Rival Discussion & Speculation

[Ho-Oh]

He looks like the good guy best friend always cheering you on when you're down. Definitely not close to a rival at all. Maybe starting same time as you though, doesn't look like a childhood best friend tbh, more a future best friend.

 

[blue]

That was my initial thought when seeing him, maybe not a rival as such but someone who helps you along the way and battles you at different stages. Perhaps he chooses the remaining starter Pokemon.

 

[PeeJay]

I really miss the single rival. I very much disliked the "group of friends" the protagonist had in X/Y. Not my cup of tea. I miss Gary and the "Guy that steals a starter" in G/S. XD

 

[Hikamaru]

What I do love is that we're getting more people of colour in Pokemon games than ever before, and I guess that was likely due to breaking off from Japan-based regions which now allows Game Freak to do more and I love that.

 

[Ho-Oh]

Well we don't know for sure what's gonna happen there. He might just be a friend who you occasionally see but you might have a real rival (like the past). Although I kinda doubt that we'll have an aggressive rival because... the region is so relaxed and I can't imagine ANYONE there being bad but it's gotta happen. There's gotta be a drama.

 

[Rivvon]

I like this guy's design. It's interesting how he's shown with the starter at a disadvantage. Perhaps this is hinting at another rival character--perhaps one who is more serious?

 

[Blayze]

He seems like another 'nice' rival. To be honest I'd like to have a jerk again for a change - not someone that holds your hand. Or the group thingie like in X&Y. Didn't much care for that.
Although, all that being said it's hard to guess what he'll be like just from this. Just have to wait and see I suppose.

 

[DJTiki]

So... about to blow minds again. Ahem. You see, the Rival has a darker skin tone, correct? Alola is also based off of Hawaii, correct? By doing the calculations, it means that the Rival is from Hawaii. Let's see... carry the five... add nine.... subtract the seven... square root the X variable.

Our Rival is obviously the one and only Barack Obama. I didn't know Game Freak wanted to put him in the game. That's so cool. sarcasm

 

[Hikamaru]

I like this guy's design. It's interesting how he's shown with the starter at a disadvantage. Perhaps this is hinting at another rival character--perhaps one who is more serious?

I know I'm going to be boring for saying this, but I'm likely expecting it to be the opposite-gendered protagonist choice who gets the advantageous starter again.

 

[Skip Class]

The possible Rival? Seems like a friendly childhood friend maybe?

Derp was so tired watching this last night I forgot that mainchara just moved into the region so they can't have been childhood friends unless they met pre-sunmoon game.

 

[Rivvon]

I know I'm going to be boring for saying this, but I'm likely expecting it to be the opposite-gendered protagonist choice who gets the advantageous starter again.

It would be a bit boring (at least to me because I always love seeing more NPCs) but it's certainly a possibility.









Okay this may be a bit of a stretch but...

This scene here, from the Japanese trailer, with the 8 silhouettes on the upper wall which could very well be silhouettes of the Gym Leaders... I don't think those names underneath are names of (some of) the Gym Leaders.

GameXplain pointed out in their analysis video that the orange-shirt boy who is friendly towards the new kid picks the starter that is weak to his, which lines up with this new character. In the video, he says his name is Hoku. Hoku is one of the names on the wall. I think those other names may be more similar characters.

I think we have a group of friends again.

 

[Korbinia]

Max three, with one boy, one girl, and one opposite-sex counterpart, and I would say min one but I like two to take all the starters.

 

[Hikamaru]

GameXplain pointed out in their analysis video that the orange-shirt boy who is friendly towards the new kid picks the starter that is weak to his, which lines up with this new character. In the video, he says his name is Hoku. Hoku is one of the names on the wall. I think those other names may be more similar characters.

I think we have a group of friends again.

I don't think we'll have a group like X/Y again, because it suffered from the rivals being criticized as being rushed and easily forgotten. If I want to see how rivals are handled this generation, I'm probably hoping for two rivals again like we had for B/W, except this time it's Hoku with the starter weak to yours, and the opposite-gendered protagonist choice getting the one strong against yours.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

It would be a bit boring (at least to me because I always love seeing more NPCs) but it's certainly a possibility.









Okay this may be a bit of a stretch but...

