Which of Ash's main rivals were potentially the weakest?

miltankRancher · #1 March 13th, 2012, 03:33 PM

~Antagonist: Rival Fan Club!~

Rival of the Week: Barry!

Welcome to ~Antagonist~, the Fan Club dedicated to all of Anime rivals out there. They may have given our beloved heroes a really hard time, but we have to admit, they are strong in their own right. Some of them have moved on to win League Championship's, others Contest gods and goddesses, but one thing is common among them: all of them are legends. If you love the Rivals, then this club is for you!

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1. Follow all of PC's and Pokemon Groups' rules.
2. Please don't spam, troll or harass. Also, no bashing of rivals. Discussion of superiority between rivals may arise but, please, try to keep it civil.
3. Try to keep active! You will be considered inactive if you have not posted within a week here, with or without prior notice. You will be strike out from the club after a month of absence, or 28 days since your last post. You can rejoin, of course. When inactive, you will not be permitted to join various events, and you are not entitled to some quirks.
4. Everyone can choose one partner Pokemon from the list upon joining (includes the ones you add!) and a nickname it if you want. However, it must not have evolved yet. We will have an evolution process to follow
5. I will be giving out badges to active members. Once you complete a full set of badges (e.g. all badges from Kanto) the points you have accumulated up then will be multiplied by 1.2. If you complete a second set, it will be multiplied by 1.2, then 1.3, and so on and so forth. Once you complete all five sets of badges, your current points will be multiplied by 1.5, and you will gain Red's Rival Badge.
6. Enjoy!

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Username: miltankRancher
Partner Rival and Pokemon: Paul and "Bowser" the Turtwig
Reason for joining: Paul and Gary have been my favorite Pokemon anime characters ever since the beginning of time. Paul because of his strong Pokemon, and very firm attitude, and Gary's smugness which turned him into a respectable Professor.
Referred by: none!

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Olli97 · #2 March 13th, 2012, 04:06 PM

Username: Olli97
Partner Rival and Pokemon: (For this one it'd be good if you included a list of each rival's Pokémon, just so it was easier to find out which one to choose) Gary and Blastoise.
Reason for joining: Apart from the main characters, the rivals are usually the ones we get to know the most about. Throughout the episodes that they're in, we get to know their personality, in which a downer is that many of the personalities are alike, though there are some who varies from others. We're also usually provided with a backstory of some kind, which also gives us a way to relate more to the rivals, than the minor characters that usually only appear in one episode.

Among the rivals, who is your favorite and why?
This one is kind of a tie between Gary and Richie. Gary is the first and the original rival, both in the games and in the animé, and I usually go with liking the first ones I got to know the best, and since Blue was my first game, and Gary was based off of the in-game rival, I'm bound to like him. Other than that he has a great personality, he is very confident in himself, though he still aknowledge it when he loses.
Even though he at first glance appears to be an unreasonable little brat, he actually is pretty mature, and he is also pretty intelligent, which becoming a professor has shown.

Richie is also one of the original rivals, and to be honest, he isn't that much of a rival, mostly just a friend and a temporary companion. He's one of Ash's best friends, and is a really nice person overall, and has the best of the personalities imo. His personality differs a lot from Ash's other rivals, because instead of looking down on Ash, and thinking he's just a weak loser, like most rivals did untill Ash beat them, he sees Ash as an equal, and appears to even look up to him too.

In the end I'd probably have to go with Gary, since he's, well, Gary >_<

miltankRancher · #3 March 14th, 2012, 01:11 AM

I like Richie, though not as much as Gary. Gary is the definition if being a rival. A rival technically means an equal to someone, but that someone denies he thinks of it that way. During the beginning of the series, Gary had been always mocking Ash of everything. However, when the former loses to Ash in the league, he changed. A LOT.

Richie on the other hand, is much like an older Max to me.

And yes, I am planning to include a list of Pokemon sooner, though I have yet to figure out a way to make it look less cluttered.

