>>34924098>>34924124You don't have to hate Gen I to hate Gary. He is indeed a shitty rival.
He barely appeared at all in the original series. Most of his appearances are just cameos where he brags how far ahead he is of Ash and how many Pokemon he caught.
Gary hasn't used an actual Pokemon on screen until his fight with Giovanni, the episode Ash wins his eighth badge. It was a relatively minor battle anyway. Then Gary fought in the Indigo League where he lost to some random nobody in the top 16.
Gary then appeared after Orange Islands and defeat Ash's Pikachu with Eevee. He then appeared for 3 additional episodes before the league, doing hardly anything of note. Gary then battles Ash in the Johto League, where Ash wins by using a Charizard that he allowed some other trainer to raise.
Gary then leaves to be a researcher because the writers don't want to keep him around anymore. Gary then battles Ash at the end of AG just to show off Sinnoh Pokemon. He then appeared in a few episodes in DP where he barely did anything noteworthy, either. His only major accomplishment in DP was giving Ash the Razor Fang his Gligar needed to evolve.
Trip was a better rival than Gary. Just because he was the first rival doesn't mean he was any good. The original series was the absolute worst in quality, and naturally its nonexistent rival is part of that deal.
>>34924187Blue at least appeared frequently in Kanto and actually battled Red on numerous occasions. Gary only battled Ash a whopping 4 times in the entire series. 2 of those battles were 1-on-1 fights at Oak's ranch where Pikachu loses to a Pokemon hyped up for the next region. 1 battle was interrupted because Gligar was scared of heights. And the last battle was Gary being a chump to a Charizard that Ash hardly trained up at all.
