Arch Enemy / Live-Action TV

"Do you know why Emma became the Savior in the first place? You... Every Savior needs a villain."

"Every fairy tale needs a good old-fashioned villain. You need me, or you're nothing. Because we're just alike, you and I - except you're boring."

— Jim Moriarty, Sherlock

Examples of Arch-Enemy in Live-Action TV.

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Works with their own pages:

• Arrowverse
• Marvel Cinematic Universe
• Star Trek
• Star Wars
• Whoniverse

Other Series:

• 9-1-1: Athena Grant-Nash has Jeffrey Hudson, a Serial Rapist who she shot in the crotch when after he attacked her. Hudson later kidnaps her son Harry.
• 13 Reasons Why: Clay Jensen has Bryce Walker, who raped his late crush Hannah.
• 24: Jack Bauer has several over the course of the series.
  • In the first three seasons, Jack has a deeply personal hatred for Nina Myers for acting as his friend, confidant and lover (briefly, during Jack's separation from his wife) before betraying CTU, as well as killing Jack's wife Teri at the end of Season 1. Though they very reluctantly work together during the events of Seasons 2 and 3, Jack makes clear that he will never trust or forgive Nina, while Nina is determined to kill Jack out of self-preservation, knowing that he will probably kill her once she is no longer useful. In Season 3, Jack finally does kill Nina when she threatens Kim, even knowing that she may still have had information that could have helped CTU stop the day's terrorist threat.
  • Charles Logan in Seasons 5 and 8 . Although he had already earned Jack's enmity in Season 4 for being a useless Obstructive Bureaucrat and trying to have him killed out of fear that Jack would crack under interrogation by the Chinese at the end of the season, he truly becomes this due to his involvement in the Sentox Conspiracy and covering up the assassination of Jack's old friend and mentor President David Palmer. He once again puts himself in Jack's crosshairs when helping the Russian goverment murder Jack's lover Renee Walker in Season 8, with Jack leading a One-Man Army charge against Logan's motorcade and only letting him live so he can track down the true masterminds of the day's events, while Logan acts as The Corrupter to President Alison Taylor in the hopes of manipulating her into having Jack killed.
  • Cheng Zhi in Seasons 4, 6, and 9. Cheng hates Jack for leading an illegal attack on the Chinese consulate in L.A. where he worked as head of security, which resulted in the accidental death of the consul, while Jack hates Cheng for torturing him for over a year in a Chinese prison, capturing and torturing his Second Love Audrey Raines into insanity when she tried to rescue him, and, in Season 9, murdering Audrey out of spite, for which Jack finally kills him.
  • In Season 4, Jack has Habib Marwan, a terrorist leader responsible for multiple plots throughout the season, once of which is the kidnapping of Jack's boss James Heller and girlfriend Audrey Raines. Both men are each other's prisoner at different points, and in the Season Finale, Marwan commits suicide in order to prevent Jack from thwarting him.
• The A-Team: Colonel Roderick Decker, the Army cop assigned to bring them to justice, is this to the A-Team in general and Hannibal in particular. He isn't the first or the last officer given the job in the series, but he's the only with with an intense preexisting rivalry with Hannibal. It goes back to The Vietnam War, where Hannibal originally met him and became disgusted enough with his methods ("I didn't like the way he lit up Cong hospitals like it was his favorite sport!") to punch his lights out in front of the entire officers' mess. It's also hinted that the two have some similarity in their Army careers, being Cowboy Cops whose methods get results but tend to draw the ire of the Army brass.
• The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: Brisco County, Jr. has John Bly, an outlaw responsible for his father's murder.
• The Akumaizer 3 have Mezalord, who is responsible for the deaths of Xavitan's mother, Evil's girlfriend, and Gabra's friend.
• Alias: Sydney Bristow has Arvin Sloane, who was responsible for the death of her fiancé.
• Ash vs. Evil Dead: Ash Williams has Ruby Knowby, who is both one of the most prominent antagonists to Ash in the television series, and the creator of the Necronomicon, which makes her responsible for Trauma Conga Line Ash experienced in the film series.
• Bad Girls:
  • Denny Blood has Snowball Merriman, who caused the death of her girlfriend Shaz. Denny, along with Shell, later set Snowball's hair on fire.
  • Pat Kerrigan has an antagonistic relationship with fellow inmate and prison bully Natalie Buxton. Pat was a victim of child abuse, and Natalie was a child sex trafficker. Pat beats Natalie in a fight for bullying Arun Parmer (thus usurping Natalie's position in the inmates' hiearchy), forces Natalie to swallow drugs, and eventually kills Natalie with a brick.
• Bates Motel: Norman Bates has Caleb Calhoun, his maternal uncle who seeks revenge of Norman for killing Norma.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003): Saul and Ellen Tigh have their antagonistic creation Number One.
• Beetleborgs: The Beetleborgs have Nukus, who stripped them of their original powers.
• Bewitched: Samantha and Darrin Stephens have the former's mother Endora, who seeks to sabotage their marriage.
• The Big Bang Theory:
  • Sheldon has declared Wil Wheaton his arch enemy since childhood. In "The Russian Rocket Reaction," Sheldon finally forgives Wheaton but immediately replaces him with Brent Spiner.
  • However his rival Barry Kripke comes closer to be his true Arch Enemy, as they're both scientists working within the same field, both highly intelligent, and both hold a strong rivalry, barring a few moments of them putting it aside.
• Black peppercorns are Yeheskel's enemy on Bitchin'Kitchen.
• Big Time Rush: Gustavo Rocque and Big Time Rush (a band who Rocque manages) have George Hawk, Rocque's rival businessman who sends a skunk to Roque Records, briefly manages to turn James Diamond to his side, kidnappped BTR to keep them from attending a concert, and tried to plagarize BTR.
• Blake's 7:
  • Although Blake would always insist his battle was against the Terran Federation as a whole, not against individuals, his undisputed arch-enemy is Travis, in a clear case of It's Personal with the Dragon. Travis was responsible for the massacre of Blake's original resistance group, while Blake caused Travis to be left disfigured and with an articial arm. Interestingly, it's more on Travis' side: While Blake hates Travis, he doesn't see him as a priority, while Travis sees tracking down Blake as his main aim in life.
  • Servalan is the overall arch-enemy of the Liberator crew, especially Avon, Tarrant and Dayna. Avon is the one she has the most personal connection with, offering him a We Can Rule Together at one point while her manipulation of him to get her hands on the Liberator prompts him to declare that he needs to kill her himself. She is indirectly responsible for the death of Tarrant's brother and directly responsible for the murder of Dayna's father.
• Bones: Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan and Agent Seeley Booth have Christopher Pelant, Brennan's Stalker with a Crush who tries to sabotage her relationship with Booth.
• The Boys (2019):
  • Homelander is one to two people.
    • To Billy Butcher. Homelander raped Butcher's wife before she mysteriously went missing. For Homelander's part, he didn't even remember who Butcher was for the longest time, and even after finding out about Butcher he treats him and his threats like a joke. However, after Butcher took Ryan from him in the season 2 finale, the feeling is finally mutual.
    • To Starlight as of season 3. After Homelander gets pushed too far by everyone, he decides to take complete control of The Seven and Vought. In the process, he basically takes over every part of Annie's life. First, he forces her to let The Deep (her rapist) back into The Seven, then he forces her into being his public girlfriend, then once he catches wind of her and Maeve's coup, he kills her friend Supersonic and warning that if she doesn't toe the line, he'll do the same to Hughie. It's safe to say that Annie hates him as Butcher does.
  • Hughie Campbell has A-Train, who killed his girlfriend Robin.
  • Mother's Milk has Soldier Boy, who killed his grandfather.
  • Black Noir also has Soldier Boy, who was Noir's former colleague in the superhero team Payback, who mistreated him to the point Noir betrayed him, and disfigured Noir when he and his fellow Payback members enacted their betrayal of Soldier Boy. Upon Soldier Boy's defeat, Payback handed him over to the Russians, and when Soldier Boy escaped decades later, he started killing off the members of Payback who helped Noir betray him.
  • Kimiko Miyashiro has Stormfront, who killed her brother Kenji,
• Breaking Bad universe:
  • Franchise-wide:
    • The Juárez Cartel, and in particular Hector Salamanca and Don Eladio Vuente, to Gustavo Fring. On the orders of Don Eladio, Hector shot Gus's lover, Max Arciniega, in cold blood before forcing him to look in the eyes of his corpse and Gus spends decades planning his revenge on them.
    • Jesse Pinkman has Todd Alquist. This is emphasized by El Camino, which dedicates quite a bit of screentime to the period that Jesse served as his prisoner. It should perhaps be noted that the feud between them is rather one-sided, as Todd actually seems to quite like Jesse, and doesn't appear to understand just how horrific his treatment of him is.
  • Breaking Bad:
    • Protagonist Walter White is the arch-enemy of his brother-in-law, Hank Schrader. When Hank first hears of the mysterious new meth cook Heisenberg, not knowing that Heisenberg is Walt, he becomes obsessed with taking him down even as the rest of his colleagues in the DEA dismiss his concerns. The feeling is completely amplified on Hank's end when he finds out that Walt is Heisenberg, as he furiously declares that he will take Heisenberg down no matter what and spends the rest of the series focused on this goal.
    • Gus Fring to Walter White. Although Walt at first becomes Gus's employee as his meth cook and the two have enormous respect for each other, their relationship turns sour when Walt kills two of Gus's dealers to save Jesse from them and then has Jesse kill Gale to prevent Gus from having him killed. Their feud takes center stage in Season 4 as Walt knows that Gus intends to kill him and attempts to kill Gus first out of self-preservation, though Mike theorizes that Walt's real problem with Gus is that his ego can't stand someone else being his boss.
    • Towards the end of the series, Walt has Jack Welker, who kills his brother-in-law Hank.
  • Better Call Saul:
    • Jimmy McGill has his brother Chuck, who has spent half his life sabotaging Jimmy's legal career based on the belief that Jimmy is a crook who will never change and doesn't deserve to be a lawyer. Ironically, it's Chuck's own actions that end up pushing Jimmy towards becoming an Amoral Attorney, mostly out of spite towards his brother. Despite Chuck dying about halfway through the show's run, he continues to cast a shadow over Jimmy's actions for the rest of the series.
    • Ignacio "Nacho" Varga despises his employers, the Salamanca family, for being a bunch of Ax-Crazy psychos, but he especially hates Hector Salamanca for threatening his innocent father. His attempt to have Hector killed ends up putting the latter in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, as seen in Breaking Bad, and before killing himself, Nacho's last words are an epic Dying Declaration of Hate towards Hector and his entire family in which he reveals his actions to a furious Hector.
    • Although Gus still hates Don Eladio and Hector, his rivalry with Lalo Salamanca is given the greatest focus in this series. Lalo is the only person in the Cartel who realizes that Gus cannot be trusted, and his mission to expose Gus's superlab ends with Gus shooting him dead in a standoff and burying him under said lab.
    • Subverted with Howard Hamlin in Season 6. After Jimmy and Kim frame him as a drug addict, he declares that he will spend the rest of his life getting his revenge on them, only to be anti-climactically shot dead by Lalo moments later for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• Buffyverse:
  • The franchise a whole:
    • Angelus to Angel. Angelus despises Angel for forcing him to watch powerlessly from within their shared body as Angel helps the helpless, while Angel feels immense guilt for the actions he committed as Angelus before regaining his soul. Whenever Angel loses his soul, Angelus takes great pleasure in targeting Angel's loved ones, and he takes comfort in knowing that even when caged by Angel's soul, he is always present within Angel to torment him and tempt him into evil. When Angel and Angelus get to have a Battle in the Center of the Mind in Season 4 of Angel, they both simultaneously admit that they've "been waiting a long time for this."
