The Rival: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|''"How very fitting that Yugi is competing in the first duel of my tournament. It's only a matter of time before he and I face off against each other again. After all, he's my [[Invoked Trope|arch rival]]. The [[Sherlock Holmes|Sherlock Holmes to my Moriarty]]. The [[Akira|Kaneda to my Tetsuo]]. The [[Speed Racer|Speed Racer to my Racer X]]. [[Overly Long Gag|I could go on, but I won't.]]"''

 

Usually begins the series [[Privileged Rival|with a leg up]] on [[The Hero]].

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': Boss was The Rival from Kouji in the original series (albeit, as much as Kouji was concerned, he was un [[Unknown Rival]]). He was jealousy of Kouji because he was a better bike rider AND Sayaka had a crush on Kouji. The first thing he did when they met was picking a fight with him. However, as the plot and [[Character Development]] marched on, he slowly grew to respect him, and they became friends. Also, in many ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games Kouji is rivals with Asuka Langley Soryu. The two of them always but heads. It is amusing, since she would be more liable to antagonize Tetsuya (both of them are two prideful [[Ace Pilot]]s -[[Broken Ace]]s, actually- can not stand losing).

** May and Dawn both have their own Rivals, as previously mentioned; though as far as personality goes, May has Harley and Dawn has Ursula and—shockingly enough -- ''Jessie''.

** The manga have various, to name a few: ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' has the game rivalries intact, mixed with important NPCs as rivals. ''[[Pokémon Golden Boys]]'' has Black, who is a counterpart to [[Pokémon Gold and Silver|Silver]], and arguably Chris. ''[[Pocket Monsters (manga)|Pocket Monsters]]'' has Kai, who is a counterpart to [[Pokémon Red and Blue|Blue]]. ''[[Video Game/Pokemon Diamond And Pearl Adventure|Pokemon Diamond And Pearl Adventure]]'' has Jun, a counterpart to [[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl|Damion]].

* Ryoga from ''[[Ranma ½]]''.

** Also from ''Ranma'', one-time manga character Asuka Saginomiya, "The White Lily", is Kodachi Kuno's rival. She pretty much IS Kodachi, just in a different color. She actually manages to top Kodachi in terms of hamming it up by carrying around a large picture frame with lilies tied to her back so she can pose.

* Takahashi Keisuke (specifically, because he best fits the "intolerable ass" requirement), and at least half the cast of ''[[Initial D]]''.

* Syaoran Li in ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]''.

* Kai of ''[[Beyblade]]'' gravitates between The Rival and [[The Lancer]].

* Hakuoh and Kokujo from ''[[Duel Masters]]'', the former doing a total 180 in every aspect after Shobu beats him, while the latter never really stops being the rival, softening only the slightest bit.

** Sasuke's entire creation was based on the fact that Kishimoto's editor said that Naruto needed a rival. Guess the fangirls should be grateful for this trope.

** Then there's Sakura and Ino, though their rivalry has toned down a lot in Shippuden.

* ''[[Gash Bell|Konjiki no Gash Bell!!]]'' has a number of these, most notably Brago, who is called "the demon to beat" by Kiyomaro.

** They also have Bari who decisively beat them but spared their book. There was also Shinichi/Eshros, who fought the pair into a corner and would have won. Fortunately, Shinichi just wanted to test his strength against Kiyo and Zatch, and retrned their book.

* [[The Hero|Negi Springfield]] to [[The Lancer|Kotaro Inugami]] in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', though [[Rivals Team Up|Kotaro eventually joined]] the [[Nakama]] after a [[Heel Face Turn]]. [[Fire-Forged Friends|They become friends]]. A Similar rivalry exists between Negi's Father Nagi and Jack Rakan, who again later joined ''that'' Nakama. Currently, Fate Averruncus plays this to Negi as well as being his [[Arch Enemy]]. {{spoiler|We later find out that Fate did this at a time against Nagi as well}}.

* Suzu from ''[[Peacemaker Kurogane]]''.

* ''[[Soul Eater]]'' has Ox claiming himself Maka's rival (only academically speaking), and Black Star sees himself as Kid's. Gopher appears to see Maka as his rival for Noah's attention, much to the girl's bewilderment upon first meeting the guy out to kill her with extreme prejudice. He takes the same attitude towards Kid who, like with Black Star, is simply not bothered.

