Ringo Roadagain

"Welcome to the True Man's World..."

- Ringo congratulating Gyro on winning their duel.

Ringo Roadagain (リンゴォ・ロードアゲイン) is a minor antagonist featured in Steel Ball Run.

Ringo is a gunslinger in the service of President Funny Valentine. He is dispatched to retrieve the Saint's Corpse parts in the possession of Gyro Zeppeli and Johnny Joestar during the Steel Ball Run race. He traps the duo, along with two other racers, Hot Pants and Gaucho, in an orchard near Cannon City at the beginning of the 4th Stage. Ringo's philosophy and words during their encounter leave long lasting impressions on the protagonists, specifically Gyro.

Ringo is a Stand User, wielding the time-rewinding Mandom. He is shown to use its abilities to gain the upper hand in the duels he will often challenge his targets to.

Appearance
Ringo is a man of average to above-average height and slim to average build. He has light hair passing his forehead, swept to his left; a long, thin mustache, a soul patch in the shape of a cartoon cranium, and a beard of two slim patches bordering his chin.

He wears a light cap-sleeved jacket with a tall collar, dark gloves revealing his thumbs and index fingers, and a wristwatch of a fine, modern design on his right. It is shown that his trousers are lightly frilled and studded near the bottom of the legs.

As a gunman, Ringo also wields a gun with an assorted ammunition belt and holster. The gun is identified by Gyro as a 1874 Colt.

Personality
As of his introduction, Ringo is obsessed with bettering himself through duels. Considering himself "incomplete", he wants to reach new spiritual heights through duels, thinking that the pure killing intent he experiences to elevate his spirit. Because of this, he also has a strong personal moral code: Ringo prefers to fight on completely fair grounds and will even give pointers to his opponents regarding their weapons and position in order to perfectly level the playing field before their battle begins.

Ringo seems to be able to discern the presence of killer instinct within others and prefers to duel people who won't hesitate to kill another person, mainly so that his duels are as tense and pure as possible. For instance, Ringo initially refused to fight Gyro and preferred him Johnny whom he saw had the will to kill him. Ringo's personal philosophy of "The True Man's World" may actually be another way of describing the phenomenon of "Dark Determination," a state of mind which Ringo also references. The idea of Dark Determination describes a moment were someone is able to sacrifice all morality in the pursuit of a goal, most commonly the death of another; he refers to the killer instinct within Johnny as such. It is only when Gyro begins to show signs of he phenomenon himself that he defeats Ringo, and the latter welcomes him to "The True Man's World" with his dying words.

Accustomed to risking his life in duels, Ringo shows a remarkable ability to keep his calm in the face of danger, not panicking even when the unexpected happens or when being outnumbered. On the other hand, he also readily acknowledges his nervousness when anticipating duels when Gaucho points out his shaking hand. He also is able to recognize an opponent's ability and cunning, praising how Gyro outsmarted him.

Ringo makes a point in differentiating between societal values and a man's own values, believing that one finds his true strength in discovering the latter and that he will walk the "path of light" and live in the "True Man's World" once he does. He thus looked down on Gyro as a "conformist", in that he was chained down by the religious dogma forced on him by his father. Then noticing Gyro's growing determination, Ringo tried to steer him toward his own self-centered philosophy, telling him to go toward a "path of light" to victory.

In general, Ringo speaks gravely, acts with finality and is usually extremely polite to those around him, even his foes. For instance, he makes it a point to bow when meeting someone and after defeating them, solemnly thanking them for the duel. When dueling he wishes for a completely fair fight, as seen when dueling with someone who is not a Stand User like Gaucho as he does not use Mandom's rewind and takes the hit he was delt. Additionally, in duels with Stand Users like Johnny and Gyro he explains the extent of his Stand's abilities beforehand, even if it would not be in his best interest to do so, otherwise he would not be able to call himself a true man.

Abilities
Ringo's Stand, Mandom, enables him to reverse time by exactly 6 seconds by turning a hand on his wristwatch. Although it is very limited, its ability is critical for Ringo to win his duels.

Ringo is also a capable gunfighter and seems to have incredible perception regarding gauging the range of various guns. Along with that, it seems he has rather decent durability, being able to withstand Gaucho's attack on his shoulder.

