Tyson’s last will and testament is incredibly bare bones.
Most of his actual assets are tied up with the web, which upon his death will remain there, and aren’t exactly something Tyson wants to draw too much legal attention towards unnecessarily.
The family manor will go over to Jethro as will a large portion of his share of the family fortune, whilst his dogs and another large sum of money will go to Jasmine. The remainder of Tyson’s money will go to his Godson, Carver Ironwright, and to charity.
The only surprising part - or perhaps not if one knows Tyson - is that Tyson is giving Sebastian (under the pseudonym of Zachary M. Cohen) a penthouse apartment: one owned and protected by the web, somewhere he could be comfortable and supplied with everything he needed.
He doesn’t know if Sebastian would actually accept it, especially once he understood it was being supplied by the Moriarty Mirrors, but Tyson isn’t willing to leave him with nothing. Despite everything, he wants Sebastian to be happy.
When it comes to proposals, however, Tyson would likely be much more subdued. It would naturally depend on the person he was proposing to, but - with the most likely candidates having been Kim and Sebastian - it would be a safe bet to say that Tyson’s propose would be low key.
It certainly wouldn’t be going out to dinner, his anxiety is bad enough as it is, and definitely not a - completely - surprise proposal; talk of getting engaged in the future would have needed to be on the table first.
He would absolutely already have a ring on hand for this proposal, in his bag or pocket for months before he figured out exactly how to do it. With someone like Kim, who put a high value on craft and personal effort, Tyson would favour using one of his own metal gift boxes. With someone like Sebastian, who does care about skilled craftsmanship but puts a higher value on tradition, Tyson would use a normal ring box.
By the time he was ready to propose, Tyson would have a speech maybe thirty per cent written out and a general framework for a further twenty. Regardless of how much Tyson had figured out to say beforehand, it would all go out of the window once he started actually talking.
With Kimiko, Tyson would have likely opened by walking in, saying ‘catch’, and tossing the box over to her. Then after gauging the response, and likely getting a hopeful ‘yeah?’ and coy smile from Kim, Tyson would go down onto one knee and offer his proposal properly; and probably only get a few sentences in before she got impatient and just tackled him into a hug.
With Sebastian, Tyson would make more of an effort towards doing things more traditionally. He would take him out stargazing somewhere, having Sebastian sit on a rock whilst Tyson sat on the ground leant against his legs like he normally would. Then he could easily turn around to be knelt on one knee, and balance the box on Sebastian’s knee.
The ideal situation for Tyson would then to be paired with a small team of people he knows. Though they would never end up working together naturally, Tyson would ideally be part of a five-man team alongside Sebastian Moran, Lex, John Watson, & Levi McCullum.
When there isn’t an apocalyptic level event happening to force them all to unite towards a common goal, the best bet is to pair Tyson with somewhere between three to ten people who all bring a unique - and necessary - skill to the table and to put him in charge of that group.
That way, Tyson is forced to utilise the people at his disposal as each one is essential and cannot be dismissed by his skewed sense of fair play. He is forced to step up and trust his instincts as a leader and there is a reasonable number of people for most tasks.
The last person Tyson would have slept with would be Sebastian or Lex.
He isn’t fond of one night stands and whilst fooling around with Lex seems like the more likely last time, Tyson has been known to tumble into bed with Sebastian once more during temporary truces between the two of them.
Corruption!Verse and Redemption!Verse are the exceptions, where Tyson’s last time would be sharing the bed of Levi & Sienna McCullum. Naturally, Sienna was the one to suggest this and - as always - Levi & Tyson shared a shrug, then nodded along with her plan.
Whilst Tyson has shared their bed in every verse where he knows them, that has only ever been for sleep. Corruption/Redemption!Verse are the only places where Tyson is consistently confident and comfortable enough in himself that Sienna would feel comfortable propositioning him.
Beyond not trusting strangers enough to touch him, and his usual suspects consisting of someone who keeps trying to beat him into near death and someone who’s ego does not need any fluffing, Tyson tends not to have sex that often because he doesn’t feel as though the reward is worth the effort.
Tyson is more than happy to go along with whatever will bring his partner pleasure and he certainly enjoys sex, but he is prone to sensory overload after sex and his drop from climax is more often than not a harsh drop back to reality, which can end up overruling whatever pleasure he might have felt.
