Squall Leonhart
Leon (レオン Reon; real name Squall Leonhart) is a character from all the Kingdom Hearts games, first appearing in Final Fantasy VIII. Mirroring the game, Leon gradually turns from a loner to an open and caring person. He carries the Revolver Gunblade as his weapon.
Appearance
Squall's physical appearance consists of longer medium-length brown hair and cold grey-blue eyes. Character designer Tetsuya Nomura has stated that actor River Phoenix was the influence for Squall; both share the same birthday and physical appearance. A small scar runs diagonally across the bridge of Squall's nose, which he receives at the beginning of FFVIII game in a training duel against his rival Seifer. But, as Seifer is younger in the game series, the Kingdom Hearts explaination is never settled. When confronted, he uses his well known Gunblade, Revolver, to do some slow but strong attacks, however, only for a limited time. He counterattacks with powerful and agile combos. When enraged, he transform his Gunblade in what it seems a grand form of Lionheart, his most powerful weapon in FFVIII, and develops more agility and power.
Kingdom Hearts
Squall assumes the name Leon because he was unable to protect those he cares about from the Heartless when the Radiant Garden was consumed in darkness.
There is also a Keyblade in the game, called "Lionheart." It has a keychain resembling Griever, a reference to Squall (received after defeating Leon and Cloud in the Hades Cup Tornament at the Colisuem). Leon also held the Earthshine Gem which contained Simba, he gave it to Sora. His role in Kingdom Hearts is to help guide Sora, on his battle with the Heartless, alongside various other Final Fantasy characters. While his appearance and age change (in Kingdom Hearts, he is 25, whereas in Final Fantasy VIII, he is 17), his personality remains the same. A memory-based version of Leon appears in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
In Kingdom Hearts II
Here, Leon is seen to be slightly more cheerful than he is seen in the original Kingdom Hearts, as he and others are rebuilding their home with Leon seemingly to be the leader of the "Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee," which is composed of the returning Final Fantasy cameos from the first Kingdom Hearts and Merlin. He actually fights alongside Sora in one of the fights near the beginning of the game. Sleeping Lion, a Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts II, is another reference to Squall. He also, along with many other characters, including Tifa and Cloud, help Sora fight the Heartless on the Ravine Trail in the Hollow Bastion (later named, the Radiant Garden). Leon also plays the largest role for any Final Fantasy character in Kingdom Hearts II storywise, the only Final Fantasy character that has relations to King Mickey, and works very close to Sora and company. Leon is also the only Final Fantasy character in the game to come face to face with the Organization and fight the Nobodies. He seems to be a good friend to both Cloud Strife and Aerith Gainsborough.
Trivia
- In the japanese version, Leon was voiced by popular seiyuu Hideo Ishikawa, whose other involvements with SquareEnix were voicing Cait Sith of FF7 and Auron of FFX, who later appeared in KH2. In the English version of Kingdom Hearts, Leon was voiced by David Boreanaz, known for his role as Angel in the Buffy/Angel shows. In the English version of Kingdom Hearts 2, however, Leon was voiced by Doug Erholtz, who voiced TK in Digimon 02.
- While his first outfit was original, Leon's attire in KH2 is more similar to his jacket in Final Fantasy VIII. Both versions share the red wings on the back, resembling the ones in Rinoa's back, the Greiver emblem on the shoulders, and the Griever necklace.
- In the ending credits of KH2, Leon recieves a letter, presumely from Rinoa by the insigna emerging from said letter.
- Leon is the only character to has confirmed to have beaten Sora. He appears as a boss early in Kingdom Hearts, although he's beatable (it extremely hard at the point of the game he's encountered since at that point Sora can only at him up close and Leon can deplete Sora's health in a few swings), Sora appears to lose the fight regardless of the outcome (this makes the fight a "scripted encounter" that the player is supposed to lose).
