History Main / MutualDisadvantage

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/GenocideOnline'': Each faction gives buffs and debuffs against opposing faction members:
** Order deals and receives bigger damage to Chaos, and vice versa.

** Neutral deals and receives bigger damage to both Chaos and Order.
[[/folder]]

* ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'': The brief fight between Siegfried and Achilles goes this way. Both are invulnerable except for their back and heel respectively, but neither of them know of the other's weak spot. Siegfried's invulnerability can be bypassed with enough brute force and Achilles' invulnerability can be bypassed if his opponent has Divinity, but Siegfried doesn't have Divinity and Achilles isn't strong enough to break Siegfried's skin. Their fight gets interrupted by outside forces.

* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', [[AnIcePerson Hitsugaya]] and [[MakingASplash Halibel]] are both capable of transforming each other's attacks into their own, resulting in repeated [[NoSell No-Sells]] against each other throughout much of their battle.

** Havok and ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}. As they are brothers, this situation happens very rarely, but when it does, they are both immune to each other's attacks, because their powers work in the same way, and each can use the other's attack as an energy source.

* ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions'': Neo has fully embraced his 'The One' status and therefore can do just about anything in the Matrix and can withstand an almost limitless amount of damage. Agent Smith has infected everyone, human or machine, in the Matrix and can also do anything and withstand anything.

** Again in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', though here imposed by terrain. Calypso hated both ships and their captains, so she created a huge typhoon that made maneuvering impossible (removing the Black Pearl's speed advantage) and made firing the cannons impossible (removing the Flying Dutchman's firepower advantage). Thus it came down to a brutal ship to ship fight between crews she hoped neither would survive.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads Battle of Hampton Roads]], a naval battle of the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar, featured the first engagement between ironclad warships -- the USS ''Monitor'' and the CSS ''Virginia'' (formerly the USS ''Merrimack''). Each had thick metal armor, but their cannons were not capable of breaking through the armor of the other. The two ships spent three hours NoSell-ing each other's attacks before withdrawing, each ship thinking it had "won" the engagement.

* When they finally fight in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11171261/58/Free-from-Force Free from Force]]'', Anakin and Palpatine are incapable of predicting each other's attacks due to Anakin temporarily cutting himself off from the Force to save Padme's life. Since Anakin can't use the Force, he can't use CombatClairvoyance but neither does he have a presence in the Force to sense.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/28698468/chapters/70359273 Shine A Little Light]]'', both ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'' and [[Literature/GoodOmens Crowley]] are afraid of each other. Crowley is terrified of Lucifer because the King of Hell is powerful enough to end him on a whim. Lucifer knows that Crowley is cunning and manipulative (not knowing that Crowley took credit for humanity's atrocities), and fears for his mortal friends.

** Ghost- and Dragon-typed Pokémon are notably vulnerable to their own element, especially the Dragons as they are the only element that Dragon-type attacks get an advantage against at all. It is also common competitive practice to teach a given Pokémon moves from other elements specifically to counter the types they are weak against (such as giving a Fire-type user the Grass-type "Solar Beam" for use against Water-, Rock- and Ground-types).

** Two Pyros will fall into this trope. Both are resistant to each other's signature ability (setting each other on fire), their unlockables are useless as the Flare Gun and Axtinguisher require their opponent to be on fire , meaning the winner is decided by either shotguns (if either has one equipped), flamethrowers (which would require either participant to move into the range of the other's flamethrower) or melee weapons (which do have some advantages over each other but don't make all that much difference).
** Demomen equipped with the Chargin' Targe might also qualify (since it increases their resistance to explosives and removes their ability to ambush enemies with sticky grenades).

** AS the game is realism-based, the characters are so weak that everyone, even armored targets, are frequently killed with one or two shots, especially if armor-piercing ammo is used.
** Additionally, the use of flashlights or tracer rounds may count: For the former, the position of enemies can be revealed more easily at the cost of exposing your own position, while tracer rounds help show when you're running low on ammo [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment at the cost of showing when you're running low on ammo.]]

* In ''Anime/MyHeroAcademia'', there's the Eijiro Kirishima vs. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu match. Both of them have similar powers (Eijiro can harden his skin into something about as strong as steel while Tetsutetsu can turn his body into steel), so both whale on each other without hurting the other. They eventually knock each other out at the same time.

