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Bruno Bucciarati, Eda Clawthorne, Captain Grime, Johnny Lawrence and, in a strange way, Takemichi Hanagaki are adults who lead pretty empty and messy lives and it doesn't seem to bother them in the least.

But then a series of events occurs and they meet someone (Giorno Giovanna, Luz Noceda, Sasha Waybright, Miguel Diaz and Manjiro "Mikey" Sano) and that kid makes them realize that their lives are a mess and inspires them to change for the better as they completely grow and self-reflect and mature for the sake of that kid.

Bruno, Eda, Grime, Johnny and Takemichi seek to help and protect that child as a way of gratitude to that loved one because it made them realize who they are and turned them into the best version of themselves and then in moments of (near) death and sacrifice, they thank that kid for making them realize that life is not just about existing with an empty routine that just goes through and start all over again but that life is much more than that.

Those kids inadvertently saved these adults from an empty existence full of problems and regrets by giving them a reason to live a better or at least happy life as the best version of themselves and the adults want to do this in return with these kids.

Bruno Bucciarati, Eda Clawthorne, Captain Grime, Johnny Lawrence and, in a strange way, Takemichi Hanagaki are adults who lead pretty empty and messy lives and it doesn't seem to bother them in the least.

But then a series of events occurs and they meet someone (Giorno Giovanna, Luz Noceda, Sasha Waybright, Miguel Diaz and Manjiro "Mikey" Sano) and that kid makes them realize that their lives are a mess and inspires them to change for the better as they completely grow and self-reflect and mature for the sake of that kid.

Bruno, Eda, Grime, Johnny and Takemichi seek to help and protect that child as a way of gratitude to that loved one because it made them realize who they are and turned them into the best version of themselves and then in moments of (near) death and sacrifice, they thank that kid for making them realize that life is not just about existing with an empty routine that just goes through and start all over again but that life is much more than that.

Those kids inadvertently saved these adults from an empty existence full of problems and regrets by giving them a reason to live a better or at least happy life as the best version of themselves and the adults want to do this in return with these kids.

Emperor Belos and Funny Valentine: The Lie and Toxicity of White Savior Complex

It may seem strange what I'm going to comment but Belos shares some similarities with Funny Valentine from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run in the sense that both are a satire of radicalized white supremacists, genocidal colonizers.

Even if we look at it from a historical point of view, Valentine's ideal (Americans superior to other cultures) is clearly the evolution of Belos's ideals for modern times (pure humans superior to native savages and heretics).

Both were heavily influenced by their upbringing, young Phillip being in an environment of anti-witch frenzy, while young Valentine was told from early on that above all else stands patriotism, that the only pure righteous action one can take is born from the love of one's country and they follow these ideals because a loved one inspired them (Caleb and Valentine's father) to the point that Belos and Valentine see it as a way to bond with said loved one as well as that they both feel that they should live by the ideals or values of their respective loved ones but as time goes by they genuinely believe in these values regardless of what Caleb or Valentine's father genuinely believed in those values so Belos and Valentine never question these values to the point of wanting and seeing themselves as heroes or marthyrs for what they think is a noble cause.

Beneath what appears to be a feeling of wanting to do good for their people lies a distorted feeling of love that they both have and firmly believe is normal and/or good:

Valentine sees his patriotism as an extension of love for family and friends and he becomes a soldier and later the president to protect the United States.

Belos became a witch hunter to fit in in Gravesfield and protect his family and town from witches and aspires to be Witch Hunter General.

This is because Belos and Valentine don't love Caleb and Valentine's father but love the idealized versions of them that they both had in their heads. Belos saw that Caleb left with Evelyn and believed that she manipulated him into abandoning him when clearly Caleb left of his own free will and was happy with her and Valentine never got to know his father, he only knew what others had said about him.

What I'm getting at with this is that at first they both followed their ideals because they believed they were doing something good, but as time went by those ideals were flawed (and most likely Caleb and Valentine's father knew it or at least they suspected it) but Belos and Valentine continued to cling to those ideals to a toxic degree because it gave them power, control, benefits and justification of their nefarious actions to the point of developing a desire for personal satisfaction of being remembered as heroes by showing that they are better than others for being the chosen ones (Valentine wanting to become the best and greatest president of the United States of America and Belos by wanting to become the best and greatest Witch Hunter General). This can be seen by the simple fact that they saw themselves as the chosen ones because they believe that they are the only ones that can save their people (Valentine sees himself as the only one who can take the corpse and bring prosperity and security to his country and Belos is seen as the only one who can protect humans from witches).

Later they both become politicians in order to achieve their goals:

Valentine wanted to use the saint corpse to bring good fortune to the United States at the cost of ruining other countries and total chaos and killing innocents and Belos wanted to protect humanity by committing genocide to the inhabitants of the Boiling Islands, except that Valentine became the president of the country he loved the most and Belos became the Emperor of the place he hated the most.

Belos and Valentine hurt their own citizens or fellow (fellow humans for Belos, fellow americans for Valentine) they claimed to protect and they manipulated everyone in the process thanks to their charisma, everyone admired and respected them to such an extent that they manipulated the protagonist at one point in the story and even manipulated the audience into believing that they are selfless heroes.

Valentine and Belos say they want to make things better for their respective nations but they follow an ideology that hurts the marginalized and don't seek to improve their situation (in Valentine's system black people are still treated as slaves and the natives continue to be massacred and their lands are stolen. The system Belos supports excludes all those who don't fit his impossible standards of virtue like Luz or Caleb).

