#i guess i'll tag the redfields bc they're a key point?

[leon-stupid-kennedy]

Leon truly did not care about Krauser at all originally.

I've talked about some of the differences between original and remake Operation Javier before, since then I've thought more about the ending and it's dawned on me just how little Leon cared about Krauser. (This doesn't conflict with anything in my first post, it's just an addition that didn't occur to me until more recently.) Comparing his "relationship" with Krauser to everyone else that meant something to him in DSC, it's clear that Krauser was not someone he was at all emotionally attached to. Krauser was obsessed with Leon from the start, every thought he had during that mission connected to Leon, he thought that they had some sort of weird bond and Leon was attached to him too, when that's very clearly not the case.

Looking at Memories of a Lost City… Leon quickly becomes attached to everyone. Claire's instantly his ride or die partner, he wants to help her find her brother and get out of the city. They encounter Sherry, she runs away from them. Leon is hell bent on finding and rescuing this little girl he doesn't know and saw for like 2 seconds, to the extent he kicks a damn door down when Sherry crawls through an opening too big for him to go through. (Of course Claire was also hell bent on helping Sherry too, this post is just focused on Leon.) Ada is incredibly sketchy and doesn't want Leon's help, but Leon's instantly attached and wants to follow and help her, although he does prioritize Sherry over Ada and chooses to look for Sherry instead of Ada when forced to make a decision.

And of course after making it out of Raccoon City, Leon is willing to stay behind with Sherry so that Claire is free to keep looking for her missing brother… Then ends up agreeing to be a government slave in order to keep Sherry safe. He's willing to sacrifice so much for someone he barely knows.

Moving on to Game of Oblivion, which is the strongest part of my argument and has the most direct comparisons to make to how Operation Javier ends. We learn that Leon's selflessness didn't stop at him becoming a government agent for Sherry, he also used that position to help Claire and Chris. He had never met Chris before, and yet one of his first thoughts was apparently "I now have access to resources that can help me find Chris Redfield, the missing brother of the girl I knew for a day." He is able to find Chris, only to learn he can't tell Claire because now she's missing. Naturally, he just starts trying to locate Claire next. Citing the relevant Game of Oblivion Leon narration (emphasis mine):

Once Chris disappeared from the Mansion incident he was near impossible to track down. But using my newfound position in the government, I eventually discovered his location. I would have contacted his sister, but she was a ghost herself. So I turned my search over to Claire then, and eventually learned of her confinement on Rockfort Island. I shared this information with Chris. And he asked me to arrange a rescue mission before he set off on his own to find her.

The big takeaway here is that when someone Leon cares about, either directly like Claire or even indirectly with Chris, goes missing, he does not rest. He does everything in his power to find them. (Honestly, I think he also would have put extensive effort into finding Ada again if she hadn't faked her death.)

And he did nothing when Krauser disappeared! From the cutscene The Return, the normal good ending OJ cutscene (emphasis mine):

Manuela was later taken into custody by the U.S. government. She was put under strict surveillance... But so far there have been no reports of any changes to her body. Krauser's arm never fully healed and he was forced to leave the army. Where he went, no one knows.

Why did Manuela never lose her conscience? Was it something genetic? Or was she sustained by this land that's so rich with life? The virus continues to grow. Altering its form, strengthening perpetually. until the day it can be destroyed... In our bodies... in our souls.

Krauser went missing after the mission. Just like Chris was missing, and Claire was missing. But unlike with Claire and Chris, Leon just doesn't care. At all. Doesn't care enough to try to find Krauser, despite the fact he'll chase after and track down people he barely knows. Doesn't care enough to even speculate what may have happened to Krauser. He does not care. He's far more concerned about the mysteries of Manuela's infection than he is about Krauser's fate. He knows that Manuela is alive and well, and he's still more concerned and curious about her than he is Krauser, who for all he knows could very well be dead in a ditch somewhere.

If Leon had remotely cared about Krauser, I would have expected his ending narration to have something more like "Krauser's arm never fully healed, and he was forced to leave the army. After that, he mysteriously disappeared without a trace. I used every resource at my disposal to try to find him, but came up empty handed. To this day, no one knows where he went or what happened to him." The fact he didn't say anything like that, just briefly mentioned the fact Krauser disappeared before continuing to talk about Manuela, is very telling. Operation Javier and being partnered with Leon was a pivotal moment in Krauser's life, that mission was life changing for him, he was forever changed by it. But for Leon? Operation Javier was just another mission. It wasn't special. It didn't change the trajectory of his life. Krauser wasn't special, Krauser was just another random stranger he was forced to work with for a day.

I guess I'll close this with a thought I've had regarding original vs remake OJ recently… Despite genuinely preferring the DSC RE2 retelling to RE2R and having fun with OJ, I used to think that the remake Krauser/Leon mentor/rookie-actually a strong bond that wasn't one sided thing was better than the original dynamic. Krauser was creepy and obsessed with Leon, but Leon also admired Krauser and looked up to him as his mentor. But the deeper I get into the original dynamic and analyze it, the more it grows on me… Leon actually being in a position of power over Krauser but mostly treating him like an equal, Krauser clearly thinking he's more experienced than Leon and should be in charge, the fact Krauser rearranged his entire life because of Leon and was obsessed while Leon pretty much just moved on after the mission and forgot about him, there's plenty of compelling stuff there. It's not the long-term, more two-sided mentor and student relationship the remake presents, there's not really room to insert any type of shipping, logistically speaking (at least not anything mutual– Krauser was weirdly obsessed and definitely would have been down for some sex, but 1. Leon would not be interested and 2. The fact they were only around each other for a single mission, and weren't just alone together, they had Manuela with them, they wouldn't have had an opportunity even if Leon was interested.) compared to the longer term relationship the remake presents, but that doesn't mean there's nothing there worth exploring!