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

[Mythicalzoe]

No he is a Paul/Gary wannabe but at least he has a nice party

 

[Airi-Chan]

No he is a Paul/Gary wannabe but at least he has a nice party

Gary now is a researcher, Paul is now (I dunno, I can imagine he's a shitty breeder like his bro), but what will happen with Trip in 6th generation series? I think he'll be a Champion, singer, or celebrity

 

[Caseydia]

No he is a Paul/Gary wannabe but at least he has a nice party

I do agree that he has a nice party. I didn't remember Gary's much because he had too many and Paul's were all super tanks, so I never enjoyed them. I however like Burgundy's and Trip's Pokemon teams though.

 

[Shinneth]

Paul is now (I dunno, I can imagine he's a shitty breeder like his bro)

There was nothing that insinuated in DP that Paul was going to give up on being a trainer just because he lost to Ash and their rivalry ended. He said he was going to seek a rematch from Brandon after that, and that's all we know about his future after DP. He's really not shown to have any interest in other career options (least of all what his brother does), so best thing to assume is that he is still a trainer like Ash is - just pursuing his goal in a different path than Ash.

Trip, on the other hand, we've got no clue what motivates him to being a trainer besides his prior idolizing of Alder. Maybe we'll learn if there's anything more to Trip than that in the tournament, but I kinda doubt it since Alder seems to be the sole driving factor that's preventing Trip from getting booted out of this upcoming one like he had been in all the others. and lol no I do not see Trip being a Champion.

I think he's gonna be full-on the next coming of Todd Snap or a member of the Pokemon Paparazzi, but more likely in the near future I see this sheltered xenophobe going to Kanto after his tenure in the series ends. Trip does have some species of Pokemon I particularly like... it just bothers me that he was able to so quickly get certain species within 10 episodes AND evolve half of them. He's a beginner; him getting booted early from tournaments and his dumbass philosophies are the only things that prevent him from completely contradicting his role.

 

[Mikuri]

No, and I will give two simple explanations for why I don't find him an interesting rival.
First, I don't think a regular Trainer needs a rival. For a Coordinator, every single opponent faced in a Contest can be considered a rival, as they are competing for the same thing, a Ribbon, and they have to face each other because of it. But for Trainers, the only rivals they have before the League are the Gym Leaders; they don't need to defeat other Trainers to get a Badge. So, what I look for in a rivalry between Trainers is something that gives them reasons to be rivals, other than the writers have decided that they must be rivals. Trip failed to give me this reason. Why he and Ash are rivals after all?
Second, I think it is the duty of every rival to motivate the character of the main cast. I hate the fact that Ash and Gary were rivals because they were born in the same town and just because of that, but at least Gary motivated Ash, Ash was jealous of him, and this inspired Ash to be a better Trainer. I know many people here don't like Zoey, but she also fulfilled this role, Dawn wanted to be like her. This time, Ash has no reason to be jealous. He also doesn't want to show his skills in front of Trip or prove that his training methods work, as happened with Paul. The will to battle Trip is exactly the same will to battle a character of the day, and that's sad. Trip failed to provide inspiration, Trip failed to provide a challenge.
For these two reasons, Trip just fails as a rival.

 

[Airi-Chan]

Paul is now (I dunno, I can imagine he's a shitty breeder like his bro)

There was nothing that insinuated in DP that Paul was going to give up on being a trainer just because he lost to Ash and their rivalry ended. He said he was going to seek a rematch from Brandon after that, and that's all we know about his future after DP. He's really not shown to have any interest in other career options (least of all what his brother does), so best thing to assume is that he is still a trainer like Ash is - just pursuing his goal in a different path than Ash.

Trip, on the other hand, we've got no clue what motivates him to being a trainer besides his prior idolizing of Alder. Maybe we'll learn if there's anything more to Trip than that in the tournament, but I kinda doubt it since Alder seems to be the sole driving factor that's preventing Trip from getting booted out of this upcoming one like he had been in all the others. and lol no I do not see Trip being a Champion.

I think he's gonna be full-on the next coming of Todd Snap or a member of the Pokemon Paparazzi, but more likely in the near future I see this sheltered xenophobe going to Kanto after his tenure in the series ends. Trip does have some species of Pokemon I particularly like... it just bothers me that he was able to so quickly get certain species within 10 episodes AND evolve half of them. He's a beginner; him getting booted early from tournaments and his dumbass philosophies are the only things that prevent him from completely contradicting his role.

