Who's your favorite BW rival?

[Hassel]

We have a bunch of rivals in Best Wishes already, and many of us are rooting for our favorites in the on-going Don Battle Tournament. Whom do you like the most in general?

I liked Bel and Kenyan ever since they were first introduced. Both of them are likable and they have amusing interactions with the main characters, especially Bel. And I can personally relate to her ditzyness. ^^;; And perhaps I just like rivals who are in good terms with the main characters, with a little bit of spice added of course.

 

[Karamazov]

Burgundy, no question: she's fierce, emotional, adorable, and huggable. Langley's catching up, since she's so fierce, childish, and pretty cute (for a steampunk kung-fu hipster.)

But all the rivals have something about them I enjoy. For example, I like Trip because he looks a bit like Paul, and his camera is cool.

 

[Necrozma]

Gah, it's so hard to choose.

Belle - adorable, hilarious, awesome
Langley - bitchy, hilarious, awesome.
Cabernet - less bitchy, hilarious, awesome.

Not feeling it for Kenyan yet, though he's somewhere up there too.

 

[Cybersai]

That Kenyan guy is quickly becoming one of my favorites. And I love "fat" rivals.

Does he remind anyone else of Morrisson, kinda?

 

[Insanish Danish]

I love all of them. Trip is halfway between a total jerkass and a nice guy, which I love. Bianca is just so adorably sweet and clumsy. Burgundy has a pretty cool personality though if I'm being honest, I don't like her design at all. Kenyan's pretty funny. And Langley is just so cool, I love her design and personality and everything. We've got great rivals this series <3

 

[Hellion]

Bel and Cabernet, and it's not even close between them and the rest of the field in my opinion.

Bel... she's just BW's version of Ash's Totodile. Totodile was that character in Johto that every time it appeared on screen brought with it a lightheartedness and and effervescence that was contagious, and Bel has that same quality. She makes me smile, she makes me laugh, she has great interaction with Satoshi and Dento... she's just a ray of sunshine.

Cabernet... she's the adorable psycho. She's completely gung ho about beating Dento and becoming a better sommelier than he is, and she'll stop at nothing to do it. She's over-the-top obsessed and clearly bitchy, and yet... you can tell there's good in that girl and she has plenty of d'aaaawwww moments. Gotta love the broken French.

 

[garrison-san]

Cabernet (surprised, anyone?). Adorably insane or insanely adorable? Take your pick. Either way, she's awesome, and those lovable underdog vibes have me cheering for her all the way.

 

[Aestivate]

I love all of them for different reasons.

Bel for her hyperactive personality, and the fact that she's so cute, clueless, clumsy, and ditzy 10000% of the time. I love her "try everything" attitude, her adorable curiosity, and how well she interacts with the main trio. Bel is seriously amusing. I used to think that she was very overwhelming, but she is so cute and funny and clueless that I just <3 her. She just adds so much lightheartedness and her interactions with everyone so far have been very organic and not forced at all.

I love Cabernet because she was seriously had one of the best debut episodes ever; she is freaking HILARIOUS and her imagine-spots are some of the funniest things I've seen from Pokemon in a long time. Cabernet is freaking batshit insane, and has such a wide imagination. Plus her voice actresses make her so, so, so animated, and she gets some of the best facial expressions ever.

I really like Langley because she is such a bitch. There has never, ever, been a character like her that is so spiteful and bitchy but so funny at the same time. She is absolutely ridiculous and her immature bitch fights with Iris are really entertaining. They have a really spirited rivalry and they're both just so childish and petty that it's just funny to behold. Also I like her character design/color palette! Blue eyes and red hair is always awesome in my book.

I LOOOVE Kenyan. His lack of sclera scares me and I wish he were more of a bishie so I could think he's adorable, but his seiyuu and his personality somewhat make up for it. He's just a really laid back guy with an awesome personality, and the gag with his name getting absolutely butchered never, ever gets old.


