Juxtaposed Halves Shot

Chapter 36 — The fight of the fathers^note Chapter by Asura & Salagir

A stock pose that involves either juxtaposing half the face or body of two characters in the middle or putting them beside each other and showing only half of each person.

The purpose of this is to show the two sides of a conflict. Sometimes, characters related to one half are also literally on their side in the character's half of the shot.

Other times, this is just to show that one person has two sides within them. There usually aren't any other characters in this variation if used as a cover or poster.

Besides conflict, it is sometimes simply used to show partners or opposites, like past/future, good/evil, 2D/3D etc. in one shot.

Compare and contrast Mirrored Confrontation Shot for a similar but conflict-exclusive trope. Compare Versus Character Splash, where two characters' faces are briefly shown in a Splash Screen as a prelude to a battle in a Fighting Game; Half Empty Two Shot, a two-character shot where one character is conspicuously absent; and Fearful Symmetry, where both characters involved are usually shown in profile in an ongoing Blade Lock. Might overlap with Juxtaposed Reflection Poster. See Two-Faced when a character literally has two different halves.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Captain Earth has this between Daichi and Teppei.
• This kind of shot was used numerous times in the later parts of the "Future Trunks Saga" of Dragon Ball Super, most notably when Gokū and Vegeta face off against Gokū Black and Future Zamasu and with Future Trunks and Future Mai when they seal Future Zamasu away with the Mafūba technique.
• Naruto does this on occasion with Naruto and Sasuke. It's also seen with Kakashi and Obito. Naruto and Gaara also get one during their fight in the anime to reinforce the fact that they aren't so different.
• The first opening of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL has a brief shot like this for Yuma and Astral.

Arts

• A variation from the 6th-century AD is the icon of Christ Pantocrator from St. Catherine's monastery in Sinai. It depicts a single person (Christ), but with radically different expressions on the left and right side of the image, representing the twin divine and human natures joined in the person of Jesus.

Comic Books

• The first issue's cover of the Batman/Aliens crossover features half of Batman's face on the left and half of a xenomorph's mug on the right, separated just by shadows.
• The Batwoman story arc "Elegy" has several of these for Batwoman and her opponent Alice, which do double duty as foreshadowing that Alice is Kate's long-lost twin sister.
• The comic continuation of Gargoyles has a scene where Goliath confronts his evil clone Thailog. The panel just before Thailog stabs Goliath in the gut is styled with their face halves together, contrasting their similarities and differences. The only real similarity they have is shape of facial features.
• The Lone Wolf graphic novel The Skull of Agarash uses a juxtaposed halves shot in the same panel to show Grandmaster Lone Wolf and Guildmaster Banedon both leaning over a Crystal Ball while they're communicating with each other at a distance.
• The cover art of Oliver Tree vs. Little Ricky depicts the two titular characters with this kind of juxtaposition, with the humanoid Oliver as the left half and the grey alien Ricky as the right half.
• In the Silver Age Spider-Man comics, when Peter Parker's Spidey Sense is triggered while he's in civvies, we often see his face half normal and half in his costume's mask.
• Done in the Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover miniseries for the reveal that Flint and Vandal Savage are the same person in this timeline.
• The cover of◊ Thunderbolts #10 had a picture of the team with strategically placed tears that show below the members in their previous getups as the Masters of Evil.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • An Ultimate Spider-Man picture shows a full-body picture of Spider-Man, except one half is Peter Parker's Spidey, and the other half is Miles Morales's.
  • Ultimate Wolverine: The recap page has one with Wolverine and Jimmy. There is another between Jimmy and Quicksilver later on.

Films — Animation

• The home video covers for Mulan show one half of her face hidden by a sword. The other half is reflected in the sword, but as her male soldier persona.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks:
    • During "Let's Have a Battle (of the Bands)", in a close-up Aria and Sonata's faces merge to create such a shot (the "partners" variant). Then it split in the middle to reveal Adagio's face.
    • The cover of the novelization◊ My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks: The Mane Event also uses one to illustrate the conflict in the book, with Twilight Sparkle and Adagio Dazzle's half-faces separated by a microphone stand.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games:
    • Sunset Shimmer and Human Twilight shortly appear as two juxtaposed halves in the opening credits.
    • The animatic for the unused version of "What More Is Out There" also uses such a shot of Sunset and Twilight toward the end of their Distant Duet.
• The Prince of Egypt does this during "The Plagues" between Moses and Rameses. It shows a closeup of Moses' face as he looks over the city, torn up over all the suffering brought by the plagues. Then the left side of his face (from the viewer's perspective) changes to that of Rameses, who by refusing to accede to Moses is allowing the plagues to continue. For added contrast, Moses' face is cast in yellow lighting while Rameses' is cast in blue.

