History Main / AlikeAndAntitheticalAdversaries

* In the ''StarWars'' prequel trilogy, the infantry troops are all nearly identical, whether genetically or by being the same model of robot.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'': Both the Masters and their adversaries are extremely diverse.

* The early episodes of the ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats}} [=ThunderCats=]]]'': the titular heroes (with the exception of NonHumanSidekick Snarf) were all Thunderian {{Catfolk}}, 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 robot teddy-bears.
** This pattern holds in ContinuityReboot ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}} [=ThunderCats (2011)=]]]'', with TheHero Lion-O coming to understand that to defeat EvilOverlord Mumm-Ra's multi-species armies, he must gather PettingZooPeople allies as well.

* ''MastersOfTheUniverse'': Both the Masters and their adversaries are extremely diverse.

Humans are naturally social beings, and we can tell a lot about a person by knowing what groups they're a part of. What's more, we can tell a lot about a conflict depending on who makes up the given groups. Authors can take advantage of this to design the [[ShadesOfConflict overtones of a conflict]] by engineering the groups at war into being homogeneous (all alike) and/or heterogeneous (all different). This can have up to four combinations[[hottip:*:or eight if it's a three sided conflict, but we won't go there)]], as detailed below.

* '''Heterogeneous Heroes vs. Homogeneous 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 ([[FiveTokenBand race]], using {{Custom Uniform}}s), socially, [[MultinationalTeam culturally]], religiously, or [[FourTemperamentEnsemble 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 implying that an entire ''[[PlanetOfHats species]]'' are all equally villainous. One extreme representation of this is to make the villains NotEvenHuman, rather being 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 all aliens are evil)]].

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' featured The Federation, the Klingon Empire, and [[spoiler: [[EnemyMine The Romulans]]]], against The Dominion [[hottip:*: 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 ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'' had been.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* ''{{Berserk}}'' would be Heterogeneous 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 Homogeneous 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 Heterogeneous Villains as well.
[[/folder]]

* [[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 heterogeneous mix that was evil.

* ''StarWars: ReturnOfTheJedi'' 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.
** 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 and because humans are the only ones allowed into military training and only human worlds are allowed to have a militia.

* The prequel trilogy in ''StarWars'' uses this in the leader heroes and antagonists to demonstrate just how morally gray the war is. The Separatists aren't all bad, nor are the heroes fighting for the right reasons. They're all [[BigBad Darth Sidious']] [[ManipulativeBastard pawns.]]

* '''Heterogeneous Heroes vs. Homogeneous 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 all aliens are evil)]].

* '''Heterogeneous Heroes vs. Heterogeneous Villains:''' Portraying both as heterogeneous 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. In these cases the conflict may be characterized as TheFederation against the {{Anti-Human Alliance}}.

* The original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' also had this with the Enterprise bridge crew being ethnically diverse including a black woman, which would have been impossible at the time, and an [[HalfBreed half alien]] where as the main enemies were the Klingons and Romulans who were portrayed as fairly homogeneous.

* The {{X-Men}} vs. bigot group of the week. Seriously. The X-Men, being mutants, come from diverse walks of life, and the humans who "hate and fear them" and routinely mess up their front yard are also (usually) very diverse. The message being that bigotry and intolerance can come in any shape and size.

* "The Matrix" takes this trope to the next level: it has a diverse group of characters as the rebellion, spanning multiple races, ages, and genders, but the villains -the agents- are as homogeneous as you can get: they have the same appearance, voice, costume, etc.

Humans are naturally social beings, and we can tell a lot about a person by knowing what groups they're a part of. What's more, we can tell a lot about a conflict depending on who makes up the given groups. Authors can take advantage of this to design the [[ShadesOfConflict overtones of a conflict]] by engineering the groups at war into being homogenous (all alike) and/or heterogeneous (all different). This can have up to four combinations[[hottip:*:or eight if it's a three sided conflict, but we won't go there)]], as detailed below.

* '''Heterogeneous 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 all aliens are evil)]].
* '''Homogenous Heroes vs. Heterogeneous Villains:''' Flipping the above has an interesting effect. Having the heroes share the same background (be it family, home town, or ideology) or world view [[HowToGatherCharacters can make it easier to bring them together]]. The similarities don't necessarily have to be religious, ethnic or even in wardrobe, however they share enough similarities of one kind or another that viewers who know the characters can infer that good people share these same unifying trait(s) and values. Conversely, a bunch of [[EqualOpportunityEvil diverse minions]] lead by the CosmopolitanCouncil show that evil can take any shape, and warns that TheDarkSide isn't exclusive in its membership (and avoid irate censors). One interpretation of this is that evil is divisive, while good is unifying. Heroes [[ThePowerOfFriendship can work together]], villains [[TheStarscream backstab]] each other [[VillainBall into failure.]]
* '''Heterogenous Heroes vs. Heterogenous Villains:''' Portraying both as heterogeneous 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. In these cases the conflict may be characterized as TheFederation against the {{Anti-Human Alliance}}.
* '''Homogenous Heroes vs. Homogenous Villains:''' On the other hand, monochromatic bands of heroes and villains are very... well, archetypal. Here the differences between characters are drawn not from obvious background or appearance, but in motivation and character. A story where both bands are of "identical" groups can focus more on what brings entire groups into AlwaysLawfulGood and AlwaysChaoticEvil territory, while spending time focusing on individual motivation.

