Offended by an Inferior's Success

It's a sad truth of the world that Life Isn't Fair; some people have it easier in life thanks to things like beauty, money, race, natural talent, connections, etc. Many stories feature people managing to overcome their poor circumstances and reach the top. While some would see these stories in a positive light, certain people take offense that an upstart would dare to try and reach beyond their station, let alone succeed.

For some people, the fact that certain groups of people have it better than others is the natural order of the world; it is sacrilege for an "inferior" to rival or surpass their "betters." Characters with this mentality can tolerate those they look down on in an inferior position, especially if said people have no desire or ability to improve their station; it is when said people are in an equal or superior position that this mindset comes into play.

This trope can manifest itself in a number of ways: In a school setting, popular people might feel that nerds, plain people, outcasts, etc. don't deserve to become popular or successful. A bigot might become upset at the idea of a group they despise "stealing" jobs, money, success, etc. that "are too good for them." A shallow person who judges people for their looks might get offended that an ugly or plain-looking person has a more successful love life, especially if the ugly person ends up dating someone that the shallow person lusts after.

While this trope usually involves a person feeling that certain categories of people don't deserve success, other examples might involve a person being offended that a disliked individual experiences success. These individuals might be rivals, disliked family members, an Arch-Enemy, or some other hated individual. Especially hateful people might feel that said hated people don't deserve any happiness, even if their lives aren't particularly happy or successful overall.

Often overlaps with Green-Eyed Monster, the difference being that a Green-Eyed Monster can be envious of someone without regard to status, while this trope doesn't necessarily involve envy, and is more about a perceived natural order being violated.

Inverted Trope to Entitled Bastard, which involves a person feeling entitled to something, whereas this trope involves someone feeling that someone else doesn't deserve what they have, though the two tropes often overlap.

This attitude is likely to be held by Politically Incorrect Villains. Compare Tall Poppy Syndrome, which involves a person's equals trying to pull them down and Sub-Par Supremacist, when supremacists are portrayed as pathetic. Examples involving romance often overlap with Shallow Cannot Comprehend True Love.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaigaku the eldest and seemly stronger Thunder Breathing disciple actually envied and resented Zenitsu, the younger and seemly weaker one, because he believed that Jigoro always favored him despite Kaigaku seeing him as an incompetent failure. When he ends up decapitated by Zenitsu’s Thunder Breathing, Seventh Form: Honoikazuchi no Kami, Kaigaku frustratingly accuses their master of favoring Zenitsu over him to teach him such a technique, only for Zenitsu to reveal that he developed the technique himself. Kaigaku tries to take solace in the fact that Zenitsu will at least die with him, only for Yushiro to deny him the satisfaction by saving Zenitsu and rub salt in the wounds with his "Reason You Suck" Speech, leading Kaigaku to die screaming in anger and frustration.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Vegeta has this attitude towards Goku for most of the series; Saiyans had a Fantastic Caste System that was based on natural fighting ability, meaning that it was impossible for one to climb the ranks via training. Vegeta, up until the end of Z thinks that, since Goku is a low-class Saiyan, while he himself is an Elite, he should be automatically the strongest and expresses disbelief and shock that a "low-class clown" could match and surpass an elite. In the Buu Saga, Vegeta even goes so far as to sell his soul for power just to close the gap between himself and Goku; post-Character Development, Vegeta no longer holds this view and instead respects Goku as Worthy Opponent who earned his strength through hard work.
  • Nappa, being an elite/mid-class Saiyan (Depending on the Writer), expresses this view during his fight with Goku, refusing to believe that Goku is stronger than him even when the Scouter reads Goku's Power Level; Nappa then ends up on the wrong end of a Curb-Stomp Battle when he insists on fighting Goku.
  • Part of the reason why Zamasu and Goku Black enacted their Zero-Mortals Plan is outrage at the idea that mere mortals (Like Goku) could gain power equal to the gods. When Goku and Vegeta fuse together, Zamasu becomes further outraged at them using a treasure of the gods.
  • Brianne de Chateau/Ribrianne, despite constantly preaching about The Power of Love, is very shallow; she is disgusted by the fact that the beautiful Android 18 is married to the ugly Krillin, showing that she believes that ugly people shouldn't be with good-looking people. She eventually grows out of it, realizing that there is more to love than looks.
• Fist of the North Star: Jagi mixes this trope with an extreme case of Inferiority Superiority Complex; as the third oldest of four brothers, he was able to rationalise Raoh and Toki's superior martial arts skills as being a result of their age; but when Kenshiro, the youngest brother, was declared the successor to the Hokuto Shinken martial arts style, Jagi was so infuriated that he tried to kill Kenshiro, and when that failed, destroy his life. Jagi's brother complex with Kenshiro is so bad that at one point he murdered a child for protecting his elder brother stating "no younger brother should surpass the elder!"
• Great Teacher Onizuka: Pretty much all the other teachers (except Fuyutsuki and Chairwoman Sakurai), but especially Teshigawara and Vice Principal Uchiyamada, hate that Onizuka succeeds as a teacher despite being a former delinquent who hasn't changed much, went to a "third-rate college" (where he didn't even study, just paid someone else to take his exams)^note though they might not know that, and pulls outrageous stunts, often involving violence (and damage to Uchiyamada's Precious, Precious Car). They especially hate that the Chairwoman protects him from most consequences, or at least gives him a chance to fix things instead of immediately firing him.
  • Teshigawara in particular is jealous of Onizuka's romantic relationship with Fuyutsuki, who he feels entitled to, despite just stalking her, while Onizuka actually becomes her friend first. There's also an element of classism, since Teshigawara thinks that being a politician's son and going to Tokyo University makes him better than others.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Manjoume has this attitude towards Judai at the beginning; Manjoume hates Judai for being an Osiris Red who is a better duelist than himself, an upper-class Obelisk Blue. Fortunately, he grows out of this and decides to gain respect on his own merits rather than relying on his family name or rank.

