History Main / AppleOfDiscord

* ''Fanfic/JackieChanAdventuresOlympianJourney'' has the urn which Jackie finds at the start of the story, which causes anyone who sees it to covet it, and be willing to fight over it. Jackie tries using this against the VillainTeamUp that comes after him in the first chapter, only for him and his family to get drawn into the fight as well, ultimately resulting in [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the urn breaking and the godly essences trapped inside being freed]]. Fittingly enough, one of the deities trapped in the urn was Eris, the goddess who created the TropeNamer in the first place.

* [[https://storygirl000.tumblr.com/post/183000363826/dovewithscales-fedini-courfeyclause A Tumblr user]] discovered that Hershey's was selling gold foil-wrapped chocolate apples for Valentine's Day. Inspired by the TropeNamer, they bought one, wrote "The Fairest" under "To" on the label, left it out in the open, and waited to see if people would fight over it. It worked.

* A ''ComicBook/{{Bamse}}'' story involved some characters interfering with the opening of PandorasBox. Skalman temporarily defeated them by asking "Who is the most dangerous of you?". While the Ills argued, Hope managed to entrap them in the box again. Only to have it later opened by Pandora's husband.
* Happens constantly to the ComicBook/FantasticFour. The tiniest disagreement between them inevitably degenerates into shouting matches, which are basically ''never'' resolved and lead to a vicious cycle of passive-aggressive bickering and brooding (or in Ben and Johnny's case, {{No Holds Barred Beatdown}}s). They always get back together in the end though, usually after being forced to team up again to take down some supervillain or another.

** In the story "Asterix and the Roman Agent", the titular agent (who can start arguments just by standing there doing nothing) comes to the village with a vase as a gift to the most important man in the village. Instead of giving the vase to Chief Vitalstatistix, he gives it to Asterix, which leads to a chain reaction of arguments until the entire village is at odds with one another.
** Another one happened in "Caesar's Gift", when the coming of new citizens disrupts the order of the village enough that they are arguing over the best chief when the Romans begin firing catapults at the village. Of course, the Gauls argue a lot anyway, but usually, that's just VitriolicBestBuds mixed with BoisterousBruiser - open hostility is unusual.
* During one ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} adventure in the fictional country of Nazilia, an army is about to attack the king's castle. Popeye throws the would-be revolution into disarray by tossing a large lump of gold into the crowd saying whoever can get it keeps it. Soon the entire army has beaten themselves up fighting for it.
* During one of the occasions when ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} of the Comicbook/NewGods was dead, his will turned out to simply read "TO THE STRONGEST..." Cue ''massive'' infighting amongst the senior Gods of Apokolips.

* Referenced in ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline''. A particular guild (called, [[LampshadeHanging appropriately enough]], Golden Apple) found a rare item that granted a substantial stat boost to its wearer. Some guild members wanted to sell it for money, while others believed it would be better to keep it for themselves. The decision was put to vote, and the majority agreed it should be sold. The guild leader went off personally to sell it, but died mysteriously. Because of suspicions that the murderer was a fellow guild member, the guild fell apart. [[spoiler: In a subversion, it was later discovered that the person behind the guild leader's death had a completely unrelated motive, and took advantage of the [[LootDrama rare item]] dispute to avoid suspicion.]]

* ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'': Partway through the fifth volume, Kyousuke manages to summon the [[TopGod White Queen]]. This initially has the opposite effect of this trope, relaxing tensions among the members of the Fifteen Siblings Project. But over time, the Queen's presence stirs up all kinds of negative feelings: inadequacy at not being able to compare to her, fear of her incredible power, envy at Kyousuke for being able to monopolise her power. [[spoiler:This leads to the others trying to gain control over the Queen, and eventually to the horrors of the Secret War.]]

* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in ''VideoGame/LittleAlchemy2''. The Apple of Discord is an element in the [[DownloadableContent Myths and Monsters DLC]].

* I web short for ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueAction'' has The Joker and The Trickster kidnap a famous actor. Said actor then gets the two villains arguing with each other by imitating their voices, which gets them so riled up they don't notice where they're going until they get caught by Swamp Thing. The actor? None other than Creator/MarkHamill(AsHimself), who in Real Life [[TalkingToHimself voices all three characters]] for the show.