However, that does not explain how danger unaware the normally super cautious Tyson becomes around steam.
Everything else Tyson treats with healthy distrust and he understands objectively that steam can be dangerous, but his immediate impulse around steam is to put his face in it and be warm; be this steam from the shower, kettle, or convoluted enemy trap.
He has burnt his hands a frankly embarrassing number of times by waving them above a boiling kettle simply because its warm.
Though Tyson doesn’t believe it to be necessarily romantic in nature, or that it is limited to one per person, Tyson does believe in the idea of soulmates.
That two or more people can compliment each other so perfectly as to be considered part of a bigger whole; no lesser when apart, yet in perfect harmony when together. In his mind, the best example of that would be the Moriarty Mirrors.
However, he has seen plenty of other people who compliment each other in that way: inseparable siblings who seem like one being in two bodies, soldiers who fought together as though they had been born to do it, and partners who could have told Tyson that they had been lovers since the earth was formed and Tyson would have believed them.
As for who Tyson would say his soul mates are?
If he asked, Tyson would politely yet firmly refuse to answer. Because to Tyson, the truth is that the two people he’s met who complete his best are now standing on opposite sides of the battlefield from him and from each other: Captain John Watson & Colonel Sebastian Moran.
He’ll freely describe himself and John as simpatico, brothers by all but blood, and yet whilst their temporary peace continues, eventually Tyson knows they will be forced to stand in opposition in the Moriarty Mirrors’ game against Holmes.
The reasons for Sebastian Moran are all to plain to see, as are the reasons it hurts to admit.
In retrospect, monsoon season wasn’t the best time for Sebastian and Tyson to escape into India. However, it wasn’t exactly planned and retreating back into the path of the army wasn’t any better than exposure to the elements.
Had they been able to push further into India, then their escape may actually have been successful. A combination of conditions - but largely the weather and the army’s approach - forced them to turn back into Pakistan, where Tyson was eventually abandoned by Sebastian and captured by the army to secure The Colonel’s escape.
However, if they had another day or two between them and their pursers, Tyson and Sebastian would have been able to press forward into the area of - relative - safety between the two strongest storm fronts. It would have been all too easy to take advantage of that to make stronger ground against the army and disappear forever.
As it was, the army was closing in and their best bet of escape was doubling back to shake their pursuit, before returning to India the long way around by boat. That plan failed long before they reached the coast, but - despite Tyson’s increase in escape attempts as they doubled back - he was trying to succeed.
Tyson wanted to escape Moran, but never to see Sebastian caged.
During his time with the First Bangalore Pioneers, a chemical attack left Tyson temporarily blind.
Despite its illegality, mustard gas continues to be used and it is one of the tools that the web provides that Tyson is least likely to use. He spent three weeks without sight due to mustard gas and when his PTSD is getting affected, Tyson can still feel his eyes burning.
Though ‘mildly afraid’ - read: utterly terrified - that the blindness might be permanent, whilst feeling like a sitting duck in the compound and useless in his inability to help out during that time, Tyson now looks back on that time as one of the better moments in his relationship with The Colonel.
Captain Samson’s death had already thrown Tyson into Sebastian’s arms, but Moran’s abuses hadn’t started yet. He was rough in his manhandling of Tyson during his blindness, but Tyson honestly appreciated that: not getting treated like glass and in feeling solid where Sebastian’s grip bruised his arms.
As they were already paired as sniper and spotter, Sebastian was largely benched whilst Tyson recovered, outside of a few group patrols. He spent most of his time sitting with Tyson, reading aloud for him, and using the excuse of guiding him around to get away with touching him.
It was …nice. Overwhelming, hallowing, yet - somehow - nice. It felt good to know that Sebastian had his back, that when he was hurting Sebastian would be there to help him, that Sebastian cared about him. He felt completely exposed, but safe so long as Sebastian was by his side.
Even though Tyson can clearly remember his childhood with great clarity, it is very difficult to trigger nostalgia for his childhood.
A lot of that time, though clearly remembered, is suppressed on an emotional level for Tyson; similar to some of the time he spent on the run with The Colonel. It’s as though he spent those years watching his own life through a window; aware, yet notably separated.
Pangs of nostalgia for his years in the army are incredibly easy to summon - antiseptic and memories of John’s laughter, overripe fruit with Captain Samson’s voice, old PS3 era games with free time between rounds in the compound - but anything before that time is near inaccessible.
