In-Game Rivals

[Clairissa]

This is just about rivals in general, generations 1-5, likes, dislikes, who you like most, etc.

Generation 1: Blue
Generation 2: Silver
Generation 3: Brandon/May, Wally, Blue
Generation 4: Barry, Silver
Generation 5: Cheran, Bianca

To me, after generation two (excluding FireRed/LeafGreen), your rivals aren't really... Rivals... They're friends, which sort of defeats the purpose.
Blue was always ahead of you, always talking down to you, and never once was he anything but the guy who wanted to prove he was better than you.

The same for Silver, though he never got ahead, he was a jerk plain and simple, but he was definitely your rival.

Then comes Brandon/May... They are the kid of the local professor, and they are your "rival" in seeing if you are getting stronger... Before complimenting you and saying you should help fill the pokedex. Wally was more of a rival than that, but he was still just a little kid wanting to prove he could be a trainer.

As for Barry, he's your friend since you were kids, he wants to be better than you, but he's still your friend, and not much of a rival.

Near the end we have Cheran, once again, an old friend who helps you, wants to be better than you, but is still your friend, and even realizes he won't be better than you and basically gives up on that goal, sort of acting like a toned down Barry mixed with Brandon/May, while Bianca is never a rival to begin with, she seems to fill the role of both Brandon/May and Wally at the same time.

Anyone have any other opinions? Discussion of this seeming downfall of rivals being "rivals" and more of just friendly trainers with above average level pokemon? Personally I'd like to see more Blues and Silvers in coming pokemon games, bring back the jerks.

 

[Sydian]

I feel the same way. A rival, in my opinion, should be a snarky bonkhead that doesn't know right from wrong. Cheren and Barry still want to be better than you at least, but they're still friends...more like a friendly rivalry. Brendan/May just...doesn't need to exist. n___n

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

Oh, Silver all the way. He didn't dress particularly well, and his hair was all over the place, but he was properly mean and snarky and all those things you want in a rival. You don't want them 'helping you' or anything like that: at least I don't... I want proper competition! Fights to the death and all that! So... yeah. Silver stole a Pokemon, meaning he's pretty badass, and gets my vote.

 

[SonGohan]

I feel the same way too, all of the non-competitive rivals tend to get on my nerves alongside the fact that they are ridiculously easy to beat but then you have rivals like the Blue who actually have the right attitude that someone considered a rival should have alongside the fact that they are actually challenging to face. Trainers like Bianca,Brendan and May really don't even deserve the title of rivals.

 

[Lucifer]

Wow stereotyping much?
there is no definition of a rival that indicates it has to be an enemy. A rival is just someone striving for the same goal as you are, an opponent mind you.

ri·val

/ˈraɪ

vəl/ Show Spelled [rahy-vuh

l] noun, adjective, verb, -valed, -val·ing or ( especially British

) -valled, -val·ling.
–noun 1. a person who is competing for the same object or goal as another, or who tries to equal or outdo another; competitor.

2. a person or thing that is in a position to dispute another's preeminence or superiority: a stadium without a rival.

3. Obsolete . a companion in duty.
- Dictionary.com

The majority of Ash's battles in the anime are friendly; he wants to be the master yes but at the same time he is always making friends with the other trainers he meets.

I found it refreshing that the Pearl/Diamond rival was your childhood friend, and then having two best friend rivals in Black was even better, especially with their completely opposite skill levels. Bianca was especially refreshing because she accepted without complaint that she just couldn't manage to be a strong trainer. It's healthy and responsible to know what you are capable of and what you are not, know your limitations as they say right? She even found a way to use what skill she did have being body guard to the Junipers.

Then Cheran was interesting too, being your basic combination of both Gary and Silver with a drive to outshine you like Gary and to be the strongest trainer like Silver but then an new addition of friendliness. He was also the first rival to be questioned and made to wonder what being the strongest trainer really meant to him and what he would do with such a title.