But I am pretty sure he'll reach his dream as a Champion. He was booted early for tournaments doesn't mean he was a jerk. He is confirmed in the semifinals at WTJC with Ash and Iris.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I definitely cannot see Trip reaching his dream and becoming a Champion. Even with how overpowered his Pokemon can be, I think it would be a bit much for him to win the Unova League and then the Champion League. Plus, I don't know if the writers would make such a drastic change in a region's Elite 4 lineup that isn't reflected in the video games. The anime has never been a really faithful adaptation, but I can't really see them having an anime-only character becoming a region's Champion. I imagine that Trip will just travel to another region after the Unova League, quite possibly Kanto if his attitude about the region suddenly change. That's probably a more likely outcome than Trip becoming a Champion, especially when I don't think that they'll have Trip win the whole League. They're most likely saving Ash defeating him for the Unova League, like they've done with his other main rivals, and I can't really see them letting Ash lose there. It would be a bit of a surprising, but pretty unlikely to happen in my opinion.

Though, I personally don't mind if Ash loses to Trip again since the rivalry still feels rather meaningless to me. Trip still comes off like a jerk for no reason and there's still nothing driving Ash to battle him other than he just wants to. It doesn't help that Trip losing twice on-screen will make the image of Ash defeating him have even less of an impact. At least when Paul lost, it was to a much stronger opponent than both Cilan and Bianca and it led to Paul being much more emotional than he had in battles, or in general, in the past. Plus, it led to their first awesome six-on-six battle, so that definitely helped keep Paul as a threat and made Ash trying to defeat him more of a challenge. Trip getting ahead in the Junior Cup doesn't mean much to me since it's just the attempt to make him more of a threat after losing twice in the other tournaments. His battles could be better, although I'm not holding much hope for that, but I think that even if he wins the tournament, which would still be better than Iris winning it, too much damage has been done to his character, and by extension his rivalry with Ash, to make him more of a threat or make me care for this rivalry at all.

 

[Mythicalzoe]

Ok after receiving somuch infractions i shall try my best

Trip has no purpose other than fighting Alder but then thats it whats the point of the rivalry.WAIT what rivalry Trip clearly doesnt care about Ash as evident due to the fact he walks off stage and leaves after his battles.Trip is also boring i would have preferred if Langley was Ash's main rival because she has spunk and it would be funny to see Ash getting beat by a girl.Even more ludicrious is the fact that Trip is a noob trainer and the writers overpowered his pokemon to the point where they want us to belive he is better than Ash.
Now its not Ash's fault for losing its UNOVA pokemon fault for losing and sucking.A single iron tail should have KOed that Snivy.How did that Frillish survive A LEAF STORM and i luv how they hax water pulse now.Then where did he get a frillish,lampent and vanillite on such short notice.Many of you are saying that he had a full team by episode 10 was unfair.
In the games you would mostly catch:
Lillipup
Patrat
Purrloin
Blitzle

So my the time you past Striaton city you already have a full team
Trip losing the next major part of his rivaly.He lost to cilan and bianca now he just plain sucks

 

[HumanDawn]

I've been watching BW's tournaments again and I've noticed Trip's interesting development that nobody pointed out for some strange reason. In his battle against Cilan in the Club Battles, Cilan taught him of the strategy Ash told him of in their gym battle of using a Pokemon's object (like Oshawott's scalchop and Dwebble's rockshell) to block aggressive attacks. Cilan commanded his Dwebble to cleverly use his rockshell to block Gurdurr's physical attacks.

Gurdurr could have used the same strategy with its concrete block, but because Trip didn't know how to utilize it well, he couldn't use it and so, lost. Come the Clubsplosion and Trip is using his newly evolved Conkeldurr's two concrete blocks to help him beat Bianca's Emboar with what he learned from what Cilan taught him. With the concrete blocks, Conkeldurr blocked Emboar's Arm Thrust, Hammer Arm and the Flamethrower in a cool way. Cilan even pointed it out. Sadly, Trip still lost because of his non existent connection with his Pokemon. Bianca's Emboar still stood up to fight despite the strong Strength and Stone Edge attack that were powered through Bulk Up because of her bond with her Pokemon.

I thought that it was reflective on Alder's philosophy about Pokemon being more than just tools that was established when he showed up. Burgundy also faced something similar, missing a secret flavour that made her lose against Iris' Excadrill, who just like Bianca's Emboar, lasted longer because of the bond between trainer and Pokemon, leading to their victory. From that, I expected Trip and Burgundy to be paired somehow. It's really strange as to why they're not when they have so much in common xD.

I also liked how Trip motivated and informed Ash by telling him to train his Scraggy's Focus Blast like how when he told Ash of Oshawott's fear of opening its eyes in water. It really helped build the rivalry where they both learn from each other and are motivated to do their best. Ash even wished Trip luck in his battle against Bianca.

