>>45883198That's why I said there is no pretense for them being a rival. They're a supporting character that appears several times throughout the game on your journey as a messenger from Rowan. You twice have a double battle with them as your partner. At no point are they ever an obstacle you must overcome and as such they cannot be mistaken for a rival. But when it comes to protecting the three lakes, it's not just you and Barry, it's them too, so they do feel involved. If they were thinking of incorporating the other player character into the story, I'd prefer it was in this supporting role rather than Brendan/May who is also the substitute for a meaningful rival but completely fizzles out. Then you have BW Bianca who is more friend than rival but still manages to appear all throughout the game and have a story and full team that you can rematch.
>Barry was annoying as shit though.And? How does that differ from the previous good rivals? Green was your childhood friend, but he was cocky and rude to the point of calling himself "oresama" in Japanese despite losing practically every single time to you. He appears in Silph Co. not to help you, but to battle you which shows you his skewed priorities, but also that he's skilled enough to make it through Silph Co. himself.
Silver shouldn't need explaining, but he calls you weak and trash multiple times throughout the game. He's a thief, violent, and has a real mean streak. He looks down upon anyone and you have to beat sense into him over and over again until he realizes the error of his ways.
And you SHOULD want to beat a rival. Silver has his touted Crobat as character development, but few ever mention that Barry gets Munchlax and Heracross, two extremely rare Pokémon that require huge patience, after his upsetting loss to Jupiter.
