The Worst Rival Awards

There's a very good thread up to discuss our favorite rivals... its not this one. *rubs hands together gleefully and cackles*

In this thread my question to you is who would be your least favorite rival, and why?

VisionofMilotic said:

There's a very good thread up to discuss our favorite rivals... its not this one. *rubs hands together gleefully and cackles*

In this thread my question to you is who would be your least favorite rival, and why?

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But why didn't you answer, my friend? :p

I love Y, but the group of friends take the cake of most pathetic and useless. Even though the girl or boy is your technical rival, they're just as mediocre. No point of really anything.

Enpatsu Shakugan said:

I love Y, but the group of friends take the cake of most pathetic and useless. Even though the girl or boy is your technical rival, they're just as mediocre. No point of really anything.

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Pretty much this. I love Kalos, but Tierno, Shauna and that last kid are by far the worst rivals in the games. Calem/Serena isn't that bad imho, I would say they're on the same level as rival from RSE. They don't do anything, have meh teams and the whole game would work same without them in it.

I actually think Calem and Serena made the rival better than what came previously with Hugh, I think they had more charm and showed some desire to develop their skills trainers through the mega evolution plotline that Hugh never did. Even Shauna I think is more interesting because her nervousness and admiration of the player can be read as caring about you as more than a friend, which gives the scene watching fireworks together more complexity, especially if you are also playing as a girl.

Hugh mostly stomps around grumbling about where the purrloin was taken, he's just a shameless plot device and to me just felt like an NPC you were helping run errands for like head of silph co. Hugh's not even significantly changed by his adventure. He's just like okay, I got what I needed and now I'm gone. Even his motivation is contrived. It would have been a more meaningful story if he was in search of his own Pokemon who was taken from him. So for those reasons I give Hugh the golden Oran berry award for being a lame rival.

I otherwise love Unova, the music, the villains, the dranatic story, the geography, an I am cool with all the rivals N, Bianca, Cheren. I don't know how Hugh managed to slip into the game in the middle of all this coolness. Who did he bribe to get a role?

VisionofMilotic said:

I actually think Calem and Serena made the rival better than what came previously with Hugh, I think they had more charm and showed some desire to develop their skills trainers through the mega evolution plotline that Hugh never did. Even Shauna I think is more interesting because her nervousness and admiration of the player can be read as caring about you as more than a friend, which gives the scene watching fireworks together more complexity, especially if you are also playing as a girl.

Hugh mostly stomps around grumbling about where the purrloin was taken, he's just a shameless plot device and to me just felt like an NPC you were helping run errands for like head of silph co. Hugh's not even significantly changed by his adventure. He's just like okay, I got what I needed and now I'm gone. Even his motivation is contrived. It would have been a more meaningful story if he was in search of his own Pokemon who was taken from him. So for those reasons I give Hugh the golden Oran berry award for being a lame rival.

I otherwise love Unova, the music, the villains, the dranatic story, the geography, an I am cool with all the rivals N, Bianca, Cheren. I don't know how Hugh managed to slip into the game in the middle of all this coolness. Who did he bribe to get a role?

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Maybe it's just my love of S-CRY-ed, but I had a lot of fun with the BW2 rival if only because he gave off a vibe of Ryuho, thus I wound up naming the protagonist Kazuma, which always is fun for me.

Enpatsu Shakugan said:

Maybe it's just my love of S-CRY-ed, but I had a lot of fun with the BW2 rival if only because he gave off a vibe of Ryuho, thus I wound up naming the protagonist Kazuma, which always is fun for me.

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I know naught of this Kazuma of whom you speak. I might like that character, but I don't like Hugh. I just think he came up empty and comparatively the player has more meaningful interactions with Colress, Ghetsis, The Shadow Triad, N, Iris, Skyla, Juniper, Bianca, Alder, Drayden, Rood or literally almost anyone else in the story despite their significantly less screen time, and I would argue that even his little sister who says like one sentence is more interesting because she was actually the one who was robbed and not him, and she had the dream of the Zoroark. Sorry, I just really don't see what this character is offering me, maybe some day I will.

