Leon Kennedy

Leon Kennedy is a male video game character who features in Resident Evil.

Biography

Leon Scott Kennedy (Japanese: レオン・スコット・ケネディ, Hepburn: Reon Sukotto Kenedi) was an idealistic and inexperienced rookie RPD SWAT officer who came to Raccoon City for his first day on the job, only to find it overrun with zombies and other mutant horrors. After stopping to inspect a body in the middle of the road, Leon was attacked by a horde of zombies and then encountered Claire Redfield. Together, they got into an abandoned police car and planned to go straight to the Raccoon Police Dept., but an out-of-control fuel tanker driven by a zombie forced them to separate and get to the police station. Leon sought refuge in the Kendo Gun Shop and spoke to its owner, Robert Kendo, before he was killed by zombies, and then made his way to the police station where he encountered wounded officer Marvin Branagh.

After learning from Marvin the events leading up to Raccoon City's current state, Leon opted to search the rest of the police station for survivors. He found none (although Chief Brian Irons was in the building, he never made his presence known to Leon). Venturing into the basement car garage, Leon encountered a mysterious woman named Ada Wong, who claimed to be looking for her boyfriend John. He helped her locate Ben Bertolucci, who Ada claimed knew of John's whereabouts. Ben did not, but he did provide Leon with a way of getting into the sewers before he was attacked and killed by the mutated Dr. William Birkin.

Along with Ada, Leon made his way through the sewers and was shot in the shoulder by Anette Birkin, but managed to gather his strength enough to save Ada from a giant, mutant alligator that attacked her when she ran off after Annette. Ada patched up his bullet wounds, and together they continued on until they reached Umbrella's secret, underground research facility, where he learned of the G-Virus from discarded files and documents and faced Lickers, Ivies, a giant moth and many more attacks from the mutated Dr. Birkin, as well as zombies, zombies and more zombies. Eventually Leon got a sample of the G-Virus from Anette when Ada set the lab's self-destruct sequence into motion, but he angrily threw it away after Annette seemingly shot and killed Ada.

Alone, Leon faced one more attack with the mutant Birkin and finally killed him before boarding an escape train with Claire and Sherry Birkin. After escaping the city, Leon ended up being recruited by an anti-Umbrella faction of the government and has since been a major behind-the-scenes opponent of the sinister megacorporation and helped bring it down sometime in 2004.

Following their escape from Raccoon City on the morning of 30 September, Claire and Kennedy split up; while she continued her search for Chris, while a wounded Kennedy continued to look after a weakened Sherry. After seeking out the U.S. military stationed outside the city for protection, Kennedy and Sherry were apprehended. Sherry was taken away and placed in protective custody as a research subject while Kennedy was interrogated by Adam Benford, a high-ranking government official and military intelligence officer. Kennedy was deemed to know too much about the incident, but as his survival demonstrated anti-B.O.W. skills highly sought after by the military, particularly due to the decimation and failure of their special forces to steal the G-virus, he was given an ultimatum. In exchange for Sherry's safety and his own life, he was to be recruited into a classified anti-Umbrella military agency rapidly formed in the wake of the incident to destroy Umbrella and prevent similar disasters, answering solely to the President. His subsequent training turned him from a simple police rookie into an expert special agent, proficient in weapons handling and close quarters combat while actively engaging in special missions and intelligence ops. He began secretly investigating Umbrella personally as well. In November 1998, Kennedy sent a personal friend, private detective Ark Thompson out to investigate Umbrella's facilities on Sheena Island. The following month, Claire set out for Europe to continue her search for Chris. She was captured by Umbrella after being caught trespassing in the Umbrella facility in Paris. While on the island prison of Rockfort Island, Claire sent Kennedy an e-mail asking him to inform Chris of her location so that he could come and rescue her. Kennedy managed to track Chris down personally, and told him of Claire's situation, and Chris headed for Rockfort Island after her after requesting that Kennedy organize a government rescue team, although Leon himself was on a separate mission at the time.

In late 2004, Leon, still working for the US government, was assigned to protect Ashley Graham, the daughter of United States President Graham. When she was kidnapped by members of the Los Illuminados cult, Leon was sent to Spain to rescue her. Aside from two local police officers assigned to assist him by the Spanish government, Leon was alone against the cult and its leader, Osmund Saddler. Leon had no sooner set foot into a village controlled by the cult than his mission went south: the villagers, under the influence of both Saddler and the Las Plagas parasites, murdered Leon's police officer allies and captured him, allowing Saddler to implant him with a Las Plagas. In time, the parasite would turn Leon into a mindless slave of Saddler unless he removed it from his body.

Despite the fact that Saddler considered Leon a member of the cult now and instructed village chief Bitores Mendez not to harm Leon, Leon continued trying to find Ashley. He eventually found her locked up in the tower of the local church where the Los Illuminados met. Along the way, he encountered former policeman-turned-scientist Luis Sera and fought against not only the zealot villagers, but also a host of new monsters as well, including the behemoth lake monster Del Lago, the troll-like El Gigante, and finally Mendez himself, whose Las Plagas parasite allowed him to transform into a giant, centipede-like monster. After rescuing Ashley and discovering that she too was infected, Leon sought what he thought was the relative safety of a local citadel owned by Ramon Salazar, only to realize too late that Salazar was a member of Los Illuminados and a loyal servant of Saddler.

Overview

Powers and abilities

Leon Kennedy was a male human with all the natural traits of the species.

Originally, he came to train as a police officer where he joined the Raccoon City Police Department.

Following the Raccoon City Incident, he came to be employed as a federal agent by the Division of Security Operations (D.S.O.), a counter-terrorism agency under direct Presidential command.

Notes

• Leon S. Kennedy was created by Hideki Kamiya and Noboru Sugimura where he featured in the setting of the Resident Evil universe.
• The above bio only covers Leon Scenario A in Resident Evil 2. Information is needed for the Leon Scenario B. In Claire Scenario A, Leon plays a small part in Claire's final battle against the mutant Birkin, who returns for one final time before being blown to kingdom come.
• In the comics, Leon's reasons for coming to Raccoon City are somewhat differant in that he was actually summoned there by S.T.A.R.S. and had a pretty good idea of what he was going to encounter. Later, his anti-Umbrella activities would take him to Saguaro Wells where he stopped the evil experiments of Dr. Callos.
• Leon of the novels is more or less identical to Leon of the games

Appearances

• Resident Evil 2: (1998)

External Links

• Resident Evil Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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