#if you want a villain to fuck like....go after dio

[nephiliam]

It's always the most horrendous thing finding a belos obsessed blog but one where they make him trans or gay?? Is like getting hit with a sledgehammer after having a rotted corpse thrown into your face

Why is it so hard to NOT be a freak about an abusive 1600's genocidal puritan???

Like admiring the writing of the villain and analyzing him to death?? Normal and in fact not hurting anyone

Writing about how he could he trans or gay and ignoring how he's written to make up aus where he's not an abuser and or never wanted to hurt a child he "cares for" is just like.....what???

[shoechoe]

god i love pucci so much

[cassyapper]

i am so curious about your pucci thoughts...

I AM SO FUCKING SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO GET TO THIS ASK OH MY FUCKING GOD my life has been crazy lately but still i am So Sorry

okay so basically i love pucci we have to kill him. here is a list of my thoughts in no particular order

he makes me so ill like genuinely he is one of the most well written jojo characters ever and DEFINITELY the most well written villain. like holy shit. i think a lot about how weather said the evilest of people are those who think they are good and how that relates to pucci oh my GOD it makes me sick. pucci like many villains are a "ends justify the means" kinda guy like while he was cruel at many points i truly think he was jsut like, yes this is a moment of weakness but it wont matter because im going to fix it. i think aobut how he really thought he was going to save everyone. he was going to save perla. he was going to save dio. he was going to save himself. and thinking baout things from his side, like, oh my god. dio was his only friend. we the audience know that dio groomed him (not necessarily sexually but still grooming) and even though dio did seem to grow to truly care for pucci, he didnt care enough to not use him for his plan to restart the world -- but PUCCI didnt know that. im sure he had inklings and feelings like he's not NAIVE, im sure he KNEW dio was using him at SOME point, but it wouldnt change the fact dio still eventually saw him and was his friend either way. it wouldnt change the fact that he would do this one thing for his only friend, even if his only friend BECAME his friend in the first place just to make him fulfill this task. god dio and pucci's relationship is so insane i hate hate hate that people boil it down to just shipping LIKE THERE WAS RESENTMENT THERE WAS ANGER THERE WAS SO MUCH LOVE AND HALF OF IT WAS LOVE FOR WHAT THE OTHER COULD DO FOR HIM INSTEAD OF JUST HIM HIMSELF . LIKE FUCK'S SAKE im sick of ppl putting a romantic spin on everything and YES this is half me being aromatnic but also COME ON. and that's not even getting into the fact dio and pucci's relationship is supposed to parallel jolyne and jotaro's/jolyne and jonathan's. but anyway

god he loved his sister so much man it makes me sick he jsut wanted her safe man. after everything....i choose to believe his final thoughts were of perla. it's why he was begging for everything he did to have meant SOMETHING -- please let if have meant perla got a good life in whatever universe the world will end up in. i like to believe she did. he won't be there to see it. oh god he wont be there ot see it. fuck. maybe that was for the best in his mind anyway

his drama and tragedy aside he's also the funniest guy in the entire world. why the hell is a catholic priest wearing gucci. well i guess that answers the question but still. he is so fucking funny he is not even subtle about it he is LITERALLY like EOUGH DONT TOUCH MY EXPENSIVE DESIGNER PANTS and then he kicks a cop to his death for it. he's so fucking funny i love him so much. i love that whitesnake is independent enough to have its own personality and he and pucci get into spats sometimes OS FUCKING FUNNY. MFW I ARGUE WITH MY OWN SOUL.

also my disdain for shipping culture aside i cannot deny that pucci is a homophobic homosexual. he and jotaro totally banged a couple times and awkwardly called it off when pucci first sees jotaro's birthmark and he's like oh no. SO FUCKING FUNNY

ugh sorry i jsut want to go back to this point he's so smart he's so Aware of how people work and connect he's always had a fine sense for it (do you believe in gravity...) OUGH like there's no WAY HE DIDN'T KNOW DIO WAS USING HIM BUT HE STILL LOVED DIO AND I THINK BEYOND THAT. I THINK HE TRUY BELIEVED WHAT DIO WAS SAYING. I THINK HE TRULY BELIEVED OKAY EVEN IF DIO HAS HIS OWN MOTIVES HERE, THIS END IS JSUT. SO I WILL KEEP FOLLWOING ALONG. LIKE. I. i truly think he thought this would save everyone, especially perla. ohuogh my god PUCCIIIIIIIIIIIII

in short, he makes me sick we have to kill him. i like him a lot

[dark-side-blog3]

From "Phantom Blood" to "Stone Ocean", which JJBA part do you think would be the best to be isekai'd into, and which one would be the worst?

Thanks for sending in the question anon! I've been thinking about it all day and going down a bunch of historical rabbitholes to make my choices (which, after typing out several hours later, I realized wouldn't be much fun for anyone to read).

For me personally, I’d say the best one to be isekai’d into would be Diamond is Unbreakable (part 4), and I think the worst one would be Battle Tendency (part 2).

I give my reasoning below, with some heavy editing, which may make it sound a bit strange. I have a tendency to talk too much, so I've tried to edit it down. It's still a bit long.

++++++++++++++

I can't see any benefit to phantom blood, considering Dio is at full overpower with abilities we never see again in other parts, and everyone else would simply be too easy to force into backing off. Johnathan is easy to manipulate, so is a young Erina. Speedwagon can settle for less than he wants in a relationship if he feels Johnathan will judge him for it. And Zeppeli... Is kinda the only threat, but I can't really fathom what a relationship (platonic or romantic) would be like with him. In any case, not the best, but not the worst.

Battle Tendency has my ass beat. I do not run, I will not run, and what would even be the point when more than half the characters in this arc are superhuman/cyborgs? I can't outwit, lie, cheat, or gross out any of them and expect to survive. Even the ones that wouldn't kill me like Suzie Q just have an impenetrable state of delusion. I cannot win this one. Having a horrible time here. Dare I say, the worst time actually.

Because yes: Vento Aureo is all about the mafia having superpowers, and it's well established that they can be some crazy, creative fucks when it comes to torture and murder. And they should be the absolute worst, because organized crime can do way scarier shit than anyone can in Stone Ocean simply because resources and time aren't hard to get.

BUT! I think since there isn't a world war going on, with cyborg Nazis-- Which is a low bar, but such is life when you overthink-- is what makes Vento Aureo better than battle tendency.

And Stone Ocean is... Bad but tolerable. I'd just try my best to mind my own business, and crumple like a paper ball when someone pulls possessive/obsessive shit. It probably wouldn't even connect in my brain the characters are acting yandere, I would just assume they're doing standard prison things since I got isekai'd into the prison arc.

Now that narrows done the best choices between prt 3, and prt 4.

I'mma go ahead and say it: I'd prefer a small town in Japan to crossing countries and continents.

Diamond is Unbreakable has it all. Modern-ish technology, the original pop culture yandere herself, reliable access to medical care (good luck finding my very specific pills in the middle of a desert), and thankfully: A much smaller cast. Keeping track of all the characters in Morioh? Infinitely easier than keeping track of all the characters in Stardust Crusader. Even if we're including those one-off villains, and random background characters, a-la those twisted wonderland isekai.

Though considering JJBA is a franchise that's mostly manga and anime, it's not likely the multiple characters would become interested in the isekai'd victim, since the mechanics would be fundamentally different. A reader or a viewer isn't really a god, they're more of a prophet, if even that. Or just really good at cold reading someones personality. To continue this tangent just a smidge more, I think if you said you got isekai'd, the only people who would both understand what you're saying and believe you is Toshikazu, and maybe Koichi.

What the hell am I supposed to do being dragged place to place, or sitting in a house for three months? With the tech from the 1980's?

[starry-blue-echoes]

Ok so hear me out, villain (angationist) Jotaro. I can't get this thought out of my head. A Jojo Discord server I'm in had a whole ass debate about scenarios for this during an alternate stone ocean.

Scenario 1: Jotaro after years of stand bull shimata(sh*t) is fed up with stands and seeks to rid the world of stands and their users.

Scenario 2: Aims to achieve Star Platinum Over Heaven to change his past and that of his bloodline.

Scenario 3: Jotaro sides with Pucci but it's a ploy to achieve his own goals.

Scenario 4: Ropes his entire family into siding with him on a scenario 1 esque plan.

As you can see, that night sure was productive. What do you think of these? How would u rank them? What's your favorite?

Okay it’s not quite what you asked, but this made my brain ZOOM with a possible AU idea

what if at some point prior to Part 6, Jolyne dies. Maybe one of Jotaro’s enemies found and killed her, maybe it was a complete accident, but bottom line is she’s dead

And Jotaro…….. just fucking snaps

He’s angry, he’s grieving, and after years and years of trying to outrun his trauma and fears everything comes crashing down all at once. Every fight, every death, every ally he made along the way who got hurt, the countless innocents who’d gotten caught in the crossfire, EVERYTHING all at once and at the worst possible moment

He doesn’t want this. He never wanted this, not when he was 17 and in that jail cell, not when he killed Dio, not when he went to Morioh and especially not right now

……and then he remembers the book he’d found in Dio’s mansion. About Attaining Heaven and recreating the world to be perfect

At the time he’d brushed it off as the ramblings of an insane megalomaniac

but now that’s he’s a bit less sound of mind…… it seems like the perfect option

Part 6 goes……. pretty much COMPLETELY differently. With Jolyne dead, Jotaro “on” Pucci’s side and her friends not even really together, there’s functionally nobody standing in their way since nobody even knows there’s any danger to begin with. After all, Jotaro is still incredibly intelligent and knows better than to make needless enemies. He has no desire for anymore bloodshed amongst his family, so he’s going to take every possible precaution necessary to keep them out of the loop

And what if his end goal is a mix of Options 1 and 2. To erase any and every Stand from existence, leaving their Users as normal people and ensuring his family never had to suffer their fates. And he is not exempt from this, his plans include getting rid of Star as well. He has no desire to rule or lead, he just wants this nightmare to be done and over

Now, I don’t know too much about EoH(I’m planning on watching a cutscene complication when I finish Jojolion), but my base knowledge is that Someone(maybe Dio?) is trying to fuck with the universe and all the Jojo’s across the timeline end up meeting and working together

So what if this evil Jotaro ends up traveling back in time as well to various point. After all, he can already mess with time and the Universe, why not go back far enough to save his friend’s lives……. but then things get a bit messy and he accidentally starts dragging people from all around the timeline and it becomes a whole mess

and for some added fun, what if they don’t know it’s Jotaro at first. They just think it’s some new evil Stand User trying to stir shit up again and are prepared to deal with him

However……. eventually they notice there’s something different about their enemy. Because again, Jotaro doesn’t want to kill anyone. He just wants them all to be safe and happy and normal and is ready to tear the universe apart to accomplish that

I’d imagine he almost crumbles apart when he sees Jolyne for the first time. She’s grown up to be big and strong and the hole in his heart for her aches at the ferocity she fights him with, but he’d rather her be alive and despise him than dead dead dead the ground just like his home universe

And when his identity and reasons ARE revealed…… ho boy is that going to hit like a bus. At this point the group had probably gotten to know the Good Jotaros(possibly multiple of them because of Time Fuckery), so seeing how far this one had been driven? The brink he’d been shoved to? It’s going to be both terrifying and also the saddest thing they’ve seen. That the man before them lost EVERYTHING, and now was doing everything he could to get it back

[local-lamppost]

Does Akio want power?

