Summary
Resident Evil Villageis a feast for all things fantastical and nostalgic, especially when it comes to what helped makeResident Evil 4special, but unfortunately its entire narrative hinges on a plot twist. This twist is rewarding when looking back at how it’s set up, and yet, to fulfill it at the end ofResident Evil Village,Capcom needed Chris Redfield to make egregious and inexplicable choices so that truths would be hidden from Ethan Winters, all so that the story could go on the way it was intended to.
SomehowResident Evil’s Mia Wintersknew about Ethan while Chris didn’t, for instance, and she’s conveniently tucked away for all ofVillageso that truth couldn’t come out sooner.Villagein general doing away with Mia was odd, too. Mia wasn’t playable as much as Ethan was inResident Evil 7, but she’s far more prominent as a character and she’s who the story of the seventh mainline installment revolves around. Even Shadows of Rose completely disregards Mia, and if the Winters saga is truly meant to be finished now it will be a shame that Mia wasn’t given the attention and development that Ethan got.
Resident Evil Has Put Mia Winters on an Indefinite Back Burner
Resident Evil 7 Made Mia as Important as Ethan, if Not More
Mia is whoResident Evil 7opens with and the pursuit of her is the game’s catalyst.Ethan still isn’t as iconic or beloved as a protagonist inVillage, but he certainly wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea inResident Evil 7when his remarks hardly seemed appropriate for the impossibly horrific scenarios he was enduring.
Of course, Ethan never even really had an official face reveal, and Mia was clearly meant to take priority in the story as to who the action centered around. This would extend into the game’s third and most divisive act beginning on the boat with Mia as a playable protagonist finally. This didn’t last long, but it was revealing in terms of explaining how Eveline reached Dulvey and the Bakers and why Mia was connected to it all anyhow.
Ethan is essentially the player’s avatar vessel withMia actually being a fleshed-out character andResident Evil 7honors thatthe whole way through. Then, for some reason, Mia was sidelined entirely for the next entry.
Resident Evil Village Neglected to Make Mia an Actual Character
Villageis a huge game with a lot of moving parts and trying to cram Mia into it meaningfully might’ve been difficult and inauthentic. However, locking her away in the village while Ethan fights to find their daughter’s disassembled body seems like a gross underutilization of Mia’s character.
Most ofwhat players see of Mia inVillageisn’t even really her, but Miranda. It’s only during Chris’ playable segment that a cutscene reveals Mia was in the village and being experimented on so she can tease the big Ethan plot twist, once again servicing his character at the cost of turning Mia into a plot device. Mia is then seemingly forgotten about when it comes time to celebrate Rose and Ethan’s distant relationship, but even if Rose had lived her whole life knowing her mother it would’ve at least been great to see them interact in the DLC.
Instead, it seems as if Capcom was happy to dispose of Mia afterResident Evil 7and the Winters saga supposedly concluding now makes a massive waste of Mia’s character. Mia would joina long list ofResident Evilcharacterscut down in their prime, following Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield as a woman the franchise should surely reprise down the line.
