There's Always Someone Better in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- The Boys: Real Justice: The Justice League are this to the Seven.
- Superman is more powerful and much more skilled when it comes to using his powers compared to Homelander. He also has a power Homelander lacks, super breath. Not to mention, Clark is much more morally and psychologically stable compared to Homelander. Needless to say, Homelander is not happy about all of this at all.
- The Flash is not only significantly faster than A-Train, but his speed force-based abilities further the gap between them infinitely more. That's not even bringing up A-Train's heart issues.
- Wonder Woman is this to Maeve as Diana was everything Maeve wanted to be and more.
- Aquaman is this to the Deep. Not only is Arthur more powerful, but he also has the respect of his peers.
- Not relating to the Seven, Batman is this to The Boys when it comes to Badass Normal vigilantism. For starters, Bruce managed to learn about Herogasm while the Boys could not and only stumbled upon it by chance in canon. He even manages to blackmail, Mallory by threatening to leak her involvement in Operation Charly. Then he solves the identity of the Head popper, Victoria Neuman. Finally, he manages to apprehend the Boys and outsmart Butcher. Even managing to shoot down Butcher's claim of him being Bruce Wayne by having J'onn impersonate Bruce Wayne at Arkham If it weren't for Amanda Waller they would have been done.
- Child of the Storm has a number of teenagers among the younger cast, with the associated insecurities.
- Uhtred is a phenomenally talented Asgardian warrior prodigy, who's being mentored by Sif herself, and a blacksmith whose talents attract Tony Stark's attention. However, like Ron, he's the youngest of a successful family, and becomes an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy as a defence mechanism. He is then publicly outclassed by both Harry and Diana. In Diana's case, she's just his better all around in perhaps every aspect except range of weaponry, possibly tracking, and the blacksmithing. In Harry's, he's a better leader and quicker, more lateral thinker to start with, and rapidly becomes far faster and more powerful. After a bumpy start, he's not particularly bothered, and is content to take the supporting role.
- Ron, as per canon. Even before his powers really come through, Harry outstrips him in every regard, bar strategic talent (and his natural tactical acumen plus proclivity for insane strategies tends to win through), family normality, and mental stability. It's made clear that Ron is actually seriously talented and has caught the eye of some major players; he's a powerful wizard, intelligent, resourceful, resilient, and with strong moral fibre. He's even pretty good looking, enough to catch the eye of some young witches in the sequel. It's just that Harry is the immediate point of comparison, and most people are going to come up short, in every area except mental stability (which, thanks to trauma, Harry lacks for much of the second book, and it's why for the most part Ron really doesn't envy him).
- Hermione, again, to Harry. In her case, it's his magical power and intuitive grasp of magic, though as is stressed, his understanding of the theory is thoroughly lacking by comparison - indeed, his intuitive abilities mean he actually has more difficulty cracking the theory, as he usually doesn't need to. Even once her raw power catches up, via Chaos Magic inherited from her biological mother, Wanda Maximoff (along with an Omega class X-Gene), it's completely opposed to all her skills and personality. His powers, after some serious Power Incontinence, come very easily to him.
- Most galling to her, though, is the fact that once Hermione finds out about her heritage, she feels that she's The Un-Favourite - Wanda, after all, is also Harry's godmother. She acts as his substitute mother, ending her imposed avoidance of him as soon as it became clear that it wasn't protecting him/he'd be in ridiculous danger anyway, and is very affectionate and loving with him. Hermione, by contrast, she avoided and hid the truth from long past the point of common sense, and has to be arm-twisted by Doctor Strange into teaching her Chaos Magic. There is some reasoning for this; while Wanda adores them both equally, and giving them up broke her heart, with Hermione it was her choice and she at least knew her daughter would be Happily Adopted (Harry, not so much). It's also implied that she finds Harry 'easier' to love thanks to Hermione's Uncanny Family Resemblance bringing back a lot of painful memories from when Wanda was that age.
- Harry himself subverts this. He's a Jack of All Trades, being exceptional in most areas, but surpassed by a few in each - occasionally in spectacular fashion. For instance, Jean is by far more powerful and adept psychic, Hermione's far more Book Smart than he is, Carol's the better tactician and strategist, Jean-Paul's better at reading people... However, he's got a far broader skill-set than any of them.
