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rallamajoop · 2 months

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Mia Winters and the Connections

There are a lot of bad takes on Mia Winters out there, a lot of really irritating shallow misconceptions. But for now, I’m just going to tackle one of the big ones that annoys me the most.

Mia Winters is not a scientist, and it's debatable whether she had any long-term association with the project that created Eveline. She may not have even met Eveline before being assigned to transport her to South America.

Mia’s not any kind of researcher. Her job when she worked at the Connections is laid out clearly in the first document you find within moments of starting the flashback ("Orders"): she’s a member of the Special Operations Division in the English version, or a 'special agent' in the Japanese (特殊工作員, tokushu kousaku-in). The English version also gives Mia the role of 'caretaker', implicitly of Eveline, but there's not much to suggest this is a role extending beyond the bounds of this particular mission (for comparison, the Japanese doesn't mention caretaking at all).

Mia's job is exactly what we see her doing in the game: transporting important assets under cover identities, and running around doing damage control with a machine gun if things go south. She echoes the same in her letter to the Bakers, stating she 'was assigned to transport some important cargo.' Even the 'imprinting protocol' she refers to seems to be mostly part of a transport protocol (going by the very little we ever learn about it), and may not even have been implemented until shortly before they left.

Even in the one photo of her standing with the research team, you might note that Mia and her partner Alan are the only people present not wearing lab coats (and believe me, with how much other photoshopping there is in this photo, Mia would have been wearing a lab coat if they'd wanted her in one). The photo itself is far more of an easter egg than a real plot point anyway, and probably isn't worth reading too much into ‒ I mean, Alan is apparently the director of the Special Operations division, so it makes no sense to assume he's part of this one science team. But if you really want a 'canonical' explanation for this photo, considering Mia and Alan are wearing the same clothes as in the ship flashback, you could reasonably assume it was taken right before Eveline was shipped off to America ‒ a kind of "Let's get one last snapshot of the team together with the transport crew before Eveline goes to South America" deal. It's completely plausible Mia may not even have met Eveline until the same day this was taken.

So where does this 'scientist' nonsense come from? The only source which does call Mia a 'researcher' is a timeline entry in this one RE7 strategy guide which has never been published in English – and it's a good example of why sources like this are usually better treated as pseudo-canon at best. You can find various translations of it online – but you can also buy the whole ebook (which I did), so here's the page where it originally comes up.

And yes, inasmuch as I��m qualified to translate, the line does state that Mia joined the company as a ‘researcher’ (研究員, kenkyuu-in) in 2010. But the same guidebook also refers to her as an operative (工作員) just a couple of pages later, so even the guidebook is hardly consistent.

Charitably, perhaps we could read that Mia was initially hired as some kind of generic, low-level research assistant before being transferred to the special operations division after showing aptitude in that area. But it's more likely that Mia was simply going to be a researcher at some point in the game’s development history, before Capcom changed their minds, and the timeline that made it into the guidebook is just very out of date ‒ it happens. Either way, one line in an inconsistent guide book hardly trumps what actually made it into the games.

I do realise that asking people to pay attention to what's actually in the games over what's repeated in some wiki somewhere (or a gazillion different fanfic) is a big ask for any fandom, but Mia was clearly never a scientist in the game we all played. She still knowingly worked for some really evil people – she doesn’t get to claim innocence here – but the idea she's personally responsible for every bad thing ever done to Eveline is absurd.

FWIW, other details from the guidebook also back up the idea that transporting assets was a major part of Mia’s job. Her bio (above) mentions that she was away from home a lot, something that strained the Winters’ marriage, and that she told people she worked for a ‘trading company’ – a solid cover for a job focused on travel and logistics.

A very little is said about Mia’s relationship with Eveline. The guidebook does mention that the reason Eveline’s so attached to Mia is because Eveline had known her since she was ‘confined to the “mysterious organisation” that created her’, which could be taken to imply she knew Mia well before their trip began, but it's not much to go on. Mia's own feelings on Eveline are described briefly in a caption: “Although Mia found Eveline creepy, she also felt compassion for her lonely situation,” which tracks with how Mia interacts with her in-game. It doesn't track so well with the idea Mia had any real authority over how Eveline was raised or treated, however, and would be perfectly consistent with the idea Mia might not have known her long at all.

The guidebook timeline also tells us that the E-series project begain in 2000, and that Eveline herself was created in "the early 2000s." This doesn't make a whole lot of sense for reasons I've talked about already, but does put Eveline's creation well before 2010, the year the same timeline gives us for when Mia started working at the Connections. Since the guidebook also tells us Mia was 32 in 2017, back in 2000, she would have been all of 15 years old. Whatever Mia's involvement, the project long predates her joining the company.

