JoJo’s Part 5 Episode 34

JoJo’s Part 5 Episode 34

The Requiem Quietly Plays, Part 1

Today’s episode of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind marks the final episode for which I know a spoiler in the part. I’ve actually known about Polnareff’s upgraded stand, Silver Chariot Requiem from the start, and now it has finally been officially revealed.

I suppose I technically know one more spoiler, but it’s basically something anyone could guess at this point, so it doesn’t count. That said, I still won’t mention it just in case. Since I don’t actually know how this part ends, perhaps the small piece of information I have actually does play some sort of role.

But anyway, requiem stands! I’ll be discussing this concept more in a later section of the episode, but at this point we know very little about them. We know that they’re created by piercing an already established stand with one of the stand arrows, but not much more than that.

Since Chariot Requiem is the only requiem stand that we know of so far, everything we know about them comes from it. A sample size of one doesn’t really give us a good idea of the big picture. The way Polnareff’s explanation was phrased, it almost seems like every requiem stand would gain the same abilities, but that just sounds wrong for the series.

Ever since stands were introduced, and to an extent even before, individuality has played an important role in the series. Yes, over the different parts there have been people with similar stand abilities, such as Holhorse and Mista, but none that actually have the same abilities.

And, as I typed that sentence I actually remembered that DIO and Jotaro do have the same exact abilities, so I guess there is precedent for that after all. But Star Platinum’s sudden ability to freeze time just like The World always felt like more of a Deus ex Machina to me than its actual ability, so I won’t count that.

Mismatched Souls

The first hint of a new ability for Chariot Requiem comes when everyone in the Colosseum begins to fall asleep. We see this start with Diavolo, who was the closest in proximity to Chariot Requiem, and the last to go is Giorno.

He was probably the final one because he’s the protagonist, but the argument could be made that his stand somewhat lessened the effects. Since Golden Wind’s ability is essentially to give things energy, it would make sense for it to help Giorno resist sleepiness a bit better than the rest of the JoBros.

What happens next, however, doesn’t really make any sense to me. Everyone who was put to sleep by Chariot Requiem wakes up a few hours later with their soul swapped with the person who was nearest to them. First of all, why? Second of all, they didn’t swap with whoever was nearest to them, so there’s a plot hole.

Jean Pierre Polnareff's soul inside the turtle from the anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind
Jean Pierre Polnareff’s soul inside the turtle

The soul swaps went something like this: Giorno and Narancia, Mista and Trish, Polnareff and the turtle, and Buccellati and Diavolo(?). Polnareff wasn’t anywhere near the turtle, and Buccellati wasn’t anywhere near Diavolo, so these don’t make sense. In fact, Polnareff and Diavolo should have swapped.

But, whatever. The point is that everyone has their souls swapped with someone else, and this effect extends beyond the Colosseum to everyone who was put to sleep by Chariot Requiem. Now the question becomes, “why?” What does this swapping of souls actually accomplish for Chariot Requiem?

As far as I can tell, nothing. It would be one thing if it either made it so stand users couldn’t use their stands, or made them use the unfamiliar stand of the person they swapped with, but instead it actually does something even more bizarre. It enhances the stands of those who have had their souls swapped!

Now Mista’s Sex Pistols are even more accurate and powerful, Narancia’s Aerosmith is faster than ever before, and we can assume the rest of the JoBros’ stands are upgraded as well. Why this would be the case is anyone’s guess.

Chariot Requiem

So let’s talk about Chariot Requiem itself. The first thing you may have noticed is that it no longer really resembles the original Silver Chariot. Instead, it has a much darker color and almost reminds me of a cowboy mixed with a Robin Hood type character rather than the knight it was originally designed after.

Polnareff also reveals that Chariot Requiem has “gone berserk” and is essentially an autonomous stand at this point. Even though he’s technically already dead, his stand is still able to function and he’s unable to control it in any way.

However, we don’t actually know what its abilities are. We know it put everyone to sleep and swapped their souls, but they’re awake now, so was that the extent of its abilities? Can it put them all back to sleep again on command? We simply don’t know.

What we do know is how to defeat it.

Silver Chariot Requiem from the anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind
Silver Chariot Requiem

Polnareff explains that Silver Chariot became Chariot Requiem once before, which is when he first discovered requiem stands. He felt that something was wrong and quickly took the stand arrow away from Chariot Requiem, and this made it revert back to normal.

So all the JoBros have to do is take the stand arrow from Chariot Requiem and it should be defeated. Since Polnareff is already dead, it won’t be able to revert back to a regular stand and should disappear instead. The only thing is, I’m not so sure that it’s that easy.

If taking the stand arrow away from Chariot Requiem was enough to defeat it, shouldn’t it have been defeated from the very start when Diavolo was in possession of the arrow? Even though it didn’t have the arrow, Chariot Requiem was still alive and moving around. Maybe this was just another plot hole.

I’m interested to see what other abilities Chariot Requiem ends up having. Polnareff mentioned that requiem stands theoretically have the power of mind control, so does this mean they would all have this ability? Also, are all of them autonomous? And do all of them need to be holding a stand arrow to be active? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Buccellati and Diavolo

Finally we get to the mystery of who exactly Bruno Buccellati swapped souls with. We still don’t yet know whose soul is inside of his body, but we did learn that his soul is inside of Diavolo’s body. So does this simply mean that Diavolo is in Buccellati’s body?

I don’t think it’s that cut and dry. Remember, the boss has two distinct personalities, so what if each one of them has their own distinct soul? I think this is actually the case, and that would definitely change things up.

Remember, Trish is able to recognize Diavolo’s soul because it’s similar to her own. However, Doppio’s soul doesn’t seem to be. In order to trick Buccellati in the previous episode, Diavolo mentions that he masked Doppio in his own soul so that Buccellati would think he was Trish.

This implies that Diavolo and Doppio are more than just two personalities, but actually two different people. The JoBros also are told that the boss is two different people by Polnareff in this episode, but I don’t think that any of them, including Polnareff, know that they share the same body yet.

My prediction is this, since Trish doesn’t sense Diavolo’s soul before his body with Buccellati’s soul in it shows up, it must not be his soul in Buccellati’s body. Instead, Doppio’s soul is in Buccellati’s body and Buccellati is sharing Diavolo’s body with Diavolo himself.

This would be a pretty interesting development, because since Buccellati is already technically dead anyway, killing Diavolo while his soul is in his body wouldn’t really be doing anything to Buccellati that isn’t going to happen anyway. He’s dead either way, so at least he can sacrifice himself to help defeat Diavolo.

I’m also interested to see if Doppio actually helps the JoBros take down Diavolo once he’s split off from him and in a different body. Perhaps Doppio is actually the final JoBro to be introduced in this part. Of course, it’s also possible that there is no soul in Buccellati’s body at all.

Remember, Polnareff is already dead, so we can assume that the turtle’s soul isn’t in his body. The same might be true for Buccellati. Since he’s technically already dead, it’s possible that no soul was swapped into his body.

Conclusion

As a final note, it was never actually revealed how Polnareff survived his first encounter with Diavolo. Instead this is just glossed over, and I think that’s something which should really be addressed. According to GuardianTempest in the comments last week, this is explained in the manga, so I don’t see why it was skipped here.

But what did you think of this week’s episode of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind? And what are your thoughts on requiem stands, and Chariot Requiem in particular? Personally I don’t think they’re necessary, but I guess Araki wanted to change things up.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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