Rival

is a Trainer Class in the game that battles the player often throughout the main storyline. A rival in the game can be a childhood friend of the player (in the case of Blue, Trace, Cheren, Bianca, Barry, Hugh, and Hop), a recently-met neighbor (in the case of Brendan/May, Wally, Calem/Serena, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, Hau, Marnie, and Nemona), or an antagonist (in the case of Silver, Bede, and to a lesser extent, Blue). When the player is choosing a First partner Pokémon, the rival will usually get the type that is strong against the player's Pokémon. For example, if the player chooses a Grass-type Pokémon, then the player's rival will pick up a Fire-type Pokémon. The exceptions are Lucas, Dawn, Bianca, Shauna, Hau, Hop, and Nemona who all choose the Pokémon with a type disadvantage. Wally starts out with a Ralts, rather than a conventional Hoenn starter.
Also, the player can sometimes give their rival a name. The names of the rivals that cannot be named are: Wally, Brendan, May, Cheren, Bianca, Shauna, Calem, Serena, Tierno, Trevor, Hau, Gladion, Hop, Bede, Marnie, Klara, Avery, Nemona, Kieran, and Carmine.
==In The Games==
Having a rival as the player's opponent was introduced in Generation I with the popular rivalry between Blue/Green and Red. A rival usually appears in the main game series throughout the game challenging the player to Pokémon battles. Rivals mostly appear early in the main story line. Their First partner Pokémon are usually the one that has a type advantage against the Pokémon that the player has chosen, for example: If the player chose Charmander, the rival will choose Squirtle, because Water is strong against Fire. Some exceptions are Bianca, Hau, Shauna and Hop who choose the starter that is weak against the player's. Most of the player rivals depend more on strength than strategy.
 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	 	
Blue/Green	Trace 	Silver	Brendan	May 	Wally 	Barry
 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	 	
Cheren 	Bianca	Hugh 	Calem 	Serena	Hau 	Gladion
 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	 	
Hop 	Bede 	Marnie	Klara 	Avery 	Nemona	Kieran
===Semi-Rival===
 is a rival who is more than a Pseudo-Rival but less than a Rival. They will battle the player, but much less frequently than a full Rival.
 	 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	
N	Shauna	Tierno	Trevor	Carmine
===Pseudo-Rival===
 is one of the main protagonists from the main Pokémon video game series. They are seen as a helping hand in bringing useful information, giving useful items and helping during tag battles. They are seen as rivals in being more in a competitive manner in completing the Pokédex instead of participating in Pokémon battles.
 	 	 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	
Ethan	Lyra	Lucas	Dawn	Nate	Rosa
==Anime==
In the anime series, many rivals for the main characters has been appeared. The rivals in the anime can be compared to that in the video games. The main characters also learns a lot from their rivals during their competitions. Even some of the main characters Pokémon have their own rivalry with other Trainer's Pokémon as well. Known rivalries in the series:
*It is well known that Ash has a lot of rivals during his travels, but his major rivals were: Gary Oak, Paul, Trip, Alain, Gladion and Bea — with the first 3 once unfriendly to Ash. Gary was a rival during Kanto and Johto, Paul during Sinnoh, Trip during Unova, Alain during Kalos, Gladion during Alola, and Bea and Leon during Galar. He also battles Cross in the I Choose You movie, and Hodge in the episode Serving Up The Flute Cup.
*Ash also had a lot of semi-rivals in the anime series. However, they are mostly more in collecting badges and holding friendly battles, which some of them achieved in competing with each other in the Pokémon League. Prominent minor rivals include Ritchie during Kanto, Harrison during Johto, Morrison and Tyson during Hoenn, Barry, Conway, Nando and Tobias during Sinnoh, Bianca, Stephan, Cameron and Virgil during Unova, Korrina, Sawyer, Tierno, Trevor during Kalos, and Kiawe and Hau during Alola.
*Jessie and James both had an unfriendly rivalries with Butch and Cassidy. Jessie has a major rivalry with Cassidy since childhood, the rivalry between James and Butch can be because of the times that they were assign to capture a red Snorlax, as James was chosen as Jessie's last-chance partner due to a history of not getting along with the preceding ones while Butch (whose name is always mispronounced to his annoyance) got along with Cassidy easily. Butch and Cassidy are both popular and Mid-Class Agents, while Jessie and James are both losers and Low-Class Agents. However, their rivalry stopped as Cassidy and Butch left Team Rocket for better lives.
*May has a friendly rivalry with her fellow coordinators Drew and Solidad and an unfriendly rivalry with Harley.