But the real issue with trying to given Mia any major responsibility for the E-series project is that the lab that created Eveline was located in Europe. Mia, meanwhile, has a driver's license telling us she's from Texas.

The European location for the lab is another detail that gets barely mentioned in the games, though it's mentioned repeatedly in the guidebook, and the Baker Incident Report even puts it specifically in Munich, Germany. Given all we learn in RE8, that location does make a lot of sense, when the mould was found in Eastern Europe, and that Miranda herself was part of the research team (she gets multiple photos and a lab coat, you may note). And even if the lab wasn’t right on Miranda’s doorstep, Munich is a heckuva commute from Texas, or anywhere else in the US. Even if Mia was often away from Ethan for long periods, as her bio implies, how involved could she realistically have been?

I don't want to overstress the idea that it "doesn't make sense" for a special agent from Texas to have been intimately involved in a European research project ‒ making sense has never held back RE lore before. But the idea that Mia was brought in only as a handler for Eveline when she was being moved to America still makes a lot more sense than to suggest the Connections were fine with their star asset’s primary handler going home to the US every other weekend.

There are possibilities between the two extremes, of course: Mia may have had sporadic contact with Eveline before the trip, either regularly or just once or twice. It's easy to assume the 'imprinting protocol' must mean that Mia's been Eveline's primary handler for some time, but heck, maybe it's better read as the opposite ‒ something that can be quickly applied to a new handler or caretaker in a hurry, to explain how Eveline got so attached to someone she'd only just met.

Given everything we actually see of her, you could even speculate that Mia was chosen as Eveline's 'caretaker' specifically because she was someone nice and motherly enough for Eveline to bond with. Eveline was pretty clearly fucked up long before Mia ever got involved, and not actually wanting to adopt a walking bioweapon whose idea of a happy family involves mould-powered mind control really does not reflect badly on Mia's character.

Whether Mia was already working for the Connections before she met Ethan also isn't clear. The guidebook tells us she began working for them in 2010, and married Ethan in May of 2011 (later confirmed by the date on Mia's ring in RE8) – though it doesn't specify when she and Ethan met. Even by Texas standards, marrying someone you’d known less than a year would be pretty unusual, so it’s likely Ethan knew her before she took the job. But even that 2010 statement comes along with the bit about Mia being hired as ‘a researcher’, so you can always take it with a grain of salt if you'd prefer.

And that's pretty much it for what the complete RE canon ever tells us about Mia and her former employers.

So here’s where I’m left with Mia’s role at the Connections. Even if she wasn’t aware of exactly what she was signing up for when she joined the company, and even if she considered all that lying to her husband about it to be a simple matter of confidentiality around sensitive research, she’s fully aware by the disaster in 2014, and plainly has a guilty conscience when she admits to lying to Ethan in her video message. However responsible she may or may not have been, she's still complicit. Her hands are hardly clean.

But they’re still a whole lot cleaner than, say, Luis’, considering that he was a key member of the science teams at both Umbrella Europe and in Saddler’s cult, and I don’t see him getting a fraction of the same hate as Mia. They both regret what they’ve done, and they’re both willing to give their own lives to make up for it. No, Luis never lied to a spouse about it (that we know of), but he's every bit as shifty and secretive. And frankly, most of the other shit that gets dumped on Mia’s doorstep is just as much bullshit (like, people do realise the “Mia” we see having “marital problems” with Ethan at the start of RE8 isn’t Mia, right?) But that’s material for other posts.

We don’t know how Mia got involved with the Connections, or how she felt about working for them, because the games never give us this information, and that’s a real shame. But in the capitalist hellscape we’re all living in, she’d hardly be the first to find herself stuck working for truly terrible people, one way or another.

Meanwhile, everything we see her doing during the outbreak on the tanker speaks to a basically good person, desperately trying to run damage control in a fucked-up situation. She tells Alan she’s not going to let him die, even though what’s going down is his fault. She tries so hard to talk Eveline down. After she’s rescued by the Bakers in the Daughter's DLC, she insists on staying in the trailer, meaning to leave at her first opportunity – pretty significant, considering she knows she’s infected already. She also leaves them a message warning them to stay away from Eveline, even sharing information on how to make a serum if they are infected. If you pick her over Zoe on the dock, the first thing she does is try to convince Zoe to come with them anyway. Even under Eveline's mind control, you'll catch her ranting about needing to contain the outbreak, blaming herself, and telling Ethan she loves him with her last breath.

And after being infected herself, the first thing on her mind is to try and protect Ethan, recording that message admitting she’s lied to him, and warning him to stay away (Ethan never gets that message, but you can’t say Mia didn’t try). Mia loves Ethan enough to die to save him – and she will, if you choose the Zoe path, and she’ll do it without a second thought.

