The rival.
Especially the douchebag Machiavellian type rivals that the main character ends up friends or teaming up with after the main character ‘proves their worth’ to them by being stronger. No character growth outside of now they work with the protagonist.
I really want this trope to be subverted one day, like the douchey rival shows up and everyone is just like “Wow what a dickhead” and just relentlessly bullies him until he goes away.
Yeah but so often the rival in these stories is an outright horrible person.
Like Vegeta for example, he was an outright fascist. He never stopped being an outright fash.
Like he would straight up abuse his kid ‘to make him stronger’.
My whole generation grew up thinking “wow, he’s so cool!”
it’s been a minute but i don’t think vegeta really fits the rivals thing in the first arc at least, he’s just straight up enemy until… i forget how they get from that first fight into the android saga. i know they kinda let him off the hook later but that could just be liberalism.
i always thought he kinda sucked, i think at my school we liked piccolo and gotenks.