Wesker's Report - Canonicity Debate (or the Official "WTF Hiroki Kato!?" Thread)

[News Bot]

Let me start from the beginning by saying FUCK THIS THINNGGGGG.

Now that that's out of the way, I want a formal debate on this thing because to be perfectly honest: I'm on the fence. Part of me thinks of it as canon, the other thinks of it as bullshit, and the gnarled bit of my brain thinks it might be a bit of both.

The biggest discrepancy is HUNK's acquisition of the G-Virus. According to Hiroki Kato, Leon acquired Sherry's pendant containing the G-Virus sample and threw it away, only for it to be retrieved by HUNK who then brings it to Umbrella. Fine. Except according to Hideki Kamiya and BIOHAZARD THE DARKSIDE CHRONICLES, the sample HUNK acquires is actually just one lying around from the P-4 Laboratory. The second biggest discrepancy is one that pisses me off the most because it is the only thing in the series giving BIOHAZARD GAIDEN (Katoooo!!) any credibility: Leon is a member of an underground anti-Umbrella organization. A fact which is never stated again anywhere in the series and is outright ignored and indeed, changed to him actually being employed by a secret agency under the direct control of the U.S. President.

...dammit Kato!

The storyline is actually fucking perfecto without it. It's the one dirty mole on the ass cheek of the series. I actually hope Noboru Sugimura tore Kato apart for Wesker's Report and Gaiden because they fuck up an otherwise flawless canon. Someone wasn't attending those monthly fucking meetings!

[Fruit Salad]

You seem upset.

[News Bot]

You seem upset.

Trying to make sense of Kato's drunken mistake does that.

[Dot50Cal]

You think about this too much, lol. I always thought he just recovered what the team did from Birkin's lab. Sure, some of them broke open and rats fed on them but I'd imagine there were some vials that still had the stuff in them.

[Dracarys]

At the time of its release it accounted for Gaiden which set up Leon's infection, but then that got scraped for the RE4 we got, so now it isn't.

[News Bot]

At the time of its release it accounted for Gaiden which set up Leon's infection, but then that got scraped for the RE4 we got, so now it isn't.

Gaiden did not set up Leon's infection. Stop spreading this as though it's fact, because it's completely unfounded and utter speculation. There's no indication that Sugimura even acknowledged Gaiden, and Leon's infection was meant to happen during biohazard 4 itself. And more importantly, Leon does not get infected in Gaiden. He DIES in Gaiden.

[Guest]

Wesker report is not canon T_T

[News Bot]

Wesker report is not canon T_T

Current evidence points to it being partly canon, partly not. The problem is that CAPCOM still insists on releasing it (10th Anniversary, Archives II) and aside from a few plot discrepancies which could probably be chalked up to the fact that according to cvxfreak, Hiroki Kato wrote it while completely smashed one night, it could be quite canon. I want to use this topic to concretely decide whether it's canon, partly or not at all.

[Vito]

Didnt that scene with Hunk in Darkside not canon?

[Dracarys]

Gaiden did not set up Leon's infection. Stop spreading this as though it's fact, because it's completely unfounded and utter speculation. There's no indication that Sugimura even acknowledged Gaiden, and Leon's infection was meant to happen during biohazard 4 itself. And more importantly, Leon does not get infected in Gaiden. He DIES in Gaiden.

I read it in an interview in a magazine about RE 3.5. Discussing Leons infection he clearly indicated he was infected during Gaiden, I remember it having an image of Leons neck from Gaiden on the page also. Leon dying at the end of Gaiden is false, I don't know how the idea he died got started at all. Why would Capcom have killed him off in a GBC game of all things?

[News Bot]

I read it in an interview in a magazine about RE 3.5. Discussing Leons infection he clearly indicated he was infected during Gaiden, I remember it having an image of Leons neck from Gaiden on the page also. Leon dying at the end of Gaiden is false, I don't know how the idea he died got started at all. Why would Capcom have killed him off in a GBC game of all things?

