>>43583765The Champion Cup is held once a year, and the game’s intro is the climax of the previous Champion Cup. So, MC, Hop, Marnie, and Bede‘s journey would have to have taken a year before the Cup occurs again. The journey starts with shop both arrogant and filled with confidence that he will become the next Champion due to his pride for his brother, but due to back to back losses from Bede, the MC, and the Gym Challenge, Hop begins to doubt his skills as a trainer and even though he has the motivation to finish strong, his confidence is fleeting. By the end of the journey, even though Hop helped the MC save the region and was the Runner-Up, Hop clearly has lost all motivation to continue on as a competitive trainer. In the postgame, Hop doesn’t even think his help is warranted as he’ll just get in the way since not only did he lose when it meant the most, he lost the legendary artifact. It isn’t until Zamazenta recognizes his efforts that he accepts he’s not meant to be some super unbeatable elite and he doesn’t have to live in the shadow of MC and Leon.
Even though I feel like him becoming a Professor was a little too extreme of a change, I do really like how realistic his portrayal and development was.
