Oh God.
Briefly? Okay.
*ahem*
Jill is both an admirable survivor and a memorable B-movie character. She has survived three separate zombie apocalypses, and is the only known human being to gain immunity to the T-virus. She survived a mansion overrun with zombies, a full city hellscape with an unkillable tyrant chasing specifically her the entire time before escaping a nuclear bomb, a derelict ship in the middle of the ocean swarming with undead monsters, and
then sacrificed herself to save her partner since the beginning, Chris Redfield, by lunging into the man about to kill him and tossing them both out a window and down a cliff. All of this with only early military training focused on bomb diffusing and lockpicking.
In the original Resident Evil released in 1996, the voice acting was phenomenally atrocious, but wonderful because of it. And Jill's story had all the better lines.
She's a quality strong character design and a female lead in an era of gaming that basically had Lara Croft and nothing else. Without aid, she's able to kill a giant ****ing snake, hordes of zombies, giant reptilian Hunters, a 40ft long zombie shark and more in only her first game. She was chosen as the first ever Resident Evil representative in a Capcom crossover game when she was added to MvC2, and this is a big deal as Resident Evil is
by far Capcom's highest selling franchise. It's totaled more in sales than Street Fighter and Mega Man combined. She was also so popular that nearly a full year after RE5's release-- a game in which Jill played a passive role as a brainwashed antagonist for Chris to save then leave on her own-- Capcom released two separate story DLCs for the game starring Jill specifically so fans could play as her.
She's got the memes, the distinct look, the history and the recognition to be considered one of the most iconic gaming characters of all time, and
arguably the most important female character in gaming history.
She's just ****ing cool.