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Not So Different Remark / Fan Works

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"Not So Different" Remarks made in Fan Works.

Crossovers
  • Done during the second, final duel between Rainbow Dash and Gilda in Ace Combat: The Equestrian War. Bonus points for resembling a confrontation between Cipher and "Solo Wing" Pixy.
    Gilda: Can you not feel this bond between us? You and I are opposite sides of the same coin. We are naturally born warriors.
    Rainbow Dash: Maybe. But even if there is a resemblance between us, we’ll never face the same direction. At least not like this, G!
  • All For Luz: When fighting King, Toshiko mentally notes that she's just as excited as he is to find a Worthy Opponent to test out their powers to the limits: Her Combo Platter Powers and his growing Titan abilities. They agree to become sparring partners together.
    Toshiko: So, it’s just like me. Too strong to practice its powers, but now found someone of its equal to do so. Interesting…
  • During their "fight" in Chapter 54 of BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, Terumi mocks Adam for believing himself to be in the right and fighting for a just cause when he's really the same thing Terumi is; a gleeful monster who loves killing for fun. Adam refuses to acknowledge it while Terumi mocks him for how delusional he is.
  • Boldores And Boomsticks: Guzma tries to compare himself to Professor Kukui because they both weren't able to become trial captains. Kukui completely shuts it down since while he decided to study Pokémon, Guzma just became a gangster.
  • The Bridge (MLP): Monster X and Tempest Shadow realize their similarities in that they are loyal to their masters, Bagan and the Storm King respectively, for helping them, but don't know them that well and are merely pawns.
  • In The Butcher Bird, Smoker compares the eponymous Butcher Bird to Admiral Akainu after the former gives Smoker a blistering Motive Rant. The Butcher Bird does not take it well, and it takes a Die or Fly attempt by his captain to get him functional again.
  • In the Primeval/Simpsons fanfic Camp Scare, Abby realises that, due to her traumatic childhood, she's not so different from the children she was being a snarky Jerkass to.
  • Child of the Storm: Harry is noted at several points in the sequel to be becoming worryingly like Doctor Strange - the series' Magnificent Bastard in chief, its most accomplished manipulator, who regards his actions as Necessarily Evil (necessary, but often evil, and he firmly believes no one else should go the same way). He becomes much more ruthless, more morally flexible, extremely adept at pushing people's buttons and manipulating them. He learns Strange's signature trick of lying without saying a word that is technically untrue, throwing more than a little of Natasha into the mix by even getting people to trust him while admitting that he is "probably the best liar you'll ever meet"... just as he's lying (by omission) to their faces. He even starts developing a dangerous variant of Strange's signature smile when he's about to do something unpleasant to someone who deserves it. Part of this is worn down by better moral influences/recovery from trauma, and Strange (who does NOT want anyone turning out like him) takes steps to provide counter examples and philosophies for Harry to absorb.
  • Children of Time: In "A Study In White", Sherlock Holmes and Bram Stoker are captured by a plasmavore who is addicted to the blood of alcoholics. Despite the deadly danger he's in, Holmes empathizes with her addiction and pleads with her to let his friends help her.
  • In Connecting the Dots, Hinata finds a kindred spirit in Lois Lane while Lois describes Superman in a way Hinata finds familiar. Readers also get to see that Superman and Naruto are also not that different during Lois' description of Superman.
    Lois: He just has...something inside him that compels him to help people.
  • Connection has the example of Lirin and Ayaka having similarities between themselves.
    Lirin: You see, we're not so different, you and I. Both of us are so ambitious that we do criminal acts, show jealousy on someone that is better than us, and because of that, we ended up hurting that person that shows better than us.
  • In Chapter 56 of the Love Hina crossover story Contract Labor, Su used her supercomputer and hacking skills to crack into and copy the cellphone contents of three female bullies who attacked Shinobu at school and publicly posted the info about illegal activities online for schoolmates to access and forwarded the data to the police. When Keitaro confronts her about her actions he finds out that she also investigated the bullies' families and is planning to blackmail them to pull the bullies from that school in order to protect Shinobu. He threatens to evict her for her own illegal actions if she goes through with it, but Su points out that Keitaro himself threatened the jobs/careers of the school administrators to get them to put a halt to the harassment that dorm mate Sarah was undergoing at school by both students and a teacher. When Su spells out that her actions and those of Keitaro are not so different, he backs off on the eviction threat and instead decides to use the information that Su gathered on the families to help them resolve their problems and to convince them to pull the bullies from that school.
  • Dangerous Tenant: Claire accuses the Doctor of being similar to Wester after Steve sacrifices himself for the sake of the Doctor's plan. However, she accepts the Doctor's apology when he explains himself, insisting that he never wanted anybody involved to die.
  • In "Doctor Who in the Multiverse of Madness", when the Thirteenth Doctor (Doctor Who) accidentally travels to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she observes that she likes Wong as they both like to add a dash of mystery to their presence.
  • Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship:
    • Sunset tells Timmy that Tootie's obsession with him is not too different than his approach to winning Trixie's heart.
    • On a more positive note, Gilda spells out to Timmy that she was also once a kid who was bullied and ignored by those around her.
  • Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls:
    • Several Arrancar note that Chrysalis and Adagio Dazzle are very similar to each other, in that they're both beautiful yet powerful schemers who aren't satisfied with just defeating their opposition but manipulating or breaking them to their will in the process. To drive it home, Gaia Everfree's flashback reveals that Chrysalis' original position in the Espada was the Sixth, the very same position Adagio was first elevated to.
    • Midnight makes this observation of Twilight and Sapphire Shores after it's revealed that the latter is behind the assassination attempts on Twilight and what her motivations were, saying that they both "jump to conclusions, overthink things, and don’t have the courage to go after what you want and instead hide your real feelings, then pretend like you’re doing what’s best for everyone".
  • The Equestrian Wind Mage: Vaati is only convinced to give Discord a chance at redemption when it's pointed out how similar Vaati's own situation is.
  • Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters has numerous examples:
    • Jade's rant about using her new Shapeshifter and Ben Shui powers to help people gives Yan Lin an uncomfortable flashback to Nerissa. Likewise, Will's later evolution into a Combat Pragmatist willing to manipulate potential allies is far too similar to Nerissa for Yan's liking. Though in both cases, she later realizes that despite these similarities, both girls still have their compassion, which Nerissa lost.
    • The Sack of Torus Filney forces Caleb to realize that the Rebellion isn't really all that much better than Phobos' supporters.
    • Chang claims that Jackie, acting on behalf of Section 13, is no different from how Chang was back when he was a ring fighter, saying that both are just pawns of the people calling the shots. Jackie admits that he has a point, but that doesn't stop him from handing Chang over to Captain Black.
    • After Aldarn puts on Ikazuki's mask during their duel and says that he did so to guarantee that the Rebellion would have to accept him as a leader no matter how the duel turned out or what they thought, Caleb gets the idea to provoke him by asking how that makes him any different than Phobos.
  • Infinity Crisis: Loki states that, looking back, he and Thanos are similar in that they both use grand claims to cover up their darker desires, and suggests that the heroes use this to anticipate Thanos’s next move. Also brought up when he’s talking with Black Siren, as they both abandoned family to indulge in power in the belief that it was the only way they'd gain respect.
  • Invasion of Falls: When Dib is arguing with Zim about the fact that his leaders, the Tallest, aren't coming because they are dead and the whole Irken Armada sucked into the Florpus Hole, forever lost thanks to him:
    Zim: YOU LIE! What would a failure who can't even convince his own bigger failure of a species to recognize your 'greatness'?
    Dib: ...So are you.
    Zim: What did you say to me?
    Dib: You and I are the same… (Dib starts giggling crazily) Guess we are both failures to our respective species, HAHAHAHAHAHA!
  • Jujutsu Kaisen: Gojo's New Students: When Gojo admits to Eda that if Luz refused his offer to train her as a Sorcerer his bosses would have had her killed, she compares them to Emperor Belos: Old Control Freaks that will get rid of anyone that doesn't bend to their will.
  • Justice League of Equestria:
    • Mare of Steel: Trixie tries pulling this on Rainbow Dash when they run into each other in Seaddle, saying they're both arrogant braggarts. Rainbow Dash shoots this down.
    • Princess of Themyscira: Ares says this about himself and Athena, pointing out how they both manipulate the mortal realm to their own ends.
