Your Favourite Rival

[Pidgeot]

Who is your favourite rival, including Hugh from B2W2?

Mine is Hugh. He's the only rival with a backstory, (eg. his sister's Purrloin was stolen by Team Plasma five years ago, and as he couldn't rescue it because he was too young, he hates Team Plasma) and so he actually has a motive for doing the things he does. The only problem I have with him is that you don't battle him nearly enough, though I guess you do have quite a few tag battles with him.

 

[vulpix]

Mine would have to be either Silver, Barry, or Hue.

Really, that leaves Gary, and I just don't like him as much. I don't have much of a reason

 

[Charbok]

I'm liking Hugh so far. I'm not that far into the game but I'm sure I'll like him more when I find out more about him.

As for the games I have finished, I'd have to choose Barry as my favorite comic relief rival and Silver for my favorite serious rival, but that's mostly because of the end when he started to change his ways (in the remakes at least.)

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

I like Hugh a lot. He has an actual real motive and something that kind of drives him which I like to see in a rival. I also think he's kinda funny with his whole "unleashing his rage" thing. I just had to laugh at that.

 

[Chiss]

I chose Silver for my favorite because he has an awesome team and also because he's one of the only people in the games that physically harasses you.

 

[itsquan23]

Gary. you killed his raticate(that's real drive not a lil girl's pussycat) then beat him right when he got the championship title and had to tell his own grandfather his own name ahhaahhahaha.

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Who is your favourite rival, including Hugh from B2W2?

Mine is Hugh. He's the only rival with a backstory, (eg. his sister's Purrloin was stolen by Team Plasma five years ago, and as he couldn't rescue it because he was too young, he hates Team Plasma) and so he actually has a motive for doing the things he does. The only problem I have with him is that you don't battle him nearly enough, though I guess you do have quite a few tag battles with him.

Hmm I have not yet played Black 2 or white 2 in fact I have not yet played White, but this character sounds VERY interesting. I already like him.

To make a choice out of the ones I am familiar with however, I like Silver and his douchbagginess and I like Bianca of B/W. I like the idea of her because she is a unique character having discovered that she's not cut out to be a league trainer but kept her chin up and found something else to do with her pokemon(being a bodyguard).

 

[Achrom25tic]

Probably Silver or Wally. I like Silver because a tough jerkwad, and I like Wally because he's adorkable.

 

[Jammy2A]

I'd have to say Paul. I hated that guy, but to be honest that's what made him so good as a rival. You just always wanted to beat the hell out of him and shut him up. Next up would be Gary, cause he's a classic AND he becomes champion what better way to challenge your old rival

 

[metalamor]

I like how in the first two, your rivals were complete dicks to you and then after that they were all your friends. What happened? xD

Wally is sickly and you are a monster for killing his Pokemon over and over
I don't remember anything about Sinnoh...I really don't. Played through about a year ago and didn't pay attention (I got it the same time I got White, so yeah)
Bianca and Cheren are annoying as hell, but they are your character's friends.
Hugh isn't exactly your friend, but he's on your side. He's not a dick. I liked him quite a bit.

 

[Almonds]

Gary because he becomes the champion - he actually achieves his goal. I like how we are made to fight our rival ultimately in the end.

 

[Kira Akigari]

I'd have to say Paul. I hated that guy, but to be honest that's what made him so good as a rival. You just always wanted to beat the hell out of him and shut him up. Next up would be Gary, cause he's a classic AND he becomes champion what better way to challenge your old rival

Dude On the game
Paul was never in the games

Silver
He is the only rival to have an really interesting backstory and having a boss of a criminal organization as a father

 

[theRagingEwok]

Since I've only played Gen 3 onwards (sadface), I have to say,
Wally was really annoying - his inclusion just didn't seem very serious.
Cheren was overly obsessive about power, so much so that he didn't even seem to have any friendly connection to me.
May was slightly better, but still annoying.
And I felt bad about beating Bianca since every time I beat her she'd just become depressed and talk to me about where her life was going.

 

[Ranger Jack Walker]

Barry. He's such a fun rival. I can't explain it but he's so likable.

 

[flamewarflipsides]

You know, if N doesn't count, I'm going to have to say Hugh. He's got all the jerk traits we love about Blue and Silver, but they're directed in a completely good, moral direction. That is, rather than being a bad person who happens to fight the same villainous team as you, he's a good person with some rather glaring character flaws. I also love his recurring line about unleashing his rage. It's supposed to sound cool, but it comes off as cheesy. I was in stitches the first time he said it.