    • Faith to Buffy, being the only person capable of pushing Buffy to breaking her rule against killing humans. Being Buffy's Evil Former Friend and Evil Counterpart, Faith has a particularly strong antagonism with her, to the point that Buffy is willing to come to blows with Angel over whether or not to even give her a chance at redemption. Even after Faith's Heel–Face Turn when Buffy and Faith are supposed to be on the same side during Season 7 and the Season 8 comic, they can't help fighting and sometimes trying to kill each other.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Though each season has a new Big Bad, meaning most villains don't stick around long enough to establish themselves as this, there are a few who manage to stand out for the pain they cause the heroes.
    • Despite only directly facing off against Buffy in Season 2, Angelus can also be considered an arch-enemy to her. Angelus goes above and beyond in trying to destroy Buffy mentally for the crime of making him feel like a human being while ensouled. By killing Jenny Calendar and emotionally torturing Buffy for her lack of willingness to kill him due to the fact that doing so would also kill Angel, Angelus gets under Buffy's skin in a way that no other Big Bad ever manages to do. The ever-present possibility of Angelus's return is enough to permanently destroy Buffy's relationship with Angel, meaning Angelus casts a permanent shadow over the rest of the show. When he returns on Angel, Angelus at first reacts with delight to hearing there is a Slayer in L.A., assuming he will have another chance to face off against Buffy, only to react with disappointment to finding out that it is actually Faith.
    • Prior to his Heel–Face Turn, Spike was an arch-enemy to the Scoobies as a whole, but in particular Buffy. Having targeted Buffy initially due to his obsession with hunting Slayers, Spike remains a thorn in her side even after ending his time as the Big Bad of the first half of Season 2 and forming a brief Enemy Mine with Buffy to defeat Angelus. Throughout Seasons 4 and 5, Spike continues to target Buffy at every opportunity even while handicapped by the chip placed in his head by the Initiative that prevents him from harming humans, which is also the only reason Buffy underestimates him and refuses to just stake him. Even after having a Love Epiphany, Spike becomes a deranged Stalker with a Crush who nearly kills Buffy on more than one occasion for not returning his affections, though he eventually makes a full Heel–Face Turn when he accepts that he really doesn't want her dead and even fights to get his soul back so that he can become a true hero.
    • The First Evil to Buffy and the entire Slayer line. It is the Big Bad of Season 7, but its conflict with Buffy begins well before then, having made an attempt to manipulate Angel into killing Buffy all the way back in Season 3. Because the First Evil exists as the Anthropomorphic Personification of evil itself, residing within all beings, Buffy is always opposing it even when it isn't the direct Big Bad, and unlike most Big Bads, Buffy can never be truly rid of it. Nevertheless, the Series Finale has Buffy not only killing the First Evil's right-hand man Caleb, but more importantly having Willow awaken every possible Slayer so the forces of good can have a fighting chance against the forces of evil.
    • Although Buffy doesn't take the Trio too seriously at first, their leader, Warren Mears, becomes the arch-enemy of Willow after accidentally killing Tara while aiming for Buffy. This action causes Willow to completely fly off the deep end and outright murder him in revenge. In the comic continuation, Warren is kept alive by magic and remains a vicious enemy of Willow (though he still despises Buffy).
    • Ethan Rayne is the arch-enemy of Rupert Giles. They performed black magic together in their youth, but after one of their spells accidentally caused the death of a friend, Giles became The Atoner while Ethan delved even deeper into black magic and became a chaos worshipper. Giles seems to be the main reason Ethan keeps turning up in Sunnydale: His final scheme of turning Giles into a demon seems motivated by nothing more than wanting to mess with him.
  • Angel:
    • In a subversion of the Unknown Rival, Lindsey is the closest thing Angel has to an arch-enemy on this show, despite the fact that Angel himself doesn't think much of him. He's been Angel's enemy since the show's first episode and spent half his life trying to beat Angel. No other individual character gave him as much trouble as Lindsey did, other than Lilah, who would be a contender for the spot if she did not lack the incredibly personal vendetta that Lindsey had. This is why he seems personally offended by the fact that it's not Angel who kills him, but Lorne.
      Lindsey: You kill me? [collapses] You... a flunky? I'm not just— Angel kills me. You- Angel...[dies]
    • Angel also has Daniel Holtz, a vampire hunter who lost his family because of Angelus. Holtz later gets revenge by turning Angel's son Connor against him.
    • Lilah to Cordelia Chase. Both of them are the Alpha Bitch for Wolfram & Hart and Team Angel, respectively, and get into numerous personal conflicts with one another, the most notable of these being when Lilah was directly responsible for what was easily Cordelia's most painful experience on the show, when Lilah employed a demon to hijack Cordelia's visions to become way more painful than they already were. This caused Cordelia's mind to completely wreck her own body and almost kill her.
• Burn Notice: Michael Weston has Anson Fullerton and Management, the co-founders of the Organization who burned him.
• The Cape: Chess, the supervillain who's The Cape and Orwell's greatest foe.
• Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future has one in Lyman Taggart, who is better known as Lord Dread.
• Castle: Castle and Beckett each have one. Castle's is the Serial Killer 3XK (AKA Jerry Tyson), who becomes fixated on Castle after his first appearance and returns a number of times to torment him. Meanwhile, Becket's is the man who had her mother Johanna murdered, Senator William Bracken.
• Charmed (1998): The Charmed One have the Source of All Evil and Barbas.
  • The Source of All Evil was the Greater-Scope Villain of the first three seasons and the Big Bad of Season 4. In the Season 3 finale, Prue, the eldest of the Charmed Ones, is killed by the Source's assassin, making the Source a personal adversary for the surviving sisters.
  • Barbas is a consistent antagonist for the Charmed Ones throughout the series' entire run.
• Chilling Adventures of Sabrina:
  • Sabrina Spellman has Father Blackwood, a misogynistic warlock who opposes her late father's reforms, forces her cousin Ambrose to murder the Anti-Pope, tries to get Ambrose wrongfully executed for said murder, and massacres their coven when the Dark Lord orders Blackwood to submit to Sabrina.
  • Sabrina also has Satan, her Archnemesis Dad.
• Choushinsei Flashman: The Flashmen have Lah Deus, who had them kidnapped when they were children.
• Chuck: Chuck Bartowski has Daniel Shaw, who attempts to kill Chuck's Love Interest Sarah Walker for killing his (Shaw's) wife), and he kills Chuck's father.
• Cobra Kai:
  • For dojos as a whole, Cobra Kai is the arch-enemy of Miyagi-Do. The two dojos have polar opposite Opposing Combat Philosophies, with Cobra Kai as the Thug Dojo that shows no mercy and is based around attacking your opponent until they are decisively beaten, while Miyagi-Do is a Pacifist Dojo that preaches karate for defense only and avoiding fights wherever possible. Season 5 reveals that this enmity even extends to the Asian originators of each style, as Sato, who upheld the legacy of Miyagi-Do in Okinawa, despised Kim Sun-Yung, whose style of Korean Tang Soo Do was eventually passed down to Cobra Kai founders John Kreese and Terry Silver, for his philosophy of "no mercy and no honor", and it's implied the two had their own rivalry when they both taught their opposing styles to soldiers in the United States Military.
  • Cobra Kai is also the arch-enemy of Eagle Fang, the latter being a dojo started by Johnny after Kreese steals Cobra Kai from him, made up of former Cobra Kai members out to take down their former dojo for its out-of-control criminal behavior, and forming an Anti-Hero Team as they balance some of Cobra Kai's badass fighting style with Johnny's strict sense of honor. Eventually, Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do team up due to their mutual hatred for Cobra Kai.
  • John Kreese to Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso. To the former, Kreese is his former Evil Mentor during Johnny's time as a Cobra Kai student and biggest Broken Pedestal, being the one who nearly choked Johnny to death after he loses to Daniel and pretended to have a Heel–Face Turn all so he can steal the dojo behind his back and reteach his "No Mercy" philosophy to a new generation of students. To the latter, every single torment Daniel received from Cobra Kai (Johnny's bullying of Daniel, Terry Silver's revenge plan) can be traced back to him, not to mention being his complete antithesis when it comes to karate training and the purpose of it. This culminates in Daniel's Miyagi-Do and Johnny's Eagle Fang finally working together to defeat Kreese and Cobra Kai once and for all, after taking him on separately during the season 3 finale. Although Kreese is supplanted by Terry Silver as Daniel's arch-enemy when Silver returns to the Valley, he remains Johnny's most personal foe.
  • Terry Silver manages to amass a great number of enemies upon his reappearance in Season 4 and his time as the Big Bad of Season 5, standing out as the most personal foe to the following:
    • To Daniel LaRusso as his former Evil Mentor from Daniel's brief time in Cobra Kai in The Karate Kid Part III. Daniel is still traumatized by the Training from Hell Silver put him through when he was a teenager, while Silver likes to rub the torturous training he had brought upon him in Daniel's face. It eventually becomes even more personal in Season 5 as Silver first disrupts Daniel's marriage, then gives him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, before promising to make Daniel watch as he expands Cobra Kai globally. It's all too clear that Daniel and Silver see each other as their biggest threats, which reaches its peak when Daniel's the one giving him a well-deserved Curb-Stomp Battle to finish him off in the Final Battle.
    • To Chozen Toguchi, who Daniel recruits to help him take down Silver. Chozen's Undying Loyalty to Daniel sees him develop just as personal of a hatred towards Silver as Daniel when Silver repeatedly antagonises Daniel after Chozen had sworn he would "beg for mercy" if he ever went near the LaRussos again. Silver on the other hand takes great pleasure in mockingly reminding Chozen of this before their climactic duel in the Season 5 finale, though he does also show respect for Chozen as a fellow warrior and Worthy Opponent. It's also worth noting that this extends to their mentors, Sato Toguchi and Kim Sun-Yung, both of whom have a history with each other — particularly Sato's grudge against the latter.
    • To John Kreese, his former Best Friend and partner whom he had framed for assault and attempted murder and sent to prison so he could take over Cobra Kai. Now that his war buddy betrayed him, Kreese spends most of Season 5 plotting revenge on Silver from behind bars, using Tory as The Mole and spy, and eventually prioritizing this goal over his previous rivalries with Daniel and Johnny, even forming a brief Enemy Mine with the duo to help bring Silver down.
    • To Mike Barnes, his former mercenary hired to torture and brutalize Daniel in the 1985 All-Valley. It's safe to say Silver was the one responsible for ruining Barnes' life to some degree, as the latter was banned from karate, experienced heavy regret for tormenting Daniel, and even had to work odd jobs just to maintain a life purpose before finding one in the furniture store he now owns. At this point, Barnes has nothing but contempt for Silver (expressing disbelief that Silver got what he wanted), but it becomes personal after Silver himself had Barnes's furniture store burned down just because Barnes gave Daniel the name of an old lawyer who might have incriminating evidence on Silver. This causes a furious Barnes to lead Johnny and Chozen on an invasion of Silver's home in the Season 5 finale, even though Daniel understandably believes it's a stupid idea.
    • To Stingray, whom he beat half to death in order to frame Kreese. While he gives Stingray a ton of perks for his part in the Frame-Up, Stingray privately admits he's terrified of Silver and only agreed to the deal out of cowardice, and he eventually turns on Silver when his conscience gets the better of him.
