#Chris looked more like himself than re7 that was fucked up

[messenger-of-babel]

Till Death Do Us Part

Summary: Chris is plagued by memories, nightmares, and the dream of you. (Chris Redfield x reader)

Word Count: 2.8K

Notes: UNIT OF A MAN CHRIS REDFIELD. I love how he looks in Re8 (re7 Chris broke my heart and cut the brakes on my car fr). Veryyy minor language, I swore like once. It's funny I came here to be a resi blog and look at how the turn tables. Anyways, Chris stans rise up y'all are so nice~ xx

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Alone in the car, Chris was left with his thoughts a little longer than he would have liked.

Thumbing the lighter, he brings the flickering flame to his mouth, lighting the stick that hung from the press of his lips. With a deep inhale and slow close of his eyes, he lets the nicotine work its way around his system, blissfully whisking the worries from his mind. His muscles loosen under the layers of tactical and cold weather gear, finger relaxing on the gun trigger and letting the weapon rest in his lap. These were the moments that Chris Redfield let the memories catch up with him.

 His team was setting up in their operation in Miranda’s village, voices occasionally cutting in through his radio, but they didn’t need him right now. He could have a moment to himself among the chaos of it all, and deep down he knew his team gave him the space deliberately. For a moment, he stopped running for just a second and let his mistakes settle in.

Most of the time he thought of Piers.

He thought of the young man who came to him all those years ago and dragged him out of the pit he had dug himself into. The stern face of the young soldier who tore away the coffin lid of alcohol and blacking out in alleyways, pulling him back into the light. Who made him a captain again, who never gave up on him. The very same friend who pushed himself past the limits of being human to save Chris. To save the world.

When he was younger and more guilt ridden, he had played out the 'what if' scenarios like clockwork. What Piers would be doing now if he was alive, if Chris had been able to hand the mantle over to him like he intended. It had morphed into what Piers might have done if Chris had died instead, taken his place in the escape pod and been granted the chance to see the sun again. It was endless nights of lost sleep; the dreams being replaced with nightmares every time he thought of one of those situations. His sanity and his mind hung on by a thread in those moments, doing everything he could to not relapse into the place he was before Piers. He slipped more often than he'd like, but the seared face of Piers haunted the back of his eyelids like a ghost, and eventually, he always put the bottle back down.

The second person he thought of was Jill.

She was still alive, but not the same person she had been back in S.T.A.R.S. He couldn’t blame her though; he was hardly the same either. He was more rugged, more gruff, weather beaten and fucking tired. Despite the times she caught his gaze and bluntly told him to stop worrying, he never really could. She was like his lifeline back to the Chris of the past, where he cracked smiles more often than not and spent time making jokes at the captains expense. That kind of Chris who was young and full of cheek, brimming with the audacity of youth.

and with youth came naivety and innocence.

Joining the S.T.A.R.S team as ex-military he thought he had seen everything, which had given him the boisterous ego infamous among the RPD. The fact that he missed that naivety drew a copper taste to his mouth, forcing himself to swallow and take another drag of the cigarette. Back when Wesker was Captain Wesker, and Chris's loyalty was intact and oblivious to the sting of betrayal. When he still had Barry and Dewey and Dooley and Brad. Things were simpler, despite how often he liked to brag about what went on in his job. Yet at the end of the day, he was still passionate about serving and protecting the people he loved. He thought he was making a difference.

Jill never said outright that she was mad at him, she was his partner after all. Guilt had clawed way for a burning rage when he thought he had lost her, settling in his chest like a poison. Then she had come back, with a fire in her eyes that spoke to kill him. They had worked their differences out over the years, overcoming the scars of that ordeal together. The mansion, the canyon, the incident in Africa, all of those they had talked past with more than a bottle of whisky between them, and for like a small moment it was like it had never happened. They moved forward, together. stronger. He was more grateful for her company and support than he showed, and he knew that Jill would be uncomfortable if he brought it up.

Currently his mind was stuck on Ethan.

Ethan Winters, who he had lied to about the situation involving his family. He knew that Ethan deserved to know, deserved to know about Mia, his daughter Rose. Maybe his heart had gotten more and more calloused over the years, building slowly till he felt very little at all. It was so easy to make the calls, to think of the bigger picture all the time. For the greater good of the world, unable to see the pain he caused when he took away the only world that Ethan cared about.

And now Ethan was fighting tooth and nail to get it back.

Chris respected how the man had marched bravely into the face of death for the sake of his family, to get back his daughter. Even though Chris had warned him not to and Ethan caused an insurmountable amount of inconvenience in his wake; Chris respected him. He knew that Ethan would unlikely forgive him when he found everything out, would curse him for hurting who he had thought were his loved ones. Chris knew he had failed him already, so the sting of that thought had dulled each hour he spent in this cursed village. The village that Ethan Winters was currently burning down in the name of love.

Chris wanted to shake the man down, to tell him to stop fighting and to let him and his team handle it. That his emotions were getting the better of him, and he wasn't going to get anywhere with just willpower and a handgun. He wanted nothing more than to tell him he was being an idiot, and that Chris himself would never make such stupid decisions. Yet he couldn't make the words form in his mind, knowing he himself had been just like him once, willing to throw himself in the way of everything for one person.

You.

Chris had made many mistakes in his life, but you never were one. If anything, you were the one thing that was going right for him when everything seemed wrong. When he had come knocking on your door late at night, worn out from work, you always welcomed him in with a warm smile. No one knew about you two, and that's the way both of you preferred to keep it. You were a regular cop working with the RPD, letting you both trade glances with each other in the hallways and a few too many stolen kisses in the evidence room. He had a faint feeling that Jill suspected something, but if she knew she never said.

He loved how warm you were, how kind-hearted. Late nights lying in your bed talking about life, the past and the future. Leaning over his chest with sparkling eyes one night, you had told him why you had become an officer. Something with a wage big enough to pay for your two younger sister's tuition, so they wouldn't have to face the level of poverty you had. Something that could help others get off the streets, keep the kids safe and away from the drugs and addictions that plagued Raccoon's backstreets. With a soft smile on your lips, you told him of how you wanted to buy your mother a bigger house one day, with enough money sent home each week that she would never have to wonder if she could afford heat in winter again.

His breath was stolen at the genuine way you told him of your childhood, your upbringing and struggles. The way your eyes still glimmered with life after everything, that you were still able to see the good in things. The way that you used it to make yourself stronger. Although he had been in S.T.A.R.S, in that moment he wanted nothing but to have a fraction of the sheer strength you had.

Then had come the Arklay mission, which he left for so suddenly there was little room for more than a brief peck on the cheek and a reassurance that he would be back. That hadn't been enough to smooth the worry lines from your forehead, but you let him go anyways, fingers uncurling from the material of his uniform. He wished he had looked back just a little longer, held you just a little closer, not knowing that would be the last time he ever saw you.

Of course, everything in Arklay happened, the memory of that making him sigh and tap his fingers restlessly on the windowsill. Another drag of the cigarette brought his shoulders down from bunching near his ears. exhaling the plume slowly, he closed his eyes and let himself indulge in the thought of you. It was nearly your anniversary, a week off in fact. It was the only time he allowed himself to think of you, the only time he could let himself remember the curve of your smile and the glow of your eyes. If you had been allowed to be together, you would be celebrating your 24th anniversary this year. He wondered how many of those you might have been married for, if you would have had children or any on the way. Where you would have moved to, the house you would have wanted, the life you could have built.

But it hadn't worked like that.

He had left to chase Wesker, hoping he could end it quickly and come home to your arms, body tracing its way home like a beacon. He saw traits of himself in the way Ethan fought, fighting for his daughter and wife the same way Chris had fought for you. Instead, all he got was the news of Raccoon being destroyed, and taking his heart with it. His eyes had been locked onto the grainy TV of the European hotel room, shock making tears sting the back of his eyes. He had raced back, Wesker be damned. He could always chase him down again, but you? He didn't think he could survive another night restless like that again.

He had run home like the fear of God was under his feet, eventually finding Jill. It had been an accidental reunion, and he had been more than glad to see her alive. Someone was alive, which meant that there was hope. But when she regarded him with sad eyes and a slight hitch in her tone, he faltered. He wasn't sure if he had ever felt more fear than he did in that moment, vision blurring at the corners as she pulled something from her jacket pocket to give to him.

