The Untold Truth Of The Sexy Resident Evil Lady

The internet has a new scary girlfriend, and she could kill you just as easily as kiss you. She's the lady who's launched a thousand memes, and even though fans don't know exactly who she is or what she wants from protagonist Ethan Winters, they can count on it being a stylish endeavor.

Lady Dimitrescu will appear in the upcoming Resident Evil Village, Capcom's latest installment in the Resident Evil series. She also features heavily in Maiden, the introductory demo to Resident Evil Village. Her domineering stature has dominated the conversation about this newest Resident Evil title, but there are other details about the tall lady fans should know. Through understanding Lady Dimitrescu's history, fans can gain a better understanding of the her origins, and maybe predict some plot points of the game she'll appear in.

She's a beautiful meme queen, with powerful claws, a killer sense of fashion, and a bold red lip that might be a little bit more than just lipstick. Buckle up: here's the untold truth about Lady Dimitrescu you really need to know.

Resident Evil Village doesn't have the only sexy lady vampire out there. Lady Dimitrescu is only the latest in a long line of seductive and dangerous women vampires. Though The Gamer pointed out this connection, the link is clear. There's a history of sexy lady vampires in literature, dating all the way back to Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu's dangerous seductress from the 1872 novel of the same name.

Sam Hirst for Tor noted a number of women vampires throughout the 1800s, including Carmilla, many of whom predated Dracula. Most of the vampires Hirst mentioned were created by British authors, and none of them had any roots in Eastern European tradition, as Lady Dimitrescu's name hints. In fact, British folks don't have any native vampiric folklore, meaning that Resident Evil Village likely borrows from Slavic folklore, which heavily features vampires as a way to explain away deaths from disease.

No matter what folkloric tradition Lady Dimitrescu borrows from, she's not alone in the sexy lady vampire camp. As Christobel Hastings reported for Vice, "These characters transgressed the two-dimensional archetype of a beautiful vampire with murderous tendencies, and brought gender reformation to the fore, with themes of female power, independence, and desire." With Lady Dimitrescu now on the scene, it looks like women vampires are here to stay.

Lady Dimitrescu appears to have daughters who assist her in running the castle and, ahem, catching prey. The Maiden's Diary, found in the Maiden demo, references "the Mistress and her daughters," meaning Lady Dimitrescu and the women players encounter in the demo. According to the diary, Dimitrescu had three daughters as early as the 1950s, all of whom were sensitive to sunlight, just like her. If that sounds at all familiar, it's because Dimitrescu and her daughters closely resemble the most famous vampire in history, Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's 1897 classic Dracula.

In Stoker's novel, Dracula controls his "brides," even though he considers them part of his family. When Jonathan Harker wakes in Dracula's castle, he sees "three young women, ladies by their dress and manner." The women are beautiful, and Harker barely contains his excitement, and guilt, at being in the presence of three lovely ladies. However, before the brides can feast on Harker, Dracula appears to take command of the situation and scream, "How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all!" The brides, perhaps like Dimitrescu's daughters, are independent people with their own understanding of the world, but ultimately their master controls them. It's possible that Lady Dimitrescu's family hints at further vampiric connections.

Of course, maybe Lady Dimitrescu has entirely different origins, albeit still dark. Some fans think that Dimitrescu is based on Elizabeth Bathory, an alleged serial killer who lived in 16th century Hungary. As far as inspiration goes, the similarities between the two powerful women seem apparent. Legend goes that Bathory killed over 600 young women, bathing in their blood in order to retain her youthful appearance. Bathory eventually went to trial for the death of 80 women and was found guilty. However, she managed to avoid the death penalty due to her high status.

The people who record history don't always get it right, however, and some historians debate if Bathory deserved her infamous reputation. Some evidence indicates that Bathory's closest friends sought to frame her for murder in order to take her land away after the death of her husband. Even if Bathory did murder women, they would have been peasants. Although killing peasants during Bathory's time was morally questionable, it was also perfectly legal, meaning that technically Bathory wouldn't have done anything wrong.

Lady Dimitrescu, like Bathory, seems to have power, land of her own, and an empire to protect. Tomonori Takano, Resident Evil Village's art director, has said publicly that he felt inspired by Bathory, as well as more pop-culture representations of dark and witchy ladies like Morticia Adams.

Lady Dimitrescu's name might hold hints at where Resident Evil Village takes place. "Dimitrescu" is an Eastern European and Russian name with origins in Greek. The name means "follower of Demeter," the famous Greek goddess of agriculture. The game might take place in Eastern Europe, but Dimitrescu's connection to Demeter could have even more significance. Demeter may be the goddess of agriculture, but that means more than influence over how well the vegetables grow each year.

Demeter's story is woven into the fabric of Greek mythology, as her daughter Persephone was bound to Hades, ruler of the underworld and subject of one of 2020's hottest games. Therefore, Demeter's place in mythology is forever tied to kidnapping, for longing for one's daughter to return. Lady Dimitrescu, while perhaps not a mother in the traditional sense herself, is integral to a kidnapping. Rosemary Winters, Ethan Winters' daughter, is kidnapped in Resident Evil Village. This act is what potentially inspires Ethan to visit Castle Dimitrescu in the first place.

Of course, nothing's for sure in Resident Evil Village. In an interview with IGN, Jun Takeuchi, Resident Evil's producer of many years, said that the development crew wanted to break public perception and give players something unexpected by drawing inspiration from a variety of sources.

