I know squat about Rune Factory 4 but I do find it funny that your beloved in the game seems to be some guy named LEON (one letter away from Leona) who is also buff and has big boobs and cat ears 😭
[ Referencing this post! ]
Yeah, Doug does look visually similar to Riddle but their personalities are nothing alike. As for Leon, he’s meant to be a fox, not a cat (though I could see why you’d make the mistake or connection to cats). Leon’s… definitely buff… with a prominent chest… 🙂↕️ He also has baggage, is perceptive, loves to read, translates old languages, is admired by younger peers, and uses his shrewdness + teasing to deflect from talking about his own insecurities, just… like… Leona………………. ……. ……, … .. . ……….,.. ….. ..:..,.. … ….. …. .. . .. . . .
NO, WAIT 💀 LISTEN, IT’S NOT WhAt IT LOOKS liKE… I sWear TO YOU…
There’s differences between Leon and Leona too… For example, I would say Leona is definitely more “fox-like”. He’s light-hearted, kind of like a playful trickster that’s entertained by the antics of others. I’d also say Leon is more earnest and openly helpful than Leona, who can seemingly never directly assist you. Leona has roundabout methods or will only step in if you’re causing trouble for him or there’s something for him to gain through his involvement.
If I recall, Leon is a priest too! God, could you IMAGINE Leona as a priest 💀 He ended up sacrificing himself in order to protect the dragon he serves, only to reawaken several hundreds of years later in a new era (ie the modern day of the RF4 game). And ain’t no way Leona would stick his neck out like that for MALLEUS.
As I mentioned in an older post, there’s a lot of individual design elements I dislike about Leona (the tail, the muscles, the excessive display of skin, long hair, body markings, etc.) and a lot of those also apply to Leon. I like Leon in spite of those design elements, not because of them.
What charmed me about him was the combination of his maturity and his easygoing nature. Leon’s always willing to lend an ear if you need someone to listen or to give advice. He’s also able to ground you or to lighten the mood if things become too doom and gloom. It’s such big bro energy 😳
One character dynamic I enjoy a lot is Leon and Forte, a serious and hardworking knight with insecurities about her girly interests (sweets, cute things, dressing in a feminine manner, etc). She has a younger brother, Kiel, who idolized Leon and (stupidly) does whatever Leon jokingly tells him to do. Leon frequently teases her because of her stoicism and overprotectiveness, enjoying the reactions he gets out of her. I’ve always thought that these two would make for a great rival couple (but RF4 never implemented that mechanic).
BUT!!! What really sold me on Leon was his heart-wrenching dating + marriage storyline 😭 IT FR MAKES ME CRY SO MUCH EVERY TIME I EXPERIENCE IT
Slapping it under the cut because I don’t want to ruin the masterpiece if you haven’t seen it for yourself yet and care about spoilers 💔
You can ask Leon out, the same as you can with any other bachelor, once you hit a certain affection level. However, what differentiates him from the other bachelors is that he… rejects you.
His reasoning? He can’t ever marry you, since he swore off marriage long ago. Leon doesn’t want to lead you on by dating you, as that would give you false hope and expectations of the relationship developing into something more. He even begs you to “give up” on him because he cares about hurting your feelings 😭 MC manages to convince him to date anyway, with the understanding that it won’t lead to marriage down the line.
As I mentioned earlier, Leon was actually born several hundreds of years ago. At the time, he had a childhood friend, a girl named Maria. Leona describes her as “like a little sister”, “annoying […] but cute”, and “such s crybaby, always clinging to [him]”. He used to look after her as if he was her older brother, going everywhere together.
One day, Maria was crying so much that Leon said he’d do whatever she wanted if she stopped crying. And you know what Maria wanted? She asked if she could marry him. Without thinking much of it, Leon agreed. They carved their names down in an language they had both just learned to “seal the deal”. However, Leon admits to forgetting about the promise and thinking of it as another playdate, but Maria didn’t. She actually never shed a single tear again after that. Not when she got teased, not when she got injured, not even on the day he left to become what is essentially a sacrifice. It was then and only then that Leon realized Maria took their promise 100% seriously. AND HE FEELS LIKE SUCH AN ASS ABOUT IT.
