Follow TV Tropes

Following

We Used to Be Friends

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/foxandhoundformerfriends.png
And we'll always be friends forever, won't we?
Captain America: I'm sorry, Tony. But [Bucky's] my friend.
Iron Man: So was I.

Our True Companions, Badass Crew, Five-Man Band — whatever — are pretty close. They share a tight relationship, trust and protect each other, would die for each other, if it might be necessary.

Only, what's this? One or several members of The Team make(s) a mistake or the wrong call. Or they just become evil for some reason.

The reasons might vary, but bottom line is, the once tight bond between the character(s) in question and their former friend(s) is severely damaged, if not completely broken. Instead of love and sympathy, at least one of them feels aversion, distrust, and/or disdain for the other(s), if not outright hatred depending on the severity of what the character has done. Whether they start actively fighting each other or simply share a broken bond and avoid each other will vary, but since things sometimes don't work out the way they are supposed to, they don't/can't reconcile by the end of the episode.

In contrast to a member being Put on a Bus (which doesn't necessarily mean these two tropes can't coincide), this trope focuses on the extraction of a character from their usual environment, due to aversion, distrust or a misunderstanding. However, the character is being kept as a part of the story, which is what differs this from simply being Put on a Bus — the extracted character is not being dropped by the writers. This situation might eventually be resolved by things slowly getting back to normal or it doesn't.

If the character in question was idolized by the other prior to the incident, rather than simply being close friends with them, that's a Broken Pedestal, and the two tropes may coexist. Might trigger a Beard of Sorrow, 10-Minute Retirement, Face–Heel Turn, Heel–Face Turn, a degree in badassery or a Despair Event Horizon. The list goes on and on. Can be revealed via Former Friends Photo.

Contrast with Heel–Face Turn and Bully Turned Buddy. Compare with Achilles in His Tent, Deus Exit Machina, My Greatest Failure, Grey-and-Gray Morality and Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, Evil Former Friend, Breaking the Fellowship, Et Tu, Brute?. See Tragic Bromance, when a close (male) friendship ends because one of them dies instead of them having a falling out. See also Cain and Abel, when the former friends in question were either siblings, or were childhood friends who grew up with each other prior to their falling out. See Formerly Friendly Family for more than just siblings that grew to hate each other. For the inversion, see also Fire-Forged Friends: enemies-turned-allies.


Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Asian Animation 
  • In Happy Heroes, Planet Adeli natives Kalo and Arcas were Childhood Friends. Then Kalo framed Arcas and got him sent to jail, causing the latter to form a hatred for the former. They repair their friendship after Arcas finds out why Kalo did what he did, and also that he saved Arcas' parents.

    Fairy Tales 
  • "The Three Little Men in the Wood": The main character and her eventual stepsister were friends and used to play together in the woman's house before their parents' marriage. For unknown reasons, though, the stepsister came to hate and attempt to kill the protagonist.

    Films — Animation 
  • The Barbie Diaries: Barbie and Raquelle used to be best friends, until Raquelle became an Alpha Bitch.
  • Barbie as Rapunzel: Gothel and King Wilhelm were friends when they were young. However, Gothel developed romantic feelings for him that were unrequited. Enraged that he married another woman, Gothel kidnaps his daughter Rapunzel and cuts ties with him altogether.
  • The Fox and the Hound starts off with the two titular characters frolicking and playing as children, but when they become adults and Copper is now a hunting dog, an accident involving the two leads where Copper's mentor, Chief, is nearly killed, Copper ends their friendship and swears revenge. At the climax, Tod rescues Copper from a giant grizzly bear. Copper, amazed Tod saved his life despite everything that happened, returns the favor by stepping between his master's gun and the weak exhausted fox, and Amos eventually relents. In the end, the two reconcile, but are forced to part ways.
  • This is what happens to Anna and Elsa in Frozen (2013). Elsa shuts Anna out of her life and refuses to play with her. Anna is convinced that Elsa doesn't love her anymore. However, Elsa did this because she wanted to protect Anna from herself. This is because Elsa accidentally almost killed Anna with her powers when they were playing, and Anna doesn’t know this because Grand Pabbie altered her memories so that she doesn’t remember Elsa’s powers so he could heal her. During an argument between the two at Elsa's coronation, Elsa loses control of her powers again, forcing her to flee and causing Anna to realize what Elsa had kept hidden all these years. However, Anna refuses to give up on Elsa and continues to love her, believing that they can once again become friends. Anna even goes as far as making a Heroic Sacrifice for Elsa, and saving herself from her Disney Death since this was an Act of True Love. After Elsa realizes that love fixes everything, they reconcile and eventually becomes best friends with Anna.
  • Kai, the Big Bad of Kung Fu Panda 3, was originally brothers-in-arms with series Big Good Master Oogway. Things fell apart when Kai brought his wounded friend to a village of pandas to heal him with the power of chi. Being too power-hungry for his own good, Kai began stealing chi from others for personal gain, forcing Oogway to seal him away in the Spirit Realm for 500 years. The belief that he was betrayed and refusal to admit he did anything wrong has left Kai quite a bitter fellow indeed.
  • Monsters University reveals that Randall and Mike, who are enemies in the original film were roommates in college and were good friends until Mike got kicked out of the scaring program and Randall attached himself to the “cool kids”.
  • In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, the five human girls were friends at one point in the past, but they had drifted apart when Sunset Shimmer sabotaged their friendship. However, Twilight manages to clear up the misunderstanding and get them all back on friendly terms.
  • In The Prince of Egypt, Rameses and Moses were raised as brothers. They became enemies when Rameses was Pharaoh and Moses returned from hiding to free the Hebrews from bondage.
    "You who I called brother, how could you have come to hate me so?"

