Character Analysis: Jack-O Valentine
Background
Buckle the fuck up.
The year is 2187 and humanity is on its last legs. The Universal Will has taken Justice and plans to use her to enact the Absolute World, a universal scale event that will erase all humans from existence. Sealed in another dimension with no way out, The Gear Maker/That Man speeds up his plan to save the world, and awakens his trump card.
A woman who’s named after the mascot of a metal band named “Helloween”
See a long time ago a man named Asuka AKA That Man had one simple goal. He wanted to save his best friend Aria, who was diagnosed with a TP infection with no current cure. Despite pleading with her to be cryo frozen, Aria wanted to spend her last moments with her lover and Asuka’s other best friend Fredrick Bulsara. Naturally, the best way to convince Aria to go through the process was to turn Fredrick into a super weapon (He goes by Sol now) and sell the idea of being immortal together with him by also turning her into a super weapon by the name of Justice.
Pictured: What’s left of Japan
This did not go well at all.
To make matters worse the Universal Will was making her own clones of Aria known as Valentines, hoping to create one compatible enough to fuse with Justice and bring forth the Apocalypse.
Suffice to say Asuka needed to act if he wanted his best friends to be together again. Luckily he salvaged half of Aria’s soul and planned on fixing his mess by making his own Valentine, one that would be fully compatible with Justice. This finally brings us to Jack-O!
You see Jack-O was designed as essentially a physical patch. The goal was to fuse her half of Aria’s soul with the other trapped in Justice. The fusion of the two would overwrite Justice’s information sectors and revive Aria as a normal human.
Too bad the process wasn’t complete! Not being fully awakened Jack-O was a bit unstable and went out on a tour to discover the world getting into a bunch of fights and dropping secrets left and right (hey keep this mind). Eventually after 11 days of adventure she’d head back home (?) and await Asuka’s arrival. Once the Gear Maker returned he put his plan into action and eventually succeeded in fusing the two halves of Aria’s soul together. With the Universal Will defeated and the world at peace, it appeared Jack-O accomplished her goal, and brought Aria back to life
…..at least that’s what we thought. Despite Aria’s soul being remade, the woman was refusing to come out and take over. With nothing better to do Jack-O joined Sol on bounty hunting adventures while she awaited Aria to take over. As she waited and waited her feelings for Sol began to develop, despite her instance that she was just a clone with nothing to her. These complicated feelings would only begin to increase as a new crisis was brewing on the horizon…
…which was basically all Jack-O’s fault! Remember those secrets she probably shouldn’t have spilled? Yeah turns out one of them was informing I-No that she was basically a god who technically never had free will her entire life. It’s okay all Jack-O needs to do is sacrifice herself and revert I-No into a normal human!
Fast forward to the endgame and I-No has now become God so that sacrifice plan was needed more than ever. Jack-O had finally come to terms with her feelings for Sol, and decided to make a choice to save him and the world, even if it meant her death. Just when things seemed set in stone however, Sol offered a new path for Jack-O, one where she lives as her own person and doesn’t aspire to be Aria’s replacement. In spite of everything he’s been through, Sol was content with Aria choosing to not take over and let Jack-O live her own life, even if the world itself may end. Finally accepting herself as worthy of living, Jack-O rejected her sacrifice and found a separate solution to stopping I-No.
With no more conflicts appearing on the horizon (for real this time), Jack-O now lives with Sol, fulfilling the wishes of herself and everyone important to her.
Experience
Jack-O’s experience is…weird. Despite being only around for less than a year she is stated to have thousands of years worth of knowledge for her role. She also maintains all of the memories that Aria had, granting her immense intellect. This intellect combined with her own programmed fighting skills has allowed her to compete against many experienced fighters. Some of these fighters such as Sol and Nagoryuki have had hundreds of years worth of combat experience backing them up. She even stalemated Jam in a fight, a martial artist with over 4,000 years worth of techniques at her disposal.
Weapons
Flail
A Jack O’ Lantern style flail seemingly with its own personality. Jack-O can use this object to extend the reach of her attacks, produce energy from it, and even use it to catch others. She can even use it to fly at insane speeds.
Motorcycle
A side car turned motorcycle that Jack-O can seemingly create from thin air.
Mask
A mask that initially was used to stabilize Jack-O’s existence due to being woken up earlier than normal. After becoming whole, Jack-O uses the mask to keep her composure during battle.
Halo
A symbol of her status as a clone of Aria. She can manipulate the halo in different ways, be it changing its size, attacking with it, or even flight.
Scales of Juno
The “seed” implanted in Jack-O that is partially responsible for her absurd power. While not visually shown to us its counterpart the “Flame of Corruption” appears to be a small glowing energy sphere. This object also assists in allowing her to survive the effects of the “Absolute World” (1:50-3:19), a world-ending threat that merges the Backyard with the current universe.
Powers and Abilities
Magic
The main source of energy throughout the Guilty Gear universe. Ever since being discovered by “The Original” magic has become a multi purpose tool for all aspects of life. Whether it's the fuel for a car or creating puppies out of thin air, the possibilities with magic became endless, effectively replacing technology itself and kick starting a new age for centuries to come.
