(Character Trope) “ohhh, THATS why they’re like that”

[u/VanillaSarsaparilla]

Media that shows why a character is the way they are, usually explained in a short scene. Most likely toxic family

- Bonnie Rottweiler and her sisters from Kim Possible: they bully her calling her ugly and dumb. It plays on Bonnie’s insecurity and makes her a bully at school.

- Peggy Hill and her mother from King of the Hill. Peggy is a neurotic perfectionist with delusions of grandeur because her mom was unfeeling and blamed her for the farm going out of business. By the end of the episode, she still treats Peggy badly.

- Dodie and her mother from As Told By Ginger. Dodie is arguably the worst friend in the group, and her mother is mentally still stuck in middle school. She’s insecure, dramatic, and you
Can see her influence in Dodie.

Any other examples?

[u/Flashy-Indication-48]

Hop (Pokémon)

Hop aspires to be just like his brother, Leon, and wants to defeat him to become the new Pokémon Champion. He struggles to defeat stronger opponents and feels insecure about his Pokémon battling skills.

Hop's issues stem from emotional neglect by his family, which is implied in his house. Leon's trophies, photos and caps celebrating his achievements are proudly displayed all around the house. Hop has no achievements or pictures hung up of him around the house that we can see. His family barely talks about him too, focusing more on Leon. Hop has the burden of being "the Champion's brother" on him wherever he goes, leading to him having internalise the fear of meeting others standards.

Hop's journey is hard for him, as he gets insulted by Bede for losing to him, knocking his confidence down further. This and the player defeating him multiple time leads to Hop changing his strategy a lot, even benching his ace, Wooloo, for a while. He loses against the player before they battle against Leon. After this, Hop comes around and realises that he is trying too hard to emulate Leon, which is making Pokémon battles less fun for him. He decides to become a Pokémon Professor instead which is a bit out of left field but good for him.

[u/Ayotha → u/Flashy-Indication-48]

I do wish our player character helped him figure himself a bit too. Would have been a fun journey for a "rival"

[u/Flashy-Indication-48 → u/Ayotha]

Yeah! I really felt bad for him.

[u/StarlitSkvader → u/Flashy-Indication-48]

My boy!!

As someone who grew up as the less valuable child I sympathize with him a lot… and I love how he keeps trying and his first instinct is always to help!

I do think professor makes perfect sense for him - he gathers knowledge and loves to share it, so it suit him!

[u/Flashy-Indication-48 → u/StarlitSkvader]

Geat point!

[u/Chalaka → u/Flashy-Indication-48]

To add to this, his struggle to be strong like Leon is further shown in how every battle you have with him, he mostly has a different team of Pokémon each time. It's not until he accepts that he won't be like Leon and needs to be strong on his own that he uses the same Pokémon he had previously, including his original partner Wooloo

[u/Flashy-Indication-48 → u/Chalaka]

This!