Leonie is actually the worst

[@yukiizura]

Yeah, for me Leonie sucks because her obsession with Jeralt is just so overbearing and there just isn't any flavour. Like it exists and that's all, and she never even attempts to grow past it. I feel like Jeralt acknowledging it some more would have maybe been helpful, trying to push her in other directions. Definitely disappointing that we lose a short haired girl post-timeskip too.

[@sylphiemk]

Frfr this dumb character trait should’ve seen some in-world criticism and a growth moment as a resolution. You can only get this if you’re looking for it. And 100% agreed I prefer her short hair, she looks like a frozen character after the time skip lmao. Thanks for watching!

[@rhettmitchell]

This was a really good, in-depth discussion about her! I was expecting it to be the classic Leonie hate of saying Jeralt is all she ever talks about, which is untrue. She never really talks about him in supports outside of Byleth’s (and the allusion to him in Lorenz’s). A lot of people think it’s all she is, since like half of her monastery interactions mention Jeralt, which is, frankly, unfortunate. Leonie is someone I actually really enjoyed, bc even though she might be kinda delusional about Jeralt, I liked that there was finally a character who challenged Byleth and wasn’t kissing their ass the whole time to make the player feel good, even though Byleth has plenty of their own characterization. I ended up liking her for the same reason a lot of people dislike her. I do agree with you on the fact of Leonie not having enough well-explained reasons for her Jeralt idolization. It sucks they never went into more detail on that front, or gave her a traumatic backstory to better explain why she attached to jeralt so much. Or even talked about her own father or potential daddy issues to give more credence to her Jeralt situation. It seems the only reason is that Jeralt gave her a glimpse of what life could be like outside the village, so she aspired to have a piece of that pie in life. I think the Byleth support would’ve definitely went over better with fans if there were more dire things happening during the time Jeralt was in Sauin. She is definitely a mega cvnt to Byleth, but she had in her mind that they were this unfeeling being, hence why she said all those hurtful things. She legitimately thought Byleth didn’t give a shit about jeralt bc they weren’t capable of showing much overt emotion. Still not okay things to say to someone though. Seems like Byleth took it alright though, somehow, lol

[@Feraligamr]

I like your suggestions. Honestly I was ready to just throw the whole character out but your video about how she's the worst character actually convinced me that she could have been saved lol

[@sylphiemk]

That’s what I found while I was deep diving the character bc I went in hating her and then found a lot that I liked! If it wasn’t for the Jeralt nonsense being so unearned I think I would’ve liked her a lot more. Thanks for taking the time to watch a bunch of my videos btw 🙏🏼

[@Feraligamr]

@@sylphiemk Thank you for all the great videos!

[@ciaran5332]

Not me marrying Leonie on my first playthough 👀. But srsly tho, these in depth character discussions and critiques are great. I totally agree on the point where her dad should have either been absent, or horrible in order for her obsession with Jeralt to be so strong. Keep it up, looking forward to the next upload

[@sylphiemk]

MARRYING LEONIE!? That’s wild And thank you!! I’m glad you enjoyed

[@essixthefalcon8657]

I was recently making a tierlist of 3 Houses characters with my friend on vc, and Leonie was one of the three people that I put in "Better in Hopes" because she doesn't have the '''advantage''' of being with Jeralt from getgo in 3 Hopes(Great game, you better play it or I will yell at you /lh). She has a few dialogues when you send her to fight Jeralt, but it's never to such an obsessive degree as in 3 Houses. Shoutout to her support in 3 Houses being "You don't appreciate Jeralt enough", Jeralt then dies and she never apologizes or reflects on how her words could have hurt Byleth, Jeralt's own flesh and blood lmao

[@sylphiemk]

Warriors Leonie is way less unbearable than 3H Leonie

[@takeyourheart1]

The fact that this girl knew Jeralt for like a week 10 years ago and then when he dies she has the gall to act like Byleth, his actual child, doesn’t care about or appreciate him when Byleth cries for literally the first time in her life when Jeralt dies. I will never like or forgive Leonie because of this. She’s just annoying af the whole game up until she reveals herself as a terrible person. She’s weird and creepy and jealous and I hate her. 😂

[@sylphiemk]

Yeah I think they fucked up her character a bit by making her pretty irredeemable in her B-support with Byleth, like that was rude and fucked up and to me doesn't get adequately addressed/resolved in the game. If you really read into their A-support, the apology is written between the lines but that just wasn't enough for me. And yeah fr she barely knew Jeralt

[@rayquaza5059]

Leonie is the only student that I actually hated.

