History Main / LetsYouAndHimFight

* Part of the plot of ''WesternAnimation/MarvelRisingSecretWarriors'' involved [[ComicBook/SpiderGwen Ghost Spider]] [[ClearMyName being blamed for a crime she didn't commit]] and being confronted by [[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 Ms. Marvel]] and [[Characters/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl Squirrel Girl]].

** In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', Batman and Superman are manipulated [[spoiler:(and partly forced, due to Lex's kidnapping of Martha Kent)]] by [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] into conflict.

* Subverted and then played straight in the short story ''The Hunters of Asterion'' by Stewart Cowley. Rahzell Kalee and Jeef Kindswoog are two of the titular Hunters, separately hoodwinked into fighting each other for a galactic audience who want to see two ProudWarriorRaceGuys battle to the death. When they actually face each other, both men refuse, since neither has a slight on the other, and are then abandoned far from their homeworld. Flash forward several years later and Kalee stumbles briefly across the path of the law, which ends up recruiting him, while Kindswoog takes a darker path. Kalee goes undercover to take down a massive crime syndicate that's hit the Terran Federation's military and stolen some pretty hard-core weaponry. When he turns some of it on the criminals and demands their surrender, he's challenged BY NAME by Kindswoog (who realizes that only another Hunter could have undone his schemes as badly as Rahzell did), and they fight it out at last.

** The Trojan War actually started this way, with a goddess getting three other goddesses to fight over who was the prettiest.

* Wrestling/{{Raven}}'s plan for Wrestling/KurtAngle, Wrestling/{{Christian}} and Wrestling/SamoaJoe in [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] during early 2005 while he bid his time messing with Wrestling/{{Abyss}} until the time was opportune to enter the Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA World Heavyweight Title picture and [[BecauseDestinySaysSo fulfill his destiny]].

* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' This is the '''precise method''' that [[spoiler:Charon Industries and its shadow forces]] spend years manipulating/building up the bitterness/enmity between the two main armies/people of the planet Chorus to have them kill each other [[spoiler:instead of just simply nuking them, making it alarmingly suspicious to offworlders, and thus leading to them eventually tragically killing each other off during a long, bloody war,]] thus leaving its invaluable alien artifacts ripe for the taking [[spoiler:for the ones that incited the whole conflict and fueled their hatred toward the two factions over the years]] and would have succeeded entirely if the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits Red & Blues]] hadn't [[spoiler:interfered/broken the otherwise-endless cycle of hatred/resentment between said two factions of the New Republic and the Federal Army of Chorus.]]

* Brock arranges this in the season 3 finale of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', pitting General Treister's forces against The Monarch's. However, [[SpannerInTheWorks he doesn't anticipate]] Sgt. Hatred showing up with Hank and Dean's clones to turn it into a MeleeATrois, which is enough for Brock to come out of hiding and give himself up.

** Vegeta and Trunks ended up getting into this, as the former plans on letting Cell absorb Android 18 for his perfect form while the latter has plans on stopping that.

** Later on Vegeta gets [[BrainwashedAndCrazy possessed]] by Babidi and turned into a Majin, where he only desires to fight Goku. This leads Goku and Majin Vegeta to battle it out for the first time in years.

--> '''Luffy and Zoro''': (Stop fighting and turn to the agents) Shut up! And go away!
--> '''Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine''': (''[[OhCrap expressing extreme shock]]'')
--> '''Luffy and Zoro''': You're interfering... (''[[CombatUninterruptus punching the agents aside]]'') ...with our fight!!

