"You know, I used to think it was our families that made us who we are? Then I hoped it was our friends. But if you look at history, the great men and women of the world have always been defined... by their enemies."
An Arch Enemy, archfoe, archnemesis, or simply nemesis is some character's designated and most important enemy.
The Arch Enemy can be the Big Bad, The Dragon, The Rival, a Worthy Opponent, an Evil Counterpart, or even a Harmless Villain. The essential element is that, with them, It's Personal. Most typically, the Arch Enemy is a foil of some sort. For example, the Arch Enemy of the physically strong could be very smart. If the villain is the Bigger Bad, his Arch Enemy commonly is the Big Good.
The Arch Enemy will stand out from the Super Hero's Rogues Gallery — there will be one opponent where the relationship to the hero and the motivations for battling them are more potent. These feelings may be one-sided, felt more by the villain than the hero.
A hero's Arch Enemy is not necessarily the biggest threat to them. Lex Luthor is considered Superman's Arch Enemy; Brainiac is smarter and Darkseid is vastly more powerful and dangerous, but for Lex - and, to a lesser extent, for Superman - it's personal between them.
Sometimes, the hero could have made the same choices as the Arch Enemy: the Arch Enemy is showing us what he could have become, as in the case of Batman and the Joker.
A hero may possess more than one Arch Enemy if more than one villain from his Rogues Gallery stand out, or if a former Arch Enemy dies and new one comes in to the picture. As an example, consider Spider-Man: the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Venom have all established themselves as recurring and iconic foes of Spider-Man, each of whom has been considered the wallcrawler's Arch Enemy at different points in time.
Lastly, remember that this generally refers to the enemy The Hero considers to be his Arch Enemy, and ideally, it should be personal on both sides (though there are plenty of good "But for Me, It Was Tuesday"-type Arch Foes out there). Especially in the case of a Rogues Gallery, The Hero is usually considered an Arch Enemy to all of his villains, but he doesn't treat all of them as such. Electro, Rhino, Scorpion, and others all consider Spider Man their most hated foe, but compared to the Goblin, Venom, or Doc Ock, Spidey regards these guys more like superpowered nuisances. Also, remember that being the Big Bad does not automatically make a villain the hero's arch enemy.
Beware of letting an Arch Enemy fall victim to Diminishing Villain Threat.
See also Breakout Villain, for those instances when a run-of-the-mill villain ascends to Arch Enemy status.
Not to be confused with various works known as Nemesis. Also not to be confused with the Swedish death metal band.
The Arch Enemy is more prone to certain tropes than the common villain:
Light and L from Death Note are each other's archenemies, foils, and near intellectual equals.
Near is Mello's Arch Enemy even though they're theoretically on the same side.
Baikinman from Soreike! Anpanman is Anpanman's Arch Enemy, who was born to fight Anpanman. However, Anpanman treats him as friendly as anyone else as long as he isn't causing trouble.
In Shakugan no Shana, Wilhelmina Carmel explicitly refer to Sabrac, The Destructive Blade, as her nemesis.
Seto Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! might qualify, though he could also be considered a rival to Yugi. He even invokes this trope in the abridged series:
Zero and Suzaku in Code Geass, though it's another case of moral ambiguity/ideological antagonism. They eventually get over their issues and honestly work together.
For Lelouch himself, both Charles and Schneizel follow this straight. And maddeningly enough, he has the misfortune to get sold out to both to them after they've already caused him enough grief for several lifetimes.
In Naruto it's a little hard to decide, but mostly earlier friends turn into enemies, such as Orochimaru and Jiraiya, or even Naruto and Sasuke (though, the latter is in a quite difficult situation). Also Sasuke considered Itachi his arch-nemesis for a long time Until learing the truth now turns to Naruto and the leaf village. Tobi and The Akatsuki to Naruto and His Allies.
In Detective Conan Shinichi's rival might be considered Kaito Kid, wherefore his nemesis is 'the organization' with his most present member Gin.
Char Aznable and Amuro Ray are perhaps the most iconic throughout the Gundam fandom. What started out as a professional military rivalry, later turned deeply personal after the death of Char's assistant Lahlah Sune, whom both men loved, when she attempted to intervene in a battle between the two of them.
Zeta Gundam: While Paptimus Scirocco might be the Big Bad and Yazan Gable the resident Hero Killer, it's Titans' Ace Pilot and former Jerk Jock Jerid Messa who is Kamille Bidan's archetypal archnemesis. The two of them essentially go back and forth on killing one another's friends and loved ones (Jerid kills Kamille's mother, girlfriend, and one of his friends; Kamille Jerid's crush, his Big Brother Mentor, his girlfriend, and a truckload of his subordinates), until the rivalry had turned deeply personal, especially on Jerid's part; by the end all he wants is Kamille's head on a pike.
In G Gundam the Canadian fighter Andrew Graham considers the Russian Fighter Argo Gulski his nemesis because he blames him for his wife's death. Also Domo Kasshu's and Master Asia's difficult relationship might be some kind of arch nemesis.
In Gundam WingZechs spends too much time on the good side to be this for Heero despite their constant battles, but Wufei definitely has one in TreizeKushrenada.
Rau Le Creuset of Gundam SEED is the Arch Enemy of Earth Forces' Ace Pilot Mu La Flaga. Their rivalry goes back to early in the war, and is extremely personal, even before The Reveal that Le Creuset is a dying clone of La Flaga's father. Early in-show, the Le Creuset team, and especially Athrun Zala are set up as the Archenemies of the Archangel, and Kira Yamato in particular. By the end they have pulled a Heel Face Turn and Le Creuset takes their position as Kira' Arch Enemy.
In Gundam 00 Graham Acre considers Setsuna F. Seiei and his Gundam Exia his arch nemesis for their crimes (though he calls it a special kind of love...) But he's really more The Rival in that regard. A better fit for Setsuna's archnemesis is psychopathicBlood Knight Ali Al-Saachez for destroying not just his life, but also killing off Lockon Stratos' family as well.
In Gundam AGEDecilGalette is Flit Asuno's Arch Enemy starting late in Season 1 and continuing into Season 2. Flit might hate all of the Vagan with a passion, but it takes Decil's return to send him into a murderous enough rage that he sorties himself, while Decil is living for revenge after Flit humiliated him in Season 1's climax.
Gauron and Sousuke in Full Metal Panic!. The feeling tends to be a lot more one-sided on Gauron's part, as he makes it his personal mission to put himself in a position where he can constantly antagonize Sousuke. It's so bad, it's to the point where it's suggested that he actually stalks and watches Sousuke, and purposefully chooses missions that would put him at odds with Sousuke, allowing them to meet again. Sousuke, on the other hand, finds Gauron insanely annoying, and would really love nothing more than for the guy to just go die somewhere and leave him alone.
The original enmity was between Ash and Gary, with Gary rubbing his superiority in Ash's nose and Ash going crazy as he tried to catch up. They eventually buried the hatchet when they finally battled at the Johto League. Although Ash beat Gary, Defeat Means Friendship and they became friendly rivals afterward.
Ash later developed a more bitter rivalry with Paul over their methods of training Pokemon. A combination of Break the Haughty on Paul's part and Ash eventually beating him in the Sinnoh League again led them to bury the hatchet, and while they didn't exactly become friends afterward, they did develop a new respect for one another.
Galactic Commander Saturn's Toxicroak to Brock's Croagunk.
Team Rocket's Meowth feels this way towards every Persian he comes across.
Ranma of Ranma ½ had Happosai (outright stated to be Ranma Arch Enemy in the datebook)
Harima the delinquent in School Rumble had Hanai the class president. Harima's love rival is Karasuma. Eri & Yakumo too.
In Bleach, Ishida originally had Mad Scientist Mayuri Kurotsuchi as his nemesis, although now that they're on the same side, Ishida seems to come across as the Butt Monkey victim of Mayuri's sociopathic humor. The protagonist always had at least one mayor rival at each point in the story (first Ishida, followed by Renji, Kenpachi, Byakuya, Grimmjow and Ulquiorra).
We also have The Grand Fisher, the first major antagonist. He went down quickly, but at the time he was Ichigo archnemesis. He killed Ichigo's mother, the event that changed his life completely. It is because of him that he changes his motivation for fighting hollows, taking it much more seriously. Grand Fisher seems to acknowledge this, seeking out Ichigo as soon as he returns to the human world.
Yamamoto's seems to be Yhwach. (who could be considered his Evil Counterpart, complete with a Not So Different moment when the latter accuses the former of being a Retired Monster) Notably, Yhwach is the only enemy that Yamamoto doesn't call "child", and he immediately unleashes his incredibly destructiveBankai as soon as he shows up. The feeling is mutual - they've been at it for at least a millenium and it's pretty obvious that they really hate each other.
Kimblee to Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist, as well as Hohenheim to Father. Wrath also becomes this to both Greed and Scar.
Gun X Sword - Justifying the Designated Girl Fight, Carmen 99 and Fasalina are arch enemies. Fasalina is responsible for destroying Carmen's hometown, causing the death of Carmen's best friend from childhood, and Carmen ends up blamed for Fasalina's actions and shunned and exiled from her town.
In Durarara!!, while almost anyone can set off Shizuo's Hair-Trigger Temper, just seeing Izaya (and sometimes just hearing his name) is enough to send Shizuo into a homicidal rage. Meanwhile, Izaya screws around with everyone's lives, but that's just because he likes seeing how they'll react; Shizuo's the only person in the world he actually hates.
In Soul Eater, Medusa is the Arch Enemy of Maka, on Maka's part due to Medusa's connection to the black blood and Crona, and on Medusa's side thanks to Maka's Soul Perception.Asura is this Lord Death and his DWMA Students,Staff, and many of their allies,including The Heroine Maka and her friends.
In HunterxHunter, Hisoka is this to Gon. He has an unnerving obssession with Gon and anticipates the day he "ripens to his full potential" just so he can have the chance to fight and possibly kill him. Gon also had a desire to fight Hisoka earlier in the series for hurting his pride.
