#zeno

look at them they're so cute awww 🥺

AND WHO WAS GONNA TELL ME IT HAS MY GOAT IN IT

i think that zeno was raised in that very raccoon city orphanage. it comes straight from the rpd station/orphanage episode, from the way it's written. let me explain.

1) zeno is the one who shows grace the video about the girl - he is a storyteller here. if re9 were a book and didn't follow the "show, not tell" rule, the orphanage episode would be told from his perspective. he wasn't there on that exact day, but he knows damn well how life was there.

2) this is 95% of information we get from zeno in general. in all other scenes he stays mysterious and speaks only about elpis, so i have no doubt this part is important for the character's personality.

3) let's be clear, separated from this context chloe's story doesn't bring anything new to the plot. the girls were experimented on? thanks, we know it from emily already. they were clones? zeno said that before. a seemingly useless episode meanwhile we know almost nothing about zeno, who appears and gets wiped before revealing anything. let's just connect these two facts.

4) he tells grace that she's the original, the successful experiment, and expects her to feel happy about it. because this is what he always wanted to be as a clone.

5) "i was made?" "correct!" - his smile here. he thinks that it's a normal thing to discover, like he's telling her the truth that must put everything in its place. he doesn't know that for a usual person such origin is a fucking horror.

6) do i have to mention that only test-tube babies have gray hair in this game?

7) the photo which chloe can see in the laboratory: another visual storytelling. the (only?) boy in this picture is highlighted by a black shirt and placed on the edge. he was born around 1980, so now he's about 46. who else could it be?

8) there's a picture of the girls on zeno's end credits slide - not on victor's, though he had two of them in his "sanatorium" - meaning that zeno has even more to do with it. now tell me he hasn't.

-) all clones are girls, therefore, zenussy is canon

0) i also guess that this episode had to be placed not in the rpd station but in the orphanage itself; it could make more sense because

a. this is more convincing to grace

b. the entrance to ark is there, so they wouldn't need to fly a helicopter again as they did

c. why the fuck is there a modern!!! computer in the rpd station when there's no light in the entire city. are you telling me zeno brought both the computer and a generator there. is it his date idea.

d. why would rpd have these files? don't you think they belong to the orphanage or ark?

SO the reason why the scene was misplaced is that devs wanted a catch-up with the tyrant, and it has to be in the station, where else. uhhh.

tl;dr: zeno is indirectly telling us about himself through chloe's story.