How would you “fix” certain rivals

[Sham]

I’m not going to go into detail for every single one because @ time but the main ones are

Miette- I would definitely remove the crush teasing or reduced it heavily since it started becoming a main talking point of their rivalry when really it should of been Showcases. I’m assuming she was suppose to be Serena’s main rival (or was it Shauna? Idk) but they barely ever interacted in those things.

Bianca- Great idea finally giving us a female rival doing a Gym quest but I wish Bianca was seen more and taken less as a joke. She was essentially treated as a joke rival until a even bigger joke came in many episodes later. Did her and Ash even battle outside of her debut episode? I don’t know.

Ursula- What was the point of this rivalry? Ursula had an interesting personality and I liked her Pokémon selection but Dawn was always better than her and ended the series better than her. Wished she won some battles against Dawn and put up a threat.

Alain- I could go on a tirade but I’ll just say he should of started his Gym quest earlier and less quicker than he did.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I would have replaced Trip with either Cheren or N.
Gary would have had more appearances
Ursula would have appeared earlier

 

[Leonhart]

I would've made Bel more serious. She could've still been somewhat clumsy, but I would've toned that down to a point where it wouldn't have been so irritating, and I would've also done away with her Zorua obsession. I would've made her relationship with her father much more important too by making it a long-term subplot.

 

[Power Up]

I've been rewatching XYZ and the only problem Alain has was that they should have showed him winning more gyms/badge quest. Sawyer's a great rival and I have basically almost no problems with besides maybe expanding a bit more on how he focused and driven he was to catch up to Ash.

 

[U.N. Owen]

Every single XY rival would be torn apart bit by bit and rebuilt from the ground up. I can't imagine why you would make such awful rivals. Let's just go with Ash's.

Alain should have actually interacted more with the main cast. I do not buy this as a rivalry. I buy it as a random guy who battles Ash three times and promptly becomes a dream killer. He's on the level of Cameron when it comes to rivalries. He's just a random guy who beats Ash. Sure, we see his character in the ME Specials, but we sure as hell don't see him as a rival. There was barely any interaction between him and Ash.

Trevor is a non-entity. Tierno had some build up, but it was ultimately pointless. I almost didn't want to call these rivalries because they were glorified COTD at best.

Sawyer has no problem in concept. I just overall dislike how Ash essentially kicked him around. I personally don't find rivalries where the rival is the one playing catch up to be particularly interesting. I much prefer a constant spiral of wins and losses to keep it interesting.

Serena's rivals shouldn't exist at all because I find them nonsense shipping tease with barely anything interesting about her (Miette) or a glorified COTD who I can't put a face to a name (Nene).

Now, onward to the other series:

Cameron was a waste of Kōki Uchiyama. His character should have revolved around him being an idiot in things other than battling. His character should be the type to forget to put on pants in the morning but then shifts to a completely different character when it comes to battles. Showing him be outright idiotic when it comes to everything about battling down to the amount of pokemon and badges to nearly not actually registering for the league just makes him not compelling and overall a waste of space.

Trip should have been more than PAUL but HATES HICKS. I don't know how to fix his character because he's that bland and boring.

 

[KirliaToon50]

Okay, here is the "fix" for rivals:
Miette - I would make her serious and get rid of her ship teasing since her teasing seem unnecessary for her character.

Bianca - a female rival for ash would been a nice idea but I'd reduce her being joke and even bigger jokes. I would make Ash and Bianca battle as a 1 vs 1 outside of her debut episode similar to Paul vs. Ash.

Trip - I would give him as more than a Paul and he should have went for GYM Quest like Ash.

Sawyer - I Would love to explore him more as a ash's rival and fanboy but Like Trip, he should have went for GYM Quest like Ash.

Alain - Yet Another Ash's XY Rival but like U.N. Owen said, I don't buy his rivalry but I can see him as a random guy who battles Ash three times and He should have been Interacted with Ash and his friends, I Would've liked him more if He were challenging Ash.

Cameron - I Wish He could pull a Gary and He act like He's arrogant which angers Ash but like Alain, I didn't buy the rivalry between Ash and Cameron either, I would see him as a COTD rather than a straight-up Rival for Ash.

Who would have been Ash's Rival in Hoenn but Gary already taken that slot.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

I've been rewatching XYZ and the only problem Alain has was that they should have showed him winning more gyms/badge quest. Sawyer's a great rival and I have basically almost no problems with besides maybe expanding a bit more on how he focused and driven he was to catch up to Ash.

