Defeat Means Friendship: Difference between revisions

[[File:fatenanohabattle 1249.jpg|link=Lyrical Nanoha|frame|"Nanoha's Guide To Making Friends: 100% Effective Or Your Money Back!"]]

 

 

In a series based around an endless series of [[My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours|one-on-one fights]], defeating a [[Worthy Opponent]] or [[The Rival]] will sometimes [[Magnetic Hero|convert them to the hero's side]], if not always to his cause. Furthermore, no matter how many people the [[Worthy Opponent]] has killed, how much grief he has caused, even if he slaughtered helpless children or the hero's own family, as soon as he shows a bit of remorse or goes out of his way to help the hero even once, he will be welcomed into the hero's circle of [[True Companions]] [[Easily Forgiven|with open arms]].

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{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Pretty Sammy|Magical Project S]]'': after Pixy Misa is beaten in the "journey to the mind" episode she befriends and even fights alongside Sammy.

*** Though, according to ch78, not the entire story - {{spoiler|Kid, being a naive rich guy with symmetry on the brain, comes to find the pair known as the 'Demons of Brooklyn' to have them as his Weapons. They agree originally because they want his money, and only later come to realise they genuinely [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|like]] being with the boy.}} The Defeat's there, but the Friendship took time.

** Black Star tries a new job as Warrior Therapist when he faces Crona. It doesn't work, for if anything Crona's mental state is worse, and no amount of [[My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours|Kung Fu Strength]] was enough to snap them out of it.

** The current title of most befriended goes to Vivio, who took the title from Fate when {{spoiler|she received five [[Wave Motion Gun|Starlight Breakers]] ''at the same time'' and managed to remain conscious ''and'' stand on her own afterwards. A considerable feat since Fate couldn't even claim that when Nanoha struck her with one.}} Nanoha officially adopts Vivio as her daughter afterwards.

*** {{spoiler|In Fate's defense, Vivio was powered up well beyond her normal capacity by a Lost Logia at the time. Also, Fate was weakened by a Divine Buster just prior to being hit by the Starlight Breaker.}}

*** It should be noted that in ''[[Triangle Heart 3 ～sweet songs forever～|Triangle Heart 3 Sweet Songs Forever]]'', Chrono ''does'' in fact get blown up by Nanoha, and becomes romantically involved with her afterwards.

** Coincidentally, the first time Nanoha met Fate, the latter "befriended" her nearly into the hospital. Is it any wonder she fell in [[Love At First Sight]] [[Love At First Punch|Punch]]?

** Referenced in episode 12 of ''[[Kämpfer]]'' when Seppuku Bunny (voiced by Nanoha's voice actress) threatens to befriend several other characters just before they're about to fight.

** Jokingly brought up in [[The Movie]] sound stages, the full excerpt is on the [[Ascended Meme]] page.

* This is a recurring theme in ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'':

**** It would probably be more accurate to say that they became friends because Tsukune always forgave them for everything.

* A longstanding tradition in ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]''. The first real friend that Jonathan Joestar makes is Robert E. O. Speedwagon (haha), who tried to mug him. Jonathan's great-great grandson Jotaro makes friends with Kakyoin and Polnareff by freeing them from Dio's mind control, and nearly all of Jotaro's 16 year old uncle (long story) Josuke's friends were people who tries to kill him the first time they met.

** And Mikitaka, but he may or may not be all there.

* The entire Shuffle Alliance in ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam]]'' is assembled in this fashion (except Sai Saici, who fought Domon to a draw rather than being beaten). Main rival Chibodee Crocket goes back and forth between violently beating the hero and having breakfast with him at least three times.

** Naruto ''is'' a [[Warrior Therapist]], so it isn't just that he defeats them.

** Averted with Ino and Sakura, who renew their friendship after fighting to a draw. The nature of their rivalry suggests that a clear victor would have been detrimental to reconciliation. Then again, technically, they '''both''' lost, since as a result of the draw, both failed that attempt at the Chunin exam.

* ''[[Flame of Recca]]'' is notorious for this, particularly during the [[Tournament Arc]]. People who were trying to kill Team Hokage just hours ago are suddenly eating snacks, playing videogames, and sharing stories with our heroes in their hotel room.

** And one of them creates a fan club for Fuko.

* In ''[[Harlem Beat]]'', almost all rival teams become this with Johnan team.

* Possibly subverted in ''[[Black Lagoon]]'': Chang and Balalaika became friends after their (intended) fight to the death turned out a draw.

