Funny Valentine

Funny Valentine (ファニー・ヴァレンタイン Fanī Varentain) is the main antagonist of Steel Ball Run.

"My heart and actions are utterly unclouded. They are all those of 'Justice'."

- Funny Valentine,

Funny Valentine (ファニー・ヴァレンタイン) is the main antagonist of the 7th arc of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Steel Ball Run, and the 6th main antagonist of the series.

Funny Valentine is the 23rd and the true mastermind behind the Steel Ball Run race. He watches the competition from behind the curtains and hopes to gather the Saint's Corpse to use the holy relic to further the United States of America's interests.

Valentine is a Stand User, wielding his Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and its dimensional abilities to travel across parallel universes.

Appearance
Throughout the narrative, Valentine adopts two main appearances, differing greatly in build. He is originally introduced as an old, stout, overweight man, but around the time he takes the rib cage of the Saint, gains a more fit, muscular and handsome appearance. Araki attributes this to his naturally changing art style but also jokes that it is simply because Valentine "worked out. "

After this, it is revealed that spanning his back, Valentine bears deep scars, in a pattern resembling that of the 21st-century.

He consistently wears long, light hair, curling at its ends into a number of thick, well-defined rings (perhaps as a reference to the white periwigs and hairstyles of the 18th century, as worn by several early United States Presidents ).

He also normally dons a smooth, uniform outfit, including an overcoat closed to the end of his torso. Under which he wears frilled garments and a pair of gloves with a net pattern on the upper half.

Personality
"As President, it is my sworn duty! In this world, to guarantee the safety of the people of my country. That is what it all comes down to!"

- Funny Valentine,

Funny Valentine is a dignified but immoral patriot, militant in his will to accomplish what he thinks is best for the United States.

Valentine's foremost characteristic is his deep patriotism. Marked by the gruesome fate of his father, Valentine's goal is that the United States stands over the rest of the world. To do so, he seeks the blessing of the Saint Corpse Parts, becoming ecstatic when the Corpse blesses him. Moreover, the President shows a great degree of determination toward this goal. First acting through his subordinates, Valentine then takes a greater active part in seizing the Saint's Corpse, confronting his enemies personally if need be, and ultimately claiming that he has no problem putting his life on the line to fulfill his objectives. He also manages to regain his composure even facing the eternal torture that Tusk ACT4 has inflicted on him. One of his expressed fears is to have someone petty or worse seizing the Corpse and taking away the happiness that should go into the United States.

Despite this, Valentine is also callous about the lives of individual Americans, never hesitating to sacrifice his own subordinates in his quest for the Corpse and going as far as to kill them himself if he deems it necessary. He also cruelly trapped a train engineer halfway through a mirror just to assure himself on one advantage. His patriotism also comes with some hypocritical egotism. Despite his declared goal of working for the interests of the country, he regularly declares that his goals are fulfilled and after witnessing Love Train's ability, shouted that everything, including power and glory, was now his. Notably, when he was infatuated with Lucy Steel disguised as his wife, Valentine tried to assault her and declared that she would bear his child, saying that he wanted a dynasty to ensure the United States would remain at the top (and by that mean disregarded the country's democratic roots).

Valentine is a ruthless individual, having a might-makes-right attitude toward the world, constantly using the metaphor of "taking the napkin first" to signify his gain in power. He thinks that power is founded on authority, and part of the reason he wants the Corpse is to obtain a spiritual authority on par with the Vatican. Convinced that not everyone's wishes can be fulfilled and one must always sacrifice something for the sake of another, Valentine chooses to put the United States' prerogatives above the interests of the rest of the world. Valentine respects ambition and ruthlessness and ultimately entrusts the Corpse to an alternate Diego Brando. On the other hand, he looks down on Steven Steel's less ambitious goals, calling his will superficial. Claiming that his methods require the least sacrifices possible, they still liberally involve murder and generally violence, as well as manipulation of the people around him.

