History Main / ArchEnemy

* CreateYourOwnHero: This villain is often the one who sets the hero on their heroic path through seeking to bring them down, or through seeking to set right what the villain did wrong.

* CreateYourOwnHero
* CreateYourOwnVillain

** [[MasterSwordsman Count Dooku]] was this for [[StudentAndMasterTeam Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi]] throughout the Clone Wars. Dooku battled the duo many times, came close to killing them on multiple occasions, and once even severed Anakin's arm. He is also this to his former master, Yoda.

*** Being close to Suzaku and Euphemia, Dreadwing comes to despise Airachnid greatly as well. [[spoiler:The end of ''R1'' has Dreadwing commit a HeroicSacrifice, detonating an Energon mine that Airachnid is in. Even though she survives, she loses the right side of her face, along with her right arm.

* PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize

* YouKilledMyFather: The hero and villain are enmies because the villain killed the hero's close relative.

* AnimalNemesis

* DrivenByEnvy
* ElementalRivalry

* EvilVersusEvil

* LukeIAmYourFather

* {{Supervillain}}

* WorthyOpponent

* YouKilledMyFather

** In ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', the three main [[AncientConspiracies ancient or arcane conspiracies]] generally have an opposed faction to keep them in check. The Gatekeeper druids exist to fight daelkyr and their aberrant creations, the Dreaming Dark and the kalashtar of the Path of Light struggle over the future of Dal Quor, and the dragons of the Chamber have been fighting the Lords of Dust since before humanity ''existed''.
* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Several pairs of angel and demon are bitter enemies, some because they share the same concept or are otherwise metaphysically opposed ([[ArchangelMichael Michael]], Archangel of War, and Baal, Demon Prince of ''the'' War; Blandine, Archangel of Dreams, and Beleth, Demon Prince of Nightmares; [[ArchangelGabriel Gabriel]] and Belial, Archangel and Demon Prince of Fire), and others because of specific incidents (Christopher, Archangel of Children, has never forgiven Kobal for the Children's Crusade).

* ''Fanfic/TheFlashSentryChronicles'': Shade is Springer's personal arch-enemy as he is determined to destroy him and everything he loves.

* FanFic/SoulChess has [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Aizen Sosuke]] and [[Anime/CodeGeass Lamperouge Lelouch]], as explicitly stated by both the narrative and the characters themselves. Lelouch despised Aizen after the man engineered the deaths of his captain (who was like a mother to him), her successor/lover (who Lelouch was in love with) and the exile of several friends of his (Urahara, Yoruichi, [[spoiler:Soifon]], Tessai, and the Visored). Meanwhile, like in canon, Aizen sought a rival. Instead of Ichigo (who, while still of interest to Aizen because of his potential strength, was designated as the "back-up hero"), he chose Lelouch. While not as naturally talented in combat like Aizen and Ichigo, Lelouch's vast intellect rivaled if not surpassed that of both Aizen and Urahara Kisuke (both of whom Lelouch has defeated in chess several times). That being said, Aizen did not truly come to hate Lelouch until [[spoiler:after the man had stopped his initial plan cold by Geassing him to commit suicide. Then, when he returned from hell to exact revenge only to be stopped again by his rival, Lelouch refuses to acknowledge him. This leaves Aizen enraged, and by the time the final arc rolls around it's fairly obvious Aizen's main priority (after attaining enough power to kill the Soul King) is to screw over Lelouch in any way he can. Rather fittingly, the final battle is a one-on-one DuelToTheDeath between them after Lelouch merges with the Hogyoku and is finally able to fight Aizen as an equal]].

** [[DarthVaderClone Kylo Ren]] had many bitter enemies. He is trying to become TheCorrupter for [[ActionGirl Rey]], is the AntagonisticOffspring of [[CoolOldGuy Han]] and [[CoolOldLady Leia]], and is the EvilNephew of [[OldMaster Luke]]. He also has a rivalry going on with General Hux that eventually grows so intense that [[spoiler:Hux turns to spying on him for the Rebellion, willfully sabotaging his own cause just to eliminate Ren.]]

* The nemesis relationship is a gameplay element in ''TabletopGame/{{Villainous}}''. "Hero" cards act as obstacles to players and often need to be defeated to regain their abilities. For some players, like [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Captain Hook]], their victory condition ''is'' to defeat their arch-enemy character.

