valkyrie.

▌ private, independent + low-activity claire redfield of the resident evil series. based in canon and expanded on with headcanon and worldbuilding. heavy focus on code veronica and the original games not the remakes. loved by ty, 25+, he / him. 

►　carrd.　headcanon.　canon.　thread wishlist.　meta.

disclaimer : as usual, these are my efforts to translate the original script through extracting the in-game text assets. i don't speak or read japanese, so i'm relying on online translators and triple-checking - i have however included the jp text in case anyone who does wishes to take a crack at it - so this will not be 100% accurate, but still interesting! i don't want to make it confusing by colour coding or symbols, so text will be shown like so :

official english localisation original japanese text translated ( original japanese to english ) text

▌please do not use without credit - it took me time to do all this!

we get quite a few cutscenes in the palace but the first two have no dialogue - in general, it isn't until we have our cast of characters ( for the time being ) that we end up getting cutscenes with more dialogue in general. the first we get is saving steve, because claire has nothing to say about the video of two vaguely incestuous twins torturing an insect, which is wild but also, i get it, i wouldn't wanna know either.

Ahh! Help me! 助けてくれッ! Help me! Steve!? スティーブ!? Steve!? That was too close. But I found something, thanks to… you. Looks cool huh? …ひでぇめにあったぜ。でも、おかげでこいつを手に入れられぜ。どうだい　格好いいだろう …I got totally screwed over. But thanks to that, I managed to get my hands on this. What do you think? Pretty cool, huh? Oh I need those, give them to me. それ　必要なのよ、 こっちへ渡してちょうだい I need that—please hand it over to me. You've got to be kidding, I found it, and I’m keeping it. Fine, lets make a deal, I'll trade you for something fully automatic. じょうだんじゃねぇよ! 俺が手に入れたんだぜ! そうだな… どうしても欲しけりゃ、 代わりにもっとすげぇ武器をくれよ I'm not kidding! I got it! Right… If you really want it, give me an even more awesome weapon in return. See you around Claire, Adios! 待ってるぜ　クレアお姉様、 じゃあな I'll be waiting, Miss Claire. See ya. Hey Wait! Steve! 待ちなさい! スティーブ!! Wait! Steve!!

so, steve's last line to claire here is weird - it uses お姉 / onēsan to refer to claire which could be 'big / older sister' which is... odd. when i look it up, i get a lot of alternative meanings re: young lady / miss, but those aren't quite the kanji used ( お姉さん instead of お姉 ) so i'm not entirely sure how this is supposed to translate. well, i tried! outside of that, love alyson's delivery of give those to me, very mom.

steve leaves the room and vanishes, i guess he sped out of there and completely missed the real star of the show, who is waiting for claire as she enters the main hall.

Redfield, how dare you interfere with my operation. クレア・レッドフィールド! よくも　私の基地をめちゃくちゃにしてくれたな! Claire Redfield! How dare you wreck my base! What are you talking about?! いったい何のこと!? What on earth are you talking about!? You let yourself be captured so you could lead your people to this base. やつらを手引きするために、この基地に潜入したのだろう You infiltrated this base to guide them, didn't you? I have no idea what you're babbling about. 何を言っているのか、さっぱり分からないわ I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. You don't fool me! I am Alfred Ashford, commander of this base. とぼけてもムダだ! 私は　アルフレッド・アシュフォード、この基地の司令官である There's no point in playing dumb! I am Alfred Ashford, commander of this base. Oh?! You must be one of Umbrella's lower level officers if you're commander of a back water base like this one! こんな所の司令官だなんて、あなたアンブレラの低級将校ね? You're the commander of a place like this? You must be some low-ranking officer in Umbrella, right?

i always found it interesting that alfred identifies claire immediately. i wouldn't expect him to know the name of every prisoner, and claire hasn't been on the island for very long at all - it does, however, suggest that alfred took an interest about her, probably because she's the only female prisoner ( which is either incredibly rare, or claire's the first ). not for any... inappropriate reason, but rather as someone he can "make" into alexia - subconsciously, of course. i do think the english works better here for the most part, despite the differences being incredibly minor - calling rockfort a base is technically more accurate than operation, but operation sounds better in the line.

one thing i think people gloss over is alfred's dialogue here : the location of rockfort seems to be secret to non-umbrella personnel, and maybe even to the majority of them! which makes sense, it's a nazi prison island where they're doing human experimentation, and also umbrella... well, i imagine most of them don't like alfred for various reasons, but more important, the ashfords aren't respected anymore ( thanks alexander! ) so rockfort is something that tends to get brushed aside, ignored and avoided. those they want to get rid of get sent there, but otherwise, it's not a well-known place. its reputation probably, despite what would be expected, does not precede it.

How dare you! The Ashford family is among the world's first and finest, my grandfather is one of the original founders of Umbrella Inc. Now tell me, why have you attacked this installation? 何と無礼な! 我がアシュフォード家は世界でも有数の名門貴族である。 そして　私の祖父はアンブレラ創立メンバーの一人なのだ。 まあいい。 なぜ基地を攻撃したのだ? How rude! The Ashford family is one of the most distinguished noble houses in the world. And my grandfather was one of the founding members of Umbrella. Never mind. Why did you attack the base? Attacked?! 攻撃? Attack? Shortly after you arrived, my base was attacked, you must have informed your people of its location. 貴様が来たと同時にここが攻撃された。 この場所は貴様が知らせたはずだ! The moment you arrived, this place came under attack. You must have tipped them off about this location! I still don't follow you, I really don't know anything about that. 言掛かりはよして。 そんなこと知らないわよ Stop making false accusations. I don't know anything about that. Unacceptable! How can you deny it, my base has been destroyed, and thanks to you the experimental t-Virus was released, creating countless zombies and monsters…. Tell me, who do you work for? Who sent you! Have it your way then, you're just a rat in a cage anyway. I'll be sure to keep you entertained before I dispose of you. 黙れ! とぼける気か!? 私の大切な基地を破壊し、 T-ウイルスをばらまきおって。 おかげで　そこら中、ゾンビや化け物だらけではないか!….言え! 誰に雇われた、 貴様は　どこのスパイだ!? いいだろう　好きにするがいい、 どうせ貴様は　カゴの鳥だ。 しばらくは楽しませてもらうとしよう Shut up! Are you trying to play dumb!? You destroyed my precious base and spread the T-virus all over the place. Thanks to you, the whole place is swarming with zombies and monsters!… Speak up! Who hired you? Who are you spying for!? Fine, do as you please. You're nothing but a caged bird anyway. I'll have some fun with you for a while.

