ChristopherKJJ already said most of what I wanted to say about the obvious comparisons to A Pal for Gary, but I have more bad things to say about The Rival. Not only did The Amazing World of Gumball rip off A Pal for Gary after Spongebob Squarepants did it in Pet Sitter Pat, it also ripped off Child's Play and Toy Story 3. What makes this worse than A Pal for Gary in its own right is (I would say *Spoilers*, but you don't want to waste your time with it, trust me), at least Gary came out on top at the end and chased Puffy Fluffy away. Gumball and Darwin feel remorse over the faux-innocent thing that tried to KILL them, and get themselves in more lethal danger to rescue her when they have no reason to rescue something that did nothing but creep them out and try to kill them to assert her dominance. Not only does this ruin The Choices so much that The Rival should not even be considered canon (for one, this contradicts when Anais was born an innocent baby in the hospital in one part of the montage at the end of The Choices), and being a prequel where we know they survive should not be an excuse to put Darwin and Gumball in the worst dangers imaginable, but - if it wasn't for contradictions like that, there are other things The Rival could do to slice this story into something meaningful and insightful instead of a Darwin-Gumball torture porn. To tell us that even babies who are not born innocent can change into something good.
To start, Anais just being born is no excuse to say that nothing heinous is out of character for her, and this could have been some story of redemption for how Gumball and Darwin's love for Anais turned her into the level-headed wise kid she is today, but - nope! The Rival is supposed to be so torturous that it can't have a good moment because that would nullify Gumball's suffering, and we hate him so much that only Darwin's soul was going upwards and not his. And sure, Anais and Nicole have acted scary or demonic in other episodes, but never to this extent. Knowing the potential of The Amazing World of Gumball's writers, The Rival could have done something great like...the Rick and Morty episode The ABCs of Beth telling us about what a scary kid Beth used to be and Rick having to make a Froopyland to protect the neighborhood from her because of it. The Rival could have had a great sequel where Anais and her mother before her learn about what a scary, sociopathic kid they used to be. But no, all we get is infant brutality for infant brutality's sake. The Rival could have given us a touching moment at the end where Anais doesn't say that Gumball did it, and she cares about Gumball and Darwin ruining her death enough to stop trying to murder them, but instead we repeat the same shtick of her blaming her misdeeds on them and punishing us, Gumball and Darwin for caring about her, when Toy Story 3 knew to not have us care about Lotso turning good. While The Rival was always bad idea to start, it still had a chance of a much better execution to feel more at home in Gumball for the reasons I just mentioned.
To start, Anais just being born is no excuse to say that nothing heinous is out of character for her, and this could have been some story of redemption for how Gumball and Darwin's love for Anais turned her into the level-headed wise kid she is today, but - nope! The Rival is supposed to be so torturous that it can't have a good moment because that would nullify Gumball's suffering, and we hate him so much that only Darwin's soul was going upwards and not his. And sure, Anais and Nicole have acted scary or demonic in other episodes, but never to this extent. Knowing the potential of The Amazing World of Gumball's writers, The Rival could have done something great like...the Rick and Morty episode The ABCs of Beth telling us about what a scary kid Beth used to be and Rick having to make a Froopyland to protect the neighborhood from her because of it. The Rival could have had a great sequel where Anais and her mother before her learn about what a scary, sociopathic kid they used to be. But no, all we get is infant brutality for infant brutality's sake. The Rival could have given us a touching moment at the end where Anais doesn't say that Gumball did it, and she cares about Gumball and Darwin ruining her death enough to stop trying to murder them, but instead we repeat the same shtick of her blaming her misdeeds on them and punishing us, Gumball and Darwin for caring about her, when Toy Story 3 knew to not have us care about Lotso turning good. While The Rival was always bad idea to start, it still had a chance of a much better execution to feel more at home in Gumball for the reasons I just mentioned.