  • Kage (a Jackie Chan Adventures and W.I.T.C.H. crossover): This trope pops up more than once.
  • Lecture for Moo Moo has Woody admitting to Moo Moo that she is going to a similar case to Lotso as both of them are abandoned by their owner by accident, not going back to them, and they're oblivious to the fact that they're the abandoners, not their respective owners. He successfully convinces her not to become like Lotso.
  • In Kyon: Big Damn Hero Kyon realizes this and mentions it to Wataru as both want to protect their loved ones, in particular each one's sister.
  • Lost in Camelot:
    • Discussed when Dyson observes that Camelot is the first purely human town he's ever seen and yet it doesn't strike him as that different from fae settlements, prompting Bo to observe that the two races aren't that different after all.
    • Occurs in a more specific context when Bo tells Arthur about her conflict with her mother after Arthur learns the truth about his birth, followed by Bo and Merlin revealing their relationship to Arthur (without mentioning Morgana's role). Not only can Arthur accept her advice regarding how he would feel after killing Uther thanks to Bo citing her own experience of killing a parent, but he also recognises the similarities between Bo and Merlin's relationship and his own feelings for Gwen, giving him further reasons to trust them both.
  • MLP Next Generation: Know Fear!: When an enraged Starburst attacks the griffon capital in order to end the war, she rampages through the city before confronting Emperor Stratus himself. After she overpowers and prepares to kill him, he decides to gloat about how she's proven him wrong about ponies being weak, since she's just as bloodthirsty as a griffon. This snaps her out of it, as she realizes he's right, and decides to just arrest him for war crimes. And then Nox/Shadow Wing kills him anyway, to make him a martyr.
  • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Izuku runs away screaming from the tentacled shark-headed Kaiju spawn on Korusan Island, calling them monsters and batting them away without a second thought when they screech at him and attack him. But once he gets to safety, he realizes that not only are they trapped on the island due to their ability to swim, they would likely be slaughtered by humans if they were ever revealed to the world at large, much like his own plight as the only Kryptonian on an Earth that actively hates and hunts down aliens. He ends up going back to apologize for his actions and promises to leave them alone, allowing them to slink away harmlessly without a fight.
  • Oni Ga Shiku Series:
    • Akatani tells Izuku that the two of them are more similar than Izuku thinks because they're both quirkless people who want(ed) to be Heroes - and Akatani completely failed. In a later conversation he elaborates further in a "…And That Little Girl Was Me" way, saying that he "knew someone" just like Izuku who was given all the same choices as him, but picked the wrong one every time.
    • Izuku's status as a Composite Character of Kiryu and Majima is frequently commented on by several characters; Haruka tells him that he has inherited both their best and worst traits, and Akiyama sarcastically asks Izuku if he wants a grey suit commissioned (Kiryu's Iconic Outfit), commenting on their shared Chronic Hero Syndrome.
  • Reconciliator of Empire City has Cole pointing this out to Kitty as both of them worked under the shadows of an Evil Mentor and can't let go of their hatred of them.
  • Renamon Who? has Valmont admitting to Rika they're so alike. Both of them are rich, have a spoiled attitude. That second statement reminded him when he was once a kid and still has it as an adult. Neither of them treat their non-human partners right; as a result, they lose them. As much as Rika said she doesn't need Renamon and that she hates Digimon, Valmont shares those same feeling with Shendu. When Rika tries to deny those, she eventually realizes Valmont is right; she has become like him.
  • RWBY: Epic of Remnant: Salem claims she and Angra Mainyu are the same. Formerly innocent people who were screwed over and have a burning hatred of humanity and the gods.
  • SAPR: Sunset Shimmer has this line dropped on her multiple times over the course of the story with many people she ends up confronting. From bullies like Cardin to terrorists like Adam to reflections like Cinder, they all carry a piece of Sunset in them. This, of course, feeds back into Sunset's own character development as she slowly starts to realize that she's been a villain this whole time and didn't even notice it.
  • Shadows over Meridian (a Recursive Fanfiction to Kage above):
    • Caleb mentally notes that when Elyon is angry, he can see the family resemblance between her and Phobos.
    • Tynar, meanwhile, outright tells Elyon that her actions regarding Kage are no different from her brother's own acts.
    • Jade sympathizes with Miranda and Cedric because she herself was also mistreated both in the story and in her past.
    • When Tynar tries to talk Jade out of allying with Phobos, she tells him that he's like Raythor, except that he professes Undying Loyalty towards the Guardians and Elyon instead of Phobos. Tynar later admits she may be right.
    • Jade, upon witnessing Vera's descent into the madness of her vengeance, wonders if she could be becoming just as insane with her own vendetta against Elyon and the Guardians. After Vera starts the Prison Riot of Chapter 31 despite Jade deciding to spare her from a Fate Worse than Death, Jade berates herself for failing to see this coming despite her own history of refusing to give up in the face of impossible odds.
  • Similar Case: Vegeta admits that he isn't too different from Eas. Both of them are cold and stubborn, trying to prove their worthiness to their bosses, trying their best in defeating their rivals who are always stupid, grinning, and carefree, and losing their cool when they showed them to be better than themselves. After her battle with Cure Peach, she finally understands that she is not so different from him after all.
  • This And That: This is the reason why Angela takes in Powder inside of her Library instead of turning her away: the look on the latter's face, while she was in the middle of an emotional breakdown, was the same one she herself often wore while running Ayin's Script during her time at the Lobotomy Corporation.
  • Surprisingly, Steven Universe and Bill Cipher are fairly similar in A Triangle in the Stars. And both are very much aware of this: Bill, at one point, catches himself when thinking about it; Steven even muses over this in Chapter Thirty, considering the fact that at least one parent is dead. But there's more to this than ever thought... In Chapter Forty-Three, it comes up again, as a thought in Bill's mind, and that time he actually finishes it.
  • Under The Cerise Skies has a post Heel–Face Turn Blue Diamond compare the past actions of the Diamond Authority to those of Cauldron, observing that there are more similarities between them than either side might like.
  • In Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supergirl story The Vampire of Steel, Buffy remarks she and Supergirl aren't very different despite of her different abilities and areas of influence.
    Willow: Well, Supergirl ought to be safe from everything. Except maybe Kryptonite.
    Supergirl: No, Willow. Kryptonians are vulnerable to magic. If you performed the right spell, even you could hurt me.
    Willow: Then you mean, like... well... vampires...
    Supergirl: Yes, dear. Vampires can hurt me. The last time I met Buffy, they did, several times. But I go where the job takes me.
    Buffy: Sounds kind of like a Slayer.
  • The Supernovas of Mass Effect: After the Normandy Crew are left feeling betrayed by the Supernovas after discovering their true origins (they're cosmic vigilantes not native to their galaxy who were assigned to "re-do" the Mass Effect story to achieve a better outcome), the first one they begin to forgive is Cole MacGrath because they realize his situation is not too different from their's: he too was betrayed by a fellow Supernova (Ryan) that left him cut off from his home, considerably weakened, and placed under Kessler's thumb.
  • In the MLP and Dan Vs. crossover The Wheel and the Butterfly Saga Pinkie Pie eventually calls out Elise, for acting like she has any morale high ground over Dan, despite repeatedly showing she can be just as bad if not worse.
    Elise: Maybe my moral high ground is less a mountain and more a bathmat...
  • In When There Was a Tomorrow, Shepard and his crew can't help but see an uncomfortable number of parallels between The Illusive Man and Dr. Halsey, and several of his teammates seem to be losing respect for him for siding with her, maintaining loyalty only because Shepard thinks she's their only ticket home.
  • This Trope is Deconstructed in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Thousand Year Door when the villain tries it on Andy:
    Iris: Admit it... You liked that. People like you say things like 'I'm sorry it has to come to this' or 'it didn't have to end this way'. I've heard it so many times. But it's hard to believe them. I mean, come on... After all that's happened, weren't you so anxious to do that?
    Andy: Shut up.
    Iris: Seriously, you finally got your chance. Felt kind of good, huh? Seeing me hurt? Hearing me scream? Philosophers and philanthropists always say, Andy, that taking pleasure in the suffering of others is immoral... Would that mean that someone who does so is an immoral person?
    Andy: If killing you prevents innocent people from suffering, I have no problem with it. [Looks at his watch.] Now, I believe official tournament rules say that refusing to take your turn more than three minutes after your opponent ends his is grounds for disqualification, and I ended my turn about… Let's see… Forty seconds ago.
    Iris: [Hisses in reply as she does so.]
    Stan: Honestly, Iris. You watch too much television. That routine never works anymore.

