Religious, philosophical, and historical symbolism in Resident Evil games

At it's heart, Resident Evil is a story about people shooting about dangerous bioweapons gone amok, and there are no magical or supernatural elements involved. That being said, am I the only one who's noticed very creative and thought-provoking symbolism in the games? Alot of these have to deal with concepts of death and damnation. They often accompany puzzles and mind games, but they also are littered throughout the games in other ways that really gives a creepy psychological aspect to the stories. Here are some examples

1. The paintings in RE1 where you have to press the buttons in the right order or else crows attack. This could have been done alot more simply, but instead, the creators used Renaissance-style paintings that reflect a memento mori style that was popular at the end of the Middle Ages.
2. The painting of the burning man in RE2 that you have to destroy in order to get a gem (it was mentioned in one of the journals as something that freaked out many people at the station). Again, it clearly looked to be in a Renaissance style when for many people, going to hell was the greatest fear.
3. The Goddess of Time puzzle in RE3 (a bitch to complete). The juxtaposition of the picture of the healthy woman with the skeletal woman, coupled with the music, gave an incredibly eerie atmosphere and made it seem like no matter what you did, you would die eventually.
4. RE4 is drenched in religious symbolism and metaphor. Even though the villains belong to a cult that's most definitely not Christian, the imagery clearly pulled on a medieval Catholic world view. The town chapel was small but very ornately done. The monks were considered separate and above society. The way the cult was organized very much organized along the lines of the medieval Three Orders of Society (those who work, those who fight, those who pray). The paintings where you have to get six bodies lined up to get a secret door to appear looked like victims of the Inquisition. Salazar's palace was decorated by various saints and religious scenes. Within the context of the game, it was quite unsettling, as itreally hits home how fanatical and hierarchical Los Illuminados was. Then of course there was the the dining room where you read the various sayings on the wall where the food represented different stages of life. With the music in the background, it may have been the most unsettling scene in the entire RE series for me.
5. RE5 took aspects of traditional African demonology which made the majini seem to be more than just bioweapons.

Maybe I'm just reading too far into things, but does anyone else see how RE seems create a very chilling atmosphere by drawing upon this traditional imagery of dying.

It is interesting that there has been so many similarities to Medieval society in the games. Never really noticed it before.

I find it awesome at the same time it is interesting. RE is good on this kind of things. They are so creative.

Now that you mention that, there is A LOT of that kind of stuff in those games.

you know something that is funny?
salazar was achually an portuguese Imperialist dictator
that made everyones life a living hell(no freedom of spech)

salazar was also a character in re4,that ruled a castle

lulz

chrisredfielmusculo wrote:

you know something that is funny?
salazar was achually an portuguese Imperialist dictator
that made everyones life a living hell(no freedom of spech)

salazar was also a character in re4,that ruled a castle

lulz

He thought he would avert national chaos by erasing democracy and political freedom.
You know what I found hilarious ? President fired him after he hurt himself by falling off a chair. Great man nonetheless !

On topic, I didn't really see any religious or philosophical signs when I was playing Resident Evils, but now when you mention it..

Kino_00 wrote:

chrisredfielmusculo wrote:

you know something that is funny?
salazar was achually an portuguese Imperialist dictator
that made everyones life a living hell(no freedom of spech)

salazar was also a character in re4,that ruled a castle

lulz

He thought he would avert national chaos by erasing democracy and political freedom.
You know what I found hilarious ? President fired him after he hurt himself by falling off a chair. Great man nonetheless !

On topic, I didn't really see any religious or philosophical signs when I was playing Resident Evils, but now when you mention it..

if you lived here during the time when he was the chief(i didnt but meh)
i dont think you would find him so funny or such a great man,that is
if you find fun the fact that he kidnapped,killed and tortured many people just because
they had a different view in the political aspect that he had,or just because sometimes they didnt kiss his ass
btw the president didnt fired him after he falled of a chair,thats just bs
lulz

chrisredfielmusculo wrote:

if you lived here during the time when he was the chief(i didnt but meh)
i dont think you would find him so funny or such a great man,that is
if you find fun the fact that he kidnapped,killed and tortured many people just because
they had a different view in the political aspect that he had,or just because sometimes they didnt kiss his ass
btw the president didnt fired him after he falled of a chair,thats just bs
lulz

I find it rather awful if our books in school are lying about the last part.. :/
But he was a great man, I just never said he was in a good way.
For example Hitler was also great man, or do you really think just an ordinary guy could do the same ? Create such hell ?
No, you might be evil, twisted, whatever, but you still need the "remarkable/great" part to achieve something like that.

