misconception: leon is nothing but a joke character. he deserved to die.

misconceptions.

             thanks i hate it! now, i won’t deny that leon isn’t the most serious character in the game, and because of The Way He Is, he’s funny (intentionally or not)! i get that! he tells jokes in universe and says dumb stuff that can be taken as a joke! however! he’s got so much depth to him if you’d only bother to actually look. you don’t even have to look that deep, either -- there are hints to his depth in his free time events, for heaven’s sake. 

take his first one, for example -- yes, he’s big annoying, but he literally lays out his heart for us right then and there: he’s tired of playing baseball -- HATES it, even -- tired of being what everyone thinks he should be, tired of playing into this ‘prodigy’ angle that everyone shoves on him, that he’s like... determined to reinvent himself entirely? look at this moment in which he’s entirely genuine with someone he’s known for two minutes 

leon wants to TALK! why is he spilling this to someone he’s only just met!! this is his first hint to being more than the abrasive and nasty fuckboy that we see him as in the actual game proper and it carries over into his second free time event... ‘i’m not even afraid anymore, i’m just pissed off’. there we go!! afraid!! he’s not above admitting this to naegi or anyone for that matter!! i love him i’m trying to make a point here but i’m too overwhelmed with how much i love him i want to die

i hate leon and he says all this stuff about girls and sex and etc etc but you have to understand that he tells us -- naegi -- that his first priority is to be cool. he’s talking to some guy he doesn’t know the ins and outs of yet and wants to appear as this dumb ‘alpha male’ -- he’s spent his entire life around jock types, nasty locker-room-talk boys, and he’s emulating that ‘cool’ behaviour so naegi will respect him and maybe even be intimidated by him, just like he’s felt about adult/male figures all his life!!!!!

im literally not even answering the question at this point im just crying about leon im so sorry i just love him so much he is trying so hard in all the wrong ways!!! dont get me started on his school mode PLEASE i’d need a whole new ask like... i GET ignoring leon’s school mode bc it’s not in the game’s canon but it’s ALL THERE IN THE FREE TIME EVENTS

and as for ‘he deserved to die’? PERISH. he was attacked by someone he put his trust into -- someone he wouldn’t have suspected to hurt him in a million years, however dumb his trust in her was -- and he defended himself in the only way he could think of in the heat of the moment!! he’s not a fucking genius nor is he a calm person (he panics and freaks out a lot i get that) and when he figured out he’d hurt her and how scared she was he tried to get to her and help her and it all went south from there!! sayaka didn’t deserve to die either but geez leon was played so hard!!!

@gungambled  /  &  leon.

             ‘  i’m  warnin’  you  now  ,                                      this is gonna suck. i don’t got a poker face and i play loose with the rules ‘cause it’s boring otherwise.’ his friends had all warned him against playing with celeste, but he’s got no skin in this game -- if he’s gotta fetch a cup of tea or two, then that’s just what he’ll do. ‘but i guess you don’t do rules, either, from what i hear from taka.’ 

@gentomologist  /  &  leon.

               ‘  al-right  !  i  know  you  !  ’                           and he does, vaguely -- though his association to both chihiro and ryoma -- ‘you’re the bug dude! do you have any spiders, or anything? having a tarantula would be, like, dangerously cool. are spiders bugs? uh -- arachnids, right?’ 

so glad that ky, me and levi write the cutest characters in this franchise! (:

           no you guys have to listen to me now leon KILLS me especially manga leon because think about it!! listen to me!! sayaka calls him easy-going and relaxed about four million times before she attacks him but that’s directly at odds with what we see in-game; leon literally has a full panic attack in front of makoto and constantly talks about how he feels unwell (boy gets anxious and demands to see a doctor) thus proving that he isn’t as chill as he’s appearing whatsoever

           not to mention like. he didn’t do anything!! he tried to be kind to sayaka, yes because he wanted contacts and yes because he thought she was cute but mostly because he isn’t EVIL, isn’t a JACKASS, isn’t really MALICIOUS in any way -- he’s come to hope’s peak to pursue what he wants to do, not make enemies!! in fact, he wants to make friends for god’s sake!! he’s not like mondo or togami or toko who are directly abrasive, he isn’t nasty, he’s just... leon, just a person, and he’s scared and trying to wrap his head around what’s happening, so sue him if he wants to take solace in a cute girl that he could have a connection with!! shut up he isn’t DOING ANYTHING!!

           and yeah i follow manga canon where he was just trying to talk to sayaka and the struggle resulted in an accidental murder but even if he DID kill her on purpose she ATTACKED him!!! she took advantage of his nature, led him into a trap and attacked him with a weapon she had prepared!! i think he would have been able to stomach something spur of the moment but this was planned, he knows he’s been manipulated here?? in my little leon stan brain he didn’t want to hurt her even after all of that but even if he did he isn’t some cold blooded calculated killer he’s just a dumb stupid idiot boy stuck between a rock and a hard place and forced to make this impossible horrible decision 

@fuilteach /  &  leon.

              ‘  i  got  it  ,  i  got  it  !  hey  ,  listen  --  ’                          he pulls the body of the guitar closer to his chest, fingers slotting neatly over the frets. his nails (grown out, chipped with black) only threaten to get in the way; he’s been practising. with only a moment of delay, leon plucks out the opening to one of ibuki’s new hits, tongue poking from between his lips in concentration. ‘pret-ty good, right, babe?’ 

