Do you find Bianca/Bel to be an interesting rival?

[Hellion]

Since we have a similar thread for Shooti, I thought it would be good to have a place to discuss what you like or dislike about Bel both as a rival and as a character. So, fire away!

For the most part, I feel that Bel brings a lot to the Best Wishes series. She's incredibly likeable and compelling, from the way she cares about her pokémon to the way she's always amazed by the things she sees and experiences in her travels. I also liked the way she seemed to want to get stronger after her last appearance and strived to become a better and more dedicated trainer. She's really someone that I always want to see more of and a character who's always easy to root for. It doesn't hurt that she's also incredibly entertaining and brings instant chemistry with Satoshi and Dento. The three of them really feel like a trio of really good friends and she just really works well with both guys.

I'd like to see her be more of a threat as a trainer, though after her last appearance, I don't doubt it will happen.

I'd rather have Koharu return then more Bianca, because Bianca is boring, poorly written, unintelligent, and keeps Ash's Tepig from evolving twice, and Koharu was interesting, had a believable signature Pokémon, has a real rivalry potential with Ash over Scraggy, Uses interesting move sets, is not a dumb blonde, and is not a game character.

So wait, Bianca is poorly written because... she hasn't won a battle against Satoshi? Neither has Koharu. I disagree that she's unintelligent since she was shown to be pretty ressourceful in trying to capture Chillarmy, but she's rash and sometimes a bit ditzy, but I fail to see how being a slave to your childish pokémon is a sign of belonging to Mensa. Satoshi's Pokabu not evolving has nothing to do with Bel's Chaobu since the writers have time and time again evolved pokémon that Satoshi shared with his rivals (Jun owning a Mukuhawk, Shinji's Dodaitose not hampering Naetle's evolution, etc.) How are Chaobu and Chillarmy any more or less believable than Gothimu? Besides the game character aspect, all the "flaws" you found in Bel (which some aren't factually backed by the animé) are also present in Koharu, except she displays not of Bel's good points.

I'm sorry but Bel has the storyline, she had to get over her father's judgement, and now she's really trying to show her worth as a trainer by actively training her pokémon. I fail to see how that makes her boring, especially when she's highly energetic and provides great comedy.

 

[Bandit Keith]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

She's boring because she's a female Barry, who was boring too, and they were both game characters, which the anime needs less of.

I never said Koharu was intelligent, and this is not DP. The writers are cheap ones hired from the Japanese D-list because last season's writers wanted a pay raise, and did not comply enough with TCPI's goal of advertising the games, so, in order to save money/sell games to 8-10 year olds, not repeat customers out of the demographic, they hired writing whores who are not concerned with writing a good story, only with making money. And that leads to BW's admittedly low standards, Bianca and starter non-evolution included, so Nintendo can spam Pikachu(the old standard), Oshawott(treated like the new Piplup) and Tepig and Snivy(only there for marketing/Kanto feel) without having to evolve them so they can make as much money off their cuteness as possible. They don't care about anyone older than ten, teenagers and up aren't targeted, our "best wishes" don't matter. They will not evolve Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott, nor make Bianca get shot, not even show Team Plasma or Ground Type-moves stronger than Dig, brcause they arent PC or profitable.

So, Bianca is a crap character because of her symbolic state of being the token in-game character rival meant to sell games to little boys. I hate the current writers, and wish TCPI had just paid the DP writers more so we'd have less Barrys and more Paul/Trips.



P.S. I feel sorry for female fans, due to the marketing dept.'s lack of concern for them.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Personally, I don't really like Bianca that much. She doesn't seem that interesting or likable, which is a shame since I really enjoyed her in the video games. Even in her first appearance, I thought she was too annoying and ditzy for my tastes. I didn't think she used much tactic to catch Minccino considering that Ash basically did all of the work for her and the only reason she ended up catching it was because of its obsessive cleaning habit. The storyline she had in the game is part of the reason why she was a compelling character, as was her desire to try out everything, but I think that the anime doesn't really capture that. They've mentioned those aspects of the storyline before, but they're clearly are putting more effort with making her a comedy relief character, which feels pretty forced considering she wasn't used like that in the games and she's not that funny most of the time, instead of doing more with her character. Though, I wish that they kept Bianca as how she was during that Fishing Contest episode. She wasn't too annoying and she felt more fun to me, which might be from how they toned her comedic role down a bit compared to how she usually is.

Unfortunately, the Club Battle arc really ruined what enjoyment I did get from her character. They cracked up her comedic behavior up to eleven, they spent way too much time on that Zorua gag and being willing to trade away her starter Pokemon for a cute Pokemon, being obsessed with following Zorua to the point of becoming a creepy stalker and still trying to convince Zorua to come with her despite Luke's refusal to trade it away just made her look like a terribly annoying character, almost beyond repair. Though, I should note that I follow the dub for the most part, so I don't know if she would change for the better later on. I wouldn't mind that, but after that Club Battle arc, the chances of me liking Bianca aren't that great. I can see the appeal in her character that other people like and even with my annoyance for her, she is better than Trip, but I greatly prefer Bianca from the video games over this character who is basically a female Barry, except only much more annoying and much less funny.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

The writers are cheap ones hired from the Japanese D-list because last season's writers wanted a pay raise, and did not comply enough with TCPI's goal of advertising the games, so, in order to save money/sell games to 8-10 year olds, not repeat customers out of the demographic, they hired writing whores who are not concerned with writing a good story, only with making money.

