>>22914048I agree he should've faced Dawn at least once, but I guess what makes a good rival for me is that you define the character well, and Nando had that.
One of the problems with Trip for example was that he was bland as fuck. He actually faced Ash a good 3-4 times or something but he was never interesting, he was just a random kid with his head up his ass. They did try to have a couple moments with Alder but the entire idea kind of fell on its ass- so he learned to not be such a stiff after losing to Alder, but right after that he loses against a guy he beat every time before that, which apparently proves his previous method was actually better.
Compared to someone like Conway who only actually battled Ash a single time in the story, but we remember him because he's a fucking creeper towards Dawn but also very talented in forming pre-planned strategies.
I agree that Zoey got kinda Mary Sue-ish though, I always thought Nando should've won that battle.
