Continuing on the spicy path that this blog has taken lately, today I am going to elaborate a bit on the dark romantic aspect of relationships between characters, something that, surprisingly, is not a new thing in video games. As early as in 1995, Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within was maybe the first game to include such an element in its plot, which back then was particularly radical and innovative, given that the technical means were very few, and the ways to accompany a game with cutscenes were also rather limited. Regardless this didn't prevent the game's developing team to come up with a captivating story involving characters that since became iconic. The element of desire is quite prominent in the story, as I will analyze in a bit, and in a rather complex form, for that matter. I have also picked a few more select cases of characters who, like Gabriel, are not simply involved in the theme of desire, but are also deeply and dramatically affected by it in their attitude and mentality.

Desire disguised as confusion (Gabriel Knight in Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within)

Like I mentioned above, Gabriel's case can be considered an archetypical story involving the theme of desire, as it belongs to a video game that was most probably the first one to address such a subject and in such a radical way. Gabriel is a consciously straight ladies' man, and his self-confidence on that matter is particularly high. All this is doomed to change when, while investigating of a series of murders, he meets the charming and mysterious Friedrich Von Glower, typically a Baron but in reality a werewolf of more than one hundred years old. Friedrich is instantly attracted by Gabriel who initially seems to be unaware of the situation, but as the story progresses, he gets smitten with Friedrich although this is something that he cannot even acknowledge at first.

At a crucial turning point, however, he comes across Baron Von Zell, Friedrich's ex-lover whom Friedrich had turned into a werewolf during a moment of passion. Von Zell is the one responsible for the aforementioned murders, and while being hunted by Gabriel and Friedrich, he is shot dead, but not before managing to attack and bite Gabriel. Soon after, Gabriel starts to feel the effects, as he is slowly turning into a werewolf himself, something that he realizes and tries very hard to control and suppress. In a rather revealing scene, we can see him struggling with himself in physical and emotional pain as his inner werewolf struggles to prevail as well. In reality, what Gabriel is truly trying to suppress is the desire that he is actually developing towards Friedrich which, allegorically, found a way to the surface after Friedrich's ex bit him. Gabriel is in deep confusion because he is unable to admit and accept this unprecedented feeling, which also happens to be very strong and difficult to handle. Gabriel's inner struggle is in fact a battle with his own feelings and that part of himself that has awakened all of a sudden without him being able to control it at all. At the same time, however, he is struggling to persuade himself that all this turmoil has to do with him slowly becoming a werewolf, but in his attempt to focus on that, he is merely highlighting more what is truly going on inside him.

Desire suppressed by denial (Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 3 Remake)

The romantic aspect may not be particularly present in Resident Evil 3, but there still is a degree of electricity between Jill and Carlos, mostly filtered through admiration from his part, while Jill is rather prejudiced at first because Carlos belongs to a company that she knows is evil. As the story progresses, however, it becomes quite clear that Jill and Carlos are attracted to each other, something that Carlos shows almost directly, what with his attitude towards Jill and his choice of words when it comes to flirting her, albeit a bit awkwardly, and also given the tense circumstances they find themselves in. But for Jill, things are not that simple; although Jill is a very "raw" character, in that she is honest, sincere and crystal-clear, she is quite secretive when it comes to expressing her feelings. As the events in the story develop and she starts to see that Carlos is honest and she actually begins to like him, it is not very easy for her to admit it, let alone express it with words to him. Moreover, Jill is a person who puts duty above all and who values her partners very highly; this is something that becomes very clear during her brief dialogue with Carlos after she leaves the power plant, when Carlos calls her "partner" and she replies with a rather bitter and cold "Not your partner", because, for her, comradeship is something sacred. Carlos, on the other hand, is always laid back, and doesn't seem to take anything else into account except for the fact that he likes her, and he is very specific and clear about this. After Jill witnesses Nikolai betraying his team and leaving Mikhail and her to die, her prejudice against Carlos disappears completely and it slowly becomes clear that she does care for him. Chances are, if she didn't know that he was a soldier of Umbrella, she would have allowed herself to realize that she actually did like him from the beginning, both as a person and as a man. 

Even after all this happens, however, she is still in denial; being faithful to her mission and because her priority is the elimination of evil, she refuses to give room to her feelings while, subconsciously, trying to control them. After she is treated with the antidote and just as she is about to wake up, she has a nightmare during which Carlos gets in her room to inform her that everything is fine, but just then he begins to turn and he asks her to kill him. Jill cannot do it, of course, and a zombified Carlos attacks her, which is when she abruptly wakes up in anguish and confusion. The fact that, among all the people that she met in the course of the story, her subconscious decided to make Carlos attack her in a zombified state in her dream, can have a dual interpretation: on the one hand, being forced to work with Carlos had brought her closer to him, putting him inevitably in the position of a temporary partner, and subsequently someone whom she could trust, at least to a degree. The fear of losing a partner, and more so in such a violent way, had been with Jill from the start of the story, after the unfortunate incident with Brad; so now her nightmare reminds her that fear by presenting Carlos as a victim with Brad's fate. On the other hand, however, this subconscious choice indicates that Jill is attracted to Carlos but she refuses to allow herself the luxury of enjoying this feeling because if she does so, she will betray her mission. Her subconscious puts the man that she likes in the position of a dangerous enemy because she feels both enchanted and threatened by his presence.

Desire masked as guilt (Joseph Oda in The Evil Within)

Joseph's case is quite similar to that of Gabriel Knight in that, for both of them, desire takes the form of something considered forbidden and subsequently both of them experience a devastating inner struggle with their wild, primitive self through which they channel that feeling. But whereas for Gabriel all this was mainly due to confusion (Gabriel found himself in a situation that was unexpected and unfamiliar, and which he was unable to handle), for Joseph everything is pretty clear and conscious, which is why he is primarily led by guilt for what he experiences. Joseph is emotionally vulnerable, which is why being trapped in Ruvik's memories affects him so much. After unwillingly entering the STEM system, Joseph comes face to face with his most secret and suppressed fears and emotions, something that weakens his will and his resistances and results in him not being able to control himself and thus turning into a Haunted.

Soon after Sebastian finds him in STEM, Joseph experiences his first transformation during which he violently attacks Sebastian while struggling to take control of his monstrous self. The fact that this first transformation happens while he is with Sebastian is not random; since Sebastian is, unbeknownst to him, the receiver of Joseph's forbidden feelings. The next time he turns is when, due to Ruvik's control of his mind, he instinctively catches that Juli's presence is threatening, since in reality she is there as a spy on behalf of Mobius, and he attacks her in an attempt to push her out of the way and, eventually, to prevent her from affecting Sebastian. Later on, while still with Sebastian, he attempts to kill himself because he realizes that not only he is unable to control this transformation, but moreover a part of himself yearns to become a Haunted. Part of himself, that is, is ready to accept and embrace the feeling of that forbidden desire, but his conscious self, most probably having grown up in a strict, heavily traditional environment that forced him to follow all the expected norms and stereotypes, brings forward the feeling of guilt in order to make him suppress whatever it is that makes him revolt both emotionally and physically. Joseph becoming a Haunted then reverting back to his human form with even more guilt each time stands as an allegory for his struggle to come to terms with himself and break the restrains that keep him imprisoned.