Trip's use of Serperior in the Junior Cup against Pokemon who were at a type disadvantage definitely came from Ash. Using a move to lower the defence of his opponent's Pokemon and Serperior's speed to evade the attacks to tire his opponent was clever as well. His match against Alder was compelling and interesting. Alder teaching him, telling him that he still has a lot to learn and to bond with his Pokemon was very cool and reflective of his champion status. Trip and Serperior then having this very little moment here was so compelling that it touched my heart:

Spoiler

This made me unable to wait for Trip's next inevitable appearance to see the bond that grew between him and his Pokemon. So to answer the question asked here in this thread; Do you find Shooty to be an interesting rival? My answer is yes. I do find him to be both an interesting rival and a character. He compels me, he has an interesting purpose in this show, his attitude is cool enough to live up to his predecessors', he has an interesting hobby and his character development is enriching to the quality of this series. I'll be sad to see him depart when BW is over.

 

[Fair Verona]

I wish that for once in the series they would make an actual rival. As in someone who actually rivals Ash in strength, rather than someone that is blatantly better than him. I want to watch Ash's rival battles and not be 100% sure that he is going to lose at the end. It would make the story arc more interesting if Ash would win some, then Trip would win some.
I think Ash should have won the first battle against Trip, but then lost the second one due to his own arrogance. If Ash had beat Trip, it could have motivated him to become as strong as he is, rather than being strong for the sake of being strong. If Ash had won, it could have looked better for him too.

 

[Gengarzilla]

All of the Trip overglorification during the PWTJC just pissed the hell out of me. I have officially lost all hope for this character...

Don't let the door hit you too hard on your way out after Ash kicks your ass in the League.

 

[hhhhdmt]

No

Paul is ashs best rival with Gary a close second. Trip is not an interesting rival. I don't know what was going through the writers head when they decided to give ash a rival who is merely a beginner, as opposed to someone who has similar experience level to him

Gary started the same time as ash did so it makes sense that Their League battle was so close. Paul has travelled through 3 regions prior to Sinnoh, same as ash, and his character was extremely well written

Trip is a Paul knockoff and IMO will never be an interesting rival. The writers have made him out to be some genius trainer in such a short time, imagine ash facing someone as powerful as Lance or Cynthia after winning his 8th Kanto badge, that would seem absurd, wouldn't it? Yet trip did face alder because the writers are trying to make trip look a lot better than he really is.

 

[Isaac Gravity]

I wish that for once in the series they would make an actual rival. As in someone who actually rivals Ash in strength, rather than someone that is blatantly better than him. I want to watch Ash's rival battles and not be 100% sure that he is going to lose at the end. It would make the story arc more interesting if Ash would win some, then Trip would win some.
I think Ash should have won the first battle against Trip, but then lost the second one due to his own arrogance. If Ash had beat Trip, it could have motivated him to become as strong as he is, rather than being strong for the sake of being strong. If Ash had won, it could have looked better for him too.

While I'm more in the camp that felt that Ash should've prematurely ended their first battle out of concern for Pikachu (not before the little guy showed off he had more than even speed/evasive moves in his plethora to easily win a battle he had no reason losing legendary debuff or no), you my friend, touched upon my problem with (Ash's) rivalries in general in this show.

It's just more all around insulting given what Trip was initially portrayed to be and what he's shown to do and act. And, as you said, all for the sake of being so all with no build-up or all around follow-through. The whole Junior Cup pretty much took THAT home. Even his actions after all that was all for the sake of things.

Do I find Trip an interesting rival? I'm struggling to even consider anything of Trip at this point.

 

[Caseydia]

I wish that for once in the series they would make an actual rival. As in someone who actually rivals Ash in strength, rather than someone that is blatantly better than him. I want to watch Ash's rival battles and not be 100% sure that he is going to lose at the end. It would make the story arc more interesting if Ash would win some, then Trip would win some.
I think Ash should have won the first battle against Trip, but then lost the second one due to his own arrogance. If Ash had beat Trip, it could have motivated him to become as strong as he is, rather than being strong for the sake of being strong. If Ash had won, it could have looked better for him too.

While I'm more in the camp that felt that Ash should've prematurely ended their first battle out of concern for Pikachu (not before the little guy showed off he had more than even speed/evasive moves in his plethora to easily win a battle he had no reason losing legendary debuff or no), you my friend, touched upon my problem with (Ash's) rivalries in general in this show.

