Ranking the Rivals: Top 10

By Cosplay Furret and Loethalion. Released: 2023/01/30.

Introduction

Pokémon's longstanding and famous series has always dazzled and bewildered its multitude of fans, with certain recurring elements that we've grown to be fond of. Some of those elements include the mother being content letting her child run amok through an entire region while casually taking down organized crime teams, professors sagely entrusting fire breathing animals to children, and, of course, the conspicuously close-to-your-home, rival leaving you anxious to walk into any route or city.

These rivals are typically fan favorites, as they serve as important story characters and as a way to test your strength and push your limits as you adventure through a region. We took a look through the history of Pokémon's rivals to see how they stack up. We considered a few key aspects to what makes a good rival, notably their character, their story, and their memorability, especially as it applies to their battles. We took care to consider various aspects of their teams and progression through each of their respective game's story, disregarding competitive viability, as going through each team meticulously in that way is somewhat subjective between generations and metas. We aimed to make this as objective a list as possible, though some amount of bias is to be expected, and this list is in no way meant to be definitive. We mainly looked towards rivals who would push the player to better themselves in some way, which means that cases of accompanying Trainers who don't exactly serve as such to you generally didn't make the cut. Without further ado, let's get into the list!

10 Nemona

Nemona is a very strong character compared to most rivals, who suffers mostly because her game doesn't seem interested in exploring her strength. Comparatively, Penny and especially Arven get a lot more exposure than she does within their particular arcs, whereas Nemona only pops up after or before Gym battles to give you an obligatory rival battle. Consequently, her presence within her own story and the game as a whole is rather lackluster compared to others who will run up behind you at random Route intervals and give you a real challenge. Nemona's team is also a bit unbalanced, with a notable Fighting weakness that isn't patched up until the DLC Epilogue, which finally granted her a Ribombee to handle it. Still, Nemona's character is an interesting take on the rival archetype with good, interesting subtext to pick up on. Her borderline obsession with battling and the player stems from isolation she's had most of her life due to both a rich upbringing and her natural battle affinity driving her peers away from her, something you can see happen in real time in her faux-social link encounters in the academy after the main story. She's an improvement from most one-note rivals but fails in areas where others easily excel, which leaves her as an entertaining but not exactly great or memorable rival.

9 Gladion

Our angsty rebellious rival has arrived, and it's Gladion! He comes up in a rather interesting way, as he's first introduced on Team Skull's side, but it's quickly made apparent he's not a regular member. He comes off as prickly and cold, but he cares for the people around him, especially Lillie and Type:Null. Throughout the entire game he has two goals, primarily to ensure Lillie's safety and secondary to that to prevent disaster from striking Alola. There's times he gives other characters credit where he would normally butt heads, like when he says he could never reach for the goals Hau is going for (namely trying to surpass Hala). When it comes to his mother, he seems to resent her, but even then he still tries to save Lusamine, who loses it after Gladion's father disappeared, resulting in a large disconnect. He also shows a great sense of humility at times, going as far as asking the player to protect Lillie and Cosmog when he's unable, putting aside his pride. For his teams, he actually starts off rather strong especially with Type:Null, and he evolves his Pokémon and adds new members to his team at a reasonable pace, though he only ends up at four members. Overall he is very driven and fairly well integrated into the story but comes a little short at the end in terms of posing a challenge, something most rivals should aim to at least be.

8 Wally

Wally is weird. He's a bit of a fan favorite, perhaps because of his determination and his green hair, or because of the fact that he can encounter a shiny Ralts and ruin your experience of generation 3, permanently. Or maybe people just really like Ralts. But as a "rival", Wally is... a bit lacking. He's fought twice in the original games he stars in, once outside of Mauville's Gym, which is barely a fight (it's a single level 20 Ralts), and once in Victory Road with an admittedly very cool team. But beyond these two encounters, Wally has no presence in the game. He's barely a recurring character at all. The sequels make an attempt to fix this problem, as some of his adventure is documented through background information in TV programs. But ultimately, he suffers from a lot of the same problems. He has incredible teams, but they're trapped in the Battle Maison clone in ORAS's Battle Resort, a place where they see almost no exposure, and where Wally can make little of a name for himself. So, despite being adored and a fan favorite, Wally is really only carried by the strength of a single battle. And while it's certainly quite a fight, it can do little to carry him much higher on this list. (And for the record, we didn't consider rival themes in this list, so Wally's theme regardless of your opinions on it is a null point here.)

