History Main / RunningBothSides

* In MarvelComics, I think it turned out recently that HYDRA secretly owned S.H.I.E.L.D. I forget what the advantage was to the HYDRA leadership.

[[PlayingWith/RunningBothSides The Playing With page]].

* In the ''DoctorWho'' [[VirginNewAdventures New Adventures]] novel ''Toy Soldiers'', there's a war where it turns out that both sides are being run by the same supercomputer, which had set the whole thing up because it had heard somewhere that periods of conflict often produce flowerings of creativity.

* In the ''{{Fablehaven}}'' series, [[spoiler: it turns out that the Sphinx is both the captain of the Knights of Dawn, dedicated to keeping the demon prison sealed, and the mastermind behind The Society of The Evening Star, who are trying to gain control of the means to open the prison.]]

* Admiral Tolwyn in WingCommander IV, sort of - he claims to favor peace while the Black Lance forces under his command carry out a FalseFlagOperation to incriminate the Border worlds.

* In 1999, {{WWF}} featured a long and convoluted storyline about TheUndertaker and his [[PowerStable Ministry of Darkness]] attempting to seize control of the WWF from [[HeelFaceTurn former bad guy]] {{Vince McMahon}} under the orders of a mysterious figure known only as "The Higher Power". This "Higher Power" turned out to be... Vince [=McMahon=]. The Ministry of Darkness then merged with the Corporation to become the Corporate Ministry, and about five months of storyline were [[ShaggyDogStory thrown out the window]].

* In ''AssassinsCreed,'' [[spoiler: Al Mualim is secretly leading both the assassins and the Templars.]]

* It's hard to tell how many sides there are in ''XenoSaga'' due to a ThirtyXanatosPileup of impressive complexity, but [[spoiler:Wilhelm]] is in charge of all but one of them - the party.

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* In TheMatrix Reloaded (movie 2), it is revealed that the Machine intelligence known as The Architect designed the Matrix to periodically spit out a messiah figure to start a small revolt, and Neo is the sixth. The reason? Human free will adds just enough chaos to the system to prevent totally virtual management; allow one human to restart the war, and the system remains stable. As the Architect puts it, "Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the Matrix." In essence, the war is just another part of the operation of the power plant known as the Matrix.

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* There was a set of Point Sci-Fi books, starting with ''Random Factor'', where a giant space war has been going on for years. Then stuff starts going wrong, and the main character manages to gain access to the sentient AI running his side's war effort... but finds that actually, the two sides are orchestrating the war pretty precisely. Oh, and the people actually fighting and dying are half-size test-tube clones, on half-size space ships. Saves money, that way.

* ''[[{{ptitle6hmw2g74}} Ender's Game]]'' has Peter and Valentine Wiggin. They are genius children using primitive, pre-Internet SockPuppets, Locke and Demosthenes respectively, to manipulate the major political thinkers through phoney debates; Demosthenes a warmongering demogogue, Locke a diplomacy-minded intellectual, and contrary to Peter or Valentine's actual beliefs. It's all an elaborate plan on Peter's part to formally establish himself as a great political mind, with influence and hopefully ''power'', without the handicap of his age.

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* ''AceCombat 5'': The Belkans are aggravating/running both sides of the war.

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* Borderline example from the old ''{{Crackdown}}''. TheReveal at the end of the game is that the leader of The Agency, a superpowered law-enforcement agency for which you're an agent, was the reason the city turned into such a den of crime in the first place — he'd been supplying the gangs with weapons, transportation and intel for years, turning them from random punks into serious threats. Thus, he got an excuse to declare martial law and unleash the Agents on the city... exactly what the point was, though, is never explained.

* In {{Headhunter}}, the head of the criminal organisation also turns out to be the one in charge of the Anti-Crime Network.

* [[spoiler:Irving]] of ''WildArms2'' is behind both ARMS and Odessa. The theory was that [[XanatosGambit either the world unites behind ARMS to defeat Odessa and then the true BigBad, or else Odessa conquers the world and deals with the problem themselves]].

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* Boris Badenov may have done something like this once in ''RockyAndBullwinkle'' in the arc "Missouri Mish-Mash." You might have to do a little research on it.

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* Look at old photos of AbrahamLincoln and Jefferson Davis, the two leaders in the AmericanCivilWar. It's obviously the same guy. He wears a big fake beard as "Lincoln" and a swoopy wig as "Davis", but the cheekbones and eyes are identical.
* I believe there is a RealLife example of the same person owning two "rival" publishing companies. I forget who, and it might have just been mentioned as a possibility in something.
* [[http://www.businessinsider.com/glenn-beck-george-soros-is-really-george-schwartz-2010-11 George Soros, at least according to Glenn Beck... maybe.]]
* According to JackChick, the Roman Catholic Church founded and runs both Islam and the Ku Klux Klan (both of which are anti-Catholic to varying degrees).
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* In ''NineteenEightyFour'', the resistance turns out to be run by the central government.

* Boris Badenov may have done something like this once in ''RockyAndBullwinkle'' in the arc "Missouri Mis-Mass". You might have to do a little research on it.

* In ''{{Drowtales}}'', it turns out that the mysterious Nidraa'chal leader is actually [[spoiler: Snadhya'runes Vel'Sharen.]]

* In {{Headhunter}}, the head of the criminal organisation also turns out to be the one in charge of the Anti-Crime Network
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* In ''DarkerThanBlack'', nearly everyone works for TheSyndicate, although most of them don't know it. Part of the point of this is to trick Contractors into wiping themselves out, as most of them work for various intelligence agencies in (seeming) opposition.

* IIRC, In one of the ''{{Paranoia}}'' supplements, it's revealed that Friend Computer actually founded all the secret societies, just to see what would happen.

* In ''RedVsBlue'', both sides report to Vic at Red/Blue Command.