Hop: the Galar rival who gives up on becoming Champion

He's chasing a spot his brother already holds. Hop is the Sword and Shield hero's neighbor and the main rival of the Galar region. He starts the adventure with a crystal-clear goal — becoming the League Champion — and ends it by giving that goal up, not because he failed, but because he has realized along the way that it wasn't his dream.

Contents

• The Postwick Neighbor, Galar's Main Rival
• A Determination That Bede Cracks
• The Turning Point: A Rival Who Finds a New Calling
• In the Anime: A Fan at the Masters Eight Tournament
• Twilight Wings: Wooloo Runs Away
• Hop at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Postwick Neighbor, Galar's Main Rival

Hop lives in Postwick, next door to the hero, and that proximity is what gives him his role: he is the primary rival of Sword and Shield, the one you run into most often along the way. Two other Trainers share the label in the same game, Marnie and Bede.

His driving force fits in a single sentence: he is the little brother of Leon, the Galar League Champion, and he trains to take that same place one day. The game gives him no other ambition; his whole arc is seen through this family role model.

He already has a Wooloo when the adventure begins, and later gets a Galar starter. The game always gives him the one your own type beats: depending on your playthrough, that will be Scorbunny, Sobble or Grookey, never the one that would give you trouble.

A Determination That Bede Cracks

Hop shows plenty of willpower, but it's easily dented. Bede, whose self-centeredness never lets up, keeps throwing his supposed unworthiness back at him: he'll never measure up to his brother. The line comes up often enough to become the character's refrain.

His response is to tinker. He reshuffles his team from one battle to the next, looking for the combination that will make him better — and it never works. The player thus watches a string of attempts that all fail the same way.

That's an unusual device for a rival in the series, whose role is usually to grow stronger alongside the hero. Hop, on the other hand, is there to show doubt, and this pile-up of setbacks isn't clumsy writing: it sets up the final twist.

The Turning Point: A Rival Who Finds a New Calling

By the end of the road, Hop reaches a conclusion few rivals ever put into words: his love for Pokémon doesn't need battling to exist. He decides he's more useful studying and protecting them than pitting them against other people's.

One act confirms this reasoning. He manages to calm a wounded, frightened Legendary Pokémon with nothing but words, where all his experience as a Trainer would have gotten him nowhere. The proof comes in the exact field he has just chosen.

What comes next follows naturally: Sonia takes him on as her assistant. The game then draws an echo between two generations, since Sonia and Nessa are two close friends who went in opposite directions, one into research, the other into running a Gym.

The mobile game, which added him in August 2021, spells out this reading in black and white: his profile there explains that the Gym Challenge revealed his true dream to him: becoming a Pokémon Professor. There he forms sync pairs with Zamazenta, Rillaboom, Pincurchin and later Zacian, and a "Neo Champion" outfit pairs him with a Galarian Zapdos.

⚡ Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus: browse our Legendaries.

In the Anime: A Fan at the Masters Eight Tournament

Pokémon Journeys introduces him at the stadium in Wyndon, where he has come to watch the Masters Eight Tournament with his Wooloo. He recognizes Ash at the entrance and immediately challenges him to a one-on-one battle; the Alola Champion's Pikachu settles it in a single hit.

The loss doesn't discourage him. He introduces himself to Ash and Goh, says his brother has told him a lot about this Trainer, then announces his own goal: to be the first to dethrone Leon. He spends the rest of the tournament in the stands, commenting and cheering.

The final finds him first in the locker room with his brother, then in the stands alongside Sonia. The clash between Leon's Gigantamax Charizard and Ash's Pikachu releases a surge of Galar particles and summons Eternatus, which dissipates the excess before leaving. Leon is defeated, and Hop applauds the winner.

Twilight Wings: Wooloo Runs Away

Twilight Wings, the series of short episodes devoted to Galar, follows him at home, together with his Wooloo. His first scene there shows him tying a friendship bracelet around his Pokémon's leg, and the following scenes show the two of them in front of the TV, watching battles.

One of these recordings pits Leon against Bea, and Hop gets especially excited about his brother's Charizard. Wooloo then tries to imitate the Fire-type Pokémon to prove that it's worth something too; its Trainer laughs and goes back to studying strategies, without seeing the hurt he has just caused. The Pokémon runs away.

Hop asks everyone, scours the town, finds nothing, and ends up calling out for his partner from the outskirts. A taxi brings it back without his knowing; he runs after it, apologizing, and declares that he has only one partner, doesn't want any other, and wants to take on the League together with it. Wooloo leaps out of the taxi and lands in his arms.

Hop at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Hop in Pokémon Sword and Shield?
  He's the game's main rival, a Trainer from Postwick who lives next door to the hero. He accompanies the player throughout the Galar Gym Challenge, alongside two other rivals, Marnie and Bede.
• What is the connection between Hop and Leon?
  Hop is the little brother of Leon, the Galar League Champion. He trains to take his place one day, and this constant comparison with his older brother is the heart of his character.
• What Pokémon does Hop have?
  He already has a Wooloo at the start of the adventure, then receives a Galar starter: Scorbunny, Sobble or Grookey depending on which one the player picked, always the one at a disadvantage against yours. He then changes his team several times.
• What happens to Hop at the end of the game?
  He gives up on becoming Champion. After calming a wounded Legendary Pokémon just by talking to it, he decides to devote himself to studying and protecting Pokémon, and Sonia hires him as her assistant.
• Does Hop appear in the anime?
  Yes, in two different productions. In Pokémon Journeys, he challenges Ash and then follows the entire Masters Eight Tournament from the stands, for around ten episodes. Twilight Wings, the series of short episodes devoted to Galar, then gives him a story of his own, centered on his bond with his Wooloo.

In short

Hop is a rival who loses, and that is exactly what his arc is about. Where the series usually crafts opponents who keep getting stronger, Galar portrays a teenager crushed by comparison and who takes the whole adventure to realize he was aiming at the wrong target. His final act isn't a battle won but a Pokémon soothed, and he leaves the story in an assistant's lab coat rather than a Champion's outfit. A rival whose victory is changing his dream.