Kino_00 wrote:

chrisredfielmusculo wrote:

if you lived here during the time when he was the chief(i didnt but meh)
i dont think you would find him so funny or such a great man,that is
if you find fun the fact that he kidnapped,killed and tortured many people just because
they had a different view in the political aspect that he had,or just because sometimes they didnt kiss his ass
btw the president didnt fired him after he falled of a chair,thats just bs
lulz

I find it rather awful if our books in school are lying about the last part.. :/
But he was a great man, I just never said he was in a good way.
For example Hitler was also great man, or do you really think just an ordinary guy could do the same ? Create such hell ?
No, you might be evil, twisted, whatever, but you still need the "remarkable/great" part to achieve something like that.

i agree,and about the chair thing,i have been studyng about
this motherfucker since grade one,every year on school its the same thing
keep in mind a lot of the teachers did live in his era,what hapenned is that
he did got hurt very badly when he feel of that chair,and that just added to all of his others
health problems that he already had,they achually draged the subject of "firing" him
for a very long time,because everyone had so much respect for him,he realized that he wasnt in the proper
condition to rule this country and agreed to resign his current job

the funny thing is,because everyone was so scared and had so much respect for him
they still visited him in the hospital after he was "fired",and gaved him fake paperwork
and other documents for him to sign,just to pretend he was still revelant,because
no one whanted to upset him
cheers

chrisredfielmusculo wrote:

i agree,and about the chair thing,i have been studyng about
this motherfucker since grade one,every year on school its the same thing
keep in mind a lot of the teachers did live in his era,what hapenned is that
he did got hurt very badly when he feel of that chair,and that just added to all of his others
health problems that he already had,they achually draged the subject of "firing" him
for a very long time,because everyone had so much respect for him,he realized that he wasnt in the proper
condition to rule this country and agreed to resign his current job

the funny thing is,because everyone was so scared and had so much respect for him
they still visited him in the hospital after he was "fired",and gaved him fake paperwork
and other documents for him to sign,just to pretend he was still revelant,because
no one whanted to upset him
cheers

I should really read more about him. Events of foreign history has always fascinated me, whether they were good or bad.
Maybe that's because Finland has been independent for less than 100 years, thus our history is quite short. Ofc you can count in time before that when we were part of other nations or under their ruling.

Kino_00 wrote:

chrisredfielmusculo wrote:

i agree,and about the chair thing,i have been studyng about
this motherfucker since grade one,every year on school its the same thing
keep in mind a lot of the teachers did live in his era,what hapenned is that
he did got hurt very badly when he feel of that chair,and that just added to all of his others
health problems that he already had,they achually draged the subject of "firing" him
for a very long time,because everyone had so much respect for him,he realized that he wasnt in the proper
condition to rule this country and agreed to resign his current job

the funny thing is,because everyone was so scared and had so much respect for him
they still visited him in the hospital after he was "fired",and gaved him fake paperwork
and other documents for him to sign,just to pretend he was still revelant,because
no one whanted to upset him
cheers

I should really read more about him. Events of foreign history has always fascinated me, whether they were good or bad.
Maybe that's because Finland has been independent for less than 100 years, thus our history is quite short. Ofc you can count in time before that when we were part of other nations or under their ruling.

do it,he was a very interesting guy,there is a lot of info about him(at least in portuguese)
portugal has a pretty long and interesting story

cheers man

I found the Ashfords in CVX to be a bit 'influenced' by the nazis/holocaust. They have blond hair and blue eyes, are elitist and think they are superior because of their bloodline. There is also that one room where they have burning ovens and if I remember correctly, it looked like they were putting bodies in there, and there are the rooms with all the torturing devices and whatnot. Plus when you have to spin that statue, gas is coming out of the floor. It really creeped me out when I thought about it, because that's really scary stuff both in the game, and IRL...

Ylwizaker wrote:

I found the Ashfords in CVX to be a bit 'influenced' by the nazis/holocaust. They have blond hair and blue eyes, are elitist and think they are superior because of their bloodline. There is also that one room where they have burning ovens and if I remember correctly, it looked like they were putting bodies in there, and there are the rooms with all the torturing devices and whatnot. Plus when you have to spin that statue, gas is coming out of the floor. It really creeped me out when I thought about it, because that's really scary stuff both in the game, and IRL...

welcome to ref bro

What industrialization and racism have done to Africa really reflect the horrors comitted in Kijuju...Especially with the Pray music at the end, it really reflects on how evil and sinister Wesker was in doing that to those people, destroying them not just in a political way, like most imperialist countries did in the past, but he stripped their very souls from them and turned them into monsters. Thats how I related with Chris in the game, seeing the atrocities these people did to the citizens of Kijuju.

Ylwizaker wrote:

I found the Ashfords in CVX to be a bit 'influenced' by the nazis/holocaust. They have blond hair and blue eyes, are elitist and think they are superior because of their bloodline. There is also that one room where they have burning ovens and if I remember correctly, it looked like they were putting bodies in there, and there are the rooms with all the torturing devices and whatnot. Plus when you have to spin that statue, gas is coming out of the floor. It really creeped me out when I thought about it, because that's really scary stuff both in the game, and IRL...

Funny I noticed that myself around about my third play through of CVX.

Also it is very interesting that these elements exist in the games. Kinda gives them a touch of realism, don't you think?