The defining moment of every new pokemon player, their starter. The first pokemon they ever receive, a valuable and rare partner who will provide use long into the future, complete with TWO evolutionary forms and powerful stats, your journey to raising a destructive dragon of flaming disaster begins now, on this day, with your first pokemon battle.

And Gary picked squirtle.

*one restart later*

Your journey to raising a big tanky toxic flower dinosaur begins now, on this day, with your first GODDAMMIT GARY!!!

Pokemon has, for a long time, seen trends come and go into their generations. In recent days, we’ve seen replacements to gyms, and more welcomingly, HM’s. In fact, the removal of necessary HM’s led to the PC systems being revamped as well, which is also amazing. However, Sun and Moon still has similar staples, a pokemon league, antagonistic organizations, and normal/flying types, cause the day they make a pure flying type bird is the day of Cthulhu. There are also trends that have been shaped differently over time or removed altogether, like poketransfer into pokebank, the removal of arcades, contests, and of course, rivals.

What’s the fun in this region spanning journey if you don’t make a friend or enemy along the way? You certainly do in pokemon, and they come and go, but one character of note will be your rival, the thorn in your side from very early on, who will travel around in a similar journey across the region, progressively getting stronger just like you. Although, throughout the games, rivals have been handled very differently over time. Some are casual friends, who are more laid back, while some take the competition very seriously. Here, I will look back onto the chronological history of all rivals in the main series games, and see how they stack up. Of course, I will go through their progression over the game they were in, so keep that in mind when reading, especially lower down when I cover more recent titles.

Naturally, we have to start out strong, with what is pretty much the staple example of rivals throughout the entire series, the very first rival, Gary Oak!/Blue!/Gary ****ing Oak!/M*********ing Oak!/***hat/****bag/Fred Fuuuuuuurrubert. Gary has gained significant infamy in the world of gaming as being a world class jerk to all youths playing Red and Blue. For starters, Gary is the grandson of Professor Oak, the man who sends you off on your epic journey to begin with. According to Oak, you and his grandson whose name escapes him at the moment have been rivals since you were babies, which is a true testament to his tomfoolery. Seriously, what kind of baby acts like a jerk and maintains that attitude 10 years later? He complains to Oak, intentionally picks a starter just to top yours, and belittles you all the way as he claims he’ll be the best, and you’re nothing to him. After returning to the lab later for the pokedex, Gary brags about his map buying sister, tells you to frick off, and says “smell ya later”, which at this point is becoming a re-occurring phrase. And that FREAKING TUNE.
... we meet again vizzed thread editing... e-e

He also brought forth the rival specialty, that is challenging you at the most unexpected moments. His first rematch with you actually takes place on the road to the pokemon league, but it’s miss-able if you don’t head that way. Afterwards, probably the most infamous Gary battle is in Celadon city, where after a long trek through route 3, Mount Moon, and route 4, you might not even be allowed to heal up before he jumps you. Time and time again he comes at you with a more formidable team than you are used to, and each time you beat him, he just brushes off the loss, moves on, but not after acknowledging that he’ll have to smell you again later, still without having taken a shower for weeks.

Gary was also responsible for beginning another trend in pokemon games, the final battle… of the initial story. Throughout the game you are told of the elite four, the four most powerful trainers in Kanto. They are stronger than all the gym leaders even, and reside in the pokemon league, waiting for challengers. Once you obtain all 8 gym badges, you go up there and battle with these legends. Upon defeating the last of the four, Lance, you are joyous to have completed the trial, and claim the role as strongest trainer of Kanto… or are you? Lance breaks the news that, JUST before you came, another trainer was able to beat them, the same trainer, who no matter what, always seemed one step ahead. Gary was the very first champion in pokemon games, and that tradition was always held on. Sure, the pokemon games never tell you, but any seasoned pokemon fan knows that with each installment the elite four are just the precursors to the champion, and Gary was the first to break the news to you, and to date is the only rival strong enough to get that far. After this final heated battle, Gary will finally come to grips with you being better than him. Seems like a suitable way to end it, you finally outwitted your longtime rival… nah he was a jerk, let’s sit back and watch him get owned.

Oak: Gary! I came as soon as I heard you became champion!

Gary: … I just lost to Red gramps…

Oak: … oh… meh, ok. Congratulations Red!!!