There are very few characters who make my skin crawl like Akio Ohtori. He is a very real type of villain, outwardly charming in order to manipulate others. Not to mention his color scheme/character design is one of the most visually appealing in the show-I mean how many people can pull off a bright red shirt?

This is all to say, I hate Akio. I finish nearly all my thoughts about this fictional character with an obligatory "fuck you, Akio" whether they be internal or external. It is due to this hatred that I find Akio so interesting, and I've finally found the nerve to write something about this monster.

This is going to be a long one

================================================

At the end of the series, Akio steals Utena's sword in an attempt to claim the 'power of Dios', to regain the nobility and virtue-the power-from his youth; but the sword breaks against the seal. This is a failure Akio treats with nonchalance, reclining with a drink while Anthy takes the wrath meant for him. This las a fair attitude towards failure and Anthy's pain is often explained with the amount of times its happened. Tens of hundreds of thousands of times Akio has failed. He is some immortal, deceased, fallen deity, angel, devil, prince with all the time in the world. He is a patient man, looking out for his own wants and interests. He places importance in people only to the extent that they are useful to him. But what if Akio already has what he wants? What if instead of power, Akio is after control and as such he has more than succeeded.

So, what's the difference? Power and control are often tied to each other. Well, power is something innate to yourself, it is a force directly used. Control is ever so different. There is self control, but what I'm talking about is control over others. Control is managing the power of others. Power is a punch. Control is getting someone to punch.

Dios was powerful. He was a divine authority with the ability to shield all the world's princesses from harm.

Dios died.

Noble, just, honest, virtuous, glorious Dios died feebly in a hut unable to protect his little sister, let alone a princess. The witch, his sister, Anthy loved him so much she took on his role as shield; she possessed the power necessary to survive the world's hatred. Is this power her own? Was it stolen from Dios? Only Anthy and Akio would know and neither are ever likely to talk about it clearly. What we know is that Anthy stopped Dios and in his place Akio took form. Anthy overpowered Dios. The Witch sealed the Prince away and only the aid of a Princess can revolutionize the world; create a world where Prince's never fall, where Witches don't exist, where Princess' give their power to their Prince to fight their battles.

But, what happens when a prince stops fighting thee front line?

Lucifer, God's son, child of the ruler of heaven, a prince, rebelled and fell through the earth. There he claimed himself King.

Dios died a prince, Akio lives as a king.

A kings power comes not from himself, but his people. The people imagine the king as better and thus it is his right to rule. To control with limited, indirect, risk. Kings have knights, advisors, and princes to serve them after all.

Ohtori is a school, Akio is its chairman. He is the top authority figure for everyone within. Akio is free to drive his car, keep an astrological projector, and break the rules without consequence. None of this is due to his own money or power. He is engaged to the actual chairman's daughter and sleeping with his wife, whom it's implied Akio has manipulated or charmed to kill the chairman. Without these engagements, Akio would have no position at the school. He wouldn't even be an Ohtori. His magic too is not his own. Akio requires duelists, illusions, and-most of all-Anthy to keep his kingdom together. Even then, the only part of all this (his engagement, his relationship with Mrs. Ohtori, his position as chairman, his Pied Piper charm over the students) that is necessary to keep his ambitions is Anthy. Her magic aids protects him. She uses it to lead the chosen duelist to the final round. Utena is athletic, but not a swordsman, Anthy or the power of Dios is always there to intervene on her behalf against the actually trained fighters of the student council. Anthy's relationship to her fiancee itself is another tool for Akio, as it puts her in the perfect position to deliver the actual killing blow.

Akio is only powerful because he controls Anthy. If Akio were to take the power, the burden, for himself and away from Anthy he would have to bare the consequences of that power himself. His position is only comfortable if Anthy is there to do all the work. Akio is a projector, Anthy is a Witch. What better way to trap a witch than in a prison of their own making? After all, a prince can't defeat a witch and a king can only control those who believe they hold power; what better deterrent to rebellion than a witch? What better leash than providing the only visible path to the vulnerable? To have the witch cut down those who would act as her own saviors?

All reward, no drawbacks for his majesty the king.

How does the control break? The witch no longer believes in the king, her savior isn't a savior but a person-not a prince-willing to reach out and understand her pain. Utena instills Anthy with belief in herself, not a prince or king or god. Anthy always had the power to leave, Akio only kept her in illusionary shackles of her own creation. What can a dead prince do from a coffin? A king of the dead to the living?

The duels were never about achieving the power to revolutionize the world. Akio was already revolutionized by the death of Dios. The duels were the means in which Akio could expose the harsh, unreliable, weakness of any who Anthy might hope to extend her hand to. Utena held Anthy's hand for an instant, but that second was all it took for Anthy. Someone broke the seal, touched her without intent to due harm, and gave her relief from hatred. Something that Akio, the King of the Coffin they live in, could never do.

[sayuricorner]

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure x Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System Jiu-Jiu’s Bizarre Second Chance AU: Headcanons part 9: Eyes of Heaven arc

Part 8

AU concept

Warning: English is not my first language so sorry if it’s confusing.

Warning 2: This AU content implied non-con, past slavery, child neglect/abuse, violence, night terrors, trauma, depression, PTSD.

This part will focus on the Eyes of Heaven arc and it premise will be loosely based on the game’s initial plot.

Also, thanks to Beepony on AO3 for helping me to find ideas to develop this AU! ^^ (You’re amazing thank you! :D)

If you want to use this AU you can! just credite and tag me in return please! :)

Also, if you had any question about this AU don’t hesitate to ask! ^^

P.S: I may or not update the additional headcanons if I got any more ideas.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer:

->As this arc is loosely based on the “Eyes of Heaven” you don’t need to know the whole game story, all you need to know is:

-The game’s story is about the Joestar and their allies having to fight a Dio from a alternative in which he defeated the Stardust Crusaders and reached with his stand the “over heaven” level which permit him to rewrite reality and who want to get the parts of the holy corpse from “JJBA: Steel Ball Run” to free himself from the Joestar family and reach his personnel Heaven.

-In this arc due to Dio Over Heaven’s powers, all the timelines and alternative realities from the Jojo verse are fused together and people, even those who are supposed to be dead.

-In this version of “Eyes of Heaven” there’s going to had the two Diego Brando from “Steel Ball Run”: The original Diego Brando(who for this headcanons part will be called Dino!Diego as his stand can turn him into a dinosaur and create dinosaurs) and The World!Diego(who is from an alternative reality and appeared in Steel Ball Run after Dino!Diego’s death, he is more similar in personality to Dio Brando from the original Jojo timeline and had The World as a stand.)

Pre-Eyes of Heaven:

???

Eyes of Heaven:

-So the arc begin, strangely, at the end of Stardust Crusaders after Shen Jiu was took to the hospital, Joseph, Jotaro and Polnareff were talking about all what happened and what they will do now, until a flash of light appeared out of nowhere and got blinded by it.

-When the light faded away and the trio got very confused about what was going on and got even more confused when a man suddenly run toward them and warned them they were in danger.

-The man barely warn them that they got attacked by stand enemies and after the three get rid of the enemies, they asked the stranger what is this all about?

-The man present himself as Speedwagon to which Joseph answer this is impossible as Speedwagon died of old ago long time ago but he is also very uncertain and confused as this stranger did look like a copy carbon of Speedwagon from his younger days from pictures his grandmother Erina showed him in his childhood.

-”Speedwagon” was about to try to explain when Jotaro suddenly got a dreadful feeling when realizing that Shen Jiu was alone in his hospital room when there’s stand enemies who could popped out from anywhere at any moments and quickly run toward Shen Jiu’s room much to the others’s confusion who then run after him.

-Jotaro and the others get to Shen Jiu's room and get the very bad surprise to see that Shen Jiu was nowhere to be seen. 

-Jotaro, really pissed off, tried to get Speedwagon to tell “where the fuck Shen Jiu have gone?” ‘cause he thought he had something to do with it only to have the poor Speedwagon explaining that while he know what happened to Shen Jiu he hadn’t anything to do with it.

-The explanation: like in EOH canon a Dio from an alternate dimension who defeated the Joestar and achieved a very powerful state fused all the JJBA dimensions and timeline to get a certain number of powerful souls and the saint’s corpse parts to make his stand achieved a very High power which would make this Dio practically a god.

-As for Shen Jiu: the Space and Time perturbations created by the fusion made a few people spirited away so only one version of them is there, so Shen Jiu is out there but as a past version or a future version of himself.

-Things go similar to the Eyes of Heaven canon with Jotaro, Joseph, Speedwagon and Polnareff going through dimensions and time fighting enemies and forming a group with the other jojos and all their allies/friends.

-Shen Jiu was found in the Stone Ocean time space with Jolyne, the characters from Battle Tendencies and Stardust Crusaders are very shocked to see that in the future Shen Jiu  got his eye back. 

-The Joestar group fought their way through the arc, fighting foes and possessed friends brought back from the dead to save the latter while searching for the Saint’s corpse parts.

->Other Jojo characters who joined the Joestar group after having been beaten up/convinced:

-Dino!Diego

-Donatello, Ungalo and Rikiel

-Wamuu

-Jonathan meeting and bonding with his kids and having a heartfelt talk with Shen Jiu during which he genuinely thanks Shen Jiu for having adopted Giorno and raised him.

-Wamuu finally realizing that Karz is not the honorable master he thought him to be but an power hungry monster and joins the Joestar group.

