Most important RE character (series)

[Dante2014]

They all are important in a way since their actions ultimately shaped the story, so I can't really chose, even minor characters like Marvin shaped the outcome of their respective scenarios.

[Mr. Spencer]

Spencer. As I said in another thread, if he didn't exist then he wouldn't have noticed anything interesting in Travis' books about the African continent, no-one would have found out about the Sonnentreppe save for the Ndipaya themselves. Umbrella wouldn't have been founded, there would have been no enemy to fight. Marcus, Edward and Bailey would never have discovered Progenitor, there would be no T-virus, no zombies. Project W wouldn't happen so Wesker won't have existed.

S.T.A.R.S. would never have been founded, Raccoon City wouldn't have flourished and would have most likely remained a quaint and peaceful town, Chris would still be roaming the streets as a vagrant after being kicked out of the U.S. Air Force, Barry would be serving in SWAT, Jill in Delta Force, and Leon would be working lonely days at the Raccoon City Police Department, solving crimes that you would find in an episode of Heartbeat while writing reports day after day after day, and for the most part the world would remain a more or less safer place.

Of course, you could argue that Travis himself was the most important character in the series. If he hadn't been around then none of his books would have been written and Sonnentreppe would continue to remain a mystery.

In fact, that's my vote for the most important character in the series - Henry Travis.

[hellrizer]

Spencer and Wesker all the way! They were the one who started all this anyway. Am I right?

[Henry Spencer]

Spencer > All other RE characters in terms of importance.
He played a pivotal role in finding the Progenitor virus and emplying the right people to create the viruses, as he would establish Umbrella and under his rule, he would garner both the influence and fear necessary to get the people working to how he wanted. He was the one who practically drove both Wesker and Marcus over the edge (both of them lost their sanity by the time they found out they had been manipulated, especially since they both had very big egos and felt like they had gained Spencer's respect, but unfortunately for them, they were both wrong). Even after Umbrella's downfall, he would still become the most important character, he killed off any surviving members of Umbrella, to cover his tracks and really did manipulate many characters to do his bidding before killing them. He pretty much manipulated everybody he came into contact with, from the Trevor family, to the Birkins, to Wesker, to Marcus, and everybody else in between. He gave a good 90% of the series antagonists their motivations (Wesker to surpass him, Marcus to get revenge, to give Birkin full reigns of the research, which would inevitably lead to his self destruction. The man did it all.

Birkin and Wesker for orchestrating things behind the scenes. Birkin went on to create both the T-Virus and G-Virus, as well as develop Wesker's virus (which brought Wesker back from the dead). Birkin is pretty much why we have so many viruses in the series. There is much debate whether it was him or Marcus that leaked the T Virus into the sewers, but I beleive both were responsible for that. He also would become the one who became so obsessed with his research, that he injected himself with his "masterpiece" and would wreak havoc around Raccoon City. Thank this man for the Raccoon City incident.

Still befuddled on why so many people view Ada as being so important. It's cool that she's your favourite character and all, but she's hardly all that important in the large scheme of things.

I also voted 'other' for Lisa Trevor since without her being experimented on, we wouldn't have the perfected T-Virus sample. Through her being experimented on, we also got the NE-α Parasite which would be used to create Nemesis, as well as Birkin being able to perfect the G-Virus. She's definitely the most important character to be experimented on, no doubt.

I voted for Marcus, since he was the one who pretty much started the whole experimentation on human beings, which would of course later lead to the Tyrants, Zombies, Hunters, Lickers etc. We have him to thank for that, really. Plus, it's debatable whether it was him or Birkin who set off the Raccoon City incident, but I believe they both played a part in that. So, as before, thank this man also for the Raccoon City incident (which we would get a lot of games out of).

[GuardhouseMusic]

I thought your first paragraph regarding Spencer was wonderful, plus I would pretty much agree with your assertions on the most important characters. Problem is, the rest of your post has many mixed up facts.

-Birkin did not create the T-virus, Marcus did, and Birkin took over Marcus's research.

-Marcus had no part in leaking the T-virus into the sewers. No debate. That was all Birkin and the rats. Marcus did leak the virus in the Arklay labs and Umbrella training facility, so I'm sure the infected humans, plants, and wild animals also contributed to the Raccoon outbreak. Marcus still had no part in the leak via the sewers

-I love the Lisa Trevor story point and I would put her above Birkin in terms of the progression of influence (of course Spencer is at the highest point). I do know that her research did not lead to a perfected T-virus, G-virus, or the NE-α parasite. T-virus = P-virus + leech DNA. The NE-α was used on Lisa, not found as a result of her experimentation. While Birkin found the G-virus in Lisa, it took him a little while to perfect it, as evidenced by files and scenes in REmake and RE0.

