History Main / RightHandVersusLeftHand

* According to Wrestling/JimCornette the relationship between Wrestling/{{WWE}} and their developmental promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling (which Cornette co-owned and was booker of) became this when Wrestling/JimRoss was replaced as Head of Talent Relations by Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis. There were elements of this to begin with, with OVW being run by wrestling traditionalists and WWE focusing more on the entertainment part of "sports entertainment", but while Ross was able to bridge this gap and make this a very productive partnership (see the pages for Wrestling/JohnCena, Wrestling/RandyOrton, Wrestling/BrockLesnar, and Wrestling/{{Batista}} for proof) Johnny Ace never really tried, Cornette says he knew they were in trouble when Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon was quoted as saying about Laurinaitis "We now have a head of talent relations that will work ''with'' the creative team, not against them." The partnership deteriorated from that point on (though Cornette admits that personal animosities on all sides didn't make things easier), Cornette would eventually be fired, sell his stake in OVW, and [[EnemyMine actually go back to working with Vince Russo]] in Wrestling/{{TNA}} out of spite[[note]]And loyalty to Wrestling/JeffJarrett, who Cornette has always been close with because Jeff's father and grandmother brought him into the business[[/note]]. WWE would sever ties with OVW and bring everything in house to make sure everyone is on the same page, creating the WWE Performance Center in Orlando and their own developmental promotion in Wrestling/{{WWENXT}}.

** In the late 90s and early 2000s, it was generally assumed that even if anyone wanted to produce ''Series/DoctorWho'' for television again, the television rights were too widely scattered to be feasible.

--> '''Spike''': She's evil, you gormless tit.
--> '''Cordelia''': Excuse me? Who bit whom?
--> '''Angel''': Did you call me a tit?
--> '''Cordelia''': I thought he had a soul.
--> '''Spike''': I thought she didn't.
--> '''Cordelia''': I do.
--> '''Spike''': So do I.
--> '''Cordelia''': Well, clearly, mine's better.

* This is the central theme in ''Series/TheWire''. Time and again, organizations and people within those organizations fails to work together for the greater good of the whole due to personal ambition, poor communication, outright malice and simple incompetence.
** This is symbolized early on when the Major Crimes Unit cops fail to get a desk through a doorway until they realize that both sides are trying to push the desk into the opposite room.

-->'''Cedric Daniels:''' Let me ask you, who exactly am I working all these dead girls for? The Homicide unit, right? The same Homicide unit that can't put two and two together and pick up a phone leaving me to read it a day-and-a-half later in ''The Baltimore Sun''. (''{{Beat}}'') What did you take from the scene?
-->'''Jay Landsman:''' Photos, latents, spent casings...Fuck, they cleaned everything else?
-->'''Cedric Daniels:''' [[PoliceAreUseless Even for a supremely fucked-up police department this takes the prize.]]
** Not limited to the police, as the Barksdale organization suffers from this when Stringer Bell makes a deal with Prop Joe to share the towers, but Avon had used his connections to have Brother Mouzone come down to help hold the territory.

* Take any two major subfactions of the Imperium of Man from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. The Space Marines, the Inquisition, the Adeptus Mechanicus... any two. Chances are they're each working to undo something one of the others has done or is going to do. The Inquisition actually has Right Hand Versus Left Hand as ''departmental policy'', and so much factional infighting occurs within that organization that [[TabletopGame/{{Inquisitor}} they made an entire game about it]]. This is partly a pragmatic out-of-universe decision - you need to provide the opportunity for '''any''' two armies to be able to fight each other.

Unfortunately, the acquisition ended up creating a new kind of Right Hand vs. Left Hand, this time between veteran [=WarnerMedia=] executives and AT&T executives. Not long after the acquisition was completed, reports began to emerge that the two groups were engaged in a clash of CreativeDifferences, with the [=WarnerMedia=] side alleging that AT&T saw the conglomerate as merely a farm for their platforms, with little knowledge or care for the importance of talent and creative relations within Hollywood. Within two years, many highly-respected WM executives, including HBO chairman Richard Plepler, Warner Bros. TV head of business Craig Hunegs, and WB marketing president Blair Rich were shown the door, and AT&T installed former Creator/{{Hulu}} exec Jason Kiliar to run all of [=WarnerMedia=]. As Kiliar had no experience whatsoever running traditional media, questions regarding his business strategy emerged. This all came to a head in December 2020, when [=WarnerMedia=] announced that it would release the entire 2021 theatrical slate to HBO Max the same time it hit theaters, citing the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic (though reports later alleged it was to save WB the embarassment of the low box office performances that plagued them in 2019). The decision what met with widespread condemnation throughout Hollywood, with actors, producers, film directors, labor unions and talent agencies threatening legal action against the studio. Warner Bros. ended up carving out $200 million to many of these groups to compensate for lost profits, but it didn't really matter as AT&T was already starting to have second thoughts on entering the media industry by that point. In May 2021, AT&T announced that [=WarnerMedia=] would merge with [[Creator/DiscoveryChannel Discovery Inc.]] as part of a spin-off of its media business.
\\

