As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Let's face it. We're all crying, too.
Given that Stone Ocean is the Grand Finale of the original continuity, of course there's going to be tears had knowing that it's all coming to an end. However, Part 6 decides to take the extra step in making its audience break down in tears not out of sentimentality, but by being absolutely heartbreaking from beginning to end, more than any JoJo part prior, and the results are something to behold.
- Jolyne had a truly tough childhood. Her father was absent for completely justified reasons, but it left severe emotional scars due to his work as both a marine biologist as well as dealing with enemy Stand Users, forcing him to leave his wife and daughter alone. He was never there for her even when she was ill, got into trouble, etc., with the jail visit being the first in a long time.
- The anime adds an additional moment where he had an obvious stand-in agent be around, highlighting how distant Jotaro was.
- Even when he was there, Jotaro's unflappable, silent, and reserved demeanor that treats everyone with distant professionalism at this point—which usually was seen as a trait that allowed him to keep under pressure and be a leading force for others to follow behind—is utterly deconstructed. His lack of showing emotions in a conventional manner led to him appearing utterly apathetic and even cold to Jolyne who initially wanted him to support her, but gradually turned to utterly rejecting him with disdain. If it weren't for Pucci's intervention, it's very likely Jolyne would've distanced herself from Jotaro even further.
- It's not helped that Jolyne was expecting her mother to show up in the visitation room, but got her father- the last person she was expecting.
- This
fanmade comic illustrates the aforementioned event of Jotaro not being around when Jolyne was sick, from the perspective of Jolyne and her mother. Even if Jotaro had perfectly good reasons to not come home, it's still heartbreaking for both of them.
- After the catchy "I Want You" by Savage Garden, the sensual "Freek'n You" by Jodeci, and the dramatic "Modern Crusaders" by Enigma, the choice for the potential first ending of the Stone Ocean anime, "Distant Dreamer" by Duffy, is a profound, yet somber and melancholy-sounding piece, which manages to capture the truly Bittersweet Ending of the part and the initial continuity.
- Jotaro having his Stand/Memory discs taken by Whitesnake, uttering to Jolyne that he always treasured her. Something she always wanted to hear, but done in the most traumatic of circumstances.
- What follows is Jolyne dragging her long-lost father to the shore with the intention on escaping the prison island together. However, Whitesnake taking Jotaro's discs means he has lost his vital signs for the time being and just when he was about to reunite with his estranged daughter. This is especially upsetting to watch in the anime adaptation where Jolyne tries her best to revive Jotaro and fails complete with sad music and Fairouz Ai or Kira Buckland unleashing a gut-wrenching Skyward Scream. And this is just the fifth episode, meaning that it's a red flag for what's to come for anime-only fans... and a cruel reminder for manga readers of things not necessarily taking a step forward in later arcs.
- Ermes' past which is expanded upon in the anime to show how she was raised from a young age by her sister, Gloria taking on the role of mother after their own mother passed away and how Ermes planned on going to college rather than inheriting the responsibilities of the family restaurant. When Gloria goes after her, she stumbles into seeing one of the mafia killings committed by Sports Maxx. When he spots Ermes, Gloria distracts him and is later killed for it, and even when he is sent to jail, it's for a minor offense that he'd be released, getting away with the murder. The revelation causes their father to die out of despair, leaving Ermes no reason for living outside of revenge and an intense implied sense of guilt for her inadvertent action in destroying what remained of her family.
- The fact that the last thing Ermes ever said to Gloria was for her to stop acting like she was their mother.
- When she finally puts down Sports Maxx for good, the anime added a moment when a ghostly Gloria hugs Ermes from behind before finally passing on, giving a sense of closure to her past.
- F.F.'s death, sacrificing themself to save Anasui and Jotaro's Memory disc.F.F.: Look at me, Jolyne. This is my spirit. This is my intellect. I was alive.
Jolyne: I'm going to get your disc back from the priest! Your Foo Fighters disc! Then you can come back!
F.F.: But that will probably be another Foo Fighters. It probably won't be me. This is me. This is me saying goodbye.- Especially hard to take when you realize Stone Ocean's ending makes sure they won't come back because it was Pucci who gave their life in the first place.
- The anime expands on this with Emporio telling Ermes about F.F's death, with the latter pouring them a cup of water outside as posthumous respect as F.F always needed large amounts of water to survive.
