Who is the Best and Worst Rival

[Pokeplayer150]

Oddly enough, there hasn't been a single post on this subject despite the popularity of it elsewhere. So, I'll be doing that now: Who do you think are the best and worst rivals in Pokemon? Here are my thoughts:

Best: Cheren/Hugh. These two share a spot because I think they're both some of the most well-written rivals in Pokemon to date. Unlike most other rivals, who almost always think of themselves as above you or won't admit your prowess, these two instead hold a lot of respect towards you and one even looks up to you on occasion, which I feel is a breath of fresh air from what we've had in the past. Another difference between them and other rivals that I really like is that they both have goals beyond trying to be better than you. Not to mention they're much better at being friends than the one on the chopping block.

Worst: Barry. This is kind of biased considering 4th Gen were the only games I've played before giving away my DS (one of the worst mistakes I've ever made). But compared to what I've heard about other rivals, Barry definitely sticks out as the worst in my mind. Now, to be fair, he does have a good team, his father's a Frontier Brain which is pretty interesting, and does play a major role in the story, but those are the only things I can commend him for. He's incredibly annoying, a complete idiot, a total hypocrite, gratingly arrogant, can't be taken seriously, hardly does anything noteworthy, rubs everything in your face, goes through a sorry amount of development, and, worst of all, he's supposed to be your friend. Then again, there's a worse reason: he feels like an almost exact copy of Blue only he lacks everything that made him a memorable and good rival (at least in my opinion) and hardly does his job well because he's less of a competitor or friend and more of a pest. In all honesty, if I weren't shown otherwise, I would never have believed he was your main rival, let alone that people actually like him. See, this is part of the reason why I don't want him to return to the role in a remake.

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

For me, the best is a tie between Blue and Cheren. Those two actually felt like rivals, with their similar goals of becoming the strongest and the best. If I had to choose the best, I'd probably go with Cheren. I don't know how it is in the Japanese version as I hear Blue was a lot more polite (by the way, if I'm wrong about this, know I got this from second-hand information), but what we got in the English version was a cocky, self-centered jerk who used to be your childhood friend yet acted like a bully throughout the entire game. Cheren seemed a lot more mature and respectful, yet he had that edge that made him a great rival. He's a great character and one of the reasons why Black and White was so memorable to me. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was his dialogue about getting stronger. It was a tad annoying and it wouldn't have bothered me so much if they kept it to a minimum, but they had to make it such a huge focal point to his character that they had him bring it up everytime you meet with him. Other than that, I like him.

The worst is not really the worst, but I chose Hugh only because I really don't remember too much about him. I didn't find him to be a memorable character. The only thing I remember him doing and I thought was great was him helping his younger sister get her stolen Purrloin back. That makes him a sweet character, yes, but I can't for the life of me remember if he was cocky, calm, energetic... Now if you want a character who I thought was the worst and I do unfortunately remember (yet I didn't pick him in the poll), I'd easily go with Barry. I am not a fan of his character, and I think the anime made it even worse by having him be a Paul fanboy. While he wasn't a cruel character, he just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe him being a hyperactive kid who continuously fines you as a joke got old really fast. It stopped being funny the second time and the third time was just grating. I don't know, but what I do know is that out of the bunch of characters displayed on this poll, he is my least favorite as a character and a rival. The only thing I liked about him was his theme music.

 

[cityvillain]

Best: Gary/Blue - This guy knows how to aggravate and taunt at you. He's basically always one step ahead of you.

Worst: All those filler no personality "rivals" in X/Y. GameFreak didn't even tried or care enough to make these guys appear as if they are relevant.

 

[Pinball Wizard]

Blue is the first and the best. Utterly despicable, yet fun at the same time. The way he calls Professor Oak "Gramps" just kills me. Kid's got no respect, so it's always satisfying to knock him down.

The worst would have to be, for me, Trevor from Gen VI. The guy drove me up the wall. Something about him just seemed unbearable to me. The way he kept on saying "to put it another way..." only to say the same thing he said before drove me crazy. The other rivals in that game were okay, but Trevor was a waste of my time.

 

[Almonds]

Best: Hugh. He's the first rival to be canonically older than the player character, and unlike the other rivals, he already had a pokemon he hatched and raised from an egg - in other words, a 'senpai' character. Hugh wants us to get stronger as a trainer and is proud to watch our growth. He requested our help whenever fighting against Team Plasma. He willingly became our sparring partner in Victory Road. The battle was for our practice, not for himself. I guess Hugh was more a best friend than an actual rival, but in terms of story, he left the best impression on me.

Worst: XY rivals. Serena was okay (I played as male), but I barely remember what she did... ._. The others were more travelling companions.