Comic Books

• Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: In pre-war Cybertron, just as the Decepticon movement was growing in strength, two Senators named Momus and Sherma were murdered, evidently by the Decepticons. Police officers Prowl and Tumbler quickly learned it was a frame-up, and that both Senators had been Decepticon sympathisers the real killers assassinated and hoped to use to demonise the Decepticon movement. The police officers couldn't know that while that was the primary reason, Momus in particular (as a former miner who'd managed to work his way up to Senator and yet kept in touch with his "low class" friends) was also targeted because several Senators took offense to a "low caste" thinking he could become one of the ruling class.

Fan Works

• The My Hero Academia fanfic Cain is about Bakugo undergoing Sanity Slippage over the notion of Izuku, a Quirkless outcast who Bakugo often picks on, receiving training from All Might and later enrolling at U.A. In Bakugo's eyes, people who were born losers should stay losers, and he resorts to stalking, spreading contradictory lies, and Attempted Murder all in an attempt to make sure Izuku doesn't surpass him. What makes this especially petty is that Bakugo is popular, intelligent, and possesses a powerful Quirk, yet, as All Might points out, can't stand the idea of an abused, disabled boy getting something he can't.
• Chloé's Lament: One of the reasons why Chloé Wishes to trade lives with Marinette is that she thinks it's unfair that a "mere baker's daughter" got to become Ladybug and be Loved by All while she, the daughter of the Mayor, was incredibly unpopular. What she failed to grasp was that it was their personalities that dictated their respective social statuses — Marinette being a Nice Girl who supports her friends while Chloé was a Spoiled Brat who exploited her father's position to shield herself from consequences. As a result, switching positions with Marinette just means that Chloé no longer has that protection.
• Danny Phantom: Stranded:
  • Colette, a Spoiled Brat of the highest order, can't understand why Danny would prefer her stepsister Star over a full-fledged Blue Blood like herself. She obsesses over ruining their relationship, initially for her own amusement and later just to prove that she can, culminating in her attempting to blackmail Danny into breaking up with Star for her after discovering his secret in Blackmailed.
  • Donovan also can't comprehend why Danny has managed to attract the attention of so many rich girls when his own family is just middle-class.
• Failure to Explode: Due to U.A. and all the other hero schools instituting a rule that applicants to the Hero Course must earn at least one Rescue Point in order to qualify, Katsuki doesn't get into U.A. He initially assumes that since he didn't get in, Izuku must have failed as well; he doesn't take the news that that's not the case well.
• Dash Baxter in The Many Dates of Danny Fenton and its spin-offs can't stand how girls are more attracted to nice, unpopular guys like Danny rather than popular jocks like himself. In one spin-off, Dash literally states that attractive girls going for unpopular guys "goes against the natural order".
• Scarlet Lady:
  • Chloé frequently attempts to sabotage Marinette; she also tries to steal her work more than once, including getting involved with Bob Roth and XY's bid to rip off Kitty Section. She also insists that Marinette and the members of Kitty Section (aside from Luka) are all "talentless", and does not appreciate being reminded that she's considered their work good enough to steal.
