General Leo

General Leo Christophe is introduced in the 1994 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VI. He is one of the three top generals of the game's antagonist Gestahlian Empire, the others being fellow characters Celes Chere and Kefka Palazzo. Later in the game he appears when the Empire offers peace to help find the home of the Espers, a race of magical beings. Attempting to atone for the Empire's past crimes against the protagonists, he joins with them as they travel to the town of Thamasa to open the gate to the Esper's domain. However, they discover it was a ruse by the Emperor, as Kefka and his soldiers arrive to capture the Espers for their magical energy and attack the town. Enraged, Leo attacks and defeats Kefka, only to discover it was an illusion as he is stabbed in the back by the real Kefka and killed. After the attack, the survivors bury his body, and the protagonists resolve to stop the Kefka and the Empire. ==Conception and design==

Final Fantasy VI was developed with the mindset that none of the playable cast was the protagonist, and that each of them were equally the "main character". The cast of characters were selected from submissions from across the development team. Once the cast was selected, each individual would write their character's story, with Yoshinori Kitase balancing the plot as things developed. The character was originally intended to be a full party member, but the idea was cut during development. Standing 188 cm (6 ft 2 in) tall, artist Yoshitaka Amano was commissioned to design the characters from the brief outlines provided. Given full creative freedom, Amano wanted to make "real" and "alive" characters, though with consideration for their representation in-game as small computer sprites. However, according to Sakaguchi and pixel artist Kazuko Shibuya, most of the characters were designed by Shibuya first as sprites. Though Shibuya acted as an intermediary between Amano and the development team, this resulted in discrepancies between Amano's concepts and the game itself. His appearance is as a tall, dark-skinned man with a yellow mohawk, prominent yellow lips, and a green military uniform with yellow and orange highlights. ==Critical reception==

Since his debut, the character was positively received. Dengeki Onlines Kawachi expressed how much he enjoyed Leo as a character, finding him very charismatic and expecting he would be a full party member in the game. However, Leo's sacrifice took him by surprise, and as much as he enjoyed using the character briefly, he felt it served as a powerful motivator for the game's story due to how it encouraged Terra and the other protagonists' resolve to overthrow the Empire. Meanwhile the staff of Futabanet Manga Plus, in a retrospective, cited him as one of the franchise's poignant examples of self-sacrifice. They further praised how much humanity his character demonstrated in the story, and how much it left a lasting impact on players. Leo's portrayal and role as a temporary party member lead to players trying to figure out how to revive him or make him a permanent companion, resulting in players trying to glitch the game to keep him alive and usable beyond the sequence. In later podcasts discussing the game, the staff of RPGFan further analyzed his character, noting that he was an important element of Terra accepting her nature, but also served as a more humanizing aspect of the Empire, giving some faith to the player that they may be able to reform. Sebastian Deken in his book examining Final Fantasy VI and its themes cited Leo's death as a turning point in how players perceived Kefka as a character. While previously he was portrayed more comedic and bumbling personality, killing Leo made him "irredeemable", and any "comic relief or lighthearted mischief—or humanity—is excised" from Kefka's character afterwards. Most notability too Leo's death is the last use of Kefka's more melancholic theme, an aspect that Deken felt reflected the end of the comedic aspect and his character's shift to full villainy in the eyes of the audience. Leo's appearance has also been of some discussion. Kawachi upon controlling the character and seeing his portrait admitted they were shocked, moreso than by his death. He had expected a more handsome character due to how Leo acted, and joked "you could say that it taught me that a man is not a face. A man's charm isn't his appearance!" ==References==