Rivals

[Altairis]

Do you prefer rivals that are your friends or rivals that aren't? Why or why not?

 

[Khoshi]

I like the meaner type of rival who isn't your friend, simply because it's their negative feelings towards you that urge you to become stronger than them. The whole revenge thing. They hurt you, you become stronger so you can beat them, you take them out with your newfound strength. It's like a push in the right direction to me. They help you to succeed through their rude ways.

 

[Apollo]

I like the meaner type of rival who isn't your friend, simply because it's their negative feelings towards you that urge you to become stronger than them. The whole revenge thing. They hurt you, you become stronger so you can beat them, you take them out with your newfound strength. It's like a push in the right direction to me. They help you to succeed through their rude ways.

Nothing to add here, because this basically states my opinion for this matter. I also see that the meaner the rival, the more accomplished I feel when I beat them. :p

 

[Hiatus]

Rivals are basically your friends, in most cases, but they just go up against you on adventuring in some competition of sorts, so that you both could have motivation to push yourself forward, train your Pokémon, beat gym leaders, Elite Four, champion, and just generally accomplish things. These games could definitely work without rivalry (lots of other series don't have it), no doubt, but it just adds to the feeling; it makes them seem more realistic. In real life, you're always comparing yourself with somebody and competing, and that's one of the main things that help bring you success.

 

[Princess Diana]

Not really the bully type, just more the arrogance of them. They push me to want to beat them and do better than they can.

The friendly, nice ones are so annoying with their "Yay, we did it!" attitude. No! I did it. :(

 

[Arlo]

I don't actually distinguish based on whether they're friendly or not, but based on whether they're negative or not.

My least favorite rivals have been Cheren and Hugh, just because they're negative people - Cheren is bitter and petty and Hugh is angry and vengeful, and I just don't like either one of them at all. I don't feel any great desire to beat them and I don't find it particularly satisfying to do it - I just wish they'd shut up and go away.

My favorites have been Blue and Barry. Blue's a bully, but at least he's positive - he's not moaning on about not being strong or ranting about his sister's stupid Purrloin - he's just out there to kick ass and he's a satisfying challenge. And Barry is easily the most positive real rival in the games (not counting the secondary rivals like Dawn and Bianca) and also my favorite. He's eager and confident and a worthy challenge, and he's always amusing.

 

[Yato]

I like rivals who are somewhere in the middle--in other words, ones who are relatively friendly (or at least aren't downright vicious) toward you, but are also arrogant and/or aggressive. The XY rivals and Wally really bothered me because they were friendly and didn't feel like rivals whatsoever; instead, they were just annoying obstacles whose only uses were to give me money. It was a similar case with Bianca, though her only saving point was that I found her cute XD Silver I disliked because he was douchey toward you most of the time. And though the same could be said for Green, I really enjoyed the fact that he became Champion, as I thought it was perfect for your rival to be your final opponent and defeating him was extremely satisfying. On the other hand, I love Barry, Cheren, and Hugh because they're friends with you and help you out from time to time, but have attitudes that make me enjoy battling and defeating them.

 

[Hikamaru]

Given I'm someone who gets hit hard by bullying I voted for the "friends" sort of rivals which ironically cop a lot of hate from a lot of older players and could be to blame why they preferred the likes of Blue, Silver and even Barry compared to the others. I actually don't mind the friendlier rivals, in fact I liked Cheren and Bianca's development in Black & White especially.

So yeah, while Blue and Silver are iconic, I'm just not that much into them.

 

[Dr. Silver]

I'm all for having friendly rivals but I do believe that there should always be that one rival that's a bit of a jerk towards the player. In the games that seemingly lack this jerk rival who's arrogant and is always ahead of you, I genuinely feel like the player character is that guy themselves. Just think how many times you seem to crush the ideals of your friendly rival due to you being much better than them?

 

[Bellsprout]

Either kind of rival is fine by me. If anything I just find them kind of annoying/they never end up being that threatening at all. Blue/Green (whatever you call him) is probably the only rival that ever posed any real threat because you have to "dethrone" him just to become the Champion yourself.

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

Even though Barry is my favourite Rival cause of his pure hilarity haha, I tend to prefer Rivals that are more sinister as there's more satisfaction in facing them; plus to me they kind of earn the term "Rival" moreso than the likes of Tierno who I just felt guilty about beating lol :)


I also liked it in Yellow I think it was that had the Rival's Eeveelution dependent on the players' choices which gave the matches with Blue a more competitive edge.