Amphibia

  • A Theory of Butterflies and Other Insects:
    • Grime calls Marcy 'a fellow strategist', declaring that they're both cunning and ruthless, willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their respective goals.
    • During the fallout of A Plan of Poison, Fay declares that Anne's no different from the rest of Newtopia's corrupt nobility.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

  • In the The Saga of Avatar Korra, Mako states that he and Korra are rather similar due to how hard their pasts have been between him losing his parents and working for gangs while Korra was kidnapped by the terrorist group, the Red Lotus, when she was a child and separated from her parents.

Bleach

  • A Protector's Pride has Byakuya say this about Ichigo and Yamamoto despite their dislike of each other. Both will fight viciously for their beliefs, goals and True Companions. Byakuya however notes that this must hurt Yamamoto more since Ichigo might remind him of his younger self but years of compromise and dealing with the (corrupt and xenophobic) Central 46 made him Lawful Stupid whereas Ichigo didn't cave in despite Yamamoto acting like a Obstructive Bureaucrat to him.
  • Shirayuki remarks in The Snow Has Stopped The Rain that Ichigo and Zangetsu are frighteningly similar as they're both prone to being hot-headed and irritable. The fact that they simultaneously object to this comparison only reinforces it in her mind.
  • In Winter War, Urahara notes that he and Mayuri are really very similar in their desire for knowledge for its own sake, and that the only thing that keeps him from performing Mayuri's experiments is that, unlike Mayuri, he likes people and wants them to like him back.

Buffyverse

  • Xander explains to a shocked Faith in Priorities that every one of the Scoobies has either caused a human to die or at least didn't bother to save them. Xander body checked a zookeeper into a hyena enclosure, Buffy shoved the swim coach into the pen of his monsters, and all of them let Ford get eaten by vampires. So her killing the Deputy Mayor on accident wasn't nearly as big a deal as she thought it was.

Case Closed

  • Dominoes: Shinichi comes to see Ran and Yuusaku as far too similar. While Ran is horrified when Yuusaku turns overtly abusive, she enabled and went along with much of his monitoring and controlling, believing that that it was best to keep her boyfriend Locked Out of the Loop 'for his own good'. This transformed their relationship from the one bright spot in his life to something toxic, to the point where he actively dreaded spending time around Ran. Once he learns the Irregulars' secret identities, he declares that the two are practically one and the same; Ran simply displays more Condescending Compassion towards him.

Codename: Kids Next Door

  • In Operation: There Is No Operation KND Supreme Leader Numbuh 362 and Father are imprisoned together and Father uses the situation to deliver a mock-sympathizing Break Them by Talking about how a Supreme Leader is not so different from a parent.
    "But what do kids know of strain, anyway? They don't know a thing. They just play all the time. Even their work is play. Not like your work. Your work... is work. Isn't it?"

