Ada Wong

Ada Wong is a recurring character appearing in the Resident Evil series. A mysterious red-clad American woman, Ada is a cunning and formidable secret agent. Although she is mentioned by name in the very first Resident Evil, she made her first actual appearance in Resident Evil 2 as a partner character in Leon S. Kennedy's portion of the storyline. She claims to be looking for her missing boyfriend, an Umbrella researcher named John. Her other major appearance was in Resident Evil 4, where she once again has a chance encounter with Leon years later. Ada Wong's voice was provided by actress Sally Cahill in her appearances to date.

Early Career/Life
Not much is known about Ada Wong's past or motives. What is known is that Ada is a corporate spy working for an unnamed competitor of Umbrella, often referred to as "The Organization" or "The Agency", that intends to procure all sorts of biological weapons and specimens. She is also a trained assassin, who is proficient with several types of weapons and fighting techniques. Presumably, Ada joined the Organization for personal reasons outside of her company's interests, though she has yet to reveal what they are.

She was sent to infiltrate the Arklay Research Facility, hidden within the Spencer Mansion in Raccoon City and was romantically involved with the new head researcher, John, as a means to steal intelligence for her company. John was very serious about his relationship with Ada and even used her name as his computer account's password. John lost his life, due to turning into a zombie following the Mansion Incident, after writing one final letter to Ada instructing her to get evidence of Umbrella's experiments and expose them to the public - evidently believing in their relationship right up to his death. In the letter, Ada is also referred to as not having contracted the T-virus during the incident. How and when she escaped the Spencer Mansion is still unknown.

Raccoon City Incident (Resident Evil 2)
Several months later, Ada was given another mission by her employer. This time, her objective was to steal a sample of the G-Virus from William Birkin in Raccoon City during the T-Virus outbreak.

Ada went to the Raccoon Police Department to find a reporter named Ben Bertolucci, who claimed to have vital information about the Umbrella Corporation. In her search of the department, she met with surviving officer Leon S. Kennedy. With Leon's help, the two were able to find Ben, who locked himself in the precinct's prison. Ben provided the two with documents detailing about the conspiracy between Brian Irons and William Birkin, the designer of the G-Virus, but not before he was killed either by a chest-bursting parasite or by the mutated Birkin.

Ada and Leon made their way into the sewers as they attempted to flee the infested city. The two cooperated with each other and Ada even treated Leon's wound after taking a bullet for her, fired by Annette Birkin. They find a lift which leads to Umbrella's Underground Lab, but before they could reach the lab, Ada is struck by a rapidly-mutating William Birkin and is critically injured. During the ensuing confusion, after Leon confronts Annette for the last time, Ada is seriously injured and presumed dead (depending on the scenario the player is playing, she either falls to her death from a catwalk after being shot by Annette or dies after being slammed by the Tyrant). Despite her death, Wesker (who claims he still had use for her) saved her behind the scenes. Ada managed to recover and provided the rocket launcher that Leon or Claire used to defeat the Tyrant. Although Ada and Wesker were unable to retrieve the G-Virus sample (having lost it to HUNK), they managed to find William Birkin's corpse and use it as a specimen.

Los Illuminados Incident (Resident Evil 4)
Six years after the Raccoon City incident, Ada was sent to an undisclosed village in Europe that had been taken over by Osmund Saddler, leader of the "Los Illuminados" religious cult, after he infected the villagers with Las Plagas. Her mission was to steal a specialized sample of the Plaga held by Saddler. During her mission, she met once again with Leon, who was on a mission to save the President's daughter, Ashley Graham, from the same cult. Ada is responsible for a number of things Leon encounters during his mission, such as puzzles and traps set off in a certain way and so forth. Although her mission is to retrieve a master sample of the Plaga, Ada's primary objective is to get in good favor with the mysterious organization she works for and is also conspiring against Wesker. Arguably, if it wasn't for Ada's role behind the scenes, Leon's mission would have been a failure. She also aids Leon in battle and even saves him from the influence of the Plaga during the mission (ironically, taking Leon's earlier advice about using a knife in close combat). Another of Ada's accomplishments is the destruction of a previously unseen battleship that the Los Iluminados had at their disposal.

