6th Gen Rivals, Rivals, Rivals

[darkredwing]

Tierno was pointless, Trevor was incredibly annoying in the way he would basically repeat whatever he said...In other words repeating one's self is pretty irritating.

Calem/Serena was just a standard rival maybe a little more relationship development with your character than in the past, which I liked, and Shauna was pretty cute and for a male player characters she could have easily developed into a light romance haha.

 

[morrison]

Good grief I hated them all. Well my main rival was still ok, but I preferred it when they were boasting of self confidence like in r/b/y or g/s/c.
The most annoying is the little girl I felt stalked by her lol.

Also the guy that wants to complete the pokedex, I also hoped he would be more like blue from the first gen. Seriously i havent got many pokemon caught and I still beat him everytime.

 

[abcde123456]

Calem/Serena (assuming they both are exactly the same. I had Calem) were incredibly bland, Shauna was a stalker, Trevor, as another person said, repeated the same dialogue over and over which was quite irritating, and Tierno was unbelievably stupid for not having a freaking Ludicolo on his team. And, he was pointless. Quality over quantity, GameFreak!

 

[She_Delphox]

I lolled so hard when I first started my game (when I bought it on release date) and saw Tierno's face when you're getting ready to pick your Pokemon xD They are quite pointless indeed, Trevor wasn't that annoying to me, but kinda bugs me he always kept moaning about his Pokedex. The dance-thing about Tierno kinda irritated me xD and like it was said earlier, surprises me too he didn't even had a Ludicolo on his team (he also reminded me of the Disco Freak Guy, can't remember his name, on Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness who always was dancing and had a whole Pokemon Team consisting of 4 Ludicolos xD). I kept thinking, if you want to keep dancing, why not join the Kimono Dance Theater xD (wait, too fat to fit in a Kimono anyway, so then bug the players in the Kalos Region).

Calem (since I play as a girl) always found a way to show up at the most "no-time-for-rival-battle-even-though-I-always-win" moments in the game that bugs me… My friend was on his way to the Pokemon League, and on that spot in Victory Road he kept losing to Serena 'cause she HAD to battle there >.> Also very frustrating to have healed your team for a gym, going in with a lot of expectations to win, prepare some tactics, NOPE! rival battle spam first xD Aaaand back again to the Pokemon Center it is >_<
Shauna was also kinda annoying for constantly whining about how we grew as a "friend group" and how we somehow managed to have greater bonds blahblah xD And she didn't even believe me when I said I beat Team Flare myself in Lumiose City >.>

And I had a "whaargh!" moment when I FINALLY could go to route 14 to catch a Goomy to complete my team, but NOOOOO we HAD to go to the "erhem Spooky House" first >_> just some homeless guy begging for a tip... 'cause "my dear friends" had to check it out (nope, not Calem, he is too busy catching and training his Pokemon, like I don't want to spend time on that rather than checking out some homeless guy in an old shack xD)

Then last but not least, the most "wtf are you guys doing here moment" was when I beat the League and, yes why the hell not, they too showed up on the stage with me. I was like "wtf you guys, you didn't do anything! >.>" face… (they are just leeching our awesomeness/efforts away from us :x) so why get the credit for it.
Calem/Serena also gets a Masterball (''erhem great help..) when defeating Team Flare at the Pokeball Factory, when later in the game they carelessly leave you behind with like.. wait.. what? 4 members of Team Flare to defeat in like, one time?! >.> what great friends you are… Great job..

 

[WishCookie]

Um, I've only met Diantha like twice or something and I've never battled her during the storyline.

 

[Mega Missingno]

I lolled so hard when I first started my game (when I bought it on release date) and saw Tierno's face when you're getting ready to pick your Pokemon xD They are quite pointless indeed, Trevor wasn't that annoying to me, but kinda bugs me he always kept moaning about his Pokedex. The dance-thing about Tierno kinda irritated me xD and like it was said earlier, surprises me too he didn't even had a Ludicolo on his team (he also reminded me of the Disco Freak Guy, can't remember his name, on Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness who always was dancing and had a whole Pokemon Team consisting of 4 Ludicolos xD). I kept thinking, if you want to keep dancing, why not join the Kimono Dance Theater xD (wait, too fat to fit in a Kimono anyway, so then bug the players in the Kalos Region).