People argue (and not just gen-wunners) that Gary was the best rival we ever got, and for good reason. They say no rival ever made it quite as personal as him, although I would like to say that while I respect the legacy of Gary, there is one rival who did a pretty great job as well. Many will refer to him as Silver, but I refer to him as Clench. Just Clench. One word, like Adele… or Aristotle, Drake, Bono… Eminem. This was the Johto’s take on what would become the classic rival system, and Clench was quite good at the role to some degree. You first see him looking through the window of Professor Elm’s lab, and after you are given your partner and obtain the mystery egg from Mr. Pokemon, you run into him on your way back. He instantly insults you. Like instantly. He doesn’t even know you, and he already calls you a waste of a trainer that your pokemon would be better off without. He then battles you of course! He also gets whichever starter will have the advantage, but your pokemon is probably already leveled somewhat, and his is level 5. Once you beat him, he simply tells you he will be the strongest trainer in the world, and walks off, leaving his ID so you can see his name before he comes back to reclaim it. Upon returning to the lab, it turns out this red haired individual stole the pokemon from Professor Elm, and you get to recall his name… which I guess is no longer Clench sadly.

The next time you see Silver is in sprout tower, after he beat the elder, and is given sage advise on how not to be PETA’s biggest target. At this point it’s clear where they were going with Silver. Supposedly, he is a trainer who has no regard for the care of his pokemon, a trainer who only cares for strong pokemon to achieve victory, and pushes them too hard. Now is this necessarily a good idea? Well it could serve as a nice message, but this was pokemon gold and silver on the game boy color, they didn’t exactly have the technology to demonstrate this, only reference it. Even today, we still can’t punch a pokemon, the best we can do is poke or rub them in the wrong spot. Besides, even on the tell only aspect it was a bit pushed. Silver just seemed like a baseless jerk without much reasoning. Silver’s main selling point was in how he responds to you though, that being that he refused to see you as the better trainer, but slowly grew to recognize you. Early in your adventures, he’ll play your victories off as pure luck or his own lack of determination to bother dealing with you, but as you continually achieve higher and higher feats, he begins to see that you have something he doesn’t. Particularly, after your encounters with Lance, Silver will approach you, and surprisingly ask how you expect he could beat such a strong trainer who totally demolished him. Finally, you face off one last time in victory road, where he wants a final match with you. Upon beating him, he fully expresses respect for your training prowess, and leaves to continue his own training.

Now Silver is also an interesting character in the pokemon canon based off the role he supposedly plays in the world. We never got any information on his past, so that left us speculating his origins. A popular theory was that he was the son of Giovanni, former boss of team rocket (or just the boss of Team Rocket depending on where you’re asking) and that would explain his distain towards them as well as his traits of seeking power, undermining the weak, and his lone-wolf life style. It wasn’t until generation four with the release of heart gold and soul silver when this was confirmed. During the Celebii event, we got to travel through time, and see the day when Giovanni disowned Silver, calling him a weak disgrace. It’s pretty clear this left an impact on his ideals, but what now? Where is Silver headed now that he’s met with you? Either way, he’s definitely one of my favorite rivals in the franchise.

In generation three’s ruby sapphire and emerald, the role of rival became more convoluted as we were given potentially two rivals to work with, and this wouldn’t be the last time. First is either May or Brendan, who are basically whichever gender you did not pick. Similarly to Gary, they will be the son or daughter of Professor Birch, and are apparently seasoned trainers… with only a starter pokemon. Sorry, not being sold here. May/Brendan are pretty generic in terms of character tropes, and I’m not a fan of that. They do have their moments, more-so in omega ruby and alpha sapphire, however, while they will battle you here and there, once you beat them in Lilycove city they announce that they will return home to assist the professor. Now if this were omega ruby and alpha sapphire, you would get one more match after becoming champion, just for fun without any consequences, but there is still a big gap left, it feels like May or Brendan would be the least devoted rival yet, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t get the full rival experience… just not with that trainer.