    • Among the Gen Z students, the one that personally stands out against him is his former ace, Robby Keene. Even before Robby defects from Cobra Kai, tensions between the two were already brewing, first in a sparring exercise where Silver completely obliterates Robby into a pulp, then later in an exercise where Silver successfully has Kenny take advantage of Robby's compassion to beat him, and then in the All-Valley where Silver angrily calls out Robby for going "too easy" and showing respect to Hawk, before Robby dares him to take on the latter. However, Silver's increasingly corrupting influence on the dojo, particularly on Kenny, is what prompts Robby to leave, to the point where he completely sheds his animosity toward Miguel, Johnny, and Daniel, re-joining Miyagi-Do for the sake of rescuing Kenny and the others from Cobra Kai. At this point, Robby sees Silver as his main enemy, and it gets more personal between the two when Silver orders the Cobra Kais to go "No Mercy" on Robby and the rest of the Miyagi-Fangs after Robby walks into the dojo and calls out Silver's corruption.
  • Miguel Diaz has two arch-enemies over the course of the series, Kyler Park and Robby Keene.
    • Kyler's bullying of Miguel is the catalyst for the events of the entire show, being the very reason Miguel joins karate under Johnny Lawrence. This trope eventually becomes lost after Miguel beats Kyler in the lunchroom, as although Kyler still hates Miguel and wants revenge for this, Miguel is clearly way above Kyler's level and no longer sees him as a threat. Miguel decisively ends the rivalry in Season 3 by defeating Kyler in the home invasion fight despite having only recently recovered from a spinal injury that had left him in a wheelchair for months, leaving no doubt as to who is the superior fighter and forcing Kyler to find smaller fish to fry.
    • Robby initially resents Miguel for the time and tutelage Johnny gives him but eventually gets over it. Ironically, by this point Miguel has developed a hatred of Robby because he (incorrectly) believes Robby stole Sam from him and Robby is now his mentor's biggest rival's student. However, the rivalry shifts from a petty karate grudge to true enmity after Robby accidentally kicks Miguel off the second floor of the high school in the brawl in the Season 2 finale, as Miguel hates Robby for nearly killing him, while Robby resents Miguel for being seen as a hero despite having escalated a fight Robby was trying to stop, and getting everything Robby wanted: his dad, his championship, his freedom, his girl, his dojo, and the respect of the LaRussos. By this point, the two can barely be in the same room without coming to blows, and it takes a no-holds-barred blowoff fight and frank discussion of their issues in Season 5 for them to bury the hatchet.
  • Tory Nichols to Samantha LaRusso. Tory absolutely hates Sam for not only stealing Miguel away from her, but also having the privileged lifestyle that Tory never had in her lifetime. Whereas Sam on the other hand looks down upon her due to her vicious attitude, and actually feared her (for a time being) given Tory started the school fight and put Sam in the hospital (by lacerating her flesh).
  • Kyler Park to the Binary Brothers, Hawk and Demetri. He's arguably their most frequent bully, dating perhaps even before Season 1 and goes all the way to torment them, even when Eli beats him in the tournament as part of the latter's character development. It's really telling when Demetri is at his most satisfied when he finally beats the heck out of the guy who's made his life in high school a living hell for so long.
  • In Season 1, Yasmine to Aisha Robinson. Yasmine is the ringleader Alpha Bitch cyberbullying Aisha, which causes her to turn to Cobra Kai so she can learn to strike back. When Yasmine gets in Aisha's face one too many times, she takes great pleasure in giving her a painful and humiliating front-wedgie which goes viral and destroys Yasmine's popularity. Even after her Heel Realization in Season 3, it's implied Yasmine still hates Aisha for this incident and is glad she's been forced to move school.
  • Kenny Payne eventually becomes this to Anthony LaRusso. The latter bullies the former relentlessly to gain standing with his peers, which leads to Kenny joining Cobra Kai. But by the time Anthony has a Heel–Face Turn and tries to make peace with Kenny, Kenny himself fully embraces the Cobra Kai creed and becomes the bully to Anthony. Kenny escalates the rivalry significantly in Season 5, with his bullying of Anthony even extending to potentially dangerous and life-threatening actions like giving him a swirly in an unflushed toilet.
  • In Season 5, Tory gains her own arch-enemy in Kim Da-Eun, showing that the rivalry between Sam and Tory is nothing compared to what Kim puts Tory through. Kim is almost immediately skeptical of Tory's commitment and ability to represent Cobra Kai, challenging her in ways that make could make Kreese and Silver blush and looking to replace her with Devon. Kim also gets to Tory far more than Sam ever did, both emotionally and physically, and is able to keep her at bay through intimidation. To drive it home, the teacher-student relationship between the two mirrors that of Silver and Daniel, as Silver also physically and emotionally tormented Daniel under the guise of teaching him, all the while grooming another young student that he felt was superior to replace him as champion (Mike Barnes).
• Stephen Colbert declared Korean pop star Rain his Arch Enemy for constantly besting him in Time Magazine's Top 100 Influential People.
  • The rivalry intensified after Rain soundly defeated Colbert in a Dance Battle.
  • Second place for his Arch Enemy is probably Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton of DC. They always fight whenever she is on, but it is not mean-spirited.
• Community: The Study Group has the Ax-Crazy Ben Chang as their most prominent antagonist. In Season 1, he was a Sadist Teacher who got fired when Annie exposed him as having no teaching credentials. In Season 2, he is The Team Wannabe for the Study Group. In Season 3, he takes over Greenville and has the Study Group expelled. In Season 4, he tries to have them expelled again.
• Conan the Adventurer: Conan has Hissah Zul, a Sorcerous Overlord who caused his parents' deaths.
• If Crocodile Hunter had a reoccurring nemesis, it would be Graham the crocodile. Graham is one of the oldest, meanest, and most territorial crocodiles at Australia Zoo, and he has a long and illustrious history among zoo staff. Steve captured him from the wild in 1988, and the Australia Zoo website posits that Graham still resents Steve for this, and by extension the entire staff of the zoo. In the following years, he doubled in size from six feet in length to over eleven and bit Steve's hand, forcing Steve to body-slam his head to get free, and later grabbed Wes's leg, Steve's right-hand man, which necessitated surgery and several weeks of recovery. Graham's reputation was played up in the very first episode of Crikey! It's the Irwins, which had a segment about Steve's son Robert's training for his first solo crocodile feed at age fourteen. In a bit of irony, the feeding was to be performed in front of a live audience in the Crocoseum with Graham. Wes was certain Graham could tell Robert is Steve's son, and that Graham would be all too happy to get him, too.
• On Criminal Minds Frank Breitkopf was Jason Gideon's Arch Enemy (and before Frank, the bomber who killed Gideon's old team and caused him to have a nervous breakdown), The Boston Reaper was Aaron Hotchner's, and Ian Doyle was Emily Prentiss'. One could make a case for Billy Flynn being Derek Morgan's, and Tobias Hankel being Spencer Reid's.
  • Flynn and Tobias both lasted for one two-part storyline, though Tobias ended up casting a shadow over Reid for a few episodes. With Billy Flynn, Morgan just said It's Personal partly because he felt frustrated after the Boston Reaper case (the Reaper once knocked Morgan out and spared Morgan only because he didn't feel like killing him) and was taking out that frustration on Flynn (who, like the Reaper, was a prolific serial-mass murderer who had escaped justice for years).
  • Morgan's true archenemies were Carl Buford and Rodney Harris. Buford was a child killer and pedophile who molested Derek when he was just a kid and later framed him for murders Buford himself had committed — Morgan joined the FBI to stop people like him, and years later is still disgusted and terrified of him, to the point that merely shaking Buford's hand's enough to make Morgan physically sick. Harris, meanwhile, has been Morgan's enemy since both were kids where Harris was the local bully and gang leader; while a Small Role, Big Impact, he serves as Morgan's Evil Counterpart — a kid from the streets who turned to crime and drug dealing and years later is still a street-level drug dealer, while Morgan worked his butt off to earn a prominent job in law enforcement. While Morgan encourages kids to stay off the streets and get a good education, Harris encourages them to turn to crime and run drugs for him. And finally in Season 8, it is revealed that Harris too was molested by Buford, but he ultimately became a Vigilante Man Serial Killer targeting men he mistakenly believed were abusing their own kids because, unlike Morgan, he let his bitterness get the best of him.
  • David Rossi has Thomas Yates, a Serial Killer who was That One Case for Rossi. While Rossi arrests Yates years later, the two make a deal where Yate's death sentence is suspended in exchange for Yates identiying one of his victims every year, with Rossi's birthday being the date he chooses to so so. After Yates escapes prison, he continues to torment Rossi, eventually giving Rossi a Sadistic Choice between killing Yates, therefore losing the ability to use him to locate Yates' other victims, or sparing Yates, which would result in Yates killing his hostage. Rossi ultimatelly kills Yates to save the hostage.
  • Katherine Cole, the head of the Crimes Against Children Unit, has Michael Earlson, a pedophile and kidnapper she failed to rescue a child from in the past.
• CSI mostly focused on a killer of the week formula, but an occasional seasonal Big Bad would emerge, a few of which ended up becoming arch enemy to one of the CSI team members.
  • In the early seasons of the show, forensically-gifted special effects artist and Evil Genius Paul Millander served as the arch enemy to team leader Gil Grissom.
  • Serial Killer Nate Haskell was the Arch Enemy of Ray Langston. When the two are first introduced Langston is lecturing Criminology and Haskell is a frequent "guest" speaker from his prison cell via video link, and grows to treat Ray as a Friendly Enemy (Ray, in contrast, just thinks Haskell is a despicable monster). He assists the team in capturing one of Ray's other nemesis', Mad Doctor Serial Killer Doctor Jekyll, just to get the chance to attack and nearly kill Ray. It emerges that they both share a particular gene that has been linked to a predisposition to violence, and both had violent abusive fathers, meaning Haskell is Ray's Shadow Archetype as he secretly fears they are not that different and Haskell is what he could become. In Season 11, Haskell escapes and engages in Criminal Mind Games with him, culminating in abducting Langston's ex-wife, murdering her new husband, just to torment Ray, and in the series finale Ray snaps, and proceeds to beat and murder him.
• The Daily Show: Jon Stewart and Brian Williams ironically pretend to have this relationship while actually being friends. There is nothing ironic, however, about the enmity between Jon and Tucker Carlson. Carlson has clearly never gotten over Stewart single-handedly getting Crossfire canceled, and in the process delivering a withering "Reason You Suck" Speech to Carlson, his co-host Paul Begatta, the media in general and CNN in particular. Carlson never misses an opportunity to insult or attack Stewart on air, frequently using the wording "Partisan Hack" which Stewart used when denouncing Crossfire and Stewart hasn't exactly made a secret of his opinion of Carlson.
  Jon Stewart: [After calling Tucker Carlson an arrogant douche] Tucker and I can talk like this because we already have a visceral negative reaction to each other. Not an ounce of friendship or respect between us. Truly one of the only people in the world I feel that way about.
  • Surprisingly averted with Bill O'Reilly. Even though Fox News is The Daily Show's primary target for lampooning, with Bill and Jon regularly confronting each other in debates on the other's shows, the two seem to be actual friends in real life.
• Dallas: J.R. Ewing has Cliff Barnes, who constantly schemes against the Ewings. Although J.R. frequently outsmarted Barnes, Barnes succeeds in taking over Ewing Oil in the final season of the original series. In the revival series, J.R. (who is dying from cancer) arranges to have Cliff framed for his own murder.
