The Main's Bane

''Lousy next-door neighbors... How I hate them so much!''

The one who rivals the Main in nearly everything they do. The familiar variant of the Rival, the Main's Bane traditionally stands as the Main's greatest adversary in life. Whereas the Main may struggle to gain popularity or money, their enemy gets everything coming their way easier and quicker. The Main's Bane normally has an unsubtle way of bragging their success in the Main's face, doubling as an Ego Flaunt or SOB. They serve the primary purpose of underscoring the Main's own hardships and losses by living an inverse lifestyle. The two exist as foils to each other, but not every writer is so effective with handling this role. Oftentimes, the Main's Bane is there simply to make the Main feel bad for being who they are. They tastelessly mock their rival when they slip and fall while scoffing in the times of them winning for once. More developed Main's Banes will go beyond this overdone attitude and work to emphasize the Main's weaknesses. If the Main is quick to anger and competitiveness, the Main's Bane is levelheaded and accepting of their failures. If the Main runs a business, the Main's Bane owns a place with five times the traffic and may offer assistance to their less fortunate business opponent. The Main is filled with jealousy and spite aimed at the Main's Bane and might devise illegitimate arguments against them, such as saying they have all the nice things they don't deserve. The Main's Bane is so prone to good fortune that it's as if they're stealing from the rest of society through cosmic means.