History Main / EnemyCivilWar

* Done more simply in ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' games. Get a monster to hit another of a different species (You can also invoke a fight with the same species if one of them hits an explosive barrel and it damages the other one), and bam, fight to the death. Then you shoot whichever one survived, weakened.
** In earlier versions of the game, due to a rare [[GoodBadBugs bug]], a monster can even get into fight with itself[[labelnote:*]]if it is damaged by a barrel that its own attack exploded; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_slF2ne_drQ this Cacodemon, for instance]][[/labelnote]], which [[DrivenToSuicide it generally will win]].

* ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'': The Subspace Emissary had the VillainTeamUp degrade into this after King Dedede turns out to be TheMole, and Ganondorf attempts to [[HijackedByGanon hijack the plot]] by offing Bowser and then ''[[TheStarscream attacking Master Hand.]]'' [[spoiler:(It's too bad [[TheManBehindTheMan Tabuu]] beat him to it.)]]
** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'': In "World of Light," Galeem's acquaintance, [[spoiler:Dharkon, ambushes Galeem and attempts to take over Galeem's project of capturing every capable fighter in the universe.]] In the TrueEnding, the battle is technically you versus the both of them, but not only do neither of them try to assist the other, both of them will sometimes create groups of replicas of playable characters as enemies--which then immediately start fighting each other instead of you.

** Likewise, [[BeastOfTheApocalypse the Evils of Humanity]] could easily beat Chaldea had they come together but this could never happen as they all have an underlying foundation of changing humanity in accordance to their whims and ideology, but said whims are all directly incompatible with each other. The first storyline's BigBad, Goetia (Beast I), started his plan to stop the second storyline's BigBad, [[spoiler:the Foreign God]] (Beast VII), and was willing to use Beast II (Tiamat) as what was essentially the ultimate safeguard to crush Chaldea for him in the seventh Singularity, who in turn didn't seem to care about (or even know) of his involvement in her arrival as she went about her own intentions. Kiara and Kama loathe each other despite being two halves of the same evil (Beast III/R and L, respectively) because they have fundamentally different ideas of what constitutes love. Beast IV:L ([[spoiler:Koyanskaya]]) and VII are the only ones that can even vaguely agree on working together but only from a massive distance and the former was planning on betraying the latter anyway via assimilation into her body to finish her plan.

* ''Series/TheSopranos'': Season 5 sees one develop with the Lupertazzi Family in New York thanks to a SuccessionCrisis following the death of family boss Carmine Lupertazzi Sr. Tony's plan is for the [=DiMeo=] crew to stay neutral and allow the Lupertazzis to weaken themselves in the ensuing conflict so they can take advantage afterwards. Unfortunately, his plan is ruined when his cousin Tony B. goes rogue and gets the family mixed up with the New York factions.

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'':
** Phil Coulson and his team masterfully cause one among the remaining HYDRA leadership after [[BigBad Whitehall's]] death midway through Season 2, which cripples large parts of the organization.
** Season 3 teases another HYDRA civil war occurring as a result of the power struggle between Grant Ward (representing a new SocialDarwinist version of the organization) and Gideon Malick (the last surviving leader of the HYDRA old guard). However, Malick eventually strikes a deal with Ward for [[BigBadDuumvirate joint leadership]].
* ''Series/TheDefenders2017'':

* ''Franchise/StarWars'':

** The big one is the Great Schism (or the Covenant Civil War) which began in ''{{VideoGame/Halo 2}}'', resulting in a EnemyMine situation between the Humans, the Elites, and some of the Grunts and Hunters who joined them.

** In "The Ties That Bind", it's revealed that Apokolips had fallen into one of these since the death of Darkseid in Season 2 (pre-"Unlimited"). The League even [[PragmaticHero leaves Granny Goodness on Apokolips so the war can continue]], meaning Apokolips won't attack Earth. Of course, as soon as Darkseid comes {{back|FromTheDead}}, [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking that civil war grinds to an instant halt]].

* At the climax of ''FanFic/QueenOfAllOni'', [[spoiler: [[VillainProtagonist Jade]] and [[GreaterScopeVillain Tarakudo]] finally meet and come to blows over control of the Shadowkhan, with their respective Generals also fighting each other]].