It's just more all around insulting given what Trip was initially portrayed to be and what he's shown to do and act. And, as you said, all for the sake of being so all with no build-up or all around follow-through. The whole Junior Cup pretty much took THAT home. Even his actions after all that was all for the sake of things.

Do I find Trip an interesting rival? I'm struggling to even consider anything of Trip at this point.

If Pikachu wouldn't have been used for almostg everything, then maybe we wouldn't have had that problem in the beginning. Pikachu has been one of the first Pokemon to battle whenever Ash got to a new region. This goes for Sinnoh and Hoenn too. If only the story in the beginning wasn't so rushed for him and his rival, then I'm sure some people wouldn't have been so sour about that. After that, the lose and the tie he got from Trip was fine in my eyes. If only he had got a win against him before the Junior Cup, then maybe some would feel better. Over all I liked what they did to give him some focus in the Junior Cup. If only he had used different Pokemon instead of one to get victories. The same goes for Iris.

Overall I like Trip as a rival in this series. He is the only one that seems to be taking anything seriously as far as strategy and training. It's not like he was perfect, experienced or anything, it's just that the wrong Pokemon and wrong phrases was used in the beginning.

 

[Isaac Gravity]

@Caseydia; Normally, I'm all for food for thought especially when the material gives me enough to make note of the possible "what-if" actions. But I can't justify that in this case at all. You're bringing up Pikachu being the go-to travel buddy for every new region (esp. when you sit and look at how the initial AG and DP eps rolled up) only worsened that as we CAN'T compare them to Best Wishes start.

That said, you are right in some forms, the beginning was rushed. Not for Ash but for Trip and the building of him looking like a threat caliber comparable to previous rivals all while forgetting what previous rivals had going for them from the get-go. If we wanna be honest here, my problems with the guy (Trip) didn't start until the second battle. Oh don't get me wrong, the first battle rubbed me all the ways wrong esp. since THAT was a battle that was best left undecided going by the circumstances.
The "what-ifs" of Trip's perception of Ash actually stopping a battle that (he thought) could have went either way unaware of Ash and Pika's situation would've been far more interesting for future encounters.

Honestly, I didn't care that he came back with a practically full roster of monsters (moreover ones that have been shown to appear later on in), nor did I care about what clinched the battle for him since Ash legitimately didn't know about said ability (but then again this then falls into my beef with abilities only activating conveniently when the writers want Ash to win or lose). What got to me was the fights in-between that. Needless showing off how "powerful" Trip's monsters are and "how smart" he is for finding Pokemon (that he shouldn't have access to anyway) with specific abilities just to steamroll Ash's guys and make him look like the underdog we should root for for the future. (No, just stop.)

I'm sure even a younger viewer who at most was on and off with DP would've felt a bitter twinge well within them from watching that. Third battle? I was at the point I didn't care and would just sigh and roll my eyes whenever Trip appeared.

Td;lr- Normally, I'm all for food for thought especially when the material gives me enough to make note of the possible "what-if" actions. But I can't justify that in this case at all. But if you like Trip and find him interesting, more power to ya. I like Iris myself and happily called her a badass ninja with a badass adorable childhood but its because I like her character is why I get so frustrated with what the writers do with her.

 

[weeaboo_girl84]

*Paul is walking along the street minding his own business*
*sees some writing on a sign*

Shooti was here!
Paul is a loser!

 

[Caseydia]

@Caseydia; Normally, I'm all for food for thought especially when the material gives me enough to make note of the possible "what-if" actions. But I can't justify that in this case at all. You're bringing up Pikachu being the go-to travel buddy for every new region (esp. when you sit and look at how the initial AG and DP eps rolled up) only worsened that as we CAN'T compare them to Best Wishes start.

That said, you are right in some forms, the beginning was rushed. Not for Ash but for Trip and the building of him looking like a threat caliber comparable to previous rivals all while forgetting what previous rivals had going for them from the get-go. If we wanna be honest here, my problems with the guy (Trip) didn't start until the second battle. Oh don't get me wrong, the first battle rubbed me all the ways wrong esp. since THAT was a battle that was best left undecided going by the circumstances.
The "what-ifs" of Trip's perception of Ash actually stopping a battle that (he thought) could have went either way unaware of Ash and Pika's situation would've been far more interesting for future encounters.

Honestly, I didn't care that he came back with a practically full roster of monsters (moreover ones that have been shown to appear later on in), nor did I care about what clinched the battle for him since Ash legitimately didn't know about said ability (but then again this then falls into my beef with abilities only activating conveniently when the writers want Ash to win or lose). What got to me was the fights in-between that. Needless showing off how "powerful" Trip's monsters are and "how smart" he is for finding Pokemon (that he shouldn't have access to anyway) with specific abilities just to steamroll Ash's guys and make him look like the underdog we should root for for the future. (No, just stop.)