* Being a deconstruction of the FightingSeries PlayedForLaughs, ''Manga/RamenFighterMiki'' show us the kind of person who would use this trope: Megumi is TheBully / SchoolYardBullyAllGrownUp / TheRival for Miki, and her personal definition of ''a friend'' is: ''Someone whom Megumi can manipulate to beat Miki''. Just after Megumi hears Miki describing to his mother a powerful enemy at the Endou house, while being punished for constantly CarryingACake:

** For "Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}} vs. [[Characters/DragonBallSonGoku Son Goku]]", when Goku learns of Superman, he assumes Superman is an evil invading alien and launches a preemptive strike. Superman tries to reason with him, but Goku's BloodKnight tendencies make him keep attacking.
*** Which is still a humorous hand wave given Goku's tendency to offer mercy and second chances to even his most evil opponents. To say nothing of Superman.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' a large part of Sheridan's strategy is to arrange this for the Shadows and Vorlons as both of them are simply far too powerful for even a full alliance of the younger races to fight on their own. Likewise, this trope was essentially the Shadow's philosophy: to get the younger races to fight amongst each other, so that the survivors would be stronger.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' a large part of Sheridan's strategy is to arrange this for the Shadows and Vorlons. Likewise, this trope was essentially the Shadow's philosophy: to get the younger races to fight amongst each other, so that the survivors would be stronger.

** In "Ultimatum", the Ultimen have literally no valid reason whatsoever to fight the Justice League other than deciding that, [[CloningBlues as failed clones who have ludicrously short lifespans]], defeating the Justice League will make them be remembered after they die. Batman and even their [[TokenGoodTeammate own teammate Longshadow]] are ''very'' quick to point out how flawed their logic is and how pointless it is to fight for no reason, with Bats even believing that such irrational behavior has to be the fault of their minds deteriorating. It also happens to be one of the most genuinely tragic examples of this trope.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAndHisAmazingFriends'': The episode dealing with the origin of [[Characters/XMenTheOriginalTeam Iceman]] manages to work in a fight between the two heroes prior to their official team-up, until Spidey managed to talk some sense into him.

** For much of ''[[Series/KamenRiderFaiz Kamen Rider 555]]'', Inui Takumi and Kiba Yuuji are friends in their civilian identities and each ignorant of the other's alter-ego - which is good, because each thinks the other (in his alter ego) is a [[TheDragon Dragon]] for the evil corporation. Even the AU Kiba of the NonSerialMovie is tricked into fighting Takumi by the bad guys.

* Some old-school American conservatives - Pat Buchanan most notably - have argued in recent years that the United States should have done the passive version of this trope during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, staying out of the war entirely and letting [[EvilVersusEvil Nazi Germany and Communist Russia annihilate each other]]. On the other hand, UsefulNotes/HarryTruman argued that the U.S. should enter the war on the side of which of the two combatants was the weaker in order to neutralize the greater threat. UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, meanwhile, asserted that the Nazis were definitely the biggest threat and that the Allies should [[EnemyMine team up with whoever opposed the Nazis, even if it was the Devil himself]].

* The trope name comes from ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'': it's one of Wimpy's {{Catch Phrase}}s.

* ''Franchise/{{Doctor Who|ExpandedUniverse}}'' spinoff ''Literature/FactionParadox'' has the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast War in Heaven]], a massive conflict arranged by the titular Faction between the [[JustForFun/TimeLord Homeworld]] and [[EldritchAbomination The Enemy]] for a chance to swipe some nice tech, some converts... [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and poison the timestream in the process]].

** WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck got in a similar situation in "What Makes Daffy Duck", where he's being hunted by a fox and by Elmer Fudd. He tries to get the pair into competing over who gets to have him.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

* ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' has what is perhaps one of the most ''satisfying'' one of these ever in its backstory: the birth of [[PlayingWithFire Kirche]] and [[AnIcePerson Tabitha's]] [[HeterosexualLifePartners friendship.]] A number of girls were jealous that Kirche was stealing all the boys, and teamed up with a boy who Tabitha had humiliated in duel. At a dance the boy used wind to shred Kirche's dress, leaving her naked. He then offered her his coat and told her Tabitha was responsible, which Kirche found reasonable because she had teased Tabitha earlier in the year. When Kirche confronted Tabitha, she told Kirche that she had nothing to do with it and walked away. Then Tabitha returns to her room to find her book collection scorched, and immediately walks over to Kirche's room and accepts the challenge to a duel (this was done by the jealous girls). They go to the courtyard to fight and after one exchange of spells ''immediately'' realize that they were set up and team up to find and punish the real culprits.

