#and OG leon also had to go through the learning to be better/being wiser thing

[sapphire-weapon]

One of my favourite cutscenes in RE2Remake that I think does an amazing job at showing the difference between Leon and Claire is the one before the fight with Birkin's third phase in the lab. Leon literally bumblefucks his way into fighting him with Annette sending Leon unwillingly to face him, compared to Claire going to face him of her own accord and with total confidence. I feel like that scene really highlights what you've been saying about Leon in RE2Remake

Sorry this took so long to answer, I had to go back and review exactly what this was because, like I said, it has been a minute.

(also, "bumblefucks"? @feelboss is this you lmao)

What's really interesting about the discrepancy here, on review, is that it's not just that Leon makes different decisions from Claire here -- though, that is part of it (and my "a more experienced Leon would've tried to say Annette" point checks out because Claire literally tries to save Annette, whereas Leon doesn't lmao). It's that characters react to him differently because of past decisions that he's already made.

Annette is objectively softer and kinder to Claire than she is to Leon in this scene because Claire has spent her whole campaign trying to help Sherry, an innocent child -- Annette's innocent child -- whereas Leon has spent his whole campaign trying to help Ada -- a spy, mercenary, and thief -- because he's fucking stupid LOL so Annette treats him that way! And she's right to treat him that way!

Like I said: the majority of the tragedies that surround Leon in RE2make are because of his own fuckups -- because of decisions he's consciously made. Whether or not he makes those decisions for understandable reasons is a different matter entirely -- but it still doesn't erase him from fault.

At the end of the day, it's still his fault. It doesn't matter if he had good intentions. It doesn't matter if his actions would pass a "reasonable person" standard in court. We're not in court; he's not on trial. We're looking at what a fictional character's role is in a fictional story.

When Leon makes decisions in RE2make, people die. Claire does not make decisions that get people killed. RE1 Chris does not make decisions that get people killed. RE1 Jill does not make decisions that get people killed. Only RE2make Leon has this problem, which is why "learning to be better/being wiser/changing my ways" is what's at the heart of his character arc that culminates with him saving Ashley in RE4make.

If Leon didn't have to learn any lessons or grow in any way because "oh it was out of his control anyway, there's nothing he could've done" he'd be a really fucking boring character.