If this is the interview I think you're referring to, it was confirmed fake. But still, please provide the source because your memory alone won't suffice if nobody else has never seen it either. And the B.O.W. bleeds green blood when it is impersonating someone. There is no infection at all in Gaiden, it's a shape-shifting B.O.W. that bleeds green blood. The blood is used as a plot device earlier in the game when it impersonates Lucia. At the end of the game, Leon is dead and the B.O.W. is impersonating him. That's why the ending is sinister.

And they would kill him off because it isn't canon. Why would they have him killed off in a third person shooter? Oh wait...

[Dracarys]

Killing Leon is optional in ORC, same as killing Barry or Rebecca in RE1/REmake. Did you post a link? You said "If this is the interview I think you're referring to" but presented nothing, what is 'this'? It is real anyway it was a magazine I actually read, not heard about. I probably still have it in storage somewhere at my dads.

...and Leon was not dead, the game and its visuals were just very limited.

[News Bot]

Killing Leon is optional in ORC, same as killing Barry or Rebecca in RE1/REmake. Did you post a link? You said "If this is the interview I think you're referring to" but presented nothing, what is 'this'? It is real anyway it was a magazine I actually read, not heard about. I probably still have it in storage somewhere at my dads.

...and Leon was not dead, the game and its visuals were just very limited.

The link doesn't work anymore for it (WayBack Machine has failed us) but:

GamingWorld - X Clusive Interview: Resident Evil 4 with Capcom (November 20, 2002)
GamingWorld X News - Statement from John Luedtke Regarding Biohazard 4 (November 21, 2002)

You still need to specify what magazine and who was the actual subject of the interview, because I have a feeling if it even says anything about Gaiden, it's a comment from the magazine editor. Otherwise someone would have picked up on it being a statement from the developers.

And Leon IS dead. He never makes it off the ship. Read again.

And the B.O.W. bleeds green blood when it is impersonating someone. There is no infection at all in Gaiden, it's a shape-shifting B.O.W. that bleeds green blood. The blood is used as a plot device earlier in the game when it impersonates Lucia. At the end of the game, Leon is dead and the B.O.W. is impersonating him. That's why the ending is sinister.

Green blood does not represent infection. It represents the B.O.W. impersonating a human being. If you played Gaiden you'd understand it better I think because it's a major plot device during the game when there are suddenly two Lucias. One is Lucia, the other (which bleeds green blood) is the B.O.W. To be blunt this whole idea you have about infection in Gaiden in general = nonsense, because it never happens. Every molecule in "Leon" at the end is not Leon, it is a B.O.W.

[Dracarys]

Yes I get the thing about the B.O.W being identified earlier in the game, I own and have played and completed it. But the GBC graphics were crap so they used green blood to show infection, leading to the confusion. Is why it uses a question mark instead of a exclamation mark when it shows it, a question mark serves no purpose when we know what it means.

I've never read a magazine called gaming world, back 10 years ago almost the only mags I ever bought were Gamesmaster (for the posters!) and OPM (for demos), rarely anything else though I did often buy other mags for RE artworks. It was in Gamesmaster I am almost sure though.

[News Bot]

Yes I get the thing about the B.O.W being identified earlier in the game, I own and have played and completed it. But the GBC graphics were crap so they used green blood to show infection, leading to the confusion. Is why it uses a question mark instead of a exclamation mark when it shows it, a question mark serves no purpose when we know what it means.

I've never read a magazine called gaming world, back 10 years ago almost the only mags I ever bought were Gamesmaster (for the posters!) and OPM (for demos), rarely anything else though I did often buy other mags for RE artworks. It was in Gamesmaster I am almost sure though.

Once again, there is no infection. That's just speculation on your part and the game says otherwise. Completely unfounded. And thanks, but keep searching for the issue so we can get something concrete.