-Because he was badly marked by his death Dino!Diego decided to go with the “fuck this shit I’m out!” logic and planned on just hand over his holy piece and leave wherever he could to get away but was caught by the Joestar group before he could.

-IMPORTANT: The World!Diego is the one who allied with Dio instead of Dino!Diego.

-During a fight against Alessi and a stand ennemie who can turn someone memories into crystal shards, Shen Jiu got hit by both ennemie’s stands and was turned into a very young child. 

-And in addition of being a child again, Shen Jiu’s part of his memory have been turned into crystal shards which have been scattered and cherry on the top Shen Jiu only remember the time from when he was a slave at the Qiu and only speaks in chinese.

-Shen Jiu being very terrified of the men of the Joestar groups and clingy with the women.

-Those in the Joestar group who can understand and speak chinese: Holly, Suzie Q, Jotaro, Giorno, Lisa Lisa and Jonathan(headcanon: When he was younger Jonathan learned chinese at school ‘cause he wanted to go to China to do archeological work in addition to Egypt)

-To turn Shen Jiu back to normal the Joestar group must find and beat up Alessi and find Shen Jiu’s memory shards and inserted them back in his memory.

-The Joestar group scatter in many little groups to go search for the memory shards and to find Alessi.

-Each groups found memory shards which show them bits of Shen Jiu’s past and were horrified by what Shen Jiu seemed to had gone through.

-Jotaro's group found Alessi and beat him up into a pulp, which made Shen Jiu an adult again.

-Once all the memory shards were brought back the whole Joestar group got sucked into Shen Jiu’s memory. 

-Inside the memory, the Joestar group saw Shen Jiu’s and they were horrified and angry to see what happened to Shen Jiu, they even wanted to commit murder when they saw that Shen Jiu have been victim of unsavory crimes when he was a child slave at the Qiu.

-They were also furious against the Peak Lords for how they treated Shen Jiu.

-They also saw blurry memories of Shen Jiu’s first life and his gruesome fate, much to their horror.

-They say Shen Jiu’s memory from since his first day in the Jojo universe 

-They found Shen Jiu in the depths of his memory in a deep sleep and caged in a thick glass dome.

-When the Joestar group get to him to free him and wake him up, they get attacked by [Guangling San] who acted like a guard, keeping the group from approaching Shen Jiu.

-The Jojos take care of freeing Shen Jiu from the glass dome while the rest of the Joestar group distract [Guangling San].

-The Jojos managed to destroy the glass dome with their stands which teleport the whole group back into reality and Shen Jiu IS awake, once again an adult and his memory back. 

-The group is relief that Shen Jiu is back to normal and is safe and sound but they quickly noticed that Shen Jiu was acting strange, like he was expecting a bad reaction from them.

-The thing is, now that the Joestar group know Shen Jiu’s whole story, the latter thought they would be disgusted by him and saw him as the scum he thought to be and the fear to be hated by the ones he grew up to see as his family is really painful for Shen Jiu.

-But to his shock, the Joestar group didn’t show any disgust toward him, they even told him to stop talking about himself like that, that he wasn’t a scum, that while yes he haven’t been a good person in the past, he wasn’t a bad person either ‘cause bad people never had regrets.

-They say to him that the Shen Jiu they knew is, yes, someone with flaws but is also someone who worked hard to become a better person, someone who care for those around him, a very intelligent and talented man who hide a strong heart and who is determined to protect others no matter what and most of all, someone who is very dear to them and who is part of their family, who is one of them no matter what his past is.

-Jonathan even add that while he has done bad things, Shen Jiu still had morals and humanity despite all he had gone through, morals and humanity that many others would have throw away and who would have used their bad past as an excuse for their sadism (*cough*Dio*cough*) which Shen Jiu never did and this made him way stronger than he believed.

-The Joestar tell Shen Jiu that he is part of their family, that he is loved and unlike what he thinks he deserves to be loved and that family is always there for each other no matter what the hardships are.

-Shen Jiu, overwhelmed by the fact his family accepted him despite his past with genuine promises of love and trust, end up crying, the Mask he had put to protect himself for so long breaking down and making him finally open up to his loved ones.

-“[Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! Important things must be said three times! Host had completed the mission “Open your heart, heal from the past”! Another important milestone for the main quest “The road to happiness” has been reached! Keep on with the good work host, this system is proud of you! o(≧▽≦)o]”

-The rest happen like in EOH with the Joestar group gathering the holy corpse parts and later facing Over Heaven Dio.

-Jotaro and Shen Jiu face Over Heaven Dio in the final battle, Jotaro’s [Star Platinum] achieve the over heaven level and defeat Dio once for all.

-Once Over Heaven Dio was defeated, Jotaro used [Over Heaven Star Platinum]’s powers to set everything back to normal, sacrificing his over heaven level.

Post-Eyes of Heaven:

-Like in the EOH canon, Jotaro used and sacrificed his new powers to make everything back to normal and also created a more happy timeline.

-Those changes goes like this:

-In Phantom Blood, Jonathan managed to save Zeppeli and together they fought Dio.

-Jonathan survived the ship’s fire with Erina and baby Lisa-Lisa.

-Dio survived the shipwreck by stealing the body of a sailor.

-Unfortunately, George II still died and Lisa-Lisa was still forced to go into hiding but Jonathan was here to raise Joseph with Erina and Speedwagon.

-Jonathan was alongside Joseph, Caesar and Shen Jiu to fight the Pillarmen.

-During Shen Jiu’s with the Pillarmen as an hostage he managed to put doubts in Wamuu about Kars and a trick during Joseph's and Wamuu's fight made Wamuu realize what kind of "man" Kars really was.

-Joseph fought Kars with Jonathan’s, Caesar’s, Shen Jiu’s and Wamuu’s help.

-After the “Battle Tendency” events, Jonathan, Lisa-Lisa, Joseph, Shen Jiu, Suzie Q and Speedwagon go back to New York to join back Erina. 

-Wamuu joined the Speedwagon Foundation after some negotiations and the Joestar group vouching for him and Wamuu convinced Santana to join as well after some very hard “talk”. 

-Jonathan and Erina passed away from old age together and surrounded by their loved ones.

-A servant of Dio steals Jonathan’s body, which thanks to the Hamon was still fresh even times after his death, from his grave and give it to Dio so the latter could use it.

-In “Stardust Crusaders” Kakyoin, Avdol and Iggy survived and they managed to save Shen Jiu from Dio earlier than in the first timeline.

-Joseph came clean about his infidelity way earlier and the rest of the family, especially Suzie and Shen Jiu, pushed him to have them have a meeting with Motoko to make Joseph apologize to her and fulfill his paternal duties toward Josuke.

-Things go in “Diamond is Unbreakable” like in the first timeline but the Joestar are involved in Josuke’s life way earlier.

-Unlike in the first timeline Shen Jiu and the Speedwagon Foundation managed to track down the mothers of Donatello, Rikyel and Ungalo in addition of Haruno’s(giorno’s) mother and to take the boys when it was obvious that they were in abusive households.

-Shen Jiu adopt Donatello, Haruno(Giorno), Rykiel and Ungalo.

-Things go in “Golden Wind” like in the first timeline.

-Jotaro and his wife didn’t divorce and his relationship with Jolyne is way better.

-As he wasn't able to get his hands on Donatello, Rykiel and Ungalo in this timeline, Pucci acted with his plan with more carefulness and discretion.

-Pucci framed Jolyne of a crime to had her send to prison for his plan.

-More of the Joestar's Friends, family and allies get together to face and defeat Pucci.

-In the Steel Ball Run universe, Gyro and Dino!Diego survived and Johnny and Gyro faced Valentine together.

-Now, in the present days, Shen Jiu is living a happy life with the Joestar, having gone through New steps toward healing.

-Thanks to some tricks from Shen Jiu’s system, Shen Jiu and all the Joestar and their friends/allies keep their memories from the Eyes of Heaven events and of the old timeline(yes, even the events of the reveal of Shen Jiu's past).

Additional headcanons:

-Jonathan meeting his other sons: while he is angry that Dio steal his body and use it to bring misery, sleeping around and popping kids without taking any king of responsibility, he is furious on his kids’s behalf for the bad home lives they had gone through and not having received the love and care any child deserves. 

-Jonathan bonding with Giorno, Donatello, Rikiel and Ungalo.

-At one point Jonathan and Shen Jiu had a talk and Jonathan heartfully thanks Shen Jiu for having adopted Giorno and being a good father to him.

-Some of the villains(aka Dio, Kars, Kira) who had an obsession for Shen Jiu trying to get their hands on him.

-Shen Jiu understanding Dino!Diego’s mentality as both are from similar background.

-Some infos about some of Dino!Diego’s ambiguous history parts in the AU:  

-Dino!Diego’s late “wife” in the AU: Dino!Diego indeed married his 83 years old wife for her money, however, despite what the rumors said, Diego didn’t poisoned her, before she marry Diego she learned from her family doctor that she had incurable disease and that she only had 6-7 months left to live. 

-The poor woman was a widow for years and didn’t had any relatives alive so she was devastated and saddened that her days are numbered and that she will die alone.

-It’s when she meet Diego, having heard she was a widow, rich and will soon pass away due to a sickness, he charmed her to convince her to marry him, at first she was under the young jockey’s charm but, in the end, she was very well aware that Diego only married her and stayed by her side for her money, however, despite perfectly knowing that her marriage was a lie she didn’t cared, all she cared about was that she had someone staying by her side for the few months she had left to live until her inevitable passing and despite knowing that Diego’s behavior toward her is not genuine, she grew fond of him(in a platonic way) and liked how hardworking he was.

-She died 6 months later, Diego having stayed by her side until she gave her last breath on her deathbed and she had left her fortune to Diego, who was content to finally be able to get the money.

-Dino!Diego’s involvement in Nicholas’s death: Diego is responsible for Nicholas’s death but it was by accident, however Diego feared that his future would be over so he came up with the excuse that Nicholas’s horse became out of control after it was scared by a white mouse as he remembered that Nicholas had talked to him about his little brother’s white mouse and in his mind the white mouse excuse was the most logical to say.

-Gyro, like many before him, had mistaken Shen Jiu for a beautiful lady and tried to hit on him until he realized Shen Jiu is a guy and things get awkwards.

-And despite being now aware that Shen Jiu is a man, Gyro still feel a kind of attraction toward 

-Like always, through the Eyes of Heaven arc, Shen Jiu’s system give the latter a bunch of quests and missions with ridiculous names.

