#re7 spoilers

[eliaswoodt]

I can’t help but not see Eveline solely as a villain. As this terrible monster who was a monster from the start, and was destined to be a monster. A killer waiting to happen. She is a child. A child who did terrible, horrible shit but who is a victim as well.

But I totally understand where Ethan and Mia are coming from, the both of them are hurt, and scared and angry and Eveline who has done a good number of harm, who is portrayed by Mia, Zoe, and the Connections as a monster is standing right there. So very easy to blame.

I bet Mia blames Eveline to take away some of the guilt from herself. Because if Eveline isn’t this monster who doesn’t feel real emotions then that means Mia had participated in, or at the very least was complacent in, the abuse of a child. Many would not be able to handle that type of guilt, and Mia is flawed like everyone else. She might even try to excuse some of the shit the Connections have done, in order to feel less guilty, about what she’s done for the corporation and for what happened to Ethan.

I believe Ethan to be in the same boat as she is. It’s easier to accept a black and white view of things, and not see the ambiguity of a situation. It’s much easier to just hate the person who hurt you and or the ones you love instead of thinking about how that person is also a victim. Usually recognizing that makes their feelings more complicated, it makes them feel guilty for the hate they feel and the hurt they feel and it makes it so hard to feel justified in your trauma. Accepting that person also as a victim, might make them feel as though their trauma is invalid and they are wrong to feel that way even though they aren’t wrong to feel hurt.

Also choosing to see Eveline as this monstrosity probably made it a lot easier to kill her in the final battle of re7.

[keykidpilipili]

Rose's Shroom Heart Hotel

(Because the falling into water sequence gave me KH vibes)

Rose: Eveline where did you put my Switch? Chris got us the new pokemon game.

Eveline: ... I don't know! Where did YOU put it?

Rose: Listen I won't be mad if you broke the joycon again, it happens. A jumpscared Chris did the same during mario kart once.

Eveline: ...... I ate the Switch. I wanted to see if we could play inside the mold so we don't have to swap bodies everytime. That's why you woke up the past three nights to me yelling about those stupid blue shells.

[whatamidoingwithmylifeman]

Mia: oh Eveline, I don't need your gift.

Eveline: but-

Mia: you are a gift, my dear.

Eveline: *happy noises*

Mia: *drops smile and gets serious* A gift no one fucking wants!

Eveline: D:

[von-dotcom]

Why is everyone in Resident Evil Biohazard made out of mould? Does Ethan Winters even have bones? These are all very good questions but I'm afraid I don't have the answers for them.

[bearberrythief]

Resident Evil 7 has such a confused relationship with victimhood.

spoilers under the cut

Like (I think) it wants to say Evie is as much a victim of whatever unethical corporate/military partnership made her into a bioweapon, as is the Baker family, and it does say that to an extent. You encounter her as a child or an unmoving elderly woman in a wheelchair. Even though she is presented as creepy in both forms, there are times when it positions her as innocent, or at least harmless. The game does not let you shoot or stab her or harm her in any way until the player gives her a poison that will unmake her body and she turns into a big goo monster.

But unless the player actually finds and reads all the documents in the game, they could easily miss that she was never treated as a person and only ever knew the violence of being an unperson. And then there's the way all the focus is on her as the source of the resident evil mutating goo, rather than, you know, whoever made a literal baby into a bioweapon.

Like the protagonist's wife that he's searching for.

I think there is a reading here about the many layers of violence being done to many people and the characters are flawed etc. But on the face of it, you have her showing up as an old lady who is creepy by virtue of being seemingly immobile in a wheelchair and yet still moving around the house and evil little girl who everyone is calling variations of crazy little bitch.

And like the depiction of the Baker family is classist (despite their huge house). It leans into every hillbilly horror stereotype they're dirty, violent, ugly, their house is filled with cheap, tacky decor. Even after the scene where big daddy apologises to Ethan for what his family became, the player is still left with hours of the Bakers chasing them down being gross and trying their damndest to murder. Even after that, the player is left to doubt how sincere big daddy's insistence on his family's innocence really is (especially if they found Lucas's childhood diary entry where he writes about how he lured a friend into the attic and locked him in there until he died)

The way Mia is depicted is both interesting and boring. We get a classic dead wife montage in the opening of the game, the player gets lots of scenes of her being scared and suffering, the game clearly wants you to choose to save her over Zoe. Even with the section on the boat where she is clearly implicated as a participant in the bioweapon project, the game doesn't frame her as anything but an innocent victim. Unlike Evie, who is a monster.

I dunno I think it does have some interesting things to say, but to get to that you have to brush past a lot of baggage.

