Headscratchers / Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Alright guys, we've got a super intelligent monster that has lots of potential, so let's only make one of him!

• Okay, okay: Capcom hadn't invented him when part 2 came out, so the question of why they didn't send Nemesis after the G-Virus is an easy question in a meta sense, but here's one that's still worth considering: why'd they only make one Nemesis? He's still one of the most dangerous, intelligent, and effective monstrosities Umbrella ever cooked up, so why'd they mass produce the significantly easier-to-kill Tyrants instead? It's not like budget concerns were a problem for a company as Stupid Evil as Umbrella.
  • Nemesis was from a different branch of Umbrella than the Tyrant was. As I recall, Tyrant was made by the US branch, while Nemesis was a product of the French branch. So there was probably some rivalry/competition going on between them.
  • Come to think of it, Umbrella France could have won that little rivalry easy had they mass-produced the Nemesis, so yeah; good question.
  • Simple. Umbrella France got messed-up big-time by Claire Redfield and Morpheus Duvall.
  • Nemesis also had a fatal flaw: its base is a Tyrant; and finding one as a suitable host is VERY RARE. Even if one was found, if it takes too much damage, it reverted to basic Tyrant control, which likely jacked up production costs as well.
  • Actually there were more than one, but the parasite created too large of a "brain" and made one of the prototypes actually gain full sentience, so they had to limit the parasites' growth. The one we run like hell from is actually the only fully finished prototype before the French lab was destroyed.
    • The other wiki says there were 4 parasites, so 2 are still loose.
    • That sounds like an awesome Sequel Hook; I hope a Nemesis in some form returns.
    • Isn't it also stated somewhere that Nemesis was highly experimental? In which case, they would have tested him before blowing a bunch of money and resources on more.

That Umbrella, they so crazy prepared...

• Towards the end of the game, an automated announcement plays that there's a missile coming. Either Umbrella are Crazy-Prepared or...
  • Admittedly it still counts toward Crazy Preparedness, but given the factory is old enough to be disguised as a "Dead" factory, it's probable it was built during or prior to The Cold War and thus would still have that program collecting dust.

Jill infected with a virus? Let's wait a while before curing it!

• Why did Carlos wait a couple of days to go out and find a cure for Jill's infection?
  • The events of Resident Evil 2 happened during the interim, and Birkin was likely wandering the city before entering the police station.
    • So? Even if he knew that, why should it stop him? It's just one more monster in a city full of monsters.
    • That decimated a group of Umbrella's finest? Yeah, he could kill that easily.
    • Why not? He fights the Nemesis, and it's just as bad if not worse.
    • He shot at it once in a cutscene and maybe twice in actual gameplay.
    • The point I meant to make was that Carlos isn't afraid to go out into the city or fight seemingly invincible monsters, especially given that he's done so before.
  • He probably didn't know she was infected. As far as he was aware, she was just injured after the fight with Nemesis. It's Jill who tells him she's infected when she wakes up, after which he goes to find a cure immediately.
  • Maybe it took that long for him to realize there was a hospital nearby; after all is there any proof Carlos had been there before?
  • I believe it's mentioned in the book, which yes may be non-canon due to being its own timeline but it would make sense regardless, that Carlos basically kept a constant vigil over her to make sure she was safe and did what he could to keep her okay. She was basically unconscious for those days and he wasn't about to run off and leave her alone when a) anything could have happened to her while she was asleep and he wouldn't be there for her or b) she might attempt to leave cause she didn't know where he was or how long he had been gone and would have died one way or another. More or less, it was safer to wait until she woke up first before making the decision to hunt down the vaccine.

Nemesis is a gentlemonster?

• What was Nemesis doing during the time Jill was out? Why was he waiting for her to recover?
  • Nemesis itself was recovering. Granted, he's been a relentless asshole for most of the game, but that battle may have done some serious damage to it, as the next time it's seen, it's armed with a bunch more Combat Tentacles.
  • Plus, as Jill mentions, he's playing with them. Nemesis is kind of a sadist, he just wouldn't enjoy it that much to attack her in her sleep (though if the player goes out of their way to cock up the rescue mission as Carlos, Nemesis will indeed bust into the chapel and kill her while she's helpless).
  • It's possible that Nemesis considered an infected target to be as good as dead- possibly better than dead, if Brad becoming a super-zombie in the RE 2 Easter egg is canon and a normal reaction to whatever strain of T-Virus Nemesis used. Once she was infected and unconscious, Nemesis probably figured the job was done, then went off to see if there were any other STARS members still in the city. When she turned up uninfected after Carlos found the cure, she became a target again.
    • Exactly. As far as Nemesis is concerned, he still has Chris, Barry and Rebecca to kill, and he is probably smart enough on an instinctive level to know that he is running out of time to search the city. T-Virus infection is as good as dead 99% of the time.

Jill's assumptions

• Why is Jill so sanctimonious in the opening about none of Raccoon's inhabitants trying to fight the zombies when Brad told her later on that the city's policemen did try and were overwhelmed?
  • She was talking about fighting Umbrella, not the monsters. If there had been a proper investigation into Umbrella (and more people spoke out about their obviously evil tendencies), the outbreak likely wouldn't have happened.
  • Wait... you wanted them to speak out to cops that were run by a chief in the evil pharmaceutical company's back pocket? They had connections all the way up to the government. The only way they fell was in 4's backstory, when the damage was far too much to cover up.
  • True, but remember that Jill is a woman of action (and is probably angrily writing this speech into her diary moments before her apartment block burst into flames.) She knows that she would have taken the hardship and risk and expects others to do so too. Its not a reasonable expectation, especially as she has no husband or children who would also feel the pain, but there you go.
  • Judging from what happened to the city. They didn't.

