History Main / FriendOrFoe

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. PlayedForLaughs in "Message in a Bottle" when two squabbling EMH's are trying to work out how to pilot an experimental Starfleet spacecraft in the middle of a fight between Starfleet and Romulan vessels. At one point they launch a photon torpedo that loops past a Romulan warbird, slamming into the shields of a Defiant-class vessel.

TruthInTelevision. In RealLife, '[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire friendly fire]]' (AKA "blue-on-blue engagement" among NATO forces, fratricide, or "[[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball own goal]]" as the UsefulNotes/{{Brits|WithBattleships}} call it) has been a serious issue in many conflicts. This problem goes far enough back that it's responsible for {{battle cr|y}}ies, military uniforms, battle standards, and heraldry. [[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/ereviewview.cfm?id=4 Books have been written about the resulting investigations]]. Armies have developed many [[http://www.101airborneww2.com/equipment3.html innovative]] designs to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_friend_or_foe avoid]] it, but have never been 100% successful -- partly because if you can always identify your friends, ''MurphysLaw so can your enemies.''

* The first casualty in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''? Church, of the Blue army. The shooter? Caboose, also of the Blue army. Church is not pleased.

** Russian soldiers wear white armbands, units from the Russian-backed "separatist" Donetsk and Lushansk "People's republics", with some [=VDV=] paratroopers going for duct tape silver. The orange-and-black St. George's ribbon has also been used.

** American-on-American: This is what happened to Army Ranger Spc. Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, 2004. Official story: Tillman's unit was ambushed and split in two during a patrol and his section moved ahead to get into a better position to provide support. The other part of the unit mistook the Tillman's section for the enemy and fired on them killing Tillman and an Afghani soldier. Tillman was also a professional football player, a safety for the Arizona Cardinals, making the situation even more delicate for the U.S. Armed Forces. Initially the fact it was friendly fire was covered up. Tillman was portrayed as leading a heroic charge against the enemy. The truth was revealed when Tillman's family got suspicious and started investigatng. There is some evidence that Tillman's death was not an accident, as he'd begun to criticize the military and the Afghan war. He had planned to meet with Noam Chomsky, a well-known scholar who's been highly critical of U.S. foreign policy, and possibly run for office after his service.

* ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}'': In chapter 2, Digger and Shadowchild come across a village that's been hit by bandits. As they make their way through, they hear fighting in the distance. Shadowchild wonders if they should go help, but Digger points out the difficulties in identifying potential enemies and allies from among strangers in the heat of battle, instead opting for them to carefully pick their way along and look for any survivors they could help.

* ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}'': In chapter 2, Digger and Shadowchild come across a village that's been hit by bandits. As they make their way through, they hear fighting in the distance. Shadowchild wonders if they should go help, but Digger points out that they don't even know how to tell the different parties apart and that they could well be mistaken for enemies in the heat of battle, so instead they opt to carefully pick their way along and look for any survivors they could help.

* In ''Webcomic/AmericanBarbarian'', [[http://www.ambarb.com/?p=399 Two Tank Omen sends his prisoners toward his enemies, leading them to think the prisoners are his allies -- and they attack them.]]

* In ''Webcomic/AmericanBarbarian'', [[http://www.ambarb.com/?p=399 Two Tank Omen sends his prisoners toward his enemies, leading them to think the prisoners are his allies -- and they attack them.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'', [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1900/fc01884.htm satellites use IFF]] to differentiate ships from space hazards.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

Not to be confused with [[Series/FriendOrFoe the game show]] hosted by Kennedy.

TruthInTelevision. In RealLife, '[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire friendly fire]]' (AKA "blue-on-blue engagement" among NATO forces, fratricide, or "[[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball own goal]]" as the UsefulNotes/{{Brits|WithBattleships}} call it) has been a serious issue in many conflicts. This problem goes far enough back that it's responsible for {{battle cr|y}}ies, military uniforms, battle standards, and heraldry. [[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/ereviewview.cfm?id=4 Books have been written about the resulting investigations]]. Armies have developed many [[http://www.101airborneww2.com/equipment3.html innovative]] designs to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_friend_or_foe avoid]] it, but have never been 100% successful -- partly because [[MurphysLaw if you can always identify your friends,]] ''[[MurphysLaw so can your enemies.]]''

* In ''Comicbook/FuryMyWarGoneBy'', Nick Fury and his partner Heatherly is stuck on a French base in Vietnam, then called French Indochina. They come under heavy assault by the locals, and the battle gets close and messy. Eventually, the locals are driven back. After the battle, Heatherly says he's pretty sure he shot a friendly.

* Happens quite a few times in ''ComicBook/TheTransformers''. One notable example comes in the Christmas story "Cold Comfort and Joy". The Autobot Powermasters track down a group of robots who spoiled a town's Christmas festivities, assuming they're Decepticons, and it isn't until Joyride notices the Autobot symbol on the chest he's pounding that they realise their mistake. (The Autobots were just trying to join in the fun but the townspeople all went "Aargh! Giant robots!" anyway.)

* Done twice in quick succession during the blackout at night during a thunderstorm in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'', where [[spoiler:the effects of an EMP going off over the city]] have rendered all forms of communication beyond verbal a no-go. The first person the squad meets afterwards turns out to be a runner who simply forgot the [[TrustPassword countersign]], who rallies the squad to head for the White House. Afterwards is a very intense scene when a lightning strike shows a group of soldiers crossing the street some 30m in front of the squad. They don't immediately reply to the countersign by Sgt. Foley, and suddenly guns are firing everywhere as it turns out they're Russian soldiers.

