A character introduces or provokes conflict for reasons which are weak or which contradict previous characterization.

For example, why is Bob TheLancer [[CommanderContrarian arguing]] with Chuck TheBigGuy about his plan to [[StormingTheCastle infiltrate the enemy base?]] Bob actually suggested similar plans before. In fact, it's his favorite kind of plan, so why is he disagreeing with Chuck now? He never says. Bob's behavior is entirely plot mandated: now he can [[IneffectualLoner go off on his own, screw up]], [[DistressBall get captured and need rescue]], and then [[AnAesop learn a valuable lesson]] [[ThePowerOfFriendship about teamwork]]. For added annoyance, Bob might [[AesopAmnesia forget all about it]] just in time to be handed the Conflict Ball ''again''.

{{Conflict}} is the driving force of a story. Unfortunately, [[SturgeonsLaw not all writers are good at pulling it off]]. So we often get conflict out of nowhere or conflict based on trite or contrived reasons, as if the characters had simply picked up a ball (hence the trope name). Much like PoorCommunicationKills, this is done to keep the plot moving, or at the least to [[{{Railroading}} steer it along]] it to where the author wants it to go.

This trope almost always involves a character suddenly gaining a HairTriggerTemper momentarily. This temper comes out of nowhere and more often than not, ''[[OutOfCharacterMoment isn't]]'' [[OutOfCharacterMoment one of the character's personality traits]], so he/she/it comes across as an instigator who wants to start a fight.

TheLoad, the IneffectualLoner, and CommanderContrarian often carry this Ball, being belligerent and contrary for no apparent reason, or to OvercomeTheirDifferences with the leader.

When there is some actual effect or force compelling the characters to fight, that's a HatePlague.

Compare RuleOfDrama, IdiotBall, AppleOfDiscord. See also OutOfCharacterMoment and LetsYouAndHimFight.

Now since this trope involves contrivance, this is not technically possible in real life.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:All Serial Media]]
* Almost any straight use of YetAnotherChristmasCarol, on a show with an established cast, needs to have one of the characters abruptly meaner for no apparent reason so they can learn to change their ways back to the way they were before the episode. Or have a JerkAss character turn nicer, [[AesopAmnesia only to revert to their usual ways afterwards]]. In fact, shows that [[TropesAreNotBad fail to do this]] end up warping the plot into TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong instead.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Usopp is surprisingly adamant about not abandoning the ''Going Merry'', despite admitting that he knew it couldn't be fixed, and Luffy is quite undiplomatic about his decision to let it go, without noting that he had previously been unwilling to accept that the ship was doomed.
** The ''Going Merry'' was not only a present from Usopp's sick friend, and a reminder of his home town, but a sentient being. It's understandable that Usopp would have trouble letting go. At the same time, it couldn't sail any longer. Luffy had no choice but to get a new ship. He couldn't very well give in to Usopp and sail his crew to their deaths.
*** What is odd is that Luffy never mentions to Usopp that he also had refused to believe that the Going Merry was doomed, and silences Nami when she tries to explain his point of view to Usopp, which makes it easier for Usopp to perceive Luffy as being heartless. It's also natural for Usopp to get sentimental about his friend's gift to the point of ignoring rationality, but in this case, he also went against what he personally knew to be true.
*** The ''Going Merry'' [[spoiler:fixes itself in the Skypeia Arc and Usopp knows that too]]. It's plain heartless to abandon it, but at the same time still sailing in it is plain brainless (and Luffy is not THAT brainless). Franky [[spoiler: even points out it's better FOR THE SHIP to abandon it, because if the crew it loves sinks with it, the ship will not find peace]]. Usopp's denial is part of his character personality [[FreudianExcuse based on his own side story]]. Eventually Usopp learns that [[spoiler: things like this happen and he has to learn from this, not deny it or lie to himself]] leading to a moment of redemption, yes, this one, at the end of Water Seven Arc [[spoiler: he's still a coward and fights with deception, but now he doesn't make excuses for his coward personality; he now accepts he is a coward. Plain and simple]]
* The Soul Society in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' does more than occasionally show fondness for this trope as Captain Yamamoto and Central 46 have been considered to do this before. Though some are willing to contest the former, the latter not so much.
** Which is a little odd considering how little the Central 46 have actually been in it; their biggest mistake was exiling Urahara for a crime he didn't commit, but was expertly framed for by [[spoiler:Aizen]]. In the Soul Society arc they were presented as ruthless pedantic to the point of LawfulStupid, if not plain evil, in wanting Rukia dead, but this too was a ploy by [[spoiler: Aizen as he had actually murdered all of them already and had taken their place]].