One of the worst triggers for Tyson’s PTSD is cold water over his head.
Cold water is never fun for him, given the hypersensitive nature of the dog bite scar on his shoulder and the dent in his torso, but cold water pouring over his head is especially triggering for the former Lieutenant.
It’s a mix of his most traumatic memories of Sebastian’s attacks during the monsoon in India and memories of being waterboarded, during his time spent captive in Afghanistan and by his former brothers-in-arms once captured after Moran abandoned Tyson to save his own skin.
Though Tyson appreciates tattoos, the dent in his torso has instilled a fear of permanent markings in main!verse Tyson that is not easily shaken off.
Within Mythical!Verse, Corruption!Verse, & Redemption!Verse, Tyson has enchanted tattoos. In those verses, Tyson had years to get used to the non-permanent versions of the tattoos, before agreeing to have them tattooed.
The sigils that were often painted onto Tyson using blood and magic - The sigils - that coated his chest and back, trickled down his arms onto his hands, and looped around his neck up onto his head; matting his hair were the blood was painted against his skull - were a claim on Tyson. A semi-permeant sign that Tyson was not to be harmed or attempted to be claimed, that he was theirs and no one else’s. - are no longer temporary, but instead a series of tattoos made from enchanted ink. The enchanting makes the tattoos change colours depending on the light - from blood red, to dark blue, to dark green to black - but Tyson dismisses it as ‘iridescent ink’.
As they are usually only visible where they inch down onto the back of his hands and where they loop up the back of his neck, Tyson isn’t too recognisable by his tattoos, but he still makes sure to conceal them - with magic or make-up, verse depending - when on jobs for the Moriarty Mirrors.
The tattoos follow the curve of Tyson’s ribs around then down to the top of his hips as their lowest point before going around onto Tyson’s back, leaving more of his stomach unmarked, and an empty diamond on the small of his back for temporary, situational markings to be applied.
In his RWBY AU, Tyson has his emblem tattooed between his shoulder blades. He had it done - alongside his teammates having their own tattooed - when he was in a team with Captain Samson, Hal Malone, & Bùi Kimiko; before meeting The Colonel and before the dent in his torso was formed.
Though Tyson is aware that it’s utterly hypocritical given his upper-class upbringing, in attending Cambridge International School and Cambridge University, his hatred of Etonians and Oxford University remains.
It’s an old resentment ingrained into his being for the family legacy at Cambridge and a learnt distaste for the upper class. However, where his distaste for Oxford goes into a ‘school rivalry’ category, Tyson actively resents Eton and on principle distrusts anyone who attended there.
That Sebastian Moran attended has been a point of contention between the pair, whereas Cambridge versus Oxford was a source of teasing between them.
Tyson is pretty good at tying shoes for other people. He first learnt how to tie shows by sitting under his father’s desk whilst he worked and pulling on the laces of his father’s shoes until he knew how to do it properly.
Lily loves playing with bubbles. Tyson can keep her entertained for hours by blowing bubbles for her to snap at and chase around. Whenever she actually manages to catch one, she spends a solid minute making a fuss, rubbing her tongue on the ground to remove the taste, before chasing them again.
Harmonica lessons with Sebastian were more or less always an excuse to kiss, but one of the few times they were walked in on, harmonica lessons were a good enough excuse for why they were kissing. That it was John who walked in and he was 90% asleep at time is probably the only reason that excuse passed without follow up questions. Watson was too tired to deal with their nonsense.
Since their father was too busy at the university, Tyson had to be the one to give Jethro a pep-talk before his first proper date at fifteen. This went about as well as a conversation between an eleven-year-old and a fifteen-year-old about going on a date could be expected to.
One time after sharing a plate of pot brownies with Dick, Tyson ended up answering a call from a telemarketer whilst tangled up on the kitchen floor with Dick; after the pair had tripped over each other in the livingroom, and been too content to bother walking to move. He ended up rambling about the pretty stars for the better part of half an hour on the phone. The stars in that instance meaning the series of LED lights in the kitchen ceiling.
When Bobby was a puppy, he loved water just as much as he does now. He once ended up falling asleep in the bath whilst settled on Tyson’s chest. This left Tyson unable to move as the water cooled and Lily outside of the bath licking her puppy clean of soap, whilst being completely unwilling to get touched by the water herself.
