6 Most Shocking Deaths In Resident Evil

The Resident Evil series is all about death. You are, after all, constantly fighting against undead zombie hordes. However, the team at Capcom is never afraid to kill off its characters, as long as they aren’t too integral to the main story. While we’ve only ever had a few of the core characters die canonically on-screen, there have been plenty of important and fan-favorite side characters who’ve kicked the bucket over the years.

Here are the six most shocking Resident Evil deaths. And while it probably goes without saying, expect heavy spoilers for the entire series.

6) Lisa Trevor – The Umbrella Chronicles

Lisa Trevor is one of the most tragic characters in Resident Evil. As a young girl, she was brought to the Spencer Mansion, which her father built. There, she and her mother were experimented on, killing her mom and turning Lisa into a monstrous creature who lived beneath the estate so researchers could continue experimenting on her.

She eventually escaped her confines during the events of Resident Evil Remake, but did not die, despite plummeting off a cliff at the end of her encounter. Instead, she survived that fall and went back into the mansion, where she confronted Albert Wesker, one of the people performing experiments on her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to gain the upper hand after a chandelier fell on her. Wesker walked out of the mansion, leaving her to die in the explosion.

5) Piers Nivans – Resident Evil 6

Look, Resident Evil 6 gets a ton of flak and deserves most of it. However, Piers is a beautiful, caring man who should’ve made it out of Chris’ campaign alive and well. Sadly, that wasn’t to be.

When Chris is close to death, Piers sacrifices himself. He cuts off his own arm and infects himself with the C-Virus. As the duo rushes to the escape pods, Chris tells his friend that everything will be okay, but we all know that isn’t true. In the end, Piers stays behind, knowing the virus will eventually take over. Chris gets away safely, but Piers dies in the blast to destroy the facility housing HAOS.

4) Robert Kendo – Resident Evil 2

Kendo’s story is moving in both the original and remake versions of Resident Evil 2. The remake shows him with a daughter who has been taken by the zombie virus. He knows he has to kill her, but after he pulls the trigger, we hear a second shot. It’s later confirmed that Kendo killed himself after losing his wife and daughter to the zombie outbreak.

That’s tragic, but the original version of Kendo’s death might be even more shocking because it comes out of nowhere. There’s a build-up to Kendo’s death in the remake. You know it’s coming, and also that there’s no way to stop it. In the original, zombies bust through the glass in Kendo’s shop, killing him instantly.

3) Luis Serra – Resident Evil 4

Like Kendo, Luis’ death happens differently depending on whether you’re playing the original Resident Evil 4 or its recent remake. In the original, you don’t get to know Luis quite as well, but when he gets speared by one of Osmund Saddler’s tentacles, it’s a legit jump scare. My man is run through and then lifted to the ceiling. It’s a terrible way to go.

In some ways, the remake version of Luis hits even harder. That’s because you get much more time with him leading up to the events, learning more about the fan-favorite character. Sure, being stabbed in the back by Jack Krauser isn’t quite as bombastic as getting impaled by Saddler’s tentacles, but you care more about Luis by this point, making the death even more shocking.

2) David Anderson – Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Anderson isn’t a major character in Resident Evil. Heck, the guy barely even appears before he’s savagely murdered. That said, it doesn’t get more shocking than what happens to this cop. He’s patrolling the bayou when he meets Ethan Winters, who tells him to leave immediately. Anderson tells Ethan to meet him in the garage and gives the protagonist a knife to defend himself.

It’s too bad they both made it to the garage. During that fateful encounter, Anderson refuses to listen to Ethan. As they argue, Anderson doesn’t notice Jack Baker appear behind him. He also doesn’t hear the hulking patriarch raise his shovel, and he definitely doesn’t see Baker use that shovel to split Anderson’s head in half. It’s gruesome and comes out of nowhere, easily earning a spot on this list.

1) Ethan Anderson – Resident Evil Village

This is a weird one because Ethan doesn’t technically die in Resident Evil Village. In fact, it’s not his actual death that’s so shocking. Instead, it’s the reveal that Ethan has literally been dead for the better part of two games that left players’ jaws on the ground.

See, during the final moments of Village, Ethan confronts the part of Eveline’s consciousness that lives inside his mind. There, we learn that Ethan was killed by Jack Baker in the opening of Resident Evil 7. He’s been infected by the Mold, which is keeping him “alive,” and is the reason he can regenerate. It’s a bonkers way to end Ethan’s story, and it really makes you wonder about the biological logistics of childbirth in Resident Evil’s universe, but we don’t need to get into that here.

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