Why do game rivals never get any love?

[Emelie]

Oh yeah. I forgot about the Legend of Thunder. Still remember Silver & his Nidoking back when the Legend of Thunder was listed as a movie and not a TV special on Serebii if memory recalls right however that's what I don't get. Remember how I said it seems like it's not a coincidence that some game rivals turn out poorly adapted or missing, it seems like a trend with a reason behind it? Look at Silver's case. They had a chance to adapt Silver as the third member of the GSC trio, wielding probably Meganium instead of whoever that other guy is who I don't remember and help the other two stop Team Rocket but they didn't. They left him with a cameo and in a way, they kind of replaced him with a more friendlier dude. If Meganium's friendliness is the problem, they could've easily gave Silver the fearsome Feraligatr and gave Marina Meganium. Don't you think that's just strange. It's like the Pokemon Company intentionally wants to avoid adapting most of the game rivals that GameFreak makes.

Yeah, especially since the Legend of Thunder focused on taking down Team Rocket. Isn't that basically Silver's goal? But then again they hadn't introduced the plot involving Giovanni being his dad yet...

 

[shoz999]

Yeah, especially since the Legend of Thunder focused on taking down Team Rocket. Isn't that basically Silver's goal? But then again they hadn't introduced the plot involving Giovanni being his dad yet...

That was his goal in the original GSC games, they just didn't explain why he hates Team Rocket so much at the time.

 

[Emelie]

That was his goal in the original GSC games, they just didn't explain why he hates Team Rocket so much at the time.

I wonder why they didn't hint about this until the (old) Kanto remakes? The manga even jumped the gun and made this canon years before HGSS confirmed it with the Celebi event (which a lot of people missed out on).

 

[shoz999]

I wonder why they didn't hint about this until the (old) Kanto remakes? The manga even jumped the gun and made this canon years before HGSS confirmed it with the Celebi event (which a lot of people missed out on).

My only guess is that either that the Pokemon Company likely forgot about Silver by that time or that they just want to avoid his complex story entirely. Either way, makes sense because they don't seem to have any intention of expanding Giovanni's role in the fatherhood side of villainy and just keep it as a "Here's your mission! Now go do it!" guy. Not only that but the Sevii Isles was barely touched upon in the anime.

 

[Kuzehiko]

Because they are not interesting and the typical kind of anime shonen rival.

 

[shoz999]

Because they are not interesting and the typical kind of anime shonen rival.

That doesn't make a lot of sense. The rivals of the Pokemon series embody a lot of the basic tropes borrowed from the shonen genre. According to a lot of people, it seems the stereotypical shonen rival in it's most basic form is a guy who believes in his own power as opposed to the hero who believes in friendship which is actually how many of Ash's popular rival's play out. That doesn't explain why the game rivals are mostly just bad since that same trope works so well with Ash's more popular rivals.

 

[Leonhart]

Wally/Mitsuru actually had a lot of cute Pokémon in gen 3 like Delcatty, Gardevoir and Roselia. I think it would have probably suited him better to be a coordinator instead of a battler. He even moves to Verdanturf town which is where contests are introduced in the games.

Mitsuru definitely would've been an interesting Pokemon Coordinator if he had shown up back in AG with his in-game team. Even the subplot about his illness from the games would've been a pretty fascinating thing for the anime to portray since we've never had a chronically ill rival before.

 

[Redstar45]

Mitsuru definitely would've been an interesting Pokemon Coordinator if he had shown up back in AG with his in-game team. Even the subplot about his illness from the games would've been a pretty fascinating thing for the anime to portray since we've never had a chronically ill rival before.

I wish he was Haruka's rival as the coordinator in the Pokemon anime !

 

[BTS_fan]

I'm surprised that Cheren never became one of Ash's rivals in Black and White. We only saw him toward the end of the Unova saga and by then he was a gym leader. I wish he had taken Stephan's place.

 

[Emelie]

Because they are not interesting and the typical kind of anime shonen rival.

But isn't Alain the most shonen of them all?

 

[Redstar45]

But isn't Alain the most shonen of them all?

More or less

 

[Twilight-Kun]

But isn't Alain the most shonen of them all?

