Enemy Ace Hans von Hammer is often portrayed as a Worthy Opponent. He is obviously inspired by the real-life Red Baron, mentioned below. Said segment was an homage to a Marvel comic where The Champion of the Universe admitted he couldn't "defeat" The Thing in a match after defeating all of Marvel's other heroes.

Katara and Azula in Avatar The Last Airbender Revised. Over the course of various battles and confrontations, the two develop a begrudging respect for each other.Rango receives this from Rattlesnake Jake at the end of the film. "I tip my hat to you. One legend to another." Hanse Davion and Takashi Kurita. The two would feud bitterly on the battlefield, but also respected each other's prowess as warriors and never underestimated each other. Their fights were notable for being largely 'above the table' in a setting where espionage was rampant. In fact, when Kurita's beloved wife fell seriously ill, Davion sent a secret message to Kurita with well wishes for her speedy recovery. Contrast this to the mutually disrespectful relationship between Maximillian Liao and Hanse Davion, or Takashi Kurita and Katrina Steiner. JosephWongKS: Final villain of the series, who's the first Archmage of his race and also the King note elected king! of the most dominant and magically power nation in the world, on 5 December 2012: "No, it's Miranda Deegan. I've under-estimated her too often. Never again."

In The Antithesis, Yahweh, the leader of Heaven, and Lucifer, the leader of Hell, become friendly enemies when a Civil War between the angels and demons tragically force them to oppose one another. Previously, both had worked together as scientists in Heaven's main corporation for Technology and Science, 'The Plexus', and though now friendly enemies, they still strive for the same objective: peace between Heaven and Hell. Julius Caesar (2003): Caesar considers Vercingetorix to be his; he even visits him before his execution to say farewell and states he feels more kinship with him than he does the mob howling for his enemy's blood. Nobledark Imperium: There are precisely two foes that Lucius the Eternal considers to have been worthy challenges to his skill: Vulkan and Lelith Hesperax. Vulkan was the immovable object to Lucius' unstoppable force, and was the only one to ever cleanly beat him in combat; Lucius respects him greatly and still drops by the Temple of the Flame on Nocturne from time to time to pay respects at Vulkan's grave. He and Lelith both consider their duel to be the best fight that they ever had and greatly look forward to a rematch.

Become a Member

The Doctor is seen as a Worthy Opponent by just about anybody with the slightest martial tilt to their culture. Notably, Dalek machinery that normally needs to scan in pure Dalek DNA to work will also accept the Doctor's testimony of an individual's Dalekness instead. The Champion of the Universe declared The Thing to be a worthy foe after Thing refused to give up despite being hopelessly outmatched and even managed to give him an injury.

Even the Affably Evil villain Dukat also held an unrequited view of Sisko as this, until " Waltz", in which Sisko pushes Dukat to a Heel Realization, with the undesired effect of Dukat embracing his villainy and becoming unambiguously evil. In the Teen Titans fanfic Jewel of Darkness, resident Psycho for Hire Guerra views Cyborg as this, as he was the only one of the Titans to provide him with a decent fight, and actually managed to defeat him. It gets to the point that, during a fight with Robin, Guerra compares his fighting style with Cyborg's, and while he loses all interest in the Titans after his contract with Midnight expires, he's still looking forward to a rematch with Cyborg.After putting on a match that Dave Meltzer called the greatest in pro wrestling history at New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 11 in 2017, Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega exemplified this trope. Omega called the victorious Okada the best wrestler in Japan and possibly the world, while Okada called Omega the greatest foreign wrestler in NJPW history. Cena has on record stated that Chris Masters is the physically strongest opponent he has ever faced. Masters is the only competitor who has legitimately rendered Cena unconscious, and he has done so three times. In Win Ben Stein's Money, if a contestant successfully won against Ben, he would tell them, "I'm impressed. I'm humbled. I hate you! Get out of here! You've done enough damage!"