LikeCannotCutLike and TakesOneToKillOne are {{Sub Trope}}s. If the disadvantage both participants share is that they have the combat skill of a small orange and can only ineffectually slap at each other, that's a WimpFight.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Traveler}}'', Karen's usage of crippling status moves can completely dismantle teams of powerhouses like Ash's and Lance's. However, her pokémon are relatively frail so a single solid hit from said powerhouses can take them out of the fight entirely.

** Luffy and Crocodile both have devil fruits that exploit the weaknesses of each other. As a blood man, Luffy can easily coat himself (or Crocodile) in blood so Crododile can't disperse into sand, but as a sand man, Crocodile can completely dry out Luffy with a touch of his hand.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUGCpClNgwQ This video]] should be a good demonstration of why holding a MirrorMatch between two [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Exdeath]] players in the ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' series is a bad idea. For context, Exdeath is a character whose entire gameplan is focused around counters, and his non-counter versions of his attacks are all pitifully slow and thus, easily countered. This forces him to resort to his pitifully slow and weak teleport attack to combo into something that can actually deal damage, which is unsurprisingly very, very slow at defeating the opponent. It's entirely probable that an Exdeath mirror could last hours if both players know how to use him, as nothing else Exdeath does can get around his own defensive abilities. ''[[UpdatedRerelease Duodecim]]'' helped solve this problem by allowing Exdeath to cancel almost all his moves into a counter, so an Exdeath mirror match revolves around [[IKnowYouKnowThatIKnow baiting out the opponent's counters to counterattack them]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUGCpClNgwQ This video]] should be a good demonstration of why holding a MirrorMatch between two [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Exdeath]] players in the ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' series is a bad idea. For context, Exdeath is a character whose entire gameplan is focused around counters, and his non-counter versions of his attacks are all pitifully slow and thus, easily countered. This forces him to resort to his pitifully slow and weak teleport attack to combo into something that can actually deal damage, which is unsurprisingly very, very slow at defeating the opponent. It's entirely probable that an Exdeath mirror could last hours if both players know how to use him, as nothing else Exdeath does can get around his own defensive abilities.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' had three sets of opposing elements (Red/Blue, Green/Yellow, Black/White), each dealing increased damage to its opposite and reduced damage to itself; every character in the ([[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters rather large]]) roster was assigned an elemental affinity.

* In Dynamite's ''Radio/TheShadow'' #7, the Shadow and Red Raja, having trained under the same old masters, NoSell each other's supernatural powers. They end up settling things in a SwordFight.

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', the fight between Natsu and Totomaru starts out this way. Totomaru has power over all flame, including that of his opponents, which allows him to redirect Natsu's attacks. Natsu is not only immune to fire [[FeedItWithFire but eats it to restore his strength]]. Of course, Totomaru has the small advantage that one type of his fire smells (and tastes) horrible and makes Natsu gag. Natsu finally breaks the stalemate by making a fireball so big that Totomaru couldn't control it, though he still technically didn't "win": Natsu's goal was destroying the valuable piece of machinery Totomaru was guarding (which he did) and Totomaru went down from a sneak attack via the arrival of [[BigDamnHeroes Gray and Elfman]].

** Shigaraki vs Star And Stripe seems to be this on paper. Both of them have quirks that allow them to kill anyone with a touch. Shigaraki can flat out disintegrate people if he touches them, and Star And Stripe can impose a rule on anyone she touches and calls the name of (such as, if you move your heart will stop). That second criteria, however, proves to be her undoing, because Shigaraki is currently having an identity crisis and so is unable to be directly affected by Star And Stripes' quirk,

* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', it's stated that each of the three power blocs is functionally invincible through a combination of geographic and demographic factors, and that therefore none of them are capable of winning the ForeverWar between them. Through the wonders of doublethink, the leaders of each one are simultaneously in denial about this and genuinely attempting to conquer the world ''and'' counting on the war to continue forever and thus provide an excuse to keep the lower classes down.

* In ''Anime/MyHeroAcademia'', there's the Eijiro Kirishima vs. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu match. Both of them have similar powers (Eijiro can harden his skin into something about as strong as steel while Tetsutetsu can turn his body into steel), so both wail on each other without hurting the other. They eventually knock each other out at the same time.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads Battle of Hampton Roads]], a naval battle of the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar, featured the first engagement between ironclad warships -- the USS ''Monitor'' and the CSS ''Virginia'' (formerly the USS ''Merrimack''). Each had thick metal armor, but their cannons were not capable of breaking through the armor of the other. The two ships spent three hours NoSell-ing each other's attacks before withdrawing.