>>57394324Rival used to mean something back in the day because the main enemy/friend NPC you fought over and over was trying to get better and beat you. The consistency makes them a rival, it's a basic Shonen trope because there's always a character who considers you their #1 opponent to beat and it only really functions if they have a tangential influence on the story
Characters like Blue, Barry, Cheren, even Calem, Serena, Hop and especially Nemona function as realistic rivals regardless of their friendliness because they're trying to encourage the best out of you and are actively working towards this goal. The biggest failure of a rival is Brendan/May to this day because they aren't encouraging you to get better and give up midway through. Even the extra battle added in ORAS is an apology for the original game while the game still treats Wally as your true opposition despite not actually fixing the issue of him only being fought twice before post-game. Characters like Silver/Hugh are functionally separate from your story arc, but are still tied into the story so despite not trying to better you specifically, they're consistent enough to be your rival. Hugh I think fails slightly due to the game not really giving him enough to work with while Silver only really succeeds if you get the final fight with him which is totally optional
What makes modern rivals very boring dullards is a lot of them just give up entirely. Contrast Hop with Nemona. Hop gives up his dream to be Champion like his brother because you battered him to a pulp where there was nothing left. Nemona already achieved this and got so bored of being #1 she grooms you to be her ultimate challenge and succeeds. Hop was basically done better by Barry because Barry, even at the end, still trains and never gives up even if it's fruitless due to his role in the story
All this to say none of the Kalos friends really qualify as rivals outside of "that's just what we call in-universe Pokemon friends"
