14: Tyler B - Living in a Shadow

Few people don’t know the Pokemon games made by Nintendo, though many remember the older games more than the newer. Me personally, remember the 4th gen pokemon games because Pokemon Platinum was the 1st Pokemon game I ever played. Throughout the games you always have someone to challenge you, your rival, who grows stronger like you and has the same goal as you, become the champion. Though their dynamics have changed throughout the games, going from being mean and rude, to having different rivals, one that proves to be a real challenge, and one that is weaker and more friendly. In Pokemon Sword and Shield, it’s a bit more confusing on who is your rival, all but one character. Your best friend since childhood, Hop, whose brother is the Pokemon champion of the Galar region, literally claims you as his rival as soon as your get your first Pokemon. That’s who this blog is about, Hop, the little brother, the weak one, always hidden in the shadow his brother has cast over him.

Hop starts out the way most rivals do in these games, he comes rushing into your house, uninvited telling you that you have to rush someone with him, in this case it’s to help his brother Leon, the Pokemon league champion, make his way from the train station to their house. Upon arriving at their house, Leon presents Hop and the main character the 3 starter Pokemon of this game, after choosing one and battling each other, Leon then tasks Hop and the main character with joining the Pokemon league, and battling their way up to fight him for the rank of Champion. Hop, of course, jumps at the idea, all he has ever wanted to do it be like his brother, so of course when given the chance to reach the literally rank of his brother, why wouldn’t he take that chance. Though Hop will be faced with many challenges, one of the biggest ones being you, the main character, who beats him at every rival battle you partake in. And at first he doesn’t mind, he uses it as motivation to get stronger and keep going, much like his brother, but after the introduction of Bede, a much more talented trainer than him, who is very rude, it all starts to fall down.

Bede thinks very highly of himself and very less of others, which doesn’t work in Hops favor. Where when you fight and beat him, you are kind and help him grow stronger over battles that happen throughout the game, Bede beats him over and over again, in one sitting, taunting Hop the whole. Bede calls him a horrible trainer and asks him why he’s in the league anyways, and finally telling him he will never compare to his brother. Though Bede gets what he deserves later on (getting kicked out of the league for destroying some old ruins) Hop is still greatly affected by Bedes words. Anytime anyone sees Hop they say “oh look, it’s the champions little brother” and that gets into the thick of it, Hop is always compared to his brother and never thought of as his own person, just the champions little brother, and Hop has given into this too. He obsesses over his brother and wants to be exactly like him because that’s all people see in him, he is surrounded and enveloped in the shadow his brother has created as champion, and the things Bede said to him made him doubt a dream he’s had since he was a little kid, that he will never be strong enough to be champion, that he will never have the strength to be his own person, forced to live his life in the cold dark shadow of his brother. His brother isn’t a bad person, he has just set the bar so high for Hop that he can’t reach it and doesn’t want to ruin his brothers reputation. But through the game you help him realize that he is more than the champions brother, eventually finding his own way through life as the Pokemon professors research assistant. Though it is not the champion rank he once wished to achieve, he is happy with his new positions, which gives him the power to be his own person, finally. 

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