Mirrored Confrontation Shot

I tried squinting. I still only see a vase!

A stock pose seen in cartoon openings, movie posters, video game box art, comics covers, paintings, this is a shot that pits two teams against each other on opposite sides of the screen. It can be a massive group shot, featuring all the series's heroes and villains, or show just two characters— all that matters is that the two sides are facing each other and look ready to strike.

Usually the left and right side are evenly balanced and evenly matched. The characters across from one another tend to be counterparts and are often mimicking the other side's pose, and suggesting Counterpart Combat Coordination.

This trope can be used for thematic reasons, to emphasize how the characters aren't so different and the villain is the dark mirror of the other, but it's just as likely to be a dynamic version of the Team Shot with villainy added for spice.

A variant often seen in fight scenes involves a stationary long shot framing two groups running at each other into combat, often one-on-one as a Counterpart Combat Coordination. Usually they don't start fighting all at once, rather, it starts in the back or front of the line and moves to the other side from there.

Compare Juxtaposed Halves Shot (where half of two characters' sides/faces are juxtaposed to or beside each other), Fearful Symmetry (where both characters involved are usually shown in profile in an ongoing Blade Lock), and Versus Character Splash (where two characters' faces are briefly shown in a Splash Screen as a prelude to a battle in a Fighting Game).

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• One Piece:
  • The manga does an interesting take on this. The cover for volume 21, "Utopia", has the remainder of the Baroque Works' agents (Mr. 0/Crocodile, Miss All Sunday/Nico Robin, Mr. 1/Daz Bones, Miss Doublefinger, Mr. 2/Bon Clay, Mr. 4, and Miss Merry Christmas) lined up and looking right, and volume 22, "Hope!", has the Straw Hats and allies (Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Vivi, Karoo, and Eyelashes) the same way, looking left. When the two covers are combined, (21-22) the result is a Mirrored Confrontation Shot. Later on in the anime, this same shot was used when Ivankov talks about the Alabasta incident to Bon Clay.
  • The cover art for the DVD version of Episode 0 does a more classic version, between Luffy and Shiki.
• The cover of Volume 15 of Naruto Has Naruto and Gaara both crouching/facing each other while each holding and object to further mirror each other (Sand Gourd for Gaara and the summoning contract for Naruto) Behind them there's also a Juxtaposed Halves Shot of Shukaku (Gaara's side) and Gamabunta (Naruto's side).
• The latest intro (Season four) of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds has Jack, Yusei and Crow against the Infinity Trio.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! LOVES this trope. It can be seen in MANY times throughout various openings and clips in the second anime series, GX, and even 5D's. It's a typical closing frame for any time a duel with the season's Big Bad is about to start.
• In Monster, Johan's "scenery of the end" is a shot of him and Tenma facing off, with the rest of the world literally removed from the picture. That their poses are not mirrored is an obvious thematic choice.
• Reborn! (2004) uses this trope about twice. First against the Varia, and then the Milliefiore.
• The opening for Fresh Pretty Cure! had, at one point near the end, one of these◊ with the initial three heroines at the right and the initial Labyrinth trio at the left. After Setsuna's Heel–Face Turn, it changes so she is located at the other side with the Cures, with her spot in the original shot filled in by Norza.
• Pokémon: The Series
  • A recurring occurence during matches, where the scene will cut to a view showing a shot (like this one◊) with both Trainers facing and glaring at each other.
  • The first opening theme for Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl features Ash and The Rival Paul with their respective teams; before the opening changed to reflect the events of future episodes, it is symmetrical (in a sense): they both have a Flying-type, an Electric-type, and a primate-based Pokémon.
• Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time has it in the opening, with Team Xros Heart facing off against their rival team of Hunters.
• In Planetes, the secondary characters are presented like this, first a group on the left side and then another on the right side, their positions expanding outwards in an accordion-like fashion. It's interesting because both groups have friendly, or at least neutral but supportive characters, but those in the first group tend towards a more antagonistic streak —and, due to the nature of the Evolving Credits, some members of this first group will eventually shift into the uniforms belonging to their Heel–Face Turn status.
• Black★Rock Shooter had this in the show itself between Insane Black★Rock Shooter and Strength.◊
• Brave Beats features one between Choreo and Flash Beat in the opening sequence.
• The poster for Izetta: The Last Witch has this between Bergman and Fine◊ with the eponymous character Izetta in the middle.
• DEVILMAN crybaby has this in the opening theme, between Ryo and Akira.
• Most of the Record of Ragnarok covers are like this, depicting the fighters who face each other in the volume, typically only changing it up if the fight lasts longer than a single volume.