 

[Team Gaara]

Best - A tie between Barry and Blue. Both were amazing rivals. Barry was hilarious and original, yet still managed to maintain that essence of a rival that you wanted to defeat. I liked his hyperactivity, his attitude, his personality, and how he developed as the game went on to becoming a bit more mature and reliable as a friend and rival when it mattered. I was just so happy every time I encountered him in-game because I just knew something funny was bound to happen. He was just great to me.

Blue is the best for being the nice traditional rival: an asshole who's all talk, yet still talks enough sh*t about you that you just want to beat his ass. He actually serves the role of a true rival. Even though he never beats you, he's still always that one step ahead; always at the place you're going before you get there and beaten the task at hand. You just constantly are trying to catch up an he, most of all, becomes Champion. That final battle with him for the title of Champion, epitomizing your entire journey, makes him tied with Barry for best rival.

Worst - A three-way tie between all of the Unova rivals: Cheren, Bianca, and Hugh, in order of least disgusting to absolutely atrocious. Cheren wasn't as bad as the latter two, yet he was still pretty bad for me. He was incredibly bland and boring. All he did was want to become the Champion (seemingly "just because" with no real insight as to why) and seemed to go about it in the rudest way possible. This man decided it was a good idea to disrespect Alder for no real reason at all and is a major smartass to Juniper in the first 10 minutes of the game. There's just nothing I really enjoy about Cheren whenever he's around. He's just so robotic and dull in his actions, being a smartass whenever he can, it just leads me to dislike him. It's like he's that "Teacher's Pet" or that "Perfect Kid" kinda guy that you just don't like because they act like they're so much above everyone else. I'd much rather be called a scrub by Blue or Silver that just beat them by luck before curbstomping Cheren and just hearing him complain and whine about some "Why can't I beat you? What am I doing wrong?"

Then there's Bianca. First and foremost, she's an idiot, and I really have no tolerance for dumbasses. She's also not even much of a rival, in general. She's hardly what I consider a "trainer" seeing as she's just running around not having any idea what she even wants to do and with a bare minimum of knowledge about Pokemon themselves, that an in-game Preschooler could tell you. With no goal in mind, it just feels like she's kinda just there for no reason and they could have used the unnecessary time she spent on screen giving characterization to Cheren, in my opinion. Her character is just so stupid and pointless and she never really changes in her journey, at least not until BW2 when she's a tad more bearable since she actually decides to accomplish something for the first time ever.

Hugh is downright the worst. He's a complete douchebag who only cares about himself and doesn't give two sh*ts about you, the player. It's all about his lazy ass and his damn cat that for some reason I have to back him up for every time. He even straight out tells you after you beat the eight Gyms that Team Plasma comes first (as in, before the Pokemon League). How the f*ck is this guy gonna tell me that I have to help him before I continue on my journey? And does Hugh ever thank you for all this fighting you do in his stead (since all he ever seems to do is scream about his rage and run off without fighting jacksh*t)? Just barely at the end. Speaking of which, Hugh is also, laughable as a rival. You battle with him more than against him, and the few battles against him only serve as tests to see how strong you are so he can count on you later to get his stupid cat back. Yes, he only wants to see how strong you are so he can continue making you do all the work for him. Hugh is so damn unlikable for me, that it's actually made me have no desire to ever replay BW2, as pathetic as that sounds. I just hate having to deal with his crap and the very thought of this game forcing me to be bossed around by this man again pisses me off to the end.

No offense if you see something in these "rivals" that perhaps I'm missing somehow, but I just find them completely intolerable.

 

[Sakuraa]

I think Blue and Silver the best. They're jerks who doubt your strength and think they're the most powerful trainers in the world for whatever reason. I can take these guys seriously as they make you want to beat them. Then you get the sweet satisfaction of knocking them down several pegs and showing them how they're all bark and no bite. I think this was best done with Blue who you defeat for the title of Champion.

Bianca is the worst of the worst since she's barely a rival. I surely can't regard her as one at least not on par with the others. She knew she was a weak, crappy trainer, stating it several times, and seemed to make no efforts to get stronger. Hell, I had to rescue her stolen Pokemon for her. That immediately turned me off of her as I can't stand weak characters. She didn't even know what she wanted to do with her life for most of BW and spent her journey thinking about it, which makes me wonder why she even bothered to go on a Pokemon journey in the first place. Then she just gives up being a trainer, which is even more annoying considering the fact that she begged her dad to let her stay on it in the middle of the game. So yeah, I don't take this girl seriously for a second, nor to I find her remotely likable.

 

[Osprey]

Best: Blue. Okay, it's a mainstream opinion, but this guy was the first rival I ever had to fight, and I have some pretty strong memories about beating him down at the Pokemon League for the first time. He plays the role of a gadfly the right way, irritating the player, giving them a motive, and making it THAT much more satisfying when you CRUSH him in battle. I still wish that the more recent rivals had a bit of that in them; most of them are more like friendly sparring partners than anything, with the exception of Silver.

