Leon: the undefeated Galar Champion who's never on time

He has never lost an official battle, and he gets lost all the time along the way. Crowned at the end of his very first Gym Challenge, Leon has ruled the Galar League ever since, and the whole region treats him like a stadium star. Yet the games take care to crack the statue: the region's best Trainer is also the one who can't find his way.

Contents

• A title won on the first try
• The one who sets the player's adventure in motion
• Galar's best Trainer can't read a map
• World Monarch, then hero of a short series
• Five outfits in the mobile game, a cape on the cards
• Leon at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A title won on the first try

Leon sits at the top of Galar's hierarchy, and he got there in one go: his very first Gym Challenge earned him the title outright. No official battle has seen him lose since.

Talent doesn't explain everything about his rise. He was trained by Mustard, and it was Rose, the chairman of Macro Cosmos, who endorsed him for that first Challenge. The Galar circuit only opens up with an endorsement, and he got his from the very top.

His popularity owes as much to his results as to his personality: Sword and Shield name him the best Trainer in the region. His favorite Pokémon is a Charizard, and he's the only Trainer in the game whose jersey number is a single digit: 1.

🔥 The Champion's signature Pokémon has its own section: browse the collection dedicated to Charizard.

The one who sets the player's adventure in motion

Before he's an opponent, Leon is a starting point. He's the one who hands the three first partner Pokémon to the player and to his own younger brother, Hop, in the very first hours of the adventure.

Shortly after, he gives both of them an Endorsement, the golden ticket that lets you sign up for the Gym Challenge. So the Champion himself opens the door to the people who will come to topple him: Hop makes no secret of his plan to take the title from him, and Sonia, the granddaughter of Professor Magnolia, is both his childhood friend and his rival.

His team, by the way, isn't the same from one playthrough to the next: it adapts to the first partner Pokémon the player chose. Apart from rivals and other players, only Professor Kukui and Clavell share this trait in a core series game. The game also ties one of his battles to a prerequisite: having already beaten him at the Battle Tower.

Galar's best Trainer can't read a map

The character could have been reduced to an authority figure. The games pin a flaw on him that makes it impossible to take him entirely seriously: a disastrous sense of direction that has him getting lost constantly.

The gag follows him well beyond Galar. A game set in Lumiose City confirms he passed through the city, and a taxi driver there says the former Champion made him lose his way several times; Jacinthe, for her part, recalls that he once took part in her tournament.

A note left on a table, just before the battle against the Ballonlea Gym Leader, tells yet another story: Opal failed him at his audition, with just one correct answer to his name. In it, she praises a battling talent she considers beyond question, while admitting she can't figure out the man.

World Monarch, then hero of a short series

The anime gives him the grandest of entrances. In the Journeys series, he holds the title of Monarch, at the top of the World Coronation Series: no Trainer on the planet is considered stronger. Beating him becomes the goal Ash sets for himself.

A short series dedicated to Galar shows him in a different light. TV broadcasts his battle against Bea at the stadium in Wyndon, and children in the hospital are watching him — his Charizard quickly takes the upper hand and defeats the opposing Machamp. His silhouette even haunts the Wild Area, where Bea thinks she spots him before recognizing a wild Rhydon.

What follows reads like a fable. A letter from young John reaches him through the chairman of Macro Cosmos, and the drawing that comes with it makes him smile so much that he asks whether he really looks like that. Elsewhere, Hop watches a recording of the battle against Bea.

Expected in Wyndon to face his rival Raihan, he refuses to tire out his Charizard, sets off on foot and gets lost. It's the taxi taking John to the stadium that picks him up, and the Corviknight pulling the cab gets them both there after nightfall. On the way, he helps the boy realize he wants to become a Trainer, then wins an off-screen battle that the post-credits scene simply confirms.

Five outfits in the mobile game, a cape on the cards

The mobile game added him in February 2021 and didn't settle for a single version of the character. In his canonical outfit, he forms a sync pair with his Charizard, which can Gigantamax, and his Arc Suit pairs him with the same partner again.

His canonical outfit also earns him a second partner, Seismitoad, for an alternate sync pair unlocked once you reach friendship level 100 in the Trainer Lodge. The other outfits change his partner entirely: Eternatus for his Sygna Suit, Ice Rider Calyrex for his holiday outfit, and Dragapult for his Battle Tower outfit. One Champion, five partners with nothing in common.

The card game teased him with a detail before showing him in full: his cape appears in the Darkness Ablaze expansion before he himself shows up on a card, in Vivid Voltage, released in France on November 13, 2020.

Leon at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Leon in Pokémon?
  He is the Champion of the Galar Pokémon League in Sword and Shield. He also gives the player and his own little brother Hop their starters, then the Endorsement that opens up the Gym Challenge to them.
• Has Leon ever lost a battle?
  Not in an official Pokémon battle: he became Champion in his very first Gym Challenge and has never been defeated since, which earns him the title of the region's best Trainer.
• What is Leon's favorite Pokémon?
  Charizard. It's his favorite Pokémon in the games, his default sync pair partner in the mobile game, and the one that beats Bea's Machamp at Wyndon Stadium in the anime.
• Why do people say Leon is always getting lost?
  Because the games give him a terrible sense of direction, to the point of turning it into a running gag. A Lumiose City taxi driver still complains about it, and in the anime he gets lost walking to his own battle.
• What role does Leon play in the anime?
  In the Journeys series, he is the Monarch of the World Coronation Series, and therefore the ultimate opponent Ash is aiming for. A short series dedicated to Galar then follows him up to his battle against his rival Raihan, which he wins.

In short

Leon is built on a simple, effective tension: a flawless record, carried by a character who can't get anywhere without taking a wrong turn. The games make him the one who hands out starters, the one who gives endorsements and the final opponent; the anime makes him the peak of the world stage that everyone is aiming for. The statue stands because it's cracked in just the right place.