* One spin-off short from ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' has all the minions fighting over a banana. It eventually falls down a hole...cut to one minion standing apart from the crowd, taking a bite out of an apple. [[HereWeGoAgain Oh, no.]]

* ''Series/TheTenthKingdom'': The trolls are holding Virginia captive, and Wolf throws a box into the room. The note says that it's a present for the strongest, bravest troll. Cue all three knocking each other out.

* The {{Trope Namer|s}} and TropeCodifier is the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Apple of Discord]] used by the Greek Goddess of Strife, Eris. According to ''[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle The Judgement of Paris]]'', Zeus held a banquet to honor the wedding of mortal Peleus to immortal Thetis (who became Achilles' parents), but Eris [[RevengeSVP was not invited]]. To avenge this snub, Eris wrote "to the fairest" on a golden apple and threw it into the banquet, where a brawl ''immediately'' erupted, as every woman in attendance (bride included) fought for the right to claim the title.\\
At least twenty years later (by the time Peleus and Thetis had a son, named Achilles, who had grown into a famed warrior), the bickering over the apple ''still'' hadn't died down, but it had narrowed down to three women -- the three most powerful goddesses on Olympus (coincidence? You tell me.) These were Hera, queen of the gods, Athena, goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. The three demanded Zeus choose who was the "fairest", but he wisely declined. Instead, he chose a mortal man to arbitrate. Each goddess presented their beauty to him while also offering a prize should he choose them. Eventually he chose Aphrodite as winner and accepted her promise of the most beautiful woman in Greece. The man? Paris of Troy. The woman? Helen of Sparta. Thus began UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' had an episode spoofing this, where Billy, Mandy and Grim fight over pieces of Eris' Apple.
* Also in the Literature/TrojanCycle, Ajax son of Telamon and Odysseus jointly save Achilles' body but then fall out over which one of them deserves to be rewarded with Achilles' arms (which were fashioned by the god Hephaistos), which leads to Ajax' madness and suicide.

* In order to illustrate a position that is a won position for one player in TabletopGame/{{Chess}} but a mate in two for the other in TabletopGame/{{Shatranj}}, ''Chess Review'' magazine once ran a story called "The Case of the Missing Chessmen" wherein two guys investigate the mystery of a dying sixteenth century hidalgo in the New World, whose treasure find he decided (being insanely obsessed with Shatranj) to give to whichever of his two benefactors won a game. The loser betrayed the winner, but got mortally wounded in the process.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-050 SCP-050]] is a statue of a monkey with "To the Cleverest" written on its base. It loves pranks and pursuit of the title of cleverest trickster results in a [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/document-050 massive prank war]].

* ''Series/Zoey101'': The "Spring Break-Up" special had Tek-Mates, which the two teams of ''Gender Defenders'' use to communicate with each other. Chase steals Zoey's in an attempt to delete a text message he accidentally sent her proclaiming his love for her, which in turn causes her to lose one of the challenges. This causes Zoey and the other girls to get furious with Chase, and thus it turns into a real battle between girls and boys.

->'''Ron Swanson:''' Who broke it? ''[accusations fly]''\\
'''Ron:''' ''[to camera]'' I broke it. [...] I predict ten minutes from now, they'll be at each other's throats with warpaint on their faces and a pig head on a stick. ''Good.'' It was getting a little chummy around here.

'''Ron:''' ''[to camera]'' I broke it. [...] I predict that ten minutes from now, they'll be at each other's throats, with warpaint on their faces and a pig head on a stick. ''Good.'' It was getting a little chummy around here.

* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'':
** Dewey: This sort of behaviour is his modus operandi throughout the series with the younger brother being generally quiet but interjecting the right line at the right time so that everybody else will [[BatmanGambit react according to his plan]].
*** He does it to Hal's barbershop quartet group, asking the members why each of them has his own specific role within the group. They do make up (in the middle of a performance, no less), but presumably have problems again at the end, when Dewey starts in on them again.
*** He also works on a couple that performed. Five minutes after Dewey started in on them, they were in a gigantic fight.
** Malcolm, Reese and Dewey once pose as political demonstrators to avoid being sent to their mother after an act of vandalism. When someone decides to send each of them a cupcake, Lois removes the cherries from two of the cupcakes so they'll fight over the remaining one. The boys eventually wise up to her plan and merely send the cherry back.
* ''Series/TheTenthKingdom'': The trolls are holding Virginia captive, and Wolf throws a box into the room. The note says that it's a present for the strongest, bravest troll. Cue all three knocking each other out.