This scene here, from the Japanese trailer, with the 8 silhouettes on the upper wall which could very well be silhouettes of the Gym Leaders... I don't think those names underneath are names of (some of) the Gym Leaders.

GameXplain pointed out in their analysis video that the orange-shirt boy who is friendly towards the new kid picks the starter that is weak to his, which lines up with this new character. In the video, he says his name is Hoku. Hoku is one of the names on the wall. I think those other names may be more similar characters.

I think we have a group of friends again.

I don't think it is a stretch. Game Freak is known to throw things like this in their live action trailers all the time. Like on the boxes in the trailer, the Manchoke Moving Service on them. They don't put stuff in the background by accident. Honestly, I think these are the gym leaders.


I am also hoping for 2 rivals. It would be nice to have the one tall guy who looks like Grant and the opposite gender from our character as a rival. I think that would be enough, unless they throw in another person similar to N, which I wouldn't mind.

 

[janejane6178]

I don't think it is a stretch. Game Freak is known to throw things like this in their live action trailers all the time. Like on the boxes in the trailer, the Manchoke Moving Service on them. They don't put stuff in the background by accident. Honestly, I think these are the gym leaders.


I am also hoping for 2 rivals. It would be nice to have the one tall guy who looks like Grant and the opposite gender from our character as a rival. I think that would be enough, unless they throw in another person similar to N, which I wouldn't mind.

Well so why is the name Caitlin written under one of the silhouettes? I doubt we're gonna have a GYM leader named after an exciting elite four member..

 

[illumine]

Honestly, the 'rival' should be someone who's so Hawaiian thematically that the player might have difficulty keeping up with how Hawaiian they are. Because the player is expecting to enjoy the Hawaiian theme, as such this would make them a total jerk in turning this against them. In that sense, Wakka from FF would be optimal, especially if like FF they insist on making the games consistently more shiny with little advantage.

Max three, with one boy, one girl, and one opposite-sex counterpart

They might not just want to repeat the generic patterns of this for previous games. It would easily risk cluttering up the environment and so on.

You see, the Rival has a darker skin tone, correct? Alola is also based off of Hawaii, correct? By doing the calculations, it means that the Rival is from Hawaii. Let's see... carry the five... add nine.... subtract the seven... square root the X variable.

You could just skip to the obvious derivation from the significance of their having a darker skin tone, and declare that they're Jon Walters.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

Well so why is the name Caitlin written under one of the silhouettes? I doubt we're gonna have a GYM leader named after an exciting elite four member..

She is an Elite 4 member in Unova, which is technically the same country as Alola. She could have moved from the Unova Region and wanted to become more of a teacher than an Elite 4 member.

I was concerned about this as well, but I don't think it would be a bad thing to reuse a name. Green was a champion, but became a gym leader. I would think that the spelling would be different if they were a different person though. But if you look at the figures, they look like they are in a trainer pose. And why would there only be 8 if there was more than 8 students in the class room?

 

[janejane6178]

She is an Elite 4 member in Unova, which is technically the same country as Alola. She could have moved from the Unova Region and wanted to become more of a teacher than an Elite 4 member.

I was concerned about this as well, but I don't think it would be a bad thing to reuse a name. Green was a champion, but became a gym leader. I would think that the spelling would be different if they were a different person though. But if you look at the figures, they look like they are in a trainer pose. And why would there only be 8 if there was more than 8 students in the class room?

I totally agree with you, I'm 99 % certian these r the gym leaders. On the other hand, I find it weird that Caitlin would move from being an Elite Four member to a position of a gym leader, especially after we already saw her in the Battle Frontire thing..

Btw, did u notice the upper left silhouette ? I wonder who that might be..

 

[Rivvon]

Well so why is the name Caitlin written under one of the silhouettes? I doubt we're gonna have a GYM leader named after an exciting elite four member..

Unless these names are universal, in which case it looks like Caitlin relocated again, I think those are all Japanese names. In Japanese, Caitlin is "Catleya," so they could still use the name Caitlin for the Japanese games. She would just have to be renamed in English.

Similar to how our Lance is named "Wataru" in Japanese, whereas the character we know as Proton is named "Lance" in Japanese.

 

[poop face]

if i wasn't 13/14 in-game, i would ask him on a date