What makes a good rival?

Raping your future waifu

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He beat Marik, who used the anime version of Ra which was by far the most broken God card. Did Kaiba do that? No, as a matter of fact, Kaiba's never won against a God card user. What a fucking loser.

He shouldn't even have gotten to Marik. Odeon was fucked over
So really its a wash that he got fucked over by the god card.
That is just fair

They've literally only battled twice...

Strong personal connection to the MC

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Shinji's long streak of failure is weirdly endearing to me

Being greatly concerned with one-upping their respective rival and needs to be an asshole about it

Sasuke is not a good rival, I agree. But he would have made a better MC than Naruto

Eh I think Sasuke is a bad character overall whether he is the rival, villain or MC or anything.

Has to be an ass about it whenever he's better than you at something, has to have an attitude but should never go too far. Also moments of brotherhood here and there. Both you and your rival should improve constantly to surpass one another. Bond of rivalry is one of the best if not the best bonds that exist.

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>Joey didn't need ancient Egyptian prophecies
If he had one, he might've actually one more than a handful of times
>God cards
He REALLY needed those, shame he didn't ever get one since he was a fucking loser
>Adoptive daddy's inheritance
He didn't adopt anything. Kaiba owned 49% of their zaibatsu and Mokuba transferred the last 2% needed to get majority ownership, then the dude killed himself. That's usurping, not inheriting.

>one
*won

Fuck this scene was amazing, YGO had great music, whenever God's Wrath plays I get hard.

fpbs
I came here just to see Kaiba in a MC rival thread.

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Showing up more than half a dozen times helps. Gary's not even a rival honestly, he's basically some rando that Ash fixated on because he didn't have a proper rival for the longest time. Gary's not even that good as a trainer, which is part of why he quit.

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This. Also, they need character development, feels, and sentimental moments that are equal in intensity (but take up less screen time) to those of the hero.

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Akira from HnG was pretty cool because of the ability gap between him and Hikaru. It was a neat twist to have a rival that was miles better than the MC for most of the series.

Kiss him, you fool!

-Rival wants something as much as the MC does.
-Rival is as similar to the MC in important ways as they are different from them.
-Respect factor. Love em or hate em, the rival is respected. Someone it would be satisfying to see the MC defeat but not a shame to see the MC lose to. To this end, the rival should be a character who resonates with the audience. And yes, that means people may even cheer for the rival against the hero/protagonist.
-Dignity factor. There doesn't have to be bad blood or lack of friendliness, but no cocksucking or sympathy. It goes both ways. The way Deku worships his bully is just pathetic.
-Dynamic character, the rival can be a great ally or a terrible foe.

*sycophancy

He's the jerk you want to see lose but secretly want to be like.

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I thought about it. And the answer is just plain spite. He really just hates the hero y'know.

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>The way Deku worships his bully is just pathetic.
Its everyone in that universe
its so weird

Angry homolust

Kaiba is cool but Joey is my nigga. He should've beaten Marik, it's not fair.

Yeah, pretty much.

Ritchie

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Just make your rival gay for MC.

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Naruto would've been perfect if Rock Lee was the MC.

Rock Lee needs his own show. I always watched his filler episodes.

-Whether it's played straight or for-laughs, their personality and goals are consistent;
-The relationship with the MC can start as superficial, but should grow familiar over time;
-Affable, even if they have some quirks, so the audience is happy to see them on-screen;
-Has a similar goals, giving them the chance to work with and against the MC in a natural way;
-A depth that lets the audience get invested in the character, beyond "named mook";
-Is always within the MC's powerlevel without bullshit mechanics for a sense of fair-play;
-A writer / artist / VA that genuinely loves the part to bring it all to life

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Don't forget the homoerotic undertones.

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He did get his own show

The best rivalries should always end with one sexually dominating the other and turning their rivals into housewives.

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Lina and Naga are so fun together. Shame she don't appear in the tv shows.

I wish actual martial and weapon based skills mattered and got to shine

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Rival is in it to prove themselves superior to the MC and is just a bad ass "normal" version of the MC who works harder and does things to get ahead.
Those guys are always fun.

Rival wants something and has their own goals the MC just so happens to stand in the way in some way.
Those guys are good for a story.

The Rival is a dark mirror or the MC and either wants to corrupt them or prove they are superior for following their path
Those guys are pure drama kino.

Rival as just some random powerhouse who dislikes the MC and wants to ruin their shit for fun or sees the MC as a distraction.
Those guys add in some much needed spice to the story.