Mia is fascinating to me as a character because she’s so full of contradictions: a woman who leaves syrupy video messages sending ‘tons of kisses’ to her husband, but who is completely comfortable running around with a machine gun killing mould-monsters, and who shrugs off an Eveline jump-scare with 'fucking hallucinations!' Someone who’s done bad things and knows it, and is trying so hard to make up for it, but whose background and motivations are left frustratingly undeveloped. But if you haven’t caught that Ethan and Rose mean more to her than anything, you really haven’t been paying attention.

Whatever you assume about Mia’s full story, she’s complicated in a way that makes her so much more interesting to me than most of the franchise’s more popular playable characters. I am very serious in saying I want RE9 to be just the full Mia-Winters-story, because to me that’s the only remotely satisfying justification for keeping her such a mystery for so long. I know that's not at all likely, but fuck it, I can dream.

Mia’s made her share of mistakes, but holding her responsible for everything the Connections has ever done is no kind of fair.

#Mia Winters #Resident Evil Village #Resident Evil 7 #Mia Winters week #The Connections #RE lore #Mia is THE BEST character I WILL FIGHT YOU ALL

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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 1 year

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Ideas for future Resident Evil games:

1) “Resident Evil Zero” remake that’s a collaboration between Capcom and Hazelight Studios (A Way Out, It Takes Two). The remake is a co-op game that emphasizes Rebecca and Billy’s teamwork in order to survive.

2) “Resident Evil Outbreak” remake that’s a collaboration between Capcom and Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, The Quarry, The Dark Pictures Anthology). So it’s a choice-based game in which you’re trying to save the 8 main characters, or die trying.

3) “Resident Evil 9” in which Jill Valentine is the main lead. The story revolves around Jill investigating The Connections, a crime syndicate involved in black market bioweapons. Carlos Oliveira makes a return as well, this time as a security contractor who is brought along by Jill. The twist in the game is that the main villain, the one in charge of The Connections, is Ozwell E. Spencer, who has somehow been resurrected after being killed by Albert Wesker.

4) “Resident Evil: The Missing Files”. A third-person shooter spin-off that specifically focuses on characters who haven’t been seen in years. For example, the game could have 4 campaigns whose lead characters are Billy Coen, Carlos Oliveira, Sheva Alomar, and Jake Muller.

5) “Resident Evil: Gun Survivor” remake but instead of being a light-gun shooter, it’s done in first-person. So, same format as RE7 and RE:Village. Nolan North voices Ark Thompson.

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delicatebluebirdruins · 9 months

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Not A Hero and End of Zoe cutscene talk

theres not a lot but they have some points (and I probably missed some for Not A Hero... I feel like I did)

Not A Hero

1. Lucas: "Is it ready? Can we begin? "I can't help it, man. We've got work to do."

Veronica: "Chris, did we lose him?" Chris: "No, no. Ethan Winters has been secured. He's alive and well, considering." Veronica: "And Lucas Baker? Right now, he's our only link to The Connections." Chris: "He's next on my list.“

we don't learn who Lucas is talking to but we do know its not the connections. Lucas is a double agent selling data to have another group about Evie (and from one of the files we learn why. he thinks the connections won't use Evie properly)

two options: normal feedback from the guys in helicopter when they were flying away and Veronicas comment about how Lucas is their only link lends to that.

but also CONSIDERING WHAT? have you seen RE1 hd Chris alternative outfit looking like the most douchy thing known to man? you know don't judge a book by its cover. But all jokes aside he says this with assurance as if he knows Ethan. And they knew he was going to be there that's what it sounds like to me anyway

2. "dialogue: experiments with an e-type variant": aka these fuckers: fumers and mama molded (later on "I have no idea. its something new. Proceed with extreme caution... white variant is extremely resilient")

3. the son of a bitch has been sending status reports on Evie to the connections: self explanatory this is confirmation of their previous thoughts (briefing document you find in Chris's inventory at the start) and there is a moment of Chris expressing his distaste of working with Blue Umbrella.

4. "if you're gonna kill me just kill me for the love of god shut the fuck up"... no analysis just big ass mood really

5. "Umbrella and Redfield have been taken care of. dealing with them cost me some time cost them a lot more. But I can still get that data to you but we're quits after that" I am going to say this was towards the connections and not the other party but i don't know for sure

6. Lucas "a lot of people out there want to know about out little Evie. a lot of people" Chris: "Your friends, the connections know about this they don't strike me as the forgiving type"

Who are the other people? what was Lucas's plan after he completely betrayed the Connections (... why did Lucas betray the connections? we can infer the why as again he thought they won't use her properly) and of course the criminal organisation won't be forgiving at outright betrayal (or even perceived betrayal for that matter) makes you wonder why explicity Ethan and Mia were moved to where they are in Village (and if they have been moved before)

