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I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
—Abraham Lincoln (attributed)
After a fair and square fight, everyone becomes friends - That's the Rule of Right of Shonen Manga!
In a series based around an endless series of one-on-one fights, defeating a Worthy Opponent or The Rival will sometimes convert them to the hero's side, if not always to his cause. Furthermore, no matter how many people the Worthy Opponent has killed, how much grief he has caused, even if he slaughtered helpless children or the hero's own family, as soon as he shows a bit of remorse or goes out of his way to help the hero even once, he will be welcomed into the hero's circle of Nakama with open arms.
It helps if the story is idealistic enough for the hero to forgive the villain after s/he is safely defeated. Correspondingly, the villain in this kind of story is so surprised and moved that the hero would be that big hearted to do that, that they have a change of heart.
In video games, this may simply be an instance of the designers wanting to include more Boss Battles; this is even more obvious in several cases where a character is already an ideological ally but wants to "duel" or "practice" against you anyways, or needs to " test your strength" before he'll join up. ( Summons love to do this, as do Mons and even warrior tribes.) These fights are, then, essentially filler. Of course, more Boss Battles are usually what the player wants, as well, so there are rarely complaints.
Compare Kill Me Now Or Forever Stay Your Hand, another way to win over your enemies. Also compare Let's You And Him Fight where the two character are heroes who are already on the same side but still fight each other before joining forces, and Fire Forged Friends, where enemies end up fighting on the same side to become friends. Contrast My Revenge Is Mercy.
Examples
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Anime/Manga
- It is wryly noted that this is how Nanoha of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha seems to make all of her friends, both Muggles and other mages. So much so that fans use the word "befriend" as a synonym for "beat the crap out of". Before anyone is deemed worthy of her affection, (s)he first has to miraculously survive one of her massively aggressive onslaughts, which Fate experiences first-hand.
- As can be inferred from the above image, the current title of most befriended goes to Vivio, who took the title from Fate when she received five Starlight Breakers at the same time and managed to remain conscious and stand on her own afterwards. A considerable feat since Fate couldn't even claim that when Nanoha struck her with one. Nanoha officially adopts Vivio as her daughter afterwards.
- That explains why she isn't as close to Chrono as to the rest of her friends. She never blew him up! HetOption Yuuno is around, but has less and less presence each season.
- Coincidentally, the first time Nanoha met Fate, the latter "befriended" her nearly into the hospital. Is it any wonder she fell in Love At First
Sight Punch?
- Lampshaded in the third Megami sound stage, where Hayate, in response to Erio and Caro becoming friends with Lutecia (whom they had defeated in the final battle), and the reformed Numbers cyborgs, notes that children have an amazing capacity for forgiveness. Similarly, in Vi Vid, Vivio acknowledges that while she is friends with Lutecia and the Numbers now, they were involved in her kidnapping from Section 6 four years ago.
- Naturally Dragonball, as every member in the Z team at one point had the sole goal in life to defeat and/or kill Goku (or "send him to another dimension"). Overall, Piccolo and Vegeta were the most reluctant, but both became allies in the end, even though they were evil at first. Note that Vegeta does this twice; the others are all too ready to forgive him after he had voluntarily became a minion and killed thousands of Innocent Bystanders. But then, Death Is Cheap in Dragonball, and none of Vegeta's victims stayed dead (with the exception of Nappa from the Saiyan saga, who Vegeta wasted in a You Have Failed Me moment).
- The original Dragon Ball series could be pretty much defined by this trope, and some of it even carries on to the very end of Dragon Ball Z. Uub anyone?
- Avo and Cado from the recent JUMP Super Anime Tour special have got to be fastest example in the history of fiction.
- Subverted with Tenshinhan, though. He beats both Kamesennin and Goku, but still does the Heel Face Turn, mostly after Kamesennin gives him a good talking-to about why idolizing an assassin kind of sucks and he realizes that he doesn't want to kill Goku, he just wants to fight him square.
- Ippo in Hajime no Ippo takes this trope to a ridiculous extent. He often becomes friendly with the opponent even before fighting them (Sendo, Date, Volg) and resulting fight just seems to seal the deal, so to speak. This does not work for any of the other boxers.
- Itagaki and whats-his-name might be considered another example.
- Arguably a Truth In Television for boxing and other sports. Foreman and Ali is the best known example.
- Ryuji Otogi (Duke Devlin in the dub) begins his appearance on Yu-Gi-Oh! nursing a tremendous grudge against Yugi Muto for destroying his chance at success (by ruining Pegasus's reputation, and a potential publishing deal). After a single defeat at the game he designed, however, Ryuji does a 180 and becomes part of Yugi's inner circle of friends. Ever since, fans of the series have called such drastic, absurdly frequent turnarounds "pulling a Devlin". No characters are ever genre blind about this.
- Bear in mind, Ryuji's entire case was "Pegasus's defeat was bad for me, so clearly Yugi is a cheating bastard". It wasn't so much Yami winning the game as Ryuji getting over himself. Yugi beating him in a 'fair' game, or one where Ryuji is cheating, and the fact that he got back the publishing deal, too.
- MANY other important characters in the show follow this trope ranging from Mai and Mokuba and even to villians like Pegasus and Marik. Seto Kaiba is very unusual in that although he is repeatedly beaten by Yugi and has had the invitation of friendship extended to him by the group more than once, he only admits to respecting Yugi but never would call him his friend.
- Yu-Gi-Oh GX subverts this with the Society of Light, who "recruits" their members by beating them at Duel Monsters. Interestingly, a good deal of the main characters that fall into the Society's sway were trying to use this trope to snap their friends out.
- Whole Yu-Gi-Oh GX seemed to be about this trope. Every season there seems to be at least one type of adversaries who convert the important characters by beating them and then the Good Guys Turned Bad are turned good again when a main character beats them in a duel. And the Big Bads die or become good after losing a game. Of course, this is partially explained by the fact that according to the show, the universe was created of cardgames.
- That would explain A LOT.
