It goes without saying that the mafia had a strong impact on media.
With that era, we’ve created some of the most iconic movies to have touch the earth
and characters that are now immortalized due to their impactful effect on not only the
movie, but the world.
Don Corleone, better known as The Godfather, is our prime example.
The movie itself had held so much influence for future movies to come, but Don Corleone’s
character is one that we will see almost as much as the elements recreated from the movie.
His character has been referenced in many forms of media and anime is one of them.
In Part 5 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Golden Wind or Vento Aureo, we have a character
meant to embody many of the elements that make up the Don’s character, and he’s
not even the boss.
Polpo is not only a character meant to take place of the typical boss, but his stand Black
Sabbath is also a personification of a huge element in The Godfather.
That being the movies cinematography and its intense use of shadows.
But to first put my focus on Polpo being a take on Corleone.
Polpo’s authority is the first thing in question.
While he isn’t the boss and is missing a rank or two, he’s the first person that
Giorno has to answer to in the mafia.
He’s also the first step and a man you come to for involvement.
Civilians can come to people like Bruno for help, but to get involved you have to come
to Polpo and take your baby steps before you get on into the world itself.
I also believe that Polpo is Araki’s way of incorporating a Don Corleone like character
because he wouldn’t be able to do so with the actual boss.
The next thing is trust, which is a huge belief for Corleone and probably the only thing that
Polpo truly stands by.
Trust to Polpo is the only true defining thing of a person, talent and intelligence means
nothing in comparison.
To Corleone it’s what truly defines a relationship between both people.
You can respect someone without trusting them, which is why he does trust the aspect of respect,
because that can go at anytime.
Respect comes in many forms and comes with many reasons as to why its given, be it age,
skill, or anything.
Trust is a personal tie, an indicator and a reason as to why you can be fine with the
relationship and the person you trust.
If that trust was to ever be abused, then you get the same outcome for both Polpo and
Corleone.
Betraying what made the relationship is something that calls for the worst punishment ever.
Polpo believes that even God would permit murder, and Corleone isn’t too far from
that either.
The final example here is surprisingly not a focus on character, but more so appearance.
One huge thing that the two shares are their dark eyes.
Like I stated previously, the lighting cinematography is a huge element to the Godfather.
It reinforces our idea of what characters represent and how truly involved they are.
The movies approach being a clear approach on what’s morally right and wrong because
those that are reinstated to be evil find themselves in many shadows, and those good
are commonly found in the light.
From dark to light it’s a death of character because they’re being exposed for who they
truly are, and from light to dark it’s a development and we see the fall into darkness
as the character progresses forward.
Corleone finds himself always in the shadows, and any development on his character throughout
the movie will always show in his darkness.
Be it from the purest form of darkness to a now greyed out version to show that he isn’t
nearly as strong as he originally was.
There’s a lot to take from here, and when that’s all adapted into Polpo we can see
a clear-cut answer.
His eyes are a direct call to Corleone because he has black eyes.
Not extremely black pupils, but instead the entire eyes are black, and his pupils are
red.
He can never lose the darkness in his eyes because those are his eyes, it’s who he
is.
Same reason why you won’t see Corleone without any shadow at all.
He’s completely engulfed in what represents evil, it’s a side that he can never leave,
but would never truly intend to because it’s who he is also.
Now, I’d like to bring my attention to the shadows themselves, but not in the Godfather,
instead the shadows present in here in Part 5.
Remember what I had mentioned about Corleone being completely engulfed in the shadows.
While that can’t full transfer over into Polpo with actual shadows, Black Sabbath does
that job and even more.
Black Sabbath, the stand of Polpo, is a stand that’s power lays in the shadows.
The stand itself is found with massive strength the more that shadows are present.
And its activation is the first step of its symbolism.
It’s no coincidence that Black Sabbath activates when the “light” goes out and that Black
Sabbath is destroyed by light also.
The lighter being not only a symbol of trust, but also represents a retainment of character.
Giorno is meant to keep his light for the entire 24 hours and hopefully not fall out
of who he truly is.
The thing is, Giorno’s character is like the many characters we see here in Part 5,
and from a Joestar and Brando sense, he’s the embodiment of the best of both sides.
The lighter may be a test of his character, but Giorno answer to the test doesn’t lay
in the lighter but instead his actions against Black Sabbath and Polpo.
Now we’re moving on from the activation to the fight itself.
It’s Giorno against Black Sabbath, but Black Sabbath is not only the stand itself or Polpo,
but a representation of the evil in the mafia world.
With evil holding symbolism in the shadows and Black Sabbath’s power being increased
for when it’s among even more shadows, it’s a statement on the evil growing stronger when
it takes over.
It’s also insane that goes even further to have the fight take place at sunset since
both sunrise and sunset is a time where both night and day clash.
But the final thing to make note of is on the outcome of the fight.
Giorno found that light was the true weakness to Black Sabbath.
This goes back to what I had mentioned with the transitions.
Light to dark is a development, but dark to light is exposing the character, and in both
examples of the Godfather and Golden Wind, they both lay in death.
With Giorno finding the light to beat the darkness, a natural light that’s forever
present but interchanges with darkness at times, that being the sun.
Giorno’s character holding both the sun and the moon.
His natural light being his determination and resolve, but his darkness is the extent
that he goes to carry out these beliefs.
