Leon Kennedy

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History (Resident Evil 6)

By June of 2013, President Bedford was about to publicly reveal the extent of the T-virus and BOW situation. He also wanted to make Leon the face of this war.

Though a press backlash was expected, the gamble was that it would pay off internationally and in the long term.

As usually happens in the series — and indeed the genre — this went awry.

The speech was about to take place at Ivy University, in Tall Oaks. But the President was infected by a T-virus variant, the Chrysalis. Leon had to shoot the zombified President as he attacked fellow Secret Service agent Helena Harper.

Helena

Agent Harper admitted that she had infected the President. But after Leon saved her, she refused to remain a traitor. Harper explained that National Security Advisor Derek Simmons had kidnapped her sister, forcing Helena to do his bidding.

Simmons was the founder of The Family, a Washington DC secret society. Their goal was to have the US go all-in into BOW research, lest they be outpaced by China. President Bedford’s approach would have, in Simmons’ view, recklessly undermined that.

Furthermore, Leon explaining what had happened in Raccoon City would have exposed how the US had funded Umbrella’s early BOW research. Then nuked the dead city to cover that up.

Ingrid

Meanwhile, there was a T-virus outbreak in Lanshiang, China.

An organization calling itself Neo Umbrella took credit for the attack. Simmons planted evidence linking that to Agent Kennedy and Agent Harper.

Leon called Agent Hannigan, his trusted contact with the FBI. She agreed to report that Harper and Kennedy were dead, freeing the pair to leave for Lanshiang.

However, their flight to China saw a Chrysalid infection outbreak. They fought infected passengers in cramped quarters until the plane crashed.

Sherry

Agents Harper and Kennedy escaped unarmed. Furthermore, the crash brought them in contact with Jake Muller – and Sherry Birkin, Leon’s ward back in Raccoon City.

However, Birkin and Muller couldn’t agree with the agents – and Sherry revealed that she was reporting to Simmons. But they had to ally to fend off an ustanak – another kind of BOW that emerged from the plane crash.

The four vanquished it, but were separated. Still, Sherry managed to yell over to Leon that they were meeting Simmons in the Kwun Lung building.

Hearing that Ada Wong was in Koocheng, the agents tracked her down. En route they were pursued by another biological terror, which they eventually threw into a meat grinder. Then they had to cross a gauntlet of traps set by Wong in abandoned buildings to cover her retreat.

The agents prevailed, only to find that Chris Redfield and Piers Nivans had cornered her first. Redfield had come to kill Wong, thinking her responsible for the death of men under his command during a previous operation.

Video interlude

RE6 reveal trailer.

 

Chris

Leon kicked Chris’ rifle out of his hands before he could execute Ada. That led to a brief scuffle, then a Mexican stand-off. Which of course gave time for Ada to escape using a flash bomb.

Chris eventually agreed to bring Ada alive once he’d found her again. As Leon argued, she likely held valuable information. Helena and Leon then left to find Simmons.

They entered the Kwun Lung building around the same time that Sherry and Jake did. Simmons was waiting for them. He proudly admitted that he was responsible for the recent global outbreak in bioweapons terror.

He then had his henchmen open fire on the quartet.

Simmons

Leon ordered Sherry and Jake to evacuate while he and Helena tried to take Simmons down. Sherry complied after handing him a chip with the data about stopping the Chrysalis variant virus.

During the fight, one of Simmons’ men accidentally struck him with an infected dart. Simmons fled, and hopped onto a passing train. Harper and Kennedy nevertheless cornered him. Simmons tried to rationalize everything and blame everyone but himself, but then succumbed to the C-virus.

He mutated into a gigantic, doglike creature.

The battle ravaged multiple train cars. Not only was Simmons nearly ignoring their bullets, he also grew strong enough to knock other trains off their tracks. They eventually knocked him off the train, then returned to ram him. This resulted in a game of chicken, as Simmons waited to destroy their train before it would plow into him.

Both Kennedy and Harper hit him with focused fire at the crucial moment. This broke Simmons concentration. He was rammed, and knocked onto the roof of the agents’ train. The shock briefly reverted him to human form, but his body overcompensated and further mutated him.

Simmons (cont.)

Enraged and howling in pain, Simmons started throwing ripped-off chunks of the roof. Quick reflexes and teamwork allowed the agents to shoot him in the face. Simmons lost his grip and fell underneath the train.

His body was large enough to bounce the train off its tracks. But Kennedy and Harper could leap into a nearby body of water before it fully derailed. The agents were rescued along with the other people caught in the devastation.

