Rivalries

In the two years that I have written about Pokémon things on this blog, it's a bit hard to believe that I haven't written up in detail about the topic that makes up the title of this post, though I have only occasionally mentioned it in a few posts. As I've mentioned in my post about the four pillars of Pokémon, one of those pillars is "battle", and this is naturally expected to result in rivalries among contenders, which happens to be so in different ways. This becomes something important to be discussed as well.

The virtual rivalries - as in the main series games - are certainly a part of this. They've been with the games since the first moment, which also means that this is practically dictated. It's rather obvious that in the world of Pokémon, there are others that are willing to continue to battle against someone else in the course of one-upping each other, which makes them rivals. The fact that the player is given one is a not-so-subtle reminder that this is really the case, and because of the mirroring between the virtual world and the real one, it does not become hard to expect that the same occurs in the latter.

In fact, it does. Though I'm somewhat out of touch with VGC, I can detect some rivalries among some of my fellows; it's not intensely heated, but it's a real rivalry nonetheless. Even Go can have rivalries - recently I detected one between one of my raid fellows with a player that seems to be outside of my raid group. It has come to my attention, however, that the player has joined my raid group and the two have become aware of each other and the rivalry. Whether this will heat up again soon is another matter, but the two cases prove that rivalries can be and are real.

In some sense, however, rivalries can also be indirect. Rangers in the Pokémon world could be considered to be rivals of one another, perhaps by comparing their degrees of helpfulness, though they are not really meant to be as such. On a more realistic level, parameters could be used to compare players of Go, and a system of such parameters has indeed been created, based on my observations. They're indirect because the ones involved don't deal with one another in immediate contact, but because the point is to see if others can be one-upped, they can be considered rivalries in a way.

Rivalries are not a pillar of Pokémon, but they could be considered a consequence of those pillars, in particular the pillar of "battle". This is something that does and has to happen with people who are constantly trying to one-up each other. Based on what I've seen, I won't be able to escape it while I'm still with Pokémon, and I suppose I'll accept that, just as I'll accept the fact that I have to discuss it in detail sooner or later on this blog... as in, here and now.

One year ago: (Almost) A Pokémon Party
Two years ago: Pokémon Art Academy - More Than Just Pokémon Art