- Fate Revelation Online: The fic is about the Sword Art Online characters learning magecraft under the belief that it's just a game. They advance quickly, and many of them are capable of truly impressive feats. Then there are Illya and Shirou, who were not only aware of magecraft before the game, but had just won a magical death tournament. Illya has literal orders of magnitude more magical power than anyone else in the game and is an expert on most magic systems, while Shirou is a genius swordsman who can copy the powers of legendary heroes in true emergencies. After both of them separately solo a raid boss, the AI in charge of game balance gives up and declares them exempt from balancing.
- In The Flower Princess and the Alchemist: Edward feels this way towards Ichigo, Orihime's First Love, feeling that he always to compete with him for Orihime's affections.
- Infinity Train: Blossomverse:
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail:
- Chloe Cerise resents Ash for being a 'black hole', drawing everyone's attention towards him. Her Childhood Friend Goh and father had already been neglecting her for years, at least in her eyes, but his arrival threw that into even sharper relief, as the Professor takes the boys on as research assistants and sends them around the world... while she, supposedly one of his assistants as well, is left back at the lab. Finding out he's achieved so much only makes it worse.
- Goh Fujihachi starts resenting Ash as he learns more about all the things he's accomplished over the course of his travels. Particularly the fact that he's made so many human friends, while Goh's lack of social skills and hyperfocus on Pokémon over people has hampered his own relationships.
- Yeardley is a middle child overshadowed by his successful older sister and cute younger sister who struggles in his studies, leading his father to sarcastically call him a 'work in progress'. The one thing he believes he has going for him is that he's good at sports... so the fact that Chloe can match him in softball really gets under his skin.
- Sara Diktaylis absolutely despises Chloe, seeing her as living a charmed, privileged life — she's the daughter of the local Pokémon Professor, after all, while her own doting father passed away in a car crash and her mother hits the bottle hard. This envy drove her to turn nearly all of her classmates against Chloe, bullying her out of a need to see her torn down and broken.
- As the Galar Champion, Leon is clearly stronger than both Ash and Hop. While Ash sees this as inspiring and wants to improve in order to challenge him properly, Hop feels overshadowed and inferior, plagued by self-doubts and worrying that he'll tarnish his big brother by association.
- Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus:
- Zig Zagging depending on where Chloe Cerise is and who she's being compared to.
- No matter what Sara Diktaylis does in the Cyan Desert Car arc, she can never best Chloe. When the two fight, Sara has to upgrade her bat to shoot crystal spikes and set it on fire but she can never get a hit in. Chloe simply uses her donut holer as it is, and also resorts to punches and kicks if need be, only using her cloak's power once.UnSycamore/Asher: You [Sara] stole her father, she has the leading Pokémon Professor on Mega Evolution by her side. You stole her confidence, she gained it right back from her supporters and people she saved in her journey. You stole her love of Pokémon, she gained the love of a mirage hellhound...
- Subverted when it comes to dealing with the Mirage army compared to Ash: people initially claim that she did better than him, but it's more out of adrenaline and trying to keep Chloe happy (as she's going through a Performance Anxiety breakdown at that moment). Once the situation gets properly addressed, it's made clear they were both equal in how they handled it and Chloe accepts it.
- For all how she lambasts that she feels overshadowed by the likes of Ash and other Pokémon Trainers, she's like this to Grace. Grace busted her ass off for a decade trying to survive the Train without any guide as to what the hell she was supposed to do to survive, whereas Chloe is granted two loyal friends, an ally in the Conductor who Grace worships, a magic artifact that lets her cast fire and sees into people's souls and the love of the Train itself in the span of about two months.
- Played for Drama with Augustine. Normally in the Pokémon world, Augustine would be the revered one since he's a Professor with a Garchomp that knows Mega Evolution and she's a ten year old girl in a public school who doesn't even know who she's supposed to be at best, and a punching bag for her classmates and ignored by her Childhood Friend simply cause she's "not into Pokémon" at worst. On the Train, she's so revered due to her bravery and love of the Goetias that they're keeping an eye on her and burns so bright that she outshines Augustine... and it is not doing wonders on his mental health or his self-worth issues.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail:
- Lost to Dust:
- Ruby Rose specializes in Super-Speed, so she is shocked when Atalanta beats her in a race.
- Beowulf has the same power as Yang Xiao Long, but his limits on taking damage and getting stronger are higher than hers.
