Pokemon Scarlet & Violet players are comparing this Gen's rival, Nemona, to Dragon Ball's Goku, thanks to the mutual love of battling and endless enthusiasm the two share.
Every new Pokemon Gen needs to introduce a new rival for the player and Scarlet & Violet are no different. This Gen's rival is called Nemona and, in-line with recent Pokemon games having more positive and likeable rivals, she's a trainer that bares no ill will towards the player and is simply obsessed with battling to get stronger. Does that sound like a certain Saiyan warrior?
If there's one character throughout all of pop-culture that's known for their love of fighting and battling, it's Dragon Ball's Goku. Anyone who has watched even a small amount of Dragon Ball will know that one of Goku's driving character traits is constant desire to get stronger and fight more and more opponents, often fighting simply for the sake of it.
Jumping over to social media shows that a lot of Pokemon fans have already started to make the connection between Nemona and Goku and start comparing the two of them. Some posts have even gone as far as saying that Nemona is "the Goku of the Pokemon universe", while others are drawing Nemona in Dragon Ball's distinct art style. There are some that are just memeing the comparisons, but it seems that most see the comparison between the two.
That's not the only similarity between the two, however. Nemona's obsession with battling has caused some Pokemon fans to say that she has a "concrete brick for a brain", which is also pretty comparative to Goku, who isn't exactly known for his intelligence. Some could even argue that the designs of the two characters are quite similar, with splashes of orange, blue, and black throughout both characters.
These comparisons to Goku are absolutely to Nemona's credit, as she seems to have made quite a positive impact on the Pokemon community as a whole so far. That's pretty surprising considering most Pokemon fans don't seem too keen on rivals being nice to the player, but Nemona seems to be striking a cord so far. That's especially true if you've got further in the game and discovered some of her backstory and exactly why she's so into battling the player.
Although Nemona seems to be one of the most popular Pokemon rival in quite some time, there are some that don't seem to like her battle-obsessed vibe. One clip that's gone viral from Twitter user Armand_Gman shows the player refusing to be Nemona's rival over and over again, despite her not taking no for an answer. The clip was posted with the caption "jeez, I really... don't like you very much".
Even if it might just have been making fun of Pokemon's tradition of having dialogue options that the player can't actually say no to, that clip has already seen over 22,000 likes, implying that there are some players out there that aren't enjoying Nemona's company as much as the rest of us.