- 19
- Posts
- 4
- Years
- Age 29
- Seen Feb 21, 2022
The rival has been an important staple in Pokemon since the beginning, they have the same goals you do, always pushing themselves to stay one step ahead you, and you try equally hard to make sure they don't pass you by. These characters are usually always the characters I look forward to seeing the most when a new game is announced, while I feel the rivals have gone way down hill since gen 2 with a few exceptions here and there, I was thinking about some of my friends back in the days of the link cable, and I realized when I was kid, I had my rivals just like the avatar in the game had. If you were like me back in the day, you mainly earthquaked and hyper beamed through the game, but there was always someone who was just a little better at earthquaking and hyper beaming than you.
If you were around when the pokemon craze first hit, you'd be hard pressed to find a kid without a gameboy in their pocket/backpack, even in my small rural town. Back then my family wasn't in the best situation when it came to finances so the craze had been going awhile before I was really able to get involved. My only intake of pokemon media was the tv show and watching over my friends' shoulders as they played against each other. One friend who was and still is my best friend, introduced me to pokemon, and I wanted to have my own game so bad I couldn't stand it. Well, I finally got my wish one birthday and got a gameboy color from my uncle, and my parents got me a few games, Pokemon Blue was one of them, I was so excited I get to take part now. I remember playing all week anticipating the weekend when I hung out with my friends to show him I was also in the game, unfortunately by this time the gen2 games came out and they were already moved on from RBY. One friend though, Let's call him Tyler...because that was his name, would always give me pointers, tips when i got stuck and would link cable battle me on his red version even though he was focused on Gold by now, just so I wouldn't still feel left out. I found myself not only playing the game because it was fun, I found myself playing to catch up to him, just like a rival in the game. I'd spend all week playing and leveling up, thinking of strategies and every weekend I'd try again until eventually I was able to hold my own against him, and even won a few times, but I could tell he was bored of the older games and he was only playing them still because I was just getting started, he never said it but I could tell, because he was never pumped battling me like I seen him battling the other kids back when RBY was fresh. Fortunately I was able get Crystal version before the fad for gen 2 faded, I was still behind but not irrelevant, he still knew more about pokemon than I did, but I eventually became enough of a veteran player by this point to hang with him and the other kids, I then became the second best battler out of our group of friends only behind Tyler, it got to a point that the only one who could beat me in the group was Tyler, and the only one who could beat him was me, I felt like we were like rivals from games and show. Gen 3 rolls around and this time, I was able to play it as it came out, so this time I was excited I wouldn't start off behind like before. However, Gen 3 time came, and it was awkward, the kids who I played with were older than me and gen 3 era of pokemon came out a time that had kids that was stuck between the kids who started with RBY thinking they were getting to old for pokemon and the kids who were just starting out not knowing anything about pokemon, so by this point Tyler and the others moved on from pokemon so I played Gen 3 by myself. They never teased me for still playing but it was still disheartening those weekend battles was never going to happen again, and I was also frustrated that I was practically left behind..again. I played ruby and sapphire, I even got both versions, so I could play through the game with all 3 starters because I wanted to see what they evovled into, I played ruby and Sapphire, Leaf Green, and Colosseum by myself.
Gen 4 comes around, I had no DS, no friends who played, so by this point I didn't even want the new games. That changes when I met this kid,Lucas, who was my age and was still an avid fan and player, not just pokemon but he was into practically into everything else I was into as well. He wasn't one of those who hyperbeamed his way through a game either, he was the first person I met that was considered a "competitive player" and it showed, he started spouting things about the games I never even heard of, so that got me back into it, parents couldn't afford a ds and a brand new game at the time so I had to wait. He gave me his copy of XD: Gale of Darkness game to tide me over. When I started playing Pearl I realized hyper beaming wouldn't cut it anymore, and finally started learning about natures, stats, and keeping a well balanced team. I started playing to battle against him just like Tyler and the others years earlier, but I never came close, he was into it deeper than I knew it could go.My pearl version disappeared one day, and his family eventually moved out of state, to this day I never won one match against him, when he left my desire to play pokemon ended and I left it alone for years until coming back for gen 6, by this point I was an adult with my own money so got a 2ds with Y version and i was back in the game again, even playing a few fan games and going back to play soulsilver, and the gen 5 games. It still kinda bothered me I never won at least once. I always found it funny his favorite gen was 4, and his name is the same as the canon name for the male character, while mine was gen 2 and my name,Ethan, was the same name as the Gen 2 male player name. I always considered those two my rivals in a way, back when I was a kid who consumed pokemon all day everyday, which is the reason all my rivals in the game that you can name are named either Tyler or Lucas, as it gives me a taste of nostalgia remembering the days of meeting up on the weekends to see how I compared this week as opposed to the prior.
