Isabella Valentine

Isabella Valentine, more known as Ivy, is a major protagonist from the Soul Calibur series, who is probably known well for her extremely voluptuous body and penchant for extremely revealing clothing.

She first appeared in Soul Calibur as a major antagonist serving Nightmare and then acted as an anti-heroine in the rest of the series, without any actual allegiance.

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Biography Count Valentine, a practitioner of alchemy, was driven insane by his pursuit for Soul Edge-also known as the "Key to Eternal Youth." By the time of his death, his efforts to search for Soul Edge drained his family's fortunes and left one of London's most distinguished families in ruins. As if to pursue her husband into death, the Countess fell ill and passed away soon after Count Valentine's death. This left Ivy as the sole surviving member of the Valentine family.

In reality, Ivy was not a true Valentine by birth. The Count and Countess found her abandoned in front of their mansion when she was an infant, and she was taken into the family as an adopted child. Ivy discovered this secret only after reading a will left behind by the Countess in her death. But this did not matter to her, for the Valentines were the only parents she knew.

Obeying the last wishes of her adoptive father, Ivy continued the search for Soul Edge and studied alchemy. During this investigation, she uncovered the true nature of the sword-it was an evil blade that feasted on souls. In order to avenge the death of her father, who was driven insane by the allure of Soul Edge, Ivy vowed to use all of her knowledge to destroy it. She invoked strange powers through occult rituals to summon a mysterious individual who gave life to the whip-like, mechanical sword she dubbed "Ivy Blade."

The sword, which had a will of its own, accompanied and protected Ivy on her journey to vanquish Soul Edge. When she crossed paths with Nightmare, the one who breathed life into her sword, she agreed to assist him in the "summoning of souls." Little did she know that it was all part of the evil sword's plans. Ivy realized it was Nightmare who possessed Soul Edge. She came to this revelation only after he was defeated and the evil blade was shattered. That meant that the beloved blade she had forged to destroy Soul Edge had life thanks to the power of the evil blade. She also learned the secrets of her true lineage. Ivy's birth father... he once wielded Soul Edge and was manipulated by its wicked powers!

Shaken by the horrifying truth, Ivy returned home and locked herself away in a dark laboratory. She tried countless times to destroy Ivy Blade, which was now a symbol of her self-hatred and regret. She could not, however, bring herself to actually break the sword. "I am the same as this sword... Yes, the blood of the evil blade flows through me. The same blood..." Ivy Blade waited for its master's orders silently.

After months of soul searching, Ivy emerged with renewed resolve. Her goal was no longer to destroy the evil sword, but to completely wipe it out of existence. As a vow to her commitment, she renamed her sword "Valentine." And when she acquired information about fragments of Soul Edge being scattered throughout the world, she immediately departed on her new journey.

Ivy intended to destroy every fragment of Soul Edge, anyone who carried its tainted bloodline, and anyone contaminated by its evil. Nothing would stop her from destroying the root of the evil, even if it meant killing the innocent-there would be no exceptions. The only thing that mattered was obliterating the evil sword's existence completely. "Call me a monster, a demon if you must. I'll be happy to be called those names if it is the price I must pay to eliminate the existence of the evil blade!!"

Desiring to destroy the sword, she creates a segmented, animated blade, only to become Soul Edge's pawn and learn that it intends to use her as its next host. After an attack by Cervantes de Leon results in the loss of her soul, Ivy uses a temporary artificial one to keep herself alive, and continues after the blade; seeking to free herself from its evil lineage.

This was the beginning of her long, arduous journey. A journey where she would ultimately have to destroy herself and all that was related to her. Ivy's adoptive family name "Valentine" became a symbol of her will to live as a "human" even though the cursed blood of the demonic blade ran strong within her.

Even though Ivy is technically neutral, in the first game she is a ruthless servant of Nightmare and Soul Edge (however she is unaware of this) and takes pleasure in taunting her opponents and then killing them. However, despite only wanting freedom, she'll do whatever it takes in order to accomplish her goal, and will kill anyone who gets in her way.