[[caption-width-right:350: "I think [[Characters/BatmanTheCharacter you]] and [[ComicBook/TheJoker I]] are [[Film/TheDarkKnight destined to do this forever]]."[[note]]Clockwise from top left: ''[[TabletopGame/CerberusEngineGames DC Comics Deck-Building Game: Rivals - Batman vs. The Joker]]''; ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheKillingJoke''; ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries''; ''[[Film/Batman1989 1989 film]]''[[/note]]]]

** Another EvilVersusEvil case is the demon princes Baphomet (patron god of [[ALoadOfBull minotaurs]]) and Yeenoghu (patron god of [[HeinousHyena gnolls]]). There's no real reason behind this hostility, they just loathe each other -- although, in the [[TabletopGame/NentirVale World Axis]] cosmology, it's believed that Yeenoghu once betrayed Baphomet at a critical battle and almost cost the other demon prince his life, which Baphomet has never forgiven.

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The Arch-Enemy will stand out from the SuperHero's RoguesGallery — there will be one opponent where the relationship to the hero and the motivations for battling them are more potent. These feelings may be [[UnknownRival one-sided]], felt more by the villain than the hero, or occasionally vice-versa.

A hero's Arch-Enemy is not necessarily the biggest threat to them. ComicBook/LexLuthor is considered Superman's Arch-Enemy; ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} is smarter, and both Brainiac and ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} are vastly more powerful and [[SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat dangerous]], but for Lex — and, to a lesser extent, for Superman — it's ''personal'' between them. Additionally, although Superman has battled many foes of great power and strength, Luthor is still seen as his Arch-Enemy because to a general audience, he's viewed as the most iconic and recognizable of all of Superman's rogues.

* ComicStrip/DickTracy had Flattop. Flattop was KilledOffForReal decades ago, but he was so popular that [[LegacyCharacter Legacy Characters]] kept popping up afterward.
* ComicStrip/PrinceValiant had Sligon, the tyrant who usurped his father's throne.
* ComicStrip/BuckRogers had Killer Kane.
* The old melodrama spoof ''Hairbreadth Harry'' had the title character fighting a DastardlyWhiplash named Rudolph Rassendale--although Rudy was the [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain real star of the strip]].
* Annie Mae the sea anenome to Pig in ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine''.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' has a weird example: Mondays. While usually shown to be just a worst day of the week for Garfield, they also had at least two different personifications, one looked like [[http://garfield.com/comic/1986/07/21 a bunch of generic monsters]] and one like FrankensteinsMonster. It's definitely mutual, as Mondays manage to have any kind of problem for Garfield, sometimes exceeding the limits of reality outright.
** In his "Caped Avenger" persona he had [[http://garfield.com/comic/1984/08/23 proclaimed]] Odie as his archenemy, but considering that Odie is usually a frenemy and they does not necessarily share the mutual enmity, Mondays are a more real deal. Moreover, "Caped Avenger" later proclaimed Odie as his sidekick as well.

** [[BigBad Palpatine]] to [[BigGood Yoda]]. By ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' he also considers [[TheHero Luke Skywalker]] to be his biggest threat. As the Chosen One, Luke's father, [[TheChosenOne Anakin Skywalker]] is destined to defeat Palpatine and bring balance to the force, [[spoiler:and he eventually succeeds]].

** [[BloodKnight Darth Maul]] became a personal foe for [[BewareTheNiceOnes Obi-Wan Kenobi]] after he killed Obi-Wan's master, [[MentorOccupationalHazard Qui-Gon Jinn]]. After Obi-Wan [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bisected Maul in retaliation]], the feeling between them was mutual. Before he died [[MilitaryMaverick Qui-Gon Jinn]] himself was determined to confront Maul so he could prove to the Jedi Council that the Sith still existed.

** Garazeb Orrelios, one of only a few survivors of the massacre of Lasan, has ISB Agent Kallus, who claims to have ordered the use of [[DisintegratorRay starship disruptors]] in the massacre, and also took a Lasat bo-rifle from the body of a High Honour Guardsman as a BattleTrophy. [[spoiler:It winds up {{subverted|Trope}}, however, in the Rebels episode [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E15TheHonorableOnes "The Honourable Ones"]], where, while stranded on an icy moon with Zeb, Kallus reveals he was lying about giving the order to use the disruptors, and that he was ''given'' his bo-rifle by an Honour Guardsman he defeated in single combat -- which is in keeping with Boosahn Keeraw, the Lasat warrior code. By the end of the episode, Zeb and Kallus could almost be considered ''friends'' -- in fact, the events lead directly to him having a HeelFaceTurn.]]