Maybe Valentine had pieced it together after all.

For all the horrors, monsters and battlefields Chris Redfield had seen, nothing had hurt him more than seeing your badge lying in the middle of her palm. He had demanded answers, not even caring if the tears burnt themselves to the forefront, but Jill refused. her lips were sealed tight, looking down and away from him.

"For your own good." She had said firmly, jaw set tight. "You don't…you don't want to know. They wouldn't have wanted you to know." She said softly, before quietly muttering her apologies. That had sealed the deal for him, heart beating out of time in his chest. All he could do was close his fingers around the cold piece of metal he scooped from her palm, blood stained and sharp.

Chris was no fool. he knew what had happened in Raccoon prior to it being bombed. The terror on the streets, the outbreak that spread like fire. he knew of cops and S.T.A.R.S members alike that turned, but he had always had a hope that you had gotten out. You were smart, so much smarter than him. But as Jill handed him your badge, he knew that no matter how hard he tried to fight it, you were gone.

Not knowing what happened to you exactly ate at him for years, plaguing his nights and soaking his sheets with sweat. It was the same dream, hand extending out towards him, pain written on your face. "Help me." you'd plead to him, over and over. He'd try his best, but he wouldn't be able to stop the way that your skin fell from your bones, melting off your muscles and running blood down your fingertips. He tried to hold you each time, trying to keep you together as you thrashed and screamed. His touch only seemed to make you decay further, skin rippling and warping under his fingertips. With a final ""Help me," you'd lunge for his neck without fail, jerking him upright with wide eyes and a rabbiting heart. He wasn't sure what was worse, wondering if you had turned and gone though the pain of becoming infected, or experienced the horror of watching a bomb come down on you instead of a rescue chopper.

It was too hard to imagine, so over the years he built his own story. It had started originally that you died doing something heroic, saving a family or some poor civilian. That was in your nature, always kind-hearted. It slowly morphed into you fighting for your life, bravely tracking down horde after horde to defend what survivors you could find before taking your last stand, being the hero he knew you to be. However, in his old age those stories lost their shine, and the comfort they brought turned into a grimace. Nothing could take away that you lost your life too young. So now he thought of a different one, a special one he only indulged in for this time of the year.

One where you were waiting at home for him as usual, radiant and beautiful as ever. He'd be able to come back home from this mission, taking his weary body up to your embrace and letting himself rest there as you welcomed him back. Hip popped as you leant against the front porch, wearing the same uniform he had left you in all those years ago. He could gaze into your bright eyes again, cover the smirk on your lips with his own when he kissed you, hand on your waist to remind himself that you were real. He'd take you out to some local restaurant you had both made your favourite, something he imagined you found together when you moved out of the city. In a quieter place like the countryside, just what you wanted. He'd take great pride ordering the meal you liked, something that he knew by heart. It was a dream where he got to see you all dressed up, smiling at him from across the flickering candlelight, reaching over to envelop his hand with yours. Then he would cast his eyes down and see the ring on your finger, filling his heart with warmth.

That was something that his nightmares couldn't even touch. The thought of you becoming a zombie, one of the infected and rotting away in his arms was banished the nights he let him indulge in the fantasy. A world where his leaving hadn't damned you, where his touch still meant promises for the future, not a death sentence.

For a full moment it would all feel warm and vivid and real, as if you had come down from your heavenly seat just to bless him for another moment. In that small corner of his heart, the rot couldn't touch you. You beamed up at him as radiant as the day he left you, a smile forever etched into his mind.

When he opened his eyes next you were gone, and he was back to sitting in the car preparing his assault on Miranda. There was a weak voice in the back of his head telling him that you were still waiting back home and all he had to do was finish this mission. He kept it alive, even through the crackle of the radio as his team patched in; already in position. He crushed out his cigarette, reloading his gun by muscle memory. As he exited the car he cast one look up at the bleak sky before patting the smooth, RPD police badge tucked into the lining of his vest, right over his heart.

"happy anniversary babe." he murmured softly, and he knew somewhere, someplace, you were smiling on the other end.

[sapphicbear]

Finally unblocking the RE8 tag because I finished it 😎

[ragingstillness]

Watching RE7 playthroughs and suddenly got a vision of Ethan not as a BSAA agent but as like a guest lecturer or smtg.

Chris asks Ethan comes in to speak to a class. All the BSAA agents in training are real confused. Ethan comes in looking like a wholeass dad. He’s wearing a pair of square tortoiseshell glasses, a creased button down that he’s tucked tight into khaki shorts with a ton of pockets. He’s carrying a brown briefcase that has seen better days and doesn’t match the brown of his shorts AT ALL.

He kind of stumbles up to the podium. He sets the briefcase down in front of him but doesn’t open it. He leans his hands on the lectern and rocks back and forth on his heels a little. Chris, in the corner of the room, gets a few concerned glances.

Ethan ruffles his hair and pushes his glasses back up his nose. He sniffs. “Alright the first rule to dealing with a situation involving a BOW is to find a weapon—“

He’s interrupted by a student in the front row who says, “Um who are you?”

Another one cuts in. “Yeah why should we listen to you?”

Ethan starts like he’s just remembered he left the stove on. “Sorry sorry I didn’t even introduce myself.” He smiles at them all. “Hi my name is Ethan Winters, I’m a bioweapon—“

Everyone in the class pulls out a gun and one person actually shoots Ethan, hitting him where his heart would be. The class gasps.

“Fuck!” Ethan shouts. Then his shoulder sort of ripples, and kind of spits the bullet out into Ethan’s waiting hand. He looks sheepishly at them all. “Sorry for swearing, that spot’s just been a little tender since Miranda ripped my heart out.”

He couldn’t mean Mother Miranda could he? Rumored to be the true progenitor of all bioweapons? Who enslaved a whole village for over a hundred years? He’s talking about her like she’s his next door neighbor Miranda.

“Oh and Chris knows I’m a bioweapon it’s ok he’s still fine with me being here.” Chris nods his agreement. “Because you see, I’m a rather rare transformed bioweapon. As in, I used to be just as human as all of you, but I came into contact with high concentrations of contaminated material and ended up forcibly changed into a bioweapon by some other BOWs I was fighting.”

The room has gone silent. Everyone’s eyes are wide. They’ve sat back down and stowed their weapons but can’t bring themselves to do anything else but gape at this man.

“Ok so, let’s try something different. How many of you have heard of the Dulvey incident?”

Tons of hands go up. “Ok great, good. So that was me. How about the Romania incident?”

A few shaky hands go up. “Yeah I figured it wouldn’t really be public knowledge but that one was me too. I mean, I’m saying it was me but I don’t mean that I like started the outbreak or caused all the damage.”

Chris lets out an amused questioning noise. Ethan’s head whips around to look at him. “Shut up Chris.”

That, more than anything, convinces the students that this guy is the REAL DEAL.

The lecture goes great, even if some of Ethan’s advice is rather specific. “And if you ever find yourself facing a shadow puzzle, make sure you remember the perspective, some objects will only fit the pattern if you turn them to match the size of the other items around them.”

Or is frankly not recommended. “Wait until right after she’s passed you then run like hell through the door she just exited.”

Or sounds like something only a completely insane person would do. “So she told me I’d never see my daughter again so I flipped her off and said ‘just like you’ll never see yours bitch.’ I thought it was really clever in the moment.”

But overall, they learn a lot, and when their regular lecturer comes back they all start begging him to take another vacation so Ethan can come and teach again. Ethan himself is confused but happy, Chris has never laughed so hard in his life.

[hidingoutbackstage]

Okay aside from my hatred for how it treated Eveline, the DLC also just, wasn't great? And didn't matter? Spoilers below the cut

Okay so getting big thing out of the way: The DLC takes place before the 8 epilogue of Rose at Ethan's grave. Meaning that everything we see doesn’t matter. Rose was never going to lose her powers, she was always going to escape the mold mind palace (btw I’m gonna call it “mold mind palace” this whole time) and it just felt cheap to have the ENTIRE epilogue shown at the end. Like just show her on the bus, we know this scene. I kept waiting throughout the scene to see if they would show us anything new or different, but they didn't. That ending was pointless.