Asian Animation

• BoBoiBoy: One of BoBoiBoy's team staring down Fang and Adu Du's team appears in Season 2 episode 4, before their big football game begins.
• A number of the various Flower Fairy openings feature a shot of the good fairies looking confrontingly at the the evil fairies, the good ones on the left and the evil ones on the right.

Comic Books

• Lots of comics covers (such as this one for Impulse◊)
  • Also the cover of Teen Titans #52
• Happens a few times in Marvel's Civil War, like here and here.
• Several covers for the various Marvel/DC crossovers, such as this one.◊
• The cover◊ for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet the Conservation Corps comic shows a confrontation between the four turtles and four members of the Corps.
• The Avengers are fond of this. In their first 200 issues, they used it for the cover of #s 15,◊ 53,◊ 70,◊ 130◊ and 141.◊ In later years, it was usually used as an homage to the early covers, including X-Statix #21,◊ which started a Let's You and Him Fight storyline with the Avengers.
  • In fact, if any comic cover features two teams facing off/charging at each other across an otherwise blank scene, the artist's probably thinking of Avengers #s 130 and 141. That includes the Marvel/DC and Titans covers above
• Another particularly iconic example is X-Men #100,◊ which shows the All-New X-Men facing off against the original X-Men (supposedly).
• Thunderbolts #172, part of a Time Travel storyline, shows the current 'Bolts confronting the originals. Including Karla "Moonstone" Sofen and Norbert "Fixer" Endersol charging at Karla "Meteorite" Sofen and Norbert "Techno" Endersol, respectively.
  • #3 features the original Thunderbolts (secretly the Masters of Evil) facing off against the new Masters of Evil.
• The Fantastic Four once fought the members of the "New" Fantastic Four, a team consisting of Spider-Man, Wolverine, The Incredible Hulk, and Ghost Rider. The issue in question depicted the two teams squaring off in this manner.
• The cover of the penultimate issue of Avengers Academy shows the Academy kids facing down the Jean Grey School kids. On a football field.
• Spectacular Spider-Man #226, the infamous issue of The Clone Saga where it was revealed that Ben was supposedly the real deal and Peter Parker was the clone, used this for its cover. It can be seen in the page image for the storyline.
• The cover to "Sonic Super Special #1" AKA "Battle Royal," shows Sonic and the Freedom Fighters facing off against Knuckles and the Chaotix.
• Black Moon Chronicles: The cover of album 13, The Prophecy, shows Wismerhill and Hazheel Thorn staring each other down with (literally) burning eyes.
• Ultimate Wolverine: Jimmy had one with both Wildchild and Quicksilver.

Fan Works

• Ebott's Wake has a textual version at the beginning when Dr. Aster reflexively summons an Aster Blaster as Sans bridges up to the cave:
  A part of [Dr. Aster's] mind, standing off to the side like am impartial observer or referee, noted that there was an appealing symmetry to the situation; on each side, a skeleton and two blasters.

