King Crimson (キング・クリムゾン, Kingu Kurimuzon), sometimes shortened to K. Crimson (Ｋ・クリムゾン), is the Stand of Diavolo, featured in the fifth part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Vento Aureo.
It grants Diavolo the ability to erase time for up to ten seconds as well as see into the future using its sub-ability, Epitaph (エピタフ (墓碑銘), Epitafu). The Stand can also be used by Diavolo's second-in-command, Vinegar Doppio, should the boss allow it.
King Crimson is a humanoid Stand of a height and build similar to Diavolo's, but tends to look much bigger and taller. Its body is covered by a raised diagonal grid; save for its face, neck, shoulder guards, elbows, hands, abdomen, crotch, knees and feet.
Its eyes comprise sharp orifices of a steep inward slant; from which emerge small, round eyes without sclera, with pronounced eye sockets that have the same fragmented pupils that Diavolo himself has. Its crown is flat and from its forehead emerges a raised level that bears a smaller, oval face of the same expression. In earlier depictions, there were two raised levels. It constantly bares its teeth through a small mouth.
The aforementioned second face on King Crimson's forehead is named Epitaph, and is sometimes duplicated in the same position on Doppio's forehead. Epitaph presents itself as a bump on the forehead featuring eyes and a mouth constantly grinding its teeth, often mimicking King Crimson's current mood.
Its design is inspired by the character George/Kuato, from the 1990 science fiction film Total Recall, a mutated human with a smaller twin brother conjoined in his belly.[2]
Color Schemes
The series is known for alternating colors between media, the information presented below may or may not be canon.
Colored MangaGioGio (PS2)All-Star BattleEyes of HeavenAnime
Body(Crimson with silver face and grid)
Epitaph(Pink)
Eyes(Green)
Armor(Silver and gun-metal gray)
Body(Crimson with off-white face and grid)
Epitaph(Salmon with dark blue-gray border)
Eyes(Emerald Green)
Armor(Off-white and dark blue-gray)
Body(Magenta with yellow face and grid)
Epitaph(Red with gun-metal gray border)
Eyes(Green)
Armor
(Silver and gun-metal gray, with green accessories)
Body(Crimson with yellow face and grid)
Epitaph(Crimson with gun-metal gray border)
Eyes(Light Green)
Armor
(Silver and gun-metal gray, with green accessories)
Body(Crimson with white face and grid)
Epitaph(Pink with silver border)
Eyes(Lime Green)
Armor
(White and silver, with green accessories)
Personality
King Crimson embodies Diavolo's personality in its entirety, as he frequently speaks through his stand. Aside from that, its face frequently possesses an angry or irritated expression, though on rare occasions, it also shows a maniacal grin when certain events fall in Diavolo's favor, such as when he gets his hands on the Arrow.
Abilities
“
Once anyone witnesses King Crimson...as of that moment..they no longer exist in this world.
King Crimson is one of the most impressive Stands featured in the series. Both physically strong and possessing the ability to erase time and predict the future, King Crimson is described as invincible against all other Stands whose powers do not affect time.
King Crimson is a powerful Close-ranged Stand able to punch through people's bodies or cleave them in a single chop with significant ease. Unlike other Close-ranged Stands, King Crimson attacks using swift single attacks that are almost always fatal, rather than quick barrages. Examples include completely obliterating a fortune teller's upper body in a single punch and throwing a pair of scissors with such strength that they completely severed Risotto Nero's right foot, among multiple other occasions where it effortlessly severed and rived body parts (especially limbs). It also managed to destroy a large wall with a single punch. Its feats of strength and speed are comparable to Star Platinum and The World.
Much like other Close-Range Stands, its weaknesses are poor effective range (about 2–3 meters[3]) and permanence, making it difficult for its User to hide their identity against multiple foes.[4]
Time Erasure
King Crimson erases time and foresees Sticky Fingers' punch
King Crimson's signature ability is to erase a given frame of time lasting up to 10 seconds,[5] starting from the instant the ability is activated.[6][4]
In the erased time frame,other people will be unable to experience anything that happened[6] and will retain no memories of it either.[6][7] After the allotted time frame, they will suddenly find themselves in the situation they were supposed to be afterwards.[4][6] There is, however, one instance where a person was able to see their double before finding themselves in their future position.[6]
On the other hand, Diavolo remains fully conscious during the erased time and only he can re-adjust his actions.[7] In the manga, Diavolo sees the erased time as a void filled with juxtapositions of what would have happened during this period in a fashion akin to Nude Descending a Staircase, allowing him to think out the next best action (for instance, when Bruno Bucciarati tried to punch Diavolo during the erased time, Diavolo saw Bucciarati's superimposed positions during his punch).[7] The anime adaptation has Diavolo visualize a ghostly red image of his foe's next move instead.