Dont you think Sawyer's growth was a bit unrealistic though considering in his debut episode he had only one badge and was a rookie and in a span of few episodes suddenly had a full strong team and all badges. Seemed really unrealistic to me, he should have been like Barry who although was introduced in the second half too wasnt a rookie in his debut and actually had more badges. Sawyer should have already had a gym bade journey through Hoenn and a grovyle when he first appeared, i think then his growth would be more realistic. I did like how he was a new rival concept for Ash though

 

[Power Up]

Dont you think Sawyer's growth was a bit unrealistic though considering in his debut episode he had only one badge and was a rookie and in a span of few episodes suddenly had a full strong team and all badges. Seemed really unrealistic to me, he should have been like Barry who although was introduced in the second half too wasnt a rookie in his debut and actually had more badges. Sawyer should have already had a gym bade journey through Hoenn and a grovyle when he first appeared, i think then his growth would be more realistic. I did like how he was a new rival concept for Ash though

No, not really. They really pushed the idea of him being driven to catch Ash incredibly hard, so even though if you had to make me add a " fix " as I mentioned, it would be to focus on that part of his character even more. Not because it was done badly, but because it's just a really interesting part of his character. His growth made perfect sense considering his team was essentially built on surpassing/countering Ash and his mindset also hinged on that.

Sawyer met Ash in episode 73 and got " good " at around episode 119, when he finally beat Ash. I don't think that's just a span of few episodes, especially since we were regularly seeing Sawyer, whether it was in the beginning of XYZ or again for the second time at episode 106 and was continually progressing. And Ash was in his funk.

So again, I don't necessarily think they even needed to show more gym badges or anything for Sawyer. In my dream scenario, they just would have expanded on his feelings towards Ash since that's what makes his growth believable in the first place.

I have more problems with Alain and U.N. Owen raised a pretty good point about Alain not interacting a lot of with Ash as a rival. Personally, I think Alain's a much better character than he is a rival.

 

[Leonhart]

Dont you think Sawyer's growth was a bit unrealistic though considering in his debut episode he had only one badge and was a rookie and in a span of few episodes suddenly had a full strong team and all badges. Seemed really unrealistic to me, he should have been like Barry who although was introduced in the second half too wasnt a rookie in his debut and actually had more badges. Sawyer should have already had a gym bade journey through Hoenn and a grovyle when he first appeared, i think then his growth would be more realistic. I did like how he was a new rival concept for Ash though

I agree that his development was unrealistic since most if it happened too quickly off-screen and he somehow managed to get a powerful full team despite practically being a novice when he was introduced. Out of all the recent rivals, he's one of the worst ones when it comes to portrayal since he almost felt like a self-insert character who was introduced simply to provide an extra challenge for Satoshi.

 

[Red and Blue]

I'm more or less ok with Alain's character arc. The only changes I'd make are in regards to his team. Replace his Bisharp or Unfenzant with a Gen 6 Pokemon so he can have an team representing the current Generations at the time.

As for Hau he definitely should have appeared more then he did. He didnt need to be a classmate but he should have met Ash much earlier then the final year of SM

 

[CMButch]

Gary to battle Ash several times like Paul did. Morrison to appear more. BW rivals to have more personalities other than appearing in tornaments.

 

[Leonhart]

Gary to battle Ash several times like Paul did. Morrison to appear more. BW rivals to have more personalities other than appearing in tornaments.

I agree that Shigeru and Satoshi should've had more battles. I'll never understand why it took the writers until the end of the Orange Archipelago arc to finally have them face off, and even then that battle wasn't so great from my viewpoint. They could've done much better to make the rivalry more involving.

 

[Applecorp]

I would've introduced Hau way earlier in Alola, made Barry less annoying and more powerful, given Sawyer more backstory, made Bianca be the dream killer at the Unova league and given Gary more episodes/battles with Ash.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

My only fix for Sawyer is... Not make him a rival and just promote him to travelling companion. He could have replaced Clemont after the Lumiose gym match lol

 

[LilligantLewis]

Gary - should have battled Ash more

Ritchie - should have done Johto gym quest as well and Ash should have beaten him in league

Casey - should have shown up at Johto League

Sakura - should have shown up at Johto League

Vincent/Jackson - should have kept the same name in both his appearances

Ash - should have had a series-long rival in AG

Drew - I'm good with

Harley - I'm good with

Grace (AG050-51) should have become a series-long rival

Paul - I'm good with

Barry - I'm good with

Conway - should have appeared in single-episode appearances instead of just the 3 arcs he appeared in

Nando - I'm good with

Zoey - should have lost to Dawn

Kenny - should have participated in No Simp September, except made it last forever not just one month

Jessie - should have participated as herself instead of as that dumb disguise

Ursula - should have appeared earlier

Trip - shouldn't have beat a Pikachu who just beat Latios 2 episodes earlier

Bianca - should have been a more serious battler and beaten Ash multiple times, should have appeared in Episode N and/or Da!

Stephan - should have appeared in Episode N and/or Da!