Desire leading to self-destruction (Derek Simmons in Resident Evil 6)

Derek Simmons expresses probably one of the most straightforward forms of desire, given that he is not particularly complex himself, at least at the beginning. Originally the typical power-hungry villain with a Messiah complex, he developed an obsessive paranoia after falling in love with Ada. Of course for a man like him, "love" is not exactly the word we should use; he clearly cannot feel anything positive for anyone but himself, and what truly pushes him to extremes is not so much his feelings for Ada, but the fact that she rejected him. By rejecting him, Ada in fact challenged his power, something that, for him, is impossible to accept. After Derek crossed the line by coming up with the idea to create Ada's clone, his mania grew bigger, and his malicious acts shifted from general to very specific. At this point, it was desire that drove his actions, but also blinded him so much that he didn't realize that, by succumbing to this feeling and letting it take control, he got tangled in a peculiar and marginally twisted triangle, with two depictions of the same woman at its two points: Ada, the real one, and Carla, her clone. Subsequently, Derek's actions caused Carla's actions because she, in turn, realized that he had turned her into a lab rat when it was already too late for her to reverse the effects, while at the same time she felt deeply betrayed, not only as a scientist but also as a woman. It is hinted that the real Carla, for her part, had feelings for Derek but he would only see a potential Ada in her, so the realization of this added more fuel to Carla's already unstable psyche.

When Carla took her revenge on Derek by turning him into a monster, Derek's inner monstrosity also came to the surface and literally found a face. Not only he lost any sense of humanity but he also lost himself, and this was a path that he had in fact taken much earlier, when he first came up with the idea to create Ada's clone because he could not have the real one. His paranoia grew stronger after the clone was actually created, when he began to refer to and address the clone as if she was the real Ada. Such a sick situation, of course, could not drag on for too long, and would inevitably lead to his own destruction, aided also by Carla's thirst for revenge. From the moment when Derek was transformed into a monster, and seeing, in his paranoia, how powerful he could actually be in that state, he literally killed his human self, giving room to his inner monster.

Desire as obsession (Stefano Valentini in The Evil Within 2)

Although Stefano's murderous instincts can easily be mistaken for those of a typical serial killer, in fact they have much more depth, like he does as well, both as a character overall and specifically as an artist. Stefano's psyche is in turmoil, but there are two main conflicting emotions inside him: the extreme love that he feels for his own creations, and the venomous hate that he directs towards every other living soul around him. In fact Stefano is obsessed with his art, in a most twisted and unhealthy manner, and views everyone and everything through the distorted prism of his camera's eye. Stefano has given life to his camera by creating the hideous monster Obscura, which is also the depiction of his inner, normally unperceivable self. Moreover, Obscura represents his own feminine side, which he has embraced to a degree but still resents and feels contempt for. Stefano could be easily labelled a killer of women, but this would only be a shallow and superficial characterization for such a complex mentality. In reality he hates all human beings, independently of sex or age. In the real world, he started killing female models because, as a fashion photographer, he could very easily approach them as potential victims. Progressively, killing women became some kind of ritual, as through them he would every time attempt to eliminate his female side. In the reality of STEM, however, where he could act completely out of control, his "gallery" of victims grew bigger and richer. Male citizens and soldiers were also "honored" to become part of his installations, with some of them even getting to have their own personal exhibition room, like Turner, Hayes and Baker, and of course Sebastian for whom Stefano had prearranged a dedicated gallery hall in order to place the installation that he had conceived and which would feature him as a "protagonist".

For Stefano, desire is a very complex, dark feeling and notion; he hates Sebastian on the surface, but in the essence he yearns for that aspect of his that Stefano feels will make him an ideal model / victim. Sebastian combines two things that Stefano seems to deem as essential for the creation of his morbid art: innocence and sexual appeal. In his artwork, Stefano always depicts these two elements together, either directly or through symbols. Although he sees Lily as the ideal "blank canvas" for his future inspirations due to her innocence, he would still need victims to actually create art. Sebastian has Lily's pure heart, but he also has the sexuality that Stefano seeks so ardently for his disturbing creations. The sequence where Sebastian confronts and finally kills Stefano looks and feels like a twisted sex hunt, which becomes more than evident in case Stefano manages to catch Sebastian and stab him with lustful rage. At this stage, Stefano's obsession with his own art identifies both with the attraction that he feels for Sebastian on a physical level, and his desire to create "his masterpiece" which will incorporate all the perfection that he believes he has achieved: the perfect canvas, which is Lily, the perfect human material that would be Sebastian, and the perfect concept, which however he eventually lost the chance to create.

 

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Special thanks to afterdarkmysweet for providing info for Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within.

The Psychosexual Subtext of Resident Evil: Village

 

Resident Evil: Village is centered around Ethan Winters's nightmarish journey to find his abducted daughter Rosemary, however there are several other themes explored in the game on a secondary level that, however, add a lot to the story and the development of its characters. While Mother Miranda is the prominent evil mastermind, her four "children", the four lords of the village, are in fact the characters who give the tone of the adventure and the ones who, in the end, are the most memorable. When it comes to sexual imagery in particular, the obvious thought would be Alcina Dimitrescu, but in fact she is a red herring on the matter, as the essence of this subject lies somewhere else.

As Ethan is about to enter the Castle Dimitrescu, he is captured by Carl Heisenberg and brought to a peculiar council consisting of Miranda and her four children. It is the only time when he has the chance to see all the villains gathered together, and moreover while they are arguing about who is going to be the one to carry out his execution. Sounds like an evil child's game, which isn't random if we consider that Miranda, by having condemned these four individuals to be a part of her experiments, she has essentially shattered their personality and their own free will, and while they feel super powerful thanks to their unusual abilities, in fact they are just puppets in the hands of their "mother".

The whole scene looks like a grotesque act performed by a circus of freaks, and it would have been marginally hilarious if it wasn't so chillingly creepy. Alcina and Heisenberg are the most loud; each one of them makes it very clear that they want to be the one to kill Ethan. Their over-confidence is more than obvious and they feel much superior to their other two siblings. The badly disfigured Salvatore Moreau limits himself to getting close to Ethan to have a better look at his potential prey while whimpering like a whiny baby. And then there is Donna Beneviento. She can be seen sitting in a corner, her face covered with a black veil, never speaking a word while her creepy puppet Angie, controlled by her, rushes forward to have a look at Ethan as well, in a bold, unafraid and sadistic way. Donna looks like a silent stalker, patiently waiting for her prey to fall in her hands.