7. Veronica: "Chris, the data transfer's almost complete!“ Chris: "How do I stop it?" Veronica: "You need a way to shut down the server. There may be some transformer relays you can—“ Chris shoots "OK… that worked. Gonna be some pissed computer techs up here, but—“ Chris: "Cry me a river. What's the sitrep?" Veronica: "The facility is clear. Even the newer breeds have been neutralized." Chris: "Then I'm outta here.“ Veronica: "Perimeter wall is up and operational.“ Chris: "Good. "Think we did any good here?“ Veronica: "Not for them, unfortunately, but the mold is contained. Hopefully, they're Evie's last victims.“ Chris: "Hopefully.“ Veronica: "Chris, there's a call for you. You need to take it back at the camp.“ Chris: "Alright. I'm on my way."

no thoughts about the first part of the bolded text other than it makes me sad. Chris has been in this so long and its just you know tiring for him

now the call back at camp. I am willing to bet that's its Ethan asking him to search for Zoe. And again I ask how can a random normal civilian get a direct line to anyone in this situation let alone Chris Redfield?

End of Zoe

Joe: "What the hell are you boys up to?“ Soldier: "That's her alright. Zoe Baker. She's still breathing. Call in to HQ."

I wonder who wants status reports? also did they get a chance (I hope the prisoner Joe takes took the chance whilst he was out got the call out)

...Soldier: "Listen to me. We're here to help.“ Joe: "No, I don't believe you, boy. Tell me—what kind of help comes in a helicopter gunship.“ Soldier: "You don't know what you're talking' about. You don't get it!“ Joe: "With all these monsters running' around here. Tell me—where'd they come from?“ Soldier: "It's not what you think. You don't understand!“ Joe: "Oh, I don't understand? "You see that girl back there? Look! That there my brother's little girl. My niece. You understand? And around here, family is a righteous cause! And you ain't gonna kill my family! Now see, that ain't something' I can abide.“

Joe was in the military in the Marines specifically but from his questioning he knows about outbreak military suppression groups maybe even aided in one such incident (and after getting discharged went to live in a shack in the swamp close enough to his family but far enough to not know a thing that's happening)

Soldier: "For fuck's sake. She's infected—she's dying—and we're both gonna fuckin' die if we don't get the fuck outta here right now!" Joe: "She ain't dead yet, boy! So I figure you better do something about it. Before I feed you to your little friends outside." Soldier: "OK, OK! "There's a cure.“ Joe: "You're lying to me." Soldier: "I'm not lying... I'm not lying. We were on our way to get her treatment, and you fucked that up when you jumped us! They're probably still waiting for us right now!“ Joe: "Where?"

Joe: "Soldier boy said the meds were at some kind of base... "Now where in all hell did this wall come from…?"

how did Joe miss the wall being constructed? other than him not being close and doesn't go in that direction when he goes hunting?

Joe: "Jack? What the fuck—" Joe: "Goddammit, Jack! Don't you remember your own brother? Don't do it! Don't you touch her! Jack! Let me the fuck outta here! I'm your family! How the fuck could you do this to me? Get me the fuck outta here, Jack!"... Joe: "Goddammit. Aw hell, Jacky-boy... What's happened to you?"

startling realisation and trying to reason with Jack but it won't work (again I think Joe drowned the screen goes black and he gets up at the Baker estate)

"attacked by unknown bioweapon"

Jack gets around quite a bit (considering he can teleport- it would be cool if what he was actually doing was disolving into the ground and reforming wherever he needs to go but alas the garage opening scene exists)

"You're just a rabid dog now. And I'm gonna put you outta your misery."

I had a thought so we see don't see Jack crystalise (I say calcify is better description) after the chainsaw fight but we do see him do so in the boathouse and his legs turn as well in this last boss so his upper half turned into the monster in the boathouse (kinda like fear street and the kids trying to blow up the killers and watching them reform though in this case its both reform and deform)

Joe Baker: "This is a farewell from the family, brother!... Zoe...!"

its just a badass line what can I say?

Chris: "Weapons down. Weapons down! It's alright. You must be Zoe Baker." Joe: "Who the hell's asking?" Chris: "Chris Redfield. We've been looking all over for you. We're here to help."

there is element of Chris helping look for Zoe being that she can be helped. that she wasn't a lost cause. But it seems like there was a lot of effort going into her search all for one person (also I wonder if their search is what woke Jack up or was Jack searching the entire time)

BEST CUTSCENE

Zoe: "I was trapped with those monsters for 3 years—all of them trying to kill me... I can't believe it's finally over.“ Joe: "Ya gotta know, deep down somewhere, they were still your family and they loved you. Especially your daddy... even in his final days.“ Chris: "We found her. She's a tough kid. Yeah, of course. Hang on."

