Steel Ball Run Liveblog Ch. 24-27
All things are about Jesus, Homer... except this.
This is the "Tusk" arc, but first we have another flashback to Gyro Zeppeli's days working in the dungeon of Naples. Some lady prisoner went bonkers and bit a guy's finger off, and Gyro hesitated before finally calming her down with his Steel Ball powers. During the scuffle, she tore up his collar.
Gyro's father, Gregorio Zeppeli, has trained him to take his place as the palace executioner, but he's concerned that Gyro is too distracted by sentimentality to do the job properly. He observed, correctly, that Gyro was slow to react because he felt a twinge of pity for this small, beautiful girl.
I think Gregorio comes off like the bad guy in this story, so let me say a few words in his defense. As cold and harsh as his attitude may be, his job is to kill people for the state, and his objective is to accomplish this as mercifully as possible. As backward as it may sound, empathizing with the condemned prisoners can lead to greater suffering, like the guy getting his finger bit off.
Gregorio isn't just telling Gyro this because he's an uncaring bootlicker, although that might be true as well. The point is that he's gotten this far in his career by maintaining a sense of professional detachment from his work. The best way to care for the prisoners is to keep a healthy emotional distance from them.
And the more I think about that, the more impressed I am with Gyro's conflict with his father. I can see where Gregorio is coming from, but I can also see why Gyro is having such a hard time accepting this, to the point where he'd enter a transcontinental horse race just to avoid following his advice. It all comes back to Fate as the overarching theme in JoJo. Gregorio has accepted that the prisoners are doomed to die, and he can only control how much they suffer on their way to death. Gyro is too fixated on Justice, another major theme in JoJo. He wants to believe the people he executes truly deserve it, but the Zeppeli's aren't on that end of the criminal justice system.
Later, Gyro finds the little boy prisoner, Marco, who has repaired his collar using a fish bone found somewhere. Marco doesn't know why he's in the prison, so he's trying to do whatever he can to make a good impression on his jailers, just like he did when he worked for the baron before the failed coup.
Gyro is clearly touched by Marco's gesture, but he doesn't want to let it get to him, especially after the episode with the woman prisoner. The next day, he learns that the boy is condemned to be executed, and that's what leads Gyro to enter the Steel Ball Run.
In the present day-- well, 1890, but that's present-day enough for the moment-- Gyro has led Johnny to the "Zombie Horse" a boon from the King of Naples that someone left for him. Johnny was thinking it might be some kind of magic horse with healing powers, like Dende from Dragon Ball Z, but in horse form. Turns out it's just a thread someone stuck on a rock, and the thread is arranged in the outline of a horse.
Gyro calls it a "crappy mural", but I think it looks pretty cool.
The purpose of the thread is to stitch Gyro's right leg back together. It got blown up in the previous Stand Battle, but apparently it didn't get blown apart. Like every major injury in JoJo, it only looks horrific until it becomes clear that the character survived. Then they can just put a Band-Aid on it and walk it off. Johnny's sole concern with any of this is that the thread is all dirty from being out in the desert.
According to Gyro, this doesn't matter, as the Zombie Horse thread does have some sort of special healing power, though nothing too wild. It'll heal Gyro's leg faster than ordinary stitches, and apparently it doesn't need to be sterile or anything.
But enough about Gyro's leg, let's talk about Joseph of Arimathea. In the Bible, he's the guy who took Jesus Christ down from the cross after his death from crucifixion. Note that we're not talking about the carpenter who raised Jesus. That's a different Joseph.
Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man and a "secret" disciple, which I always interpreted to mean he was a believer in Christ's teachings but wasn't ready to go public with it. He arranged for Jesus' burial, putting him in the tomb Joseph had originally purchased for himself.
This is why I've never had much interest in people trying to find Jesus Christ's tomb. It's a tourism thing or something atheists like to chuckle about, but it's kind of dumb because the Easter story establishes that you can pretty much put anyone you want in these tombs, and they're not necessarily going to stay in there.
Like, okay, I'm going off on a tangent here, but whatever. It's my blog. Blame Araki for writing Jesus into his manga. The way I was taught the story, they didn't dig graves back in those days. You had a tomb carved out of a rock or whatever, and they put a big stone in front of the entrance to seal it. The thing is, you kind of had to get that set up well in advance, and Jesus was executed at a pretty young age, so he wouldn't have a tomb ready to go. Joseph of Arimathea stepped up and provided his own tomb, which is a nice gesture. Nice enough that I have to assume his allegiance to Jesus didn't stay "secret" for long.
Anyway, the Pharisees were worried that someone would steal Jesus' body from the tomb, because Jesus' disciples believed he would rise from the dead, and someone might try to pull off a hoax. So they asked the Roman authorities to post guards at the tomb.
The problem was that Jesus died so close to the Sabbath that there wasn't time to prepare the body properly. So after the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene and at least one other woman went to the tomb to annoint the body and complete the funerary rites. They weren't sure how they were going to get into the tomb, though, but that ended up not being an issue, since they found the guards asleep and the stone rolled away. Also the tomb was empty and an angel (or two) informed the women that Jesus was alive again.
