I just need to vent here, because I just don't understand.
I don't understand people taking the time to go on to Kennecroft fandom and complain that we love them as a couple. Not only that, but I don't get where people are getting that their father and daughter coded, or brother and sister coded.
Where is that coming from?
If anyone is father-daughter coded, Leon and Sherry. I've never gotten why folks say they have more of a brother sister relationship, when clearly that's not the case. At least to me, that one was cut and dry father and daughter dynamic.
Grace and Leon are not. I saw a video where someone stated how they couldn't understand how anybody could play the entirety of Requiem and come out shipping them. Basically saying that Leon adopted her.
To that I say, did we play the same game?
There was not one moment that I ever felt Grace needed a father figure, or an older brother. Sure, she needed guidance and help because she was in an insane situation that was completely new to her, but she held her own and stood on equal footing with Leon.
She literally told the man "no, I'm going" when he insisted that she was to stay behind. Sure, he saw himself in her in that moment because those were the words he spoke to Ada back in 1998, but that doesn't mean anything. Just like her calling him mom during that cutscene in the RPD doesn't mean anything as far as this pairing is concerned.
The woman was in the middle of an intense panic attack, I legit thought she was going to have a heart attack for a minute. She probably didn't even see Leon at that moment, it was most likely Alyssa because that was her main focus. Just as it would be anyone else's if they found out that they were not only adopted, but were told through misinformation, that they were created rather than being birthed.
That's a heck of a lot to take in, so yeah, her reaching out for her mother and it. Incidentally being Leon who walked in, has nothing to do with their dynamic. If someone wants to make the argument that she called him mom specifically, for whatever freaking reason, then how about we just go with the fact that her mother was always her protector and someone she knew would keep her safe, and Leon is that for her as well because she literally would be dead without him.
Getting back to the main topic though, I don't see the issue with this pairing. I adore this pairing. I'm grateful to have such amazing people in this growing community that I have discussions or share my own fanfiction with.
As far as the age gap is concerned, I truly think it's people projecting their own issues onto fictional characters. That, or they just really love to infantilize a 20-plus-year-old women. A woman that, while she has social awkwardness and a very strong anxiety disorder, still maintains a job and does what needs to be done. She's not a character that needs to be coddled.
Grace is a character that is incredibly strong from the very start. The fact that she was willing to go to the Wrenwood hotel despite the history that it held for her was admirable. She wanted to face her demons and get to the bottom of what was going on in order to help other people. Like Leon, she was ultimately wanting to help others in her own way, even if it's just analyzing a crime scene.
As far as Leon is concerned, he and Grace already have a different type of relationship than any other female character we've seen him interact with in the Resident Evil series. He has his cat and mouse game with Ada that's gotten to the point of irritation, at least for me, he's got his back and forth with Claire (who if he's going to be canonically married to anyone, cuz we know it wouldn't be Grace, I want it to be Claire), and Sherry, who was just a 12-year-old girl when they met her, but he's still protected by giving up his life.
Shoot, he sat down and was ready to die beside Grace so that she wouldn't be alone. Yeah, one could argue that there was literally nothing else he could do, but it's the fact that he reassured her that he would not leave her. Not to mention the fact that he kept in contact with her afterward.
Besides Claire, Sherry, and Ada, I can't recall a time we ever saw Leon speaking with another female character that he's interacted with in the stories we've seen him in once the mission was complete. This man is straight up calling her personal phone and getting updates on her and her adopted daughter.
I feel like I've gone on too long, but I just needed to get this off my chest. I have been a die-hard Claire and Leon shipper for over 20 years, and I still am, but this pairing really has something special. The way that they are written and interact in the official game, as well as the way that people bring out sides of the characters we don't get to see through fanfiction, scratch an itch that I never knew existed.
I can't get enough of these two, to the point that I have officially dubbed them otp: whatever it takes.
I hope that some of this rambling mess made sense, I tried my best to make it coherent, but it did come from a place of frustration in just wanting to get my thoughts out on the table.
I'm so sick of people dumping on others because they don't like a certain ship, when all they have to do is stick to their lane and leave us alone. If age gaps of 20 plus years bother you that much, then just shut up and stay away from it. I've seen plenty of real life examples of people with 20 to 30-year age gaps that go on to have very happy and healthy relationships.
Yes, there would be more life experience and such with the older person, but that doesn't immediately rule out any possibility of loving one another. As long as both parties are consenting adults, then who cares?