cause some Monumental Damage to complete our mission.", to which the Toa Mahri say "Aw Karzahni no!" and they fight. After it breaks up, they lampshade that they're idiots for not even trying to come up with a less destructive plan for the Hagah to follow.

Web Animation

In DEATH BATTLE!, there's usually no excuse for characters fighting each other, even if they're both good guys; it's more like a thought experiment on who would win played out. There are exceptions:
- For the original "Son Goku vs. Superman", when Goku learns of Superman, he assumes Superman is an evil invading alien and launches a preemptive strike. Superman tries to reason with him, but Goku's Blood Knight tendencies make him keep attacking.
  - Which is still a humorous hand wave given Goku's tendency to offer mercy and second chances to even his most evil opponents, to say nothing of Superman.
- For "He-Man vs. Lion-O", when Lion-O sees He-Man riding Battle Cat, he assumes He-Man is treating the cat as a slave instead of a partner. As Lord of the ThunderCats, Lion-O is outraged and attacks him.
- For "Fox McCloud vs Bucky O'Hare", Bucky mistakes Fox's friend Slippy Toad for a member of the evil Toad Empire and kills him. Enraged, Fox attacks Bucky to avenge him.
- Lara Croft and Nathan Drake fight each other over The Holy Grail, even though neither is really the type to go straight to lethal force just for treasure. Nate does have something of a reputation as a killer due to Gameplay and Story Segregation, but even in gameplay, this is typically framed as him either defending himself or preventing something bad from happening.
- For "Kratos vs. Asura", Kratos suddenly gets teleported from Midgard to Gaia, possibly by the Guardian Generals or Chakravartin. After he takes out some guards who attacked him, Asura sees him standing next to Mithra and attacks to defend his daughter, ignoring Kratos saying this is some kind of misunderstanding.
Really weirdly, in If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, one of the "heroic" characters ends up fighting many of the others as a Non-Player Character in a Tabletop Role-Playing Game they're playing.

It Makes Sense in Context. Sort of. As follows: First, Custodi's perverted comments finally get so bad that Brain Bleach isn't enough and the Emperor deletes him from existence. Soon after, the rest of the characters who hang out with the Emperor play a tabletop RPG set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting with some kind of magical thing that makes it a little bit real. After going majorly Off the Rails, the Player Characters encounter some ogres led by a powerful "Gorger Lord" that recently appeared from somewhere. This lord turns out to be Custodisi, who's desperately looking for a way back to his reality. Evidently, for him, it's all real. There's no recognition between him and the others, presumably because the player characters don't look like their players, and because even though Custodisi does look like himself, as an NPC, he's not seen by the players, only described by the Game Master. He ends up being the Final Boss of the game, although since the player characters are novices who aren't even supposed to be in this part of the world (and he's a kind of Super Super-Soldier), he's way out of their league. They don't even have weapons that could harm him — at least without making a roll where the odds are much less than a Million to One Chance.
This is Salem's M.O. in RWBY, as she knows that if humanity unites against her, her chances of winning are slim to none. And so, her plans revolve around false flag operations or using minority-led terrorist groups like the White Fang to do her dirty work. When these fail, her larger gambits would be to personally invade Kingdoms with mentally unstable leaders and self-rightous heroes and let them tear each other apart as they try to figure out how to deal with her as she sits there and watches.
Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers: In "Brother Wars," Wario deletes Luigi's save file so that Luigi will blame it on Mario and fight him.