  • As the titular Scarlet Lady, Chloé also takes credit for all of Chat Noir's hard work, regarding him as nothing more than her "lowly sidekick". As other Miraculous heroes become active, she grows increasingly upset at them gaining their own fans and drawing attention away from her. She's particularly enraged by Marigold's rising popularity, pointedly referring to her as a "Newbee".
  • Eventually, this culminates in Chloé hitting her Rage Breaking Point when her mother praises Marinette's work as "exceptional" and offers to bring her to New York as an apprentice... something she'd never offered Chloé.
• In the Sleeper Hit AU, Katsuki is deeply offended to learn that a Quirkless Pro Hero is higher on the Rankings list than he is, even before learning that said hero is none other than Izuku. He's so enraged by this that when he confronts Izuku about it, he snarls that "Deku" should have listened to his advice and killed himself back then.
• Vengeance of Dawn: When Laurel was a student at the School for Gifted Unicorns, she was constantly bullied for being ugly and poor, and even as an adult, she can't find a stallion willing to date her. She hates ponies like Rarity who seem to get everything served to them on a silver platter just because they are good-looking or have the right social connections.
  Laurel: By what right should that brainless featherhead dwell in a palace as a royal guest while I toil? Wherefore are my brains inferior to her looks, except because some other pony decided it should be so. She is exalted while I scrabble for a living at the gates of paradise, never to be admitted; and all because I have an unattractive coat and a bad mane? (starts to weep and takes out a handkerchief) I don't suppose any colt has ever stood her up.
• Whispered Tribulation: Bakugo is even worse about this than in canon; at least in canon, Bakugo hated Izuku for being in the Hero Course like he was. Here, Bakugo tries to give Izuku a beating for being in U.A's Gen Ed course, under the "logic" that even that is too good for Izuku. Fortunately, Izuku is rescued by his friends and girlfriend, and Bakugo is expelled.

Films — Animated

• Kung Fu Panda: Justified. Tigress is immediately scornful of Po when Master Oogway chooses him, a clumsy fanboy who fell out of the sky, instead of her, even though she'd trained her whole life for it, and she deems him a disgrace to kung-fu for it.
  Tigress: And now, [Shifu] has a chance to make things right, by training the true Dragon Warrior. And he's stuck with you: a big, fat panda who treats it like a joke.

Films — Live-Action

• Babe: Retired sheepdog Rex is disdainful at this piglet who's been herding sheep with ease, in part thanks to encouragement from his mate Fly, culminating in him attacking her and biting his master, which leads to him getting deemed dangerous and chained up. Afterward, Fly explains to Babe that Rex doesn't like him because he's already done more than he ever did, telling him of when Rex tried and failed to save some sheep during a wild storm, which left him nearly deaf and cutting his career short.
• In the film version of The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), the nobleman Fernand turns in his lower-class best friend Edmond for carrying a note for the exiled Napoleon, because Fernand is jealous that his friend was just promoted and has a beautiful fiancée.
  Edmond: Why?! In God's Name, why?!
  Fernand: Because you're the son of a clerk! And I shouldn't want to be you!
• Kingsman: Gary "Eggsy" Unwin started out as an impoverished street urchin before being recruited into the titular organization by his father's former training partner. His success at earning a spot within the agency makes him the Arch-Enemy of training rival Charlie Hesketh, who lost his wealth after falling a Secret Test of Character and losing his parents in the first film.

