Not So Different Remark / Literature

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• In Douglas Hulick's Among Thieves, Drothe, the main character, is captured and held at daggerpoint by a Sash (the Emperor's elite guards). In a (successful) attempt to anger her enough to let her guard down so he can escape, he tells her that her cunning in capturing him reminds him greatly of the sort of scheming his criminal friends might employ, and that if she ever tires of her life as a Sash, he could probably get her a job in his organization.
• Animorphs:
  • Nearly every 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.
  • In "The Message" Cassie feels that it's wrong to morph a dolphin - an animal that's intelligent. She raises the question of how morphing is different then what the Yeerks do.
    "It will be strange morphing something so intelligent," Rachel said.
    "Yes," I agreed. "Strange, and...wrong, somehow." I felt a twisting in my stomach. "How is doing this any different than what the Yeerks do?"
    Rachel looked surprised. "Yeerks take over humans," she said. "Besides, they don't morph, they infest. We don't take over the actual animal, we just copy his DNA pattern, create a totally new animal, and then - "
    "And then control the new animal," I said.
    "It's not the same," Rachel insisted. But she looked troubled.
    "It's something I'll have to think about," I said. "It's kind of been bothering me."
• At the Mountains of Madness: While the main character is at first terrified by the Elder Things, he eventually comes around to admitting that they were simply scientists, just like him. Even the elder thing that killed several of his fellow scientists, the narrator admits, reacted just like anyone else would in that situation.
• In Black Legion, after Mind Raping Telemachon into doing his will, Khayon realizes that this makes him just like Ahriman, who did this to nearly half of the Thousand Sons, turning them into Rubrics. As Khayon was the lead opponent of the Rubric curse, this makes him more than a bit disturbed.
• The Bone Maker: The Evil Sorcerer Eklor insists that he and the protagonist Kreya are alike because they were both driven to forbidden magic by the death of a loved one. She's equally insistent that his mass-murder, Revenge by Proxy, and abdication of personal responsibility set him apart.
• Ratha of The Book of the Named bit and crippled her cub, Thistle-chaser. Years later, Thistle-chaser comes back for revenge against Ratha. A small cub tries to defend her, and Thistle-chaser knocks it out of the way. Ratha tells Thistle-chaser that she is no different than herself, since Thistle-chaser got between her and her true target.
• In Allison Croggon's fantasy series, the Books of Pellinor, the main character Mearad is constantly wondering whether she is good or evil at heart because of the similarities between her and the Big Bad, Sharma — The Nameless One.
• Bruce Coville's Book of... Aliens: The alien narrator of the poem Just Like You claims this of himself and humans.
• Very subtly in Card Force Infection — when explaining why he made Fletcher wager his entire deck as stakes for a duel, Maxwell says he had to act decisively because "people like us don't just give up easily".
• In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "The Slithering Shadow", Thalis tries this on Conan: letting Thog wander and take people is not so different from Human Sacrifice. Since neither Conan's nor his companion Natala's people practice human sacrifice, they are not convinced.
• Zhi Zhong in the Conqueror books occasionally catches himself admiring Genghis Khan's ambition and tactical prowess, comparing his enemy to himself. Jelaudin later ponders on how his father used tactics very similar to Genghis in his own wars.
• Darcy And Gran Dont Like Babies: When Darcy tells her mother that she doesn't like the baby, her response is that "a long time ago", she was just like him.
• R A Salvatore's The Dark Elf Trilogy: Drizzt Do'Urden is not so different from villain Artemis Entreri. This is pointed out by Drizzt's Love Interest Cattie-Brie, and as the series continues Artemis becomes more and more sympathetic; pointing this out to him may be a bad idea, however.
• In Darkness at Noon, Ivanov tells Rubashov that their positions could easily have been reversed, and Rubashov admits to himself that, because they shared the same philosophy, if he had been interrogating Ivanov he would have brought the same arguments against him. This is one likely reason why Ivanov is also arrested and shot.
• In C.S. Goto's Dawn of War trilogy, Ahriman says this to Gabriel, who looks at the corpses and declares they are nothing alike because he searches for knowledge only in the Emperor's service.
• In the Andrew Vachss Burke book Dead and Gone, the Big Bad tries to pull this on Burke. Burke concedes a few points but it ultimately doesn't dissuade him.