Worst: The Kalos rivals, except for Serena/Calem. I decided to represent the three others with Shauna, maybe because she had a lazy-hazy goal. Tierno just did "dancing"... twirling around... and Trevor... he only cared about the Pokedex, and ironically, you always seem to beat him at Pokedex completion. I think you fight each one less than three times in the whole game. What I'm saying is, they took everything that we didn't like about Bianca and Brendan/May, combined them, and divided the end result by three and added shallow quirks to each one. And at least Bianca had some growth and character development through BW. By the end of the game, these three are no different than when you first meet them, and do jack-freakin'-squat from start to finish.

 

[Pokeplayer150]

You know something rather ironic I noticed even before I first posted this thread? A lot of people seem to be expressing dislike froth Hoenn and Kalos rivals when there's a remake on the horizon and a potential sister game which very much could expand their roles and improve on their characters (the former of which being practically definite). That's why I never considered them for my worst pick because they both have chances to redeem themselves. But that's not to say you're not entitled to your current opinion.

 

[FullMoon]

Bianca is actually my favorite rival and I'll defend her to death if needed.

Most of the reason I like her is because I can really relate to her. She has no idea of what she wants to do with her life and hey, I can hardly blame her since I have no idea myself and I'm likely older than her. I think of her becoming a Pokémon Trainer as being like somewhat like getting a job: You think what you're going to like it and that you'll do great in it, but sometimes it just don't happens and you see that maybe it just isn't for you. That's pretty much what happens with Bianca, she sets off on a journey with her starter thinking she'll have a lot of fun being a Pokémon Trainer, but then she has one of her Pokémon be stolen from her and finding herself unable to do anything about it, she tries to become a better trainer and trains with Iris in order to do so, but at the battle with her in Castelia the player just pretty much crushes whatever self-esteem she still had when they beat her (I felt really bad for her afterwards) and yet she keeps going and tries her hardest to improve just to see that she really isn't getting any better. It's better exemplified in some of her battle quotes:

"Every time I watch my Pokémon battle, it ends like this..."
"S-s-still... That's fine. We're just fine!"
"Wh...at a time like this, I am supposed to do...what?"

Despite all that she still keeps a very cheerful atittude and acts as if nothing was wrong at all. She might not look much like a rival at first, but I can picture that everytime she battles you after she gets robbed she's thinking "I trained really hard for this, I'm not going to lose now!" just to get beaten again and again, so in a way she's very similar to Cheren despite her development going the other direction. By the time of B/W2 she became Juniper's assistant and she seems to have a lot of fun with it and also happier than she was in B/W. It's not like she just gave up on training her mons either, she even teams up with you during the game (though she states the wild mons were giving her trouble) and she even shows up at the PWT meaning she did improve over time and got to a level equal to a Gym Leader's, she probably kept Pokémon Training as just as hobby instead of something to take seriously, just a side thing for her to do when not doing researches or anything of the like.

I like Bianca a lot because she goes from being completely lost in the world with no idea of what she wants to do to finding her goals and work towards them with passion, while keeping an energetic and cheerful personality even as she messes up occasionally. She's probably my favorite NPC in the series.

As for my least favorite rival... That would be Blue. I didn't find it that satisfying to beat him and he in general was just really annoying and never had any development. He just felt like a generic bully to me, at least Silver had some development.

 

[Norzan]

Best - None, they are all at best two-dimensional rivals, i'll probably say Silver is the best of the worst, but every character in the franchise is terrible.

Worst - All of them, there's not a single one i like and never saw them as actual rivals.

 

[Lysson]

Best- Hugh.
He isn't particularly strong but I actually cared for him as a character and admired the lengths and extremes he went through to get his sister's Purrloin back. I didn't find it annoying, I saw him as a good big brother! So beating Team Plasma felt rewarding because I was helping him and not expecting the rival to attend to my every whim.

Worst- Brendan/May!
First thing's first, I love anime May. But the gen 3 rival is just UGHR! They felt like a mixture of Blue and Silver but with no goal in life. They also felt like they had no real character development.

Blue is meant to be the strong rival you have to beat because you can't have a jerk beat you, but Blue has character development. As for Silver he is a horrible person (at the start) but he has a reason. Oh and he also has character development.
My main problem with Brendan/May is their character serves no real purpose and just feels shoved in there because the game developers needed a rival. (could have developed Wally more, he was interesting and I thought he was going to be the main rival).
Brendan/May probably would have worked out better as the Professor's assistant... like Lucas.
So just about all the other rivals had significant plot relevance and their own goal, heck even the Kalos rivals had this!

But hey, ORAS is coming out so maybe they'll have a better character development... or a purpose besides being a pointless obstacle...