Early into your adventure, as early as meeting with your dad, the Petalburg gym leader Norman, you meet a young boy named Wally, who Norman gives a couple pokeballs, a spare zigzagoon, and you as a protector to catch his own pokemon companion for when he travels to Verdanturf town with his uncle and aunt. This pokemon turns out to be a ralts, and as he catches it, you are left wondering why you are being given a catching tutorial after having had access to 3 routes. He then returns the rented zigzagoon and leaves for Verdanturf. By talking to his parents, it is revealed that since he was young he was very sickly, and as a result was never very happy, but the air around Verdanturf is cleaner than most areas in Hoenn. I can actually relate to this myself, I lived in Hawaii for 7 years due to my dads army deployment, and I got sick very often and had asthma (according to doctors, who are omnipotent and know all (until they point out they were wrong)). That probably happened since Hawaii is basically a bunch of volcanos, and that ash isn’t good for some people’s lungs, and it got gradually got better as I moved elsewhere. His mother recalls never having seen him smile the way he did when he came home with his ralts.

The next time you meet him, he’s having a visit to Mauville and wants to challenge the gym. His uncle is trying to convince him he’s not ready for the challenge, so Wally wants to battle you to convince him otherwise. That being said… his pokemon is ralts. After the loss, he agrees to go back to Verdanturf, but promises to start training like crazy. If you go there, you can find his uncle’s home, but Wally is gone. Later on, you will find his name on the gym pedestals, marking that he’s beaten the leader, and this all builds up to the rematch in victory road. He’s made it all the way to the end of this dungeon, having fully recovered from his sickness, and is ready to challenge you as an equal. In the first Hoenn games his ralts is a gardevoir, but in the recent games he’s been in, it’s been replaced with a gallade who can mega evolve of course. That, and his battle theme is ridiculously epic. A bit of a short loop, but epic. Now you could say that Wally isn’t actually a rival character, but hey, there’s gonna be plenty of those in here to come. And yes, we’ve been going a while. What, you want me to make a part 2? We’re not even halfway done, but let’s face it, I could make two threads with the same amount of content between them, or you can just choose to stop reading, and MAYBE continue where you left off if you… actually care about the stuff I made at 6 AM? OwQ

In gen 4 we also got a generic representation of the opposite gender choice, but fortunately for us, Dawn/Lucas does not actually qualify as the Sinnoh rival. That honor goes to Barry, your childhood friend in Twinleaf town. Barry is a more fleshed out character, especially in platinum version, y’know, the version that gave Sinnoh a soul? So many things were improved, the pokemon selection, the areas, the gameplay, the story, and of course, the characters, HAIL THE PLATINUM OVERLORDS! Although, the downside is that having such a revamped version, means that the Barry in diamond and pearl and the Barry in platinum follow different sets of events, so I’ll highlight any of these differences. Primarily, Barry is a very hyperactive kid, he hardly thinks about what he’s going to do before he does it, and this leads to trouble more often than not. I like how Barry is very impressionable, and acts accordingly throughout the adventure. In fact, your journey is kicked off because of Barry’s impatience.

In diamond or pearl, Barry saw a program on tv about a team looking for the red gyarados of the lake of rage in Johto, which gets him wondering if there’s a pokemon like that in the nearby lake Verity. Upon arriving there, you see Professor Rowan with his assistant Dawn/Lucas examining the lake. They walk past the two of you on their way out, leaving behind a briefcase containing the starter pokemon. Barry convinces you to step into the tall grass with him, and you are attacked by very angry level 2 starly, the most menacing of predators in Sinnoh. You both use the pokemon from the case to defend yourselves, and on your way back, you meet up with Rowan, who takes note of why you used his pokemon, and then returns to Sandgem town, leaving his assistant to recommend taking a visit to see what goes on from there. In platinum, rather than go to the lake, Barry actually wants to go to Sandgem directly because he wants to believe Professor Rowan would give you both a pokemon. Before you can cross the first patch of tall grass, Rowan arrives to reprimand you for being so reckless. Barry bluntly asks him for a pokemon, but Rowan then starts asking you both questions about your ethics, and what you would do with such pokemon. Either way, these events kick off your journey with the pokedex to get to the pokemon league.

Throughout the game, Barry, more-so than any other rival, has a knack for popping up at the absolute worse times, usually on your way to a new objective, so make sure to always heal at a pokecenter before you head off in a new direction. Barry isn’t a pushover either, he has some pretty strong pokemon later on, not to mention rare, like to the point of rubbing salt in your face whenever you see him with said pokemon rare. Seriously, look up the Sinnoh honey tree mechanics. A major turning point for him is being defeated by team galactic at lake Acuity, where he reflects on the fact he wasn’t strong enough to complete his goal of saving Uxie. He expresses a great desire to get tougher so that he can’t fail like this again, and leaves. The final time you face him is in the pokemon league. That is, directly before you can even sign up for admission to challenge the pokemon league. I remember being a kid and making it there for the first time, and before healing I just wanted to talk to the guy for the sake of it really. Note that I had just passed through victory road as well, if I knew any curses back then, I would have used them.

