Duplicate Trope: Rock Paper Switch

While attempting to crosswick Rock Paper Switch due to it being wick-deficient, my attention was drawn to the healthier Opponent Switch trope (which even has an image and quote) via a 2014 discussion post that suggested bringing it to TRS (which did not yield search results when I tried to find if that had been seen to).

• RPS text: "Basically have a team of heroes face off against a team of villains where each hero pairs off with another villain, mano a mano...usually the one they're fighting against has the upper hand, because being their rival means knowing their moves and how to counter it. So in a stroke of obvious brilliance, have the heroes trade enemies. This leads to quick defeat as now the heroes are fighting to their strengths."

• OS text: "Our group of heroes are fighting against...opponents skilled or specialized against certain techniques against them, individually, fighting to, at best, a stalemate. One of the heroes realizes it's futile fighting against their equals, so all of them switch opponents, which wins them the battle."

A bunch of examples listed on the RPS page (such as Bleach, Powers Rangers in Space, and Teen Titans) are also mentioned in OS wicks. The most damning piece of evidence is that the Xiaolin Showdown wick lists the entry as "Opponent Switch/Rock Paper Switch."

My suggestion is for Opponent Switch to absorb any non-doubled examples from Rock Paper Switch and for any existence of RPS to be scrubbed (which whoops, I contributed to the proliferation of). Wick check here.

Opened. Worth merging.

Merge.

Merge

Merge. Rock Paper Switch sounds like a snowclone of Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors that was so underperformed another trope took its place.

merge

Merge.

Merge

Merge

Merge

Merge

Rock Paper Merge!

Edited by Nen_desharu on May 17th 2022 at 10:04:28 AM

Everything's done, so closing. Here's the wick check for archival purposes:

I propose that Rock Paper Switch be absorbed by Opponent Switch on the basis of being a Duplicate Trope. If I'm understanding Wick Checks correctly, this page's purpose will be to compare wicks for overlapping content. I added some crosswicks for RPS before stumbling across OS, inadvertently adding more wicks to the check pile. After checking both wick sets and seeing multiple same entries, I'm convinced it'd be a good idea to merge 'em.

If someone more knowledgeable about TRS would be willing to help me muddle my way through this, I would greatly appreciate the assistance!

Rock Paper Wicks: 18 Wicks

• Designated Girl Fight leads to a Teen Titans (2003) entry.
  • "When Trigon makes Evil Counterparts to three of the Titans (including Starfire) this looks to be the case as they fight their own mirrors, but then they do a Rock Paper Switch."
    • This scene is referenced with Opponent Switch many times, as seen below.
• Fight Scene index includes it as a trope, which goes undescribed (like the majority of tropes on that pages).
• Bleach Tropes O To R, Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), The Avengers, Power Rangers in Space, and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy were my crosswicks.
• Justice League Tropes M to Z:
  • "When the seven heroes went up against Brainithor (the fusion of Lex Luthor and Brainiac) and his robot duplicates of the Justice Lords (with a Justice Lord version of The Flash added to make things even), Wonder Woman and Superman trade off, as well as Hawk Girl and Green Lantern (which has the added benefit of letting them let off some steam over their breakup). Batman and Flash already destroyed their opponents, J'onn beats his off screen."
• "Star Trek S3 E17 "That Which Survives"" and its misnamed version "Star Trek S 3 E 17 That Which Destroys" have, respectively:
  • "When Kirk realizes that each Losira projection can only kill the one she was 'sent' for he has his men move to protect each other. When the computer generates three projections, one for each of them, they desperately switch things up to delay the projections for a few moments, but Kirk realizes they're in big trouble."
  • "A computer generated construct had the power to kill a specific human target by touch. When the Enterprise crew members facing it realized this, they interposed someone else between the opponent and its target, foiling the attack. Eventually the computer wised up and created a construct for each crew member, so the crew switched around until each was facing a construct meant for someone else."
• There is a Playing With page, a Pages Needing Wicks page, and three sandboxes (including this one).
• Powerpuff Girls Tropes R To S:
  • "Inverted. One episode had them facing impostors in Paper Thin Disguises, which nonetheless fooled the girls (and the crooks) into attacking each other until they got the idea to only attack their own counterpart, allowing the Girls to easily trounce the imposters."
• Xiaolin Showdown:
  • "Done when a Sheng Gong Wu creates physical manifestations of each warrior's worst fear."
    • !!! Tellingly listed as "Opponent Switch/Rock Paper Switch"
• Whateley Universe Tropes J to Z:
  • "Chaka and Fey in "It's All in the Timing!". Instead of facing the future versions of each other, they swapped and tried to fight the future versions of themselves."
    “You think that it’s the old Justice League ‘Perfect Enemy for ONE character’ bit?”
    “Toni! That only happens in the comic books!”
    “eennhhh… yer right- it’s not like simple, everyday stuff like attacking ninjas, infectious werewolves, giant robots, and reincarnating Elven queens, now is it?”
    “Good point, good point…” she allowed. “And in the comics, the perfect solution for that is-”
    Nikki reached her hand out to me and I managed to grab onto it. As I pulled us together, the dopplegangers, somehow knowing that we were doing something, both screamed and charged. I swung us around so that we were each directly facing our alleged future selves.

