Unknown Rival: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

They have all the typical trappings of a rival, except their objects of jealousy don't take them seriously. Or even notice them most of the time. Or even recall their name, which just ticks them off even more. This character will do anything to be able to reach the level of their rival regardless of the actual level of skill required.

Extremely common with non-evil antagonists, giving writers a character who can be mean or obnoxious with impunity.

Compare [[But for Me It Was Tuesday]]. See also [[We Meet Again]], which is usually followed by a "We have met before?", much to the would-be-rival's chagrin.

{{examples}}

* Part-time model Sakiyama Kaori in ''[[Airmaster]]'' becomes an amateur wrestler, semi-berserker streetfighter solely to challenge Aikawa Maki. Slightly subverted in that she is too loud and crazed to fully ignore, to the point everyone memetically mentions her full name when she appears.

* Ryuuka, the pompous rich leader of the Jihiyou rival house in ''[[Hanaukyo Maid Tai]]''. In episodes 7 and 11 of the first series Taro doesn't know who she is, even though he met her in episode 4.

** Yoko was also this for Nia for a few episodes, taken [[Up to Eleven]] when Nia kept on being better than everything than Yoko without even trying. The two of them became best friends at the end of the episode after Nia puts her faith in Yoko to rescue her.

* Lambo from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' has tried to kill Reborn on a few occasions, but Reborn refuses to even acknowledge his presence, even when Lambo uses a gun to [[Plot-Relevant Age-Up|temporarily age himself up]].

* Haruka in ''[[My-HiME]]'' and ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' (all adaptations) apparently has an ongoing rivalry with Shizuru, which Shizuru never seems to acknowledge.

** Though it should be mentioned that Shizuru absolutely ''is'' the sort of person who would pretend not to notice just to screw with Haruka's head.

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' inverts this trope with Andy, who is [[The Rival]] to Spike for one episode and never remembers Spike, constantly confusing him with the episode's bounty.

* ''[[One Piece]]'':

** Because of [[Magic Versus Science]] and [[The Magic Versus Technology War]], various magical organizations try various plots to destroy Academy City, which are constantly foiled by Touma and friends. Other than the heroes and a few of Academy City's higher-ups, no one in Academy City is even aware of magic or that several science-hating mages want to destroy them.

* Greta from ''[[A Little Snow Fairy Sugar]]''.

** Eiji ''is'' conceited, but in a clueless, [[Genius Ditz]] kind of way, and he gets into the rivalry on a couple of occasions, since it is visibly true that they're both less commercially and critically successful, and having a harder time finding their voice than he is, and he [[Friendly Rival|wants to encourage them]].

** As Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's project right after ''[[Death Note]]'', it's milking the "rival" thing Obata used to such acclaim in both ''[[Death Note]]'' and ''[[Hikaru no Go]]'', and as an outrageously meta project, it's playing with it.

* ''[[Saki (manga)|Saki]]'' has Touka. While she considers Nodoka to be her great rival, Nodoka doesn't even seem to notice that she exists, which is a testament to her ability to ignore everything except the game itself considering how much Touka grandstands.

* There are such characters just in every ''[[Gundam]]'' series.

* Inverted and later played straight in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' where initially Kotaro considered himself to be Musashi's rival despite having no idea who Musashi is. And later, after finding out, became the normal kind of unknown rival himself to Musashi.

** We never find out the real identity of the real Eyeshield 21 ... until the Christmas Bowl.

 

* In the ''[[Nightwing]]'' comic, Nightwing has a "nemesis" in the form of Shrike who isn't quite unknown (they both underwent assassin training in their childhood, but Nightwing was undercover and Shrike wasn't) but Shrike is the only one who considers them archenemies. Even during their fight, while Shrike is trying to stab Nightwing to death, Nightwing just ignores him.

* The ''[[X-Factor (comics)|X-Factor]]'' comics circa mid-1990s had a great deal of fun with this one.

:: All of this led up to an X-Factor annual issue where a mutant-hating former classmate of Strong Guy's showed up, having devoted his life to the dark arts and become a servant of [[Satan|Mephisto]]. In order to defeat X-Factor, he brought back their three greatest enemies from the dead -- the three brothers who had died over the past three issues, none of whom had so much as been seen by X-Factor. So in the massive, climactic battle, an Unknown Rival resurrected ''three more'' unknown rivals. When the villains introduced themselves, Polaris asked if they were sure they had the right X-team.

