Albert Wesker's Psyche

Albert Wesker's Psyche
---And understanding women's love for Assholes---

I've written a psyche on the Joker and now I will write one about Albert Wesker from the Resident Evil game series. Many men and guy friends in my life have approached me with the question that dumbfounds them about why so many women fall for assholes or classic fictional badassies like Albert Wesker. Well today I'm going to answer that question for you because the same question confounded me for years too until I found myself falling for the same type of guy. The reason us women fall for guys like that believe it or not has NOTHING to do with them being an asshole. No one likes an asshole because of one reason: "the golden rule". Even self loving egotistic bastards don't enjoy being treated like crap even if they treat others like that. It's just a universal feeling. The typical asshole usually has the personality of an alpha-male.

Wisegeek.com: In human societies alpha male can mean very different things. Some use the term to mean the guy who seems most at ease with women and can essentially marry or date any woman of his choice. In this sense the alpha male is often good-looking, has a great build, and may have a relatively high socioeconomic status. These distinctions may be less noticed in human groups like high school settings.

Generally the alpha male (or a group of alpha males) are the cutest guys, usually muscle-bound, sometimes the "jocks," while beta males may be less assured around females and may participate in less "male" activities. In work settings, the alpha male may be a natural leader, exuding confidence. But he also may be contentious, demanding and difficult to work with. This is thought to be in part due to the alpha male attempting to retain his stature, however unconsciously, as alpha. Being the top salesperson, the quickest worker, the most aggressive boss may contribute to remaining at the top, and the alpha male has a tendency to respond aggressively to any attempts by others to outshine him.

This is true in non-human settings too. The alpha male is continually being tested to see if he remains dominant and may need to stage pitched fights with upcoming males in a group to remain "top dog." In the human setting, the alpha male usually doesn't fight physically, but instead acts with language, brusque or dismissive behavior, or with other tactics to remain at the top.

Though leaders in a company are excellent to have, alpha male characteristics in the workplace may not always be seen as positive. Aggression and disregard for others are not necessarily inspiring. Some people better lead by being "beta" and having good communication skills, sensitivity toward others, and downplaying their strengths so they can showcase the strengths of others.

The alpha male in adult society is likely to be confident, attractive, and wealthy. Questions remain as to whether the alpha male can retain mates, since relationships often require ability to compromise, to discuss feelings and to be sensitive. Some alpha males have these characteristics typically thought of as beta, but many of them lack such traits. You can certainly point to prominent alpha males in our society who seem to have poor track records with women, either involving themselves in a succession of failed relationships or marrying one woman after another, with no marriage lasting for very long.

Getting Lost in this psycho-babble?

Okay let's break this down one by one. First let's go over the statistics here. The vast majority of women out there (not all), but most are very sexually submissive. And sexually submissive women seek out sexually dominant men. The more submissive they are, the more they want their guy to be dominant because the opposite extremes attract. I myself can attest to this because I am one of those very sexually submissive women. The reason that women or "fan-girls" love Wesker so much is mainly for this reason. So again, it has NOTHING to do with him being an asshole. Its everything ELSE that comes with his personality. So what are the characteristics of Wesker that sums up everything above that is stated by wisegeek.com?

Wesker's Characteristics

• Confident
• Arrogant
• Attractive
• Swimmer's Athletic Build
• Wealthy
• Egotistic
• Selfish
• Dominant
• Aggressive
• Manipulative

Now I'm not going to sit here and say that all alpha males are assholes. There are guys out there that I have met that are quiet dominant, very extraverted and outgoing, and is usually the top dog or life of the party. And guess what? They were the sweetest guys I have ever met. So no, not all alpha males are "assholes" but most of them are.

Considering all these characteristics, they're exactly what is mostly described as an alpha male. And all these characteristics play into that "dominant" feature that makes an alpha male shine. Confidence is also a key factor into why submissive women and or other women love alpha males because "confidence" is a key factor to showing an attractiveness to any person, be it woman or man. One other reason why us fan-girls love Wesker so much is that he's one of the rare few baddies out there that actually manages to get shit done. Yes he hires a few subordinates here and there, but he single handedly took down Umbrella and he also single handedly took down Rockfort Island with ease and acquired his T-Veronica virus sample with ease. Now that we've covered over why most women love "assholes", now we shall get into Albert Wesker's psyche. Considering everything above now that we know his personality type for the most part, we can now cover other questions that people have commonly asked me about the character in general.

