#they took everything that failed about the story in SWSH and fixed it

[pastlight]

just finished watching a Pokemon SV playthrough

[beinfriends-a]

As I announced a while back, I am adding a few new muses to the blog; Bede and Leon-- but I’ve also elected to add Chairman Rose to the roster as well.  While I am still working on their bios (I’m trying to juggle homework and rp jdfsdfbjsd and it’s slow goin-), I stated in my tags of that original post that these characters would be extremely canon divergent, and I hold true to that.  Enclosed here is the in depth explanation for the AU for which all SwSh muses operate under: the Rusted Sword and Broken Shield AU-- or RSBS for short.

Please use this for reference if you are confused about the verse for my muses.  This is an overview for the entire AU, so there’s some extra characters discussed as well aside from my muses.  I’d also like to give a quick shout-out to my buddy Koshi for reading over this and helping come up with a lot of Marnie’s arc (because I completely forgot about her the first time... whoops).  He doesn’t have a blog for me to tag unfortunately, but I sincerely appreciate the help!

Under the cut because it’s long.

Gloria is the player.

Hop like usual, idolizes Leon and has developed an arrogance from being the Champion’s brother.  He can’t separate his own identity from Leon’s and so becomes incredibly discouraged when he keeps losing to his rival.  It’s Gloria that ends up making Hop reconsider his choice to become a Trainer, rather than Bede.  Bede rubs it in, but he’s not the root cause.  Hop realizes he’s thought he was better than Gloria this entire time and learns to see her as an equal.

He learns by the end that you have to lose sometimes in order to grow as a person.  If you’re never challenged, you’ll stagnate as a person.  After seeing Leon struggle to take control of the situation with Macros Cosmos as well as his depression after being defeated, he realizes Leon is another human being, like anyone else.  He comes to respect his brother rather than worship him.

He finally admits that he never really enjoyed training in the first place and Sonia allows Hop to be her lab assistant so he can train to become a Professor.

Marnie is less friendly to the player, Hop, and Bede at first.  She’s taken that resent of Dynamaxing to heart thanks to Spikemuth’s lack of a power hot spot, leading to Piers’ obscurity.  She wants to prove that someone can be Champion without needing to use Dynamaxing, and she manages to convince her brother Piers to give her an endorsement to prove herself.  If she fails, she promises to return and take over Spikemuth Gym for him.

Marnie doesn’t hate her rivals, but she resents them because they’re “special”-- having been endorsed by the Chairman and Champion.  Although she too was chosen by a League member, she feels as though Piers and Spikemuth are at a disadvantage.  Team Yell essentially hold their same position as in the original game, except that they have a strong dislike of Chairman Rose and the current state of the League.

Yell views Marnie as their Champion and cheer her on to victory.  Marnie is just as tired and annoyed by them, but she appreciates the support.  Although she ultimately loses to Gloria, she’s proud to have stuck to her guns about keeping away from Dynamaxing.  She becomes good friends with all her rivals by the end.  She and Piers later help evacuate Hammerlocke during Eternatus’ attack.

THE CHAIRMAN’S CHOICE

Bede starts out the same.  He’s sponsored by Chairman Rose, who has encouraged him to become a Trainer in order to pull himself out of his miserable childhood.  After hearing about Galar’s alleged impending energy crisis, he begins collecting Wishing Stars for Rose.  After he desecrates the monument at Stow-on-Side, Rose pulls him from the Gym Challenge.

However, Rose does not wash his hands of Bede.  He continues to encourage Bede, who is desperate for his approval and paternal affection.  He tells Bede that withdrawing from the Gym Challenge was to show that Bede had been punished properly; however, he sets the boy out on a new mission.

Not only does Bede continue collecting Wishing Stars, he is also attempting to take people’s Dynamax bands from them as well as seeking ways to harness some of the Dynamax energy from the stadiums.  It’s Bede who accidentally causes the first Dynamax incident in Hammerlocke when he is given a tour with Oleana and Rose, who intentionally leave him to his own devices in the Energy Plant.  The power failure is all orchestrated by Rose, but he makes Bede believe it was entirely his fault.

Bede eventually becomes the “fall guy” for Macro Cosmos.  By using the unaware teenager, Rose can divert attention away from himself and make himself out to be the good guy as he attempts to “teach” Bede to be better, all while stringing Bede along by getting closer with the young man as a father figure.

Whilst waxing about the state of Galar’s energy, Rose “accidentally” lets slip the mention of Eternatus, a being that could help forever power Galar if only they could harness its energy.  Although it’s buried deep below Hammerlocke and its energy provides much already to Galar, it’s not enough.

