Hey so I’ve been thinking over Sky all day long and I am not okay
Leon is not theatrical or full of himself as (at least I had) imagined him. He doesn’t even seem that unintelligent, as funny as I found all the ‘lol he’s a dumbass he gets lost all the time’ jokes, rather he seems quietly intelligent in an almost reserved way.
Opal: I can’t tell whether [Leon] wants to win… or lose. (The suggestion here seems to be that Opal means Leon is fierce on the battlefield, refusing to back down, but that off of it… He’s aloof, constantly “lost,” and that makes her wonder whether he really wants to lose. It’s a paradox. He wants to lose, but he doesn’t want to outright throw a match.)
John: He’s not really smiling, is he? (Although John is saying this in regard to the TV program, I feel like it’s an interesting choice of words considering the scene on the mountain… The fake, forced smile and upbeat tone, the gritted teeth, the slight wince he gives John and the cab driver when they find him…)
Which they find him standing on the plateau… of a mountain… despite saying he didn’t want to tire out his Charizard and he got lost “on the road.”
The resigned happiness he uses when he’s addressing John to try to inspire him to become a trainer. Again, he’s putting it on well enough to inspire John, and it clearly meant the world to him and inspired him, but it’s still just… doesn’t seem enthusiastic.
How he fails entirely to react to Raihan’s taunt and instead just poses. It’s not theatrical or bombastic. He just walks over and poses because… that’s what the crowd wants.
Yet, it doesn’t seem Leon wants to be displaced by just anybody and as Opal suggested, he doesn’t want to just throw a match. Leon legitimately wants to lose. He wants someone to show up and beat him and show him this isn’t all he’s meant to be, that there’s more to life than this. Remember, this man was shoved into this position at 10 years old… Also, the “I got lost” excuse. I feel like he maybe started off legitimately getting lost as a kid, but as he grew older, he leaned into this excuse to get more time to himself and avoid the constant public pressure.
Now, ladies and gents, I present to you… some scenes from the Sword and Shield games that hit a little harder with all that in mind.
1: Slumbering Weald, near the opening. Leon, who apparently can’t find his way down the straight line from Wedgehurst to Postwick, was capable of finding Hop and Victor/Gloria when they were unconscious in the Slumbering Weald which is full of thick fog. Hop even comments on it: “But you’re pants with directions!” To which Leon retorts something along the lines of, “Oh, that’s rich coming from my brother who had me worried sick!” (That’s probably not exactly it, I can’t remember and am too lazy to pull up the Bulbapedia Quotes page, but I know it’s something like that.)
2: Motostoke after Bede beats Hop. Leon remarks that Hop saw him, apologized profusely, and then ran. Ran from him like he was scared to face him. Upon learning Hop was beaten by Bede, Leon awkwardly gives some spiel about “Oh, yeah… losing makes you feel bad and… uh… well, I gotta go. Seeya!” I always thought that was really funny, but now it hits a little different. Learning that Hop didn’t want to see him because he had lost probably disillusioned Leon some and threw him off his game, and more than that, he might have had a hard time relating to the sensation of losing because he hasn’t. He wishes someone could beat him. This conversation topic verges on something rather uncomfortable with him, so he gives his practiced spiel, then dips so he doesn’t have to talk more about it.
I mean I’m not saying he’s cripplingly depressed or anything like that, don’t stretch my words, but I do think he’s over this position as champion, wishes someone strong would come along and show him this isn’t all he’s ever meant to be, and is too uncomfortable/fearful of Hop’s chasing his tail to actually talk to Hop about it.
