History Fridge / PokemonSwordAndShield

* Why can you find Metagross in the Crown Tundra? Well, the Crown Tundra is based on Scotland, the Scottish flag (and thus the part of the UK flag representing Scotland) is a white saltire (X shape) on a blue background. Metagross is blue and has a whitish-silver X shape on its face.

* The symbolism for the players and Hop. If the players choose Sword, that means Victor/Gloria is the star of the story as the Sword represents power (the Champion is respected) while Hop who wields the Shield, got Victor or Gloria's back since Hop really does have the player's back despite being rivals. If the players choose Shield, that means Victor/Gloria is the new defender of Galar (akin to Leon's status as the Undefeatable Champion) and Victor/Glora will now be the one continuing to defend their Champion title while Hop who wields the sword still represents power and also the star. In Hop's case, the power to surpass his older brother Leon and become the new Champion but because he focused too much on wanting to win than properly finding out the best strategy in order to win and thinks he knows everything from top to bottom which includes on doing things like perfecting a throw which even Leon said that it's not of importance, Hop lets the power get to his head, causing him to hit and miss which results in his loss. Additionally, the fact that Hop sees himself as a guaranteed new champion, believing that he is the star of the story as if a foregone conclusion in a meta sense. And the fact that Hop thinks just because Victor/Gloria could defeat Bede, Hop felt that he could also easily defeat Bede. Lastly, when the Sword or Shield gets stolen in the post-game which Hope lost against one of the weirdos, Hop's "sword" in a sense became dull, broken or rusty since he no longer has a goal as Leon lost against Victor/Gloria, leading to Hop realizing that he likes helping people which made him learning to become a Pokemon Professor in his own right and as they say, "knowledge is power".

* Among the Gym Challengers who you can later fight in Champion Tournaments, there are none who specialize in Psychic, Dark, or Fairy-types. Actually, there ''are'' — more specifically, your rivals. Marnie specializes in Dark-types, while Bede initially specializes in Psychic-types before switching to Fairy-types.

* The Starter Pokemon segment. Regardless of which Starter Pokemon you chose, Hop will always choose the Pokemon who is weak against the player's Starter Pokemon. Hop breaks the tradition, right? Where the rival always chooses the Pokemon that has the type advantage against the player's? Technically yes, because one has to keep in mind that Leon chooses the remaining Starter Pokemon which is actually the player Starter Pokemon's weakness. And because the player is going for the Champion of Galar title, Leon is also considered the player's rival in that regard. A bit different from Hau in Ultra Sun/Moon who chose the type disadvatntage because Hau wanted to surpass his grandfather, not the player's character.

* The Starter Pokemon segment. Regardless of which Starter Pokemon you chose, Hop will always choose the Pokemon who is weak against the player's Starter Pokemon. Hop breaks the tradition, right? Where the rival always chooses the Pokemon that has the type advantage against the player's? Technically yes, because one has to keep in mind that Leon chooses the remaining Starter Pokemon which is actually the player Starter Pokemon's weakness. And because the player is going for the Champion of Galar title, Leon is also considered the player's rival in that regard.

* Many players have noticed that Pokémon with high Speed stats can't catch up to their trainers when sent out in the DLC, even if the Dex entries note their fast movement. This is because caught Pokémon are calmer and no longer wild, they run at a more relaxed pace because they're not doing it for the sake of life or death. In other words, they're domesticated.

** However, due to the adventures' NPCs being randomly generated, we will sometimes see Peony as part of the player's group. He can be seen Dynamaxing in the Galarian Star Tournament for instance but he never does so in the Dynamax Adventuring segments.