Experience Tumblr Like Never Before
HGSS character headcanons that no one asked for? Hell yeah let's go!
Starting off strong with Lyra:
Lyra is the "main" protag mostly because she's who I played as a kid. She's the one who collects the badges, fights with Silver, becomes Champion, confronts the legendaries, etc etc.
She ends up choosing Totodile at the beginning of the game, and her final team ends up as Feraligatr, Togekiss, Ampharos, Umbreon, and Skarmory (who's her sixth pokemon? no idea :] but I'm open to suggestions)
She and Ethan are childhood friends, and Kris is kind of like a cool older friend/sibling figure to them both (though this dynamic equalizes as they get older)
I like to think she's around 15-16 years old by the time she goes on her journey?? old enough to be a mostly independent person but young enough to find herself in wacky scenarios and get away with it. It is a bit older than the average age kids on Johto will start their journey though (about 13)
She's not naturally the most outgoing person but is very friendly and even a little overeager sometimes---she tends to leave a very strong impression on the people she meets. She can also be very talkative/loud, especially when she gets excited. She keeps it to a minimum a majority of the time but sometimes she just can't help herself.
Her stubborness and optimism is absolutely relentless. No matter how many times she's knocked down, she'll get up again and wipe the blood from her face with a smile even if she's lowkey dying inside.
She can be a bit of a pushover, but in the sense that she'll put up with way more bull than she really needs to. Not because she's too afraid to stand up for herself or anything, she just has a hard time recognizing when enough is enough sometimes.
She absolutely adores pokemon, and she probably would've become a researcher under Elm or worked for Ethan's grandparents at the daycare (she's basically their adopted granddaughter). When she was younger, she was out of the house a lot, so whatever time wasn't spent with Ethan usually involved her hanging around the lab (even if she wasn't allowed to actually do much).
Combine her love of pokemon with an impulsive nature, general lack of fear, and absolutely no self-preservation, and you get someone who has casually approached actively dangerous pokemon just to check them out and say hi on multiple occasions (this is basically what happened at the Lake of Rage. She just happened to see the red Gyrados and sprinted at it full speed).
Growing up in a small rural town away from any gyms, she didn't get to meet many trainers until she started her journey. As a result, she doesn't understand the concept of actually training her team until she befriends Silver at the Dragon's Den. She's just like "training? oh you mean like when I run around and play with my pokemon and give them treats n stuff?" and Silver responds with "how the hell have you made it this far"
That's not to say she's bad at battling! Quite far from it actually, considering the fact she literally beats the E4/Lance, some of the strongest trainers in Johto and Kanto. It helps that she takes the time to really talk to and understand her team, so their communication skills (both spoken and nonverbal) in battle are almost unmatched. Paired with quick reactions and adaptability, she's a trainer who can still give more experienced opponents a challenge.
Once she becomes Champion she spreads herself all over the place. She can't stand to stay still for too long, so once she's done with one project she'll leap right into the next one. This would be fine if she could actually tell when she's starting to overwork herself, so she often has to be dragged away from her work if she's burning out too bad.
One of her many projects includes the restoration of the Brass Tower (the Burned Tower in HGSS). The idea had originally been an offhand comment from Morty, but she ended up hopping fully on board and it became a joint effort. Once reconstruction is complete, she opens the first floors of both towers to the public---it took a lot to convince the sages of the Tin Tower to allow people in but Morty has a lot of influence as both a gym leader and avid preserver of local culture---and it serves as a way for Johtonians to learn about and connect to their history.
As Champion, her reputation is basically "will crush your entire pokemon team with a smile on her face." She's nowhere near cruel or harsh---if anything, she's actively supportive of her challengers---but she also refuses to go easy on anyone.
She'll keep her team in their balls while traveling or in busy areas, but she loves to let them out at every possible opportunity. Once she gets her own home
She grew up in a lake town (I imagine the river on Route 45 opens up into a small lake east of New Bark Town before continuing down Route 27 to the ocean), so she knows how to swim and loves the water.
On the other hand, she despises flying. She can fly on her pokemon in an emergency, she'll just have her eyes squeezed shut and hold on for dear life the entire time. It's one of the very few things she's genuinely afraid of even if she'd never admit it.
She also hates cold weather, being naturally cold-blooded herself. It wasn't too bad in New Bark Town since the weather there is fairly pleasant, but once she travelled north it became more of a problem. She very rarely complains out loud, but when she does, it's usually about the cold.
She loves warm savory foods, especially anything with rice. Curry is one of her favorites (if she ever visits Galar she'd have the time of her life).
Her knee gets a little messed up from all the dangerous fun stuff she gets herself into (though both knees are already scarred up from her childhood adventures). As it turns out, constantly hurting the same joint isn't very good for you! She gets a knee brace sometime in her twenties but often forgets to wear it until her knee starts to Hurt or her friends nag her about it.
School was Not A Good Time for Lyra. Even if she couldn't tell she was audhd, the people around her definitely could. Combine constant nagging from teachers with alienation from her peers, and by the time primary school rolled to a close, Lyra was almost glad her mom couldn't be bothered to pay for secondary school.