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Becket centers around the falling out that occured between King Henry II and Thomas Becket once Becket was named Archbishop of Canterbury and then decided his loyalty had to be to the church and not Henry.
  • Chisum: Evans and Billy used to ride together, although any remaining friendship is one-sided on Evans' part.
    Repeated line by either Evans or Billy: Ain't like old times.
  • GoldenEye: James Bond and Alec Trevelyan/006 once had this dynamic, but once Alec betrayed England and MI6, the two became bitter Arch-Enemies.
  • 13 Going on 30 deals with this. Jenna abandons Matt when she becomes more popular. They reconcile, though. Has something to do with Time Travel.
  • In Fire Over England, Sir Richard Ingolby, the English Privateer, unknowingly attacks the galleon of his former friend, Don Miguel de Casanz — when they encounter each other in battle, Ingloby tells his son, Michael, "We were friends once." "Enemies now!," shrieks Michael, and attacks.
  • In the old kung-fu western, The Fugitive (1972), the hero Liao Fei-Lung and villain Ma Tien-piao were sworn brothers who robs banks together and watches each other's backs. The latter however got greedy with stolen gold and abandons the former to the police in the prologue, leading to the rest of the film. Which ends with a Showdown at High Noon where they killed each other at the same time.
  • Spy Kids had Gregorio and his estranged brother, Machete. Neither one can remember why they are estranged, so they team up.
  • American History X features this as a result of a Heel–Face Turn, combined with Rape Portrayed as Redemption.
  • Au revoir les enfants: Julien and Joseph, his former black market friend, at the end. Joseph tells a Gestapo soldier not to bother Julien and offers him a cigarette, but Julien only stares in horror as he realizes that Joseph sold out Pere Jean and the Jewish students, and Joseph quickly gets defensive and accuses Julien of being Holier Than Thou.
  • Power Rangers (2017): Rita Repulsa was the Green Ranger on Zordon's team before she turned on them, killing the other Rangers and forcing Zordon to drop the comet on Earth to keep her at bay.
  • X-Men Film Series
    • Bobby Drake and Pyro were friends in X2: X-Men United, but are adversaries in X-Men: The Last Stand.
    • X-Men Origins: Wolverine details the relationship between James Howlett (Wolverine) and Victor Creed (Sabretooth), who are half-brothers. They were Bash Brothers to the very end until Victor's sociopathy went off the deep end and caused James to lose his connection with Victor.
    • The whole premise of X-Men: First Class is to show how Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr became friends and then ended up on opposite sides with different ideals. There's also a subplot about Raven Darkholme's fallout from her relationships with Charles and Hank McCoy. It's a theme in the original trilogy as well, where Professor X and Magneto are Friendly Enemies, and the beginning of X-Men: The Last Stand depicts younger—and closer—versions of them, when they were still working together.
  • Mark Zuckberg and Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network were once good friends but after Mark had Eduardo kicked out of the company, all bets were off.
  • Mission: Impossible III has this between Ethan Hunt and John Musgrave.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • In Iron Man 2 Tony is alone after he disappointed all of his friends. He makes up for it in the end.
    • Sif and the Warriors Three start to feel this way about Loki in Thor when he refuses their appeal to de-banish the titular character, in their mind betraying him. Exactly how much he feels this way about them and how much is show is up for debate at this point.
    • In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Nick Fury and Alexander Pierce were allies in the past. Now, Pierce is with HYDRA and attempted to assassinate Fury. It fails, and he returns the favor at the end.
      Nick Fury: You know, there was a time I would take a bullet for you.
    • In Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man basically says a variation of this to Cap as they are about to face off.
      Captain America: I'm sorry, Tony. You know I wouldn't do this if I had any other choice. But he's my friend.
      Iron Man: So was I.
    • In Black Panther (2018), Klaue and Killmonger spend a majority of the film teaming up with each other taking part in a vibranium artifact theft. It's only then that Klaue realizes what's he up against and that he had no idea he was helping the son of N'Jobu with said theft all along. It's too late for him however as denying Killmonger the right to go to Wakanda ends up costing him his life.
    • In Captain Marvel (2019), Yon-Rogg at first succeeds in convincing his former Starforce team mate Carol Danvers/Vers that the Skrulls are the enemy. When she befriends the Skrulls anyways, Yon-Rogg finds out and confronts her about her decision to become an ally to the Skrulls. He also isn't happy to see that she's not wearing her green, black, and silver Starforce outfit and is now wearing a red, blue, and gold outfit.
  • The Naked Spur: Downplayed, but Ben and Howard knew each other casually and played poker a few times before Ben became a wanted murderer and Howard decided to collect the bounty. Howard firmly denies that this trope is at play.
  • In Walking Tall (2004), the villain and the hero were childhood friends before taking very different paths in life as adults. The villain reflects on this with a hint of sadness before the final fight.
  • In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones's friendship with his mentor Abner Ravenwood fell apart after he was romantically involved with his daughter Marion.
    Marion Ravenwood: You know he loved you like a son. Took a hell of a lot for you to alienate him.
    Indiana Jones: Not much, just you.
  • In The Hunt for Red October, Tupolev describes his relationship with Ramius like this after learning about the latter's intent to defect. In a bit of a twist, Ramius doesn't seem to consider himself particularly close to Tupolev, and is outright disdainful of Tupolev's abilities as a sub captain.
  • In Transformers: The Last Knight this is done by Megatron (of all people) to Optimus.
    Megatron: We were brothers once.
    Optimus: Once.
  • In Ebenezer (1998), Marlowe says the only reason he came to help Scrooge is because at one time they were friends, which he finds hard to believe now.
  • Outlaw King: Robert the Bruce and the future Edward II were implied to be childhood friends and were somewhat friendly towards each other as adults until Robert renewed the Scottish rebellion against Edward I.
  • Warriors of Virtue: General Grillo was once with the Warriors of Virtue, and Yun tries appealing to this when they're captured by Komodo. However, even then they were apparently rivals, and Grillo reminds Yun of that, rejecting his plea for help.
  • Star Wars: Taken to the extreme in Revenge of the Sith, the third film of the prequel trilogy with Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Over the course of the film, the two go from best friends (and to Anakin, a Parental Substitute) to attempting to kill each other.
  • Gladiator: Perhaps surprisingly, the film implies that Commodus and Maximus were friends, or at least once friendly, since the former calls the latter "brother" with what seems like a genuine tone of betrayal at his father passing him over to become Emperor. They might have even been raised together, or been close growing up. It would also explain Marcus Aurelius deciding to make Maximus his heir even more.
  • In The Prestige, Angier and Borden were on friendly terms at the start of their careers. They both have a love and appreciation of magic, Angier was far more stable and Borden not as obsessed with secrets. But then, things went wrong and their friendship was destroyed after Julia's accidental death.
  • Secrets In The Hot Spring: Hsu Lu-Tian reveals that he and Bat, his bully, used to be friends long ago. However, Bat turned into a bully in eighth grade, and Hsu has wanted to rekindle their friendship ever since.
  • Darby and the Dead: Darby and Capri had been friends as girls years before the events of the film. However, after Darby's mom died they drifted apart, to the point that Capri bullies her after she's grown into the most popular girl at their school.
  • The entire plot of The Banshees of Inisherin revolves around Colm suddenly deciding one day that he no longer wants to be friends with his longtime drinking buddy Pádraic and the effect it has on them both. The feud escalates to the point where Pádraic burns down Colm's house in a fit of rage, which is enough for Colm to want to call it quits, but Pádraic makes it clear that it'll only be over once one of them is dead.
  • M3GAN: M3GAN expresses this sentiment toward Gemma, feeling they had a real relationship during her development, only to be sold off as a toy.

