Hope for Hop

Every Pokemon game has some sort of rival thing going on. I think it’s almost like an actual law, that you can’t become a Pokemon trainer unless you have a rival or some random ass to push you along the way. It’s been like this since the very first Pokemon game, and now it’s basically a tradition. After all, you need some sort of competition to spur you on.

However, over the years, it seems like the rival has kinda… calmed down, I guess? They’re not as aggressive as they used to be. They’re still your rival though and they’ll still be constantly want to battle you. At least, to my knowledge. In Pokemon Shield though, the whole rival thing lacks any sort of bite. Your rival is your best buddy and your next door neighbour, a kid called Hop, who is the little brother of the current Galar champion, Leon. And thanks to a little nepotism, both Hop and I are both given a chance to enter the gym challenge competition at the same time. Before we’ve even said a word, Hop is all like “I’m gonna be champion and you’re going to be my rival!”

Thing is, he’s not really a rival. He’s our best buddy. We basically spend all our time together. Sure, Hop will challenge us constantly, and is the very last person we battle to reach the end of Pokemon Shield, but he’s the most supportive person in the entirety of Pokemon Shield.

The Others

There are some other characters who see us as rivals. But Marnie and Bede don’t really feel like rivals, just people who are kinda in the way. We don’t meet them early enough for them to be rivals, and, even then, they see everyone as rivals. Pretty much everyone in the gym challenge is a rival anyway.

Bede though could have made a good, traditional rival. He’s got the perfect attitude AND a good background to build from. The only problem is that Bede got kicked from the entire challenge. Bede is lucky that he’s in a video game universe, because what he did would have gotten prison time for anyone else. But Bede’s punishment is genuinely awful – he gets disowned by the Chairman, and abandoned. This would have made Bede into a great antagonist, but instead he gets swept away by an old lady and made into a Fairy type leader.

Marnie doesn’t have any real sort of story though. Despite the fact that she has Team Yell supporting her. Like Bede, she does challenge us a few times and she does have her own Pokemon by her side, but she doesn’t really mesh well as an antagonist because she too closely matches Hop, who is already doing the “my older sibling is an important Pokemon trainer” thing.

As a quick aside, I actually think Team Yell is my favourite “kinda bad guys with grunts and stuff” evil team. They’re basically football hooligans and are mostly harmless.

Back to Hop

There is hope for Hop though. He has some alright character development. At the start, Hop wants nothing more than to follow in his brother’s footsteps. He wants to be the champion, and almost worships Leon. Unfortunately, there can only be one champion, and that person just can’t be Hop, because he rushes into things and is too hot-headed. However, the more we play and battle each other, Hop realizes that, well, I’m a better at battling than he is. This causes him to lose hope, especially after I beat him in order to face Leon.

After that though? Hop actually majorly improves as a character, and finally works out what he is good at, which is helping and protecting Pokemon, rather than using them in battle. After all, his Dubwool, Hop still cherishes it, and, miraculously, Hop somehow manages to tame Zacian (or Zamazenta if you play Sword), who allows Hop to capture him.

Hop gets the good ending. He could have easily become angry and spiteful, but he accepts his failures and weaknesses. And he finally chooses a path on his own, without the player or Leon or anyone getting in his way.

You see, I felt really, really bad every time I fought Hop. I felt like I was crushing his dreams. But Hop managed to pull through and become a person all on his own. Which is why I am so, so glad that he wants to become a professor. That way, he can finally escape from the shadows made by me and Leon.

There’s hope for Hop after all…