Sometimes I think about this fight and get sad
because despite saying to himself, "You won't get away with this, Krauser" after Krauser kills Luis, Leon proceeds to attempt to convince Krauser to stop fighting multiple times and even tries to run away by the end because he didn't want to have to kill Krauser.
And Krauser can tell
This is the only time that Leon has ever been this hesitant to fight anyone, or this hesitant to deal the final blow, and even Krauser is borderline comforting Leon as he convinces him to do what he has to do (when he says "that's right" as Leon holds the knife over his chest) because he can tell how much Leon is struggling to kill him. Leon even full on hesitates for multiple seconds as he keeps the knife hovered over Krauser and shuts his eyes in a final mental push to make himself stab Krauser.
Krauser's death scene and this fight is genuinely one of my favorite fights and scenes in all of gaming history for how hard it was for Leon to face Krauser like this and to kill him when Krauser left him no other choice. He tried repeatedly to leave, he tried repeatedly to convince him to stop fighting, he even implied that if Krauser had just stopped at any point that he would've let him walk away (when Leon says "You're really doing this? It's not too late!"), but there was no reasoning with him.
You can so clearly see just how much it took out of Leon to do that, walking away from Krauser's body like a lost puppy and looking back on him one last time before turning away and choosing to repress it, to push away every emotion he couldn't let bring him down. He couldn't let himself grieve any longer because he would've stayed in that grief forever. It's so tragic, and out of every fight Leon has ever been in, this was his hardest one because it was just so personal.