-Shen Jiu having a heart to heart with Donatello, Rikiel and Ungalo about why SHen Jiu and the Speedwagon Foundation only kept an eye on Giorno’s household before Shen Jiu adopted him and not them to clear up Pucci’s lies.

-At one point in the arc, the Joestar group find Dio’s diary but instead of destroying it like Jotaro and Joseph have done in Stardust Crusaders, the Joestar group read it and when they get to the chapter about when Dio talk about his kids, Giorno, Donatello, Rikiel and Ungalo finally see how Dio don’t care about them.

-Everyone, Shen Jiu, Jonathan and the Joestar particuliary, are furious/outraged that Dio voluntarily made pregnants women who shouldn’t be mothers to had his kids in abusive homelives so they would see him as a sort of savior and be loyal to him.

-Some of the members of the Joestar group from the past, like young Joseph, young Caesar, Wamuu and part II Lisa-Lisa, being very shocked that Shen Jiu in the future will adopt a kid.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

————————————————————————–

TAG LIST :( a reblog will get you a place in the tag list! ^^)

@unicornwitch99 , @that-one-meh , @yourpoin​ , @beepony

[maxwell-grant]

I’ve really enjoyed your writings on JJBA. You got me to see characters like Dio and Jonathan in ways I never thought of. If you’re still up for Bingo, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Giorno

Thank you! I still want to keep doing these, now that my JoJo hyperfixation is back and won't leave me alone for the time being.

I've always really, really loved Giorno, even back when he was pretty universally-panned in fandom circles as the default worst JoJo. The bad scanlations of Vento Aureo and how they butchered the Western popularity of that part are a story everyone's familiar with by now but, honestly? I don't think the fixed scans are what did it for Giorno. I don't even think it was the anime on it's own. I'd argue the main thing that changed Giorno's reception would be the change of voice actor for the anime.

Because for the longest time the main problem fandom had with Giorno was the idea that he was boring, that he was too dispassionate and unemotional and devoid of personality, and for a long time the only frame of reference they had for the character was the manga scanlation, that really did butcher everyone’s dialogue and personality, and All-Star Battle/Eyes of Heaven, with Daisuke Namikawa doing a decent job as the character but not doing much to dissuade people’s perception of Giorno as monotone. In the aftermath of the anime setting the record straight with Kensho Ono’s performance, and especially those goddamn beautiful WRRYYYEAHs he’s doing, that no longer seems to be as big of a complaint as it used to be. I’m not saying the anime “fixed” Giorno, not in the slightest, the anime basically just adapted what was always there for a much bigger audience, and so people got to see more of Giorno’s sides. Most crucially how emotive and expressive he is, and how funny the 15-year old revolutionary gangster can be.

I’m certainly not saying every criticism levied at Vento Aureo was unfounded, I still need to sit down and reread/rewatch it entirely, but consistently I always thought Giorno ruled. He’s got one of my absolute favorite powersets in the series and one that Araki really, really squeezes versatility out of (to the point I’d still argue Requiem really wasn’t that necessary to defeat Diavolo), I like that he’s built to thrive just as much when he takes a backseat to the action and acts as the planner / support for other characters to rally around and find their own strength, I love all of his dynamics within Bruno’s Gang. I love that he’s scary, actually fucking scary, even besides the whole cosmic horror GER brings to the table, even besides the fact that his normal powerset involves pulling snakes and scorpions and insects out of thin air to hurt and kill people.

He’s the most cutthroat JoJo by leaps and bounds, one who actively grew up wanting to be not just a criminal kingpin, but THE criminal kingpin of his country, one who would employ said resources for the betterment of society. One of the very first battles he’s in, he defeats a villain by going behind his associate’s back and tricking said villain into eating a gun and blasting his brains out. He lies, he bribes, he maims. He has a beetle eat the brain of a serial killer right after turning back on his promise of leaving said killer alive, he even suggests killing civilians if they get in the way of the mission. His selflessness is just as terrifying too, he unhesitatingly chops off his limbs and dives neckfirst into razor blades to assist his partners and eventual friends. He risks death over the prospect of leaving anyone behind, he’s driven to extremes caused by his rage and disgust over innocents and children being victimized by the drug trade, his plans are mind-boggling and brutal and powerful, matched only by his capacity for rallying morale and inspiring others. He’s DIO’s son with Joestar spirit, someone who takes after both, a Noble Champion of the Sun as much as he’s Evil Charisma. The next step in DIO’s evolution.

Giorno kinda feels to me like Araki going back to not just DIO the bedazzling immortal megavillain who rules the world, not even just Dio Brando the enfant terrible turned scourge of humanity, but Mashonen B.T, Araki’s early manga love letter to Sherlock Holmes about a charismatic genius bad boy who uses trickery and underhanded tactics to outfox and defeat opponents, mostly known nowadays for being Dio’s direct prototype in almost every way right down to the design, poses, clothing, etc, a short-lived character who was too controversial a protagonist for Shonen Jump at the time. Araki’s gone back to Dio a lot over every part exploring the facets of his existence and Giorno is one of them, one that allowed him to go all the way back to the initial bad boy protagonist he had and redo him accordingly. A Dio who wasn’t born Evil Incarnate, who didn’t grow up to become this century-wide bloodline cancer and embodiment of fate and gravity center of all that is evil and bizarre, who got to once again apply his talents and smarts against those worse than himself. 

And this is kind of related to why I think Giorno loses a lot of what makes him important and thematically interesting when he’s made out to be the son of Jonathan as well, even though it’s an idea I do like. Because Giorno’s whole deal is that he’s the son of the Ultimate Evil who grows up into something much better. Part 5′s big theme is people dealt with bad circumstances breaking free, breaking free from the chains of fate and the burdens imposed on them, with Giorno as the one who did it first and then went on to help Buccellati and others do the same. 

Jotaro Kujo, the protagonist of the third series Stardust Crusaders, leavesfor his journey already accepting the bond that links him to his grandfather and his grandfather’s great-grandfather (Jonathan’s father) – there are six generations between them. In this case we can affirm that Dio Brando, the enemy, represents Destiny and Fate.

While i was writing the fifth series, Vento Aureo, i asked myself how the simple fact to be born could have been something to be sad of for someone. Men can’t decide to be born or not. Just like some might be born in happy families, others grow up in awful environments.

So, what should these people do, if Destiny and Fate are something that someone else, like a God or some Great Law who rules the universe and the stars, had already decided for them? 

This is the main theme that revolves around Vento Aureo and the same theme that the protagonists and their enemies must deal with.

Giorno, Buccellati, Fugo, Narancia, Abbacchio and Mista. Each one of them grew up or if we want to be more accurate, was forced to grow up, against their will, at the margin of society. I think its the same for Trish, the daughter of the Boss. 

Will they (Giorno & Co.) be able to fight Destiny and Fate and to change them? While i was working on this series i kept thinking about it. - Vento Aureo post-scriptum

Giorno is DIO’s ultimate legacy, like Pucci, tuned in a completely opposite direction. He grows up to become like DIO, but better. He is a brilliant, skilled genius, who applies his intelligence towards helping others and working for the betterment of society in a way neither Dio nor the Joestars ever really did. He is someone who is able to convince others to lay down their lives for him without a moment’s hesitation, because he makes friends and partners and unhesitatingly lays down his life for their sake in return. He is charming, attractive and charismatic, traits that make him a great leader and one who allows others around him to thrive and find their own strength. He heals himself and others efficiently without using vampirism. He creates life instead of consuming it, he fights with nature instead of perverting it. He stands proud in the sunlight instead of cowering from it. He is terrifyingly determined, and applies said horrific determination for far greater purposes than just stripping flesh from the weak and flexing over cadavers. 

He caps this off by attaining the actual strongest Stand in existence, with no equal to oppose him, and by taking command over the world’s largest criminal empire. He is DIO, but better, and not just morally. Him being the son of DIO who goes on to inherit many of his father’s traits, and apply them for the sake of good, is a powerful statement of intent right out the gate and sets the tone for all the big ideas Vento Aureo’s playing with. His moral greyness, the ways in which he shows us how good he is at lying and cheating and killing, and his abject refusal to endanger innocents and children and cross certain lines, are instrumental to what makes the character work. 

Which is something you don’t really get to that effect, if he’s the son of Jonathan. If he’s directly a Joestar, you don’t really get the idea that he was someone born to a terrible fate who was able to turn this fate around for the better, instead it becomes more like he was a JoJo tainted by DIO’s intrusion into the bloodline, and that his DIO-isms serve to make him lesser rather than be instrumental to what makes him better than his father. It makes his existence tied up in DIO’s transgressions against the Joestars, rather than DIO as an entity and bottomless wellspring of evil in his own right, and it places Giorno in a kind of unwanted place almost as a bastard of two families at once. 

I do understand where it comes from in that, it’s sorta like that trope you see in fantasy for young adults or children sometimes where a character raised by neglectful or abusive parents eventually discovers their “true” heritage, like some great hero dad that couldn’t be around for them or a saintly mother who died before they were born, and this becomes sort of a catalyst for their own rise into heroism. I think it’s kind of like that, when people think of Giorno as Jonathan’s son or someone whose real father is Jonathan. 

That desire for Giorno to have something like a proper family, to have someone he takes his heroism from (rather than just a vague Joestar spirit), to make it so that he doesn’t have to be the son of a wretched disease of a man (and the implication that being so makes him lesser). I truly do understand parts of where this fantasy comes from, the idea that Giorno should be able to disown DIO and have a real father who’s not, well, DIO, but I truly do like that Araki avoided this route and that he never had it be ambiguous that Giorno is DIO’s son, Joestar spirit or not. 

Giorno’s story is that he was born into awful circumstances, mistreated and abused and neglected by everyone around him, and undergoing ensuing death of personality as early as the age of 2 that put him well on his way to either being dead, or being rotten to the core like his father, before a random stroke of fate gave him the chance to rise above and let his soul shine as he’d found a dream to believe in. He’d go on to provide this kind of assistance towards others around him, including a girl who herself was born from a vastly powerful ultimate villain. Giorno would go on to defeat and dethrone said ultimate villain and usurp his reign, and in the process, achieve exactly what DIO spent the past century and a half striving for. He’d surpass his fate, surpass his bloodline, and become number one, and he ends his story seated on a throne, waiting patiently as the world lines up to bend the knee before him

While I don’t think of Giorno as Jonathan’s son (not that he doesn’t have Joestar in him), I do think he goes a long way towards proving something that Araki established all the way back in Phantom Blood and would continue to play around with in the other parts, and Vento Aureo especially with the ways Diavolo contrasts Giorno: That evil, true evil, is not just selfish, petty and self-destructive, but also pointless. Useless Useless Useless, as it were, because Dio could have achieved everything he’d wanted, all of his dreams big and small, had he worked with the Joestars instead of against them. That part of the tragedy of what went down between Jonathan and Dio is that, together, they really did make for an excellent team, that they could have achieved anything and overcome whatever came their way. 