Danganronpa

  • Blackened Skies: Celeste plays this card during the first trial once it becomes clear that both she and Kaede lied to everyone about what they knew, mocking her rival's apparent hypocrisy in preaching about how they should all trust each other and work together while concealing vital information from them.
  • In Where Talent Goes to Die, Anzu Sugiura, the Ultimate Waitress, initially dislikes and distrusts Reiko Mitamura, the Ultimate Proofreader and the group's leader (although Sugiura is hesitant to outright admit it), since she's one of the few people who doesn't vote for Mitamura. While Sugiura's opinion of Mitamura never improves, especially not after Mitamura outs Sugiura as the Ultimate Poisoner and tries to frame her for a murder Mitamura committed, Sugiura ultimately realizes that they both put on a façade in order to fit in.

The DCU

  • Lex Luthor pulls this in The Man Who Sold The World: both he and the Hunter 'want' safety for the citizens, and won't falter against anything to achieve this, unlike the Justice League.

Death Note

  • In Depravare Kira and Righteous (Light and L) have always readily accepted this about each other and are offended when Near doesn't get it, he doesn't want to see Kira as anything but an evil mass murderer and his mentor as anything less than a saint.
  • Story of the Century and several of its companion 'shots hammers this point several times, particularly at the end when Original Character Erin tears L a new one before she leaves him.
    "You make me sick. Both of you. You're just like him. You call yourself justice...but all I see i-is a monster, a-a pathetic hypocritical brat who makes up whatever sounds good at the time so you always have an excuse to do whatever you want. You made that abundantly clear when we were messing with Yotsuba; I just made the mistake of thinking that you could move past that. This wasn't about saving anybody, this was just about satiating your fucking egos. I don't care if you're the world's greatest detective and I don't care if you've got your own goddamn screensaver; to me you're just one of the stupidest most over-glorified self-entitled bastards I'll ever meet! You and him! Fucking stupid bastards!"

Disney Animated Canon

  • Hope for the Heartless: After enduring numerous pranks from the chaotic and mischievous invisible servants of the Fates, the Horned King notes two traits he has in common with them: the Invisibles are deeply passionate about their work, like he had been about world domination; and like him, they have endless drive and ruthless determination to make something work, no matter how difficult that might be.

Dragon Age

  • Walking in Circles:
    • After spending over a year in the Ostwick Circle, Solas realizes that the people in this world are real and not so different from his people thousand years before.
    • In chapter 33, Evelyn points out to Solas that she and the mages that caused Wisdom's death isn't so different. Had she was in the same position of them: hungry, afraid, desperate, she'd probably resort to some magic she doesn't really understand to save herself too. And the only reason she didn't was because Solas was there to take care of her.
    • In the same chapter, after being called out by his lover, Solas realized that he maybe not so different from his fellow false gods after all. The Evanuris acted arrogantly because they saw themselves as gods, and Solas despite his insistence that he's different also has no problems acting like that when it suits him, easily killing people as if they aren't real.

Dragon Ball

  • The Warrior's Daughter: When Vegeta questions how she can feel sorry for the Androids, Bulla dryly points out they have been turned into weapons to fight in someone else's wars, right like the Saiyans were.

Dungeons & Dragons

  • Vow of Nudity: Gloria gives one to Spectra to justify organizing a purge against her own subjects, citing the many struggles she suffered being accepted as a hobgoblin princess in a human-dominated kingdom. It comes off hollow considering Spectra's background as a homeless orphan left her suffering much worse things than Gloria could ever dream of.

Final Fantasy

  • In The Fifth Act after Cloud is freed from Hojo and Jenova by Sephiroth and Genesis, Cloud is horrified when he realizes that he's extremely similar to his timeline's original Sephiroth.
    In that split second, he'd wondered what he'd do after he killed Sephiroth.
    His first thought had been to destroy ShinRa. Destroy the company that had drained the Planet, dropped the Plate on Sector 7, and made Sephiroth possible in the first place. Destroy the man who left his mother in Nibelheim to die.
    Except... once he'd been freed of Jenova's influence, he'd realised how familiar that line of thinking was.
    When he found out the truth of his origins...
    ...The first thing Sephiroth had done when he'd returned from the Lifestream was assassinate President ShinRa.
    He started to hate ShinRa.
    Revenge on ShinRa hadn't been enough. He turned his resentful eyes towards the Planet, and constructed fanciful notions that it was to be destroyed and made anew – that it was his birthright.
    Then after a while, he started to hate everything.

Grand Theft Auto

  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Grove Street 4 Life: After his exile to the country, CJ comments that the outlaw country playing on the only radio station he can find reminds him of old-school gangsta rap, in that it mostly consists of stories about tough men on the outskirts of society,doing what they have to do to survive. In spite of his own best efforts, he grudgingly admits to starting to like it.

Godzilla

  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Ichi more than once tells Vivienne that she's more like him than she admits, and her understanding of what it's like to be Ghidorah will only deepen and make her more like him now that she's a half-Ghidorah monster herself. Vivienne admits they're alike, but she also observes they're different, in that she will fight tooth and nail to avoid walking the same path Ghidorah did.

Harry Potter

  • In The Black Sheep Dog Series, Sirius considers himself the White Sheep of his otherwise bigoted blood-purist family, but many characters have pointed out how, despite his rebellion, he still shares a lot more in common with his relatives than he'd care to admit—driving home the Thicker Than Water message of the series.
    • Orion frequently remarks how much Sirius is like his mother, as both are hot-tempered and prone to dramatic outbursts when things don't go their way.
    • More than once, Walburga compares Sirius to his cousin Bellatrix due to to their wild and rebellious streak. They both refuse to be constrained by their Blue Blood circle's standards of proper conduct, and would rather fight to the point of death than be forced to do what they don't want to do. Collette later notices the same thing when she meets Bellatrix for the first time.
    • Although Sirius and Orion have completely opposite temperaments, they have surprisingly similar views about love, marriage and how to treat the fairer sex, as Lucretia and, later, Andromeda points out.
      Lucretia: I see you've not only grown to look like your father—you're almost as uptight.
  • In The Power To Vanquish The Dark Lord, Harry inadvertently does this when deliberately invoking Draco in Leather Pants by making a list of a certain someone's positive qualities and only those qualities:
    Harry: What do you think? If you knew just this about a person, what would you say they were like?
    Ron: Er... is it Hermione?
    Hermione: No, it's Voldemort.
  • In Wand, Knife and Silence Theodore Nott tried to pull this on Harry. Harry countered with the rejoinder that Nott killed for pleasure while he killed when there was no peaceful alternative.

