Yes, I had to include it. Not only because I'm trying to find and include as much Leona-related stuff in this shrine as possible, but also because it's a little amusing as well... ("Hobbies: Visiting factories." ^_^ SNK mustn't think very hard when doing these things, you'd think...)
| Biosheet for Leona |
This is the KOF98 version.
NAME: Leona
FIGHTING STYLE: Martial Arts & Heidern style Assassin Techniques
NATIONALITY: Unknown
BIRTHDAY: January 10, 1978
HEIGHT: 176 cm
WEIGHT: 65 kg
3-SIZE: B-84 W-57 H:85
BLOOD TYPE: B & Orochi
HOBBIES: Visiting Factories
FAVOURITE FOOD: Vegetables
FAVOURITE SPORT: None
MOST VALUED POSSESSION: None
THING SHE HATES THE MOST: Blood
There have of course been changes over the years. In KOF96 and KOF97, for example, she had no hobbies and probably no favourite food either. SNK possibly thought this was too boring and so decided to jazz her up a bit.
The KOF99 profile is slightly different - instead of giving her birthdate it gives her age as 18, which makes no sense at all. Here we have some more messing around with time - but then again, this is from the company who originally stated that the Art of Fighting games took place at least a couple of decades before the Fatal Fury games, and then merged them without a care in King of Fighters.
Another difference is that instead of "visiting factories" her hobby is "Workshop studying." Which is pretty similar. Depending on the way it's written in Japanese, the two could be the very same thing translated slightly differently.
Yet another difference, quite weird this time, is that her blood type is listed as "B". No mention of "Orochi" anywhere. This merges in with SNK's attempts to reduce the mention of Orochi as much as possible in the latest KOF game. Though it can't truly be gone, otherwise she (and Iori) wouldn't be able to perform her energy based techniques - which is most of them.
| Profile and backstory for Leona |
"The child Heidern saved out of a pile of rubbles...that was Leona. With no memory of her past or family, Leona was adapted by Heidern into troops, and was taught martial arts. Her natural skills made her one of the best fighters among the troops. When the invitation for the King of Fighters '96 arrived to Heidern's office, he commands Leona, along with Ralf and Clark to enter in his place. Little did they know that this tournament would unlock the tragedy that happened in the young girl's past.
"Leona is seldom seen smiling. She seems to be very emotionless and at times ruthless. However, we should not make the assumption that she is an iron maiden. At the end of the previous tournament, KOF '96, Ralf succeeds in making her smile (very touching!). Her past no doubt affects her personality, but it may be that with a little help from her team mates, Leona can become a normal girl someday.
"Blood and dispair is all that fills Leona's mind of that fateful day. Her coincidental contact with Goenitz unleashed the sleeping dragon in her, causing her to kill her own parents. It was the first coming of the Riot of Blood for Leona, and the trauma that engulfed her caused amnesia. It seems she also lost her sense of emotion since then, also, for she rarely shows her feelings. Was it the bloody past, or the black Orochi blood within her that made her the fighting machine she is today? Even she doesn't know the answer...
"It is now known that Guider, Leona's father, was aware of his Orochi ancestory, but was not awake totally to his duty as the Eight Orochi Warriors. So when Goenitz came to him with the demand for him to live under the Orochi laws, Guider refused, chosing his peaceful life with his wife and daughter. Enraged, Goenitz turned to his daughter Leona, who had inherit the Orochi blood strongly within her. And though he died under her hands, Guider still hopes his daughter will find joy in her new life and believes she will overcome her fate, no matter how cruel it might be.
"Perhaps it is only natural for Leona to feel a strange bond with Iori, who is also a victim of the Riot of Blood, though has little or no interest in him beyond that. It is either the possessed Leona or Iori that the players will have to face before the final battle in KOF '97.
"Ironically, Leona benifits from her Orochi ancestry, and proves to be an awesome fighter in KOF '97, if used correctly. Her super move "V-Slasher" is very powerful. However, she never seems to help her team mates when they're in trouble, which may need to be considered when using the team edit mode."
...thanks must go to Chika, who allowed me to use her translation of the above.
The above is her KOF98 profile and backstory. In KOF99 there seem to be no profiles for ANY of the characters. A shame. However, there is a story for each of the teams. The story for the Ikari Team is something about Heidern being suspicious of the new KOF tournament, and sending the good old team in to investigate, along with a new character, the spy Whip.
Leona and Whip, judging from their special intro, don't seem to like each other very much. They same to ignore each other, and then Leona stands up and says "Matase". Literally, this means "Keep (me) waiting", but that makes no sense. It might mean something more like "I've been waiting (for this)", but I'm not sure. In any case, I don't know what the history between the two is.
| Huh? Guider? Gaidel? Is this the same person? |
In the Story section I refer to Leona's father as Gaidel and in the translation above he's referred to as Guider. So you might be wondering which is the right one.
Actually, if you want to get technical, Leona's father's name is Gaideru, which is how it's written in Japanese. ^_^ But we're talking about the English version of the guy's name...
The final "ru" is one of those wonderful trans-language phonemic problems. In English it can become "r", "l", "ru", or "lu". So both Guider AND Gaidel are equally valid renditions of the name Gaideru.
I'm sticking with "Gaidel", as that was the way it was written in the English version of KOF97.