History Main / AlikeAndAntitheticalAdversaries

* '''Heterogenous Heroes vs. Homogenous Villains:''' The "classic" set up. This is used when an author wants to portray good as multicultural or what not and the bad guys as all alike and all equally evil. The good guys will often work by TeethClenchedTeamwork and be a very diverse RagTagBunchOfMisfits, both superficially (race, using {{Custom Uniform}}s), socially, culturally, religiously, or temperamentally. To contrast, the baddies will usually be monochromatic in very obvious ways. At the very least they will [[DressCodedForYourConvenience all dress alike]], and complement that overt gesture by being [[KnightTemplar ideological or religious extremists]], all the same [[GenericEthnicCrimeGang ethnicity]], being solely [[AlwaysMale men]] [[MonogenderMonsters or]] [[AlwaysFemale women]], or even ''[[PlanetOfHats species]].'' One extreme representation of this is to use a horde of identical [[RobotWar robots]], [[BugWar insects]] or [[OpeningACanOfClones clones]]. The symbolism here is that heroes can come from any walk of life, but villains are all the same. This can be especially useful when using non-human enemies or imaginary ideologies, as it can avoid designating any real world equivalents as bad[[hottip:*:(Of course, it may instead make the kids at home think that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint all aliens are evil]])]].

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: Film]]
* ''FireAndIce'' has the heroes all represented as caucasian, while the bad guys are [[BeastMan Beast Men]] who are led by TheManBehindTheMonsters.
* In the ''StarWars'' prequel trilogy, the infantry troops are all nearly identical, whether genetically or by being the same model of robot.

[[folder: Video Games]]
* The Alliance and the Horde in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' each consist of five or six different races united towards common goals. Graying things up further is that, despite their own animosity, the Horde and Alliance have (reluctantly) worked together in the face of common enemies.
** A much less gray example from the same game is Twilight's Hammer (villainous) vs. The Earthen Ring (heroic).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Role Playing Game]]

* In ''{{Animorphs}}'', both sides of the conflict are very heterogenous, both in species and personalities. Yeerks, by their very nature, must essentially '''become''' different species (in addition to more traditionally recruiting other species, like the Taxxons, for their uses). Humans, Hork-Bajir, and Andalites all oppose the Yeerk forces. Both factions have individuals who switch sides or change beliefs or alliances, and a major theme of the series as a whole is that no one species is all good or all bad.

* By the end of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'', members of all four nations are working to defeat [[TheEmpire The Fire Nation]], including characters from all over the already-highly-heterogenous [[TheFederation Earth Kingdom]].

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* [[CaptainPlanet The Planeteers]] are a good example of an on the surface diverse cast that is nonetheless homogenous. They all come from different continents and backgrounds, but share a common passion to save the planet. Meanwhile, their RoguesGallery is amazingly diverse, being motivated by greed, pride, gluttony or sheer spite. While the good guys are all united in saving the planet for the same reason [[ShapedLikeItself (which is that you should)]], the villains all have very different motivations.

* The early episodes of the ''{{Thundercats}}'': the titular heroes (with the exception of NonHumanSidekick Snarf) were all Thunderan (cat people), while the mutants were several varieties of PettingZooPeople. As the setting developed, it became more Het-v.-Het, as the Thundercats allied themselves with other residents of Third Earth, including the Amazon women and the robot teddy-bears.

* '''Heterogenous Heroes vs. Homogenous Villains:''' The "classic" set up. This is used when an author wants to portray good as multicultural or what not and the bad guys as all alike and all equally evil. The good guys will be a very diverse RagTagBunchOfMisfits, both superficially (race, using {{Custom Uniform}}s), socially, culturally, religiously, or temperamentally. To contrast, the baddies will usually be monochromatic in very obvious ways. At the very least they will [[DressCodedForYourConvenience all dress alike]], and complement that overt gesture by being [[KnightTemplar ideological or religious extremists]], all the same [[GenericEthnicCrimeGang ethnicity]], being solely [[AlwaysMale men]] [[MonogenderMonsters or]] [[AlwaysFemale women]], or even ''[[PlanetOfHats species]].'' One extreme representation of this is to use a horde of identical [[RobotWar robots]], [[BugWar insects]] or [[OpeningACanOfClones clones]]. The symbolism here is that heroes can come from any walk of life, but villains are all the same. This can be especially useful when using non-human enemies or imaginary ideologies, as it can avoid designating any real world equivalents as bad[[hottip:*:(Of course, it may instead make the kids at home think that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint all aliens are evil]])]].