Now we arrive in generation 5, with black and white, followed by black 2 and white 2. Both duo’s have their own rival systems… and I’m not gonna be happy when we hit 2, so let’s relish where we are while we can. In black and white, you don’t have a friend in your home town, you have TWO friends, Cheren and Bianca. The three of you meet in your room to open a package sent by Professor Juniper containing 3 pokemon. Cheren has devoted all his studies into pokemon battling mechanics, and is very impatient concerning any distractions to his goals. Bianca is a more free spirit, who wants to travel with her pokemon as friends, but who also has a dad who really doesn’t want her leaving. Bianca is much less prepared for battle than Cheren is, but she’s definitely what I’d call a re-occurring rival. And, like any other growing character in pokemon, these two end up all philosophical by the end. In particular, Bianca is well known for the Nimbasa scene, where in Nimbasa city her dad confronts her to bring her back home, and the gym leader Elesa is able to convince her father that she needs to explore on her own to develop as a person. This is especially worth noting for… future purposes. Cheren, while a determined battler, seeks out a more fulfilling way to shine while, of course, chuckin balls at you. He also tends to get involved against team plasma, but not EVERY encounter with team plasma, (again, worth noting for FUTURE purposes) cause otherwise Cheren would be stapled to us all game. Seriously, WHY IS TEAM PLASMA EVERYWHERE!? COULDN’T YOU THINK OF DIFFERENT PROBLEMS AND SIDE-MISSIONS!? JUST WAIT UNTIL A COUPLE PARAGRAPHS FROM NOW. =.=

Now sure, Cheren and Bianca are your childhood friends, and they fight you a lot throughout the game… but there is another. Yep, they busted out a third, and he’s N. You meet him early in your adventure, after one of team plasma’s speeches, and sure as hell not the last time you see team plasma, it’s not even going to take long, if you gave me a Unova map I’d use a highlighter on 90% of the areas in the initial story and they’d all be places where you had to deal with them. N can understand pokemon, either through their speech or some kind of telekinesis, and battles you so he can get a better grasp on their opinions of you and the lifestyle they are in. N is a pretty deep character lore-wise, for one, he’s supposedly the king of team plasma, an orphaned child who was raised by pokemon. Ghetsis found him and claimed to be his father, and took N in to exploit his unique abilities. Over the course of around a decade, he was raised to believe pokemon were tormented under the rule of humans, and that humans and pokemon must be segregated. To achieve this end, he would become the recognized hero of either zekrom or reshiram, and he would be able to sway the world to grant pokemon independence.

As N goes on his journey to gain the power of the legendary pokemon, he meets many pokemon who are content with their lives with people, unlike all the pokemon he was exposed to. He expresses his uncertainty each time he battles with you, asking you about your ideals and motives. Eventually he says you are chosen, like him, to control a legendary pokemon and become a hero like him, and that you both will fight to determine the truth that will change the future. Basically, kind of a big deal. Eventually, you do get the opposite legendary from his and fight him, beat him, and he finds out Ghetsis is a manipulative prick who wanted to become a dictator in Unova by gaining control of all the regions pokemon… biggest hypocrite since PETA themselves. Afterwards, he leaves on a journey of self-discovery, and isn’t seen again for another 2 years… commense the segway.

In black 2 and white 2, Cheren is now a gym leader in Asperita city, and Bianca is Professor Juniper’s assistant. Although, you play as a new character this time around, with a new journey ahead of you and new faces… oh god… it’s finally time to talk about… friggen Hugh. He’s a local kid from Asperita, who’s not even explicitly mentioned as a close friend, but he goes on his adventure when he finds out you are getting a pokemon. Without any say in the matter, you are now his [well-bred female canine]. The first time you run into him outside Asperita, after he challenges you in Floccesy ranch, the farmers ask if you both can help find a herdier who has wandered off. Hugh gets riled up about this and forces you to trek the wilderness to find it, and you find that it was held captive by a member of the new team plasma, who chucks a TM at you and runs off. After returning the herdier Hugh scolds the farmer for being so careless, storms off, and the game doesn’t even put any subtly to the fact Hugh hates the idea of lost pokemon. Next time you meet him, he’s bad mouthing some team plasma guys, forces you to help him fight them and then track them- ok I’m not sugar coating any of this, you should have a good grasp on what’s the problem here.

