History Main / OpponentSwitch

Our group of heroes are fighting against the PsychoRangers, {{Evil Twin}}s or 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 equal, so all of them switch opponents, which wins them the battle. For some reason this almost never leads to Evil Twin A being defeated by Twin B but Evil Twin B defeating Twin A, as might be expected if they're actual equal to their doubles, nor the evil ones winning due to the change. There just seems to be some rule that switching opponents automatically guarantees heroic victory, even if it doesn't make sense. A common subversion of EigenPlot.

* One episode of of the 2003 Ninja Turtles Cartoon had Baxter Stockman create a Turtle Robot that scanned each of the TMNT as they went to attack it, once scanned the robot could replicate their weapons and fighting style, which worked, until the TMNT switched weapons with each other.

** The encyclopedia cancelled it, however: the Toa understood that the PsychoRangers were actually their inner evil, and reabsorbed them by accepting it.

* In ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', when [[spoiler:Luthor-Brainiac merged being]] pits the League against their own {{Evil Twin}}s, TheFlash, {{Batman}}, and MartianManhunter are able to defeat their doubles on their own, while the rest eventually switch opponents. Leads to an amusing exchange between Green Lantern and Hawkgirl, who both comment that the other one enjoys whacking their opponent a little ''too'' much.

* ''DenjiSentaiMegaranger''/''{{Power Rangers in Space}}'' did this with the Nejirangers / the original PsychoRangers. To elaborate: Each Psycho Ranger had absorbed the fighting knowledge of his/her opposing Power Ranger, and was thus able to properly defend and retaliate. At first, The Power Rangers did the normal "Switch opponents" variant, but since the rangers were {{Color Coded for Your Convenience}}, the Psychos just found their rangers again and switched back. Then the Power Rangers went in all dressed Like the Blue Ranger...
** [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy And then the Psychos memorized each Ranger's voice so they won't fall for that trick either]]. Possibly the most justified case for a show not going with this trope for more than one episode.

** And then the Psychos memorized each Ranger's voice so they won't fall for that trick either. Possibly the most justified case for a show not going with this trope for more than one episode.

Our group of heroes are fighting against the PsychoRangers, {{Evil Twin}}s or 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 equal, so all of them switch opponents, which wins them the battle. A common subversion of EigenPlot.

* A backup story in ''Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham'' has the [[FantasticFour Fantastic Fur]] meet an evil set of themselves, and they predicably go after their doppelgangers as per usual. Then the Reed Richards says that they should change opponents -- so the Thing fights the Invisible Girl and Reed fights the Torch -- then the Thing gets an idea... rather than fighting each other, they should fight the bad guy versions of themselves.

* Subverted in the ''OrderOfTheStick''. When the Linear Guild is failing to make progress against the Order, Nale suggests to Thog that they trade opponents. This actually makes things worse, as Elan's normally useless bardic magic is effective against Thog, and Roy has been holding back a strong urge to beat the tar out of [[EvilTwin Nale]]'s twin brother Elan for quite some time.

* Subverted in ''{{The Order of the Stick}}''. When the Linear Guild is failing to make progress against the Order, Nale suggests to Thog that they trade opponents. This actually makes things worse, as Elan's normally useless bardic magic is effective against Thog, and Roy has been holding back a strong urge to beat the tar out of [[EvilTwin Nale]]'s twin brother Elan for quite some time.

* Subverted in ''OrderOfTheStick''. When the Linear Guild is failing to make progress against the Order, Nale suggests to Thog that they trade opponents. This actually makes things worse, as Elan's normally useless bardic magic is effective against Thog, and Roy has been holding back a strong urge to beat the tar out of [[EvilTwin Nale]]'s twin brother Elan for quite some time.

* Subverted in ''{{The Order of the Stick}}''. When the Linear Guild is failing to make progress against the Order, Nale suggests to Thog that they trade opponents. This actually makes things worse, as Elan's normally useless bardic magic is effective against Thog, and Roy has been holding back a strong urge to beat the tar out of [[EvilTwin Nale]]'s twin brother Elan for quite some time.

** And then the Psychos memorized each ranger's voice so they won't fall for that trick either. Possibly the most justified case for a show not going with this trope for more than one episode.

* Subverted in ''TheOrderOfTheStick''. When the Linear Guild is failing to make progress against the Order, Nale suggests to Thog that they trade opponents. This actually makes things worse, as Elan's normally useless bardic magic is effective against Thog, and Roy has been holding back a strong urge to beat the tar out of [[EvilTwin Nale]]'s twin brother Elan for quite some time.

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** And then the Psycho's memorize each ranger's voice so they won't fall for that trick either. Possibly the most justified case for a show not going with this trope for more than one episode.

** And then the Psycho's memorise each ranger's voice so they won't fall for that trick either. Possibly the most justified case for a show not going with this trope for more than one episode.

