#her literally goals were “save my brother get rid of the leaders raise my kids and kiss my girl”

[hey-i-am-trying]

omg i didn't know you liked arcane that's so cool :0

[rbbalmung]

Pokemon SwSh GPL AU: Character Analysis P2

Hey all! I was going to call this “Gym Leader Analysis”, but I really wanted to talk about Leon and Sonia too. We’re just keeping this series going! Keep an eye out for P3 (It’ll probably be posted in the same night).

LEON:

AGE: 26

ETHNICITY: Half Hispanic, Half Black

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Leon is definitely cool uncle friend. I know he is a hot mess and can barely look after himself, but I just feel like he is so good at taking care of other people. 

Leon is a man of many faces. He can pump up a crowd one moment and rid his face of emotion the next. It is definitely jarring when someone first gets to know him. 

Leon is pansexual. He pretty much flirts with anyone (within his age range, of course). That being said, he isn’t out to the public yet. He isn’t ashamed of it at all; he just doesn’t want his sexuality to be the only thing he’s known for. 

Speaking of flirting, there is nobody he flirts harder with than Raihan ;) 

Leon was 12 when his dad died, and it hit him really hard. Since the rest of his family took it even harder than he did, he internalised a lot of his pain and focused on trying to help raise Hop. He doesn’t really feel like he ever got the closure he needed. 

Oh boy, is Leon protective over Hop. There is a 10 year age difference between them, so he will always feel like Hop is his “Baby Brother”. 

(Fun fact: He develops a similar relationship to Gloria when he becomes her Champion Mentor). 

Leon is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He doesn’t really process the fact that some of the things he deals with are incredibly dangerous, which is a bit concerning to his friends. On a more lighthearted note, this means that he will ride any roller coaster without breaking a sweat. 

Cannot cook to save his life. 

Leon, like Hop, has ADD. That’s why he’s always getting lost/seems to have trouble keeping focus. 

SONIA:

AGE: 26

ETHNICITY: White

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Sonia is the smartest out of our gaggle of characters and she knows it. 

She and Leon entered the GPL together, but she dropped out before going to Hammerlock. Sonia originally joined the league thinking it was something she wanted to do because she was good at pokemon battles, but she quickly learned that the rigorous lifestyle trainers live wasn’t for her. 

Sonia had an uncertain period of her life where her best friends had all become gym leaders and she was stuck in Wedgehurst helping her grandmother. She definitely had imposter syndrome when hanging around them, so for a few years, she kept her distance. Attending University really helped her start to find her footing, though she wasn’t sure what branch of pokemon studies she wanted to focus on (until the game starts). 

She has a strong pokemon team, but she doesn’t fight with them anymore. She mostly keeps them around for company and they help her with her research! 

Sonia is super close with Hop. After becoming champion, Leon asked her to keep an eye on him. They very much have a sibling relationship (though neither will admit it). 

She is the friend that is overly invested in everyone’s love lives. Sonia is constantly trying to set everyone up together because she “just loves love”. 

RAIHAN:

AGE: 25

ETHNICITY: Black

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Tall boy! Raihan is freaking huge, and being around everyone else in the League only heightens this fact. He jokes that the one thing he will always hold over Leon is their height difference. 

You would think Sonia is the biggest gossip, but we all know that Raihan is. You can trust him if it’s something serious, but you have to preface that. If you don’t, you may as well kiss your secrets goodbye. 

Raihan is the best person to go to when you need help. He has big Gryffindor energy and will literally do anything you need him to. If he doesn’t, you just have to call him out for “being a coward”. His pride will definitely be the death of him. 

Raihan has the biggest social media presence despite not being champion. He is really good to his fans and will try to interact with them as much as possible. Will always sign autographs or stop to take a picture. 

He met Sonia, Leon, and Nessa through the GPL (they were all in the same season). He beat out Nessa but lost to Leon in the finals. Raihan took the defeat pretty hard and made it his goal to dethrone Leon, so he fought Hammerlocke’s previous gym leader and the rest is history. 

He really wants to impress Leon ;)

Bede once challenged his for his throne, but lost. Raihan always brings this up to him now that they’re both gym leaders just to piss Bede off. 

He really likes egging on his friends. Raihan never crosses the line, but he’ll say just the right thing to make you challenge him to a pokemon battle. 

Puts on a brave face, but definitely lets negative comments get to him.

The chaotic one in the friend group. 

PIERS:

AGE: 22

ETHNICITY: White

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Such a pure, soft boy. Literally the nicest, chillest person. He just scares people off with his edgy demeanour. 

He cares a lot about the people in his town. Since Spikemuth is small, it definitely feels like everyone there is a family. It was the main reason he refused to move the Dark Type Gym to a different location to obtain a Dynamax hotspot. (That, and he hates Dynamaxing). 

Speaking of, he is fairly new as a gym leader! Leon nominated him to participate in the GPL after noticing his raw talent in the GJPL (Galarian Junior Pokemon League). Piers didn’t expect to make it as far as he did, but he was truly the dark horse of his season. He made it all the way to finals and wiped the floor with the gym leaders he went up against. He did end up losing, but he used the newfound fame he received from participating to kickstart his band.