Two years ago, aka exactly when the first black and white took place, Hugh’s grandfather got a purrloin for his sister. Then team plasma stole it. That’s it. Excuse me one moment...

Ok so I compiled a ten list of reasons for WHY THIS IS SO STUPID. Not a top ten, but a ten nonetheless.

1.       Two things happened 2 years ago, the first being Hugh’s family getting a pet cat, the second being team plasma going around everywhere. Exactly how long did they have this purrloin? Was it even a month?

2.       His sister must have been like 5 back then, I don’t think she even minds as much now anyways.

3.       His entire adventure is justified by this one pokemon he barely even knew, so I doubt he even registered any non-team plasma events during the game.

4.       He will not shut up about this purrloin after he first brings it up. As soon as it looks like he’s about to say anything that isn’t about team plasma, it gets re-directed to purrloin.

5.       He lives in Asperita city. There are like 34 purrloin RIGHT OUTSIDE THE GATE.

6.       AND DON’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO AFFORD A POKEBALL OR SOMETHING, THIS IS THE WORLD OF POKEMON.

7.       YOU’RE A TRAINER NOW!!! HOW ABOUT CHUCKING ONE OF THOSE BALLS AT A PURRLOIN AND GIVING IT TO YOUR SIS!?

8.       I doubt every member of team plasma, especially of the recent iteration, remembers every exact pokemon they ever captured. Of course these random grunts know nothing about a purrloin in a town in the farthest corner of Unova.

9.       You won’t be fighting team plasma when Hugh isn’t there. In fact, you wouldn’t have to worry about team plasma for so long if it weren’t for the fact Hugh is Roadhog and chains you into every one of his problems.

10.   He isn’t even original. Stolen pokemon have been done before, in various spin-offs like colosseum and pokemon ranger as well as the anime. He also completely rips off Bianca’s moment. In Nimbasa city, before leaving for Driftveil city, you see a whole horde of plasma grunts that Hugh is staring down, and upon seeing this, I just turned around and went to the pokemon musical, theme park, messed with a zoroark, managed a mall street, went to star in a movie, won a lifetime supply of lemonade, and took a train to Kanto. When I eventually realized I had to progress the storyline, after beating plasma for the 68^th time, Hugh confesses he’s only doing this over a purrloin. They use the same sad music from Bianca’s moment, it’s the same street from Bianca’s moment, but this time there’s nothing really sad about it and Elesa isn’t here to tell Hugh to get over it.

For fricks sake, look at other characters in pokemon. Silver was a jerk because his crime syndicate dad disowned him, Wally had to overcome his life of vulnerability, N was set out on a specific goal, but was able to see so many other points of view. Hugh only cares about this one motive, won’t care about anything else until it’s done, and his only notable traits are being arrogant and angry. This guy could’ve been ok if he showed up once in an episode of the show, but the fact they stretched the situation through THE WHOLE GAME and expect you to put up with it after no signs of benefit makes me so mad. Oh, and eventually the shadow triad finds Hugh’s purrloin… and he gets upset because it doesn’t remember him and evolved into a liepard. End of.

So that was a complete train wreck, but we still have 6 more rivals to cover… or 3, if you don’t count some from Kalos. X and y’s storyline is a bit rough from my perspective, I didn’t find it fulfilling, wasn’t motivated to see it through, and it was a bit harder for me considering I wasn’t using the exp share like I was intended to. I still don’t use that thing, I guess I just prefer raising a team of 6 consistent party members legitimately rather than cycling between 15 pokemon who, because of how exp share works, are all competently leveled but also unevenly leveled since some pokemon require more exp than others. Generally, most characters in x and y I found to be underwhelming in terms of personality and motives, but ey, that’s just me, and I still enjoyed a lot of things 6^th gen added. So how did all whopping FOUR of your rivals stack up?

In all honesty, only one of them really counts as your definitive rival, and that would be Serena or Calem, the representatives of the gender you didn’t pick… but without a hat. They’re about less fulfilling than May and Brendan, they just decide to bring attention to your rivalry for hyucks and after providing tutorials and pokeballs are as useful as Dawn and Lucas, although it was a former poorly excused roadblock NPC who gave me my dousing machine thank you very much… y’know, I think I have an idea for my next mile-long pokemon thread. Aside from that, you also have friends in Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor.

