2nd Discussion Post and yet another The Evil Within-related character. But unlike previous examples, this one focuses on a non-villain character, which is none other than Esmeralda Torres herself. With that said, let's begin!
What is the Work?
The Evil Within 2 is the second game of Tango Gameworks' The Evil Within series. Taking place three years after the events of the first game, Sebastian Castellanos retired from Krimson City Police Department following the events of the Beacon Mental Hospital and his nightmarish encounter with Ruvik in STEM. However, his luck changed when he realised that his daughter, Lily Castellanos, who was supposedly dead after a house fire, isn't dead, and it would take Sebastian to MOBIUS, a shadowy organisation, to find her and once again visit the horrors of STEM, now known as Union, with a different core.
Who is Torres? What Has She Done?
Esmeralda Torres is a supporting character in The Evil Within 2. Torres was a Black Ops demolition specialist prior to becoming a Mobius spy, where it was revealed that she was responsible for the kidnapping of Lily Castellanos under Mobius' orders so that they would use her as a core for their version of STEM known as Union.
Torres, wracked with guilt from her past actions, joined Juli Kidman, Myra Hanson, and Theodore Wallace in their scheme to break out the Core from STEM and destroy MOBIUS from inside in an attempt to atone herself from her past action of kidnapping Lily and causing many of Sebastian's hardships.
Esmeralda used to be a Black Ops demolition specialist. MOBIUS had been interested in her military prowess for a while and hired her after her tenure ended.
At one time, Torres had been assigned a classified assignment by MOBIUS. Lily Castellanos was to be abducted from her home in order to further their own objectives. In order to conceal any evidence of her involvement, she did so and set the home on fire, thus making it looked like an accident. Her conscience would be troubled by this assignment for years to come.
After being exiled from Father Theodore's domain, Sebastian Castellanos encounters agent Torres. Torres reveals that she was a part of a sabotage operation against MOBIUS, sent in by Juli Kidman in case their covert preparations to rescue Lily Castellanos failed, after they battled off hordes of The Lost and Spawns together. It wasn't until Sebastian told Torres that she realized Theodore Wallace had gone rogue and was the mastermind behind the current catastrophe.
After that, the two went to the Union Nature Preserve, Torres' hiding place. She confesses that she is the one who abducted Lily and set Sebastian's house on fire after agreeing to assist him in stopping Father Theodore. Guilt-ridden, she made the decision to assist Myra Hanson and Juli Kidman in taking down MOBIUS and saving Lily from STEM.
When Sebastian goes to see if Liam O'Neal is answering to his radio, she and he part ways. Later, Sebastian shows up with some explosives to disable O'Neal's jammer, which enables the two of them to attack his stronghold. However, this backfires since Sebastian experiences hallucinations of Beacon Mental Hospital and his guilt for not saving his daughter from the fire as a result of Father Theodore. When Sebastian kills Father Theodore in a fit of rage, the illusion fades and it becomes clear that he has truly wounded Torres in the stomach, putting her out of her misery.
Torres is attacked by a band of The Lost as she drags a barely conscious Sebastian, who is bleeding out, back to Yukiko Hoffman's Safe house. Torres pulls out her sidearm as she runs out of ammo for her rifle, but she is soon overpowered. Torres and Sebastian barely survived the assault and eventually returned to safety. Hoffman makes every attempt to treat Torres' wounds, but she eventually gives in to them and dies.
Hoffman, who was overcome with guilt over her actions and tried to make amends by helping Myra with her plan to break Lily out of STEM, reveals that Torres was the one who burned down Sebastian's house and abducted Lily. Sebastian and Hoffman grieve for Torres for a short time. Sebastian takes Torres' assault rifle and swears to kill Father Theodore for all the pain he has caused since he cannot bring himself to hate Torres for taking his daughter. Eventually, Sebastian would avenge Torres and O'Neal after Theodore was killed at the hands of Myra.
