Tear Jerker / Resident Evil Village

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Action-packed and horror-filled Resident Evil: Village may be, but there are moments that will have the tissues and/or handkerchiefs being brought out.

---

Game

• The menu theme itself is one. Most of the intro themes has a sense of terror to Took a Level in Badass to them, and while 7's menu theme is calming before you decided to take on unknown terrors, this game's menu theme reeks of tragedy. If you listen closely, the game fully knows a tragedy will happen at some point, and it does. Which happens to Ethan at the end of the game.
• The game opens thusly: armed men invading Ethan's home, killing his wife and kidnapping his daughter. Even more so when they're led by Chris Redfield of all people — a man that Ethan trusted and was now destroying the happy life he built with his family. Granted, that wasn't Mia (and Chris was actually trying to save him), but he couldn't know that at the time.
• The fate of the villagers, especially Elena and Leonardo, who leave quite an impression in their time with Ethan. As shown by Elena's distress, none of the villagers understand why Miranda has allowed them to fall victim to the Lycans. All of them have lost someone or something but their kindness shines through, with Luiza seemingly losing her husband but turning her house into a safehouse for all — even Ethan, who she doesn't know. Sadly, this kindness leads to tragedy when Leonardo transforms into a Lycan and massacres all, save Ethan and Elena.
  • Despite being her father, Elena saves Ethan's life by shooting him. It's obvious that they're a close family and this leaves Elena distressed. Even still, she remains hopeful. That is, until Leonardo, somehow still alive and on fire, stumbles toward her. Obviously in immense pain, he manages to call out Elena's name, which is enough for her to cross the crumbling floor to get to him. Elena decides to remain by Leonardo's side and die with him, telling Ethan to save his family before the two fall into the flames below, leaving Ethan distraught.
• While the level of sympathy deserved for them is up to the individual due to their actions, the Lords are surpassingly tragic characters in some regards. It doesn't justify their actions, of course, but it's not hard to feel some pity for them:
  • In addition to her looks and the many memes she spawned, Lady Dimitrescu is also shown to have sympathetic qualities of her own. She legitimately loves her daughters and does not take it well when Ethan manages to kill one of them, as you can see with her wails of pain and disbelief being heard from the other side of a wall when she finds out. It's a reminder that, villainous or not, she is still a parent who cares for her daughter — much like Ethan.
    Alcina: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DAUGHTER?!
  • The quote above is but one example of how Maggie Robertson's voice acting can convey terror, rage, and pure grief. It happens again in her boss battle, after she is pushed far beyond her Villainous Breakdown and just shrieks about how she wants Ethan to die a horrible death. One of her Boss Banter has her lambasting him for wanting to save his daughter but killing hers in the process. Another line from when she hunts you down is especially sad, and can be heard just after you've killed Daniela:
    Alcina: (in a somber tone) It was cold, wasn't it, Daniela?
    • Of the three daughters, Daniela—the red-haired one fought in the library—is the only one who can be regarded as sympathetic. While still dangerously evil and sadistic, she's also the youngest and most delusional of the three, with her insanity expressed through a naïve, almost childlike playfulness that honestly sounds genuine. Her flirtatious banter with Ethan gives off the sense that she genuinely loves her victims and is completely oblivious to the fact that they don't enjoy being tortured and killed (i.e., "Tell me what you want me to do to you,", "Everyone else was so happy!"). Also, unlike her sisters, she doesn't become more aggressive or lash out violently when faced with cold weather. Instead, she tries to run and hide, obviously terrified, sincerely asking: "Why are you doing this!?" or "Don't you love me!?" and even crying out: "It's so cold!" and "I don't want to die!" when defeated. It gives the impression of having to Mercy Kill a violent, mentally unstable person who just wants someone to play with and is tragically unaware of the danger they pose to others.
