In “Warrior of the Wind,” Joseph and Lisa Lisa’s fight to keep the Aja stone out of Kars’s hands continues. Wham and Kars both reveal the truths about themselves as these fights develop.
In “The Ties that Bind Jojo,” Joseph makes his own attempt to keep the stone out of Kars’ hands and tries to keep Lisa Lisa alive. We also get a fuller look at Lisa Lisa’s Secret past.
1. The 12,000 Old Man
Wham proves himself to be more then just a true warrior in his fight with JoJo, he proves himself to be a true to his convictions and has respect for those that can actually best him fairly. From the very start, he’s shown only the desire to find warriors to test himself fairly against. He did it with Caesar, refusing to kill him outright in their first meeting, and later accepted a challenge from Jojo that presented a similar possibility. He even says that in losing, he was able to witness the success of Joseph and was pleased even in defeat. He’s not a hero, but there is a nobility to his actions. Looking back, Joseph could have taken the antidote for Wham’s poison episodes ago but he showed a similar respect for their bargain in waiting until his win over the 12,000 year old warrior. The final scenes with Wham maintain that impression of a proud warrior. His story arc delivered the noble, honorable warrior story that he attempted with Bruford in the first arc. He succeeds in giving us a complex, complicated character that is worth mourning and feeling a little conflicted about liking. Wham’s actions make him noble where Kars’s actions tend more to condemn him.
2. Victory is all that matters
Kars is a polar opposite of his servant Wham. Whereas Wham is motivated by honor and his words, Kars is only motivated by his desires and will let nothing deter him, including his own word. This is as true in the present as it is in the flashback cued by his loss to Joseph. Kars proves himself to be the type that sees the ends justifying any means. This is shown clearly in the flashback to Wham’s early days with Kars; he sees murder where Kars sees pragmatism. He sees ending a possible future threat as the right thing regardless of the age of the supposed threat. Wham does not say it, but it’s an attitude that would be unethical from his honorable point of view. They are both predators but one of the in in reality a despoiler. He essentially cheats in the fight with Lisa Lisa, creating a duplicate to distract her from his real intent and attack. Its a trick, but not the respectable crafty type that Joseph is so fond of.
3. Crafty Little Creatures or an unconventional cavalry
Just as it looks like both Lisa Lisa and Joseph are worn out and likely doomed, a super unlikely calvary arrives lead by old enemies and friends. Old man Speedwagon accompanied by Smokey and the yet again rebuilt Stroheim lead a bunch of of all things Nazi soldiers armed with ultra violet weapons to turn the tide. It’s likely nothing more then a brief annoyance for a Kars, but it’s kind of the end of his assembled vampire army. It’s a timely arrival for Joseph, as it gives him a breather as he’s got to now aid Lisa Lisa. Her loss was only due to not realizing that Kars was nothing like his followers and had no intent on a fair battle. It’s a shame not to see what she was capable of, but this set up allows Joseph to show off his deception skills again and allows him to make one last very important save.
4. Flashbacks for the win
At the very end of “Warrior of the Wind,” just after the arriving to save the day for JoJo, Smokey reveals the last secret Lisa Lisa has kept from Joseph. He already knows that she is his mother and in “Ties that Bind,” we get the all important flashback that tells that tale. Haruhiko Araki returned to his old pattern of interrupting a fight to tell is something all important to the emotional impact of the tale. We learn the reasons why Joseph was raised by his grandmother and what happened to his parents. They were both heroes during the First World War and effectively both we stolen from Joseph by something Dio created before the dawn of the new century. It’s a tragic string of circumstances and explains why Erina largely tries to hid the past from Joseph. Much like Caesar’s father she wanted to protect him from the dangerous legacy of the family.
5. Unexpected Consequences
Stroheim and the Nazis, apparently helped by the Speedwagon Foundation, came prepped to fight beings susceptible to sunlight. They apply these weapons with impunity and turn the tide for our heroes. The weapons both make the fight easier and sadly accelerate Kars gaining his true desire. Assuming that Kars had lost and, in an effort to end his ambition, Stroheim did not check to see if he had the mask or the stone. In the last moment when all seems to be going their way, Stroheim’s big gun ironically snatches victory from them early, as even before sunrise he inadvertently bathes the Mask with the Stone in it that Kars is wearing with a massive burst of, effectively, sunlight. It seals the fact that the story is not over or, at least, everyone seems to think that as the episode seems to end. The moment does prove also that everyone assembled knew it was a mistake as the face montage showed just as things go horrible awry.