*** The problem with these is that between Yamamoto and Central 46, one will suggest a plan of action and the other will agree out of respect, seemingly without taking into consideration whether this plan was good or not. Also, almost every problem encountered in, say, the movies, the fillers, and many in the canon are their fault. In the Bount arc, it's revealed that Central 46 ordered genocide of the Bounts because they ''might'' eat human souls to get stronger, despite the fact that they didn't really show any definite desire to do this. In the second movie, Central 46 decided that since Hitsugaya and his friend had the same Zanpakuto in two different forms, that one of them needed to die... for some unexplained reason. When Urahara tried to blame [[spoiler:Aizen]], Central 46 informed him they had collected witness statements from ''200 shinigami'' to confirm [[spoiler:Aizen]]'s whereabouts at the time in question. Urahara didn't have a leg to stand on, especially as he was caught "red handed" with the forbidden hollowfication research (and victims). Revealed earlier in the series, but chronologically later, forging this would be child's play for [[spoiler:Aizen]].
* [[WhatAnIdiot Certain viewers]] have noticed in ''ProjectAKo'' on how B-Ko's desire for C-Ko probably would have gone better if she didn't antagonize A-Ko so much. One might think that while conflict is an absolute necessity in an action story but then [[FridgeLogic you realize]] that B-Ko wasn't exactly the main antagonist in the 1st movie.
* Mousse from ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma ½]]'' is almost always in conflict with the titular protagonist, which is absurd when you realize that their primary goals regarding Shampoo coincide perfectly. They have literally no reason to fight, since (aside from his massive ego) Ranma should love an opportunity to remove one unwanted love interest, and Mousse should be happy to have at least one ally who will want to see Shampoo end up with Mousse. But that would be too easy, so instead Mousse is too blind to see the reality, and Ranma just responds as usual to someone attacking him.
** His hatred is actually fairly plausible when you consider that 1. he's living in a society where women are not allowed to think for themselves and gender roles are absolutely ironclad, so of ''course'' the only reason Shampoo would have the hots for Ranma is that he made a move on her, and 2. he's stupid. What makes no sense is his always fighting Ranma. Even if he wins (and he never comes within a Jursenkyo trip of it), this solves nothing. ''Shampoo'' is the one he needs to take out, y'know, that whole Amazon law thing and all. If that's too hard, winning Shampoo over romantically probably would work as well, as Ranma's pretty reasonable and wouldn't mind letting someone else have Shampoo provided he wasn't a raving violent jerk.
* In the ''{{Area 88}}'' manga, it seems implausible to have [[spoiler: Shin go into temporary psychosis upon learning that Kanzaki was flying a commercial plane near the base. Nor was it plausible for a frenzied Shin to attack said commercial plane, then attack Saki and Mickey once he was back on the ground.]]
* Heero Yuy in GundamWing, an otherwise calm and collected indivisual up to robotic levels of lacking emotion, decides to get brash and cocky, causing him to accidently kill a grouping of politicians that were going to help his cause. He was very smug about it too.
* Jeremy from ''Manga/ACruelGodReigns'' tends to do this often to Ian, picking fights with him for seemingly no reason and attempting to seduce him, although considering his {{Dark and Troubled Past}}, this could be passable.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comicbooks]]
* The ComicBook/CivilWar in MarvelComics. Many characters are fighting over the issue of a SuperRegistrationAct, but insist on LetsYouAndHimFight with some of their fastest friends rather than getting their act together to prove their case (pro or anti) and finding a solution that doesn't result in very necessary heroes being hunted down like dogs, or ''more'' battles as the pro and anti sides fight and invariably give villains free rein in the chaos. In the end, the Pro side got {{Designated Villain}}s to [[DebateAndSwitch simplify the debate]].
** Also, one of the ''leading advocates'' of the new SuperRegistrationAct, [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]], had previously [[AesopAmnesia singlehandedly thwarted an attempt at what was apparently the exact same thing]]. While it's hard to be sure since Marvel never bothered to tell readers ''exactly'' what was in the new version (or the old one for that matter), and it was inconsistently described from one comic to the next, the only thing we know for sure is different between the two is that the version Reed ''supports'' involves [[DesignatedHero permanently imprisoning violators in what amounts to]] '''[[DesignatedHero Hell]]''', while the one he opposed did not.
*** Which was, infuriatingly, never really explained, except with some blanket implications that lots of supers on the Pro side did it because it was "rational" given the political climate. This of course falls straight into the Conflict Ball's tendency to operate by shoehorning characters into designated {{Strawman}} slots (such as "rational scientist") for the sake of plot. Reed Richards actually has an F-triple-minus grade in rational decision-making, (for one, [[TheDeterminator his reaction to his best friend's death was to literally march into heaven]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome and ask Jack Kirby to give him back,]]) but hey, IronMan had a long history of actively using his influence to protect his friends from this sort of political flack, so if you're going to screw things up, you might as well go for the whole hog.
* ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen is this in SPADES to the point where people are hoping for a huge retcon to make it all a fever dream or something.
* In a BlackPanther comic, T'Challa is explaining his plan to take out a vampire infested city to Luke Cage, Brother Voodoo and Blade. Blade tells T'Challa that just because he runs a country doesn't mean he can tell him what to do. Cage says Blade is being difficult for no reason since he doesn't have a plan. Blade admits to it and says he just doesn't want to be part of a team. So T'Challa tells Blade to go off on his own and this immediately puts him in a good mood, so good he gives Luke Cage one of his guns before leaving.
