JoJo part 6 summaries (cont.)

[petronia]

part 1
part 2

Currently I'm at the beginning of volume 76 though I've read ahead a little as well. One decidedly gets the sense that the series is winding down... Also it's reaffirmed that Giorno lucked out in the genetic sweepstakes. XD;;

The stand Survivor (one of four Pucci sent into the solitary confinement unit against Jolyne): Pucci asks Dio what the "weakest" stand is that he encountered on his travels. Dio files the question as Not Applicable - kings have stands befitting kings, cooks have stands befitting cooks [1], and relative strength depends entirely on the manner and context in which the stand is used - but when pressed he tells the story of an alpine hiking expedition whose members beat each other to death after lodging with a local for the night. It turns out the host was an unwitting stand user whose power was a barely measurable electric current - the strength of a neural impulse - that shorts out all physiological checks on aggression. One of the guests said something that made him inwardly angry; the ground was wet from rain; the "anger" transferred itself through the water to the others and caused them to fight until no one was left standing.

But, says Pucci (or rather the reader), then it wasn't really a weak stand at all. It was weak, says Dio, because he could neither control it nor use it to his advantage. His power didn't distinguish between friend or foe. His parents divorced after a fight came within an inch of attempted murder, and all his life it brought him nothing but problems. Unalloyed violence is not strength.

(Well, I thought it was an interesting parable for the inner fanboy. XD One of the lessons of part 6 seems to be that everyone needs a minion accomplice "friend" loyal friend on their side, even Dio-sama, because some scams take two to run.

As far as I can figure out, Dio then "gave" the stand to Pucci, meaning I suppose that he took Pucci to the user in question and had him retrieve it with Whitesnake.)

Since the guards had the hose running the entire time, the area gets flooded and everyone is affected by Survivor, including Jolyne - although she's not affected affected in the sense of going into a berserker killing rage like the guards and other prisoners, I suspect because Joestars have all had to learn how to roll with their aggressive impulses (good thing for the world too XD). Jolyne has to take on the remaining guard *cough* Viviano Westwood, who has the ability to attract asteroids (i.e. if he falls down and you're standing over him, you get hit by a fast-travelling, flaming rock), then the wizened former cult leader and kung-fu master Kenzo, who attacks with REALLY BAD FENG SHUI. [2] I found Dragon's Dream sort of cute, actually, in that it would snipe at Kenzo and even give Jolyne free advice, and who ever heard of an enemy stand like that. XD You can almost see how it would consider itself a neutral party, after all feng shui is just a constant of sorts.

I like this fight because Jolyne demonstrates her multilingual fluency in rude hand gestures. XD Great-grandpa would be so proud.

Meanwhile FF and Annasui sneak over to the solitary confinement unit without too much trouble, in time to help Jolyne out with Kenzo. (It took me a little while to figure Diver Down's abilities: basically it enters things and exerts force "from the inside out". So it can punch a wall and the force of the blow will bash someone in the face on the other side and several feet to the left. Or it can slide into someone's body and artistically rearrange their internal organs. FF and Annasui yell at each other a lot, but Annasui argues with anyone and everyone that Jolyne likes, he's a spaz to be honest. XD) They spot Dio's bone being poked at by a random surviving prisoner, but when they corner him he... grows flowers and turns into a tree.

At this point it starts getting weird.

Before Jolyne & co. can turn around, the thirty or so assorted corpses lying around have all turned into wizened tree trunk-like growths, and the bone disappeared - to be replaced by a green pod-object hanging from the nearest tree. Maybe it's an optical illusion but that thing looks awfully like a little green baby with a Joestar mark on the back of its neck, observes Jolyne. OHNOYOUDIDN'T, exclaims the reader. Jolyne decides to take the pod and run, since she doesn't want Whitesnake getting its hands on the thing, but this is made difficult by the fact that she starts growing flowers whenever she gets near it. Staying out of the sun helps, though. XD

BRAINSTORMING SESSION IN THE HOUSE OF ARAKI, #109,335 IN A SERIES

Araki: *drawing* What's the opposite of coffee?
Assistant #1: Um, tea?
Araki: Tea it is. What's the opposite of vampirism?
Assistant #1:
Assistant #2: ...Photosynthesis?
Araki: ............................YES
Assistants:

