Leona Downplaying

Ace realizes that, despite the things that Leona says, he actually does look out for others, and Ace is not the only person who has noticed how Leona will downplay the effort he puts into helping those around him: when Skully compliments Leona on his efficient delegation, on how he “that you took everyone’s strengths into exhaustive account when reallocating” tasks, Leona downplays his contribution, saying, “There’s nothin’ ‘exhaustive’ about it. I just dumped all the hassles on other people.”

Skully responds, “Such modesty.”

Cater also notices this about Leona during a birthday interview where Leona says his hope for the next year is to win a national spelldrive championship.

Cater says, “it’s supposed to be what YOU want…Sounds like you go above and beyond to make sure everyone on the team gets what they need to succeed. You really care about them, don’t you?,” but Leona claims he is “just doin’ the bare minimum.”

When Leona reveals he is going through the phantom cages one by one in Tartarus due to the danger of Grim getting caught by his unique magic were he to handle them all at once Jamil observes, “You seemed truly worried about Grim a minute ago. And here I thought you couldn’t care less.”

Leona claims he isn’t worried at all and just doesn’t want to deal with the fallout of turning Grim into sand on accident, but Jamil looks unconvinced.

Ruggie has also noticed Leona’s downplaying: when Leona claims he is only looking to get refreshments for his dormmates during Halloween because “their brains are in their stomachs” Ruggie responds, “Can’t you just admit you wanna do something nice?”

After reuniting with Jack towards the end of Spectral Soiree Leona teases him for being a “little lost pup” and Ruggie whispers, “C’mon, Leona. Would it kill you to be honest with the guy and tell him you were worried?”

After being told that he should confer with someone whom he deeply respects and admires with his Port Fest struggles, Jack goes to Leona for help.

At the end of the event Jack credits Leona for giving him the advice that led to the success of their performance. Leona says that he didn’t do anything at all.

Leona seems to protect Jack behind the scenes: in a vignette he see him scold Jack for failing to “play smart” against a group of upperclassmen as though he is not on Jack’s side, but as soon as Jack is out of earshot he turns on the upperclassmen themselves for getting “all huffy” about losing to a first-year student(“It’s embarrassing to watch”) and telling them, “don’t you dare make me clean up after you again,” as though warning them off Jack, without Jack’s knowledge.

When Ruggie volunteers to “take care” of Jack when he starts to be a problem in Book 2 Leona forbids it, also unbeknownst to Jack.

While Ruggie might have noticed Leona’s concern for Jack, he may not have realized the efforts Leona goes to for Ruggie himself: in a vignette where Ruggie is doing both his and Leona’s laundry he audibly reflects on how he wishes he was a little taller, but “that would come with extra eating expenses,” at which point Leona appears behind him and hands over his entire wallet when Ruggie says he needs money for laundry detergent.

Leona says, “I’ve got plenty in there. Take what you need and keep the change,” and when Ruggie responds “all you’ve got in here are big bills. You really want me to break one of these?”

Leona says, “Why’re you getting all hung up on the details? Don’t make me repeat myself.” Ruggie observes, “He wouldn’t even notice if I kept more in change than what the detergent cost, I bet,” apparently unaware that that is possibly, exactly what Leona wants him to do.

When Riddle’s group discovers a rare lanternblossom on a cliff face during Vargas Camp members of the spelldrive team appear soon after, declaring that they will be taking it for themselves, but Leona calls them off, claiming they should look for one in a more accessible location in order to put in less effort.

Sebek interprets this as Leona balking at the idea of climbing the cliff and does so himself, informing Leona that he plucked the flower that Leona presumably gave up on and apparently not making the connection that Leona’s intent was possibly just to keep his club members from stealing Riddle’s club’s flower.

In addition to Leona’s “ridiculous magic reserves” Ruggie says that Leona’s “stamina’s nuts, too,” which might be a character trait of Leona’s: while training three other students for the Cloudcalling tournament Vil observes that Leona is “not even breathing hard,” with even Lilia saying, “I can’t lay a finger on you.”

This is in contrast to the drama of Book 7 where Leona insists on staying behind to battle the darkness of Riddle’s mind and sends Deuce on without him: when Deuce balks at the idea of leaving Leona behind Leona responds, “Lions have no stamina,” but this was possibly a misdirect meant to convince Deuce to let him sacrifice himself and buy Deuce time.

When Jade explains to Leona that Floyd has “a certain admiration” for strong people, calling Leona “a rather formidable Spelldrive player and an equally capable mage,” Leona says, “You’re giving me way too much credit. Even if we did go head-to-head, I doubt l’d live up to his expectations.” Jade responds, “Such modesty.”

When a dream-Ace calls Leona more of a fighter than Trey and Cater, saying, “You’ve got a super powerful signature spell, and you can block our housewarden’s signature spell,” Leona responds, “That was more of a fluke.”

When Leona sends first-year students of Savanaclaw hurrying off to prepare for spelldrive practice after they are caught slacking off Jack and Ruggie start commenting on Leona’s commanding presence.

Ruggie says, “Our king’s the best around!,” but Leona responds, “I snap at a couple of froshes and you call me king? Must be an awfully cheap crown.”

Jack, too, tries to call Leona their king, but Leona cuts him off.

While often providing help behind the scenes and denying when he is found out, Leona will refuse to offer overt assistance, telling a palace guard in his hometown that “Real warriors don’t need to rely on others’ teachings” and he should dedicate himself to making it on his own.

Leona says he will stay out of disputes between younger students in Savanclaw, saying, “How’re they gonna grow up if I stick my nose into every little argument in the dorm?”

Leona even applies this same logic to Malleus, telling Silver and he and Lilia are “way overprotective” and the Malleus “is not some lost child” and people should quite treating him like one.

When Kalim offers to fetch Malleus for a meeting Leona responds, “It defeats the whole purpose if he doesn’t take the initiative.”

Leona also refuses a request for help from Ruggie and Jack during Port Fest, refuses when Epel asks him for tutoring (though he does tutor Ruggie) and leaves his tsum on its own, saying, “Not like it’s domesticated or anythin’. I’m sure it can fend for itself.”

Leona gives advice to Jack prior to Port Fest without giving him explicit instructions, encouraging him to think for himself, which he repeats during Halloween.

Leona says he emphasizes independence with the spelldrive team in order to “install some self-reliance.”

In Book 7 Leona claims that he barely pays attention to other dorms, but in Book 6 Leona provides detailed evaluations of Azul and Riddle’s strengths and weaknesses to Jamil, as well as an evaluation of Jamil himself, which seems to resonate.

Idia in particular seems to take what Leona says at face value: he agrees that Leona does not seem to pay attention to others (“I never took you for a guy with his finger on the pulse of the community, Leona”), and when Leona asks if Ortho has a point to make after complimenting Leona in Book 7 Idia responds, “Talk about a complete lack of modesty,” in a complete opposite evaluation of Leona to characters like Skully, who might be more perceptive.

Leona’s claim that he barely pays attention to other dorms was possibly another example of Leona downplaying himself, intentionally giving others the impression that he is not anything more than he seems to be, a point he might have in common with Trey (more here ▶︎ and here ▶︎)