Favorite Rival

[YoungXehanort]

I'm not sure if there has been a thread for this yet, but i'm going to make this.

Of all the rivals in the series, who is your favorite rival?

[Silver Lightning]

I think there was one, but whatever...

Technically, since I consider N a rival/antagonist, he's my favorite, but since he's not on the poll my second fave is Silver.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Silver Lightning

[shadowofchaos]

Gary Motherfreaking Oak.

[BrightBow]

Definitely the Generation 2 Rival known as "???".

Generation 2 really know how to up the ante with pretty much anything and the Rival is no exception.

I mean, Blue was just a prick. Silver stepped up the game by being a criminal and extremely hostile.

And he gets some sweet character development along the way. And it was pleasantly unexpected that he wasn't the champ. Stuff like that helped to keep things fresh.

After dealing with these douchebags, the Gen 3 Rivals were pretty boring by comparison.

Edited August 24, 2013 by BrightBow

[RJWalker]

Barry. Some peole found him annoying but I found his to be a pretty cool guy and a great friend to the player character with just enough competition between them. Also, his team after you beat the E4 enough times is the highest level team in any of the games aside from Red. And he's better than Red anyway since Red's team is terrible.

[Icon of Sin]

Blue >= Silver > everyone else.

Both Brendan/Wally aren't that good since you don't face them enough, haven't played DPP to judge Barry other than I don't think I'd like him, Cheren's kinda cool but his team is amazingly shit, Bianca actually battles better than Cheren but I just don't like her and Hugh's a bit of a mix between the last two, but accentuates the weakness of not getting a big team fast. He still only has three Pokémon when you battle him in Undella of all cities.

Sure, Blue's team is also kinda shit but to be fair with him it's not like movepools were enormous back then and he had that attitude that wanted you to kick his ass.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Woodshooter

[Anacybele]

Barry because of his anime counterpart. He is just hilariously awesome. XD

[Sasori]

I liked Hugh the most. When I first saw his design I thought he would be a jerk rival like Blue or Silver, but he's actually a total bro to your character.

I thought Blue and silver where a little needlessly antagonistic to your character and I never really cared much for the gen 3 "rivals" and Barry. I think Hugh strikes a nice balance. Being nice, but still a proper rival who likes to test your skill.

Its a shame his choice in Pokémon is rather lame.

[Ciarre]

http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=41002

It's still on the first page, with the exact same title...

Well, anyway, my favorite rival is Silver due to the manga.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Ciarre

[Phoenix Wright]

Tough choice between Silver and Blue. I went Blue because he's a truly tough trainer and the rivalry feels real. Silver is more like a more powerful Team Rocket member, but he's still pretty great.

The rest of the canon "rivals" suck, in my opinion. For some reason Game Freak made them your friends and also made them incredibly boring. I'm also one of those people that considers N a true rival, but he's not on the list, so...

Edited August 26, 2013 by Phoenix Wright

[RJWalker]

Silver is a joke though. For all of his talks about being better than you, he's really a chump. At least Gary was constantly ahead of you until the very end.

[riariadne]

N should be on here. He isn't my pick, but yeah.

Blue is the Man with a capital M. Silver's cool and all but he wants to be as cool as Blue. Brendan and May don't even get to fully evolve their starter, so they're doomed to suck. Barry is annoying as hell, Cheren is okay, Bianca was okay, N was very good, haven't played BW2 but Hugh seems pretty irritating.

[amadeuscho]

SIlver is the best rival because he's actually a bad guy. He actually steals the pokemon. It makes you really want to defeat him, more so than any other rival.

[shadykid]

GARY MOTHERF***ING OAK obviously

[Pieloswine]

(May be spoilers for various games down here)

Man, Wally isn't here? I'm kind of disappointed.

My favorite rival would have to be a tie between Wally and Silver, although I like them all except for Barry, really, since I found him slightly annoying with his whole "I'm going to fine you a million dollars" schtick.

I like Wally because he isn't what you would think of when you say "rival". Maybe he isn't a real rival, since he battles you twice throughout the entire game if my memory serves correctly, and the first time is a total joke since he only had one Ralts. However, I really liked his character development- although Wally wasn't a rival to the player, the player was a rival to Wally. He always wanted to become stronger and overcome his illness in order to beat you and explore the world, and I really liked that about him. His story reminds me of myself when I was younger, which of course adds brownie points :P

Silver was kind of a messed up person. Both him and the player had the same goal of taking down Team Rocket, so again, idk if he was really a rival, even if his attitude was kind of rival-ish. I really enjoyed his backstory about how he was Giovanni's son and all that jazz, and how he really wanted to defeat Team Rocket, no matter how he had to do it. It gave him a really anti-hero like vibe, and I'm interested to see his whole side of the story.

N was also interesting, mostly because he was basically raised by Ghetsis for his own nefarious needs. He truly believed what he was doing was going to save Pokemon, and the whole clash of ideals and how everyone wanted the same result (peace between people and Pokemon) but how they were going to accomplish it differed really reminded me of real life, where nobody really wants to do things the exact same way. I guess that's the whole Black/White symbolism comes in, with all the extreme viewpoints.

Cheren and Bianca both had their own struggles too, and while Cheren was the more competitive of the two, I felt like Bianca was the stronger character, not Pokemon wise, just because she developed from a confused teenager to a confident young woman who found her own way in life without needing anyone else's help. (Except maybe Elesa) Cheren became stronger as well, but I don't really remember if he ever figured out what Alder meant by strength wasn't everything.

I don't remember what Barry wanted out of his journey, and I honestly have no idea about Brendan/May. Green kind of wanted to beat you for the sake of beating you, and also to regain his grandfather's love I guess if you wanted to stretch it a little bit, but since he lost in the end, I don't think any real development came out of it.

Whoo, that was a little mini essay. Hopefully it wasn't too painful to read, I just had a lot to say on the topic ^^;;

[Tamanoir]

Favorite : Cheren. He's just damn cool, and had a great character developpement. I'll actually vote Wally or N if there were there...

Besides, Cheren gave me my first defeat of the game in White 2., Goddamn Emboar...

Least favourite : I HATE Hugh ! He's just so damn annoying, an d never stop talking about his goddamn Purloin ! He should really take thing easier.

Otherwise, Brendan/May are just lame. You fight them a little, but thy never really had any motivations. Then, half through, they totally give up. A shame because they have one of the best battle themes of the series (Which make their abandonment ever worse... Thankfully, Emerald also gave the theme to Steven in its Epic battle.)

Bianca is netter than them in every way.

[iHeartLibra]

I really love the stories you can develop with Silver plus, next to Gary/Blue he is actually a true rival and not a good friend whom you battle with from time to time.