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': Kirito was rendered catatonic and is cared for by Alice. Kirito's wife Asuna eventually arrives and tries to see him, but Alice has no idea who she is and attacks her, thinking she is either an assassin or a stalker about to attack him. It doesn't help that Asuna doesn't try to explain herself and just keeping demanding "My Kirito", which further convinces Alice that she is a stalker. The fight is broken up by a third party, then they are eventually able to come to an understanding.

** This is the basics of Yukumi Hisako's Agitate Halation plan: manipulate ''every'' hero into fighting each other until she has [[{{Ubermensch}} created a world without heroes]]. To do this, [[spoiler: she creates a signal that gives anybody with heroic tendencies an uncontrollable urge to protect a little girl named Fremea Seivelun. Unfortunately, these people then perceive everybody else as a threat to her and attack them]].

** Invoked and played straight at the same time by Schneizel [[spoiler: turning the Black Knights against Zero by careful manipulation of facts and a few lies toss in to make them betray him]].

* ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'': This is how Broly comes to blows with Goku and Vegeta. [[spoiler: The saiyans exile Broly to planet Vampa, where he and his father Paragus live for 41 years. The newly resurrected Frieza, in the process of rebuilding his empire, finds and recruits them. He offers Paragus the chance to get revenge on Vegeta, the son of the king who exiled Broly. Even though Broly doesn't want to fight, his desire to escape Vampa, and his father's desire for revenge, allows Frieza to manipulate Broly into attacking his most hated enemies.]]

* Hinted to have happened in ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'', while it's not overt, it's implied that the government was hoping that the terrorists that took over the Turin nuclear plant and the politically-dangerous Section 2 (an agency that uses ChildSoldiers) would take each other out. [[spoiler: There were enough Section 2 survivors left that the government just said 'screw it' and declared ''them'' terrorists, arresting them all.]]

* Subverted in ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo''. In the first episode both Mugen and Jin get into separate fights with the samurai in the town they are wandering through. When the two cross paths, Mugen believes Jin is one of the samurai sent to kill him and immediately attacks. When Mugen learns that Jin actually killed the town's samurai, Mugen becomes even more excited at the prospect of fighting a tougher opponent. The entire show consists of Mugen and Jin trying to fulfill their obligation to Fuu so they can finally fight each other, and the series constantly hints that no matter how close Mugen and Jin grow in their quest, their eventual duel will be to the death. [[spoiler: Averted in the end when they decide not to, having come to like one another far too much.]]

* ''Fanfic/{{Cenotaph}}'' features resident teen [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] Skitter, manipulating [[spoiler: Lung and Kaiser]] into a battle to the death. Then, when it looks like Kaiser might get away, she makes sure he is distracted and off-balence at a crucial moment. Kaiser was the one she thought would be harder to take down, ultimately.
* ''Fanfic/CodePrime'': Megatron mostly ignores Britannia beyond assisting Charles with finding Energon because he wants the humans to find Optimus, and believes that backing Britannia is the most effective method of doing so - he knows Optimus won't allow innocents to be subjected to the cruelty Britannia practices on a daily basis and is waiting for Prime to take a stand. [[spoiler: Optimus finally obliges during Chapter 5, to Megatron's delight]].

** This happens ''repeatedly'' in the Wedding Arc, due to characters constantly mistaking others for being brainwashed by the Changelings. And things are further complicated by the presence of [[spoiler: Moth, a reformed Changeling and Bon Bon's adopted sibling]].
*** Thankfully subverted when [[spoiler: [[HeroOfAnotherStory Misfit Actual]]]] joins up with the main heroes during the arc's FinalBattle; since they helped Trixie's group fight off [[TheBrute Hercules Beetle]] and tried to get Cadence to use her powers to vouch for them (it was Moon Dancer posing as Cadence, but they didn't know that), which would have exposed them if they were imposters, the others are quick to trust them.

