>>19367269Pretty much this.
I replayed HGSS before going through BW and BW2 and then XY a few years ago and honestly, Silver was a rival. Maybe not the best, but he was a rival.
Hugh wasn't a rival, but he had a decent character, or at least motivations that he stuck to.
The ones in XY though... they don't even classify as rivals. It's a worst case than Hugh...
Really, I didn't find them to be "friends" either, aside from Shauna.
Trevor had such great potential, but it was all wasted when nothing fucking happened.
As for Tiemo, well... there's someplace in Luminose City that's some sort of battling-school or I can't remember what, but uses the tittle of dancing studio or whatnot for shit reasons (really, I can't remember any of that shit. But when he comes late at a supposed meeting, I assume that's where he was; at least he hints at this).
There's also his team of... non-dancing mons. Really? Give him freakin Omaster, Scyther/Scizor, Lilligant, A Dragon Dancer, a Quiver Dancer and Volcarona. There, 6 mons that can somewhat fit with the dancing theme with not-so overlapping types. That wasn't so hard now was it?
Anyways, the use of rivals seems to have shifted so much that they're practically useless. I do hope that ORAS has better rivals, but at this stage... I can only hope that we get some loner that's always one step ahead of you. Even if he's friendly or whatever, as long as he isn't sitting on a bench behind you, it'll be better than the shit we got in XY.
