10 Times Leon Was A Badass In Resident Evil Games
advertisement
VOICE OVER: Josh McLean
WRITTEN BY: Josh McLean
With the upcoming "Resident Evil 4" remake, it's time to look at the many times Leon Kennedy was a badass. For this list, we'll be looking at moments in the video games, be it during cutscene or gameplay, that Leon was especially cool in nature. Our list includes Leon The Giant-Slayer from "Resident Evil 4" (2005), Leon Vs Chris from "Resident Evil 6" (2012), Impressing The Ladies from "Resident Evil 2" (2019), and more!
Script written by Josh McLean
Welcome to MojoPlays! Josh here, and today, in celebration of the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake, we’re spreading the love to everyone’s favorite rookie and all the times he’s impressed us. This is our picks for the 10 times Leon S. Kennedy was a badass in Resident Evil games. For this list, we’ll be looking at moments in the video games, be it during cutscene or gameplay, that Leon was especially cool in nature. Usually, meaning he pulls some sort of insane action movie stunt… Which happens more than you might think! We can’t quite be sure what Capcom will alter for Resident Evil 4 remake, so anything in those new trailers won’t be included here, yet! It’s lookin’ pretty good though, and who knows, we might need an additional “top ten times Leon was hunky” pretty soon. Let us know in the comments, all of your thoughts on that! Aha.
Always the ladies’ man in the series, it seems to fans that Leon has a handful of love interests, though little has been confirmed in-universe. That said, he’s a natural charmer, such as when he lands a perfect headshot as a first impression with Claire! BOOM. What an entrance! He keeps up the heroics in front of his companions throughout the rest of the game, such as diving in front of bullets, or throwing himself onto a falling bridge for Ada. What a sweetheart! There’s a reason he’s captured the hearts of many in real life as well, since Capcom’s own statistics revealed almost 80% of players selected Leon first in the RE2 remake.
Throughout Resident Evil 4, Leon endures a pretty scary colony of wackos with chainsaws, pitchforks and axes, all by himself! There are a ton of cool little moments the player can enact, such as roundhouse kicking psychos, or saving dogs from bear-traps, and it’s often followed by some insane one-liner. Heck, the warmest welcome the guy gets is an Indiana Jones boulder rolled on him… AND, this happens MORE than once! Thank goodness they run out of giant rocks- OHYouGottaBeKiddingMe! (Salazr’s giant rock statue chase.) WHAT IS THIS, DONKEY KONG?! (Barrel down stairs after knife throw quicktime). Despite this, you won’t hear him complaining since there’s a job to do. Spoilers for RE4, skip forward about ten seconds if you wish, but with very little help (comparative to other Resident Evil protagonists), Leon takes down the entire Las Plagas cult near single handedly
As I’ll expand on in a moment, Leon’s many gadgets save his butt more than once, and what could be more badass than coming so well prepared? Specifically highlighted in a brief quicktime event where Leon opts to stop creepy little Salazar from pulling a lever, he effortlessly hurls a throwing knife directly into the foe’s hand like some sort of godly precise ninja knife slinger. Or how about the Mission Impossible level stunt a little bit later, where Leon deploys a grappling hook while he’s falling from a trap door, then nails a perfect shot into a speaker phone just to mess with the villain? I think his gun talents are wasted. Forget a strike team, just give the blonde guy sharp objects to throw and get out of his way!
You may have thought… There’s NO WAY Leon Scott Kenedy could be a master Jet-skier as well! Where did he find the time? I guess it’s mandatory in the “saving the president's daughter from a zombie-cult class”. Since the agent doesn’t hesitate to hop on a recreational water-craft with a teddy bear keychain to escape an exploding facility, AFTER an all-out sprint for two minutes…His adrenaline levels must know no-bounds! To top it all off, he immediately rips out into open water, shrugs off a date with his boss's daughter, and then hits on his co-worker over the phone without so much as a deep breath over the whole ordeal…
During several brief moments, we see our hero fall under control of the virus mcguffin o’ the week. Leon is directly injected with Las Plagas and undergoes an anime villain transformation, complete with red eyes and creepy black veins under his skin. Thankfully, he doesn’t quite erupt into an all out tentacle beast like everyone else, but the parasite is inside of him during most of the game while he soldiers on and tries to fight it back at every opportunity. With what I can only assume is an immense amount of pain, Leon volunteers himself as a guinea pig to laser-zap the infection away, which wasn’t even guaranteed to work! Wesker, if he saw this? He would frown :(
Maybe the most unbelieve part of this list so far is how Mr. Kenedy can fight in close combat with those ridiculous hair bangs! Matter of fact, he fares pretty well in a knife fight with a much tougher foe, Jack Krauser. Leon takes a few hits and almost gets stabbed in the face before being rescued by Ada, but the craziest part is that ten seconds later, Leon declares over the communicator that he actually ENJOYED the fight. Mad lad! Sure, he may have been bluffing, but laughing off your near death while the guy is still around to take you out is quite a move. We blow up Krauser later anyway, so even Stevens. Man learned not to bring a knife to a Leon fight.