    Literature 
  • In the O. Henry short story After Twenty Years, the main character is waiting for Jimmy Welles, his best friend from his youth, since they had promised to meet again at a certain spot after he struck out on his own twenty years ago. He explains all of this to a lone police officer who is patrolling the area. The main character is a notorious wanted criminal and Jimmy is the policeman. Officer Welles can't bring himself to arrest his old friend personally and calls in another officer to make the collar.
  • The Age of Fire series has RuGaard and NiVom. They were close comrades during their years in the Drakwatch together, but the relationship soured after the political intrigues of the Lavadome saw NiVom exiled and RuGaard made Tyr (a position that should have been NiVom's).
  • In The Alice Network, Violette, Lili, and Eve clearly develop a deep bond during the war, but 30 years later, when Eve visits Violette again, Violette spits on Eve. The explanation: Violette believes that Eve betrayed Lili under the influence of opium and will never forgive her for it.
  • Discussed but downplayed in the Alterien series. Abigail asks Oberon if Ulysses River, a superhuman assassin who just tried to kill his sister, and he were friends. Oberon replies very matter-of-factly they were not friends, only teammates.
  • Astral Dawn: Caspian Knoll and Ciaran Devlyn were once the best of friends in another life. After their deaths, Caspian went on to be reborn in other lives while Devlyn went straight to Hell. That put a pretty big gap between the fellows who would eventually become deeply at odds over the fate of Celestial City.
  • Behind the Sandrat Hoax: Robert Howland (Sam Matthews' boss) and Dr. Baumgartner are initially friendly in their correspondence, with Baumgartner calling Howland Bob. After Baumgartner refuses to release any information to help understand how Matthews survived in the desert (which could be used to save countless lives), their messages get terser. Howland makes a snippy comment about their "former friendship" and keeps shutting off the power to nonessential areas of Baumgartner's hospital to put pressure on him.
  • In the Bone Chillers story, "Scare Bear", protagonist Timmy's bully is Ross, his ex-friend who stopped hanging out with him since joining some "cool kids" in sixth grade. While Ross never really plays rough with Timmy, he does deliberately tries making life difficult for Timmy by hooking up with the girl Timmy has a crush on and leading other kids in laughing at Timmy for messing up in gym class.
  • The Calf Of The November Cloud: Konyek and his first cousin Parmet used to be like brothers, often playing in each other's hutch. However, Parmet started resenting and hating Konyek, because he had realized that he was their grandfather's favorite. Konyek had noticed Parmet had changed, becoming colder and more prideful, but he didn't imagine that his cousin hated him enough to want him dead.
    Sometimes Konyek would meet his cousin Parmet herding the cattle. Formerly they had gone out together, and been glad of one another's company, for they were like brothers. They lived in the same manyatta, and the mother of one was a mother to the other, so that every child had many mothers and fathers, and many grandparents also. But lately, Parmet had changed. He had grown loud and boastful, and he avoided Konyek's eye because he was jealous of him. He saw that Konyek was the favourite of their grandfather Ol-Poruo, who was famous throughout the land for his wisdom and for his bravery. He saw, too, that the girls favoured Konyek with their glances, and the boys listened to his words. But Parmet was stronger and older, and he competed with his cousin by a show of words, and a display of strength, so that sometimes the others were afraid of him.
  • Betty Wynne-Davies and Elizabeth Arnett in the Chalet School series. While they start off as partners in crime at St Scholastika's, Elizabeth begins to break away from Betty in The Chalet School Goes to It, partly because of her admiration for Miss Linton—which Betty mocks her over—and partly because she is growing up and becoming more mature. Betty doesn't take it very well and gets worse and worse until she is eventually expelled for treason.
  • Devils & Thieves: Owen Carmichael used to be very close to Michael Medici and Thom Flynn, who he even started the Devils' League with. Unfortunately, he later turned on them and joined a kindle enforcement agency known as the Syndicate, using his position to crack down on the very gang he helped create, and thus gained the ire of his former companions.
  • Dreadnought! contains two instances involving Piper, the lead character:
    • When Piper tells her friend Merete about her past with Sarda, she describes their relationship as being about as close to friendship as a Vulcan will allow, but her ignorance of Vulcan cultural norms led her to try to help his career, which blew up badly and ruined their relationship and, more importantly, Sarda's life.
    • Piper apparently hits this point with Brian Silayna, her former lover who was part of the plot to steal Star Empire and implicated Piper by giving his co-conspirators her biocode. She speaks and thinks fondly of him up until the point that he reveals himself to her and Enterprise's officers as part of the plot to steal Star Empire, and that it was he that used Piper's biocode to get their attention. When they finally meet back up, she is genuinely angry with him and gives him the cold shoulder when he tries to patch things up.
  • The Dresden Files: As a result of Harry's suspicious actions of the past few years and refusal to trust him, Ramirez has had enough of Harry putting his secrecy above their friendship. It comes to a head at the end of Battle Ground (2020) with Ramirez fed up with being lied to or rebuffed when he just trying to help, and he ends their friendship, it seems, for good.
  • Harry Potter:
    • Peter Pettigrew as the other surviving Marauders view him with extreme disgust for siding with Voldemort.
    • As revealed in Deathly Hallows, Severus Snape for Lily Evans, later Lily Potter. He really shouldn't have hung out with the wannabe Death Eaters and pureblood supremacists in Slytherin...
    • It's also revealed in Deathly Hallows that Dumbledore was "friends" with Grindelwald for a while while they were teenagers. It ended not too long thereafter when his sister died in a chaotic three-way fight between the two of them and his brother.
    • The backstory of Hogwarts reveals that founders Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin were best friends before they had a falling out over the latter's Fantastic Racism toward Muggle-born Wizards. This would lead Slytherin to leave Hogwarts forever.
  • How I Survived Middle School has Jenny McAfee and her former childhood friend Addie Wilson, who became an Alpha Bitch while the former was away at summer camp and consequently ditched her on the first day of middle school for the popular crowd. They run against each other in the school's presidential election in the second book, which Jenny wins, and they're forced to work together as the respective class president and vice president for school events from then on.
  • I've Got You Under My Skin:
    • The four graduates, Alison, Claire, Regina and Nina, used to be best friends and Nina, Claire and Regina were Alison's bridemaids just months after Betsy's murder, but over the past twenty years they've drifted apart, all moving away and losing touch. Even when they're reunited things are a bit awkward and stilted between them. Besides all their lives going in different directions, the near-constant shadow of suspicion that has hung over them for two decades made staying in contact difficult, especially as many people believed that some or all of them plotted Betsy's murder together. Once Betsy's real killer is revealed and things settle down, the women find it much easier to relax around each other and properly rekindle their friendship.
    • Jane Novak and Betsy Bonner were good friends when they both worked together at a theatre, Betsy as an actress or - more often - an usher when she couldn't get roles and Jane as a cleaner. When Betsy married Robert Powell, she offered Jane a permanent position as a live-in housekeeper. Jane was thrilled with this opportunity, but her friendship with Betsy soon turned sour, as Betsy almost immediately began acting as though she was superior to Jane and treated her merely as 'the help' rather than her old friend, starting with her insistence Jane call her "Mrs Powell" at all times. Jane was also aware that Betsy was cheating on Robert with numerous men and came to resent Betsy, especially as Jane herself fell in love with Robert.
  • In In the Last Days by Lev Tikhomirov, most of the main characters — Lydia, Valentin, Edward, Jani, Antioch and Apollonius — attended Sorbonne together and were great friends (the men were also all crushing on Lydia, but due to her tact and kindness it never soured their friendship). Only a few years later, Antioch became The Antichrist, Apollonius the sorcerer in his service, and Jani one of the policemen of their regime; while Lydia and Valentin, as Christians, became their enemies and formerly rationalist Edward joins them too. In the course of the novel, they occasionally reminisce about the old days and marvel at how different things used to be. By the end, Jani, having gone through Love Redeems with his still-enduring feelings for Lydia, deserts Antioch's side, so he, Valentin, Lydia and Edward are all reunited at the Second Coming of Christ. Antioch and Apollonius… not so much.
  • Jess and Bridget at the start of the Jessica Darling series. They grow closer again towards the end of the first book, but they never quite become the best friends they were growing up. Likewise, Jess and Dori in the prequel series, which also shows how Jess and Bridget drifted apart in the first place. Since a running theme of the books is that people and relationships change over time, this trope is almost a given.
  • Laszlo Hadron and the Wargod's Tomb: The eponymous Space Pirate and Captain Elgar Humboldt used to be best friends in the Solar Navy academy, until Laszlo went AWOL to free another pirate from arrest, over Humboldt's objections. Humboldt was almost implicated in Laszlo's escape, and even years after these events he has a very low opinion of Hadron.
  • In Memoirs of a Geisha, the friendship between Sayuri and Pumpkin became strained once two rivals, Hatsumomo and Mameha, adopted each of them. And once Sayuri became more popular than Pumpkin, even having Mother formally adopted her, Pumpkin grew envious.
  • The Miniaturist: Nella's husband, Johannes, and his business partner, Frans, used to be friends but after Johannes's interference with Frans's potential marriage to Marin, Johanne's sister, the friendship between them soured.
  • Mrs. Smith's Spy School For Girls: Power Play: Zachary Hazard, the Big Bad of the book, used to be best friends with Toby Hunter. However, they had a falling out over something that ended with them on different sides of the law (Zachary on the lawbreaking side, Toby on the peacekeeping side). Zachary blames Toby for the whole thing, and his whole plan is revenge against him.
  • The classic Dutch novel Oeroeg exploits this trope for drama in the relationship of the two main characters, a white Dutch boy of a rich family and a native Indonesian boy of a servant family. They grew up together, separated during high school and when the main character finally returns to Indonesia (during the 1940s uprisings) he is told by his former friend to leave since he has no more business in the country.
  • In Pale, the practitioners who slew the god of the Blue Heron Throne were battle-forged friends, but Luisa Crowe left the group out of distaste at their cutthroat amorality, Alexander Belanger tricked Charles Abrams into becoming Forsworn so he could plunder Charles' demesne, leading a rift to form between him and Rad Ray Sunshine, and Alexander and Lawrence Bristow's overwhelming personal ambitions eventually led to a falling out over the leadership of the Blue Heron Institute. In the end, Alexander is left smoking alone in his car, plotting revenge against everyone he once considered a friend.
  • A Piece in the Game of Gods: As said in Part 36:
    "We were friends once," Maelyne responded with a look of fury. "You betrayed me. You betrayed all of us…"
  • Michael and Tony of Relativity were best friends growing up, but an as-yet-undisclosed incident in college drove them apart.
  • In The Saga of Darren Shan Darren and his best friend Steve were an inseparable duo but little did they know destiny had other plans for them.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Tywin Lannister and Aerys II Targaryen were once sworn brothers, not unlike Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon. As a young man, Aerys was knighted by Tywin, and he in turn was made Hand of the King by Aerys as a gesture of friendship. But the friendship slowly broke down throughout the years. Aerys realized that Tywin being the Hand meant that he was the de facto ruler of Westeros, and he also envied Tywin's marriage to Joanna Lannister, whom he fancied. He started humiliating Tywin, such as by disregarding his advice on political matters, insulting his family, and refusing his daughter Cersei's proposed match with Prince Rhaegar. Tywin put up with it initially — Aerys was king after all — until Aerys made Jaime, his golden boy, a member of the Kingsguard, thus blocking him from inheriting Casterly Rock and leaving Tywin with only Cersei and Tyrion as heirs. Tywin took it as the final straw and resigned as Hand. Two years later, when Robert rebelled, Tywin not only didn't answer Aerys' call to arms, but chose to side with the rebels as the war came to a close.
    • Ned Stark feels that his estrangement from Robert Baratheon in the years after the rebellion has put a dent on their relationship. Although they remain mostly civil throughout Ned's tenure as Hand of the King, it becomes evident that they had grown into different men during their separation. They eventually have a falling out when Ned disapproves of Robert's plan to assassinate Daenerys Targaryen, with Ned quitting as Hand and Robert threating to kill him if he sees him again, but reconcile when Robert is on his deathbed.
    • The main participants of the Dance of the Dragons, Rhaenyra Targaryen and her stepmother Alicent Hightower, were initially close, as Rhaenyra welcomed a motherly presence in the court after the death of her own mother. But then Alicent gave birth to a son...
  • A fair amount of Transformers: Exodus details the friendship between Orion Pax and Megatron, prior to the pair having an audience with the Senate that ends with Orion being appointed Prime, which Megatron takes as a personal slight, accusing Orion, now Optimus, of using Megatron to gain power, leading to the civil war between Autobots and Decepticons.
  • Trapped on Draconica: Alister with Gothon. They fought in a crusade together.
  • Dori Hillestad Butler's The Truth About Truman School combines this trope with Former Friend of Alpha Bitch. Zebby and Amr begin an anonymous online newspaper about their school to which anyone may contribute, and someone calling himself "milkandhoney" begins using the site to bully Lilly, a popular classmate, including spreading a rumor that she is a lesbian. Lilly goes from popular girl to outcast literally overnight, with her former friends, Alpha Bitch Hayley and her Beta Bitch posse, initiating much of the torment. The twist is that Lilly, once an awkward fat girl, was also once close friends with Zebby and Amr but cut them off after she lost weight and was accepted into the popular clique, and thus has reason to suspect Zebby and Amr of being "milkandhoney." They aren't; the culprit turns out to be another outcast named Trevor, to whom Lilly once made a cruel comment about his dead mother.
  • In The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign, Kyousuke and Mary Ann were lovers three years ago until she killed someone. Since she had promised him she wouldn't, he couldn't trust her after that, and things escalated from there into a massive conflict that defines their lives right up to the present day.
    “Eh heh heh. We’ll be together forever, brother!”
    “Hm? Why even bother mentioning something so obvious???”
  • In Updraft, Kirit and Nat, her friend from her home tower, eventually come to odds due to one of them challenging the Singers and one of them now being a Singer. Their Trial by Combat ends with Nat apparently dying, but actually surviving. They later reconcile. Another example might be Kirit and Sellis, a fellow Singer trainee, but that friendship is more illusionary based on not ever really understanding where Kirit was coming from.
  • Anne and Neely in Valley of the Dolls are close friends throughout the book, until Neely and Lyon have an affair. Anne forgives Lyon, but her friendship with Neely is shattered.
  • The two Villain Protagonists of The Villains Series, Victor and Eli, were once best friends. By the time of the main plot, they're trying to kill each other. About half of the first book is told in flashback, showing How We Got Here.
    • Sydney arguably has it worse, since her older sister Serena used to be her best friend... until Serena tried to have her killed.
    • By the end of the second book, Sydney and June's friendship has deteriorated, although June seems determined to win Sydney back.
  • In Warrior Cats, Fireheart and Onewhisker were friends ever since they were both young warriors. When Onewhisker becomes leader of WindClan, he is harrassed for being such a close friend to a cat of another Clan that he breaks off the friendship and views them more as enemies than anything.
  • The Wolf Den Trilogy: Amara and Victoria were once very close. They protected each other as brothel slaves, Victoria saved Amara's life, Amara risked losing her newfound wealth to free her friend from slavery, and after all that... said friend told Felix, Amara's greatest enemy and Victoria's love interest, about Amara's illicit affair with her patron's slave. The two never reconcile, even after a three-year time skip.
  • Zodiac 2014: Back when the Original Guardians were around, Ophiuchus and Aquarius were incredibly close, despite Aquarius's Mad Scientist tendencies...then Aquarius stole Ophiuchus's Talisman, allowed the other Guardians to kill him, and brought him back from limbo for the sole purpose of sacrificing him. Yikes.
    • To make things sadder, Ophiuchus goes along with all of this, under the hope that he could talk Aquarius out of his madness. Rho is none too happy to learn this.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 24:
    • This serves as one of the plots between Jack Bauer and Tony Almeida in the seventh season. Although the two originally started off on bad terms, Tony eventually became one of the very few people Jack personally trusted with his life. By season seven, a broken Tony has discovered the true identity to the conspiracy that led to the death of his family and his ties to the government, leading him to resort to terrorism in order to get the guy. Jack rightfully sees Tony as a traitor to his country betraying the memory of his loved ones, and Tony in turn sees Jack as nothing but a sellout and a hypocrite by continuing to work with the same government they've both lost faith in.
    • During the early seasons, Senator-turned-President David Palmer had his Chief of Staff, Mike Novick, whom he put all his trust into. However, that ends when Mike betrays Palmer to help the rest of the U.S. government invoke the 25th amendment and displace Palmer, feeling his inaction against a potential (and false) threat could lead to disaster. Mike quickly ends up regretting his actions and and helps out against the real mastermind, but it's too little, too late: Palmer angry and hurt at his betrayal, bitterly fires Novick after everything is wrapped up. On a bittersweet note, the two do manage to make amends late into the fourth season before Palmer is killed at the beginning of Season Five.
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
    • The Reveal that Ward had been Evil All Along came around two-thirds of the way through Season 1. Instead of killing him off in the finale as was originally planned, the writers were impressed enough with Brett Dalton's performance that they decided to keep the character in the main cast. They do this by having the rest of Team Coulson keep him prisoner on their new base, using him as an informant against HYDRA.
    • Due to the HYDRA uprising in Season 1, this becomes the case for a lot of regular characters within S.H.I.E.L.D., most notably John Garrett and Jasper Sitwell. Unlike Ward, however, they're all dispensed with by the finale.
  • Angel:
    • Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. After Wesley translated a prophecy that predicted for Angel to kill his son, Wesley took the child to save his friend from his horrible fate. When he was about to leave town with the boy, he got his throat slit by The Dragon of Angel's nemesis and the baby was now taken from him and brought to a Hell dimension. His friends didn't take it that well. As a result to this, his friends never wanting to see him again, as well as the revelation that the prophecy he was trying to prevent was in fact fake and that he sacrificed everything for nothing, he takes a major in Badassery and is from then on very reserved concerning his former friends.
      Gunn: What happened to you, man?
      Wesley: I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me.