*Dawn has a rivalry with her fellow coordinators Zoey, Nando, Kenny and an unfriendly rivalry with Ursula and Jessilina.
*Iris has an unfriendly rivalry with Georgia, which comes from the fact that Iris wants to become a Dragon Master while Georgia focuses on defeating Dragon-type Pokémon.
*Cilan has an unfriendly rivalry with a fellow Connoisseur Burgundy. Cilan is an A-class, while Burgundy is only a C-class (which is the beginner and an assistant to A-class and S-class).
*Serena has friendly rivalries with Shauna, Miette, Nini and Aria (Kalos).
*Sophocles has a rivalry with Horacio. Both of them have Vikavolt and they competed on making their Pokémon stronger.
*Ash's Pikachu has a rivalry with its evolved form, Raichu, because of its first fight against Lt. Surge's Raichu. Unlike Team Rocket's Meowth, Pikachu is willing to work with a Raichu, as seen during the Summer Camp arc of the Diamond and Pearl series.
*Ash's Pikachu also has a rivalry with Paul's Electivire (even when it was an Elekid, and Electabuzz), both of them are Electric types.
*Ash's Pikachu had a rivalry with a Sunglasses Krokorok (even when it was a Sandile). Krokorok believed he was superior to Pikachu, due to type advantage. It had been following Ash and the others to battle Pikachu again. After it lost to Pikachu for the last time, it ended its rivalry with Pikachu and agreed to joined Ash.
*Ash's Pikachu has a rivalry with Jessie's Mimikyu. Mimikyu harbors great hatred against Pikachu and its kind will stop at nothing to take him down.
*Ash's Snivy has a rivalry with Iris' Emolga, both of them are females, and Emolga is a mischievous Pokémon who likes to be naughty, while Snivy watches her to stop her mischief.
*Ash's Greninja has a rivalry with Sawyer's Sceptile (even during their evolution lines). Both them are First partner Pokémon and Greninja's powers of Bond Phenomenon rivals the powers of Sceptile's Mega Evolution.
*Ash's Greninja has a rivalry with Alain's Charizard. Both them are First partner Pokémon and Greninja's power of Bond Phenomenon rivals the powers of Charizard's Mega Evolution, which causes their trainers to have their own rivalry because of Greninja.
*Ash's Incineroar has a rivalry with Professor Kukui's Incineroar, Ash's Incineroar want to become stronger than Professor Kukui's Incineroar and won't stop until he defeats him (Even when Ash's Incineroar was a Litten and Torracat ).
*Serena's Pancham and Clemont's Chespin has a rivalry with each other.
*Dawn's Piplup and Ash's Oshawott has a rivalry with each other. both of them are Water type First partner Pokémon and had a crush for Meloetta but they finally make amends with each other.
*Meowth has a rivalry with its evolved form Persian (including Giovanni's), mostly because of the fact that the Persian is Giovanni's favorite (which Meowth dislikes because, according to his stories, he was the former favorite of Giovanni).
*Tyson's Meowth has a rivalry with its evolved form Persian, because its story of battling a Persian in a snowing forest and lost the battle.
*Tyson's Meowth has an unfriendly rivalry with Team Rocket's Meowth, Tyson's Meowth called Team Rocket's Meowth a pathetic and embarrassment to other Meowth. Both of them shared the pain for their hatred toward their evolve form Persian.
*Ash's Rowlet, Ash's Lycanroc and Ash's Incineroar have a rivalry with their evolutions (Hau's Decidueye, Gladion's Lycanroc and Professor Kukui's Incineroar) respectively. The latter two have more antagonistic rivalry than the former two.
*Ash's Lucario has a rivalry with Bea's Grapploct, because it lost to it once in a battle in the World Coronation Series and wanted to battle again it someday (Even when Ash's Lucario was a Riolu). Lucario got to defeat Grapploct during Ash and Bea's third battle.
*Goh has a rivalry with Gary as they are both competing to get a spot on Project Mew. Gary treats Goh the same way he treated Ash in the original series as a way to push him to become a better Trainer. This treatment is what made Goh join Project Mew, and has an unfriendly rivalry with Quillon.
==Trivia==
* Gladion and Hop are the only rivals who have a Legendary Pokémon.
** Kieran has caught a Legendary, but lets the player catch it after he loses control of it.
* Ash has at least one species of Pokémon from the same evolutionary line as each of his major rivals.
* In every generation, except for generation IX, at least one of the player's rivals can be battled at the Pokémon League and/or Victory Road.
** In Generation IX you do battle a rival at a Pokémon League, but it isn't the main region's league.
==See also==
*Player
*First partner Pokémon
pl:Rywal
Category:Rivals
Category:Trainer classes