** (AOL) [=TimeWarner=] suffered from this pretty much from the get go. The company was intended to be synergy-friendly by longtime [[Creator/WarnerBros Warner Communications]] chairman Steve Ross. However, he died in 1992, and his successors, Gerald Levin and Jeff Bewkes (both of whom came from Time Inc. via Creator/{{HBO}}) inexplicably seemed to fear/loathe synergy and discouraged it, which in turn made the company's various divisions often run up against each other. In 1993, most of the company's entertainment assets (including WB, HBO and Cinemax) were put into a joint venture with telephone company US West called "Time Warner Entertainment". When [[UsefulNotes/TedTurner Turner Broadcasting]] merged with TW in 1996 this meant that its production and distribution assets were absorbed into WB[[note]]Creator/HannaBarbera took a while to be fully integrated into WB Animation, with a separate sub-division, Creator/CartoonNetwork Studios, remaining under Turner's control. Creator/NewLineCinema (which was also bought out by Turner), on the other hand wasn't integrated into WB until 2008, and remained autonomous by that point[[/note]], but the company remained as a semi-autonomous unit of Time Warner (the aforementioned TWE joint venture ended in 2003 after Comcast sold their stake, having inherited it through various mergers). The company tried and failed multiple times to take advantage of the emerging internet and leverage their properties in the process, as both the Pathfinder portal and the AOL merger backfired hugely (the latter moreso than the former). Even as the company slimmed down over the years, losing its book and [[Creator/WarnerMusicGroup music]] publishing groups, AOL, its cable systems and finally Time Inc. itself, the walls between the WB, HBO and Turner divisions remained rather strong. Ultimately, AT&T's purchase of the company (and subsequent renaming to Creator/WarnerMedia) in 2018 finally averted the trope, as they acted to reorganize the company and increase synergy and interaction-- Turner and HBO are no longer separate units, instead their assets have been reassigned into new divisions[[note]]CN, Creator/AdultSwim and Creator/TurnerClassicMovies now report to Warner Bros., while HBO is part of the [=WarnerMedia=] Entertainment division alongside Creator/{{TBS}}, Creator/{{TNT}}, Creator/TruTV, Otter Media (an AT&T asset, home of Website/{{Crunchyroll}}, Creator/{{VRV}} and Creator/RoosterTeeth; they were also division of Warner Bros. for two months) and the Creator/HBOMax streaming service; while CNN, along with Bleacher Report, Turner Sports and the AT&T [=SportsNet=] [=RSNs=] are now the [=WarnerMedia=] News & Sports division[[/note]]. The major sign that the byzantine bureaucracy of the old [=TimeWarner=] had been eliminated was when the [[https://youtu.be/eASkqrwdg7Y trailer]] for the Creator/HBOMax streaming service was released, showcasing the vast amount of properties [=WarnerMedia=] has to offer and that they're bringing them all together.\\