An important aspect that Belos and Valentine have is that they both support colonialism:

At the time Valentine is president the native american population was being exterminated and Valentine does nothing to stop that. That it's so true that there are some natives like Sandman, who learns the culture of the Americans and signs up for the Steel Ball Run in hopes of winning the prize money to buy his people's land for the white men to leave them in peace.

Before Belos came, the people of the Boiling Islands were more connected with nature, they could use magic freely and they were kinder but when Belos comes and establishes his system, those who did things before Belos came are branded as wild witches and are imprisoned at best or petrified at worst, in addition to the fact that the inhabitants are more discriminatory and unsympathetic than before.

All of the above regarding the idealization of their flawed ideals is that Belos and Valentine refuse to change or at least have a reflection on these ideals because as I said before that gives them power and they justify it by saying that they are doing something good for their people and being the choosen ones to do that. The Owl House and Steel Ball Run waste no time in showing that all this makes Belos and Valentine had a feeling of colonialist white supremacist superiority.

It is most likely that Belos was taught as a young man that the Native Americans are savages and that the only ones who could "fix" said natives were colonists like him. At the time of Steel Ball Run, the Native American population is still being eradicated and their lands stolen, and it is most likely that Valentine has been taught the same thing as Belos regarding the "savage" natives. And even their plans consist of expanding this genocide with other cultures that don't adhere to their ideals of what a human/American should be like.

The aspect of colonialism reaches the point that Belos and Valentine use the corpse of a long-dead person praised by the land they rule (Jesus Christ and the Titan respectively) as part of their plans regarding their nation. They claim that they're chose them to carry out their actions.

When actually that's not true:

Luz and Johnny are selfish, immature and have a lot of traumas, contrary to how Belos and Valentine paint themselves but even so Jesus Christ and the Titan choose to help Luz and Johnny throughout their stories for the simple fact that Luz and Johnny choose to mature and improve as people which makes Luz and Johnny choose to accept the help while Belos and Valentine appropriate the bodies of the Titan and Jesus Christ as if they were their possessions and take the choosen one role by force and at the end of their stories they take literal possession of the Titan and Jesus Christ's bodies.

Also, Valentine and Belos have a disturbing fixation on two 14-year-old girls with similar names who ended up helping them without wanting it (Lucy Steel and Luz Noceda) and the fact that both girls have helped them makes Belos and Valentine see this as a sign that their actions are just and right. The way Belos and Valentine see Luz and Lucy is almost, if not completely, misogynistic as they relegate both girls to roles and treat them as objects that only serve to help Belos and Valentine and feed their delusions of white saviors,even both girls have powers from the aforementioned deities (Ticket to Ride/Love Train and the glyphs) that Valentine and Belos waste no time in appropriating and using them for their nefarious goals (again seeing the factor of forced appropriation by white colonialism).

Another thing that Valentine and Belos share is tha both use clones to achieve their goals (Valentine brings copies of himself and other people from other universes thanks to his stand D4C and Belos creates grimwalkers to help him) but they also use their knowledge/powers in an attempt to find a loved one who inspired them and who they miss dearly (Valentine tried to find an alternate version of his father from another universes but failed and Belos created grimwalkers because he misses Caleb and longs for human contact).

Although Belos and Valentine had presumptions of superiority, in the end they are defeated by Luz and Johnny who obtain greater power (Johnny gaining Tusk Act 4 after Gyro's death, and Luz gaining the Titan's power after her own death) and what they do is beg them to don't kill them.

Belos tries to appeal to the fact that he and Luz are human but she ignores him and let Eda, King and Raine from trampling on him.

Valentine tells his story to Johnny and he wants to believe in Valentine but still suspects the president and when his suspicions turned out to be correct, Johnny kills Valentine.

The failure to accept their deaths with dignity to the point of trying to manipulate the protagonists only shows how hypocritical and cowardly Belos and Valentine are because both believe that sacrifices are necessary and sacrifice others but are unable to admit that their ideals reached toxicity or that their plans are nefarious and that beyond doing it for their people, they did it for the pure personal satisfaction of being the heroes of their stories. Belos could at least try to understand the witches like Caleb and Luz did and could even accept Collector's kindness but he refused, Valentine could make America prosperous in other ways and improve the situation or quality of life of minorities who did need his help such as women, afroamericans or native americans, but Valentine refused.

All this shows that they don't want to help anyone and they just want to be the heroes of their story regardless of who they have to harm to do so. Just as the Titan said:

I think I'm not the only one who noticed this:

Seeing the copies of these characters is a reflection of their identity problems because basically if you saw them without knowing them you wouldn't know which one is the real one.

I don't know if you knew this but Araki in his book Manga in Theory and Practice, The Craft of Creating Manga said that Valentine is a coward.

When Araki says that Valentine is a coward, he doesn't mean that Valentine is not capable of fighting by himself because he has shown that he is capable of that and more. Araki means that Valentine uses innocent people and does horrible things for what he wants, this is selfish cowardice and his plan to redirect the misfortune of the United States to the rest of the world is the best example of this, because if Valentine had been successful with his plans, the United States would be Falconia 2.0 and the rest of the countries would be a total disaster and would have worse living conditions and those who have read Berserk will know how horrible the consequences of the creation of Falconia are for the other countries of the Berserk universe.