If I remember correctly because it's been years, in the anime Gary felt he needed to prove himself to Oak, his grandfather. His goal was not only to be a strong trainer but to see every pokemon with quite a bit of narcissism in him characterized by all his cheerleaders. In the game it was still there in the form of always bragging about himself whenever he would approach you. The very first time you see him after the beginning in Cerulean he immediately starts telling you how many pokemon he has already caught.
"I've already seen 40 different kinds of strong and smart pokemon"
(or the line is something like that).
This says he also values his team. To Gary being the best was all about his narcissism.

Silver on the other hand was a heartless jerk, his desire was not necessarily to be better than you but rather to get rid of you. He viewed you as pretty much just this show off pest, when really he is clearly trying to be the show off. He has no respect for his pokemon, his only concern is that they are strong and can wipe out anyone in his path. He was destructive; like a vampire everyone was pray. In a way he had an attitude similar to N in that he had a blind view of the world, unable to understand what pokemon truly stood for and what they meant to humans as well as vise versa. He was not striving for the same goal you were, so you could say Silver was not actually a rival. He did not care about the pokemon league, he only wanted to show others how weak they were. You see it from several characters you encounter in every generation of the games, the hero is about having the best bond with pokemon anyone has ever seen and that is how you end up at the top. To me Silver seemed more of a nemesis although he did not need to be stopped from doing anything but rather taught better.

Now May and Brendon(in my case May as I am always Brendan), as far as I can see they actually have absolutely no point. So they are the professor's kid and help with some research, not only are they weak despite being implied to have been successful trainers long before your beginning but they are quitters. After you battle them in lilycove they suddenly wanna go home to daddy...oook? Clearly there is no shared goal there, so I would not much call them rivals either.

Wally on the other hand is a bit like Charen in that they are both friendly and strive to outshine you, and on top of that he was something of an underdog. I believe it's said that he begins as a sickly boy who is very naive about the world of pokemon trainers(at one point begging an uncle to challenge a gym after not having spent all that much time with his first pokemon). You don't see much of him throughout the game, only battling him twice that I know of, but he definitely has the drive of Gary and Charen with the friendliness of Ash kind of. I liked him a lot and wish he was more of a recurring rival than May and Brendan.

Gary, Wally and Cheran I think are the best examples of rivals; they all have a great drive to be the best while liking what they do and having respect for their pokemon. Gary is a show off and a bully while Wally and Cheran are friendly which is a great verity of the same goals and drive but different ways of viewing their rivals and approaching it. A perfect example of how some rivals can be jerks but not all have to be to have drive and ambition.

 

[The_Noob]

We need a female douchebag rival. Think Gary with big tits. That would be epic.

I really like rivals like Gary, Silver, and Cheren. They want, more then anything, to be the very best that noone ever was. Of course, they're going to make you number two.

Silver, however, was just a smaller version of Giovanni. At least, though, he was a better antagonist than, say, Team Rocket in Generation II.

And Barry was probably only your friend because you lived next to him. It's a good thing the retard is the second strongest trainer ever, or else he would have been forgotten. Same with Brendan and May, who stopped their research at Lilycove Town, when they could easily find countless epic Pokemon for their father towards the Pokemon League. At least Wally wasn't so cowardly, even though I kept expecting him to hack up his lungs at any moment.

And Bianca's abuse of the number of letters in her speech reminds me of many girls at my school. The ****ty, cell-phone addicted ones. Also, her postgame battle schedule is wretched. Cheren at least has the dignity to let you battle him once a day for training!

Noob out.

 

[Clairissa]

The majority of Ash's battles in the anime are friendly; he wants to be the master yes but at the same time he is always making friends with the other trainers he meets.

>Anime
>Gaming section

Also your definition kind of proved my point... No rivals, other than Silver and Blue, did not help you constantly along the way, always giving advice or items, not being much of a rival, since that would only make it harder for them to outdo you.

