This. It amuses me that some people are raising the argument that “oh but if it’s canon it should have been in the game” when so many of us clued onto Alcina’s lesbian-coding the moment the Maiden demo was out. The virgin blood business model, the candidates, the statues, the flirty “oh we don’t bite” to the maid from the journal, and let us not forget that damn smile at the very end. “So we finally meet” as a line, in the way it was delivered, tells us so much about Alcina’s characterization, especially when put into contrast with how she behaves towards Ethan in the main game. Then the puzzle description, the Maidens Of The Harvest painting, more statues of women in intimate positions (we don’t talk about the doors enough), the abundance of nun imagery in direct relation to Alcina’s figure (again, we don’t talk about the doors enough), the piano song…
None of these have anything to do with the actual script, mind you. These are all storytelling elements that are part of the game design, so presumably something the writers would not have had much input in, and yet the argument still stands. It even transcends language - my first exposure to the full game was the PT-BR dub, in which Alcina very elegantly calls Ethan a “bicho-homem” (“bicho” - a rather crude way of saying animal, “homem” - man, putting the two together gives a very dehumanizing expression that hits the same tone of repulse as man-thing in my opinion).
Hell, if the subtext hadn’t been there from day one, I probably wouldn’t have had any interest in the game to begin with.
Her hatred of men is self-evident - and frankly understandable given that she would have been a chronically-ill lesbian born in early 20th century Europe (?), and thus directly impacted by two great wars, rampant misogyny, and medical practices ranging from things that would get your license ripped from you nowadays to straight up eugenics - but even the devs from the Japanese studio brought it up multiple times during interviews. Johnston’s ideas (in a podcast he explained that Lady D had no personality or story beyond her base design when he got hired, and that he was the one to develop these things - hence the award being in his name) WERE clearly taken into consideration when it came to the design of House Dimitrescu.
And her love of women… If she were a man, there would never have been any question of her twisted, predatory attraction to the girls she kills. She is a play on Dracula, after all, and Lugosi didn’t have women flocking to the movies for no reason. The vampire is an allegory for predatory (homoerotic) sexuality etc etc etc. And, if I am allowed to be bold, I would even say that if Miranda had been a man instead, people would have just as fast latched onto Alcina’s infatuation towards her, horrendous as it naturally is within the greater context of the story. It is a HORROR game - that is the sphere in which all romance in the RE franchise can exist, in one way or another.
(Something that is also worth mentioning is that during RE8’s development, there were allegedly big talks within Capcom about representation, particularly of LGBT+ characters and women, as well as tackling stereotypes in a way that serves the storytelling.)
Is it explicit representation? No. Can we do better? Yes. Do we deserve better? Absolutely.
BUT…
No amount of lesbophobia from the fandom will change the fact that I am over the moon about this confirmation.