That is just not factual. Do you research and check your facts. The overwhelming majority, if not all, of BW episodes have been written by people who have been writing for the show since the original series. The writing staff is the same it was in DP.

So, Bianca is a crap character because of her symbolic state of being the token in-game character rival meant to sell games to little boys.

Just because Bianca is a game character doesn't mean that her personality in the animé is the same as that of the games.Most of the BW game characters that have crossed over in the animé have had slight changes to their personalities and have been established as independent characters from their game counterparts. Bianca in the animé is much more energetic and frantic than in the games, she is also much more rash and headstrong than in the games, often rushing into action whereas her game counterpart was much more indecisive. Her storyline in the game was to move away from being a trainer while her animé persona is getting more and more dedicated to being a trainer.

They're two different characters that should be judged based on their individual merits rather than be dismissed simply on the grounds of not being exclusive to one medium in the franchise.

Unfortunately, the Club Battle arc really ruined what enjoyment I did get from her character. They cracked up her comedic behavior up to eleven, they spent way too much time on that Zorua gag and being willing to trade away her starter Pokemon for a cute Pokemon, being obsessed with following Zorua to the point of becoming a creepy stalker and still trying to convince Zorua to come with her despite Luke's refusal to trade it away just made her look like a terribly annoying character, almost beyond repair.

I feel more or less the same way. I was peeved that they dumbed her down for the Tag Battle Tournament, though her later change in attitude after confronting her father (even though that episode could have been handled better) and stating a desire to focus on getting stronger and train to me makes it worth it. I kinda feel that she had to start there, suffer a huge loss and be confronted with the threat of not traveling anymore to really make her understand that she needed to care more for her Pokémon and train herself to get stronger, that she couldn't always rely on others or gut instinct.

 

[Almonds]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

I like her because she was in the games. Plus, she's cute. I like her wildish character XDD She's better than Trip cuz Trip is just a poorly ripped-off Paul, while Bel has her own counterpart in the games

 

[Cybersai]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

I think some people might see Bianca as a negative female stereotype. And overactive blonde female ditz? A girl who can't find a pokeball in her purse? A girl who loses every on-screen battle? A girl who has to rely on Ash to battler her father?

I guess the difference is Bianca shows very little hope of improving. This isn't like the beginning of May and Dawn's journey, where they learned the basics and started improving step by step with each passing ep.

 

[Shinneth]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Bianca's definitely an interesting rival in my eyes, has the potential to be the most interesting (right now I'm on the fence depending on what the writers decide to do with her from here), and in her own right is a likable character that has traits and flaws that people can actually relate to.

I do think it was a mistake to make her primarily comedy relief, as her threat factor versus Ash is virtually zilch, but that seems to be the trend with BW rivals. The more interesting the rival is, the less of a threat they are. Goes without saying the reverse is true, which is why Trip is the main rival and by far the least interesting. While I'm lukewarm towards the likes of Luke and Stephan (well, without the stupid name gag), they're fucking amazing compared to Trip, which strengthens my view on how the most interesting rivals are the ones in the wrong roles (i.e. low-threat rivals). Bianca and Burgundy are at the top of the list for me, with Georgia up there too, but the first two have a zero on-screen win record and I sense Georgia will end up with Ursula Syndrome down the road.

Anyway, back to Bianca. I'm glad they're incorporating parts of her game backstory into the series, but so far it seems to produce mixed results, the bad part being that it makes Bianca look like even less of a threat. The Don Battle really did its best to drag her down and make her unlikable, but I didn't buy it. So long as the Zorua shit is never brought up in the series again (meaning Bianca and Luke need to stay FAR FAR away from each other), I'm willing to mark off Bianca's Don Battle mishaps as the writers being drunk (or having a hangover).

I really, really would like to see Bianca make a monster comeback, much like how she did in the games, and suddenly become an uber-threat. I feel that's probably not going to happen and they'll keep her in a permanent comedic role where she does nothing but lose, with the only saving grace possibly being her adapted game storyline coming into play, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

So yeah. Bianca's way beyond interesting, but for all the potential she bears, the writers are mishandling her and dropping her like a fine china dish more often than not. I think that's part of why I think she should've taken Iris' role as token chick, really. Otherwise, I feel like we'll never really see justice done to her character, which is a shame when they produced so much potential from her when she was introduced. It's one of those things that really grinds my gears about this series.

 

[Lillie]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Yeah, I find Bianca to be an interesting rival. She is a comedic relief character and she really reminds me of Barry.

 

[Aestivate]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Oof, I'm a bit split on this one. While I do like anime!Bel, I am not nearly as sold on this incarnation of her as I was with her game counterpart. For one thing she is inherently way more selfish and hyperactive - and while this is mostly played for comedy this is a bit jarring compared to the sweet Bel in the games that was just trying to find her niche in the world while helping people along the way. While I do appreciate the some of her game counterpart's backstory into her character, I think it's being done shoddily.

