>>43243029>the redditors who love blue and silver for 'treating the player like shit' because it makes defeating them more worth it are real fucking retards.It's not about a player's feelings getting hurt by a virtual rival, it's about the narrative sense. Beating someone who's fundamentally wrong, like Blue or Silver, makes literary sense.
They're strong but they lack compassion (and yes, Blue is lacking in compassion until you beat him as champ, this is directly stated by Prof. Oak), so having the player beat them and show the error of their ways make sense. When we get friendly rivals like Calem/Serena or Hau, though, we're just beating on some nice guy that does want to get stronger, but just can't improve for no reason. It's just not a good moral to the story.
Blue and Silver are good, because they have to change for the better due to interactions with protagonist. Most of the rivals start off as losers, and end up as losers.
I do think the Gen 5 rivals handled this better though, with Cheren and Bianca still having to change, and Hugh being more of a partner than a rival. N's a straight antagonist too, so they got the full variety there.
