Paul was without a doubt my favorite character in DP and possibly the entire series. I liked his Pokemon smarts, selection of Pokemon, and his cold attitude like how insulted Maylene (I still love ya Maylene) it was such a nice change of pace compared to Ash's usual meeting of Gym Leaders. He is without a doubt my personal favorite rival of the show but he is not without flaws. It's because I thought he was so awesome that the new rival Trip looks boring compared to him, and that is not Trip's fault. Paul set the bar to high which could end up hurting future rivals if the writers don't do something new. The writers also gave him basically every single powerhouse Sinnoh Pokemon minus two or three. This lead to many other rivals teams having to go back and get Hoenn, Johto, and Kanto and get leftovers. I still think it's a miracle Mamoswine and Gallade were contest Pokemon and not simply given to Paul's Sinnoh hogging team. And all the best writing and ideas went to Paul's rivalry instead of giving ideas for Barry, Conway, Zoey, or Nando. Which is why I think those rivals were okay but not as good as they could have been, heck Nando barely even counts. But other then those flaws Paul is awesome and the best rival the show ever made. It's just my opinion, not fact at all.