You people are so fucking thirsty.
Holy shit.

I actually don't very much like the non Naga slayers stuff. I think she and Lina have better chemistry and to be frank after a while Slayers humor tends to grate so the movies and ova's brevity is a nice plus.

Rivalry is thirsty by definition

Same here. Slayers with Naga is much better than Slayers without Naga.

>when your only purpose was to fill the two boys, one girl dynamic

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Joey is the underdog, he must lose to the big bad

The thing about Sasuke is that he's proactive in the plot. That alone makes him at least not boring to watch.

Someone who has the same drive as the protagonist but without his worldview, instead believing in himself or the pursuit of power as opposed to companionship or the good of everyone else (basically more humane traits).

...

Shadow the Hedgehog.

I stoped watching pokemon when during johto. are they still rivals?

I don't care what anyone says
Being the evil version of the hero is the best. Doubly so if the rival constantly wishes to beat the hero and grows stronger but never fully joins his posse

Gary was the far better rival than Trip, Shota, Cameron and Alain.

A good rival is somebody who can push the protagonist for further development. Ash's drive to surpass Gary allowed him to go though further development as a rival. Even though he had less screentime, his influence on the story could be felt all the time in the story.

Paul was the only rival on par with Gary, if he wasn't better.

The best kind of rivalries are the one where there is immense tension between the two rivals, but instead of fucking it out they fight it out.

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No
Gary hasn't been Ash's rival simce johto.
And he only appeared in like 5 or less episodes since then

Test

Daily Reminder that Kaiba is the very definition of Autism

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fpbp

Any rivalry that doesn't end in an epic 1 on 1 duel is SHIT. Prove me wrong.

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I think a good rival doesn't overstay their welcome. It's hard to explain, but even a "love to hate" rival can be overused in the story and then become annoying. They have to have presence and add to the stakes when it really counts.

Sherry and Brago from Zatch Bell come to mind, specifically the manga. The author knew not to have them appear too much, so you'd wonder what they're up to - in a way they were protagonists of a seperate story that occasionally crossed paths with Zatch and Kiyo.

He's so hilariously despicable that you just have to like him.

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based and bluepilled

Same goal; different method

that's the difference for people like Gary (who also wanted to be a pokemon master) and Bakugo (who also wants to be the next All Might) and faggots like Sasuke (who doesn't give a damn about being Hokage he just wants vengeance)

even when it comes to Naruto girls she's really underused

Bakugo definitely counts as one of the bad ones.
Don't you dare bring him up as a good example.

You absolute pleb.

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same goal: wanting to be All Might
different method: trying to do that by being as powerful as All Might (whereas Deku tries by being as moral and inspiring as him)

also he fits this criteria people love/hate them both pretty equally (though Kaibaboy is better)

No he definitely does not fit that criteria of Let me quote >Basically Kaiba is perfect
>Vegeta is okay
>if you went for Sasuke or Bakugo you went too far and its shit.

Sexual tension.

The anime filler at least gave her SOME semblance of a character arc. And even then they litteraly made it about her coming to terms with how much a useless sideline character she is. Like holy shit how wasted can a character get. Also the only girl to not be officially given a pairing at the end of Naruto (even then it is heavily hinted that she ended up with Lee, it wasnt official). I think Tenten had the same issues that Shinji did. If you were to really have them go all out and flesh out their abilities they would be OP. So just ignore them and never have them actually fight.

ping pong did it best imo. Rival has to be higher skill than MC but choose to forge his own path.
Gary is similar.

Foil to MC challenges them mentally and physically, complete antithesis to MC's philosophy (if one is selfless other is selfish, if one is silly the other is serious etc.)
have similar goals to fight for allowing lot of competition but no moral desire for MC to remove him

you could say they complete one another

Gary is the oddest case for a rival in Pokemon. For what it's worth, the Anime didn't actually start doing rivalrys until Pokemon DP.

who are these two?

By actually having the MC compete with him instead of acting like gay lovers.
Sasuke was a pretty good rival in part 1. Both of them wanting to get stronger than the other, Naruto being stronger is one of the main reasons Sasuke leaves the village in the first place. Part 2 sucks because Naruto turned into his gay stalker instead of a rival like in part 1.
Deku and Ippo are the absolute worst in this regard. The guys in Ippos gym even make fun of him for acting like Miyata’s lover.

