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Leo Kasper
Leo-0
Game Manhunt 2
AKA Leo
Nationality American
Location Dixmor Asylum
Mind of Daniel Lamb
Business Pickman Project (formerly)
Weapons Sniper Rifle
Heavy Handgun
Knife
Katana
Crowbar
Player's choice (see all)
Allies Daniel Lamb (formerly, used him)
Dixmor Project (formerly)
Enemies Daniel Lamb
Dr. Pickman
Michael Grant
Dr. Whyte
Dr. Deborah
Mrs. Lamb
All Hunters (see all),
Status Deceased
Voiced by Holter Graham


"Dogs bark (baby), snakes crawl, Leo kills."
— Leo Kasper's catchphrase

Leonardo "Leo" Kasper is the deuteragonist turned main antagonist of Manhunt 2. He is also the protagonist of the flashback missions.

Description[]

Leonardo Kasper is a man who was also put in the asylum by the Project, as he is a violent psychopath. He is also a former government agent and has expertise in combat, evasion, infiltration and assassination techniques.

His identity was taken by the Project and implanted into Daniel Lamb while he remained separated from Daniel's own mind by the Pickman Bridge. However, the Pickman Bridge itself was not perfected, so Leo was able to interact with Daniel and use him as a puppet. His personality also took over at times when it was not called upon, causing Daniel to become a ruthless killer against his will. He helps Danny escape the Dixmor Asylum and teaches him his own well-honed tricks of the trade, as Daniel perceives Leo as another real person.

Personality[]

Leo is depicted as an intelligent, but heartless and violent person, who has no hesitation about killing, no matter if it is an innocent person, criminal or law enforcement officer. Leo's killer personality was created by The Project over 6 years before the events of Manhunt 2. The Project trained him in assassination techniques, combat, evasion and infiltration, and Leo worked for the government for sometime.

It is strongly implied that he is also a sadistic psychopath diagnosed with "Acute Antisocial Personality Disorder" before being subjected by Dr. Pickman's heinous experiments. According to the sessions with Dr. Whyte, he accuses the Project for turning him into a killer. He also confides, that he would like to think like a normal man, but he cannot, because the training left a mark on his psyche. It is also believed that he is a smoker as well. Kasper also seems to have no moral agency to distinguish between "good and evil" as heard in the session with Dr. Whyte, seeing the American government as no better than the terrorists he was sent to dispose of.

A violent sadist, Leo has an adventurous, thrill-seeking demeanor towards killing, reveling in the brutal murders of his and Daniel's victims or enemies. Like Lionel Starkweather from Manhunt, he encourages Daniel into committing more vicious executions of Hunters, responding with glee and admiration towards Violent and Gruesome kills.

Throughout the game, Leo is shown to be a textbook psychopath, displaying various symptoms and behaviors, including manipulation of others, having no conscience or sense of right or wrong, increased aggression and hostility, a lack of empathy (unlike Daniel, Leo clearly has no problem with killing), shallow emotions, is easily irritated and short-tempered (like Starkweather, Leo becomes quickly impatient if the player waits around too long), almost complete fearlessness, and a lack of remorse or guilt. In contrast to Starkweather, however, Leo never shows himself to be a coward or beg for mercy; When Daniel proceeds to beat him to death with a Shovel in his own ending, Leo simply laughs in his face and arrogantly proclaims that Danny "can never get rid of him", even while dying, whilst Starkweather tried bargaining for his life once he was cornered by James Earl Cash holding Piggsy's Chainsaw.

When compared to Cash in Manhunt, Leo shares much in common that they are both smart, fearless, proficient killers with no outward emotion or regret at butchering Hunters. However, he is pretty much a product, while Cash is probably a "criminal by choice" (although Cash is even more skillful than Leo in executions). They both do not find any remorse for their victims, although Cash does feel some compassion for his family, the Tramp, and the Journalist. Also, Leo and Cash have the same goals: Revenge. Cash wants to kill Starkweather for what he did to him and his family, while Leo wants to murder every Project member he sees, including Dr. Pickman, for what they did to him.

Appearance[]

Kasper appears as a man with a refined build and short, brown hair which fitted his role as an assassin for the Project years before. During the flashback levels, Leo wears a brown shirt and khakis. In the present day, he wears green prison overalls with black boots, the same as Daniel's. Throughout much of Manhunt 2, Leo spends his time appearing as a seemingly imaginary friend towards Daniel. However, it was revealed that Leo is a real person who was also a victim of The Project, and can subconsciously exist in Lamb's mind simultaneously.

Biography[]

Leo Kasper was born on June 19th, 1972. He was a former government assassin, hired to kill threats such as terrorists and appeared to be highly successful. He was taken in by the Project one day and his personality was somehow transferred and sampled sometime before 2001 in order to make clones of him for the Project.

Leo's identity was taken and implanted into the mind of Daniel Lamb, a scientist for the Pickman Project who believed it possible to have a normal being switch between a civilian and a violent killer without either personality crossing paths. However the Pickman Bridge, which is what keeps the personalities separate, malfunctioned. As a result, Leo was given too much free will and begun to control Daniel's mind, and convinced him that Dr. Pickman was the enemy.

2001[]

Normal ProjectManhunt Manhunt2 OfficialScreenshot 041

Leo as he appears during flashbacks.

Before the primary events of the game, Leo already wants full control of Daniel's mind. He tries to force Daniel's friend Michael to remove the Pickman Bridge by threatening him at gunpoint at Blackwell Island. However, the Project Militia turns up and Michael hides inside the Fisto Sugar Factory where Leo kills most of the Project Militia as he searches for Michael. When he finds him, Leo kills him and takes the keys to the boat off the island.