I bring all this up because somewhere in the 2000's I remember a lot of hype about some expedition discovering a tomb with Jesus' name on it, and it "proved" that Jesus died got buried and stayed dead like everyone else. This is dumb because anybody can be buried in anyone else's tomb, regardless of whose name is on it. In the Bible story, Jesus is buried in Joseph's tomb, and it's apparently not that hard to open it up and take him out. The guards were there to make sure that didn't happen, and the women were at least hopeful that someone would open the tomb for them to do their business. So even if you don't want to believe that Jesus let himself out, it's still extremely plausible for his body to have been relocated or swapped out with different corpses.
And if you don't believe in the Resurrection, why would a tomb with Jesus' name on it mean anything? If we're chucking the entire Gospel account, then why believe he was put in any tomb at all? Who's to say Jesus wasn't cremated at sea?
The reason I'm still annoyed with that story twenty years later is that finding Jesus' tomb doesn't settle anything, and yet there were people acting like it did somehow. It reminds me of people trying to "prove" that pro wrestling is fake, like there's some secret evidence that will collapse the entire industry once it's made public.
I seem to remember a pastor of mine describing a trip to the Holy Land and visiting one of these purported tombs of Jesus and he joked that he looked inside and confirmed he's definitely not in there. And I think there's some value to seeing what the tombs from that era looked like, if only to provide some context to the story. But the tomb itself isn't the point. The point is the occupant got up and left, and you're never going to prove that one way or the other.
Where was I going with this? Oh, right. I'm a Protestant, so for me Joseph of Arimathea's story begins and ends with Jesus' burial arrangements, which is sort of like being Clark Kent's optometrist. Not entirely irrelevant, but easily overlooked. However, Joseph became a legendary figure in early Christian mythology, which has him traveling to Britain to found a monastery, among other things. I suppose this reputation as a traveler is what led Araki to choose him for this story, because Part 7 introduces the idea that Joseph of Arimathea drew a map of North America centuries before it became known to Europeans.
Meanwhile, Gyro and Johnny are still fighting off other racers who want to collect the bounty on Gyro's head. This guy is F.V. Stroheim, a German with some sort of fancy gun on his arm. Bullets only sort of annoy Gyro because he can use his Steel Balls to... I don't know. I guess it makes his skin tougher? So Stroheim threatens to shoot Johnny instead, and he demands that Gyro throw down his Steel Balls. Gyro agrees...
But it's a trick! Apparently the Steel Balls can also carve lots of stone balls out of the rockface Gyro was leaned up against, and they have spin too, so they fly out and hit Stroheim as soon as Gyro puts down his hands. Eh, fair enough.
During all the excitement, Johnny fell off his horse and apparently cut his hand, but then his flesh splits open and a corpse's hand emerges. Mondays, am I right?
Meanwhile, Stephen Steel receives reports of racers passing through the Devil's Palm, including Gyro Zeppeli. Steel asks if it's possible that Gyro might have found something like, oh, I don't know... a corpse? Maybe part of a corpse? His aide has no idea what the fuck he's talking about, but Steel's guest on the train certainly does. As far as he's concerned, Gyro definitely found the corpse, as confirmed by Oyecomova.
Okay, wait. Back up. Oyecomova searched Johnny and Gyro's stuff in their hotel room. But the he got caught by MOUNTAIN TIM and had to blow up the entire hotel. Immediately after that he got in a fight with Gyro and Johnny, and he lost. So two questions:
When did he have the chance to send a message?
Why would he confirm that Gyro found the corpse? Apparently it's been in Johnny's left arm this whole time, so how would Oyecomova have found it when Johnny didn't even know he had it?
Steel's guest then produces the same map that Joseph of Arimathea created centuries ago. And it becomes clear that there's a secret agenda behind the Steel Ball Run race: the route follows the points on the map, which apparently denote pieces of a corpse. Riders with Stand abilities are apparently able to discover these pieces, and will eventually gather them together as they head for New York.
The only real question is whether Gyro knows anything about the corpse. Little is known about Gyro, so it's possible that he entered the race to find the corpse pieces for himself. And if he's a rival, that means he needs to be eliminated.
Stephen Steel objects to murder, but this guy overrules him, and Steel defers to him, addressing him as... the President of the United States.
We'll get into this guy later, but for now, what matters is that the Steel Ball Run is actually a great game for control of these corpse pieces, which have something to do with Joseph of Arimathea. And Johnny has the left hand of the corpse and didn't even know it.
To deal with Gyro, the President dispatches one of his agents. Johnny and Gyro are just riding along, when Johnny turns around and sees Gyro's horse running without a rider.
Then the horse disappears too, folloed by Johnny's horse.
Johnny takes cover under a rock shelf and sees the enemy using hooks on lines to capture their targets. Johnny is less concerned with the how and more with the why. They already took the horses and Gyro, so what more could they want? Then Johnny realizes they want that corpse arm inside his body, because it's the only thing on his person, and the enemy has already looked everywhere else.