Before Hugh came along, I was rather partial to Bianca and Wally, since they're both fundamentally nice, kind people who just so happen to want to pokemon battle the daylights out of you. I particularly identified with Wally, since I'm very sickly and wasn't allowed to do much as a child. I also trained a Gardevoir.

I do like the character development Cheren has gotten in BW2, though. I didn't like him at all in BW1, but now I'm quite fond of him. They've done a really good job of showing him mature from a mildly annoying kid with tunnel vision to a well-rounded person. And before you hate on me for bashing Cheren, I'd still rather have BW1 Cheren than many of my students.

 

[Glitchipedia]

Silver, hands-down. Maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but I also find him to still be the darkest of the rivals so far. Holds the distinction of being the first human character to physically attack another human character on-screen (though, due to graphical limitations, it's unclear whether he punches you, kicks you or just pushes you).

 

[flamewarflipsides]

Glitchipedia, for a minute I'm going to act like a Black/White version NPC and just go that this is great. You are 100% right in that Silver really is the darkest proper rival. No one is more violent, no one is more amoral, and no one is more legitemately dangerous to the PC while still being a rival.

And yet, agreeing with you 100%, even liking dark content in my Pokemon, I still don't like Silver as much. His amorality is too much for me. He feels like a 90s antihero. I prefer my dark characters as ones who have some idea of right or wrong, rather than acting out of some kind of misplaced insecurity.

So even though I have absolutely no dispute with your description of Silver, I like Hugh better. Isn't it a wonderful world we live in, where we can interpret the absolute truth in such different ways by our differing, equally valid ideals?

/Unova NPC rant

All silliness aside, that was a pretty apt description of what makes Silver special. Well-done.

 

[CynthiaLover]

I'd have to say Bianca. She's fun to battle, doesn't seem to quite know what she's doing, seems more evenly paced than Cheren (not rushing madly to get stronger quickly, etc), and for the first time, you actually had some form of advantage over a rival from the get-go. She was also very sweet and caring, even if she could be bit of a ditz, but that's what made her fun. I did feel bad at times for beating her, like in Castella city after rescuing her Munna, but I liked the fact she seemed to develop more as time went on, not just as a Trainer, but as a person. The little touching moment between her and her father in Nimbasa City, with some help from Elesa, was a very nice touch. I have to admit, I was pretty happy for her in B2W2 when she found what she was searching for; to become Professor Juniper's aid, something that had been bothering her for quite some time in BW. Plus the fact she's the first female rival, so that was something interesting. And, truth be told, in BW, I found her tougher than Cheren post-game. I could decimate Cheren's team easily, barely taking a scratch, but Bianca's team actually gave me some trouble. I'm not sure if it was because her team was better balanced or I wasn't taking some of her Pokemon as seriously, but she could give me some grief at times. So I felt she was the stronger rival, even though her levels were usually a point or two lower than Cheren's. Strange, right? But, overall, Bianca was my favorite. She just had the qualities I was looking for in a rival.

My second favorite would have to be Silver, since he developed a lot as both a trainer and person as well, and his history with TR and being abandoned by his father explained a lot about him. His dark, abrasive attitude at first was a bit much to take, especially back in Gen II when he first debuted (though having gotten used to him after that, it didn't bother me in HGSS), but Silver was definitely one of the better rivals. He was also one of the more challenging rivals, actually giving me a run for my money at times, especially since a lot of his Pokemon packed some good moves.

Third place has to go to Wally. I could relate to him, as I was very prone to illness when I was younger, having gotten asthma at a very young age, crippling my immune system badly to the point if something was out there, I'd get it. It took a very long time for my weakened immune system to build up enough power to my current stage. Like Bianca, he was very friendly, a little timid, but he showed a strong side. Also, he raised my soon-to-be favorite Psychic-type, Gardevoir, and it was because of him that I really came to love Gardevoir. Wally really emphasized that you can make the impossible become the possible if you really try hard enough and believe in yourself.

 

[Faye Scarlet]

After playing through B2W2, Hue is without a doubt my favorite rival. He totally blew away all expectations I had of him, and was a MUCH better character than I initially thought he was. He looked like he was gonna be another jerkass rival like Blue or Silver, so I called him Azul as a nod to that. But he isn't like that at all, no, Azul is an amazing character with much more character than any rival thus far. It's very refreshing indeed to have a rival NOT obsessed with defeating the player character; he actually wants you to back HIM up, because he knows he's weaker than you, despite being older (stated in the beginning somewhere that he's older). His rage is also very understandable. I have 3 younger sisters I adore and dote on too, and I'd be pissed if someone stole our cat. It's so human of him, I'm glad they wrote him so realistically.

 

[towny]

Silver is my favorite, because you just know nothing about him.