      Wesley: I have no idea where Angel is, Lilah, or what happened to him. And I really couldn't care.
      Lilah: Wow. That was cold. I think we're finally making progress. Come on. Doesn't it bother you just a little bit? The not knowing?
      Wesley: That part of my life is dead. Doesn't concern me now.
      • Subverted: He was looking for Angel the whole time.
      • Double Subverted: After he finds him, he still stays the hell away.
    • Wesley steadily reconciles with them during the fourth and fifth seasons, however — despite the pain of what happened, Angel later states that overcoming this trope made their friendship afterward stronger than ever.
    • Also happens in the second season, when Angel fires Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia from Angel Investigations.
  • Arrow: Oliver and Slade. They became close friends and allies when trapped on the island, but between exposure to Mirakuru and Shado's death, Slade came to hate Oliver.
    • Oliver's friendship with Anatoli also eventually breaks down, after Oliver calls in one too many favors from the Bratva, and then refuses to back one of their plays. As a result, Anatoli, tired of what he sees as an All Give And No Take relationship, becomes an enemy and is eventually revealed to be part of the Big Bad Ensemble of Season 6.
  • Babylon 5:
    • General Hague is killed in battle after organizing a mutiny against President Clark's authoritarian regime. It's mentioned that the attacking ship was captained by a close friend of Hague's who had known him at the academy but nonetheless had remained loyal to Clark. The other officer is presumably killed when Hague's ship destroys it soon after. Major Ryan warns that this will be the case for most of their enemies in battle now.
    • In the fourth season Michael Garibaldi and Sheridan have a falling out, evidently caused by Garibaldi's collapse after being captured by the Shadows. It is later revealed that he has been brainwashed by Alfred Bester, who uses the unwitting Garibaldi as a lever to alienate Lyta so they'll be forced to make a deal with Bester, trick Sheridan into walking into a trap so he can be arrested by President Clark's men, and discover the plot by William Edgars to infect Telepaths with an engineered plague. Of course, once Garibaldi has been released from the conditioning, none of his friends will have anything to do with him, and the only way for him to regain their trust is to bust Sheridan out of prison. It's easy to see why Bester is considered to be the Magnificent Bastard of the show.
  • Battlestar Galactica (2003):
    • Apollo and Starbuck are a looping On-Off-Couple/Friends. When the fleet reaches New Caprica however and Apollo and Starbuck sleep together they seem to share a now very distant relationship. We only learn later on why.
    • Happens to the Old Man and Col. Tigh. Twice actually. The first time when the exodus from New Caprica succeeds and Saul can't really deal with what happened, the second time when the XO reveals to Admiral Adama that he has been a Cylon all the time. They manage to reconcile eventually.
  • The Beauty Queen Of Jerusalem: Lovers, even. Ephraim and Victoria were lovers and even engaged at one point, but he cheats on her, her son finds Ephraim's gun and hurts himself, and Ephraim plants a bomb that kills her daughter.
  • Blackadder fans have a popular Head Canon theory that Captain Blackadder and Captain Darling were good friends before the war started, but they fell out after Darling got out of being in the trenches to be General Melchett's PA.
  • Bones:
    • Zach turned out to be working for a Serial Killer. This puts a damper on his relationship with the other characters. He is promptly written out.
    • This really becomes a Subverted Trope because scenes showing him in a mental institution afterwards show that after the initial shock, his friends are actually very supportive, visiting him and trying to help him recover. They know that he's still their friend, he was just indoctrinated by what passes for an Evil Mastermind into doing his bidding because, despite his high intelligence, he is ridiculously naive and was taken advantage of. Everyone is more... baffled than feeling betrayed.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Buffy left her friends after she had to kill Angelus/Angel seconds after his soul was restored. She took off to Los Angeles, leaving her friends behind. Her return to Sunnydale is awkward — at best.
    • The entire point of Faith becoming The Dragon to the Mayor.
    • Cordelia also fits since 'Lovers Walk'. Though she doesn't fully repair her vitriolic friendship with the Scoobies completely, however, they manage a reconciliation by the end of the third season, and all interactions between them from then on are on generally good terms.
    • Rupert Giles and Ethan Rayne. In their youth, they were part of a group of mystics who summoned demons for kicks. Giles has since moved on, while Ethan remains a worshipper of chaos and professional villain.
    • Willow when she turned evil for a part of the series.
  • Control Z:
    • Isabela holds this attitude towards Natalia and María after learning that both of them betrayed her; Natalia for selling her out to the hacker in a bid to keep her own secret safe and María because she had been sleeping with her boyfriend Pablo behind her back, although the latter mostly feels genuine guilt for it.
    • Pablo to Raúl also, although he coped with it through violent outbursts. After Raúl was exposed as the hacker, Pablo did nothing more than constantly beating the crap out of him since Raúl's previous actions had brought out the worst in him.
  • In Cybervillage, Nikolay and Konstantin used to work together, but then Konstantin threw his friend out. The series start when Konstantin wants to build a factory in place of Nikolay's farm.
  • The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance shows that Aughra used to be close to the now-villainous Skeksis, even while they were still urSkeks, enough so that she trusted them to take care of the Crystal of Truth for a thousand years while she travelled the stars. When Aughra returns, she's pretty disgusted to see how they've degenerated, both physically and morality-wise, and how they've selfishly abused the powers of the crystal over the centuries. Nonetheless, Aughra is still the only being that the Skeksis treat with any semblance of respect and they never attempt to harm her. When she reminds skekTek of their past friendship (spelling out this trope nearly word-for-word) as he's hooking her up to his Life Drinker machine as a willing sacrifice, he hesitates for a moment before sombrely replying "another world, another time".
  • Day Break (2006): Downplayed. Hopper and Chad actually used to be partners for about two years. Although it's implied that Chad always had a stick up his ass, at least they had each other's backs. Chad didn't truly start to despise Hopper until he hooked up with Chad's ex-wife, which he considers a betrayal from somebody he used to be so close to.
  • Dear White People: Episode four reveals that Sam and Coco were once friends, since initially rooming together, but had a falling out after racial issues came between them. Later they reconcile somewhat.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Doctor and the Master were at school together back on Gallifrey, and are still on Friendly Enemy terms most of the time. The Third Doctor called the Master his best enemy and openly looked forward to their meetings. The Tenth Doctor's finale featured reminiscences of their shared childhood. Apparently the Master was a rich boy: his father had estates where they would play together. The Doctor also gifted his daughter with a brooch when she got married.
      • According to Expanded Universe sources, back in his student days the Doctor was part of a clique made up of fellow nonconformists, which included the future Master, Rani, War Chief and Monk.
    • "Demons of the Punjab": Umbreen and Manish's families had been neighbours in the same valley for generations, and during the war, Manish would often go hungry so both families could eat. All that changed when Manish became radicalized against Muslims.
  • Friends: Briefly lampshaded in the fifth season, when Ross tries to work things out with Emily by agreeing to never see Rachel again. Rachel convinces Phoebe to set up a new 'group' with her. It didn't happen.
  • Game of Thrones universe:
    • Game of Thrones:
      • Robb executing Lord Rickard greatly fractures House Karstark's ties with House Stark. Catelyn freeing the murderer of Lord Rickard's children probably did not help.
      • Jon allowing the Wildlings to go South of the Wall pisses off House Umber's new Lord so much that he allied with the Boltons despite hating them.
    • The History and Lore videos indicate that Tywin and King Aerys were tight as nails until the latter's madness and jealousy kicks in.
      • Oberyn Martell told Cersei that he last saw Myrcella playing with his daughters at the Water Gardens. It isn't clear if he means his younger daughters or the Sand Snakes, but either case they aren't friends after Oberyn's death. This is a major change from the books where absolutely none of his daughters and no one in Dorne, aside from a nutcase knight, wanted to hurt Myrcella.
    • House of the Dragon: Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower were the best of childhood friends. Then their life and opposite viewpoints led to a clash, a Succession Crisis and a Civil War.
  • General and I: He Xia and Bai Ping Ting were friends at the start of the series. Before too long they've become enemies.
  • Gossip Girl: Serena and Blair at the very beginning of the series.
    • Pretty much happens all the time due to the fact of bonding and scheming. But especially Dan falls in this category when publishing his books/exposès.
  • Gotham:
    • Ed Nygma and Jim Gordon. Ed was mostly The Friend Nobody Likes on the GCPD...except for Jim, who, while he occasionally got exasperated with Ed, still liked him and appreciated his skills, and made it clear he considered him his friend. Unfortunately for him, Ed's Face–Heel Turn is accompanied by huge amounts of Sanity Slippage that lead him to grow paranoid of everyone, including Jim. When Jim genuinely goes to him for help in season 2, completely unsuspecting, he ends up Alone with the Psycho. Though later in the series, there are hints that they both somewhat regret the way things went between them.
      Jim: I was your friend.
      Ed: Were you, Jim? Were you my friend? Or did you just pity me?
    • Jeremiah Valeska and Bruce Wayne. Played with in that Jeremiah still considers them friends, and is too far gone to understand why Bruce doesn't want to be around him anymore after he becomes a terrorist.
    • Poor Selina loses her two best friends, Bridgit Pike and Ivy Pepper, to their face-heel turns, and always finds herself unable to kill either of them due to this trope.
      Ivy: You always did think you were better than me.
      Selina: That's not true. I was your friend.
  • In Hatfields & McCoys the series starts off with Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield and Randall McCoy being close friends who were fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War, complete with both men saving each others lives during several occasions. Howver Hatfield decides the Confederacy cannot win and decides to head home. When confronted by McCoy Hatfield tries to get him to come home as well. McCoy refuses to desert but allows Hatfield to go home, ending their friendship. Not too long afterwards McCoy is captured and spends the remainder of the war in a prison camp. Meanwhile Hatfield has returned home and prospered in the intervening time. Over the next three decades the relations between the two families degenerate into armed conflict, with Hatfield wondering where he and Randall had gone wrong after so much death and destruction.
  • How I Met Your Mother: Ted and Barney for some time at the end of the third season.
  • How to Rock: Kacie Simon and Molly Garfunkel were best friends and the most important members of the Perfs, until Kacie's unexpected braces and glasses got her kicked out and she soon realized Molly only liked her because she was perfect.