The practical application of magic is called a spell, which involves taking magical energy from “another plane” to convert it into more useful and familiar forms. Spells often take the form of the five elements, being water, fire, electricity, wind, and ki.
The source of all of this magic is the Backyard (16:16-16:57), an alternate dimension responsible for programming the entire world. When anyone uses magic, they essentially borrow energy from the Backyard and manifest it into reality. (18:59-19:30). Due to the near infinite amount of energy present within, magic is effectively an inexhaustible resource with barely any limitations.
Skills
Hunger of Dopulous
An attack where her flail grabs someone and spits them out in any direction she desires.
Zest
An energy based uppercut that lets her cut through attacks.
Air Zest
….exactly what it sounds like it's literally just the air version of the attack above.
Remove the Chain of Chiron
A blast of energy balls that can rain down on the opponent, ranging from one to three
Calvados
A volleyball spike that causes an explosion of energy. In the boss version Jack-O can cause three pillars to appear.
Forever Elysion Driver
Apparently a fan of wrestling, Jack-O grabs her opponent with her flail, ascending into the air and slamming them into the ground to shatter the earth.
Minion Summoning
These little guys are the crux of Jack-O’s game plan despite never actually showing up in any story mode. Jack-O’s minions can be summoned from thin air and seemingly have no limit and can be manipulated by her in many ways. While they act on their own, they can be picked up or launched around the battlefield, making them not fully predictable.
Minion Houses
In GG Xrd, the minions worked notably differently than in Strive. Rather than just summoning a minion she summons a house that can summon multitude of minions at a time. Over time the house begins to level up and the minions become stronger. Like the servants she can pick them up and move them around for positioning. The only way to fully stop this process is by destroying the houses entirely.
Commands
Jack-O can give multiple commands to her servants to add some variety to her gameplan. She can command them to attack and defend, recall them back to her, or even command them to explode. (1:20-2:26). Her special Cheer On Servant can either make her servants invincible or increase the speed at which she can summon them.
Organ Development
A master of music, Jack-O can access this keyboard to affect herself or other servants, causing all sorts of potential mayhem.
Recover All: Returns all summons to Jack-O, with their levels still intact.
Clock Up: Buffs the servants, accelerating their attack and speed.
Explode: Detonates all the servants present on the battlefield.
Aegis Field: A shield that nullifies all projectiles.
Minion Types
Numbered Servants
The servants used in Strive, sharing generally the same properties. They can attack with their lollipops and block attacks with their shield.
Swordsman
A minion that often prioritizes mid range combat with its sword.
Lancer
A servant that focuses primarily on low range attacks.
Magician
A magic user who largely attacks from the skies. Notable for cockblocking jump ins.
I Want Out
Jack-O’s “Instant Kill” which acts as her strongest attack. After her minions tie up the unfortunate victim, Jack-O is lifted in the air far enough to reach outer space. Once in space, Jack-O’s halo turns into wings, allowing her rider to kick her opponent with enough force to create an explosion from space.
Information Analysis
Having half of Aria’s soul grants Jack-O a vast array of knowledge to her surroundings. She could identify the pieces of technology used to build Johnny’s ship, figure out how Bedman’s powers work despite having no records on him, and even knew about the origin of Axl and I-No’s powers despite the two of them not existing in either the past or future. If she ever needs more information on a subject she can use her organ to search the “records” of a person.
Regeneration
If she were to take damage, Jack-O’s body can self-regenerate any wound as long as it isn’t “instant and fatal.” While we don’t see the regeneration in action, she engaged in fights with weapon users such as Sol, Ramlethal, Axl, and Bedman and only walked away with a scar on her leg.
Valentine Abilities
As the final model of the Valentine series, it's likely that Jack-O shares some abilities from her predecessors.
Power Nullification
Valentines utilize magic foreign to the main world, causing spells to have no effect on them. (3:42-4:12). It took the cast learning said foreign magics in order to even deal damage to basic soldiers.
As a part of her creation Jack-O can also use her powers to remove I-No’s godhood and revert her into a human, albeit at the cost of her own life.
Sublimination
In Guilty Gear 2, Valentine displays an ability known as “Sublimation”, which allows her to disassemble a target down to their cells. Valentine can seemingly perform this without being close to the target, and full sublimation can outright make targets disappear all together. If the target needs to be left alive, Valentine can take specific cells from a target without completely purging them.
Resistances
Note: Many of these resistances come from the fact that Jack-O was designed to survive the Backyard thanks to the Scales of Juno and being created inside of it. If not stated otherwise assume the resistance is due to these factors.
Soul Manipulation: The Backyard is stated to crush a target into dust, including their soul.
Information Manipulation: The Backyard is a wealth of nigh-infinite information. The mind is stated to vanish as if it melted if one enters without preparation.
Gamma Radiation: Gamma Ray emits… gamma radiation. Justice survives her insides being fried by Dizzy’s own Gamma Ray. (3:50-4:26) After fusing with Justice, Jack-O should arguably contain her resistances.
