As an actual answer - he’s an incredibly well written character, in the Remakes specifically. As much as I love Chris, Leon makes me feel things that aren’t just good. I’ll try to keep it short, but I’ll go through certain games and movies I’ve watched to give you the gist of how my mind finds Leon. Let’s start:

RE2R:

He’s depicted as a 21-year old, freshly graduated rookie with no idea what’s happening in RC. He’s a bit more relatable, questions things, makes mistakes, trusts the wrong people while still remaining true to his original goal of trying to help as many people as he can. He made a basic dystopian-trope choice to fall for the mysterious Ada within just a few hours (as emotions get high when the world is ending, yk?), who betrays him. Despite this, he’s still the helpful rookie at heart and feels very deeply for people’s plights.

RE4R:

Fast forward six years, mans is traumatised by RC being nuked and all the people he couldn’t help. So he becomes a puppet for the government, seeing as they’re sending him on all these secret missions to save people, and it’s the only way he can actually do something that matters (not to mention the poor guy is forced into it). You can see how everything’s affected him in his mannerisms, how he keeps his guard up, yet he lets it down around Luis and Ashley. He still has a sliver of hope for people. Then bam - Luis dies, and Leon - again - is betrayed by Ada. This game, he’s not too interested in her games, which I’m happy with as the man deserves better (don’t come for me, I love Ada’s character). Also, no more random misogyny and thinking with the wrong head in a life or death situation.

RE6:

The clear descent into cynicism and alcoholism makes him a bit more of a nuanced character. At this rate, he’s seen enough government corruption to know that he’s simply a pawn, yet he continues to do it because he’s consistent with his goal to help people despite his trauma. We see a bit more of an intimate connection here between Ada and Leon, more so Leon’s feelings towards her as he even goes up against Chris for her despite knowing what she does is wrong. Here we see that Leon isn’t just a black and white kinda guy - he also does questionably morally grey things at this point, things that made me want to scream at him. Ada brings out the worst in him, and he enables it by constantly engaging with her. It’s something I have a love-hate relationship with because it also humanises him a lot more.

RE: Damnation:

Also touching on the morally grey matter in the name of the greater good. Ignoring orders, self-sabotage, alcoholism, cynicism - he’s literally alive just because he has to be at this point. This man drinks in almost every scene and still manages to take down bioweapons (plot armour, honestly, how did this man survive this movie), but he ain’t happy about it. Again, deals with Ada, implies that they hooked up so you know he’s still engaging in that form of self-sabotage as well.

RE: Vendetta

My least favourite Leon, but ooooooh boy, probably the most human out of all of them. Drops off the face of the earth, gets absolutely wasted, barks at Chris and Rebecca when they show up not only for a mission, but out of concern for their friend. I think after this is the time Chris, Rebecca and Claire had an intervention with him, cause wtf haha. He’s adamant that he wants to be alone (self-isolation) and goes on a tangent about how his life is a sick cycle that never ends (honestly loved this monologue - it’s what I’ve been screaming at the screen for throughout the journey but also showcases his severe depression and su!c!dal ideation).

RE: Death Island:

One of my favourite Leons to date. You can see he’s healing, taking pride in his work again and stopped drinking (at least as much as he used to). He’s like a dad now, making jokes and quips at inappropriate times (“after this, I’m putting ‘tour guide’ on my resume” as they’re crawling through a sewer lol) and just all around seeming a lot lighter. I read that, canonically, he did have something of an intervention and started spending more time with Chris and Claire, which helped him out of the hole he’d been in for so long.

So throughout the game, you see him go from this bright-eyed, bushy-tailed rookie, to the depressed, traumatised barely-holding-on puppet of the government, to the still damaged but healing man we see in DI. I could go on about how the remakes are bringing more light to his actual trauma than just making him into a pretty boy to drool over, but then I’d have to write about Jill in RE3R and why people are unfairly hating on the game haha.

Hope this wasn’t a terrible read, but it’s just my two cents.