Donna Beneviento is an extremely intriguing character, one that definitely deserved more game time and more details revealed about her past and her family. But even what we do know about her and, mainly, what we see, understand and decipher as the story unfolds, is enough to make her stand out among the villains and end up being one of the most iconic characters in the Resident Evil saga. On first look, she is not easy to read. In her notes, Miranda characterizes Donna as mentally underdeveloped, which is the main reason why she could not be a good host for her daughter, Eva. Donna has the appearance of a grown woman, but mentally and sentimentally she is still a child. An insecure, lonely child, but at the same time a child with vicious, twisted instincts. Donna's backstory is a tragedy, something that can be reflected in her overall appearance and attitude. Born an aristocrat, she lost her parents at a very tender age, when they both committed suicide. Her mental health issues prevented her from becoming more social in her teen and early adult years, finding solace strictly in making dolls, a craft that she had learned from her father. Her only companion was a girl named Claudia, who belonged to Donna's bloodline but no one knew for sure whether she was Donna's sister or maybe her daughter, most probably an illegitimate one, if this was indeed the case. Claudia is buried in the Beneviento Flowerbed, a private cemetery just outside the entrance to the grounds of the residence.

Growing up, Donna's obsession with dolls and doll-making became even stronger. She also studied a lot in her mansion's rich library, and she became an expert on the local plants and flowers, learning to locate those that were poisonous, and use them to create mixtures that caused heavy hallucinations. As a side-effect of Miranda's experiments on her, she developed the ability to control inanimate objects with her mind, something that she took advantage of in order to manipulate her dolls around. She especially became attached to Angie, a very special puppet / doll, which looked like a skeletal figure, was dressed in bridal rags and the architecture of her face resembled a lot the Beneviento family's crest, the sun / moon complex. 

Donna's obsession with dolls is a major element of her character and an axis around which her whole personality revolves. According to Sigmund Freud, children subconsciously use the dolls as a means to indirectly express erotic and aggressive fantasies. The doll is a small object, therefore is much closer, as an image, to what the child sees in the mirror and, subsequently, much easier to identify with. With the dolls, children create an imaginary world where they hope to feel satisfied and happy, while at the same time attempting to explore aspects of the adult world. According to Rainer Maria Rilke, however, the doll acts as a safety belt for the child who would feel lost and alone if cast out in the wild world. But exactly because the doll is an object with which the child can easily familiarize, their identities get mixed and the erotic element becomes prominent again. Sometimes children treat dolls with viciousness and this, from the aspect of psychoanalysis, is an aftereffect of the subconscious, premature yearning for a sexual partner. Donna's attitude reflects all this, adding a most powerful sexual imagery in the story. Alcina and her daughters may look promiscuous and revealing with their seemingly saucy attitude towards Ethan, but in reality they only want blood. Donna, on the other hand, neither speaks nor moves, but the way she traps Ethan in her twisted, morbid game is overloaded with psychosexual nuances.

Dolls were prominent in yet one more Resident Evil game, where again they were linked to a disturbing sexual behavior: Alfred Ashford in Code Veronica had his secret palace filled with vintage dolls, plus one giant and very creepy dismembered one hanging from the ceiling at the entrance hall. Although the house used to be inhabited by a girl as well in the past - Alfred's twin sister Alexia - it is rather clear that, now at least, it is Alfred who is obsessed with dolls, given how he keeps them around the rooms standing like silent guardians: seemingly harmless but not the least terrifying. Being very close to his sister as a young boy, he developed an unhealthy obsession with her as a teenager. After her supposed death, Alfred took on the habit of wearing her dresses and a wig that resembled her hair and strolling around the house pretending to be Alexia. To be more precise, he did not only pretend to be his sister, but he would actually "become" her when in female disguise. The dolls kind of substituted her actual presence in the house, while at the same time they maybe signified Alfred's hidden desire to have his sister as a living doll instead of her obviously being the dominant and omnipotent twin when she was alive.

Being Donna's literal creation, Angie is a medium that is used to express her master's mood and feelings. While Donna is silent and motionless, Angie is talkative, sassy and restless. Here we have a peculiar inversion: the puppet acts like a living person, while the human adapts the attributes of a doll. Donna identifies with Angie on multiple levels and the way that she chooses to express herself through the doll is different every time. For Donna, Angie mainly acts as a substitute for Claudia but on a second - and maybe much stronger - level, the doll represents a complex combination of Donna's primitive maternal instinct and her carnal attraction to the opposite sex. The most obvious manifestation of the combination of these two symbolic attributes in Angie is the doll's appearance: she looks like a little kid, but she wears a grown woman's bridal gown.

In the secluded and spooky Beneviento residence, Ethan becomes the forbidden fruit. He is pretty much like McBurney in the iconic movie The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1971). Deprived of his weapons, he becomes a victim to whatever sick plans Donna has in mind. She begins by trapping him in her workshop, in the basement of the mansion, and there she creates a haunting string of hallucinations where Ethan's wife, Mia, appears as a giant wooden doll with several items hidden in parts of her body. Ethan hears Mia crying or talking to him, he finds her wedding ring, the music box that was a gift from a relative for their wedding, a photographic film including snapshots connected to his family life, then a baby's cradle, which subsequently breaks, hidden even deeper at the bottom of a well in a second basement. Donna attempts to sentimentally and psychologically break him by bringing up painful memories connected to his family, while at the same time she makes sure that the atmosphere in the house is scary enough to keep him under control. Eventually she creates the hallucination of a giant, cannibalistic embryo, a morbid and horrifying mockery of Rosemary, which is chasing Ethan around the house threatening to kill him. 

And this is when Donna shows up and it's the one and only time when she speaks to Ethan directly, telling him that she can't let him leave. At this point, she still appears with her head covered, although she is on her own grounds and there is a portrait on a wall depicting her holding Angie, where her face fully shows. By choosing to appear like this in front of Ethan, she avoids eye-contact with him which would possibly lead to her not feeling secure enough to go on with her game. Determined to keep him there, she makes him chase her in the residence's rooms, although Ethan is actually seeing Angie floating around and hiding in several places in the mansion, forcing him to take part in a morbid hide-and-seek game. The only thing that Ethan can do to attempt to defeat Donna is to stab Angie with a pair of scissors; but in reality, he is actually chasing and stabbing Donna herself.

 

 

The scissors is again a strong sexual symbol with many nuances and Ethan's action of using it as a tool to overpower Donna works, for her, as a substitute for the sexual act. This sequence can potentially become even more intense if Ethan fails to find Angie in time; if this happens, the dolls around him grow blades which make them look like mechanical spiders, and stab him with mania, and of course it is in fact Donna again who attacks and stabs him, once more creating a hallucination involving the dolls. Notably, the first time that Ethan finds and stabs Angie, the doll bites him. Knowing that it is actually Donna who does this, the whole scene takes a completely different perspective, seen through the prism of Freud's theory about children using the dolls to express aggressive erotic fantasies. Donna may not be technically a child anymore, but her psyche is stuck in a problematic and sad childhood, something that obviously keeps defining her actions even in her adult life.