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Physical Appearance Since her first appearance, Ivy has become one of the most recognizable and iconic characters in the franchise, mainly due to her snake sword, large breasts, revealing clothing, and silver hair. Her primary outfits always feature her with bob-length hair and asymmetrical bangs covering her left eye. Ivy is also mainly shown wearing a dark color of lipstick and red eye shadow.

Personality Ivy is considered evil by some due to her Machiavellian philosophy and her femme fatale-inspired appearance. She only wanted to acquire Soul Calibur by any means to sever her bond with Soul Edge. When facing her opponents, she spites them with dramatic words and she takes advantage of her unique weapon, which she invented. Beneath her cold demeanor is a heart that wants freedom from a cursed life that will do whatever it takes to be free. Overall, she is a neutrally-aligned character. This is further explored when Ivy states that she doesn't kill for pleasure, only harming those deserving of such punishment and judgment.

Nevertheless, she exhibits sophistication, confidence, and is an intellectual and bookworm as she spent most of her time researching on how to counter Soul Edge. She is also considered one of the most advanced characters in the series' timeline.

Costumes The overall recurring theme in Ivy's costumes is that of a dominatrix. Starting with Soulcalibur, she is the first character in the series to be wearing a very revealing costume, with a massive amount of visible cleavage and her thighs and hips exposed, despite wearing high boots and long gloves. In the following games, dark purple and gold are a recurring color scheme in her outfits, however the designers include white in her Soulcalibur III costume. The overall silhouette of her costume remains the same throughout the series, aside from her Soulcalibur IV costume, where little is left to cover her torso. In contrast, Ivy's Soulcalibur V outfit is the most conservative up to date, using a color scheme similar to that from Soulcalibur III. She always wears armor on her left shoulder, arm and hand in her 1P outfits.

Ivy's 2P costumes are, in comparison, generally more conservative in what they cover. Her Soulcalibur and Soulcalibur II 2P outfits are more traditionally masculine in appearance (mainly uniforms or uniform inspired, possibly with a bifauxnen image in mind) whereas for the rest of the series these outfits consist of very elegant, yet sexy and provocative, dresses (this excludes Ivy's Soulcalibur V 2P costume). Her bonus outfit in Soul Calibur II bears slight resemblance to Anna William's main outfit.

In Soulcalibur V, Ivy's secondary costume was designed by Mari Shimazaki. It is a golden, low cut snakeskin suit revealing her navel. In this outfit, Ivy wears a golden choker in the shape of a snake. It also has various cuffs and bands of white fur, with matching white gloves and short boots. This costume is somewhat reminiscent of Anna Williams' zebra suit, and Nina Williams' leopard suit from Tekken 5/DR.

In the reboot timeline of Soulcalibur VI, her costume is very similar to the revealing one she wore in the 4th title. Minor changes to her costume would be the darker purple and more stripes around her navel. In her story-mode, Ivy wears a cleavage baring purple dress with a bedazzling gold necklace in her cutscenes.

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Cultural impact Promotion and merchandising Ivy was featured amongst other characters for Soulcalibur II's arcade flyer, and has been featured in other printed advertisements for games in the series. She has also appeared on the cover on every Sony-based console game in the series, as well as Soulcalibur Legends for the Nintendo Wii. She is also visible on the white Xbox 360 Soulcalibur IV arcade joystick alongside Hilde and Siegfried, and the box art for Korean distributions of the lilac-colored PSP. In addition, the character has been used to demonstrate the graphical features of both Soulcalibur IV and its followup title, Broken Destiny in a tech demo and promotional flyer respectively. Ivy was also featured alongside Siegfried in a manga adaptation of Soulcalibur Legends printed in the Japanese shōnen Kerokero Ace; the manga, written in a humorous tone, used a running gag of Siegfried's annoyance that Ivy was significantly taller than he was.

