Friendly Enemies in real life.
- During the Three Kingdoms – Shu, Wei, Wu era of Chinese history, it was not uncommon for high ranking officers to remain cordial towards one another even if they changed service. The most notable is probably Guan Yu, who despite being enemies of the kingdom of Cao Wei, remained on good terms with several of its officers and leaders. For instance, he was good friends with rival general Zhang Liao despite the two having attempted to kill the other a few times on the battlefield. Such was their camaraderie that Cao Cao had the latter repeatedly attempt to persuade Guan Yu to remain in Cao Cao's service (to no avail, as Guan Yu was far too loyal to Liu Bei). He was also on good terms with Xu Huang, being one of the latter's few actual friends, and was at least respectful towards Cao Cao in his service. Notably, this friendliness did not extend to Liu Bei's allies in Sun Wu, whom he viewed as his inferiors and treated with contempt and arrogance. Unfortunately for him, would ultimately cost him his life after being captured in battle against Wu forces at Fancheng.
- King Hezekiah of Judah and King Sennacherib of Assyria. Both were born in 740 BCE and were known as great builders. When Egypt revolted against Assyrian vassalship in 701 BCE, virtually every country in the Levant joined in, but despite seemingly having exhausted his army crushing a decades-long insurgency in Babylon, Sennacherib quickly subdued all of the rebel states...except for Judah. Hezekiah, who was prophesied from the time of his birth to restore Judah to greatness by Isaiah, had spent over a decade fortifying Jerusalem to withstand any siege. Due to being surrounded, Hezekiah was forced to surrender anyway, but because the Assyrians had never ''technically'' captured the city, Sennacherib not only allowed Hezekiah to stay on the throne, but elevated Judah to the status of "most-favored nation." A generation later, their respective sons Manasseh and Esarhaddon teamed up to recapture Egypt from the Nubians.
- Greek leader of the Macedonian empire, Alexander the Great, had a very long and very violent war with Persian king of the Achaemenid Empire, Darius III. After years of trying to kill each other, their rivalry came to an end when Darius was betrayed and fatally wounded by one of his men. During the final moments of Darius' life, Alexander, who had arrived where he had been left for dead, sat with his long-time foe, had his men bring Darius water, and after his death gave him a burial worth of an emperor and swore to avenge him, while Darius had long started wishing that if the Persian Empire was to fall then it should only fall to Alexander.
- Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Royal Crown, and Doctor Pepper, American soda pop companies, all get along rather swimmingly with each other despite all being competitors with each other. While you would never see Coke and Pepsi be sold on fountain alongside each other, Doctor Pepper is often sold alongside Coke, Pepsi, or RC at restaurants. At one point, in the days of rampant corporate espionage, there were some culprits who made off to Pepsi with Coca-Cola's "secret recipe," hoping to be given corporate positions, only for Pepsi to take the formula, turn them in, and then call Coca-Cola to give back the formula without copying it down or otherwise profiting from it (Of course, Pepsi never wanted to copy Coca-Cola anyway, all that would do is say they were better).
- During the English Civil War, several battles were fought between parliamentary general Sir William Waller and royalist general Ralph Hopton. The two were close friends, and at one point, Hopton asked for a meeting, hoping to persuade Waller to change sides. Waller declined, but wrote in his letter, "...Certainly my affections to you are so unchangeable, that hostility itself cannot violate my friendship to your person, but I must be true to the cause wherein I serve... That great God, which is the searcher of my heart, knows with what a sad sense I go upon this service, and with what a perfect hatred I detest this war without an enemy, but I look upon it as an Opus Domini, which is enough to silence all passion in me... We are both upon the stage and must act those parts assigned to us in this tragedy. Let us do it in a way of honour, and without personal animosities, whatsoever the issue be. I shall never willingly relinquish the dear title of Your most affectionate friend..." Waller also offered to pay Hopton's medical bills after the end of the war. (Hopton had been seriously injured during the course of the war.).
- It's said that, despite being truly bloodthirsty against each other's armies during the Crusades, Richard the Lionheart and Saladin often exchanged gifts and had great respect for one another insofar as their roles allowed. Saladin supposedly offered his physician when Richard fell ill, for instance. Amusingly, when Richard's army was dying of heat stroke on the march to Jerusalem, Saladin allegedly had snow sent to them. For a brief period they talked of joining their families through the marriage of their siblings, with Jerusalem as the dowry (how much of this was a political gambit is unclear, but it was considered a viable proposition). For the most part, they had similar ideals of honor and understood that they were both fighting for their religions. They even had the same taste in music and were patrons of the arts and sciences. It's possible that each saw the other as a Worthy Opponent, and were hoping to eventually end the war so that they could get along and possibly convert the other to their own religion. In other words, a Real Life version of The Song of Roland when the poem speaks of the mightiest of the Moorish champions: "O! If only he were Christian."