Why does Wesker hate Chris Redfield so much?

There are quite a few reasons why Wesker hates Chris so much. As stated above "…the alpha male has a tendency to respond aggressively to any attempts by others to outshine him." In the beginning of the series in Resident Evil 1, the main members of S.T.A.R.S "alpha" team were: Jill, Chris, Barry, and Wesker. Albert Wesker was the captain of the S.T.A.R.S. unit and if there's one thing an alpha male cannot stand is another alpha male or a male in general that can par up to their level. In Code Veronica X Wesker admits only once that Chris was his "best man" so in that regard we know how Wesker views Chris. Wesker claims that Chris ruined all his plans, which doesn't really make sense to me or really anyone else. Wesker allowed himself to be killed by the Tyrant, but it was the efforts of both Chris and Jill that took out the Tyrant. And even in Code Veronica it wasn't just Chris that got in Wesker's way. It was also Chris's sister, Claire and Alexia. So again you come to the same question; why does Wesker hate Chris? When you boil it down, if you have a plan and it gets screwed up, what is the first thing a person loves to do? They love to cast blame. Everyone plays the "blame game" and so we have to ask who would be the first most likely person that Wesker would blame? drum roll Chris Redfield. And this goes back to Wesker admitting Chris was his best man.

What does Wesker believe in?

In Resident Evil 5 all Wesker talked about was "natural selection".

wikipedia.com  natural selection is the process by which traits become more or less common in a population due to consistent effects upon the survival or reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution.

He's an evolutionist ergo he believes in the classic Darwinism. Now many veteran RE fans very much dislike RE 5 mainly with where the story was taken and especially with what Capcom did to Wesker and all this "I am a gawd" crap, but as much as I want to argue against it, simultaneously I agree with it because it matches his way of thinking. Wesker is an alpha male and from the get go he chased after power. He talks about his thoughts on power in Umbrella Chronicles when he states that "The only thing that can defeat power is more power. That is the one constant in this universe. However there is no point in power if it consumes itself." And when someone constantly seeks after stronger power to gain more control, what normally happens? "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Which is exactly what happened. From the beginning Wesker pumped himself with the T-Virus and his body was able to contain the virus and not be consumed by it. In Resident Evil 5 he had to pump himself with a serum that stabilized the T-Virus in him. The games don't mention him ever pumping himself with a serum before to maintain the T-Virus, but even zombies don't live forever. He's 49 years old in RE 5 and with that virus in him he's going to eventually deteriorate as well as his power.

Considering this one could say Wesker is a professional junkie. And considering he already has the T-Virus in his body and with him aging and his body becoming less manageable with the virus, it isn't much of a stretch to say that pumping your body with such things could eventually get to your head. And if Spencer managed to mentally affect Wesker from the beginning by implanting some type of emotional anxiety to cause Wesker to seek him out, who knows what else he did to Wesker because in Resident Evil 5 before Wesker kills him off, Spencer kept talking about the same thing; natural selection and creating a new world of super human beings. So maybe that same trait passed on to Wesker? That's just a theory, but it makes sense.

Is Wesker easy to please?

Believe it or not he is very, easy to please because what is the one thing that he needs and or desires from anyone, especially if they're working with him? Being useful. As long as you prove yourself useful to Wesker, then he keep you alive for as long as you're able to do so. Is that an easy thing to do? No, but it keeps Wesker happy. A perfect example from Umbrella Chronicles is when Ada meets up with Wesker over the video relay. The city is on the brink of being bombed and she's badly beaten up, but does Wesker care? Of course not. He gives her a little chat about how disappointed he was with her and helping Leon, but then she pulls out a sample of Birkin's G-Virus and shows it to Wesker.

And what does Wesker do? He immediately turns the table and helps her get out of the city by telling her the location of a chopper that she can escape on. Why does he help her? So he can get the G-Virus sample. In the end despite what she did, Wesker immediately forgave because she proved herself very useful. Out of the two subordinates we know Wesker has recruited; Ada and Krauser, Ada has proved herself the most useful. And she proves herself again, useful, in Resident Evil 4 when she gets the Plagas sample, but when she hopped on the helicopter and she reported Krauser was dead, again Wesker seemed to care less. Why? Because his objective was already fulfilled thanks to Ada getting the sample......that is until she decides to give him a fake sample. But again its all about the usefulness. If you can't be useful than why does Wesker need you?