Hikari10 · #4 March 14th, 2012, 03:33 AM

Username: Hikari10
Partner Rival and Pokemon: Bianca and "Finnian" the Minccino
Reason for joining: I love a lot of the anime rivals, with my faves being: Barry, Conway, Georgia, Luke, Bianca, Trip, Paul, Kenny, Burgundy, Stephan, Zoey and Nando.
Referred by: N/A

I chose Bianca and Minccino cos Bianca is my fave Unova rival in the anime. I gave a boy's name to my Minccino cos Bianca has a male Minccino.

miltankRancher · #5 March 14th, 2012, 03:44 AM

Hi there, Hikari10! Barry is my favorite rival ingame, because of his plain craziness. And his impatience is so adorable.

Olli97 · #6 March 14th, 2012, 02:19 PM

If pitted against one another in a Pokemon Battle, who do you think will win?
Well this one clearly goes to Tobias. Except for a few of the rivals, Ash has beaten nearly everyone of them at some point, but he didn't even come close to beating Tobias. Like, we only got to see two of his Pokémon, both of which were legendary, and if he uses the same strategy as I often do, by sending out the weakest first, who knows how strong the rest of his team were.
So definitely Tobias.

If pitted against one another in a Pokemon Contest, who would win?
I haven't really followed the contests very much, but I would say either Drew or Zoey. I think they are the ones with the most potential by far, and I also like Drew's personality, so biasbiasbias.

Meganium90 · #7 March 14th, 2012, 09:31 PM

Username: Meganium90
Partner Rival and Pokemon: Ritchie & Soaring the Taillow (he has a Taillow iirc)
Reason for joining: I'm more into the classics. So it was either Gary or Ritchie. I chose Ritchie because he's nicer and lenient. Even though Ash and Ritchie battled a couple of times, they still remain the best of friends no matter what.
Referred by: none...I discovered the club myself. xD

Among the rivals, who is your favorite and why?
As I said in my sign-up sheet. I chose Ritchie because he's really nice and he knows how to deal with loss without having to make a total show about it. That's how things are supposed to be.

miltankRancher · #8 March 15th, 2012, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meganium90

Username: Meganium90
Partner Rival and Pokemon: Ritchie & Soaring the Taillow (he has a Taillow iirc)
Reason for joining: I'm more into the classics. So it was either Gary or Ritchie. I chose Ritchie because he's nicer and lenient. Even though Ash and Ritchie battled a couple of times, they still remain the best of friends no matter what.
Referred by: none...I discovered the club myself. xD

Among the rivals, who is your favorite and why?
As I said in my sign-up sheet. I chose Ritchie because he's really nice and he knows how to deal with loss without having to make a total show about it. That's how things are supposed to be.

Welcome to the club megan!

And yes, Richie has a Taillow named Rose.! Added you to the list!

Between the two of them, I find myself liking Gary a lot better. I mean, Richie is a good guy, but he's not cut out to called a rival. He's just a pseudo brock.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olli97

If pitted against one another in a Pokemon Battle, who do you think will win?
Well this one clearly goes to Tobias. Except for a few of the rivals, Ash has beaten nearly everyone of them at some point, but he didn't even come close to beating Tobias. Like, we only got to see two of his Pokémon, both of which were legendary, and if he uses the same strategy as I often do, by sending out the weakest first, who knows how strong the rest of his team were.
So definitely Tobias.

If pitted against one another in a Pokemon Contest, who would win?
I haven't really followed the contests very much, but I would say either Drew or Zoey. I think they are the ones with the most potential by far, and I also like Drew's personality, so biasbiasbias.

I agree with Tobias. He nearly overcame the league with just his darkrai, except that it fell to one of Ash's pokemon. But, without doubt, Tobias is the strongest among all.

On the topic of the contests, I think Zoey is the better of the two, and in fact, could bag the contest. She managed to gain the top spot in the Sinnoh Grand Fest.

Olli97 · #9 March 17th, 2012, 03:25 PM

Who has the most developed personality?
Either Gary or Paul. They are the two most important rivals yet (even though I'm pretty sure Trip will be too), and thus the ones we've gotten to know's personalities best.