- To an extent, medieval Christian Europe as a whole saw Saladin as this, with The Divine Comedy revealing the (by now long-dead) Saladin as residing in the outermost circle of Hell with other "virtuous pagans" such as Virgil.
- Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin were two rival samurai in the Warring States period of Japanese history. Shingen's territory didn't have any salt, and he usually bought it from the Hojo clan. When they cut him off, Uesugi Kenshin secretly sent salt to Takeda Shingen. Later, Takeda Shingen was killed facing Oda Nobunaga's allies, and a very angry Uesugi Kenshin fought a (winning) battle against Oda Nobunaga as a result. While stories suggest that the two were firm friends when not on the battlefield, some historical records suggest that Kenshin hated Shingen and that providing Shingen with salt was more a matter of honour — Kenshin believed that warriors should fight with swords, not salt.
- Seth MacFarlane has a number of these:
- Matt Groening. While it is implied on both of their shows that they hate each other, they are pretty good friends.
- He and Rush Limbaugh were good friends despite being polar opposites on the political spectrum. They see their own highly-politically-charged works as chiefly a matter of entertainment. Rush has even guest voiced on Family Guy more than once, occasionally parodying himself.
- Mike Judge too; Judge appeared as Hank Hill in an episode of Family Guy. This one's surprising as many King of the Hill fans (unfairly) blame MacFarlane for the show's cancellation, due to the advent of The Cleveland Show.
- The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 between the British, French, and German soldiers of the Western Front during World War I. Some men even left the trenches and started playing football (soccer) with each other in No Man's land (dead zone between the opposing trench-networks) and generally having a non-fighty time. That's right, in the middle of a war they played sport in a dead zone. Understandably, the higher ups on both sides thought that humanizing the people they would have to kill later could be troublesome and escalated patrols and trench-raids to increase the chances of the men losing someone to/killing one of the enemy. More about it at the Other Wiki
. - Reportedly, there were many such instances between Union and Confederate soldiers during The American Civil War-brother against brother and all that. It was quite common for career officers on both sides to have lifelong friends on the other side, and soldiers of every rank often feared facing friends and family in combat. It was a lucrative activity, too: the Confederates had all the good tobacco, and the Union had all the good coffee. Informal trading went on whenever possible.
- Lieutenant General James Peter Longstreet, Robert E. Lee's right-hand man, was a close friend of Ulysses S. Grant before and after the conflict.
- Confederate Major General George Pickett had been admitted to West Point via the endorsement of then-Senator Abraham Lincoln, over many objections. Pickett never forgot his personal debt to Lincoln, and even at the height of the war would not tolerate even the slightest insult to Lincoln in his presence.
- Perhaps one of the greatest tear-jerkers of the war is the story of Generals Lewis Armistead and Winfield Scott Hancock. When then-Captain Armistead's wife and daughter died of disease, he was left broken and suicidal, and was taken in by his best friend, then-Captain Hancock, and Hancock's wife Almyra. As the war loomed ten years later, both friends attended a final party at Fort Tejon, California before travelling east to join their respective sides, and a tearful Armistead, bound for the Army of Northern Virginia, vowed to Hancock, who would remain in the US Army, "If I ever raise my hand against you, may God strike me dead!" Three years later, they faced each other during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. Union troops found Armistead mortally wounded at the Union line, but his only concern was for Hancock's safety. When told that Hancock was also badly wounded, Armistead burst into tears, crying, "Oh God, not both of us!" and spent his final hours worrying aloud over what it would do to Almyra Hancock to lose her husband. Hancock didn't find out about Armistead's condition until it was too late to see him. He survived his injuries, and wept uncontrollably at Armistead's funeral.
- A more impromptu case: Nathan Bedford Forrest once rode up to the Union lines, having mistaken them for the Confederates. The Union soldiers, rather than taking a shot at him, told him where he was and suggested that he return to his camp. Forrest saluted them and rode off.
- The treatment of the tens of thousands of Anglo-American prisoners of war the Germans captured contrasted sharply with their treatment of other countries', though this might have had something to do with just how few Anglo-American prisoners there were - combined with the humanitarian sensibilities of their home countries, this made them far more useful as well-treated bargaining chips (in the various PoW-for-food &c negotiations) than for slave labour. 3.5 of the 4.5 million Soviet soldiers the Germans captured were of course starved to death in open-air camps (1941-2) or worked to death as slave labour (1942-45), and the 2 million French and Italian PoW were also put to work as slaves. But in any case, German treatment of Anglo-American prisoners was so reasonable that some of the guards became friends with the prisoners, and some of the friendships made between enemies persisted after the war ended! Ironically, one of the most criticized aspects of the sitcom Hogan's Heroes is the depiction of a friendly relationship between English-speaking PoW and their German captors, even though it's fairly close to Truth in Television. The unheard-of cordiality of the Germans' behavior regarding this (racial) category of prisoner is documented in the books and movies The Great Escape and The Wooden Horse.
