>>12178536Blue is horribly overrated by one of the worst fanbases in Pokemon. Nonetheless, he was a good rival. My only complaint is that his reveal as the champion was rather lackluster after the shock value wore off. It's hard to be intimidated by a guy who I've already beaten 7 times.
Silver, despite having another horrible fanbase, was my favorite rival simply because he got the most character development of all the rivals. Even though in battle he was pretty easy to beat, his flaws were what made him interesting.
Wally was an example of GF wasting a character's potential. After having two douchebag rivals who were obsessed with you, it was refreshing to have a rival who was just an ordinary guy like you who happened to cross paths from time to time. However, he only battled you twice and showed up extremely infrequently. Thus, his appearance in Victory Road seemed a little forced.
Barry was an improvement on the friendly rival idea touched on by May/Brendan. Decent rival overall, even though he could be annoying at times.
Cheren and Bianca introduced a new two-rival dynamic that put the third starter to good use. However, this unfortunately led to quite a few rival battles that made the whole experience feel bloated. The characters themselves were okay.
Hugh was essentially a good-guy version of Silver. However, GF did a pretty poor job with his story (and BW2's overall) and the resolution thereof. The fact that he drops out for the whole middle part of the game doesn't help.
