commissions closed

first of all as a lil disclaimer i wanna say theres never really a wrong way to interpret my fancomics. i love fanart so much because it feels so conversational the way it intertwines existing characters and themes, the fanartist, and the fans that engage with it. at its best its like a reverent reciprocity. thats what i aim to be apart of

ANYWAY. some bg on how i interpret leon:

i think about post darkest day leon. his whole world just fell apart: rose's betrayal and realizing he was cleaning up his messes, he's lonely (gloria and hop taking down eternatus together and succeeding vs him going in alone and losing symbolizes that to me), also maybe he's not as strong as he thought, he's not as close to his brother as he thought, he can't admit he's basically a stranger now to sonia too, maybe he's just been going through the motions for too long, BUT it's all in the name of doing a champions work so that cant be a bad thing! so why has it felt so wrong for so long? (keeping leon isolated was very intentional on rose's part ofc!) all those expectations. how confusing that it was leon's strength that "pushed" everyone away and is the cause of his loneliness (eternatus parallels!)

leon couldn't even give name to how he felt about any of it. for example: even after the darkest day, he doesnt really express any anger towards rose and immediately goes into responsible clean up mode. he says something in masters that kind of chalks it up to "rose just saw it differently." he's got big people pleasing tendencies

but i dont think a disconnection with emotions was only the result of being rose's champion. swsh game sprinkles so much little bread crumbs about the characters and its one of the reasons i find the games so charming

i think of opal's description of a young leon being hard to read. (part of me thinks he was trying to emulate a young stony faced red 🥹. the emphasis that leon was the "protagonist" of his own story—strong and silent in typical old school pokeprotag fashion) BUT based off what we see of the postwick bros home, and some things sonia mentions, its clear that leon has had high expectations placed on him even when he was a kid...

TL;DR:

after losing the title, leon gets to reconnect with things he "lost" during his time as champion and even before that: what battling really means to him, all his relationships, his own identity and pieces of his personality...

there's a painful irony in that. when you start to connect with the world, you start to see how fleeting it all is. you're suddenly able to equally see the pain and beauty at the same time, and it can be overwhelming!

i see leon as someone who would start laughing while he's crying because it's such a suprise to feel anything at all. he is so deprived. good god (and being expressive IS who leon is. swsh gives us some clues into that!)

he eventually carries on by mourning the present as it occurs. having gratitude for grief. cherishing memory and not being bound to it. i think that's how he makes sense of his time as the champion, and maybe a reminder that there's always new opportunities for him. he's okay with endings! even if they hurt. what's one more scar

final thoughts... a lot of themes discussed about in swsh is legacy, passing the torch, but i also see it uphold that it's important to make something new and beautiful and true out of any stage in your life. characters like opal, peony, mustard, even leon, sonia, piers, etc. (if i talk about how that applies to raihan. i will end up writing paragraphs)

if u read all of this, thankyou. i love swsh so much