Up to the point where Ethan arrives at Donna's house and after he escapes from there, his role is standard and specific: he is the protective father figure and Rosemary's rescuer. But for the time that he spends inside the Beneviento mansion, his role changes dramatically. He becomes a potential game partner for Donna who, due to her emotional clinging to childhood, employs childish tricks (the hide-and-seek game) and objects (the dolls) in order to lure him towards her, which subsequently leads to Ethan acquiring one more role: that of the object of Donna's sexual desires. Donna's sick inner child views Rosemary as an antagonist, something that is intensified by Angie's reactions every time that Ethan grabs her and stabs her, but Donna as a grown woman also views Mia as an antagonist, and this is manifested mainly in the way that she chose, in the workshop hallucination, to present Mia as a grotesque giant puppet. After Ethan kills Donna by stabbing Angie with the scissors and all hallucinations are gone both inside and around the Beneviento estate, the basement of the mansion still remains off-limits to him. From a freudian aspect, the basement represents the memory storage: a place where past images are stacked and remain there abandoned and seemingly forgotten but still affecting the person involved.

The whole stage that takes place in the Beneviento residence is on a much different pace from the  rest of the game, and it is several levels creepier and scarier because it is built around psychological horror. It is pretty similar to The Evil Within's chapter "The Cruelest Intentions", not only as far as its atmosphere and setting are concerned but also because in both cases the memories of the protagonists are mixed with those of their stalkers. This is a feature that is always present in The Evil Within, but in that specific chapter it reaches its climax because memories become more personal for the stalker, just as is the case with Donna in Village. Story-wise, Donna  has many things in common with Ruben Victoriano, Sebastian's stalker in The Evil Within. She is playing with Ethan's memories by infiltrating them and placing herself in them by force. By presenting to him the human-sized Mia doll, it is as if she is implying that she, being a doll-maker, actually created Mia for him, and because it was her (Donna) who, as the creator, would breathe life into the doll, she would turn Mia into a host for her own manifestation and, indirectly, her own suppressed and undeveloped sexuality. From the moment when Donna appears in front of Ethan and establishes her own role as Angie's puppet master and, in a wider sense, as the one who pulls the strings in her domain, the child's play begins to transform to a sexual game, at which point Ethan stops being Donna's game partner and his role as the object of her sexual desire is the one that prevails in the end.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Uncanny Dolls: Images of Death in Rilke and Freud

Mother Miranda's Secret Manifestation and Other Theories in Resident Evil: Village

The two confirmed manifestations of Mother Miranda, the villain mastermind in Resident Evil: Village, are the creepy village crone and Mia Winters, Ethan's wife. But, as she herself confesses to Ethan during the final battle, she could take any shape and form that she wanted, listing a series of creatures that he may or may have not encountered on his way to find and rescue Rosemary. Technically, this means that, as Ethan went through all those impossible trials, Miranda could have been anyone or anything among the hordes of enemies and very few allies that he came across. Essentially though this was not exactly the case; Miranda was too busy trying to put everything in order for her ceremony that she definitely had better things to do than constantly shape-shift in the lycan-inhabited village. There is one person though whose form Miranda could have possibly taken, with this manifestation passing unnoticed due to the distinctive circumstances in which it might have taken place.

When Ethan first arrives at the village, the first person that he meets is a terrified resident who very soon is grabbed and devoured by something that attacks from the roof. Minutes later, our hero listens to a radio transmission which directs all survivors to "Luiza's house near the fields". After surviving an attack by a group of lycans, Ethan bumps onto the local crone, who we now know is a manifestation of Miranda and who confuses him with her creepy riddles. As Ethan is about to reach Luiza's house, he finds Elena, a young girl hiding in a shack with her father, Leonardo, who apparently had been attacked and bitten by a lycan.

Elena is the first sane-looking human that Ethan encounters in this cursed place, so he instantly clings onto her for emotional support. He offers to help her and her father get safely to Luiza's house, opening the way for them since they are in an extremely dire situation. When they knock on the door, however, Luiza's gamekeeper, Iulian, refuses to let them in, his main concern being Leonardo's wounds that may attract the monsters towards their temporary shelter. At this point, Luiza arrives and orders him to allow Elena, her father and Ethan to get inside her house before sending him out in the fields to look for more survivors.

When all but Iulian are safe in Luiza's living room, and after only a few minutes have passed, the lycan-bitten Leonardo suddenly turns and mortally attacks first Luiza and then all the other survivors, except Ethan and Elena who somehow manage to move towards the back of the house. As Leonardo is about to attack Ethan, Elena shoots him with a gun and saves Ethan's life. Moments later, during Ethan and Elena's eventful attempt to escape from the attic while the house is on fire, Elena tells Ethan that she hopes his family is safe, to which Ethan casually responds that they would all have the chance to meet each other once all this was over. Just then, Leonardo appears, calling Elena by her name, something that makes her drop her guard and run towards him. Within seconds, the burning floor collapses, burying both Leonardo and Elena in the flames below.

Ethan leaves the house from the upper floor but just as he is about to exit to the fields, he hears a gunshot and a man's voice calling Mother Miranda's name. He opens the gate just in time to witness a mysterious figure, who now we know was Miranda herself, brutally killing poor Iulian then evilly laughing as she walks away. A bit further down, in the church courtyard, Ethan once more bumps onto the crone who again gives him the creeps with her sibyllic chanting.

Now let's switch our focus for a moment away from the main story, which is the hard road that Ethan has taken to find his daughter, and set it on the village itself. Except for the terrified old man who got killed as soon as Ethan met him at the start, most of all the other living souls in the village were already gathered in Luiza's house. The only missing ones were Elena and Leonardo. When Ethan found them, Elena confessed to him that when she knocked on Luiza's door, nobody answered. So apparently, Elena and Leonardo had attempted to get to Luiza before Ethan arrived, but no one let them in. Judging from what happened when they knocked again, with Ethan this time, quite possibly Iulian saw them and didn't want to allow them to enter. And when he finally did open the door, he even pointed his gun at them, making it very clear that they were not welcome in the house, because of Leonardo's injury.

The whole scene that takes place in Luiza's house is quite intense, and there is a lot going on under the surface. People are arguing, crying, praying, shouting, but never nobody asks Ethan what he is actually doing in an isolated village to which he clearly doesn't belong. They acknowledge him as a stranger and an outsider but none of them expresses any wonder as to what business may a stranger and an outsider have in such a place which is, obviously, very hard to locate and reach. So the whole scene ends without anyone ever mentioning anything about why Ethan is in the village. Which makes it extremely weird and suspicious when Elena tells him, as they are climbing towards the attic, that she hopes his family is safe. How could she possibly know that he was actually looking for his family in the village? Since he was not a local, he could have arrived there for whatever other reason. The only way Elena could know about Ethan, since he never had the chance to mention anything himself, was if she already had heard about him, which is impossible since she and her father had apparently been stranded all this time.

