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Phantom Limb: Thank you. We're not so different, you and I. Brock: Yeeeaah, I don't need another "we're not so different" speech. I get those a lot. Phantom Limb: Yes I'm sure you do.
L: Kira is childish, and hates to lose. Yagami: How can you be sure? L: Because I'm also childish and I hate to lose.
Two characters who seem radically different turn out to have more in common than they would like to believe.
As a good thing, the frequent resolution of an Enemy Mine or Locked In A Freezer plot: two enemies learn that there is more that unites them than divides them. The punch line to about 50% of plots in an Odd Couple series.
As a bad thing, the realization that our hero is really just a hair's breadth away from villainy. In these cases, it's almost always the villain who is the first to notice: our hero has him cornered and even seems to relish the prospect of finally ridding himself of his nemesis, and the villain deftly points out, "We're not so different after all." The hero realizes how close he is to crossing the line, and spares the villain (though every once in a great while, he'll decide that it's worth crossing the line, off the villain anyway, and then have several episodes of moral anguish over the darkness in his soul: see Shoot The Dog). Especially common when the villain is the hero's Evil Counterpart.
Also a bad thing when the bad guy points it out after the hero has bested him through questionable tactics.
Often followed by the hero's hysterical protests along the lines of, "I'm not like you! I'll never be like you!"
Occasionally followed by the hero's observation that they are different, because of some other aspect that the opponent overlooked or intentionally ignored.
The hero should have some snappier comeback, like You noticed? or That's why I can beat you, and worry about the differenes later - or a comment that the dog that protects the flock is a very close relative of the wolf that ravages it. The best there is in that sense was the scene in Blood Ties where the cornered freaked-out vampire (abandoned by its sire) tells Henry that he too is a monster and Henry answers But I am the monster who is coming out of this alive.
Sometimes goes hand-in-hand with a Double Aesop or We Can Rule Together.
Can also be phrased, "You would have made a good thief/assassin/Klingon/Dalek/Minbari/ Troper/Wikipedian."
Examples:
Live Action TV
- On Andromeda, whenever Dylan does something underhanded to accomplish his goals, a nearby Nietzschean will point out that he "would have made a good Nietzschean".
- Recurring element of Lex's relationship with his father in Smallville.
- Done both ways in Gilmore Girls, even though it's an unusual trope for that genre. Paris and Rory move for the first time away from being rivals after a "good" Not So Different moment. Lorelai is occasionally unhinged after experiencing a "bad" Not So Different moment with her controlling mother.
- The first two appearances of the Daleks in the new Doctor Who series are Chock Full O' Not So Different moments.
- In "Dalek", Metaltron initially points out that, being the last of their respective races, it and the Doctor are "the same", prompting the obligatory "I'm nothing like you!" response. However, the Doctor does go on to gleefully announce that they are the same, even shouting "Exterminate!" as he tries to kill it. At the end of the episode, it again notes that "You would make a good Dalek," which this time has the usual effect of making the Doctor realize how close he's come to crossing the line.
- In "The Parting of the Ways", the Emperor Dalek repeatedly taunts the Doctor by describing him as "The Great Exterminator", after the Doctor threatens to use a machine to destroy the Daleks along with all life on Earth.
- Parodied in the Red Dwarf episode Angels and Demons in which Cat and Rimmer refuse to believe they are like their sandal-wearing-hippie-mystic Good Twins while Lister insists that his Evil Twin is no part of him.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer: This comes up often between Buffy and Faith (and Buffy and Angelus, for that matter)...
- And don't forget Dracula. Willow points out that he likes to have a connection to his victims, and he reminds Buffy of how much she is like that what she hunts throughout the entire episode.
- ... and between Xena and Callisto, and Xena and Ares as well, of Xena Warrior Princess.
- The fourth season episode of The 4400 "No exit" shows several of the main characters locked up in the NTAC building, including Jordan Collier and Tom Baldwin. After it is revealed that the lockup is only the result of one of the NTAC agents having an ability due to a previous injection of promicin, and was created as a collective dream in order to promote cooperation between the Collier followers and NTAC, Collier and Baldwin are forced to work together and the ordeal convince both of them that there is common ground between them. However, Baldwin still keeps his stance against Collier and vows to catch him.
- In on episode of Star Trek Voyager, "Scientific Method", one of the alien scientists tells Janeway that they are very similar in their need to protect their people. Needless to say, Janeway disagrees.
