By all appearances, Faye is a 23 year old young woman in 2071. However, she was actually born in 1994 and was cryogenically frozen sometime before the gate incident. Faye is confident, audacious, independent, and somewhat self-centered. She is attractive, with medium-length, dark purplish hair and a voluptuous body. She normally wears a revealing yellow outfit complete with suspenders and a red long-sleeve shirt worn only through the sleeves. She is also quite lazy, but takes time to care for her appearance. She enjoys gambling, and often loses a great deal of money doing so. Faye is a very competent bounty hunter, being skilled in flying and both hand-to-hand and firearm combat.

In truth, Faye's indomitable exterior hides a more fragile interior. Faye awoke from her cryogenic sleep with total amnesia in a mysterious world that she didn't understand, surrounded by people who were all-too-willing to take advantage of her naiveté, contributing to the hardening of her personality. Throughout the series, she is saddled with a huge debt that was pushed onto her as a result of a scam perpetrated against her immediately after being wakened. The surname "Valentine" was merely a name given to her by the doctor who woke her; the circumstances of her accident, her previous life, and even her real name all remain a mystery, and are only gradually revealed as the series progresses. It has been hinted that she came from Singapore on Earth, and was the daughter of a very wealthy family, as the city's famous Merlion Statue features prominently in scenes of her childhood, and that memories and a film from her childhood showed her living in a large mansion. In an early episode she states that she is descended from Roma people, but she may well have been lying.


Faye drawing her Glock 30 (compact in .45ACP).Throughout the series, some believe it is hinted that Faye may be in love with Spike Spiegel. Though this is never stated, her attraction may be implied by her interactions with him (Pierrot Le Fou, My Funny Valentine, Speak like a Child, The Real Folk Blues) as well as her fascination with Julia (Jupiter Jazz, The Real Folk Blues). Though he comes to see her as a companion, Spike does not seem to have romantic feelings for Faye, as could be evidenced by his decision to seek and face Vicious in The Real Folk Blues, a decision which upsets Faye to the point where she fires her pistol into the ceiling five times as Spike leaves. However in an interview Watanabe stated "Sometimes I'm asked the question, 'What does Spike think of Faye?' I think that actually he likes her quite a bit. But he's not a very straightforward person so he makes sure he doesn't show it."