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Your favorite rival?

Who is your favorite rival?

  • Blue

    Votes: 7 14.9%
  • Silver

    Votes: 7 14.9%
  • Brendan/May

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Wally

    Votes: 3 6.4%
  • Barry

    Votes: 4 8.5%
  • Bianca

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Cheren

    Votes: 4 8.5%
  • Hugh

    Votes: 3 6.4%
  • Calem/Serena

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Shauna

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Tierno

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Trevor

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hau

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Gladion

    Votes: 6 12.8%
  • Trace

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hop

    Votes: 4 8.5%
  • Bede

    Votes: 3 6.4%
  • Marnie

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Avery/Klara

    Votes: 1 2.1%

  • Total voters
    47
This is gonna be a very odd response and make people ask the question (why did you post here then?), but none. I don't care for a single rival. I honestly haven't cared for a single rival. They are all feel very underdeveloped, even when they do get some development like Silver. Can the blame be put on the fact that i played other RPGs with far better stories and much better developed characters? Most likely, but it's not something i can turn off at will. Specially because the last several generations have been focusing more and more on story, so the extra focus not paying off in much better characters makes it worse.

I'm also getting tired of multiple rivals per game. You barely have enough time to develop one, you're stretching it with multiple rivals. Which causes Gym Leaders and other characters to get even less screentime, making a lot of them forgettable.
 
Just me: I feel like rivals in the games stand out more when you only have one rival in the game. When you have so many rivals coming out, just for the sake of having multiple personalities, it takes away from the relationship development when you have to diverge your attention between each one.

Like, Gladion is portrayed as a "Rival" in these polls, but I never really felt a sense of having a rivalry with him. He felt more part of a storyline that you just happen to stumble upon - and he drew attention to you when you beat him. I.e.: He felt like you were his rival, but not the other way around: I never got into the relationship of considering a rival with him because I though Hau was the one major rival I had in the game, however friendly he was.
 
Barry for sure. I loved his character development and the double battle with him at Spear Pillar was such a memorable moment.
 
Have you seen how Hop develops? He develops even more than Silver throughout the game.

Hop probably has the most development out of them all. He's also the only friendly rival done right. (it definitely doesn't help that Gen 5 is the only generation with a story so even someone who isn't really a rival like Bianca still gets good development.)

And solely for that reason, I feel the Blue/Silver/Bede rival (With a sprinkling of N and Cheren) should be the standard template. Cheren, while friendly in stance, was still not as friendly as people make him out to be. He was impatient, snarky and sometimes even straight up rude, even if it comes from a good heart. Coincidentally, he's also that good cause BW have a godlike story to help out. Bede and Silver are two jerks who develop into people trying to be better while still not being complete dickheads. N all around was just someone who stood on the other end of your idealogy but was charismatic the entire path. (Even though people apparently don't see him as a rival, but to me, he's the de facto number 1 BW rival to you.)

Straight up, just do Rivals who actually oppose you in stuff. Blue just wanting to beat you for bragging rights and to affirm superiority, Silver cause he doesn't believe in weakness, Bede cause he has stuff to prove. Pick it all, turn it into a standard rival template and you can so many ways in development and make a memorable rival. Make the rival title mean something. Not just hand out the title cause they fight you a couple of times on your path.
 
Have you seen how Hop develops? He develops even more than Silver throughout the game.
Still awfully underdeveloped compared to many other characters in other RPGs. I'm also of the opinion that character development doesn't make a character good. Your character can have all the character development in the world, if your character isn't interesting in the slightest, i don't care and Hop isn't interesting to me. His recycled animations from Hau and constantly having to comment when you crit or hit a supereffective move certainly doesn't help, specially because the latter reminds me of the current Gamefreak mentality of having to babysit the player constantly.
 
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Cheren, while friendly in stance, was still not as friendly as people make him out to be. He was impatient, snarky and sometimes even straight up rude

Rarely ever toward you, though.

His recycled animations from Hau

Yeah, that like 1 animation he reuses. Never mind all the ones he has that aren't reused.

and constantly having to comment when you crit or hit a supereffective move certainly doesn't help

He's not the only character that does this, though. Leon, Mustard, Klaravery, Bede, pretty sure Marnie does as well... it's an overall effort to make the battles seem more lively and make the Trainers seem less like mannequins who just stand in the background. Further, it's an attempt to build on the little in-battle character interjections of Gens 4 and 5, but with more variety by linking specific lines of text to specific events (crits, SE moves) as opposed to just having an interjection after the first damaging attack and before the final Pokémon being sent out.
 
Further, it's an attempt to build on the little in-battle character interjections of Gens 4 and 5, but with more variety by linking specific lines of text to specific events (crits, SE moves) as opposed to just having an interjection after the first damaging attack and before the final Pokémon being sent out.
It's kinda amazing to me what kind of variety of possible quotes Stadium 2 has for all of its Trainers despite being such an old game, so I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw Hop commenting about critical hits.
 
Yeah, that like 1 animation he reuses. Never mind all the ones he has that aren't reused.
Imagine going through the effort of giving him different animations only to reuse one that looked already ridiculous in Gen 7. Could have easily just not use it if you bothered to give him new animations.

He's not the only character that does this, though. Leon, Mustard, Klaravery, Bede, pretty sure Marnie does as well... it's an overall effort to make the battles seem more lively and make the Trainers seem less like mannequins who just stand in the background.
Never said he was the only one and others doing the same thing doesn't make it any better. I don't mind when characters make comments like how they are in their last pokemon or when they send out their first pokemon, but commenting every single time on your first crit on the battle (specially because it's something you can't control due to its random nature) or how we know the type chart when you hit with a supereffective for the first time in each battle is obnoxious as hell. It feels like Gamefreak is giving me participation awards for doing good in battle, and it honestly feels condescending.
 
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Blue stands out to me as the single instance of the rival being the primary antagonist, and the one who most embodies the meta-narrative of the franchise. Giovanni and Team Rocket are both incidental, because the story of RBY is meant to be the player character's personal development and journey, not the baddies they beat along the way. As the rival on an identical trajectory, the one who's always a slight step ahead of you, Blue is both the spur and obstacle to progress at the same time. FRLG made these themes a little more explicit with their opening spiel, but one of my several disappointments with LGPE was that they didn't expand on this further.

Runner-up goes to Wally, for being the character in the exact opposite situation; he's the one trying to catch up with your mercilessly-overlevelled team. His battle and theme are by far the greatest moments of ORAS, and he - along with Lillie in particular - speak to that overarching narrative of self-development and personal independence.
 
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