Films — Live-Action

• Face/Off's poster/cover juxtaposes three quarters of Sean Archer (John Travolta) with Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) using shadows to split them, also averting Misplaced-Names Poster.
• Friday the 13th: Jason X's poster parts Jason into his normal and cyborg halves with his new "machete" which shows the reflection of Rowan screaming.
• It: The character posters for It: Chapter 2 show the adult actors for the Losers Club bifurcated by a red balloon, which shows their younger self from the first film.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • A promo poster for Captain America: Civil War uses a juxtaposition of Steve Rogers (Captain America) on the left and Tony Stark (Iron Man) on the right, while asking the memetic question "Whose side are you on?" For added symbolism, Steve's side is tinted blue and Tony's side is tinted red.
  • Near the climax of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spidey is stuck under fallen rubble and takes off his mask to better breathe. The mask fall into a puddle and partially sink, while the water reflects half of Peter's face on the other side, giving us a dual picture of Spider-Man/Peter Parker. This view reminds him of what he aspires to be, and inspires his Heroic Second Wind.
  • At the beginning of Spider-Man: No Way Home, when Spider-Man's secret identity is revealed to the whole world, the iconic picture using half of Peter Parker's face and half of Spider-Man's mask is prominently displayed, including on New York's jumbo screens and Flash Thompson's smartphone.
• The posters/cover of Me, Myself & Irene have Jim Carrey's face split in half, showing his character's "nice guy" and "asshole" personalities. The "Me" and "Myself" in the title refer to the dissociative identity disorder that Charlie Baileygates experiences.
• Just before the final match in The Mighty Ducks, a newspaper has a shot of the two rival coaches like this.
• One of the most famous examples is in Persona with the main characters Alma and Elisabet in the climax. Their faces are juxtaposed to show that their individual identities have become indistinguishable from each other (or they've melded, or they were each other all along, or something).
• Space Jam uses a variation in one of the film's posters with Michael Jordan beside Bugs Bunny and half of their mugs at the left and right side of the poster.

Gamebooks

• The series' logo from the French edition of Les Messagers du Temps features half the faces of the Prince and Princess of Time side-by-side. Although instead of a clean separation between them, the space is occupied by half a skull in darkness.

Literature

• Star Wars Expanded Universe: The cover of Queen's Shadow depicts Padmé Amidala half in the clothes and makeup of the Queen of Naboo, and half in more ordinary clothes with no makeup.

Live-Action TV

• Better Call Saul: In one character portrait◊ for Season 5, Jimmy is portrayed this way through his suits, to symbolize his position as a criminal lawyer.
• Juxtaposed halves is a common motif used in the opening montage of Grimm, first we see a half-and-half shot of Monroe; the right hand side is his human form and the lefthand side he's in his wessen (monster) form. A few seconds later we see it again but with another character, Rosalee. The intersitials for Season 3 on the UK channel Watch do the same thing with Nick's zombie form.
• The opening credits of The Incredible Hulk end with a split shot of David Banner sighing on the left while his alter-ego the Hulk roars on the right.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • One poster◊ for Cloak and Dagger does this to Cloak and Dagger, emphasizing how they're polar opposites.
  • Moon Knight has a poster like this◊, albeit with the questionable decision of using opposite angles in each half.
  • In the first episode of Ms Marvel, as Mr. Wilson the school advisor is giving Kamala a speech saying "right now, I see a girl divided", the screen splits in two, each half slowly rotating to focus on their respective faces until their half-faces are juxtaposed.
• Star Trek: Voyager. Played with in "Tattoo". Chakotay and an alien are facing each other, so there's an Over the Shoulder shot of Chakotay, then an over-the-shoulder shot of the alien, each time showing half their face with the other half blocked by the person they're talking to.