Opponent Wicks: 50 random wicks

• Bash Brothers
  • Bleach: "While they're not as close friends as others, one episode had Chad and Uryu facing off against two foes. Originally, they were getting beat up hard. That is, until Uryu opted to switch opponents with Chad, seeing Chad's slow but strong style better on Uryu's opponent, and Uryu weak but fast style on Chad's."
    • This is the same plot point that I crosswicked for RPS.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation
  • Bionicle: "Chronicles #1: Tale of the Toa: In the unpublished story outlines, the Toa realize that the evil Shadow Toa symbolize their own inner darkness, and by accepting this, they absorb their respective clones into themselves. In the book, they also fight to a standstill but destroy their duplicates by simply switching their opponents and reducing them to whatever element they represented. However the book's earlier manuscript gave yet another account, in which the Shadow Toa's remains somehow stay "alive" and scurry back into the tunnels they came from, the implications of which are left unresolved. This was removed from the final text but oddly survives in the book's Hungarian printing. Later, the BIONICLE Encyclopedia retconned this defeat in favor of the "Toa merge with their duplicates" scenario, which was the original plan for the scene."
• "Eureka!" Moment
  • Teen Titans: "From Teen Titans episode "The End 3" Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg are being beaten senseless by their Evil Counterparts:
    Beast Boy: Dude! I had no idea I was this tough!
    Cyborg: You're not! I could kick your butt any day of the—
    [beat, as they all figure it out]
    Starfire: If we cannot defeat ourselves, maybe we can defeat each other!
    Beast Boy & Cyborg SWITCH!
    [they tag hands, they swap enemies, fight starts again, they make short work of the villains]
    Cyborg: Told ya I could kick your butt!"
    • The first of many OS-using references to the event seen above in RPS.
• Fight Scene
  • No description given in this index; willing to go through and describe all tropes on it later!
• Final Battle
  • My Little Avengers: "ends with the Avengers Storming the Castle (literally, as the villains have occupied the royal palace); while Big Mac goes after Loki personally (regaining Thor's powers along the way), the other Avengers seek out their Dark Avenger counterparts (though they make sure to Opponent Switch, so the Dark Avengers can't overpower them, like their previous fight)."
• Midfight Weapon Exchange
  • "Not to be confused with" appearance.
    • Uses OS, not RPS.
• Mirror Match
  • Teen Titans: "the Titans faced off against evil versions of themselves whipped up by Trigon who was starting to find their attacks against him annoying. Because their evil counterparts had the exact same abilities as the originals, the heroes are only able to win by switching opponents."
• Retcon
  • Bionicle: "The Toa defeated their evil Shadow Toa counterparts via Opponent Switch, each using their advantage over someone else's clone to reduce them to particles. Since this wasn't the original plan for the scene, it was later rewritten in accordance to said plans, with the Toa accepting that darkness was a part of them and absorbing the Shadow Toa into their own bodies."
• Shapeshifter Showdown
  • Teen Titans: "Beast Boy is pitted against an evil version of himself in the fourth season finale. Granted, a fair bit of it is offscreen, but the bits that they do show are really cool, especially when Evil!Beast Boy turns into an elephant, so Beast Boy turns into a mouse to frighten him. Played with in that neither Beast Boy is able to overcome the other, leaving this Shapeshifter Showdown a draw. However, none of the Titans are able to beat their own Enemy Without, so they switch who they're fighting, and it's Cyborg who defeats Evil!Beast Boy via No-Sell. Cyborg always knew he could beat Beast Boy (but of course, Starfire can beat Cyborg, and Beastboy can beat Starfire)."
• Skills and Training Tropes
  • No description given in this index. No RPS appearance in this index, either.
• Tailor-Made Prison
  • "Eventually the villain will break out, but to be fair to the prison's designer, they usually can't escape on their own. They might get some help from their henchmen, some Unwitting Pawn, or an ill-advised upstart villain exploiting the prison's Fantastic Fragility. Since such prisons are designed for one occupant, they may be ineffective against the powers of another, leading to a variant on the Opponent Switch."
    • TMP chooses OS.
• The Psycho Rangers