Heinous Standards
The main reason for the discussion post existing. Unlike Ruvik who is an easy passer, Torres is slightly more complicated than him, but this will be explained here in the post.
The Evil Within is known for its high heinous standard, with villains like Ruvik, Stefano Valentini, Theodore Wallace, and The Adminstrator, who all pass it big time thanks to their heinous actions — Ruvik being a sadistic torturer within STEM; Stefano being a sadistic serial killer who mutilates people for his "art"; Theodore manipulating innocent people into joining his cult by brainwashing them and killing others who don't by using their fears as a weapon and with him attempting to use STEM to turn the world's population into brainwashed fanatics with Lily as its Core while being responsible for Union's collapse; and with The Administrator being majorly responsible for the many events of the series like faking Lily's death and imprisoning her on MOBIUS' HQ as a Core, enlisting a clearly young Kidman to MOBIUS' ranks and kill her once she is no longer useful, using and manipulating others before disposing anyone he doesn't consider useful including Sebastian, and attempting to create a so-called "utopia" through STEM where he can rule it as a god while removing free will and subjugate the world into his ruthless servitude under the guise of ridding of war, crime, and famine.
The difference? These people have high resources. Ruvik has STEM and the Haunted. Stefano has powers, his dagger, his superpowered camera and his creations including Obscura, Guardian, and Aperture. Theodore has a whole cult and STEM. The Administrator is one of MOBIUS' leaders and leads the whole organisation, as well as having access to his personal agents and MOBIUS soldiers. Torres, on the other hand, has nothing, since she's just a regular MOBIUS soldier with nothing but her gun and her combat experience.
The reason she stands out is because she's responsible for Lily's kidnapping and in fact played a vital role in it. While Torres was under the orders of MOBIUS to kidnap Lily, this is far from standard kidnapping as Torres would not just kidnap Lily, but to also make the whole incident look like an accident by deliberately setting fire to the Castellanos' residence to burn it down, thus removing any traces of her involvement, since in reality MOBIUS wanted Lily to be used as a core for STEM for their nefarious purposes of creating a new world order without any free will. As a result, because of Torres' actions, something she now ultimately regretted in doing so, Lily would be imprisoned by MOBIUS for the next five years, something that caused Sebastian a great amount of trouble between the first game, the interquel comic, and especially the second game.
Due to her actions, Torres is absolutely responsible for Sebastian's trauma since losing Lily eventually turned Seb to a brooding mess, which led to his relationship with Myra being torn apart. Sebastian's goal, along with Kidman and Myra, was to free Lily from MOBIUS' clutches in the second game, which was where Torres became a rogue agent and sided with Myra to free Lily to atone for her actions.
Regardless, Torres stands out for her act of kidnapping her while also covering up her involvement by burning Sebastian's house, as if not for Torres herself, MOBIUS would not have Lily, which is the catalyst of the second game's main plot.
Preventions
Well, she isn't a villain to begin with, but an anti-hero who was like a villain by proxy. While Torres did kidnap Lily and burnt Sebastian's home, it was because she was forced by MOBIUS, given that MOBIUS themselves aren't the kind of people who tolerate failure, not because she is a villain. In fact, she absolutely regretted those actions to the point that she confessed to Sebastian, who was clearly traumatised of losing Lily, and wanted to make it up into siding with Myra and Kidman, and Sebastian of course, to destroy MOBIUS for good, so it would make her an absolutely remorseful person being forced into villainy.
Besides, she also gave her life after dealing with a pack of Lost, wounded, while dragging Sebastian to Hoffman's safe house before dying, thus showing that she wholly redeemed herself from her past actions of kidnapping Lily.
Verdict
Weak Yes, given that she is a lot more complicated than the easy counters, but she still passes for being involved in Lily's kidnapping and is the reason why Sebastian's five-year trauma of losing her daughter from a supposed house fire came to be in the first place.