Thread: Who is your favourite rival?

Garry is deffinatly my favourite rival (for many reasons not just nostalgia) closely follower by paul because he was very interesting and he didn't even see himself as Ash's rival at first (to him Ash was just an annoyance) eventually Paul gained respect for Ash and realised that there is no "RIGHT" training method after seeing what Ash did with chimchar and blaze. But Garry is my favourite character in the pokemon anime as a whole so I would still have to go with him.

Paul was the best, hands down. He was the complete opposite of Ash, plus his team was pretty badass. Best of all, he and Ash had the best rival battle in the series so far, which pretty much made Ash's battle with Gary look like those cute Tackle fights you have in the beginning of each Pokemon game ever, lol.

Either Gary or Stephan. Would have been Nando, but they didn't do him justice.

Harisson, from the Johto League.

He looked badass (really liked that he used lots of Fire/Fighting/Dark types, heck he has a HOUNDOOM for a pet!) without having to be a total jerk (like Gary, Paul, Trip). He had nice interactions with Ash and Gary. Plus. his full battle with Ash was quite great.

Similarly, I could say Tyson from Hoenn, but his 2 Grass-types plus unevolved Meowth don't make up for it. Let alone his 6v6 with Ash wasn't good at all. So, I vote Harisson.

GARY OAK. What's not to love? :P

Gary and Stephan

I like Gary, Paul, and Bianca the most.

Paul by far. The fact that he and Ash were always portrayed as exact opposites added so much tension to every encounter and battle they had and to their rivalry as a whole. Their battle in the Sinnoh League was so action packed that it needed to be split between three episodes which is still unique to this day.

The other two main rivals, Gary and Trip, don't even come close since I don't like rivalries where one of the people involved is a jerk for the sole reason of being a jerk.