* Ultra Magnus to Optimus Prime in ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'', as he feels he should have gotten the Matrix. He never turns evil, despite Megatron's best efforts.

** Gray was as extreme an example of a rival to Natsu as it could be in the early Fairy Tail days, but Gajeel seems to have taken his role starting with the Fighting Festival arc.

* Viral, as you might guess from his name, serves this role towards Kamina and Simon in [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]].

 

== Comic Books ==

I could say that, but I'd be lyin'. Fact is, we just wanted to ''watch them smug gitz get blown to pieces''.

'course, after that it wuz still gonna be ''our turn next''... }}

 

== Film ==

* A considerably more benign version of this trope is Prince Arthur and Lancelot from ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]''. Both of them respect the other, but both are painfully aware of their mutual feelings for Guinevere.

* Bimpe from ''[[Tinsel]]'' is Telema Duke's rival, both in the industry and for Soji. Kwame is Soji's rival. Brenda Mensah is Fred Ade-Williams's rival.

** Jason and Goldar...accept no substitutes.

 

== Radio ==

== Tabletop Games ==

* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', many folk believe an Elementalist wizard or being with [[Elemental Powers]] will always be a rival (at least) of a wizard of being representing the opposite element, as Air opposes Earth and Water opposes Fire. These folk are wrong, as such wizards and beings usually consider those representing ''all three'' of the other elements to be hated rivals. In fact, most magical researchers believe that the creators of the ''staff of the elements'' - an epic-level magical item that could only have been built by four powerful archmages representing all four elements - were likely siblings, or had some other family bond [[Thicker Than Water| that prevented such a rivalry.]]

 

== Toys ==

* From ''[[Bionicle]]''; In the early days of the Toa Mata, de facto leader [[Playing with Fire|Tahu]] and future second-in-command [[An Ice Person|Kop]][[The Quiet One|aka]] bickered a ''lot.'' But, thanks to [[Character Development|character]] [[Characterization Marches On|development]], they have [[Fire-Forged Friends|forged a strong bond]] which is both professional and brotherly.

 

== Video Games ==

* There are many rivalries from the [[Nintendo Wars|Advance Wars]] series between COs (Commanding Officers). [[Ace Pilot|Eagle]] and [[Jack of All Stats|Andy]] (one of the missions where you fight Eagle is even named "Rivals!"), [[Action Girl|Sami]] and [[Meganekko|Sonja]] and possibly [[The Archer|Grit]] and [[Boisterous Bruiser|Max]] from the first game, [[Smug Snake|Adder]] and [[Old Master|Sensei]] and [[Evil Genius|Lash]] and [[Meganekko|Sonja]] from the second game, and possibly [[Magnificent Bastard|Hawke]] and [[Ice Queen|Candy/Kindle]] from the third. ''Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict'' doesn't have rivalries as such; everybody generally just hates each other, except for the NRA and IDS (the two main antagonist armies of the game) who get along nicely. {{spoiler|Except when in a [[The Reveal|reveal]] the player finds out that Caulder/Stolos (the [[Mad Scientist]] and [[Big Bad]]) couldn't really care less about anyone living or dying (the NRA included), apart from when [[For Science!|it has "scientific" purposes,]] and essentially leaves the NRA to crumble after its defeat.}}

** Another example from the Archie comic: Geoffrey St. John, who competed with Sonic on missions and for Sally's heart. To a lesser extent (a much, much lesser extent), Antoine also originally fit the bill.

** Shadow plays this a lot straighter.

** Eggman started out as an enemy of Sonic's, but became this due to [[Villain Decay]].

*** She also takes up this position in ''Investigations'', specifically in {{spoiler|the flashback case four, where she's a thirteen-year-old obsessed with beating Edgeworth in everything. Edgeworth mostly ignores it.}}

** And for the third game we have Godot who really hates Phoenix's guts and won't explain why. {{spoiler|He blames Phoenix for Mia's death.}}

** Later games have introduced different rivals to each of these characters - Alex for Ryu in ''III'', and Rufus for Ken in ''IV''.

** And Sagat plays the role of rival to Ryu straighter than Ken does.

**** Later on in the series he does a bit of a one-eighty and goes from being obsessed with revenge to focused on being a better fighter. Gets over his Ryu-hate too. He's like a less "blows up stadiums full of people to piss off Kakarot" version of Vegeta.

