As a Fridge page, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance:
- This game sees Ethan having the ability to craft items and access to more powerful weaponry, things he didn't have in the last game. Likely after spending all of 7 barely making through the night as an Action Survivor, Ethan worked to take a level or two in badass so as not be caught flatfooted again. Confirmed in the beginning of the game when he mentions in passing that one for the things Chris Redfield did as part of their relocation was give them military training, and one of the books in his house is a novel written by Joseph Kendo about making firearms.
- Why is the M1851 Wolfsbane stated to be incredibly effective against werewolves? Take a closer look at the bullets when reloading. They're silver bullets, which in mythology are lethal to werewolves.
- In addition, why does it work against these werewolves? Silver is an antifungal.
- Each of the Four Families and Mother Miranda are clearly each inspired by various European folklore:
- Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters are the most obvious with their various vampiric traits such as drinking blood and their shapeshifting abilities made famous by Dracula which the writers clearly took inspiration from.
- Building on from this also explains the unexpected One-Winged Angel form that Lady Dimitrescu assumes. Vampires are largely associated with bats, but as a vampire-like Romanian noble, Lady Dimitrescu is drawing parallels to Dracula... whose name translates into English as "Son of the Dragon". Comments on in-game unlockable concept art confirms this is exactly what the developers were going for.
- In order to be able to hurt the daughters you have to expose them to the outdoors, as the cold limits their abilities. As it is broad daylight outside, doing this also ends up exposing them to the sun. Although just a coincidence, this does further reinforce the vampire imagery.
- House Heisenberg are the werewolves given that Karl Heisenberg appears to lead the game's Lycan enemies. Interesting note, the name "lycan" for werewolf was used in the Underworld films; not only was the film about a war between vampires and werewolves similar to the rivalry between Lord Heisenberg and Lady Dimitrescu, the species in those films were the result of a virus just like in the RE games. Heisenberg's actual boss battle and attempts at building a mechanical/cyborg army also bring to mind Doctor Frankenstein in general, and specifically the Diesel Punk film Frankenstein's Army.
- House Moreau are likely based on Ghouls note given that based on the demos, there's an enemy like it. There's also Salvatore Moreau who has a hideous hunchbacked appearance and is dressed similar to the enemies indicating he controls them. Capcom have also since confirmed that Moreau's inspiration partly comes from Mermen.
- Moreau is also likely named for The Island of Doctor Moreau, a story about a scientist who attempts to create intelligent humanoids out of animals — the opposite to the route taken by Miranda with Salvatore!
- Moreau also bears a resemblance to Lovecraftian monsters, especially the Whateley twins from The Dunwich Horror — like Wilbur Whateley, his clothes hide the eyes and tentacles of his grotesque form, and like the unnamed twin he becomes a gigantic mass of limbs and features... begging helplessly for his parent to save him.
- House Beneviento is a little less obvious as they received the least promotion leading up to the game's release but likely have connections to ghosts and poltergeists. The first evidence is Lady Donna Beneviento who's dressed in black clothing and a veil similar to funeral garb. Many fans have also compared Angie, who Donna speaks through, to Annabelle in appearance.
- Mother Miranda:
- Between her appearance note , having something to due with the disappearance of Ethan's daughter, and her plans seemingly to revolve some sort of ritual; Mother Miranda is obviously based on classic portrayals of witches. In fact she could likely be the Resident Evil version of Baba Yaga, a famous figure in Eastern European folklore, since the game takes place in that area.
- In addition, her wings, Tragic Villain backstory, association with false idols (the "Black God", aka the Megamycete) and revelation that she was Spencer's original mentor before he created Umbrella gives her another Gothic association; Fallen Angels, in particular the Devil. Quite fitting, for the creator of monsters.
- Miranda also resembles The Morrígan, a goddess from the Irish mythology, her name means “Great/Phantom Queen” and is associated with war, fate and crows, which is fitting with Ethan’s situation, being at “war” with her and her subordinates to get his daughter back; fate because after defeating Miranda, Ethan’s fate is complete by saving Rose, he’s finally at peace and can die with no regrets; and crows because we can see a bunch of them hanging from trees at the beginning of the game, and Miranda’s wings are black. Also, the Morrígan is considered as a triple goddess, compounded of three sisters that also fit Miranda and her shape shifting ability by having three different female forms during the game: Miranda, Mia and the old lady from the village.
- Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters are the most obvious with their various vampiric traits such as drinking blood and their shapeshifting abilities made famous by Dracula which the writers clearly took inspiration from.
- Why did Ethan reject Heisenberg's offer to help him? Well, the last time he met a Gadgeteer Genius, the guy was anything but trustworthy.
- And besides, Heisenberg intends to use Rose as a weapon against Miranda; Ethan already let his daughter fall into the wrong hands once, and he's not making that mistake again.
- Why did Ethan calcify, but not Mia? Because Mia took the serum back in the previous game. Ethan never took one.
- Alternatively Mia never truly died meaning the Mold could be purged from her system unlike Ethan. Or she could have been molded too but not taken the trauma Ethan did when his heart was ripped out.
- At one point, you come across the old lady cackling that "death has visited them all" (i.e all the dead villagers). Ethan, who is dead, has just visited all the remaining villagers. She reveals the twist of the game right at the start!
- Another easily missable clue that Ethan is a Molded from the start? Look at his health bar in the inventory menu. It's not the series' typical EKG, but rather what appears to be a cloud of Mold swimming around.
- Another subtle hint to the twist is that Lady Dimitrescu describes Ethan's blood as "stale" after tasting it — the man's basically a zombie, and the Mold must not be doing good enough of a job keeping his blood fresh.
- You could also say that Ethan's blood is...moldy.
- An even bigger hint is that one of Lady Dimitrescu's daughters says "Mother says you're stale, but I think you're delicious". The daughters are, of course, all flies. And what do flies tend to eat? Corpses. Of course they'd find Ethan more delectable than their mother does!
- An easily overlooked thing to note is that Ethan's hand is only starting to turn stale. By this point he's a walking corpse, so he should be completely stale and not have much of a reason to be even the littlest bit fresh. That is unless if you've played the previous game and notice that Lady Dimitrescu is drinking from his left hand, which was cut off of him by Mia before he was killed by Jack. The Mold may have been able to keep that hand fresh for some time after it was reattached.
- The Game Over screen's "You Are Dead" message hits different when you learn what exactly Ethan is.
- It seems odd that at the end of the game, Rose seemingly had a deep connection with both her father, Ethan, and Eveline. However, Rose is Eveline "reincarnated" so she probably retained the latter's Hive Queen abilities and since both her father and mother were once Molded, she already shared a mental link with them. This meant that while an infant, she saw her father fight to the brink of death to protect her and learnt about Eveline's actions.
- It's most likely she's also has an established connection to the Megamycete, allowing her to learn about Miranda and her actions and being able to control the entity. So what we saw Miranda having her powers fading seemingly out of nowhere is actually Rose giving her father a fighting chance.
- The late-game revelation that Miranda had once been close with Ozwell Spencer makes much of the events of Resident Evil 5 and Revelations 2 sort of blackly comedic in retrospect. Spencer spent billions of dollars and committed massive crimes against humanity in an effort to find a way to extend his lifespan, but as it turned out, his old buddy Miranda had functional immortality on tap and just never told him. There's no guarantee it would've worked on Spencer — the Four Lords are all happy accidents, with everyone else turning into Lycans or worse — but it's more of a shot than even Alex's immortality technique would've given him.
- Mia at the start of the game being particularly belligerent whenever Ethan tries to bring up Louisiana initially just seems her still being traumatized, but it being revealed it was Miranda pretending to be Mia makes more sense as she wasn't there thus risking giving herself away by not knowing details as well as unwilling to think about Eveline her failed attempt at bringing back Eva.
- Why did Mia appear to be so calm after being shot in the shoulder by Chris and his army? Because she was really Mother Miranda, she was clearly taken by surprise and wouldn't know how to react like a normal human would to being shot.
- This is a clever subversion of fan expectations. Based on Mia's superhuman durability in the last game, some people thought that her under-reaction to being shot was due to Mold abilities. The truth, of course is much worse.
- Noticeably, in the BTS mo-cap footage, the actress playing Mia puts on a look of bitter frustration rather than shock right before Chris shoots her — a hint that she's playing someone angry that her plan is being stalled.
- We never get an answer to what exactly the Duke is. Makes sense: his buddy The Merchant was similarly mysterious.
