Do you find Trip/Shooti to be an interesting rival?

[Grabbergirl]

Trip always carries around a camera because he basically likes to capture his moments. I wonder why? It it's because his parents are too over protective and won't let him go so he to sneak out of the house then if his parents drag him home he'll have pretty pictures (like Bianca's dad), or maybe he got a camera for christmas or his birthday and found out that photography is his hobbie, or maybe his parents want him to show his progress to them so they him a camera and wished him "goodbye". What happened to our happy and peppy little boy? See he used to be a peppy little boy what happened? did he go telling all the people he knew (like teachers, caretaker, fellow classmates, friends, etc.) and got bad feedback back (like telling him he'll be hurt badly and die). I know it probably sucks to have over protective parents (I'm amusing they are over protective). I'm not fond of Trip (I don't like him). He's now is just calm and quiet (why didn't they give him a lovely animation in Be in Arrow he's just standing there and is staring). He is sort of interesting even though he barely appeals to me.

 

[Little Miss Eevee]

Well, I like how Trip is always insulting Ash's inteligence, but in this sense, he's pretty much the Unova region's Gary Oak, only somewhat less cool, as Gary was a badass with his own car and cheersquad, while Trip just has... a camera. Perhaps, by the fact that the writers haven't bothered to let Gary in this season is a hint to them attempting to replace Gary with Trip... This will be official if Trip suddenly decides he wants to be a pokemon researcher.

 

[Gengarzilla]

Trip losing in the first round of the league pretty much proves that the writers have given up on him. Thank fucking god!

 

[LightningKimba]

The good thing Trip has goin' for him is that his team is pretty interestin', at least to me. He has Lampent, Frillish, Conkeldurr, all cool dudes. From what I see in him, though, he's a hybrid of Gary's cockiness (Calling Ash basic is an example of this trait), and the stereotype of the stoic anti-hero. He... Never seemed to go anywhere. He has his camera gimmick which I don't recall coming up too much over in the series, and in recent eps, his Serperior was the star of the show in the Junior Cup, with how the snake outsped and beat everyone in his path, save Alder.

I held out hope he'd do more as a character. I didn't expect a rivalry with him and Ash that would be better than Paul, I wanted somethin' different. Maybe somewhere down the line, he'll reappear and have something quirky to his character then, but otherwise... He could've been a lot better than how he was written.

 

[The Master]

trip is wasted talent, if they could have made him more interesting and don't overglorified his serperior I could have even call him the anime's version of cheren

 

[Bouffalant Herdier]

Trip's stint on the show is over, and I'm very glad about that and all, but I'm still left confused about something: What was the point? He never went anywhere as a character, he hardly ever battled or even interacted with Ash, and though we were introduced to six of his Pokemon, his final battle with Ash came down to a one-on-one fight between Pikachu and Serperior; it's really quite something when the final battles against a rival are actually on a smaller scale than the earlier ones.

I never found him interesting, but I still surprised at how the writers have written him out so hastily. Oh well, I'm not complaining. Good riddance.

 

[Cybersai]

I think Trip is one of the main reasons that turned people off of BW at first. Ash went from defeating Paul in an epic battle, defeating a Darkrai in the league and just tying with a Latios.

...And then he goes from that to losing to a beginning trainer and his brand new Snivy. Trip was awful and he's one of the reasons Best Wishes was disliked at the start.

 

[Caseydia]

I think Trip is one of the main reasons that turned people off of BW at first. Ash went from defeating Paul in an epic battle, defeating a Darkrai in the league and just tying with a Latios.

...And then he goes from that to losing to a beginning trainer and his brand new Snivy. Trip was awful and he's one of the reasons Best Wishes was disliked at the start.

Why can't you write like this back in Serebii.net? This is exactly what I was thinking. I have no problem with his design and his character, but I think people are put off more about Ash's Pikachu and training tactics than at Trip. I never had a problem with him. Infact other than Stephan, he is one of the rivals that is more put together than the rest.

