Fixing Pokémon Sword and Shield's Story

I think it needs to be publicly stated that there was a Piloswine named DabbingGod in this video.

“Oh No! My brother is late for dinner!” “Time to raid a million dollar corporation”

Step 1: don't have Hop be ALWAYS impressed that you know fire beats grass.

During the game I always wished we'd actually see Leon get lost. It was mentioned so much that I thought it would have plot relevance at some point but as far as I can remember, it was only relevant for why Hop didn't get worried sooner when Leon was late for dinner. As it is in the game, it just feels like they decided Leon needed some kind of character flaw or fun fact about him and they just decided on "having no sense of direction". Plus it would've been fun to find Leon at a route like "Oh so nice to see you, could you point me towards Hammerlocke?" and he'd maybe give you an item or tell you about the place he's going to/the person he's meeting there.

50:20 - If we go with the backstory idea of "maybe she was homeless before Rose helped her", her team could still make sense. All the graceful ladylike Pokemon are ones she got after Rose, and her Garbodor could be a dear old friend she'd made when she was still living on the streets that she couldn't bear to leave behind.🤔

I kinda love that Opal wanders in and forcibly adopts Bede. "Congrats kid, I'm going to be a positive influence in your life and you have no choice in the matter!"

My biggest change? Let Piers sing an actual song. That foottapping, mic squealing cut scenes was a disgrace

I think for Bede it would’ve been pretty interesting to see how he would’ve reacted to Rose’s plan. Just that “oh god I helped cause all this with all my wishing Star gathering” which could’ve helped Bede with some character development later on Also a bit ranty but gladion is such a good character, his backstory, motivations and personality fit really well with the story and his character. I personally think the only eh characters in that sun and moon are the trial captains since you only see them for a tiny bit

Tbh I think Rose turning himself in at the end is actually stronger characterization for him not feeling guilty for his actions rather than him being on the run by the end of the story. If Rose turns himself in, it’s as if he’s saying; “I did what I set out to do, and the future is safe, and that’s all that matters. Do whatever you want with me, I have no regrets.” His ideals are all he cares about, and he puts them before his own personal well being. And ultimately, he did what he did because he cares about the people of Galar more than anything, even if it manifests in a super twisted way (a la Thanos) Rose going on the run at the end weakens that characterization because it implies that he cares more about saving himself, and basically means that he acknowledges he knows he did something wrong so he needs to flee the consequences.

also on the whole “leon being late to dinner” thing, why did nobody think to just CALL leon to see why he’s late? the pokedex is literally a cell phone in this game but nobody thinks to call him??

I love how the game plot's so sloppy that the anime's just like "Screw it! We're not even gonna spend the whole season in Galar!"

One of the biggest tragedies of this game and the plot was how amazing Rose's battle music was for what felt like a side battle, and I really love how you built Rose up in your video to the battle. It felt like it solved all the problems about his battle in the games. In the games it didn't feel like I was battling the Big Boss because Rose was never a bad guy up until that point. There was no bad guy up until that point, I wasn't battling against anything bad. Rose's battle music could honestly be the best Pokemon Boss music out of all the games, but the impact of it was lost because the story fell short, and that's honestly criminal. A perfect boss battle song for a really sad excuse at a boss battle. However, when watching your video, after hearing the build up of Rose's potential story, the moment in your vid when the music cuts in and the Rose battle starts, I got actual goosebumps! THAT'S the reaction you want in your game to your boss battle!

One of my biggest issues that could so easily be fixed is the game constantly tells us how great Leon is but never really shows us in a meaningful way. A cutscene I'd have loved to see would be: The player character, Hop, and Leon are near a city when a dynamax Pokemon begins to rampage. In this case we are close enough that Leon doesn't just shoo us off, but opts to handle it himself with the player character and Hop watching. At this point, we have experienced a dynamax battle and how "tough" they supposedly are. However Leon steps in, Gigantamaxes his Charizard and proceeds to one shot the dynamax rampaging Pokemon. This shows just how powerful he is without any words needing to tell us, a real show don't tell moment. As Leon basks in the cheers of all the randos around and the player character is clapping in amazement, the player character looks over at Hop, but hop isn't clapping. He is actually looking down, away from his brother. Leon's display further reinforces Hop's feelings of inferiority to his brother and pushes him further into his depressed state that Bede began him down. This cutscene would add so much to really hitting home how great Leon is supposed to be and Hop's internal struggle in just a few minutes better than any words could.

