Always Someone Better: Difference between revisions

It's not uncommon for the characters to be siblings, not unlike the [[Aloof Big Brother]] -- e.g. [[Cheers (TV)|Sam Malone]]'s brother was more popular than him, [[Monk (TV)|Adrian Monk]]'s brother was better at deduction. The [[Older Than Radio|classic]] better sibling is, of course, [[Sherlock Holmes|Mycroft Holmes]], better known as "Sherlock Holmes' smarter brother."

* ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]'': Gary Oak from the Kanto Arc to the end of the Johto Arc.

* ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'' had Mihawk, the greatest swordsman in the world, who in his first appearance utterly trounces Roronoa Zoro (greatest swordsman in the ocean of East Blue) with a tiny dagger, but spares him because Zoro shows promise.

** Also, Luffy's Brother Ace. He was already [[Charles Atlas Superpower|stronger]] than Luffy ''before he got his [[Playing With Fire]] powers and after Luffy got his rubber-powers''.

** ''[[The Prince of Tennis (Manga)|The Prince of Tennis]]'': Tezuka, Atobe, Shiraishi, Chitose, Sanada, Yukimura, Renji, Ryoma himself.

** ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula (Anime)|Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'': Hayato himself, as well as Kaga, Shinjyo, Randoll, Osamu (as Schumacher).

* Kagome Higurashi has Kikyou, her past incarnation ''and'' love rival, as her [[Always Someone Better]] in ''[[Inuyasha (Manga)|Inuyasha]]''. Kikyou was a brilliant, [[Yamato Nadeshiko|gentle]] [[Miko]] when she lived, and a [[Broken Bird|conflicted undead Miko]] when she was [[Came Back Wrong|forcefully revived]]; aside of her love for Inuyasha, Kagome's biggest conflict is constantly feeling that she's gotta re-assert her own identity [[Replacement Scrappy|to not have everyone tell her she's inferior to Kikyou]].

* In ''[[Cowboy Bebop (Anime)|Cowboy Bebop]]'', Spike is set up as the biggest [[Badass]] of the galaxy, matched only by his nemesis Vicious, however when {{spoiler|Ed's father}} briefly shows up toward the end of the series, he effortlessly outfights Spike.

* This is the entire plot basis of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]!''.

* In [[Great Mazinger]], Tetsuya is pictured to be much more superior than Koji in many ways during his introduction, being a basically same character with their only difference was Tetsuya being better, more mature but more arrogant than Koji. When Koji returns after being [[Put On a Bus]], it become apparent that Tetsuya has a weakness which was {{spoiler|none, on the flipside, Tetsuya himself don't even know that he is better than Koji and accepted by the others in the same way as Koji, and at the same time have a massive Inferiority complex. This caused a huge amount of problem.}}

* Raigyo from ''[[Xamd Lost Memories|Xam'd: Lost Memories]]'' exists to make protagonist Akiyuki feel terribly inadequate both as a Xam'd and as a crewmember of the Zanbani Postal Ship. The point is stressed further by the fact that Akiyuki is stuck mostly wearing Raigyo's hand-me-downs which, with Raikyo being a good head taller and utterly ripped, are almost comically oversized on the poor kid -- meaning that he has big [[Incredibly Lame Pun|shirts to fill]] both figuratively and literally.

* As [[Big Bad|Anotsu]] from ''[[Blade of the Immortal]]'' so [[In Love With Your Carnage|poetically expressed himself]] concerning [[Lady of War|Makie]] as she [[Curb Stomp Battle|effortlessly slaughtered]] a dozen [[Elite Mook|shingyoutou-ryuu samurai]]:

* Specklerex from ''[[Kimba the White Lion (Manga)|Kimba the White Lion]]'' is a [[Reasonable Authority Figure]], but Caesar winds up being a more successful leader than he is. This leads to Specklerex developing [[Fantastic Racism]] towards white lions.

