#yeah i'm calling this book bad btw. because it is. like. fundamentally

[pa-pa-plasma]

thinking about Iron Widow again & how it, to me, is the poster child of this weird new refusal by authors to edit their shit. "why is my writing so bad T-T" because you didn't edit it. this problem is entirely self-inflicted & preventable. next question

[zoeys-ksbd-fan-blog]

Zoeys K6BD First Impression/Analysis/Whatever

Book 3 part 3

Damn I did all this analysis about the theme of power and Abbadon just spelled it out for us. Were in Allisons mind right now, and that version of her in that chair represent 'power' Who is in control right now. Which is why Allison is acting so weird.

I joke, but it is a unique way of illustrating Allison's mind, as well as a new angle on the corruption that comes with power.

MADNESS COMBAT MENTION!!!

I dont really understand what this counter is. All these priests have one. But it looks like its going down after each one dies? Maybe we'll find out later.

UH OH! So yeah throughout the heist people have tried to kill her. And she suspects Cio is trying to kill her too, which was a seed planted when the demon 'Myself' said that when Cio and Allison first met Cio did actually plan to kill her.

WOAH! So, allison took back control from power by merging with all the other parts of herself and then. That! It feels really basic that the solution was just 'you need all parts of you inorder to be whole' but we got some cool visuals and it WAS earned because...

Cio had to fucking die for her to come to that conclusion.

Jk she's fine. They should kiss!

Eh, close enough.

Jk she's fine. Say you know what this would be an EXCELLENT time for?

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!

YES! YES! YES! YES!

WE JUST KEEP ON WINNING!!!

WE DO IT FOR THE GIRLIES!!! YESSSSS!!!

By the way I am actually writing this in real time. I made a lot of jokes, but I genuinely did not know they were gonna kiss. I thought it was just a blorbos-in-my-head thing. But now that we are here, it was so well foreshadowed! AND IT WAS SO EARNED!

And again, I joke but when I was reading this chapter I was biting my fucking nails. Abbadon, btw I know his real name is Tom Parkinson but I'm gonna keep calling him that cuz its cool, is such a fucking brilliant writer.

The art is fucking brilliant, and it's brilliant in a way that is almost difficult to talk about. Like just look at it.

But fuck me the writing! You know the world building is amazing. But the fundamental character arcs and interactions, as well as the themes are all fucking FANTASTIC.

And yeah, I won't lie I cried a bit reading this chapter. Allisons arc this chapter of being taken over by power, may be slightly by the books. But fuck me is it effective. That's why I can't actually say Allisons arc is bad. Because it isn't! The way it affects the characters around her, specifically Cio is incredibly effective.

Cio has her own internal struggle of her past life as Yabalchoath. And she gave up her previous life with her previous husband. And CONSTANTLY risks her neck for Allison by escorting her out of Throne. And then getting her off of Mottom's Palace. AND THEN agreeing to go into Mammon's keep where she will be KILLED if the mission isn't successful.

The only thing she's getting out of this is theoretical protection from Praman Nand, but clearly this path isn't much safer.

And i believe she may have initially joined Allison for her own safety, but i think she stuck around out of a desire to distance herself from Yabalchoath. And because she had a big ol crush on Allison. As annoyed as Cio may be it's pretty obvious she liked her.

After all of this, just to be accused of wanting to murder the person you have sacrificed so much for and who you love.

AND THEN. TO BE LEFT BEHIND TO DIE BY THAT SAME PERSON!!!

I would have wanted to kill Allison too.

Not that killing her is in character for Cio, but for the vengeful and selfish Yabalchoath...

I described Allisons arc of getting control back from Power as 'basic'. But it is genuinely effective, and believable that Allison would act the way she does.

So yeah, Cio tries to kill Allison. But is IMMEDIATELY remorseful. And both of them have this "what the fuck are we doing" moment. Throughout all the bullshit, all the fighting and the differences. All the fucking peril. Allison and Cio love eachother.

MWAH!

Damn i didn't even get to talk about the capitalism metaphore.

