grotty 🩷🍓

My first instinct was a Loggerhead Shrike (butcherbird) as well, but it physically doesn’t match him. But its methods of hunting match his… proclivities.

I started picking birds that (sort of) resemble him visually but they don’t match behavior wise. I picked the Baikal Teal (left) and the Spectacled Eider Duck (right)

With picking a vulture, I struggled with this too since none of them match visually, and I just really like vultures in general, but not Cioccolata :(

sorry Cioccolata fans :(

Cioccolata

The first disorder I'll talk about is ASPD.

The average age that Antisocial Personality Disorder often shows itself from age 8 onwards, manifesting fully in their teen years.

As always just because they hit all or most of criteria does not mean it is guaranteed they have the disorder.

⟢ Failure to conform to social norms concerning lawful behaviours, such as performing acts that are grounds for arrest.

His cruelty started as a child long before he joins the mafia, that we are told, it begins at 14 but it very well could have and likely did show in ways before that.

More probably starting with harming animals like the majority of serial killers do. He had 9 kills and 25 tapes recording his cruelty before ever becoming a doctor. Continuing his disregard for life up to and while being a mafia member

⟢ Deceitfulness, repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for pleasure or personal profit.

He consistently uses his lying and manipulation to get into positions of power where he can exploit people for his own pleasure.

Volunteering at the elder care centre and even becoming a doctor, every second that he would have spent studying would have been a lie. For surgeons, it is upwards of 8 years to even get your licence to become a general surgeon.

And Cioccolata is 34 in Golden Wind.

Lets say at earliest he would have been able to start his medical career at 18, this would make him 26/27 when he became a doctor. That is at least 13 years of lying and pretending to be someone he's not. All to harm and kill from a position of power and ease of access, that is a LOT to commit to just for his sadistic nature.

⟢ Impulsivity or failure to plan.

He kinda seems like he's just... Vibing his plans the entire time, so much so that when he underestimates Giorno he impulsively cuts himself apart to win the fight.

Also where the fuck did the helicopter come from???

Who the fuck gave them a chopper?

⟢ Irritability and aggressiveness, often with physical fights or assaults.

For the most part he seems very... I won't say collected cos my guy is maniacally over there grinning. But he seems, not combative.

However I wouldn't really say he is not irritable or aggressive, he snaps very easily, even to Secco when he doesn't get to the point fast enough. But I think the majority of that annoyance is actually funnelled into his malice.

⟢ Reckless disregard for the safety of self or others.

I uh, I don't need to say anything for this point right?

⟢ Consistent irresponsibility, failure to sustain consistent work behaviour, or honour monetary obligations.

Well, you can't say he isn't good at his job... I guess? But he was absolutely happy to destroy Rome, regardless that there were multiple of Diavolo's men there.

Also has a helicopter, did he buy it? Did he steal it? Why can he fly it?!

Any way... Inappropriate use of helicopter.

⟢ Lack of remorse, indifference to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another person.

Glances up from my badly written notes with Ghiaccio's glasses, that I don't need and are just making things blurry, resting on the bridge of my nose... They don't make me look smarter.

I don't uh... Need to say anything here right?

I'll give some anyways since I didn't for the last time.

Even as a 14 year old he would drug the elders under his care and tormented them to suicide. All to record how they would react and enjoy their agony and despair. He doesn't need to rationalise his cruelty because he thinks himself as a higher being than everyone else.

On to the next, this is gonna be a bunch of info back to back I am so SORRY lmao (I'm not really I love yapping)

The second disorder I'll talk about is NPD.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder begins to show in mid teens to early adulthood but can show up in young children too.

⟢ Having a grandiose sense of self-importance, such as exaggerating achievements and talents, expecting to be recognized as superior even without commensurate achievements

He consistently refers to everyone else as lesser beings.

But even as a child he was very academically great, moving onto becoming a doctor and still treating people's lives as nothing more than a toy for him to play with.

There is no need for him to say or show his achievements to others because he doesn't even believe them as worthy to do so. The only one that he believes is above man is Secco, and even then he continues to speak and treat him like a pet.

⟢ Preoccupation with fantasies of success, power, beauty, and idealization

Well...

