Talking abt how what BA did to Wasp is unforgivable but then saying u like Sentinel 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

Slightly long post about Resident Evil 7 and Jack Baker

Or more specifically, “How RE7 succeeds in redeeming the villains that should be redeemed”

UNDER THE CUT FOR SPOILER’S SAKE!

So, after having played through RE7 twice now (I needed to see that foot cutscene) I have been thoroughly drained of shit and pants in which to shit into, thanks primarily to the utterly AMAZING Baker family.

See, there is a book called the horror movie survival guide, which explains most of horror movie cliche’s in a, you guessed it, survival guide fashion. On thing most movies adhere to, is the “villain archetype” i.e. Jason is the strong silent type, Freddy is a wisecracker, leatherface and his family are half-retarded hillbillies, etc. However, the Baker’s often end up breaking this mold, and in a very pleasing way.

From the beginning, we knew the family was going to be the spotlight for RE7, with the now famous “Welcome to the family, son” line delivered by Jack himself introducing us to the family itself with a sucker punch to the jaw. What we didn’t know, was how absolutely fucking MENTAL they were going to be, or how diverse their methods were.

Each family member, Jack, Marguerite, and Lucas, all have their own ways of modifying the house, as well as mannerisms, powers, AND methodology. Jack, the figure head of the Bakers, is the first family member you meet, and is easily the most straightforward of the bunch.

Jack Baker fits at least three of the “villain archetype” molds, half-retarded hillbilly (very loosely, mainly defined by his insanity and his accent), the SST (although not adhering to the second S, he fits the bill completely otherwise), AND the wisecracker. Jack is genuinely fun to listen to with his constant taunts and sing song threats. However, his methodology, the way he attacks, contradicts to the wisecracker formula. Jack bursts through walls, throws you like a ragdoll, uses giant weaponry, and shrugs off damage like a fucking tank. He also manages to spice up his brand of Jasonry by having a distinctly hillbilly tone to himself. Jack is easily, at least before he turns into some weird ass mold monster (let’s not talk about that, it was a mistake on their part, if you ask me) the most outwardly intimidating family member. But he’s just the first, and as such, his section of the house is fairly bland, which still suits his blunt methodology.

Marguerite Baker...oh god where do I even begin. The matriarch of the Bakers is easily the most disgusting of the three, her bug powers making my skin crawl with revulsion. Her “crazy hag” shrieking voice grates on the ears in a fitting manner, and her almost junkie-like actions makes you realize how fucking unstable she is.

When you get to her part of the house, you instantly recognize it. Giant hives of vicious wasps pulsate from walls, immense holes are chewed into woodwork, and everything feels very disgusting in her part. It all feels like the worst infestation of every bug on earth all at once. Tackleboxes overflow with maggots, doors suffocated by giant spiders, immense nets of wasps leech off of the landscape, and don’t even get me started on the centipede crawlspace.

However, Marguerite herself is, for me, the weakest in character of the Bakers. She has two tricks, crazy junkie hag, and creepy bug bitch, which do both work, but they leave little for actual meaningful character. When she transforms into that...whatever it was, she loses the former part of her archetype, and becomes like every other bug villain: spliced horrifically into an uncanny valley with bugs, with a queen bee mentality for her “babies” which she, before then, wantonly used like tools, not caring if they perished, and losing any human traits. She quickly loses any interesting features about herself, and when she dies, you only remember the bugs, not Marguerite.

Lucas Baker, in contrast to both parents, is the most “normal” of the Bakers, as well as the least hands on. Outwardly Lucas still can pass as “normal” which, if the wiki is to be believed, is because he’s just crazy, not actually infected. Lucas doesn't bother with brute strength, or overwhelming horror, he simply allows his victims to be their own undoing.

In one of my personal favorite sections of the game, the “happy birthday” Jigsaw-esque trap room, you are tasked with simply lighting a candle and placing it in a birthday cake. However, unlike Jigsaw, the puzzle if not exactly fair, and is set up for you to fail. Lucas’ section is lined with tripwire traps, boxes filled with explosives, and various other mechanisms to kill victims without much threat to Lucas himself. If you happen to enter the trap room without watching the VHS tape first, you will most assuredly die. See, the problem with lighting the candle is that there are shower heads into the cake room that will extinguish the flame. So, what you gotta do, is turn them off. However, every time you think you’re figuring out, you are actually sending yourself closer to death, effectively damning yourself once you pull out the winding key from the barrel. The cake, once the candle is in, explodes, and if you took out the key, lights the oil on fire, and if you think turning the showerheads back on is an option, the wheel breaks off.

But, if you watch the tape and learn from the last victim, you don’t have to be pierced in the dick with a quill pen, nor do you need loser written on your arm, you simply open the door with the loser code, grab the wheel, and win. Lucas, though, is a sore loser and drops another bomb for you before running off to safety. Even though you barely see Lucas, his personality is clear. He is demented, but cowardly, unwilling to directly confront you, allowing you to die by his own machinations.

By now, most of you probably are glad that you’ve killed the Bakers, but in one single scene, Jack Baker redeems his quiet southern family completely.

At the beginning, the derelict house footage tape tells us that the Bakers weren’t crazy at all, just quiet, and kept to themselves. However, the other main antagonist, Eveline, has completely taken control of them, forcing them to do what they’ve done. While Ethan is nearly dead, he somehow meets with Jack Baker, now completely calm and sane. Jack tells Ethan that he doesn’t want to hurt him, or even scare him. In truth, Jack and his family have had no control over their actions for at least 3 years by this point. He tells you that he, his wife, and his son are not murderers, or even mean spirited, and that Evie is all to blame. In this one scene, you learn that the crazed family you’ve been fighting is actually little more than bodies being puppeteered, and that they are not to blame. Jack Baker, in less than five minutes, goes from a crazed brute, to a kind old man unable to stop what his body is doing. Before you wake, he begs you to free him and his family, wanting them all to stop suffering the way they’ve been.

In reality, Capcom could have simply left them as insane hicks, but by doing this, they both add a new level of danger to Eveline, as well as giving great depth to the Bakers. The Bakers deserved to be redeemed, being secondary antagonists to the real antagonist Eveline. Unlike the Bakers, she never gets a redeeming scene, unless the player somehow feels sympathy for the spoiled child-turned-decrepit-hag when she says she only wanted a family, while trying to kill you. By leaving Eveline as the sole antagonist not redeemed, her villain factor rises, making the secondary antagonists you fought a tragic casualty rather than a righteous slaughter because of her doing.With nobody else to direct your anger at, Eveline becomes the catalyst for any hate you had for the Baker family, making her a perfect, if rushed, final antagonist.