Why does Wesker not kill Chris?

Okay there are many reasons I have come up with that might or might not support why he doesn't kill Chris even though he had PLENTY of opportunities in the games to do it. First let's look at Wesker's alpha-male personality. As stated above, "The alpha male is continually being tested to see if he remains dominant and may need to stage pitched fights with upcoming males in a group to remain "top dog." In the human setting, the alpha male usually doesn't fight physically, but instead acts with language, brusque or dismissive behavior, or with other tactics to remain at the top." With this statement here one could argue that since Wesker loves to seamlessly bitch slap Chris around in all the video games he encounters Chris in, you'd think Wesker purposely keeps him around just for that very reason. If you think from Wesker's point of view, the only real reason he would kill something is if he felt it was a true threat to his plans.

In Code Veronica X at the end of the game during the final fight with Wesker, Chris would have seem to have gotten the upper hand when he injured Wesker's face. Wesker could have easily killed him at any of those moments, but he let Chris go. Why? Because Chris ultimately wasn't that big of a threat. He had already obtained the virus sample he originally came for so his mission was already complete. Chris just happened to be there and gave Wesker some amusement. In Resident Evil 5 during the second fight with Wesker he states, "You've become quiet an inconvenience for me." As irritated as he was with his out breathing before he threw his glasses at Chris, "inconvenience" pales in comparison to the word "obstacle" because an "obstacle" is something that is usually in your way, something you have to struggle to get past. But with the way Wesker stated "inconvenience" he made it seem like it wasn't really that big of a deal. All he was doing was standing around on the balcony above his plane anyway, so its not like he had anything better to do.

So again this goes back to that whole "true threat" theory. Wesker feels he has the upper hand in everything and he very much enjoys playing with his victims as that is also another very dominant feature and because Chris can par up to Wesker's level, maybe Wesker feels like he has to prove how weak and pathetic Chris is and how Chris' attempts no matter what he does are futile? Even at the end of the game when Chris and Sheva get on his plane, Wesker practically had a gun to Chris' head and instead of shooting what does he do? He monologues Chris about his feeble attempts at stopping him, but before the fight began he stated "I may have underestimated you Chris." It's very rare Wesker admits something like that, however again Wesker loves to play with his victims and if he felt that his plan was already in motion and couldn't be stopped then why kill his prey if he has entertainment to keep him busy while the plane flies to wherever it was he was taking it?

One other theory I have, at least for the end of Resident Evil 5 is that maybe Wesker didn't kill Chris because if Wesker's plan actually went through, I'm sure there would have been nothing more satisfying then Uroboros taking over Chris body and killing him. I could see very much how that would pleasure Wesker. So bottom line being, if your prey is going to die anyway, than why kill them right away? Why not play with them for a bit before their inevitable doom? The last theory I have which I seriously doubt is true, but maybe there's one last bit of humanity left in Wesker that kept him from killing Chris. I seriously, seriously doubt it though.

What does Wesker enjoy?

Everyone has a fetish, be it small or large, strange or not so strange. And the one thing that Wesker constantly loves to do is choke people. I don't remember if he did in Umbrella Chronicles or Resident Evil 1, but in Code Veronica and Resident Evil 5, quite a few times he'd pick up his victims and hold them up in the air for long periods of time while he would monologue them egotistically. You can especially see how much he enjoys it when in Resident Evil 5 it shows the Spencer Mansion cutscene and he holds Jill up in the air by her neck while pressed up against a book shelf. The biggest grin on Wesker's face appears. I've never seen Wesker grin that much except when he's choking someone. So one could easily assume or theorize that he would probably get a sexual thrill out of that if anyone dared to lay in bed with him and fool around.   

My Other Favorite Baddies/Alpha Males

• Vergil from Devil May Cry 3
• Dark Prince from Prince of Persia 3: The 2 Thrones
• Grimmjow from Bleach
• Hades from Disney's Hercules
• Tiki from D.Gray-man
•    Joker from Batman