** Blade and John Blaze also traded the conflict ball around in the various Midnight Sons series. One notable example was after Blade had a possession exorcised and returned with information vital to the team but Blaze wouldn't hear any of it and threatened to shoot him.
* The Lehrigen arc in ''ElfQuest'' pushed this to pretty extreme levels: Scouter's rebellion against Ember was not only extremely out of character (although he has been {{Flanderized}} into a complete asshole over time), but pretty much against everything the elves stand for.
* In the ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' series, Huntress is a living Conflict Ball between {{Batman}} and Oracle. Batman is always suspicious of Helena thanks to her past (she killed mobsters in her campaign to avenge her parents -- who were also mobsters), and Oracle is always willing to give her a chance.
* Oh, dear sweet merciful Xenu, Archie's ComicBook/{{Sonic The Hedgehog}} comics have had this ''[[UpToEleven A LOT]]'' under [[WriterOnBoard Ian]] [[RunningTheAsylum Flynn]], but the crowning moment of this came during 178-179. In those two issues, the House of Acorn imprisons Tails' parents for wanting to reform the government ('Cause ''that'' makes your monarchy look benevolent, [[SarcasmMode right?]]). Sonic sides with the monarchy instead of...you know...his best friend, to the point that Sonic gets into a fight with Tails for daring to break his parents loose! Tails makes some rude comments toward Sonic during the fight, [[{{Wangst}} yelling at him for leaving him behind on important missions, and blah blah blah]]...except that's not why he's fighting Sonic, it's really because Sonic took Fiona away from him. Yep, that was the core reason. Not his parents, just the passing love interest who not only wasn't even ''the same Fiona'' that Tails loved (that was a robot duplicate of her), but also who, just a few issues ago, was [[FaceHeelTurn revealed to be a bad guy.]]
* {{Batman}} and [[GreenLantern Hal Jordan]] were not always at odds. The rationale for Batman disliking Green Lantern was initially because Batman did not trust Hal after he became [[DemonicPossession The Parallax]]. But that eventually got {{Retcon}}ned so that they never liked each other from the start, with little convincing justification as to why. John Stewart once claimed that it was because Batman's main schtick is instilling fear, and Hal, having the ability to "overcome great fear", never "bought what he was selling". But that doesn't explain why Batman doesn't dislike Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, or any number of other superheroes who also don't seem to be afraid of him. The New 52 Justice League {{Reboot}}ed version seems to suggest that Batman doesn't like Green Lantern because he's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* Mary Jane went from supporting, loving partner to Spider-Man who understood his need to be a hero, to someone who all of a sudden couldn't handle the pressure and questioned his accomplishments, even belittling the "With Great Power..." mantra. She finally left Spider-Man being threatened by an average thug (despite being attacked by villains such as Venom, the Green Goblin and Spider-Slayers) with the argument that she couldn't deal with the notion that her life could be in danger. She's recently realized that she does love Peter, but for some reason has yet to actually tell him this.
* As a general rule, this occurs more often than not when two heroes encounter each other while working different ends of the same case. No matter how many times they've teamed up before, something will cause the two to brawl for five minutes before realizing they should team up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* In ''{{My Immortal}}'', everything everyone does seems to be a bit arbitrary and stupid, but the conflicts bear special mention. Dumbledore appears to be portrayed as a prep because he's not goffik enough, and therefore he must hate all goffs and act cruel and mean to them, [[ForTheEvulz just because]]. [[BigBad Voldemort]] also appears to be the story's seeker in terms of conflict balls.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' spoofed this. One of the guys had a problem with the new guy, and he eventually told the new guy his improbable reason he had a problem with actors, although that traumatic event should have made him hate furries instead.
* In ''{{Volcano}}'', an angry black guy butted heads with a bigoted cop, while the volcano was still going off. The effort to stop the lava conveniently helped them see past their differences.
* George A. Romero just ''loved'' tossing this one onto the court in ''NightOfTheLivingDead''. It wasn't guaranteed to get everyone killed, but it never helped their situation to stand around and quibble.
* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies, the Jedi Council are more or less good people. Sticklers for the rules perhaps, and maybe they should have kept a closer eye on their Chosen One, but at the end of the day, they tried to do the right thing. In much of the ExpandedUniverse however, they don't just carry the Conflict Ball, they play intense games of [[{{Flanderization}} Volley Conflict Ball at a moment's notice]].
** Example: In ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'', the Exile has to visit three hidden Jedi and convince them to band together and help fight the Sith. Individually they all agree with you that the Sith need to be fought. Once you get them together, however they come to the conclusion that because the Exile's nature as a void in the Force might bring about the death of the Force itself, they turn their attention towards the Exile. Their rationalizations are fair enough but are jarring given how much the Sith have them backed into a corner.
