Happy JPR Friday!
EDIT: oops I meant to say Diantha at 2:08, I'm sorry Cynthia....

Lance taught me it's okay for your Pokemon to use hyper beam on humans

This is entirely a fan theory but I think Leon was meant to be “the previous player character”. He hits all the beats. Starts out as a new trainer, takes the world by storm and becomes the champion before he’s a teenager.

It might be a stretch but the getting lost all the time trope kind of reminds me of when I played Pokemon for the first time and got lost everywhere until I eventually stumbled into becoming the champion.

The games used to be less straightforward than they are now, after all.

We're gonna have a Champion time

Leon: Unbeatable, undefeated champion of Galar, greatest Pokemon trainer of all time.
Also Leon: Gets lost own his way to a building that's just down the street.

Leon "not doing much" is because he prevented the mini-crises from becoming serious lmao

Sword and Shield have a lot of issues, but they got the characters right. I feel more connected to the Galar gym leaders, champion, and even rivals than the other games. Defeating Hop at the end genuinely feels bad because it was his dream to defeat his brother and become champion.

The problem with Leon isnt that doesnt do enough, he actually does too much. He's basically the protagonist

Calling THE Wizard of Oz "the guy from The Wizard of Oz" tickled me so much

the fact that leon's reputation is felt a lot in the unova region too is really cool, he's like an international sensation.

This might be the single hardest thumbnail on the jpr channel

To this day, I'm still upset the anime dropped the idea of a full journey through the most recent game's region to further flesh it out since it very much hurt Galar. Leon fascinated me. Ash running his Galar league journey with the rivals of SwSh as his companions could've been amazing. Leon's reputation being this long shadow over the crew. If Hop was one of Ash's main buddies, a kid both constantly gassing Leon up while having such a tight, personal relationship as his baby brother he's apparently also the father figure of. Leon's heated rivalry with Raihan being explored from Raihan's side more.

Then Ash meets Leon and he's *like that*. Very VERY good at acting in front of people and being what they want but is kind of a mess of a person that's so in love with Pokemon and battling and is scared to finally get that inevitable loss because of how it will change everything for him.

He'd still immediately hit it off with Ash but the "Oh, he's just a regular guy." may have actually clicked with most of the fanbase instead of us few that got really attached to Galar.

Leon literally is involved in stopping many of the significant "evil things" going on. And when he's not, it's because he was a little late and you happened to be there. Multiple times, Leon even tells you that he appreciates your help but that he should be the one risking his life saving people, not his brother's best friend.

And, actually, his team is pretty potent. Aegislash is a strategic menace with "King's Shield" allowing it be either an impenetrable wall or a vicious sweeper whenever it wants. It's weak to Ground, Ghost, Fire, and Dark. And it has coverage against Ghost and Dark. Haxorus is weak to Fairy (covered with Poison Jab and Iron Tail) and Ice (covered with Iron Tail) and Dragon (covered by Iron Tail and Outrage). Dragapult, a Ghost/Dragon? Coverage for Ghost-types, coverage for Ice-types, coverage for Dragon-types.

You could beat him with Pokemon you picked up from the start of the game... but that's more so because the Wild Area has an insane scope of pokemon available.

I always loved how the Galar region truly treated Pokemon battling as a true sport. Trainers wear uniforms, have trading cards, and compete in massive stadiums filled with people with such matches being televised. There are more than 8 gym leaders, and lesser gyms get demoted from the Galar region’s version of the Premier league in soccer. And instead of the Elite 4, you have tournaments: one among the trainers who successfully completed the gym challenge (you, Hop, Marnie, and Bede interrupting), and then a main one against the gym leaders, each of them trying to become champion themselves.

