Ada Wong

Ada Wong is a character in Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. She was introduced in Resident Evil 2 (1998) as a spy and mercenary who infiltrates the pharmaceutical company Umbrella Corporation to steal a biological weapon during a zombie outbreak in Raccoon City. Although Ada is often hired by antagonists, she betrayed her employers for her own agendas and saved protagonist Leon S. Kennedy from dire situations.

Ada is featured in several Resident Evil games, novelizations, and films, and has also appeared in other game franchises such as Project X Zone, Teppen, and Dead by Daylight. Several actresses have portrayed the character, including Sally Cahill in her initial video game appearance, and Li Bingbing and Lily Gao in the live-action Resident Evil films.

Video game publications have described Ada as one of the best Asian female video game characters. She received mostly unfavorable reviews for her appearance in Resident Evil 4 and was considered more sexualized than other female game characters. Several publications commended her portrayal as a morally ambiguous femme fatale, but others argued that she was designed to appeal to the male gaze.

Concept and design
Ada was introduced as a supporting character in Capcom's 1998 survival horror video game Resident Evil 2. She was initially conceived as a researcher named Linda who helps the player throughout the game, but director Hideki Kamiya wanted to develop her into a full character. The name "Ada", which was conceived by game designer Kazunori Kadoi, was first mentioned in the original Resident Evil (1996). Kamiya changed Linda's name to Ada to provide a link to the first game, and writer Noboru Sugimura expanded the character's backstory and made her an enigmatic corporate spy. Ada was designed by artist Isao Ohishi, although her cutscene model was not completed in time for the game's release, resulting in her being the only character omitted from its cinematics.

Ada Wong is a Chinese-American spy and mercenary. She is hired to steal a sample of the G-virus for an unnamed organization in Resident Evil 2. Ada is shown wearing a red dress and high heels. Ada and protagonist Leon S. Kennedy save each other's lives throughout the game. The timing of a kiss sequence between Leon and Ada's caused considerable debate among the development team. In the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2, they gave more background to Leon and Ada's romance as it was felt it developed too quickly in the original game. Executive producer Jun Takeuchi suggested that the kiss between Leon and Ada should occur earlier in the remake. In a Siliconera interview, Kamiya said he believed that it works out because it "makes Ada feel more manipulative of Leon". Her red dress is initially covered by a beige trench coat in the remake. Kadoi said that "wandering around in that dress just getting on with your job as a spy probably doesn't look as realistic and believable as we want in this new game".

Ada and Leon's relationship is further explored in Resident Evil 4 and its "Separate Ways" minigame. Her outfit was altered into a red side-split dress with a choker and high heels. The title screen for "Separate Ways" was inspired by the 1990 film La Femme Nikita; Ada is shown in the same pose as the lead character, Nikita in the film’s poster. The developers of the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4 have replaced Ada's red dress in order to distance her from the derogatory Dragon Lady trope, which portrays Asian female characters as "deceitful, mysterious, villainous, and domineering" according to Harri Chan of Polygon. In the downloadable content (DLC) "Separate Ways", she uses a grappling gun for combat and traversal.

In Resident Evil 6, players can unlock Ada after completing three individual character campaigns. Executive producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi believed this made her storyline "more enjoyable" and enhanced her ambiguity because "one of the themes of Ada's story is a lone spy working in secret". Ada's campaign was designed as being "a very classic Resident Evil-style" experience. Ada was intended to appear in Resident Evil Village as a mysterious masked person who saves the main protagonist, Ethan Winters, but was cut from the game due to the "conflicting scenarios", according to the concept art's caption.

Voice-over and live-action actresses
Voice actress Sally Cahill played Ada Wong in her initial appearance in Resident Evil 2, and reprised the role in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Ada has also been voiced by Megan Hollingshead in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and Courtenay Taylor in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Resident Evil 6, and Resident Evil: Damnation.

Michelle Lee provided the motion capture performance for Ada in Resident Evil 6. Jolene Andersen provided the voice and motion capture for Ada in the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2, having previously done the character's motion capture in Resident Evil: Damnation. Lily Gao, who played Ada in the live-action film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, provided the character's voice and motion capture in the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4. Junko Minagawa voiced Ada in the Japanese versions of the games.

