Archenemies

An Archenemy is the main enemy of the protagonist. The reason why the particular villain stands out more than the rest varies; they may be the hero's strongest enemy, be the complete antithesis to the hero, have strong connections with their hero's past, pose the greatest threat, or may be the most recurring villain like the Big Bad or the Right-Hand enforcer or even the Rival. The Archenemy is most of the time the main antagonist of the story.

This is not to be confused with the Big Bad, who is the villain responsible for the conflict in the story, or The Heavy, who is the most proactive villain in the story. The Archenemy is simply the villain that the protagonist has the most personal opposition towards. For stories with multiple main heroes and villains, there may be multiple archenemies if each hero shares an antithesis on the villains side. In rare cases such as Evil Vs. Evil scenarios, two villains may be archenemies of each other, an example being the mutual hatred between Gustavo Fring and Hector Salamanca.

Examples include Lex Luthor from the Superman comics, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin from the Spider-Man comics, The Joker from the Batman comics, Jigsaw from the The Punisher comics, Red Skull from the Captain America comics, Doctor Doom from The Fantastic Four comics, Magneto from The X-Men comics, Mandarin from the Iron Man comics, Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, Bowser from Mario, Dr. Eggman from Sonic, Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean, Ernst Stavro Blofeld from James Bond, Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess and the Sith (especially Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader) from Star Wars.