Resident Evil: Mother Miranda As A Gothic Villain, Explained

thegamer.com:

Resident Evil: Village sees a truly formidable villain in the form of Mother Miranda. The biologist-turned-cult leader had been driven to dramatic ends in the name of being reunited with her dead daughter Eva, including unleashing Lycans to decimate her own village and kidnapping Rose Winters.

Related: Video Game Villains More Iconic Than The Hero

But who is Miranda, really? Is there a shred of humanity left in her mold-infested heart, what with love and grief being the underlying motivation for her wickedness? There's a complex backstory to this unique villain, especially if you analyse the Gothic literary elements that underpin the game.

Miranda was not always a murderous, winged Pagan cult leader. Born in a mountainous Eastern European village, she was an ordinary woman like any other. However, everything changed when the village was struck by the Spanish Flu, and Miranda lost her daughter, Eva, to the disease.

Stricken by an unquenchable sadness and despair after the passing of her only child, Miranda descended into a cave deep beneath the bowels of the village to commit suicide - and it was there that she stumbled upon the megamycete.

This amorphous black mass seemed to throb in the darkness. Mystified, Miranda reached out and touched it, letting the fungus connect her to the thoughts and memories of the many souls that had been consumed by the mold and absorbed into its own hive mind. From that moment, she dedicated herself to serving the mysterious entity, with the foresight to use it to resurrect Eva.

She began using its abilities to convince her fellow villagers that she had a mystical connection to the dead, performing supposed miracles to such an extent that she became revered throughout the village as a deity