There is an on-going joke all these years, since the release of the original Resident Evil 2 in 1998, that Albert Wesker might have been secretly lusting over Rebecca Chambers, because of an easter egg included in the game, which was also present in its recent remake in 2019. In the S.T.A.R.S. office, the boss naturally had his own private space where his desk also was. One of the drawers in his desk used to hold a little secret. In the original game, you had to interact with it 50 times, and then you would be rewarded with a special film roll. 

You then had to take the film roll down to the Dark Room and develop it, to find out it was actually a photo of Rebecca in a rather playful pose, dressed in basketball outfit with the R.P.D. logo on her top.

In the remake of the game, although you don't have to repeat anything 50 times, the process is a bit more complex: you have to first find a film roll in an office in the sewers, then take it back up to the Dark Room of the station and develop it so as to get two photos of two different hiding places. One of them is Wesker's drawer in the S.T.A.R.S. office. Once there, you are able to open the drawer (before finding the photo, you cannot interact with it) so as to get a wooden box containing a useful gun accessory. After getting the box, you can spot a film roll at the back of the drawer. 

There is no prompt to interact with it; you can take it, however, and when you do you can see that it has the phrase "Rising Rookie" written on it.

When you take it down to the Dark Room to develop it, you can see it's the photo of Rebecca.

There is this fan theory which claims that Wesker was a creep and liked to keep a photo of Rebecca in his drawer because he fancied her. Personally, I never had such an impression, and I was convinced right from the start that Wesker had, in fact, nothing to do with Rebecca's photo. Wesker cared only for power and had little to none interest about anything or anyone else, let alone a timid, awkward - at the time - rookie, who moreover was more involved in the medical field and was not much of the action type. The fact that the film roll, in the remake, is hidden at the back of the drawer further hints that it probably was not placed there by Wesker himself. You could say all sorts of things about Wesker, but as far as this kind of creepiness is supposedly hinted here, it feels way too out of character for him.  The way I saw it, someone from his team purposely put the film roll there either to prank him or to make him look like he was indeed a creep. Or maybe to prank Rebecca - since she was notorious for her naivety at the time - by making her believe that the boss fancied her. 

In the very recent Resident Evil Requiem, during Leon's nostalgia trip around the ruined R.P.D., our hero discovers a series of playful clues which were part of a treasure hunt organized by Barry Burton, obviously some time before the Spencer Mansion incident. Barry had set up several puzzles so as to tease his younger colleagues by having them searching around the police station to find the rewards he had hidden for them. Among the clues, is Barry's list of things he had to do, where he had noted that it's a top priority to find a missing book which was last checked out by the captain (meaning Wesker). Although this looks like it was Barry's personal list, it was left in plain sight on his desk, so that anyone could see it.

Then in Wesker's drawer, the same where the film roll was in Resident Evil 2, Leon finds the Library Card which reveals the title of the missing book (Medicinal Benefits of Herbs) and lists the people who had borrowed it, with Wesker indeed being the last person to have it. 

Then Leon can go to the Library and find the book on a shelf of the upper floor.

When Leon opens the book, he finds the infamous photo of Rebecca inside. 

There is the note "Rising Rookie Rebecca" at the back of the photo, which is the hint for how to unlock a sealed briefcase back in the Armory of the S.T.A.R.S. office. The briefcase contains a weapon charm which is called Power Shades and is a miniature of Wesker's sunglasses.

It is insinuated that Wesker borrowed the book from the Library and somehow "forgot" Rebecca's photo among its pages when he returned it. Or at least this is how the facts make him look. Knowing his personality, however, it is highly unlikely that he would walk around carrying Rebecca's photo, randomly leaving it here and there without taking notice, especially if he was - supposedly - interested in her. In reality these new facts from Requiem hint even more that it was never Wesker himself who had put Rebecca's film in the drawer of his desk, and most probably he had no idea of its existence.

With all the new elements at hand, seeing now how Barry used to play around with his colleagues, and considering that one of his puzzles mentions specifically the Library Card with Wesker's name on it, it is highly possible that it was Barry who, back in the day, hid the film roll in Wesker's office and, subsequently, the developed photo in the book that Wesker had borrowed from the Library. Come think of it, he knew Wesker's moves with every detail, knew that is was him who had the book last. Supposedly Barry did now know where it was (therefore the note about the "missing book"), but what if it was him who had secretly taken it, after Wesker had returned it, so as to specifically hide Rebecca's photo among its pages, then put it back on the shelf and indirectly urge the others to look for it by leaving his To-Do list on his desk, thus making it known to everyone that it was the captain who had the book last, so that whoever eventually found it, would see Rebecca's photo and infer that it was Wesker who had left it there. Barry was a good man but, as is revealed now in Requiem, he also loved to fool around and tease his colleagues, and he would probably make no exceptions for his boss either. Not exactly unexpected from an old dog like him!

