Wesker to the forefront

[progenitor]

Hello, fellow REfans, I wanted to begin by focusing on the recent increase in popularity regarding our beloved antagonist; Albert Wesker . For years, fans of the Resident Evil series since it's debut in 1996 have known of this particularly stylish machiavellian, known for his clean-cut appearance, and his infamous sunglasses, which he even wears during the black of night (). However, since his transformation from Umbrella researcher, to S.T.A.R.S. Captain, finally to the Wesker who became the proverbial "man behind the curtain."

After being flushed out in games such as RE: Code Veronica X, RE: The Umbrella Chronicles, RE: the Darkside Chronicles, RE:4, and most famously, RE:5, we have seen a dynamic growth in the villain. Getting to know Wesker even more when Capcom released Wesker's notes, involving his relationship with his one true comrade in life, William Birkin, and the tragic story of one Lisa Trevor. Soon, the once researcher for Umbrella became his own boss, taking under his wing the enigmatic Ada Wong, & the militant Jack Krauser, Wesker eventually orchestrated the events of RE:4. In my opinion, the eventual demise of Albert Wesker was poorly miswritten, a plot device written to have an epic boss battle in the climax of RE:5. Nevertheless, even after death, Wesker has proven to be a favored character in the Resident Evil franchise; appearing as an unlockable character in Lost Planet 2, and as one of two main antagonists in the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.

These cameos, including his portrayal in the most recent Resident Evil film, Resident Evil: Afterlife (which i've heard he was the saving grace in, I haven't yet seen the movie, I plan to purchase it as soon as it comes to DVD), have all given Albert Wesker a newfound fanbase, more and more people being introduced to the character fans love to hate. Interestingly, after the story of The Wesker Plan was introduced in RE:5, explained by the embittered Lord Spencer, it soon became apparent that Wesker wasn't simply a diabolical villain created by Umbrella, he was part of a worldwide project orchestrated by Spencer himself, wanting to create a new and evolved homo superior species, with Wesker as the prototype. Suspiciously, The Wesker Plan itself could be comparable to the mythos of the Aryan race, that which Adolf Hitler dreamt as the new master race. One could even find comparisons between Lord Spencer & Adolf Hitler, when thinking of their eerily similar dreams of a new world, weeding out the weak and favoring the strong, a survival of the fittest view which Darwin himself would be proud of.

Albert Wesker, originally having blue eyes, genetically superior intelligence, and blonde hair, could all point to the fact that Wesker himself could be considered a neo-Aryan (also bear in mind that Jack Krauser was blonde, & when Wesker enslaved Jill Valentine, her hair was dyed blonde). Any thoughts or opinions on this matter are welcomed and encouraged.

Since the beginning to the end, Albert Wesker has become my personal favorite video game villain of all time. I'm pleased to see more and more people becoming interested in learning more about the villain, because up until his demise, he was very well-written and a staple antagonist of the Resident Evil series. For all other fans of the character, we can only hope that one day there will be complete .. global .. saturation.



- M.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." - Lovecraft

[Scream]

To me it's more similar to Nietzsche's Übermensch concept which heavily inspired the Nazi ideals. Hitler wanted to built his build his people up mentally, while Spencer just wants to destroy and create a new race.

[progenitor]

To me it's more similar to Nietzsche's Übermensch concept which heavily inspired the Nazi ideals. Hitler wanted to built his build his people up mentally, while Spencer just wants to destroy and create a new race.

That's a good point, I hadn't remembered Nietzsche's impact on the Nazi plan.

[TheSelfishGene]

For someone who studied biochemistry, Albert Wesker should have known that eugenics doesn't work.

What an idiot...

[progenitor]

Hey now guy, Wesker himself was a product of eugenics, the acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree.

[TheSelfishGene]

Don't call me guy buddy

I'm not going to go into much depth about what I think of Wesker, other than to say his return in CV/X is totally unnecessary, and in my opinion, is the point where the series really goes off the rails.

I will go on a bit more about the whole eugenics thing though. My understanding is that Spencer and Wesker-prime chose children to bestow all of lifes riches upon, and then give them a virus to make them super powered. Albert Wesker (and Alex too? , I haven't played the DLC) was one of the few that completed the programme as intended.

I don't know if Spencer wanted these people to populate his new world? I think he did, so I guess he could have promoted their breeding. But of course the problem with Spencer's plan is how to get rid of the other people in the world, so he could become the ruler of earth at the age of 90something with all sorts of super-humans who would never stage a coup d'etat...

So Wesker uses his biochemistry skills and cooks up the Uroborous virus from all the other viruses he's collected so far, as well as from some antibodies he got from Jill Valentine.