 

[PlatinumDude]

IMO, Cheren and Barry are on the borderline of friend and rival because even though you're friends with them, they're still aiming to be the best trainer.

 

[bobandbill]

Silver is my favourite all the way. Definitions be darned, I liked his character the best, as well as his involvement in the game - he was the guy you liked to hate for me. Gary was also good there but imo Silver was the more intriguing character.

Barry was all right - he had some amusement there but not much else (besides a great battle theme although rivals tend to have good battle music anyway). Bianca and Cheren were a step towards better character development imo, compared to say the 3rd gen ones which were by far the worst overall - way too friendly and 'have an item!' role, and then they give up halfway through, only to try and give you advice on beating the champion after you do just that. =/ Wally had potential but the fact you see him 3-4 times (catching the ralts, battle outside the gym, inside his uncle's house if you go in at a certain point... and then all the way at the end he suddenly reappears. It'd have been better if there was more of him to see in the game!)

 

[Hikamaru]

I think Cheren, Bianca and Barry are my fave rivals.

I'm not really a fan of the others.

 

[-Jared-]

I don't personally think a rival has to be a jerk to be considered a rival. For instance, in real life, in school, my friends and I would kinda compete to get higher scores on tests and what not. (We were such nerds. n__n) Yet we never belittle each other if someone didn't perform well.

I believe the same thing can apply to the games. Barry didn't have to be a jerk, he just had to be competing with you.

 

[Lucifer]

We need a female douchebag rival. Think Gary with big tits. That would be epic.

Now that would be a lot of fun to have a female biatch as a rival, I would rather think of a female Silver though than a female Gary, I imagine a female Gary to be more of a ditzy cheerleader type because of his narcissism. Whereas a female Silver would be a hardcore badass.

>Anime
>Gaming section

Also your definition kind of proved my point... No rivals, other than Silver and Blue, did not help you constantly along the way, always giving advice or items, not being much of a rival, since that would only make it harder for them to outdo you.

I understand the point you are trying to make, but again you can want to outdo someone without being a jerk about it. Have you ever played a video game or a board game with your friends and family? I am sure you have, and you always want to win right? Sure you do everyone always wants to win that is the point of paying games. But do you act like a jerk to your friends/family when you are trying to outdo them in a board or video game?

See what I mean?

Silver and Cheran were my two favorites since I never did answer that question.

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

I'd say Brendan and Blue are probably my favourite rivals. I really like Silver too though - his attitude and also the link with Giovanni is interesting.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

ilver was the best so far, followed by Gary/Blue. And I need to agree that the whole "rival being your neighborhood friend" thing is getting on my nerves. I mean really, your rival should be the type who would pull out all the stops to crush you in battle and make you eat dirt, not some buddy that you invite over for drinks after a battle...

Brendan/May, Barry, and Bianca were quite disappointing. At least Cheren came at you with the intention of beating you.

 

[CheshireNeko]

Silver, hands down. He's the only rival so far who actually wanted to become boss as much as the player, and was willing to crush and pillage (or however you put it) in order to defeat you. Blue isn't bad either, but he's still too easy-going for my taste. Pokemon training is serious business >8| and Silver was the only rival who reflected that. Besides, he's mean and gangsta, features severely lacking in all Pokemon games, villainous teams included (except for Rocket).

 

[Misheard Whisper]

Yeah, Silver and Blue were the only real rivals in my opinion. They both had that drive to be better than the player, and got quite pissed off when they lost. Brendan and May just go 'Oh well, it's nice to see how much you're growing'. Wally was a little better in that respect, but he's just too much of a pushover - both in regards to battling and otherwise - to really take seriously. Barry was also a bit too much of a comical character to be viewed as any kind of credible threat. When you beat Cheren, he just sort of goes 'Huh. I wonder why that happened?' and Bianca - ugh, Bianca.

Is it weird that I see N more as a rival than as the leader of the local Team? Because that was always the impression that I got.