[@leakylou2315]

Man I totally disagree. Leonie having an obsession with Jeralt makes sense when you realize she's a silly kid. I think it's much more interesting that Jeralt was actually only there for a small amount of time. It feels both truthful to a small child who puts a random adult or figure on a pedestal and makes them out to be way more than they are and also feels interesting and different than similar stories about a child worshipping a hero. It puts a fun, yet sad twist on it. She was basically nothing to him and she built her entire life around him. 19 is definitely not too old to have not worked through these issues especially in a setting like this where self-reckoning and therapeutic practices are not as common. If you'll excuse me for assuming something about you (let me know if I'm totally off on this, it's just a suggestion), this feels a bit like the phenomenon that often happens in games where players judge characters much more harshly when their avatar is the target of their ire, versus when other characters do similar things to other NPCs. Which makes sense. I mean, she's mean to YOU. That matters. But, when looking at it objectively, I think her treating the PC harshly isn't that big of a deal, and (like all things) gets resolved in later supports. I think it's a lowkey self-report that Leonie, aka one of, if not (as you pointed out in your other video) the only "real" commoner in Garreg Mach is your least favorite character :P (LORENZ??? SYLVAIN???? HUBERT???? Don't tell me you're one of those Hubert stans lolol). As someone who clearly understand class dynamics, don't you find her stark contrast from the meandering nobles in the cast interesting? She's driven, she's focused, she knows what she wants. She's extremely thoughtful and resourceful, and, as you point out, generally very well-adjusted. Aside from her few explosions early on (that are informed by the fact that she's a child with a chip on her shoulder), she's so kind and is able to read the room and make a lot of the other characters feel better about themselves. I mean, I know basically all the supports with all the characters do that by the end, and maybe part of it is because I think her voice actress does a great job of selling those moments, but with her there's a genuineness to it that is hard not to like. Leonie is easily one of my favorite characters. The place where I think you make a great point though is that giving her some sort of childhood trauma to inform her behavior around Jeralt would've made that much more interesting. Giving her some father issues would've gone a long way towards making that hero worship more specific and interesting. And I agree it's the LEAST fun part of her character, and that she might even be better served without it. But as it stands, I still think it makes sense, and I couldn't possibly use that as justification for hating her. I also think (and maybe some of the endings do this and I've just missed it), her arc should end with her reckoning with the fact that Jeralt was just some guy, and learning to find her own self-worth. But, the game puts him on a pedestal too, especially after his death, so I'm not surprised they didn't go that route. Anyways, good videos! I've watched a few of them so far.

[@sylphiemk]

lmao leaving a long comment disagreeing and then at the end being like "loved the vIdeo!" is something I also do, thanks for your comment. I do find Leonie's class disparity interesting, I think in researching this video I was able to find greater appreciation for her character bc she is up against a lot being a fish out of water at this school and I liked a lot of what they did with her character in supports. I was maybe being dramatic when I said she was my least favourite, Lorenz can eat shit and Hubert's a creep, although I do like Hubert better in Warriors bc he's less creepy. Love Sylvain though. I hadn't considered a player-insert bias in this instance, I really never tend to feel that way when I'm playing games, I am never "them" so those things never happen to me, but I do know what you're talking about so I can see why you might think that phenomena would inform my opinion. Regardless, I think it'd be rude if she behaved like she did in her Byleth B-support to any character, and while the support does technically resolve, I wasn't satisfied by the resolution. Also in terms of Leonie's personal arc, almost all of her endings say that she becomes the next blade breaker, so the hero worship does remain. I agree with you though that it would be cool to see her grow out of it and want to become a mercenary more so for herself, maybe to inspire the next gen the way she was inspired or smth like that. Thanks again for watching!

[@candybunny2462]

Damn, it never really occurred to me that Leonie is basically the Vanessa Abrams of Three houses.

[@sophitiaofhyrule]

I like Leonie in Three Hopes. Three Hopes is a weird case because while it MASSACRED my boy Lorenz it improved other characters like Edelgard and Leonie greatly.

[@joeyjose727]

Okay THIS is your best work. The level of analysis here for a character you don’t even like is so thorough, which is especially nice since most people who dislike her probably don’t give this much thought! I like her a lot but I won’t deny that I find some of her characterization lacking. Honestly the Golden Deer all have this problem where they’re thematically outsiders to the main conflicts on Fodlan, since Claude is a foreigner + 3 are commoners + Marianne doesn’t show up in other part 2’s besides Verdant Wind. They’re all weird in some way, but Leonie’s character mostly focusing on being THE mercenary is kinda weak. Her supports open her up, but I feel like it’s telling that Claude doesn’t really call her back in Three Hopes in non Golden Wildfire routes? She appears as a mercenary in one route early, then shows up to be recruited in that map where you need to escort her to the base. But in scenes with the other deer, Claude says he called them all back and just… doesn’t mention Leonie! Not even her own house gives a shit about her, like come on 😭 I really loved the beginning here where you analyzed her status and drive, I think this is the best analysis of a Three Houses character I’ve ever seen tbh. You just have IT