Calem (since I play as a girl) always found a way to show up at the most "no-time-for-rival-battle-even-though-I-always-win" moments in the game that bugs me… My friend was on his way to the Pokemon League, and on that spot in Victory Road he kept losing to Serena 'cause she HAD to battle there >.> Also very frustrating to have healed your team for a gym, going in with a lot of expectations to win, prepare some tactics, NOPE! rival battle spam first xD Aaaand back again to the Pokemon Center it is >_<
Shauna was also kinda annoying for constantly whining about how we grew as a "friend group" and how we somehow managed to have greater bonds blahblah xD And she didn't even believe me when I said I beat Team Flare myself in Lumiose City >.>

And I had a "whaargh!" moment when I FINALLY could go to route 14 to catch a Goomy to complete my team, but NOOOOO we HAD to go to the "erhem Spooky House" first >_> just some homeless guy begging for a tip... 'cause "my dear friends" had to check it out (nope, not Calem, he is too busy catching and training his Pokemon, like I don't want to spend time on that rather than checking out some homeless guy in an old shack xD)

Then last but not least, the most "wtf are you guys doing here moment" was when I beat the League and, yes why the hell not, they too showed up on the stage with me. I was like "wtf you guys, you didn't do anything! >.>" face… (they are just leeching our awesomeness/efforts away from us :x) so why get the credit for it.
Calem/Serena also gets a Masterball (''erhem great help..) when defeating Team Flare at the Pokeball Factory, when later in the game they carelessly leave you behind with like.. wait.. what? 4 members of Team Flare to defeat in like, one time?! >.> what great friends you are… Great job..

"disco freak" Miror B!
Freaky guy, but hot damn! His background battle music was catchy, in that mariachi style beat. So many Ludicolos XD
The way Tierno kept going on about dancing, you'd think it was inherited
-shifty eyes-
So I'm probably the only one whose headcanon is Miror B x Kimono girl= Tierno
GameFreak would gotten so much love from me had they used Miror b's battle music with Tierno if he battled you ( I think he did- cant remember ) as well as a Ludicolo on his team ( one given to him by his headcanon dad, perhaps XD )

 

[scprepschool]

I enjoyed Trevor, seeing as how he wasn't there to battle but he still served a purpose. The other two friends I didn't see them as much of a needed character. The one rival you get, gosh it ticks me off that they don't have a team of 6 at least by the 6th badge, is way to nice to constantly be bested... I think the rivals have lost the spot as a threat to you, and are put there for the mediocre emotional story parts that Nintendo loves so much... you know with the whole coming of age,unity, friendship, love... I want someone who's gonna be a threat, and picks on me, and is always two steps ahead of me or so, and should at least be a good 4 levels above the gym levels progression.

 

[She_Delphox]

"disco freak" Miror B!
Freaky guy, but hot damn! His background battle music was catchy, in that mariachi style beat. So many Ludicolos XD
The way Tierno kept going on about dancing, you'd think it was inherited
-shifty eyes-
So I'm probably the only one whose headcanon is Miror B x Kimono girl= Tierno
GameFreak would gotten so much love from me had they used Miror b's battle music with Tierno if he battled you ( I think he did- cant remember ) as well as a Ludicolo on his team ( one given to him by his headcanon dad, perhaps XD )

AHHH yes how could I forget!!!!! His music was soooo catchy, thanks! xD Aaaargh, I almost got to the point of hating on Lucicolo more because of him xD You always knew where he was when you heard this music hahahaha. yes, that would have lolled my socks off if GF did that with Tierno's battle music! xD too funny Whahahaha! And you get a Lotad from him when you beat the Elite Four too lol

 

[KostK2Boss]

Ah, the XY rivals! Let's see...
Serena: I don't love her, but I don't hate her either. She's pretty straight-forward about when she wants to battle you (all her lines might as well be replaced with "You! Me! Battle! Now!") and fighting her every 2 minutes meant free level-ups to take on the next gym, so I didn't mind that much. Her Mega Absol kinda came out of nowhere. I know, she always had an Absol, but I would've preffered it if she had a Mega of one of the Kanto starters.
Shauna: When her design was revealed, I was worried she was going to be the loud and annoying one in the group, but she actually has a sensitive side. I wish they explored her "mad puzzle-solving skillz" a little more. Instead, they just kinda mention it at the begining of the game and then 7 badges later she's suddenly a code-breaker. All in all, she's no Bianca but she's still adorable.
Tierno & Trevor: They're just... there. I guess it's cool that they made Tierno a dancer, instead of going for the cliche of the fat kid who always talks about food. Also, Trevor is actually doing a terrible job at filling up his Pokedex, despite that apparently being all he ever does with his time.

 

[Marionz]

theres no hardest rival... serena and shauna seems loveable but not really enough... tierno and Trevor... what can I say, I only like Tierno because he always give me free stuffs.. Trevor, claims himself a pokedex entry collector but always loses whenever we compare dex entries...

really, the hardest rival for me is green. everytime i run into that guy, he always rape my team EVERYTIME.

