The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

One person or group considers another person or group as [[The Rival|their rival]], and will not allow anyone else to be the one to defeat them. This can sometimes lead to them [[Rivals Team Up|helping their rival]] [[Enemy Mine|against other enemies]], justifying it with [[I Was Just Passing Through|a lame excuse]], to make sure that they survive until the final battle between the rivals. Sometimes, this trope can become the basis of a [[Heel Face Turn]]. It also frequently leads to [[Not So Different]] and [[Antagonist in Mourning]].

 

{{examples}}

* Inverted by Stain in ''[[My Hero Academia]]'' who is okay with being killed by All Might, but isn't okay with being killed by anyone else.

* [[Black Butler]], especially season 2; Sebastian contractually owns Ciel's soul & literally kills anyone who tries to kill Ciel before he can, even other demons. In the anime he actually does try to murder Ciel.

 

== Comic Books ==

* When [[Superman]] was killed by Doomsday, [[Lex Luthor]] (disguised as his own son; long story) starts attacking the corpse of Superman-killer Doomsday in a rage with a chair. The people present assume it's because he's angry at Superman's murderer. He is, but not for the reasons they think.

** He reacted the same way (and for the same reason) when he thought the Silver Banshee had successfully killed Superman.

* [[Doctor Doom]] is perfectly willing to save [[The Fantastic Four]] from certain death at the hands of anyone else, just so that he can kill them himself later. However, he only cares about this if [[Arch Enemy|Reed Richards]] is with them — if only the other three are in danger, he couldn't care less.

* This is Dr. Eggman's attitude toward Sonic in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. In the 2010 Free Comic Book Day issue, one of the badniks created by the original Eggman/Robotnik is about to kill Sonic...and he proceeds to destroy it so it wouldn't "ruin his time-table", much to [[The Starscream|Snively's]] ''immense'' frustration.

 

== Film ==

* Luke and Vader in ''[[Star Wars]]''. Yoda even says "You must confront Vader."

* In ''Circus'', Moose is told by his boss that Leo is responsible for killing his mistress. He tracks down Leo, finds him being threatend by a pair of [[Loan Shark]]s, and beats the tar out of them... before announcing his intention to kill Leo and chasing him down the street. Recovering from the attack, Troy, one of the sharks, comments 'He can't bloody kill him... I'm gonna be the one to kill him!'

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Redwall]]'''s Marlfoxes are a [[Big Screwed-Up Family]] with no problems killing each other off at the drop of a hat. However, they have a strict "blood for blood" rule if an outsider kills one of them, and they will enthusiastically enforce this rule.

* When the Phoners in Stephen King's ''[[Cell]]'' tell you not to touch one of their enemies, they mean that if you kill one of them, they'll make an example of you

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* The Master from ''[[Doctor Who]]'', despite often trying to kill the Doctor, agrees to try and save his life in "The Five Doctors", because (in his words) "the cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about."

** This is actually a recurring trait with them. During Trial of the Time Lord, the Master actually flat out says he'll help defeat the Valeyard because he wanted to defeat the Doctor himself. Even in the End of Time, the Master, sacrifices himself to save the Doctor from the Time Lords. Add in the epic amounts of ''[[Foe Yay]]'' between these two, and it might just be that all the Master wants is to "keep" the Doctor all for himself, which he actually does in Sound of the Drums/Last of the Time Lords!

* This is Patrick Jane's attitude about Red John in ''[[The Mentalist]]'', but not to the point of helping him out of other scrapes.

* ''[[Spartacus: Blood and Sand]]'': Crixus expressed this sentiment towards Spartacus during and after the Segovax incident.

 

== Video Games ==

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'', Wizard to Dechs, Dechs to Hector.

* Seen [https://web.archive.org/web/20100811082534/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2003-08-01 here] in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]: Oracle For Hire'', but [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] over the [https://web.archive.org/web/20100811081403/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2003-08-02 next] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100811075840/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2003-08-04 three] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130511023925/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2003-08-05 strips], which make it clear that Jacob's motives for killing the Chosen were [[Batman Gambit|purely selfish.]]

