The main reason I dislike aeon so much is particularly because capcom has this strange thing that they do where they don't really show us how in love they are, they TELL us. If your characters were genuinely as in love and enthralled with each other as you say they are, we wouldn't need every character they interact with to TELL us they're in love.
i.e: "sounds like you know her well" from RE4R, "you have feelings for her dont you?" from RE6, "I can't believe i actually miss her" from RE2R, etc
You do not need to constantly vocalize how in love they are if they're truly in love and the games do it so much that it becomes repetitive. Someone's always asking Leon about Ada and TELLING him his feelings for her instead of us being shown that hes longing for and pining for her.
And this doesnt work specifically because of Leon's dry, cynical attitude toward Ada even in the original games. Their chemistry doesn't actually start working (in a sense) until RE6 but in 6 its basically forced down the players' throats.
Not to mention (especially in the 4 remake) Ada has a very odd boredness around Leon that people claim she uses as a way to hide her feelings for him. But I bring you this as a counter: her attitude toward Luis in the Separate Ways DLC.
Ada shows more genuine joy and emotion around Luis than she does toward Leon (even in the other games (maybe beside 6)). At one point she even giggles and smiles at him (which she has NEVER done to Leon):
She is constantly angry and exasperated with Luis the same way she is with Leon but the difference is that it doesn't feel as mocking toward Luis as it does Leon. She softens a lot easier around Luis even in their very limited screen time and interactions.
She has only ever ALLOWED Luis to touch her. With Leon, SHE is the one dictating the interaction and how its going to work. With Luis, she is less harsh about it and actually allows him to support her and help her in a way Leon has not.
(NOTE THE CLOSENESS ADA IS ALLOWING FROM LUIS,)
(1 video per post limit ugh)
(VS HOW IMMEDIATELY SHE BRUSHED LEON OFF.)
She is very adamant about keeping Leon very far at arm's length and that COULD be because she has repressed feelings for him but it NEVER comes off that way. She is much more vibrant and emotional around Luis which we NEVER get to see around Leon. She's somewhat flirty and joking around Leon but not in the same way she is with Luis.
Aeon (imo) feels forced. Like capcom is TELLING us "hey, theyre meant for each other" when its not VISIBLE and not FELT like Leon/Ada's interactions are with other characters. Leon has more chemistry with Chris in Vendetta ALONE than he has with Ada. They feel meant for other characters but theyre being forced together in a way that feels clunky and badly written.
Capcom CANNOT just allow Ada to be a character without attaching her to Leon. Leon has his own arcs and development but she feels (ESPECIALLY IN THE OLD GAMES) like an accessory to him in the way her story and arc almost always completely revolve around him.
The Separate Ways DLC was changed SO much and it seems like they were trying to remedy it but even STILL she was constantly being stuck back to Leon and unallowed to have her own growth. She is the same old Ada because she can't become a different Ada if she's still attached to Leon's hip in the way capcom DESPERATELY needs her to be. The only biohazard movie she shows up in is Damnation and she's STILL Leon's little "femme fatale shadow of his past" character that i HATE. She disappears at the end of the movie and thats the LAST that we see of her.
I'm not saying that shipping aeon is like devil sent or the worst thing ever or anything, im just saying that (in my personal opinion) it doesnt work the way that most people think it does. Their relationship feels very surface level and forced. My biggest example of this is the kiss in RE2R. I've always had a problem with this scene particularly because aeon crusaders use it as a "GOTCHA!" moment to prove that theyre in love.
Ada seems disingenuous and Leon doesnt look overcome with love. Ada does this--not as impulse--but as a calculated move to catch Leon off guard and manipulate him into doing what she NEEDS him to do. It is her act of duty because she is immobile, injured, and a liability. She needs to act fast. So she does.
Leon does not react with wonder. He reacts with confusion. He does not look in love. He moves on from it very quickly. He appears to be questioning her and himself immediately after it is over. He does not react.
That is abject confusion.
I cannot say the same for the og re2 cause the graphics are pixels and the VA work is so bad that its hard to tell any emotion from it. But I can say in confidence that the kiss scene here does not seem to represent love at first sight.
The love at first sight trope is extremely difficult to pull off correctly and capcom had a good foundation for it... but not for Ada and Leon.
They're much more involved together in RC in the original RE2 and the Darkside Chronicles and MUCH less present in the remake but STILL. The remake manages to capture a tenderness and genuine affection between them that Ada/Leon don't have in this game (or the others for that matter). The way they set up the Ada/Leon "romance" here is very strange. Like theyre trying to reassure us that theyre interested in each other without actually doing the emotional groundwork to prove it.
What particularly drives me crazy is that Aeon is in retrospect a very toxic ship that doesnt work between either of them. Ada treats Leon like a constant: "i dont have to work on this because he'll always be here waiting for me." And Leon always comes out of the otherside of their interactions worse off than he entered (think about the transition in his appearance and mental state from RE6 to Vendetta: the loss of weight, sarcastically dark hair, HEAVY alcohol use, increased suicidality) and of course this is affected by outside trauma as well, but it also has to do with Ada and her lingering influence on him that capcom must have in every game she appears in. It drags him down, makes him worse, and he never gets closure.
Ada also never gets closure because she pulls away before she can to avoid it for as long as possible. Which then just boils their dynamic down to "this is mysterious because we never communicate or accept each other into our lives" which in addition to the awful emotional layout capcom has done, just makes the ship extremely frustrating. And not in a slow burn "JUST KISS ALREADY" way. In a "can this please just be over already" kind of way.
I could go on about this all day but I'll shut up now lest the aeon shippers hear me from afar and come to rip my throat out
Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
Yes this is just my opinion. No i dont care if you ship aeon. No im not expecting to convert people or change your mind.