[Bianca]

I voted Spencer, Wesker, Birkin and Marcus. Undeniably so, the villains have much more presence in the Resident Evil series, and they have contributed far more to the storyline's history, both past and present.

[Vector]

I think Resident Evil is a pretty cool guy. Eh craetes cool vireses and doesn't afraid of anything.

[REmaster]

Chris, Wesker, Leon, Spencer.

[T-103]

I voted for Wesker, Spencer, Brikin and James Marcus.

[missvalentine]

Well the most important RE character in history would obviously be Spencer, without him no Outbreak would of ever happened in the first place. Spencer is more important that Wesker because he created Wesker.

Second most important would be Wesker. because he's behind everything.

Third would be Jill Valentine. because she devoted her life to stopping Umbrella, but was then used to make the most powerful virus of them all. so with out Jill, Wesker could not complete his plans. and without Jill, Chris would be a wussy cry baby like we saw in the viral videos. so yeah i think Jill is more important to Chris. Chris may get things done but he can't do them without his lovely Jill. plus she makes the game fun for me to play which is very important to me personally.

[News Bot]

Chris, Spencer and Wesker.

In comparison, nobody else really matters.

[Mr. Spencer]

so yeah i think Jill is more important to Chris. Chris may get things done but he can't do them without his lovely Jill. plus she makes the game fun for me to play which is very important to me personally.

On the contrary, Chris was the one who went to Europe and decided to take action. Jill was more concerned about saving her own skin by escaping Raccoon City. She shared Chris' concerns about Umbrella and she knew that they were a threat, but Chris was the one who actually went out there and tried to do something about it. He spoke to Chief Irons, he sent a report to the "Federal Police Department" (FBI), he even went out to Europe to track down Umbrella's headquarters.

For the most part, Jill cared about finding Chris. Like I said, she was aware of how dangerous Umbrella were but it was Chris leading the charge. That said, I think that Jill was more important to Chris than stopping Umbrella or fighting bio-terrorism. Throughout RE5, Chris is completely single-minded, to the point where he placed priority for finding Jill over stopping Wesker and saving the world. Jill even had to tell him that it was up to him to stop Wesker, to drum some sense back into him. I like that though, it's a great character flaw that goes back to his time in the U.S. Air Force where he disobeyed orders and placed priority over something else.

[Vector]

Ninth would be Jill Valentine. because she devoted her life to helping Chris

Fix'd.

[Darkmoon]

I'd have to say Spencer. Wesker and Chris are, in the grand scheme of things, relatively unimportant until RE5 at which point they are, admittedly, extremely important.

Before that probably the most significant thing they did was wake up Alexia early. If she was able to mature fully, wake up in peace and start plotting I think she'd have been a lot more of a problem than she was.

However, the biggest event in the game series is Raccoon City. It's the event that broke Umbrella, exposed the world to the terror of bio-weapons, is basically when the shit hit the fan. The first outbreat at the Mansion isn't terribly important, really. It was for the most part contained. Umbrella was coming out of it fine. Yeah, it annoyed Chris and gave Wesker super powers...but apparently he'd have gotten those anyway. If Marcus hadn't cause an outbreak at the mansion things would have still happened in a fairly similar manner. Possibly the biggest difference is the S.T.A.R.S team would have likely all died in the city.

Chris and Wesker were very loosely involved in Racoon City though. Of course, Spencer was fairly indirectly involved, although I bet it was his order that saw Birkin killed and the Outbreak begun. He created the virus, funded the research, ahd the vision...there really isn't an incident that cannot, ultimately, be traced back to him.

[Darinl1979]

You can debate whos responsible for what and "if so and so didn't do this, this never would of happened". By that logic, Spencer's parents are more important then Spencer because if they didn't have sex, Spencer never would of been born!

Someone made a comparison once using the Lord of the Rings story. There is not just one important person, but a variety of different important people and factors. Saying Chris was the only important protagonist is like saying Aragorn was the only person who mattered in Lord of the Rings. Yeah yeah throw in the predictable "IT ENDS IN A VOLCANO TOO!" joke if you will.