My headcanons about Victor's backstory
Victor's backstory is completely unexplained in the game. It's no surprise that the fandom is forced to invent their own headcanons about his former life and how he got to his current state. And as long as we don't have a canon biography for Victor, any theory has a right to exist, but in my opinion, not all of them fit his character. So today, I’d like to share my vision and address two very common headcanons, namely:
Victor never actually knew Spencer.
Victor implanted the parasite into himself.
I completely disagree with these claims. And here is why.
The in-game files don't give a clear answer as to why Victor calls Spencer his "Master." It’s unknown whether Gideon worked directly under him, if Spencer was his mentor, etc. But the tone Victor uses when talking about him, and the specific word he uses—"Master"—must imply a personal connection. I mean, wouldn't it be incredibly weird to call someone your "Master" if you'd never even met them? It is far more likely that Spencer mentored Gideon and served as a role model for him. Otherwise, I don’t know how else to explain this fanatical devotion.
Given that Victor used to work with the T-virus at Umbrella, it’s easy to imagine that that’s exactly where he could have met his future mentor. But what if I told you his connection to Spencer might have been much closer? What if Victor didn’t just work at Umbrella, but was actually one of the researchers at ARK, working on memory transfer experiments?
In ARK, there’s a file written by a new employee who is thrilled to soon begin experimenting on orphans. The author isn't named, but the writing style and the breathless, reverent way they speak about Spencer clearly hint at Gideon. On top of that, you can find the exact same kind of notebook, filled with bookmarks, belonging to Victor in Rhodes Hill.
So from 1990 to 1998, he worked at ARK on preserving his master’s memories, which could also explain his attachment to Spencer. But then September 1998 happened, and Victor, sensing things were going south, managed to escape the city. However, this meant he had to abandon all the research he had worked on for so many years. The memory transfer experiment was never finished, meaning he now had to become the torchbearer of Spencer’s ideas himself.
As you know, practically the entire Umbrella staff was eventually killed off due to Spencer's paranoia. Yet, Victor survived the employee purges. It’s highly possible he’s the sole survivor of the entire ARK research team. What if that wasn't an accident? Victor might have seen this as a sign that Spencer chose him to carry on his work.
And the next headcanon flows naturally from the last one.
Could Victor have implanted the parasite into himself? For some reason, the fandom collectively decided he did. Probably because he radiates those mad scientist vibes, the type who experiments on their own body. I don't know.
In my previous post, I broke down in detail what the Nemesis parasite is and what its primary function is. The whole point of this thing is to mind-control the host. Why on earth would Victor voluntarily implant a parasite in himself that turns him into a compliant puppet for The Connections?
But maybe he did it for the strength and the upgrades the parasite granted his body? In that case, mind control is just the price to pay for evolution.
Well, let’s look at what these "upgrades" actually are. Due to the mutation, Victor acquired a massive list of health issues. Because of the T-virus, he is literally rotting alive, and his cracked skin looks incredibly painful. Let's not forget his ruined eyesight, destroyed joints, and sterility. The next step of evolution, clearly. Apparently, this is exactly what Spencer's "master race" is supposed to look like.
If Victor did this to upgrade his body, why doesn’t he use the advantages the parasite supposedly gives him? Strength and regeneration? Sure, Victor is highly efficient when dealing with unarmed people. Strangling a young girl? Easy. Tearing his own staff to pieces? No problem! But the second a slightly more serious threat like Leon S. Kennedy appears on the horizon, Victor immediately turns tail and runs. He's a Nemesis, an unstoppable killing machine with boosted regeneration – he should be engaging in combat without a second thought. Imagine Mr. X seeing Leon with a handgun, getting scared, and running away. It's absurd.
Victor isn't stupid, and he understands this perfectly. Any severe injury carries the risk of irreversible mutation. So, he isn’t going to take unnecessary risks. In his encounter with Leon, he wanted to avoid hand-to-hand combat, and during the motorcycle chase, he tried to stick strictly to ranged weapons.
He's a doctor first and foremost, not a fighter. In terms of physical strength, he's clearly inferior to a regular Tyrant, who doesn't have the parasite inside him. Even when Leon is sick, he easily kicks Victor off himself. It's hard to imagine something like that happening with a Tyrant, who would slam Leon into a wall with a single strike.
So what advantages does the Nemesis parasite actually offer? Boosted regeneration at the risk of losing your sanity and mutating into an amorphous blob? Highly questionable. Mind control? That’s a plus, but for the handlers, not the host. And other than that, the parasite doesn’t really do much. I don’t quite understand what kind of "evolutionary perfection" the fandom is talking about when describing Victor’s Nemesis.
Most likely, these perceptions were shaped by Wesker's line in RE1 when he called the Tyrant the "ultimate lifeform." Meanwhile, the ultimate lifeform: has no dick, and all its weak spots are completely exposed.
