Jill Valentine
| Jill Valentine | |
|---|---|
Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 3 (2020) | |
| First appearance | Resident Evil (1996) |
| Created by |
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| Designed by |
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| Voiced by |
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| Motion capture | Various
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| Portrayed by | Various
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| In-universe information | |
| Nationality | American |
Jill Valentine is a character in Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), a survival horror series created by the Japanese company Capcom. She was introduced as one of two player characters in the original Resident Evil (1996) with her partner, Chris Redfield, as a member of the Raccoon City Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) unit. Jill and Chris fight the Umbrella Corporation, a pharmaceutical company whose bioterrorism creates zombies and other bio-organic weapons, and later become founding members of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA).
Jill is the protagonist of several Resident Evil games, novelizations and films and has appeared in other game franchises, including Marvel vs. Capcom, Project X Zone, Teppen, and Dead by Daylight. In later games, such as the 2002 Resident Evil remake, The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), Resident Evil 5 (2009), and The Mercenaries 3D (2011), her features were based on Canadian model and actress Julia Voth. Several actresses have portrayed Jill, including Sienna Guillory and Hannah John-Kamen in the live-action Resident Evil films.
Video game publications described Jill as among the most popular and iconic video game characters, and praised her as the most likable and consistent Resident Evil character. She has received acclaim and criticism with regard to gender representation in video games. Several publications praised the series for its portrayal of women, and considered Jill significantly less sexualized than other female game characters; she was also cited as an example of a female character who was as competent as her male counterparts. Others said that she was weakened as a protagonist by attributes which undermined her role as a heroine – specifically, an unrealistic body shape which did not reflect her military background. Some of Jill's overtly-sexualized costumes have also been criticized.