 

[Colress Machine]

Having all these rivals was a lot of fun for me. I liked Trevor the most though just because I related to him and his love for filling up the Pokedex a lot.
They still don't beat out Hugh for my favorite rival though. Still love that guy.

 

[Moriarty]

From the first time I saw them, I hated them. All of them. I played the girl, so I nicknamed them: "boring guy", "annoying girl", "nerd" and "fat guy". (Then there's "stupid name" for the Prof(Augustine? Seriously? That's a girl name.) and "probably evil" for Lysandre(He was evil. I didn't bother to change his nickname.))

I'd like choices in Pokémon. Like being able to tell them that "no, I'm not your friend". Or "stop following me". Or to "get out of here, I'm going to beat Team Flare by myself I don't need your help".

I know, I know, it won't happen. Do note that I love the games. Except the characters/story. I didn't play much of BW but I preferred its story.

 

[darkredwing]

I'd love to see a deeper story and character development in the games myself, some choices that could change the out come would be cool too. But the I remember the whole franchise is aimed at people far younger than I so it's unlikely that would happen.

Of course they did make Origins for us older fans... perhaps there is hope?

 

[Chaos_Darkrai]

Shauna is the best rival. Cute also. Wish she would battle more, or even have a battle you could re-do once a day like Calem/Serena. At least we can multi-battle in the battle maison. Useful pokemon there, sylveon and goodra.

 

[幕之内 一歩]

"Rivals" To me the WHOLE point of having a Rival is to hate him like in RB. Your Rival is an Ass and goes out of his way to say mean things to you. You want to beat him. He was a better antagonist than Team Rocket.

Your Rival in GSC begins his journey as a Criminal. He is mean, but not in the same way.

The problem with modern day "rivals" is that they are your friends. There is no motivation to fight, or to win, because there is nothing at stake. It is a friendly battle between Friends. Although nothing is at stake, they REFUSE to let you progress until you win, then Lament how they always loose.

I would like a rival who is a JERK. He joins the evil team as nasty people are likely to do. At the climax, your rival could have a change of heart and be the inside man that brings down the whole operation. (with your help of course!)

Then the two of you can still compete and it would still feel exciting because of that change you went through together.

Completely agree with this.

They aren't so much rivals as friends on a journey with you that every once in a while want to see how they stack up against you. There isn't a real rivalry there. Definitely would have liked to have had someone who was a punk.

 

[Superfox]

In all of Pokémon games, X and Y had the most amount of rivals. The rivals were Calem, Serena, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, and Diantha. Calem and Serena are your main rivals. They live right next door to you, and battle you countless amount of times throughout your journey—helping you to train your Pokémon quite a bit. Just like the rivals from previous games, their dream was to, one day, become the most powerful Pokémon trainer of all. Diantha is an actress and has done a lot of movies, so she's very well-known. You run into her dozens of times in your journey, and since she's also a Pokémon trainer, she battles you every once in a while to have your skills tested. Trevor, Tierno, and Shauna all live in Vaniville Town. Shauna is a very sweet little girl, and helps you out a variety of times when traveling across the Kalos region. Tierno may seem a little intimidating to some you, but once you get to know him, he actually isn't that scary. Tierno is a very light-hearted individual, and is always caring. Trevor's got a brilliant mind, and has the ability to get through almost any issues that he faces. He gives you a PokéDex at the beginning of the game.

Out of all these rival characters, who is (or are) your favorite? Are there any reasons why you like them? If so, what are they? Also, which rival did you have the hardest time defeating? Why was he or she so hard?

Okay, for starters, you never battle Diantha before taking on the Pokémon League. And you only battle her when you take on the Pokémon League. She's the Champion, she's not your rival.

I, for one, have to say that I'm really not that impressed. Tierno, Shauna, and Trevor really aren't so much rivals as your own personal cheerleaders that you get to battle once or twice. And you don't even battle any of them once you've finished the game.

Serena has her faults, but is otherwise a pretty decent rival. I actually sort of became invested in my rivalry with her and my character's relationship with her. She drove me to want to be better and train harder, but at the same time wanted to see her do well. I sometimes felt bad when I beat her, especially that time in Anistar City when she says "Am I just not good enough to bring out the best in my Pokémon." However, that can both be a positive and a negative. Positive in that it means you sympathize with her, but negative in that she's easy to beat.

