History Main / RemovingTheRival

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[[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/DudeThatsMyGhost https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thecandidate.png]]]]

* One ''[[WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster Captain N]]'' comic turned this into a WhatYouAreInTheDark moment for Samus Aran. After she and Lana are arrested on false charges and throw in prison, Samus plots a breakout and figures that she could leave Lana there and win over Kevin easily. Instead, she saves Lana, figuring that [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction winning Kevin over in such a way would be too easy]] and would rather earn his heart fairly.

[[folder:Fanfics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'''s WickedStepmother locks her in her room so she can't try on the glass slipper and stand in the way of one of her daughters marrying the prince. [[spoiler: Which turns out to be useless anyway since neither stepsister fits the slipper.]]

* In ''Film/{{Curtains}}'', [[spoiler:Patti]] decides to murder the other five auditioning actresses in order to ensure she wins the role of a mentally unstable woman in a film called ''[[ShowWithinAShow Audra]]''.

* ''Film/DropDeadGorgeous'': [[StageMom Gladys Leeman]] goes through desperate lengths to make sure her daughter Becky wins the Mount Rose American Teen Princess pageant and goes to state ([[VicariouslyAmbitious something Gladys never got to do when she won the pageant when she was seventeen]]), [[spoiler:that she resorts to murdering her daughter's two biggest competitors]]. She succeeds with [[spoiler:Tammy Curry]], but fails with the protagonist Amber Atkins. After that, she blatantly rigs the competition against Amber, and when Amber manages to overcome every obstacle thrown at her, [[spoiler:it's implied she bribes the judges to score Becky higher anyway. Ironically, Amber ''still'' ends up winning the pageant -- during the celebratory parade, Becky is killed when the swan float she was on blows up, defaulting the crown to Amber, [[DisqualificationInducedVictory who was the first runner-up]].]]

* In ''Literature/AllForTheGame'', Riko Moriyama breaks Kevin's hand to remove him from the game of [[FictionalSport Exy]].

* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater", an actress frames a rival for murder in order to get her part in a play.
* One of the dance segments from ''Series/InLivingColor'' had the actresses from the show dancing in place of the Fly Girls, the show's dance troupe. At the end of the skit, the real Fly Girls were revealed to be BoundAndGagged in a closet.

* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'' episode "Pinned" in which Big Pete joined the wrestling team--and Endless Mike was so determined to wrestle him that he took to ''murdering the other wrestlers'' to make sure it happened. (Well, implicitly, anyway. The ''Pete and Pete'' universe never specifies what happens to folks who get sucked into hand driers.)
* A girl who claims to want to be just like Cher in ''Series/{{Clueless}}'' locks her in a closet to steal her part in the school's production of ''Theatre/{{Grease}}''.
* The ''Series/ADifferentWorld'' episode "Three Girls Three" involves Jalessa and Whitley partnering with a classmate named Angela in order to win a contest to sing with Gladys Knight. Angela ends up stabbing them in the back and wins with another group. The episode then ends with a FantasySequence where the girls imagine what would have happened if they had won, and the last shot reveals Angela BoundAndGagged backstage.

* Strong Bad plants Pom Pom's locker with an energy substance in one part of ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'', in order to cheat in a race.

* The main objective of ''Videogame/YandereSimulator'' is to remove any potential rivals for Senpai's affection. While the most obvious solution is to simply MurderTheHypotenuse, the game is set to have non-lethal options such as social sabotage, befriending the rival and simply asking them to step aside, and setting them up with other guys.

* In ''VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves'', The Black Baron ([[spoiler:actually Penelope]]) operates on this principal. He enforces a ''strict'' no-cheating policy during the competition for two-fold reasoning: one so he can disqualify his competition as they inevitably ''do'' cheat, allowing him to ensure both competitors aren't able to compete, and two so he can gain a much better edge in the competition by being the only one able to cheat.
* In ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'', [[spoiler:Penelope is at it again, though ''much'' worse, by plotting to remove Sly and Murray from the equation so that she can have Bentley, or rather, [[AmbitionIsEvil his skills]], to herself. Bentley is offended that she doesn't truly care about his feelings, and dumps her, citing while she's right about his potentials, Sly and Murray are pretty much his family]].

** Dennis offers his yacht for the protagonist’s “appreciation party,” and then arranges for him to miss the boat launch so he himself could be alone with five pretty girls.
** Dennis’s idea to try to bed all the girls is to blackmail Dr. Mosely/[[spoiler:Zeta]] into planning a class trip to Barbarossa, a place associated with great trauma for the protagonist, so he won’t be able to follow them there.
* Upon realizing that the protagonist and title character of ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}'' are in a romantic relationship, Bethany tries to force them apart by stealing Melody’s prize guitar and [[spoiler:refusing to give it back unless the protagonist resigns as her manager. Played straight if the protagonist mishandles the situation, causing Steve to smash the guitar; otherwise subverted when Bethany has a change of heart, gives the guitar back, and wishes the couple luck together.]]

