Leona/Trivia

Leona

Story

Move List

Gallery

Quotes

Trivia

• In The King of Fighters '98: Dream Match Never Ends, Leona mysteriously salutes Chang Koehan and belittles Ralf. This was originally thought to be a bug, but developers add that it was her showing respect for "real power". The exact meaning of this statement remains unclear though it became a popular subject in fan doujinshi for a time. They salute one another again in KOF XIV.

• Leona is the third woman to win a KOF tournament, succeeding Vanessa and Whip, and preceding Elisabeth Blanctorche.
  • All the members of the Ikari squad (Heidern, Ralf Jones, Clark Still, Leona Heidern and Whip) are the only military characters to win a KOF tournament.

• Prior to The King of Fighters XIII, SNK only used Leona as her name. Starting with KOF XII, SNK uses her extended codename officially.

• In Neo-Geo Freak 1998, the characters in KOF '98 have their own interviews. Here are Leona's response to the questions.^[1]
  • What is your aspiration in this competition? - "Aspiration...?"
  • Who would you like to fight the most? - "Instructor."
  • Who would you like to team up with? / Who would you not like to team up with? - "Not selected."
  • What is "KOF" for you? - "Mission."
  • Finally, please give a word to your fans. - "...Goodbye."

• In KOF: Maximum Impact 2, Fio compares Leona to Eri.

• The name "Leona" means "lioness" in Spanish. This reinforces the hypothesis that she was born in a Spanish-speaking country, but it is still unknown what country this is.
  • Some sources also speculate that Leona is a Brazilian character, due to the fact that Heidern found her in a village in the Amazon Forest. However, this is never confirmed by SNK, and the soldier remains with her unknown nationality. It is also important to emphasize that Brazil is not the only South American country to contain the Amazon Forest biome.

• Technically, Leona is a Hakkesshu, being the daughter of Gaidel, but has fought against her own lineage due to conflicting views, as seen in KOF '97. This is all but confirmed by Goenitz himself in XV, lamenting how Leona has not awakened to her heritage, and is in fact, resisting it.

• In an interview with one of the series designers, Shinkiro, he replies that Leona is his favorite original character in the series.^[2] Logo and character designer Nao Q also has Leona as his favourite character, he comments on his soft spot for ice maidens.^[3] Garou: Mark of the Wolves planner and The King of Fighters XIV producer Yasuyuki Oda states that Leona and Kyo are his favourite characters in The King of Fighters series.^[4]

• Many of Leona's attacks pay homage to several different media:
  • The V-shaped slashmarks that appear at the end of her V-Slasher DM and SDM are an homage to Choudenji Machine Voltes V—the titular giant robot had an attack in which it made a V-shaped slash through the enemy, leaving a glowing V for a few dramatic moments before it is destroyed.
  • Her Rebel Spark Desperation Move and Super Desperation Move where she plants an explosive on her opponent then moving away from the opponent while making a pose, is actually a homage to Kamen Rider Black RX—a Japanese tokusatsu show where the hero impaled his enemy with his sword, Revolcane, and proceed to do the same pose as sparks came out from his opponent's belly and eventually exploded.
  • Her jumping CD/Blowback attack resembles Kamen Rider Black's version of the Rider Kick, owing to the sudden, unexplained glow of reddish energy around her foot, and being performed while in the air. Another Sentai homage includes her exploding earrings (Himitsu Sentai Goranger).
  • The air throw she shares with Heidern (Heidern/Leona Inferno) takes its name and appearance from Kinnikuman Zebra 's "Muscle Inferno" attack in Kinnikuman.
  • Two of her moves are references to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Her "Earring Bomb 2: Heart Attack" is a nod towards Yoshikage Kira's Stand Killer Queen and its "Bomb #2 - Sheer Heart Attack" ability, as seen in Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable. She first attaches a bomb to her opponent. Afterwards, she may either wait until it explodes on its own or detonate it with a secondary command, saying 負けて終わり ("Makete owari." ~ "You've lost in the end."), referencing Killer Queen's Bites The Dust ability (transcribed in Japanese as 負けて死ね, "Makete shine." = "You've lost in death").
    • Her Grateful Dead (Super) Desperation Move, during which she drains the opponent of his/her life force while surrounded by wisps of steam or smoke, references Prosciutto's Stand The Grateful Dead from Part 5: Vento Aureo, which causes rapid aging in its victim and can differentiate between targets through the body heat they give off.
  • Her other moves take their namesakes from Grendizer.

• In the Neo Geo Freak's 1997 Volume 8 character poll, she was voted as the fourth favourite character with a total of 1,458 votes^[5] (187 votes from male fans and 1,271 from the female fans),^[6] In Neo Geo Freak's August 1998 issue, she was ranked as the 2nd best character.^[7]