History AlwaysSomeoneBetter / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'': In the 2021 incarnation ''Berry in the Big City!'', Strawberry is this to her SitcomArchNemesis [[AdaptationalVillainy Raspberry Tart.]]

** This happens to [[Characters/TheSimpsonsLisaSimpson Lisa Simpson]] twice ([[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E2LisasRival "Lisa's Rival"]] and [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E13SmartAndSmarter "Smart and Smarter"]]). In the first, Lisa panics when Allison Taylor turns up and is smarter than her; they become friends in the end. In the second, Maggie is shown to be smarter than Lisa. It turns out she wasn't as Lisa was subconsciously telling Maggie what answers to give.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': The {{ninja}} Kyodai Ken appears in two episodes: "Night of the Ninja" and "Day of the Samurai." Both times, Kyodai is built up as a fighter [[Characters/DCAUBatman Batman]] cannot hope to beat. Batman beats him the first time by holding back until he can beat Kyodai without revealing his secret identity. The second time, he uses hidden armor to keep Kyodai from using a deadly pressure-point strike on him. Making it even more appropriate, the words "Always Someone Better" appear in the episode. The first episode plays out as if Bruce simply has performance anxiety while fighting someone on his own level in front of others. During a flashback of him and Kyodai training in the dojo, Kyodai soundly defeats him in front of their master and class. The fight at the climax of the episode plays out more or less the same way until some padding falls on top of Bruce's love interest, leaving her unharmed but obstructing her view of the fight.

** In "Little Dipper", [[Characters/GravityFallsMabelPines Mabel Pines]] vents her frustration that [[Characters/GravityFallsDipperPines Dipper Pines]] seems to always beat her at everything (barring mini-golf).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

** Cartman usually meets his better in none other than Wendy Testaburger. Cartman is known for using scheming and manipulation to get his own way and one-up everybody else. However, when he gets on the wrong side of Wendy, he pays for it. He tries to get out of fighting her in "Breast Cancer Show Ever", only to fail and succumb to a vicious beating. She also has his number when it comes to plotting and scheming. In "Dances with Smurfs" after he concocts a plan to discredit her to the school and snatch her position as Student Council President, she uses his own InsaneTrollLogic against him and turns his story about killing Smurfs back against him, then proceeds to beat him by [[PyrrhicVictory giving him what he wants]], which is a position that doesn't actually have anywhere near as much power as he thought. Basically, whenever the two go head to head, she always finds a way to beat him, whether it be physically or intellectually.

** Squilliam to Squidward. Squidward has always dreamed of becoming famous, rich, and talented in music. Squilliam? Been there, done that. The one thing they share is [[ItsAllAboutMe oversized ego]], except that Squilliam is successful enough to subvert SmallNameBigEgo, something Squidward is frustrated about.
** The episode "The Original Fry Cook" has [=SpongeBob=], who is regarded as the best fry cook in Bikini Bottom, meeting the Krusty Krab's first and best fry cook, named Jim.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': Alejandro's bread and butter is to make himself out to be better than his competition. He's a better manipulator than [[AlphaBitch Heather]], has more charisma than [[ChickMagnet Justin]], is more ruthless than [[DelinquentHair Duncan]], and has more useful knowledge and talents than the rest of the cast. Ironically, his FreudianExcuse is his BigBrotherBully José, who has always been better than him at everything, from sports, to academics, to personal grooming.

** Katara was a victim of this. When she starts training Aang in waterbending, she is very pissed to find out he only takes a few minutes to master techniques that took her years. Ironically, she eventually becomes good enough to be a waterbending master for Aang (partly because Aang was BrilliantButLazy).
** Sokka and Jet, since Jet was both better at combat and planning. When Sokka accused Jet of being evil, Katara accused Sokka of jealousy regarding this trope. [[spoiler:Turns out, Sokka was right.]]
** Zuko always felt like this regarding his talented sister Azula.

** However, this eventually happens to Azula as well. The season 2 finale would show hints of this: [[spoiler: Katara was very close to beating Azula, until Zuko interfered and saved her]]. In Season 3, after learning firebending techniques from the original firebenders, Zuko proved capable of fighting his sister more evenly. In the series finale, Zuko actually gains the advantage against Azula in their final duel, pushing her further towards her [[SanitySlippage growing insanity]]. [[spoiler: In desperation, Azula cheats to strike down Zuko. Ultimately, however, it's Katara who beats Azula, finally pushing her [[VillainousBreakdown completely over the edge]].]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': The {{ninja}} Kyodai Ken appears in two episodes: "Night of the Ninja" and "Day of the Samurai." Both times, Kyodai is built up as a fighter Batman cannot hope to beat. Batman beats him the first time by holding back until he can beat Kyodai without revealing his secret identity. The second time, he uses hidden armor to keep Kyodai from using a deadly pressure-point strike on him. Making it even more appropriate, the words "Always Someone Better" appear in the episode. The first episode plays out as if Bruce simply has performance anxiety while fighting someone on his own level in front of others. During a flashback of him and Kyodai training in the dojo, Kyodai soundly defeats him in front of their master and class. The fight at the climax of the episode plays out more or less the same way until some padding falls on top of Bruce's love interest, leaving her unharmed but obstructing her view of the fight.
* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': A number of episodes, especially in early seasons, involve Bob's rivalry with Jimmy Pesto, his insufferable rival who runs a much more successful and popular Italian restaurant right across the street from Bob's Burgers. Bob [[AesopAmnesia frequently has to be reminded]] that even though Jimmy is a better businessman, he's much worse at [[LethalChef cooking]], [[ParentalNeglect parenting]], and [[{{Jerkass}} overall as a human being]].