- The reverse was also true in many cases. German POWs were treated very well in the racist United States, and it wasn't uncommon for German POWs to eat in segregated restaurants while Black American soldiers were forced to stay outside, and in danger of being lynched if they lingered too long. note
- During the Bangladeshi War of Independence, the Pakistani commander (occupying Bangladesh) and the Indian commander (invading in support of the independence movement) were personal friends who had studied together at Sandhurst military college.
- Throughout most of American history, the Republicans and the Democrats have often seen each other as this and as friendly rivals (once both parties existed), and it may yet become that way again.
- The 2017 Congressional baseball shooting took place during the Republican practice session for the annual Congressional Baseball Game, held every year since 1909 between Republicans and Democrats. The game is one of Washington DC's most popular annual events, with the proceeds of ticket sales going to local charities. The game went on as scheduled the next day; though the Democrats won 11-2, they loaned the trophy to the Republicans until House Majority Whip Steve Scalise recovered from his wounds.
- The 2017 Congressional baseball shooting
- Most of the American Founding Fathers fell into this kind of dynamic.
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson could write this trope. During the Revolution, they supported each other in the Continental Congress, and later, as ambassadors to the French, Spanish, Austrian, etc courts; Abigail Adams treated Jefferson's daughters as her own. Later, they were political rivals on the opposite sides of many issues, especially federalism versus states' rights. The early elections' rules caused Jefferson to be Adams's vice president because he came in second. The following election, Jefferson's revolution of 1800, was the source of what seemed to be the final bitter dispute between them. Despite a quarter century of political bickering, they were convinced to reconcile and wrote letters to each other after they retired from public life, including Adams' vow "While I live, I will be your friend." John Adams' last words, when he died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, were: "Thomas Jefferson still survives." Ironically, Jefferson had died earlier that day.
- During a battle in the Revolutionary War, a British general's pet dog wandered into the Americans' camp. George Washington had his aide return the dog to the British camp with a friendly note, and his owner expressed his admiration for Washington's gentlemanly conduct.
- The American Revolutionary War is the incarnation of this trope. Compare the English actions in Scotland after the 1745 rebellion, or Ireland after the 1798 rebellion (and the 1800 rebellion, and the 1803... you know what there's already a page.) The rebellious colonies were treated remarkably well, both by most of the occupying British commanders (many of whom seemed rather unenthusiastic about the whole thing) and back in Britain. The rebellion had a great deal of open support in the UK, including in Parliament. Imagine Pitt the Elder and Edmund Burke speaking admirably in Parliament about an Irish uprising- but both men were strongly sympathetic to the colonies. Pitt only changed his position somewhat at the very end of his life, when the United States had allied with France, who he had spent his entire career opposing. Washington, especially, had a reputation in the UK second only to his reputation in the US- he was considered a man of incredible moral character, and even today is still considered Britain's greatest military foe, to the point where there is a statue of him in Trafalgar Square, which he shares with one of Britain's greatest military figures, Lord Nelson, whose square it is. Notably, George III was so impressed that Washington quietly set down his incredible power and went back to Mount Vernon, the King said Washington was "the greatest character of the age". The British and the Americans saw each other as brothers set at odds through mismanagement and distance. Even the stresses of the War of 1812 never seriously dented the essential regard between the two nations.
- Disney and Warner Bros. Their relationship is said to be the most cordial of all the major Hollywood studios.
- The comic book publishers that these companies acquired (Marvel and DC) have regularly slipped into this trope. Their bosses used to play golf together. Also, Bob Kane (co-creator of Batman) and Stan Lee (creator of most of the more well-known Marvel superheroes) were friends.
- Greg Weisman noted in one of his "Ask Greg" posts that when he was on staff at DC, there was a gentleman's agreement in place that saw Marvel and DC supplying complimentary copies of all their books to each other's employees.
- Warner Bros. has a habit of generously leasing out their backlots for other studios like when they let Universal film reshoots of Jurassic Park in their Jungle set.
- Universal and Paramount, who even distribute their movies together.
- Stan Lee consistently referred to DC as the Distinguished Competition and even penned his own take on the origin stories of DC heroes for DC, which has since been canonized as Earth-6 in the DC Multiverse.
- Many American politicians have friendly relationships despite differing views.
- Senators Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy were supposedly very good friends, despite their wildly differing political ideologies.
- John McCain and Morris Udall were a similar case. McCain also has a long-standing friendship with John Kerry. Rumor has it that Kerry asked McCain to serve as his running mate in 2004.
- This is fairly common in the federal judiciary. Judges have to try to be above politics as part of their job, and the fact that federal judges tend to be intellectual types gives them something to talk about besides the law-and gives them a healthy respect for differing opinions when they do. A few noted conservative/libertarian judges of the Circuit Courts of Appeals have a reputation for getting along well with their liberal colleagues (particularly Judge Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit and to a lesser extent Judge Posner of the Seventh Circuit).
- Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill went fishing. They were enemies only from nine to five and made it an in-joke between the two of them.
