Reflecting on THH's First Blackened (Spoilers for THH 1-1)
The first trial of the franchise is one of my favorites of the entire series. Of course, it's the tutorial trial for the whole franchise, so it's pretty simple all around. The gameplay is short and sweet and the mystery is pretty straightforward, though the plot twist that Sayaka initiated the attack and ultimately signed her own death warrant was stellar and a really good first taste of what the killing game can do to a person's psyche. It does all it needs to do and does it well. On its own, a very solid trial, A-tier.
But what makes it an S-tier trial in the entire series for me is when Leon gets pinned as the blackened. More specifically, the moment when Makoto puts together that the bloodied shirt could have only been thrown into the incinerator by Leon due to his title as the Ultimate Baseball Star. It's here when Leon completely flips out, and the trial never lets up from there. While tying up all the loose ends on the trial is pretty straightforward, Leon's breakdown and last stand turn this trial into an instant classic for me.
Grant George is excellent in the final moments of the chapter, too. Leon's panic feels the most raw and genuine of all the blackends in the entire franchise. The most primal showing of a person who is moments away from being put to death in an excruciating way. Some of my favorite quotes of the entire franchise all came from Leon in that final half hour of the trial.
- "I'm not the killer! These goddamn shit-for-brains have got it all wrong, I'm telling you!"
- "Listen to me! What the hell do you mean, end this?!"
- "Do I object...? Hell yes I object! Of course I do! I object, I object, I object!"
- "I refuse to acknowledge you! You're stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupid!!!"
When Leon finally ultimately got executed, his final words were genuinely haunting as well. Begging for Monokuma to have second thoughts on his execution in a fruitless endeavor. Even at the very end where there was nowehere else to go, he couldn't accept his fate; all that he had was the fear of his execution. That fear wasn't unfounded either. The 1,000 Blows is still my favorite execution in the whole franchise.
Leon is a character I always liked when I first got into the series. He was nice, he was chill, I liked his dilemma about being a musician or staying as a baseball star. He has a solid free time skill, too. But I don't think anyone really shone more as a blackened than him. Nearly killed by another classmate who buckled under the motive video, the fear of death completely took over, and in a complete lapse in judgement, he retaliated in a desperate attempt to get out of Hope's Peak and save his life, only to get pinned as the killer, and desperately trying to weasel his way out of it in a last stand that, while not the most complex or tearjerking, was the perfect emobdiment of how scary it is to see your death right in front of you.
Leon is not my favorite character in the series, nor is he my favorite character who would become a blackened. But I don't think there was any character who did a better job serving as a blackened than him. His fear, his breakdown, his last stand, and his execution is what got me into this series for good, something I have never regretted for the past decade.