Unfortunately, the acquisition ended up creating a new kind of Right Hand vs. Left Hand, this time between veteran [=WarnerMedia=] executives and AT&T executives. Not long after the acquisition was completed, reports began to emerge that the two groups were engaged in a clash of CreativeDifferences, with the [=WarnerMedia=] side alleging that AT&T saw the conglomerate as merely a farm for their platforms, with little knowledge or care for the importance of talent and creative relations within Hollywood. Within two years, many highly-respected WM executives, including HBO chairman Richard Plepler, Warner Bros. TV head of business Craig Hunegs, and WB marketing president Blair Rich were shown the door, and AT&T installed former Creator/{{Hulu}} exec Jason Kiliar to run all of [=WarnerMedia=]. As Kiliar had no experience whatsoever running traditional media, questions regarding his business strategy emerged. This all came to a head in December 2020, when [=WarnerMedia=] announced that it would release the entire 2021 theatrical slate to HBO Max the same time it hit theaters, citing the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic (though reports later alleged it was to save WB the embarassment of the low box office performances that plagued them in 2019). The decision what met with widespread condemnation throughout Hollywood, with actors, producers, film directors, labor unions and talent agencies threatening legal action against the studio. Warner Bros. ended up carving out $200 million to many of these groups to compensate for lost profits, but it didn't really matter as AT&T was already starting to have second thoughts on entering the media industry by that point. In May 2021, AT&T announced that [=WarnerMedia=] would merge with [[Creator/DiscoveryChannel Discovery Inc.]] as part of a spin-off of its media business. Whether or not this finally ends the separation curse for good remains to be seen.

** One quote by General Curtis [=LeMay=], US Air Force [[UsefulNotes/PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower Stategic Air Command]]: "The Soviets are our adversary, our enemy is the Navy." On the other side of the coin, the so-called Revolt of the Admirals, an unprecedented public protest by high-ranking Navy officers to the shifting of budget priority from aircraft carriers to the Air Force's nuclear arsenal, with the idea that any future war would be just [[NukeEm an exchange of nukes]] and therefore the Navy (and the Army, for that matter) was unnecessary. Part of this was the Navy wanting nukes of their own (they got them, in the form of the ballistic missile submarine) but another was to maintain sufficient conventional forces and flexibility of deployment to fight less-than-nuclear conflicts. Since the number of wars involving nuclear ballistic missiles is currently zero, this is somewhat VindicatedByHistory.

** A similar thing happened when pretty much ''every single British car company'' (not owned by foreign concerns, such as Vauxhall being owned by the aforementioned GM; Rolls-Royce/Bentley and a few others were also unaffected) merged into British Leyland in the 1960s. None of the companies involved knew how to work with each other, and combine that with inept workers, bad build quality and design, constant labor strikes and horrible management, led to BL becoming a national joke in the 70s, resulting in the government stepping in to nationalize it. Eventually it broke apart completely in the early 80s and most of the brands it had have been consigned to history as a result. The only real survivors were Jaguar and Land Rover, who got snatched up by Ford for a while before being sold to Tata Motors of India.

* The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse suffered with this for half of the 2010s, with Marvel Studios president Creator/KevinFeige wanting certain movies but executives from parent company Marvel Entertainment shutting them down, with ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' and ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' (rejected for being [[MinorityShowGhetto too ethnic]] and [[GirlShowGhetto centering around a woman]]) only being allowed to enter the slate by adding a project based on [[AdoredByTheNetwork the franchise CEO Ike Perlmutter pushed]], Comicbook/TheInhumans. The ExecutiveMeddling by Marvel's 'Creative Committee' also led to directors leaving due to CreativeDifferences (Creator/PattyJenkins on ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', Creator/EdgarWright on ''Film/AntMan1''), the widely divisive scripts of ''Film/IronMan3'' and ''Thor: The Dark World'', enough impositions on ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' to make Creator/JossWhedon burnt out, and Creator/RobertDowneyJr nearly leaving the franchise because Perlmutter did not want to pay him a big salary. Marvel's parent Disney eventually [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/marvels-civil-war-why-kevin-820147/ intervened to make Marvel Studios answer directly to them and not need this sort of detrimental in-fighting.]] (It says something that while the Inhumans only became [[Series/{{Inhumans}} a brief and widely disliked TV show]], the two projects Feige got as 'collateral' both broke a billion dollars at the box office)

** In the United States, this can get into some strange issues with jurisdictions that have the death penalty for capital crimes and those that do not and the crime occurs in both jurisdictions (The D.C. Beltway Sniper case of 2003, for example, had trials in both Maryland and Virginia). Typically, the death penalty case goes first while the non-death penalty case wrestles with the idea of even trying the guy if he does get convicted and sentenced to death because they can't do anything after that punishment is... ahem... executed.

* This was one of the reasons the now-defunct US satellite TV provider [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PrimeStar [=PrimeStar=]]] went out of business- it was formed by a consortium of cable TV operators, who couldn't agree on which way to go and as a result, [=PrimeStar=]'s service wasn't as appealing (technology or programming-wise) compared to [=DirecTV=] or Dish Network. They briefly attempted to play catchup by acquiring some assets from [=ASkyB=] (a service attempted by UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch as an American counterpart to his British DBS service Creator/{{Sky}}, but failed for a bunch of reasons {including a failed merger with Dish Network}) and update their technology, but [=DirecTV=] bought them out before that could happen.

* ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr''. A major gripe of the protagonist, especially in "A Season for Slaughter", vis-a-vis his covert employers the Uncle Ira Group. The Uncle Ira Group on the other hand are constantly annoyed by his habit of going off half-cocked at {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s instead of trusting them to handle things behind the scenes. ''He'' is constantly annoyed because for the past three-and-a-half books, they never bothered to correct his assumption that he was TheOnlyOne focused on the enemy instead of gaming the system. ''Very'' justifiably, too, as the ''literal'' previous time he met the actual leader of the group - the ''first'' time they ''met'' - [[spoiler:'''the UIG tried to feed him to a giant alien worm.''' And the only reason he survived was because he, on his own initiative, actually learned how to use the weapon they gave him beforehand - a weapon was chosen specifically because it was nearly useless against giant alien worms. The only reason he survived was because he is CrazyPrepared.]]
* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''Literature/GreyKnights'', the secrecy of the titular Space Marine chapter and their operations is used by the BigBad in order to set up a LetsYouAndHimFight.
* This shows up in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Starfighters of Adumar]]''. General Wedge Antilles, an AcePilot of [[ImprobablePilotingSkills no small skill]], is sent as an ambassador to the largest nation of a neutral world called Adumar, not because of any political acumen, but because the Adumari are [[PlanetOfHats pilot-mad]]. It's expected that the diplomatic liaison will tell him what to do, and Wedge will mostly be there to look good. But he gets shut out of everything but flying duels, and he refuses to kill Adumari in these duels. The liaison tells him that he ''should'' kill them; it's native custom and by not doing it [[AssInAmbassador he makes the New Republic look weak]]. The Imperial pilots kill in duels, and they look strong. Wedge refuses. The liaison talks the leader of this particular Adumari nation into going to war with the others to unify the planet, and it's expected that Wedge and his pilots will fight in this war - the Imperial pilots are doing it. Wedge refuses, and the ruler basically calls open season on him and his pilots, letting everyone try to kill them. They escape through a combination IndyPloy / XanatosSpeedChess, find that the New Republic flagship in orbit won't respond when they comm it, and go to ground, where Wedge finds that the liaison told the ruler that Wedge wanted to fight, but had been ordered not to and wanted to be killed honorably.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': Any time the PlayerCharacter has to deal with their faction's Intelligence Agencies. The Imperial Intelligence Ministry is often the OnlySaneEmployee in a fascist cesspit led by the Sith (an theocratic cabal of AxCrazy wack-jobs embroiled in chronic infighting), and supported by the military (a bunch of {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s and {{General Ripper}}s, with the occasional honorable one who will inevitably be sniped by an underling). The Imperial Agent spends a lot of time mopping up after their government. The Republic has the SIS, who tend to operate on IDidWhatIHadToDo, DoUntoOthersBeforetheyDoUntoUs, and often behave as a PsychoSupporter within the Republic ranks. Neither service is particularly good about getting permission before carrying out some wacky scheme; in the first case, because it's too sane. In the second, because it's likely on a list of war crimes.

* Quoted on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' by Data almost verbatim in the episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E24Conspiracy "Conspiracy"]], when describing a cabal of senior officers that are quietly drafting clandestine orders for a reshuffling of command staff in key bases, without anyone noticing for months until the '''Enterprise''' gets involved.

* Quoted on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' by Data almost verbatim when describing the situation with clandestine orders resulting in a reshuffling of command staff in the episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E24Conspiracy "Conspiracy"]].