 

[Cybersai]

Trip's design is awful too, don't get me wrong, the writers clearly made him look similar to Paul for a reason. I think they thought that alone would make him well received.

If anything we should have had Kotetsu as Ash's main rival this saga. I notice that friendly competitive rivals get less hate than serious ones, because they're just fun buddies for Ash to have around. That's why people prefer Bianca, Stephen and Kotetsu to Trip.

 

[Mythicalzoe]

no he sucks as rival since he doesnt even care about ash or has a drive to battle him hes got a nice team though

 

[Ampharos King]

Now that Ash and Trip's rivalry is "over" (I don't think he'll ever come back) with, I can just go ahead and post my evaluation on their relationship. I posted this in spoiler tags for those who don't want to read.

It's a lot of information to take in, so please read carefully.

Spoiler

I felt that Trip was not a terrible rival. The problem here was that Trip's character was too poorly executed for a rivalry between him and Ash to have ever taken place. Any rivalry that he and Ash had was truly one-sided, even during the initial parts of the series. Trip was never attacking and mocking Ash like Gary did, and Trip never scolded Ash for having a different battling style like Paul did. In both the cases of Gary and Paul, the writers actually crafted their characters in a way in which they were affected by Ash's presence. The writers hardly ever did this for Trip, so he was never truly a "rival" for Ash.

In the very first episode, Trip dismissed Ash not for his battling style, but rather his enthusiasm as a trainer, which was very off-putting for someone as pragmatic as Trip. It was actually a combination of seeing Ash's Pikachu, a pokemon that was not native to the Unova region, and Ash's assertion that Pikachu was strong that actually convinced Trip to battle him. Trip just battled Ash as he would had for any other opponent. Since Pikachu lost to his recently obtained Snivy, and Trip had no knowledge of Zekrom, the young trainer just dismissed Ash's battling style as weak and advised him to review the basics of battling.

In BW010, Trip still had the same impression of Ash. It was only because Ash saw Trip's information in a Battle Club registry, as well as his grudge for losing to Trip back in BW001, that Ash wanted to challenge Trip. Even when Ash managed to contact Trip, Trip displayed no interest in accepting the trainer's request at first. It was only because of Cilan, whom he had met at the Striation City Gym, recommending Ash as a skilled trainer that Trip actually decided to go to the Battle Club. And even then, Trip was annoyed that Ash only had five pokemon and one gym badge; at the time, Trip had six pokemon and two badges. Nevertheless, Trip decided to battle Ash anyway, since both Don George and Cilan advised him to. When Ash lost to Trip, the only impression that Trip got from Ash was that he had two decent pokemon, but the rest of his team was full of weaklings.

BW022 was arguably the only episode in which Ash and Trip actually displayed some true aggression towards one another. Trip wanted to get rid of the Venipede in Castelia City with force, whereas Ash wanted to employ a more diplomatic solution to the problem. Trip was one of many trainers in Castelia City that teamed up to stop the Venipede problem. Again, it was because of a Gym Leader (Burgh)'s influence that Trip decided to go with the more diplomatic solution. He used his Tranquill to blow away the Venipede and lure them to Castelia Park. At the time, Trip noticed Ash's Pidove evolving to Tranquill, but he was not truly affected by the pokemon's increased strength. Trip decided to leave Castelia City only because Burgh was too busy handling the Venipede crisis to accept battles from gym challengers.

