Resident Evil Village is fast approaching, and as its release draws closer, Capcom is steadily releasing more information on the characters and world. Fans have already received a bit more information on the tall vampiric Lady Dimitrescu than they expected, and more info is expected to appear in the coming months. Still, despite all that, there seems to be a marked lack of focus on the protagonist Ethan Winters.

Ethan is returning from Resident Evil 7, where he braved the infected Baker estate to save his wife Mia. While there is a non-canon ending where he chooses to save the more helpful Zoe instead, the DLC and Resident Evil Village make it clear that Ethan remained faithful. Ultimately, Ethan is meant to be a mostly blank slate for the player to project themselves onto; he possesses just enough will to have a plot-driving motive and just little enough that the player can feel like all of his decisions are theirs. However, that’s not the whole story, and with Ethan returning as the protagonist for at least one more game, now’s a good time to study what he’s all about.

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One thing that sets Ethan apart from the rest of Resident Evil’s extended cast is how relatively normal he is. Aside from his wife Mia secretly working for The Connections, a bioweapon-smuggling criminal organization, he’s had a regular life. This was meant to emulate 70s, 80s, and 90s horror movies, where the cast is primarily composed of normal young people who, by circumstance or by stupidity, make the classic horror mistake of wandering into a dangerous situation. Ethan does a bit of both, trying to figure out what happened to his wife who had been missing for three years, and then wandering into an obviously dangerous and inhabited estate (Ethan sees Jack Baker and a grotesque art installation before he even enters the guest house) without any backup or plan.

Unlike other mainline Resident Evil protagonists, like super cop-turned government agent Leon S. Kennedy or military prodigies Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, Ethan had never even picked up a weapon before RE7. He was actually working as a systems engineer, so theoretically, he wasn’t athletic enough to perform half of the feats he did. And going back out to fight monsters again in Village, this time in the middle of winter, can only mean he’s been provided with a very good reason to do so (likely by the dubious figure of Chris Redfield).

One more thing that firmly sets Ethan apart from the rest of the RE roster is how much concentrated horror he goes through in a short period of time. Ethan is a glutton for punishment, going through particularly intense moments like having his left hand cut off by a possessed Mia in the guest house, and potentially one of his feet briefly removed in the first Jack chase sequence. There are strong implications that he is gradually becoming infected by the mold that mutated the Bakers, and that is what’s allowing him to heal. It’s not entirely clear if he was ever fully cured, but Blue Umbrella probably made sure after they rescued him in 7’s ending.

Despite all of this, Ethan proved himself to be a fighter. When ammo is scarce and his foes seem unaffected, he’ll use whatever resources he has to keep fighting. His fights with Jack Baker involve using his environment to its full extent, and Ethan can even run Jack over multiple times in a car. Now that Ethan knows he’ll be encountering horrors in Resident Evil Village, he’s made a point of bringing an attache case for his inventory screen similar to Leon in RE4, just to make sure he can defend himself this time. It bears repeating that Ethan is still a normal man, so unless Chris ends up being helpful and supplies Ethan for his outing, Ethan knew he needed firepower this time.

With Resident Evil Village drawing near and danger fast approaching Ethan Winters, players won’t need to wait long to find out the latest developments on the most recent series protagonist. On top of Ethan’s own preparations, it seems that the denizens of the village he is travelling to have also heard of his exploits, so it remains to be seen how they will bounce off each other. Capcom brought Ethan back out of fondness for him, and it'll be interesting to see where he goes next.

Resident Evil Village will release May 7th, 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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