The Resident Evil series is packed with memorable and over-the-top characters, and the modern Resident Evil Village are no exception - but there's one character introduced in Resident Evil 7 that was wasted in Resident Evil Village: Mia Winters. Despite being a major force for the story in RE7, with many impactful and emotional moments throughout, that strong foundation wasn't built upon in Village.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village.]
Following the lukewarm reception of Resident Evil 6, the best-selling Resident Evil 7 shook things up by changing to a first-person perspective and introducing a new player-character: Ethan Winters. At the start of Resident Evil 7, Ethan is trying to track down his missing wife Mia. His search leads him to the home of the Bakers, a once-ordinary family living in rural Louisiana, infected by the Mold and subsequently turned into deranged, cannibalistic murderers.
Mia's complicated relationship with the Bakers, her own mental dysfunction, and her mysterious past that unfolds over the course of Resident Evil 7 make her a compelling character with an interesting and emotional journey. While Mia and her enigmatic disappearance, along with her shifting allegiances, take center stage in Resident Evil 7, her role is noticeably pared down in Resident Evil Village, which is a missed opportunity for the game's story.
Mia Is Resident Evil 7's Best Character
Mia plays a major part in Resident Evil 7's strong opening sequence, as players were shocked to discover her unharmed, very early on in the game's campaign. It's immediately clear that something is wrong, however, as Mia almost appears to have taken on some form of Stockholm's Syndrome, referring to her captor as "Daddy", much to Ethan's bewilderment. Things go from bad to worse once players head upstairs from Mia's subterranean prison, as she suffers from a fit and turns into a violent, unhinged monster, cutting off one of Ethan's hands in a bloody showdown. This encounter culminates with the player ostensibly shooting Mia to death, leaving Ethan traumatized and confused.
However, it turns out that Mia is host to the Mold, which effectively makes her immortal with the inconvenient side effect of extreme neurological and psychological defects. After progressing a bit through the game as Resident Evil 7's faceless protagonist, players will once again encounter Mia, and once again will be surprised to find her alive and well. Ethan learns more about the Mold virus that ails his wife and embarks on a quest to find a cure.
Mia's experiences prior to the start of Resident Evil 7 slowly become more clear, with players even stepping into her shoes for a meaty portion of the game's story. Through playable flashbacks, it's revealed that Mia was actually sent away on a secret mission years before the events of the game, and she ended up bonding with Eveline, a perpetual child who has the power to infect humans with the Mold. She infects Mia to keep her under her control, which leads to Mia's involvement with the Bakers. Although the events of Resident Evil 7 are covered up after the game's close, the horror and emotional complexity of the experience sticks with Mia well into the game's sequel.
How Resident Evil Village Underused Mia
Although players can choose to cure Zoe Baker instead of Mia during Resident Evil 7, the canon ending of the game sees a cured Mia and Ethan reuniting and rebuilding their lives together. This reconciliation, for some reason, involves them moving to Europe, where the couple raise their newborn daughter Rosemary. Domestic bliss gets interrupted by a group of Blue Umbrella agents led by Chris Redfield, who promptly riddle Mia with bullets right in front of Ethan, who escapes the agents en route to another location and stumbles into the game's titular village.
It's eventually revealed that Mia is actually alive, but players will spend most of the game assuming she is dead. While Ethan is meant to be more mature in Resident Evil Village, his bland personality becomes more obvious, as he doesn't have the much more interesting Mia to play off of. Players shoot Mia to death inside Resident Evil 7's first hour, which starts the game off with an appropriately disturbing bang. From there, the mystery of Mia's past, her intentions, and her relationship with the Baker family all drive the game's narrative, so the fact that Ethan is something of a milquetoast, everyman character isn't so much of an issue.
In Resident Evil Village, however, Mia doesn't truly come into play at all until the very end of the game, and even then is used mostly as a way to dump exposition on the player. The negative effects of this choice by Capcom is felt in the meat of Resident Evil Village's flawed story, as the unique, harrowing tale of the couple's relationship during the horrors of Resident Evil 7 is replaced with a somewhat more cliché story with more predictable beats about a father searching for his missing daughter. For many players, this bait-and-switch will be even worse than actually killing Mia off, as it shows that this interesting character could have been in the game all along, but wasn't. Resident Evil Village ends up doing some interesting things with the Ethan-Mold virus twist, but it isn't enough to fix this missed opportunity with Mia.
Future Resident Evil Games Can Take Advantage of Mia
All is not lost, however, for fans of Mia Winters. Although her exact whereabouts are after Resident Evil Village's ending are unknown, it appears that she is alive and well. The epilogue of the game follows a teenage Rosemary, who could play a major part in the next game in the series, perhaps even as the protagonist. Assuming she is still on good with her mother, Mia could play a ing role in the sequel to Resident Evil Village, helping her daughter fight against the next big threat. Conversely, Mia could get sucked back into the conflict with the Mold or some new antagonistic force, playing another version of her role in Resident Evil 7.
Mia Winters is one of the more interesting characters introduced in this generation of Resident Evil games, as her physical mutations and oscillation between good and evil make for engaging and fun narrative conflict. While Resident Evil Village seems to have completed Ethan's story, there is still room for Mia to develop, reminding players why she was such a vital part of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