He did become a doctor for the entire reason that he wanted to torture and kill people, I think this fits pretty well since going through his entire medical school he wouldn't have had access to ways to vent out that anger or malice in ways he would want to.

So would have either supressed it, unlikely.

Or sought out other ways externally, most likely more volunteer work or just outright harming people in public when the desire became too strong.

⟢ Belief in being "special" and that they can only be understood by or associated with other high-status people (or institutions)

Even before becoming a member of the mafia he believed himself being more than the people he was using for his own fantasies. But when he became a member of the mafia it gave him more of that power shift between him and everyone else, thinking himself even higher than Diavolo.

⟢ Demanding excessive admiration

The fact he even kept Secco around as his "pet" shows that he wants to be both admired and revered.

It is not an equal relationship, he may think Secco is better than all of the people that he's killing and torturing but it's only because he is obedient.

⟢ Sense of entitlement

Not only does he believe that he's entitled to the pain and damage he causes but that no one can insult or harm him in any way, reacting in a violent way immediately when Giorno dares to be cruel back to him.

⟢ Exploitation behaviours

I'll be brief for this because I will go over it a lot more in Secco's part, not only does he exploit his patients in his career for his own gain, but also exploits Secco and the mafia as a whole.

⟢ Lack of empathy

Eats my notes

I don't need to say it right?

⟢ Envy towards others or belief that others are envious of them

I actually don't see this much other than that he thinks of himself so highly, he doesn't really push the "envy me." mentality at all so, this one is a complete no!

⟢ Arrogant, haughty behaviours and attitudes

He consistently shows himself to believe himself superior than everyone else, even saying his only happiness is looking down on them in their disparity.

Okay so since I've outlined the basics of the traits he shows, time to talk about his design and mentality.

First I wanna chat about his stand and the mold.

Green Day's ability is based off of the parasitic fungus Cordyceps, but instead of it forcing it's victim to higher ground to spread its spores, green day activates when things fall lower.

Also his hair looks like cordyceps mushrooms, I won't put a photo because some people might not want to see dead parasitic bugs, so be warned if you look it up. <3

Since stands reflect a users soul and subconscious, I think the entire reason it activates when things move lower is that power imbalance, he believes himself to be above them, for them to be nothing but things for him to use as he pleases. He sees them as lower than him, so when they move lower, it activates.

But since his mold attacks ALL living things it makes me feel he absolutely has a god complex, usually closely linked with NPD, even going as far to wear a cross.

His clothes actually remind me a lot of the robes that Pucci wears... Just you know, more thong. However Cioccolata isn't a man of god. He isn't religious. But the way he acts? He believes himself to be a god.

I would say that this could also be that hospitals and medical places usually have crosses around but it isn't usually a religious cross and he has multiple.

Lets talk about him, rather than his stand more though. Cos there is... So many cans of worms, I won't go through every single thing to not be here forever cos he haven't even started about Secco.

I think he does not feel fear in any capacity, he says to Giorno that what he felt was "close" to fear.

Which makes me feel he not only knows that he doesn't feel emotion on a normal level, but due to the amount of torture and pain he's inflicted. He knows that fear isn't what he feels when he was in immediate danger.

He shows a great deal of determination to be able to not only put himself through the pain of dissecting himself but also to do it in the first place.

Yes torturing people to further your understanding of the human body is one thing, but to then use the same practice on yourself is a whole different ball game. And that he can not only re-connect the parts but move and use them separately.

So! Let's talk about the sadism...

Sadism is the tendency to derive pleasure, gratification, or sexual arousal from inflicting or witnessing physical pain, humiliation, or suffering in others. 

For what I see, I do not believe he is getting any sexual pleasure out of seeing this in any way, I think he might be getting more gratification and non-sexual pleasure than arousal.

I feel that's where people just assume that the dynamic with Secco is a kink thing, i'll go through this more on his part. However since he is, you know, a serial killer. I don't think this is a sex thing, I fully believe he just enjoys watching their pain and gets that pleasure from rewatching the pain he's causing. Not sexual. Cruelty.

Yes this could very well be a sexual thing for him, making sense to why he keeps so many tapes and why he feels the need to tape his torture in the first place.

