Can we please kill this "old rivals were assholes, new rivals are all constantly sucking your cock" meme?
>Blue
>kind of a jerk but still your friend
>Silver
>the only actual assholish rival, so much that it comes out as completely nonsensical when he talks like you're trash at battling despite losing every single time
>Wally
>meek sickly boy that gets some confidence
>May/Brendan
>literally whos in RSE, shipbait in ORAS
>Barry
>ADHD kid, still friendly and just wants to get stronger with his mons
>Cheren
>acts friendly but is still pretty arrogant
>Bianca
>the first actual "you're so cool and strong protag-kun uwu" rival, but at least has a semblance of a character arc
>Hugh
>kinda like Barry but with RAGE instead of ADHD
>Shauna, Trevor, Tierno
>fucking disgraces
>Serena/Calem
>kinda like Cheren, but more passive aggressive than outright arrogant
>Hau
>seems similar to Bianca and the XY faggots at first, but sometimes you can tell the kid kind of resents the fact he's not as strong as you, like Serena/Calem
>Gladion
>at first seems edgy like Silver, but you realize he's a good kid who has a good reason to act like that, making him a more believable character
Silver and the XY "rivals" aside, most of them are inbetween "friendly" and "rude", but people seem to think that only the extremes exist. I honestly blame people constantly mixing up game Blue with anime Gary, and then thinking that anyone who's not Gary/Silver-tier is automatically Shauna-tier.
