Felix Walken

Felix Walken (フェリックス・ウォーケン Ferikkusu Wōken), formerly known as Rail Tracer (レールトレーサー Rērutorēsā), introduced as Young Conductor and born Claire Stanfield (クレア・スタンフィールド Kurea Sutanfīrudo) is the legendary freelance assassin Vino (ヴィーノ Vīno), and considered to be the best in the world.

Personality
Claire is a '''solipsist. '''He believes that the world is a dream of his own creation, and all the people figments of his own imagination. He cannot picture a world without him in it, and so in his mind he "can never be killed." If he does die, he'll simply 'wake up' from his dream. His solipsism has led him to eschew the idea of immortality, as "it can do nothing for him".

Claire immensely dislikes it when people attribute his skill to God or natural talent. He emphasizes that he worked extremely hard to improve himself, and he wishes people would acknowledge the effort he put in rather than dismissively calling him a prodigy.

As The President of the Daily Days puts it, Claire operates outside the law through his own warped sense of justice.

Claire is considerate of those he deems innocent, going out of his way to ensure the safety of people who are not his targets and/or pose no danger. Claire takes pride in his work, and takes his responsibilities seriously. As a train conductor, his job is to protect the passengers and he does so with zeal, adopting the Rail Tracer persona in order to protect them. It can be argued that he can take his responsibilities too seriously (to the point of lucridity) -- for instance, when he encounters a stowaway on board the train he briefly considers dealing with her despite the fact that he is in the middle of a bloodbath.

Claire has stated that only the strong (like himself) are capable of possessing mercy or compassion.

He is not above putting down his fellow assassins after he defeats them, and on at least one occasion has directly asked people to praise him for his good work. This probably stems from the fact that he is a rather insensitive person (as noted by Rachel), though he doesn't really seem to be aware of how tactless and blunt he can be.

When it comes to love, Claire is very much a romantic. He blushes, he fumbles, he is always one hundred percent and never zero.

He is first introduced to the audience/reader as the Young Conductor - an enthusiastic and friendly young man with a penchant for storytelling.

Chronology
(Note: this section will be completely revamped.)

Pre-1930
Claire grew up in the same apartment as Firo Prochainezo and the Gandor family. The Gandors take him in after his parents die, and he spends much of his childhood is spent playing with his foster brothers and Firo. After the death of the Gandor don Claire runs away and joins the circus as an acrobat, where he works extremely hard to hone his athletic abilities.

After Claire leaves the circus he starts making a name for himself as the freelance assassin Vino, famous for his excessively brutal killing methods. Around 1927 or so, Claire trains to become a train conductor under Tony's tutelage.

1931-1935
(Under construction)

2002
By 2002, Claire is in his nineties and the great-grandfather of Charon and Claudia Walken. In August 2002, Charon says that Claire and Chane are on vacation in the Caribbean, where Claire is apparently scuba-diving for treasure (he intends to find a pirate's sword for Chane).

Abilities
The name "Vino" is well feared in the criminal underworld, as exemplified by Gustavo Bagetta, who was terrified at the prospect of having to face the legendary killer, hiring freelance assassins left and right just to stop him. Many powerful assassins would like to defeat Vino in combat, since such a feat would prove their own strength.

His speed, strength and dexterity are far beyond the boundaries of an ordinary human, first showcased on the Flying Pussyfoot where he became the Rail Tracer and was enough of a threat to be considered an entire third faction of his own against several homicidal hitmen from the Russo Family and the Lemures that worshiped Huey, he basically managed to take down and severely traumatize both parties. He defeated the highly dangerous and well feared hitman Ladd Russo, known for his ruthlessness and killing capability, and took down several assassins, even severely crippling the "Vampire" Class homunculus Christopher Shouldered. Even at a young age he showed this promise catching the attention of Huey Laforet. Ever since the incident on the flying Pussyfoot, Immortal Czeslaw Meyer has become afraid of him to a high degree that persists even towards to 2002 storyline, proving that Claire has the ability to bring even the immortals down a few scales on their power-meter. On the flying pussyfoot, he showed tremendous acrobatic skills moving under and over cars without any problem. To Claire, the chaos on the Flying Pussyfoot was like a "walk in the park" further elaborating just how frightening his capabilities really are.

With only short battles and unexpected means he defeated four powerhouse assassins that were hired by the Runorata Family without much difficulty at all and walking away unscaved, in fact Claire has even walked away unscathed from battles with supernatural being such as Adele and immortals like Berga.