Gary was still a good rival, the fact that he had less screen time but still manage to influence Ash is the proof of that.
Unlike current pokemon anime that follows one pattern --

1. Introduce an edgelord
2. Make Ash lose to him in every battle
3. Finally let Ash have one victory on the league.

And they make thing worst by not letting Ash defeat the edgy rival at all like Alain. What is even the point of having a rival that Ash never meant to defeat?

they're from an anime called scryed

The last one is so annoying though, i hate it so much. Aka bakugo and dio back in season 1

What a shame, I liked her the most.

Effectively any other character in Naruto would be a better MC than the title character, so that's not saying much.

Bakugo isn't even the best rival in Hero Acca, let alone a good example of one.

This. Genwunners like to pretend he was a good rival but Ash literally only battled him twice in the original series, gaining respect for Ash in the johto league.

Paul was Gary done right, edginess aside

Are you claiming to be Malik or Joe Joe on this merry go round Weevil boy? Oh Garfield, you had me at pet force!

>Don’t you bring that internet photo shit in my house Quattro!

Sports Anime version: Best rivals are the ones who are basically what the protagonist would become in a years time if they didn't have their friends/ideals to support them. Maybe it's luck they're already ahead of the protagonist, maybe it's hard work, maybe it's their family name, something in their life has allowed them to skip ahead on the road to success ahead of the protagonist but their position isn't something that is undeserved. They should be someone that everyone else is chasing, but it's only when the protagonist catches up to them that they start to open their eyes. They don't even have to "overtake them", just finally having an equal can be enough to make them question their own way of doing things. The protagonist is the one that teaches them that what they're doing is supposed to be something they can enjoy rather than just something they do because they're the best at it. They don't need to be evil. They don't even need to be bad people. They should never need to cheat to win. They should have some degree of morals of doing everything the right way. They just need to look down on the protagonist at first only to find themselves learning things like respect from them.

And then at the end of the series, with the score standing at 2-2, the protagonist and rival have one more match that we never see the result of.

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>so rich he has his own fucking space station in the shape of his initials
>has a private blue eyes jet that he pilots himself
>builds a fucking afterlife transport system to temporarily kill himself so he can win against a dead pharaoh in a children's card game
>makes 10 million in a single day when he was only a teenager

is anyone more alpha than kaiba?

How come the rival is always the blue guy?

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>best rival is a dick

>best rival is an autist

>best rival is an ojou-san

Not a very good list of rivals if you ask me.

literally who?

Shigeru literally showed up for like 5 episodes

Stop being genwunners

Kaiba will never be topped.

Someone who is as equally strong or stronger then the MC who is also a dick but not wrong in their way of thinking. Paul was GOAT because he was Ashs opposite - believing in hard training and capturing naturally superior Pokemon of their species compared to Ashs - any Pokemon can be strong as long as you work and train hard while also caring about their well being.

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Best girl

Does Paul ever come back ?

He was more of a villain than a rival
Not bad but also not really what makes for a good rival story.

In the end credit of one of the Black and White ED's. Actually reappearing though? No.

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>What makes a good rival?
Being a creepy, homosexual rapist.

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Good rival is always gay for MC.

what's wrong with the last one?

>Amuro is prettier than Char
Unacceptable

I honestly never got much homoerotic tones from Kaiba and Atem/Yugi
Atem and Yugi are the gay

Someone who's close enough to the MC in skill to pose a legitimate threat to them, but who isn't a straight up bad guy. Someone who is neck and neck with the MC in terms of skill for the entire series and shares a mutual respect with him for it. Gary wasn't a rival to Ash because Ash was never even remotely on Gary's level. Kaiba is an amazing character, but he wasn't a good rival to Yugi because he was never as good as Yugi and never legitimately beat him, so he was never a threat.
Vegeta was never a good rival to Goku because again, he was always going to be second best, and he didn't even have the excuse of being charmingly autistic like Kaiba.

Gary was never a proper rival, which was emphasized by him getting eliminated early by a random character. Paul was the only proper rival in that series.

Rival bros can be fun imo

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Homoerotic sexual tension.

example: literally all of anime.

>Gary's not even that good as a trainer
Nigger you what? The kid had a harem of hot older women to drive him around in a Mercedes when he was 10 years old. He obtained 10 gym badges in a region that only had 8. Granted, he wasn't nearly as hypercompetent a trainer as Blue, but he was still leaps and bounds above the average.

>What is even the point of having a rival that Ash never meant to defeat?
I'm amazed you haven't realized this by now, but Ash isn't a very good trainer.

What I liked about these two is that they ended up understanding each other on a spiritual level, but still wanted to beat the shit out of the other one.