Look at that, dear viewer. A brief break from RE4, are you excited for the remake though? We are! Now, RESI-6 may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it features a unique moment where we see two fan favorites pitted directly against each other. For the honor of his favorite girl in red, Leon fights the ever-beefy, boulder punching, Chris Redfield in hand to hand combat, to a surprising stand still! If you really want to break the fight down, however brief, both Leon and Chris are able to block and avoid each other's strikes. While Chris cannot match Leon’s speed or agility, Leon cannot match Chris’ brute force to immobilize him and they must both resort to pulling a sidearm on eachother. All Chris needed was one solid hit, and all Leon had to do was wait for the armor clad soldier to tire himself out. Although we never saw the exact resolution since the characters come to a verbal agreement (lame), it just shows how far Leon has come, and how far Chris would go to elimite main character love-interests. Lmao.
In yet another feat of bravery, or perhaps extreme stupidity, there are several boss fights with giant creatures in RE4 that Leon, sometimes willingly, takes on. Armed with only a knife and machine gun, Leon Shadow of the Colossuses a giant zombie in the early game and then dispatches a few more of them, like the one he drops into magma. Badass. But what may take the cake, is the segment in which he watches a giant lizard salamander eat the body of his friend, and decides to climb about a wooden dinghy to take the thing out like Moby Dick. I don’t even remember if this was plot relevant, or he just wanted to do it, but you won’t catch me hopping into Jaws-meets-Godzilla-lake for almost anything.
OK, so I've talked a lot about his skills with the blade, please humor me one more time… Because remember that expression about bringing a knife to a gunfight? I’ve used it in this very video. Well, Leon does just that, and wins. He wasn’t even prepared for it, disarming super spy Ada Wong, and delivering the sassiest of one-liners before she makes her escape. That’s another RE protagonist off of Leon’s 1v1 list. Maybe it’s a good thing he hasn’t met Ethan Winters in the recent games, cause at this rate he’d probably just beat him up and leave. Somebody stop this guy!
So this… This is so cheese. In the best way??? Leon Kennedy finds himself in a hallway corridor filled with lasers. Instead of, say, disarming them from another location, or blocking them with an object like other video game characters, Leon proceeds to put The Matrix to shame, effortlessly backflipping and weaving his body through the beams as they begin to move. If that magnificent visual wasn’t enough. At the end of the scene there’s a big-ass throne for players to sit on and hit an absolutely nasty king-pose, before the game itself gets fed up with the antics and tells you to stop doing that…
Welcome to MojoPlays! Josh here, and today, in celebration of the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake, we’re spreading the love to everyone’s favorite rookie and all the times he’s impressed us. This is our picks for the 10 times Leon S. Kennedy was a badass in Resident Evil games. For this list, we’ll be looking at moments in the video games, be it during cutscene or gameplay, that Leon was especially cool in nature. Usually, meaning he pulls some sort of insane action movie stunt… Which happens more than you might think! We can’t quite be sure what Capcom will alter for Resident Evil 4 remake, so anything in those new trailers won’t be included here, yet! It’s lookin’ pretty good though, and who knows, we might need an additional “top ten times Leon was hunky” pretty soon. Let us know in the comments, all of your thoughts on that! Aha.
Impressing The Ladies
"Resident Evil 2" (2019)Always the ladies’ man in the series, it seems to fans that Leon has a handful of love interests, though little has been confirmed in-universe. That said, he’s a natural charmer, such as when he lands a perfect headshot as a first impression with Claire! BOOM. What an entrance! He keeps up the heroics in front of his companions throughout the rest of the game, such as diving in front of bullets, or throwing himself onto a falling bridge for Ada. What a sweetheart! There’s a reason he’s captured the hearts of many in real life as well, since Capcom’s own statistics revealed almost 80% of players selected Leon first in the RE2 remake.
Facing The Village
"Resident Evil 4" (2005)Throughout Resident Evil 4, Leon endures a pretty scary colony of wackos with chainsaws, pitchforks and axes, all by himself! There are a ton of cool little moments the player can enact, such as roundhouse kicking psychos, or saving dogs from bear-traps, and it’s often followed by some insane one-liner. Heck, the warmest welcome the guy gets is an Indiana Jones boulder rolled on him… AND, this happens MORE than once! Thank goodness they run out of giant rocks- OHYouGottaBeKiddingMe! (Salazr’s giant rock statue chase.) WHAT IS THIS, DONKEY KONG?! (Barrel down stairs after knife throw quicktime). Despite this, you won’t hear him complaining since there’s a job to do. Spoilers for RE4, skip forward about ten seconds if you wish, but with very little help (comparative to other Resident Evil protagonists), Leon takes down the entire Las Plagas cult near single handedly
Go GO Gadget Reflexes!
