History NotSoDifferentRemark / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
** One episode involves a Japanese ninja stealing the secret of a "deadly touch" technique and facing off Batman for a climactic fight. Batman, himself trained as a ninja, is forced to hear the villain claim this trope. In response, he tells the guy that today, he's fighting as a samurai not a ninja. (Later, when Bruce talked to his [[OldMaster sensei]] about it, the old man put his doubts to rest, denying that Batman was anything like a ninja at all, pointing out that he had tried to rescue his foe and refused to use the "deadly touch" technique himself, despite knowing how to. In other words, Batman had the one thing a ninja lacks: honor.)
** Both ''Vendetta'' and ''A Bullet For Bullock'' feature these between Batman the criminal vigilante and Bullock the crude unlikable oaf, with Batman admitting it in the former and Bullock admitting it in the latter. They don't like each other one bit, as Batman is a "criminal freakjob just like all the rest of 'em" (to quote Bullock directly), and let's be real ''nobody'' likes Bullock, but they ''are'' very similar in how neither of them are corruptible in the slightest, how they both bend (sometimes ''break'') the law to get results, how the law tolerates them because of the results they get, how they are generally misunderstood by most, and for how they both just want to make Gotham a safer place for everyone. Batman is even taken aback in ''A Bullet For Bullock'' at just how surprisingly effective a CombatPragmatist and detective Bullock is, when Bullock proves himself almost as effective as Batman himself in a fight against a criminal gang.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'':
** In "Rebirth", the series premiere, Terry convinces Bruce not to stop him by appealing to [[DeathByOriginStory their common loss]]:
--->'''Bruce:''' I'll shut down the suit again -- and this time, it'll be for good.\\
'''Terry:''' I read up on you, Mr. Wayne. I know how you lost your folks. The guy who murdered my dad is on that transport. This is my one chance to nail him.\\
''[[{{Beat}} (pause)]]''\\
'''Bruce:''' The hover pads are in the northeast sector.\\
'''Terry:''' Wish me luck.\\
'''Bruce:''' Good luck.
** In "King's Ransom", King of the Royal Flush Gang rants about how he was always compared to his predecessor and screams, "Do you have any idea what it's like living in someone's shadow?!" Terry takes him down and says, "Actually, I can relate." Terry has constantly been compared to the original Batman.
** In "Speak No Evil", Bruce and Terry return Fingers (a gorilla given human-level intelligence) to Africa, where he declares his intention to protect his home from poachers. When Terry expresses concern that Fingers knows [[SecretIdentity who they are]], Bruce says that he isn't worried:
--->'''Bruce:''' He's a kindred spirit if I've ever seen one.
* {{Subverted}} on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' -- when [[ParentalAbandonment orphaned]], [[FriendlessBackground friendless]] [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson]] meets his EvilCounterpart, Black Adam, he thinks of him as the closest thing he has to some sort of family and is convinced there must be some good left in him. It... doesn't really work out, though Billy gets a [[LongLostRelative different happy ending]] anyway.
-->'''Billy:''' He was a [[TheChosenOne Champion]]. Like me.\\
'''[[TheChooserOfTheOne Shazam]]:''' A Champion, yes. [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil But not like you]], young Billy. [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Not like you at all]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'', Tony learns that he and the Comicbook/BlackPanther have much in common after [[Comicbook/WarMachine Rhodey]] points out that they're both young men who became vigilantes to avenge their murdered fathers.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'':
** Lex Luthor proves himself a thorn in the League's side by constantly pointing out in the in-universe media how [[FalselyReformedVillain his apparent attempts at reformation]] are not so different from the more EasilyForgiven exploits of League members: After all... Superman had been brainwashed by Darkseid into leading war on Metropolis, and Hawkgirl betrayed the entire ''planet'' to the Thannagarians... [[PsychoticSmirk Why doesn't Lex deserve a second chance?]]
** In the finale of the second season of ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'', the heroes face AlternateUniverse {{evil twin}}s of themselves. Superman's evil twin taunts him as being not so different from him: "Power corrupts, after all, and who has more power than Superman?" This is followed by Superman following the trope exactly by shouting: "I'm not like you! I'm nothing like you!"