Hence Valentine's stand name, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, as he believes himself that the lives of others are cheap compared to his bigger picture of him, he is very cowardly. And stands represent the soul, and Love Train is a stand that gives only Valentine complete protection, emphasis on only him, while hurting other innocents, including US citizens that he claims to protect. Then blaming Gyro and Johnny for this, when it's not their fault, Valentine is just so deluded into thinking he could never do something wrong. Coward no matter what, a true villain.

Emperor Belos and Funny Valentine: The Lie and Toxicity of White Savior Complex

It may seem strange what I'm going to comment but Belos shares some similarities with Funny Valentine from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run in the sense that both are a satire of radicalized white supremacists, genocidal colonizers.

Even if we look at it from a historical point of view, Valentine's ideal (Americans superior to other cultures) is clearly the evolution of Belos's ideals for modern times (pure humans superior to native savages and heretics).

Both were heavily influenced by their upbringing, young Phillip being in an environment of anti-witch frenzy, while young Valentine was told from early on that above all else stands patriotism, that the only pure righteous action one can take is born from the love of one's country and they follow these ideals because a loved one inspired them (Caleb and Valentine's father) to the point that Belos and Valentine see it as a way to bond with said loved one as well as that they both feel that they should live by the ideals or values of their respective loved ones but as time goes by they genuinely believe in these values regardless of what Caleb or Valentine's father genuinely believed in those values so Belos and Valentine never question these values to the point of wanting and seeing themselves as heroes or marthyrs for what they think is a noble cause.

Beneath what appears to be a feeling of wanting to do good for their people lies a distorted feeling of love that they both have and firmly believe is normal and/or good:

Valentine sees his patriotism as an extension of love for family and friends and he becomes a soldier and later the president to protect the United States.

Belos became a witch hunter to fit in in Gravesfield and protect his family and town from witches and aspires to be Witch Hunter General.

This is because Belos and Valentine don't love Caleb and Valentine's father but love the idealized versions of them that they both had in their heads. Belos saw that Caleb left with Evelyn and believed that she manipulated him into abandoning him when clearly Caleb left of his own free will and was happy with her and Valentine never got to know his father, he only knew what others had said about him.

What I'm getting at with this is that at first they both followed their ideals because they believed they were doing something good, but as time went by those ideals were flawed (and most likely Caleb and Valentine's father knew it or at least they suspected it) but Belos and Valentine continued to cling to those ideals to a toxic degree because it gave them power, control, benefits and justification of their nefarious actions to the point of developing a desire for personal satisfaction of being remembered as heroes by showing that they are better than others for being the chosen ones (Valentine wanting to become the best and greatest president of the United States of America and Belos by wanting to become the best and greatest Witch Hunter General). This can be seen by the simple fact that they saw themselves as the chosen ones because they believe that they are the only ones that can save their people (Valentine sees himself as the only one who can take the corpse and bring prosperity and security to his country and Belos is seen as the only one who can protect humans from witches).

Later they both become politicians in order to achieve their goals:

Valentine wanted to use the saint corpse to bring good fortune to the United States at the cost of ruining other countries and total chaos and killing innocents and Belos wanted to protect humanity by committing genocide to the inhabitants of the Boiling Islands, except that Valentine became the president of the country he loved the most and Belos became the Emperor of the place he hated the most.

Belos and Valentine hurt their own citizens or fellow (fellow humans for Belos, fellow americans for Valentine) they claimed to protect and they manipulated everyone in the process thanks to their charisma, everyone admired and respected them to such an extent that they manipulated the protagonist at one point in the story and even manipulated the audience into believing that they are selfless heroes.

Valentine and Belos say they want to make things better for their respective nations but they follow an ideology that hurts the marginalized and don't seek to improve their situation (in Valentine's system black people are still treated as slaves and the natives continue to be massacred and their lands are stolen. The system Belos supports excludes all those who don't fit his impossible standards of virtue like Luz or Caleb).

An important aspect that Belos and Valentine have is that they both support colonialism:

At the time Valentine is president the native american population was being exterminated and Valentine does nothing to stop that. That it's so true that there are some natives like Sandman, who learns the culture of the Americans and signs up for the Steel Ball Run in hopes of winning the prize money to buy his people's land for the white men to leave them in peace.

Before Belos came, the people of the Boiling Islands were more connected with nature, they could use magic freely and they were kinder but when Belos comes and establishes his system, those who did things before Belos came are branded as wild witches and are imprisoned at best or petrified at worst, in addition to the fact that the inhabitants are more discriminatory and unsympathetic than before.

All of the above regarding the idealization of their flawed ideals is that Belos and Valentine refuse to change or at least have a reflection on these ideals because as I said before that gives them power and they justify it by saying that they are doing something good for their people and being the choosen ones to do that. The Owl House and Steel Ball Run waste no time in showing that all this makes Belos and Valentine had a feeling of colonialist white supremacist superiority.

It is most likely that Belos was taught as a young man that the Native Americans are savages and that the only ones who could "fix" said natives were colonists like him. At the time of Steel Ball Run, the Native American population is still being eradicated and their lands stolen, and it is most likely that Valentine has been taught the same thing as Belos regarding the "savage" natives. And even their plans consist of expanding this genocide with other cultures that don't adhere to their ideals of what a human/American should be like.

The aspect of colonialism reaches the point that Belos and Valentine use the corpse of a long-dead person praised by the land they rule (Jesus Christ and the Titan respectively) as part of their plans regarding their nation. They claim that they're chose them to carry out their actions.

