ShadowForce720
Well-Known Member
If I had to guess they might have been initially planning for that in BW, but the reasons why those plans changed was because of the Team Rocket vs Team Plasma episodes being banned and because of BW getting sequels instead of a 3rd version.Sawyer, Gladion, Alain (imo) were good rivals, even better than everyone before Paul (yes, even Gary, who almost never showed up), what happens is that Paul set the bar very high
The opportunity was lost in BW, N must have been Ash's rival from a philosophical and moral point of view like in the games.
This also why Ash never battled Drayden, even though things were initially pointing in the direction of Ash battling Drayden for his 8th badge.