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Rival Naming Through the Generations

Drakon

Drakon

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I have to wonder why Nintendo is moving away from being able to name your rivals.

Is it because they're trying to tie the anime and game together? Or did they do it to put a stop to people naming their rivals obscenities? Even though the people doing so are probably a minority of players.
 
If by "obscenities" you mean cuss words, that's been taken of with the filters they've implemented. But if you mean just general rude things like "Stinkbreath" and what have you, I think there's a higher number doing that than you'd think. In rival introduction scenes, you're mostly just told "this person thinks they're better than you and likes to compete against you-now, choose what everyone will call them". Children, teens, and adults alike are probably gonna give them a mean name (especially when there's not much else known about their personality) and snicker about it for the rest of the game. (Because, honestly, it is pretty hilarious to fight Champion Douche)
 
It may have to do with character identity, if a character has a proper and objetive name it will be easier for him/her to reappear in future games without the player breaking their inmersion. Of course, there is Blue and Red, but they have had names since Gen 2.

However, something tells me it could come back in the future, if they are playing with nostalgia.
 
They're not trying to tie the anime in with the games. YES, I know they like to add a slight nod to the anime in here and there, but keeping both separate has and always will be the best course of action. There are people who like the anime don't necessarily like the games and there are those who like the games that deplore the anime.

I imagine the inability to name your rival has more to do with their immersion and inclusion in the overall story. Long gone are the days when they were around sporadically to offer a quick battle and smart quip. Now, your rival seems to be found much more frequently, and plays a bigger role in the story, almost acting as a companion. It's definitely a feature I care very little about.
 
It might just depend on what they want your rival to do. Gen VI had a heck load of rivals so it kind of made sense not to in them. Hau was a Hawaiian name. I can’t explain gladion unless there was some special reasoning for his name. But hopefully it’s just a matter of the name. Kanto and Johto let you name your rival. Hoenn made sense as to why naming might be a bit strange. Sinnoh allowed it, unova 1 had many rivals and unova 2 you could. It’s been pretty varied over the years. It’s just the first time we’ve had prenamed rivals for so many games in a row.
 
I almost always name them their canon name anyways, I like playing Pokémon games for the storyline and RPG factor. When I was a kid I used to name them after my real life friends that played Pokémon because they were quite literally my rivals.

Currently in Crystal my rival is Silver. When I played through Yellow I was mirroring Red’s exact team anyways so I named my PC Red and the rival Blue. My friend on the other hand named his rival in Crystal “sum dik”.
 
I usually would make them after someone who was almost like my literal rival. I named my rival in FR after my brother, and then the others have been a few of my close friends that I used to play Pokémon with. Now, it usually stays the default (not like any recent games give the choice anymore). Sometimes I also like to be creative. One nuzlocke of FR I did, my character was named Violet and my rival was named... uh, I don’t remember, to be honest, but it was some ugly color... anyway, most recent one, I named myself Flip in my VC red file, and rival was Flop.
 
Personally, I never was a fan of naming rivals, so I don't mind Nintendo moving away from this one bit. But, yeah, if I were to put some thought, I think it would have been done to prevent players from giving questionable names to their rivals, and possibly making the rival development less interesting.
 
I miss naming rivals. Granted, I usually just went with their canon names. But it was still fun having the option, especially if I disliked a character enough to give them insulting names..

Midorikawa said:
I can’t explain gladion unless there was some special reasoning for his name.
Click to expand...
Probably has to do with his name coming from "gladiolus ," and it serves as a connection to Lillie. Game Freak do love putting meaning in names, and probably thought they were being clever in foreshadowing his relationship to Lillie.
 
I don't really care if I can name my rivals or not as I always tend to name them their canon names (Green, Silver, Pest "Barry", Hugh), though moving away from that is likely because they've become actual characters involved in the story instead of guy who mostly shows up from off screen to surprise wipe your Nuzlocke run if you're playing blind or just can't remember everything in the game.