They also discover the current (wimpy and unwitting) user of Survivor, and Annasui rather cruelly rigs him out as a trap to wound the last remaining enemy stand user D&G, who's been hanging around in the background the entire time. It doesn't make much difference, though, as D&G's stand Yo-Yo Ma is a wussy automatic type. XD

Yo-Yo Ma joins the party outside the solitary confinement unit, and nearly the first thing it does is eat the pod. XD; Then it fawns over Jolyne and provides the party with a motorboat. Of course they all know it's an enemy stand, but it's so slobbery and pathetically friendly and easily abusable that they take it with them (it has the pod in its belly and all), leaving FF behind to keep watch. FF is the first to be attacked, when the others have their backs turned, and realises the stand is so wussy it's programmed to attack only in one-on-one situations when no one else is looking.

Disabling Yo-Yo Ma took much longer than warranted, not only because they couldn't figure out how it was attacking (its body fluids melt holes in people - can be carried by mosquitos among other things, EW DIE EW) but because Annasui kept thinking Jolyne was hitting on him when she tried to warn him about it. XD;;; In the end it was permanently defeated when FF took out D&G, which took some doing because the rescue crew had arrived in the interim, along with Father Pucci himself. FF discovers Pucci is Whitesnake's user, has a pitched battle with the latter and manages to escape with Weather Report's help, abandoning her body in the process.

Back on the boat, Yo-Yo Ma goes poof and... Annasui and Jolyne discover the pod hatched. XD;; Annasui tries to prevent the result from slipping overboard and gets a nasty baby-hand-shaped burn mark for his pains. It crawls/swims ashore, they chase after, only to find that it has a stand that halves their size with every step they take in its direction. Annasui tots up and realises this means they cannot mathematically ever reach the thing, let alone pick it up. Of course Jolyne has to verify the hypothesis, and they end up fighting the stand and trapping it in a glass bottle. Not for long, but the point is moot as the green baby spots Jolyne's star mark and promptly decides it likes her. XD XD XD

(However it does not like Annasui. Rather, the world for the green baby is divided between "interesting" and "non-interesting", and Annasui is not particularly interesting - edible at best. XD Just as well because Annasui thinks it needs to die for coming between him and Jolyne.

Annasui: Jolyne, let me take this moment to say I love you, from the moment I WHAT IS IT DOING.
Jolyne: Looks to me like it's eating your hair.
Annasui: WHY HAVE WE NOT KILLED IT YET, IT IS OBVIOUSLY AN ENEMY.)

Okay gotta go, will continue when appropriate. XD


[1] Which just made me wonder if he'd bumped into Tonio Trussardi in the highlands of Tibet.

[2] The stands in this arc are definitely weirder. Take "must not make a Kingdom Hearts joke" Ungaro, that must've gone over well with the editorial department.

Shounen Jump: I DON'T CARE IF DISNEY WORLD IS LOGICALLY RIGHT THERE, YOU MAY NOT TURN MICKEY MOUSE INTO A STAND
Araki: but
Shounen Jump: STICK TO EXPIRED COPYRIGHTS, BUCKAROO

Comments

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I didn't read them that carefully. But how could they be born after he ate the mothers? Or they were born in his castle? Or he came back and ate them after they had given birth?

[The fact that the birth of Gio was not a fluke makes me think of another vampiric being in a book I read, who desired to see new being created off of his genetic matrix; of course, this character also committed incest as well, which thankfully Dio didn't do...)

I know! I read that part too. XD (Araki must be getting frustrated with all of the continuity, eh?)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Maybe the details were to be found in Dio's other notebook (the little black one >_>).

I imagine people wrote in complaining to him about it and he threw up his hands. XD This I have to say, Perfect Dio Evolution seems to have upgraded everyone's radar. If Joseph and Jotaro could've been like "he's ten miles away moving north... no, northwest" they would've avoided not a little rigmarole.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

If Jojo were a fandom the size of Harry Potter, all of this would make me really, really scared about the type of fic.

I am not at all surprised that Jojo would have readers who would do that. XD