alfred is putting his whole pussy into his speech, good for him, love it. translating claire's last line here, it also gave me the option of "stop picking on me" which is really funny, i hope that's the more accurate one actually. looking at alfred's lines though, i find the change of caged bird to rat in a cage interesting. whilst both get the same idea across, the implication is quite different : most people, when thinking of a caged bird, would subconsciously ( or maybe consciously ) view the bird as a precious, beautiful thing that deserves to be free and fly whereas a rat is often seen as vermin, filthy, frightening, a bringer of disease. i love rats, always wanted one, but generally society does not look kindly upon them. i think that difference is really interesting because both could work depending on how alfred sees claire - is she a pretty thing to be caged and looked at for his pleasure, or is she something horrible that crawled onto his island and brought disease and ruin? the latter is indirectly accurate, specifically in regards to the t-virus being leaked upon claire's arrival ( even though it had nothing to do with her at all ), but the former also calls upon the wing imagery claire is known for ( yes capcom, claire, not leon ) and particularly as this outfit of hers has wings on both the back and front. it's little differences like this in the original script and localisation that makes doing these so interesting!

after this, we don't get another cutscene with any dialogue ( outside of a single line from claire ) until the two meet again at the military training facility, which i'll discuss in the next post - there's quite a few cutscenes there which are dialogue heavy, so that'll be a long one!

disclaimer : as usual, these are my efforts to translate the original script through extracting the in-game text assets. i don't speak or read japanese, so i'm relying on online translators and triple-checking - i have however included the jp text in case anyone who does wishes to take a crack at it - so this will not be 100% accurate, but still interesting! i don't want to make it confusing by colour coding or symbols, so text will be shown like so :

official english localisation original japanese text translated ( original japanese to english ) text

▌please do not use without credit - it took me time to do all this!

so, since i did revelations 2, i figured i'd saitiate my own curiosity and do my favourite game of all time, code veronica, just because i know already that there's differences between the original version and the english version ( claire's line about alfred in particular ), so why not see what else there is? i don't have access to the text files or the script for this one, so i'm having to work from the subtitles in the original games. a forewarning that because this isn't just my fave re game, it's my fave game period, these posts will probably end up longer than they should be because i have a lot to say about cv. so, let's take a look at the intro!

The American mid-western town. “Raccoon City” has been completely decimated due to the T-virus outbreak that was instigated by the international corporation “Umbrella”. Claire Redfield, who arrived in Raccoon City to search for her lost brother Chris, and a rookie police officer, Leon S. Kennedy managed to escape from the city, but their ordeal was only a prelude of things to come… 3 months later… アメリカ中西部の小さな街 「ラクーンシティ」 国際企業アンブレラ製薬が 流出させたT-ウィルスによって 街は萠壊した 行方不明の兄を捜し ラクーンシティへ迷い込んだ クレア・レッドフィールドは 新任の警官レオン・S・ケネディと共に からくも街から脱出したが それで すべてが終わったわけではなかった… そして三ケ月後… Raccoon City, a small town in the American Midwest, was devastated by the T-virus released by the multinational corporation Umbrella Corporation. Claire Redfield, who had wandered into Raccoon City in search of her missing brother, narrowly escaped the city alongside rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy—but that wasn’t the end of it… And three months later…

not much difference here, as i'd expect - the phrasing of claire having "wandered" into raccoon city is funny though. i do think the lead-in of "and three months later..." framing the next cutscene as a continuation of this rather than a solid cut is a little better.

claire's opening has very little dialogue, spoken by an umbrella officer, the narrator, and then finally rodrigo :

UO: Your identification number is WKD4496. Welcome to your new home. 今日から貴様はナンバーWKD4496だ. 貴様は    ここで暮らすんだ. Starting today, you're Number WKD4496. You're going to live here. N: Her name is Claire Redfield. We caught her trespassing in our Paris lab facility ten days ago. She apparently infiltrated the complex looking for her lost brother, Chris Redfield, one of the surviving members of R.P.D.'s famous S.T.A.R.S. teams. 彼女の名はクレア・レッドフィールド. "十日前    アンブレラ製薬パリ研究所にて捕獲. 兄であるS.T.A.R.S.隊員のクリス・レッドフィールドを. 捜すために侵入したと思われます. Her name is Claire Redfield. Captured ten days ago at the Umbrella Pharmaceuticals Paris Research Facility. It is believed she broke in to search for her brother, S.T.A.R.S. member Chris Redfield. R: Don't move! 動くな！！ Don't move!!

whoever has the url for claire's number, please release it so i can have it thank you ( i love incorporating it into things )! again, there isn't much disparity between the two here. love that the localisation takes a moment to glaze chris up though. i do think welcome to your new home works a lot better, but as always, it could just be a translation error on my part. moving on, claire wakes in her prison cell, in the dark, to the sound of gunfire and explosions - hearing the shuffling, groaning noise of a man only to see it is rodrigo, wounded and bleeding, who opens up the cell for her.

