The Chronicles of a Lazy Perfectionist

• First, on a more general note, I’d like to say that I deeply appreciate the fact that, even in 1998 with the OG RE2, Capcom designed Leon with the intent of making him a pretty boy. It was a HUGELY unconventional and brave decision on Capcom’s part since it was and still is exceedingly rare for a video game, especially a horror video game, that has a western male protagonist and that is attempting to appeal to broader international sensibilities to make that male protagonist a pretty boy. The overwhelming majority of the time, in order to conform to broader international expectations of masculinity, if a video game has a western male protagonist, they will make him either completely average-looking or a gruff and grizzled hyper-masculine man

Now, am I saying that there's something wrong with enjoying or preferring average-looking or gruff and grizzled hyper-masculine male characters? Absolutely not. After all, I myself have my fair share of them that I enjoy, e.g. James Sunderland and Gordon Freeman. And am I saying that video game companies design western male characters with the intent of making them ugly? Absolutely not. Most of them just designed them with the intent of making them handsome in a way that conformed to traditional international standards of masculinity

In actuality, all I'm trying to say is, video games very rarely make western male protagonists pretty boys due to a fear of enraging international audiences who have very rigid notions of masculinity. A fear that is very warranted, in fact, considering how vitriolic male gamers get whenever video games have the ~audacity~ to make western male protagonists pretty boys. For example, back when MGS2 first released and Raiden was the protagonist, many male fans went into an apoplectic frenzy of hate, and they justified doing so by saying the 2001 equivalent of "forcing me to play as a pretty boy is ruining civilization and infecting me with effeminate wokeness." So, because of that, many video game companies absolutely refuse to make western male protagonists pretty boys

And honestly, it makes Leon's character design as a pretty boy even more unique and bold. So much so, even, to the extent that, back in 2005, when I was eight years old and first began playing the OG Resident Evil 4 on my GameCube (it was my first Resident Evil game, by the way), I was downright gobsmacked when I first saw Leon, because he was the first western male protagonist in a video game that I saw that was pretty. And I was not the only one feeling this way, because this unique design definitely sent shockwaves throughout the gaming community at the time, as his pretty looks made him stand out among the crowd of gruff and grizzled manly men and turned him into one of the few male video game sex symbols out there. (And thankfully, Leon was cool enough in RE4 that male fans embraced him and his pretty boy status. Funnily enough, they did the same for Raiden once MGRR came out too)

And Leon is most definitely a pretty boy in this game, as even Krauser himself explicitly acknowledges

• Next, I love how they blended Leon's RE2 Remake and OG RE4 designs. Capcom faced the unenviable task of not only maturing Leon's RE2R face (which was and still is controversial among the fandom), but having to do so in a way that bridged the gap between RE2R Leon and RE4R Leon while operating under the looming shadow of the universally beloved OG RE4 design. They knew that, with Leon's status as a sex symbol, they were under especially heightened scrutiny to get this right, and that they would be subject to particularly severe backlash if they botched it. Thankfully, they somehow managed to strike the right balance in this game and matured his face in a way that not only made him very closely resemble the iconic OG RE4 design, but remain recognizable as someone who had once been RE2R Leon as well. Overall, I am supremely satisfied with the results, as they modified away a lot of the issues I had with his RE2R face while still maintaining visual continuity and making him very pretty like his OG RE4 design. Both OG RE4 and RE4R Leons are pretty, and I'm so happy

• Also, I love love love the fact that they made RE4 Remake Leon very visibly traumatized. Everything about his appearance screams depression and PTSD: his cheeks carry hints of gauntness, his gaze is haunted, and the bags beneath his eyes are so deep that they're literally bruised purple. Yeah, while he got a lot more muscular, all of it is just pure rangy muscle, which suggests that even though he exercises a lot, he likely struggles to eat enough, which is why his face is more gaunt than it should be. Also, his haunted gaze just very obviously shows that he's seen things that no human being should ever have to witness. And his painfully exhausted eyes show that he's overwhelmingly sleep deprived because either he is overworked to the point that he never gets any rest or he himself struggles to sleep because of nightmares, or both. In fact, his sleep exhaustion is so severe that there is literally purple discoloration down to his literal cheekbones. This man hasn't seen a bed in years

Yeah, there are a lot of video game characters that are traumatized. However, for the vast majority of them, their trauma doesn't manifest in their appearance in any way. They'll still have bright eyes, full cheeks, and flawless faces. But Leon??? Oh, his trauma is visible from miles away. You can visibly tell that Raccoon City turned his world upside down, that the U.S. government enslaved him by threatening to kill Sherry if he didn't agree to work for them, and that he was forced to re-traumatize himself over and over again by constantly going into missions where he faces off against life-threatening bioterrorist monsters, and that it all took an enormous toll on his physical, emotional, and mental health

• In addition, I adore how his design makes it believable that he's an experienced badass special agent. His default facial expression is calm and stoic, his gaze is visibly jaded, and his entire unfazed mien shows that he is cool and collected. It is automatically believable that he is a seasoned special agent who has encountered these kinds of threats numerous times before. He's seen it all before, and he knows he'll see it all again

