Ash's best non-main rival in the league

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hhhhdmt

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Outside of Gary, Paul and Alain (his three major rivals), who is your favourite rival of his? I am strictly talking leagues here.

Choices are:

Harrison
Morrison
Tyson
Sawyer
 
Ehh... You're forgetting a few. I personally loved Ritchie/Hiroshi from the first league he ever participated in.

Their story arc and how they built up a friendship and rivalry for the league was one of the best non-main rival stories.

It was nice seeing him again in Johto also.
 
Note: You're also fogetting Tobias....

Even though Paul is unbeatable imo in the rival department, the best 'non-main' rivals imo is Sawyer, with Ritchie being second.
I liked to see Ash in a mentor like role, and watching Sawyer grow, to the point he becomes a serious threat to Ash's league dreams.
And @NeoMiniTails already explained Ritchie. I also liked how he didn’t want to get the win without a battle.
 
I actually consider Sawyer to be his major rival in Kalos, both in and out of the League. Ash's whole character arc in XYZ was about him feeling insecure once he noticed Sawyer caught up to him. Alain may be perceived as more important due to his participation on the overal plot of the series, but speaking strictly about the League, he was just there to defeat Ash much like Tobias.
 
I really liked Conway, since he was pretty funny to watch flirt with Dawn as well as a pretty good battler when it came to the league. Although, i have a personal bias towards loving Sinnoh
 
Mostly because it was more recent, the first name that popped up was Stephan. He had some good episode pre-league and his battle with Ash was really good.

And I agree Sawyer wasn't non-main
 
Sawyer was technically Ash's main rival imo, but I guess the writers decided that Alain would make a better win. Still, there's no doubt the battle between Sawyer and Ash at the league was really fun to watch, and Ash feeling threatened and insecure by getting overtaken by someone who used to look up to him made a good plot point for him to mature even further as a trainer.

I also see Ritchie as a main rival because even if Gary was supposed to be the main rival, he hadn't appeared much to offer competition to Ash until the Johto league.

Aside from Sawyer, I'd say Stephan or Barry.
 
Yeah i think i might have made a mistake putting Sawyer in the non-main category. Come to think of it, he was a main rival, like Ash's little brother who was constantly trying to catch up to him.

Tobias was awful. Sorry but it was the worst way to end a league. It showed a lack of creativity. I am fine with Ash losing to a strong trainer like Alain, as overpowered as his Charizard is, but losing to a guy with two legendaries is absurd. There is no way Tobias makes the list.

I did not pick Richie because, even though i like Richie as a character, i do think the battle between Ash and Richie was mediocre. I mean his butterfree defeated Ash's squirtle just by using sleep powder, Pikachu was too exhausted to battle, Charizard refused to listen. Just a poor battle overall.

Morrison and Tyson are quite underrated to me. I really liked those battles.

So i guess the pick would be between Harrison, Morrison, Tyson and maybe Conway.
 
@hhhhdmt if the question was precise in the way of battle, I wouldn't choose him at all. Since the question asked just who I viewed as the "best non-main rival," which I assume is about the character or however you take it, that's why I chose Hiroshi. It was the first time my heart had been broken by the series and by my favorite Pokemon (Charizard) because it should've been an easy win for Satoshi.
 
Yeah, I'd say that Sawyer was Ash's main rival in XY. Alain is more popular, had a bigger role in the overall storyline and kind of fits the mole of a traditional main rival than Sawyer does, but I wouldn't say that he was Ash's main rival in XY. They didn't meet for the longest time and their rivalry didn't have the same kind of impact that his rivalry with Sawyer did. Ash's focus was primarily on catching up to Sawyer near the end of the series. He was excited to battle against Alain, but he didn't make it out to be a goal like he did with Sayer. Granted, I do feel like they made him too strong too fast and they could have introduced Sawyer in the series a lot earlier given the impact he had on Ash, but I liked him and he was a better take on the rookie rival concept.

If he was still available in the list, I'd choose him, but if he isn't, that makes it a bit more difficult. I also assumed that this was based on the rival characters themselves and not just the battles they were in. That's why Tobias could still be on this list since regardless of how you feel about his battle with Ash, he was still a non-main rival at the end of the day. I guess I'll go with Morrison since I liked their friendship and I liked how Ash was able to handle a League battle against a new friend better than he did with Ritchie back in the Indigo League.
 
NeoMiniTails said:
@hhhhdmt if the question was precise in the way of battle, I wouldn't choose him at all. Since the question asked just who I viewed as the "best non-main rival," which I assume is about the character or however you take it, that's why I chose Hiroshi. It was the first time my heart had been broken by the series and by my favorite Pokemon (Charizard) because it should've been an easy win for Satoshi.
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i see where you are coming from. I quite like Richie too- and personally would like to see him again. I wasn't referring only to a battle though, i was referring to everything from the characters personality to his interaction with Ash and the battles. So it was a combination of things.

But i definetely see where you are coming from. I remember that episode when i was a kid too, and i remember being just as disappointed.
 
I tend to like funny/comical ones since their interactions weren't too serious or heavy handed. Ash has a ton of those already and it gets exhausting lol. Their individual personalities weren't 24/7 funny, but interesting because there's similarities to Ash's personality.

-Bianca
-Stephan
-Barry
-Morrison
-Conway
-Nando (he wasn't really funny or comical.. just like his personality)
 
Sawyer till now , best pokemon, best moves, good strategies.

Then Hariison and Morrison.
 
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