In Jojos Bizarre Adventure, Dio Brando is this to Jonathan Joestar in Part I and arguably to the entire Joestar bloodline for the rest of the series. Even after he is permanently slain in Part III, the mess he left behind causes trouble for Jonathan's descendants.
Lex Luthor is Superman's ultimate Arch Enemy and typically uses his brain against the Man of Steel's brawn, carefully avoiding any actions that could make Superman be justified in attacking him. To the point where only the muckraking Clark Kent, not Superman, can even put a scratch on Luthor.
After Luthor, Brainiac comes in a close second, even holding the last surviving Kryptonian city hostage for decades. That's pretty personal. As one writer pointed out, he's the alien Superman isn't, an evil otherworldy invader instead of a messianic refugee.
General Zod is the Arch Enemy of Superman's father Jor-El, the one responsible for stopping his coup and imprisoning him in the Phantom Zone. In the movies it's Jor-El who cast the deciding vote that sent Zod and his cohorts to the Phantom Zone. Zod's grudge against Clark is mostly due to Clark being Jor-El's son.
The Ultra-Humanite was originally designed to be Superman's arch-enemy - brilliant mind in a crippled body contrasting to the incredible physical might of Superman - but many of his traits were absorbed by fellow Mad Scientist Lex Luthor, and Ultra-Humanite rapidly faded from Superman's Rogues Gallery and became a more general villain for DC.
The Joker is Batman's Arch Enemy. His insanity and chaotic nature are the complete opposite of Batman's rigidly, even obsessively ordered intelligence. Though it's also their similarities. Both were shaped by great tragedy and loss (at least in the Joker's most commonly accepted origin story). Many people have said that Batman is just as insane as The Joker, he just manifests it in a different and more positive way and keeps control over it. The Joker himself has pointed this out numerous times and in many adaptations.
Ra's al Ghul has a great deal of respect for Batman, may be even more dangerous, and a far larger scale threat, than the Joker, and is the father of one of Bruce's main love interests. If not the Arch Enemy, Ra's is definitely the main Big Bad of Batman's enemies.
Two Face was once a great friend of Batman's, and is a personification of his failure. He's also got an ugly relationship with all of the Robins.
The wrathful vengeance of Doctor Doom will never be sated! Never — until the earth runs red with the blood of that accursed REED RICHARDS!!
The rest of the Fantastic Four as well, to a lesser extent. After he crushed Doom's hands, the Thing also jumped pretty high on his list.
Sinestro is Hal Jordan's Arch Enemy; similarly, the Green Lantern Corps treat the Sinestro Corps as their most dangerous opposing organization (even though the Red Lanterns have the potential to go on homicidal rampages if left unchecked).
Wonder Woman's is generally Circe or Cheetah, depending on who's writing. Ares gets in on the act too. He was, after all, her original Golden Age arch enemy. As of Flashpoint Hera may be stepping into the role.
Aquaman's Arch Enemy used to be his brother, Ocean Master. Manta got promoted to the role when he killed Aquaman's infant son.
Deathstroke the Terminator is Robin/Nightwing's Arch Enemy. Of all the Titans, Slade hated Grayson the most. Whenever Slade and Grayson were in the same fight, regardless of how many others were involved, they nearly always went after each other. This animosity was ramped up immensely when Slade orchestrated the destruction of Blüdhaven, Nightwing's "Gotham" so to speak, and, when he, even more recently, cybernetically hijacked Damian Wayne's body in an attempt to kill Grayson. Deathstroke also harbors a grudge against Grayson for "stealing his kids" from him
In the Golden Age comics, it was the Thinker, who appeared more often than any other villain. In the Silver Age, it was Gorilla Grodd, who was the one exception in his roster of Harmless Villain antagonists. In the Bronze Age it was Zoom/Reverse-Flash and his repeated attempts to outright steal his foe's life, who eventually killed his wife. Wally West in the Modern Age had Vandal Savage at first, and later the acclaimed Mark Waid run boosted Abra Kadabra to this role by making that villain much Darker and Edgier. Finally, Geoff Johns promoted Captain Cold to leader of the rogues — in the Silver Age it was usually the original Mirror Master or an outside villain in this role — and also contributed a new Zoom as a contender for the role, another villain who was far too dangerous to join the Rogues. And now that Barry's back, it seems to be the original Reverse-Flash again.
Another candidate for Wally's Arch Enemy under Waid is Mirror Master II; much was made of his role as a second-generation villain "reflecting" Wally; he discovered the Mirror Dimension at the same time as Wally began channelling the Speed Force, and he was a member of Luthor's "All Archenemies" Injustice Gang.
Then, the Justice League's arch-nemesis is the Legion of Doom/Injustice League/Injustice Gang.
The Justice Society's arch-enemy is the Injustice Society of the World.
Merlyn is considered Green Arrow's arch-enemy. Due to both being skilled archers on opposite sides of the law.
SupermanPrime possibly sees the fourth Flash (Bart Allen), the second Ion (Sodam Yat) and Kon-El, the cloned Superboy as his archenemies. Prime's new enemies, the Legion Of Super Heroes might think so, too, bringing back all three heroes (two Back from the Dead, in fact) to combat Prime.
Existence, all superheroes, all living beings, and every single universe in the history, future, present moment, or wiped timeline of reality has The Anti-Monitor.
The Legion Of Super-Heroes has three: Mordru, the Fatal Five, and the Legion of Super-Villains. The Fatal Five probably win the title for showing up the most often, but the L.S.V. has Lightning Lad's personal arch enemy Lightning Lord, and Mordru is certainly the most powerful of the three.
The Time Trapper is another arch-enemy of the Legion.
Spider-Man has various Arch Enemies. Part of the reason this situation arises is that the Green Goblin died in the 70s and spent a good 20-odd years before he came back to torment his foe, which is probably the record for dead A-list villains to beat; it also means that Ock and Venom are arguably more famous, even though the Goblin is easily the most dangerous of the three. The other reason is that the Goblin, as Norman Osborn, suffered frequent bouts of amnesia in the run up to his death so he didn't even remember that he was Spidey's arch-enemy, which helped Doc Ock who was the next most formidable villain. Venom appeared in the 80s and made his chops by being in some ways a more personal (and visually stunning) enemy than either of the other two (that and overexposure). So essentially, Spidey has three arch-enemies because they kept replacing each other. However, since his return the Goblin has cemented himself as Spidey's one true Arch-foe.
The Green Goblin. Unlike most superhero arch-villains, he actually is the most dangerous foe of his enemy, possessing far greater resources and deep personal information (he was the first to discover Spider-Man's secret identity) that the others mostly all lack (though one could argue that, apart from Osborn killing Gwen Stacy, Venom was originally more personal with his invasions of Peter Parker's life). There's also the whole "best friend's father" thing. He once collected nearly all of Spidey's main enemies into the Sinister Twelve, and was recently the arch-villain for the entire Marvel Earth.
Doctor Octopus: What Peter could end up becoming if he abused his intelligence and powers. (Peter was even a former student of his in the animated series). Also the first villain to really defeat Spider-Man, completely shattering his confidence for a while.
Venom: Evil Counterpart. Not only is he effectively an even stronger version of Spidey himself, but Peter's Spider-Sense doesn't work on him, which means Eddie / Venom could be right behind him without Peter knowing. Being bonded with the symbiote also gave Venom knowledge of Peter's secret identity, which Venom immediately used to scare Peter by harassing Mary Jane and Aunt May. Venom's initial grudge against him was kind of weak, but every adaptation makes it a lot more personal.
In addition to Spidey, Venom has Carnage, his son, as an arch-enemy. Spider-Man can't normally defeat Carnage on his own. The fact that Venom willingly comes to aid Spider-Man shows that me must hate Carnage more. Either that, or he just wants to be the one to deliever the killing blow.
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants serves as a collective Arch Enemy to the X-Men as a whole, though they have generally been replaced with more and more frightening mutant supremacists such as Mr. Sinister's Marauders, the Hellfire Club, or the various henchman of Apocalypse.
A brave attempt was made to kill off Sabretooth and make new villain Romulus Wolverine's new arch-enemy, but it failed spectacularly.
Mystique could be considered Rogue's arch-nemesis. Due to Rogue feeling like she's being used. And what she did to Ms. Marvel led her to leave Mystique's Brotherhood.
For obvious reasons, Ms. Marvel can also be considered Mystique's Arch Enemy, in fact Ms. Marvel Vol. 2 #48-50 even refers to Mystique as Ms. Marvel's Arch Enemy.
Mystique also killed Ms. Marvel's then-lover towards the end of her first series. As for herself, Mystique may also consider the Shadow King her arch-enemy, seeing that he was responsible for her life-partner Destiny's death.
The Sentry's Arch Enemy is The Void, which is his own alternate personality. Complicated.
Ant Man's is Ultron, the rogue robot he created. Though the villain he's most likely to face by himself is probably Whirlwind. Since Ultron's programming is based on Ant-Man's own thought patterns, this also means that Ant-Man is his own worst enemy. Used to be Egghead...but he died.
Iron Man's traditional Arch Enemy was The Mandarin, but he's faded a bit over time as the Yellow Peril aspect of the character is no longer kosher. Matt Fraction brought him back in big way during his run on Invincible Iron Man, however, nicely cementing The Mandarin's status as the worst that Iron Man's rogues gallery has to offer.
Seeing as thirteen different people have taken up the mantle, the Crimson Dynamo certainly is one of his most recurring and dangerous enemies, and has the best shot, after The Mandarin, of claiming this title. As a Communist holdout, the Dynamo also makes a useful counterpoint to Stark's capitalist ideology.
The Punisher has Jigsaw. In The Punisher's case, "Arch Enemy" just means "enemy who's still alive".
Captain Mar-Vell had Thanos. Although Thanos did double duty as Adam Warlock's arch enemy, too. And he screwed with the Silver Surfer pretty seriously, too. After arcs like Infinity Gauntlet and other stories on that scale a case could be made that Thanos is the Arch Enemy of the entire Marvel Universe.
The Shredder to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage and their Obi-Wan Master Splinter. Shredder goes down pretty early in the original comics. However the first issue clearly shows the backstory Splinter and Shredder have, that Splinter and the Turtles owe their origins to Shredder, and that Splinter trained the Turtles for the sole purpose of killing Shredder to avenge Hamato Yoshi. Regardless of how long Shredder was around for, he's still their archnemesis.
