there are few things in this world cuter than gladion’s midnight lycanroc patting ash’s rockruff on the head <333 ;;;;;;
i really like anime!gladion. quiet and serious, but a big ol’ softie at heart <3
so really, in attitude, he’s nothing like gary model of rival (so not gary 4.0 after all), and overall, he has a unique vibe for a rival. i like it.
(like, if he was going for the normal rival vibe, he could have easily made fun of ash for not knowing how to get a rock type z-move. instead, he was surprised, but gave ash clear instructions on how to get one.)
(also, he has an umbreon, which one can only get if you have high friendship, so it’s clear that he has a good bond with his pokemon; gary didn’t get an umbreon until after he got some Character Development in johto and stopped being a complete jerkass)
so gladion’s not quite starting at my queen zoey’s level of awesomeness, but he’s in a solid 2nd in the nice rivals column











