A LIST: THE RIVALS IN POKEMON GAMES, FROM THE LEAST TO THE MOST AWFUL
Caveat: I did not play Sun/Moon or Black 2/White 2, so I will miss off Hugh, Hau and Gladion. This means the list will consist of Blue, Silver, Brendan/May, Wally, Barry, Cheren, Bianca, Calem/Serena, Hop, Bede, and Marnie.
BEST RIVAL: WALLY (GEN 3)

Ah, the ill boy. He’s actually a decent rival because he’s not an insufferable dick, but a quiet, sensitive kid who finds his inner strength and eventually becomes the toughest non-champion/you trainer in the entire game!

HIS GALLADE IS LEVEL EIGHTY ONE. Honestly, the only thing stopping him from being the Hoenn champion is you, and he’s going to make you WORK for it.
BEDE (GEN 8)

A controversial choice perhaps, especially as when you first meet him, he’s an intensely dislikable person, but as you progress through the game, he comes crashing back down to Galar, and becomes all the better for it. Especially when Opal takes him under her wing (or boa) and trains him in becoming the fairy-type gym leader!

His smile there is a lot different from the smug, self-satisfied smile he wears in the early game. It’s one that shows he’s grown as a person!
Also he wears a lot of pink.
CHEREN (GEN 5)

Stoic, studious, dapper in shirt and tie, Cheren, much like Bede and Blue, is a rival that ends up becoming a gym leader! He does have ego issues that you eventually beat out of him, and you can tell that as a gym leader, he’s missing being able to use his Haxorus or Gigalith.
Professor Juniper, it’s been a long time. I’m glad you’re doing so well. The Gym Leader position is very tough… If I had my usual partners…
This is probably the first hint in the series that each gym follows a progression of power by design, rather than by accident based on where your journey started! He wants to stomp you into the ground with his Liepard, but league rules state that he cannot!
MARNIE (GEN 8)

Another rival-turned-gym-leader, Marnie doesn’t get the screentime in Sword/Shield of Hop, or the development of Bede, and is kinda static and boring. She’s not aggressively awful though, and she has her own cheerleaders in the form of Team Yell, so she’s not all bad I guess.
BIANCA (GEN 5)

A fun, ditzy girl who just wants to travel with her pokemon, with an arsehole father who’s like “UH NO STAY AT HOME,” and who, again, ends up being an amazingly powerful trainer who weirdly has a better balanced team than Cheren, despite her being a bit of a hobbyist, versus Cheren being laser-focused on becoming the champion! She’s lower down than he is though because her Mienshao and Chandelure both used to absolutely tear through my team, so personal bias wins the day.
THE OTHER PROTAGONIST (GENS 3 AND 6)
Brendan. May. Calem. Serena.


Basically, you play as one and the other becomes your rival, and they’re quite dull. I refer to them as “the interchangables,” in that they have almost no impact on the story, or on you.
BARRY (GEN 4)

Slow. The fuck. Down.
Irritating to the point of, well, irritation, he’s not further down because he does eventually slow the fuck down, and at one point was the strongest trainer in any pokemon game (right until HG/SS gave Red a bit of a power boost), with his starter eventually hitting level EIGHTY FIVE!
I just always remember feeling annoyed when he came on screen.
SILVER (GEN 2)

Go to prison, thief.
Unmitigated dickhead, who only becomes even slightly bearable when Lance beats the shit out of him in a pokemon battle. TAKE THAT!
He probably gets it from Giovanni, who is the leader of Team Rocket, a dick, and his dad.
BLUE (GEN 1)

Just fucking look at him.

Gary. Motherfucking. Oak.
WORST RIVAL: HOP (GEN 8)

THIS IS A REVELATION TO YOU IN EVERY BATTLE WE HAVE. HOW IS THIS?! HOW CAN THIS BE?! YOU PICKED THE STARTER THAT IS WEAK TO MINE! YOU KNEW WHAT YOU WERE DOING! NO WONDER BEDE BEAT YOU.
Also slow. The fuck. Down.

Lol yes to hop
He redeems himself slightly at the end when he calms down a bit, it’s too little too late!