When actually that's not true:

Luz and Johnny are selfish, immature and have a lot of traumas, contrary to how Belos and Valentine paint themselves but even so Jesus Christ and the Titan choose to help Luz and Johnny throughout their stories for the simple fact that Luz and Johnny choose to mature and improve as people which makes Luz and Johnny choose to accept the help while Belos and Valentine appropriate the bodies of the Titan and Jesus Christ as if they were their possessions and take the choosen one role by force and at the end of their stories they take literal possession of the Titan and Jesus Christ's bodies.

Also, Valentine and Belos have a disturbing fixation on two 14-year-old girls with similar names who ended up helping them without wanting it (Lucy Steel and Luz Noceda) and the fact that both girls have helped them makes Belos and Valentine see this as a sign that their actions are just and right. The way Belos and Valentine see Luz and Lucy is almost, if not completely, misogynistic as they relegate both girls to roles and treat them as objects that only serve to help Belos and Valentine and feed their delusions of white saviors,even both girls have powers from the aforementioned deities (Ticket to Ride/Love Train and the glyphs) that Valentine and Belos waste no time in appropriating and using them for their nefarious goals (again seeing the factor of forced appropriation by white colonialism).

Another thing that Valentine and Belos share is tha both use clones to achieve their goals (Valentine brings copies of himself and other people from other universes thanks to his stand D4C and Belos creates grimwalkers to help him) but they also use their knowledge/powers in an attempt to find a loved one who inspired them and who they miss dearly (Valentine tried to find an alternate version of his father from another universes but failed and Belos created grimwalkers because he misses Caleb and longs for human contact).

Although Belos and Valentine had presumptions of superiority, in the end they are defeated by Luz and Johnny who obtain greater power (Johnny gaining Tusk Act 4 after Gyro's death, and Luz gaining the Titan's power after her own death) and what they do is beg them to don't kill them.

Belos tries to appeal to the fact that he and Luz are human but she ignores him and let Eda, King and Raine from trampling on him.

Valentine tells his story to Johnny and he wants to believe in Valentine but still suspects the president and when his suspicions turned out to be correct, Johnny kills Valentine.

The failure to accept their deaths with dignity to the point of trying to manipulate the protagonists only shows how hypocritical and cowardly Belos and Valentine are because both believe that sacrifices are necessary and sacrifice others but are unable to admit that their ideals reached toxicity or that their plans are nefarious and that beyond doing it for their people, they did it for the pure personal satisfaction of being the heroes of their stories. Belos could at least try to understand the witches like Caleb and Luz did and could even accept Collector's kindness but he refused, Valentine could make America prosperous in other ways and improve the situation or quality of life of minorities who did need his help such as women, afroamericans or native americans, but Valentine refused.

All this shows that they don't want to help anyone and they just want to be the heroes of their story regardless of who they have to harm to do so. Just as the Titan said:

What makes the contrast that Johnny and Valentine have interesting is that both, because of their character development, do the opposite of what they think they are, Johnny becomes kinder and Valentine becomes more selfish.

Johnny sees himself as inferior to his brother Nicholas and as a selfish monster to the point that when he confronts Valentine, Johnny says that he is facing true justice and even genuinely believes that Valentine is a better person than him but for as Johnny matures, the manga shows us that Johnny always had goodness inside him:

- When he decides to leave the saint corpse to save Gyro.

- Johnny is drastic and obsessive when it comes to those who get in his way of getting the saint corpse but he will show surprising kindness to those who have nothing to do with the conflict.

- When he offers to take the girl from Sugar Mountain when he didn't know who she was.

- Johnny chooses to help Lucy Steel.

- When Valentine offers to bring him an alternate version of Gyro, Johnny tells him that if he could he would bring back all the other participants who died during the race.

Valentine sees himself as the chosen patriotic hero who will save America from disgrace, he believes his actions are just and right only for the manga to show us how cruel, selfish and cowardly Valentine really is:

- His plan to redirect America's misfortune to other countries would cause the world to be in ruin and chaos with the United States being the only safe place.

- He does nothing to improve the lives of the socially marginalized because during his mandate native americans are still being exterminated while their territories are illegally taken over (which is why Sandman participates in the race) and African-American people continue to be highly discriminated in society, they receive a lot of mistreatment at work and are paid a pittance so they live in poverty (which is why Pocoloco doesn't want to work and participates in the race).

- He tried to abuse Lucy Steel (a 14-old girl) even after discovering that she was not his wife Scarlet but was disguised as her.

- Valentine doesn't care about the lives of the citizens he claims to protect: he killed a train driver for no apparent reason, doesn't seem concerned when the Love Train ability kills american citizens, and tried to kill Johnny (a american citizen) after pleading with Johnny to free him from the infinity spin and swear to him that he wouldn't hurt him.

The people who support Belos remind me a lot of the people who support Funny Valentine justifying that everything he did was for the good of his country but they forget that his actions would affect the entire world and sooner or later the United States would have repercussions for Valentine's actions. Literally Valentine is a genocidal white colonizer in the sense that during the time in which he governs they continue to massacre the natives and steal their territory as seen in the story of Sandman and his plan is basically to expand this genocide in the rest of the countries. of the world to adhere to an ideal world led by the United States. Likewise, if Belos were to succeed and go to the Human World he would probably only expand that same genocide of the Boiling Islands into the Human Realm so that they would adhere to his ideal of what humans should be like.

Clearly Luz and Johnny are selfish but they mature, they improve as people, they are able to interact with people who do not adhere to what Belos and Valentine want (witches and foreigners) and they do not seek to harm others to maintain an ideology of supremacist entitlement like Belos and Valentine were doing.

