[Games] Resident Evil. VILLAGE. Phenomenon of our tall crush.

 

Lady Dimitrescu

a.k.a Alcina Dimitrescu, the matriarch of the Dimitrescu clan from Eastern European country (which should be obvious judging by her last name). She resides and rules over the castle Dimitrescu she inherited and lives together with three women she mutated and calles them "daughters".

Although she has such energy that I can bet anything we all say - hi mom - when we see her.

Damn, I love her design so much out of all the characters that we've seen so far. Yes, I'm a huge sucker for more historical looks she has, she has this amazing domineering height and she looks like a woman, her body is not statuesque, but she's not fat either, it's just right. Her marvelous almost morbid paleness with a dust of gray, same as her gown. It's meticulous, yet has the decadent feeling, the dustiness gives you the feeling of dread. Yet not as strongly as her pale, almost transparent eyes. I also like how they chose red lipstick, as if her lips were forever stained by the blood of her victims.

It is evident that Resident Evil Village was heavily influenced by vampirism (or should I say the cliche we know about vampires) and the overall entourage supports this image: delapitated dungeons, traces of many victims being tortured, decadent furnishing and grandeur of the castle itself and the most evident is - obvious traces of human bodies being eaten and blood drunk. Aesthetic feeling of beauty and horror combined. Same goes for the villaness herself.

Pretty obvious references to me:

• Dracula. Whose origin is not only an Eastern European country (Transylvania, the historical region of current Romania), but also had three "daughters", same as Lady Dimitrescu. Three daughters, or just daughters of Dracula were used in cinematography not once. Just giving an example is Van Helsing movie with three vampire daughters.

• Erzsébet Báthory, the Hungarian noblewoman, mainly infamous as the most prolific serial killer. Was said to practice vapirism as she used the blood of her young servants to prolong her own life. Lady Dimitrescu is rumored to be behind a number of homicides that cover a period of approx. 70 years and all the killings happened in the castle.
• Not so obvious reference, but since the game developers are Japanese that's why I mention this manga. As for the elongated claws of Alcina I must say the only time I saw such a thing. Yes, I've seen it before. Was in Tsubasa, reservoir chronicles, creation by a CLAMP team about CLAMP characters' alternative universe where they travel to different worlds, in one of which they meet vampire twins and the way their fingers elongate to become a weapon is pretty similar, you can see for yourself:

Kamui (original character of X series, twin brother to Subaru in TRC)

Although the exact date of birth of Alcina is unknown, but at least her current dress style is a reminder of early 20th century. 1930's to be precise. Incorporating the simplicity of an everyday dress with the non-decorated fabric and the dare of evening gown with the open decolletage and an accent flower.

It is hard not to notice Alcina's uniqueness in the string of RE villains who combines the obvious charm and creepiness. Maybe that is the reason for the excitement that appeared among the RE players and not only, just her image made people who are not connected to RE see her and think - this lady got something about her. Or we are just having a silent crush on tall ladies. Personally, I've seen countless excited tweets about Lady Dimitrescu alone and it seemed that majorority of people can't wait to be killed by her in the game. She doesn't only get guys excited, but honestly she can bend anyone. At least I'm pretty bent for her :3 The uncovered joy reached the RE team as well, along with the developer who sent a heart-warming thank you to the fans and shared a fact people wondered about, that Lady Dimitrescu full height in the game is around 2,9 meters. That's our tall lady~.

But it also made me wonder, why everyone around, including myself, are simping so hard for our vampiric tall crush? Let's not refuse the obvious. No, not that obvious protruding part many want to be crushed in-between, but the fact that she is tall, she is not only pretty (despite that beauty being creepy too), but she is very tall. We've seen our share of beautiful ladies, but we definitely had not had enough of beautiful and tall ladies that dominate us. Pretty ladies are everywhere, there is nothing new about them in games, even if they are villains, no matter how harsh that sounds. But what about tall, dominating, strong women? I don't think one can name many. The only example that stands out and received very positive reviews was Brienne of Tarth, from Game of Thrones, played by amazing Gwendoline Christie in the TV show adaptation, who did not only shine on the screen, but became an icon outside of it. That's why I find the appearance of Lady Dimitrescu so unique in the sea of petite flowers, even inside the game where her three daughters don't actually look much different from each other I find this fact simply ironic.

Let's be honest, tall women can't appear just at any role, that's true and partially it's good, I don't want them to lose their uniqueness, but they can occupy special roles that leave a deep imression that's for sure.