** The Iron Warriors utterly hate the Imperial Fists for sharing their specialty - siege warfare - but getting a lot more honour and praise for it. It ''began'' one-sided, with Perturabo nursing a grudge over Rogal Dorn offhandedly saying his Legion was better at it, but given the number of times the two have fought, it's become much less balanced now. The protagonist of the Literature/IronWarriors ''novels'', Honsou, has as his arch-enemy Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines, because he's not motivated by the enmities of his Legion but by who's pissed him off specifically.
** Generally, on the tabletop, enmity of this depth is handled with Hatred (Enemy Goes Here), which means that in the first round of any close combat, the hateful unit gets re-rolls to hit against their targets. Some rules, such as those in Traitor Legions, go beyond this into a sort of super-hatred that applies these re-rolls in ''all'' rounds of close combat: Word Bearers against Ultramarines, Iron Warriors against Imperial Fists, Thousand Sons against Space Wolves, and Black Legion, who aren't picky and get this against ''all'' Loyalist Space Marines. This would probably not have been necessary had the Veterans of the Long War upgrade, which is mandatory and generally free to all Legions using these rules, not given them ordinary Hatred of loyalist Marines already - gaining Hatred (Imperial Fists) isn't super-impressive when you already benefit from Hatred of the Imperial Fists, and also the Ultramarines, Salamanders, Black Templars, Grey Knights and basically everyone else into the bargain.

* Eric and the Dread Gazebo.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' often uses this in its various subsettings.
** One of the more traditional and well-known examples is the three-way hatefest between Demogorgon, Orcus and Graz'zt; Demogorgon is the current Prince of Demons, and both Orcus and Graz'zt are the most likely challengers to his title.
** Another EvilVersusEvil case is the demon princes Baphomet (patron god of [[ALoadOfBull minotaurs]]) and Yeenoghu (patron god of [[HeinousHyena gnolls]]). There's no real reason behind this hostility, they just loathe each other-- although, in the [[TabletopGame/NentirVale World Axis]] cosmology, it's believed that Yeenoghu once betrayed Baphomet at a critical battle and almost cost the other demon prince his life, which Baphomet has never forgiven.
** The draconic gods Bahamut (god of the good-aligned Metallic dragons) and Tiamat (goddess of the evil-aligned Chromatic dragons) absolutely ''detest'' each other, whichever setting you go to. Taken to new heights in the ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'' setting, where they are literally the manifest good and evil halves of a slain deity called Io, and the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' setting, where under the new names Paladine and Takhisis they are the Supreme Gods of Good and Evil, respectively, and the setting's entire history is basically an ongoing battle between them for supremacy.
** Corellon (god of elves) and Gruumsh (god of orcs) hate each other, a rivalry that was only cemented when Corellon [[EyeScream cut out one of Gruumsh's eyes in a duel]]. Whilst some settings offer possible explanations for this rivalry, the default seems to be that they are inherently opposed to each other's very existence.
** Gruumsh also has an EvilVersusEvil arch-enemy in the form of Maglubiyet, god of goblinoids.
** Laduguer, the god of the evil dwarves known as duergar, hates his counterpart Moradin, the patron god of dwarves.
** The derro, the ''other'' evil dwarf subrace, have two patron gods; twin brothers called Diirinka and Diinkarazan. Diirinka attained godhood by abandoning his brother to the wrath of the illithid god Ilsensine when it caught them stealing some of its divine power; it promptly imprisoned Diinkarazan in a magical prison designed to afflict him with constant pain and raving insanity. Not surprisingly, the only thing really left in Diinkarazan's mind is how much he ''hates'' Diirinka, and Diirinka makes himself ''very'' scarce during the once-a-century time when Ilsensine lets Diinkarazan out of his prison to seek revenge on his prother.
** In the gnomish pantheon, Urdlen, the original gnomish GodOfEvil, hates... well, ''all'' of the other gnome gods, but he especially despises Garl Glittergold, the head of the pantheon. In 3rd edition, the evil gnome god Gelf Darkhearth was added, whose entire thing is that he's Garl's EvilTwin and exists ''only'' to destroy Garl and everything Garl holds dear. As in, he doesn't even really dislike the gnomes themselves, but Garl loves them, so he feels obligated to kill them all to hurt Garl.
** In the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'', the evil gods Bane (god of tyranny) and Cyric (god of murder) detest each other above all other gods.
** In the ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'', many members of the pantheon have these kinds of rivalries. Avandra (goddess of freedom, luck and heroism) detests Zehir (god of assassins, murder and slavery), whilst Moradin (god of community) hates Asmodeus (god of tyranny and corruption). Additionally, the Raven Queen, as goddess of the dead, is in an eternal struggle with Orcus, who as demon prince of the ''un''dead wants to take her job.
** In ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', the three main [[AncientConspiracies ancient or arcane conspiracies]] generally have an opposed faction to keep them in check. The Gatekeeper druids exist to fight daelkyr and their aberrant creations, the Dreaming Dark and the kalashtar of the Path of Light struggle over the future of Dal Quor, and the dragons of the Chamber have been fighting the Lords of Dust since before humanity ''existed''.