Furthermore, Belos is the type of colonizer who loathes a culture, but also feels entitled to it and is pissed off when it doesn’t bend over backwards to his demands. He wanted the glyphs of the Titan but he refused to respect her and her people, her body, her customs, and opted to take it by force; A method needlessly more complicated, difficult, and arduous than just humbling himself and learning on someone else’s terms. 

So to see some people have the fucking gall to treat Belos’ seizure of what is essentially a native resource as some W over that mean and unsuccessful Titan, disparage Luz as ‘not working’ for the glyphs like he did (ignoring how this brown girl actually put in the work of adapting to another culture), and unironically praise his ‘protestant work ethic’ is just… racist! It’s racist!!! 

It’s buying into the conservative strong man myth that Belos got where he did ‘by the grit of his own teeth’, when really he lied to and cheated people who actually put in effort and suffered the consequences for him; He stood on people’s shoulders without consent and attributed their sacrifices as his own like so many American Dream capitalists, instead of appreciating and reciprocating others’ help the way Luz did. It’s buying into the idea that Belos’ atrocities can be overlooked for the sake of admiring how he ‘got things done’, because that’s just the price of success!!! Like I dunno maybe we shouldn’t even jokingly praise a character for being a colonizing thief, a swindling capitalist in all but name.

This reminds me of that time I saw someone’s Road to El Dorado AU where Philip plays the role of one of the white Spanish dudes. Like are you fucking for real. You saw a genocidal white colonizer who impersonates a local religion he has no real understanding over to manipulate the natives for his own selfish ends and you actually said, “Okay but what if we treated it as a cute and good thing this time? What if we treated his blatant disinterest in everything that isn’t seizing the natives’ resources as a teehee trait???” I don’t care if Philip is chill and doesn’t murder people in this version of events. Y’all are just being lowkey, if not outright, racist. 

Belos is an effective satire of right-wing conservatives and radicalized white supremacists, genocidal colonizers who bastardize and appropriate cultures, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” success stories, entitled abusers with all their excuses, and Christian self-flagellation and savior complexes. Dana based him off of televangelists, cult leaders, and her own conservative relatives. And yet so many people willingly ignore the whole point of Belos’ narrative and themes to reduce him to just “Caleb’s moody brother” or some sadboi victim of religious trauma, as if Philip didn't willingly embrace Puritan ideology regardless of whatever drawbacks it may have had, because it ultimately promised superiority…

And with the AUs that strip Belos of everything that makes him Belos for the sake of some feel-good story that undermines the show’s themes and does his victims dirty, that isn’t even an alternate version that’s just a completely different, made-up guy with none of the depth. How he's going to learn his lesson in a redemption fic if the first thing the writer does is undo the curse to restore Philip's White Man status that he so obsessively clung onto, and lost for that very reason? How is he going to learn his lesson if the writer can't seem to properly comprehend what exactly he did wrong and the actual reasons for it???

I think I'm not the only one who noticed this:

Seeing the copies of these characters is a reflection of their identity problems because basically if you saw them without knowing them you wouldn't know which one is the real one.

So, their journeys end up contrasting one another. In supporting Jo2uke what Yasuho wants really is an escape from her life that’s just kind of bad. For her it’s a journey of escapism which is why she goes from a pretty regular world into a fantastic one. She goes from a normal person to suddenly acquiring a stand as the situation needs it. She is Jo2uke’s link to normalcy but what she wants is something extraordinary to distract her from her bad bad life.

Complementing what you said, I want to add how Yasuho's stand, Paisley Park, fits quite well with this.

To begin with, Paisley Park is a stand that functions as a guide for Yasuho, representing how she is dedicated to guiding others because deep down she never had a guide in her life and she wants someone to guide her to escape from her bad life.

On the other hand, the name of Yasuho's stand is based on the song Paisley Park by Prince and The Revolution which is about people with feelings of sadness due to personal issues who go to a utopian place called Paisley Park to resolve their problems and feel good and happy in their hearts despite the bad things that happen in the world.

The stand Paisley Park not only represents how Yasuho escaped her problems by being Jo2uke's guide but also represents how she manages to solve her problems and become happier thanks to her bond with Jo2uke.

Yasuho literally found her Paisley Park (Jo2uke).

What is your view on Yasuho and Jojo?

I love both of them! They’re probably my favorite duo pair to lead a Jojo part! Overall as well. Yasuho is one of the most useful recurring characters, especially since her stand is google maps themed. Not only does it really come in handy in pinch situations in always creative ways, but it’s also really on point thematic wise too. 

Yasuho was basically the first thing Jo2uke latched onto after waking up with no memories. Despite their being several reasons to be suspicious of him, Yasuho never lost faith in Jo2uke in their first few days together and it ended up being really formative for Jo2uke the entire adventure. That way in a meta sense she really is his guiding force. Not only in the sense that she usually plays support and directs him where to go during his investigations because he has no memory and little common sensibility for the outside world, but in a world where he can’t really trust anything and everything around him is literally gone mad Yasuho being straightforward and reliable really makes her his map and sense of direction. He can always count on Yasuho to guide him and because of that he can keep moving forward. 

I also like the element of subversion in the relationship too, it’s not that pure hearted and straight forward on Yasuho’s part. In a way not only has the blank slate that is Jo2uke lathed onto Yasuho for a guiding force and sense of identity, but Yasuho latches onto Jo2uke to give her something to focus on to avoid her own issues. It’s been hinted in the story for a long time that Yasuho’s home situation is a bit messed up which is why she spends most of her time away from it. Not only that, but considering that her only friend before this was basically a creep who could not take no for an answer it’s also safe to say she did not have much in way of friends either.