Literature

• Throughout the series, Adrian Mole aspires to be a great writer, with little or no success. When his old enemy and school bully Barry Kent learns to read and write while in prison, Adrian encourages him to write poetry. In The Wilderness Years, Barry becomes a hugely successful writer, to Adrian's great resentment, especially as Barry's expletive-laden first book Dork's Diary contains a character "Aiden Vole" which is an outrageous caricature of Adrian.
• Discworld: Vimes is a commoner (though descended from a formerly-landed house that was attainted after a spot of regicide) who is both Duke of Ankh-Morpork (by marriage to Lady Sybil Ramkin) and Commander of the City Watch, and the upper classes see it as an outrage that he thinks the Law applies to them as it does to the poor.
  • The Fifth Elephant: Dee turns out to be particularly vitriolic against the openly-female dwarves of Ankh-Morpork ("openly-female" here meaning that they wear makeup and skirt-like clothing, they still keep the beards and chainmail), referring to Cheery as "ha'ak", in large part because as the holder of one of the more traditionalist positions in dwarf society, she's not allowed to.
• Dune: One of the elements of the series' backstory is that part of the reason for the rivalry between House Atreides and House Harkonnen is because the Atreides are a longstanding and greatly respected institution among the Great Houses of the Landsraad, whereas the Harkonnens clawed their way up out of obscurity relatively recently and essentially became the Feudal Future equivalent of Nouveau Riche after being awarded the contract to mine and export spice by the CHOAM conglomerate.
• In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Bully Draco Malfoy starts harassing Hermione and hurling slurs at her because his Super Supremacist father chastised him for being outdone academically by a Mage Born of Muggles. Lucius was especially displeased to see her become Minister of Magic in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
• Judge Dee: In "The Emperor's Coffins", the marshal presents the judge with a difficult case: one of his generals (Sang) accused another (Liou) of treason and colluding with the enemy. It turns out Sang was the traitor, disliking that Liou had been promoted to such a high rank at a much lower age than himself.
• The Misfit of Demon King Academy: Emilia, a pure-blood demon, looks down on Anos, a half-demon, despite his power and tries to upstage him only to get humiliated. Her last straw breaks when Anos scores a victory against her brother and responds by trying to kill his mother and fan club, but this bites her hard big time when he captures her and forcibly turns her into a half-demon just like him which results in her losing both her job and her home.
• The Parasol Protectorate: In book 2, Alexia is discovered to be pregnant, which should be impossible given that her husband is a werewolf. In book 3, she's exposed as a supposed adulterer by her own half-sister Felicity, in spite of the fact that this would rebound on the family and ruin her own marriage prospects, all because she feels Alexia "doesn't deserve" her good fortune. Felicity is a Proper Lady and Alpha Bitch who is used to feeling superior to her plain, unmarried, half-Italian "bluestocking" older sister, so Alexia's marriage to a Lord was particularly offensive to her.

Live-Action TV

• In The Flash (2014), Reverse-Flash's entire enmity with the Flash stems from Thawne's resentment that he spent years figuring out how to gain super-speed so that he could become the Flash, only to discover that Barry Allen got his powers by sheer accident. He believes that Barry Allen "stole" all the fame that he himself was supposed to have, and thus has dedicated his life to taking everything he can from Barry. Everything.
• In the third season of Jessica Jones (2015), the main villain is Gregory Sallinger, a Serial Killer who kills people who he feels have more than they deserve; he especially despises Enhanced people, seeing their powers as an unfair advantage.
• The Other Two: Cary and his best friend Curtis are both struggling actors at the start of the series. When Cary lands his first sizable film role, he gets quite an ego from it, while Curtis is still doing cheap pop culture video shows. However, Cary struggles to land another good role after this, so when it seems Curtis' new Paramount+ TV show is going to do well, Cary avoids the premiere party. Only when the negative reviews roll in does Cary attend... and Curtis brutally calls out the way Cary refuses to celebrate Curtis's success unless he's "below" Cary on the Hollywood food chain.
• Three Kingdoms:
  • Yuan Shao is head of the Yuan family, controlling the entire northern part of the Han Empire. As a result, he can't accept the idea that Cao Cao, his childhood u and formerly his de facto subordinate, is now giving him orders in the Emperor's name. His advisor Xu You notes that he'd warned Yuan that not taking the Emperor into his care would result in someone else doing so, and Yuan is forced to concede the point. Simply having the Emperor in his power propels Cao Cao from "merely" one of many warlords into one of the top contenders.
  • Yuan Shu is also part of the Yuan family and refuses to even consider that the likes of Cao Cao (at best a minor noble) or Liu Bei (a penniless peasant claiming to be related to the Imperial line) can possibly be any threat to someone of such superior breeding as him. As such, he's outraged that Cao somehow managed to become Prime Minister, putting him well above Yuan himself.
  • Throughout the series, Cao Cao himself scoffs at this attitude whenever it's brought up that an opponent is from a famed or wealthy family, as he correctly points out that it doesn't matter how great the family is if the opponent he's actually facing is trash. He likewise notes that even if an enemy is a comparative unknown, that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous.

