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Love To Hate Or Just Hate? Best and Worst Rivals

The rival character has been a staple in the Pokemon series ever since the beginning, and now we've ended up with 15 rivals across the main games. Given this range of different characters, it's only natural that some stay in our minds, while other's are forgettable, or outright annoying whenever we come across them. So, who are the best and worst rivals in Pokemon, and why? I'm going to rank them because I need something to procrastinate over, but if you want to save time you can just talk about your favourite and least favourite instead.

1. Silver: I love this guy. Not only is he one of the two rivals I find actually fun to beat because he's such a tool, but his character development is caused in part by you beating him constantly. It's really nice to see a character who starts off as such a jerk slowly realize that the only thing holding him back is his bad attitude and narrow mindedness.
2. Blue: Seriously, having a rival that's enjoyable to beat is like a lost art in Pokemon, I swear. Blue lacks the development that Silver gets which does kind of suck, but he's such an asshole that I don't care. I always look forwards to fighting this guy.
3. Wally: Wally is the opposite of Silver and Blue in that I actively feel bad for kicking his ass. Seriously, I found myself wishing in Omega Ruby that I could throw the last battle with him (before realizing that doing so would be super condescending and insulting). Plus, his character growth feels really natural and as if he's sorted most of this out himself, rather than relying upon the player.
4. Bianca: While she doubts herself a lot, I find Bianca's a really determined person who goes after what she wants and I respect that. I do wish she developed more after Nimbasa City though other than "oh maybe I kinda suck at battling" (which makes no sense to me considering her Pokemon's levels are still on par with Cheren's - and better than a lot of trainers - in the endgame).
5. Hau: Hau's just a really likable guy. He's just really fun to have on screen and I just enjoy seeing him around. I do wish they'd explored the idea of him appearing to not try at anything because he's afraid he'll never be good enough though.
6. May/Brendan: These two strike me as just nice people, although they feel a lot blander than Hau. Brendan is probably the more interesting of the two due to the fact that he doesn't really seem to respect you that much at the start of the game and it's nice to see that change (after like, five minutes, but still). What I do like about these two is that after getting beaten constantly, they actually realize after the 6th gym that maybe this isn't for them and stop fighting you, which shows a much greater level of self awareness than most other rivals.
7. Cheren: He's okay, I guess. He's a bit generic in that he just wants to become the Champion (although it's interesting that he himself isn't sure why he wants that), but he's not that bad. I think he would have been way cooler if over the course of his journey he was the one who found he sucked at Pokemon battling rather than Bianca, and realized that just being book smart doesn't mean you're automatically great at Pokemon. Ah wishful thinking.
8. Shauna: Okay, sure, Shauna's kind of stupid and I hate her design (her hair makes no sense) but... That fireworks scene with her is actually really sweet and just makes me wish they bothered to do something else with her throughout the game.
9. Barry: He doesn't have a heap going for him, and asides from being crazy hyper, he feels pretty generic. Although I'll admit his hyperactivity is kind of amusing at times so he's not a total pain.
10. Tierno: Like most of the XY rival's, Tierno is really lacking in terms of characterization and screentime but he's the only character on this list who's really interested in dancing and I like how that translates over into the Pokemon and moves he uses in battle. It's a cool concept... that they did nothing with, but hey that's XY for you.
11. Hugh: I want to like this guy, I really do. Having him be affected by seeing how much it hurt his sister to have her Pokemon stolen is cool, but, it's done in such a heavy handed manner that he feels completely unrealistic and flat out annoying at times.
12. Trevor: The fact that I had to check serebii to even remember this guy's name is probably a good indicator of just how forgettable he is.
13. Calum/Serena: Do these two even count as characters? They feel more like they're just blank placeholders rather than actual people. Why do they want to become the Champion? No idea (I don't think: my parent's a strong trainers is a read)... I was going to run off a bunch of questions about them but there's so little to them that I can't even think of meaningful questions to ask. Basically, it irritates me to interact with these blank slates.
 
Ah rivals, my real friends in Pokemon. I’d like to mention that I completely agree with you on the Top Rival being Silver. He’s such a jerk and even his team gives that reflection when I first fought him, all those years ago. (Gastly, Zubat seemed like evil Pokemon.) His entire backstory was so well thought out and well done, with him being Giovanni’s son, and matched his beliefs very well. And every incarnation I’ve seen of him, I love to hate him. He is a great character, with development that really makes me feel like the later gens rivals would be amazing. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

Brendan and May, kinda made me angry. I don’t know why, but they seemed to be so easy to knock down emiotnally, and then they would just give up and play a supporting role. If someone is better than you, do you give up on your dreams to support them? It may sound selfish but I wouldn’t. They were all “hey, we keep losing. I guess we’re trash.” Even Wally isn’t that same generation acknowledged he wasn’t better than the player, yet didn’t give up. He kept pushing to develop his own character. Brendan and May seemed to become stagnant after a bit.

