#Also I love how Ada protects Sherry and Jake

[sapphire-weapon]

I don’t know if this was already mentioned but I love how Ashley was able to bring Leon’s true rookie personality from re2r. In re2r, when Leon took the bullet for ada, ada helped him bandage his arm while he was unconscious. When leon woke up he felt empathy for her and that is when he began to fully trust and protect her. So his main focus is to search and rescue her. Then when ada ended up stabbed in the leg, leon did everything to heal her and even offered her to grab his shoulder to help her walk (although ada denied it because she probably thought he wanted to get too close with her in which she was trying to avoid). This is when we could tell leon started to grow a close attachment to her. But ada betraying him is when he lost all his trust on her but he still wanted to save her because Leon is the type of person to save as much lives as he can (hero type).

In re4r, leon and ashley had a personal (heart to heart) talk in which leon tells her that she can’t run and she has to keep moving forward to overcome the scary situation they’re in. He tells her that they will beat it together (giving her hope and motivation that Leon has her back and Ashley would also have his back too). Leon needs her as much as she needs him to escape the hell they are in (similar to ada and Leon in re2r). THEN, when leon got trapped in a bird cage, leon told her to run and save herself. Ashley told herself that she won’t run ( she took his words by heart). After she found her way towards him, he was surprised and relief that she was okay and was able to figure out a way to get to him. Ashley was also determined in finding a key and tossing it to him. This is when Leon knew he could fully trust her in surviving together and also protect each other. AFTER HE CAUGHT THE KEY, we witness re2r leon coming out when he offered to catch her from that height (it was so rookie of him lol). This is when we could tell leon started to grow a very close attachment to her. And Ashley accepted it and seemed startled lol (who wouldn’t be caught off guard if Leon offers to catch you 😅). Leon also looked happy to be able to be right by her side again (but you know resident evil loves to torture romance in which Ashley got kidnapped and leon couldn’t be able to catch her in his arms.)

I’m actually glad they removed Leon’s og line “she’s a part of me that I can’t let go” about ada. The Leon in 4remake is giving “shes somebody that I used to know” regarding ada. Ashley and Leon’s relationship seems like the new (healthy) beginning in the remakes. Ashley literally heals Leon mentally by being his first to be rescued by him. Ada is like a reminder to Leon about his failure in raccoon city.

if they remake re6 how would ada and Leon’s relationship be like. Do you think they would changed the story completely or try to stick with the og but have minor changes? Maybe add Ashley like in hunnigan’s position. I can imagine leon flirting with Ashley on call like he did with hunnigan in og re4 😅

Before I answer this, I really need to beg you guys to stop trying to replace other female characters with Ashley. The way to make room for another female character is not by pushing pre-existing ones out. It's by just making room for her.

Like, I don't want Ashley replacing anyone, but it does bother me that I never see anyone say something like "maybe Ashley can take Jake's place and be Sherry's partner in RE6." It's always another woman that needs to sort of be shoved out of Leon's life.

We have talked about this a little bit (one, two, three) in the past, but I don't think that RE2make Leon ever actually trusted Ada, and I don't think that RE4make Leon ever distrusted Ashley.

In RE2make, when Leon says he desperately wanted to trust Ada but never actually did -- I believe him. Because you see his attitude towards her sort of ebb and flow throughout the game. The part where they're both injured up until the kiss on the shuttle is what I'd probably refer to as Leon's highest point of delusion -- it's the point in which he's able to lie to himself convincingly enough that he's almost started to believe that she is who she says she is -- but only almost. That little voice of doubt is still ever-present in the back of his mind; it's just very quiet at that point.

And for Ashley, it wasn't a matter of trusting her or distrusting her. It was a matter of trusting or distrusting himself. His colossal fuckups in RE2make led to just complete and utter failure on his part over and over again; his poor judgment (as Krauser dutifully points out) only ever got people killed. When he gives Ashley that pep talk, he's not just trying to help her out -- he's really taking a chance and a gamble here. He's making the judgment call to give her advice, when he hasn't yet walked away from a single mission with his head held high.

So, when he's stuck in that cage, I'd really be willing to bet he was second-guessing himself big time, there. If Ashley dies, that's his fault. It's his fault for getting trapped, and it's his fault for trying to get her to be headstrong and courageous in a situation like this. So, to see her alive and with the key to his freedom -- that's probably the best Leon has felt about himself in years. He hasn't completely fucked up. She's okay. And maybe he can really do this.