So, their journeys end up contrasting one another. In supporting Jo2uke what Yasuho wants really is an escape from her life that’s just kind of bad. For her it’s a journey of escapism which is why she goes from a pretty regular world into a fantastic one. She goes from a normal person to suddenly acquiring a stand as the situation needs it. She is Jo2uke’s link to normalcy but what she wants is something extraordinary to distract her from her bad bad life.

Whereas Jo2uke was already born into an extraordinary world. From the moment he was born he was already a stand user, already being thrust into weird situations, and already had a weird body that was just a fusion of two other people. However, what Jo2uke desires is a normal reason to fight. He wants to help Kira’s mother because he wants that purpose and place of belonging that Kira had. When he realizes he’s missing, has no sense of identty and nobody is looking for him it literally breaks his heart so he just wants to have a something.

Which is also why the cover images I showed above are facing in opposite directions, because Yasuho and Jo2uke are looking for opposite things while running towards each other. I think the choice to make their relationship one of the central focuses of the manga is great, as well as the choice to constantly deconstruct it. The reason they spend a lot of time apart but are constantly searching for each other is that same reason, because they’re not quite as aligned as they think they are. They’re still looking for different things in one another. 

A lot of the obstacles challenge their relationship. Especially the most recent part where Jo2uke has to overcome his protective instinct to always put Yasuho over the greater objective. 

I think their both really well written characters and their dynamic is a great thing to watch unfold over the entire manga!

I don't know if you knew this but Araki in his book Manga in Theory and Practice, The Craft of Creating Manga said that Valentine is a coward.

When Araki says that Valentine is a coward, he doesn't mean that Valentine is not capable of fighting by himself because he has shown that he is capable of that and more. Araki means that Valentine uses innocent people and does horrible things for what he wants, this is selfish cowardice and his plan to redirect the misfortune of the United States to the rest of the world is the best example of this, because if Valentine had been successful with his plans, the United States would be Falconia 2.0 and the rest of the countries would be a total disaster and would have worse living conditions and those who have read Berserk will know how horrible the consequences of the creation of Falconia are for the other countries of the Berserk universe.

Hence Valentine's stand name, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, as he believes himself that the lives of others are cheap compared to his bigger picture of him, he is very cowardly. And stands represent the soul, and Love Train is a stand that gives only Valentine complete protection, emphasis on only him, while hurting other innocents, including US citizens that he claims to protect. Then blaming Gyro and Johnny for this, when it's not their fault, Valentine is just so deluded into thinking he could never do something wrong. Coward no matter what, a true villain.

What makes the contrast that Johnny and Valentine have interesting is that both, because of their character development, do the opposite of what they think they are, Johnny becomes kinder and Valentine becomes more selfish.

Johnny sees himself as inferior to his brother Nicholas and as a selfish monster to the point that when he confronts Valentine, Johnny says that he is facing true justice and even genuinely believes that Valentine is a better person than him but for as Johnny matures, the manga shows us that Johnny always had goodness inside him:

- When he decides to leave the saint corpse to save Gyro.

- Johnny is drastic and obsessive when it comes to those who get in his way of getting the saint corpse but he will show surprising kindness to those who have nothing to do with the conflict.

- When he offers to take the girl from Sugar Mountain when he didn't know who she was.

- Johnny chooses to help Lucy Steel.

- When Valentine offers to bring him an alternate version of Gyro, Johnny tells him that if he could he would bring back all the other participants who died during the race.

Valentine sees himself as the chosen patriotic hero who will save America from disgrace, he believes his actions are just and right only for the manga to show us how cruel, selfish and cowardly Valentine really is:

- His plan to redirect America's misfortune to other countries would cause the world to be in ruin and chaos with the United States being the only safe place.

- He does nothing to improve the lives of the socially marginalized because during his mandate native americans are still being exterminated while their territories are illegally taken over (which is why Sandman participates in the race) and African-American people continue to be highly discriminated in society, they receive a lot of mistreatment at work and are paid a pittance so they live in poverty (which is why Pocoloco doesn't want to work and participates in the race).

- He tried to abuse Lucy Steel (a 14-old girl) even after discovering that she was not his wife Scarlet but was disguised as her.

- Valentine doesn't care about the lives of the citizens he claims to protect: he killed a train driver for no apparent reason, doesn't seem concerned when the Love Train ability kills american citizens, and tried to kill Johnny (a american citizen) after pleading with Johnny to free him from the infinity spin and swear to him that he wouldn't hurt him.

The people who support Belos remind me a lot of the people who support Funny Valentine justifying that everything he did was for the good of his country but they forget that his actions would affect the entire world and sooner or later the United States would have repercussions for Valentine's actions. Literally Valentine is a genocidal white colonizer in the sense that during the time in which he governs they continue to massacre the natives and steal their territory as seen in the story of Sandman and his plan is basically to expand this genocide in the rest of the countries. of the world to adhere to an ideal world led by the United States. Likewise, if Belos were to succeed and go to the Human World he would probably only expand that same genocide of the Boiling Islands into the Human Realm so that they would adhere to his ideal of what humans should be like.

Clearly Luz and Johnny are selfish but they mature, they improve as people, they are able to interact with people who do not adhere to what Belos and Valentine want (witches and foreigners) and they do not seek to harm others to maintain an ideology of supremacist entitlement like Belos and Valentine were doing.