* In ''Animorphs'', both sides of the conflict are very heterogenous, both in species and personalities. Yeerks, by their very nature, must essentially '''become''' different species (in addition to more traditionally recruiting other species, like the Taxxons, for their uses). Humans, Hork-Bajir, and Andalites all oppose the Yeerk forces. Both factions have individuals who switch sides or change beliefs or alliances, and a major theme of the series as a whole is that no one species is all good or all bad.

* [[MightyMorphinPowerRangers Various breeds of Power Rangers]], most notably the first group, consisted of a group of teenage martial artists from Angel Grove fighting a seemingly random mishmash of human- and non-human-shaped monsters. Interesting, some of the human-shaped monsters came from a family that was predominantly monster-shaped, and vice-versa, further underscoring the heterogynous mix that was evil.

* ''Harry Potter'' has courageous heroes motivated by The Power Of Love and cruel villains motivated by self-interest, prejudice and insanity (in varying quatities).

* ''StarTrek DeepSpaceNine'' featured The Federation, the Klingon Empire, and [[spoiler: [[EnemyMine The Romulans]]]], against The Dominion (itself made up of several different species), the Caradassians, and [[spoiler: The Breen]]. This, [[GreyAndGrayMorality along]] [[IDidWhatIHadToDo with]] [[WhatTheHellHero many]] [[ThisMeansWar other elements]], went along with this show being DarkerAndGrittier than ''TheNextGeneration'' had been.

* ''StarTrek DeepSpaceNine'' featured The Federation, the Klingon Empire, and [[spoiler: [[EnemyMine The Romulans]]]], against The Dominion (itself made up of several different species), the Caradassians, and [[spoiler: The Breen]]. This, [[GreyAndGrayMorality along]] [[IDidWhatIHadToDo with]] [[WhatTheHellHero many]] [[ThisMeansWar other elements]], went along with this show being DarkerAndGrittier than TheNextGeneration had been.

[[folder: LiveActionTelevision]]
* ''StarTrek DeepSpaceNine'' featured The Federation, the Klingon Empire, and [[spoiler: [[EnemyMine The Romulans]]]], against The Dominion (itself made up of several different species), the Caradassians, and [[spoiler: The Breen]]. This, [[GreyAndGrayMorality along]] [[IDidWhatIHadToDo with]] [[WhatTheHellHero many]] [[ThisMeansWar other elements]], went along with this show being DarkerAndGrittier than TheNextGeneration had been.

* '''Heterogenous Heroes vs. Homogenous Villains:''' The "classic" set up. This is used when an author wants to portray good as multicultural or what not and the bad guys as all alike and all equally evil. The good guys will be a very diverse RagTagBunchOfMisfits, both superficially (race, using {{Custom Uniform}}s), socially, culturally, religiously, or temperamentally. To contrast, the baddies will usually be monochromatic in very obvious ways. At the very least they will [[DressCodedForYourConvenience all dress alike]], and complement that overt gesture by being [[KnightTemplar ideological or religious extremists]], all the same [[GenericEthnicCrimeGang ethnicity]], being solely [[AlwaysMale men]] [[MonogenderMonsters or]] [[AlwaysFemale women]], or even ''[[PlanetOfHats species]].'' One extreme representation of this is to use a horde of identical robots, insects or clones. The symbolism here is that heroes can come from any walk of life, but villains are all the same. This can be especially useful when using non-human enemies or imaginary ideologies, as it can avoid designating any real world equivalents as bad[[hottip:*:(Of course, it may instead make the kids at home think that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint all aliens are evil]])]].

* '''Heterogenous Heroes vs. Heterogenous Villains:''' Portraying both as heterogenous groups has the effect of making a conflict seem [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism very worldly,]] or possibly even [[GreyAndGrayMorality gray.]] By removing easily identifiable unifying traits it makes it difficult to tell apart heroes and villains, at least in terms of characterization, and allows the author to dive right into questions of just what separates good and evil, heroes and villains.