[themasterdisaster]

Shots of Leon S. Kennedy in the Resident Evil 4 Remake Chainsaw Demo

bonus:

[boxonarock]

imposter syndrome

[re4make]

the beneviento house continues to fucking outsell in the horror department. it was horrifying in re8 and it’s horrifying in shadows of rose bc the mia mannequin following you is EXACTLY what i thought was gonna happen in the base game and it’s just as bonechilling and panic inducing as i imagined, especially when there’s more than fucking one

[meatbag-status]

OH WHAT THE FUCK? THE WHOLE TIME??//! I LEFT YOU ALONE BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU WERE SOME RANDOM INNOCENT GRANDMA! OHHH OYU FUCKIN LIL BITCH

[coyotlscadence]

A Dark Masterpiece

[shatteredfears-arch]

if you can’t tell i’m finally watching mark play the game lol

NOT REALLY DLC SPOILERS BUT ANYWAYS

honestly ethan got to see first hand that raising rose is truly just raising him and mia’s daughter bc she’s no different from either of them

[eliaswoodt]

Ethan’s motherfuckings spirit animal’s a cockroach

[weirdthinkingdragon]

I know it's really late, but yandere Ethan Winters. (He deserves better than Mia even before RE7, fight me.)

RE7Yandere Ethan Winters x reader/you

warnings: a few rather changed canon events, spoilers (kinda re8 spoilers too with one thing?), have a bit of buildup to living with him as yandere, clingy, unwanted touch, obsessive, bit of coercion, delusional behavior, sorta stockholm in a way?

(Before yandere) Ethan who you befriended while Mia was gone and offered to come with. You just had a bad feeling and didn't want him going alone. Somehow he agreed.

Cue you loyally following him and helping him every step of the way. You two watching out for each other and saving each other's asses on way more than just one occasion.

As time passes he slowly starts to feel as if he doesn't love Mia anymore. She still wouldn't tell him anything, and has kept many secrets from him in the past he eventually found out. He's having his doubts of why and how she's here even though she explained it before. The more he thinks of it, the more it feels like another lie. But you haven't lied to him. Kept serious secrets from him even if you were just friends. Even though he's only known you for like two years, you've shared everything with him. You were his rock, his staple to keep everything together when she was gone.

You never see Eveline, but Ethan does and she's not very happy of his slow change of heart. He starts latching onto you, always grabbing your hand whenever you both have to rush somewhere. Or even when it seems to be a minute breather of everything going on. You take it as him just making sure not to split up and lose each other.

That's partially true, but not fully. It's a constant, festering need that rapidly starts to grow in him to always feel you close. Even he himself at the beginning thought that it was worry you both would end up splitting up too. You're the only sane one around him besides Zoe, but she isn't physically around him in this hell. However, he quickly figures out and accepts the truth. He can't tolerate you no longer being around him.

It may be the place itself. It may be him. It may be some sort of fucked up trauma this place is giving him, or even a mix of all three. But none of it matters. Only you do at this point. He never felt as close with Mia as he feels with you now, and no longer even cares for her.

All he wants now is to get out of here with you. But he has no idea what way to get out of this hell, so he'll listen to Zoe until then. He does have a growing resentment for Mia though. Compared to you, he should have seen so many red flags from her in the past. And look now where that's made him and you end up. As a "gift" he's saving several 44 Magnum bullets he plans on using on them. Sure, it might not kill Mia anymore, but it sure as hell will at least slow her down for a while. He also doesn't like how aggressive she is on you compared to him. Sure, none of your limbs have been cut off, you haven't gotten any near-fatal injuries, but it's still bad she's targeted you first every time she comes back.

You two take a short rest break. You lean against his shoulder and end up falling asleep from the now lack of adrenaline rushing through your body.

He lets you. Zoe can wait. Lucas can for sure wait. Mia can definitely wait. It's only you who is important. He also takes the chance and injects you with the serum. You likely don't need it in the first place. He will not have Eveline trying to corrupt you. Try to take you from him. No. One. Can. He won't let them. He'll fight her with his dying breath if he has to as long as you make it out alive.

It eventually comes to a head of Zoe and Mia needing the serum.

Now he's thinking he should have waited until now to inject you to show Mia as a final "fuck you". Oh well. Doing it earlier guaranteed they couldn't swipe it from him if he tried to inject you then.

That's when you think of something. "Wait a minute. Would the serum even work?" The three look at you like you're crazy.

"Why would Eveline give the Baker's family the one thing that could kill her? She's likely not the only thing like her created. Could it be a fake from her knowing Zoe was searching?"

Now Zoe looks at you like you're stupid, while Mia looks like she had a terrifying realization. "That's a very far stretch."

Mia shakes her head, knowing she has to reveal what she's done. "No... It does."

Zoe sighs. "then it must be in the crashed ship they came on."

"the... what ship?" Ethan is trying real hard not to be upset right now. He injected you with a useless serum??

you all decide to get on the boat for now to go to the ship.

Things didn't go as planned as you guys crashed somehow at the ship, and Eveline took Ethan away.