* Similarly, this motivation is attributed to [[Lex Luthor|Lex Luthor's]] hatred of [[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]], starting with John Byrne's reboot in the 1980s. Lex Luthor was the most powerful man in Metropolis, with even politicians and law enforcement afraid to cross him, until Superman arrived in town and not only showed Lex up but emboldened the police and mayor to stand up to Lex as well. In John Byrne's version of the first meeting between Lex and Superman, Lex tried to hire Superman as one more obedient employee, and he has never forgiven Superman for being the first person in Metropolis ever to dare to say "no" to him. This is further compounded by the fact that, over the years, Superman's increasing popularity has drastically overshadowed Lex. And, of course, the obvious factor that Superman has a whole load of awesome super powers and Lex doesn't, which Lex is rather bitter about.

** [[Captain Atom]] is this for the entire [[DC Universe]]. Whenever there is a threat that [[Superman]] can't handle for one reason or another, a threat that will spank [[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lantern]] and utterly humble [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]]... it almost always falls to [[Captain Atom]] to take care of, because there are no real limits to his powers because he is a [[Physical God]] to end all [[Physical God|Physical Gods]]. In ''Captain Atom: Armageddon'', he shows up in the ''Wildstorm'' universe and plays this role to ''[[The Authority]]''. By which we mean the ''whole team'' combined.

* A lot of [[British Comics|British children's comics]], such as ''[[The Beano]]'' and ''[[The Dandy (Comic Book)|The Dandy]]'', characters have fallen victim to this, due to the fact that many of them consist of groups of friends/sports teams/classes etc. where each character is centred around a particular attribute - clever, fat, short-sighted, whatever - and a common plot is to introduce them to an even more exaggerated version of themselves.

* The first page quote comes from ''[[She Hulk|She-Hulk]]'', where the titular heroine fills this role for Titania and is the subject of her husband the Absorbing Man's lecture. She just can't beat her and it just drives her insane.

* In [[Bronze Age]] ''[[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]]'' comics, this was Vartox's shtick. Vartox was the superhero protector of a distant planet. He had been superheroing longer than Supes and had an even wider array of powers than he did. Fortunately, Vartox was a hero, and the two were nominally friends. ''Un''fortunately, Vartox frequently showed signs of emotional instability, and seemed to get mind-controlled or otherwise manipulated pretty much every time he showed up, so the two ''always'' got in a fight. Supes couldn't out-muscle him, so he always had to win by using his head.

* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes The Series (Fanfic)|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]'' has [[Chaotic Evil|Thunderstorm]], who is eventually [[Sealed Evil in A Can|trapped underground]] (accidentally) by his [[Stupid Evil]] brother Brainstorm.

* The movie ''[[Excalibur (Film)|Excalibur]]'', Merlin warns [[King Arthur|Arthur]], "You must remember, there's always something cleverer than yourself." This was a particularly prescient warning since it was the first time Arthur faced Lancelot.

* Minnesota Fats from ''[[The Hustler (Film)|The Hustler]]''.

* The concept was subverted in [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]]'s ''[[Hercule Poirot]]'' novel ''The Big Four'', when Poirot mentions his older brother Achille as being a better detective than he is; the only visual difference, he claims, is that Achille doesn't have a mustache and has a scarred lip. Near the end, when the villains have captured Hastings and Poirot, Hastings realizes that they captured Achille instead - only to have it revealed {{spoiler|that Achille doesn't ''exist''; in order to fool the villains, Hercule shaved off his mustache revealing his own scarred lip. Hastings probably should have realized something was up when Poirot, the biggest egomaniac in literature, started describing someone as better...}} This idea was likely inspired by Mycroft Holmes; Poirot gives a [[Shout-Out]] to him by noting, "Don't all great detectives have a brother better at it than them?"

* The ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book ''How I Learned To Fly'' has Wilson, a character who is [[The Ace]] and [[The Rival]] to the protagonist, and seems to be able to do everything better than him. It ends up [[Hoist By His Own Petard|screwing him over in the end]].