** (AOL) [=TimeWarner=] suffered from this pretty much from the get go. The company was intended to be synergy-friendly by longtime [[Creator/WarnerBros Warner Communications]] chairman Steve Ross. However, he died in 1992, and his successors, Gerald Levin and Jeff Bewkes (both of whom came from Time Inc. via Creator/{{HBO}}) inexplicably seemed to fear/loathe synergy and discouraged it, which in turn made the company's various divisions often run up against each other. In 1993, most of the company's entertainment assets (including WB, HBO and Cinemax) were put into a joint venture with telephone company US West called "Time Warner Entertainment". When [[UsefulNotes/TedTurner Turner Broadcasting]] merged with TW in 1996 this meant that its production and distribution assets were absorbed into WB[[note]]Creator/HannaBarbera took a while to be fully integrated into WB Animation, with a separate sub-division, Creator/CartoonNetwork Studios, remaining under Turner's control. Creator/NewLineCinema (which was also bought out by Turner), on the other hand wasn't integrated into WB until 2008, and remained autonomous by that point[[/note]], but the company remained as a semi-autonomous unit of Time Warner (the aforementioned TWE joint venture ended in 2003 after Comcast sold their stake, having inherited it through various mergers). The company tried and failed multiple times to take advantage of the emerging internet and leverage their properties in the process, as both the Pathfinder portal and the AOL merger backfired hugely (the latter moreso than the former). Even as the company slimmed down over the years, losing its book and [[Creator/WarnerMusicGroup music]] publishing groups, AOL, its cable systems and finally Time Inc. itself, the walls between the WB, HBO and Turner divisions remained rather strong. Ultimately, AT&T's purchase of the company (and subsequent renaming to Creator/WarnerMedia) in 2018 finally averted the trope, as they acted to reorganize the company and increase synergy and interaction-- Turner and HBO are no longer separate units, instead their assets have been reassigned into new divisions[[note]]CN, Creator/AdultSwim and Creator/TurnerClassicMovies now report to Warner Bros., while HBO is part of the [=WarnerMedia=] Entertainment division alongside Creator/{{TBS}}, Creator/{{TNT}}, Creator/TruTV, Otter Media (an AT&T asset, home of Website/{{Crunchyroll}}, Creator/{{VRV}} and Creator/RoosterTeeth; they were also division of Warner Bros. for two months) and the Creator/HBOMax streaming service; while CNN, along with Bleacher Report, Turner Sports and the AT&T [=SportsNet=] RSNs are now the [=WarnerMedia=] News & Sports division[[/note]]. The major sign that the byzantine bureaucracy of the old [=TimeWarner=] had been eliminated was when the [[https://youtu.be/eASkqrwdg7Y trailer]] for the Creator/HBOMax streaming service was released, showcasing the vast amount of properties [=WarnerMedia=] has to offer and that they're bringing them all together.\\

** (AOL) [=TimeWarner=] suffered from this pretty much from the get go. The company was intended to be synergy-friendly by longtime [[Creator/WarnerBros Warner Communications]] chairman Steve Ross. However, he died in 1992, and his successors, Gerald Levin and Jeff Bewkes (both of whom came from Time Inc. via Creator/{{HBO}}) inexplicably seemed to fear/loathe synergy and discouraged it, which in turn made the company's various divisions often run up against each other. In 1993, most of the company's entertainment assets (including WB, HBO and Cinemax) were put into a joint venture with telephone company US West called "Time Warner Entertainment". When [[UsefulNotes/TedTurner Turner Broadcasting]] merged with TW in 1996 this meant that its production and distribution assets were absorbed into WB[[note]]Creator/HannaBarbera took a while to be fully integrated into WB Animation, with a separate sub-division, Creator/CartoonNetwork Studios, remaining under Turner's control. Creator/NewLineCinema (which was also bought out by Turner), on the other hand wasn't integrated into WB until 2008, and remained autonomous by that point[[/note]], but the company remained as a semi-autonomous unit of Time Warner (the aforementioned TWE joint venture ended in 2003 after Comcast sold their stake, having inherited it through various mergers). The company tried and failed multiple times to take advantage of the emerging internet and leverage their properties in the process, as both the Pathfinder portal and the AOL merger backfired hugely (the latter moreso than the former). Even as the company slimmed down over the years, losing its book and [[Creator/WarnerMusicGroup music]] publishing groups, AOL, its cable systems and finally Time Inc. itself, the walls between the WB, HBO and Turner divisions remained rather strong. Ultimately, AT&T's purchase of the company (and subsequent renaming to Creator/WarnerMedia) in 2018 finally averted the trope, as they acted to reorganize the company and increase synergy and interaction-- Turner and HBO are no longer separate units, instead their assets have been reassigned into new divisions[[note]]CN, Creator/AdultSwim and Creator/TurnerClassicMovies now report to Warner Bros., while HBO is part of the [=WarnerMedia=] Entertainment division alongside Creator/{{TBS}}, Creator/{{TNT}}, Creator/TruTV, Otter Media (an AT&T asset, home of Website/{{Crunchyroll}}, Creator/{{VRV}} and Creator/RoosterTeeth; they were also division of Warner Bros. for two months) and the Creator/HBOMax streaming service; while Creator/{{CNN}}, along with Bleacher Report, Turner Sports and the AT&T [=SportsNet=] RSNs are now the [=WarnerMedia=] News & Sports division[[/note]]. The major sign that the byzantine bureaucracy of the old [=TimeWarner=] had been eliminated was when the [[https://youtu.be/eASkqrwdg7Y trailer]] for the Creator/HBOMax streaming service was released, showcasing the vast amount of properties [=WarnerMedia=] has to offer and that they're bringing them all together.\\

