Lady Dimitrescu's Origin Story
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VOICE OVER: Kirsten Ria Squibb
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we're looking at the origins of Lady Dimitrescu, “Resident Evil Village's” most charismatic antagonist. And yes, there will be huge spoilers for “Village” in this video. We'll be breaking down Lady D's origins within the Resident Evil univere, as well as the numerous pop culture icons that inspired her character.
Script written by Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at the origins of Lady Dimitrescu, “Resident Evil Village’s” most charismatic antagonist. And yes, there will be huge spoilers for “Village” in this video.
As soon as the trailer dropped for the next brand-new, mainline entry in one of gaming’s oldest and most popular franchises, all anybody could talk about was one thing: the extremely tall, vampiric woman known to us now as Lady Dimitrescu. Including her large hat and heels, she was 9’6” tall, making her over half a foot taller than the tallest man who ever lived, Robert Wadlow. The outpouring of love for Lady D made “Resident Evil Village” even more hotly anticipated than it would have been otherwise – but now the game is finally here, just how much do we know about Ethan’s new nemesis?
To start, Lady D isn’t the main antagonist of “Village”; Capcom played its hand close to its chest and didn’t reveal too much about the other leaders of the Four Houses in the pre-release material. Mother Miranda, a genius biologist and the village’s foremost cultist, is the real main villain. Lady D is instead the first antagonist you’ll really have to go toe-to-toe with and the game’s first major boss, in an encounter some would say is over much too soon. Through Ethan’s adventures in Castle Dimitrescu, he learns plenty about the lady of the house and where she came from.
Lady Alcina Dimitrescu was born at some point in the early twentieth century and was in her forties by the time she encountered Mother Miranda in the titular, unnamed village in the 50s. It’s not entirely clear how Lady D and Mother Miranda first crossed paths since Miranda had already taken over the village as its leader by this point. Miranda did this upon discovering the Mold that forms the basis of most mutations in the current “Resident Evil” story nearby. But they certainly did cross paths, and Lady D became one of Miranda’s test subjects. She was infected with the Cadou parasite, an organism developed from the Mold by Miranda, perhaps willingly or perhaps not. Lady D, along with the other house lords, was one of the few able to bond with the parasite fully, making her the gigantic vampire we all know and love. The Cadou parasite grants her invulnerability and immortality, as well as making her grow to such an unusual size – but it also requires she dines on human blood, of course.
For the next seventy years between her infection and Ethan’s arrival, she and her three “daughters” ruled Castle Dimitrescu with an iron fist, hiring young women to work for them as servants and then eventually killing them, using their blood as an ingredient in her famous wine. The game’s first demo, “Maiden”, tells you exactly what it was like for these innocent victims; you play as an unnamed, fleeing captive of Lady D and are eventually pursued by one of her daughters and killed by the lady herself. And as for those daughters – they’re not her daughters, at all. They’re living swarms of insects grown, once again, by the Cadou parasite and given to Lady D as a gift by Mother Miranda. Incidentally, “Cadou” means “gift” in Romanian, which tells you all you need to know about how the village’s residents view their Cadou-induced mutations. The insect swarms are vulnerable to the cold air of the outdoors, much like how vampires can’t go outside in the daylight. Ultimately though, Ethan being Ethan, he’s able to defeat all three daughters – Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela – and Lady Dimitrescu herself, once the parasite finally takes hold and turns her into a dragon monster. It’s honestly more like “Bloodborne” than “Resident Evil” at certain points.
But Lady D didn’t come out of nowhere; she’s influenced by both fictional characters and real-life murderers. The most obvious influence is, of course, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. In “Dracula”, Jonathan Harker travels to a remote village in the Transylvania region of Romania, where he encounters Count Dracula and his three “brides” – not too dissimilar to Lady D’s daughters. They also live in a decrepit, Medieval castle and terrorize the nearby town. It’s pretty clear that Capcom wanted “Resident Evil Village” to have vampires in it and then worked backward developing the Cadou parasite story, just like many of the other folkloric enemies – such as the Lovecraftian fish-man Moreau.
Dracula was famously inspired by Vlad the Impaler, a Medieval King of Wallachia famous for his cruelty. But there’s another Eastern European serial killer hiding behind Lady D: Countess Elizabeth Báthory. It’s rumored that Báthory killed hundreds of young women during her twenty-year reign of terror in Hungary, draining their blood and allegedly bathing in it in order to retain her youth. Since this was the early 1600s, it’s not clear exactly how much of the story is true; she was arrested and kept under house arrest for the last four years of her life, found guilty of these heinous crimes. But true or not, developers have said that the story was a major part of developing this character.
And far away from grisly murders and Victorian horror is the last part of the Lady Dimitrescu puzzle: she was also inspired by none other than Morticia Addams, specifically Anjelica Huston’s take on the character in the widely-liked 90’s movies. Of course, though, Morticia Addams doesn’t have giant, Freddy Krueger-style retractable claws.
