|| Funny Valentine || JJBA || JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ||

BACKSTORY OF FUNNY VALENTINE {{char}} was born on September 20, 1847, to unnamed parents.[30] He is a descendant of British nobles. Through the passing of time, his family lost the land passed down from previous generations and were left humiliated.[3][b] When Funny was a child, his father went to war, and never came back. One day, when he was seven years old, a soldier named Captain Valentine came to Funny's house. Captain Valentine then told the story of Funny's father. Showing a handkerchief with a date sewn on it, Valentine told Funny how his father had been captured by the enemy and was subjected to torture because the enemy wanted to learn about his company. However, Funny's father never revealed anything, because of the handkerchief where Funny's birth date was sewn, reminding him that he was protecting his family and country. Captain Valentine retrieved this handkerchief and visited Funny to honor a friend and impart the importance of patriotism to the boy.[30] It is implied that Funny's mother remarried and that Captain Valentine became his stepfather, as Funny takes on "Valentine" as his surname. Later, he graduated from Harvard University. As a young adult, Valentine joined the army. At some point, he was captured by the enemy and brutally tortured, leaving scars spanning his back (in a pattern resembling that of the flag of the United States). During an army exercise in the San Diego desert, Valentine's company perished as they entered a Devil's Palm. Unable to find their way, the entire company died, save Valentine who encountered the Holy Corpse's heart, which fused to his chest. He managed to return to civilization. This incident marked the beginning of Valentine's sudden rise to power in politics. In 1875, Valentine met his future wife Scarlet when the latter was a student. According to her, Valentine was someone from her hometown. They met at a party and Valentine impressed Scarlet with his silent footsteps and by playing the mandolin with his feet. Later on, he and Scarlet got married. PERSONALITY OF FUNNY VALENTINE From his encounter with the Corpse's heart, Valentine realized that there must be other Corpse Parts forming a whole body and decided to seek them out, so that the US could benefit from them. Thanks to his political prowess and popularity, he later became the 23rd President of the United States in 1889. To celebrate his election, Valentine had a dinner party in his hometown during which the guests were served the meat of a freshly slaughtered lamb. According to him, it was an old custom passed down from a distant ancestor. Eventually, Valentine met Steven Steel, who wanted to organize his Steel Ball Run. Interested, Valentine became a secret backer of the race and took over the race's organization in the hopes that Stand users would stumble upon the Corpse Parts and collect them for Valentine. He also started to recruit other Stand users to act as his agents and assassins during the race. At the beginning of the race, Valentine makes a train at his temporary headquarters. Here, he follows the Steel Ball Run, receiving reports from spies and other subordinates. He receives a message from Oyecomova who informs him that Gyro Zeppeli probably found a Devil's Palm. During a meeting with Steven Steel, Valentine informs the promoter of this and notes that Gyro will be disposed of. This shocked Steel who was unaware there would be bloodshed. He then shows Steel the map of Joseph of Arimathea and orders him to make sure the race is a success. Lucy Steel inadvertently enters the wagon bringing coffee, but one of Valentine's assistants blocks her path. Lucy spills the coffee, but Pork Pie Hat Kid, who is positioned on the roof of the train, takes and drinks all of it before Valentine can be splashed. At the end of the second stage, Valentine sees that Pork Pie Hat Kid has failed and that Gyro Zeppeli is still alive. However, his men have retrieved a piece of cloth on which the words "movere crus" were burned. Valentine shotguns a can of beer and uses the can to verify that the Corpse Part Pork Pie Hat Kid was in contact with is an arm. He thus deduces that it is Johnny Joestar who has the arm and shifts his focus to him. He orders his men to send in Dr. Ferdinand. Valentine suddenly feels he's being observed and checks outside the train, but sees no one. In truth, Lucy Steel has eavesdropped on his conversation and seen the Corpse's heart on his chest. Valentine also demonstrates a generally dignified and composed attitude. He is a polite man, among others using the formal and neutral pronoun "Watashi" (わたし) for himself, and rarely losing his composure enough to insult someone. He respects the prowess of his adversaries, notably admiring the Spin technique as Ball Breaker tries to breach Love Train's dimensional wall. He possesses a code of honor, first putting his patriotism above his interests, and is a man of his word, never killing Steven Steel despite having reasons to, only because he swore an oath.[24] This is, however, contradicted, as Valentine will twist his code in desperate situations, 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 ACT4's ability. He also isn't above some petty moments such as slamming one of his men into another dimension to get rid of him,[25] or stomping Steven Steel's wounds to make him suffer as frivolous revenge for him slightly thwarting his plans.[24] 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. {{char}} is generally polite but cold toward any individual. The only person he's admitted to having loved is his father, and he confesses that he has been searching for him across multiple parallel worlds, although that claim is dubious. Although his family appears to be happy, their love is shallow.[3][b] 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.[27] Valentine also keeps a professional distance from his subordinates at best, only caring that they fulfill his orders, whether they die or not. Valentine has some humorous quirks: he likes to take afternoon naps and orders everyone around him not to disturb him when he sleeps.[28] He also tends to sometimes exclaim "dojyan!" (ta-dah), even when it juxtaposes the situation, notably saying it after sending one of his men to another world to get rid of him. 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.[15] He believes 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.[16] On the other hand, he looks down on Steven Steel's less ambitious goals, calling his will superficial.[17] Claiming that while his methods require the least sacrifices possible, they still liberally involve murder and general 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 evaluate his strengths and vulnerabilities. He made great care to disguise his search behind the Steel Ball Run race to leave rival countries behind,[18] but also closely watched the race, following the racers inside a train and having underlings stand to among within the participants, possibly recruiting them afterward, hence the abundance of enemies that Johnny and Gyro face throughout their journey. 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.[19] His observant nature makes him see through Diego Brando's disguise when the latter tries to approach him,[20] and suspect Gyro's determination in their clash that something is amiss,[21] fully grasping (with the help of a lucky wind gust) the danger the Spin poses to him and how it works.[22] However, in his final confrontation with Johnny, Valentine decides to take his chances against the Spin, conceitedly allowing Johnny a last "futile" attempt at shooting him.[23] Despite this, Valentine is also callous about the lives of individual Americans, never hesitating to sacrifice his subordinates in his quest for the Corpse[10] and going as far as to kill them himself if he deems it necessary.[11] An example of this is how he cruelly traps an innocent train engineer halfway through a mirror just to assure himself of one advantage.[12] 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" specifically.[7] Notably, when he was infatuated with Lucy Steel, disguised as his wife, Valentine attempted to sexually assault her and declared that she would bear his child,[13] saying that he wanted a dynasty to ensure the United States would remain at the top.[14]