Vitriolic Best Friends? Does your story have any characters who are this?

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VitriolicBestBuds

These are two characters that are rivals towards each other, but deep down they care about each other dearly. They are either arguing with each other or trying to choke each other or whatever, but honestly they care about each other in a non-romantic way.

This is seen a lot in the media from anime to video games to film to tv shows and more! Am I sure you’ve seen this a few times from the media you’ve consumed.

I gave a link for the tv tropes to give you more insight on what it is about. So, do you have two characters who are friends and embody this trope?

My Turn:

From Project Succession, I have the strongest feeling that Kisarra and Aeris are going to play this trope. They start disliking each other then get to a point where they can tolerate each other in spades, but soon they will become friendlier towards each other though that won’t stop them from arguing and tossing taunts every now and then. Still Kisarra and Aeris are fellow Knights even though Aeris is a princess, so they still view each other as teammates going for the same goal.

I am going to enjoy exploring their friendship. LOL!

Thoughts and feelings?

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Come on down!

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I honestly don’t think Alma could handle a friendship like that. He’s too sensitive and doesn’t really understand the type of negative or insulting humor that would go with vitriolic friends. If someone is rude or acts angry towards him, he takes it at face value. Of course, he’s very autistic coded so, doesn’t quite understand the nuances of social interactions that aren’t very straighforward. So a friend that acts like an enemy would just be an enemy to him. He wouldn’t be able to understand that they care about him underneath the hostile facade.

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Alma sounds like a great and sweet guy!
Does he like hugs? :face_holding_back_tears:

How about other characters in your story? Are they like that or not at all?

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Maggie and Tay, from one of my stories, are like this. They poke fun at each other, they argue a lot, but deep down they care about each other, and they’ll apologize if the other starts getting genuianely upset. There’s even a scene where Tay almost dies, and Maggie saves him.

I also have a pair of characters like this in my Warrior Cats fanfic, Wolfbee and Poppycloud, who are similar in the way they act towards each other as Maggie and Tay. Although it’s more mild with the cats, as Poppycloud doesn’t like arguing as much, and Wolfbee knows he can’t get too hostile to her.

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He only likes hugs if they are from people he trusts. He has mild haphephobia (fear of being touched) so people have to ask him permission first.

Hmm :thinking:
I have some characters like that. Garick and Errol would do well in vitriolic friendships. But so far I haven’t had an opportunity to write them in situations where that would show much.

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Hannah vs Leon (her step-brother).

Brief family background:
Hannah - orphan and adopted daughter of Karen.
Leon - son of Karen and Zorik (never married).

Anyway. These two have been at each others’ throats for at least a decade. Hannah treats Leon like a klutz of an annoying little brother, Leon being younger by six years. Hannah always seems unperturbed by the ‘inconvenient’ facts that Leon is twice her size and three times her strength.

One noteworthy argument occurred near Leon’s eighteenth birthday. Leon suggested he should join a combat unit in the IDF, and train to be like Karen’s mercenaries. Hannah threw Leon against the wall, pinned him by his throat, and yelled at him for fifteen minutes without repeating herself. Leon considered shrugging Hannah off then he noticed her trickling tears and her growing shiver. Leon surrendered to Hannah’s volcanic rage, and offered to join a non-combat unit instead. Hannah released her brother with a whispered plea to not get hurt, and nothing more was said of the matter.

Leon enlisted as an Army mechanic, and discovered his love of machines and his near-savant level fabricating and mechanical skills. As a discrete thank you, Leon gave Hannah’s ‘pet’ Alpina B6 a few upgrades: laminated (bullet-resistant) Perspex windows, super-charged LS V8, sound-proof cabin with a light armour exterior, symphony quality speakers. In return, Hannah made sure Leon often received the best jobs and postings, usually within walking distance of her work (just to keep an eye on the knuckle-dragging oaf). Hannah enlisted as a cyber warfare officer in the IDF’s Military Intelligence.

Hannah and Leon continue to pester each other at any opportunity, with computer geek and grease gorilla becoming their unofficial call-signs at home. And Hannah’s made a hobby of seducing Leon’s love interests before Leon can arrange a first date, while Leon’s offered to make an elegant collage style honours board for her bedroom (or an ornate revolving door), as more naive eager girls have passed through the room’s archway than the entrance gates of most private schools. But the two do like each other, really. Anyone dumb enough to cross one will not survive the other’s wrath.

Stop stealing my girlfriends ~ Leon.
Stop choosing the easy ones ~ Hannah.

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Kind of close to the annoying sibling, isn’t it? They might fight each other, but deep down, they care for each other.

Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound (yes, editing it again :stuck_out_tongue: ) definitely have that with Pinti and Valan. He has discriminated her and also bullied her behind her father’s back. She hated him as well and didn’t like how he looked down on her and everyone around him. They get into physical fights, too.

It was only after she was made leader that she was forced to work with him. They still don’t really like each other, but they learn to tolerate each other.

Pinti learns to brush off his insults instead of clapping back and eventually, he does tire of insulting her all the time.

There are a few times where he shows his respect toward her and she’s genuinely surprised, to that he expresses that he’s offended and she has to back down and say “thank you”. Then he acts surprised and she gets offended XD

Ah, those two XD

But he does end up seeing her as a worthy leader.

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I love friendships like that because friends shouldn’t always agree on everything and walk on eggshells just to please each other and be on guard. Friends can have differences along with different likes and dislikes, yet respect each other and accept each other too. Humans are different in that way and you can’t always agree on things, but you can understand and see where things from their perspective, while trying to be somewhat accepting.

Does that make sense?

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Aww!

Makes me think of my two characters, Princess Stephanie and her cousin Lady Asherina.

They are always at each other’s throat, though they really care about each other. It is both sweet and hilarious.

Fine, I shall give him an air hug.

You got time, plenty of it. LOL!

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D’aww!

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nah, I don’t, unless you count Yhe and Lara, who are motherfigure and daughterfigure but also suboardinate and shop-owner.

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Other characters who aren’t related?

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they aren’t related. Yhe takes care of Lara but isn’t her bio mom.

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So, no other characters that represent this trope?

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nope.

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Short story like that is 10 paragraphs, too long to post here. Here is the first.
In the heart of the bustling town of Riverton, where the streams danced and the trees whispered secrets, two figures found themselves entwined in a familiar rivalry. At first glance, Jared and Mia looked like nothing more than two sides of a coin—constantly clashing, always bickering, their families having lived in the town for generations and determined to outdo one another at every turn.

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