Her tenure in “Resident Evil Village” may be ultimately short-lived, but she’s still one of the best parts of an outstanding game and one of the entire franchise’s most memorable villains.
Origins: Lady Dimitrescu
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at the origins of Lady Dimitrescu, “Resident Evil Village’s” most charismatic antagonist. And yes, there will be huge spoilers for “Village” in this video.
As soon as the trailer dropped for the next brand-new, mainline entry in one of gaming’s oldest and most popular franchises, all anybody could talk about was one thing: the extremely tall, vampiric woman known to us now as Lady Dimitrescu. Including her large hat and heels, she was 9’6” tall, making her over half a foot taller than the tallest man who ever lived, Robert Wadlow. The outpouring of love for Lady D made “Resident Evil Village” even more hotly anticipated than it would have been otherwise – but now the game is finally here, just how much do we know about Ethan’s new nemesis?
To start, Lady D isn’t the main antagonist of “Village”; Capcom played its hand close to its chest and didn’t reveal too much about the other leaders of the Four Houses in the pre-release material. Mother Miranda, a genius biologist and the village’s foremost cultist, is the real main villain. Lady D is instead the first antagonist you’ll really have to go toe-to-toe with and the game’s first major boss, in an encounter some would say is over much too soon. Through Ethan’s adventures in Castle Dimitrescu, he learns plenty about the lady of the house and where she came from.
Lady Alcina Dimitrescu was born at some point in the early twentieth century and was in her forties by the time she encountered Mother Miranda in the titular, unnamed village in the 50s. It’s not entirely clear how Lady D and Mother Miranda first crossed paths since Miranda had already taken over the village as its leader by this point. Miranda did this upon discovering the Mold that forms the basis of most mutations in the current “Resident Evil” story nearby. But they certainly did cross paths, and Lady D became one of Miranda’s test subjects. She was infected with the Cadou parasite, an organism developed from the Mold by Miranda, perhaps willingly or perhaps not. Lady D, along with the other house lords, was one of the few able to bond with the parasite fully, making her the gigantic vampire we all know and love. The Cadou parasite grants her invulnerability and immortality, as well as making her grow to such an unusual size – but it also requires she dines on human blood, of course.
For the next seventy years between her infection and Ethan’s arrival, she and her three “daughters” ruled Castle Dimitrescu with an iron fist, hiring young women to work for them as servants and then eventually killing them, using their blood as an ingredient in her famous wine. The game’s first demo, “Maiden”, tells you exactly what it was like for these innocent victims; you play as an unnamed, fleeing captive of Lady D and are eventually pursued by one of her daughters and killed by the lady herself. And as for those daughters – they’re not her daughters, at all. They’re living swarms of insects grown, once again, by the Cadou parasite and given to Lady D as a gift by Mother Miranda. Incidentally, “Cadou” means “gift” in Romanian, which tells you all you need to know about how the village’s residents view their Cadou-induced mutations. The insect swarms are vulnerable to the cold air of the outdoors, much like how vampires can’t go outside in the daylight. Ultimately though, Ethan being Ethan, he’s able to defeat all three daughters – Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela – and Lady Dimitrescu herself, once the parasite finally takes hold and turns her into a dragon monster. It’s honestly more like “Bloodborne” than “Resident Evil” at certain points.
But Lady D didn’t come out of nowhere; she’s influenced by both fictional characters and real-life murderers. The most obvious influence is, of course, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. In “Dracula”, Jonathan Harker travels to a remote village in the Transylvania region of Romania, where he encounters Count Dracula and his three “brides” – not too dissimilar to Lady D’s daughters. They also live in a decrepit, Medieval castle and terrorize the nearby town. It’s pretty clear that Capcom wanted “Resident Evil Village” to have vampires in it and then worked backward developing the Cadou parasite story, just like many of the other folkloric enemies – such as the Lovecraftian fish-man Moreau.
Dracula was famously inspired by Vlad the Impaler, a Medieval King of Wallachia famous for his cruelty. But there’s another Eastern European serial killer hiding behind Lady D: Countess Elizabeth Báthory. It’s rumored that Báthory killed hundreds of young women during her twenty-year reign of terror in Hungary, draining their blood and allegedly bathing in it in order to retain her youth. Since this was the early 1600s, it’s not clear exactly how much of the story is true; she was arrested and kept under house arrest for the last four years of her life, found guilty of these heinous crimes. But true or not, developers have said that the story was a major part of developing this character.
And far away from grisly murders and Victorian horror is the last part of the Lady Dimitrescu puzzle: she was also inspired by none other than Morticia Addams, specifically Anjelica Huston’s take on the character in the widely-liked 90’s movies. Of course, though, Morticia Addams doesn’t have giant, Freddy Krueger-style retractable claws.
Her tenure in “Resident Evil Village” may be ultimately short-lived, but she’s still one of the best parts of an outstanding game and one of the entire franchise’s most memorable villains.
