Daniel J. D'Arby (ダニエル・J・ダービー Danieru Jei Dābī) is a minor antagonist appearing in Stardust Crusaders.
Daniel is an expert and inveterate gambler and uses the soul stealing Stand, Osiris. He is a member of the Egypt 9 Glory Gods and meets the Joestar Group in Cairo, tricking them into wagering their souls in various gambles.
Daniel is a man of average to above-average height and slim to middling build.
He wears dark hair of middling volume, flowing slightly back and apart from his face, and a trim mustache of medium length. A light surface trails from the bottom of his eyes to points aside his mouth; scored by thin, black, horizontal lines.
He wears a light shirt, dark tie, and a vest of a medium color, printed with spirals.
Personality
“ GOOD! ”
—Daniel J. D'Arby's catchphrase
Daniel J. D'Arby exhibits an affable but sly, knowing character.
Daniel's first and foremost character trait is his love of gambling. He states that he lives for the thrill of gambling (which he recognizes as worthless). This love of gambling is complemented by his enjoyment for cheating, and he proudly admits that cheating is one of his greatest skills shamelessly rigging every game he's seen participating to while justifying himself by claiming that if the cheat isn't exposed, it is "fair" game. His addiction to gambling is such that he can remember specific instances of when he gambled on one. Moreover, D'Arby developed a philosophy comparing gambling to social life, claiming that like gambling, it revolves around fakes and cheats. According to him, those who are stupid enough to be cheated simply deserve it and have no right to complain, exhibiting a belief in a form of social Darwinism. In contrast, D'Arby readily accepts that Jotaro Kujo broke his finger when the student saw through one of his trick as his punishment.
Therefore, D'Arby has also great pride and confidence in his ability, as he calls himself the greatest gambler in the world. D'Arby reveals himself as soon as he wins Polnareff's soul and openly challenges Jotaro's group. When his pride is on the line, D'Arby outright states that he isn't battling the Joestar Group for his master DIO but for his pride as a gambler. During their poker game, D'Arby didn't hesitate to taunt Jotaro through harmless commentaries during their poker to better rub his first victory in his face. However, when the pressure of having to gamble information on The World while Jotaro erased any certainty about his hand proved too much to handle, D'Arby went mad.
D'Arby seems to hold some pride in his family name, making the effort of spelling it to the Joestar group and being angered when Joseph Joestar persists in calling him by the wrong name (which would be perceived as a grave insult to Japanese audiences), though this may have been part of his plan.
Abilities
Main article: Osiris
Daniel's Stand is Osiris, of the power to extract a target's soul when they sense defeat, typically after a game or bet with him; after which it is compressed as one or more casino tokens.
D'Arby is understandably agile with cards
Gambling and cheating: With a flair for deception, Daniel is a skilled professional gambler, confident in his ability to prevail in any type of game and his forte being poker. D'Arby has an exceptionally keen mind when it comes to cheating. He not only made sure that a whole bar was rigged in his favor when he played against the Joestar Group, but could also think of a way to cheat on the spot when playing against Joseph.
Sleight of Hand: D'Arby has an exceptional fine motor skill and sense of touch, enabling him to perform cardistry. He is nimble and precise to the point that he can figure out which page of a book he is on just by touching it with his fingers, and can memorize the order of the cards in a deck by touching them. His nimbleness allows him to perform card tricks in order to cheat and tried to use a second dealing in poker.
History
Background
Daniel is a man who seems to have a predatory desire for tricking people into his seemingly innocuous games just to steal their souls with his Stand. He then begins goading the loser's friends and family to try winning back the soul, giving him even larger winnings. With this, he has collected several souls, including those of the Moor Family. He shares this interest in collecting souls with his younger brother, Telence, though Daniel has no interest in keeping the souls conscious in captivity, instead of having them in a deep sleep inside his collection. In addition, his collection is meticulously detailed, with every soul's name listed, as well as area and date of capture.
At some point in the past, Daniel had tried to hit on his brother's girlfriend, prompting Telence to savagely beat him up. Daniel would never challenge Telence due to his ability to read minds.
Stardust Crusaders
The Joestar group encounter Daniel while searching Cairo for DIO's mansion. After asking around in a cafè he is sitting in, Daniel tells them he knows the location of the mansion, but refuses to share the information for money. Instead, he tries to convince the group to try winning the information from him in games of chance. He first quickly sets up a game to see which one of two pieces of beef a nearby cat would take first. An impatient Polnareff accepts his bet, as well as the condition that Polnareff bets his soul in return, thinking it is all nonsense. Daniel wins the bet and takes Polnareff's soul with his Stand, Osiris, as well as revealing himself to be one of DIO's men and the owner of the cat involved in the game.
Because of his Stand's nature, the Joestar group had to beat him at his own game to win back their friend's soul. Joseph tries outsmarting Daniel in a game where they put coins in a glass of liquor until someone loses by causing the glass to spill over, but Daniel turns out to be the better cheater thanks to a piece of melted chocolate under the glass.
Jotaro then challenges Daniel at poker, which the gambler comments on is his strongest game. After Jotaro foils his attempt at second dealing by breaking his finger, Daniel is visibly shaken and declares that he is no longer fighting for DIO, but for his pride as a gambler. He splits Polnareff's and Joseph's souls into five chips each for them to use. They then get a nearby boy to deal the cards for them. Jotaro loses with his pairs of eights and nines to Daniel's queens and jacks. As it turns out, Daniel owns the entire cafè and "everyone within a stone's throw of it". He confidently tells himself that no matter who Jotaro picks to deal the cards, he will only get bad hands.
In the second round of the game, Jotaro refuses to look at his cards, saying he will play with the ones he has, which frustrates Daniel. Jotaro begins raising Daniel with his remaining "soul chips", as well as Avdol's and Kakyoin's souls, without a single twitch. He also promises to give up Kakyoin's soul instead of his if he forfeits the poker game. This, along with Star Platinum fetching Jotaro a cigarette and a drink without Daniel's immediate notice, confuses him and causes him to have doubts about whether he truly is in control of the situation anymore. Daniel's four kings was apparently a guaranteed win, but he begins wondering if Jotaro really has one of the three possible hands that could beat him, or if Star Platinum had switched the cards without him noticing. As Daniel is about to call, Jotaro raises his mother's soul, demanding Daniel meet his raise with information on DIO's Stand. This causes Daniel to panic, knowing that if he were to tell, DIO would have him killed for betraying him. Daniel tries to force himself to call Jotaro's bet, but he falls apart completely and becomes a hysteric mess, admitting defeat in his heart. Polnareff, Joseph and the hundreds of other souls Daniel had collected over the years were freed from his collection.