{{quote|'''Strong Guy''': That figures! Only we could have a bunch of "greatest enemies" that we never heard of.}}

* Slyde. For a moment he had [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] on the ropes! Read the issue (Spider Man Unlimited v3 #1, for the record), it's [[Crowning Moment of Funny|very entertaining]]. And in this case, Spider-Man ''does'' know who Slyde ''is''; you don't have a guy as an decently recurring enemy for years without remembering him. He just regards him as little more than an occasional nuisance.

** There's a similar scene in Ultimate Spider-Man, when [[Butt Monkey|Shocker]] manages to capture Spider-Man. Throughout the series, he was played up as a joke, a character who didn't even really qualify as a supervillain that Spidey would easily subdue in the opening pages of an arc to show "business as usual." While he has Spider-Man hanging upside-down he reveals that from his point of view, things weren't nearly so funny, revealing a level of anger and humiliation made only worse by the fact that Spider-Man never gave him a second thought.

:: Cash is meekly dragged away by police as Hulk watches.

{{quote|'''Hulk''': I wonder who that guy was? It's a funny world, when you can be minding your own business and along comes some stranger to complicate your life.}}

* [[Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam & Max]] poke fun at this with Mack Salmon, a very angry fish in a bowl who has a bone to pick with the duo for "setting in motion the events which caused his current state." Neither of them knows who he is or what he's going on about (neither does the reader); they decide to just smack him around like any other ineffectual villain they come across.

 

* In ''[[Kira Is Justice]]'', O is this, being Mello's counterpart. Justin doesn't even know of him, and the closet thing that O had done so far to challenge him was to send [[MI 6|SIS]] agents to Chicago-partially to bring out L.

 

* In ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', Aladdin and Jafar spend a good two-thirds of the film unaware of each other's true identity/intentions. Jafar assumes Aladdin died in the Cave of Wonders, then when he returns as Prince Ali neither of them knows who the other is. It's not until Jafar sees "Ali" has the lamp that he puts it together.

* Odd example from ''[[The Fifth Element]]'': Corbin, the hero, and Zorg, the villain, never actually meet in the entire movie, despite being clearly the good guy and the bad guy. It's not even clear that the two of them realize they're in competition with each other over the stones.

** The closest they ever get to interacting is either when Zorg orders one million of his employees fired, a pink slip shows up in Corbin's mail tube in the next scene, or when Corbin and Co enter one elevator as Zorg steps off the one next to it.

* The live-action ''[[Street Fighter (film)|Street Fighter]]'' movie has a situation similar to the above Superman one. Chun Li pledged her life to bring down M. Bison for having her father shot. [[But for Me It Was Tuesday|But for Bison, it was Tuesday.]]

* Salieri in ''[[Amadeus]]'' hates Mozart with a passion. However, he never lets on that he does, and actually is rather nice to the younger man when they are in each other's company.

* In ''[[Big Fish]]'', [[Ewan McGregor]]'s character unknowingly grew up with a rival who was constantly overshadowed by him. They end up fighting over the same girl when they become adults.

* Sort of happens in ''[[Black Swan]]''. While Nina feels threatened by the new dancer Lily, Lily's not really threatened by her.

* ''[[Enter the Dragon]]'' has the [[Big Bad]] confront two minor characters before he ever meets the protagonist of the movie, played by none other than [[Bruce Lee]]. Oddly enough, Lee was sent there for the specific purpose of bringing the villain down while the two minor characters were at the tournament for unrelated reasons.

 

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' takes this to an extreme. Mild-mannered and mostly confused Arthur Dent is captured and accosted by Agrajag, who claims that Arthur Dent has killed him in ''every'' one of his reincarnations, including {{spoiler|a bowl of petunias, a bystander at a cricket match, and one in a time and place Arthur has yet to visit.}}

** This, as one may imagine, has left Agrajag ''rather'' unhinged, so that when Arthur insists that he's not doing it on purpose and the universe is just "playing silly buggers" with them, Agrajag point-blank refuses to believe it.