- Barry Goldwater was well-known for befriending his political rivals, including John F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and Nelson Rockefeller. Goldwater and Rockefeller fell out during their heated 1964 Republican primary battle but later patched things up. On the other hand, he hated both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
- Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Ted Stevens (R-AK), until the latter's death in a plane crash. It helped that they had served for over forty years together-as both Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the Union in 1959, they were only the second Senators to hold their seats-and were among the last World War II veterans in the Senate.note
- Barack Obama and Tom Coburn (a very conservative Republican Senator from Oklahoma); they bonded over fiscal policy of all things. Nerds everywhere.
- The 2018 Governor race in Connecticut showed this trope being in play between the Democrat Ned Lamont (fairly to the left) and the independent candidate Oz Griebel (nominally a fiscally conservative, socially liberal former Republican, or 'Country Club Republican' as they are sometimes known). The two would exchange friendly quips and comments during debates respectfully towards each other even as they competed for votes. This was not the case with Republican candidate Bob Stefanowski, who was consistently hostile to both Oz and Lamont (though Lamont made his own contempt for Bob no secret, either).
- John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon were good friends outside of politics, despite the acrimonious 1960 presidential campaign.
- Herbert Hoover never completely reconciled with Franklin D. Roosevelt after the latter won the 1932 Presidential election. Nonetheless, Hoover struck up what would be a lifelong friendship with FDR's Vice President, Harry S. Truman, after Truman became President in 1944. Reportedly, after Truman had left office, he was in such dire financial straits that Congress passed the Former Presidents Act, which established a pension for former Presidents. Since a former President has to request their pension payment from Congress, Hoover (who didn't need the money but was also the only other living former President at the time) also requested a pension so that Truman wouldn't be publicly humiliated by doing so.
- Long after the infamous Hatfield-McCoy conflict ended, the two families have-and often still do-consider each other this way, sometimes making light of the whole situation at times. In fact, in 1979, representatives of the two families competed against each other on a week-long celebrity tournament of the game show Family Feud. Final score: the McCoys won three games to the Hatfields' two, but the Hatfields won a greater sum of winnings, $11,272 to the McCoys' $8,459. The decision was made to augment the McCoy family's winnings to $11,273.
- As difficult as it may be to believe this, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. While there have been no shortage of memorable incidents, including fights, pegged batters, and a rivalry that has lasted for a hundred-plus years, the two organizations have an unwavering respect for each other.
- When Derek Jeter recorded his final at-bat, a base hit at Fenway Park, the entire stadium gave him a standing ovation, and several Red Sox players were the first to shake his hand as he left the field.
- Mariano Rivera's last games in Fenway were poignant, with a highlight of all of his saves against the Red Sox being shown by the Sox organization.
- In the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, the Yankees organization played "Sweet Caroline" (traditionally a song associated with the Red Sox) during a break between innings as a show of solidarity, and even played "Dirty Water" (The Sox' traditional victory song) after the Red Sox won their first game in New York since the bombing against them.
- England and France have historically had this relationship. That is to say, while the 20th century was the first century since the 10th to not feature an Anglo-French war, and sporting encounters between the two are traditionally hard-fought and pretty vicious (the England-France rugby fixture is referred to as 'Le Crunch'), the two nations are almost inextricably intertwined: English and French are respectively the most commonly taught foreign languages in each respective country, citizens of both countries visit the other in their millions and often even commute between the two. The English adore French food and wine, while the French love English culture and humour, and despite throwing stereotypical insults at each other on a fairly regular basis, the two have been loyal allies for over a century. They've even seriously considered unifying several times.note The 2015 Paris gun attacks were followed both by heartwarming reception of the French football team at Wembley, traditional home of English football (this time with the French national motto of 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité' emblazoned on the side, the home end's traditional giant St George's cross of placards replaced with the French Tricolore, an impeccably observed minute's silence, a rousing singing of the Marseillaise by the whole stadium, a standing ovation for French substitute Lassana Diarra, who had lost a cousin in the attacks, and a total lack of the usual gloating when England won), and caused the UK Parliament to dramatically reverse its previous decision to not commit to airstrikes in Syria, with RAF Tornadoes taking off from RAF Akrotiri within an hour of the vote. Two years later, the French would return the footballing favour after the London Bridge and Borough Market attacks, with England finding the same compliments at the Stade de France. While they can't live with each other, sometimes, it's quite as clear that couldn't live without each other.
- James Carville helped run Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign. Mary Matalin helped run George H. W. Bush's 1992 re-election campaign. They had previously duelled in lower-level campaigns, and called each other archenemies. They have been Happily Married since 1993 and have two daughters.
- Bill Clinton has been friends with the whole Bush family for a long time, and has started to regard the elder Bush as something of a father figure (seeing as Clinton's own father died when he was a child, it makes more sense than it sounds.) When Clinton's daughter Chelsea was pregnant with her first child, George W. Bush (who was already a grandfather) had an event and let Clinton know what to expect about being a grandfather: To fall in love all over again, and be last on the totem pole for literally everything.