Diavolo is unable to attack, or interact with anything, while King Crimson's time erasure is active. The only exception to the latter is Diavolo himself, and any extension of himself, such as his own blood.[8] As a result, he often relies on the ability to avoid attacks and move himself into advantageous positions, such as enemy blind spots. Using his Stand's exceptional destructive power, Diavolo then directly attacks the enemy the moment King Crimson's ability concludes.[8]
Epitaph
Epitaph (エピタフ (墓碑銘), Epitafu) is a sub-Stand that assists and completes King Crimson's time erasure.
Precognition
From up to ten seconds,[5] Epitaph gives Diavolo and Doppio the ability to see the future by projecting it as images,[9] which are usually projected on Diavolo/Doppio's hair.[10]
Epitaph predicting an attack
The image produced includes the general area with Doppio/Diavolo as the main focus, allowing either of them to see what happens around them as well as directly at them.[10] However, the visions are incomplete and only show the final result without the steps taken to it and thus can be subject to interpretation. In one instance, Doppio could see himself on the ground with a foot flying, but initially thought that the foot was his when it actually turned out to be Risotto’s.[11]
While the predictions seen by Epitaph are unavoidable, they still effectively warn Diavolo and Doppio against incoming danger, allowing them to steer events to minimize the damage done to them. When Doppio realized a pair of scissors would form inside his throat, he tore them out in order to save himself.[11] King Crimson itself can prevent the predictions from being completed if it erases the right timeframe. However, Diavolo can only change his own fate with this but not others' fates, as he can't interact with them in erased time (i.e He can't prevent Risotto from getting shot by Aerosmith's bullets, but he can erase time and prevent himself from getting hit). Likewise a Stand affecting Fate like Gold Experience Requiem which returns King Crimson's power to the "zero" state, can simply make the vision false as it steers Fate to its advantage.[12]
Diavolo and Doppio often use the forecasting ability of Epitaph to predict any incoming threat, making sneak attacks ineffective against them.
Much like DIO's "Time is frozen"/"And time resumes", Diavolo has his own phrases to go along with King Crimson's abilities: "Time has been erased" (時間は吹っ飛ばした。, Jikan wa futtobashita) for when he activates the ability and "Time, resume!" (時よ再始動しろ。, Toki yo Saishido shiro) for when he deactivates it.
All the JoJo video games that include Diavolo as a playable or in-game character have a different interpretation of his power:
In Vento Aureo (PS2), time being erased is shown by having the opponent's actions slowed down, while Diavolo moves at normal speed, a mechanic similar to how Made in Heaven's time acceleration is portrayed.
In All Star Battle, it acts similar to The World - through a number of abilities, Diavolo creates an erased time space (a special ability simply referred to as "Erasing Time") in which he is free to move about and the opponent is unable to take action. After a certain amount of time has passed, or as soon as Diavolo initiates an attack or ability, the spell is broken. King Crimson also acts as his dash and Epitaph can be activated to allow Diavolo automatic Stylish Dodging without depleting his Guard Gauge.
In Eyes of Heaven, Diavolo becomes invincible as well as invisible to his opponents within the erased time, causing him to gradually lose stamina. Other characters can still move and act normally but are otherwise ignorant to Diavolo's location. Furthermore, the Epitaph ability Diavolo had in All Star Battle allowing him to dodge instantly after getting attacked returns in the form of a skill (assigned to the Square button).
The anime adaptation portrays King Crimson's time-skip ability with a glitched effect, as if the animation itself has corrupted and skipped forward.
Concept art featured in the JOJOVELLER "History" booklet includes an early design of King Crimson, which lacks Epitaph (but still has the bump on its forehead where Epitaph would normally be) and has a facial structure appearing to be based off of a human skull, as well as what appears to be a hood (possibly inspired by the classical figure of Death).
Manga Appearances
Anime Appearances
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