- Throughout the game, Ethan's gear gradually gets better but still struggles to efficiently kill a good amount of the more dangerous foes without a lot of excess firepower. In the endgame, Chris and his team summarily gun down an army's worth of Lycans within minutes, because they're not only still that much more experienced than Ethan but are packing heavily customized and prepared military hardware that puts even the best of Ethan's arsenal to shame.
- It's small and it is only visible for a few seconds, but Moreau's jellyfish-tattoo perfectly foreshadows Mother Miranda's nature and true form, long before the final encounter with her. It also shows as, despite being a tormented simpleton, Moreau, as her most devoted "child", knew his "mother" far better than anyone else in the entire village, all the way to the end.
- What do werewolves have to do with mold? They're lichens!
- Since the climax of the game establishes that it might be possible to revive a person from death if they hosted the Mold, this potentially counts as both Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror since, on one hand Ethan and maybe even the Bakers can come back to be with their families, but on the other hand it could also bring back Miranda, or any of the other evil hosts of the Mold.
- One version of the Box Art shows Chris's face merged with that of a wolf. We later find out he leads a squad called Hound-Wolf.
- Where did the BSAA get the Tyrant BOW seen in the ending, especially since it's been years since Umbrella's fall? Simple; Tyrants were a mass produced product, so it's not entirely out of the question for Umbrella to have had a few still in storage when they were shut down, which were likely seized by the BSAA. All the BSAA needed to do was use the same process Umbrella used to give Tyrants like T-00 (aka Mr. X) and Nemesis-T Type their predetermined orders and they'd have the perfect new type of soldier to send into a high risk situation like the Village.
- In the ending Ethan tells Chris to make sure Rose is strong, which as we see translates into Chris mentoring her and using Rose as one of his agents. Which makes sense when you consider it's likely a case of Chris learning from past mistakes.
- First, Chris already saw what happened with Sherry Birkin, who ended up Strapped to an Operating Table for a good portion of her post-Raccoon City life due to her having the G-Virus, and her blood ended up being used to create the C-Virus. Since Chris is fully aware of Rose's powers, he wanted her to avoid having to go though the same thing and thus made sure she was directly under his supervision.
- Secondly, there's Rose's pseudo-past incarnation Eveline. Both Chris and Ethan saw how she was treated as a Tyke Bomb and what that turned her into, which is likely why Rose does seem to have some freedom to visit her father's grave in the ending. Chris also avoided having similar forces either abducting Rose or exploiting her into becoming the same by making sure she was trained by him and other people he trusted.
- A minor one, but the ladies of House Dimitrescu are named Alcina, Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela. A, B, C, and D.
- Ethan continues the pattern — his name starts with an E.
- The slight wolf motif going on with the game. Such as the Alternate Box art of Chris being merged with a wolf, him leading the Hound-Wolf Squad, the Lycans and then the leader of the Lycans: Lord Heisenberg. Is continued/complemented by Ethan now being a very good example of the Papa Wolf trope.
- Even the dinner Mia prepares in the beginning has some fridge brilliance. Her cooking a local dish and pairing it with a local vintage isn't just her Going Native as Ethan remarks. Since she's actually a native of that region who has lived there for over a century, she isn't actually very familiar with the kind of dishes the real Mia would know how to make.
- Why does Ethan never turn into a Lycan, despite having possibly been bitten by them multiple times in-game? Because he is already a Molded!
- In the beginning, when the villains have Ethan tied up and at their mercy, it's Heisenberg who argues to set him free and then set the Lycans after him, and so Ethan predictably escapes and proceeds to kill the other three Lords. It turns out Heisenberg is plotting against Mother Miranda, and is hoping to form an alliance with Ethan against her.Heisenberg: Let's see what you're really made of, Ethan Winters.
- Miranda giving Ethan to Heisenberg instead of the others also has some fridge brilliance since Miranda knows about Heisenberg’s intent to betray her and part of her plan with Ethan involves him taking out the Four Lords. Heisenberg would be the one most likely to hold back so Ethan can escape, making him the obvious choice to further Miranda’s plans.
- Furthermore, even without her knowing about Heisenberg's intent to betray her, he's still arguably the best choice for her if she wanted Ethan alive when you consider the other Lords:
- There was no way Ethan was going to survive Dimitrescu and her daughters had Miranda handed him over to her while he was still bound. In the game proper, one of the main reasons why they didn't gut Ethan like a fish the moment they had him in their clutches was because Lady D had to call Miranda to give herself the green light to do so.