- A Transatlantic Equivalent to the previous example: Denis Healey and Geoffrey Howe. Though being literally on opposite sides of the aisle for over a decade, they are really good friends and get on really well. This is especially poignant when you consider that British politics is openly fairly vicious and raucous, once being described by the late Robin Williams as "Congress with a two-drink minimum" - Prime Minister's Questions in particular is usually a full on slanging match. The only real stricture is that you can't accuse someone of lying. Healing and Howe were no exception, with Healey stating that hearing Howe give a report was like "being savaged by a dead sheep", yet they have been and still remain to this day good friends.
- On the one occasion that Oliver Cromwell and Charles I met after the English Civil War, during which Cromwell essentially threw Charles off the throne, they reportedly got on well. One (probably apocryphal) story has Cromwell visit the grave of Charles in secret after the king was beheaded for treason and mutter "Cruel necessity" to himself.
- Prince and Michael Jackson, though it's reported that they never really got along (mostly due to sales rivalry and philosophical differences over music rather than any real nastiness), they respected each other's work and made it a point to never say anything negative about each other in public. Fun fact: Michael's hit single "Bad" was originally envisioned as a duet with Prince and the only reason Prince declined was because he felt that the song was good enough without him.
- Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse would send each other paintings as challenges. While each expressed disdain for the other's style, when Matisse died, Picasso was devastated.
- In 1484, at the field of Badh na Fola, John of the Isles was supported by, among others, the Macleans and the Macleods, and met Angus Og to decide the title of Lord of the Isles according to the Good Old Ways of Bonnie Scotland. Angus prevailed and sent around a man to eliminate the more prestigious of the prisoners, including a Maclean titled the Chief of Ardgour. However, one of Angus' followers, Macdonald of Moidart, an old rival of the Chief's, intervened, saying, "If Maclean were gone, who should I have to bicker with?"
- This trope even exists in nature. Baboons and Chimpanzees often compete for food, yet they have been known to play together.
- In the realm of Catholic Theology, Hans Kung and Joseph Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI) have conflicting views on the Church and the future. Despite this they're personally friendly with each other's company. It helped that they were also friends in the seminary back in the day.
- According to Harry Blackstone, Jr., his father and Harry Houdini were both "Friendly Enemies". Both respected each other's talents, though both mocked each other at times.
- This is how many diplomatic analysts describe the relationship between the United States and Mainland China. Not only are both strong economic trading partners and strongly economically dependent on each other, but both are willing to work together to stop worldwide terrorism, nuclear proliferation and maintaining world peace. On the other hand, both China and the United States are suspicious towards each other politically and militarily. Certain political issues like China's treatment of dissenters, stated intent to annex Taiwan, and separatist/terrorist problems in Tibet and Xinjiang are usually the hotbed topics between the two countries. The relationship is further complicated by the small cyber-warfare they are engaged in. Thus, any fiction that depicts a hypothetical military war between China and the United States usually falls under Artistic License – Economics. No two leading countries have been quite so economically intertwined as the US and China. Washington & Beijing, New York & Shanghai all have the others by the short ones; nobody's fighting anybody anytime soon. In fact it would be mostly in each country's interest to help the other one in the event a truly serious situation came up, bar one which the folks back home couldn't stomach (e.g. Chinese-Taiwanese War with both sides petitioning the US for military intervention).
- As far as it's applicable to nations, the Republic of China and People's Republic of China are an unusual case of this, as both formally claim legitimacy as the sovereign government of China—Taipei by virtue of being the current seat of first republican government after the collapse of the Chinese monarchy, and Beijing by virtue of being the seat of the government that actually exercises sovereign power over almost all of what anyone might consider Chinese territory. As such, not only do they officially contest each other's territory, they maintain parallel (and often agreeing) claims to areas disputed between Japan, South Korea, and China. Since the 2010s, though, China has surpassed both the United States (3rd) and Japan (2nd) as Taiwan's foremost trade partner, as well as the origin of the greatest number of tourists visiting Taiwan. Likewise, Taiwan owns some of China's most commercially successful businesses, including the most famous manufacturer of Apple products, Foxconn.
- World War II pilots Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler fought on opposite sides of the war, but when Brown’s plane was damaged and Stigler had the chance to shoot him down, he did not, on the grounds that he felt Brown's plane was so badly damaged that it would be like shooting down a man in a parachute. Instead, he first tried to have Brown fly to Sweden and peacefully surrender so his crew could receive medical treatment, but Brown and his crew couldn’t understand what Stigler was trying to say, so instead Stigler placed himself between Brown’s plane and German AA defenses. Stigler stayed with the plane until they reached open water, where they separated after Stigler saluted Brown. The two met again forty years later and remained good friends until they both died in 2008.
- Bill Maher and Ann Coulter are good friends, frequently hanging out with each other. Coulter was also friends with John F. Kennedy, Jr. and has always expressed gratitude for Kennedy's offering her a column in George Magazine during her early days as a writer.