* In Robert E. Howard's [[Conan the Barbarian]] stories he and Thoth-amon never actually meet and Conan is never the direct object of Thoth-amon's attacks. In ''[[The Phoenix on the Sword]]'' Thoth sends a demon to kill the man who enslaved him after he lost his powers who is leading an assassination attempt on then king Conan, actually inadvertently saving him although he also tells the demon to kill everyone with his erstwhile master thus putting Conan in danger again. In ''[[The God in the Bowl]]'' Conan just happens to be robbing the museum where a deadly gift from Thoth-amon to a rival is being kept. In ''The Treasure of Tranicos'' Thoth-amon is after one of several parties after the title treasure, Conan, once again just happens to inadvertantly get in the way. In ''[[The Hour of the Dragon]]'' Thoth-amon is just mentioned by a group of Stygian priests seeking a way to combat him after his return to power.

* In ''[[Warrior Cats]]'',(spoilers for ''Rise Of Scourge'' and ''The Darkest Hour'') {{spoiler|Scourge desperately wants to kill Tigerstar, who has no idea who he is.}}

** Viserys Targaryen is one for Robert Baratheon: Viserys sees himself as the [[Big Good]] to Robert's [[Big Bad]], but Robert (correctly) sees Viserys' sister as more dangerous (though for the wrong reasons). Despite this, Robert still considers him a threat, but would likely reconsider this if he knew just how staggeringly incompetent and useless Viserys really is, making this a strange example of Viserys being a Partly-known Rival who ''deserves'' to be treated as an Unknown Rival, and probably ''would'' be treated as an Unknown Rival if Robert actually knew anything about him.

 

* Although ''[[Angel]]'' knows precisely who Lindsey is, he doesn't take him very seriously as a threat during the show's final season, while Lindsey sees himself as Angel's archrival. They eventually team up against a bigger threat, and in the end, when {{spoiler|Lorne shoots Lindsey on Angel's orders}}, the only thing Lindsey's angry about is that {{spoiler|he apparently wasn't important enough for Angel to kill personally.}}

** Inverted with {{spoiler|Sahjhan}} in season 3 who wants revenge against Angel, who has no idea who he is. In season 5 it's revealed {{spoiler|Sahjhan really just wanted to keep Connor from killing him in the future, which he does.}}

* Over on [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]], the Trio start out this way. They gradually are noticed more and more, culminating in {{spoiler|Warren's accidental killing of Tara}}. That got the Scoobies' attention. Specifically, [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|Willow's]].

** And then there was Harmony who no one took seriously at first. She eventually got the gang's attention... well for a moment, but once Buffy saved Dawn, Buffy completely forgot about her. Harmony continued to think Buffy was after her though, even asking Spike to harbor her. Harmony even hid in a coffin when Buffy came to Spike's crypt once thinking that Buffy had found her and was going to kill her. Buffy was actually there to question Spike as usual and had no idea Harmony was even still around.

* An interesting example is Nimueh from ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]''. Though she is a formidable opponent, most of her evil plans are done from a distance, and Prince Arthur never discovers who she truly is after she pulls a [[Decoy Damsel]] on him. She interacts only once with King Uther (who would be her major foe) but then dies in the season finale without any sort of confrontation with either Uther or Arthur. In fact, it's unclear whether they even know that she's dead.

** It happens again with Morgana. As of the end of series 4, Arthur has no idea that Morgana {{spoiler|killed Uther, resurrected Lancelot, enchanted Guinevere to cheat on Arthur, or brainwashed Merlin into trying to kill Arthur.}}

'''Wil Wheaton:''' Don't worry, it doesn't take up a whole lotta your time. }}

 

 

** Then there was that ridiculous and pointless storyline where BG James and Kip James as the "Voodoo Kin Mafia" would spend weeks mocking [[Shawn Michaels]], [[Triple H]], and [[Vince McMahon]]. They would often challenge the three to a fight, wait a few minutes, then denounce them as cowards for not showing up. The three ''never'' gave any indication they were aware of this.

* Perhaps the most well-known wrestling example: Starting in the mid-nineties, Shane Douglas has spent over a decade running down [[Ric Flair]]. Flair barely paid him any attention. This didn't stop even after Douglas finally got a program with Flair in WCW in 2000 (and beat Flair twice).

* [[The Miz]] was this to [[John Cena]] during their first feud in 2009. [[Averted Trope]] since then, however.

