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A type of episode where two characters suddenly start feuding with each other, either over a minor matter that gets blown out of proportion, or sometimes for seemingly no reason at all. Sometimes, another character will try to get the two feuding characters to make up by putting together some sort of crazy scheme, but there is actually a 90% chance that the scheme will fail. In the end, the two characters will invariably put behind their silly feud to help their friends in some kind of trouble. An Aesop about putting behind your troubles usually will soon follow afterward.
They might be feuding over a common love interest, or perhaps due to hometown prejudices.
Alternatively, two longtime friends get mad and breakup over some random bad event (often, a Girl of the Week can be the cause of such a conflict). Kids' shows seem to love this one, as The Power of Friendship is the backbone of their group dynamics.
This often leads to their other friends getting into the argument and take sides.
If the conflict seems too reminiscent of a lovers' quarrel, Homoerotic Subtext may ensue.
Compare Achilles in His Tent. Contrast Isolation Despondency.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- There was an episode of the Little Lulu anime where Tubby and Willy were feuding against each other every time they met up with each other. The reason they were feuding was because the indian chief suits that they bought at the store looked exactly alike, which was what ignited their feud in the first place. Even more insightful that the episode itself was based on a Little Lulu comic that had nearly the same plot.
- An episode of Digimon Savers had Marcus and Agumon get into a fight which results in Agumon hiding inside Marcus' digivice for most of the episode. When Marcus is unable to defeat a BlackGarurumon that's rampaging through the city, Agumon finally comes to the rescue and everything is sorted out once again.
- Ouran High School Host Club- The Twins Fight: Hikaru and Kaoru get into an epic argument over how they're tired of always looking alike and they drag the rest of the club with them. In this case, there is no Zany Scheme the others try to plan to get them to make up. Also, it's futher subverted, as the twins were just acting all along because they were bored!
- Asuna and Negi do this, except Negi immediately feels really badly and keeps trying to apologize, whereas Asuna got over it quickly enough but didn't want to admit it. Not that they've been friends for long but she's probably only his second friend and the one he trusts most.
- Fridge Logic reveals that this is practically all that happens in Conrad and Yozak's friendship after Yuri turns up in Kyou Kara Maou.
- The first time, it's basically Yozak being cynical and jealous and Conrad being his psychotically loyal self, but after that we get a mind-controlling mountain of hate and the... DaiShimaron thing. These two have some of the best fights in the series, all swords with no magic, but it's kind of sad. Before Yuri came they don't seem to have fought at all.
- The reason it's Fridge Logic is because, the first time Conrad threatens to kill Yozak in the anime (if he ever puts Yuri in danger again), we don't know they're lifelong best friends. Jeepers. Puts a little more depth into the face Yozak makes there.
- In one episode of Pokemon called The Bicker, The Better, Ash and May get into an argument and argue for almost all of the episode. Not only that, but Jessie and James ALSO get into a fight! But being beaten by a couple who're obsessed with love and their Nidoqueen/Nidoking combo did NOT help.
Comic Books
- Astérix and the Roman Agent: Caesar sends an agent, Tortuous Convolvulus, to the Gaulish village. He is a natural troublemaker who can cause dissension and stir up fights between anyone, and soon nearly the entire village is feuding. Even Asterix and Obelix get angry at each other... for about four panels.
- Many Carl Barks' Donald Duck comics revolve around him feuding with his neighbor Jones. We usually start the comic with them fighting already, so we never know for sure who started it. Not even they remember what originated the war sometimes! Despite many attempts by Don's nephews to make peace between the two enemies, it's a given that they'll end as they began: engaged in physical and verbal attacks that won't end well for anyone... except for the reader.
Literature
Live Action TV
- The 1952-04-24 episode of George Burns and Gracie Allen's TV program revolved around a feud between George and his old friend Jack Benny, after Jack stole one of George's jokes during a performance.
- One Rashomon Style episode of Supernatural dealt with the brothers fighting, which, as Sam pointed out, was understandable for two guys who spend all their time cooped up in a car together. Bobby was not amused.
- House and Wilson, after the death of Wilson's girlfriend.
- iCarly: Carly and Sam's quarrel episodes.
