Melee à Trois: Difference between revisions
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'''Tycho:''' Not exactly. In ''this'' [[Crapsack World|setting]], the enemy of your enemy is still a floating, greasy, armored brain.
'''Gabe:''' Well, what about ''his'' enemy? Maybe you could be friends with ''him''.
'''Tycho:''' No, because ''that'' guy is a mechanical horror in an undying battle shell. He sails from world to world in a flying tomb, serving gods who eat ''hope''.
|''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' (on ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'')}}
We can be talking individuals or armies, although the version with the individuals is usually more fun since the army one often degenerates fast into a free for all. Often noted by directors and fight coordinators as being very difficult to set up or film properly, although often worth it for the aforementioned fun if they manage to pull it off right.
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[[Take a Third Option|Alternatively alternatively]], a particularly devious side may manipulate the others into [[Let's You and Him Fight]], then go after whoever is left.
In a video game, especially a [[First-Person Shooter]], 99% of the time the
The trope name comes from the French phrase "Ménage à trois" which basically means a threesome. YMMV if that's connected to what Melee à Trois means.
Compare [[Gambit Pileup]], which is like this trope but with gambits instead of fights. If one of the three people involved manipulates the other two into fighting each other, that's [[Let's You and Him Fight]].
{{examples}}
== Anime
* Multiple times in the ''[[Gundam]]'' multiverse:
** ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Zeta Gundam]]'': Titans vs. Axis Zeon vs. AEUG. The most memorable of the Free for Alls, homages of this set-up continue down to Gundam 00.
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* [[Those Wacky Nazis|Millenium]] vs. [[Knight Templar|Iscariot]] vs. Hellsing in ''[[Hellsing]]''.
* In the {{spoiler|Arcobaleno Fight arc}} in ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', there are ''seven'' teams all doing this; the number seven [[Arc Number|is kind of]] an ongoing thing in this manga.
* Volume 15 of ''[[
* In season 2 of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal]]'', Tron and his sons were a third party who opposed both the heroes and Dr. Faker's faction. Eventually, both groups of villains turned out to be [[Unwitting Pawn]]s of [[The Man Behind the Man| the Barians]]. [[Bigger Bad| Or so it seemed, until Don Thousand appeared.]]
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* Any [[Matthew Reilly]] book will probably have at least one of these. Most of the battles in ''Scarecrow'' turned into these, with the heroes repetedly fighting 3 different mercenary armies, as well as whoever they were trying to fight in the first place.
* At the end of ''[[War of the Spider Queen]]'' between {{spoiler|Halisstra, Quenthel, and Danifae.}}
* Volume 15 of ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' has the Shu, Wei and Wu kingdoms all fighting to unite and be [[The Emperor|The One Ruler]] of China. It lasted for a ''dynasty''.
* ''[[Redwall]]''
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* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' had Oceania, a totalitarian empire consisting of all of the Western Hemisphere plus Great Britain and the southern half of Africa, fighting Eurasia, essentially Soviet Russia and Continental Europe, fighting Eastasia, a cultist union of China, Japan, Korea and Northern India. They usually united against each other, but also betrayed each other just as easily. Of course, they are almost indistinguishable apart from location and language.
== Live-Action TV ==
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* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' developed a three-cornered fight between the Atlantis team, the Wraith and the Asuran Replicators. Although there was never a three-way ''battle''; the closest is when Atlantis pulled an [[Enemy Mine]] with the Wraith to take out the Replicators.
* Has happened more than once in the various [[Super Sentai|Sentai]] and ''[[Power Rangers]]'' series. It's a sort of tradition to have [[The Dragon]] [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|interrupt a]] [[Monster of the Week]] [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|about to win so he can beat the Ranger(s) himself]]. Whether this results in a Mêlée à Trois or not varies from series to series.
== Music Videos ==
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** Matches can go from Triple-Threat Matches to Fatal Four-ways to Six-Pack Challenges to full scale 20-60 man Battle Royals.