Hazbin Hotel

  • I'll Never Smile Again revolves around Alastor's grief after Niffty is murdered. In Common Ground, he teams up with Vox in order to hunt down her killers, learning in the process that she was delibrately targeted. When he finally corners one of the culprits, they point out his own history of violence:
    Alastor: You killed her. Mercilessly and without purpose! Niffty was minding her own fucking business. She wasn't hurting anyone. And you took her from us. You took her from me!
    Scales: Hey dude. Weren't you like a serial killer? On earth, and in Hell? You took people all the time. Took fathers, brothers, and sons.
    (Alastor's eyes widen.)
    Scales: That's right. I know who you was, Alastor Thomas. Made a pretty big name for yourself up in N'awlins. Everybody knows about you. You killed over sixty men in a four year period. You don't think that maybe, just maybe, you put a gris gris on yourself? You don't think maybe that you had this coming to you?
    • Notably, while Alastor initially rejects this, he's significantly more shaken by the revelation that the other culprit was Scales' father, who completely breaks down and gives up fighting after seeing his son died again. This forces him to recognize that while he only targeted people he perceived as Asshole Victims, even they had loved ones of their own.

The Hunger Games

Invader Zim

Love Hina

  • In An Alternate Keitaro Urashima, Mutsumi fears that she's no better than Granny Hina, as both of them concealed the truth about Keitaro's 'Promise Girl' from him. When Keitaro finds out, he reassures her that You Are Better Than You Think You Are, pointing out that unlike Hina, she never actively railroaded him towards doing something he wanted no part of.
  • For His Own Sake:
    • Nagisa compares Keitaro to her old friend Takeru, noting how both were Extreme Doormats — Keitaro to Naru and the residents of the Hinata Inn, and Takeru towards Kagura. While Keitaro was able to assert himself and leave, however, Takeru ultimately wound up dead at Kagura's hands.
    • Kitsune's Heel Realization is solidified when she realizes just how similar she is to her Con Artist father.
    • After Naru, Mutsumi and Chisato get arrested, Granny Hina arrives to bail the first two out. She glares at the other, accusing her of being a bad influence who manipulated them to her own ends. Chisato scoffs, countering that Hina wasn't any better; she'd done the exact same with them.

Miraculous Ladybug

  • In After the Fall, Adrien reveals that his main reason for defending Lila and trying to help her is because he believes they've got far too much in common. Specifically, he thinks that both of them are lying about who they are in an effort to please and placate others. Nino disagrees.
  • BURN THE WITCH: Lila attempts to convince Marinette that they're more alike than she realizes in a mix of Breaking Speech and a play for sympathy. Marinette completely rejects her claims.
  • Feralnette AU:
    • Played With during the Enough Rope arc. When Hawkmoth finally manages to land one of his akumatizing butterflies on Marinette's bandages and attempts a Breaking Speech gloating about her being 'friendless', Marinette turns it right around on him, asking him what happened to Mayura and pointing out just how alone he is.
      Marinette: Calling me friendless, what a joke! Where's Mayura, Hawkmoth?! Where's your only friend in the whole world? Did you think no one would notice how sick Mayura was? How weak? How frail? Supposedly I'm the friendless one, but I'm not the one destroying my loved ones.
    • When Kagami catches Alya stealing a gift out of Marinette's locker in order to "helpfully" deliver it to Adrien, wrongly assuming that it's meant for him, she notes how both of them have a bad tendency to assume that Marinette needs them to help her out. But while Kagami is learning to better gauge where her help is actually necessary, Alya keeps making faulty assumptions and strong-arming her way along, straining her already fractured friendship with Marinette even further.
  • LadyBugOut:
    • When Alya responds to others criticizing her actions by making personal attacks, Chloé laughs that it "Looks like I might have competition" in regards to being the biggest bully in their class. Alya does not appreciate the comparision.
    • After learning just how obsessed Chat Noir is with making Ladybug his own, Marinette questions whether her own pursuit of Adrien was reaching that same level. Unlike Chat, she immediately starts correcting her behavior, and eventually realizes she was Loving a Shadow.
  • lies of attrition: Kagami remarks to Marinette that keeping Adrien in the dark about the true circumstances of his father's Heroic Sacrifice puts her in a position of power and control over him that makes her similar to Gabriel. Marinette does not take this well.
  • When Alya confronts Lila in Missing, Lila expresses false sympathy for Marinette, talking about how she tried so hard to be a good, helpful friend. She then declares that both she and Alya understand that kindness doesn't get you anywhere in this world — after all, Alya immediately abandoned her 'bestie' once she thought Lila had something she wanted, didn't she? Much like how Lila herself manipulates everyone else to her own ends.
  • In Lenore Raven's Murder Mystery, Alix remarks that Marinette is "becoming the new Chloé", claiming that the fact she doesn't like Lila makes her a horrible, self-centered Spoiled Brat. Her assessment of Marinette's character is completely wrong, but she blows off her protest with "And dismissing what anyone says about you if it's not praise."
  • The Wolves in the Woods, Lila offers a Downplayed version when she compares Marinette's former infatuation with Adrien to her own. Specifically, she points out that Marinette was Loving a Shadow, enamored with the boy she thought Adrien was, while Lila was focused on his good looks and connections. Over time, however, both of them realized that he wasn't as good as they'd initially believed.

