One day I’m gonna go more in depth with Raihan’s relationship with the other gym leaders / Leon when I have time to FINALLY SIT DOWN AND DO AN ABOUT PAGE GOOD LORD, but I think it’s important to note that although Rai was a real asshole prior to Leon metaphorically beating the toxicity out of his ego (see my portrayal info here), his personality over the years has been very ... multilayered and constantly changing. He had very different relationships with some gym leaders and especially Leon from when he was in the challenge to where he is now.
(Note some of this relies on plotting I’ve done with people, so if your muse is mentioned and you don’t like a particular dynamic you’re not bound to it, we can also plot, this is just default for my portrayal!!)
I’ve already talked about his days as a gym challenger a little bit. He was awful to Leon. Really rude and boastful, constantly trying to tear him down, absolutely determined to prove that he was better than him. He was a pretty cruel rival, but it ultimately ended up hurting himself more than Leon in the end. By the time they’ve become leader/champion, respectively, he’s completely mellowed out and apologized to Leon (extensively) for how he behaved when they were younger. He goes out of his way to reach out to him and be a good friend rather than a powerful rival because he no longer actually cares if he ever surpasses him or not. although he of course still jokes around & etc with him about it. He just wants to have fun with what he’s doing and he DOES have Leon to thank for teaching him how to enjoy that aspect of battling again: he let his head get way too wrapped up in Galar’s press. Now he just kinda YOLOS!!! whatever he wants and Galar benefits from his wild ass content.
At the same time, Leon is complicated? His existence hurts him, in a way, through no fault of Leon’s own. Because Galar is constantly comparing the two of them. Even his league information talks about how the only way he’ll ever be able to achieve anything he once dreamed of is if he left behind his home and went to a different region. Raihan doesn’t let it show (although there have been hints of it literally since his own challenge ended / instances where someone who read him well could pick up on it), but that stuff still gets to him, albeit he can usually brush it off and keep moving forward. He doesn’t blame Leon for any of that, he just kinda ... gets really salty at Galar itself sometimes. He wants to be his own person with his own accomplishments, not completely brushed aside as Leon’s shadow and have that be his identity. He’s reached a point where he’s just trying to chill and enjoy all the hopefuls who come through the challenge, but man does the press make it hard sometimes.
That being said, bouncing back to before he softened his persona (it’s been about??? 3-4 years since Raihan fully Stopped Being A Dick as of modern day portrayal), it’s worth noting that even at his worst, he’s always been kind to people younger than him and, as a gym leader, has always tried to help the gym challengers where he can. The seeds for being a Better Person were always there, they just took a while to bloom lmfao.
His relationship with the other gym leaders has gone through some shit though man I’m crying.
Nessa & Gordie are the exceptions, because he’s just ... always gotten along with them. Vibed you could say. He hasn’t always TRUSTED them, but they’ve always been kind of a trio in the sense that he never purposefully picked on them or singled them out over anything. With some people I’ve plotted with, this led to them becoming pretty tight-knit, the PLASTICS OF GALAR IS YOU WILL JKNHMNKJHNM. Doesn’t have to be true for every Nessa/Gordie I interact with, but as a default, he considers them his closest friends outside of Leon, once he mellows out and stops being SUS of literally everyone in his social circle.
Piers specifically got the worst of his bullying, on the other hand. Raihan was known to publicly talk shit about both Piers and Spikemuth for quite a while there and was, like, documented as having an extremely poor opinion on his gym. A lot of this is also through plotting, but it’s relevant overall to my portrayal, too: once Raihan started changing his attitude and shifting how he acted around people, Piers is someone he constantly began trying to reach out to. It wasn’t successful at first, with him being rightfully ignored, but as time went on and he started trying to advocate more for Spikemuth and flipped his opinions on its gym & leader in interviews (discussing how important it is to the challenge that the challengers get their asses kicked by someone strong enough to do it without gigamaxing so their heads don’t get big like his used to be, for example), the two of them finally reached steadier ground in which Raihan was able to properly apologize to him and try to begin mending that bridge with time. This is the path that led to him ultimately being amazed by Piers’ strength, both in terms of how he runs Spikemuth and how he battles. Piers is THE biggest indicator for how much Rai has changed, not only because he becomes one of Spikemuth’s biggest supporters, but because he wants to undo the damage he did by trying to lift Piers’ confidence in himself as well. It’s one of the few topics Raihan, still rather egotistical despite his growth, will constantly admit he was wrong about publicly & very loudly.
Allister is another notable leader, because he never really got to SEE the worst of Raihan, considering he wasn’t around for it. I just think he’s one of the most important to make a note of, because Allister is one of the leaders he’d make the most effort to reach out to and get to know, BECAUSE of how timid he is. The way he interacts with Allister is kind of a ?? window into how much Raihan has changed outside of his interactions with Piers and Leon, because although he’s always been nice to people who are younger, he also has never gone out of his way to seek them out himself, so him trying to build a friendship with Alli and make him feel welcomed among the leaders is a big Character Point:tm: for him.
The only other relationship he has with other gym leaders that’s NOTABLY complicated in a special way would be Milo, but there’s no extensive explanation for it other than he used to view him as fake and agitating. He hated being around him and couldn’t stand how ... gestures ... NICE he was. Although he was about as rude to him as any of the other leaders, Raihan would’ve not doubt at one point given him a more tailored apology for making those assumptions about his character.
Remaining gym leaders just had to put up with his general shit: him thinking he was on a pedestal in comparison to them, seeing himself as too above them to associate outside of business dealing with gym stuff, him occasionally vaguing them through media or outright dragging them, being rude to their faces / brushing them off, etc...
Raihan was Not A Great Person until Leon beat down his ego and allowed him to really ... contemplate what the hell he wanted with life / what he was doing with it. He recognizes how horrible he was and although his personality hasn’t changed (he can still be very petty, haughty, egotistical, etc), his outlook has and that makes a huge difference. He’s more humorous and less spiteful. He’s genuine and tries his best to make up for his past. He does what he can to help people and apologizes for his mistakes. Things that he’d never really done much before allowing himself to grow as a person. Because of that, he’s very tight-lipped about his own guilt / shame regarding who he used to be and he goes out of his way to never let Galar’s media sources know when they're getting to him because he doesn’t think he really has the right. That said, it’s not like he has unhealthy ways of handling all of this, he just keeps doing what he loves and tries to keep an optimistic outlook on everything.
People who knew him like 4 years ago versus knowing him now can absolutely see the change. We stan a queen bee redemption arc trope, go regina george. KJNHKJHN.
