Donatello Versus


 * The character featured in this article is sometimes referred to as "Donatello Versace".
 * "I can't die here! I have a right to be happy!"

- Versus to Enrico Pucci

Donatello Versus (ドナテロ・ヴェルサス) is an antagonist featured in Stone Ocean.

Donatello is one of DIO's illegitimate sons, and the half-brother of Ungalo, Rikiel, and Giorno Giovanna. When he fatefully meets Enrico Pucci, he awakens his Stand, Under World, and battles Jolyne Cujoh and Ermes Costello in Orlando.

Although he cooperates with Pucci, he gets fed up with him often and believes Pucci thinks he is superior to him, and later goes on to betray him.

Appearance
Donatello Versus has short light hair with a black stripe in the middle which extends to the back of his head in the shape of a 'Y'. He has long sideburns which point toward his mouth, blunt bangs that cover his entire forehead, and two ponytails.

Versus wears a choker necklace that has a spiral pattern in the center. He sports a deep V-neck long-sleeved shirt along with matching pants. The front and sides of his shirt and pants have an excessive amount of thick loops. He has shoulder straps going through three front loops on his shirt, as well as two more straps from his belt which travel downward through the front loops on his pants. Being a son of DIO, Versus possesses the Star Birthmark just like his half-brothers, though it is never seen.

Personality
Donatello Versus, having experienced abandonment, abuse, and unjust imprisonment, nurtured a deep resentment towards society and became determined to achieve happiness at any cost. Enrico Pucci discovers Donatello drifting aimlessly through life, surviving through petty crimes without ever having held a job. Although Donatello inherited DIO's ruthlessness, selfishness, and quick thinking, he lacks his father's megalomania and cunning. Despite appearing more adjusted outwardly, Donatello is remarkably impulsive and prone to rash decisions.

Donatello doesn't oppose cooperation or following orders, initially trusting and maintaining a respectful relationship with Enrico Pucci. However, a lifetime of being manipulated by authority figures has left him with little tolerance for disrespect and a strong sense of pride. When Pucci begins to doubt Donatello's abilities, the feeling of being used pushes him to lash out at the priest verbally and ultimately betray him. Donatello believes it is his rightful place to carry on DIO's plans in Pucci's stead.

Driven by desperation and ruthlessness, Donatello is willing to endanger innocent lives and jeopardize his own safety to achieve his objectives. This single-minded determination, coupled with his tendency to express his emotions loudly, makes him vulnerable to being caught off guard. When unexpectedly confronted, Donatello crumbles under pressure, failing to eliminate Jolyne and Ermes despite Pucci repeatedly acknowledging their strength. Eventually, he becomes trapped and forced into submission by them. Additionally, Donatello's temperament runs hot, easily exploding in anger, quick frustration, and exhibiting exaggerated facial expressions ranging from smug delight to triumphant shouts of joy.

Abilities
Under World allows Donatello to revive past events from Florida's soils and imprison people in them, forcing his victim to experience whatever happened.

Early life
Donatello Versus was raised by his mother and stepfather (from whom he had two maternal half-sisters), a man who "did nothing but tell long stories of his womanizing ways," who his mother married at an unknown point in Versus' life.

After running away from home at age 13 because his stepfather and mother favored his half-sisters more, a pair of baseball shoes fell from the sky onto his head. He put them on but was soon arrested and taken to court, where he learned the shoes belonged to real-life Seattle Mariners outfielder, originally to be given to disabled children as a gift.

Upon hearing the boy say (truthfully) that the shoes fell from the sky, the judge flew into a rage, disgusted by the fact that a 13-year-old boy would stoop so low as to steal from children less fortunate than himself. Versus was quickly deemed guilty on circumstantial evidence of stealing the shoes and was sent to a juvenile detention facility for six months, Versus' mother and stepfather not objecting to his incarceration.

However, four months after Versus' arrest, the true criminal confessed. The criminal was a professional burglar, who, after stealing the shoes, was afraid that he would be caught because the shoes were so famous, and dropped the shoes down a ventilation shaft on top of a building to get rid of them.

When word reached the facility he was being held in that he had been wrongly condemned, Versus had already been physically and emotionally drained, and he was almost too weak to even move because of a string of strange events that had occurred over the course of his incarceration. For instance, Versus tripped while walking in the field of the facility and his hand was impaled by a knife that had been buried there sometime before. Versus would find out the next day that the knife belonged to a corrupt guard who had been hiding it, presumably to threaten other inmates. As a result of this, the guard bullied and beat Versus regularly. His hand wound was finally treated two weeks after the fact, but worms and pus still infested the wound. Possibly as a result of this, Versus fell into a fever and nearly died. Another occurrence was that Versus urinated on a decrepit wall that crumbled and revealed the skeleton of a long-dead woman.

However, during 2012, Enrico Pucci took Versus and two of DIO's other sons, his half-brothers Ungalo and Rikiel, under his wing and helped them develop their Stand powers.

Stone Ocean (2011-2012)
After failing to eliminate Ermes Costello and Jolyne Cujoh, Versus betrayed Pucci by stealing Weather Report's Memory DISC using his Stand, Under World. An angered Pucci demanded Versus to give the DISC back to him, panicked of Weather regaining his memories. However, it was too late by then and Weather was later revealed to be in fact Domenico Pucci, Enrico's twin brother.

A cornered Versus remarked that since Weather has regained his old memories now, he wouldn't be an ally to neither Pucci nor Jolyne. Versus then escaped from the scene and decided to steal Jotaro Kujo's DISC from Emporio, believing it was what Pucci had been looking for to achieve "Heaven". However, he was quickly defeated by Jolyne and forced to drive to locate both Weather and Pucci.

Versus' final moments would come when Whitesnake activated its illusory power on his body to look like Pucci, goading Jolyne and Anasui to attack him. However, Anasui realizes that he actually attacked Versus instead of Pucci, killing him in the process.

Video Games
Versus appears in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle as the guide for the support items shop in Story Mode, using his Stand ability to dig up the player's support item of choice at the cost of gold.

Trivia

 * Versus' backstory is either a homage or a direct lift of the backstory of Stanley Yelnats from the novel, (and later feature film) Holes, written by Louis Sachar. Unlike Stanley, however, Versus' life takes a turn for the worse after he is freed.