Thread: Satoshi to have a new rival

Source: Famitsu

What do you think Satoshi's new rival will be like? What do hope they will be like? What Pokémon will they own?

Please note that the chances of it being the BW2 rival from the games can be discussed here.

As long as he's more interesting than Trip, idgaf.

I'd like them to be what I'd best describe as nervous and unsure - the anti-Trip. Ash's rivals have basically fallen into fairly distinct categories, Bianca who is clumsy but with natural ability, Stephan who is both strong and confident and Trip who is confident but weak in battle and easily swayed.

I'd see them as being a trainer that has been on a journey for a while but hasn't had much success and is thinking of giving up - and this would show by having an effect on their Pokemon, who would mostly end up fairly timid in battle, unsure of their own ability because of how the trainer is going, often ending up getting hurt because the trainer hasn't given a command at the right time. They would be a kind and caring trainer, taking the time to apologise after every battle to the Pokemon, but still never quite be able to move forward. Elements of Khoury, Wally and to some extent Cheren (his questioning of why he keeps losing and what there is besides strength) - perhaps having a huge knowledge of Pokemon theory but totally unable to turn it into practice.

It'd probably be a bit too engineered for them to be the former trainer of Ash's Snivy - but more generally they would serve to fill a role in what I still hope will be the eventual Team Plasma/N storyline, someone who might be convinced that setting their Pokemon free would be the best thing for them. It'd be equally clichéd to make a female rival like this, but if they did go down this sort of path I wouldn't be surprised if it was a girl.

Ash's rivalry would come in after battling them, because of his never give up attitude and confidence in the ability of Pokemon regardless of type or other disadvantage. The side of Ash that got him to give Chimchar a command when battling with Paul could be used in a very different way, perhaps even to the point of commanding a Pokemon he is battling against just because he doesn't want to see it get hurt.

I don't think a rival needs to be a competitive trainer on the same level - I think he could make a good, but flawed, mentor to a trainer like that. Plus, it would allow Ash to show off more of his more unique approach to Pokemon, which if they persist with Trip as a rival, would be a good way of further distinguishing their paths to the same goal.

Either way, I don't want it to be a third trainer who just wants to be powerful and goes along that path with relative ease - a rival out of the same machine that created Trip, so this is about the only direction I think they could go other than that.

Doesn't Ash already have three rivals in BW? Why would the writers suddenly decide to give him another one? I don't like this little bit of news. Unless this rival is on Gary or Paul's tier of excellence, I don't see any reason to get excited over this.

Crabapples. It's Dawn or Cynthia.

I imagine it's not going to be that hard to outclass Trip; pretty much every current-series rival we have now does that already, so they'd have to be going out of their way to make the new one worse.

That factor alone makes me open to however the new rival will be like as a character, same for battling style and effectiveness with rivalry. Ideally I'd still like a Conway-Done-Right rival for Ash, but we'll see. That would mean that the rival would specialize in tanks and/or metagame-style strategies to really knock Ash off his ass.

I'm hoping the inclusion of this new rival means that one of Ash's current rivals (hopefully Trip) will be shelved for the rest of the series. Because I did think too many cooks can spoil the soup in this scenario, and BW has a lot of rivals that need screentime and development as it is. Still, a new rival is something I can look forward to because hopefully I'm not jinxing myself when I say it can't get worse than what they've made already for BW.

So I take it things with Trip weren't working out, so the show broke up with him and is now on the rebound?

I doubt this guy/gal will affect Shooty's bearing in the Anime much. With the prize of the World Tournament Junior Cup being able to face Adeku, you know Shooty will enter and still be in the show.

I don't think this new rival will be quite as epic as Ash's rival in Hoenn, but I can dream.

The new BW2 Rival will appear, and his name is Shootaro.

So, Alder just mistook Trip for another boy he met who he promised to challenge one day. A boy who likes to rage.

According to the promo vid, he seems like a friendly rival. I'd like that

Originally Posted by Form11ess 5hot

According to the promo vid, he seems like a friendly rival. I'd like that

Do you know where we can view the promo vid?

Originally Posted by sonic10158

I don't think this new rival will be quite as epic as Ash's rival in Hoenn, but I can dream.

Ash.... had no rival in Hoenn 0__o
Unless you mean his one shot League-only opponents which were Morrisson and Tyson who were both pretty boring characters...
Or maybe you meant to say Sinnoh instead of Hoenn

Anyway, I'm tired of people ridiculously saying a new rival would "replace" Trip
As if someone can have only one rival at a time... Ash already has AT LEAST 3 rivals (Trip, Bianca, Stephan) and possibly another 2 (Burgundy, Georgia)
May had both Drew and Harley... Dawn had Zoey, Kenny, Ursula, Nando, Jessielina... DP Ash had Paul, Barry, Nando, Conway...

EDIT:

Originally Posted by Ash Ketchum!

Do you know where we can view the promo vid?

You can see it here http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xquxz9_pokemon-black-white-2-anime-promo_videogames
Though it is NOT related to Best Wishes at all - it's just a game trailer done in anime-style... and discussions about it should go there: http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f650/cheren-b2w2-male-player-rival-possible-animation-short-132631/

Originally Posted by Piplup

You can see it here POKEMON BLACK & WHITE 2 ANIMATED PROMO - Video Dailymotion
Though it is NOT related to Best Wishes at all - it's just a game trailer done in anime-style... and discussions about it should go there: http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f650/cheren-b2w2-male-player-rival-possible-animation-short-132631/

I've already viewed this vid, but I didn't see any mentions of "Shootaru"

Originally Posted by Ash Ketchum!

Originally Posted by Piplup

You can see it here POKEMON BLACK & WHITE 2 ANIMATED PROMO - Video Dailymotion
Though it is NOT related to Best Wishes at all - it's just a game trailer done in anime-style... and discussions about it should go there: http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f650/cheren-b2w2-male-player-rival-possible-animation-short-132631/

I've already viewed this vid, but I didn't see any mentions of "Shootaru"

Someone just made that up XDD We don't know his real name yet...