Go on, get out of here, this place is finished. I don't know, it might have been a special forces team. But in any case, this prison has been taken over, the troops have been wiped out. 行け…どこへでも. ここはもうおしまいだ. どこの組織の特殊部隊か知らんが. 得体の知れない連中に襲われ刑務所は全滅した. Go... wherever you want. It's all over here. I don't know what special forces unit they belong to, but the prison has been wiped out by some unknown group. What are you saying? 何ですって？ What did you say? You're free to leave the complex, but you may as well know, you have no chance of getting off this island. お前の好きにするがいい. 島から出られる可能性はほとんどないがな. Do whatever you want. But there’s almost no chance you’ll ever get off this island. And what about you, what are you going to do? あなたはどうするの？ What are you going to do? Don't worry about me. 俺は ここに残る…… I'm staying here...

so... one of the things i'm worried about with the inevitable code veronica remake that will make me want to kill myself is that rodrigo will get the marvin / luis / tyrell treatment which... isn't really necessary. yes, it'd be nice if the only character of colour got some more screentime, but rodrigo isn't an ally. he isn't a good person like marvin ( luis... despite what fandom thinks isn't really a "good" person, he's not evil, but he's not good ) - he works on what is a thinly veiled concentration camp for umbrella, and though this may be his home which was colonized and corrupted by the ashfords / umbrella, he has become part of that system. it is, in a way, similar to marvin being a black cop - except marvin isn't overseeing executions, torture, and human experimentation. rodrigo only lets claire go because there's no point in doing his job now - and as he says here, he doesn't believe she'll get off the island, so it doesn't matter anyway. if claire dies outside, then he doesn't have to shoulder that guilt in his final moments. this isn't to say rodrigo isn't capable of being a good person, i'm sure he is! s.d perry's novel does a good job of humanizing him and giving him a little more personality and history, but we don't need another character of colour getting more screentime and attention only to be killed off. that is my major issue there : they have to die for the story to go as it does, because them surviving is too much of a change, so they end up being killed off anyway. as much as i like the changes with marvin, i do think ultimately it's a little pointless and doesn't really add much outside of something for remake-leon to brood to ( which was proven with re9 ). they did a better job with luis, but then fandom ruined that. we don't need to amplify every minor character into a starring role, sometimes they're just there to do their one thing and leave. i think if they want to give him more love, have his backstory and the history of the island be more present - and how it was colonized, abused and corrupted. we don't need him to be a good person - and i wouldn't say he's evil, either, unlike luis who chose to do what he did, rodrigo always struck me as someone who didn't have a choice but never attempted to leave either ( he does go to paris to get claire, after all, so it isn't as if he's locked to the island ). anyway, it's something i can speak on forever, but that's not what this post is about.

the differences between the two are negligible, and maybe that'll be the case with this entire localisation. i will say in japanese, rodrigo seems more dismissive and disinterested - again, he isn't doing it out of the kindness of his heart, in my opinion, though it ultimately is an act of good. the english in comparison seems a little more... fluffed up, the japanese is more direct.

exiting the prison cell, claire enters the cemetery where we get our big zombie moment. i've seen people complain about how silly claire's reaction is here because she's been through raccoon city, but they seem to forget encountering zombies is not a normal occurrence and there's no reason for claire to believe she would ever have another raccoon city situation ever again. also, the zombies in raccoon city did not crawl out of their graves! whilst there are a handful in re3, the t-virus generally does not resurrect the dead ( or didn't, but capcom forgot that ) - and are actually buried alive ( as they do not need to breathe / do not breathe ) and are not dead themselves despite suffering necrosis ( the brain never stops working! the heart and lungs do, but not the brain ) so the strain on rockfort, whilst still the t-virus, must have had some modification that caused this to occur. the dead zombies are all naked here ( in cutscene, anyway ) which is a whole separate topic, but it's a fun contrast compared to the prior games where the naked zombies tend to be in the ending lab section.

however, we don't get our next voiced cutscene until we run into my beloved son, steve, at the guardtower. steve is possibly the most hated resident evil character of all time ( with ashley in second, though the remake fixed that - to which i say you're all cowards, she was fine in the original ) and i dread the inevitable remake attempting to "fix" this by making him cool - hell, one of the biggest criticisms ( him staring at claires ass ) isn't in the original game, only in dsc ( in the original he's looking at her face ). the only change you need to steve is him trying to kiss claire in the helicopter, but honestly? yeah, it's shitty, but he's a teenager with a crush and who hasn't made one or two stupid moves as a teenager? i don't think it's malicious or serious, and the view on things like that weren't the same back then ( which isn't to say it's fine, obviously it's shitty to do, but i think people go overboard against steve with it, whereas say... if leon almost kissed ada whilst she was asleep / unconcious / "dead" the reaction from fans would be very different ). i love his shitty canadian accent, i love his tantrums, i love his dumb theatrics.

Waa! Wait wait! Don't Shoot! ちょ ちょっと待った！ 撃つな！ Wait a sec! Don't shoot! Who are you？ あなた誰！？ Who are you?! Huh? You're not a zombie. Oh Great. Wait right there. I'm coming over. Uh, sorry about that little misunderstanding, but I thought you were another one of those mon- なんだ？ ゾンビじゃないのか. そりゃいい！ちょっと待ってな 今そっちに行くから！悪いな また化け物が出たかとカン違いしちゃってさ. What's up? You're not a zombie? That's a relief! Hold on a sec—I'm on my way over there! Sorry about that—I totally mistook you for another monster. Shut up! Make one wrong move and I'll shoot! 動かないで！変な真似をすると撃つわよ. Don't move! If you try anything funny, I'll shoot. Relax, beautiful. I said I was sorry. I was a prisoner on this island, and I'm guessing you're not from Umbrella, either. そう怒るなよ あやまったじゃねぇか. 俺 スティーブ. この刑務所に捕まってたんだ. あんたもアンブレラってわけじゃないんだろう. Don't get so mad. I already apologized. I'm Steve. I was locked up in this prison. You're not with Umbrella, are you? No. I'm Claire - Claire Redfield. 違うわ 私はクレア. クレア・レッドフィールド. No, I'm Claire. Claire Redfield. Claire. Hmm nice. I'll remember that. Hey, I heard there's an airport around here. Once I find it, I can finally escape from this crazy island. Well, see ya. クレアね. いい名前だな. 覚えとくよ. そうだ 知ってるか？空港があるらしいぜ. そいつを見つけりゃ 所とも あさらばできるぜ. じゃあな. Claire, huh? That’s a nice name. I’ll remember it. Hey, did you know? Apparently there’s an airport there. If I can find it, I can finally get out of here. See ya. Hey, wait up! あ 待ちなさい！ Hey, wait a minute! I don't want you following me, lady. You'll only slow me down. だめだぜ ついて来ちゃ. 女は足手まといだからな. No way, don't come with me. Women just get in the way.

