I mean, with a name like Dio… (I totally head canon that while studying Latin for law, he got obsessed with Italy, not at all in small part due to his name being ‘God’ in Italian. IDK if there is an official canon reason that I’ll find just yet, for now I just figure it’s because Araki also really, really likes Italy, but like, to a dude like Dio who felt like worthless for a good part of his life, he probably felt a lot more biased to a country that saw significance to his name.)
Yes, poor Kakyoin. Probably blame the Tarot haha. No but like really. I watched like this video on his and other SDC characterizations probably being based on the Tarot and it feels like it makes a lot sense that everyone is an interpretation of the Tarot. I have a Rider-Waite deck (that I got from a bookstore out of curiosity) and now I’m kind of tempted to find the Marseilles deck for research purposes (and also because I think Tarot history is actually really interesting even though I don’t really believe in Tarot), and, at least with the Rider-Waite deck, the Hierophant card symbolizes captivity and and servitude. Hence Araki was probably like, ‘yes, Kakyoin, mah boi, off you go to Dio Vampire’s Cult’ (no idea what his exact phrasing was like, but I kind of like to think it was something to that effect). And like Dio and his agents definitely scream ‘Cult’ and his part 6 philosophy, that he passes on to Pucci, also screams like ‘Cult’. He has agents serving him in Part 3, who are like mercenaries and are out for money, but then you also have some that are sincerely devoted to him as a person (and I almost feel bad for them, because they are victims that buy into seeing him as their savior).
I don’t know how much of the Avdol death thing was planned ahead of time and that, in addition to like Avdol’s real backstory, would be something I’d be dying to ask Araki about. But yeah in canon, it is so cruel and it like gets played off as a really mean sort of joke. I think Joseph meant wellish (because he needed to get Avdol to recover and covertly buy them a submarine and probably didn’t want Polnareff to revealing this part of the plan too soon) and Jotaro probably went along with it because he’s a high schooler.
I have to gush again about lovesuke’s version of Kakyoin (pardon me while I gush about one of my favorite fanfics haha). In “Boys Don’t Cry”, Kakyoin eventually reveals that his time under Dio made him develop this cruel streak and after reading that revelation, I just wanted to point to the phone that I was reading it on and scream out, “YES,” because it feels really right. (I want to try to do something else with this fanfic though, and I hope it becomes clearer by the time the Hierophant Green and Midori-San chapters are finished). Kakyoin is like a super interesting character in canon—like throughout SDC, he reveals at least three or four motivations that he goes with them on the journey and you wonder if all are true or if some feel truer to the character at certain points of the story. (Kakyoin says he’s there to save Holly, he says he’s there because it’s the first time he’s had friends he respected, I think he says he feels indebted to Jotaro and the Joestar group for saving him from Dio, and then he also says he’s there I think to make Dio pay for manipulating Kakyoin). And characters with that much nuance to them are really fascinating.
I am actually really excited to dive more into a backstory for Polnareff in some “Silver Chariot” chapters because he spent years traveling alone, wanting to avenge his sister. But I think he had a pretty nice childhood, up until his parents passed away at an early age and then Polnareff had to take over caring for his sister either in his late teens or early twenties (depending on the timeline…cough cough). I think because we see how child-like and innocent his Stand looks, it feels safe to infer that he was in an environment that was actually encouraging about him having a Stand and I liked to think it was because he wasn’t the only Stand User in his family. So he does think of his Stand as a friend and I think Stand Users as a part of his family, so, at least in this fanfic, it really would hurt him to see someone who would be like a family member (like Kakyoin) being manipulated because they had little support or exposure to other Stand Users. And yeah I do really want to think Polnareff would have comforted Kakyoin, even though Dio pitted them against each other in this fic, because he just seems like a nice enough dude to do that.
(Call me Van Helsing, because I’m going to find ways of making that Vampire cry haha. Maybe Dio will just show up teary eyed in this fic in every subsequent appearance he makes maybe, I haven’t planned THAT far ahead, but I could do it just as like a joke haha.)
Thank you for the continued support, I think I want to have a break for a bit, just to process these chapters out of my system, and then I think I know how I want to continue.
(Also also I was planning this Chapter’s shout-out to “Vento Aureo” before reading your really cool gothic fic and I got like excited when I saw yours; I thought to myself, ‘oh man what a funky coinkydink’, but then I realized it might not be because the “Vento Aureo” official English translated manga is finally coming out and the English dub I think was done recently too…also directed I think by Tony Oliver. I’m so happy seeing the Lupin Red Jacket guys doing well. I got so happy seeing an interview with the English voice for Giorno, speaking highly of Tony Oliver and I think they had to dub a bit over quarantine, so I’m super excited for watching the English dub.)
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Pisan_Zapra on Chapter 8 Sun 05 Sep 2021 11:12AM UTC
Last Edited Sun 05 Sep 2021 11:16AM UTC
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