#theyre fighting over still trying to find out diavolo through trish

[might-forget-this-blagg-exists]

Something I don't know how I want to interpret is Tiziano and Squalo's deaths.

《Warnings: long winded rant that takes forever to get to the point, overemotional pontifications anout squatizi based on remembered details, theres a screenshot of a jjba death scene and also a statue of jesus about halfway through this post》

So, basic surface level, theyre villians of the week who die in battle to the protagonists, not the first and not the last. The villians having bonds with each other is a common trope in part 5, and we see a lot of different takes on this basic setup:

Sale and Zucchero were allies who seemed to have a bond of convenience at least, the fact that Zucchero didn't knowingly sell out Sale even after being tortured is notable imo

Pesci and Proscuitto had a student/mentor relationship where the student surpassed the mentor, the understated half of the duo turned out to be the more formidable opponent, as per Proscuitto's expectations

Ciocolatta and Secco put a spin on the Proscuitto and Pesci dynamic, as well as the general formula as a whole. Cio expressed love for Secco despite his otherwise low opinion on the worth of basically any other human being we can see, and after the heartwrenching twist that there was still humanity and longing for connection in this depraved man's heart, in an even more painful twist of the knife Secco revealed that love was one-sided.

Sorbet and Gelato weren't a fight, but the love they had for each other and their team was heavily implied. Risotto, if no one else, must have had a great amount of love for them when they were alive to have gone to such lengths to avenge their deaths. In their own ways, the Formaggio, Illuso, Melone, Ghiaccio and Risotto fights were each motivated by the deaths of Sorbet and Gelato. (Sidenote that Tiz and Squalo are generally accepted to be a "what if bucci gang fought sorgela" scenario dunno if this is supported but it would make sense)

Carne is in general a mystery, but in this context I think he could be seen as an inversion of La Squadra. They fought to avenge their fallen comerades by betraying the boss, Carne avenges the betrayed trust of the boss by trying to take down the traitors with the sacrifice of his lonely life, smthn like that.

Doppio and Diavolo...I dont know. What comes to mind is that Doppio died waiting for his boss to call him. Despite all his cooing compliments when they shared a body, Diavolo never once mentioned Doppio after he got a new roommate with Trish's soul. Maybe it could be extrapolated as distraction or temporary ignorance, i.e. if he had known or had time to after the fight with GER he would have mourned, but thats not in the text as far as I know.

Are there any other fights...uh, I think Luca and Polpo served similar roles of showing that Passione is in fact a criminal gang full of people who kill and extort people for money? Kind of setting a tone to be subverted, since they're really anomalous overall. Maybe there's some kind of similarity between their situations and Carne? But thats a bit too off topic, I think.

Point is, theres an overall theme of the villians being people with all kinds of relationships to each other, in similar fashion to the protagonist group. And over and over again, this humanity is shown as not being enough for Giorno and the others--who act as judge jury and executioner as their opponents do the same to them--to find any of them innocent.

There's an odd tragedy to the fact that these people were killed, its been pointed out before that Squadra and Bucci gang secretly had the same goal and they could have saved each other so much greif if they'd only teamed up. But in every case, the fight ending on the death of these evil but unmistakably human characters is treated as a triumph every time. No tears from the protagonists are ever shed for them, and no thoughts are spared to their bloody corpses except to be certain the team had acheived victory and was no longer under attack. Half the time, they aren't even mourned by their own teammates.

Ok so thats a lot of prelude. And for what point? Squalo and Tiziano fit right in with all this, right? The spin they put on the formula is really straight forward; a typical brains+brawns setup that ends in Narancia killing both of them with support from Giorno's spare tongue. I mean, I'd argue Carne would have been a better intro fight to hammer home that Unita is a different breed from Squadra altogether, but thats off topic again. Why TF do I keep talking about Carne Im serious I'm trying to stay focused but I keep thinking about meat man,

Anyway. What I want to finally talk about in regards to Tiziano and Squalo's defeats: Tiziano's death was treated as noble, as a stark contrast to every single other villian death I can think of.

Theres even a Jesus's Bizarre Adventure reference.

Like, it's not nearly as much weight as that panel/screenshot of Abbaccio in the clouds, for example. Closest thing I can think of is Proscuitto getting caught in the train wheels or Risotto's last ditch effort to kill Diavolo with Aerosmith, which I feel were moments more in the ball park of gruesome tenacity than noble death? Well, maybe those are synonymous, I dont know.

Point being, Tiziano was out of the line of fire but he threw himself into Narancia's bullets to save Squalo. Not only did this give him liquid to attack with, his death caused Squalo to abandon the boss in his final moments and let pure personal vengeance drive him.

What gets me is that, comparing his death to the other villians, Tiziano's death was given tragic weight by the metaphorical camera. In stark contrast to even Squalo--who died moments after him so Narancia could have his iconic Volare Via battle cry--Tiziano's death wasn't a moment of heroic triumph, it was framed as a tragic but selfless act in just about every way it could be. As if in punishment, Narancia was suddenly cornered by the blood that had gotten on his shoulder that Clash jumped into. And while Squalo cradled Tiziano in his arms, Tiziano spent his final breaths reassuring Squalo it wouldn't be for nothing with a calm, gentle smile.

Basically every take on this moment I've seen has agreed that Tiziano's sacrifice was the strongest evidence for their love for each other being a romantic bond. But to play devil's advocate for a moment, Tiziano was a strategist, Narancia had identified both him and Squalo as the attacking stand users and was in the process of shooting bullets at them while Clash was still in the underground pipes. There was basically no chance he could get away if he ran, Squalo was the heavy hitter and could defeat Narancia only if he had Clash. Aside from just screaming "HE'S GOT A KNIFE HES STABBED SOMEONE" and causing uncontrolled unpredictable chaos in the crowd, or ~somehow~ using Talking Heads redirect the bullets to hit the well Clash was trying to emerge from (which seems to be a bit out of TH's ability), sacrificing himself so Squalo could finish the mission could conceivably be read like a cold strategic move.

It would definitely read like that if Tiziano had a Secco moment upon his death, wouldn't it?

If Tiziano didn't use his last moments to smile at and comfort Squalo.

If Tiziano hadn't been so worried whenever Squalo took damage, so quick to tell him to hide with him in the plaza crowd.

If Tiziano hadn't all but bundled Squalo's wounds as best he could and tried to get him to retreat without saying the word "retreat".

If Tiziano's actions when Squalo was in danger because of the boss's mission wasn't so close to betraying the boss without going all the way through.

If their last words...

...

...One of the most heartwrenching moments that stuck with me just as much as any protagonist death is for a character I'm still not fond of. Cio's last onscreen words were "I love you" to Secco. For me at least, in that moment the cartoonish villany fell away and showed that there was a bleeding human heart underneath. Suddenly his death meant more than just another dispatched murderer. He was unmistakably evil and horrible and deserved every single scrap of pain he got in the 7 page muda and much more. But he was a human.

Maybe I'm thinking of things the wrong way, or theres some detail I missed, but it feels wrong to me that Tiziano's last words weren't "now you have liquid to summon Clash". It was about how this was still a victory for the boss. Squalo's last words weren't "forget the boss, im killing to avenge you" but "how can these traitors keep going after betraying the boss" the moment after he, in spirit, did the exact same thing his opponent did.

It feels to me like their human hearts had been present for quite awhile, but in order to remind us of their villany so the knife-weilding gangster who triumphantly shot them both to death would be just that slightest bit more heroic for his iconic moment, their humanity was swept under the rug before the sledgehammer was brought down. Instead of being human in their final moments, they're regressed into the boss's pawns.

And I don't know how to feel about that.