Sporting leather trench-coats and sharing similar characteristics in intelligence as they hunt down players, both Mr. X and the Nemesis are two of the most frightening villains in the Resident Evil series. Fans may wish to know exactly who, or what, they are, as the Nemesis will be carrying on Mr. X's legacy from the second game, in continuing to hunt down players through the corridors of Resident Evil 3 as its contemporary remake unleashes itself this April.
To start with the basics, Mr. X is a Tyrant, one of the most infamous monstrosities in the Resident Evil universe, while the Nemesis, a different enemy in its own right, is created largely from the body and physique of a Tyrant. But Mr. X and the Nemesis are no ordinary Tyrants, and it is first important to understand what a Tyrant is. In fact, the full name of the T-Virus is actually the Tyrant-Virus.
Essentially, Tyrants were the type of monstrosity Umbrella had in mind to create originally, and zombies created by the T-Virus, while Umbrella discovered they had their uses as well, were discovered more or less accidentally, during their experiments to make more advanced bio-weapons.
Tyrants, as part of the Tyrant Project, were the ultimate bio-weaponry aims of Umbrella's T-Virus by the 1980s, in creating a something that was powerful, and which maintained enough of the human host's original intelligence to carry out specific missions and directions. The Tyrant Project officially began in 1988, but Umbrella ran into complications keeping the human host's intelligence intact within the brain. Umbrella used prisoners as its T-Virus test subjects, presumably from Rockfort Island (the island prison facility Umbrella owned, which was the setting of the first half of Code Veronica).
Early attempts at creating a Tyrant failed, as only one in ten million people could handle the mutation into the Tyrant without either dying or losing all brain function. In Spring of 1998, a new T-Virus strain, known as the ε strain, was completed which could increase the odds that a test subject would be able to handle the full mutation into a powerful Tyrant. Additionally, it caused faster mutations and even more increased size and strength.
However, while the odds of success were increased on human hosts greatly, most still died in the process. Fortunately for Umbrella, three successful Tyrants were created among a batch of test subjects, known as T-001, T-002 and T-011.
T-001 was abandoned because it suffered too much mental degradation, but T-002 and T-011 continued being tested. Right after the Arklay Laboratory was compromised with the viral outbreak in Resident Evil 0 and 1, a cloned embryo of the T-002 was evacuated, so the Tyrant Project's research could continue. Most future Tyrants in future games were modified clones from the T-002 embryo. These created cloned T-103 Tyrants, which could be made in mass production through cloning practices. The cloning processes circumvented the odds of mutation failures in trying to create a single Tyrant from scratch from a host.
Consequently, Mr. X was created from one of the mass produced T-103 Tyrant clones, but was actually known as a T-00 Tyrant. It is unclear if there is any difference in characteristics between a T-103 and a T-00, or if a T-00 is just the name of a T-103 with the specific mission of carrying out duties during the Raccoon City Outbreak. At most, the differences would be minimal and Mr. X is more or less a T-103 Tyrant created through cloning the T-002. Mr. X was air lifted and dropped into Raccoon City, and given two directions: to recover the G-Virus, and to kill any survivors in the Raccoon City Police Station.
The reason Mr. X, or the T-00, evolved and became more powerful later on in the storyline, eventually becoming a Super Tyrant, was because it suffered a number of injuries which de-activated its Power Limiter. This is a device that is installed on Tyrants to keep them from mutating to such an extent that they can no longer be controlled or maintain their mental composure. In other words, Umbrella uses the Power Limiter to ensure that the Tyrant's remain within the perimeters of controlled chaos, rather than uncontrolled chaos.
Within Umbrella's same mission during the Raccoon City disaster, they also airlifted and deployed the infamous Nemesis, also known as the Nemesis-T Type, to Raccoon City. While it appears slightly different than Mr. X, with raw muscle exposed on the outside, the Nemesis and Mr. X are similar and both based on the T-103 Tyrants, but there are some nuances, and one huge difference. While Tyrant T-103s, or Mr. X itself, maintained intelligence close to humans, yet still fell short to a degree, the Nemesis had some extra features in its intelligence to compensate.
