Peony

Submission 7,795

Part of a series on Pokémon Sword and Shield. [View Related Entries]

About

Peony is a character introduced in the Pokemon Sword and Shield Crown Tundra DLC. A former Steel-type gym leader, Peony serves as the chief secondary character in the DLC as he aids the player in tracking down legendary Pokémon. The character's design and a reference on his in-game League Card saying he was "especially" popular with men during his time as a gym leader led to a wave of fan art for the character imagining him as a queer icon.

Origin

In The Crown Tundra DLC for Pokémon Sword and Shield, released October 22nd, 2020, the player is aided on their quest to capture several legendary Pokémon by Peony, a former Galar gym leader who had planned an adventure for his daughter who wishes to avoid him, so the player takes her place on the quest (gameplay moments shown below).

Of note, on Peony's rare League Card, his bio reads that during his time as a Gym Leader in Galar, he was "especially" popular with men^[1] (shown below).

Spread

Though it's unclear whether the developers intended the "popular with men" line to imply that Peony was popular with homosexuals, the line nevertheless spurred fan art depicting Peony as gay or a gay icon. Twitter user @revealyoursins^[2] posted gay-themed Peony art on October 27th, 2020, gaining over 90 retweets and 390 likes (shown below, left). User @sweetlysourdork^[3] posted a joke by isolating a moment in the game where Peony says "Get ready for loads…", gaining over 130 retweets and 590 likes (shown below, right).

While much of the jokes and art surrounding Peony was related to Twitter users treating him as a sexy and homosexual man, others joked about a recurring gag in Crown Tundra in which the Psychic Legendary Pokémon Calyrex takes over Peony's mind so it can use his voice to talk to the player. For example, on October 23rd, 2020, Tumblr user tin-foiled^[4] posted a rendition of the scene as the floating boy chase meme, gaining over 2,000 notes (shown below, left). Twitter user stelledair^[5] posted a My Day Be So Fine, Then Boom joke about Peony being taken over, gaining over 120 retweets and 380 likes (shown below, right).