Follow TV Tropes

Following

Playing With / Befriending the Enemy

Go To

Basic Trope: Attempting to befriend an antagonistic character to turn them good.

  • Straight: Chica plans to befriend Dracone so that he can defect from Emperor Evulz's side.
  • Exaggerated: Chica has managed to redeem every single villain by befriending them; this includes a Well-Intentioned Extremist in Dracone or an Omnicidal Maniac in Slasher.
  • Downplayed:
  • Justified:
  • Inverted:
    • Dracone plans to befriend Chica in order to turn her evil.
    • Chica treats Lance cruelly and violently in order to make him an enemy.
  • Subverted: It seemed like Dracone had a change of heart after being friends with Chica, but it turns out he was only pretending.
  • Double Subverted: He then sees how heinous his actions towards Chica were and makes amends with her. She forgives him.
  • Parodied:
  • Zig Zagged: Chica befriends Dracone, but it turns out he was pretending, but then he sees the error of his ways and makes amends with Chica. After that Dracone betrays Chica again only for it to turn out it was really his clone, "Draclone" who was created by Emperor Evulz to betray her.
  • Averted: Chica tries to befriend Dracone, but he rejects the offer.
  • Enforced: The writer wants to teach An Aesop to children that bullies are people too, and making friends with a bully will make them stop being a bully.
  • Lampshaded: "Wow. Did Chica just become friends with Emperor Evulz?"
  • Invoked:
    • Dracone deliberately works for Emperor Evulz knowing that someone will try to befriend him to defect, since he always wanted friends but didn't know how to make any otherwise.
    • Chica knows that Hiro and the others consider Dracone an enemy, and decides that befriending Dracone will redeem him in their eyes.
  • Exploited: Dracone is on to Chica's intentions and uses Chica's attempt to befriend him as an opportunity to hurt the heroes or corrupt Chica.
  • Defied:
    • Dracone knows that Chica is trying to turn her to the good side so to make sure he stays a villain, he actively resists, and rejects her friendship.
    • "Befriending Dracone? Hell no! I would never do that."
    • Fraternizing with the enemy is an Court Martial worthy offense, precisely to try to prevent soldiers defecting this way.
  • Discussed: Lance upon realizing Dracone has a Freudian Excuse comments "Is this the part where we ask Dracone to hang out and he realizes being evil ain't so great?"
  • Conversed: "So the writers had Chica befriend a bad guy and all of a sudden, he turns good. Meh! You never see that happen in real life."
  • Deconstructed:
    • Chica and Dracone become friends, but Dracone never stops being an evil person after he joins the good side.
    • Chica befriends Dracone and this inevitably leads to a Friend-or-Idol Decision (with the "idol" being Dracone's loyalty to Evulz, position in The Empire, etc.).
    • Chica's friends disapprove of her making friends with Dracone, believing that he can't be trusted. Tensions rise between Chica and her friends.
  • Reconstructed:
    • Chica and Dracone become friends, and while Dracone doesn't stop acting evil he focuses such actions on other evil people because Chica would get angry if he hurts innocents again.
    • Dracone is forced to choose between friendship with Chica and his position in Evulz's empire and chooses Chica because she isn't going to kill him for said position, unlike his associates in Evulz' empire.
    • Chica's friends never trust Dracone but they do trust Chica and Chica trusts all of her friends, Dracone included. Ergo, Teeth-Clenched Teamwork ensues as long as Chica is around to play mediator and ease tensions.
  • Played For Laughs: Not only does Chica become friends with Emperor Evulz, but they go through a montage of the two shopping together, seeing a movie, and singing karaoke, while a catchy song about friendship plays in the background.
  • Played For Drama:
    • Dracone realizes his friendship with Chica is causing him to become soft, and has a Villainous BSoD.
    • Emperor Evulz finds out that Chica is trying to turn Dracone good by becoming his friend, and kills her to try and stop it.
  • Untwisted:
    • Dracone plans to betray Chica later on after she befriends him, but he actually starts to like her and can't go through with it.
    • After befriending Dracone the heroes kick him out of the group for betraying them, but then it turns out a different character did that, and that Dracone was still their friend.


Back to Befriending the Enemy

Top