Of all the complaints the Resident Evil community has, good or bad, by far the most significant – and thankfully very fair – is the absence of Jill Valentine from the latest games from the main timeline. Loved by so many, she doesn’t seem to be so much to the taste of Capcom’s current team. There is a lot of speculation on the reasons for this, but that’s their problem and not ours, we want her back!

Fans are so displeased with Jill’s disappearance that a social media campaign was created (if I remember well, by Resident Evil Project) with the hashtags #BringBackJill and #BringBackJillValentine to get Capcom’s attention. This text is part of it!

What are your reasons for wanting Jill back? I would love to hear from you. Today, I have just listed a few. Shall we check them?

9. Jill is one of the founders of the BSAA

Along with people like Chris and O’Brien, Jill is one of BSAA’s Original Eleven. She certainly has a very important and very influential role in the organization even if she is no longer active on the battlefield. And, at the current point in timeline, the BSAA is the leading anti-bioterrorism organization in the Resident Evil universe. In a world full of bioterrorism…this is pretty important, right?

8. Something wrong is not right at the BSAA

In Resident Evil Village, we discover that there is something really wrong within the BSAA. There are obvious signs of corruption in the organization, like the alliance with Blue Umbrella, their sending of BOWs to the battlefield, the cover-up of biological incidents… it’s pretty clear that Chris isn’t happy at all about this and Jill certainly wouldn’t be either.

Jill has always been known for her intelligence, responsibility and ability to solve problems. Therefore, she is needed now more than ever, because it is all the values that she built alongside Chris with the BSAA that are at risk.

7. Jill wasn’t around at moments she should have been

One very intriguing thing about RE6’s lame narrative is that, in the process of regaining Chris’s memory, two key people for him aren’t present: his own sister Claire and his lifelong partner, Jill. For me and certainly for much of the community, this is a very serious mistake by Capcom. Maybe it happened behind the scenes, but why not show it explicitly?

In addition to RE6, Village also failed her. If Chris is working in the shadows because of the problems inside the BSAA, Jill would be too, wouldn’t she? Or at least they would be exchanging information, perhaps similarly to what happened in the Raccoon days – Chris pretending crazy and investigating from the outside and Jill staying in the city/BSAA to investigate from inside. Hopefully the corrupt BSAA plot brings something like this to Resident Evil 9.

6. Jill appears in other Resident Evil products and in other games, but not in the main chronology

Almost every time we have a cultural product that brings some reference or easter egg from Resident Evil, Jill is the one to show up. Some examples are the recent RE pack for Dead By Daylight, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, her outfit in Dead Rising 4, Jill’s Sandwiches shop also in Dead Rising, among others.

Jill in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

Jill is also featured in other Resident Evil productions, such as the Milla Jovovich films – Jill appeared in 3 of them, two of which were after the character’s last chronological appearance in games – and in the upcoming film Welcome to Raccoon City.

This makes it clear that Jill is the face of Resident Evil. So why leave her out?

5. To value Resident Evil’s female characters

A common complaint in the community lately has been the way in which female characters, once so strong, full of personality and independent, have been overlooked in the latest products of the franchise.

Not that they didn’t show up or demonstrate strength. But especially with Claire, some things turned out quite uncomfortable: in Infinite Darkness, Claire had little screen time, being treated as an accessory to Leon’s story, and was heavily hurt by men (the same can be said about Shen Mei). In RE2 Remake, she is also beaten by Brian Irons, something that bothered a lot of people, even if it was consistent with the situation and the character of the police chief.

Jill is one of the great muses of videogames and Shinji Mikami has always strived for her not to be a mere appeal to sensuality within Resident Evil (something that, should we admit, has been forgotten after he left Capcom…). No wonder her difference from Chris in the original Resident Evil was her greater intelligence, while he was more brute strength (I’m not saying Chis is dumb, okay? He just wasn’t as skilled as Jill was in the first RE).

So, it would be great if Jill’s triumphant return were to follow the old manners of thick-skinned, independent female characters who owned their own story.

4. Alongside Leon, Jill is people’s favourite character

Leon is undoubtedly the most popular character in Resident Evil, thanks to the success of Resident Evil 4 that made his fame go beyond RE fans and spread throughout the gaming world in general. However, almost everybody also knows who Jill Valentine is.

Among fans, Jill receives immense affection for being the first character with whom many of us played with (after all, playing with Chris was harder lol), for being such a charismatic protagonist, for having faced one of the most iconic monsters in videogame history (Hi Nemesis!), for closing the Raccoon City arc and for so many other reasons.

When someone asks on Twitter about people’s favourite character, Jill is always very present. So, a game with her would be without a doubt a success and success is money, right, Capcom?

3. Jill has been missing from the chronology for 12 years

Jill’s last appearance in the numbered games was in Resident Evil 5, which takes place in 2009. After that, the only news we have of her were in a file in Resident Evil Revelations 2, an e-mail she sends to Barry shortly after returning from Kijuju, also in 2009.

This means that for 12 years – both in chronology and in real life – we have no idea of what Jill has been doing! Has she recovered? Is she still at the BSAA?

Yes, it is true that Jill was the main character in Resident Evil: Revelations (set in 2005 and released in 2012) and Resident Evil 3 Remake, but neither of them advances in the story, telling events taking place before Resident Evil 5.

After all, what happened to Jill Valentine?

2. Alongside Chris, Jill is the main protagonist of Resident Evil

This is a sticking point, but we can try to think from the perspective that it all started with Jill and Chris. It was playing with them that we discovered Umbrella’s wrongdoings; Jill witnessed the destruction of Raccoon City; together they founded the BSAA, destroyed Umbrella, uncovered corruption within the FBC and, after hellish suffering, defeated the franchise’s main villain, Albert Wesker.

There are indeed many important events other characters dealt with, but the most definitive ones always happen by the hands of Chris and Jill. Lately we’ve had a lot of Chris, but without Jill, there’s a void of incompleteness.

They work well on their own, but together they are unbeatable! A return from this duo, please!

1. She is Jill Valentine

Zombie Slayer. BOW ass kicker. Pianist. Bomb Disarmer. Master of unlocking. Jill is all that and more.

In all Resident Evil universes, she stands out for her determination, her bravery, her values, her intelligence, and her expertise. She faced terrible threats and cheated death many times. She is highly respected by her friends and colleagues, and by her fans who love her unconditionally.

Jill is an inspiration to all of us and all we want is to be able to live Resident Evil with her again.

So please, Capcom. #BringBackJillValentine!