Hey hun! Dunno if you're taking requests at the moment... but I saw that analysis on Leon's room and it got me thinking... what would Leon's early travels be like while he was taking the gym challenge? I feel like we didn't get to hear to much about it, other than Sonia saying a few things, but I was wondering what your take on it would be? Feel free to ignore this ask if you've got a lot going on at the moment! But thank you if you end up answering! ^^
Hello there! This ask makes me seriously happy! I’m so glad you liked my post about his room! I love thinking about young Leon and his gym challenge, I see so many pictures of him on Pinterest of him as a youngster with Charmander and I die of cuteness every time, so here's some hc's of mine to go along with this! :3 Thank you for such a lovely ask!
So first of all, I sort of hc that Leon and Sonia took the Gym Challenge the same year as Raihan, so all three of them became pretty close friends during this. Leon and Raihan probably met at the opening ceremony or at one of the gyms at hit it off, constantly arguing in a playful way about who was going to be stronger.
The Wild Area was definitely a struggle for Leon. Sonia and her Yamper leading him to the right path, as she mentioned in the game? Definitely happened here 😂. Sonia probably did her best to not let him out of her sight, but of course when Leon gets excited about something, or saw a Pokemon he really wanted to catch or battle, he would just run off at a moment’s notice. He caught a lot of cool Pokemon that way, but often had to call Sonia on his Rotom phone to have her come find him, who gave him a light scolding later on lol.
Leon learns how to cook in the Wild Area while he’s camping and such, but isn’t necessarily the best. He’s decent at making spicy foods, which are his favorite, although the reason they’re likely better than his usual is that he puts a lot of spices in to mask any other imperfections since the focus is mainly on the spice when you eat it. Sonia does a lot of their cooking. Raihan is a little more independent and does his own thing, but will pop in every once and while and set his tent up near theirs. Sonia and Leon set their tents up at the same camping spot together virtually every night to keep Leon from getting lost and to just have a friend nearby. In my opinion, Sonia develops a slight crush on him at least once over the course of their Gym Challenge, but it never really goes further than that. Leon’s so focused on his Gym Challenge and eventually Sonia realizes this, so she gets over it pretty quickly.
In his journey, there’s probably a few spots that Leon really likes. Of course, the Wild Area is something he absolutely loves. It gives him a chance to get really strong and meet strong Pokemon, which as we know is something Leon really puts care in. Particularly the Lake of Outrage is a favorite of his. There’s a lot of really strong and interesting Pokemon there, and the Pokemon that come out of hiding in the different weather is incredible to him. And is also probably where he met his Dreepy, which he evolved into Dragapult. He also probably really likes the cold, mountainous area leading up to Wyndon. There’s quite a few strong Pokemon there too, and he can just feel how excited and eager those Pokemon are to join in some exciting battles, maybe feeding off the energy that comes from the city nearby.
Which of course brings me to Wyndon. I hc that Leon absolutely loved the city life at first. Compared to Postwick, it’s so bustling, exciting and new to him, with a lot of people excitedly talking about Pokemon battles and the upcoming challenge. It matches his own passion and excitement for battles and the Championship Cup in a way a lot of the other places along his journey didn’t. Hammerlocke was probably the closest thing to matching his excitement, although it still had a different atmosphere that didn’t quite match his, although he was incredibly excited to see all of the history-related things in the city. Leon’s room is a clear indication that he IS smart, and that he enjoys learning new information. Just like he did with Pokemon, he also most likely went to all of those historical spots in the towns to learn about Pokemon, something a lot of challengers may not have done. Obviously in Sword and Shield you do since you’re helping Sonia make discoveries, but in reality, unless you have a strong passion for learning and history/science/etc, a Gym Challenger could easily breeze by something like that and ignore it. But Leon, despite being incredibly excited for his own journey, most likely dragged Sonia to all of these exhibits and areas to learn more about the history of Galar and Pokemon, in part because he hopes it will help him learn about Pokemon to make him stronger and in part for him to just continue learning. Seeing these places eventually makes something click for Sonia and she ends up being thankful that he’s brought her along to them.
Naturally, every time they stopped in a city that had boutiques, Leon was quick to pick up a new hat. He picked up a new hat in just about every city he could. He might even have done it as a ‘reward’ for himself for winning a battle. Like, once he beat a Gym Leader, he treated himself to a new hat. Eventually Sonia noticed his bag being so full, seeing that it was full of caps and made him send some home. Partly to make sure he had room to carry actually important things with him and partly because it would damage the caps. Sonia liked fashion and clothes too, and would hate to see Leon ruin his new clothes too. After her lecture on how he was damaging the caps, Leon almost always had them sent home unless he wanted to swap it out. His fashion sense in buying other clothes was still absolutely atrocious, but still adorable.
The Gyms were fairly easy for Leon, breezing through most of them, except one: Melony, who would have been old enough to still be Gym Leader during that time. Not only did he have a few dragon types that were pretty well damaged by Melony’s ice types, but her Gigantamax Lapras wasn’t weak to Charizard, and was in fact, strong against it being an ice and water type. Leon also doesn’t typically seem to use electric types, and there’s a solid chance that his Charizard wouldn’t have known electric-type moves by then (I hc he probably did some special training for that to happen/Pokemon have to go through some special training with Pokemon of that type to learn moves outside of their specific typing). He still won on his first try, but it was a very close match. The dragon-type leader was also probably a bit of a tougher match for him since dragons usually aren’t weak to fire, but still less of a challenge than Melony.
Leon’s definitely the challenger that a lot of other Gym Challengers look up to and admire, and with him being favored to win their year, though Raihan comes in as a close second. A lot of people loved his adorable Charmander, but he was certainly seen as incredibly ‘cool’ once his Charmeleon evolved into Charizard. Charizard isn’t exactly a common Pokemon in Galar, coupled with it being incredibly strong, people grew fascinated by it very quickly.
Their match during the quarter finals is really close and intense: Leon beating Raihan by just a hair. Many people were incredibly impressed by their match, for both men. Raihan was offered a position at the Hammerlocke Gym almost immediately after their match, and Leon received several proposals for endorsements contingent on his win against the Champion. Despite how intense their exhibition matches were in the subsequent years, many people still regard their quarter finals matches as one of the best matches in Galar history. There’s probably a rerun screening of it whenever Gym season pops up each year honestly.