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time (Literature)|The Wheel of Time]]'' the mythic hero Lews Therin Telamon inadvertently caused several of his own followers to switch sides by being too good and making them look too bad. Most notable is Demandred, who was slightly inferior to Lews Therin in appearance, height, age, power, romantic success, et cetera.

* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' had the [[Buffy-Speak|weird undefined demon-ish...thing]] The Immortal, who in his single not-quite-appearance managed to embody Spike and Angel's insecurities, by constantly one-upping them at everything they did--without even trying. He did both Darla and Drusilla while they were still seeing Angel and Spike respectively, and in the present day was supposed to be dating ''Buffy''. The entire demon world, of course--and some of the magical world that wasn't fond of demons--fawned over him and considered him an idol. In a subversion, at the end of the episode, Spike and Angel were no more over their inferiority complex than before. (In fact, the whole episode played out like the [[Author Appeal|writer had]] a huge [[Fetish Fuel|cuckolding fetish]].)

** Of course, later, it is established in the in-canon ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy]]'' comics that {{spoiler|the Immortal wasn't dating Buffy, Spike and Angel had been fooled (by ''Andrew'', of all people) to keep Buffy a bit safer}}.

* ''[[The Twilight Zone (TV)|The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "A Game of Pool" combines this with a case of [[Be Careful What You Wish For]] when a pool player wishes he could play one game with a deceased pool champ and defeat him so that he can be considered the best in the world. He suddenly gets challenged to a game by the ghost of said champ with the stakes being that if he wins he will be considered the best in the world, but if he loses he will die. He wins, {{spoiler|but finds out that it means taking the previous champ's place and having to spend the afterlife defending his title until someone else defeats him.}}

* John Cleese guest-starred on ''[[3rd Rock From the Sun|3rd Rock From The Sun]]'' as a new professor who was exactly like Dick, but way better in every way possible. {{spoiler|At the end, it turned out he was another alien.}}

** Say it with me: [[Two Words|World.]] [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Ship.]]

* ''[[Threes Company|Three's Company]]'': Jack's brother was always "one upping" him.

* In ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', Lore had emotions and humour while Data didn't. In ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'', Female Shapeshifter is better at shapeshifting than Odo.

* In ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'', Arnold Rimmer's alternate-universe counterpart shows up and is better than him at ''everything'' -- simply because he got the right kind of motivation in his early adult life.

* In ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]"" episode [[Community (TV)/Recap/S1 E11 The Politics of Human Sexuality|The Politics Of Human Sexuality]] Abed turns out to be this for Troy with regards to athleticism . Parodied, in that Abed is clearly not interested in athletics where Troy is immediately driven into a fit of paranoid insecurity by the fact that Abed manages to throw a piece of trash into a garbage can when Troy misses, and it just gets worse from there.

* The Dallas Strike Force in ''[[The Good Guys (TV)|The Good Guys]]''.

* [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]] ''thinks'' this, so he bitches out anyone that goes into his territory. Whether that's true or not is up for debate.

* Dias Flac is this to Claude in ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story (Video Game)|Star Ocean the Second Story]]'': A better swordsman, and another love interest for Rena (whom he has history with - Claude just showed up). Ultimately subverted in Rena's story, since when he joins your party Claude eventually surpasses him.

* Your rival in ''[[Pokémon Red and Blue (Video Game)|Pokémon Red and Blue]]'' is always a step (or more!) ahead of you. For example, in the Red/Blue version, he boasts about having captured 40 Pokémon when you meet him on the S.S. Anne, at which point the player has probably caught barely half that number.

** ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (Video Game)|Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]'' gives you the chance to be your rival's Someone Better. The rival is easily flustered, expects to lose most battles with you, and when the time comes to face the Elite Four and the Champion, [[Genre Savvy|which anyone who's played a Pokémon game before expects to be your rival,]] [[Wrong Genre Savvy|it's not him/her.]] It's {{spoiler|Steven}} Your rival does rush in after it's all over to offer advice, but ends up just standing there in awe of the fact that you won. {{spoiler|Then he/she has to stay behind because only Champions are allowed past a certain point.}}

** Also in Pokémon, the opponents in the Battle Tower/Frontier will always beat you no matter how much more skilled you are, because [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|The Computer is a Cheating Bastard]]

** You're this once again to ''both'' of your rivals in [[Pokémon Black and White (Video Game)|Pokémon Black and White]]. Your first rival, Bianca, chooses the starter that's weak to what you picked, literally doesn't seem to know what she's doing sometimes and usually just accepts that she's probably the weakest of the three of you. Your other rival, Cheren, chooses the starter with an advantage over yours (may actually beat you in your first battle) but from then on, continues to lose to you, which he chooses to challenge you after almost every goddamn Gym battle, usually lamenting his loss with "why are you so much better than me?"

* ''[[Mega Man (Video Game)|Mega Man]]'': Dr. Wily has always been second to Dr. Light, which is the main reason why he turned evil in the first place. He's the four years consecutive runner-up of the LIT Manual Design Contest. He has won the Silver prize at the worldwide engineering grand prix and was a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Guess who won all of these.

* The Moriya shrine in ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou]]''. The heroine, Reimu Hakurei, is a [[Miko]] who is jaded, lazy, sharp-tongued, and surrounded by [[Youkai]] friends and hang-ons that she was supposed to be exterminating. She's also [[Perpetual Poverty|completely broke]] because none of the humans want to venture into the shrine of a youkai exorcist when the shrine is full of partying youkai. Enter Sanae, an apparently kind and cheerful, if naive, foil to Reimu's [[Deadpan Snarker]] personality, whose shrine grows to be extremely popular in a short time and who later becomes a playable character when she tries her hand at Reimu's job. However, the game in which the rivals are ''introduced'' is not this, as they take aggressive action against her without understanding Gensokyo's political climate or her shrine's status as a [[Cosmic Keystone]].

* In the reboot of ''[[Syndicate (Video Game)|Syndicate]]'', Eurocorp is this to the multiplayer characters' syndicate Wulf Western. Tooltips for much of their equipment reveals that it was imperfectly replicated from Eurocorp's.

* Dave Strider of ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'' has his inability to properly come to terms with this as his primary problem, manifesting mainly late into Sburb. He feels he can only dream of being someday as great as his Bro. When it's not Bro, it's [[Future Badass|Davesprite or some other future self]]. When it's not them (or rather, when he ''[[Stable Time Loop|is]]'' them), it's [[The Hero|John]]. He literally does not see himself as a hero, whereas he feels Bro and John are.

* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[Moonstuck (Blog)|Moonstuck]]'' with Blueblood, who ends up outdoing heroine Woona in several ways... [[The Ghost|despite never actually appearing in the comic proper.]]

* In ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'', Lisa panics when a kid turns up who's smarter than she.

* ''[[Codename Kids Next Door (Animation)|Codename Kids Next Door]]'', "Op DOGFIGHT" had a pilot known only as "The Kid" who kept shooting Numbuh Two down through most of the episode. It was never established whether he was truly a better pilot, or if it was due to his superior equipment. Given that Numbuh Two ''[[Gadgeteer Genius|builds]]'' all his own aircraft, neither of those possibilities is easy for him to live down.

* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]]'' had an [[Always Someone Better]], the [[Ninja]] Kyodai Ken, appear in two episodes: "Night of the Ninja" and "Day of the Samurai." Both times, Kyodai is built up as a fighter Batman cannot hope to beat. Batman beats him the first time by holding back until he can beat Kyodai without revealing his secret identity. The second time, he uses hidden armor to keep Kyodai from using a deadly pressure-point strike on him.

