i think phantom blood would've been even better if it'd really doubled down on the whole classism thing instead of relegating it to a background thing... like social class was of huuuuuuge importance in victorian england and very little was done w it

a lot of the way it was represented was just really bad too like upholding the joestars as some paragon of Morality just bc they are Rich and have an established bloodline vs the blatant villainization of a character who is rightfully angry about having lived in poverty & whose-

anger about it is their driving motivation. like just contrast the way we're meant to see dio vs the way we're meant to see speedwagon. they both come from backgrounds of poverty but Dio Bad bc he's angry about it and Speedwagon Good bc he is a bootlicker

i think it would've been very interesting to see jonathan reflect on how a lot of dio's animosity towards him came from the circumstances he had to deal w. bc yeah it is incredibly frustrating and UNFAIR how ur entire life could be completely different-

simply because of what family you're born into. dio sees himself as more worthy of money and power bc he suffered so much being born into poverty and what did jonathan do to earn any of this??? he was simply just born into it and didnt EARN any of it

does that mean that all of the awful shit dio did to jonathan was in any way justified?? absolutely not but i think a lot of people like to act like dio had 0 motivation behind his actions except for "him evil" which isn't true at all

and i don't think that jonathan acknowledging dio's background would have ever caused dio to have a change of heart but it still would've been very interesting to see them have that conversation, to see jonathan acknowledge ANY of dio's pain at ALL-

bc he's a very empathetic character even towards those who don't deserve it. just feels like a massive missed opportunity

u thought i was done w this thread but wait theres more. i also think it would've been great to see jonathan have like... any remorse about using the mention of dario to manipulate dio like that was fucked up of him tbh LMAO

it just seems like massively out of character for jonathan to do that WITHOUT feeling bad about it?!?! like again dio does not deserve jonathan's pity after literally RUINING HIS ENTIRE LIFE but also if ur going to establish a character-

as being empathetic and morally just then GIVE ME REASONS TO BELIEVE IT? dio would use trauma to emotionally manipulate jonathan w/o a moment's hesitation or remorse LIKE /SHOW/ ME THAT JONATHAN IS A BETTER PERSON RATHER THAN JUST TELLING ME

there were so so many opportunities for araki to flesh out jonathan more and he didnt and im angry about it