Rival


 * For the Elite Four in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, see Blue (game).
 * For the Japanese opening theme, see The Rivals.

A rival (Japanese: ライバル rival) is one of the main characters in the Pokémon games that is well known to the protagonist undefined and has similar skills, goals, and achievements. Rival characters appear frequently during the hero's quest, having a role in several of the games' events and often challenges him or her in s. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of said character.

Core series
In the core series, a rival is a recurring opponent to the undefined throughout the game. This character class appeared beginning in Generation I and in every main series game since. Typically, rivals will be met by the player early in the game, usually around the time the player receives their starter Pokémon. In most games, the rival will also obtain a starter Pokémon and will usually participate in the player's first Pokémon battle against a Trainer. From then on, rivals will appear frequently throughout the player's journey, often being one step ahead of the player as the player moves through the region, meeting and battling the player at various points in the game with a progressively stronger and diversified party. Usually, they must be defeated in order to continue the game; the most important of these battles happening either right before or during the player's challenge to the Elite Four.

After the defeat of the Elite Four and the Pokémon Champion, the rival can usually be battled at the player's leisure, but only at certain times with increasingly powerful Pokémon. More often than not, they will have the starter Pokémon of their home region that is strong against the one the player chose at the beginning of the game.

Like the player character, some rivals have the option to be named by the player.

The following are the characters considered to be rivals in the games. It should be noted, though, that only and  have ever received the Rival Trainer class; all others have been referred to as  Trainers (Generations III-V) or Pokémon Trainers (Generation VI onward).

Additionally, in, Blue is referred to as "Champion Blue" during the Champion battle and rematch.

Pokémon Card GB series
In the Card GB series, Ronald does not use actual Pokémon themselves, but cards instead.

In the main series
Various rivals for the main characters have also appeared in the.


 * Ash's rivals
 * 's main rival in the original series was . They were close when they were younger, but their friendship ended when they argued over a Poké Ball and broke it. Eventually, Gary gained some respect for Ash, and after losing to him in the Silver Conference, they became friends again altogether.
 * Paul is Ash's main rival for the duration of the . When they met, Paul despised Ash due to his approach to Pokémon training and friendship, constantly insulting him every time they crossed paths. However, he eventually grew to respect Ash after losing to him in the Lily of the Valley Conference.
 * is Ash's secondary Sinnoh rival. Unlike Ash's other major rivals, the two have a friendly rivalry, though on occasion Barry did comment that Ash was weak and made rude comments about him.
 * Ash's minor rivals include Nando and Conway who, while they battled Ash more than once across an entire saga, have a smaller role than the other rivals.
 * Trip was Ash's only unfriendly rival in the . The rivalry formed when Trip found out that Ash was from Kanto, a region Trip thinks very little of. Trip believed Ash to be a redneck from the boonies who needed to go back to the basics of Pokémon, causing a heated rivalry. However, they were shown to respect each other to some extent in various episodes. Like with Gary and Paul, the two became friends when Ash beat Trip at the Vertress Conference.
 * was Ash's primary rival for the first part of the, with serving as a minor secondary rival. During the second part of his Kalos journey, however, Ash struck up serious rivalries with Alain and Sawyer. Alain wished to test the unique power of Ash and his , while Sawyer looked up to Ash and made it his goal to surpass him.
 * is a recurring rival of Ash in the . Ash and Gladion's rivalry was mutually respectful from the start, with Gladion recognizing Ash's strength almost immediately. Gladion eventually became more dedicated to surpassing Ash after witnessing his and his Pikachu's aptitude for Z-Moves, leading him to undertake the island challenge.
 * Cross could be said to be 's rival in the alternate storyline depicted in I Choose You!. In a similar manner to Paul, Cross abandoned his, deeming it to be too weak, and allowing Ash to catch it. Their relationship could even be said to be antagonistic, with Cross being even more aggressive than Paul. Cross's aggressiveness and thirst for power is derived from an inferiority complex, from being able to see , but not being chosen as the Rainbow Hero. In the end, despite losing to Ash and his former Charmander, who by that point had evolved into Charizard, he still attempted to steal the Rainbow Wing in order to battle Ho-Oh and prove himself as the strongest Trainer.
 * Ash also has friendly rivalries with Ritchie,, Morrison, , , Stephan, , Virgil, and 🇺🇳.


