On the topic of the âLeon is morally grayâ discourseâŚ.do you consider there to be any merit to it? Is Leon responsible for enabling the US government to engage in committing acts of bioterrorism and also covering them up because he never attempts to fight them or expose them or rebel against them in any way? Iâve seen people say that Leon is essentially making a moral compromise when he works with the US government turning a blind eye to their activities because he believes itâs necessary for the greater good i.e. the government must remain standing so it can be a force against bioterrorism. Even in Infinite Darkness Leon willingly covers up a government conspiracy and while I understand it was partly to protect Claire from being assassinatedâŚ. in the end it also enabled Tricell to remain standing an go on to do whatever they did in Africa in RE5 and the US government continues to remain corrupt and do terrible things.
I think many people are also saying that Leonâs not a slave to them anymore, that Leon is basically now working for them voluntarily and with actual loyalty to them esp since he co-founded the DSO and was close friends with Adam Benford. I have no idea what to think about all this tbh but Iâm curious to know your thoughts
Absolutely not and I feel like this entire conversation was born from a lack of media literacy. I guess unless Leon explicitly states verbatim "I hate the US government & disagree with them!!" people will miss that, but I always thought it was quite obvious through subtlies such as him saying "I guess I have to lose my American citizenship for a while" or "A government who drops bombs on people's weddings, who's the bad guy again?" or him and Sherry shit talking the DSO in RE9.
I think people are very desperate to make him morally gray for shipping reasons, but the fact of the matter is that Leon is fundamentally meant to be a hero protagonist. I think people misunderstand that protagonist & heroes must ALWAYS make the right decision or the decision the person interprets to be correct. We know Leon is there against his will, that was explicitly stated again in 4R. But I think people have this idea that since its been a few decades since he was coerced into service, that deal must somehow be void now. But there's no evidence of that whatsoever, people are just making assumptions. Realistically, I doubt the government would just let Leon OR Sherry walk free as this was likely a much larger agreement than just something between Simmons, Benford, & Leon. We don't know what the status of his deal is, but I don't think its fair to assume its void either.
Moreover, Leon kept the chip from Claire in an effort to protect her. Apart from it being mentioned in an interview, I feel that can also be understood based on his previous conversation with Shen Mei about the chip. He tells her outright that if she releases the chip, she will be hunted and killed by the government. The re-occuring theme between Leon & Claire is "don't do anything stupid" and Leon trying to keep her out of harm's way. I find their disagreement interesting, but I don't think Leon preventing Claire from getting herself killed makes him a bad guy.
So, in short, I don't think there's really any way to interpret Leon as "morally gray" without making a LOT of assumptions about things. We don't know the status of Leon's situation with the gov/DSO and people *assuming* he's there because he wants to be doesn't mean he's "morally gray," that's just their headcanon if you know what I mean.
Frankly, I just find the topic funny because people want him to be morally gray so bad but they can't handle *actually* morally gray characters like Vergil from DMC or even Ada. Lowkey think people kinda lost the plot with this one and have forgotten what hero, villain, and morally gray actually mean â ď¸
