JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 9 - The JOJOLands - Ch. 24 - Dolphin Bank's Debt Collection Part 3

Active member
Joined
Jun 22, 2019
Messages
38
So unlike other JoJo main villains (and we don't really know if he's the main villain yet) Howler is kind of a pushover and very emotionally compromised.

It'd be super rad if we get to see that he gets to grow as a menacing villain too.
 
Joined
Sep 19, 2024
Messages
7
the mafia got mentioned again... i definitely think they're going to play a big role this part. also, did jodio use his november rain to stoke the fire with the electrical circuits? that's what i thought happened but it didn't show up and i think howler would've said something. he could've used it inside the wall i guess.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Jan 22, 2018
Messages
707
Everything we've read so far has indicated that Dragona is willing to deal with Jodio's level of half-understanding acceptance rather than trying to have that conversation with him and risk rejection. Not that Jodio would do that, but that's my guess at what's going on here. Araki is leaving some things as subtext or unspoken for now. One thing which underlines Jodio's continued density is that Dragona uses a female first-person pronoun (atashi) in the original Japanese from the first chapter on, something that doesn't translate into English.

I think Jodio genuinely believed Dragona was in danger here and misread her fear of getting killed for having the lava rock as the fear of being exposed. He's always trying to protect her in his flawed way, even his stand reflects that.

Howler is already becoming one of my favorite Jojo's villains, a spoiled himbo whose only two powers are willingness to use extreme violence to solve problems and a Stand that is only slightly more powerful than a stock app on a mobile phone. My expectation is that his violent tactics will significantly escalate in response to being cornered like this, though at what scale is yet to be seen.
i thought the 'detecting the money flow' is just his knowledge as lava rock owner and his stand ability is something else entirely
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Sep 9, 2024
Messages
342
I predict that Howler still wouldn't sign the paper, and they ended up doing it even more roundabout
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Messages
4,042
So unlike other JoJo main villains (and we don't really know if he's the main villain yet) Howler is kind of a pushover and very emotionally compromised.

It'd be super rad if we get to see that he gets to grow as a menacing villain too.
I wouldn't be surprised if he's just not the main villain, tbh. I don't think we've had a main villain shown as early as Howler was since like, parts 1/2/3.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Feb 13, 2018
Messages
790
Uh oh Paco, you just got backstoried. Nice knowing ya.
 
Double-page supporter
Joined
Apr 14, 2019
Messages
311
The bank manager looking like Joshu and the private servants of the yacht dressing like marine sailors really is making me want to see Josefumi in this Part. Even if only in a Jotaro part 4 way, except that he shouldn't steal the scene and final victory like he did.
 
Aggregator gang
Joined
Jul 11, 2020
Messages
85
Under US law any contract signed under duress is null and void, and Howler has witnesses that the bank is saying Howler will lose everything unless he signs the papers. (Though Howler will probably go to jail for possession of counterfeit bills, assault, threats of violence, attempted manslaughter, and attempted bribery if this ever went to an actual court)
If this hypothetically was a real offer by the bank, and not a scam by the gang, I feel like the bank would have a halfway decent defense in that it's not them threatening him economically, it's the government.

To prove duress, Howler would have to prove he had the (reasonable) expectation that the bank itself would do something to him if he refused to sign, but technically they wouldn't do anything, just abandon him to his fate and attempt to salvage what they could after the government seized his assets.

The bribe attempt and the gunshots would also definitely not help his case that he was the one being threatened.
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2023
Messages
1
So unlike other JoJo main villains (and we don't really know if he's the main villain yet) Howler is kind of a pushover and very emotionally compromised.

It'd be super rad if we get to see that he gets to grow as a menacing villain too.
I think Howler will be secondary antagonist, the main antagonist is someone with more power and control like someone from his family.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Oct 25, 2018
Messages
71
If this hypothetically was a real offer by the bank, and not a scam by the gang, I feel like the bank would have a halfway decent defense in that it's not them threatening him economically, it's the government.

To prove duress, Howler would have to prove he had the (reasonable) expectation that the bank itself would do something to him if he refused to sign, but technically they wouldn't do anything, just abandon him to his fate and attempt to salvage what they could after the government seized his assets.

The bribe attempt and the gunshots would also definitely not help his case that he was the one being threatened.
There's a difference between "We the bank believe the police will seize this land in the near future so sign this and they won't do that" and "The police are here right now and are going to seize your land so you have to sign right this instant". It only became duress this chapter because charming man tried again to get him to sign it before the police showed up.
EDIT: Also the duress clause exists so people like the jojogang can't pull this stunt. There's an expectation that the signer has enough time to read through the contract and ask for clarification and confirm it says what the other party says it does. Ideally a signer would be able to catch their switcheroo before signing. Whether the signer takes advantage of that is up to the signer, if Howler signed before this chapter then legally he would be fucked as it's his responsibility to fully read what he signed.
 
Last edited:
Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2021
Messages
97
Everything we've read so far has indicated that Dragona is willing to deal with Jodio's level of half-understanding acceptance rather than trying to have that conversation with him and risk rejection. Not that Jodio would do that, but that's my guess at what's going on here. Araki is leaving some things as subtext or unspoken for now.
Personally, I don't have the more direct knowledge that comes with being able to read JP and the raw scans, but from what I've seen at least from the way the story was presented thus far, there's a lot more wiggle room in how Dragona's gender can be interpreted.

It could be where they're a trans woman and Jodio simply doesn't know the extent of how his sibling feels about their gender and body, where he honestly does believe it's all about his "brother" being "feminine". Like it was all "oh I just think these clothes would look cute on me", "oh I just like it for the aesthetic" as teenagers and they haven't had any kind of larger conversation about ~gender~ yet. So they'll need to have an extensive talk with him about it later. (I'm leaning towards this personally, but it's quite a bit too soon to call, I'm guessing.)

Or even like you imply, that Jodio hasn't accepted that part of them yet, and misgenders them not out of malice or anything but because he struggles with the concept of his brother becoming his sister, and their extensive talk will be skewed in a slightly different direction than in the prior example.

OR, as signaled by Dragona not correcting anyone's pronoun usage, they might simply not want to apply any labels and prefer to live the way they are where they have physical traits of both sexes and are ok with any perceived gender and pronoun.

OR Dragona themself will go through an arc about exploring their gender because it'll turn out that they haven't decided yet if they see themself as a woman, a feminine man, or someone in between in some way. That they haven't corrected anyone because they simply don't know what they prefer or what feels right.

I honestly could anticipate any of these becoming the plot concerning them, assuming Dragona doesn't die for Jodio's growth or something dated like that.

OR maybe it's all like Jodio says, and Dragona is effectively a crossdressing man - just one that passes really well and for some reason went as far as to get breasts. Not an option that I'm a fan of, but it's one that's still technically there.

So yeah, that's how discourse around them has been going because of no direct first-person confirmation so far of how they see themself: it all feels up in the air, and no one knows what pronoun to use! :p

I can tell it's very much deliberate because this is effectively just the start of a long-form story setting the groundwork for the characters and we're just getting around to some rising action, but yeah discourse until this is tackled later will be fuuuuuunnnnnn..........
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Top