A Rift In Time

One of the biggest improvements in the recent remake of Resident Evil 4 was undoubtedly the evolution of Ashley Graham and her impressive upgrade from an almost two-dimensional figure to a full-shaped character with realistic reactions and human emotions which she expressed in a most natural way. Her interactions with Leon mostly, but also with the other characters, gained now a lot more gravity and importance, as they helped form her personality even more, and establish her as a stand-alone unity who may still depend on Leon for her survival, but she can also have a mind of her own.

Even so, her role in the game remains the same as before: she is still the kidnapped daughter of the USA President, waiting for rescue, locked in the attic of a church somewhere in rural Spain, and then after Leon arrives and frees her, she follows him until they finally make their way back home. More or less, her part in the story unfolds in a similar way as in the original game, without affecting its progress in any different way; and her playable section, albeit a lot more intriguing and challenging than in its past version, still leads to the same end. There is one special part, however, a very brief but extremely significant segment in Separate Ways, where a most interesting transition takes place and it happens with the aid, so to speak, of the most unsuspecting character, which is the leading lady Ada herself.

 

Ashley's appearances in Separate Ways are extremely limited, as we only see her a few times through Ada's eyes, and there is no interaction with her at all during the full course of the story. Almost no interaction at all, in fact. In the original main game as well as in the remake, Ashley only finds out about Ada being around and helping her and Leon close to the end of the game: as Saddler is about to sacrifice her, and an infected Leon has just reached the altar to save her, Ada makes her dramatic appearance, successfully distracting Saddler for a few minutes, so that Leon can have enough time to take Ashley and leave. Then, after they have both gotten rid of their infection, upon arriving at the docks, Ashley sees Ada hanging from the rafter where Saddler has tied her up to lure Leon closer to him. Leon then frees Ada by cutting the rope that was holding her, and goes on to finish Saddler off. Up to this point, the sequence unfolds the same way in Separate Ways as it does in the main game, in both the original and the remake, albeit in Separate Ways we see everything from Ada's perspective. 

There is this instance however, very close to the end, where the transition happens. In the original Separate Ways, as Ada makes her way towards the higher dock where the Special Rocket Launcher is held, just before she reaches that part, she exits out to the place where Ashley has been all this while, waiting on her own in full agony as she watches Leon fighting Saddler. In the original game, the place where Ashley is standing is on lower ground, and as soon as Ada exits out close to that spot, Ashley turns around and looks up, catching a glimpse of her.

We cannot be sure if Ada even notices Ashley, though, as her eyes seem to be fixed on the moving bridges where Leon's fight with Saddler is in its full swing. The distance between Ashley and Ada does not leave room for any interaction, and this is the closest that they can get to each other throughout the adventure.

In the remade Separate Ways, however, the scene unfolds in a different way. As Ada gets closer to the platform with the Special Launcher, she exits out on a rocky area, where Ashley is standing just a few steps away from her, again watching Leon battling Saddler.

She pauses for a few seconds, giving Ashley time to realize that she is not alone and turn towards her.

 And then it happens. Ashley talks to Ada.

And not only that, but they stand still for a moment looking at each other, or rather it is actually Ada who steals a few seconds so as to observe Ashley. 

This is the moment which, I think, marks more than anything else in both the main game and Ada's campaign the transition between the Ashley of the original and the one of the remake, establishing her new version more than anything else in the revamped Resident Evil 4. Although all the characters have evolved more or less, one way or the other, Ashley's upgrade has been so impressive, that it is as if we have a different character in front of us. It is somehow as if the new Ada has been carrying the memories of the original Ada, keeping record of an Ashley that was marginally paper-cut, who only said a few scripted lines and could do almost nothing on her own. In this unexpected tête-à-tête now in the remake, she sees the new Ashley in the flesh just a breath away from her, and as her eyes follow the girl in the next frame, it is as if she is wondering "So you can really talk like a real person, and you do not just scream 'Help me, Leon' all the time anymore." 

