I am going to go with Hugh. He plays a very active role against Team Plasma compared to other Rivals I think he does more to hinder their plans than any other. He does all this just to get his little sisters purrloin who unfortunately has evolved by the time he finds it.

My favorite rival has to be "ButtHole" from Pokemon LeafGreen.

...What? I'm the only one that named their rival ButtHole?

My favorite rivals are Gary from Red/Blue, Silver from Gold/Silver, and Gladion from Sun/Moon. Why?

Because they're either smug, condescending, or always one step ahead of you, which I appreciate. I don't like it when the rivals are overly buddy-buddy or always giving you 20 revives or super potions after every battle.

Barry was also a pretty strong rival even though he's a little more on the annoying side, lol.

My favorite has to be Blue simply because he's such a staple in the games. Even if you haven't played the originals when they were out, you know about what it was like. Plus nothing beats his theme.

Silver felt like he had the most character development. His backstory is really interesting and I liked that they made his growth clear by giving him his friendship evolutions in the post game.

He also had some decently challenging fights here and there.

I played the Pokemon Masters mobile game for several years and Silver was one of the best characters in that game, they really gave him the spotlight to shine.

honestly silver from gen 2 is like top tier, he starts out as such a jerk but his redemption arc hits diff. I also thought wally was super wholesome in emerald, like you watch him grow and he ends up with that gardevoir alt, so rad. blue is classic but hes basically your bully older bro lol. hop and nemona from newer games are cool but maybe too friendly? i kinda miss when rivals actually talked smack haha. who do u guys pick?

Honestly none of the rivals stick out that much to me any more so I guess I'll pick Gladion from Gen 7 as my favorite, I enjoyed battling him and learning what his deal was and why he was coming off as so edgy lol. I also enjoyed Nemona being like a female version of Goku on how much she wants to fight but I don't think she ever offered enough of a challenge for that to really work.

Funny how the "worst rival" was a pretty obvious choice for me but this one's a little difficult... just out of none of them really particularly standing out. I think I'll give my thoughts on each more memorable one here so I can definitively pick.

Firstly, I think it's important to realize most Pokemon characters are extremely one-dimensional and only really excel at their given character trait, with VERY few exceptions. It just comes down to which trait you like the best there. With that said...

I do like cocky a**h*** Blue/Gary/whatever lol. Hater for the love of the game all the way until the Champion fight.

Silver is probably where they tried their hardest to give a rival with actual character development, and while I do think it works for him and he's a good character, I do hesitate to say I like him particularly more than anyone else.

I don't really have a comment on Gen 3 rival as I remember nothing about them... which also disqualifies them anyway!

Despite Gen 4 easily being my favorite, I'm definitely not shooting for Barry. He's cool, and definitely unique, but has no part of why those games are so beloved.

I do also like Bianca and Cheren, but their completed development in BW2, where they are no longer rivals, does some heavy lifting there. So I'm going to be fair to the other rivals and only think about BW... and conclude I still like Blue more.

No comments on Gen 6 or 7 rivals. I went over them in the "worst rivals" thread lol. I did not include Gladion in them though, as I've only played USUM and my understanding is his writing was completely neutered in that game - so I'll remain neutral for him.

I like Hop more than most people do I think but I will admit he was still pretty annoying and ultimately overshadowed. I'm not really sure if Bede and Marnie count? One is in the first half of the game, and then disappears, and then the other one is only present for the other half of the game lol.

To conclude, I do actually really like Nemona. I think her feral uncontrollable desire to constantly battle was a good bit they had going there lol.

TL;DR I'm gonna go with Blue, the genwunner that I am, but I will say Silver and Nemona are probably pretty close.