• In Dinner at Deviant's Palace the villain suggests this to the hero near the end, that they're both basically selfish and only interested in other people for what can be taken from them, while offering him a We Can Rule Together. The hero has gained enough self-awareness during his quest to calmly admit that the villain has a point, but also to know that the quest has changed him and that although he may not be much different, it's enough to matter.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld:
  • Near the end of Witches Abroad, Granny Weatherwax gives a "Not So Different" Remark to 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 Catchphrase "If you ain't got respect, you ain't got nothing." Granny gives the audience a hint of her potential evil side when Lily states that she was doing a needed duty, and Granny is extremely upset that Lily apparently didn't have any fun being evil.
  • Subverted in Small Gods, when Brutha momentarily raises his hand as if to slap Vorbis, who calmly turns his cheek to receive the blow. Brutha hesitates, then lowers his hand, and says "I'm not like you". This really makes Vorbis — a Knight Templar who's been smugly regarding himself as a Messianic Archetype for years, and just got outclassed — pissed off.
  • In Night Watch Vimes recognises Carcer as what he might have become with a different upbringing.
  • William de Worde in The Truth hates his speciesist, arrogant, self-regarding father ... and while he's not speciesist, he has a tendency towards the other traits. In their final confrontation, Lord de Worde's parting shot is "You are most certainly a de Worde."
• The Dresden Files:
  • Death Masks, Ortega offers to turn Dresden into a vampire rather than kill him in a duel, claiming they are not so different. Dresden fishes until he establishes that Ortega preys on children and cites it as a difference.
  • At one point another villain, Nicodemus, actually says "We are not so very different, you and I..." to Harry. That said, Harry's response on how they aren't is pretty accurate.
  • Back in Fool Moon, after Harry holds Denton at gunpoint and talks with him for a while, he points out that what the FBI agent was doing made him just like Marcone, who he was supposedly fighting.
• Ellen and Otis: In Otis Spofford, when the class does a science experiment on two rats about a healthy diet, feeding one rat healthy food and the other white bread and soda pop. The rat with the unhealthy food looks so miserable that Otis and Ellen, independently, start sneaking him real food. They're both astonished when they realize — Otis thought Ellen wouldn't care about a rat, and Ellen thought Otis wouldn't care at all.
• The Empirium Trilogy: After capturing Obritsa and torturing Artem, Corien states that he and Obritsa are both motivated by the love they each have for their people.
• 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 John C. Wright's The Golden Transcendence, the Silent Oecume agents try this on Phaethon who sees through it. (They complain that AI's don't obey orders. Phaethon wonders why they didn't just fire them and hire new ones — and knows it's because they enslaved them.) Both Phaethon and Helion have this reaction more than once to Atkins, which neither finds entirely pleasant, but they have to admit it's accurate.
• In Brian Daley's Han Solo at Star's End, Torm uses this excuse when trying to bargain with Han for his life. Han expresses his disagreement with him.
• Harry Potter
  • Upon meeting Harry face-to-face in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the piece of Tom Riddle (aka Voldemort) in the diary remarks on how similar the two are in appearances, backstory, and talent for rule-breaking. Both Harry and Dumbledore acknowledge that Voldy isn't exactly wrong; however, this is quickly followed by Dumbledore highlighting how the two are also Not So Similar, as unlike Voldy, Harry chooses to be a good person.
  • This trope is very nearly mentioned by name in Deathly Hallows, when Harry finally sees all of the parallels between himself, Voldemort, and Severus Snape. The similarities get some explanation when it turns out that Harry has had a piece of Lord Voldemort's soul resident inside his body ever since he was a year old.
  • Harry is surprised Umbridge is not a Death Eater in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Though as put plainly by Harry, "she's foul enough to be one". Fittingly she happily indulges in her newfound power in the Death Eater-led Ministry after Voldemort has installed a puppet regime that carries out the prosecution of muggle-born wizards.
• In A Hole in the Fence, the town's kids are constantly trying to sneak into the Forbidden Zone to discover its secrets, to the point that the town's police is getting sick of their antics. During a private conversation, though, brigadier Beauras and his men agree that, even though they are getting sick of catching and shoving them out, Grisón and his schoolmates are just regular, nosy kids who cannot stop themselves from getting into mischief and pulling off the same kind of stunts which Beauras did when he was twelve.
• Holmes on the Range: Two such comments are made in Hunters of the Dead.
  • While Old Red is willing to concede that shady fossil hunter Walter Glaze was an Asshole Victim, he admits that he could emphasize with Glaze in that they were both talented members of their professions who struggled to get people to take them seriously due to being self-taught and a little rough behind the edges.
