As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Why does Alex need the vessel to be completely fearless if she is going to have to transfer her mind to it anyway?
- According to the "Notes on the Transfer Procedure" file, Alex's process requires the "vessel" to possess extraordinary mental strength, which Alex herself defines as the ability to face and conquer his or her fears. The T-Phobos virus is useful to her to determine who happens to be that strong.
- Yes, but the problem is: Alex's persona was to be transfered to said person, anyway. Her likes, her dislikes, her fears. Why is it so important to make the vessel go through it? If it is because of the T-Phobos, isn't it just a better plan to just take the healthiest person in the world, transfer her mind to it, and after the transfer is complete, inject the person with the T-Phobos?
- The transfer process takes six months. Presumably, the "mental strength" mentioned in Alex's notes is necessary in the host for the brain-jacking to be successful.
- Yeah. To go by "Little Miss," her would-be vessel needs to be mentally strong enough to not go crazy after the procedure when the transplant personality is trying to assimilate her. Also, you appear to be trying to apply a great deal of real-world logic and science to Mad Scientist Craziness and that's not going to work out too well for you.
- This interview https://archive.ph/jFFnS
Actually it all makes sense with the facts confirmed here. A shame the game didn’t implement this information better. Basically Alex had been dying for a while by the point of the game. She had already used Albert’s virus just to buy a bit more time. She was simply desperate and throwing stuff at walls to see what could stick.
- Why does Alex need to make her "perfect vessel" go through an island infested with deadly creatures? Keep in mind that her perfect vessel was Natalia. Now, what if her perfect vessel got killed by one of the monsters and all other vessels were not fit for what she was looking for? This would render all her plan for naught. Why didn't she just try basic scare tactics on the candidates? That's a lot less risky.
- She's a sadistic megalomaniac who regards the events on the island as "basic scare tactics." You don't just throw together the traps in the factory on a whim.
- She's also an egomaniac; presumably only a badass body would be worthy of her mind.
- She also went off the deep end when she came back to life and mutated. She went from wanting Natalia to be her perfect vessel into wanting her dead, since her existence meant the "failed copy" was coexisting with the "real" Alex. Another point to consider, Alex at the end of it all, was trapped in a horrifically mutated body that would always signify that she gave into fear despite all her bravado.
- Why does Alex look like Frankenstein's monster when Barry and Natalia first encounter her? When Albert Wesker's virus brought him back from the dead, the only visible change were his yellow, cat-like eyes. Alex also seems to have gone through extensive surgiccal and cybernetic alterations with those tubes and cables sticking out of her body, did she do this to herself?
- Alex didn't come back because of the "Wesker virus," since she never actually took it. She came back wrong because she felt a moment's doubt and fear upon killing herself, and the T-Phobos rebuilt her as a twisted mutant version of herself. I didn't notice any evidence of alterations, but there's really nobody on the island to do anything to her except herself.
- By "alterations", I meant the large tubes in her back, the stitches in her face, the cables dangling from her body and her spinal cord, which appears to be metallic when you fight her final boss form.
- She didn't mutate immediately after killing herself, it is explained in the file the virus kept her rotting corpse alive, so we could take that it took a lot of time for her to come back. And since her corpse was located in a self-destructing tower filled with explosions, it's possible her body was way too damaged already.
- This interview with Yasuhiro Anpo https://archive.ph/jFFnS actually explains a lot about Alex’s motivations and circumstances. She had actually injected herself with the same virus as Albert, but because she had been terminally ill for quite some time prior to the events of the game (that’s why she coughs) the virus didn’t give her any abilities, as her body was dying and it didn’t even cure the illness, just slowed it down significantly. All that explains why she was acting so irrationally during the game and went with the mind transfer instead of pursuing the quest for immortality like Spencer wanted. Alex was running out of time and was desperate to survive by any means. It also makes sense why she succumbed to the fear, she had been fearing death for a long time then.
- Why does Alex maintain her ability to reason after succumbing to the T-Phobos virus while other T-Phobos carriers are completely mindless? Did it have something to do with the preexisting viruses in her body?