[@sylphiemk]

OMG THANKS I really appreciate the positive feedback!! I definitely went into the research for Leonie already thinking she’s trash but as I read everything I could find I was like nvm she’s lesbian anti-capitalist slay when she’s not seeking validation from men. I really grew to appreciate the things I didn’t initially notice bc I was too distracted by her being Jeralt obsessed. I think in a different framework that didn’t suffer from 3H’s demand for flexibility, Leonie would get more flowers

[@anthonystrangio]

@@sylphiemk when you realize that the solution to making Leonie better is actually just more Leonie

[@justingraton17]

My dislike for Leonie started with her lost item dialogue wheres shes like "People should take better care of their things >:(" and i took it personally cuz i have ADHD and lose my things all the time. Then the Jeralt obsession solidified it LMAO

[@anthonystrangio]

Ok so I'm actually a huge fan of Leonie, she's probably my favorite character in the game, and even then, I think you did pretty good! Definitely agree with the gay panic thing you mentioned near the end, they even emphasize it even more in her Hilda support in Three Hopes, the Warriors spinoff. I agree with most of parts 1 and 2, with the exception of the Sylvain support, which generally comes with the context of being a more humorous support, and Sylvain initially thinks that Leonie is a dude so that factors into too. All Leonie really wants is to be treated normally. The main issue I have is the Byleth analysis. I do agree with the C and B supports. Even as a Leonie fan, that B support sucks and the decision to lock it until after Jeralt's death is so baffling that it feels unintentional, especially considering she literally is mourning in her Monastery dialogue and showing respect for Byleth, saying she knows that its even harder for them than it is for her, a direct contrast to the support. The A Support requires some context. Leonie doesn't HATE Byleth in any sense. She sees them as a rival, sure, but hatred? Heck no. She sees them as another challenge to herself. The A Support literally opens with her APOLOGIZING about everything. She wants to make things right, and she isn't trying to test Byleth's worthiness, she's testing her own. She doesn't believe she herself is worthy. Leonie suffers from imposter syndrome, where she thinks that no matter what she does, its never good enough, always caring about what people think of her, because deep down, if she isn't the best, if she isn't Jeralt, she's letting down everyone she loves, she's letting down her home village, she's letting down the entire world. The reason Leonie is hostile to Byleth isn't out of hatred, but insecurity, as Byleth is the person Leonie always imagined herself as and forced herself to strive to be. All her life, Leonie felt that if she wasn't Byleth, she was a failure, and then seeing someone else, exactly how she imagined herself, in addition to having a one of a kind crest, being the chosen one, and being the LITERAL CHILD of her mentor/father figure, that's gotta feel pretty bad. So in that support, she realizes she was wrong, and goes in with the hopes of either winning, and proving that her hard work paid off, or realizing that she'll never be as good as Byleth, and that's ok. She's trying one last time to see if she can do it. And when she loses, she's not angry. She's not frustrated. She's not down on herself. She's relieved. By losing that duel, Leonie can finally move on. She finally realizes that even if she's not Byleth or Jeralt or whatever, that's fine. Because deep down, Leonie loves and respects Byleth as a person, heck, when he turns out to have survived the timeskip, she's the happiest person there. Leonie admits in the S Support that the whole "protecting Byleth" thing was something she made up on the spot in order to be around Byleth. Leonie realizes her faults in the end, puts it all aside, and grows as a person. Her arc is DEFINITELY very subtle, but when you look into it, its there. So yeah, genuinely surprised by this vid since I went into it expecting a bunch of blind hate with not much analysis into the character (especially since I haven't seen any of your other vids, and that's what most of the community just does) but I was pleasantly surprised and hope that maybe my comment can change your mind. Have a nice day and stay hydrated!

[@sylphiemk]

Lmao I definitely started writing having a negative perspective and then when I looked through her support convos I realized that her character is much more rounded than I thought, I just found the Byleth stuff to be toxic - which isn’t necessarily bad. If all characters do the right thing all the time that’s quite boring, but I think I wanted the manifestations of her insecurity about Byleth specifically to be more directly supported by the text. And I think with her A rank support, because I was reading it (just to make my process a bit faster lmao) the words came off differently back to back with the B support than hearing it out loud on its own, so I’ll keep that in mind for the future, especially bc the voice acting is pretty well done in 3H and with the sad BGM, it changed how I interpreted the scene. So yeah i can see where you’re coming, it takes into account her supports where she’s more self-conscious and defensive. Stan toxic anti-capitalist girlbosses 🏹

