Resident Evil/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Games

  • Acceptable Targets: The evil megacorporation doing research into biological weaponry, and with contacts in the government, Umbrella. The government does drop the hammer on them rather magnificently though.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Ada Wong a badass and brilliant spy who uses her looks and wit to accomplish her goals? Or a complete bitch, who dresses like some cheap slut and betrays every single person who trusted her?
  • Base Breaker:
    • People are very divided on whether Ada is an Ensemble Darkhorse or The Scrappy. Capcom doesn't help with their inconsistent portrayals of her.
    • There are a lot of fans who want Steve back from the dead in a sequel. But a lot of fans also find his whiplashing moods, brashness, and oftentimes his voice rather obnoxious and annoying.
    • There is an extreme divide between fans of the earlier survival horror games (Resident Evil 0-Resident Evil 3 and Code: Veronica) and fans of the later action-oriented games (Resident Evil 4-Resident Evil 6 and Operation Raccoon City). Publicly announce that you prefer one and expect angry tirades from fans of the other.
  • Bizarro Episode: One of the stories in Wildstorm's anthology comic series based on the games had the S.T.A.R.S. team taking on a werewolf. Not a B.O.W. that resembled a werewolf, but an actual one.
  • Canon Discontinuity: The Game Boy Color RPG Resident Evil Gaiden, which had Barry Burton as the main character, was made by a completely different developer and is entirely ignored by the rest of the series (despite being written by the director of Resident Evil Code: Veronica).
  • Cliché Storm: The games proper manage to avoid it; the dialogue, on the other hand, can get pretty bad. Especially any game with Leon in it, whose every other line is some kind of cliché. For example, in Resident Evil 4, one of the most notable occurrences of this is him being a Deadpan Snarker when the situation calls for it.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Spencer plans on infecting people just to become God.
    • Wesker. He does seem to have had a genuine friendship with fellow Mad Scientist William Birkin in the Backstory, and is also implied to be somewhat disgusted with Umbrella's decision to have him feed his fellow S.T.A.R.S. members to the B.O.W.s after the Tyrant leak to gain battle data (and likewise was also implied to have a small soft spot for S.T.A.R.S.) but following Birkin's death and his own mutation by the T-virus, he definitely counts. Oh, and like Spencer above (though that's probably no surprise if you've seen enough of the story), he plans on infecting the world just to become God. Dude has entire characters seemingly crafted into existence just to show what kind of vermin he is.
    • Like Albert Wesker, Brian Irons is in fact working with Umbrella. When the T-virus infects Raccoon City, he decides that he's going to kill his fellow policemen. He also decides to make a trophy out of the mayor's daughter before the zombies find and devour him.
    • Alexia in The Darkside Chronicles, though not in the main series.
    • Osmund Saddler. Just look at Resident Evil 4's ending credits.
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: Many fans consider Chris too bland and generic compared to the other main characters of the series. One walkthrough writer of the original Resident Evil thought that the only good thing about playing as Chris was the high health that he had, showing that they clearly preferred to play as Jill Valentine due to her unlocking abilities and her additional inventory slots.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Rebecca Chambers, Billy Coen, Barry Burton, Krauser, HUNK, Nicholai, the "Pirate Merchant Guy", Ada Wong (to some), Josh Stone and Nemesis.
  • Ethnic Scrappy: Jim Chapman.
  • Evil Is Cool: So cool that Word of God states Albert Wesker is the most popular male character in the series because of it.
  • Evil Is Sexy:
  • Fanon: Fairly minute, but it's very common to add basketball skills to Rebecca's already impressive talent list. The Easter Egg photo of Rebecca in 2 implies that she does (or did) enjoy the sport in some capacity.
  • Foe Yay: Chris and Wesker. Tons of it, especially in Resident Evil 5.
  • Fountain of Memes: Wesker, Leon and Barry Burton.
  • Genius Bonus: The Black Tiger does exist as a form of Australian Wildlife, a snake. Its pattern is similar, and the spider's design is based on the Sydney funnelweb.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The reason behind the Nintendo exclusivity - Capcom wanting to have all of the core franchise playable on one console - on two counts. Firstly, Resident Evil 5 hasn't been released on a Nintendo console, and secondly despite their desire to have all of the core entries playable on the same console, Resident Evil Zero and the Resident Evil remake remain Nintendo exclusive, and are the only two core games that can't be played on a PS3, thanks to the launch models having Backwards Compatibility and the Resident Evil: Revival Edition featuring HD Remakes of Resident Evil 4 and Code: Veronica X.