In Phantom Blood, it was ultimately a tragedy that these extraordinary halves representing mankind were set against each other, that fate set these two on collision course forevermore. But with Vento Aureo, we get to see what happens when said halves work in tandem to achieve the extraordinary, and break the chains of fate that define them. You get Giorno, who breaks the chains of those around him, breaks the paradigm by which the series had been adhering to, and  breaks the curse to forge his own future.

[anongalactic]

As I've been getting back into Black Butler after all these years, I have noticed something among the wider fan base (and among modern fan culture as a whole).

Warning, im talking about yee old anime fujoshis and sebaciel. Both these things are very bad and I will be talking about that.

The anime and the early manga (cannot speak for the manga as a whole as I have not read it all), is rife with weird fujoshi-bait fanservice moments. This is an UNDENIABLE fact. Yet I have seen so many people deny its existence outright; particularly in comments on youtube videos, tiktoks, instagram posts, etc., where people will outright say that there's nothing to have ever given people the idea to ship characters like Sebastian and Ciel together. Which is just,, flat out wrong?? Admitting it exists because you have eyes and can see does not mean you condone it or are some weirdo. Scenes like that and every other eyebrow raise kinda moment we're included for a reason, that reason being appealing to fans of that kinda content. It's a definite flaw of, at the very least, early Black Butler. Denying the existence of these scenes does not mean people who are skeeved out by it/want to address it are somehow the bad guys here.

There's a similar issue among villain characters in media as well. Just because a character, written as a villain and clearly shown to be in the wrong, does something morally fucked up, does NOT mean the writer nor the fans condone that behavior. There's a difference between romanticizing or trying to act like a characters actions are okay vs. when its clearly a villain doing villainous things. On the fandom end, there's a difference between analyzing a characters actions and condoning them. My favorite character of all time is Dio from jjba, that doesn't mean I condone all the bad shit he's done, in fact I love to discuss his motivations and actions because he has a lot of depth. Does that mean I think any of what he's done is okay? Absolutely fucking not, obviously.

It's basic critical thinking skills and media literacy that seem to be lacking amongst some fandom spaces today, and I've been seeing it more and more. But don't use this as an excuse to bully newer people in fandom, stfu we've all been there before. Just as I was a preteen kid watching Black Butler in 280p on Youtube, there are also new kids on the block when it comes to anime. The issue arises when it's people who HAVE been around the block, or are grown ass adults, trying to act like every interaction Sebastian and Ciel have had ever is completely innocent and lacked any kind of ulterior motive. Try to show someone the corset scene and tell them that there's absolutely nothing weird going on there. Yes it was a joke scene, but what was the intent?? fujobait. fanservice. THATS the joke, the joke is FOR those audiences. And yet there is so many people just flat out saying that interpreting these scenes for what it was intended to be, fujoshi bait, and pointing out how weird it is, are wrong. They're saying that only weirdos would be able to see it at all, like its a reach to say that the gross fanservice scenes are, in fact, gross fanservice.

Before I conclude this rant I'd also like to point out that there are some series that I believe are indefensible with its questionable-at-best content, and i don't think Black Butler is one of those. Black Butler actually has a plot outside of the fanservice moments, and from what I've heard about the rest of the manga, those moments are now few and far between. It's when a series has little to no plot, or a lack thereof, aside from the gross stuff that being a fan of it is inexcusable.

This is getting long but i assume you get the gist at this point. Acknowledging that something problematic is present in a series does not mean you condone it, nor is it bad for people to recognise the issues in the first place. You can address a series' flaws, it doesn't mean that you are weird for seeing those flaws in the first place. Rant over.

[nyxokal]

So I finished Stone Ocean

Yup. I've finally gone and done it and finished all the animated parts of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I can't believe it. This animated watch started in late October and it's finally come to an end today on January 10th. I'm quite impressed

Of course, I need to state that I am not done with Jojo yet and I 100% intend on continuing with Steel Ball Run and Jojolion, and I will also keep up the livetweet thread during both parts, so don't you worry!! I'm not done yet!!

Anyways, I got a post to write, but before that: I just made a tag for my "reviews" called "so I finished", so you can find all my other posts for other series before this one there. Also, for the Twitter thread, here is where Stone Ocean starts if you want to check that out

Without further ado it's time to make myself cry again

What I liked

I actually have to leave my favourite part of this part (heh) for the end since I don't want to ramble too much, so I'll start with the obvious: I really liked the characters. In particular I found myself really attached to Foo Fighters and Weather Report as everyone predicted, but also Emporio and Pucchi, somehow. I didn't quite think their bonds were as interesting as what the Golden Wind gang brought to the table, but I did find their individual personalities to stand out a lot more than before and overall they felt a lot stronger (save for Ermes but I'll talk about that later)

Character conflict and relationships was fun to follow!! I liked what a piece of shit Anasui was even though I didn't really like him as much as I would've liked to. I liked his interactions with everyone BECAUSE he was so unlikable and he caused fights. Though he wasn't my favourite, again. And I do prefer the way my favourites interacted with the world around them and their own views of it (Foo Fighters FUCKED ME UP)

I found it quite interesting that the plot not only started to unravel and get more and more intense as things went on, but also that this time, Stands and the story were directly affecting the whole damn world instead of just a small area. The stakes really did get astronomically high and I had a great time thinking "just how the FUCK are they going to unfuck this mess" to myself. I do think that resetting the universe was the right call though, considering that after this I have no idea how Araki can keep thigns stupid but fun enough that they don't feel like more ass-pulls than what Bohemian Rhapsody was

Anyways, my favourite part of SO? Pucchi, actually

Pucchi was a really fun villain. Ruthless and determined, but at the end you still kind of had a sense that he thought he was doing what was right. I get the feeling that if Pucchi could win without Emporio stopping him in the end, Pucchi would be completely able to overlook and withstand his own guilt over the mass death he caused just by saying his view was correct and what would benefit people the most

He is a hypocrite. He turns a blind eye to the bad things he does, and he pretends that he is doing what is correct instead. That everything is meant to be. I do think part of this is Dio's influence in his life, but he is also just... like that. The way it becomes clear with how he treated Perla and Weather Report, especially Weather. And that's why he's terrifying; if you're an obstacle, he can and will be able to twist whatever atrocities he does to you as all worth it for being part of a bigger plan

To me Pucchi is different from most villains because of how he is a walking contradiction and a legitimate threat. He is intimidating, and his presence through the whole part was vicious and terrifying. Every time he was on screen I was afraid for someone's life, and I was right to be scared like 80% of the time. Pucchi stops at nothing. Deadass I think one of my favourite villains thus far together with Dio and Kars

Also, maybe a little silly, but I really liked the entire concept of Underworld. That was an incredible Stand

Oh oh oh, and I liked Jolyne a lot!! I loved how you could actually SEE her character development from scared girl in way over her head to recklessly determined bitch with a huge heart. Every death hit her, every loss empowered her, and yet she was still scared. Jolyne is a great protagonist because of how well-rounded she was. She stood her ground in the end even if she was dealing with tremendous loss. She put herself in harm's way to meet her goals. Jolyne is a fantastic protagonist, and I genuinely believe Pucchi when he said that Jolyne was the heart keeping everyone together

Story progression was ruthless. It didn't slow down one bit, and I think it was pretty tight. I cannot believe I missed the monster of the week format, but I kind of did, actually. Though I understand that the very nature of Stone Ocean being set in jail and needing to 1. Get out -> 2. Rescue Jotaro -> 3. Stop Pucchi was a bit pressing and didn't lend itself to the more lowkey moments of, say, Diamond is Unbreakable, I can't say I didn't enjoy the high stakes high velocity (heh) plot going on

Ah, I also liked the utilization of Jotaro in this Part. Making him more of a damsel in distress of sorts was a fun idea ngl, and I like how he VERY obviously is not doing well even several years after Stardust Crusaders, yet he clings to Jolyne as a reason to live. I do enjoy his character progression a lot more outside of Stardust Crusaders proper, and I like how he got a moment to shine at the end against Pucchi

What I didn't like

The underutilization of some characters like Ermes and Anasui. It felt like as soon as their things were done, they weren't necessary anymore, and became kind of nuisances to Araki. Ermes got the shortest end of the stick by getting put on a bus SEVERAL times, which is a shame!! I like her character a lot, but she barely got time to shine or do anything!! Some of her few key moments were at the start and then she fades to the background, and it was sad to see

Anasui meanwhile I didn't like because of how his very character was kind of just... obsessive? If it weren't for THAT trait, I would've actually adored him. But ah well. I do feel like he wasn't used to his full potential unless Araki needed a braniac to solve a situation. I do like how he was willing to just die to stop Pucchi though

I also didn't like the big, STUPID ass-pull of having Weather Report just straight up go "infinity plus one sword" at Bohemian Rhapsody. That was legit an ass-pull and made me roll my eyes so hard because yes, I can accept contrivance and coincidence and "infinity swords" but that one was too obvious of an attempt to fix a fucked sitaution. I did like that arc but it quickly lost its charm when I saw the "How are they gonna get out of that" was just "Oh, by literally willing it undone, ok"

I also did not like the nice guy-ification of Dio Brando, ngl. He was a little too nice and a little too friendly for my walking war crime babygirl. I don't know how I feel about him supposedly having several children either, unless he specifically had them as sacrifices for Pucchi, but then how does that explain Giorno? I dunno. I feel like this Part dropped the ball hard with Dio. I'm choosing to ignore it for my own sake

Other than that, while I liked what Araki did with Pucchi's powers and power progression, I am still finding it exhausting that he continues to overuse time based powers for his final villains. I want to see originality god damn it. Pucchi did a lot of good, fun things with his abilities using Made In Heaven, but it doesn't change the fact that it did seem like it was going for time based again. In the end though I think this is the LEAST egregious time based villain Araki's made. And thank god for that

Final Thoughts

I liked Stone Ocean. I liked what I got out of it and I liked my time with it, and while that ending definitely took me by surprise, I definitely think it was the right choice in the end. As much as I like JJBA's weirdness, it was starting to get a little out of hand and a reset needed to be had for it to work, and so I'm pleased with the neat bow that the series "ending" like that is. I also cried hearing Roundabout again and seeing everyone in the ending, ngl. That was a beautiful way to send it off

I am incredibly satisfied with my anime watch. I cannot wait to get on with Steel Ball Run after a short break, and I am excited to continue now, onwards, towards things I genuinely do not know about now

See you later y'all, this time in horseland as I get to explore this new reality Emporio so kindly shoved us into

[3xm-draconic]

Jojo's Bizarre little Adventure part 18: Blue on Black.