- iSaw Him First, where they fight over a hot guy, complete with sabotage and tricks. The actual conflict is resolved by the guy, who gets sick of their competitiveness, and then falls down an elevator shaft, and after they resolve not to fight over a guy anymore.
- iDon't Want To Fight, where Carly gives Sam a handmade iCarly t-shirt (possibly the first ever made, but it's important to Carly), and Sam trades it for concert tickets.
- iQuit iCarly is probably the worst fight between them, when Sam pissed off Carly by not showing up or taking things seriously, Sam runs off and refuses to go back to her. It ends with the girls nearly falling off the side of a building after Sam rashly jumps out onto a window cleaners platform to get a good camera shot.
- iKiss is the first example for Freddie splitting with the girls, as he quit the show because Sam revealed he hadn't kissed a girl. I'm sure you wouldn't be shocked to find out they ended up sharing a First Kiss with each other at the end to fix it.
- iHire An Idiot threatens this with Freddie and Carly, over the girls (although it's only Carly who Freddie gets mad at) hiring the titular idiot Cort, Freddie threatens to quit unless they fire Cort, then ends up hiring his own hot dumb intern before they resolve the situation and Freddie's reveals a gambit that his intern has been Obfuscating Stupidity so she can do a sociology project and make Carly jealous.
- The Wonder Years episode "Odd Man Out."
- This happens every third episode on Hannah Montana.
- Basically all the Disney Channel shows.
- Dan and Casey of Sports Night do this after Dan, feeling picked-on by the rest of the team, embarrasses Casey on-air. It doesn't last very long, luckily, since their friendship is one of the most rewarding things about the show.
- 30 Rock, "The Rural Juror" (with Liz and Jenna)
- Nate and Chuck on Gossip Girl when Nate finds out Chuck had sex with Blair. They sort of make up by the end of the season, but soon have another falling out and their friendship has never really been shown to recover.
- Serena and Blair do this dance at least once per season.
- Ted and Barney on How I Met Your Mother after Barney slept with Robin.
- The team on Angel splits up for part of one season (actually, they split up several times), with Angel firing the rest of the crew because they're worried he's getting too evil.
- Meanwhile, Buffy temporarily loses her friends a few times, although it's always made clear that it could never be permanent. The worst of these was in the seventh season.
- In the Doctor Who episode "Father's Day", Rose and the Doctor have a fight about how Rose just destroyed the time stream, and he steams out, threatening to leave her. He can't, since it turns out the TARDIS is just a police-box for once, but he later says he wouldn't have left her.
- Degrassi: The Next Generation seems to like this trope:
- Happened a couple of times with Emma and Manny in season 3. First in "U Got The Look" when Manny gets her infamous makeover and starts flirting with JT while she is interested in another guy. Emma tells Manny she's leading JT on. Manny then tells Emma to either mind her own business or stop talking to her. They make up pretty quickly after this, but their bigger fight comes later that season in "Against All Odds" when Emma doesn't approve of Manny helping Craig cheat on Ashley. They don't talk to each other for what appears to be several months in-universe. Things between the two are finally patched up when Emma helps Manny out with her pregnancy. They also got into some arguments where they temporarily stopped speaking to each other in seasons 4, 5, and 6. However, these fights didn't last for too long.
- This also happened several times with Jimmy and Spinner throughout the series. The worst was when Jimmy stopped talking to Spinner for the rest of season 4 and a good portion of season 5 after finding out he was responsible for Rick shooting him.
- Anya ended her friendship with Holly J after realizing she was sick of being treated like dirt. While the two do eventually reconcile, they never quite go back to being best friends (Fiona is Holly J's current best friend).
- In Boy Meets World, Cory and Shawn go through this in the episode "It's Not You, It's Me..." after Shawn accuses Cory of leaving him behind because Cory wants to apply for a higher level college than Shawn can get into.
Professional Wrestling
- Pro wrestling is almost entirely composed of this.
Video Games
- Persona 3: FES chapter "The Answer" has the ex-SEES team have a falling out over the Key of Time, specifically whether they should use it to continue living in the present or to go back to the past so they can see the Main Character again. They finally get back together after fighting one another for each others Key fragments, then discovering that they still have one more enemy to defeat.
Western Animation
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