Warning: Incorporates (very minor) spoilers for the ending of Resident Evil Requiem.
In an intersection of my explicit pursuits that I most actually did not have on my 2026 bingo card, followers of the Resident Evil franchise – and specifically its recently-released ninth most important entry, Resident Evil Requiem – have instantly develop into obsessive about a really completely different favorite of mine: sci-fi otome gacha cellular recreation Love and Deepspace.
Typically when followers of a well-regarded trade staple like RE take a sudden curiosity in a newcomer like LaDS, particularly one which’s very overtly female-gaze-coded, it is to dunk on one thing they discover objectionable. So I used to be very pleasantly shocked to be taught that members of the Resi group have in actual fact taken to LaDS due to a sudden fondness for one of many characters – and it simply so occurs to be my very own clear favorite husbando, aloof but kindly physician Zayne.
So, what made the Resi fandom resolve to undertake LaDS basically and Zayne specifically? Effectively, all of it comes all the way down to a small scene in RE9 that gained a disproportionate quantity of consideration: a slight gesture co-protagonist Leon Kennedy makes within the recreation’s good ending that was interpreted by many gamers as him eradicating a marriage ring from his internal jacket pocket, presumably putting it again on his finger now that the hazard of the scenario has lastly handed. This all occurs whereas Leon’s again is to the digicam, by the way, so there’s a great deal of ambiguity at play right here; however however, fandom did what fandom does and ran with the concept.
Officers at Capcom have gone forwards and backwards on whether or not this was intentional or not, with recreation director Koshi Nakanishi initially dismissing the favored fan interpretation, however later electing to fire up additional hypothesis by showing to lean into the concept. Both method, although, there isn’t any placing that genie again within the bottle, and conjecture is now rife as to who Leon may need married throughout his 13-year-long absence from the video games’ timeline. Ada? Claire? Ashley? Chris? Somebody altogether extra shocking? On condition that Leon has generated a type of adorably awkward chemistry with mainly each different character he is shared a scene with since 1998, the chances are considerable.
However simply what does this must do with Love and Deepspace? Effectively, even in case you do not play the sport, its huge recognition signifies that anybody who spends enough time on social media might be accustomed to the lovingly realised, hyper-detailed 3D fashions of the 5 love pursuits – and post-Requiem, it did not take keen shippers lengthy to level out that LaDS’ Bachelor #2, Zayne, bears a powerful similarity to the theoretical youngster of Leon and his long-time frenemy-with-benefits Ada Wong.
There’s a sure resemblance between Zayne’s sharp options and people of Ada’s newest mannequin within the RE Engine video games, for positive; and whereas the likeness to Leon is a little more tenuous, assuming {that a} desire for curtained fringes and sensible but dapper fits is genetic amongst bundles of pixels, I can undoubtedly see that too.
There’s additionally the outstanding coincidence of each Zayne and RE9-era Leon having outstanding scarring on their fingers as a serious plot level, though I am unsure most Resi followers have gotten that far of their reasoning but. Regardless, although, these exhibiting a tongue-in-cheek desperation to “show” by some means that their ship is the one which sailed off-screen are going all-in on the speculation that Zayne is the offspring of a Leon/Ada marriage. If nothing else, Leon’s seemingly bottomless effectively of terrible puns absolutely signifies that he is a first-rate candidate for fatherhood.
As a Resi fan who’s additionally well-versed in LaDS lore, I declare that there are professionals and cons to this concept, as you’d anticipate. Leon, Ada, and Zayne are a uncommon group of online game characters for whom we’ve fairly agency canonical beginning years, in order of October 2026 when RE9 takes place, we all know that Leon is round 49, Ada a number of years older at 52-ish, and Zayne a mere babe of 5 (since he will not begin exchanging longing appears to be like with LaDS’ heroine till far-off future yr 2048). So the Wong-Kennedys could be older dad and mom, for positive, however it’s not completely unfeasible, particularly in the event that they managed to pull their entire will-they-won’t-they schtick out effectively into middle-age, which feels believable.
Additionally, no less than in LaDS’ English localisation, Zayne would not even have a canonical final title, so I imply… it might simply be Kennedy, or Wong, or some hyphenated mash-up of the 2, actually. Sadly for this concept, although, he’s actually the solely character in Love and Deepspace whose dad and mom are each recognized – and are in actual fact nonetheless alive, even making an occasional look within the story. And whereas they don’t seem to be vital sufficient to the plot to have names, they do have a firmly established backstory: each are medical doctors, like their son, and have spent a lot of the previous a number of many years in far-flung locations offering humanitarian emergency medical outreach — which makes them appear distinctively un-Leon-and-Ada-like.
So on steadiness it is beginning to seem like Capcom and Infold have not really been secretly collaborating on maybe the least doubtless however arguably finest online game crossover ever – however I do love a shared universe concept, the extra unhinged the higher, so I am onboard even when my internal lorekeeper cannot cease declaring these pesky contradictions. Sure, though I’ve at all times personally most well-liked the concept of Leon ending up with both Claire, Ashley, or Luis (sob) – that is the primary time I’ve severely thought of dabbling in Aeon (that is Ada/Leon delivery, for the uninitiated).
Wait, I’ve simply realised: “Aeon’s Canon” was, I child you not, the seemingly arbitrary and nonsensical title of the brand new Zayne card launched for LaDS’ second anniversary again in January! I imply: “Aeon” is “canon”? I take all of it again, this can’t be a coincidence and is evidently proof of a deep-level multi-developer conspiracy…
Different LaDS followers are additionally revelling within the surprising enjoyable of discovering their favorite recreation within the Resident Evil fandom’s highlight, with some even declaring that Zayne’s private Mr Hyde – his alt-universe doppelganger and occasional main-timeline bodysnatcher Dawnbreaker, a person ostracised as a suspected serial killer when he’s in actual fact euthanising victims of an incurable cosmic an infection simply earlier than they rework into harmful monsters – does sort of really feel like he originates from the world of Resident Evil, really, so who’s to say that is not the place the connection lies? It is all coming collectively.
