Leon fic writers need 2 get braver alongside STARS fans and start forcing the characters to ask themselves about their position in corruption as cops and then have Claire and Ada kiss at the end
If there's one thing you have all the right to criticize Resident Evil for (among others) then that is how vague and mostly implied their character arcs and criticism actually are.
At no point Leon working for the government is used as an exemplification for how morally good people can end up working for corrupt systems against their will past the Classic Era of RE, while his alcoholism isn't that much presented as his way of coping with his position as much as it is simply a harmful habit he's given in order to deal better with stress and work. Also one of the RE6 Files literally reveals that he has even considered killing himself following the Raccoon City Outbreak, yet him suffering from suicidal ideation is never furtherly explored nor even implied past that point. Even his trauma or hero complex weren't that much better adressed even in Requiem, since most of the time his PTSD is presented as a personality trait on its own (especially in the Remakes/Newer Games) rather than something he has to outgrow or actively adress and fight. The most of character development he ever had so far was him letting Grace make the final choice of releasing Elpis - thus fully trusting someone else and surviving by letting himself be saved by them.
Jill's character can be used as a critique for how one could go from trusting authority to understanding that all structures (even those who are opposing the greater evil) can be corrupt and vile themselves, and that most of the time the people whom you believe to be the "bad guys" can be victims or just pawns of an entire system (AKA the mercenaries sent by Umbrella during the outbreak), yet her character gets instantly fridged and underdeveloped past RE5, where she has her autonomy and free will stolen by the main villain of the games (still pissed off that people are usually commenting about how cunty she looked in that game when she was literally drugged, mind-controlled and whitewashed). It's also pissing me off how she never gets the chance to actually face her trauma and get her revenge, and instead her PTSD is now instrumentalized and used as the reason why she can no longer be featured in the next games, as if the real reason isn't that the developers are just too afraid to feature a woman in her 50's who's actually looking her age instead of having the same character design she had at 24 recycled as the protagonist.
Chris' main character arc is centered around him losing his comrades and fallen soldiers (whom he perceived as either his brothers or even sons, especially in RE6), yet the way his tragedy and regret are depicted still rubs me in a wrong way, since most of the time you have minor characters or NPCs who receive little to no screentime getting instantly slaughtered in order to show how dangerous his missions actually are and how superhuman he is for surviving them, thus turning his PTSD into a running gag rather than something actually serious. It doesn't help the fact that most people are twisting his actions along with his hatred for Carla via projecting their misogynistic mindsets onto him and turn him into thus Sigma Alpha Male who's still hunting Leon in order to continue the Redfield Bloodline (can those jokes die already?). There's one thing I DO appreciate though, and that is the conversation on Capitalism he has with Sheva back in RE5, which becomes much more relevant when you realize that he, at the end of the day, was a boy failed by the system who remained an orphan at a young age and had to raise his younger sister on his own.
Claire Redfield got almost invisible past Revelations 2, and whenever she is featured in a game she is always given a maternal or caring role by default. Which isn't a bad thing, but when the pipeline gets repetitive and insistent it becomes a sexist trope, especially since her male partners do not have the same parental role imposed onto them. It's also depressing considering the fact that she went through hell and back in Raccoon City and could've lived a normal life after everything that happened, yet still decided to join TerraSave and fight bioterrorism (and exposing herself to many more dangers by default) for the love of the game.
Ada Wong is the only character out there who is fully aware of the fact that she's working for corrupt people instead of lying to herself (and accepts her role) and prioritizes her own survival and interests in a rotten system she's trapped in, yet the way she was written is just so deeply sexist and orientalistic to the point where whatever message her character is sending gets faded by the fact that she's always serving as a support character for a male protagonost, instead of being allowed to have her own independent arc or storyline from him.
People could "fix" a lot of these issues or explore these characters much more in their fanfics, yet instead they oftently flanderize them or use them purely for shipping/fanservice content.
Also yes, Claire was the one who deserved an asian baddie, not Leon.
titsay
dailybridgerton
annaxmalina
turnnoffyourmind
blakekathryn
izzy806
tangentwithtanner
origamiaround
snowghoul