Several action figures and figurines have been made bearing Ivy's likeness. Following the release of Soulcalibur, a resin kit by Kurushima was released, alongside a figurine by Kyosho. Epoch C-Works released a 1/12 scale Ivy action figure of in a set of three for the title as well, featuring equipable weapons. In August 2003, Todd McFarlane Productions released an Ivy sculpture amongst a set of five based on Soulcalibur II. The immobile figure was modeled after her primary outfit and stood six inches tall with a base and retracted sword. Yujin released a four inch tall figurine based upon her Soulcalibur II artwork as part of their "Namco Girls Series #5" line of gashapon figurines. A twelve inch tall immobile PVC figurine modeled after her Soulcalibur III appearance was released by Enterbrain in September 2008, using a white version of her outfit and extended sword; a dark blue outfit for an "international color" version of the sculpture was also produced. In October 2011, Hobby Japan Co., which publishes the monthly Hobby Japan magazine in Japan, released a limited exclusive by mail order Queen's Gate Entwining Ivy 1/8 scale PVC figure. This figure was based on Ivy in her very revealing Soulcalibur IV outfit. The figure was released following a gamebook series and videogame entitled Queen's Gate Spiral Chaos which featured Ivy as a guest character alongside other well known female video game characters from other franchises.

Ivy's cleavage shot in her secondary costume is used as a promotional picture on the Japanese Soulcalibur V posters.

Critical reception Although commonly cited as one of the most difficult characters to play as in the Soul series, Ivy has received a great deal of positive reception and has been described as one of the series' most "staple" and "stalwart" characters. From her Soulcalibur II appearance, Ivy was nominated in G4's 2004 G-Phoria awards show under "Hottest Character", alongside Vanessa Z. Schneider and Rikku; she was also a character in their 2005 "Video Game Vixens" awards show, winning in the category of "Kinkiest Accessory". Several other "Top Ten" lists have also featured Ivy in similar context, including those by Team Xbox, Machinima.com, and Spike TV. In 2009, she was featured on the cover of French magazine Ig alongside other female video game characters as one of the top heroines of gaming.

Ivy was cited in the book "Disconnected America" as an example of Soulcalibur II's contrast to titles like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter in terms of a comparable real-world experience. Play magazine called her one of the "finest females in all of 3D fighting", adding of the characters in the series she was the one they enjoyed playing as the most. She placed second in IGN's "Soulcalibur: The Top Ten Fighters" article, which stated "Few, if any, Soul fighters so aptly sum up what the series is about as Ivy Valentine." IGN also included her in their list of guest characters they would have liked to have seen for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and in their "Top 50 Chicks Behaving Badly" list, describing her as "a pain in the ass, but she's got a tight one, so she's okay by us". Gamespy named her one of the "25 Extremely Rough Brawlers" in video gaming, praising the brutality of her fighting style and weapon. Tom's Games named her one of the fifty greatest female characters in video game history, stating that as "an anti-hero who frequently clashes with other Souls, Ivy is a fascinating character for a fighting game". UGO.com placed her sixteenth on their list of the "Top 50 Evil Women", noting her role as an antagonist in the first Soulcalibur while adding that it could be "difficult to truly appreciate [her] villainy" due to her attractiveness, and adding that her appearance and attitude made her "a feared competitor".

Ivy appeared several times in GameDaily's "Babe of the Week" series of articles, including as a stand alone article and at eleventh place in their "Top 50 Hottest Game Babes" article. They later named her amongst other female characters in the Soul series as an example of a strong and iconic female character in video gaming. New York Times felt her appearance came from the same "Goth cyberaesthetic [...] that gave us 'The Matrix'", one they felt was already becoming outdated. UGO.com ranked her eighteenth in their "Top 50 Videogame Hotties" article, stating "However much she instills fear in our hearts, we revel in the opportunity to stare at her from the safety of our television sets." In later articles, they named her one of the top eleven girls of gaming at number ten and one of the top eleven video game heroines at number eight, stating "What can you say about a chick that carries a whip? If you're talking about Ivy from the Soul Calibur series, you could say she's pretty intimidating."

