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yngai · 9 months

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SEPERATE WAYS (2023) INITIAL THOUGHTS - PART ONE :

while i think i set my expectations a little too high regarding this DLC & there are areas where i was left disappointed, aspects of the original story that begged for expansion which are either ignored or just as obtuse, i do enjoy the new additions & scenarios unique to her campaign ( resulting from it being given proper development time, when the original was always an afterthought, a quickfire rendition of the main scenario whose actual story is relegated to direct exposition from ada in between chapters + the attached guidebook offering context on her actions & allegiances ) . ada's characterization falls very much in line with how i've portrayed her . while capcom always delivers on engaging gameplay ( RE4R's combat is the franchise's best & ada's unique move-set sets this DLC apart ), characters & story can often take a backseat to the breakneck pacing of the action, to atmosphere & overall world, monster & sound design .

i wish this wasn't a consistent issue but having been a resident evil fan for at least half a decade now this is what i should've expected, there are some excellent moments hampered by wasted potential & while these are faults i am happy to see ada wong being given a chance to shine . separate ways was always setting up ada's own solo outing that was later backtracked & her narrative role reused for damnation, only somewhat realized with RE6 as ada's campaign carries the most story relevance as we learn the motivations & background of the game's villains, with ada confronting her own manufactured persona plastered onto another woman . this DLC feels like that promise fulfilled, ada unchained from her narrative dependance on leon as we relive the events of RE4R from her perspective . whereas for leon it's a horror, for ada it's just another day clocking in to work . everyone was left wanting for more & thinking ada robbed of her story relevance by luis, but even in the original her campaign is what cements her role in the narrative & it is the same here .

i don't tie my blog's canon exclusively to the remakes & as i've detailed here there will be a lot carried over from the original moving forward with my portrayal, especially in how resident evil 4 (2005) is a self-aware take on the american action movie, where ada plays & subverts the role of the femme fatale very plainly . this is something important to how i perceive & portray ada, because i think an issue regarding most analysis of her character is that despite her duplicitous, calculated nature, people take her & her words at face value . in this remake much like in her every appearance, there is a disconnect between her actions & the information she relies to other characters, it's what makes her interesting to me ( & why i've written her for as long as i've been a ressie fan ) . we've known since RE3 that ada wong is a cover, a mask worn by a woman that thrives on lies & deceit, & the weight of it, her existence in a world on the brink of self-destruction is what gives her life meaning .

separate ways (2023) doesn't truly pick up until after luis' death, sadly, i don't think her infection is given much proper development, but her relationship with luis going beyond one file & one cutscene is a welcome addition to her story & the interplay with luis' arc & theme of redemption adds a lot of context to ada's scenes in leon's campaign . the build up is a little middling but the payoff is worth it .

this isn't going to be an in-depth analysis post, i still need to gather my thoughts, think of this more as a rather long list of observations :

first off, i love that ada's introduction & approach to rescuing luis shows her undercover . this is the first time in the franchise we see ada, a spy, sneak into a situation not donning her signature raven black hair matching her usual red/black color scheme . while the leather gloves are a dead giveaway to eagle eyed viewers, it's a nice change of pace for a character we are told is a spy though we rarely see do proper espionage ( she is more akin to a gentleman thief ) . does make me wonder where she procured the outfit since the inhabitants of the castle are on high alert, & what she thinks of all the dead hitchhikers she walked past on her way down .

i also enjoy that ada humors luis by giving the chance to finish off his private dance number & that from her expression alone there's instant regret, an eye roll, placing a cigarette in his mouth to shut him up, later turning her head away to create distance as luis leans in, before her demeanor with him grows openly hostile as he continues testing her patience . i will say though, this scene does feel like it belongs later in the campaign, it makes little sense for ada's route throughout valdelobos to be castle -> village -> castle ( luis even mocks it, asking ada if she ever thought she'd come back to the castle later . seems like a cheeky nod from the developers hinting at the strangeness of the circling ), & it always felt like their cliffside chat was supposed to be their first meeting . in fact, this is hinted at by the code phrase used, one luis asks leon upon their introduction & later ada, stressed in the e-mails exchanged . which is absent here as i think originally the trouble luis got himself into that leon hears of in the prince charming radio call was getting recaptured . this is a writing decision made specifically for the DLC that, in my opinion, does conflict a little with the main scenario, but i can live with it .

i guess it's nice of ada to pick up a pack of cigarettes on the way to valdelobos, i just wish she smoked one or two in a cutscene, maybe they're not her brand .