K was also such a nothing character. I speculated that it could be John, since the two characters' faces are similar, but it wasn't. Rose calls him K. John's HWS name is Lobo. If it were Dion she was meeting, that nickname might make sense (K9. There's actually a file in 8 that refers to Canine with that shortened nickname so it would've been possible) but Dion obviously doesn't look like this guy. Not to mention the reveal that he was never there doesn't do anything for us. We knew nothing about this guy, had no attachment to him, so Miranda tricking Rose the entire time means nothing to us. If it had been an actual former HWS member, or, hell, CHRIS then we might have felt something.

Also just the insinuations that 1) Chris is STILL leading HWS 16 years later 2) they're inviting more people to be part of HWS 3) HWS hasn't been shut down yet despite them having been a rogue team when we saw them operating in 8 and they went straight to BSAA HQ, meaning they probably would've received some consequences for going rogue and 4) they've asked Rose, a 16-year-old, to join their team, are all absurd

The DLC is also just really lazy. They recycle ideas, like Miranda using illusions to trick someone into seeing a person that wasn't even there, they recycle models, like seriously Evie looks exactly how she did in RE7, and her model there wasn't great and was still super clunky here and she wasn't proportioned like a child, and they reuse her tantrum animations from 7, they recycle locations just making things more messy or adding the new bloody mold goop to indicate this is the mind palace and not irl. They're lazy with Miranda's motivation too, like there's no reason for her to need Rose as a vessel for Eva anymore. If Eva's consciousness was truly in the mold like Miranda believed, then great! You're in the mold now, Miranda! Go find her! Why are you wasting time with Rose?

The "Michael" mystery was stupid. There was no real reason for him to not reveal himself to Rose right away. It wouldn't "complicate" anything, in fact she'd be more likely to trust you. He kept telling her to turn back, meaning if she had listened, they never would have gotten to speak, which is kind of what Ethan wanted. He wanted her out of the mind palace, safe, even if it meant he never saw her again. She probably could've taken solace in speaking to her dad, even if it wasn't face to face. Also the wording of "Not an enemy" was sooo dumb. Say you're a friend! Say you're family! "Not an enemy" makes her even less likely to trust you, because you aren't being anything reassuring to her right now

The game also tries way too hard to tug on the heart strings, and it doesn't work. I'm gonna bring up Evie here a bit although I'll do my best not to. I do not feel bad for Rose. As a long time fan and player of most games in this series, I can name more characters who have been through worse shit than Rose has than I can count on my fingers. Actually I will, this is my post, fuck it, feel free to skip the list

Sherry was orphaned at 12 and was infected with a virus that nearly killed her, then was held captive in a strange man's house for eleven years, that's 5 years of her adult life still in captivity, before gaining a false semblance of freedom by being forced to become an agent, on one of her missions was kidnapped and tortured for 6 months, and oh yeah her body stopped aging at 20

Manuela was infected with a disease that should have killed her, lost her mother at 5 years old, nearly died several times during DC, became an orphan at 16, and was locked up after being rescued because she still had powers and was still infected. Despite controlling her powers, she was not given any freedom, because the government was cautious (KEEP THIS IN MIND FOR LATER)

Claire, Chris, and Leon are all orphans, Leon definitely when he was a child, Chris and Claire it's up to speculation. The three of them went through the horrors of the early games as young adults, Claire only being 19.

Jill was kidnapped, brainwashed, and forced to become a murderous slave for a genocidal maniac who she sacrificed her life to try to kill

Ashley was kidnapped multiple times, infected, and had her body taken control of by another person against her will

Natalia was an orphan (WHO WATCHED HER PARENTS DIE BTW) who was isolated from her peers, kidnapped, tormented for months by Alex, experienced hallucinations, had an adult woman try to take control of her body, and despite having seemed safe, apparently is still suffering ptsd or worse from what Alex did to her. She was adopted by a normal family and treated like a normal child, but she was still safely monitored and there's no indication she had a normal social life (KEEP THIS IN MIND FOR LATER)

Lisa Trevor was kidnapped at age 14, became an orphan when her parents were killed and she was infected with a virus, and went mad as she was continually tortured and experimented on until her death at 35 years old

Alexia and Alfred Ashford were given a life of comfort, but were still an experimental vanity project that their father enacted because he was in love with one of his ancestors, which they learned of at only 12 years old. Alexia willingly infected herself at age 12, Alfred was forced large political power at that age, and went insane without his sister there to support him, and when Alexia woke up from cryo sleep, the first thing she saw was her brother's dead body

Eveline was created to be a bioweapon. She was never given a choice as to if she had these powers. She was younger than her ten-year-old physical appearance, because she was aged up artificially, she was tortured, abused, forced to kill people with powers she couldn't control, and denied any source of comfort despite having the wants and needs of a child, and she was murdered by a man who called her a little bitch as she cried and lamented why the world seemed to hate her.

Now. What struggles does Rose have? Why, her dad is dead and kids at school call her a freak, of course! Now Isn't that sad? Don't you feel terrible for her and can't wait for her to pick off Eveline, who was taunting her, like a bitter child would?

Also yes you read that right, kids at school. Rosemary Winters, who shows physical proof in public that she is an actively infected person who cannot control her abilities, is allowed to attend public school and receive childish bullying. Un-fucking-realistic. Such bullshit.

Like I said, they lay on the pathos thick. There is an entire section, with no real gameplay, as you walk around the house from the beginning of 8 as you get to hear Ethan's voice and Rose's commentary on things her dad said because wahhh isn't it sad that Ethan died? They tell you how Rose feels through dialogue instead of allowing the character to feel for the obviously forced pathos. The letter was also written way too on the nose to try and tug at some heart strings. The ending where Rose talks to Ethan (while still HILARIOUSLY obstructing his face) goes on for too long and not a single line isn't something sad/sweet/sappy to try and get in the audience's feelings. (Also Rose bringing a physical object of Ethan's ring out of a MOLD MIND PALACE makes no sense but w/e)

Okay but is the gameplay at least good? Nah not that either. You get two weapons, a handgun and a shotgun, the occasional pipe bomb, and Rose's freezing powers. Now I know that this is a DLC and of course there doesn't have to be a lot of content, but this was pathetic. There are only two real puzzles either. The playthrough I watched was 3 hours long. The only part I thought was really scary was running from the Mia mannequins, but gameplay-wise they're like super easy to defeat.

The story jumps forward 16 years for no real reason. We don't get any insight into this new world Rose is living in, 16 years from the current furthest point in the timeline, we meet no new characters except for K who we can't really assume told us anything real since he was an illusion. This story was unnecessary, a mess, none of the gameplay was spectacular, and it went out of its way to torture and villainize a character who had already suffered in life, not even giving her peace in death. Really shitty DLC, really bad time.

[piracytheorist]

Okay so I don’t know anything about other Resident Evil games other than 7 and 8 and by extension have no idea about Chris’ character outside 8 but I’m still like

At first I kinda fell into the trap of thinking he made wrong choices but god taking it all into account bro went through some hella angst through 8??? Like I really don’t know anything about the dude other than that he’s a trained operative and that he’s chosen to like go fight monsters to protect civilians and stuff.

AND THEN COMES ETHAN FUCKING WINTERS, himbo extraordinaire who just loves his wife and later his daughter more than life itself. And Chris just finds him having dealt with an entire family of bioweapons and brushing it off like “What like it’s hard” and then just asking for a normal life with his wife! And he gets it! But still he asks for some training because boi got spooked and wants to be prepared in case shit happens again and Chris makes sure he gets it. And it’s like, that. Ethan is a civilian who didn’t ask for any of this shit and Chris knows it’s the job he chose, to protect people like him.

And then shit happens again, and Chris has to act fast and treat Ethan not like a friend, but like a civilian that needs protection but shit’s too complicated and he loses sight of Ethan. Then Ethan starts going apeshit, killing powerful bioweapons left and right and JESUS CHRIST ETHAN will you just take a break and let us handle this and like JUST as they have explained the situation, Ethan is no longer mad at him, they’re about to meet so they can end the whole problem, Miranda comes and fucking murders Ethan WHILE CHRIS HEARS FROM THE PHONE.

Like that alone would have fucked Chris up, yo.

But then that stubborn idiot actually drags himself back from death and Chris finds him and tries to bring him to safety, and there is that dude, nearly unconscious but still holding his daughter safe and steady, not letting her fall even though he’s almost fainted himself. And it’s there. He’s the innocent civilian who needs protection, the type of person Chris dedicated his life to protect. And Chris doesn’t know Ethan is dying, he doesn’t know he wasn’t gonna make it anyway.

