SPOILERS BELOW
I find it quite boring myself, especially compared to Iris/Georgia and Cilan/Burgundy. I find the problem in my liking the rivalry stems from 2 things.
1. Trip is a beginner trainer
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Ash vs. Gary: Both legitimately beginner trainers with no on hand training experience, but with Gary being better at catching and studying Pokemon.
Ash vs. Paul: Both legitimately experienced trainers who have traveled to the same main regions(Kanto, Johto, Hoenn), with Ash alone beating the Battle Frontier and maybe the Orange League.
Ash vs Trip is imbalanced in Ash's favor because Trip is a newbie, so Ash had to be reset hard(before, it was just his teams, now it's that and his intellect) and have Pikachu gimped out of it's strength to give Trip any real chance of matching up to Ash in their battles, making any of Trips wins against Ash ring hollow to me.
2. It's not personal in the slightest
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Gary acted like a bully to Ash and ticked him off with his arrogance.
Paul and Ash clashed over their Pokemon training methods and philosophies.
Burgundy became a Connaisseuse to get revenge on Cilan for his evaluation of her Oshawott.
But Trip? He had a brief flash of nationalism when we first saw him, and I wanted to see that expanded on as the basis for his rivalry with Ash, but it disappears in his next appearance, and leaves him with an amateur photographer gimmick instead and no animosity towards Ash other than slight annoyance.
So that's it for me, how do you feel about the rivalry?
I find it quite boring myself, especially compared to Iris/Georgia and Cilan/Burgundy. I find the problem in my liking the rivalry stems from 2 things.
1. Trip is a beginner trainer
________________________________
Ash vs. Gary: Both legitimately beginner trainers with no on hand training experience, but with Gary being better at catching and studying Pokemon.
Ash vs. Paul: Both legitimately experienced trainers who have traveled to the same main regions(Kanto, Johto, Hoenn), with Ash alone beating the Battle Frontier and maybe the Orange League.
Ash vs Trip is imbalanced in Ash's favor because Trip is a newbie, so Ash had to be reset hard(before, it was just his teams, now it's that and his intellect) and have Pikachu gimped out of it's strength to give Trip any real chance of matching up to Ash in their battles, making any of Trips wins against Ash ring hollow to me.
2. It's not personal in the slightest
___________________________________
Gary acted like a bully to Ash and ticked him off with his arrogance.
Paul and Ash clashed over their Pokemon training methods and philosophies.
Burgundy became a Connaisseuse to get revenge on Cilan for his evaluation of her Oshawott.
But Trip? He had a brief flash of nationalism when we first saw him, and I wanted to see that expanded on as the basis for his rivalry with Ash, but it disappears in his next appearance, and leaves him with an amateur photographer gimmick instead and no animosity towards Ash other than slight annoyance.
So that's it for me, how do you feel about the rivalry?
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