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Ethan Winters vs. The World

Ethan Winters Deserves More Love

By Fai MainPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
2
Ethan Winters

THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR RESIDENT EVIL 7 AND 8!!

New hyperfixation say whaaaatttt! Resident Evil Village is the hot new horror game that everyone is talking about (and something that I've been playing nonstop lately). The hype all started a few months ago when the trailer revealed gorgeous designs of four of the monsters that were going to appear in the main game. The breathtaking, 9 foot tall Lady Dimitrescu and her gorgeous vampire daughters got new and old fans ready to start up their gaming consoles and play this already amazing game! As a big fan of RE, I was super excited for this game! It had so many aesthetics that just called out to me but I was a bit disappointed to see that our main protagonist was none other than Ethan Winters from the prior game.

I know, I know. A RE Village article should be focused on our exquisite vampire ladies. That's what the people want, right? But I want to focus on my boy, Ethan Winters. As I said before, I was a little disappointed to see Ethan as our main character again. Don't get me wrong, I really liked Ethan in Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, but I never grew very attached to him. He was just kind of... there to me. I didn't really believe he should have another game... After replaying Resident Evil 7 and finishing Resident Evil Village, I realized how very wrong I was about him. So very, very wrong.

Poor Ethan's hands before they're chopped off, eaten, or become disfigured

Ethan has now become one of my favorites! I never expected this to happen but he is in second place for the best Resident Evil protagonist. Of course, this is only my opinion and I would love to explain exactly why I'm giving this position to him on my list. So let's talk about why he is such a well-rounded character that deserves WAY more love than he gets.

Let's start off with his character in Resident Evil 7. Ethan was made to be a total normie compared to past protagonists such as Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, or Leon Kennedy. He isn't really anything special to us because he's just some random engineer trying to find his missing wife. Really nothing too crazy. He's not a member of S.T.A.R.S. He's not the type to drop into a foreign country looking for the president's daughter. Well, at least he's not the type at the beginning of Biohazard. Ethan is just like us. This is funny considering at the end of Resident Evil Village we learn that he is entirely the opposite. But that's kind of my entire case right there. He IS like us. Every bit of him. He’s some random guy who just wants to live his life. We were meant to relate to him and his emotions. He isn’t overpowered, he’s ordinary. And more importantly, we aren't some presence looking over the shoulder of our protagonist. We’re seeing in first-person point of view what Ethan is going through. We are Ethan Winters, but he is definitely not us, at least not physically.

Ethan, to put bluntly, is a bioweapon. If you don’t know what a bioweapon is, it’s literally every villain from every Resident Evil game. They were (usually) once human and they mutated into gross, most likely multi-eyed monsters. The Baker family were bioweapons, our dear friends Mr.X and Nemesis are bioweapons, Eveline was, and so on and so forth. He is not human. Not anymore. He is our first bioweapon protagonist in the entire series! Besides Sherry from Resident Evil 6 but I don’t think we like to talk about 6. But despite being just walking Ethan-shaped mold, he still had the most important thing, his humanity.

Evelin tells Ethan the truth

I think that’s what really puts Ethan near the top of my list. It isn’t about him trying to survive. Not really. It’s always someone else he’s trying to save. Whether it’s his wife, Mia, or his beautiful daughter, Rose, he will always go through literal hell just to protect them. It’s not him being on the side of humans or monsters because he will always be on their side. They’re all that matters. He loves them so much that he goes through losing his limbs multiple times, fighting terrifying mothers with bug coochies and freaky goo monsters. His love holds no bounds. Ethan would fight the entire world just to ensure his family's safety.

Ethan Winters isn’t really talked about as much as he should be. He is a devoted father and husband and deserves way more love. I’m so glad that the creators of Resident Evil Village decided to give his character more personality. He deserves more depth to his character. If you’re reading this without knowing what Resident Evil is, then I’m very surprised you’re still here. I’m sure you haven’t understood a single word I’ve said, but if you’re intrigued then I highly suggest you watch play-throughs or go play all the games yourself. They are very worth it! Now next, we’ll have to wait for Resident Evil 9 to continue the Winters’ story or hopefully soon a Resident Evil 4 remake will come out and we can get some of that sweet Leon Kennedy action! But until then, Ethan Winters deserve the attention. His story is not done, and there is so much more to it than meets the eye.

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horror
2

About the Creator

Fai Main

Follow me on my journey as I learn to love writing again.

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