You were wary of her from how many times she previously attacked you, but for now it really seemed she didn't want to. She admitted what she actually was, making you feel really bad for both her and Ethan.

She found the actual serum that will kill Eveline and gave it to you, yelling at Eveline all the while.

Eventually you and Mia find Ethan and work together to pull him out.

She manages to push you and Ethan out the door before closing it. He didn't put up much a resistance, just more confused what she was doing.

----------------------

It finally comes to a close when you and Ethan get in the helicopter, and you're relieved to see Mia. Ethan... He's not. Especially after finding out by you he was right. She WAS a part in all the hell Eveline caused, and was even her "handler". That just drastically furthered he doesn't want a thing to do with her anymore.

She took it hard he didn't want to start over with her. Even tried to manipulate him. Since he no longer loved her he could see the signs a mile away, making himself even more angry at his past self for ignoring all of her bad things.

It didn't work. But he did beg you to live with him for at least a while. You were pressured by the Blue Umbrella agreeing with him and wanting to keep a close eye on you two for a while. He was thrilled by his luck of them agreeing.

The clinginess came on FAST. Everywhere you went in the house, or anywhere out of the house, he followed you like a lost puppy. Watching a movie? you better cuddle up to him or he's wrapping his arm around your shoulders to have you lean on him.

The most uncomfortable to you was sharing the same bed, and him cuddling you then as well. You tried to take it again as him just traumatized from the events of before. You know you sure as hell are and still scrub yourself raw every shower remembering the textures of everything. And also feeling bad for him losing Mia. He told you they broke up.

One day out of the blue he started calling you pet names. Hasn't even been a month when he started doing that. You weren't into that type of thing with a friend, and told him to knock it off.

It didn't work. He just became more adamant on it. He wanted to be with you. He absolutely loves you and every single little thing about you.

Now that blew you away. He's gotta be out of his mind. You try to ask Blue Umbrella to move, but they deny. It's as if they don't want you from him either. They don't. They know what he is but thought it would be better not to tell him. They comply to what he wants though to keep him stable. And to run tests on him, which he complies with it that will keep them making you stay with him. He doesn't think that way though.

In some sort of twisted logic in his mind, he doesn't think they're making you stay with him. You just need a little persuasion to realize how you really feel.

It's much more than persuasion though. More like light coercion by the Blue Umbrella. Warnings you'd never get to see your friends or family again did it. Now you can, but Ethan has to be with you, and you absolutely cannot tell them anything of what happened.

You hate to admit it, but as time went on, you started to love Ethan back, craving the constant touches. His constant words of praise, love, adoration, and anything else possible slowly broke your resolve of refusing to love him from it feeling wrong. He almost seemed to worship the floor you walked on, catered everything to you. Spoiled you with everything possible, and with the money given by Umbrella, anything was on affordable range.

You eventually surprise him with a kiss on his lips, sealing your fate together with him further. But hey, at least you're both happy now.

[love-toxin]

Ok, but Ethan Winters has a praise kink the size of Texas and you can't convince me otherwise.

bless you for giving me the opportunity to thirst rn i lowkey love ethan 😩

(cw: re7/re8 spoilers)

Ethan....my man's has fought through literal hellscapes just for the sake of his family, he not only deserves the highest praise but he would absolutely crumble if he got even a smidge of it. just telling him that he's so brave and strong would stop him in his tracks, he'd be dumbfounded, and stutter out a "really? uh...th-thank you." and be left with some rosy cheeks cause he's embarrassed of himself. he'd try to water the compliments down, insist that he's not that great, he's just doing the right thing--but they still make him all warm inside, and they stick in his mind like honey so he can't shake away how good it makes him feel.

so imagine what he'd be like if you told him that more intimately? if you whispered in his ear that he's so pretty, that you love his muscles and his scars, and that you want to hear him moan because you bet it sounds like music? he'd just melt and give you whatever you ask for. his fingertips would brush over your throat and he'd ask if he could leave marks there, if you'd mind him leaving some little bruises to remember him by, but the submissiveness of his voice would make way for a groan so deep it rumbles through your body when you tell him yes, he can do whatever he damn pleases with you. and from there he gets bolder--still asks if he can do certain things, and begs to know if it's feeling good or if he's hurting you--but bold nonetheless, kissing places he never dared to glance at for fear of seeming perverted, and pulling your legs round him to keep steady so you don't have to move, you don't have to do anything but lay back and let him make you feel good. just keep telling him how wonderful he is, how you don't want him to stop, how much you love him, and he'll be forever at your beck and call no matter what happens to him. he would literally give you the world just to hear those words from you again, and again, and again.

[darling-i-read-it]

Survivor's Guilt Part 2

Part 1

Chris Redfield x fem!reader, Ethan Winters x fem!reader

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: angst on ethans side, re7 spoilers, canon violence (zombies, horror, guns), cheating kind of, near death experiences..i think thats it

Author’s Note: I felt like this story led organically towards Chris though that does not mean I don’t love Ethan to death. I felt unsure about the ending but am glad I was able to write a part 2 because people have been asking about it! 