* In [[VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx Half-Life: Alyx]], your MissionControl pilots a hacked enemy drone to help you. It gets destroyed early on, but he manages to repair it midway through the game. Except... He doesn't tell you he's done this, and as the drone looks almost exactly like the enemies you've been gunning down until this point (save for some minor damage and a different-colored eye) it's possible for a particularly TriggerHappy player to put several rounds into it before they realize it's friendly. Fortunately, it's FriendlyFireProof, so no harm done, but still.

SuperTrope of CavalryBetrayal. Also see RightHandVersusLeftHand

** The [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy cruiser HMS ''Sheffield'']] was subject to this not once, but ''twice'' during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The first time was when she was participating in the hunt for the [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons German battleship ''Bismarck'']]. A squadron of Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers had been sent to attack the ''Bismarck'', but not been informed of the position of the ''Sheffield'', and attacked the ''Sheffield''. Luckily, the torpedoes had been armed with highly-unreliable magnetic detonators, and most of them exploded prematurely. While the sailors presumably shouted unprintable things at the aviators (one of whom messaged an apology via signal lamp), the ''Sheffield'' bridge staff drily messaged the HMS ''Ark Royal'' (the aircraft carrier from which the Swordfishes had launched), saying that 1) your planes torpedoed us by mistake and 2) the torpedoes didn't work. The second occasion was during the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Barents_Sea Battle of the Barents Sea]], when the ''Sheffield'' was mistaken for the German cruiser ''Admiral Hipper''...by the two destroyers assigned to escort the ''Hipper''. The ''Sheffield'' did not make a similar mistake, and sank one of the German destroyers.

* This is particularly common in "real world" first-person shooters, particularly [=WW2=] shooters. Often, the only difference between the uniforms worn by the soldiers on your side and those worn by the soldiers on the enemy side are a slight difference in the shade of khaki. In sci-fi shooters, you at least have more flamboyant, easily distinguished uniforms, or the enemy will be outright alien and easy to spot simply by their profile.

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' has this problem as well -- it's surprisingly easy to get the game to not display a teammate's name over his head even as you're staring right at him, though thankfully there's normally no friendly fire. Then you enter Hardcore mode, where friendly fire is enabled, the name-tags are disabled, there's no radar to show teammates' locations unless a UAV or spy plane is in the air, and health is reduced to the point that a single bullet with pretty much anything is an instant kill. Getting kicked from the server for too much accidental teamkilling is not at all uncommon.
*** Regarding ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', the single player campaigns have some of the same problems; the names of allied [=NPC=]s are often not displayed if you're not aiming at them or at a distance. The games try to acknowledge the inherent risk by allowing the player to accidentally/[[VideoGameCrueltyPotential deliberately]] wing plot-relevant allies (who will often give a word of warning) or kill the occasional RedShirt, but this isn't always consistent; add in some ArtificialStupidity, and you'll probably have a few unnecessary game overs on your hands.
* ''VideoGame/ASPAirStrikePatrol'' {{DeconstructedTrope}}s the "shoot anything that moves" aspect of {{Shoot Em Up}}s this way. Coalition forces and civilians are present throughout the game, and some missions will require you to make precise strikes on enemy forces in urban areas. Hitting friendlies or civilians ''will'' make international news, and damage public opinion of the Coalition. Do it enough, and anti-war protests will happen. Ultimately you'll earn yourself a NonstandardGameOver as the Coalition is forced to pull out.

** This is also how Samara greets Shepard for their first meeting in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.

** ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' has a ''huge'' problem with this. Trying to win any large-scale battle with non-scripted allies is virtually impossible because they end up flashing red any time the player hits them- even if it's in such a way that neither the player nor the ally has any way of knowing where the shot came from!

* It's quite difficult to avoid hitting fellow survivors in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' (well, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard unless you're the AIs]]). There's even an achievement for getting through a campaign without any friendly fire incidents.
** Because the AI bots fire ''magic bullets.'' As of May 2017, [[http://www.steampowered.com/status/l4d/ 4%]] of the players have acquired the achievement badge for ''Safety First''.

* During the blackout at night during a thunderstorm in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2'', there's a very intense scene when a lightning strike shows a group of soldiers crossing the street some 30m in front of the squad. They don't reply to the [[TrustPassword code sign]] by Sgt. Foley, and suddenly guns are firing everywhere. [[spoiler:Thankfully, it turns out they were really foes.]]
** Later on, they once again run into an unidentified soldier, who once again fails to give the correct response: [[spoiler: The unidentified American runner frustratedly announces that he can't remember the response, and the situation is defused without incident.]]

* In the BackStory of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'', Sumeragi and [[spoiler:Mannequin]] mistook each other's forces for the enemy and effectively obliterated their allies before realizing it. Sumeragi's love interest died in that battle, too.

* Even though friendlies are highlighted green and hostiles red, it's still easy in ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' to accidentally shoot a friendly, either through people driving through your line of fire, or simply being jumpy and shooting at the tank that suddenly was in your sights.
** Artillery is the worst offender due to large blast radius, inaccurate gun, long shell traverse time and fairly low skill requirement. It can be avoided by not sticking to enemy tanks, but it tends to be the easiest way to defeat TDs and heavies with a lighter tanks.

** Alternatively, you could have your sights on an enemy that sat still long enough for your crosshair to lock in a guaranteed direct hit, only for an ally to chase them off ''after'' you've fired, then just so happen to stop right in the middle of your aim. Direct hit, ally goes kaboom, see you back at the garage.