It's worth mentioning that a story can begin with either side (or both) as homogenous and transition into a completely heterogeneous cast with the help of characterization, an EnemyCivilWar, and of course the DefectorFromDecadence who [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch protests]] their brother's ways. If this is SpeculativeFiction, then sometimes InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace will come up.

* ''{{Berserk}}'' would be Heterogeneous 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.

* By the end of ''WesternAnimation/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]].
* Subtly done in ''SaintsRow2'' (though you would ''hardly'' call the protagonists [[VillainProtagonist heroes]]). While gang members at the bottom of a gang tend to be any gender or race, the further up you go in a gang the more homogenous in race and origin they tend to be (for example, the top Ronin leaders are all rich Japanese guys). Right from the start, the generals in the Saints are [[FiveTokenBand a diverse group.]]

* [[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.

* ''Film/FireAndIce'' has the heroes all represented as caucasian, while the bad guys are [[BeastMan Beast Men]] who are led by TheManBehindTheMonsters.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' featured The Federation, the Klingon Empire, and [[spoiler: [[EnemyMine The Romulans]]]], against The Dominion [[hottip:*: 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.

* In ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the Federation was a peaceful amalgam of various species, while the Borg were a HiveMind of complete conformity.
* The Original StarTrek also had this with the Enterprise bridge crew being ethnically diverse including a black woman, which would have been impossible at the time, and an [[HalfBreed half alien]] where as the main enemies were the Klingons and Romulans who were portrayed as fairly homogeneous.

* ''StarTrek DeepSpaceNine'' featured The Federation, the Klingon Empire, and [[spoiler: [[EnemyMine The Romulans]]]], against The Dominion [[hottip:*: 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.

* 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.

* '''Homogenous Heroes vs. Heterogeneous Villains:''' Flipping the above has an interesting effect. Having the heroes share the same background (be it family, home town, or ideology) or world view [[HowToGatherCharacters can make it easier to bring them together]]. The similarities don't necessarily have to be religious, ethnic or even in wardrobe, however they share enough similarities of one kind or another that viewers who know the characters can infer that good people share these same unifying trait(s) and values. Conversely, a bunch of [[EqualOpportunityEvil diverse minions]] lead by the CosmopolitanCouncil show that evil can take any shape, and warns that TheDarkSide isn't exclusive in its membership. (And avoid irate censors). One interpretation of this is that evil is divisive, while good is unifying. Heroes [[ThePowerOfFriendship can work together]], villains [[TheStarscream backstab]] each other [[VillainBall into failure.]]

Humans are naturally social beings, and we can tell a lot about a person by knowing what groups they're a part of. What's more, we can tell a lot about a conflict depending on who makes up the given groups. Authors can take advantage of this to design the [[ShadesOfConflict overtones of a conflict]] by engineering the groups at war into being homogenous (all alike) and/or heterogenous (all different). This can have up to four combinations[[hottip:*:or eight if it's a three sided conflict, but we won't go there)]], as detailed below.

* '''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 all aliens are evil)]].
* '''Homogenous Heroes vs. Heterogenous Villains:''' Flipping the above has an interesting effect. Having the heroes share the same background (be it family, home town, or ideology) or world view [[HowToGatherCharacters can make it easier to bring them together]]. The similarities don't necessarily have to be religious, ethnic or even in wardrobe, however they share enough similarities of one kind or another that viewers who know the characters can infer that good people share these same unifying trait(s) and values. Conversely, a bunch of [[EqualOpportunityEvil diverse minions]] lead by the CosmopolitanCouncil show that evil can take any shape, and warns that TheDarkSide isn't exclusive in its membership. (And avoid irate censors). One interpretation of this is that evil is divisive, while good is unifying. Heroes [[ThePowerOfFriendship can work together]], villains [[TheStarscream backstab]] each other [[VillainBall into failure.]]
* '''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. In these cases the conflict may be characterized as TheFederation against the {{Anti-Human Alliance}}.

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. If this is SpeculativeFiction, then sometimes InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace will come up.

* ''{{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.

* Subtley done in ''SaintsRow2'' (though you would ''hardly'' call the protagonists [[VillainProtagonist heroes]]). While gang members at the bottom of a gang tend to be any gender or race, the further up you go in a gang the more homogenous in race and origin they tend to be (for example, the top Ronin leaders are all rich Japanese guys). Right from the start, the generals in the Saints are [[FiveTokenBand a diverse group.]]

* [[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 heterogenous mix that was evil.

* In ''Literature/{{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.

* "The Matrix" takes this trope to the next level: it has a diverse group of characters as the rebellion, spanning multiple races, ages, and genders, but the villains -the agents- are as homogeneous as you can get: they have the same appearance, voice, costume, etc.

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

* Though in terms of alliances ''TheLordOfTheRings'' has '''both''' sides of the conflict employ diverse peoples and even species, on the ground Sauron was the only one to employ mixed forces with Goblins, Orcs, Uruk Hai, Trolls and Easterlings. The hero factions only unite on the field on a handful of occasions. Interestingly, the diversity of The Fellowship is often remarked upon.

* 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.

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