** In the prequel ''Tales from the Amalgam'verse: Godzilla meets [[{{Film/Gorgo}} Gorgo]]'', the still kaiju Godzilla Junior and Gorgo's mother Orka fight. Orka is just trying to reclaim her son and Junior is trying to protect the humans. [[spoiler: Thankfully it ends without serious injury.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanVsRobin'' has it right in the title. According to the plot, Robin (Damian Wayne) discovers an {{ancient conspiracy}} known as [[ComicBook/NightOfTheOwls the Court of Owls]] that leads him and Batman into fighting. [[spoiler: Said fight only happened at the midway point, with the real conflict between father and son being their rocky relationship.]]

* ''Film/JurassicWorld'': Is an I-rex threatening you and your family? No problem. Just [[spoiler: [[WhamLine open Paddock 9]] and let [[UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex Rexy]] handle it. Bonus points if you can get a semi-trained [[RaptorAttack Velociraptor]] and a [[SeaMonster Mosasaurus]] to lend a hand]].

** In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', Batman and Superman are manipulated [[spoiler: (and partly forced, due to Lex's kidnapping of Martha Kent)]] by [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] into conflict.

* Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/AmericanGods'', where it's a key plot point. An example of an old, named scam mentioned to Shadow by Mr. Wednesday, "Let's You and Him Fight" turns out to be [[spoiler: the EvilPlan Odin and Loki have been working on together. The plan was to goad the home-grown modern gods into fighting the immigrant gods to the death, so both Odin and Loki could feed off ensuing battle]].

** In another book, Sharpe and Harper go to a monastery occupied by a mixed force of deserters from all the armies involved in the Peninsular War, led by a French cook and [[spoiler: 'Colonel' Hakeswill]], carrying the ransom for the Portuguese wife of an English high-up who'd been at the monastery for an annual festival. At the same time a French officer and his sergeant arrive to pay the ransom for the French officer's English wife. Both sides think that the other is the enemy.

* Heimerdinger's ''Literature/KingdomsAndConquerors'' features several chapters of this, told from multiple POV. One hero( Apollos) believes his Love Interest was murdered by his masked opponents( a long ago friend) while Gid was informed that Apollos killed his good friends. the two continue to fight until Gid's friends shout his name, and Apollos recognizes the voices.
* This ultimately turns out to be the plan of [[spoiler: the alien Starflyer]] in Peter Hamilton's SpaceOpera ''Literature/PandorasStar/Literature/JudasUnchained''.

** ''Literature/ForestKingdom'': Much of the ''Hawk & Fisher'' spinoff series' book 5 (''Guard Against Dishonor'') is set up so as to get that series' married-cop protagonists, [[BattleCouple Hawk and Fisher]], to fight one another, as the bad guys implicate Fisher in police corruption while alleging Hawk has gone rogue and is killing innocent people. When they finally meet, [[spoiler: it's subverted, because they both care about each other more than about their duty as cops, so wouldn't have attacked each other even if the allegations had been true]].

* This happens in ''[[Literature/TalesOfTheBranionRealm The Granite Shield]]'', in which a weak and tiny expy of [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Protestant Wales]] distracts all of Europe by [[spoiler: assassinating the equivalent of the Pope]], thus plunging its many, many enemies into a decade of war.

** It also happens within the team, as well. The second episode had Casey and Sarah accusing each other of being rogue with Chuck caught in the middle. The penultimate episode of season two starts with Chuck and Sarah gone rogue to save his father, with Casey in pursuit. A season 3 episode has ''Casey'' briefly go rogue to protect his [[spoiler: ex-fiance]]. Most tragically, [[spoiler: Quinn uses a malfunctioning Intersect to destroy Sarah's memories and brainwash her, before turning her loose against the team in the GrandFinale]].

