#Kakyoin bb I'm so sorry

[rev3rb]

How Kakyoin vs T. D’arby Supports Kakyoin’s Backstory

Given that this arc is over 30 years old now, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has said this before, but this is something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.

So let me start off by saying that I actually personally hate that Kakyoin lost the fight vs Terrence T. D’arby. The loss by itself already felt cheap. When you take into account that Kakyoin just rejoined the group after being severely injured and proceeds to die shortly after this, then it makes it all the worse. I get the meta reasons behind why Kakyoin lost, but Kakyoin had nothing go right for him (unless you wanna count figuring out The World) for the entirety of the Crusaders’ time in Egypt and that sucks.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in.

At the start of the race, T. D’arby uses Atum to help boost his car. As shown by Kakyoin’s commentary, not only is he familiar with this strategy, but he also knows approximately how much time it takes to pull off, which is why he doesn’t start trying to do it himself. What’s worth pointing out is that Kakyoin isn’t surprised by T. D’arby using his stand here but that T’Darby is applying this strategy in the first place.

This is likely because Kakyoin is shown to be as accustomed to using his stand while playing F-Mega as T. D’arby. In fact, I would argue he’s even more accustomed to it as this is a very strange move that is implied to only work with stands. After all, the two times we see it, it’s Heirophant Green doing it, not Kakyoin himself. It should be safe to then conclude that Kakyoin truly is surprised by the application of the strategy itself more so than anything T. D’arby is doing physically.

So, this begs the question, if Kakyoin knew about this strategy and is accustomed to using his stand while playing video games, why didn’t he immediately start mashing the gas button with Hierophant Green himself? It’s not like he can really afford to lose this game. We’re just going to ignore that he does and things turn out fine regardless for the moment.

The answer is simple.

Kakyoin never had any friends growing up. He wasn’t interested in other people, which means it’s highly likely that anything he did in his leisurely time was done alone/with only Hierophant Green. He has likely never played F-Mega with another person. Possibly, he’s played with a family member that decided to humor him, but it’s pretty safe to say that most of his experience with the game comes from playing against bots.

On top of that, it’s important to establish that Kakyoin is incredibly good at and familiar with F-Mega. It’s a sentiment further backed by pretty much everything Kakyoin does/commentates on in this arc.

I don’t know if you’ve ever played a game to the point where you start memorizing events and maneuvers down to the exact second as Kakyoin has, but as someone who has (not nearly to that level but close enough), I can tell you that you start self imposing handicaps to keep the game fun. This is especially true in a game as arguably repetitive as a racing game where the bots can stop being a challenge after a while. Purposefully putting yourself at a disadvantage vs the bots is a great and easy way to keep the game feeling fresh. Not using the starting boost is then one of the simplest handicaps you can give yourself.

“But wait,” I hear you asking, “you said yourself that Kakyoin can’t afford to lose, so why is he purposefully putting himself at a disadvantage? His background shouldn’t matter.” A good point. Especially since Kakyoin isn’t the kind of person to do that kind of thing.

Joseph makes this clear. Yes, the DIO situation is a lot more dire than this one, but Kakyoin’s soul and Jotaro’s well being is still on the line here. There’s no real room for anything beyond trying your best. So the answer?

Habit. Again, he’s just not used to playing with other people. Maybe he’s played with someone who was willing to humor him before like I said earlier, but they likely didn’t have much skill so even if they knew about and used the boost, Kakyoin wouldn't have to try that hard to win. Between that and simply underestimating T. D’arby’s skill/knowledge, Kakyoin likely didn’t even think about using the starting boost. He’s probably never needed to use it himself to win. When you get used to purposefully not using an advantage, sometimes you momentarily forget it even exists in the first place until you see it being used.

And it’s not like Kakyoin doesn’t have a plan to deal with putting himself at an initial disadvantage.

Kakyoin’s spin move has to be incredibly practiced. Beyond having to know it’s even possible, something T. D’arby doesn’t seem to know until Kakyoin does it, it’s incredibly risky.

Kakyoin can’t afford to fall off the track. If he had miscalculated it, he would have lost right there and then. If the move is so risky, it seems a little drastic for the beginning of the race, and Kakyoin isn’t one to take unnecessary risk. However,

He’s well aware of his own limits and generally never over exerts himself. He wouldn’t risk pulling a move that could so easily lose him his soul if he wasn’t confident in his ability to pull it off. The fact that Kakyoin uses this spinning move twice supports his confidence in his ability to safely execute it.

Speaking of that second spinning maneuver, let’s talk about how that, and its failure to win Kakyoin the race, further showcases the idea that this arc perfectly supports Kakyoin’s friendless childhood.

This is a solid plan, and against anyone other than T. D’arby, it probably would have worked. It certainly would have worked against even the highest level bot.

Meanwhile, T. D’arby’s strategy is something that would only ever work against another person specifically. Not only do you have to get two cars through the tunnel, but you then need to have the proper power level discrepancy to be propelled to the other track. Not to mention that this all banks on the other player/bot deciding to hit you in such a way that propels you towards the other track. It’s highly unlikely you’re going to get two cars into that tunnel if one of them is a bot. You as the player would have to choose to enter the tunnel with a bot by driving on the wall as the bot is never going to do that itself. Sure, getting into the tunnel alongside a bot is possible, but if all that was highly unlikely, then getting a bot to not only not lose power in the tunnel but also knock you off the track at the right time has to be damn near impossible.

T. D’arby obviously knows this strategy is possible given the way he explains the situation here, which means he has to have done this before. Good luck getting this exact situation to happen with a bot not once, but enough times to know that this is a surefire strategy.

Quick aside. Given that I mentioned that Kakyoin’s spinning maneuver doesn’t seem to be something T. D’arby is familiar with, and therefore couldn’t have practiced against, I should point out that knocking cars off the track is something a car can do with simple bumping. You theoretically don’t need to spin like this to knock someone off the track. It should be even easier in this section of the race as, as we see in the beginning of the game, there are barriers in place that would make it difficult to fall off the track,

while in this particular section, there is nothing to prevent you from going over the edge.

In short, Kakyoin’s strategy relied solely on well established game mechanics and his own proven strategies that he could have figured out playing against anyone, be they bots or real people. T. D’arby’s strategy on the other hand relies so heavily on specific circumstances that he only could have ever figured this out by playing against someone else skilled enough to help him set up the situation. The only way Kakyoin could have learned of this strategy is if he played with other skilled players, and given his backstory, that would likely never happen.

It’s worth noting that Atum’s mind reading abilities wouldn’t have been useful in this situation either.

It only seems to work when T. D’arby himself asks a question with only two answers. No questions were ever involved in this race, so T. D’arby would have had to rely solely on what he knows works within the game. It really was just T. D’arby setting up a situation where Kakyoin was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t using incredibly specific circumstances.

At the end of the day though? I still think it’s such an asspull that T. D’arby won this one and will forever be salty about it on Kakyoin’s behalf LOL