** In "Little Dipper", Mabel vents her frustration that Dipper seems to always beat her at everything (barring mini-golf).
** WordOfGod reveals that Mabel is this to Dipper when it comes to social skills and Dipper is this to her in academics, leading to the twins envying the others' abilities.

** Likewise Olga is this to her sister Helga, being a Grade A student, nice to a fault and getting heaps of attention from her parents when Helga can barely get the two to glance her way, stemming some deep-seated resentment and self-confidence issues (it's a main factor why she has trouble expressing her feelings outside her bullying nature). [[spoiler: As with Lila, Olga admits she's jealous of Helga since she feels she has to keep up the high expectations they have for her and would rather just be ignored.]]

** [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E8TheMysteriousMareDoWell "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well"]]: Rainbow Dash gets shown up by the title character when she keeps stopping disasters before she can, eventually stealing away her fan club. In the end [[spoiler:it turns out to have been her friends trying to teach her a lesson in humility]].

** "The Cutie Map": This is villain Starlight Glimmer's motivation. She was tired of everyone being better than her at something, so she developed a spell to take away their talents, so that she'll finally be the best. [[spoiler: Or so it seemed. "The Cutie Re-Mark" indicates that the real reason she despises special talents and cutie marks is that her childhood friend Sunburst was separated from her after discovering his talent and earning his cutie mark.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Jack is able to overcome almost everything the series throws at him with strength, skill, and his divine blade -- but a few select foes are so tough and dangerous that he simply cannot overcome them.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' has this form the basis of Catra's character. Though the series starts with Adora being literally the only being Catra held any affection towards, her hang-ups surrounding Adora having constantly overshadowed her during their childhood and receiving all the love and recognition Catra desired eventually leads to her becoming [[spoiler:willing to destroy all of reality]] out of spite towards her former friend.

** This happens to Lisa twice ([[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E2LisasRival "Lisa's Rival"]] and [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E13SmartAndSmarter "Smart and Smarter"]]). In the first, Lisa panics when Allison Taylor turns up and is smarter than her; they become friends in the end. In the second, Maggie is shown to be smarter than Lisa. It turns out she wasn't as Lisa was subconsciously telling Maggie what answers to give.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' :

** The episode "The Original Fry Cook"has [=SpongeBob=], who is regarded as the best fry cook in Bikini Bottom, meeting the Krusty Krab's first and best fry cook, named Jim.

** Cartman usually meets his better in none other than Wendy Testaburger. Cartman is known for using scheming and manipulation to get his own way and one-up everybody else. However, when he gets on the wrong side of Wendy, he pays for it. He tries to get out of fighting her in "Breast Cancer Show Ever", only to fail and succumb to a vicious beating. She also has his number when it comes to plotting and scheming. In "Dances with Smurfs" after he concocts a plan to discredit her to the school and snatch her position as Student Council President, she uses his own InsaneTrollLogic against him and turns his story about killing Smurfs back against him, then proceeds to beat him by giving him what he wants, which is a position that doesn't actually have anywhere near as much power as he thought. Basically, whenever the two go head to head, she always finds a way to beat him, whether it be physically or intellectually.

** Before the {{Flanderization}} which bears his name had set in, Ned Flanders was very much this to Homer. Flanders made more money, had a better house, better things, a more attractive wife (while she was alive), better-behaved and more affectionate children -- he had ''everything'' better than Homer. This was ''why'' Homer hated him so much. Ned's Christian faith was initially just the reason why Ned was too nice to realize all this. There's even the early episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E6DeadPuttingSociety "Dead Putting Society"]] where Homer makes Bart compete with Ned's son Todd in a miniature golf tournament that fits this trope to a T, especially when a loophole in a bet makes both him and Homer have to mow the other's lawn in a dress and Ned doesn't even mind that much. There's another joke in there about how Flanders is a nice, helpful guy, but Homer hates him more than anyone else solely for this reason. Then Flanderization kicked in and he became [[TheFundamentalist obnoxiously pious]], which gave Homer a legit reason and lost the joke. Although in the more recent episode "Bull-E", Homer claims it's because of Flanders being better than him, implying that he never even noticed the Flanderization.