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/footwear.
Its eyes comprise sharp orifices of a steep inward slant; from which emerge small, round fish-like eyes 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.
Epitaph is the second face on King Crimson's forehead, sometimes duplicated in the same position on Doppio's forehead.
Its design is inspired by the character George, from the 1990 science fiction film Total Recall, who had a second face on his chest.[3]
Abilities
King Crimson is one of the most powerful Stands ever featured in the series. Both physically strong and possessing the ability to erase time and predict the future, King Crimson boasts a status of an invincible Stand against all Users whose powers do not affect time. Only something that can affect time will defeat it.
King Crimson is a colossally powerful Stand able to punch through people's bodies or cleave them in a chop with significant ease. Unlike other melee-attacking Stands, it only uses single attacks that are almost always fatal rather than painful barrages. Examples include completely obliterating a fortune teller's upper body in a single punch and throwing a pairs 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).
Time Erasure
King Crimson's signature ability is to erase a given time frame lasting up to 10 seconds[4], starting from the instant the ability is activated.[5][6]
"During" this erased time frame, most people carry on their activities unconsciously[5] and phenomenons like flying bullets continue normally. However, because the timeframe in which these actions would have happened is erased, the events do not exist per se and don't have lasting consequences. People won't remember anything that happened within the erased time[5][7] nor will the phenomenons cause other events (as such flying bullets will appear to have passed through people without actually hurting them)[8]. When time appears again, people will suddenly find themselves in the situation they are supposed to be as if nothing unusual happened during the erased time frame[5].[6]
If someone will displace themself, so that their present self could see their future self, the time erasure can make a victim briefly see their double before finding themselves in the future position.[5]
On the other hand, Diavolo remains fully conscious during the erased time and only he can readjust his actions[7]. 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 Bruno's superimposed positions during his punch)[7].
While Diavolo can interact with himself (demonstrated when he cuts his own wrist during the erased time)[9] and can interact manually with objects not currently or fated to be affected by other phenomena (cleaning up his temporary work station at a motel within the erased time)[10], it is worth noting that King Crimson is never shown to directly interact with people until time returns to normal, as opposed to The World, which is able to interact with the whole physical realm while time is stopped.
Diavolo mainly uses this time erasure to position himself into an advantageous position while his opponent unconsciously "acts" during the erased time and to nullify any attack that may reach him, making King Crimson invincible in any one-on-one fight.
This ability can also be interpreted as "removing cause" in contrast to Gold Experience Requiem's ability to "remove effect". In the former's case, all interactions are skipped over and their results are nullified (events continue to occur for the people affected), whereas the latter instead creates a never-ending cycle of an interaction with no result ever occurring (a single event is never completed for the person affected).
Epitaph is a sub-Stand that assists and completes King Crimson's time erasure.
Prediction: From up to ten seconds[4], Epitaph gives Diavolo and Doppio the ability to see into the future[11], usually represented as images on the inside of their bangs[12].
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[12]. However, the visions are incomplete and only show the final result without the steps taken to it and thus can be subject to interpretation. Doppio thus could see himself on the ground with a foot flying, but initially thought that the foot was his.[13]
The prediction of the next ten seconds, according to Diavolo, cannot be avoided but can have steps taken to steer it in a new direction - such as when Doppio realized a pair of scissors would form inside his throat, he easily tore them out in order to save himself[13]. 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[14].
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" for when he activates the ability and "Time returns its progression" for when he deactivates it.
All the JoJo video games that include Diavolo as a playable or in-game character have different interpretations on the power:
In Vento Aureo (PS2), the time erase was shown to slow down the opponent's actions while Diavolo still moves at normal speed for the duration of the obliterated time, a mechanism similar to Made in Heaven's time acceleration abilities.
In All-Star Battle, it acts similar to The World - through a number of abilities, Diavolo creates a 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 convoluted and inconsistent nature of King Crimson's abilities have become infamous among fans, with the phrase "it just works" often being used to facetiously handwave the long-standing lack of a clear and concise explanation.