- Moreau is desperate for Mother Miranda's approval, so if she handed Ethan over to him he would have absolutely made sure he died.
- Beneviento is a bigger wild card than Heisenberg due to her implied mental issues. She could have thrown Ethan into a game of hide-and-seek like she does in-game but she could just as well kill him outright, making her less reliable to let him escape than Heisenberg who would have reason and opportunity to do so. Based on what little we see of her, we can also see how there is some conflict between her alters.
- Even if Ethan would have killed Heisenberg, that would have resulted in her easily getting rid of her biggest obstacle and by the time Heisenberg is dead, Ethan would still be armed, freed of the manacles, and most likely out to murder the other three Lords. No matter what, by starting with Heisenberg, she was guaranteed to succeed.
- Why does the Mold create creatures that just happen to look like creatures of myth? Because the Mold created them in the first place centuries ago, and inspired the myths.
- In the "Village of Shadows" book, the Bat King, Weaver, and Fish Lord all give the girl gifts, but the Iron Horse becomes angry at her theft. Three of the Lords all hide their Rose vials away from Ethan's grasp, except Heisenberg.
- This is a hint that Miranda may have known Heisenberg's intentions all along. The stand ins for Dimitrescu, Beneviento, and Moreau are all cast in a benevolent light, while Heisenberg's is made out to be violent and antagonistic.
- The Four Lords each have different European surnames: Dimitrescu (Romanian), Beneviento (Italian), Moreau (French), and Heisenberg (German). Their leader's name Miranda is a Latin word, and all of their surnames come from Latin-based languages... that is, except for Heisenberg. That name is Germanic. And who's the traitor?
- The Four Lords knew that Ethan was Molded all along. This is why Lady Dimitrescu and Heisenberg said he was special, and why none of them seemed surprised by his impossible feats of survival.Heisenberg: Let's see what you're really made of, Ethan Winters. note
- ...to the extent that maybe Heisenberg's plan has two contingencies: either A), Ethan survives the obvious traps, or B), They all get to watch him horribly regenerate his Mold body from being ground into pieces. As a mad scientist and a showman, it wouldn't have been outside of his interests...
- Ethan’s jacket being mended after reattaching his severed hand. If Miranda can create clothing with her mimicry, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for Ethan’s Mold to mend fabric, fabric that is likely saturated with Ethan’s Mold by blood and skin contact.
- There's plenty of support for the theory (which, according to some, was once meant to be canon) that the Duke was originally one of the lords of the village (that whose house sigil was the owl) who was similarly transformed by Mother Miranda into an immortal, but chose to rebel against her. One bit some do miss, though, is how his size relates to it: if he is indeed one of the lords, his transformation was clearly most similar to that of Lady Dimitrescu — he remained essentially human, but has such regenerative powers that he's effectively invulnerable to damage. And what was the only visible side effect of Lady D's transformation? She began growing uncontrollably, until she was freakishly tall. The Duke might've gotten the same one, except rather than growing upwards, he became morbidly obese.
- In Dimitrescu's castle there is a piano puzzle that's rather easily solved. Early in the game you can see Ethan and Mia have an upright piano in their house.
- Why were Heisenberg's death traps so easy for Ethan to escape, with convenient holes in the walls and passages for him to go through? Why, because he WANTED Ethan to escape, of course.
- Some players have noted that the ending to the House Beneviento level seems anticlimactic in comparison to the boss fights of the other Lords. The reason, it can be argued, is that Donna — for all her fragmentation — is the most self-aware of all the Lords. She knew she could never beat Ethan in a fight (either as herself or as her dolls), so she attempted to terrify him to death with prop work and hallucinations. By the time Ethan gets out of her basement, she's freaking out that he's not already dead. Angie's hide-and-seek game is likely a desperate gambit to stall for time and/or somehow trick him back into the basement:Donna: Don't leave! I can't let you...Angie: Still ALIVE, huh?!
- Why does hiding in the closets and under the bed provide safety in the Beneviento House? Infants lack object permanence, which means if something is out of their sight then they assume it's gone forever. When Ethan hides, he basically ceases to exist for moment.
