A response to some anti-Leon/Ada arguments
I’ve been looking into the Ada/Wesker pairing out of curiosity and, though I don’t think a romantic relationship between them is canon, I do totally respect the fandom and I find it one of the most compelling AU/Speculative pairings in RE fan fiction. Nevertheless, I’ve been reading some arguments and statements by a couple of A/W supporters and I feel that these particular people fall into the same trap as many of the Leon/Claire shippers whose posts I have read. I won’t name names and I hope I don’t offend anyone, but if you’re going to write something on a public profile on the internet then it’s open to comment and debate as far as I’m concerned.
This is in no way meant to offend shippers of any fandom and are purely my own opinion. I'd just like to get off my chest exactly why I get frustrated with arguments against Leon and Ada as a canon pairing in Resident Evil.
Basically, I personally see no canon evidence for Leon/Claire or Ada/Wesker as anything other than platonic. This doesn’t mean that I think these fandoms are wrong! It just means that their ships are not showcased or supported by the games. That’s no reason not to have fun with them and explore the possibility in fan fiction etc. But what I do find odd is that some shippers try to twist the RE canon to fit with their fandoms and at the same time put down ‘rival ships’ to some how justify their own. Please note that I’m not trying to vilify these shippers. I guess I’m just frustrated at the anti-Leon/Ada arguments that ignore or even subvert the canon of the games (at least IMHO). I know that I’m biased, but I do honestly respect other fandoms so I’m trying my best to be fair and open minded.
To be specific one person wrote that Ada and Leon would never work because Ada has no morals. Maybe I’ve misunderstood what they are trying to say, but I find this statement totally false. Ada is a character with very grey morals who has done many bad things in her life- stealing, espionage, betrayal, seduction and murder (and that’s just the stuff we know about!) so I’m not trying to paint her as an angel. But a woman without morals would have shot Leon on that catwalk and just taken the G Virus. A woman without morals would not have sacrificed her life and mission to save him. A woman without morals would not have thrown Leon/Claire a rocket launcher to defeat the Tyrant. A woman without morals wouldn’t stare longingly (several times) after Leon or apologise (quite sincerely) that she couldn’t offer more help to him. Ada’s motivations mostly concern her own personal interests but she is not without a conscience. Ada has some good in her and that’s what Leon sees. If he saw her as amoral then he wouldn’t have asked why she was still working for Wesker- he’d just shrug her off as an unscrupulous tramp and assume she was evil. Leon may be relatively idealistic but he wouldn’t have risen through the ranks of the government by being a fool. He is suspicious of Ada, but he doesn’t see her as a lost cause. You can’t look at one side of a multi-dimensional character and ignore the rest. What makes her character compelling is that she is partially redeemed by her interactions with Leon. Capcom want us to sympathise with the character despite her past actions and the lengths she is willing to go to fulfil her aims. Saying that she has no morals is a gross simplification of who Ada Wong is IMHO. I’m a little shocked that any Ada fan could write such a thing to be honest- but as I said, I may have totally misunderstood the person and taken their words too literally. If that’s the case then I apologise, but I have seen plenty of people argue such a thing in the past and it never fails to annoy me.
Next, someone wrote that by keeping her mission a secret from Leon in RE4 this proves that she doesn’t care about him. This strikes me as very odd. For starters- Ada is a double agent. The absolute LAST thing you do if you’re a double agent is to go around and TELL people that you are, even if they’re your family or friends (just watch Alias if you don’t believe me!) Ada’s mission is unknown to us so you can’t make any solid conclusions about her yet and the Las Plagas mission was to gain the trust of ‘The Organisation’. She simply can’t tell Leon anything at the moment and really- why should she? There’s no chance of a relationship between them at the moment and it impacted in no way on Leon’s mission to save Ashley. Ada does trust Leon’s good nature but she also knows him very well. If he did know what she was doing then Leon would be inclined to interfere to help Ada out and this could get both him and Ada killed. She didn’t tell him because she simply couldn’t afford to have her cover blown. Leon had enough on his plate already. The timing just wasn’t right and the consequences of such an action would most likely involve the destruction of Ada’s long term plans and possibly death for them both.
This person also said that by telling Leon what was going on Ada would break free from Umbrella. But this makes no sense IMO. Ada is not trying to run away. She's engaged in a complex chess game that she aims to win. She has an objective to complete. She can't just run away from it all, that would never work and it would put both her and Leon in danger. So I really don't know what point this person was trying to make...
As for Ada/Wesker being 'cozy' with each other- well, they've worked together for over six years. It would make no sense for them to be on completely formal terms but it doesn't mean that they have an intimate relationship either. I can actually think up many reasons why Ada/Wesker could work. I'm surprised that the poster expressed such a vague and empty reason when there are so many other stronger reasons why the couple could work as an AU pairing.
As for Wesker never telling Ada to risk her life on the mission (thus proving that he cares about her)- I'm sorry but that makes no sense either. The entire mission was dangerous. That goes without saying. By even stepping foot in that place Ada was in serious danger. It's her job to risk her life and Wesker knows this! If he wanted to coddle her he would have gone to Spain himself (hell, he's more powerful than her!) and had Ada stay at home to give him information over the comms device instead.
I am inherently suspicious of anyone that tries to make their fandom look good by down-playing the fandoms of others. I don’t believe for a second that the people who argued these things are stupid or trying to be mean and I would never suggest that they have no right to air their views. But I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of well thought out and well supported statements I’ve read that argue against Leon and Ada as a canon pairing. This isn’t simply a matter of personal taste. If someone wrote that they personally loathed the idea of Leon and Ada then I’d have no problem with that or with them at all. But when I see people trying to use the canon of the games to argue against Leon/Ada I usually (though certainly not always) find their arguments very flimsy and badly thought out. I'm sorry if I'm being too harsh but their statements irritate the hell out of me and I cannot take them seriously.
We all interpret things in different ways and that’s a VERY good thing. But many of the comments I read on some fandoms aren’t just alternative views- they are statements that are contradicted by the games and often by plain common sense. I also see their statements as an attempt to make their own ships look more ‘canon’ by comparison. Mission failed guys. And why do that anyway? Just because Ada doesn’t jump Wesker’s bones in the games doesn’t make the fandom irrelevant or pointless- quite the opposite. When some people try to crowbar their fandoms into a canon that doesn’t support them it undermines the strength of that fandom IMHO. It makes its members look desperate and needy. Maybe I'm getting my too serious about these things. I don’t consider any anti-Leon/Ada statements as insulting to me personally and I don’t take it to heart. The thing I can’t stand though is how people pick and choose from canon in this way. It is totally fine to do so in fan fiction as it’s your own decision. But when it comes to analysing the games as Capcom have made them I find that most anti-Leon/Ada statements I've read just don't hold water. I think I find that more annoying than anything else. It's not the antiLeon/Ada that bothers me- it's the lack of logic or proof in many of these arguments that boggles my mind!
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There. I'm done. It is now safe to go back into the water ^_^