"Someone wants to speak to you."

Ethan: "Zoe? Zoe, are you there?“ Zoe: "It's you! I don't believe it. You actually made it." Ethan: "We both did."

Zoe: "You didn't forget about me."

Ethan: "I told you I'd send help. And I always keep my promises."

Zoe: "Thank you, Ethan."

I wonder if whilst Zoe was being checked up they were explaining what happened to Joe and and Joe came to this rightful conclusion (Jack wanted to bring his baby home)

Chris updating Ethan on finding her over and handing the phone over. (I would love to know what the conversation was like on Ethans end and before Chris came into the tent)

Ethan has to have some kind of authority for some reason to be able to say this with confidence. And you know getting Chris to personally update him AND hand the phone over (again normal civilians can't do this?)

I love this bit what can I say

#resident evil #ethan winters #mia winters #the connections #lucas baker #chris redfield #joe baker #jack baker #zoe baker #body horror tw #i hate the white molded i hate the white molded they fucking suck no matter what mode your on #and its even worse on professional as you don't have guns until the mine cart yard you start and play most of it with a knife #and i especially hate the white molded when paired with the asshole quick molded

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fanficanatic-tw · 1 year

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Chris Argent in smallville? Hunting down Kandorians? Hunting?

Of course 😂

#Chris argent #teen wolf #smallvile #jr bourne #why did I just realise this #the connections #yassss

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halt-arrtay · 1 year

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Chapter 1 Part 4

The Tavern minstrels were in the middle of a song when the pair entered. The Tinrith candles lit up the room and it was bustling with a small crowd.

“Where do you want to sit?” Nick offered.

“Somewhere we won’t be disturbed.” Zach pointed, “over there in the corner.”

Nick nodded and led the way to the semi dark corner booth and sat down.

As they sat down an attractive bar maiden walked up to them, “what can I get for the two of you? Our morning special is the clam chowder.” She said,

“I will have a dish of biscuits and gravy ma’am.” Nick said.

“And what would you like?” She asked Zach with a smile.

“Oh I will have the special with some beef.” Zach said to the maiden,

“Very well, and what would both of you like to drink?” She asked.

“I will have an ale, and he will have-“ Nick said looking at Zach.

“Oh just some water please” Zach asked.

“Ok, it will just be about ten minutes for your food, and I will have your drinks out right away.” The maiden said, winking at Zach as she left.

“Ok if I am going to make the weapon you desire I am going to need a detailed construction from you.” Zach said, opening his satchel.

“I don’t need anything special, just use your imagination.” Nick said.

Pulling out a set of papers and a pencil, Zach looked up at Nick and sighed, “it doesn’t work like that”.

“If I do that I am making a weapon meant for me not you.”Zach remarked.

“What does it matter? It is just a sword.” Nick said, a little irritated.

The maiden walked up to the table with their drinks and she set them down. Looking nervous she hesitated when putting down Zach’s water and said “Sorry for the quality of the water, our well is not working right now so we have to get our water from the pond.”

“Oh no worries ma’am, I’m a blacksmith, we tend to find slag in our drinks every now and again.” Zach said with a smile.

When she left Zach looked back at Nick.

“Nick, my custom weapons are an extension of your body. I can’t just strap my arm in place of yours, it just wouldn’t work.”

“Oh… can you explain further?” Nick asked.

“Ok, so every weapon you have is your life line. If you don’t use it properly in a battle, it could snap. So you, Nick will Cease to exist.”

“Well that kinda makes sense. But what does a specific construction from me have to do with this?” Nick said, “I’m already proficient in sword combat.”

“Yes you are proficient in combat but when the specific construction comes from your mind you already know it inside and out.” Zach said.

He went to take a drink but stopped, he looked down into the cup and shuttered,

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked,

Zach looked at Nick and said, “I don’t think water should be this brown,” “hold on, let me get something.”

Zach opened his satchel and retrieved a small vial of a white crystalline powder.

He opened the vial and poured a small amount of the substance into his hand.

“What’s that?” Nick asked.

“It’s a safe crystallized form of the power I use to form strong welds during the smithing process.” Zach said.

Zach sprinkled the power into his water and to Nick’s amazement, the powder started to stick to the disgusting stuff in the water.

“Watch closely” Zach said to Nick, he picked up a spoon and stirred the water and almost immediately the pollutants in the water clumped together and sunk to the bottom of the cup.

“Oh wow!” Nick said.

“Yea cool right?” Zach said, “I accidentally created it when I was experimenting with different compounds of the borax I use in smithing. The experiment didn’t work out so well but it works just finely with filtering out icky stuff in water.”