Sometime between the events of Resident Evil 4 and 5 he's decided that he doesn't just hate Chris Redfield, but the entire population of the planet aswell - and he wishes for complete global saturation of the Earth with the Uroborous virus. And his purpose of this is to weed out the weak. Seperate the wheat from the chaff I think is the analogy he uses in game. His plan falls down in that his definition of 'wheat' and 'chaff' isn't someone of a particular skin tone, hair colour, stature, gender, intelligence, political alignment or religion. No.

The selection depends on whether someone turns into a quivering black blob when infected with the Uroborous virus. Basically if they have a good immune system or not... Why does Wesker want people with good immune systems in his vision of a utopian Earth? I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. What does Wesker do when the globe has been saturated, and there's billions of black squibbling blobs trying to kill him? I haven't the slightest clue. How does he feel about the fact that he failed his own selection criteria? Much the same way Hitler did I suspect... What does any of this have to do with 'becoming a god'? I have no idea...

He was great in Resident Evil 1. He wasn't in RE2 and 3 (I don't care what anyone says ) He was unnecassary in RE:CV. In RE4 he was intriguing and even somewhat promising (now that we were stuck with him post CV). And in RE5 he was bat-shit crazy and totally inconsistent with anything he'd done in the past.
He's not the saving grace of RE:Afterlife (nothing could save that film).

[progenitor]

Well i'm not your buddy, friend!

Eventually, the reins of the franchise were passed on when Mikami parted ways, so the writing of Albert Wesker is definitely a dynamic change from Resident Evil 4 to Resident Evil 5. Difference being; Wesker was always, as I said before, the proverbial man behind the curtain. He was reanimated with augmentations due to the serum given to him by William Birkin, and faked his own death to stay hidden in the underworld. I think a big part of Wesker's miswriting in RE:5 was the fact that his prior collecting of viral samples was ignored. Obviously, Wesker went out of his way to get a sample of the G-Virus, the T-Veronica Virus, an attempt at getting the Las Plagas master viral strain. All of that was ignored, in favor of him simply using the Progenitor Virus, along with the dormant virus within Jill Valentine from Nemesis, to create his own "perfect" version of a virus.

There is a big reason why the dream of Lord Spencer has undertones of the Übermensch philosophy by Nietzsche. While his and Wesker's plan are far less complex, it's obvious that Wesker planned on experimenting with the Uroboros virus to find compatible hosts. As shown during the RE:5 cutscene when the man rises from the chair looking buff & whatnot, it's obvious that Wesker's plan was to find people that could bond with the Uroboros virus to become homo superior, almost similar to what he did to Jill. This is a quotation from Nietzsche involving the Übermensch (or "Overman") theory:

"I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? … All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood, and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is ape to man? A laughing stock or painful embarrassment. And man shall be that to overman: a laughingstock or painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape.... The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth.... Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman—a rope over an abyss … what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end."

Whenever Uroboros rejects it's host, that's when they turn into the tentacle-blob monstrosity. That's the thing, we never really see anyone that truly bonds with Uroboros, and Wesker's plan to infect everyone in the world is basically a plot device. Wesker never held contempt for the world--Wesker was basically a sociopath, so in that respect, he didn't really care who died. That's where Wesker is miswritten, he does hold a grudge against Chris Redfield for ruining his B.O.W. testing at the Spencer Estate, but not to the point where he'd knowingly infect himself with the aggressive viral strain of Uroboros, on top of his current condition as a homo superior, himself.

Wesker only died the way he did because the makers of RE:5 wanted an epic boss battle and a climactic end, and Wesker was made into a tool. Grossly miswritten, in my opinion. As for Afterlife, that's just what I heard from friends that saw it. No one really considers the movies "good," but i've heard that the actor portraying Wesker seemed to have fun doing the part. I don't mind the movies, as a fan of the Resident Evil series since the beginning, I agree that it shames compared to the games, but i've heard they're rebooting anyway, and at least it's mindless fun. I'm a sucker for zombie flicks, even George Romero, and his latest stuff blows hard. I do know the only reason i'm getting Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is to have Wesker as my team captain. I also unlocked Wesker in Lost Planet 2, and I gotta say, it's hilarious watching him in cutscenes in place of a hero.

[A-J]

the guy is f*ckind dead ...

[Scream]

Well, we didn't see his cells dissolve at a microscopic level yet, there is always a chance. Remember how in RE1 original he had his head cut off, he was even a zombie at one stage, surely he can survive some lava and rockets.

[nemesiswontdie]

the guy is f*ckind dead ...

NEVA! HE'LL NEVA DIE! WHAT CHOU TALKIN' BOUT AJ?

[Project Omega]

I bet Wesker's mitochondria will become self aware and then we'll have a new spin-off series: Parasite Evil.

