You can see a young boy with long, violet hair, scrolling through what looks like a tablet of some kind, the pale light illuminating his face. In the corner of the room, you can see a dim orange light, emitting from the tail of a small Charmander curled up on a round Pokémon bed.
Leon’s eyelids are visibly drooping, and he seems about ready to put his tablet down and crash for the night- until the click of his bedroom door makes him raise his head.
A tiny figure shuffles into the room. It’s Hop- who looks maybe about four or five- clutching a fluffy Wooloo plush close to his chest and wearing a blue onesie.
Leon raises a brow, sitting on the edge of his bed as his little brother approaches him. There’s worry on his face once he notices the toddler is sniffling, burying his face in the back of his plush.
“Hopscotch?” Lee says, opening out his arms to his brother. “What are you doing out of bed?”
“I-I had a nightmare,” Hop cries, quickly rushing into the older boy’s arms. Leon scoops him up with ease, setting him on the bed beside him and keeping a comforting arm around his shoulder.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Leon gently shushes him, hugging the boy close. “It was just a dream. Do you wanna talk ‘bout it?”
“You- you-” Hop hiccups and fumbles over his words between sobs. “I dreamed that- that- that you left on your journey- and- and you got lost and never came back- and people were saying a big, mean Pokémon ate you-”
“What?” Leon chuckled lightly, comfortingly ruffling his brother’s hair. “C’mon Hop, you know that’d never happen.”
“B-But- But-” Hop clutched tightly onto his brother’s Charizard-themed t-shirt. “You’re really bad with di-directions and get lost all the time!”
“Okay, that’s true,” Leon admitted, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. “But, I’ll have Charmander with me when I go-” As if on cue, the tiny Fire-type lizard crawled across the floor and sat at Leon’s feet, looking up at him and his younger brother with round, cerulean eyes. Leon leaned down to give the reptile a gentle scratch on the head. “So no matter how lost I get, with this chap by my side, I’ll always find m’ way back.”
Leon lifted Charmander into his arms, being mindful of its tail flame as he set it down on his lap. The small fire lizard gave Hop a curious sniff, before sticking its forked tongue out and gently licking his tear-stained cheek. The small boy giggled, setting down his plushie to give Charmander light scratches on the side of its scaly face.
“You gotta take good care of Lee when he goes away, okay Charmander? You can’t let any monsters eat him or kidnap him!” he told the orange reptile firmly, and it responded with a soft croon and a nod, nuzzling its warm snout against his tiny hand.
“I promise that once I set out from Wedgehurst, I’ll video call you and mum every night, okay?” Leon swore, giving his little brother another reassuring, soft pat on the head. “I’ll tell you all about the adventures me and Charmander go on, and you can even watch us sweep the floor in our gym matches on the telly!”
Now that the young boy was calm, Leon stood up and hoisted him into his arms, moving towards the door to take him back to his room. Charmander followed close behind, his tail providing enough light to see through the dark hallway.
“You’re gonna be on the telly?” Hop asked, gold eyes wide with wonder.
“Yep!” Leon slid open the door to Hop’s room as quietly as possible. He placed his little brother down on the small bed that was just big enough for him, and tucked the blanket over him. “How about this- you promise to watch my battles and cheer me on, and I promise to not get lost.”
“Okay, I promise!” Hop replied, tugging his blanket up to his chin.
“Good,” Leon chuckled, giving his brother one last pat on the shoulder and tucking his Wooloo plush in with him before standing back up. “If you need anything else, just come get me.”
“Night night, Lee…” Hop mumbled sleepily, yawning before nestling into his pillow, his plushie wrapped securely in his tiny arms.
As Leon turned to leave the room, Charmander at his side, he looked back and smiled fondly at the sight of his little brother beginning to doze off.
“Good night, Hopscotch.”
The memory ends with him closing the door quietly, the light from Charmander’s tail flame fading out.
So with the datamine for Pokemon Masters on the way and the conclusion of the Galar VA chapter next month, we're all wondering who in Galar will be getting an alt
Leon is one of the top contenders for a new alt, but honestly I'm 50/50 on whether he's getting one OR if they're going to rerun SS Leon.
Because we could get an alt for him (like the battle tower alt) since it would show his change in mentality after getting knocked out by Eternatus during the events of the darkest day. Leon post-darkest day and post loss of his champion title has shed the idea that he needs to do everything by himself. And that's what he's trying to tell this Rose (who hasn't yet triggered the Darkest Day)
But I feel like they could bring back SS Leon for this too. The whole point of SS Leon is to acknowledge his initial failure against taming Eternatus which was partially him dealing with it as solely as a threat to Galar and not as a Pokemon who needed help...but also how he needed to work together with others instead of shouldering the responsibility for all of Galar by himself. Which we see when he works with Gloria, Hop and Scottie/Bettie when an Eternatus shows up on Pasio.
SS Leon is the representation of what Rose wanted when he was trying to convince Leon to help him out. The knight of Galar who tamed the powerful legendary dragon. Not only that him taming Eternatus on Pasio allows for Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing and potentially as a more stable energy source (we don't know if Eternatus' energy has been used in Pasio's power grid at the moment).
But this provides an opportunity for Leon to open up about how he was only able to do this with the help of others. Both Leon and Rose are similar in that they saw themselves as "the only ones who could do something" since as the talented people that they are, they're often expected to do everything for everyone on their own. But where Leon learned that it's okay to lean on others (hence by his success on Pasio with Eternatus), Rose has not.
Plus from what we know from part one of the villain arc, Leon is planning on using tactics similar to Rose help stop the growing factions of Rose vs Lear supporters about how to use sync stones. Considering sync stones are at the heart of this, I could see Sygna Suit Leon being a good way to help because sygna suits are a Pasio thing that is supposed to represent bonds which help to power up sync stone which would further his points.
And on a meta side, SS Leon does need some upgrades so them rerunning Leon for this arc with some upgrades would make sense.
Now I definitely can see them giving Leon an alt since he is popular and sells well, I just wouldn't be surprised if they gave SS Leon some more story importance.
Late posting some art I made of Professor Hop,,, (trying to remember how to format an academic poster presentation gave me permanent headache disease)
He’s one of my favorite characters from a video game. He has so much potential, he goes through so much you literally see him grow into a happier person —
just for the record, if y'all post any Hop or Leon content, or see anything good posted by someone else, feel free to tag me in it! I'm not as active on Tumblr as I used to be, so there's almost certainly good stuff that I'm missing. and stuff I'm tagged in is less likely to slip through the cracks!
they put Hop's theme right above Leon's in the tracklist!! there's literally no reason for them to do that other than to keep the bros together and that makes me so happy 😊
baratheonpilled
origamiaround
pixelskylines
kaledo-art
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