- The absurdly powerful Captain Kenpachi in Bleach more or less joins Ichigo's side when he is beaten in a fight. So that he can fight him more in the future, of course. Many fans believe that the arrancar Grimmjow Jeagerjaques (part of the Quirky Miniboss Squad) is going to be next, given his obsession with having a "proper" fight with Ichigo. The "proper" fight unsurprisingly ended with Ichigo's victory, but Grimmjow has been severely injured by the arrancar Nnoitra right after his defeat, and as of chapter 307 it's still unknown if he has survived or not. But then, this is Bleach we're talking about... (Several of Ichigo's other opponents, including Renji Abarai and Byakuya Kuchiki, become convinced of the righteousness of his cause after being defeated by him as well.)
- Though Byakuya still treats Ichigo with disdain, and has trouble tolerating his presence in the same frame. Then again, Byakuya is... well, himself. *shrug*
- Several Arrancars became friendly with those who defeated them during the fighting in Las Noches. After being defeated by Ichigo, Arrancar #103 (Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio) tried to hold off the other Arrancar pursuing Ichigo. After Chad defeated Arrancar #107 (Gantenbainne Mosqueda), Mosqueda warns him to run rather than fight an even more powerful Arrancar.
- Pretty much the same story with Sagara Sanosuke in Rurouni Kenshin
- It helped that Kenshin monologued at Sanosuke for a couple of pages, and admitted that the revolution Kenshin helped push through was very superficial and still had a long way to go before true equality happened. Sano realized that they were fighting for the same cause and therefore gave up, letting himself pass out from the injuries he'd sustained in the battle.
- Kenshin would then go on to monologue at just about everybody else while beating the snot out of them and winning. It only failed to work against Shishio Makoto, but Deus Ex Machina kicked in and Kenshin didn't have to break his all-important vow.
- Rosario To Vampire — Notice how every girl in the harem wanted to kill Tsukune before Moka literally kicks the living daylights out of them.
- Change Tsukune to everyone except Tsukune for Mizore, and Moka for Kurumu and... well, they all wanted to kill someone in the group, right?
- A longstanding tradition in Jojos Bizarre Adventure. The first real friend that Jonathan Joestar makes is Robert E. O. Speedwagon (haha), who tried to mug him. Jonathan's great-great grandson Jotaro makes friends with Kakyoin and Polnareff by freeing them from Dio's mind control, and nearly all of Jotaro's 16 year old uncle (long story) Josuke's friends were people who tries to kill him the first time they met.
- Not ALL of Josuke's friends tried to kill him, just the vast majority. The minority being Koichi. Just Koichi.
- In Pokemon, the titular creatures must be captured by the protagonists, often by weakening them in battle first, who then obey the commands of their handlers. In the anime, this is handwaved as a more mutual relationship, since some of the creatures can be downright dangerously surly if you treat them badly. It's probably only the "Kids Show" part that stops people getting their heads bitten off (literally).
- Probably spoofed too many times to count, such as here (Warning: blood)
 .
- This is also the case in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, where you play as a Pokémon. Basically, if you defeat a wild Pokémon, they may sometimes want to join you. However, you have to leave the dungeon "successfully" in order to keep them, and not all Pokémon can be obtained this way.
- In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2, it's changed so all you have to do is beat them. If your party's full, they just teleport out. You no longer have to complete the dungeon with them. Success!
- The fan comic CharCole shows some more reasons for Pokémon to follow their trainers: "Charlie" Cole eventually agrees out of concern for Brian and his other Pokemon
(s), while Raijal's Pikachu, Kraker, apparently just likes to kick fry some Pokémon butt and be praised for it.
- This is subverted in an episode of Pokemon - after being tormented the entire episode by a wild Rotom in an abandoned hotel, Ash and Dawn eventually use their combined powers to defeat it, and then are concerned for its safety when it seems down for the count. The Rotom wakes up and looks ashamed, and Ash conjectures that Rotom was just lonely and wanted someone to play with. Rotom nods in agreement... then shocks all of them before darting away, cackling madly.
- The anime is pretty good about this. Most of Ash's earliest pokemon (Bulbasaur, Squirtle, etc.) didn't like him at first, but joined him after he helped them. Even Team Rocket subvert this, with Cacnea only coming with James because it wanted to.
- The entire concept behind the captures in Pokemon Ranger is conveying one's feelings of good will to the Pokemon, requesting their help in whatever heroic campaign you are undertaking. It's really not as cheesy as it sounds.
- The most recent generation of games hints that most of the wild Pokemon you come across want to be caught so they can get stronger and see new places. An NPC who apparently figures out how Pokemon feel about you by looking at their footsteps tells you that ones that like you fairly well hear wild Pokemon telling them that they've forgotten what it's like to be wild, whereas Pokemon who love you see the wild Pokemon as envious of the partnership.
- Misaki from Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer uses a combination of skill, cuteness and "you're not alone!" speeches to win over every other player. (Add obliviousness, if it's a battle with someone who cheats — apparently, the ability to win anyway is heightened by her honestly thinking that her opponent would never mess with the odds.)
- The entire Shuffle Alliance in G Gundam is assembled in this fashion (except Sai Saici, who fought Domon to a draw rather than being beaten). Main rival Chibodee Crocket goes back and forth between violently beating the hero and having breakfast with him at least three times.
- Various antagonists in Naruto — Neji and Gaara most obviously, to the point where one fan artist referred to a "We Got Some Sense Kicked Into Us By Naruto Club" (members include the above plus Inari, Konohamaru and Tsunade...) Seen here.
- Naruto is a Warrior Therapist, so it isn't just that he defeats them.
- I believe the official term has been coined Jesus no Jutsu.
- Averted with Ino and Sakura, who renew their friendship after fighting to a draw. The nature of their rivalry suggests that a clear victor would have been detrimental to reconciliation. Then again, technically, they both lost, since as a result of the draw, both failed that attempt at the Chunin exam.
- Mostly inverted with Tsunade; Naruto loses both his "fights" against her, but technically wins her bet.
