>>37645711The reason that he's happy for no reason is that he's afraid of facing the fact that he's losing. The whole happy go lucky nonsense is him essentially going "I wasn't trying. I didn't REALLY lose. Don't take me as seriously as my grandpa haha." He's the kid who slacks in sports/ class so that nobody sees that he isn't that great even when he tries. Yeah, he's probably also happy by default, but he's also overdoing it so that he can make excuses for himself. This doesn't even stop when he loses either. He also downplays when he wins so that he can bolt before you can rematch his ass like if you lose in Malie.
It's the opposite of Gladion and why they balance each other out. Gladion was a runaway tryhard who initially took his loses so seriously that the super effective noise played. This is the reason that he calls Hau out when they meet. He says that Hau's the shit one, not his pokemon, and it's true. In ultra, this shown after the Malie battle. Hau's starter gets mad at him after he gives the cheesy "It's not about winning or losing, about having fun" speech. The whole dynamic between pokemon and trainers is usually that they work together to become stronger. Hau ends up not pulling his own weight due to his personal problems, and his pokemon get sick of it after a while. This is why his arc is him learning to take battles more seriously. It's why he cries for a bit after losing in the champion title match, and it's for the best. It isn't like Calem and Serena who've seemingly given up and just feel depressing. Hau's accepting the loss because he tried and is subsequently getting more out of the fights compared to when he didn't. It's kind of sad that he'll never beat you, but that's just how it is with everyone in a pokemon game.