• Dexter: Dexter Morgan has the Trinity Killer a.k.a. Arthur Mitchell during season 4. Dexter's sister Debra is shot by Arthur's daughter Christine Hill when Debra's boyfriend Lundy investigates the Trinity Killer. Dexter gains a respects Arthur after seeing him balance his life as a Serial Killer with is life as a family man, but loses this respect after learning Arthur abuses his family. Dexter kills Arthur, only to learn afterwards that Arthur has already killed Dexter's wife Rita.
• Doktor Mugg: The titular Villain Protagonist has Kapten Filling, an Idiot Hero who keeps foiling his plans.
• The Dukes of Hazzard: Luke and Bo Duke have Boss Hogg and his right-hand man Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane, as the Duke brothers frequently foil Hogg's schemes.
• Eastenders:
  • Phil and Grand Mitchell had Johnny Allen, who tries to mug their mother, throttles Sharon (who has romantic history with both Mitchell brothers), and has Sharon's husband Dennis Rickman murdered.
  • Mel Owen has Ray Kelly, her ex-husband, who tries to convince her to remarry them, only for her to investigates him and discover that he is a bigamist. With the help of Ray's wives Maddie and Nicola, he exposes Ray as a bigamist, and the police arrest him on the day of his remarriage to Mel. Ray escapes custody and attempts to murder Mel and her son Hunter, only for Hunter to kill Ray.
  • David Wicks has Derek Branning, who beat him up as a teenager after he (David) impregnated Derek's sister Carol.
• Emmerdale: Eric Pollard has Chrissie White, whose arson of her husband Robert's car led to a helicopter crash which killed Eric's wife Val.
• On Everybody Loves Raymond Ray Barone calls Peggy, bitchy mother of his daughter's best friend his "arch enemy".
• Farscape had first Crais and then, following Crais's Hazy-Feel Turn, Scorpius for John Crichton and the crew in general. But it also gave some of the other regular characters personal arch-enemies: Aeryn had Xhalax, Zhaan had Maldis, and Rygel had Durka (until he killed him and literally put his head on a stick).
• Adam fulfills this role for Henry in Forever, taunting him by phone and later in person, tricking Henry into deliberately taking a human life for the first time, being revealed to be the reason for Abigail's death, and in the finale trying to either kill Henry permanently or arrange for Jo to see him die and disappear.
• The Fugitive: Dr. Richard Kimble has the one-armed man, who murdered Richard's wife Helen.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Many noble houses or factions have historical rivalries that remain in place or are renewed over the course of the series:
    • The Starks and Lannisters begin the series barely able to share a room without being drunk and it only gets worse. It is initially ideological — driven by Ned's bitter opinion of their Sack of King's Landing, as Ned considered them Johnny-come-latelys to Robert's Rebellion with Tywin making a ruthless and opportunistic power grab (True) and Jaime Lannister's Bodyguard Betrayal of King Aerys, as Ned considered Jaime The Quisling who never protested the Mad King's injustices until it was convenient (Plausible, but ultimately false). The Lannisters for the most part regard the Starks as humorless bores sulking about honor. (Cersei's years-long grudge over King Robert Baratheon's preference of the long-deceased Lyanna Stark over her probably doesn't help matters here, either.) However, it quickly becomes It's Personal when Joffrey has Ned executed on a whim, an action which the Lannisters did not want to do, with even Cersei wanting Ned to be sent to the Night's Watch. After that, Tywin and Tyrion realize that the remaining Starks will hunt them down and it breaks into civil war. Thanks to mistakes and Hot-Blooded actions on both sides, the conflict becomes extremely personal and bitter.
    • The Boltons were historically the Starks' chief rival for supremacy of the North. They even rebelled against the North once (a la the "Reynes of Castamere") but the Starks pardoned them after they eventually bent the knee and they were allowed to remain the second greatest house in the North. Since then, the Boltons have been forced into Teeth-Clenched Teamwork for the most part, with the Starks forcing them to outlaw their "traditions" of flaying people and Roose Bolton fighting for Ned Stark during Robert's Rebellion and supporting his Liege Lord Robb Stark during the War of the Five Kings. However, the ancient grudge between House Stark and House Bolton is revived big time when Roose Bolton finds an opportunity, courtesy of Tywin Lannister, to become The Starscream and conspires to murder his king Robb Stark and usurp his titles. House Bolton, along with House Frey, betray and slaughter the Starks during the Red Wedding, with Roose personally killing Robb Stark and becoming Warden of the North and claiming the Starks' ancestral seat Winterfell as a reward. As a result of the Red Wedding and House Bolton's betrayal, the surviving members of the Stark family have a special hatred for House Bolton. In Season 5, Sansa Stark is married off to Roose's son Ramsay, during which she is raped and tortured, until she manages to escape Ramsay and flees to Castle Black into the protection of her older half-brother Jon Snow. In Season 6, Ramsay murders his father, step-mother Walda and his newborn half-brother. He also murders Rickon Stark, the youngest brother of Sansa and Jon. However, House Bolton is defeated by the Stark and Vale forces while Ramsay himself is personally defeated and killed by Jon and Sansa. Winterfell is restored to House Stark and House Bolton's line is ended forever, eliminating them as a threat to the Starks.
    • House Lannister are also this to House Martell, at least as far as Oberyn Martell is concerned. The reasons for this is that Tywin made it personal during the Sack of King's Landing by ordering Gregor Clegane to kill the children of Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell, with Clegane going the distance and raping and murdering Elia For the Evulz. Tyrion being the Token Good Teammate, manages to secure a marriage alliance between Myrcella Baratheon (Cersei's daughter) and the Martells; but this doesn't smooth things over one bit. Oberyn Martell in "Histories and Lore: House Martell" states that despite supporting the Targaryens, the Martells understood that the Rebellion had good reasons to fight against Aerys and that he accepts that Tywin's sack of King's Landing is something that happens in all wars but even accepting all that, brutally killing Elia and her children was beyond the pale.
    • The Night's Watch and the wildlings have raided and skirmished non-stop for so long that both have all but forgotten their true enemies, the White Walkers, who are just now returning.
  • Prior to the beginning of the series, Robert Baratheon and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, both leading rival factions of the civil war that put Robert on the Iron Throne. They both are vying for the same woman, Lyanna Stark, who was Robert's bride-to-be but eloped with Rhaegar. The climactic moment of Robert's Rebellion was his single combat with Rhaegar during the Battle of the Trident. The Mad King is almost an afterthought for Robert compared to his hatred for Rhaegar.
  • King Joffrey Baratheon could be considered this to everyone who has ever met him, though he stands out as the arch-enemy of Sansa Stark and his uncle, Tyrion Lannister.
    • Joffrey executes Sansa's father on false charges of treason after promising her he would spare him, then proceeds to spend the next two seasons having her beaten, humiliated and threatening to rape her. The usually meek Sansa has to use all of her willpower to avoid openly speaking of her hatred of Joffrey, and even comes close to killing him by pushing him off a high castle walkway, knowing that she would be executed for this, only to be stopped by Kingsguard Sandor Clegane.
    • Joffrey hates Tyrion for being one of the few members of his family willing to stand up to his tyranny, even slapping him on multiple occasions. He responds with various petty slights and insults, usually aimed at Tyrion's dwarfism, and also tries to have Tyrion killed in the middle of a battle. While Tyrion tries to uphold Joffrey's regime in service of his family's goals, he has nothing but contempt for Joffrey himself.
  • Cersei Lannister is never short of foes thanks to her "everybody who is not us is an enemy" line of thinking, but there are some who stand out:
    • Her brother Tyrion, who she fears has been destined to murder her. This is intensified Season 2 because their father has seen fit to trust the outcast of the family with greater authority than her. What should be a straightforward defense of King's Landing is hampered by Cersei constantly working behind his back out of spite. This carries on to Season 3 but fades somewhat as both become marginalized from power by Tywin, and they even become mildly conciliatory towards each other due to their similar predicaments. Season 4, however, cements Tyrion as her most despised enemy when she decides with no evidence he murdered Joffrey and dedicates her life to having him humiliated and executed. Tyrion doesn't truly start to hate her until she tries to have him executed, though she is still second to their father for Tyrion.
    • With Tyrion's fall from power, Cersei increasingly has a serious rivalry with her daughter-in-law Margaery Tyrell, who she sees as the manipulative social climber she is and Cersei wants nothing less than absolute control over her sons Joffrey and Tommen. To compound things, Cersei has been warned about an arch-rival since childhood, and someone like Margaery fits the description as far as Cersei is concerned.
      Maggy the Frog: Queen you shall be, till there comes another. Younger and more beautiful. To cast you down and take all that you hold dear.
    • The High Sparrow, after Cersei puts him in a position of power in service of her own goals, only for him to turn on her. Cersei intends to hold power for power's sake and cares nothing for the people or the laws of gods and men, while the High Sparrow is a religious zealot who seeks to punish all sinners and tear down nobles like Cersei who believe they are above the law and establish a theocracy.
    • Daenerys Targaryen, who plans to take the Iron Throne, and who it becomes increasingly clear over the course of the final two seasons is the real subject of Maggy's prophecy. At first, the two simply compete to rule Westeros, but the feud becomes much more personal after Cersei has her Dragon Euron Greyjoy kill Daenery's beloved dragon Rhaegal and has Missandei, Daenerys's best friend, executed, which enrages Daenerys so much she burns King's Landing to the ground just to destroy Cersei.
  • Littlefinger and Varys, in Seasons 1-3, as colleagues on the Small Council who deeply loathe one another and are playing diametrically opposed strategies for the future of the realm. Both are schemers, though Varys serves the common people, while Littlefinger serves only himself. While Varys at first sees Littlefinger as a Worthy Opponent, he soon acknowledges how dangerous an ambitious man can be. This rivalry is mostly dropped in the later seasons, as the two characters are no longer in direct conflict in King's Landing but engulfed in completely different storylines taking place a continent apart.
  • Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane to his brother, Sandor "The Hound" Clegane. Sandor hates Gregor for being an Ax-Crazy psycho and burning his face when they were children for playing with one of his toys, while Gregor hates Sandor for standing up to him. After Gregor has become more or less a zombie in the later seasons thanks to Qyburn's experiments, the one thing that makes his old personality resurface is the chance for a final showdown with his brother, and the Hound gladly takes the opportunity to initiate a Mutual Kill.
  • Zig-Zagged with Davos and Melisandre. At first the two are simply rivals as opposing advisors to Stannis, with Davos disliking Melisandre's use of blood magic and negative influence on their king, although Melisandre respects Davos and has no animosity towards him. By the start of Season 6, after Stannis's death, the two are forced to work together, as while Davos still doesn't like Melisandre, per se, he is not above asking her for help and seems to have a begrudging respect for her ability to have faith in something, even if he doesn't share it. This faith ends up resurrecting Jon Snow, who the two assist in taking back Winterfell. However, she finally ascends to full Arch-Enemy status after he discovers that she had Shireen burned to death, but in the final season, the two are forced to work together once more to save the world in the Battle of Winterfell, and after Melisandre's death a sombre Davos admits that she played a vital role in saving the day and was not wholly evil.
  • Stannis Baratheon to Brienne of Tarth for murdering her king and the unrequited love of her life, Renly Baratheon. Stannis, however, isn't even aware of her existence, and at the time of his death, regards Brienne's grudge against him with indifferent amusement rather than dislike.
  • Ramsay Bolton, after replacing Joffrey after his death as the series' resident Hate Sink villain and one of the vilest characters on the show, manages to be the arch-enemy of several characters.
