Hey guys I developing my comic and have my main character. I Thought to myself.He needs that other character which he hates but pushes him past his own limits. So the way I came up with one is well he has to look better than my main character and at first start off stonger. Then I try to make them complete opposites in everyway. This leads to high tension and jealous. How if you have a character rivarl, create the classic Vegta Goku/, Naruto/sasuke,Mugen/gen(samurai champloo best anime ever : D)

in one word...opposite.

Yup opposite is the best way to go. Having similar characters is a bit dull.

Alternatively, making them strikingly similar is a good way to create a rivalry. My friendly rivalries offline always involve a similar skill level in any given thing (chess, boxing, extreme baby-cliff-toss, whatever).

My big rivalry in Salt is between two clans with different motivations but similar skill sets and abilities.

**I used "similar" three times in three sentences! Oh my goodness, someone get me a thesaurus!

In a little while I'm planning to introduce a rival character to Air Raid Robertson. Like my central protagonist, he's also an aviation themed hero. Unlike Robertson, however, he's highly respected among his peers and is seen as capable and resourceful. Also, the guy himself is a really arrogant dick about the whole matter.

That's one way to create a rival. Make them similar to the main character but maybe a little better at what they do. Or, at least make that the perception that the other characters have. (Regardless of whether or not that's true) You can also give them a negative quality about them in order to incur reader sympathy for your main protagonist. My character's rival is a self centered dick who's opinion of himself is constantly validated by the rest of the cast. This will (hopefully) make the reader empathize with Air Raid Robertson.

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You can also set up a Maguffin scenario. Basically, that means that there's a common goal or object that both characters are after. (A magic talisman, a treasure map, a piece of microfilm etc.) That idea is always a good method to set some people at odds with each other.

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Having an "opposite" character isn't a bad idea either. Of course, the anti-protagonist usually ends up becoming a villain. I tend to think of the rival character as someone who isn't actually a bad guy. He's just a fly in the feature character's ointment.

I think the same is better than opposite, for a villain more than a rival . "We're not so different, you and I..." Usually the traits people hate the most are traits they see in themselves and have fought against internally.

For a rival, more similarities also fuel the rivalry. If you want them to be someone that makes your character strive to improve, they should be "better" than the protagonist. The best rival is someone that the protagonist envies and want to be as good as them but different. Like if they are fighters, the rival is better at fighting. The protagonists wants to be as good at fighting but without being arrogant or without using shortcuts or whatever "bad" qualities the rival has.

If two characters are true opposites, they can't really be rivals because they would share no common interests, goals, or strengths. A scrawny chess champion will not view a heavyweight boxer as his rival.

I never thought about it that way.Now im wondering should I make the characters the same....o_O....

well if you make them the same...the villain has to better than the hero. he has to constantly be besting him, otherwise, your hero will just roll his eyes when the bad guy comes around

NickGuy
well if you make them the same...the villain has to better than the hero. he has to constantly be besting him, otherwise, your hero will just roll his eyes when the bad guy comes around

And constantly being equally capable? If every encounter ends in a tie?

the rival has to be:

- of similar origin/nature to the hero.
- intelligent psychopathic attitude.
- is of equal or slightly greater fighting ability than the hero. Or maybe make it at first, he/she just toys around with the hero and the hero ends up beaten and humiliated.
- the rival has to have some redeeming qualities of some sort (or an excuse on why they are intelligent psychopaths). This character isn't someone your readers are totally gonna hate. Make him/her similar to villains like Sasuke, Cobra Commander, Sephiroth, Darth Vader, Sister Jill, etc.

Cobra Commander!!!!

Someone
- the rival has to have some redeeming qualities of some sort (or an excuse on why they are intelligent psychopaths). This character isn't someone your readers are totally gonna hate. Make him/her similar to villains like Sasuke, Cobra Commander, Sephiroth, Darth Vader, Sister Jill, etc.

i agree with this,some of the coolest villains have had this trait.i for one am a huge transformers fan and you end up loving the Decpticons as much as the Autobots becuase of that. hell, i want to impliment something deeper in my OWN villains. i mean, dont make a villain just as someone who you're supposed to hate hate hate in the story just so people'll side with the good guy, becuase then they just ussually end up being flat. if you have a hero who's interesting and enthralling, but the villain is text book,grade A cliche, and bad just for the sake of BEING bad then you just slapped yourself in the face as a writer. i mean look back at scooby do and all those kinds of cartoons with ultra flat villains, NONE of those guys were interesting. i cant drive home enough how much lame villains just suck.