My Hero Academia

  • Apex Predator:
    • After observing that Hawks talks about making friends in the same fashion that Shouto does, Izuku compares the two and asks the Pro Hero point-blank if he comes from a similiarly Friendless Background.
    • Hawks frequently compares Izuku to Principal Nedzu, even calling him "mini-Nedzu" due to his tendency to see through lies and fish for information, along with the terrifying grin he can sport at times. Shouto not only agrees with his assessment, he wonders if it's possible for the two to be related.
  • Apotheosis:
    • After learning how Toshinori's Quirk works, Aizawa mockingly compares him to All For One; both put themselves on a pedestal looking down at others, deciding who fits their personal qualifications for what makes somebody "worthy" of being granted a Quirk. Toshinori is understandably rather upset.
    • When All Might attempts to forge a Commonality Connection with Midoriya by claiming that he understands his actions and frustrations since he was Quirkless himself, Izuku shoots back that if that were true, he wouldn't have denied him the chance to become a hero.
  • Dekiru: The Fusion Hero!: Principal Nedzu and Mt. Lady both remark on how Todoroki's attitude towards Midoriya reminds them of his father, Endeavor.
  • The Emancipators: Once Shouto opens up to him and reveals his father's cruel nature, Izuku is immediately struck by the hateful expression he's sporting... and how much it matches his own whenever he's thinking about Bakugou.
  • In Kamino's Ward, All-Might is horrified that his idol, Captain Kamino, was really a Child Soldier named Izuku Midoriya from when Quirks first emerged. His friend Tsukauchi points out that the Hero Industry begins training heroes like All-Might at age 15 in Hero Schools.
  • Mastermind: Strategist for Hire:
    • Over time, comments made by Dabi and Shouto cause Hawks to realize that he also grew up in an abusive home, groomed to become a Pro Hero without any regard for what he wanted to do.
    • In Rise of Anarchy, Ragdoll is disgusted to realize that her Quirklessness makes her like Mastermind. All the more so due to her growing desperation to prove to the world that she's not useless now that she's powerless.
  • In Null and Void (NevaraRaven), Izuku helps his team empathize with Himiko Toga — a former member of the League of Villains — by drawing direct comparisons between her and Momo Yaoyorozu; both have quirks that require regular feedings to function properly. Both have received insufficient care to compensate for their quirks, but while Momo is rich and has been able to survive on the minimum (her quirk requiring her to have a highly calorie intake), Himiko came from a lower-middle class family and her quirk being inherently scary (needing regular intake of human blood) resulted in her family not providing for her needs, causing her to develop a psychopathic disposition. If Momo's living conditions were less than ideal, she would have ended up just like Himiko.
  • In Walk a Mile in Another's Shoes, All for One uses this to try to win Izuku to his side, even opening up about his own abusive father.
  • When Izuku asks Shouto about Bakugou in Witness (Good Neighbors), wanting to learn how his former friend was doing, Shouto finds himself mentally comparing his former classmate to his father: both are powerful and highly ambitious. This leads him to wonder whether Endeavor used to act like Cluster Bomb did, before becoming bitter over his failure to live up to his own promise. Struggling to find a way to say something nice about Bakugou, he ends up falling back upon something he uses to describe his father: "He was skilled in combat."
  • In Yesterday Upon The Stair Chapter 55, after Izuku chews out Nighteye over the latter's faulty assumption that the former's Quirk means he doesn't care about death, he says that he sought internship with the latter out of the belief that both their Quirks let them know things that others wouldn't and that Nighteye would thus understand what he's going through.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

  • In All-American Girl (Shinzakura), despite being raised as a human and not a pony, DJ clearly shares a temper and obstinacy with her biological mother Rarity that is all too-well noted by just about everyone/everypony who knows either of them.
  • Bad Future Crusaders:
  • In Bride of Discord Luna has a bit of an epiphany, after seeing Discord seemingly show true genuine compassion towards Fluttershy during their "date" in the Everfree, where she says in confusion that a creature like him could never change...
  • In Chains, an Alternate Universe, Nightmare Moon remarks that Princess Celestia cannot claim moral superiority to her when she endorses slavery.
  • In Diaries of a Madman, Celestia discusses this with Navarone, when she compares his growing darkness to the path Arachne went down, as well as her own experiences. She also notes that as much as he likes to pretend otherwise, as a human he does have more in common with ponies than he'd like to admit.
  • Echoing Silence: Sombra comes to realize that he's similar to Diadem/Twilight, after he finds out how they suffered a "betrayal like no other", her by Celestia and her friends, and him with his former Queen, Ametrine Crystal. Unlike "A Somber Meeting", however, Diadem/Twilight actually ends up agreeing with him. But unlike Twilight, who just ended up banished, Sombra murdered Ametrine and took her place.
  • Hit and Hug has Rainbow Dash admitting that she's not too different from Fluttershy since both of them are arrogant and realize the error of their ways to make amends with their friends.
  • In Just Before the Dawn, this is one of the things Celestia and Tercio manage to bond over. More specifically, the feeling of "being a stranger in their own land" as Celestia puts it.
  • Racer and the Geek has a moment when Telny, a veteran, realizes that he's not that much different than Goggles, a greenhorn.
  • Rainbooms and Royalty: Just before the Final Battle, as part of her pitch, Nightmare Moon pulls this on Rainbow Dash, saying that she knows what it's like to have one's self and achievements overlooked in favor of another. Dash, however, doesn't buy it.
  • The fancomic "A Somber Meeting" has King Sombra try and make a typical "not so different" speech, but is cut off by Twilight before he could start when she realizes what he's attempting to do, having "read this bit a hundred times in a hundred stories". She then turns it around on Sombra, delivering a "We are nothing alike" speech. Sadly, he wound up one-upping her, when she resorted to using dark magic to save herself, after he tried to kill her.
  • We Can't All Be Friends has Twilight trying to convince Starlight Glimmer that she can redeem herself, only for Starlight to reject every attempt. This forces Twilight to cast a spell that permanently strips Starlight of all her magical abilities in order to stop her from destroying Equestria. In the aftermath, Twilight tries yet again to appeal to Starlight, stating that she did what was necessary, much like how Starlight thought she was in the right. Starlight blows her off one final time, smashing the food she'd brought her against the wall.
  • In Why Am I Crying?, Miss Cheerilee tells Scootaloo that she and Diamond Tiara have several things in common. They both lost their mothers at a young age, have hard-working fathers who have little time to spend with them, and hold grudges against their opposite social classes, but they're both strong-willed and have loyal friends to support them; the difference is that, while Diamond dealt with her pain by lashing out at others, Scootaloo bottles her emotions in.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

  • In Through the Looking Glass, when he sees the outburst from the Katarina from the game universe, the Isekai Prince Alan tells the others that her reaction mirrored his younger self. Both of them felt that their efforts weren't good enough, especially when compared to the more favored counterpart (Alan with Gerald, and Game!Katarina to Isekai!Katarina), leading to them lashing out at others in frustration. While the Alan of the Light Novel timeline had Katarina to help him out of his Inferiority Superiority Complex, the Katarina from Fortune Lover had no one in her world.

Naruto

  • In Dead Last Blossom, Sakuya Haruno is quiet and prefers a professional relationship with his teammates Naruto and Sasuke, and on occasion will try to complete missions on his own without telling the others. It's after Obito stops Kakashi from showing his dislike towards Sakuya (springing from detecting the boy as a stress factor towards Naruto) that the former realize Sakuya is just how Kakashi was as a child.
  • Inverted in Glass Marionette: Kankuro compares himself and his situation to one of his adversaries, revealing to them how he has memories of the original series — something he knows would likely get him labeled insane if anybody else knew about them.
    Kankuro: Even if it's madness, though, it's the truth. And you'd know plenty about the overlap of truth and madness, wouldn't you, Uchiha Obito?
  • In the oneshot story Like Me, it is Orochimaru who tells Sakura and others that Naruto is more like him than anyone could think of. People scoff it off at first but as he goes on into details, it becomes startling clear that Naruto is similar to him.
  • Naru-Hina Chronicles: In Chapter 123, Miho makes a speech to Kei about how similar they are despite their differences:
    Miho: We couldn't be anymore different from each other, but lately, I realized we are more alike, than I ever thought we could be. Our lives may have been different, but we both desired the same thing. We both sought to be recognized. The two of us wanted to become shinobi to prove to our families and the world just how strong we are. I'm sure you've noticed it too, when it came to the thugs we've taken on, during missions. Always letting their guards down and calling us weak, and for what? Being women?