But the case with Gary is a rather hard one to determine, actually. At first Gary appeared to be a stuck up prick, only caring about ridiculing Ash by catching more Pokémon than him, beating more gyms than him, much fast than him, while not caring about bonding with the Pokémon or meeting new people, but what if Gary's intentions were to strenghten Ash's goal, and give him refined determination. Maybe he had already chosen that he wanted to become a professor prior to his journey, but wanted to help Ash while also trying it out.
I know it's not likely, but in a sense, Gary was both Ash's worst rival, and his best friend.

With Paul it wasn't exactly the same. It was mostly Ash learning things from Gary, while Gary hardly got to learn anything from Ash, but with Paul it's a different case. With all the battles and interactions Ash has had with Paul, they had both learned from each other, like battling strategies, ways to train Pokémon and stuff like that. The only flaw was just the way Paul raised his Pokémon, only caring about making them stronger, without trying to make them comfortable too. I think that changed throughout the series, though, and that Paul finally realised it after Ash beat him in the Pokémon league.

But despite all that, Paul's personality kinda stayed the same, so yeah. I'm going with Gary.

miltankRancher · #10 March 18th, 2012, 06:26 AM

I am also having a hard time choosing between Paul and Gary. both of them are equally good rivals, and both of them had interaction with Ash the most. Those two were opposite sides of the same coin.

But, between the two, I will also choose gary. Paul basically stayed the same throughout the series, and became 'developed' in jjust a few episodes. Gary on the other hand, took a few saga before somethinjg blossomed.

Essentials · #11 April 7th, 2012, 04:48 AM

Username: Essentials
Partner Rival and Pokemon: Paul and Murkrow the Murkrow. <3
Reason for Joining: I love Paul because of his emo-like ways and stuff like that. I love Ikarishipping, so I guess that's why I like Paul even more. Plus, I like stubborn guys. ^o^

That is all.

miltankRancher · #12 April 10th, 2012, 11:43 AM

Hi there Essentials! Welcome to the club!

Ikarishipping? I am an Advanceshipper, sorry. But I agree with you that Paul's stubbornness, and his emo-like ways are factors to his character's general aura.

Olli97 · #13 April 10th, 2012, 04:00 PM

Who is your least favorite and why?

I guess in this case it'd have to be Trip. I was gonna say Harley due to how annoying he is, but I realised that the rival personality that Trip has been given is just waay too similar to Paul's, and I don't think he's handling it very well. And to add to that, for what I've seen of the anime he only looks down on Ash, and doesn't seem to give an eye to any of his good qualities, which is what Paul did at first, but at least he learned not to underestimate Ash, and went to see him as an equal.

So Trip it is.

miltankRancher · #14 April 10th, 2012, 11:59 PM

I couldn't judge Trip as of now, as the season is currently ongoing. Maybe he'll get character development soon.

Despite saying that he is the strongest, I actually like Tobias the least of the rivals. Too overpowered, IMO. Plus, it seems like he has got no emotion. AT ALL.

AlexOzzyCake · #15 April 12th, 2012, 05:13 PM

Username: AlexOzzyCake
Partner Rival and Pokemon: Very hard choice... Georgia & Pawniard!
Reason for joining: I love the rivals. They make the anime complete for me! I find them pretty annoying in game, but in the anime they really come to life and it wouldn't be the same without them. I love when the group runs into them and they have whole episodes focused on them, and especially when they take part in tournaments together. They're very interesting characters to watch develop and guessing what their teams will be is fun!
Referred by: Olli97