When Ethan first meets the Duke, he is surprised to hear that the eccentric merchant already knows him. When he expresses his surprise, the Duke replies with a cryptic "Anyone who is anyone has heard of the likes of you". Anyone who is anyone - not "everybody", not a humble peasant girl like Elena, not even Luiza, who seems to have once been a powerful figure in the village, but anyone with a higher status. Anyone who is anyone, like Miranda's four children, like the Duke and like Miranda herself. 

These peculiar details made me suspect that Elena could very well have been another manifestation of Miranda, who, in the process, was revealed to have done far more complicated things, so killing an innocent peasant girl, then shape-shifting to take her form and place would be nothing for her. My theory is that Miranda wanted to keep Ethan isolated without any potential allies around him. Seeing how all the survivors were locked in Luiza's house, she needed to find a way to infiltrate their shelter, since it was her perfect chance to eliminate everyone at the same time and make sure noone was left alive, but without revealing herself to Ethan just yet. So she somehow caused Leonardo's injury, which could have been very easy with all those lycans roaming the fields, knowing that sooner or later he would turn. At some point, she killed Elena and took her place without her father taking notice; she had already done it with Mia, so she knew very well how to repeat the process with success. Before Ethan arrived, she had tried to enter Luiza's house but Iulian refused to open the door. It is very possible that he did sense something weird about Elena, which made him be so hostile towards her. When Ethan arrived, it was the perfect chance for Miranda to make one more attempt to enter Luiza's house, and this time the plan worked. Under that light, it is not random that, excluding Ethan, Elena was the only person among the locals who managed to survive Leonardo's attack. When Elena / Miranda made sure that everyone was dead for good, she "sacrificed" Elena and then reverted to her original form. Once back in the fields, she bumped onto Iulian whom Luiza had sent out before the tragedy happened. Ethan saw her killing the poor man, but not before he managed to cry out her name. 

Following my theory, Miranda had two reasons to kill Iulian with her own hands: one because if he remained alive he could become Ethan's ally and she didn't want that; and two because, unbeknownst to him, he had "disobeyed" her by refusing to let her in the house when she appeared at Luiza's door in Elena's form, and this disobedience was something that she could never tolerate. But there could also be another reason: maybe Iulian "caught" her during her transformation from Elena to her real self, which partly explains why he said her name before she killed him. So if Elena really was Miranda in disguise, she knew about Ethan already, meaning it is no surprise that she made that comment about his family. Of course Ethan was too overwhelmed with anxiety and fear to actually make the necessary connections, so he simply witnessed the tragedy of the villagers as one more dramatic incident in his life.  

Elena being a manifestation of Miranda kind of ties with my analysis in the article Ethan Winters, An Unfortunate Hero, in that this theory may shed some light on whether Miranda actually knew something about Ethan being a bio-weapon. If she really appeared to him in Elena's form, planning to lure all survivors in Luiza's house and have them killed but leave Ethan alive on purpose, it could possibly mean that she at least suspected that he had super powers and she actually wanted him to get to her so as to be sure and decide what would be the best way to deal with him. Or maybe she did know that he was all mold, but by closely watching him during his interactions with Heisenberg, she realized that Ethan was too strong for her and she would be unable to control him like she did with all her other victims. She knew he would stop at nothing to save his daughter, therefore it would be impossible for her to make him part of her experiments in any way. So killing him would be the only solution for her, but since he had regenerative powers, she knew he would be able to come back to life anyway. She had to make sure to exterminate him in a way that would leave no room for regeneration, so she ripped his heart out. Still, he did manage to revive himself and even fight her afterwards, albeit with very little life left in him. That said, in the dramatic finale we never did actually see him die. We only saw him returning to the ceremony site and then, from Chris's helicopter, we witnessed the explosion down below. This is Resident Evil after all, so we can never tell for sure that someone has definitely died.

If Miranda is a character defined by her dark secrets, the same albeit on a different level can be said about another mysterious figure, the Duke. Although his role is not new in the Resident Evil series, his predecessor, the Merchant in Resident Evil 4, was a neutral character whose part in the story was entirely practical: he would appear in the game's stages, usually positioned in safe havens or at least places that could not be easily reached by enemies, presenting an array of goods and equipment that Leon could choose from and arm himself accordingly. Leon had no other interaction with the Merchant who would only express his opinion about the guns that Leon would decide to buy from him. The Duke in Village, though, is an entirely different story. To begin with, we get a special cutscene when he first appears outside Alcina Dimitrescu's castle. The Duke is an obnoxiously obese man, whose clothing style seems to come from many years ago, yet as we have the chance to observe near the finale, his haircut is rather modern, with the lower back of his head being completely shaven. 

The Duke recognizes Ethan as soon as he sees him, and moreover he seems to know everyone in the region. As the story proceeds, he offers Ethan valuable information about Miranda and the four Lords of the village, as well as about the things that Ethan has to do and what he needs to look for. Additionally, he is obviously in good terms with at least three of the four Lords, since he can be seen in places where normally outsiders wouldn't have been exactly welcome: we find him in the Dimitrescu Castle, in Heisenberg's factory and in the heart of Moreau's Reservoir. He doesn't go near the Beneviento residence, though, which is quite curious, given that there is nothing truly lethal or dangerous in Donna's house, except for whatever creepy hallucinations are produced as an effect of her tricks; but the Duke would definitely be aware of all this anyway.

When Ethan gets back to his senses after Miranda rips out his heart and after Eveline's revelation, he finds himself in the Duke's carriage, lying on the floor, while the Duke is riding at the front. Just then, Ethan asks the Duke who or what exactly he is, to which the Duke replies "Even I can't quite answer that". So really, who or what exactly is the Duke? Is he simply what he appears to be, a merchant who puts his financial interests above all so he doesn't care who he does business with as long as he has money to gain - which would explain why he is in good terms with both the good guy (Ethan) and the bad guys (the Lords)? Is his unusual appearance also a result of Miranda's experiments? Or is he something far more complicated? Is he truly how we see him though Ethan's eyes or, like with Miranda's case, he is a manifestation of something else? 

If we attempt to decipher the Duke via clues offered by the game's scenario itself, there is one crucial keyword we could start from. When Ethan bumps onto him again after killing Alcina in the castle, it is when the Duke starts to be more talkative and to give more information to him, albeit he still speaks in riddles. At the end of one such conversation, Ethan gets frustrated and calls him "Joker". This characterization, on first look, refers to him seemingly making fun of Ethan, like the jesters did in royal courts in the very distant past. But the Joker also nods to the wild card figure that is always featured in a deck of cards. The "Joker" card serves as a balancing one, and can be used in a variety of ways when something is missing, or even as a means to bluff the opponent. It is a card that, plainly put, adapts to its "surroundings", corresponding each time to the rule that its owner sets. Similarly, the Duke assumes a series of roles in the story, depending on how he is needed to act. The peculiarity of his looks is there to highlight his obvious status, that of the merchant who always looks for ways to make money, meaning he is greedy enough so as to overlook other things, like the evilness of a customer like Alcina or Heisenberg, for instance. But when it comes to Ethan, his attitude becomes more friendly and more human. 