Webcomics

Antihero for Hire: Crossroad jumps Shadehawk because a doppleganger disguised as him ratted her Secret Identity out to her mob-boss father. Presently, Shadehawk is engaged in a running battle with the "Civic Champions" who think he's evil for a repeatedly unrevealed reason, which eventually turns out to be breaking into Tera Corp.
Arthur, King of Time and Space here, partly for the pun and partly as part of a quick little plan by Morgan.
In Circus Knights, the school's protectors attack Domino because he's carrying an unconscious girl, and someone's been going around putting girls in comas. About twenty pages later, one of the protectors points out that the girl Domino is carrying "Has shown signs of Narcolepsy."
"You're kidding me... We could be attacking someone who tried to help Mrs. Blacksmith?... JOE! This isn't funny!!
Dean & Nala + Vinny: Vinny's obnoxious cousin Marcello comes for a visit. Vinny tries to be the bigger man, but Nala has other ideas:
Vinny: Christmas, and the end of the year, is definitely a time when people try their hardest to begin afresh.
Nala: (pushing them together with a Slasher Smile) Or you can punch each other in the face and get it over with.
Girl Genius has done a variant on this... until just before the Big Impressive Fight started, she was the Big Bad.
- Also, it now is home to what may be the first ever version of this trope intentionally enacted by both heroes.
  - Two.
In Inverloch, Acheron is captured and put in an arena for fighting da'kor. Varden volunteers to fight him in order to fake Acheron's death and save him. In order to make the fight believable, Varden says something to anger Acheron, making him believe Varden has switched sides.
Magellan has an impressive aversion: a team from the future (and thus, unknown in the present) was attacked three times by other heroes in quick succession. The latter two they quickly resolved with diplomacy, and the first was a very short fight.
In Sluggy Freelance this happens between Berk and Torg during the K'Z'K storyline, since Berk thinks Torg is the one who summons the demon K'Z'K into the world and Torg just thinks Berk is a nut with a shotgun.
League of Super Redundant Heroes: Parodied in the comic Introductions. Two superheroes meet, and shortly after start fighting, while still saying things like "Nice to meet you".
Karno's webcomic PeRKS has Savage Squirrel and Happy Jack cross paths while working two different cases. Savage orders Happy Jack to surrender—and Happy Jack promptly does. When Savage Squirrel wonders why, Happy Jack explains that she is working a slavery ring (Savage Squirrel is working a kidnapping). The two guess their cases are related and team up.
Novik from Tower of God eggs his team mates on to establish a strength hierarchy and beats almost all of them.
Energize vs the Heroes Unite Initiative in Energize: Hunted. As a result of both the HU Commander and Nemesis pursuing their own separate agendas.
In El Goonish Shive, an Immortal deliberately set up a fight between Elliot and a griffin named Tara in hopes of getting Elliot killed. This method was chosen, as Immortals are forbidden from acting directly.

Web Originals

Let's not forget the Deadliest Fiction Wiki, designed for the express purpose of playing this trope out.
Epic Rap Battles of History: A couple of Season 4 battles have one side invoking this on the other so as to disrupt team flow:
- Lewis and Clark make note of Bill's stepmom, something which Ted agrees with and Bill isn't that pleased with, causing them to waste bars getting themselves squared away.
- Sun Tzu points out that Socrates is the father of Western philosophy and by implication Nietzsche and Voltaire are his pupils. Nietzsche takes exception^note and starts a feud with Socrates; Voltaire tries to play peacemaker but Socrates in turn was incensed at Voltaire (specifically his rigging of the French lottery) - Team West ended up bickering amongst themselves, just as Sun Tzu planned. Team East ended up doing the same to themselves after one Ice-Cream Koan too many.
The solution to the Wizard Standoff Riddle is to reject the most powerful wands to make yourself a weaker target, so that one of other two wizards will eliminate each other before your second turn.
Red vs. Blue This is the precise method that Charon Industries and its shadow forces spend years manipulating/building up the bitterness/enmity between the two main armies/people of the planet Chorus to have them kill each other instead of just simply nuking them, making it alarmingly suspicious to offworlders, and thus leading to them eventually tragically killing each other off during a long, bloody war, thus leaving its invaluable alien artifacts ripe for the taking for the ones that incited the whole conflict and fueled their hatred toward the two factions over the years and would have succeeded entirely if the Red & Blues hadn't interfered/broken the otherwise-endless cycle of hatred/resentment between said two factions of the New Republic and the Federal Army of Chorus.
SCP Foundation: SCP-1936 is a down in Lovecraft Country that plays host to a massive civil war between eldritch deities, supported by a cult known as the Victory Society. It turns out the Society is engineering the conflict in order to distract these monstrosities, turning them against one another before they can turn their focus and their terrible power on the rest of humanity.
TierZoo: Crows are noted to be Weak, but Skilled — they don't have the best defense, health, stealth, or attack, but they are fast and highly intelligent to the point where they can manipulate multiple threats into attacking each other by pecking one of them, then fleeing the scene and letting the irritated victim take its aggression out on the nearest target.
Dimension 20: In A Starstruck Odyssey, one of Margaret's abilities invokes this. Call the Guards lets her force an enemy attacking her to instead attack her ally (usually Big Barry Syx) and lets the ally immediately attack if the enemy misses. She uses it offensively in the Battle of the Brands, goading Brutus the Korn Brutie into attacking her so Barry can intercede and tackle him out of the arena.