Partly, the Nemesis was deployed to test its stronger abilities in unique facial recognition of individuals in order to hunt them down. While Mr. X was given the mission to eliminate all witnesses in the Police Station, the Nemesis' mission was to eliminate specific types of witnesses and individuals and hunt them down, in this case members of S.T.A.R.S. In fact, the Nemesis was given photographs of individual S.T.A.R.S. members to hunt down. Also, the Nemesis was utilized the shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, in order to test its ability for weapon usage.
While both Mr. X and the Nemesis are T-103 Tyrants in terms of their physique, the Nemesis was part of an experiment by which it was implanted with a parasite known as the Nemesis Alpha, which takes over its brain's functions. The Nemesis Parasite was utilized to compensate for the reduced intelligence of regular T-103 Tyrants, such as Mr. X. The reduced intelligence T-103's also made them less controllable in a war zone, limiting their potential value and usage.
The Nemesis Parasite was created by Umbrella's European facilities, which were more focused on the preservation of intelligence, whereas Umbrella's U.S. headquarters were focused on Bio-Weapons that could produce strong physical abilities and power. The Nemesis was essentially the fusion of Umbrella's U.S. and European innovations in Bio-Weaponry research to create the ultimate Bio-Weapon in the Nemesis.
It can perhaps be theorized that the Nemesis was given orders to specifically kill S.T.A.R.S. members who were survivors of the Arklay Laboratory incident in Resident Evil 0 and 1, as they had killed Umbrella's T-002 Tyrant there. Perhaps Umbrella felt that if the Nemesis could kill these S.T.A.R.S. members in Raccoon City, it would prove itself as the superior bio-weapon to the regular Tyrants.
During the course of Resident Evil 3, the Nemesis Parasite also demonstrated other abilities in addition to controlling the host's brain. As the Nemesis took damage, the Nemesis Parasite was able to secrete chemicals into its body which made it evolve physically, into more powerful entities. At some point during the multiple fights with the Nemesis, its T-103 body was destroyed, and the Nemesis Parasite within it survives, and turns out to be quite large in size. And that essentially sums up what the Nemesis is: Mr. X with a giant parasite living inside its body and controlling it.
In detail, the Nemesis Parasite was transplanted into the Tyrant's brain-stem while the parasite was still at the cellular and infant size, which was probably microscopic. As it grows, it destroys the host's nerves, and replaces them with its own replacement nerves which connect to itself. In other words, the host, or Tyrant in this case, becomes a puppet controlled by the Nemesis Parasite.
It is unclear if any of its original brain functions remain intact, such as memory or consciousness, or whether the entire brain itself is replaced with the Nemesis Parasite. Also, the Nemesis is able to infect living people with the T-Virus by secreting it into the bloodstream of victims it attacks. The body of the T-103 Tyrant is actually coated with these secretions, so that it can more easily infect victims in other ways than simply biting them, as is the case with regular zombies.
To date, the Nemesis-T Type was only used one time, in the events of the Resident Evil 3 game, and Umbrella stopped the Nemesis project thereafter, for reasons not explained in clear detail. On the other hand, the T-103 Tyrant continued to a limited degree after the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3, such as the T-011 which was made in Umbrella's facility in the Caucasus. After the collapse of Umbrella, three were confirmed to exist in eastern Europe in 2011, though their type and series is unknown.
Hopefully, Resident Evil 3's remake, which stars the infamous Nemesis, will shed more light on the origins, creation and functions in providing fans thirsty for more lore a more vivid picture of what the Nemesis Parasite is. There is immense room to fill in the blanks with a rich backstory, and many possibilities persist.
Though just a possible theory, could the Nemesis Parasite draw some sort of connection to the Las Plagas parasite introduced in Resident Evil 4, given they both have origins in Europe, and similar characteristics in taking over the brain functions of its hosts? After all, the origins of Resident Evil 4's villain, Osmund Saddler, are quite mysterious, though he does have deep connections to the bio-weapons industry and its research, and somehow knew where the Las Plagas parasites existed in Spain.
While we have a clear picture of what and who Mr. X is, the backstory of the Nemesis and its parasite is much more ambiguous. As Resident Evil 3 gets ready to release its remake, hopefully we will finally obtain a clear picture of one of Resident Evil's most iconic villains in the Nemesis.
Resident Evil 3's remake is in development and set for release on April 3, 2020 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.