[@anthonystrangio]

@@sylphiemk I can 100% see where you're coming from considering you just read her support text. I played the entire game with voice acting on and pretty much tried to listen to every support and monastery dialogue I could, ESPECIALLY Leonie's, since she developed into my favorite character. Probably because I knew going in that the B Support was bad (not why it was bad, but I knew that something was bad about it), and the fact that she was a such a beast in combat that even IF I wanted to give up on her, I really didn't want to, plus her monastery dialogue with Byleth is GENUINELY great? Leonie becomes a sarcastic one liner machine post time skip out of NOWHERE, and considering how heavy the timeskip can get, it definitely gave some relief. But yeah, I definitely recommend you check those out with voices on, adds so much more to the character, plus Ratana is underrated as heck and genuinely nails the character, and then DOES EVEN BETTER IN THREE HOPES. (Three Hopes Leonie is another topic, and like tbh you would probably love Three Hopes Leonie they legitimately fixed a lot of issues you mentioned plus Byleth isn't the protagonist) Edit: nobody has uploaded the monastery dialogue on youtube so I won't actually tell you to replay THE ENTIRE GAME just to see lines from a character you don't really even like, but somebody did upload her paralouge with Linhardt which is also incredible

[@Pokemongamer958]

It's felt like she indirect try to convince jeralt to marry her

[@AnosVoldigoad31]

I love Leonie

[@themissncfan]

Argh, Leonie. I know I'm being hypocritical for hating her just based on her Byleth supports when she's completely fine in the other ones. Either a majority or a very loud minority of the fandom does the same thing to Ingrid, and Ingrid is one of my favorite characters. If I can extend Ingrid that grace, why can't I extend it to Leonie? But I just... nah. Maybe it's because she never apologizes to Byleth for how brutally callous she is to them in their B-support? At least in Ingrid's supports with Dedue, she recognizes that she was beyond out of line to treat him the way she did earlier on and apologizes, and is TRYING to better herself, but we never get anything like that with Leonie vis a vis Byleth. I agree with you regarding Leonie's dad. I occasionally forget he's actually alive and apparently completely okay as a parent, because it really does feel the only thing that would justify Leonie's fixation on Jeralt would be if her own father was dead or otherwise absent, and had been for a long time. Literally all she had to do was be apologetic to Byleth in the A-support and resolve their one-sided 'rivalry' by letting go of it and not forcing Byleth to prove themselves worthy of being Jeralt's child, and that would have saved her whole character in my eyes. Like, make the sheer callousness of the B-support a moment of emotions going haywire in grief that is actually acknowledged and challenged and treated as impetus for a needed change--have even Leonie be shocked by what a low blow she struck to someone whose dad died in their arms, and recognize that her fixation harms herself and others. That's all that was needed.

[@sylphiemk]

For realllll obvi you know my thoughts already but I just think her relationship with Byleth was so poorly done and could have been improved a lot just with minor adjustments to the writing. I did go into researching thinking this video was just gonna be a hit piece bc I don't like the character but I was pleasantly surprised at how much of her supports I enjoyed! It kind of redeemed her for me, but I also think it's hard to take all of those supports into consideration reading them from the wiki compared to actually playing the game bc typically you're not gonna see all of her compassionate moments or character growth through supports in one GD playthrough but you are constantly interacting with her while she makes jabs about who your father is, that side of Leonie is much more forward facing and it's annoying lmao. Thanks for watching!

[@Shalakor]

I really honestly like the drama of the B support. Or at least the potential of it, gotta have someone act out aggressively and be insensitive over the loss. The real issue is that the meat of the A support needed to be a B+ support accessible in White Clouds, with a more mature resolution for an A support (or even make the B support a C+ to make the current A support B, so it's easier to get her reaction of exploding at Mr. Eisner's death, and harder to reach A as a result of delaying B even more).

[@narutorules769]

w

[@sylphiemk]

w

[@TiltedSquare]

But Lorenz exists.

[@rayquaza5059]

Lorenz sucks but at least he has a funny line sometimes. Leonie is just awful.

[@bificommander7472]

Her character at least adds one important aspect that is sorely lacking from 3 Houses: She's just about the only one not licking Byleth's bootheels 5 seconds after meeting them. Yes, the devs fucked up making her support conversation complaining to Byleth about appreciating Jeralt trigger right after Jeralt's death. But dammit, I take what I can get in a story where everyone worships Byleth even before actually becoming a god.

[@qiuzhang97]

Been on a bent recently looking for analysis videos for recent FE entries, you should have way more subscribers than you do bb, keep up with the good content 🫡

[@sylphiemk]

Thank you for watching, I’m glad you enjoyed!!!