- It would take less time to list the antagonists in Beyblade that didn't do this than take the time to list those that did. Suffice it to say, by the final arc, there were 30-some good guys.
- In Ranma 1/2, after Ranma defeats Shampoo as a male, she becomes his fiancée by tribal law. Later Ranma defeats Ukyo and they go back to being friends (in her case, an Unlucky Childhood Friend). Before both fights the girls were out for revenge, and after the fight they more-or-less became friends (or clingy unrequited love interest) with him. Other then that though, none of Ranma's many rivals have ever become friend and always get madder at him after defeat.
- In Ryoga and Mousse's cases, battling common foes and saving each other's lives have made them Nakama, however. But not friends.
- And, of course, a key plot point in Super Dimension Fortress Macross / Robotech for the elite female Zentraedi warrior Miriya, who ends up marrying Max. The broadcast of their wedding then gives Breetai, the enemy commander, much food for thought...
- Subverted in Yu Yu Hakusho, when Hiei is defeated and captured by Yuusuke; he subsequently becomes one of Yuusuke's comrades (and later friends), but is initially only helping him because he was assigned the task for parole. It is also mentioned that the members of the Toguro Dark Tournament team who are not the actual Toguro brothers are only working with them for the chance to get stronger and then turn around and kill them.
- Also, the younger Toguro is not only fully aware of this fact, he welcomes it. The elder Toguro, on the other hand, is simply unkillable and thus has no reason to care.
- Don't forget Chu, although he didn't wait for defeat, Rinku, Jin, Toya, arguably Kuwabara (and his posse by proxy, although that's practically manga-only), reluctantly both Shishiwakamaru and Suzuki, Murota, Mitarai, slightly Amanuma, hell all of the seven except Sensui, Itsuki, and Gourmet (did we ever learn his name?), although the Doctor and Sniper just went non-antagonist. AND Sayako in the pre-resurrection arc, although in the anime she was merely a Spirit-World inspector. Suzuki even went so far as to provide Kuwabara and Kurama with weapons that they would have been pwned without, although technically this was to further his own ends. Yomi became friendlier after the Demon Tournament arc, although he was by no means a friend or ally, as well as Mukuro and Raizen's old friends. Luka got out of the force-field for hire and switched to doing a radio show with Koto and Juri after nearly being incinerated by Hiei. This series exploits the trope almost as much as DBZ.
- Happens several times in Shaman King. Ren, Ryu, Faust and Lyserg all attempt to kill Yoh and/or Manta before joining Yoh's posse, often executing bizarre Heel Face Turns.
- Not really, as after defeating them, or not quite defeating them, Yoh has gone to great lengths, (or in one case Anna didn't go to great lengths, just lengths) to help them find what they sought. In two cases, this won Eternal undying loyalty. And Lyserg took ages to figure it out anyways.
- Gokudera Hayato in Katekyo Hitman Reborn, declaring his undying devotion to Sawada Tsuna after the latter defeated the former by going into "Dying Will" mode.
- And with a recent chapter of the manga, it looks like Gamma is going the same way after being defeated by Gokudera.
- In a way, this happens to two of the major Big Bads from two of the arcs. Namely, Rokudo Mukuro and Xanxus (though both are very reluctant and stubborn about admitting it).
- In Outlaw Star, Gene Starwind earns Suzuka's allegiance this way, though it's been theorized she was really just tired with the life of a hired assassin. This incident is especially interesting because Gene ends the fight by essentially disrobing her.
- Essentially AND Litterly disrobing her.
- Arguably subverted in Hellsing. Everyone Alucard kills becomes one of his summoned monsters. They have no choice in the matter, and definitely aren't too happy about it.
- Lampshaded in the final episode of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei where a character declares himself to be an enemy of Itoshki specifically because of the assumption that Defeat Means Friendship. Harumi Fujiyoshi then points out that Defeat Means Friendship tend to mean something else too...
- The girls from Magic Knight Rayearth managed to convince the summoner Ascot to stop fighting them after defeating his beasts and teaching him the value of friendship. The fact that he had killed Presea, which really upset them at the time, was conveniently forgotten.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, Kotaro becomes The Rival after Negi defeats him during the Kyoto arc. Chisame and Chachamaru also become relatively good friends after their massive hacking battle during the Mahora Festival arc. Later, Jack Rakan is revealed to have had one of these with Nagi in a situation surprisingly similar to the thing with Kotaro.
- Rakan appears to be a subversion. His version of this tropes sounds more like "Draw Means Friendship". Just take a look at his fights. He fought Nagi to a draw, Friendship, he fought Vrixas Nagasha, the ancient dragon, to a standstill and they were on good terms since then, his fight with Kage-chan never reached a conclusion so it can be considered a draw, after the fight they went drinking and became friends.
- In Samurai Pizza Cats Bad Bird is the arch rival of Speedy until he is fully defeated in the final ep. After Speedy gives a speech telling him it's not too late to change, Bad Bird sees the light, becomes GOOD bird, and helps Speedy destroy a comet heading for Tokyo.
- Flame Of Recca is notorious for this, particularly during the Tournament Arc. People who were trying to kill Team Hokage just hours ago are suddenly eating snacks, playing videogames, and sharing stories with our heroes in their hotel room.
- And one of them creates a fan club for Fuko.
- This shows up as a recurring theme in Hayate Cross Blade, probably because the premise of having pairs fight each other means that one half of a team can get into trouble with somebody else, getting their partner involved in the process. Other than the Momotaro-gumi, a Four Girl Ensemble that came about after the members had fought each other to the point of bloodshed (a nosebleed, that is); examples also include Mizuchi, who becomes a lot more likable after her defeat at Ayana's hands.
- Possibly subverted in Black Lagoon: Chang and Balalaika became friends after their (intended) fight to the death turned out a draw.
- In The Prince Of Tennis, the Seigaku and Fudomine teams become rather acquainted after the first team wins the matches agaainst the latter. Something similar happens with the Rokkaku and Hyoutei teams, to different degrees (Well, Saeki from Rokkaku was Fuji's Forgotten Childhood Friend, So Yeah).
