>>41523426Actually have a bit of a soft spot for the ways he tried to imitate his older brother with things like copying his brother's style of pokeball throwing and slapping his face before a big fight. But I grew up with a little step-brother who I got into Pokemon so it was mainly because it reminded me of how he looked up to me.
But falls apart like every other "friendly rival" character that isnt Barry and Bianca where they are played too soft-ball to ever be more than a steamroll for the player and you just start to feel bad because they are still written like they have a shot at winning while you crush them and their hopes and dreams.
Rivals like Bianca and Barry worked because their goals weren't the same as yours so while you did periodically battle you weren't breaking them because they were never after the same thing. Barry just wanted to get strong because he looked up to his dad who was a frontier brain, he never cared about being Champion.
Also they should have made Hop pivot his life goal to being a pokemon ranger than a pokemon professor. Being a pokemon ranger better melds both his passion for battling and his love for caring for pokemon and he comes off as too stupid to become a professor but I guess they REALLY wanted to parallel your relationship with him with Leon's relationship with Sonia.
