Back in year one of Resident Evil week, I published an article in honour of RE3’s Dario Rosso. Better known as the asshole who locks himself in a shipping container rather than brave the zombie-ridden streets, his character resonated with me in a certain way.

As I insinuated, we would all love to be the Jill Valentine or Leon Kennedy of the story, coolly mowing down hordes of undead assailants with a steady trigger finger and sardonic wit. But in actuality, cowering in fear like Dario is a far more probable scenario for the majority of us.

In the course of this article, I made several allusions to Richard Aiken, the communications expert for S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team. He plays a significant role in the original Resident Evil, not only for his hilarious monologue in the 1996 version (“ouch!”), but for offering a false sense of hope that he’s not doomed to perish.

The player will first encounter Richard sporting some gnarly wounds, discovering that he was bitten by a huge snake, and also, poisonous! You are tasked with fetching him some serum before he succumbs to the venom, and before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s make something clear: Richard slowly dying from a snake bite is in actual fact his best possible outcome.

Let that sink in for a moment, as if it were a toxin from the jaws of Yawn itself. Suffering a lonely, agonising demise in the hallway of a haunted mansion is somehow desirable? It sounds like a reach, until you consider what’s in store for Richard should he recover.

If you’re playing as Jill, Richard will seek his vengeance on the snake, laying down covering fire with his assault shotgun. You can, in actuality, abandon him here immediately, hearing only his pained cries from behind the door as he wonders why he was so callously betrayed.

Alternatively, Jill and Richard succeed in fending off the mighty serpent, sharing a moment’s reprieve before it makes one last sneak attack in Jill’s direction. Richard attempts to unload a few rounds, but it’s no use, and he follows his next instinct: to push his comrade out of the way and allow himself to be swallowed whole in her place.

Somehow, things are even worse for him in Chris’ campaign. Delivering the serum here will instead have Richard rest for a while under Rebecca’s supervision. His next appearance is in the infamous Aqua Ring, one of my favourite Resident Evil locations for obvious reasons.

He’s quite clearly panic-stricken and tells Chris to stay back, but old knucklehead Redfield must have some protein powder blocking his ears because he approaches anyway. The dreaded shark Neptune lunges towards its prey, and once again, Richard elects to throw his body in the path, landing in the jaws of the beast.

There you have it. That’s what’s in store for Richard. Die of snake bite, die of snake eat, or get mauled to death by a giant shark.

You can debate which of the fallen S.T.A.R.S. members suffers the worst fate, whether it’s Kenneth having his throat ripped out by a zombie or Forest being pecked to death by infected crows. Richard, however, is the only one who chooses to sacrifice himself rather than see his friends get hurt.

In actuality, Richard’s altruistic nature is a result of his tragic past. His younger sister was killed by an armed criminal, and he found himself paralysed with fear, unable to do anything to assist her. He has been besieged with survivor’s guilt ever since, swearing to never let that kind of catastrophe happen ever again.

Perhaps I’m getting overly sentimental in my older years, but I cannot shake the notion that Richard is perhaps the saddest character in Resident Evil’s history. Sure, the RE3 remake allows the craven Brad Vickers a moment of redemption, where he holds the zombies off so that Jill can escape. This sacrifice (much less gratifying in my opinion than the initial interpretation that he gets obliterated by Nemesis) is a heroic one, as he snarls that Jill not “fuck up like I did”.

Richard, on the other hand, isn’t allowed a chance to consider the consequences. He is forced into a snap decision within an instant, and his impulse is simply to take the fall instead. Who amongst the pantheons of RE heroes could you fairly say ever engaged in such a courageous act? You can throw as many other main characters out there as you like, and I’ll merely remind you of where they let us down.

Claire Redfield leaves Moira Burton to her presumed death in Revelations 2. Chris Redfield is thrown into the escape pod by Piers Nivans in RE6. Leon Kennedy is able to rescue Ashley Graham, but fails to protect Ada Wong in RE2, Luis Serra in RE4, or Liz and her father in RE6.

In contrast, Richard would have pushed Moira from the rubble, pushed Piers into the escape pod, and then done all sorts of pushing where Leon could not. In all honesty, pushing is kind of his thing, but he does it with the best of intentions.

At the funeral held for the S.T.A.R.S. members who lost their lives that fateful night in July 1998, Richard’s girlfriend Bridgette reads a letter he had written to her. It explains his guilt for the death of his sister, and swears that he will protect the people who need it most. He promises that he’ll always be there for Bridgette when she needs him, and that he’ll come back alive.

So to top it all off, Richard is not only killed in a gruesome manner, but he also suffers the indignity of dying a liar. The poor guy just can’t win, can he?

Next time you find our cheery blond friend lying there in that hallway, perhaps you can do him a favour. Don’t leave for the serum, but instead, sit there. Hold his hand. Talk him through whatever’s on his mind, and let him just quietly slip away in peace.

I highly doubt it’s the canonical ending, but it’s the one that this selfless legend deserves.