    • To Theon Greyjoy. After recapturing Winterfell from Theon, Ramsay spends all of Season 3 horrifically torturing Theon, including castrating him, eventually breaking him so thoroughly that Theon becomes Ramsay's pathetic servant and is renamed "Reek". Although Theon manages to finally shake off Ramsay's brainwashing and escape from him with Sansa, Ramsay's torture continues to take a psychological toll on Theon even years later.
    • To Sansa Stark. Ramsay marries Sansa to strengthen his family's hold on the North, then brutally rapes her on their wedding night while forcing Theon, her adoptive brother, to watch. He then continues to abuse her until she and Theon escape Winterfell, motivating Sansa to team up with her brother, Jon Snow, to lead an army back to Winterfell and kill Ramsay. They succeed in this goal, with Sansa personally executing Ramsay by feeding him to his own ravenous hounds, whom he had trained to feast on human flesh and purposefully starved in preparation for feeding Jon to them.
    • To Jon Snow, for raping his sister Sansa and murdering his brother Rickon in the Battle of the Bastards. When the battle is won, the only thing that stops Jon from beating Ramsay to death with his bare hands is the realization that Sansa deserves to kill him more than he does.
  • The Night King is this to all living things in Westeros, but Jon Snow is one of the leading figures actively opposing him, and he has made defeating the Night King his primary goal. Jon and the Night King have given death glares to each other. The Night King also became this to Daenerys Targaryen after he killed Viserion.
• Genseishin Justiriser: The Justirisers have Kaiser Hades (an Evil Overlord who was sealed away by Nolun, an alien who gave the Justirisers their powers), followed by his brother Majin Daruga (a Galactic Conqueror who made Earth his target after the Justirisers killed Hades).
• Sue Sylvester from Glee schemed constantly to bring down Will Schuster.
• Get Smart: Maxwell Smart has Siegfried, as the two men belong to opposing organizations CONTROL and KAOS respectively, and Siegfried is one of Smart's most recurring adversaries, appearing in 14 episodes of the original series, the 1989 made-for-televison film Get Smart, Again!, and one episode of the 1995 series.
• The Handmaid's Tale: June Osborne has Commander Fred Waterford, his wife Serena Joy, and Aunt Lydia, all three of whom were responsible for much of June's suffering as Handmaid in Gilead. The Waterfords used June as their personal Breeding Slave (and in Fred's case, used her as a pleasure slave), while Aunt Lydia often inflicted cruel punishments on June and her fellow Handmaids in order to condition them into conforming to Gilead's expectations for them.
• Wo Fat is the arch enemy of Steve McGarrett in both the original Hawaii Five-O and the re-imagining, Hawaii Five-0.
• Herc-Xenaverse:
  • Hercules has Ares and Hera.
    • Ares is Hercules' half-brother, who resents Hercules for being favored by their father Zeus. Ares has been plotting against Hercules even during the latter's youth, and their feud continued into the twentieth century.
    • Hera despises Hercules for being a product of her husband's infidelity, and has been making his life diffucult since the day her was born, eventually killing his wife and children with a fireball.
  • Xena has Ares and Callisto
    • Ares constantly tries to convince Xena to join him, while Xena keeps rejecting his offers.
    • Calisto seeks revenge against Xena for the deaths of her family.
  • Gabrielle has Velasca, who despises her for preventing Velasca from becoming the Amazon Queen.
• Sylar and Mohinder in Heroes. While there are many other contenders, with this couple there's the whole "You Killed My Father" issue. Also, since Sylar did a Heel–Face Turn, he's on the same team as all his other supposed-arch enemies. But then Mohinder had a turn of his own, so he and Sylar are still on opposite sides of the fight.
  • Later in the series, Sylar seems much less interested in Mohinder, and starts spending more time thinking he's Nathan Petrelli, stalking Claire Bennet, and collecting more abilities with which to execute his elaborate attempts to become more powerful. The first two not at the same time, thank God.
  • Also, Hiro and Adam Monroe. Although Hiro defines "The Speedster" as his.
  • Claire has Eric Doyle, the creepy Puppet Master.
  • Knox thinks of himself as Noah's arch enemy. Noah doesn't care, given that he's too much of a cold blooded son of a bitch to let things get personal (except where Sylar's concerned).
  • Arthur Petrelli was Peter's arch enemy. They even had a climactic final showdown where Peter displayed more guts and smarts without powers than he had in every episode where he HAD them.
  • And now Nathan is playing the nemesis role with his reason Lex Luthor styled knight templar turn.
  • Some of those examples don't really fit the Arch enemy type of relationship.
  • Peter and Sylar for the first 3 volumes. Even after Peter gets nerfed he is still always there to foil Sylar's plans.
  • HRG and Sylar. Only because Sylar is ''always'' messing with Claire.
  • Sylar to Claire. Sucks for Claire since there is nothing she can do against him.
  • Arthur and Angela Petrelli.
  • Doyle is an arch enemy ... for Claire's biological mother, Meredith, as well. Claire barely takes him seriously and Doyle is even quite civil towards her in volume 5.
  • Matt Parkman and Sylar can be added to the list as of volume 5.
• Highlander: The Series: Duncan MacLeod has James Horton, who killed his friend Darius.
• House: Dr. Gregory House has Michael Tritter, a detective who was one of House's patients. Tritter seeks revenge against House for inserting a thermometer in his rectum during a medical examination, leaving him that way, and refusing to apologize. Tritter pulled House over, arrests him for discovering Vicodin in his car, and searches House's home, where he discovers more Vicodin and a couple of prescriptions written out by Wilson. Tritter pressures Wilson into testifying against House, and tries to have House banned from practicing medicine.
• House of the Dragon:
  • Alicent Hightower to Rhaenyra Targaryen. Though the two start the series as best friends, their relationship starts to fall apart when Alicent marries Rhaenyra's father King Viserys, with Rhaenyra feeling Alicent is manipulating her father for power, while Alicent resents Rhaenyra's flagrant disregard for law and tradition, enabled by Viserys's favouritism. When the civil war begins in earnest between their respective factions, the Greens and the Blacks, after Alicent has her son Aegon crowned king rather than Rhaenyra due to misinterpreting Viserys's last words, Alicent remains Rhaenyra's most personal foe despite not being a warrior of any kind because of their shared history.
  • Otto Hightower to Daemon Targaryen. The two have hated each other since long before the start of the series, as they vied for the attention of Viserys, Daemon's brother, to whom Otto served as Hand of the King, with Daemon seeing Otto as a slimy, backstabbing sycophant out to leech off Viserys to gain power for himself, while Otto sees Daemon as an Ax-Crazy psychopath who has no business being heir to the throne and schemes to have him disinherited, causing much of the ensuing conflict of the series.
  • King Aegon Targaryen II to Jacaerys Velaryon, as the eldest sons of Alicent and Rhaenyra respectively. Aegon is a crude, philandering rapist, while Jace is a responsible young prince, and the two frequently clash due to Aegon making snide sexual remarks to Jace's fiancée and needling him over his unacknowledged bastard status.
  • Aemond Targaryen to Lucerys Velaryon, due to Luke having cut out one of Aemond's eyes in a fight when they were children. Years later, Aemond attempts to pay Lucerys back in kind, only to end up causing his death when he loses control of his dragon.
• iCarly: Carly Shay has Nevel Papperman, who seeks to have iCarly shut down after she rejects his advances.
• Inazuman has Emperor Banba, who used his mother as a brainwashed minion, and later killed her.
• iZombie: Olivia Moore has Blaine DeBeers, who turned her into a zombie.
• Jane the Virgin: Jane Villanueva has Rose Solano, who kidnapped her newborn son Mateo, and later shot and induced amnesia in her husband Michael.
• Justified: The Bennett clan are the collective archenemies of the Givens family, going all the way back to Prohibition. After years of feuding, both the Bennetts and the Givenses are down to a pair of nuclear families whose simmering grudges are kept in check only with extreme effort from the family matriarchs. Protagonist Raylan Givens has his own personal archenemy in Boyd Crowder, local crime boss and series deuteragonist.
• While the enmity between protagonists and antagonists rarely become personal in the Kamen Rider franchise, there are a few notable relationships scattered throughout the franchise that could cover this trope.
  • The Shōwa era Kamen Riders have the Great Leader, a Diabolical Mastermind who, in the original series was responsible for the kidnapping of Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji, resulting in them becoming the first two Kamen Riders. The Great Leader has come into conflict with all of the Shōwa era Kamen Riders since then.
  • Kamen Rider BLACK: Kotaro Minami/Kamen Rider Black and Nobuhiko Akizuki/Shadow Moon. Shadow Moon is Kotaro's step-brother and best friend, who was converted into a Century King along with Kotaro and brainwashed by Gorgom. Now he seeks to defeat Kotaro in order to complete the ritual for him to ascend as Gorgom's Creation King.
  • Kamen Rider Kuuga: N Daguva Zeba doesn't show up until the end, but proves to be one for Yusuke Godai/Kamen Rider Kuuga, representing what would happen if Yusuke didn't hold back and let loose with his impulses and destructive power.
  • Kamen Rider 555: Takumi Inui has Kitazaki, who attacked the Ryusei School reunion, which Takumi was tricked into believing he caused.
  • Kamen Rider Decade: Narutaki sees himself as this for Tsukasa Kadoya, believing he is a threat to the multiverse and must be stopped. Tsukasa however sees him as just an annoyance.
  • Kamen Rider Wizard: Haruto Soma/Kamen Rider Wizard has Wiseman, Gremlin, and Phoenix, while Mayu Inamori/Kamen Rider Mage has Medusa.
    • Wiseman used Haruto for a ritual known as the Sabbath, of which Haruto was one of the only survivors. Wiseman also used Haruto as his Unwitting Pawn using his alter ego the White Wizard.
    • Gremlin is a Serial Killer and the only survivor of the Sabbath ritual besides Haruto himself. He is also Haruto's final opponent.
    • Phoenix is a Blood Knight who seeks to defeat Haruto. He serves as a Wake-Up Call Boss for him, and later uses Rinko to lure out Haruto. Haruto ultimately subjects Phoenix to a Fate Worse than Death by sending him to the Sun.
    • Medusa is a Phantom born from the body of Mayu's twin sister Misa.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim: Mitsuzane Kureshima sees Kouta Kazuaraba as this, viewing the hope he gives their circle of friends as dangerous and believing he needs to be stopped. However, for much of the series Kouta is unaware of this and still views Mitchy as a friend.
  • Kamen Rider Drive: The Heart Roidmude gradually becomes one for Shinnosuke Tomari, developing a rivalry with him and coming to see him as a Worthy Opponent to defeat.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Emu Hojo has both Kuroto Dan, who infected him with the Bugstar Virus out of spite for having game ideas that were comparable to his own and kickstarted the whole Bugster virus pandemic, and Parado, who's main goal is just to fight Emu. Hiiro Kagami and Taiga Hanaya also both have one in the Graphite Bugster, who killed Saki (Hiiro's girlfriend and Taiga's patient).
  • Kamen Rider Build: Blood Stalk is this for just about every heroic Rider in the show, each of whom was wronged or had their life ruined by him in some way. Not helped by Blood Stalk trolling them constantly.
• Kikaider has Professor Gill and Hakaider.
  • Professor Gill is a Mad Scientist who seeks to Take Over the World, and Kikaider was created by Professor Komiyoji to oppose Gill. Gill later placed Komiyoji's brain into Hakaider's body.
