HEADCANONS

Pokemon's always been a bit cagey on the backgrounds and history of their human characters; they very much adopt a "what you see is what you get" approach when it comes to them. But that's never enough for RP, so let's fill in the blanks some! These will, of course, be retconned and changed if more info comes out, but for now, these are staying.

EARLY LIFE - BACKGROUND
- Pokemon Special confirmed that Raihan has lived in Hammerlocke his whole life and, in addition, was a little troublemaker who'd break into the gym to learn the ins and outs of it. This mostly stems from his thirst for knowledge and his desire to research the things that interest him, and that, plus his tenacity, were all points in his favor to being a Gym Leader later in life.
- His father is a man named Douglas (after the fir tree) and a woman named Nadia ("beautiful blossom girl"). Parents in Pokemon tend to be very loose with their children, largely staying out of their lives once they're old enough to go on their journey, with the rest of the adults and the Pokemon they catch protecting and taking care of the kids as they travel. Douglas and Nadia were no exception; they were both rich and worked busy, high paying jobs. The consequence was that they were neglectful of Raihan, who'd act out to get some kind of attention.
- Raihan started his Gym Circuit when he was 11, and at this point, he hadn't lost a single battle and it went to his head a bit. Just before Turffield, Raihan camped out to challenge other contenders to prove his strength against them. At one point, Leon and Sonia came along, and he first challenged Sonia and beat her soundly. Raihan gloated about it, but then Leon stepped up, both wanting to avenge his friend and to battle this strong trainer.
- Leon would be Raihan's first ever loss. Raihan was upset and angry, but Leon was just thrilled to battle someone who put him on the ropes. He and Sonia moved on to Turffield while Raihan reeled from his loss, eventually taking a selfie to catalogue his worst moment and let the pain of it inspire him to keep going.
- Raihan climbed down quite a bit from his high horse thanks to that loss, though he still got through the gym challenges with no problem. He battled Leon several times along the way, as a rival would in the games, and the two, plus Sonia, started to be best friends. Despite that, Raihan was still extremely focused on beating Leon, and he preferred to travel by himself rather than with the two of them.
- The Fairy Badge is where Raihan, inspired by his Trapinch becoming a Flygon, started to deploy weather tactics to his battles, as he couldn't beat Opal with just his Pokemon, what with him being at a severe type disadvantage. After getting the Fairy Badge, Sonia quit the Gym Circuit and went back home. Leon, hopelessly lost without Sonia's guidance, found himself in Hammerlocke, where Raihan was. Upon hearing what happened, Raihan decided to travel with Leon instead, where he almost made the mistake of letting Leon lead. Raihan rectified this when they found themselves back in Turffield and nearly missed the deadline to reach Circhester.
- Melony was not a Gym Leader at this point, so Raihan was able to beat the gym along with Leon. The two would go on to easily beat the other gyms, which is good because their earlier delay made them right up against the deadline for them all.
- The two would go on to the Championship, where they faced off against each other one last time. Leon won, of course, and though Raihan hated losing, he still found himself happy for his best mate, especially once Leon beat the Champion. "Next year", he swore, he'd beat Leon and be Champion himself.
- Next year wouldn't come, because then Melony became a Gym Leader, and no matter how hard Raihan tried, he couldn't get past her. He tried over and over again, even past the deadline, until Melony gently made him stop. He'd have to watch a Gym Leader challenge Leon and, of course, get beaten.
- This inspired him to become a Gym Leader himself. After all, if he were one, then there's a chance he wouldn't have to fight Melony at all and just go straight to Leon. Coincidentally, the Hammerlocke Gym Leader was looking to retire and was searching for someone to take their place.
- The Leader, however, wouldn't hand the title to just anyone, especially not someone with as selfish as a reason to do so as Raihan, no matter how much potential he had. They whipped him into shape and taught him what it really means to be a Gym Leader, which made him greatly mature into the role. He soon became worthy of it, and the Gym Leader passed the title down to him. At 13, he certainly wasn't the youngest Gym Leader, but still pretty close, so for his first year, he was in the Minor League, the third gym to beat.
- This was a mistake.
- But at least this meant he could battle Leon again, and easily so.
- He'd be the eighth Gym Leader from then on. Challengers learned not to underestimate him because of his age and his dragon-type specialty.
- The rest is history!

EARLY LIFE - FACTOIDS
- Trapinch was his first Pokemon. He'd evolve into a Flygon and be Raihan's ace for a couple years until he caught his Duraludon, who would be his signature Pokemon. Still, the Trapinch line is dear to Raihan's heart, as his headband and outfit are inspired by it.
- His hair was originally a poofy mess of curls that would get in his eyes. Without his mother around, he didn't quite know how to deal with it. Just before the Championship, the ladies in the Hammerlocke salon did his hair for him and taught him how to work with it, though he wouldn't have his signature hairstyle for a few years.
- He used to be fairly short, smaller than both Sonia and Leon. Then BAM, puberty hit and he started to grow like a tree until he hit the height he is now. He has, thankfully, stopped growing.

GENERAL FACTOIDS
- Raihan carries a lot of things in his hoodie pockets. The general joke around the gym is that if you need something, Raihan somehow has whatever it is in his pocket that he'll give you.
- He also carries a key ring with a LOT of keys. Several that open areas of the Vault, some that open areas of the Gym, his car key, the key to the energy plant below his gym, and the key to his flat. It always takes him a while to get into these places because he has to find the key for it.
- His car is a shiny silver convertible with a Duraludon theme to it, because a convertible is about the only car that can fit him, and Leon can't be the only one with a dorky Pokemon-themed car. He'll only really use it for long distances, as Flygon can carry him otherwise.
- A lot of his furniture is custom-made to fit him, from his couch to his chairs to his bed. He likes a mix of old antique things and the newest model appliances, but he's managed to arrange it all so it's tasteful rather than tacky.
- He is a history nerd and loves to research, going as far as to look into trainers who take the Gym Circuit to see who they are, where they're from, how far they are in the Challenge, even what nicknames they've given their Pokemon (confirmed by Pokemon Special).
- Raihan tinkers a lot with his phone to give it the best available upgrades, especially when it comes to photos. His selfies and general photos come out looking amazing because of the modifications he's added to it (inspired by the Gadgeteer theme skill in Pokemon Masters).
- He has several online accounts that he carefully manages, though none are risque or anything like that. He's mostly known for selfies, and they're an important part of his image, but he also posts photos of things he finds interesting, or things he doesn't want to forget. It could be a sandstorm, or the way the sun hits the corner of a building, or a field of flowers.
- He has some slight memory issues, with names most of all. His range of interests is so wide that there's sometimes just too much information to retain. It's also why, other than dragon-types or ones with a weather ability, he doesn't do as much research on Pokemon outside of the Galar region.
- He's learned how to make food art, originally for the likes and comments that selfies with them would get, but then just because he enjoyed doing it. He loves to cook in general, from looking up new and different recipes to fine tuning it and getting it right.
- Like everyone else in Galar, he loves to go camping in the wilds and cooking/eating curry. His favorite type of curry is spicy. In addition, he has a love for spiced black tea. He tends to like bold and spicy flavors on most things and doesn't like sweets too much.
- He has beaten Leon before, just not in official battles. Leon's League card is very careful to say that he's never lost a League or exhibition match, and in addition, the wording here is interesting. I like to think they have play fights with made up rules, like three on three and whatnot, and Raihan wins some of those. He has definitely battled Leon more than ten times, after all!

thank you for reading my tl;dr if you made it this far