Furthermore, Belos is the type of colonizer who loathes a culture, but also feels entitled to it and is pissed off when it doesn’t bend over backwards to his demands. He wanted the glyphs of the Titan but he refused to respect her and her people, her body, her customs, and opted to take it by force; A method needlessly more complicated, difficult, and arduous than just humbling himself and learning on someone else’s terms. 

So to see some people have the fucking gall to treat Belos’ seizure of what is essentially a native resource as some W over that mean and unsuccessful Titan, disparage Luz as ‘not working’ for the glyphs like he did (ignoring how this brown girl actually put in the work of adapting to another culture), and unironically praise his ‘protestant work ethic’ is just… racist! It’s racist!!! 

It’s buying into the conservative strong man myth that Belos got where he did ‘by the grit of his own teeth’, when really he lied to and cheated people who actually put in effort and suffered the consequences for him; He stood on people’s shoulders without consent and attributed their sacrifices as his own like so many American Dream capitalists, instead of appreciating and reciprocating others’ help the way Luz did. It’s buying into the idea that Belos’ atrocities can be overlooked for the sake of admiring how he ‘got things done’, because that’s just the price of success!!! Like I dunno maybe we shouldn’t even jokingly praise a character for being a colonizing thief, a swindling capitalist in all but name.

This reminds me of that time I saw someone’s Road to El Dorado AU where Philip plays the role of one of the white Spanish dudes. Like are you fucking for real. You saw a genocidal white colonizer who impersonates a local religion he has no real understanding over to manipulate the natives for his own selfish ends and you actually said, “Okay but what if we treated it as a cute and good thing this time? What if we treated his blatant disinterest in everything that isn’t seizing the natives’ resources as a teehee trait???” I don’t care if Philip is chill and doesn’t murder people in this version of events. Y’all are just being lowkey, if not outright, racist. 

Belos is an effective satire of right-wing conservatives and radicalized white supremacists, genocidal colonizers who bastardize and appropriate cultures, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” success stories, entitled abusers with all their excuses, and Christian self-flagellation and savior complexes. Dana based him off of televangelists, cult leaders, and her own conservative relatives. And yet so many people willingly ignore the whole point of Belos’ narrative and themes to reduce him to just “Caleb’s moody brother” or some sadboi victim of religious trauma, as if Philip didn't willingly embrace Puritan ideology regardless of whatever drawbacks it may have had, because it ultimately promised superiority…

And with the AUs that strip Belos of everything that makes him Belos for the sake of some feel-good story that undermines the show’s themes and does his victims dirty, that isn’t even an alternate version that’s just a completely different, made-up guy with none of the depth. How he's going to learn his lesson in a redemption fic if the first thing the writer does is undo the curse to restore Philip's White Man status that he so obsessively clung onto, and lost for that very reason? How is he going to learn his lesson if the writer can't seem to properly comprehend what exactly he did wrong and the actual reasons for it???

So, their journeys end up contrasting one another. In supporting Jo2uke what Yasuho wants really is an escape from her life that’s just kind of bad. For her it’s a journey of escapism which is why she goes from a pretty regular world into a fantastic one. She goes from a normal person to suddenly acquiring a stand as the situation needs it. She is Jo2uke’s link to normalcy but what she wants is something extraordinary to distract her from her bad bad life.

Complementing what you said, I want to add how Yasuho's stand, Paisley Park, fits quite well with this.

To begin with, Paisley Park is a stand that functions as a guide for Yasuho, representing how she is dedicated to guiding others because deep down she never had a guide in her life and she wants someone to guide her to escape from her bad life.

On the other hand, the name of Yasuho's stand is based on the song Paisley Park by Prince and The Revolution which is about people with feelings of sadness due to personal issues who go to a utopian place called Paisley Park to resolve their problems and feel good and happy in their hearts despite the bad things that happen in the world.

The stand Paisley Park not only represents how Yasuho escaped her problems by being Jo2uke's guide but also represents how she manages to solve her problems and become happier thanks to her bond with Jo2uke.

Yasuho literally found her Paisley Park (Jo2uke).

What is your view on Yasuho and Jojo?

I love both of them! They’re probably my favorite duo pair to lead a Jojo part! Overall as well. Yasuho is one of the most useful recurring characters, especially since her stand is google maps themed. Not only does it really come in handy in pinch situations in always creative ways, but it’s also really on point thematic wise too. 

Yasuho was basically the first thing Jo2uke latched onto after waking up with no memories. Despite their being several reasons to be suspicious of him, Yasuho never lost faith in Jo2uke in their first few days together and it ended up being really formative for Jo2uke the entire adventure. That way in a meta sense she really is his guiding force. Not only in the sense that she usually plays support and directs him where to go during his investigations because he has no memory and little common sensibility for the outside world, but in a world where he can’t really trust anything and everything around him is literally gone mad Yasuho being straightforward and reliable really makes her his map and sense of direction. He can always count on Yasuho to guide him and because of that he can keep moving forward. 

I also like the element of subversion in the relationship too, it’s not that pure hearted and straight forward on Yasuho’s part. In a way not only has the blank slate that is Jo2uke lathed onto Yasuho for a guiding force and sense of identity, but Yasuho latches onto Jo2uke to give her something to focus on to avoid her own issues. It’s been hinted in the story for a long time that Yasuho’s home situation is a bit messed up which is why she spends most of her time away from it. Not only that, but considering that her only friend before this was basically a creep who could not take no for an answer it’s also safe to say she did not have much in way of friends either.

