I have a huge beef with these two characters. In the sense of how they look and just why we had to use them. I mean yeah they certainly have names that fit the titles of these two variants, but there's just a lot about them that bothers me. Let's start with a few things just about their motivations. They are evil and I get that point, but what they do at the end of their part just confuses me much like our other main villain. The rest is in a spoiler so then if people haven't gotten that far you have been warned. Spoiler When it comes to Sordward and Shielbert wanting to Dynamax Pokémon only to reveal Zacian and ZamaZenta is dumb to begin with. Then their attitudes towards the main character and Hop is rather confusing and annoying. I know they are supposed to be 'descendants' of the Galarian Kings but just their villain side bothers and creeps me out. It also impressed me when they got a whole band of followers in such a short span of time. Then to mention what happens at the end, at first whichever is your enemy to begin with Sordward or Shielbert depending on your version, how they fight to stop you and then both him and his brother have to be scared out of their wits to freaking humble up. I just don't like that they sort of save that part of the game for after the Champion match, but it also is kind of cool in a way. In summary I have mixed feelings about these guys. How about you?
I guess I'll put my response in a spoiler too, just in case. Spoiler I think they were supposed to be celebrities, which is why they had such a huge following so quickly, but it would have been nice if there was more of a mention of them before they just kind of showed up out of nowhere. You can get the sword and shield haircut in the last city, or at least an NPC mentions them I never actually tried, and I think they're very briefly alluded to, but that's it. Like if they had been shown doing whatever "celebrity" thing they do, that would be one thing. If they had been part of the mainline story somehow, like if they showed up as special guests in the Pokémon tournament and you met and talked with them a couple of times. If, before the mural got destroyed one of them showed up and showed it to you and said that it was made in dedication to their ancestor or something. Then when everything goes wrong, someone realizes, "Oh, we need the descendants of the king to call Zacian and Zamazenta to stop a calamity from striking. Oh, I know, we can ask those two!" And then they end up not being able to call on them and being overall useless, so you and Hop have to go find Zacian and Zamazenta yourself. That would at least give them more of a motivation to show up post-credits and complain about being made fools of.
Hey look, I can do spoilers too: Spoiler Can we talk about the hair for a minute? I DIED laughing the first time I saw their hair. I love it when Pokémon goes all out with their character design (which is definitely one of the team's strongest points). The unashamedly blatant hair styles was thematically fitting for a game that does not take itself too seriously for a lot of the game and I loved every part of it. As characters? They're okay, don't really have much to add there.
I had not gotten around to doing this part of the game yet but seeing this reminded me to finish that up. Honestly they make better villains than Rose lol They have that Gary "Smell ya later" attitude which I love.
Their sheer snobbery and jerkiness made them rather entertaining minor villains. I wouldn't really want to see them in a larger role or anything, but they served their part well and were very hate-able villains. It would have been nice if there was more build up to their existence through NPC dialogue throughout the main game so that they don't come pretty much completely out of nowhere, though.
For apparently being celebrities, they show up out of nowhere. And something about them seems off, they just don’t seem like they really fit into any of the scenes. Like if you put a Digimon into a Pokémon game, it’d be pretty noticeable. Also, Sordward, buddy. Can we talk about that hair. How much gel does it take to keep that up?? Sorry, it’s a bit hard to focus on the battle when the opponent has a hairdo designed for psychological warfare.
UPDATE: Oh this will also be in a spoiler as well because just to be safe cause I don't like things spoiled for myself so Spoiler: My second Galarian adventure revelation In Wyndon, Circhester or Hammerlocke a patron at the hair salon mentions that they want either a sword or shield haircut like they saw previously. So they were around in the game just out of the character's knowledge because you know... we can't have them meet a secondary villain too soon