The Arch Enemy dynamic is played interestingly in the story. After Shredder was killed, the Turtles never really had another central enemy. A few issues show that the Turtles aren't really sure what to do with themselves with Shredder gone. In fact, in the City At War arc that capped off the original series, Leonardo argues that killing Shredder was more Splinter's goal than theirs.
Atomic Robo has the Nazi Baron Heinrich von Helsingard. Dr. Dinosaur may also qualify for Robo in modern times.
Thomas Edison for Nikola Tesla and, by extension, Robo.
One volume of Powers deconstructs the usual comic treatment of archenemies. It shows what were essentially the world's first superhero and supervillain. The two are immortal and have existed since humanity was still diverging from the ape, and have had a grudge just as long. When they meet for the last time in the present day, the hero, (who has a case of The Fog of Ages) demands to know why he and the villain have been fighting so long. The villain, whose memory is not impaired like the hero's, admits that he can no longer even remember what originally sparked their feud.
While Green LanternRebirth and Blackest Night initially pegged Parallax as the Arch Enemy of The Spectre, it seems that the Spectre's true nemesis is actually Butcher the Rage Entity. The Spectre exists to punish murderers, and Butcher is apparently the homicidal spawn of the first murder — the embodiment of murderous rage.
Sin City villains usually don't live past their initial story but Manute has menaced Dwight McCarthy enough times to count. Manute is dead now but he shows up anyway due to the nonlinear timeline.
The Yellow Bastard did go up against Hartigan a few times before kicking the bucket. We only ended up seeing two confrontations in the same story, though.
After becoming evil, being killed, and then brought back to life, Maxwell Lord has become the Arch Enemy to Booster Gold.
As with the Brotherhood being the collective Arch Enemy of the X-Men, The Avengers have the Masters of Evil.
Kang is also arguably the Avengers' Arch Enemy.
Baron Wolfgang von Strucker has served this mainly to Nick Fury, but also a bit to Captain America. Makes sense seeing as he's the leader of HYDRA.
The Fabulous Frog-Man is a Super Zero wearing the Power Armor of his father (Dare Devil villain Leap Frog) which he cannot control so he just bounces around aimlessly and sometimes gets lucky. The White Rabbit is a ditzy Harmless Villainess that read too much Alice in Wonderland when she was a little girl and now dresses like a Playboy Bunny and pretends to be a Super Villainess despite having no powers or skills. They became each other’s arch-enemies because they are so pathetic nobody else would take them seriously.
The Martian Manhunter has had several contenders over the years including Commander Blanx and his expy (and J'onn's Evil Twin) Malefic. The best example, however, may well be Galactic Conqueror and walking engine of destruction, Despero. While Despero is usually a Justice League calibre threat, J'onn is always the one he attacks first, and he takes a perverse delight in forcing the Martian to telepathically relive the destruction of Mars. At one point, Despero went so far as to Mind Rape J'onn into believing he was on a Mars that hadn't been destroyed by Blanx and/or Malefic...only to then invade the dream and personally slaughter the psychic constructs of J'onn's family that he had created. J'onn hates Despero about as much as he hates anyone, and is usually the JLA member who ends up having to put the crazed being down at the end of his rampages.
In their fictional universe the characters from the two British ComicsThe Beano and The Dandy are arch enemies with frequent jokes but at the other's expense and infrequent raids between the comics. This arch enemy rivalry has died down quite alot since The Dandy's revamp. Also characters from within the two comics have their own arch enemies as well. Dennis the Menace (UK) has Walter the Softy, The Bash Street Kids had the Blob Street Kids, the Three Bears had Hank and Grizzly Gus (another more evil looking bear who hasnt been in the strip for years) and Desperate Dan had Dangerous Dan Mc Groo.
This arch-enemy comic rivalry was taken Up to Eleven in the Fleetway comic Whizzer And Chips which was one comic which was made up of two comics and these two comics and their characters were archenemies with even more frequent 'raids' in the two comics than with the Beano and Dandy
Darkhell had his own arch-enemy, Skroa (though more of a Rival than an actual one) before the Legendaries formed, but ended up defeating him.
Generation X (specifically M, although he targeted the rest of the team as well) had Emplate.
Moon Knight had Raoul Bushman, Marc Spector's commander in his mercenary days, who proved to be much more violent and ruthless.
More Marvel archfoes:
The Inhumans king Black Bolt's Arch Enemy is his insane brother, Maximus Boltagon the Mad. Currently (July 2012), the two have buried the hatchet, with Maximus loyally, if eccentrically, serving Black Bolt.
Havok used to have the Living Monolith, who fed off Havok's power.
Ex-mafioso hitman Underworld's Arch Enemy was his traitorous, sociopathic brother, Mr. Pain, whom he killed.
The Johnny Blaze/Zarathos incarnation of Ghost Rider's Arch Enemy is Mephisto.
The Danny Ketch/Noble Kale incarnation of Ghost Rider's Arch Enemy is Blackheart.
Shi'ar empress Lilandra Neramani and her sister Deathbird.
Calvin: Hobbes, we have lots of mortal enemies! If this club only had one mortal enemy, then where would we be? Where would Superman be if he only had one super villain trying to take over the world every other day? Where would Spider-Man be if there was only one weirdo out there who managed to find enough time in his day to moonlight as an evil lunatic? Where would Batman be if all he had to do is defeat one highly unrealistic villain in order to save... whatever it is he aims on saving? I mean, come on!
The Immortal Game has Sir Unimpressive and the Cadet. There's also an inverted case of Unknown Rival in play as well, as the Cadet states that they were fierce rivals even before the war, something Unimpressive was unaware of.
While Rose is certainly the main character of Eyes Without A Face, she finds herself embroiled in a personal war between Twilight Sparkle and the Pie sisters.
Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's Arch Enemy; meanwhile, Vader probably counted Obi-Wan as his.
Pirates of the Caribbean's Jack Sparrow and Barbossa. Once both men have died at least once, the conflict between them becomes more of a friendly rivalry.
Commodore Norrington might also want to put himself in for consideration as Jack's Arch Enemy, though Jack seems to regard him as more of an obstacle and sometimes pawn.
Cutler Beckett may qualify, as he has been the source of much/most of Jack's problems in his life. When using Jack's compass, it points him towards Jack, and Jack guesses that what Beckett wants most in the world is to see Jack dead.
David Allen Griffin to Joel Campbell in The Watcher.
In The Prestige, Borden and Angier start as friendly rivals, but the two become arch-enemies when one loses a wife. By the end, one has lost his wife and his life, the other reaches a Pyrrhic Victory in besting his enemy but losing his brother and wife as well.
Harmonica and Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West. The former has been hunting the latter for decades to put an end to his horrible crimes and to avenge the death of his brother.
Since Bruce Willis turns out to be a comic book superhero in Unbreakable, it only stands to reason that he'd have an arch-enemy. One who is right under his nose.
Godzilla is the Arch Enemy of the Japanese Self-Defence Force as a whole during the films where he's the villain (ornot). He also has his own recurring nemesis in KingGhidorah, who has battled him across eight films and four continuities, and whose gleefulmalevolence provides a stark contrast with the Big G's more mindless rage. One could also make a case for Mechagodzilla, Godzilla's only enemy to rival Ghidorah for number of appearances (save forMothra) and ability to hurt Godzilla.
As far as Mothra goes, her arch-enemy is Ghidorah as well; she tolerates Godzilla's existence as long as he's not misbehaving too much, but when Ghidorah gets involved, she knows fully well that the whole planet she has sworn to protect is in danger. Epitomized by the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy, the first and third of which featured either Ghidorah or a close relative as the antagonist.
Godzilla Final Wars made Gigan her arch-enemy instead so that the single coolest redesigned monster in the film could fight her during the climax while Godzilla dealt with the more plot-relevant antagonist—who was again, eventually revealed to be Ghidorah (this time in Kaiser form).
In Halloween no matter where Michael Myers goes, his psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis will always be there to stop him.
In Iron Man 3 the Mandarin finally makes his film debut as a Diabolical Mastermind out to destroy Tony. Tony's true Arch-Enemy, and the true Mandarin, is Killian, who is every bit as smart as Tony, but much more ruthlessly manipulative and clever enough to hide in anonymity.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld becomes James Bond's Arch Enemy over the course of three books, until Bond himself comes to think of it as a blood feud and refuses to get MI6 involved.
Voldemort to Harry. (A heavily one-sided example, since Voldemort remains obsessed with Harry throughout the series, but Harry does his best to ignore Voldemort most of the time.) Also jerkass Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape, at least until Snape's death.
Rita Skeeter to Hermione Granger.
Bellatrix Lestrange to Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger and the Weasley family.
Soon I Will Be Invincible: After defeating Doctor Impossible and discovering her ties to him, Fatale considers this might make him her Arch Enemy, but is it worth it?
I suppose I ought to vow to oppose him forever; make a nemesis issue of it. But it's a little beside the point. ... with CoreFire back, he's already got a nemesis. I'd have to be a co-nemesis. ... I'm not 100 percent sure what I'm supposed to angry about, if we come down to it.
Hakeswill in Sharpe seems to dedicate himself expressly to making Sharpe's life miserable - he has him flogged in pre-canon, he has Harper flogged after figuring out how close he and Sharpe are, he attempts to rape and eventually murders Sharpe's wife... Sharpe tries and fails to kill him in repeated inventive ways before he finally gets to give him the coup de grace at his execution.
Once Hakeswill had been written out of the novels, this role was arguably taken over by Major Ducos, a French spymaster who is constantly coming up with schemes to hamstring, if not outright stop, the British war effort, as well as to humiliate, discredit and kill Sharpe in the process.
The Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte, whom some like to see as historical archenemies, even though they probably did not see themselves that way, show up in the series.
John Devil, from the eponymous novel by Paul Feval is the Arch Enemy of Inspector Gregory Temple, as well as being one of the earliest super-villains, anticipating the aforementioned Moriarty with about 30 years.