So when we say that Ashley brings Leon back to himself, it's such a layered statement to make, actually. It's not just his softness and his kindness and his vulnerability that she brings out of him. It's his ability to trust in and maybe even like himself again -- in a way opposite of how the events of Raccoon City and all that followed made him start to hate himself.

[acidh2otoby]

Resident Evil Sexuality / Identity Headcanons, part 2

Ingrid Hunnigan

Lesbian / Female

Hunnigan is a strong headed lesbian that falls under the more masculine side but still identifies as female

Any time Leon tried to flirt with her in the beginning, she wanted to jab in his face but couldn't because he was in a different location

The only reason Leon stopped was because Hunnigan made the small joke after one of his flirts saying, "I pull more girls than you without all the stupid pick up lines"

Jake Muller

??????

It must be a Wesker thing because Jake confuses me as well

From one point of view I think "There really isn't enough screen time between him and any other character other than Sherry or Chris, who Jake clearly has a rivalry with"

From the other I think "But there's a chance he's queer of some kind"

But I honestly don't know...

Jill Valentine

Lesbian / Non-binary

You cannot tell me that Mx. Valentine is not a lesbian that doesn't identify as a specific gender

Like, c'mon, LOOK AT THEM

That was theirs and Chris' bonding in S.T.A.R.S. was both of them finding out they were attracted to opposite genders and Jill being non-binary

That's why they're both tight with each other because gays protect each other, it's a code

Karl Heisenberg

GAY / Male

If you think Heisenberg is straight, you are fucking mental

The part of his greatest plan of getting his revenge on Mother Miranda(r) that he didn't tell Ethan was trying to win his heart and running away with him, CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE

The moment Heisenberg saw Ethan, he thought, "I'mma make this bitch mine"

Leon Kennedy

(I love him and his stupid food-loving ass)

Bisexual / TRANSGENDER (female-to-male)

Leon's bisexuality has a preference, a preference for men, Ada is his only exception otherwise, he'd be gay

He's SO TRANS, it baffles my mind how much transness oozes off of him

Leon's flirting isn't to necessarily gain a female's attraction but more-so just because it boosts his ego just a bit because he knows he's hot

Piers Nivans

GAY / TRANSGENDER (female-to-male)

Riddle me this, Batman... have you, in your entire life, met ANYONE with the name Piers?

Doubt it, Piers rats out his identity faster than a bullet from his sniper

Also, he's SO in love with Chris, it's so fucking obvious

I said it once and I'll say it again, FRIENDS DON'T LOOK AT FRIENDS THE WAY PIERS LOOKS AT CHRIS

Rebecca Chambers

Aroace / Non-binary

I never remember Rebecca ever trying to gain anyone's attraction on purpose and actually kind of avoided it

They had love for people, but never romantic, they looked at Chris like he was a big brother and not a potential boyfriend

They didn't even show any attraction to Billy, who was more than nice to them while my dumbass was wishing I was getting saved by Billy every 20 seconds

Also, Rebecca being non-binary just clicks in my brain a certain way that works for me

Rosemary Winters

Pansexual / Genderfluid

Rose doesn't quite understand why it should matter who you're attracted to and even got into a few arguments about it

Being born from someone that had a virus also fucked up her genes pretty good, they were born female but their puberty process and mental gender never matched

They never blamed their dad for the weirdness of going through puberty but they did find it a bit annoying

Sherry Birkin

Straight / Transgender (male-to-female)

Sherry started her transition really early and didn't even realize what it was until she was in her 20s

It was also William that helped her be comfortable with herself even as a kid, because Annette sure wasn't about to

Leon made sure that she was okay with herself as well whenever he saw her

Sherry was able to twist her words to be able to get surgeries from the government for free, making excuses that missions would be hard if she didn't have the right kind of body

Sheva Alomar

Bisexual / Female

Sheva also has a bisexual preference, she prefers women over men

Not to say there's only one guy keeping her bi but she's threatened past boyfriends with it, makes her laugh every time

She definitely had a crush on both Chris and Jill in the beginning but it calmed down when she had to actually work with them (mainly Chris)

Steve Burnside

(I RAN OUT OF FUCKING PICTURES OF USE IN THIS STORY AND HE'S THE LAST CHARACTER FUCK!!!)

