5th Gen "Smell Ya Later!": The Rival Speculation Thread

[colcolstyles]

When I saw Hiroshi Sotomura's thread about the games' protagonist, it got me thinking: now that we've seen the protagonists, what about the rival(s)?

So, what do you want to see in the new games' rival? Do you want him/her to be an arrogant jerk or an amiable friend who gives you helpful advise and items? What do you want him/her to look like? Do you want the gender to be the opposite of the player's, the same, or a fixed gender regardless of the player's gender? How many rival characters is an appropriate amount? Feel free to speculate/list your demands.

 

[Massai]

Same gender as the chosen protagonist.

I also prefer the truly friendly rivalry, instead of the annoying friend or arrogant jerk.

 

[JAK3]

I would love the Gary Oak personality to come back, that was my favourite, The 2nd Generation Rival attitude didn't seem to make sense for me, the 3rd Generation rival was barely a rival, but more of a traveling friend. The 4th Generation Rival was cool, and he brought back the Gary Oak feel, but didn't beat it, so a snob that thinks he is better than you feel would be the most fitting for me, it would be cool to see your rival not beat the Elite four, but maybe come into the champions area right after you beat the Elite four champion, and he fights you! That would be mean! Your rival comes into the champions room to try and become the new champion right after you become the champ! That would be worse than Gary Oak!

 

[Izanagi]

I want a rival that starts out as your best friend, and worthy adversary, but as the game progresses, he gets more and more jealous of your growing fame and exceptional skill that he slowly becomes more and more of a jerk and resentful towards you, until you beat him at the Pokemon League, snapping him out of his funk and rekindling your friendship.

 

[Guy]

Third Generation was my favorite, but the way they portrayed your rival as more of a helpful friend was what depressed me. I like them to be tough on us, thinking they're better while we sit at a lower stand than they do. Barry was probably my favorite rival when it came to being comedic, but Blue was my favorite as he was basically the "perfect" rival to say. He thought he was better than us, yet he didn't go slightly overboard with it like Silver had done back in GSC and HG/SS.

So I'm definitely looking forward to a rival that somewhat mirrors Blue in his style of rivalry. With a little mix in from Barry's comedic personality, I think I'll be highly content. I am hoping though that they make the rival a bit more competitive. I hope his or her Pokémon are strong, and not just something that can easily be defeated. I also hope they incorporate some strategy as well as I think this will give battles against them a more rivalry touch since it'll be more of a challenge against them; especially if they think they're better than us.

More than anything, I'd really like to see them be incorporated into the game's plot. DPPt, did this a bit with Dawn and Barry. I'm hoping Black and White might take it a little farther than that.

 

[war rock exe]

I think the Girl should be the Boy's rival or vice versa. I liked it like that in Ruby, Saffire, and Emerald, but i would LOVE more battles..

 

[Hamilton]

two rivals
on that's your friend
one that hates our guts
i think it would work

 

[JAK3]

I want a rival that starts out as your best friend, and worthy adversary, but as the game progresses, he gets more and more jealous of your growing fame and exceptional skill that he slowly becomes more and more of a jerk and resentful towards you, until you beat him at the Pokemon League, snapping him out of his funk and rekindling your friendship.

This Idea sounds amazing, it would work so well! I could see the last fight, your rival just snaps and takes out his rage on you, then attacks you with a high leveled team of Pokemon! Or what about this, what if your rival was a nice person, but joined the evil team later on, but you didn't learn about it until you arrived at the evil team's base, and see your rival their chatting with the boss. That would be interesting too, but your idea sounds better. :D

 

[Weird]

Lol, that's exactly like it goes in the hack shiny gold. You win and your second rival rushes in and battles you. I think there should be two rivals one female and one male. They should have different personalities. One of them is a friend and one of them is like silver/gold and just hates you.

 

[RivalGator]

I want the rival to be a mean arrogant jerk. I am so sick of the friendly rivalry stuff. I want to feel hate when I see my rival. Makes it feel more realistic.
I also want the rival to be a boy. I don't want it to be the opposite. I want the rival to be a fixed person, not changing depending on who you play as. I want the rival to be mean and greedy and putting you down all the time.

=)

 

[JAK3]

Lol, that's exactly like it goes in the hack shiny gold. You win and your second rival rushes in and battles you. I think there should be two rivals one female and one male. They should have different personalities. One of them is a friend and one of them is like silver/gold and just hates you.

Is that really what happens? That's Ironic, haha. Honestly, a mean female rival would be a cool feature to see, because we have never had a mean female rival, heck, we have never really had female rivals! Just May, and she was my least favourite.

