Valentine

Valerie (JP: ヴァレリー Varerī), code name Valentine (JP: ヴァレンタイン Varentain), 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.

An interview with Alex Ahad states that despite her demeanor Valentine "acts like a jerk" to conceal her good intent and emotions. It should be noted that in her origin story from Skullgirls Mobile she is very capable of showing genuine concern for those around her such as the Last Hope, the No Man's Land survivors/refugees which included a mutilated Patricia, and Carol before she became Painwheel, going as far as to ask Brain Drain for another, more suitable candidate. During the Last Hope’s mission to rescue a group of child refugees Valentine goes against Christmas' orders and puts her mission on hold in favor of applying immediate medical attention to those in need. Christmas even acknowledges Valentine's act of kindness, calling her generous, seemingly overlooking her insubordination in favor of this.

As mentioned prior Valentine had a tendency to go against orders from her superiors to pursue what she feels is right. Patty refers to Valentine as an overachiever with a big ego. Easter, though jokingly, backs this claim up.

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). She hates Brain Drain so much that she became an assassin to kill him.

She also seems to despise the Medici Mafia and anything related to them mainly because of their criminal activities and because of the fact they are the main reason of the corruption in the city.

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.

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 design is essentially a combination of two fanservice tropes: "naughty nurse" and "sexy ninja".

Valentine has blood red eyes with cross-shaped pupils, blue hair with several large bangs covering her forehead and tied up in a spiky pony tail, along with grayish skin. She wears a bandaged eye-patch over her right eye, which is heavily scarred over. She also has a thin, vertical scar running through the left side of her lips, which is typically covered by a white medical mask.

Valentine has a slim yet curvaceous body, although her low fighting stance deliberately obscures her true stature. She wears a black fudoshi and concept art shows she has adhesive bandages over her nipples in lieu of brassiere. Her outfit is a cross between a nurse and a kunoichi: she dons a white, skin tight medical scrub top with pink cross buttons, a matching nursing cap and medical gloves. This is complete with a thin black choker, leg wrappings that end with a pink cross-shaped shuriken (her Dead Cross) near her knees and white flats. She has a brown medical hip bag at the small of her back that houses her defibrillator and bonesaw when not in use.

Her numerous weapons include mementos taken from her fallen comrades: Christmas's scalpels, Patty's IV Polearm, Easter's bodybags, and Hallow's syringes.

The "Graveyard Shift" palette is a hint to her appearance as a Skullgirl.

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 2nd, 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.

On May 23, 2022, it was announced on the official Skullheart forum that, with the exception of her eye color and pupil shape, Valentine's cross shaped iconography will be replaced with a new pastel pink shuriken design in every frame of her animations for both Skullgirls 2nd Encore and Skullgirls Mobile, along with any Story Mode art and other art pieces included in the Digital Art Compendium.

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 the sky full of light and good energies and the Skull Heart's darkness and malevolent aura that infested the catacombs were dispersed.

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.

Color Palettes

 * 1) "Scrub" - Default colors
 * 2) "Icy Hot" - Original colors
 * 3) "Oh Mai" - Mai Shiranui (Fatal Fury, King of Fighters series)
 * 4) Hallow
 * 5) Patty
 * 6) Easter
 * 7) "Graveyard Shift" - Valentine as the Skullgirl
 * 8) "Last Hope" - Christmas
 * 9) "Silent Kill" - Nurse (Silent Hill series)
 * 10) "Assassin's Greed" - Trish (Persona 2 Duology)
 * 11) Original colors
 * Sheena Fujibayashi (Tales of Symphonia)
 * Anesthesia (Rumble Roses)
 * Baiken (Guilty Gear series)
 * 1) Sam (Gaia Online)
 * Haku Yowane (Vocaloid)
 * 1) "Sparring Partner" - 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
 * 1) "Pyro-Technique" - Taki (Soul Calibur series) - Indiegogo backer color
 * 2) Original colors - Indiegogo backer color
 * 3) "Surgeon General" - Original colors - Indiegogo backer color
 * 4) "Wetwork" - Strider Hiryu (Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes) - Indiegogo backer color
 * Kakashi Hatake (Naruto)
 * Mercy (Overwatch)
 * 1) "Kill Joy" - Nurse Joy (Pokémon)
 * 2) "Très Chic" - Sheik (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
 * 3) Yoruichi (Bleach)

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, in the case of Mortal Kombat Trilogy) caused the opponent to luridly explode, vanishing and discarding multiple bones, skulls and ribcages in the process.
 * Valentine's Blockbuster move "Checkmate Incision" is a direct reference to DIO's Super-move "Checkmate" from the game JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future. Both moves function similarly in appearance with the character throwing flurry of blades.
 * 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 Nurse 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.
 * Valentine's Blockbuster "Dead On Arrival" references the Front/Initial Lotus from Naruto, during the portion where Valentine binds the enemy in bandages, spins, and lets the opponent collide with the ground.

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Valentine Валентайн ヴァレンタイン