- The final transformation of most of the bosses, Dimitrescu, Beneviento, Moreau, and Miranda rely on a great biological mutation, but not Heisenberg's. His transformation is mostly about attaching piles of metal to his own body. Heisenberg never wanted to be part of Miranda's "family" and he hates the Cadou inside him, so it makes sense that he prefers to rely on a material he has control over instead of a parasite that was implanted in him without his consent as a young child.
- Another subtle clue that Ethan was a Molded all along: Miranda kidnapped Rose in the middle of the night, called all the Lords to the abandoned church, crystalized and put Rose in jars, and then sent the Lycans to kill the villagers, all of that must have taken at least several hours. During that time, Ethan was unconscious in the middle of a forest, at night, in a snowstorm. If he was a normal human being, he would have frozen to death, but he survived and got up without any problem.
- One very subtle one that also acts as a Call-Back to a scene in the previous game: During the scene where Ethan is holed up with the villagers, the subject of the Hag is brought up, and Leonardo laughs her off with "That bitch is as crazy as a bag of rats", and aside from laughter, this is the last thing he says before he almost immediately turns into a Lycan. Remember in a flashback late in the previous game, Mia and her coworker at the Connections were holed up in a room hiding from Eveline during her escape, he refers to Eveline as a "bitch", and she immediately causes the Mold infecting him to grow and kill him in retaliation, having heard him through the Mold. Now keep in mind that Eveline is an imperfect clone of Miranda's daughter, the Mold she used is a vector of the same Mold Miranda uses, and the Hag was none other than Miranda herself. Seems like pettiness runs in the family.
- Like Mr. X and Nemesis, Lady D will not follow Ethan into safe rooms (nor will any other enemies). Like 4, many if not all safe rooms have a merchant in them, in this case the Duke. Considering the rumors that the Duke was to be a fifth lord (and in fact holds a title higher than lord), isn't really human, and laughs off Ethan's death threat after he already killed Lady D; maybe the real reason safe rooms are safe is because no one wants to mess with the Duke.
- A letter you can find does detail that she runs a business arrangement with the Duke, even in spite of the fact that he sells you weapons and ammunition that you can use to kill Dimitrescu and her daughters, never mind the rest of the forces throughout the rest of the game. This implies that regardless of what could be perceived as supplying their very killer, no one has the stones to try to challenge or kill the Duke for whatever reason. Considering he can No-Sell explosives to the face and laugh it off, it's probable that the business arrangement is favorable by keeping him out of their hair.
- The same business arrangement likely applies to Heisenberg as well. The Duke appears to have quite the comfy set-up in the metal Lord's factory, and considering his plans to rebel against Miranda and the Duke's potential origins as a former Lord — which would also make them pseudo-siblings who both dislike Miranda — it makes perfect sense that Heisenberg would have been purchasing equipment and supplies from him.
- The way Heisenberg continually refers to Rose as a weapon and planning to use her against Miranda reflects the deep influence Miranda had on him. Almost a century of being nothing more than a tool for her, and having such an awful relationship with his adopted brother and sisters, has twisted Heisenberg's image of what a family really is like, to the point he honestly doesn't understand why Ethan gets so furious at him at the idea of using his daughter as a tool as well.
- When we meet Heisenberg (our first interaction with a Lord) he has no clue who Ethan is and in fact is shocked when he realizes he's not from the village and yet survived. Next time we see him (in the meeting), he is using Ethan's full name. A strong hint SOMEONE at the court scene recognized Ethan and knew who he was.
- During the Shadows of Rose DLC, the revisited House Beneviento is overseen by Eveline instead of Lady Beneviento or Angie. It does make sense, given Eveline and Donna have quite a few similarities once you start looking. They are both dark-haired but pale, wear black dresses, have Psychic Powers, have the motif of being a Lonely Doll Girl, use minions to attack you, and of course, they both want Ethan to stay with them forever.
- A subtle clue that the K that Rose is talking to isn’t what he seems is when he calls Miranda Mother Miranda.
Fridge Horror:
- Look at some of the medical records at the beginning of the game involving Rose, and those who have had children of their own will realize that she was implausibly large for a newborn. Likely because as a sort of physical reincarnation of Eveline, she was already experiencing accelerated growth. And likely when she was still inside Mia to boot.
