Wamuu

"I have no regrets... from the bottom of my heart, I am grateful to have witnessed your growth. Perhaps the reason I wandered through these 12,000 years was just to have met you..."

- Wamuu to Joseph Joestar,

Wamuu (ワムウ) is the secondary antagonist of the second part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Battle Tendency.

He is a proud Pillar Man warrior in the respectful service of his superiors Esidisi and Kars, also serving as a personal rival to Joseph Joestar throughout his journey.

Appearance
Wamuu appears as an immense being; powerfully built and very tall. Many of his more detailed drawings have his veins bulging from his extremities. His face is particularly chiseled and square with high cheekbones.

Wamuu has short, standing light hair and prominent eyebrows. On his face is a tattoo of a thick square outline. It crosses his face just under the bridge of his nose, upwards through the middle of his left eye and ending above his right eyebrow. In one particular close-up of his face, the tattoo has the word "POWER" written several times in it, as well as the word "ALPHABET". As a Pillar Man, he has a singular, relatively large drill-like horn above his forehead that he can retract.

In all of his appearances, Wamuu wears large earrings and a metallic head adornment similar to a crown that opens at the front whenever he summons out his horn. Up until his defeat of Caesar, he has a small ring on the left side of his lip containing the antidote for his Wedding Ring.

Personality
"To me, truth belongs to mighty warriors, friendship and respect to the braves!! I will probably always remember you, Caesar."

- Wamuu about Caesar Zeppeli,

Wamuu's most notable traits are his love of battle and his sense of honor, such that he stops himself from finishing off a defenseless Joseph Joestar on the mere possibility that he can wash away an earlier humiliation inflicted by Joseph when he'll beat him as soon as he becomes a fine and powerful Ripple warrior.

Wamuu usually looks down on all the humans he comes across to, but he will come to respect them should they have the following two requirements: firstly that the fighters take combat seriously, and secondly that they are strong fighters. Thus Wamuu sneered at Caesar Zeppeli when he declared that he fought for his friend Mark, yet honored Caesar's last efforts to steal the antidote for Joseph and left it for Joseph out of respect for the strength Caesar demonstrated. Because of his way of life centered around fighting, Wamuu tends to ignore non-combatants, for instance telling Joseph to leave during their first meeting, mistaking the young man for a harmless goof. Wamuu is also one of the few antagonists in the JoJo franchise who cannot bring himself to harm or murder children, a moral compunction that his master Kars does not share. However, anyone earning his attention becomes a target for his challenges.

Wamuu is as severe toward himself as he is toward anyone else save his masters. For instance, he once let Joseph beat him as punishment for letting his guard down and strongly disliked that Joseph expressed pity on him. On the other hand, Wamuu has a high opinion of himself, as he regularly deems certain individuals "worthy" or "unworthy" of fighting him. Wamuu also opted to kill the helpless Speedwagon and Caesar who saw his humiliation before being distracted. As a testament to his commitment and strength of character, Wamuu has developed himself an extreme mental switch designed to help him focus if he ever enters a state of shock or panics during combat. Thus, he will gouge his eyes and rely on his wind-sensing horn as a means of seeing. Kars even went further and said that after activating his mental switch, Wamuu no longer has any psychological weaknesses. When it comes to fighting, Wamuu is irritated that a fighter might try to flee or surrender, but he considers using tactics such as ambushes or feints to beat one's opponent acceptable.

The only thing that rivals his sense of honor is his fidelity toward his masters Kars and Esidisi, who raised him since he was a baby. He respects both highly, yet holds no illusion that neither of them has the same sense of honor and can objectively assert their strengths and weaknesses. During his battle with Caesar, he noted that Kars would have an even harder time fighting Caesar than him. Wamuu occasionally requests that his masters change their plans to suit his love of fights, which they allow easily since they have raised Wamuu as their finest warrior but also can refuse. Either way, Wamuu will obey their command.

Wamuu has a weird personality quirk, where he reflexively attacks anyone who steps on his shadow, even if it was one of his masters (Kars and Esidisi). Somehow, Wamuu is able to tell when someone is stepping on his shadow, even if he wasn't looking at their direction.

Personal
Fighting Genius: Wamuu's signature characteristic, as he was described as a "Fighting Genius" by many characters in the series, including Caesar and Wamuu's own master, Kars. Perhaps his fighting genius was best demonstrated in his fight with Caesar, when, despite being cornered and injured, he managed to escape by using the force generated by Caesar's attack to push himself to safety.