I do think he has a solid design though, and am glad that you were able to give him some love that the poor guy is starved off from me. Lol

VisionofMilotic said:

I know naught of this Kazuma of whom you speak. I might like that character, but I don't like Hugh. I just think he came up empty and comparatively the player has more meaningful interactions with Colress, Ghetsis, The Shadow Triad, N, Iris, Skyla, Juniper, Bianca, Alder, Drayden, Rood or literally almost anyone else in the story despite their significantly less screen time, and I would argue that even his little sister who says like one sentence is more interesting because she was actually the one who was robbed and not him, and she had the dream of the Zoroark. Sorry, I just really don't see what this character is offering me, maybe some day I will.

I do think he has a solid design though, and am glad that you were able to give him some love that the poor guy is starved off from me. Lol

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No, you misunderstand. Hugh reminded me of Ryuho (the guy in white with the green emo hair) and the protagonist reminded me of Kazuma, the other guy. So I named them as such.
The heated rivalry in S-CRY-ed between two men who are opposite sides of the same coin is the best part of it, thus I had quite a lot of fun putting that same dynamic in the game.
I certainly don't recall disliking Hugh at all. I was surprised that he was a solid rival, yet friendly. Never seen that in a game before.

We can talk about S-CRY-ed sometime too! It's a favorite of mine so I'd love to share it. Kazuma has always been a favorite character of mine too. :)

Oh, I see! I gotcha now. I don't watch S-CRY-ed so I would not know. I could see why from that perspective roleplaying it could be fun.

I wouldn't say that I even dislike Hugh exactly. At times the rivals can be annoying but there's nobody I'm going to deeply resent. I just find Hugh one-dimensional. Moreover I don't think he acted competitive enough towards the player, when you call him on the xtransceiver he's just kinda like "yeah what," and doesn't seem to care that deeply about being a great trainer, which is what I think is a must in the primary rival. Nothing seems to phase him other than, "oh, I don't like Team Plasma gotta get those thiefs." I just don't see enough places where he shows a new color, but that's just me. Maybe there is some dialogue I should listen to again. Even though he's currently my least favorite rival I'm open to having my mind change, especially if we get Unova remakes some day and they expand on his character more.

I know Poketuber OVI likes Hugh a lot too and ranks him as one of the top rivals and I think his creative content is really cool. So definitely your not alone, there are others who like this character. For now my favorite rival is another gentleman from Unova with green hair, a baseball cap and a puzzle box.

Haha, I'm not defending him to that extent. I barely remember his character. I just remember thinking it was cool to have a rival who was at least competent and yet not an unwarranted dick.

That aspect alone at least made him unique. But I don't mind if you think he's bland. He probably is, same as almost every other character, haha.

Yeah, I know you haven't seen S-CRY-ed, that was just my invite to it if you're interested. :)

Hau , eww

I am definitely in the same ship as virtually everyone else on this thread, otherwise known as the S.S. ScrewBurgh. He is definitely one of the most forgetful characters in the entire series, let alone rival. He just...exists. I get the feeling that Game Freak was trying to bring back the evil rival trope...like Gary in a way...if he was a generic NPC in Somethingorother Town or somethingorother.

My favorite rival from all the games, on the other hand, is a very common pick:


Silver, from the Johto region games.

He is the only rival in the series to go full ham with the "bad rival" trope; he cares about nothing but himself, he consistently raves about "strong Pokemon" and that all other Pokemon are weak, but yet he hates Team Rocket, considering them weak too. Not only that, but he turns out to be Giovanni's son (a la Heartgold/SoulSilver, confirmed in the Pokemon Generations shorts), and you end up fighting with him against Clair and Lance when you meet him in the Dragon's Den. All this makes Silver not just a well fleshed-out character, but a well fleshed-out character that's a blast to fight against as well as with, and all the while teach him a lesson in the process (quite literally, in this case).

The worst rivals are the ones from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald

Brendan or May drop out halfway through the game, and don't even fully evolve their starter. Wally is also a rival, but you only battle him twice. His team is really developed at the end, so it's disappointing that he wasn't seen in the story more.

NergyTheMighty said:

I am definitely in the same ship as virtually everyone else on this thread, otherwise known as the S.S. ScrewBurgh. He is definitely one of the most forgetful characters in the entire series, let alone rival. He just...exists. I get the feeling that Game Freak was trying to bring back the evil rival trope...like Gary in a way...if he was a generic NPC in Somethingorother Town or somethingorother.

