What's Ash's best rival

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Flaze

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Hey I making this thread to see about who wants Richiey back. After all he's Ash best Rival plus they both make a good team so I think that he should come back in the series in a new episode.

I just changed the title to what's Ash's best rival so now you can also post which rival do you think it's better.
 
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i don't mind him coming back, he did appeared in pokemon chronicles but appearing in Sinnoh with no apparent reason is pretty hard.
 
Ritchie is like, the least-likeable character in the anime. He's basically a clone of Ash that doesn't make mistakes and makes himself better then him.
 
I'd like to see him return...to get viciously assaulted with a rod shaped object. But that's just Furi.
 
I would like to see Ash beat him though.

Ever since the Indigo league, I always wanted to see Ash kick his ass.

It would be amusing if he used Charizard to do so, because Charizard not obeying Ash is the reason he lost to Richie in the first place.
 
elleryferrer said:
yeah actually that's one of my two reasons the other one is that I wanna see Richie's charizard.
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Ash's Charizard is a way better character though. Most of Ritchie's Pokémon were also direct copies of Ash's.

Except for Pupatiar.
 
*wind blows*

I think you may be the only person who wants to see Hiroshi again.

Honestly, he was so dull no one would notice if he died.
 
I wouldn't mind having Richie back in the show. I thought he was adorable.

Although if the show were more better written and mature, I could see Richie being a deeper character. A lot of people you'll meet in real life who seem like you only better can have serious problems inside.

But since Pokemon is a kodomo series (no shounen or shoujo), they don't get that deep.

can't u refer to there english name
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Bulbagarden is more Japanese oriented than most forums you probably go to so just learn the names and it'll save you trouble.
 
I know Pokémon fandom in general tends to have a lot of disdain towards Ritchie, and this thread displays it as such. But of course, it's a matter of opinion, so I'm not trying to denounce or jeer anyone by that. That's not something that would ring of a sulking mood piece to me (if that doesn't sound excessively hyperbolic), just pointing.

That aside, I don't think Ritchie is an Ash clone at all. Just because he's similar in appearance and captures the same Pokémon does not make him a carbon copy. You'd have to peer a tad deeper than that. They're both based on the character Red from the games, to my recollection, but that doesn't make them the same on every front. Ritchie is more fearful, reserved, modest, observant, premeditating, and wary, whereas Ash is very single-minded, determined, tenacious, intuitive, passionate, and hyper-focused. But none of them are easily discouraged - both have very warm, fervent hearts and are compassionate by nature. And both are good Pokémon trainers. None of those qualities are worthy of repulsion to me - they're all admirable in their own merits. Ritchie is very respectful and mature for his age (that is, if you still see him as a 10 year old - I don't because I see no cohesion in the "characters don't age" theory, but that's for another thread of discussion, and I don't want to flare up an argument of sorts), and respect is not a singular thing. At the very least he's not the pompous kind of jerk who has to outwardly exhibit his pride to satisfy said pride (that's not to lament characters like Gary for that, as he's based on the character Blue from the games so that arrogance is in nature for him). Ritchie's not a jerk at all. He's one of the very fulcrums by which Ash learned and matured (with Ash's defeat at the Indigo league, for he obviously didn't properly train his Charizard), and I see that as a good thing.

Nor is Ritchie whiny and bratty, which many people have hated Max for (but hey, Max was 7 or 8 in my recollection when he was introduced to the series, so... and Ash was generally impulsive and whiny as he first started upon his journey as a 10 year old, but I'm not going to castigate him for that as he grows well into his more mature character because of such). He (Ritchie) does sort of lack that vigor and unique, distinguished, commanding spark that Ash has, but that doesn't make him (Ritchie) dull to me. It just means he's one of the more reserved and kind characters. But to answer the thread directly - yes, I wouldn't mind seeing him return.