- While there is a strong competitive and economic rivalry between Apple and Microsoft, their respective CEOs and founders, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, were good friends. This relationship is more noticeable in the biographical film Pirates of Silicon Valley. This makes Steve Jobs' death a Tear Jerker on many levels. You can guarantee that the iconic head of Microsoft cried at the news of the death of the iconic head of Apple.
- Whenever Mozilla releases a new major version of Firefox, the Microsoft Internet Explorer team sends them a cake. After Mozilla began updating Firefox in increments every six weeks instead of releasing new versions once or twice a year, the Internet Explorer team switched to cupcakes every few months.
- Whenever Mozilla releases a new major version of Firefox, the Microsoft Internet Explorer team sends them a cake
- Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa had been friends since high school. Although the two often and publicly clashed with the other, they collaborated frequently and Beefheart was one of the first artists Zappa signed when he got his own label. Zappa helped Beefheart get known among his own fanbase and produced Trout Mask Replica by giving his friend total creative freedom. When "Trout Mask Replica" didn't sell as expected Beefheart blamed Zappa and the two had a fall-out until 1975, when Beefheart's career was in such dire straits that Zappa took him on tour, which lead to their collaborative album Bongo Fury in 1975. Yet again their animosity took over and it would take until the early 1990s after Zappa was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer for their friendship to come back.
- G. K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw. Chesterton was a staunch Catholic and one of the great Christian apologists of the 20th century. Shaw was an atheist and a leader of the socialist movement. Despite their total disagreement about philosophy and politics, they were great friends (Vitriolic Best Buds, naturally) and had enormous respect for each other.
- C. S. Lewis as a schoolboy once met a clique of boys from a more bookish school that talked about "GKC" and "GBS" as if they were fans of rival boxers.
- Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, as lampshaded in Mein liebster Feind ("My best enemy", translated as My Best Fiend).
- Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Liebermann, who has a very right-wing view of security and nationality (the most dominant aspects of Israeli political discourse up until the protests started on July 14th), was reported to be close friends with Yosi Sarid, former Minister of Education and a die-hard leftist. Despite this, Liebermann declared, back when both were in parliament, that his party would not be in the same coalition as Sarid's.
- Stephen Hawking and Leonard Susskind had long been good friends, despite opposing each other diametrically over the black hole information paradox and having a friendly scientific "war" with each other until they could find a way to prove one of them wrong. They were both on the same side: the side of science. They wanted for people to know what the heck's really going on.
- Lawyers are like basketball players. Despite being on opposite sides in court, they often get along quite well with each other. It is not uncommon to see lawyers joking with each other and sharing hearty laughs while walking to the courtroom and both lawyers and the judge cracking the occasional joke during a trial. If you think about it, it makes sense: you work for your client for a few months or years. You'll be seeing your opposing counsel for the rest of your career unless you work in a crowded market where you can afford to burn bridges. Staying on good terms is just common sense, and both sides know that their "enmity" is just professional duty to their clients anyway.
- Pornographer Larry Flynt and Reverend Jerry Falwell once argued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and later became friends. They remained so up to Falwell's death, though they never came close to an agreement on what they were selling. They capitalized on their friendship through a series of debates.
- Stephen Harper, leader of the Canadian Conservative Party, mentioned missing his recently-departed friend Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party. He said during an exceedingly tedious session he walked across the parliament floor and sat next to him, talking about music (both being musicians) and family for a few minutes.
- During the battle for Gallipoli in 1915, there were times when the opposing armies' trenches were only a few yards apart. There are records of Turks and ANZACs (troops from Australia and New Zealand) tossing food and cigarettes to one another during lulls in the fighting, and of a Turkish soldier carrying a wounded Allied soldier back to the Allied lines...mid-battle. After the war, Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern-day Turkey, stated that the mothers of the ANZAC soldiers that died should know that their sons "now rest in the soil of a friendly country." (His more famous attributed statement about Johnnies and Mehmets is almost certainly apocryphal). Gallipoli ended in failure for the Allies and both sides suffered terrible casualties, but the Turkish military still held great respect for the bravery of the ANZACs. Even in modern times, millions of Turks, New Zealanders, and Australians still travel to Gallipoli on ANZAC day to show their respect for each others' ancestors.
- ESPN sports commenters Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith; while they have their firm opinions and always disagree in the show, it's clear that they both respect each other.
- On screen, Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly couldn't be more different, and take pot-shots at each other's shows every once in a while. However, the two are on friendly terms off-screen and even did a debate where the proceeds went to charitable causes. Stewart used to have a similar friendship with John McCain, but McCain hasn't been on The Daily Show since the 2008 election. Nobody has said whether it's because of some sort of falling out or just because of the logistics that happen sometimes with a busy entertainer and a busy senator, though McCain did show up to send Stewart off in his final Daily Show episode.