** The Ruusan Reformations. This is where you see the movies' Order come to be from the KOTOR-era Order. Much stricter, less flexible, and a bunch of new rules that make conflict virtually impossible to avoid. (No love on pain of expulsion? Really?) This is where the Jedi stopped growing and became static/stagnant.
*** The Ruusan Reformation was supposed to be a response to the lessons learned from the New Sith Wars. The problem is that the Jedi learned ''all the wrong lessons''.
** The post-''ROTJ'' EU runs off this trope, particularly ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce''. It doesn't matter how many Aesops the Galaxy has learned, it doesn't matter how many planets are devastated, how many populations eradicated, how many governments toppled, there will always be one planet that feels the need to wage war for absolutely retarded reasons.
*** See also the Council during the ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'' series. Internal politics and hypocritical bickering between members, rash judgments and plans that are enacted without considering the obvious, sensible alternatives, aggressive approaches to undo plots of a villain who could be handled without the need to lift a lightsaber. It gets pretty bad.
* ''BrideWars'' has the two protagonists have their weddings for the same date and the same place. The two have been best friends for years, but they now suddenly don't want their identical dream weddings to be combined in what would be an awesome double wedding. WebVideo/BadMovieBeatdown had a field day pointing out how arbitrary it was, to the point of a gaping PlotHole.
* ''Film/TheOddLifeOfTimothyGreen'': Timothy makes friends with Joni, the girl he has a crush on, and the two have a great deal of fun together. But Tim's parents quickly turn against her upon seeing them be friends because... they don't want their son to have friends, maybe? It makes even less sense considering that they were afraid Joni would bully him because Timothy had accidentally kicked her in the face, so why would they still be hostile to her when they see she's forgiven him?
* ''LostInSpace'' had the father go from merely being neglectful of his son Will to outright dismissing anything he has to say, even when he should at least address some of those things.
* ''Film/WildWildWest''. Sure it was their first assignment, but Jim West and Artemus Gordon's fighting came across as petty instead of natural differences in their characters.
* ''{{Film/Apollo 13}}'' has astronauts Jack Swigert and Fred Haise argue over what may have caused their mission's accident. In real life, no such arguments occurred at all, and was added because WordOfGod thought [[RealityIsUnrealistic it didn't seem right]] that they were completely together through the rest of the mission. It is ultimately {{justified|Trope}} afterwards, when they discover their [=CO2=] levels have gone up considerably and it's affecting their judgment.
* In ''AKnightsTale'' William picks a fight with Jocelyn for no good reason, presumably so he can spend the next half-hour trying to win her back via a beautiful love letter.
* In ''Film/TheAvengers'', [[spoiler:Loki's spear]] seems to act as a literal, physical conflict ball, escalating trivial disagreements and dislikes into full-fledged hostility. While it fails to permanently turn the team against each other, it does occupy them for a good while, distracts them from the incoming reinforcements, and [[spoiler:makes Banner more vulnerable to Hulking out during the attack]].
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' has several examples making several important supporting characters in direct conflict with the main protagonists. Among the victims are Faramir, Theoden, Elrond and Treebeard, all of whom become road-blocks to the main characters to a greater or lesser extent.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In the ''{{Literature/Dinotopia}}'' book ''The Maze'', at one point the characters enter a field of [[HatePlague angry gas]]. They would never have known about it (and split up angrily--[[MalevolentArchitecture fatal]] [[DeathCourse given]] [[BoobyTrap their]] [[TheMaze location]]) if Booj hadn't taken the offer of "You think you're above us anyway, why don't ''you'' go ''up?''" literally, and jumped to a ledge above the level of the gas.
* In Creator/RobertMerle's ''{{Literature/Malevil}}'', the conflict ball is given to Catie. A [[TheTease shameless tease]], frequently undermining discipline, arguing against Emmanuel, and causing problems for her husband Thomas, Emmanuel's second in command.
* In the WheelOfTime, it is often averted or played straight, depending upon your point of view. Despite the obvious rise and return of the Dark One, the many factions in the world bicker and fight each other rather than teaming up. Could be viewed as an aversion, as the entire series seems to be a response to classic fantasy series like LOTR, where political and philosophical differences are just too great to easily set everything aside and band together against the approaching evil. However, a recent straight example of this trope is Egwene's opposition to Rand's plan to destroy the remaining seals. Although it's a curious plan that's a bit outside the box, it never shows her even considering why Rand wants to do it or to try communicating with him to discuss the matter. She just immediately dismisses it as a horrible idea and sets about trying to turn everyone against him, all for the sake of conflict.
** It's often implied that the Pattern hands certain characters the Conflict Ball because that's the only way for what needs to happen to happen. Egwene's opposition to Rand's plans (which actually were highly flawed, even if he was right about the Seals) was necessary to get all of the world's leaders together in the right place at the right time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In TheWestWing episode "Isaac and Ishmael", the normally calm, moral and - of course - liberal Leo [=McGarry=] character has to turn into a ranting strawman of a right-wing ideologue for plot purposes. It should be pointed out that the actors give a small speech at the beginning that openly states that it doesn't fit into the regular continuity.
