Players encounter many characters in thePokemonfranchise, whether they’re NPCs, supporting characters, Gym Leaders, or any of the villain teams they face, like Team Rocket. However, thePokemonfranchise also has a lot of recognizable rival characters that players encounter in the games.
There have been many rivals in thePokemongames, all of whom have unique designs, personalities, goals, and Pokemon teams. Most players might be familiar with the rival character Blue from the originalPokemon Red and Bluegames. Since there have been so many rivals, it’s hard to say who players think is the best rival, but one fan wanted to see if they can figure it out.
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Several days ago, a Reddit user called VSkyRimWalker made a poll on the Pokemon subreddit for fans to vote on whom they think is their favorite rival. The rival characters in the poll include Blue fromPokemon Blue, Silver fromPokemon Gold,Silver, andCrystal, along with May fromPokemon Ruby,Sapphire, andEmerald. The last three rivals on the poll are Barry fromPokemon Diamond,Pearl, andPlatinum, Hau fromPokemon Sun and Moon, andHop fromPokemon Sword and Shield.
The user stated that they wanted people to not only vote for their favorite rival on the list but to also share why. For VSkyRimWalker, their favorite wasBarry fromPokemon Diamond and Pearlbecause of how much his hyperactive nature reminded them of when they were a kid. According to the post, the poll had a total of 10.8K users vote. Hau had 452 votes, Hop had 524 votes, Barry had 1.3K votes, May had 1.8K votes, Silver received 3K votes, and Blue took the number one spot with 3.7K votes.
Of course, the poll itself doesn’t have a list of all the rival characters that appeared in all the majorPokemongames. So there were bound to be rival characters who were left out of the poll for one reason or another by the post’s creator. Commenters voiced some of their favorite picks for rivals who were not used in the poll. Some of the most recurring Pokemon rivals mentioned were Brendan fromPokemon Ruby,Sapphire, andEmerald, and Wally fromPokemon Ruby,Sapphire, andEmerald, who also appears inthe gamesOmega RubyandAlpha Sapphire.
A particular set of rival characters that were frequently brought up by commenters were rivals fromPokemonGeneration 5, such as N, Bianca, and Cheren fromPokemon Black and Whiteand Hugh fromPokemon Black 2 and White 2. These characters were frequently brought up by commenters, who discussed how their personalities, beliefs, and personal journeys made them great rivals to face in the games. While the poll didn’t feature all the biggest rivals, it did spur discussion about what makes great rivals inPokemon.
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