Theory about who Ethan is.

[fraggyb]

So I can't take credit for this, I found the post while browsing a popular Taiwanise gardening forum.

I'll just quote the post here.

All signs point to Ethan Winters being "Ethan W. - Deceased" -- a Level 9 Umbrella scientist who was supposed to have been killed by Wesker during the Spencer purge, but who may have faked his death. This would explain both his lack of concern over B.O.W. monstrostities, and his fixation on Mia explaining her lies to him, rather than providing an explanation of what the crap is actually happening on this crazy plantation. It's why he says, "Took you long enough," when Umbrella shows up at the end.

It explains too why the Umbrella operatives talking on the radio seem to know exactly who Ethan is, and the risks he poses. Some think they're talking about Lucas, but if so, why not the same "shoot on sight" order as Eveline? We can infer, too, that Ethan's previous experience and/or exposure to B.O.W. research is the reason that he alone can resist Eveline's mental coercion. He's clearly infected by the E-series, yet neither he, "Redfield," or Mia seem concerned. Even Eveline seems to recognize this -- she instructed Mia to kill Ethan during their initial encounter in the guest house, and later even went so far as to imprison him in a molded near-death state, where his mind remained lucid and safe, talking to the Bakers. And while he and Eveline clearly shared a telepathic link, he was able to brush off her hallucinations and inject her with apparent ease. She has zero influence over him, despite her best efforts, and him being infected from early on.

http://i.imgur.com/iuVh8DW.jpg

Pretty interesting theory and it's something I'm going to keep in mind when I do my next playthrough.

[Brit-Spearman[toxic+5]]

Maybe his real name was Ethan Williams. Relative to Birkin Williams.

[fraggyb]

Publicado originalmente por SmartSyndrome:

Maybe his real name was Ethan Williams. Relative to Birkin Williams.

Or.....Wesker! But I doubt that part lol.

[Brit-Spearman[toxic+5]]

Wait.... it was Williams Birkin... LOL..... Birkin was his last name. Cus I was thinking Sherry Birkin...

[Laeviathan]

William Birkin...and Birkin is the family name, not Williams

[Stoibs]

Very Nice.
I had an inkling something was up by the fact that you never see his face either, never as Mia, no mirrors, and at the ending sequence during the flashbacks in the guesthouse when you see yourself; Ethan's face is still obscured and lacks detail.

Clearly there's still a story and a continuation to be told here (I mean, obviously just from the DLC for a start) that may become more apparent going forward.

[Clord]

Officially he seems to be just a normal guy that gets infected.

It's hard to tell why Ethan is so insanely calm even during the situations like getting his hand cut. Either that guy has some history or they wanted the players freak out instead.

Also he is insanely proficient with stuff he has just picked up like various guns and stuff like that. He somehow already knows the proper way to hold and reload the guns. Not to mention hsi knowledge of crafting by mixing stuff, etc. All of these might be just for gameplay reasons.

[peacesFGC twitch.tv]

i think people are reading into things too much. but we'll see. it's fun to speculate anyway. the simplest explaination is usually the right one.

[☆☆☆ GOLD ☆☆☆]

Publicado originalmente por fraggyb:

So I can't take credit for this, I found the post while browsing a popular Taiwanise gardening forum.


http://i.imgur.com/iuVh8DW.jpg

Pretty interesting theory and it's something I'm going to keep in mind when I do my next playthrough.

From which Level or chapter is this picture?

[☢Roody☢]

Publicado originalmente por Clord:

Officially he seems to be just a normal guy that gets infected.

It's hard to tell why Ethan is so insanely calm even during the situations like getting his hand cut. Either that guy has some history or they wanted the players freak out instead.

Also he is insanely proficient with stuff he has just picked up like various guns and stuff like that. He somehow already knows the proper way to hold and reload the guns. Not to mention hsi knowledge of crafting by mixing stuff, etc. All of these might be just for gameplay reasons.

I was getting the "oh ffs not again" vibe from him

[Papa Beerpool is back(ish)]

Best part is when umbrella shows up he says "what took you so long guys?".
Like he already knew who they are.
I think in a situation like that without knowing who a bunch of armed people the reaction would be like "who are you guys?"
Well guess we'll have to wait 4 years to know a bit more. Or even more years if they keep making garbage like umbrella corps

[SAUD X]

I think you are right . Resident Evil 7 has some hints to a few past REs .

[Godwings101]

This is a super interesting theory.

[♱ TURBO ♱]

Ethan is the real E subject.

There's a file in the endgame saying they had various imperfect subjects to the virus. A, B, C, etc. And then the perfect one was found at E series. We were induced to believe that the perfect one is Eveline. She is called E-001 in some documents and pictures. But if you stop for a minute and think, should you call Eveline a "perfect subject" ? A subject that is totally out of control, compromised the research and the operations of this new company and has no control of his actions, guided by some delusional desire to be in a family? To me, this is far, far from perfect.

But what about Ethan? He's infected since the beggining, even since before he reaches the house. He's not affected by Eve's hive mind and he seems to be conscious like a normal human. But, as you said in the first post, he acts like many of the things he's been passing through in the house are casual. He not even feels so much pain when Mia chops his hand, for instance. Which may point that he's been through this more than once, as Lucas in the dinner table when had this hand chopped off too. Ethan is the perfect host for this new virus, not Eveline. He is the Perfect E series subject.

Also, when you finish this game more than once and pay attention to some little things in the game, you find them very strange.

