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{{trope}}
{{quote|''You consider me the young [[Painful Rhyme|apprentice]]
''Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis
''Hypnotized by you if I should linger
''Staring at the ring around your finger''
|[[The Police]], "Wrapped Around Your Finger"}}
Situation in which a character must attempt to balance or choose between two (sometimes more) mutually exclusive obligations, desires, ideals, etc.; failure on either front would be disastrous, but it's equally [[Failure Is the Only Option|impossible to please everyone]]. When the trope is played for laughs, [[Hilarity Ensues]] as the character attempts to mollify everyone while the scheme inevitably unravels around him; it's typically subverted when the consequences of failure are revealed to be not so dire as originally believed. Often seen on chase-style cartoons where, by avoiding one foe or obstacle to a good meal, the [[Butt Monkey]] unwittingly runs into another problem (e.g. jumping into water to avoid a swarm of angry bees, only to fail to see the [[Piranha Problem|DANGER: PIRANHA]] sign behind the bushes until too late).
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The [[Two-Timer Date]], wherein one person must shuttle between two simultaneous appointments, can be a specific example. Note, however, that a Scylla and Charybdis situation may not necessarily be caused by the character's own scheming, oversight or negligence. The outstanding feature of this trope is that the central character must try to appease everyone at once, but cannot.
[[Wake Up, Go to School, Save
The trope name refers to the two sea monsters of [[Greek Mythology]] which trapped sailors between them, making it [[Older Than Feudalism]]. Scylla was a [[
Often [[Why Didn't You Just Say So?|dumbed down]] to "a rock and a hard place". See also [[Morton's Fork]] for the conundrums more like "Scylla or another head of the same Scylla".
{{examples}}
* Many [[Love Dodecahedron
▲== Anime/Manga ==
▲* Many [[Love Dodecahedron|Love Dodecahedrons]] fall into this trope, with the poor fellow in the center doomed to infuriate (potentially violently) whomever he rejects if he makes a decision. Ranma of ''[[Ranma One Half]]'' and Tenchi of ''[[Tenchi Muyo]]'' are extreme examples.
* In ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'', Ichigo is trapped in a battle with a monster and desperately trying to finish up so that she can go on a date. In the end, the battle escalates so far that she misses the concert and appears, hours late and in tears. Of course, her boyfriend was nice enough to wait all that time in the rain.
* In ''[[
==
* In ''[[
{{quote|
'''Duck''': [[Only Sane Man|Why do you work for these people?]] }}
== Film ==
* Used at the climax of ''[[
* ''[[
== Literature ==
* Although not following the trope, ''[[Rafael Sabatini|The Hounds of God]]'', Lady Margaret described herself as escaping Scylla, but being sucked into the whirlpool of Charybdis. This refers to her technically being rescued from being kidnapped, but only to be brought to trial for witchcraft.
* ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts|Sabbat Martyr]]'' has Warmaster Macaroth facing an old military dilemma: if his forces stay overstretched, they are vulnerable to a flank attack, and if he protects the flanks and communications at the cost of weakening pressure on the active front, the enemy may regroup and counterattack.
{{quote|Either option seemed cursed with failure. Macaroth simply had to decide which one to risk. Famously, he showed one of his generals two identical cups of wine and asked him to pick one. “One is elixir, one is poison,” he said. “How can I tell them apart?” the general asked. “By taking one up and tasting it,” replied the Warmaster."}}
== Live Action TV ==
* Nearly every [[
* ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'': Raymond found himself in the middle of conflicts between his wife, Debra, and his
** Another ''Raymond'' example: At one point, Debra runs for president of the neighborhood co-op opposite [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis|long-time arch-rival]] Parker. Although Raymond loves Debra and hates Parker, he realizes that Parker would make a better president.
== Mythology ==
* As mentioned above for Greek mythology, in ''[[
** Later on, he is forced to pass by the two monsters ''again'', this time by himself in a raft (long story). This time, he passes by Charybdis. Alone, he's able to grasp onto a fig tree growing on an outcropping near the whirlpool, and is able to recover his raft after it's swallowed, and then expelled.
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== Web Comics ==
* A recurring theme in ''[[Misfile]]'' is Ash trying to balance her happiness against her [[Gender Bender|desire not to lose her masculinity]].
* ''[[
== Web Original ==
* More literally, [http://www.cracked.com/blog/exploring-internet-in-11-days-epic-online-odyssey/ here], Soren Bowie of ''[[Cracked.com]]'' does a pastiche of the Internet as ''[[
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:Scylla
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