History Main / OutsideManInsideMan

!!Examples

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Somewhere in the {{Backstory}}, two male friends are making their way in the world as ThoseTwoBadGuys, keeping up the {{Masquerade}} for the AncientConspiracy, going to war for TheEmpire or doing hits for TheSyndicate.

* Spike and Vicious in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' were originally both low level enforcers for the Red Dragon Syndicate. At some point after falling in love with Julia, Spike decided to leave the organization only for Vicious to find out and try to kill him. Since then Spike has wandered the solar system as a bounty hunter while Vicious rose through the ranks of the Syndicate.

%%* Spike and Vicious, ''Anime/CowboyBebop''

%%* Mello and Near, ''Manga/DeathNote''
%%* Inversion: Sasuke and ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''.

* Wesker and Birkin in ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'', though they remained friends and comrades.

* Adora and Catra in ''SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', respectively. Catra is a pretty textbook Type 2, knowing full well the Horde is using them but wanting to use it right back to gain more power for herself. [[spoiler:She succeeds at the end of season 1, supplanting Shadow-Weaver as TheDragon to Lord Hordak.]]

* ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D 4th edition]]'' uses this trope for their new alignment system. Good characters are willing to overthrow corrupt governments, while Lawful Good characters prefer to change things from within.

* He is [[MoreThanMindControl unshakably loyal]] to the organization. He'll be TheDragon and is vulnerable to RedemptionEqualsDeath.

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* ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' was this on a large scale, with ComicBook/CaptainAmerica leading the Outside faction while IronMan headed up the Inside. Officially, the pro-regs are Type 3 - trying to blunt Superhuman Registration from within - but there's a lot of DependingOnTheWriter and AlternateCharacterInterpretation here.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* He ''agrees'' with the objection, but feels that the only way things will change is if he can gain enough power within the organization.

* The ''Man-Kzin Wars'' books, a multi-author spinoff of Larry Niven's Literature/KnownSpace Universe, have two major characters who seem to fit this trope. Claude, Harold, and Ingrid are three friends in a love triangle who join the planetary defense force just before invading Cat-Like Aliens ultimately succeed at conquering their human colony and holding it for a generation. Claude and Harold get left behind by Ingrid during the confusion of the military evacuation; when Ingrid comes back decades later (and still young thanks to time-dilation) as part of a covert operation, she needs to tap them as contacts but both Claude and Harold have long ago abandoned active resistance: Claude has chosen to cooperate with the occupation forces and became their chief of police in the Capitol, while Harold started a nightclub there and became a big player in the criminal underworld. Naturally, they've fallen out with each other to the point of practically being nemeses. Both of them originally sought their positions in the belief that they could 'do good' through them, but by now have become largely corrupt. Both of them are also still very angry at Ingrid for abandoning them, but both of them are tempted by the possibility of regaining their integrity and throwing of their alien masters- who are all too happy to kill and eat suspected 'feral' humans. The resolution is quite tumultuous.

%%* Brandon Heat and [=Harry MacDowell=] from ''{{Gungrave}}''.

* Somewhat inverted in ''SuikodenII'', where both the main characters essentially start out as outside men, with one slowly working their way into the system to subvert it from within. The trope follows from there, though, as there are multiple points where the outside man begs the inside man to leave the evil empire, the inside man eventually overthrows the original leader and becomes the one in charge, and the entire scenario ends with a RedemptionEqualsDeath outcome. Well, unless you get the best ending, anyway.

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* The ''Man-Kzin Wars'' books, a multi-author spinoff of Larry Niven's KnownSpace Universe, have two major characters who seem to fit this trope. Claude, Harold, and Ingrid are three friends in a love triangle who join the planetary defense force just before invading Cat-Like Aliens ultimately succeed at conquering their human colony and holding it for a generation. Claude and Harold get left behind by Ingrid during the confusion of the military evacuation; when Ingrid comes back decades later (and still young thanks to time-dilation) as part of a covert operation, she needs to tap them as contacts but both Claude and Harold have long ago abandoned active resistance: Claude has chosen to cooperate with the occupation forces and became their chief of police in the Capitol, while Harold started a nightclub there and became a big player in the criminal underworld. Naturally, they've fallen out with each other to the point of practically being nemeses. Both of them originally sought their positions in the belief that they could 'do good' through them, but by now have become largely corrupt. Both of them are also still very angry at Ingrid for abandoning them, but both of them are tempted by the possibility of regaining their integrity and throwing of their alien masters- who are all too happy to kill and eat suspected 'feral' humans. The resolution is quite tumultuous.
* Nicholas Easter and Marlee in the John Grisham legal thriller ''TheRunawayJury'' as well as in the movie version. Nicholas got himself planted as a jury member to influence a court decision involving large corporations (in the book it was a tobacco company and in the film it was the firearms industry). Marlee was on the outside interacting with lawyers on both sides of the case. Their motivations and MO differ in the two media.

* ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' was this on a large scale, with CaptainAmerica leading the Outside faction while IronMan headed up the Inside. Officially, the pro-regs are Type 3 - trying to blunt Superhuman Registration from within - but there's a lot of DependingOnTheWriter and AlternateCharacterInterpretation here.

* Denam and [[spoiler:Vyce]], at the end of chapter 1 in TacticsOgre. If you refuse your orders, he goes off to follow them "because it's the only way to win the war", leaving the other troops to kill you while he does so, and you fight him later. If you obey your orders (for the same reason), you become the Inside Man, and you'll have to fight [[spoiler:Vyce]] later under different circumstances.

* Variation: Akira Hojo and Chiaki Asami from the manga ''{{Sanctuary}}'' deliberately embrace this trope. Their plan to remake Japanese society calls for Hojo to rise to power as a {{Yakuza}}, providing under-the-table funding and "moral support" to Asami's career as a politician. (They played {{Janken}} to decide who would be who.)

%%* Spike and Vicious, ''CowboyBebop''
* Inversion: Knives and Vash, ''{{Trigun}}'' The 'organization' in this scenario is ''[[HumansAreBastards the human race]]'' and Knives evidently honestly believes himself to be the good guy. He puts together a more typical evil organization later on.

%%* Inversion: Sasuke and ''{{Naruto}}''.

* On ''{{Lost}}'', [[spoiler: Jacob and Smoke-Monster play out something like this after Smokey discovers the woman that raised them had actually killed their real mother]]

* ''[[DungeonsAndDragons D&D 4th edition]]'' uses this trope for their new alignment system. Good characters are willing to overthrow corrupt governments, while Lawful Good characters prefer to change things from within.

* Nicholas Easter and Marlee in the John Grisham legal thriller ''TheRunawayJury'' as well as in the movie version. Nicholas got himself planted as a jury member to influence a court decision involving large corporations (in the book it was a tobacco company and in the film it was the firearms industry. Marlee was on the outside interacting with lawyers on both sides of the case. Their motivations and MO differ in the two media.

* In ''Series/{{Nikita}}'' this is the dynamic between Nikita and Michael. Nikita rebels against Division when it kills her fiance while Micheal stays loyal as Percy's Dragon. To a lesser extant this also happens between Nikita and Birkhoff. They are good friends and Nikita wants him to join her in the fight against Division but Birkhoff is too scared of Percy.