Cameron - should have lost to Ash in the league, shouldn't have had his Riolu evolve as one of the only true DEMs I can ever remember in the anime, despite that expression getting tossed around too much in PAD, should have appeared in Episode N and/or Da!

Virgil - should have beaten Ash in the league by his Eevee evolving into Sylveon

Luke - should have been a battler and an actual rival, should have appeared in Episode N and/or Da!

Georgia - should have lost to Iris in a more legit way than Dragonite not listening, should have appeared in Episode N and/or Da!

Burgundy - should have beaten Cilan once, and improved to a B class connaisseuse by the end of BW, should have appeared in Episode N and/or Da!

Sawyer - I'm good with

Alain - should have lost to Ash

Tierno - should have used Hitmontop and Politoed in even one onscreen battle - he's the only rival ever who has a battling goal and has multiple Pokémon who never got an onscreen battle - https://forums.serebii.net/threads/...-giving-tierno-hitmontop-and-politoed.657669/

Trevor - should have beaten 2 of Alain's Pokémon with Mega Charizard Y before Alain had to bring out Mega Charizard X as his final Pokémon who then sweeps

Shauna - I'm good with

Miette - should have beaten Serena straight-up during a showcase

Nini - should have beaten Serena straight-up during a showcase

Amelia - should have appeared in more than 1 episode ever

Gladion - I'm good with

Hau - should have appeared sooner

Kiawe - should have had more completed battles with Ash throughout the series

the Masked Royal - I'm good with

Horacio - I'm good with

Goh - isn't a rival, and anything he does doesn't take anything away from Ash or meant an as insult to Ash, despite what many members of this forum who self-insert themselves into Ash, seem to think

Trip - I would give him as more than a Paul and he should have went for GYM Quest like Ash.

Sawyer - I Would love to explore him more as a ash's rival and fanboy but Like Trip, he should have went for GYM Quest like Ash.

Trip and Sawyer both DID go for the gym quest, so not sure what you mean

 

[RafaSceptile]

1. Gary: More screentime during the Johto Region
2. Ritchie: I'm fine with him, I'm not fine with their battle but that was TRio fault
3. Harrison: I'm fine with him, he was the best dream crusher as a dream crusher
4. Drew: I'm fine with him, best non-Ash rival
5. Harley: Idk about Harley, he is fine, but he has also more potential as a May rival
6. Paul: Best Ash's rival, but he is a bit meh as a character outside of his rivalry
7. Barry: I'm fine with him, I'm not fine with his battle against Paul
8. Conway: Same as Harley
9. Nando - I'm fine with him and his concept of both Sinnoh League and Grand Festival
10. Zoey: She should lose against Dawn at least a single time
11. Kenny: He is in the friendzone RIP
12. Jessie: She should participate with her true name
13. Trip: Better development after his 2nd battle with Ash
14. Bianca: She should be more serious, what a waste of 1st Ash's female rival
15. Stephan: I'm fine with him, best battle of the Unova League
16. Cameron: Never existed
17. Virgil: John Dickson but with appearence before his victory. He should defeat Ash instead of Cameron
18. Georgia: She should lost against Iris' Dragonite by Iris merits instead of Dragonite
19. Burgundy: should have beaten Cilan once
20. Sawyer: A bit more pacing development in his abilities
21. Alain: He shouldn't be outside of his character as an Ash fanboy #294835420 during XY. Outside of that, he is my 2nd favorite in the character side
22. Tierno: He should use Mega-Blastoise if Trevor had Mega-Charizard Y
23. Trevor: Same as Barry
24. Shauna: Should have beaten Serena straight-up during a showcase
25. Mietter: Should have beaten Serena straight-up during a showcase. Exclude the ship rivalry in her character
26. Nini: Should have beaten Serena straight-up during a showcase
27. Gladion: Not as good as Paul in the rivalry side, but he is way better in the character side.
28. Hau: He should appear sooner OR as a school rival prior to the AF arc. Unpopular opinion: His battle with Ash was good
29. Kiawe: He should battle with Ash in the Alola League instead of Faba. It can be fixed in the PWC.
30. Professor Kukui/Masked Royale: I wait to him because Paul, Alain and him share a problem: They shouldn't use 3 new Pokémon during their final battles with Ash. Outside of that, the best of those 30 rivals in the character side.

 

[Leonhart]

Nini - should have beaten Serena straight-up during a showcase

I personally would've given her more personality and maybe made her more like Millefeui since that would've been an interesting twist. Friendly rivals by default aren't very exciting unless they're given quirks like Jun and Bel had.