  • The Last Kingdom: Zig-Zagged. At the battle in the Season 1 finale, Uthred and his former lover Brida and her new partner and adoptive brother of Uhtred, Ragnar the Younger fight on opposing sides, with Ragnar claiming that if it comes to that, he would kill Uthred. At Brida's and Uthred's prior interaction, Brida is not very warm either. They later become friends again, but their animosity towards each other renews in Season 3, but after Ragnar's death, Brida and Uhtred become friends again, but Brida turns on Uhtred again, when she is captured by the Welsh at the Battle of Tettenhall, due to Uhtred's inaction. She is enslaved by the Welsh and endures total humilitation. Since he didn't help her, Brida returns with a vengeance specifically targetting Uhtred.
  • Lizzie McGuire: Lizzie and Kate Sanders, until Kate's figure filled out and she became a popular cheerleader. They seemed to settle their differences permanently in The Movie.
  • Lost: Michael is another good example. During Season 1, he seems to be a nice and well-liked member of the Losties. When his son Walt is kidnapped in the Season 1 finale, he knocks out Locke and Jack in order to get a head-start going after the Others. When he returns eventually, he decides to betray his friends and lure them into a trap to retrieve Walt.
  • The Myth Arc for season 1 of Madam Secretary is made of this trope. President Conrad Dalton was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under George W. Bush, and present-day CIA director Andrew Munsey, as well as Liz McCord, Juliet, Isabelle, and George, were senior operatives and close friends. By season's end, Munsey and Juliet have been revealed as ringleaders of a Renegade Splinter Faction trying to foment regime change in Iran, and Juliet confesses to having killed George and Secretary of State Vincent Marsh to keep the secret. Driven home by the closing scene of "There But for the Grace of God", which shows all six of them enjoying themselves at Liz's retirement party.
  • Mako Mermaids: An H₂O Adventure: Rita and Veridia were best friends as teenagers, until it was revealed that Rita had been leaving the ocean to visit her human boyfriend and was banished by the Mako Pod's elders as a result. Veridia spent years trying to get Rita to dump him and return to the pod, even becoming the pod's leader with the promise of letting Rita back in no strings attached. Rita refused, even after her boyfriend's death, choosing to live the rest of her life on land instead.
  • Malcolm in the Middle: Malcolm was rejected by all of his "normal" friends when he was placed in the gifted program. Even after he makes new friends, it's still a source of bitterness for him.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Jessica Jones (2015):
      • In the season 1 finale, Jeri Hogarth is implied to be a friend with district attorney Samantha Reyes, or at least, on good enough terms to address her by her first name. However, midway through season 2 of Daredevil (2015), Foggy has a conversation with Marci Stahl, who has joined Jeri's firm since Wilson Fisk's arrest, and she mentions that Jeri and the partners are worried about Frank Castle's trial because if Reyes convicts him, she sets precedence for vigilantes like Daredevil and Jessica to persecuted as well. Marci implies that Jeri may have also had a falling out with Reyes as a result of the latter's attempts to persecute Jessica.
      • Jessica and Malcolm have a falling out in season 2 after a season of Malcolm getting shit upon and him not feeling like he's getting the respect he deserves.
      • Jessica also has a falling out with Trish in Season 2 as the latter relapses into drug problems and develops a reckless hero complex. In the final episode of the season, Trish kills Jessica's mother basically unprovoked despite claiming it was Jess's defense, resulting in Jessica disowning Trish as her sister.
    • Daredevil (2015): Elektra was Matt's college flame, and later his crimefighting partner for a bit in season 2. But then she is killed in the season 2 finale of Daredevil, and when she's resurrected by the Hand, she's also now working for them, and even fighting against Matt, who she doesn't recognize. And even once she gets her memories back, she decides to still carry out the Hand's agenda.
    • Iron Fist (2017): Danny and Davos have a falling out at the end of Season 1, when Davos's jealousy over Danny becoming the Iron Fist finally boils over, and Knight Templar views grow far too extreme for Danny. Davos is Danny's main enemy for Season 2, and kidnaps him, bleeds him, and steals the power of the Iron Fist from him.
  • Merlin (2008): Morgana discovers that Arthur is her half-brother in the third series and spends the remainder of that series and all of the next trying to kill him so that she can consolidate her claim on the throne. When they finally come face-to-face at the end of series four, Arthur sadly asks her: "What happened to you, Morgana? I thought we were friends." When Merlin asked her a similar question in series 3, she replied that she hasn't forgiven him for poisoning her. This trope is the only reason Merlin hasn't killed Morgana.
  • Mr. Robot: Elliot and Angela turn against each other for most of the third season due to Whiterose's manipulation. Angela starts taking advantage of Elliot's mental illness and uses Mr. Robot to complete Stage 2.
  • NUMB3RS:
    • Colby Granger and Dwayne Carter were close friends in Afghanistan, but then after they got home, Carter defected to the Chinese and tried to get Colby to do the same. For his part, Colby pretended to go along with it in order to figure out who Carter was working for.
      • The rest of the team has this when it appears Colby is a traitor, especially when they're assigned to track him down after he escapes custody. Megan is devastated, David is enraged, and Don is upset that he could have missed something so significant. To a lesser degree, David continues to feel this way even after the truth is revealed. (He gets over it, but it takes a while.)
        David: I still don't know who he is. I didn't know him when he was a spy, now he's some guy who pretended to be a spy. Pretended to be my partner.
    • In "Friendly Fire", Don finds out that his mentor, Pete Fox, orchestrated the death of two cops to cover up Fox's own corruption. Needless to say, he's devastated.
  • The O.C.:
    • Ryan Atwood at the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2 — oh, and the beginning of Season 4. Leaving the Cohens after Marissa's death, becoming a cage-boxer, driven by revenge and grief along to Placebos 'Running Up That Hill'.
    • Seth claims to not care about Ryan and his family anymore, as they try to persuade him to come back to Newport at the beginning of Season 2. They manage to reconcile quickly.
  • Once Upon a Time: Snow White and the Queen, though due to the age difference it was more a niece and cool aunt relationship. As Snow White grew older and the Queen grew more bitter in her loveless marriage to the King, she grew to hate her stepdaughter. Also, the Queen blames Snow White for being tricked by the Queen's mother Cora into spilling the beans that the future queen was in love with Daniel the stable boy, leading Cora to kill Daniel to force her daughter to marry up.
  • The Outer Limits (1995): In "Nest", Robby Archer and Jack Burrell were best friends as children, but they drifted apart after the death of Robby's brother Matt. The three boys were playing hockey on the ice when it gave way and Robby and Matt fell through. Jack tried to rescue both of them, but he was not strong enough. Matt insisted that he save Robby instead of him. Jack complied and Matt was sucked under the ice and died.
  • Revolution: As revealed in episode 3, captain Jeremy Baker with Miles, during the founding of the Monroe Republic. Not to mention Miles and Monroe, as shown in flashbacks in episode 10.
  • Scrubs: Also happens. Especially to Elliot and JD at the beginning of the fourth season. A milder case of the trope though. Their second attempt at a relationship ended badly and for a while they had a "superficial friendship", being generally friendly but not nearly as close as they once were. They became roommates, which brought them a lot closer.
  • The Shield: With the end of Season 3 and the disbandment of the Strike Team, the relations between its former members are heavily tense. Especially Shane, who seems to have crossed the line, thinks very differently about his former best friends:
    Army: Jesus Christ. Lem's one crazy-ass white boy. You really used to be tight?
    Shane: Yeah. A lifetime ago.
  • Smallville: Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, who go from close friends to Arch-Enemies over the course of the show, while the breakup of their friendship is an obvious Foregone Conclusion throughout the earlier seasons.
  • Star Trek: Discovery: When the crew of the Discovery lands in the 32nd century, they are shocked to find out how much the universe has changed in the intervening centuries:
    • Starfleet's relationship with the galaxy: Starfleet is barely functioning due to an unexplained disaster that destroyed nearly all dilithium in the known universe, destroyed any vessels actively using a warp core, and killed hundreds of thousands. The United Federation of Planets, which had 350 member planets at its peak, is now down to only 38 worlds, with many planets holding the Starfleet and the Federation responsible for the inexplicable carnage. Starfleet membership, which was once respected and highly honored, is now routinely met with open hostility and disdain.
    • Federation Founding Planets: Earth and Vulcan were the first two future-Federation planets to make contact and are two of the four founding member planets. The alliance between Earth and Vulcan was long considered unbreakable. Now both Earth and Vulcan have withdrawn from the United Federation of Planets and are no longer allied with one another. Earth has retreated to militaristic isolationism and rebranded itself the United Earth Defense Force; Vulcan has unified with former arch-nemeses, the Romulans, and changed its name to Ni'Var.
  • Supernatural:
    • The angel Balthazaar, a former friend of recurring character (and fellow angel) Castiel. At some point during the Apocalypse, Balthazaar went rogue and has started making deals with humans for their souls. When Castiel discovered this, and Balthazaar tried to get him to do the same, he stated how disgusted it made him, and declared the two of them enemies.
    • Gabriel and Lucifer. They used to be very close, as Lucifer claims that he taught his little brother everything he knows. Lucifer then kills Gabriel because Gabriel sided with humans.
    • Near the latter end of Season Six, Sam and Dean discover that Castiel is working with Crowley to gain control of Purgatory and all its souls. Castiel tries to justify his actions, but the brothers want nothing more to do with him (especially as of the season finale, where he jumped off the slippery slope). In an interesting inversion of the previous example, when Balthazaar discovers what Castiel is up to, he is horrified at what his friend is becoming, and starts spying on him for the Winchesters. This ends up costing him.
    • Castiel is The Atoner in season 8 and starts repairing his friendship with the Winchesters, although this is complicated by his also being a Manchurian Agent for Naomi.
  • Tales from the Crypt: Roger and Alex in the episode "Half-Way Horrible" were best friends in the past. This changed when Roger secretly sold Alex out by "volunteering" him as a Human Sacrifice to a tribe they were visiting in exchange for a tribal medicinal formula Roger sought to process into a preservative to enrich himself. This ensured that Alex harbored nothing but vengeful hatred against Roger since then, especially after Alex returned as a Revenant Zombie.
  • Veronica Mars: Used "We Used to Be Friends" by The Dandy Warhols as its Real Song Theme Tune, and it shows: as we learn in the first episode, following the murder of her best friend Lilly, Veronica's boyfriend ignores her (actually, that happened a couple of days prior), her former friends turn against her, and she gets roofied and raped. Thus begins her descent into Film Noir.
  • The Walking Dead (2010): Rick and Shane — former best buds — share a tensed friendship since the outbreak, partly because Shane, who erroneously believed that Rick was dead, slept with and is in love with Rick's wife.