In and out of combat, Valentine shows a careful and observant side, regularly watching and thinking about the situation to best see his strengths and vulnerabilities. Firstly, he's made great care to disguise his search behind the Steel Ball Run race to leave rival countries behind but also closely watched the race, following the racers inside a train and having an underling both stand watch within the participants or recruiting them afterward, or standing ready to ambush the duo. Valentine also understandably keeps tabs on the whereabouts of the Corpse Parts, which after killing Axl RO, allows him to deduce that the infiltrator who broke into his residence was still near him. His observant nature makes him see through Diego Brando's disguise when the latter tries to approach him, and suspect Gyro's determination in their clash that something is amiss, fully grasping (with the help of a lucky wind gust) the danger the Spin poses to him and how it works. However, when confronting Johnny, Valentine commits a fatal mistake in underestimating the Spin, conceitedly allowing Johnny a last "futile" attempt at shooting him.

Valentine also demonstrates a generally dignified and composed attitude. In attitude, he is a polite man, among others using the formal and neutral pronoun "Watashi" (わたし) for himself, and almost never losing his composure enough to insult someone. He possesses a code of honor, first putting his patriotism above his own interests, and is a man of his words, never killing Steven Steel despite having reasons to, only because he swore an oath. Valentine also respects the prowess of his adversaries, notably admiring the Spin technique as Ball Breaker tries to breach the dimensional wall.

Nonetheless, Valentine will twist this code whenever convenient and isn't above lying to gain an advantage, notably feeding Johnny with false hopes and half-truths to persuade him into releasing him from Tusk. He also isn't above some petty moments such as slamming one of his men into another dimension to get rid of him or stomping Steven Steel's wounds to make him suffer as frivolous revenge for him slightly thwarting his plans. During his earlier appearances, Valentine emoted much more, slightly losing his cool on several occasions and also privately calling Diego a "peasant" for having the gall to negotiate with his person on the same level.

Funny Valentine is generally polite but cold toward any individual. The only person he's admitted to having loved is his father, confessing to having been searching for him across multiple universes, although that claim is dubious. Despite his marriage with Scarlet and the two sharing a certain fondness for each other, Valentine only appeared to be a little disturbed by her death. Finally, Valentine keeps a professional distance with his subordinates at best, only caring that they fulfill his orders, whether they die or not.

Valentine has a somewhat humorous quirk: he likes to take afternoon naps and orders everyone around him not to disturb him when he sleeps.

Abilities
Valentine's Stand, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (D4C), enables him access at any time to any number of alternate worlds/universes/dimensions; where if desired he may swap bodies with his counterparts, granting him pseudo-immortality. This requires him to get caught between two objects (for example, a flag and the ground or a sofa and the wall). This limits D4C's ability but not by much since he has gotten caught between water and the bottom of the ocean as a method of using his ability before.

When Lucy develops Ticket to Ride, Valentine may utilize a protective wall of light emanating from her which deflects all misfortune, bolstering his defense further as he becomes effectively invincible. He names this complementary ability "D4C - Love Train".

According to his wife, he makes no sound when he walks, and he can even play the using his feet, simply dancing on it.

Trivia

 * The concept for Valentine's character derives from Araki's interest in a fighting President, after watching the movie .
 * Funny Valentine demonstrates the ability to pierce and a can of beer; much like Jotaro during his introduction in Stardust Crusaders.
 * Valentine's catchphrase "Dojyaaan!" literally means "Tada!" in Japanese.
 * The scene during which Funny receives his dead father's handkerchief appears to reference the 1994 film . In the movie, a young Butch and his mother are visited by Vietnam veteran Captain Koons, who fought with Butch's father. Butch's father was captured and held in a POW camp and did everything in his power to hide a gold watch (a family heirloom and symbol of patriotism) from his captors until he died of dysentery. Some of the panels in the manga were seemingly modeled after the same scene in the movie.
 * Valentine's seiyuu in Bandai Namco Entertainment-Developed Games, Yasuyuki Kase, would later go on to also voice Mikitaka Hazekura in Part 4 TV Anime.
 * In the story, Funny Valentine is stated to be the 23rd President of the United States, a rank which was occupied by in reality.

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