1- Just before the dinner scene, we can see Zoe attaching Ethan's hand back again and giving him the wrist watch. Same watch that Mia and his partner Alan are using in the ship flashback scene. Also, Umbrella seems to use these same wrist watches, because in the endgame, Chris communicates with Ethan through it. You may say "they're only smart watches. Everyone can buy one on the internet". Yeah, but if you were Evil Bio Terrorist Organizations, would you use normal watches, easy to hack and to intercept? Besides all of this, when she is giving the watch to Ethan, she says "don't die on us now. You have work to do". On a first glance, this "work" she's talking about seems to be only an expression, but what if it's literally work? And remember that Zoe is also the only one in the family unnafected by Eveline hive mind. The other one is Lucas. And Lucas is manipulating everyone, including Eve, and in contact with "The Connection" crew. So he is surely "working". Maybe Zoe too... How did she get one of those watches? Maybe it's Mia's. But why would she take it from Mia and give it to Ethan, if that's the case? It's equally strange.

2- Another curious details are in the very beginning, when Ethan is talking to someone at the phone while coming after Mia. His "friend" says: "did they found her?". Who are "they"? Umbrella? The Connection? Tentsu?

3- When Ethan finds Mia in that cell, he doesn't look like just found the love of his life again after 3 years missing. Mia too. Many people tought this was a narrative failure from Capcom, but what if this is on purpose? Mia and Ethan aren't real Wife and Husband. This is all part of the experiment. You can see even in the final moments of the game Eveline saying to Mia: "he doesn't really love you. But I can make he love you if you want".


I believe Umbrella is really a good company now, because Chris wouldn't be fooled by them that easy. And I believe Ethan is part of Tentsu and they somehow want him infiltrated in Umbrella and make Umbrella collapse once again and being taken as responsibles for the new possible outbreak in the future RE games. For me, Ethan will be like the new Wesker for the series. And remember Wesker even let the tyrant kill him in Resident Evil 1 for his "big picture" reasons. So, for me, is perfectly possible that Ethan could do somewhat the same for his own diabolic reasons.

[xVyKariousx]

Publicado originalmente por The Doom Slayer:

Ethan is the real E subject.

There's a file in the endgame saying they had various imperfect subjects to the virus. A, B, C, etc. And then the perfect one was found at E series. We were induced to believe that the perfect one is Eveline. She is called E-001 in some documents and pictures. But if you stop for a minute and think, should you call Eveline a "perfect subject" ? A subject that is totally out of control, compromised the research and the operations of this new company and has no control of his actions, guided by some delusional desire to be in a family? To me, this is far, far from perfect.

But what about Ethan? He's infected since the beggining, even since before he reaches the house. He's not affected by Eve's hive mind and he seems to be conscious like a normal human. But, as you said in the first post, he acts like many of the things he's been passing through in the house are casual. He not even feels so much pain when Mia chops his hand, for instance. Which may point that he's been through this more than once, as Lucas in the dinner table when had this hand chopped off too. Ethan is the perfect host for this new virus, not Eveline. He is the Perfect E series subject.

Also, when you finish this game more than once and pay attention to some little things in the game, you find them very strange.

1- Just before the dinner scene, we can see Zoe attaching Ethan's hand back again and giving him the wrist watch. Same watch that Mia and his partner Alan are using in the ship flashback scene. Also, Umbrella seems to use these same wrist watches, because in the endgame, Chris communicates with Ethan through it. You may say "they're only smart watches. Everyone can buy one on the internet". Yeah, but if you were Evil Bio Terrorist Organizations, would you use normal watches, easy to hack and to intercept? Besides all of this, when she is giving the watch to Ethan, she says "don't die on us now. You have work to do". On a first glance, this "work" she's talking about seems to be only an expression, but what if it's literally work? And remember that Zoe is also the only one in the family unnafected by Eveline hive mind. The other one is Lucas. And Lucas is manipulating everyone, including Eve, and in contact with "The Connection" crew. So he is surely "working". Maybe Zoe too... How did she get one of those watches? Maybe it's Mia's. But why would she take it from Mia and give it to Ethan, if that's the case? It's equally strange.

2- Another curious details are in the very beginning, when Ethan is talking to someone at the phone while coming after Mia. His "friend" says: "did they found her?". Who are "they"? Umbrella? The Connection? Tentsu?

3- When Ethan finds Mia in that cell, he doesn't look like just found the love of his life again after 3 years missing. Mia too. Many people tought this was a narrative failure from Capcom, but what if this is on purpose? Mia and Ethan aren't real Wife and Husband. This is all part of the experiment. You can see even in the final moments of the game Eveline saying to Mia: "he doesn't really love you. But I can make he love you if you want".


I believe Umbrella is really a good company now, because Chris wouldn't be fooled by them that easy. And I believe Ethan is part of Tentsu and they somehow want him infiltrated in Umbrella and make Umbrella collapse once again and being taken as responsibles for the new possible outbreak in the future RE games. For me, Ethan will be like the new Wesker for the series. And remember Wesker even let the tyrant kill him in Resident Evil 1 for his "big picture" reasons. So, for me, is perfectly possible that Ethan could do somewhat the same for his own diabolic reasons.

I like most of these theories. I think RE7 was setting up some sort of conspiracy for the upcoming games involving Ethan as a sort of agent working with Mia for the Connection. Their relationship doesn't appear very warm, especially after being reunited after so long under unusual circumstances. There's definitely more to it but we won't find out until after REmake 2 blows over, assuming they don't do a 3make as well.

[Sabin Stargem]

My totally unsubstantiated hypothesis: Ethan "Winters", is a false name. His true name is Ethan Wesker. Ethan is the closest thing to a human BOW that hasn't lost sanity, and being part of the Wesker line is what endowed him with that quality.

I assume that the false name is to prevent pro-BOW organizations from doing something to him. (The real reason: to give a plot twist for RE8)