some insights into ada's arms dealing background given from the descriptions of her springfield armory xd ( blacktail ac ), customed made for ada's personal use, she must know some excellent gunsmiths . interesting as well that her knife 'has meant the difference between life & death on more than a few missions', she is shown to be rather proficient with knives in later cutscenes too . really makes her expression when leon essentially mansplains the usefulness of knives in close quarters all the more understandable . she thinks it very funny, because she never initiated the fight with the intention to harm ( finger off the trigger, playful lilt to her voice, in the remake leon has openings ada doesn't exploit, leon is her distraction against los iluminados why would she harm him at all ) . in both renditions it's a part of her game to judge his training, how it has changed him & in the remake she does get caught off guard by how seriously leon takes the encounter, the build up of resentment of a six year old death & betrayal ( deserving, of course, a consequence for ada's actions in raccoon city that leaves little room for whatever lingering sentiment people misinterpret in their interactions ) only regaining her foothold when he tries to talk down to her . then she mocks what he's become .

after learning of ada's infection i first speculated it would coincide with her own capture by méndez's forces after rescuing leon at his home, sedated as in the original & injected with her own plaga instead of becoming a sacrifice . instead her infection happens first thing, resulting from a fairly surface level cut on her right arm that heals & vanishes ( along the damage to her sweater ) within minutes . while we are told that pesanta possess a unique form of plaga infection specific to her victims ( fitting with her name drawing from catalan folklore as a creature that causes breathing problems & nightmares by perching atop a person's chest ), plaga infections happen through the injection or forceful swallowing of a parasite into a host . in the remake the parasites survived incased in amber, preserved like the insects they are, in the original they became petrified & their spores infected miners hired by the salazar family, & now i guess an organic spike cutting someone slightly is enough for a parasite to start growing in your body . but hey, infection through a wound sustained on your forearm from a black-clad monster pursuing you throughout your mission, ada/jill parallels anyone ?

it's just a shame pesanta isn't a stalker enemy that irregularly pursues ada throughout the castle & village, an active threat that looms over the horizon . she is encountered three times, always alone ( sans illusions, which i suppose is a nice nod the hookman version of RE3.5 ) & the third time is the reimagined U3 boss fight, where ada is freed of her infection . this is told to us, & ada even comments on the usefulness of the information, in a file found in the display room, but it's almost kind of a copout as to end the infection plotline as soon as possible .

for leon it lingers until the very end, he goes to such great lengths to cure himself & ashley, ada vomits her parasite & brushes it off like it never happened, & it's such a shame because pesanta's ability to control her victims through waking nightmares would've been such a great chance to introduce some more horror to ada's journey, insight into her character by the nature her nightmares take, imagery & symbolism, maybe an even more overt series of hallucinations in the castle as a full on callback to RE3.5, something beyond her nightmares being a boss mechanic ( not asking for anything beyond a 5-10 minute sequence is a 3-4 hour long DLC ) . this is why i'm currently on the fence about retaining it as part of my canon, i guess until we see the story relevance of the blood sample wesker takes in their first encounter .

ada, to me, is a character that always struggles with her lingering humanity that gets in the way of her own selfish whims & her employers' desires . she finds herself getting invested & distracted by the people she comes across during her missions, by a moral line she is unwilling to cross no matter how beneficial it would be in the long run, which is bolstered here as she affirms luis' promise & need for redemption . while i won't bore you with the notion that her greatest flaw is that she cares too much or anything ( she doesn't ), it is an aspect of her character that makes her a more realized person but dampens her life of espionage . it's an operational failure, but not a personal one, something i would've loved to see reflected in her struggle against the plaga, her humanity succumbing to a power she can't truly comprehend . one that might be useful in her betrayal of wesker, a man who thinks himself as having surpassed humankind . a notion considered but ultimately discarded as she is self-assured enough to think she can stand against wesker on her own terms .

pleasantly surprised to see ada's glasses return in a superior form, one i'm definitely keeping, as the I.R.I.S. system is a gameplay feature & a fun little spy gadget that makes far too much sense as a tool in ada's arsenal . not just explaining her prowess with her grappling hook but scanning the environment for footprints & fingerprints, a gameplay feature i hope to see return in any prospective future instalment featuring ada . she is noted in a character blurb from the original RE2 to be an investigator, an information retrieval specialist, as both the g-virus & the dominant plaga are referred to as evidence that ada is tasked with collecting, rather than research material ( the former makes a lot more sense once you consider that ada's golgotha sample never resurfaces after RE2, while the g-virus itself does in dead aim, degeneration & RE6, it's always through other avenues, namely, HUNK's sample landing in the hands of umbrella europe's facilities in france, frederic downing escaping raccoon city with his own sample & carla radames extracting the lingering golgotha in sherry's system - the latter kept by ada for undisclosed purposes, the same file mentioning she has no desire being part of wesker's apocalyptic designs ) .