Shauna is basically the bubbly girly girl who wants to make as many happy memories as possible. She also likes puzzles I guess? Tierno likes dancing. Trevor is basically a wimpy study. There you go, that’s about all we get from their tropes. They do have moments, but yeah, they could definitely have more going for them. That’s pretty much all I have in terms of Kalos for ya.

Now we’re in the final stretch, the recent sun and moon versions that have expanded upon how a pokemon adventure can be played out. The games are far more story-driven than any others in the main series, which means well for any rivals added right? In this game, our foremost rival is Hau, the grandson of kahuna Hala in Iki town. He’s a laid back, positive kid who always wants to maintain a smile, and help boost the morale of anyone he’s with. You can pick up that he doesn’t really take problems well through tales of his youth and some other events that will occur. Also malasadas. I don’t know what those things are based off of, we know they’re Hawaiian fried bread of some sort, but the menu sprite shows them with some kind of jelly filling or meat? Either way I would want one every 2 hours too. Hau embarks with you and Lillie for the island challenge, and for the most part, you and him generally travel around at the same pace across the four islands. Eventually, in wake of some bigger plot-points, Hau realizes he needs to establish a blend of kindness and authority if he ever intends on becoming a better trainer one day, but nonetheless, Hau never stopped being a beam of happiness.

Another rival you’ll find is, of course, Gladion, and while Silver was baselessly edgy, Gladion is just plain edgy. Look at his fricken battle poses, he looks like he’s having some kind of arthritis based seizure! Also, just pointing out, if there was ever a time to not spoil yourself it would be now, cuz sun and moon, Gladion’s history, story based game, blegh. Gladion is the son of Lusamine, the aether foundation president, and the brother of Lillie. When Lusamine became obsessed with ultra beasts, she not only looked into cosmog, who could open ultra wormholes, but also a method to control the beasts. As a result, they started developing a synthetic pokemon using various concepts in an attempt to make the ultimate fighter against ultra beasts. They combined dna of various pokemon, and did research in Sinnoh concerning the myths of arceus. This led to the development of the RKS system, which they installed into the pokemon to allow it to change its typing whenever it needs to. They made several of these pokemon, known as type: full. However, when the RKS system was activ… RKS… arceus… RK… Snow White and the Game Freak clever boys everyone. When the RKS system was activated, the pokemon went out of control and destroyed everything near them. The aether foundation considered this a loss, and made an inhibiting helmet over the pokemon to limit their power. Now renamed type: null, 3 specimens were cryogenically frozen.

When it became apparent to Lillie and Gladion that their mom was fricken insane, while Lillie decided that cosmog needed to be taken away from the foundation for its own safety and the safety of Alola, Gladion had decided to go his own way as well, taking a certain type: null he had tested with and fleeing home. He rented out a motel room in route 8 of Akala island for a while, but to keep supporting himself he decided to work for team skull. He then continued to work to training himself and null to one day fight back against the foundation, which leads us to our first meeting with him on Akala. He had just beaten Hau, and is annoyed at how complacent he is about the loss. He then asks you to fight him as well, and once you beat the quote on quote “coolest kid you’ll ever meet”, team skull grunts come by and poke fun at the fact he’s not an official member.

Yeah, if you haven’t guessed by now, it’s extremely obvious Gladion tries his best to look cool, but honestly a bit too hard. All of team skull treats him as an outsider, and the laid back community of Alola don’t seem to get the message they are amongst this demigod of revengeance. I like how Hau, who is just about the opposite of this butthurt serious trainer, often finds a way to make comedy out of Gladion. Gladion expresses his annoyance for Hau’s personality, and Hau doesn’t respect his attempts to make himself look cool. Neither do I really, can you name anyone else who uses cannot and mustn’t in the same line of dialogue? Like Silver, Gladion gradually gains respect for the trainer who obviously gets something he doesn’t, and will eventually admit you as his friend… even if he still won’t admit it.

So there we go, the longest thread I have ever made… about pokemon characters. This is what happens when I’m told to do 6 homework assignments a day for all those wondering. What could happen if 8^th gen comes out? Would our rival be a good character? A bad character? Either way, if there’s anything to attest to about rivals, is that you don’t just get to walk up to the pokemon league without a bit of a challenge thanks to them.