I tried squinting. I still only see a vase!
A stock pose seen in cartoon openings, movie posters, video game box art, comics covers, paintings, this is a shot that pits two teams against each other on opposite sides of the screen. It can be a massive group shot, featuring all the series's heroes and villains, or show just two characters— all that matters is that the two sides are facing each other and look ready to strike.
Usually the left and right side are evenly balanced and evenly matched. The characters across from one another tend to be counterparts and are often mimicking the other side's pose, and suggesting Counterpart Combat Coordination.
This trope can be used for thematic reasons, to emphasize how the characters aren't so different and the villain is the dark mirror of the other, but it's just as likely to be a dynamic version of the Team Shot with villainy added for spice.
A variant often seen in fight scenes involves a stationary long shot framing two groups running at each other into combat, often one-on-one as a Counterpart Combat Coordination. Usually they don't start fighting all at once, rather, it starts in the back or front of the line and moves to the other side from there.
Compare Juxtaposed Halves Shot (where half of two characters' sides/faces are juxtaposed to or beside each other), Fearful Symmetry (where both characters involved are usually shown in profile in an ongoing Blade Lock), and Versus Character Splash (where two characters' faces are briefly shown in a Splash Screen as a prelude to a battle in a Fighting Game).
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Black★Rock Shooter had this in the show itself between Insane Black★Rock Shooter and Strength.
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- Brave Beats features one between Choreo and Flash Beat in the opening sequence.
- DEVILMAN crybaby has this in the opening theme, between Ryo and Akira.
- Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time has it in the opening, with Team Xros Heart facing off against their rival team of Hunters.
- The opening for Fresh Pretty Cure! had, at one point near the end, one of these◊ with the initial three heroines at the right and the initial Labyrinth trio at the left. After Setsuna's Heel–Face Turn, it changes so she is located at the other side with the Cures, with her spot in the original shot filled in by Norza.
- The poster for Izetta: The Last Witch has this between Bergman and Fine◊ with the eponymous character Izetta in the middle.
- Monster (1994): Johan's "scenery of the end" is a shot of him and Tenma facing off, with the rest of the world literally removed from the picture. That their poses are not mirrored is an obvious thematic choice.
- The cover of Volume 15 of Naruto Has Naruto and Gaara both crouching/facing each other while each holding and object to further mirror each other (Sand Gourd for Gaara and the summoning contract for Naruto) Behind them there's also a Juxtaposed Halves Shot of Shukaku (Gaara's side) and Gamabunta (Naruto's side).
- One Piece:
- The manga does an interesting take on this. The cover for volume 21, "Utopia", has the remainder of the Baroque Works' agents (Mr. 0/Crocodile, Miss All Sunday/Nico Robin, Mr. 1/Daz Bones, Miss Doublefinger, Mr. 2/Bon Clay, Mr. 4, and Miss Merry Christmas) lined up and looking right, and volume 22, "Hope!", has the Straw Hats and allies (Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Vivi, Karoo, and Eyelashes) the same way, looking left. When the two covers are combined, (21-22) the result is a Mirrored Confrontation Shot. Later on in the anime, this same shot was used when Ivankov talks about the Alabasta incident to Bon Clay.
- The cover art for the DVD version of Episode 0 does a more classic version, between Luffy and Shiki.
- In Planetes, the secondary characters are presented like this, first a group on the left side and then another on the right side, their positions expanding outwards in an accordion-like fashion. It's interesting because both groups have friendly, or at least neutral but supportive characters, but those in the first group tend towards a more antagonistic streak —and, due to the nature of the Evolving Credits, some members of this first group will eventually shift into the uniforms belonging to their Heel–Face Turn status.
- Pokémon the Series
- A recurring occurence during matches, where the scene will cut to a view showing a shot (like this one◊) with both Trainers facing and glaring at each other.
- The first opening theme for Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl features Ash and The Rival Paul with their respective teams; before the opening changed to reflect the events of future episodes, it is symmetrical (in a sense): they both have a Flying-type, an Electric-type, and a primate-based Pokémon.
- A recurring occurence during matches, where the scene will cut to a view showing a shot (like this one
- Reborn! (2004) uses this trope about twice. First against the Varia, and then the Milliefiore.
- Most of the Record of Ragnarok covers are like this, depicting the fighters who face each other in the volume, typically only changing it up if the fight lasts longer than a single volume.