* As it is heavily influenced by comic books, TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse uses [[ArchEnemy Arch Enemies]] quite a bit. Every playable hero character has a Villain nemesis (though there are some cards in villain and environment decks that have nemesis icons). Damage one deals to their nemesis is increased by one. For some pairs, this is one sided, such as the Argent Adept, a support hero who has few attacking powers, and his nemesis Akash'Bhuta, who has several ways to deal damage though her Limbs.
** The VillainTeamUp expansions take this a bit further. The five main villains of ''Vengeance'' and ten of ''Villains of the Multiverse'' have several targets in their decks that gain special effects that specifically weaken their nemesis if their nemesis is active. Calypso (a nemesis of Ra) reduces fire damage if Ra is active, which is the only damage type Ra deals. Hilariously, Fanatic's mini-nemesis in Vengeance, the Seer, can actually work in your favour because he prevents heroes from inflicting damage to themselves: while this is a problem for Fanatic (who has a number of "damage yourself for a benefit" effects and likes to put her HP at risk), it becomes ''hilarious'' if you have Sky-Scraper on the same team, because Sky-Scraper's Large form has an ''awful lot'' of effects that deal splash damage recklessly.
** Usually, the nemesis icon comes from the hero: the various Baron Blades, for example, have Legacy's lantern symbol, while Deadline has the Naturalist's star iconography. The one exception is [=OblivAeon=]; as the FinalBoss of the entire timeline, and a character who forced multiple villains to pull a HeelFaceTurn or at least an EnemyMine with the heroes, his record-setting seven archnemeses[[note]]at least, nemeses who have their own decks; if you count the number of actual cards with nemesis icons Ra has twelve[[/note]] have ''his'' symbol on them, rather than the other way around.
** Notably, nemesis icons provide their damage boost no matter what side the target is on. In the case of heroes who share a symbol (usually this will happen in cases like the [=OblivAeon=] [[HeelFaceTurn ex-villain]] characters), this can be a detriment; for example, if Stuntman's mine goes off and hits other ex-villains it will deal bonus damage to all of them. Other times, such as if you have ways to get villain cards to hit each other, it's hilarious.
* This is actually a game mechanic in TabletopGame/{{Adventure}}. The "Nemesis" background allows the player to create an arch-foe for their hero, and the hero gets certain advantages when facing their hated enemy. How many ranks you take in the background determines the level of their enmity.
* Antagonist, an available bad trait in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' can either give you a minor enemy or a full blown antagonist, depending on the level of the trait.
* The nemesis relationship is a gameplay element in ''TabletopGame/{{Villainous}}''. "Hero" cards act as obstacles to players and often need to be defeated to regain their abilities. For some players, like [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Captain Hook]], their victory condition ''is'' to defeat their arch-enemy character.

* From ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': ** Charlie Brown and the Kite-Eating Tree.

* From ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': Charlie Brown and the Kite-Eating Tree.

