The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad
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The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (or DiVAs) are fictional characters in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1 and Volume 2.
The members of the "DiVAS" consist of the following:
- Beatrix Kiddo a.k.a. "The Bride" (Black Mamba) played by Uma Thurman.
- Vernita Green (Copperhead) played by Vivica A. Fox.
- O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth) played by Lucy Liu.
- Elle Driver (California Mountain Snake) played by Daryl Hannah.
- Budd Gunn (Sidewinder) played by Michael Madsen.
- Bill Gunn (Snake Charmer) played by David Carradine.
Bill and Budd are brothers who grew up without a father. O-Ren Ishii was left an orphan after her parents were killed by Japanese crime boss Matsumoto for unknown reasons. Apparently, Bill was the one who hired the hit on Oren Ishii's parents. Logic states Oren had no idea and will now never know. The origins of the other three assassins are not known.
They are, as their name suggests, an assassination squad. Bill led the group. He is known to have had romances, or at the least sexual relations, with The Bride (whom he impregnated), and Elle Driver.
Although never explicitly said, it was widely held that Black Mamba was the most lethal and skilled of the DiVAS after Bill himself, making her the deadliest woman on the planet. Many of them wielded katanas and in the case of Bill and Budd theirs were made by Hattori Hanzo, a famed Okinawan sword maker. At least Bill, The Bride, and Elle Driver were trained by Pai Mei, a Chinese martial arts master. It is likely the others received training from him as well, although this may not be the case if they sought training from him after Elle Driver's time as a student. Besides their training in the martial arts, they were also fluent in several languages, well-versed in the use of firearms, and skilled in various assassination, espionage, surveillance, and weapon combat techniques.
Green, Ishii, and Bill were killed by The Bride in her quest for revenge. Budd was killed ironically by a black mamba snake which Driver put in his money; therefore, The Bride killed him in a sense (also, if The Bride had not come after him in the first place, he would not have been killed at all). It is unknown whether or not Driver survived; she's left blind and locked up with the black mamba that killed Budd.