unbowed, unbent, unbroken

Part 1

||Would like to take the time and try to make this a series. I am going to be scratching the other one I started since I have refined the songs I put on my Leon playlist of songs that he would most likely listen to. If you like these types of posts, like I do, please don’t be afraid to drop a comment. I love music, Leon Kennedy and Analyzing both. Enjoy!||

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

This song was shown to me by a very good friend, who has a miraculous taste in music. Sade is one of those artists who can captivate and pull you in no matter what.

Leon is no exception. I know people think he listen to a specific genre of music but I think we don’t give enough credit at how diverse his taste can be. He is someone that I think rarely listen to music, but when he does he listen to it with intention. His taste is driven by what the song can make him feel, lyrically and instrumentally.

Pearls is described as a smooth-soul type of song. Like I said, Leon listens with intention and this song I feel he relates to. It can also be a song of what all of us Leon lovers feel towards him.

The song tells a story from the singer’s perspective about a woman who lives a life where she is dying, but also doing everything to survive.

“This is how she’s dying. She’s dying to survive. Don’t know what she’s made of. I would like to be that brave.”

The singer then expresses how her heart is heavy for this woman who had no choice in the life she was given. This woman works relentlessly for something that is far greater than her. Mentions scrapping pearls early on in the song which then comes in a full circle moment when all along, this woman who works so hard, is dying and trying to survive is doing all of that for her daughter. Similarly as how Leon is doing everything he is doing to keep Sherry safe.

“There is a storm in my heart. She lives in a world she didn’t choose. And it hurts like brand new shoes.”

The singer almost feels like us fans, who have followed Leon’s story throughout the years, because we all KNOW he had no choice in the life he was given after Raccoon City. I can say for all of us that we definitely feel hurt that he isn’t able to lead a normal life.

Leon see’s himself in this song and he strikes me as someone who listens to things he can relate to because it helps him from spiraling. Makes him feel less alone in that feeling. It is why I think he would listen to this Pearls by Sade.

This is going to be a bit of a combined post-- a sort of breakdown/ramble but also an analysis because I think a few of the things I speculated on might end up being correct. For sake of my sanity and readability, I'm going to be breaking this into "what's shown in the new clips" and "what the director said" sections.

Trailer:

Right off the bat, before we even get into the new info, they gave us a quick tease of Leon entering the Chronic Care Center. The architecture and background definitely reminds me of the RPD, especially with the statues. But I also noticed they put those newspaper articles and the medical record over Leon specifically again, so while I thought maybe that was random the first time, now that it happens again, I'm starting to think maybe it's not just a coincidence.

Leon is for sure, absolutely infected or there is otherwise something going on because now that his head is turned, you can very clearly see something on his neck. And he looks sickly-- his skin is pale, his eyes are dull, he just looks sick and based on the background, it looks like he's driving into Raccoon City. So that means he's going to arrive in Raccoon City already tired and sick. We can't hear what he's saying but he's saying something so either he's talking to someone on the phone or there's someone else with him in the car. He's also missing his jacket, so we know he loses that before he goes to RC now.

(Yes, the 2nd image is brightened so that the thing on his neck is easier to see.)

This... this scene is highly suspicious to me. We've seen this before but this looks a bit more zoomed out or otherwise less-cropped? We can see a bit more of the child's hair and I do think it's a bit odd that she seemingly has the same hair color and texture as Grace. I don't want to say maybe this is clone yet because there's like nothing else to back that up, but it does make me wonder.

This looks like Leon exploring Wrenwood, based on the setting, presumably after he gets out of the car and finds out it's become an outbreak. I suspect this will lead into the scene of him chasing zombies down in the street with a hatchet in front of the civilians. Though it does mention in the corner that 'this won't appear in the final version of the game' though I think they're talking about the graphics, not the scene itself.

And this is the Wrenwood hotel, so it looks like I was at least partially correct about Leon being the one to save Grace. Since his outfit is the same. I think this is him saving her in 2028, not 2020 when Alyssa died, but we'll circle back to that in a moment.

