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This text refers to a main supervillain in a rogues gallery. For other uses of the term 'Archenemy' see Archenemy (disambiguation)

An archenemy, archfoe, archvillain or archnemesis (sometimes spelled arch-enemy, arch-foe, arch-villain or arch-nemesis) is the principal enemy of a character in a work of fiction, compare nemesis, often described as the hero's worst enemy. The reason as to why the particular villain stands out more than the other rogues gallery villains varies, although they may be the hardest enemy to fight, the hero's opposite, the most often recurring villain, always bearing the most dangerous plots or poses the biggest threat, such as global domination in comparison to burglary, was once a friend of the hero, or is the source of constant tragedy, pain and horror to the hero. For example, in Tim Burton's film Batman, The Joker becomes Batman's archenemy because he killed Bruce Wayne's parents right in front of him, and caused a moment which changed Bruce's philosophy and world entirely.

It should be noted that just because a villain is a hero's arch-enemy does not necessarily mean that they are their greatest, as there are often other enemies who may be considered more powerful, resourceful, intelligent and/or evil than the archvillain, or perhaps has larger-scale goals. For example, in the Batman comics, Ra's al Ghul, who threatens all of mankind, is a greater enemy than The Joker, who usually threatens just Gotham City. Because of this, heroes are often forced to team up with their archenemy to battle this bigger threat.

Iconic archenemies

Some archenemies have grown to become iconic, such as: Although there is usually only one archenemy in a particular superhero's rogues gallery, there are sometimes more than one, such as:

Archenemies outside of superheroes

Although superheroes mainly have archenemies, other works of fiction have them, such as these:

Heroes who do not have archenemies

The following heroes have no archenemies:

Religious archenemies

An archenemy is used, in religion, often as the evil incarnate that plagues or tortures the god or gods. In Judaism, the archenemy is Satan and Anti-Semitism, most notably Hitler, the holocaust and the Diaspora. In sects of Christianity, the archenemy may be considered Satan, the Antichrist, the people who crucified Jesus or, in a few sects, the disciple Judas Iscariot. In Hinduism, the gods' archenemy is evil in general, although each individual person's archenemy is their karma. In Buddhism, the archenemy is generally desire and suffering. Scientology considers psychology and psychiatry to be a major enemy.

Debatable Archenemies

Sometimes archenemies can be debatable. For example, The Joker,Joe Chill, Ra's Al Ghul and Hush could each be considered Batman's archenemy. King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla or Mothra could be called Godzilla's archenemy. In the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, most people would say that Gaston is Beast's archenemy, although Beast's archenemy is his curse.

Pronunciation

The correct way to pronounce 'archenemy' is (art-ch-in-e-mee). However, there is a second pronunciation, which, although it is incorrect, is somewhat fluent. This incorrect pronunciation is (ark-in-e-mee). The Japanese use this pronunciation of "arch" (アーク Aaku) in borrowed English words (アークエネミー Aakuenemii). アーチ (Aachi) would refer to an arch bridge or an archdam. The proper pronunciation would be アーチエネミー (Aachienemii) in katakana.

Supervillains | Stock characters | Rogues galleries

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Archenemy".

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