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Final boss battles in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure are often criticized part-by-part for relying on convenient plot developments, but a thread on 5ch’s “Nanidemo Jikkyo G” board sparked a broader debate after someone claimed “only Parts 4 and 6 had a boss fight that actually made sense.” Posters pointed out that Part 1 never truly defeats DIO, Part 2 wins mainly thanks to the power of nature, and Part 3’s sudden ability for a Stand to stop time feels like it comes out of nowhere — while many praised Part 6’s structure, where Emporio, who inherits Pucci’s fate, is the one who finally settles things. The thread also drifted into side debates about how Joseph is rated and how Stand awakening actually works, which kept the replies coming.
What people said
Part 1: Never actually defeated him
Part 2: Won by luck
I think Part 6 beats the final boss within the actual rules of the Stand's power. Though it's still a fair question how Emporio managed to insert the disc, since fate is supposedly fixed and can't be changed.
Pucci's side had some pretty wild convenient developments of its own, honestly.
Wasn't Pucci the only one who could actually change fate? He's the one who had the disc inserted into him.
He got too hyped up and let his real self slip out — he figured he'd basically already won.
Maybe that scene is just the best outcome after trying it over and over outside the main story (fans theorize it's a reset loop).
Exactly. I think it's a beautiful ending — the DIO-vs-Jonathan feud that started back in Part 1 finally gets settled not by blood relatives, but by two unrelated people who each inherited someone else's will.
That's as sloppy a plot hole as Light's victory speech in Death Note.
With Death Note's Light, though, it was established early on that his personality is to taunt back whenever he's taunted — like how he provoked L in a way only L would understand, right as L was dying.
Well, Kars is genuinely immortal, so that was really the only option.
A Stand is sometimes called a "ghostly Ripple" (a spin-off of Hamon/Ripple energy), so maybe it would actually work on them.
The part where Straizo breathes his last using Ripple technique and kills himself is great.
There are just too many "invincible-type" ability users to begin with — a lot of them feel like, if you cleverly get around their limits and conditions and set the right trap, you could beat them one-on-one, whether it's Sensui, Raizen, or even final-form Kars.
But from there, Jotaro being able to move within stopped time and eventually stop time himself — that part's definitely convenient.
Climbing the oil-covered pillar wasn't for building physical strength, it was Ripple training. People who can produce a Stand naturally from birth (or via the bow and arrow) don't need that kind of training.
There was that line about them being "the same type of Stand!" which I guess counts as foreshadowing, though I thought that just meant close-range types. Also, I wasn't a fan of how Jotaro could move in DIO's stopped world but it never worked the other way around — DIO just stayed frozen.
It's said Stand abilities are determined by the body (DNA), and that stopping time is an ability that manifests (sometimes) specifically in the Joestar bloodline.
Always going for the 3rd-place trophy shows he could never fully hide his need for recognition.
That's part of what makes Kira so human, even though he's a serial killer.
The Joestar family's Stand is that crappy weak crane-looking thing, right?
Joseph used Ripple constantly from a young age, so it's said his Stand manifested as a materialization of that Ripple energy. Maybe, actually, someone who knows nothing about Ripple at all is more likely to manifest a powerful Stand shaped by their own tastes, desires, and subconscious?
Someone desperate to win at gambling gets a gambling-specialized Stand, a guy who loves guns gets a gun Stand, and someone who secretly fears the Joestar family as an arch-enemy gets an unbeatable, combat-specialized Stand.
So Joseph was secretly a peeping-Tom pervert who hid it well…? 🤔
Holly's Stand (even though she couldn't control it) was also that crane, and DIO manifested the crane too — that one's really Jonathan's Stand.
Given Joseph's personality, wasn't it probably that he lashed out emotionally at something and just happened to produce spirit photography by accident? He must've been freaked out the first time his Stand activated.
At some point he could suddenly project live footage from inside a body or draw maps with it. In Part 4 he even tried using it to search for a boulder — it does way too much for how lame it seemed at first.
Part 6, which was basically a pile of convenient developments, was boring as hell, so it evens out.
Fair enough — I'm not saying convenient plot developments are inherently bad.
I wish we'd gotten more actual fight scenes from Lisa Lisa — it felt too little, too late when she finally took on Wired Beck or whatever his name was.
But I think a lot of people do like Part 2 Joseph.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure began serialization in 1987 and is known for swapping out its protagonist and ability system with each new part. Final boss fights in shonen manga are an easy target for criticism over “last-minute convenient plot developments,” and this thread follows that pattern. Opinions were especially split over Parts 3 and 4: some argued Part 3 isn’t really “convenient” since Kakyoin and Avdol work step by step to uncover the enemy’s true identity, while others questioned how Jotaro’s Stand ability to stop time came about in the first place. Kira’s declaration of his own name in Part 4 also drew mixed readings — some called it “a slip caused by overconfidence,” others saw it as “the best outcome of repeated attempts outside the main story.” Note that the explanations of Stand-awakening mechanics discussed here aren’t confirmed by the original work — they’re fan theories and speculation.
*This article was compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nanidemo Jikkyo G) thread “Honestly, weren’t Parts 4 and 6 the only ones with a final boss beaten in a way that actually made sense in JoJo?.”
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