>>35841812>Bianca says hi She wasn't a full-fledged Ash rival though. They fought a few times.
>Stephan says hi Stephan was a friendly rival, and he and Ash were roughly equal to one another. In fact, Ash barely won over Stephan because he knew Stephan would use Sawk, so he taught Krookodile Aerial Ace to gain an advantage. It was a close match that could have gone either way.
Sawyer is a different case where he was actually weaker than Ash, and he was a serious rival.
>Cassy says hi Casey was just a recurring character. She never even fought Ash in the Johto League.
>Tierno says hi Tierno was a friendly rival, not a serious one. Sawyer is the first SERIOUS rival that was shown to be weaker than Ash.
>Trevor says hiAsh and Trevor didn't interact too much for them to be considered rivals.
>He was always like a sidekick, not a rivalYou need to read
>>35841663 again.
>He was still meant to be a side rival , not a main rival for Ash to beat on Kalos. In fact, the league would be more exciting if Sawyer lost to a more powerful trainer who gets defeated by Ash in a revenge battle.I never said Sawyer was Ash's main rival in XY. Alain was clearly the main rival. Also, Sawyer's entire character arc is trying to surpass Ash as a trainer. He was initially weak but through preparation, strategy, and persistence he managed to almost defeat Ash in battle. Having him lose to some random trainer would have ruined that. Sawyer losing to, say, Tierno, and then Ash beating Tierno in battle, would have been like if May lost to Harley, and then Harley lost to Drew. It wouldn't have worked.