[ottiliere]

oh my goodness your dios.. what a delight to see someone so fully invested in phantom blood dio wow. i am very happy. i love your 3D dios. really makes me want to sculpt him as well

Do it... clay is cheap bake it in the oven paint with 10 dollar set of acrylics your life will never be better. I adore phantom blood Dio so very much... years ago saw someone coin the term “phantom blood purist” and it's so funny I think about it literally every time I enter a Dio cycle. There are many aspects that go into this preference of course, and upon a great amount of time pondering i can say confidently that this is because mainly that:

1) I love history (especially the fin de siècle) and I love thinking about him in relation to Victorian values/etiquette/sociology in general... there's something so special about a society that enabled such a gross disparity of wealth&poverty while being so inherently pretentious that its asinine etiquette rules would completely elude you unless you were raised in an aristocratic family or had access to etiquette books. Dio absolutely read a great amount of these before going to the Joestar mansion btw, even before his father snuffed it I think. God help him he would not be doomed to look like a slovenly ill-bred gamin if and when he needed to manipulate the upper classes. I really can't think of a way for him to have developed these skills enough to outclass Jonathan otherwise. god and like thinking about him as a barrister too with his profligate fashion sense you just KNOW he gets drawn that way into all of the court sketches that go in all the newspapers since everyone loved to read about crime and there were a million papers for this in England alone... he'd get caricatured so bad sometimes and he is NOT happy about this.

2) You can probably tell from my indifference to the rest of the parts (except sbr; I call this the "diego rule") that I'm not the biggest fan of fantastical elements and I'm much more interested in interpersonal conflict/relationships in general... PB is extremely unique to the rest of the series because for five WHOLE chapters absolutely nothing abnormal happens and we just get to see Dio harassing Jonathan and his girlfriend until Jonathan snaps and humiliates him so bad in beating him up that he makes Dio cry. and then Dio kills his dog. Like it's literally just some impoverished child abuse victim bullying a spoiled rich kid who wanted to be his friend because lalala sunshine daisies only knows what "poverty" is from reading Oliver Twist and has no conceptual understanding of what the real-world implications of that are. That was the character development that needed multiple chapters to develop it's so fucking awesome. like yeah I'd read an entire novel of just this alone happening and how it impacts their relationship as adults no vampirism needed. I reread "dio the invader" so frequently I'm surprised the spine of my jojonium copy isn't cracked at the exact endpoint of it. I just adore him interacting with Jonathan so much it's hard to remove him from that… that's his FOIL... all the stories (some "AUs") I make with Dio involve the way he and Jonathan gravitate each other to some degree. we get the clearest view of who he is in the face of someone who is the polar opposite of himself. 🤯

2) This iteration of him is the closest degree of separation he has from his "humanity" (childhood), thus

3) I find him to be the most interesting, endearing, etc., version of him walking around, given that... well. behaviors stem from somewhere... the thematic & active severance of himself from a species he is fundamentally incapable of connecting with due to the way he adapted to help him tolerate his childhood... from his point of view I can't imagine that there is one convincing reason for him to continue being human after given the opportunity to deviate from it (despite likely still being inebriated when he vamped himself — very much an impulsive decision since he had, what, an hour or two to think that through? drunk?). If everyone's underneath him, yes, after the fact the choice seems extremely fitting. Maybe he'll cultivate a vast swathe of worshippers and disciples that obey his every command. Maybe he'll rule the world. And then, maybe, he will start to feel genuinely content for the first time in his life. But probably not. That's the drawback of having something fundamentally missing from within you.

4) He lacks a certain type of introspective awareness that 100 years alone in a box might enable him to develop... he's very animalistic to me and possesses a precarious/immature/nonexistent grasp on his emotions just given the fact that he exhibits enraged outbursts from perceived ego wounds (in both childhood and adulthood) + struggles with alcoholism due to an incapacity to self-soothe any sort of negative emotion that makes it past the self-aggrandizing filter he can't help but see life through; he really isn't in conscious control of anything happening inside of him despite needing control over everything and everyone so he can get exactly what he wants, and deserves, always. PB paints a very dim and pathetic view of his character by allowing us to see when he's most "vulnerable", which is the thing he likely hates being the most, so getting to see scenes where he's walking around publicly intoxicated and disparaging himself for acting like his father (implied: again), who he hates, and attacking men with a wine bottle for evoking the concept of his mother, who he also kind of hates but lacks the cognizant cogency to dissolve whatever cognitive dissonance is causing this mental incongruence, rules. he rules

tl;dr SDC dio is "iconic" but I feel like he misses a lot of the charm he had in part one, removed from the context of the society that had such rigid social boundaries and rules of decorum, in addition to his maladaptive approach to interpersonal relationships, his substance abuse issues, his humbling foil... he's too "cool" for me. In the end SDC dio is simply not my Dio... he is someone else's Dio. And that's okay.