  • There's also how she reacts to Cassandra's death.
    Alcina: (in a disappointed tone) Cassandra, you pushed yourself too far.
  • It gets even worse once all three of her daughters are defeated, in which her rage and grief practically boils over in her voice.
    Alcina: Cassandra... Cassandra?... NO! How much blood and sweat do you think it took to raise those daughters!? You have incurred an impossible debt!
  • Lady Beneviento is an orphan with a severe mental illness, with Miranda's notes and her own actions implying that she is basically still a child in terms of mental development.
  • Moreau's entire existence, especially considering how severely crippled and pained - both physically and mentally - his own mutations, which he has little to no control over, have rendered him. He's also treated no better than waste disposal by everyone else in his circle, including the woman that put him into this sorry state in the first place, even though he worships her as a god. Unfortunately for him, journal entries later in the game show that his efforts have always been in vain. Miranda considers him the biggest failure out of all of her experiments and hates every second of having to deal with him, more than any of the other lords, so she made him live in squalor and isolated him from everyone else on purpose.
    • Moreau spends his entire boss fight trying to prove his worth to Mother Miranda one final time, hoping that killing Ethan will make her and the other Lords respect him. As he's dying, all he can do is cry out for Miranda to save him. Even Ethan seems reluctant to fight him (though he does drop one of his Bond One-Liners afterward).
  • Unlike Dimitrescu, Heisenberg was only a small child when he was experimented on. Before that he rarely left his family's factory, likely meaning he was under Miranda's control most of his life. Later, his Cadou experiments involved corpses instead of living victims like Dimitrescu or Moreau, and it's heavily implied that he's fearful that experimenting on living people would make him no better than Miranda.
    • Heisenberg's last words add to the tragedy of it all. He's in denial that he is about to die, having tried so hard to take his revenge on the woman who ruined his life. You can really hear the desperation in his voice.
    Heisenberg: No... NO!! This can't be the end for me! I... must... kill her!!...
• After defeating Lady Dimitrescu, Ethan obtains a mysterious flask. Upon taking it to The Duke in the village, he reveals the horrible truth behind it. Turns out the flask contains a head. The head of Ethan's daughter, Rosemary. Ethan just can't take the sheer impact of this revelation and briefly falls to his knees. Not only did he have his child snatched away from him, he failed to rescue her and had to discover she died a gruesome death. Even more so when there are three other flasks containing her other body parts. The tragedy is somewhat lessened by the fact that there is still hope to resurrect his daughter with the Mold — which happens at the end of the game. Still, this is a massive Moral Event Horizon for Miranda and the Lords, and something no parent should ever experience.
• The reason Chris didn't tell Ethan what was going on was because he knew Ethan would want to get involved. But, as one of Chris' soldiers told him, perhaps telling him would have been better instead of leaving him in the dark.
• Just before the assault on the village, Chris finds himself wearily reflecting on how long he's been trying to clean up this mess, and while he only specifically mentions the Baker family incident and the events of this game, you can tell from the tone in his voice that he probably means all the shit he's been through ever since that awful night in the Spencer Mansion. Chris has been fighting against the consequences of Umbrella's mistakes for almost two and a half decades now, and the poor guy is just tired of it. You really get the feeling that he's kept going by sheer inertia at this point.
• Miranda's backstory. Before becoming the insane monster we see at the end of the game, she was once a normal researcher who had a daughter named Eva. The Spanish flu outbreak, however, claimed Eva's life. In her despair, Miranda consigned herself to Dying Alone in a cave... until she found the Megamycete mold in that very cave. Researching its properties, she discovered that it could potentially be used to resurrect her daughter. And so began a century's worth of horrific experiments, manipulation of an entire village, and all of the tragedy that occurred in Resident Evil 7.