Chinese actress Li Bingbing portrayed Ada in Resident Evil: Retribution, the fifth installment of the live-action Resident Evil film series. Lily Gao played the role in the 2021 reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

In the Resident Evil series
Resident Evil 2 takes place in 1998 in the fictional American metropolitan area of Raccoon City. Ada is hired by an unnamed organization to steal the G-virus mutagen developed by the Umbrella Corporation, a pharmaceutical company responsible for a zombie outbreak. She meets rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy and helps him destroy the T-103 Tyrant. Ada escapes with a sample of the virus before Raccoon City is destroyed by a nuclear strike as part of a U.S. government cover-up.

Resident Evil 4 is set in 2004 in a rural Spanish village, which has been taken over by the cult "Los Iluminados" (The Enlightened Ones) with the mind-controlling "Las Plagas" parasite. Ada is sent by Albert Wesker to retrieve a sample of the parasite, and she encounters Leon during his mission to rescue the U.S. president's daughter Ashley Graham, who the cult has abducted. Ada helps Leon kill rival mercenary Jack Krauser and cult leader Osmund Saddler, before escaping in a helicopter with the sample. Later ports of Resident Evil 4 include a new scenario featuring Ada as the playable protagonist. Entitled "Separate Ways", it depicts the events of the main game from her perspective; a series of unlockable records, designated "Ada's Report", detail Ada's motives behind her mission.

Resident Evil 6 takes place in 2012 in the fictional Chinese city of Lanshiang. The game allows players to select between four scenarios with interwoven storylines, and Ada's campaign becomes available upon completion of those of Leon, Chris Redfield, and Jake Muller's scenarios. Ada initially operates as a lone spy, but is forced to join the other protagonists in confronting rogue National Security Advisor Derek C. Simmons, a former associate of Ada's who is obsessed with her, and Carla Radames, who is forcibly transformed by Simmons into Ada's doppelgänger. After killing Carla and helping Leon defeat Simmons, Ada destroys Carla's lab and takes on a new assignment.

Other appearances
Ada features in several of the Resident Evil films. In the director Paul W. S. Anderson's fifth live-action film Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), Ada is a former agent of Umbrella who teams up with Alice to escape from an underwater Umbrella facility in the Russian Far North. She did not return in the final film, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), dying offscreen. Ada appears in the mid-credits scene of the reboot film, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021). She was originally intended to have a larger role, but director Johannes Roberts believed that there were too many characters in the film. Ada also features as the female protagonist in the adult animated film Resident Evil: Damnation (2012). Ada poses as a Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) agent to infiltrate the Eastern Slav Republic and obtain a sample of the "Las Plagas" parasite used in the country's civil war.

Ada is a playable character in non-canonical Resident Evil games. She features in the "Heroes Mode" of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (2012), and the online multiplayer game Resident Evil Re:Verse (2022). She also appears in games from other franchises, including the browser-based social game Onimusha Soul (2013), as a non-player character in the tactical role-playing game Project X Zone 2 (2015), Dead by Daylight (2016) as a playable character, Street Fighter V (2016) as an alternate skin for Kolin, as a costume in Knives Out (2017), as a fighter in Puzzle Fighter (2017), and in the digital collectible card game Teppen (2019). In 2023, she also appeared in the two crossover events of mobile games.

Ada features in novelization of the films and games and plays a supporting role in the third novel, Resident Evil: City of the Dead (1999), in a series by S. D. Perry. Capcom screenwriters created two Resident Evil 2 radio dramas, such as Ikiteita Onna Spy Ada (The Female Spy Ada Lives). The dramas were broadcast on Radio Osaka in 1999 and later released by Suleputer as two CDs entitled Biohazard 2 Drama Album. Set a few days after the events of the game, they follow Ada's mission to retrieve Sherry Birkin's pendant with the G-virus sample from Umbrella enforcer HUNK, but Ada ultimately realizes her feelings for Leon and decides to quit the espionage business to return to him. Canonically, the characters' story arcs continue differently; Ada keeps the pendant with the G-virus and resumes her espionage. Several comic books based on the games were released, and she is a character in Bandai's Resident Evil Deck Building Card Game (2011). Merchandise featuring Ada includes action figures, figurines, statues, plushies, and t-shirts. Sources for Ada Wong-related action merchandises:

Reception
Game publications described Ada Wong as among the most popular and best female video game. Magazines also praised her as one of the best female villain, with capabilities to star in her own video game. Lara Crigger of The Escapist called Ada a femme fatale and "feminist role model" who is "beautiful and sexual" in the mold of Simone de Beauvoir's existentialist philosophy. The Guardian journalists have praised Ada's intelligence and her tendency to be "numerous steps ahead of everyone else". Kimberly Terasaki of The Mary Sue and Harri Chan of Polygon have both mentioned Ada's relationship with Leon; Chan has described it as a hallmark of a sexpionage trope. However, Chan criticized it, stating that the issue is not that Ada and Leon have a romance, but rather that Ada is not provided any other path for character growth. Play editor Gavin Mackenzie criticized her perceived "bitch" personality in Resident Evil 4 in retrospective from the events of Resident Evil 2. Mike Wehner of The Escapist said, "Capcom’s manipulation of the Resident Evil timeline hasn’t exactly been kind to this particular theory surrounding Ada Wong’s fate" when Ada returned in Resident Evil 4 after her supposed death in Resident Evil 2. According to Wehner, Capcom buried Ada’s death in series lore to the extent that "you’re not supposed to acknowledge that it even exists".

Ada has repeatedly been brought into broader analyses of the male gaze in video games. Although digital media scholar Esther MacCallum-Stewart said that Resident Evil's female characters possess unique qualities making them viable choices for players to select over their male counterparts, and said their combat attire helped them avoid criticism of adhering to the male gaze. Critic Bernard Perron said that Ada's introduction in Resident Evil 4 includes the "traditional male gaze montage"; in-game cinematics focus on her body and slit dress, but her identity is not revealed. Matt Cundy of GamesRadar+ called Ada's outfit unrealistic in the game's context, and anyone dressed for a zombie apocalypse "in an elegant side-split evening gown, choker and high heels would have to be certifiably mental". In Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian criticized Ada's outfit as too revealing. She also cited that Ada was dressed and styled her outfit was meant to attract to men, who she assumed were viewers or players.

According to the author Andrei Nae, Ada and Ashley Graham "correspond to the submissive woman–femme fatale character couple. While Leon's authority over Ashley is total, Ada remains outside of the control of the male protagonist." Stephanie Jennings, writing in Feminism in Play, suggested that Ada's sexualization aims to create a meaningful gaming experience for female gamers. Opportunities to experience Ada's chapter as a transgressive gender performance may be multiplied by "gazing through, with, and at her as a woman&mdash;or as a practiced feminine gazer." Ada and Resident Evil 6 also serve as examples of the intersectional potentials of feminine gaze, according to Jennings. She claimed that although Ada is one of the few multicultural characters in the series, she expressed disappointment about the games' complete whitewashing of her Chinese-American heritage and lack of progress. Jenny Platz opined that Ada is genderfluid, and contrasted her with "sexless object" characters such as Resident Evil Claire Redfield and Rebecca Chambers. Platz wrote that Ada possesses attributes "typically associated with males" including strength and intelligence, and a "traits typically associated with females, such as beauty and poise".

Lily Gao's vocal performance as Ada in the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4 was criticized by fans, thus resulting in the game being review bombed. Gao deleted her Instagram posts after she was harassed online, later saying: "My Ada is a survivor. She is unpredictable, resilient, and absolutely not a stereotype." According to Michael McWhertor of Polygon, Ada's "enigmatic character" is "flattened" by her "stiff" voice acting. He described her discourse as "stilted and unnatural—at times completely devoid of emotion" and wonder whether her English-language voice actor was given improper direction in an attempt to generate a separate type of cool to set her apart from Leon.