4th Gen Barry or Silver?

Barry is better in battle, if I remember correctly...and he does help you out.
But Silver is more serious and less annoying. Besides, having your "friend" as a rival kind of kills the effect. Even if Silver's attempts at insulting you aren't the best, he's still better than Barry.

I've never really been a fan of the friendly rivals like Barry, so my vote goes with Silver. Even though he starts out as a jerk, you get the feeling that he wants to beat you, and become the strongest trainer. Plus, finding out his dad was the former leader of Team Rocket helps you understand why Silver is the way he is a bit better. Barry on the other hand confuses me a little, as it seems near impossible that someone with very little patience would be able to train a team of Pokemon so well. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but it seems so unrealistic that it makes it hard for me to take him seriously.

I liked Barry more then Silver in the fourth generation of the games. With Barry he was your friend and the rivalry was a friendly competition between the two of you. With Silver he took it way to far not only was he curl to his Pokemon but he treats the rivalry between the two of you as if its a life or death situation.

i liked Barry's character design, but I liked Silver's colour scheme.
However, I still prefer Silver more.
Generally Barry seems like a typical rival/friend, or at least to me he feels like it... But I like the rival plot for G/S/C/HG/SS more... More mysterious and fun~
The manga made him awesome as well.

I choose Silver over Barry any day. Barry was annoying to me. Not only that, Silver has been my favorite character in Pokemon for the longest time. Though is is a jerk to his Pokemon, he learns that how he treats his Pokemon is wrong. I also like is story line better.

SilverSilverSilverSilverSilverSilver.
Did I mention Silver? Not only is he one of the only Pokemon characters up until Gen V to have a decent amount of character development, but I prefer him over Barry by far. Barry is just too annoying and right up in your face. I can't remember what his final team was, nor with Silver's, but even if Barry's team was better, I still like Silver a lot more. Silver also gives me a bit more nostalgia, because Crystal was my first Pokemon game.

Silver, any day. Silver was just so up front and confrontational about everything and he always pushed me to want to wipe him out in every single battle. He was mean and didn't like you, and that's why I liked him.

Silver is far better. Best character development of any rival in the franchise. Hugh and Wally come close, but Silver was more interesting in my opinion

I think Silver is the most interesting to me, mainly the story behind him, which is revealed through the Celebi event in HG and SS. Barry is not a bad rival, and his personality was shown well, being a fast-paced, reckless young boy. But for me, I would still say Silver. I think he has a good character development throughout the game, and I love his story, really.

Silver for me. He uses a lot of interesting Pokémon which rivals don't usually use, and his character development is very interesting. His rival song is also the best.

Actually, Silver is the best rival in the series, better than even Blue!

Barry's impatience was reminiscent of Blue always being ahead of you in the Kanto games. I hated that in 1st gen, and I hated Barry doing the same in 4th gen. It makes the player feel like an incompetent.

Giovanni Jr. FTW

Silver had a more interesting back story and he was one of the only few characters who developed and grew throughout the course of the story. Also, did I mention that he's Giovanni's son.

I found Barry to be (as most things I experienced in Sinnoh) very very annoying.

Silver, definitely. His development was amazing for a rival. It gave the impression that he was actually off on his own adventure trying to find himself instead of just off-screen for a bit before appearing and saying he got stronger.

Now that's a rivalry. Silver or Barry...? I dislike them both. Silver is a jerk who thinks he's the best trainer in the world but he's team sucks. Barry is too loud, "Hey, player! Don't be late or your giving me 1,000,000 milions Pokedollars(or whatever it is.)!" Now that's a stupid line...but I have to go with Barry. At least his team isn't that weak. But in the manga, Silver is so much better than both Barry and Pearl.