* In an episode of ''Series/ClarissaExplainsItAll'', she wanted a job, but the parents kept saying no. They gave no reason, even when asked, and they eventually relented for no stated reason either. That might have been justified, as the show was largely seen through her PointOfView.
* The New Generation ''Franchise/KamenRider'' series are particularly bad at this when it comes to provoking battles between Riders. They more or less have a rule that ''any'' given pair of Riders must fight at least once during the series (preferably more), no matter the cost in terms of character and story consistency.
** I'll be damned if they aren't [[RuleofCool cool as hell]], though.
** The older gen had 1: KamenRiderV3 vs. Riderman.
** This trend was however finally averted in KamenRiderDouble and seemingly every show afterwards, with the Second Rider only having minor disagreements at worst with the main Rider.
* In ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', Tommy and Jason suddenly stopped being able to work as a team for one episode, implying that they NEVER were able to work well together, so they could learn a valuable lesson of teamwork. It didn't use the IneffectualLoner path, but instead used a new variant of AllYourPowersCombined for the two of them to beat a monster without their mecha.
** A straighter version of this happens several years down the line in ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'', when after learning to work together as a team, some episode plot would revolve around the teammates disliking each other. This reached a new high in the SWAT two-parter when the bickering that occurred during the first part of the episode was pretty much unprecedented, even considering the fact that three of the Rangers were openly enemies of the other two in the beginning of the series brought together by an EnemyMine situation.
* The character Steven Caldwell of ''StargateAtlantis'' was, according to the actor, supposed to be more of a jerk in the original script. However, the actor subtly nicened him up a bit. Unfortunately the trade off was that whenever the script called for him to truly be a jerk, it often looked a little forced. One notable example is the episode ''Sateda'', in which Shepard claims that Caldwell doesn't value alien team members such as Ronin as much as earth members, a point that had never been hinted at before.
* Subverted with on ''StargateSG1'', where Jack O'Neill suddenly starts acting like an uncaring, greedy jerk, and leaves the Stargate Program when reprimanded to join a group who steal alien technology. However, it later turns out that the whole thing is a trick to unearth said group.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' had an almost identical subversion with Tom Paris, showing him having more and more problems fitting in over a long arc culminating in his leaving Voyager to infiltrate an enemy group.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Sometimes conflict seems randomly shoehorned in among the characters just so the writers can meet some sort of mandatory drama quota.
** This was particularly glaring in Season 7 when [[spoiler:everyone asked Buffy to leave. They had no particular reason to think that Buffy's plan wouldn't work, no plan of their own, and certainly had no reason to think Faith would be a better leader. And it's nearly impossible to believe that Willow and Xander would turn on Buffy after everything they've been through. But the writers wanted conflict, so it's "Get out of your own house, Buffy."]] Though this may be partially influenced by changing scripts. [[spoiler:According to rumor, Xander was supposed to be outright ''killed'' instead of just losing an eye - this was only changed when they realized there wouldn't be sufficient time to mourn him in the last episodes.]]
** Season 6 just may have been worse about this, particularly regarding [[spoiler: Xander and Anya's failed wedding]]. Or how about [[spoiler: Willow's magic addiction try try to justify her turn to the dark side after Tara is killed]]?
** There's a rather aggravating example in the Season 5 episode "Tough Love" where Willow and Tara suddenly get into a fight that comes out of nowhere so Tara can conveniently go out alone to get attacked by the BigBad.
** Let's just say that Joyce and Buffy's friends mishandled her return from LA on a thermonuclear level in Season 3's 'Dead Man's Party'. Joyce was an early S1 flake; Willow and Xander were their S6/7 selves four years early.
* There's an episode of ''AllInTheFamily'' in which Mike, the show's resident liberal, abruptly reveals a stay-in-the-kitchen attitude toward women that runs contrary to his character. The purpose of this revelation is to create conflict between him and Gloria.
** It should be noted that "liberal" and "feminist" are not necessarily the same thing (especially if the liberal in question is male), and that some feminists are outright contemptuous of liberalism. A lot of women in the 60s became radical feminists when they realized that they were not regarded as equals to men even within left-wing organizations that claimed to support equality and freedom for everyone.
* One episode of ''SavedByTheBell: The College Years'' has Slater discover he actually has Mexican heritage. He out of nowhere accuses Zack of being racist because Zack tries to set him up with a blonde girl. He actually says "why do you only think girls with blonde hair and blue eyes are attractive? I've dated girls with dark hair and dark eyes". This is completely ignoring that the love of Zack's life was brunette and that he dated girls of many ethnicities in high school, including their friend Lisa. Slater spends the whole episode being overly sensitive and Zack is presented as the one who needs to learn the Aesop.
