Today marks the launch of Resident Evil Village, also known as Resident Evil 8. The new first-person horror game is already well-known for going viral several times pre-launch, the most notable example being the ever-popular Lady Dimitrescu, the very tall vampire lady. Yet as players begin to dive into Resident Evil Village, a new concern is quickly becoming players' focus. That concern being the constant violence protagonist Ethan Winters' hands repeatedly go through.
Just to be clear, this meme is somewhat of a spoiler for both Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 8. Twitter is having a lot of fun talking about Ethan Winters' hands in both of the last main Resident Evil games, specifically because of the treatment his hands go through. "Can't y'all leave Ethan Winters' hand in peace," reads one message. "I quite like Ethan Winters, gotta hand it to him," reads another mocking post. A common post is simply "Ethan Winters' Hand:" with the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas meme with CJ saying, "Ah ****, here we go ahead."
The issue at hand refers to the frequent harm Ethan Winters experiences specifically via his hands. In the opening gameplay sequence of Resident Evil 7, for example, his hands are slashed repeatedly, stabbed with a knife, stabbed with a fork, and ultimately Ethan's left hand is lopped off with a chainsaw. Ethan didn't have it so bad, though. He did regrow the hand later. In Resident Evil 8, let's just say that Ethan's hands, both of them, end up going through some painful events all over again.
Needless to say, the visuals associated with Ethan Winters losing his hand in Resident Evil 7 and what then happens to him in Resident Evil 8 are striking, horrific, and stand out in peoples' memories. That's why so many people are finding common ground sharing memes about poor Ethan Winters' misfortune.
There's a good reason why these specific hand injuries keep happening to Ethan Winters, of course. It's not like Capcom isn't aware of what it's doing. It starts with what makes Resident Evil 7 and 8 unique in the franchise -- first-person mode. The players' biggest connection to Ethan Winters is his hands, which they'll see all game long. Violence toward Ethan's hands connects with the player in a unique and horrifying way, without doing so much harm that Ethan can't continue in the game.
Resident Evil Village obviously features many different methods of scaring the player – a full game's worth, even. It's both hilarious and apt that players key into this one specific way that Capcom's been able to communicate what the game is about to them.
Resident Evil Village is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.