Characters having an Unknown Rival in Fan Works.
- Dirty Sympathy Daryan Crescend is one to Apollo for Klavier's affections. While he later finds out that Klavier is cheating on him, he never finds out that Klavier is cheating on him for Apollo and that Apollo sees him as an obstacle and danger to Klavier.
- Dragon Ball X: Baldwin Coster is this to Rhuna at the World Martial Arts Tournament. He doesn't even recognise her, although in his case it's because he's so full of himself that he doesn't bother to remember faces. Add in his sexism and Rhuna's a blank doll to him. In the ensuing fight, Rhuna took extra special pleasure in reminding him who she was.
- Earth and Sky: While Apple Bloom knows that Diamond Tiara doesn't like her, it's unlikely she realizes that DT views them as archenemies.
- The Immortal Game: The Cadet claims that he and Sir Unimpressive have been archenemies for years even before the war. Unimpressive doesn't remember him at all.
- Kira Is Justice: O is this, being Mello's counterpart. Justin doesn't even know of him, and the closet thing that O had done so far to challenge him was to send SIS agents to Chicago-partially to bring out L.
- Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race: Tron Bonne sees herself as a rival for Mega Man's affections, but both Mega Man and Kalinka don't even know who she is.
- The New Adventures of Invader Zim:
- Zim is completely unable to remember the names of Dib's new teammates, Steve and Viera, constantly referring to them both as "Not Dib". And that's when he can even remember who they are.
- Arnold Quis, aka Agent Spider Monkey, is this to Dib in the Swollen Eyeball Network, as Dib barely knows he exists and doesn't know just how much he hates him. And when Quis' spiteful actions get him kicked out of the SEN, he blames Dib, who isn't even aware of it. This is lampshaded by the title of his first major appearance, which is "Rise of the Unknown Rival".
- Return to Krocodile Isle: As the credits scene shows, ten years without seeing each other means that, while a seething hatred of DK has been eating K. Rool alive, Donkey Kong can't even remember him when asked to shout out a "big scaly villain", instead namedropping Bowser and Kraid.
- Rivals Series: Yuuri is this to Viktor; Yuuri has devoted a decade of his life to breaking Viktor's winning streak and unseating him as the best skater in the world, after Viktor tactlessly insulted him when he was a fan. While Viktor deeply respects Yuuri's abilities and acknowledges him as his only equal, he interprets their personal relationship in a completely different light.
- The More Things Change provides several examples:
- Ryo Muhoshin craves for killing his hated rival Ryoga Hibiki due to (perceived) unforgivable slights. He spent years tracking him down and found out that Ryoga didn't even remember him.
- Tanya Noori. Ryoga has absolutely no idea of why she wants to kill him.
- The Westerosi:
- Cersei Lannister becomes paranoid of and obsessed with destroying Jade Hasegawa because she suspects Jade is the "younger, more beautiful queen" in the prophecy who will overthrow her. While Jade sees Cersei as an opponent because Cersei won't cooperate with her, she doesn't worry about her because she is more concerned with helping Westeros survive the Long Night. Jade doesn't know about the prophecy and doesn't care about the Iron Throne or any of Westeros' political power struggles.
- Euron Greyjoy is also obsessed with defeating Jade, seeing her as a rival in magic, and believes she is also working to defeat him. When Jade is in the House of the Undying, they are able to see and hear each other during one of Jade's visions. Euron lectures her on resorting to going to the House of the Undying for the secret of defeating him. She says she has no idea who he is.
- For Love of Magic: For the few scenes she's in, Hermione tries to set herself up as Harry's academic rival but the boy is barely aware of her attempts.
- Harry Is a Dragon, and That's OK: Draco Malfoy still has an axe to grind with Harry and goes out of his way to cause trouble — and mostly falls flat. For Harry's part, he just shrugs off Draco's attempts and finds him rather strange. Eventually Draco realises it works far better in his favour to team up with Harry than antagonize him all the time and forms the Defense Club with him.
- RWBY Alternate: Ruby adores her older half-sister Yang, but Yang feels jealous of Ruby due to the Parental Favoritism she gets from their dad. Yang's attempts at one-upping her sister go unnoticed, until Yang goes too far during a fight and nearly kills her sister.
- A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor plays with this trope in a strange way: while Arturia is aware of the Elder One's existence and threat, she hasn't gotten a clue just what the hell they can even be at all. The Elder One on the other hand, is fully aware of Arturia's past, implying they were there themselves and given the sheer contempt they have for the King of Knights, It's Personal.
