#doppio and diavolo aren't perfect DID representation either

[themanofax]

On Diavolo’s Rage

One of the most supremely underrated aspects of Diavolo's character is his unrelenting, implacable rage. Moreso than any other JoJo character, I associate Diavolo with "rage" - more than Fugo, more than Ghiaccio, more than Kira. Those characters, while prone to violent, angry outbursts, possess other defining features - but Diavolo is a man who is defined, who is controlled, by his rage.

If you subscribe to the theory that Doppio was the original personality, then a sub-theory of that which I like to believe is that Diavolo, as a split personality, emerged in response to Doppio discovering that he was adopted. Not only that he was adopted, but that his mother was a prisoner housed on a remote island, where he would likely never be able to meet her. Doppio, being an innocent, mild-mannered kid, likely had no idea how to process this information; and out of the wreckage emerged Diavolo, a personality whose existence was wholly dedicated to protecting his beloved Doppio.

(I also believe that Diavolo is the Antichrist and that him emerging out of Doppio's mind was likely fated to be but that's a discussion for another day)

Anyway. I'm sure you can see where the tragedy arises out of this idea. Over time, Diavolo grows more and more controlling and manipulative, and Doppio loses more and more control of his body. Until eventually, the personality that emerged to protect the "original" survives, while the "original" dies alone, unaware that he's lost any agency at all.

But what does this have to do with Diavolo's anger? Well... what happens when an empty shell, a being created to fulfill one singular purpose, forsakes that purpose? What happens when a program is left running, long after it should have been terminated?

Diavolo's anger - at least, the anger he displays during the Silver Chariot Requiem arc - fascinates me. Because it's the anger of a being which really has no reason to be doing the things it's doing; that is carrying out the ghost of its directive.  I like to believe that Diavolo became a mob boss because it was the simplest way of ensuring no harm would ever come to Doppio; how could he be hurt if Diavolo became the most powerful person in all of Italy?  But now that Doppio is dead, Diavolo is fighting desperately to keep his position... for basically no reason at all.  He’d forgotten long ago the reason he’d killed and maimed to achieve this power, and with Doppio dead and gone, any hope of him remembering was gone too.  And so, we get Diavolo fighting tooth and nail, sacrificing his body and dignity to get the arrow and sit atop the apex of the world... all for a boy who has already died.  Ozymandias, the king of kings.

One last element to Diavolo’s rage that I adore; his fervent, unshakeable conviction that fate is on his side.  Moreso than any other villain, I feel, Diavolo truly believes that he is an immortal god who can never fail; who fate has chosen to prop up above all others, who will live forever despite still being biologically human.  This fundamental delusion goes deeper than Kira’s simple belief that “luck is on his side”; and even DIO, who became the closest thing the JoJo universe had to a god, was aware of his mortality, and had a “Plan B” in mind in the case of his death.  

Diavolo truly, fundamentally believes that if he is able to eliminate all the obstacles in his way, he will “live forever”.  And, after all, he has no real reason to doubt this idea; fate smiled upon him in the form of the arrows, and his King Crimson is able to defend him from literally any misfortune (there’s a moment in the final fight that I love, where we see King Crimson for the last time - he all but pops up in front of Diavolo, screaming like a furious and over-protective father at Giorno before being pummeled himself.)   

So when that belief is challenged, Diavolo snaps.  His rage, his disbelief, his patheticness puts any other (main) JoJo villain to shame.  What other villain would beg their enemy to let them win; to resort to fallacious, circular arguments of “look at me!  think who is truly worthy!”  For Diavolo, the arrow continuing to elude his grasp in the final arc is tantamount to the sky being green, or dropping an apple and having it fly upwards.  It simply does not make sense; it is a violation of a fundamental rule of reality.  And as Giorno and his allies continue to outmaneuver him, he grows more and more desperate, his cries more and more venomous, his denials more and more fervent.  An injustice is being carried out, in his eyes, and it is his duty to right it.  

This is part of why I think the decision to cast Katsuyuki Konishi was such an amazing move; casting a seiyuu who is primarily known for voicing heroes (including Jonathan Joestar himself, in the Phantom Blood OVA) imbues Diavolo with a truly unique quality.  We hear all the time that “a good villain is one that believes themselves to be the hero”, but moreso than even Pucci or Valentine, Diavolo believes himself to be the protagonist of the world.  His beliefs about fate cause him to believe that his struggles, his ability to overcome his own past and insecurities, are all that matter; that the world truly revolves around him, and that he can become an immortal god-king if he just overcomes the obstacles that Fate puts in his way.  

That determination to grow, to overcome one’s flaws and grow stronger, is one we commonly associate with heroes in shonen - and Diavolo has deluded himself into believing that his conquest of bloodshed and oppression is as just as the journeys that our favorite shonen heroes go on.  All of this imbues Diavolo with a uniquely pathetic quality; he is a villain that believes himself to be the protagonist, and so when faced with the true protagonist of the Part, he is left utterly confused and helpless.  He believes that Giorno is the intruder, the one who is barging into his life and threatening his status quo, and he believes that if he fights hard enough he will be rewarded and continue his conquest. 

In that light, his frustration, his rage at being unable to beat this newbie makes more sense (as does the decision to cast Katsuyuki).  When we watch Diavolo fight against Bucciarati’s gang at the end of Part 5, we are not just seeing good vs. evil, hero vs. villain; we are seeing the complete implosion of a life-long belief, and the violent de-throning of a “protagonist”.  Diavolo is a king who finds himself de-throned, cast down into the role of a lowly pauper.  And he fights it desperately, all throughout the Part - and in the end, leaves the series with a rage-filled, fear-suffused scream.