Background
Wamuu is a member of the same race as Kars. After Kars and Esidisi exterminated their clan, Wamuu, along with Santana, would be taken up as an infant and trained by the two, becoming a strong warrior thanks to his genius. Wamuu would accompany his masters to the old world to find a flawless Red Stone of Aja. During their travel, Wamuu participated in the extermination of the Ripple Clan, and showed at one point reluctance to kill a child. Kars killed the boy himself.

Pillar Men's search search taking them to Rome where they battled Ripple users before entering a hibernation state under the Roman Colosseum. The wall that he and his masters embedded themselves in was booby trapped to impale potential prey for nourishment as seen with Mario Zeppeli.

Awakening in Rome
The Pillar Man begin their awakening in 1939. Wamuu is introduced when he uses his horn to kill one of the Nazis sent to prevent the Pillar Mens' awakening, using the dead man's blood to disable to UV lights. While noting the change in time, Wamuu used his digestive acids to graft the hands of the rest of the Nazi group together, allowing him to absorb them simultaneously. Wamuu, with no one to interfere, then awakens Kars and Esidisi.

As the three set off to find the Red Stone of Aja, Wamuu mortally wounds Mark while passing through the German soldier. Kars accidentally steps in Wamuu's shadow, causing Wamuu to attack by reflex. Wamuu apologizes for his impudence but Kars apologizes too and takes the incident as his mistake. Meanwhile, the grieving Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli was forced to put his dying friend out of his misery. Enraged, Caesar launches his bubbles at Wamuu, who touches the bubbles and see his finger melt. The Pillar Men realize that the Ripple clan has returned to stop them. However, Wamuu's headset is specially designed to counter projectiles and Wamuu destroys the bubbles. He also cuts Caesar's face from afar. Mocking Caesar's determination, Wamuu stabs him in the throat with his finger when the Italian tries to attack, noting that he knows the weaknesses of the Ripple users before sending him flying into a pillar.

Wamuu then hears someone cough ostentatiously. It is Joseph Joestar, who also wants to fight. Joseph presents his Ripple clackers, but Wamuu is more amused than impressed when Joseph hits his head with the clackers by accident. However, Joseph gets serious with his clackers; hiding his clackers behind his back, Joseph attempts a surprise attack but Wamuu contorts his body to avoid everything. When Joseph seemingly drops his clackers by accident, Wamuu is entertained by this buffoon and allows him one minute to fight, cutting his wrist so that he'll die out of blood loss after a minute passes. However, Wamuu is taken by surprise when the clackers come back and plough his head. Ashamed, Wamuu lets Joseph hit him as punishment before he uses his secret technique, the Divine Sandstorm. He blows Joseph away with it. Wamuu turns his attention to Caesar and Speedwagon to kill them as witnesses to his scarification, only to be lured away by Joseph on a speeding mine cart. Realizing Joseph was anything but a coward, he sees though Joseph's attempt to blow him up with dynamite and knocks the mine cart off the track. Wamuu is about to finish Joseph off when the human plays on his ego and honor to give himself a month's reprieve to properly master the Ripple and become a worthy opponent. Wamuu accepts, placing a Wedding Ring of Death inside of Joseph's heart to prevent him from "running away" as the poison will take effect within thirty three days. As Esidisi places his own ring in Joseph's throat, Wamuu reveals the antidote to his poison in in his lip ring before taking his leave.

Wamuu vs Caesar
After searching for a Red Stone of Aja in Greece, Wamuu returns to Switzerland where he intercepts Caesar and Messina approaching the Pillar Men's lair in San Moritz. Wamuu covers himself in a dense layer of air to ward off the sunlight and steps out to attack. Wamuu cuts Messina's hand before dragging him inside of the hotel. He comes out to attack Caesar. However, Wamuu is taken by surprise by Caesar's new technique, the Bubble Cutter. He spins his bubbles to turn them into sharp saws and exploits Wamuu's air armor to make as many cutters fly towards Wamuu as possible. Overwhelmed, Wamuu tries to run back to the hotel. Caesar cuts his legs with a flurry of bubbles before leaping in to attack, but Wamuu violently kicks Caesar to propel himself back into the shadows, who soon follows him inside the hotel.

