By now, Pokémon fans have become accustomed to the mainline games taking a certain route. You’re a new trainer, you pick up your starter Pokémon and begin a journey around the region to become the champion… you know how this goes. While the franchise has added a few wrinkles and upsets in recent entries (Pokémon Sun and Moon’s island challenge was a little different, for instance), that’s just the way these games seem to work.
Another crucial element is the fact that you’ll be hounded by a rival throughout most of your adventure. There have been lots of them across the course of the series, and most have made a nuisance of themselves in one way or another. Let’s take a look at some of the worst things the rivals of the games have done.
15 Trace/Blue Evolving Their Starter When You Can’t
Trace was the reincarnation of Blue for Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, and he starts with the opposite version’s Pokémon than the one the player chose. However, unlike the player, Trace can evolve his Pikachu or Eevee while the player is stuck with the base version of their starter. This just seems like a scummy move, and Blue did the same in Yellow by evolving his Eevee into Flareon, Vaporeon, or Jolteon.
14 Cheren Being A Bit Condescending
This may not be a grand sin, but there was something just a little annoying about Cheren. Unlike most other rivals, he was reserved, arrogant, and a tad condescending. He was a departure from previous rivals for sure, but was it a good one? That is of course up to your discretion, but he did end up feeling like a less villainous and slightly friendlier Silver. Bianca was definitely the preferable rival from Black and White.
13 Wally Being Too Scared To Catch A Pokémon On His Own
Characters being scared of Pokémon is a weirdly old facet of this franchise, but Wally’s fear of encountering a Pokémon was the first time the idea really took center stage in a Pokémon videogame. Wally’s father gets the player to help Wally catch his first Pokémon, which turns out to be a Ralts. Beyond this, Wally is actually a very likeable and sympathetic character in Ruby/Sapphire/Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. In fact, his Victory Road showdown with the player in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire is among the best in the entire franchise.
12 Barry Almost Getting You Killed By Wild Pokémon
In Pearl, Diamond, and Platinum Barry is your hyperactive and impatient rival. He’s a well-meaning and likable guy, but he does almost get you killed in the very beginning of the game. He is so eager to go check out the wider world of Sinnoh that he drags you out of Twinleaf Town into tall grass rife with Starly, Bidoof, and Shinx. Thankfully, Professor Rowan and Dawn/Lucas stops you before you get Tackle’d to death.
11 Hau Choosing The Starter Pokémon Weak Against The Player’s Own
We’ll start with a silly act from a rival that isn’t exactly terrible, but still… come on, Hau. What would your Gramps say about this?
Sun and Moon begin in a familiar fashion, with the player character starting off their journey by meeting a rival and picking a starter Pokémon. Hau’s mistake, however, is that he picks the starter with a type disadvantage against yours, which rivals don’t tend to do. Still, he’s teaching us to utilize opponents’ weaknesses and we appreciate him for it.
10 Klara/Avery Cheating Against You
Klara/Avery is the sort-of-rival the player gets saddled with upon reaching the Isle of Armor in Sword and Shield. Klara specializes in Poison-Type Pokémon while Avery uses Psychic-Types, and both are trying very hard to impress Master Mustard. However, the player keeps beating them in every Pokémon battle to the point that Klara/Avery decides to go to some extremes in finally winning against the player. Klara pre-set up the battlefield with Toxic Spikes while Avery prepares Psychic Terrain to give his Pokémon the advantage. When you win, they fess up to Mustard, and there seems to be no hard feelings–but of course that is ultimately up to you.
9 Blue Stealing That Eevee In Pokémon Yellow
Now, some rivals are perfectly competent trainers who help the player in countless battles and don’t really get in the way (Serena, perhaps, if we’re feeling generous). Others start to become a bit of a thorn in the player’s side as the game progresses. Still, others express their annoying ways right from the get-go. Our old friend Blue definitely falls in the latter camp (though he’s a fair trainer too, of course).
When you first begin your journey in Generation I’s Pokémon Yellow, you know that your starter is going to be that most familiar of electric rodents, Pikachu. That’s really what you signed up for. Why is it a Pikachu, though? Because Blue stormed into Professor Oak’s lab, pushed the player out of the way, and snatched up the starter Eevee, that’s why. Oak then had to give the player a wild Pikachu he’d caught instead. Rivals will do much worse, sillier and/or annoying things later, as we’ll see, but what if we wanted that Eevee?
8 Marnie Riling Up Team Yell
Of course, you can’t have a new generation of Pokémon games without a new villainous team coming along for the ride. For Pokémon Sword and Shield, it’s Team Yell, the punk rock/soccer hooligan inspired band of ne’er do wells.