- Similar to the Hitchhiker's Guide "Gin and Tonic" example, below; on Babylon5, G'Kar notes that every spacefaring race he knows of makes a variant of the Narn dish "Breen". G'Kar chalks it up to "one of the mysteries of the universe". The Human version, by the way, is Swedish Meatballs.
Western Animation
- Family Guy: Stewie realizes he's not so different from one of his "potential siblings" when one of them mentions that he too hates Lois.
- Avatar The Last Airbender: parallel plots frequently point out that the hero, Aang, and Worthy Opponent, Prince Zuko, are "not so different," but any stress spent over the situation pre-Heelface Turn was on the dark Anti Villain prince's part, not the hero's. Zuko and Sokka also get their Not So Different episode in "The Boiling Rock."
- In the finale of the second season of Justice League Unlimited, the heroes face Alternate Universe Evil Twins of themselves. Superman's evil twin taunts him as being Not So Different from him: "Power corrupts, after all, and who has more power than Superman?" This is followed by Superman following the trope exactly by shouting: "I'm not like you! I'm nothing like you!" At the end of the episode, he and Batman talk it over, and Superman notes that the difference between him and his twin was that he'd felt the same urges, but never given in to them.
- Vlad Plasmius, being Danny Phantom's Evil Counterpart, loves messing with him this way:
Plasmius: Sneak attack -- very good, Daniel. You're getting more like me with every battle.
Danny: I am NOTHING like you!
Plasmius: Oh, you're not? Using your powers to get back at people you don't like? Throwing the first punch? You're more like me than you know.
- Later proven eerily true in an alternate future where Danny has his ghost half removed, which promptly eats Plasmius' evil ghost half, becoming all ghost and all evil. Especially Squicky because The evil ghost Danny kills his human half.
- Ben 10 and Kevin 11. While the former type was pleasantly averted in their Forced Prize Fight episode, the latter type started from Kevin's first appearance:
Ben: You don't care about anyone but yourself.
Kevin: You talking about me?
Ben: No. I'm talking about me!
- Kim and Shego of Kim Possible after the events of "Stop Team Go."
- Slade in Teen Titans is obsessively fond of doing this to Robin. because he wants to make Robin his
apprentice sidekick son. It always makes Robin go into a frenzy of rage, which is always fun for Slade, who just clearly enjoys messing with his head. This was the premise of the Apprentice episodes. Robin ponders near the end, "Focused, serious, determined...as much as I hate to admit it, he and I are kind of alike. But there's one big difference between me and Slade -- He doesn't have any friends." Slade even manages to do this when he's DEAD in "Haunted" by making Robin act crazy and violent through drugs. He later taunts him by referring to them as "friends" when they team up in "The End".("I'm NOT your friend!") (Because he doesn't have any, remember?)
- Trigon also does this to Raven, calling her "daddy's little girl," with the double whammy of Because Destiny Says So.
- Brother Blood tries to do this to Cyborg, but it's not as effective as with Robin, because Cyborg is marginally sane.
- In The Batman, villains try this on Batman with increasing frequency as the series goes on. To his credit (and the misfortune of said villains), Batman proves quite capable of rationally explaining the key differences while he beats the snot out of them.
- In Mighty Max, Norman confronts the semi-immortal that slaughtered his village centuries ago. Norman eventually defeats him and has him held over an effectively bottomless chasm when the villain, having a moment of Genre Savvy, triumphantly invokes this trope with the standard declaration of "If you kill me, you'll be just like me!" Norman just looks at him for a moment, before calmly stating "I can live with that" and dropping him. Aversion from the typical in that Norman never evinces a single bit of guilt over doing so, but then, he was never exactly the touchy-feely hero type in the first place.
- Recently, in an episode of The Venture Brothers, the Mighty Monarch deliberately invokes this trope, convincing the extremely naive Dean Venture that, if he reports the Monarch's actions, telling will make Dean JUST LIKE HIM!
Film
- Luke Skywalker gets his Not So Different moment when he cuts off his father's artificial hand. Luke sees that he has just repaid Vader's violence in kind, but also sees his own prosthetic hand as symbolizing the possibility that he's becoming like his father.
- Foreshadowed earlier in Empire Strikes Back when Yoda sends Luke into a cave to be attacked by a masked warrior brandishing a lightsaber, looking much like Darth Vader. Luke quickly defeats the warrior, decapitating it. The warrior's mask falls off, and its face is exactly like Luke's.