Chapter 18: Blue on Black.

“She’s losing a lot of blood and I don’t have my pocket first aid on me, oh shit oh fuck what do I do!?” Funny cried, “Cioccolata must have some medical supplies around or at the least a first aid kit” Diavolo said as he and DIO scavenged the lab for anything that could help.

Karz gently took her from Funny’s hands “here, give her to me, I know what can save her” Karz began to take deep breaths and as he did soft sparks of golden light enveloped his hands, Mirtillo’s wounds began to shimmer and mend from the energy he created. 

DIO stared in shock “h-hammon?, but I thought hamon was meant to destroy vampires and pillarmen, how are you able to use it without damaging yourself?”, “I am the ultimate being DIO, I have transcend beyond my kind’s weakness” Karz smirked, “excuse me but the fuck is hammon?” Diavolo asked in confusion, “hammon is an ancient art of breathing, it channels the energy of life, the same energy as sunlight, hammon warriors used this power to fight against vampires and pillarmen but it was more commonly used to heal people” Karz replied, “oh so it’s like the art of spin Gyro and Johnny use” Funny added. 

Mirtillo’s wounds healed but her heartbeat was still fading fast, “she’s too pale, she needs a blood transfusion she’s lost too much” Karz feared, “I found a transfusion kit in his car, I think it could work” Diavolo said, handing his findings to Karz. “Karz will human blood work on her?” Funny asked, “yes actually, a xenotransfusion of human to her kind I believe is possible although we need to use a universal donor to be safe”, “take from me” Funny took off his coat and rolled up his sleeve “I’am type O-negative”. 

Funny barely winced as the needle was stuck into his vein, Mirtillo gave a loud painful squeak as Karz carefully stuck the other end into her body “it’s ok little mouse-girl, we are here” Karz reassured her softly, blood filled the tubing as it was pumped from Funny to Mirtillo, Karz smiled as Mirtillo’s breathing became normal and a bit of color returned to her face “she’s stable now”. The villains shared a sigh of relief but their victory would half to be celebrated elsewhere, they heard police sirens wailing outside getting closer and closer.

“We should go, I don’t feel like dealing with the feds right now” Diavolo groaned, as they cleared out of Cioccolata’s hidden lab Karz took the vial of substance he saw Cioccolata reaching for “I wonder why he wanted this?”. “Dia what are you doing?” DIO gawked as he saw the ex-don take a jerrican of gasoline from Cioccolata’s trunk, pop it open, throw it into the lab and toss his zippo lighter in setting the whole place a blaze “cleaning up this mess” he replied.

They took one very awkward bus ride home, when they arrived Back at the apartment everyone was there waiting for them, filled with worry and shocked to find out what had happened. 

Pucci got out the jumbo first aid kit they kept in the hallway closet and started to patch Diavolo up with Doppio’s help, “did you kill Cioccolata?” Doppio cried, hot tears of anger running down his face, before the others could say anything Karz belched up a clump of bloody green hair onto the floor, “does that answer your question?” DIO chuckled darkly. Kira gagged “that’s disgusting” and left to get the cleaning supplies, “you know normally I would have scolded you for eating someone Karz but given that it was Cioccolata I’am glad you did” Pucci congratulated him.

Mirtillo had fallen into a deep sleep, Funny moved her tiny jewelry box bed from his bedroom into the living room and onto the coffee table so everyone could keep an eye on here, after Karz had removed the blood transfusion needle and bandaged her up Funny tucked her in, “your safe now my little dust bunny, we will all be here to keep you safe I promes” he whispered to her, letting her know everything is alright.

Everyone worried Cioccolata could respawn back in the apartment complex like DIO had after Karz had first absorbed him two years ago. “We half to find his apartment and make sure he never respawns” Doppio hissed venomously through his clenched teeth. Diego turned to Doppio with an epiphany “there’s this one apartment I walked past today, it had the name Dolcio C. on it, that one might be his”, “you mean the one over by the laundry room?” Kira added “yeah that’s the one!”.

Doppio, Diego, Kira and DIO ganged up with each other to storm Cioccolata’s apartment but when they arrived they found nothing, “what the bloody hell?” Diego gasped “it was right here”, “are you sure it was here?” DIO asked him, “positive, it was here no less than a few minutes ago!”. The villains looked closer and still found nothing, no outline of a door, mailbox or doorbell…just a plain blank brick wall. 

Night soon fell over their apartment but no one could sleep, everyone had camped in the living room to be with Mirtillo while she recovered and hoped she would wake up. 

Diavolo sat on the couch with Doppio and hugged him as he kept crying, Pucci prayed, Kira made everyone coffee and Karz kept checking Mitillo’s breathing and heartbeat, “how did this happen, how did he get past Pet Shop and kidnap you both?” Doppio sobbed, “he didn’t kidnap her, he only kidnaped me but pipsqueak somehow must have hitched a ride on his car” Diavolo told Doppio, “why would she do that?” Doppio asked his boss, confused, “because when the psycho had me tied to a chair I felt her jump onto my hand and heard her chewing through the ropes, when I asked what she was doing there she…she said she had come to rescue me”. 

A wave of shock fell over Doppio’s face, “wow…she really did?” he asked Diavolo with awe, “yep, I would have been lobotomized and had my blood harvested by Cioccolata if it weren't for her”

“What, why would he harvest your blood, is he somehow a vampire like DIO?” Pucci looked at him bewilderedly, “no, he said he had found a way to make stands stronger by using a chemical found in the bodies of pipsqueak’s kind. If he mixed it with booze made with water in Moriho’s hot springs and stand user’s blood it would make a drug-like chemical that would basically make a stand as powerful as a requiem stand temporarily, he needed a stronger stand user’s blood to make it more potent”.

“You meen this?” Karz said as he placed the small vial he had found onto the coffee table, Diavolo glared at it “why do you have that?” he asked Karz, “he reached for it desperately before I crushed his hand, I was curious to know why and thought about researching it later”.

Everyone stared at it, the liquid inside glowed softly like a freshly cracked red glow stick, Diavolo snarled “we need to get rid of it”. 

Doppio took the vial, everyone trusted him not to use it to make himself stronger, he got in his car and drove far away from the apartment building. 

He found a large deep hole in the ground outside an abandoned construction site and threw the vial in, he waited there for a minute, there was a few seconds of silence before he heard the sharp sound of shattered glass below and only then did he leave and return home, reassured in the knowledge that no one would get their hands on that stuff.

The next day was eerily quiet with everyone having fallen asleep late in the night and staying asleep till late in the morning, a soft squeak like sneeze awoke them all as they saw her yawn and rub the sleep from her eyes with her tiny hands. “Mr Diavolo you’re ok!” she squeaked, “all thanks to you Pipsqueak” he smirked, everyone was overjoyed to see her, their little buddy was had pulled threw.

[sidesteppostinghours]

WIP its-not-Wednesday-but-close-enough

tagged by @autistic-sidestep! thank you for the tag :D i have,,, so many wips rn. pulp stop starting a million projects challenge. all of these are very rough, and a lot of them feature other steps, but i wanted to share a few :]

for writing, ive got these:

“What the hell, man!” Mitchel hisses. He’s let go, but he hasn’t bothered lowering his voice. Too loud, but real. Caine groans, pulling themselves up from the mattress. At least it wasn’t the floor– this could’ve hurt a lot worse. They wince at the throb in their shoulder as they reach for the wall, probing for a light switch. When he flicks it on reality re-establishes itself once more.  It’s Caine’s room, familiarly bare-bones. There’s only a singular twin sized bed in one corner of the room and a desk just across, with a heap of laundry they haven’t bothered to do taking up the chair. Mitchel stands on the mattress in the middle, both parts pissed and bleary eyed. His cheek is a lightish colour that’s a telltale sign it’s going to bruise, and a portion of his blanket stubbornly clings onto his shoulder. There’s no threat in here, or at least nothing more threatening than Mitchel annoyed. The knowledge doesn’t stop the blood pounding in their ears.

-caine wakes up and gets jumpscared by @hyper-pixels mitchel. they react to this calmly.

Marshal Steel has hair stuck in his finger joints. That's the first thing Daniel noticed when he came in to work this morning. Steel has his civilian hands on, which is normal when he has admin work. Those civilian hands will usually have hair in it too, mostly from Spoon. That's also normal. What's not normal is the colour; because instead of the odd tufts of grey fur Daniel's used to seeing scattering Steel's joints, this is a single, longer strand that he's sure wasn't left on purpose. Because the hair strand is brown. Suspiciously similar to Ortega's own brown hair.

-herald is suspicious that his boss is having another secret relationship with a pretty old man, but its none of his business! not at all. thats why hes eavesdropping on them from the breakroom pantry.

“What are you two talking about?” Ortega jerks, nearly spilling coffee all over Wei, tearing a curse out of him as he yanks his head to the direction of the voice.  Speak of the devil. Caine glances between the two, head cocked. When did he get here? Ortega doesn't remember inviting him, and nobody told him he was coming either. Not that Ortega isn't happy to see him, but the timing… “Dios mio, Spot, how long have you been standing there?” he mutters. He gives his coffee a once over, but nothing's spilled.  He turns back to Caine and double takes. The poor guy looks like he's just run a marathon– he's drenched in his own sweat. He's not wearing his raggedy sweater, for once. Instead, he's got a skintight suit with a simple white tee over it.

-a multi-pov fic featuring the same conversation, but told from the perspective of ortega, chen, and caine. trying to practice voices with it, and so far its been fun digging into each of them!

as for art wips:

-arde and vera based on the song "the villain i appear to be"! i actually made this today after playing the new revelations demo lmfao. i do not remember what arde looks like 😔 im so sorry ive done you a disservice

the next two have blood+mild gore in them, so im throwing them under the cut!