Unlike previous evil teams, such as the iconic Team Rocket, these rebels don’t exactly have criminal intent or plans for world domination. All these really do is follow Marnie around and cheer her on (that and continually pop up throughout the player’s journey to block their progress temporarily. Whose fault is that? Marnie’s, that’s who. They’re her groupies.
7 Tierno Making His ‘Dance Team’
Pokémon X and Y presented an interesting problem. In this game, the player left on their adventure with four companions (Serena/Calem, Tierno, Shauna, and Trevor), all of whom can be considered rivals. As such, each of them needed a different goal, a different reason to be making the journey.
Tierno, for his part, has a huge passion for dancing. His intent throughout the game, then, is to create a dancing-themed team, comprised of Pokémon with dancing-related moves. This is all well and good, we suppose, but he only has three such moves on his team over the full course of his journey: Swords Dance, Petal Dance, and Feather Dance. Rivals are supposed to be actual challenges, aren’t they? Stop with the gimmicks, Tierno!
6 Gladion Battling On Team Skull’s Side
Now, we can appreciate the character of Gladion, we really can. Often, morality in the Pokémon world is very black and white, and it’s refreshing to experience the arc of a character who’s much more multi-faceted.
Is Gladion a villain? Not really. He did spend a time working for Team Skull as an ‘Enforcer,’ though, as well as allying with the player to bring down the Aether Foundation and his mother’s dangerous work. He’s on everyone’s side (and against everyone) at some point during the title’s events, so where else could we put him and his plotting than square in the middle?
5 Silver’s Pokémon Theft
As we saw earlier in this list, Blue has been known to get a little overzealous in his pursuit of Pokémon. This was the sole reason why the player starts Pokémon Yellow with a Pikachu in the first place. When it comes to that sort of action, though, Silver’s behavior was far worse.
This ruthless trainer makes a terrible first impression in Pokémon Gold and Silver. He outright steals a start Pokemon from Professor Elm’s lab after the player has picked one, then steals another from a Cianwood City trainer. Still, as the son of Team Rocket’s notorious Giovanni, there’s really no reason to expect any better from him. Next up, we have a couple of story spoilers for Sword and Shield, so don’t read any further if you haven’t completed the post-game story!
4 Bede’s Collaboration With Chairman Rose
As was the case with Gladion, Chairman Rose is definitely a moral gray area. His ambition to collect the Wishing Stars would have had potentially disastrous consequences, but he thought he was working for the greater good. That’s something, at least.
To that end, he sponsored Bede and supported his efforts in the Gym Challenge, until he went too far and destroyed Stow-On-Side’s mural in pursuit of the Wishing Stars. He’d overcome his rude and arrogant ways and become a lot more grounded later (as the Fairy-type Gym Leader), but not before pushing things much too far.
3 Hop Losing The Rusted Sword/Shield To Sordward/Shielbert
Like all rivals in Pokémon games, Hop has attracted mixed feelings among players. Some love him, some hate him. Opinions are interesting things, aren’t they? One thing we can all probably agree on is that Hop had quite a ride over the course of the story.
He lost, doubted himself, made peace with his limitations and came out stronger for it. Not just once, either. For this to happen, though, he had to take some severe losses, one of the major ones being against Sordward/Shielbert during the post-game. His loss against this dastardly duo (which one he battled depends on the version you’re playing, of course) meant that they escaped with either the Rusted Shield or Rusted Sword. This failure kicked off quite the fetch quest and had potentially disastrous consequences.
2 Ronald Absolutely DEMANDING Matches
If you’re only familiar with the mainline Pokémon games, you’ll never have had the dubious pleasure of meeting Ronald. He serves as the rival in the Game Boy Color title Pokémon Trading Card Game and Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR! How shall we put this? He’s… tenacious.
When Ronald wants to play a match with you, he’s darn well going to do so. the whole darn army of Mordor and seventeen more Eyes of Sauron wouldn’t stop him. When he appears, a duel will instantly start, with no option to save your progress or anything at all before the match begins. Does that sound super uncool? That’s because it is.
1 Hau’s Magical Mystery Tour Of Alola
As fans know, the Pokémon franchise gets a lot of flak for holding the player’s hand too much. This backlash isn’t unwarranted, either, and is perhaps at its worst in Pokémon Sun and Moon.
The ever-enthusiastic Hau and Lillie are keen to show their new friend the sights of Alola. This is completely fine, but the obnoxious nature of the constant early interruptions gets to a lot of players. Yes, Hau, you just want to help, but we’d also like to be able to walk more than three inches before you tell us how hungry you are. Again.
NEXT: 10 Pokémon Way Shorter Than They Look