Western Animation

American Dragon: Jake Long: In "Something Fishy This Way Comes", Jake becomes convinced that his principal is the shapeshifting Kelpie that he's looking for and attacks her, only for it turn out that she's an undercover mermaid detective also looking for the Kelpie and thinks that Jake is its disguise. The main reason for this misunderstanding is their ignorance of each other's secrets, made worse by the fact that they keep running into each other investigating the Kelpie's trail without valid reasons for why they'd be there.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender, between the Gaang and Zuko the first time they meet after his Heel–Face Turn during the third season. Understandable given their history, which included a Heel–Face Turn he didn't quite complete at the end of the second season, something that Katara angrily reminds him off before and after he makes this one stick.
- Earlier in the series, Sokka caused a rare heroic example of this trope. After the Gaang was captured by a group of pirates to trade to Zuko for a waterbending scroll, Sokka pointed out that Aang is the Avatar, and the Firelord would pay a much higher bounty for Aang than they could get from the scroll. The pirates started fighting Zuko forces, creating a distraction for the Gaang to escape both groups.
In Fantastic Four: The Animated Series series, the Black Panther did it without a misunderstanding. It looked very much like he woke up one morning thinking hunting them would be fun. If completely unfamiliar with the character, you'd have thought he was a villain in the vein of Kraven the Hunter, but it turns out that he's, well, Black Panther, and he's testing the Four's strength to see if they were badass enough to help him out.
The crossover episode Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United starts that way, with Rex Salazar mistaking Ben Tennyson for an EVO and Ben mistaking Rex for an alien. The fight is relatively short however, and most of the special deals with them cooperating.
In the Beware the Batman episode "Reckoning", Batman is simultaneously confronted by several of his enemies trying to claim the dead-or-alive reward offered by Ra's al Ghul. Batman surrenders to one of them, who is then attacked by another villain, and so on until Batman is able to simply walk away from the free-for-all.
Carmen Sandiego (2019): V.I.L.E. leadership Dr. Maelstrom invokes this idea to his colleague Coach Brunt in order to break apart the alliance of the traitors Carmen and Shadowsan by revealing to the former Shadowsan killed Carmen's father on orders from the leadership council. What this plan fails to account for is the trust the two have in each other allows Carmen to work through her anger and just asks Shadowsan to confirm the details he can, and when third party evidence backs up his version of events, the alliance is stronger than ever.
In Celebrity Deathmatch, when they had daytime talkshow hosts Oprah Winfrey, Rosie O'Donnell, and Jerry Springer in a match, Springer decided to go this angle by trying to pit Oprah and Rosie against each other while he stays safe. However, it comes back to bite him in the ass as the two ladies eventually realize he's playing them. They both decide to team up, grabbing one of his legs each, and then pulling until he splits down the middle.
Codename: Kids Next Door, "Operation: D.O.G.F.I.G.H.T." does this, by having The Kid fight Numbuh 2 (both of them like to eat chili dogs, which plays a role in the plot). Later turns out that the owner of the hobby shop they both frequent told The Kid that Numbuh 2 was trying to destroy chili dog stands. Guess who's really behind that plan (hint: he doesn't like chili dogs staining his counter). And, a la Buffy, we didn't find out until The Kid brought it up.
From the DC Animated Universe:
- In the Superman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Animated Series crossover, there is a scene where Superman meets Batman for the first time while he is in the process of crossing two lines: a) Don't threaten and/or beat up the mooks any more than is necessary and b) Don't do it on Superman's turf. Supes tries to get Batman to stand down. Batman throws Superman across the room. A second later, Superman has him pinned to the wall, commenting that he had heard he was crazy, but "I didn't think you were stupid." Then Batman gets out the Kryptonite...