Do any of you have anybody that you grew up with, or met online, that your relationship through pokemon that was almost rival-like?
If you were around when the pokemon craze first hit, you'd be hard pressed to find a kid without a gameboy in their pocket/backpack, even in my small rural town. Back then my family wasn't in the best situation when it came to finances so the craze had been going awhile before I was really able to get involved. My only intake of pokemon media was the tv show and watching over my friends' shoulders as they played against each other. One friend who was and still is my best friend, introduced me to pokemon, and I wanted to have my own game so bad I couldn't stand it. Well, I finally got my wish one birthday and got a gameboy color from my uncle, and my parents got me a few games, Pokemon Blue was one of them, I was so excited I get to take part now. I remember playing all week anticipating the weekend when I hung out with my friends to show him I was also in the game, unfortunately by this time the gen2 games came out and they were already moved on from RBY. One friend though, Let's call him Tyler...because that was his name, would always give me pointers, tips when i got stuck and would link cable battle me on his red version even though he was focused on Gold by now, just so I wouldn't still feel left out. I found myself not only playing the game because it was fun, I found myself playing to catch up to him, just like a rival in the game. I'd spend all week playing and leveling up, thinking of strategies and every weekend I'd try again until eventually I was able to hold my own against him, and even won a few times, but I could tell he was bored of the older games and he was only playing them still because I was just getting started, he never said it but I could tell, because he was never pumped battling me like I seen him battling the other kids back when RBY was fresh. Fortunately I was able get Crystal version before the fad for gen 2 faded, I was still behind but not irrelevant, he still knew more about pokemon than I did, but I eventually became enough of a veteran player by this point to hang with him and the other kids, I then became the second best battler out of our group of friends only behind Tyler, it got to a point that the only one who could beat me in the group was Tyler, and the only one who could beat him was me, I felt like we were like rivals from games and show. Gen 3 rolls around and this time, I was able to play it as it came out, so this time I was excited I wouldn't start off behind like before. However, Gen 3 time came, and it was awkward, the kids who I played with were older than me and gen 3 era of pokemon came out a time that had kids that was stuck between the kids who started with RBY thinking they were getting to old for pokemon and the kids who were just starting out not knowing anything about pokemon, so by this point Tyler and the others moved on from pokemon so I played Gen 3 by myself. They never teased me for still playing but it was still disheartening those weekend battles was never going to happen again, and I was also frustrated that I was practically left behind..again. I played ruby and sapphire, I even got both versions, so I could play through the game with all 3 starters because I wanted to see what they evovled into, I played ruby and Sapphire, Leaf Green, and Colosseum by myself.
Gen 4 comes around, I had no DS, no friends who played, so by this point I didn't even want the new games. That changes when I met this kid,Lucas, who was my age and was still an avid fan and player, not just pokemon but he was into practically into everything else I was into as well. He wasn't one of those who hyperbeamed his way through a game either, he was the first person I met that was considered a "competitive player" and it showed, he started spouting things about the games I never even heard of, so that got me back into it, parents couldn't afford a ds and a brand new game at the time so I had to wait. He gave me his copy of XD: Gale of Darkness game to tide me over. When I started playing Pearl I realized hyper beaming wouldn't cut it anymore, and finally started learning about natures, stats, and keeping a well balanced team. I started playing to battle against him just like Tyler and the others years earlier, but I never came close, he was into it deeper than I knew it could go.My pearl version disappeared one day, and his family eventually moved out of state, to this day I never won one match against him, when he left my desire to play pokemon ended and I left it alone for years until coming back for gen 6, by this point I was an adult with my own money so got a 2ds with Y version and i was back in the game again, even playing a few fan games and going back to play soulsilver, and the gen 5 games. It still kinda bothered me I never won at least once. I always found it funny his favorite gen was 4, and his name is the same as the canon name for the male character, while mine was gen 2 and my name,Ethan, was the same name as the Gen 2 male player name. I always considered those two my rivals in a way, back when I was a kid who consumed pokemon all day everyday, which is the reason all my rivals in the game that you can name are named either Tyler or Lucas, as it gives me a taste of nostalgia remembering the days of meeting up on the weekends to see how I compared this week as opposed to the prior.
Do any of you have anybody that you grew up with, or met online, that your relationship through pokemon that was almost rival-like?
