General Rival/Recurring Character Discussion

[G50]

I hope the new Rival really replace Trip,he so boring and doesn't belong as a rival to ash compared to his other rivals.I agree,Burgundy really needs a win

I think he'll just end up keeping both of the male rivals.

[AceFlonne]

I think he'll just end up keeping both of the male rivals.

IMO, I prefer the new rival to be more featured than Trip again for the same reason,he's boring and underveloped too much

[G50]

IMO, I prefer the new rival to be more featured than Trip again for the same reason,he's boring and underveloped too much

The thing is, we don't know how he's going to be portrayed in the Anime just yet.

[Lunanight]

I don't know what's more funny: The fact that Trip is really underdeveloped, or the fact that if he were to beat Ash at some point (By beat, I mean curbstomp, like Ash and Paul's first full battle), people would complain saying how he shouldn't win by that much.

I don't hate Ash because I want him to lose, or Trip for saying he is underdeveloped , but right now I cannot take Trip seriously which is bad since he is supposed to be the main rival, so the only way I'm going to take him seriously is if he beats Ash in the World Tournament, or to a much lesser and unlikely extent, if he comes unexpectedly close to beating an E4/Alder's pokemon. I don't mean to defeat one, since the day he beats an E4 pokemon is the day Ash's Pikachu evolves and Ash hooks up with any of the main female characters (Former might happen at the end of the entire series after Ash achieves his goal, latter is NEVER happening IMO for obvious reasons), but I mean like what Paul did to Cynthia. He brought Garchomp to it's knees and could have potentially beat it if Frenzy Plant hit, but Paul still got curbstomped. But Torterra was arguably his strongest pokemon for the whole of DP so unless he does that with Serperior to Alder's Volcarona, I don't see him lasting long in that tournament.

This kinda reminds me of the transition from Yugioh 5ds to Yugioh Zexal. You go from a darker story and more developed characters (5ds) to a light-hearted story where the new rival and/or antagonists are nowhere near as dark as the previous series, and the characters are less developed (Zexal). Sure, I like both of those series as well as both Paul and Trip, but going from a harsh, yet powerful trainer like Paul to a rival who is far from social and nowhere near as big of a threat like Trip just feels odd. Just saying Trip better evolve those pokemon and rack up the wins, otherwise I really can't take him seriously.

Bianca...where to begin. I like that she is Ash's first female rival. I know she is based off her game personality but turned up to eleven, but can you do well with a pokemon that is not Emboar, since this is the reason I hated Barry and that was because all we usually saw was his Empoleon. I understand it's her strongest pokemon, therefore she is going to use in most battles, but her other pokemon exist too. She's the opposite of Trip, since he has used a bunch of pokemon but only Servine and Conkeldurr are developed while his others (except maybe Frillish) don't have much going for them.

Burgundy...where to freaking start. Basically I don't like her for the same reason as Trip, but at least Trip has beat Ash twice and tied once so he has some wins over him. Burgundy has no on-screen wins to speak of. I do admit she did well against Iris, especially since it was against her strongest pokemon, Excadrill. That's like the only time I'd say she did well in a battle. IMO, she is basically a watered down version of Ursula, who in turn was a watered down version of Harley. Then again, Harley beat May in BF in one contest so there is still hope for her to beat Cilan and/or get to an B-rank. Sure getting to a B-rank is not much when Cilan is an A-rank, but it would she he improved and for Cilan to take her seriously because he has to, not because she wants him to.

[AceDetective]

That'd be just stupid, what Pokemon should do is have Ash win a few times against Trip finally, than have the guy get better after realizing his mistakes of being too overconfident and thinking Kanto people are lame. The guys been loosing over and over again to other people, see him win against Ash now would just be sad. They are just giving Ash a new rival any ways, Trip can be filler rival and be beaten by Ash right away with so much of a sweat, now that'd be funny and ironic.

yes they should do that (i really want them to do that) but they won't. the writers love an underdog story. there not gonna have ash beat trip in a battle before the league if they can build suspense for a big league match

[Hanto]