Theatre

• In Death of a Salesman, Willie Loman insists that it's better to be "well-liked" than just "liked", meaning that he believes being charismatic is more important than hard work. His neighbor Charlie is a successful businessman who frequently offers Willie a job since Charlie knows Willie can't keep working as Traveling Salesman, but Willie refuses, thinking it would be beneath him to work for someone who is not "well-liked" like Charlie. Furthermore, he can't figure out Bernard, Charlie's son, whom Willie also sees as just being "liked", is a successful lawyer while Biff, Willie's oldest son and who was "well-liked" in high school, ended up being a drifter who wandered back home.
• In Hamilton, Aaron Burr hates Alexander Hamilton, because Hamilton is an obnoxious, overly ambitious bastard immigrant who nevertheless finds success at everything he does.
• In The Marriage of Figaro, Count Almaviva lusts after Susanna, the fiancée of his servant Figaro. His aria "Vedro mentr'io sospiro" expresses his rage that a mere servant should be the one who has what he, the Count, wants.

Video Games

• Octopath Traveler: Darius, the Arc Villain of Therion's story, despises him because he resents Therion's success as a thief, feeling he's too naive and trusting to deserve it while he was willing to manipulate and backstab anyone and everyone in his quest for riches, including Therion himself back when Darius befriended them as kids solely to use his thieving skills and literally toss him away when he was no longer needed.
• Persona 5: Akechi is greatly distressed by how Joker, a social pariah with a criminal record, easily gains many friends and power even greater than Akechi's, while the detective is a genius celebrity but lacks meaningful relationships. This mindset is hypocritical, given Akechi was originally an outcast who only rose up thanks to committing actual crimes, yet it still drives him up the wall that someone as low status as Joker could possibly have a better life than him.
  Akechi: You're just some criminal trash living in an attic! So how?! How does someone like you have things I don't?! How can such a worthless piece of trash be more special than me?!
• Star Wars: The Old Republic:
  • Zig-Zagged in the conflict between the Sith Inquisitor PC and Darth Thanaton. The Inquisitor is a slave who was freed and sent to the Sith Academy when they were discovered to be Force-sensitive, and Thanaton, an elder Sith who works directly for a Dark Council member (and eventually kills him for his job) takes an instant dislike to them over their apparent disregard for Sith traditions and history and the fact they've risen to the rank of Lord of the Sith in only a month or two at most. However, the Inquisitor's background is possibly more storied than is widely known—they're claimed as a descendant by the ghost of the ancient Sith Lord Aloysius Kallig, though it's up to the player whether they actually believe him—and the tie-in comics reveal that Thanaton is himself an ex-slave, suggesting he's just jealous that they're not having to work as hard to advance.
  • The Sith Warrior PC is a scion of a prominent family who is greatly favored by their instructors during the Sith Academy story. This immediately attracts the enmity of Vemrin, a common-born Sith acolyte who resents having an aristocratic newcomer jump the line.
• Subverse: The Huntress despises the fact that the Captain keeps beating her in spaceborne dogfights because she is the top-ranked Bounty Hunter in the galaxy, while his official ranking is pretty much near the rock bottom (mostly because he does not care about keeping it up, he just likes flying spaceships).
• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: Rafe Adler suffers from a massive Inferiority Superiority Complex towards Nathan Drake (and his brother Sam) fueled by the fact that, despite being a poor orphan with a serious case of bad luck, Nate has successfully discovered multiple ancient treasures and lost cities throughout his constant misadventures, whereas Rafe, in a desperate attempt to be the Non-Idle Rich, has hired an entire crew of Private Military Contractors and scoured the entire world searching for Henry Avery's treasure, but he kept running into dead ends and failing to make any headway. By the end of the game, Rafe's hatred of the Drake brothers and of his dependency on them to lead him to the treasure, ultimately drives him into a Villainous Breakdown and makes him decide to duel Nate to the death inside a flaming, exploding ship, just because he won't be able to enjoy even one coin of Avery's treasure knowing the Drakes are still alive. This stupidity costs Rafe his shot at glory and his life.