* In ''TheDeadZone'' TV series, Johnny holds the ball whenever Greg Stillson is involved. One particularly annoying example is when Stillson (Vice President at the time) shows up at his house to ask for his help in bringing a space shuttle home safely after it loses radio contact. Johnny reluctantly helps him, with emphasis on ''reluctantly.'' The audience can identify with Stillson's frustration at some points, when Johnny berates him for (what he sees as) using the incident to advance his career. Come on, Johnny. You're helping a team of astronauts get home safely. Does it ''really'' matter that Stillson was the one to ask it of you? Notably, this was ''after'' Johnny had stopped getting Armageddon visions from Stillson. Stillson was still a shady, ambitious politician, but in this episode it seemed like Johnny was being a jerk for apparently no reason at all.
* ''{{Sanctuary}}:'' In [[MusicalEpisode Fugue]], Will gets handed this big time. [[spoiler:His girlfriend]] gets infected with something that slowly turns them into a violent abnormal. Magnus then suggests a cure and considering she is the foremost expert of these things, you think that Will would go along with her idea. But NO, he thinks that the idea is too risky, which doesn't make sense in the first place because the victim has a 100% chance of dying without the cure. Then he accuses her of having ulterior motive, which doesn't fit with his character and there is no way that she would do that kind of thing anyway. [[spoiler: It gets so bad that they have to lock him away so he won't go on a violent rampage to "save" her.]] Classic {{Conflict Ball}}
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* All over the place in WhiteWolf's ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' games. It seemed that every single faction was in a war, cold or hot, with every other faction; a particularly standout example would be the entirety of the ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' line, where the various tribes fought each other, other shapeshifters, regular humans, and ''sometimes'' the Wyrm (the entity they were supposed to be fighting), mostly for reasons that made the reader wonder how the place ever got past the stone age. Shapeshifters, simply put, can be just as bad as any humans but with infinitely more anger issues and less self-control.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Videogames]]
* Many hotheaded RPG characters, whether heroes or villains, will be [[HotBlooded more in the mood to fight]] when it makes more sense to talk, because the plot [[ButThouMust can't go further if they resolve things peacefully]].
* The entire population of Azeroth was handed one of these between ''{{Warcraft}} III'' and ''WorldOfWarcraft''. Nearly all the civilizations of Kalimdor, which includes forces from both the Alliance and the Horde, allied to fend off the Burning Legion and the Scourge by the end of the former game, but those alliances dissolve ''offscreen'' in the years between the games. The release of ''Wrath of the Lich King'', and the corresponding rise of the Scourge as a major threat once again, has caused a thaw in relations between the coalitions, but they still battle openly in some places. The main purpose of the war seems to be to have an excuse for the two sides to be in opposition.
** [[CreatorsPet Varian and Garrosh]] are ''walking'' Conflict Balls!
** The ''Wrath of the Lich King'' area of Grizzly Hills is of special note, as its main theme is that you must help your faction to gather as much of the Hills' plentiful resources as possible, while sabotaging the rival faction's attempts to do the same. Both factions want to use said resources to help them defeat the Lich King - which is to say that in Grizzly Hills, the Lich King's two main enemies are locked in a savage war over ''who will get to fight the guy they both actually came there to fight.'' With [[TooDumbToLive enemies like these]], the Lich King doesn't need any friends...
** In Icecrown, the Horde and Alliance each have a flying gunship specifically built to take on the Scourge, and yet are used almost exclusively against each other. This culminates in Icecrown Citadel, where they battle over who has the right to take on the Lich King. They do this even though the respective gunship captains are otherwise very sensible sorts who are perfectly aware that every Horde and Alliance soldier who falls in battle becomes a potential recruit for the Scourge.
** The ground forces in Icecrown are worse, and yes, there's a ground campaign simply because the scourge would overrun anyone who just flew in to confront the Lich King. Anyway. Because of impassable mountains, the ground forces have to take a path right through a series of gates in some rather impressively defended walls. [[EpicFail The first assault]] starts off with some reasonable teamwork, but then the Alliance blames the Horde for what happens next, and the Horde apparently takes that as an excuse to screw the Alliance and go it on their own. They end up sabotaging and backstabbing each other whenever it looks like one faction might take a gate, because allowing someone to take the gate would mean having to fight through the other faction - again - to progress towards the Lich King, only from a less defendable position. The aforementioned airship captains praise the ground forces when they hear about this.
** At this point, the Alliance vs Horde conflict is really only sustained by liberal passes of the conflict ball. Everybody seems to realize that the war is counterproductive at best, and every expansion gives the two sides a common enemy. With the ridiculous amounts of EnemyMine, taking place between them, you would think they would start to realize that there's really no justifiable reason to be fighting anymore. At least not until the writers give them one by making characters more evil.
** The problem is that Blizzard can't seem to decide whether they want ''WorldOfWarcraft'' to have the Alliance vs. Horde themes from the first two Warcraft games, or the EnemyMine theme of the third game. Instead they've tried to do both, but the two ideas are contradictory, and the result is a plot riddled with Conflict and [[IdiotBall Idiot Balls]] as the two factions [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Chronically Backstab]] each other while neutral characters lecture them on not getting along.
