- "They say humans are social animals, they can't live alone. But you can live pretty well by yourself. I tell ya...instead of feeling alone in a group, It's better to have real solitude all by yourself."
- ―Faye Valentine to Gren[[Session 12: Jupiter Jazz Part 1|[src]]]
Faye Valentine (フェイ・ヴァレンタイン Fei Varentain?) is a wanted bounty head and a member of the bounty hunting crew aboard the Bebop.
Backstory
Faye was born on August 14, 1994 on the Earth. Some clues about her past imply that she is originally from Singapore and was the daughter of rather wealthy parents. Faye's childhood, shown in flashbacks, seemed happy and light-hearted; she appears to have had many friends and been a cheerleader. One day, along with some friends, she recorded a message on an old Betamax videotape to be delivered ten years in the future as a time capsule.
In 2014, at the age of 20, Faye traveled into space with her parents on a private spacecraft. An accident occurred on the ship, killing both of Faye's parents and severely injuring her. Faye's injuries were so serious they could not be healed with conventional medicine, so she is cryogenically frozen until a cure is found for her condition.
During cryogenic sleep, the Gate incident destroys the Moon, whose debris formed an asteroid belt around the Earth, causing massive destruction of the Earth's surface. The incident resulted in the loss of data about Faye's identity - the only thing left was her first name.
Awoken from suspended animation fifty-four years later in a clinic called Cold Sleep, Faye discovers she has a debt of 300,028,000 woolongs due to the long recovery. She also has no memory of her past, due to a serious accident during cryogenic sleep. Since her data is lost, she is given the surname Valentine by the doctor who awoke her and attempts to survive in a world completely unknown to her.
A lawyer named Whitney Hagas Matsumoto offers to help Faye; Faye eventually falls in love with him. When Faye's creditors start to look for her because of her lack of payment on her medical debts, Whitney sacrifices himself so that Faye can inherit his fortune. However, Faye also receives Whitney's debts in addition to her own. Refusing to pay any of them, Faye instead chooses a life on the run. Since then she lead a life of expedients, small scams, and stealing goods. When she gets her hands on a large payout, she often tries to solve her financial problems. Because of her activities, she has a bounty of 6,000,000 woolongs placed on her head.
In the series
In Session 3: Honky Tonk Women, before actually becoming a member of the Bebop, Faye met Spike Spiegel and Jet Black for the first time when she was hired by a gambling boss to retrieve a valuable chip carried by a designated person at a blackjack table. After a number of coincidences, she is found captive on the Bebop where the two bounty hunters are determined to cash in on the bounty on her head and sell the valuable chip to her boss. Faye manages to escape, ruin the operation, and stealing the millions.
In Session 4: Gateway Shuffle, following the escape, Faye's spaceship, the Redtail, runs out of fuel near Jupiter, and the only ones who can help her is the Bebop. Initially held prisoner, after helping Jet and Spike defeat a band of eco-terrorists, she invites herself on the Bebop, eats all their food, tortures Ein and makes life difficult for everyone because of the creditors chasing after her. Both men initially do not agree on having a woman on board, especially an opportunist like Faye, but over time they become attached and become a functional team.
In Sessions 12/13: Jupiter Jazz, Frightened by the affection she's beginning to feel for her companions, Faye decides to run away from the Bebop to follow her philosophy of "leave before being abandoned." She flees to Callisto, the planet of fugitives, where she is rescued after a mishap by a man named Gren. Jet finds her and returns her to the Bebop. During the return, she hears for the first time about Julia.
In Session 15: My Funny Valentine, she tells the story of her awakening from cryogenic sleep to Ein to let off steam, but Spike, hidden in the bathroom, listened to the whole story and urges Faye to forget the past and live the present. Jet returns to the Bebop with Whitney as a prisoner. Faye discovers she was deceived by Whitney in cahoots with the doctor and the nurse to inherit his debts. Enraged, Faye personally puts him in prison and receives his bounty.
In Session 18: Speak Like a Child, Faye receives the Betamax tape she recorded in her youth. None of the images on the video are familiar, and therefore she will spend whole nights to view the contents of the tape until in Session 24: Hard Luck Woman, Ed, half asleep, reveals that she knows where the area the video was recorded is. After arriving there, Faye is approached by an elderly woman who turns out to be an ex-classmate. Shocked, Faye runs away. Later, during a shower, her memory resurfaces. Faye therefore leaves the Bebop to run back to her old home. However, she only finds a pile of rubble where her home used to be. Resigned, Faye tracks the perimeter of what once was her bed on the ground and lies down in the light of the sunset.
In Sessions 25/26: The Real Folk Blues, Frustrated and upset by the absence of her roots, Faye accidentally stumbled into Julia and saves her from the assassins of the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate. Shortly after, she is contacted by Spike who asks her to return to the Bebop. Discovering the connection between the two, Julia instructs Faye to bring a message to Spike so they can meet again. Back at the Bebop, Faye, albeit hesitantly, delivers the message to Spike, and while she remains on the Bebop, Spike went to see Julia. After he leaves, Faye wonders with Jet why Spike wants to risk his life with Julia, and both are anxious not to see him again.