** And then there's Ryu and his [[Noble Demon]]/[[Evil Counterpart]] Akuma.

* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' has its own big rivalries as well:

** The most famous one is between the series' two resident [[Ninja]]s, Sub-Zero and Scorpion.

** Kitana has one against her [[Evil Twin]] Mileena, while Jade has one against Tanya (who betrayed the royal family).

** And as for friendly rivalries, there's Liu Kang and his fellow Shaolin Kung Lao.

** Waluigi is also supposed to be Luigi's rival. It's even less likely that Luigi has noticed. In some games (like ''[[Mario Strikers]]'' and ''[[Mario Party]] 4'') he's also either this or a [[Villainous Crush]] (or both) to Daisy. If anything, Daisy seems to go out of her way to put him down.

** Also, Wendy P. Koopa's Trophy in ''[[Super Smash Bros 64]]'' claims [[All There in the Manual]] she considers herself a Rival of both Peach ''and'' Daisy as rivals, but its doubtful ''either'' of them have ntoiced.

* Ky Kiske to Sol Badguy in ''[[Guilty Gear]]''.

** Also Ragna the Bloodedge and Jin Kisaragi in ''[[BlazBlue]]''.

** And, in the game's backstory, there's {{spoiler|[[Mad Scientist|Menesys]] and [[Stoic Spectacles|Zeelbis]], although the rivality basically [[Unknown Rival|only stemmed from Menesys]], and along the way she fell in love with him, but tragically repressed those feelings [[For Science!|in the name of her beloved studies]]}}.

* As stated above, you get a rival in every ''[[Pokémon]]'' game. In the main series, as of HGSS, you have Green/[[Dub Name Change|Blue]], Silver, <s>Brendan/May</s> Wally and Pearl/Barry.

*** {{spoiler|Although he isn't given the title of "rival," N arguably qualifies as well since he is racing against you to collect badges and even beats the Pokemon League before you a la Green/Blue.}}

* Yanagi and Hiroki have this relationship in [[Canvas 2]] after reconciling.

* In the [[House of the Dead]] franchise, James Taylor seems to share a friendly rivalry with Thomas Rogan, hinted by the vs CPU mode in the Typing of the Dead and James' comment in the final score screen in the House of the Dead 4.

* Sixx and Butterfly, and to an extent [[Foe Yay|Ginger and Laura]] in ''[[Collar 6]]''.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** Take a [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]] pairing and make them rivals, and you've got Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd's conflict down perfectly. The yearn - possibly obsession - the serious-minded Elmer has over nabbing the free-spirited Bugs has spanned over seven decades and is still going strong. And it seems in all that time, Elmer never learns to see through Bugs' [[Paper-Thin Disguise| lame disguises.]]

** Daffy Duck is a rival to Bugs in a different way. An egotist to the core, Bugs is the [[Always Someone Better]] whom Daffy can never seem to best.

** Dear lord, the Roadrunner to Wild E. Coyote. No matter how many times his ill-conceived plans to catch the speedy bird fail, often with himself getting hurt in the process, Wile E is certain to be back on his feet soon with a new Acme product and a renewed drive to do so. Sometimes a viewer can't help but admire [[The Determinator| such determination.]]

* Craig Tucker and his friends are this to the main four boys in ''[[South Park]]''

* Nova(Sam Alexander) to Spider-Man in the ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man (animation)|Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' animated series.

* In the ''[[Harley Quinn]]'' cartoon, [[Harmless Villain]] Kite Man has a rather ''nasty'' rivalry with fellow Harmless Villain Condiment King.

 

== Real Life ==

* The entire countries of America vs. Soviet Russia during the [[Cold War]].

* The most glorious sports rivalry in the USA - Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees in Major League Baseball!

* Chicago and New York City. Just Chicago and New York City.

* A more recent rivalry between Karl Rove and Rick Perry [[wikipedia:Feud between Karl Rove and Rick Perry|has its own page]] on [[The Other Wiki]].

* Historically, England and France were like this a great deal, fighting a number of wars against each other all the way up to the 1800s. they've stopped since [[World War I]] broke out, however.

* At one time, many fans always pitted [[Jerry Goldsmith]] & [[John Williams]] as to who was the better composer although both were good friends in real life.

{{reflist}}

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