how can anyone hate steve, he's so silly. my dork son who i love. big fan of the well, see ya. crazy isn't the word i'd use to describe this island, but hey, whatever you say my man. i also love how often claire introduces herself with a claire, claire redfield like she's james bond. she really expects everyone to know who her brother is. what does surprise me is steve's lines here in japanese - in the english, he suffers from what i think is an accurate portrayal of being a teenage boy in 1998 which is, unfortunately, a little misogynistic - albeit in a relatively harmless / non-malicious way - which isn't different in the original, but more explicit. in english, steve's comment can be interpreted as either sexist - claire slowing him down because she's a woman - or that she will slow him down because anyone would, but in japanese it's explicitly because she's a woman. which is interesting to me. characters can have flaws, and as i said, steve's a teenage boy in the nineties, this isn't anything new or rare or shocking, and given that he's been stuck on a prison camp of entirely men for who knows how long, that probably hasn't helped.

we skip around a little, until we meet steve once again in the monitoring room where he has his infamous tantrum. i love it, i love claire's audible confusion in her response. people are soooo hard on steve and it's always driven me insane because he's a teenage boy, whose dad got his family kidnapped, his mother killed in front of him, and then has been stuck on a nazi prison island! give the guy a break!

Chris Redfield... クリス・レッドフィールド… Chris Redfield... What are you doing here? そこで何してるの？ What are you doing there? Chris Redfield… is he a relative of yours or something? クリス・レッドフィールドってあんたの親威かい？ Is Chris Redfield related to you? You mean my brother? 兄さんがどうかしたの！？ Is something wrong with my brother!? Ahh… you're siblings. Well, it seems your brother is under surveillance by Umbrella. ふぅん 兄妹なんだ. あんたの兄貴 アンブレラに監視されてるぜ Hmm, so you're siblings. Your brother's being watched by Umbrella.

so, i love that the first thing steve did upon finding a computer was look up claire ( and i guess claire hadn't been put into the umbrella database yet, so that's why chris comes up ).

What?! I got to connect Leon and tell him to let my brother know he's being monitored. It's a good thing I have access to an outside connection from here. 何ですって！？すぐにレオンに連絡して監視されてることを伝えてもらうわ. よかった 外部アクセスできる. What did you say!? I'll have Leon contact him right away and let him know he's being monitored. Good thing I can access it remotely. Well that file shows the latitude and longitude of this place. Ha! Why don't you send your brother the coordinates and ask him to come help. そこのファイルでこの基地の場所が分るぜ. ここの場所も教えて兄貴に助けに来てもらえば？ That file will tell you where this base is. Why don't you tell him where we are so he can come help us? Thanks! I'll do that! そうね そうするわ. Okay, I'll do that. Hey! I was just kidding! There's no way he could get here, even if he is your brother. じょうだんだよ. いくら兄貴でもここまで来るわけねぇだろ. I'm just kidding. Even if he is your big brother, there's no way he'd come all the way out here. Yes he can. I'm sure of it. 兄さんなら来てくれる絶対に！ If it's my brother, he has to come. No way! He won't come! You'll end up disappointed if you rely on others! Believe me! I know! ウソだ！来るもんか！身内なんかアテにしたってバカ見るだけだぜ！あんたは 何も分っちゃいねぇ！ Bullshit! Like he'd come! You'll just end up looking like a fool if you count on your own family! You don't understand a thing! What was that all about? 何なの 今の？ What was that all about?

i've always found claire's response here to be... strange. why does she email leon and not chris? if it's because umbrella is monitoring chris, it's not going to make any difference if she emails him - and by emailing leon she is turning umbrella's attention towards him instead, which isn't great, so what's the plan girl? similarly, i don't know when she had time to swap emails with leon or apparently send leon chris' email / phone number so that he can contact him. somehow, it works, so maybe i'm the weirdo. other than that, i love claire's genuine thanks i'll do that!

it's a shame we really never get more details on steve's backstory ( but that being said i don't want a remake to bog down the story / slow the pacing with unnecessary flashbacks and history ) - when steve speaks about his father later, it's a good opportunity to add a little more detail ( though this already exists, just in supplemental material ) because the way steve acts here is just a little off : he acts like he's been betrayed by his father intentionally, rather than being collateral damage of his father's choices - but personally, i don't have an issue with steve taking it personally ( he's a teenager ). i say all that, but the original japanese version actually fixes this problem already - by having steve say outright if you count on your own family. it fits the conversation a lot better, and it also immediately tells you what's up with steve.

i also just prefer steve's line here about the location of rockfort, maybe because i don't expect a teenage boy in the nineties to know the meaning of longitude or latitude, but maybe that was part of the american ( is steven even american? i've always said canadian because of the accent, but almost all the va's in this game are canadian so... ) education system - not that it's particularly niche or complex, but i never heard the terms mentioned back in my high school geography class! however, steve also apparently knows how to fly a plane, so maybe he's interested in that kind of thing and that's why he's more familiar with these terms.

so, with steve gone, we move further into rockfort and arrive at the appropriately named palace of the insane - at least, in the ost - which will be the next post!

this is preface for me talking about how darkside chronicles despite it's flaws ( particularly regarding game of oblivion ) did give claire a completely new design for re2 that barely has any resemblance to the original and yet is a far better "redesign" of claire's re2 outfit than what we were given in re2r. i assume this was the base for her re2r outfit ( jean shorts becoming jeans, the red vest becoming a red leather jacket ) but the difference between them is that darkside chronicles remains true to claire's style and the setting : both as something fitting for a biker and for it being the 90's. re2r on the other hand is far, far too modern in my opinion and just... boring! her vest may have changed in darkside chronicles, but it still had her iconic emblem on the back, whereas re2r made it incredibly subtle by having it be embossed in the leather and redesigned it entirely, to the point where it's barely noticeable and hardly iconic. the "classic" version that re2r offers is... lazy and sloppy. it looks bad. it's clearly intended to be a mixture of dsc and original re2, which is a nice idea and i like that it's her og pink, but it absolutely could be improved by just giving her the black underlayers it's supposed to have.