Films — Animated

• An official piece of artwork for Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Super Adventure features Weslie and an army of White Kingdom bacteria soldiers staring at Wolffy and an army of Black Kingdom bacteria soldiers, clearly intent on fighting each other.
• Moses and Pharaoh Rameses during the song "The Plagues" from The Prince of Egypt. The sequence is done rather symbolically. During the song, both Moses and Rameses sing about how they saw each other as brothers and how none of them wanted the plagues to happen. Near the end of the song, their faces do a Juxtaposed Halves Shot. Then their faces rotate apart so that they are facing each other, signifying that whatever bond they had is now permanently broken.

Films — Live-Action

• The DVD Cover to Cats & Dogs.
• Anger Management
• The poster for◊ Bride Wars.
• The poster for◊ Lone Wolf McQuade, featuring everybody's favorite Chuck Norris. This image is actually "mirrored" three ways— the floating heads at the top, the men striking a pose in the centre, and at either side, a man holding another person— Chuck cradling a woman, and Carradine using a Human Shield.
• War (2007)
• One cover for Rocky III has Rocky and Clubber Lang staring at each other just before their fight.
• Rocky IV opens with with two boxing gloves, one with the American flag and one with the Soviet flag, coming from the sides of the screen and smashing into each other.
• Freddy vs. Jason posters with the titular characters.
• Harry Potter
  • The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie has a poster like this, with Harry and the good guys on one side, and Voldemort and his Death Eaters on the other, charging. Which is especially funny, considering magic can't generally be considered a close-contact type of attack.
  • Another poster◊ for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.
• The Deathly Hallows poster is parodied by one of the teasers for◊ The Hangover Pt 3.
• The AVP: Alien vs. Predator DVD cover, as well as its rip-off from The Asylum.
• Demolition Man
• One poster for Transformers had Optimus Prime and Megatron do this.
• Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends
• Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger vs. Space Sheriff Gavan: The Movie
• A Bronx Tale has this in the poster, although the two characters doing it don't have as much animosity as the poster suggests.
• The poster for the 2011 movie adaptation of Coriolanus.
• The poster◊ for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice shows Batman and Superman standing against each other.
• The theatrical poster◊ for Captain America: Civil War shows both Captain America and Iron Man teams standing against each other on opposite sides.
• The poster◊ for Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising parodies Captain America: Civil War.
• A literal example of this occurs in the final showdown between Bond and Blofeld in Spectre. To drive this even further, Blofeld even serves as a warped mirror version and Evil Counterpart of 007, showcasing the visual similarities between the two, if anybody looks closer.
• Creed II has Adonis and Rocky against Viktor and Ivan Drago on its teaser poster.
• Avengers: Endgame features this seconds before the "Battle of Earth" between the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy and their multitude of allies in a Big Heroic Run versus the Million Mook March of Thanos's army.
• Over the Top has this between Lincoln and Bull◊ on the poster.
• The poster for Infinite shows Evan McCauley and Bathurst standing against each other.
• Some billboard posters for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 feature Sonic and Tails’ heads posed opposite Robotnik and Knuckles in the style of Captain America: Civil War.
• The Man from Toronto features this between Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson.

Literature

• The cover◊ of the Warrior Cats novel A Dangerous Path by Erin Hunter shows cats facing each other with their fangs bared.
• There's a stock silhouette image that can be seen as either two people facing each other, or a vase/urn. I Am America (And So Can You!) contains an asymmetrical parody of it, with the question, "Is this Paul Begala arguing with Robert Novak, or just a very poorly constructed vase?"
• Done between Captain Carrot and the Silver Horde in The Last Hero.
• One cover for The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge has Jim's two possible love interests facing each other over his head.
• Isaac Asimov's Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories: The Doubleday Volume 1 has two robots, each holding an hourglass, facing each other from opposite sides of the cover.

Music

• The album cover for Hall & Oates' 1982 album H2O.