Space-Time Manipulation: Information Flares destroy the space-time in their respective areas by filling it with far more information than it can handle. The Backyard as mentioned has an infinite amount of said information.
Transmutation: Information Flares can rewrite the matter, causing objects like dirt to become steel.
Possession: Information Flares can cause possession, which also rewrite matter and overwrite a targets information.
Antimatter Reaction: Ramlethal is caught into the antimatter (29:48-29:59) explosion of a Gear and later returns with Raven’s healing bandages. Raven’s healing cannot regrow limbs and can only heal wounds “down to the bone,” implying to some extent she survived some of the explosion
Power Nullification: By utilizing the same magic as the Valentines (9:10-9:33), the cast of GG2 could properly bypass (12:44-12:54) their powers being nullified.
Existence Erasure: The Absolute World is stated to "erase” beings that cannot withstand it, and several species were erased prior. Given she was designed to be immune to it, and Valentines are inherently immune to the effects of the Backyard, Jack-O should be resistant to this.
Personalities
Aria
Sol’s previous lover and the template for all other Valentines. After merging with Justice, Aria’s soul resides in Jack-O as its own entity. While Aria will not take over Jack-O’s body, she can still offer advice and support as a second voice.
Jackie
Note: This name is not official
A bubbly persona representative of Jack-O’s more extreme emotions. Initially present when Jack-O first woke up, she seemingly disappeared after Jack-O fully merged with Justice and became “human.” After the events of Strive’s story mode Jackie would resurface to assist Jack-O with finding herself.
Unlike Aria, Jackie can…seemingly manifest herself physically. While it's not 100% clear Jack-O’s arcade mode treats Jackie as a physical being who can be interacted with by others.. The only time this isn’t the case is when she merges back with Jack-O and shares the same body. Despite her personality, Jackie shares the same abilities and intelligence as Jack-O, making her a viable partner in combat.
Feats
Strength
Creates a large scale explosion that can be seen from space that vaporizes the rocks launched into space. (148 zettatons-984 zettatons)
Speed
Can fly to Earth from a nearby galaxy in seconds. (33 trillion c)
Durability
Fought many fighters including Sol, Sin, Ramlethal, and across 11 days and only received one injury.
Survived the energy output of Saint Oratorio (23:15-23:39), which is stated to have “no limits” and required Sol to be in Dragon Install to properly fire.
Scaling
Sol Badguy
The main protagonist of the story. Sol and Jack-O have fought in the past, with Sol being notably freaked out by how strong she was. With that in mind Jack-O should scale to some of Sol’s accomplishments
Contains (15:10-16:00) a black hole within his fist (11.405 quettatons of TNT)
Survives the recoil of the Outrage in human form which is stated to output infinite energy (Universal)
Earlier its stated that setting off all the zeal pods could blow up half the world (1.03 exatons-44.64 zettatons)
Justice
The Command Gear and one of the main antagonists of the story. Since Jack-O fused with her at the end of Xrd , it's very likely she should be just as powerful as her.
Vaporized all of Japan with her Gamma Ray, vaporizing Japan. (119 ronnatons)
I-No
A recurring antagonist and big bad of Strive’s story mode. At the end of the game I-No becomes a god and notes that the only things that could stop her are the Flame of Corruption and Scales of Juno. Ky would then use his portion of said Scales to compete with I-No.
Its unknown exactly if Jack-O lost or didn’t have access to the Scales of Juno during this time, but she later mentions in her arcade mode that she can “move around like she used to after training with her other self, implying to some degree she was weakened during the main events of Strive. Regardless at her peak she should be comparable to God I-No.
Was going to reset and recreate the universe over and over. (Universal)
Her existence threatened to collapse the entire Backyard (Multiversal+) (Infinite)
Was stated to transcend the concept of time (Infinite/immeasurable) (Debatable)
Other
Naturally due to fighting many powerful characters, Jack-O should scale to other characters across the Guilty Gear universe
Bridget can throw people to the moon in seconds (2.4 gigatons) (42.74%c)
Ramlethal absorbs the energy of a sphere that would turn the planet to dust (55 exatons)
Faust can create and throw black holes (1.5 yottatons-0.13FOE)
Slayer’s instant kill sends people to another galaxy (985 ronnatons)(442 billion c)
Backyard Size
The Backyard is stated to give birth to infinite possibilities, with the existence of infinite dimensions and worlds being consistently reinforced.
It has also been stated to be a “superior” or a higher dimension, with realms beneath it such as “Underworld Hill” being stated to transcend and surpass the concept of time.
When I-No became a god with power comparable to the Backyard, she mentioned how reality appeared like fiction to her, describing it as a sea of ones and zeroes, which is consistent with statements of how the Backyard functions. If the universe we live in is like software, then the Backyard can be seen as a programming language that governs all laws in reality.
Weaknesses
As powerful as the minions are, they will immediately disappear should Jack-O be damaged. There’s also a limit to how many minions can be present at a time, even with the houses being only two of each type. Lastly, if the minions' houses are destroyed the levels are completely reset, forcing Jack-O to redo the process all over again.
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