    • In the Saturn version of the first Resident Evil's battle mode, the final zombie to face is a zombified Albert Wesker, implying that he was infected with the T-virus. Let's just say that while the battle mode itself was not canon, Wesker being infected with a virus certainly was, and it actually made Wesker even more dangerous than before.
    • Wesker might have been the basis for Master Miller's current look (assuming it isn't a coincidence) in Metal Gear Solid. In Resident Evil 6, Wesker is revealed to have a son. His name? Jake Muller, which is two vowels away from "Miller".
  • Internet Backdraft:
    • The debate as to whether or not Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5's new direction is a good thing rages to this day.
    • The live-action movies to fans of the game and vice-versa.
    • Criticizing the Tank Controls doesn't end well either.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks: Fan reaction to the Gamecube ports of Resident Evil 2, 3 and Resident Evil Code: Veronica fell under this, as they came after the Resident Evil remake and happened to be straight ports of the initial PlayStation and Dreamcast releases. It should be noted, however, that Capcom had already announced that those three games would not be receiving the same treatment and the releases would just be ports.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Leon seems to get all of the action. Of course, his canon lover is Ada, but he also can be found paired with Alfred, Angela, Ashley, Chris, Claire, Hunnigan, Jill, Kevin, Krauser, Luis, Steve, Manuela, Mendez, Mike the Helicopter Guy, Saddler, Salazar, Sherry, Wesker, a Licker, Ganados, an Iron Maiden/Regenerator, a Tyrant, and even in one slightly disturbing story, Mr. X.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Albert Wesker is responsible for most of the events of the Resident Evil universe and manages to win every single game (even when he appears to lose). He is, quite understandably, pissed when he realizes that all his schemes, his activities, his Social Darwinist beliefs -- in short, the entire pattern of his life -- were programmed into him from the beginning by Ozwell Spencer, an even bigger bastard.
    • Ada outsmarts everyone. Including Wesker.
  • Mary Sue: Rebecca, but only in S.D. Perry's novels, since Rebecca is clearly the author's favourite character, to the point of writing two original stories based on her, where Becky basically saves the world.
  • Memetic Badass:
    • According to the internet, HUNK could take on every zombie in the universe. And Wesker. And every protagonist. At once. And still win.
    • The fandom tends to overemphasize Claire's 'rawr girl power' factor, despite being the only major character (excluding Outbreak) that has had no formalized training.
    • It would be a sin not to mention Albert "Why Haven't I Died Yet until Resident Evil 5?" Wesker.
  • Memetic Mutation: Not surprising, considering the series is almost filled to the brim with Narm.
  • Memetic Outfit: In Resident Evil 2, a player could search Wesker's desk 50 times to find a picture of Rebecca in a basketball uniform. Some fans really, really like that outfit.
  • Narm: Has its own page.
  • Narm Charm:
    • One gets suspicious that Capcom has caught on that the voice acting was bad, and are now doing it on purpose. Dead Rising suggests that a couple of the more infamous lines were thrown in just because of how B-Movie horror flick terrible they sounded.
      • Barry Burton's lines in The Mercenaries: Reunion in Resident Evil 5 are his old narmful lines from the original campy Resident Evil 1, as well as having "HERE'S Barry!" (to address Resident Evil 1 Jill's question of his whereabouts) and a melee attack called Barry Sandwich.
    • The live action B horror intro to the original Resident Evil is sorely missed in this day of CGI.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Ashley is not well liked by any fans of the series period, due to her Damsel Scrappy status and complete helplessness in Resident Evil 4. It's little wonder she has not made any other appearances in the series.
    • Sheva's not generally liked by a good deal of the fandom, who see her as bland, uninteresting, serving only as Eye Candy with her many revealing alternate costumes, irritating when AI controlled in the main campaign, and generally annoying in the later chapters.
    • Steve, thanks to acting like a Jerkass and/or an idiot most of the time, and having a very annoying voice. The writers seem to have realised this, as The Darkside Chronicles made him act much less of a prick towards Claire, and gave him a better voice actor.