** Each year there are also frequently a set of enemies who are similarly colour coded, such as the Bohrok, the Rahkshi, the Vahki and so on. However the Toa don't generally express any particular desire to specifically go after their same colour counterparts.

* Subverted in ''{{The Order of the Stick}}''. When the Linear Guild is failing to make progress against the Order, Nale suggests to Thog that they trade opponents. This actually makes things worse, as Elan's normally useless bardic magic is effective against Thog, and Roy has been holding back a strong urge to beat the tar out of [[EvilTwin Nale]]'s twin brother Elan for quite some time.

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!!Examples:
[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In a backup story in ''Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham'' the [[FantasticFour Fantastic Fur]] meet an evil set of themselves, and they predicably go after their doppelgangers as per usual. Then the Reed Richards says that they should change opponents - so the Thing fights the Invisible Girl and Reed fights the Torch - then the Thing gets an idea...rather than fighting each other, they should fight the bad guy versions of themselves.

* This was part of the premise of the MarvelComics crossover ''Acts Of Vengeance''.
* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in the [[SilverAge very first]] JusticeLeague story featuring the [[MirrorUniverse Crime Syndicate of America]]: there, the [=JLAers=] only won when each member took on their specific counterparts with a series of [[OverclockingAttack Overclocking Attacks]].
* This happened in one issue of Archie's ''SonicTheHedgehog'', where Sonic and the Freedom Fighters fight their evil mirror universe doppelgangers.

* ''{{Runaways}}'' does this during the final fight of the first volume, when the kids confront their parents. Gert's dinosaur companion Old Lace is incapable of attacking any of her family, and Karolina's family's powers don't work on each other. "Ready...set...switch!"

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* DenjiSentaiMegaranger / PowerRangersInSpace did this with the Nejirangers / the original PsychoRangers. To elaborate: Each Psycho Ranger had absorbed the fighting knowledge of his/her opposing Power Ranger, and was thus able to properly defend and retaliate. At first, The Power Rangers did the normal "Switch opponents" variant, but since the rangers were ColorCodedForYourConvenience, The Psychos just found their rangers again and switched back. Then the Power Rangers went in all dressed Like the Blue Ranger...

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:{{Toys}}]]
* ''{{BIONICLE}}'': how the Toa Mata defeated their PsychoRangers counterparts in ''Tales of the Masks''.

[[AC:WebComics]]
* Subverted in ''OrderOfTheStick''. When the Linear Guild is failing to make progress against the Order of the Stick, Nale suggests to Thog that they trade opponents. This actually makes things worse, as Elan's normally useless bardic magic is effective against Thog, and Roy has been holding back a strong urge to beat the tar out of [[EvilTwin Nale]]'s twin brother Elan for quite some time.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

-->'''Cyborg''': ''"Told you I could kick your butt."''
* In the [[{{Series/X-Men}} Fox series]], the ''[[{{Comicbook/X-Men}} X-Men]]'' once fought their evenly-matched counterparts in X-Factor until Beast suggested they switch.
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* DenjiSentaiMegaranger / PowerRangersInSpace did this with the Nejirangers / the original PsychoRangers.

Our group of heroes are fighting against the PsychoRangers, {{Evil Twin}}s or 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 equal, so all of them switch opponents, which wins them the battle.

* ''TeenTitans'': Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire fight against their PsychoRangers counterparts, switching in the end to defeat them (Starfire to Evil Cyborg, Beast Boy to Evil Starfire, and Cyborg to Evil Beast Boy - "Told you I could kick your butt").

* When the Thunderbolts were ordered by the governmen to rough up the New Avengers (who were looking into things they didn't like), the Avengers tried to do this, only to find out the Thunderbolts had [[GenreSavvy predicted it]].
* {{Runaways}} does this during the final fight of the first volume, when the kids confront their parents. Gert's dinosaur companion Old Lace is incapable of attacking any of her family, and Karolina's family's powers don't work on each other. "Ready...set...switch!"

* In the Fox series, the X-Men once fought their evenly-matched counterparts in X-Factor until Beast suggested they switch.

* ''TeenTitans'': Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire fight against their PsychoRangers counterparts, switching in the end to defeat them (Starfire to Evil Cyborg, Beast Boy to Evil Starfire, and Cyborg to Evil Beast Boy).

* In a backup story in ''Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham'' the [[FantasticFour Fantastic Fur]] meet an evil set of themselves, and they predicably go after their doppelgangers as per usual. Then the Reed Richards says that they should change opponants - so the Thing fights the Invisible Girl and Reed fights the Torch - then the Thing gets an idea...rather than fighting each other, they should fight the bad guy versions of themselves.

* In ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', when [[spoiler:Luthor-Brainiac merged being]] pits the League against their own {{Evil Twin}}s, only TheFlash is able to defeat his on his own, while the rest eventually switch opponents. Leads to an amusing exchange between Green Lantern and Hawkgirl, who both comment that the other one enjoys whacking their opponent a little ''too'' much.

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