* Annie Mae the sea anenome to Pig in ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine.
* [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]] and the Kite-Eating Tree.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} has a weird example: Mondays. While usually shown to be just a worst day of the week for Garfield, they also had at least two different personifications, one looked like [[http://garfield.com/comic/1986/07/21 a bunch of generic monsters]] and one like Frankenstein's Monster. It's definitely mutual, as Mondays manage to have any kind of problem for Garfield, sometimes exceeding the limits of reality outright.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Urza and Yawgmoth is the best known Arch Enemy pairing, although there are dozens of individual hatreds. They've even released a variant ''named'' Arch Enemy, although that's dedicated more to a dynamic of BigBad vs. EnemyMine.
* While everyone in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' [[ForeverWar will gladly fight everyone else]], there are some special rivalries and hatreds. The [[TheEmpire Imperium of Man]] is the staunchest enemies of the [[TheLegionsOfHell Forces of Chaos]], the [[SpaceElves Eldar]] fought the [[RobotWar Necrons]] once before and have taken it upon themselves to take them down now they have re-awoken, the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Tau]] view the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranids]] as the single greatest threat to their survival (and they may not be far off from the truth), the Space Wolves and the Thousand Suns and the Ultramarines and the Word Bearers Space Marine chapters have intense rivalries stretching back millennia, the Chaos Gods [[WarGod Khorne]] and [[TheHedonist Slaanesh]] battle constantly to one-up each other, and the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orks]] [[TheUsualAdversaries are constantly this to]] [[BloodKnight everyone including themselves]].

'''Optimus Prime:''' This universe, no matter how vast, will never be big enough for you and I to coexist.

** On a smaller scale, Cross also has the Unluckies. They utterly despise him for beating them in several fights during the Alabasta Arc and having Soundbite put them through a CoolAndUnusualPunishment after Baroque Works' defeat. It's gotten to the point that unlike the other agents, they've decided to put off retirement until such time that they've killed him, hunting him across the Grand Line so that they can achieve this.

** ''ArchEnemy/MarvelCinematicUniverse''

** ''ArchEnemy/{{Arrowverse}}''

* JokerImmunity

The Arch-Enemy can be the BigBad, TheDragon, TheRival, an EvilCounterpart, or even a HarmlessVillain. The essential element is that, with them, ItsPersonal. Most typically, the Arch-Enemy is a {{foil}} of some sort. For example, the Arch-Enemy of the physically strong could be very smart. If there is a GreaterScopeVillain, his Arch-Enemy commonly is the GreaterScopeParagon.

* In ''Fanfic/TheGhostOfOchs'', Monica and her EvilCounterpart Kronya are mutual arch-enemies. Kronya and her henchmen kidnapped Monica and subjected her to months of isolation and torture. The fact that Monica [[DamselOutOfDistress eventually broke free]] angers Kronya greatly because most of her other captives were too scared and/or weak to stand up to her. Monica, after her recovery and reinstatement to the Officers Academy, dedicates her time outside of studying to protecting innocent civilians from the likes of Kronya and "those who slither in the dark".

* ''[[FanFic/TransformersAnimatedCybertronianGenesis Transformers Animated: Cybertronian Genesis]]'' has, of course, Optimus Prime and Megatron, who have developed their relationship into this following the events of the last season, mirroring the rest of the ''Transformers'' mythos. One of the main focal points of the narrative is their enmity, and how it forces Optimus to grow into the leader he's meant be, and how his constant defiance drives Megatron closer to the depths of insanity.

* ''FanFic/AShadowOfTheTitans'' plays this for laughs, as Jade declares Beast Boy her archenemy after he manages to [[WeaksauceWeakness hurt her with an onion]]; Beast Boy is thrilled at this, as he [[MetaGuy feels that having an archenemy makes him cooler]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' fanfic series ''Fanfic/MonsterChronicles'' Cedric isn't particularly well liked by anyone in the cast, but there are two contestants he has a particularly bad relationship with:

** Megatron has a knack for acquring these throughout the story:

*** She becomes this for Kallen, due to the latter being Arcee's partner. She'a gone out of her way to try and kill the red-head both for fun, and for revenge for the many times she's been shown up by Kallen.

*** She ends up being this for Euphemia and Cornelia as well. She hates Euphemia's idealism, [[spoiler:and takes great pleasure in making her watch the SAZ Massacre and the destruction of Pendragon while having Euphemia has a captive.]] Predictably, Cornelia, who is [[BigSisterInstinct very protective of her younger sister]], ends up despising Airachnid with a passion. After Airachnid is seriously injured in [[spoiler:Dreadwing's sacrifice while the latter rescued Cornelia and Euphie with Suzaku,]] her hatred for the sisters skyrockets, and she still scours the globe for them after six months. She even kills their mother Victoria as a result of this grudge. Like Suzaku, Euphemia, who's a kind person that usually hates violence and killing, hates Airachnid so much that she wouldn't mind if the Spider-Con was snuffed out for good.