Zach took a sip and smiled at Nick.

“Anyway, This sword is going to be a big project.” Zach said.

He scribbled a quick rudimentary sketch of how a normal sword looks and shifted it to be in front of Nick.

“Start with how you want it to look, I’m going to go take a look at the well this tavern is having trouble with.” Zach said, getting up.

#the connections #booknerd #bookaholic #book writing #bookaddict #book blog #bookworm #fantasy

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endorablerey · 8 months

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my fav thing in star wars is when i coincidentally consume media that parallels each other at the same time.

currently diving into the 2015 comics run and in #62 leia is on home one doing a mission brief.

and i was like why is that so familiar rn….

because sabine was trying to contact home one in the last episode of ahsoka :’)

#this is meaningless to probably anyone else #but i’m like THE COINCIDENCE #THE CONNECTIONS #em.txt #ahsoka #comics

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dracharenae · 1 year

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sb: game of thrones is lord of the rings but with sex.

me: game of thrones is dune but with snow.

#nσt α drαgσn ; вut cєrtαínlч α sαlαmαndєr ( ooc )#íf í cαn lєαrn tσ dσ ít чσu cαn lєαrn tσ dσ ít ( crack )#|| I AM RE-READING DUNE RN #FRESH OFF OF RE-READING GOT #the parallels #the connections #everything #paul and jon?#ned and leto?#ygritte and chani??#the fremen and the freefolk??#melisandre and the bene gesserit??#PAUL AND BRAN HONESTLY?#let it be known #i am not complaining or calling out grrm #bc i love both books equally #but it just made me laugh as i was listening to the audiobook #anyway i need to go to bed but i cant sleep #my stupid self now cant stop making connections between got and dune

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halinski · 8 months

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I didn't think rewatching ep 2.02 was gonna hit my JamieKeeley feels so hard like Keeley still loved Jamie so fucking much what???? 😭😭😭😭😭

#On my first few watches i was like yeah she moved on to Roy but #now i'm like...#i had already caught on to the hurt she showed when she asked about jamie deleting her number #and obviously she never stopped caring about him #but but but #honestly without jamie keeley would've probably not gotten with roy right?#and it almost feels like...#jamie being 'passionate and vulnerable' with keeley #which is exactlly what she was asking of roy #is why we got that scene later from roy and keeley in the bedroom #which led to roy being a pundit which led to him eventually going back to football #and also just the intimacy of it all #the connections #it was always the three of them!!!!#ot3 feels #i mean i always shipped them three since s1 but i hadnt dared hope for it and now seeing it all there again is just #🤯

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niceboyeds · 11 months

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forever analyzing Taylor’s lyrics like i’m in the fucking FBI bro

#the connections #are connecting #and my brain is exploding #taylor swift #you’re losing me #midnights from the vault #midnights

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ultimateanna · 1 year

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Resident Evil 7 - Eveline

#resident evil #biohazard #game #horror game #horror #resident evil eveline #eveline resident evil #eveline #エヴリン #resident evil e-001 #e-001 resident evil #e-001 #the connections #scientists #ultimate anna

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socialjusticevampire · 1 year

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I cannot keep reading sociology papers alongside horror & gothic content it’s going to make me write deranged analytical posts about vampires and make more vampire OCs I can’t keep doing this.

#vampireposting #vampires #i can see it #the connections #but i can't articulate it #but Soon #i will obsess enough in my gothic madness to actually produce articulate content #possibly #or i'll just keep going insane

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rallamajoop · 7 months

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The Baker Incident Report and the Resident Evil 7 Guidebook

While I’m talking obscure sources of RE7 lore, there's a couple more I’ve been poking through lately: the Baker Incident Report file (only available with the RE8 Trauma Pack DLC), and the BIOHAZARD 7 resident evil kaitaishinsho or RE7 guidebook (only available in Japanese, though some translations have made their way online).

I’m not the biggest fan of these kinds of ‘canon’ – fans shouldn’t have to go pouring through pages of DLC-exclusive-text-dumps or untranslated supplements to find out WTF was supposed to be going on – and both of these have other problems I’ll get into below. All that said, here's some of the more interesting new info they give us.

From the BIR, the Winters were moved to ‘Eastern Europe’, as witness protection from the Connections. That's still frustratingly unspecific, but more than we’re ever explicitly told in the game.

The lab that created Eveline is in Munich, Germany, per the BIR. This one does add up: close enough to Eastern Europe for Miranda to be involved, but not so close that it would necessarily ring alarm bells for Mia when the BSAA wanted to move them right to Miranda’s doorstep. Mia’s obviously been to the Munich lab, but presumably didn’t know exactly where the mould comes from (something redacted out even in their own reports). The guidebook also places the lab in Europe, but doesn't give a city. The BIR adds that the Connections are active in Eastern Europe, and we know they have facilities in Central America. Presumably there are offices in Texas too ‒ Mia can't be commuting cross continents to get to work every day.