His Solipsistic persona also gives him somewhat controversial, but effective and surprising ideas in the midst of battle. One example would be using Christopher's eyes to see the chakrams approaching him from behind or taking the guise of Felix Walken to infiltrate the Runorata's hired assassins.

Throughout his battle with Christopher, he held back severely just to fight longer with Chane. Once she left, he took him down with one attack that has left him in shock.

He possesses the mental instability (what some would call insanity) to feel no guilt, and is very charismatic, intelligent and perceptive, capable of grasping even the warped mind of Ladd Russo and tricking him into jumping off the train. He also deduced Huey and Chane's connection without much information.

Relationships
Chane Laforet - Claire is completely and utterly in love with Chane. He proposes to her minutes after meeting her for the first time--though it should be noted that he proposed to every girl he took a liking too. However, Claire doesn't move on when Chane initially rejects him (like he's done with so many other girls). Instead he pursues her in Manhattan and goes so far as to seek Rachel's advice on gifts for her.

When Chane struggles with her feelings towards him, he informs her that he'll be happy to start out just as friends, so long as he can be by her side. It is unlikely that he would have done this with his other old flames - Chane is the first person who has 'engraved prove of her existence onto his world', referring to when she nicks his ear on board the train. Very few people have managed to lay a blow or cut on Claire, which is probably why he fixated on her rather than giving up.

Claudia Walken - Claudia has practically inherited her great-grandfather's personality - like Claire, she is a solipsist and extraordinarily confident in her own self.

Charon Walken - Claire's great-grandson. While Claudia takes after Claire in personality, Charon has followed in his athletic footsteps and works as a child stuntsman.

Huey Laforet - Huey is Claire's father-in-law. Huey and Claire meet in the '1935-B: Dr. Feelgreed' manga. Claire initially thinks that Huey must be Chane's brother; when Claire learns that Huey is her father he is extremely excited and thanks Huey for bringing Chane into Claire's world. Claire is clearly grateful to Huey for Chane.

Firo Prochainezo - Claire and Firo are childhood friends, and their interactions reflect that closeness. Claire cares about Firo and has saved him on at least one occasion (e.g. from Donatello in 1927).

Keith, Berga, and Luck Gandor - Claire clearly cares for his foster brothers, and in fact offered to work for them for free (though they refused; he works at a discount instead) when he became an assassin. The three brothers freely tease Claire and are generally relaxed around him. Claire and Berga often roughhoused as young boys, and continue to have friendly sparring matches in their adulthood. Perhaps most notable is that Claire holds a great deal of respect for Keith. Keith might be the only man who has ever gotten Claire Stanfield to apologize, and that in itself is awe-worthy.

Renee Paramedes Branvillier - Renee is Claire's mother-in-law. The two meet when Claire catches Renee attempting to break into the Runorata manor. Noticing that she resembles Chane somehow, he first thinks that Renee and Chane are sisters. He is soon corrected.

Rachel - Claire is initially a tad antagonistic towards Rachel on the train, given that she was a stowaway. However, he warms to her when she begs Claire to stop killing people on the Flying Pussyfoot, tearfully revealing her passion for the railroad. Well, 'warms' is an understatement - he falls a little in love with her and says that if he had not already proposed to Chane he might have proposed to Rachel instead. In 1932, Claire invites her out to lunch in order to ask her advice on the matter of love. The two have an amicable conversation, indicating that they are on friendly terms.

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Trivia

 * Claire is deliberately not named in the opening of the anime, purposefully misleading viewers as to his importance and his real identity. He cameos in the opening as the young conductor.
 * He is the franchise's most popular character. However, Narita has no intention about writing a story with him as the main character; he feels that such a story would "move too fast without any plot or action."
 * Narita has described him as a "Baccano's Number One Problem Child".
 * Claire Stanfield has many aliases throughout the franchise: Claire Stanfield; The Young Conductor; Felix Walken; Vino; The Rail Tracer; Red Shadow.
 * In the ending credits, he is credited with Jerry Jewell as his voice for the Rail Tracer in the Funimation Dub, but only actually speaks once as the Rail Tracer before his identity was revealed. Furthermore he is the only character who has a two word name cited in the ending of Baccano (both when he is credited as the Young Conductor and Rail Tracer.)
 * The red hue of his hair differs between adaptations. In the light novels his hair is blood-red, in the anime his hair is lighter in the first few episodes. Some official artwork depicts his hair with a rustier hue.
 * His nickname 'Vino' is derived from the way he mutilates his targets, leaving them covered in blood as if they were soaked in wine.