    Music 
  • The The Dandy Warhols song "We Used to be Friends". Well known as the Veronica Mars theme song, as mentioned above.
  • "Burning Bridges" and "Vengeance" by Delain are about former friends or lovers turning on each other.
  • Nas's song "The Message", off his sophomore CD, It Was Written, features this line:
    A thug changes and love changes, and best friends become strangers.
  • Good Kid: "Slingshot" was partly inspired by "the exaggerated tales of friends turned bitter rivals found in fantasy and anime." The lyrics describe two friends who split up along the way, and now are engaged in an intense argument. The singer repeatedly wishes ill will on his enemy and insists that they don't need each other anymore.
    Well, I remember when you said that you hate everything I do
    You didn't have a reason then, wish I'd given one to you
  • Reliant K's "Which to Bury, Us or the Hatchet?" is ambiguous as to if it's a friendship or romantic relationship that's careening off the cliff, but the singer clearly doesn't like how badly things are breaking down.
  • "The Archer" by Taylor Swift says, "all of my enemies started out friends."
  • Tears for Fears: Considering that the band are Heterosexual Life-Partners who have compared their bromance to a marriage (plus their 9-year-long separation to a divorce), it's unsurprising that their friendship break-up songs are no less passionate or poignant than those that are about a romance gone sour.
    • In "Change", the narrator is upset over the loss of a profound friendship where the connection between himself and his companion was so intense that the two of them became The Dividual. Although he's aware that their relationship is now damaged beyond repair, he still wishes that his former friend would change back to the way he was so that they can be together again.
      I lost your honesty
      You lost the life in you

