Jenrietta Valeska

**Jenrietta Valeska** is the female version of Jerome Valeska. She is the identical twin of Jeriah Valeska, the female version of Jeremiah Valeska. Jenrietta is a mass murderer and psychopathic anarchist. She is the more vengeful and chaotic twin sister of the obsessive and methodical anarchist mastermind, Jeriah Valeska.

Jenrietta Valeska is the leader of The Maniax, the Cult of Jenrietta, and The Legion of Horribles. She is a minor turned major antagonist of season 2 & 3 & 4 of *Gotham.*

**Early Life**

Jenrietta Valeska was born and raised in Haly's Circus. Jenrietta and her twin sister, Jeriah Valeska, were both born to Lila Valeska and Paul Cicero, the snake dancer and the blind fortune teller at the circus. Jenrietta and Jeriah were both raised by their mother, Lila Valeska. Jenrietta and Jemima never knew about their father. Jenrietta was told by her mother that her father was a sea captain named Sven Karlsen, who died while at sea. Their mother was cold-hearted and never loved anyone, not even her daughters. She was abusive, alcoholic and very promiscuous and would constantly abuse Jenrietta, sometimes even having her lovers abuse Jenrietta. On her and Jemima’s 9th birthday, when Haly’s Circus traveled to Kansas City, her mother along with a random man she was with both boozed, boned, & beat Jenrietta up. She was crying outside the trailer when Paul Cicero, the blind fortune teller at Haly’s Circus, told her that the world didn't care about her and that it was better to realize it then.

Jeriah was favored and treated better than Jenrietta as they were growing up. Jeriah took advantage of this and made up lies about Jenrietta scaring and abusing her to their mother. One night, their uncle Zachary, with their mother’s knowledge, secretly sent Jeriah away from Jenrietta and the circus to live at St. Ignatius for her own safety from the abuse. Jeriah ended up getting adopted by The Wildes, a wealthy rich family in New York, and never came back. Jenrietta was left all alone and abandoned by her own sister in the circus. Jeriah turned all of her family against Jenrietta by making up lies about her and then left her in the circus for good. This resulted in Jenrietta developing a hatred for her twin sister and a thirst for revenge.

**Killing her Mother**

After Jeriah left the circus, the abuse got worse and happened even more. Jenrietta became sick of her mother's constant abuse and nagging especially after she had sexual relations in the room next to hers, so at eighteen years old, Jenrietta killed her mother, and was allowed by Paul Cicero to clean up in her trailer. Jenrietta was then told by Cicero to scratch the initials for the Hellfire Club on the hatchet used to kill Lila, and to throw it off Arkham Bridge. Later, when Detective Gordon along with Leslie Thompkins and the circus ringmaster, came looking for Lila Valeska, Jenrietta answered the door to the trailer, denying knowing where she was. Gordon later had Lila's snake lead the group to her dead body, with Jenrietta fake crying and pretending to act shocked and in despair at seeing her dead mother. At the Gotham City Police Department headquarters, Jenrietta was questioned by Gordon on whether or not her mother had any enemies, and how she felt about her sex life, in an attempt to discern a possible suspect. Jenrietta was later brought back to the GCPD on the request of Gordon, who had come to the conclusion that Jenrietta had killed her mother, and Cicero, who Gordon had also come to the conclusion was Jenrietta's father, had helped her cover it up. Paul Cicero confirmed that he was her biological father and that her mother was a cruel woman but she still loved him and loved Jenrietta very much. She broke down crying at this news, but her cries turned into laughter. Jenrietta later admitted to killing her mother, laughing maniacally and claiming that her mother was a cold hearted whore who never loved anyone and who would never touch a pathetic creep like her father, then bursting into maniacal laughter again and saying it was very funny and said “My father? I’ll be damned. Looks like the bitch got me with a zinger in the end.” When Detective Jim Gordon asked Jenrietta why she killed her mother, she responded with, “You know how mothers are. She just kept pushing. I’m like fine, mom, be a whore. Be a drunken whore even. But don’t be a nagging drunken whore, ya know? Don’t come yell at me to do dishes WHEN YOU’VE BEEN BANGING A CLOWN IN THE NEXT ROOM! Ya know?” And then laughing maniacally again. Jenrietta was later arrested and incarcerated at Arkham Asylum.

