The Perfect Rival

[Lizardo]

What makes a "perfect" rival has less to do with what kind of character they are, and is more about whether or not they can challenge the protagonist in a way that's believable and compelling.

Shuu, Shinji, and Nozomi are three entirely different characters whose respective rivalries with Haruka, Satoshi, and Hikari all differed from each other in several ways. Shuu enjoyed getting under Haruka's skin, often teased her for her inexperience as a Coordinator, but slowly built up a respect for her as he saw how she was improving throughout her Contests. Shinji disliked Satoshi and made no secret of that, thought he was weak for thinking that his belief in his Pokémon could turn into strength, and only started to respect Satoshi after butting heads with him and seeing that philosophy bear fruit. Nozomi was supportive and friendly towards Hikari from the beginning, and she never had to come to a place where she began to respect Hikari. Instead, she actively helped Hikari become a stronger Coordinator by passing on advice and helping her train.

I ultimately enjoyed seeing what the writers did with the three of them. They're all great rivals because they provided a believable challenge for the protagonists to overcome, and they were written in a way that the audience could understand why it was important for Haruka, Satoshi, and Hikari to catch up to them.

That's what a perfect rival, insofar as it's possible for there to be one, should do. And that's something you can do with any kind of character so long as the writers are good enough to work with it.

 

[Wobbu]

Good Character ???
[snip]

You seem to have missed her main point...

Conceptually, they're really good characters. They just need better writing behind them.

What she's saying is that Trip and Cameron, and the other rivals from BW, had really good potential, but their characterization was not executed very well. Her version of perfect rivals are the rival cast from BW, but with much better writing. She likes the group dynamics and the intertwining relationships that were present, but she also believes that writers could have done a much better job.

However, this thread is not for bashing actual rivals from the anime, but for discussing fictional rivals who you would like to see in the anime. If you want to talk about actual rivals, Lizardo's character discussion thread is a good place to start.

 

[Famon]

As I said , I want a Lone Wolf Rival who argue with Ash similar way Naruto & Sasuke argue -

Spoiler:

Just imagine The Red Hair Boy as Ash.

 

[Aquacorde]

I mean , Doesn't it hurt You as a Girl that Pokemon hardly had any Serious female challenger ? All of them is ether A Rookie or Some Airhead Comic Relief.

Besides missing the point of my entire post, you come out with this? lmao

Sure, I'd love to see Ash's true main rival be a girl for a series. Bel could have been such a rival, but you know. BW. However, just because she was kinda ditzy doesn't mean she was bad or not serious? She knew what she was doing. She was strong. She did well in tournaments and okay in the league. As for Langley and Burgundy- they were tournament rivals. Sure they didn't go to the league, but that wasn't their thing. Who cares? Langley was hardcore. Burgundy was ruthless. I mean, she wasn't as strong and was still beginning- she challenged her first gym not too long before the series started, yo- but definitely got better and did everything she could shy of cheating to win.

But just because a lot of the girls choose to follow other paths doesn't mean they're extremely competent and strong characters. Misty was a gym leader, yo. Iris was a Dragon Master/Gym Leader in training who got her first Pokémon by battling it herself many times over. May and Dawn's contest careers were just as challenging as a league and maybe more- they had to construct routines and creatively use moves AND THEN consistently show off their Pokémon's best attributes while having grueling battles.

So you know what? As fun as it would be to see a fully fleshed out main female rival for Ash, it does not hurt me or any other woman that there has not yet been one. Because all of our PokéGirls are strong as hell while doing things they love.

I stand by wanting what I really said, that you entirely missed- I don't want BW rival copies. I want the BW rivals back, with some better writing behind them. If you would like to demonize my opinions further, please heed Wobbu's instructions to take it to Character Discussion.