 

[Kon~]

I think it should be a mix between Blue and Barry (I'm inclined to call him Pearl, but PokéSpe=/=Canon >.<) In that Blue was a real 'Rival' character - just the right mix between mind-numbingly snobbish and 'Come-on-then-Beat-me' encouraging jerkishness. IMO, Wally was too sappy to be a rival, and Silver was just too emo. :p

And then Barry was less rivally than Blue, and more friendly, so mix some of that in and we have a perfect GenV rival!

 

[Spikey-Eared Pichu]

I'd want this:

A rival that has the "I'm always better" personality, but is either your older brother or sister, depending on your gender. This rival is arrogant, snobby, and always cracks jokes about your fighting prowess. However, since he/she is your older sibling, he/she will, in an arrogant fashion, give you advice and items using lines such as, "Well, since I'm obviously the more experienced one, I suppose you should know that...".

In appearance, the boy rival would be taller than you with an arrogant expression. His hair is brown and hidden under a beanie. He wears a jacket and jeans and his hands are always seen in his pockets. The girl rival is slightly taller than you and has a very haughty expression. Platinum blonde hair that flows down her back, a white tanktop and jean skirt and boots.

 

[GlitchCity]

3 rivals please! One that hates your guts, one thats your neighbor, and one that you meet on your journey (friendly rival). I just hope that we get more than 1 rival in these games.

 

[Timbjerr]

Here's a twist to consider...what if you have a rival that starts off friendly like Barry, but throughout the course of the game, he becomes deeply entwined in the villainous team, working his way up to admin level or something, and becoming more and more degrading and snarky towards you as the story unfolds.

After you encounter him in the villainous team's final hideout, you battle him and whatnot...after he loses, he comes to his senses and realizes the error in his ways...just in time to join you in a double battle against the villainous team's Big Bad duo.

 

[Pityflame]

A more friendly rival would do it for me. It was pretty interesting the way the rivalry system worked in D/P/P. It's your best friend, but there seems to be more of a rivalry and a struggle for him to be better than you. He knows he's your best friend, but he still keeps that mentality of a rivalry and still wants to be superior to you.

At least he doesn't treat Pokemon like dirt.

Treating pokemon like dirt is the way to go.

 

[RivalGator]

Here's a twist to consider...what if you have a rival that starts off friendly like Barry, but throughout the course of the game, he becomes deeply entwined in the villainous team, working his way up to admin level or something, and becoming more and more degrading and snarky towards you as the story unfolds.

After you encounter him in the villainous team's final hideout, you battle him and whatnot...after he loses, he comes to his senses and realizes the error in his ways...just in time to join you in a double battle against the villainous team's Big Bad duo.

Hey...

I really like that idea!

 

[JP]

Here's a twist to consider...what if you have a rival that starts off friendly like Barry, but throughout the course of the game, he becomes deeply entwined in the villainous team, working his way up to admin level or something, and becoming more and more degrading and snarky towards you as the story unfolds.

After you encounter him in the villainous team's final hideout, you battle him and whatnot...after he loses, he comes to his senses and realizes the error in his ways...just in time to join you in a double battle against the villainous team's Big Bad duo.

That sounds great, I'd love something like that. And to go along with that, I would really like 2 rivals... maybe one for the main quest (that being the one turned villainous) and another one that shows up for storylines afterwards and you find out he's actually some famous trainer or the son of a famous trainer.

 

[Bloothump]

I would like a rival to be a female in all cases. I'd really like her to be mysterious, kind of like silver just not power crazy. When you first meet her, she'll be doing something you conceive as "bad" or "evil" such as breaking into a pokemart or something, and you stop her. Then, she respects the way you love your pokemon and self proclaims herself your rival. As the story progresses, she'll challenge you more and you'll see her doing more bad things. By the climax, all the bad things she did willl be revealed to be for a greater cauuse, to save the legendary or something, and you find out she's actually a really good person.

 

[EJ]

Mean female rival <3

Out of all generations, Blue was indeed the best one. It seems that no matter what we did, he was always one step ahead of us and he let us know it with his arrogant taunts. Silver was WAAAYYY too emo and confused. "I don't love my pokemon waaaahhh I suck". Third Gen, well not much to say there. They were okay....And then I absolutely hated the way the "rival" in Diamond & Pearl did. He was indeed funny but he didn't really have a rival feel to it. He was more of an annoying, impatient friend that occasionally battled you.

I hope they actually give you a rival with an attitude and tough pokemon to match it. Also, I would like it if she were female since we've never really had those before
(not counting the opposing player character).