7 Bianca

Bianca is a bit of a landmark rival, being the first to really diverge from pursuing what the player does. She has to contend with both the player and Cheren and quickly realizes that she might not be able to compete at the same level as they do, but she doesn't mind as much because she's able to go on the adventure of a lifetime with them. And the reason why this adventure is so valuable to Bianca is made clear to the player through her father chasing her to Nimbasa city to try and drag her back home around halfway into her journey. Bianca makes a great foil to Cheren in that she isn't strictly seeking to grow more powerful, but that she has people and Pokémon she wishes to be strong enough to protect. She has one of her Pokémon stolen by Team Plasma, causing her to train harder so that she can prevent this sort of thing from happening to her again, then assigns herself Professor Juniper's bodyguard (though frankly we doubt Juniper has any real need for a bodyguard) demonstrating her newfound purpose through her Pokémon. It's through this that she begins to work closer with Juniper, which culminates in her becoming Juniper's assistant and delivering the player their first Pokémon in the sequels. Her teambuilding and battle memorability leave a lot to be desired, (bonus points for teaching all her Pokémon Return to show how much she loves them) but having such a different and well-realized story/character arc make her a very impactful if not very challenging rival.

6 Hugh

Hugh is an interesting rival. He is in pursuit of a Purrloin that Team Plasma stole from his sister, a gift from his late grandfather, and he'll never stop reminding you that he'll never forgive Team Plasma, wants to get stronger, and wants to get back that Purrloin. As a result, Hugh doesn't compete with the player in a strictly antagonistic role, rather pushing the player to be their best because he's relying on their support. Hugh's inability to deal with his past failure is what drives him, resenting Team Plasma for using Pokémon as tools and leaving a one-sided void (Purrloin) between him and his sister. While his headstrong attitude guides him forward relentlessly, he's not unwilling to change. Over the course of the story, Hugh faces a few challenges to his beliefs, specifically the reformed Team Plasma and the rescue of his sister's... Liepard. He exhibits enough growth to forgive the reformed Team Plasma and to recover from the mental toll of seeing the consequences of Team Plasma's use of his sister's Purrloin, vowing not to let them hurt any more Pokémon. Really the only thing missing from Hugh is seeing substantial progress on his teambuilding... by the fight in Victory Road he's still only got four Pokémon. Nonetheless, Hugh manages to feel more like a secondary protagonist than any other rival on our list, with a powerful (if not repetitive) motivation, fun one-liners, and hair that looks like a Qwilfish.

5 N

N is a very divisive case when it comes to Pokémon rivals. What an exceptionally well written and interesting character. Very rarely is a rival so intensely tied to the plot; though in fairness N is afforded a special opportunity in this regard by being essentially the leader of a villainous team, rarer still is his presence in the story being so outstanding in terms of writing. Truly believing in the freedom of Pokémon from their Trainers, he confronts the player in a conflict of ideals versus the truth, the same that originally split the games' legends from each other. But for N's strengths from a story perspective, his battles are completely hit or miss and not exactly memorable. His team dynamic is interesting from picking a roster of new Pokémon from the surrounding area and subsequently releasing them, but it harms the memorability of any of the encounters, with only one standing out due to its difficulty (looking at you Sigilyph). His final battle is pretty exciting, as you get to actually pit the games' legends against each other. With that said, his battles are truly the only weakness in what is commonly regarded as the peak of Pokémon character writing, and calling him merely a rival is a disservice, as he can only truly be described by his enigmatic name, N.

4 Cheren

To be honest, Cheren was not someone we expected to rank as highly as we did. That said, he is an exceptional example of a rival and makes for one of the more challenging ones as well. He's especially notable for his use of items, having a Berry on his starter by the second battle, later on equipping his secondary starter with a Charcoal, Miracle Seed, or Mystic Water, giving his starter Leftovers, even taking advantage of Unburden on his Liepard with a consumable Berry, and trying to utilize his Unfezant's Super Luck with Scope Lens. He suffers a bit in this regard with his final team being locked to the postgame, but he continues his mastery of items even then. Cheren also delivers a fairly meaningful story about the nature of power. It's exciting to see him come into conflict with Alder and have to reconsider what being strong really means and what his reason for pursuing power is. By the time the sequel rolls around, we see that he's truly matured and understood that power isn't what's truly important, as he's agreed to be the first Gym Leader on a Trainer's challenge (albeit begrudgingly), understanding the importance behind that first step. The only thing holding Cheren back really is a lack of steady progression and perhaps a lack of presence compared to some of the rivals that surpass him.