  • The reveal that Miranda was none other than Oswell E. Spencer's mentor and his inspiration to seeking out the Progenitor virus and founding the Umbrella Corporation, adds an even greater layer of tragedy to the entire series. All the death and destruction that has occurred throughout the series, the fate of the Trevor family, the destruction of Raccoon City, the BOW outbreaks following Umbrella's collapse, the Dulvey incident, all of it, originated from a grieving mother's desire to bring her daughter back to life.
• Ethan's Heroic Sacrifice, where he stays behind to detonate the bomb to destroy the Megamycete, along with whatever's left of Miranda and the village. After saving Rose and learning from Chris that Mia is alive, Ethan makes this difficult choice knowing he would never be with them for the rest of their lives, because he's been Dead All Along and his body is slowly deteriorating. He even apologizes to Mia and tells her that he loves her. After he entrusts Rose to Chris, he gives his jacket to them and takes the detonator. Then, he tearfully says goodbye to his baby daughter and walks towards the giant mold with the detonator in his hand. In the end, Ethan fights all odds to save his family at the cost of his life.
  Ethan: (tearfully) Goodbye, Rosemary...
  • Just moments before Ethan detonates the bomb, we take his perspective a final time to see him limp back over to the Megamycete. Once he gets there, his exhausted pants turn into terrified whimpers as he slowly preps the detonator, holding his breath as he pushes the trigger; a painful reminder that he's not a hardened soldier like Chris. He's just a father who wants to go back to his family.
  • History repeats itself when Chris has to watch yet another infected friend stay behind to sacrifice himself to save him and everyone else, just like what had happened to Piers Nivans in Resident Evil 6. The poor guy just can't catch a break, every time he goes on a mission, Jill, his sister, his soldiers and his friends either end up in danger or die in front of him, without him being able to save them. And he already suffered a trauma-induced depression that led him get drunk for six months after Finn and the rest of his squad died in Resident Evil 6. With all he's been through for twenty-three years, it's surprising that even now that he's forty-eight, he still didn't just give up and hung up his gun.
    • When finally telling Mia what happened to Ethan, his voice goes from a wavering shout as he punches the wall in frustration for his failure to rescue him to a bare whisper, as if he's Trying Not to Cry.
      Chris: He's gone! I tried... He stayed so we could all escape. I'm sorry...
  • Mia as well. Throughout the entire game, she never gets to see and say goodbye to Ethan because she's been kidnapped by Miranda only to be rescued by Chris towards the end. After Chris brings Rose to her, she's initially happy to see her baby girl until she asks Chris where Ethan is and demands him not to leave her husband behind because she knows Ethan would never abandon them. After seeing the village blown up, Mia realizes what has happened to Ethan with Chris apologizing to her that her husband sacrificed himself to let everyone escape. With that, Mia quietly mourns for Ethan while she cradles Rose with the jacket that he left for her.
  • We never get to see it as she isn't in the game, but Zoe is not going to be happy when she learns that the man that helped save her life is now dead.
• The Distant Finale, where a now teenage Rose leaves flowers on Ethan's grave, wishes him a happy birthday, and has a brief conversation with him. It's touching, but also sad. It shows how Rosemary still carries a sentiment for the father she never knew, and how his Heroic Sacrifice was not in vain. And just to make sure that Ethan's sacrifice is cemented in the mind of the audience — seeing as how "dead" and "gone" are not necessarily the same thing in this franchise — the ending concludes with a card that says, "The father's story is now done." Ethan's really not coming back.
  "Ethan Winters, a loving husband and father who put family above all else."

