NO LONGER ACCEPTING ━ Give Me a Character;
How I feel about this character
Omg okay, I like Leona a lot. I think that he's a character out of Yana's usual comfort zone which I find extremely interesting, if that makes sense? I don't think she's written anyone quite like him before, and as an avid fan of her work since Rust Blaster, that's very intriguing for me and was the first draw to this character. I can see parallels between personality for so many other characters to those from other works of hers ( cain and lilia, kei and silver, ciel/o!ciel and riddle, sebastian and jade/malleus, druitt and rook, kalim and soma, sebek and edward, etc. ) But Leona is pretty new characterization imo, especially given the pretty clear information we're given that he struggles with depression. It isn't easy to write characters with mental illness, but so many of the TWST characters have some type of it and they're all very well written. Leona's way of coping is what's perceived as his ' laziness ' or the constant napping. I think that's fabulous. He doesn't explain himself regarding it and he doesn't want to; he's a very private person when it comes to personal matters and he hides that behind an uncaring and sometimes borderline cruel facade in order to make sure people give him a wide berth so that he can deal with his own stuff and be alone with himself while simultaneously not letting it affect others. He does this a lot, with the Spelldrive tournament and his OB being the exception since that clearly meant a lot to him, and probably brought out/triggered a very old inferiority complex surrounding his relationship with his brother ( deemed the successful golden child ) whom I'm sure he saw parallels with in Malleus and his success.
Beyond the portrayal of his complicated mental health and complexities surrounding his family, however, I also love his not-so-secret soft side that comes out in small ways, mostly around his underclassmen. From letting Riddle sleep on his lap for three hours after they were kidnapped, to allowing Epel to follow him around all day to ' observe his manliness ', and even protecting Jack from upperclassmen who were bullying him, Leona is quite good to those who are younger, and often times in a sense weaker than he is, which fills my heart because it just goes to show that he has some innate instinct towards caring for others, something which he probably used to have towards the people of his Kingdom as well, but something that he's struggled to uphold as he's become more and more jaded whilst growing up and seeing how little he himself mattered in comparison to his brother, in the eyes of both the royal family and, very likely, his people, since he's merely the ' spare ' rather than the ' heir '.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
Ruggieeeeee. My OTP is 100% Leoruggie. They make me so incredibly happy. I picture Ruggie as the type of person who simply doesn't bond with over people beyond surface level as a defense mechanism. He grew up extremely poor, literally having to eat out of garbage cans while he took care of his elderly grandmother and lives under the oppression of lions. But I fully think that the reason he first started sticking to Leona wasn't actually money or favors or anything of the sort, but because he saw something in Leona that he hadn't seen before. I think Leona is probably the first person of high status that Ruggie has ever met, the first royal, and the first lion to treat him like anything more than trash on the side of the road. After meeting Leona, they spoke normally, joked like equals, and all of that probably made Ruggie feel like he'd found a kindred spirit...as did Leona's frustration that - despite having all the skills to do so - he couldn't seem to climb higher than the station he was given at birth.
Still, I think Ruggie decided to start following Leona because he became a beacon of light for him, and of hope that if they were somehow able to get him on the throne one day, things might change for Ruggie's people. Or even if he didn't get to the throne, as a royal, Leona could still do something to participate in moving their society forward and uplifting the less fortunate. But I think he wants to help hoist Leona up in the world however he can regardless, because Leona is so different from everyone else he'd ever met, and because he sees the world from a different point of view. Different ideals, and all of that. And besides that, I think he probably felt like he’d found belonging with him.
But as for the ship part, man, Ruggie has to love him in some sort of way, because how could anyone let themselves be nearly murdered by someone and still want to be by their side afterwards if there wasn’t love there? Leona seems to be the only person Ruggie truly trusts, and honestly I think that goes both ways. The two of them clearly have the type of bond other people probably can't understand, the type that allows them to stay together normally even after a murder attempt. I have a lot of feelings about them - I just love seeing them together. They've both suffered and been lonely their whole lives in their own ways, but finding each other has changed things. I adore them.
Honorable mentions: Leona x Riddle, Leona x Epel, Leona x Jack.
My non-romantic OTP for this character
This is weird but probably Cheka? I just love any chance to see their interactions. He loves his uncle so much, and despite the fact that Leona clearly has plenty of unresolved issues surrounding his brother that he needs to work through and that he projects onto his nephew, he's also not necessarily cruel to him. I think Leona is probably very special to a child like him because he's being raised with all of the weight of the world on his shoulders as the next in line for the throne, and is going through what I'm sure is a very rigorous education for it. I can't imagine he gets much time to be a normal child, and I can't imagine there's anyone in his day-to-day life that treats him like one, which is why Leona is such a significant figure for him. Leona just treats him like his pesky nephew, which for a developing brain desperately seeking a bit of normalcy, is a big deal. I also think that regardless of whether or not he realizes it himself, Leona also benefits in a big way from having the unconditional love of a family member in the way that Cheka gives it to him.
My unpopular opinion about this character
See above, where I discussed that he's not just lazy or mean like some enjoy writing him off as.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.
I want to see more of his relationship with his family, specifically his brother. I'd love for the two of them to reach a breaking point in Leona's resentment towards him and finally have an actual discussion. Maybe he doesn't even realize that Leona is feeling the way he is. Idk.
I'd also like to have a bit more information on how Leona and Ruggie fully made up after his OB, or if they even really talked about it beyond what we got. They're both the type to bottle up their feelings and pretend something didn't happen, so who knows - but Leona almost killed him. That seems like a pretty big deal, and something you need to discuss in order to move past.