Pinball

• In F-14 Tomcat, the player character "Hitman" and the antagonist General Yagov adopt this pose on the playfield.
• In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the T-800 and the T-1000 are facing off against each other on the far wall of the playfield.
• Buzz and an angry golfer are shown facing each other on the slingshot bumpers in No Good Gofers.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Stern): The Limited Edition backglass depicts Splinter and the Shredder on opposite sides, respectively flanked by the Turtles and the rest of their Rogues Gallery.

Pro Wrestling

• A lot of posters for Professional Wrestling pay per views feature this trope. For a classic example, see the poster◊ for WrestleMania III.

Sports

• You see it all the time on football broadcasts with the helmets of the two opposing teams facing off in 3D. (Sometimes clashing together and exploding in a manly shower of sparks and lightning and fire and explosions and lots of testosterone and things.)

Tabletop Games

• This is used in Magic: The Gathering in several "clone" cards showing the cloned and the clone, such as Morphling and, of course, Clone.
  • Duel Deck art design have this in mind, with the foil cards in question using the art on the box.
• Exalted: One of the illustrations in Return of the Scarlet Empress shows the Forces of Hell on one side versus just about everyone else on the opposing side.

Video Games

• The PSP theme for Dissidia Final Fantasy (and presumably the box-art) uses this, with all the heroes on the right, villains on the left. (Link.◊)
  • The box-art is a little different: The standard side is all the characters from the Cosmos side facing left. Removing the box-art and flipping it over displays all the characters from the Chaos side facing right. Even the screenshots are mirrored: the Cosmos side shows Cloud preparing to strike, the Chaos side shows Sephiroth preparing to strike.
• Super Mario Strikers has this as part of its character selection mechanic. When the captains are selected, they're presented facing each other in this format. Right before matches start, they're presented in the same poses, but this time with a "VS" between them.
• One piece of art◊ for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge shows a confrontation with the turtles and their allies one one side, and the Foot Clan on the other.
• The Good vs. Evil boxed set for City of Heroes featured this sort of image with the game's main NPC heroes and villains rushing at each other.
• The covers of the first two Warcraft games.
• Metal Wolf Chaos gives us this image,◊ showing President Michael Wilson against Vice President Richard Hawk.
• The box art to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars has this.
• Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 4 have one-on-one pre-fight confrontation Vs. shots.
  • Batman and Sub-Zero do this in trailer of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Lot more characters do it on the cover.
• The Japanese and European cover art◊ of Persona 3: FES does this with the main characters on the right side, and their corresponding Personas facing them from the left. It's a particularly brilliant shot because at first glance it looks like a bunch of heroic high-schoolers facing off against gruesome, godlike monsters, when in reality it's a literal mirror showing the two sides of the same person.
• The promotional image of Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE seen as the header for the main Shin Megami Tensei trope page, with angels and Messians standing on one side, devils and Gaians on the other, and the player caught in the exact middle.
• The US and EU box art for the NES version of North And South show a blue soldier and a grey soldier butting heads, along with their horses.
• The Boss Subtitles of Guacamelee! are presented in this fashion.
• The cover of Batman: Revenge of the Joker for the Sega Genesis features Batman facing against the Joker.
• This wallpaper for Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner.
• The cover art◊ for Halo 5: Guardians features Spartan Locke against Master Chief.
• Several adverts for Batman: Arkham Knight had Batman and the Knight do this. The Arkham wiki currently uses it as the background image, and it's also used for the game's Game of the Year edition.
• The cover of BIONICLE: Heroes has Kongu facing off Vezok.
• Street Fighter Alpha 2's cover art has this between Ryu and Akuma, with the latter snarling menacingly and towering over the former.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Promotional art for Sonic CD depicts the conflict between Sonic and Metal Sonic in this manner. The game's Japanese cover also features this shot, with the EU version using a zoomed-in variant. The American box art opts for a different scene entirely. Curiously, the CD-ROM release in Japan instead goes with a group shot while it's the European version that showcases the Blue Blur versus his robotic doppelganger.
  • This promotional poster◊ for Sonic Forces, shows the Resistance and against the Eggman Empire.
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U had posters for many of the new fighters joining the cast. Cloud Strife's poster◊, drawn by Final Fantasy character designer Tetsuya Nomura, and Bayonetta's poster◊, drawn by Eiji Funahashi of PlatinumGames, both use this trope.
• Parodied in promotional artwork for Jak 3: Wastelander and Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, and quite fitting given the friendly rivalry between both fandoms at the time.
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes has it◊ twice◊ before boss battles with Dark Samus.
• The icon used for VS mode in Left 4 Dead 2 has Coach (survivor) facing against a Boomer (zombie).