Bisexual / Transgender (female-to-male)

I think we can all agree that there was definitely something queer with Steve in all versions of him

Steve doesn't have a specific preference and is kind of a hopeless romantic

The sad thing about Steve that kinda separates him from the other trans characters here is that he never got a full transition before he died 🥲

Did I ads that part to make people feel sad for him again? Yes I did because I genuinely liked his character

[skyisover]

Thank you for answering my previous question, the one about Sherry. I personally dislike Resi 6, and I must admit that I’ve only so far played Leon’s campaign. But seeing your thoughts over Jake’s, I am assuming (?), really opens a new perspective for me. I’d like to hear more of your opinions on the 《 reimagined 》 characters of the re2make, and since you mentioned that you like her as a child, how do you feel about her character there, and about her family?~

aw thank you anon!! you’re very sweet! and yes, i’ve played all the campaigns through completely with the exception of ada’s, which i never finished because i did nothing but dredge through 6 for over a day and i was DONE lol. leon’s campaign is definitely the strongest and the only one i actually had fun (sometimes) playing lmao!!

capcom deserves praise where it’s due, i think they fucking nailed r2make. i play it all the time; i’m literally playing it right now! it’s one of my fave games. sherry is a tiny badass in it, too; in the first she was characterized as a lot younger (and i still have a hard time believing she’s 12, i’d say she’s around 8-10, 12 is just a little old with how she’s consistently written imo), but she’s smart and cool and i love her dynamic with claire. you get the sense that they really care for one another and rely on each other to get through raccoon, and i love that. claire is def a big sister to her in 2, but i like to imagine she becomes a bit more of a mother figure as they both get older.

i don’t know if you followed my old blog or follow my resi sideblog ( @lesbianjillvalentines !!) but if you have youve probably seen how much i love the birkins. annette reminds me of my mom a little bit (not in the neglectful way LOL i just look at her and i see my mom, which makes her death scene really tough). i love annette, i wish she had been in other games; i get the feeling she bought way less into umbrella’s brainwashing than will and albert did. william is a genius, obviously, but also incredibly gullible and blinded by his work and eventually his creation. he’s a comfort character for me. annette seemed much more aware; separating “herself” from “umbrella”, something will was never able to do no matter how much he tried. considering what umbrella did to him and to all their youth scientists, it makes sense. annette’s redemption to protect her daughter is the most remarkable thing about her character to me. even dying of severe internal trauma and bleeding she made her way to sherry so the last thing she was ever able to do was save her life and to try and right the wrongs she’d done to sherry in life. you can’t change what you’ve done but you can decide what you’re going to do, and annette embodies that for me. even when she fights against ada (no shade, i adore ada), she is fighting for the greater good, trying to destroy the G-Virus and make sure it never makes it into the wrong hands again after what happened to her husband and the city. i admire her tenacity and dedication.

william is... well, he’s a lot. he gets very little screen time, but is one of the most iconic and influential characters in the franchise. his shadow looms over the rest of the games in the series, imo even more than albert’s. i mean, he is the reason for the leak of the G-Virus into RC! he is responsible for the majority of what happened to lisa trevor! he’s the one person who was ever able to truly rival albert wesker the way he wanted to be rivaled, the only one who could truly match him in a way chris and jill could not. william, however, was ultimately prey to his own machinations and was destroyed by the thing he loved the most. it’s karmaic when you consider the horrible things he’s done. “G is my creation” is one of the most heartbreaking and chilling scenes i’ve seen in a game, one desperate man’s last stand. he “survived” but he was dead the moment he injected himself with G. like annette, i like to remember william a specific way; tearing out the heart of a tyrant to protect his little girl before G consumed him completely and he became nothing more than a vessel for one of the most deadly creatures who ever lived. i know you asked about r2make specifically and i’m sorry my followers for this long ass post but simply. i must talk about them

[rpdwong]

[LET’S TALK RE2MAKE] Claire, Sherry (+ Leon) and Found Families

The Found Family trope is probably one of my favourite fictional tropes. Give me those relationships where a group of characters with nothing in common find each other and they become “home” and support each other, no matter what. It’s a powerful message: you choose your family. If you’re lucky, you might have a nice biological family that loves you. But that’s not always the case, and people should bond over something more than their blood ties. I think Claire and Sherry’s (and Leon to some extent) story in RE2 rings very true to this trope, and I was looking forward to watching how it developed in the RE2make.