** The entire [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons Nazi army]] was split up by Hitler in rather insane ways to make sure each part was too weak to overthrow him. Instead of the normal "army, navy, and air-force," set up, each group had varying sizes of battalions from all three, which at times caused confusion over who had command over which troops.

** In ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'', both Takumi Inui and Yuji Kiba were fighting against the evil Smart Brain corporation. But thanks to a whole heap of misunderstandings, {{Contrived Coincidence}}s and stolen {{Transformation Trinket}}s, each thought that the other was TheDragon of Smart Brain. For a time, they were even friends in their human forms and enemies in their battle forms and never knowing.

* ''VideoGame/{{Segagaga}}'' portrays the relationship between programmers and designers in this way. In theory, both groups should work together in the development of games but in practice they're fighting each other over resources (read: memory) to the point of becoming fierce enemies, making any kind of cooperation between them nigh impossible. It's up to Tarou Sega to parch things between the warring organizations. Easier said than done as the lead programmer lost his mind after an incident that involved a [[NoodleImplements yellow bear suit, an unruly mob of customers and the guys from]] ''VideoGame/DDCrew'' and the lead designer became a tyrannical despot who rules over his underlings with an iron fist and executes anyone who dares to question his orders, like modeling a 200.000 polygon trashcan.

* ''VideoGame/{{Segagaga}}'' portrays the relationship between programmers and designers in this way. In theory, both groups should work together in the development of games but in practice they're fighting each other over resources (read: memory) to the point of becoming fierce enemies, making any kind of cooperation between them nigh impossible. It's up to Tarou Sega to parch things between the warring organizations. Easier said than done as the lead programmer lost his mind after an incident that involved a [[NoodleImplements yellow bear suit, an unruly mob of customers and the guys from]] ''VideoGame/DDCrew'' and the lead designer became a tyranical despot who rules over his underlings with an iron fist and executes anyone who dares to question his orders, like modeling a 200.000 polygon trashcan.

* This shows up in the Alliance government in the second ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series. Basically, every single project run by the Alliance government is being supervised, but nobody's overseeing the big picture, and none of the people doing the supervising of the individual projects can compare notes because of security compartmentalization. This means that nobody realizes that things are going wrong until they start going spectacularly wrong in a way that nearly starts a war by accident.

* One episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' had the team perform a sting on a pedophile operation, only to have one of the members reveal he was undercover with another agency, meaning the SVU just messed up his case. Cragan lampshades that the criminals are the ones working together.

[[folder:Anime]]
* The final showdown of the third ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' movie. Both [[spoiler:Shinji/Kaworu]] and [[spoiler:Asuka/Mari]] were actually trying to save the world. But the first faction was given wrong intel, believing that grabbing two certain [[UnholyHolySword artifacts]] would return the post-apocalyptic Wasteland they live in to [[ResetButton a habitable state]], when all it will actually do is to devastate the earth for good. [[spoiler:[[TragicHero Shinji]]]], greatly agonizing about having to fight a former comrade, even tried to talk and explain, but [[spoiler:Asuka]], probably believing that he was willingly working for the villains [[spoiler:not an unreasonable guess given earlier events]], just charges him with a glaive to try and stop him and arrest him, putting him in a [[DespairEventHorizon hopeless situation]] where he'd disregard the vague warnings of [[spoiler:Kaworu]] (who'd noticed something was off, but was paralyzed figuring out what and why), and pull the doomsday devices.

