Would You Have Preferred Pokemon: Sword and Shield The Series Over Journeys?

[Rainbow-Rain]

The Galar Leaders don't all need to be in PWC. Nessa, for example, could've been the Inteleon Trainer that inspired Sobble.

I think the reason they didn't use Nessa is because the episode focus was on Sobble and with Nessa being so popular, she would've likely just distracted attention away from the episode's plot and people probably would've expected her to battle against Ash

 

[Blob]

What if the PWC was just a Galar thing and it was called the "Galar Regional Conference" or something. That way Ash would fight against the Gym Leaders and they'd be seen more as rivals, instead of people to get badges from.

Gym leader ranks if the PWC was Galar only:

Normal: Milo, Kabu, Allister
Great: Nessa, Bea, Opal, Klara
Ultra: Gordie, Melony, Piers, Avery, Mustard
Master: Raihan, Leon, Ash, Bede, Marnie, Hop, Swordward, Shieldbert

No rank: Peony, Peonia, Rose

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

It's fucking BAFFLING that Hop hasn't appeared in Journeys

There's a big ass Tournament with Leon in 1st Place, and you're seriously gonna tell me that Hop, fucking HOP, who's entire goal in the games was to defeat his brother, has absolutely no interest in competing in it????



I know it's a long shot but a really small part of me can't help but wonder if the reason why Hop didn't show up in Journeys was due to Ash not having a Starter this time

Think about it. Everytime a Game Rival appears in the Anime they always have a Starter with them

Barry - Piplup
Lyra - Chikorita (not really a Rival but still)
Bianca - Emboar
Hau - Decidueye

Just some examples off the top of my head

Also in b4 "But Hop is more associated with Wooloo!"

Hau was more associated with Alolan Raichu and he still got Decidueye anyways

 

[Hidden Mew]

As sad as it sounds, I'm kind of glad that they didn't force Hop into Journeys. I love Hop, but they could not do his storyline justice without the Galar Gym Challenge, Bede and his role in the Darkest Day arc. I do think Goh being the second hero alongside Ash works with how the anime adapted the Darkest Day and throwing in Hop for that arc wouldn't have worked anyway, especially when they really didn't do enough buildup for it. They could have put him in the PWC, but given the lack of rivals for Ash and how he had few established trainers as opponents until the Ultra Class, I'm not sure how well it could work. Plus, Hop would have only lasted until the Ultra Class at most given who they wanted for the Master Class.

It's still weird that Hop hasn't been seen given that Leon is the top ranked trainer. I think he got a passing mention in one episode, but even that is kind of a weird choice. That being said, if he was just going to get the SM Hau treatment, they were better off by not forcing Hop into the storyline.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

One thing I do find extremely weird about Hop not appearing is that with Goh's Grookey clearly staying in its base form for the entire duration of the saga I was so sure Hop would be used to showcase Rillaboom. Dubwool hasn't had any appearances either, so I also thought it too was being saved for him. Alas, that's almost certainly not the case anymore. Maybe Leon will use those mons as a reference to his little brother, though, but I'm not sure if Dubwool would even be a credible threat due to Ash having two Fighting-types on his team, one of which can easily bypass a potential Fluffy Ability.

 

[Enzo]

One thing I do find extremely weird about Hop not appearing is that with Goh's Grookey clearly staying in its base form for the entire duration of the saga I was so sure Hop would be used to showcase Rillaboom. Dubwool hasn't had any appearances either, so I also thought it too was being saved for him. Alas, that's almost certainly not the case anymore. Maybe Leon will use those mons as a reference to his little brother, though, but I'm not sure if Dubwool would even be a credible threat due to Ash having two Fighting-types on his team, one of which can easily bypass a potential Fluffy Ability.

I feel like any Pokémon owned by the so-called "Strongest Trainer in the World" would, at least theorically, be very strong tho. With a character like Leon, you could potentially just throw whatever the hell you wanted on his team and it would be strong by default. Also, any and every Pokémon on his team should (emphasis on "should") be presented as one of the world's biggest threats, as Leon is, at least up to this moment, the most "dangerous" trainer ever presented (albeit he's non-malicious). So like,,, yeah, I can see your point of Dubwool not looking like a threat, but I don't agree with the notion it can't be one, as multiple Pokémon who don't look like they would be problematic for anybody turned out to be highly dangerous in multiple instances of the anime.

Dubwool being on Leon's time could work as not only a reference to Hop, but also because I have a feeling people are a bit too hung up on his in-game team(s) that they think it's only possible for him to have Pokémon of that roster (i.e he has a Haxorus on all of his teams, but I don't see him having one because Iris is a thing), so putting a Pokémon people just don't expect him to have (be both in and out of universe) just makes things seem more interesting imo.