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Live Action Television]]

[[AC: Manga and Anime]]
* ''{{Berserk}}'' would be Heterogenous Heroes (sort of, as there is a total of three black people; one character [Casca], one bystander, and the last one [Donovan] was an evil bastard on the same side as Guts) vs Homogenous Villains: The original FiveManBand had a ScaryBlackMan (Pippin), and the one black character in the Band of the Hawk other than Casca. The human enemies tend to be all white (or later on, all brown). When you throw in the demons, which are all unique because of the different lives they led [[WasOnceAMan as humans]] and the different [[DespairEventHorizon circumstances]] that led them to call on the Godhand to become demons, we get a case of Heterogenous Villains as well.

[[AC: Western Animation]]

[[AC: Western Animation]]

[[AC: Comic Books]]

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Role Playing Game]]

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Literature]]

[[AC: Literature]]

* '''Heterogenous Heroes vs. Homogenous Villains:''' The "classic" set up. This is used when an author wants to portray good as multicultural or what not and the bad guys as all alike and all equally evil. The good guys will be a very diverse RagTagBunchOfMisfits, both superficially (race, using {{Custom Uniform}}s), socially, culturally, religiously, or temperamentally. To contrast, the baddies will usually be monochromatic in very obvious ways. At the very least they will [[DressCodedForYourConvenience all dress alike]], and complement that overt gesture by being [[KnightTemplar ideological or religious extremists]], all the same [[GenericEthnicCrimeGang ethnicity]], [[AlwaysMale men]] [[MonogenderMonsters or]] [[AlwaysFemale women]], or even ''[[PlanetOfHats species]].'' One extreme representation of this is to use a horde of identical robots, insects or clones. The symbolism here is that heroes can come from any walk of life, but villains are all the same. This can be especially useful when using non-human enemies or imaginary ideologies, as it can avoid designating any real world equivalents as bad[[hottip:*:(Of course, it may instead make the kids at home think that all aliens are evil)]].

* ''{{Berserk}}'' would be Heterogenous Heroes (sort of, as there is a total of three black people; one character [Casca], one bystander, and the last one [Donovan] was an evil bastard on the same side as Guts) vs Homogenous Villains: The original FiveManBand had a ScaryBlackMan (Pippin), and the one black character in the Band of the Hawk other than Casca. The human enemies tend to be all white (or later on, all brown), while the Apostles that Guts and crew fight are all over the board.

* ''{{Berserk}}'' would be Heterogenous Heroes (sort of, as there is a total of three black people; one character [Casca], one bystander, and the last one [Donovan] was an evil bastard on the same side as Guts) vs Homogenous Villains: The original FiveManBand had a ScaryBlackMan (Pippin), and the one black character in the Band of the Hawk other than Casca. The human enemies tend to be all white (or later on, all brown).

* ''{{Berserk}}'' would be Heterogenous Heroes (sort of, as there is a total of three black people; one character, one bystander, and the last one was an evil bastard on the same side as Guts) vs Homogenous Villains: The original FiveManBand had a ScaryBlackMan, and the one black guy in the Band of the Hawk. The enemy tend to be all white (or later on, all brown).

* '''Heterogenous Heoes vs. Heterogenous Villains:''' Portraying both as heterogenous groups has the effect of making a conflict seem [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism very worldly,]] or possibly even [[GreyAndGrayMorality gray.]] By removing easily identifiable unifying traits it makes it difficult to tell apart heroes and villains, at least in terms of characterization, and allows the author to dive right into questions of just what separates good and evil, heroes and villains.

It's worth mentioning that a story can begin with either side (or both) as homogenous and transition into a completely heterogenous cast with the help of characterization, an EnemyCivilWar, and of course the DefectorFromDecadence who [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch protests]] their brother's ways.

** In ANewHope all rebels are human as well, making it Hom-H vs. Hom-V. And in TheEmpireStrikesBack, the use of the bounty hunters makes it more Hom-H vs Het-V. It is explained in the [[StarWarsExpandedUniverse EU material]] that in the beginning the military branch of TheAlliance was indeed mostly human, because the Empire's treatment of non-humans made them distrustful of ''all'' humans.

* ''StarWars: ANewHope'' has the multi-species Rebels and the [[PuttingOnTheReich implied in costume]] fascist Empire. EU material confirms the Empire to be speciesist, employing (mostly) only white male humans.