Background
From birth, Ringo suffered from hemophilia, a rare and incurable disease that prevents blood from clotting around wounds, therefore preventing his body from healing naturally. As a result of his hemophilia, Ringo remained a sickly child, being left bleeding heavily after only minor scrapes and suffering from other illnesses caused by poor health in general too. When Ringo was around eight or nine his father was drafted during the Civil War by the Union's side but soon deserted, was captured, and later died of a disease during his imprisonment. Ringo's family, all branded as traitors due to his father's actions, were forced to travel across the country. One night, when Ringo was ten, he awoke to a large man in military uniform looming over his bed. Through the open bedroom door he could see his mother and two sisters, their lifeless bodies beneath a table with a bloodied knife stuck in the top of it, clearly the work of the stranger. The man commented on Ringo's soft looking skin before trying to rape him, but was greeted with the barrel of his own gun that Ringo was slyly able to take from his holster. After coercing Ringo into putting the gun down, the man suddenly reached for the gun himself, but with amazing speed Ringo was able to retake the weapon despite the surprise and quickly shot the man dead.

It was from this event in his childhood that Ringo experienced a newfound power. Soon after the incident his overall health began to miraculously improve, a development attributed to this newfound power of his, and his hemophilia was completely cured. Ringo also created his own philosophy from his experience, claiming that he had overcame a wall and entered what he called "The True Man's World," believing it to be the only path he could pursue. His idea of "The True Man's World" became the center of his life, leading him to live his following years as a duelist. In his philosophy he believes the path of a "true man" is one of continuous improvement and views himself an incomplete person as a result. Ringo thinks that personal betterment through defeating others in a fair one-on-one duel, the purest form of battle, is therefore the only way to fix this.

Three years before the events of Steel Ball Run, Ringo acquired his Stand, Mandom, which was highly inferred to be from an encounter with the Devil's Palm. He began to use Mandom's time reversal abilities during his future duels, not only for his benefit but somewhat to his opponent's too. Sometimes he would reverse the result of a duel, even in his victory, should an interruption have occurred or if his opponent was not reaching their full potential, only then could he defeat them and consider himself a true man.

Steel Ball Run
Ringo Roadagain is first introduced as a man standing by the curtains near the door of his small, worn out log cabin located within an orchard. After walking out of the door the readers find that out that he is a tall and slender man probably in his late twenties ranging to his early to mid-thirties. Unbeknownst to the contestants of the Steel Ball Run wandering within the orchard, they were all under the effect of his Stand, Mandom. It is safe to assume to that Ringo Roadagain reiterates the same line over to people lost within the orchard "You'll find your way out after you kill me."

, thinking Ringo was playing with him in some way, had enough and challenged him to a duel. Ringo then demonstrates his uncanny ability to "analyze" things and warns Gaucho. However, Gaucho's anger blinds him and he foolishly charges and fires a couple of shots at him, all of which were futile except one that scraped the bottom left corner of his neck. Ringo fires a single bullet and manages to hit Gaucho's heart. He continues to analyze the situation, concluding that "although it has reached the heart, it didn't destroy it completely." After taking one step closer to Gaucho, he fired once more and deprived Gaucho of his existence.

After seeing this unfold right in front of them, Johnny, Gyro, and Hot Pants devise a plan to kill Ringo. The plan fails against Ringo's Stand abilities. A fight ensues, leaving both Gyro and Ringo injured, and Johnny as well as Hot Pants unable to continue fighting. Ringo reveals that the president, Funny Valentine, hired him to retrieve the corpse parts from Johnny and Gyro.

Gyro follows Ringo into his log cabin hoping to end the fight. A colossal showdown ensues between Gyro and Ringo. Gyro sends a devastating attack aimed at Ringo's collarbone which will paralyze Ringo's whole left side if it made contact. After a shard of wood pierces Ringo right below his left side of the shoulder, Gyro finishes him off by throwing one steel ball right at Ringo. Before his death, Ringo utters, "Welcome...to the True Man's World."

All Star Battle (PS3)
Ringo Roadagain makes his game debut on the PS3 title, appearing as the voice announcer for the Versus Mode.

Every time both combatants were chosen and all options were set, before the match starts he says "Welcome to the True Man's World", quoting his very last sentence said on the original story.

Trivia

 * Although Ringo's namesake is largely attributed to The Beatles' member Ringo Starr, the song "Ringo" by Lorne Greene may also have had some influence on the character's name. The song "Ringo" tells the story of a gunslinger, who at the beginning of the song has just survied a duel. As the song goes on, it describes the gunslinger's life as he continues dueling and becomes a master, but the tale ends with the man being killed in just another duel regardless. The similarities between "Ringo" the song and Ringo Roadagain are quite obvious, so it is a possibility that both the song "Ringo" and Ringo Starr are both insperations for the character's name.