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Sex symbol In a promotional flyer for Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, the developers admitted they felt they had overdone the size of her breasts. Ivy's appearance and demeanor have been a focus of discussions, with her commonly compared to or described as a dominatrix, and has been noted both as the series' sexiest female and one of the "most beautiful women in gaming". She is used as a sex symbol in various third-party media, her likeness appearing in material including magazine swimsuit issue pin-ups, such as Play's annual "Girls of Gaming" series, and pornographic dojinshi. Advertisements have also focused on her visual appeal, such as Sega's commercial for Soulcalibur's Dreamcast port. Other media facets have made comparisons between her and Lara Croft in terms of attractiveness, or depicted them as rivals alongside other female characters in a similar context. Other sources have used her as a standard for a character archetype, comparing later created female characters to her design and appearance. Studies on video games have noted Ivy in the subject of games "growing up", discussing the increasing popularity of "video game babes" and the reactions of men and women towards them.

The book Game On: The History and Culture of Videogames cited Ivy as an example of realistic character design affected by "the Japanese deformed aesthetic and the global influence of cartoon animation", noting she made characters such as Lara Croft look "positively monastic" by comparison. Race, Gender, Media: Considering Diversity Across Audiences, Content, and Producers used her as an example of most female characters in video games, describing her body and clothing as being created solely for the viewing pleasure of players, often males. Rachael Hutchinson, Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Delaware, described her sexualizing appearance and behavior as devices used by the developers to emphasize her above-average height compared to other female characters in the title as "deviant", justifying "social and cultural expectation regarding the female form" in the process. In an article on Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander used Ivy as a primary example of video game representations of the ideal male and female versus the real world and the concept that "sex sells", noting the unconscious appeal of such a character to represent oneself as in a game.

Reception of the character's sex appeal has been mostly positive, though with a share of criticism as well as her design evolved through the series. Joystiq bemoaned her appearance in Soulcalibur IV, describing it as an extreme in lieu of games such as Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and noting that while a full redesign was unnecessary, "At least [Dead or Alive] keeps its breasts in context." MSNBC described her attire as "the pinnacle of preposterous", noting that while it revolved around her femme fatale design, it appeared physically painful and made little sense to wear into combat. Former GameSpot Jeff Gerstmann described the alterations to her appearance for Soulcalibur IV as unnecessary, stating "boobs are awesome, but there's a line. Ivy is over this line. GamesRadar content editor David Houghton described her alongside similar characters as "festering adolescent wank-fantasies", adding directly regarding Ivy "[t]his is not female empowerment". The subject was later brought up again at the 2011 PAX East convention, in which an all-female journal panel led by The Escapist's Susan Arendt agreed that while the character was strong and difficult but rewarding to master in the original Soulcalibur, she was reduced to "a nice ass bouncing around the room" in later games.

In contrast, British magazine CVG cited her appearance in Soulcalibur IV as appealing, stating "Ivy...we like because she barely wears anything. Yes, we like videogame girls." IGN in their "Babes of Soulcalibur" article noted that while her outfit pushed the line even by game standards, they had no actual complaint towards that aspect of the character. Team Xbox emphasized that while her appearance played a factor in her allure, her fighting skills and unique weapon were significant as well, adding that "Ivy never disappoints in a swordfight". Leigh Alexander in an article for GameSetWatch noted that while characters like Samus Aran served as "bastions of dignity", characters such as Ivy filled an important role in video games too, stating "[i]t looks like Ivy’s back is set to snap – but she’s a game character; she’ll be fine. Why not just enjoy it?" The Escapist noted that the character's behavior and sex appeal defined the character rather than serving as an extraneous aspect, stating "Ivy's oversexed dominatrix demeanor perfectly compliments her confident, punishing move set." UGO.com repeated the sentiment, noting in their "Girls of Gaming" article "Soul Calibur's mega-bombastic whip-wielding hottie isn't the only babe in the game, or even the best-endowed...but her combination of sultry moves and revealing outfits shoots her up the charts."

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