Carl Peterson was the Arch Enemy of Bulldog Drummond, until he was killed in the fourth novel. Afterwards, Carl's mistress, Irma took over his role.
Ballmeyer, aka Detective Frederic Larsan is the Arch Enemy of Joseph Rouletabille as well as the latter's biological father.
Franny Roote in Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe novels: although Hill dispatches Roote to jail in the series' second novel, An Advancement of Learning, he resurrects him as Pascoe's obsession in Arms and the Women, Dialogues of the Dead, and Death's Jest-Book, then finally elevates him to true Arch Enemy status in A Cure for All Diseases.
In the Back Story of Robert E Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "The Phoenix on the Sword", Set was this to Epemitreus. Which is part of why he helps Conan against Thoth-amon, one of Set's votaries.
In The Wheel of Time the Forsaken Ishamael Later Moridin clearly views himself as this to Rand Al'Thor. Considering that he's The Verse's version of The Antichrist, from a metaphysical standpoint he's not wrong, either. However, another member of the Forsaken would contest the position- Demandred, who is said to have hated Rand's previous incarnation more than anyone has ever hated anything and has transferred that hate fully to Rand, making it plain that he sees himself as the only one allowed to defeat him though Moridin makes it plain he won't respect that if his plans call for it. Prior to his death, Sammael would have put himself up for the title too, though other Forsaken feel he falls well short of Demandred for sheer hatred- yeah, being the main character in a series where It Sucks To Be The Chosen One is a major theme means you get lots of people who want this position. Other characters have them too, usually (but not always) their Evil Counterpart:
Redwall has had a few examples, but the most obvious are Swartt Sixclaw and Sunflash the Mace from Outcast of Redwall. When Sunflash maims Swartt's trademark sixclawed paw while escaping enslavement, a feud is struck that will haunt them both for their entire lives. From the time they are teenagers until Swartt's death in late middle age, they are always hunting one another.
Soviet spymaster Karla to George Smiley in various John le Carré novels.
In A Song of Ice and Fire, Cersei Lannister thinks that Tyrion is her worst enemy thanks to a prophecy stating that her she would be strangled to death by the hands of her younger brother. She is utterly convinced in A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons that everything going wrong in her life is Tyrion's work.
The Master (at one point the Doctor specifically refers to him as "my Arch Enemy") and Davros to the Doctor. Also the Daleks are the most recurring villains and were described as the Doctor's Arch Enemy by Amy Pond in "Victory of the Daleks".
9: The Daleks and Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen
10: The Daleks and the Master
11: The Silence
Madame Kovarian to the Pond/Williams family
The Daleks as Doctor's ultimate archnemesis was best summed up when the Eleventh Doctor took a wrench and proceeded to beat one with it;
Doctor: YOU. ARE. MY. ENEMY! And I am YOURS! You are everything I despise! The worst thing in all creation! I've defeated you time and time again! I've defeated you! I've sent you back into the Void! I saved the whole of Reality from you! I am the Doctor- *kicks it* -and you are the Daleks!
For a while in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harmony liked to think of herself as Buffy's Arch Enemy, but Buffy never took her quite that seriously. She even laughed herself sick when Xander told her that Harmony and her minions could be a threat to her in the second episode of season 5.
The evil trio in season 6 considers itself the archnemesis of Buffy, but... yeah... She doesn't take them serious either.
Big mistake. Their leader, Warren managed to screw with Buffy, mentally and emotionally, more than any other villain, save Angelus.
Faith is probably the closest thing to playing this trope straight. Even after Faith's Heel Face Turn when the two 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.
Joss Whedon plays with this trope again in Angel. Lindsey thought he would be Angel's arch enemy, having been Angel's enemy since the show's first season and having spent half his life trying to beat Angel. Which probably 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]
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.
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.
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 was an arch enemy...for Claire's biological mother! 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.
Arguably, Adrian Monk's arch enemy is 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.
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.
On Everybody Loves Raymond Ray Barone calls Peggy, bitchy mother of his daughter best friend his "arch enemy"
Gus Fring very much becomes this to Walter White on Breaking Bad. Interestingly throughout their feud we see signs that Gus and Walt really aren't that different.
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 DoctorSerial 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 So 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.
Stargate Atlantis: Acastus Koya 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).
In 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 there both scientists of the same field, both highly intelligent, and both hold a strong rivalry, baring a few moments of them putting it aside.
Lampshaded in Sherlock when Mycroft and Sherlock refers to each other as such, and this conversation happens:
Dr. John Watson: People don't have archememies.
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...
Castle doesn't have many recurring antagonists, but the most notable are the Triple Killer and the shadowy organization that seems determined to keep Beckett from investigating her mother's murder.
Wo Fat is the arch enemy of Steve McGarrett in both the original Hawaii Five-O and the re-imagining, Hawaii Five-0.
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.
John Stewart:It's okay, I can say these things because Tucker Carlson is someone for whom I have not the slightest bit of respect or liking... one of the few people I can say that about.
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.
Kamen Rider Black: Kotaro Minami/Kamen Rider Black and Nobuhiko Akitsuki/Shadow Moon.
Kamen Rider Kuuga: Yusuke Godai/Kamen Rider Kuuga and N Daguba Zeba.
Kamen Rider Ryuki: Shinji Kido/Kamen Rider Ryuki and Kamen Rider Ryuga. Shuichi Kitaoka/Kamen Rider Zolda and Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja.
Kamen Rider 555: Takumi Inui/Kamen Rider Faiz/Wolf Orphnoch and Kiba Yuji/Kamen Rider Orga/Horse Orphnoch.
Kamen Rider Blade: Sakuya Tachibana/Kamen Rider Garren and Isaka/Peacock Undead.
Kamen Rider Kabuto: Souji Tendo/Kamen Rider Kabuto and Souji Kusakabe/Kamen Rider Dark Kabuto.
Kamen Rider Double: Philip/Raito Sonozaki/Kamen Rider Double and Ryuubee Sonozaki/Terror Dopant. Philip/Raito Sonozaki/Kamen Rider Double and Daiki Kaito/Kamen Rider Eternal. Ryu Terui/Kamen Rider Accel and Shinkuro Isaka/Weather Dopant.
Kamen Rider Fourze: Kengo Utahoshi and Gamo Mitsuaki/Sagittarius Zodiarts.
On Criminal Minds Frank Breitkopf was Jason Gideon's Arch Enemy, 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.
Myth and Legend
Loki and Heimdall in Norse Mythology. Fittingly enough, they kill each other in Ragnarok. There's also Thor and Jormungandr who do the same.
The old melodrama spoof Hairbreadth Harry had the title character fighting a Dastardly Whiplash named Rudolph Rassendale—although Rudy was arguably the real star of the strip.
Mankind, he and Taker fought in the most violent match in the history of WWE. As Pro Wrestling Illustrated so eloquently put it: "Mankind did more than beat The Undertaker in a match - he changed his very essence."
Shawn Michaels, the rivalry that changed history. He fought Taker in the first ever Hell in a Cell, a Casket Match, a World Championship match, and twoWrestleMania matches.
In the fandom, WrestleCrap and Kent Jones (their Message Board went as far as to filter Kent Jones' name as "Can't Shoot," "I like tired fads," etc.). They also hate 420Chan's /wooo/.
Due to pro wrestling's nature as a staged sport, as well as the close bonds of trust most wrestlers have with one another (putting their lives in each other's hands), many of the cases listed here (not all) are actually good friends in real life, with a great amount of respect for one another. Even Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, whose real life rivalry was as legendary as any staged rivalry in the sport (before they finally buried the hatchet), expressed tremendous respect for each other's skill and ability, while personally despising one another.
WCW to WWF and ECW, for stealing stars from both feds, the cruiserweight divsion idea from ECW and almost putting the WWF into bankruptcy. Paul Heyman who was fired from WCW fostered this with both the wrestlers and the fans. ECW and WWF were somewhere between Worthy Opponent and Friendly Enemies.
Sports
The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants have been arch rivals since the 1800s, from their days in New York, all the way across the coast when they both moved to California.
The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, the American League's, and possibly Major League Baseball's, bitterest rivalry.
Completing the trinity of baseball rivalries is Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals. This due to the long history, close proximity and the fact that Cardinals are one of the most successful teams in history and the Cubs... are not.
In basketball, there really is no better rivalry than that between the Lakers and the Celtics. This one is born out of success, as opposed to any local enmity.
The Miami Heat versus the Chicago Bulls.
The Chicago Bulls versus the New York Knicks.
The Miami Heat versus the New York Knicks.
The New York Liberty and the Detroit Shock were very intense WNBA rivals, until the latter was sold and moved to Tulsa.
The Detroit Pistons and the Los Angeles Lakers, Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn in particular. When they were reunited as WNBA coaches on opposite sides, their egos got in the way, and both teams got into a fight.
Michigan State University's football and basketball teams, both called the Spartans, are each this to their University of Michigan counterparts, both called the Wolverines, and the feeling is mutual.
MSU may consider Michigan its Arch Enemy, but Wolverines fans would count Ohio State as theirs.
Really, there are far too many sports examples to list here. At nearly every level, if a team plays, it's got an arch-enemy and there is much hatred to be had.
Duke vs. UNC. One of the biggest rivalry in college sports (especially men's basketball).
Ditto for Kentucky vs. Louisville.
Not to mention Michigan vs. Ohio State in football.
Manchester City fans, as a rule, detest Manchester United. The feeling may not be reciprocated, as United supporters may see Liverpool or Arsenal as their archrivals(due to City's not winning anything for 42 years).
Ajax Amsterdam and Feyenoord in the Dutch football League.
The Montreal Canadiens have not one, but TWO: the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
For a while, the Habs had THREE archenemies. In addition to their enmity with the Bruins and the Leafs, the Canadiens also had an ugly relationship with the Quebec Nordiques, who played in the provincial capital of Quebec City. This seems to have died down after the Nordiques moved to Colorado and became the Avalanche, though.
The Leafs have another rival similar to Habs-Nordiques, the Ottawa Senators - as not only both are in Ontario, but it's nation capital/nation's largest.