Then you have the Paldea “league,” which is IMO the worst representation of a league, where it is run as a business. Every gym is a generic office building, the gym leaders are overworked and underpaid, many of them being more passionate about their second jobs and side hustles, and the process of challenging the Elite 4 itself is a one-time job interview that ends with battling a so-called “Top” Champion who is fully insulated from being demoted. And what does Geeta have you do after become champion? Give the gym leaders, her employees, job performance reviews, many of whom actively dislike Geeta as a boss. If you’ve ever worked a toxic corporate job, you would immediately recognize the patterns in how the Paldea league operates. And on top of all that, Geeta is also on the board of directors for the region’s premiere educational institution, meaning she’s also politically connected. Makes you wonder if there’s some kind of corruption going on in Paldean politics to allow a fraud like Geeta to wield so much power and influence.

I truly hope Gen 10 has a better representation for how the league (or its equivalent) functions cuz to go from the best representation in Galar to the literal worst in Paldea is truly disheartening.

does ultra moon count to give me a pat on the back

Never played Sword/Shield, but for regions before that I've always had a headcannon. Instead of dethroning the Champion, you get a ticket to a Champion's Tournament, where hundreds of trainers who have defeated the Gym Challenge and beat the Champion get put in a bracket with the gym leaders, Elite Four and Champion. Excepts NOW no one is holding back. Slightly altered teams, terrifying movesets, whatever the regional gimmick is in full display... and a full team of 6 max level Pokemon. Winner is the next season's Champion, 2-13 can choose between Elite 4 or Gym Leader, and then they put their tournament teams away for more "normal" teams.
After all, if WE can grind until level 100, why would the Champion actively choose NOT to?

Leon by far is my favorite champion.

1) He's the first one to actually do his job consistently. The Champion is meant to be THE BEST trainer in the region, meant to be the region's version of Batman, Superman, the Avengers, etc. Some Champions help out, but the main threat is dealt with by the PLAYER. Looking at Leon, he first tries to FIGHT ETERNATUS instead of making the Player do so immediately. He could've tried to battle Rose and have you deal with it, but he instead chose to deal with the bigger threat by himself. Throughout the story, Leon actively chooses to go into danger himself, so others don't have to fend for themselves, or put themselves at risk. This can also be seen in the anime with Charizard, who intentionally shielded Ash's Pikachu & Lucario, and Goh's Cinderace from Eternatus breaking free from the Pokeball. Leon & Charizard likely both knew Charizard would still go down soon, so they shielded Ash & Goh's Pokemon to at least give the boys a chance to fight back.

2) Personal thing, but he actually took me MULTIPLE TRIES to beat the first time (and that was with Eternatus), and in a challenge run I did later, he almost WON by an insane comeback with Charizard which is what was so difficult to deal with last time! Due to me not using Stealth Rocks (I headcanon that Leon normally has Charizard have Heavy Duty Boots on to avoid that, also makes it more fair in my eyes), his Charizard took out three of my Pokemon with Gigantamax (all level 60-63), and my strongest Pokemon that was Charizard's level (65) in that battle, was almost one shot THROUGH Gigantamax due to a critical hit Fire Blast! Had it not been for being Paralyzed, which halved his speed, I would have LOST that fight!


3) His anime portrayal is amazing. Dude's not just this OP dude, he's a silly dude on the inside, and he shows it happily. He's just like Ash in some ways with how deep down, when he's able to be himself, he's basically an older Ash Ketchum who loves Pokemon. And while some people won't be happy with this, it also beats the constant statement of "Oh, he'd be COOKED against other Champions, like Cynthia", when he didn't even need his ace or a gimmick to take down the two Pokemon that took down Cynthia's Milotic, Togekiss, and Garchomp! Four of Leon's Pokemon with no gimmicks, were enough to take down G-Max Gengar, Mega Lucario, Dragonite, and Sirfetch'd, and do significant damage to Dracovish!

I'm still of the opinion that in the anime, they should have used Tobias instead of Alain, it would have give Ash a shock seeing the guy that beat him the worst way in a league beaten so easily, give is the fans the satisfaction of seein tobias loose, give Leon a boost in likeability for beating tobias as well as showing us his level of power

I think we could’ve had a Champion time if we could’ve went and helped Leon deal with some threats to Galar like how we got to tag along with Lance back in Johto

10:00 no way we missed out on this 😭😭