Tagging: (i hope you guys dont mind I’m tagging you but you seemed interested in a second part!) @godihatethiswebsite @undeadfreak47 @hexaecana @elysiaaaaaaa

Summary: You and Chris search for Ethan in the ship and old feeling resurface. 

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director/creator

(not my gif)

Chris’s voice was even when he spoke, even when he was scared. Especially when he 

was scared. There was no point in making everyone else react to something if he could just keep that all pent up, make everyone think he had it under control. Your face was so wide with terror, the kind he had never seen plastered on your face before. He didn’t recognize it on your features but he recognized it. He knew it from the civilians he helped, those that were so worried about their loved ones that they would do anything to see them safe. The look in your eyes dripped with self sacrifice. He wondered if he looked like that when he was with you. He wondered if despite what he thought, he looked like that even now, following you around and blocking you from danger. 

You had lost Ethan. Lost him in the house, on the ship. You were stuck walking around a shipwreck that was too large to case, too large to fully understand. 

Chris was trying his best to make you feel like he had it under control. He would find Ethan, return him back to you, never see you again. The more time he spent alone with you the less that became a priority so he was eager to forget this ever happened. Forget it happened for the sake of his sanity. Forget that there was likely a life where you and he were happy and normal and domestic. 

Even when you brushed past him in the tight hallways of the ship, he longed for your touch. 

“If Ethan’s here then so is Mia,” you muttered. Your voice was barely above a whisper. It sounded so loud but you were trying to ensure it didn’t echo down the hallway. You could never be sure that there wasn’t something watching you. 

“Eveline too,” Chris said, just as quietly. You were both tense as you walked around a corner. Chris hadn’t put his gun down in ages. It was starting to leave imprints in his gloved hands. 

“It’ll be a party,” you muttered. Your eyes caught a glimpse of something on the ground. You rushed forward in the near darkness to find a knife, a lot like the ones left at the Baker house. It had dark blood smeared on the tip. There was nobody to accompany it. 

“You think it’s Ethan’s?” he questioned, looking over your shoulder. You shrugged. 

“Could be. Could be Mia’s.” You pocketed it. You kept walking. Chris followed you, watching your six like his life depended on it. You glanced back at him. “How did things get like this? When I left, all the monsters were tangible. I could see them coming for me. Now we’re here with slime on the walls?”

"There's some sort of hive mind,” he explained. “There’s too much to tell you now. You’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s evolved.”

“Yeah well, I can tell that it’s evolved. But how?” 

“We don’t know.”

“You’ve been knee deep in this for so long and you still don’t know the reason it’s all happening? Is it Umbrella? Is it the world finally caving in?” You turned around to look at him. He almost ran into you. “Pretend I’m a civilian asking you these questions. How do you answer them? How do you tell people that you can be a perfectly nice family out in the middle of nowhere and still be targeted by something beyond your control?” His jaw set. Your eyes had adjusted to the dark so much so that you could see Chris’s stubble. You could see the look in his eyes, the challenge. 

He took the words as an insult. He took you being here, as an insult. He had done so much to protect you just for you to end up in the same place you would’ve even if he had kept you by his side. 

“Umbrella started something and they don’t know how to finish it,” he said finally. “But the world has assured us that there are other forces at work here. Eveline is not exactly an Umbrella creation.” You shook your head. 

“Of course not. Because that would be too easy. You defeat the big bad and it always comes back with more heads right?” You shook your head. “I’m sorry I’m coming at your throat. I just never thought I would be here again.” You had been comforted with the knowledge that people like Chris were out there protecting you. That was the only reason you let yourself go. 

“The world isn’t exactly fair.” 

“It never has been.”

Your eyes lingered on his. Remembering what it was like to touch him. Remembering what he looked like in the morning, the sun on his face, a gentle smile on his lips, a chaste kiss on your skin. The very thought made you angry. You had left all of this to have a life you weren’t even allowed to have anymore. 

It didn’t matter if Ethan lived through this or not. You would be right back where you had started years before. In danger. Always. 

There was a bang in the room before you. You turned around, gun raised again. It sounded like something hard had hit something metal. The conversation was over once again and you were back. 

You slowly slipped back into the you that understood how to use this gun well. The rust was chipping off. You were a soldier again. Had you ever stopped? Had your life with Ethan been anything except a distraction from who you really were? Had you been pretending this whole time to be something you knew you could never have? 

You shoved the door open. 

Mia stood at the end of the room. There was a large pipe surrounded by grated walkways. She was facing you. Even though she was hidden by her dark hair, you recognized her instantly. She was swaying a bit, twitching. 

