The Plant In His Hands Is Wolf's Bane, Specifically Arnica Montana.

the plant in his hands is wolf's bane, specifically Arnica montana.

according to my lovely gf it represents the sun. however i drew it under the impression that it represented this

soooo. ooooh imagery oooh signs oooooh

final post of the day. go giogio go

wait the mista thing reminded me do you remember that one quote murolo makes abt his stand being divided... what do u think that means if we apply it to mista bc murolo knows abt like bad company and the. other stand I forgot but he knew Things and ur the mista person.... so enlighten me if u can with ur very cool thoughts

YES I think about this so much. Like literally the first thing that came to mind when Murolo mentioned that was "wait. Mista though."

(For reference/anyone who hasn't read PHF, this is the quote in question:)

Obviously, by the time of Purple Haze Feedback, Mista has a "hollow pit inside," caused by the grief of watching his loved ones die and, very likely, having no other support mechanisms to process it (he's isolated from Trish, and his relationships with Giorno and Fugo are rocky, at best). At the same time, I think the Sex Pistols being a colony stand has to stem from something further back - after all, they've been a colony since he obtained them years prior (and his backstory seems to imply that, even before the stand arrow, they'd existed on some level, though they hadn't yet manifested).

If I can refer back to that Fugo and Mista post, I think what split the Sex Pistols might have been his very OCD-coded thought patterns. Just as All Along the Watchtower (a stand made from a deck of cards, which puts on performances with the "stage name" The Watchtower Troupe) reflects Murolo's belief that the world around him is flimsy and unstable, and that he can't trust anyone and must put on facades to avoid being betrayed; and how he claims Metallica, Bad Company, and Harvest reflected their own users' "hollow pits;" the Sex Pistols are another facet of Mista's life that give him routines and structure, even if it seems irrational to others. He actively has to take care of the Sex Pistols, feed them when they need to be fed, keep them in line behaviorally, etc, or he'll be defenseless, and tangible harm could come to him. Forgetting to, say, give the Pistols lunch would be, in Mista's mind, no different than taking the fourth slice of cake; in both cases, performing (or not performing) a specific, seemingly unrelated action puts him in danger.

The other thing that's interesting about the Sex Pistols, though, is that they're completely sentient. Historically, we see this with characters that have a strong resolve: Koichi, Trish, Giorno, and so on. At the same time, there's characters whose stands behave independently because they lack control over themselves - namely Fugo, to the point where Giorno expresses fear that Fugo dying without coming to terms with his anger/finding self-worth could cause Purple Haze to run wild like Notorious B.I.G. In a way, I think Mista's both; he has incredible resolve, yes, but it takes the smallest, most arbitrary thing to destroy that confidence. From his manga profile:

So the Sex Pistols are sentient, but unlike Echoes Act III, Spice Girl, or Gold Experience Requiem - who may act outside their user's conscious wishes, but always for the best - the way they behave is sometimes to Mista's detriment. They'll get distracted, fight with each other, feed into Mista's paranoia, and so on.

Going back to that Murolo quote does make me wonder, though - based on his theory as to why a stand splits into a colony, why aren't some other stands split? It would make a lot of sense for Purple Haze, Moody Blues, and Voodoo Child to be, for instance, because I'd say that Fugo, Abbacchio, and Sheila E all have their own "hollow pits" that shape them as people. Beyond Vento Aureo/PHF, it'd even make sense for Polnareff, Kakyoin, and Jolyne, off the top of my head. I'd even argue, if Keicho's obsession with his ambition is what made Bad Company a colony stand, shouldn't Giorno have a colony stand? Then again, maybe this implies something about Giorno - that, even if he tries to hide it, the people in his life are more important than his dream. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into this.

But thank you for bringing this up, this Murolo line lives in my brain rent-free and I've been looking for an excuse to talk about it with regard to Mista forever lol

mandatory disclaimer: I'm not a comic artist

wdym. this was exactly how the scene went . also kocaqi is so ugly i hope i never have to draw him again

who gets it

update: read phf for like the third time . still agree with this. also you all lied to me, literally no one was mad at him except him

do you ever think about how the whole thing with Fugo rejoining the gang is just him being punished for not wanting his family to die. i've read so many fics where it's like

mista: fuck you fugo

fugo: *little bitch voice* i am a sinner

mista: yeah fr

and it's like ????

how dare you not want to drink the greater good juice, fugo. what? hell, no one else wanted to drink the juice either-- excluding Bucciarati and Giorno, no one's motives for going were "the betterment of the community". Trish didn't have a choice in being involved (I believe wholeheartedly that she would've done the same thing Fugo did, if she wasn't the whole reason this was all happening and/or knocked out at the time of the traitor boat conversation), Mista went for the novelty of it (if we're to take what he says at face value), Abbacchio went because Bruno, and Narancia went because Narancia is Trish. No one was 100% going because of Trish anyway (except for Trish and Trish 2)

Anyway no one had any reason to be mad at him and I will die on this hill. distrust him, sure, that's fine, that makes sense. but be mad at him? for what? actually taking bucciarati up on his word?

i'm totally willing to hear other opinions though

Puerto Rican velvet worm, Peripatus juanensis, Peripatidae

Photographed in Puerto Rico by wesgapp