Andrias/Grime/Hopediah - Revanchism/Revolution/Culture
One interesting parallel that can be found with the three parental figures the girls find in Amphibia, is how each of them is an old, experienced tradionalists, who are patriotic to Amphibia.
And yet, they all represents completely different aspects of tradition, and their journeys shows how tradition evolves when faced with opposition.
"And with it, Newtopia will be returned to Glory!"
Andrias is a Revanchist, a man who has seen his own civilization fall, and is hellbent on restoring the empire of old.
For him, it doesn't matter what Amphibia is. It doesn't matter to him that the land is horribly decentralized, that people are miserable outside the capital, or even that the people inside the capital are happy.
He has no interest in any of that, and long, long since stopped trying to improve the land of which he is supposed to be the steward of.
The only thing that matters, is the empire. The idea of former glory, not what it actually was(After all, ancient amphibians probably had a pretty sweet deal going for them in their empire), but the power of it, the prestige, the glory of it's conquests.
If Amphibia can't have that, then it is worthless in his eyes.
He is, in short, an embodiment of everything wrong, about tradition. He seeks to recreate a world that doesn't exist anymore, and not even the entire old system, just the parts he himself cares about.
He is stuck in the past, and is determined to drag everyone else back to it with him.
His entire motivation can be boiled dowm to try and make the world "The way it is supposed to be, the way it SHOULD have been!".
"Forget retaking the Valley! Forget serving the kingdom at all! How about you and I raise a frog danged army and storm the capital! It's high time a Toad ruled this world for a change!"
Grime by contrast has a journey that sees hkm become the revolutionary, the man who rejects tradition for good or bad.
He is introduced as the most stereotypical Toad captain imaginable. A proud, and strong advocate for tradition, and uphelder of the status quo.
He is what his society has made him to be, a cruel, brutal and harsh leader.
But unlike Andrias, who is stuck in the past, Grime begins to change. He tries new things, adopts new tactics, and finds to his suprise that it works.
The world he upheld for so long was inefficient, and trying something new simply yielded better results. So he abandoned the old ways, and embraced the new perspective.
Then at the end of Reunion, his entire world tumbles to pieces around him, leaving him rudderless for a time, unable to find any meaning in the world as his entire way of life has come to an end.
But he bounces back, and embraces a new course in life.
Screw the system! Screw authority! Screw the King!
Andrias abandons tradition completely, the way things have been for a millenia now, and decides to rip it all down, and place him and Sasha in charge.
Its a complete rejection of how "Things should be", but at the same time, the world Grime wants to create is still influenced by the world that he wants to overthrow, as Grime mainly seems to want to abolish the current caste system and replace Newts with Toads.
New boss, same as the old.
Or so it would seem, because Revolutions by nature are extreme, and there will almost always be something good that comes out of even the most violent and total revolutions.
In Grime's case, his revolution would have prevented the reestablishment of the Amphibian Empire, and whatever would have come in it's place would not have been as bad as this.
And finally we have Hopadiah Plantar.
Hop Pop, like Andrias and Grime, is very much a result of his own upbringing. He is an Amphibian frog Farmer to his very core. Just like Andrias is an imperialistic Salamander of Newtopia, and Grime used to be a proud Captain of Toad Tower.
Unlike the two of them however, what Hop Pop represents a different side of Tradition. A more balanced side. Andrias is tradition rooted in the past and a refusal to ever move beyond it. Grime is a revolutionary who wants to tear down the old order for his own benefits.
By contrast, Hop Pop is content with the world as it is. He grew up in it, he lived in it, he works innit, and saw his entire family die in it other than his two grandkids.
Hop Pop has no intention or wish to changing the system. The world is the way it is for good or bad, we all have to live in it.
Hop Pol represents culture, and not in the sense that he loves the fine arts. He is a part of the common people, the world as it actually is, beyond the circles of power and politics.
Throughout Hop Pop's journey, we get to see the good, and the bad sides of that.
We get to see his stubbornness, his reluctance to try new things, and a wish to adhere to the way "Things have always been".
But we also get to see the good parts of tradition, because pretty much every single good part of Hopadiah Plantar is rooted in his upbringing.
In plantar's last stand Hop Pop is convinced by Anne to get into the conning business(Though he takes it way further than even she intended) but in the end, his sense of honesty and familial values of fairness and decency drives him almost mad, and he confesses to the deception, rather than continue to see the legacy of his name be further tattered by his own actions.
And when he actually does try and change the system, rather than trying to overthrow the legal order, Hop Pop does it square, and follows the rule of law.
And when he has the chance to make it big, and fulfill his dreams of becoming a famous actor, but at the cost of that honesty he is so proud of, Hop Pop ultimately does the right thing. And when given the chance to find fame on Earth, he ultimately gives up that fame to someone who needed it more than he.
When Andrias proclaims that it's time to bring Amphibia back to it's former glory, Hop Pop is enthusiastic about it, because he assumes that Andrias is planning on doing so in a way that he would have dome it in his place. To make life better for everyone in his charge. Only to immediatly sour when he hears Andrias announce his plans of conquest.
Hop Pop is not always right. But neither is he always wrong either.
Tradition is not inherintly good or bad. It can be both, but usually it all depends on context.
It isn't alway worth it to rip something down to the foundations to build aomething new, and sometimes, what is buried in the past is best left forgotten.
Tradition has a place in the world, but you cannot be so focused on the past that you let it dominate your future. Hop Pop's story is about him trying to strike that balance, and still remain true to the man he is, the hardworking, honest and patriotic frog who is proud of his history, and loves his family more than anything.
Or as one of Hop Pop's closest friends would say.
“Turns out if you embrace change instead of clinging to the past, you get a say in what the future looks like.”
