Fuck that, the rivals have been unpredictible in terms of difficulty as the series went on.
Gen 1: Pretty competent team, ended up being the final boss (and back then, the existence of a final fight after the E4 was a surprise)
Gen 2: Most likely to dick you over, biggest dick, moving on.
Gen 3: Your "rivals" consisted of a loser with a Ralts that ambushed you at the end of Victory Road after not having seen him in forever (and actually putting up an okay fight), and one who sucked so hard they couldn't even get their starter to the final stage and just gave up and went home after Lilycove.
Gen 4: Wally is a fucking joke in terms of personality, but his team [especially in Platinum] was NOT a joke. Seriously, Staraptor? Heracross? Snorlax? A starter that [if you beat the E4 enough] got higher in level than anything GSC!RED had? Yeah, not a joke.
Gen 5 BW: Three rivals: A airhead that makes Wally look smart in comparison, a competitively focused serious guy who ends up worse than the airhead, and a hippie who switches his team around every 5 seconds. Joke, joke, and somewhat competent until the final fight, whereupon his team consists of stuff like a fake doppelganger, hard and fast hitting stuff in general, and a BST 680 version mascot legendary.
Gen 5 B2W2: Hugh, who had a motivation so goddamn pathetic that Team Plasma was wondering what was wrong with him. A joke, but at least he could poise a bit of a challenge.
Gen 6:
The "competitive" rival is so friendly it would make Brendan and May vomit, the friendly one has maybe 3 brain cells in her head tops, the dancer is so far past sad that it loops back around into hilarious, and a rival who only battles you once ever.
All the others could poise SOME challenge, these jokers were easier than most of the trainers.