And Ethan hands over his daughter to him. His daughter, the one for whom Ethan fought and (almost) survived through everything, for whose safety he suffered and sacrificed and pushed through. And now Chris is holding her, and Ethan is asking him to watch over her (in the German dub Ethan says something like “Look after her. I trust you.” and BRO. bro.) and then he pushes him away. A civilian, pushing away a trained operative to protect him. And as the last tendrils of mold close the barrier between them, as Chris knows Ethan is about to walk into his death, Ethan says that tearful “Goodbye Rosemary” and HOW THE FUCK did Chris hold himself together there?? Can you fucking imagine??? That he found this dude who isn’t scared of shit when it comes to protecting those he loves - but he still wishes and hopes for a normal life, then it gets fucked up, and Chris just has to balance between protecting him and completing the mission, then he dies and comes back and he’s right there, trusting Chris with his baby daughter, saying a tearful goodbye to her and he, a civilian who wanted a normal, peaceful life, sacrificing himself so that everyone else would escape safely. Like FUCK dude that fucks me up, no wonder Chris was so fucking distraught at the end like FUCK

But also going from a narrative standpoint, this is the exact reason why, even for just re7 and re8, the choice of a Normal Guy Who Doesn’t Want Anything To Do With This Horror Shit as a protagonist was fucking brilliant; it brings great antithesis to everyone else who is specifically trained to deal with this shit because they chose to. They chose to protect civilians like said Normal Guy above. And Chris got involved with protecting and saving such a dude, and the part of the mission about keeping the civilian alive failed (for a mutlitude of reasons) and it just highlights the importance and the tragedy of characters like Chris, of how it hits when such missions fail. Because we got to know Ethan, to sympathize and connect with him. And then he just fucking DIED, sacrificed himself in the way characters like Chris EXIST in fictional media to do.

And it’s the whole tragedy of watching a Normal Dude reach the point of sacrificing himself while all a trained operative can do is just watch and be entrusted with the task of making sure Normal Dude’s kid and driving factor grows up safely that just makes it all so sad but so fucking perfect.

[nancydfan]

Okay but honestly everyone (besides Mia) doubted Ethan and his abilities the entirety of the game- especially Chris.

Obviously all the lords are like “ha ha you’ll never get past me!” And then insert picacho surprised meme when he does.

Even Miranda seems to be like “whAT THE FUCK” when Ethan stumbles his way back to fight her after she swore she killed him. Like yes she knew he was “special” somehow but never realized the full extent of his abilities.

But Chris himself doubted Ethan the most honestly.

I feel like when Chris and his team found and got Ethan and Mia out of the Baker’s house in RE7, he probably just thought Ethan was lucky. I mean, here’s this totally average guy and you’re telling me he killed/ severely injured the members of this family who had been infected with the mold, as well as killed Eveline himself? Like Chris was probably like while this man definitely was able to fight his way out there’s no actual way he was able to do this on his own, maybe he’s over exaggerating or whatever.

But he doesn’t say anything, and offers to teach Ethan military training (at least I think it was Chris, only because they seem to be more familiar with each other in RE8) because even if he’s over exaggerating the man clearly has talent and capabilities to make it out of that house in relatively one piece.

And then they get into training and Chris is incredibly impressed. For what appears to be your typical average dude he’s got pretty good fight tactics and techniques, and can handle a gun pretty well. Of course there’s always stuff to improve on and Chris teaches him to the best of his abilities, and here he gets to know Ethan.

This is a man who always offers help to anyone who needs it, and goes out of his way to comfort people whenever they need it. He truly loves his wife, he never makes a “gotta get back to the old ball and chain” or other “I hate my wife” jokes, he truly appreciates her and respects her with every part of him.

He has a great intuition, both in fighting and just when reading people. When Chris or someone around them has an off day he immediately picks up on it and is able to sense what that person needs. With Chris he will casually mention that his door is always open, he might not know the answer but Ethan is always willing to listen if Chris needs it. And though Chris at first insists that he’s fine, somehow Ethan Winters gets him to open up a bit (not completely, but Ethan’s genuine kindness begins to crack Chris’ ‘tough guy’ mask he puts on that lets Ethan see a glimpse of the real him. Chris’ squad is in utter shock of this because it took them YEARS to achieve this), and they both can sit down and share the horrors they both have experienced and for once in Chris’ life he starts to feel that maybe he can actually recover from what he’s seen.

Ethan also somehow knows exactly what to say. Though sometimes he’ll have to pause to get the right words and thoughts together, when he finally speaks his words are exactly what Chris (and others) needed to hear, even if Chris won’t admit it.

Ethan is the guy who when he sees injustice he doesn’t stay quiet, he is loud and makes sure that whatever happened doesn’t go unnoticed. He somehow remembers everyone’s birthday and gets them the present that they actually want, even if the person and Ethan have only talked once.

And though Ethan has the capability to be serious when needed he can be light hearted and funny, and though sometimes his jokes are simple puns or the same reiteration of the joke you’ve heard 100 times you can’t help but laugh because he somehow made it sound different, somehow breathed some fresh life into it. He has his favorite shows that he always makes sure he is home by to watch, and though he is at his core gentle and kind he can also be tough, and isn’t afraid to call you out when you’re wrong.

Ethan is the least judgmental person you will ever meet, and is truly open minded and will listen to you completely and openly. He isn’t afraid to change his opinion when he realizes he was wrong. When him and Mia throw a Christmas party they always invite Chris and he is always touched by it.

It is through their time together training that Chris realizes that while yes Ethan is a completely normal man he is far from completely ordinary and boring.

And when he announces he’s going to be a father Ethan’s eyes completely light up, and he spends hours of talking about all the beautifully mundane things that accompany preparing to become a parent and dealing with the trials of Mia’s pregnancy. There is no doubt in Ethan’s voice or heart that lead anyone to believe that he thinks that there’s a possibility that Rose might be unhealthy due to both of their exposure to the mold. Ethan runs on optimism and truly believes that she’ll be alright, that though they’ve been through hell him and Mia finally got the happy ending they deserve, and Chris has never been so happy for him.

And then, of course, everything comes crashing down.

When Chris learns that Miranda has infiltrated the Winters’ home he is infuriated on their behalf (can’t this family catch a fucking break?) and does all he can to help them (but little does he know he actually will make it worse). He doesn’t tell Ethan whats going on because they need the element of surprise to get Miranda and Chris knows Ethan will not lie low until he gets there. While Ethan was incredibly lucky to survive Dulvey there’s no way he can survive Miranda’s wrath.

(Also I think there was a document saying they didn’t know if Ethan was compromised or not, hence why Chris didn’t tell Ethan immediately what was going on but still he was over the line)

When Chris discovers that his team escorting Ethan, Rose, and Miranda had crashed and died, leaving Miranda in sole control of Rose he is devastated but thinks to himself that he must keep going, there’s no time to grieve or feel guilty for mistakes when Miranda is moments away from completing her ceremony.

And then he gets word that Ethan Winters has been spotted in the castle. And he shakes his head because of course he’s still alive, Ethan must run on luck and sheer will because how else would he have survived the crash?

And though Chris wants to go after him to tell him to sit his ass down so his team can do their job he can’t because again time is a luxury he can’t afford and he hopes Ethan’s luck saves his ass again this time. And though he hopes for the best can Ethan really take on these god-like creatures?

And then he again gets word that Ethan Winters somehow is defeating all of the lords. He’s going through them as if they’re simply ants beneath his feet and somehow he is still going. And though this is great Chris and his team are rapidly losing the element of surprise they’ve been trying to maintain since coming to this village.

And when he encounters Ethan again it almost hurts to see this man who once sat with him for hours talking about nothing, offering to help him with his taxes look at him with such fury and disdain that it almost sends shivers down his spine, that even though Chris is a highly trained operative he for some reason feels like if Ethan chose to kill him Chris wouldn’t last long. He wants to explain but time won’t let him (or is it the fear that he was wrong all along and once he spits his words out he’ll realize this).

And when Chris runs into Ethan at Karl’s factory he finally gives up and figures that he could use Ethan’s luck on his team, if Ethan can eliminate the four lords without any military help then he’s got to be able to have a shot and killing Miranda with Chris’ and his team’s help.

