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.
Although appearing to be no more than 23 years old, Faye is actually around 77 years old, having been put into cryogenic freeze after a space shuttle accident, wherein she spent fifty-four years in suspended animation.
During her adventures on the Bebop, Faye crosses paths with Spike and Jet twice and makes herself at home aboard their ship the second time around, much to the consternation and disapproval of the two men, both of whom have their own reservations about women in general.
Early Life[]
Faye was born on August 14, 1994, on Earth, in Singapore, as the daughter of rather wealthy parents. As a child, Faye was shy but very positive and outgoing with her friends. She was a cheerleader in high school. 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 was cryogenically frozen until a cure could be found for her condition.
During her cryogenic sleep, the Gate incident destroyed the Moon, producing rock showers that caused massive destruction to the Earth's surface. As a result, data about Faye's identity was lost – the only thing left was her first name.
In 2068, fifty-four years later, Faye was cured and revived in a clinic called Cold Sleep. Doctor Bacchus and his assistant, Manley, performed the operation and informed her that she now has a debt of 300,028,000 woolongs due to the long recovery. Faye suffered amnesia and was therefore frightened about her situation. Unbeknownst to her, Bacchus also schemed to take advantage of her. He gave her the name "Valentine" and enough details to create an identity for her. His nephew, Whitney Haggis, pretended to be a lawyer named Whitney Haggis Matsumoto to help Faye. Faye eventually fell in love with him. One night, a ship approached them, with Haggis claiming it was Faye's creditors looking for her. He pretended to try to elude them while she ran for the clinic. An explosion in the distance indicated to Faye that he had died. As Bacchus informed her that he left all his assets to her, she agreed to take them, however, they were more debts.
Unable to pay any of her debts, Faye chose a life on the run, conducting small scams and stealing goods. Because of these activities, she incurred a bounty of 6,000,000 woolongs placed on her head. Being betrayed by the very first people she ever met after waking up had a profound effect on her new personality. It formed a new personality, one that is untrustworthy, scheming and irresponsible. She developed trust issues and usually didn't form strong bonds with anyone unless under the influence of alcohol.
Encounter with the Bebop[]
In 2071, Faye was captured by Gordon and forced to work for him. Believing her to be "Poker Alice," he had her do a job for him in which a microchip was to be discretely handed off by an agent. In return, he would clear Faye's debts. During the operation, she mistook Spike Spiegel for the agent and, in the process, was captured by him and Jet Black. The two bounty hunters were determined to cash in on the bounty on her head and sell the valuable chip to her boss, however, Gordon double-crossed them, and Faye managed to escape, ruining the operation and stealing the money Gordon was supposed to trade. She also was able to destroy his ship by reversing his missiles directed at her.
Following the escape, Faye's spaceship, the Red Tail, ran out of fuel near Jupiter. She came across another craft who happens to be a former ISSP officer, Gett. Dying, he implored Faye to take a suitcase to the ISSP. Inside was a vial of Monkey Business, a virus that the Space Warriors are threatening Ganymede with. She was eventually picked up by the Bebop whose crew was in the area. Initially held prisoner, after helping Jet and Spike defeat the Space Warriors, she invites herself on the Bebop for future bounty hunting. Both men initially do not agree on having a woman on board, especially an opportunist like Faye, but are unable to force her off.
When the crew of the Bebop was after Mao Yenrai, Faye decided to go after him herself. Tracking his location to an opera, she pretended to be his date. Unfortunately, he had been killed by Vicious, and his men had staged Mao's presence at the opera to trap anyone after him. She was forced to sit in the booth next to Mao's corpse and met Vicious face-to-face. He then took her to a cathedral where he had her contact the Bebop, drawing Spike to the location. She watched Spike arrive and kill her captor and a few others. She saw her chance and escaped, still bound at the hands.
Frightened by the affection she began to feel for her companions, Faye decided to run away from the Bebop to follow her philosophy of "leave before being abandoned." With some of the money, she fled to Callisto, the moon of fugitives, and met a man named Gren who proceeded to "rescue" her from a gang. She was able to talk to him about herself, which oddly didn't scare her. However, she soon found out about his relationship with Vicious. Gren told her everything about meeting Julia and his plan to confront Vicious. She took offense at his action of befriending her before going off and risking his life and tried to stop him. He managed to handcuff her instead and left to fulfill his plan. Jet found her later in Gren's apartment and returned her to the Bebop.
One day on the Bebop, she found that Ein reminded her of her encounter with Matsumoto. She told him the story of her awakening from cryogenic sleep. Spike, hidden in the bathroom, had listened to the whole story and urged Faye to forget the past and live the present. Embarrassed that he overheard her, she dismissed him. However, Jet soon returned to the Bebop with Whitney as a prisoner. Shocked, Faye discovered Whitney's deceit and plan with the doctor and the nurse to inherit his debts. Enraged, Faye abducted him to interrogate him about what was real about his story, however, neither him nor Bacchus had the real information. She then personally put him in prison and received his bounty.