We could say that, in this scene, Ada steps out of her set role for a few seconds and becomes an observer, watching how the new Ashley took over the old one in full dynamic. Considering also that Ada is the character who had the least evolution and even saw her role getting a downgrade in the remake, it is as if in this scene she realizes that the story in which she was acting all the while is not the original game anymore, but a new, completely revamped version; a version where the once wooden and even annoying Ashley emerged as a character with actual human traits. Although not exactly an instance of breaking the 4th wall, it still is a brief moment of metagaming, probably unique to the Resident Evil universe. Ada does not address the "audience" - in this context: the players; but she takes on the part of a watcher analyzing the facts from the outside - in this context: the broader environment outside the more precise environment set around Ashley's character in those specific frames.

Seen with the perspective of time, this scene may have not worked in the original; Ashley's character there, albeit important for the plot, was at times invisible: in the sections where she was not around or where she was but not in danger, it felt like she was not existing in the story at all and you could easily forget about her. In the remake, you have to keep an eye on her always when she is with you (a good example is the revamped maze in the castle which now you must navigate with her, unlike the original where Leon was on his own) and have a part of your mind constantly on her when she is elsewhere. In the original game, Ashley was just a bit more substantial than her wooden cutouts in the shooting range games; and playing with her in that brief section in the castle's basement felt more like a chore and less like an adventure, because she lacked those features that would make her stand on her own without Leon around. Except for Leon, she only had a brief interaction with Luis during the Cabin Fight intro, and even her scenes with Salazar or the one where Saddler hypnotizes her were somehow utilitarian. Any further interaction with anyone would have been too much for her scripted persona, and would even not make much sense. Ada realizing in the remake that she has to do with a realistic character now, pretty much sums up Ashley's welcome evolution and her upgraded role in the game's new era.

The Curious Case of Aiantides The Proud

So much happens in the Legacy of the First Blade episodes of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, yet everything in its main plot and its connected side-quests is almost completely outshined by the relatively brief but unforgettable appearance of one person: Aiantides The Proud, one of the most enigmatic yet absolutely exciting supporting characters in the whole game. Aiantides makes his mysterious appearance in all three regions that Alexios visits for each of the episodes of the Legacy story, and him showing up co-incides suspiciously with important events in our hero's adventures, where Aiantides appears in big trouble, in stressing situations that are, oddly enough, connected with each other. Alexios and Aiantides seem to connect in an underlying and rather unexpected way, and it is notable that just at the start of the first Legacy episode in Makedonia, Alexios comes across Aiantides before meeting anyone else, even before crossing paths with the main protagonists of the story. 

Let's meet Aiantides The Proud

After Alexios receives a message to take on a mission in Potidaia, he arrives there to find a whole village on fire. While rushing to the heart of the incident, he sees that three people are being held as prisoners, with Spartan soldiers ready to execute them, so he swiftly runs to their rescue. Among the captured villagers, is a very well-dressed man with a rather peculiar attitude, as becomes clear as soon as Alexios frees him.

The strange man does not seem particularly intimidated by the situation he is in

At that point in time, we don't know who he is yet, and we have no idea that this will not be the one and only time that we see him. Alexios frees the other two people, a woman and another man, and the story takes its own course, with our hero meeting Neema and Darius and eventually learning from them about the existence of the Order of the Hunters, a separate branch of the Cult of Kosmos, that operates in certain regions of Greece. After the introductory quests are complete, Alexios locates a message left for him at the place where he set that strange man free. The message sounds a bit impolite, as the sender literally blames Alexios for having saved him from his captors, but given the conditions, this is not something to be judged too strictly at that point; plus the most interesting thing about it is that it is signed "Aiantides The Proud".

Aiantides's first message

In spite of his fury for being saved, the man informs Alexios that he has hidden a package with goods in a forested area nearby, reserved specially for him, as a reward for giving the man back his freedom. Alexios finds the "treasure" hidden near a tree, in a rather dangerous area where several wild bears are roaming. A bit later, and while investigating the whereabouts of an Order member named Bubares with Darius in an area which was under the Order's control, Alexios discovers a farm nearby that has been overtaken by the Order, so that Bubares could assemble and enlist there volunteers from the area, whom then he planned to send off in search of the Eagle Bearer. After Alexios kills Bubares, freeing all the farms in the area from the Order's hold, he locates another message at a neighbouring farm. Again, the message is from Aiantides The Proud, again it is written in a similar manner, and again Aiantides informs Alexios that he wishes to thank him by offering him goods, because one of the freed farms belonged to his brother.