- In the Dragon Half manga, when Mink defeats the necromancer Dead Lie and the four elemental generals, they become quite friendly, treating Mink and her party to a picnic and wishing her luck on her quest.
- In Cynthia The Mission, the Big Bad Cybele does this. All of her subordinates became her loyal and loving followers after she destroyed them in battle. Phantom got his lips torn off. The guy in the glasses got his eyes gouged out. Bridget got her arm torn off. And the boxer guy got his neck slit. Yes, the least crippling injury was a throat cutting. Cybele herself gave Bridget and the boxer medical attention and a prosthetic arm in Bridget's case.
- Interestingly inverted One Piece, where Mr. 2 Bon Clay makes friends with the Straw Hat Pirates and then they find out they are enemies. Though Bon Clay considers them still friends, he still fights them he's just doing his job, after all.). After his boss is defeated though, he sacrifices his freedom and is imprisoned to help the pirates escape.
- Also kinda subverted in after the fight between Sanji and Mr. 2 Bon Clay, Sanji wins. Bon Clay tells him to finish him off and instead...Sanji offers his hand to apparently help him up. Bon Clay is touched (his inner thoughts say stuff about 'enemies becoming friends!' or something like that), and then Sanji promptly knocks him out and retrieves Usopp's goggles from him.
- One Piece, unusually for shonen manga, tends to avoid this trope for the most part. Most villains are irredeemably evil (though their minions might be somewhat sympathetic, but it's usually due to their comedic quirks) and Luffy usually decides he wants someone on his crew within seconds of meeting them, giving villains no chance to make a Heelfaceturn anyway. The only real exception is Franky (Robin is debatable, since no one ever defeated her; she just showed up on the ship and asked to join.)
- The only major exception is that a defeated villain (again, usually a minion) gets a mini title-arc where they sometimes become more humane, and sometimes even end up helping the hero later on, like with Hachi.
- All but a few members of the Shinpaku Alliance in Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple were members of rival gang Ragnarok before being beaten by Kenichi and being either convinced or blackmailed by Niijima to join Shinpaku.
- Seen more or less often in Saint Seiya, where the Bronze Saints and Saori manage to make several of their enemies realize they should join their cause after Seiya and Co. defeat them in battle.
- Subverted in Dragon Drive, where Reiji's defeat of Daisuke Hagiwara only increased the tensions between them; They eventually do become friends after enduring a long Enemy Mine situation.
- Many of the highlighted players from teams defeated by the Deimon Devil Bats (even some of the freakishly destructive ones) in Eyeshield 21 end up as personal trainers for the players they opposed when the Devil Bats are preparing to play in the Christmas Bowl. They genuinely seem to want to be helping out (in other words, they're not there because Hiruma threatened them) and cheer their formal rivals from the stands.
- Sixknight becomes an ally of the Autobots after his defeat at the hands of Ginrai in Transformers Super God Masterforce.
- Local gang leader Anego in Dai Mahou Touge becomes pretty chummy with Punie after being brutally defeated.
- Given that the alternative would be regular fights against a frighteningly powerful opponent who usually considers it standard practice to utterly cripple her foes upon defeat, Anego is only being sensible. And very, very lucky.
- Inverted a bit in Yugo The Negotiator. Yugo always get his ass handed to him, but he manages to get all cooperation he needs from them in the end, being the stubborn person he is. As a negotiator, it helps that he is also always looking for the best outcome for all sides involved.
- Graham Spector of Baccano concludes that Ladd Russo is his bestest friend in the whole wide world after the latter takes a high-speed monkey wrench to the side without even a flinch and subsequently owns him. Of course, Graham's batshit insane, so that might explain it.
- A strange semi-example in a bit of Star Wars Manga - yes, there is Star Wars manga - happened when Darth Vader slaughters a group of hidden Jedi, sparing the last one - a very young boy named Tao - because the kid's anger and horror is so strong that it hints at serious Dark Side potential. He takes the boy as a secret apprentice(rather creepier than Starkiller), and even though Vader killed Tao's family and razed his world, Tao somehow can't really hate Vader. Even when the Emperor finds out and has Vader kill him - really, he was Only Mostly Dead, and Tao was able to save his master from something else before dying happy, since Vader took him back to his razed homeworld to be buried.
- ... The whole thing comes off as Shotacon-ish fanfiction that stops just short of actual sex. Still, after having his people killed and being curb-stomped by the Dark Lord, Tao randomly became very loyal, and Vader for his part went a little soft.
- Grenadier goes slightly overboard with this trope. In one episode we see the main characters beat a gang of bloodthirsty thieves with a known murderer as their boss, and the evil mechanic genius that helps them. Next episode, the whole ex-criminal gang is helping repair the damage they've done, and the boss (who has in the past killed the innocent family of a child over petty extortion) serves as benevolent comic relief. The evil genius is helping with defense, and is incredibly happy over being complimented for his work.
- Note: the damage they had done was to a place called "The Pleasure Palace". While the insta-redemption might be a bit "Huh?"-worthy, it's honestly not that odd for a bunch of guys who have just had some sense beaten into them to realize "Hey, helping out a lot of really hot women works out a lot better than threatening them!"
- Near the end of Adachi Mitsuru's H2, Hiro receives encouraging letters from various defeated players and teams. Even Hirota, the series' jerk, writes "You're an eyesore. Lose already.".
- This trope is part of the bread and butter of Great Teacher Onizuka.
- Invoked (badly) in S Cr Yed. One of the antagonists attempts to use his "script-writing" powers to rewrite reality where Kazuma joins HOLY. He botches it when Kazuma instead takes his defeat personally and punches the altered reality back into shape.
Comic Books
- In Elf Quest, after centuries of festering rivalry (not to mention Rayek abducting Cutter's entire family so that he has to be lonely for a couple hundred years!), Cutter and Rayek decide to settle their differences by beating the crap out of each other. Once the fight is over they don't exactly become friends, but they're at least willing to cooperate with each other.
