Rivalcrushshipping was a ship that genuinely interested me. At the time, I was a huge Creamycoffeeshipper, so I wasn't sold on it yet. But for some strange reason, my love for Rivalcrushshipping grew more and more, despite the fact that I had barely any content of it on my phone during that time.
It felt right for it to become my #1 OTP and pretty soon, it did.
I headcanon them as childhood friends since it is the common theory people make. However, in my headcanon, they don't meet up until after Serena goes to Hoenn.
I honestly think that Gary and Serena pair very well together. Not as in good girl bad boy relationship wise. I see Gary being more of a mature person and being more of the ideal guy to Serena. I can picture them having the best relationship.
In my headcanon, Gary meets Serena at summer camp and after a few short interactions and being paired up a few times during activities, Gary starts to have a crush on her. Unfortunately, she ends up liking Ash. Ash is oblivious, of course, but Gary gets angry about it (and secretly hurt), and tries to prove that he's better than Ash, which leads to his behavior towards Ash in the original series. After a few years though, Gary matures and stops being mean to Ash. He also hopes to find and catch up with Serena someday. I'm still working on my headcanon and how they will meet up and stuff.
Yes, Serena and Gary have never met on screen, and I don't think they ever WILL, but I still love this ship just as much as the typical Pokemon shipper would love a metshipping (Ex. Pokeshipping, Contestshipping, Ikarishipping, etc.).
Even though it was never confirmed, I honestly do have a feeling that she did meet him and she would've remembered him if he would've made an appearance in the XY series, which sadly, he never did.
I also ship them is because of how great they look together, and the contrasting personalities. Serena is a performer, while Gary is a Researcher. If they ever journeyed together, it would be a lot more fun (and maybe they would start to form a strong bond along the way as well ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ). The world needs more of Rivalcrushshipping ;~; I mean, I've made enough content for them to the point where I've been noticed outside of DeviantArt and Wattpad as "That one hardcore Rivalcrushshipper" but still. ;v;
I love this ship with my soul, it's definitely the one ship in Pokemon that I'll never get tired of 😍