Bede decides to take matters into his own hands and attempts to summon Eternatus to help Rose by utilizing the machine to wake up the creature.  Just as planned, Rose again is able to blame Bede for everything in order to get people to cling even closer to his company.

Chairman Rose then discards of Bede now that his plans have completed, telling him he’s unlovable and too hard to “fix,” but thanks him for the help.  Hurt, Bede finally realizes he’d been used this whole time, but had repressed it due to his wanting to belong and be accepted by Rose.  He slinks back to Gloria and Hop and agrees to help them.  Although Rose hasn’t told him much, he has enough insider information in order to help them defeat Rose and Eternatus before it’s too late.  He’s injured battling Eternatus, but gives Gloria and Hop enough time to summon Zacian and Zamazenta in order to defeat Eternamax Eternatus.

After redeeming himself to the best of his abilities, Opal finally offers Bede the position of Ballonlea Gym Leader.  She met him during his initial withdrawal from the Challenge, but knew he had growing to do, but she encouraged him from the sidelines, always hoping that he would come around and learn to be better.

UNLEEFEATED

Leon is quite the same to start out as well.  He’s kind and cheerful, but ultimately shallow and arrogant.  Being the undefeated Champion of Galar for over ten years, he’s stagnated.  Although he never loses until Gloria comes along, he doesn’t learn much from his experiences.  His arrogance rubs off on Hop.

Although Leon believes in Hop, he still thinks his little brother will never match the talent for training that he has.  Gloria he sees more potential in, but still doubts he’ll ever be defeated.  However, curious to see how they’ll grow, Leon gives the two starter Pokemon as well as an endorsement so they may participate in the Gym Challenge.

Leon and Sonia’s formal rivalry is more highlighted.  The two had a falling out years ago due to Leon’s arrogance.  Sonia had enough of his inadvertent talking down to her during the Challenge as well as when she decides to quit in order to become a researcher, and the two had a massive falling out once Sonia felt she couldn’t even recognize Leon anymore after he took the Champion’s title.

Leon carries a lot of guilt for how he treated Sonia, but has repressed it enough to ignore it rather than ever try to bridge the gap between them.  He instead throws his investment in a rivalry and friendship with Raihan.  As he begins to encounter Sonia more and more over the course of Hop and Gloria’s journey, those feelings of sadness and regret return.

Before the Gym Finals, Rose approaches Leon to discuss business with him about Galar.  Rose is concerned for the energy that Galar will have, and shows Leon that the “endless” energy emanating from deep within Galar is starting to rapidly deplete all of the sudden.  Leon is shocked, and feels uncertain about Rose’s plan to fix it, and promises to think it over after the finals are done.

Once Leon is defeated for the first time by Gloria, he experiences a huge mix of emotions.  While he knows he should be proud of Gloria, a sadness eats away at him.  He feels empty now that he isn’t Galar’s undefeated hero anymore.  He had attached his entire identity to that ideal, and now, it’s gone.  While Rose exploits him at his lowest, Leon eventually comes to terms with his defeat.

He becomes proud of Gloria defeating him and throws himself at a new project: renovating Rose Tower into the Battle Tower so he can continue battling new and strong trainers.  Once Hop is given the assistant position to Sonia, Leon finally swallows his pride and apologizes to her.  While it doesn’t completely fix the tension between them, it’s a start, and Leon works at becoming at growing as a person and trainer.  Things are looking just as up for him as ever.

GALAR’S MOST BELOVED

Chairman Rose is a fucking bitch and I’ve had enough of him.  Basically, he’s not a big fucking idiot in this version.  He plays much harder into the role of the good guy, using Bede and other distractions in order to draw attention away from the fact that he is orchestrating a plot to take over Galar.

After all, Rose already controls a vast majority of the industry in Galar, as well as having the Pokemon League in his pocket.  He orchestrates a fake crisis about Galar’s energy, hoping to scare people into giving him more power.  This eventually culminates into false attacks on energy in Hammerlocke as well as the summoning of Eternatus.

He unintentionally almost summons Eternatus earlier in the story whilst attempting to pull more energy from the power spot in Hammerlocke, but fails, only to realize what opportunity he has.  Eternatus is stirring, and begins to eat away at the energy reserves at a dangerous rate.

After he tricks Bede into summoning the beast, Rose lets Eternatus wreak havoc by acting as if it was another error by the boy, who he constantly manipulates and feels little for.  He hopes to re-establish his role as the leader of Galar by helping defeat Eternatus, taking responsibility for Bede’s actions.  He has an untested device that will ideally contain Eternatus, but only in the event of Leon and his failure to defeat it.

