Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-39718735-20200605220409

Epitaph locks on a future: a person may change their actions during those 10 seconds yet King Crimson locks them and doesn't allow them to change: let's suppose a person has an idea about how to attack at the 0 second, if that person would notice Diavolo, they may change their behavior at let's say the 5th second, but King Crimson denies that: they will act during those 10 erased seconds as they planned at second 0 (literally punching the air) cause they don't perceive erased time and if you don't do so you can't change your actions. That's the reason people even seems to stop moving sometimes, they don't have any more actions to follow! And that's the reason KC is mostly suited for stealthy attacks - If Bucciarati (or Bruno and co. later) doesn't notice Diavolo his attacks are flawless. They may not even move as if it were stopped time.

Even Diavolo's actions are conditioned (that's why he couldn't do anything about Metallica attacks, he tells Doppio he'll have to deal with it, but why? He could try to run away, to skip time... yet nothing of that happened). And that's why he could attack Narancia, Trish and that fortune teller in skipped time when it was said he can't interact with anything: I'd rather say he can't interact with anything outside the prediction (picture it as in Donnie Darko, Diavolo's shown a future, yet that future reflects his will, he literally can't deny it because he doesn't want to - he knows that in order for his power to work he has to abide it). I may not need to say this... but notice that I think Diavolo uses Epitaph in an implicit way (someone may say that if the anime/manga didn't show him using Epitaph then he didn't use it).

In a sense the most important power of his stand is not King Crimson but Epitaph, yet when reaching the destiny shown by Epitaph on normal terms becomes impossible (Diavolo couldn't capture Trish unnoticed without skipping time) that's the moment King Crimson has to be activated.

Their combination allows them to erase time to reach a prediction: there are some interesting things about this:


 * When King Crimson doesn't use Epitaph first Diavolo can be surprised (He didn't see SCR coming) yet King Crimson's still powerful due to people not perceiving time (the main drawback is that Diavolo doesn't know how to adapt to the future, perhaps a previous use of Epitaph would've denied Polnareff of the chance of activating his Requiem).


 * On the other hand Diavolo will suffer the most in Epitaph's predictions when conditioned by his mental illness (dual personality) and avoiding the use of King Crimson along it, that's why Doppio mostly received bad predictions.

In fewer words both abilities become rather subpar when not used together.

It's even possible than King Crimson works differently than King Crimson + Epitaph. Diavolo using KC along Epitaph had to dodge Mista's bullets (it's unknown whether he was destined to attack Giorno in skipped time cause GER activated right away, the anime plays the time skip effect right before he strikes, yet maybe that was forced by GER cancelling time skip), KC alone could avoid Aerosmith bullets and didn't touch Polnareff on his own (the time skip was effectively canceled right instantly before Diavolo aimed his attack). Time skip alone has no destiny set, thus Diavolo is not in the world, he exists outside it. 