The biggest, fiercest rivalry within Cricket by far is between India and Pakistan. The Ashes (England vs. Australia) is also Serious Business, especially due to the 100+ year history of the rivalry.
In Brazil, not only inter-city teams are arch enemies, but some manage to cross state borders as well. A lot of contested important games between Atlético-MG and Flamengo (the country's most popular team) made the former hate the latter as much as city rival Cruzeiro.
Tabletop Games
Magic: The Gathering: Urza and Yawgmoth is the best known Arch Enemy pairing, although there are dozens of individual hatreds. They've even released a variant named Arch Enemy, although that's dedicated more to a dynamic of Big Bad vs. Enemy Mine.
While everyone in Warhammer 40000 will gladly fight everyone else in Warhammer 40000, there are some special hatreds. Particularly Ultramarines vs. Word Bearers, Space Wolves vs. Thousand Sons, Necrons vs. Eldar and Orks vs. Everything.
The Tyranids are arguably the Arch Enemy of the Tau, since they are the most immediate threat to the Tau's survival. The Tyranids on the other hand just see them (and everything else but the Necrons) as just another meal.
The Chaos Gods are kept in a perpetual Enemy Civil War with rare alliances (fortunately), because they represent radically opposite urges: Tzeentch is hope and change while Nurgle is despair and entropy; Khorne is rage and violence while Slaanesh is pleasure and excess. And ultimately, they view the God Emperor as their real enemy.
As an illustration of how deeply the Ultramarines vs Word Bearers hatred runs: in the Horus Heresy novels, it is revealed that the Ultramarines keep a precise count of time since the beginning of a battle - known as the Mark. The Mark of Calth, for the battle in which the Word Bearers first attacked the Ultramarines, will be left running until every Word Bearer is dead. Meaning that an Ultramarine can give you a precise count of how long it is they have wanted the Word Bearers to die, even ten thousand years after the original battle. Now that is enmity.
On a more individual basis, there's Commissar Yarrick and Warboss Mag Uruk Thraka.
Eric and the Dread Gazebo.
Dungeons & Dragons fourth edition setting, Points Of Light, has a sourcebook detailing the realms of the gods, called The Plane Above. In it it mentions certain gods who have a special, personal hatred for one another, giving the examples as Bahamut vs Tiamat, Avandra vs Zehir, and Moradin vs Asmodeus. With the exception of Bahamut and Tiamat, these examples are kind of out of the blue. Other examples include Gruumsh vs Corellon (which is taken from their Forgotten Realms counterparts, as well as The Raven Queen and Orcus, though Orcus is generally traditionally seen as the arch enemy of Demogorgon.
Speaking of Dungeons & Dragons, Bane and Cyric. They hate each other worse than they hate any of the good gods.
In the Yu Gi Oh card game, this seems to be the case between D.D. Warrior Lady and Warrior Dai Grepher. They are seen fighting on several Spell and Trap Cards in a feud that started when she was Warrior Lady of the Wasteland and continued when he became Dark Lucious. The first one was Simultaneous Loss, but there were several others.
Video Games
From the Resident Evil series Chris Redfield has Big Bad Albert Wesker as his Arch Enemy.
However, Link is a Legacy Character, and no version of him has fought Ganondorf more than once. It is possible that Ganondorf considers all pointy-eared, green-suited blond boys to be his Arch Enemy, while each Link just thinks of Ganondorf as another Rogue.
However each Link is usually educated about the Triforce and how they are fated to face Ganon some way or another. But particularly Link from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker had a grudge against Ganon for kidnapping his sister and Zelda and Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the first Link to face Ganondorf for endangering Zelda, killing the Deku Tree, and directly ruining every other society he had to rescue.
Justified, and borderline Deconstructed, in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Ganondorf is the reincarnation of Demon King Demise's endless hatred for Link and Zelda, and that continues to haunt them even as they keep reincarnating. The three are bound to fight for eternity.
It's also mildly subversive, since the revelation that Zelda is the mortal incarnation of Hylia, the goddess who initially sealed Demise, means she was his original Arch Enemy, not Link.
This, like every other trope, gets lampooned in Kingdom of Loathing: the player receives a quest from their guild to retrieve an item stolen by their Nemesis. The player wasn't aware that they even had a Nemesis before that.
Ridley in the Metroid games, to Samus Aran. This one is personal, since Ridley trashed Samus' home of K-2L and personally killed both of her parents. Ironically, the Metroid manga (which was made by Nintendo) has a brief scene where a 4-year old Samus, not yet knowing what Ridley has done, tries to make friends with the giant space dragon.
When Samus approaches him, Ridley is watching the chaos and fire his pirates have caused, and actually gets a sad look for a moment when he sees her. Then Samus' mother runs to save her from Ridley, and he promptly goes back to normal and kills Samus' mother in front of her.
In the manga, he also mocks her about how he killed her parents.
The original Street Fighter had Sagat as Ryu's original Rival, and it may have been that way ever since.
Fatal Fury has Geese Howard, who could practically be considered an Arch Enemy to Southtown as a whole. Terry Bogard actually winds up adopting his son, Rock (who despises his father anyway, since Geese abandoned Rock's mother).
Iori Yagami and Kyo Kusanagi in The King Of Fighters. Iori really does seem to have no life outside of messing with Kyo. After the events of KOF XI, they both get a mutual Arch Enemy in Ash Crimson (who, like Bison before him, has that special talent for pissing off near anybody he comes into contact with).
Dracula has the entire Belmont clan (as well as the Belnades and Morris families) as his running archenemies in the Castlevania games.note The Belmonts have to destroy Dracula. They are fated to do so. Dracula makes it easy by actively pissing off the current Belmont. The Morris family, however, has no such problem with Dracula, instead being chosen by the Belmont clan to defeat the vampire out of necessity when they can't. It's a confused mish-mash, but the end result is that Dracula has the Belmont clan as his arch-enemies, but it's one-way and he should really stop exacerbating the situation.
According to the prequel Lament of Innocence, Dracula's real Arch Enemy is Sara Trantoul, whose soul empowers the Vampire Killer.
In the original Dracula novel and in many of the movies, Dracula has the Van Helsing clan as his archenemies, particularly Abraham Van Helsing who opposes him in the original stories. See Literature.
Mortal Kombat has these all over the board. Liu Kang's Arch Enemy is Shang Tsung, Sonya Blade has an Arch Enemy in Kano, Scorpion has Sub-Zero and Quan Chi as successive archenemies, Kitana has her evil clone Mileena, Jade has Tanya, Raiden has Quan Chi and Shinnok as archenemies, Kung Lao has a nemesis in Baraka, Jax has his in Hsu Hao, Cyrax has his Evil Counterpart Sektor and everyone from Earth Realm had Shao Kahn as a nemesis.
In the Metal Gear Solid series the main protagonist is constantly facing of against Ocelot and/or Liquid, though none of them'd ever use titles as arch-nemesis.
The Protoss are archenemies of the Zerg, primarily because the Zerg had driven them from their homeworld of Aiur.
The Protoss themselves are divided. The templars are frequently at odds with the Dark Templar. However, because of the Zerg, the two factions are being forced to cooperate and may actually begin to respect one another.
Jim Raynor considers himself an arch-enemy of Arcturus Mengsk, although Kerrigan also considers herself this.
Varian Wrynn is technically the Arch Enemy of Thrall, though this is mostly one-sided since it's only really Varian who wants to kill Thrall, while Thrall himself would gladly declare peace. Meanwhile, Garrosh Hellscream represents the anti-Alliance hate on the Horde side. He and Varian almost try to kill each other on a diplomatic meeting.
Almost is being generous, they were trying to kill eachother, someone else just got in the way.
Kl'jaeden and their subservient eredar are definite arch-enemies of the whole draenei race and their leader Velen - they once were one race, before Sargeras arrived with The Corruption. From then on, draenei where on the run from eredar for millenia, until they settled on Azeroth for their final stand.
The Arch Enemy concept is also presented with Outland factions. Major bad guys there are represented by two races - blood elves under the rule of Kael'thas Sunstrider and various demons, partly led by Illidan. Major player friendly fractions, Aldor and Scryers, don't get along very well and have different opinions - Aldor chose demons as their Arch Enemy, while Scryers prioritize stopping Kael'thas' elves.
In the Wrath Of The Lich King expansion, Arthas, the eponymous Lich King is an Arch Enemy of Tirion FordringandSylvanas Windrunner in addition to being a Big Bad for the expansion.
In a lesser example there is Loken, Arch Enemy of Thorim, who orchestrated first his Heroic BSOD, then the recovery from it, which only led into another trap.
Deathwing, leader of the Black Dragonflight, is the Arch Enemy of Alexstrasza and the other surviving Dragon Aspects.
Twilight's Hammer has been the arch enemy of the Earthen Ring, a shamanistic organization dedicated to preserving & protecting the elemental balance of Azeroth and Outland, since before Cataclysm.
Daiku no Gensan - The President of Kuromoku-gumi, Hyosuke Kuromoku, for Genzo. Only one game in the series has not featured the Kuromoku-Gumi and Hyosuke as major villains.
Crash Bandicoot - Crash has Doctor Neo Cortex. In the same series there is also the rivalry between sentient voodooo masks Aku Aku and Uka Uka
Asha the Assassin becomes Iji's Arch Enemy after losing their first fight. Originally, he was only after the bounty on her head (and the fame).
Empire Earth's 2nd campaign focuses on Great Britain and France's feud through the ages.
Visual Novel/Fate/stay night - Shirou gets two, depending on which route you're in. His possible future self Archer is the antithesis of his ideals, yet embodies them entirely. The two are completely incompatible. And allies, at first. The other is Kotomine, who understands Shirou better than anyone else in the entire Visual Novel. He's also the first person Kotomine met who was like him, a person without a real sense of self. They get along rather well in their own way, they just happen to be completely and utterly opposed to one another.
In Ratchet & Clank, Captain Qwark and Dr. Nefarious are considered this, although neither seem to consider the other that big of a threat (though Qwark obviously does). In A Crack in Time, Nefarious also calls Ratchet and Clank his archnemeses. While the Doctor considers the eponymous duo the far more formidable opponents, the history between Qwark and him causes the mere sight or mention of Qwark to make him to rage to the point of malfunctioning.