 * Other characters' rivals
 * had a friendly and short-lived rivalry with Suzie.
 * Jessie and James have an unfriendly rivalry with Cassidy and Butch, respectively.
 * has friendly rivalries with Drew and Solidad, and an unfriendly rivalry with Harley.
 * has friendly rivalries with Zoey and, and unfriendly rivalries with Ursula and Jessilina. She also has Nando as a minor rival.
 * Johanna had a friendly rivalry with Lila when they were younger. Lila was the first person to defeat Johanna in a Contest Battle, but she eventually gave up and became a.
 * has an unfriendly rivalry with Georgia, which comes from the fact that Iris wants to become a Dragon Master while Georgia focuses on defeating Pokémon.
 * has an unfriendly rivalry with Burgundy, which comes from when he defeated her at the Striaton Gym, and also from Cilan's better reputation as a.
 * Stephan engaged in an unfriendly rivalry with Montgomery during the Clubsplosion.
 * Serena has friendly rivalries with Shauna, Miette, Nini, and.

In Pokémon Origins
appears as 's rival in Pokémon Origins, fulfilling his traditional role in the.

In Pokémon Generations
's rival appears in The Challenger, becoming the  shortly before Red challenges him to a battle over the title.

's rival appears in The Legacy, although the two are never shown encountering each other.

In the Phantom Thief Pokémon 7 manga

 * Hiori has Rocco.

In the Pocket Monsters Zensho manga

 * has.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga
Several of the characters in Pokémon Adventures have been rivals to each other.
 * and.
 * and.
 * and Eusine.
 * and.
 * Team Magma and Team Aqua.
 * and.

In the Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Adventure! manga
Several characters have rivals in this series.
 * Hareta has and Koya.
 * Mitsumi has Jupiter.

In the Pokémon Gotta Catch 'Em All! manga

 * Shu has a number of one-off rivalries in early volumes, but starting with Enter the Rival! in, his recurring rival becomes Nagi.

In the Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys manga

 * 🇬🇼 has 🇬🇼.

In the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga

 * has and.

In the Pokémon RéBURST manga

 * Ryouga has Hariru.

In the Magical Pokémon Journey manga

 * Hazel has Coconut.

Trivia

 * Ash has at least one species of Pokémon from the same evolutionary line as each of his major rivals. Gary captured a and uses a, Paul uses a  and , Barry uses a  and , Trip uses a  and ,  uses an , Sawyer uses a , Alain uses a  and an , and  uses a.
 * Powerful enemies in the Battle Royales of and &mdash;chosen from Miis&mdash;are called rivals as well.
 * In every generation, at least one of the player's rivals can be battled at the Pokémon League and/or Victory Road.
 * According to an interview with Junichi Masuda, the reason that the rivals have become less antagonistic is due to the following reason: "I think the biggest reason that rivals were more of a jerk in the early days is that we were just limited in what we could express with the pixel graphics. There's not much that you can do with that kind of little sprite on the screen, so we worked harder to characterize them through dialogue and give them certain personalities. Also, because it's just dialogue and there's not a whole lot going on on the screen, it doesn't give as harsh of an impression even if they're jerks, I think. Now we have HD graphics and the visuals are much more impressive. If you also made him a jerk, the impression would be a lot stronger on players. Another thing, just my own personal take, is that it feels that people with those kinds of personalities these days are just not as accepted by players as they were back then."

In other languages
Rivale Rival Rival Rivale ライバル 劲敌