“Mia,” you prodded. Her neck twitched. You saw an eye peek from behind her hair. “Mia, please put your hands in the air.” She didn’t make any movement, indicating that this was the Mia that took your boyfriend's hand off. Your face hardened as you approached her, gun raised, wondering if Ethan was already dead. “Mia.” 

She lunged at you without saying anything. She threw no insults, she didn’t bother to pretend. She just lunged. You shot at her but it only momentarily stopped her. It was like you had thrown a ball at her shoulder instead of a bullet. You kept shooting, even though it was doing effectively nothing. She reached you, hands on your sides with inhuman strength. 

You could hear Chris moving. You had never been more glad you had called him. You struggled with Mia, her snarls biting at air. You kicked her, you scratched at her, you used everything you could remember from training. 

She was thrown off you. 

You scurried away, backing away. You grabbed your gun which you had lost in the scuffle. You aimed it well, hitting her head in a clean shot. It went through her eye and out the other side. She stumbled. 

Someone was picking you up. You grabbed them, allowing them to help you to your feet. You recognized Chris as you stood against him, still shooting at her until the clip was empty. Your breathing was ragged and angry and worried. 

She fell to the ground. 

You knew she wouldn’t be down long. You had to leave. You had to lock her in this room and burn the place down. 

Chris did the thinking for you. He had your arm in his hand, dragging you past her and out of the room. He shut the door behind him, pushing down on the handle. He broke it. 

You stared at the clouded window and felt a pang of guilt mixed with anger. She was the reason you were here. Now she was going to die, infested by a virus that wasn’t her. 

You were still holding on to Chris. You might’ve stopped for a moment but now your hand was back on his arm, your brain blurry with thoughts. He looked down at you, eyes meeting. 

“Are you okay?” 

You didn’t think about kissing him. You just did it. 

Your lips were on his and it felt like home. It felt like you had never left, like you had kissed him yesterday and you would kiss him tomorrow. It was filled with the emotion of every single year you had been apart, by everytime you wondered if he was dead in a ditch, everytime you got drunk and swore not to think about him. 

His strong hands were so gentle when they held you. 

Though passionate, the kiss was short lasting. 

You pulled away and your eyes stayed shut for a moment, pretending you were home with him, like you had never left. Then they were open again and the nightmare remained. 

There was no regret in his eyes. There was no regret in yours. It was a mutual feeling, broken only by the duties of soldiers who had loved each other for a little too long. The bucket had overfilled and tipped over. 

“We have to find Ethan,” he reminded you. 

Ethan.

Guilt hit you like a truck. He could be dead. You looked forward, giving no other words to justify or break what had just happened. Chris let you be, let the kiss hang in the air. 

-

Ethan was not far. Chris had called for backup when you entered the ship and his friends arrived just in time. You helped Ethan finish off Eveline and were shot out of the ship, landing hard back in the outside world. Chris’s people carried you away in a helicopter as the nightmare of the Baker house erupted in flames. What had been a horror was now nothing but a burnt part of the map, something people would merely whisper about. 

Chris brought you back to where the BSAA had set up camp. 

You had a hand in Ethan’s. He looked exhausted. There was something off about the look in his eyes but you couldn’t place it and you didn’t feel like asking him about it. Questions like that came later, when you were less tired and more hydrated. 

“I’m sorry I lost the cars,” he muttered. He was sitting on the makeshift hospital bed. There was no one else there. People had gone to try and find Lucas, who had been lost in the fire and not confirmed dead. You were sitting in a chair beside him, in silence. 

“It’s okay,” you whispered. “I’m sorry about Mia.” He took a deep breath. He did not tell you it was okay. 

“We’re gonna bring in the best medical help,” Chris explained. He watched as Ethan’s hand left yours. “Doctors are coming in right now to look you both over.”

“What about you?” you questioned. “You were in there, just the same as me.” 

“I’ll get looked at. I have to go with my team back in and find Lucus.” Your jaw hardened. 

“The work doesn’t end,” Ethan observed. He understood why you left. 

“By yourself?” you questioned. 

“I’m a big boy,” he promised you. You purse your lips, glancing at Ethan. You had no idea the world was this bad. You had no idea it had gotten so much worse since you left the job. 

“Let me go with you.” He shook his head. 

“Absolutely not.”

“No.” Him and Ethan spoke over each other. You gave Ethan a look. 

There was something in your eyes that he didn’t recognize. He wondered if he had lost you the second he left your house without telling you. Had that been the breaking point in your relationship? Did relationships survive things like this? 

Yours and Chris’s did, Ethan thought. You and Chris slipped back into each other like puzzle pieces. It was like no time had passed. No kind of ill will had come between the two of you, from the looks of it right then. Ethan wanted to desperately grab your hand, beg you to stay with him, tell you that he couldn’t afford to lose both you and Mia. Instead he watched your face as you looked at Chris. 

“I’m a big girl Chris.” 

