#juniusb

Best JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fanseries on YouTube.

But, I think it’s brave as fuck to finally get into D3’s gender identity. This episode confirms that he’s a transman. D3 has always been masc as fuck. Their Stand is masculine bodied. The embodiment of their fighting spirit. I’ve never watched an analog horror or internet horror webseries with a transman protagonist, and I’ve never watched one where it really impacts the character in the ways that has D3. The place I would’ve expected characterization like this is from a jjba YouTube webseries but I’m happy to see it

I’ll break this down

Yes, we could say “oh, D3 acts the way he/they does bc he’s a descendant of Dio” and for the more Joestar-adjacent cast members and the Speedwagon Foundation, it is.

The story has always treated D3’s behavior as being due to them growing up poor as fuck in Hollygrove, New Orleans and being exposed to that world.

I’m not saying that doesn’t play a role but now that they’ve came out and confirmed D3 is transgender and has been since at least 2016 in the story’s timeline (his chosen name is Dion, the Dionne/Dion naming convention works)

Imo, D3’s behavior is him mimicking and overdriving the toxic masculinity he grew around. All of his siblings are boys. He grew up in the hood. So his framework for what a successful man is hustlers and ballers. Men who sell drugs, do whatever they want, don’t let people play them, and have money. We know this is what Ronnie was doing. And Ronnie (the eldest sibling in D3’s family), is implied to have been a huge caregiver and influence in D3’s formative years. Bc their father was maimed and their mother was struggling financially

We know that D3’s lifelong goal is to be that person. It’s how they ended up going to prison for 5 years at 15 years old.

Tbh all this completely recontextualizes the entire story of Junius B. I’d say it makes D3 one of the best written protags/bag guys in internet horror.

D3 is somebody who’s entire framework for masculinity is “a man is their own boss, does what they whatever they want, whenever they want, takes care of their family, and steps on anybody who tries to do them bad”

so you put a character like that in the bottom barrel of Passione where they’re not able to do what they want, can’t provide for their family even though they have a Stand that can easily do it, and they have to answer to somebody who they don’t know or give a fuck about.

You also factor in that he’s never been given the tools to come out the closet. Bc coming out the closet is scary and even tho we’re given no indication or reason to believe his family is transphobic (bro pulls up to his brother’s funeral in a buzzcut, turtle neck, and slacks, and nobody says anything negative to him or implies he shouldn’t be dressed like that).

He’s a felon from New Orleans. He even states that he doesn’t want his gender identity to be in any records “because the COs fuck with him enough already”. It’s understandable that he doesn’t know how to be open about his gender. He was locked up from 2013 to 2018/19. He’s from the Deep South.

And That causes them such a deep sense of demasculinization and gender dysphoria that they’re willing to backstab their close friends and go on this revenge spree when shit finally gets real.

This also adds a even more fucked up layer to his relationship to Malavita because I really feel like Malavita is that father figure/“I’ll treat you like the man you are and show you how to be a man even though society hasn’t bc you were born AFAB” that D3 always wanted for himself. I’m not going to get into Malavita rn, this isnt about him.

So you have this closeted transman who’s never had good foundational groundwork for masculinity, had a very rough upbringing, doesn’t have the interpersonal tools to be open about this, and you put him in the pressure cooker and he just snaps and does what he’s been taught men do when they’re crossed and backed into a corner.

Everything about D3 and how he acts/is makes total sense when you factor in his upbringing and status as a transman. D3 isn’t evil because he’s trans, it’s obviously not why. D3’s violence and antisocial behavior is him coping with feelings of dysphoria and emasculation by mirroring and intensifying what he’s been taught being a man is by his environment and culture

I wasn’t expecting level of social commentary on toxic masculinity and gender dysphoria from an internet horror series set in the jojos bizarre universe. It’s been so built up and laid out for us too so when we finally are straight up told he’s trans. You’re like “ohhh so you’re thugging fr bc that’s how every man around you (besides your uncle) has acted”