Valentine (JP: ヴァレンタイン) is the last surviving member of the Last Hope and is now working with Double and Marie, the current Skullgirl. She was responsible for Painwheel's transformation under the direction of Brain Drain.
General Information
Valentine is one of the playable characters in Skullgirls, replacing Squigly and Umbrella in the initial line-up so there would be a playable villain during the game's release. She is encountered as an antagonist in almost every character's Story Mode, usually alongside Double, who appears as an antagonist in her Story Mode. She can be considered a tragic villain for losing her entire group and an anti-heroine for defeating Marie and becoming the next Skullgirl.
Personality
As her bio suggests, little is truly known about Valentine apart from her service as a Last Hope operative and servant of the Skullgirl. Her motive to join the Skullgirl was chiefly out of self-preservation, but also in the hopes of researching the powers that control the Skull Heart behind enemy lines. Despite taking orders from higher powers, Valentine's actions are largely influenced by her own personal agenda.
What precious little that is known about Valentine is evidenced in her story mode and combat dialogue. She often comes across as impersonal and condescending, with little emotional fluctuation. She does not hesitate to resort to murder and, aside from feeling slight guilt toward Painwheel, has no real morality.
Valentine has shown a fondness for medical science and learning, and often refers to her own actions as parts of "experiments" or "research". This is especially apparent when she encounters Ms. Fortune, and becomes intrigued to Ms. Fortune's paradoxical existence to the point of attacking her with the intent of cutting her open.
Combat dialogue between Valentine and Parasoul hint that the two knew each other in the past (though this is never elaborated in any story mode).
Backstory
Valentine lost her eye in the incident that destroyed Lab 7. The cross in her remaining eye is result from the lab's experimental drug test, as the team were not only in charge of the tests but test subjects themselves. The scar on her lips existed prior to the attack.
Valentine’s “superhuman” feats can be attributed to her ninja skills, and she is able to exceed certain human limits due to Lab 7’s modifications. Her counter animation is most likely an illusion or a body double.
Valentine used to be second-in-command of the Last Hope before the rest of the group were wiped out; prior to this incident Christmas was the leader. Valentine got along with the Last Hope members, getting along with Hallow the best but also having a small rivalry with Christmas.
Character Basis
Name
Valentine, as with all members of the Last Hope, is a code name based on a holiday; in this case being Valentine's Day.
Her true name is Valerie and denotes "strength, health or boldness".
Design
Her numerous weapons are comprised of her own bonesaw and mementos taken from her fallen comrades: Christmas's scalpels, Patty's IV Polearm, Easter's bodybags, and Hallow's syringes.
Alex Ahad has acknowledged that she was "probably inspired a lot" by Elle Driver.
Valentine's design was officially changed on May 13th 2014 via a patch update. It changed all parts of her design that involve a red cross against a white background to be altered so the cross is a fuchsia color instead. This change was announced on May 2 2014 after the Skullgirls Encore publisher Marvelous AQL couldn't guarantee legal action against a potential trademark claim regarding similarity to the Red Cross' emblem.
Story
Valentine is the only survivor of the Last Hope, a group of special Anti-Skullgirl Labs operatives. Before meeting their end at the hands of the Skullgirl, the Last Hope worked for the mysterious Lab Zero and performed duties ranging from reconnaissance and sabotage to advanced research.
Now Valentine dutifully serves the Skullgirl, carrying out her will from the shadows. She keeps to herself, so much of her true nature and personality are unknown.
Ending
Upon defeating the Skullgirl, Valentine reaches a dead end. Knowing that wishing back Last Hope could only end in disaster, Valentine chooses instead to become the Skullgirl, which the Skull Heart grants without hesitation. Painwheel appears in the catacombs shortly after, only to find the Skull Heart gone along with Valentine. She picks up the bonesaw Valentine left behind, and looks up to a hole in the caverns.
Abilities & Fighting Style
Valentine fights like a classic ninja, using acrobatics, a variety of hospital-themed weapons, and a few ninjutsu-based techniques. Her fighting style emphasizes air attacks and combos to compensate for the fairly low damage output of her individual strikes.
Valentine's primary weapon is a large bonesaw holstered in the pack on her waist. The large crosses on her legs can be used as throwing stars or enhancements to her kicks, being able to move along her legs and spin rapidly. Another of Valentine's weapons is a large IV pole with sharp points on both ends, which she can use to slash and stab her opponents. She also has a seemingly-unlimited supply of scalpels and syringes to use on her enemies, as well as a number of chemicals that can be delivered through the latter.
Trailer
Color Palettes
This section may have additional details of unreleased information.
Valentine's color palettes.
- Scrub (Default colors)
- Original colors
- Oh Mai - Mai Shiranui (Fatal Fury, King of Fighters series)
- Hallow
- Patty
- Easter
- Graveyard Shift - Valentine's ending
- Last Hope - Christmas
- Silent Kill - Nurse (Silent Hill series)
- Trish (Persona 2 Duology)
- Original colors
- Sheena Fujibayashi (Tales of Symphonia)
- Anesthesia (Rumble Roses)
- Baiken (Guilty Gear series)
- Sam (Gaia Online)
- Haku Yowane (Vocaloid)
- Haruko Haruhara (FLCL)
- Kasumi (Dead or Alive series)
- Kyoko Needleworker (Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice) - Indiegogo backer color
- Shinobu (No More Heroes) - Indiegogo backer color
- Nu-13 (BlazBlue series) - Indiegogo backer color
- Taki (Soul Calibur series) - Indiegogo backer color
- Original colors - Indiegogo backer color
- Original colors - Indiegogo backer color
- Strider Hiryu (Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes) - Indiegogo backer color
Trivia
- Valentine's special move "Vial Hazard" likely references Jill Valentine of the Resident Evil (known as Biohazard in Japan) series.
- Valentine's timeout animation features her detonating and leaving behind several bones as a reference to Mortal Kombat 3. The performance of certain Fatalities or a Brutality caused the opponent to luridly explode, vanishing and discarding multiple bones, skulls and ribcages in the process.
- In an unused alternate ending, rather than perpetuate the cycle of the Skull Heart, Valentine decides to seal it in Lab Zero's vault. She returns to Brain Drain, who first congratulates Valentine for "succeeding where others have failed", before revealing he intends to punish her for her "deception" causing the death of Christmas. Valentine is then subjected to presumably the same experiments as Painwheel, while the Skull Heart mocks them for thinking they could break the cycle.[1]
- Valentine throwing her scalples is a reference to Jojo's Bizarre adventure, where the main antagonist, Dio Brando, has thrown knives at the main protagonist, Jotaro Kujo in part 3 of the manga, Stardust Crusaders.
- Some of her Palette Names in Skullgirls Mobile contain references.
- Last Hope (Color 8) was the name of the Anti-Skullgirl group Valentine was in.
- Silent Kill (Color 9) is a parody of the game series "Silent Hill".
- Some of her dialogue while taunting suggests that she diets regularly, if not constantly.