...And, well, Shootie. I LOVE the idea of him - a jerkass rival who is actually SUPER DUPER kuudere and shy and just likes playing with his camera. But so far he just seems kind of racist and jerkassish to me that I'm starting to really lose my interest in him. However, chibi-Shootie is definitely moe and adorable and sweet. I really want the anime to prove me wrong and show me that he really more than a one-dimensional aloof asshole. Sigh. Me needs more deredere Shootie.

 

[CommanderPigg]

...And, well, Shootie. I LOVE the idea of him - a jerkass rival who is actually SUPER DUPER kuudere and shy and just likes playing with his camera. But so far he just seems kind of racist and jerkassish to me that I'm starting to really lose my interest in him. However, chibi-Shootie is definitely moe and adorable and sweet. I really want the anime to prove me wrong and show me that he really more than a one-dimensional aloof asshole. Sigh. Me needs more deredere Shootie.

AWWWWW...my heart, it melts from the kuudere, curse you ;___;

Cabernet, hands down, is my favorite rival of BW though. She's funny, driven, insane and is one of the few people in the series to stand up to Dento like that. She is everything you could want in a rival XD she even has purple hair!!

 

[Grave-E]

I voted for all three girls, because each of them are brimming with so much personallity that I'd feel bad if I left even one of them out. Cabernet having quite clearly snapped via her own delusions. Langley being a bigger female dog than Cabernet's Stoutland. And Bel for being an adorable, airheaded bundle of energy. Ash, Dent, Iris? Jessie, James Meowth? Nah. These three are the real power trio this gen.

If I had to pick just one of the three however, I'd definately stick with Bel. She's so disgustingly sweet that my teeth are starting to rot, and despite that, I always want to give her a big hug whenever she's on screen.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

Probably just Bianca for right now since Trip is a disappointment and the rest...I'd like to see a bit more of them before ranking them. Though I guess the other two girls are quite fun.

Curious that the females happen to be the most interesting overall this time around.

 

[Cybersai]

Curious that the females happen to be the most interesting overall this time around.

You say that as if there have ever been a lot of female rivals in the show. Prior to BW, there was just Zoey and Ursula, and Zoey hardly acted feminine. Neither the original series nor AG had female rivals that weren't one-shots.

Its actually shocking that there are more female rivals than males for once.

 

[Chronos]

All of them are pretty good, except Trip. If I had to choose one though, I'd go with Burgundy, since it's amusing to me that she assumes the worst about Cilan, yet Cilan hardly ever shows animosity towards anyone.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

You say that as if there have ever been a lot of female rivals in the show.

Though I wasn't. Merely that the female rivals in BW happen to have the best personalities--at least in my opinion.

Prior to BW, there was just Zoey and Ursula, and Zoey hardly acted feminine.

Ursula was still the best Contest rival in DP.

Neither the original series nor AG had female rivals that weren't one-shots.

Unless you want to count Casey.

Its actually shocking that there are more female rivals than males for once.

That too.

And now that I think about it, Bianca may be the most fleshed out rival--bar maybe Trip--to date, but she hasn't exactly been treated like a "real" rival so far. And by that I mean not very competitive for Ash. Though she still may be my favorite BW rival so far, even if Burgundy and Langley have actually been treated more like rivals.

Just need to give everyone more time it seems.

 

[Cybersai]

Although I like Bianca, I think I prefer the way Barry was handled early on. Even though he lost a lot, Barry still gave the vibe of a decent battler and he still pushed Ash to battle him.

Bianca getting crushed in every fight (she loses her first battle in the tournament too), isn't exactly riveting.

Anyone think the writers are pushing the, "dumb blonde" stereotype with Bianca a little too much? I mean we know she's a ditzy blonde...but yeah...she's like failing all over the place.

 

[Ampharos King]

My favorite BW rival has to be Kenyan, if the writers plan on keeping him around at the end of the Don Battle.