When, contrary to expectations, Spike returns, only to head for the home of the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate, and to his possible death, Faye puts her gun to his head in an attempt to stop him, and reminds him about the time he told her to forget the past and live the present. Spike then tells her that his right eye can only see the past, making the past indelible in his mind. She then tells him that she recovered her memory, and that she understands that he and Jet are her only family, urging him not to die, to which he replies that he's just going to see if he's alive or not. As Spike walks away, Faye, grief stricken, fires her gun repeatedly toward the ceiling, then surrenders to a desperate cry.
Physical Traits
Faye is considered an attractive woman by many of the men she encounters through the series. In the Cowboy Bebop manga, while describing a wanted serial killer they are hunting, she states that she fits his preferences as an "Asian Beauty" with "straight black hair". The tape from her past also suggests she was from Singapore, where black hair is a common physical trait.
Her outfit, consisting of shorts, white boots, nude thigh high stockings, a skimpy undershirt with an overcoat worn loosely, and her short hairstyle, gives the impression that she is an aged homage to the young character of Mathilda from the movie The Professional (known as Leon: the Professional in UK). Just like Mathilda she has been dealt an unfair hand by the world and is now street-smart and tough because of this. The evidence as well for such a homage can be deepened by the fact that Faye was born in the year 1994, the same year Leon: The Professional was released.
The beta tape found in Session 18, Speak Like a Child, suggests that Faye has changed a lot from the innocent girl she used to be. As someone who constantly lives in an environment where she must seize every opportunity to find some money, dressing in the way she does makes people pay more attention to her and also distracts them long enough for her to take advantage of them. We see her do this in many instances throughout Cowboy Bebop but the first is her first appearance, in Session 3, Honky Tonk Women.
Personality
Faye is an opportunist, arrogant, selfish, and downright lazy character, spending most of her time taking care of her appearance rather than being helpful. She presents a long series of bad habits such as pathological gambling, alcoholism, excessive consumption of cigarettes and cigars, reacting violently for no real reason, and forcing work on others. She usually is forgiven for each one thanks to her innocent little face and beauty, which often allows her to get what she wants. These tricks however don't work on her companions on the Bebop, whom she often fights with.
She behaves very provocatively and often tries to seduce men for her own benefit, but she claims to hate to feel desired and is rarely seen romantically interested in someone. Regarding her sexual orientation, she is usually labelled as straight, but in one occasion she kissed Ed on the mouth to awaken her from one of her "autistic" moments.
Faye basically doesn't trust anyone who claims to be able to live without suffering and is used to never stay too long in the same place because of her creditors. Although she remains as strong and indolent as possible, in reality she hides a big emotional vulnerability and often proves to nourish a lot of sympathy and empathy for her traveling companions.
Although for the entire duration of the series the distinctive characteristics of Faye remain her sarcasm and presumption, her character noticeably develops. In fact, she begins to trust her companions, understand the value of friendship, learn to love, in her own way, to Jet and also to Ed. On different occasions she runs away from the Bebop frightened by her affection for her companions and having become used to the idea of "leave before being abandoned," but she always duly returns, being the only place she can consider her "home." This attitude, as noticed by Jet, often seems as a need of attention, as well as an attempt to prove her companions' affection for her.
Her relationship with Spike is instead the most complex of the series. Most of the time they do nothing but bicker, but, in moments of danger, Faye has always shown concern for Spike, and Spike has shown some empathy for Faye's situation. Faye has also always taken care of Spike when he was injured, but she still kept a bitter attitude. The affection between them is quite obvious, and many have speculated the possibility that Faye could be in love with Spike. Watanabe has said on the subject, "Sometimes I'm asked the question, 'What does Spike think of Faye?' I think that he likes her a little. But he's not a very simple person and makes sure not to show it"
Red Tail
- Main article: Red Tail
The Red Tail is a Personal MONO Transport owned and flown by Faye. Its weaponry, which may surpass the standard features of a MONO Transport, includes Dual Turret-Mounted Machine Guns, a Heat Seeking Missile Launcher, an Autocannon and External Pinchers for grappling other ships and items in space. Several additional features of the Red Tail include Remote Auto-pilot, Anti-Missile Devices, Enhanced Agility, and the ability to take-off and land in a vertical position.
Development
- Japanese Voice Actress: Megumi Hayashibara
- English Dub Voice Actress: Wendee Lee
Memorable Quotes
- "Survival of the fittest is the law of nature. We deceive or we are deceived, thus we flourish or perish. Nothing good ever happened to me when I trusted others. That, is the lesson."
- "Don't you know? I already am a fairy."
- "They say humans are social animals, they can't live alone. But you can live pretty well by yourself. I tell ya, instead of feeling alone in a group, it's better to have real solitude all by yourself."
- "Easy come, Easy go."
- "You know the first rule of combat? Shoot them before they shoot you."
Pictures
External Links
- Faye Valentine. images gallery on Anime divas.