One more thing I would like to add since I forgot! For topic 2, another thing is in the game its actually canon that nobody can wear the exact replica of Leons uniform because the cape is too heavy. When looking at it deeply it most likely symbolizes Leon being the only one strong enough to carry the weight of being Champion and with everything else I covered it makes perfect sense. Its said by an npc in the game which is why its hard to find or you’ve never read it before. But its there. If you wanna know, its said by an npc in Hammerlocke on the left side. There are two people talking and one of the will tell you the line. Would also like to clarify- I don’t think Leon acts “childish” per-say, I just think he’s a goofy guy. People just think he acts childish so I was mainly answering that. And Leon does act childish at times, but for the most part, he’s just a goofy guy having fun. That was kinda a “what if” thing
as a leon fan, I really love this video. Leon is one of my favorite characters in the games and I glad to see a lot of other people also appreciate him
Awesome video!!! I love all the points you brought up! You made such important points and explained them so well! IMO Leon is such a deep character, and I am honestly sad that some people hate him, simply because they didn't actually read the story. I can't forget how Hop said Leon doesn't care about what he eats, yet in the post game their mom says that Leon finally actually enjoyed a meal. I personally thinks that it's not that Leon doesn't care about food, rather that he doesn't have the time to actually enjoy anything because he is so busy, just like how he wanted to bring Hop and player to dinner but couldn't do so because of Rose called him over. He didnt even have the right to decline or the chance to inform them before being dragged to a meeting for hours. Even just the simple point of his league card saying that people can see he is much happier after retiring from being a champion, considering that this view is coming from people in Galar who probably sees Leon having a big smile all the time, definitely tells us just how big of stress Leon was always under. We can also see that unlike most other regions where champion does nothing, being Champion in Galar actually means that if anything happens, they have to be there immediately to take care of it. (honestly one of my reason why I love Leon, he is the only champion who actually acts like an adult and protect others) When Opal says she can't tell if Leon wants to lose or win the battle, I interpret it as as much as Leon would wish to stop being champion by purposely losing a battle, he knows that the "new champion" might not be able to protect Galar when disaster happens. IMO Leon is a person that puts other's want before his own needs. He wouldn't risk Galar even if it means working himself off 24/7. (This might be just headcanon, but I did several translations of articles from magazine and tcg info on Leon , I personally think it might be true) In the very beginning of game, Professor Magnolia once said to Leon something like 'isn't it your dream to make every trainer in Galar strong?' His tcg states that Leon sets himself as an obstacle for the trainers to defeat. I imagine that being in the champion position for this long would made him questions himself. Is this really the limit Galar can do? Has he himself really been getting stronger, or are trainers in Galar just getting weaker? I think that the big smile Leon has when we defeated him isn't just Leon feeling happy that he no longer has to act like the always-happy-champion, but also he is relieved that Galar trainers are getting stronger, and he himself finally has an obstacle to break through. (again, just my opinion and headcanon) Sorry for making such a long comment! I am just so happy to see others also loving Leon. Thank you so so much for this wonderful video!! I love all the screenshot of Leon from every source😍 Leon has definitely become my all time favourite character!
AHHHHHHH THAT HEADCANON IS SO GOOD!!! I like that lots!! And Leon is such a good character man 😭 He’s hated for the dumbest reasons and that really sucks. He deserves just as much love as he shows to others
Leon is also my favourite champion. I feel it's mostly because he's the canonically strongest trainer in a series I'm intensely obsessed over. That being said I do like his character outside of being the champions a lot. There's also his champion battle theme, which is my favourite song in the whole of Pokémon. There's nothing cooler to me than a literal entire region watching a battle and cheering on (I adore the chanting in Galar, being from Britian it was amazing to see the chanting and cheering we're known for replicated in the game). There's also the fact that chanting is like a form of symbiosis to me, the crowd are excited do they chanting and cheer, which makes me more excited and want to perform better, getting the crowd more excited and so on.
Great Video! Like you said, I think people hate Leon because they can't accept he's the strongest in the anime. Which honestly isn't unreasonable as other champions are strong (obviously) but don't have feats/results in the anime to make you think they are stronger than other champions, like Leon has shown. It's actually interesting to see the different reasons people give for hating Leon. I've seen people say he is boring/hate him for not letting the player deal with problems around the region like the dynamax pokemon. Yet personality wise past champions aren't as memorable, and people hate that Leon is acting like a proper champion/responsible adult and not letting a child deal with the regions problems as they shouldn't have to. Again as you mentioned, the games are easy rather than Leon, his team is up there with Cynthia's for being the best amongst champions, so hating him for that is pretty silly.
