Unpopular opinions

[Krockodile]

I also find the common argument that mean/jerk rivals should come back because they’re always better than nice rivals a bit disengenuous. I can understand if the nice rivals were ones like the Kalos rivals, May/Brendan and Wally from RSE. However, the difference is that they don't have much characterization in terms of who or what they are, the reasoning behind their behavior and personalities, their journey and the hurdles they go through and their overall arc.

In short, I don't think the characters' tropes themselves are important; rather, it's the characterization of them in terms of struggles, who and what shaped them, their arc, and its execution.

Looking back at my last post, I thought that jerk rivals like Blue and Silver are popular mainly because they have a mean personality, whilst the nice rivals don’t, without looking at what they have to offer. However, I have realised one thing that could draw the general audience towards jerk rivals rather than nice rivals: their significant impact on the main story.

Nice rivals have their own characterisation, like jerk characters do, such as their personality, character arc, and journey, and they are usually friends with you as the main player. But I do think they share one flaw: playing the second fiddle to you. On its own, it seems expected since the Pokémon Professor at the start of each game tells you that it is your journey to explore the region and its Pokémon: you’re the main protagonist. The problem is that, to accommodate this, the nice rivals end up being diminished throughout the main story, whether through their impact on the story or their characterisation.

For example, I still find Silver overrated due to his weak reasoning against the player and his rushed arc, and I mentioned that Hau and Bianca are good characters as they have a solid character arc through their struggles and hardship, and how they overcome it, either by taking a different path or by being willing to persevere, which is valid. The latter even has a thematic impact on encountering the brutal truth and learning from it. However, one could say that they like Silver because their impact felt mattered (such as stealing the starter and Sneasel, always ambushing you), and don’t like Hau and Bianca as much because they don’t nearly impact the story as much; they could be removed from the main story, and almost nothing would change. It might not matter that Silver's actions have any consequences, like not getting caught by the police; the point is that he made an impact on the story. There are more severe examples of nice rivals having little impact on the story, such as:

• May/Brendan - You fight them a few times at the beginning, and they don’t help fight Team Magma/Aqua.
• Wally - Too long a gap between Mauville City and Victory Road, and not much screentime. His ORAS theme is pretty cool tho.
• Kalos Trio (Tierno, Trevor, and Shauna) - Limited screentime to explore their characterisation, and they don’t make many contributions to help the player defeat Team Flare.
• Calem/Serena - A clear power imbalance between you and them, as they only unlock Mega Evolution in the post-game, whilst you unlock it as early as the 3rd gym leader.
• N - Not a nice rival compared to others, but his role is to show BW’s theme of accepting different ideas from each other. However, he encounters the issue that N learns and changes in response to the protagonist’s actions, while the player character’s perspective remains unchanged, making the moral lesson feel one‑sided.

Whilst there are nice rivals who help the player defeat the villains (Barry, Cheren, Hugh, Hau), they unfortunately still play a minor role, whilst the protagonist takes the full brunt of the effort. For example, Hau helps you and Gladion try to rescue Lilly and Nebby, but after that, you don’t get to see him again until you try to challenge the Elite Four, in which case Hau stops you for a battle. At least in USUM, Hau takes over Hala, defends Alola against the Ultra Beasts, and tries to become the champion.

This is something that jerk rivals do not have to deal with. They aren’t the sidekick that helps you out and doesn’t have the spotlight; they are your enemies/counterparts that stand in your journey and will threaten to take your spotlight. Whether it will be Blue/Silver ambushing you by surprise or Kieran having to grind unhealthily to be strong just to defeat you, their impacts are felt in the story, and in turn, it would feel real towards you. It also helps that they have an arrogant personality, which further incentivises the audience to defeat them.

I think a nice rival that doesn’t really play the sidekick to you is Hop. Whilst it’s true you crushed his dreams of becoming the Galar champion and he is considerably weaker, there are thing that makes him stand out as your equal. He discovered the Rusted Sword/Shield alongside you, allowing them to both summon Zacian and Zamazenta to defeat Eternamax Eternatus on equal footing. He was also able to befriend Zacian/Zamazenta to join their team, making him the first rival (besides N) to do so. It also helps that it’s a legendary that you can’t catch, depending on which version you have.

If Pokémon were to continue making the story revolve around the protagonist, I do think they would have to design the story so that the nice rivals feel significant to the main story and not just sidekicks. I would also like them to outshine the protagonist at times.

 

[Ironmage]

I wonder how much difficulty changes lead to newer rivals feeling less memorable rather than personality changes. A friendly rival in a newer game is more likely to both have the starter weak to the player (so that the 1v1 initial fight is winnable when the starters have STAB out of the gate) and there may not be any consequences for losing to them. Neither of which are true for the rivals in older games.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I wonder how much difficulty changes lead to newer rivals feeling less memorable rather than personality changes. A friendly rival in a newer game is more likely to both have the starter weak to the player (so that the 1v1 initial fight is winnable when the starters have STAB out of the gate) and there may not be any consequences for losing to them. Neither of which are true for the rivals in older games.

This was something I loathed about XY - I can't remember offhand how many rival battles were loseable without consequence (it may even have been none) but that the rival would, almost every time, say "are you ready to battle? Would you like to heal first?" I mean, come on. What's more memorable - Blue or Silver or Barry appearing out of nowhere and talking fifty miles an hour at you before launching into a non-negotiable battle, or being politely asked "would you like a moment to prepare?"

It could almost have been forgiven if their team was actually threatening, but they only have four Pokemon for most of the game. BW auto-heals you between fighting N and Ghetsis because each has a powerful team of six; there's no justification for that when you aren't being taken by surprise.

 

[Coronis]

I wonder how much difficulty changes lead to newer rivals feeling less memorable rather than personality changes. A friendly rival in a newer game is more likely to both have the starter weak to the player (so that the 1v1 initial fight is winnable when the starters have STAB out of the gate) and there may not be any consequences for losing to them. Neither of which are true for the rivals in older games.

This is a change I liked in

Spoiler

ZA

 

[Esserise]

This was something I loathed about XY - I can't remember offhand how many rival battles were loseable (it may even have been none) but that the rival would, almost every time, say "are you ready to battle? Would you like to heal first?" I mean, come on. What's more memorable - Blue or Silver or Barry appearing out of nowhere and talking fifty miles an hour at you before launching into a non-negotiable battle, or being politely asked "would you like a moment to prepare?"

I think this goes beyond XY and has just become kind of the norm for the games since then. It’s definitely not just a friendly/hostile rival thing, because even SwSh gives you discrete moments to prepare before facing Bede or my Queen, Klara — it just isn’t framed as “Hey, let me make sure our Pokémon are in top shape first.” It’s more, “If you come closer, we’re gonna have to battle!”

Which is a bit of a shame, because ambush is a fun tool to use against the player. Getting jumped by an opponent in a game can make for great moments. I guess nowadays they tend to keep that tactic reserved for wild Pokémon (Tauros and Veluza in SV, literally everything Wild Zone 17).