I loved Barry as a rival. I found it funny with you playing as this mute quiet character, and have an overly energetic best friend who threw out fines was a nice change of pace from other rivals of that time. Barry is headstrong, stubborn, and really played a good part as the dual roles as best friend and rival. He was willing to help you in whatever way he could, but still wouldn’t hold back on you in a fight. Plus he had a nice team and I enjoyed the fight on Coronet, where we had to Tag team to know out Saturn and Mars.

Hau, while I loved his personality and character, didn’t seem like a good person to play a rival role. He didn’t seem to have any motive for trying to beat the player and kinda just didn’t care. Overall, I found him to be a great character and first friend in Alola for the player, but he just didn’t seem to do a good job as an actual rival.

For the most part, i agree with the rest of your list. I found the XY characters underdone. Maybe so many of them wasn’t a good idea. Blue was a fun asshat. Nothing else to say really. Cheren and Bianca had their moments (but I feel their Manga portrayal in Pokemon Adventures was much better). Hugh was dealt with too much for something that small. If Team Plasma like killed his Grandpa after stealing the pokemon, I think it would have been warranted to be done the way it was.
 
Ha! I think, Hugh was pretty easy to defeat in bw2. Silver, he was PRETTY difficult! Btw, I also like Gladion.

But: SILVER IS THE HARDEST ONE! XD
 
I dont hate any of them but if I had to rate them. (Fourteen = least favorite/One = most favorite)

I'm not going to rate Hugh I didn't play pokemon black 2 or white 2 so no opinion on him. I did look him up and his character design looks pretty cool.

13. silver: his personality is lacking. That and it's always about that grind. Battle battle battle. Comparing silver and gold is like comparing endeavor and all might (my hero academia)

12. Blue he wasn't as bad as silver but not by a lot. Also he returns in ultra sun/ultra moon and in those games he seemed like a really cool guy. so I like to give him bonus points. If blue was this cool in the older games he would be much higher but he wasn't.

11. Shauna she's very friendly and nice but is kinda overshadowed by her friends. Calum/serana are trying to be pokemon masters, tierno is tryna become a masta break Danca, trevor wants to complete the pokedex. What's shauna trying to do huh? Sorry shauna but your friends are cooler than you.

10. Wally. I just wanna start off by saying when I first met him the way people talk to him or about him led me to believe he had some really serious medical problems. He is a very shy sheltered kid that slowly becomes more confident over time.

9. The number nine spot belongs to the man, the myth, the legend, you know him, you love him he's orange juice man. I mean trevor. The dude has a tangerine for a head. He's a nerd that wants to fill the pokedex. That's cool. (I'm not being sarcastic)

8. Tierno the dancing boi. He's a big boi. He teaches us even fat people can be pokemon trainers. Not just that be he can dance. Yo!

7. gladion he's lillie's brother. both him and his sister are weird. lillie is a momma's girl. the first outfit you ever see her with was picked out by her mom. the second outfit is a slightly different school girl looking outfit? this is about gladion though. he's clearly going through some dark rebellious phase. he's similar to the first two except neither silver or blue joined a bunch of "gangstas". despite this he's still kinda cool i guess i mean he did earn the seventh spot after all.

6. Brendan/may these guys are pokemon masters and they wear costumes and perform pageants. Cool huh?

5. calum/serana. I have nothing bad to say about these guys. However they didn't have a lot of stand out personality traits. The only reason why they are this far on the list is because I'm biased and love x/y. (Same thing with Brendan/may except less so with them.)

4. Bianca. She's goofy, forgetful, and clumsy. She's perfect! However she's not #1.

3. Cheron. He's a no nonsense neat and tidy guy. He's cool. However the only reason why he's higher than Bianca is because I'm biased and appreciate the fact that he became a gym leader.

2. Barry. He's cool, friendly, and I'm biased. I would put Barry at number 1 but I won't. His biggest reason for being number 2 is because the number 1 spot just has a better fleshed out character.

1. Hau is in his spot for the Same reason Barry is except how was fleshed out more and was placed in a game with MUCH better graphics and stuff. Sorry Barry. Barry's father is also cool. However I should say one thing about hau. I respect the fact that he doesn't automatically choose the pokemon with an advantage over yours. Mad respects to hau. (Maybe he does deserve number 1 spot)

Honorable mention. Red. This man is the original pokemon master. He never speaks B.S. and he always beats blue without even grinding. Hau also got whooped.
 
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