S.T.A.R.S.? What's that?

• Okay, straight to the point: Carlos and Nicholai are hired guns from different parts of the world who had never been in Raccoon City previously, nor had any sort of contact with Jill. With that said, how the hell do they know about S.T.A.R.S.? I can forgive Nicholai, as the game eventually reveals he was after a reward for Jill's death. But Carlos? The guy admits in the game he was just sent to help everyone with absolutely zero idea of what was going on. He's clueless about Umbrella's intentions, but apparently knows about a small police unit working for a small town located in the middle of nowhere? How?
  • If the games take any cues from the novels, it's possible that S.T.A.R.S. is a nationwide organization and that the RPD's S.T.A.R.S. unit is only a local or regional division rather than unique to Raccoon City.
  • A couple of the later games, most notably Code Veronica, mention that the STARS program was famous. It's not hard to figure out why, since most of its members were former military and it was armed and armoured like it was going to invade the next town over.

Continue chasing Jill? Got better things to do.

• From an out-of-universe perspective being able to escape from Nemesis for a time makes sense, as he would either become annoying rather than terrifying, or he'd have to be made weaker, which would again weaken his terror factor. From an IN-UNIVERSE perspective why does Nemesis suddenly stop chasing Jill at times? For example, right before you're about to head to the trolley with the needed parts to get it running again Nemesis is standing right in your way in a narrow corridor. You slip past him... and that's it. He's there for all of a single screen. In almost every encounter all you need to do is get a few screens away and then he suddenly decides you're not worth the effort, only to show up again a little later. Jill does remark that he's toying with you to Carlos, which might explain it. He's a cat letting the trapped mouse go for a bit just to catch it again. But why does he have that capacity, if that indeed is the reason? Umbrella just can't do anything right, can they?
  • It's mentioned elsewhere that the Nemesis is capable of making tactical decisions, and that his mission is not just to kill S.T.A.R.S. but anyone they could have spilled Umbrella secrets to. By that point, Nemesis has cottoned to the fact you're working with U.B.C.S. members, so now they're targets. It's not unreasonable to assume that him backing off until you're all in the trolley is a decision it made to wait until you were all in one place for easy disposal (and a justified one: he nearly finishes you all off in one go). As for the rest, notice that a lot of the times he backs off are when you reach relatively open areas where you could easily get around him. He WANTS to keep you penned into narrow hallways and corridors, because that's where he fights best; he's got a tactical disadvantage in areas where you can keep your distance and plug away at him. To leap off your cat analogy, he's smart enough not to chase the mouse into a forest of easily-climbable trees where it can get out of reach and start hucking acorns.
  • There's also times where you making an escape can lead to Nemesis taking some damage from the environment (I distinctly remember one choice where you can ignite a gas leak and cause an explosion while he's around). In those cases, it's less "ok, bored now" and more "Ok, I got my bell rung, time to sit down and get my head straight again."
  • Plus in the particular instance the troper cited, Jill is attacked by the Gravedigger. Perhaps Nemesis saw it coming and decided not to get into a three-way fight with something much bigger than himself and also figured that there was a chance the Gravedigger would do his job for him anyway.
  • The new remake is all but assured to follow the precedent set by Jack in 7 and Mr. X in 2 in casting Nemesis as more of a Super-Persistent Predator, and at that even more so than the latter as Nemesis was always a superior version of X to begin with.

Why go after Carlos?

• Nemesis was designed and programmed to kill all S.T.A.R.S. survivors. So why was he trying to kill Carlos (whether you’re playing him or he’s alongside Jill)?
  • Aside from the fact Carlos is shooting at him? It's mentioned in supplementary materials the Nemesis had two objectives: Kill all the S.T.A.R.S. members, and take out anyone who might be assisting them or who the S.T.A.R.S. might have given info that would damn the company. Nemesis gets his first look at Carlos while Jill's in the same room, so he judges that the two are working together. Notice that (depending on how you play) he can also take out Nicholai, who is explicitly under Umbrella's payroll, and he does so after he sees the latter having a lengthy conversation with Jill.
  • In addition, notice that there's times Nemesis will also kill any zombies in his path. Essentially, anything between him and Jill is a target, whether it's something physically standing between the two or someone else trying to help her bring it down. It's even mentioned in the novelisation that Nicholai is careful to try and make sure he doesn't wind up in Nemesis' path for that very reason. The time he dies later on (depending on your choices) is because at that moment, Nicholai was between Nemesis and Jill.

Just mercenaries?

• How exactly are the UBCS “just” mercenaries if, as their title states, they for Umbrella? And how does that compare them to the USS?
  • They're fighting for money, not for a state or nation. Under Webster's definition, that makes them mercenaries.
  • The UBCS are Umbrella's Red Shirts. They were expendable ex-cons and the like. They would promise money and freedom to their UBCS hired hands, and these soldiers with nothing to lose would follow. The USS on the other hand are Umbrella's private operations.

Consequences and Wheels of Justice

• Two things from Jill's opening narration:
• 1. ""They" had to suffer the consequences of "their" actions, but there would be no forgiveness." Was "they" Umbrella or the people of Raccoon City?
• 2. On the same note, in whose favour were the wheels of justice that Jill was referring to?