Leonof the Puppet-Master

Leonof is patient, calculating and comfortable attacking indirectly. Rather than simply sending weapons toward Vash, he exploits the human instinct to recognize and trust familiar faces, making his puppets psychologically dangerous as well as physically threatening.

He can remain composed while coordinating operations from far outside the immediate battlefield. This distance allows him to observe his targets and communicate information to his allies without exposing himself.

The manga gives his obsession with puppetry a deeply personal dimension. His former life and feelings for Isabel remain buried beneath the identity he has assumed as Leonof.

Leonof is a master puppeteer capable of controlling multiple artificial bodies across enormous distances. His humanoid creations are sufficiently realistic to be mistaken for living people, while his other constructs include birds used for surveillance.

He can see through a puppet's eyes and speak through it, turning his creations into remote extensions of his own senses. Lurald is one such lifelike puppet, while Unica is used to communicate with Legato.

His puppets can also imitate specific people. This permits Leonof to infiltrate protected communities and create assassination opportunities that conventional attackers could not easily reach.

Leonof is introduced among the Gung-Ho Guns and participates in the campaign against Vash. In the 1998 anime, his control of Lurald during the New Oregon conflict quietly establishes that he has resumed tracking Vash.

He later joins the operation against the floating SEEDS community alongside Gray the Ninelives and Hoppered the Gauntlet. His puppets infiltrate the ship while Nicholas D. Wolfwood and Vash attempt to identify the attackers.

The manga reveals that Leonof is Emilio, a man Vash knew decades earlier. Emilio loved Isabel, and after her death his grief became intertwined with his obsession with puppetry; he ultimately turned Isabel's body into a puppet.

Vash the Stampede is Leonof's target. In the manga, Vash recognizes that Leonof is Emilio, someone he knew many years before.

Isabel was the woman Emilio loved. After her death, Leonof preserved her body as a puppet, and references to her can provoke an intense emotional reaction from him.

Legato Bluesummers directs the Gung-Ho Guns' operations, and Leonof communicates reports to him through his puppets.

Lurald and Unica are among Leonof's named puppets.

Jessica is targeted during the attack on the floating ship. Leonof kidnaps her and substitutes a puppet made to look like her.

Brad encounters the false Jessica. He shields Vash from the puppet's gunfire and is killed.

Nicholas D. Wolfwood hunts Leonof during the attack. In the 1998 anime, Wolfwood kills Leonof with the Punisher after discovering what happened to Brad.