- While Donatello is an unrepentant Jerkass willing to usurp Pucci to take control over the Heaven plan and more than willing to have children be collateral damage for his plan, his past is surprisingly tragic. His home-life was filled with abuse and his life was ruined when he was hit by a pair of shoes from a celebrity land on him while he was walking home, leading to him being accused of theft in spite of not being guilty of the crime and sent to prison where he almost died. His entire life was tormented by events outside of his control and becomes no surprise that he builds resentment and anger.
- His brother, Rikiel's life is heavily implied to not have been better as his Stand's subconscious use leading to him suffering afflictions that hindered his confidence for all of his life. With Pucci's aid removing that crippling condition boosted his confidence to be a more self-assured man grateful for the aid and killing the heroes as a way to repay it, even though that said aid was to be a throw-away pawn to defeat/stall the heroes. And for it to be the highlight to his existence to be of some use at all to anyone, is very pitiful indeed.
- Weather Report's death at Pucci's hands, something that would've ended the conflict had Versus not crashed the car due to Weather's own stand, giving to give the Big Bad a chance to kill the latter. Everyone's thoughts on the matter do not help.Ermes: (shaking) Jolyne... the wind's stopped.
Jolyne: It can't be... was it because we crashed the car? Because I came here? [...] Weather... Just one more time... I want to talk to you one more time... in the breeze... I want to be able to speak to you.
Anasui: Weather came back to life when he left that prison. I can tell. So don't think too deeply about what happened to him. These past few days, Weather was happy. Weather was already saved. - The entire climax of the part, the Darkest Hour of the entire JoJo universe, with Pucci causing the apocalypse via Made In Heaven and killing almost every remaining protagonist, including Jotaro and Jolyne.
- Anasui plans to sacrifice himself so Jotaro can land a hit on Pucci. F.F. dying for him clearly resonated with him. When he mentions the plan to the group, he also jokingly mentions marrying Jolyne again to Emporio... until Jolyne finally agrees to, seeing that he's changed for the better, and that his plan has hope... Not that it matters, since Pucci uses the woman he loves to kill him from a distance.
- Anasui's death is practically tragic as as this previously crazed murderer who dismantled his former girlfriend and her fling for petty reasons, tried his best to improve in the faint hope of being noticed by Jolyne, going as far as trying to get her father's blessing to maybe marry her. Only for him to die before anything meaningful could happen, and in a spitefully ironic way by Pucci on top of it. Thankfully, his incarnated self in the new universe is implied to have the romantic relationship that the original lacked, though at the cost of being not exactly being the same person the fans grew to know.
- Jotaro has a chance at killing Pucci... until he notices knives falling toward Jolyne. He moves her out of the way, but it takes just enough time for the time stop to end. He tried to save his daughter and kill Pucci, and ended up failing at both. Not only that, but the last thing he sees before dying is Jolyne getting hit by knives, so he ends up dying knowing that he failed. And just as the cherry on top, the method of his death (having his face sliced open) is exactly how Boingo and Thoth predicted he'd die all the way back in Part 3. It may have taken about thirty years to catch up, but Thoth's predictions are always 100% accurate.
- It's made even worse in the anime, since it added another line to serve as his last words. What are they?
"Jo... lyne..."- His death is especially sad due to his Papa Wolf desires to protect Jolyne having spent the latter half of his life keeping Jolyne away from the danger of his fate of a Joestar that she would also inherit if she got involved, by isolating himself from her for her entire life to keep her safe- only for that isolation and abandonment issues to be the exact reason why she's put in danger, as her abandonment issues from that decision to be distant leads to a series of events that she becomes a delinquent with parental issues, and eventually, an unwitting pawn to be exploited by his enemies though the alternative of her being around his crusade against evil isn't a pleasing outcome either. His attempts at making up for the lost time lead to him being comatose for the majority of the part for protecting her and his death at the hands of Pucci to protect her again, is rendered meaningless as she dies soon after. It paints the invincible Jotaro in a vulnerable and human light, seeing any potential of having a stable relationship be squandered by Pucci. Thankfully, the reset has their incarnated selves having an implied better relationship, but not exactly being the same people that the fans had come to know.
- Much like in Vento Aureo when we had to say farewell to Silver Chariot, we're forced to do it again here with Star Platinum. The iconic invincible Stand that struck fear into the hearts of any enemy, the one that destroyed Dio, pummeled Kira, Steely Dan, Forever, Zii Zii, Nukesaku, among countless others, and helped Jotaro get through seemingly insurmountable odds? It's nothing but a memory now.