Shortly before the climax of Ada's mission, she is attacked by what's left of Jack Krauser, freshly burned and scarred from his battle with Leon. Ada takes it upon herself to go on the offensive and kill Krauser, who by now is almost completely corrupted by the Plaga. Having studied his style and mutation closely before, Ada is more than a match for Krauser and he is killed, presumably for good. Shortly after this, Ada covers Leon and Ashley's escape from Saddler by blocking the passage, trapping both Ada and Saddler in the same room. A battle occurs, where Ada fights Saddler's human form. With incredible strength, Saddler is quite a challenge, but Ada is eventually able to overwhelm him through her skill. However, this isn't the case, as Saddler comes to his senses shortly after and gets the drop on Ada. Using Ada as bait to trap Leon, Saddler is shocked to realize Leon's plaga has been destroyed as Leon frees Ada from captivity. Ada and Leon fight Saddler during the final battle and as Leon confronts the monstrous cult leader, Ada struggles in a race against time to find Leon a powerful weapon to use against him. Rushing through hordes of Ganado, Ada finds a specialized rocket launcher and throws it to Leon at the critical moment of the battle.

Eventually, Ada is able to steal the master Plaga sample from Saddler's island base after the battle. After she obtains the sample, she gives Leon and Ashley a means of escape and makes her own on an organization helicopter. As she rides off, Ada is comforted by the warm light of the sunrise on the horizon. However, she can't help but think that while this mission is over, the battle has just begun.

Ada had obtained the sample, the goal of her mission and one step of Wesker's plan to resurrect the Umbrella Corporation. However, Wesker has become suspicious of Ada's loyalities, due to her secret connections with another major pharmaceutical corporation, 'S'. Under orders of the Organization, Ada double-crossed Wesker and delivered a fake version of the sample to him. Ada knows, however, that Wesker isn't stupid and that tough times lay in wait.

Separate Ways (Resident Evil 4)
Separate Ways is an unlockable mini-game that takes place during the normal Resident Evil 4 game, but instead of playing as Leon you handle Ada's side of the story. (Also take note that Separate Ways is only available for the PS2 version of the game.) After the arrival of Separate Ways some fans ceased believing that Assignment Ada (another Resident Evil 4 minigame) was canon. However evidence exists in the game that suggests that Assignment Ada is indeed actually canon: at Resident Evil 4 endgame, Ada places the Las Plagas sample she obtains from Saddler into a storage case containing the other samples she collects during Assignment Ada, indicating that Assignment Ada did indeed happen. Ada apparently does quite a bit more behind the scenes than the player is first led to believe. Unlike the "Assignment: Ada" scenario, which was more of a short minigame, Separate Ways is an entirely new scenario complete with the Merchant and save points. Ada also does some things that are key points in the game. For instance, the timely sounding of the church bell that saves Leon's life in the beginning during his first encounter with the Ganados was actually rung by Ada herself. There are also many areas Leon never goes to which Ada ventures into, essentially making Separate Ways an entire alternate scenario similar to the A/B scenarios from Resident Evil 2. Much is revealed about Ada's personality in Separate Ways, however one overwhelmingly obvious fact made apparent is Ada's concern for Leon's welfare. Although she puts on the coy femme-fatale act, there are many instances where Ada is instructed to take out Leon which she completely ignores and even goes so far as to find loopholes around his death. During the Island scenario, Ada goes on a full offensive attempt to save Leon's life against orders proving with finality that Ada, like Leon, has not shed her concern for him.

Love for Leon?
In Resident Evil 2, Ada admits to loving Leon before she dies, and it seems that her love may be genuine as she seems to truly care for him in Resident Evil 4 (which is especially hinted at in 'Separate Ways' where she is genuinely shocked and worried when she sees Leon being carried by a Ganado). Of note is Wesker's comments in his report that in Resident Evil 2: "her love for him drove her to her death".

Appearances
In addition to the main scenarios for both games, Ada is also a selectable in the "Extreme Battle" extra game in Resident Evil 2 and "The Mercenaries" minigame featured in Resident Evil 4. She is an unlockable character in both minigames after the player has met certain requirements. Ada is quite the speed demon in these scenarios, having very fast running speed and very fast shooting speed as well as a deadly combination of weapons fit to compliment her style. In "The Mercenaries", however, she has the least stamina. Ada also stars in her own individual mini-game in Resident Evil 4, titled "Assignment: Ada" ("Ada, the Spy" in the Japanese version).