Two years later, Leon approached him again and asked if he was still interested in becoming a new gym leader. It started as a small, non league Gym, but his notoriety quickly gained Spikemuth new attention. He joined the League only one year after debuting. 

Despite being crazy talented at being a pokemon trainer, Piers really isn’t interested in it anymore. He likes the freedom that comes with pursuing his music career. (It definitely helped that his little sister shaped up to be an astounding pokemon trainer herself). 

Coolest big brother ever. Marnie chastises him for pampering her, but they are definitely best friends. They’re the type of siblings that, if one of them goes to the grocery store, the other will just tag along. 

Dad Friend. 100% a Dad Friend. Literally adopts Marnie’s friends the second he sees them. (Who are these twerps? Ok, I guess they’re my children now). Would never admit to this fact. 

Vegan. 

Piers and Marnie grew up in an artsy family with three other brothers (he is the exact middle child). They weren’t rich, but they are all super close and supportive of each other. 

NESSA:

AGE: 25

ETHNICITY: Black

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Looks are definitely deceiving with this one. Nessa is good at keeping a serene face, but if she loses, she is definitely seething underneath. 

So pretty, oh my god. She was scouted by a modelling agent during her GPL season. Nessa only signed after she lost the Finals Tournament. Her career started as something to keep food on the table now that she couldn’t become champion, but she has grown to respect her craft. She likes to use it to promote small businesses and make political statements. 

Nessa was trained by the previous gym leader of Hulbury (another water type trainer), so it was no surprise to anybody when she tried to hand their title off to her. Nessa refused to take it without winning a pokemon battle, fair and square. 

She is super athletic! Nessa was on the swimming team throughout school and won several region championships! Sometimes during the off season, she’ll help teach swim classes to younger kids. 

Best friends to lovers with Sonia! They met during their GPL but didn’t start to get romantic feelings towards each other until 6 years later. Everyone knows that Nessa has a girlfriend, but she keeps the fact that it is Sonia private because she doesn’t want the crazy fanboys to target her. 

Nessa takes on a big-sister-role to all of the new female gym leaders (Gloria, Marnie, and Bea). She and Melody will literally strike down anyone who even looks at their girls funny. 

Her relationship with Milo is hilarious to anyone who isn’t them. Nessa is convinced that they are rivals and must constantly train against each other in order to get stronger. Milo sees her as his best friend and will bake her treats for when they meet up. (Also, Kabu is their dad. I’m just stating facts). 

[wendynerdwrites]

You don't seem to like Jonerys. Why?

A bunch of reasons. Show!wise, it’s officially come down to “These characters seriously piss me off, period.”

Book!wise?There’s two prongs to this. 

The first prong is quite the opposite of why I don’t like Show!Jonerys. I LOVE the book versions of these characters.  I really, really root for both Jon and Dany, want them to succeed, and love their goals and ambitions. I want them to get what they want, and feel that is what they deserve. And I don’t think a romance between the two of them satisfies their characters, their inner hopes, dreams, goals, and ambitions. It simply will not allow them to get the endings they deserve.

Now, let me make this clear: I am not saying their motivations are utterly alien to each other. Both of them have severe identity and displacement issues. Both of them, on some level, yearn for home. But what those things mean to them as people, and the paths that may bring them… the things they want simply don’t mesh in a way that makes room for romance.

I WANT Daenerys to win her empire (not necessarily atop the Iron Throne, though, because it sucks, but Dany’s already building her own empire independent from that and I do believe the climax of her character arc will be her realizing that), find her true identity, reconcile her own ideals and background on which to build a better world on which she is at the forefront. I WANT her to find and build her house with the Red Door. I WANT her to be everything she’s dreamed of being: the great, immovable leader who has found a balance between embracing her heritage and the legacy left to her, while also DOING better than that and employing who she is towards betterment, rather than destruction.

I WANT Jon to be able to rid his world of the monsters threatening it, then return to the home he’s always known, finally secure and reconciled with who he is, his honor, and have that happy life back at Winterfell with a wife and children he can name after the loved ones he’s lost.

And, sorry, but Daenerys cannot, should not be the wife Jon dreams of. Her place isn’t at Winterfell. And once she helps save the world (which she will), nothing about her character suggests that she’s interested in retiring from there. Yes, like Jon, she yearns for a home and a solid sense of identity. But her struggle for that lies in the legacy she represents and an actual place to belong.

Jon, on the other hand, has his identity crisis more attuned to his bastardry, to his sense of honor. And when he dreams of home, he doesn’t dream of a vague area with a house with a red door. He dreams of his sisters, he dreams of his brother and the man who raised him, and he dreams of a place he knows every inch of: Winterfell.

He has absolutely no interest in thrones or titles or power, exactly. He considers his childhood dreams of being Lord of Winterfell to be selfish, childish, and shameful. To the point where when he is literally offered everything he dreamt of as a child — no longer being a bastard, being the lord of Winterfell— even when he considers it, his thoughts are more about having a wife and a son named Robb, not the power and prestige. And he ultimately rejects it, “Winterfell belongs to my sister, Sansa.”