  • Hakaider is Kikaider's evil "younger brother" who contains the brain of Kikaider's creator Komiyoji and dedicates his existence to killing Kikaider after Gill told him doing so was his only purpose.
• Lab Rats:
  • Douglas Davenport was this to his brother Donald. The two co-founded Davenport Industries together, but Douglas got increasingly jealous of Donald’s success and injected bionics into three artificially created children. Afterwards, Douglas was kicked out of the company and Donald hid the children in the basement of his house. Since then, Douglas has been plotting his revenge, hoping to reclaim the children to be used as weapons of mass destruction. Douglas later had a change of heart after he was betrayed by another supervillain, and made up with his brother afterwards.
  • Marcus Davenport, an android created by Douglas, is this to Leo. Leo was the first person to find out that Marcus was an android and the latter has constantly tried to murder the former so that nobody else in his family would discover his secret before it was too late.
• The Last Kingdom: Uhtred faces a lot of enemies, but his usurping Evil Uncle Ælfric, the Viking leader Ubba Lothbroksson, and The Resenter Odda the Younger are most like this to him.
  • Ælfric simply wants Uhtred dead so he can claim Bebbanburg without issue. He allows Uhtred to follow his father into battle, hoping he'll be killed. He is foiled when Ragnar the Fearless first captures and then adopts the boy. But years later, he allies with Kjartan when the latter takes revenge on Ragnar, and sends a henchman to make sure Uhtred dies. He later sends assassins against him but is Out of Focus after that.
  • Ubba believes the lie spread by Ælfric and/or Kjartan that Uhtred betrayed Ragnar, and he just won't accept Uhtred's denials, perhaps because he considers him an Anglo-Saxon. As one of the two most prominent Danish leaders along with Earl Guthrum, he's also an Arch-Enemy of Alfred and the Saxons in general.
  • Uhtred and Odda the Younger's relationship escalates from being mere Sitcom Arch-Nemeses into arch-enemies when Odda takes Uhtred's wife and child away for their safety without his knowledge, and later when Odda steals credit for Uhtred's deeds, making Uhtred draw his sword on him both times. And unknown to Uhtred, Odda had attempted to convince the elder Odda to abandon him while he was on a mission for the Saxon army that led to those deeds. Later, Odda insists on Uhtred's death when he is convicted of raiding Cornwall.
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent: Det. Robert Goren's arch-enemy is Depraved Bisexual Nicole Wallace now deceased. Nicole is oh-for-two in Breaking Speech attempts (well, technically oh-for-three, but #3 was rather weak).
• Law & Order: Organized Crime: Elliot Stabler has Richard Wheatley, who was involved in the murder of Elliot's wife Kathy.
• LazyTown: Sportacus and Stephanie, who seek to convince the residents of LazyTown to live a healthier lifestyle, have Robbie Rotton, who seeks to undermine them because he prefers to keep the people of LazyTown lazy.
• Lethal Weapon (2016): Martin Riggs has his abusive father Nathan.
• Leverage: several.
  • The greatest archenemy to the entire team is probably Victor Dubenich, the corrupt aircraft constructor who brought them together in the first place to steal his plans back from one of his competitors (or so he claims: in reality, he's just stealing their plans). They manage to have him sent to prison, but he returns several seasons later, nearly gets them killed, and does get Nate's father killed.
  • Blake Sterling is this for Nathan Ford. Originally a fellow insurance investigator, partner, and close friend of Nate, Sterling becomes a recurring thorn in the team's side throughout the entire series, first as a private investigator working for the Corrupt Corporate Executives they like to target, later as an Interpol agent. He's every bit the mastermind that Nate is; even when he's defeated, he usually manages to turn the situation to his advantage, and as time goes by, he becomes more adept at using the team for his own purposes.
  • Hardison has a personal nemesis, Colin Mason a.k.a. "Chaos." A rival hacker, Chaos is almost as skilled as Hardison and has none of his moral restraints, though he can be persuaded to work with the good guys from time to time if the money's good enough.
• Leverage: Redemption: Sophie Devereaux had no archenemy in the original series, but Alexandra Bligh in the revival can be seen as this. Like Sophie, she's a mastermind running an organization that can be seen as an Evil Counterpart to Leverage, Inc (RIZ Security, a Private Military Contractor that handles security for a number of the rich crooks whose victims are Leverage, Inc's usual clients), and views her as a Worthy Adversary for most of the first season - in addition to both of them being English. Sophie ultimately proves to be far superior to Bligh, however.
• Though he only appeared in two of the four Season 1 episodes of Lexx, His Divine Shadow was this to Kai, last of the Brunnen-G. Kai's grudge against him was very personal, considering His Divine Shadow destroyed his world, rendered his race extinct, and personally stabbed Kai to death and turned him into an undead brainwashed assassin. Kai was also the person destined to kill His Divine Shadow. The conflict between them went even deeper than Kai realized since His Divine Shadow was really the last survivor of the Insect Civilization whom the Brunnen-G defeated long ago. While His Shadow's goal was to eventually Kill All Humans to achieve his rebirth, he went out of his way to wipe out the Brunnen-G personally with his own flagship.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Galadriel has Sauron, who killed her older brother Finrod.
• Lost
  • Anthony Cooper is this to the two main characters whose lives he ruined long before they came to the Island, John Locke and James "Sawyer" Ford.
    • Cooper is Locke's father, and earns his enmity by pretending to love him so he could con Locke into giving him a kidney for a transplant. He later goes on to indirectly ruin Locke's relationship with his fiancée, Helen, and attempts to kill Locke by pushing him out of a window, which leads Locke to be paralyzed from the waist down until being healed by landing on the Island. Though Locke is unable to murder his own father in cold blood when ordered to by the Others, he is perfectly willing to hand him over to Sawyer to do it, and even thanks Sawyer for killing him.
    • Under the fake name "Tom Sawyer", Cooper conned Sawyer's mother into an affair so he could steal Sawyer's father's money, for which Sawyer's father killed his mother and himself when Sawyer was just a child. Sawyer became a conman himself to hunt down and kill the original Sawyer, later taking on his name when he realized he had become exactly like the man he hated. When he finally meets Cooper on the Island and deduces his identity, Cooper remembers Sawyer's mother and shows no remorse for his crimes, mocking him to his face, for which Sawyer strangles him to death with a chain.
  • Benjamin Linus to Jack Shephard. Ben is the leader of the Others, while Jack is leader of the Oceanic survivors, whom the Others have terrorised, kidnapped, murdered and impeded their attempts to leave the Island, all on Ben's orders. Jack's hatred for Ben is so great that it twice brings him to the point of being willing to neglect his Hippocratic Oath in neglecting to perform or deliberately botching life-saving surgery on him, with the second of these occurring (thanks to time-travel shenanigans) when Ben was a child, with Jack fully intending to let him die in order to prevent him from growing up to become his enemy.
    • Ben is also this to Sayid. When they first meet Sayid quickly becomes obsessed with proving Ben's an Other and brutally beats him, and later tries to murder him when he doesn't talk. Sayid kills a number of Ben's men himself and Ben threatens to have him executed at one point, though he doesn't go through with it and they later team up against Keamy's mercenaries. Later Ben manipulates Sayid into helping him assassinate Widmore's agents by exploiting his grief over Nadia's death, then tries to manipulate him into returning to the island. When Sayid meets a 12-year old Ben, he manipulates the boy into freeing him from prison, then shoots him in cold blood, which ironically sets off the events that turn Ben into the person he became.
  • Ben has his own arch-enemy in Charles Widmore, both of whom have been competing for control of the Island for most of Ben's life. Their feud becomes even more personal after Widmore's hired gun Martin Keamy kills Ben's daughter Alex, for which Ben swears he will kill Penny as Revenge by Proxy.
  • Jacob and the Man in Black, due to Jacob being the one responsible for the Man in Black being turned into the Smoke Monster. The two are respectively the Big Good and Big Bad of the entire series, and most of the people who have come to the Island did so as a direct result of their contest to prove their competing viewpoints about the world, with Jacob believing humans are inherently good, while the Man in Black argues that they are evil and corrupt.
• Lupin (2021): Assane Diop has Hubert Pellegrini, who framed his father for theft and later had him murdered in prison.
• Luther:
  • John Luther has Alice Morgan, a murderer who is obsessed with John, although they have a Friendly Enemy relationship throughout the series. Alice kills Luther's partner DS Catherine Halliday in the Grand Finale, shortly before her own death.
  • In the last two episodes of Series 1, Luther has Ian Reed, his Big Bad Friend who murders his wife Zoe.
  • In Luther: The Fallen Sun, Luther has David Robey, a Serial Killer who got him sent to prison by exposing his illegal activities. Robey murdered Callum Aldrich, who Luthor had promised to Callum's mother that he would save, and sends Luther a recording of the murder. Luther breaks out of prison to go after Robey.
• MacGyver (1985), the man who refuses to kill no matter what the circumstances, has Murdoc, the world's greatest professional assassin. Originally the arch nemesis of American intelligence officer Peter Thornton, Murdoc transfers this relationship to MacGyver after the latter stumbles into a confrontation between the two. Obsessed with revenge after nearly dying during this event, Murdoc returns time and time again to try and kill MacGyver, always failing but always surviving to fight another day. After trying to retire from his profession, he is forced to team up with MacGyver to rescue his sister from his former employers, and the vendetta seems to be over. However, Murdoc returns to his old life within a year, and has assigned MacGyver as a target again, rekindling the relationship. Throughout it all, Murdoc develops a healthy admiration for MacGyver's skills as the only man he was not able to defeat, while MacGyver's fear of Murdoc is unmatched by any of his other rivals.
• Malcolm in the Middle: Malcolm and Dewey Wilkerson have their Big Brother Bully Reese.
• The Man in the High Castle: Juliana Crain has John Smith, who was her sponser during her time with the Greater Nazi Reich during Season 2. Smith shoots her in the Season 3 finale, and in the Grand Finale, Juliana causes the train crash which kills John's wife Helen. John himself commits suicide shortly afterwards.
• M*A*S*H: "Hawkeye" Pierce has Frank Burns, the antagonistic seccond-in-command of the camp where Hawkeye serves at.
• The Mentalist:
  • Patrick Jane has Red John a.k.a. Sheriff Thomas McAllister, a Serial Killer who murdered his family.
  • Teresa Lisbon has Tommy Volker, a murderous Corrupt Corporate Executive who becomes her priority target similarly to Red John for Jane when he has his secretary killed after Lisbon had convinced her to turn evidence against him.
• Merlin (2008): Merlin has Morgana, his Evil Counterpart and Evil Former Friend, who Merlin had poisoned prior to her descent into villainy.
• Lucy Butler is the Arch Enemy of Frank Black on the television show Millennium (1996).
• Monk:
  • Adrian Monk has Dale "the Whale" Biederbeck. While Biederbeck is defeated by Monk in his first appearance, he appears a couple more times afterwards to taunt Monk. He provides a good counterpoint for Monk, as Biederbeck is mentally comfortable but hugely overweight to the point of being bedridden, while Monk can move around freely but is, to paraphrase Biederback, trapped in the prison of his own mind.
  • Monk also has Ethan Rickover, the mastermind behind the murder of his wife Trudy. Although Monk doesn't discover Rickover's involvement until the Grand Finale, solving Trudy's murder is Monk's primary goal throughout th series.