Do I think she has potential? Yes, yes I absolutely do. Do I think she is being competently written? For the most part, yes, but the fact that she is written completely into the joke rival role for the moment is very off-putting. At least it's consistent which is more I can say for other characters, but the fact that there is positively no tension between her and Satoshi other than ~friendship~ that it's pretty clear that she won't ever be a threat. I really want to see more of game!Bel in anime!Bel and I want to see her actually succeed, but... I'm not waiting for it because I don't expect it. Which is a shame, because I'm sure a good marriage between game!Bel and anime!Bel can be found, but considering the history with game plots being adapted into the anime... But well. You know.


So... tl;dr, as a character I find her interesting (endearing, cute, funny), as a rival... No. I just wish she were handled better, because I really want to root for her but the approaches being taken to her character are just making me feel lukewarm.


and jun was way better okay

 

[Cybersai]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Bianca is funny character wise, but rival wise she fits the writers stereotypes of there being very few female battlers in the show, and even less that are actually good.

Bianca could go the way of Casey at the end and fail to make it to the league. Then what does that imply?

 

[Ishida]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

No she's not... I find her annoying rival if anything she's selfish and obnoxious.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

No she's not... I find her annoying rival if anything she's selfish and obnoxious.

I don't see guess my radar being block out by another character. She's too dumb to be bad if I can recall.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Bel, um...er... She's actually a pretty nice girl and decent and all but, she does get annoying. Zorua crap, Not giving a fuck about the Don Tourney, offering to trade Charbu the Pokemon the swept two gyms for her away, dumb ditzy blond, cute Pokemon obsession, her constantly stalking Zorua and Emonga. I defiantly like her character, but if the writers just went the extra mile and made her less annoying and a bit more competent I say she does have the potential to be an exceptional rival, unfortunately I think she's at the point of no return.

Koharu, she ended up being so much fun for sure. She wasn't a brat, she wasn't a dumb idiot, she was good at getting Satoshi riled up and stuff and getting him to battle her, she had skill and must be strong to have a Pokemon with Brave Bird. Seriously, Koharu would have made an excelentè female rival for Satoshi. I'm pretty sure I would enjoy her much more then Bel. You can tell she only really wanted to make her Pokemon happy. She did a good job, of bringing some much needed tension and rage out of Satoshi and went so far.

 

[Bouffalant Herdier]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Yes, I definitely find her interesting. Out of all the Unova rivals, Bianca is my favourite, and she's one of the best parts of BW. Personality-wise, she blows boring Trip out of the water, and as much as I love the nastiness of Georgia and Burgundy, it's always good to have a nicer rival for Ash who isn't afraid to interact with the main group. I can see why her hyperactive personality could get on people's nerves, but you can't deny she's enthusiastic, unlike two other characters I could mention, and she just brightens up the show whenever she's around.

I only hope they don't use her for comic relief and nothing else, because there's a lot of potential in her story. Despite her inferiority complex, she's clearly not a terrible trainer at all. She hasn't had any onscreen victories yet, sure, but she has already defeated a few Unova Gym Leaders. Hopefully, her current role as an even bigger punching bag than Ash is leading somewhere, and she makes an amazing comeback. If the games are any indication, she eventually won all eight badges, so I still have faith.

But while she is indeed an interesting rival, she would make an even more interesting main character. I wish we could watch her entire journey through Unova.

 

[Caseydia]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Are we serious? Are we going to do this with Bel now too? I don't want to tarnish the poor girl so I'm going to say yes and just be on my merry way.

 

[Yankees4life]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

If you need a few laughs, she'll give you it, but that's about it. She's not that interesting, some what to say, she is the female Barry has others said before me, so whatever...

 

[BugMite]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

As a character? Oh yeah.
As a rival? Meh.

She's certainly a great character but just not really much of a great rival -if only because she was never intended to be treated like a "real" rival. Which is exactly why I don't focus on her rivalry with Ash and instead just focus on her personality and storyline (if she still has one).

All the same I do hope she gets better at battles, and I think that could a good plotline if done correctly.

 

[Catzeye]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

As a character? Oh yeah.
As a rival? Meh.

This. Bel/Bianca is has an interesting personality that can be pretty humorous as long as the writers don't go overboard with it (Zorua gag I'm looking at you). I'm glad the writers incorporated her dad into the story line to give her a bit of character development.

Her status as the joke rival really annoys the crap out of me. For someone who is Ash's first female rival being treated like this pisses me off to no end. They make her out to be a pretty pathetic battler. Even though in-game she isn't really challenging at least she wasn't horrific.

 

[DarkLordKitten]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Not really because she is tends to be annoying at times and being Satoshi's first female rival, I whould like someone with more spunk and push Satoshi to get better as a trainer similar to how Shinji did but in her own unique way

 

[Blue1225]

Re: Do you find Bel to be an interesting rival?

Her overall characterization in BW isn't resonating with me like her story line in the games did.