Worthy Opponent - Television Tropes & Idioms

Those are some brave men. Let's go kill them.
— Tyrion Lannister, A Clash of Kings

I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend.
— Romulan Commander, Star Trek The Original Series

[German] or not, the best of luck to you. You've got guts.
— An Allied commander, on D-Day, about the two Luftwaffe pilots in the battle (without any backup).

The equal and opposite enemy to the hero, who save for the tragic circumstances of his life, upbringing, politics, or financial situation, might have been the hero's best friend. Unfortunately, though, he must be the hero's opposition. Evenly matched, with a sense of honor that allows the hero to trust him about a select few things, and an honest respect for the hero, the Worthy Opponent also fights to the same standards of fairness as the hero. The Worthy Opponent will also do things like negotiate honestly or allow the wounded hero to escape to fight another day. Sometimes found in the role of The Dragon, but is almost never the Big Bad.

The Worthy Opponent is rarely a recurring character, but is usually likely to evolve into a Friendly Enemy. More often he is killed (sometimes by a fanatic on his own side) after one or two episodes, prompting the hero to mourn the loss of such an honorable but misguided soul. Sometimes the hero and the Worthy Opponent even agree that It Has Been An Honor. When he gets beaten and stays alive he will be a Graceful Loser.

Despite their honor, they never seem to decide to stop enabling their leader to do evil.

See also Antagonist In Mourning and Anti Villain. Contrast with the Evil Counterpart, Dark Magical Girl, and Minion With An F In Evil.

Examples

Anime and Manga

Yuuri and, later, Mimi and Sheshe from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch.
L from Death Note, who might be considered the Big Bad, if the protagonist wasn't instead.
Ashram from Record Of Lodoss War, at least in the TV version.
Nietzsche Wannabe Schwarzwald of The Big O, although initially antagonistic of hero Roger Smith, became an unspoken ally of Smith later in the second season. Both searched for the truth behind The Event: Schwarzwald preferred fear, aggression, and mass murder to spread his message, while Smith opted to protect the citizens of Paradigm City from Schwarzwald's attack and was nearly killed by Schwarzwald in the process. Smith later speaks fondly of Schwarzwald, who leaves clues for Smith in an attempt to lead him to the ultimate truth behind The Event.
Viral from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Ended up doing a Heel Face Turn and became The Lancer.
Shimi from Outlaw Star makes a great drinking buddy to Gene until he has to kill him. He eventually decides to settle this in a duel where his gun jams and the crew bury him before setting off.. until he digs himself out ("They should have buried me deeper.") and reveals he faked the whole thing since he hated being a space pirate and was looking for a way to quit.
Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh) is pretty much the epitome of this.
Sendoh Akira and Sawakita Eiji to Rukawa Kaede in Slam Dunk.
s-CRY-ed is built around this trope, having two main characters who start off on opposite sides of the conflict and are bitter enemies, but actually have a lot in common, unite against a common enemy in the second half of the series, and even become sorta-friends, though they still have an intense rivalry and can't have a conversation without it devolving into insults.
Rambal Ral from Mobile Suit Gundam, who actually did befriend Amuro before they battled to the death.
Although they are enemies, Ankoku Daishogun and Tetsuya Tsurugi (both from Great Mazinger) respect each other as warriors and when the first falls, Tetsuya gave him a salutation for being a Worthy Opponent. Obviously, these get carried over in Super Robot Wars.
Nanoha and Fate quickly become Worthy Opponents of each other in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, complete with adorable pre-teen Foe Yay and the inevitable Heel Face Turn. In the second season, Fate and Signum pair off similarly, maintaining a friendly rivalry even after the second inevitable Heel Face Turn (never mind that Fate's Just A Kid when they meet and Signum is Really Seven Hundred Years Old, respect is respect). Nanoha and Vita, on the other hand, are more like rivals due to the latter's attitude.
In Martian Successor Nadesico, Tsukumo Shiratori and Captain Akiyama seem to consider themselves the Worthy Opponents of the "heroic" mecha pilot Akito and the "brilliant" captain Yurika, neither of whom really seem to care. The pilot pair do become friends for a brief while before, yep, Shiratori gets offed by a scheming fanatic on his own side.
Eyeshield 21 has this kind of relationship between the Devil Bats and many of the members of the other football teams they play, but especially the Oujou White Knights. You get the feeling a couple of times that Sakuraba and Monta, and Kurita and Otawara could've been the best of friends if they were on the same team. On the other hand, Shin and Sena are probably as close as they'll ever get, as fiercely competitive yet friendly rivals with deep respect for one another.
Mugen and Jin of Samurai Champloo, from the moment they first meet. Literally within seconds of coming into contact, they fight to the (almost) death, then get arrested together and commiserate (half naked, too), all while swearing to murder each other once they escape.
Father Anderson and Alucard's in Hellsing (at least, the manga and recent OVA). In one sequence from the manga, Alucard watches admiringly as Anderson slices his way through an army of mooks Alucard summoned in order to have a final showdown with Alucard.
Vagabond has Miyamoto Musashi has this with dynamic with various other characters even before they fight; in fact, in his first major fight he survives because Yoshioka Denshichirou wants him to become this. (Unfortunately for Denshichirou, Musashi makes far better use of the year between their duels and ends up defeating him easily.) In'ei trains him specifically because he's the one for Inshun (no one else can threaten Inshun's life), but Musashi's two most clear Worthy Opponents seem to be Yagyuu Hyougonosuke and Sasaki Kojirou.