3 Silver

Silver has left a lasting impact and stands out by a degree of ruthlessness in the series that few ever reach. He starts off in a form not far from his own roots, robbing Professor Elm of a starter just after you have picked yours and proceeds to follow you closely in your journey throughout Johto. He turns up everywhere, be it the Sprout Tower, just as you're about to leave Azalea Town, Goldenrod City, Olivine City; he even goes into Kanto's Mt. Moon. He's one of the few rivals to scout out legendary Pokémon. His focus on power and winning gets outclassed by the player, and he slowly starts to consider throughout the course of the game that he should care for his team, as well as slowly garnering respect for the player's strength. We can see he has a moral code he follows, as he hounds his way into Team Rocket bases and schemes in order to fight them off and foil whatever plans they may have. He goes from an anti-hero to a more likeable and cherish-able companion through the whole game. His in-game teams are also nothing to sneeze at after the first two battles in the game, constantly adding and evolving Pokémon throughout each encounter and picking up powerhouses like the Zubat, Gastly, and Magnemite lines. Eventually he even learns to appreciate his Pokémon enough that his Golbat evolves into a Crobat, which is a friendship evolution. He has vast character development and vigorously challenges the player along the entire adventure, and because of this we've placed him as the third best rival.

2 Barry

Barry is an endlessly entertaining and surprisingly competent rival, with one of the most compelling story arcs of them all. His high-strung and fast-paced nature keeps him one step ahead of you, always ready to ambush you halfway across a bridge or a few steps onto a route. By his second fight he's picked up a Starly, and by his third he's got a full Fire / Water / Grass core, an impressive feat for a rival to have pulled off so early. Moreover, his team adjusts according to his starter choice, and in a generation with no secondary starter (elemental monkey) to make that easier. He even manages to find a Fire-type in Sinnoh, which is more than Flint can be bothered to do. Over the course of his journey he remains capable but begins to grow frustrated with his lack of progress. Since he never focuses properly and relies on flying through his challenges, this results in him coming up against steep walls in both his rivalry with the player and critically in a loss against Jupiter attempting to defend Uxie. Barry's redemption in the multi battle atop Mt. Coronet is a fantastic turning point for him, though it's a shame that we don't get to see him grapple with this failure a bit more. In any case, Barry is one of the textbook examples of a rival, terrifically memorable, and a fairly competent team builder by in-game standards.

1 Blue

Blue is the quintessential version of the Pokémon rival. Your objectives in RBY can at time be confusing, like getting Fresh Water for a security guard or rubbing the ship captain's back to get the Cut HM; it's such an unusual first game, loosely fitting into and establishing the formula. The way this game keeps itself afloat is the single greatest motivator who taunts you with "Smell ya later". At every turn, even in the middle of your invasion on the Team Rocket-controlled Silph Co., is Blue, taunting you with his progress and challenging you. He establishes the mold and executes it flawlessly through the sheer simplicity of being smug and making you endlessly determined to put him in his place. He doesn't make it easy either, as he has a fairly diverse roster of Pokémon, at times benching members of his team to improve his performance, something you don't often see from rivals. You can feel the shadow of Blue haunting each corner of your journey, ending in his iconic final one-up, beating you to the Elite 4 and becoming your final fight before becoming the League Champion. His final match brings some titans of the first generation like Alakazam, Rhydon, Arcanine, and Gyarados, leaving little room for mistakes when facing him. Blue IS the story of generation 1 and is the glue holding these games together. It would be a disservice to rank him any lower considering what he brings to the franchise and to rivals as a whole.

Final Thoughts

The placements of rivals ultimately surprised us as we went through and fully considered the various aspects we mentioned prior. Our list, as we've previously stated, is not meant in any way to be definitive, but we were able to draw some conclusions regarding rival efficacy from it. The best of the best will be those with memorable battles and interesting character development and stories, and they may very well be shaped by the games that surround them as well. These individuals, be they friend or foe or even both, are core to the experiences we have through our journey in Pokémon, and we cannot understate the significance they have. Rivals can often make or break their games, so it's our hope that the next generation will deliver rivals who can capitalize on their strengths and leave a lasting impact on all of us.

There were many we didn't mention to which some of you may be wondering about and we did go through the 20+ rivals the series had to offer, even ones from the DLCs, but unfortunately they didn't make the cut. For some honorable mentions in order of worst to best:

Shauna & Tierno & Trevor
Brendan & May
Calem & Serena
Klara & Avery
Carmine
Marnie
Hop
Bede
Trace
Hau
Kieran

Anyways, smell ya later.

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