Summary
- Mother Miranda rivals Albert Wesker as a top-tier villain in Resident Evil history, with her origins deeply tied to the franchise's horrors.
- Mother Miranda's dark past includes exploiting villagers for her experiments, causing mutations in key characters throughout the series.
- The absence of both Mother Miranda and Wesker in Resident Evil 9 leaves a void in the franchise's villain lineup, and perhaps that void will push players to give her the appreciation she deserves.
The Resident Evil franchise is steeped in deep lore, which is why it continues to be such a compelling action horror series. Since the first game launched in 1996, Resident Evil has maintained a strong hold on gaming and pop culture. Although not every game and adaptation has proven to be perfect, the history of Umbrella and its bioweapons program is one of the most intriguing plot points featured in each story.
Resident Evil's latest chapter, Village, lifted the veil on more of Umbrella's secrets. The story introduces Mother Miranda, a biologist and cult leader determined to use the Mold as a way to bring back her dead daughter. As the main antagonist of Village, one of the biggest twists revealed near the end of the story is that Umbrella's founder, the infamous Oswell Spencer, once mentored by Mother Miranda. This revelation is one of the most jaw-dropping moments in Resident Evil's long history, and it solidifies Mother Miranda as an antagonist on par with franchise heavy-hitter Albert Wesker.
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Mother Miranda Deserves the Same Notoriety as Albert Wesker
Two Powerhouse Villains
- Mother Miranda, a talented biologist whose work has global consequences
- Albert Wesker, a virologist hell-bent on his eugenics-based goals
For longtime fans of Resident Evil, Albert Wesker is known as the definitive antagonist throughout the series. As of now, Wesker is seemingly dead, but the legacy of chaos and crimes against humanity he left behind allows him to live on in infamy. With his superhuman strength and history as an important virologist for Umbrella, Wesker eventually went rogue. His work within the bioweapons black market and ambitions of causing the extinction of the human race fueled much of the conflict in the Resident Evil franchise.
What makes Mother Miranda such a force to be reckoned with is that if it wasn't for her, Umbrella might have come to exist. By extension, the rise of Albert Wesker could have been avoided. Mother Miranda is the starting point for everything that has happened within the Resident Evil franchise, and that alone makes her worthy of being a top tier villain. Not only that, but she experimented on residents of the village for decades, subjecting them to horrible fates. Lady Dimitrescu, Heisenberg, Donna Beneviento, and Salavtore Moreau all gained their powers and mutations due to being lured by Mother Miranda.
Mother Miranda's daughter Eva died from the Spanish flu in 1919.
Although Mother Miranda doesn't have the obvious worldwide trail of destruction that Wesker boasts, her years of manipulating and exploiting villagers for her own personal goals are just as monstrous. Her mentorship of Oswell Spencer birthed all of Resident Evil' s horrors, which proves the destructive nature of her own selfish desires.
Resident Evil Now Has a Gaping Hole With Its Villains
Now that it seems like both Mother Miranda and Albert Wesker are gone for good, Resident Evil has its work cut out for it when it comes to the next big villain. At the moment, Resident Evil 9 is a huge mystery, as its story possibilities were left wide open at the end of Village. Both the protagonist and antagonist remain unclear. At the end of the game, another twist reveals that the BSAA have begun to use bioweapon soldiers in place of humans, setting the stage for the next chapter's main conflict. With Mother Miranda and Wesker out of the picture, there is no telling who has corrupted the bioweapon-fighting goal of the BSAA.
Through the years, Resident Evil has told a fascinating story of corporate corruption and power-hungry individuals. Ultimately, Mother Miranda's pursuit of reviving her dead daughter is at least more empathetic than Wesker's thirst for humanity's extinction, but they are ultimately two sides of the same coin. Unless another twist is on the horizon, the absence of Mother Miranda and Wesker will be felt in Resident Evil 9.