So could this mean that the Duke's attitude changes depending on who he deals with, or maybe that he is literally a wild card that takes up the role that its "owner" decides each time? Or does he even exist as we see him, in the first place? Ethan may not be aware of his own situation until near the end, but him being not exactly human definitely grants him with a power to see and feel things that normal people cannot. Given that he is the only one whom we see interacting with the Duke, we can not even be sure that the Duke is just how he appears. Mind you, in Chris's part of the story, there is no sign of the Duke at all. The last time that Ethan interacts with the Duke is when the latter transports him near the Ceremony Site in his carriage. When Ethan gets out of the carriage, we can see that it is led by a black horse. If seen from a distance, the carriage at that point looks like a Victorian hearse. 

Considering that, after this, Ethan confronts Miranda and then sacrifices himself in the subsequent explosion, we could assume that the Duke at that point in the story acts like the Grim Reaper, leading our hero to his death. But while the Grim Reaper is always depicted as a silent, skeletal figure with no human features, the Duke is obese, flamboyant and loud. In that part of the story, Miranda has already ripped out Ethan's heart, which means that Ethan is then in a sort of zombie state. From that point and on, the only entirely human being that he interacts with is Chris. Miranda is more or less like him, Rosemary has been ripped apart then put together again by Miranda; in that stage, Ethan has already crossed the boundary between the living and the dead. But since he had always been more dead than alive anyway, everything he sees, everything he says and does, is anything but normal, and things appear to him in reverse. The Duke could very well have been a manifestation of the Grim Reaper himself all along, appearing in front of Ethan as a figure seemingly opposite in appearance, but in the essence all the same. Isn't the Grim Reaper a merchant of sorts after all? In ancient Greek mythology, the dead were obliged to pay Charon, his counterpart, in order to be able to cross the river Styx to the other side. 

Something that Miranda and the Duke have in common is that they were both introduced to us for the first time in Village, unlike someone else, a most familiar and beloved face, no other than Chris Redfield himself. Chris has been the protagonist or co-protagonist in several stories so far, and we know quite a few things about his stellar career, however very little is known about his and Claire's childhood. In fact we know nothing about the early years of the Redfield siblings, except for the fact that they lost their parents at a very young age. There is no information about how and where they grew up, and how they managed until they became adults.

After Chris saves Ethan and Mia and takes them away from Louisiana, he secretly locates them in an isolated region of Eastern Europe so as to keep them safe. But it is exactly in that place where the heart of Miranda's activities lies. The Megamycete, the fungus that she uses to carry out her experiments grows in the mountains surrounding that area. Even if Chris already had information related to this, it would be very unlikely that he would put Ethan and Mia deliberately in danger by having them live in a place so close to a most dangerous source. So why, from all the places in the world did he choose specifically that region for them to stay? One explanation could be that he indeed have information about Miranda and the Megamycete, but he couldn't leave Ethan and Mia without his protection, so he took them with him; this way, he would be able to investigate the case further while still keeping an eye on them. But even so, it would be too risky to have them exposed to such an extreme danger. So maybe there was another reason why he chose that specific country of Eastern Europe as a hideout for Ethan and Mia.

Since there is almost no information about Chris and Claire's early years, we cannot even be sure that "Redfield" is indeed their real surname. Because they are both so strong and imposing characters whenever they appear in a game, you rarely ever - if at all - enter into the process of wondering about their past. Could it be possible that Chris had his own reasons for picking that specific part of the world to relocate Ethan and Mia? Maybe something personal, something about his past. Consider that one of the promo images of the game features him in a rather cryptic collage, his half face being replaced by that of a wolf. 

The symbolism and imagery of wolves are both very strong in the story and play a great part in its development: the name of Chris's rogue team is Hound Wolf Squad, his own professional alias in it is Alpha (as in, the Alpha wolf, the leader of the pack), and the respective aliases of his team mates are also related to wolves. And of course there are the lycans, the terrifying creatures that inhabit the once peaceful village and its countryside, that are, in their essence, werewolves. These two depictions of the wolf, like a representation of the "good Wolf, Bad Wolf" idea, have both a realistic and an allegorical interpretation. The realistic one has to do to the story itself: the literal lycans that both Ethan and Chris encounter, and the actual name of Chris's team. The allegorical interpretation pertains to the psyche of the two protagonists and how it changes as the story progresses. Ethan is, on a first level, the "good wolf" from the start until the end; he is the good and clean hero, set on a journey to save his daughter. On a second level, however, after it is revealed to him that he is actually mold inside, his human substance collapses and although him being a bio-weapon doesn't make him necessarily bad, it still makes him potentially extremely dangerous. 

Chris, at the beginning, seems to be the "bad wolf", what with killing Mia in front of her husband without explanation. Gradually however, as the truth comes out, he assumes his well-established and pre-determined role as a protector and savior. Therefore we could say that both sides, the "good" one and the "bad" one exist equally in Ethan and Chris. But although Ethan is not responsible, so to speak, for his "bad" side, Chris's case is far more complex. There is something undefinedly dark about him, something that keeps him distant and mysterious, something marginally unworldly. His presence in the game carries a vaguely ominous aura, as if there are things connecting him with that place that he would rather not share with anyone, not even his own team.

Among the various interesting journals and notes that Ethan finds in the Castle Dimitrescu, is one featuring a list of tasks written possibly by someone in charge. One of the names that appear in that list is "Rednic". 

Although "Rednic" and "Redfield" have no common root or meaning, their sounding is cunningly similar. Could it be that Chris and Claire had ancestral roots in the area, and their surname was initially Rednic, then after moving away and relocating in the USA, they changed it to Redfield? Probably keeping the first part as a reminder of their origin, but changing the suffix to make it sound more neutral as far as the ethnic identity was concerned. If this is the case, there could still have been relatives of theirs in that area, who not only were involved in what was going on in the Castle Dimitrescu, but had something to do with the lycans as well, thus connecting Chris with his "wolf" self, his decision to give that specific name to his team and the respective aliases to himself and his partners, and to which the image depicting him as half-human / half-wolf may hint. As an additional side note, when Alcina Dimitrescu was human, she suffered from a hemoglobin deficiency, due to which she needed to consume blood on a constant basis in order to survive, which is why she became an actual vampire after her mutation. This disease, more commonly called vampirism, is also known under the scientific name "Renfield syndrome", which unavoidably alludes to Chris and Claire's surname, and maybe this is not something random.