* There's some tragic backstory for a doppleganger in ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne.'' He was impersonating an army soldier during a war, and struck down an enemy soldier, only for the enemy to be revealed as another doppelganger--his brother.
* On ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' Kino encounters a railroad worker who spent the last twenty years of his life cleaning and maintaining a seemingly unused stretch of railroad. When she travels along the same railroad she encounters another railroad worker who spent the last twenty years of his life disassembling the parts of the railroad the first worker had cleand and maintaind. And finally she meets a railroad worker who spent the last twenty years of his life ''reassembling'' the same railroad after the second worker disassembled it. Ultimately Kino chooses to tell none of them that they wasted the last two decades of their lives.
* Jessie, James and Meowth in ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' often become the SpannerInTheWorks for some Team Rocket plots when they're hatching a scheme of their own, especially if their rivals Butch and Cassidy are at the helms. It probably has to do with how, for a good portion of the anime, the TerribleTrio have been officially booted out of the organization (a fact that only those three don't seem to be aware of). It doesn't help some other Team Rocket members loathe the trio for these incompetent moments and sometimes intentionally target them in their schemes, giving the latter a reason to perform an EnemyMine with Ash to get revenge.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Home|Aragem}}'', when Entrapta's Uncle Coda comes to visit, it is because Hordak contradicting his orders, Hordak unaware of this until after the fact. While Coda turned down a request for funding from the Builders Association, Hordak allowed it.

%%[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

%%[[/folder]]

* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse?'':
** ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'': The Collector hires multiple bounty hunters to obtain a valuable orb containing an Infinity Stone. Quill gets hired via an intermediary on Xandar known as the Broker, while Gamora gets hired directly and betrays her father Thanos to do so. They end up fighting one another when they cross paths on Xandar (right after the Broker backed out of fencing the Orb due to Quill mentioning [[TheDreaded Ronan the Accuser]]'s interest in it).

* In the ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' episode "Honest Abe", Mac and the titular Abe seek to bring down a BananaRepublic dictator and a corrupt Army Major supplying the latter with weapons. One of the Major's two flunkies eventually reveals to the other that he's an undercover FBI agent and offers him immunity if he cooperates...to which he replies he doesn't have to since he's he's ''also'' an undercover agent from the Office of Budget and Management.
-->'''FBI Agent''': Boy...talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing"
-->'''OBM Agent''': We don't even know what our own ''feet'' are doing!

* Due to paranoia, many of the assassins in Hephaestus in ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}'' thought the others were snitches or rats. A notable example is [[spoiler:Kyburz, one of the assassins, turning in Anya Andersdotter who was asking questions so she could get past Ryan's defences.]]

* The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse suffered with this for half of the 2010s, with Marvel Studios president Creator/KevinFeige wanting certain movies but executives from parent company Marvel Entertainment shutting them down, with ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'' and ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}'' (rejected for being [[MinorityShowGhetto too ethnic]] and [[GirlShowGhetto centering around a woman]]) only being allowed to enter the slate by adding a project based on [[AdoredByTheNetwork the franchise CEO Ike Perlmutter pushed]], Comicbook/TheInhumans. The ExecutiveMeddling by Marvel's 'Creative Committee' also led to directors leaving due to CreativeDifferences (Creator/PattyJenkins on ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', Creator/EdgarWright on ''Film/AntMan1''), the widely divisive scripts of ''Film/IronMan3'' and ''Thor: The Dark World'', enough impositions on ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' to make Creator/JossWhedon burnt out, and Creator/RobertDowneyJr nearly leaving the franchise because Perlmutter did not want to pay him a big salary. Marvel's parent Disney eventually [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/marvels-civil-war-why-kevin-820147/ intervened to make Marvel Studios answer directly to them and not need this sort of detrimental in-fighting.]] (It says something that while the Inhumans only became [[Series/{{Inhumans}} a brief and widely disliked TV show]], the two projects Feige got as 'collateral' both broke a billion dollars at the box office)

* During the 1980s, the CIA backed the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, some of whom supported themselves by drug-running. They not only looked away from it-the CIA even informed the Contra-connected drug traffickers before the DEA came to arrest them.

* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:

* In ''VideoGame/{{Forspoken}}'', [[spoiler:Cuff]]'s leaking ambient evil is the source of the Break and the Tantas' insanity, but he doesn't have any actual control over either, which is a challenge for him since [[spoiler:he needs Frey to be his McGuffinDeliveryService, which won't happen if she gets killed by a Break monster or one of the Tantas, and he needs the Tantas dead to take back the parts of his power they took for themselves]]. Hence why he actually helps the protagonist.