One day, Faye received a package on the Bebop and, fearing it was from a collector or worse, fled without opening it. Jet was forced to pay the delivery fee and eventually found out it was a Betamax tape. The ship also eventually gets another passage of a cassette player. Faye returned to the ship and, rather than pay Jet the delivery fee, she walked away but still sneaked a look from around the corner. It was a tape she herself recorded in her youth. None of the images on the video are familiar to her, and therefore she spent several nights viewing the contents of the tape until Ed, half asleep, reveals that she might know where the area the video was recorded. She rigs the ship to go to Earth, straps Ed to her ship and takes off. They finally find it and, once there, Faye is approached by an elderly woman who turns out to be an ex-classmate, Sally Yung. She starts to explain some details about Faye, but she runs away instead, back to the Bebop. Later, during a shower, her memory resurfaces, and she decides she has to leave for good, to where she belongs. However, when she finally finds the area of her home, 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.
Faye was particularly influenced by her younger self on the videotape. She became more empathetic, caring and vulnerable. She encouraged Ed to find where she belonged.
Frustrated and upset by the absence of her roots, Faye went back to her ship when she notices a car driving by in pursuit of another. The driver is Julia, and Faye immediately shoots out the tires of her attacker, saving her. She gets in the car and they escape for a while. Faye offers to team up, but Julia says she's looking for someone. They return to the spaceport and Julia reveals she knows Faye knows Spike by asking her to tell him she'll be waiting "there." Surprised, she goes back to the Bebop and, albeit hesitantly, delivers the message to Spike. After he leaves, Faye wondered aloud to 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 cybernetic right eye can only see the present while his real left 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.
Recessional of the Red Dragons[]
She was still aboard the wrecked Bebop with Jet and Trudy, and she was torn once she received the news of Spike's passing in Tharsis. She was then offered to head back to Earth with Trudy, even though the latter never wanted to go back to the slums. By the time she unveiled that Spike's alive from her nightmare, Faye instantly wanted to go with her; Jet was reluctant, but the 2 women were eager as they boarded her Red Tail. They arrived at the ruined skyscraper and Spike surprised them from the shadows at the top floor. Trudy offered to have Spike go with them, but he turned on the duo which resulted in a lethal shootout! Faye was more skilled in combat than Trudy was, and even she received lesser injury. She was stronger than her as she carried a weak Trudy back to the Bebop after she heard Spike's warning that the war would start in 72 hrs. And he won't hesitate to destroy them if they should intervene.
Faye recuperated at Doc's private hospital as Jet gave her the intel on Trudy's Earthling friends. They soon boarded the Bebop, though Jet had to say goodbye to Laughing Bull. Faye became acceptable of Trudy's destiny, then the Bebop was under attack by the Swordfish! Luckily, the Shuttle piloted by X and Zero came to their aide, and the blue bomber assisted the evacuation. Faye and Trudy boarded the Red Tail before their home was obliterated! Spike offered to spare their lives for now as they made their exile on Earth.
Faye grew fascinated with Mary, her Pokémon, her cousins, even the Reploids in Abel City. She even appreciated the help from the Reploids as it was their 2nd job to shoot down the oncoming meteors; X felt sorry her home was destroyed. Trudy described Faye more of her nightmares involving Julia and the music box, and Faye offered her to visit the archaic store selling beta tapes. They found the music box in Trudy's description and offered it to Spike! Though he was comatose afterwards.
Then the war began, and Faye took on the frontlines with the women, Pokémon and Reploids. Even thru Valles Marineris and up Olympus Mons. She was a formidable fighter on the battlefield although the Syndicate was too much for her firearms. Then Reshiram and Zekrom were summoned and melted the icy summit, as the heroes evacuated to Vicky's truck, which resulted in her passing. Since then, Faye offered to look after her cat, Zeros. She was even offered a room in the apartment complex where one of the members of the ISSP passed.
A Trip in Paradise[]
Faye, along with Jet, was brainwashed by the new bounty heads, Takeshi and Lyn. She even persuaded Trudy to join the Drifters at the rear of a supermarket, before she escaped. She was found again at Pluto's moon, Charon, inside the facility where she cornered Spike, Julia, and Trudy with Jet! She was about to annihilate them if it wasn't for Zero's delay shooting up the place!! She eventually returned to normal by the time Andy retrieved the bounty heads and when Spike retrieved the flash drive with the missing woolongs. She and Jet then confessed they were acting as Takeshi and Lyn's personal bodyguards, which resulted in Trudy's rage and punched her to the ground! Trudy wasn't sure she can trust Faye again, and only time will tell before she does.
Trivia[]
- Wendee Lee played Faye, as well as Leann Caldwell and PD-4 in the PS2 game, The Bouncer! She seems to have a close work dynamic with Steven J. Blum who played as Kou in The Bouncer and Spike in Cowboy Bebop!
Gallery[]
