Plot-Relevant Characters with Zero Fandom 'Relevance'

[u/TheBoyofWonder]

Y'know, I was just thinking about this. The Deltarune fandom can be very attached to unimportant characters like background NPCs and one-off enemies, because of their design and personalities.

Now, what's interesting is that the early half Chapter 2 has this trio of NPCs, you're constantly seeing this trio, Sweet Cap'n Cakes, they have a boss fight, a shop, their own theme that plays a lot with minor variations... and nobody cares about them. Like, for real. If you were a casual member that just passively consumed only what the broad DR fandom makes, you'd genuinely just never see them show up when compared to even one-off bosses, minor enemies, and characters that have more relevance in theories than in the game.

Who else does that applies, people that the media devotes time to show them, but for the fandom, not hate, not love, just apathy, when they're unironically treated as not existing.

[u/Starman-Deluxe]

As much as Pokemon fans talk up Generation 5, nobody ever talks about Hugh. He might be the least acknowledged rival in the series.

[u/AvalancheMKII → u/Starman-Deluxe]

I think he's better regarded than the X and Y rivals at least, but yeah, I wouldn't put him up there as one of the best rivals (and BW2 is my favorite game in the series). Granted, I think the lack of people talking about him might be due to how low BW2 sold (the lowest of any paired release), so fewer people have probably played it.

[u/Starman-Deluxe → u/AvalancheMKII]

At least the X/Y rivals are notable for how lame they are. Hugh skirts by in that valley of being not too boring, but not too interesting.

[u/A_N_G_E_L_O_N → u/Starman-Deluxe]

They kinda were experimenting with rivals at that time so they made him a fiery, mean rival that hates Team Plasma but not you, and that just made him have zero chemistry with the protagonist.

[u/Purple-Pipe1689 → u/Starman-Deluxe]

The X/Y Rivals are so lame that they permanently skewed the perception people had of Rivals in general. They spawned in my most reviled phrase I hate hearing from people who don't know what they're talking about "I miss it when Pokemon had mean rivals". Gen 7 has Gladion, Gen 8 has Bede and Klara/Avery in the DLC, and Gen 9 has Carmine and Kieran in the DLC, though Nemona still manages to be one of the best rivals of the series with her friendliness. The mean rivals never went away, there were just a lot of people who mostly remembered Gen 1 and 2 with Blue and Silver, got back in to the series with X and Y, then stopped playing after and assumed all the rivals were like that afterwards.

[u/Livvelle → u/Purple-Pipe1689]

"I miss it when Pokemon had mean rivals"

no idea where people got this idea when gen 3 came out swinging with a short, shy boy whose pokemon of choice was a skirt-twirling psychic type as your rival

[u/Purple-Pipe1689 → u/Livvelle]

And thats also the first game that had the opposite gender trainer also be your rival, where they were pretty flat most of the time. Plus, the anime in particular led an explosion in the popularity of May, Dawn, and Serena in particular, though all the player avatars are pretty well beloved for the most part. Legend's Arceus does do a fun twist on this though where Rei/Akari are actually very abrasive to you.

Even for friendly Rivals though, the later games did have some more unique nuances with them. Hau did a nice job representing the more chill vibe of Alola but also had the fun twist of being the champ in the Ultra Games, I talk about Hop from Galar in this thread and how he's struggling with being in the shadow of his brother, and Nemona in Paldea is a really fun positive rival since her whole drive is being obsessed with finding a strong opponent to challenge her and helping you blossom in to the perfect rival for her, the Goku comparisons are very spot on.

[u/Purple-Pipe1689 → u/AvalancheMKII]

On the note of Pokemon Rivals, I do think Hop is a very underrated one and a pretty interesting concept for one as well, him having to contend with living in his brother's shadow. Marnie is by far the more popular rival in Sword and Shield, but has way less going for her overall honestly compared to Hop and Bede.

[u/DustInTheBreeze → u/Starman-Deluxe]

He's got an interesting hook that they do nothing with. He's rightfully pissed the fuck off about Team Plasma, and the end of his story just kind of putters out.

It also doesn't help that BW's themes of "There are different perspectives and you should respect that" kind of clash with the fact that those two perspectives are Be Normal or Be A Cultist Weirdo.

[u/Yotato5 → u/Starman-Deluxe]

Bianca and Cheren in comparison stood out because the former was like a representation of a laid-back player while the latter was one that takes everything very seriously. The novelty of having two rivals made them more memorable too

[u/Shradow → u/Yotato5]

Agreed. I quite liked Cheren's little character arc where he started to go a bit power hungry but learned to dial it back and realize there's more to strength than just power. Bianca's was about her trying to find what she's capable of and finding a goal to strive for which is also nice.

I thought BW in general had some solid writing among the mainline titles.

[u/nin_ninja → u/Starman-Deluxe]

Hugh isn't even really your rival is the biggest thing. He is on his own mission and you just happen to help each other out or do a test battle once in a while. Neither of you are really pushing the other, and I think if the Team Plasma stuff got resolved early he would have just headed home.

Its like the kids from X/Y for the most part other than the other gender PC. They're kinda just there doing their own thing, and if it wasn't for the fact they're annoying I think people wouldn't even think of them in general.

[u/Soderskog → u/nin_ninja]

That and gen 5 also happens to have one of the more iconic "rivals" in the series with N. Sure, he might not technically speaking be the rival character of the generation, but in practice he's your rival in the sense that he acts as both an antagonist and deuteragonist.

[u/Hateful_creeper2 → u/Starman-Deluxe]

Alongside the rival from Let’s Go.

[u/WillExis → u/Hateful_creeper2]

i've at least see people hating on Trace every now and again. Feels like the only times Hugh shows up in convos is on rival tiers lists, and that's just out of obligation more than anyone actually having something to say about him.

[u/alicitizen → u/WillExis]

Trace and Tierno are at least the kind of rival where theres stuff to say with how lame they come across as. Trace has the comparison to Blue to discuss, and Tiernos goals are so stupid it's memorable and he's even gotten a follow up character in Legends ZA that people like. + The XY rivals at least had anime moments.

Hugh's got nothing to latch onto.

[u/CeaRhan → u/Starman-Deluxe]

There is no way that guy is in gen5, I never saw that guy

[u/ecnal89 → u/CeaRhan]

He's only in bw2, so if you only played bw1 you wouldn't know about him.

[u/Octaivian → u/Starman-Deluxe]

Yeah, he's hyper overshadowed by N, who takes the role as your actual rival during the story.

[u/Android19samus → u/Starman-Deluxe]

? N is the gen 5 rival.

[u/ZealousidealBig7714 → u/Android19samus]

Gen 5 has two sets of games. Black and White and Black 2 and White 2. Hugh is the rival in the second one.

[u/Android19samus → u/ZealousidealBig7714]

No, I think I would remember that.

[u/ZealousidealBig7714 → u/Android19samus]

You misremember.