- The Night Unfurls: Kyril Sutherland, the Lightning Bruiser, is the "someone better" than everyone else in the story in terms of combat. It is the source of much consternation of many a fighter like Claudia and Alicia, the latter especially so in the remastered version. Shamuhaza tries to close the gap by going One-Winged Angel via Eldritch Transformation. His attempt turns out to be a Clipped-Wing Angel as Kyril proves to be a more powerful and experienced Eldritch Abomination than he is. Even in the scenario where he is "killed", which does happen at the end of Chapter 31, his Resurrective Immortality is guaranteed to render that "victory" moot.
- In Origin Story, Alex "Superwoman" Harris swiftly proves herself to be this for basically every hero and villain in the Marvel Universe. It is remarked several times that its going to take power on the level of the Silver Surfer or Doctor Strange to take her out, and neither of those two individuals are interested in the job.
- Reapers Among Fairies: Wendy Marvell and Sherria Blendy note that Orihime Kurosaki's healing powers surpass their own. Ultear Milkovich later becomes slightly envious of Orihime because she has to Cast from Lifespan to use her Time Master powers to their full potential, but Orihime can do the same thing with no cost.
- Servants of Remnant: James Ironwood's Ace Operative Harriet Bree prides herself on her Super-Speed, but Okita Souji is much faster than her. Harriet doesn't take it well and keeps challenging Okita to races, which Okita wins every time.
- In The Vampire of Steel, Supergirl is clearly more powerful than Buffy and the rest of the Gang. Yet Buffy doesn't care and Kara never puts her down. And it's pointed out several times that, even if Supergirl is more powerful, Buffy surpasses her at fighting magical creatures.Giles: With all respect, Kara, please don't flaunt your extra powers around that much. We know what you can do, in theory.
Buffy: Giles. I'm all right with this, okay? I know Kara can do more than I can. I'm not about to become Inferiority Complex Girl, okay?
Supergirl: Sorry, I wasn't trying to put anyone down by comparison. - Victor von Doom is implied to be this to Tony Stark in the There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton series. Tony has no issue stating that Victor is "the most intelligent man in the world", which means that he acknowledges him as his intellectual superior. Considering how egotistical Tony is about his intelligence, that speaks volumes.
- Paul had prided himself in being the strongest man in the world in With Strings Attached—one of the compensations for being heavily Blessed with Suck. When the four are brought back to C'hou in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, he learns to his great chagrin that (at least when he's in low power mode) not only is he no longer the strongest, he's the eighth strongest person that the Guardians known of. While he's probably the strongest when he goes to high power, he can't because it gives him crippling Power Incontinence. Looking at Andro, three times stronger than him but fully in control of his strength and able to wear normal clothes, Paul almost has a Super-Power Meltdown out of massive jealousy. Later, he's able to deal with Andro by remembering that he can do things the Guardians' leader can't do—and, incidentally, is very pleased to find out that he's much tougher than the man.
- Calvin & Hobbes: The Series has
Thunderstorm, who is eventually trapped underground (accidentally) by his Stupid Evil ally-turned-enemy Brainstorm.
- In Riding the Waves, Kai feels this way towards Percy. She doesn't hate him for it, though.
- Daphne Greengrass and the Boy Who Lived features a minor example; Daphne is a good chess player, but swiftly acknowledges Ron as her better, as out of twenty games they played in first year Daphne only won three.
- In Exodus
, Hermione quit taking piano lessons as a child because two of the other students were prodigy-level. - In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Harry realizes Hermione's ability to rapidly assimilate information and do academic work better, as well as having unwavering morality is superior to him. Hermione, in contrast, recognizes that Harry is a Chessmaster that she frankly cannot outplot no matter what she tries, and that he's far less naive than her. Both of them are jealous of the other's better points.
- In The Victors Project, this is among the pieces of advice Antigone gives her mentee, Dido, and the only advice given that seems strictly heartfelt, as opposed to being sarcastic or exasperated.
- In Gaz and the Exchange Student from Hell, the Membranes act as the host family for an exchange student named Circe, who quickly proves herself this trope in regards to Gaz — she's a more talented artist, does better in school, is easily able to make friends with everyone, and is even able to beat Gaz at her favorite video games. It isn't long before this drives Gaz crazy, especially as Circe even manages to start fitting in with the family better than Gaz herself does. Then it turns out that "Circe" is actually a demonic Cuckoo, who is deliberately trying to drive Gaz out of the family to take her place.