Web Animation

• AoHaru Manga Library: While only rarely said, most male antagonists do terrible things to Keiichi because of the belief that they're among the superior elite people, thus deserving more credits, but the down-to-earth, humble Keiichi whom they perceive as inferior has achieved more through hard work. This breeds jealousy, leading the antagonists to steal Keiichi's credits (or girlfriend) in order to one-up Keiichi. However, this will bite them in the ass without fail.
• ATTACK on MIKA:Mote combines this trope with Entitled to Have You, Shallow Cannot Comprehend True Love, and Casanova Wannabe; he's a tall, athletic and shallow high schooler who openly admits to only caring about a girl's looks. When he sees that Makabe, a Formerly Fat girl who used to get picked on, is now pretty, he tries to steal her from Hiroki, her boyfriend. Mote's "argument" for why he would make a better boyfriend is that Hiroki is short and unpopular, which means a pretty girl like Makabe is too good for him, while a handsome and popular guy like himself would be much more suitable. Makabe gives Mote a tongue-lashing for thinking that she would break up with a nice guy like Hiroki, who liked her before she was pretty, for a guy who literally admitted that he was only interested in her now that she was hot.
• MoniRobo: Eriko combines this trope with Big Sister Bully, Spoiled Brat, and Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!; she was always the golden child of their family due to her good looks and would bully her younger, uglier, sister Kyoko to do her homework and do the work of preparing Eriko's wedding. When Eriko learns that Kyoko's husband is more handsome and wealthier than hers, Eriko gets offended at the idea of her ugly sister having a superior husband and tries to "rectify" the problem by stealing Kyoko's husband from her, (which thankfully fails).
• RomCom Manga Chan: Yuto is a good looking jerk who looks down on the nerdy, plain-looking Satoru, only acting nice to him because his dad has free reference books. When he sees Satoru hanging out with Yuri, the Madonna of the school, he gets upset and envious, despite having a girlfriend himself. The reason why is because Yuta feels that Amane, his girlfriend, isn't as pretty as Yuri, and he thinks it's wrong for a plain-looking guy to have a better-looking girlfriend than a handsome guy.

Web Videos

• Apple Texts: Dillan combines this trope with Big Brother Bully and Testosterone Poisoning; he thinks of himself as an "Alpha/Sigma Male" who can't stand the idea of his "Beta Male" brother, Jack, having it better than him in any way. At the start of the story, Dillon steals and marries Jack's girlfriend solely to "put Jack in his place." When Dillon starts working at the same company as Jack, he treats Jack with disdain, despite Jack being his superior. When Dillon assumes that Jack is dating the CEO's daughter, he decides to "steal" the daughter from Jack, despite already being married, solely to spite Jack and surpass him by sleeping his way to the top.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons: In "Homer's Enemy", Homer meets a new, no-nonsense employee named Frank Grimes, who is appalled by Homer's incompetence. But when Homer tries to impress him by inviting him to dinner, Grimes is aghast to discover that this bungling idiot has a big house, a loving family, and has gone on many fantastic adventures, and he vows to prove to the world what a "fraud" Homer J. Simpson really is.
  Homer: What are you saying?
  Grimes: I'm saying you're what's wrong with America, Simpson! You coast through life, you do as little as possible, and you leech off decent, hardworking people, like me! If you lived in any other country in the world, you would have starved to death long ago!
  Bart: (beat) He's got you there, Dad.
• South Park: Officer Harrison Yates is a racist Dirty Cop who hates rich black men with a passion, so much so that he goes out his way to frame and arrest them on false charges. In the episode "The Jeffersons", he flat out states that seeing a black man with more money than him makes him vomit.
• While Mr. Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants justifiably hates Sheldon Plankton for repeatedly trying to steal his Krabby Patty recipe, there are some episodes where Krabs seems to get offended at the idea of Plankton being successful via legitimate business. The most prominent example is "Plankton's Regular", in which Mr. Krabs gets mad that Plankton has one customer. Even after Plankton agrees to stop trying to steal the Krabby Patty Formula, Mr. Krabs still tries to take away Plankton's customer; apparently, Krabs thinks Plankton trying to rob him all the time is preferable to having Plankton enjoy any success.

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