Favourite rival?
This is a very hard choice. I love Bianca, Trip, Paul, Barry, Stephan and Georgia. But choosing a favourite? That's very difficult. Choosing a partner honestly took half an hour just due to how much love I have for them all. Eventually chose to go with Georgia's Pawniard because it's simply such an impressive Pokemon from watching it battle. Although I absolutely adore the other rivals listed too! I love Bianca because her attitude is amazing and her personality is so cute! At first I really hated her, but after watching Ash battle for her right to continue journeying in Unova, I really started to love her. Paul and Trip I love due to their mystery and mutual respect for Ash, even though they won't show it, also because they simply raise very unique and interesting teams. Especially Paul on that front! Barry I love for similar reasons to Bianca (they are basically the same person tbh xD) and I love Stephan because he's so upbeat and quirky, plus his Pokemon are pretty cool; I've always had a thing for Zebstrika! But I think I'll have to go with Georgia as my favourite because she looks incredibly stylish, she has a very kind side to her (even if she doesn't show it much!) and she's a character that I feel will definitely receive a lot of development in the future. Plus her team is great, I adore both Beartic and Bisharp. <3

Least-favourite rival?
Burgundy! Ughh, I hate her so much. She's so stuck up and annoying and her French is awful! I think she's one that will get more tolerable over time (the last time I saw her was at the Nimbassa Town tournament where at the end she actually seemed to be somewhat nice), but at the moment I really dislike her. She's spiteful and has no idea what she's talking about. Especially for a C-class connoisseuse! Go Cilan!

Olli97 · #16 April 13th, 2012, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miltankRancher

I couldn't judge Trip as of now, as the season is currently ongoing. Maybe he'll get character development soon.

Despite saying that he is the strongest, I actually like Tobias the least of the rivals. Too overpowered, IMO. Plus, it seems like he has got no emotion. AT ALL.

Yeah, I know, which was also why I was about to say Harley, but I just thought that he had been pretty annoying up till now, and way too much like Paul for me to like him.

And yeah, I also agree with you on the thing with Tobias, because yeah. He was way too overpowered, taking out Ash's entire team with his two Pokémon, who in addition to that were legendary. I really hope he'll make another appearance though, as I kinda wanna see the rest of his team.
The fact that he seemed so emotionless, was probably because he's so used to winning, that it doesn't excite him or come as an suprise anymore, and the only point where he did show some kind of excitement, was when Ash beat his Darkrai. Apart from that we didn't really get to see him that much, or really learn his personality, so there we really didn't have much opportunity to see his emotions anyways.

Anyways, I think it's time for a new topic, if you don't mind me adding.

Which of the rival teams do you like the best?

AlexOzzyCake · #17 April 13th, 2012, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olli97

Which of the rival teams do you like the best?

THIS QUESTION IS HARD. I could write literally pages on this, but I'm going to keep it short so it's easier to read/reply to. Honestly I love a lot of their teams, but the two that stand out for me are Bianca and Georgia, just because their teams are very diverse and I like most of the Pokemon on them. Bianca's Minccino and Georgia's Pawniard are both great Pokemon, but contrasting with Emboar and Beartic respectively leads to a very interesting training style. I also love Luke's team because he has very unique Pokemon like Zorua and Larvesta, which he uses very tactfully. My favourite example of this is when he makes his Volcarona 'fly' by using its flames as a propeller whilst battling against Cilan's Stunfisk. I didn't like Kenny's team at all though, I thought it was very anti-his personality with the power and size of the Pokemon he was using. Zoe also had an interesting team but I think it was more her training style that lead to their success rather than the team itself. Also I can't wait to see more of Stephan's team since based on what I've seen so far (Zebstrika & Sawk), he is going to train some very varied Pokemon leading to a very diverse team indeed. Paul was another honorable mention on this topic due to his style of constantly changing his team and adapting his style all the time, leading him to use some interesting Pokemon such as Drapion and Froslass, but its hard to rate his team due to its ever-changing nature. But I do adore his Ursaring and Electivire, those two Pokemon as so resilient and I think they really summarize Paul's personality well. I'd really like to see Paul train a Floatzel though, I think the tough nature of Floatzel and Paul's powerful training style would suit perfectly together. Another rival with an interesting team was Conway; it was a huge surprise to see his final team at the Unova league but I loved it. His technique of surprising his opponent with a Trick Room set up and then using Pokemon like Shuckle and Slowking was wonderful; I just wish his team had had more character development. There are more rivals like Trip and Barry whom also had great teams, but I don't want this post to get any longer than it already is xD

tl;dr I love the rivals with diverse teams consisting of unique Pokemon, main examples being Bianca and Georgia :3

miltankRancher · #18 April 14th, 2012, 08:16 AM

Wow. This is a hard topic. All of the teams are good in their own ways. Each of them has it's own... redeeming qualities. And charming pokemon. And strong ones. So I am finding it hard which to choose.