      We walk and talk in time
      I walk and talk in two
      Where does the end of me
      Become the start of you?
      When it's all too late
      It's all too late

      Change
      You can change

      What has happened to
      The friend that I once knew?
      Has he gone away?
    • In "Memories Fade", the chorus spells out that it's a failed friendship which is causing the narrator so much pain that he questions whether it's possible for him to love another person that deeply again.
      Memories fade, but the scars still linger
      Goodbye, my friend
      Will I ever love again?
      Memories fade, but the scars still linger

      No, don't pretend you can justify the end
      Memories fade, but the scars still linger
    • "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)" was the first TFF single after Curt Smith terminated his friendship and musical partnership with Roland Orzabal, which meant that the latter had become a solo artist ("so low" is a pun on "solo"). Some of the verses are about Orzabal recognizing that he made Smith note  utterly miserable note , which then destroyed their close-knit bond, and Smith even crossed the Atlantic Ocean note  and moved to another continent to get away from Orzabal and everything related to Tears for Fears. Inflicting hurtful words wasn't completely one-sided, though, as Orzabal brings up Smith's Brutal Honesty as a major source of their discord.
      Chewed the bone down too low
      Got fed on tea and sympathy
      Blew the sail like the wind
      I wish you were my enemy

      Drew the blade way too slow
      Was shackled by your honesty
      Made a mess I, guess I, should have known
    • In "Fish Out of Water", Orzabal recalls how he bonded with Smith while learning about primal therapy as a way to cope with their difficult upbringing, but he now feels that Smith has mostly forgotten about how vital their past friendship was to their emotional survival as teenagers, and therefore is ungrateful for all the moral support that Orzabal once provided to him when they were at their most fragile psychologically. Orzabal is so enraged that Smith had abandoned their whole relationship that his home recording studio (which is called Neptune's Kitchen and its weathervane is shaped like a whale) becomes the site where his ex-best friend is wholly "eviscerated" (derided) on The Diss Track.
      We used to sit and talk about primal scream
      To exorcise our past was our adolescent dream
      But now it's sink or swim since your memory fails
      Now in Neptune's Kitchen you will be food for killer whales

    Myths & Religion 

    Pro Wrestling 
  • Quite common in professional wrestling, especially the WWE example of Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio Jr. in 2005 comes to mind.
  • The classic examples included Hulk Hogan and his feuds with "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, André the Giant and Randy Savage. In both instances, a week after those two wrestlers turned heel on Hogan, Hogan would invariably come on and reflect on the now-broken friendship before accepting their challenge for his World Championship (or in the instance with Savage, demand a title shot against the champion "Macho Man").
  • Also in 2005 were the Ballard Bros and Cheerleader Melissa, who had started off as their valet but ended up on the opposite of the ring with the All Pro Wrestling Rangers against their newer valet Luscious. The Ballards reminded her of their friendship and insisted they had no intention of fighting her, but were lying.
  • CM Punk was besties with Paul Heyman. Yeah, that Paul Heyman. When Paul inevitably betrayed him, Punk was beating himself up for grabbing the Idiot Ball and not seeing it coming, as being his best friend he should've known that Pauly would sell out his own mother if he saw the writing on the wall.
  • While Roman Reigns took Seth Rollins's betrayal of The Shield hard, Dean Ambrose took it even harder. Dean's only goal in life these days seems to be "beat the hell out of Seth Rollins", though it's very clear that beneath all the anger and hatred between them, Dean was genuinely hurt — if this is anything to go by:
    Dean: I loved you Seth! You were my brother!
  • Batista pulled this on Rey Mysterio at the 2009 Bragging Rights after assuming Rey would automatically help him regain the World Heavyweight Championship. Batista would savagely beat up Rey after The Undertaker successfully retained the title.
  • The inevitable betrayal of El Generico/Sami Zayn by Kevin Steen/Owens always leads to a feud like this. Because, at least to Steen/Owens, they are destined to be at war with each other forever.
  • Shawn Michaels and Triple H may be the biggest example due to their friendship being so close that many people, Hunter's own wife included, thought there was more there than friendship. During Hunter's heel-turn & rise to the top, he begins resenting Shawn who he feels is passed his prime & should take a backseat. Hunter brutally turns on Shawn after the latter refused to be his manager, which led to a very personal & violent 3-year feud that also sparked the creation of one of the most well-known staples, Evolution, where two new stars were born.

    Roleplay 
  • In The Gamer's Alliance, Vaetris and Jahi were once prostitutes in the Demon Realm and close friends, but things changed when they were abused too much and Vaetris's ambition to change their living conditions turned her to the path of conquest, bloodshed and manipulation whereas Jahi chose to nurture her young instead, which set the two on different paths. Ronove and Nesa became friends while the former was amnesiac but once Ronove regained his memories of being a demon lord, he took back his position in the demon hierarchy and ultimately betrayed his friends, Nesa included. However, both cases are more complex and grey than that and have shades of Friendly Enemy because neither Vaetris nor Ronove act in a truly villainous way and they do seem to care for their former friends somewhat whenever they're dealing with them although in both cases manipulation is also involved.

    Theatre 
  • How the eponymous Hamilton feels about Aaron Burr, as demonstrated in "The World Was Wide Enough" as the bullet from Burr's gun is heading towards him in slow motion:
    Hamilton: Burr, my first friend, my enemy — perhaps the last face I'll ever see.
  • Inherit the Wind features a scene where Henry Drummond and Matthew Brady, opposing counsels in the trial over evolution, meet and muse over their past friendship. It's stated that their differing views on religion caused them to part ways.
  • Wicked opens with Glinda explaining her former friendship with Elphaba.
  • Frank, Charlie and Mary had a tight friendship in Merrily We Roll Along until Frank made it big and the other two interpreted it as selling out.
  • RENT: Roger, Collins, Maureen and Benny used to be tight when they were roommates, but when Benny moved out, bought their building and married Allison, a rift grew between them when it became clear he no longer thought the same way they did. Maureen hates Benny for "no longer believing in the same things." Mark and Roger hate him both for abandoning them after Roger got sick and for reneging on their deal. They all express themselves childishly. It's a stupid old world all around.
  • La forza del destino features Carlo and Alvaro becoming friends and swearing eternal friendship, which ends once Carlo finds out that Alvaro is in fact the man responsible for his father's (accidental) death.

    Web Animation 
  • Red vs. Blue:
    • Agent Washington and the Meta. Season 9 revealed that they were closer to each other than really any other Freelancer.
    • Sarge's in-universe movie trilogy pulls this between the second and third installments. Sarge and Tucker become buddy cops in the second movie, but the third is titled "Sarge vs Tucker: Origin of Sin". According to Wash, Tucker turns out to be an evil clone, leaving the "real" movie Tucker's status unknown.
  • The Most Popular Girls in School: Mackenzie and Brittany used to form a foursome with Shay Van Buren and Rachel Tice. Then, in third grade, Mackenzie backstabbed Shay to steal the position of head cheerleader, and Brittany caught Rachel eating a roly-poly bug. After that, Shay began a rivalry with Mackenzie and Brittany, while Rachel herself was left behind entirely, becoming a desperate wannabe and dork, while her old friends became the most popular girls in school.
  • Mystery Skulls Animated: After returning as a ghost, Lewis only feels rage towards his former friend and (unintentional) murderer, Arthur, and seeks to kill him in revenge.
  • Trick Moon: Mage used to be part of Prince's group before joining Dr. Bleak. Prince considered him a friend, but when brought up Mage remarks "then I guess that makes one of us". Whether or not he meant it is left ambiguous.