So why would Victor need to implant a parasite in himself if it doesn't offer any positive effects? It's simple: he didn't. The Connections did it to him.
First, let's figure out how such a devoted Spencer fan ended up working for The Connections. For the very people who did everything in their power to bankrupt his beloved master's company. Shouldn't Gideon absolutely hate them?
After the Raccoon City Incident, he was called as a witness in the Umbrella trials, but the court couldn't track him down.
So, we have a gap of several years from 1998 to 2003. It's not clear what happened to Victor during this time, but the next time he surfaces in the story, it’s as the director of Rhodes Hill. And that immediately raises a question for me: where did an ordinary scientist get the money to acquire such a building? It’s obvious that The Connections appointed him to that position.
So my version of events goes like this:
For a few years, Gideon was hiding out from prosecution somewhere, until The Connections tracked him down and told him he was working for them now. The Connections were desperate to get their hands on Elpis, and Victor – as a former (and likely only surviving) ARK employee – was the perfect fit. He had experience working with clones and knew everything about blood factors, making him an incredibly valuable specialist.
Victor himself might have been glad to return to his research, but helping the very organization that bankrupted Umbrella and hijacked his master’s life's work? He would never submit to such humiliation. To which the people from The Connections would clarify that this wasn't an offer. He was going to work for them, and his consent was completely irrelevant. So, Victor is sent to get the Nemesis parasite implanted, after which he becomes far more cooperative and compliant. They hand over a building from the former Spencer Foundation for his use and set him up with everything he needs, just so he can make the key to Elpis for them.
He spends the next 22 years under Zeno's supervision, unsuccessfully trying to recreate Spencer’s key. He can't run away; he has to do exactly what he's told. Siphoning funding out of them for his meaningless clone experiments while actually spending some of that money on jewelry and snakeskin coats – that is about the only thing he can get away with. His own little rebellion against his captors.
The Connections treated Victor strictly as a tool to achieve their goals.
What I'm trying to say is that in this story, Victor is a victim of forced labor. This by no means excuses his crimes – he would have done the exact same experiments anyway, probably with great pleasure, if the hand of The Connections hadn't been looming over him.
His attitude toward The Connections shows in everything. Even down to how he keeps his lab coats. Here is a relic of his past at Umbrella – clean, pressed, kept under glass like a sacred artifact. And then, the polar opposite of his attitude toward his work at Rhodes Hill, which was forced upon him by The Connections: a completely tattered, stained lab coat.
So, as soon as he finds Grace, he easily discards Rhodes Hill and slaughters its entire staff. He doesn't need this place anymore.
All these years, he remained loyal only to Umbrella and Spencer’s ideas. Victor never considered himself part of The Connections. He draws a clear line between himself and them.
Yet he outwitted you all.
There is "me," and then there is "you."
He doesn’t give a damn that Zeno and The Connections no longer need him. He is finally free; he no longer has to dance to their tune.
In character analysis videos, people often claim that Victor is such a blind Spencer fanatic that it doesn't matter to him what Elpis actually is – he will accept any reality and follow his master’s vision. But in doing so, nobody looks at the situation from Victor's perspective. For him, Elpis is, first and foremost, a way to put an end to The Connections. At first, he thought it was a mind-control virus, and perhaps he pursued it not just because of his ideas on evolution, but also to regain control over his own life.
What? Elpis turned out to be an antiviral agent rather than a weapon? Even better! Now all virus-based weapons will become useless, meaning bioterrorists are in for a rough time. What an excellent way to screw over the people who have kept you on a leash all these years.
That is what the Nemesis parasite is for. Not for strength or regeneration, but for control. To keep Victor on a chain and force him to work for the benefit of the very people who were his master's enemies. And once he does his job, to dispose of him by sending him on a suicide mission.
But if even that wasn't enough for you, here is the final and most important argument for why Victor could not have infected himself. The NE-γ is listed in The Connections' product catalog. It is a biological weapon for sale. Here is how its description reads:
Code: CM-NE-γ-001 (Nemesis-γ)
Price: Negotiable
Product Specifications:
Based on the Umbrella Corporation's parasitic "NE-α," this mass-produced model focuses on cost reduction and performance enhancement.
Repeated improvements have resulted in a significant boost to physical ability and recovery, regardless of the host's durability.
This isn't an ad for a body-mod surgery like in Cyberpunk, where you can get an implant to make yourself stronger. Like: "Hey, come to us, we'll turn you into a new, perfect being." No, this sounds more like: "Hey, want a personal slave/bodyguard/mercenary? Price negotiable."
So I find it hard to imagine anyone voluntarily undergoing this procedure, whether for a load of cash or for free.
This is why my eye starts twitching every time I see posts claiming that Victor implanted the parasite into himself to become "perfect."