  • " If they know all the moves of their heroic counterparts, the Psycho Rangers may be too strong for their duplicates one-on-one. The heroes can sometimes turn the tables by switching opponents and fighting each others' evil doubles. Without knowledge of the heroes' fighting techniques, the Psycho Rangers become much easier to defeat. (Unless they promptly switch back again.)"
    • TPR chooses OS.
• A Different Lesson Tropes M to Z
  • "Happens on Wu Dan, but subverted in that the switch doesn't instantly result in the heroes' victory (Tigress doesn't even beat Xiu in the end, it's Po, and it's Chun's original opponent, Viper, who takes her out). Also justified in the case of Po and Jia since she really doesn't want to fight him, and with Po and Xiu since she was focused on her Arch-Enemy Tigress at the time and had discounted him."
• Awesome Batman: The Brave and the Bold
  • "All three of the villains dish out a pretty impressive Curb-Stomp Battle during the Opponent Switch, but Joker really stands out. While Cheetah prepared herself with some of Superman's weaknesses and Luthor had the element of surprise on his side, Joker just showed up on Paradise Island and started throwing his usual joke-themed weapons at Wonder Woman, yet his victory came no less easy than the other two."
• Awesome Daredevil
  • "During the Acts Of Vengeance crossover, where Loki had a legion of supervillains do an Opponent Switch, Daredevil ended up having to deal with Ultron, who can take on teams of Avengers singlehanded and is far out of Matt's weight class. Even worse, it's a completely mad model who's building himself a mountain throne of other Ultron heads in the middle of Central Park. Matt realized that Ultron's adamantium skin may be invulnerable but his joints are simple steel - so he beats a raving Ultron's head off with a stick."
    • AoV is referenced in a RPS entry and multiple times for OS.
• Awesome Dial
  • "When their initial matchups prove nothing more than stalemates, Snare-Oh!Dial and Iron Man pull an Opponent Switch, so that Iron Man can use his implemented Melter tech to fend off Blizzard's ice, and Snare-Oh can use his shapeshifting and immunity to life drain against Blackout. Snare-Oh even pulls a Sonic/Samus ball attack on him."
• Characters Accel World Enemies
  • Counterpart Combat Coordination: "Nega Nebulus's initial raid on the Imperial Palace, each of the four Elements (Sky Raker, Aqua Current, Ardor Maiden and Graphite Edge) lead the attack against the boss who shared their Elemental Powers. The result was a disaster, and in the aftermath Ardor Maiden (who'd been assigned to Suzaku) instead began developing a Lava Pit technique for use against the slow-moving Genbu."
• Characters Power Rangers in Space
  • Crippling Overspecialization: "The Rangers realize that the Psychos only absorbed fighting styles from their counterparts, so an Opponent Switch gives them a huge advantage... at first. And when the Psychos nullified the Opponent Switch, the Rangers (minus Zhane) decided to wear the same color. (blue)"
    • PRIS is an entry in RPS, and appears all. over. the gosh. darn. site under OS. Proof below. Hhhhhh.
• Runaways
  • "how the final battle against the Pride goes." (commented out)
    • Definitely needs more context for me to understand it.
• The Punisher
  • "The Acts of Vengeance event saw Doctor Doom deciding to one-up Kingpin by taking out the Punisher."
• Dial
  • "Snare-Oh and Iron Man exchange opponents against Blizzard and Blackout respectively, when it becomes clear that Snare-Oh's cloth regeneration is stalemated against Blizzard's ice, and Iron Man's suit is stalemated against Blackout's Darkforce."
• Disney's War — A Crossover Story
  • "As part of the villains' attack against the heroes in the first story, they each go up against someone other than their 'official' adversary, such as Maleficent targeting Hercules, Gaston going after Simba, Hook attacking Ariel and Eric, Jafar transforming Adam back into the Beast, or Scar capturing Cinderella."
• Five Worlds War
  • "Baki and Rojuro Otoribashi do this in the Battle of the Aster Mountains."
• My Little Avengers
  • "How the Avengers beat the Dark Avengers in their rematch during the Final Battle."
• My(stara's) Little Ponies: Friendship Is Adventuring
  • "Marcus quickly realizes that the Elements of Power will probably beat their own counterparts and advises everyone to not engage their own double, but when the fights roll around most of the villains force their counterpart to fight them anyways."
• Sonic and Equestria Girls
  • "Super Sonic and Daydream Shimmer try this against Super Scourge and Midnight Sparkle. It doesn't work due to the invulnerability of super forms."
• Sucked Into the Smash Universe