"Resident Evil 4" (2005)As I’ll expand on in a moment, Leon’s many gadgets save his butt more than once, and what could be more badass than coming so well prepared? Specifically highlighted in a brief quicktime event where Leon opts to stop creepy little Salazar from pulling a lever, he effortlessly hurls a throwing knife directly into the foe’s hand like some sort of godly precise ninja knife slinger. Or how about the Mission Impossible level stunt a little bit later, where Leon deploys a grappling hook while he’s falling from a trap door, then nails a perfect shot into a speaker phone just to mess with the villain? I think his gun talents are wasted. Forget a strike team, just give the blonde guy sharp objects to throw and get out of his way!
Jet-Ski Island Flee
"Resident Evil 4" (2005)You may have thought… There’s NO WAY Leon Scott Kenedy could be a master Jet-skier as well! Where did he find the time? I guess it’s mandatory in the “saving the president's daughter from a zombie-cult class”. Since the agent doesn’t hesitate to hop on a recreational water-craft with a teddy bear keychain to escape an exploding facility, AFTER an all-out sprint for two minutes…His adrenaline levels must know no-bounds! To top it all off, he immediately rips out into open water, shrugs off a date with his boss's daughter, and then hits on his co-worker over the phone without so much as a deep breath over the whole ordeal…
Surviving Las Plagas
"Resident Evil 4" (2005)During several brief moments, we see our hero fall under control of the virus mcguffin o’ the week. Leon is directly injected with Las Plagas and undergoes an anime villain transformation, complete with red eyes and creepy black veins under his skin. Thankfully, he doesn’t quite erupt into an all out tentacle beast like everyone else, but the parasite is inside of him during most of the game while he soldiers on and tries to fight it back at every opportunity. With what I can only assume is an immense amount of pain, Leon volunteers himself as a guinea pig to laser-zap the infection away, which wasn’t even guaranteed to work! Wesker, if he saw this? He would frown :(
Sliced Up Krauser
"Resident Evil 4" (2005)Maybe the most unbelieve part of this list so far is how Mr. Kenedy can fight in close combat with those ridiculous hair bangs! Matter of fact, he fares pretty well in a knife fight with a much tougher foe, Jack Krauser. Leon takes a few hits and almost gets stabbed in the face before being rescued by Ada, but the craziest part is that ten seconds later, Leon declares over the communicator that he actually ENJOYED the fight. Mad lad! Sure, he may have been bluffing, but laughing off your near death while the guy is still around to take you out is quite a move. We blow up Krauser later anyway, so even Stevens. Man learned not to bring a knife to a Leon fight.
Leon Vs Chris
"Resident Evil 6" (2012)Look at that, dear viewer. A brief break from RE4, are you excited for the remake though? We are! Now, RESI-6 may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it features a unique moment where we see two fan favorites pitted directly against each other. For the honor of his favorite girl in red, Leon fights the ever-beefy, boulder punching, Chris Redfield in hand to hand combat, to a surprising stand still! If you really want to break the fight down, however brief, both Leon and Chris are able to block and avoid each other's strikes. While Chris cannot match Leon’s speed or agility, Leon cannot match Chris’ brute force to immobilize him and they must both resort to pulling a sidearm on eachother. All Chris needed was one solid hit, and all Leon had to do was wait for the armor clad soldier to tire himself out. Although we never saw the exact resolution since the characters come to a verbal agreement (lame), it just shows how far Leon has come, and how far Chris would go to elimite main character love-interests. Lmao.
Leon The Giant-Slayer
"Resident Evil 4" (2005)In yet another feat of bravery, or perhaps extreme stupidity, there are several boss fights with giant creatures in RE4 that Leon, sometimes willingly, takes on. Armed with only a knife and machine gun, Leon Shadow of the Colossuses a giant zombie in the early game and then dispatches a few more of them, like the one he drops into magma. Badass. But what may take the cake, is the segment in which he watches a giant lizard salamander eat the body of his friend, and decides to climb about a wooden dinghy to take the thing out like Moby Dick. I don’t even remember if this was plot relevant, or he just wanted to do it, but you won’t catch me hopping into Jaws-meets-Godzilla-lake for almost anything.
Leon Vs Ada Wong
"Resident Evil 4" (2005)OK, so I've talked a lot about his skills with the blade, please humor me one more time… Because remember that expression about bringing a knife to a gunfight? I’ve used it in this very video. Well, Leon does just that, and wins. He wasn’t even prepared for it, disarming super spy Ada Wong, and delivering the sassiest of one-liners before she makes her escape. That’s another RE protagonist off of Leon’s 1v1 list. Maybe it’s a good thing he hasn’t met Ethan Winters in the recent games, cause at this rate he’d probably just beat him up and leave. Somebody stop this guy!
Lazer Room Shenanigans
"Resident Evil 4" (2005)So this… This is so cheese. In the best way??? Leon Kennedy finds himself in a hallway corridor filled with lasers. Instead of, say, disarming them from another location, or blocking them with an object like other video game characters, Leon proceeds to put The Matrix to shame, effortlessly backflipping and weaving his body through the beams as they begin to move. If that magnificent visual wasn’t enough. At the end of the scene there’s a big-ass throne for players to sit on and hit an absolutely nasty king-pose, before the game itself gets fed up with the antics and tells you to stop doing that…
