Phantom blood was good in an of itself. Knowing nothing of jojo, it was surprisingly really enjoyable. Really hard to take seriously at a certain level, but still legit good.

Battle Tendency is fucking gold. I love Joseph, Lisa Lisa and I love how the fights progressively get better-written as this arc continues (aside from the occasional jojo science)

this arc felt like it was more light-hearted and more fun, but somehow the scale of it all made me take this more seriously, so it was better on so many levels but without taking away from Phantom Blood

[KATY IF YOU'RE READING THIS, STOP RIGHT NOW]

Stardust Crusaders started with a newly introduced concept that prevented the scaling from getting absurd, thus presenting a new kind of threat

We've gotten to know the ripple so well, it would be kind of redundant to keep pushing it, so the fact that it became irrelevant was actually pretty inconsequential, what with the whole deal with the Stands

However, I feel like the scale of it all went down, not because they went back to a previously obsolete threat, but because there seems to be less at risk to the cast of characters

Dio hardly seems to be getting involved in any kind of domination. A good sign of that may be the fact that Zombies stopped being a thing and were completely replaced by stand users who work more like assassins

Dio is in Egypt and nothing's presented to establish why he's there and won't leave or even spread his rule. It seems like a more contained evil where the only thing to lose is Holly

Also, the fact that Dio's presence is much less... present? They're all indirect attacks, which is absolutely his style, but it used to be "wherever there's danger, Dio is near"

which was an even greater threat in an of itself, whether they have to search for him or not

I think what would've made Stardust Crusaders much more interesting to me is if it was more of a race or search for something, where Dio is at equal odds of winning or failing and forcing him to become more--

directly involved, like how the pillar men were with the Stone of Asia or something along those lines. I think there's another story arc that sort of does that, but I haven't read it yet?? idk...

I just kind of wish the playing field of this whole thing was handled differently!

However, I feel like the fights are actually VERY well-written in comparison to the previous two arcs. Not to mention, all the characters are as lovable as ever... except Jotaro, he's just kind of there, really

Jotaro is really useful and really cool but idk I find nothing remotely endearing of him. That's just what his character is supposed to be, but it fits so oddly around the other characters

Ok, of the 4 jojos I've seen, here's the order from favorite to least favorite

Joseph, Jotaro, Josuke and Jonathan

oh how the tables have turned so quickly over night

Jotaro went from "uneventful" to generally admirable, but not even remotely close to being as lovable as Joseph

Josuke is still much more lovable than Jotaro, but I feel like I still haven't quite gotten to know him and what he's made of

Jonathan is very proud and honorable, but those are traits of an old hero, feels more fictitious and not as real as the other Jojos but still pretty lovable

I think Jonathan's lovability was pretty much overshadowed by the best character in all of jjba, speedwaggon