  • "Happens during the mob battle against Tusk's unit in Coming Round The Mountain. Both Tusk and Dylan constantly switch their allies around in order to get the upper hand on the other. It's only when Red gets involved that the heroes finally pull ahead."
• The Dark Lords of Nerima
  • "Akane, Ukyou and Shampoo either stalemate or fight badly in their respective fights against Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask together. Realizing this, they switch themselves up (Akane Vs. Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon, Ukyou Vs. Sailor Mars, and Shampoo Vs. Sailor Mercury) and proceed to (mostly) wipe them out."
  • "Instead of letting Ryouga have his rematch, Ranma opted to fight the Darkmistress as his fighting style was better suited to combat her abilities."
• Fairy Tail
  • "In Chapter 459, the Weakness Soldiers use a variety of techniques to counter everyone's abilities- steam against Juvia, fire against Gray, speed against Elfman and brute strength against Lisanna. They're confused as to what weakness Mirajane could have, and it turns out that it's Elfman. They then do a Opponent Switch, with Juvia using her water on the fire user, Gray using his ice on the steam user, Lisanna fighting the fast soldier and Mirajane overpowering the strong one... leaving Elfman stuck with the one who looks like himself."
    Elfman: How the hell did it come to this? Me smacking myself around?
• Image Source The Order of the Stick
  • Guy telling teammate mid-battle the plan to switch opponents.
    Guy: As battles go, I prefer something a little more one-sided. Let's switch. You can finish off Elan easily while I hold back Roy.
    Green Guy: okie dokie!
    • This page has a quote and image. Seems pretty built out.
• Red Vs Blue The Project Freelancer Saga
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: "When Agent North and Agent South do a quick Opponent Switch in Episode 2, they end up briefly positioned back-to-back in the firefight."
• Pony POV Series Tropes I to P
  • "The Dark World!Mane Cast do this for their second fight with Paradox's Psycho Rangers with Derpy and the newly arrived and recharged Princesses fighting Nightmare Manacle, Applejack fighting Nightmare Whisper, Twilight taking on Nightmare Granfalloon, Apple Pie and Spike holding off Nightmare Mirror, Rarity battling Nightmare Banneret, and Ender Dash keeping Nightmare Paradox busy. While it doesn't make it a Curbstomp Battle, it evens the odds due to the new match ups countering the Nightmares' powers more effectively and ultimately forces Paradox to recall her Nightmares back into herself as opposed to the Curbstomp Battle the Nightmares dished out before."
• Percussive Therapy
  • The Order of the Stick
    Roy: I think you just made a tactical error there, Nale.
    Nale: Oh, really? You think I can't take you?
    Roy: Maybe. Maybe not. But I do know one thing: I've been suppressing the urge to beat the crap out of someone who looks EXACTLY like you for a long, long time.
    [Nale sports an 'Oh, Crap!' expression before Roy chases him down with an evil grin]
    • Not the page image's panels, oddly enough, but this scene is an entry for RPS.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender "The Crossroads of Destiny"
  • "The fight begins as Aang vs Zuko and Azula vs Katara, but when Katara begins to get the upper hand, the Fire Nation siblings swap opponents."
• Batman The Brave And The Bold S 3 E 8 Triumvirate Of Terror
  • "The Legion of Doom realizes that the Trinity have figured out all their moves. Hence, they decide to switch opponents and it worked."
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer S2E10 "What's My Line?: Part 2"
  • "Buffy switches with Kendra so she can fight Spike."
    Spike: I'd rather be fightin' you anyway.
    Buffy: Mutual.
• Corner Gas S 5 E 17 The Accidental Cleanist
  • "When Brent and Oscar decide to destroy their contributions, Oscar originally goes at the tree with a sledgehammer, and Brent at the bench with a chainsaw, but they quickly decide to switch."
    • I'm honestly not sure what to make of this entry. Do inanimate objects count as "opponents" to men with construction tools? But that's not the point of this wick check.
• Extreme Ghostbusters E 3 Fear Itself
  • "Since they can't face their fears, the Ghostbusters decide to switch dance partners. Garrett takes on Roland's Proton Pack monster, Kylie blasts Zombie Eduardo to atoms, and Eduardo decides to fight the giant maggot. Roland takes care of Slimer’s fear of broccoli by covering up the platter."
• Gargoyles S 2 The Reckoning
  • "Hudson and the Trio get easily overcome by their corresponding clones. When it's time for a rematch, Lexington points out they can't win one-on-one, so they opt for this, as well as more guile tactics."