* On ''Series/{{Hustle}}'' a nonviolent version ensues for the first episode of [[spoiler: series 5]]. [[spoiler:Albert]] sets up Mickey and Ash and [[spoiler: Emma and Sean]] to pull cons on each other at the same time.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Inverloch}}'', Acheron is captured and put in an arena for fighting da'kor. Varden volunteers to fight him [[spoiler: in order to fake Acheron's death and save him. In order to make the fight believable, Varden says something to anger Acheron, making him believe Varden has switched sides]].
* ''Webcomic/{{Magellan}}'' has an impressive aversion: [[spoiler: a team from the future (and thus, unknown in the present) was attacked three times by other heroes in quick succession. The latter two they quickly resolved with diplomacy, and the first was a very short fight]].

** Sun Tzu points out that Socrates is the father of Western philosophy and by implication Nietzsche and Voltaire are his pupils. Nietzsche takes exception[[note]]Reflective of real life - the real Nietzsche thought poorly of Socrates' moral philosophy[[/note]] and starts a feud with Socrates; Voltaire tries to play peacemaker but Socrates in turn was incensed at Voltaire (specifically his rigging of the French lottery) - Team West ended up bickering amongst themselves, [[BatmanGambit just as Sun Tzu planned]]. [[spoiler: Team East ended up doing the same to ''themselves'' after one IceCreamKoan too many.]]

* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' This is the '''precise method''' that [[spoiler: Charon Industries and its shadow forces]] spend years manipulating/building up the bitterness/enmity between the two main armies/people of the planet Chorus to have them kill eachother [[spoiler: instead of just simply nuking them, making it alarmingly suspicious to offworlders, and thus leading to them eventually tragically killing eachother off during a long, bloody war,]] thus leaving its invaluable alien artifacts ripe for the taking [[spoiler: for the ones that incited the whole conflict and fueled their hatred toward the two factions over the years]] and would have succeeded entirely if the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits Red & Blues]] hadn't [[spoiler: interfered/broken the otherwise-endless cycle of hatred/resentment between said two factions of the New Republic and the Federal Army of Chorus.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', between the Gaang and Zuko the first time they meet after [[spoiler: his HeelFaceTurn during the third season]]. Understandable given their history, which included [[spoiler:a HeelFaceTurn he didn't quite complete at the end of the second season]], something that Katara angrily reminds him off before and after [[spoiler:he makes this one stick]].

** Amazingly {{subverted|Trope}} by Wufei: he's the WildCard and NotGoodWithPeople, but when he meets the other Gundams he doesn't fight them, he ''ends the fight of the other four'' by pointing out they're all on the same side and that [[spoiler:[[NiceJobBreakingItHero Heero has been tricked into killing the pacifist faction in the UESA military]]]].

* ''Fanfic/SuperwomenOfEva'': As expected of a [[SuperFic superhero]] FusionFic, the series has several examples (examples: She-Hulk vs. Spirit in ''Fanfic/SuperwomenOfEvaEmeraldFury'' and Power Girl vs. Wonder Girl in ''Fanfic/SOE2AmazingAmazon'').

* ''Fanfic/SuperwomenOfEva'': As expected of a [[SuperFic superhero]] FusionFic, the series has several examples (examples: She-Hulk vs. Spirit in ''Fanfic/SOEEmeraldFury'' and Power Girl vs. Wonder Girl in ''Fanfic/SOE2AmazingAmazon'').

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[[quoteright:343:[[ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unhimfight_0.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:343:[[JustHereforGodzilla It's what everyone's here for anyway.]]]]

!!Example Subpages:

!!Other Examples:

The phrase probably [[TropeNamers first comes from]] the ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} comic strip, as a catchphrase of [[WithFriendsLikeThese Wimpy]], who often gets Popeye to fight big tough guys he's wronged. "Let's You and Him Fight" is also the title of a Fleischer Studios Popeye short revolving around a boxing match between Popeye and Bluto. It also appears in Eric Berne's 1964 book ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_People_Play_%28book%29 Games People Play]]'' as one of the identified behavior patterns used to manipulate others.