Paul and Gary had the most number of course, and some awesome Pokemon also, like that Blastoise and Electivire. Luke has unique ones like Larvesta and Zorua. Plus the coordinators have beautiful ones like Roserade, Glameow, Lapras, etc etc. The Unova rivals' pokemon are good battlers. So this one is really hard.

I don't know what to answer since I love them all equally.

ShadowTheDarkrai · #19 April 14th, 2012, 01:26 PM

I wish to join.

Username: ShadowTheDarkrai
Partner Rival and Pokemon: Tobias- Darkrai
Reason for joining: I personally like the rivals better than the main characters because we see the main characters so often while a rival popping up once in a while brightens it up. I like Tobias because of his dark and mysterious personality and also because I have a story about him. The story is as follows: I like Darkrai a lot. I enjoy making up stories about it a lot. I heard that there was going to be a group of episodes about a tournament and so I made up a fantasy about a mysterious trainer and his Darkrai. My jaw dropped when I heard there was a trainer like that. Adding to that he had a Latios, one of my favorite pokemon.

Olli97 · #20 April 25th, 2012, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShadowTheDarkrai

I wish to join.

Username: ShadowTheDarkrai
Partner Rival and Pokemon: Tobias- Darkrai
Reason for joining: I personally like the rivals better than the main characters because we see the main characters so often while a rival popping up once in a while brightens it up. I like Tobias because of his dark and mysterious personality and also because I have a story about him. The story is as follows: I like Darkrai a lot. I enjoy making up stories about it a lot. I heard that there was going to be a group of episodes about a tournament and so I made up a fantasy about a mysterious trainer and his Darkrai. My jaw dropped when I heard there was a trainer like that. Adding to that he had a Latios, one of my favorite pokemon.

Welcome to the club ShadowTheDarkrai (mind if I call you Shadow for short?), hope you'll enjoy your time here. MiltankRancher appears to have been busy lately, so I'm sure he won't mind me adding you to the list.

I agree that the rival battles are always entertaining, due to how rare they are, and they're kinda like main battles, so it gives off a whole other feeling than most of the simple trainer battles. Though that's probably due to our knowledge on them, knowing their personalities, and knowing that the outcome of most rival battles are decisive for later interaction between the protagonists and the rivals.
Pretty cool how your fantasy apparently turned real xD I hope we'll see more of Tobias in the future :3

I guess a new topic wouldn't be so bad, so here goes.

Which of Ash's main rivals were potentially the weakest?

By main rivals, I'm referring to Gary, Ritchie, Paul and Trip, though since Trip still hasn't gotten his end team yet, he can be replaced by Barry.

Out of the lot I think I'd have to say Paul actually. Despite having a really powerful team, he lacked confidence in his Pokémon, as opposed to the confidence he had in his own skill. Even though that was changed later on, he appeared to look down on pretty much everyone else, except for the more respectable trainers and his brother, which kind of opposed him of change, which was bad, considering the strategies he got from Ash did help him in a few battles.
But mostly the fact that he thought that he as a trainer was really good, and that the mistakes were on the Pokémons' side must've made communication and bonding with the Pokémon a lot tougher, where bonding with the Pokémon is one of the elements of becoming a good trainer.

Stealing Alex' topic layout ftw!

AlexOzzyCake · #21 April 27th, 2012, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olli97

Which of Ash's main rivals were potentially the weakest?

By main rivals, I'm referring to Gary, Ritchie, Paul and Trip, though since Trip still hasn't gotten his end team yet, he can be replaced by Barry.