• Murdoch Mysteries:
  • William Murdoch has James Gillies, a Serial Killer obsessed with Murdoch for outsmarting him, which Murdoch did by tricking Gillies' accomplice to murder Robert Perry into confessing. Gillies repeatedtly targets Julia Ogden in his schemes against Murdoch, burying her alive, framing her for Murder, and blackmail, and threatens Julia into rejecting Murdoch's proposal.
  • Thomas Brackenreid has Jeffrey Davis, a Dirty Cop who once framed him for corruption.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Joel Robinson has Dr. Clayton Forrester, who imprisoned him on the Satellite of Love and forced him to watch horrible movies.
• NCIS: Terrorist and rogue Mossad agent Ari Haswari to main protagonist Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He was the first villain to ever escape Gibbs, he killed Kate, and even after he dies in the Season 3 premiere, he never really leaves the series. His various associates keep coming out of the wood work to torment Gibbs and his team (the first Arc Villain of Season 17 was his old partner in Hamas), and his death haunted his half-sister Ziva (who was also his killer) for years. While Gibbs was the one to survive their final encounter, Ari made sure his ghost would always be a part of his life.
• NCIS: Los Angeles has The Chameleon, Ax-Crazy weapon dealer and serial killer, who is this to G. Callen.
• In Once Upon a Time, Regina (the Evil Queen from Snow White) is simultaneously Arch Enemy to both Snow White and her daughter Emma Swan at the beginning, but their relationship varies over the course of the show as Regina goes through the Heel–Face Revolving Door.
• Norsemen: Frøya has Jarl Varg, who she cut the hand off of. Vang later kills Frøya in the Season 2 finale.
• Oz:
  • Tobias Beecher and Vernon Schillinger have feuded throughout the entries series, starting with the first episode.
  • James Robson to Ryan O'Reily and Kareem Saïd.
    • Robson gloated about the rape Ryan's brother suffered at his boss Schillinger's hands, and later tried to rape Cyril himself. Ryan later sabotages his boxing match against Cyril. When Robson has a black man's gums implanted into his mouth, Ryan reveals this to the prison population, resulting in Robson's expulsion from the Aryan Brotherhood.
    • Robson tried to have Saïd killed, leading to the death of Muslim convert Salah Udeen. Saïd gives him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, and later stabs him. Robson later kills Muslim convert Ahmad Lala.
• Power: James "Ghost" St. Patrick has Kanan, who seeks revenge on him for putting him in prison. Ghost also has his former drug supplier Felipe Lobos, who tries to force Ghost's childhood friend Tommy to kill him.
• Power Rangers, despite being a team show, does have a few true arch enemies crop up.
  • Tommy Oliver has Lord Zedd (who is responsible for the loss of Tommy's Green Ranger powers, and Rita Repulsa (who once brainwashed him), and Goldar (who is a recurring henchman of Rita and Zedd. In The Green Candle, Goldar, along with his boss Rita, becomes responsible for the loss of Tommy's Green Ranger powers. In Green No More, Goldar tries to force Tommy to admit he is superior to him).
  • Power Rangers Turbo: The Turbo Rangers have Divatox, who has a vendetta against them for killing her fiancé Maligore in the Pilot Movie. In the season finale she personally destroys their base.
  • Andros in Power Rangers in Space has Astronema, his corrupted sister, and Darkonda, who kidnapped his sister as a child, leading to her becoming Astronema in the first place.
  • Carter Grayson in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue has Queen Bansheera, who seeks to destroy his hometown of Mariner Bay, while Carter leads the Lightspeed Rangers opposing her. In the Grand Finale, Carter kicks Bansheera into the Shadow World, although she nearly drags Carter in with her before being stopped by her former henchman Diabolico (who himself despites Bansheera for forcing him to kill Loki).
  • Jennifer and Ransik in Power Rangers Time Force have it out for each other, since Ransik killed her boyfriend (he got better), and to that extent, they end up being the last 2 standing at the very end of the series during the final battle.
  • Cole Evans in Power Rangers Wild Force has Master Org a.k.a. Dr. Viktor Adler, who murdered his parents.
    • Merrick Baliton has Nayzor, who used him as a pawn against the Wild Force Rangers and suppressed his memories.
  • Trent Fernandez in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder has Mesogog, his adoptive father's Enemy Within.
  • Power Rangers S.P.D. has Anubis "Doggy" Cruger and Emperor Grumm. Cruger hates Grumm with a passion due to him destroying most of his people when he was conquering the galaxy, while Grumm is constantly annoyed by Cruger and his team foiling his plans and especially for cutting off one of his horns. In the end, like in time force, the final battle of the season is a duel between the two.
  • Will Aston in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive has Kamdor, who steals the Corona Aurora from him in One Gets Away. In Both Sides Now, Will pretends to defect to Kamdor's side. In Two Fallen Foes, Will later kills Kamdor in a Single-Stroke Battle.
  • Casey and Jerrod/Dai Shi in Power Rangers Jungle Fury. While Dai Shi's animosity is impersonal to all beings, Jerrod resents the hell out of Casey for exposing his callous ways and getting him kicked out of the Pai Shua academy, and Casey for his part feels guilty that his actions eventually caused Dai Shi to be released. As such, they take it upon themselves to personally fight each other at various points, each trying to correct the mistake in their lives. Though by the end when Casey sees that Jerrod's still struggling to be good, they end of reconciling in the end.
  • In Power Rangers Samurai and Super Samurai Jayden Shiba has Master Xandred. Jayden's father temporarily sealed Xandred away.
  • In Power Rangers Ninja Steel, despite his anger at Galvanax destroying his family's life, Brody's true animosity is with Galvanax's general Ripcon, who belittles him as "rat bait" and got into many heated sword duels before Ripcon's end. Brody also has Madame Odius, who created a robotic duplicate of his brother Aiden to gain his and the other Rangers' trust. Odius also brainwashed Brody's friend Mick.
• Prison Break:
  • Michael Scofield has Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell, an Ax-Crazy Wild Card who alternates between helping and hindering him. T-Bad outright states there is a "blood feud" between them.
  • Michael also has General Jonathan Krantz, the leader of the Company who framed his brother Lincoln for murder.
• Robin Hood: Robin Hood has Vaisey, Guy of Gisborne, and Isabella.
  • Vaisey, the Sheriff of Nottingham was responsible for Robin becoming an outlaw, which was the result of Robin thwarting the executions of four young men Vaisey tried to have hanged.
  • Guy of Gisbourne was Robin's rival for the affections of Marian, and eventually Marian's killer.
  • Isabella is Robin's Psycho Ex-Girlfriend during the second half of the final season.
• RoboCop: The Series sees Alex Murphy frequently cross paths with William Ray "Pudface" Morgan, a madman who blames Murphy for the disfigurement that gave him his nickname. He was one of the few recurring villains and many of his plots were specifically meant to try to kill Robo.
• A is the Arch Enemy of the Pretty Little Liars in Pretty Little Liars.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Sabrina Spellman has Libby Chessler, an Alpha Bitch who bullies Sabrina and her friends.
• Saturday Night Live: Darrel Hammond's Sean Connery is this to Will Ferrell's Alex Trebek in the recurring "Celebrity Jeopardy!" sketches.
• Scrubs: J.D. has the Janitor, who bullies him throughout the entire series.
• Seinfeld: "Hello, Newman..."
  • George and Elaine each have their own as well: Lloyd Braun and Sue Ellen Mischke, respectively. In these cases, the rivals seem unaware that George and Elaine aren't their friends and are actively rooting or plotting against them.
• Lampshaded in Sherlock when Mycroft and Sherlock refers to each other as such, and this conversation happens:
  Dr. John Watson: People don't have archenemies.
  Sherlock Holmes: What?
  Dr. John Watson: In real life. People don't have archenemies.
  Sherlock Holmes: That sounds a bit dull. So what do people have in their REAL lives?
  Dr. John Watson: Friends, people they like, people they don't like, boyfriends, girlfriends...
  Sherlock Holmes: Like I said, dull.
  • Jim Moriarty is eventually revealed and solidly placed in the position of Sherlock's arch-enemy.
  • In the third season, Charles Augustus Magnussen becomes Sherlock's new Arch Enemy, and arouses Sherlock's genuine and implacable hatred in a way that Moriarty didn't.
  • In the fourth season, Sherlock has his evil sister Eurus.
• Sons of Anarchy: Jax Teller has his stepfather Clay Morrow (who killed his biological father) and his mother Gemma Teller Morrow (who was also involved in the murder of Jax's father, and later killed Jax's wife Tara).
• The Sopranos: Tony Soprano has Phil Leotardo. In the Season 5 episode In Camelot, Tony assaults Phil over a financial dispute. who sought revenge against Tony's cousin Tony B. for killing Phil's brother Billy. This results in Tony S. killing Tony B. to prevent him from suffering a Cruel and Unusual Death at Phil's hands. Phil later becomes responsible for the murder of Tony's brother-in-law Bobby Baccalieri.
• Squid Game: Jang Deok-suto to Kang Sae-byeok (who worked with him before the events of they joined the Squid Game) and Han Mi-nyeo (his former ally, who he betrays during the Squid Game).
• Stargate Atlantis: Acastus Kolya was this to Sheppard. They only met a handful of times over the course of the series, but there was more animosity between them than Sheppard had with any other villain on the show.
  • That being said, the rogue Wraith/human hybrid Michael could be seen as an Arch Enemy to the team as a whole (and particularly Tayla in his later appearances).
  • Even the way the rivalry between Sheppard and Kolya ended is straight out of a western: a quick draw that Kolya loses.
• Stargate SG-1: Several.
  • Apophis, the overarching villain of the first four seasons or so, is this to the entire team. Of the four main characters, only Sam has no personal grudge against him. Jack O'Neill hates him for having kidnapped Skaara, the first offworld teenager Jack met and befriended in the original movie, and implanted him with a Goa'uld symbiote. Daniel Jackson hates him for having kidnapped his wife and implanted her with a Goa'uld symbiote. Teal'c served him as his First Prime for decades and committed numerous war crimes that he's dedicated the rest of his life to atoning for, in addition to the suffering Apophis inflicted on his wife and son after his defection.
  • Tanith is a more short-lived example, a Goa'uld operative who murdered Teal'c girlfriend and against whom Teal'c swore revenge. It takes him a couple of seasons, but he eventually gets it.
  • Sam and Dr. Fraiser share the archenemy relationship with Nirti, largely due to Nirti's history with Cassandra (Fraiser's adopted daughter, who Sam originally found offworld, brought back, and remained close to). Nirti was responsible for not only wiping out all of Cassandra's people but experimenting on Cassandra with nearly lethal results.
  • Jack O'Neill acquires a new archenemy in the form of Baal, the Goa'uld System Lord who has him imprisoned and tortured to death, only to be revived and then tortured again, over a period of months. Unusually for this trope, Jack isn't actually the one who ends up killing him - that honor falls to Cam Mitchell, Jack's successor as the head of SG-1.
  • Senator Kinsey can be viewed as General Hammond's. As the head of Stargate Command, Hammond spends the first seven seasons of the series struggling to keep control of the United States' interstellar policy. His most frequent adversary in this is Kinsey, a Corrupt Politician who initially tries to shut down the Stargate program and later to subvert it for his own purposes (he's eventually revealed to be in league with a cabal of international businessmen trying to monopolize and profit from the alien technology brought back through the Stargate). Kinsey thinks he's finally managed to outmaneuver Hammond when he becomes Vice-President of the United States, but his machinations get him fired in disgrace shortly thereafter (it probably didn't help that his running mate turned out to be an old war buddy of Hammond's).
