#knifewife

I went back and forth for a while about who I should write about next from the Left Eye. Jackie is a super important character but she doesn’t get that much screen time in episode one… on the other hand, if I had to choose the character that our creative team probably has the biggest crush on, The Black Widow of Normandy is a very easy winner #knifewife.

So without further ado… LET’S DROP SOME FACTS ABOUT DADDY JACKIE.

FACT 1. SHE IS BIG, AND SHE IS CLEVER. 

Jackie spent her teenage years and early twenties burgling, scamming, and pickpocketing her way around France. She was part of a petty crime gang, made up of herself, her husband Leon, and her twin brother, Rien, but that all fell apart in their first year in America.  When we meet her at the start of The Left Eye, Jackie is down an eye, Leon is dead, and Rien is locked up in Folsom for second degree homicide.  Jackie was forced to become the brains, the muscle, and the de-facto leader of their gang, The P’tit Cats. 

The only thing she can’t do now, is play the innocent damsel in distress to lure in targets.  Her angle had to change…

FACT 2.  WHO’S GOT ONE EYE AND A HELL OF A POKER FACE?  THIS GUY!!!

The first rule of poker is to act weak when your hand is strong, and act strong when your hand is weak - but because all poker players know this, the push and pull of how to persuade people to bet the way you want is a bit of an art.  And Jackie loves poker.

So when we meet her at the beginning of The Left Eye, trying to stay afloat in the criminal underworld as a half blind woman with her gang in pieces, Jackie is constantly playing that line between strong and weak.  She leans into her reputation as the black widow turned bull-dagger who might have killed her husband,  sometimes denies, and sometimes stokes the rumours that she works as the handler for a shadowy assassin, known as her Left Eye.

Is she actually dangerous?  Is she way out of her depth? Is she holding a pair of kings or just a six and a two in different suits?  

Jackie ain’t telling you.  Honestly half the time she’s not even telling herself…

FACT 3.  50% THOUGHTS.  50% VIBES.

When it comes to the central con running through The Left Eye, Jackie is the woman with the plan.  But while she’s sharp and calculating when it comes to weighing her odds and putting a plan in motion, Jackie is just as often running on instinct.   Life has taught her to trust her gut first, and figure out where in her brain the warning came from later.

Which is great when you need to make a snap judgement about someone.  Fantastic when you have a split second to decide whether or not to take a gamble.  It’s only NOT SO HOT when you’re in danger of believing your own hype, and suddenly you can’t tell the difference between your solid gamblers instincts, and your slightly outsized pride.  She’s so confident in her own judgement, that she can always find a way to justify her own actions in hindsight, and while her swagger and infamy have gotten her into the same social circles as some big name crooks, Jackie is very, very bad at grasping when she’s out of her depth. 

Which will almost certainly NEVER PRESENT A PROBLEM OF ANY KIND FOR HER. ptthhhththhhtht the consequences of her actions have never caught up with her lifelong winning streak before, have they? (shut up the eye thing, husband thing and brother thing don't count.)

SO THAT'S JACKIE IN A NUTSHELL! kind of a big nutshell because I couldn't stop once I popped (what).

If you're interested in her story, or you like scary butches and problematic queers in general, you can see more of her in the free demo of The Left Eye, available on Steam and Itch!

AND LET'S HAVE ONE MORE FACT FOR THE ROAD...

FACT 4:  DID WE MENTION JACKIE STILL HAS THE KNIFE THAT WAS USED TO KILL HER HUSBAND?

And the knife has a name. 

It’s called “La Petit Mort.”

My first drawing of 2023!! It's fan-art of my wife's V-Tuber character. Very happy how this turned out.

Edit: her twitch is

POV: You’re about to die

--

✦⠀𓂃⠀Knifewife:⠀A gender connected to knives & [being a wife/wives].⠀❜

—⠀if this has been coined before/is similar to another term, please tell me! ^_^;

[PT: Knifewife. A gender connected to knives & being a wife/wives. If this has been coined before/is similar to another term, please tell me!]