There's always the rival who isn't evil or necessarily opposite. HE'S JUST BETTER THAN YOU AT EVERYTHING and isn't trying to rub it in. Imagine your hero suffering a complex from his very presence. The rival is polite, likable, successful... every accomplishment the protagonist makes, life and ability treats the rival better, adding more and more frustration. The protagonist feels like he just can't win/is constantly outshined and it's so aggravating!

amanda
**I used "similar" three times in three sentences! Oh my goodness, someone get me a thesaurus!

How 'bout "like?" I like "like."

The main character in my story doesn't so much have a rival as much as she has a lot of people who really don't like her.
The real rivalry in my comic is Higgins Inc. which runs most of the industry in the city, versus The Hooligans, an underground workers' rights organization. There's also a definite personal rivalry between Higgins himself and the leader of the Hooligans, Dart.
It probably goes without saying but I think the most important factor in a rivalry is a conflict of interest.

Hey guy thanks for the post. This is great feed back.

The opposites thing rings pretty true. Just more akin to opposites on the same spectrum.

FireWater
CompassionRuthlessness

Not all rivals have to be better than the protags. I always liked the DBZ Goku/Vegeta/Picolo rivalry. The antagonists became rivals because Goku was always better than them.

Then you have the equal rivals. Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter. They trained together. They each hold the exact same amount of wins over each other. They strive to be the 1st to be "not equal"

I have a lot of rivalries later, but my main antag and protags are fueled by opposite spectrums.

Protag = chaos that wants order
Antag = order that wants chaos

Dude I freak n forgot about Ryu and Ken. What a perefect example. Now I have to rethink some stuff lol.

I think a powerful element of a "rival" (especially as opposed to an "enemy"), is the idea that they're similar to your hero, except for some kind of fundamental difference.

To reference something that's already been brought up, and that is easy for people to get: Goku and Vegeta. They're very similar characters, but their central, primary difference is that Goku loves fighting, whereas Vegeta loves winning. Their further differences sort of branch from that: Goku values his enemies, often allowing them to live simply so he can fight them again in the future. Vegeta makes a point of destroying whatever opponent he comes across to prove just how much he's won.

In fact, that seems to be a big difference between a lot of heroes and rivals: the reason the hero is the "hero" and the rival is more of an "anti-villain" is because the hero is purer in some way. Most memorable rivals are largely very similar to the hero, but with some impurity in their life.

I remember Topher Grace talking about playing Eddie Brock in Spider-Man 3. And even though Venom was a bit of a disappointment, Eddie was a very interesting character that really added a unique twist to the first half of the movie. Anyway, what I'm getting at is, Grace said that the primary theme of Eddie was to play as someone who would have gone through the same life as Peter Parker, except with no Uncle Ben. That is to say, no "moral compass" around which to build his life.

For me, rivalry can really go anyway as long as the two characters either don't get along or are competitive with each other. I have several "Main characters" per say, so their rivals vary. For example, character A is portrayed as being a drama queen as well as dreadfully mean spirited while her dramatic foil is character B, who is portrayed as motherly and caring, but still being similar to character A because she too can be hard headed. So, they don't get along because of that one aspect being similar. But I've seen it done differently, as well. So really, how two characters react to each other is really up to you. I never thought the whole rivalry thing was too hard to depict, where as creating believable villains has never been my strong point. :/

I guess the important thing about a rival isn't simply that they are a powerful force to overcome, but that they force the hero to overcome the flaws in themself that their rival reflects.

I don't focus on paralells or opposing aspects of their personality...


I just make the bad guy bat-sh** crazy, and the main character/good guy somewhat less bat-sh** crazy. That's enough of a rivalry alone.

Well rivals don't always have to be bad. if i was making a rival for my character.
he would sorta be like an obstacle for the main character. because its so common in comics and mangas where rivals want to acheive the same goals.or like the same girl. or their objectives cross each other so its sorta hard to create a unique way of being a rival. i usually make my rivals where a time in my manga he is desperately neeeded by the main character. And to make him seem cooler. he is out of action for a while. so no one as in the readers will know how he operates. and why the main character is so obsessed over him. and when he finally shows his colors. he can be like an amazing character faved by readers. idk its a tough question.

Another character who somehow stands in the way of the goals of the main character.

It helps if the rival has hurt/offended the main character in some way in the past even if they aren't aware they did.

A rival does not have to be the antagonist or enemy or what have you of the story. It could be as simple as someone the main character is holding a grudge against.

Pudding makes him feel self-conscious and that is the main power of his worst enemy.