In the main hall, an intense exchange of wind blasts and soap bubbles ensues, in which Caesar takes the advantage. Wamuu then plans to use his Divine Sandstorm but Caesar reveals that the many bubbles he's created now act as lenses refracting the sunlight into the hall. Wamuu is exposed to the sun and burns. However, when Caesar jumps again to attack, he projects his shadow at Wamuu for a split second. This allows Wamuu to use the Divine Sandstorm at point-blank range and mortally wound the Italian. Grievously injuring his opponent, Wamuu tells Caesar to cease fighting as he will soon be dead from the massive blood loss. Nevertheless, Caesar uses the last of his strength to rip Wamuu's lip piercing and seals it in a bubble of his own blood for Joseph. Wamuu does not take back the antidote to honor the man's strength. Wamuu leaves while remarking that Caesar Zeppeli is worthy of being remembered by him.

Wamuu vs Joseph
Wamuu recovers in one of the hotel's room. He is present when Lisa Lisa and Joseph Joestar burst into the room and expects a good fight, but Kars wants to use his 100 Vampires instead. Wamuu has no choice but to obey. However, Lisa Lisa then announces that if the Ripple users do not come back to their base, a time bomb will destroy the Super Aja in their possession. This way, she convinces Kars to settle things in a series of one-on-one matches at Skeleton Heel Stone arena, with Joseph and Wamuu to settle their affairs in a deadly chariot race. Joseph initially piles pebbles in front of Wamuu's chariot wheels to stall him, and then proceeds to grab the sledgehammer. Wamuu, however, takes the pillar from which the sledgehammer hung and uses it to knock Joseph from his chariot, aiming to trample him with his own. Joseph uses the sledgehammer to vault over Wamuu's horses and attack him from the chariot. Wamuu, however, hides in one of the horses and ambushes Joseph with his Divine Sandstorm, which gets countered by Joseph entangling his arms with Ripple-infused reins, tearing his arms apart and causing Wamuu, who was proud of his Divine Sandstorm, to suffer psychological trauma. Wamuu counters this by gouging out his eyes in order to remove his psychological weakness and uses his horn to perceive Joseph.



Kars announces the next round of weapons, in which the person picks a large crossbow and a small one. As Joseph takes the larger crossbow, Wamuu settles with the smaller one. When Joseph tries to avoid this by hiding behind the central flame in order to prevent him from seeing through the fire, Wamuu fires his bolt at the outer wall of the racetrack to hit Joseph but is countered in this manner by Joseph's bolt hitting him in the same manner while Joseph distracts him by flinging pebbles at him pretending to fear for his life. Now on the verge of death, Wamuu detaches his already-limp arms and fires them at Joseph from his torso, while accessing his final form to end his opponent. Joseph counters that by throwing a bottle of oil and Caesar's burning headband at Wamuu. Wamuu slices them both, but the attack inhaled the oil and the headband, causing his body to explode and leaving his head, with the Ripple slowly killing him.

Joseph gives Wamuu some of his own blood to ease his pain, which enrages Wamuu, who sees the action as pity. Joseph corrects him by telling him it was out of honor; The same reason Wamuu ignored the bubble left by Caesar. Wamuu uses the last of his strength to destroy a group of vampires that attempted to kill Joseph. His horn breaks off, and he admits that despite swearing loyalty to Kars, he lived by his own code of honor. Wamuu asks Joseph to consume the antidote before he fades away, claiming that the action alone is enough for him to know. Bidding farewell to the man who defeated him, Wamuu smiles as his head crumbles to ash that scatters in the wind, with Joseph giving an unconscious salute to him.

All Star Battle (PS3)
Wamuu was one of the first four characters announced for the PS3 title, the others being: Jotaro, Joseph (Part 2) and Gyro Zeppeli. Along with Esidisi and Kars, Wamuu uses the "Mode" style as part of his moveset, which allows him to temporarily boost his strength and performance among other things, at the cost of the Heart Heat Gauge.

During a fight, Wamuu can use several different attacks that were featured in Battle Tendency. Wamuu himself has high health and the is the tallest character in the whole game out all 41 that are playable (save for Vanilla Ice with Cream active).

If used on "The Battlefield" stage, Wamuu will be frequently praised by Kars, who is in the background. This is assuming that Wamuu is not fighting Kars himself.

Wamuu's default appearance is from his final battle in the Coliseum against Joseph, but he also possesses two different alternate costumes: The first one being his normal Pillar Men attire (first seen during the Pillar Men's introduction), and his second being the outfit he wore when he fought Caesar Zeppeli for the second time.

Stardust Shooters (Android/iOS)
Wamuu appears as one of several Part 2 characters who possess a Metal Striker. His FINISH MOVE has him spin the wires on his head to attack the defeated opponent. His LEVEL 3 Metal Striker ability reproduces a brief video from his All Star Battle's HHA move, using the Divine Sandstorm.