In BW031, a tree swinging race between Ash and Iris resulted in an accident, which prevented Trip from catching a wild Palpitoad. At the time, Ash wanted to challenge Trip again to a battle, but Trip refused since he knew Ash had less badges than him. However, he was interested in seeing Iris's Axew. Since this was the first Dragon-type pokemon he saw and due to being informed about Iris being from the Village of Dragons, Trip actually wanted to challenge Iris to a battle. As Iris only had disobedient pokemon and a weak Axew, Iris refused the challenge. Just as Trip left, Ash still wanted to challenge him to a battle. Trip refused, but eventually gave in because Iris taunted him for not accepting the challenge. Once more, a character other than Ash convinced Trip to battle him. Trip felt pitiful for Ash's pokemon, and noticed Oshawott's eyes were closed when it used Aqua Jet. Trip showed this to Ash, and scolded him for using a pokemon without noticing this battle flaw. After Trip informed Ash about his past with Alder, he noticed Ash's enthusiasm and decided to battle using Ash's battling style. This resulted in a draw, and Trip felt that this battling style was not suitable for him. Trip just left with the same apathy towards Ash that he always had. At this point, it was clear that the writers wanted Alder to be Trip's main fixation, and any rivalry between him and Ash was nonexistent.

Trip made another appearance during the Club Battle tournament. Once again, Trip was not impressed with Ash's enthusiasm and decided to ignore him. Trip looked down on Ash when the latter decided to use a pokemon that he never used before during the tournament. Even after Ash won the tournament, Trip still ignored his "rival" and focused on his first-round opponent, Cilan. Since Cilan was one of the Striation City Gym Leaders, Trip felt that he was a worthy opponent. When Trip experienced his first on-screen loss, he took a picture of Cilan and his Dwebble. Trip told Cilan that he will use this picture as a motivational tool to defeat Cilan in a future battle. Trip left the tournament after that, with no care about the end result or Ash. When Ash advised Trip to stay until the end of the tournament, Trip felt that he wouldn't gain any true skill by simply watching other people battle, and left the competition.

Trip appeared again in BW052, and once more his true fixation was on somebody other than Ash. This was the episode in which his main fixation, Alder, had debuted on-screen. Trip and Ash only competed against one another just to see who could battle Alder first. Alder's eccentric mannerisms were off-putting to Trip, and the young trainer eventually conceded the chance to battle Alder to Ash. During Ash and Alder's battle, Trip primarily analyzed the champion's battling style, with very little care about how Ash will end up doing. When Alder refused to take the battle seriously, Trip got very emotional and left the town. We're halfway in this badge quest story arc, and the writers have yet to establish a true rivalry between Ash and Trip.

After a long hiatus, Trip returned for the Clubsplosion tournament. Trip decided to show Ash his Conkeldurr as a bragging right. During Ash's first battle in the tournament, Trip looked down at the young trainer with contempt, believing that Ash will lose here. Even though Ash won the match, Trip criticized the trainer for not being able to get his Scraggy to control his Focus Blast. During the next day, Trip was seen taking pictures of Excadrill and Dewott's battle to analyze their battling strengths. Once more, the writers have established that Trip was interested in battling strong trainers, regardless of who they turn out to be. When Trip and Bianca were paired up in a battle, Trip felt that he could defeat his opponent in no time. Trip initially had the advantage, but he was surprised by Bianca's unusual strategy to use Fling. Trip left after he was eliminated from this competition too.

Trip returned for the WTJC, a tournament in which the winner can challenge Alder to a battle. At this point, it is obvious that Trip was obsessed on winning the competition and beating Alder in a battle. Trip even told Cynthia that he would challenge her after he becomes the Unova Champion; another indicator that Trip only cares about trainers that he deems worthy of his time. Trip eliminated his opponents with ease, in spite of his Serperior's type disadvantage to Fire and Bug-type pokemon. Trip did not even care that he finally got revenge for his loss against Cilan during the Club Battle, since he was still focused on Alder. When Ash and Trip were paired up for the final round of the tournament, Trip felt absolutely nothing and used his strength to stop Ash's Pignite. During Trip's battle with Alder, Trip realized how helpless his pokemon was in the face of his opponent, and decided to listen to Alder about being kinder to his Pokemon. Once again, a character other than Ash convinced Trip to change his behavior.