Ada also had her own epilogue file in the end of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, while her relationship with Wesker is elaborated more in the Wesker's Report fictional documentary. She was also mentioned in the original Resident Evil in a text file from John prior to her first actual appearance. She is quite popular as a sort of rival and/or romantic interest for Leon, so she will no doubt appear as often as Leon in the series' future.

Physical appearance and wardrobe
Ada is a woman of apparent Asian descent, sporting a sleek figure and graceful mannerisms. Her official profile in Resident Evil 2 as well as her very name state that she is specifically of Chinese descendancy, although judging by Ada's shadowy background this may or may not be true. Her overall dress motif however, helps to support this. In contrast, however, her eyes are also a gray-green, and more caucasoid in appearance than those of typical Asian women, which along with Ada being unusually tall for an Asian woman, strongly hints that she is Eurasian. Ada fits the archetype of the stylish and beautiful assassin or "femme fatale". Her signature color is red. Two out of her three outfits are predominantly red, and in Resident Evil 4's Mercenaries minigame, Ada receives a high amount of incendiary grenades. These are, of course, red. During the "knife fight" in Resident Evil 4 between Leon and Krauser, Ada enters the scene and is referred to, by Krauser simply as "the bitch in the red dress", showing that her signature color, red, is well known.

In Resident Evil 2, she sports a sleek red one-piece tied with a belt and cut at the upper thigh. She wears darkened stockings on her legs and black shoes. In Resident Evil 4, this outfit is reprised and updated to include a gun belt and additional combat equipment worn over it. In Resident Evil 4 her normal attire is a long, stylish open red dress with a gold Chinese design of butterflies on it and a flowing black ribbon worn around her neck that falls down her back. She also has an easily-seen knife belt on her exposed thigh.

In her Assignment Ada guise, she wears a much more professional infiltration outfit. Dressed all in black, she sports a tactical vest, combat gear, black pants, and black gloves along with boots. She has a symbol of a red butterfly on a sleeve in this outfit. This insignia seems to be her personal logo as it is also on her normal outfit. The Butterfly is often seen as a symbol of being reborn into something beautiful or free, perhaps this is a hint to Ada's mysterious past.

Symbolism
Ada sports a lot of possible symbolism in her overall motif, as well as a connection to Leon. The most prolific is the previously mentioned butterfly motif. Generally, Butterflies are seen as a sign of rebirth or freedom which would suit Ada's story perfectly, as she had narrowly escaped death and presumably had been "reborn" emotionally in her Resident Evil 3 epilogue file. Interestingly however, Butterflies in Japanese mythos are said to lead to interesting things when they are followed, which would go with Leon's tendency to follow Ada and may presumably lead to the truth of all things.

Ada's signature color, red, also has some obvious as well as subtle symbolism. Red is associated with passion, love, and determination as well in all their various forms. Red is also a very prominent color in Chinese wardrobe, which would fit with Ada's ethinticity which tends to be prominently figured in her overall dress style. Perhaps the most interesting fact about her color is that Leon's trademark color is arguably blue, as his RPD uniform is dark blue and his RE4 outfit is predominantly shades of black, grey and blue. Blue and red are often considered rival colors of each other, but also highly compatible as evidenced by the fact that in Chinese weddings the bride and groom are often dressed in red and blue respectively.

Similarities to Nikita (La Femme Nikita)
It's no secret that series creator Shinji Mikami is a big time film buff, so it may be with little surprise that the character of Ada Wong has quite a few similarities to the protagonist of Nikita (La Femme Nikita). Both Ada and Nikita are women who have been "reborn" in one way or another, signified by a scene where both women look into a mirror and vow to leave their past behind. Both women are femme fatale archetypes, skilled chic assassins and super spies who work for a mysterious organization. They're deadly in more ways than one, equally adept at weaponry, combat, and assassination as they are with using their feminine wiles to catch unsuspecting men off guard. Both Ada and Nikita also share one major flaw in their assassin career, a love for a man. Both Ada and Nikita often find themselves unable to go through with certain orders due to a conflict with their feelings for a certain man. Both women even have a very shady superior they answer to, Bob for Nikita and Wesker for Ada. Both Bob and Wesker are black-clad men whose cool exterior hides a ruthless nature. The title screen for Separate Ways even resembles the original poster for Nikita (La Femme Nikita) right down to the title character being in the same pose. Although the characters and storylines share obvious differences as well, its impossible to not notice the similarities. This could offer some insight into Ada's mysterious past and place in the world as well.