I got excited when Polnareff explained his mission, and to explain why gives me a good reason to delve into character motivations. Joseph and Avdol had the first acting motivation in the manga. Joseph was after Dio, this is a long time family battle and he was already the kind of guy to stick his neck into danger for goodness sake, even if he was a lazy kid. Avdol seems good hearted, caring about Holly, and wanting to stop Dio while showing loyalty to Joseph. Then, especially for Jotaro and Joseph, Holly was put in a life or death situation which necessitated taking Dio down. Although this also stretches to Avdol and Kakyoin. Kakyoin who has had a run in with Dio before may have some unfinished business, but from my eyes it’s because he has a golden heart, caring for Holly, and he feels greatly indebted to the compassionate and courageous Jotaro; evocative of Speedwagon’s joining of Jonathan.
Polnareff however does not share this. He probably does want revenge on Dio, he was manipulated by him and apparently the man he wants vengeance on is one of Dio’s. However, he primarily wants his own revenge. As far as we know he does not know about Holly, he’s joining with them because it is helpful for his cause when it comes to taking down the man with two right hands. As cheesy as that mission is; revenge on the man with a distinguishable mark, it does a lot for the party. Until now I had feelings of the cast being too samey, they feel like they all have a slightly different spin on the same baseline badass and determined personality and shared the same goal. Mr. honour with his own mission separate from them gives Polnareff a striking personality; horny and a quickly changing mood, a thirst for honour and revenge, and intrigue on where his personal story will go.
This also serves a good place to touch on Dio’s charisma. I had a discussion with my friend earlier regarding this notion of Dio’s inescapable charisma, something hinted at by Avdol’s language regarding their meeting. However, I struggle to call Dio truly charismatic. He’s a great liar and he can manipulate but nonetheless, through the parts he is prominent, he forces people to be his allies. He makes them zombies, aka inherent followers. He brainwashes them with vampiric powers- or at least the anime made it seem more like that when it came to Jack the Ripper and especially with the boy at Wind Knights. He revives corpses already imbued in malice. Or here in Stardust Crusaders, his minions have been brainwashed yet again- with flesh buds which force awe in his captives minds. One could argue all of this is charisma, especially the notion of vampiric charisma. However, I can’t help but find the notion of charisma when it’s always surrounded by forceful notions false. The loyalty he creates is artificial rather than the likes of the Joestar's who win allies with their heart. Or Cars who formed a brotherhood of pillar men despite slaughtering their kind. Pillar men who would and did die for him. However, here we finally got a nugget of true manipulative charisma outside of perhaps his first moments tricking George Joestar and Jonathan’s peers, true charisma meaning without supernatural help. He at times sways his victims with sweet words and from there adds insurance such as the blinding flesh bud.
The formula is becoming evident and obvious but I can’t help but love it. The crew advanced more on their tour around the world. The characters got different characterizing moments, Jotaro saving and feeling up the secret girl despite acting pissed, Kakyoin’s remark about being a proper student and reading, Polnareff’s respect of the girls guts to swim, and Joseph’s complaints about his grandson and Kakyoin dressing like losers. And from there, a real sea monster, the next monster of the week arrived. A stand-ship battle! And I can’t help but get super excited to see how Araki utilizes the water and ship and characters to deal with this new enemy and their power.
P.S. I have to wonder if Dio is capable of using all of the Joestar’s stands as they came from Jonathan’s body which he controls. That and, seeing him use Hermit Green without smashing the crystal ball leads to some questions about Joseph’s tactics. |