“You’ve been out of the game for too long. You can’t just jump back in like this.”

“I just did. I have knowledge of the interior, we were just there Chris. It would be smarter to bring me.” Chris and you stared at each other with looks that Ethan could be envious of. Challenging, protective, loving. “Let me go back. Let me back in.” 

This life was like a drug. You could be gone forever but the second you could come back it was too addictive to stay away from. You stood up. 

“You’re the captain now hm? You tell them I can help. You know I can help.” You walked up to him. 

“I almost lost you back there.” He didn’t specify that it was the fight with Mia that had him particularly worried but you knew it was. You knew that he was also thinking about the kiss that happened right afterwards. 

It hadn’t left your mind. 

“Chris I’ll find my way back here either way,” you muttered. “There’s no use in trying to stop me.” 

If Ethan wasn’t there he would’ve kissed you. Instead he dipped his head. 

“Talk to your boyfriend about it.” You looked back at Ethan. Chris left the tent. You were left alone together for the first time since before the whole ordeal. Conflicted, you walked back to him. 

“Go,” he said, voice strong.

“Huh?” Ethan’s face was soft and understanding. 

“Go.” There was a beat of silence as you stared at him, trying to read his expression. He had just been through everything and was letting you go? “I know why you left this. But this is your life, isn’t it?” Your face scrunched into a hurt expression. 

“Not necessarily-”

“The only reason you left is because you wanted to prove a point to him. You proved your point.” 

“Do you want me to go?”

“No,” he said quickly. “I want to go home. I want to take you with me. But I don’t think that’s what you want and that’s okay.” 

“Ethan-”

“It’s not what you want, right?” You remained quiet. You couldn’t argue with that. He was right. You wanted to stay here. You wanted to get back into a fight you had once been so passionate about. He nodded once. You weren’t sure if he was numb or in complete control. “Exactly.” He grabbed your hand. “I dragged you back into this the second I believed that email.” 

“But the house,” you whispered. 

“We’ll figure it out. Just go. Please.” You nodded curtly. 

“Okay,” you breathed. He wouldn't look at you. You got up slowly, wondering if this was really happening. You tried to tell yourself doing it now was for the best. This is the only outcome that would’ve made any sense. 

You left the tent.

“Oh shit.” You looked up. You were met with John Perlman, someone you used to work with. He was older now but had the same slanted smile. “The rumors are true.” 

“Perlman,” you breathed, laughing a bit. 

“How are you doin girl?” 

“I’m okay,” you said and you meant it. You were alright. You were gonna be alright. 

“I hear you’re going back to the tunnels with the boss,” he observed. “You back in it?” Your eyes searched for Chris. You found him in front of a different tent, grabbing a box of things. 

“I guess so.” “He kept all your things when you left,” Perlman explained. “I’m sure he’s still got ‘em. It’s nice to have you back.” He pat your back before walking past you. The short conversation ended. Chris approached you with the box.

“Well?” he asked. 

“I’m ready Cap.” He nodded once and then handed you what he was holding. You looked down in it. The Dragoon you had used for years sat at the top of the box. “You kept all this?” 

“Just in case.”

“You broke up with me, you know that?” you looked back up at him. 

“If you’re gonna be in this I’d rather you be in this with me.” He gave you a curt nod. “We had out in 15.” 

He started to walk away. 

“Wait! Wait Chris,” you called. You put the box down by your feet. He turned around just in time for you to throw your arms around him. You kissed him again, this time like you weren’t about to die. He held you tightly to him, comfortably. 

He’d be okay. You would be okay.

[scorpionyx9621]

Ethan Winters Doesn't Get Enough Love and that's Heartbreaking

So I'm gonna preface this by saying yes: there will be spoilers to the ending of Resident Evil 7 and Village. If you don't want that scroll away now. Leave, shoo, outta here, go on git, *angrily shakes broom and smacks it against the door to make a loud, aggressive sound*

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Okay so I get Ethan was the "villain" of Resident Evil Village because he killed everyone's favorite vampire mommy but this is in fact a Resident Evil game. Alcina and her daughters and the rest of the four lords were always going to die. It's the nature of the game. It didn't help that Capcom flipped the script and leaned VERY heavily into the villains of Village when it came to the marketing. (Hell I'll bet Capcom is literally kicking itself for making Lady D the first chapter boss) but they really went heavy on making Ethan kind of take a backseat to Lady Dimetrescu and Heisenberg for this game. Which I think is really kind of shitty because we get to see Ethan at his best in this game both in terms of characterization and development.

I need to give a shout-out to Todd Solely, Ethan's mocap and voice actor. We don't get to see Ethan's face in the game so we have to go off of every little action Ethan does and every bit of dialogue we get from Ethan we pay a closer bit of attention to. It's like when you lose one of your senses every other sense tries to make up for its loss. Some truly stand out moments of this were.

