Nothing has grown on me with as much intensity as my appreciation for **Pokemon Sword & Shield**. I never actually finished it but I did watch a friend play through it and I was honestly super impressed by it. I loved the music and the focus on how hype gym battles are, since they’re my favorite part of Pokemon games outside of [[Rounding Up Some Little Guys|rounding up some little guys]]. But the best part of **Sword & Shield** is Hop. Apparently people don’t like Hop? I don’t know those people because I have good taste in friends. Those people are wrong, and Hop is the best rival in any Pokemon game. This is because he is a complete inversion of what you expect out of a rival in these games. I want to believe I’m a Pokemon Protagonist, but I know for a fact I’m a Hop. Hop loses, always. He looks up to people who are extremely good at the thing he wants to be good at. You know how Hop always brings up that you know type advantages? It’s easy to look at that and be like “dude, why do you keep bringing that up?” But then you fight his brother and realize that Hop is just saying and doing everything he does to try and emulate his success. Yeah. And you know how he picks the starter that’s weak to your type, which makes you think he’s some pushover, but the reality is that he picked it because it’s strong against his brother’s starter? Yeah. Yeah… Hop wants to win *so fucking bad*, y’all. He hits a point where he starts swapping pokemon, including his beloved wooloo, just to figure out something, *anything*, that will finally beat you and his brother, and still comes up short. I am a Hop through-and-through. I am never satisfied with my progress, never content with being second-place. But just like Hop, I know I will *always be second-place*. There is nothing special about me, and there will always be someone better than me – some Victor or Gloria that completely outdoes me in every way. But I’m also okay with being a Hop because his greatest strength is what’s most important to me, which is to not let not being the best weigh me down. That may seem obvious to you, but for a weirdo perfectionist like me, it’s hard to remember. I am constantly blasted by the talent of my friends and peers whenever I turn my phone on. Success is the name of the game on social media, which makes remembering that comparison is the thief of joy just *slightly* more difficult than I’d like. Remembering Hop now and then, and how he’s content to rely on his own strengths, even if he can’t be the best at what he wants to be good at, legitimately helps out. So yeah, Hop’s my boy. Never thought I’d meet such a relatable person in a **Pokemon** game of all things, but that’s the beauty of art I suppose.