  Batman (holding out a minuscule sliver of Kryptonite as Superman buckles): It doesn't take much, does it?
...in response to Superman using his X-Ray vision to discover who he is. All of this builds up to the end of the episode, which reveals the real reason for Batman's attack when (after Batman takes the time to warn him that The Joker is after him with a buttload more Kryptonite and departs) Superman finally gets a moment to himself in his apartment in his secret identity as Clark Kent, discovers a tracking device hidden on his cape, and looks out the window to see Batman, several blocks down, watching him through a pair of binoculars.
- The same episode has the villains' sidekicks, Mercy Graves and Harley Quinn, fighting in a Funny Background Event during a meeting between Lex Luthor and The Joker.
- The Zeta Project episode "Shadows" sets things up so that, in a spot of havoc by the rogue infiltration unit IU7, Batman becomes convinced that Zeta has returned to his old ways. Their encounter doesn't have the same visceral satisfaction of many other examples, as Zeta is barely even defending himself.
- Static is giving Batman a hand with a villain's time machine in the Batcave when he's flung 40 years into the future. The new Batman, not recognizing him and reasonably considering him an intruder, tussles with him until the elderly Bruce Wayne breaks it up. He's been expecting this day, and he needs them both for a mission...
- In the Justice League episode "The Terror Beyond", Superman, Wonder Woman, and Hawkgirl stumble upon Dr. Fate, Inza, and Aquaman apparently torturing Solomon Grundy. Supes demands that they stop; Dr Fate decides that there isn't enough time to explain what's going on. He makes a shield to block the heroes out, and when that fails, he magically teleports everyone away... and when that fails, Hawkgirl kicks his butt.
- Technically, this trope also occurs in the episode "Paradise Lost". In it, both Wonder Woman and Superman have hallucinations in which they see each other as a monster and then proceed to attack each other. Superman discovers the ruse when he sees Wonder Woman's reflection in water. He tries to tell her, but she still sees him as a monster and continues to attack. One would think that she would start to wonder why it wasn't fighting back but she was so enraged that the thought never occurred to her. She finally snaps out of it when the monster answers her inquiry ("Where is Superman?!") by pointing to a mirror, revealing him to be the monster she was holding in a choke-hold.
- In "Legends", four of the Founding League members are accidentally transported to a parallel Earth and Flash and Green Lantern witness Music Master steal a priceless violin. Although Music Master gets away, Green Lantern manages to retrieve the violin. Unfortunately for him, the local heroes, Justice Guild, show up right after and mistake him and the Flash for the real thief. The resulting battle only ends when the Streak sees the Flash rescue a child from being crushed by rubble caused when J’onn J’onzz is knocked into a building and realizes that the Flash was a good guy after all.
- In "Ultimatum", the Ultimen have literally no valid reason whatsoever to fight the Justice League other than deciding that, as failed clones who have ludicrously short lifespans, defeating the Justice League will make them be remembered after they die. Batman and even their own teammate Longshadow are very quick to point out how flawed their logic is and how pointless it is to fight for no reason, with Bats even believing that such irrational behavior has to be the fault of their minds deteriorating. It also happens to be one of the most genuinely tragic examples of this trope.