Obligatory mention of Leon's fighting style in this game because my god is it brutal. He is trashing ass in this game and though there's always an inherent violence in these games, this seems especially violent like he's kneecapping people and curb stomping them and shit. Goddamn... I love it hehe.

We also get a better look at the little thingy on his belt in that scene and I am intrigued. This isn't his new PDA device because we know that's the "phone" he has that's shown in the 3rd trailer, this is something new. I'm not sure what this is, but it's here for a reason, so it's gotta be important somehow. There's also notably blood on his shirt and based on the rest of the trailer, I think my earlier comment about it being very Frank Iero in the Joyriding music video-esque was right lol, Leon's fucking covered in blood.

Tin foil hat is FULLY on for this fucking gun because what the fuck do you mean the gun is called Requiem?! Is this a fucking suicide mission-- because I'm going to assume Leon is the one who created the gun. What the fucking fuck... I need more details immediately. It also looks like my theory about the bullet is right since they are going to be a limited ammo gameplay mechanic.

The 'hemolytic injector' is also very interesting to me. At first I thought it was going to be a cure at first because it 'prevents corpses form mutating' but it literally blows them up lmfao. As Grace says, that's a little too effective. I suspect this was likely also created by the DSO.

We get another quick glimpse of the article (presumably Alyssa) was writing and it looks like this is fingerprints from a police report?? I can't quite make it out but it looks like that first one is "R. Little"? The other seems to be L Little so I think this is like right and left little finger, but still interesting to note. My guess is these are likely the fingerprints of the guy who's (censored) mugshot is shown earlier.

He's so infected oh my god. The sorta-panting he does here like he's trying to catch his breath? Jesus. And I think he knows he's fucked because look at that expression. Oh my god dude...

I also love how they have a whole section about Elpis and then tell us absolutely fucking nothing about Elpis like thanks bro, that's exactly what I wanted... He did verbatim state that Leon's secret is connected to Alyssa's death so I'm hard-launching my theory that Leon was leaking shit to Alyssa and that was what got her killed because the newspaper clips they keep showing have a section literally called "what is Elpis?" so I'm standing by my theory that it's some sort of R&D program at the gov that Leon knows about and he was leaking shit to Alyssa, but someone [seemingly the gov] found out and had her killed, which is why I think Leon's going to be keen on helping Grace because he knows her and feels guilty for "getting" Alyssa killed.

HAHA he DID park his ass on the desk, I love that, that's so cunty of him.

Lol holy Product Placement Batman! That said, the car and the watches do look pretty neat. I suspect there's probably going to be a reason for the watches just like there's a rationale for Leon's car (so that he can drive around during semi-open levels), so I'm thinking whatever is going on with Leon's infection is probably part of the reason for that. I think it might be a bit of a "racing against the clock" type of situation.

Leon's watch also says "Thu 8" meaning Thursday the 8th and with the game being set in 2028, that means this takes place in either June or November because those are the only months in 2028 where the 8th day falls on a Thursday. But considering the cold and rainy weather, I can fairly confidently say this section of the game takes place November 8th 2028. There's also a wing on Leon's watch that looks a lot like the one on the revolver he has... DSO branded mayhaps?

Ok this pose is still funny as fuck to me like girl what are you doing...

Director's Comments:

Obviously both very excited and nervous about the prospect of Leon being "pushed to his absolute limit" in this game. Yes, I do want to watch Leon suffer and I want to see him have a breakdown, but I enjoy hurt/comfort not major character death if ya know what I mean. He also specifies that he hopes we'll "pay close attention to how that unfolds" so that does seem to suggest he's going to have a breakdown or otherwise something is going to happen because it sounds like all the things that happen in this game are going to build on each other until he hits his breaking point.

He also mentions that the zombies in this game are a bit different in that they retain elements of their past lives. I suspect this was likely the case as the ones we've seen in previous trailer did seem to display a level of intelligence previously not seen in the other zombies. I wouldn't be surprised if this is an evolution of the shit Arias was doing in Vendetta.