Sort of

He doesn't want power for fame, glory, or power's sake, he wants to be strong so be can protect those he cares about

Compare that to Sasuke, who wants power to sever ties with the people around him and become the world's all-powerful and feared ruler so that people will focus their anger and hate towards him instead of constantly fighting each other

Vegeta wants to be stronger than Goku because SAIYAN PRIDE and ANYTHING YOU CAN DO I CAN DO BETTER

Baguko wants to be the number one hero - the strongest and most admired person in the country that everyone looks up to

Alain is more of a Shonen protagonist than rival

 

[Emelie]

Sort of

He doesn't want power for fame, glory, or power's sake, he wants to be strong so be can protect those he cares about

Compare that to Sasuke, who wants power to sever ties with the people around him and become the world's all-powerful and feared ruler so that people will focus their anger and hate towards him instead of constantly fighting each other

Vegeta wants to be stronger than Goku because SAIYAN PRIDE and ANYTHING YOU CAN DO I CAN DO BETTER

Baguko wants to be the number one hero - the strongest and most admired person in the country that everyone looks up to

Alain is more of a Shonen protagonist than rival

I guess Shinji/Paul is more like a shonen rival then.

 

[NPT]

Because the anime directors like to shoehorn their OCs all the time instead of making good use of the pre-established game rivals. Gary's an one-time thing, and the rest of the game rivals were either treated like a joke or just reduced to a minor role.

 

[Leonhart]

I'm surprised that Cheren never became one of Ash's rivals in Black and White. We only saw him toward the end of the Unova saga and by then he was a gym leader. I wish he had taken Stephan's place.

Cheren wasn't exactly my favorite Isshu rival in the games [I preferred Hyu], but I do find it odd that Bel was given more screen-time than Cheren. I would've liked to have seen them both become Satoshi's Best Wishes rivals.

 

[Emelie]

I don't hate Cheren but he wasn't my favorite character either. Hugh's backstory is little bit odd (does his sister who is a kindergartener even remember the cat that disappeared years ago?) at least he had some kind of motivation. Cheren could have used a bit more backstory. But I suppose that is something the anime could have expanded on.

 

[BTS_fan]

I don't hate Cheren but he wasn't my favorite character either. Hugh's backstory is little bit odd (does his sister who is a kindergartener even remember the cat that disappeared years ago?) at least he had some kind of motivation. Cheren could have used a bit more backstory. But I suppose that is something the anime could have expanded on.

Hugh's motivation was dumb imo. All that work just to get a Purrloin that by that point wouldn't have even remembered Hugh's sister was just ridiculous and I'm kinda glad he was never in the anime.

 

[Emelie]

Hugh's motivation was dumb imo. All that work just to get a Purrloin that by that point wouldn't have even remembered Hugh's sister was just ridiculous and I'm kinda glad he was never in the anime.

I think it's an alright plot because the Purrloin had sentimental value. It would probably be better if the sister wasn't involved with the plot. If Purrloin was Hugh's own Pokémon it would have worked better.

I think the plot the Pokémon Special manga went with was better because the Purrloin was kind of a heirloom from Hugh's deceased grandfather. But the sister didn't need to be involved in this plot either.

 

[shoz999]

Cheren wasn't exactly my favorite Isshu rival in the games [I preferred Hyu], but I do find it odd that Bel was given more screen-time than Cheren. I would've liked to have seen them both become Satoshi's Best Wishes rivals.

Honestly I think it's somewhat odd to include them at all. Part of their character is that they are both long-time childhood friends to not just you, the main character, but also to each other and we later see those childhood friends grow up into a Pokemon Researcher and a Gym Leader. The manga does a good job on expanding this into a fairly done rivalry, or more specifically a friendship whereas I feel the anime failed in this area because it failed to understand that you need both Cheren & Bianca, not one or the other as part of what makes their characters interesting is their relationship to the main character together. However despite this I don't think Bianca was a bad rival in the anime, honestly I think she's actually the best or at the very least the most complete rival of the Unova season.

 

[Leonhart]

Hugh's motivation was dumb imo. All that work just to get a Purrloin that by that point wouldn't have even remembered Hugh's sister was just ridiculous and I'm kinda glad he was never in the anime.

Hyu's motives seemed pretty reasonable to me. He was selfless and just wanted to fix things to make his sister happy. I do wish that he had shown up during Best Wishes even if only for one episode during Episode N, because that would've further promoted B2/W2.