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THEY ARE SO COMFORTABLE

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They fell asleep like this in the helicopter after Alcatraz. Trust me

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RE vendetta is my fav yaoi movie

also gentle reminder my reqs are open

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muah!

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He wants attention

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He wants attention

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Chris picking up his husband from Colorado

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Be careful, avoid jellyfish!

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I still find the whole dudebro thing so funny 😭

Like I think that Leon and Chris would be some of the most non-judgemental and accepting people. They've seen the horrors of the world, gone through traumatic experiences that a person should never go through, and have had people die in their arms. I doubt they would care if someone came out to them as queer. Now if you came out as gay and a bioterrorist, then there might be a bit of a problem-

It's funny to me that there's dudebros in the fandom or that Capcom thought they could market to them when then you have devs on projects like RE5 that have Chris shit-talk capitalism and Leon doing the same in Vendetta as well.

And looking at the messaging of the whole franchise it just doesn't align with dudebro "beliefs". Jill is a woman in a male-dominated field, she's the only woman to have undergone the Delta Force training. She (wasn't originally) hypersexualized-- she was independent and *competent*. Chris is queercoded to super hell and back, he wad kicked out of the military for going against his superiors and he's explicitly anti-capitalist. Leon was a rookie cop who learned the hard way that the cops aren't the good guys and was then kidnapped by the government-- that actively commits war crimes and other shady shit-- and forced to help them clean up their messes. And that's just the tip of the ice berg! The main villain of the franchise is capitalism-- a greedy corporation filled with a bunch of men who wanted power doing illegal experiments and then colluding with the US government. Nothing about the franchise is "dudebro" material yet some people at Capcom seem to think they could market to those audiences, at least in the early 2000s.

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"Flirting" for intel?

Alright I'm back with another analysis that probably going to be a little controversial since the majority of the fandom thinks Leon is canonically a slut, but I wanted to talk about it anyway.

But with that out of the way, I'd like to propose my crack theory: I don't think Leon was flirting with Shen May with the intention of being romantically involved or actually going to dinner with her, rather, he was trying to get her to give up information about the mission, and she knew that.

I've watched Infinite Darkness probably a couple dozen times since it came out-- and that's not a joke or exaggeration, I just really like the animation style-- but this scene always stuck out as really weird and out of place to me. But I think I've finally put my finger on why.

From the start of the series, we're implicitly made aware of the fact that Leon is uncomfortable with this mission, and that he doesn't want to be here. We know he was pulled off the mission in Pittsburgh (detailed in the canon tie-in comic) and flown to the WH in an expedited manor-- something the pilot comments on, and Leon promptly ignores. He gets there, people are already debating his qualifications, and then he takes out some of the zombies and calls them assholes. Now, keep in mind, these people were other agents and WH staff, and "rest in peace, assholes" is distinctly different from the intense guilt we know Leon feels about having to kill other zombies so I think it's obviously clear that Leon A. does not want to be here and B. doesn't like these people, which is saying something considering the remorse he feels for others, even those who are objectively bad people (see: him holding Maria while she dies in the DI manga).

While he's called zombies assholes in RE2 before, this moment is distinctly different in delivery-- not a spur of the moment swear word said while fighting for his life, he's calling these zombies assholes.

(We're getting to the Shen May part, I promise.)

Following that, he's told that there was an incident, they get sent to Guam where they're going to board the submarine, and Leon is instantly very visibly uncomfortable. Just the look on his face here when everyone else walks away is very telling about how he feels regarding this mission.

Once onboard the sub, he goes back and forth with Jason and Shen May over the details... which they can't give him... for some reason unknown to him. So now he's on a mission he doesn't want to be on, stuck on a sub he doesn't want to be on, surrounded by people who doesn't know and doesn't seem to trust, and they also can't give him any information about what it is they're trying to do. "It's classified" is the running gag of the scene-- keep that in mind.

Leon even points out that if the US was hacked by China, why didn't they just hack them back? Why secretly send in agents to another country, something that could potentially provoke them and cause a much bigger incident (because keep in mind, they're not sending them via plane, this is a stealth mission)? To which Leon gets a less than satisfactory response. Now he knows something is off.

Jason conveniently leaves, providing Leon with a window of opportunity. Jason won't give him any intel, he was the one doing the majority of the talking, but maybe Shen May will without Jason around. The phrasing of the scene and Leon's facial expressions are also very telling. We go straight from Leon being visibly pissed that he's not getting any info to asking Shen May to go get dinner-- he's literally bitching about Jason still while sitting down.

When she replies that she already has a man waiting for her at home, Leon responds with "....so?" and while we know that Leon's self-esteem isn't great, I think anyone with any ounce self-respect is not going to willingly be someone's side bitch. It also just wouldn't make sense for Leon's character, especially since it's already clear that he's not onboard with this mission and doesn't trust either of them.

And then she follows up with "so, it's classified"-- there's that phrase yet again, and Leon makes an awkward laugh, pretending to be surprised before she leaves and then he immediately looks... uncomfortable.

After this, we're shown that Leon is following them both around the sub, carefully so that he isn't caught. He's observing them to collect info and figure out what the fuck is going on. If they won't tell him anything, maybe he can see them do something that will give him more information, and then he sees Jason with the inhibitor in the bathroom, so his suspicions are now confirmed.

Then he tries to get information from Jason, but instead of faux-flirting, he decides to open up and have a more... vulnerable conversation with him, telling him about his own experiences in Raccoon City. But instead of Jason telling him anything useful about the mission, Leon gets a thinly-veiled threat.

The mission goes to shit, the rest of the plot happens, but I think the fact that Leon assumed the government had put them up to this is also extremely relevant to looking at the "flirting" scene because we get to see what he was thinking/theorizing about.

If we know he was uncomfortable, didn't trust them, knew something was off about the mission, and was trying to get more info, it makes more sense for him to have been trying to get information out of her rather than being actually interested in her. Especially if he thought the government was putting her up to this at first and she said she already had someone, why would he flirt with someone he thought was potentially trying to kill him only to be their side bitch? Probably because he had ulterior motives.

So yeah, this is just my personal analysis of the scene/ID's first few episodes as someone with a minor in media & film analysis. I know this challenges a lot of preconceived notions about the series and especially about that scene, but you are free to have your own theories/interpretations/etc and voice them on your own blog <3

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First time I played re4r I genuinely got the impression Luis was Leon's bf and Krauser was his toxic ex. Everytime he grabbed me from behind or pushed me on the floor or said he knew Leon better than anyone I got a little more homophobic

And when I heard Krauser was supposed to hold Leon's hand when he stabbed him... Rip major Krauser he would have hated pride month but happy pride to him anyway

AKDHAOHAJFHS

Krauser really *is* Leon's toxic ex if you think about it-- the way he's slamming him around and calling him pretty boy and talking about his pretty blue eyes?? The picture of Leon he apparently carries around?? The way he was slotting his knee between Leon's thighs?? That's a bitter ex boyfriend if I've ever seen one. Hell, he even killed Leon's new boyfriend 😭.

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whateverrrr

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For a strawpage request :) plus an extra doodle of Krauser sleeping in the corner idk

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silly chreon collection