One of the most beloved ladies in survival horror returns this Friday with Resident Evil 3 Remake.
Between the days filled with smoke, blood and disease, at the epicenter of an apocalypse that puts a disruptive end to everyday life, a heroine emerges. A strong and brave woman, trained for dangerous situations, finds herself challenged by an event that will turn her world upside down. Her story made her one of the most relevant ladies of digital leisure, in which she stands out for her design that placed her as a charismatic, skillful and independent protagonist. Jill Valentine, star of Capcom and survival horror, will return next April 3 with Resident Evil 3 Remake, reissue of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
Due to the nature of this report, it contains spoilers for the Resident Evil saga.
The autonomy of a heroine
Jill Valentine in the first Resident Evil.
It was in 1996 when we first met Jill Valentine, as the co-star of Resident Evil, a title that would revolutionize the horror genre in digital entertainment. In her police uniform, crowned by an iconic beret, the special agent of the body STARS (Special Tactics And Rescue Service) broke many of the conventions attributed to female characters in the video game medium. Jill was charismatic and fought side by side with her partner Chris Redfield. Without being kidnapped by the villain on duty, without his attractiveness depending on a brief outfit, without becoming the satellite of a male protagonist, without being reduced to a mere romantic interest. Shinji Mikami, creator of the Resident Evil, was very clear about what kind of women he wanted for his saga, as he described in an interview for The Guardian: “I don't know if I put a special emphasis on female characters, but I never present them as objects. In some games, women are reduced to being peripheral characters with breasts ruled by ridiculous physics. I avoid that obvious eroticism. I also don't like female characters who submit to other male characters, or the situation around them. I'm never going to portray women like that. I write women who discover their independence throughout the progress of the game, or who already know that they are independent and a series of challenges tests them ”. However, Mikami's creative wishes were not always fulfilled in the saga: “If I had to mention a female character that I hated in my games it would be Rebecca Chambers. She is submissive, not independent at all. I didn't want to include her, but the team, for some reason, wanted that kind of character in the game. It sure made sense to them. Also, that type of character is very popular in Japan. ”
Through the promotional material of the saga and the official guides of Resident Evil, the background of our heroine is unraveled. Jill Valentine, a French father and a Japanese mother, is an outstanding woman from the approach of the first Resident Evil. Delta Force, the United States Army's counter-terrorism unit, took note of the potential of this member of the government's military ranks. During the training program, the young woman showed great talent defusing explosives and forcing locks. Likewise, he stood out for his effectiveness, intelligence, resilience, bravery, loyalty and his capacity for self-control in dangerous situations. Jill Valentine was up to the challenge she gripped in Raccoon City.
The horror at the Spencer mansion
Image from Dead Rising, where Capcom winks at Jill's sandwich joke.
Valentine's qualities and experience led to her being hired by Albert Wesker for STARS (Special Tactics And Rescue Service), the elite unit of the Raccoon City Police Department. Moved by a strong sense of justice, the body's goal was to pursue and solve serious crimes, such as the mystery that gripped the Arklay Mountains on the outskirts of Raccoon City. There, Jill began a great friendship with Chris Redfield, with whom she shares the limelight in the first installment of Resident Evil.
At the start of the game, the user can choose to start their first game with either of the two playable characters. Their respective plots differ very little, as well as their mechanics. At Kotaku they recommend, in favor of a more affordable game, choosing Jill for her advantages over her partner: although Redfield has greater physical resistance, is faster and aims with better precision, Jill has more inventory capacity and her picks will they gave access to rooms with resources. "Also, Jill is the one with Barry!" They pointed out. With this one he stars in the scene of the "Jill sandwich": when saving her from a trap, Burton jokingly comments that he almost becomes "a Jill sandwich", which became a recurring joke in Internet culture.
STARS embarks on a risky investigation into the mysterious disappearances and murders in the Arklay Mountains, outside Raccoon City. The authorship of these bloody events was attributed to cannibalism and attacks by wild dogs, although the reality was not too far away. The Bravo team from the special unit disappeared during its investigations, and when the Alpha team, in which Jill is located, goes to the rescue, it is not a very rosy situation. The search leads them to the gloomy Spencer mansion, where they will discover that behind the Arklay crimes and the violent behavior of the dogs is the T virus, a biochemical weapon developed by Umbrella Corporation in a hidden laboratory on the dark farm. However, it is not the only revelation that will change Jill's life forever: Albert Wesker, her boss, is a double agent in the service of Umbrella, with a secret mission to recover the virus research data, destroy the laboratory and annihilate STARS members to make sure there were no witnesses. Finally, after giving Wesker for dead, Valentine manages to flee the mansion with several of his companions, including Chris.