[Scream]

Resident Eve-Il

[Wrathborne]

Well, we didn't see his cells dissolve at a microscopic level yet, there is always a chance. Remember how in RE1 original he had his head cut off, he was even a zombie at one stage, surely he can survive some lava and rockets.

He had his head cut off? When? I remember him being impaled by the Tyrant but that's it.

[TheSelfishGene]

Here's a conversation that Mr. Spencer (blue) and I (red) had on MSN (long time posters will remember him)

The Wesker Plan was a failure.
Considering that one of its key results was bested by Birkin, a mere unaltered human.
Birkin wasn't manipulated in any way, he was just a genius. Like I said, the Wesker Plan was an utter failure.
I mean, Wesker couldn't even keep up with Birkin.

In an evolutionary sense, Wesker didn't pass on his genes to any children

This so-called master race subject, struggling with an ordinary human.
I find it amusing.

so he's an evolutionary failure too. Birkin had a daughter

Yep, Birkin did.
Birkin single-handedly rendered the Wesker Plan a pointless waste of everyone's time.

Discuss

[nemesiswontdie]

[off-topic, but kind of a reply to Gene] I miss John. His random rants are funny.

[Scream]

He had his head cut off? When? I remember him being impaled by the Tyrant but that's it.

In one of the endings you can find him in the power room near the self-destruct console with his head cut off (by a chimera).

As for Wesker being a failure, let's remember he can pwn anyone in a fight. The only reason he dies in RE5 would be because it would be weird to end the game with a gameover screen.

[progenitor]

Here's a conversation that Mr. Spencer (blue) and I (red) had on MSN (long time posters will remember him)

The Wesker Plan was a failure.
Considering that one of its key results was bested by Birkin, a mere unaltered human.
Birkin wasn't manipulated in any way, he was just a genius. Like I said, the Wesker Plan was an utter failure.
I mean, Wesker couldn't even keep up with Birkin.

In an evolutionary sense, Wesker didn't pass on his genes to any children

This so-called master race subject, struggling with an ordinary human.
I find it amusing.

so he's an evolutionary failure too. Birkin had a daughter

Yep, Birkin did.
Birkin single-handedly rendered the Wesker Plan a pointless waste of everyone's time.

Discuss

The Wesker Plan was the complete opposite of a failed design. Lord Spencer's overall plan was a failure, mostly because of his own paranoia. The Wesker Plan was designed to create the prototype of a new and evolved master race that would be the harbinger of the overall dream of Spencer's, an evolved world where he would be renowned as the god of it's creation. Albert Wesker, as an experiment, was a complete success. Spencer gathered genetically gifted children at a young age and exposed them to the Progenitor Virus, and the one and only gifted child with the immune system strong enough to bond with that virus was Albert Wesker himself.

Bear in mind; the West African Ndipaya tribe used the base of the Progenitor Virus from the flower it came from, known to them as the "Stairway to the Sun," in a ritualistic event in which they exposed their warriors to the potent flower containing the Progenitor Virus. It killed many, and the ones that were able to survive and bond with the virus were championed as leaders of the tribe, who, according to the legend, would inherit great strength.

Albert Wesker was genetically gifted from birth, which is why as he came to manhood, he was incredibly intelligent and cunning, enough that he was given the job as Umbrella researcher right alongside William Birkin. Wesker simply found the job tedious, which is why he transferred to the armed forces. William Birkin was far from superior to Wesker, in fact, Birkin took credit for the creation of the T-Virus after they oversaw the assassination of one James Marcus. Don't get me wrong, William Birkin was my favorite character for quite a long time, but even before he created the G-Virus, he was incredibly jealous and embittered due to the fact that Alexia Ashford was the new focus of Umbrella as the child prodigy in biological engineering, it was only after the "death" of Alexia that William Birkin was able to focus back to his work and create the G-Virus.

Even so, the G-Virus was far from a stable success. It was unstable, and although it was more promising than the T-Virus, it's mutation obsessed over reproducing with other genetically compatible subjects. Where is the superiority in a virus that's only concern is committing genetic incest? Over all, Albert Wesker became more of a successful story than William Birkin, yet both suffered a similar fate in that they infected themselves with their own viral design and were destroyed thereafter. The only true success that William Birkin created was the virus that Wesker took in the first Resident Evil , after staging his "death" at the hands of the tyrant. That viral strain was successful in that it bonded with Wesker's anatomy in that it upgraded all physical attributes, increasing his metabolism, his speed, strength, durability, and healing.

William Birkin failed as a father, failed as a husband, and in the end, caused his own demise. As awesome a character as William Birkin is, i'd hardly say he was in any way superior in story to Albert Wesker.

[5 Minutes]

"He and I still have time to continue our little game of cat and mouse before the next move is played."