- — Dante Valdez[1]
Dante Valdez, a character in The Deadliest Game series, is a rising Hollywood star and one of Nick Gallant's closest friends. He is also one of your love interests. He is first seen in The Deadliest Gambit, Chapter 1.
Appearance
Dante has short brown hair, brown eyes, and tanned skin. He wears a blue suit jacket with a white top underneath, and a golden and silver chain necklace.
Personality
Dante is friendly, outgoing, and modest enough to avoid advertising his fame to anyone unaware of it. Even though he's immersed in the Hollywood lifestyle, he freely admits to the ridiculousness of some of it, such as his intensive skincare routine and the need to keep up with the latest trends. He's enthusiastic about acting and devotes himself fully to his performances. This even applies to the informal roles, as evidenced by him prepping four potential backstories for his character in Nick's murder mystery game and then writing five pages of detail on the one he chose.
Despite his open nature, experience has led to Dante feeling some mistrust in the motives of anyone who wants to spend time with him. Once someone shows signs of only being interested in him for his fame, he closes off into flat politeness.
Background
Dante is the son of Hollywood icon Gabe Valdez and grew up in Beverly Hills surrounded by extreme luxury and extravagantly wealthy people. He always wanted to act but had no desire to trade on his dad's name to find roles, so he sought to work his way up in the entertainment industry on his own. His first paid job was as the Whoosh spokesman, which was how he met Nick and Pete, and he began gradually making his way into movies from there.
Although he loves acting, Dante is frustrated that he's been so frequently typecast as a character involved in organized crime. He was cast some time ago in his first leading role, but a powerful producer caused an on-set accident which resulted in one of the crew being severely injured. Hollywood's elite power structure closed ranks around the producer to protect him from the consequences of his actions, and this has left Dante's film with no concrete funding and an uncertain future.
Chapters
The Deadliest Game
The Deadliest Gambit
- Chapter 1: Opening Moves
- Chapter 2: Possibilities
The Deadliest Game
- Chapter 1: A Party to Die For
- Chapter 2: Cold Hard Truth
- Chapter 3: Hard-Boiled Detective
- Chapter 4: Scene of the Crime
- Chapter 5: Emergency
- Chapter 6: Red-Handed
- Chapter 7: The Last Hurrah
- Chapter 8: Crystal Clear
- Chapter 9: Into the Woods
- Chapter 10: Lady Luck
- Chapter 11: Time of Death
- Chapter 12: Let's Play A Game
- Chapter 13: Run, Run, Run
- Chapter 14: Lights Out
- Chapter 15: Caught
- Chapter 16: Falsely Accused
- Chapter 17: The Scene of the Crime
- Chapter 18: Whodunnit?
- Chapter 19: Closed Book
Relationships
Your Character
Dante is one of your love interests.
Nick Gallant
Dante met Nick shortly after landing his first paid gig as the Whoosh spokesman and they became friends almost immediately. Nick unequivocally supported Dante, even going so far as to buy out entire theaters for the terrible early films in which he only had small roles, and Dante credits him for the current state of his career. Their friendship was close enough that either could confide in the other, and Dante valued the way Nick always made time for him even when his problems seemed small. Nick's death has left Dante shaken and confused, and he joins your investigation in the hope of finding answers.
Gallery
Other Looks
Miscellaneous
Trivia
- Dante is fond of flowers due to his family spending much of his childhood at the LA Arboretum, although the memory is slightly tainted by his father's insistence on flaunting his knowledge of the plants' scientific names. Dante's favorite flower is the tiger orchid.
- Two of his earliest movies were South City Sinners and The Devil Wears Gucci. His roles in these were very minor and he describes them as "legitimately among the worst movies ever made," with South City Sinners sweeping the Razzies in its release year.
- Thanks to Nick gifting your books to all his friends, Dante has an entire shelf devoted to your work. He rarely has time to read anything other than potential movie scripts, however, so the only one of your books he's read is Murder by Major.
- In a Chapter 7 premium scene, you learn that Dante's dream project is a genre-bending time-travel sci-fi/historical romance in which he plays a cybernetic werewolf/Georgian count who needs to find true love in order to save his future from a magical curse. Dante explains that he is both delighted by the film's fun premise and excited for the chance to break out of racial typecasting and play the kind of heroic character not typically open to him.
- Depending on player choice, you compare the movie favorably to Jupiter Ascending. Dante appreciates this comparison and calls himself a "Channing Tatum space wolf stan since release day".
- This scene gives you the option of acting out either an action sequence or a romantic moment from the film. Depending on your pronouns, taking the romance option will result in Dante revealing that he's been out as bisexual to family and friends for some time. His character's love interest in the film matches your gender, and part of Dante's enthusiasm for the movie lies in its positive depiction of queer romance. This dialogue will occur if you use he/him or they/them pronouns, regardless of your body type.
- Reading Medhani's medical notes in Chapter 11 reveals that Dante's family has a history of heart disease and high blood pressure, and that he's been injured before due to his insistence on doing his own stunts.
References
- ↑ The Deadliest Game, Chapter 7