* The "ring of conflict" in ''NetHack'' is a conflict ball... for the group of monsters you're facing.
* Used as a joke in some of the ''Videogame/{{Touhou}}'' games, especially fighting games. Often the fights are for improbable, ridiculous reasons. However, it's also clear that, ultimately, [[BloodKnight these people just like beating the heck out of each other]]!
* During one infamous scene in ''TacticsOgre', [[SchrodingersGun your choice directly affects your best friend's choice]] to put the Conflict Ball into play. Essentially one of you is going to be a KnightTemplar to the other's ChaoticGood and there's nothing you can do about it.
* In ''VideoGame/MegaManX 5'' many reploids you fight want to have a piece of your character for various reasons. While there are varying degrees of justification, the fact that several not in the throes of Maverick fever insist on doing this when the [[ColonyDrop giant space colony is coming crashing down]] is a bit incredulous.
** ''Mega Man X4''[='=]s entire plot starts simply because Colonel would rather throw the entire Repliforce into a pointless war with the Maverick Hunters than simply ''turn off his LaserSword when asked to come to the latter's headquarters''.
* The Conflict Ball ''is'' the plot to ''Vivisector: Beast Inside''. It starts out with a GeneralRipper hiring an EvilutionaryBiologist to create an army of {{Half Human Hybrid}}s, only to split into a civil war over disagreements over how the army should be utilized. Okay, that's reasonable. Then the General decides to [[NukeEm nuke the biologist's soldiers]] for no good reason, and when he tricks the player character into coming to their island hideaway, he conveniently forgets to inform ''his own soldiers'' that he required your help, turning them against you for no reason other than to add more enemies for you to fight. [[FromBadToWorse It gets worse, though]]; later on, the General kills your only ally in the game for absolutely no reason but to get you to abandon him for the doctor's side, and then you learn that the beast soldiers are pre-programmed to hate humans on sight, forcing you to ''fight your new allies'', even though there really should be no reason for that to happen. In essence, the ''only'' reason why you have to fight ''any'' enemies in the game is because ButThouMust.
* The AI in ''GalacticCivilizations II'' likes to lob one of these your way if it gets bored. The galaxy is prosperous, quiet, and peaceful? A [[RandomEvent Mega Event]] goes off in which one of your citizens assassinates the head of the Drengin Empire, plunging you into war! Which drags the Drengin's allies the Drath Legion into it, and thanks to their [[ManipulativeBastard racial ability]] they convince the Yor to attack you too! But then the Altarians step in on your behalf, and use ''their'' racial ability to have the Iconians help out too, but ''that'' serves as the last straw for the Korx who team up with the Thalans...
* A bit of this goes on in ''{{Persona 3}}''. Junpei has a surprising amount of malice towards the main character for a very long time, but the conflict ball didn't get into full swing until FES' The Answer. [[spoiler:Yukari forced Aigis to fight just about everyone because she can't respect the decision of the MC because she loves him too much.]]
* [[FightingGame Fighting games]] take this trope UpToEleven. Most of the time, characters are only fighting each other, because the players simply wanted to select those particular characters. If loving family members and TrueCompanions are in the roster of a fighting game, they can be "forced" to fight each other. This also leads to certain characters that [[WouldntHitAGirl wouldn't hit females]] or [[WouldntHurtAChild children]] breaking their ethical codes. Admittedly, matches like that aren't [[InvokedTrope invoked]] through the stories, but fighting game Story Mode/Arcade Mode "conflicts" are very underwhelming, because the characters often fight over trivial things.
** Several rival cutscenes from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' (along with [[CapcomSequelStagnation its updated sequels]]) fit this trope to a tee. For example, take a look at these [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf2dFOKnjvA&feature=player_detailpage#t=14s Guile vs. Abel]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=F2ROg5goCXI#t=13s Blanka vs. El Fuerte]] cutscenes.
** The same goes for ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken''. The [[{{Tekken}} Lars and Alisa]] vs. [[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Sakura]] and [[VideoGame/StreetFighterII Blanka]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIerjiO-94s cutscene]] is by far one of the most ridiculous examples of this trope. It makes no sense considering that when it's the other way around, Sakura and Blanka happily approach Lars, confusing him for a [[{{Television}} TV]] {{Sentai}} hero that ''they love!''
** All of the rival cutscenes of ''VideoGame/PlayStationAllStarsBattleRoyale'' are made out of this trope. ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbLbuls2Fkk All of them]]''. The same goes for the [[DownloadableContent DLC]] characters' cutscenes, as well.
* ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' really suffers from this. Each of the four teams in the game will fight two of the other three teams over the course of their story. Sonic starts a fight with Amy just to stop her pestering him into marrying her, while at the same time, the Chaotix Detective Agency simply assume that Team Dark (Rouge, Shadow & Omega) are working against their client, while Rouge is convinced the Chaotix are out to stop her getting treasure. Then, later on in the story, the Chaotix meet up with Amy and her friends, and because one of them has a Chao, they assume they're the bad guys (semi-justified due to the mission before this encounter for the Chaotix being a quest to gather Chao), while Sonic & friends meet Team Dark and fight because... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcLAsZ5EVhE well here's the set-up cutscene]].