* Averted in ''[[wikipedia:ShootFighter Tekken|Shootfighter Tekken]]''. Kiichi defeats Kiba handily after a long and grueling fight, but Kiba still thinks he's just some punk kid. After telling him what a damn fool he was for being merciful, Kiba probably continues to be a massive asshole of a teacher.

* In the [[Shoujo Demographic]] manga ''[[Crown]]'', bad guys come after [[The Ingenue|Mahiro]], get their butts kicked by [[Badass|Ren and Jake]], and then hang around and help with the housework.

* ''[[Amazing Agent Luna]]'' has Luna {{spoiler|offering her protection to the [[Evil Twin|evil clone]] she had just defeated}}.

* From ''[[Liar Game]]'', the only times that Nao does lie is to help out those in the game. And once she advances to the next round, she gives her winnings to them, so they could pay off their debts. Once she does, they see that her honest character isn't faked and they become friends/allies with her to help ''her'' advance. Best example would be Fukunaga and Akagi.

* Hayato from ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'' makes friends with Kaga, Osamu, Shinjyo, Johji and others after a few or more races with them, although he made friends with Kaga and Johji ''before'' the race started.

* Played straight with some villains-of-the-week (such as Bucci) in ''[[Gun X Sword]]''. Subverted in that this is what {{spoiler|The Claw}} wants, or claims to want, with all of his enemies. In the latter case, the desire to make friends with everyone comes across as a sign of [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|extremism]] at best, and insanity at worst.

* This is standard operating procedure for ''[[Sailor Moon]]''. Usagi believes that there is always a way to solve things without violence or killing and that somewhere inside of them, everyone has some good to them. While there are some villains she has to outright destroy, she has a pretty good track record of turning enemies into friends.

* One arc of ''[[Sakigake Otokojuku]]'' featured a bunch of transfer students from the closest thing to Otokojuku anywhere else in the world—the prep school for the Annapolis naval academy. Principal Edajima organized a series of "friendly" boxing matches between select new students and old students, ostensibly as a bonding exercise. In reality, the gloves used in the matches were metal and covered in spikes. The American students all lost their matches, but became the best of pals with their adversaries (and the Japanese students in general); when time came for the new arrivals to head home, unofficial class leaders Momotaro Tsurugi and Kieth Jackson both state that they cherished their time together.

* There's an interesting variant in ''[[Claymore]]''. {{spoiler|Miria}} vows not kill any of her former comrades when she leads a revolt against The Organization. She fights and defeats all of them... only to get butchered horribly when they regenerate. {{spoiler|Her resolve not to kill inspired every single enemy Claymore to defect to her side and they faked her death.}}

* In ''[[Holyland]]'', {{spoiler|Iwado, Shougo, Taka and Tsuchiya}} after their defeat by Yuu.

 

== Comic Books ==

**** Well, the Rebels didn't exactly make a habit of being easy to find, especially to the Imperial Navy. Defections are somewhat more difficult when the enemy army is almost always in hiding.

* In the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage]]'' comics, Casey Jones spent most of his first appearance having a knock-down-drag-out brawl with Raphael over Casey's overly violent street vigilantism. Raphael ultimately won, and Casey thereupon became one of the turtles' closest allies and Raphael's best friend. The [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|2003 cartoon]] had a similar sequence.

* This trope is how [[Popeye (comic strip)|Popeye]] befriends Toar, the immortal caveman. After Toar admits defeat ("You hit too hard, no fight crazy fool like you!"), Popeye offers him a friendship and Toar accepts.

 

* ''[[Hogyoku Ex Machina]]'' lampshades this when [[Bleach|Ishida]] asks, "Kurosaki, is there anyone you've fought that you haven't become best friends with?"

* Two examples in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', though in both cases the “defeats” were pretty mild:

** As'taris, dying to take the newly revealed Kansael from John, threatens to cut it out of his chest. Ringo [[Mind Over Matter|telekinetically]] shoves him away, takes his sword, and threatens to drop him in the ocean if he tries it again. As'taris is so impressed that Ringo actually fought back that he immediately drops his main objection to the four (that they were noncombatants) and thereafter views them as peers—more or less.

** The four “defeat” {{spoiler|the Hunter (and by proxy Jeft)}} simply by [[True Companions|being themselves]]; their obvious love for one another makes him long for an alternative to his friendless, loveless life of adventure and murder. He becomes the best friend they make in the entire book.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Rings of Dualty]]'' subverts it with the main characters, Link and Samba, because their battle came to a draw. Played pretty straight with {{spoiler|the Leviathans of Material}}.

