Thread: Who's your favorite BW rival?

My favorite BW rival has to be Kenyan, if the writers plan on keeping him around at the end of the Don Battle.

What I love about Kenyan's character the most is the simplicty of its execution. To put it frankly, Kenyan is only present to battle certain trainers to the best of his ability. He doesn't drag down the mood of an episode by picking fights with specific characters, acting like a jerk just for the fun of it, or being ineptly overactive, immature, or naive. I always loved the down-to-earth rivals, simply because they were overshadowed by the other recurring characters who made an effort to speak out boldly and loudly every time they appear. They are the relative underdogs in this anime series, but are still powerful and respectable battlers in their own rights.

I always disliked how the writers put emotional tension first when it comes to introducing specific rival characters. Langley, for example, was entirely built around her dislike of Dragon-type pokemon in general, which stemmed from a loss against a Dragon-type trainer in the Dragon Village. That soon led to a confrontation with Iris (who loves and trains Dragon-types). This builds up a lot of unnecessary tension that fails to go anywhere. Iris and Langley will eventually fight each other, and it may be possible that these two characters may still despise each other by the time this series ends.

Burgundy is also yet another example. She may be eccentric in her own right, but I always pegged her out to be the inferior and female version of Cilan. As a younger trainer, Burgundy displays many of youth's foulest qualities such as impulsiveness and a narrow minded way of thinking. Burgundy will always be treated as the inferior and undeveloped connoisseur in my eyes unless the writers do plan to give the character a noticeable sense of growth in her respective field. I want to see what the writers are planning to do to convey that sense of growth, but right now I am not impressed by her presence in the anime.

I am sorry to say, but I am not fascinated by Bianca's presence in the anime, either. In my opinion, Bianca serves as nothing more than an inexperienced trainer who hopelessly requires additional assistance with other real life functions. Bianca's ineptitude can best be explained by a combination of her anxiety and excitement. The writers are not impressing me by introducing a "secondary rival" character who is only present to cause trouble for everybody else. My impression of the character cannot be helped since the anime focused on a similar rival that functioned in nearly the exact same ways almost a year ago. Unlike Barry, Bianca lacks both that experience and expertise in battling, as well as a solid goal or defining point in which the character can improve over time.

Bianca simply wants to collect as many gym badges as she can, and rushes off-screen in the exact same fashion that she had appeared on-screen in the same episode. I cannot take Bianca's endeavors with a serious face, yet.

With Kenyan's presence, you get the impression that a pokemon trainer does not need a petty reason to justify battling against others with everything that he or she has. Even though Kenyan has the capacity to display emotion (such as being visibly bothered that some characters fail to pronounce his name correctly), he does not let that become the basis of his decision to battle specific trainers. Kenyan shrugging this off most of the time is a testimony of his maturity.

Kenyan certainly stands out the most out of all of the BW rivals, just because he does not make a big promotion every time he makes an appearance. Furthermore, his presence in the anime will not be limited to picking fights with specific trainers out of spite or a desire to best them. Kenyan will battle anybody who will give him that good fight. I will certainly be rooting for this underdog as this series continues.

I like Bel the best, she makes me laugh every time she's on screen, really hope she does well in the league. Carbernet is pretty cool too, makes me wonder how they'll handle her since she should also collects gym badges and I could see her being in the league, will she switch to being Ash's rival now? I'd like that to happen with Langley she's become a favorite of mine as well.

Langley, cuz IHeartBitches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Plus, She has a Beartic and a Pawniard(C'mon Bisharp!!). IHeartBisharp!!(And Beartic)

Bel is my favorite. Her ditziness reminds me of me in some ways XDDD but I also like Cabernet, Langley and Trip XD

(English names)
Bianca. She reminds me of a squirrel for some reason. Hyper personality, cuteness proximity, and she's an overall goof. I love it. Except she never seems to win at anything.

Bianca..cause she makes me laugh. Carbenet would be second.

Oh, this is easy: Bianca and Burgundy. Can't say anything that hasn't been said already, except the fact that their existence makes the lackluster essence of the other BW rivals (except I haven't paid any attention to Kenyan yet) even more unjustified. We know the show can still make entertaining, unique rivals. They should all be awesome... and yet they aren't.

That's kinda hard.

Langley is mine, she's fun, funny, she pushes Iris to new heights, and she's got some cool Pokemon. She's fresh because I don't think we've ever heard of someone being a "Dragon Buster". Her rivalry is the only real one I can get excited about. Her fights are funny, and entertaining and further the rivalry.

Cabernet is good, but it felt like in her last appearance she lost her craziness. Seriously, what happened? I'm not a fan of her making Muland her new vintage either, when Mebujika would be much better as a vintage. Muland being defeated by Satoshi's newly caught Gamagaru? I'm not a fan of female rivals not being anything but, punching bags for the male rival. She's had her butt handed to her by Satoshi and Dento. Dento isn't returning fire which is kinda bland. But, her Pokemon are fun and her freak outs before the Don Battle, and her finger pointing quirk. Though, like Jun it got a bit annoying at times she's losing too much.



Bel's got some pretty cool Pokemon, there all great. She's another pick I have. Charbu being defeated by Pikachu easy with one Volt Tackle, and her Chirrami being beaten and Mero-Mero'd by Iris's Emonga was painful. It's boring to see her parade around like a fierce battler, only to lose to the likes of Iris's Emonga. But, I do think it's hilarious the way she was fangirling over Emonga, and her face got all scary and dark and Chirrami's too. The way Volt Switch sent her flying was funny, and Emonga's reactions to eating the apples. She's defeated by another male rival, Keniyan at the Don Battle. But, no need to worry she's still great at times. Just like Zo-Langley pointing out where Zorua was. She could stand to put up more of a fight in battles though. Even Shuuti didn't fall for Mero-Mero twice. Charbu was mero-mero'd and recalled as if it was defeated, at least Shuuti thought of a way to counter it.

DEAN!! the guy with the spikey hair and long jacket and Deerling at the tournament. I'm sorry no one doing for me except maybe Burgundy.

For me, it's either Carbernet or Bel.

I always find the barking-mad antagonistic rivals that provide the laughter and so Carbernet is no exception. I think her determination to beat Dent is funny, and I like how she has some good interactions with other characters than her rival.

For Bel I love her absolute ditziness and her enthusiasm. Like Carbernet, I also think she has great interactions with characters other than her rival.

Bianca and Kenyan. I like Bianca's ditzy personality and Kenyan's partnership with Sawk

I'd probably go with Burgundy. I like her extreme determination to beat Cilan and being annoyed at how friendly he is whenever they meet is pretty funny. Despite always losing, she seems like a strong trainer and has made a decent amount of progression in the series. I think she's one of the more entertaining rivals in the series, even though her attitude can also get annoying at times. I also root for her over her opponents most of the time since she does seem to work on her skills with her Pokemon to deserve at least one on-screen victory. Though, I tend to root for underdog character more often than not anyway.