>>57418342
Cheren and Bianca I like on the idea that their teams contrast
>Cheren gets the starter strong to you and Bianca gets the starter weak to you
>They both get the monkeys you don't
>Cheren gets the traditional first bird standard to most rivals while Bianca gets the Munna she tried to protect
>Cheren gets the Route 1 Dark cat and Bianca gets the Route 1 Normal dog
>Cheren's name means black and he wears more black and Bianca's name means white and she wears more white
>Cheren uses items across his whole team because he's more competitive as a Trainer while Bianca struggles to keep up as the weaker Trainer
>Both have post-game teams of 6 and can be rematched
>Cheren stops wearing glasses and becomes a Gym Leader while Bianca starts wearing glasses and becomes Professor Juniper's assistant
Now that seems like they have a lot going for them, but I also have complaints.

Cheren's character arc is incredibly phoned in, basic, trite, clichéd, etc. It's boring, bog standard, you just wait for it to be over because you don't care about it whatsoever since it's so telegraphed. His team feels like it's following a boring template for a rival, while his final two Pokémon feel completely random. There are no thematically-interesting Pokémon showcasing character growth beyond early Pokémon evolving, something that is not unique to him. While he's competitive team-wise, I never got the impression that he was using you as a measuring stick or had to prove himself by beating you. Part of the problem is that he and Bianca have to exist equally since you're all childhood friends and neighbors, so he can't hyper focus on you and ignore her. Bianca manages to be the more interesting character by actually doing what Gen III failed to finish. Unfortunately she became a template herself for characters who accept mediocrity, but it's still functionally better to have her than a supporting friend/rival who you only ever team up with like in Gen IV.

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Who is the best 'friendly' rival?It's not this faggot, of course.

Who is the best 'friendly' rival?
It's not this faggot, of course.