Best rival

Voltareon2012 · August 20

For personality, not how hard they were to beat or how interesting a team they had. How they acted, and how their story went.

Voltareon2012 · August 20

This is missing some because I can only have ten options

PikaCarter2025 · August 20

Blue (aka Green in some languages I think)

Blue is never Green. Green is the female player character in Fire Red and Leaf Green. Blue is always the rival. I only like Blue from the manga though. Silver I despise.

PikaCarter2025 · August 20

Blue (aka Green in some languages I think)

I have a post idea now! You don’t get it! Best player character.

PikaCarter2025 · August 20

Blue (aka Green in some languages I think)

https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/comment/185366#Comment_185366

I mean you don’t get the post. I made it wrong for that anyways.

Hades0918 · August 20

Blue (aka Green in some languages I think)

None of these can compete with him

Blue was awesome

oshoBug · August 20

Blue (aka Green in some languages I think)

if they were here, id have voted cheren/bianca

TheJeffers · August 20

Blue (aka Green in some languages I think)

https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/comment/185365#Comment_185365

You got every detail wrong.

Green is the official name for the rival in the Japanese versions of Pokémon Red and Green, in addition to the character's later appearances in games like Sun and Moon and in the Pokémon Special manga.

Far from never being called Green, that is his official name in the game's language of origin, arguably making it his true name.

The female character is called Leaf in both English and Japanese versions of FRLG. She is only called Green in the English version of the manga, and that is because she is a recurring character from the Red and Green chapter, though she was called Blue in the Japanese version.

Anyway...

Green set the template for rival characters and is one of the most antagonistic. Always popping up when you least want to see him with his catchy theme music, he always inspires your competitive spirit, and him being revealed as the final champion when you thought you were done with the game was a shocking twist back in the day, even if it is a well known cliché today. Taking over Viridian Gym was a great evolution for his character in gen 2.

I like Silver and he had a great character arc, going from a thief who views Pokémon as tools to evolving his Golbat via friendship. But he pretty much marked the end of bully rivals in the series until Bede, who I actually liked in SwSh but isn't on this list.

I found Hau annoying in SM but I think having him become champion in USUM was one of the few story revisions I liked in a game that I otherwise viewed as a downgrade narratively.

I don't know why Cheren and Bianca are not on this list, as I think they have interesting parallel stories where they both start in very different places, one headstrong and determined, more like a traditional rival, the other sheltered and clumsy, but both come to accept their limitations and find their place in the world.

The other characters are generally boring as rivals, though some do have fun characters and stories in their own right. Nemona is kind of forced as a rival, both in-game and in a meta sense, and I am disappointed you never got to fight her original team, but I like her enough as a character.