Speaking of the enemy...
Sigh...
You know, some of these Enemy Stand Users just try my patience. I don't mind the crazy ones of the androgynously sexy ones, but the really stupid rando ones are just so obnoxious. This guy looks like the Rock-Paper-Scissors kid from Part 4 had a baby with Secco from Part 5.
This is "Pork Pie Hat Kid", and his Stand is called "Wired". His deal is that he has a dish of water and a winch in his mouth. he can lower hooks into the the dish, which acts as a portal above his target.
Somehow he uses animals as "lures", but I don't understand how that works. A beetle gets to close to Johnny in his hiding place, and when he brushes it away, the hooks get him.
Then, as Johnny is dragged out of his hiding place, this pink creature crawls out of his left arm and keeps repeating "Movere crus", which is Latin for "Move your legs". Johnny doesn't know Latin, and I'm not sure he'd understand anyway, but then the creature hops onto his left leg and causes spinning blue toenails to shoot out of his boot. They fire straight up and nearly hit PPH Kid, so I guess that water dish portal leads both ways.
PPH Kid loses track of Johnny, but also discovers that Gyro managed to throw his Steel Ball while he wasn't looking. This didn't accomplish much except to dig a line into the ground, which will point Johnny in the direction of the enemy. The question is, will Johnny follow the line away from the enemy, or towards him? But Johnny has already decided. He won't hand over the corpse, and he won't forsake Gyro. Both of these things have become his hope in life, and he's willing to fight for them. Johnny is determined to complete the race with Gyro and collect the rest of the corpse parts.
And this is kind of an important moment for Johnny, because it resembles similar moments for all the other JoJos. For example, Jolyne had a chance to escape the prison, but chose to go back inside to investigate the plot against her father. The difference is that the other JoJo's had a more concrete reason for answering the call to (bizarre) adventure. Johnny has become very passionate about the corpse parts in a very short span of time, but it's pretty similar to the way he glommed onto Gyro's Steel Ball powers. Both produced a reaction that caused Johnny's legs to move, and he wants to know more.
No one has promised Johnny that this quest will help him walk again. No one is even hinting that this is a possibility. I'd argue that Gyro has been actively trying to manage Johnny's expectations. But Johnny still wants to see this through anyway. For him, it's less about finding a sure thing, and more about investigating the possibility.
PPH Kid can't find Johnny because he's slowly moving through the dirt, like Bugs Bunny tunneling to Albequerque. So he releases Johnny's horse, figuring the horse will seek Johnny out by his scent. Also PPH Kid pours gasoline around Johnny and ignites it, figuring he can burn the guy alive without damaging the corpse part too badly. Johnny can't hit PPH Kid with his fingernails, so he's kind of screwed.
So instead he tosses out a decoy, which he... carved from a chunk of wood? In the desert? Just carved an entire figure of himself, 1:1 scale. Tossed it through the flames. Well, whatever works. He names his Stand Ability "Tusk" because it's more powerful than just a nail. I'll never understand that name, but it's fine.
Johnny almost gets to Gyro, but PPH Kid uses Gyro as a lure to pull Johnny through him. This complicates things because Johnny can't aim at PPH Kid with Gyro's body in the way, and if he's not careful he'll get pulled through Gyro, which will surely kill one of them. Well, probably not Gyro, since we've already seen him survive a leg explosion, dirty stitches, and a gunshot wound.
Gradually, the tide turns against Johnny, and it looks like he has no choice but to surrender, but he doesn't want to. He refuses to give up this hope that he's found.
And while Johnny explains that, Gyro spots his Steel Ball in Johnny's pocket. Impressed that Johnny would go to such lengths to bring it to Gyro, he tries to battle on in Johnny's place...
But it doesn't work. Gyro's down, and Johnny finally agrees to surrender the Corpse Hand. In the end, his devotion to Gyro is greater.
As PPH Kid leaves, Johnny is despondent that his Tusk ability appears to be gone. I think he believed that the Corpse was what gave him the Stand ability, and he can't use the Stand without the Corpse. But that isn't quite right.
Johnny's nails aren't spinning on his hands, but the nails on the corpse's hand are spinning, because Gyro made them spin. Uh... how? You know what? Whatever, it's fine. The bad guy gets shredded by spinning fingernails, that's all folks.
So with all that settled, what does Gyro know about the Corpse? Turns out, he doesn't know anything about it, and he doesn't care either. His mission is to win the race and earn an amnesty for that Marco kid in Naples. He never heard about a corpse and he doesn't want anything to do with it.
He does suggest to Johnny that if the corpse is so important that bad guys would kill for it, then it must be the corpse of an important person, possibly a Saint. He reasons that European kingdoms have taken possession of holy relics, including the body parts of Saints, and they've prospered as a result. This corpse has already made Johnny's legs move and it gave him his Stand ability, so that's two posthumous miracles right out of the gate.
But what is a Saint doing in North America? Well that's a whole other story.
Gyro looks out and spots Diego Brando and Sandman racing along, so it's time for him and Johnny to get back on track and skedaddle.