Discover Top Posts Tagged with #dinodio

I finished rereading like the entire last 1/3rd of Jojo Steel Ball Run last night because I couldn't sleep and then I wrote some stream of consciousness rambling about Diego Brando aka Dio aka DinoDio, a real blorbo of mine

I love Dio from the original universe too, but I have a special place in my heart for DinoDio. In the original universe, Dio is still arrogant and vengeful, but he is "changed" by the mask at a pivotal moment. And he actually became something other than human. This Dio didn't. He is still strictly human, with human ambitions. I mean I love DIO, there seriously are no villains doing it better. He is the epitome of the "ore-sama" character. DinoDio is still excruciatingly aware of the fact that he is inferior. No matter how much he wins as a jockey, he is still disposible to people with real power. He is one of those people who have suffered so much from people who have power that all he can think about is taking that power for himself, not eliminating the power altogether. No one cared about him or his mother, so he won't care about anyone. Perhaps there is a universe where Dio becomes an anarchist. If there are infinite possible universes then there must be.

One of the reasons why DinoDio is my blorbo and gets my especial fascination is because of course he turns into a dinosaur. We have established that I like reptiles and I especially like feathered dinosaurs, for many reasons. Dio does not turn into anything that might remotely be called an "accurate" depiction of a dinosaur, but in general you cannot expect realism from Jojo. Also Araki is criminally bad at drawing animals, like sometimes I think it must be on purpose because it's clearly not a lack of skill.

But what really caught me is the "cracking" of his skin right before he changes. I have psoriasis so things like that attract my attention. I wish I could crack all my skin off and emerge as a dinosaur. I mean I absolutely love the early scenes when he's just transforming for the first time and is making weird sounds in his throat and eating rocks and can't see the coffee mug but won't admit it. He's being unquestionably very weird but also refuses to acknowledge it in any way. Like if you think something's wrong with him maybe there's something wrong with you, eh?!

Dio's main quality, his fatal flaw, is his self-conviction. He absolutely 100% believes that he is come out a winner in every situation. And the fact is that he is very intelligent, he now has superhuman physical abilities, and the conviction to reach his goals no matter what. That's really attractive in a person don't you think? His complete lack of self-doubt. Like you can say it's a sign of a very deep-seated self-loathing, but even as he is literally cut in half laying on the train tracks he thinks "I won". That is how he has gotten so far. Every time he has lost, he has turned it into a win somehow. He never loses his pride. It is a sort of delusion, but in the same way that hope is a delusion necessary to life.

He is ruthless towards other humans and is perfectly happy to kill someone or let them die while using them. But even when his horse gets exhausted during the race he chooses to rest it and doesn't choose to pull any tricks like trading it for a new one. He is more likely to use another human being to reach his goals than endanger his horse. He really is still that kid who grew up in a stable. Like, sure, there are rational reasons why he would be careful to take care of his horse in order to win. He lets his little dinosaurs die, but he also praises them when they do well. You can see how he would attract followers. He's kind of like another ore-sama character, Gilgamesh from Fate/Grand Order (not the historical/mythological one). Gilgamesh, especially Caster Gil, is a ruler but if he is going to be a ruler he is going to be the wisest and best ruler on the planet. His people are going to be the most prosperous and happiest. His city is going to be safe and strong. It doesn't matter how much effort it takes from him, this is absolutely essential. Achieving that through something like brainwashing would be cheating and beneath him.

#misc #ruth reads manga #jojo #steel ball run #dinodio