I just love Leon is the character is relatable and his backstory is sad like how chairman rose used him and he even spend all his childhood just training and he lost touch with his friends and family just to know that he was being used all the time I just love him and Cynthia simps just shut up you all should respect all characters
Leon fight "easy" they say? I had Eternatus on my team in Sword and he freaking killed it. Not to mention he ain't so easy in the freaking Battle Tower! As for his sense of direction, I assumed he had dyslexia.
Personally, I feel like part of it is that he might get distracted. Maybe wanting to "change things up" and explore a little or take shortcuts that wind up being a much longer way. Maybe have some sort of sense of freedom/lack of control and just go with the flow yknow?
I really like this video! I thought it was cool that there was more to Leon's character than I original thought. It was also pretty neat seeing all the evidence and instances in the game that was proving your point!
100% behind you all the way!! I remember when Sword and Shield were first announced and Leon’s artwork was revealed showing him and Charizard and I just thought okay here we go, a British version of Lance and Steven, a stale character here to continue to shove Charizard down our throats. Seriously, if you went back in time and told this version of me that within a year or 2 I’d be obsessed with him and a ton of other characters in Sword and Shield, I’d have laughed in your face!! Now for me, he’s up there with Cynthia as best champions in the series!! I’m a Sinnoh nostalgia fanatic and massive Cynthia fan and still love Leon!! The endless comics, memes and fanfics of him being overprotective of Hop, getting lost just trying to find his kitchen and shipping him and Raihan give me life!! It also helps that I’m from the UK where Galar is based and I’d be so happy to live in a region with him as champion. He is extremely overhated and deserves a lot more love!! ❤️ My first playthrough of Shield, I battled him with a fairly balanced team at the lv. 62-65 mark which is the level bracket of Leon’s own team and even as a Pokemon veteran, he still managed to take out 2 members of my team, and actually forced me to think 2 steps ahead so yeah, he’s nothing to turn your nose up at in the games as far as I’m concerned. And don't even get me started with him in the battle tower, he whooped me so many times that beating him felt bittersweet - happy to finally win but it’s so hard to watch him shaking behind his little cap!! 🥺 Also love how you connected his awful sense of direction with a struggle not just to find his way, but to find himself as a person!! 👏👏 Also shout out to Hop, he has more in common with his brother than you’d think - where Leon is an overhated champion, Hop is an overhated rival. He goes through so much growth and development in Sword and Shield than most other rivals and is one of the best friendly rivals they’ve ever made - right up there with Hugh and Barry!! These two brothers need so much more love!! ❤️🤗
Great video!! Hope more people watch this and stop hating Leon for no reason, he's also my favorite champion and I don't find why people hate him so much
As a straight white man * ominous final boss music plays* I understand why people like Cynthia as much as they do. I can still appreciate Leon as a character and your video has shown me a different way of looking at him. I really appreciate that!
IMO he’s my favorite champion. I think he definitely has one of the better sets of champion teams and he has so much more personality and impact in his character and on the story. Personally I like Leon much more than Cynthia. Cynthia definitely has the better team but Leon I feel has a much more interesting character
Leon kinda reminded me of myself as a kid xD this unbeatable Champion running around with his trusty Charizard. I’m glad someone brought up the whole “persona” he uses when he’s putting on a performance for the crowd. Since Galar is based on Britain, where sporting events are based around hype, it made sense for Leon to behave the way he does. He’s their Golden Boy, so he puts on a show to emphasize Galar pride. He also is more active in the plot than most Champions, protecting the protagonist and Hop from the Dynamax Pokemon and even engages Eternatus first to try and stop it. And while he boasts he’s unbeatable, he’s never arrogant about it, as his record backs it up. But he also dreams of making all of Galar stronger, which is probably why him becoming Chairman was the best thing that could have happened to him. Great video, and Leon is also my favorite Champion x3
I have a crush on Leon and raihan 😅😅❤️ I LOVE THIS VIDEO Edit: I kin Leon I literally kin him so much I can agree with all these headcanons and analysis I dyed my hair purple because of Leon ❤️❤️
Seriously, you changed the way I see Lionel, at least in the games, because in the series he is more different, but I never thought it was so deep and I can't believe I went from having a huge hatred for him to wanting to see more of him and loving him. his background. The truth is that you are great for having achieved that.
I absolutely loved this. Leon is my favorite character and this video has what I have been saying for years haha. Very well done video! I recently went to a Pokemon Regional Event Dressed as him and will continue to do so.
I actually know a lot of reason behind some of these topics for example the charizard one was because instead of using a gen 8 pokemon as his ace they chastised which was getting too much love since before it had 2 Megaevolutions which is ridiculous since in gen 6 the champion ace was a gardevior and that’s not a gen 6 pokemon and also back then the expectations graphically made people hate sword and shield before it was even out yet. The deep character of Leon I definitely agree there is lot of personality and lore behind him and compared to the previous champion the only one that can contend with him is blue but than again he was your rival through the entire game.
