Untitled: Artist Formerly Known As...

Life happens in the side blogs, bitch!  18+ MDNI

[cherrybathbombsucker]

I've been writing an RE:9 Leon fic since completing my first run in March, but I've loved him since I was a kid. I'm really trying hard to do older Leon justice and write him accurately, as well as pair him with an original female character that compliments his character and the canon. (So it's a slow burn — multi chpt fic.) Dropped the first three chpts this month, and barely broke a handful of notes or kudos and zero comments/reblogs. Every time I look in the tags I feel like deleting it from the internet, because it feels so futile to share work like this. The insane amount of reader fics and poor head canons posts out there with thousands of likes/comms/shares, which make no attempt to write him in character is just diabolical to me. The main male character in these fics/hcs could literally be anyone but Leon more than half the time. The irony of all this is that I'm a successful published romance/erotica author, who just writes fanfic for practice in my spare time. So I'm reasonably sure I know how to write a good story and accurately represent a character. I also don't find reader interaction essential to thrive as a writer, but with that being said — I feel so badly for the few other writers out there who are trying to do Leon justice but are constantly getting their efforts buried by so much content that simply is not even close to representing Leon properly. Nice to see I'm not alone in feeling this way. Thank you for calling it out. Sadly I don't think it will make any difference to this massive imbalance in fandom, but it makes me feel less alone to know others see and feel it too

anon, i did try to find your work but you didn't give me much to go on lol! but send me your fic please. i would love to read it. sounds right up my alley tbh! totally agree with what you're saying. at first i was just annoyed about so many people doing leon a disservice in the way the wrote him. now i'm getting more and more pissed about writers deleting their work or feeling like there's no point in sharing it because of how hard it seems to be to get any support in the fandom...especially for longer fics or fics with ocs. i hope you don't give up because i'm one of the few folk who will give an oc a chance, and i feel like these kinds of stories are dying out when ocs used to be all we had back in the days of fanfic dot net and quizilla lol! my inbox is open to you (or anyone) who wants to vent or share some work with me. don't give up! x

[cherrybathbombsucker]

Saw your posts and thought you might laugh or cry at this. I can't believe the RE fandom tbh. I've loved Leon since the original RE4. I posted a requiem Leon x oc fic last week and within hours someone messaged me to say that they really thought I'd captured Leon, loved the premise, and the oc was "cool" but they couldn't read the whole thing because they prefer reader fics. Literally asked me when the smut would happen and if I would consider rewriting it as a reader/you fic!!!!

Excuse me??!! Do people really hate original female characters and lack literacy that badly that they'll find the absolute gall to ask writers to change a whole stories to suit them now? Gobsmacked is an understatement! I deleted the damn thing and won't be sharing anything again outside of my friend group. Feels like there's no point when it's pretty obvious what the 'fans' (I use that word loosely) only care for. Still come November they'll fuck off to the GTA 6 fandom and maybe people who actually care about Leon can have their moment.

i've been trying to find a coherent way to respond to this since i received it the other day....and all i've got is a picture and two words....

the audacity!!!!

[cherrybathbombsucker]

three times now i've had messages from writers telling me about the absolute audacity of re fans/fic readers....the fourth one that i just got has legit blown my mind.... why are they like this?

[cherrybathbombsucker]

Need to say I totally agree with what you posted about Leon. 🙌 Loved him since 05 and I am sickened by what I see here and elsewhere. The whole 🌟Possession Sue🌟 trope is rife with him right now and 90% of the smut is just boilerplate content. Half of these so called fans cant even get his age right FFS! Its apparently too much to ask for them to do basic canon fact checks on that so there aint no way they will make an attempt to write him in character. 😵‍💫 Its not just writers though readers are a big part of the problem! Its like they are incapable of consuming and supporting anything that isnt reader-insert-second-person-single-pov now which is perpetuating the issue with finding quality fics and also makes me fear for peoples literacy skills. Actually cant wait for these bandwagoners to move on to the next hot polygon man and leave those of us who actually care about Leon to enjoy him in an accurate and meaningful way again! ✊

oh dear anon!!! don't get me started on the age thing. where did 51 even come from? we can't expect every fic to show him in character of course, but when the overwhelming majority are writing him in such an utterly unrecognizable (and frankly toxic) way it's completely maddening. had to google what a 'possession sue' (stu?) was and holy shit if that doesn't nail this current leon situation i don't know what does!