Once again, I was happily surprised—to the point where I was almost teary eyed at certain scenes. I love Resident Evil with all my heart, and I cry at literally everything, but RE doesn’t usually have dramatic tension or sadness that hits that hard. But Claire’s scenario in RE2make did manage to get me and man, Claire and Sherry deserve a hug, a shower, all the puppies and parrots.

Sherry’s strangled relationship with her parents was explored in the original game. But, as I mentioned in my previous Let’s Talk RE2make about Ada and Leon, the game had its shortcomings when it comes to storytelling, simply because it’s a product of its time. I know RE2make is probably not most narrative driven game (we have BioWare games and, even though I haven’t played all of their games, I know Naughty Dog is praised for this) and it could do better, but when it comes to Resident Evil it IS a huge improvement—and this shows with Sherry’s character as well as Annette.

You see the strained relationship between mother and daughter in their brief encounters, you can also see that the Birkins were REALLY shitty parents, but Annette did care about her daughter—though that doesn’t really excuse her behaviour, but people are complicated and this is how it is.

So we have this poor little girl with huge abandonment issues, running around a police station looking for her mom, though she knows Annette doesn’t always have time for her (you might think NOW she should). But she is scared, she’s been chased by a monster (and as far as I remember, I think she’s aware the monster is William, right?? I really need to replay all scenarios, just writing all this  from memory), alone and defenseless…

And then she meets Claire.

I think it’s important to highlight that Claire is also very young here, just 19 years old. A BABY AS WELL. We know she’s capable of looking out for herself, but it’s still a terrible situation, she might even be still worrying about Chris’ whereabouts here (depending on which scenario you play). But Claire, despite having no obligation to take care of Sherry, looks after her and decides to help her find her mom/escape.

Claire even takes it upon herself to save her from Irons. Again, Claire could just have walked out once she makes it out of the station—but she doesn’t. So, for once, there is somebody there for Sherry. Someone she can rely upon and trust, who makes her feel protected, as any child should (especially in a situation like this).

When Claire rescues Sherry from the dumpster, after she’s been infected, Sherry asks her why Claire is doing all this. Claire answers: “Because I care.” Then I start crying, because this is so beautiful. It’s not that Annette doesn’t care, we know she does in some way—but she’s still terrible with Sherry (that conversation they have over the CCTV makes me want to punch Annette so, so badly)  when the girl needs her the most, needs that reassurance that “hey, everything’s going to be fine”.

Claire is the one who gives her that, who genuinely cares about her and shows it. It’s great that Claire also calls out Annette on her shitty behavior a few times (when she finds Sherry and later on before fighting G 3). When they’re on the cable car, Claire wants to give her the pendant back. Sherry rejects it, because it was a gift given by her mother, when all she wanted was for her to be home and spend time with her. It’s a sort of memento of everything that’s wrong between mother and daughter, in some way. Doesn’t help that, later on, we find out the pendant is the key to get the vaccine. We could say this is Annette’s saving her daughter in some way, but I also think it’s just another link to Annette and William’s job, which was the problem in the first place.

In the end, the bond Sherry and Claire develop is that of a newfound family. Thankfully, for the first time, Capcom has given us confirmation on what the hell happened to Chris and Claire’s parents, and we know they died in a car accident. So she only had her brother as family, which is why Chris is so important to her. The reason she travelled to Raccoon City because she hadn’t heard about him in a whole month. Maybe she even knew about the mansion incident, so she was getting worried something might’ve happened (though I don’t think Chris would tell her much, just to protect her).

But the thing here is that Sherry doesn’t even have a Chris. She has nobody, she’s alone. Claire can relate to being parentless, that’s why she bonds with Sherry (as she tells her to comfort her at the beginning). But, just as she had Chris, Sherry deserves that one person she can trust and rely upon—and that’s her now. They become family during this terrible experience, because Claire moved heaven and hell to save Sherry when no one else did. She was there for her when it mattered, unlike her parents (disclaimer: even though I really like Annette’s evolution in this game and she’s a good character, you can see I hold a grudge against her— it made me so angry how she treated Sherry!).

