So the second trailer revealed what could be the first female rival…

[Ace Trainer 188]

…that is just by herself/not connected to a male rival/you don't have to pick a specific playable chracter to have access to.

Now, take this discussion with a massive grain of salt. We don't know if it's true that she is confirmed to be the player's rival or if she comes with another character.

So what do you guys think?

For me, I'm astounded. I genuinely thought a main female rival would probably never happen in actual canon games. If it turns out she really is the main rival, not connected to a male rival or if you pick a certain protagonist, I'll be… slightly interested to see how things would turn out.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

…that is just by herself/not connected to a male rival/you don't have to pick a specific playable chracter to have access to.

Now, take this discussion with a massive grain of salt. We don't know if it's true that she is confirmed to be the player's rival or if she comes with another character.

So what do you guys think?

For me, I'm astounded. I genuinely thought a main female rival would probably never happen in actual canon games. If it turns out she really is the main rival, not connected to a male rival or if you pick a certain protagonist, I'll be… slightly interested to see how things would turn out.

I am assuming you are referring to Nemona. She is, to some degree, already confirmed as the rival for the games, meaning that you are very possibly correct about her being the first female rival that isn't connected to selecting the male protagonist. However, that doesn't mean that previous female rivals were non-canon. For example, the events of the Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald games, along with their remakes, still feature May as a canon rival to Brendan even if you have to select Brendan for May to be his rival. The same thing also applies to Dawn in the generation four games and their remakes, as well as Sareena from the generation six games that occurred in Kalos.

 

[Orion☆]

I am assuming you are referring to Nemona. She is, to some degree, already confirmed as the rival for the games, meaning that you are very possibly correct about her being the first female rival that isn't connected to selecting the male protagonist. However, that doesn't mean that previous female rivals were non-canon. For example, the events of the Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald games, along with their remakes, still feature May as a canon rival to Brendan even if you have to select Brendan for May to be his rival. The same thing also applies to Dawn in the generation four games and their remakes, as well as Sareena from the generation six games that occurred in Kalos.

This! Just because female rivals are only available when picking a male character or come bundled within a group of male characters doesn't mean we should diminish their importance. Sure, having Nemona as the headliner when no other rivals have been presented so far is great, but we still have to see what kind of character she is.

This is where the other female rivals come in. Both Bianca and Marnie, despite not being your only rivals (and the other rivals being male), stood on their own well enough as characters and had good development. And although her presence is linked to the player character being male, the same could be said of Serena. This is what they should aspire to with Nemona. She could be the first main female rival, but if her characterization is shoddy like that of, say, May (and Brendan, because let's face it, there's barely a difference between the two) or Shauna (and company), it's probably not going to matter much in the long run.

 

[ReKoil]

I don't really care what gender the rival has tbh, as it doesn't matter.
Female or male, just be an actual rival for once.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with the above replies. I actually don't think this is much of a news, even because it's not like GF made huge differences in a character's personality, according to the gender. Take May/Brendan, Lucas/Down and others, for example. Actually, what is cool is that she's described as a good trainer but not so good at throwing pokeballs. She wears something on her arm, so it would be cool if she had some physical problem. I mean, yeah I should rephrase this in a better way lol. I mean, it'd be cool if GF introduced a character with some unique features. About her, I will be honest: I don't expect much from her in terms of development. I expect the kind of rival Hau/Hop were, even if Hop had a very nice development imo. Also, maybe I am totally wrong about the thing on her arm, maybe it's just connected to the new mechanic lol.

 

[Orion☆]

I don't really care what gender the rival has tbh, as it doesn't matter.
Female or male, just be an actual rival for once.

I... don't have much hope for that, considering she was introduced as your "friend" from the get-go. Heck, my first thought when seeing her was, "she doesn't look like the player character's equal in age or experience. She must be some kind of upperclassman - the Senior/Senpai in a Sr. and Jr./Senpai-Kohai duo." I'm okay with that, because rivalries are kind of clichéd by this point. What I do hope, as I have said before, is that she's a good character and has an arc of her own.

Right now, I heavily suspect Sada and Turo are actually the villains of the game, and of course they will probably try to harness Nemona's friendliness and enthusiasm for their own ends. It would be interesting to see how Nemona acts in light of this - will she fall prey to their manipulations and end up believing in their misguided ends (if only temporarily), or will she find out about the Professors' true nature before the player character does and try to steer the player away from trusting them?

 

[Iceshadow3317]

I don't really care what gender the rival has tbh, as it doesn't matter.
Female or male, just be an actual rival for once.

I also don't think you should get your hopes up. If anything, she is probably going to become more sisterly. She seems to be around 16 or so years old while we are 11 to 14 years old. My guess she is an older student at the school and will become like a tutor.

 

[Shrew]

She gives me Marnie vibes. She even has the new pikachu archetype. I'd be really happy if the primary rival role was shaked up and cast a character like her. The past few rivals have felt incredibly stagnant, so if she's the main rival, it would be great. A friend of mine would often tell me how much nicer it would have been if Marnie was the final rival in SwSh, and as a result, I've grown partial to that idea. And although I do realize this new girl isn't Marnie, it'd be nice to potentailly see some of what my friend wished for (a very competent girl trainer with depth) as the main rival.

 

[Catgirl Rika]

She could be your rival, a childhood friend, or something else. I think you will have to battle her over the course of the games.