Tyson’s most obvious heartbreaks are from Kim and Sebastian.
However, they are far from the only ones to break his heart. For all his plethora of trust issues, Tyson hands over his heart far too easily.
There was also Peter Campbell, one of the people Tyson’s father paid to pretend to be Tyson’s friend; Lee, the French student in Tyson’s military history class who still makes his heart flutter to think of; Geoffrey, one of his fellow strategists in the army who got engaged in the time it took him to find his confidence; and too many others to count.
Tyson doesn’t so much offer his heart out, as throw it as hard as he can at an impassible wall, then somehow seems surprised when he gets hurt.
That said, Tyson handles heartbreak far too well. He is content to pine - to hurt and hurt - so long as the other person is happy, wherever they are.
Tyson has more scars than purely those pictures below, however, those are a combination of the most severe and the ones that Tyson cares about: ones that came from mistakes, unavoidably his fault and his fault alone, or caused by The Colonel.
He is littered with small scars from a hard-fought life, working in dangerous places in the web/the army and from surviving everything The Colonel/being abandoned in the desert threw at him. These scars are largely small things attained over the years/changeable depending on the thread and Tyson’s experiences within them. Nicks from working with knives in the kitchen and in the web, grazing wounds from shrapnel in the army, et cetera.
Those scars matter more to Tyson than any of his other for a variety of reasons.
The hockey injury stands out in Tyson’s mind because it was the only time he was hurt as a child, outside of by his father’s own hand, that his father completely dismissed Tyson’s pain. When his ankle broke, his father fusses.When Tyson wouldn’t put weight on his left leg, his father shouted.
He honestly cannot recall any moment that could reasonably be considered a victory where Tyson doesn’t have a bitter taste in his mouth from it, either feeling that the price paid was too high or that he didn’t earn that victory.
There have been plenty of successes that Tyson can be proud of, but nothing that Tyson would consider a victory; something set in stone without a shifting finish line. Most of his accomplishments for the web land amongst those unclear finish lines. The battle is never truly done, there is always more work to be done.
Tyson isn’t good at savouring the moment and allowing a victory to stand.
Win the battle, not the war. Until the war has been definitively won, Tyson refuses to consider a battle a victory or anything more than a temporary success.
Tyson gets nightmares every week, often more frequently. This is partially caused by his irregular sleep schedule, though that also helps him avoid some nightmares by not entering a deep enough sleep to properly dream. Stress is also a strong factor.
Generally, Tyson’s nightmares revolve around his memories, chopped up and remixed together.
Words he heard in one context used in another; Sebastian’s threats against another to protect Tyson, instead snarled into his face. Seeing Jethro out cold from a night of drinking in defiance of their father and a blood-soaked kitchen from his own work in the web mixed together into something worse.
It’s rare, and always worse, when once of Tyson’s memories play out directly as they happened. Usually the worst moments of Sebastian’s abuse and the most gruesome jobs that Tyson has carried out for the Moriarty Mirrors.
Tyson tries his best to avoid celebrating his birthday, but there are forces working against him.
Jethro.
Jethro is actively working against him and frequently ambushes Tyson on his birthday to force his younger brother to have fun for once. Something that Tyson isn’t as grateful to him for as Jethro thinks he should be, in that Tyson is not at all grateful.
One of Jethro’s more successful attempts at forcing Tyson to enjoy his birthday was making his babysit for James on a day that happened to be his birthday, and if he happened to do nice things for his brother it was ‘definitely absolutely as thanks for babysitting and absolutely no other reason’.
Before that, the best birthday Tyson can remember is back in his army days with Sebastian. His birthday happened to co-inside with the time between deployments, and Tyson found himself tangled in hotel room sheets with Sebastian, lazily working their way through room service strawberry cake and overly sweetened hot chocolate whilst watching re-runs of Blue Planet.
Tyson’s stutter comes from his anxiety rather than a speech impediment and it almost entirely social.
He is comfortable around the Moriarty Mirrors and The Colonel, even though he shouldn’t be for a variety of reasons, and due to this Tyson doesn’t stutter around them. Tyson doesn’t stutter when addressing his brother or his dogs; or animals in general, actually.
The more comfortable Tyson becomes around a person, the less he stutters around them, and the more confident his speech; as he drifts away from clunky, stilted sentences to the words he actually wants to say yet avoids to lessen the severity of his stutter.