 

[Ignition]

Gary: Let him become a Gym Leader like the games. Always felt like the change of interest to becoming a professor was a lame ending to his story. At the very least he could be in Viridian and still help out Oak
Ritchie: Give some type of update/closure
Morrison: Easily could’ve worked if he was introduced earlier so him being suddenly against their battle makes sense
Paul: Make Brandon his dad to give more weight to the revelation of Reggie never beating him. I always thought they were related when I was younger.
Barry: Show up more
Tobias: At least give him standard Pokémon and have Darkrai be the final surprise for Ash.
Trip: Never exists and is replaced with Cheren.
Bianca: I think she’s better than her in game counterpart so I’d just give her more focus.
Cameron: Replace with Benga or Hugh
Steven: Perfect but would include him more
Alain: I’d keep him strictly to the side specials
Sawyer: make the rivalry more balanced after their initial encounter.
Tierno: Give him Mega Blastoise and more focus overall
Gladion: Incorporate his relation to Skull like the games. Have him interact with more than his family and Ash (namely Hau: they had the best interactions in the games).
Hau: See above. More use of Pokémon besides Decidueye.Also give him a better final battle because Ash vs Hau was terrible.
Masked Royale: Just show up more.

I’ll do the other MC’s rivals but in another post

 

[Red and Blue]

Gary: Let him become a Gym Leader like the games. Always felt like the change of interest to becoming a professor was a lame ending to his story. At the very least he could be in Viridian and still help out Oak
Ritchie: Give some type of update/closure
Morrison: Easily could’ve worked if he was introduced earlier so him being suddenly against their battle makes sense
Paul: Make Brandon his dad to give more weight to the revelation of Reggie never beating him. I always thought they were related when I was younger.
Barry: Show up more
Tobias: At least give him standard Pokémon and have Darkrai be the final surprise for Ash.
Trip: Never exists and is replaced with Cheren.
Bianca: I think she’s better than her in game counterpart so I’d just give her more focus.
Cameron: Replace with Benga or Hugh
Steven: Perfect but would include him more
Alain: I’d keep him strictly to the side specials
Sawyer: make the rivalry more balanced after their initial encounter.
Tierno: Give him Mega Blastoise and more focus overall
Gladion: Incorporate his relation to Skull like the games. Have him interact with more than his family and Ash (namely Hau: they had the best interactions in the games).
Hau: See above. More use of Pokémon besides Decidueye.Also give him a better final battle because Ash vs Hau was terrible.
Masked Royale: Just show up more.

I’ll do the other MC’s rivals but in another post

Now that you mention it Brandon and Paul do kind of look like each other. I can see it in the eyes

 

[Applecorp]

1. Gary: More screentime during the Johto Region
2. Ritchie: I'm fine with him, I'm not fine with their battle but that was TRio fault
3. Harrison: I'm fine with him, he was the best dream crusher as a dream crusher
4. Drew: I'm fine with him, best non-Ash rival
5. Harley: Idk about Harley, he is fine, but he has also more potential as a May rival
6. Paul: Best Ash's rival, but he is a bit meh as a character outside of his rivalry
7. Barry: I'm fine with him, I'm not fine with his battle against Paul
8. Conway: Same as Harley
9. Nando - I'm fine with him and his concept of both Sinnoh League and Grand Festival
10. Zoey: She should lose against Dawn at least a single time
11. Kenny: He is in the friendzone RIP
12. Jessie: She should participate with her true name
13. Trip: Better development after his 2nd battle with Ash
14. Bianca: She should be more serious, what a waste of 1st Ash's female rival
15. Stephan: I'm fine with him, best battle of the Unova League
16. Cameron: Never existed
17. Vincent: John Dickson but with appearence before his victory. He should defeat Ash instead of Cameron
18. Georgia: She should lost against Iris' Dragonite by Iris merits instead of Dragonite
19. Burgundy: should have beaten Cilan once
20. Sawyer: A bit more pacing development in his abilities
21. Alain: He shouldn't be outside of his character as an Ash fanboy #294835420 during XY. Outside of that, he is my 2nd favorite in the character side
22. Tierno: He should use Mega-Blastoise if Trevor had Mega-Charizard Y
23. Trevor: Same as Barry
24. Shauna: Should have beaten Serena straight-up during a showcase
25. Mietter: Should have beaten Serena straight-up during a showcase. Exclude the ship rivalry in her character
26. Nini: Should have beaten Serena straight-up during a showcase
27. Gladion: Not as good as Paul in the rivalry side, but he is way better in the character side.
28. Hau: He should appear sooner OR as a school rival prior to the AF arc. Unpopular opinion: His battle with Ash was good
29. Kiawe: He should battle with Ash in the Alola League instead of Faba. It can be fixed in the PWC.
30. Professor Kukui/Masked Royale: I wait to him because Paul, Alain and him share a problem: They shouldn't use 3 new Pokémon during their final battles with Ash. Outside of that, the best of those 30 rivals in the character side.

I forgot about Jackson or Vincent or whatever his dub name is this week. He had the potential to be way more important and should've been the one who beat Harrison.