- During the Beneviento house level, there are several instances where Mia is apologizing to Ethan and crying about it. While they initially seem like hallucinations, it eventually becomes clear that they're recordings of Mother Miranda's interrogations of Mia after her capture, making the player wonder just what kind of physical and/or psychological torture did Miranda use on Mia.
- Why does Ethan take Elena and Leonardo's deaths much harder than he has any other villager's so far? Because he knows all too well what it's like to see a loved one be infected and turn right in front of you.
- When Lady Dimitrescu manages to cut off Ethan's right hand, we see him manage to put it back on with some first aid meds. Normal enough for those that see it coming, and good Foreshadowing. But then the coat sleeve reattaches itself too for some reason. Look at his severed hand as an item when you pick it up — it's fusing to the sleeve. And he ''gave this off to Chris and Rose.''
- More like a Fridge Tearjerker, but the ending must've given Chris a terrible case of Deja Vu, considering that Ethan committing a Heroic Sacrifice to fully destroy the Mold due to slowly dying because of said virus and wanting to save his friends and family. Almost like what happened to his previous partner Piers in RE6.
- As sad as the ending is for Mia, one can only imagine how much worse it must be with the knowledge that this entire tragedy is her fault. If she hadn't been working for the Connections, she never would have been abducted by Eveline, and Ethan wouldn't have sought her out, only to be infected by Eveline's Megamycete in the process. And if that hadn't happened, she, Ethan, and little Rose would never have come to the attention of Mother Miranda. Her family could have been spared this nightmare, if only she'd not wound up working for a company dealing in bio-weapons.
- Mia also knew the entire time that Ethan was Dead All Along and effectively a walking man-shaped pile of sentient mold. And not only did she never find a way to tell him this, they had sex after this with her likely guilt-ridden. It's probable that having the Mold serum in her was the only reason she could even safely give birth to Rosemary in the first place, but the psychiatric medication was likely for more than just PTSD...
- Considering what we know about the Mold from 7 and how it spreads, Ethan might have accidentally infected Elena and Luiza, and by extension the rest of the villagers in the circle, when he held their hands to pray. Not that it mattered too much though, thanks to Leonardo.
- If that were the case, the BSAA would've likely contained Ethan right after the Baker incident rather than relocating him, never mind that Mia was seemingly cured of the Mold and showed no adverse effects to the aftermath of intercourse with him or having a child as far as we know.
- The ending shows that part of Rose's "contract" with the BSAA involves having at least one sniper present at all times to assassinate her if they think she's losing control to the Megamycete. That's unsettling enough, but it gets more disturbing when you think about the implications. When was this policy implemented? Was Mia basically given the choice on Rose's behalf to either agree to have these "guardians" put in place or else Rose would be terminated for being too great of a threat after Ethan's sacrifice? Would the BSAA have been willing to kill Mia as a Megamycete host if Chris hadn't spoken against it? What if Rose's guards get trigger-happy? And, worst of all, what if they need to terminate Rose... but they can't?
- The BSAA in general crossed this threshold, too. They're now using Bio-Organic Weapons like their enemies do, just to be able to keep a competitive edge, and it's strongly implied that they were also acting on their own separate of Chris's operation to directly try to seize the Megamycete. The Baker Incident Report even highlights that rather than take responsibility for the entirety of the prior game given how big they screwed up in containing it, they covered up and brushed off the entire incident, which disgusted Chris of all people into quitting. They've officially become He Who Fights Monsters, as far as our perspective shows.
- The mere idea that the BSAA are using Tyrant-like models is horrifying if you remember that they're anything but lab-grown: they have to be made out of genetically-compatible people, grafted with extra organs to serve as extra power so they don't burn themselves out or lose their minds like a common virus zombie to hunger to persist, and numerous other surgical elements. Even if they were refined to remove most of the problems, the "heroic" organization dedicated to fighting these monstrosities are using weaponized super soldier corpses at best and mutated living people at worst, mutilated and altered purposefully for disposable, objective-minded foot troopers. Moral Event Horizon is an understatement, since they either have to be purchasing these from black market vendors or the Connections themselves, or developing them in-house.
- The reason why Chris has Ethan taken away is that he suspects Ethan of being infected. Ethan is indeed infected, so if the truck hadn't been hijacked, who knows what BSAA would have done to Ethan?