Comic Books

The DC Elseworlds story "Red Son," in which the infant Superman's rocket ship crash lands in the Soviet Union and Kal-El is brought up to become a Communist leader, the American scientist (and, later, President) Lex Luthor is Superman's Worthy Opponent, impressive for a man with no superpowers. Their rivalry is much more personal than the international politics they are embroiled in, and though they are constantly seeking to destroy one another, Superman at one pivotal moment refers to Lex as "old friend". Lex, the irony lost on him, at one point muses that he and Superman could have been close allies had Superman been raised in America.

Film

Literary and Film example: In The Princess Bride, Inigo Montoya to the Man in Black in their first duel. Includes Inigo helping the Man in Black up the cliff, then waiting for him to be ready, and the two of them complimenting each other throughout.
The World War II movie The Enemy Below, in which U-boat captain Von Stolberg (Curt Jurgens) was the Worthy Opponent of destroyer escort captain Murrell (Robert Mitchum).
Star Trek:Nemesis is quite literally about an equal and opposite opponent to Picard, a clone of him who grew up in different circumstances (though they really look nothing alike).

Literature

Professor Moriarty to Sherlock Holmes.
- Irene Adler might also be considered a Worthy Opponent (and, according to some fen, maybe a little bit more).
- It is also interesting to note that when Maurice Le Blanc needed a worthy opponent to his own character, Arsene Lupin, especially as Ganimard simply wasn't cutting it, he instead decided to use a ready made one in an expy of Sherlock Holmes.
The Sharpe books often included this type of character among the French ranks. Often, the character would be a portrayal of a real French officer whom the author respected. In a military context, this character makes more sense.
Sergey Golovko or the Soviet Union as a whole in Tom Clancy novels.
Gotrek Gurnisson from the Warhammer novels is a Slayer. A dwarf who, having lost his honour, is oathbound to commit suicide by Worthy Opponent. Much to his frustration, he fails time and again.
In the Warhammer 40000 Eisenhorn novels, Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn regards the Sealed Evil In A Can Pontius Glaw as a being who is intelligent, erudite, charismatic, and likable, and regretfully remarks that if Glaw hadn't chosen to follow Chaos, then they would have been the best of friends.
Rudyard Kipling's The Ballad of East and West is basically a prolonged exploration of this trope, culminating in the purportedly villainous character being so impressed with his enemy that he sends his own son to serve as the hero's bodyguard.
In Scott's The Talisman, Sir Kenneth and the Saracen.

Live Action TV

The Master from Doctor Who clearly believes the Doctor to be a Worthy Opponent, to the point that in "The Five Doctors" he agrees to save the Doctor's life, musing "A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about." The Doctor reciprocates this feeling in the new series.
The Romulan commander in the Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror", as quoted above.
- Also from Trek (and also Romulan {halfway}), Commander Sela was Data's Worthy Foe - a concept TNG constantly beat us over the head and chest with whenever Sela showed up.
This is sort-of played with on The Colbert Report with the segment "Formidable Opponent", where Stephen debates himself, with the footage flipped and the background color changed (from red to blue, naturally).
Hauptmann Hans Dietrich of Rat Patrol. Though he was rarely able to stop the Allied commando unit, he was smart and always honorable.
Mr. Wolf, leader of a bank-robbing team of former Marines who engages in an epic duel of wits and will with police negotiator Horst Cali in Kill Point

Mythology

Hector and Achilles of Homer's The Iliad, making this Older Than Dirt.
...along with The Epic Of Gilgamesh: The very reason Enkidu was created was to be Gilgamesh's best friend and Worthy Opponent and give him another way to expend his power and Super Strength besides sleeping with every woman in Uruk.