** ''Comicbook/TheSandman'' portrayed hell this way. Morpheus' first visit had hell ruled as a tripartite kingdom between Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Azazel. By the second time he visits, Lucifer has wrested complete power for himself again, though it is implied he allows petty demon politics like that to happen to amuse himself. [[note]]This wasn't Gaiman's intention but a mandate from DC editorial that he protested and detested so it would fit in with DC continuity where in another comic there was a triumvirate. Lucifer took power again simply because Gaiman decided to take a risk and ignore the editorial line.[[/note]]

Causes for these can be anything: TheStarscream staging a coup (usually because he doesn't want to risk [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority taking over]] in a [[ThrowingDownTheGauntlet trial by combat]]; the BigBad ''is'' more powerful, after all), a faction of DarkIsNotEvil members splitting off, some [[ScaryDogmaticAliens dogmatic schism]], filling the EvilPowerVacuum after the leader is offed, or even a full-on HeelFaceTurn[=/=]LaResistance. Expect these rebels to win, or at least survive long enough to allow the heroes to sneak in a goal for the win.

Subtrope of CivilWar and EvilWillFail. Contrast EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily, where evil gets along arbitrarily well, or RebelliousRebel, where the villain's revealing their treachery plans promptly causes a subordinate to revolt against him. Compare EvilVersusEvil, EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion. WeAREStrugglingTogether is a heroic inversion. See also AsskickingEqualsAuthority. Can result in TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil. See CivilWarcraft for the RTS version. Not to be mistaken with SetAMookToKillAMook.

** The second game continues this tradition. While the Terran Dominion has taken the place of the former Confederacy, the Kel-Morians and the Umojans are both still in existence, plus Raynor's Raiders leading an insurrection against the Dominion from within. Kerrigan, having engineered her Brood Mothers to believe in AsskickingEqualsAuthority full-stop, ends up having to fight one of her own who felt she had gone soft. Meanwhile, although the Khahai and Dark Templar factions of Protoss seem to have gotten along nicely (even to the point that their militaries have a unified chain of command and have co-engineered new technologies such as the Void Ray), a new splinter group has arisen in the Tal'Darim, who are loyal to Amon.

* In ''Podcast/SporadicPhantoms'', Kyle believes there's one going on in The Sharing between the rich donors and Elizabeth's Be You Now course. As usual, he's RightForTheWrongReasons: [[spoiler: Chapman and Visser Three want to get rid of her and her followers, while Elizabeth claims to be working under direct orders from The Council of Thirteen]]

* ''ComicBook/ActsOfVengeance'': What ultimately dooms ComicBook/{{Loki}}'s attempt at creating a LegionOfDoom are the facts that almost everybody's too high on their own egos to take orders from everyone else, and ComicBook/RedSkull (a Nazi) getting recruited alongside ComicBook/{{Magneto}} (a Holocaust survivor) - resulting in the latter [[BuriedAlive burying the former alive]].
* [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Marvel Comics']] ''ComicBook/EarthX''. Mephisto has deliberately created multiple universes full of lesser Devils, precisely so they will fight and plot against one another, creating chaos that spawns disasters while also obfuscating his own plans.
* The ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe]]'' comic eventually had a civil war within Cobra, pitting Serpentor against Cobra Commander (Fred VII, who had TheBaroness supporting his deception). The Joes sided with Serpentor for political reasons (as well as a black box Serpentor's Star Viper had stolen from the Joes). In the end, Serpentor was killed, and [[MadScientist Dr. Mindbender]] (who'd sided with his creation) quickly negotiated a settlement with Fred, leaving the Joes hanging. Destro only showed up to retrieve the Baroness.
** There was another Cobra Civil War in the Devil's Due series (between Cobra's main forces and the Coil), but this series has since been "[[CanonDiscontinuity disavowed]]" by Hasbro.
** The new [[ComicBook/GIJoeIDW IDW series]], which reboots the continuity after the end of the Marvel series, is including its own Cobra Civil War.

* Tends to happen a lot with ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' villains. In particular, Bizarro (Superman's EvilKnockoff) [[SelfDuplication created]] his own monstrous version of Superman's RoguesGallery back home on BizarroWorld. Superman often finds himself maintaining the balance of power to [[SaveTheVillain keep the two sides from killing each other]].
* ''Comicbook/TheFlash'' series actually had a story arc called ''[[RoguesGallery Rogue]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin War]]'' wherein he had to stop three separate factions of villains from killing each other and a bunch of innocent bystanders. Four if you count [[EvilCounterpart Zoom]] as his own faction. Six if you count Gorilla Grodd and Doctor Alchemy as separate factions.
* Occurs with the New York branch of The Foot after the Shredder's death in ''[[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', with several factions fighting each other for control of the city. Among them are the Foot Elite, a group of Shredder loyalists who indiscriminately kill all the other groups. Later stories, such as Tristan Jones' recent issues of ''Tales'' and Volume 3, deal with the war's fallout.