-cyrus gets Fucked Up by a dream version of fawn from @villainsidestep, based on this absolutely vile(/pos) soul read of him:

because why not fuck him up even more??

-mitchel painting i have yet to put down colours for that i am lovingly dubbing "cannibalism (NOT ROMANTIC)". chew it out with your teeth mitchel!!!!

ill be tagging everybody mentioned in the post, plus @idlenight, @disastersteps, and maybe @euelios if you all wanna give this a shot?

[ahoge-fish]

"Lemme tell you something"

Aaaaah another college AU because I'm in love with those (and all AU existing in general)

This one was a not-so-old draw that I did some time ago, y'know not to recent but not so old

I actually have a little background for this AU: this all takes place in US in California in the Pepperdine University (for all the fans of Zoey101, if you search it on google will recognize that it is the school from that show HAHAHAHA But hey! It is a real school and it's fucking fabulous, it's near the sea so why I wouldn't choose it?? XD Also because the place is already known so it's more practical? What I mean is that you don't have to imagine the place because it already exist and is famous, so this is a more easy way for me and for you to imagine where all this takes place :) )

In this universe the family tree changed a lil bit, but they still remain united: Jonathan and Joseph are brothers, both from George Joestar. Holly Joestar is George's sister and she had Jotaro and Jolyne (so they are siblings, both Kujo obv). Josuke is still born from a cheating (I swear that I love him), but obv this time from George with Tomoko (this sounds so fucked up but I want all of them to be in the same timeline so I have to do this HAHAHAHAH). Giorno instead is Dio's brother and their parents are Dio's. They and the rest of the cast (so Jobros, villains and others) go all to this university.

Alex, Jotaro and this time also Jolyne are still childhood friends that met in Japan. They continued their school there but in 6th grade Alex had to move to Italy because her biological father found a job there. They sadly from 6th grade to 12th grade lost all contacts together so for 6 years they didn't talk or saw eachother. They were really really sad about it because they were best friends :(

Here the story pretty remains the same but with switched locations: that motherfucker of Michael (Alex's biological father) actually lied about moving to Italy because he found a new job, in reality he was just cheating on Isabella (Alex's mother) with her bestfriend.

They had a divorce, Isabella then met Touma and get together with him, having in the end Emma.

They decided to move to the US when Alex was 17-18 years old because Touma's nephew went to the Pepperdine University and he said that it was a really good school where Alex should go too.

So at the beginning of the 12th grade (after Christmas), Alex moved to this university and the first person that she met are the main villains from part 2 to part 6 so Wamuu, Esidisi, Kars, Dio, Kira, Diavolo and Pucci

They were passing their free time playing with a ball and Dio, being the manipulative asshole that he is, when she saw Alex walking by he decided to throw the ball on her head to start a conversation with her.

He actually looked sorry for what happened (he is totally not) and started to talk sweetly with Alex that was falling for it.

Then from a distance they hear screaming the name "DIO", they both turn around to see the heroes of the situation: Polnareff and Kakyoin.

They managed to shoo Dio away back in his group and they started to talk and present themselfs. Then they decided to show Alex around to let her know the main places, but first she had to put away her luggages. So she told them the room where she was in and they went "OMG you're rooming with one of our friend: Yanyu! And in the room nextdoor there are our other 3 friends that are Jolyne, Ermes and F.F.!"

She was like "oh wow cool, looks like we were ment to meet lol" and when they reached the room, they saw that Jolyne, Ermes and FF were all hanging out in Yanyu's room. So when Alex entered the room, Jolyne had this feeling that she had already meet this girl. After Alex said her name, Jolyne said immediately "OMFG I KNEW IT YOU WERE HER!!" and they hug and cry and- sweet things because they missed eachother so much ;v;

Ermes then said "so this is the girl that you and Jotaro talked about" and Alex turned around, still crying and saying between sobs "tHeRe'S aLsO jOtArO hErE???"

So after they let her putting away all of her things, Jolyne, Polnareff and Kakyoin brought her to Jotaro, but they wanted to see if he recognized her so when they went to his and Kakyoin's room they just said "hey Joot this is a new girl and she's rooming with our friends and already meet some of them, thought that we should present her to all the Jojo squad and we are starting from you"

Jotaro seemed disinterested, just saying "hm" while he was tuning his guitar (Jotaro playing the guitar is one of my religions about him).

Then they all started chatting a bit in the room hoping to get Jotaro's attention, which was already cought by Jolyne's happiness to the max, but he just shrugged it off because he thought that she did a new female friend.

Kakyoin then went "oh how silly of us! We didn't tell Jotaro your name, Alexandra". Hearing this name, he turned slightly his head towards her and he saw that this girl actually seemed like his "long-time lost crush since 2nd grade", but he thought that it was just a coincidence.

Jolyne started to get mad at him, so she told Alex to tell them her f u l l name and after she said that, Jotaro just snapped his head towards the girl.

Alex and Jolyne were grinning from ear to ear, while Polnareff and Kakyoin just laughed their asses off seeing Jotaro processing all the informations.

He couldn't believe it

So he tested her, thinking that it all just might be a big joke.

"Na-Na?" He said, a little embarrassed for saying the nickname in front of other people

She responded with "Hi Ope-Ope, long time no see huh?" and after that he Y E E T E D his guitar and throw his arms around her, hugging her.

The others were shocked because knowing Jotaro, he just wouldn't do a thing like that. Guess he really missed her a lot too.

Obv through the years to his teenage self we all know that Jotaro has changed, so Alex knows of the kind and sweet Jotaro. It's like talking to a whole different new person, but she knows that under that brick wall there's still the cute lil Jotaro that she met ;)

This is the beginning and a little explanation of the plot, the rest will be just various scenes like I do for the SDC AU (yes it's alternative because they all live in that)

I am no professional writer, I've never wrote a story in my life so this is not the best way of explaining the plot XD but at least I hope that it is understandable uwu

[lasquadrasfuckhouse]

in a silly goofy mood and here to talk about the highlights of each part of jojo

phantom blood

erina pendleton

it's a fucking retelling of dracula dude

titanic wants what phantom blood has (vampires)

dio is there

honestly i love how speedwagon is the narrator and then the organization founded by him is a constant for the rest of the universe it's like he never stopped being the narrator and i think that's really cool

phantom blood was good you guys just have bad taste

battle tendency

erina is back and this time she's even more terrifying

kars is there

the pillarmen in general tbh

the music absolutely fucks

main character in drag

milf

stardust crusaders

dio is back and even crazier and now also a slut

and all his cronies are there either because he's sexy or because he has money or both

avdol is there

the entire story is basically just 'what happens when a mama boy's mama is threatened'

impeccable group dynamics

the bangles

diamond is unbreakable

ok so picture prince. are u picturing him? now make that an entire artistic concept

the fucking whiplash of a slice of life murder mystery in a weird little town after all the drama and saving-the-world of the previous parts

suddenly an alien who looks like legolas shows up and just becomes friends with the main crew + implied time travel nonsense, both with absolutely no explanation

araki thought 'ok what if.... me, but i was a rude little man' and just plopped in a self-insert twinksona

one of the absolute best parts of the whole series i do not take questions

vento aureo

it's found family with good-hearted gangsters what more could you want

upending an entire underworld that's parasitic to the innocent and remaking it into essentially a force for vigilante justice i LOVE this song

free real estate for all the minor villain fuckers of the world

occasionally makes me hungry

when u come back from spring break and ur not only the don of the mafia but have a nearly incomprehensible supernatural power

stone ocean

jolyne is there

some algae became sentient and now they're a prison lesbian

weather report is also there

anasui is great eye candy

giorno's terrible little brothers

we have collectively become florida man

suddenly everyone is really good at physics????

everything is full of love!!! there is love everywhere!!!!!

dilf

steel ball run

cowboys

in brightly coloured makeup no less

johnny is there

ok so take dio. sexy, sexy dio. but now he's more of a bastard than evil. he's also a dinosaur and also david bowie

we've got a walking spaghetti western who is somehow also a scene queen in the late 1800s

fleetwood mac

jojolion

prince as a concept: revisited

the fruity little sailor outfit hello????

yasuho is there

nobody knows what the fuck is going on. not the audience, not the characters, not araki. no one has known a goddamn thing for the entire decade it was running. and i love that

and of course, the greatest overarching themes: haute couture and flagrant homoeroticism

[starry-blue-echoes]

Psst! Hey SB!

Can i ask you a question real quick?

What do you think about the Villains House AU?

Absolutely hilarious and chaotic I love it

I don’t know if you mean a specific version of this AU, but just. The whole idea of a Villain House is hilarious to me. These people were assholes and now their punishment in the afterlife is being forced to coexist with each other for the rest of time

Also I just checked the AU list and…… huh, surprisingly a Villain House AU doesn’t exist yet

Let’s change that :)

Given he’s the only NormalTM one, I’m saying that the After Life House looks almost identical to Kira’s, just bigger to accommodate everyone. Everyone’s rooms are a bit more personalized based on how they lived in life, but not quite an luxurious. Just the Vibe is the same

Kars is The Guy In The Attic and knows he could beat everyone here in a fight easily, but never actually intervenes when fights break out and just watches

Dio is That Bitch who purposefully ticks off the others because he’s bored and needs drama

Diavlo is that one guy who has the worst luck you’ve ever seen like the world is actively trying to make him suffer and Doppio is trying to help

Pucci is the only decent roommate, however he’s somehow Dio’s closest friend and always lets him get away with things no matter what. Funnily enough, Pucci is the only person Dio won’t antagonize

Kira. Is just so fucking tired and wants these weirdos out of his house so he can live quietly but he’s nowhere near their strength and is just stuck

(Maybe when I get around to it and read SBR and Jojolion I can add those antagonists too)

((also, on the topic of a specific Villain House AU, I’d highly recommend the one by Diana A Go Go on YouTube. They make really great Jojo’s content and currently have a whole four animated videos for this AU and it’s amazing))

[anolyso]

Utena thoughts...about 2 weeks later

I've been putting it off for way too long and so most of my thoughts stopped being fresh. On top of watching way too many analysis vids post-watch, but still I do at least want to put my 2cents of Revolutionary Girl Utena out there for the world.