- Fixing RWBY: Arslan is bitter towards Pyrrha because she always comes in second place against Pyrrha in tournaments. Pyrrha, however, hasn't noticed Arslan's disdain. She doesn't even really care about winning.
- Handmaid: Jane Seymour to Anne Boleyn. Jane views Anne as a rival for Henry's affections because, while she's a secondary lover like Jane, any child Henry sires on Anne will be legitimate due to her status as Henry's handmaid. Anne, however, is in love with Katherine of Aragon, and is sleeping with Henry and having his children to secure Katherine and Mary's positionsnote . She doesn't care about Henry turning his affections to someone else, and doesn't interfere with Jane's relationship with Henry because, by the time it started, Anne was already in the midst of her second pregnancy. This backfires on everyone after Henry's increased time with Jane causes her to become pregnant with Edward while she's still his mistress, prompting Thomas Seymour to try and murder Anne so Jane can replace her. While Anne survives, she miscarries her and Henry's son. After Thomas and Jane are arrested and set to be executed (the latter after the birth of Edward), both Anne and Katherine admit they should've payed more attention to Jane instead of dismissing her as another one of Henry's flings.
- The Mountain and the Wolf:
- The Wolf is rather put out to find that his warning to the Westerosi at large has been ignored and that they haven't started preparing for a Chaos invasion.
- Conversely, the Wolf seems to have difficulty remembering some of the people he deals with, only vaguely remembering he'd seen Tyrion once.
- Fates Collide: Nero sees Ruby Rose as her rival and vows to defeat her for having the power to summon roses, which she believes should belong to her alone. When she finally confronts and challenges her, Ruby has no idea who she is, and pays more attention to her other opponents Cinder and Amakusa.
- Hachiman actually has three in My Hero School Adventure Is All Wrong As Expected:
- After Hachiman defeated Bakugo in every one of the Quirk assessment tests (solely for the joy of rubbing his victory in the explosive blond's face) and proved instrumental in the villain's defeat at U.S.J., the volatile teen has considered the 1-A Class Representative to be something of a Worthy Opponent. This has actually helped to curb some of Bakugo's more abrasive tendencies and kick-start his character development several months faster than canon by showing him alternative ways for Heroes to accomplish their goals.
- Todoroki also thinks of Hachiman as a goal to surpass due to his success during the U.S.J. event and even views him as a threat to his chance of victory in the final tournament rounds of the U.A. Sports Festival. Todoroki even goes so far as to pull a Cavalry Betrayal on Hachiman's group at the last minute of the tournament's second round, stealing their points and walling them off from all other teams to make sure they couldn't progress.
- More than his strength, what Deku admires most about Hachiman are his mental and social attributes. Deku can't help but think to himself that his planning skills fall short of Hachiman's after seeing the strategies and contingencies the other teen is able to easily formulate and implement during times of conflict. Socially, his classmate's ability to incite the rest of his group during the sports festival and U.S.J. incident was so great that, when combined with the inspiring figure Hikigaya portrayed during the singles bout, Midoriya couldn't help but favorably compare Hachiman to the Symbol of Peace himself. For a more comedic example, what Midoriya actually finds most impressive is Hachiman's ability to casually talk to girls and converse with Bakugo without getting his head bit off.
- A variation of this in Julie Horwitz
's Mummies Alive! fics; back in Ancient Egypt, Ja-Kal's wife Tia arranged for Nefer-Tina to be raped just because she saw Nefer-Tina looking at her husband when Nefer-Tina had no intention of acting on her feelings and there was no sign that Ja-Kal even knew about her. - In Doctor in the Underworld, while the Doctor expresses his disapproval of Viktor after learning about his role in starting the war as he decides to try and end the vampire/lycan conflict, it is unclear if Viktor was ever even aware of the Doctor’s existence, as he never mentions him when talking with Selene about her ‘crimes’, Selene speculating that her memories may have been so jumbled that Viktor didn’t ‘remember’ the Doctor.
- Fate/Harem Antics: After Rider crushed Zouken Matou under rubble and then Assassin killed him, his grandson Shinji becomes terrified of the two and goes into hiding, paranoid that they will come after him next and praying that they don't find him. He's hiding for nothing, as those two barely, if at all, noticed him, and they certainly don't give him a second thought.