- Then there's the Justice League Unlimited episode "Clash," which has Superman and Captain Marvel come to blows after Superman, having his suspicions about an underground device with a timer attached to it below Lex Luthor's newly-built city, refuses to listen to Marvel's reasonable suggestion to have some of the heroes check the device to see what it is. The resulting fight does considerable damage to the city which Luthor was counting on all along to bolster his growing popularity and paint the Justice League in a bad light and ends with Marvel quitting the League after a What the Hell, Hero? speech to the founding members.
- The JLU episode "Double Date", not long before "Clash", has Green Arrow and Black Canary defending a loathsome, but under police protection mob boss against a rogue Huntress and Question. This ends up being a case where, out of four established characters with comparable abilities, there ends up being a clear winner. Probably due in part to them being depicted as the "good guys" in this encounter, Green Arrow and Black Canary win.
In the Futurama episode "The Farnsworth Parabox", when the Planet Express crew meet themselves from a Parallel Universe, both groups assume the other is evil, as mirror universe doppelgangers are always evil. Of course, neither are evil (not that either are good, either).
"Hercules and the Arabian Night", an episode of Hercules: The Animated Series, had a crossover with Aladdin: The Series, with a Villain Team-Up of Jafar and Hades. After failing to destroy each other's nemeses, the villains engineered a fight between the two heroes.
In the House of Mouse short "Mickey's Cabin", Mickey is held hostage in his cabin by Pete and his cousin Zeke after they rob a bank, and Mickey outwits the two by convincing each of them that the other is going to steal the money they took.
Mickey Mouse: Aww... gee, fellas. Don't fight, and whatever you do, don't use a hammer and a baseball bat.
[Cue the hammer and baseball bat]
In the mini-series Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates, New Jersey Jones (no relation to Indy; he's a con artist capitalizing on the Jones name) uses this trope verbatim to get Indy and Bill Lawton to fight.
Kappa Mikey: One episode does this, with Gonard and a lobster that had escaped from the kitchen.
Looney Tunes:
- In a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon, Henery Hawk watches next to a boiling stew pot as Foghorn and Barnyard Dawg fight it out.
  Henery: I don't care who wins. I'll fricassee the loser!
- In the Bugs Bunny cartoon "French Rarebit", Bugs is being pursued by two competing French chefs who each want him for the special of the day. Bugs tricks them into fighting each other so that he can get away.
- Daffy Duck got in a similar situation in "What Makes Daffy Duck", where he's being hunted by a fox and by Elmer Fudd. He tries to get the pair into competing over who gets to have him.
- Another Foghorn Leghorn cartoon has Daffy Duck as a salesman, selling traps to both Foghorn and Barnyard Dawg in what turns into an escalating prank war. Daffy gets sloppy however in the end when he sells both same kit. Upon seeing each other setting up the same trap, they quickly realize Daffy's game, and team up, trapping Daffy in the very trap he sold them.
Miraculous Ladybug typically doesn't have this trope come up, as the heroes tend to know when new heroes come around. Ladybug generally recruits a new hero with a Miraculous and Cat knows what is going on. The first time it happened he was surprised but his first instance was not 'hit Rena Rouge in face'. The time that Alya dons the Ladybug instead of the Fox Miraculous while Marinette is away is a different story, where he does in fact try to hit her in the face and have a brief fight. This is at least partially because Cat's first instinct was 'someone replaced Ladybug' and not 'Ladybug got a sub', though the example remains atypical,
Popeye: "What- No Spinach?", provoked by Wimpy. A waiter in Bluto's restaurant, Wimpy incites a Diner Brawl between Popeye and Bluto by spiking Popeye's roast duck with red pepper sauce, causing the sailor to march out in a huff. Bluto sees a customer leave without paying and attacks him, giving Wimpy free rein to plunder the food safe.
South Park: In "Tweek vs. Craig", the boys make up stories to get Tweek and Craig to fight.