Neon Genesis Evangelion

  • Advice and Trust:
    • At the beginning of the story Shinji and Asuka realize they are alike. Since that point, when they are trying to understand each other, each one of them thinks "He/she is just like me. How would I feel in that situation?"
    • When Asuka fell into the Leliel otherdimensional trap, Shinji acted incredibly cool and unemotional as she was missing. Misato thought he looked just like his father.
    • In chapter 7 Kaji is arguing with Shinji and Asuka. During that discussion Shinji looked so cold and his stare so harsh and firm that Kaji could not help to think of how much Shinji resembled his father.
  • The Child of Love:
    • In chapter 5 Ritsuko unthinkingly compares Asuka with her mother when she mentions Asuka almost did the same thing than Kyoko: killing herself and taking her daughter with her.
    • In that same chapter Shinji and Asuka open up and talk and realize they have more things in common than they thought:
      Asuka: O-I mean...you're speaking with confidence... you're so shy, usually. I think I'm like this because I trust you and I feel that I can put my trust in you. You're like a confidante.
      Shinji: I...it's the same for me. We've got a lot in common, don't we?
      Asuka: You try to avoid pain by running away from people. I try to avoid pain by driving them away. But in the end, we just hurt ourselves more. Aren't we pathetic, Shin-chan?
    • Later Shinji fears he will become another Gendo because he realizes he is not so different of his father.
  • A Crown of Stars: Shinji got pointed out to him that he and his father are more alike than he would want to admit: both were willing to end up the world for a woman. Gradually Shinji has to admit regretfully that it's true.
  • Doing It Right This Time: During the extended flashback in Chapter 3, Kaworu alludes to passing over his own personal Despair Event Horizon and going out to set off Third Impact and wipe out all life on Earth. The circumstances were somewhat different, but the parallel is noticeable enough that Shinji feels a bit of sympathy for Kaworu despite the bad blood between them.
  • Evangelion 303: After Shinji has told her about his childhood, his mother’s death, his uneasy relationship with his father and his father’s lover and how little he likes being around Dr. Akagi, Asuka reflects that they are not very different:
    Asuka: We're not that different after all.
  • In Ghosts of Evangelion Shinji is afraid of his child, right like his father was afraid of him. When he feels tempted to run from his daughter, Asuka bluntly says she will not allow him become a copy of his father. Several years later, he meets Gendo again and Shinji admits that being a father is frightening.
    "We have a daughter, she and I. She'll be three years old in a few weeks."
    "I see," Gendo said. His voice betrayed no emotion.
    "She's..." Shinji paused, then looked at his father and said, "I never knew they could be so frightening. Children, I mean."
    Gendo's eyes widened a fraction. He held his son's gaze for several moments, then looked away. "Yes," he said, nodding.
  • Several examples in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide:
    • During an argument in chapter 8, Shinji and Asuka realize that they're not different at all.
    • A secondary character points out that Kluge hates Gendo Ikari, but they're so alike than they could have been brothers.
    • The final chapter sees Rei trying this on the Big Bad, the Emerald Tablet, attempting to make it realize that they have common ground in both being creations born of science who are imbued with the ability to feel human emotions and form bonds with other beings. But where Rei sees the ability to experience emotion as a gift that enriches her existence, the Tablet sees it as a taint upon its being as it has massive god complex and perceives itself as a supreme and purely logical being, and so it lashes out in anger against Rei for daring to imply that it has emotions. The moment brings Rei to the rather bitter realization that despite their similarities, the Tablet is inherent inherently too insane and alien in its way of thinking to be reasoned with.
  • Orchestrating the Silence: Shinji admits he needs Asuka's presence because he has realized the two of them are birds of a feather who simply reacted differently to similar traumatic experiences.
    "I... really like having you around," he admits. "I was going crazy without you, you know."
    I know how that is. "Yeah, but... why me? Why Asuka?"
    [...]"We're the same," he explains; his voice is so soft I can barely hear it. "We just went in opposite directions."
    After a moment I nod. I'll believe that.
  • Scar Tissue:
    • Shinji and Asuka. It is pointed out several times for several characters:
      • During a fight Shinji shouted to Asuka that she was right like him.
      • In chapter 5 Asuka thought that he was right, they were the same.
    • A much darker example when Asuka saw Shinji naked, collapsed over the floor and spitting blood because of her, and she imagined in her mind the MP-Evas grinning and telling: "You see, we're not that different, you and meeee…"
  • The Second Try:
    • In the last scene Shinji admits he finally understands his father a bit, since when he thought Asuka was dead he almost started the Instrumentality right on the spot. And he would have done if Asuka would have not reached him in time.
    • Kaworu taunts Asuka stating maybe she knows him better than she admits.
    • In the sequel Aki-chan's Life: Aki meets a girl called Ririko who is prone to get angry and hold grudges. Later Asuka meets Ririko's overbearing and strict mother and gets pretty irritated at the woman's attitude. Then Ririko tells that her mother is like that because if they are not the best nobody will respect them... In other words, they have the same mindset Asuka had been fed with since she was a little child. Upon hearing it, Asuka got frozen in the spot.

Omen IV: The Awakening

  • Always Visible: It is implied that Inspector Galbraith and criminal Jordan Thurlow are essentially not much different from each other, mainly because they both have affection for Delia and consider her an ideal.

One Piece

  • In This Bites!: Played for Laughs in the Skypia arc, where the Strawhats note that Aisa is a small and bratty but loyal companion to the Shandarians just as Soundbite and Su are to Cross and Conis respectively. While Soundbite and Su are happy to the comparison, Aisa rejects being called an "animal companion", and it gives Kamakiri doubts of allying with the Strawhats.

The Owl House

  • In How To Tame Your Demon Beast, Luz quietly comments she might have a lot in common with Caleb Wittebane as she explores the man's memories of leaving for the Demon Realm because he couldn't stand the suffocating pressure to conform in Gravesfield, accidentally hurting his only blood relative's feelings by dumping Philip with the assumption that everything would be fine for him, just like Luz ran away from home after assuming her mother didn't care for her eccentricity.

