Quoted By:
Leon is a Mary Sue. And I don't mean in the sense Leon "fans" mean which is just thinly veiled seething over people liking a competent woman in Cynthia over Leon. I mean in the actual sense of the term where entire narratives are distorted around Leon to prop him up.
Leon is repeatedly said to be undefeated by anyone in everything he appears in. Raihan exists just to further prop up Leon (he's Champion-material but he stands no chance against Leon, look at how great that makes Leon!). Hop, SwSh's primary rival, is Leon's little brother just so he can keep going on about Leon and how he wants to be like him, which is why Hop is a trainer at all. Sonia's backstory is how she was a childhood rival of Leon who couldn't compare and so dropped out of the Gym Challenge. Leon gives you and Hop the starters over the Professor and gives you both the endorsement to actually participate in the Gym Challenge at all. Leon teaches you how to catch Pokemon. The goal of you and all your rivals throughout SwSh is to become Champion, aka, beat Leon, and it's far more explicit and important in SwSh than in any other game. The ultimate goal of the anime right now is "beat Leon", and the main reason Ash is even participating in the World Tournament is because he looks up to and wants to fight Leon. Leon saves you from Slumbering Weald, the labyrinth mythical forest, despite supposedly being bad at directions. Leon saves the day in other instances where you or someone else could have. Leon is Rose's trump card against Eternatus, and this is pretty much the only time Leon struggles and fails against anything before you beat him. Leon is stated to have been Mustard's best student. Leon's ace is Charizard over an actual Galar native Pokemon just to promote him further. The Twilight Wings mini-series' overarching plot is about a boy who loves Leon and wants to see him battle. Galar worships this fucker and the ground he stands on. (cont.)