i like the dsc version even if it's very different, and you can see where they got inspiration from her code veronica outfit and how it influenced it, and her code veronica outfit for game of oblivion is great too - i do prefer the original with the cropped vest / shirt, but it's a minor difference ( boot cut jeans instead of straight leg / low rise instead of high waisted, a different belt, longer vest, lower ponytail ).

what does annoy me though regarding designs is that leon's re2 outfit has remained pretty consistent because it's iconic, but that isn't afforded to claire. we can see that in the concept art that leon had 12 passes of his design ( that we're shown ) whereas claire got 2 ( again, that we're shown ) and three of them are just the darkside chronicles outfits ( with a variation on sleeves / short colours ) and variations of her alternate "classic" costume. looking at this concept art it really pinpoints how much claire's final design doesn't resemble either of them - long jeans instead of shorts ( which are not the light-wash seen in dsc nor the vivid blue of cv ), black ankle boots instead of knee-high brown boots, no pink, the shade of red is far darker. it really feels like they just made a design for Modern Action Girl and then retrofitted it onto claire poorly, which is sad because one of the sketches shows her in shorts with a ( presumably ) leather jacket ( but it's cropped, it's got patches on it, it has a tab collar ) and a cropped tank top which... feels a lot more claire and in line with the style shown in the prior two designs. the fact that in the latter half of the game claire's outfit is almost indistinguishable from re3r jill's shows how weak and lazy it is ( tanktop over a white tanktop, silver necklace with a pendant, dark jeans, black boots ).

in contrast, darkside chronicles - a game that was on the wii! it's not even a real "remake"! - gave her 9 just for re2 ( one of which even had a long-sleeved red jacket,whether leather or denim, i can't tell, and black boots ) and a further 17 for code veronica. safe to say, i'm not looking forward to the inevitable remake's redesign of claire's cv outfit because it's my favourite one ( i'm hoping they at least use one of the unused dsc outfits, because one of these would be great because it's very much in line with the original - but it's probably too sexualised, which okay keep the vest zipped up or lower the shirt a little so it's not cropped so high - but i'd love if they kept it the same but just gave her the pink jeans of the og cv concept art ).

anyway, the post of this mostly is just to lament how boring re designs have become post-remake. when looking at claire's outfits ( both main designs and alternate costumes pre-remakes to post-remakes, the difference is very obvious :

claire's colour palette consists of magenta, light reds or magenta-toned reds, browns, whites, blacks, light to medium denims. alternate outfits are often leather ( or heavily feature leather ) "biker" styles or western styles.

post-remakes claire is... dark jeans, black boots, red leather jacket. boring. too similar. uninspired. free her from this fucking red leather jacket hell, please. i forgot to include her re2r alternate outfits but they all suck and don't really... fit claire at all.

obviously, claire is more than her clothes, but her clothes also serve to show her personality and style. i don't have an issue with her degeneration or rev2 outfits, they make sense for the story and show her maturing through her style! i do find it boring and lazy that the last three times capcom allowed her out the basement she's basically been in variations of her rev2 outfit but worse ( rev2 made sense, she was at a work event prior to being kidnapped )! it's a problem i have with everyone's designs nowadays - the villains still get interesting designs, elements, silhouettes, but the main characters aren't even really allowed their signature colours anymore ( everyone's gotta wear black or dull, muted versions of their signature colour - except claire who is in red leather jacket hell ) or new characters are shoved into black / grey / white outfits and (usually ) jeans ( ethan, mia, grace ).

▌ ROCKFORT, SEIN AND FEAR.

i want to preface this by saying i like revelations 2, i have some issues with it ( poor localisation aside ) but i like it, it's fine, i prefer the first but it's not a game i dislike or find pointless. i do however think one of it's many issues is how it handles claire : people have had issue with how claire and natalia interact since it came out and whilst i both agree and understand it's supposed to show claire is stressed / not herself, it instead comes off… weird. yes, claire is more than a mother figure, and i don’t mind moira ‘taking over’ and showing she’s good with kids because it’s a nice aspect to her that people wouldn’t expect… but it doesn’t go anywhere! it could have been used to tie into her guilt about polly! i think it is part of a larger issue which is that the story revolves around / is about moira and barry - which is fine, i like it and them, but in contrast to that claire doesn't really... do anything. she has no real arc, she has no real story, she is there simply to set up the pieces of the burton story. we don't really get to learn much about claire's relationship with the burtons outside of a few parallels between chris and barry and her interactions with moira are nice but fairly lackluster until moira sacrifices herself - to the point claire just thoughtlessly forgot moira's trauma around guns which doesn't make sense with how integrated she's supposed to be in that family. i wouldn't mind how claire acts with natalia so much if it was evident in her relationship with moira too - her trauma and stress making her overprotective and domineering ( and thus in moira's eyes, being like barry ) and it causing some tension between them because healthy, loving relationships aren't perfect!

moira overcomes her fear, but claire never... faces and fear or overcomes it, outside of the temporary 'fear for my life' when she jumps ( which isn't actually presented as fear / something to overcome ), which is they wanted to show how traumatised and fearless she is, fine, but then why have natalia? why have alex pick a child to inhabit rather than a grown woman ( with the bonus of being the sister of the man who killed her brother, that's easy revenge! )?

similarly, i've spoken many a time about the parallels between code veronica and revelations 2 ( here's a little gifset i made, but there's so much more ) and i genuinely think it is a complete missed opportunity not to - at least for claire's story arc - hone in on that so that she does overcome her fear, her grief, her regrets and comes out the stronger for it. so, i'm doing it. this isn't really being canon-divergent ( outside of a few specific, non-consequential things ) and isn't really a rewrite, per say ( which could be interesting if i had a moira ) but more an... expansion? for brevity's sake ( as if i can ever do such a thing ) here's a short tl;dr :

from the moment claire awakens in a prison cell, her confidence begins to wane, and she is visibly emotionally shaken upon realising she's on an island. it's rockfort all over again and this time, she knows she can't rely on chris to save to her.

claire does not kill pedro - whilst it is optional to do so ( as neil comes to rescue them ) it is optimal to do so for barry’s campaign, but i don’t think claire would ( again, reminding her of steve ).