when i first played the demo for RE4R i immediately locked onto the game's present though underdeveloped stealth mechanics . i remember testing its limits seeing how far i could sneak into the village before initiating combat ( it wasn't very far ), & it set my mind ablaze with the possibility that separate ways would expand on its stealth system, making ada a more covert operative . while there's certainly opportunities for stealth, more than the base game, it would've been very neat to see the I.R.I.S. system implemented in such a way as to allow ada to scurry by undetected . enemy sightlines & alert levels, a ping system allowing you to see enemy movements behind walls, i'm just dreaming about an ada wong metal gear solid game .

does make me wonder though if this is just an ace in ada's deck that wesker is otherwise unaware of, as he could very easily tap into her eye to see her activities in real time, though i doubt it's in any way connected to any network ( los illuminados also has the facilities to interrupt any radio communication ) . ada keeps wesker updated to her progress via her radio & never removes the I.R.I.S. like she discards her sunglasses, i'm unsure yet if it is a contact lens or a permanent implant .

an incredibly goofy line but i think as ada's report unveils, ada isn't necessarily the most creative woman when it comes to word choice ( she leans too heavily on obvious metaphor & cliché even in her speech patterns ), i don't think this topples her equating umbrella's collapse with an umbrella folding & brining all of spencer's shadowy conspirators ( wesker included ) out into the light & their wretchedness into full view, their battle of light & darkness as they seek to erect a new umbrella, that's still my favorite ada wong-ism . i think her quips in this DLC make her out to be even more of a dweeb than ever before & believe me she thinks she is so clever .

very brief for an introductory monologue but i do like that RE4R's primary theme of change is carried over to ada's narrative through the lens of how raccoon city changed her, kind of been a long running aspect of my portrayal, the complete shift of the ada wong persona & the ideals of the woman underneath after a night that almost undid everything she was . this in tandem with the reputation garnered from her survival & the opportunities it presented her as a corporate spy is what molded ada into a much more efficient, smarter operative willing to reopen old wounds as to form scar tissue . her questioning wesker's designs with the amber here, as well as telling luis earlier she has yet to decide what to do with the amber, is also a very nice callback to death's door where ada's single thought following her discussion with wesker at the apple inn is the possibility of a g-virus outbreak on the scale of raccoon city ( 'if the t-virus did this, what would happen if the g-virus got out ?' ) .

she probably blessed whatever higher power she doesn't believe in that no such outbreak has ever occurred, a BSAA file on golgotha specifically states this fact & the disastrous consequences should one ever occur & as i've mentioned previously, her sample never amounted to much . this does tie into a point i will make once we reach the post credits scene, it's something that makes me very happy .

i don't think ada was ever fully prepared for raccoon city, even prior to the outbreak itself the darkness of the umbrella corporation was of an evil she had yet to encounter ( if you subscribe to her presence in arklay & stay in raccoon city up until the outbreak as i do, rather than being sent into RC on two separate occasions ) . while there was plenty of dread & deceit in her life, death & betrayal, petty crime & arms dealing that made her the perfect candidate to be a corporate spy on behalf of one of umbrella's rivals, the eugenics driven research into the t-virus which would eventually lead to the development of bioweapons for the us military was a revelation not easily stomached . she was in over her head with no out but to continue her mission until she found herself in a living nightmare with no real plan & no backup, a desperate woman donning lies trying & failing to manipulate her way to her mission's success . the desperation of her half-constructed lies that only a rookie like leon would believe ( & even he quickly formed doubts ) is what really cements RE2R as one of my favorite characterizations of ada, she lost control & paid for her failure with the life of her persona, only for that name to become her moniker once she managed to drag herself out of raccoon city's wreckage, one of the few survivors .

ada takes on a very cheeky matter-of-fact tone in this radio conversation, combined with the fact she must've already known about the kidnapping of ashley graham before going into valedobos, might be a hint towards ada herself having tipped off the us government towards ashley's location specifically to rile up the cult as a distraction ( 'couldn't have picked a worse time' ) . this does fall in line with a file from the original game, where the cult suggest a similar theory that i think ada's report on leon confirms outright, as she plans for his involvement in a starring role while she works in the background, mentioning how simple the structuring of the operation was prior to los iluminados capturing the us president's daughter . the kind of thing that tends to complicate matters, thanks krauser .

OH MY GOD HE SAID THE LINE !!!

#* file // : OOC — ( 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐄 . )#* file // : 005 — ( 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀 . )#* file // : 004 — ( 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 . )#congratulations to whoever reads all of this you are a champ i will personally give you a trophy just DM me your address #can't FUCKING believe i have to do it parts #my uncompressed steam screenshot folder is 2.5GB with a majority of it being separate ways + some baldur's gate 3 #just so you know what you're in for #capcom refurbished ada wong content on a silver platter and you bet i am going ballistic

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