- In the original Little Nemo newspaper comics from the early 1900s, self-centered prankster Flip torments Nemo endlessly, even getting him exiled from Slumberland and hindering his attempts to return, until Nemo insists they settle their dispute in a boxing match. Upon being soundly trounced, Flip immediately declares himself to be Nemo's loyal friend and companion, and remains so until the reset button years later.
- Defeat means switching sides? In Rogue Squadron, Baron Fel, the best surviving pilot in the Empire, is captured after a Y-wing shoots him with some ion bolts. He asks to talk to the leader of the Rogues. Turns out Wedge Antilles's sister is Fel's wife, and despite being very, very good at killing Rebels, he'd been having doubts ever since his wife told him about her brother, and he was disgusted by his side. The gist of it is captured on this page here◊. They take him up on it.
- Defeat definitely means switching sides, at least if ion bolts are involved. In the first Rogue Squadron game there is an Expy/Distaff Counterpart of Fel in Kasan Moor, a very good pilot who is part of a very good Imperial squadron. She gets captured... by being shot with a Y-wing's ion cannon... and transmits not only her surrender, but her willingness to defect and provide useful intelligence. Sure enough, the next several missions involve target's she's chosen, and she's flying in an X-Wing with the Rogues, musing that now she knows what it's like to be on their side of these little raids. Why she defects is never really elaborated on, but none of the Rogue Squadron games are famous for plot.
- In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, Casey Jones spent most of his first appearance having a knock-down-drag-out brawl with Raphael over Casey's overly violent street vigilantism. Raphael ultimately won, and Casey thereupon became one of the turtles' closest allies and Raphael's best friend. The 2003 cartoon had a similar sequence.
Film
- "You're all right, LaRusso!"
- It's a one fight thing, but when the documentary film, When We Were Kings, won its Oscar, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman went to the podium with the winners as a gesture to show they'd reconciled over the 1974 bout. (Particularly touching was Foreman's very gentle attempts to assist Ali up the steps). No such luck getting Smokin' Joe to forgive the Uncle Tom comments, though.
- In the 2008 Horton Hears A Who, Horton is triumphant getting his neighbours to believe the microscopic Whos exist and is hailed a hero of the ages. However, he can't help but notice the Sour Kangaroo is now alone, ashamed and hated for what she did to him and almost to the Whos. Fortunately, Horton has a heart as big as his ears and he immediately goes to offer his forgiveness to the Kangaroo. The Kangaroo, realizing how lucky she is to have a friend as noble as Horton, immediately offers to help him shelter the Whos for the trip to Mount Nool.
- Puss in Boots, in Shrek.
- The Disney Channel seems to like the trope. Well, there's no actual fighting, but after the protagonist wins/beats their opponent/whatever, the antagonist suddenly becomes BF Fs with them.
- Blazing Saddles. After Sheriff Bart blows up Mongo and captures him:
Mongo: Mongo stay with Sheriff Bart. Sheriff first man ever whip Mongo. Mongo impressed, have deep feelings for Sheriff Bart.
Waco Kid: Uh oh, you better watch out, big fella. I think Mongo's taken a little fancy to you.
Mongo: Aww, Mongo straight!
- In the Mixed Martial Arts-meets-The OC film Never Back Down, the hero and villain share a HoYayish smirk the day after their final brawl. Apparently there were no hard feelings about putting the hero's friend in the hospital.
- In Boorman's Excalibur, Lancelot is seeking to serve the man who can best him in combat. Arthur loses to Lancelot, then cheats by using Excalibur's power to knock Lancelot silly. Lancelot doesn't realize what happened when he wakes up and agrees to join Arthur. Of course, things don't turn out so great in the end...
- When the mechanic mom finally accepts the evidence that her son was murdered, she still harbors a grudge against The Machine Girl, who she previously blamed for it. Before joining her on a vengeful warpath, she's determined to engage the one-armed girl in a fight that culminates in an arm-wrestling match. After she's defeated, the mother immediately makes friends with Machine Girl.
- When Matthias and Balthazar go at it in The Scorpion King we know how it's going to end. Call it a curious form of pre-historic male bonding.
- Rocky and Apollo from the Rocky films. For Apollo, the only way to get back at the man who reminded him of his worthlessness is by befriending the one who took it away.
Literature
- Older Than Dirt, coming from the first heroic epic EVER recorded: In The Epic Of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh and Enkidu become friends after Gilgamesh defeats Enkidu in a fight.
- Not quite as old: Hamlet and Laertes.
- Older than latter but not as old as former: Robin Hood and Little John.
- Similarly, Dantes and Jacopo from le Compte de Monte Cristo.
- Somewhere in between: Fionn mac Cumhaill and Goll mac Morna (in some versions).
- A likely inspiration for the trope's appearance in anime is the legend of Minamoto Yoshitsune's defeat of the monk Benkei on the Gojo Bridge in the 12th Century A.D. Minamoto spared Benkei's life, after which Benkei swore to serve him to the death. The story bears an uncanny resemblance to the story of Robin Hood's first meeting with Little John, but they could simply be examples of parallel invention.
- The aforementioned meeting of Robin Hood and Little John is a subversion of the trope, since John wins but joins Robin's band anyway.
- Robin got more or less all of his band this way, and he won some and lost some. He considered it necessary to building a good band, as a sort of test to make sure that each new man was both strong and loyal, so that in a pinch they would be competent and true.
- In many versions of the tale, a key aspect is that Robin Hood lost to every single Merry Man he recruited and then congratulated the winner unabashedly. Merely defeating them would have proven nothing to them about his worth as a leader. What inspired them to join him was that his will and wry good character could not be defeated by any amount of physical besting — that he was both a good sport and an indefatiguable visionary in one.
- (After all, an idealist revolutionary who can't handle a single loss or being shown up on occasion isn't going to last very long!)
- While perhaps a very long bow to draw, it's not impossible that both stories were influenced by the Epic of Gilgamesh. Sumerian culture had demonstrable influence (either directly or through its cultural successors) on all subsequent Old World cultures, except sub-Saharan Africa.
- Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, anyone?
Yukon Cornelius: I've reformed this Bumble!
- In Tales Of MU, Sooni's belief in this trope is central to her Wrong Genre Savvy. She believes herself to be in a Shojo anime, with herself as The Hero and Mack as the evil, demonic, Schoolgirl Lesbian Rival who needs to be defeated to become her friend. When Mack continues to refuse to admit defeat and cede the election to her, she flies into a homicidal rage and begins attacking her, to the extent that the almost-invulnerable Mack ends up in the hospital (granted, this was mostly because Mack was using more magic than she should have been, but still). Sooni later visits Mack and happily tells her that she has defeated Mack, and therefore they can be friends now. Mack is naturally furious, but then the story heads for a Double Subversion when Mack agrees out of exasperation, pity... and Foe Yay. Blatant Foe Yay:
"Subtext!" Sooni said, practically dancing with joy. "See? We have subtext now!"
"I’m not sure that qualifies as ’sub’ anything."
- In Christopher Stasheff's The Warlock In Spite of Himself, a goon named Big Tom picks a fight with the hero, Rod Gallowglass; when Rod proves he can best him, Tom asks humbly to be Rod's man. Subverted in that Tom is a canny agent of Rod's enemies, taking advantage of this trope to get close to him.
- A rare example of pre-emptive Defeat Means Friendship occurs in the Malloreon, when Emperor Zakath finally dawns to the awareness that the Alorn religious myths are real, and Belgarion isn't just a rival overlord but also the designated custodian of cosmic power. Zakath takes one look at the odds and decides to just skip the "defeat" and get right to the "friendship".
Belgarion: Oh yes. [The Orb] has no conception of the word "impossible". If I really wanted it to, it could probably spell out my name in stars. *Orb twitches* Stop that! That was just an example, not a request. *Belgarion grins sheepishly* Wouldn't that look grotesque? 'Belgarion' running from horizon to horizon across the night sky?
Zakath: You know something, Garion? I've always believed that someday you and I would go to war with each other. Would you be terribly disappointed if I decided not to show up?
- In the Dresden Files novel Turn Coat, Harry calls up the very foreboding spirit of an island and essentially challenges it to a contest of strength and will. By winning, he forges a magical alliance between himself and the spirit. He later explains it in terms of this trope: see the quotes page.
- While the Great Skeeve normally plays this straight during his Myth Adventures, he subverts it in the sixth book, Little Myth Marker. After thwarting the Ax, a "character assassin" hired to ruin his reputation, Skeeve flatly refuses a request to join his group, which the Ax had grown fond of. His reason is that, while he doesn't hold a personal grudge against the assassin, because Skeeve's team often succeds on The Power Of Friendship the fact that the Ax makes money be betraying that leaves a bad taste in his mouth.
Live Action TV
- Invoked on Burn Notice, when Michael has to gain the trust of an enforcer for the Russian Mob that he has captured. He pretends to be another member, locked in the same cell. They fight, and, typical on this show, Michael narrates the action by describing the importance of learning Russian martial arts if you're going to pretend to be Russian.
Professional Wrestling
- Happens a lot in Professional Wrestling, as well; for example, this was the impetus for A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels to form a tag team and go after the NWA Tag Team Championship. Usually comes with a Heel Face Turn for the heel side of the previous rivalry, though the opposite happens occasionally.
- Hilariously subverted at WrestleMania XIX - after losing to Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho seemed to be going in for the big weepy face-turning hug... and instead boots HBK full force in the crotch.
Close Professional Wrestling
Video Games
- In Final Fantasy IX, Amarant is a bounty hunter hired to kill Zidane and company, until they best him in a fight and he decides to throw in with them. This is one part honour and one part trying to figure out exactly how he beat him.
- In Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse, Trevor Belmont picks up allies Grant and Alucard only after defeating them as bosses.
- In the Shin Megami Tensei series if you defeat a boss you can create it through fusion, and this will remain in the compendium even in New Game Plus and can be summoned regardless of level provided you have enough money to summon it.
- Final Fantasy games often require you to defeat various monsters as bosses before they offer you their power as Summon Magic.
- Star Wolf in Star Fox, particularly in the recent games, tend to fight the main characters first before joining them. Although to be fair, it was Star Fox who bothered them in their base.
- The Touhou doujin game series, most notably in Imperishable Night, in which the playable characters consist of teams of one human and one youkai who are all mostly bosses from previous games, and in Mountain of Faith, the premise of which revolves around the fact that many of these youkai are now living in the Hakurei shrine. Long-standing co-protagonist Marisa started as a boss.
- In fact, every game ends with the good guys sitting down for tea with the bad guys, and unlocking a bonus stage where they agree to fight the Big Bad's Rival. Then the Big Bad usually becomes a PC in the next game (nerfed as needed).
- One of Reimu's alternate outfits/color schemes in 12.3, Unthinkable Natural Law, is a Shout Out to the White Devil herself. Makes sense, as they both are fans of Friendship Through Superior Firepower.
- A continuing video game example: Many newcomers in the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise fight Sonic, usually out of misunderstanding, before joining his side. This dates back as far as Knuckles (from 1994's Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but several times since) to the recent additions of Blaze (Sonic Rush) and Silver (SONIC the Hedgehog). The real baddie usually shows up midfight, making the opposing character perform a Heel Face Turn split-second.
- Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2 is an exception in that he's the one orchestrating the evil, so even after his defeats at the hands of Sonic, he continues to be evil. His Heel Face Turn comes later.
- Super Smash Bros Brawl uses this as a common means of getting new allies in the Subspace Emissary mode. The odd thing is that you can often fight as either, so it works both ways.
- Nippon Ichi really likes to use this one. In addition to the storyline battles mentioned below, this is the standard method of recruiting Secret Characters.
- In Disgaea, Flonne, Hoggmeiser, Maderas, and Gordon all get converted to Laharl's side after he beats them handily in boss battles.