Eveline was shipped to Central America due to an attempted raid by the BSAA, which is far more we learn from the "Orders" file from the game. The BIR goes so far as to imply that this botched operation was indirectly responsible for the whole Baker Incident, with Chris and his team leaving due to their frustration with the BSAA's attempts to cover the incident up. The guidebook, however, tells us Chris Redfield was actually the guy leading the team behind the failed raid. I assume we’re meant to take it that the mission failed because of an info leak, but I’m still amused by just how ineffectual this franchise keeps making Chris out to be.

Post RE7, Zoe is working as a reporter for a small paper in New Orleans. We don't know if she too went through witness protection but her name was listed among the dead at the Baker mansion.

Ethan is called a systems engineer in both the guide book and the BIR (this one does seem to have been spread around fandom more widely).

Eveline was created in the early 2000s, according to the guidebook. This one really doesn't add up for me: if the project started in 2000 and had already advanced through the A-E series by the early 2000s, why did it stagnate there for the next 10 years without further progress? Did Miranda leaving the project set it back so far? They can't have been waiting for Eveline to grow up, she can age 25x faster than usual, and is being deliberately maintained at the age of a 10yo girl. IDEK, I'd be inclined to ignore this one.

The guidebook states that Mia told people she worked for a "trading company," and was often away from home for work, something which had already strained the Winters’ marriage. I'd guess she told people she spent a lot of time accompanying shipments of goods when she was really smuggling materials or taking part in covert operations for the Connections.

The guidebook gives 2010 as the year she started working for the Connections (a year before her marriage to Ethan in 2011, though it doesn’t mention when they met, which may well have been 2010 or earlier). Mind you, this is also the one bit that randomly calls her "a researcher", so take it as you will (more on this below).

Of Mia's involvement with the project that created Eveline, it says only that the Connections' Special Agents Alan and Mia were assigned to transport Eveline to America. No real indication Mia was ever involved before then.

Of Mia's relationship to Eveline, it says that Mia "found Eveline creepy, but felt sympathy for her lonely situation." You and the rest of us, Mia.

Eveline forced Mia to lure Ethan to the Bakers' property in hope that adding Ethan to their family would make Mia more compliant, according to the guidebook. Eveline was especially fixated on Mia, having known her longer than the Bakers, and was frustrated with Mia's continued resistance to her control. Mia seems to have tried to keep Ethan's existence secret from Eveline to protect him, but somehow let it slip. All this is already implied in-game, of course, but it's nice to have it spelt out.

The Bakers feed people infected food because “oral and mucosal infections” are supposedly better for mould-powered mind-control. Ethan is obviously already infected AF well before their attempts to feed him 'dinner' (there's no way his severed hand would be usable otherwise), but IDK, maybe ingesting some extra mould would have made it easier for Eveline to control him? I'm sure a 10yo girl and a family of hillbillies do not have this down to an exact science, and I wouldn't even be surprised if feeding people mould was counter-productive somehow, given their success rate.

So why did none of those infected prisoners join Eveline's "family" alongside the Bakers? The guide book tells us simply that all were "deemed unfit" as family members, and were thus killed, and converted into molded instead.

We get official names for all the molded types we meet in the game (Moulded, Blade Moulded, Quick Moulded and Fat Moulded – pretty self-explanatory).

As a side-note, Ethan himself gets referred to as a ‘molded’ around this fandom a lot, which really isn’t correct. Ethan’s infected by the mold in the same manner as the Baker family, whereas ‘molded’ is a term coined to describe what amounts to mutamycete zombies (see above): the unintelligent, inhuman monsters that made up the generic enemy types of RE7, whose whole bodies are simply “superorganisms formed of countless mycelia.”

The guide book also implies that Jack’s final, mutated form reflects that he’s starting to become a moulded himself, which is a very interesting little detail.

Notes attached to concept art suggest that most moulded are created from dead bodies, covered by mould in bathtubs to convert them. Eveline is also seen spontaneously converting people to shapeless mould though, and clearly converted much of the ship’s crew into moulded-creatures in a very short time after her escape. It’s not super-consistent, but it is all horror-logic at its best (read: the rules are whatever will make this scene scarier).

There’s a bunch of additional stuff in the BIR naming the Connections’ founder as Brandon Bailey, someone who naturally has ties to Umbrella, blah, blah, blah ‒ I’m sure it all means more to fans of some of the older games. I can't pretend to have much interest in this part myself.