When she's not kidnapping babies or engaging in vampiric activities, Lady Dimitrescu is a total boss. She runs a wine empire out of Castle Dimitrescu, as evidenced in Maiden. In the demo, players can find a note on the history of the castle that discusses its wine production. The document dates Castle Dimitrescu's wine business back to the 15th century, before Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters moved in. The document calls the Dimitrescu winemaking process "legendary, yet peculiar," and identifies the most notable type of wine the group makes as "maiden's blood." Though the document doesn't blatantly say that what makes "maiden's blood" wine so special is actual maiden's blood, the insinuation is there.

Another connection between Dimitrescu's wine empire and the Resident Evil series as a whole lies in her marketing skills. The note in Maiden indicates that the "maiden's blood" wine is bottled in a special bottle "decorated with intricate silver flowers." Though not silver, flowers are linked to the progenitor disease through the Stairway of the Sun flower, which contains the DNA responsible for most of the horrific creatures throughout Resident Evil. It's unclear what Lady Dimitrescu knows about the Progenitor Virus itself, or if it plays into her wine label choices.

Perhaps the least surprising thing about Lady Dimitrescu is her height. Fans have considered her height since she first appeared, making charts, memes, and cosplays to honor her intimidating stature. One intrepid reporter even did the hard research to approximately determine Lady Dimitrescu's height by comparing her to a French castle door. It turns out that measurement wasn't quite accurate, and the Capcom team officially told the world Lady Dimitrescu is a whopping 9 feet 6 inches tall. That is, for those keeping track at home, taller than the tallest man to have ever lived according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Popular YouTuber Markiplier chimed in on the Capcom announcement to express his awe, while others compared Lady Dimitrescu to the trenchcoat wearing Tyrant from Resident Evil 2. Ultimately, no one knows why Lady Dimitrescu is so tall, but developers indicated that they felt inspired by Resident Evil 4 and traditional vampire lore. In an interview with PlayStation Magazine (via WCCFTech), the team assured fans that the lore would all work within the world of Resident Evil, so don't expect literal vamps anytime soon. Perhaps Lady Dimitrescu's height is connected to whatever mutation ails her.

Lady Dimitrescu's height might have a very specific origin: the Progenitor virus. More specifically, she might have been infected with the t-Virus, or Tyrant Virus, a Progenitor strain responsible for horrifying effects in its victims. Fans have preemptively blamed the t-Virus for Lady Dimitrescu's height, with some even going so far as to call her a Tyrant specifically.

Resident Evil has seen many versions of Tyrants over the years, including a few that share characteristics with Lady Dimitrescu. Though there are different forms of Tyrants, many have distinctive claws, superior height, and exposed hearts. Lady Dimtirescu does not have an exposed heart, but it's possible she's a different strain of Tyrant altogether. Some fans have noted that the flower pinned to Dimitrescu's dress might be a nod to Tyrants' open hearts.

However, it's possible that Capcom has chosen to go a completely different route with Lady Dimitrescu's connection to the Progenitor virus. One curious gamer considered the possibility that Dimitrescu actually is ancient, and that folklore has misinterpreted a scientific event as something more supernatural. Fans will have to wait and see which theory prevails, but for now it's an interesting game to guess what Lady Dimitrescu actually is.

Little is known about the plot of Resident Evil Village, but one thing is for sure: Chris Redfield is somehow involved. Fan favorite Blue Umbrella member Chris Redfield has been featured in Resident Evil games since the very beginning, but until now he's never done anything that fans could consider downright evil. The official Resident Evil Village website states that Chris Redfield kidnapped Rosemary Winters, Ethan and Mia's baby.

No one knows for sure what influenced Chris to kidnap Rosemary Winters. However, fans do know that both Ethan and Mia were infected with Mold in Resident Evil 7, meaning that Rosemary might also be a mutant. It's possible that Chris took Rosemary to eradicate the Mold once and for all, but that doesn't explain why he didn't also capture Ethan and Mia, nor does it give any hints as to why he's teamed up with the vampiric women in Castle Dimitrescu.

Some fans have speculated that Dimitrescu might be using mind control devices to manage both Chris and her daughters, but aside from some in-game proof that mind control exists, there's no reason to pursue that theory too hard.

Fans don't know much about the hierarchy of Lady Dimitrescu's empire, or how she ranks within it, but they do know that she's not at the top of the food chain. That honor goes to Mother Miranda, an unrevealed character Lady Dimitrescu speaks with during the story trailer.

In the short clip, Dimitrescu appears to be reporting in to Mother Miranda, telling her that Ethan has escaped Heisenberg. She also explains that Winters is already "too much for my daughters to handle." Though viewers only hear one side of the conversation, Lady Dimitrescu respectfully cuts off her own sentence in order to allow Mother Miranda to speak, answering reverently. Dimitrescu also references a mysterious ceremony that must take place, according to Mother Miranda. Dimitrescu ends the conversation with a swift, "I won't let you down."

At this point, any fan theory regarding Mother Miranda is fair game. One fan suggested that she's an ancient being referenced inside the dungeon cells in Maiden. Another post speculated that Mother Miranda could be a big reveal reserved for later in the game. Featuring her in the trailer would give away too much too soon. Regardless, it must be hard for someone as intimidating as Lady Dimitrescu to answer to Mother Miranda without question.