Main antagonist from the latest Resident Evil, a 9’6″ vampiress, created strong reactions among the series’s fans. And not just them.
Why is the villainess of Resident Evil Village so tall?
Tomonori Takano, Village’s Art Director, said that since the beginning of planning it was decided on vampires motif, but not limited to the way they’ve been presented so far in popular culture. Some of the inspirations were 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman Elizabeth Báthory, the Japanese urban legend Hashaku-sama, and Anjelica Huston’s Morticia Addams. Lady Alcina Dimitrescu combines gothic horror design with elements of the Great Depression-era, which makes her stand out from all the previous female villains. She’s neither a monstrous creature like Lisa Trevor, nor a conventionally attractive woman that mutates into a monster like Alexia Ashford.
“She is completely unique, and the main reason is probably her height of 9’6”. “The very first piece of concept art I drew was the scene in the trailer where Lady Dimitrescu ducks down to walk through the doorway,” Takano said. “From that moment, I knew I had to do that scene.” He added that the response has been surprisingly overwhelming, and that even non-gaming media picked up on the internet’s new 9’6” obsession. A pop culture and relationship columnist Emily Gaudette claims that Lady Dimitrescu is a combination of a bunch of different niche fetishes, a vampire who sucks blood from us, what is a classic sexual taboo, and unnaturally tall and strong woman who can easily overpower a man, what represents a novel and exciting reversal of the typical hetero sub/dom dynamic.
Source: IGN.com