* In the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Bobby's meat-judging team is left stranded in a creek after fans from a rival school replace their driver and hijack their bus.

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub''
** In the episode ''Miss Magix'', the senior witches sabotage a number of the contestants at the titular beauty pageant.
** Diaspora has made new attempts of getting rid of Bloom so she can have Sky.

* In one episode of the ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' cartoon, the Chipmunks and Chipettes perform a ''Snow White'' stage adaptation. The director's daughter, angry that Brittany was given the starring role instead of her, manages to lock her in a storage closet for a large portion of the show so she can take her place.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' entitled "Hidden Agenda" features a villain named "Terminal." In truth, he is a regular high school student with very promising grades but when his [[StageMom mother]] learns that [[TheBGrade he scored second out of thousands of students on the statewide standardized test]], he tries to remedy this by killing Maxine Gibson, the student that got the highest score.

May overlap with MuggedForDisguise or in some particularly grim situations, DeadPersonImpersonation or KillAndReplace.

* In ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'', [[spoiler:Penelope is plotting to remove Sly and Murray from the equation so that she can have Bentley, or rather, [[AmbitionIsEvil his skills]], to herself. Bentley is offended that she doesn't truly care about his feelings, and dumps her, citing while she's right about his potentials, Sly and Murray are pretty much his family]].

* The notorious case of figure skater Tonya Harding. In 1994, she, her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, and her bodyguard Shawn Eckardt plotted to take out Nancy Kerrigan, Harding's main rival at the upcoming United States Figure Skating Championships and [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames Winter Olympics]], by hiring two guys to bash her leg in after practice. While Harding won the US Championship, the following year she would be stripped of her gold medal, banned from competitive figure skating for life, and sentenced to three years of probation, 500 hours of community service, and a $100,000 fine once it became clear that she was behind the attack. The kicker: Kerrigan ''still'' went on to win silver at the Olympics after recovering from her injury (and it came down to the wire between her and the gold medal winner Oksana Baiul), while Harding only placed eighth. The affair would later be dramatized in the film ''Film/ITonya''.

A character (usually a [[ThePrimaDonna Prima Donna-type]]) is in direct competition with another for some sort of goal, and resorts to nefarious methods in order to somehow dispose of the competition, whether it be through physical violence, some form of trickery or locking the rival up somewhere they can’t interfere. (which may include keeping them [[BoundAndGagged Bound and Gagged]].)

* One ''[[WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster Captain N]]'' comic turned this into a WhatYouAreInTheDark moment for Samus Aran. After she and Lana are arrested on false charges and throw in prison, Samus plots a breakout and figures that she could leave Lana there and win over Kevin easily. Instead, she saves Lana, figuring that winning Kevin over in such a way would be too easy and would rather earn his heart fairly.

A character (usually a [[ThePrimaDonna Prima Donna-type]]) is in direct competition with another for some sort of goal, and resorts to nefarious methods in order to somehow dispose of the competition, whether it be through physical violence, some form of trickery or locking the rival up somewhere they can’t interfere. (which may include keeping them[[BoundAndGagged Bound and Gagged]].)

A character (usually a [[ThePrimaDonna Prima Donna-type]]) is in direct competition with another for some sort of goal, and resorts to nefarious methods in order to somehow dispose of the competition, whether it be through physical violence or some form of trickery.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

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[[folder: Fanfics]]

[[folder: Films - Animation]]

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[[folder: Live Action TV]]

[[folder: Music]]

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[[folder: Webcomic]]
* In ''Webcomic/FinalFantasyVIITheSevening'', an exaggerated manga-styled AffectionateParody of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', it is Tifa who shows up for the Gold Saucer date with Cloud... because Tifa drugged Aeris with sleeping medicine and tied her up offscreen beforehand to make sure that her rival wouldn't try to make a move before she could.

[[folder: Western Animation]]

!!This is a SuperTrope to the following SubTrope examples:

* Being a [[HaremGenre harem anime]], this happens quite frequently in ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' (where the page image is from) and its various spin-offs. Ryoko and Ayeka in particular often try to use all manner of underhanded tricks to dispose of one another and get Tenchi to themselves.

[[quoteright:350:[[Anime/TenchiMuyo https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tenchi_8214.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"What's that you say? 'Good luck to me'?"]]