- Of course, Hoggmeiser and Maderas are noted as joining without Laharl's approval, and plenty of the other cases are "Laharl beats the crap out of someone so they'll become his new vassal".
- Disgaea 3's Raspberyl is a big believer in this trope. In the ending to the first chapter of Raspberyl Mode, her advice for making friends is as follows: "First, bust into their house... then, use your passionate fists and fight them till the end. Once the two of you collapse to the ground and start laughing, you guys will always be friends."
- In Phantom Brave, killing a few of an enemy type will make it possible to recruit that enemy type.
- In La Pucelle Tactics, if you "purify" just about any enemy before killing it, it will join your party and can be fielded immediately if you don't already have 8 units in play.
- In Makai Kingdom, Zetta can challenge and beat most of his fellow overlords and obtain either them or some other form of stand-in (they've got netherworlds to run, after all) as party members — including Laharl — during a New Game Plus. Just don't expect this to work on Salome, though.
- Disgaea 2 has Yukimaru, who joins you after Adell beats her in the tournament and talks her down from probably-very-honorable-but-not-really-wished-for suicide.
- Soul Nomad And The World Eaters has Odie as a main story example, and Asagi and Lujei as Bonus Boss examples. The Demon Path is full of this, but it's more a case of 'defeat equals slavery' there — except for the previous villains, who line up to join you with a smile on their faces.
- In the Expansion Pack to Baldurs Gate II, you can recruit Sarevok, Big Bad of the first game, into your party. This is after you've killed him. Twice. A popular mod also allows you to recruit Big Bad of the second game (that's the one this is an expansion to). After killing him. Twice.
- Shar-Teel, in the first Baldurs Gate is less over-the-top version, as she simply insists on dueling a male member of your party before she joins you.
- Knights Of The Old Republic has you, in one of your early missions as a Jedi, track down and defeat the fallen Jedi apprentice Juhani. After you duel her, you can talk her back to the Jedi path with relative ease. Or kill her, if you're Dark Side-inclined, but that's more than a bit of a waste.
- Tales of Symphonia has this in spades. Sheena joins you after beating her twice. Regal joins almost right after defeating him. Many bosses often convert to your side as friendly NPC's once Lloyd beats the stuffing out of them. With an epiphany speech tossed in for free.
- The sequel, Dawn of the New World, gives you the option (almost requirement) of recruiting monsters after defeating them in battle.
- Tales Of Vesperia also does this, only with Duke, the final boss. Yuri and friends beat the crap out of him, then completely forgive him after he joined their cause and helped to defeat the Adephagos. Despite the whole, y'know, attempted omnicide thing.
- Magic Knight Rayearth: In the SNES RPG, similarly as in the animé, every major antagonist will have a change of heart and join your party, and then leave right before you fight the next major antagonist. Well, except for Caldina, who lets you hire her for 3000 gold if you want her to tag along, and doesn't tag along if you don't hire her. But Fenrio, Ascot, and Lafarga all join your party temporarily, after they are taught the meaning of friendship, or in some cases, de-brainwashed.
- In Ristar, a weird alien kid follows you around stage 5-1 in the background, and at the end of the stage you must must beat him in a Snowball Fight. Later on, when you fight the stage 5 boss he helps you.
- Both subverted and played straight in Grandia with Gadwin's two duels, the first being an impossible boss fight.
- The GBA remake of River City Ransom allows you to recruit most of the gang bosses into your party after you beat them.
- An odd variant occurs in The Force Unleashed: rogue Jedi Master Rahm Kota is defeated and apparently killed by Starkiller in the first mission (he doesn't bite it). Much later, after Starkiller's death is faked by Vader, they run into each other again under Imperial fire, and immediately team up, forced together by circumstance. Their earlier struggles are quietly forgotten.
- Officially Kota knew it was Starkiller but pretended not to recongize Starkiller from their earlier fight so he could secretly try to turn Starkiller to the light side and use him against Vader. From Kota's perspective he is using Starkiller and meanwhile Starkiller thinks he is duping Kota.
- Big Boss, as a younger man, seemed to attract a number of allies in this way. Ocelot, Python, and even Gray Fox. Though in Python's case, they were already friends before they were dropped on opposite sides of the conflict, and after finishing their fight, they were friends again.
- Nintendo and Sega were very bitter rivals during the 16-bit era Console Wars, but after Sega's embarrassing defeat with the Dreamcast causing them to give up consoles, Sega now happily makes games for Nintendo's systems.
- Devil May Cry has Dante and Lady team up after the former defeats the latter as a boss. The same goes for Dante and Nero, sort of.
- More like Defeat Means Grudging Allegiance in 'Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries; you can challenge a Clan colonel to an honor duel. If you win, she is bound by honor to serve your merc company (as a pilot, so don't get any wrong ideas, mkay?). Your second-in-command calls this out as an unreasonably bad idea, and while Falcon doesn't disobey orders, she's not exactly happy with the whole arrangement.
- In Pokemon fashion, certain monsters have a random chance of doing this in Dragon Quest V after you..er...kill them. Look, death in the Dragon Quest universe is weird enough, just go with it.
- Mortal Kombat spoofs this with the "Friendship" Finishing Move.
- In Battle For Meridell, a game available on the website Neopets, you battle monster versions of the species you can fight as. When defeated, they turn good and fight for you. This also works both ways, as them defeating one of your characters turns them evil (and makes them lose any equipment they were carrying).
- This happens to Roxis of Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Alrevis, as the terms of a bet made by the heroes against the Goldfish Poop Gang, the latter of which Roxis was a part of. However, it's subverted in that Roxis doesn't think of The Hero as his friend throughout the game.
- In the NES version of Double Dragon III, the bosses of the China (Chin) and Japan (Ranzou) stages join your side after you defeat them. Interestingly, they actually become playable characters, allowing you to continue if Billy or Jimmy is killed or even to temporarily use their strengths (powerful claw punch and speedy ninjato respectively) where most useful.
- In Megaman: Powered Up, The Updated Rerelease of the original Megaman, if you defeat the bosses using only Megaman's Buster said boss will be left intact upon defeat and be taken back to Dr. Light's lab for repairs, making them playable. Using any other weapon will just destroy them.