EDIT: As for the best rival, while as aforementioned, I'm not of the view that Ritchie is a bad character I'd have to give that moniker to Gary. His cockiness in relation to Ash's impulsiveness was a great and amusing dynamic and though Ash didn't openly admit to it he did appreciate Gary and the new plateaus Gary gave him to reach when Ash thought he was ahead (even though Ash seemed more annoyed than frustrated in my eyes), which was a platform for further appreciation. Ash's limpid expression and reactions were priceless as well, and none of the rivals feel as fresh or original to me since. It's not that I find Morrison particularly repugnant, but I'm not a fan of him and Harrison nor Tyson don't bring just as interesting or new characterizations out of Ash (but that could be because Ash has matured greatly). And Paul doesn't feel that novel either. IMO.
 
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that was deep man and I agreed with you I mean thanks to Ash's lost to Richie he has grew up I man sure Ash is still impulsive but his more mature and if he hadn't been for Richie he still be as impulsive as before .

That's another good reason for him to come back plust he's also like Ash's brother well older brother at least.
 
I wouldn't mind seeing Ritchie again (or at least seeing him getting a small cameo). I never really understood why so many people hated his character so much, I know he was a copy of Ash, but I liked that it allowed us to see what could have happened to Ash if he chose to evolve his pokemon or didn't release some of them.

I don't care if Ritchie returns or not, but it would be at least a bit fun to see him again.
 
Richie was back in the day when the writers couldn't figure out how to write a unique end-of-league rival.

If you think about it, the new league rivals have gotten slightly more interesting with each league.

We went from Richie, to Harrisson, to Morrisson and Tyson. Each one had a bit more personality than the last.

Granted all of these rivals are dull compared to Gary and Paul, but I guess the writers want Ash to face some new guy at the end of every competition.
 
I don't exactly hate Richie, but there is something that always pissed me off concerning him.

Now, the idea of Ash vs. Richie was genius. Ash losing in the league because Charizard doesn't listen to him? And against a more mature version of him who has a better idea of what he's doing? Brilliant! The Electric Tale of Pikachu pulled this off really well, especially since in that version Richie actually had a Charizard that listend to him instead of just a Charmander.

(It's also awesome because instead of Charizard just napping because it considered Sparky a pipsqueak, it went ferociously out of control and actually tried to kill Richie's Charizard, even chomping into its neck and causing it to bleed profusely! Of course if the anime had done this it would have been a G-rated version of that, but it would still be cool.)

Where the anime slips up is the match itself and the events before that. Team Rocket kidnapping and then chasing Ash, making him several hours late for a league match is actually a clever idea on its own. But there were multiple problems with the way it played out. A huge one being that it absolutely exhausted half of his Pokémon, with Squirtle filling an entire truck with water, Pidgeotto collapsing before the match even started, and Pikachu being visibly tired and ready to faint during the battle. Ash was at a huge disadvantage here, with half his team either not up to par or not even able to battle! If it weren't for that, Ash very well could have won that battle.

To add salt to the wound, the battle itself was stupidly short and unexciting, even as far as Kanto goes. Hell, I'd even call it the worse battle in the entire series. And Ash and Richie saying "it's the best battle ever!" every five seconds did not help matters. At all.

Like I said, Ash's inability to control Charizard being the reason he lost the league was pretty clever. The rest of that ordeal was freakin' awful. Which is why I can never look at Richie and not get slightly miffed. :3

Also, like others have said, Richie really needs to return for Ash to beat him. But with a good battle this time.

Off-topic slightly: as I was thinking about it... if Ash didn't have such a narrow selection and wasn't pretty much forced to pick Charizard, he probably had a 50/50 chance of beating Richie. Meaning he would have gotten into the Top 8. The same score he had for Johto and Hoenn. Now obviously he has improved signifigantly as a trainer since Kanto, but the fact that he could have had a good shot at making the same place he got at Hoenn is... slightly disturbing. o.o Ash really really really needs to do super-duper well in the Sinnoh league.
 
I can't recall exactly, but why didn't Ash just use Kingler or Muk in the Richie battle?

Pikachu and Squirtle got KO'd in the match, Pidgeotto was too tired...what happened to Bulbasaur? I don't remember.

Instead of using Charizard he might have stood a chance with Muk or Kingler.
 
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