And when he hears Miranda kill Ethan on the phone it is a blow to his gut that he wasn’t expecting, because Ethan Winters has made a bigger impact on his heart than he thought possible. And it is in this moment of grief that he realizes his mistakes, that he was wrong to alienate Ethan, the man who went through hell twice without looking back to save his family.

The guilt only gets worse when he finds Mia, because he has to explain to her that it’s his fault that her husband is lying dead without his heart due to Chris’ own negligence. And when Mia tells him that he doesn’t understand how special he is he desperately wants to hear it, despite his mind telling him that’s she’s wrong, he wants Mia to tell him that Ethan can survive the impossible because he wants a second chance to make things right.

And when he gets the report again that Ethan Winters is somehow alive and is on his way to the ceremony site Chris’ heart soars and he wonders how could he have ever doubted Ethan Winters and his ability to come back to the people he loves time and time again.

(Also I could be wrong here because I don’t remember if Miranda blocked Chris out once she realized he was there but the rest of this is going to go off of the assumption that Chris was present and could see what was happening)

It is not until Chris makes it to the ceremony site and sees the battle between Miranda and Ethan that Chris truly realizes that he has severely underestimated this man for 3 whole years.

He’s seen Ethan fight before- he saw it in training and heard his squad give him the summary of what they saw when Ethan fought the other lords, but this is the first time Chris has seen Ethan TRULY fight, and on his face where Chris is so used to seeing compassion and love and carefreeness is suddenly replaced by anger, resentment, and pure determination because his daughter’s life is on the line and he will fight until there is nothing left of him to keep that little girl safe.

Chris watches in awe, because even though Ethan looks like he is barely staying together, like he is one breath away from falling apart he is still fighting. Maybe it’s because the mold is being destroyed or maybe Ethan’s injuries are so severe that the mold can’t be bothered hiding itself anymore but he finally sees the proof for himself that Ethan Winters is no longer human- Miranda is tearing into him and Ethan does not care- the long gashes she makes onto his body are desperately trying to suture themselves back together with small tendrils of black, this mold desperately trying to keep Ethan together when Miranda is so intent on tearing him apart.

He watches in amazement as Ethan somehow manages to avoid her claws and her own tendrils of mold reaching out to pound him into dust. He watches in amazement as it doesn’t matter how much Miranda damages Ethan- he gets back up again to unload another round of bullets into Miranda without slowing down, and watches in amazement as Ethan actually begins to win this battle- this perfectly normal man versus a god-like creature and Ethan is actually winning despite all the odds stacked against him.

This is Ethan Winters, he thinks, and while the mold might have given him regenerative properties the mold did not give him the drive and determination Chris sees before him- though Ethan Winters is infected but he is still Ethan Winters, each bullet he fires is coming from him, and his pure will to survive and save his daughter. The mold did not change him to a super hero because this is who he is at heart, a man who is willing to risk it all just to make sure the ones he loves are all right.

And if he didn’t already respect Ethan before he certainly does now, and he curses himself for being so ignorant and not letting Ethan in when he had the chance.

But that’s alright- because Ethan Winters has just eliminated Miranda before his eyes and is running to his daughter, and now Chris will have a lifetime to make it up to him.

But then he sees Ethan collapse to his knees in front of him, and his feet are moving before he even thinks to go because there’s no way, this man did not survive this hell just to die on him now.

Chris is relieved that Ethan is still (barely) conscious as he puts his arm around the man to help him out. Time has never been on their side and it certainly isn’t now, as Chris practically drags Ethan out because he has failed him too many times and he refuses to fail him again.

He tries to get Ethan to keep fighting because it seems that all of the life has drained from this man, the only part of him that’s full of life is the arm carrying his daughter because even when he’s on the brink of death he will not let anything happen to her. Chris brings up Mia and it pains him to hear the loss in Ethan’s voice, as if he’s already decided he’s a lost cause. Chris will not let this happen, he points out that they’re going to blow the village sky high and that’s why they need to get a move on and-

Suddenly Ethan is pushing Rose into his arms, and Chris can’t believe he gets the privilege to hold this man’s daughter after all he’s done and Ethan is draping Rose in his worn out coat and begging Chris to teach her to be strong and Chris won’t have this, Ethan Winters will not die on his watch he will get home to his family and live to live a perfectly normal life, when suddenly Ethan pushes Chris out of the way of a mold tendril that acts as a barrier between them and Chris watches in horror as Ethan stumbles backwards, the man looking more and more like a walking corpse versus the man he just saw moments ago, full of life and determination to kill Miranda.

“Goodbye, Rosemary” Ethan chokes out as he starts to stumble his way back to the ceremony site, and Chris can almost feel the pain of Ethan’s loss at not being able to be with his daughter and wife just within the utterance of these two words.

And Chris is calling Ethan back because dammit it doesn’t have to be like this but Chris knows what a man hell bent on something looks like, and Ethan is already almost out of his sight and the whole village is collapsing around him.

Cursing Chris turns around, cradling Rose close because Ethan somehow miraculously chose to trust Chris in protecting her and like hell will he let something happen to her after this. Chris will teach her to be strong and how to be brave, and not because he’s a man and Mia is incapable of it, but Chris will teach Rose how to be strong like her father was, and how to defend herself because both he and Ethan know that Rose’s abilities will make her a constant target for people to use for their own gain.

When Chris hands Rose back to Mia the joy on her face is short lived and suddenly she’s demanding where Ethan is, begging them to put the plane back down because there’s no way in hell he’d leave them willingly and just as Chris utters that Ethan chose to sacrifice himself the bomb goes off and he feels another blow to his chest, and it’s as though he can’t breathe for a second. He sees the realization hit Mia, and that though Ethan has survived the impossible time and time again can he really survive being blown to bits?

Chris can barely contain the grief and guilt that is consuming him as he looks out the window at the site where Ethan Winters’ luck has run out, the site where Ethan Winters has now died for the second time.

He glances back at Mia and Rose, and each sob Mia lets out cuts him like a knife because he knows he is responsible. He promised this little family that he would protect them and he failed. He failed Mia, he failed Ethan, and now he has failed Rosemary as she must now navigate her life missing a father who would have done anything for her.

Chris will not let Ethan die in vain. He will protect Rose, he will teach her how to fight and how to defend herself. And though he wants to reach out and comfort Mia he knows it will be unwelcome, but looking at Rose he will not fail her again.

He made a promise to Ethan Winters that he fully intends on keeping.

I’m sorry what did I do to be so emotionally attacked like this 😆

I’m SOBBING OMG. Ty really. I feel like I have nothin I can add to this because GAH MY HEART. You get it. You understand these characters and I was smiling so huge as you described Ethan because YES ALL OF THIS. Then the pain as Ethans end approaches. AND CHRIS’ PERSPECTIVE THROUGHOUT AND HIS PROMISE GOING FORWARD.

Anyway someone get me tissues. This was so beautiful. Bless you 💜💜

[dany36]

finished watching john wolfe's resident evil village playthrough. wow!!! obviously spoilers and long rambling thoughts below:

eveline showing up at the end was a welcomed surprise (it was nice seeing that little brat again), and her explaining what actually happened to ethan at the beginning of re7...holy crap, totally did not expect that! i thought he just had regenerative powers from being infected and...bonding? with the mold, but for him to have actually been dead all this time...poor guy! he goes through so much shit to save his wife in re7 and then does it all over again in re8 to save his daughter after (he thinks) his wife was killed by a guy he thought he could trust. and then he finds out he's just been dead all along and STILL fights for his daughter and sacrifices himself for her. one thing i didn't get though was...why were his powers giving out at the end? maybe i didn't pay attention or missed it, but i guess getting his heart ripped out was...a bit too much and that was the last straw? i have no idea lol

i gotta be honest and say i didn't care much for ethan as a character in re7, but the final sequence of re8 made me realize how much of a badass he really is. still can't believe capcom killed him off, but at least we now have...rose!! who looks like she'll be the next big protagonist in the series. really like her design, she definitely looks like both ethan and mia, it's amazing. i'm curious what they'll do with her character and her powers. looking forward to that!