1. When Ethan is rejecting Heisenberg's offer of using Rosemary as a weapon and Ethan just spits back at Heisenberg "Rose is not a weapon, fuck you." Ethan freaking lowers his head and leans into the fuck you. You can just tell Ethan is not having ANY of this at all and while I know a lot of people wanted an option where we could have sided with Heisenberg, I'm glad we didn't. Forcing us to pick between Mia and Zoe in RE7 was already a nightmare. Like would the option have been nice yes, but the canon of Resident Evil is being held together by duct tape and spit at this point. That would have torn down the whole house of cards that is the continuity of this franchise.

2. When Ethan is in the village and after he watches the floor cave under Elena and he watches her burn to death. Ethan starts audibly crying, "why does everyone around me keep on dying?" And when he leaves out the window he slams his fist against the pane and yells out why this is happening to him again. You partially wanna go 'come on Ethan, you're in a Resident Evil game, get with the times.' but you realize Ethan thought he was free, he thought if he and Mia cooperated with the BSAA and did what Chris told him to everything would be okay. Yet here he is, back again in Resident Evil hell and he's had three years of him trying to rebuild his life after an EXTREMELY traumatic event just thrown out the window.

3. When The Duke points out that the jar Ethan has is in fact Rose's head and we see him drop the jar like it was a bomb. We saw Ethan's brain literally break. That's his daughter, the one thing he loves more than anything in this world, in this tiny jar. His whole world has shattered. And then when The Duke tries to make light of the situation the abject fucking hatred and pure venom in Ethan's voice. Especially the line "You'll pay if I find out this is a lie." With the delivery of an almost animalistic, hatred-filled growl. It sent a shiver down my spine. It felt like Ethan was willing to freaking maul The Duke with his bare hand (and what's left of the other one)

4. It's not as serious as the last three, but it's actually rather heartwarming. The whole opening portion of the game where Ethan is walking around the house with Rosemary commenting on things throughout the house. There's so much tenderness in this opening. This is a bit of a contrast to the very terrified but almost cynical towards the end delivery we got for Ethan with RE7. We're now seeing a much more tender and loving side to Ethan. Especially when Ethan is pretending to be one of Rosemary's stuffed monkeys. It's silly and cartoonish but it really shows the depth of Ethan and just how much he loves his daughter.

5. Ethan's become such a little shit by the time Village rolls around. He may be yet another human* trapped in a Romanian hellscape with mutated nightmares, but by god is Ethan willing to verbally beat you down if you step in his way. "Looks like your outside matches your inside now, psycho witch." he shouts at Lady D. in her Dragon form." Or when he talks down to Moreau after killing him. "In death as he was in life. Disgusting." And the delivery of that disgusting too was just *chef's kiss*

6. When Ethan is killed by Miranda and is in the Purgatory state with Eveline. Even though the effects make it seem really hard to make out what Ethan is trying to say, I also think it genuinely is because Ethan is freezing, his body has gone cold, his body has given up on him at this point and Eveline reveals the truth. Ethan has always been dead. Ethan is shocked at this realization. His whole life for these past three years have been a lie. But to see Ethan drag himself up again solely for the sake of saving his daughter? UGH. SO GOOD.

7. The entire ending cutscene where Chris is helping carry Ethan and Rosemary out of the Altar and back to the Helicopter. It's honestly so heartbreaking. Once we saw Ethan's good hand start to disintegrate, we knew. Ethan's time was up. Ethan's body had taken on too much damage and the Mold couldn't keep him alive much longer. His final words while alive in this phase still make me choke up every time. "Mia..? I'm so sorry... I love you... Keep Rose safe. Watch over her.. Teach her to be strong.. Goodbye Rosemary." In Ethan's last conscious moments the only thing that mattered to him were his wife and his daughter. I.. i need a moment..

Ethan Winters was different than any other Resident Evil protagonist. He wasn't some ex-air force pilot turned sharpshooter, super-cop who punches boulders. He wasn't an ex-army master of unlocking turned international savior and founder of a paramilitary group created to stop bioweapons. He wasn't a rookie cop turned direct operative for this universe's version of the Secret Service who saves the president's daughter. Ethan is just a regular systems engineer from California who loves his wife so much he was willing to drop everything for a chance to save her. Ethan's just a civilian forced to survive the world of Resident Evil. Hell, Ethan didn't survive, Ethan Winters was killed by Jack Baker after Jack stomped on Ethan's head. What we know as and see as Ethan is really a collection of mold that re-animated Ethan and took over his body and personality. It's downright horrific when you think about it.

