The rival.
Especially the douchebag Machiavellian type rivals that the main character ends up friends or teaming up with after the main character 'proves their worth' to them by being stronger. No character growth outside of now they work with the protagonist.
I really want this trope to be subverted one day, like the douchey rival shows up and everyone is just like "Wow what a dickhead" and just relentlessly bullies him until he goes away.
not anime but it's japanese media: feel like pokemon rivals are generally good, and they run the gamut from dickish (Silver) to warm and friendly (Hau) to clearly having romantic feelings for the protagonist (Brendan/May). I guess they never cross the line into actual bullying or evil (and the majority are sincerely friendly anyway) and that's why they're fine
unlike many fans I actually like the friendly rivalsYeah, fuck Pokemon fans, I think the rivals in Pokemon are great too.
Have you played Scarlet/Violet? One of the rivals stories in that will legit make you cri
Nope, don't think it's stable on yuzu emulator yet
With how good emulators are these days I doubt it will take them long.
Thank god for pirates.
yeah, pirates are fantastic. I really didn't expect to be able to reliable emulate all the way up to swsh tbh, and I can't wait to try scarlet/violet for the story and characters.
And on the topic of the fanbase I feel like this old meme would unironically be their ideal rival character
The funny thing is that Gladion was basically this
Nah, I don't think Gladion reaches that level of edge, and neither is he actually hostile. He's also got a very good reason for acting the way he does as well.