u/Matitya — reddlx

I was wondering about this. Some characters have archenemies that are their nemeses because they did something which qualitatively sets them apart from everyone else in their rogues gallery (e.g The Joker to Batman.) Others are nemeses simply thanks to being particularly frequent antagonists (e.g. [spoiler: pre-redemption] Zuko to Aang in Avatar.) So, a thought I had was that sometimes a character has so few regular antagonists that one enemy because their archenemy almost entirely from lack of competition for that distinction. Claw, from Inspector Gadget, for instance. I was wondering

Have any of you noticed this? and
What examples come to your mind of this? (I do have a number of examples that I didn’t mention but I don’t want this post to be too long.)

I know that TVTropes has a page on “Archenemy” meaning a character’s main enemy (I have some qualms about that particular article but that’s not really my point here) but what I’m wondering is why it doesn’t seem to have one on what I’m calling a Nemesis by Default. Essentially, this character has few to no recurring enemies save this one such that this adversary is their nemesis by default. I don’t mean Even the All Loving Hero has Hated Ones, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were overlap. I’m thinking how all three Avatar movies have Quaritch as their villain (for example), all the Lilo and Stitch sequels have the villain be either Hamsterviel or one of his henchmen, and in every Harry Potter book, the main villain is either Voldemort or under his auspices. Thoughts?