Seeing Leon unable to beat Eternatus, he attempts to kill Leon in hopes of drumming up sympathy, wanting to make Leon a martyr for Macro Cosmos.  Then, he would attempt to use the device to placate Eternatus and utilize its power to further help Galar and prove how badly the region needs him.  However, he is defeated by Bede and then captured by authorities, jailed and his business dissolved.

HOW ABOUT THE PLOT?

There’s a lot of the same beats as in the vanilla game, but with some changes.  When the Dynamax incident happens in Hammerlocke, Hop and Gloria go to investigate, only to find Bede responsible for the incident.  They battle, argue a bit, and then try to help fix the problem, only to be stopped by Leon.  Leon is upset that the kids would disobey him when he told them to move on without worry, but was glad to see them stop Bede.

Bede is encountered a few more times throughout the game generally causing trouble on behalf of Chairman Rose, who continues to sigh and look like the tired father figure to the boy.  Opal attempts to nudge Bede towards realizing his true potential, as well as that he will not find meaning or value in trying to fight for Rose’s affection, but goes unheard.

There are unusual earthquakes and things happening with Dynamaxing.  Sometimes Pokemon randomly start and stop Dynamaxing in different areas.  Macro Cosmos promises to investigate but encourages everyone to continue their Gym Challenges and Dynamaxing to the best of their ability.

When Leon takes the kids out to dinner to celebrate them making it to Wyndon, Hop doesn’t freak out.  Leon texts them to let them know he’ll be late, and eventually, the kids are invited to Rose Tower when it appears that the meeting is growing longer and longer.  Rose gives them a tour, and explains that he and Leon are simply discussing some troubles with Galar, again disparaging Bede for his foolish actions in order to “help” the issue, before sending them on their way.  Hop and Gloria have a bad feeling about it, but don’t say anything.

Leon is defeated without any outside interference from Rose.  After a party celebrating Gloria’s win a few days later, Eternatus breaks out of Hammerlocke and starts wreaking havoc.

Rose approaches Leon and begs him to help.  He tells Leon that although Gloria overcame him, he is still Galar’s strongest hero, and that he’ll be loved in the hearts of millions if he is the one to defeat Eternatus.  He’d show Galar that he didn’t need to be undefeated to be a hero and a winner.  Leon agrees both out of duty and out of a need to “prove” himself to Galar once more.

Leon and Rose confront Eternatus together at the top of Hammerlocke Stadium.  Rose promises to fight alongside Leon, but soon disappears as the battle grows wilder.  Leon hardly notices as he fights to protect his and his Pokemon’s lives.  Leon tosses a Master Ball given to him by Rose just before in order to catch the dragon, but it fails.  Eternatus is uncatchable.  The beast bursts out of the ball and attacks Leon and his Charizard with even fiercer determination.

Leon starts to lose hope and confidence in himself, and soon nearly his entire team, save for his Charizard, is wiped out by Eternatus.  He attempts to escape, but Rose reappears to stop him, demanding to know why he’s giving up.  When Leon tries to leave again after explaining himself, Oleana knocks Leon out and they leave him to be devoured by Eternatus.

Bede soon arrives to stop the Chairman from his plans in order to give Hop and Gloria time to grab the sword and shield and to arrive back in Hammerlocke.  He manages to fight off Rose and Oleana, but finds himself beaten by Eternatus as well.  It’s just enough for him to try and drag Leon to safety before Gloria and Hop soon arrive, and begin to battle Eternatus with the help of Zacian and Zamazenta.

Leon comes to in the middle of battle and rushes back out once he hears the sound of the beast from outside.  As much as Bede attempts to stop him, they both arrive at the top again to see Gloria, Hop, and the legendary wolves defeating Eternatus’ Eternamax form.  The Pokemon loses its form and collapses into a pile of bones, the energy dissipating and being taken by the wolves, who returned to their resting place in Slumbering Weald.

Authorities catch up with Rose and Oleana and the two are arrested.  Macros Cosmos is dissolved.  Dynamaxing is no more thanks to Eternatus’ defeat, but the Gym Challenge roars on.  Zacian and Zamazenta absorbed the energy, spreading it evenly throughout Galar, helping the energy issue but preventing Dynamaxing from occuring.  People cope with the loss, but enjoy the act of simply battling anyways, learning about other forms of ultimate evolutions, such as the Megas from Kalos.

Not sure about the post game yet because I hate those sword and shield hair fucks and I don’t feel like coming up with a reasonable plot for them.  That’s not really important to the AU anyways, but if I come up with something, this post will be amended and I will make a note of it.