    • Appears as a RPS entry.
• Power Rangers In Space S1E34 Five Of A Kind
  • "Subverted. While seeming like a good strategy on paper, it's not that difficult for the villains to just switch back to the opponents they have a chance against. Fortunately, the Power Rangers are able to solve the situation by just disguising their respective colors."
• Teen Titans S 4 E 13 The End Part Three
  • "With a little Heel Realization, this is how the three defeat their evil twins."
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 S 1 E 4 New Friend Old Enemy
  • "During the fight in the sewer."
    • Not enough context in this entry, in my opinion, but again not the point of this wick check.
• Marvel Universe
  • "The crossover event Acts of Vengeance best describes this trope. It involves the very idea of a wide array of super-villains facing heroes they had never met (or at least were villains that weren't part of the heroes' regular gallery). Such examples were Alpha Flight fighting Scorpion, Spider-Man (who was granted cosmic powers at the time) fought Goliath, The Brothers Grimm, Titania, Magneto, Graviton, Trapster, Dragon-Man, and the Tri-Sentinel. Daredevil fought Ultron, Thor fought Juggernaut, Mandarin appears in the X-Men issues, and Rusty and Skids of the New Mutants battle the Vulture. Even Magneto went against the Red Skull for very obvious reasons (Magneto (a Holocaust survivor) barely tolerated the Red Skull as a co-conspirator under the impression that he was a modern villain using the Skull's mask and image to frighten people. When he realized the Skull was the actual protege of Hitler and WWII war criminal . . . he buried the Skull in a light-less fallout shelter with a dozen jugs of water and sealed it shut.) Similarly the event Infinity Warps does the same thing, being an homage to Acts of Vengeance. Across the merged universe it takes place in, superheroes find themselves under attack by other people's enemies."
• Raishon
  • "Yukina goes from fighting her anti-self to fighting Anti-Helios, Eli from his anti-self to Anti-Xan, Suzy from her anti-self to Antikane, Akane from her anti-self to Anti-Yuki, Xan from his anti-self to Anti-Dio, and finally, Dio from his anti-self to Anti-Suzy. And this is all part of their formation plan."
• Power Rangers in Space
  • "To help the Rangers a better match against the Psycho Rangers, TJ comes up the strategy to use this trick against them. Well at first it appears to work, it's not long before the villains to just switch back to the opponents they have a chance against. The Psycho Rangers merely defeat the Ranger they're currently fighting, and then go and wipe the floor with their actual opponent. Just because it sounds like a good strategy on paper, doesn't mean it will work. The Rangers then try the same strategy again, but this time by having the other rangers each disguise themselves as the Blue Ranger, making the Psycho Rangers unable to figure out who their usual opponents are."
• Write a Magical Girl Series
  • "Especially in a Magic Idol Singer series, a rival character is good for motivating your lead. You don't have to limit yourself to a singer from a competing label, though; the character works equally well as a selfish witch jealous of the Cute Witch's popularity or a Dark Magical Girl competing for the Plot Coupons (or anything else you can think of). When writing a Magical Girl Warrior team, each member should get her own rival to face off against throughout the arc (barring an occasional Opponent Switch), and the rivals may or may not band together into a Psycho Rangers team."
    • The SYWT series entry uses OS.
• Son of the Sannin Tropes N to T
  • "Suggested by Fu as a tactic to defeat Dark!Naruto and Dark!Fu. Naruto however quickly discards it, feeling that they would be able to switch back anyway, and it would be cheating since each of them is supposed to defeat their own counterpart."
• WMG Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
  • "There will be a Denji Sentai Megaranger shout out. You know the one."
    • No, no I do not. I even gave the Denji page a once-over and didn't find the specifics. If it is indeed an example, I'd hope someone adds it to the series page.
• Turbo F.A.S.T.
  • "In one episode, the F.A.S.T. team takes on the F.A.J.I.T.A. team, basically a team comprised of evil versions of them... The usual solution of the Opponent Switch is invoked, but notably it's still a very close match (in the form of a relay race.)"
• Young Justice - Original Series
  • "Superboy lets Icicle. Jr. fight Mammoth and Blockbuster so he could fight Mr. Freeze."