Not So Different Remark / Western Animation

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• Adventures of the Gummi Bears: Despite their opposing moralities, Duke Igthorn and his brother Sir Victor still strongly resemble each other (and not just physically):
  Igthorn: I've decided to tell the whole world that we are brothers!
  Victor: No... you wouldn't?
  Toadie: Yes, he would.
  Igthorn and Victor: Will you butt out?!
  Toadie: Yep, they're brothers.
• American Dad!: Subverted in "Weiner of Our Discontent" when Roger and Stan find that they both like to feel important:
  Roger: We're not so different, you and I.
  Stan: Yes we are. We're night and day. Except for in this specific instance.
  • Played straight when Stan kidnaps the children of a lesbian couple. When he hears them fighting in the backseat, he realizes that they are no different from his own kids.
• American Dragon: Jake Long:
  • In "Hong Kong Knights", Lao Shi tells Jake to stay at the shop while he and Councilor Chang search for the Dark Dragon, leaving Jake frustrated. He then complains to Fu Dog, who lets him know that he and his grandfather are more alike than he thinks.
    Jake: That's it, Fu! I've had it with Gramps! I could take on the Dark Dragon all by myself if I wanted to!
    Fu Dog: You know who you sound like, Kid? Gramps, back when I first met him.
• Beast Machines:
  • When Rattrap agrees to defend Megatron for a night in exchange for weapons (It Makes Sense in Context), Megatron tries to entice him to change sides by saying "You have the makings of a fine Vehicon." Rattrap eventually defies him, saying "Not from where I'm standing".
  • In a later episode, Optimus Primal intends to use the Plasma Energy Chamber to shut down all technological systems on Cybertron. Cheetor points out that this is no different to Megatron.
• Ben 10 and Kevin 11. While the former type was pleasantly averted in their Forced Prize Fight episode, the latter type started from Kevin's first appearance:
  Ben: [under his breath] You don't care about anyone but yourself.
  Kevin: You talking about me?
  Ben: No. I'm talking about me!
  • In Secret Of The Omnitrix, Azmuth is shown to be immature, selfish, and kind of a jerk, but he's ultimately helpful when he really wants to be... Kinda like Ben, really. When he asked Ben if he wanted to learn about the Omnitrix like a "true hero" would, Ben said he didn't want to, Azmuth didn't tell him the code, but, he did say:
    Azmuth: Heh, I like that boy.
  • Azmuth himself did state that he was like Ben when he was younger (given how old Galvans can live to be, hard to tell when that was) and both of them have green as their favorite color.
  • Ben 10: Ultimate Alien has an example with Captain Nemesis:
    Ben: (furious) Did you forget? This isn't about fame! It's about helping people!
    Julie: You are talking about him, right?
  • The First Forever Knight pulls this on Ben, stating how despite them both being heroes with humanity's best interest at heart, they're still doubted by those they protect, even when they truly know what's best. This convinces Ben to achieve a compromise with him.
  • In the Grand Finale of Ultimate Alien, Vilgax of all people claims he and Ben aren't so different since they both use power to impose their will on the universe. Vilgax attempts to corrupt Ben into being a tyrant just like him and it almost works. Good thing there were others there to talk him down before it did.
• This concept takes a serious twist in the Codename: Kids Next Door episode "Operation: M.A.U.R.I.C.E.", where it's combined with You Can't Fight Fate. When it appears that Maurice has sided with Cree, Numbuh Five is almost ready to give up, consigned to the fact that she'll likely end up just like her sister, given the fact that she's nearly a teenager already. And Cree almost seems happy that Numbuh Five thinks this way, possibly thinking that reconciliation between them might be possible if that happens. As it turns out, however, Maurice is actually a Fake Defector who has secretly continued to support the KND after everyone assumed he was decomissioned. After he trusts Numbuh Five with this secret to ensure that she never gives up, she realizes that she can Screw Destiny, and not turn out like her sister at all.
• Vlad Plasmius, being Danny Phantom's Evil Counterpart, loves messing with him this way:
  Plasmius: Sneak attack — very good, Daniel. You're getting more like me with every battle.
  Danny: I am NOTHING like you!
  Plasmius: Oh, you're not? Using your powers to get back at people you don't like? Throwing the first punch? You're more like me than you know.
  • Subverted in "The Ultimate Enemy", because the villain is, in fact, evil Danny from the future, but he certainly makes it abundantly clear exactly how inevitable it is that Danny become him. It doesn't work very well.
  • Also in "Reality Trip" has it with Jazz and Freakshow:
    Freakshow: My parents loved ghosts more than me. My audience loves ghosts more than me. And deep down, I think I love ghosts more than me.
    Jazz: Tell me about it.
    Both: Sometimes I wish I was a ghost. [Look at each other]
• The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy tries this against Dave the Barbarian. It ends up as a spoof of this trope.
  Chuckles: We aren't so different, you and I. We are but twin sides of the same coin.
  Dave: Uh, no we aren't.
  Chuckles: ... You're right! What was I thinking?