Julia Voth cosplayed by Jill Valentine.
Capcom's star
Resident Evil's resounding success was not only limited to the survival horror revolution in digital entertainment. Its impact affected cinema, which experienced a new zombie boom. Simon Pegg, protagonist and screenwriter of Zombies Party, assured in a BBC report that the Capcom title was key to the resurgence of this subgenre of horror cinema. The actor himself had been inspired by the video game saga for his works: in one episode of his series Spaced, his character becomes obsessed with Resident Evil 2, a title that Pegg completed off-set.
Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield had become icons of Capcom, and their footprint would remain in later years. For Resident Evil HD Remaster (2002), Jill Valentine was redesigned in the image and likeness of model Julia Voth, who became the agent's most recognizable face. Shinji Mikami told during an interview for Biohazard Official Navigation Book how they decided to make his body look more toned compared to his thinness from the original title. His personality was also altered in order to further please the public. “Jill is cuter now. Both his way of acting and his atmosphere give off charm. This time, we want many more people to be haunted by Jill, "explains Hiroyuki Kobayashi, producer of the game. The STARS agent continued to be adored by the players of the saga and several users expressed in the forums and requests of Change.org their request that Julia Voth reinterpret Valentine in a new edition of Resident Evil 3.
Jill meets Nemesis in Resident Evil 3.
Following their Capcom debut, Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield did not return for Resident Evil 2. The sequel starred another couple: Leon Kennedy, the rookie cop on an unfortunate first day on the job; and Claire Redfield, a university student looking for her brother Chris, would take over from the saga. Noboru Shinomura, scriptwriter for the new installment, told Shmuplations about the reason for the change of protagonists: “The original Resident Evil was a survival and escape game. Jill and Chris's motivation was to flee the zombie-infested Spencer Mansion. They had no independent motivation or development, so we had a hard time creating a dramatic arc for them. So for the sequel we decided to create new characters, with the right motivations for a more dramatic script: the search for a brother or a romantic subplot. ”
Jill's Nemesis
Jill Valentine returned as the only protagonist in Resident Evil 3. The essay The Playful Undead And Video Games: Critical Analyzes of Zombie Gameplay points out how this point meant a change from dual protagonism to incorporate a single playable female character, although later we control Carlos Oliveira during a section of the game: “The first two games allowed a binary choice between a male and a female avatar, but later versions complicated or eliminated that possibility. In Resident Evil 3 (1999), the player can only play with Jill Valentine, an unusual choice in an era of male domination and surely due to the popularity of Lara Croft as the protagonist.
Jill Valentine's redesign in Resident Evil 3 Remake.
Jill Valentine's nobility stumbles upon a web of police corruption subject to Umbrella's interests. STARS survivors propose to investigate Umbrella, which is opposed by Commissioner Brian Irons, who has been bribed by the company. However, STARS does not give up before the barriers imposed by their superiors and they decide to continue with their mission: Chris Redfield travels to Europe to uncover Umbrella, while Jill Valentine decides to stay in Raccoon City to free her from the clutches of the pharmaceutical giant. Outside of a police force that has disappointed her sense of justice, Jill must survive a city condemned and zombified by the T virus.
In the new installment, Jill Valentine looks very different: she has changed the uniform for a black tube mini skirt and a blue strapless top, which is far from Mikami's creative vision regarding female characters. In the North American edition of the official PlayStation magazine, Capcom reports that the reason for this style is that Valentine no longer belongs to the police force and is on the run, "hence the informal outfit." However, at RE3 Remake Jill opts for a simpler outfit: jeans, tank top and undershirt. Art director Yonghee Cho explains to Game Informer that, with the remake, they decided to run away from vulgar sexualization: “Jill valentine's original design was looking for sex appeal, but it wasn't the right direction. This is a very strong character, who overcomes many adversities, so we decided to tune in to that narrative and make sure that his wardrobe would provide some credibility by being somewhat more practical. ”
Jill meets Carlos Oliveira.
Resident Evil 3 from 1999 marked a transition from the classic survival horror saga to conventional action. Jill Valentine was allied with Carlos Oliveira and his colleagues from the UBCS (Umbrella BioHazard Countermeasure Service), a group of mercenaries at the service of the pharmaceutical company, whose loyalty to the latter is questioned when they see with their own eyes the consequences of the T virus. the escape from Raccoon City will not be easy, since the agent must deal with one of the most popular villains in the saga: Nemesis, a grotesque and lethal humanoid based on the Tyrant model of Umbrella, created to eliminate all the members of STARS . His constant pursuit of Jill took the enemies of a Resident Evil to a new level, limited to a single zone. His monosyllabic and cavernous speech of "STARS …" became one of the most emblematic phrases of the saga.