Tyson has dozens of prepared phrases in his back-pocket and part of that is about avoiding his stutter. When saying a line he’s rehearsed for hours, Tyson is incredibly unlikely to stutter. That is why he typically introduces himself with the familiar, “Lieutenant Tyson Delaney, at your service.”
In many ways, those phrases are a crutch. If he uses them too much, Tyson doesn’t truly get comfortable around the person and - as such - his stutter doesn’t reduce.
His stutter changes based on who he is addressing. For example: when talking to Jim with a stranger in the room, Tyson will not stutter when addressing Moriarty and the room at large, but he will stutter when directly addressing the stranger.
Being surrounded by crowds on the street will also cause him to stutter around someone he otherwise wouldn’t, as his anxiety overrides his comfort zone and calm.
As mentioned here, Tyson’s ideal Pokémon team is as follows.
Within his Pokémon AU, Tyson has, used to have, or someone he cares about deeply/could have been in another lifetime has one of these Pokémon.
His Pokémon AU isn’t about Tyson having his ideal Pokémon. It’s Tyson working with a squadron of many Pokémon as his needs change, often working with Pokémon he isn’t as close to in order to achieve a specific thing or training Pokémon for other people.
He has many Pokémon on his team that don’t particularly suit him, but Tyson came across them injured and couldn’t bear to leave them. Unlikely friendships made along the way. It’s a more ‘realistic’ ensemble and, as such, some of the Pokémon that would be perfect for Tyson are not on his team.
Tyson used to have his perfect match Pokémon, Raichu, until it was gifted to his nephew James; now nicknamed Rai.
If Tyson could only have one Pokémon, it would be Raichu. Raichu is Tyson’s perfect match, which is why Tyson needed to give away his own Raichu to his nephew James.
Beyond wanting to avoid too closely paralleling Ash and his Pikachu, it made more sense with Tyson’s sense of rivalry/competitiveness to have Lucario as his partner than the too complimentary Raichu.
A buddy-cop system, rather than two identical idiots running around together.
Raichu was the perfect Pokémon for Tyson to have previously. To be a lingering sense of nostalgia for him, even as he proudly watches Rai grow with his nephew James.
A sense of what could have been, had he walked a different path, away from The Colonel and the Moriarty Mirrors.
Raichu represents something of a core-tenant about Tyson’s personality.
Regardless of verse or thread, Tyson is loyal, he is a mathematical prodigy, he is an anxious ball of stress held together by a stubborn refusal to die, despite that our little Icarus is completely self-sacrificing, despite that he refuses to take ‘unnecessary’ risks, and Raichu is Tyson’s perfect partner Pokémon.
Tyson’s view of Sebastian’s Gyarados are rather similar to his view of the man himself; simultaneously adoring and in awe, and utterly, bone-deep terrified of her.
Tyson has always adored Gyarados as a Pokémon. Racing between islands on Leviathan’s back, his arms wrapped around Sebastian from behind, Tyson felt as though anything was possible. The same feeling he feels with his Steelix. Untouchable.
The only reason Tyson doesn’t have a Gyarados is that it suits The Colonel better. It’s that simple. Even with their similarities, there are enough differences between them that Tyson could reasonably have both a Gyarados and a Steelix.
If only one could be chosen, then Tyson’s strength as a Ground and Steel trainer would give Steelix a heavy bias, but on his ideal team, Tyson’s Ground-type bias is already heavily covered by Pokémon that suit him more than Steelix. That raw strength that Gyarados invokes, it resonates with Tyson.
Gyarados pairs fantastically with Tyson’s favouritism towards large Pokémon and his love of the water. On his ideal Pokémon team, Gyarados was an obvious choice. Whilst argument could be made for other Pokémon, there was no other choice that could have taken Gyarados’s place.
In many ways, Gyarados is perfect for Tyson. However, at the end of the day, it made more sense for The Colonel to have a Gyarados and Tyson to be in awe of them both. That will always be his lot in life.
The reasons for excluding Aipom from Tyson’s Pokémon AU are much simpler: Ambipom does not suit Tyson as much as an Aipom.
His verses are not completely static. Like his main!verse, things can change and develop. His team’s move set can change, their level can change, and they can evolve. Locking only one of his Pokémon into never evolving wouldn’t make sense.