Aiantides's second message

This time there's more treasures, and they are spread around on four separate islets, which makes looking for them quite an adventure. Notably, when Alexios arrives at the first location, there are bandits snooping around, which raises suspicions about them somehow having been informed about the existence of the treasures in that area. Maybe they had read the message, or maybe there is another reason why they seem to know about Aiantides being in the area? Who knows, maybe we will be able to decipher this riddle later. On the two of the remaining three locations, there are again hazards to face: wild bears in the one, enraged chicken in the other (although the latter can be avoided if Alexios sneaks carefully to take the package they are guarding without alerting them).

After the completion of the first episode in Makedonia, Darius messages Alexios to meet him in Dyme, a small village between Elis and Achaia. There seems to be more Order action in the region, and after getting in touch with Neema as well, Alexios is informed that several people have been captured by the local branch and are being held prisoners in an almost inapproachable fortress. Alexios rushes and frees the prisoners, among which is Kleta, a rather well-off woman, who, as it turns out, appears to be a local of some higher status in the area, both financially and socially, as she volunteers to offer those stranded people shelter in Boura, her village, until they manage to find a way to leave. All of them were either locals who were returning home, or travelers from other regions; their ships were sunk while sailing along the shores of Achaia, and they were all arrested and taken as prisoners by command of the Order for an unspecified, for the time being, reason. It is revealed that the one responsible for this specific action is a fierce and extremely feared admiral, who works on behalf of the Order, goes by the name of The Tempest and has everyone in the region terrified beyond belief.

Kleta seems to be an influential figure in the area

While looking for the prisoners at the fortress, Alexios finds out information of great importance about The Tempest, who is revealed to not only be a high-rank member of the local Order branch, but she also happens to be their chief. Apart from her other duties, The Tempest is tasked with getting rid of Alexios, and for this purpose she has hired several high-rank mercenaries to hunt him down and kill him. During a series of follow-up quests with Darius and Neema, Alexios discovers that The Tempest's chief engineer has created a super-powerful weapon for her ships which he calls The Chimera's Breath and which looks like an early version of the Byzantine liquid fire. After a series of dramatic events, Alexios decides to steal the engineer's code books, so that Barnabas, who is an experienced captain, may be able to install the lethal weapon on their ship as well, to give them a fighting chance against The Tempest. Then Alexios goes to Boura to talk with Kleta, and in a dramatic twist, Kleta confesses to him that The Tempest is in fact her long lost daughter, Phila. A child prodigy, with high intelligence and gifted in an impressive variety of fields, Phila was estranged from her mother, left her family home and became a sea captain. After nearly drowning during a storm, she was saved by the Order and gradually became their most valuable high-rank member. Although Kleta hopes that there could be a way to bring Phila back, deep down she knows that her daughter, now The Tempest, is beyond saving, as she had been under the Order's influence for far too long.

In spite of her young age, The Tempest is fear incarnate in Achaia

While at Boura, Alexios finds yet one more message (surprise, surprise) again from Aiantides The Proud. This time the note is way more toned down that the previous ones, as Aiantides expresses his distress for losing all his fortune due to him constantly wanting to reward Alexios for helping him out. Aiantides explains in his note that Alexios killing the leader of the Makedonian branch of the Order was the reason why the innocent civilians were captured in Achaia, as an act of revenge; although his connection to this development is still unknown. Regardless, he informs Alexios that he has left another package full of goods for him at the edge of an isolated row of islets, adding that he will be unable to offer anything else in the future.

Aiantides's third message

Alexios goes to the specified area, which indeed is quite far away from any settlement or camp, and as he is about to take the package with the treasures, Aiantides himself appears, and he is revealed to be that strange man whom Alexios freed back in Potidaia, in the burning village.

Aiantides turns out to be a handsome man of good social status

Now that we have the chance to actually see him, it becomes more clear that he must be of some higher social status, as he is well-dressed, his sandals are more stylish and elaborate than those of most citizens and the fabrics and threads from which his outfit is made of look quite expensive and of very good quality. His whole attitude is also different from most people that Alexios has met so far, as he looks quite self-confident, speaks in a rather sophisticated manner, and even after having gone through all those troubles, he still seems determined and unafraid. This time, he wished to thank Alexios because his aunt was among the prisoners that were freed at the fortress, although he claims that he has no more to offer, as these acts of gratitude left him almost completely broke. Although Alexios insists that he shoudn't have given him anything and he doesn't owe him a thing, Aiantides claims that he is too proud to not reward him for his good deeds, because he can never be indebted to anyone (which is why he is called "The Proud" after all). The questions that are raised here, however, are what was Aiantides doing in Achaia all of a sudden, and in Boura specifically, and was he too on the sunken ships and maybe managed to escape while the Order were looking for prisoners? Or he arrived at the region with other means for some reason? 