* [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] vs. [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] vs. [[Triple H]] in 1999.
* This is basically [[What Could Have Been|how it looked like]] the [[Invasion]] storyline was going to play out. To sum up: after the WWF (later [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]) very publicly buying out [[WCW]], it turns out that [[Shane McMahon|Shane]] pulled some last-second shenanigans and now "owns" it, and a massive WWF/WCW feud builds up. Suddenly from left field comes Paul Heyman and the [[ECW]] Originals, sick of [[The Unfavorite|playing second fiddle]] to the Big Two, especially since their buy out was ''far'' more low-key and basically ignored while their wrestlers were quietly filed into place. [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|But then]], it turned out he was just [[The Dragon]] to [[Stephanie McMahon|Stephanie]], who was in fact allied with Shane against [[Vince McMahon|Vince]], supposedly set-in-stone contractual alliances [[Shocking Swerve|changed almost on a weekly basis]], only a handful of people from either ECW or WCW were saved from becoming jokes, and by the end of it [[Fanon Discontinuity|most folks would rather just forget it ever happened]].
** It got so bad that when [[Vince Russo]] was eventually re-promoted to the position of head writer of the WWE, his first act was supposedly to suggest relaunching the entire debacle again, YEARS after the whole thing was dead and gone. Debate still rages on whether, if true, it was a case of [[Obfuscating Stupidity|being so rash as to force them to let him go]] or simply [[Too Dumb to Live|thinking that doing the exact same thing again would turn out differently]], since obviously [[Viewers Are Goldfish|no one would remember how horribly the last one turned out]].
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* In the Drak'theron Keep dungeon of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the Scourge is attacking the Drakkari ice troll-controlled keep. Both sides are hostile to the player. At the Wrathgate battle, the Horde and Alliance put aside their differences to fight the Scourge until {{spoiler|Putress launches the New Plague that kills the living and the Undead at the Alliance, Horde and Scourge forces, killing many and starting a war between the Alliance and the Horde. Both factions then invade the Undercity, which Putress' master Varimathras has taken over; the Alliance hopes to reclaim Lordaeron while the Horde wants their city back}}. As a result, in Icecrown Citadel, the player must fight through soldiers of the opposing faction, and board their faction's gunship to fight off the other side's.
* ''[[Red Alert]] 3'' has the Allies vs the Soviets vs the Empire of the Rising Sun.
** ''[[Command & Conquer]] 3: Tiberium Wars'' has Global Defence Initiative vs Brotherhood of Nod vs Scrin. The best part of it was that the leader of Nod, [[Magnificent Bastard|Kane]], had [[
** ''Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge'' has the Allies vs Soviet Union vs Yuri's forces. The Allies and the Soviets allied with each other until Yuri was defeated, then continued to fight against one other, which forced the Soviets to use their own time machine, leading to the events of RA3.
* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'' it was Sora and his allies vs. Organization XIII vs. Maleficent and her allies, and [[The Heartless]] regularly changing sides depending which one is the strongest.
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* The entirety of ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog (video game)|Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' is one huge war between [[Hero Antagonist|G.U.N.]]/[[The Hero|Sonic]] [[Five-Man Band|Heroes]], the [[Humanoid Aliens|Black Arms]], the [[Egopolis|Eggman]] [[The Empire|Empire]], and the [[Anti-Hero|titular hedgehog himself]].
* Averted in ''[[Ogre Battle]]''. If there are two or more enemies, [[Enemy Mine|they will spontaneously ally]] [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|against you]].
* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' involves an upcoming battle for Hoover Dam
** It gets even more complicated with DLC, which reveals that {{spoiler|Elijah and Ulysses}} also want to wipe out the three main factions competing in the Mojave. And they fully have the means to do it.
* The plot of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' quickly becomes a three-way battle between Cloud's group, Shinra and Sephiroth.
* ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'' starts out as Alex Mercer vs. Blackwatch/US Marines, but shortly thereafter, the Redlight virus and Elizabeth Green hit the scene as well, adding legions of viral mutants to the fray as well. Later on, {{spoiler|Green is killed and her virus starts to die off as well, but the Supreme Hunter takes her place as the third party, although not until the [[Final Boss]] fight.}}
* The uncut ''[[Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere]]'' eventually had ''four'' sides fighting each other in every one of its [[Multiple Endings]]: UPEO vs. General Resource vs. Neucom vs. Ouroboros. In fact, each ending was mainly characterized by who your character was fighting for in the end (Ouroboros technically got two).
** ''[[Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War]]'' had the setup of Yuktobania vs. Osea vs. {{spoiler|Belka}} in the last few missions. Also, your own squadron had to fight all of them ''at once'' until the truth about the third participant went public.
* ''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]'' has this, between the Ottoman guard, the Byzantine Templars and their guards, and the Assassins. It's not uncommon to see both of the opposing factions fighting (or sometimes cause it by forcing them to meet somewhere).
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* An appropriate quote from ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'':
{{quote|''The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more, no less.''}}
* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', you have Agatha and her friends, the Jägermonsters (usually on Agatha's side), Castle Heterodyne (supposedly on Agatha's side, but actually a force unto itself), Baron Gilgamesh Wulfenbach and his army (who wants to be on Agatha's side, but can't be), Tarvek and the
** The best illustration of a Mêlée à Trois, though, would certainly be [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100716 this page].
** In the Mechanicsburg arc, there were at least ''seven'' different factions fighting for control of the city.
* ''[[Homestuck]]'': {{spoiler|God-tier}} Vriska vs. Eridan vs. {{spoiler|Gamzee}}! STRIFE! {{spoiler|Subverted, or [[Not a Subversion|something]]. [[Our Vampires Are Different|A newly undead]] [[Beware the Nice Ones|Kanaya]] kicks Gamzee [[Groin Attack|in the crotch]] and off a cliff, punches Vriska and sends her sliding away, and breaks Eridan's wand and [[Chainsaw Good|pulls out a chainsaw]] on him.}}
* In the web comics of [[Urban Rivals]], the B team have to protect their captured leaders from Zlatars robot ninjas, and the Ghiest clan.
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** It got more complicated with the Ninth Crusade (1271-1272). Abaqa Khan, the monarch of the Ilkhanate, allied with the Crusaders against the Mamluks. He was a Buddhist. On the other hand, the Northern Crusades (or Baltic Crusades) featured various Catholic factions at war with the last remaining Pagan tribes of Northern Europe. Said Catholic factions rivaled each other and did not hesitate to go into open war. For example the long conflict between Poland and the Teutonic Order. Add a number of Orthodox states, mainly Novgorod, getting involved and you have even more complexity than the Middle Eastern Crusades.
* The Haitian Revolution: one group wanted to remain loyal to the French Revolution (mostly free blacks, supported by France), one group wanted independence so they could keep things as they were under the monarchy (mostly whites, supported by Britain), and one group wanted independence for a black nation (mostly slaves, supported by Spain). The free blacks won, but when the French Expeditionary Force arrived and started acting like dicks, the free blacks teamed up with the slaves and established an independent Haiti.
* In many governments, the power is often divided up into three branches, with the idea being that no one branch can get all of the power because it has to compete with two other branches. Apart from the [[The United States|United States of America]], many Commonwealth countries like the [[United Kingdom]] and [[New Zealand]] have seperation of power where the government is split into 3 branches (parliament, judiciary and executive).
** Many Commonwealth countries also have several parties jockeying for position. As just one example, [[Canada]] has had everything from Melees à Trois to Melees à Cinq: The Liberal, Conservative and New Democratic Parties have been competing for decades, with various other parties (Social Credit, Reform, Bloc Quebecois, etc.) being elected to Parliament at any given time.
** In the old Soviet Union, the Communist Party, the military, and the KGB tended to function as competing political power blocs.
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Fight Scene]]
[[Category:Trope Names From the French]]
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