What I love about Kenyan's character the most is the simplicty of its execution. To put it frankly, Kenyan is only present to battle certain trainers to the best of his ability. He doesn't drag down the mood of an episode by picking fights with specific characters, acting like a jerk just for the fun of it, or being ineptly overactive, immature, or naive. I always loved the down-to-earth rivals, simply because they were overshadowed by the other recurring characters who made an effort to speak out boldly and loudly every time they appear. They are the relative underdogs in this anime series, but are still powerful and respectable battlers in their own rights.

I always disliked how the writers put emotional tension first when it comes to introducing specific rival characters. Langley, for example, was entirely built around her dislike of Dragon-type pokemon in general, which stemmed from a loss against a Dragon-type trainer in the Dragon Village. That soon led to a confrontation with Iris (who loves and trains Dragon-types). This builds up a lot of unnecessary tension that fails to go anywhere. Iris and Langley will eventually fight each other, and it may be possible that these two characters may still despise each other by the time this series ends.

Burgundy is also yet another example. She may be eccentric in her own right, but I always pegged her out to be the inferior and female version of Cilan. As a younger trainer, Burgundy displays many of youth's foulest qualities such as impulsiveness and a narrow minded way of thinking. Burgundy will always be treated as the inferior and undeveloped connoisseur in my eyes unless the writers do plan to give the character a noticeable sense of growth in her respective field. I want to see what the writers are planning to do to convey that sense of growth, but right now I am not impressed by her presence in the anime.

I am sorry to say, but I am not fascinated by Bianca's presence in the anime, either. In my opinion, Bianca serves as nothing more than an inexperienced trainer who hopelessly requires additional assistance with other real life functions. Bianca's ineptitude can best be explained by a combination of her anxiety and excitement. The writers are not impressing me by introducing a "secondary rival" character who is only present to cause trouble for everybody else. My impression of the character cannot be helped since the anime focused on a similar rival that functioned in nearly the exact same ways almost a year ago. Unlike Barry, Bianca lacks both that experience and expertise in battling, as well as a solid goal or defining point in which the character can improve over time.

Bianca simply wants to collect as many gym badges as she can, and rushes off-screen in the exact same fashion that she had appeared on-screen in the same episode. I cannot take Bianca's endeavors with a serious face, yet.

With Kenyan's presence, you get the impression that a pokemon trainer does not need a petty reason to justify battling against others with everything that he or she has. Even though Kenyan has the capacity to display emotion (such as being visibly bothered that some characters fail to pronounce his name correctly), he does not let that become the basis of his decision to battle specific trainers. Kenyan shrugging this off most of the time is a testimony of his maturity.

Kenyan certainly stands out the most out of all of the BW rivals, just because he does not make a big promotion every time he makes an appearance. Furthermore, his presence in the anime will not be limited to picking fights with specific trainers out of spite or a desire to best them. Kenyan will battle anybody who will give him that good fight. I will certainly be rooting for this underdog as this series continues.

 

[Ashfangirl22]

I like Bel the best, she makes me laugh every time she's on screen, really hope she does well in the league. Carbernet is pretty cool too, makes me wonder how they'll handle her since she should also collects gym badges and I could see her being in the league, will she switch to being Ash's rival now? I'd like that to happen with Langley she's become a favorite of mine as well.

 

[Bandit Keith]

Langley, cuz IHeartBitches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Plus, She has a Beartic and a Pawniard(C'mon Bisharp!!). IHeartBisharp!!(And Beartic)

 

[JennaJayfeather]

Bel is my favorite. Her ditziness reminds me of me in some ways XDDD but I also like Cabernet, Langley and Trip XD

 

[Miar]

(English names)
Bianca. She reminds me of a squirrel for some reason. Hyper personality, cuteness proximity, and she's an overall goof. I love it. Except she never seems to win at anything.