William Birkin
William Birkin is a male video game character who features in Resident Evil.
Contents |
Biography
William Birkin (Japanese: ウィリアム・バーキン, Hepburn: Wiriamu Bākin?) was a male human who lived in the modern age. A child prodigy, he was noted to had earnt his doctorate when he was only a teenager. In 1977, he was 15 years old when he came to be employed by the Umbrella Corporation and took part in an executive training program at a laboratory in Arklay Counter under the oversight of Dr. James Marcus. In this time, he came to meet Dr. Albert Wesker where the two developed a friendly rivalry whilst at the training school where they were conditioned in Umbrella's ethical ideals. By July 29, 1978, their training had concluded and it was decided to close down the training school with both Birkin and Wesker being offered senior positions at the Arklay Laboratory with the two transferring to that facility only two days later.
Husband of Annette and father of Sherry, William Birkin was the brilliant scientist who developed the G-Virus for Umbrella, Inc. in the underground laboratories beneath Raccoon City. Fearful that Umbrella would be as careless with the G-Virus as they had been with the T-Virus, Birkin opted not to turn his life's work over to the company.
This didn't sit well with Umbrella, who sent a squad of Cleaners to assassinate Birkin and steal a sample of the G-Virus. The mission did not go entirely as planned. The Cleaners did shoot Birkin, but they only wounded him, and they also grabbed the wrong sample case (they stole a case of T-Virus samples instead of G). The dying Birkin injected himself with one of only four known samples of the G-Virus, mutating into an ever-evolving G-Type creature, a hideous mockery of humanity.
In this form, he hunted down and killed all of the Cleaners save Hunk, and in the process the case of T-Virus broke open, and the virus was spread by rats through the city. The mutated Birkin then spent the rest of his unnatural life skulking around in the sewers of Raccoon, occasionally turning up to menace Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, and he was also responsible for the deaths of Ben Bertolucci and Brian Irons.
After evolving into numerous forms, each more powerful than the last and looking less and less human with each transformation, Birkin was finally killed aboard an Umbrella train when it was blown up by Leon and Claire following their escape from Raccoon City.
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
Birkin injected himself with the G-Virus and mutating into a G-Mutant who looked for a host to propagate his species and implanted his embryos in a few victims. Nevertheless, only hosts with the same DNA structure were capable of accepting his embryos.
Dr. Birkin's initial mutation kept much of his body unchanged, with the mutations only being seen on the right side of the body, with the arm, torso and face being affected as it was on this side of the body he was shot. The mutation made William's right side of his body grotesquely increase in muscle mass, making his skin tear up and take on a turn a sickly reddish hue, while in most of his shoulder arises a large blood-red eyeball beneath a large bone-like protrusion exposed. The mutated musculature on its right side is much more pronounced and there are more protrusions similar to bones near the eyeball. The left side of the body is more recognizably human. A side effect of maintaining a human brain was occasional bouts of dizziness. The G1 form appeared in two stages, distinguished by the appearance of claws on the mutated right hand, which were used on 23 September to kill a number of USS operators. By the night of 29 September, Dr. Birkin had evolved to no longer require them, instead having an enlarged but otherwise human hand capable of handling weapons. G1's right arm periodically 'de-evolves' slightly, becoming smaller as the eye on the shoulder closes and the spikes retract; this seems to represent Birkin attempting to restrain the G-Virus's degenerative effects on his mind, although it's clearly a losing battle. Birkin seemed to retain a degree of his humanity; when his right arm shrinks, his cries become less monstrous and distorted, he screams "Sherry!", "Help Me!" and "Kill!", and he occasionally pauses to swing at thin air or attempt to pry open the eyeball on his shoulder, leaving him vulnerable. In cutscenes, he also appears to be attempting to protect Sherry by attacking threats to her safety before the G-Virus instincts take over once again.
Notes
- William Birkin was created by Capcom where he featured in the Resident Evil universe.
In other media
Television
Films
- In Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, William Birkin appeared in the setting of the 2021 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Neal McDonough.
Appearances
- Resident Evil 2:
External Links
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