* On ''Series/BabylonFive'', Jha'dur's [[ImmortalityImmorality universal anti-agapic]] is a very intentional version of this on her part. Being [[LastOfTheirKind the only surviving Dilgar]], she offered up a drug that would grant immortality and immunity to disease, [[PoweredByAForsakenChild at the cost of another's life.]][[note]]The Vorlons [[TakeAThirdOption "settled things"]] by blowing her to atoms before any of the younger races could accept.[[/note]]
--> '''Jha'dur''': You will fall upon one another like wolves. It will make what we did pale by comparison. The billions that live forever will be a testimony to my work, and the billions who are murdered to buy that ''immortality'' will be the continuation of my work. [[NotSoDifferentRemark Like us? You will become us!]] That's my monument, Commander.
* ''Series/{{Spooks}}'' episode 4x03 has Adam Carter infiltrating a [[UsefulNotes/BritishPoliticalSystem far-right political party]] (which totally isn't [[ANaziByAnyOtherName the BNP]]) and manufacturing a rift between its leaders before they can ignite a race war.
* The ''Series/{{Jessie}}'' episode "Coffee Talk" had Jessie score VIP wristbands to a Justin Timberlake concert, but there's only two so she can take either Emma or Zuri, who argue over who will go. And when she gets only one of the wristbands in the mail, all three girls plus Ravi fight over it.

* ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' has the Golden Fruit, which is said to be the source of the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Overlords]]' power, and lust for that power drives allies into betraying each other (like [[spoiler:Takatora getting backstabbed by his inner circle and his younger brother]], or [[spoiler:Kaito inevitably breaking with the good Riders]]). The series itself actually implies that the Golden Fruit was the inspiration for several similar concepts from human myths and religion, which of course includes the Apple of Discord.
* One scene in an episode of ''Series/BluePeter'' had Matt Baker playing a treasure-hunting sailor who was about to be eaten by three sirens. He declared that the most beautiful of the three should be allowed the first bite, causing all three of them to say "Thank You!" in unison, then ran off as they began arguing about who he'd meant.
* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': One episode had Beck's friend from Canada come visit him. Cat, Jade, and Tori all become smitten with him and begin fighting with each other over him.

* I web short for ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueAction'' has The Joker and The Trickster kidnap a famous actor. Said actor then gets the two villains arguing with each other by imitating their voices, which gets them so riled up they don't notice where they're going until they get caught by Swamp Thing. The actor? None other than Creator/MarkHamill(AsHimself), who in Real Life [[TalkingToHimself who voices all three characters]] for the show.

* I web short for ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueAction has The Joker and The Trickster kidnap a famous actor. Said actor then gets the two villains arguing with each other by imitating their voices, which gets them so riled up they don't notice where they're going until they get caught by Swamp Thing. The actor? None other than Creator/MarkHamill(AsHimself), who in Real Life [[TalkingToHimself who voices all three characters]] for the show.

* In ''The Family Party'' by Creator/AGnosis, the GodOfChaos Eris grabs a literal apple, dedicates it to herself, and throws it to set off some DisasterDominoes in the BigScrewedUpFamily of the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek pantheon]].

-->'''courfeyclause:''' this is definitely how the college au of [[Literature/TheIlliad the iliad]] starts

The allusion of the name is to the Greek legend of how UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar really started: Eris, the goddess of discord, approached Hera (of fertility and happy marriage), Athena (of intelligence, you might say from a modern viewpoint) and Aphrodite (of love) while they were at an Olympic gathering, a wedding to which Eris had not been invited, and threw a golden apple among the three, on which was written "To the most beautiful one." Divine bitchfighting ensued, and in the end, when the three goddesses couldn't end their argument, they decided to ask [[JudgementOfParis Paris, a mortal prince of Troy]] (because [[TopGod Zeus]] chickened out on the topic). Each of them tried to bribe him so that he would choose her, and he decided it should belong to Aphrodite - versions differ on whether it was because it was true, and/or because she had promised him the hand of the most beautiful woman on Earth, a Spartan woman who would soon be better known as Helen of Troy. A woman who happened to be already married to another man...[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle but the rest is a longer story for another time]].

[[quoteright:320: "To The Fairest."]]