Music

• The cover of the Daft Punk album Random Access Memories features both halves of the duo's robot helmets perfectly juxtaposed. Any worthy parody of it will also share the same design.

Magazines

• The cover◊ of Doctor Who Magazine #449, looking at the way the series changes over the years, has a juxtaposed halves shot of Christopher Eccleston and Matt Smith.

Pinballs

• Godzilla (Stern): The artwork at the very front of the Limited Edition model◊ features part of Godzilla and Mechagodzilla's heads, each one half of a whole. It hammers home the contrast between the two, the central theme of that model's art package.

Pro Wrestling

• The posters for the WWE Invasion Pay Per View had half Vince McMahon and half Shane McMahon, since the invading force was the WCW/ECW contingent led by Shane. The trouble with the image was that father and son looked so much alike, it just looked like Vince got Botox on only half his face.

Puppet Shows

• One of The Muppets Film Parody Calendar posters is a take-off of Face/Off, with the Original Miss Piggy from Season 1 of The Muppet Show on one side and the current, smoother Piggy puppet on the other. The title: Face/Lift.

Video Games

• Capcom vs.:
  • Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes: When performing a Duo Team Attack, your team's character portraits briefly appear onscreen in this manner. For example.◊
  • As a nod to the above, the intro for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars features a similar shot with Ryu and Soki to signify a Delayed Hyper Cancel.

• The cover◊ of Civilization: Call to Power 2 is like this, contrasting an ancient Egyptian with a modern fighter pilot.
• Luminous of MapleStory has his character portraits which depict his normal and corrupted side.
• The cover for Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones features The Prince and Dark Prince juxtaposed on each other. The Wii version Prince of Persia: Rival Swords instead opts for Mirrored Confrontation Shot.
• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time case cover uses this with the eponymous characters to contrast them as "Flesh and Steel".
• The cover of Sonic Unleashed has the left half showing Sonic's normal form and the right half showing his Werehog form.
• The cover art◊ of the Kiwami remake of Yakuza features Kiryu and Nishikiyama with half of their faces covered similar to Face/Off while Haruka is in the background.

Web Animation

• DEATH BATTLE!:
  • "Ryu vs. Scorpion": The last shot of the introduction, right before the battle itself, is a shot of half of Ryu and Scorpion's faces. The symmetry is interesting here, since Ryu's half is animation while Scorpion's half is live-action.
  • As the "Madara vs. Aizen" fight is about to reach its climax, we get a shot with Aizen's left half on one side, Madara's right side on the other, and both of them laughing as they clearly enjoy the fight.
• The title picture on Red vs. Blue is an helmet split red on the left and blue on the right. Although beyond the colors, both halves are identical.
• RWBY: In "The Lost Fable" the gods of light and darkness are shown in this position when they sentence Salem to immortality. It's the only time the two characters in question are ever seen acting in complete agreement on something, even to the point of speaking in unison.

Webcomics

• Dragon Ball Multiverse: The cover page for Chapter 36 does this with Bardock and King Cold. Bardock's side depicts people from the Planet Trade Organization and Cold's side features Saiyans.

Web Videos

• The Nostalgia Critic's crossover review for The Force Awakens: the promo picture of the episode, as seen on YouTube, features the half-faces of the Critic and The Cinema Snob separated by a lightsaber.

Western Animation

• Kim Possible: The episode "Emotion Sickness" has a shot of Kim and Shego styled like this◊ when their "moodulator" chips are set on angry.
• Marvel's Spider-Man: The poster used as the page image uses half of Peter Parker's face on the right and Spider-Man's on the left, separated by a web line. However, it subverts the trope a bit with the Spider-Man half being upside-down.
• Miraculous Ladybug: In episode "Antibug", at the peak of their confrontation, half of Ladybug and Antibug's faces are seen juxtaposed◊ with a fierce expression.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Used during the song "What My Cutie Mark Is Telling Me" in the episode "Magical Mystery Cure", one shot with all six of the mane cast.
  • During the Distant Duet in "Spice Up Your Life", the split screen ends up used to show Rarity's and Pinkie's half-faces split in the middle, followed by Coriander's and Saffron's.

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