Aiantides is suspiciously calm in spite of constantly running into trouble

While trying to make Aiantides stop feeling like he is indebted to him, Alexios offers him the chance to do a series of activities for him, that would work as paying off the so-called debt. The dialogue that follows is quite interesting, with Aiantides's reactions being rather enigmatic and perplexing. If Alexios asks him to kill the mercenaries hired by The Tempest, Aiantides replies, marginally with sadness, that he is no fighter, therefore is unable to take on this task. If Alexios asks him to steal the engineer's code books, he replies with contempt that he is not a thief. When he asks him to kill The Tempest for him, Aiantides's reaction is quite intriguing: upon hearing the fearsome admiral's name, his expression changes temporarily, as if her name means something to him. One could argue that this might be due to The Tempest's notoriety, but if you watch him closely, his expression does not indicate fear but more like a disposition to conceal something or avoid to touch the subject altogether.

Aiantides's attitude is continuously mysterious

His reply is equally weird, considering that when Alexios asked him to kill the mercenaries previously, his excuse for not doing it was that he was no fighter. When the subject of killing The Tempest comes into play, he replies with absolute disgust that Alexios asking him to commit murder is unacceptable. We could say that his reply in the first case leaves some room for further discussion, but in the second he sounds completely adamant. In the end, Alexios asks him to join his ship crew as a lieutenant, but Aiantides refuses again, saying that he has a family to look after, therefore he can't leave. Which is quite strange, since he has already left one place (Makedonia) to travel to a region quite far away, and apparently he did so on his own. Meanwhile, as the second episode of the Legacy story reaches its dramatic culmination, it is revealed that The Tempest is half Isu, just like Alexios and Kassandra, and she had been recruited by the Order exactly for this, so that they could use her as a powerful human weapon. Alexios is forced to fight against The Tempest and kill her; depending on our choices up to that point, Kleta may have survived or not, but in any event, soon after the episode ends with no further sign of Aiantides in Achaia.

Phila snaps out of the Order's brainwashing just moments before she dies

Some time later, after the tragic events that bring Alexios to the city of Aipeia in Messenia to look for his kidnapped son Elpidios, he teams up with Darius so as to locate Amorges, Darius's once best friend and companion and now sworn enemy, who was also revealed to be the head of the local branch of the Order, as well as the leader of the Ancients. Amorges, knowing that Elpidios, being the son of Alexios, shares his demigod qualities, has taken the baby and is keeping him hidden somewhere, intending to raise him himself and train him to be a warrior for the Order, like he did with Phila in the past. Among his other activities in the area, Amorges has several parts of the region under his control, resulting in citizens getting captured on a regular basis and being sent to work as helots in the fields of Aipeia's outskirts. After eliminating all the members of the local Order branch, including Amorges after a dramatic fight, Alexios is finally reunited with his son, but decides it is better to send him away with Darius, so as to keep him safe from the Order. When the story is complete, he finds a message which is not directed at him, but it mentions helot prisoners who may be in danger in Messene, at the outskirts of Aipeia.

The mysterious message mentioning the helot prisoners

Alexios arrives at Messene only to find out that Aiantides is among the helot prisoners. There are a couple more people tied alongside him, whom Alexios frees with no issues, but as he attempts to free Aiantides, angry bandits attack, wanting to prevent him from doing so. Alexios succeeds in defeating them and runs back to free Aiantides, a repetition of their very first meeting in Potidaia.

Bumping into familiar faces is always pleasant

Aiantides is very upset that it was Alexios who actually saved him. He feels once more that he owes a favor to the Eagle Bearer, one that he will not be able to fulfill, because he is completely broke now. He tells a story about how someone persuaded him to come to Messenia, tricked him into giving all money he had left, only to be sold as a helot in Messene. A rather weird story, given that Aiantides always looked quite smart; moreover his profession apparently had to do with commerce, which means he knew very well how to deal with money. To stop Aiantides from feeling indebted to him, Alexios tells him that he, being a messenger of Zeus, can forgive the debt of a mortal, which eventually puts Aiantides's mind at ease. Then Alexios asks him again to work as a lieutenant on his ship, and this time Aiantides happily accepts. Which raises the question of what happened to the so-called family that he had to take care of and could not leave behind previously.

