#heisenberg was right ethan DOES have an interesting body

[graverobber-heisenberg]

this is actually supported by canon sources! for jack, marguerite, and lucas, a lot of their regenerative powers/mutations come from ingesting the mold, or at least mold-infected food and organs. zoe has her own refrigerator, and for the most part, appears to avoid eating contaminated food. the end credits of re7 display a newspaper that goes more into this, so there IS a distinct difference between the majority of the baker family and ethan!

likewise, in-game files explain that "the infected gains remarkable regenerative abilities" and that during experiments, researchers "removed arms and legs from test subjects and found they were able to coapt the amputated limbs in a matter of minutes" — coapt is just a a fancy way to say that they were able to reattach limbs and secure them properly, not regenerate new ones in their place. this would, by extension, explain why ethan cannot regenerate a new heart, but would theoretically be able to replace it after having it removed and be perfectly fine

the first aid meds from both games lend to this line of thinking, in that they cause "spontaneous cellular regeneration" and close wounds, act as a clotting agent, and restore function to damaged bodily systems. this, combined with the natural regenerative properties of the mold, causes extremely quick healing as seen with ethan and the baker family!

this also leads into eveline “stretching the truth” when it comes to the reality of ethan’s situation. she is just a little girl, and more than that, an experiment herself — her understanding of the mold is probably limited to what she can do, and she likely has no idea what the scientific explanation behind her powers is. all she knows is that she can control minds, vomit mold to create new “friends”, revive the recently deceased, and reattach limbs. given the files from re7, the mold does all of these things by “ingesting nutrients from the subject’s body to propagate itself, and slowly takes over cells within the body”. so, on the one hand, it may not have replaced all of ethan’s organs with mold (in the sense that he looked like a molded inside), but on the other hand, it did infect all of his cells one by one on a molecular level, meaning that he was, essentially, made up entirely of mold (in the sense that the infection had spread to every part of his body)

i’m firmly of the belief that ethan could have survived if his heart had been immediately replaced and covered in first aid med, but otherwise i do completely agree with you. there was only so much ethan’s body could take — having his heart ripped clean out is such an overwhelming injury that even jack or marguerite would struggle to come back from it in on piece. jack, for example, had his entire upper torso removed, and he regenerated... albeit severely mutated. given that ethan never ingested the mold, he wouldn’t be able to mutate, effectively being the thing that killed him in the end

personally i think people are reading ethan's healing abilities as "regenerative" too much. i don't think anywhere in the games has he grown anything back. and the only times we've seen the mold do that was for jack baker back in 7. and who knows if that was actually an ability of his or eveline doing it for him.

i think he just has very intense healing capabilities. cuts, stabs, burns and those likes are easy enough for the skin to quickly heal from (especially when given the right kind of medical formula). but he has to re-attach missing parts himself.

i also think eveline was stretching the truth a bit when she said he is completely made of mold or something along those lines. eveline is a little shit who we know lies. like yeah ethan died for sure and the mold revived him, just as much as it did with the bakers. but that doesn't mean it completely replaced all his organs, it probably just strengthened them.

so yeah when his heart gets ripped out it makes sense to me that he couldn't regrow it. when he defeated mother miranda he had already gone through the wringer with four other super powered baddies, and don't forget all those mini bosses. its a LOT more than in re7. we know that molded and their likes can only come back to life/recover after so many shots/stabs BECAUSE ethan is able to take out and kill so many of them. so same rules to ethan, he can only take so much damage before his mold healing abilities just won't cut it anymore

[dumpling-kun]

Interesting (mostly cannonical) things to note about Alcina from her normal lines & her monster lines.

(Most of these are probably things we already know, but in my defense, there's isn't really that much hidden lore in her lines unfortunately. ^^')

NORMAL ALCINA SEGMENT

Same as the girls, Alcina has lines that point to a hide-and-seek segment that was scrapped.

She has at least one line for each daughter's deaths. Bela's was scrapped, but it sounds the most genuine and sad out of the 3 of them (if you don't count the "Cassandra...? Cassandra!? No!" that one's pretty damn good).

She's not as "kind" as her daughters.