However...

Sexual sadism disorder, which is recurrent, intense arousal from inflicting torture, humiliation and pain. What leads me to think that this isn't sexual for him, is that the vast majority of the cases of SSD, the disorder not the PC part, get their sexual arousal from sexual torture. Not just torture.

Yes, maybe we just haven't seen him do that. But why would he record everything otherwise, if he's using this to get arousal, he wouldn't just be recording every piece of pain. It would be specific to the things he likes to watch.

ALSO! The average for SSD to onset is early 20's, not early teens when he started doing this. Which proves, at least to me, this isn't sexual. It's a desire to see his victims in pain for his own entertainment.

Also you know it's a bad thing when you're the ONLY person Diavolo is disgusted by lmao.

OKAY!

We are finally moving onto Secco, apologies for how long winded that was! Most likely no criteria for this one, I do not think he has any disorders :3

So... This actually might surprise a lot of you that I actually don't think Secco is on Cioccolata's level nor has a disorder. I fully believe it is Stockholm Syndrome.

From the beginning we see he was one of Cioccolata's patients, we don't see anything of what happens between then and the next time we see Secco, suddenly obedient to him. Diavolo says they were on the same freakquency, I don't agree.

I think that he tortured him and eventually he became conditioned and affectionate towards Cioccolata.

Okay I lied, have some signs of Stockholm Syndrome. :3

⟢ Positive feelings towards the captor.

We see all the way up until Cioccolata's death (and past that but I'll explain more later.) That Secco adores him, doing whatever he asks over and over, even when unwatched and not even near him. There is no threat to his life nor is there any hesitation in his obedience. He just does.

Up until Cioccolata dies, every word and action from Secco is positive towards him.

⟢ Support of the captor’s behaviour and the reasoning behind it.

Like my last point, he follows and even revels in the cruelty of what Cioccolata is doing.

If it were anyone else there would be even a split second of hesitation in seeing such cruelty and death. But he truly believes what he's doing is not only right but justified. Cioccolata is above men, and he is by his side.

⟢ Perceiving their captor’s humanity and believing they share the same goals and values.

Partially, he absolutely believes they share the same values and their goal lies in cruelty and in the end, overthrowing Diavolo.

Whether this was something he brought up to Secco before that call, we don't know. But his reaction shows me that it wasn't. They were doing this for the love of the game, not just for the mafia.

⟢ They make little to no effort to escape.

He had every chance to escape time and time again, hell he could have killed Cioccolata himself. But he doesn't, he wants to stay. It's not necessity nor want. It's complete obedience.

⟢ A belief in the goodness of the captors.

I think it's been conditioned into Secco for so long that he doesn't actually need this, I think because of the amount of torture Secco was most likely put through, that getting out of that situation and into one where he believes they're above humans as a whole?

That's the goodness that Cioccolata shows to him. It's mercy.

⟢ As the victims get rewarded, perhaps with less abuse or with life itself, the captor’s appeasing behaviours are reinforced.

Cracks fingers so hard they fall off, mold style.

Okay so this one is where things get interesting.

We've all heard of Pavlov's dogs, where he conditioned dogs that every time they heard a bell, they'd be fed. It happened so frequently that upon hearing the bell, they would salivate. This also happens in humans, there are studies that prove its applicable.

So my point... Every single time Secco does something Cioccolata likes or wants him to, he gets sugar cubes. This is most likely not the only food source, but it's the only good thing that he gets.

When he's cruel? Reward. When he records? Reward.

He isn't just treating Secco as a cute pet that he keeps around, no. He's conditioning him into the cruelty, for each little thing he gets rewarded for, it connects the two in his brain that being good and doing what Cioccolata wants means he gets rewarded.

He's been Pavloved.

More on this actually, if you notice or remember, Cioccolata actually speaks to him as a person for a lot of the time, especially when they're calling.

Even snapping when he doesn't get to the point as fast as he wants him to. The only time that he slips into that cooing praise and calling him a "Good Boy." Is when he does something that he feels needs to be rewarded.

It's like click training a dog, or teaching them a trick.

You use a different tone, a certain noise, a phrase to signify the thing you want them to do.

