Since I’ve got the protagonists done now I thought I’d get the rivals done next since they are the most recurring characters in the games beyond the protagonists. The rivals are basically a character who will usually start their journey at the same time as the player and pick their pokemon team depending on what the player picks (so they’ll pick the starter that your starter is weak to.) The rival then meets up with you at various points in the game and battles you. Sometimes they team up with you too at certain points but these occurrences are very rare. Some of the rivals almost directly appear in the anime, whereas others have similarities but are not direct counterparts.
Blue Oak/Gary Oak
The most famous of the rivals and possibly one of the most definitive is Blue. He not only appears in more games than any of the other rivals, but he also was the one who achieved the most in the games than any of the others, becoming the champion of the Kanto League. Blue was infamous for appearing always ahead of the player and gloating about how much further ahead he was in comparison to the player. His name would be on the list of challengers who beat the gym leader in every gym you travelled to as well. Blue did change however as when he’s beaten by the player at the very end of the game he loses his position as champion. In the next game the player could travel to Kanto and would find that the gym that was originally owned by the Team Rocket boss Giovanni now has Blue as it’s leader. He’s still as cocky as ever though and badmouths the player until he’s beaten, then he promises he’ll beat him next time. Gary is pretty similar in comparison. Firstly he looks far more like the original game art for blue with the blue shirt and pendant or whatever around his neck. In appearances after the Johto series he starts wearing his outfit from the remake of the original games. Personality wise he’s exactly the same, being an arrogant jerk who’s always one step ahead of Ash. The anime takes this to even more of an extreme by giving him a group of cheerleaders who follow him around and a red car he drives around in (and they’re meant to be about 10 years old I believe…) In later series Gary, similar to Blue becomes less focused on becoming a Pokemon Master and less arrogant, but unlike his game counterpart he tries to follow in his grandfathers footsteps and becomes a Pokemon researcher. Gary is different from Blue in the fact that Blue must be beaten to progress through the game, therefore in the story of the game Blue never beats Red (except possibly in the very first battle which can be lost.) Gary on the other hand has beaten Ash all but once, and even after he became a researcher he managed to beat Ash. Finally in both versions Gary and Blue are Professor Oak’s Grandson.
Silver/Paul?
Silver is a real departure from the other rival characters. He is possibly the worst of them all as his first Pokemon (in Johto at least) is stolen instead of given to him and it’s implied that he abuses his pokemon. He’s constantly saying that he despises the weak and he physically attacks the player on occasion (usually just pushing them out of his way.) A rather important plotpoint (that is also a spoiler so please don’t read this if you’re planning to play through the new G&S remakes.) is that he is Giovanni’s son. This is only implied in the original games but is shown in the secret Celebi event in the remakes.
When looking at Silver’s anime counterpart(s?) we have a problem. The reason for this is that in the anime special, ‘Legend of Thunder’ with Gold’s opening we see a character who is meant to be Silver in the anime (the redhead with the rhino above.) There is however another character who in my opinion is actually the anime counterpart of Silver. Paul is the main rival of Ash in the most recent series. Paul is very similar to silver, firstly whilst his hair’s not red, it’s a similar style to silver’s. Secondly is his personality. Paul despises weak Pokemon and throws away the ones he deems weak. He pushes them to the extremes and calls them (as well as most other people) pathetic when they fail him. This is best shown in him making his Chimchar basically get beaten up by his other pokemon just so he can use his special ability (which only happens when Chimchar is under extreme stress.) Paul has some backstory but as of yet nothing indicates that he is related to Giovanni at all and he didn’t make any comment on Team Rocket when they attack (then again he barely took any notice of the Trio and as such might of not believed that they were part of Team Rocket.) I believe that Paul is the same character from the opening to the special episode, the reason why is because it’s revealed that Paul has been through Johto, Kanto and Hoenn, meaning that they could be the same character. Paul also enters competitions without the real ambition to win, often simply using them as a way of testing out which of his Pokemon is deserving of being on his team. At the end of the day, the guy’s an asshole, even more so than Gary or any of the other rivals.
Wally/Drew
Sadly I am not actually all that up on Ruby and Sapphire so I don’t actually know much about this character. He’s pretty unique compared to most rivals as he doesn’t actually become a rival until part way into the game and is a sickly kid (with what some believe to be asthma). Drew on the other hand is always going around with a rose and is very confident and critical, as well as popular. He’s also a co-ordinator which means he’s not a trainer who battles for badges but in contests instead. The only reason I think Drew is at least an adaptation of Wally is because his hair’s green and he’s May’s rival in the anime.
Barry
Barry is pretty much the only rival other than Gary who’s pretty much his game counterpart in the anime. In the games, Barry is always rushing around and hyper, saying he’ll fine people if they don’t meet him or do something quickly enough. Barry is probably the least jerkish of the rivals (other than Wally but he’s sort of a semi-rival.) and is just overly self assured and cocky. He rarely badmouths the player. In the anime Barry’s pretty much the same rushing around everywhere and being overly cocky. One strange difference is that in the anime Barry is in awe of Paul and believes he’s the perfect trainer. Barry isn’t like Paul however as he doesn’t mistreat his Pokemon, but he does release ones he thinks are weak. Barry’s father is Palmer who’s part of the Sinnoh battle frontier.
