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Keegan

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The Trans Dio Zine Interest Check is now open!

This is an open-submission zine to appreciate, analyse, and explore Dio Brando / DIO being trans. It will be digital, potentially physical; and either for free, or for charity; depending on what you say in the interest check!

The form will close on the 22nd of June, so please fill it out before then!

Please see the Carrd for more information: transdiozine.carrd.co ✨

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I totally agree on pt 5 I'm sorry but giorno has got to be the worst jojo of all time to me. Absolute waste of potential and not a single ounce of personality compared to the jojo before AND after him. Just hype moments and aura

and its not JUST giorno, either, the saddest thing about pt5 is that so much of the front half is loaded with potential and absolutely none of it plays out. i can work with a boring protagonist. i have a lot of issues with pt3 but there is at least enough happening in jotaros proximity to compensate for the fact that he doesnt start to get interesting until after he gets divorced.

pt5 has a boring protagonist, a boring antagonist, a boring conflict with boring execution and, most egregious of all, does not connect to the overarching story of jojo in any meaningful or consequential way. when i say "you can skip pt5" i dont mean that as a value judgement (although it is, because pt5 is bad), i mean you can literally skip straight from the last chapter of pt4 to the first chapter of pt6 without missing any information at all. none of the characters or concepts ever resurface (requiems? the origin of the golden arrow? completely fucking inconsequential); cameo appearances by characters from prior parts, rather than enhancing the story or grounding it within the jojo universe, imo make pt5 actively worse because those appearances never lead to satisfying resolutions! koichi working on the spw foundation's behalf to pursue giorno is meaningless because he just stops doing that as soon as he feels like it (and apparently jotaro & the foundation just dont give a shit because it never comes up again), and polnareffs appearance is maybe the single aspect of pt5 i find most infuriating. ill explain why in a minute.

giorno, narratively, has absolutely no fucking business being the main character of pt5. the story is literally not about him. his being the main character would be an odd choice even if he did have the personality and charisma to justify the outsized focus on him, which he doesnt. the story is about bruno, and/or trish - they bear the pathos and the actual plot threads that drive the narrative. giorno gets the designated protagonist role solely because he has joestar lineage, which makes him the titular JoJo. and in a better story, giornos ancestry and the bizarre circumstances of his paternity might be a plot point, or perhaps a recurring theme, or have literally any remarkable influence at all on the events of the story or even just mentioned by anyone, even once, just once for the love of god im begging you. but it isnt! we see the photo of dio in his wallet and learn that the spw foundation is pursuing him on that basis, and... nothing. koichi goes home. its never mentioned again.

like, up to a certain point, i get it. giorno doesnt seem like the kind of guy who would spill his daddy issues, and obviously the other passione guys dont know his family situation and dont have any reason to press him on it. its understandable that it never comes up. but then... but then... polnareff shows up! someone with established connections to the spw foundation that was pursuing giorno at the beginning of the story, who was one of the very last people to see giornos dad alive and even worked for him for a time, someone who has every reason in the world to know who giornos dad is and presumably to have some feelings about the subject. and he never, ever mentions it once. its totally reasonable that the topic doesnt get broached beforehand but it is fucking narrative malpractice that polnareff never brings it up. and then he gets turned into a turtle.

and on top of all this everything that surrounds the fucking black hole of charisma that is giorno giovanna is just so, so boring. i would still rather be reading jojo at its worst (and make no mistake, pt5 is jojo at its worst) than any other shonen manga on earth, but pt5 is the closest araki ever gets to writing something i would describe as "generic battle-shonen". one of the biggest issues i have with pt3 is how incredibly formulaic it is - the crusaders arrive at a location, they fight an enemy stand user, they move on. but even in pt3 araki occasionally puts a twist on the formula and features stand 'battles' with little to no combat: the sun, oingo boingo bros, d'arby the gambler (one of the best "fights" in the whole series and nobody ever throws a single punch). in fact, araki is often at his best when hes not writing combat: lets go out for italian is a high point in pt4; same for sugar mountain in pt7. pt5 is boring and exhausting because it is all combat all the time. i like king crimson vs metallica just as much as the next guy (definitely the peak of pt5 - probably because giorno isnt in it) but you need to give me any reason at all to get invested in the outcome other than that its really cool and badass.

i know some people really like pt5. i dont fault them for it, in the same way i dont fault babies for being excited by jingling keys. some people dont give a shit about character writing or narrative or pathos and only read jojo for the sexy twinks and the cool fights. and pt5 definitely has those two things, in spades! but its so incredibly frustrating because i can see so easily how pt5 could have been a masterpiece if araki had any interest at all in writing the things i think hes good at. i might hate it less if it didnt have so much potential

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in the wake of the sbr anime announcement many people are asking "i want to get caught up. which parts can i skip." the unpopular but objectively correct answer is that the only part you can (and should) skip is 5

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logging on to make my annual yang birthday post☕

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Everyone is gathered together to play this Beatles dating Sim hannah told me I should post about it to give OP the visibility they deserve but I don't know what it's called so I can't do any more promotion than that.