I'm sure even a younger viewer who at most was on and off with DP would've felt a bitter twinge well within them from watching that. Third battle? I was at the point I didn't care and would just sigh and roll my eyes whenever Trip appeared.

Td;lr- Normally, I'm all for food for thought especially when the material gives me enough to make note of the possible "what-if" actions. But I can't justify that in this case at all. But if you like Trip and find him interesting, more power to ya. I like Iris myself and happily called her a badass ninja with a badass adorable childhood but its because I like her character is why I get so frustrated with what the writers do with her.

I wasn't trying to be mean or anything but I was trying to be positive since there are somethings I find interesting about all of Ash's rivals. For me, there is only a few things that I think that the writers could have done for him to keep some of some fans from whining.(Taking Vodor in account)

I however don't deal with "what ifs" either but for me it has always been about strength. Trip getting better in battles has been good. Serperior constantly being used wasn't my wish but for some reason it got better in each match. Watching the Pokemon he got from Professor Juniper and seeing it's power now is pretty nice.

Things I find interesting:

Design- Although he looks imilar to Paul I like how his eyes is a light clear color for a change.

Pokemon- I like that they are bright colored, floaty and aren't too creepy.(That is if you don't count Conkeldurr)

Personity- He's been able to show different facial expressions. You can tell when he was serious, snubbish, intersted and happy. He's not always rude or mean to everyone. Even though he's not friendly to Ash, I think that it is needed in this show since most of his rivals are chummy.

Camera- That's one thing I've noticed that grabbed my attention at him unlike with the other main male rivals, was that a kid needed to be doing which was acting his age at times.

As far as the Junior Cup goes, since it was so rushed, it wasn't done well. However, it made me interested in Serperior unlike before and I'm also glad that Trip got to face alder. I thought he atleast deserved that much. Trip is also a strategical battler. That's why I get interested in his battles. Although he isn't as experienced as Ash, you could never tell sometimes in the way he can handle himself. I think he and some other rivals have some much potential, but I'm wondering if they'll all get the closure they'll deserve once this show is over.

 

[Chiplet]

He's still kinda meh in my eyes. Now I won't make comparisons between him and Paul as so many people already have done that, but I will say that I actually cared for/loved the rivalry when it was between Ash and Paul. Now, I really couldn't care. It's like they don't care for each other, so why should I care for them? There's no spark between them, it just feels like there are empty words. Ash say ''I'll beat you the next time!'', doesn't do a jack about it (except maybe for the whole Oshawott-learning-seeing-underwater-thingy), and then loses again in their next battle. In the rivalry between him and Paul, Ash gets extremely motivated once he loses, being reminded of Paul as soon as he's training, which therefore actually built on the rivlary, making it much more interesting. Not to mention that Paul started acknowledging him along the way, while Trip doesn't care for Ash at all.

I don't hate Trip, but he's just really boring. I did get slightly excited for him during the Junior Cup, as he finally got interesting with this ''hatred'' he carried for Alder's slacky way of being a Champion, but he's sudden change to suddnely being an angel felt really, really rushed and very forced. So, no.

However, Trip has a really awesome team, and their strength is perfectly reasonable in my eyes, as he obviously is very dedicated when it comes to training. So, I guess that's something to be happy about.

 

[Cybersai]

He's the most boring character in the show since Kenny, and that's saying a lot. Even if Paul didn't exist, I'd still find Trip boring.

I can't understand for the life of me why his character was created. If Ash needed a new main rival in BW they could have gone with anyone else.

 

[Caseydia]

He's the most boring character in the show since Kenny, and that's saying a lot. Even if Paul didn't exist, I'd still find Trip boring.

I can't understand for the life of me why his character was created. If Ash needed a new main rival in BW they could have gone with anyone else.

Gee, I never thought you of all people would have a problem with him with all of the comments you've made back when BW was going through it's early stages. Trip along with those other rivals he's got are just as interesting. They are all needed in a certain way if you think about it.

Trip- Serious, intelligent, hard worker.
Bianca- flawed, determined, comedy relief.
Stephan- Strong, confident.
Kotetsu- scadder-brained, positive, funny.
Virgil- ??? We'll get there sooner or later.

But all in all, the writers seem like they are adding two extra rivals now instead of putting those ideas into making Trip appear or do more on the show than trying to nip Ash in the butt. The Don battles helped that but I find that the show can use someone like him.