- Occurs twice in the Austin Powers trilogy, between Doctor Evil and Austin (who, amusingly enough, are both played by Mike Myers); first in the first film near the end, and later in the third film:
Doctor Evil: Remember when I said 'We're not so different, you and I'?
Cuts back to the first film, with Austin aiming his gun at Doctor Evil.
Doctor Evil: We're not so different, you and I.
Flashback ends.
Doctor Evil: See? I did say that.
Austin: Yes, very nice. Now where's my father?
- Raiders Of The Lost Ark: Rival archaeologist Rene Belloq provides a definitive example of this trope when he taunts the protagonist, Indiana Jones
Belloq:You and I are very much alike. Archeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am but a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me. To push you out of the light.
- Its A Wonderful Life: Corrupt Corporate Executive Mr. Potter takes the opportune moment to throw George Bailey's words back in his face when the hero is facing bankruptcy and jail. Somewhat subverted in that the comparison insults both of them.
Mr. Potter:Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world. You once called me "a warped, frustrated, old man!" What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help.
- Subverted in Galaxy Quest, where the villain forces the main character to explain how he's Not So Different from the villain... to an ally who hero-worships the main character.
- The Man With The Golden Gun. Scaramanga does this with James Bond. Bond tells him that he is full of a certain bodily discharge.
- The Kingdom is an interesting version, having a Not So Different ending. At the very end of the movie, it is revealed what the hero said in the beginning when whispering a reassurance to another member of his team "We're going to kill them all", referring the Diabolical Mastermind terrorists who executed an attack that killed at least one of their coworkers. Just after this revelation the film cuts to that terrorist's grandson, who heard his last words after the terrorist was fatally shot. Asked by his mother what his grandfather's last words were, the young boy replies that they were "Do not worry, my child. For the day shall come when we kill them all".
Literature
- Near the end of the Discworld novel Witches Abroad, Granny Weatherwax has a Not So Different moment with her sister, Lily, who has become a Knight Templar "good" witch and the de facto ruler of Genua. Granny expresses aloud the fact that she's felt the same urges to use her powers, but never gave in to them. Earlier, Nanny and Magrat had noticed Lily saying "If you don't have respect, you don't have anything", which is a more grammatically correct version of Granny's Catch Phrase "If you ain't got respect, you ain't got nothing."
- An uneasy dynamic between Harry Potter and Big Bad Voldemort, made most explicit in the second book. They have similar appearances (at least with Voldemort's past self), abilities, passions, disregard for rules, cleverness, and histories. As well, some of Voldemort's power was transferred to Harry at the beginning of the first book, and at the end of the fourth book, Voldemort transfers some of Harry's motherly protection to him.
- Nearly every Animorphs book explores this theme, with the Animorphs worrying that they are becoming too ruthless, too willing to do anything they have to in order to win their war. And they compare themselves to the Yeerks, who are paragons of ruthlessness. The characters face many morally ambiguous situations, which either dispel or (perhaps more often) confirm these doubts. Some Yeerk characters have made "not so different" arguments to the Animorphs, especially Karen/Aftran, Taylor, and the human villain David.
- Fevre Dream, Damon Julian saying the "We are not so different" to Abner Marsh. Abner actually agrees with him, but still refuses to Julian's We Can Rule Together.
- In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, it is revealed that every civilized race, before discovering the existence of the other races, have each created a drink with the name "Gin and Tonic", or at least something that sounds the same but is completely different in both spelling and recipe. Compare the Earth-born highball cocktail of gin, ice and tonic water with others such as the Sivolvian "chinanto/mnigs" (nothing more than lukewarm water) or the Gagrakackan "tzjin-anthony-ks" (can kill cows at a hundred paces).
- In the later books in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Beaudalaires are almost paralyzed a few times from the idea that by lying and wearing disguises everywhere, they're starting to become like Olaf and his gang.
- The Big Bad of The Thief of Always tries to pull this on the hero, pointing out that although the Big Bad was a soul-stealing monstrosity, the Hero remorselessly killed the Big Bad's minions, who weren't willfully evil, at least one of whom wasn't hostile, and who were thoroughly convincing and seemingly "real", despite actually being dust given life with illusion. This troper hasn't read the book in a long time, but seems to remember the hero not so much countering it as just idly shrugging it off and continuing trying to take down the Big Bad.