When it came to making Kimiko’s team, Aipom was an obvious choice. It matches her to a T. They share that untameable free-spirit that Tyson was so enamoured by. There is an energy to Aipom that perfectly matches up with Kim.
Those qualities were what made Aipom an obvious choice for Tyson’s ideal team, an embodiment of the things Tyson cares about and his refusal to be caged, and what made it so difficult to exclude an Aipom on the bases of a less ideal evolution.
Though he no longer has it, Lex used to have a Torterra. Tyson could never have been Lex, but Lex could have been Tyson.
Torterra was excluded from Tyson’s team for the same reasons that Raichu and Gyarados were: they were too perfect a match for Tyson to have.
Ground Pokémon are ideal for him. He favours large bulky Pokémon (or small very fast Pokémon, see Aipom, Lycanroc, & Raichu). He favours kind and gentle Pokémon that can still pack a punch. He adores Discworld and the concept of world turtles as a whole.
He already has two of the starter Pokémon, two grass starter Pokémon even, and thematically those made more sense for Tyson to have in his Pokémon AU where things aren’t ideal. Snivy as an Unova starter, with his father trying to force Tyson into the upper-class family legacy, was a necessity.
Where Torterra matches Tyson’s personality and the things he cares about better, Chespin made more sense for him to have as a way of reflecting how sweet precious Tyson built up armour and defences over time. Tanking every hit that’s thrown at him and remaining standing.
In so far as Torterra being Lex’s Pokémon, in another life, Lex could easily have ended up where Tyson is today. Tyson could never have strayed onto Lex’s path, but the reverse would have been all too easy. Lex isn’t the opposite to Tyson, but an alternative. A slightly twisted, carnival mirror reflection of Tyson.
The man who Lex is today would not suit a Torterra, but before then, when he was younger and stumbling to find his footing, Torterra matched that Lex. The less jaded one, not hiding behind bravado and endless lies because it was easier than hurting, but the one that would plant his feet and tried his best.
Hippowdon
Hal had a Hippowdon called Cain. If chance had worked out differently, Tyson could have been Hal.
Hippowdon makes Tyson’s ideal Pokémon team for almost all the same reasons that Torterra does.
It just makes perfect sense for Hippowdon to be on Tyson’s team. Too much sense.
If Tyson has a Hippowdon, it wouldn’t have worked for Tyson to have a Steelix or a Donphan: being a comfortable middle ground between both for Tyson. However, the point of Tyson’s Pokémon AU is that he uses not perfect Pokémon and a wider array of Pokémon to suit specific needs.
There is more variety for him, more versatility, by having Donphan and Steelix than merely Hippowdon. Hippowdon may be a 10/10 match for Tyson, but two 9/10s is better for him in the end.
Hal and Tyson are - purposefully - very similar. In another life, that could have been Tyson. The tragic soldier who died doing his duty, no matter what, rather than dragged off by Sebastian Moran and tangled up in the Moriarty Mirrors’ web.
The Pokémon chosen for NPCs within Tyson’s world are their ideal teams. Tyson cannot have his ideal team, but Hal can and Hal suits a Hippowdon perfectly.
Lycanroc
And Tyson currently has a (Midday form) Lycanroc, called Remus.
Tyson and dogs go hand-in-hand.
Lycanroc (and Ruffrock before it) are rock puppies.
Of course, Tyson was going to have a Lycanroc.
The very second Lycanroc was revealed in generation seven, the first thought was: that Pokémon belongs to Tyson.
For every other Pokémon from Tyson’s ideal team, with the exception of Raichu, a clear argument could be made for why it would be better utilised on another character’s team instead. In the case of Raichu, the perfect match was 10000% too perfect to use.
In the case of Lycanroc, it wasn’t better suited to anyone else and Lycanroc wasn’t too perfect for the Pokémon AU either. Make no mistake, Lycanroc (regardless of form, but especially Midday form) is perfect for Tyson.
However, Lycanroc comfortably fits into a niche in Tyson’s team in a way that means, when appropriate, he can be substituted for other Pokémon on Tyson’s team rather than being an unmoving always; which wouldn’t suit his constantly rotating team of Pokémon.
Donphan provides things that Lycanroc cannot, yet the reverse is also true. Steelix and Lucario provide things that Lycanroc cannot, and yet the reverse is also true. Lycanroc comfortably fits around Tyson’s 9/10 matches in a way that doesn’t feel forced as making space for Raichu would.