Her and Daniela have almost the same line at one point, saying if you stop, they'll forgive you. Daniela sounds genuine, while you can hear the very obvious ingenuity in Alcina's voice

She expects you to play your part and stand still while she "executes your punishment", that punishment being death, of course.

In another scrapped concept, she calls her daughters to come to her, most likely to start chasing you.

When she's ranting about how much blood and sweat it took to raise her babies, you can audibly hear her inhale a very unstable and shaky breath, like she recently cried.

This was either a planned cutscene or something said after one of the daughters catches you, but Alcina praises her for finding Ethan and calls her a good girl.

They bathe and shower in blood (fairly obvious if you played the game lol).

She says one daughter (probably) made dinner be late by not catching Ethan sooner. She isn't angry, but says it in a "don't make this happen again, little one, okay?" way.

The scene where they taste Ethan's blood was changed. In the original one, she sounds genuinely confused as to why his blood tastes weird, saying it leaves a bad taste in her mouth and that something just isn't right.

She calls Heisenberg a child because he's the last one to join the family and is most likely the youngest, while she was the first one to come at Mother Miranda's side. She doesn't understand why Miranda doesn't treat her as special. Why does she treat her the same as those "miscreants"? She's supposed to be the favorite.

The reason she sees herself as special to Miranda is because she was the closest to being the absolutely perfect vessel for Eva, but her hereditary blood disease prevented her from being the one. (Also Miranda is a bitch and doesn't actually care for the lords, but only Heisenberg knows that.)

She believes Heisenberg to be naive and claims she isn't like him.

In some of the unused lines, she sounds very calm in everything she does. In the game she sounds constantly frustrated and irritated by Ethan and everything he does.

Her mutation before the boss fight sounds painful as all hell. (nyooo im so sorryyyy 🥺)

MUTATED ALCINA SEGMENT

She remarks how Ethan "forces" her to become this (meaning she can't do it by herself and the only ways to trigger the mutation is if she doesn't consume blood and flesh for some time, or if she's stabbed with the poison-coated dagger).

She showcases the fact that blood and flesh give her regenerative abilities by constantly screaming that she needs blood and needs to eat Ethan as he continuously wounds her.

She calls him a failure of a man.

Only Ethan and Miranda have ever seen her in this mutated form, which confirms that she can turn back from it at some point and can't control the mutation.

She isn't a big fan of the body she's forced to operate.

But she says her wings are glorious and that she surpasses even Mother Miranda.

Says Rose is "their only hope."

"How dare you talk about saving your daughter when you've murdered mine!?" (i'm not crying, YOU are 😭)

Calls him a bastard for taking everything from her.

[river-of-wine]

You know. I’ve never properly been able to articulate how the Baker family makes me feel in my art, so I’m just gonna type it down here because my Madhouse playthrough has gotten me all emotional over them again and they deserve to be talked about just as much as the lords, because they are also Mother Miranda’s victims wether she knew of their existence or not, and wether she bothered to care if she did.

This is mostly about Jack and Marguerite with some Zoe in there for flavour.

We don’t get to see a lot of Jack and Marguerite before he infection (even infected, actually, they’re only in one scene together but that isn’t really them) but what we do tells us a lot. In the Daughters DLC, they’re in a far more stressful situation that you would guess by how they’re acting. Jack has found two unconscious people in a massive shipwreck, one of which is what he believes to be a little girl, and they have that to worry about on top of the storm that has already wrecked part of their property. But Jack and Marguerite manage to keep the mood light. They know how to make each other smile, they know what jokes to tell when the time is right, they had that whole bed and breakfast plan. They’re genuinely such a sweet couple for the small amount of time we do get to see if them, and it’s very intentional that their first REAL scene together as themselves in the Daughters DLC is just them being a sweet ,arrived couple. That’s who they were.