Anime
- The Big O: Big Bad Alex Rosewater never gets sick of pointing out that hero Roger Smith is just as arrogant, power-hungry, and obsessive as he is, for manipulating a giant robot to fulfill his personal moral agenda.
- Mugen and Jin in Samurai Champloo. Pointed out by Fuu within her diary, much to both's displeasure.
- Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Yubel informs Amon during their duel that he's just like her -- they both destroy the ones they love.
- Spike and Vicious have a moment like this during their standoff in the Cowboy Bebop episode, "Ballad of Fallen Angels":
Vicious: You should see yourself. Do you have any idea what you look like right at this moment, Spike?
Spike: (with a savage grin on his face) What?
Vicious: A ravenous beast. The same blood runs through both of us. The blood of a beast that wanders, hunting for the blood of others.
Spike: I've bled all that kind of blood away.
Vicious: Then why are you still alive?!
- The anime also parodies this trope with Andy, Spike's one-shot foil whose similarities to the protagonist are so prominent as to be lampshaded repeatedly by the remaining cast. Naturally, the two hate each other's guts with a passion -- well, Spike hates Andy's guts. Andy can't even remember Spike's name for most of the episode, which only serves to infuriate the protagonist further.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Happens a few times, lampshaded in "The Phantom Thief":
Edward: It's funny. Every crook I meet wants to tell me how much I'm just like them.
- In Outlaw Star, Harry MacDougal pulls one of these on Melfina, to whom he reveals to her that he's also an Artificial Human, with all the Cloning Blues that go with it.
- Death Note: Both Light and L fall under this trope, engaging in roughly the same questionable activities in their cat-and-mouse game. For example, they both use criminals to test the power of the Death Note at least once during the story.
- Negima turned to this during the school festival arc. Negi and his group going back in time by ten days to fix the future that Chao had created, he reasoned that it was no different than her going backwards to change her own future.
- The final battle of Zeta Gundam has a couple of speeches along these lines. Played straight in the case of Camille and Jerid, and played rather strangely in the case of Reccoa and Emma. Also, there is a really nice scene in a theater...
- In the anime version of Pretear Fenrir even says at one point that Himeno is going to repeat her fate -- to which Himeno immediately objects. Not only Fenrir actually got her powers from being in the same position as Himeno, she turned evil because of her unrequited love for the same person Himeno is in love with.
- Astro Boy gets to hear one of these speeches just about every time he tangles with Atlas or Blue Knight. In fact, in Blue Knight's case it actually worked for a while.
Webcomics
Comic Books
- Xavier and Magneto of X-men...
- An interesting variant occurs during the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover, where Magneto decides to ignore the stated purpose and kill the Red Skull. Red Skull of course launches into a Not So Different speech, essentially taunting Magneto about the fact that his quest for mutant supremacy is quite similar to the Red Skull's own ideology. In the end Magneto spares his life but seals him inside an underground room filled with food and water.
- Although in this case, 'spared his life' meant 'realized that death by being buried alive, over a period of months, was far more painful than simply crushing him right now.'
- Batman: The Killing Joke has the Joker try to prove this to Batman in his own psychotic twisted way.
Video Games
- The ending of Advance Wars: Dual Strike consists primarily of a Not So Different speech by the defeated Big Bad, complete with If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him. The player is then given the choice of how to deal with the defeated and now helpless Big Bad.
- Kill him! I mean how many of your units died? That has got to be maybe ten thousand people. Plua, you KNOW he will be back in the sequel- and given they go for "darker and edgier"..
- Heartily subverted by Mega Man Zero 4, in which Big Bad Dr. Weil desperately bluffs Zero and tries to convince him that killing Weil would be stooping to his level of villainy. In an unorthodox move, Zero kills him anyway, making note at how he never considered himself a hero to begin with. Notably, Zero loses his life in the process.
- Metal Gear has Big Boss, an antagonist whose ideology of perpetual, honorable warfare lingers on through his unkillable son, Liquid Snake. It all seems the usual completely bonkers nonsense, until you're put into his shoes at the start of the third game and get to see what he went through before he formed the Foxhound unit and started plotting world domination. He suffers through the same betrayals and manipulation that the series protagonist, Solid Snake, has gone through, and at the end is just as alienated and bitter. It leaves potent, unstated message about how someone's past experiences don't control their future.
- Scrubs and Stop Having Fun Guys.
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