- The visual for Mission 45 of SPY×FAMILY has Billy and his Red Circus terrorists face-to-face against Anya and her classmates.
- The latest intro (Season four) of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's has Jack, Yusei and Crow against the Infinity Trio.
Asian Animation
- BoBoiBoy: One of BoBoiBoy's team staring down Fang and Adu Du's team appears in Season 2 episode 4, before their big football game begins.
- A number of the various Flower Angel openings feature a shot of the good fairies looking confrontingly at the the evil fairies, the good ones on the left and the evil ones on the right.
Comic Books
- Lots of comics covers (such as this one for Impulse◊)
- Also the cover of Teen Titans #52
- Also the cover of Teen Titans #52
- The Avengers are fond of this. In their first 200 issues, they used it for the cover of #s 15,◊ 53,◊ 70,◊ 130◊ and 141.◊ In later years, it was usually used as an homage to the early covers, including X-Statix #21,◊ which started a Let's You and Him Fight storyline with the Avengers.
- In fact, if any comic cover features two teams facing off/charging at each other across an otherwise blank scene, the artist's probably thinking of Avengers #s 130 and 141. That includes the Marvel/DC and Titans covers above
- The cover of the penultimate issue of Avengers Academy shows the Academy kids facing down the Jean Grey School kids. On a football field.
- Black Moon Chronicles: The cover of album 13, The Prophecy, shows Wismerhill and Hazheel Thorn staring each other down with (literally) burning eyes.
- Happens a few times in Marvel's Civil War, like here and here.
- The Fantastic Four once fought the members of the "New" Fantastic Four, a team consisting of Spider-Man, Wolverine, The Incredible Hulk, and Ghost Rider. The issue in question depicted the two teams squaring off in this manner.
- Several covers for the various Marvel/DC crossovers, such as this one.◊
- The cover to "Sonic Super Special #1" AKA "Battle Royal," shows Sonic and the Freedom Fighters facing off against Knuckles and the Chaotix.
- Spectacular Spider-Man #226, the infamous issue of The Clone Saga where it was revealed that Ben was supposedly the real deal and Peter Parker was the clone, used this for its cover. It can be seen in the page image for the storyline.
- The cover◊ for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet the Conservation Corps comic shows a confrontation between the four turtles and four members of the Corps.
- Thunderbolts #172, part of a Time Travel storyline, shows the current 'Bolts confronting the originals. Including Karla "Moonstone" Sofen and Norbert "Fixer" Endersol charging at Karla "Meteorite" Sofen and Norbert "Techno" Endersol, respectively.
- #3 features the original Thunderbolts (secretly the Masters of Evil) facing off against the new Masters of Evil.
- Ultimate Comics: Wolverine: Jimmy had one with both Wildchild and Quicksilver.
- One of the covers for Mega Man (Archie Comics) Issue 25,◊ part of the World's Collide crossover with the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), features a variation with all of the Mega Man characters on the left, and all the Sonic characters on the right.
- Another particularly iconic example is X-Men #100,◊ which shows the All-New X-Men facing off against the original X-Men (supposedly).
Fan Works
- Ebott's Wake has a textual version at the beginning when Dr. Aster reflexively summons an Aster Blaster as Sans bridges up to the cave:
A part of [Dr. Aster's] mind, standing off to the side like am impartial observer or referee, noted that there was an appealing symmetry to the situation; on each side, a skeleton and two blasters.
Films — Animated
- An official piece of artwork for Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Super Adventure features Weslie and an army of White Kingdom bacteria soldiers staring at Wolffy and an army of Black Kingdom bacteria soldiers, clearly intent on fighting each other.
- The Prince of Egypt: Moses and Pharaoh Rameses during the song "The Plagues". The sequence is done rather symbolically. During the song, both Moses and Rameses sing about how they saw each other as brothers and how none of them wanted the plagues to happen. Near the end of the song, their faces do a Juxtaposed Halves Shot. Then their faces rotate apart so that they are facing each other, signifying that whatever bond they had is now permanently broken.
Films — Live-Action
- Avengers: Endgame features this seconds before the "Battle of Earth" between the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy and their multitude of allies in a Big Heroic Run versus the Million Mook March of Thanos's army.
- The poster◊ for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice shows Batman and Superman standing against each other.
- The poster for◊ Bride Wars.
- A Bronx Tale has this in the poster, although the two characters doing it don't have as much animosity as the poster suggests.
