Stefano Valentini

"Picasso had his Blue Period... I have entered my Crimson Period"

- Stefano beginning his killing spree "This is the photo that took one of my eyes, but gifted me with vision. The moment of death, captured like a fly in amber. A life ends and a flower of flesh and blood is born. I realised the beauty in destruction, I was eager to share my new work with the world. Neophytes. Philistines. Fools. They feared what they could not comprehend, were determined to stop me. Some consider this new world horrific, for me it is a world of beauty, full of pure creations that is limited to my imagination. A world whose very fabric I can shape but where can I go from here? She is the key, the path to ultimate power. She is the brush, blood is my paint and this world is the canvas. My name is Stefano Valentini and art is in the eye of the beholder"

- Stefano Valentini "Your death will be art!"

- Stefano to Sebastian

Stefano Valentini is one of the three main antagonists of the survival-horror game The Evil Within 2 (along with Father Theodore and The Administrator). He acts as the main enemy to Sebastian Castellanos through Chapters 1-8.

Background
Born in Florence, Italy, Stefano became a war photographer whilst taking a photo of a soldier' death caused a piece of shrapnel to become lodged in his eye.

As revealed through Sebastian's Room after his death, Stefano moved to Krimson City after the war and became an artist and photographer, though in secret a serial killer who murdered fashion models by becoming their confidantes and usually decapitated them. Due to the critical panning of his exhibits which also depicted the gore and violence of death, Stefano became more unhinged.

He enrolled himself to become a part of Union through encounters with Mobius and their psychologist, Yukiko Hoffman though because he was a high-functioning psychopath he was able to hide his mental illness and deeply distorted the reality of Union - granting him incredible and disturbed powers within the world.

The Evil Within 2
Entering STEM, Sebastian is hurdled into Stefano's gallery. He encounters his deadly photographs and the Mobius team leader caught in a death loop with a bullet constantly re-entering his skull - one of his most twisted sculptures would be a gargantuan mutilated statue of corpses. Sebastian even witnesses the photographer killing a man and freezing him in a loop but manages to escape before he is detected and killed.

Sebastian is an a whole other area. Men and women in white clothes are hung from the walls but they keep changing position until they lead him to a door where Stefano appears and takes a picture. But when Sebastian regains his senses he finds an eye scrawled in blood on the wall and a picture of him on a mirror. However, in the mirror the Guardian appears and begins chasing him. Using the air vents to escape it Stefano appears again and stabs Sebastian from afar to let the Guardian kill him before disappearing. However, Stefano gave Sebastian the weapon to escape the multi-headed monster.

It's revealed he also kidnapped the rogue Mobius agent Ryan Turner who was planning to kill all the inhabitants of Mobius so they wouldn't become the Lost by a single billet shot to the head.

After kidnapping Lily Castellanos, Sebastian finds the photographer and his camera-headed minion Obscura at City Hall which he has paved with his art of mutilated men and women. He mocks Sebastian and even alludes to a higher power than himself in Union but doesn't kill him as it would leave his work incomplete but allows Obscura to distract him before he can activate the Stable Field Emitter (which didn't work).

Personality
Stefano's wartime and the following loss of his eyes greatly traumatised him. The act of capturing an individuals' exact moment of death greatly distorted his view on beauty and art - believing himself a great artist. However, Stefano is embittered by the deep hatred towards his work. Therefore he considers Union a beautiful haven where he can forever pave his work away from fear of judgement. He considers his goals of using Lily Castellanos to forever create his masterpieces to be greater than Father Theodore's own desires to control Union.

Powers and Abilities
Presumably due to his tins in the war, Stefano became efficient with guns and knives, being able to throw a knife from a long-range distance and into Sebastian (although non-fatally).

In Union, Stefano uses his camera as a weapon. Taking a picture can completely freeze time or keep his victims in a continuous death loop. He has shown mastery over minions like Obscura and Guardian, the first one becoming his personal pet. Stefano can change the environment at whim to whatever he imagines but his power becomes even more advanced when he uses Lily's power as the Core