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

Originally Posted by Dark Blueberry

Gary had much less screentime than Trip - as if the writers conveniently forgot him and remembered only a few months after. Even without much of a buildup, even without showing off an overpowered ace pokemon, Gary received a full battle two-timer episode at the Silver Conference with Ash. Trip, however much he had that buildup with Ash and Alder, he was badly written off.

It's true that Gary didn't have much screentime, although I'm not sure how much more screentime Trip had compared to him, but unlike with Trip, Ash's rivalry with Gary actually existed. There was motivation behind it with Ash always wanting to show Gary, especially when he was a stuck up jerk, that he was a good trainer and even when he wasn't around, Gary still had an impact on Ash. He should have appeared more, but there was more buildup for those two to have a full battle in the Johto League, mainly for being Ash's first rival and how he lost to Gary in their first battle before traveling to Johto, than there was for Trip. There wasn't even a basic kind of motivation like that to drive the rivalry between Ash and Trip. Trip was a stuck up jerk for no reason, Ash just wanted to battle him just because, Trip had no impact on Ash when he wasn't on-screen and Ash didn't affect Trip. Even Gary changed a bit due to his rivalry with Ash, although most of it was off-screen if I recall correctly. Alder was the only character to cause Trip to changed, which highlighted how pointless his so-called rivalry with Ash really was when nothing he said or did caused Trip to change his stuck up attitude.

Gary wasn't handled well either, but it made more sense to have a full battle with him than to have something like that for Trip. I'm not even sure if the Junior Cup could be counted as buildup for their battle since he was using just his overpowered Serperior, instead of using multiple Pokemon that could have appeared in a full battle, and I think that it was just so that Alder could cause Trip to change his attitude. He was written off badly, but it made sense with how poorly written his rivalry with Ash was. Even his rivalry with Gary was better by comparison, which says a lot in my opinion. I'm still perfectly fine with how Trip was written off since I think that they lost interest in him far more than they did with Gary, despite how he appeared infrequently, since there were other rival characters to focus on and they clearly preferred them more than Trip given how often they appeared by comparison.

I found him a very interesting rival myself. I like that he was a prick to Ash like Paul, and yet, he had this own air of superiority to him and making Ash seem inferior was a definite plus to me for him. All I can say is, it's a shame what the writers did to him at the Unova League, IMO. :(

Originally Posted by EmotionalTensionPKMN

I found him a very interesting rival myself. I like that he was a prick to Ash like Paul, and yet, he had this own air of superiority to him and making Ash seem inferior was a definite plus to me for him. All I can say is, it's a shame what the writers did to him at the Unova League, IMO. :(

That air of superiority is one reason why I was annoyed by him. He acted like he was so above Ash despite being a rookie trainer himself. There was no mention that he studied Pokemon for years, although that wouldn't have been a good excuse for either his attitude or his skills. I think that having a rival being a rookie trainer was interesting in theory, but it was executed so horribly. Making him overpowered just so that Ash could still be the underdog in the rivalry was a poor choice. There wasn't much of a rivalry between them, they didn't have much of a reason to battle other than Ash just wanted to battle him and Trip's presence in the series is incredibly lacking. I think that the treatment he got at the Unova League was one of the few good decisions they made in that League. He really didn't deserve anything more and I preferred that they got rid of him sooner rather than later.

Originally Posted by Hidden Mew

Originally Posted by EmotionalTensionPKMN

I found him a very interesting rival myself. I like that he was a prick to Ash like Paul, and yet, he had this own air of superiority to him and making Ash seem inferior was a definite plus to me for him. All I can say is, it's a shame what the writers did to him at the Unova League, IMO. :(

That air of superiority is one reason why I was annoyed by him. He acted like he was so above Ash despite being a rookie trainer himself. There was no mention that he studied Pokemon for years, although that wouldn't have been a good excuse for either his attitude or his skills. I think that having a rival being a rookie trainer was interesting in theory, but it was executed so horribly. Making him overpowered just so that Ash could still be the underdog in the rivalry was a poor choice. There wasn't much of a rivalry between them, they didn't have much of a reason to battle other than Ash just wanted to battle him and Trip's presence in the series is incredibly lacking. I think that the treatment he got at the Unova League was one of the few good decisions they made in that League. He really didn't deserve anything more and I preferred that they got rid of him sooner rather than later.

ROFL. I take it you didn't like Trip at all, huh? XD.