Alexios seems quite amused with Aiantides

On a first level, nothing may seem that strange, but if all facts are combined there seems to be a pattern when it comes to Aiantides's appearances. The obvious part is that he always shows up in Alexios's path as a comic relief element, but at the same time he also appears in places that are of extreme importance as far as the Order's activities are concerned. There is not much evidence in Makedonia, as we do not have the chance to meet him there, but in Achaia things become quite interesting. We know from his second message in Makedonia that he has a brother there, but then in Achaia he vaguely refers to a family which may not be what it initially sounds like, that is a family of his own. What he does mention is an aunt who was among the stranded people whom Alexios freed at the fortress. The prisoners were four: three women and a man. From the three women, the one was the mother of a little girl, and both she and the second woman were too young to be  Aiantides's aunt. The third woman was Kleta.

Alexios and Kleta minutes after she was freed from the fortress

We don't have any clues about Aiantides's age, but judging from his figure, the smooth skin on his face and considering his hair is not even grey yet, he must be in his early thirties or something like that. Kleta, on the other hand, is a beautiful woman who is apparently older because her hair and eyebrows are grey and she has light lines near her eyes and mouth. She must be around forty five years of age, or maybe a bit younger, since Phila looks also very young. Back in those times, people used to marry at a very young age, especially women. My theory is that Aiantides's aunt was in fact Kleta, something that the two of them concealed to keep each other safe, due to the fact they were both related to The Tempest. They also avoided getting in contact in public, so as to not attract the Order's attention. Kleta and Aiantides have quite a few things in common, with their face features being the most prominent: their eye color is exactly the same, a very sweet honey brown. They have pretty similar eyebrows and their mouths have a similar shape. Sometimes they even have the same expressions. Kleta's hair is grey now but judging by her skin tone, and the way her eyebrows have also turned lightly grey, she could very well have had ash blonde hair in her youth, the same hair color that Aiantides still has. Moreover, they both look well-off in a pretty similar way, what with their nice clothes and noble style.

Kleta and Aiantides share the same honey brown eyes and similar eyebrows

Being Kleta's nephew, makes Aiantides a cousin of The Tempest, which may explain why he avoided discussing the subject of possibly killing her himself when Alexios asked him to. The family he refers to could very well be Kleta and The Tempest, assuming that his brother in Makedonia probably had a family of his own, therefore is part of a separate family circle. After Alexios eliminated the Order of the Hunters in Makedonia, the Order of the Storm in Achaia took action. Aiantides knew that this would also mean the appearance of his fearsome cousin in the region. The fact that Kleta was captured together with the other people at the fort is quite suspicious. It could be that the Order were on a spree to hunt down The Tempest's family, like the Cult had done in Kassandra's case. They could be looking for Aiantides too, which partly explains why there was only one man among the prisoners. In the old days, it was not easy to find out how someone looked like; sometimes it was impossible. Maybe the Order was on the hunt for Aiantides, but since they did not know what he looked like, he managed to escape from the ship that The Tempest sunk and get safely on solid ground in Achaia. There were bandits looking for the treasures he left for Alexios in Makedonia, and bandits again attacked Alexios when he attempted to free him in Messene. This may suggest that someone (someone with many spies, like the Order; we already know that they were recruiting citizens to do dirty work for them) was keeping track of him, and had even hired bandits to hunt him down. Maybe the bandits were not looking for the treasures but for hints to Aiantides's whereabouts. Or maybe the Order, aware of his note to Alexios, sent the bandits to look for him, allowing them to grab his treasures as a reward in case they found them. 

With The Tempest out of the picture, and Kleta either safe or dead, Aiantides had no more reasons to stay in Achaia. His story about how he found himself in Messenia may be true, but he may very well have gone there after learning that Alexios had moved further south; so he traveled to Messenia and somehow managed to get himself into trouble again. There is no more mention of his family the last time that Alexios asks him to work for him as a ship lieutenant and he accepts, something that may indicate that his intention in Messenia was to leave with Alexios for good, and is also in accordance with the fact that his "family" (in this case, Kleta alone since his brother is probably safe in Makedonia) either does not exist any more, in the version where Kleta is dead, or is completely out of danger, in the version where, after Phila's and Amorges's deaths and the full elimination of the Order of the Ancients, she stays back in Boura, all alone but out of harm's way.

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.