- Clash's Revolt: Jealousy is why Clash hates her cousin Video. Since childhood, Video has always been more successful and popular than Clash.
- In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, Dr. Cossack felt that Dr. Light beat him at everything, though he changes his tune later on.
- Weight Off Your Shoulder combines this with Superior Successor. After Bunnyx accidentally reveals just how bad the future is going to get, Marinette decides to Screw Destiny by giving up her Guardianship and passing the Earrings and Miracle Box to somebody else. This new Ladybug handles the job so well that Marinette grows convinced that their successes prove she was a complete failure as a superheroine.
- Dekiru: The Fusion Hero!: Izuku technically serves as this to Shoto. Shoto was specifically conceived by his father to have a fusion of his and his wife's Quirks, making him the strongest student in Class 1-A in terms of raw power. However, it lacks versatility and is capped by Shoto's own physical limitations, especially since Shoto refuses to use the fire-half of his Quirk out of spite for his father. Izuku's Human Fusion technique on the other hand has no such cap as it can take any of their classmates' versatile Quirks, dial it up via Super-Empowering and All Your Powers Combined, and then add in increased durability and more firepower via One for All. The resulting fusions are therefore far more powerful than Shoto, and their abilities can blow anything he can do out of the water. Shoto is furious when he realizes this, and Human Fusion quickly becomes a major Berserk Button for him.
- I am [REDACTED]: Nimbus/Redacted serves as this to Katsuki. There is an appreciable gap between Katsuki and the Number Three Hero, and if he lived in any other country, he'd be the undisputed Number One Hero. Unfortunately for him, however, he lives in Japan, where the Story-Breaker Power One For All originated, and whose current holder, the aforementioned Nimbus (aka his former childhood friend and bully victim Izuku), resides and also works as a pro-hero. Katsuki, understandably, does not take it well when he realizes that one thing he's worked for his entire life is completely out of his reach, and Nimbus remains a huge Berserk Button for him when the main story starts.
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
- A Dance on the Mats: Rainbow feels this way about Anon. Both of them are sparring partners, and he beats her every time.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In The Flash Sentry Chronicles: Flash accomplished a lot since moving to Ponyville with Twilight, but despite his achievements and confidence he couldn’t beat Sombra, even with Ruby's help, and the two of them are almost killed by the dark unicorn. Though Flash does help his friends beat Sombra in the end he is well aware that he was overconfident and almost died because of it.
- The Royal Knight Skybreaker also suffered this similar to Flash when he was a rookie. He was cocky and took too many risks, thinking he was invincible, but when he fought a unicorn whose sword skills were like nothing he had seen before or since, he only survived because his mentor sacrificed himself by taking a lethal blow to the heart that was meant for Skybreaker and managed to injure the unicorn enough for Skybreaker to win.
- Trixie, even after earning her place as Luna's apprentice, constantly compares her progress to Twilight's. She takes Twi's ascension to princess as a sign she will never catch up.
- In The Twilight Child, the main character was sick of being compared to Twilight Sparkle by the time she was twelve. By the time she's eighteen, even though she tries not to let it show, it's become something of a Berserk Button for her, though in this case the most she'll do is declare a prank war. The problem is that she fights dirty, as Rainbow Dash learns.
- The plot of The Two Sides of Daring Do revolves around this trope. An artifact creates a clone of Daring Do from Yearling's novels. This trope comes into play because Yearling made Daring Do 'herself but better', so the clone proceeds to outdo her in everything to the point Yearling begins questioning her own worth and develops Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome. However, while the clone is stronger and faster than her, she is smarter and more patient.
- Advice and Trust: Shinji feels like this in chapter 2 after undergoing several synch tests where he managed to catch up with Asuka for several seconds, right before she beat his score again. When he says he wanted to beat her and try to keep up with her is intimidating, Asuka replies that being second only to her is not a bad feat, and she encourages him to keep trying to catch up with her.
- Ghosts of Evangelion: Asuka resents Shinji for always surpassing her. Subverted because Shinji thinks that she has nothing to be jealous of:Asuka: You always gotta one-up me, eh?