Utena is perhaps one of the most famous "magical girl"/shoujo action shows out there for not only it's transgressive themes of relationship abuse and low-key pretty much being the poster girl for like actual feminist perspective on/in anime...but also just doing it all in both a heavily allegorical and understated, yet super over-the-top stylish fashion

But that's it's reputation preceding itself, is Utena worth while all these years? The answer is Yes, but it also really shows it's age and budget in pacing and repetition, tho as an appreciator for "behind the scenes" compromises in art, it's more showcasing Ikuhara's talent in working around both taboo and long-form budget constraints with just well-thought out and iconic imagery that - while episodic and formulaic - is just very good at filling the 39 eps with feasts for the eyes.

Utena broadly is about tomboy Utena with memories long ago after her parents died being "saved" by a princely figure like a princess...except she's so enthralled by the nostalgia that instead she becomes a full on Prince herself and receives a dueling ring to fight in the Ohtori Acadamy secret duels for "engagement" to Rose Bride Himemiya Anthy.

Utena is divided between 4 arcs, only the first and last being Manga adapted from hearsay:

1: Student Council Saga

2: Black Rose Saga

3: Akio Ohtori Saga

4: Apocalypse

From back to forth I'd say that Akio + Apoc is more just escalation into the finale while Black Rose being anime original comes off as a glorified side-character study which while complementing the secondary cast, feels like one of those Anime movies that has to say "but if you don't watch this part, it's pretty much optional for the main plot" despite it also actually introducing the most important antagonist within it's margins.

More importantly, it's the Student Council (arc and the actual people) that lay the foundation but also a large part of the show's focus which ironically puts Utena in the background until like almost the finale and some in-between developments, so it's less "Utena (and Anthy Himemiya)'s story" until the very end, but more like a showcase of how fucked up the system at large is (pin in that).

By the Council themselves is:

Kyouichi Saionji: The biggest jobber, like actually introduced as the most despicable loser ep 1 and proceeds to be a complete arrogant joke for the rest of the show. Honestly in another shojo "love" story, they'd find some way to redeem him but semi-compellingly they turn him into like an Aqua-lad type pathetic brat with an inferiority complex to the actual Student head

Miki Kaoru: the naive "nice, non-threatening soft boy" that also just never actually listens to the girls around him. Probably adds more complexity to the whole patriarchal idea on analytic reflection since yeah, the whole "nice guy finishes last" plays up better when the kid comes off as that "ally" energy of wanting to save Himemiya from being the Rose Bride but also low-key won't actually not just do the duels and win her cuz he's that sorta wishy-washy hypocrite. Arguably the least hateable guy in the cast (minus mascot Chu-Chu)

Juri Arisugawa: TRAGIC LESBIAN TRIANGLE LOVE. Probably the biggest point to of both "not-explicitly homosexual" but also really freaking obvious since her entire story is her girlfriend stealing her "boy crush" when actually she was crushing on her and being pretty much frustrated throughout her story as pining most of it. It's quaint by today's standards but also like damn girl, get over her she was like the worst back stabbing bitch (literally if Black Rose counts)

Nanami Kiryuu: SPEAKING OF QUEEN BITCH, it's been a long time since I've watched a High School girl bully and honestly it's kinda refreshing. If Miki is "soft-boy uwu" Nanami is a brat that gets her come-uppance often, featured prominently as an anime only with the MOST filler/comedic episodes but also not low-key, being the most out-spoken actual brother complex ironically spins perhaps the biggest twist and ironic relationships of "I love my brother but not-like-that but also like-that" by the end. Mostly comedic relief but I find her inclusion to actually add a lot more to juxtapose...

Touga Kiryuu: Big Student Council Prez himself, the first arc antagonist and also a strong foil to Saionji and later a stepping stone for Akio. Touga is THE image of a Princely Playboy Heart-Throb that in any other Shoujo romance would have the main girl win him over from all those "other girls" despite him being apathetic if not outright manipulative of them. Good thing Utena is better than that and really puts a spotlight on just not-actually-ok his power hunger for "the power to bring the world revolution" that leads him to heavily objectify Anthy, arguably even more than Misogynist Trophy Girlfriend beater Saionji, since he doesn't even see her as more than a means to an end despite professing and looking the Prince part but lacking all the actual virtues.

The Student council matters more since they're characters and subsequent tragic flaws are the ACTUAL meat of the show and on second rumination actual shows more how fucked up the system/gender dynamic/power hierarchy is since - while it blatantly fucks over Juri who can't just outright say who she likes - also show almost it's own sub-text of Masculine failings: Saionji desperately clinging to being TOXIC MASCULINE™ and completely falling short underneath Touga; Miki's "nice boy" act belying him trying to replace his low-key nostalgia for his sister (also a bitch, but apparently was more like Nanami in the manga); and best yet Touga being the quintessential "Prince in all but actual behavior" by emulating a cutthroat and Machiavellian world view but coming up empty because well, he's just an illusion of a prince...but that leads in way more to the big finale piece where I'll reintroduce the actual story's main trio

Utena Tenjou: Tomboy Prince with brain empty except for lesbian thoughts. Honestly probably what every western "STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN" archetype wishes they were since while having very tomboyish personality in athletics, blunt speaking and also VERY oblivious to the actual plot for REAL DRAMATIC IRONY, but also never actually demeaning her being feminine partially due to her love of an childhood prince and how she maintains her relationship with both her friend Wakaba and later Anthy. Honestly mostly a plot device after S1 until she gets ACTUAL development by the very end and instead kinda bumbles her way into undoing the entire REVOLUTION OF THE WORLD. I kinda wish she felt either more cognizant or at least felt like she was developing/properly rebuking the rest of the cast's power obsessions but I guess that's for the movie.

Anthy Himemiya: Actual Trophy Wife with a dark secret (darker than ski- wait no that's terrible scratch that). Set-up very much as an immediate princess in distress while also being the most femme Yamato Nadeshiko, Anthy being the Rose Bride as a literal prize who acts and behaves as whom she's "engaged" with desires while otherwise being quiet, wry, mysterious and noticably submissive, by the end it actually plays up into THE BIG REVEALS of just how abused she's been into a hopeless acceptance...like y'know actual abuse victims.

Akio Ohtori: Grade A Antagonist, probably the most insidious I've seen a villain in a while, Akio is notable for, back in 1997, being perhaps the big go-to of actual deconstructing the facade of a whole shoujo genre's "hots for a teacher/sexy man putting the moves" and highlighting how actually exploitative and abusive a person like that really is. Being Himemiya's brother (somewhat justified in the manga by both being a weird Sailor Moon-esque reincarnation of gods/godesses of Dios), despite how much of his motives are runing the background and how the entire back story is  uh...brought up in like barely in the last arc with little lead up (some scenes feel like they'd be a full melodrama season and they just have like 1 scene in the final arc episodes) he manages to one-up Touga (in the plot as well) by instead of "just" objectifying girls, not-just-flat out saying Utena looks best as a princess, but y'know the fact that he is implicitly yet constantly exploiting and victim-blaming Anthy for her own suffering for "the power of Dios/Revolution of the world" turns it on its head

I've spent all this time on characters but in truth a lot of the meat of the show relies again on the Council Members fleshing out the issues of system leading to outright divorcing "being a Prince" (heroic altruistic virtues) and "being a man" (considering like all but maybe the comedic relief have some deliberately misogynistic behavior) and beyond just the plot (or rather character) synopsis, the talent goes far more in how it's framed, the symbolic/allegorical shots, the repetition adding a good episode formula flow to character showcases, probably the most "tasteful" allusion to uh...*ahem* sexual abuse that so many other edgier/prentious shows fumble. Both in how intimidating yet understated it's foreshadowing is until they hard-reveal it despite never explicitly naming it even tho it sends Nanami into hysterics

Really it's both a massive blessing and reason for it's cult beloved status for it's aesthetics but also it's burden, for being a full 39 episodic season by season character development study of everyone BUT the main trio except for snippets and the very end that makes it greatly appreciable as a legitimate work of art.

What I wanted more to say however (long overdue) is that a large part of following is, visibly at least, western feminist critiques and yes while it almost seems like Utena fits the "deconstructing patriarchy" story like a glove...it's weird how almost none of them actually can give a good historical account of actual Japanese female/gender/sexuality norms nor Anime contemporaries actually were. Like Tenchi Muyo and Berserk came out the same year (Cardcaptor Sakura the next) and despite how you can "feel" the influence in lots of modern shows like SHAFT's signature visual imagery cuts or many WESETERN shows having straight scene references to Utena....almost no one has a similar feel to Utena until like Princess Tutu comes out.

Really tho probably should've watched Utena and then Tutu because while it's undeniable that Utena is a major pillar of shoujo re-codification - what with everyone before Utena was saying they thought it'd be like a Rose of Versaille or Lady Knight rip-off...whose laughing now? - it's almost like there's a missing link between it and it's major western fanbase (probably with what few anime did get overseas, this one probably rose to the top), or how very noticeable there IS an influence on it's genre in Japan

Almost none of the big analyst fans actually know A) it's not "a deconstruction of Magical Girls" since despite Ikuhara working on Sailor Moon just before this, almost none of the tropes line up and instead more with Shoujo genre as a whole. or  one of the major inspirations was Takarazuka theater.

And this is not to dismiss how inspirational it is to it's western fandom, but while I am notably cynical towards placing things on pedestals, there's probably something about cultivating the whole pop-culture feminist reading commune with people making weird time-loop theories while kinda most of it is just filling in a mad-lib mostly thanks to Ikuhara just keeping things on the vague and letting the audience take away their own perspective.

Again, most of the show is completely sub-textual or visually/symbolically depicted and never stated nor properly defines it's weird key words (End of the World, Revolutionize the World, Power of Dios, Rose Bride, all things said constantly but never really said what they "mean". But that's also perhaps its charm, in it's allegory and very Death of the Author approach, it has definitely allowed it's fan theorizing and appreciation to flourish so there's something there for that.

Ultimately I'd say Utena the TV series is great more so for what it isn't...or rather I should say it's great for not just subverting Shoujo tropes and archetypes for the Japanese audience but also that despite dealing with some very serious and heavy subjects in obtuse and perhaps understated ways for the time, people have allowed it to be put on it's pedestal because they can easily fit it in themselves.

Honestly though, not that a more "straight forward" approach wouldn't detract from Utena but I will say that the movie, Adolescence of Utena, is very much the best encapsulation of what Utena strives to be (for another big blog post) and while the TV series has plenty of time and flexes it's directorial muscles with budget constraints and season pacing UNrestrained, the movie will trim a lot of the fat