  • Shoshone Mook Doyadukubichi comments that he only hangs out with and helps a group of white gunmen because blending in with them is the only way for a tough adult Native American to "stay off the reservation without getting shot for it" and comments that Eskaminzim (the half-Apache detective working for the Double-A Western Detective Agency) should be able to understand that.
• Inheritance Cycle:
  • Murtagh pulls this on Eragon at the end of Eldest. The only thing Eragon can come up with to refute this assertion is along the lines of "I don't have scars on my back."
  • In Brisingr, Eragon occasionally notes how he needs to hold off on actions that would make him like Galbatorix.
  • Almost invoked in Inheritance. Eragon's reason for leaving Alagaësia? He feels he's become too powerful and would end up becoming just like Galbatorix.
• The Invisible Detective: The present-day plot of Killing Time features a crew of zombie pirates who died in a shipwreck going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. However, contrary to initial impressions, they aren't after the descendants of the villagers who deliberately wrecked their ship to claim the salvage, with the captain saying that "they had as much right to trick us onto the rocks as we had to attack merchantmen and raid coastal ports."^note Their real target is a Really 700 Years Old surviving pirate who betrayed his friends (although he argues he had justification) and stole a treasure that included the mystic watch that has kept him alive and could have saved the others
• Joel Suzuki: In Secret of the Songshell, Felicity asks Marshall Byle, "What about all the people you'll be hurting? Don't you care about that?" He replies that empathy is a foreign concept for him, just like it is for her. Felicity screams "I'm nothing like you!" because although she feels little empathy, she at least has morals.
• In Let the Right One In Eli and Oskar have a conversation over this. Eli reminds Oskar the very first thing he/she heard say was Oskar rehearsing potentially murdering his bullies. Oskar defends by saying he actually isn't a murderer but Eli has him admit he would if he could in order to get even. Eli however sees it as he/she has to murder to survive as he/she wants to live. He/she asks him to "be me a little" in a both literal and metaphorical moment where she shows him memories of how this started. In the end both clearly get on the same page to be a couple.
• The Lord of the Rings:
  • At his Last Stand, young and humble Pippin finds that he also would want to die with his True Companions, understanding why old and prideful Denethor intended to pull a Pater Familicide:
    Pippin had bowed crushed with horror when he heard Gandalf reject the terms and doom Frodo to the torment of the Tower; but he had mastered himself, and now he stood beside Beregond in the front rank of Gondor with Imrahil's men. For it seemed best to him to die soon and leave the bitter story of his life, since all was in ruin.
    "I wish Merry was here," he heard himself saying, and quick thoughts raced through his mind, even as he watched the enemy come charging to the assault. "Well, well, now at any rate I understand poor Denethor a little better. We might die together, Merry and I, and since die we must, why not?"
  • Galadriel explicitly compares herself to Sauron; a powerful being who proudly rejected the Valar's invitation to the Undying Lands, and desires to preserve their realm and power against the slow changes of the world.
• A Master of Djinn: Fatma meets some expatriate African-American musicians in Cairo, and they comment on how while they're treated well as foreigners, local dark-skinned Egyptians (including the Nubians, black people like them) definitely aren't. Haida later notes this too after Siti (a Nubian) faces gross racism by a rich Arab Egyptian woman, along with Fatma (whom she thinks has some Nubian ancestry as well), having previously lived in the US.
• In Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, this type of realization by The Hero, Simon, provides the means to foil the Big Bad Storm King's plot to return to Osten Ard via Demonic Possession. It's rather a tame case, though, as Simon is nowhere near becoming an Omnicidal Maniac.
  Simon: I have hated too. We are the same, he and I. "I'm sorry. You should not have suffered so."
• Nightfall (Series): To Myra's horror, she realizes she has more in common with vampires than she would like to admit.
• In President's Vampire, Konrad tries to convince Cade of this, but it's quickly pointed out that while both kill people, Konrad does it for his sick experiments, and Cade does it to protect others. Not to mention that Cade doesn't really make it to the end of Konrad's Breaking Speech, instead performing a Shut Up, Hannibal! by the way of almost ripping off his head.
• In Please Bully Me, Miss Villainess!, Elsa Dorothy, the heroine of the otome game in which the story is set, meets up with Alta, who apologizes for bullying her. Elsa is hesitant to accept the apology because Alta hasn't apologized for bullying Yvonne "Evie" Smollett, the game's villainess. Alta tries to justify her actions by saying that Evie is the daughter of a criminal, hence why her family lost their noble status, and that the nobles look down on commoners like Alta and Elsa. Elsa counters that Evie is the kindest person she knows, and asks why Alta feels justified "punishing" Evie.