Out of the lot I think I'd have to say Paul actually. Despite having a really powerful team, he lacked confidence in his Pokémon, as opposed to the confidence he had in his own skill. Even though that was changed later on, he appeared to look down on pretty much everyone else, except for the more respectable trainers and his brother, which kind of opposed him of change, which was bad, considering the strategies he got from Ash did help him in a few battles.

I agree with what you said about Paul, he was my first thought too, but fact is he was getting MUCH stronger and much better at working with his Pokemon as the series progressed. And his Pokemon certainly didn't seem to dislike him in any way (bar Chimchar). I would very much like to see if he's still taking the attitude of replacing weaker Pokemon with stronger ones though, if so they I don't think he'll ever be as strong as he wants. I think the weakest rival either has to be Barry or Trip. Trip has a lot of potential, but he's the only rival to have done pretty badly against Ash's team (in their third battle) - it seems like he's getting stronger at a much slower rate than Ash etc. And Barry... Well, Barry was just never that strong to begin with haha. I think he chose an awkward team to work with and he doesn't really have what it takes to be a great Pokemon trainer.

Olli97 · #22 April 27th, 2012, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexOzzyCake

I agree with what you said about Paul, he was my first thought too, but fact is he was getting MUCH stronger and much better at working with his Pokemon as the series progressed. And his Pokemon certainly didn't seem to dislike him in any way (bar Chimchar). I would very much like to see if he's still taking the attitude of replacing weaker Pokemon with stronger ones though, if so they I don't think he'll ever be as strong as he wants. I think the weakest rival either has to be Barry or Trip. Trip has a lot of potential, but he's the only rival to have done pretty badly against Ash's team (in their third battle) - it seems like he's getting stronger at a much slower rate than Ash etc. And Barry... Well, Barry was just never that strong to begin with haha. I think he chose an awkward team to work with and he doesn't really have what it takes to be a great Pokemon trainer.

Though I have only seen a small bit of the B/W anime, I concluded from the first few encounters with Trip that I didn't like him at all. I don't know much about his team or his methods of training, but I just think that his personality was a remake of Paul's, and to add to that they made him even more arrogant and unlikeable than Paul were at first, giving me a total of 0 respect for him. But I can only assume what you said about him was true.

I agree with you that Barry was just generally weak, and even though he trained regularly and got all the gym badges, he just wasn't really that strong. He didn't really seem like he planned that much ahead post-battle, and he wasn't really that quick on the battlefield either, giving him small chances in the league as we saw.

miltankRancher · #23 May 21st, 2012, 02:38 PM

And now I'm back from outer space.

Well, Trip, for me, is kind of progressing really slowly. He just adds a new Pokemon in his party every time he and Ash meets up. Also, he's a total Paul-esque trainer, with no personality whatsoever. He looks cooler than Paul, though, but he is really weak. His Conkeldurr, despite having gone through some major changes, is mediocre at the best.

AlexOzzyCake · #24 June 7th, 2012, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miltankRancher

And now I'm back from outer space.

Well, Trip, for me, is kind of progressing really slowly. He just adds a new Pokemon in his party every time he and Ash meets up. Also, he's a total Paul-esque trainer, with no personality whatsoever. He looks cooler than Paul, though, but he is really weak. His Conkeldurr, despite having gone through some major changes, is mediocre at the best.

Did you just walk in to find us here with that sad look upon our faces?

I agree with this, but I think he does have some personality :3 Although you're right he really is very weak compared to Ash's past rivals, plus his strategies normally tend to suck :( And his team barely seems to be advancing at all. The only Pokemon really showing any signs of growth is Servine, but even that is still pretty weak. I'd love to see some of his other Pokemon get a chance at fighting some more, like his Lampent or Vanillite, then maybe his team would be a bit more well-rounded :3 I can't wait to see what else he catches though; his team so far is very diverse that his next Pokemon could be anything :o

Olli97 · #25 June 20th, 2012, 09:00 PM

Since this club as well as the owner has been inactive for quite a while, this club is better off closed. Anyone are free to take over, but due to the low amount of replies, I suggest remaking it.

~Closed~

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