Shinji: Says the woman who's fluent in three languages, has two Ph.D.s, and does guest lectures at MIT and Harvard and other places on a regular basis. - Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88): Ironically, Asuka and Shinji see each other as this. Shinji thinks Asuka is braver, more strong-willed and a better pilot than he will ever be. Asuka thinks Shinji is an excellent pilot who is mentally and emotionally stronger than her because he actually managed to get over the loss of his mother. They also want to beat each other because they want to earn each other's respect.
- The One I Love Is...: Shinji was this to Asuka. She trained hard her whole life to become the best mecha pilot ever, only to be beaten every turn for an untrained civilian who -as far as she knew- had been picked from the streets.
- This ask blog portrays Aran Ryan's sister as this. No matter how much he trains, Aran cannot get the upper hand over her. It's demonstrated that this has been going on since they were children; there's an image of the two at around age 7-9, where Moira is able to find a handful of four leaf clovers before Aran can even scrounge up one.
- Part of Close (But No Coffee) revolves around how, while Jun is strong, his rival Hareta is always one step ahead of him. It frustrates him more than he lets show.
- In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Gary Oak is an excellent trainer, one of the only two Pallet Town trainers to pass Professor Oak's test. Moreover, his performance is impressive enough that a major TV network purchases the rights to film him. However, he nevertheless consistently loses to Red, much to his chagrin, first in Viridian Forest, then Cerulean City, and third in Lavender Town.
- In An Old 'Flame', Proud Beauty Yang Xiao Long immediately feels insecure upon meeting Cinder Fall.
- White Sheep: When going all-out, Jaune is one of the strongest people on the planet. In Grimm form while in an Unstoppable Rage he fights all of Team RYBN at once and almost kills them, he keeps up with both Adam and Ironwood, and he fights most of the forces at the Battle of Haven by himself. But when his eldest sister Sapphire shows up, he immediately panics because he knows he cannot win. Sapphire has appointed herself the protector of all her younger siblings, and therefore spends all her time training. If she decides to take him back, there's nothing he can do about it.
- Ace In The Hole has Ren briefly developing an inferiority complex after Ken tells him about the other Wild Cards, particularly Minato Arisato.
- Forewarned is Forearmed: Although Akira is The Ace of the Phantom Thieves, it's blatantly clear to everyone that Yu is a step above in every conceivable way. This is probably most blatant in their fight against Nanako's Shadow. It's powerful enough that Akira collapses in a heap on a floor afterward, while Yu treats it like a light workout.
- Forum of Thrones: Harmund is this to Harlan Hoare, being more handsome, more capable and more powerful. It is one of the reasons Harlan constantly seeks to be close to his brother, despite said brother's... tendencies.
- In Nightblade, Kirito is this to Rythin. Rythin doesn't really seem to mind all that much.
- In The Legend of Total Drama Island, Heather dominates her team but just can't seem to win an argument with Noah. She does once (sort of) by beaning him with a football, but philosophers frown on such crass methods of discourse.
- In fanfic series Unbreakable Red Silken Thread Heather is an expert manipulator, but Scarlett is smarter than Heather and much better at hiding her true intentions and emotions.
- In Copacetic, Taylor to... well, everyone, but both Hero and Rhapsody feel this way especially since they gave up or lost everything they'd done before to embrace their current roles and she's basically usurped them. To make things worse, she never wanted to in the first place but ended up in the spotlight saving them or doing what they were supposed to more efficiently and higher powers (i.e. the President of the United States) put her there.
- A Mother's Touch: Like in the anime, Hokuto Shima is a skilled Xyz Duelist with a 95 win streak. The story mentions that he and Shun Kurosaki had a duel, only to reveal that Shun completely annihilated him.
- Rivals Series: Yuuri always felt this way about Viktor, especially considering his ultimate goal is to beat Viktor. He only stopped feeling this way after he finally beat Viktor at the Winter Olympics, four years after his senior debut, during which he consistently placed second at the Grand Prix and World Championships behind his rival (the exception being the season that Viktor was out with an injury, where he won gold at both plus the Four Continents). However, since he's the only one on Viktor's level, both Viktor and him are this to everyone else in the senior division; it's noted in-story that the others are basically relegated to competing for the bronze medal since Viktor and Yuuri have first and second already locked on, with the occasional silver at competitions where only one of the two is competing.