- My guess: it's because she's a woman. One of the local's Apocalyptic Logs (I THINK the one on the crane early in Barry/Natalia's final chapter) says the virus affects men and women differently, something to the effect of "Men become berserk mutants, women suffer horrible pain and then die." Considering this is a Wesker we're talking about, it may well be that it's only Alex's raw willpower and hatred that's keeping her alive where any normal woman would've just keeled over by now. (Further, her being in constant "Oh-God-I-just-want-to-die!" levels of agony would help explain why she's sapient but not fully rational anymore either)
- Alex didn't come back because of the "Wesker virus," since she never actually took it. She came back wrong because she felt a moment's doubt and fear upon killing herself, and the T-Phobos rebuilt her as a twisted mutant version of herself. I didn't notice any evidence of alterations, but there's really nobody on the island to do anything to her except herself.
- Why do six whole months pass between Claire's escape from the island and Barry's arrival on it? What did he do in the meantime?
- He straight-up says to Moira it took him that long to figure out where the island was. "Fucking technology."
- Side note: there's a file you can find in the village at the start of Claire's Episode 2 that says the island is small and uncharted, despite its population and development. The helicopter Gabe fixes up belonged to an adventurer from the mainland who thought it would be fun to explore the place. It did not end well for him.
- He straight-up says to Moira it took him that long to figure out where the island was. "Fucking technology."
- Alex Wesker infected thousands of people with T-Phobos in order to find a "perfect, fearless vessel" for her body swap. Why then, did she infect herself (in her adult "Wesker child" body) with T-Phobos? Was this necessary for her experiment with Natalia somehow?
- She mentions in her presumed last conversation that she needs to overcome the biggest of fears to become a God: Death. She probably thought that if she managed to kill herself with her own virus, this would automatically mean she did overcome fear. Well, this comes back to bite her in the ass later.
- Natalia's condition confuses me. Already when Claire and Moira encounter her, her bracelet is solid red, which would mean the T-Phobos virus has activated within her. However, she displays no outward signs of mutation, and as I recall, neither does she indicate in any way that she can sense the monsters at that point. And if she is incapable of feeling fear as claimed, how could the virus activate in the first place? And if she is incapable of feeling fear, why is it that upon several occasions she appears completely terrified, such as when facing Alex at the end of Episode 3?
- Derivatives of the Progenitor virus, including the T-virus, have a chance of not affecting the person it's infected with. It's the reason why all the player characters don't turn despite being bitten by zombies. Natalia (and as later revealed, Moira) was immune to the T-Phobos virus. Also, Natalia's been dulled to fear as a result of living on the island and surviving the Terragrigia incident.
- I'm not sure about the bracelet but she encounters Claire and Moira before she gets Alex's mind implanted in her head. During "Little Miss" it is implied that it is Alex's presence in her head that lets her sense the monsters.
- Less of an HS more of a WTF thing for me, but family history reasons aside, why the hell would any sane person not want to carry a goddamn gun in a viral nightmare? especially the kid (strained relationship or not) of a S.T.A.R.S survivor, because basically that means Claire has to defend herself and Moira (I get that it's for gameplay reasons, but storywise it just doesn't stick with me).
- Side note: if that was me I'd have pistol whipped the stupid brat for putting us both in danger, i'd take childhood trauma over getting torn apart by T-Phobos mutants any day thank you.
- That's nice, Felicia.
- It's an irrational fear. Moira associates firearms with decades of familial strife and childhood trauma, plus she's already freaking out because she doesn't have even a fraction of the bioterror experience that the others do. Giving her a gun under those circumstances would actually be a net negative, because the best-case scenario is that she wouldn't be able to bring herself to fire it. Besides, even when she's only armed with a flashlight and a crowbar, she's still a more reliable companion than Steve was.
- And DEFINITELY a more reliable companion than Ashley. I'll take mouth and a crowbar over screaming and ineffectual flailing any day.
- Side note: if that was me I'd have pistol whipped the stupid brat for putting us both in danger, i'd take childhood trauma over getting torn apart by T-Phobos mutants any day thank you.
- As for the game's B.O.W., I'm fine with pretty much most of them... except the Vulcan Blubber. Growing to gigantic size because of the virus/Uroboros? Fine but... what about the "fire pot" thing they carry around and use to lob fiery stuff at you's supposed to mean? It looks more like a weapon than a mutation to me (kinda like the Iron Heads using hammers), but still I don't understand why they have it.