Daenerys, should she survive kicking the WW’s frozen asses, isn’t stopping there. Despite how much she loved Drogo and Rhaego, how she did (briefly) consider settling down as Khaleesi (which, even then, it’s the Dothraki, so by definition they technically don’t settle down anywhere), even then, it was with the promise of mothering “The Stallion that Mounts the World.” And it also had more to do with her burgeoning liberation from Viserys and the love she found with Drogo than any real desire for domesticity (the only time she’s considered it is being with the Dothraki, which is a life of conquest and exploration anyways). Once Drogo dies, though, she knows what she truly wants. Despite detours and other desires that have come into play for Dany, despite various obstacles, mistakes, and distractions, all of it has been in service, ultimately, to getting her big, big prize. Of building her empire, taking her throne, being the scion of House Targaryen (granted, I think this will end with her doing these things, but in a way that is NOT what she expected. Daenerys will not be the new Targaryen Dragon Queen of the unsustainable, highly problematic empire her VERY unprincipled forebears built. Dany births her own dragons and builds her own empire. I think she’s as likely to be Queen of the Iron Throne as she is of being Queen of Old Valyria. Daenerys will build a new empire of her own and will be followed there. She’ll be a badass queen, but through using her dragonfire to light beacons for others to follow her, to forge steel beams and form glass palaces, not through conquest). Maybe she’ll settle all of Old and New Ghis. Asshai will almost certainly be involved. But Daenerys isn’t meant to just perpetuate that ugly symbol of conquest and destruction Aegon the Conqueror created. But she IS a queen. It’s what she wants. It’s what drives her. 

(And let me also make this clear: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.)

And, yeah, sorry, but neither of these characters have “endgame” desires and goals that meld together. Neither of these characters should have to sacrifice their particular desires and goals to serve those of a romantic partner. Both of them deserve better. They should be with people whose happiness, desires, and dreams already align with theirs so they can build the lives they want without stifling their partners’ destinies.

Jon, at his heart, wants to survive, be accepted for who he is, go home, and build a family in the place he’s always loved and known.

Daenerys, at her heart, wants to build/rebuild something momentous from what her family left behind, find and make a place for herself, and be the leader and beacon of it all. 

Jon has never shown the slightest interest in kingship, a throne, or such a level of power. Indeed, he seems to be highly disillusioned with the concept of it all. He’s never even had the slightest desire to go south of Winterfell. Even his desires for exploration (ranging) lay in the North. He wants to get through this shit, get rid of it, and live with a wife, kids, a son named Robb, and the home he’s never been able to leave behind. 

What part do either of these two characters play in the other’s dreams, really? I can’t see Jon as the ambitious emperor who wants leave Westeros behind to build a new kingdom on dragonback. I cannot see Daenerys as the Lady of Winterfell, living out her days in feudal domesticity.

This doesn’t mean they can’t mesh well as people, or have a wonderful bond, but considering the setting and what a “romantic” ending entails, sorry, I can’t. 

The two of them will likely form a strong bond. The story is definitely pushing them together… but that doesn’t mean romantically. It means that they’re going to connect, save the world together, and likely provide major growth for one anothers’ character arcs. 

The idea that their connection must be romantic? Yeah, sorry, that’s the second prong: I don’t like the fact that so many people, upon seeing that these two characters are connected, jump to that connection being romantic, especially given the other prong. If they were both men, or both women, I feel like there would be far less popularity around them as a romantic pairing. 

Don’t get me wrong: I want Jon and Dany to form a bond and come to love each other… just not like that. Daenerys has had no shortage of men who have been devoted to her based on romantic “love”. She deserves a respite from that, both personally and narratively, and where better to find it than with her only living relative? (who she’ll save the world with!) It’s why, if you read my fic, you’ll find that Dany is frequently a major character who does, in fact, form deep, emotional, nurturing bonds with Jon and his family. Both of them have identity issues concerning family. They happen to BE family, by blood, and when they do meet and discover this, there’s tons of potential for their arcs as characters to be fulfilled in that respect. Jon being a Targaryen is going to rock the largest part of his identity — being Ned Stark’s bastard. Just as it will with Dany, who has operated for nearly the entire time we’ve known her on the basis that she is the last Targaryen and is alone in the world. What would be far, far more beautiful and fulfilling, in my mind, is them being family. THESE TWO CHARACTERS ARE AND WILL BE INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT TO EACH OTHER. Given how the only relative Daenerys ever knew was the abusive Viserys, who just happened to abuse her sexually as well as physically, mentally, and emotionally, the idea of her finding a relative like JON, who knows how to have bonds like the gorgeous one he shares with Arya, and finding a true, loving family bond there would be breathtaking, poetic, and gorgeous. I like the dynamic of having the male character’s dreams and goals be fulfilled in a way that is tied to the romantic and domestic, while the female character’s fulfillment being divorced from that and instead being built on platonic love free from sexualization, building something new, and achieving pure, raw ambition and power. 

A Jonerys romance/endgame for me is the antithesis of that. 

Am I saying my position is right? No. But it’s my perspective. It’s how I feel about the whole thing.