 

* [[Nippon Ichi]] just seems to love this trope, examples include: Vyers from ''[[Disgaea]]'', who was unflatteringly re-named "Mid-Boss" by Laharl during their first encounter and never referred to by his real name again, Axel from ''Disgaea II'', and Alexander (referred to as 'asshat', or simply 'Alex', by Zetta) from ''[[Makai Kingdom]]''. As befitting of their storyline status, these characters tend to fill the [[Goldfish Poop Gang]] mold to a tee.

** Of course, neither of the latter examples can compare to the irony of the first, {{spoiler|who happens to be the main character's dead father having temporarily returned to test his son's strength and character.}} Bet getting called "Mid-Boss" wasn't part of his plan.

** Another [[Nippon Ichi]] example: Odie in [[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]] basically invokes this trope within half a minute of his first appearance. He shows up and immediately boasts to the hero about how awesome he is, gets angry when she ignores him, and then tries to kill her when he finds out that she honestly doesn't know who he is, calling upon an old farmer and his two dogs. Yep, you guessed it, they're the [[Goldfish Poop Gang]].

** Even more so with Winston Payne, who is hardly remembered by Phoenix and completely ignored by fellow prosecutor Edgeworth.

* Don Paulo has sworn revenge on [[Professor Layton]]. Layton has no clue why until the third game.

* ''[[Fire Emblem]] Path Of Radiance'' had a knight called Kieran, who was the sworn (friendly...ish) rival of Oscar. Kieran constantly trained so that he could someday outdo Oscar; Oscar largely ignored this and only ever mentioned their alleged "rivalry" in order to manipulate Kieran into accepting a gift that he refused to take.

* [[Rabid Cop|Lt. Carter Blake]] in ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' tries to see himself as a rival to [[By-The-Book Cop|Norman Jayden]] due to the fact that he dislikes and resents him like all cops. However, due to the fact of working together, Jayden doesn't acknowledge him as a rival.

* In [[Fallout: New Vegas]], Ulysses is this to the [[Player Character|Courier]]. Ulysses is obsessed with the Courier for {{spoiler|destroying the budding nation in the Divide by delivering a package that caused the nukes hidden underneath to detonate}}. The Courier, however, is completely [[But for Me It Was Tuesday|unaware of the part he/she played in those events]] and has no prior knowledge of Ulysses.

 

* ''[[Las Lindas]]'' has Alejandra to Mora. This is more a [[Deconstruction]] of the trope, since Mora doesn't really care and is more worried about keeping her farm up and running, Alejandra's near-overwhelming desire to crush Mora into dust mostly just harms her mental state and her company's reputation and financial state.

** And more-than-likely the case with Ian Starshine, who thinks his own plan to topple Tarquin is significant to the latter, to the point that he (very, very falsely) believes that Elan was sent by Tarquin to infiltrate the Order of the Stick to get close to Haley and then, by extension, Ian himself. Tarquin hasn't said a single word about Ian since he was introduced, and his interest in Haley hasn't gone any farther than "she is Elan's girlfriend". When they actually meet, Tarquin fails to recognize Ian, though the fact that Ian's been in jail for a long time might have something to do with it.

* ''[[Eerie Cuties]]'' has Tiffany as unknown "archenemy" of Layla. Which isn't in any way noticeable to Layla, especially since they became best friends by the end of their second meeting.

** Tiffany [http://www.eeriecuties.com/strips-ec/siren_brawl_-_pg_2_of_12 tried to pull "Unknown Rival" proper] with Tracy Milligan. Thanks for reminder, Dusky. Though to be fair, [[Cloudcuckoolander|one can never be sure with Tiff]].

 

 

* The Monarch, of ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'', considers Dr. Venture his mortal arch-enemy and embarks on several attempts to kill him and his sons for no particular reason. Through most of the first season, the Ventures repeatedly undercut the Monarch's claims to be their most hated foe. By the end of the second season, however, their status as nemeses has become much more solidified, though Dr. Venture still doesn't really care for him.

** Also from Venture Brothers, Henchman 21 is convinced that he is destined to destroy Brock Sampson, who almost always responds to 21's exposition with "Who are you again?"

* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' has Control Freak, he thinks he's an important villain, but the Titans don't think much of him. He is rather peeved when he's not put on the "list of notorious villains" and the ''Puppet King'' is.