* Whenever there are supervillain team ups in ''Franchise/SpiderMan'', this trope is frequently the reason he beats them. In fact, Spidey will often goad the villains into fighting each other or trick them into accidentally hurting each other, which frequently triggers the former.

* ''[[Recap/AsterixAndTheGoths Asterix and the Goths]]'' does this. Getafix gives all sorts of random people a potion, claiming it will make them stronger. Conveniently, they all have a lust for power, so a huge war begins between all of the factions of the Goths.

* ''ComicBook/{{The Transformers|Marvel}}'':

* The "War of Jokes and Riddles" arc in Creator/TomKing's ''ComicBook/{{Batman|TomKing}}'' run revolves around a "war" between ComicBook/TheJoker and Riddler, with various other villains picking sides.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' features one between Kobra and Bane's forces in "Drop Zone".

-->-- '''Kreia''', ''Franchise/{{Star Wars|Legends}}: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords''

* Happens in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Gundam ZZ]]'', where an upstart faction of [[TheEmpire Neo Zeon]] attempts a coup against [[BigBad Haman Karn]]. This pretty much saves the [[LaResistance AEUG]] and the [[TheFederation Earth Federation]] from [[NearVillainVictory being annihilated]].
* Something similar happens in ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', as two of the highest ranking living Titans briefly struggle for control of the organization at the end of the series after [[spoiler:Jamitov is killed by Scirocco]].
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' went a different route. Treize resigns as commander-in-chief OZ in protest at the imminent introduction of unmanned mobile dolls. He is placed under house-arrest in his headquarters in Luxembourg, but OZ's military units who agree with his ideals remain loyal to him, quickly leading to all-out war between OZ and the "Treize Faction" throughout Earth Sphere.
** Another prominent example is OZ's orchestrated ''coup d'etat'' against the United Earth Sphere Alliance military in the early episodes. Most of the Alliance either surrendered due to the confusion and heavy losses (since OZ made up their high-end military industry, their training academies, and their [[EliteMooks Special Forces branch]]), and the few who held out were eventually destroyed by OZ forces.
* ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam''. [[spoiler:Master Asia and Wong]]. They start off as partners in crime, begin to distrust and snipe at each other, and by the end each is openly gunning for the other's death. [[spoiler: Wong tries to bargain it into going full circle, but Asia openly admits at that point that he'd planned to double-cross Wong the entire time. And Asia would have disposed of Wong sooner if his IncurableCoughOfDeath hadn't acted up at the exact moment [[EveryoneHasStandards he got really pissed off at his nominal boss]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'': After Shredder is believed dead in Season 2, his criminal empire splinters in half with the [[EliteMooks Foot Elite]] fighting [[TheDragon Hun]] for total control. At the same time, the Mafia starts moving in on the now-headless Foot Clan's territory. This is treated as a very bad thing, since they cause a lot of collateral damage.

** Likewise, [[BeastOfTheApocalypse the Evils of Humanity]] could easily beat Chaldea had they come together but this could never happen as they all have an underlying foundation of changing humanity in accordance to their whims and ideology, but said whims are all directly incompatible with each other. The first storyline's BigBad, Goetia (Beast I), started his plan to stop the second storyline's BigBad, [[spoiler:the Foreign God]] (Beast VII). Kiara and Kama loathe each other despite being two halves of the same evil (Beast III/R and L, respectively) because they have fundamentally different ideas of what constitutes love. Beast IV:L ([[spoiler:Koyanskaya]]) and VII are the only ones that can even vaguely agree on working together but only from a massive distance and the former was planning on betraying the latter anyway via assimilation into her body to finish her plan.

One of the interesting things about TheEvilEmpire and similar Monolithically Evil Organizations is how ''dull'' they are. Oh, sure, they partake in [[TheHedonist decadent luxury]] while oppressing the weak, but all in all AlwaysChaoticEvil is pretty darn ''orderly'' when you get right down to it. Dissent against the EvilOverlord is squashed easily, but no one really disagrees to begin with. (The DefectorFromDecadence who [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch protests a lot]] doesn't count.)

* ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]]'' features one between [[PlayingWithFire Dario Bossi]] and [[PowerCopying Dmitrii Blinov]], egged on by [[BigBad Celia Fortner]] into competing for the position of Dracula, left vacant by [[AntiAntiChrist Soma Cruz]]. [[spoiler: Depending on the ending, either [[RogueProtagonist Soma Cruz]] or [[TheStarscream Dmitrii Blinov]] wins.]]

-->-- '''Kreia''', ''Franchise/{{Star Wars|ExpandedUniverse}}: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords''

* In ''VideoGame/{{Iconoclasts}}'', Agent Chrome eventually gets a swelled head that he's some sort of savior who needs to displace Mother and rule the One Concern. After the boss fight against Mother, his proselytizing splits the One Concern into two factions: those loyal to Mother, and those loyal to Chrome. When PlayerCharacter Robin reaches Chrome, he gives a MotiveRant about how he believes it is his destiny to usurp even the Starworm (effectively, the god of this setting) and KillEmAll to start things over. [[spoiler:This lasts up until Elro injects Chrome with his two-part serum, which causes Chrome to have a VillainousBreakdown when he realizes he's going to die, showing that this thin veneer of charm and religious preaching was all just [[MaskOfSanity an act for a self-serving jerk]].]]

* In promotional material for the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' set ''New Phyrexia'', it's suggested that the five Phyrexian factions' differing ideals may be sufficient to bring them down through infighting. Meanwhile, the Mirrans seem to have adopted a "now we are one" stance (a typically Phyrexian ideal), banding together to survive the corruption of their world. Ultimately, [[spoiler:it's not enough. The white-mana faction wipes out the TokenGoodTeammate red-mana faction, the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder-suffering blue-mana Praetor is axed, and the factions pull together under the white-mana Praetor's leadership to utterly destroy the Mirran resistance. Only a handful - possibly as few as ''one'' - of the Mirrans survive]].

* Part of [[Creator/JetLi Rogue's]] plan in ''Film/{{War}}'' is to get a [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triad]] leader Li Chang's right hand man to turn on him.

** ''Dragon Ball Minus'' says there were only several thousand Saiyans on their home planet as they were too warlike to increase their numbers further. Explaining why they couldn't overthrow Frieza and conquer the universe themselves.

* The first warehouse level in the first ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' game had Gabe caught between PharCom forces and Rhoemer's private army.

** Chaos, as befitting a faction represented by eight arrows going in different directions, is terminally fractious from top to bottom. The [[FourIsDeath four]] [[UltimateEvil Chaos Gods]] despise each other on a fundamental level and spend most of their efforts on wars in the [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Immaterium]] rather than the material plane. Meanwhile their mortal followers have not only inherited these hatreds but are also battling against rival champions of their patron deity, to prove they're worthy of their favour. Though at times the forces of Chaos have marched in step, like the Ork Waaagh! example above, such Black Crusades are merely temporary alliances between rival Chaos warlords that invariably end when their vicious rivalries resurface.

This is usually because an enemy faction is rarely if at all fleshed out, [[AlikeAndAntitheticalAdversaries making them appear completely homogeneous]], but naturally the more information we get about these guys the more interesting they become. A side effect of this can lead to an Enemy Civil War. Rather than wait for the BigBad to keel over, one or more factions in the evil empire break off and start fighting the main group for power. Note, nowhere in that sentence was there a HeelFaceTurn. The second group ''may'' do such, but it's likelier they'll simply be either slightly less evil than the [[EvilerThanThou "loyalists"]], or at the least more open to an EnemyMine with the heroes (or, alternately, they'll be complaining that the Evil Overlord isn't evil ''[[EvilerThanThou enough]]''). For extra fun, the factions may take turns trying EnemyMine.

[[caption-width-right:350:The War of [[ComicBook/TheJoker Jokes]] and Riddles.]]

* ''[[Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These]]'' is unique in that Enemy Civil wars are happening on ''both'' sides at the same time. [[TheEmpire The Galactic Empire]] is riven by conflict between noble royalists and the more populist faction led by [[TheAce Reinhardt]] after TheEmperor dies. Simultaneously, [[TheFederation the Free Planets Alliance]] suffers a DayOfTheJackboot when a MilitaryCoup goes up against the civilian government. This leads to a second season in which the respective fleets end up fighting themselves far more often than each other.