- Arrow: Rebirth: Oliver is sent back in time to immediately after he first returned to Lian Yu, with Felicity following a few days later. Felicity is outraged when she learns Oliver won't immediately resume their relationship, as he's still in love with (the still alive) Laurel. Felicity then plots to murder Laurel so that she and Oliver can be together again, only to be murdered herself by a third party before she can get anywhere. Laurel meanwhile, is not only unaware that Felicity hates her, but seemingly doesn't even know who Felicity is.
- Ultimately deconstructed. Laurel is eventually informed of the above events, and is horrified to learn someone she's never met could hate her that much, to the point of having nightmares about it.
- The God of Destruction comes to Remnant: Gojira defeats Adam Taurus and severely injures him, causing Adam to swear vengeance on him, saying that as soon as his injuries heal, he will hunt him down and make him suffer. Gojira laughs off his threats and does not give him a second thought.
- Ruby Pair: In "Meeting of Ruby Eyes'', Zim has no recollection of having previously encountered Gabo Amebo when attacked by his forces on Cyberflox, despite remembering everything else from that past adventure.
- In The Whole Academy's on Fire, Monokuma reacts violently to Sonic the Hedgehog's arrival and acts like Sonic should know him...while the hedgehog outright admits to not having a clue as to who Monokuma even is, only caring about stopping him because Monokuma admits to running a killing game.
- Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus: Grace Monroe despises Chloe Cerise for the fact that this princess gets love, attention and super powers in the span of a few months while Grace is hated as the cult leader of the Apex, had to claw her way out for almost a decade to survive on the Train and is currently separated from said cult — as the story takes place in Book 3 of Infinity Train — with wanting nothing more than to kill the little brat where she stands. Chloe only sees her as the Apex leader and she has more things to worry about like the ritual in Silent Hill and her dad thrown onto the Train itself
- Rise of the Minisukas: Gendo has convinced himself that Shigeru Aoba is a brilliant, manipulative mastermind who has waltzed his way into Nerv and has made himself indispensable to bring about his downfall while posing as a mere grunt. Of course, Aoba is a mere grunt who is completely unaware of his boss' goals and plans.
- Fate DxD AU:
- Issei is bitterly jealous of Ritsuka for having a harem and vows to defeat him. Ritsuka mostly ignores him, and when Issei tries to attack him, he kicks Issei's ass. Issei eventually comes to his senses and buries the hatchet.
- Freed is obsessed with killing Ritsuka due to Ritsuka stopping him from abducting Asia. Ritsuka has trouble remembering his name and kicks his ass whenever they fight.
- Diodora is obsessed with killing Ritsuka for saving Asia and winning her affections. Since he's hiding in the shadows, Ritsuka doesn't even know he exists.
- In Trusting Each Other, Lila's attempts to ruin Marinette's life go unnoticed by the latter because their classmates are quick to figure out the former's effort to manipulate them and make it clear to Lila that if she hurts Marinette they will make her pay dearly. Marinette doesn't even find out about Lila's ill-intentions (besides the rumors she tried to spread) until after Lila transfers out.
- Second Bite of the Cherry: Yu Ziyuan is under the impression that Wei Ying purposely mocks her and her daughter Yanli with her loving, happy marriage. Wei Ying is barely aware Yu Ziyuan exists and frets quite a lot about her dear friend Yanli's future.
- In the Discworld/Harry Potter crossover One-Eighth of a Chance, Death is confronted by a newly dead Voldemort, who is surprised when Death doesn't gloat. Voldemort boasts that he had beaten Death with his horcruxes but Death sounds more confused than anything when he does.Voldemort: But... I held you off. You must have thought you got me that night seventeen years ago -Death: I DIDN'T COME FOR YOU THEN. YOU NEVER DIED BEFORE NOW. THE ONLY APPOINTMENT I EVER HAD WITH YOU WAS HERE, TODAY. AND YOU ARE RIGHT ON TIME.
- Top of the Line (Editor-Bug): Played with in regards to Zim's view on Tak. He initially doesn't recognize her in the first story, only for it to come back to him a moment later. He still remembers her at first in The Rematch, only to forget her a few scenes later and needing a reminder. After that, he never forgets again in the rest of the series, something she notes with annoyance considering they've declared a truce by then and aren't really active enemies anymore.
- Invader Zim: A Bad Thing Never Ends: Played With. While Gaz knows who Iggins is and doesn't like him, she does not view the two of them as archenemies the way he does.