 

[skyradiant]

Best: Hugh, I liked how he didn't care that much trying to be stronger than the protagonist and focused instead on trying to stop Team Plasma, which was really refreshing. Although, "I'm ready to unleash my rage" is a really stupid catchphrase.
Worst: Tierno, he has zero personality outside of dancing, did nothing helpful at all the entire duration of XY's plot, and had absolutely no character development. If Tierno was erased from existence, XY's plot and characterization would be exactly the same.

 

[DJ iOmega]

THE BEST Rival would have to be Hugh. and it's pretty understandable. I think I would be the same kind of trainer if I lived in the Pokemon universe. the thing about Hugh is that he has a Sense of Justice. He is determined to find the person who stole his little sister's Purrloin. The Gym Leaders were his way of getting stronger and he never once wanted to take on the Elite Four. Overall, I believe Hugh is a good person. because he may want to get stronger, but he cares about Pokemon.

THE WORST Rival is somewhere between Blue and Silver.
- Blue is cocky from the beginning of the game, and it gets worse throughout the game, claiming he is stronger than us even though we beat him in every encounter. And sure, he may have been able to take the Champion title, but he only manages to keep if for a few minutes until we beat him again for the last time. I will never understand how Red puts up with Blue's cockiness.
- When it comes to the trainer's relationship with Pokemon, Silver reminds me a lot of Paul from the Diamond and Pearl series of the anime. They're both cruel to their Pokemon and they both have such big mouths. If I was there, I would give Paul and Silver what they need most, a powerful punch to the face. I don't really care about the kind of psychological problems Silver has, I don't tolerate a trainer treating their Pokemon harshly. that's like saying a pet owner would smack their pet for not listening. In fact, I don't even consider Silver a trainer!! Silver despises Team Rocket because they're weak, but the truth is, he's just as weak as they are.

 

[Beth Pavell]

They're all pretty one-dimensional characters, so I have trouble choosing a "Best" rival. To my own surprise, I'm going to go for Silver. I recall the fangirling that went round when HG/SS were released, mainly from Silver fangirls deliberately confusing Pokémon Adventures Silver with the game version. But, of all the rivals he has the closest thing to a character arc, something which Blue never had.

that's like saying a pet owner would smack their pet for not listening.

And? My dad's Jack Russell is as naughty as they come - or would be if she didn't get a little slap every now and again. There's a difference between measured negative reinforcement and cruelty. Though I can't remember if game!Silver ever was explicitly cruel to his pokémon, I'm well onboard with you regarding Paul

Worst, hmm, well Tierno, just. His character just didn't make sense. With no Contest-like side game in X/Y, all that about creating a pokémon dance team just stuck out. It's like he was meant for OR/AS but somehow ended up in X/Y. And that vague jiggle he kept doing looked like he was about to fall over, not dance

 

[Muur]

May/Brenden retire so them, though Tierno is pointless.

I put Silver as best.

 

[henrymidfields]

Best: A tie between Bianca and Silver.
While I didn't have much in terms of uncertainty, it was actually comforting to see an audience surrogate for those kind of moments. Plus, I could be wrong, but of the games that I played, she and Cheren seemed to have the most interactions with other people, which I find add dimension to Bianca. (Cheren unfortunately focuses too much on strength, which was annoying in the latter stages of BW. He seemed to undergo development in BW2, though.) Also the way she (and my Hilda) trashed Hilda's room was hilarious! Especially Hilda's Wii!!

Silver was more due to Pokémon Vietnamese Crystal, but I just cannot help laughing at the seemingly edgy guy making stupid remarks about the Trashy Man! Also, the scenes where Silver catches you in your Team Rocket disguise, and how he insults Clair, both in HGSS, are just gold! I was just totally mindblown of the silly stuff that comes out of the most serious rival!

Worst: It's probably Blue. To be fair, he was a champion unlike all other rivals, but yeah, he's definitely a sore loser. And I don't remember him growing up that much for GSC either. He's just a generic bully, unlike Silver.

 

[Pinball Wizard]

Oh man, watching a Sapphire walkthrough, and my god, is May ever boring. What a worthless character. She doesn't even fully evolve her starter Pokémon. Retroactively declaring her and Brendan worst rivals, by far. One of the few stains on the Gen III games.

 

[Pink!]

The best: I'd say the best rivals were Blue, Silver, Cheren, and Hugh. They all acted like actual rivals and were strong and competent (as far as I remember, anyway).
The worst: Every single Kalos "rival". They're all a joke, even Serena/Calem. Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor are completely pointless and the game would be the exactly the same if they didn't exist. Also they way they interrupt the game about every 5 minutes, usually for no reason, just makes me hate them even more. They're one of the main reasons I hate XY's story tbh.

 

[Kane]

Silver is the best.
Tierno is the worst.