- This is the standard mode of character recruitment for the Wei campaign in Warriors Orochi, though most of the time it's more "defeat = forced to join your side". Eventually, though, Wei defects from Orochi control and a large chunk of disgruntled ex-Wei officers show up to help. The other campaigns are a mix of this and Big Damn Heroes.
- In Star Ocean, if Ratix tries to reach C rank in the arena after a certain plot event, Tinek Arukena will announce that he wants to fight Ratix since he finds him a worthy opponent, then leaps in from the audience bleachers and replaces the end boss for the fight. If you defeat him and has less than eight members, he'll join up afterwards. (If you have no free spaces, he just leaves.)
- Marcus the super mutant from Fallout 2 narrates to the player a one-on-one battle between himself and a member of the Brotherhood of Steel. After three days the two combatants reconcile, become good friends, and found a town together. Doesn't quote fit the trope 100%, as Marcus seems to imply that the fight was a draw.
- In Cave Story, the protagonist does this to Toroko, Curly Brace, and eventually Balrog. In Toroko's and Curly's case, it's because they preemptively attack him, thinking he's a killer—so by defending himself and not killing them, he wins their trust. In Balrog's case, it's because Balrog is a decent guy, only working for the Big Bad because he's magically forced to do so.
Web Original
- Wyn from the web fiction serial Dimension Heroes makes a deal with Rob: if he can defeat him in battle, he'll join them in their fight against the Dark Overlord Clonar. And maybe become their friend, as well, but that might be pushing it.
Web Comics
Web Animation
- Played somewhat straight in The Leet World with Cortez and the Domination Guy, who is hired by Cortez's insane brother Mendoza to kill him. However, Cortez earns his respect when he beats him in single combat. While the Domination Guy doesn't join Cortez's side, he does return later in the series to save Cortez's life during the final confrontation with Ahmad. Possibly partially subverted in that Mendoza is not pleased with the Domination Guy's Heel Face Turn and captures, tortures and eventually executes him.
Western Animation
- Dinobot, of Transformers: Beast Wars, joins the Maximals after a heated swordfight with Optimus Primal, impressed by the Maximal leader's honor. (Initially the plan was to kill Optimus and take over. That he thought the other Maximals would fall in line after that says a lot about the Predacons.)
- Lockdown in Transformers Animated was both surprised and pleased that Prowl was able to "get the drop on him", and immediately set about trying to get him as a bounty hunting partner. And possibly some other kind of partner.
- In the first episode of Ben 10 Alien Force, Ben's old nemesis and Evil Counterpart Kevin 11 is defeated by Ben in their first encounter, and subsequently becomes one of Ben's two closest allies. This is quite a break from the original Ben 10, where each defeat at Ben's hands only made Kevin even crazier and more determined to kill him, even after two Save The Villain moments by Ben.
- Happens a lot in The Backyardigans everytime there's a villain. Since it's a kid's show, nobody gets killed off or arrested, so this is the only way.
- In Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers, Monteroy Jack only joins the team after a fight with the titular chipmunks.
- In a Popeye short, Popeye gets roped into being a matador despite his belief that bullfighting is cruel and barbaric, and finds himself facing a typical raging bull. After come cartoon hijinx and the devouring of spinach, Popeye manages to defeat the bull but refuses to kill it, earning the bull's respect, and it carries him and Olive Oyl off as Popeye sings about how he doesn't like bullfighting.
Truth In Television
- Salah-al-Din, a Muslim warlord of Kurdish ancestry, became something of a "Noble Heathen" folk hero to Europeans following his conquest of Jerusalem, which inspired the Third Crusade. According to legend, Saladin made friends with Richard the Lionheart, although in real life they more or less fought each other to a standstill and never met in person.
- Arguably (if a bit inadvertently) the accidental policy of the U.S. until World War 2 and its explicit policy since then. Germany, Japan, Mexico, Afghanistan, Iraq, and many other nations became our friends after being defeated, though of course this is more complex and subject to darker interpretation than most of the pages entries.
- Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fought an extremely long primary to be the Democratic candidate for the 2008 American presidential election. After Obama won the primary and the election, he appointed Clinton to be his Secretary of State, arguably the second most powerful position in America. However, this was probably at least in part a calculated move to appease disgruntled Clinton supporters.
- In fact, political rivalry almost never outlasts the election, since there is no benefit in fighting a lost battle, and the great risk of appearing as a poor loser or ungracious winner. It's usually the Fan Dumb supporters that keep up the attacks.
- Britain is perhaps the best example. After fighting the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 against the USA, relations between the two have been quite peaceful.
- Though Britain came perilously close to joining the Civil War on the side of the South. (Britain produced textiles and the American South grew cotton.) Which would have had some interesting consequences for world history.
- Since the Civil Rights Movement, race relations have vastly improved in some areas where they were at their worst level. States like Georgia and Alabama, which were considered absolutely deadly for Black people to live in in The Sixties, are now among the most sought after among Blacks for quality of living.
- Abraham Lincoln and the man who was previously the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 1860, William Henry Seward. Seward became his Secretary of State and one of his most loyal and trusted supporters. Pointedly not the case with Salmon Chase, the other vanquished rival who joined Cabinet, though.
- In one of the most epic boxing matches ever, George Foreman was defeated by Muhammad Ali in 1974. The two became good friends afterward.
- If the mental image of a kitchenware salesman pulling out the Good Old Fisticuffs against a young Will Smith doesn't amuse you, it should.
- The first encounter of Turkey and Australia was on opposing sides of a battlefield in World War I. The conflict was both fierce and gentlemanly - an odd combination which, despite the eventual defeat of the Australian forces, created a bond of mutual respect, admiration and friendship between the nations which continues to this day.
- Jimmy Carter became good friends with former rival Gerald Ford after his presidency ended.
- Black preacher Wade Watts vs. Klu Klux Klan Grand Dragon Johnny Lee Clary.
Close Truth In Television
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