but yeah, LOVED lady dimitrescu (who doesn't?) and the dimitrescu castle, although, like everyone else, i was soooo sad that she was only the beginning portion of the game. i was so shocked when the first daughter gets killed so quickly cus i thought they'd be around longer and be more menacing, but oh well :( house beneviento was creepy and haunting as FUCK, holy shit, i actually had to look away a couple of times once that giant baby showed up. didn't really care for monreu's area portion (i mean i feel bad for the dude but his area was not as interesting as the castle or the house), and the heisenberg factory was alright. probably a lot more fun to play than to watch (those soldats seem like really annoying af to fight)

i wasn't fond of chris's new look in the first trailers that we saw of re8, but he actually...kinda just looks like a mix of the original re:remake chris and re7 chris, so yay for capcom for finally getting his model right. when the first trailer for re8 came out, i REALLY liked the music that they put in the trailer (i think i watched that trailer more times than i'd like to admit), like...the drums and the way that the song gets louder and more intense as the video goes on...lady dimitrescu's first appearance...oof. so, hearing that they re-used the trailer song in chris's portion of the game was awesome and very fitting for the part of him going through the village. :D

the lore that they dumped at the end about miranda, the mold, and oswell spencer was really satisfying to read through. then the boss fight with miranda...i also really liked her design, and the different forms that she goes through reminded me of alexia ashford in veronica.

overall i REALLY enjoyed watching re8. again, i'm a coward when it comes to horror games so i just watch playthroughs of them, and i'll probably end up watching this again just like i did for re7. can't wait to watch whatever dlc comes out!

[teamhawkeye]

unfiltered and massively spoiler filled thoughts on RE8 below the cut [MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD]:

The Good

The first half of the game

The initial village segment and the castle portion and even “the house in the mist” sections were all pretty taut and well put together. i loved exploring the castle - was more than a little disappointed that you get locked out after Alcina’s boss fight, i didn’t explore it fully D: - and the unexpected terror of Donna’s section really pulled me out of the sense of comfort i had started to fall into, right as i was saying to myself “this hasn’t been scary at all”

The return of some series high notes

Revisiting things in previous Resident Evil games is not always a bad thing. I really enjoyed the return of weapon customization and treasures, those were aspects i enjoyed in RE4 and RE5. The return of the Merchant, in the form of the Duke, was welcome as well. The Duke is a G - he’s a good guy and i respected him most

Graphics, scenery, etc.

It’s a pretty game to look at, there’s no getting around that. I liked the set pieces, especially the Castle portion

Ammo crafting

Now this was something i greatly enjoyed. There are often times you get too much ammo for the gun you use least or you run out of ammo in harder difficulty levels. Being able to collect scrap material and make your own ammo was a very nice addition that i greatly appreciated

The Bad

(some of these are going to be personal opinions about the storytelling and narrative choices, so be prepared for that)

Pacing and direction

RE7 was a return to the series’ “roots”: so back to the footnotes of RE1 and RE2. If that was the case with 7, then RE8 did a speed run of RE3, Code Veronica, RE4, RE5, and RE6 all at once.

I know i said earlier revisiting hallmarks from previous games isn’t a bad thing, and it’s not - but while RE7 did it masterfully with sticking to mainly RE1 and RE2 and pulling in just a few old hallmarks, RE8 went absolutely buck wild in trying to cram in as many past enemy types and encounters as possible. A callback to one standout enemy is one thing, ala the Stalker type that is Mr. X, Nemesis, and Ustanak that Lady Dimitrescu also serves as...but then also the giant water monster from RE4, the Executioner of RE5, the “chainsaw” enemies (here, drills instead) of RE4, RE5, and RE6. hell, even the Lycans after a time started to feel very Las Plagas-esque in their ability to use weapons and track and coordinate. And you can’t tell me you didn’t see very similar designs/similarities between Miranda’s boss battle that you did with Alexia’s in Code Veronica...

The pacing started off solid with the initial few segments, but quickly seemed to lose its footing once it oscillated violently between wildly different styles of play and storytelling and didn’t regain its stride the rest of the game. One moment, it’s classic RE. The next, it’s P.T. + Outlast. The next, back to “a mash up of action and horror, leaning more on action” styles of RE4 + RE5. Then the finale straight up started to feel like an entirely different game before you reached that final boss fight - it felt like i was jerked in one direction one minute, and a completely different one the next

There is a lot of exposition and explaining that doesn’t happen until legit the last 45 or so minutes. Not new for the series to withhold information until the back half of the game, but there was legit almost no build up to the very sudden plot bombs that got dropped successively in the last throes of the story. Previous games rewarded you with fragments at a fairly even pace - i felt like all of RE8′s story gets dropped on you in a single monologue and a handful of notes just before the endgame

I’m not even gonna go that deep into how hard it was to keep up with all the different infection methods the mold managed to have - it was just A Lot and i’ve played a lot of Resident Evil in the past, so i know just how many different ways a single pathogen can have on humans and animals...and it still felt excessive

I honestly felt like the third segment with Moreau wasn’t even necessary. they really played up these “four lords” to not have them do a whole lot of anything. and i know there’s always been mini bosses before you actually reach the final Big Bad, but seriously, Moreau’s segment can be blitzed through in a span of 20 minutes or so first playthrough. the castle segment with Dimitrescu was solid, the house segment with Donna was nightmare fuel, lmfao, but still engaging and challenging. by the time you get to the third and sprint right through, you’re left wondering what the point of it even was. you can tell that was the least cared about narrative arc in the whole story

A giant point of note is that a huge chunk of RE8′s story could have been avoided or altered had Chris just actually fucking spoken to Ethan at the start about what the fuck was going on. And for him not to is completely unlike Chris past RE5 and RE6, that made no narrative sense whatsoever. Just another opportunity to pile on some more trauma and guilt onto Chris’ shoulders by making him “responsible” for Ethan being pushed to far and dying as a result

“Ethan actually ‘died’ when first meeting Jack Baker and was completely taken over by mold, it’s a big secret to everyone but Mia. also, he’s gone too far, there’s no saving him, he had to die”

You’re going to tell me that Ethan still being infected or impacted by the mold from RE7 is some big secret??? did the BSAA not run tests on him and Mia to make sure they were back to normal levels??? how do they not know?!? the government was able to figure out that Sherry’s exposure to the G Virus altered her permanently and study her healing capabilities, how the fuck was that not the same with Ethan???

Also, how is it that the mold’s impact on him is so much higher? he was at the Baker estate for like, 2 days max and while, yes, he did sustain some serious damage, he never fell prey to Eveline’s control and showed absolutely no signs of infection outside of being able to heal/use his hand after it was chopped off. and depending on how you played RE7, the only major injury he sustains aside from probable bruising or broken bones is that hand being cut off as mentioned before

You’re also going to tell me of the number of Resident Evil characters who have been infected with viruses and parasites and what have you and have been cured or had the negative effects negated, Ethan was the only one “too far gone” to be saved??? Jill got infected with T Virus, Claire has been infected by two separate viruses, Leon has survived a parasite infection, both Zoe and Mia were exposed to mold for years and seem to be okay...why is it that Ethan was the only one who couldn’t be saved? because he “died”? how in the world did he get infected so fast - he’d been there an hour, max! - that he was able to be revived in the first place and it wasn’t even noticeable that he had changed at all???

“the BSAA can’t be trusted anymore, they’re involved in shady shit, like deploying bioweapons into battle”

we already went through this a bit back in Revelations 1 with the blackmailed director and double agents. but to full on go “well, the entire organization is now dirty” after it was legit founded by Chris, Jill, and Barry to combat bioterrorism really sits wrong with me. all i can think is that they are running out of villains at this point and now are poising the BSAA to be a Big Bad in the future. which, again, doesn’t sit right with me

Retconning

Tying Ozwell E. Spencer back to Miranda wasn’t such a huge dealbreaker for me, but it is a bit obnoxious to now have to go back and amend “he came up with the idea for Umbrella and its pursuits with Marcus and Ashford, its other founding members” to “well, he didn’t actually come up with the idea for Umbrella and its research with Marcus and Ashford, he already had the idea from his time spent with Miranda uwu”

More so, the retconning around Eveline is a bit of a pain in the ass. So she only came about as a result of Miranda crossing paths with the Connections and giving them some of her mold to work with? And Eveline was only a failed experiment to Miranda in her attempt to be able to transfer her daughter’s essence/subconscious/whatever into a living child? And there are pictures of ��10 year old” Eveline in Miranda’s possession - how come Evie didn’t have any memory of her at all (speaking of Evie, why the fuck did she appear in 8 briefly as a hallucination [?] to explain to Ethan his condition???)