• Though they'd never admit it, Ed, Edd n Eddy arch-enemies Eddy and Kevin are probably the two characters who have the most similar personalities, the biggest difference being Kevin is popular and Eddy isn't.
• In The Fairly OddparentsCrocker. Timmy did Crocker's fairy spasm when he went back in time.
  Timmy: Fairy Godparents!!!
  Cosmo and Wanda: [smack and hit him]
  Timmy: Thanks for not using the oar.
  • When Timmy met Remy, Remy asked for him to wish his fairies away. Timmy said "You know what stinks about you, Remy? You're rich, you got godparents and you're still miserable. I know, at least, that I'm happier than you, Remy." Later, he says:
    Wanda: What's wrong, Timmy?
    Timmy: [as a dragon] I felt sorry for Remy. I wish I could help him.
    Wanda: We can do that.
    Timmy: [as a dragon] I wish Remy could spend more time with his parents.
  • Also, Norm the Genie did it really subtly in 'Genie Meanie Menie Moe':
    Norm: I hate being out-jerked.
  • This "Not So Different" Remark is in the choice of words. He chose to say 'out-jerked' instead of outwitted or something like that, which meant he acknowledged both he and Timmy (or the lawyer Timmy hired) were jerkasses.
• Gargoyles: When Angela is injured by the Hunters, Goliath goes on a psycho-vengeance rampage. Demona uses these exact words.
• In Generator Rex, the cyborg Gatlocke tries this line on Rex, while they're having a swordfight atop an out of control truck heading toward a cliff. Just before the truck reaches the edge, Rex retorts that there is a major difference between them: Gatlocke can't fly.
• In an episode of Jackie Chan Adventures, Valmont, who was possessed by Shendu, managed to stun the demon for a while, and tried going to Jackie's uncle's place for help. However, his former henchman Tohru was still very angry with him for what had happened that had led to Tohru's original Heel–Face Turn. (Valmont had ordered Tohru to fight Shendu, and Tohru had almost gotten killed as a result.) Valmont addressed this by saying, "Oh, and I suppose that's totally different from what Chan has you doing?" (Still, Tohru rejected this argument quickly, saying that he had gotten more respect and felt more satisfaction as Uncle's apprentice than he ever did working for Valmont.)
• Kamp Koral: Parodied in "The Taste of Defeat", when Patrick's meal (a Mess on a Plate, courtesy of Plankton's awful cooking) comes to life and tries to convince him not to eat it.
  Food: Are we really so different, you and I?
  Patrick: Hmm. Technically, I'm hungrier. [eats it]
• The Legend of Korra:
  • Used twice in the first season, after Tarrlok puts the city under martial law and arrests innocents Korra storms into his office, pointing out how he's simply using his abilities and powers to intimidate others. Tarrlok points out that's exactly what she's here to do, and how she goes to the exact same extremes as him. Although initially wounded by his claim, she throws back that he's no different from Amon, the Big Bad that he's opposing. Its a subtle foreshadowing for how Amon and Tarrlok turn out to be brothers.
  • A more light-hearted example in Season 1 but Lin doesn't like Korra when they first meet and tells Tenzin she doesn't know how the sweet Aang got reincarnated into someone so different from him. Tenzin tells her that Korra does remind him of someone, Lin as a teen.
  • Used once again in Season 4, to greater effect. A rare hero to villain example this time round when Korra tells the Big Bad Kuvira that despite their differences, they have a lot of similar qualities, which helps Korra talk Kuvira down. Their connection was highlighted earlier in the series when Korra seen her own face in Kuvira's, and Bolin (before learning about Kuvira's darker side) even tells Mako that she and Korra are similar. The fourth season also goes to show how Korra's ideals and beliefs are similar to all the previous villains. Very often whenever a villain is defeated in the Avatar series, the protagonists tend to achieve the villains goals (except for the Red Lotus's) in a much more peaceful manner.
  • When we first meet the airbending Street Urchin Kai, Mako and Bolin realize that he's a lot like them during their time on the streets. They have different reactions to this though, Bolin sees him as a little brother figure while Mako is mistrusting of him.
• In the first episode of The Lion Guard, Kion learns that hyenas and lions have a lot in common when he befriends a hyena named Jasiri who puts to rest many of his misconceptions about them. There's even a song about it.
  Sisi ni sawa means we're the same.
• Late in Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Evil-Lyn gets this remark from Beast Man after she has stolen The Power from Skeletor and usurped him. After listening to her Drunk on the Dark Side rant, he remarks how "she sounds just like him" and Evil-Lyn, who has spent pretty much her entire life despising Skeletor, does not take it well.
• In Mighty Max, Norman confronts the semi-immortal that slaughtered his village centuries ago. Norman eventually defeats him and has him held over an effectively bottomless chasm when the villain triumphantly invokes this trope with the standard declaration of "If you kill me, you'll be just like me!" Norman just looks at him for a moment, before calmly stating, "I can live with that" and dropping him. Aversion from the typical in that Norman never evinces a single bit of guilt over doing so, but then, he was never exactly the touchy-feely hero type in the first place.
