Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: 10 Most Confusing Stands, Explained (2024)

Hirohiko Araki's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is categorically a work of art: a genre-defining shōnen/seinen whose wide net has captured influences like high fashion, classical statuary, hair metal, and theoretical physics. Since part 3, Stardust Crusaders, battles are fought with Stands, unique manifestations of the user's energy. Hurting a Stand hurts its user, and generally only Stand users can see other Stands. However, those without Stands can still be affected by them.

Unfortunately, like many good works of art, it's not always easy to know what the artist intends. Other times, it's perfectly clear, but what they intend doesn't make sense — the possible fault of both the writer and the reader. These Stands are complex, and they're responsible for more questions and plothole accusations than any others.

10 Made in Heaven (Part 6: Stone Ocean)

Pucci's Complex Stand Demands Strict Requirements.

Made in Heavenbrings an end to the original Jojo's Bizarre Adventure universe. Pucci's initial stand, Whitesnake, evolves into C-MOON after Pucci fuses with the Green Baby. A careful ritual prescribed by DIO transforms C-MOON into Made in Heaven, with universal control over gravity alongside impeccable speed. Gravity figures into Made in Heaven's time manipulation, drastically accelerating everything except for biological processes. His intent is to reach a singularity point, "Heaven", where fate is written subconsciously in the souls of all who survived the acceleration.

A major question about Made in Heaven is how DIO discovered its ritual. Despite many fan theories, it's never been officially explained. Others wonder about the fate of characters like Josuke. From Araki's description, they'd be in the same universe as Emporio, unless they died before or during time acceleration. Finally, people wonder whether Steel Ball Run's universe is Pucci's new universe. The JOJOLands did fuel speculation by introducing a carbon copy of Diamond is Unbreakable's Rohan Kishibe, but the question hasn't been definitively answered.

9 Chariot Requiem (Part 5: Vento Aureo)

The Requiem Form of Polnareff's Chariot Has an Intimidating List of Powers.

After Polnareff desperately pierces Silver Chariot with a Stand Arrow, it becomes Chariot Requiem: an autonomous Stand visible to non-Stand users, with immense strength and durability. The arrow reacted to Polnareff's immediate desire to keep it from Diavolo, making Chariot Requiem's entire mission to protect it. Most importantly, Chariot Requiem has power over souls, swapping the souls of living creatures indiscriminately. Stands are attached to the souls of their users, so they move too, becoming stronger and sometimes turning against them.

The Stand is almost invincible, and will only grow stronger. It has a weakness, though. Diavolo notices that Chariot Requiem's shadow follows him. He intuits that the shadow is the soul of the observer. Since the shadow is always in front of Chariot Requiem, he determines there must be a psychic light source behind his head manifesting it. Once Diavolo destroys the light, Chariot Requiem is defeated.

8 Bohemian Rhapsody (Part 6: Stone Ocean)

An Unsettling Sequence Bends the Rules of Fiction.

Bohemian Rhapsody takes fictional characters out of media and brings them to life (creating a potential copyright nightmare for Jojo) with their power relative to the creativity that went into the original work. When someone meets a character they like, their soul is extracted from their body (as seen with Anasui above) and forced to live the character’s role. Since it’s already been written, the soul cannot change the story or retaliate against the character.

This extraction is almost imperceptible to the body, which continues to act normally. Bohemian Rhapsody itself doesn't have a body; it's a global phenomenon with no center, making it difficult to fight it and impossible to find its user. The stand is only defeated when Weather Report and Van Gogh collaborate to create a fictional character whose purpose is to put the other characters back in their stories.

7 Wonder of U (Part 8: Jojolion)

The Disguise-Donning Final Boss of Part 8 is Hard to Understand.

Wonder of U is a sentient stand and a manifestation of the "natural law of calamity." It disguises itself as a human called Satoru Akefu, director of TG Hospital, and brings calamity to anybody who looks at its human form's back. It can reactivate this power when pursuing a threat. Calamity is misfortune contingent on a target's actions and whereabouts. Wonder of U can infuse calamity into objects too, and also summon a kind of rock insect called Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.

When not targeted, calamity is karmically proportionate: better-behaved people suffer less. Calamity can also be ruthless and brutal. It targets those who pursue it and Toru, and in so doing, protects Toru's Locacaca Organization. Since it's the manifestation of a natural law, Wonder of U stays until defeated, even if Toru dies. Josuke eventually discovers that the only way to beat the Stand is to beat calamity itself with Soft & Wet: Go Beyond, bubbles that don't technically exist and aren't tethered by natural laws.

6 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Part 7: Steel Ball Run)

Funny Valentine's Dimension-Hopping Can Be Overwhelming.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (D4C) is a dialogue with multiverse ideas first emerging in Stone Ocean, allowing Funny Valentine to dimension hop. He does so by closing himself between two objects, creating a portal. Whenever badly injured, he can swap himself out with the Funny Valentine of another dimension and transfer his Stand to the new one. He can also summon Standless copies of himself for combat.

