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Who Will Be Ash's Main Rival in XY?

Hidden Mew

Hidden Mew

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Ash almost always has a main rival throughout the whole series and there are multiple rivals in the X/Y games. Will they choose one of the rivals from the games to be Ash's main, make an anime only rival again with one of the game rivals being a secondary rival or go the AG route by not giving Ash a main rival at all? Which outcome would you prefer? Discuss.
 
They're probably going to give him an anime exclusive rival, another Paul clone.
 
From the artwork, Trevor strikes me as being a good clash with Ash - someone who is focused on data on Pokemon as the way to get an edge in battle vs Ash's yelling encouragement. If data/genes/DNA is a theme of the games as the logo for the Japanese version of the games suggests, then a character like that would be good for a lot of storylines.

*wishes Bianca and Georgia would travel to Kalos*
 
I'm really hoping for one main rival, a somewhat minor rival, and than a League rival that doesn't appear right before the league, but a few episodes before like Morrison. I'd rather have great character development along with being able to see their full teams rather than have many different underdeveloped characters. I really like looking at Pokemon on a large scale, so it was disappointing that we didn't get to see Trip's final team, Stephan's team and Bianca's team.

I'm hoping that he main rival is a girl, and also anime exclusive. I hope that she's somewhat of an Iris, meaning that sometimes she'll make fun of Ash, but be nicer to him than Trip and Paul were.
 
No Paul clone, please. Those types of rivals don't haven't really worked so well in the anime. I agree with Dark Blueberry/Sprectrum Achromatic/Whatever DQ is calling herself nowadays, a friendly and competent rival like Stephen sounds great. You'd love to see them, and they'd always be up for a battle instead of brushing you off. Sure, you don't have that anger driving Ash, but I don't want to see that again after four years of DP, and a couple of episodes in BW.
 
I personally hope for Serena at this point. I think it'd be nice to see a more serious, a la Katie-esque, type of female rival. Also someone who is more friendly to Ash but at the same time very competitive which takes a break from the "antagonist" rival role.

I also think Trevor can be a cool rival. His whole data collecting thing going on from what we know makes me think he could be one of those strategic rivals. I would like it if his battle style was similar to Conway's in that we can see some incorporation of more analytical battle strategies and moves. We really don't see that often and I think Trevor has potential to embody that.
 
Whether it's a game character or an anime-only one, I want something like Paul. Not his personality, but I want to see someone who has as much experience as Ash and I want to believe the two of them are equals.

I also want the main rival to be the main rival. Not like Trip where he became so irrelevant and unappealing that Stephan ended up being the better rival and even got the bigger league battle.
 
Hopefully an original character and not an anime version of a game character, like Jun and Bel. In terms of personality, Shinji was great, but please don't make another pseudo-clone of him! Please? The new rival should be a strong battler, yes, but not a "mean" and rude person like Shinji or even a jerk, like Shigeru. To be honest, I'd love a main rival like Kenyan, both in terms of appearance and personality. I loved the character, even though his team was very lame. It would be great to have a female main rival as well.
 
No Trip-esque rivals who wind up Ash and get him angry please. I'd like a cool rival like someone who Ash runs into a few times and he's nice, show off his nice side a little. Have Ash do something a little silly and bring out his competitive streak a bit, don't build him/her up as a rival at all just treat them like a friend. Gradually have them grow into being Ash's rival rather than being one off the bat. It'd be an interesting and new take on a rival, I wouldn't mind if it was a girl as well. Serena would make an excellent pick if that is the case or even a gym leader rival.
 
One like Cameron, who seems to be off his rocker but in reality is stronger than ash could ever be.
 
Serena could meet Ash after arriving in Luminoise. She reveals she's been a trainer for quite some time and mainly had a lot of experience before she become a trainer using the family Rhyhorn. Revealed to own a Gogoat who she controls very well due to the experience with Rhyhorn because they have similar frontal battling styles.

Honestly, it's hard to see any of the XY crew as serious rivals without a personality transplant. Tierno, Shauna and Trevor aren't striving for the same thing as the player in-game nor do any of them seem competitive like Georgia despite not going by the rival rulebook definition. I don’t like to use the term rival for them anyway since they’re a bunch of cute dorks being friends and starting their journeys together and occasionally testing each other’s skills in battle for fun. I don't see any of them being mains and if it's not Serena or Calem then I think we'll get an OC rival.
 
The main rival will most likely be an anime-only character whose design and personality are somewhat similar to previous main series rivals.
 
BW shown that the writers just can't clone Paul and frankly, Trip was the worst rival yet. Just from the vague character descriptions, I can see Trevor potentially being a good rival.
 
So it seems the most anticipated will either be

Conway-style: clever, cunning, witty
Or
Stephan-style: friendly, big-bro-ish, reliable
 
No past rivals, especially Gary. I want another anime-exclusive rival, but to be get better treatment like Paul than Trip.
 
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