  • Undead Horse Trope: "Jill Sandwich". This is a joke that simply refuses to die.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Everyone thinks that Resident Evil 5 is racist just because it's got a white man gunning down black zombies in Africa, but that's just... wait. Why are the black zombies dressed in grass skirts and chucking spears at you? And why is Sheva's alternate outfit a Nubile Savage Fur Bikini covered in war paint?
    • And yet, no one raises an eyebrow at the very American Leon gunning down Europeans in Resident Evil 4 (however, this is possibly subverted in that at least one of the European characters in Resident Evil 4--Luis Sera--is a genuinely heroic character; unfortunately, he bites it about halfway through).
  • Values Dissonance: The use of green herbs as healing items. In Japan and other Eastern countries, this is a staple of traditional medicine. In America, the most common medicine associated with this is illegal in 37 states. Cue tons of weed jokes at the expense of the characters... and sometimes the developers.
  • The Woobie:
    • Stoic Woobie: Leon. Almost everyone he likes dies or betrays him. No wonder he's so mopey.
    • Rebecca.
    • Steve.
    • Sherry. Poor little girl, stray in a zombie-filled city with first insane, then dead parents.
  • Woolseyism: The series' Japanese name Biohazard was changed to Resident Evil when first localized in the United States because the Western localizers at the time could not copyright "Biohazard" as that was already done by an unrelated rock band. The name change is actually somewhat fitting in the initial game, as the game took place inside a residential area (specifically a mansion) with stuff that, until a certain point in the game, was initially believed to be supernaturally evil.

Movies

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: The Red Queen,: Homicidal AI on the fritz or brutal but effective AI trying to contain the T-Virus outbreak at all costs? You decide.
    • Cracked even points out that the Red Queen was the only character in the film actually trying to stop the virus from getting out, and should really be considered the hero of the first film.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: While the reception of how they are executed on screen will definitely vary post-release, this is guaranteed to happen at least once with each movie in terms of which characters or monsters will show up.
  • Cliché Storm: The films are one long-lost father away from hitting every major cliche in the book.
  • Critical Dissonance: Despite being presented as universally reviled and an affront to God himself by critics and fans of the original series, so far all of the movies have sold very well.
  • Critical Research Failure: Hair and nails don't keep growing after death. This wouldn't be so bad if one of the human characters said it, but a supercomputer making the same mistake is a different story.
  • Ethnic Scrappy: LJ, an obnoxious, offensive and stereotypical black guy. He drops the minstrel bullshit in the third movie thankfully, but he still pays the price for having been so annoying in the first place.
  • Idiot Plot: All of the films.
    • The mass-infection in The Hive could have been prevented if the laboratories had isolated air circulation systems.
    • The infection of Raccoon City, and by extension, the world, would have been prevented if the Red Queen AI had informed corporate headquarters that the lab was now crawling with zombies.
      • Considering that they sent in a team to shut her down, they probably wouldn't have listened anyway. One still wonders why they apparently didn't have any remote monitoring systems in place. There is no way the lab could be run without some sort of telecommunications to the outside world, even if only Umbrella HQ.
  • Mary Sue: Alice, who's sort of a combination between the God Mode Sue and the Black Hole Sue. With every new film, she has a major power boost, starting off as a Badass Normal in the first film, which is soon elevated to Badass Abnormal with the introduction of superhuman strength and speed at the end of the first film. She then gains telekinetic powers at the end of the second film, and then an army of clones at the end of the third film. It was one of the reasons Sienna Guillory refused to come back for the third film as she didn't like getting overshadowed by Alice (the one scene where she could've gotten a badass moment, the match flicking scene, was typically hijacked by Alice). She only appears in Afterlife because by that point its the end of the film when Alice has done all she has and she a (albeit mind controlled) bad guy by then. Time will tell how she'll fare in Retribution
    • Creator's Pet: Alice's status as this is furthered by the fact that Milla Jovovich is married to Paul W.S. Anderson, who directed two installments (with his third on the way) and produced the other two.
  • Money, Dear Boy: Milla Jovovich flat out admitted this was was why Afterlife was made.
  • Took the Bad Film Seriously: Sienna Guillory spent ages studying Jill Valentine's movements and mannerisms for her role in Resident Evil: Apocalypse and as such is one of the better things about it.
  • Video Game Movies Suck: Zig-zagged; they're disliked by critics and fans of the games, but they do well enough at the box office. Degeneration is somewhat of a subversion since it was produced by Capcom and, unlike the live action versions, is part of the game's continuity with the focus being on canon characters Claire and Leon.
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