#phfposting

[shoechoe]

giorno mentions he's vegan once and sheila e immediately becomes PETA's strongest soldier

[phffuntimes]

Something i never understood is how ppl promote phf as a pro-fugio work. Like genuinely, they interact in a single scene, Giorno’s more of an ominous entity in the book than a person (which i have OPINIONS about) and Fugo at the end of the book is literally broken as a person and brought to his knees BY Giorno’s decisions and manipulation. That final scene was literally the most chilling ending the book could’ve had. The „I’m yours. Our Giogio,“ line is objectively devastating in context, bc Fugo at that point has nothing, no life direction, nothing to chase after, probably fears for his life in that restaurant while Giorno is monologuing about chickens, and is in an incredibly vulnerable position overall, and him literally GIVING HIMSELF IN to Giorno’s offer – to the offer of someone he BARELY knows but has a lot of reason to fear – feels like a beginning to something miserable, so… romance where? xdd

[shoechoe]

wait PHF straight up implies giorno has religious leanings... how odd i remember one of the things he said about himself was that he wasn't devout

[shoechoe]

Sheila E

[shoechoe]

There is one Diavolo line that stuck out to me in PHF and that's it calling him a "legend" alongside Giorno. Considering the almost godlike status it puts Giorno on sometimes, I find it interesting it doesn't in turn frame Diavolo like this pure evil slime destined to be defeated like VA does, but instead frames their rivalry like two people of near-equal goals and status setting out to prove who deserves to be on top. Though to be fair this is likely Fugo's specific thoughts, and he is noted to take the least sympathy in Trish's situation as well as a character who actively praises Diavolo's intelligence and strategy in VA. But beyond a pretty objective descriptor of Diavolo tricking everyone into thinking Passione was an organization for vigilante justice there's no real "fuck Diavolo" moment anywhere in PHF

[shoechoe]

i still think it's interesting giorno apparently is this hardcore full-stop drug hater in PHF because in the manga the only real nod towards his beliefs in that regard is, if anything, "people who want to do drugs are free to do them but selling drugs to children is bad". Though it's believable in that scene he was just trying to say what he thought Bruno believed (you really get no straightforward stance from Giorno on much of anything in the manga lol).

it makes sense though... i personally think of Giorno as having a pretty rigid black-and-white view of "good" and "bad" people. anyone he deems as a "good person" (which ig he judges by: Not immediately trying to murder him when he steals from them... Thinking hurting children is bad... Uhh, good vibes?) can be salvaged and allied with and anyone he deems as a "bad person" is okay to pretty much brutally murder without remorse if need be because they "deserve it". Him having a 100% full throttle "Nobody should ever do drugs, if you sell drugs you deserve to die" stance fits with this

[shoechoe]

this passage is still so funny. "yeah yeah drugs are bad" "NO fugo you don't get it... (gives the most 'yeah yeah drugs are bad' speech of all time)"

[phffuntimes]

My dear Sheila E...

Sheila E has been done insanely dirty in phf in SO many ways (stripping her off her agency as a character during the final fight and using her just to MotivateTM Fugo is misogynistic writing 101), but I’m the most sad by the fact we get to the climax of her arc and then don’t get to see the aftermath.

She starts off as someone who’s so lost on what to do with her life after her sole goal has been taken away and fulfilled by someone else and she’s spent about a third of her life stuck in about the most traumatic, dehumanizing environment possible, that she rationalizes it in her brain that following the person who managed to fulfill her life mission (Giorno) for her is a sound decision (I think it’s in big part due to her guilt over how she handled the loss of her sister but perhaps i'll make a separate post on that in the future). She finds it easier to logically pick a respectable person to follow and then mindlessly follow them to the T than to constantly drown in uncertainty and the distrust she harbors deep in her heart. I think her latching onto Giorno so much was in part personal (him avenging her sister) but also reasonable (her seeing him as someone with noble, right goals whom she won’t regret committing to). It all makes sense in her head.

Now comes the part where I have to talk about Fugo, since I believe he’s THE most crucial person involved in her development. There are two layers to this: 1. him being involved in killing Illuso, 2. him as a person.

I’ll address the latter first to illustrate my point better: I think in Sheila’s eyes, dangerous stand aside, Fugo is the epitome of harmless. One of the most unimpressive people she’s ever met, and also quite possibly the first person in a while that has NO authority or upper hand over her, plus being around the same age, even further highlighting how he has nothing on her. (I could go on and on about these two and how this is an AMAZING basis for a friendship, but I’ll save that for some other time as well).

Now back to how this relates to him killing Illuso… Well, by Sheila’s rules, it would make sense to surrender herself to Fugo as well, since she did that to Giorno who arguably did less work in the ACTUAL killing. But… that’s stupid. Fugo is undeserving of that. What’s more important, she realizes he was the one who killed Illuso very shortly after realizing her loyalty to Giorno is crumbling, because she’s confronted with the fact she may have chosen the wrong person to follow, extended to this strategy being invalid to live by. And she doesn’t know how else to live – her worldviews she stuck to so strictly are shattered and both her and Fugo are fucked in terms of the mission, without any plan.

I think her confronting him in the car and confessing to what’s going on with her is her form of admitting that there may have been a connection (i do NOT mean this in a romantic sense, i mean it as Sheila being INSANELY lonely throughout the years and Fugo being the first person her age who somewhat fit the criteria of a Safe enough person to perhaps befriend, all of that being subconscious on her part, of course) and her kicking him out being a gift of sorts, because she’s about to recklessly try to ram into Volpe and see what happens. She doesn’t care she might die at that moment, so LOST about everything with no light to guide her that it just doesn’t matter. Might as well try to take this guy out with zero regard for her own safety.

And Fugo coming to save her in turn must’ve solidified the sense of comradery and even further disturb her beliefs on ppl. After this point she’s at the BIGGEST crossroads of her life, because there’s many doors open for her learning how to LiveTM and get better, but we don’t get to see any of that. It’s a great shame.