- The theatrical poster◊ for Captain America: Civil War shows both Captain America and Iron Man teams standing against each other on opposite sides.
- The DVD Cover to Cats & Dogs.
- The poster for the 2011 movie adaptation of Coriolanus.
- Creed II has Adonis and Rocky against Viktor and Ivan Drago on its teaser poster.
- The teaser poster for Deadpool & Wolverine shows its two titular characters face-to-face, with Wolverine about to stab Deadpool with his claws while Deadpool is about to shoot Wolverine.
- The Deathly Hallows poster is parodied by one of the teasers for◊ The Hangover Pt 3.
- Demolition Man
- The poster◊ of Enemy Mine (1985).
- Freddy vs. Jason posters with the titular characters.
- Harry Potter
- The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie has a poster like this, with Harry and the good guys on one side, and Voldemort and his Death Eaters on the other, charging. Which is especially funny, considering magic can't generally be considered a close-contact type of attack.
- Another poster◊ for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.
- Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai: Used in the Post-Climax Confrontation after Badan has been defeated, where the two generations of Riders are ready to face off, led by Gaim and Ichigo, respectively.
- The poster for Infinite (2021) shows Evan McCauley and Bathurst standing against each other.
- Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger vs. Space Sheriff Gavan: The Movie
- The poster for◊ Lone Wolf McQuade, featuring everybody's favorite Chuck Norris. This image is actually "mirrored" three ways— the floating heads at the top, the men striking a pose in the centre, and at either side, a man holding another person— Chuck cradling a woman, and Carradine using a Human Shield.
- The Man from Toronto features this between Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson.
- Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends
- The poster◊ for Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising parodies Captain America: Civil War.
- Over the Top has this between Lincoln and Bull◊ on the poster.
- One cover for Rocky III has Rocky and Clubber Lang staring at each other just before their fight.
- Rocky IV opens with with two boxing gloves, one with the American flag and one with the Soviet flag, coming from the sides of the screen and smashing into each other.
- Some billboard posters for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) feature Sonic and Tails' heads posed opposite Robotnik and Knuckles in the style of Captain America: Civil War.
- One poster for Transformers has Optimus Prime and Megatron do this. The former has the word "Protect" appear next to him, while the latter has the word "Destroy" instead.
- A literal example of this occurs in the final showdown between Bond and Blofeld in Spectre. To drive this even further, Blofeld even serves as a warped mirror version and Evil Counterpart of 007, showcasing the visual similarities between the two, if anybody looks closer.
- The Alien vs. Predator (2004) DVD cover, as well as its rip-off from The Asylum.
- War (2007)
Literature
- There's a stock silhouette image that can be seen as either two people facing each other, or a vase/urn. I Am America (And So Can You!) contains an asymmetrical parody of it, with the question, "Is this Paul Begala arguing with Robert Novak, or just a very poorly constructed vase?"
- Isaac Asimov's Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories: The Doubleday Volume 1 has two robots, each holding an hourglass, facing each other from opposite sides of the cover.
- Done between Captain Carrot and the Silver Horde in The Last Hero.
- One cover for The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge has Jim's two possible love interests facing each other over his head.
- Vorkosigan Saga:
- Given the themes in Mirror Dance, it's not surprising that the first edition's cover art◊ featured Miles and his clone/brother Mark directly glowering at each other. Their actual relationship isn't precisely that of enemies, but — especially in Mirror Dance — there is definitely some confrontation going on, and even at their sweetest there is some very strong Sibling Rivalry between the two.
- The first cover art◊ for the prequel Cetaganda continues the theme, this time with Miles glaring at a Cetagandan ghem-lord. Again, the actual plot of the book is more...complicated than just straightforward enemies. (One prominent ghem-lord in that book is Ghem-Colonel Dag Benin, with whom Miles actually winds up unofficially collaborating to stave off interstellar war.)
- Given the themes in Mirror Dance, it's not surprising that the first edition's cover art
- The cover◊ of the Warrior Cats novel A Dangerous Path by Erin Hunter shows cats facing each other with their fangs bared.
Live-Action Television
- The poster for Season 2◊ of House of the Dragon pits Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen against each other, as former friends whose factions are now bitter enemies.
- The poster for Season 2 of See pits Baba Voss against his enemy younger brother Edo Voss.
- Super Sentai: Used a couple of times in the opening sequences of a few seasons.