Trip's latest appearance was during the Unova League. Trip greeted Ash with a bit more kindness, but he still ignored the trainer for most of the opening ceremonies until the two were paired up in the preliminaries. Even though Ash and Trip battled one another, the writers simply focused on Ash's perspective of their relationship, and how he wanted to beat Trip in a battle after he experienced so many defeats in the past. Ash finally defeated Trip with a lot of effort. Once again, Trip left the competition before it ended. Ash and Trip had a handshake, and Trip said that he won't lose to Ash next time, because he needs to surpass Alder. So yes, it was not Ash that influenced Trip to become stronger. Instead, his desire to surpass Alder and become the Unova Champion is Trip's primary motivator.

Ash and Trip never had a true rivalry with one another. Trip was an interesting character in that he had actually started his journey in the Unova region, but the writers failed to showcase him growing or developing over the course of this series. Trip only truly improved by catching and raising the pokemon on his team, although we never got to see most of them twice. Trip was hardly affected by any of his losses; he simply felt annoyed that Bianca and Cilan got the better of him during his battles with them. Even when Alder stopped Trip in battle, the defeat only convinced Trip to become less of a prick towards other people and to become gentler to his Pokemon. Nevertheless, Trip was still apathetic of how other trainers progressed on their journeys. He still ignored Ash and most of his friends in favor of self improvement.

If a Gym Leader, a Don George, a pokemon not normally found in the Unova Region (Pikachu), and a few taunts had to convince Trip to battle Ash over the course of this series, then it is proof that Trip never truly cared about Ash.

Alder was Trip's only true rival, as he continued to become stronger solely to surpass him one day.

 

[Isaac Gravity]

@Ampharos King; Pretty good write up. But I'd like to add one detail to your analysis if you don't mind: After his immediate loss in Clubsplosion, a shaken Trip watched Ash reflectively. Despite thinking little of the Kanto trainer and feeling himself his superior, Ash has yet again progressed forward in battle while he was ousted at the doormat. He would quickly (practically shamefully) leave when Ash caught notice of him.
---End detail

This gave false hope that he would start drawing comparisons between them from there on, eventually adding substance to this "rivalry" but that would all be dashed as he never seen again until the WTJC where he came back bitter, cock-sure of himself and nonsensically overpowered. Then came his jarring 180 when he technically got what he wanted from his true fixation.

Looking back, Trip really was a shoe-horned detail to me. Looking at how Best Wishes (Season 1) played itself out (flaws and all which were ignorable then due to how fun that part of the series overall was), I wouldn't be surprised if Ash was meant to be without a serious main rival (which would've been a nice breather after his DP escapades) and just meant to have the time of his life in a new land, ala AG. But the success of his DP rival was too great to be ignored.

Well, that and a lot of "not trying at all".

 

[Ampharos King]

After his immediate loss in Clubsplosion, a shaken Trip watched Ash reflectively. Despite thinking little of the Kanto trainer and feeling himself his superior, Ash has yet again progressed forward in battle while he was ousted at the doormat. He would quickly (practically shamefully) leave when Ash caught notice of him.

True, it always felt that Trip left these competitions because he was ashamed for talking so big before he battles his opponents, only to end up losing in the end. Trip claimed that he won't improve as a trainer by watching other people battle, but I felt this was a character flaw because most of Trip's losses in this series were partially due to Trip not knowing everything that his opponent has in store. Trip was surprised when Cilan's Dwebble used Rock Slide during the Club Battle, and he was surprised that Emboar knew Fling in the Clubsplosion. Trip talked down to both opponents.

Of course, the writers chose to have Trip return to his superiority complex bubble and assert that he was still stronger in the end, instead of having him change his battling style over the realization that he might not be as talented as he thought he was. Even after Ash suggested that Trip should watch the battles to improve his own strategies, Trip still refused. Ironically, most of Ash's victories over the course of the entire anime were the results of observing other people's battling styles; the most obvious were the Counter Shield (which was adapted from a contest technique) to counter Fantina's Hypnosis, and having Krokorok throw his Stone Edge in a matter similar to Bianca's Emboar using Fling to defeat a stronger opponent. Again, the differences in how Ash and Trip improve their battling styles could have set up some stronger interaction between the two, but the writers chose to focus on other matters instead.