Ethan Winters, An Unfortunate Hero

One might think that Ethan Winters is an unfortunate hero because of all that he had suffered in both Resident Evil 7 and Village, but in fact his real misfortune lies somewhere else.

Back in Louisiana, as the unexpected twist towards the finale of Village revealed, Ethan was brutally murdered by Jack Baker, as soon as he stepped his foot in the Baker residence while looking for his lost wife Mia. Being exposed to the highly infectious Mold, like the rest of the Baker family, he nonetheless came back to life, albeit he had no idea that, from that moment and on, he would be a walking corpse. The Mold in his body made him super strong, which is why he was able to sustain all sorts of pain and damage and recover from all kinds of injury in seconds. For some reason this never rang a bell, maybe because it was a situation that had never crossed his mind. Because if you remember Sherry in Resident Evil 6, who was able to self-heal from a seemingly mortal wound in front of a gobsmacked Jake, she was well aware that such a thing could happen to her, since she knew about her medical history and the fact that, when she was little, she had been exposed to the virus which gave her regenerative powers. But Ethan didn't know or, to be more accurate, none of the people who knew about it ever bothered to tell him. Mia obviously knew, because she was there; Zoe also knew, for the same reason. Jack, Marguerite and Lucas knew as well, and quite possibly Jack's brother Joe was at some point informed about it. All the hints that Jack Baker threw at Ethan during their dramatic encounters, suddenly made sense once we were informed about Ethan's condition. It was not due to the miraculous medicine in the green bottle that Ethan was able to heal himself so impressively fast, even stick his cut arm or leg back to their original places. At least it was not only due to the medicine. For the most part, it was because he was already Mold inside, and thus able to regenerate even from lethal hits.

Given this, one big question comes to mind. When the story of Village begins, it's been already three years since Ethan and Mia returned from Louisiana, with Ethan being a walking corpse filled with Mold all along. How can it be possible that he never suspected something was going wrong with himself? Of course being Mold inside was not something evident to the naked eye. But he surely underwent extremely detailed medical examinations after he was rescued from the Baker residence. Didn't his blood analysis betray anything weird? From Mia's dialogue with Chris in Miranda's lab near the end of Village, it is made very clear that Mia knew about Ethan while Chris had no idea, something that again doesn't make sense, because Chris was the one responsible for Ethan and his family and supposedly knew everything related to them.

Although Mia's decision to conceal such critical information from both Ethan and Chris was irresponsible and dangerous, let's say that for the sake of fancy and imagination, some things were left unsaid, in order to open the path for a new story. Now this brings us to Village. Apparently Miranda, in her century-long struggle to bring her daughter back to life, had been experimenting on humans, trying to find the perfect host for the resurrection of her little Eva. Just like Simmons in Resident Evil 6, who had Carla experiment on both women and men in order to find the perfect candidate to create his Ada clone, Miranda as well experimented on all sorts of people. This explains why she used grown men (Moreau and Heisenberg), grown women (Donna and Alcina) and young girls (Bela, Cassandra, Daniela), as well as plenty of other people of all ages and sexes in her tests. She didn't care, because once she found the right candidate, she would turn them into raw material, like she finally did with Rosemary, and make them born again as Eva. Obviously she experimented on Mia too. How she found out that little Rosemary was gifted with the powers of Mold, is unclear, but it is very possible that, during her research, she discovered that Mia, being one of the people who was greatly involved in Eveline's case, had been exposed to the Mold herself and kidnapped her in order to experiment on her and see if she could use her as a candidate for Eva; in the process she found out that, since Mia had been cured in time, was to no avail for her plans, but learned that she had a daughter who could be used instead.

This leads to one more big question. Since Miranda knew that Rosemary had the powers of the Mold, for which her mother was apparently not responsible, how come she did not conclude that the baby's "gift" could very well come from her father? She was an experienced scientist after all, and had the luxury of researching everything for more than a century. Certainly she knew that Rosemary couldn't have been born with Mold powers just out of a whim of Mother Nature. She inherited them from someone. Since that someone was not her mother, the only other option was Ethan.

Until Rosemary was found, Miranda's experiments were a disaster. Even almost perfect candidates, like Heisenberg, didn't respond to her tests as expected in the end, and all of them suffered serious and unexpected side-effects. Alcina became an unnaturally tall, blood-thirsty creature who could grow claws from her fingers; her three daughters turned into vampires. Donna's face got partly misfigured, and she developed the ability to create hallucinations and move inanimate objects, preferably her beloved dolls. Moreau grew gills and a hump and his whole body resembled a fish. Heisenberg was turned into a human magnet, capable of manipulating electricity and attracting metallic and iron items all around him. And all the other candidates apparently had side-effects, therefore the hordes of lycans that ended up inhabiting the previously peaceful village.

Then Miranda found Rosemary, who seemed to be the most perfect candidate of all. Or at least Miranda thought so; I would guess this was for two reasons: one because Rosemary had already Mold powers, and two because she was only a baby, therefore she was like a blank canvas. Pretty much like Lily in The Evil Within 2, who was chosen as the perfect STEM core because she was little and innocent, in a similar manner Rosemary's choice seemed ideal, because a baby has no will of its own and cannot pose any resistance. The tragic irony for Miranda is that when her "ceremony" is complete and she holds whom she believes to be the new Eva in her arms, Rosemary does not react. The whole process of recreating Eva didn't have the slightest effect on her. 

This practically means that Miranda was confident about the success of her "ceremony" with Rosemary, simply because, in theory, everything about the little girl seemed perfect. But in practice, things were much different. Rosemary may have had the typical qualities, but in the essence she was unable to respond to Miranda's highly ambitious resurrection process. What Miranda apparently didn't know was that, while confronting Ethan, she had possibly her ideal candidate within her reach. "Gifted" with his regenerative powers, that, apparently, had accustomed well in his body after all this time, Ethan had been transformed into a super powerful bio-weapon, although he didn't have the slightest clue about it. Consider this: we have been playing with a bio-weapon for two full games, while being unable to see it at its full potential. If Miranda had bothered to experiment on him instead of Mia, she certainly would have discovered his "secret" and would have left Rosemary alone; she would have attempted to turn Ethan into raw material instead and resurrect Eva through him. If anything, Ethan by default possessed the ability of coming back to life, therefore Miranda would only need to do half the job, compared to all the fuss she had to go through with the four Lords of the village. And who knows, maybe this time her ceremony could have been a success. Or maybe Ethan could have side-effects too, in his case insane powers that would turn him into an almighty entity, able to devour Miranda in the blink of an eye. And this is exactly where Ethan's misfortune lies. In the fact that he had been a superhero all this time, but nobody ever knew nor made good use of his powers, not even himself. Instead, he lived and died like a mundane mortal, sacrificing himself for practically no reason, since Miranda had already been defeated, both Rosemary and Mia had already been saved, and Chris had already everything set for the destruction of the Megamycete.