Jill Valentine's life is in danger when Nemesis infects her with the T virus, but she is saved by Carlos Oliveira, who cures her with a vaccine produced by Umbrella herself. Finally, the couple is rescued by Barry Burton in his helicopter just in time for Raccoon City to be bombarded by the army with an atomic bomb that puts an end to an irreparable viral disaster.
The ultimate destruction of Raccoon City.
Decline and rebirth of a star
After Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil HD Remake, Jill Valentine already had the recognizable face of Julia Voth who accompanied her during the rest of the games. The success of Capcom's treasure brought the saga to the cinema, where Jill Valentine was portrayed by actress Sienna Guillory.
In Umbrella Chronicles, the leading duo of the first Resident Evil returns: Chris and Jill go to work with the dismantling of Umbrella, to later found the BSAA (Alliance of Security Against Bioterrorism). In Revelations, Jill goes with her partner Parker Luciani to the rescue of Chris, who has been taken hostage on Queen Zenobia, a ghost ship in the Mediterranean. There, he discovers how the bioterrorist group II Veltro has contaminated the island of Terragrigia with the T Abyss virus, a new version of the T virus that is capable of affecting marine life and conferring aquatic properties on its guests.
Jill Valentine as villain in Resident Evil 5.
Jill Valentine's last appearance was in Resident Evil 5, starring Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar. Redfield's former partner had been pronounced dead after an incident with Albert Wesker. However, the reality is not much sweeter: Wesker had taken Valentine as an experimental subject for the Uroboros virus, taking advantage of the antibodies against the T virus in the woman's body. Subjected to Wesker's mind control, Valentine has become a new weapon against Redfield, although he and Alomar eventually release her from mind control. Josh Stone, a BSAA agent, manages to put the woman safe, where he recovers from the aftermath of the Uroboros.
Although Resident Evil 5 has been one of the titles least appreciated by fans of the saga, Jill's transformation to a villain dominated by Wesker did not raise many passions. In the essay The Playful Undead And Video Games: Critical Analyzes of Zombie Gameplay, he analyzes how the force of personality that made Jill a beloved character was devirtualized: “Each character in the original games returns to the series at some point in its history, but Jill undergoes a series of very significant changes. Evolving graphics capabilities allowed developers to alter Jill's appearance and wardrobe repeatedly, and her new appearance as a villain in Resident Evil 5 changed even racially: from being a woman of Japanese and French descent to a blonde with skin extremely white (which is explained in the game itself as a side effect of the Uroborus virus on her body). This deliberate (and so literal) whitening was widely rejected by fans (ResidentEvil.org 2011), as was her new outfit; a very tight purple battle uniform. While Jill's early iterations portrayed her as an attractive and capable woman, her mannerism and outfits – typical of a submissive in a BDSM relationship – while under mind control were not popular and hardly fit her own narrative. ”
Jill, under Wesker's control, faces Chris Redfield.
Instead, Resident Evil 3 Remake brings us back to the Jill who conquered the hearts of the players; the one that became an icon of Capcom and the one we remember when we named her as one of the most relevant female characters in video games. This time, it is the model Sasha Zotova who puts a face to the STARS agent. Peter Fabiano, producer of the new edition of this survival horror, recounted during an interview for IGN how they have adapted Jill to make her "a 90s action heroine": "When we were looking at and rebuilding Raccoon City and the world, In general, in Resident Evil 3, you will notice that we use photogrammetry and photorealistic (graphics). We wanted to make sure that Jill fit into that environment. That is why you will see that it materializes in the design that we have with Jill and in the reinvention that we have here. Other than the fact that you still see the Jill you know and love. That comes out a lot more from the performances and the motion capture. ” Also, Valentine's story will be enriched with a more elaborate narrative that will enhance the surviving facet of the agent. "The director really wanted to show that Jill is a character who has the means to overcome all situations," continues Fabiano. "In essence, it's horror and survival, right? And we want to keep those elements there and … (show) that Jill can get through these really tough situations. ”
Next Friday, we will open our arms again to the Jill Valentine who marked a milestone within the horror genre and who proved to be worth much more than her physical beauty. Determined and honest, the STARS agent will make her way in a dying and zombified Raccoon City, a victim of Umbrella's unethical ambition and an authority that she did not know how to protect.
Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 3 Remake, designed in the image and likeness of model Sasha Zotova.