"Shadows of Rose" DLC

• Rose's life is a big mess. Because of her status as an intelligent humanoid B.O.W., she tends to sweat white slough from her body when nervous, which made her resented by her teachers (many of whom believed they could become infected by it, despite Chris's claims to the contrary). Even worse, she was bullied by her peers while under the guise of them "wanting to be friends", when in reality they just used it as further opportunities to torment her with cruel pranks before Rose could complain — and that wouldn't help either if the teachers were apathetic. Her situation worsened when unknown circumstances separated her from her mother, and over time the continuous mistreatment from almost everyone other than Chris and his Hound Wolf Squad led to her resenting who and what she was. So when Mother Miranda — disguised as K (Canine from the Hound Wolf Squad) — offered Rose an opportunity to get rid of her powers, she jumped at the mere mention.
• Michael asking Rose if she resented her father becomes this when he's revealed to be the remnants of Ethan's consciousness. For just a moment, he was afraid that his daughter hated him for not being there for her. Upon learning that she didn't hate him, yet knew little about him other than that he died to save her life, Ethan (still using his Michael moniker) showed Rose a recreation/memory of the house the Winters family lived in when Rose was only six months old, before the events of the main game. She gets to see her father's joy and excitement for his baby's "half year birthday", hearing his voice for the first time ever. It culminates with her finding a heartfelt letter Ethan had written her for her, promising to raise her and be there for her always. Quite a few people found themselves tearing up alongside Rose when she gets to the end of it.
• Eveline is still "alive" in the Realm of Consciousness; she was torturing Rose because, in Eveline's mind, Rose got everything Eveline wanted: A family, caring people who didn't treat Rose as a weapon and/or freak, and a (somewhat) normal human life. Eveline is understandably upset that she never got the love of a parent Rose did; Eveline's mother Miranda treated the former as an "intruder" even when both were inside the megamycete and still regards Eveline as a failure, meaning she's all alone. And to add insult to injury, even Ethan doesn't recognize Eveline's essence when she first cuts him off from interacting with Rose.
• Furthermore, Eveline's idea of love and caring is so screwed up that she misinterpreted the bullies who tormented Rose as a child as instead being her friends, complaining that despite having "so many friends, it wasn't enough." Ultimately, Eveline is still an angry and scared nine-year-old girl, and even if given an opportunity to become a better person, she cannot understand how to do that. Which is why when Rose tries to make peace with Eveline after defeating her, she just uses it as another opportunity to harm Rose, forcing Ethan's hand to appear and shed his Michael moniker, resulting in both Ethan and Rose disappearing while ensuring Eveline will remain trapped in the Realm of Consciousness with nobody who cares about her.
• Rose finally gets to meet Ethan — having pieced it together that he was Michael all along — and has a face-to-face talk with him (even if it's just a remnant of him in the megamycete). But once again, Ethan pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to help Rose so she can escape Mother Miranda's wrath, all so Rose can use the purifying crystal to remove her powers and leave the Realm of Consciousness to live a normal life. Instead, Rose decides to embrace her powers by smashing the crystal, doing so with Ethan's help via him empowering his daughter at the final moment the duo defeat Miranda.
• With her consciousness destroyed, Miranda is gone for good, having never been able to meet her original daughter Eva again after everything she went through. Meanwhile, Rose is able to have a final talk with her father, declaring how much she loves him and vice versa, with Ethan expressing his pride in his daughter and giving her his wedding ring as a memento. Ethan's consciousness will remain stuck there, but he's fine with it, as that means he can be with his daughter always thanks to the connection they'll share.
• Rose mentions that ever since Chris started raising her, she hadn't really seen Mia. After all Ethan did to keep Rose and Mia safe (and presumably together), he still partially failed, and CHRIS has had more influence in her life than her own mother. Add in we don't know how long Miranda was impersonating Mia and it's entirely likely that Mia has only seen Rose cumulatively for less than a YEAR. Maybe even a few months.
  • In addition, Chris and the Hound Wolf squad are, functionally, mercenaries on some level. Not at all who you want raising a kid. Rose is a good kid, but how much of that was luck versus them actually being a positive influence?
• While implied in the base game's ending with her being called to action, Rose's statement about Chris still fighting confirms that bioterrorism is still very much a thing even in the future of 2037, around 40 years after Raccoon City. As Chris once said back in 5: "Goddammit, when does it end?". The answer is a simple "No. It never ends." Humanity's future looks bleak.

---