Supporting Characters As Friends That Define The Protagonists

Supporting characters are, in video games as in movies, the often unseen heroes. With the term "supporting characters", I refer to those who are less prominent, in terms of plot and screen time, than the secondary characters or the deuteragonists, but they still may play an important role in the development of the leads, albeit this may not be always obvious on first look. Many times, such characters are friends or allies of the protagonists, but the weight of the presence in their lives varies. Usually supporting characters are not offered the chance to unfold their personality in full, which is why they may be equally underrated or overrated. Their interactions with the protagonists, however, can tell us a lot of things about them if explored carefully. They sometimes affect, directly or indirectly, the emotional and intellectual development of the lead characters, although on a first level their conduct may be misleading. In this article, I will focus on interesting supporting characters from five video games that deal with different themes and the protagonists of which follow completely different paths in their individual stories, therefore the influences that they may receive are also varied.

Lyla Park in Life Is Strange 2

In spite of being a fan favorite, Lyla is, in fact, a rather dark character. Lyla appears in the first episode and her role is overall quite brief, yet you can see, even from that limited appearance, that her influence in Sean's life is not exactly a good one. Lyla is introduced as one of Sean's best friends at school and although she seems to genuinely care for him, her attitude, surprisingly, has several layers. Taking advantage, albeit subconsciously to a degree, of Sean's mild and shy temperament, she has the tendency to always push him towards doing things the way that only she thinks is the best. Lyla obviously suffers from mood swings, and can easily fall into depression, but tries to hide her insecurities behind a supposedly confident facade. In reality, though, she is authoritative, manipulative and lacks self-esteem, but puts forward a loud, seemingly careless persona in order to be able to survive. On top of that, her biggest problem seems to be the crush that she clearly has on Sean, which makes her obsession to hook him up with Jenn, his initial love interest, marginally creepy. Lyla is an extremely toxic person, and her presence in the first episode sort of represents Sean's stagnant life in the dull and depressing suburb where he lives. Sean is obviously a lot more close to his Latin heritage than the much younger Daniel; and he has an artistic side that always wants to find expression. Daniel is the one with the "obvious" diversity (his superpower), but it is in fact Sean who is the real "rebel". Lyla is, for Sean, the balancing power that keeps him collected, but at the same time she is also the chain that holds him tied down to a life that is clearly not made for him. Breaking away from this life (albeit in a tragic way), and from Lyla as well, gives him the chance to claim his freedom and find himself, no matter the cost.

Cor Leonis in Final Fantasy XV

Cor may not have a direct impact on Noctis's development but his influence is clearly defining. He has an imposing personality and an impressive (to say the least) background story. When he was just fifteen years old, he fought against a ferocious warrior and managed to come out of the battle alive, an achievement that won him the moniker "The Immortal"; yet he never ceases being down to earth, thus being the perfect mentor and instructor for Noctis and his friends. He used to be a trusted companion of Noctis's father, and he remains close to the boy as well, offering his valuable expertise and advice when needed. Noctis has grown up somewhat isolated, having only his three close friends by his side, but his rebellious character often makes him appear cold and distant towards them, although he loves them so much. However he treats Cor with respect and always listens to him and his advice. Cor is tough and brave but he is also gentle and wise. His presence in Noctis's life has only positive things to offer, especially after Noctis's father is killed. Not so much a father figure, but more like an older brother, Cor guides Noctis to face difficulties and take responsibilities, gradually making him grow into a kind and caring man, even when he is not there to openly support him. It is not random that when Noctis wakes after his long sleep inside the crystal, Cor is among the very few people from Noctis's past, along with his three friends, who is physically there to help him fight the monsters.

Sofia in Rise Of The Tomb Raider

When Lara first meets Sofia, it is not under the best circumstances; and their second meeting is also eventful. However their relationship gradually gets better and they become good friends after a while. Although Lara's character is more or less already formed and she is confident enough to not need any particular influence, still Sofia's faith and her genuine struggle to help her people offer our heroine an extra boost of inspiration to keep going. Through Sofia's bond with her father, Lara subconsciously "sees" her own relationship with the late Lord Croft, and in that sense she kind of identifies with Sofia, becoming herself, for Jacob, a daughter that will be equally willing to help him unconditionally, somehow making up for all the time that she has lost, and will be losing, after her own father died and she missed every chance to live her life by his side. In Sofia, Lara partly sees her own self and in Sofia's relationship with Jacob she sees reflected how herself and Lord Croft could have grown together, had he not lost his life so unjustly. It is more of a personal development for Lara, but it unavoidably affects her attitude as well, and her decisions that define her connections with other people.

Luis Sera in Resident Evil 4

Luis is, in the essence, more than just a supporting character, since he plays a major role in the development of the story, although his appearance is quite limited. Initially a mysterious man, obviously keeping many secrets, Luis is revealed to hold the key to Leon's infection. Leon seems to be fond of Luis right from the start, in spite of his inexplicable attitude. But Leon is known for his unerring instinct, which means that when he likes someone, it is for a good reason. Luis is a native, and his family has a long story connected to the case of the Plagas. His knowledge of the the subject and his involvement in Saddler's plan cost him his life in the end, and he literally dies in Leon's hands, but not before he manages to give him the pills with which Leon will be able to keep his infection under control until he has access to the antidote. Luis becomes a very close friend of Leon's despite the very short time that they know each other, and he functions both as Leon's life-saver, and as the cause that gives him an additional motive to want to stop Saddler, since he was obviously devastated by Luis's death. Luis kind of stands for all the partners, friends and comrades that Leon has lost, and would keep on losing in the future, during his life as an agent, and by swearing to avenge his death, Leon claims justice not only for Luis and all those lost friends, but for himself as well. 

Francis Pritchard in Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Francis is, at the beginning of the game, rather bitter towards Adam, tending to degrade and underestimate him, but as the story progresses there is a big change in their relationship. A programming and hacking expert, Francis seems to think low of Adam at first, but as Adam proves that, apart from being physically powerful, he is also very smart, he manages to gain Francis's respect and, progressively, his friendship, although Francis is too proud to openly express it with words. Francis is, in reality, probably the only absolutely clean and sincere person in Adam's environment, and he is the one to secretly guide him towards important revelations regarding either himself or Sarif on more than one occasions. While Adam is out in the world investigating or dealing with criminals, Francis is like his eyes inside the Sarif corporation. This may also have a dual interpretation since Adam has enhanced sight, which may help him see farther, but it may prevent him from identifying what is close to him. Francis has only had one optional augmentation to better his programming skills, and in that sense he can maintain his technically enhanced side and his human one in a relative balance, since his human self is almost intact. Adam's humanity is at a very high level in spite of the many augmentations that he has received, which makes him also highly perceptive of the people he interacts with, but his intimidating appearance prevents him from forming close relationships with them. Francis sort of connects him to the world, albeit discreetly and from the shadows, and his pointed, often sarcastic input acts as a reminder for Adam of human interactions that are not based almost entirely on enhanced means.