In God Of War, Kratos' Arch Enemy is Zeus. No other enemy, even Ares, commands as much of Kratos' time and energy as the King of the Gods. They are truly arch enemies when you consider that Zeus wants to kill Kratos to restore order to the world, and Kratos is willing to destroy Zeus and Olympus in order to get his revenge.
In Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein, the Nazi scientist and SS-General Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse is the Arch Enemy of OSA spy B.J. Blazkowicz, as well as "the single most dangerous figure in the entire Third Reich". He's also quite apt at getting awaywith all sortsof atrocities. Deathshead for his part also considers Blazkowicz to be his archfoe. In a trailer for Wolfenstein, his narration states that the most memorable part of the events of the game wasn't the eldritch horror he unleashed, but the lone badass (Blazkowicz) that stopped it.
In Final Fantasy VII, it's actually pretty one-sided; the protagonist, Cloud, eventually has plenty of reason to hate the Big Bad, Sephiroth, but Sephiroth barely acknowledges Cloud at all, and as an insigficant pawn, until the very end when Cloud's group actually beats him. After this, as in the movie Advent Children (or Dissidia, below), they certainly are arch-enemies both ways, though it's possible the very reason Sephiroth has it in for Cloud is that he hates having been beaten by someone so insignificant.
From Final Fantasy IX is Zidane who's motto is to help anyone who needs it and his somewhat gender ambiguous brother Kuja who is unable to see the value of anything but himself.
The prequel Dissidia 012 reveals the Emperor is actually more an Arch Enemy to the Final Fantasy X cast as an Expy of Seymour — he manipulates Tidus and Jecht into fighting for the sake of his schemes and isn't pleased when Yuna tries to get the two to work out their differences peacefully. In a less direct example Exdeath is the enemy of the Final Fantasy IV cast, being Kain's designated rival and his death in that cycle being caused by Golbez disrupting his control over the Manikins so Kain can get past them and challenge Exdeath. Also puts a new spin on the scene of Exdeath accusing Golbez of treachery and Cecil protecting him.
Ultimately, Sora and Xehanort in the Kingdom Hearts series. Sora is The Messiah, while all the conflict in the games was caused by Xehanort in one way or another.
Legacy of Kain gives us Malek and Vorador in Blood Omen, The Sarafan Lord and JanosAudron in Blood Omen 2, and Kain and Raziel throughout the series. All of these are slightly one sided, though. While Malek had a deep personal hatred for Vorador, Vorador didn't think much of him and for the most part hated his order and humanity in general. Janos hated the Sarafan Lord for holding him prisoner for four hundred years, starving him of blood but the Sarafan Lord's issue was with vampires in general and he considered Janos little more than a tool. Raziel, likewise, hated Kain on a very personal level, but Kain's actions against him were necessary evils. Kain himself had much more personal grudges against Malek and the Sarafan Lord than he did against Raziel, and possibly his true arch enemy was Moebius. And in the end it turns out Kain was the arch enemy of the Elder God, who manipulated people across centuries to try and kill Kain, due to Kain's destiny to become the Scion of Balance, the only being that can destroy the Elder God.
In the second game The Exile has three: each of the Sith Lords which reflect an aspect of herself. The most strongest is Darth Traya who's fate is bound up with the Exile whether they like it or not.
Space Quest: Sludge Vohaul, despite appearing in only two games (but heavily implied to be behind the events of the first).
Kings Quest: The Black Cloak Society to the Daventry royal family. The extent of which of the series' foes were part of the Society is debatable, but at least four (Hagatha, Mannanan, Mordak, Alhazred) have some kind of tie. The Fan Remake of Kings Quest II cranks it up a bit with a designated Arch Enemy, Morgelien (aka "The Father").
While Ragna is dedicated to ending the Big Bad Terumi's existence, he believes that his true Arch Enemy will be his brother Jin once his "Power of Order" awakens since Ragna may be the "Destroyer of the World" that the "Power of Order" is meant to fight.
Terumi is an Arch Enemy to the remaining Six Heroes, Kokonoe, and Rachel since his betrayal of them was far more personal (murdered Jubei's wife/Kokonoe's mother Nine, sealed Haku-men in the Boundary, insults the master to whom Valkenhyn holds Undying Loyalty, and has been dueling Rachel in a battle of wits over thousands of years worth of time loops).
Carl's greatest foe as of Continuum Shift is his father Relius, who added his own daughter (Carl's sister) Ada's body and soul to the Nox Nyctores Nirvana and used the information he gleaned from that experiment to create a superior puppet — using Carl's mother Ignis.
Bang used to consider Jin to be his Arch Enemy, but thanks to Character Development has moved passed this. He now considers the system behind the NOL itself that ordered the attack on Ikaruga to be his Arch Enemy.
Even Taokaka has one. She and Arakune frequently come to blows since he terrorizes the Kaka clan village and she is its protector.
Tsubaki becomes her former best friend Noel's Arch Enemy thanks to Terumi's influence, the trauma of losing her sight to Izayoi, and her deep-rooted jealousy of Noel over her being chosen to be by Jin's side.
Relius Clover has a secondary enemy in Valkenhayn, as the two have a long-standing rivalry prior to the Dark War; this was suspended when Relius fell into the Cauldron the day the Black Beast emerged, but has reawakened with Relius' re-emergence.
The Grey Wardens and the Darkspawn of Dragon Age: Origins. The Grey Wardens were founded specifically to prevent the Darkspawn from destroying Thedas and will do anything to accomplish this task. The feeling is mutual during Blights — Archdemons will go out of their way to kill the Grey Wardens once they can sense their location since they know that only Wardens can permanently destroy them.
Arl Rendon Howe for the human noble PC, (possibly) Prince Bhelen for the dwarf noble PC, Jarvia for the dwarf commoner PC, Vaughn for the city elf PC, Loghain for Alistair.
In the sequel, Dragon Age II, some of Hawke's companions have archenemies. Danarius for Fenris, Bartrand for Varric, and Castillon for Isabela.
Commander Shepard has a lot of powerful enemies: Saren Arterius in the first game, The Illusive Man and Kai Leng in the third game. However, Shepard's archenemies are the Reapers, and (s)he is theirs. They consider Shepard to be the greatest threat they have ever faced, and Shepard is the only thing in existence that has ever made the Reapers feel fear.
The God Wars Dungeon in Runescape would imply that the four Gods involved consider each other Arch Enemies, since even after thousands of years, the 4-way free-for-all is still going on. Saradomin and Zamorak, even though they aren't technically the "Good" and "Evil" Gods.
In Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright has Miles Edgeworth for most of the first game, although their relationship becomes exponentially more friendly after Wright defends Edgeworth.
The same game has Beowulf, as the arch-nemesis of Axel Almer. When Axel hopped over into the OG universe, that animosity got transferred over to Beowulf's counterpart in that dimension, Kyosuke Nanbu. Though Axel and Kyosuke developed a great deal of respect towards each other, and as of Original Generation Gaidan, they are fast becoming friends.
Marv claims to be this in Custom Robo Arena, but in practice he's just an idiot who won't leave you alone.
Touhou: Mokou vs. Kaguya. Good thing for them: killing each others over and over and over again is how they kill their (potentially infinite) time. Figuring out how to kill each others in new and interesting way is their joy in life, and sometimes they let other people in on their exquisite "pleasure".
Elan has Nale and Haley has Crystal (even if she has no idea what an arch-nemesis is) and Sabine.
The main female in every evil joint the Order encounters is bound to become an Arch Enemy of Haley (the Thieves' Guild - Crystal, the bandits - Samantha, the Linear Guild - Sabine and Kitty the hawk, Team Evil - Tsukiko), though only about half of them stick around. The exception so far is the Empress of Blood, probably because no one wants to be the Arch Enemy of that.
Belkar, at least, is of the impression that Sabine is Haley's one true Arch Enemy. This is actually Lampshaded by Haley, who notes this tendency and comments that she should have chosen 'Favored Enemy - Flying Skank' as her class ability.
Sluggy Freelance: Bun-Bun's arch-nemesis is Santa Claus, whom he tries to kill every Christmas that he's not stuck in an endless void outside of time. Bun-Bun doesn't actually remember why he hates Santa so much, but he's not about to let that stand in the way of a good grudge.
Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures : Until the latest chapter the series really wasn't that melodramatic, but now for Dan it's a toss up between Dark Pegasus and Regina Darkblood. Dark Pegasus is more dangerious and re-occuring (Dan has killed him twice), but with Regina it is far, far more personal.
Lightbringer: Darkbringer for Lightbringer. Both believe in an objective morality, but whereas Lightbringer believes what is "good" is the correct moral standard Darkbringer believes what is "evil" is the correct moral standard.
Last Res0rt has Daisy Archanis and Jason Spades; Jason probably cares more about Daisy than vice versa, though in Daisy's defense, she's got a lot more to worry about (namely, Veled) most of the time.
In Spinnerette, Spinnerette's arch nemesis is... Spinnerette. No, this isn't a case of Enemy Within, they just both happened to pick the same supranym. And then started fighting over it. They now distinguish each other as "Good Spinnerette" and "Evil Spinnerette."
"The Adventures Of Gyno Star" features two main arch-enemies: Uber-sexist Vlad Deferens, and The Stay-at-Home Mommy
In Homestuck, the trolls recognize archenmity as a type of romantic, sexual relationship known as kismeissitude. Examples are Snowman/Spades Slick, past Eridan/Vriska, past but very recent Terezi/Vriska, and Karkat/John (unrequited because human John doesn't have a concept of romantic hate). In Act 6, Karkat seems to be soliciting Dave as a kismesis, as Dave has drawn Terezi's romantic (non-hate) attention away from Karkat. Dave does not react well to this; like John, he's not comfortable with romantic hate, especially from another male.
Mara Wilson also seems to view the Critic as one after his brutal A Simple Wish review. She's notably disappointed when told that he's dead, stating that the chemistry between them was "organic".
Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog - Johnny Snow claims to be Dr. Horrible's nemesis. Similar to the Buffy example above, Dr. Horrible does not take him very seriously, considering Captain Hammer to be his actual nemesis. For his part, Captain Hammer thinks of Dr. Horrible as just another villain that he regularly defeats, and a fairly pathetic one at that.
Dr. Horrible "OK. Dude. You're not my nemesis. My nemesis is Captain Hammer. Captain Hammer, corporate tool! He dislocated my shoulder last week. Again."
Atop The Fourth Wall and The Spoony Experiment - Dr. Insano was both Spoony One's and Linkara's nemesis. Lately, though, Linkara's new archnemesis has become Lord Vycenote because getting Spoony to appear in his videos all the time is logistically unfeasible, and Insano is now more of an annoyance to Spoony.
Another major enemy of Linkara's is the Spider-Man story One More Day.
Mechakara is a better example, as he is Linkara's most determined enemy. He has been destroyed twice and came back stronger then ever.
In Survival of the Fittest, both the winner of V1 and the winner of V2 have their own arch enemies. The V1 Winner, Adam Dodd, has Cody Jenson, who killed his girlfriend, raped one of his friends, and beat his other friend into unconsciousness. The V2 Winner, Bryan Calvert, has Mariavel Varella, who killed his girlfriend after swearing vengeance on Bryan for killing her boyfriend. Neil Sinclair (who was not the winner, but definitely the hero) of V3 had Danya himself.
Agamemnon Tiberius Vacuum claims Brooke Brodack is his nemesis (a claim she embraces). What exactly the past relationship between the two that lead to this is, is still unclear.
In the Hitler Rants parody, Hitler's archnemesis is resident trickster Hermann Fegelein... the former is always at the butt end of the rivalry.
In the 2nd sequel, Ringman actually becomes Tiamat's arch enemy, even though he personally never laid a glove on her; then because of his bid to free the centaurs, Ringman even becomes the Dungeon Master's arch enemy.
In his MinecraftLet's Plays, the Evil Chicken is this to Gronkh. It's uncertain whether he considers Evil Chicken a specific creature which keeps reappearing to ambush him, or the entire chickenhood is not only evil but his personal arch enemy.
Spikerbleeper - Arch Enemy of Mr. TARDIS.
OMFGcata's Jesse Cox has declared that Husky Starcraft is his arch enemy (replacing Inanimate Objects and TotalBiscuit, in order of previous priority) from the results of the second The Game Station podcast.
Cartman and Kyle from South Park. It was mostly onesided on Cartman's side earlier on, but the two snowballed into mortal enemies somewhere in the fifth season, and has jumped up a notch with every subsequent season.
Also, Scott Tenorman to his half-brother Cartman.
The Monarch from The Venture Brothers wants to be Doctor Venture's Arch Enemy, but Doctor Venture doesn't consider him a threat.
Hank: What's your problem with our dad anyway?!
The Monarch: (awkwardly) Well, I- he- he's my nemesis. My Arch Enemy.
Dean: I don't think pop thinks you're his Arch Enemy.
The Monarch: Come on, I'm sure the walls of the Venture Compound are practically caked with the lingering curses of the Monarch's name.
Dean: Uhh, no. I've never even heard him mention you.
Hank: Yeah, I always thought Baron Underbheit was dad's arch-enemy.
The Monarch: (astounded) Underbheit!?! Why, that dime-store Doctor Doom isn't fit to — just you wait till your father calls me back!!
Initially, at least. The Monarch quickly revealed himself to be a Not So Harmless Villain and an actual Diabolical Mastermind over the course of the first and second seasons. He was also involved in a vicious feud with Underbheit over who could kill Venture (before they decided upon a Villain Team Up). By the end of the second season, Rusty wasn't willing to bury the hatchet, even though the Monarch was (though it's all back to the same routine by the later season).
Underbheit, on the other hand, has made very rare appearances now and again, until La Résistance deposed him of his throne. He hasn't been, and (according to DVD Commentary) probably won't be, heard from again.
He has been. About halfway through Season 4, he teamed up with Phantom Limb and Professor Impossible.
And, as of season three's "Home Is Where The Hate Is", Dr. Venture's new Arch Enemy was Sergeant Hatred, who was assigned by the Guild of Calamitous Intent. His actual goal is to be as nice to Dr. Venture as possible, so as to annoy the Monarch and pay him back for his henchmen robbing him. However Hatred eventually becomes the new Venture Bodyguard and Monarch gets himself a free pass to antagonize Venture once again.
The Venture Brothers has an interesting system wherein archrivalries are assigned, not chosen, by the OSI and Guild of Calamitous Intent (hence the coinage of a term: 'arching' to describe the act of being an archnemesis). In season 3, it's revealed that a reason for Dr. Mrs. The Monarch's attraction to her husband is that The Monarch's archrivalry of Venture doesn't stem from this stodgy system, but actual, living, breathing, unfounded hatred.
Captain Hero on Drawn Together belatedly realized that the random homeless guy they ran over was "My... ARCH... NEMESIS!"
As an added, subtlety that would only be found on this show, his goal is not Captain Hero's destruction, but to get him to wash his balls. And has succeeded multiple times.
Though Xanatos fits best from a series standpoint, from a personal standpoint Demona, the Archmage, and Thailog might also want to claim that spot. From the same series, Tony Dracon is Elisa Maza's Arch Enemy (though he's not much of a threat to the Gargoyles themselves), while the entire line of Hunters consider themselves Demona's collective Arch Enemy (though in truth hers is probably MacBeth).
We never learn the details, but as per some kind of feud stretching to before the series, Dr. Quest and Dr. Zin seem to both hate and grudgingly respect one another's guts in Jonny Quest.
For a very brief time (about two episodes), SpongeBob himself had Bubble Bass; a slimy, devious and notoriously hard-to-please connoisseur who served as a Foil to SpongeBob, the workaholic, perfectionist fry cook.
Sometimes: SpongeBob and Plankton.
On The Simpsons, Bart Simpson and Principal Seymour Skinner and Sideshow Bob.
In the movies-within-the-show, McBain's archrival is Mendoza. Mendoza!!!!!!!
Even Maggie has the the one-eyebrowed Baby Gerald.
Homer's archenemies are Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders and Frank Grimes.
Although with Grimes it's mainly one sided, Homer seemed to actually quite like him.
On a personal level the Brotherhood (and specifically, the Brain) is Beast Boy's Arch Enemy. He was a member of the team that opposed them before he joined the Titans, and his past with them is what draws the other Titans into the conflict. Interestingly, this is a rare case of the hero taking it more seriously than the villain- the Brain considers Mento, the Doom Patrol's leader, to be his Arch Enemy, and regards Beast Boy as little more than an irritant. Yet, thanks to Beast Boy (and by extension, the Titans), the Brain considers ALL kid heroes his archenemies.
Avatar The Last Airbender: Prince Zuko is the Arch Enemy of both Aang and Zhao for the first season. In the second season, Zhao dies and his evil sister Azula becomes Zuko's new Arch Enemy. Aang himself himself has Fire Lord Ozai, though mostly from the fact that the two of them are destined to have an ultimate showdown, and everyone who wants to capture Aang intend to present him to the Fire Lord.
Dr. Drakken is Kim Possible's self-proclaimed arch foe, although Shego is her foil and the one she actually locks fists with. More specifically Drakken is an arch foe and Shego is the nemesis. It's like a lovetriangle...
Ron's Arch Foe is Monkey Fist, but that's mostly because Fist is the only one who recognizes Ron's name; that and the "Mystical Monkey Power."
And yet Luthor has survived direct dealings with both of them while even as both suffered grievous defeat. He was fused with Brainiac and personally put away Darkseid with the Anti-Life Equation who, it should be added, was even fused with Brainiac at the time.
Of all three though, Darkseid is easily Superman's most hated enemy. To put it in perspective, he is the only villain in the DCAU that Superman has no problem with killing, and actually WANTS to kill.
The only one who was able to actually BREAK Superman was indeed Lex Luthor. That WAS the Justice Lord version, but he was still really, really close to it in the main DCAU also.
The Tick: Oh, for crying out loud... Brainchild: So, at last, The Tick, my arch enemy, sits helpless before me! The Tick: 'Arch enemy'? You must be joking, Charles. I mean, I don't like you and everything but if I ever do have an arch enemy it's not going to be some creepy little brat with a glass head.
Carter Pewterschmidt and Ernie the Giant Chicken to Peter Griffin on Family Guy.
Stewie to his half-brother Bertram.
For some reason or another, In Spider-Man's cartoon from the 80s, his arch enemy was Doctor Doom. While the two have had s few historic encounters with one another in the comics, Doom is otherwise always depicted as an enemy of the Fantastic Four above all else.
Using similar logic to the Kim Possible example, in DuckTales Scrooge McDuck's arch rival is Flintheart Glomgold, but his most threatening nemesis is Magica de Spell. If you have to have an obsessive, implacable arch nemesis, might as well be a sexy sorceress.
In the comics, he has two, Flimheart Glomgold and John D. Rockerduck.
Freakazoid is another example of a series where the Arch Enemy and the most dangerous enemy are not one and the same. The Lobe is the Arch Enemy, but Freakazoid's most genuinely threatening foe is Corrupt Corporate Executive Armando Gutierrez.
Ben 10 has several characters possessing their own ach-enemies:
Ben Tennyson's most well known nemesis is Vilgax, who also used to be Max's. Kevin 11 and Dr Animo were considered as such as well in the original show, but by the sequels, Kevin made a Heel Face Turn and Animo became a relatively minor villain due to new more dangerous villains showing up. Finally, Albedo arguably counts due to being Ben's Evil Counterpart.
Gwen Tennyson has Hex and Charmcaster (until Heel Face Turn), both being directly linked to her connection to magic. While both of them did fight Ben, Max or Kevin, it's pretty clear their grudge toward Gwen is much more personnal.
While Ragnarock appeared for only one episode, his link to Kevin's origin is enough to qualify as Kevin's Arch-enemy.
Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers had a pretty good sized Rogues Gallery for an 80's cartoon, but two out of the four definitely had archenemies. The Queen of the Crowns had Zachary as an Arch Enemy while Killbane and Shane had a long, nasty history that only got worse after most of the Supertroopers went renegade.