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' likes this a lot.
** Slade is ''obsessively'' fond of doing this to Robin, because he wants to make Robin his apprentice. It always makes Robin go into a frenzy of rage, which is always fun for Slade, who just clearly enjoys messing with his head. This was the premise of the "Apprentice" episodes. Robin ponders near the end, "Focused, serious, determined...as much as I hate to admit it, he and I are kind of alike. But there's one big difference between me and Slade -- [[ThePowerOfFriendship He doesn't have any friends]]." Slade even manages to do this when he's ''dead'' in "Haunted" by making Robin act crazy and violent through drugs. He later taunts him by referring to them as "friends" when they team up in "The End". Slade is not all that different from Robin's mentor Batman, with the key difference there being that, while they are both cold and meticulous, Slade is cruel and self serving while Batman is selfless and compassionate behind his ruthless exterior.
** An even worse example occurs in "Masks". When Robin tries to justify to Starfire why he didn't tell trust them enough to tell them he was Red X, she sadly tells him that he does indeed have a big thing in common with Slade: Neither of them trust anyone.
** Trigon also does this to Raven, calling her "[[InTheBlood daddy's little girl]]," with the double whammy of BecauseDestinySaysSo.
** Brother Blood tries to do this to Cyborg, but it's not as effective as with Robin, because Cyborg is a lot more grounded and Blood isn't as good at making things personal. In fact, it's Brother Blood who takes this the most seriously, to the point that he [[spoiler:makes himself into a cyborg]] to prove his point. [[spoiler:The hero's response? [[YoureInsane "You look like a psychopath!"]] ]]
** In "Forces of Nature", Beast Boy realizes Thunder and Lightning are the same as him due to them playing pranks, thinking they're harmless, and never realizing they could cause real harm with it and getting their friendships ruined. Similar to how Beast Boy's friendship with Starfire almost got jeopardized by this, Thunder has a similar situation when he tried to stop Lightning from doing more destruction.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'':
** Villains try this on Batman with increasing frequency as the series goes on. To his credit (and the misfortune of said villains), Batman proves quite capable of rationally explaining the key differences while he beats the snot out of them.
** Then again, while it's rare for a hero to come to this conclusion about himself without ''any'' prompting at all from the villain, Batman did so in the episode "The Big Dummy". Alfred was trying to convince Bruce to expand his social life online, and he had actually met a woman named Becky who he promised to meet. As Batman, in the main storyline, he confronted Scarface, and when learning that Arnold Wesker and Scarface were clearly a case of a SplitPersonality, where Scarface was the dominant personality, he started to wonder if he and Bruce Wayne were similar. If Batman was ''his'' dominant personality, he wondered if he could have ''any'' true relationship, because Bruce was nothing more than a lie. (At the conclusion, he decided against it, telling Alfred to meet with Becky and apologize. Becky asked if Bruce was married, and Alfred told her he was - to his work.)

* Rick of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' gets accused of this... by an alternate universe version of himself.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

** In ''A Bullet for Bullock'', after admitting he bends the law to get results, the titular detective remarks that he and Batman aren't so different. Naturally, as the two despise each other, this pisses Batman off. He's right, too. while Bullock ''is'' a crude dislikable oaf, he's not corrupt in the slightest, a surprisingly competent cop, and even an almost as capable CombatPragmatist as Batman himself. Ironically, what he and Batman have most in common is the law puts up with both of them (and they each put up with each other) because they both definitely get results.

* The [[spoiler: Lady bone demon's]] chilling [[Lastwords last words]] use this.

--> '''LBD:''' [[LittleNo No.]] [[LastWords To]] [[ArmorPiercingResponse pain.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/MonkieKid'' after the defeat of the [[spoiler:Lady bone demon]], Mk briefly talks to her in a [[AfterlifeAntechamber white void]] about her view on destiny. A part of the conversation plays out like this:
--> '''LBD:''' Know this, monkey. [[NotSoDifferentRemark You and I are not so different.]] We both fight for what we think is right. But pursuit only leads to one thing.
--> '''Mk:''' Mhmm. [[YouCantFightFate To destiny]], right?
--> '''LBD:''' No. To pain.

--->'''Leonardo:''' If there's on constant in the universe, it's the Shredder's big, fat ego!

-->'''Bruce:''' I'll shut down the suit again — and this time, it'll be for good.\\

* {{Subverted}} on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' -- when [[ParentalAbandonment orphaned]], [[FriendlessBackground friendless]] [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson]] meets his EvilCounterpart, Black Adam, he thinks of him as the closest thing he has to some sort of family and is convinced there must be some good left in him. It...doesn't really work out, though Billy gets a [[LongLostRelative different happy ending]] anyway.

'''Rick:''' Yeah, duh!

* Baloo and Rebecca from ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'', DependingOnTheWriter at least, while they have contrasting ethics and life preferences, [[SmallNameBigEgo their]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold manner]] [[GrumpyBear of handling]] [[GeniusDitz things]] are very similar. One could argue if not [[FishOutOfWater raised under a different environment and education]], Rebecca may have been something of a DistaffCounterpart for Baloo.

* In the series premiere of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Terry convinces Bruce not to stop him by appealing to [[DeathByOriginStory their common loss]]:

** In a third season episode, Bruce and Terry return Fingers (a gorilla given human-level intelligence) to Africa, where he declares his intention to protect his home from poachers. When Terry expresses concern that Fingers knows [[SecretIdentity who they are]], Bruce says that he isn't worried:

* In ''WesternAnimation/MissionHill'', one episode has Kevin accidentally start a fire in a store while trying to hide the evidence that he was masturbating in the bathroom, which is blamed on two bullies at school and has them on the hook for attempted murder. Kevin's conscience gets the better of him and he admits such in court to save them from life in prison -- when everyone starts making fun of him Andy [[BigBrotherInstinct jumps to his defense]] pointing out how ''everyone in that room'' masturbates and looks at porn, which they would never in a million years admit in public while Kevin had the guys to admit such under oath.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' likes this a lot.