Leonard Friedman

Leonard Friedman is a character and antagonist in ObsCure and ObsCure II. He is the twin brother of Herbert Friedman, the principal of Leafmore, and co-founder of Leafmore High in 1902.

He injected himself with the unfinished Anti-Aging Serum, and exposed himself to light without knowing the consequences. His Mutation is unique due to his unregulated exposure to light.

Backstory
Leonard and his twin brother Herbert were born in the late 1800s and went on to become well know in field of Plant Biology and Virology. The two brothers were close and had a shared loved for science as well as Africa, which is where they spent a lot of time collecting unknown plant specimens, specifically the Mortifilia. They experimented with the plant in the hopes that its longevity and regenerative properties could be transferred to the human body.

They tried unsuccessfully to gain recognition and grants for their work, which was rejected as the experiments were considered morally and spiritually controversial. The brothers needed a way to test what they had created without anyone knowing, and in a desperate attempt to prove his theory, Leonard injected himself with the spores and exposed himself to light. Unfortunately the spores reacted in a way that neither of the twins expected.

Mutation
Leonard's mutation became obvious on March 24th 1903 after he injected himself with the Anti-Aging serum. His skin started developing Melanomas that later scabbed over, and began to resemble tree bark, and his skeleton became wider, and His condition started to mimic the genetic disorder Xeroderma Pigmentosum. Around April 18th, Leonard decided to stay inside away from the sun to try and stop his mutation, but the damage had already been done, and he was still mutating.

False death
Leonard is said to have been last seen in 1921.

In 1968, a newspaper article was published he lost control of an airplane and died at sea near Long Island, with his brother Herbert being the only survivor. However, there was no body or evidence of an airplane found.

Confinement
At some point after his mutation started spiraling out of control, Herbert locked Leonard in Leafmore High school's basement, where he continued to mutate to the point of growing large roots, and becoming very tree-like, and less humanoid in bodily structure.

Before he lost the ability to write, he wrote a small document (found in ObsCure II) detailing how he was stuck at Leafmore Highschool, and that he was mutating as a result of Injecting himself with the Anti-Aging serum. He expected that instead of just continuing to mutate, that eventually he'd die as a result of his mutations.

His roots would grow larger, and larger, and began digging into the floor, and ceiling under the gym, which would cause it to collapse later on at the end of the game.

He lost a majority of his human attributes, only having his face, and brain left, however just like Xeroderma Pigmentosum, Leonard's mental status also began to decline. He became much angrier than before, and his ability to properly speak had become compromised, and he was only able to communicate in loud roaring noises.

Death
After the murder of his brother by Daniel Walden, he killed the former teacher and was eventually directly confronted by the infected teenagers. Despite his best efforts to kill them, they had already destroyed the roots that suspended him to the ceiling. This caused a large portion of the gym to collapse, seemingly killing him. However, Leonard was not dead. Due to the destruction of the roots binding him and the now collapsed ceiling, he managed to rise from the lab to the gym to confront the remaining cured teenagers. In a blind rage he exposed himself to the rays of morning light to finish them off, but eventually his body began to break down and burn, ending his torment.

ObsCure II
Leonard makes an appearance in Obscure II with his son Jedidiah who was most likely conceived after his infection with the spores resulting in Jedidiah's deformities. Even though he appeared to have died in Obscure a part of the tree he became must have lived on and grew from what was left. A theory of this could be that the tree and Leonard were a separate entity and after Leonard's body was destroyed what was left continued to grow and what was left was mistaken by his son as his father.

Leonard is revealed to be the secondary antagonist of the story, as he was the source of the flowers that had been infecting the town. He is eventually killed again by Stan Jones and Corey Wilde, who cut off the three main roots of his body, causing him to bleed to death. Enraged, Jedidiah attacks Corey with an anguished scream, only to be violently killed with his signature weapon: a chainsaw.

His residence is also explored in the game.

Final Exam
Leonard appears in the ObsCure semi-remake Final Exam, alongside his brother. Like in the original game, he is mutated to an extreme extent and resides in a huge chamber beneath the gym in Leafmore. He is the final boss of Final Exam.

Trivia

 * Stan in the second game refers to him as Herbert instead of Leonard, calling him the "Crazy principal who injected them the Mortifilia". This is obviously wrong, because the one who infected them was Herbert and he wasn't mutated into a monster as stated above. It's unknown whether or not this was an actual mistake by the developers or just a bad interpretation of the incident by Stan himself.