- Ermes futilely tries to attack Pucci. Tries. In one fell swoop, Jotaro's face and Ermes' arms get sliced off by Pucci.
- Jolyne's death, where she smiles at Emporio before standing up to Pucci one last time as he closes in. Then a page and a half later, you see her getting ripped apart like tissue paper by Pucci's stand as Emporio breaks down in tears. All that remains is her stand's sunglasses, which quickly disintegrate under accelerated time as a colony of butterflies flutter off.
- The Joestar deaths are especially saddening as it's the first time since Jonathan that a Joestar died during their Part, when they normally survive beyond the end after suffering some close calls, with the initial assumption that both would survive with the majority of their allies dying or at worse, Jotaro pulling a Heroic Sacrifice to allow Jolyne to get the win. Instead, the previously unstoppable Jotaro who had managed to overcome impossible odds, to die brutally and suddenly with his daughter, a young woman who managed to build up the skills and confidence to be an impressive force of good for future allies, be snuffed out with ease by Pucci. It really hammers in how hopeless the situation has become when the main heroes die with the only one left being a kid whose Stand isn't even combat-oriented facing what is essentially a Physical God at this point, and the tragedy of the seemingly invincible family finally dying. Due to Josuke and Giorno being not involved in the current situation as well as Joseph being too old to fight, as far as anyone knew, the lineage of the Joestars would've ended in a bitterly tragic manner if not for the reset bringing them back, but though not entirely as the people the fans came to know- due to being different people with different experiences shaping their outlooks.
- Emporio witnessing all this, seeing all of his friends die. It gets worse as he tries to shoot Pucci several times, and when Jolyne sacrifices herself, it dawns on him that he's the only one left to stop the nigh unbeatable Pucci.
- Jotaro and Jolyne's deaths get even worse when one learns that Joseph Joestar is still alive in 2012. If not for the Reset Button that revived them, he'd have outlived his own grandson and great-granddaughter.
- Not to mention that without said Reset Button, Joseph (and Polnareff if you count having his soul trapped in a turtle) would have been the Sole Survivor of the Stardust Crusaders, outliving all of them despite being the oldest.
- Anasui plans to sacrifice himself so Jotaro can land a hit on Pucci. F.F. dying for him clearly resonated with him. When he mentions the plan to the group, he also jokingly mentions marrying Jolyne again to Emporio... until Jolyne finally agrees to, seeing that he's changed for the better, and that his plan has hope... Not that it matters, since Pucci uses the woman he loves to kill him from a distance.
- Even if he's the villain and kills almost everyone in the climax, Pucci's backstory is pretty tragic - things go catastrophically wrong not for just him, but two other characters, on an almost Shakespearean level. A woman's baby is stillborn, and as her child was the only bit of hope she had left in her life, she stole one of a pair of twin brothers to take his place. Those brothers were Pucci and Weather, the latter of which unknowingly ended up in a relationship with his sister, Perla. Pucci attempts to break them up indirectly (due to having learned the truth from the woman's confession at church), but the detective he hired in the process turns out to have ties to a hate group that goes after Weather and Perla for being a mixed-race couple. Perla kills herself, believing Weather to have died from the beating, but he hasn't - and his powers prevent him from taking his own life. It's no wonder all that lead Pucci to believe You Can't Fight Fate.
- While his actions using Made In Heaven caused the deaths of almost the entire main cast and countless inadvertent deaths via the speeding of the universe had his death well-deserved at the hands of Emporio with the Stand, Weather Report- both of which, had every reason to hate him. It's still tragic for a formerly good-natured young man whose life was ruined by events outside of his control, manipulated into evil by a monstrous vampire, forced to live the fact that he inadvertently caused his sister's death through a lack of oversight for his actions, and his well-intentioned desire to better the lives of others being irreparably destroyed by the hands of his victims, to then be Retgone from existence. Unlike previous main villains who were monstrous from birth and had their demises coming in cathartic and well-deserved fates, Pucci was someone who could've been a better man to guide others positively under different circumstances and that potential was forever lost due to unexpected tragedy and corruption dooming him to his demise for attempting to help others in a misguided way, causing him to a jaded manipulator. The only positive is the small hope that his twin Weather Report and his sister, Perla didn't suffer the same fate as in the original universe- leading to a roundabout manner to give the latter happiness, even if he isn't there to see it.