So, their journeys end up contrasting one another. In supporting Jo2uke what Yasuho wants really is an escape from her life that’s just kind of bad. For her it’s a journey of escapism which is why she goes from a pretty regular world into a fantastic one. She goes from a normal person to suddenly acquiring a stand as the situation needs it. She is Jo2uke’s link to normalcy but what she wants is something extraordinary to distract her from her bad bad life.

Whereas Jo2uke was already born into an extraordinary world. From the moment he was born he was already a stand user, already being thrust into weird situations, and already had a weird body that was just a fusion of two other people. However, what Jo2uke desires is a normal reason to fight. He wants to help Kira’s mother because he wants that purpose and place of belonging that Kira had. When he realizes he’s missing, has no sense of identty and nobody is looking for him it literally breaks his heart so he just wants to have a something.

Which is also why the cover images I showed above are facing in opposite directions, because Yasuho and Jo2uke are looking for opposite things while running towards each other. I think the choice to make their relationship one of the central focuses of the manga is great, as well as the choice to constantly deconstruct it. The reason they spend a lot of time apart but are constantly searching for each other is that same reason, because they’re not quite as aligned as they think they are. They’re still looking for different things in one another. 

A lot of the obstacles challenge their relationship. Especially the most recent part where Jo2uke has to overcome his protective instinct to always put Yasuho over the greater objective. 

I think their both really well written characters and their dynamic is a great thing to watch unfold over the entire manga!

Sam’s Guide to Making Batshit Crazy Araki-esque Fan Stands

Are you in need of a few stands? Want to do something to pay a little homage to the original material, or figure out a way to spice up your fan stands after exhausting a long, long lineup of cool original designs and powers?

Well, you’re in luck, because I believe I’ve cracked the code on how to come up with stands that have powers that’ll make it fun (and maybe even a little challenging!) to write! So for me, this is what I do

The trick is this: Treat every stand like a conspiracy theory. 

When you come up with powers, find the weirdest leaps of logic you can possibly take and then just fucking go with it, no holds barred. 

I’ll go ahead and break it down into steps while using my fan stand Moneytalks (a vending machine that starts a life or death stock market game) as an example:

1. Find a reasonable start point. 

If you’re doing something based on a tarot card, looking at the meaning of the card helps, or if you’re basing it off of an existing power, looking at the mechanics of that might help as well. For Moneytalks, I used the Four of Pentacles card, a card in the minor deck of the arcana most associated with Earth, material possessions, and wealth, as my starting point. 

2. Figure out what you want the stand to reflect (doesn’t necessarily have to be positive)

Have your start point, and figure out what aspect of it you’re going to keep intact to carry throughout the process of creating the stand. It can be a narrative purpose that you need that particular stand for, it can be that you want it to reflect character growth in its stand user, it can be that you want it to do the antithesis of what the start point represents or any number of things.

For Moneytalks, I wanted the stand to represent the idea of struggling with and learning how to manage wealth when you’re in a secure position, as the Four of Pentacles card represents a time when you are financially stable. The card represents the struggle to decide whether to spend all your wealth or to hoard it, and the idea of finding a happy medium. This in turn reflects a bit on the stand user, but we’ll come back to that later

3. Start brainstorming connections. 

Even the absolute loosest ones you can think of. Even if it’s only tangentially related. Figure out two words or phrases that become the central theme of your stand, and start spitballing the exact first things that come to mind, even if they’re only very very very very vaguely related. For Moneytalks, the thought process went something like this:

how to gain and lose wealth -> money -> corporations -> betting -> betting ON corporations -> sneaky corporations want in on the betting -> stocks -> stock market

wealth in relation to others -> products -> selling products -> products i want right now -> oh fuck the shell is closed rn -> soda -> mountain dew -> oh wait there’s a vending machine downstairs -> V E N D I N G  M A C H I N E

4. Start connecting the dots

Your stand’s powers are a giant conspiracy and you’re about to unearth it. Start connecting those two dots- figure out how the two points you arrive at connect together to get the inner workings and design of your stand. Having a general idea of what the stand user oc is like will also help, but it’s not entirely necessary if you want the stand to be completely independent from the user

For Moneytalks, since the stand user is a teenage girl, I started thinking- okay, she’s not old enough to be really involved in the market, and likely has more experience through simulations and games. Games. Games need pieces, which means it needs people. For the stand Moneytalks to activate, there must be at least twenty people present (sans stand user). Why are there so many people? What do they get as chips in this game? Probably goods of some kind. Likely goods that come from a vending machine, equally distributed out. 

The goods represent Stocks, which means the players of Moneytalks’ game have to buy and trade each other’s stocks, with powerups becoming available for the price of stocks from the stand user, who sells back the stocks she amasses. Once someone has a monopoly on every stock, the stand user can confiscate it and toss it off of, say, a plane, forcing the winner to go after it and die. 

Tl;dr of step 4: The Vending Machine Is The Stock Market and It Becomes A Life Or Death Game Where the One With the Monopoly Must Go Overboard with the Company (the deed to the Vending Machine aka the deed to the Stock Market)

5. Behold Your Horrific, Strange Creature and/or Item And Rejoice

The Stand. You Are The Creator. It Is You. Congratulations!!

For some more reference in case you need some more slightly wild ideas, I’ll go ahead and link my masterpost of my own Pentacles Deck fanstands here

Just as a parting note: this entire process isn’t at all set in stone, and you may find your own sort of style to making crazier sorts of fan stands yourself! In the end, it’s whatever works best for you, and whatever will be more fun!

Still, the best of luck to you all!