JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders Chapter 145 Discussion

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                        Proud Dio's gotta be proud.

I’d like to take the time to type out my changing interpretation of Dio with help and many stolen words from my friend.  The young boy who was hurting and angry moving forwards the only way that made sense to him has been replaced with an evil, unflinching presence who fears almost nothing and does what it pleases.  That boy has become a frankenstein vampire from the 1800’s in a land and time he doesn’t understand.  As long as we have known him, his purpose has been to conquer the people around him, to find peace of mind through money and power, to fight against his crippling insecurity and self hatred.  But after 4 years of once again feeling he has surpassed every living thing, he must have mellowed out.  I feel as though he’s been living through the motions without the emotional drive he had as a kid, the feeling of necessity to combat his negative feelings.  It's like he’s been following the disdain for people and desire to climb that defined him without the crux of it.  Like it’s still all he knows.  But, would the throne not be hollow once he sat there with no more purpose or drive? One could argue he would be fulfilled, but even if for a moment, I don’t think that would last. I think Dio too knows this and it’s why he’s been pondering the question of purpose and survival this entire manga.  Once in that throne that he is so close to, some serious self reflection on his purpose will be called for.



To Dio, the Joestars are his final conquest.  His more disconnected side cracks and we see his humanity once again.  It’s no surprise as they represent everything to him.  The home that took him in, the mask which gave him his powers, the body he wields.  Even his last tangible link to reality, humanity and purpose; once he’s beaten them, no one can challenge him and he has nowhere to go but stagnation without any meaningful connections to others.  As fitting as it is for Dio to give his opponent an advantage, I feel something different than dragging his weight around to prove his value.  It’s more like, if he doesn’t completely dominate the Joestars, what’s the point, this is his final hurdle and potential dead end.  One could even argue that the dumb manner the stand users attacked wasn’t shounen convenience but rather Dio sincerely and purely buying time, rather wanting to fight them himself, to conquer them with his own hands.  Suddenly, I may care about Dio again, in a less protective, child-like manner, and more so in the sense of another human feeling lost in life.  He feels somewhat hollow now and I suppose in that way he feels more mature in the aura of sadness that encompasses his awful acts. There is no longer a clear causal link in how he feels and what he does that is evident.



Since that was a lot already, I’ll shorten my chapter specific thoughts.  The fight is on, Jotaro can move for one second out of the five.  Dio is already using this knowledge to his advantage and fighting from afar while also preying on the horrific fate Jotaro has been met with.  He can see when time is stopped so when Dio beautifully tosses hundreds of knives at Jotaro, all he can practically do is watch.  It made for some strong imagery after Dio’s wonderful demanding of his leg.  And as Jotaro said, it will be hard to kill him.  Jotaro could get better at controlling time to make the fight more fair, and he could also team up with Polnareff who's certainly doing something important and Joseph who could have potentially stopped his bleeding with Hermit Purple and used hamon to patch up.  A 3 way attack with some hamon for Dio's head sounds like a reasonable finish to me.  It's a shame Joseph didn't bring the UV light shoulders that Stroheim attacked Cars with.

That fucking analogy though xD

KashKetchum said:
That fucking analogy though xD






And she actually listened and got him his leg.

Ouch. Those knives much hurt

So this is where Sakuya got the idea from.

DIO sure makes some really strange and specific similes. Comparing his leg to first-class wine and caviar's quite bizarre.



He used his infamous omni-range knife attack against Jotaro and Star Platinum didn't have enough time to deflect all the knives coming at him and a lot of them ended up embedding all over JoJo's body.