Persona

  • Ace In The Hole:
    • Rise points out that much like the Phantom Thieves, the Investigation Team wasn't exactly following the rules of law during their adventures.
    • After Akechi reveals that they're actually cousins, Ken wonders if the two of them are more alike than he wants to admit to himself. Makoto and the others convince him otherwise, but they still get into a massive argument with Akechi about this in Chapter 48.
  • In The Delinquent and His Lover, Makoto tries to convince Akira to help her get Tsukasa off her back.
    Makoto: We're the same, you and me.
    Akira: Oh yeah? How so?
    Makoto: We've both had labels thrust upon us that neither of us wanted.
    Akira: Maybe so. But your honor student label will only help your future, whereas mine has already been decided for me.

Pokémon

  • Borne of Caution: In Act 2, Chapter 14, Ninetales and Corvi have this after the latter comes clean about his Dark and Troubled Past, and he realizes that for the first time, he's facing someone who can fully understand his fear of it happening again: not because it has happened to her, but because due to her much longer lifespan, it inevitably will. For her part, it's the primary reason that she forgives him for abandoning Lee.
    Corvi: It's almost like looking into a distorted mirror...
    Ninetales: I suppose it is...
    (Beat)
    Ninetales: I swore I would endure the pain of parting when the time came, but now? Does it get easier as time goes by?
    Corvi: No. You merely forget sometimes.
    Ninetales: Ah...
  • In Celadon's New Blossom, Ash bonds with Sabrina over their similar pasts. Prior to becoming a trainer, Ash never got along with other kids and was frequently bullied due to the fact he never knew his father. As a child, Sabrina was bullied and ostracized for having psychic powers. While Ash ignored the bullying and moved along with his life, Sabrina began shutting out everyone and developed a Creepy Child Split Personality to cope with her issues. Ash realizes that Sabrina just wants a friend and starts hanging out with her.
  • Pokémon Reset Bloodlines:
    • In Chapter 23, Ash questions Belladonna's motives to raid the Gringy City Power Plant, after learning she's trying to murder Tokiomi Borealis for betraying his daughter Aurora (Belladonna's girlfriend). Belladonna counters by asking Ash if he's ever felt an uncontrollable rage over someone hurting a loved one and a desire to punish them. Ash realizes that he felt it before when Paul ended up blasting Ash's Primeape into the air, possibly killing him, and she realizes he knows the kind of pain she's talking about.
    • An even bigger one happens in Chapter 44. To finally get Mewtwo to give up his genocidal rampage, Ash lets the artificial Pokémon to peer into his mind and see his memories of his past life in the erased timeline. This lets Mewtwo see that Ash understands the pain of suffering a loss that cannot be reversed (as he did with Amber) and hits the last nail to trigger his Heel–Face Turn.

Portal

  • In Test Of Humanity, GLaDOS uses this to torture Wheatley by telling them they're no different from one another.
    "Oh, but it's true. Face it, moron core, you are nothing but a cold, heartless, sadistic, unloving machine. Just like me. You may look human. You may sound human. You may act human. But that's only because I wanted to see how long a robot could live a lie. You're more like Hal than you want to admit. You're more like me than you want to a-"

RWBY

A Song of Ice and Fire

  • Purple Days: When Joffrey faces Ramsay Bolton, caught trying to rape a mute Handmaiden, Ramsay tries to claim she invited him into her tent and dismisses the testimony of the guardsman who caught him as that of a spurned lover. Joffrey calls him out on it, because he can see what he used to be in Ramsay: a selfish monster used to having his way over the others.

Sonic the Hedgehog

  • Little Hands, Big Attitude: Shadow says that perhaps he and Sonic are more similar than he thought after Sonic tells him how he lost Longclaw - his only family at that point - to power-hungry enemies who wanted to use him, as it is very similar to how the army raided the ARK and killed Shadow's sister Maria to get to him.

Total Drama

  • A BFG's World Tour: Ironically, it's Sierra making the same false NSDR comment Courtney made in canon comparing Gwen to Heather that triggers the latter's Heel Realization.
    Courtney: Everyone hated Heather for the way she acted back on Wawanakwa, that she was manipulative, cold and calculating, but she played it off as just playing the game. Then when I got home after season 2, people started saying the same things about me and... and I said I was just playing the game, exactly the same as Heather. I... I don't want to be like her. I don't want everyone to hate me like that, and I never did. Maybe if I wasn't like her... maybe everything between me and Duncan could've been better. [...] It's just not fair to me that other people are okay with losing and screwing up, it makes me feel selfish for being so upset over it, so I get in this habit of raging like that, and before I knew it... I ended up letting myself become the New Heather. The real one.
  • For Want of a Mohawk: While watching Eziekiel make a fool out of himself with his new rapper persona, Beth realizes it's no different from the way she's tried to please Heather.
    Beth had dealt with guys like Eziekiel before back at home, the sort that blithely repeated the ignorance which had been passed down to them through generations. By those standards, he was a rather tame example. Though it seemed so long ago since they first came to the island, she vividly recalled everything said back then. Sure he believed that girls weren't as strong or as smart as guys, and she wouldn't hear any of that, but he also wanted to protect the girls on the island. That put him a cut above the sorts she met who also believed women to be stupid and weak, and used it to justify all sorts of scummy behavior for their own gain. Beth's parents had done a great deal to keep men like that out of her life, but in a small town full of hicks they were never far.
    That just made it all the more frustrating to her that he was acting like this. Because if he was malicious and stupid, it would be easy to just ignore him. Instead, she was forced to watch him flounder trying to be something he clearly wasn't. He spouted off hip catch phrases that he had no clue the meaning of, which were used by the sorts of people he'd never even seen before much less interacted with. And behind it all, that desperation for approval was so transparent that even Beth could see it in every move he made.
    Then something clicked, and from that thought was born an epiphany. Was that what she looked like, whenever she was trying to act preppy and popular around Heather?
  • She's Not So Famous: After Chris vents to her about getting bullied, Millie realizes that they have more in common than she thought. However, when she tells him as much, he laughs off the fact she, an intern, would compare herself to a celebrity.
    "Even though he’s nearly a foot shorter than me and wears more product than I could ever afford, Chris’s story sounds eerily familiar. He has pubescent boys calling him gay, I have a drunk cameraman calling me a fatass pig (hello, bi-weekly cardio, remember?). He has frat boys pouring an energy drink on his hair before faking brotherhood for the teen rags, I have an anchor spilling lukewarm coffee on my new sweater before faking a smile for the camera. And we’re both hiding in this room clinging to what little power we have."

Turning Red

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