* Taken to an extreme in ''[[Spacetrawler]]'': Growp won't allow anyone else to kill Emily. So when his teammates fire at Emily, he shields her from the energy blasts--[[Taking the Bullet|with his own body]].

* In [[Goblins]], Dellyn knows Thaco has some sort of trickery planned when Thaco challenges him to a duel, but still accepts when Thaco points out that [[Batman Gambit|Dellyn would rather kill Thaco personally than let one of his men do it for him]].

 

== Web Original ==

* In a recent fight between [[Psycho Lesbian|Laeil Burbank]] and [[Evil Redheads|Melina Frost]] in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', Madison Conner suddenly appears and attacks Laeil to keep her from killing Melina before she can. Laeil also swears to be the only one to kill Melina, as well as kill anyone who tries to beat her to it. {{spoiler|She fails on both accounts as Melina and her killer [[Mutual Kill|kill each other]]. [[Villainous Breakdown|She doesn't take it well.]]}}

* Near the end of ''[[I'm a Marvel And I'm a DC|Marvel/DC: After Hours]]'', the Green Goblin turns on and beats the hell out of Lex Luthor.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'': Shego's only mildly annoyed (by her standards, anyway) when she gets imprisoned by Drakken's new alien sidekick. But when she realizes that the new girl has a chance of beating Kim, ''that'' pisses her off enough to break free and put a stop to it.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. Skulker is constantly agreeing to work together with Danny and co. in order to save the world, Ghost Zone, or [[The End of the World as We Know It|anything else on a massive enough scale to matter]]. Normally these occurrences are justified by the fact that EVERYONE would die if all the bad guys didn't help, but he tries to make excuses anyway.

* ''[[Transformers]]''. Especially in the Unicron Trilogy, it seems like Megatron always seems to single out Optimus in combat. Also, in the third series of [[The Original Series]], Cyclonus occasionally saved the life of Ultra Magnus because so he could be the one to kill him.

** Likewise, in the series finale, {{spoiler|Iroh refuses to fight Fire Lord Ozai (despite being the only other person powerful enough to beat him), because the Avatar has to do it himself to truly achieve peace. The Avatar carries considerably more clout than two exiles, who would be treated as such.}}

* In a literal sense, Demona and [[Macbeth]] in ''[[Gargoyles]]'', who {{spoiler|due to sorcery are immortal unless one kills the other.}}

** Brutally [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in "[[Mad Love]]" when [[Psycho Supporter|Harley]] captures [[Batman]] with the idea of getting him out of the way, so she and "Mistah J" can be together at last. Batman suckers her into calling the Joker, supposedly so that he will have no [[Never Found the Body|doubt]] that [[Killed Off for Real|Batman is indeed dead]]. What the [[Ax Crazy|Joker]] does to her next [[Battle Discretion Shot|has even the Bat disgusted]]. (She tries to calm Joker down by pointing out how he inspired her scheme, [[Don't Explain the Joke|but that doesn't help]].) Earlier in that same episode, after Batman's been caught in a cloud of knock-out gas:

{{quote|'''Harley''': That's a real gasser, huh, Mistah J?

* Zim of ''[[Invader Zim]]'' is out to destroy the Earth, but won't stop at anything to thwart anyone else who tries to do it <s>more</s> competently.

* In the ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode "And Then There Were Fewer", {{spoiler|Diane Simmons}} attempts to kill Lois. However, Stewie shoots {{spoiler|Diane}} so that ''he'' can be the one to kill Lois.

{{quote|'''Angelica''': "Listen, lady, no one messes with my dumb babies 'cept me!"}}

* A less [[Foe Yay]] and more innocent version of this occurs in the cartoon ''[[Arthur]]''. In one episode, the moose kid, George, is being picked on by bullies. Then Binky, the established bully of the series approaches them and says, "Hey! You can't pick on that kid! He's in my class!" George looks relieved, until Binky adds, "Only ''I'' get to pick on him!"

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Arch Enemy]]

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