  • In the final season and the first TV movie, Vala Mal Doran has Adria, the Dark Messiah the Ori created to lead their followers' crusade into the Milky Way... and whom they gave birth to by impregnating Vala. Vala at first hopes to use the mother-daughter connection to bring Adria around, but is unsuccessful at it.
• The Strain: Quinlan has the Master, who attacked his mother while she was pregnant with him, resulting in him being born a dhampir.
• Stranger Things:
  • Eleven has Vecna, her Omnicidal Maniac Evil Counterpart who she banished to the Upside Down after rejecting his We Can Rule Together offer, which he gave after massaceing all of their fellow test subjects. Eleven also has Dr. Martin Brenner, her abusive father figure who seperated her from her birth mother, used her as a test subject for years, and pursued her relentlessly to recapture her after she escaped his captivity.
  • Will Byers has the Mind Flayer, which torments, and later, posesses him. He also harbors the same to Vecna by extension, as he was the one controlling the Mind Flayer when it committed those atrocities towards him and his friends.
  • Billy Hargrove serves as this to both his younger sister Max Hargrove, who he acts a Big Brother Bully towards, and Steve Harington, who he acts a school bully towards. Billy is obsessed with replacing Steve as the Big Man on Campus.
  • Eddie Munson has Jason Carver, who seeks to hunt him down under the incorrect assumption Munson killed his girlfriend.
• Super Sentai:
  • Himitsu Sentai Gorenger: The Gorengers have the Black Cross Führer, the head of the Black Cross Army. Each of the original five Gorangers are the respective Sole Survivors of a different EAGLE base attacked by the Red Cross Army.
  • Kagaku Sentai Dynaman: Hokuto Dan/DynaRed has Megiddo, who lost one of his tails to DynaRed in their first battle.
  • Hikari Sentai Maskman: Takeru/Red Mask and Prince Igam, although it's mostly Igam who sees it this way, given how he's determined to kill Takeru for getting together with his younger sister Ial and leading her to betray the Tube.
  • Choujuu Sentai Liveman: While the three Volt executives all share a personal connection to the Livemen, it's Doctor Kemp who's the most personal out of all of them, given how he gunned down the Livemen's two friends Takuji and Mari at the start of the series. Great Professor Bias may be this as well, as although the Livemen don't confront him until the very end, he had a direct hand in most of the personal tragedies they suffer, e.g. their friends' turn to the dark side, Tetsuya being brainwashed for an episode, and Butchy's death.
  • Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger: Geki/Tyranno Ranger and Goushi/Mammoth Ranger have Bandora, who killed the former's adoptive family and the latter's sister.
  • Gosei Sentai Dairanger: The Dairangers have Shadam, their most active antagonist, the father of the Sixth Ranger Kou, and eventually the killer of the team's mentor Kaku.
  • Mahou Sentai Magiranger: The Ozu siblings have Absolute God N Ma, who turned their father into one of his minions.
  • GoGo Sentai Boukenger has few examples:
    • Of the four contenders in the Big Bad Ensemble, Creator King Ryuuwon is this for Satoru Akashi/Bouken Red, having once been an adventurer like him until he grew cynical and became obsessed with proving himself better than everyone.
    • Yaiba of Darkness and Furious Demon God Gai are the archenemies for respectively Masumi Inou/Bouken Black and Eiji Takaoka/Bouken Silver, as they are the ones responsible for deaths of Masumi and Eiji's fathers.
  • Juken Sentai Gekiranger: Jan Kandou/Geki Red and Black Lion Rio, who views Jan as a rival and uses that to push himself to become stronger, in the hopes of defeating him.
  • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger: Takeru Shiba/Shinken Red has one in Juzo Fuwa, a violence-hungry Gedoushu who's firmly set on fighting him to the death.
  • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger:
    • Captain Marvelous/Gokai Red has one in Basco ta Jolokia, his former crewmate who betrayed the Red Pirates to the Zangyack. Notably, whenever Basco shows up, Marvelous drops his usual cavalier attitude and takes it completely seriously. Marvelous later has Akudos Gill, the ruler of the Zangyack Empire, who becomes personally involved in the invasion of Earth after the Gokaigers kill his son Warz Gill. Akudos even tries to have Marvelous publically executed.
    • Joe Gibken/Gokai Blue, also has one in Barizorg, his unwillingly roboticized mentor.
  • Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: Dogold is one for Utsusemimaru/Kyoryu Gold, given how he starts the series using him as a host and their rivalry only deepens from there. Eventually though, both are able to find a mutual arch-enemy in Endolf and team up in the penultimate episode to take him down. Wise God Torin has his brother Chaos and his doppelganger Mad Torin.
  • Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger: Yamato Kazakiri/Zyuoh Eagle and Bangray. Their rivalry only intensified after Bangray brought Yamato's mother Back from the Dead and then killed her off again.
  • Uchu Sentai Kyuranger: Stinger/Sasori Orange and Scorpio, the latter being the former's brother who betrayed their kind to the Jark Matter.
• Supernatural:
  • Sam and Dean Winchester have Lucifer, who is The Man Behind the Man to both their Token Motivational Nemesis Azazel (Who killed their mother Mary, ordered the death of Sam's girlfriend Jessica, and killed their father John) and to Lilith (who once had Dean Dragged Off to Hell). After their deaths, Lucifer became a direct antagonist to the Winchester brothers over the years. Both brothers have defeated Lucifer at great personal cost. In the Season 5 finale, Sam sacrificed himself to send Lucifer back to the Cage, and in the Season 13 finale, Dean allowed himself to be possessed by Alternate Michael to kill Lucifer.
  • Castiel has his brothers Lucifer (who killed him twice) and Raphael (who killed him in the Season 4 finale. Throughout Season 6, Castiel opposes Raphael's plans to start the Apocalypse, eventually killing Raphael in the Season 6 finale).
  • Crowley also has Lucifer. In Season 5, He betrays Lucifer by assisting the Winchester brothers, as Crowley expects Lucifer to eventually turn on demonkind. Later in the seasons, Crowley and Lucifer compete for control of Hell, with each of them subjugating and humiliating the other at different points.
  • Dean also had Abaddon, who kills his grandfather Henry.
  • John Winshester has Azazel, the demon who killed his wife Mary. Although John sells his life and soul to Azazel, he escapes from Hell in the Season 2 finale, distracting Azazel long enough for Dean to reclaim the Colt and use it to kill Azazel once and for all.
• Very bizarrely subverted in an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Derek is introduced to a man who he is told is a pro-Machine human agent sent back from the future, but doesn't recognise him. It is revealed that in the timeline Jesse and the other man come from, he tortured Derek for weeks and became his personal Arch-Enemy. The fact that Derek has no memory of any of this reveals that Derek and Jesse actually come from different potential futures.
• Recent developments in Top Gear (UK) seem to be pitting Rubens Barrichello as The Stig's Arch Enemy after Barrichello beat the Stig's lap record.
• Trailer Park Boys: Jim Lahey is this for the eponymous boys, but especially for Ricky.
• Twin Peaks: Agent Cooper has BOB, who trapped him inside the Black Lodge for twenty-five years, and Windom Earle, his former partner.
• Ultra Series:
  • Ultraman Ace has Yapool, who Ace came to Earth to oppose. Yapool eventually becomes responsible for the exposure of Ace's Secret Identity, forcing him to leave Earth.
  • Ultraman Mebius has Alien Empera, who is The Man Behind the Man to the Four Heavenly Kings antagonizing him throughout the show's run, unsuccessfully attempts to force humanity to banish Mebius from Earth, and directly serves as the Final Boss for Mebius to defeat in his flagship series (excluding Ultraman Mebius Gaiden).
  • Ultraman Zero has Ultraman Belial, who he has clashed with on multiple occassions. In Ultra Zero Fight, Belial possesses Zero and kills his teammates.
  • Ultraman Taiga and has Ultraman Tregear, his father's Evil Former Friend who seeks to corrupt Taiga.
• The Vampire Diaries Universe:
  • Elena Gilbert and the Salvatore brothers have Katherine Pierce, Elena's ancestor and the Salvatore brothers' Psycho Ex-Girlfriend. Elena also has Klaus Mikaelson, who killed her aunt.
  • Tyler Lockwood also has Klaus Mikaelson. The two of them are part of a Love Triangle with Caroline Forbes, and Klaus killed Tyler's mother.
• Veronica Mars has Madison Sinclair, an Alpha Bitch who is antagonistic towards her. Veronica also had personal enemies in Aaron Echolls, who murdered her friend Lilly Kane, and Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas, who raped her and gave her chlamydia.
• Vincenzo: Vincenzo Cassano has Jang Joon-woo, the chairman of Babel Group, the company which Vincenzo spends the entires series opposing. Later in the series, Jang Joon-woo has Vincenzo's mother killed.
• Walker, Texas Ranger: Cordell Walker and his Love Interest Alex Cahill have Victor LaRue, a recurring villain who made repeated attempts to rape Alex.Walker ultimately kills Victor in the latter's third episodic appearance.
• The Walking Dead (2010):
  • Rick Grimes has Negan, who kills his companions Abraham and Glenn.
    • In the season half of Season 5, Rick comes into conflict with Pete Anderson after learning he abuses his (Pete's) wife Jessie. Rick suggests killing Pete, and even after being threatened with exile from Alexandria, Rick tries to seperate Pete from Jessie, beats Pete when he resists, and calls out the people of Alexandria for turning a blind eye to Pete's actions. Rick kills Pete in the season finale.
  • Michonne Hawthorne has the Governor, who is responsible for the death of her friend Andrea.
  • Morgan Jones has Owen, who threatens Morgan and everyone in Alexandria, while Morgan seeks to reform Owen.
• In White Collar, Matthew Keller is arguably this to all four main characters, Neal in particular due to being his Evil Counterpart, as both the most-recurring villain of the series and one of the most dangerous. His first episode makes it clear that he and Neal used to have a sort of rivalry over Neal's girlfriend Kate, and later episodes only ramp up his animosity with the other characters:
  • Season 2 sees him having Peter kidnapped and almost murdered, while Keller himself escapes from prison in the chaos;
  • He comes back again in Season 3 to attempt to force Neal and Mozzie to share their treasure with him, and when they refuse, he proceeds to menace them both and almost kill Neal, succeed in killing one of their fence friends, and kidnap Elizabeth and hold her hostage to force Neal, Mozzie, and Peter to help him steal the treasure, and betrays and almost kills Neal again before the operation is over. This proves traumatic enough for all of them that it takes a few episodes for them to get over it.
  • By the time he reappears in Season 6, the others hate Keller so much that Neal is barely civil to him despite being in an Enemy Mine situation for an undercover operation during the whole season, and Peter's first reaction to finding out about his presence is to want to immediately arrest him and put an end to the operation. In the series finale, Keller again betrays and (apparently) succeeds in killing Neal, and is finally killed by Peter.
• The Wire:
  • Jimmy McNulty has Stringer Bell, a criminal he is obsessed with bringing to justice. McNulty considers Bell a Worthy Opponent, and is disappointed when Stringer is murdered before McNulty can arrest him.
  • Omar Little has Marlo Standield, who had his associate Butchie killed.
• Women's Murder Club: Lindsay's most personal case is the Kiss Me Not Killer, which she became obsessed with to the point that it destroyed her marriage to Tom. When the Kiss Me Not Killer returns years later, he threatens her life and in the final episode even kidnaps her dad due to her arresting his.
• The X-Files has The Smoking Man (acting as a proxy to the Syndicate as a whole) to Mulder and Scully. Kyrcek also fit due to his more on-hand approach against Mulder.

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