  Elsa: Aren't you basically the same as those arrogant nobles who think they can freely oppress the common folk because they're so much better. Can you really call that "justice"?
• In Pride and Prejudice, Lydia makes a nasty remark about Mary King, how no one could possibly care about such a plain, ugly girl. Elizabeth realizes that while she would never say such a thing, she certainly had the same kind of thoughts about Mary King. It was an uncomfortable moment for Elizabeth to realize she and Lydia aren't as different as Elizabeth liked to think they are.
• Primal Warrior Draco Azul: When Eric Martinez's reckless fighting style and anger accidentally causes Draco Azul to destroy a swath of rainforest and kill the very merchants he was trying to protect in the short story "Reminiscence", the evil god Hunhau mockingly states that Eric isn't so different from himself—driven by rage and bloodlust, and more fitting to be called a destroyer than a defender. Eric is rattled by this, though Ekchuah assures him that playing mind games with his opponents was Hunhau's tactic when he was on the verge of losing a fight and the reason he chose the dark god as Eric's opponent was to make him realize he's better than he thinks he is.
• In Red Dragon, deranged-but-brilliant serial killer Hannibal Lecter loves to tweak FBI profiler Will Graham with this idea whenever they interact, face-to-face or through mail. It isn't clear how much of it Lecter himself believes, but that disturbing knack he has for empathizing with and thinking like the psychopaths he chases is oh-so-much-fun to play with! Lecter has a similar relationship with Starling in The Silence of the Lambs; they are frequently compared and in his letter to her at the end of the book he makes this explicit:
  Lecter: "Some of our stars are the same, Clarice."
• In Redeeming Love, the heroine — a former prostitute — is engaged in a conflict with her brother-in-law throughout the novel that mostly stems from their understanding of this trope. He knows he doesn't have the moral high ground, but is too ashamed of his own hypocrisy to admit it; she loathes him for trying to stomp her into the dirt for her past immorality when he's done things that are just as wrong — by today's standards, even more wrong — than she has (primarily blackmailing her into sleeping with him when she had already married his brother). They work it out... eventually, once he realizes she's really reformed (by The Power of Love) and she is able to forgive him.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: In volume 10, Percival Whalley tries to get protagonist Oliver's support in the election for Student Council President by appealing to him as a fellow Jack of All Trades mage, suggesting that all-rounders like themselves can do a better job leading other mages than specialists, and offers him a spot on the student council should he win—with an eye towards appointing Oliver to finish his three-year term when he graduates in two years. Oliver is intrigued by the suggestion, but still ends up voting for Tim Linton in the end.
• The Reynard Cycle: Upon being told that the Calvarians committed a racially motivated genocide upon the people of Solothurn, Cointereau says that their entire race should be wiped from the world for doing such a thing. Isengrim, a Calvarian, points out the hypocrisy of the statement.
• RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant: In The Two Brothers, the God of Darkness believes that he and the God of Light are essentially the same. They both have creations and have both challenged the other in different times to destroy the other's creations. The God of Light, however, disagrees.
• In C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape occasionally discusses this with a Perspective Flip: Because great villains need great virtues to be effective villains, there's Hell to pay if their Tempter accidentally has one and ends up in the Enemy's camp.
• In the later books in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Baudelaires 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. This particularly surfaces in The Grim Grotto, wherein they discover one of the gang - the Hook-Handed Man - is in fact the older brother of one of their newest friends, driven to villainy by his tragic past. He himself explains it:
  "People aren't either wicked or noble," the hook-handed man said. "They're like chef's salad, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict."
  • In this particular case, however, the example is subverted. The hook handed man claims that VFD is as bad as the villains, but the Baudelaires consider it and refute this, deciding that while VFD may have made morally questionable decisions, ultimately the difference is that one side starts fires and the other side puts them out.
  • As the Baudelaires slowly became more wary of their 'villainous' deeds over the course of the plot, Olaf and his associates were gradually either killed off or — especially in the case of Olaf himself, in his final moments — found to have a hidden 'human' side. Asked about the subject, the author (Daniel Handler) commented:
    "It's sad, isn't it? I think the Baudelaires are getting older, and one of the sad facts about getting older is that you've always thought of yourself and people you know as righteous and true and the people you dislike as evil. The older you get the more muddy that water becomes."