Marguerite was the first to go (and the first to later die, interestingly enough) and Zoe finds her first after the power outage. Marguerite attacks her daughter and Jack intervenes, but even still he’s not hurting her. He could, and he could have been entirely justified in doing so, but all he does is try to hold Marguerite back and tell Zoe to get rope to presumably tie Marguerite up. Jack is a strong guy as we all know, a single stomp from him would’ve ended the game then and there if the mould hadn’t picked up where Ethan left off. Marguerite isn’t as strong as he is even after being infected, her thing isn’t brute strength as much as it is Give Birth To Bug Baby Bodyguards, so he could’ve knocked Marguerite out or caused some kind of physical harm to her to keep her under control. He didn’t, though, and I’m guessing by his line after Zoe leaves the room (“don’t you make me do something I’ll regret”) that he didn’t even try to. The madwoman with the centipede flailing out of her mouth is still his wife. Jack never wanted to hurt his family.

This is the last we and Zoe ever see of Jack before the infection with the exception of the free my family scene with him and Ethan near the end of the main game, but we do hear him resisting. While Zoe is running from him in the Daughters DLC, he’s talking to Eveline with lines like “shut up, you ain’t real!” and laughter that eventually devolves into crying. I’d argue that there’s evidence of this in the main game too. Jack has some interesting voice lines to say the least, but one of them is him telling someone to shut up through grit teeth. Ethan stays impressively silent through the chase sequences with Jack aside from his breathing, so Jack isn’t talking to him. They are the only two people in the main house, so the only other conclusion I can personally draw is that he is talking to Eveline.

Marguerite doesn’t get to make an appearance alongside her husband when he asks Ethan to free his family because she is fully dead, unlike the rest of her family who are either saved (yay Zoe!) or killed off for good in the DLCs. This doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have her own heart wrenching cutscene though! In the Daughters DLC, Marguerite will stop Zoe to give her the key and apologise, saying that she doesn’t know what’s wrong with her and begging Zoe to go as she desperately fights for control. During this interaction, Marguerite strains to tell Eveline “don’t touch her, don’t hurt my family!”

Anyway, moving in from summaries, it’s made pretty clear from these interactions that Jack and Marguerite remember what they do under Eveline’s control. They are fully conscious but unable to do anything about it. Jack actually explains this in his cutscene with Ethan, and the idea of them being entirely aware of what they’re doing but unable to stop it is just so much worse.

Jack remembers drowning Marguerite, he remembers hunting down his daughter, he remembers cutting his son’s arm off, he remembers killing Ethan.

Marguerite remembers attacking Zoe and violently threatening her in the old house, she remembers infecting Jack, she remembers kidnapping Mia.

They both remember every victim, every moulded, every murder. They couldn’t do anything to stop it, but they remember every second.

The Lord’s were victims and they were prisoners, but they had some semblance of free will. Alcina in particular really revels in how violent she can be, going through maidens like the livestock she keeps them as and delighting in how much she knows she can hurt Ethan. Donna and Moreau are exceptions here (Donna especially, Moreau will kill to impress Mother Miranda and doesn’t seem too guilty about his own Cadou experiments though I doubt he fully understood what he was doing) but Heisenberg and Alcina are really just left to their own devices until the ceremony is brought into things.

The Bakers are different. They were never supposed to be a part of this. They were just a family trying to help a little girl. Their kindness is what killed them.

I’d also like to bring up how much pain they must have been in physically as well as emotionally. Jack sounds like he’s in agony during his mutated boss battle, struggling with all of his lines and crying out for his wife. I’ll re,mid you that by now Eveline has entirely abandoned him and Marguerite as her parental figures in exchange for Mia and Ethan, since Mia is her favourite anyway and now she has a father figure to go along with him. Jack is in this weird in between state where he’s not being controlled but he’s too far gone to the infection to ever regain who he was, so his sobbing for Marguerite and his family is very real emotion slipping through.

I know it’s funny to laugh at the bug pussy jokes, I make them too, but I want to take a moment to just think about that. Marguerite’s womb is tearing through her body. Insects are crawling out of her throat and through her raw flesh. Her limbs grow to unnatural lengths. Her womb is a big hive. It’s ripping through her body. The agony that poor woman must have been in, and sounds like she is in during her boss battle, is hard to consider when she’s taking bites out of you and laying bug hives left and right, but it’s heartbreaking when you do take time to consider it.