- John Wayne and Kirk Douglas, despite both being known as tough guy actors, were political opposites (Wayne an arch-conservative, Douglas an active liberal) and headstrong personalities who sparred while working together. Wayne also tried to boycott Douglas's film Spartacus as "Marxist propaganda" in protest of blacklistee Dalton Trumbo writing the screenplay. Nonetheless, the two men made three films together and held each other in high regard. Wayne said Douglas was one of only three actors he had genuine onscreen chemistry with (the others being Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin), while Douglas praised Wayne for keeping promises made to his fellow actors. Douglas was particularly grateful to Wayne for helping him land Cast a Giant Shadow.
- Ted Olson and David Boies, on opposite ends of the spectrum with Bush vs. Gore, became great friends and later worked together on Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
- English theater critics considered John Osborne's subversive plays (e.g. Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer) a rebuke to the respectable work of traditional playwrights like Terence Rattigan and Noël Coward, framing their approaches as antithetical and Osborne as somehow attacking the latter writers. Yet Osborne evinced the greatest respect for Rattigan and Coward and (more surprisingly, given his prickly personality) was on friendly terms with both.
- Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, two US Supreme Court Justices who are about as far apart ideologically as possible without either of them committing high treason, were friends for 40 years and liked to go to the opera together. They also went on vacations with each other, leading to adorable images of the two of them parasailing and riding an elephant (here's a picture◊ for those curious). They also listened to each other's legal arguments, and gave constructive criticism on them. Their careers - and close friendship - was even the subject of an opera, believe it or not. Notably, after Scalia died in February 2016, Ginsburg released a statement calling them "best buddies" and expressed genuine affection for him. Scalia offered similar comments throughout his life—when Ginsburg's husband died, he openly wept, and during an interview, he remarked: "I attack ideas. I don't attack people."
- Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev actually considered each other genuine friends despite the fact they were political and ideological rivals at the height of the Cold War. Reagan in particular was famously aggressive about eliminating communism from the world, but both he and Gorbachev did get along with one another on a personal level. Reagan even admitted in 1987 that the time he referred to the USSR as an "evil empire" was now something of the past. Gorbachev was still grief stricken when Reagan died and even said "Goodbye, my friend" at the funeral. The Reagan Presidential Museum includes a statue of the two seated together talking.
- Former Australian Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam. The two were antagonists in the notorious 1975 constitutional crisis, where legislative gridlock and government scandals led to Whitlam's sacking by Governor-General Sir John Kerr. Yet over the years, Fraser and Whitlam patched things up and have even campaigned together on issues like immigration reform and republicanism.
- Roman general Stilicho and Visigoth chieftain Alaric. Both served together in the army of Emperor Theodosius I during the Battle of the Frigidus. Afterwards, due to a rumor that the great losses endured by the Goths in the battle were intentional as well as unsatisfactory post-battle rewards, the Goths and Alaric rebelled. For the next twelve years Alaric and his troops would repeatedly invade Italy only to be met and pushed back by Stilicho. The two gained a respect for one another that turned into a friendship which eventually led to Stilicho's death as it was used to slander his character before being accused of threatening to overthrow the Emperor and install his son. The ensuing slaughter of barbarians after Stilicho's death caused them to flock to Alaric who would sieze and then sack Rome in 410.
- Within the arcade Rhythm Game industry, Konami (BEMANI), Sega (maimai, Chunithm, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Arcade), Namco (Taiko no Tatsujin, Synchronica), and Taito (Groove Coaster) all seem to cross-promote their works in each other's as much as they compete with each other. They have done major cross-company song crossover events on two occasions, spread their IPs' songs into other company's games, and share a lot of common song composers with composers like Tatsh, Masayoshi Minoshima, and REDALiCE composing songs for multiple companies' games. Additionally, Namco's and SEGA's card networks share the same infrastructure, i.e. you can use a Namco BanaPassport on a SEGA game, a SEGA Aime card on a Namco game, both on some third-party games, and so on.
- German politics is ripe with this, though until quite recently many of the private goings on of politicians stayed private, the media having a "gentleman's agreement" to not report on extramarital affairs or the likes. Some well known friendships or at least mutual respect across political chasms are Willy Brandt's (SPD, from North Germany) eulogy for Franz Josef Strauß (CSU, from Bavaria) or the fabled "Pizza connection" between young backbenchers of the CDU and the Greens at a time when the two parties would publicly call each other Stalinist and Fascist respectively. Overall the discourse of political debate may get harsh at times, but never to a point to make reconciliation impossible - almost any conceivable coalition has happened already and the "sworn enemy" of yesteryear may end up the coalition partner after the next election and vice versa. Konrad Adenauer also had a communist friend from his days in a Nazi concentration camp and later credited him with saving his life. Adenauer also got along splendidly with Ben Gurion when any sort of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany were mutually unthinkable on both sides.
- The major subversion is that pretty much every party dunks on the AFD (Alternative für Deutschland English Translation ) whenever they can and refuses to even consider coalition with it, even the conservative ones, due to it being an Alt-Right party. One could almost say all the parties are united in their distaste for them.