* Whenever Gizmoduck guest stars on ''[[Darkwing Duck (Animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'', there is an element of Always Someone Better to his role in the story. He is a truer, nobler, more all around impressive and famous superhero than Darkwing, apparently upstaging him without even noticing. On the first such occasion, Darkwing suffered the traditional inferiority complex that such a plot calls for, but after that episode disproved Gizmoduck's true superiority conclusively, Darkwing has since never shown any sign of Gizmoduck envy. Even so, during that first episode and every Gizmoduck episode since, Darkwing always resents him, treats him as unwelcome and unnecessary competition, even thinks of him as [[The Rival]], despite Gizmoduck's routinely demonstrated and explicitly stated refusal to consider competitiveness as a motive fit for a true hero. This, if anything, only serves to infuriate Darkwing further, and despite Gizmoduck's repeated requests for mutually beneficial cooperation, he finds himself feuding with Darkwing again and again. It could be said that Darkwing himself is [[The Rival]], and Gizmoduck is [[The Hero]], despite the fact that Darkwing invariably triumphs in the end regardless of whether he agrees to team up with Gizmoduck, and in every episode where Gizmoduck is absent, Darkwing is unquestionably [[The Hero]].

* The episode "The Original Fry Cook" of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' has Spongebob, who is regarded as the best fry cook in Bikini Bottom, meeting the Krusty Krab's first and best fry cook, named Jim.

* ''[[Recess (Animation)|Recess]]'' had an episode of this, where a new kid is introduced who is faster than Vince, smarter than Gretchen, stronger than Spinelli, and better at poetry then Mikey. It's revealed that the kid feels isolated because he's always better at everything, and at every school he goes to the same thing happens. Mikey points out that they should have all been more accepting. The episode ends with the kid getting a message from the Secret Service saying the president needs him. He gets into a jet, takes off, does a perfect barrel roll, and flies off.

* In one episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|The Powerpuff Girls]]'', the girls found themselves upstaged by "Major Man", a fairly conventional [[Superman]]-type hero, to the extent that the Mayor even called the girls to break off his (professional) relationship with them. Needless to say, Major Man was [[Fake Ultimate Hero|not all that he appeared]], and once again the day was saved... no thanks to him.

* Mandark in ''[[Dexters Laboratory (Animation)|Dexters Laboratory]]'' is originally introduced as one of these, smarter and more efficient than Dexter in nearly every field imaginable (to the point of being able to read Dexter's mind), and he even has a not-so-secret laboratory that's even larger than Dexter's. However, once Dexter discovers Mandark's weakness, a crippling infatuation with his older sister [[The Ditz|DeeDee]], the tables were turned rather quickly. In subsequent appearances, Mandark's competence as [[The Rival]] was entirely dependent on the needs of the episode.

* Jonas Venture Jr. in ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]''. Despite being eaten by his twin brother in the womb and spending 40 years inside him, within weeks of escaping he's already become a better super-scientist, has more friends, still has his hair, and is much more successful with the ladies (actually winning over Sally Impossible, the one female that Dr. Venture had any chance with). He even somehow has a better tan than Dr. Venture right after spending 40 years in his stomach.

* In ''[[The Proud Family (Animation)|The Proud Family]]'', Trudy hires a nanny named Renée. At first, she seems perfect for the job: She's a good housekeeper, great with Oscar and the kids, and knows exactly what to do when in trouble and when. Trudy gets upset, though, because she's ''too'' perfect, like an angel, and sends her back. Apparently, this wasn't the first time Renée's been given up because of the "Renée Syndrome".

* Cartman's alter-ego, Bulrog, hangs a lampshade on this in episode 801 of ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' when he invents powers for himself that are "better than Kyle's."

* In an episode of ''[[Captain N the Game Master (Animation)|Captain N the Game Master]]'', Kevin teams up with his video game hero, [[The Legend of Zelda (Animation)|Link]], and proceeds to show up the elf at every junction as they venture through Hyrule, meaning well the whole time. Of course, Kevin is the [[Canon Sue]] and can do no wrong in Nintendo Land...