Leon is sealed away for a while and awakens in modern day. Maria has long since passed on (he even visits the place where they carved their names down)--but the memory of that promise still haunts him. He is plagued by the guilt of knowing that he trampled on her feelings and Maria may have lived a miserable life because of him. Leon doesn’t believe he deserves to be happy because he robbed someone else of their chance to be happy. That’s why he won’t allow himself to marry. He doesn’t want to break another promise, to create more heartbreak.
WTF… WhY WoULD YOU SaY THAT AFTER yoUR TRaumADUMP
JUST LOOK AT THIS ANGST, FFS
HE WANTS YOu… HE WANTS YOU SO BSd… To have and to hold you and to call you his own… BUT HE ALWAYS HOLDS BACK BECAUSE gE DoESNt WanT TO bETRAY HIS BRloved FRIDnd WHOM hE FEELS RESPONSIBLE FOR lEADinG ON… WhAT A GUy… 😩💦
Leon’s marriage proposal event involves him being asked to translate an ancient document, which turns out to be a story about “a boy” and “a girl” that is exactly what happened between him and Maria. He realizes that the story must have been written BY Maria, and is too scared to confront it. With encouragement from MC, they go on a scavenger hunt around the world to places where Leon and Maria used to play as kids. We find the next parts of the story, with each new page hidden in a spot corresponding with a certain number of points (a dot (1) to a line (2) to a triangle (3) to a square (4) to a star (5)!).
Through the hidden papers, we hear more of Maria’s life. According to her, “the girl” (herself) still didn’t cry after “the boy” (Leon) departed, not even when her parents died. This led her friends and neighbors to start believing she was cold and mean. They started avoiding her until it got to the point where Maria was all alone.
She started to become friendly with one man, who asked her what would make her happy. And you know what Maria responded with??? For “him” to come back so they can get married and walk along the same path… grow old together. Then the man held up a mirror to “her”, and Maria realized she was already an old woman. She had wasted her life away waiting for a man that would never come for her and never reciprocate her feelings. Never again could they walk down the same road. Maria had nothing left. No friends, no family, not even “him”. She confesses that she knew Leon only ever saw her as a sister, but she just couldn’t give up. Once she recognized it was all for naught, Maria finally cried for the first time in forever. The page ending with a star ominously concludes that she “broke their promise” and that “the girl disappeared”, wishing that “he”, too, would disappear.
Anyway, Leon has a crashout and MC supports him through it 🧍♂️ Then they discover there’s gotta be one more page to the story (the star/5 pointed shape returns to a dot/1 point). The duo returns to the tower where he and Maria carved their names and find the final piece of the puzzle. In the last page, Maria dedicates the story to “you who sleeps in the tower” (Leon). “She” disappeared because Maria broke their promise and started anew as “me”. Maria then confesses that she ended up finding love and having a family of her own, that she wishes to free Leon of their promise, and that she hopes he finds his own happiness too 😭
Leon remembers that the shapes at the end of each page are part of a charm to make one’s wish come true… The scavenger hunt wasn’t arranged by Maria to scorn him at all, it was a silly little charm for his happiness…
LEON CRiES AnD PRoMISES MaaRIA hE’LL BEhApPY… BY pRopOsING TO MC????? AhhHHHhGHgggggGGHghhhhhHHHHHG OTL MY hEaRRRRTtttt………………: ……… …. ….,,,,, ….. …. … . …: ..: …. …. ……. … . .: . . .. . .
ANOTHER CRAZy REVEAL IS. Maria went on to be an author and one of the books she publishes is “A Recipe for Happiness”. That’s INSANE because Leon was reading this exact book (without even knowing it was penned by her) in previous affection events… IT WAS ALL CONNECTED, MARIA WAS ALWAYS WITH HIM AND WISHING FOR HIS HAPPINESS 😤
And the cherry on top of all of this is 🧍♂️ earlier in the chain of events, while Leon was having a moment to angst, he asks MC if they prefer to say “I’m back” or “Welcome back”. He doesn’t elaborate on his reason for asking.
YOU KNOW HOW THE PROPOSAL CONCLUDES??? That’s right… with Leon “[keeping] his promise” and finishing the exchange!!!!
ARE YOU KiDIdDIND ge g ME??? ? ? ?? ?q???qe?e?a??fad?a?d???? ??