The Huntsman is Jake's Arch Enemy in American Dragon Jake Long. Interestingly, he is only #4 on the Dragons' list of the top thirteen threats to the magical world. The #1 threat, the Dark Dragon, is Jake's Grandpa's Arch Enemy.
Often played for laughs in Darkwing Duck, where Darkwing would frequently refer as his Arch Enemy/archrival/archnemesis any villain he would have met at least twice. Even a guys whose only power was to have a bunch of penguins at his service to commit robberies was once referred as his Arch Enemy. However, from a serious point of view, at least three antagonists can be seen as his archenemies:
Megavolt initially owned the role, being both the first villain Darkwing chronogically faced (at least in his more "realistic" backstory), a personnal ennemy and one of the most recurring antagonists. He gradually lost the post to Negaduck however, to the point the recent comic sequel has him retired.
Negaduck is mostly considered as the main Arch Enemy, due to both being an evil counterpart of the hero, the leader of the Fearsome Five and the most popular vilain amongst fans.
Taurus Bulba, while having only two appearances in the animated series, was the first villain seen onscreen, as well as one of the most fearsome and competent. His link to Gazolyne makes him a personnal villain. As such, he can be considered, in a way, as an Arch-Enemy
Skysurfer One and Cybron from Skysurfer Strike Force. On the one hand, Cybron is responsible for stealing a an experimental computer brain from an A.I. lab, then blowing it to kingdom come, letting Sky's father (who Cybron may have also killed) take the blame. On the other hand, Skysurfer One and the other Skysurfers routinely stop his attempts to Take Over the World.
In the Futurama movie Into the Wild Green Yonder, the Encyclopod and the Dark One. Their species have been archenemies since time immemorial: the Encyclopods wish to preserve all life and the Dark Ones want to destroy it. After the last Dark One is killed, the last Encyclopod reluctantly decides to preserve its ancient enemy's genetic code. Fortunately, the last Dark One's remains are immediately wholly destroyed making this impossible so the Encyclopod doesn't have to carry its worst enemy on its back.
Diamond Tiara and (occasionally) Silver Spoon to the Cutie Mark Crusaders (but mostly Applebloom). Diamond Tiara does not like Applebloom one bit and all of her appearances show her trying to hurt and humiliate Applebloom.
And Baker also turns up in Start of Darkness (the trope namer, that is) as one of Xykon's rivals for the position of second-in-command to the Unholy Master early on in the book.
Bobby Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson hated, hated each other with a passion. Bobby felt Johnson was a devious coward, Johnson thought Bobby was a foul tempered "little shit." Intensified tenfold after JFK'sassassination.
Also, Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense and a close personal friend of Bobby's who only got closer to him after Jack's assassination, got caught in the crossfire. This may have influenced some of Johnson's decisions in The Vietnam War.
Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope were two of the major pioneers in the field of paleontology and between them identified over 142 new species of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, they hated each other with a passion and each became obsessed with defeating the other and proving himself the better scientist. Their frenzied race, known as the Bone Wars, extended over fifteen years and ended in a virtual stalemate, and both men were nearly bankrupted by the effort. In the end, they both made enormous contributions to the study of dinosaurs, committed any number of shady deeds to undermine each other, and ended up in the poorhouse. Not So Different, indeed.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third presidents respectively, were this; after George Washington left the office, these two formed bitterly divided parties against each other. Ironically, due to how voting worked at the time, Jefferson wound up as vice to Adams when he entered office, making things even worse than they were before. After both of their terms as president were over, however, they went on to become good friends.
Actually, they were good friends before Adams became president, having collaborated on the Declaration of Independence and worked together overseas. But when their political ideologies started to diverge, their relationship fell apart. Luckily they patched it up when they retired.
Then there was Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, a political and personal rivalry that actually ended with Burr (then Vice-President of the United States) killing Hamilton in a duel.
More on 19th Century American politics - Andrew Jackson vs. Henry Clay; a rivalry that started for political reasons when Clay alledgedly cheated Jackson out of the presidency in 1824 by making a "corrupt bargain" with John Quincy Adams and which later turned personal in 1828 when Clay organized and carried out the slander campaign which led to the death of Jackson's wife, Rachel. The blood feud lasted for over twenty years!
Another example from US politics: Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich.
In the current Congress, John Boehner vs. Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell vs. Harry Reid.
In the related area of American campaign strategizing and punditry, James "the Ragin' Cajun" Carville and Mary Matalin, respectively Democratic and Republican campaign strategists and pundits extraordinaire, have called themselves arch-enemies on several occasions. They're quite right: they repeatedly found themselves fighting campaigns for opposing candidates in The Eighties all the way up to 1992, when they were high-ranking members of the Clinton and Bush campaign staffs, respectively. Then they got married in 1993. Opposites Attract, one supposes... (They still appear opposite each other from time to time on CNN and other networks to bash each other's political heads in. One wonders what their daughters—around whom they do not talk about politics—think of all this.)
Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz fought for years over who invented calculus.
Newton also hated Robert Hooke with a passion. It's widely believed that his famous statement "If I have seen far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants" was a swipe at Hooke, who was notably short.
Liberal William Lyon Mackenzie King and Conservative Arthur Meighen were bitter rivals in university, and the bad blood between them carried over when they both went into politics. Both men would serve as prime minister of Canada and led their parties against each other, but this trope was arguably subverted because King repeatedly wiped the floor with Meighen in their political Curb Stomp Battles.
Half a century earlier, a much more balanced version of this played out in Britain between William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. Gladstone was a vaguely anti-imperialist Liberal (until he took office, whereupon the empire actually nearly grew twice as much as it had under Disraeli), a devout Christian very involved in social causes, and very much a man of ideas. Disraeli was a raw politician (though not without principles), ethnically Jewish, not a particularly serious Anglican, something of a hedonist, and a Conservative imperialist extraordinaire (he was responsible for making Queen Victoria Empress of India). For her part, the Queen loved Disraeli (and not just for making her an Empress) and hated Gladstone ("He always speaks to me as though I were a public meeting."); she made Disraeli an Earl but didn't even give Gladstone the courtesy of recommending a successor when he retired (and picked his least favourite candidate out of spite). Gladstone was frugal and very good with money (becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer four times, including twice as his own Chancellor); Disraeli was a bit of a spendthrift and kept having to write Romance Novels and other penny-dreadfuls to stay solvent. They led their parties against each other in several elections in the late 19th century, more or less taking turns governing the country and trading insults: Disraeli mocked Gladstone's nickname, GOM (the "Grand Old Man"), as really meaning "God's Only Mistake." For his part, Gladstone called Disraeli shallow even in death. These two men hated each others' guts with a passion not seen since in British politics.
Hunter S. Thompson, author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, hated Richard Nixon almost more than words can adequately describe. When he told Nixon this, Nixon said "Don't worry. I, too, am a family man, and we feel the same way about you." To give you an idea of just how much Thompson hated him, observe this article, written just a few days after Nixon's death.
If the right people had been in charge of Nixon's funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning. Even his funeral was illegal. He was queer in the deepest way. His body should have been burned in a trash bin.
Ancient Athens and Sparta, even as there were some times that they helped one another.
The U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Became more like rivals during Detente in the late '60s and '70s, but escalated back into archenemies during the '80s until the Soviet Union's fall in 1991. These days they are on more or less good terms, though Russia has a habit of blowing a lot hot air every now and then, but it's treated more like an Unknown Rival now.
The US-Soviet rivalry is odd in that the recent rise of China as an economic superpower seems to have made some Americans nostalgic over the Soviet Union. The recent Russian spy scandal was rife with jokes about how the FBI and CIA were ecstatic about a return to the good old days.
Ironically, the United States had good relations with Tsarist Russia. Russia was officially neutral during the American Revolution, but nevertheless indirectly helped it by supplying arms to France and Spain, both of whom were allied with the colonists. Russia was also the only European country to declare support for the Union during the American Civil War (because they thought an intact America would stand a better chance of counterbalancing the power of The British Empire), although they didn't actually intervene. The Russians also sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867, and boy are the Americans glad that the Russians didn't have that land during the Cold War.
The Roman and Persian Empires battled each other for centuries, but Rome's traditional Arch Enemy was Carthage, as per The Aeneid.
Poland and Germany have long detested one another. Luckily, this seems to be winding down what with the end of the two bigwars.
Greece and the Ottoman Empire. North and South Korea. China and Japan. Japan and Korea, Israel and Palestine. Really, it could go on and on...
The United States Republican and Democratic parties in general and their presidential nominees every four years.
For that matter, the North and the South of America. Some don't really care, but attitudes for both range from Southerners viewing Northerners as obnoxious "left wing loonies," and Northerners viewing Southerners as ignorant rednecks. There are also some individuals in the South who still are bitter about losing The American Civil War, and will react quite angrily if questioned on this point. Likewise, some Northerners have never gotten over the incident.
India and Pakistan. Three major wars and one minor conflict and several close calls and both sides have nukes? Archenemies.
India and Japan are petitioning for permanent security council seats, while Pakistan and Korea are in committee to vote them down. This would strangely make Mexico a burgeoning rival for Brazil.
Australia and New Zealand - but only in the sporting arena, elsewhere we're Vitriolic Best Buds at worst, Best Friends when having to be part of The Squad at best...
In any duopoly, the two dominant companies could be considered this.
Nintendo and Sega, during the fourth generation of video games.
Sega was Nintendo's arch-enemy before it stopped making its own gaming consoles. Nowadays we have the three-way archenemies of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.
Disney, being a multi-media conglomerate, has different arch-enemies in different fields
Disney and Warner Bros. were this in the field of animated shorts before that format mostly disappeared. Nowadays, there's a bit of this between Disney Toon Studios (which makes films, mostly direct-to-video ones) and Walt Disney Television Animation on one side vs. and Warner Bros. Animation (which also does TV shows and direct-to-video films) on the other side.
And since Disney owns Marvel now and DC has been owned by Warner Bros, the Marvel/DC rivalry takes on an extra layer.