{{quote|'''Control Freak:''' They only fought him that one time! I'm a [[Genre Savvy|recurring villain!]]}}

** Smithers, who was that cow just yelling at me?

** The situation is different when Homer changes his name:

'''Homer''': You remembered my name!

'''Burns''': Well, who could forget the name of a magnetic individual like you? Keep up the good work, Max! }}

* Mr. Turner to Mr. Dinkleburg in ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]''

{{quote|'''Dr. Drakken''': And so, Kim Possible and her... sister?

'''Dr. Possible''': Is he hitting on me?

'''Kim''': No, sidekicks really confuse him. }}

* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]],'' when Spidey unmasks Mysterio as Quentin Beck, Beck says "all right, you got me, it's me," and Spider-Man's response is "And you are...?" Beck is flabbergasted that Spider-Man doesn't remember him.

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', the titular character considers Lucius a friend. This is because he's such a [[The Pollyanna|pollyanna]] that he's completely unaware of just how much he is loathed by him.

* On ''[[Doug]]'', the titular character thinks of Guy Graham as a rival, particularly because Guy also has his sights set on Patti Mayonnaise. However, Guy is completely unaware that he's such a burden to Doug.

* On ''[[Hey Arnold!]],'' [[Parody Sue|Lila]] is this to [[Tsundere|Helga]], since [[The Hero|Arnold]] has a crush on Lila while Helga has a crush on him. [[Parental Favoritism|Olga]] as well.

{{quote|'''Fry:''' You haven't won yet, Mervin! You didn't expect us to even ''go'' to a museum, much less steal this ancient heat-seeking missile.

'''Ambassador Mervin:''' I don't even know you. }}

 

* The England vs. Germany football rivalry continues to rage harder and harder into the 2010s... or at least it does in England. The Germans could not care less about England and are much more concerned with their actual arch-rivals, the Dutch.

** At least, one would think so until the Germans beat England and the celebrations had mention of undoing the hurt of forty years ago, or so least football pundits reported. [[Blatant Lies|And since when have sports commentators been prone to hyperbole?]]

* The city of Baltimore lost their longtime football team, the Colts, to the city of Indianapolis in the spring of 1984. The fans of the team have since sported a longtime hatred of the team for abandoning them, as well as the owners of the team (Robert Irsay at first, then his son Jim after Robert passed away). Since Baltimore gained a new NFL team (the Ravens), whenever the Colts have visited, they have been introduced as the "Indianapolis professional football team" (pointedly avoiding the nickname "Colts"), among other indignities. Those in Indianapolis have no particular hatred of the Baltimore Ravens (or the city of Baltimore in general), whether or not they are aware of the rivalry (many are).

** Which is playing against character somewhat. You'd expect Bay to hit back in a ridiculously flashy, over-the-top but above all talentless fashion.

*** Why would he even need to? Boll is a walking joke in the filmmaking community and Bay's films are all multimillion dollar successes.

** Due to differences between regional dialects, he had no idea what she was even trying to say to him until [[The Angry Joe Show|Angry Joe]] and others translated for him.

* Pepsi seems to be this to Coke. Most of their ads are in the form of a [[Take That]], trying to show how Pepsi is superior, while Coke's ads just show people having fun while drinking Coke, and never even mention Pepsi. The [[Irony]] of the whole thing is that by showing Coke products in their ads, Pepsi is effectively advertising for Coke as much as they are themselves, because most people don't pay close enough attention to commercials to pick up more than basic messages like logos and names.

* NCAA Division 2 Lone Star Conference. Midwestern State University and Tarleton State University are hated rivals. Like, Red Sox-Yankees hated rivals. Both of them completely ignore West Texas A&M, who simply believe that both schools are their biggest rivals, and focus on each other. This even got taken to new heights in the 2012 LSC Championship semifinals, where TSU played WTAMU. WTAMU's fans even tried to invade Tarleton's side of the court. What did Tarleton do? Absolutely nothing. Not even attempt to drown them out.

* The Entertainment industry seems to have a bone to pick with the internet. Justified, as there's much piracy and whatnot going on online. The users of the internet in general couldn't care less... until you tried to force through SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA, that is.

 

{{reflist}}