(...)one frequent thing is for the author of a particular fanfic to appropriate a character. Rather than creating an original character, this author will overhaul the role, importance and personality of a particular canon character they like in order to make the character "ideal" (i.e., a stereotypical Mary Sue). Every canon character in fanfiction represents the fan's re-interpretation of that character. They aren't the original author, so they don't have first-hand knowledge of the inner mechanics beyond what is shown in the released materials. The most they can do is try their best to emulate that character using the information they have, with varying levels of success. This trope refers to the more extreme situation, when a character's most basic, undeniable traits are flat out ignored in favor of the author's own views and/or desires. (..)

i had been wondering if there was a name for what's happening in the re fandom. thank you so much for giving me one! the boilerplate thing is also starting to ring true now that every possible smut scene has been done to death at least twice, to the point the same phrases are used on repeat by different authors. (honestly concerned this is actually an ai thing perhaps?) but you are right. readers really need to start showing some love for work that isn't so 'cookie cutter' and diverges from the trends. especially for those writers who are at least trying to explore leon's character in longer fics and present him as accurately as possible because it's a tough job to do. if writers who are trying don't get the support they need his true character is going to be lost to ooc fanon before we know it. and for a character with three decades of canon that would be tragic!

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #14,333:

When the fanon version of your fave is so much more popular than the canon version and nearly every fan of them mischaracterizes them to hell and back. And some just straight up replacing them with an OC without realizing it

[cherrybathbombsucker]

I've been both a big fan of Leon and a fic writer since the early 00s, before I even knew fan fic was a thing other people did. He was actually my big sister's first fictional crush. (Yes, she's losing her mind over him currently lol!) I am also writing a fic about RE9 Leon (with an original female pairing) currently, which is in part a character study and largely from his POV. I think it's doing a decent job of reflecting who he is as a character. The thing is I am completely put off sharing it here and AO3 because it seems abundantly clear that the only thing the current fandom wants to support are works where he is completely out of character. Generally in short reader smut fics (totally agree with you about the reader vs oc thing) or AUs where he's damn near unidentifiable as the Leon I know and love. You only have to browse the tags to see how bad it is. Some of the worst representations of him as a character have thousands upon thousands of notes, while the ones that seem to be trying a bit harder to do him justice get so few by comparison. It's a sad state of affairs. He deserves better! Thank you for speaking out. ❤️

same anon! same! let's start a club for people who were crushing on his boxy, robotic, ginger curtain having ass lol! i am genuinely so sorry to hear this and i'm sad to say i don't think you are on your own with feeling this way. and this is exactly what i mean when i say i am fed up with how the fandom is trying to wedge him into these horrible boxes. the continual production and popularity of these ooc fics and hcs are completely washing away his canon character and warping him into something that is not recognizable as the leon anymore. wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have thirty years of (sometimes questionable and regularly retconn'd) canon representation. it's just such a waste. it sees to be making people up their noses at anything that isn't instant gratification and hardcore ooc smut. (not exclusive to the re fandom it's happening all over lately) so of course people who are making an effort to explore his character will lose heart when the responses and support aren't there. as a former fic writer, i feel for you whole heartedly. i would be very happy to read your fic even if you don't want to share it publicly. i would love to see a fellow og!leon lover's interpretation of him. feel free to dm me if you'd like :)

[if-dreams-do-come-true]

When I say that Leon has always had that sass and Costco Business bulk size of audacity, I am specifically referring to these scenes in his Infinite Darkness era.

[cherrybathbombsucker]

Do u have any Fics or one shots recommendations of Leon that is accurate? I would love to read your recommendations

tbh anon....i struggle with this for two reasons... 1) reader fics. i absolutely hate it when a fic named as a reader insert but it's blatantly an oc. i won't recommend ones like that, even if i found it a decent read, because i hate perpetuating the anti-oc rhetoric of recent years. girls, guys and non bines, write your damn oc. own that shit! 2) i generally don't like to recommend fics that are still ongoing because i've seen so many of them turn out terrible when they started with promise...and also vice versa. as a general rule i will say re2/re4 leon fics are better than re9 leon because people pre feb '26 were writing him for the love of his character....but this bitch needs that snarky veteran in her life. there are a couple of fics i'm waiting on updates for at the moment with re9 leon that seem promising and that i'm hopeful about but it's very early days. so i'm reluctant to drop titles until i see something that makes me confident the author has his character on lock. that being said i will come back to this post or make a new one at some point if the ones i'm watching do prove to be a good representation of canon leon. i might do a 'master list' type post of recs...(if only for my own reference) if i find enough fics with him well represented, so stay tuned :)