 

[Kurolegacy]

It's fucking BAFFLING that Hop hasn't appeared in Journeys

There's a big ass Tournament with Leon in 1st Place, and you're seriously gonna tell me that Hop, fucking HOP, who's entire goal in the games was to defeat his brother, has absolutely no interest in competing in it????



I know it's a long shot but a really small part of me can't help but wonder if the reason why Hop didn't show up in Journeys was due to Ash not having a Starter this time

Think about it. Everytime a Game Rival appears in the Anime they always have a Starter with them

Barry - Piplup
Lyra - Chikorita (not really a Rival but still)
Bianca - Emboar
Hau - Decidueye

Just some examples off the top of my head

Also in b4 "But Hop is more associated with Wooloo!"

Hau was more associated with Alolan Raichu and he still got Decidueye anyways

I get the feeling that Go might be a part of why he didn’t appear. Just as how Ash ended up filling the role that Victor/Gloria had in th Darkest Day storyline, they ended up giving parts of Hop’s role to him including interaction with Sonia that could point towards him becoming her assistan. With both of things taken and the PWC taking the place of the Galar gym challenge, there’s really nothing left for Hop. Really, it’s just another symptom of how Galar as a whole got screwed over with Journeys.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I feel like any Pokémon owned by the so-called "Strongest Trainer in the World" would, at least theorically, be very strong tho. With a character like Leon, you could potentially just throw whatever the hell you wanted on his team and it would be strong by default. Also, any and every Pokémon on his team should (emphasis on "should") be presented as one of the world's biggest threats, as Leon is, at least up to this moment, the most "dangerous" trainer ever presented (albeit he's non-malicious). So like,,, yeah, I can see your point of Dubwool not looking like a threat, but I don't agree with the notion it can't be one, as multiple Pokémon who don't look like they would be problematic for anybody turned out to be highly dangerous in multiple instances of the anime.

Dubwool being on Leon's time could work as not only a reference to Hop, but also because I have a feeling people are a bit too hung up on his in-game team(s) that they think it's only possible for him to have Pokémon of that roster (i.e he has a Haxorus on all of his teams, but I don't see him having one because Iris is a thing), so putting a Pokémon people just don't expect him to have (be both in and out of universe) just makes things seem more interesting imo.

Trust me, I am literally the last person expecting Leon's team to be an exact copy of his game team (see my hope/prediction for his anime team).

Thing is, Ash is Champion level himself now, so I can't really picture his Pokemon struggle against opponents with a disadvantage against them. Another problem with Dubwool is that its movepool is incredibly shallow: not only does it have little to no coverage, but like 90% of what it does have is just variations of "ram your body against the opponent" and I don't see how something with such a static and samey selection of options could have a prolonged fight without it becoming stale quickly. About the only moveset I can see for Dubwool that doesn't have these issues too badly is Cotton Guard/Body Press/Zen Headbutt/Last Resort, but that's only if the writers actually think outside the box and are willing to have a Pokemon not have repeated STAB moves. I guess this could be solved by simply having Dubwool fight against something that isn't Lucario, Sirfetch'd, or Gengar (since Dubwool's options for hitting Ghosts are incredibly scarce), but that's half of Ash's team that Dubwool can't reliably threaten. All of this means that Dubwool would be sadly incredibly likely to be one of the jobbers in Leon's team (something that is all but guaranteed, because no way they're not gonna let his Charizard not beat more than one Pokemon), and I don't want the Hop reference to go through that.

 

[Enzo]

Trust me, I am literally the last person expecting Leon's team to be an exact copy of his game team (see my hope/prediction for his anime team).

Thing is, Ash is Champion level himself now, so I can't really picture his Pokemon struggle against opponents with a disadvantage against them. Another problem with Dubwool is that its movepool is incredibly shallow: not only does it have little to no coverage, but like 90% of what it does have is just variations of "ram your body against the opponent" and I don't see how something with such a static and samey selection of options could have a prolonged fight without it becoming stale quickly. About the only moveset I can see for Dubwool that doesn't have these issues too badly is Cotton Guard/Body Press/Zen Headbutt/Last Resort, but that's only if the writers actually think outside the box and are willing to have a Pokemon not have repeated STAB moves. I guess this could be solved by simply having Dubwool fight against something that isn't Lucario, Sirfetch'd, or Gengar (since Dubwool's options for hitting Ghosts are incredibly scarce), but that's half of Ash's team that Dubwool can't reliably threaten. All of this means that Dubwool would be sadly incredibly likely to be one of the jobbers in Leon's team (something that is all but guaranteed, because no way they're not gonna let his Charizard not beat more than one Pokemon), and I don't want the Hop reference to go through that.

I just think it's sad we have to resort to hoping that Leon has a Pokémon that references Hop, because the anime completely shitted on his head.

And I feel like another thing that sucks is because, besides Dubwool, I don't think there's any other Pokémon that is truly associated with him.

JN stomped Galar to death.