Pokemon General [SFW, No NSFW]

@Meanlucario
 
Not to mention their respective difficulties and music themes

@Dirty Bit  
Cynthia is also the best champion.
 
(Look at how good her team is compared to the rest of the champions)

@Meanlucario  
But just like them, Leon also does his part to help out his home region.
 
@igotnopicks  
I actually skimmed at a video that ranked every champion’s team at how will they would do in competitive format and Cynthia’s was the highest along with Leon’s.

@Red-Supernova  
I’m talking about character-wise.

@Red-Supernova  
And leave his little brother behind. Hop is truly the second banana.
 
Also note Cynthia doesn’t do this. Her team in platinum and even in Pearl and Diamond is completely viable. She starts out with a pokemon with no weakness(At that time),and she has basically a sudo legendary with the Garchomp.

@Red-Supernova  
I think that Leon may be up there due to Dexit and the metagame being too new for a reliable evaluation.

@igotnopicks  
Not ‘basically’ Gachomp is a pseudo-legendary.

@Meanlucario  
I think I understand. You know, I heard a rumor about during eariler drafts of the game’s story, Leon’s whole legacy as a champion was supposed to reveal him as a fraud. I don’t know if this is true or not but if it oh man, I bet this would have pissed so many people off.

@Red-Supernova  
Sounds like it would have had potential, more than the current game. It could even go the Jack Atlas route where he was unaware that his winning streak was fudged by his boss. Imagine Leon learning that, and spending screentime questioning his abilities as a trainer and later tasting failure by your hands, and finding it sweeter than his past victories.

@Red-Supernova  
@Meanlucario  
People also assumed that he would be the leader of team yell before it was revealed that it was actually the dark type gym leader.

@Meanlucario  
Yeah. I don’t know how Chairman Rose would be able to rig a Pokémon battle considering the logic of their world but it was part of the rumor I’ve heard. I was actually expecting the cutscene before battling Rose to have Leon lose to him as Rose reveals that’s he more skilled or something. Even though it wouldn’t make sense because Rose is a steel type trainer which is the exact weakness that Leon’s Charizard can mop the floor with.  
Personally, I think that this plot twist would have shattered Hop as well since Leon was his motivation to become a legendary trainer.

@Red-Supernova  
Again, with Jack Atlas, his boss paid people large amount of money to lose, like the example in the show was that the guy had a counter that would help him win, but he didn’t play it because he needed the money. In Pokemon, it would be not using the full powers of your mons and letting them take damage when they could have avoid it and the like.
 
And it’s simple: stealth rocks and rockslide, the latter on a mon that outspeeds Charizard’s 100 speed, like Alolan Dugtrio, or who can take the hit, like Heatran. Charizard is a UU pokemon for a reason.
 
And it would help people to like Hop when him being vulnerable is followed up with reminding you that his brother, Leon, is the undefeated champion.

@Meanlucario  
Hop obviously wanted to prove, win or lose, that he is just as strong as his brother.

Also, a reminder that Hop is the first Rival to have a legendary Pokemon on his team permanently.

@09MurphyM  
Yes, and it got annoying quick and ruin moments that would otherwise make people like him. Making characters one-note is rarely a good thing when you want to make people like them.

@09MurphyM  
And that means shit when it comes to characters. I rather have a well-written rival with a terrible team than a rival with a great team but a terribly-written character.

Gameplay wise, Brendan and may are probably the weakest of all the rivals in their debut games. Even in emerald, their starter Pokemon never fully evolves and they only have 4 Pokemon by their final battle with the player.

@09MurphyM  
They are speedrun killers, though. And I fail to see how that’s relevant to Hop’s character and personality.

@09MurphyM
 
I wanna argue that Barry would be the weakest, but you make a good point

@Dirty Bit  
I don’t know if it was a oversight or intentionally done.

@Meanlucario  
After Hop helped to save them, they decided to return the favor by joining his team permanently.

@09MurphyM  
Again, what does this have to do with Hop as a character? That’s more of a story excuse for him having a legendary, to be frank.

@Meanlucario  
It shows that he has grown as a character and now knows what he wants to do with his life.

@09MurphyM  
How? Anyone can catch a new pokemon, legendary or not.

On the topic of sword and shield, is the first expansion pack still scheduled to be released on time or has it been inevitably delayed already?