- In Choujuu Sentai Liveman, it's the first three Liveman (in civilian forms) versus Professor Bias's "students", just before the Title Theme Tune starts.
- Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger: It actually has two shots of the opposing Sentai teams: the first one, which doubles as a Mexican Standoff, is right before the Title Theme Tune like Liveman, and the second shot is a diagonal variant during the song itself, since the Lupinrangers are in an elevated position opposite the Patrangers.
Music
- The album cover for Hall & Oates' 1982 album H2O.
Pinball
- In F-14 Tomcat, the player character "Hitman" and the antagonist General Yagov adopt this pose on the playfield.
- Harry Potter (2025): The lower-tier versions' backglass◊ depicts several of the series' heroes and villains facing off: Voldemort, Bellatrix, and both Draco & Lucius Malfoy on the left, and Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Dumbledore on the right. In addition, each side has an animal that faces off near the bottom of the piece: Nagini (Voldemort's snake) and Fawkes (Dumbledore's phoenix), respectively.
- Buzz and an angry golfer are shown facing each other on the slingshot bumpers in No Good Gofers.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Stern): The Limited Edition backglass depicts Splinter and the Shredder on opposite sides, respectively flanked by the Turtles and the rest of their Rogues Gallery.
- In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Williams), the T-800 and the T-1000 are facing off against each other on the far wall of the playfield.
Pro Wrestling
- A lot of posters for Professional Wrestling pay per views feature this trope. For a classic example, see the poster◊ for WrestleMania III.
Sports
- You see it all the time on football broadcasts with the helmets of the two opposing teams facing off in 3D. (Sometimes clashing together and exploding in a manly shower of sparks and lightning and fire and explosions and lots of testosterone and things.)
Tabletop Games
- Exalted: One of the illustrations in Return of the Scarlet Empress shows the Forces of Hell on one side versus just about everyone else on the opposing side.
- This is used in Magic: The Gathering in several "clone" cards showing the cloned and the clone, such as Morphling and, of course, Clone.
- Duel Deck art design have this in mind, with the foil cards in question using the art on the box.
Video Games
- Several adverts for Batman: Arkham Knight had Batman and the Knight do this. The Arkham wiki currently uses it as the background image, and it's also used for the game's Game of the Year edition.
- The cover of Batman: Revenge of the Joker for the Sega Genesis features Batman facing against the Joker.
- The cover of BIONICLE: Heroes has Kongu facing off Vezok.
- The cover of Bully has the protagonist facing off with the headmaster of Bullworth Academy.
- The Good vs. Evil boxed set for City of Heroes featured this sort of image with the game's main NPC heroes and villains rushing at each other.
- The PSP theme for Dissidia Final Fantasy (and presumably the box-art) uses this, with all the heroes on the right, villains on the left. (Link.◊)
- The box-art is a little different: The standard side is all the characters from the Cosmos side facing left. Removing the box-art and flipping it over displays all the characters from the Chaos side facing right. Even the screenshots are mirrored: the Cosmos side shows Cloud preparing to strike, the Chaos side shows Sephiroth preparing to strike.
- The Boss Subtitles of Guacamelee! are presented in this fashion.
- The cover art◊ for Halo 5: Guardians features Spartan Locke against Master Chief.
- Parodied in promotional artwork for Jak 3: Wastelander and Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, and quite fitting given the friendly rivalry between both fandoms at the time.
- The icon used for VS mode in Left 4 Dead 2 has Coach (survivor) facing against a Boomer (zombie).
- The first The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak uses this aesthetic for its Visual Initiative Queue, where portraits of the heroes' turns are on the left side, while the enemies are on the right, and at the very middle of the line is the character whose turn is currently up.
- Metal Wolf Chaos gives us this image,◊ showing President Michael Wilson against Vice President Richard Hawk.
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes has it◊ twice◊ before boss battles with Dark Samus.
- Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 4 have one-on-one pre-fight confrontation Vs. shots.
- Batman and Sub-Zero do this in trailer of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Lot more characters do it on the cover.
- The US and EU box art for the NES version of North And South show a blue soldier and a grey soldier butting heads, along with their horses.
- The Japanese and European cover art◊ of Persona 3: FES does this with the main characters on the right side, and their corresponding Personas facing them from the left. It's a particularly brilliant shot because at first glance it looks like a bunch of heroic high-schoolers facing off against gruesome, godlike monsters, when in reality it's a literal mirror showing the two sides of the same person.