Trip urgently needs the proper treatment. After the meeting with Alder our poor guy got zero development, meanwhile Bianca received the massive spotlight. Despite the fact that her only battle versus Ash was in her debute episode and the girl is much more like the recurring traveling companion, not the rival, she got her own Gym battle(like Paul`s one in the DP), some character and pokemon development episodes(Chargestone arc), even her trainer`s skill got shocking improvement. So she got all the things that the main rival, Trip, should get instead.
I do like Shooti. He is really sympathetic character. He is not arrogant jerk like Paul, not the goofball like Barry and Bianca, not even the braggart like Gary. He is just the ordinar trainer with childhood goal.
The problem in the fandom, not even it Trip. When he beat Ash`s puny team in the Battle Club fans said that he`s Sue. When he lost to both Bianca and Dentron they said he is the rookie and loser. What are you want from him after all? Whatever he was, he is still bad character for you. He is not Paul. Don`t expect from him Paul-type actions.
In my opinion Trip is really nice guy with unique team and big bag of knowledge. He is very smart and helpful(remember the Aqua Jet), he want to get better and battle strong trainer(remember his enthusiasm towards Iris), he is very inquisitive and takes pictures of new places, people and pokemon.
Ash just perceives him as a friend, not as rival. That`s the reason of their rotten rivalry.

[AceFlonne]

The problem in the fandom, not even it Trip. When he beat Ash`s puny team in the Battle Club fans said that he`s Sue. When he lost to both Bianca and Dentron they said he is the rookie and loser. What are you want from him after all? Whatever he was, he is still bad character for you. He is not Paul. Don`t expect from him Paul-type actions.

But I like a Paul-esque Rival,Trip is extremely boring and underdeveloped,Bianca and Stephan are much more better rivals to ash than him
(I hope the new Rival finally vanquish him)

[Royal_Qeca]

We are going to see something between Trip and Alder during this new Season (BW2) so my hopes are still pretty high for him as a good rival. He will probably have a deeper development from now on.

[AceDetective]

We are going to see something between Trip and Alder during this new Season (BW2) so my hopes are still pretty high for him as a good rival. He will probably have a deeper development from now on.

really? I must of missed that where was it confirmed?

[Royal_Qeca]

really? I must of missed that where was it confirmed?

I don't understand if you are being sarcastic (I don't believe so) but, no it wasn't. I think that way because that's the only background we have about Trip (Alder being his idol and wanting to battle him to become Champion).

[AceDetective]

I don't understand if you are being sarcastic (I don't believe so) but, no it wasn't. I think that way because that's the only background we have about Trip (he is his idol and wants to battle him to became Champion).

i wasn't being sarcastic. the way your post was worded confused me and i thought it had been confirmed. but on the subject I would rather he met Marshall before he encountered alder again

[Royal_Qeca]

Yeah, that's another good point to believe that Trip will have a great development from now on. At least all these things about Alder, Champion League, etc that the writers have been building around him make me hopeful.

[AceDetective]

just him watching alder battle would be enough. trip can see alders strength and begin to realise his ideas are not 100% right

[Royal_Qeca]

That would be less exciting but it's ok.

[G50]

I don't know what's more funny: The fact that Trip is really underdeveloped, or the fact that if he were to beat Ash at some point (By beat, I mean curbstomp, like Ash and Paul's first full battle), people would complain saying how he shouldn't win by that much.

I don't hate Ash because I want him to lose, or Trip for saying he is underdeveloped , but right now I cannot take Trip seriously which is bad since he is supposed to be the main rival, so the only way I'm going to take him seriously is if he beats Ash in the World Tournament, or to a much lesser and unlikely extent, if he comes unexpectedly close to beating an E4/Alder's pokemon. I don't mean to defeat one, since the day he beats an E4 pokemon is the day Ash's Pikachu evolves and Ash hooks up with any of the main female characters (Former might happen at the end of the entire series after Ash achieves his goal, latter is NEVER happening IMO for obvious reasons), but I mean like what Paul did to Cynthia. He brought Garchomp to it's knees and could have potentially beat it if Frenzy Plant hit, but Paul still got curbstomped. But Torterra was arguably his strongest pokemon for the whole of DP so unless he does that with Serperior to Alder's Volcarona, I don't see him lasting long in that tournament.

