𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚, 𝙞𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩. 𝙞𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙤.

𝘳𝘦𝘷 25 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺/𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 ᯓ✦∘˙

leon fixation and goes brrrr. zenace brainrot happening live. here to write headcanons and to write fic! may occasionally go crazy with photo mode ִ ࣪𖤐.ᐟ

i don’t think zeno is a clone at all, but let’s get into it. zeno, in a game full of clones that look identical, is noticeably different from wesker. his manner of dress is different. where wesker was tactical, practical, zeno dresses for flair. expensive tastes. they have similar features, but they are not identical. different hairlines, different noses, etc. where wesker would have just beaten grace into submission, zeno genuinely makes an attempt to persuade her to join him.

capcom’s efforts to differentiate him were clearly intentional. his va talks about being directed to be more gentle with grace. the player is reminded of wesker, but the more you learn about him, the more clear it becomes that this is a different man. and it isn’t in the oh he’s just incompetent and couldn’t do it like wesker could do it way. the game makes a point to show you how easily zeno brutally murders an entire squad of BSAA agents. his powers aren’t the issue. his ambition was the issue, and his ambition stems from some effort to imitate wesker. but the whole idea is that he is surrounded by clones that were all failures. these clones mutate, become violent, but to start, they all look the same. what is really interesting about this is that the game makes it super obvious with every other clone, even going so far as to dress them all exactly the same. they don’t give zeno the same treatment.

so the most basic premise is that he’s supposed to remind the audience of wesker at first appearance. the player would be like oh, fuck. that’s going to be rough, isn’t it? and in some ways it is. leon sees footage of him absolutely slaughtering trained agents with only redemption. a perfect shot, mind you. too fast, too much to deal with.

but then you get to meet him, and he defies expectations immediately. he is gentle with grace. he’s trying to convince her to join him, because he genuinely wants her to. his va said this in a recent interview, but i think it’s also pretty clear to the audience without need for him to say it. if he was wesker, he’d have made grace obey by force. she would’ve only been a tool. instead, he shows her the experiments. the raccoon city coverup. tells her: this is what the world has come to. join me in adapting.

and then later, when he is rendered powerless, called an imitation, you can see it visibly stings. he is an overtly feeling man. this leaves those paying attention asking what about that makes him hurt. is he a clone? is he something else entirely? what is his connection to wesker? why has he spent all this time emulating him?

i haven’t seen this occur but i am sure it’s happened. i do think that this notion of extremity is strange. the post i was referencing was saying the father/daughter headcanon was being shoved down their throat so they’d be writing fic in retaliation, while discussing sex explicitly. like oh wow, you really thought you did your big one there, we are sooooo scared. i just think it’s very odd to behave as though you have to “get back” at the other part of the fandom that is by and large just making content they enjoy and existing without awareness of the romantic pairing.

𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: CPTSD, hypervigilance

— Leon would be very, very hesitant to settle down. It's not because he's a womanizer. Far from it. It's largely because there are very few permanent things in his life - one of them being mortal danger. If he really cared about someone, he wouldn't want to involve them.

— Leon would be terribly awkward sometimes. One-liners that don't quite land, nonsensical jokes, long pauses — he unfortunately is guilty of all of that and more. It's not because he doesn't like them. He gets nervous, no matter how many years they've been together. He has a hard time believing he really gets to have this.

— He would be very tactile. Leon’s always finding ways to hold on. A hand at the small of their back, guiding them in public, an arm slung around their shoulders on the couch. Anything small he can do to be nearer, he's usually doing it.

𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: guilt, CPTSD, hypervigilance, mentions of injury

— Leon would be scared of being a father. He didn't have a good relationship with his dad. Difficult to do when the man wasn’t around, and then dead. Part of him would be afraid of repeating that cycle because of his work.

— He wouldn't go out of his way to become a dad. It was a vague dream of Leon’s, back when he was a rookie cop whose conception of good and bad was very different—whose outlook on life altogether was different. That dream isn't exactly realistic anymore.

— If Leon did find out he was going to become a father, his priorities would shift dramatically. He's always had a hard time being particularly passionate about his work. He cares about saving lives, but the endless loop of people dying all around him isn't a comforting one. Work is less of a priority and more of a means of providing. He sees it somehow even more as a thing to just survive, but now for what he can do with what he earns.