52:09 Jacob: "Firstly, swordbert and shield guy don't exist, period. They were either not born or were murdered before the game started" Me: "HECK YEAH!!!"

Alternative Rose story: he was the first character to be the introduction to the world of Pokémon that ISN’T a professor. The man is a showman above all else. In Hullbury, the people treated him like a celebrity. And the Championship? He believes that’s the perfect time to show off a whole new means of using Wishing Stars as energy, but as you go through the game, you start learning the myths a little more, and Eternatus is actually obsessed with Wishing Stars, so if they are energized the way Rose wants to, Eternatus will return. A mix of Chernobyl ignoring safety in the name of showing off amazing energy and a Dragon turning attention to a brilliant hoard of treasure.

I think honestly that the twist ending that Hop wants to be a professor is more suited for a rival like Barry. Barry literally talks about feeling empathy for the pokemon mistreated by Team Galactic.

Can we just give credit to this guy for completing Sword/Shield with an entire Ice type team? That's pretty impressive.

I always thought that since you have 3 rivals and a raid battle needs 4 people, the final raid with Eternatus should be with the player and 3 rivals. Possible the player and Hop use the 2 dogs and Marnie and Bede use their pokemon.

There's a lot of headcanons where it's said that Leon caught Wooloo for Hop, maybe we can add that to his character, similarly to morpeko and Marnie! At the beginning, we can show that Hop likes to take care of pokemon, even taking care of the Wooloos to the point that one of the babies got attached to him, which is why the wooloo is now his pokemon because Leon helped Hop catch it with a pokeball. He once said that he's "probably the best at wrangling wooloos", so a cutscene where he used to take care of Wooloos wouldn't be out of place, especially with his first pokemon being a wooloo. Around that time, maybe Hop can promise that he will defeat Leon with his Wooloo by his side. Maybe Hop wants to be champion because in a way, he wants the attention and wants to be equals with Leon. It's not that his family doesn't give him attention, they love him and he knows it. It's also more so that Hop wants to be around his brother more. Being champion is a very demanding job, and that in a way, Hop misses Leon and he thought that being champion would also mean Leon would be back more, and at the same time, part of him wants the attention, and at the same time, it's peer pressure. His brother is the champion, so he should be as great as the champion! People keeps saying that Leon's little brother should be as great as him, and that also gives some sort of pressure of Hop being a champion just as Leon is the Unbeatable champion. Bede, just to give him a bit more asshole into his character, might point out that Hop just wants to be champion just because of the attention, which isn't true, but there's a part of him that does wants it and that makes him gets into a crisis. Especially when he realises that the pressure is starting to get to him, and it sinks in, which starts the entire moping thing. He would then realise that, as he gets defeated by the mc, he's crushed because his hardwork was put to waste, but at the same time, he doesn't really feel hatred nor jealousy, as he slowly realises that, he likes to battle yeah, the adrenaline of going in with strategies and trying out different things is fun, but at the same time, he can't picture himself as a champion anyways. Later when we talk to him, it's the final push to a realisation that he's been fighting FOR Leon, but never for himself, like what Opal said. That's my intepretation anyways

As I was playing through Sword and Shield, I was thinking to myself how neat it would be if Oleana was actually behind everything, and she was planting all of these "change the world" ideas in Rose's head so she could steal his company out from under him at the opportune time and use its capitalistic monopoly on the region to take over and rule Galar. After all, she's his VP and most trusted advisor, yet she deals with most of the nitty-gritty work while Rose just goes around doing whimsical shit. She's in the best position to usurp control of his company, and she would arguably have the most incentive to do so. But then it turned out that she was just a blind follower of Rose, and I was like "oh that's way more boring"