Now, I mentioned Leon in regards to the Found Family trope, because I think he more or less is a part of it. Leon, Claire, Sherry and Ada are all the “original” Raccoon City survivors (we have Jill afterwards, but since her story is completely isolated from RE2 and in a different game, I don’t think it counts for this). Ada’s a complicated case because of her role in the story and she only makes contact with Leon (except for that tiny moment in the original, where she retrieves Sherry’s pendant) and she doesn’t actually escape with them.

But Leon and Claire are our heroes, they make it out alive of Raccoon City and they help Sherry in the process. Even though in the RE2make Leon and Claire interact way less than in the original, and Leon doesn’t even meet Sherry until the very end, I think that last scene still resonates in the audience as a family moment, in which Leon is included.

In the original it’s all fun and games, until Leon says the “It’s up to us to take out Umbrella” or Claire says “I have to find my brother”. They have made it all more light hearted and fun in the RE2make, which I also think is much more realistic than just HEY WE HAVE TO BRING UMBRELLA DOWN or Claire immediately leaving, as RE3’s epilogue implied. After all she’s done for Sherry, she wouldn’t just leave her like that.

I have heard of two main criticism regarding the ending I’d like to address before finishing up this thing:

a) Sherry is way too cheerful after having just lost both her parents (and especially her mom, whose death affects her more). I can understand this and it is a valid complain, but I also think it could be a coping mechanism. That’s why she even jokes with the “You guys could adopt me!” because now she’s lost her real family, but has found a new one in Claire, and hey, this new guy seems to be on Claire’s good side and he’s helping and taking her to safety. I mean, I’d LOVE to be adopted by Leon and Claire, who wouldn’t??? I also think this is a case of Resident Evil not being ever really 100% down to Earth. RE endings always end up in a hopeful note, sometimes even cheesy. It’s a way to comfort the player as well, after all the terrible things we’ve been through with our characters. I think this is just another version of that, and it’s so beautiful to watch Leon and Claire holding Sherry’s hands and walking into the sunset. There might be problems ahead, but hey, they made it out! They are alive! It’s less cut and dry than the original, and it gives you a feeling that they’ve all bonded over this experience. And this is so fitting with what we know from RE6 Sherry. She talks about Leon and Claire with the utmost admiration, tells Jake they’re the reason she’s alive and she just wants to live up to their example. I think this ending resonates with that feeling she shares in RE6 and it’s beautiful.

b) Capcom is pushing Leon/Claire as a pairing. Ok, let’s open this can of worms. First of all: I hate shipwars, they are pointless and a waste of precious fandom time, and I don’t ship Leon and Claire, never have in my whole life, but I do see the appeal and it’s clear some of their interactions in the remake are kinda flirty. And this is all fine. Now, I don’t think their interactions at the end are the flirty ones. 

When Claire jokes about the “one helluva first date”, she’s answering Leon’s comment when Sherry asks them about the girlfriend/boyfriend thing (where he points out they’ve just met, literally). Then Leon’s answer to Claire is clearly a reference to what has actually happened to him with Ada. That being said, Capcom was probably teasing the idea in a fan servicy way, but it’s still all in-character. Sherry’s the one pushing all those things here, and it can be explained because she’s just a 12 years old girl and is wondering who Leon is and why Claire knows him, since they’re happy to see each other alive. Hence the adoption comment later on. Sherry craves a family and, right now, these two people are practically her world after having suffered terrible things. 

I do see Leon and Claire as sort of parental figures to Sherry, or at least the big sister/brother vibe, but that doesn’t mean Capcom is pushing anything here, IMO. My only gripe with all this is that I liked the idea of Claire being one of the few female characters that had  0 romantic tension with Leon, but still I don’t think we can call it that since they barely interact and it was just flirty banter. (I do enjoy, though, that their interactions are friendlier than in the original and they keep cheering each other up with those “We’re gonna make it!!). And hey, they’re both VERY PRETTY. If I were Leon, I’d get all flustered around Claire and viceversa. As some people have pointed out, both characters have a record of being flirty in general with other people, so this isn’t out of character for them either. In any case, I don’t think this is what’s happening in the ending scene and, even though it’s a nice fan service moment for people who do ship Leon and Claire, it can be seen just as a easily as a Found Family moment without any romantic connotations. Both work perfectly and leave every fan happy, no need for ship dramas. They ruin everything and it’s not worth it.

Seriously, that image of the three of them walking together into the sunset, holding hands fills my heart with happiness <3 Whether you ship one thing or another, don’t let anyone or anything rob you of the beauty this moment holds for Resident Evil history.