Honestly I love Pokemon and the fact Leon is my third favorite character in the game (after hop and raihan) but even though I found it enjoyable, my soft spot is reserved for the sinnoh region. In Pokemon platinum, my first and always will be favorite character in the game was Riley. Honestly probably the reason why I have a Lucario on my team, but yeah I found this video, so I'm gonna watch it now, forgive my rambling I just got too excited about this
I love Leon and I haven't seen almost anything revolving Sword and Shield, nor the anime adaptation, gonna buy Sword near the end of the year so I can finally play it. The reason I love Leon for the little I know of him, is that he is just a goofy guy, that's litteraly it.
The I just think of Leon and Raihan as best friends cuz Leon and raihan have a simular friendship to me and my bestie but I understand why ppl ship them
Part of my love for Leon mostly stems from Hop but I'll admit he's a pretty good champion and a really great big brother but I beat you'll be doing a vid on "That guy" next. We'll see what you can do but I'm pretty set 😤😌
I was thinking of a plausible sequel game that focus on Leon. The story takes when Sonya discovered a magical island and supported a special ship to explore it. Then it was attacked by a group called Team Merlin. Leon and some of his trusted friends tried to fend it off but failed. You play two kids in a special escape pod who just recovered Leon who was unconscious in the water. All you three have is three starter Pokemon. Leon plan to go to the island, beat Team Merlin, and save his friends, and your coming with him.
You really have shown me ( and many others ) who leon really is and how great of a character he is, this has made me love galar 10x more, and also the many vast and cool characters there is! I think galar really decided to show how great characters can be in a game, and the only ones that weren't as.. good *cough cough* rose *cough cough* were still able to show what they really meant due to how great galar is. and this may just be me going on and on about how much I love galar but I really do agree with you. ( also now im just gonna say how much I love that eatch rival / protagonist / main character got their own gigantimax pokemon apart from dlc characters. Even avery could've had g-max orbeetle. wasted potential, but still I love galar. and this video has only made me WANT TO BE IN GALAR more than already, ( and train up steel types ehheheh )
great work, man!! the way you went in-depth to explain your own interpretations of his behaviours was really well thought-out and easy to understand! quick question - do you plan on doing any other characters?
Thank you so much!! And I’m not sure, I wanted to do Leon because as I mentioned he just means a lot to me and I just wanted to talk about him haha. I may, though. I’m not so sure about it, but if you have any character recommendations maybe I can look into them!! But again, I’m not sure. I just like Leon lots and thought I should make this video. Leon is really the only character I’ve also cared about this much and ever bothered looking deeply into. So yeah. But again, if you have any recommendations maybe I’ll consider ❤️
@@galariantrainerruna7874 yeah, that's valid! i can understand wanting to do things regarding characters you really like! as for other characters to do videos for, maybe hop would be a good one? he's the only character i can think of that's hated on the same level that some people seem to not like leon, which i find kind of ironic 😭
He actually does have special dialogue when you have Eternatus on your team! He acknowledges it and says how it’ll make his victory all the better, something like that
@@galariantrainerruna7874 oh lmao I had no idea that's probably cause I've never done it before I recently started a new game of sword so i might try it lol
Lol its nothing to brag about, but got hate from some rando on twitter a few years back cause he said "the only reason why people like leon is cause he's a fuck boy, and that he sucks and is useless and has no depth or character development" so I responded with screen caps of his own twitter page, sharing photos of cynthia with his own words being "mommy" and a bunch of these emojis 🥵🥵🥵 and asked what personality traits he like about cynthia. No response lmfao. (Also no shade on cynthia, she also great....and hot lmfao)
i agree with most of this only 2 things i'd say first on him being easy honestly even if u stay at his level hes a relatively easy fight he dosent use items and while his team isnt terrible its not great and definitely has alot of glaring weaknesses for example on one of them half of them are weak to ghost and dark however hes a great character and its still a fun battle (also the team is still cool just not amazing) second i dont know if i would go as far as to say he has depression but its certainly an interesting viewpoint and i like his childishness hes meant tomfeel like...well us he became champion at 10 was undefeated did it in one try and loves pokemon battles which is why hes definitely second for me after cynthia
Brutally honest, I really like Leon but I despise his portrayal in the anime. To me he deserve so much better than this. The game and manga portray his character really good however the anime not so much due to the fact he doesn't get enough screen time (I found the anime version of Leon team to be lackluster). Also the way his character was written was just lazy and inconsistent.
Nice video but tbh my opinion still hasn’t changed about him he’s battle was still easy regardless of what you said he may be the strongest champion but he was nothing but a pushover also Cynthia >>>>>>>>>>> Leon
