writing dante and leon is fun for me bc ofc dante is more or less re4 leon's prototype...and they Are pretty similar at first glance so it's fun to write them bc i feel like even though their dialogue often comes across kind of similar (especially as someone who doesnt do anything with leon lore post-4 just cuz i dont really like how complicated re lore gets...) their motivations are quite different.
i definitely write leon a little pluckier than most people do i think; which isn't a problem to be clear!, i think this distinction just stems naturally due to my avoidance of re6 and the resi media associated with that point in the timeline where leon is at his most jaded. this makes my leon especially come across even more similar to dante i think kjfldsskdjfs
dante, in some ways, is more or less "leon dialed up to 11" in both the 'cool' factor and the 'aghh hes so annoying' factor. but i think the main thing that separates them is:
1) dante is defined off of his attachments and lack thereof given dmc's major themes of family; i prefer to retain leon as a sort of normal-guy put into a fight he doesn't want by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. dante, half-devil, is literally the stuff of legends, and dmc plays up the mythos of him and vergil to absurd degrees to heighten how abstract even their names are in the context of the story. and i think dante genuinely loves being a devil hunter even though he does, of course, take on the job out of a desire to get back at mundus for destroying his family.
and 2) because leon isn't a half-demon and therefore not as OP he has more of a reliance on "tell don't show" in his wit whereas dante usually uses his jokes to obfuscate his feelings and is, generally speaking, more flashy with his wit as a supplement to whatever grandiose behavior he's putting on. leon isn't so much the kind of guy to totally deflect because he's making a joke, it's just his method of coping with absurd situations (or at least it is for my portrayal of him)--dante uses his humor to avoid having real conversations at all costs.
for leon, humor comes naturally and is amplified over the course of his Being Put Into Situations. for dante, while the words themselves always come to him, it's not so much his default state of being, he just has no idea how to exist when he's not messing around; he gets a real enjoyment out of putting on a show with style and indulging himself in being a little extravagant and that comes out in his behavior; leon has no such desire for similar indulgences, he's just kind of blase and mostly wants to just live to see the next day.
this is more portrayal-specific too but i think it's kind of fun to play with the time gap between re2 and re4 as a sort of reflection of the fandom's interest in his character. re4 leon is obviously the most popular and most iconic incarnation of his character; re2-era leon has become more popular since re2make came out and i wasn't into re before that time so idk the specifics here since i played re2make in 2019...??? but anyway i like to sort of play up that leon was kinda treated like he was in re2--a rookie who doesn't know wtf is going on, disregarded and kind of ignored with the expectation he'll probably die--until he kinda started putting on muscle thanks to the govt-assigned training, and depression+lack of time led to him developing his signature re4 bangs and smolder and his humor became more acidic--and then the office began to actually respect him. the transition into re4 leon is representative of his depression and ensnarement in his "field of work" but it bags him an increase in popularity as trade-off; and my leon is aware of it and reflects on it. he doesn't mind it per se, he just knows people are more interested in him now.
dante is a guy who has always looked good and knows he looks good. he's never not been noticed--for better and for worse. he plays with his style to his benefit because he is the sort of person who commands attention even when he doesn't want it. image has always had to matter to dante in some capacity so he flexes it to whatever way he can to put out the image he wants. this is one reason i vibe less and less with dmc5 dante's design the more time goes on...like i get he's supposed to be more depressed and struggling to take care of himself but i just can't really see get-SSS-style-meter-or-die-dante giving up all of his red clothes and not even bothering to clean his leather jacket so it's his trademark crimson instead of the washed-out maroon it is in the game. if image has been something forced upon him from the moment he was born, i think a depressed dante would get insane and neurotic about it...see dmc2 dante's design, for example, which is super cool even tho that game is trash
i kind of lost the original point here but anyway yeah i was thinking. hi :-]