How are you going to try and tell me that some village from prior to the 19th century was using the “Umbrella” symbol and Spencer just snatched it for himself? that was just stupid, honestly - even more stupid how Ethan didn’t recognize the symbol, despite flying off in a Blue UMBRELLA helicopter at the end of RE7

Mocap and cutscenes

Was it just me or did parts of this game look severely unpolished compared to RE7??? some parts looked good - like the Dimitresus all seemed to be rendered very well. It became very noticeable to me in the back half of the game, mainly with Chris and Mia, but a little with Heisenberg too, where their mouths didn’t match up with the dialogue a lot and they looked a lot less put together than previous scenes and characters. Mia in particular, i was struck by how much better her mocap seemed in RE7 compared to RE8. Maybe because there was a bigger ensemble cast in 8 that they spread themselves a little too thin in that regard?

[videogamesincolor]

What’s your assessment of Sheva as a character/how Capcom has written her?

NARRATIVELY

For the most part, I have minor issues with the writing forSheva as far as her character is concerned. Throughout Resident Evil 5,she comes off as the more level-headed, and resourceful of the characters you’re allowed to control. She wascompetently portrayed and struck the right kind of balance that made LeonKennedy such a personable character for people to become attached to and projectupon in Resident Evil 2 before hebecame a literal Supercop in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 6.

The major complaint I have is that her background contains a bit about her being as a child from an impoverished family that was exploited in a factory owned by Umbrella, then murdered by said Corporation. Mostly because it plays on and relies so heavily on the stereotype of the total population in Africa (as viewed by media in general) as impoverished and easily victimized by outside forces for the sake of less than genuine drama.

But, as far as tragic back story fodder goes, the death of her parents is a good motivator, and her vendetta against the Umbrella Corporation (later and Excella) is extended beyond Chris’ revenge kick and need to save Jill from Wesker’s abuses, which isn’t something I was ever emotionally invested in on account of not caring about Chris unless Claire was around.

I think Sheva has the strongest backstory and relevancy tothe story Resident Evil 5 chose totell. Given Sheva and Josh Stone are the only characters in the game with a personal investment in what happens to West Africa, they could’ve done something with the angle of an American Corporation (Umbrella) exploiting foreign territory and communities for profit if they cared about approaching the subject with any kind of care or respect (but silly me expecting that from an RE game /s).

There’s clear distinction about what the narrative considers important or a priority, and it’s not necessarily what’s happening in to the people who’ve been exploited by Excella and Wesker. Chris is a stranger running around West Africa, while Sheva is watching someone fuck up her “backyard” as it were. For Chris it’s just a job, and later it becomes all about Jill and Wesker. In that sense, Sheva’s function as a character is to allow Chris to redeem himself (from not saving Jill from her self-imposed sacrifice) and relearn “the power of teamwork”.

The game doesn’t do enough to incorporate Sheva’s backstory into the game beyond her telling Chris her parents were murdered by Umbrella, and Josh saying that Sheva is like his little sister. It’s disappointing because I kinda wish they had done something with her history as a teenage militia turned US government agent, instead of having her behave as though they had absolutely no one to rely on (other than Josh) when she goes rogue with Chris.

Sheva’sentire motivation is avenging her home, the BSAA operatives that workedalongside her and Josh Stone, and stopping Excella, the owner of the parentcompany (TRICELL) who is implicitly involved in the deaths of her people. Shevais the emotional anchor for what was happening in the fictional arenas of WestAfrica (Kijuju in particular), but Resident Evil 5ain’t interested in all that (regrettably).

A lot of people use Sheva wanting Chris to return to base (IIRC) with her after fighting that giant ass troll monster as an example of her lacking commitment to her job or cowardice. But, I think the scene encapsulates Sheva using plain common sense, whereas Chris is the pure embodiment of Rambo at this point (all action, no plan whatsoever).

If Sheva has any other problems as a character, it’s that she’s at the mercy of a narrative that doesn’t care about its harmful portrayal of West Africa, and the consequences that come with falling back on vitriolic anti-Black stereotypes.

Resident Evil 5 is a game obsessed with the American War aesthetic presented in films like Black Hawk Down, and Tears of the Sun.As far as scenario designers for Resident Evil 5 are concerned, West Africa is just exotic background fodder for their white protagonist to march about and Sheva, even with her own stake in the narrative, is plot justification for his being there. 

VISUALLY

Up front, I like Sheva’s character design. I think it’sthe right amount of cool when you pair her casual wear with a bunch of combatgear, knee high boots, and a gigantic gun that is her weapon of choice. I alsothink the color lavender did a great deal to make her visually distinct (as theywanted) from Chris, Mr. Green.

Thinking more critically, her design is perhaps overlyfocused on attractiveness verses functionality with regard to her profession asa BSAA operative, and they drive that message home with her hyper-sexualized alternate costumes, which have more or less reduced the character to nothing more than a porn fetish for people who use Gary’s Mod, Xnalara, and Source Filmmaker.

Where characters like Rebecca Chambers (RE0, RE Remake), Sherry Birkin or Helena Harper (RE6) and Jill Valentine(Lost in Nightmares) seemed designed around their given situations or presentcircumstances of their jobs, Sheva stands out like a sore thumb as the onlyfemale character in RE5 who wasn’t.

Obviously, she’s not the first or the last female characterto have this happen to in the franchise (Everything Ada Wong wears, Jessica Sherawat and the Ms. Cleavage from the original Revelations are perfect counter-examples), but it’s kind’ve glaringgiven how Jill was portrayed in the Lostin Nightmares DLC.

The design template for Sheva becomes even more questionablewhen you consider how her fellow BSAA operatives are dressed when you finallyencounter them in the game. Everyone’s ready for combat situations, but Shevais out there looking like she rushed to work after a night out and forgot heruniform.

Nothing about Sheva’s character design says she’s from theBSAA. I’d say the only concept for her character that might’ve reflected herposition in the BSAA was probably the beige militia design with the short sleevesand red turtleneck (nix the hat). Otherwise, she kinda falls into the realm of“sexy girl”, but it’s not egregious like Trish’s Blackface costume (“Gloria”)from Devil May Cry 4.

In terms of character design, when they weren’t batting forcomplete and utter photo-realism like they are now with the RE-Engine (resignedsighs), I really think Sheva’s character design and the overall approach theytook to designing characters in RE5 (sans Chris) standout as the best that thefranchise ever had to offer. There’s no uncanny valley like there is with RE7and it’s not completely animated like CodeVeronica. It struck a perfect balance and Sheva is without a doubt the bestrepresentation of that as a character.

As a fair-skinned Black female character – (who wasoriginally designed with a much darker complexion than finalized) – washed outby the ugly yellow/sepia filter in ResidentEvil 5, Sheva comes off as a bit suspect when you consider the grandmajority of your antagonists (parasite infected civilians that reflect theimage of absolute poverty often associated with the continent of Africa) aredark-skinned. (Josh as the only major positive representative of dark-skinned Black characters in supportive terms is kinda not a great look.)

Juxtapose her against the really ugly anti-Black images presentin the game, and Capcom’s design template for Sheva comes off as extremelyproblematic. Kinda tells you just how deep the colorism problem is and whatdevs perceive as “good” and “bad” within the spectrum of Blackness.

It’s also probably interesting to note that Sheva’scharacter was intentionally designed to instill a sense of protectiveness inthe player. And, yes, the kind of protectiveness that Crystal Dynamics soldreboot Lara Croft on. 

They literally banked on Shevabeing “feminine enough” to the player that they’d want to protect her from harm(they also wanted her slender, which is why she probably doesn’t lookparticularly buff, like, say, Nadine Ross from Uncharted 4.). It’s acomplete disassociation from how well she actually was handled in the endproduct. She is notthe incapable damsel that production statement implies (to me).

OVERALL

Considering Sheva was originally a NPC in one of the earlieriterations of Resident Evil 5 andsalvaged from whatever they abandoned to become Chris’ BSAA partner, Sheva turned out to be asolid character for the franchise’s original direction. 