So with all that interesting info, what's my big problem with these sources? Well, for one thing, you don’t have to look far into the guidebook to find info that contradicts what we already know – and sometimes even itself. One page clearly describes Mia as a special agent working for the Connections ‒ a description that matches the wording used in the Orders document, and everything we see Mia doing in the game. But then another page randomly tells us Mia was hired as "a researcher" ‒ a description that matches nothing else we know about her (though it's an irritatingly common misconception, and this book may be the reason why). No-one's checking any of this stuff for consistency.

The guidebook also features such other gems as telling us Ethan currently lives and works in Los Angeles, when both Mia’s driver’s license and all geographical logic tell us they’re from Texas. Then there's that weird bit about Eveline being created in the early 2000s... and realistically, I can only assume a lot of what made it into the book may have come from earlier concept notes that were never updated as the story developed ‒ and if you read anything else on the production of this game, you'd know that concepts changed massively as development went on.

But more frustrating is everything the book doesn’t tell us. There isn’t a word said about the oh-so-mysterious "imprinting protocol" that Mia references in the game. How does it work? Is it, as the ending text spiel seems to imply, merely something that can be implemented in a hurry when Eveline needs to be transported across the globe? Can she be imprinted on more than one person at once? Has she ever been imprinted on anyone else? That seems likely, given that the lab’s in Munich while Mia lives in Texas (and if she's really been around since the early 2000s and Mia joined the company only in 2010, she logically must have been), but we don’t find out. Does Eveline get similarly obsessed with everyone she’s imprinted on, or is Mia special? Not a clue.

Since the guidebook was released in March 2017, long before the Not a Hero and End of Zoe DLCs, neither expansion is mentioned in the text. And since we don’t even learn the name ‘The Connections’ until the Not A Hero DLC, the group that created Eveline is referred to simply as the “mysterious organisation” (with quotes) whenever it comes up.

Nothing is said in the guidebook about the new incarnation of Umbrella which was so prominently involved at the end of RE7 either. Possibly, this too was to avoid spoilers for Not A Hero, which does at least give us some info on them – but then, the Baker Incident Report doesn’t mention the new Umbrella at all either, and it doesn’t have that excuse. That omission is all the stranger, considering that Zoe’s whole purpose in writing it is supposedly to expose the cover-up after the Baker Incident – doesn’t Umbrella factor into that at all? It’s like their whole role in RE7 has just wiped clean.

It's also obvious there was so much more lore written for this game that the guide book doesn’t share. Early versions of collectable documents that can still be found in the game files give the D-series head and arm some fascinating backstory, but there’s nothing about them in the guide book, which is a real shame.

Mia especially stands out as a character who must have so much backstory we never hear anything about. How did she get involved with a company as evil as the Connections? How did she justify it to herself for so long – what excuses did she make to herself? Did she genuinely believe they were finding ways to win wars without losing soldiers? Was she gathering evidence against them, was she scared they’d kill her if she left? Not one single word in either the guidebook or the BIR to explain.

Even more annoying to me, though, is just what a wasted opportunity the Baker Incident Report is to add more to Zoe’s story, when she’s one of my favourite RE characters. Included in the text is a letter she received from Mia, giving what should have been the perfect opportunity to flesh out the relationship Zoe and Mia must have built in the three years they spent trapped in the Baker property, the only two (semi-)sane people present – and what does the letter do? Imply they hardly knew each other at all. It’s the most boring possible answer, it contradicts hints from the actual game (Marguerite outright tells us they've been working together, even!), and GDI, you do not get to tell me that my girls didn’t know each other! ;_;

Ethan and Mia similarly get the short shrift. Throughout RE7 their every interaction is building to a big scene that never actually happens where Ethan finds out the truth – Ethan knows Mia’s been keeping secrets, he never stops asking questions about it, and Mia says outright that she wants to come clean. So what does the BIR tell us? Well, post RE7, Mia mentions in an interview that she doesn’t want anyone telling Ethan. Not a word about what changed her mind. Not a word about why Ethan would just stop asking. Total cop-out.

And there’s so much more it could have covered too. There's nothing about Ethan’s ‘military training’. Nothing about the Winters' relationship with Chris. Mia’s conversation with him in RE8 suggests he was personally involved in relocating them to Eastern Europe, but the BIR doesn’t mention that either. The BIR at large is basically just an extended lore dump, and it doesn’t even sound like Zoe’s voice.

So this is about where I finish up with both of these sources: frustrating, inaccessible, inconsistent, and more missed opportunities than real material. There’s a lot in both I’ll happily go on ignoring. But I’ll still pour through them for every last interesting detail, because I am that obsessed with this canon right now, and they’re what we’ve got.

#Resident Evil 7 #Resident Evil Village #Eveline #Mia Winters #Zoe Baker #Ethan Winters #The Connections #The Bakers #RE lore #meta

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