Lady Leene is introduced as a woman of noble birth betrothed to the crown prince Guardia XXI (it was an arranged marriage). She is intelligent, charming, well-read, and outspoken. She acts as an older sister figure to Janus and is the star-crossed love interest of Cyrus.
Appearance and Personality
I feel like the trope that best desribes Leene is “spirited young lady”. She is ladylike but also witty and playful. She’s similar to Marle in that sense, but more feminine and not nearly as rebellious (more on this later).
For her late teens look, she’s still a carefree young maiden so I gave her a pretty hairstyle that I felt matched that.
When she is in her 20′s, the war starts and she becomes Queen. That whole period in time is very stressful for everyone (I’m going to give it its own post). During this time her hair is in a simple bun because as a newly-crowned Queen to a kingdom that has just been thrown into war, she needs a hairstyle that looks neat but isn’t too hard to do (she’s very busy and tired during this time).
As a Queen in her 30′s (canon era), she’s wiser and more experienced, and this shows in her elegant and more elaborate bun.
An important detail is the pendant. Schala’s pendant becomes Leene’s family heirloom that gets passed down to her when she gets married. It does not appear in Janus’s life before this and becomes the first time he sees anything from Zeal, which starts things. (more on this in another post)
She ends up becoming an older sister to Janus. Even before Glenn, Leene was able to get Janus to defrost to her at least a little. I have this scene in mind where Leene visits the Castle and manages to get Janus, who normally doesn’t even acknowledge others, to mutter out a quiet “Hi, Leene.”
She’s a lot like Schala in the sense that they’re both caring older sisters to Janus. Unlike Schala though, Leene is a lot more playful (like Marle!) and tends to tease him in a nice way.
I think they share hobbies too. I see them both enjoying reading, and though I’m still working this out, I wouldn’t be surprised if Janus’s hairstyles were influenced by her. She’s not afraid of his magic and would be open to learning more about it, but again, Bad Stuff happens and things get in the way.
Her star-crossed love with Cyrus is a big part of their characters, but it goes past the romance. It’s also about their respective roles, duties, and archetypes (and I do love to deconstruct that!).
Cyrus is the legendary hero but is still human. He’s seen as this knight in shining armor who is so loyal to the crown, when the truth is that he has an ulterior motive. He’s in love with the future Queen, and the reason he even decided to transfer to Guardia Castle and become a knight in the first place is because he wanted to protect her. He’s a golden boy and a prodigy, but can lack empathy as a result and has perfectionist tendencies.
Leene is the beautiful and virtuous Queen, who is secretly in love with Sir Cyrus. Unlike Marle who decides to rebel, Leene, like Cyrus, puts duty first. Her position gets in the way of her relationships, not just with Cyrus but with Janus too.
I mentioned she’s actually open to learning about magic, but the thing is that she’s the newly-crowned Queen of a kingdom at war with the Mystics, and what she says and does matters. If she’s too close to an alleged half-Mystic who the knights already don’t trust, she might just be accused of treason, and at this point it’s all so fragile and the last thing the kingdom needs is a revolt or coup.
I feel this would come out too in how she is in the Dark Glenn AU. Even if she wanted to forgive Magus or understand Glenn, even if she cares for them both, she has to be VERY careful because even as King and Queen, she and Guardia XXI are subjected to the judgment and support of their advisors and military. In other words, they can’t just “do what they want.”
That’s it for the Leene post! Next on my list is a post about the very important “Bad Stuff” that happens. For character concepts I’ll probably do Guardia XX and Guardia XXI next.