 

[Pendraflare]

My least favorite rivals have been Cheren and Hugh, just because they're negative people - Cheren is bitter and petty and Hugh is angry and vengeful, and I just don't like either one of them at all. I don't feel any great desire to beat them and I don't find it particularly satisfying to do it - I just wish they'd shut up and go away.

Not to be rude or disrespectful, but you've said the Unova games are your favorites, so I find it kinda funny that your favorite games have your least favorite rivals.

Anyway, i'm kind of a mix here. Brendan/May were boring, and I only liked Serena because she was cute. :P (Although I usually play as her, anyway.) The other rivals from XY I didn't care about either. Hugh wasn't THAT nice, although I did like his backstory and his epic "I'm about to unleash my rage" lines. Barry was a mixed bag, and Gary and Silver were good too, although Hugh is my personal favorite.

 

[Arlo]

Not to be rude or disrespectful, but you've said the Unova games are your favorites, so I find it kinda funny that your favorite games have your least favorite rivals.

No worries - I don't see how that might even possibly be rude.

And yeah - it is sort of strange, because the Unova games are my favorites, but Cheren and Hugh really are my least favorite rivals. I guess there are just so many things I like in the games that it makes up for them.

 

[Pepperton]

It's perfect when they can find a happy medium. I want a rival who has a kind, caring heart of which made you want to be their friend, and a large, encompassing passion to be the best at what they do, and in the process, pushes you and improves you. Sometimes, a little cockiness and arrogant behavior is good too, as personally it makes me want to train my Pokemon to defeat them, in order to not give them the satisfaction of winning. Barry is a wonderful example of this, and probably my favorite rival, though Silver does come close.

 

[Oryx]

I like the meaner type of rival who isn't your friend, simply because it's their negative feelings towards you that urge you to become stronger than them. The whole revenge thing. They hurt you, you become stronger so you can beat them, you take them out with your newfound strength. It's like a push in the right direction to me. They help you to succeed through their rude ways.

But in the end, isn't it kind of silly because they never hurt you? You win against them every time so the meaner rivals seems more like an annoying fly than a spur pushing you on.

 

[LightningAlex]

I think a friendly rival is better than a bully. A bully is just... well, annoying. A friendly rival is someone who travels the same region as you, and tries his best to be great, better than you, but fails every time, which just gives him/her the strength to carry on. They basically acknowledge you as their teacher and idol later in the games. To be honest, Wally was probably my favorite rival just because of that reason. Although it'd be even better without that last battle, where you crush the hopes and dreams of a weak, >sick< boy who wanted nothing more than to be like you.... but oh well.

 

[Universe]

I think I like the rivals that are friends instead of just 'stick-up-the-butt' jerks.
Because honestly if they're my friend it makes me way more competitive. If it's just some guy trying to ruin my day I don't mind him quite as much.

It gives me no personal gratification to beat him when he isn't someone I know. Because hey I can rub it in his face later if he's my buddy!
.. Or I would be able to in theory, were this not in-game. uvu

So yes I prefer the rivals you're buddy-buddy with. I really enjoyed the three rivals you get to face off with in X&Y. They're so adorable and were a lot of fun to battle!

 

[Altairis]

I prefer rivals that are mean, just because of the way Gamefreak has been creating friendly rivals lately. The rivals in XY were, quite frankly, boring. 3 of them didn't share the same goal as I did (plus it seemed like kind of a forced friendship) and one of them just had to keep bringing up the fact that we were neighbors, haha.

I consider Barry an in-between. He had been your friend for years, but he still wasn't the nicest guy around all the time. I thought it was fun to challenge him, especially because his goal didn't really involve the Pokedex and he actually really wanted to get stronger in order to win. :3 He was a cool guy!

 

[Brendino]

Any time we get a new rival, I always hope that they're a bit of a jerk. Going up against (and eventually defeating) both Blue and Silver seemed more satisfying than when we were introduced to Brendan, May and Wally in RSE. Sure, there's nothing wrong with having a friend whose on their own journey that you battle every once and a while, but you don't quite get the same satisfaction out of beating someone like Wally that you do out of Blue at the Pokemon League.

 

[ShivaDF]

I don't care what the rival is like as long as they are a compelling character in their own right. Although I did feel a bit sorry for Brendan because I felt like I was crushing his dreams to be a trainer.

My favorite rival of the series is Wally, who is definitely a friend.