- Hugo and Jake of The Bible Reloaded have a complicated relationship with Ray Comfort. Initially, his company used the DMCA against one of their videos, which was critical of his work. Later, Comfort sent them an apology gift basket, claiming he had nothing to do with the illegitimate DMCA. Later still, he sent out a passive-aggressive tweet, challenging them to review his latest movie. This led to two to suspect he was attempting to invoke No Such Thing as Bad Publicity.
- Amazon Studios and Netflix: While both Amazon and Netflix have competing streaming services, and both are becoming heavy-hitters in distributing original content and bidding for films, Netflix recently moved all data center operations for the streaming service (except for content delivery, which is housed in Netflix-maintained boxes throughout the Internet backbone providers) onto Amazon's cloud services. Only the DVD rental business still uses a physical data center. And to top it off, Amazon Studios actually went worldwide 11 months later, which many see as a bid to play catch-up with Netflix.
- Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon take this to hilarious extremes, as shown during the 2017 Academy Awards, when Kimmel spent large portions of the show trolling Damon extensively.
- A case from the Macedonian Succession Wars: Antigonus the One-Eyed, a Macedonian and Alexander's satrap in Phyrgia, and Eumenes, a Greek and Alexander's secretary. Once, when Eumenes approached Antigonus to parley, Antigonus' troops showed up to watch, causing him to fear for Eumenes' safety and leading him to throw stones at his troops to drive them off and ultimately embrace Eumenes to protect him. When Eumenes was betrayed to Antigonus after the Battle of Gabiene, Antigonus reluctantly conceded to his subordinates' demand to execute him, but gave him a proper funeral and returned his ashes to his family in a silver urn, while ordering the troops who had betrayed Eumenes to be exiled to Arachosia and their commander to be burned alive.
- Relations between Turkey and Iran are often like this. The two are regional powers and neighbors in a region where such status tends to bring about conflict. Iranians are suspicious of Turkey's closeness to the United States. Meanwhile, secular Turks disdain Iran due to a perpetual fear of becoming The Theocracy while religious Turks disdain Iran because of confessional differences (Turks are mostly Sunnis while Iranians are Shias). The two are also on the opposing ends of the Syrian Civil War. And yet, the two have fairly strong business relations, linguistic and cultural ties and a tendency for Enemy Mine when it is expedient. This leaves Turkey vocally defending Iran against sanctions even as Turkish politicians criticize Iran at every opportunity.
- ISIS and al-Qaeda are both fundamentalist Islamist terrorists that subscribe to the same ideology, share a loathing for modernity, the West, and the same ultimate goal (i.e. establishing a caliphate). al-Qaeda has publicly disavowed any involvement with ISIS not only for being too violent, but also for political reasons (ISIS demands that all Muslims without exception pledge allegiance to them, while al-Qaeda views them as upstarts). There is also their methods, since al-Qaeda plans to exhaust their enemies first in a attrition war before declaring a caliphate, while ISIS was relatively more effective in taking and holding territory, and basically achieving the same thing al-Qaeda planned only faster (though later events would more or less prove al-Qaeda right, as ISIS overextended and annoyed all the wrong people at once, before getting stamped into the dirt). While the group as a whole opposes ISIS, the local al-Nusra affiliates have been known to work side by side with ISIS when it comes to fighting against the Syrian and Iraqi government forces, the self-defense Christian militas and their coalition allies.
- Tulsi Gabbard is a Hawaiian Democratic congresswoman and a staunch proponent of left-wing policies. Tucker Carlson is a cable TV host known for promoting right-wing policies. The two of them are extremely friendly to each other as they are both extremely anti-interventionist. Both Gabbard and Carlson expressed doubt when it came to a chemical weapons attack during the Syrian Civil War. Gabbard has many fans among the right for her anti-interventionist views.
- Speaking of Carlson, he also has very high praise for well-known liberal host Rachel Maddow, whom he worked with when they were both at MSNBC. He has always considered her extremely intelligent despite not agreeing with any of her views and has never shied from praising that facet about her. Maddow, for her part, also praises Carlson despite not agreeing with him, and has said he's one of the best in the business for good reason.
- Some of the theme park companies have been known to sometimes play friendly wagers with one another. For instance, in 2016, when the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians made it to the World Series, Cedar Point and Six Flags Great America made a friendly wager that the park for the loser's city would have to temporarily rename one of their roller coasters after the winner's team. Since the Cubs won, Cedar Point temporarily renamed Top Thrill Dragster as 'Top Thrill Cubster'.
- On a few occasions, the black separatist group Nation of Islam had friendly-ish meetings with white supremacists due to a shared hatred of Jews and support for racial separation.
- The Battle of Fort Sumter was the catalyst to the American Civil War. The two opposing generals had coincidentally been friends back in their army days and even contacted each other by letter over the incident.