Which is why Giorno defeating Black Sabbath with light is an example of his power over
evil, but the defeat of Black Sabbath is his development on becoming a true gangster.
Because not only is he defeating Black Sabbath, he’s defeating Polpo, and it’s shown that
he’s all the darker for it.
I’ll be making this a point when talking about trust, but I need to talk about Polpo
once again before doing so.
Bringing back the idea of Polpo playing boss or just a strong authority in general.
A big indicator of this is how Polpo constantly puts himself over Giorno.
Now obviously, he’s bigger than Giorno, but meeting Giorno at eye-level isn’t something
of interest because he sees himself above Giorno.
Not only because of position, but more so that he just sees himself higher than him
in general.
Speaking to him on what trust truly is, but it’s clear that it’s not what Polpo is
looking for.
Polpo is looking for an unwavering respect without looking to match the energy given.
Because Polpo isn’t a trustworthy man, nor does he believe in equality.
If you’re a higher rank, people answer to you.
You’re the one who can lead people, and he does exactly that with Black Sabbath.
He gives everyone two paths, dictating whether someone follows a path of life or death due
to the lighter.
So Polpo is basically sending out an angel of judgement to everyone that plans to join
the mafia.
Lighter lit for 24 hours or not, doesn’t matter to him.
The potential member could’ve died, does that matter to him?
No.
He’s unbothered because subordinates are expendable.
Oh, this is a post script note.
But let’s count this as a point between Boss and trust, this on the actual reasoning
why Black Sabbath is an automatic stand.
Black Sabbath being bound to the lighter and blindly following the instructions of Polpo
connects over to Corleone and the Godfather logo.
The Godfather’s level of control on their world was something like a puppeteer.
Makes sense on why Polpo and an Italian word specific to Sicily where the Godfather originates
from Puparo are reasonably similar, with Puparo meaning Puppeteer or Puppet Master.
And that’s what Polpo is and believes he is.
Playing with recruits like puppets and believing he’s one allowed to do so.
At this point, the dots connecting are doing it themselves.
So while Polpo directly conforms to the naming with Italian food, Polpo through this symbolism
comes out with an addition to his name.
Also thank you tales for helping me out on where Puparo comes from in Sicilian dialect.
And the last thing to touch up on, is trust.
Respect is impersonal in both worlds, and honestly can even apply to our world depending
on the person.
Respect is a thing given to position, skill, thing along that line, but trust is a completely
different area.
Trust correlates to your own perspective, your own judgement and connects to your beliefs.
You can respect someone around the same position as you or higher, but you don’t have to
trust them at all.
This is something we see be a huge theme when it comes to both the first Godfather and Godfather
2.
This was also something we had seen here in Part 5, but there was a problem.
Giorno had got his respect and trust mixed up when it came to Polpo.
With Polpo’s position he trusted that Polpo knew the ropes and would have it in his best
interest to be one to guide Giorno and also not do anything that he did through Black
Sabbath.
Giorno saw it as, “If I don’t take care of this lighter, I don’t get into the gang”,
but letting that lighter go out is a betrayal of trust, which to Polpo is punishable by
death.
Though the only thing that Giorno had to gauge originally is that Polpo said that trust is
massively important, off what had happened with Black Sabbath hurting an innocent bystander,
his reaction shows that couldn’t believe that this is what Polpo meant.
While it is Polpo’s doing, Giorno takes responsibility for what he does and how his
involvement with the mafia got an innocent person killed.
He’s a man that wants to be someone that the people trust, but he’s betrayed that
because of Polpo, so then that trickles down into Giorno’s dive into the darkness of
the mafia.
But before I diverge from the topic of trust, I want to say that the Godfather 2’s take
on trust is one that isn’t as closely tied into Part 5, but is still interesting.
Part 5 never have a case on true betrayal when it comes to the immediate group, some
cases are like what happened between Giorno and Polpo but with different characters in
higher positions, and case or two is one that connects back into an event of betrayal in
the past.
But now onto Giorno’s descent.
What we had seen with Black Sabbath and Polpo now matches on Giorno and he begins to start
turning into this true gangstar.
The increased presence of shadows now starts taking over Giorno to show this duality on
his core beliefs now carrying both the light and darkness of the mafia.
And that front that we had originally seen with Giorno isn’t a front anymore because
of how much malintent he holds for Polpo.
It doesn’t help that Polpo begins enabling Giorno unintentionally by telling him that
even God would permit murder because of betrayal of trust.
Because not only is he giving Giorno initiative because of what he did, this means that either
Polpo believes that he’s allowed to play God or he believes he’s one to carry out
God’s actions, I’m leaning more towards the first one obviously because I wouldn’t
expect Polpo to be one of religion nor moral correctness.
So now, Giorno plays Polpo’s card, a man that leads your paths towards either life
or death, and Polpo took the darker one.
This fight being over with the positions we last see the two in this with the same perspective
on position, light, and darkness we had earlier.
Polpo is now the one exposed laying flat, lower than Giorno, while now Giorno lives
as this standing contradiction, shining with this newfound darkness.
Thank you all for watching!
I love doing videos like this, but the time it takes is reasonably large for how it’s
all made up so I don’t know about how often I can do this.
I’ll try to do this more when I think about it later.
I’ll also be sure to do a Halloween special soon.
Hopefully, I’ll see you all in the next one.
Until then, peace out, and god speed.