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends: The episode dealing with the origin of Iceman manages to work in a fight between the two heroes prior to their official team-up, until Spidey managed to talk some sense into him.
Spider-Man: The Animated Series did it with Daredevil, who thought Spider-Man was the one who framed Peter Parker, given his particularly poor reputation at the time.
Star Trek: Lower Decks: "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie": AGIMUS constantly tries to manipulate people into fighting each other. In particular, he stokes Boimler's resentment of Mariner's overbearing ways to goad him into fighting and eventually firing on Mariner. However, this turns out to be Boimler playing along in order to manipulate AGIMUS himself.
Steven Universe has a fight between Amethyst and Pearl in "On the Run". Amethyst battles Pearl because Amethyst feels really bad about where she came from and Pearl is being insensitive.
Brianne Drouhard has made a little animatic of Amy Winston clashing with the "Burrito Bandit" (implied and later revealed to be Batgirl of Super Best Friends Forever; there's evidence that both are very skilled with computers) online and swearing to find her. The creators of both shows seem to agree that they would end up as best friends. However, she has also gone on the record as saying that actually animating it would get her arrested.
In the Teen Titans episode "Deep Six", the Titans team up with Aqualad to stop a painfully-egotistical villain named Trident, who's using toxic chemicals to clone himself and take over the world. Because they all have the same thoughts and personality, Beast Boy is able to get all the clones to fight each other by saying that only one of them can be true perfection, letting their collective egos turn them against each other.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
- In one episode of the 1987 series, Usagi is forced to attack the titular turtles by a bad guy who tells him his sensei will be killed if he does not.
- The 2003 series has Leonardo and Raphael getting into this in episodes like "A Better Mousetrap" and "City at War".
In Transformers: Animated, the Autobots met Jetfire and Jetstorm this way, assuming them to be Decepticons because only Decepticons have access to flight modes. They were unaware that Jetfire and Jetstorm were the first Autobots to obtain fully functioning flight modes.
The Transformers G1 cartoon has a few examples. Season 3 twice contrives a way to have Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime fight (once when Optimus has been brainwashed by the Quintessons, once when Rodimus has been infected with the Hate Plague). Before that "War of the Dinobots" saw Megatron manipulate the three original Dinobots into attacking Optimus Prime. Then the two new Dinobots turn up and...clue's in the title.
Brock arranges this in the season 3 finale of The Venture Bros., pitting General Treister's forces against The Monarch's. However, he doesn't anticipate Sgt. Hatred showing up with Hank and Dean's clones to turn it into a Mêlée à Trois, which is enough for Brock to come out of hiding and give himself up.
Winx Club:
- In episode 22 of the third season, Riven mistakenly believes that Nabu (at the time using the fake name Ophir) is trying to steal Musa from him due to a Not What It Looks Like situation, and when he arrives at the Red tower where the others are, everyone but Nabu has been knocked unconscious after a fight with the guardians of the Red tower, and Riven assumes that Nabu was responsible for that as well. Before Nabu gets a chance to explain what is going on, Riven attacks him and Nabu has to fight back. Luckily, the others regain consciousness, stop the fight, and clear up the misunderstanding.
- Also in the third season, Valtor creates illusions that make the various schoolmasters fight one another, to everyone's shock and confusion.
An unusual example in Young Justice with a hero pulling this on two villains. The team are captured and held in stasis, guarded by the powerful Black Beetle, who mopped the floor with them in the first place. Who does Arsenal free first in order to keep Beetle occupied? Mongul, a Galactic Conqueror who can go toe-to-toe with Superman.