Professional Wrestling

Nikita Koloff started out as a standard Evil Foreigner, then became a Worthy Opponent to Magnum T.A.; when Magnum's career was ended by a car accident, Nikita became an Antagonist In Mourning, which eventually lead to a Heel Face Turn. Whew!

Video Games

General Leo of Final Fantasy VI worked for the Empire, but was otherwise an honorable person. And, like the trope states, he was killed off by Kefka (a power-hungry lunatic also working for the Empire).
- To a lesser extent, Rubicant from Final Fantasy IV, the Fiend of Fire. Although he is perfectly willing to see the entire world destroyed in the name of his master, he is infuriated to discover one of his aides turned a protagonist's parents into monsters, and fully heals the party before battle with him commences.
Gogandantes, the Greatest Swordsman of all the Demons, from Onimusha 2, is essentially a demonic Samurai. He appears to be entirely invincible, but repeatedly refuses to finish off the hero, since that would be dishonorable. During the hero's final fight against him, he rescues the main love-interest from a fiery death before engaging him in an honorable duel. When, thanks to a magic flute, you actually defeat him, the hero acknowledges his honor and skill as he dies. What a senseless waste of demon life...
- Although one wonders how honorable he can be if he fights all his battles surrounded by an inpenetrable force field...
It is stated repeatedly throughout Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney that one of the primary reasons Phoenix became a defense attorney is that he could meet his childhood friend Miles Edgeworth in court, as Edgeworth is a prosecutor. Despite their positions as adversaries in court, their mutual desire for justice leads them to jointly take down quite a few criminals. In the fourth game, Apollo Justice gets his own Worthy Opponent, Klavier Gavin.
Vergil from Devil May Cry fills this role in the third outing and arguably somewhat in the first, being Dante's brother, with a definite tendency towards only using melee weapons.
Meta Knight in the Kirby games, who will give the hero a sword in their battles so they can fight on more or less even terms. In many games, he will even refuse to fight unless Kirby picks up the sword.
- Admittedly, the latter half was partially so that he didn't get stuffed in a pot and cooked or similar fates possible in some of the games.
The Drakengard games have two examples. The first game has Caim and Inuart. Inuart bemoans early in the game how he is never as strong as Caim, but when he turns evil, he gains the power of a pact with a dragon and handily defeats Caim in a tense cinematic. They hold each other to a certain standard as Inuart doesn't take advantage of the situation to kill Caim. The second game has Caim appear as the Worthy Opponent to Nowe, the protagonist of that game. Caim's duel with Nowe is only a formality as Nowe isn't the one Caim wants dead, and Caim only fights Nowe long enough to weaken him and achieve his real objective, which, once learned, is actually quite sympathetic.
Tales Of Symphonia features an... Unusual Worthy Opponent in the form of Forcystus, one of the desian grand cardinals, who is posthumously constructed as a Worthy Opponent in a discussion between Kratos and Lloyd and is easily the most tolerant and level-headed of the lot (being, for instance, willing to enter into a mutual non-agression pact with the human village within his territory). When taken into account that he is still a spluttering racist misanthrope who burned down Lloyd's hometown, mutated one of Genis' best friends into a monster and set her loose on the party, tried to doom the world because of the flawed ideals of his Knight Templar boss and tried to gun down innocent bystanders when the party thwarted him, their declaration of how war makes enemies out of people who could otherwise be friends seems a little... Off.
Wodan Ymir in Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2 to Sanger Zonvolt, his still-living Alternate Universe counterpart. In one battle, he actually helps Sanger out, and fights against his own allies because he is The Only One Allowed To Defeat Him.
Forsythe from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin fights on the side of the Lazurian army, but is a kind-hearted general who stands by a strict code of honor and turns down Caulder's offer to resort to dirty tactics when fighting against Brenner and the Rubinelle army. When he is defeated, he promptly surrenders without resistance and is promptly killed by Admiral Greyfield, leaving his subordinates Tasha and Gage to fly the Lazurian banner for him after his loss.
The Black Knight in FE 9 and 10. Although he murders Greil in cold blood, he doesn't do so before offering a powerful sword and insisting that he use it. He fights Ike honorably as well, in fact, more honorably than Ike, if Mist appears.
In Metal Gear Solid 3, Ocelot and Big Boss view one another as Worthy Opponents even though they stand at opposite sides of the Cold War. This causes Ocelot to act like a Stalker With A Crush.
Generals Duessel, Glen, and Selena from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones are all reluctant villains who are well-respected by the heroes.
Holly Summer from No More Heroes is another example.
Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies' Yellow Thirteen calls [[AFGNCAAP Mobius]] One this after Mobius One has made a name for himself, and it's reinforced after Mobius One destroys Stonehenge and shoots down Yellow Thirteen's wingman Yellow Four. Mobius One however proves that he's actually better, shooting Yellow Thirteen down during the Siege of Farbanti.