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I'm honestly a bit confused as to who you're talking about.


Also, there is a favorite rival topic, if you want to post that Silver bit there?

XY group, Tierno especially. That dancing loser got annoying real fast, had no strong characterization other than "I LOVE DANCING" and no real importance to anything and was pretty useless.

RSE rival for the same reasons as ZeoStar said.

And Hau was a pretty 2 dimensional rival, the only strong point about him was that he was slightly challenging for me in SM in the beginning battles, because I had like 2 party members for half of the game because I was going with new pokemon and that's hard when I don't like half of them honestly. He kept going on with his happy go lucky grin and obsession with malasadas.

Pretty much none of the post-Generation II rivals do much of anything for me.

I don't mind Brendan and May too much, because at least the friendly rival trope was actually fairly fresh and innovative back in Gen III - and they probably couldn't have topped Silver without making the rival a genuine serial killer or something - but it is pretty disappointing how they more or less disappear partway through the game and you never get an epic final battle with them. Thankfully ORAS fixed that. Wally always seemed completely superfluous to me - I never understood why the game needed a *second* friendly rival, especially one was pathetic as Wally.

On balance, Barry and Dawn/whatever the male protag's name were probably done better than their Gen III equivalents, but suffered from feeling like a complete repeat. And, again, I don't see why any of the Pokemon games need multiple, incredibly similar, friendly rivals.

I remember basically nothing about the B&W rival (rivals?), except that they once again seemed like exactly the same thing we saw in Gen III and IV.

Hau from Sun & Moon is much the same. I'm actually surprised at how much he is apparently disliked, when he seems no better or worse than pretty much any other post-Gen II rival. He's too forgettable for me to dislike him.

For me, the runner-up for worst is Lyra from HGSS . Mainly because she does something that really annoys me about a lot of the rivals in post-Gen II games, but abuses it much more egregiously. She turns up, babbles about nothing for what feels like an eternity, until your finger hurts from how quickly you're pressing the A button - and then she doesn't even battle you! (I don't think she counts as a rival, but that blonde girl (Lillie?) from Sun & Moon infuriated me for the same reason.)

Which is why my most disliked, beyond a doubt, has to be that pathetic crew of friends in X&Y. Serena/Calum is... okay, I guess. Utterly bland and forgettable, which is an improvement over the rest of those irritating nitwits, who just talk and talk (and dance) about nothing whatsoever in a series of interminable cutscenes. And you barely get any decent fights out of it. For the most part, I really liked X&Y - and I liked how, in contrast to B&W and Sun & Moon, the story was very slight and unintrusive and you didn't have to sit through too many banal cutscenes - but that band of friends made me desperately wish my DS had a speed-up button.

janejane6178 said:

Hau , eww

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I almost picked him, and maybe I should have. He's so cliche wth that "Hey, whats up bro? I'm a happy, grinning guy who lives in the islands, even when I lose an never stop smiling" personality. Alola is full of these annoying fake "let's all dance and do the hoola together" characters, and I definitely felt like choking Hau. l haven't played USUM so I didn't crown Hau my worst since he could've gotten better in this game. But I'm glad you brought him up so I can give him an honorable mention at least.

VisionofMilotic said:

I almost picked him, and maybe I should have. He's so cliche wth that "Hey, whats up bro? I'm a happy, grinning guy who lives in the islands, even when I lose an never stop smiling" personality. Alola is full of these annoying fake "let's all dance and do the hoola together" characters, and I definitely felt like choking Hau. l haven't played USUM so I didn't crown Hau my worst since he could've gotten better in this game. But I'm glad you brought him up so I can give him an honorable mention at least.

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He is ever so slightly better in US/UM. Still a very poor character though, so don't get your expectations up (US/UM's story is still generally as poor as S/M's--or the stories in Pokemon in general--was). Really all the rival characters in the main series except for Silver and the Black1/White1 ones are pretty bad, and even they are not hugely amazing characters in the grand scheme of things.

Nah said:

and even they are not hugely amazing characters in the grand scheme of things.

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Like 99% of every other character in Pokemon media. It's never been known for its strong writing.

We need more rivals like silver.. I'm through with he friendly NICE rivals.. We've had them for, what, 5 gens now?..

Gen 6 rivals are the worst and I'm not sure what Game Freak was trying to do when they went that route.