Real Life

For an example of this occurring in the animal kingdom, here's a hooded crow tricking two cats into escalating a territorial dispute into a direct fight. Clearly enjoying the chaos he's created, the crow then follows them down off a roof and begins playing the referee!
Some old-school American conservatives, “paleo”conservatives, so-called - Pat Buchanan most notably - have argued in recent years that the United States should have done the passive version of this trope during World War II, staying out of the war entirely and letting Nazi Germany and Communist Russia annihilate each other. On the other hand, Harry Truman argued that the U.S. should enter the war on the side of which of the two combatants was the weaker in order to neutralize the greater threat. Winston Churchill, meanwhile, asserted that the Nazis were definitely the biggest threat and that the Allies should team up with whoever opposed the Nazis, even if it was the Devil himself.
- This did happen to some degree, depending on ones perspective. While air and naval campaigns were underway by the US, UK, and other allies, ground incursions didn't happen in Italy until September 1943, well after the Germans had been thrown back from Stalingrad and lost a large chunk of their army and France until June 1944, after Russia had made large amounts of progress and pushed Germany halfway back to Poland. The Soviets argued strenuously that both invasions begin as soon as possible.
- America's position during WWI essentially amounted to this. The overwhelming majority opinion of American's was that the whole war was a case of Evil Versus Evil and there could be nothing but good from letting Imperial powers fight each other to the death.
- There is a heavy dose of unspoken Realpolitik to both perspectives - the American heartland would not be directly affected by a war between European powers so it can afford to be isolationist. Meanwhile, Germany is a more direct threat to the British Empire than Soviet Russia is, so obviously Churchill would argue for making a deal with Russia to defeat Germany, even breaking its promise to Poland by doing so. Ironically, the British Empire collapsed anyway after being bankrupted because of the war.
The Communists in China used this during WWII to position themselves to take control of the country from the vanquished Japanese and exhausted Nationalists that had nominal control.
A lot of Eastern European historians (especially Polish ones) accuse the USSR of employing this tactic during WWII. They argue that once the Red Army had dealt a mortal wound to the German military at Leningrad and Stalingrad, they took their time liberating the rest of eastern Europe. This was done so that partisan groups would wear themselves out fighting the Nazis and anti-Soviet resistance would be minimal.
- This point of view is supported, to a degree, by Russian inactivity during the Warsaw Rising of 1944. The Red Army was within striking distance of Warsaw by August 1944 and could have provided both material and physical support to the Polish partisan army. instead, the Russians held back and did nothing. While this could be explained in terms of the Red Army advance having out-run its logistic support, necessitating the Front regrouped for the next stage, it becomes harder to explain why British support aircraft were absolutely refused permission to refuel at Russian-held airfields - vitally necessary to ensure more than token air support could be made over Warsaw. Unless the observer takes the point of view that Stalin wanted the non-Communist resistence to weaken the Germans and destroy itself, so as to minimise post-war resistance to Soviet rule. (After the war, the minority Communist resistance was given the credit for the uprising - history was rewritten)
A complaint leveled against the US government by African American civil rights activists during The Vietnam War was that the war was being used to let the black and Asian men fight and kill each other while white imperialists reap the rewards.
- For that matter, the Viet Cong were also known to infiltrate between two dug-in American positions before opening fire and slipping away, as this would incite the two positions to return fire onto each other in confusion.
Speaking of imperialists, this was a common strategy of colonial and imperial powers historically: make an "alliance" with one group of locals against another in exchange for their loyalty, then consolidate power over both of them once they've been weakened by the fighting. Getting local collaborators in your pocket is optional but encouraged.
This was the plan of the Yugoslav nationalists who arranged the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. And it worked. The action forced a fight between the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy). They knew Austria-Hungary didn't have the economy or the political power to sustain a war on such a large scale. With the army off fighting in foreign lands, local rebellions ate away at Austria-Hungary's territory and it eventually went bankrupt. Though perhaps they got a bit more than they bargained for, in starting the first World War.
- The Zimmermann telegram was Germany's attempt to do this with Mexico and the United States: by claiming to help Mexico retake the territories lost in the Mexican-American War, they hoped it'd keep the US (who was officially neutral at the time but heavily supported the Allies, and whose relations with Germany were rapidly souring) out of the war. It backfired tremendously, after the British gave an intercepted copy of it to the Americans, the US ended up declaring war on Germany a month later. The Mexican government commissioned a study into how feasible such a plan was, and determined that even if Germany gave the support it claimed it would, they would have had no chance of winning anyways.

Let's You and Him Fight
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Alternative Title(s): Fight Then Team Up, Marvel Misunderstanding

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Let's You and Him Fight
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Mario vs SMG4
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