⟢ Feelings of pity towards the captors, even believing that the captors are the victims themselves.

I was going to go into it later but lets do it now. He does show pity to him, but not believing him to be a victim. He pities him for being weak.

But I don't think he actually meant it, when I was watching the episodes today, he acts out in grief. He calls him weak, that he didn't ever like him. That it was all an act.

But I don't think that was just him putting on an act, I feel he was distraught and reacted in anger, to both Bruno and Cioccolata because there was no other thing to be angry at.

⟢ They may have feelings of wanting to ‘save’ their captor.

He not only saves and wants to save Cioccolata but he acted as his ally in battle for a long while, a perfect Duo.

Now that I've yapped about the main signs, let's yap about him and his stand as a whole.

Secco's stand. Oasis... Yes we have the band, but I think it was intentional that it's not just the band. I think it's also the word oasis (not the grassland in a desert).

The description of an oasis - a place of peace, safety, or happiness in the midst of trouble or difficulty

This might me me just reaching, but is that not exactly... What Stockholm syndrome is? Happiness in the midst of difficulty.

That your mind is so overwhelmed with the torment and torture, that you start to adore the person doing it to you. A protection through the pain.

But also, have you ever wondered why Secco doesn't get affected by Green day? Cos I did today, and everyone I've seen just talks about that his stand cant be affected so that's why he wears the weird mud suit. It doesn't cover him fully though, the mold would still be able to get to him...

Or that maybe Cioccolata can just stop him from being affected as a whole, which... Unlikely, he moves too much and it seems too destructive and unpredictable to do that.

It could be the suit, it would make sense why he wears something so weird when he can control the ground around him so he wouldn't be affected by his own weird melty... Thing.

But what if, this is a reach for sure but I wanna just plop it here anyway, Cioccolata clearly has been experimenting with his stand since he got it no? Testing exactly what the human body can and can't take. We never really see his victims. We see his assassinations sure, but never his torture with his stand. Unless, they were on Secco. Not enough to kill, but enough to hurt. Enough to test.

Enough that he's now immune to the mold.

Take that one with a grain of salt, it's just me yapping, I thought it was worth enough to mention.

Moving on from his stand, Secco is incredibly smart and efficient in combat, not only to be able to perfectly deflect bullets but using his own stand to its fullest.

Using the ground to add power to his strikes, knowing exactly the range of his... Goo aura? Idk, his goo aura, to make the mud rain down on Bruno as sharp objects, even working out immediately that Bruno wasn't a living creature anymore and bringing it up to Cioccolata.

Speaking of that moment though, what solidifies that he's been tortured to me, is that he reacts VERY badly when he's hit, whimpering and clawing at his face.

Even recording himself. He recorded his own pain for Cioccolata to see, I do not think its the first time this has happened, not with someone else hitting him. Cioccolata.

But something else that reinforces that this isn't "just an act" like Secco says it is, who is he performing for when he's alone and the camera is off?

He reacts negatively and acts almost like a dog when he hears that Cioccolata is hurt, getting excited when he hears his voice. Even answering him when he knows he can't hear him.

He also shows active distress when he doesn't answer the call, like he always answers so why not now? That isn't an act, he has no reason for that act to be kept up. But upon hearing not only his voice, even getting visibly ecstatic and giddy when Cioccolata starts praising and affirming him, triggering that happiness that he's doing well.

What he doesn't react well to though? When Cioccolata says "That's why I like you."

And honestly? I have no fucking idea why he reacts SO badly to this, his eyes darken, he looks confused. All that I can think of is that he genuinely doesn't understand what he means when he says that.

This entire time he's been putting down and conditioning him to be a pet, an accessory to his cruelty. Perhaps it's something he truly hasn't heard not only from Cioccolata but just in a very long time.

My final point for why I believe that it wasn't just an act and that he genuinely was in such a state of adoration towards Cioccolata, so much so that it made him act out when he died?

That he gets happy seeing him in the dumpster, if it was just an act he wouldn't be excited and almost glad to see him, even dead.

But all in all I think that they are very incredibly written characters. And very easily hateable because of their grating cruelty, but they're so interesting to dive into!