- The Bittersweet Ending itself. Pucci dies and his soul is left in the collapsing Made In Heaven-verse, and the resulting universe has Part 6 erased from the main continuity, allowing the main cast to survive and lead much happier lives (especially Jotaro and Jolyne, who have a better bond thanks to Pucci no longer existing to send DIO's followers after the former)... but as a consequence of time being reset, the bond and experience shared between the rest of the main cast members is erased, leaving Emporio to bear the trauma of Part 6 alone as his friends are unable to remember him. Emporio's friends are alive—but in a way, most of them are only in biology and basic personalitynote . While it's definitely not as bittersweet as it could have been, there's still some tears to be had.
- Hit hard with Emporio crying at seeing his friends, now having forgotten the events of the part, which now serves as the page image.Emporio: It's Emporio... E-Emporio. That's what you can call me. If you wanted to know, my name's Emporio!
- This hits even more in the anime, but what could make this scene even more heartbreaking? You add the season's ending theme, "Distant Dreamer", to said scene. Everything described above about the somber tone of this song can be felt in this one final scene.
- Hit hard with Emporio crying at seeing his friends, now having forgotten the events of the part, which now serves as the page image.
- Even after the universe itself resets to give the Joestars and their friends a happy ending, there is still one casualty — Foo Fighters. Because F.F. was only made sentient by Pucci, Pucci's erasure causes their erasure, and F.F. is not present with the others when they reunite with Emporio (Jotaro isn't present either, but his daughter mentions that they're going to meet him, proving that he's at least still alive). The Loss of Identity inflicted on the main cast is sad, but at least they survived — F.F. doesn't even get that much.
- Jolyne's post-Reset Button name change to Irene symbolizes that there's no need for another JoJo, making it the most stark reminder that the main continuity has no more adventures to be held. Pucci is now Ret-Gone, meaning that in this rebooted universe DIO's influence ended back in 1989, when Jotaro obliterated the vampire with Star Platinum. There will always be Stand users to fight, but the most powerful of them have been dealt with. While this is a happy ending in many ways (the most obvious being that Jotaro, Jolyne, and the rest of the Joestars can finally live a happy life after over 100 years of fighting), it's also bittersweet in that all their bizarre adventures are at an end.
- Even taking into account the different branches of the Joestar bloodline, Josuke and Giorno don't have much to continue from either. Sure, they're not affected by Pucci's erasure, given they never met him or DIO and weren't killed by Made In Heaven, but the End of an Era applies just as much to them as it does to the main branch. Josuke was born before DIO's death but didn't become involved in the world of Stands until after DIO's death, making him the least connected to the long Joestar-DIO war, and while Giorno is DIO's legacy made flesh, his rigid adherence to the nobility of the Joestar Bloodline means that the last of DIO's evil has been purged. With Josuke now a protector of Morioh and Giorno having access to the overpowered Gold Experience Requiem, Stand users on par with Yoshikage Kira and Diavolo will never be able to rise again. The closest we have to a proper continuation of DIO's legacy is his three sons other than Giorno—but considering that they only awakened their Stands from the now-Ret-Gone Pucci, even this seems to be a dead end (and assuming they do awaken their Stands even without Pucci, Jotaro would likely have them dead to rights as soon as he found out). For the Joestars, the moniker of "JoJo" is now nothing more than an Artifact Name, a mere homage to their glory days.
- Assuming Jotaro retains his memories of Parts 3-4 in the rebooted universe, he'll still have to live with the trauma of losing his friends one-by-one in the fight with DIO, as well as whatever trauma he got by hunting down Yoshikage Kira. The universe has finally given him and his daughter a normal life, but one has to wonder if he can even enjoy it after all he's been through. The alternative isn't any better, and is arguably worse—if he doesn't remember Parts 3-4, then how much of Jotaro as we know him was saved after the reboot?
- The final ending theme of Stone Ocean, and the final ending theme for this era of JoJo as a whole. After 10 long years of fans bearing witness to the 6-part saga chronicling the Joestars' battle against DIO's lingering legacy fully animated, there could be no ending more fitting and symbolic for the universe coming full circle than going back to where it all began, all the way back to when Phantom Blood first started airing. Ladies and gentlemen, one last "Roundabout".