neil’s actions are incredibly suspicious and claire notices that, even if she ignores her gut instinct - still, she puts up a larger fight about leaving gabe behind despite neil’s words. ultimately, they are forced to leave him behind regardless as they are being chased by afflicted and with dwindling ammo.

despite being incredibly stressed and traumatised, claire does not frighten natalia and barrage her with questions, instead acting as she did with sherry - albeit a little more terse due to her stress. most importantly, claire asks her name!

following on from that, when neil kidnaps natalia, claire does not just forget about her to focus on neil ( a grown man with experience in outbreaks ) and instead continues looking for her until moira pushes her forward : they are running out of time and as admirable and understandable as it is, claire is avoiding the issue at hand ( their infection, the overseer ) by focusing on natalia in an effort to 'save' her.

this added confidence in neil also explains why claire doesn’t question his bracelet not ever changing colour - she notices, but assumes prior ( and worse ) experiences like terragrigia have made this ( much smaller ) threat manageable for him.

despite this, alex’s extremely obvious foreshadowing does not go ignored - claire is not stupid. unwilling to believe neil would betray them? yes, but the evidence is stacking up and it is a conscious choice to hope for the best and assume it is a trick, rather than failing to pick up on how suspicious neil is.

moira's characterisation and dynamic with claire is much closer to that of the original japanse script rather than the english ( which has a whole load of issues ) : moira is not so snarky to or about claire and is a lot softer with her, understanding claire is going through it.

claire overcomes her fear inside the tower. it begins with the fight with neil - she overcomes her fears after defeating him and saving moira. it's less about neil himself, though she's wounded by the betrayal ( and her inability to see through his act ) and instead about the fact she is able to swallow her emotions and fight him - something she couldn't do with steve - because she has to protect moira.

claire overcomes her grief when moira pushes her out of the way and saves her life, sacrificing her own ( or so they think ). there are memories and echoes of steve with neil, but neil chose his fate and betrayed her, whereas moira parallels much more directly : sacrificing herself for claire. it has nothing to do with overcoming fear, as there's nothing that can be done about moira being crushed ( as, in this moment they are both under the impression moira cannot be saved ), but instead claire finally understands that she cannot control the actions of others. steve and moira ( again, as far as she knows in the moment ) died to protect her - she can't change that. in turn, she accepts it. it does not stop her grieving, but it is no longer an open, unaddressed wound in her, and finally she can begin to heal.

with both, she overcomes her guilt - it does not stop her feeling guilty about moira, obviously, as the wound is raw and new, but in understanding that she cannot save everyone ( and that people will make their own decisions and she cannot change that ) it is, for lack of a better term, the final straw and claire finally gives in and accepts that all she can do is try her best and that holding onto that grief, guilt and anger over things that cannot be changed isn't going to make anything better or easier. this acceptance allows her to go back to sein and much to her shock, save moira, something she could not ( or perhaps would not ) have done if she had condemned herself to another fifteen years of carrying that guilt around.

i've detailed claire's injuries post-fall and her recovery here, but when she returns to sein, she is still injured and in poor health - she does it because she refuses to let barry go alone. whilst she wants to believe moira is alive somehow - and believes alex to be dead - it is also, partly, to find the bodies of her co-workers and put them to rest / find information on the virus and, if possible, find and save natalia whom she tells barry about.

post-sein, the rockfort incident still is and will always be a wound for claire but instead of dragging her down, it becomes a driving force - it was what originally drove her to terrasave. it becomes a reason to fight again, rather than something to fear. it is still difficult for her to talk about, but she begins opening up about it.

rockfort ( and antartica - for ease we'll just refer to it as the rockfort incident ) is a wound that never healed for claire and it is one she has never really addressed because it is too painful. unlike raccoon, which she can and does talk about - both with loved ones, coworkers, and as part of her work - she has never really discussed the rockfort incident with anyone else and avoids the topic when / if it is brought up.

whilst raccoon city was obviously traumatic, she came out of it ( relatively speaking ) fairly well - she saved sherry and escaped with leon, she knew chris ( and the burtons / jill ) were alive, and she had a rough idea of where to go in order to find chris - along with information that could help stars and expose umbrella. rockfort on the other hand was her first real experience with failure regarding bioterror / outbreaks - she failed to save steve and suffered a devastating personal loss, she almost lost chris, she realised that umbrella's actions spread wider and further than she could ever anticipate and that in escaping with their lives, they only had their lives - no evidence, no justice.

whilst antarctica is the deeper part of the wound due to steve, the majority of her trauma revolves around rockfort island : not only due to the knowledge that if the hcf had not attacked she would have suffered a fate worse than death ( and does not realise it does not stop at the anatomist - if alfred got a hold of her, it would have been worse ) but because of everything she saw, read, and experienced. the extent of the cruelty on display at rockfort was far more than anything in the nest in raccoon, and whilst obviously the loss of life in raccoon city was catastrophic, she did not particularly get up-close-and-personal to the suffering there whereas in rockfort, she was forced to face the inhumanity of umbrella at it's worst. the knowledge that those people suffered, that they were tortured, many of them presumably innocent people like herself, steve, steve's father. it was not just a prison, but a concentration camp ( capcom may have changed the ashford background, but many, many aspects of it were left untouched in the scenery, assets, backstory etc ) and whilst obviously she knew about these kind of things, it wasn't as personal as it was on rockfort. it was physically, psychologically and emotionally traumatic for her.

this was the driving motive for her to drop out of college and, essentially, give up the life she had wanted and planned - knowing these people would never get justice unless someone fought for them, knowing people like steve would go unknown and forgotten, knowing the cruelty not only of umbrella but people like them and experiencing it first hand and wanting to make sure that not only was umbrella held accountable, but that something like this would never happen again. it is why she chose to join terrasave - a humanitarian org - rather than one than solely exists to fight bioterror like the bsaa, because it isn't just companies like umbrella, it's governments, it's militaries, it's people in positions of power.

there is already an existing character with a tie to the island - rodrigo. the katai shinsho gives a little more background on why he’s working for umbrella, but regardless, he’s the one native to rockfort, not steve.