- When Ethan gets his arm cut off by Lady Dimitrescu, you can actually examine it like an item once it's picked up again, showing that while some of the gore stuck to the sleeve, his blood and inner flesh are noticeably discolored from the Mold — and it's starting to meld with the jacket's inner fabric. When he uses the meds to heal himself, it even closes the jacket sleeve with nothing but a physical scar on the clothing to show for it and him being able to remove the jacket freely in the ending. Rosemary still using his coat as a Tragic Keepsake is literally wearing some fragment of his Molded flesh and being closer to her father on a physical level than either of them probably realize.
- The revelations in the endgame that Ozwell Spencer had been inspired by Miranda's discovery of immortality, which is bad enough as it is in making her a Greater-Scope Villain. But then further notes highlight that Miranda's immortality had been brought about by the Megamycete by stumbling upon it by pure chance within a random cavern. Everything in the entire series happened because one grief-stricken woman turned into a Death Seeker found an inexplicable substance within the earth that made her inhuman on physical contact, and this is long before Spencer found the Progenitor, or the Las Plagas emerged. What the hell is wrong with the Earth itself of all things in this series?
- Consider how Miranda only found the Mold after her daughter Eva died of the Spanish Flu, having wandered into the wilderness to die when she discovered it. Now consider that we never see the Mold retain the consciousness of someone who died before they came into contact with it. Meaning, even if Miranda fed Eva's body to it, there's a significant chance that everything she did, creating Eveline, helping Spencer, infesting the Village, kidnapping Rose... was All for Nothing.
- Not only that, but it's never confirmed if Eva actually died anywhere near the village where the Megamycete was located. So it's very possible that Eva's consciousness was never absorbed into it like Miranda had hoped, meaning her century-old plan to bring her daughter back was completely doomed from the start, even without Eveline interfering with her control over the Mold at the last minute during the endgame.
- Why has a village in 21st-century Europe seemingly not progressed beyond typewriters and corded telephones? The same reason no one in the outside world has heard of Miranda, the Village, or the Lords in all this time — Miranda's experiments (and the Lords') needed to be kept secret in order for her plan to work. It's unlikely any of the villagers Ethan meets have heard of antibiotics, never mind the internet.
- Considering the reveal that Mother Miranda was in contact with Ozwell Spencer decades ago, imagine what Miranda and her family could have accomplished if Umbrella (or another organization) partnered with them. For a few examples, think about what Heisenberg was able to do with a scrapyard in a backwater village by himself, then imagine what would have happened if he had funding, staff, and a modern factory (or factories). Or imagine if Umbrella scientists could weaponize Beneviento's hallucinogenic plants into a Scarecrow-style fear-toxin chemical weapon.
- So, we know Ethan canonically dies thrice; first Jack Baker kills him in 7, then Mother Miranda kills him again in Village, and finally he is killed off for good with his heroic sacrifice at the end of the game. But what if 7 and Village actually have a respawn mechanic in-universe similar to Bioshock Infinite's time loop? Ethan after all kills Jack multiple times in 7, as does his brother Joe in the DLC before Jack is finally put down for good. Who is to say every time the player dies it's canon and Ethan regenerates and comes back to life, not realizing he died like what happened the first time? How many times has Ethan been brutally murdered just to come back with no memory once more? For all we know, Ethan has been killed many more times than what was shown and that is why his body is so weak at the game's end and he opts to go out like that.
- Considering the cutscenes repeat exactly the same way and no one shows any indication that they've killed him before, this is pretty farfetched. Even if Ethan forgot, everyone else definitely would've remembered.
- Those cute puppet shorts where the four Lords sing "RE is not scary! Come have fun in our village!" gets a lot more sinister when you remember what the four Lords do to locals and tourists.
- Throughout the entire cutscene of Ethan's Heroic Sacrifice, Ethan's face is completely hidden from view. While this may just seem like the game doing its best to keep Ethan as The Faceless to the end, one should remember that during this cutscene, Ethan's whole body is beginning to calcify, meaning its possible his face isn't being shown because its starting to crack apart. If that's true, then A.) Chris got to actually see this before Ethan went to blow himself up which, coupled with the guilt of not being able to save Ethan, would probably haunt him for the rest of his life, and B.) Ethan's infant daughter got a full view of this as it was happening since his face was directly above her the entire time.
