Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26160153-20161220110155/@comment-26365338-20161221020720

Sadly, I don't think Joshu will die. Polnareff didn't die, Okuyasu didn't die, Mista didn't die, the only reason Gyro died was because Johnny had no other friends to die. The funnyman just doesn't die, save for Part 6, of course. Mentors, like Norisuke, die, hence why Gyro died because he was both comic relief as well as the dependable one. Simply put, the latter die so the main character can grow, the former lives so the main character has someone to laugh with afterwards. I'm almost positive Yashuho isn't going to die, either, because moe tends to survive, too, like Speedwagon, Old Joseph, Trish or Lucy. If anything, yeah, Gappy will sacrifice himself to save her in a manner reminiscent of Kira and Josefumi. Kyo will probably die since suffering is her character. Tsurugi could die since he's capable, too, but that would be pretty damn harsh after 2 Parts of letting the kid live. Hato and Daiya will probably live, too, though I'm unsure how Daiya's Stand could ever be used in actual combat...

But enough about dying! As for the actual plot, I kind of doubt Jobin and Kato will merge since fusing a mother and daughter together is way too fucking Freudian. Also, what kind of Stand would that look like? Make things hot while they're trapped in a pocket dimension? Trap things within heat and then snuff them out along with the flame? I'm skeptical. I think we're still waiting on at least one more major character to appear who will fuse with Kato to be the main villain, since she already has a space-manipulating Stand, just not a very potent one, nor one with a physical form, as none of the Higashikata women seem to have. (I'm fairly sure the final enemy Stand will manipulate space in some way and not time since all such Stands from Parts 3-5 only manipulated time, MiH manipulated both time and space and then in the SBR universe, D4C only manipulated space.) I thought Dolomiti would be said character, but his Stand, as Gappy himself points out, isn't very promising. It's really disappointing, because the way Jobin talks to Dolomiti, it would seem that he's the oldest Rock Human the Rokakaka Smuggling Ring knows of, (But even then, he can't be that old given the transmission tower he ran into. Odd, since Rock Humans are stated to be able to live for 240 years...) making me think he was going to be really powerful, important and wise. I assumed he's basically be the Kars of the Rock Humans, the leader who tried to force his will on the rest and on humanity but has since given up or something. When he mentioned the temple, I kind of expected him to say he was alive during its contruction. Someone like that, with centuries worth of experience, similar to the powerful and threatening Ubermenschs that were the Pillar Men. Alas, it wasn't him.

So, my guess is some new dude will appear, fuse with Kato, Gappy will fight Jobin, be about to lose when Tsurugi appears and saves him by killing Jobin, then Kato will kill Norisuke, almost kill Joshu protecting his sisters and then Gappy will fight her and she'll merge and it'll be close but Gappy and Yasuho and maybe Tsurugi for a split second will defeat her and then Gappy will sacrifice himself, either to save Yasuho if she's dying or Holly if not. And it will almost all take place in the only notable landmark in all of Part 8 Morioh, that being the Higashikata household!

Something like that, sorry for the super-long response.