steve’s mother was killed in front of him and he was kept alive and brought to rockfort to bait his father - who was on the run from umbrella - out so they could capture and imprison him. he was collateral damage. what exactly is the issue with his father if he was born on that island? there wouldn’t be one! how would he even be born there? rockfort doesn’t have any female prisoners ( claire appears to be the first, and a soecial case ) so…

disclaimer : as usual, these are my efforts to translate the original script through extracting the in-game text assets. i don't speak or read japanese, so i'm relying on online translators and triple-checking - i have however included the jp text in case anyone who does wishes to take a crack at it - so this will not be 100% accurate, but still interesting! the official eng localisation of rev2 invents and changes things for no discernable reason so this is part of my effort to see what was intended. there's a lot of text here, and i don't want to make it confusing by colour coding or symbols, so text will be shown like so :

official english localisation original japanese text translated ( original japanese to english ) text

▌please do not use without credit - it took me time to do all this!

skipping past the majority of barry's campaign ( i'd happily do a series of these for his but lets be honest, i'm aware no one is really reading these as is, aha ) to claire's return, it's a good moment! love her sniper outfit ( although claire's never been a sniper... ), love the short hair and in my world she kept it ( sorry you're boring capcom - the mangaka for heavenly island kept that continuity, why couldn't you? )! not sure why she has big orange goggles around her neck that she does not use, but it's always a personal win for me to see claire in pink again ( and it is pink! a lot of people think it's red, but no, it's roughly #af2640, so a vivid magenta-red ).

Oversee this, bitch. 待たせたわね Sorry to keep you waiting. Fuck yeah! サイコウだね！ That's awesome! Moira, I'm so sorry. You were in trouble, and I-- モイラ…ごめん… 私…あなたを… Moira... I'm sorry... I... I... And you came back with a chopper and a sniper rifle, and that's fucking awesome so shut up. 迎えに来てくれたじゃない それでチャラだよ You came to pick me up, didn't you? So we're even.

as we can see, a bit a difference tonally between the two versions. generally? the english is fine here. it works well, it's fun, it's a cheesy one liner claire gets but it works! moira's response here too works really well, big fan of the twenty year old so shut up. i do like claire's little stutter here in japanese though, it's sweet that she's struggling to find the words rather than moira cutting her off, and the we're even is also very good!

skipping ahead a little to the final fight, i'll ( obviously ) be focusing on claire's lines here, with barry, moira and natalia's input when it's relevant or particularly interesting.

God, just look at her. 哀れな姿ね オーバーシア…！ What a pitiful sight, Overseer…! Come at me, she-Wesker! 覚悟しろ アレックス！ Brace yourself, Alex!

so claire's line here - in japanese - is probably meant to be equally as insulting / disgusted as the english, but given the last ( and only, really ) scene between them face-to-face, the context of it changes a little. claire expressed sympathy for alex, and so whilst i'm sure there is some insult in this version, it can also be seen as somewhat sad - she does pity alex.

i've included barry's followup line here just because i find it interesting that he calls her by her name in japanese - i'm going to assume that's the same throughout all of his scenario ( as i haven't translated those ) but i think it's important, particularly given barry's history with albert : wesker, to him, is albert. also she-wesker sucks, i'm sorry, it's always been bad.

Barry! Bring her closer! I'll try to pick her off! バリー！! 狙撃するわ！そいつを 引きつけて！ Barry! I'll take the shot! Lure her out! I'm putting you and your goddam family in the ground! ウェスカーの呪いは ここで断ち切る！ We’ll put an end to Wesker’s curse right here!

barry's line here, in either version, is good! i think the japanese is just a little better, personally, but that's just me.

Claire! Where's the big gun? Break that shit out! クレア トドメだ！ あるんだろ！？ 取って置きが！ Claire, this is the final blow! You've got something up your sleeve, don't you!? I got it. ええ もちろんよ！ Sure, of course!

again, i prefer the japanese here - at least for barry - because you've got something up your sleeve, don't you? gives the implication that barry knows and trusts claire will have an ace up her sleeve, and he's right! something about claire's response of sure really gets me. it's so casual. of course she brought the resident evil boss fight rocket launcher, barry, this isn't her first rodeo.

Time to put an end to this. Hold on, you two. Things are gonna get bumpy. そろそろ 終わらせるわ…！二人とも！ 揺れるから気をつけて！ It's about time I finished this…! You two! Be careful—it’s swaying!

minor differences, as will be the theme with most of this final fight dialogue, but i do like claire taking responsibility in the japanese - obviously, it isn't just her doing the work, barry's doing half of it, but i like ( or interpret it as ) claire bearing that burden because she owes it to the burtons, whether she should or not : she failed to save moira, but she can save barry and, in some way, bring the salvation to alex that she so desperately wanted - not to live as this creature born of fear.

now, it's hard to find a video of the final fight that goes on long enough to hear all the dialogue and for once, i'm being lazy and not going through that entire scenario just to record the footage myself, so we're just going to look at the additional dialogue here. these next lines only exist in english, so i'm pretty sure they're unused, however :

I feel kinda bad for her. Pfft, speak for yourself. The Wesker bloodlines... this is the end of them.

now, i want to say this is claire > moira > barry in that order, but i'm not entirely sure. the last two could be all barry, the first two moira then claire, but given everything else in the game i think claire expressing some sympathy makes sense with what we've been shown of her dialogue towards alex - though, unfortunately, only in japanese. the last one makes much more sense coming from barry, particular with his previous line about the wesker family. it is, of course, not entirely accurate as the two aren't blood related - or even blood related to the original dr. wesker who started the project - but barry wouldn't know that, so i don't have an issue with it.

Claire! Hurry up and blow a hole in this bitch! クレア！ 援護は任せるぞ！このバケモノを ぶち抜いてくれ！ Claire! I'm counting on you for backup! Take this monster down! My pleasure. そいつは たくさんの命を奪った…！絶対に許さないわ！ That thing took so many lives…! I’ll never forgive it!

this one i definitely prefer in the original script - barry's never struck me as the kind of man to throw out 'bitch' all the time. other curse words? sure. i just don't feel it for this one, though. claire's line here is much better too, even if thing is a little dehumanizing ( and contradicts some of the sympathy claire shows for alex, but also it's totally understandable, so i'm not too bothered by it ). it's just nice that claire acknowledges the lives that were lost here because of alex's experiments, which is absent in the english.

