dandelion-crown

[dandelion-crown]

i don't think i named any of my pokemon exactly, but i do think i had nicknames i'd often use in passing. like aegislash was always aegislash to me but I definitely didn't only call it aegislash.

speaking of aegislash, it was definitely one of the pokemon i got earlier on, and we grew very close, to the point it was rather protective of me. I'd hide in its shield occasionally, when i was smaller.

i came across ghost types a lot now that i think about it... no idea why. probably has to do with just how much time i spent lost in the wild area.

[dandelion-crown]

[dandelion-crown]

Having more Leon (unrelated to each other) thoughts:

I'm going through another playthrough of SWSH, because why not, and something I've noticed is that, to me, it seems like Leon falls back on "being Champion" when he's uncertain. Like the "Champion Time" and "Champion [x]" comments seem to ramp up when he's facing off the player character, someone he isn't sure he can beat. I really do think that losing his title is the same as losing a huge chunk of his identity as a person, and while I don't think that's necessarily a new or hot take on Leon, I do think it fundamentally shifts how he interacts with people.

Right after noticing the above point was the Eternatus fight. The music for the final phase of Eternatus incorporates bits from the encounter theme for Leon when you meet him in Postwick, and of course there's the Master's EX sync pair between him and Eternatus. I don't think the attention brought to these two being a pair is an accident. Mainly, I think it's in relation to those two being scouted out by Rose (Leon for the League, Eternatus for his evil villain schemes), and once they became uncontrollable and unruly people were picked to replace them, take them down. Leon and Eternatus pitted against each other, maybe one subdue the other, take each other out, and potentially become less of a problem for Rose.

Final thought, I did notice the pictures in his mom's house in Postwick are professional pictures. Not candid ones. At least in my opinion they look like promotional images. However, Hop has one of Leon looking silly goofy, which I think is a good way to showcase the differing ways each of them see Leon as a person.

[dandelion-crown]

can we talk about the leon and eternatus parallels more 😭. it's as clear as how hop and gloria/victor are zacian and zamazenta. and how deeply we were robbed. the game sets us up meeting raihan in literally the first cutscene, as leon's rival and DRAGON TAMER, and leon gets intertwined with the most omnipotent and dangerous dragon ever known, in the very city that celebrates dragons (raihan's city! his domain!), and you're telling me raihan got sidelined in that story............... what da tuna

where to start

leon, and his main character energy, gets to the energy plant first because he's the hero, right? and believes it's his job. and he feels guilty for not piecing together rose's plan sooner. he's the hero who'll stop this! that's what everyone says and what he's convinced himself. but at what point does he realize he has more in common with this destructive, confused, untamable, "villainous" thing, than he does being a hero? and that he might actually lose, upon that realization? is he thinking he's been a fraud this entire time?

the dragon with world-ending power appearing the moment leon's "world" falls apart—realizing he's been betrayed and misled by rose, someone he had trusted for so long. his match being interrupted, the thing that tethers everything sensible in his small grandiose life as champion. all those years away from home, time he spent building galar into what it is today alongside rose, time he could have spent with hop, sonia, raihan, the weight of being a cultural symbol of strength and prosperity, all for this?

eternatus and leon both being handpicked by rose, and essentially kept dormant and isolated until it was time for their "true purpose." (you could say rose's other pawns, bede and oleana, were discarded once their usefulness had run dry.) ...only for rose to realize leon and eternatus were never really in his control. the hubris to try and contain things of such power. lol

i want to get into leons mind at that moment. sometimes i think him trying to catch eternatus was his last resort in trying to subdue it. all the theories of how every champion has a master ball, what happened to leon's? we jest about him throwing a pokeball, but genuinely i think he was unprepared. clearly.

i don't leon realizes the gravity of the situation until he sees eternatus, which is already too late. he's been running around the region since the gym challenge started subduing unruly dynamax pokemon from rose's experiments. what's one more? but this one's different. it's otherworldly, its skeletal appearance makes it look barely alive, despite it's clear exertion of power. it's hard to read. is it confused? angry? scared? all of the above? eternatus is mysterious, and terrifyingly strong, just like a certain champion. no one but themselves really know the extent of their own strength and power, and maybe not even completely. there's pieces in the games, but it's clued a lot heavier in twilight wings, of just how tired leon really is.

all that to say, we get to see eternatus crash out once it's awakened in a changed world and feels repressed and used, in desperate need of rest and freedom, and maybe even something like real trust and safety. i wonder what that means for leon ......... :(

last thing i'll say: even though hop is connected to zacian, and stopped the darkest day, i think he might struggle to view himself as a "hero," even after that. the champion's supposed to be the hero, right? then, what does that make leon? hop can't even beat his rival, he didn't make it to the champion match, he just wanted to help his brother even though he doubted what much of a difference he'd make. maybe if it wasn't for gloria/victor he'd feel too cowardly to do anything at all. leon was supposed to be the one to stop this, they were just supposed to help! maybe everyone's been in the wrong place for a long time. poor kid

i lied. one more thing to say:

not to make this turn into post #439574 rewriting the darkest day, but it would have been interesting to see raihan and sonia, or maybe even raihan and piers, trying to assist leon before the young trainers have to step in. i think it would have solidified the vibe that leon/much of the cast were once Protagonists and Rivals of their own story, and now it's time for a new generation. i also think that would have emboldened the narrative of the Power of Friendship behind how hop and gloria/victor succeed where leon doesn't, in trying to defeat eternatus alone. (since we see in the post-game, how leon's tournaments are team based double battles, which i think exemplifies his changed mindset and openness to connection, now that he no longer is an isolated champion, and maybe starts learning its okay asking for help)

yeah

[dandelion-crown]

Hi, if you're reading this you probably know the drill by now.

I go be Leon (or Dande I suppose), or Lee if you're close / a mediamate. I'm spiritual fictionkin, and made this blog because i'm actively losing my mind consistently.

I'll make a nicer looking intro post later, just wanted to get this set up before I forget! Any mediamates are free to interact for banter, I'm not a roleplay account but I will do little jokingly "in character" comments here and there with other kinfolk.

Hoping to make some friends on this blog, I have many others so feel free to ask! and just feel free to int in general. ✨