Chris Redfield RE8 Analysis
because im sick of people saying he became a villain in re8!!! i wrote a 1600 word analysis essay on why he acts the way he does and the fact he's always acted that way
Since Resident Evil: Village was released, the Resident Evil fandom has been extremely divided on the character of one Chris Redfield. A man who has been a prominent name within the series since its conception, and the fandom can't decide whether he's still the good person he once was, or if he's changed in Village. A die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain type situation.
I'm here to say that, although I may just be another nameless voice in the crowd of people spitting out their ideas and theories about Chris and his status as a person within Resident Evil Village, I'm under the firm belief (with evidence!) that he is still, and is always, a good person, and I believe that a lot of this discourse comes from the fact that he is not a main character in Village.
Throughout the games that we hear Chris mentioned or see him physically appear in, there are a select few where he is not a main character in some capacity. Those being Code Veronica, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and most notably Resident Evil 8. Although the previous ones are outliers as we are seeing Chris under the gaze of either his sister Claire Redfield or his partner on the field Jill Valentine, Resident Evil Village is special in the sense that you are playing as someone who didn't know Chris Redfield throughout his life.
In Resident Evil 8, Chris is seen as uncommunicative, rude, callous, and underestimating of the main character, Ethan Winters. It's lead to a lot of fans believing that he's "become the villain" so to speak, although I don't think that's the case.
Now, I'm not going to be one to woobify Chris, nor am I one to completely demonize him. I'm of the assumption and ideal that he has simply always been like this, and people didn't realize because in the majority of games that he appears in, you get to play as him and see what leads to certain points or his thought process regarding what he does. Even in games where he's simply mentioned, such as 2, 3, or Code Veronica, he's seen as uncommunicative; i.e., Claire not being told where he's going when he makes his way to Europe to track down Umbrella, which leads her to the Raccoon City Police Department with Leon.
To look into why this is the case, why Chris doesn't seem to believe in communicating with those around him, you have to look at what point in life he's in. It's well known within the Resident Evil community that Chris has a bit of a nasty track record with losing those he's close to, or his teams, in some way. It's even commented on by the main villain of Death Island, the most recent Resident Evil movie.
Chris Redfield, throughout his life, has gone through many betrayals and deaths or injury from those he cared about. In the original game, he's betrayed by his STARS leader Albert Wesker, which then leads to a long series of games up until RE5 of him tracking Wesker down and ultimately needing to kill him; this was someone of whom it's been implied him, and the rest of his team, had a close, almost familial bond with.
He has also had to see his sister be put in repeated danger, and in the case of Code Veronica actually ended up crossing paths with her because of his tracking down of Wesker. He has to worry about his sister on top of everything else he has to do throughout the games. His field partner, Jill, also "dies" in front of him in an attempt to take down Wesker, and he's left believing that she's dead for multiple years before encountering her again in the events of RE5.
In RE6 as well, he deals with losing his entire BSAA team to the ministrations of Carla Radames, a woman who was forced into being a clone of Ada Wong; leading to a hatred of her and a burning desire to get revenge, only enhanced by the amnesia he gained in the event and the presumed brain injury he got from it. A big factor of this hatred comes from one specific soldier, a 22-year-old on his first real field mission by the name of Finn Macauley. He becomes a large plot driving factor for Chris in RE6 simply due to the fact of his age and how much he looked up to Chris; it's easy to gleam that in a way, Chris feels responsible for his death.
Piers Nivans was his partner throughout the events of RE6, saving him from his amnesia and keeping him grounded when his anger threatened to drive him to dangerous points. His death was especially jarring for Chris, as he had gotten infected to save Chris from it and helped him through the underwater research facility, only to fake him out and throw him into the escape pod. He sent Chris off without him, and when a large monster chased after the pod and threatened Chris's life, he sent one final massive-scale attack to kill both himself and the monster. Chris is left with nothing but his bloody BSAA patch.
One could reasonably assume that, after that much death, one will become rather hardened and hesitant to pull those they care about into the line of danger, and I believe that's the point Chris is at during the events of RE8. He saves Ethan and Mia from Dulvey, he takes down Lucas and makes sure Joe and Zoe are rescued upon Ethan's request, and he puts Ethan and Mia into witness protection and watches them have and raise a little girl together. He's not going to want to put them in danger, and instead takes steps to teach (at least) Ethan firearms safety and military training to make sure they're not in any danger they can't feasibly get out of.
We can also assume from dialogue throughout the game that those two were close more personally with Chris, considering they call him by his first name — not Captain Redfield, not even just Redfield — Chris. In a situation such as that one, you just wouldn't call military personnel by their first name unless you knew them personally.
Knowing, up until this point, how much he truly cares about those he's close with, one can then make the assumption that him discovering Mother Miranda had replaced Mia — his main focus would be on seeing how he could make sure Ethan and Rose are safe, then how he could take care of Mother Miranda, then where he could possibly find Mia — and what he would do if he found her dead, what he would tell Ethan.
Yes, I do wholeheartedly believe that riddling fake-Mia with bullets in front of Ethan, kidnapping Rose, and knocking Ethan out with the butt of a gun was 100% awful decision-making on Chris's part, but I also believe it was later mentioned that they had to move quickly before Miranda made any moves to steal Rose. The main goal there, from the eyes of a seasoned and trained military personnel, would have been to eliminate the threat over prioritizing giving witnesses knowledge and culpability to understand what was going on.
We also have to consider that what little we do see of the HWS around the village before their first true reunion with Ethan was them attempting to track him, Rose, and Mia down while also trying to keep eyes on Miranda and how the other Lords were moving. Their first meeting since the crash was just before Moreau attacked them, and you can see Chris attempting to talk to Ethan before having to push him off to the side so he isn't taken down by Moreau.
Their one true meeting, one true conversation before the end, was in the underbelly of Heisenberg's factory. Chris is pensive, he's concerned, he was frightened at first believing that Ethan was just another Soldat that he would have to kill (as he had probably been doing to get to that spot in the first place) but we can see that as soon as Ethan finally gets it through his brain that yes, he did tear through the other three Lords and is capable of surviving amidst bioterrorism, Chris is quick to explain what happened, why he had to kill fake-Mia, and why he didn't involve Ethan.
For someone as seasoned as Chris, it's easy to forget that someone like Ethan is more than just a regular civvie — to Chris Redfield, Ethan Winters is simply another survivor, another statistic, someone he needs to protect. Someone he probably shouldn't have gotten too close to.
We can see glimpses of his true personality, how heartbroken he is, after Ethan sacrifices himself. Mia is accusatory, angry, grief-stricken — and we get to see Chris in the same state as well, even if only briefly. He slams his fist against the side of the helicopter, tearfully says that he tried. He tried to keep Ethan safe, he tried to get him to the helicopter, but much like Piers, Ethan knew he was dying. Ethan knew he was already dead. And he knew what had to be done.
Chris Redfield isn't a monster in the events of Village. He's not a monster throughout the Resident Evil series. He's simply someone who was put into the center of everything against his own will, forced to see everyone he loves get hurt because of his affiliations no matter his attempts to protect them. It's simply a perspective that we can't see from the perspective of someone who hasn't known him as long as characters like Jill, Claire, or even Leon, and those perspectives — along with Chris's own — are perspectives that people often forget exist throughout the events of Village.
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