At her core,Sheva had all the right material to be a longstanding protagonist in the Resident Evil franchise (just like CarlosOliveira) before they entered the RE6 and RE7 era and shot themselves in thefoot.

I don’t think Resident Evil 5 should’ve been about Chris Redfield and his grudgematch with Albert Wesker. There was enough material riding behind Sheva’sentire backstory, the BSAA and her relationship behind the incidents going on Kijujuthat you could exclude Chris and make the game entirely about her and JoshStone’s exploits. Excella could’ve been the Wesker to her Chris, Josh her Jill.They are walking protagonists stuck behind mainstays and that sucks.

Sheva is untapped potential in a franchise that isscrabbling to save itself from irrelevancy and publisher mistakes. She is the strongest new character Capcom managed to produce in their later franchise. She definitely made a better impression than Moira Burton, DietWesker (Jake whoever), Helena Harper, Piers whoever, and the whole cast of the Revelationgames.

Sheva is a character I would’ve liked to have seen make a return, but I’ve well accepted she ain’t comingback to the central franchise as a lead (like I want her to). She wouldprobably end up getting FUBAR’ed anyway if Capcom ever decided to believeher presence worthy of their time again.

[theannaredfield]

I wanted my 1001 post to be something special and cool, like the file I made doing into the lore of my Resident Evil OCs, but I have decided I shall use the time to just talking about Resident Evil. I’m seeing a LOT of comments and as a longer time fan of the games, I feel like I could add a new perspective on some issues, and maybe add some important info.

This post will talking about; Teaming Up with Heisenberg, Chris’ Role with Rose, and Dimitrescu advertisement. Spoilers ahead.

Dimitrescu Ad-

Now, this is the biggest issue. Many people are angry because Dimitrescu was only in the game for the first 3 hours at most, (or in better terms, 20% of the time if your play is 13 hours) but was the focus of all the marketing. Here’s the thing though, that was actually genius on Capcom’s part. Dimitrescu is so early in the game that nothing about the later game is revealed. Up until after you defeat her, you don’t have a clear idea what’s going on. It’s just hunt down your baby. You don’t find the first flask till after.

So because Dimitrescu is so early and leaves most of the plot unknown, it was really good to advertise her because nothing of the game would be spoiled. This was a problem with one of the last 3make trailers, as they showed Nemesis’s dog form. OG nemesis didn’t have a dog form, so finding out he’d have one in this game was a spoiler. It caused many people to be like “don’t watch this trailer. It’ll spoil you.”

Next part of its genius was that since the first trailer, people were going NUTS for Lady D. The whole internet was simping for her. Capcom saw this, and they acted on this, showing people all they could of her and making her the focus. They gave the people what they wanted, and this got Capcom more sales, because you had people who had no interest in RE beforehand picking up this game just for her. Feeding into her fans got them more money.

That’s why Lady Dimitrescu’s advertisement was actually really good. Because it kept most of the game a secret, and fed into what the fans wanted, giving Capcom more sales from simps. People are just kinda angry that she wasn’t the main focus (despite the fact the other lords were shown and Miranda was mentioned in the ads as well.)

Teaming Up with Kaaarrll-

One thing people, myself included, wondered was what would happen if we had the choice to team up with Heisenberg. Now, do I have a good idea on how it would go in game?? No. That’s a lot of speculation and headcanons. However I have an idea on how Capcom would do it. Capcom is... lazy, if I’m being honest. They like money and they do stuff cheaply.

Take into account RE2 and 3make. Those games had alternate endings depending on how you played (Claire A/Leon B or Leon A/Claire B) (plus the three different RE3 endings) however when remaking these games there was only always the one ending. There was no way to get a different ending, no matter how you played. Additionally, the A and B games were different in the OG, but in the remake they’re almost exactly the same with a few things changed at the beginning. In the OG for example, Mr. X was only in the B game. In the remake he’s at both but just shows up earlier in B.

Even looking at RE7, they give you this illusion of choice between Mia and Zoe, however choosing Zoe is automatically pointless and gives you the bad end in the long run. This is because Zoe immediately dies and after completing Mia’s portion, she also dies. Choosing between the 2 was pointless because the outcome is just death for one. Nothing even really changes in gameplay aside from Zoe and Mia dying. The ending boss fight and mines are all exactly the same. Even the ship is exactly the same.

So how would Capcom do Heisenberg? Well, like 7, I feel they’d give us an illusion of choice, where the option is clearly “don’t side with him if you want the good ending” because if you chose side with him, he will somehow end up ultimately dying and Ethan will still also get his heart ripped out. (Possibly by going after Miranda) Or alternatively, you chose side with him and then he still pushes you down the hole, changing nothing about the factory aside from some dialogue. Maybe Ethan says something like “I’ll side with you but using Rose is 100% of the table” and Heisenberg goes “well fuck you then.”

Basically if we got to side with Heisenberg, Capcom would probably do it in the laziest way possible because they don’t want to have two separate ways the game can go, and we’ll somehow wind up with the same exact places and gameplay despite the differing options.

Chris-

°-° Ya’ll are really wild with Chris, not gonna lie. I see a lot of people going “Chris was always gonna take Rose and turn her into the next Eveline” “Chris was gonna lie to Ethan, say Rose died and then turn her into a weapon” “Chris turned Rose into the next bioweapons, he’s a monster. He treats her so terribly”

This goes heavily against Chris’s character. Not gonna lie, it’s completely hypocritical of him. Why? Well you see, back in Resident Evil 5 and 6, Chris had two people he was close to, Jill Valentine and Piers Nivens, turned into living bioweapons. Jill had no free will and Piers was transformed. Chris wanted nothing more than to save both of them, urging Piers to come with him because “they could fix this.” These were people he cared about turned into BOWs, and it pained him, he wanted to save them but with Piers he couldn’t. Piers sacrificed himself. Also keep in mind, Chris is a brother. Claire is his only loving family and I don’t think he could ever turn her into a bioweapon, let alone allow someone else to. If Chris would be so against people he knows becoming BOWs, why would he look at Rose and go “screw it. She’s powerful, let’s make her a weapon.” He knows how much Rose meant to Ethan, and he felt bad about having to abandon Ethan. He wouldn’t just... do him like that.

Also, it would be way outta Chris character to turn Rose into a BOW because at the very end of the game, he’s upset with the BSAA. The BSAA has begun using bioweapons as soldiers, which goes against everything they’re suppose to stand for and is completely hypocritical. Chris is upset and ashamed in them, that’s why he says “go to the European Headquarters. Someone has to pay.” He’s going there to raise hell, essentially, because what the fuck are they doing. It would be Chris going “you can’t use BOWs but I can so fuck you.” (Keep in mind, the BSAA being corrupted is why Chris was starting to drift away, and this might be his last straw with them.)

In short Chris never planned to turn Rose into the next Eveline, nor does he want to. He is strongly against BOWs and the use of them. Especially turning innocent people into BOWs, and using them for evil. Not only that but he’s seen people he cares about be turned into BOWs and he didn’t like it one bit, why would he betray Ethan and do that exact same thing to Ethan’s daughter, when he was so determined to save his friends from it. He is most likely just training Rose so that she can control her powers and of kill anyone on accident. The most I can assume is that Rose is an agent for this new organization, of her own volition, but these guys in suits are really on top of her in case she goes rogue this has nothing to do with Chris influence.

In shorter terms, it’s against Chris’ morals, goes against his character thus far, and would be hypocritical of him to have evil plans or intentions for Rose. He is still the good guy, he just isn’t the greatest at explaining stuff (see Chris not telling Claire he was going to Europe because he didn’t want her involved and then her proceeding to go to Raccoon and get involved for more evidence)

(Keep in mind, this isn’t the first “evil” child Chris let live. In RE6, he comes face to face with Jake Muller, Albert Wesker’s son. Chris comments how he sees his father in him, and you’d think this would be a red flag considering what Wesker did. Jake proceeds to point a gun right at Chris’s head, and almost shoots him in the head. What does Chris do? Let him go. He knows Jake isn’t an enemy or going to be an enemy later, so he doesn’t kill him or try to capture him. Chris is essentially only against BOWs who are evil or used for war. If they’re just regular people who were handed a bad card, then he’d let them go (hence why he wouldn’t kill Heisenberg and Rose if they lived. As long as they weren’t planning anything evil, they’d be okay.)