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Emily [=McArthur=] of ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'' has had this a ''lot'' lately.
** Justified quite a bit, in that Emily ''likes'' her "misfiled" existence - in which she's learned a lot of new and interesting things, made new friends and basically lives a life that's more than an extension of her mother's lost dreams. She also knows Ash hates her new life (or more specifically, hates the fact that [[GenderBender he's a she]] in it). Emily doesn't really want to fix things, and only admits this when Ash tries to get her to commiserate with her one time too many. She even tried to explain this.
** A straighter example would be the constant, immature sparring between Emily and Missi. While Emily has generally gotten better at this and only retorts back when provoked, Missi seems to take a perverse delight in annoying her. The only reason for this, it seems, would be so that the two can clash over their feelings for Ash. Even more irritating, though, is Missi's refusal to accept that Ash isn't her girlfriend anymore. It's makes one wonder whether Chris only created her to exacerbate personal drama in the lives of the two protagonists. When you consider that Ash and Emily are steadily becoming ''less'' hostile towards Rumisiel over time - they aren't friendly with him, but they seem to trust him more than they did at the start - this theory isn't without justification.
* Hardly a week goes by without ''something'' going down in ''{{Candi}}'', and there have been perhaps three instances over the course of the comic's six-plus-year run where characters have actually, permanently [[CharacterDevelopment learned anything from the resulting drama.]] [[ItsAllAboutMe Trevor,]] [[NeverMyFault Linda]], and [[ClingyJealousGirl Rebecca]] in particular are especially fond of The Ball.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In an episode of the ''[[{{The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3}} Super Mario Bros.]]'' cartoon series, "True Colors", the Koopas spray red paint on half the townspeople, and blue paint on the other half. The Toads begin arguing over petty differences (egged on by two of the Koopa Kids) and end up dividing based on color. Naturally, this allows for [[FantasticRacism a corny allegory about racism]].
* In episode 12 of ''TheAmazingChanAndTheChanClan'', Tom and Anne both get a hold of the ball for a time when Tom refuses to believe Ms. Scarlet Avondale is the crook simply because she's female and Anne insists a woman can be a crook just as easily as a man, as if it's an accomplishment. Anne turns out to be right, but the ''reason'' for the argument is rather silly.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' uses this in a number of episodes, like Rarity and Applejack's escalating tiff in "Look Before You Sleep", and Applejack and Rainbow Dash's competitiveness getting out of hand in "Fall-Weather Friends".
** ''Invoked'' by Twilight in "Lesson Zero" with the hope of being able to solve someone's problem and learn her weekly Aesop. It gets out of hand when everyone in town winds up fighting over [[ArtifactOfAttraction her doll]]. In doing so, she ironically ended up ''holding'' the Conflict Ball herself, by dint of her sudden obsession with helping fix others' problems.
*** This action was in response to the whole town actually subverting the trope earlier on, being unusually void of any real confrontations or problems between them. Particularly noticable for [[VitriolicBestBuds Applejack and Rainbow Dash]], who are getting along blissfully for once (much to Twilight's disappointment).
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': Whenever Candace actually goes along with her brothers' latest scheme, she (usually) has a great time and often gets quality time with Jeremy. Yet she is constantly trying to bust them for no apparent reason beyond sibling upmanship (pointless as they genuinely look up to her) and winning her mom's approval. Later on even she has pointed out that the urge is irrational, but often tries (and usually fails) to resist the "urge to bust" like it's an odd GRatedDrug addiction. Sometimes, admittedly, the things the boys are doing would be dangerous if they were even a smidgen less competent (showcased in "Phineas and Ferb get Busted" where one misplaced bolt led to most of the house being wrecked. Thank goodness that Just a Dream...), and sometimes she does seem to be in it more because she thinks what they're doing is dangerous (like the all-terrain vehicle bit) or disruptive (driving cattle through downtown).
* ''TotalDramaAction'': The cast seemed pretty cold and mean to Courtney's reappearance even before being shoe-horned in as the season's 'villain'.
* Lots... and lots... and ''lots'' of episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Even characters who have genuinely liked each other for years (e.g. Bart/Lisa, Edna/Seymour, Homer/Moe, Mr. Burns/Smithers) aren't immune. At least with Lenny and Carl it's pretty much just played for laughs.
* In the ''APupNamedScoobyDoo'' episode "Night of the Living Burger" Scooby and Shaggy have a falling out for some reason and spend almost the whole episode fighting before making up at the end. We never even find out what they were fighting about.
* ''Ben10UltimateAlien'': Ben suddenly deciding that it's absolutely necessary to kill Kevin in the first season finale, even though he never focused on killing any previous enemies (including ones which were much more of a threat than Kevin), and Grandpa Max points out that he's acting out-of-character ''in the show itself''.
[[/folder]]
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