Ethan being a dead man walking is something that I've thought about a lot since finishing Village for the first time. To know that Ethan isn't Ethan, but instead is just a collection of mold cells that used his body and has dog-eared his consciousness and personality is insane to me. Not only was Ethan able to resist Eveline, the source of the mold that created the thing that became Ethan, but he was able to resist The Black God (the Megamycete) completely. The mold collective that was Ethan Winters was able to fully retain Ethan's shape, form, appearance, consciousness and be completely unaffected by most external factors. Even in Resident Evil biological terms, what Ethan Winters was, was nothing short of a miracle. When Ethan "dies" in the game during a game over screen we don't see him mutate into your usual flavors of Resident Evil biological nonsense. We never saw Ethan disintegrate after dying (if he did it was done off screen but bleh) Ethan was a full-fledged human while absolutely not being one.

The complications and plot holes that this opens are very numerous. Why exactly was Ethan able to maintain so much of himself despite purely being a mold being? How was Ethan able to resist even Mother Miranda even while being directly connected to the Megamycete? The source of ALL of the mold infection? How was Ethan able to sexually reproduce and make a (mostly) normal human? How did Mia not get re-infected with the mold by having sex with Ethan? Why didn't Ethan mutate as opposed to say Jack despite having similar regenerative abilities? If the BSAA was able to physically remove mold spores from both Ethan AND Mia, how did they not realize that Ethan was even more infected than Mia?

Don't get me started on Mia, she's getting her own rant soon enough but Mia while being just as much a victim of this situation as Ethan, Mia Winters is easily one of the worst characters as a person in Resident Evil. She lied to Ethan about her occupation as a researcher for The Connections, she physically assaults Ethan on multiple occasions (she was infected by Mold and under Eveline's influence I'll give her a pass here.) But most importantly Mia is fully aware that Ethan is still infected with the mold. This is compounded by the fact that originally in RE7 we were told that Mia was just Eveline's handler. When in reality at the Exposition Bombing at the end of Village we see a photograph (see below) showing that Mia and Miranda weren't strangers. They knew each other enough to take a picture with each other. Mia wasn't just a handler, she was a full-blown researcher and scientist with The Connections and she was fully aware of the extent of Ethan's infection. Yet she willingly allowed herself to be impregnated by a molded Ethan. She sits on the secret for a long time, she almost even tells Ethan the truth in an argument a week prior to the events of Village. Yet she doesn't. I want to give a lore-related theory/explanation to this. I can't remember exactly which game it was but Wesker had entered into a file that he hypothesized that the human psyche plays an impact on mutations on highly mutagenic strains of viruses. I.e. think about how Alexia became this bulbous, insect queen in her second form because she saw herself as royalty, genetically superior and above all else. Mia had no idea what would have happened if she told Ethan the truth, she didn't know what would have happened to Ethan whether he would have just had a full-on mental breakdown or if he would have mutated because his psyche would have become so fractured. Let alone what would have happened to her family. Because while Mia may have been duplicitous and lied to Ethan both in RE7 and Village: Mia genuinely loved Ethan. I don't think there's any way we can debate that.

(The person on the far right of the image is Mia. The woman to the left of the little girl is Miranda. The little girl is Eveline. Mia and Miranda weren't strangers. Which begs the question: why did Miranda keep Mia alive in her lab?)

Ethan Winters is a character who has left a huge impact in only two games. While he's your generic everyman protagonist with a little bit of biting sarcasm in RE7. By the time Village rolls around Ethan is a fully-fleshed character. We get our actions survivor back but this time with basic military training, even more sarcasm, and now with the full range of emotions. We get to see Ethan as a tender and loving father towards his daughter, from criticizing Mia (Miranda) for reading a scary pop-up book with Rose to him swaddling his daughter as she starts stirring and crying. To holding onto Rose tightly but ever-so tenderly as Ethan is physically falling apart and carbonizing. We watch Ethan cry as the people he tries to help die around him, we see Ethan filled with abject and carnal rage towards his adversaries. Ethan truly is Resident Evil's titleholder for best dad. (Sorry Barry lol) and for a character with no face that we can see during the main game, Ethan is exceptionally expressive and emotional and shockingly so human for this franchise.

I'm beyond excited for what Shadow of Rose: the DLC for village will bring. My theory is that since Rosemary has gained access to a remaining sample of the Megamycete, we probably will see Ethan again in some way/shape/form since the Megamycete absorbs the consciousness of all who die within the reach of its roots. Whether or not Ethan is corrupted or he finally reunites with the daughter he loved so much is yet to be seen. But I would love to see a tender moment where Ethan pulls Rose into the tightest of hugs. He remarks how he's been inside of her watching her through her connection to the mold. Ethan would be profusely apologetic about not being there for her, but that he's so incredibly proud of the strong young woman she's become.

Ethan Winters deserves more love and recognition and it's a crime he doesn't get his pearls. I love this daddliest catch of a man who literally goes through HELL just to save his daughter. It broke my heart when Ethan died, just like it did when I saw Piers die from Resident Evil 6. But we got a fantastic character out of all of these two games. So go on Mr. Winters, smile. I hope whatever afterlife you are on you're loved and valued.