Looking back, Trip really was a shoe-horned detail to me. Looking at how Best Wishes (Season 1) played itself out (flaws and all which were ignorable then due to how fun that part of the series overall was), I wouldn't be surprised if Ash was meant to be without a serious main rival (which would've been a nice breather after his DP escapades) and just meant to have the time of his life in a new land, ala AG. But the success of his DP rival was too great to be ignored.

The influx of COTDs that later became rivals for the main characters is proof that the writers definitely had this in mind. Ash had five Unova League rivals and two people that contended against him in tournaments, Cilan had a primary rival and a COTD to compete against him, Iris had Georgia, and Stephan had Montgomery for the Clubsplosion. The writers had also gone with this direction during DP, in which "COTDs" like Ursula, Nando, and Conway became rivals for Ash and Dawn. The writers probably wanted Ash to have a rival at the start of this series because they were already on this path.

But with so many rivals in this series and only a few episodes in which they are prominently featured, some of the rivals had their potential for character development and growth sacrificed. The writers used to showcase Trip a bit more often during the initial parts of this series, but once they showcased the other BW series rivals Trip got less and less screentime on his own.

 

[BlackKing]

Yea I liked it when kept on beating ashes ass. But sadly he was treated like crap.

 

[megaevolvedmushroom]

While he is not my favorite character, he's pretty interesting to me. But he's no Gary Oak

 

[1rkhachatryan]

Trip was so unnecessary. His role with Ash had been done before and in a much better way. Overall, BW wasn't exactly effected by him. He was just there with no purpose except to make Ash look like a tard.

 

[Caseydia]

While he is not my favorite character, he's pretty interesting to me. But he's no Gary Oak

This. I just miss him right now. I feel that he hasn't been given enough time on the show for a rival. And when I say time, I mean the right kind of time. I love his pokemon, if only he was experienced instead of a beginner than maybe we could see him again. But they way they treated him makes me wonder if they will even show him again. That's actually kind of sad when you think about it.

 

[megaevolvedmushroom]

They really did treat him badly towards the end, to add to that, we only ever saw Serperior anymore.

 

[Zexy]

They wanted to pull off a Paul 2.0, and they got this way till BW031. Just then, though, they found out that B2/W2 was coming, and they had to rush up. They gave us Club Battles/Clubsplosions and made Trip lose quite easily both of them. Finally, they realized they were going wrong and decided to make him UBER at the last moment, bringing him only one powerful Pokemon (Serperior), and giving him a win over a tour (Junior Cup). yet, they had no time for a Full Battle till Ep N, so they shoehorn us an Alder lesson, and they allow themselves to only give us 1v1 (since only Serperior was OP at the point). The battle has the obvious outcome, the rivalry gets the obvious outcome with it.

He is NOT Paul, get used to it! Trip got the BW treatment, it's not his fault, though.

 

[Almonds]

They wanted to pull off a Paul 2.0, and they got this way till BW031. Just then, though, they found out that B2/W2 was coming, and they had to rush up. They gave us Club Battles/Clubsplosions and made Trip lose quite easily both of them. Finally, they realized they were going wrong and decided to make him UBER at the last moment, bringing him only one powerful Pokemon (Serperior), and giving him a win over a tour (Junior Cup). yet, they had no time for a Full Battle till Ep N, so they shoehorn us an Alder lesson, and they allow themselves to only give us 1v1 (since only Serperior was OP at the point). The battle has the obvious outcome, the rivalry gets the obvious outcome with it.

He is NOT Paul, get used to it! Trip got the BW treatment, it's not his fault, though.

Compared to Stephan, that is... they could've given him at least a 3-on-3 battle at the league