 

== Film ==

* Happens a lot in [[Professional Wrestling]], as well; for example, this was the impetus for [[AJ Styles]] and [[Christopher Daniels]] to form a tag team and go after the NWA Tag Team Championship. Usually comes with a [[Heel Face Turn]] for the [[Heel]] side of the previous rivalry, though the opposite happens occasionally.

* Hilariously subverted at [[Wrestlemania]] XIX - after losing to [[Shawn Michaels]], [[Chris Jericho]] seemed to be going in for the big weepy [[Heel Face Turn|face-turning]] hug... and instead [[Groin Attack|boots HBK full force in the crotch.]]

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', it's Yuffie, who joins your party after a fight in an attempt [[Wutai Theft|to screw you over]]. Eventually becomes a sincere member of the party after you {{spoiler|save her from Don Corneo.}}

** In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]'', Most of the monsters you beat (non-boss only) become your familiar and help you in fights.

* In ''[[Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse]]'', Trevor Belmont picks up allies Grant and Alucard only after defeating them as bosses.

* In the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series if you defeat a boss you can create it through fusion, and this will remain in the compendium even in [[New Game+]] and can be summoned regardless of level provided you have enough money to summon it.

* In ''[[Sin & Punishment: Star Successor]]'', {{spoiler|the Griffin Keeper boss of Stage 5 befriends the main characters after they defeat it, and it offers to carry them to their destination Mt. Fuji}}.

* In ''[[Solatorobo]]'', a quest with Alman has him asking Red to teach his new apprentice to work harder. The apprentice wants none of it, telling them to leave him alone, and eventually prompts Red to fight him. Once beaten, his attitude does a 180 and he'll do anything "Boss" Red tells him to, including working as hard as he possibly can.

 

== Visual Novels ==

* In ''[[Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!|Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai]]'', Yamato gets Chris to come around to his way of doing things by defeating her with such tactics.

* [[Ace Attorney|Miles Edgeworth.]] A bit more like Defeat Renews Friendship, [[Character Development|and pulled off excellently.]]

 

 

* Salah-al-Din, a Muslim warlord of Kurdish ancestry, became something of a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|"Noble Heathen"]] folk hero to Europeans following his conquest of Jerusalem, which inspired the Third Crusade. According to legend, Saladin made friends with Richard the Lionheart, although in real life they more or less fought each other to a standstill and never met in person.

** Most importantly was what Salah-al-Din (romanticized as Saladin) ''didn't'' do: when he conquered Jerusalem, he ''didn't slaughter the Christians or Jews living there.'' This is the absolute opposite of what European Crusaders had done when they first took Jerusalem - the Crusaders mercilessly slaughtered every Muslim and as many Jews as they could find. When Salah-al-Din took Jerusalem back, Europe was positive news of massacre would follow, but they never did. Salah-al-Din simply took the city back and nothing more. Hence, the legend of the Noble Heathen.

* Also the reason why the Nepali Gurkhas fights in the British Army. In 1814, the British invaded the Kingdom of Nepal in order to expand the British Empire; however the Gurkhas fought the British so hard that the British only managed to conquer a third of Nepali land and even than it took them two years and large numbers of casualties to do so. The British were however impressed by the Gurkhas' fighting spirits and abilities so ever since 1816 they have recruited Gurkhas in their forces.

** The trope was still played straight with white Northern and Southerners after the end of the Civil War, unlike some other places where a civil war leads to a [[Cycle of Revenge]]. Unfortunately it was done at the expense of America's black population, who lost a lot of the initial gains (there were several black members of Congress during Reconstruction, and many black members of southern state governments; after that it was effective disenfranchisement and Jim Crow in the south, and a refusal to recognize black contributions to the Union cause during the Civil War) they had made post-war.

* This is actually how Rome grew as fast as it did. Those it defeated in battle were treated well and made a part of the Roman Empire. This is actually why Carthage was unable to defeat Rome despite doing so well earlier on in the Punic wars; [[The Power of Friendship|Rome's allies wouldn't abandon it.]] Even though the Roman Empire [[What You Are in the Dark|wouldn't have lasted to do anything about it if they had]].

* [[Howard Stern]] often gained the praises or at least acceptance of many former radio and celebrity rivals once he established his ratings supremacy and celebrity credibility.

* The first encounter of Turkey and Australia was on opposing sides of a battlefield in [[World War I]]. The conflict was both fierce and gentlemanly - an odd combination which, despite the eventual defeat of the Australian forces, created a bond of mutual respect, admiration, and friendship between the nations which continues to this day.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Combat Tropes]]

[[Category:Friendship Tropes]]