Though there are times where I feel spiteful and wish I could name all of them whatever I want based on how they make me feel about them in game. If I could name them anything besides their real name when the whim strikes me it'd be (they'd have edits to fit character limit of course):

Green: Jerkhole (self explanatory.)
Silver: Silver (I like him he keeps that name)
Brendan: That Guy ("oh right, he's my rival who's not the bean...")
Wally: Lil Bean (He is an adorable bean who must be protected dangit)
Pest: Pest (oh great its this guy again, lets be impatient/say you'll fine me a million pokebucks again. haha you are my least favorite rival.)
Cheren: NERRRRRD (I love ya Cheren by bah god yer a wee dork)
Bianca: Bianca (my first female rival since I always play as a girl. I like her. A shame she didn't get to be the strong rival. Gonna kick her dad in the nads.)
Hugh: Hugh (may change in the future... I haven't.. actually gotten to the game he's in yet.)
Calem: Mop (son you really need to put on a hat your hair looks awful without it.)
Shauna: Girl (Because that's what she is in the group. The girl. ♪ You can tell because she's the cute one and wants to nickname you a cute thing like lil [letter] and gets all kawaii snuggles about fireworks *sprays with water bottle* you are almost as bad as Pest. ♪ Music note to emphasize the cute girl. ♪)
Tierno: DISCO (Dance bro dance!)
Trevor: Izzy (you are pokemon's version of Izzy from Digimon, Trevor. Prodigious!)
Hau: Malasada (self explanatory.)
Gladion: Thorn/Edge (SHARP, EDGY, BROOD! Precious edge bean.)
 
I miss this feature! Reminds me of a time when my Pokémon playthroughs weren't dominated by cutscenes of people I'm forced to believe I am best friends with all of a sudden. I'm here for the Pokémon dammit, not YOU, HAU. I care not for your journey!

In older games, I have always (and will continue to do so) named my rival Steve. This is because the person who introduced me to Pokémon so many years ago was one of my best friends, Stephen - it's my little ongoing homage to him for making me aware of the wonderful world of Pokémon. His love for it sort of faded after GSC whereas mine been very consistent (albeit with a slight lull around RSE time, coming back with a vengeance around BW). I'm quietly confident that he'll be buying the Switch game though.
 
Midorikawa said:
I can’t explain gladion unless there was some special reasoning for his name. But hopefully it’s just a matter of the name.
Click to expand...

Gladiolus flower means "strong willed", "faithfulness", "sincerity" and "never giving up" as far as I remember.
--

On topic now, I think the lack of rival naming is something related to the narrative line Pokémon is trying. Giving important trainers distinctive names also helps when talking as the character as a whole — there's a big difference between "hey, I like Hau" and "hey, I like this random name rival".
 
Yeah but that hasn't been a problem as a of yet really, all the nameable rivals have names that everyone knows who you're talking about pretty much. Green/Blue (in Japan/US at least), Silver, Barry. Heck even the protagonists have accepted names.
 
It's not really made clear what their canon names are in-game, though. If you're not watching the anime, there's no in-game indication that any one name is more canon than others. (excluding, of course, looking on fan pages to see what terms fans are using) And if I'm mistaken, it's still not decided whether Barry's canon name is Barry or Pearl.

The protagonists generally only have accepted names because they've appeared in games where they weren't named. Red obviously has all of his appearances, and in nearly every game, the player character not chosen will be seen as an NPC with their own name. Even with this, there's still a few protagonists without agreed names. Leaf's name is currently a subject of debate ( Leaf (game) - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia ), and Sun and Moon have multiple alternate names that talk pages on their articles are still debating. ( Sun (game) - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia Moon (game) - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia )
 
PinkIceFox said:
Yeah but that hasn't been a problem as a of yet really, all the nameable rivals have names that everyone knows who you're talking about pretty much. Green/Blue (in Japan/US at least), Silver, Barry. Heck even the protagonists have accepted names.
Click to expand...

What I wanted to say is that by official naming the rival character you give them (its name) some meaning, something it is lost if you let people do it. Hau is called Hau because of the Hawaiian flower, so he stands out.

I don't know how to put this, actually :/
 
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