Webcomics

• Drowtales here
• The logo for By The Saints (caution: occasional pencil-drawn violence) has two armies facing off.
• In El Goonish Shive, one of the chapter covers features this with Grace and Damien in the middle.

Web Original

• There is a least one shot of the Nostalgia Critic and the Angry Video Game Nerd doing this, in cartoon form.
• The Great Showdowns Tumblr blog features cute pictures of heroes and villains from movies facing each other, accompanied by a quote, but not the titles of the movies pictured.
• The title cards for Atop the Fourth Wall occasionally do this, though not as often as you might think, considering that some of the comics Linkara has reviewed have featured this trope on their covers. Two cases in particular mirror each other, though - the cards for Youngblood #3 and Doctor Who Classics #7 mirror each other, being back-to-back storyline episodes, with Linkara and Lord Vyce facing each other with crossed arms, on opposite sides. Shaft and the Fifth Doctor's presence in each is incidental (and basically only to tie the cards in to the content actually being reviewed, of course).
• In Freshy Kanal's "Bakugo vs. Inosuke" rap battle, the final scene is a series of increasingly closed-up shots of Bakugo on the left and Inosuke on the right facing and jumping towards each other with weapons ready.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: In "The Southern Raiders" when Sokka tells the flashback story of the Fire Nation soldiers attacking the Southern Water Tribe, the fight begins with the two sides running and combating or dodging/moving past each other.
• The image on the Dinosaucers page.
• Ninjago: In "Powerless", the ninja are fighting to get the Dangerous Forbidden Technique scroll at the museum before an evil Snake Woman named Aspheera does. The scroll ends up in the middle of the room and the ensuing shot has each side running to the middle of the room, with each of the ninja fighting Aspheera or one of her giant fire snake creatures.
• The end of the 90s X-Men: The Animated Series opening shows Professor Xavier and his X-Men on one side, with Magneto and the show's villains on the other.
• Xiaolin Showdown's intro.
• The cover for "Challenge of the Superfriends". The opening titles ended with both sides charging into each other, causing an explosion that produced the series title.
• The final shot of the Justice League Unlimited episode "Grudge Match" has Black Canary and Huntress facing each other before they begin their fight.
  • "Secret Society" also features a shot, with the Justice League on one side and Gorilla Gordd's Secret Society on the other, right before they come to blows.
• Teen Titans Season 3, when they face the brainwashed Titans East.
• There is one in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, during the first battle between the Avengers and the Masters of Evil.
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) uses this quite often, most notably in the Juggernaut episode.
• Avengers Assemble gets in on the act as well, when facing their Space Phantom doppelgangers. Later in season 3, the Avengers and their allies are manipulated into turning on each other, and they line up for the fight.
  Ms. Marvel: Hey wait! Why do I get Hulk?
• This promotional artwork for Transformers: Animated.
• Darkwing Duck two-parter "Just us Justice Ducks" eventually leads to a confrontation between the newly-formed Justice Ducks and the Fearsome Five in these exact positions complete with western music playing in the background.
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes has one of these for its opening sequence.
• Pibby: Near the end of the trailer, there's a shot depicting Pibby leading an army of uncorrupted cartoon characters against the Eldritch Abomination antagonist, each at opposite ends of the screen. (Driving the dichotomy home, the heroes have a moon on their side while the antagonist has a sun.)

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