• Lastly, on an ending note, I love how Capcom managed to make him look visibly traumatized and seasoned while still keeping his prettiness. It is very difficult to give a character the kinds of visual flaws that usually denote trauma (gaunt cheeks, eye bags, etc) while still keeping them pretty, but Capcom knocked it right out of the park. He's not only visibly traumatized and experienced, but he's also very pretty. In fact, rather than making it so that he's pretty despite his visible trauma and experience, they made it so that his visible trauma and experience actually enhances his prettiness. Those gaunt cheeks and exhausted eyes give him a tragic beauty that cannot be matched

And it makes Leon's character design even more unique since he's not only a pretty boy, which is already very rare for western male protagonists in the video game world, but he's a visibly traumatized pretty boy, which is even rarer

This fact adds a lot of tragic irony to the story and a lot of tragic elements to Leon's character as a whole. First, Leon, who the government enslaved into working for them by threatening a girl he viewed as his daughter figure, was assigned to rescue Ashley, the daughter of the president of the US government, and I can barely believe that the government had the temerity to give Leon that mission in light of his circumstances

Second, it makes the scene where Ashley, inspired by Leon, excitedly talks about her desire to become an agent "just like Leon" and go on missions "protecting the US from any and all threats" take a far more tragically ironic, painful turn since, unbeknownst to her, Leon very much did not willingly join the government, and she's talking about protecting the very government that enslaved her savior

Third, it really highlights Leon's inherent kindness. Although you could argue that Leon had no choice but to save Ashley, there was nothing that forced him to be kind to her. Even though Leon has all the reason in the world to hate her, since she's the daughter of one of the men who enslaved him, he nevertheless was nothing but kind, patient, and selfless to her, which emphasizes the intrinsic goodness of Leon's character

Fourth, it really makes RE4's ending a lot more bittersweet and Leon's character a lot more tragic. Considering the fact that Leon singlehandedly rescued the President's daughter, you'd think that that would've been enough for the government to grant Leon and Sherry their freedom, right? You'd think that President Graham, who must have known about Leon's circumstances and who is completely beholden to him for saving his daughter's life and preventing a huge bioterrorist catastrophe in the United States, would set Leon and Sherry free, right? Wrong. From what we saw in the other games and movies, Leon is still enslaved. In fact, in RE6, it was even made clear that they not only refused to grant Leon and Sherry their freedom, but that they didn't even allow Leon to watch Sherry, the girl he sacrificed his freedom for, grow up, and they put him and Sherry under the control of the legitimately monstrous Derek Simmons. So even though Leon sacrificed his freedom for Sherry, just because Simmons hated him due to the fact that he thought that he was “stealing” Ada from him, he was basically NEVER allowed to visit Sherry. And since RE6 made it clear that Leon became highly suicidal and that the only reason that he forced himself to stay alive was to protect Sherry, it really just makes Leon's life all the more tragic. He saved the President's daughter, he saved the world, again and again, but nobody will ever save him, and he will forever remain enslaved by the U.S. government

And... overall while I love the fact that they did imply it, since they never even did that much in the original RE4, I do wish that the game made it more explicitly clear that Leon was forced to work for the government against his will because 1) it adds a really fascinating element to Leon's character since he is the only member of the cast who was essentially enslaved in the fight against bioterrorism, 2) it would have really strengthened the parallels between Leon and Krauser since it would make it more clear that the US government screwed them both over in their own ways, and 3) it really explains Leon's grumpier, more cynical attitude in the game

I also think it's strange that Capcom goes back and forth between acknowledging and ignoring this part of Leon's character and lore, and I think it's kind of sad since it distorts the perception of Leon's character as a whole in the fandom. For example, in Infinite Darkness, it can basically be argued that the reason why Leon did what he did at the end was because he CAN’T go against the government's wishes without endangering Sherry's life. (And I’m not blaming Claire for being mad at him, either, since there’s a good chance that he kept the fact that they’re holding Sherry’s life over his head a secret from her in order to protect her from being targeted by the government). Instead, because Capcom doesn't really focus on his circumstances, it just makes it look like he's a government shill

It’s just... so tragic. Unlike Jill, Chris, and Claire, Leon literally had no choice in his career against bioterrorism. He didn’t become a special agent of his own volition; he was enslaved. And the only reason Claire didn’t end up in the exact same circumstances was because Leon, knowing that she still needed to find her brother Chris, encouraged her to go look for him, promising that it would be ok for her to do so since he would look after Sherry. And because of that, Claire left before she could get captured by the government like Leon and Sherry did, and so she got to have her freedom. And the only reason why Leon is still enslaved to this very day is because he cares about Sherry’s safety so much that he was willing to sacrifice his freedom for her. In other words, Leon ended up suffering because of his kindness. He was punished for being kind

And despite all that, even though his kindness directly contributes to his suffering, Leon still chooses to be kind and selfless anyway, and that’s just so...