However, the main flaw with some of your rivals in this game is that you relationship with them feels incomplete. Take your "starter rivals" (the ones that choose the remaining two starters; Shauna and Serena in this game) for example. For me, in previous games, I liked seeing their starter progress from the first stage to the last stage as sort of a sign of their progression. However, for both of them, there is always one stage of their starters' evolutionary line that you don't ever get to see. You don't even battle Serena/Calem until their starter is in its middle stage and you only battle Shauna twice, seeing her starters' first stage and then its last stage, never its middle one.

And lastly, I have to say I agree with SnowpointQuincy. I miss the hated/jerk rival. I loved battling that guy in GSC because he legitimately pissed the 9-10-year-old me off. I hope that in future generations, they bring back the jerk rivals. Maybe you can have two main rivals: the jerk can get the starter that's strong against yours and the nice one can get the starter that's weak against yours.

 

[HairyLoco]

I wish we'd have a rival like Steven was to me in Emerald.
That guy, he was one hell of a fight. I actually lost to him very often and it took long before I could beat him.

Out of these rivals, I find them all pathetic. In terms of character, there's a lot of variety, which is great, I like that, but they are not rivals. Serena was the only one who came close to that, although she couldn't even beat a single one of my Pokémon, and then the friends went on about how great we both battled.

I'd wish we would have several possible dialogues for different situations, for example when we completely destroy them, they would say: "I really didn't stand a chance against you..." Instead of: "Ah and I nearly won then!"

Tierno, and Trevor were a bother to encounter, and when you did encounter them, it was mainly pointless.
Trevor would tell you things you already knew, he was like a Teachy TV you couldn't turn off. Then he would compare Pokédexes and I swear if you encountered only one Pokémon through the game, he still would lose.

I think Tierno was intended as a comic relief character, to take out the seriousness of the game, because when he was prancing around like a swan, I couldn't take him seriously for anything. All he could go on about was dancing and finding Pokémon for his dance team. At least he did know he's weak in battles.

Shauna was the only friend I did like. She just knew her place and did whatever she wanted, and the only one who actually interacted with you, as well as the only one who actually helped you out. Good friend *pats head*.

EDIT: I wish I could just be defeated by my Rival, like I was by Steven. He could destroy me and my Pokémon easily and actually made me train just to beat him, and nothing else. The rivalry is too one-sided in this game.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

I hated the whole lot of them and hope they all get run over by a Greyhound bus.

Big guy who fails at dancing is like a poor-quality Miror B.,and his face looks stupid too.

Basketball-head is obsessed with Pokedex completion but is surprisingly bad at it.

Annoying brat girl - well, I have a message for her: I DON'T CARE! I don't want to hunt down some guy's ugly hairball of a Pokemon, I don't want to watch a fireworks show, I don't want to watch somebody turn on the lights of some tower, I don't want to go to some ramshackle house in the middle of nowhere, and for the love of God/Arceus/whoever, STOP IT WITH THE STUPID NICKNAMES! Would it kill you to conduct yourself with some semblance of maturity? Seriously, stop dragging me places that I don't want to go and leave me to my own devices! Create "memories" with someone who gives a damn.

That dude in blue (Caleb? Salem? Well, whatever the dude's name is) : You sir, are full of empty threats and baffling behavior. Yeah, you claim you're going to mop the floor with me, and then send out three Pokemon (as opposed to my six) who are 15-20 levels below mine. You have a better chance of winning the lottery than you do winning against me. And then you turn around an want to team up with me? What absurdity is this? "Rivals" don't team up. They look for new and creative ways to dominate and destroy each other.

To the whole lot of you: I swear, I'm going to find the homing device you guys planted on me one of these days. Maybe once I attach it to a random Bunnelby, you'll stop constantly bothering me. Maybe annoying brat girl can start making memories with the Bunnelby. Oh yeah, HOW DARE YOU show up in the celebration in the credits when you did next to nothing against Team Flare except either (a) run away or (b) waste time in one of those nonsensical "partner" battles while I did the work actually defeating Pokemon. Once again, HOW DARE YOU.

In short, these lowlife clowns fail because they never leave you alone and because they're petty much forgettable and useless throughout the entire game. Epic fail.

 

[Sebastian_Sommer]

personally, the excessive number of rivals made their battles very tedious for me, in order to feel like you have bested all 5 of your rivals, the game decided to make you fight them as much as possible. This had reached to the point that I could take their battles as seriously as Jessie and James from team rocket. It certainly didn't help to see them look really miserable after beating their terribly underleveled (and outnumbered) pokemon team which started to make me feel very bad for winning each time.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

My Pokémon weren't higher leveled than their when I battled them...yet they were still easy. The only time I ever lost was to Tierno...and that because I didn't expect a continuous battle and had a weak team (didn't expect Shauna either). Honestly the final battle against the other three rivals was the hardest for me. Other than that they were too easy.