After Lucy integrates the Corpse Parts, D4C is supported by Love Train, an ability tethered to Lucy's body. It provides Funny Valentine with a parallel dimension bounded by vertical light rays. There, any misfortune is redirected. Attempts to hurt Valentine become a punishment for someone else on Earth. Only things capable of crossing dimensions, like Gyro's Ball Breaker, are able to defeat Valentine.

5 King Crimson (Part 5: Vento Aureo)

A Notoriously Complicated Stand Deletes Time.

Diavolo’s King Crimson is the butt of jokes in the JoJo community thanks to an early translation rendering it incomprehensible. King Crimson is intuitive, though. Start by imagining three points in linear time: A, B, and C. Given starting point A and endpoint C, King Crimson works with what happens in B. King Crimson is capable of making it like B never happened to anyone except itself and its user.

In this way, it erases time, and everyone else goes straight from A to C. Meanwhile, because this time is treated as a void yet he knows the chain of events that would have happened (visualized through its sub-power, called Epitaph), it's easy to set up a retaliatory blow during the erased time. It's worth noting, though, that during this (non-)time, King Crimson can't interact with anything.

4 Hermit Purple (Part 3: Stardust Crusaders)

This Underappreciated Stand Has Seemingly No Limits.

It’s strange to place Hermit Purple, seemingly one of the simplest Stands, just after King Crimson, the Platonic Ideal of “Confusing JoJo Stand.” In Hermit Purple’s case, it isn't confusing in terms of what it can do, but what it can't. As a support, Hermit Purple is limitless, capable of divining any worldly information and hijacking technology of all kinds. On one occasion, it's used to draw a map in the sand; on another, it overrides a failing plane's systems.

It’s also more physically useful than it gets credit for: it can become a rope for climbs and descents, coil around enemies, and conduct Hamon - very noteworthy if one looks at Hamon's potential in Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency. If Joseph had kept up his Hamon, Hermit Purple could have been physically devastating. Hermit Purple is already the subject of "Araki forgot" scrutiny over when it's used or not. Clearly defined limits or rules would have gone a long way towards narrative coherence.

3 Burning Down the House (Part 6: Stone Ocean)

Emporio's Ghost Powers Require Some Explanation.

Burning Down the House is a pivotal Stand in Stone Ocean. Several rooms burned up long ago in Green Dolphin Prison, and Emporio is able to use the ghosts of things that were burned. This includes the ghost of a music room, accessed by an entrance only visible to Stand users.

This room is where Emporio lives in secret. This room is not only where the main gang of Stone Ocean gather and organize, but where Emporio traps Pucci in the middle of the universe reset, interrupting Made in Heaven using Weather Report's Stand DISC. This prevents the singularity and stamps out Pucci's Heaven.

2 Weather Report / Heavy Weather (Part 6: Stone Ocean)

Stone Ocean's Weirdest Power Is All About Snails (?)

Weather Report's Stand powers are limited to fine-grained control of the weather and the atmosphere. Although it looks like many distinct powers, their diversity mostly arises from the creative use of basic weather principles, like the protective cloud suit in chapter #44. The confusion mostly arises after Donatello Versus unearths and returns his memories. A newly misanthropic Weather Report then unconsciously activates Heavy Weather, an automatic ability that manipulates the ozone layer.

Heavy Weather is a sterling example of how Araki creatively combines diverging ideas, but for some, it's so strange it doesn't click. By changing the refraction angle of solar rays, it makes rainbows. Touching the rainbows causes living creatures to subliminally perceive themselves as snails and transform their bodies irreversibly. Snails asexually reproduce, and the snail count fast grows into an existential threat. The Stand only abates when Weather Report is killed by Pucci, reverting those who had only partially transformed.

1 Gold Experience Requiem (Part 5: Vento Aureo)

Giorno Giovanna's Life-Giving Stand, Upgraded for Brutality.

The fifth JoJo gains overwhelming power after his Stand is pierced by the Stand Arrow, becoming the strongest Jojo. In addition to greater strength and speed, the Stand gains the ability Revert to Zero, which nullifies any actions directed against Giorno. This is famously used to defeat Diavolo by putting him in a death loop, a major point of confusion. There's no official confirmation of the death loop mechanics. However, context provides one explanation that could line up with the body/soul mechanics already explored with Bucciarati, Chariot Requiem, and Polnareff earlier in the part.

In Golden Wind chapters #148 and #149, it’s repeated that Diavolo will never return to “reality” or experience the “truth of death." Therefore, it’s doubtful that the dying scenarios really happen. It’s possible that, instead, Revert to Zero traps Diavolo’s soul in his erased time outside reality to infinitely experience dying, while his physical body is killed by Giorno. His soul outside time could be the life Trish senses, and also plausibly be unaffected by his bodily death. Ultimately, though, this is only one interpretation of an opaque scenario.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Created by

Hirohiko Araki

TV Show(s)

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Character(s)

Will A. Zeppeli , Jonathan Joestar , Giorno Giovanna , Jotaro Kujo , Joseph Joestar , Jolyne Cujoh , Johnny Joestar , Josuke Higashikata , Gyro Zeppeli

Video Game(s)

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure , JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R