Western Animation

Prince Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender fills this role for the hero, Aang. Zuko later found his own Worthy Opponent in the form of another young outcast like himself, Jet.
Robin and Slade in Teen Titans
Brock Samson and Molotov Cocktease are one part this, two parts really frustrating Foe Yay.

Real Life

WWI German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, better known today as the Red Baron, was greatly admired among the Allied powers. Upon his death, he was given a full military funeral by his Australian opponents. Erwin Rommel, the Nazi Field Marshal known as the Desert Fox by his enemies, was similarly praised by his opponents, especially his legendary archrival George Patton. Both the Red Baron and the Desert Fox were the living Magnificent Bastards of their time (in fact, the trope Magnificent Bastard was named after Rommel). It should be noted that Rommel was still a big Nazi, although he had Jewish friends and knew about the July 20 plot. The fact that he managed to become the only Nazi with his own museum just shows how well he exemplified both Magnificent Bastard and Worthy Opponent.
- In fact, real-life examples pop up all over the place: at the Battle of Hastings, the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans shouted to each other when they were resting at night, and there's also the famous Christmas truce of 1914.
  - Another is the rivalry between Takeda Shingen and Uesegi Kenshin, two Daimyos in Japan. Although ruling different territories, and often waging war against one another, legend says they developed a deep respect for one another, to the point where Kenshin reportedly wept openly and loudly at the death of Shingen, and never again attacked Shingen's territory.
  - King Fredrick the Great of Prussia once commented on Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, "I warred with her, but I was never her enemy."
- Union and Confederate soldiers in the American Civil War sometimes conducted temporary truces to trade for tobacco, food or alcohol, with or without their superior officers' knowledge or consent. There is at least one documented instance of soldiers deserting and joining the opposing side because their commanding officer killed a soldier they had made a truce with.
  - Also from the Civil War: General Robert E. Lee was well respected by many members of the Union, including Abraham Lincoln.
  - Ulysses S. Grant was similary well respected by Lee, who, after the war, never, ever tolerated an unkind word about Grant in his presence. Joseph Johnston was similarly disposed towards his rival. Considering that the rival in question was the oft-villianized William T. Sherman, that's saying something. Johnston even served as a pallbearer at Sherman's funeral, and refused to cover up despite poor health and bone-chilling winter.
  - Indeed the Civil War was full of this, as most of the Confederate officers had been Union officers until just before the war.
- Raizo Tanaka(from an American troper's point of view of course). He was one of Japan's finest naval officer and the leader of the legendary Tokyo Express in the Solomon Islands Campaign in 1942-43. He kept Japanese outposts alive, and evacuated them when the time came, in the teeth of the American naval and air forces, fighting a number of fierce actions. Fortunately for American arms, envy of his success and anger at his lack of tact caused the Obstructive Bureaucrats of the Imperial Japanese Navy to beach him.
A fair few Cold War veterans feel this way about some of their opponents on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
The military ethic has analogies to the legal ethic in that it presumes that a professional soldier will do his best for the State he serves(barring Very Exceptional Circumstances: see Those Wacky Nazis )just as a lawyer does the same for his client. Thus many soldiers do not think it contradictory to try to kill someone and yet admire them as killing is their job but hating isn't, as after all enemy soldiers aren't much different from themselves.
Former Georgia Governor and Senator Zell Miller has such views about the modern direction of the American democratic party, and was one of the the few democrats that criticized a plan to leak classified information to hurt President Bush.