Eyes of Heaven (PS3/PS4)
Wamuu returns as a playable character in Eyes of Heaven, and was confirmed alongside the other Pillar Men Kars and Esidisi.

As a Pillar Man, Wamuu has the special ability Switch Mode, exclusive to the Mode style. His specific Mode is Wind Mode. He is also able to stand and walk on the spike pit in the Air Supplena Island stage without taking damage (though he will still take extra damage if knocked down onto the spikes).


 * Style Action - Wind Mode: Wamuu surrounds himself with streaks of wind. While active, Wamuu's Normal Attacks and skills are enhanced.
 * (GRIN): This skill can only be activated if Wamuu has full guard durability and guards before an attack hits. Wamuu contorts his upper body to dodge any assault, filling some of the Dual Heat Gauge and generally allowing him to punish attackers more effectively. In Wind Mode, this skill will activate anytime Wamuu is hit while guarding.
 * The aftermath of a tornado!: Wamuu spins the wires on his headgear to generate a vortex field that rapidly hits opponents and nullifies projectiles. In Wind Mode, the size of the field and the damage it deals to an opponent's guard is increased, it lasts longer, and it can nullify EX projectiles.
 * Fighting Technique: Divine Sandstorm!: Using his arms, Wamuu creates a huge sandstorm. Opponents caught take rapid damage and are knocked high into the air and away from Wamuu. In Wind Mode, it can deal more hits and damage, and the size of the sandstorm is larger.
 * Protector of the Winds: Wamuu uses the wind to temporarily turns invisible. While active, he cannot be locked onto or be hit by any projectiles other than Caesar's Bubble Cutters and their Gliding variation.
 * EX - The aftermath of a tornado!: The execution of the skill and Wamuu's recovery from using it is quicker.
 * EX - Fighting Technique: Divine Sandstorm!: The skill gains all of its benefits from Wind Mode regardless of whether or not it is currently active, grants Wamuu invincibility during activation, and gains an extra increase in damage.
 * Now I will shut out the light, and with this horn see only the wind!: This a secondary Switch Mode ability available to Wamuu only when he has one health bar left. Wamuu blinds himself and summons his horn for the rest of the battle. From the player's point of view, the screen becomes a deep blue and most details are obscured, while moving objects and people glow a bright pink. In exchange for being unable to lock on, Wamuu gains more powerful variations to his Normal Attack combos, a regeneration boost to white damage, and access to a powerful projectile in the form of the "Iron Ball Crossbow!" skill.
 * Iron Ball Crossbow!: Wamuu loads a large crossbow and fires it, sending opponents flying with the heavy iron ball. If it hits a wall, the ball will ricochet once towards the nearest opponent. In Wind Mode, the iron ball gains a damage and speed boost.
 * Dual Heat Attack - Final Mode: Gathering Gale: It works the same as the one from All Star Battle, except Wamuu does not create the mobius strip when he juggles the opponent, nor does he hit them as rapidly or for as long.

JoJolities

 * I, Wamuu, will now consider you to be worthy prey!: Wamuu must activate "Protector of the Winds". (200 Points)
 * He threw his body back instead!: Wamuu must perform a Takedown Attack. (200 Points)
 * There is no saving you now!: Wamuu must Retire an opponent. (300 Points)
 * A Microcosm of Sheer Destruction: Wamuu must connect "Fighting Technique: Divine Sandstorm" 3 times. (500 Points)
 * That was my first truly satisfying battle in a while: Wamuu must Retire an opponent while Wind Mode is active. (800 Points)

Unlike the previous game, Wamuu's main color scheme is now based on his anime appearance.

Tournament
Wamuu is paired with N'Doul in the Eyes of Heaven Tournament, defeating Lisa Lisa and Funny Valentine in the first round, but eliminated by Jonathan Joestar and DIO in the second.

Gallery
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Trivia

 * If character heights in All Star Battle are to be believed, Wamuu is the tallest of the Pillar Men, being a full head taller than Kars.
 * The character is frequently referred to as "Wham" to sound exactly like his namesake, however, this is a hypercorrection - while syllables ending with "u" sound are indeed used to substitute for single consonants in Japanese due to its phonetic structure, the name "Wamuu" has an additional "u" at the end (ワムウ), creating a long u sound at the end, and is not identical to the Japanese katakana transcription of its namesake band (ワム).