#but also she 100% should have explained her behavior with the cable guy and probably with the Farnsbeys as a recent head trauma

[normcore-tertiary-character]

One thing I really wish they'd leaned into on Ghosts was early on excusing all her ghost-related behavior as being because of her head trauma at the start of the series. In the first few episodes it would make more sense if she was leaning on that reasoning for her weird behavior, particularly when she does think the ghosts are concussion hallucinations. Then when she gets in a pinch like with the Farnsbeys where she's probably healed but acting really weird it would be a reasonable way to try to shrug off some suspicion.

Then she just gets used to it as an excuse and it crops up in increasingly ridiculous circumstances. She tells the waiter at her mom's diner that she's talking to the air because of a head trauma. She tells Mike like 6 months into his working for them. In season 2 she tells guests who walk in on her talking to herself that it's due to a head injury. Eventually she's so used to all ghost things being because of her head trauma that someone sees the lights flickering from Thor and she's like "hey, sorry, I have a concussion"

[rpdwong]

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then she meets Claire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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