Agent Hannigan then informed them that Shelly and Jake had been abducted. Leon realised that the kidnappers likely were looking for the chip with the C-virus research.

At this point, they received an emergency broadcast from Chris, yelling at them to evacuate. A missile passed overhead, spreading a blue fog that infected countless people with the C-virus.

Helena and Leon escaped by hitching a ride with some soldiers.

Ada

Refugees were directed toward the Quad Tower, on the outskirts of town. But the infection continued to spread until the area was overrun by the undead.

The agents were eventually cornered, but Ada Wong showed up in her helicopter. Her cover fire allowed the duo to flee.

That didn’t help much. The bridge leading to the Tower was overrun by zombies. Then an explosion dislodged a large chunk of the Tower, which smashed the bridge.

The agents located an helicopter with a badly injured pilot. He flew them almost all the way to the Tower, but passed out as they approached. Leon seized the controls, but they crashed on the roof. As they got out of the wreckage, they were confronted by Simmons, still alive and even more mutated.

Ada returned. With the air support from her helicopter, Leon and Helena again defeated the traitor.

Ada (cont.)

The agents found a working elevator, and proceeded within the building. As they were arguing about Leon’s flirting with Ada, the elevator was damaged. They had to leap out and onto another lift.

It was Simmons again coming after them. Even with a lot of shooting, he started gaining on them – and the new elevator was beginning to drop. But Ada returned, and had Simmons chase her instead. This gave the agents time to grab the cable before it snapped.

They then alternated between shooting at Simmons to slow him down, and climbing the cable when Wong was distracting him. But Ada was eventually knocked out by Simmons.

To save her, Leon made a desperate attempt to melee Simmons while Helen shot at the creature. He was nearly killed, but it gave Ada enough time to come to.

She knocked Simmons off the ledge Leon was dangling from.

Simmons (yes, again)

Helena encouraged Leon to go after Ada. But he refused, thinking that it was more important that they stick together to better survive. By this point, the Tower clearly was too dangerous.

They made their way to the roof, where the even-more-mutated Simmons was waiting for them. He now was some sort of insectoid monster, capable of absorbing other zombies to heal himself.

On the other hand, Simmons was now slow enough to maintain distance.

After much shooting, the agents impaled several zombies with a metal rod. When Simmons absorbed these zombies, rod and all, he was struck by lightning. This gave the agents time to reach Ada’s helicopter, find the rocket launcher that she had inevitably left behind, and finish Simmons off – as in every other game.

Leon and Helena then found a hidden flash drive. The data on it proved Simmons’ guilt in all the attacks, and exonerated the agents.

Helena

Leon and Helena met at the grave of her sister. Ms. Harper wanted to turn herself in for the death of President Bedford. But Leon told her that an oversight committee had found she had acted under duress and had exonerated her.

Harper initially refused. But Kennedy reminded her that his good friend President Bedford would have wanted her to continue fighting the good fight.

History (Resident Evil Vendetta)

Leon is commanding a task force to stop a BOW in Washington DC. But their informant sold them out, and sends them into a trap. A shocked Leon is the only survivor of the explosion.

Agent Kennedy takes a leave and starts drinking. But Chris Redfield tracks him down. He has been through a very similar incident, losing a team to one Glenn Arias. Redfield thinks that Arias is also behind the massacre of Kennedy’s troops.

Chris is now working for Dr. Rebecca Chambers. Dr. Chambers was with the original STARS team, and one of the few survivors of the original Raccoon City incident. She’s now a leading expert on BOWs.

Since she is working on countering a Las Plagas parasite variant, Dr. Chambers sent Chris to find Leon – the operative with the most experience with those.

Rebecca

Chris confrontation’s with Leon goes nowhere.

But Rebecca then yells at them both, pointing out how they’re both handling their trauma the same way. This succeeds, but:

The phone’s content indicates that the next attack will hit New York City. But the National Guard and law enforcement are too slow to mobilize. Chris’ new team has to rush to the city.

Video interlude

Vendetta trailer.

 

Lady Liberty

By the time they get there, the attack has already started. Chris and one of his men counter-attack in a Hummer, Leon on a souped-up Ducatti, and the rest of Chris’ team provide air support from an Osprey.

One of the trucks dispersing the bioterror agent is soon destroyed. But mutated dogs kill Chris’ man. Leon volunteer to lead those away, freeing Chris to reengage.

After a fierce chase Leon kills both dogs. He then circles back and helps Chris destroy the first wave of zombies. They now can attack Arias’ building, but Chris is worried that Rebecca is running out of time. Leon tells him to go ahead while he deals with the zombies.