Then, he decides to get back at the Project by convincing Daniel to assassinate Stanley Grex Jr. and as he does, Leo escapes the Project once more. Now all he needs to do is destroy Daniel's past, so he burns all of his records (as well as his own) and later, decides to kill Daniel's wife. However, Daniel, who was controlled by Leo, was caught murdering his wife by Pickman and the orderlies, and thus both Daniel and Leo were both locked away in Dixmor Asylum, where Daniel had many therapy sessions, but, at some point, Leo takes over Daniel's mind again and he kills Dr. Deborah, replacing her with Dr. Laura Whyte.

Events of Manhunt 2 (2007)[]

Leo

Leo as he appears in the present.

A power failure and a deadly riot allow Daniel and Leo to escape the asylum. While not remembering anything about his past, Leo helps Daniel to escape by telling Daniel to take down most of the Asylum Orderlies and the Inmates. Leo later tells Daniel to get into the back of a Trashmaster, as it is the ticket to get them out despite the horrible smell of trash.

Daniel later wants to find out the truth about his past but Leo tries to convince him not to while they are being chased by the Project, as a manhunt for them is occurring. Leo helps Daniel escape and kill many of the Project hitmen including the dog-named Watchdogs and Bloodhounds, until Leo tells Danny they need to go after Dr. Henry Pickman, while Leo really just wants the Pickman Bridge removed so he can be free. Leo accidentally kills Pickman when the doctor utters the secret verse meant to fully control the dangerous man. After this, they hide themselves for weeks until they are eventually found by the Bloodhounds in the TVMK Studio.

After Daniel is suddenly injected by Dr. Whyte, she reveals what Leo did to his wife, revealing that he was betraying him all along, and he fights Leo in his mind. Leo tries to defend himself by spawning the memories of Hunters and other people Daniel kills, as hostiles blocking his path, including Michael, Dr. Pickman, and even his wife. Daniel, who successfully buries his wife, soon encounters and ultimately kills Leo with a Shovel while screaming his name at him, destroying Leo's personality once and for all and becomes free at last.

Alternate Ending[]

In the alternate, non-canon ending, Daniel locks Leo inside a cell in his mind to rot, as instructed by Dr. Whyte. However, unknown to Daniel, Leo breaks free from his cell and kills all the Legion members guarding his mind. Leo then reaches Daniel to battle him in a large circular room before ultimately killing him and saying that he won, destroying Daniel's personality. With Daniel dead, Leo finally takes complete control of his body, thus destroying Lamb's identity and the Bridge altogether. When Daniel (Leo) wakes up and looks in the mirror, he sees his reflection looking back at him, meaning Kasper has fully taken over and is now free.

Notable Murders Committed[]

Session with Dr. Whyte[]

 	Leo_Kasper_session 	 			  

Beta[]

  • In the beta version of the game, Leo was different. His clothing remains the same but his face was altered, with less details, seemingly younger.
  • Leo originally wore his Dixmor outfit throughout the entire game, like in the Wii version.

Gallery[]

Other[]

Trivia[]

  • On the PC/PS2/PSP versions, during the flashback missions, Leo wears a brown outfit with a brown T-shirt and brown khakis pants. However, this outfit does not appear on the Wii and he is always wearing his green Dixmor outfit. Though, it can still be seen in a screenshot on the back of the game's box and in the instruction manual.
  • As Leo was born in 1972, he is 35 years of age. This also means he was 29 during the flashbacks.
  • Originally, some Legion members looked just like Leo, and Leo himself looked different, as aforementioned. The early Legion design later went to Leo in the final game, and these Legion models were removed.
  • Leo shares the similar role of Lionel Starkweather of watching Daniel Lamb's every move and demands him to execute Hunters, as well as being the main antagonist.
  • As part of the game's media, the Manhunt 2 website has several files of the Project's wicked experiments. One of these experiments, called "Pravitas 0", entails a patient with acute Antisocial Personality Disorder who is subjected to disfiguring and horrifically painful surgeries in order to see if the extreme pain and subsequent ostracization by other patients would influence increased aggression and violent behavior, with the experiment being successful. There is a medical chart that displays all the surgeries performed at the end of the file; the same chart is in Leo's file in the game manual, implying Leo was the subject for the experiment. This would very likely explain his deep hatred and desire for revenge towards the Project, and his violently unstable personality as well.
  • Leo Kasper bears a resemblance to Claude, the main protagonist of Grand Theft Auto III.
  • Of the two playable characters in Manhunt 2, Leo is much closer to Manhunt's James Earl Cash in terms of personality and combat experience than Daniel. Unlike Cash, however, Leo is more sadistic and has no moral compass between good and evil.
  • His first name Leo, is similar to Starkweather's first name, Lionel, as the word Lion is part of his name, and Leo coincidentally shares his name with the zodiac sign Leo, which is symbolically represented by a lion.
  • His surname, Kasper, might be a reference towards his true nature in the context of Manhunt 2, of it being a variation of the name "Casper", like the titular protagonist of the Casper the Friendly Ghost series. Leo Kasper himself is theoretically dead, while his mind remains alive as a part of Daniel Lamb due to the Pickman Bridge, enabling him to interact with the world while still being dead, thus, making him a ghost of sorts and a habit for Daniel to deal with. This is supported by whenever Daniel (as the player) sees Leo, he has a demonic two-tone voice.
  • In the game's cutscenes, Leo's boots are tucked into his pants.
  • Like Lionel Starkweather, Leo too can be seen as a metaphorical representation of players. In this case, the player is somebody who forces a character who is intended to be the heroic character, Daniel Lamb, to unnecessarily commit atrocities that can be avoided for the sake of their entertainment. Unlike Lionel in Manhunt, however, Leo is just a sadist and doesn't get any sort of sexual satisfaction from watching Daniel executing his victims.
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