## Personality

Jenrietta was a remorseless, unpredictable and utterly psychopathic girl with a deep enjoyment of needless acts of violence and chaos, committed by her and the Maniax or just in general. Unlike anything Gotham had ever seen before, Jenrietta was not an ordinary criminal in regards that she cared nothing about organised crime or profiteering but how she only relished in the mindless agony of everything around her. Penguin even states how she went against how usual criminals behaved due to her chaotic and unreasonable methods; singlehandedly, Jenrietta introduced the city, and perhaps even the world, an altogether different class of criminal, one that personified complete sadism, madness and pure, unadorned evil with no distinguishable objective or reasoning, beyond simply that he could or she enjoyed doing so. Her presence, even after death, tipped the scales of the kind of maniac Gotham could produce. It is heavily implied that her sociopathic views and her vile behavior, even by Gotham's standards, was the result of both her horrible childhood of being abused by her mother as well as Cicero, far from comforting Jenrietta on her ninth birthday, telling her that no one's going to care about her.

A showgirl, Jenrietta had a theatricality to her insanity that Galavan described as being "charismatic and charming". She enjoyed her time in the spotlight to the point where the rest of Gothan's criminals would operate within the shadows, she would televise her crimes for everyone to see. Whatever atrocities she would commit, one would always guarantee that there would be cameras nearby and she would do such act with a smile on her face. Cruel yet charismatic, Jenrietta desired to create a name for herself and a legacy that would never be forgotten, she brandished a smile when Paul Cicero claimed she would become a "curse upon Gotham". Her plans were usually intricate and needlessly complex, sometimes finding the challenge of them becoming a fruition or a failure entertaining nonetheless if they succeeded or otherwise and usually showcased her cunning and ingenuity in her designs. In the mind of Jenrietta, sanity was only a prison that prevented everyone from seeing what they were: pointless cogs within a monogamous machine stuck between a never-ending loop. Jenrietta and the Maniax believed that they were free from this prison due to their different ways of thinking and acting in comparison to everyone else and encouraged others to behave like they did, although they only thought this way because they were all mentally troubled, delusional and borderline insane.

One of her most noticeable traits was her disturbed sense of humour which was accompanied with a never-ending, manic giggling and outright laughter towards everything which fit right within Jenrietta's own beliefs on what was funny. She was sadistic and found immense joy in the idea of pain and death towards others, she smiled broadly when Richard Sionis was strangled to death and shot an injured police officer whom interrupted her broadcast from the GCPD, claiming she had "no manners". Jenrietta demonstrated a fondness for sarcasm, using it in a sick sense such as telling her father, who was blind "long time, no see" after breaking into her house. She enjoyed her own pain as well, making her suicidal as demonstrated while playing Russian Roulette, shot herself three times in a calm manner and how she found Commissioner Essen spitting at her and head butting her as "strangely pleasant" and laughing crazily, respectively. Even while being killed, she found enough humour within the situation to smile.

Jenrietta had a definable relationship with most members of the Maniax. She seemed to respect Galavan for believing in her and promising to make her a star, she also nicknamed him "Sensei" but was very shocked when the latter stabbed her in the neck. She was sociable towards Richard Sionis and Barbara Kean within Arkham Asylum, as she appeared to be friends with her and speaking for her when trying to ask Barbara for a date, although she found him being brutally murdered funny enough to grin at. She and Barbara worked together at Gotham Charity Ball and she was the one who granted her a phone call to threaten her ex-boyfriend. The most frictional relationship would be with Robert Greenwood whom mocked her for her young age and prepared to fight her to lead the Maniax. Though they worked together to kill the officers with GCPD and were a part of the same team, Jenrietta shot her dead for stealing her line and mocked her corpse later on.

Regarding her parentage, Jenrietta absolutely hated her mother and father. Though she finally discovered that Paul Cicero was her birth father, Jenrietta initially seemed to have a low opinion of her, claiming she was "pathetic" and a "creep". Even after learning that Cicero was her birth father, Jenrietta merely stated "I'll be damned" in a non-chalant manner, only shortly afterwards realizing the humor in the revelation. Cicero was somewhat unsympathetic towards his daughter and admits he was a bad father but loved her nevertheless and constantly gave her shelter and a home, even helping Jenrietta cover up her matricide for that reason alone. Whilst meeting with him after breaking into his house, Jenrietta mockingly called him "pops", "daddy" and "dad" all before killing him. Her mother was her first ever victim. She was stated to be cold and abusive to her daughter, and highly promiscuous and alcohol but Jenrietta claims that the only reason she killed her was because she asked him to do the dishes while having sex with a clown, which pushed her over the edge once too far.