* In the '80s cartoon of ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks (Animation)|Alvin and The Chipmunks]],'' Alvin encountered one of these in the person of a boy named Apollo Jones, who kept beating him at everything. It turned out that Apollo genuinely envied Alvin because Alvin had one thing he himself lacked - a family that could be bothered with him. Apollo's parents were rarely home and sent him extremely generic postcards from wherever they went. ("Dear Son, Congratulations on whatever it is you've done well lately.")

* ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' has "Barbados Slim" as a limbo rival for Hermes. Slim generally outshines Hermes at everything, and is a real jerk about it too. He eventually goes so far as to steal his wife in the first movie, who he had previously been married to before Hermes came along. It is ultimately revealed that he has Olympic Gold medals in limbo AND sex, and the writers themselves loved the character so much that they were going to make a musical episode based solely around him until the news of their initial cancellation came up.

* Lila was introduced like this in ''[[Hey Arnold (Animation)|Hey Arnold]]!''. Helga, Phoebe, Rhonda and all the other girls were jealous of her beauty, her cute dresses and her sweet disposition and ostracized her out of jealousy. {{spoiler|It turns out Lila envied ''them'' because she not only was very shy, she had a sad home life with a [[Missing Mom]] and a sweet yet unemployed single dad.}}

* ''[[Bromwell High (Animation)|Bromwell High]]'' had a girl like this show up in one episode. She was middle-class, and therefore bested the girls at each of their defining qualities (cleverer than Natella, more powerful than Keisha, and more alluring than Latrina). The girls dealt with her by calling her parents to tell them all the horrible things that happen at the school.

* [[Big Bad]] Vlad Masters of ''[[Danny Phantom (Animation)|Danny Phantom]]'' is the better of the two half ghosts. Better fighter, better strategist, better brains and brawn. Having twenty more years of experience certainly helps. Danny eventually [[Character Development|grows in power and is able to go toe-to-toe with him.]]

* In ''[[Lilo and Stitch The Series (Animation)|Lilo and Stitch The Series]]'', Stitch ends up thinking too highly of himself with his cousin catching success. Jumba, fed up with Stitch's obnoxious attitude, creates experiment 627, a red and yellow, conehead, purple-nosed experiment that looks like a bigger, badder, and worse-mannered version of Stitch but with powers from 20 different experiments but absolutely none of stitch's weaknesses, 6 retractable arms, an extra retractable ''head'', inability to drown in water, and an ''[[Alien (Film)|Alien]]''-based retractable mouth. As his villainous rival, 627 dances a [[Humiliation Conga]] around Stitch as he bests him at everything he does. In the end, Stitch manages to outwit him by taking advantage of his extreme sense of humor and dehydrated him back into an experiment pod. Afterwards, towards the end of the episode [[Foreshadowing|Jumba creates another experiment pod labeled "628" and locks it away in his vault]].

* [[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|"You're just like my sister. My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born."]]

* In ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' Tygra, a seemingly [[Aloof Older Brother]] and adoptive [[Spare to The Throne]], actively [[Invoked Trope|invokes]] this trope against his younger brother, the crown prince Lion-O, frequently showing him up in public and fomenting opinion that [[Rebel Prince]] Lion-O is [[The Wrongful Heir to The Throne]]. Tygra goes so far as to openly brag to their father, with Lion-O in earshot, "I just would have been a better [king]."

* ''[[Squirrel Boy (Animation)|Squirrel Boy]]'' had Rodney's [[Jerkass]] cousin Eddie, a flying squirrel who constantly looked down on Rodney because he was a land squirrel. Typically Rodney would find a way to spite him such as invoking his phobia of rattlesnakes or stealing his favorite comb.

* In the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 E8 The Mysterious Mare Do Well|The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well]]", Rainbow Dash gets shown up by the titular character when she keeps stopping disasters before she can, eventually stealing away her fan club. In the end {{spoiler|it turns out to have been her friends trying to teach her a lesson in humility}}.