Glenn

Once he’s done, Mr. Kennedy drives his bike to the roof – and finds Chris being crushed to death by a mutated Glenn Arias. Leon rams Glenn’s legs with his bike, freeing Chris to resume his search for Rebecca.

Kennedy engages Arias – but he just doesn’t have enough firepower. Though he did get some good shots him, he’s about to get killed when Chris’ team comes in. They fire a powerful railgunSci-fi gun using magnetic acceleration of projectiles to drive off Arias, seriously wounding him.

Glenn attacks their aircraft, to prevent them from reloading the railgun. But that gives Leon time to grab his motorbike, accelerate to full speed before reaching the edge of the roof, jump off, and shoot its fuel tank as it nears Glenn Arias. The explosion nearly kills the monstrosity.

Chris then returns with Rebecca, just in time to finish Glenn off.

After that the team basically flies off into the sunset together. Left behind were writeups.org researchers looking for Ada Wong and her complimentary rocket launcher.

Description

Leon is a handsome young man with longer sides and bangs and a shorter cut in the back. As a consequence, his wavy dishwater blond hair often obscures his piercing blue eyes.

During his police days he was often seen in uniform. But now he generally tends to dress in casual tasteful clothing.

In Resident Evil 4, he wears a charcoal-black 5.11 shirt and blue pants with a brown gun holster over the body. He also sports a brown B3 bomber jacket which he loses early in the game, much to the chagrin of players who liked its look.

While on duty for the Secret Service he usually wears a black tailored suit. But frequently gets away with not wearing a tie, likely due to his special status.

Personality

Leon is a passionate young man with a burning sense of justice and a genuine desire to make the world a better place.

He is brave and courageous, having unflinchingly faced down zombies and other hideous monsters. He is a selfless man who is not afraid to put his life in danger to protect the innocent.

Leon generally comes across a polite, well-mannered young man.

However, the events in Raccoon City seem to have hardened him. In later storylines he can come across as a bit of a hard ass when on the job. Post-Raccoon Kennedy is often blunt and to the point.

Relationships

Outside of work and in situations that aren’t too strenuous he generally comes off friendly and even outgoing.

But he also has problems forming long term relationships. Too many of his former friends have been killed – or wounded up betraying him.

He has formed a few pretty meaningful relationships though.

Claire

Leon and Claire bonded as they strive to survive the destruction of Raccoon City. Though they’ve had fights, their friendship proved strong enough to survive several tests.

Neither has show a romantic interest in the other.

Chris

Leon’s relationship with Claire’s older brother is complex.

On the surface they have a lot of very similar personality traits and experiences, such as:

However, that actually makes it harder for them to get along. Furthermore, they often ended up pursuing conflicting agendas and missions.

But in the end they always do manage to put their differences aside. While neither would ever admit it, they are a very effective team when pursuing the same goals.

Ada

Leon’s relationship with Ada Wong is really something else. Their constant, “will they won’t they” status is toxic even by zombie story standards.

Ada is Leon’s Achilles heel. He’s more or less of a straight arrow and fiercely loyal to both badge and country. Yet she’s the one thing that he will consistently go against his mission goals for. Even if it defies all logic or common sense.

Sadly, both of them have deluded themselves into a pretty lethal game of cat and mouse that never seems to end. Ada seems to pretty much stalk Leon, showing up in about half his known missions.

Even though she’ll be working for some shady black market employer, her goals will be somewhat compatible with Leon’s. That often leads to playing silly games with missions that have global importance.

Some of their flirty dialog implies that they had sex at least once.

Both Ada and Leon seem addicted to the rush of their encounters. Their extremely dangerous lifestyles are much more likely to lead to clashes than any conventional relationship.

Quotes

(In Racoon City after the outbreak) “This is not how I imagined my first day.”

Ashley: “Who’s that ?” (Referring to Ada Wong)
Leon: “She’s like a part of me I can’t let go. Let’s leave it at that.”

(After having his advances rebuffed by Ingrad Hunnigan) “Story of my life.”

“Guess that’s the local’s way of breaking the ice. Anyway, you all know what this is about. My assignment is to search for the president’s missing daughter.”

“Shoot ‘em in the head !”

“Well, I guess my only option is to lose my American citizenship for a while.”

“I can’t believe that this is happening again ! This’s just like Racoon City !”

“When I was a kid I used to think about what kind of man I’d grow up to be… I never thought I’d turn out like this.”

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