    Web Comics 
  • Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Mike and Lucy, the two main characters, grow apart as the story progresses and Mike gradually grows sick of Lucy's behavior. They were actually friends and crushes for the first half of the comic, but come Mike reaching his breaking point and chewing Lucy out in "December", he completely cuts ties with her. He later comes to regret it when Lucy attempts suicide because of it and her family moves away, and tries to apologize to her when he happens to run into her by chance, not so much to rebuild their friendship, but to show regret for taking it too far, only for Lucy to make clear that she no longer wants any connection to him, period.
  • Homestuck:
    • Vriska actually used to be pretty close to Aradia and, in particular, Terezi, but after she started going too far and becoming Chaotic just for the sake of it, both turned their backs on her, their relationship irretrievably broken. Even later when Terezi remembered their friendship and wished they could return to it she couldn't pretend that Vriska wasn't evil or that she wouldn't work against her if it was necessary. Luckily, this is later subverted after John retcons the timeline so Vriska survives; Vriska does genuinely grow into a better and more selfless person as a result, and she and Terezi become moirails.
    • Gamzee and Karkat were moirails after Karkat pulled him out of his murderous rage. During their isolation on the meteor, Karkat makes a point that he won't reveal where Gamzee is, and Gamzee admits to wanting to keep his relationship with Terezi secret because he fears for their friendship. When they finally get to the Post-Scratch Kid's session, their relationship has fallen apart because Gamzee didn't hold up his end. When they meet up again on LOFAF and Karkat sees him viciously beating Terezi, he makes it clear that Gamzee's gone too far and tries to attack him...only for Gamzee to ruthlessly murder him.
    • Among the pre-Scratch trolls, Meenah (Feferi's dancestor) and Aranea (Vriska's dancestor) were best friends, and continue to be so in the afterlife...until Aranea steals the Ring of Life to bring herself back to life and leaves Meenah and Vriska behind in the afterlife without remorse, in order to enact a rather extreme, rather badly-thought-out plan to defeat Lord English. When this plan inevitably fails and dooms an entire timeline and Aranea is killed again, Meenah doesn't see her again in the afterlife afterwards, and states that she doesn't really want to.
  • In Evil Plan Stanley Kinesis (back in college) and William sever ties after a fight about the telekinetic chip. Possibly subverted, as it was recently revealed that they're still on speaking terms. Why this is has not yet been explained.
  • In Sonic the Comic Sonic and Amy were friends but in the fan-sequel Sonic the Comic – Online!, after the Kane arc, Sonic and Amy have become enemies (although it is implied Amy still trusts Sonic on some level, it's just impossible to be sure about him given the circumstances).
  • In Girl Genius, Gilgamesh and Tarvek became close friends while growing up on Castle Wulfenbach. Their bond is ruined when Tarvek gets sent home for spying, after being told on by Gil — when in fact Gil was his partner in crime, and the secret they were after was the truth of Gil's origins. In the present day, they vie for Agatha's affections. Gil views Tarvek as a "weasel" and an ineffectual dandy; Tarvek, for his part, sees Gil as a libertine cad.
  • Kuro Shouri: Hisaki and Yasha develop a strong friendship in the beginning of the comic, but with Hisaki becoming more and more like his murderer brother, they fight considerably more and are drifting apart.
  • Mr. Blank and Mr. Black in Sam & Fuzzy used to be the two best Blankfaces of the Ninja Mafia until Sam (unwittingly) caused its downfall. Blank stayed loyal, Black decided to use his newfound freedom to sell his skills on the open market and tries using his successes to convince Blank to follow his example. He fails. Fatally.
  • Tower of God: Bam and Rachel. In this case, it doesn't end well, and the falling out started before Bam even realized it: The moment he followed her into the Tower. In the end, she drowns him and he barely survives, crushed by the fact that his only family, friend and possible lover now hates him, where the only thing he truly feared was being alone.
  • In Consolers, Nintendo and Sony used to work together on a SNES add-on and were pretty decent friends... until Nintendo finds out Sony rewrote the contract to get most of the profits himself. She ends up cancelling the deal (in front of a huge audience), Sony makes his own console as revenge and they become industry competitors.
  • Part of the premise of Crepuscule is how Lark and Setz were once each other's (only) friend, but after Setz abandoned Lark (for understandable reasons that Lark doesn't learn for a while) and they spent ten years with no contact while Setz Took a Level in Jerkass, things are obviously rather tense between them now, with Setz too withdrawn to explain his actions and Lark no longer caring about him. Thankfully, they patch things up. And then Lark Took a Level in Jerkass to even bigger extremes, with Setz pulling this card this time—and again, at the end of that season, they mend their friendship.
  • Zebra Girl: The bonds between the group are heavily damaged when Sandra turns on them, forcing Jack to banish her to another reality. During her stay in the Subfusc, Sandra is able to regain her morality and feels remorse for her actions, but she doesn't expect them to forgive her for what she did. Years later, when her former friends hear about her return, they are terrified (except Crystal, who still has hope that Sandra will go back to her former self, though she admits herself that she is at her limit).
  • The Legend of Spyro: Zonoya's Revenge: Cynder and Zonoya used to be best friends until Cynder became cursed, scratched Zonoya's eye and drove her away.
  • In El Goonish Shive, Elliot used to be friends with Tony back in the 3rd grade. It was implied that their friendship ended in bad terms after Tony gay-bashed someone. Since then, however, it's been revealed that Tony initially started bullying kids because they kept accusing him and Elliot of being gay, and then eventually started bullying more people, including Tedd.
  • Kill Six Billion Demons has a villainous example; the Big Bad Ensemble only managed to become an ensemble because they were able to cooperate — if only tenously — during the Universal War and made a pact between them to split their spoils evenly. With the war having ended, Jagganoth, the most powerful of them, has gone rogue and decided that the Multiverse itself must die, and the other six grow more and more distant — and weaker compared to Jagganoth's power — every day. Incubus has also cast his lot in with Jagganoth, since he hates the other five and wants to watch them fail.
  • Magical Mom: Iris and Magical Luvli were once good friends. After Luvli retires though to look after her family though, Iris goes down a dark path and forces Luvli to come out of retirement by threatening her son.
  • Scarlet Lady: Over the course of the comic, Chloé's Alpha Entitled Bitch attitude, amplified by her behavior as the titular Nominal Heroine, causes Sabrina and Adrien to break off their friendship with her. In the former case, she was only angry that she'd be unable to hoist her homework on Sabrina; in the latter, after throwing a party to prove she could be "nice" (and failing), she decided to reject reality and tell herself that Adrien was just being melodramatic.
  • Unsounded: Bastion and Prakhuta became friends together while trapped under Delicieu's abuse, and after killing Delicieu they worked together in their freedom. Unbeknownst to Bastion his old friend has turned even more cruel and murderous than their old master and he has a significant crises of faith when he realizes Prakhuta does not even see himself as the same being anymore, and plans to kill an untold number of victims even if pits him against Bastion.
  • The Last Dimension: Alex is strongly implied to have once been Phillip's best friend, up until Phillip made the mistake of revealing his true form to him. Alex claims that Phillip "tricked him into thinking he was normal." Alex currently bullies Phillip quite a bit, but Phillip is still somehow more comfortable with him than most people and even a bit snarky. Beyond that, Alex hasn't told anyone what Phil's true form looks like, implying he still somewhat cares for him.
  • NIMONA: Lord Blackheart and Sir Goldenloin were once best friends and later revealed to have been lovers, until a tournament in which Goldenloin decided to be a sore loser and used a weaponized lance to blow Blackheart's arm off. With his career as a knight ruined, Blackheart's only remaining role was to be the scapegoat for the Institution: committing crimes, gaining a villainous reputation, and serving as an enemy for the Institution to defeat. Goldenloin himself acts like this never happened, having a Friendly Enemies relationship with Blackheart and claiming that the event was an accident whenever it's brought up. He eventually admits that the whole thing was set up by the Director, that the only reason he lost was because the new lance threw off his aim, and he doesn't even remember pulling the trigger afterwards.

    Web Original 
  • In the web-serial Ash & Cinders Orym and Thavian were both Wizards, both trained under the same master, and are brothers. For some an-yet unspecified reason, had a falling-out that's led at least two known nearly-lethal encounters.
  • In the web novel Worm, Taylor and Emma's childhood friendship ended after Emma ends up being attacked and, seeking to become "strong," cuts ties with Taylor and starts bullying her.

    Web Videos 
  • In Noob, Arthéon mentions that his former guildmates are snubbing ever since he got his high-level avatar banned for Real Money Trade. Saphir was okay speaking to him in Season 1 (but not helping him finish the quest needed to get a sword), while Ystos is still friendly to him. Fantöm was explicitly not aswering his e-mails in Season 1 , but is back to speaking terms with him after Season 3 due to circumstances putting them in the same guild.
  • The Nostalgia Critic and Santa Christ. A lot of it is due to Critic fucking up (like accidentally shooting Santa Christ in Kickassia), but there's also Santa Christ taking a level in jerkass.
  • In the Thomas & Friends web series Sodor, Diesel and Diesel 10 used to be good friends due to their shared views on steam engines. However, after Diesel stops his plans in “The Branch Line Incident,” Diesel 10 now wants him dead if “Last Chance” is any indication.
  • Aaron deals with two brothers who were once good friends, but drifted apart and are now estranged.

Alternative Title(s): Friend Turned Rival, Friends Turned Rivals

Top

Unusual creatures

This is the story of how Christopher Robin's old friends, turned into the savage monsters they are to this day.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (8 votes)

Example of:

Main / DistantPrologue

Media sources:

Report