Two rants about the same topic, 2 and a half years apart because people never learn.
30. January 2020, original post
“DIO is just misunderstood” and “DIO is evil without any depth” are both equally false statements and I really wish people understood character nuances better.
A villain can be complex and can have intriguing reasons for their villainy, but can also still be completely and utterly irredeemable and rotten to the core. Understandable motivations and depth do not justify a villain’s actions and turn a morally black character into a morally grey one. DIO threw away his humanity and that was that for him, there was literally no turning back to the light at that point. However his goals and motivations are still intriguing and his character has plenty of depth which is explored across three different stories; in Phantom Blood, Stardust Crusaders and Stone Ocean, each presenting a different aspect of DIO and therefore fleshing him (and his insanity) out more than most other Jojo villains. Claiming that DIO has no depth is basically admitting that you either haven’t paid attention to the story, haven’t read the manga, or most likely both. On the other hand, claiming that he’s just misunderstood means you’re not actually interested in his character, but merely your OOC headcanons of him. |
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3. September 2022, original post
i cant believe there are people genuinely claiming DIO has no depth or is ‘evil for the sake of being evil’ when we literally see more facets of his personality than most other characters in jojo
claiming he’s a misunderstood poor misguided traumatised boy is not better lmao. woobification and vilification are two sides of the same coin. DIO is a capital B Bastard and he’s thoroughly evil and was always gonna be evil, but like he’s evil in a super interesting, complex, and fun sexy way “DIO was broken by society” DIO was given countless chances to take the right path and chose not to. Fate is a real force in JJBA, and it’s a force that DIO very much understood, and he boldly believed he was fated to be all-powerful. He happily took the fate that drove him, because that’s the only life that was natural to him, and he expected it to take him to greatness. Just like Diavolo was fated to immediately die in every reality he was sent to, DIO was always going to grow into a bad person, no matter the circumstances. That’s how fate works in JJBA. It’s sealed. “DIO would turn evil no matter what” and “DIO is not evil for the sake of evil” are statements that can and do coexist. DIO is thoroughly evil and was never going to be anything else, but he is ALSO a very complex character with a very intriguing, almost bizarrely zen-esque philosophy. |