[cherrybathbombsucker]

i'm tired boss. tired of the way this fandom interprets leon. i've just seen the literal worst headcanon (outside of him being toxic/abusive) where someone's said he's only had 2 to 5 sexual partners in his life....and yet the rest of the hcs have him being some kind of porn star. he cannot be both babe. you don't get the 'virgin whore' with a man of 49 who has battled alcoholism and mental illness. he's far more likely to have used casual sex as a coping mechanism than he is to have worn a chastity belt. especially given how hard it must be for him to maintain a steady relationship due to work. this tug of war between making him a geriatric mess and infantilising him is just fucked. i will be so glad to see these clueless juvenile tourists get bored and move on to butcher the characterisation of the new flavor of the month! (for the record, this should go without saying....i am not implying he is a womanizer or a cheater. i do not believe that for a minute but if it was handed to him on a plate in (and you know it was because look at this man!!!) pre marriage, he wouldn't turn it down. especially if he was drunk/down and wanting to feel something other than wanting to feel something other than the symptoms of his trauma.

[if-dreams-do-come-true]

One of my favourite scenes in Vendetta is Chris Redfield walking into a hotel room…🥴

And then, him sitting on the bed 🫠

[cherrybathbombsucker]

Saw your posts about there being no Leon fics that are age appropriate and that are all out of character smut. Just wanted to say I think the reason why there are so few well crafted fics, is because of the lack of reader engagement. People love to read but they so rarely can be bothered to share their thoughts. Writers will feast on a simple keysmash and actual responses with even the tiniest bit of effort fuel the writing fires. When people read but don't bother giving anything but a click in return writers who are working hard to make something deeper for a character, just give up trying and walk away. It's really sad and something I wish the fandom would understand.

completely agree with you. as a former fic writer the disproportionate engagement that one shot/ooc smut always got compared to character studies and slow burns was insane and just killed my desire to share my work. breaks my heart that i still see stories posted that are clearly trying to explore the canon character and build something deeper (especially with an oc...canon ships seem to be slightly better) that get maybe a handful of responses.....while smut focused fics/one shots (with a 'reader' that is actually an oc anyway) will get literal thousands of likes/reblogs/kudos... that would be fine but the canon character is almost always so far out of character that they're not even recognizable as themselves! re9!leon is by far the worst victim i have seen of this though. people have butchered his character beyond recognition now, in the name of making him some kinky sugar daddy/christian grey type and it's such a disservice to his character. he deserves so much better!

and don't get me wrong i understand readers struggle to find the words to post a comment but you're right ¬ anything is something to a writer. especially the ones who aren't following the trends. it really should go without saying that if you want to see more of a story, especially one that is focusing on exploring the canon character, you should pipe up and say so. writing is such hard work and its even harder when you're actually trying to write someone in character and in situations the canon never shows. it's not so hard to just use the name of a canon character and shove "them" in ooc situations to satisfy a trending fetish though.

[cherrybathbombsucker]

are there any Leon fics out there (reader or oc) that actually capture his character properly, and where she's not about his money, collecting plushes or someone who he has to 'brat tame' ? the man is 49 years old, he needs a partner not a sugar baby. i'm tired boss. and i'm sure he is too. recs please.

[kayuekou]

sorry not helpful to op :[ but it's tiring opening up ao3 the supposed superior platform for all things fanfiction and getting the life sucked out of me after seeing fics where the reader is a half adult stuck in mean dom bratty sugar baby purgatory. it has to stop. Release The T-Virus, Now.

[cherrybathbombsucker]

@kayuekou totally agree. it's tiring. i don't know if it's just because he's older or what but i've never seen a fandom so embedded in this sort of narrative. it's such a disservice to his character too because aint no way he's down for all that kind of nonsense with the shit he puts up with day to day.

[cherrybathbombsucker]

my kingdom for a smutty RE9 leon fic where he's not written completely out of character and painted like some smooth af, sex crazed porn star, who's constantly narrating his every thrust and doing degrading shit like spitting in women's orifices. does anyone in fandom care enough to write him in character, and not just as some weird older man/daddy kink/dom wishful fulfilment oc/avatar?? please dm me/reply with recs....i am starving here.

[quotefeeling]

“The devil doesn’t come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for.”

— Tucker Max

[going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi]

things to say after fucking up egregiously

pack it up boys we've made a social blunder

let's run that again

one more time normal style

I'm going to become a statistic

further proof god is out to get me

it's because I tore my acl senior year

I couldn't do it for religious reasons

my ex took my talent in the divorce

good thing nobody saw that (said directly to someone who definitely saw it)

[pinguinitos]

pittsburgh penguins vs. carolina hurricanes (march 22, 2026)

[animentality]