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TWIN PEAKS (LOG LADY INTRODUCTIONS) | 1.04 — “Rest In Pain” (1990)

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some albums i liked that came out this year, in no particular order

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i had a dream there was nuclear site-wide discourse on here over a post that was like "if youre sucking a blonde man's cock youre sucking on a clitoris 🗣" it was so real i feel like im still there

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dio is canon trans according to arakis new book btw

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Did you like the characterization of dio in part 6? The opinions of him in that part are very polarizing, I personally quite liked it, but I would love to know your opinion on it too

yeah i like it. and dios small handful of scenes are my favorite parts of so, unsurprisingly. its true that hes framed differently in puccis recollections than in pb/sdc (hes seeking companionship and spiritual fulfillment, respecting human strength, apologizing??) but i dont think any of it is ooc or incompatible with what came before. i have no trouble at all believing that in the months leading up to the events of sdc dio is unhappy, paranoid, and turning to the spiritual (whatever he - or pucci - is picturing when he talks about "heaven" is obviously not any kind of conventional afterlife, christian or otherwise, but he does describe it as the culmination of a spiritual journey and in that sense its essentially the same thing). it coheres

i accept most of what pucci says about dio at face value, because araki doesnt give the reader any reason to assume otherwise, but i do think the possibility exists that those flashbacks are either distorted by puccis bias or that dio was deceiving him to some extent. dio was manipulating him obviously (telling a grieving person that you know the secret way into heaven is, like, The cult recruitment tactic) but thats not necessarily the same thing as telling a lie. i dont think dio was lying, but pucci wouldnt have been able to tell the difference if he was. his perspective is very limited - for example he knows what the world can do, but not how old dio is. they met less than a year before dio died and pucci describes him as "secretive". clearly pucci was closer to him than his other grunts but i dont think dio was like, baring his soul or anything. maybe he intended to/would have if hed stayed alive a little longer. he told pucci "i can teach you how to get into heaven without dying" and then died lmfao

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jenny holzer inflammatory essays dio moodboard

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who benefits from unfettered access to art? the whole of humanity and society is enriched by the free exchange and expression of ideas and words and images. the paywalling of art and culture makes us all poorer. the assertion that this paywalling is a necessary evil we must endure for the sake of the greater good of 'pissing off tech bros' or 'issuing dmca takedowns over reposts of my 12 year old johnkat fanart on pinterest' is a position hostile to both your fellow man as well as art itself. bozo

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really hate to keep hammering on about this, but this post is getting traction from misinformed people who mistakenly believe that fanwork does not violate copyright, or who do not understand what "fair use" is. so lets make this a teachable moment. (information in this post pertains to usa-based laws and regulations, since thats where i am located.)

fanworks (fanart, fanfiction, and any transformative work utilizing copyrighted characters/settings/other assets) are unambiguously illegal and violations of copyright law. im sorry if someone told you otherwise, but title 17 of the us code specifies that the copyright owner has the exclusive right to produce derivative works based on their property. "fair use" is not a right, it is a circumstantial provision that may be used as a defense in the case of a copyright infringement lawsuit, and the only party that can determine whether a derivative work falls under "fair use" doctrine is a federal court. if "fair use" is even on the table, youve already violated copyright law.

you might say to yourself, as many bootlickers in my replies have, that fanworks automatically fall under "fair use" because theyre not for profit. this is both a misunderstanding of "fair use" and deeply ignorant of what typical engagement with "fandom" actually entails. profitability is only one of multiple factors the court takes into consideration of a "fair use" defense, and perhaps more importantly - profiting off of fan works is extremely normalized (and imo justified!) in fandom.

ever bought or sold a commission featuring copyrighted characters or settings? thats a fair use violation. ever bought or sold an art print (or a sticker, or a button, or some other kind of merchandise) featuring an anime character at an artists alley? thats a fair use violation. have you ever donated to a fanartist or a fanfiction writer, even without the expectation of receiving something in return? as of yesterday, thats a fair use violation - the court held that the archive's publication of copyrighted books was "commercial" because the website solicits donations from its users. sorry about your medical bills, but linking your gofundme or ko.fi on the same blog where you publish genshin impact a/b/o yaoi or whatever the fuck means that, under the precedent set by the ia ruling, your works are not defensible under fair use, and mihoyo or whoever is fully entitled to drag you to court and wring you dry for exploiting their property for profit.

the reason why ip owners dont frequently enforce their rights against fanartists is pretty simple - most fanartists are not turning enough of a profit to justify the time and the money that arbitration would take, and possibly more importantly, taking fans to court makes them look really bad. but dont be fooled for a second into thinking your inprnt store is your god-given right. the law is literally not on your side. take my hand. lets abolish all copyright laws together.

i am pro-copyright infringement. anybody who does fanfiction or fanart or anything should be pro-copyright infringement and obviously we are on the Fanart Website. why this is not a more popular stance among people who spend all their time doing transformative works is beyond me

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big day for everybody who got mad at this post!

i am pro-copyright infringement. anybody who does fanfiction or fanart or anything should be pro-copyright infringement and obviously we are on the Fanart Website. why this is not a more popular stance among people who spend all their time doing transformative works is beyond me

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i am pro-copyright infringement. anybody who does fanfiction or fanart or anything should be pro-copyright infringement and obviously we are on the Fanart Website. why this is not a more popular stance among people who spend all their time doing transformative works is beyond me