• In Mission Hill, one episode has Kevin accidentally start a fire in a store while trying to hide the evidence that he was masturbating in the bathroom, which is blamed on two bullies at school and has them on the hook for attempted murder. Kevin's conscience gets the better of him and he admits such in court to save them from life in prison — when everyone starts making fun of him Andy jumps to his defense pointing out how everyone in that room masturbates and looks at porn, which they would never in a million years admit in public while Kevin had the guts to admit such under oath.
  Andy: No one dares admit the truth: That you're all just like him! Oh COME ON! You've never looked at pornography?!
  Man 1: Uh, only magazines. ...And films...
  Andy: And you've never "manipulated yourself?!"
  Man 2: Only once, but by accident!
• The Lady bone demon's chilling last words use this.
  LBD: Know this, monkey. You and I are not so different. We both fight for what we think is right. But pursuit only leads to one thing.
  Mk: Mhmm. To destiny, right?
  LBD: No. to pain.
• In My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), Twilight Sparkle says this to Tempest Shadow after having been captured by her. Tempest immediately responds with "I'm nothing like you."
• Parodied in the first episode of Pinky and the Brain as a stand-alone series when the government agent responsible for tracking down the ROV Pinky and the Brain have stolen tells Brain this. Brain points out that he is a genetically engineered lab mouse bent on world domination.
• Rick and Morty
  • Rick Sanchez gets accused of this... by an alternate universe version of himself in episode "Close Rick-Counters Of The Rick Kind".
  Alternate Rick: We're not so different, you and I.
  Rick: Yeah, duh!
  • In episode "Unmortricken", Part of Rick Prime dying words to Rick are that, since he and Rick Prime are the only two Ricks who invented interdimensional travel on their own, if Rick had discovered it first, he may have gone on to be just as bad as Rick Prime, maybe even killing Rick Prime's wife and daughter instead of the other way around if he had the chance. To rub salt on the wound, he admits that he found it absurdly hilarious that Rick's been raising his grandson and (formerly) lived in the home he abandoned while he's been living large.
  Rick Prime: Admit it. You would've been me. I just walked into your garage before you walked into mine! But eventually you did! You LIVED in my HOUSE!!
• The Simpsons: In the episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star" Bart points out the stupidity that all the different forms of Christianity are feuding, since the main beliefs are the same and there are only a few minuscule differences between them. The two groups take Bart's words to heart.
  Bart: It's all Christianity, people! The little stupid differences are nothing next to the big stupid similarities!
  Flanders: He's right! Can’t we all get together and concentrate on our real enemies: monogamous gays and stem cells?
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "A Sunny Day in the Void", after Gascon argues that his training gives him much greater mental flexibility and inventiveness than the droids' programming, Whack asks how he was given his training. When Gascon says that it was drilled into him, the droids argue that in reality he was programmed the same as they were.
• Baloo and Rebecca from TaleSpin, Depending on the Writer at least, while they have contrasting ethics and life preferences, their manner of handling things are very similar. One could argue if not raised under a different environment and education, Rebecca may have been something of a Distaff Counterpart for Baloo.
• A rare positive example is displayed in Transformers: Prime. Ratchet, who's known Optimus since before he became Optimus Prime, notes that the human Jack reminds him of how Optimus used to be when his name was Orion Pax.
• In Turtles Forever it's shown that the 2003 and 1987 worlds are very different from each other, but, as the 2003 Shredder says...
  The Shredder: Two turtle teams from two turtle worlds, different in so many ways...but deep down, there are similarities.
  • Also, the Shredders. Even though the Utrom Shredder is the most dangerous Shredder presented, he comes out from the Technodrome and into the open when the Mirage Comic Turtles accuse him of cowardice, a ploy the 1987 Turtles pulled on their own Shredder. As 2003 Leonardo says...
    Leonardo: If there's one constant in the multiverse, it's the Shredder's big, fat ego!
• The Venture Bros.:
  • The Mighty Monarch deliberately invokes this trope, convincing the extremely naive Dean Venture that, if he reports the Monarch's actions, telling will make Dean JUST LIKE HIM!
  • Subverted in an episode of Season 2 when Phantom Limb attempts a "Not So Different" Remark on Brock Samson, only to have him interrupt it.
    Phantom Limb: We're not so different, you and I—
    Brock Samson: Yeah, I don't need another "We're not so different" speech, I get those a lot.
  • Dr. Girlfriend mentions this trope once, remarking that the Monarch and Dr. Venture have a lot in common. She does want this whole rivalry thing to stop; at least once, The Monarch (having been too obsessed with Venture to get a proper anniversary present) tries to pass off his normal bring-Venture-to-his-knees thing as the anniversary present (Dr. Girlfriend was appropriately incredulous at the notion that The Monarch accomplishing goals that were utterly meaningless to her made a good anniversary present).
  • Further explored by Rusty and the Monarch themselves in episode The Devil's Grip, where they compare how messed-up their lives are (Jonas Jr. and the Moppets are taking over Rusty's and the Monarch's lives respectively, the Monarch's wife becoming a member of the Council of 13, much to his chagrin, and Rusty's old archenemy being his bodyguard).

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