Hope I'm not this clingy when I get old. やれやれ…しつこいヤツだ 女の恨みは 買うもんじゃないな. Oh, man... she's a persistent one. You really shouldn't make a woman hold a grudge against you. Ha! Me neither. そういうことよ だから モイラには優しくしてあげてね That's exactly it. So please be nice to Moira.

okay so... i love this one, aha. i'm assuming, given the context clues, this is barry followed by claire. it's great in japanese. in english it's a little flat due to claire's response, although i do like barry saying "when i get old" as if he isn't fifty-one in this game. good for him! you're only as old as you feel. claire's response here is actually witty, and honestly, kind of sweet in a silly way. you two are fighting a giant monster and claire still finds the time to go so hey can you be nice to moira she's been through a lot.

there's a lot of miscellanous "nice shot!" and "wow, you're amazing!" which i assume is natalia and moira in the helicopter, which is cute. love that. girls supporting girls. i think natalia, were she not... alex ( which unfortunately happens regardless, though to what extent we won't know until capcom addresses it, if they ever do ) would look up to moira, but moira's looking up to claire ( even though, as claire says in the ending, moira held her own! she doesn't need to look up to claire! ), so indirectly natalia is looking up to claire. love that. claire and her gaggle of girls who think she's the coolest woman alive. love that for her.

with that, alex gets her big death scene and we hit our first ending cutscene, with everyone getting in the helicopter and having the resident evil brand fly away into the sunrise scene. shoutout to the anonymous pilot who never gets any credit, i appreciate them.

Look, Moira, I know I should've let you have your space. なあ モイラ いろいろ うるさく言って悪かった. Hey, Moira, I'm sorry for nagging you so much. It's OK. I gave you plenty of reasons to worry. いいよ 心配かけるようなことしたんだから It's okay. I did something that made you worry, after all. You held your own out there, Moira. 独りで 立派に頑張ったじゃないの You did a great job all on your own, didn't you? Course she did. She's a fuckin' Burton! 立派になりすぎだ 次の ケンカじゃ叩きのめされるかもな. You've gotten way too good. I might get beaten to a pulp in the next fight. Anyway. Let's let these guys come in and clean up. …あとは あいつらに任せよう …I’ll leave the rest to them So, what are you gonna do now, Barry? バリー これからどうするの？ Barry, what are you going to do now? I'm gonna go back to being a father. …みんなで家に帰ろう …Let’s all go home.

there isn't much different here, just slight changes in phrasing, but the intention remains the same. i do prefer claire's line in japanese, but that's just entirely a personal preference because i think it sounds a little better. the she's a fuckin' burton line is fine, but admittedly ( and i'm sure a lot of times it comes off like 'english script bad japanese script good' but that's not always the case i promise! ) i do really like his little joke here about moira kicking his ass the next time they fight - both because it's realistic, they aren't going to have magically solved all their problems, and also because it's just very... endearing dad behaviour. now, i've always found claire's little what are you gonna do now? a weird shift in subject because.. the answer is go home, girl. go to a hospital. you are all severely fucked up. maybe ask about the future when you've had some sleep. it just feels out of place to me. regardless, i think his final lines in this scene are good in either version - the english is a lot more obvious, whereas the japanese leans towards implied : barry doesn't have to say he's going to be a father again, but we can tell that's what he means when he says all of them are going home.

with that, we have our final scene.

So he's in China now? All right. Yeah, well tell Piers to look after him. そうですか…兄も中国に… わかりました… ピアーズ君にも よろしく伝えてください I see... My brother is also in China... I understand... Please give my regards to Piers.

i've talked before about my issues with chris' campaign in re6 and related to that, this little connective tissue at the end of rev2 to the game because it just feels... odd. i get it isn't that deep, i get it, but you're telling me at this point chris has been missing for over six months, found with amnesia and brain damaged, but all claire has to say is 'well, look after him!'?? no, claire's life doesn't revolve around chris but... c'mon ( i have the same issue with chris being absent re: claire's kidnapping! ). it would be one thing if the timelines overlapped meaning these two things happened simultaneously ( which could be an excuse for why claire isn't in re6! ) but then, no, they don't. anyway...

i want to say she's talking to jill here, because it's clearly someone from the bsaa. it isn't barry, because she's en route to barry's house as she's making this call, and whilst it isn't impossible to be some random bsaa member, it just makes sense to be jill to me. i am a fan of how casual claire is about piers though, it implies some familiarity - which there is! we see that in the files! - but... again, i can't imagine her being so chill about piers if she knows what is up with chris. i don't think piers was intentionally shitty to chris, obviously not, and he does care about him but... it's a mess i won't get into here since it's irrelevant to claire, for the most part.

i do find it interesting that the japanese has her giving regards to piers specifically. obviously, they know one another, but the fact she doesn't give them to chris too feels a little like she's mad at him, honestly... which, valid.

with that, claire's scenario is done! i hope this has been enlightening to those of you who read it, and i hope it provided some context to the changes of the localisation team and how much was cut or changed - it might not seem like a lot on a wide scale, but the overall tone is much difference. albert and alex's relationship gets cut, claire's fear and sympathy for alex gets cut, her romantic relationship with neil is completely invented by the english team - i'm sure there's many differences in barry's campaign, maybe i'll get to those one day. hell, alex is the villain of the game, but the localisation and it's weird focus on a relationship they invented kind of drops the fact that for claire's scenario, neil is the villain, really - yes, alex is responsible, and yes, neil wouldn't be doing this without alex, but the betrayal is from neil, the boss fight is with neil, whereas alex gets a very brief confrontation and, surprisingly, sympathy - or understanding - and that falls a little flat in english. i just hope that if we get any claire content in the future, it's good ( i like rev2! ) and that it doesn't suffer the same weird choices with localisation.