• In Shadow of the Conqueror, Daylen sees a great deal of similarity between himself and Rayaten Leusa, the Rebel Leader who overthrow Daylen and his Dawn Empire to avenge his dead family, because Daylen had his Start of Darkness in overthrowing the aristocracy who killed his own wife and children.
• In John le Carr? Smiley's People, the ostensibly retired British spy George Smiley finally gets a chance to beat the Soviet spymaster Karla, using the knowledge of a mentally ill daughter hidden in an institution in Switzerland against him. He succeeds, forcing Karla to defect and tell everything he knows to the Brits. But he gains no satisfaction in the end, because he feels he has finally gone over the line and become as ruthless as Karla to beat him.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: The series gives us this gem, from Sandor Clegane to the Brotherhood Without Banners:
  "A Knight's a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils and the lady's favors, they're silk ribbons tied 'round the sword. Maybe the sword's prettier with ribbons hanging of it, but it'll kill you just as dead. Well, bugger your ribbons, and shove your swords up your arses. I'm the same as you. The only difference is, I don't lie about what I am. So, kill me, but don't call me a murderer while you stand there telling each other your shit don't stink. You hear me?"
• At the climax of the Star Trek: The Lost Era novel The Buried Age, Picard attempts to reason with the Anti-Villain, and finds himself quoting Deanna's analysis of his own motives earlier; something he dismissed entirely at the time, but now realises applies equally well to both of them.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • In the X-Wing Series, Kirtan Loor is left behind on Coruscant when the Empire leaves it, recently infected with a nasty plague, to the New Republic. He's instructed to make things difficult for the New Republic, and he does this with gusto, using agents and explosives to make people balance dying of the Krytos virus with being blown up at a health center. Vorru is sent to hunt him down, but instead of bringing him to justice he uses Loor to further his own ends, giving him targets to take out. One of them is a school. When Loor protests, Vorru mocks him. Loor is already preventing children from being treated; just because it's the Krytos virus and not him who is killing them makes no difference. Loor agrees because Vorru will kill him otherwise, but thinks, We are not as far apart as I would like to think, but neither are we as close as Vorru thinks. He also felt his tactics were not so different from those of the Rebels, who have now taken over the planet and become the government — i.e. a small insurgent force launching attacks on the more powerful state. The Rebels however never resorted to simple terrorism, unlike him.
  • Turned around in Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader, where the Villain Protagonist Vader sees his past self in his Worthy Opponent Roan Shryne, which is why killing him serves as an act of closure and lets him fully embrace The Dark Side.
• 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. The hero doesn't so much counter it as just shrug it off and continue trying to take down the Big Bad — because, well, the Big Bad is a soul-stealing monstrosity who, despite his valid points, is not the least bit sympathetic and who absolutely has to be destroyed.
• Thursday Next, and her Evil Twin Thursday1-4 in First Amongst Sequels.
  Thursday: I'm going to erase you and, what's more, enjoy it.
  Thursday1-4: Then I was wrong. We are alike.
• In Ruth Frances Long's The Treachery of Beautiful Things, the piper does not realize he is using this trope when he tells Jenny that Jack has nothing common with them. She spits back that she's nothing like him, and neither is Jack, and aren't they blessed in that?
• In the Underdogs novel Tooth and Nail, Eco-Terrorist dictator Grant tells La Résistance leader McCormick that they're alike because they're both willing to kill people for the greater good.
• In Väinö Linna's The Unknown Soldier Major Sarastie of Lt. Col Karjula: Those people who without the army would be either prison wardens or criminals. Only pure chance at start would decide, which side of the bars he'd be looking at.
• In The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara The Morgawr hits his former apprentice, the Isle Witch with this, noting that she is every bit as dark, twisted and ruthless as he is. The Isle Witch acknowledges his point, admitting the only difference between them is that she regrets what she is and would change it if she could, while The Morgawr regrets nothing.
• In Simon Spurrier's Warhammer 40,000 Night Lords novel Lord of the Night, Mira realizes this about her and Saheel on her own. Indeed, reflecting on how similar their personalities were led her to consider that the Imperium had not treated her well. She still resisted in their climatic confrontation — but not forever. Considering the Imperium, whether this is corrupting her is an open question.
• In Waverley the hero comments that an English prisoner he meets and a Jacobite highlander are rather alike in their dislike for each other's culture and politics.
• In The Witchlands, Merik and Vivia are eventually forced to admit that for all they see each other as an active threat to their country, they have a lot in common.

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