@fuilteach  /  leon and mondo.

           ‘  i  need  to  scare  you                            straight, because this should not be how we roll.’ he gestures petulantly to mondo’s hunched shoulders, the anxious furrow in his brow. ‘here’s my advice: stop.’

@fireaether /  &  leon.

            ‘  there  you  are  !  i  was                                   looking for you! check what i got from the gashapon!’ it’s a keyring with a small football on the end, and he loves it. ‘and, check it -- football!’ he proclaims, in thickly accented english, but english all the same. ‘guess i’m a genius now, huh?’ 

@liibrorums  /  &  leon.

               ‘  hey  ,  you  !  yeah  ,  you  !  ’                          he doesn’t have to be so loud, but this is the hill he’s dying on. leon skids to a stop in front of the girl, turning his head in offering; ‘no missing patches, right? i was trying to touch it up, but i got a call and got distracted, which is, like, so annoying. i hate getting interrupted.’ the irony is lost on him. ‘you’re lookin’ for blonde bits, in case you didn’t know. thanks!’ 

nobody: me, sadly: leon changes his whole personality, dyes his hair and gets piercings and takes up a whole interest just because of some girl he meets in a hair salon and how she likes musicians, he really does just dump all of his self worth in everyone else’s baskets (hers, naegis, etc) and that seems to run in the family because kanon’s self esteem literally canonly relies on leon and leon alone... they have good home lives but i think that because leon is trying so hard to live up to what his father wants him to be (and same goes for kanon) he has all these funky self esteem issues that he’s not really sure how to deal with because he’s not self aware enough to understand them

             ‘  sure  ,  i’ve  met   some                       pretty insufferable people, but... they also met me.’ insufferable is a big word, coming from the ultimate baseball pro; congratulate him while you can!

Leon actually talks like a highschool boy and it both makes me happy and makes me want to shake him.

              believe it or not, that’s something i really try and emphasise w leon?? it’s really easy to forget characters like, say, peko, togami, hajime, even gundham, are high school age, because of how they talk, but you also have to bear in mind their maturity brought about by trauma and hardship. leon has never had ANY of that. he hasn’t had to grow up AT ALL. and so he didn’t. and so he’s gonna be more immature – that is to say, he acts his age.

“you dumb piece of shit.”  @ leon because who else would she say it to

i am way too strong and way too sexy.

              ‘  geez  ,  alright  !  what’s  the  big  idea  ?  ’                              stupid idiots like leon have feelings too, y’know! ‘seriously, why d’you have a problem? i ain’t even vaguely interested in your whole deal.’ he grumbles, scuffing the heel of his platform shoe irritably. ‘dunno why makoto even puts up with you. poor guy.’

@fuilteach /  &  leon.

             ‘  hey  ,  man  .  ‘m  gonna  sit  here  .  ’                      he collapses, all limbs, onto the chair across from mondo, laying his head down on his arms in almost the same instant. ‘nidai-senpai woke me up super early this morning, and i think i need to see a fuckin’ doctor. how’s it hanging, dude?’ he waves a hand, purely to show he’s listening, just not looking.

@wrsethngs  /  &  leon.

              ‘  dude  ,  sit  still  ,  or  i’m  gonna                           stain your forehead.’ leon pulls the glove tighter with his teeth, resisting the urge to let it snap against his wrist. ‘try looking like this is natural with big purple blobs all over your face, i dare you.’ he’s never done this to anyone else before, but he’s pretty confident he can manage a simple touch-up without too much stress. ‘you still on the fence about going blonde, man?’ 

11 For Leon !

send these or perish / accepting.11 – is there anything they’re ashamed to admit they don’t understand? what?

              so let me just cheat this question by telling you now that leon’s got no qualms in telling you he’s a dumbass. he’ll say it without even being prompted because it’s easier that way. because of how he is with baseball, this prodigy that doesn’t apply himself, they think that applies to his academics too, but that’s just… not true. leon doesn’t test well. he just can’t focus, can’t remember and relay facts in the same way that academically gifted people can. he’s a kinetic learner – he loves to be up and working, unless that work is super uncool, obviously. 

              that being said, leon is also seriously dense, to other people’s feelings and his own. he didn’t even come out as bi to himself and by extension me until i’d already been writing him a month or so and that’s not because he’s ashamed but because he doesn’t understand how exactly to sort through his feelings. with leon, ‘i want to be like you’ and ‘i want to be with you’ can seriously overlap, and with guys even more so, and he literally could not make sense of what he was experiencing in order to understand that. leon is INCREDIBLY emotionally immature and that’s why he makes some of the more insensitive comments he makes in-game and in his talent development. don’t get me wrong, he’s also a self serving coward at times, but he is also a simple dumbass.

              HOWEVER! i won’t have one-note leon interpretations on my dashboard. he can be really insightful and reassuring in his own way (we see this with kanon A LOT) and also is a master at finding loopholes and kind of. glitches in the system that will work to his benefit. leon isn’t schoolsmart, but he’s wily and he thinks things through, just not in the same way as everybody else.