As the primary antagonist of Resident Evil Village, Mother Miranda is something of an enigma. The mysterious woman who leads the rural European cult known as the Four Houses is not just a simple evil-doer driven by a desire for world domination. In fact, she is much more complex than the average Resident Evil villain.
It could take fans a second or third playthrough of Village to get the full picture of the game's events in the Resident Evil chronology. The game is a bit of a whirlwind on the first go-around, but upon closer analysis, Mother Miranda is more of a central figure than she likes to let on.
6 She Is Over 100 Years Old
Miranda is one of the oldest characters in the Resident Evil universe, having been born in the late 19th century in the Eastern European village where the game takes place. Considering the game's modern setting this would make her well over 100 years old. Thanks to the regenerative powers of the powerful "mold" substance, she has gained immortality and other deadly abilities from the mind-altering fungus.
5 She Discovered The Crucial Mold
Miranda is not only a critical character in Village, her discovery of the ancient fungal dubbed "the mold" led to the main events of Resident Evil 7. Miranda discovered the fungus after her daughter died from the Spanish Flu and she wandered into a nearby cave in anguish, leading her to stumble upon the strange black substance.
Driven by her eternal search to revive her deceased daughter, Miranda experimented with the "Black God" on the villagers and others to find a means of rejuvenation, although she herself was just as brainwashed by the malicious organism. Nevertheless, she worships the mold as a central part of her cult and considers herself a prophet for the mysterious material.
4 The Mold Allows Her To Shapeshift
Beyond the superhuman strength and immortal abilities bestowed on her by the mold, Miranda also has the ability to change her appearance and take on the figure of someone completely different. She is like a chameleon in this capacity, even able to fool the game's protagonist, Ethan Winters, when she impersonates his wife, Mia.
She also takes on the physical appearance of an old hag, a seemingly harmless crazy old woman, which allows her to move around unsuspected. Perhaps her scariest attribute is her uncanny capacity to blend into her surroundings.
3 She Is Exclusively Driven By Rejuvenating Her Daughter
Unlike many Resident Evil villains, Miranda is not consumed by a thirst for power or a delusion of making the world a better place via human mutation. Her motivations are much simpler in fact; she simply wants to revive her daughter from the dead and will never stop until she finds the perfect vessel.
Miranda views Rose, the daughter of the Winters, to be that perfect vessel and she goes the distance to abduct the child for her own misguided beliefs of bringing her daughter back to life.
2 She Mentored Oswell E. Spencer
Considered one of the central antagonists in the Resident Evil universe, Oswell E. Spencer is one of the horrific founders of the Umbrella Corporation, which should explain what kind of person he is. Motivated by greed and a warped vision of fixing the world, Spencer is the catalyst for most of the events in the series. Even the mansion in the first game is technically his and bears his name.
Miranda and Spencer crossed paths early on in his world domination career when he was rescued by her while on a hike. Fate has a strange way of working out and he learned much about organism mutation through her research in the village. Even after he left, Spencer still saw Miranda as an inspiration for his further experiments with the Umbrella Corporation.
1 That Means She Is One Of The Central Antagonists Of The Series
Miranda's association with the young Oswell E. Spencer and her early experiments with the mold and human mutation essentially laid the groundwork for every subsequent bioweapon, zombie outbreak, and biological disaster the world has seen in the Resident Evil universe. Up until Village, she was virtually unknown and her presence was severely understated, but given her longevity, dangerous intelligence, and superhuman powers, Miranda is arguably the most dangerous villain in the whole game series.
Regardless, her incentives are more personal than Oswell E. Spencer or Albert Wesker. She is an exciting new addition to the franchise's antagonists and it will be interesting to see how Resident Evil uses her character in future games.