And Zoe, the unsung hero of Resident Evil 7, had to sit back and watch it all happen. She had to watch her family slip into madness without her being able to do anything and she coped by refusing to acknowledge them as still being her family at all. It’s Joe who has to remind her that they were still her family and that they did love her deep down in their true hearts in the End of Zoe DLC when she’s finally escaped the property. Zoe is stronger than I think most of us give her credit for, she shouldn’t just be looked at as the bad ending girl because she is honestly so much more than that.

I just love the Baker family, they really deserved better.

[kaijurakunsobs]

How would re8 end for hesienberg and pyro kid? Well I think that at some point during the fight against Miranda, pyro kid would try to help out (they were only supposed to talk with Chris about getting out of the village and he does agree to help them). Pyro kid uses their powers against Miranda. Heisenberg uses his mutant form is to protect pyro kid. The last thing Miranda does before dying is cause a relapse in pyro kid. Only Miranda dies. They both wake up in a hospital finally free!

continuation of this

I'm FUCKEN sobbing, what the hell? I know I asked for this, but, I wasn't ready!

Do you mind if I explore this concept a bit more? try and make it sadder...

Chris was beyond speechless, Ethan not only dared to question him, attempt to interfere with the operation, now he's looking at Heisenberg...and his child, who somehow swayed Ethan into working together

indeed you both could be useful, Heisenberg knew all the tunnels and hiding places, and you could reduce anyone and anything into a crisp

but how could he trust you both? all he had was your father's word of following the rules and playing nice, with only one condition "If my kid begins to feel bad, I expect you to save Y/N"

if you had been paying attention, you would have been able to see your dad trust your meds and a notepad with indications and doses

you cried out when Miranda killed Ethan in cold blood, reaching out to save a man that was gone, adding up to your hatred for the woman

Chris was impressed with the army you and your father created, with the control both is you had over your powers

Heisenberg was almost unstoppable but, you? he could see steam and smoke rolling off your body, sweat almost pouring down from your forehead...like if you were overheating

meeting up with Mother Miranda and seeing Ethan alive or as alive as one in his position could be

Miranda was annoyed, angry at the betrayal of her golden child and beloved grandchild

she made you and gave you to Heisenberg...she could take you away too

it was a pain that left you breathless, dizziness and the taste of vile overflowed your mouth, far away you could hear the mechanical screech only your father's monstrous form could make

there was the feeling of someone tossing you over their shoulder and your feeble attempt to get off, to your run to your father and help, screaming for him, begging to be let go off

the last image of your father and Ethan fighting Miranda, the fear of knowing...you won't see him again, last time you barely survived the cadou rejection and this time, you might not be able to live to tell the tale

there are hands over you, people talking and hissing in pain when your body burns them after touching you, you don't care, you don't have the strength, you are so tired

so so tired

maybe...you should let sleep consume you

death is something you know like the factory, you have it various times throughout your life, is an endless void but full of peace, like those days when uncle Sal would let you float in the reservoir

uncle Sal, you might meet him, that would be nice

but you never hear his voice calling you, there's the endless beeping of something, a gasp, and people moving rushing to pull a tube out of your throat

and then! the old and familiar smell that you can only describe as...home, like your dad, he's hugging you and laughing like crazy

the white lights make you wince when you open your eyes, immediately hiding your face on his chest

Y/N:...it's too fucking bright

Karl: What kind of first words are those!?

Y/N: what...what do you want me to say? yaaaaaaay! we won, suck it up Miranda!

Karl: even right now you are a pain in the ass, Y/N

Y/N:...love you too dad

it takes you a long time to get used to the light and even more to be able to sit with your dad refusing to let go

Chris eventually comes, merely to check on you and remind Heisenberg that he should be in HIS room resting and following the doctor's orders

there's a small talk about what's gonna happen now, but you are more interested in what you can see from the window, everything is so bright...and pretty

you don't even listen when your dad begins to bitch about "being forced to live under the BSAA", huffing and growling about "having to work for them in exchange of protection!"

you don't care for any of that right now, eating a warm meal and watching some show on the Tv...uncle Moreau would have loved it