- The promotional image of Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE seen as the header for the main Shin Megami Tensei trope page, with angels and Messians standing on one side, devils and Gaians on the other, and the player caught in the exact middle.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Promotional art for Sonic CD depicts the conflict between Sonic and Metal Sonic in this manner. The game's Japanese cover also features this shot, with the EU version using a zoomed-in variant. The American box art opts for a different scene entirely. Curiously, the CD-ROM release in Japan instead goes with a group shot while it's the European version that showcases the Blue Blur versus his robotic doppelganger.
- This promotional poster◊ for Sonic Forces, shows the Resistance and against the Eggman Empire.
- Promotional art
- Street Fighter Alpha 2's cover art has this between Ryu and Akuma, with the latter snarling menacingly and towering over the former.
- Super Mario Strikers has this as part of its character selection mechanic. When the captains are selected, they're presented facing each other in this format. Right before matches start, they're presented in the same poses, but this time with a "VS" between them.
- Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U had posters for many of the new fighters joining the cast. Cloud Strife's poster◊, drawn by Final Fantasy character designer Tetsuya Nomura, and Bayonetta's poster◊, drawn by Eiji Funahashi of PlatinumGames, both use this trope.
- The box art to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars has this.
- One piece of art◊ for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge shows a confrontation with the turtles and their allies one one side, and the Foot Clan on the other.
- The covers of the first two Warcraft games.
- This wallpaper for Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner.
Webcomics
- The logo for By The Saints (caution: occasional pencil-drawn violence) has two armies facing off.
- Drowtales here
- In El Goonish Shive, one of the chapter covers features this with Grace and Damien in the middle.
Web Original
- The title cards for Atop the Fourth Wall occasionally do this, though not as often as you might think, considering that some of the comics Linkara has reviewed have featured this trope on their covers. Two cases in particular mirror each other, though - the cards for Youngblood (Image Comics) #3 and Doctor Who Classics #7 mirror each other, being back-to-back storyline episodes, with Linkara and Lord Vyce facing each other with crossed arms, on opposite sides. Shaft and the Fifth Doctor's presence in each is incidental (and basically only to tie the cards in to the content actually being reviewed, of course).
- In Freshy Kanal's "Bakugo vs. Inosuke" rap battle, the final scene is a series of increasingly closed-up shots of Bakugo on the left and Inosuke on the right facing and jumping towards each other with weapons ready.
- The Great Showdowns Tumblr blog features cute pictures of heroes and villains from movies facing each other, accompanied by a quote, but not the titles of the movies pictured.
- There is a least one shot of the Nostalgia Critic and the Angry Video Game Nerd doing this, in cartoon form.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: In "The Southern Raiders" when Sokka tells the flashback story of the Fire Nation soldiers attacking the Southern Water Tribe, the fight begins with the two sides running and combating or dodging/moving past each other.
- Avengers Assemble gets in on the act as well, when facing their Space Phantom doppelgangers. Later in season 3, the Avengers and their allies are manipulated into turning on each other, and they line up for the fight.
- There is one in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, during the first battle between the Avengers and the Masters of Evil.
- Darkwing Duck two-parter "Just us Justice Ducks" eventually leads to a confrontation between the newly-formed Justice Ducks and the Fearsome Five in these exact positions complete with western music playing in the background.
- The image on the Dinosaucers page, which is the final shot of the opening to the show before it cuts to the title.
- Justice League
- The final shot of the episode "Grudge Match" has Black Canary and Huntress facing each other before they begin their fight.
- "Secret Society" also features a shot, with the Justice League on one side and Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society on the other, right before they come to blows.
- Ninjago:
- In "Double Trouble", the ninja confront their doppelgangers, complete with a freeze-frame of them in actual mirrored poses.
- In "Powerless", the ninja are fighting to get the Dangerous Forbidden Technique scroll at the museum before an evil Snake Woman named Aspheera does. The scroll ends up in the middle of the room and the ensuing shot has each side running to the middle of the room, with each of the ninja fighting Aspheera or one of her giant fire snake creatures.
- OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes has one of these for its opening sequence.
- Pibby: Near the end of the trailer, there's a shot depicting Pibby leading an army of uncorrupted cartoon characters against the Eldritch Abomination antagonist, each at opposite ends of the screen. (Driving the dichotomy home, the heroes have a moon on their side while the antagonist has a sun.)