He should really defeat some of the Gym Leaders in the Junior Tournament if he enters, before he defeats Ash again.

[HatersGonnaHate]

As for Georgia, I find it odd how she only has won twice...both were with Beartic. I know it's her main pokemon and all, but like I pointed out with Bianca, just because it's the main pokemon on her team does not mean it needs to be the only one with wins. Torterra was Paul's main pokemon but was not used against Ash, because it was freaking slow and would have got pwned by one of Ash's pokemon. We know she has a third pokemon since BW41, since you need three to enter the Don Battle, yet we are only seeing two of them.

Georgia has three wins on-screen, not two. She won twice with her Beartic and once with her Bisharp (it was against a Druddigon in the Donamite Tournament).

[Trainer Yusuf]

Trip needs some more meaningful character interactions than he needs more development(Luke seems like the perfect foil for him, and new rival filling a Barry/Harley/Ursula role and make him seem better is something I expect but I much rather have him just as a personality foil, not a threat level comparison board(tl; dr I want him to be around the same lavel as him but have some conflict or plot with him)). I am okay with his losses, no, I want him to lose more frequently, so he can see error of his pursuit of power more organically than, say, losing in league early(Gary), losing to a man he could never hope to defeat at the point he challanged him(Paul). The only problem would be that it would be exact same situation with Dawn and Ursula, but hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unless of course Trip sticks with the crew for a while and sees how they battle/live etc.(Barry, arguably Drew and Gary in Johto) But if we have only 150 something episodes for Best Wishes I don't think that will happen with evolutions, Iris/Cilan screentime, two other Gym Leaders, Elite Four and Champions etc. Besides, that doesn't exactly give sadistic enjoyment I could get from Georgia defeating Trip P:. But regardless, we need to see more of his team, period(even Conkeldurr, because the thing gets barely any victories and we only saw it for his showcasing of his line, also because it has such an awesome personality). Oh, and more Iris/Trip moments, because shipping googles. Well, okay, from a plot standpoint I can see him reveal that he lost horribly to Drayden before he closed his Gym, giving him some nice parallel to Iris(and Georgia if he was the one that won against her) and warn about him for Ash and make sure Iris start spinning her gears even more fastly to train(see Volkner/Sunyshore Gym and Barry, Paul and Ash's different reactions to Volkner's decision to give away badges for example).

Burgundy... ohh Burgundy. She is probably more popular than Iris on Japan but none of the writers care her enough in terms of as a threat. And due to nature Cilan's rivalry's with her she will likely either get a forced win a la Barry, Kenny, Harley or the usual last battle against main rival victory all main characters except Dawn got(Paul vs. Ash, May vs. Drew, Gary vs. Ash). At least she is still one of the most developed ones, but developed secondary rivals is not a problem anymore since all of them are well developed in Best Wishes thankfully. I hope they either make Pinot Noir a recurring threat for Cilan, or give Burgundy a massive bone(beyond making her seem powerful in the league, since with her popularity and battle crazy nature we will probably see her as a preliminary battle at least). Though I would much rather have both as threats for Cilan instead of one, so they can both push him in different directions.

I am okay with what Bianca, Stephan and Georgia(and Luke if you count him too, can't say anything for Masaomi other than I expect him to be a league rival(as Smash guys did bother to cosplay as him, in addition to him having lots of promotion from magazines and whatnot for Clubsplosion) and appear in another Club Battle Tournament, win against Trip and lose against Ash, to be basically "I won against the guy you lost horribly lol" ego rubbing(see Paul's wtf reaction for Ash's comment before his battle against Brandon, except this one would be much less powerful of course)).

So much parantheses augh.

[Mirage25]

I agree with you. Trip needs to appear more, and even though he is a rookie he also needs to win more on-screen, and so does Burgundy XD

Ash needs to show Trip what "The Boonies" are made of! (aka Charizard)

[TheSirPeras]

Ash needs to show Trip what "The Boonies" are made of! (aka Charizard)

Bring back Charizard, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Tauros, Kingler and Muk to show TriP!

[_Taidow_]

He doesn't need Charizard.

His Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Kingler, Snorlax, Tauros, and Muk are great. If done right.